No subject

25jun03

The US State Department today warned Americans travelling to East Timor 
to "exercise extreme caution" in public places such as bars, restaurants, 
schools, resorts and places of worship. 

"Most crimes occur in the capital, Dili, with expatriates often targeted by 
muggers and burglars," the US State Department said in a travel advisory that 
supercedes an earlier one issued December 9, warning travellers to "exercise 
caution, avoid large gatherings, and remain alert" for their own safety.

It said that violent and non-violent criminal activity was still in evidence in 
East Timor, including criminal surveillance of tourists.

It also said random checkpoints set up by the United Nations and East Timor's 
government could be expected on roads. "These legitimate checkpoints are 
intended to enhance security along roadways and should be respected."

The US State Department also recommended that air transit to East Timor should 
be via Darwin, Australia, and pointed to a previous warning it had issued 
relating to security issues involving travel through Bali, Indonesia. 

A significant increase in crimes of all types was evidenced after a 1999 vote 
for independence from Jakarta by the vast majority of East Timorese triggered a 
bloody rampage by pro-Indonesian militias. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
China Post
Wednesday, June 25, 2003 
Caves used by Japanese during World War II in Indonesia become tourist 
attraction
2003/6/25
Jakarta, Indonesia, AP

Caves that once sheltered Japanese soldiers during World War II have been 
turned into a popular tourist attraction in Indonesia, villagers said 
Wednesday. 

Residents of Mojokerto village on Indonesia's main island of Java opened 10 
caves to visitors and are luring them with stories that Japanese soldiers 
stored gold in them _ and that some of the treasure might still be there. 

Hundreds of tourists visit the caves on weekends, said villager Rumi, who like 
many Indonesians uses just one name. The money raised is used to protect nearby 
jungle, Rumi said. 

The Japanese invaded Dutch-controlled Indonesia in 1942 and occupied the 
country until 1945. Japanese soldiers often used caves to shelter from the 
weather. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABC Radio Australia News 
26/06/2003 21:54:36
Vietnam and Indonesia reach agreement on maritime boundary 

Vietnam and Indonesia have signed an agreement over their maritime boundary in 
a potentially oil-rich area of the South China Sea. 

After 25 years of negotiation, the accord has been inked in Hanoi by Vietnamese 
Foreign Minister Nguyen Dy Nien and his Indonesian counterpart Wassan Wirajuda.

The heads of state,Tran Duc Luong and Megawati Sukarnoputri, attended and also 
agreed on a framework to boost bilateral political and economic cooperation

Vietnam is the final stop on Megawati's Asian tour that has taken her to 
Bangladesh, Mongolia and Japan.

The two nations have also signed a bilateral "counter-trade" agreement and a 
visa exemption accord.

Indonesia is expected to proceed with plans to exploit suspected oil and gas 
reserves in the waters. 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Asia Times Online
June 25, 2003
Indonesia-Singapore gap more than just numbers
By Bill Guerin 

JAKARTA - Indonesian Industry and Trade Minister Rini M S Soewandi has opened 
up a Pandora's box with Singapore, the country's sixth-largest trading partner. 

In a letter to Singaporean Trade and Industry Minister George Yeo this week, 
Soewandi asked why Indonesia is not included in the island state's annual trade 
statistics for the top 180 countries. 

Shortly after being appointed by President Megawati Sukarnoputri in August 
2001, Soewandi gave an interview with local media in which she laid out her 
vision for the new job. Establishing good corporate governance practices in the 
Ministry of Trade and Industry was to be the cornerstone of a strategy that 
would spearhead reform and improve transparency in the presentation of trade 
data. 

Accurate and transparent trade data were to be the main priorities.

On June 10 this year, Soewandi made her move. At a joint press conference with 
Foreign Affairs Minister Hassan Wirayuda aimed at senior editors in Jakarta, 
she highlighted a "confidential note" on Singapore's trade with Indonesia that 
shows startling differences of about US$5.6 billion a year. 

Trade data for 2002 compiled by Singapore put non-oil exports to Indonesia at 
$5.25 billion, compared with the $2.44 billion reported by Indonesia's Central 
Statistics Agency (BPS). 

Import statistics show similar levels of discrepancies, with Singapore saying 
non-oil imports from Indonesia were $7.41 billion last year, and BPS saying 
they stood at only $4.6 billion. 

The implication is that this $5.6 billion discrepancy represents the amount of 
smuggled goods that pass through the Port of Singapore.

Wirayuda said the Indonesian government had often asked Singapore to supply 
detailed trade statistics since 1973, but the request had always been turned 
down. Officials of both countries met recently to discuss the issue, but 
Singapore demanded that the meeting be an informal one, and no agreement was 
reached, he pointed out. 

He added that "Singapore once sent a diplomatic note on the bilateral trade 
data, but the note was categorized as confidential and Singapore refused to 
discuss the matter in any formal forum".

Soewandi says the rampant smuggling is affecting Indonesia's economic 
development, and she wants joint border patrols established between the two 
countries, like those already in place with Malaysia. 

Singapore, which claims the highest standards of trade practices and good 
governance in the region, appeared shocked. William Tan, first secretary at the 
Singaporean Embassy in Jakarta, took two days to come back with a statement 
that the discrepancy was a common occurrence in trade data in many countries. 

"We calculate our trade figures on a different basis from Indonesia. Therefore, 
differences in the data are inevitable," his statement said, adding that the 
arrangement had begun in 1974 "in the interests of our overall good bilateral 
relations". 

Bilateral trade data handed over to the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
through the Singaporean Embassy in Jakarta only list the names of general 
commodities. 

"We sincerely request that this list be adjusted accordingly, to follow the 
international standard, converting the classification into [the] HS/SITC 
system," said Soewandi in this week's letter. 

Such changes, she points out, would help Indonesian institutions develop the 
trade in the commodities. 

Any freight forwarder in Indonesia will quote two prices for shipments from 
Singapore to Jakarta. One rate will include all the normal range of shipping 
fees and customs clearance charges based on the Harmonized System/Standard 
International Trade Classifications (HS/SITC), but the second rate, on which 
most transactions are based, is a "door to door" rate, per kilogram, which will 
ensure that the consignee receives the goods at his premises with no further 
charges payable. 

Commonly, particularly with consumer goods, Indonesian importers mix smuggled 
goods with those officially categorized with the customs code, on which duty is 
based. 

Assuming 15 percent import duties on the $5.6 billion ballpark figure, 
Indonesia loses $840 million a year. 

Singapore's answer to this is that Indonesians own some 70 percent of trading 
companies that smuggle goods across the water.

The rampant smuggling and under-invoicing practices made possible by collusion 
with corrupt customs officials have also discouraged foreign investors from 
setting up manufacturing plants in Indonesia. 

Soewandi may be trying a carrot-and-stick approach. On the one hand she has 
threatened to press Indonesian importers to use Malaysia's Port Klang, the main 
competitor to the port of Singapore, if Singapore refuses to come clean on the 
true extent of its trade with Indonesia. 

She also, however, proposes to strengthen cooperation through direct customs 
links via an electronic data-exchange system, which would help Indonesia and 
Singapore combat smuggling and, subsequently, terrorism. 

Soewandi, 45, has been a high flyer from the outset. After gaining a degree in 
economics from Wellesley College in Massachusetts in 1981, she returned home 
and joined Citibank. She was the bank's vice president for corporate banking, 
overseeing, among others, the account of car manufacturer Astra International, 
one of the country's largest conglomerates at the time. 

Astra was weighed down with $1.2 billion in foreign debt and demand for its 
automobiles was in freefall. Astra's founding family, the Soeryadjayas, poached 
Rini from the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) where she had just 
been appointed as deputy chair. 

She was hired to become the company's finance director and went on to become 
chief executive officer of the company. 

She was dismissed by Astra's shareholders for refusing to allow prospective 
buyers of Astra (by then under the control of IBRA) to conduct adequate due 
diligence. 

IBRA's shares in Astra were later sold to Singaporean car manufacturer Cycle 
and Carriage in March 2000. 

The minister may have drawn the short straw to spearhead a vote winning 
campaign for the Megawati administration, widely criticized for its total lack 
of action against corruption. 

Singapore's insistence that the enormous discrepancies are not down to 
smuggling but are simply accounting anomalies gives the Megawati administration 
a perfect launchpad for a campaign against corruption in Indonesia. 

Indonesia, for long rated as the least transparent and most corrupt of 
countries, is poised to expose decades of illicit trade that has profited 
corrupt Singaporeans and corrupt Indonesians. 

However, Singapore's $3.3 billion worth of investment in 2002 makes it one of 
Indonesia's largest foreign investors. 

Indonesia's natural gas will fire Singapore's power stations from next year, 
generating another $17 billion in revenue for Indonesia in the coming years. 

Singapore's high-technology products made on Indonesian territory on Bintan and 
Batam islands are included in its free-trade pact with the United States. Under 
the deal, Singapore will be allowed to export high-technology products 
assembled on Bintan and Batam to the US duty-free. 

Megawati is expected to inaugurate four new industrial complexes on Batam next 
month, which would bring the total number of industrial areas on the island to 
18, housing 611 foreign companies.

The export value of the islands' output last year was more than $6.5 billion, 
or about 14 percent of the country's total exports in a year. 

The Singaporean government claims to have been fully transparent in the 
management and recording of its bilateral trade with Indonesia. 

It claims it has always submitted comprehensive statistics on its trade to the 
government in Jakarta, but what Jakarta chooses to do with these statistics is 
up to the government. 

Some elements of the government-controlled Singaporean media suggest that the 
issue is no more than a storm in a teacup and that it highlights Indonesia's 
incompetence in managing its own foreign trade as well as incompetence and deep-
rooted corruption among customs and port officials. 

Exposing the barons behind the smuggling clearly carries a high degree of risk 
to the bilateral relationship. Though Soewandi has brought the issue to the 
table, the call will undoubtedly be Megawati's. Only the president can balance 
the need for anti-corruption moves in the run-up to next year's elections with 
the risk that Singapore could expose skeletons in the Indonesia closet. 
-- (Copyright 2003 Asia Times Online Co, Ltd.