Aceh, a testing ground for Susilo's promises
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
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
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
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
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
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...
Indonesian government to act on Papuan political prisoners
Names of 23 Papuan political prisoners submitted to Komnas HAM3 December 2001Solidarity for Humanitarian and Human Rights Violations has submitted information regarding 23 political prisoners to Komnas HAM (the National Human Rights Commission).Earlier, Komnas HAM planned to set up a team to resolve the cases of political detainees and convicted political prisoners in Papua. The spokesman for SKP Papua, Mathius Murib, said that information regarding the prisoners, including their arrest, the time they have spent in custody and their conditions in prison was submitted. He said that in many...
TAPOL: 25 years and still going strong
TAPOL's 25th anniversary comes just months after the downfall of the Indonesian dictator, Suharto. A glance back at what we have tried to do provides an insight into the depth and persistence of gross human rights violations suffered by people living under Indonesian rule. It will help identify the tasks which lie ahead as Indonesia struggles to create a democratic countryIt was in June 1973 that, for the first time, a small group of people demonstrated outside the Indonesian embassy in London's Grosvenor Square, to protest against the continued detention without trial of tens of thousands of...