INFID, April 7, 2004
INFID's Short News Overview No. VI/11: April 1-7, 2005
General News
Caution on Military Spending
Critics of the military are worried that the government's proposal to increase the
defense budget this year would be used to expand the Army's much-criticized
territorial function.
The Ministry of Defense has proposed to the House of Representatives a Rp 5 trillion
(US$538 million) increase in the 2005 defense spending from the current Rp 21.6
trillion.
The Army is planning to establish 22 new territorial commands nationwide; develop
three new military commands in Riau and Bangka-Belitung, and Merauke in Papua;
and a new division of its Strategic Resort Command (Kostrad) in Sorong, also in
Papua.
Minister of Defense Juwono Sudarsono seemed to support the plan, saying the
expansion was crucial to help ensure security in the country.
But human rights activists Usman Hamid and Zoemrotin K. Soesilo were concerned
the move would hamper the process of democracy in the country and allow the Army
to further strengthen its role in the business sector.
Military analyst Andi Widjajanto from the University of Indonesia said that the Army's
plan to develop more territorial offices was against the military's internal reform drive.
Critics caution over rise in military spending: http://www.infid.be/military_caution.htm.
Tapol protest the military build up in Papua:
http://www.infid.be/papua_buildup_tapol.htm.
Source: JP 05/04
Illegal Logging
Two senior policemen have been arrested for allegedly protecting illegal logging
syndicates in Indonesia's Papua province.
A spokesman for the National Police, Sr. Comr. Zainuri Lubis, said on April 4 the two
officers, identified as Comr. Hariyanto and Adj. Comr. Sumadi, had been under police
custody since March 31.
"They are facing double charges for being accomplices to a crime and protecting
illegal loggers, according to article 55 of the Criminal Code and Forestry Law No.
41/1999, article 363," Zainuri said.
Papua Police are now trying to retrieve the evidence, mostly in the form of thousands
of cubic meters of timber and heavyweight equipment, which Zainuri said had been
sold by the suspects. Apart from the two officers, the Papua Police are investigating
four middle-ranking officers for allegedly taking bribes from several financial backers in
exchange for their assistance in the illegal logging activities.
Meanwhile, government officials have again confiscated thousands of undocumented
logs from several ships in the waters off Sumatra and Sulawesi.
Lt. Col. Bambang Wahyudi, the chief of Tanjung Balai Karimun Naval Base,
announced on April 6 that Navy personnel had apprehended the Sandi Dewa
Samudera boat carrying over 2,500 logs of meranti. The boat was arrested, while
sailing in the waters off Tanjung Balai Karimun regency in Riau Islands province. In the
past week alone, the Navy has apprehended four boats carrying thousands of
undocumented logs.
Separately, a similar seizure occurred on April 5 by officials from the South Sulawesi
provincial forestry agency. The forestry agents were holding several crew members for
questioning after the Padaidi Putra ship was found carrying 150 undocumented logs
while docked in Paotera port in Makassar. Khairuddin, an official with the forestry
office, said that the office was still investigating the case.
The series of arrests of crew members and their ships carrying illegal logs was
intensified nationwide after two environmental groups published a high-profile report in
February, which documented the smuggling of about 300,000 cubic meters of timber a
month from Indonesia, mostly Papua province, to China. The Washington-based
Environmental Investigation Agency and Indonesia's Telapak environmental group
released a report in February saying that illegal logging syndicates from across Asia
are increasingly targeting the virgin forests of Papua.
Sources: AP 04/03, JP 05/03 07/03
Tsunami Aid and Corruption
The Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) and Transparency International (TI) jointly host a two-day
international meeting on graft prevention on April 7.
The meeting -- which will also be attended by representatives of five other
tsunami-affected countries in the region, the World Bank and related civil society
organizations -- will discuss possible risks of the misuse of the funds and identify new
ways to effectively channel the money for emergency relief efforts and future
reconstruction projects.
ADB governance and regional cooperation division director, Jak Jabes, said on April 6
that the meeting was important as it would address the international community's
concern over the corruption issue.
ADB recently said two million more Asians have joined the ranks of the poor following
the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster. The bank warned that it could take the affected
populations many years to recover from poverty. It urged governments to ensure
tsunami relief funds are not frittered away through corruption.
Swiss daily Le Matin reported on April 3 that the Jakarta government spent a fortune
to house its ambassador to the UN in Geneva in palatial style, insinuating that
millions of aid dollars raised by people around the world had been used to buy the
villa.
The newspaper said the purchase of the 9.6-million franc (US$8.1 million) villa in a
plush district overlooking Lake Geneva looks inappropriate at a time when the rest of
the world is still helping Indonesia, where about 220,000 people were believed dead
after the tsunami.
Ambassador Makarim Zibisono, 58, who is also current president of the UN Human
Rights Commission, was scheduled to move into the Provence-style villa with his wife
and three children in the coming weeks. They will enjoy a large veranda overlooking a
swimming pool, an immense park including a house for the domestic servants,
hot-houses, and a volley-ball court.
The government has denied the report that tsunami relief funds were diverted to buy
the luxurious house. Deputy ambassador Eddi Hariyadhi said the house was bought
long before the tsunami after several months' searching. He said the price was normal
in terms of housing for diplomats and senior officials.
Aceh Reconstruction First Steps towards Rebuilding:
http://www.infid.be/tsunami_rebuilding.htm.
Ripple effect of the tsunami: http://www.infid.be/tsunami_3months.htm.
Disasters Sound Wake-up Call on Poverty: http://www.infid.be/tsunami_poverty.htm
Aceh, Nias and Foreigners: http://www.infid.be/tsunami_aceh_nias.htm
Blueprint on Aceh's Reconstruction Lacks Focus:
http://www.infid.be/tsunami_blueprint.htm.
Sources: AFP 04/04 06/04, JP 07/04
Munir Case
Police named two crew members of Garuda as suspects in the death of Munir.
Col. Anton Charlian, chief investigator of the case identified the new suspects as Oedi
Irianto, who was working in the flight's pantry and stewardess Yeti Susmiarti. They are
the second and third suspects in the case. Last month, police named Pollycarpus
Budihari Priyanto, a Garuda pilot assigned as an aviation security officer on the flight,
as the first suspect.
Munir died on a Garuda Indonesia flight Sept. 7. A Dutch police report said he had
been poisoned with nearly 500 milligrams (17.64 milli ounces) of arsenic, four times
the lethal dose.
The case of Munir is not unique. There are grave suspicions of similar poisonings; an
honest minister (Baharuddin Lopa), a brave general (Agus Wirahadikusumah), and
certain judges. There are also the almost forgotten brutal killings, such as of labor
activist Marsinah (1993) and Acehnese human rights lawyer Jaffar Sidiq Hamzah
(2001).
Mystery also surrounds the killings of Papuan activists Arnold Ap (1984) and Theys
H. Eluay (2001). In addition to Wiji Thukul, a critical activist poet, there remains the
cases of activists who were "disappeared" in 1998; cases that brought Munir into
prominence.
Munir's case at UNHCR: http://www.infid.be/munir_unhcr.htm.
Munir’s Killers to Escape Death Penalty: http://www.infid.be/munir_escape.htm
Source: AP 05/04, JP 07/04
RI welcomes Wolfowitz
The Indonesian government on April 1 welcomed the appointment of U.S. Deputy
Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, a former ambassador in Jakarta, as the World
Bank's new president, saying it hoped he would focus his attention on developing
nations.
"He has many friends here and a lot of knowledge about Indonesia," Foreign Ministry
spokesman Yuri Thamrin said. "We hope Wolfowitz can be a friend of Indonesia and
we hope whoever leads the World Bank will have a concern for the Third World."
The World Bank's 24-member board unanimously approved Wolfowitz as its new
president on March 31, affirming the U.S. administration's choice of a Bush loyalist to
take the helm of the 184-nation development bank.
Wolfowitz will begin his five-year term on June 1.
Wolfowitz was Washington's ambassador to Indonesia from 1986-89. He learned to
speak the local language, Bahasa, during his time in Jakarta.
World Bank Vote Confirms Wolfowitz Unanimously:
http://www.infid.be/wb_wolf_confirm.htm.
The Guardian Profile: Paul Wolfowitz: http://www.infid.be/wb_wolf_profile.htm.
Europe throws World Bank to Wolfowitz: http://www.infid.be/wb_wolf_throw.htm.
Source: AP 01/04
Regional News
Aceh
The Indonesian military said that it had killed four separatist rebels in the latest
clashes in Aceh. The rebels were killed in two separate clashes in North Aceh district
on April 6, said military spokesman Ari Mulya Asnawi.
The separatist group Free Aceh Movement confirmed the death of members of its
armed wing, the Acehnese National Army, in a statement. "The Acehnese National
Army tried to avoid the fighting but the Indonesian military continued to attack us. We
returned fire in self defence," said the statement. It also accused soldiers of beating
up dozens of villagers in North Aceh's Ulee Matang area but the military denied the
allegations.
A new round of peace talks is scheduled next month between the government and the
separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM). The two sides met in Helsinki, Finland, in
January and February to discuss proposed wide-ranging autonomy for Aceh under
Indonesian sovereignty.
Source: AFP 07/04, AP 07/04
Abbreviations
AFP Agence France-Presse
AP Associated Press
JP The Jakarta Post
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