INFID, April 6, 2006
INFID's Short News Overview No. VII/2: April 1-6, 2006
Debt & Poverty
World Bank President Wolfowitz in Indonesia
World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz is in Indonesia's tsunami-hit Aceh province at
the start of a week and a half-long trip that will also include a visit to tiny East Timor.
Wolfowitz was aiming "to better understand the current challenges facing the two
countries" and would visit development projects, his spokesman said earlier this
week.
Wolfowitz, who was US ambassador to Indonesia from 1986 to 1989, arrived in
Indonesia on April 5 and said he was encouraged at how much progress had been
made in reconstruction since the December 2004 tsunami.
"I felt last year when we visited that maybe (amid the destruction) there was a sign of
hope," he said during a visit to the Ulee Lhee mass burial site, according to the World
Bank website.
"Everywhere you looked where the houses were destroyed, the mosques and
churches were still standing. And I think that was a symbol of the strong spirit of the
people of Aceh which is helping Aceh to come back from this terrible tragedy."
Wolfowitz was to tour projects funded by the World Bank and meet tsunami survivors.
During his swing through the world's fourth most populous nation, he was also due to
travel to South Sulawesi, which is lagging behind in growth and development, the
World Bank site said.
He will also meet with people in poor, urban districts in Jakarta to better understand
the challenges faced in controlling avian flu, which has killed at least 24 Indonesians.
Wolfowitz will then travel to East Timor, which gained full independence in May 2002
after more than two years of UN stewardship preceded by almost 24 years of
Indonesian rule. The country remains one of the poorest in the region.
Related article: WB says rampant graft holding up reconstruction of Aceh:
http://www.infid.be/aceh_wb_rampant.htm.
Source: AFP 6/4
Expensive subsidies carry a cost for education
The Constitutional Court recently ruled the 2006 state budget was unconstitutional
because only 9.1 percent of the total budget was allocated for education, not the 20
percent mandated by the Constitution.
However, the court also found that if the education budget was set at 20 percent of the
state budget, funding would have to be cut for other, more urgent sectors. As a
compromise, the court told the government to wage an efficiency campaign and divert
the funds saved to the education sector. The Jakarta Post's Ika Krismantari and
Pandaya recently spoke with National Education Minister Bambang Sudibyo about
the issue of funding.
Read more: http://www.infid.be/education_subsidies.htm.
Related article: Education requires budgetary reform:
http://www.infid.be/education_budget.htm.
Source: JP 5/6
General News
Indonesian police preparing firing squad for Poso convicts
Indonesian police said they had prepared a firing squad to execute three Christians
sentenced to death for their roles in religious violence in Central Sulawesi province.
Police spokesman Anton Bachrul Alam said police were awaiting a letter from the
provincial prosecutors' office giving final approval for the execution.
Fabianus Tibo, Dominggus da Silva and Marianus Riwu, leaders of a Christian militia
group, were sentenced to death in 2003 for leading several deadly attacks on Muslims
in the religiously-divided district of Poso. Prosecutors said one of the attacks included
a massacre of more than 200 students and teachers at an Islamic boarding school.
Two higher courts and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono have rejected their
appeals.Last month their relatives submitted a second appeal for presidential
clemency. They have not yet received an answer.
A legal aid group said last month it had evidence showing that 16 people -- and not
the three men -- had masterminded the violence. Legal expert Gayus Lumbuun
warned if prosecutors followed the book and went ahead with the executions of the
three without considering new evidence, the decision could represent a serious
miscarriage of justice. Gayus urged people to question why the prosecutors were so
keen to carry out the executions.
National Commission on Human Rights chief Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara,
meanwhile, warned an immediate execution could set off renewed conflict in the
religiously divided area. Garuda Nusantara said capital punishment should be delayed
until all avenues were explored.
The Sulawesi coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of
Violence, Edmond Leonardo Siahaan, said an immediate execution would be a
miscarriage of justice and shut the door on attempts to find out the truth behind the
violence.
AGO spokesmen Masyhudi Ridwan said the office would not consider any new
evidence because the proper legal processes had been followed
Pope Benedict XVI has sent a message of compassion to the three men.
Sources: AFP 6/4, JP 5/4
Dutch PM to visit Indonesia
Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende was traveling to Indonesia for a two-day
visit to boost ties with his country's former colony and meet Islamic leaders.
Balkenende will hold talks with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, officials said.
The trip follows recent visits by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and British
Prime Minster Tony Blair, who both praised Indonesia's transition to democracy and
its status as a moderate Muslim nation. Balkenende, who was to arrive in Jakarta
early Friday (April 7), is also scheduled to meet officials helping Aceh province rebuild
from the 2004 Asian tsunami.
In his two-day official visit in Australia, Balkenende said he would raise the issue of
human rights when he travels to Jakarta. He also promised to raise concerns over
Indonesia's policies in Papua with President Bambang Yudhoyono as the row
escalates over Australia's granting of asylum to the region's separatists. The
Netherlands has a historic interest in the Indonesian province that it ruled until the
1960s but Mr Balkenende said the human rights issue was "very sensitive" and it was
ultimately a matter for Indonesia to resolve.
Related article:
Dutch PM to arbitrate in Papuan row: http://www.infid.be/papua_asylum_row.htm.
Sources: AP 6/4, AFR 5/4
Many officials defying law on reporting wealth
Of the more than 100,000 state officials nationwide required by the Anticorruption Law
to report their personal wealth to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), only
half have complied, the commission says.
A new KPK report says that of the 107,144 state officials who must submit wealth
reports, only 57,419 or 53.5 percent had done so by March 24.
Members of the judiciary represent the largest percentage of officials evading the
obligation, with only 42 percent of 18,020 divulging their wealth. Many members of the
judiciary are believed to be notoriously corrupt, and reform at the institution has moved
at snail's pace.
Second to the judiciary in the non-compliance stakes, are the executive branches of
government, with only 49 percent of 57,828 government officials submitting reports to
the KPK.
The most surprising finding, however, is the level of compliance shown by state
officials at state and regional companies, bodies notorious for being ridden with graft.
Of 7,089 officials working at numerous state companies, an impressive 69 percent
have reported their personal wealth.
Lawmakers at the House of Representatives and local councils, meanwhile, have
submitted the most wealth reports. Of 24,207 lawmakers in the country, 16,439 or 67
percent have sent documentation to the KPK. The general election law requires all
candidates vying for seats at legislative bodies to submit the reports to be eligible to
run for office.
The 2002 Corruption Law, meanwhile, gives the KPK the authority to require all
powerful government officials to report their wealth. The law, however, does not set a
deadline for the reports. Nor does it stipulate any penalties, should the officials fail to
make the reports.
Read more: http://www.infid.be/corruption_officials.htm.
Related article:
Official memos a window on cronyism, corruption Experts:
http://www.infid.be/corruption_memo.htm.
Source: JP 6/4
Papua
Papuans 'Within Their Rights' to Seek Asylum
Indonesia may end up breaking its own laws if it keeps trying to secure the return of
42 Papuan asylum seekers recently granted temporary visas in Australia, an official
says.
The chairman of the Working Group on ASEAN Human Rights Mechanism, Marzuki
Darusman, said on April 5 that Indonesia had no reason to be incensed by the
Papuans seeking asylum because they were exercising rights guaranteed by the
Constitution and the 1999 Human Rights Law.
"The visa granting has nothing to do with our sovereignty, given that we have the
Constitution and a law guaranteeing their right to seek political asylum anywhere
(they choose)," the former head of Indonesia's first national human rights body said.
Article 28G of the amended 1945 Constitution rules that every individual has the right
to political asylum in another country, while Article 28 of the 1999 law stipulates that
an individual may seek asylum to gain political protection from another country.
Article 1A (2) of the 1951 Geneva Convention relating to the Status of Refugees
defines an asylum seeker as a person who, "owing to well-founded fear of being
persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social
group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or,
owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country ..."
Australia has ratified the conventions on refugees and asylum seekers, although
Indonesia has not.
The legislator from the Golkar Party said if Indonesia continued to prod Australia to
cancel the visas for return of the Papuans, it could be considered to have contravened
the Constitution and the law.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has warned foreigners against interfering over
the troubled easternmost province of Papua. "The problem in Papua is an internal
problem of our country. We do not want outsiders, from wherever they come, to
interfere in our internal affairs," Yudhoyono was quoted as saying by the state Antara
news agency.
"Once again, I want to say that we want to settle the problem in Papua in a peaceful,
just and dignified way," Yudhoyono said during a one-day visit to Tanah Miring in
Papua. In a press conference in the capital on April 3, Yudhoyono also said that
Indonesia would not tolerate any elements, including in Australia, providing backing to
separatists in Papua.
The Papuans, who accused Indonesia of conducting genocide in the resource-rich
province, were granted temporary visas by Canberra last month.
Related articles:
Can President SBY become real 'father' of Papuans?:
http://www.infid.be/papua_sby_father.htm
Papuan Activists See Australia As Escape Route – Experts:
http://www.infid.be/papua_activists.htm.
The Papuans Say, This Land and Its Ores Are Ours:
http://www.infid.be/papua_ours.htm.
Dutch PM to arbitrate in Papuan row: http://www.infid.be/papua_asylum_row.htm.
Sources: JP 6/4, AFP 6/4
Abbreviations
AFP Agence France-Presse
AFR Australian Financial Review
AP Associated Press
JP The Jakarta Post
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