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Book Review: Recollections of 13 Women Detained and Tortured after October 1965

27 February 2007

Kembang Kembang Genjer, (Genjer Flowers) by Fransisca Ria Susanti, September 2006. Published by Lembaga Sastra Pembebasan, 165 pages, with forewords by Prof. Saskia E. Wieringa and Dr. Asvi Warman Adam.A poster on the wall in my office presents a vivid depiction of mass murder set against scenes of people going about their daily lives and engaged in recreational activities. Splashed across the top are the words: 'Akui Negara Bertanggungjawab Atas Tragedi 1965' (The State Should Take Responsible for the 1965 Tragedy).Eight years after the fall of Suharto in May 1998, this is a plea that still...

Potential Hawk deal signals step change in UK- Indonesia military ties

09 February 2007

The revelation this week by Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono that Indonesia is considering the procurement of BAE Systems Hawk aircraft from the UK [1] confirms that the two countries are intent on securing a substantial upgrade in their military relations.“It is disturbing that the UK government and BAE Systems, are seeking fresh deals when the UK has still not accounted for its past role as a major supplier of arms used in Timor-Leste and other areas of conflict,” said Paul Barber, a spokesperson for TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign.“It is furthermore a matter of serious concern...

Devolving power to regions as peace building initiative

11 August 2005

A greater devolution of power to the regions in Indonesia than that accommodated by present autonomy law provisions should be an option in peace building. In order to solve the conflict in Aceh, the road map for peace demands a radical change in the power relationship between the center (Jakarta) and the periphery (Aceh). However, a significant challenge remains. That is, how to redefine the current notion of Indonesian nationalism, as articulated through a centralist nation state.There will still be difficulties implementing the Aceh peace accord after it is signed on Aug. 15. This will not...

The need for understanding Papua's history, grievances

21 July 2005

It has been asserted in your columns this week (Local Elections and Papuan Politics, July 11, 2005) that because the majority of West Papuans participated in general elections in 2004, they were therefore participating in an internal referendum. The writer also claims that they participated in an external referendum, known as Pepera (the so-called Act of Free Choice) which took place in 1969.He did not dispute the fact that only one thousand Papuans participated in Pepera but alleged that because the result was endorsed by the United Nations, the Indonesian government was justified in "...

Only democratic approaches can end regional conflicts

19 July 2005

Honest and open-minded talk about Aceh and West Papua is rare in Indonesia. Yet some Indonesians recently came together in London to have just such a conversation. Students from the Indonesian Student Association organized an event to discuss both conflicts. It was a kind of people-to-people discussion. The conclusion reached was that only democratic and peaceful approaches, not military ones, would find solutions.An appropriate and apposite conclusion will always be found when discussions of conflicts reach beyond established and orthodox thinking. In the Aceh and Papua cases, this orthodoxy...

Aceh in Wonderland

28 June 2005

Is Aceh being turned into the world of Alice in Wonderland? There is a British novel called Alice in Wonderland. A young girl called Alice, falls into a hole and enters a world full of confusion and absurdity. Everything is turned upside down and Alice is trapped to deal with too many pictures of small things, unable to focus on the world beyond. Are the Acehnese to be driven to this kind of existence?Last week in Aceh several poor Acehnese, accused and found guilty of gambling under sharia (Islamic) law, were publicly flogged with canes by a government appointed executor. It is the first...

Tsunami reconstruction plan leaves Acehnese no wiser

28 June 2005

Post-tsunami reconstruction in Aceh is difficult work. It is not made any easier by the public being rendered illiterate by the process. Many local activists and local people I have spoken with say that many international groups and even the government seem to be more accountable to their donors and international bodies than to the Acehnese.On May 13, the newly established reconstruction authority (BRR), set up to oversee the post-tsunami reconstruction process, held its first meeting with local NGOs and international NGOs working in Aceh. It was a meeting to communicate their presence and...

Peace the only option for Aceh

16 June 2005

Irresponsible statements from politicians in Jakarta is the last thing Acehnese need at this time, post-disaster. Yet this is what we hear from members of the House of Representatives in Jakarta, as they issue statements criticizing the peace talks in Helsinki.Tjahjo Kumolo, the chairman of Indonesian Democracy Party of Struggle (PDI-P) faction, has described the negotiations as a waste of time. Others have said that there has been too much talk and no concrete results.Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno has also urged the government to halt negotiations...

The Campaign for Peace in Papua

13 May 2005

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to visit the United States, the European Union (EU), and Japan. Before leaving the country, the President needs to be informed about the growing international campaign for peace in Papua, as manifested in the so-called "Geneva Appeal on West Papua." The appeal, entitled Papua, a Land of Peace (PLP), was adopted in Geneva last month by faith-based organizations around the world. According to their assessment, there is absence of peace in Papua. Why? The Papuan autonomy law has not been implemented effectively, fully and comprehensively. The...

Overcoming Papua repression through peace

13 May 2005

Despite being chair of the UN Commission on Human Rights and affirming its commitment to human rights, including self-determination, at the recent Asian-African summit in Jakarta, the Indonesian government has once again demonstrated its instinctive mistrust of fundamental freedoms by its response to an international meeting on West Papua.Just a day after my colleague Aguswandi argued in this newspaper that being hostile to foreign and domestic critics of its human rights record harms Indonesia's reputation as an up-and-coming democracy, on April 29 the government reportedly attempted to stop...

Human Rights violations continue to haunt us

28 April 2005

Oppression is bad for a government's image, especially a government such as Indonesia that is still struggling to repair its reputation internationally. It deprives it of its legitimacy and provides other countries with a justified reason to censure it.The continuation of human rights violations, conflicts and oppression in Indonesia in the post-Soeharto era, especially in Aceh and Papua, has clouded some positive developments in Indonesian democracy. It has made the world cautious about giving Indonesia a fuller role in the international arena.While other Asian countries such as Japan, South...

Acehnese, Islam and foreigners: Clearing up the misapprehension

13 April 2005

Do the Acehnese hate foreigners? Do they want the many foreign aid workers laboring to help them to leave their villages? Are the Acehnese, you may ask, fanatical Muslims? The departure of some foreign aid groups and all foreign troops from Aceh signaled the supposed end of what the government called the emergency post-tsunami period (not to be confused with the civil emergency still in place in Aceh), and given some of the mendacious statements made about the foreign presence in Aceh in this period, it is important to offer some clarification about the Acehnese, Islam and their view of...

Aceh's disasters: 'Man-made' and natural

18 March 2005

It is almost impossible to imagine what the lives of tsunami survivors is like. Not only have they lost many members of their families and all their worldly goods, but they will have to try and rebuild a life in an ongoing conflict area that is little more than a man-made disaster. It is not only time to try and rebuild Aceh's infrastructure, but also time to solve the ongoing conflict in the province.Imagine Fatimah's life. She is the wife of a local journalist. When she woke up on the morning of Dec. 26 she had a family, two children and a loving husband, a home, and dreams for all their...

Palestine and Aceh: Limits of Solidarity

20 November 2004

An interesting opinion article appeared in this newspaper, which drew a comparison between the plight of the Palestinians and the Acehnese. (The Jakarta Post, Nov. 8). This is maybe the first time an Indonesian has connected the two conflicts. There has been no identification of the similarities between the two in Indonesia, despite common elements of widespread and deliberate human suffering, injustice and human rights violations. When Palestine is raised, Indonesians are outraged, but when the Acehnese conflict is raised, Indonesians frequently refuse to acknowledge that terror and horror...

Aceh, a testing ground for Susilo's promises

01 November 2004

Aceh will be the best place to judge whether the new government will be any different from previous regimes in Indonesia. One of the biggest challenges for Bambang Susilo Yudhoyono's government is to resolve the conflict in Aceh peacefully. The way in which Susilo approaches the resolution of the almost 30 years of conflict in Aceh will show whether he is indeed different. Not long after the election, Susilo met with an audience of teachers. He promised he would work to settle the conflict by peaceful means, saying "let us not just go ahead with the military operation". However, he has shown...

Prospects for peace in Papua

21 October 2004

It is not yet clear whether the election of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as president of Indonesia is a positive development for West Papua and whether he will bring peace and stability to the restive territory any closer. The signals are ambiguous and we simply do not know what policies the new president will pursue when in office. Susilo was the preferred candidate of many Papuans. He was regarded as the more competent and wiser leader who in the past has supported dialogue as a means of resolving the West Papua conflict and made encouraging statements about reforming the military. However, his...

The need for justice in Indonesia, 39 years on

01 October 2004

Thirty-nine years ago, on Oct. 1, 1965, an event occurred that was to trigger an earth-shattering upheaval in Indonesia. On that day, seven army officers were kidnapped and gunned down. The details of that incident are well known in Indonesia and have formed an essential part of the history taught in schools and solemnly commemorated every year in the media. However, little attention has been paid to the far more horrific events that followed. As the authors of a book published recently say, the murder of the Army officers 'takes pride of place over and above the mass arrests and killings as...

Military impunity undermines democracy

19 August 2004

Indonesia is fast learning the lesson that while elections are an important part of the transition from dictatorship to democracy, the more difficult parts include establishing the rule of law, eradicating corruption and ensuring military accountability to civilian institutions. According to these criteria the democratization process in Indonesia still has a long way to go.Although military operations in Aceh and West Papua prevented free and fair elections in those areas, many observers declared the legislative and first round of the presidential elections a relative success. The two...

Indonesia's territorial integrity and the TNI's role in crushing separatism

03 June 2003

As the war in Aceh enters its third week and military operations in the Central Highlands in Papua intensify, it is timely to put these developments into a broader context and take a look at the well-documented plans of the Indonesian armed forces, the TNI, to reassert their role in political and security affairs, a move frequently referred to as their 'miitary comeback'. Since Megawati Sukarnoputri took over as President in July 2001, replacing Abdurrahman Wahid who had tried to push for reform of the military - ultimately, the cause of his downfall - the Indonesian armed forces have...

The international solidarity movement for East Timor: a weapon more powerful than guns

17 May 2002

For 23 years, the people of East Timor waged a bitter and at times lonely struggle against a mighty military dictatorship which enjoyed unstinting support from western governments who valued their economic ties – trade, investments and the sale of arms – to the exclusion of all else. The fact that Indonesia’s invasion in December 1975 was condemned as unlawful by the United Nations from the very outset did not alter the reality that, whatever the formal, diplomatic position of governments around the world on the invasion, it was ‘business as usual’ for governments, multinational...