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November 24, 2002

The death toll from flooding in Indonesia's Aceh province has risen to 12, and 
the victims include a three-year-old girl, officials said.

At least five other people were reported missing in the floods, which were 
triggered by six days of near constant downpours over the southern coastal 
parts of Aceh.

Some of the 12 victims were swept away along with their houses, while others 
were buried under landslides triggered by the rain, said Burhanuddin Sampee, a 
government official in one of the worst-hit districts of Barat Daya.

Sampee said residents of Ie Mirah Babah Rot village on Thursday retrieved the 
corpse of a three-year-old girl that was snagged in the branches of a palm oil 
tree after being swept away by floods the night before.

Residents said rain was continuing to fall today over parts of the region, 
1,250km north-west of Jakarta. 

Large parts of Indonesia are flooded annually during the rainy season which 
runs from October to April. 

Earlier this year, at least 60 died in flooding in the capital, Jakarta.

Environmentalists claim illegal logging and development in water catchment 
areas have worsened the problem in recent years. 
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Laksamana.net
Aceh: Megawati’s top Priority 
November 24, 2002 10:58 PM, Editor
 
Laksamana.Net - Over the last three weeks, dozens of Free Aceh Movement (GAM) 
fighters near Cot Trieng in North Aceh have been surrounded by the military. 

Since she took over the presidency from Abdurrahman Wahid, President Megawati 
Sukarnoputri has treated Aceh as a top priority. She has met senior provincial 
leaders and signed into law a provision granting Aceh an unprecedented level of 
financial and political autonomy. 

In a speech to mark Indonesia’s 56th anniversary of independence last August, 
she apologized for the past government’s mismanagement, for prolonged conflicts 
and human rights abuses in both Aceh and the other troubled province of Papua. 

Violence in the Acehnese capital in the days following the speech suggest her 
words did little to appease the militant separatists, who claim to have most of 
the Acehnese people behind them. 

The violence also suggests that there are disgruntled generals in Jakarta who 
maintain the tension in Aceh and thus force Megawati to be more dependent on 
the military. 

As far as autonomy for Aceh, the government under Megawati has delivered up its 
maximum compromise. 

The autonomy law: 
- Authorises the introduction of shariah, or Islamic law, in the staunchly 
Islamic province which was never entirely subdued by the Dutch. 
- Provides for local electoral reform giving the people greater control over 
their own affairs. 
- Grants the province 70% of revenue from its rich oil and gas fields. 

This is generous given that the province's gas exports alone are reported to 
have provided 30% of the central government's revenue in 2000. 

The President’s main challenge has been how to keep Aceh as part of the united 
republic. 
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16 protesters held, 500 flee over Indonesian plan to reopen pulp plant
Sunday November 24, 3:13 PM (AFP)

Sixteen protestors are under arrest and around 500 have fled a town in the 
Indonesian province of North Sumatra amid controversial plans to reopen a 
polluting pulp plant, police and a human rights lawyer said.

Police arrested 21 people and are still holding 16 after a protest on Thursday 
against the reopening of the plant, which was closed in 1999 following years of 
often violent protests that it was damaging the environment.

"There are still 16 people detained and two others have already been released," 
a duty officer of the North Tapanuli district police force in Tarutung, North 
Sumatra, said on Sunday.

The policeman, who identified himself only as Barus, said the men were arrested 
following a protest in front of the Porsea sub-district administration on 
Thursday which lead to the office being damaged.

He declined to give more details.

Lawyer and human rights activist Johnson Panjaitan said hundreds of people had 
fled Porsea for the district town of Tarutung because the police, backed by the 
elite Brimob unit and soldiers, were terrorizing locals who oppose the 
reopening.

"What is taking place in Porsea smacks of the New Order (former president 
Suharto's rule) with state terrorism returning to the stage," Panjaitan, of the 
Jakarta-based Indonesian Association for Legal Aid and Human Rights, told AFP.

The protest on Thursday followed news that the government wanted to reopen PT 
Inti Indorayon (IIU), closed down in 1999 following increasingly violent 
protests, under a new name, PT Toba Lestari Indah.

IIU was closed down after years of protest and violence, often deadly, with the 
local population accusing the plant of damaging the environment.

"The people of Porsea have already suffered for more than 10 years from the 
pollution caused by IIU. Now that they are just begining to enjoy a pollution-
free environment, the central government is planning to end all that again," 
said the lawyer.

He told AFP by telephone from Medan that 21 protesters arrested face charges of 
incitement to violence, damaging property and disturbing public order.

Panjaitan had visited Porsea for a few days before going to Medan.

The police, he said, had also guarded places of worship in Porsea which had 
been gathering points for locals when problems arose.

"At the local level, we will form a crisis center and provide help for the 
refugees, including setting up soup kitchens," Panjaitan said.

He said lawyers and rights activists in Jakarta will compile a report on the 
incident to alert the authorities, including President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
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Crisis Centre Diocese Of Amboina
Jalan Pattimura 32 – Ambon 97124 – Indonesia
Tel 0062 (0)911 342195   Fax 0062 (0)911 355337   E-mail 
crisiscentre01 at hotmail.com 

Ambon, November 24, 2002
The Situation In Ambon / Moluccas – Report No. 331

General Situation – Not seldom we are asked about the real actual situation in 
Ambon and the Moluccas: do people still live in fear? Have normal living 
conditions more or less been restored? Etc. We may briefly answer as follows:

1. Since the Moluccas Agreement of Malino on February 12, 2002 (see Report 235) 
both conflicting parties started to realize that in fact they share the same 
enemy, namely the terrorists, whoever they are and on whose orders they carry 
out their nefarious activities.

2. Most of Seram and Buru are ready now to restore normal relations. IDP-s are 
urged and facilitated by the government to return to their original homesteads 
there. Local TV shows places (such as Kairatu on the south coast of Seram) 
where Christians and Muslims intermingle without restraint. Nevertheless, many 
IDP-s living in Ambon are still wary and afraid to return to Seram and Buru, as 
in the past, time and again the security forces have proved not to be able to 
anticipate riots: they often only enter the place after the damage and the 
killings have been done.

3. Most precarious is the situation in the city of Ambon itself. Apart from 
some intermingling of both communities at governmental level, via NGO 
activities, meeting at several shared market places or following college 
together, each community keeps to its own town areas. 

Potential sources of conflict may be: 

- The succession of the Governor and Vice-Governor. M.S.Latuconsina’s and both 
of his vice-governors’ term ended last November 11th. The Minister of Interior 
Affairs extended their term for another month. On December 12 a caretaking 
Governor is to be appointed. Any election of a new Governor with its fierce 
competition might jeopardize the actual relative calm situation.

- Many people, especially among the about 145.000 IDP-s that still are in 
Ambon, have no job. This situation may breed unrest, especially under idling 
youngsters.

- A lot of weapons and explosives are supposed to be still hidden by both 
parties: just in case they might be needed for defense.

- People feel discontented that hardly any justice has been done yet and many 
criminals are being left alone.

- The planned returning of all refugees to their original homesteads by August 
2003, may trigger renewed violence, especially in sensitive places like Poka-
Rumahtiga (on the opposite side of the bay of Ambon), Kebun Cengkeh / Ahuru (at 
the outskirts of the town, a former Laskar Jihad stronghold) and the large 
Christian totally destroyed village of Waai on the island of Ambon (earlier 
claimed by Muslims as an originally Muslim place and renamed Waai-Salam (see 
Report 63 no.4 – Sept.25, 2000).

4. The military has five battalions in the Moluccas and four in the North 
Moluccas. But especially members of the Kopassus (Special TNI Army Forces) are 
mistrusted as involving themselves (or having involved themselves) in acts of 
terrorism (landmines, bombs, snipers), allegedly cooperating with the “Coker 
Gang” of Berty Loupatty.

C.J.Böhm msc
Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Jakarta Post.com
National News
November 25, 2002
Military stages war games in Ambon 
Oktavianus Pinontoan, The Jakarta Post, Ambon

A total of 2,762 soldiers of the Fast Reaction Force (PPRC; a combined force of 
Army, Navy, and Air Force personnel) on Saturday staged a war game here, 
simulating the occupation of sectarian, conflict-ridden Ambon by a separatist 
movement. Their mission: to retake control from the separatists.

At 7:00 a.m. local time, two PPRC battalions, whose personnel were taken from 
the Strategic Reserve Command (Kostrad) Airborne Infantry Battalion and the Air 
Force's elite unit (Paskas), jumped out of four Hercules C-130 cargo aircraft 
at 150 feet and infiltrated Pattimura airport, which was controlled by 
the "enemy". 

All personnel, armed with automatics and M-16 machine guns, fired at the 
airport's main building and arrested a number of "rebels" who posed as guards 
in the building. 

Meanwhile, more than 470 marine soldiers, who were transported by battleships 
KRI Teluk Mandar and KRI Teluk Sampit from the Naval base in Surabaya, made a 
landing with amphibious tanks, armored vehicles, and rubber boats at Natsepa 
Beach, a popular tourist resort on the island. The tanks, armored vehicles, and 
battleships were deployed to destroy the rebels' coastal defenses. 

In accordance with the military operation's tactics, the combat soldiers were 
able to retake control of the island in a relatively short time. 

The one-hour preliminary exercise to the war game, which attracted the 
attention of locals both Muslims and Christians, was conducted in the presence 
of Indonesian Military Commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, Navy Chief Admiral 
Bernard Sondakh, Air Force Chief Marshal Chappy Hakim, Pattimura Military 
Command Chief Maj. Gen. Djoko Santoso, Maluku Police Chief Brig. Gen. Bambang 
Sutrisno, Governor Saleh Latuconsina, Chairman of the Maluku legislature Etty 
Sahuburua, and Ambon Mayor Yopi Papilaya. 

Kostrad Chief Lt. Gen. Bibit said the exercises, scheduled to end on Tuesday, 
was aimed at improving PPRC's professionalism in handling separatist 
activities, and that it had no relevance to the tense situation on Ambon 
Island. 

"With these exercises, all personnel of the PPRC will be ready to handle 
separatist movements anywhere in the country," he said, adding that the PPRC 
would hold a similar war game in Papua in mid-January 2003. 

The central government has extended the civilian state of emergency that has 
been imposed since June 2001, due to the continued tension in the Maluku 
provincial capital. 

Governor Saleh Latuconsina admitted recently that all sectors of society, 
including indigenous personnel of the local military and police, and hardline 
groups from the two conflicting sides, were involved in the conflict that has 
claimed more than 6,000 lives and displaced thousands of others since it 
erupted on Jan. 19, 1999. 

"We hope that with the military exercise, the situation in Ambon will gradually 
return to normal so that we can rehabilitate all facilities which were damaged 
during the conflict, and all people can live a normal life, as it was in the 
past," said Bibit. 
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Laksamana.net
Megawati’s New Mansion 
November 24, 2002 11:01 PM, Editor
 
Laksamana.Net - Everyone has the right to be rich. But in Indonesia, the source 
of many people’s wealth has become a sensitive issue, especially when it 
happens to be the president or her husband who is under the spotlight. 

That’s why suspicion arose when the mass media reported that President Megawati 
Sukarnoputri owns at least three houses, when she had only listed one - at 
Kabagusan, a leafy retreat behind the Jakarta zoo - on her declaration to the 
Public Servants’ Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN). 

A second house at Gunung Geulis in Bogor was not reported to KPKPN. It is said 
to be owned by Taufik Kiemas, though the title is in the name of Megawati’s 
daughter, Puan Maharani. 

The third, at Batu Tulis, also in Bogor regency, was not reported because 
Megawati believes that since it had belonged to her father, Sukarno, it would 
be of no interest to the commission. 

The house had been confiscated by Suharto and it was only with the accession of 
Abdurrahman Wahid to the presidency that it was returned to the family. 

So far so good. Then came the revelations that Megawati had taken up weekend 
residence at another mansion, in the Sentul hills south of Jakarta. Newspaper 
reports quoted locals describing what the President did when she visited, with 
fishing in the mansion’s well-stocked pond a favorite pursuit. 

The house, located in the Babakan Madang district of Bogor on about 6000 square 
meters of land by having five main bedrooms and a swimming pool, spurred KPKPN 
to further investigate. 

When the clamor showed no signs of receding, Megawati’s party and cabinet 
colleague, National Development Minister Kwik Kian Gie owned up that it was 
really his family’s house and that Megawati was only visiting. 

The story raised more eyebrows about the behavior of the first family. 

Most attention has focused on presidential husband Taufik Kiemas, who got 
mighty upset to the press coverage, blaming the media for acting like 
terrorists. 

Megawati herself drew public attention to the potential for swilling at the sty 
by members of her family soon after she took office. 

In July 2001, Megawati publicly warned her family not to duplicate the Suharto 
family. As president, she said, she was committed to rooting out corruption at 
all levels of government. 

The early days of her presidency offered promise that she meant what she said. 
She pushed through the case against Golkar chairman Akbar Tanjung over his now-
proven misuse of Rp40billion of National Logistics Agency (Bulog) funds meant 
for the stomachs of the poor. 

And, she brought Suharto’s most beloved son, Hutomo ‘Tommy’ Mandala Putra, to 
court for ordering the murder of the judge who refused his appeal on an earlier 
corruption charge. 

Almost directly opposed, at least in the public’s eye, to Megawati’s stand 
against corruption is her own husband. 

Kiemas emerged for the first time as a significant figure in January 2002 when 
he handed over 21 cars to Jakarta’s police force for use in escorting visiting 
diplomatic delegations. 

He explained that he had been embarrassed to see the battered fleet of patrol 
cars that were being used and felt compelled to donate 17 new Hyundai cars. 

As a personal donation, the gift unavidably provoked criticism from the public 
and the parliament. 

Anti-graft groups condemned the gift, complaining that it looked like an effort 
by Kiemas to ingratiate himself and his friends with the police, perhaps as an 
inducement to look the other way if they ever got into trouble. 

Kiemas himself insisted he had no reason to feel guilty. “I am aware that 
people would perceive that,” Kiemas told reporters. “The return I expect for 
this gift is that these cars will be available to guard the President and Vice 
President, They will be on time and no longer late. (In a way, it’s for) my 
personal safety.” 

Kiemas is also believed to see State Secretary Bambang Kesowo as guilty of 
having been used by Megawati to block business delegations. These delegations, 
palace sources state, have won Kiemas’ ear in seeking protection for their 
operations. 

Kiemas therefore started to push his wife to sack the experienced State 
Secretary. Backed by his faction in the Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), 
Kiemas lobbied to have Kesowo replaced with his own political protégé and ex 
Golkar party cadre, Tjahyo Kumolo. 

There is no argument that Kesowo’s past easily places him as a Suharto left-
over – he used to write much of Suharto’s law and was closely linked to the 
State Secretary of the time, Moerdiono. And for Kiemas, there was no doubt that 
he was an obstructing factor in gaining access to the president. 

Kiemas has long-standing ties to several businessmen who are still in 
negotiations with the government over the repayment of billions of dollars they 
owe stemming from the 1997 financial crisis. 

Many of these businessmen amassed their fortunes in part by exploiting their 
links to the Suharto’s family, and some government officials fear they are 
trying to exert the same sway over Megawati through Kiemas. 

Chinese tycoon Syamsul Nursalim is a case in point. Kiemas has made no secret 
of a close friendship with Jakob Nursalim, a nephew of the failed banker, who 
is now in Singapore. 

A long-time associate of Suharto, Nursalim is locked in a battle with the 
government through the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA), over his 
failure to repay the government about $2.7 billion. As a four-year repayment 
deadline was about to expire, IBRA, at the time still under Putu Ari Suta, 
proposed extending the term of the debt six more years rather than take legal 
action to recover the money. 

The plan generated a damaging political backlash, with critics shouting that it 
was a sweetheart deal for Nursalim. Under strong pressure from the public, the 
plan was scrapped by Megawati. 

Kiemas’s business operations and his network to businessmen like Nursalim 
raises the potential for conflict of interest. Jakob Nursalim has accompanied 
Kiemas on officials trips to the US and China, including a visit by Megawati to 
Washington immediately after the September 11 attacks. 

In December 2001, just four months after Megawati became president, Kiemas also 
provoked critical public reaction when Indonesia sent a diplomatic mission to 
China to lobby for a crucial natural gas supply contract. Instead of the energy 
or trade ministers, it was Kiemas who led the delegation as ‘government envoy’. 

Critics saw Kiemas as entirely suited, and without any authority, to head a 
mission whose main task was to hold talks with Chinese Prime Minister Zhu 
Rongji to negotiate a $13 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) deal between the 
two countries. 

The presence of the man known as RI3 at the head of the delegation undermined 
the credibility of Megawati at home and abroad. 

The move was also miscalculated, as the Chinese government indicated it saw his 
presence as undiplomatic. 

It is impossible to state what effect the slip had on the final result, but 
Indonesia lost the 25-year contract to Australia. 

Small wonder that many political analysts continue to predict that the man 
known by cynics as Indonesia’s Mr. Bhutto – after the former Pakistan Prime 
Minister’s husband – remains a major liability for the remainder of the 
presidency. 
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