Jubilee Campaign USA
Short trip report
Dear Friends,
First, we want to praise God for His guidance and providence upon us during our fact
finding trip to Indonesia from March 9-19, 2003. The goals and objectives of the trip
were:
1. To visit Rev. Damanik in prison and to learn more about his case and to offer
international advocacy assistance.
2. To learn about and understand the status of Malino I, the Poso peace agreement.
3. To visit Jubilee Campaign's humanitarian projects in Maluku, and to encourage our
local partner in Maluku, the Maluku Penabur Foundation.
4. To learn and understand the bigger issue of Shariah (Islamic law) in Indonesia, and
the struggle of Indonesians in establishing civil society by their efforts toward further
democratization throughout the country.
To achieve those goals, we visited several locations:
1. Balikpapan, East Kalimantan.
2. Samarinda, capital of East Kalimantan province.
3. Ambon island, Maluku.
4. Haruku island, Maluku.
5. Saparua island, Maluku.
6. Seram Island, Maluku.
7. Makasar, South Sulawesi.
8. Palu, capital of Central Sulawesi.
9. Jakarta.
We are so thankful to our hosts in Jakarta, Maluku, East Kalimantan, Makasar, and
Palu. Through their assistance we were able to meet with a wide variety of different
people and obtain very insightful views and analyses from different perspectives. Their
insights and perspectives are very important for our further assessment.
East Kalimantan
We met with key government officials, security officers, and religious leaders from
different backgrounds--Islam, Hindu, and Christian.
Maluku
We visited humanitarian projects that we have been sponsoring, including the ones
outside Ambon island. We were able to visit different refugee camps as well, including
a Muslim camp. The condition of those camps, regardless of whose camps they
were, are still a very serious concern and very inhumane. Rehabilitation programs
seem to be experiencing a lot of difficult issues, and the biggest one is KKN
(Corruption, Collusion, Nepotism). We were also able to meet and interview some
community leaders from the Muslim side and to learn and understand their
perspectives about issues.
Makasar
In Makasar we met different religious and community leaders from the Muslim,
Christian, and even Chinese community. The issue of Shariah in Makassar is the
most real one that we could sense, and this is due to the historical presence of the
Kahar Muzakar group there, from which the KPPSI (Committee for Planning and
Implementation of Shariah in Indonesia) came to existence and is led by Kahar's son.
Our effort in an attempt to set up a meeting with KPPSI was not so successful. We
would like to have direct interaction with them and gain a better understanding from
them directly about the issue of Shariah in Indonesia.
Palu
In Palu we met with several Malino declarators, including three from the Muslim side,
one of whom was a Laskar Jihad leader. We also met with several key NGOs who
seemed to understand the real issue in Central Sulawesi, which extends well beyond
solely a religious sectarian conflict. We had a privilege of participating in a workshop
sponsored by the Crisis Center of SAG-Sulutteng (Am Synod of Churches in North
and Central Sulawesi) on conflict resolution. We were given a lot of time to consult
with Rev. Damanik in his prison, and later also consulted with his lead defense
attorney, Mr. Johnson Panjaitan. On Monday, March 17, we were able to attend his
trial. During our meeting with the Chief Judge, we were able to have a good and
positive interaction. The judge assured us of the fairness of the trial. At the same time
we extended our willingness to monitor the trial from two perspectives: fairness and
procedure. The trial that day was the first trial after several weeks of break. The break
was resulted from a strong protest made by Damanik over a false accusation made in
one of the most important court documents. The document was, produced by the
Indonesian Minister of Justice and Human Rights, accusing Damanik as a
provocateur, where the original charge against Damanik was not about provocateur at
all, and furthermore there is no law within Indonesian judicial system about
provocateur. Rev. Damanik considered it a real miracle that such an important
document signed by a minister could be revoked in a very relatively short time, so that
the trial could proceed. The prosecution presented their first three witnesses that day.
Between the judges and the defense team's examination, the court found that the
witnesses were full of inconsistencies in their testimonies, even in direct
disagreement with their written and sworn testimonies. The attendance for the trial
was very large, including about 70 Laskar from Poso who were able to be isolated by
security about 700meters (4/10 mile) from the court building.
Jakarta
In Jakarta we met with Mr. Jusuf Kalla, the Indonesian Minister of Social Welfare, and
reported to him about some of our findings about the progress of the Malino
agreement, especially the issue of the refugee repatriation and rehabilitation program.
We also met with Indonesian MPs and some NGOs, including the second largest
Islamic NGO, Muhammadiyah. The last night we were there we were able to have a
focus meeting with some Christian leaders, particularly those from the Chinese
church background.
We want to thank you for sending us and supporting us with your prayer. Without
your support this mission would be hard to do. We also thank God for the health and
stamina we had throughout the trip, although one member of the team got hit with a
stomach problem toward the end of the trip. The inevitable war against Iraq and the
SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) outbreak in South East Asia made the
trip a bit interesting.
Please pray for several things:
1. We are in the process of generating a thorough trip report. There is so much data.
We need strength to pull this data together and wisdom and discernment in making
the analysis.
2. That we can do proper monitoring of Rev. Damanik's trial.
3. There are some relationships that we need to nurture and cultivate. Please pray for
the wisdom for us to do this and the bandwidth to manage the networking positively.
4. Wisdom to put together a longer term agenda for our involvement in Indonesia, with
one being our humanitarian project.
5. We are still about $2,000 short to cover the entire expense of the trip.
Again, thank you for your partnership and support. A complete trip report will follow
shortly.
Prepared by Kie-Eng Go
Jubilee Campaign USA
email: jubilee@jubileecampaign.org
voice: 703-503-0791
web: http://www.jubileecampaign.org
This email was received via Masariku Network by Malukuwashdc
|
