[Kabar-indonesia] Indo News - 12/29/05

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Indonesia’s president tightens security after assassination threat
Associated Press
27 December 2005

Banda Aceh, Indonesia - Indonesia’s president said on Tuesday he has
stepped up security amid warnings that terrorists may be planning to
assassinate him.

Intelligence officials said last week that the Al Qaeda link militant
group Jemaah Islamiyah may be plotting to kidnap or kill high-ranking
officials - apparently shifting away from suicide bombings.

“My security profile has been raised as a result of this threat,”
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in Aceh province, where he was
attending ceremonies marking the one-year anniversary of the tsunami.

“I will keep doing my daily tasks and routines, there will be no change
there,” he said, refusing to elaborate on the tightened security measures.

Jemaah Islamiyah militants have launched five suicide bombings targeting
Western interests since 2002 in the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
More than 240 people have died, many of them foreigners.

Last month, Indonesian police killed the group’s top bomb-making expert,
Azahari bin Husin, in a raid on his hideout.

Indonesian security forces have warned that the group may carry out
reprisal attacks following his death.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From: "Karen Orenstein" <etanorganize@
>
Sent: Thursday, December 22, 2005 6:30 PM
Subject: CONG: Senator Bond (R-MO) on Indonesia

Senate Floor Remarks, Dec. 20, 2005
Excerpts pertaining to Indonesia

Mr. Bond.

As I outlined on the Senate floor earlier this year, Southeast Asia is of
vital importance to the economic health and the security of the United
States--and I have urged active engagement. Home to over 500 million
people and two Muslim democracies, U.S. engagement is essential for
strategic, economic and security reasons.

I have just returned from my second trip to the region this year. In
January of this year, I visited Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesia,
including a tour of Aceh in the wake of the devastating tsunami that hit
that part of the country. I have just returned from a trip to the
Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand. Throughout Southeast Asia, I spread
the message that America has vital interests in the region and that we
will continue to cultivate economic and security ties.

Foremost, however, I made it known that the United States wants to
participate in this and any future East Asian summits. The summit was
initially billed as a meeting of East Asian countries, but it continued to
expand until it was a meeting of ASEAN countries plus Japan, Korea, China,
India, Australia and New Zealand--it has started to look like everyone but
the United States.

I can understand China wanting to take this opportunity to marginalize the
United States while pressing aggressively their priorities in the region.
However, I pointed out to the leaders with whom I visited in Southeast
Asia that the United States was in Asia during World War II to liberate
the region from Japanese aggression; we were in Asia to prevent the region
from being taken over from the communists, and we are in the region to
fight Islamic fascists bent in turning the region into part of an Islamic
caliphate. We were in the region immediately to provide resources to save
thousands of lives in Aceh and begin the rebuilding process. We have made
a valuable contribution to the quality of life in Asia and we should not
be excluded from such an important summit.

Despite the massive undertaking, the rebuilding of Aceh is progressing.
The U.S. remains involved, notably we have been integral to building a 60
mile road to cross the island of Sumatra, an essential artery to
rebuilding the country. Between our efforts and between the waiver of
military sanctions by the President, our standing in the United States is
on the rise.

Reviving military to military relations will pay more dividends than
support for the United States. The reform-minded President of Indonesia is
a graduate of Webster University in St. Louis, MO, but he is also a
graduate of the IMET program. While his tasks are immense, he is committed
to reform and he has taken on corruption in the government and needed
structural reforms in the military. Change will never happen at a pace
that will satisfy some in this Congress, but important reforms are
advancing and I believe we should seize the opportunity to influence
further the professionalism of the Indonesian military through more IMET
participation.

I also had the opportunity to dine with some very engaging,
forward-looking members of the Indonesian parliament. They share my
concern in the limitations of the Indonesian education system and the
holes in curriculum that may be exploited by the paesantrans that are
Saudi funded and teach an extreme version of Islam.

President Bush has identified an important goal, improving the education
system in Indonesia, and has proposed a four year, $157 million education
program for Indonesia. USAID is implementing the program that will work on
curriculum issues and train teachers. This program is targeted at
introducing basic education and the teaching of skills to young
Indonesians, so that they will leave school with the ability to find
work--creating a capable Indonesian labor force in the process.

But there is also a great deal of success in the region in the war on
terrorism and many of the countries in Southeast Asia have been valuable
partners. As I have stated on this floor, Southeast Asia has opened up as
a second front on the war on terrorism. It is home to its own terrorist
network, Jemaah Islamiyah, that has made a number of successful and deadly
attacks, including the two devastating bombings in Bali.

There have been numerous victories over terrorism in the past 3 years in
the Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. For example, last month on
November 9, 2005, in Indonesia, Indonesian police tracked down and killed
Dr. Azahari bin Husin, the Jemaah Islamiyah bomb expert who was known as
the most feared terrorist in Asia. Azahari was responsible for the two
Bali bombings, an attack on the Australian embassy in Jakarta, and the
bombing of the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, among others. He was in the
midst of planning a string of terrorist attacks when police assaulted his
safe house in East Java. The termination of his terror campaign was the
result of a culmination of numerous entities working together to fight
terrorism in the region. U.S. assistance was and remains paramount to such
efforts and is having great effect.

In Thailand on August 11, 2003, Riduan Isamuddin, aka Hambali, was
arrested by Thai authorities near Bangkok, Thailand, after extensive
coordination between multiple agencies and authorities. The capture of
Hambali truly is a testament to the effectiveness that we and the allies
we support are having in the global war on terror. When the details of
this operation are declassified in the future, the phenomenal tale of his
capture should make for a dynamic, nonfiction movie. President Bush
described Hambali as ``one of the world's most lethal terrorists'' and a
key figure in al Qaeda's global operations. Hambali was a close associate
of September 11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, KSM, and it is no
coincidence that the information we have gleaned from detainees like KSM
has led to captures like that of Hambali.
-- 
Karen Orenstein
National Coordinator
East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
202-544-6911 (t/f), www.etan.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Jakarta Post.com
Opinion
December 26, 2005
Maluku 2006: Hope amid the confusion
Muhammad Azis Tunny, Ambon

Following the religious and communal conflicts in Maluku that erupted in
January 1999, clashes that escalated until the Maluku peace agreement was
reached in February 2002. However, the euphoria of peace did not settle
all the remaining sensitive issues among the community.

These issues involve not only civil affairs such as houses, land,
plantations and other property being seized or destroyed during the
conflict, but also the afflicted collective psychology, which has not yet
fully recovered. Longstanding grudges, suspicion, resentment, hatred and
enmity have never been systematically dealt with.

The other post-conflict problem is the segregation of the people according
to their religion. Muslims stay in their areas, Christians in theirs. The
separation remains despite official statements that Maluku is already
peaceful. The trauma of conflict lingers under such division.

So far, the emotional wounds they sustain have only been healed by natural
means at the initiative of local communities on the basis of kinship
(known as pela-gandong). This ancestral tradition attaches significance to
relationships of common descent regardless of religions. Pela-gandong also
implies tolerant coexistence amid different faiths, without any attempt to
motivate conversion.

In Ambon, what is called the specter of April has been haunting local
citizens for the last few years. By April 25, the anniversary of the
self-styled Republic of South Maluku (RMS), provocative rumors continue to
spread, thus arousing suspicion and enmity between the rival religious
groups. Most RMS activists are seen as Christian, while most Muslims that
now live in Maluku tend to identify with nationalism and harbor a distaste
for separatism. The situation on April 25, 2005 was better than in
previous years, though.

As revealed by an RMS member, who was arrested recently, he joined the
organization out of disappointment with the Indonesian government.

Such dissatisfaction, especially with the New Order regime (1965 to 1998),
has been found not only among Maluku people but also among communities in
other regions. This feeling has inspired them to break away from the
unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia, as is the case, Riau, Papua
and Aceh.

The struggle of RMS activists in Maluku is waged through the Maluku
Sovereignty Front (FKM), which aims at gaining Maluku's freedom. Though
some FKM figures have been captured and tried, the possibility of FKM
launching its activities in 2006 remains, because it is highly interested
in flying RMS flags at home and abroad.

Though rather unrealistic, FKM leaders are still enthusiastically
campaigning for the freedom of Maluku. In fact, they have difficulty in
determining RMS' de facto territory and loyal people.

In 2006, the Indonesian government's stance toward this movement should
not necessarily be as dramatic as in previous years, because FKM and RMS
networks are actually not so solid. It means that RMS should not be seen
as a formidable force, but it should never be underestimated either,
because any negligence may allow them to trigger another conflict in
Maluku.

Maluku has also become a hotbed of terrorism. A number of terrorist
attacks in Maluku this year were a setback for the police. However, they
did arrest some of the suspected perpetrators of the assaults on two
mobile brigade (Brimob) posts in Loki village, Western Seram regency, on
May 16, 2005. The armed raids killed seven, including five Police Brigade
(Brimob) members from East Kalimantan.

Without any intervention by or supply of new actors, Maluku may be
relatively more secure in 2006 than its situation this year. However,
several terrorist suspects remain at large.

Police investigations into the Brimob attacks in Loki promptly uncovered
the terrorists' identities. They were known to be linked with diverse
militant groups in Indonesia, including a group in Poso.

Though not all the networks of militants have been laid bare, some
important leaders are being hunted down, like Arsyad and Batar, who are
believed by the police to be the masterminds of a series of terrorist
acts. The investigation of some suspects is gradually unveiling the
complex layers of militants in Maluku and Indonesia.

The security institutions, especially the intelligence agency, should
maximize its operations in 2006 because the strength of terrorism is in
fact not found in its sophisticated arms or combat skills, but rather in
the way of thinking of militant activists. Based on terrorist suspects'
confessions, before being trained in combat or bomb making, they were
brainwashed by their group leaders.

The government should cooperate with religious institutions in
straightening out the concept of jihad (holy war), because all suspects
have always claimed that their action is motivated by the spirit of jihad.
This approach is very essential to adopt, otherwise militant groups will
easily recruit new cadres to form new generations of terrorists.

The protracted conflict in Maluku has made thousands of families homeless.
>From one deadline to another, the government has failed to solving the
problem of displaced families. If, in 2006, it remains unsettled, their
long disappointment is likely to be provoked into mass fury, and unless
carefully handled, they may resort to desperate actions in protest of the
government.

The method of refugee re-settlement gives the impression that the
government is merely being expedient. There has been no repatriation of
refugees to areas with majorities of other faiths.

This way of refugee handling has further affirmed the separation of
settlements based on religion, which opens the possibility of creating
seeds of conflict in the absence of assimilation attempts.

The Maluku provincial administration is determined to complete its
reconstruction and recovery program, in view of the strategic position of
2006 as the year of Maluku's recovery.

"The year 2006 is a period of reawakening and Maluku should rise to keep
pace with current developments so as to surmount its different issues and
become on a par with other regions," said Maluku Governor Karel Albert
Ralahalu.
-- The writer is a correspondent for The Jakarta Post.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Jakarta Post.com
Opinion
December 26, 2005
Economic, clean-governance approaches on Poso
Ruslan Sangadji, Palu, Central Sulawesi

Before President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono eventually decided to set up a
special Task Force for Poso, there had been a long list of major unsolved
crimes, bombings, corruption cases and human rights violations in
conflict-torn Poso regency in Central Sulawesi. The President's decision
has encouraged more people to cooperate with the police. This process has
also been assisted by the fact that people are tired of the prolonged
conflict that has claimed about 2,000 victims from both sides.

Muslims and Christians had tended to be reluctant to help police track
down the wrongdoers as they did not believe that the police could
guarantee their safety.

Both sides also were also uncooperative following the beheading of three
Christian schoolgirls in Buyung Boyo. Ustadz Adnan Arsal, a prominent
Muslim leader in Poso, recently handed over Andi Ipong and Muhammad Yusuf
to the police for their alleged role in several incidents of violence.
Adnan, however, expressed disappointment as the two suspects were
transferred to Jakarta despite police assurances that they would remain in
Poso.

Led by Adnan, the Muslims then demanded that the Christian side also
surrender suspects to the police, and name 16 Christians suspected of
killing Muslims. The demands were rejected by the Christian side.

Actually, both sides are becoming more aware that they are being used by
outsiders, but the problems are abundant, including conflicts among local
politicians and other members of the elite.

Both sides are now demanding more power-sharing at all levels of local
government.

The economic disparity between the native Christian population (from the
Mori and Pamona ethnic groups), and migrants from Bugis, Gorontalo, Java
and Bali continues to widen. Migrants dominate the economy. And the
disparity is so yawning that no one will be able to narrow it even over
the long term. The social envy will last for a long time as a result of
the central government allowing people from outside to settle in the
region as part of the transmigration program.

Meanwhile, many migrants fled and abandoned their land after the conflict
erupted. Indigenous people then occupied the abandoned lands even though
they had no legal title to it. The government should settle this dispute
as it is only a matter of time before it causes another explosion of
conflict.

According to the 2004 census, the population of Poso regency is about
276,000. However, following the formation of a new regency, Tojo Una Una,
and the fact that many displaced persons have not returned home, as of the
end of 2004 the population was only about 176,000 people, spread out among
12 districts and 140 subdistricts. Population density is about 20 people
per square kilometer. Poso city is the most populated part of the regency
with 448 people per square kilometer.

The number of Muslim population is 44.99 percent of the total population
while Christian 39.10 percent, and Catholic is 2.5 percent while the rest
is Hindu and Buddhist.

The area is also home to people from the Bada, Bungku, Kaili, Tojo, Manado
and Toraja ethnic groups.

For a while Poso seemed to be returning to normalcy. However situation
here in reality is still very fragile as the roots of the problems have
not been addressed.

Local leaders here, including Yusuf Lakaseng, the coordinator of the Poso
Center, cited several major problems that need to be settle in short and
mid terms.

The first is corruption. The government must eradicate all forms of
corruption and punish those responsible for looting the local treasury.
They should be tried in Jakarta to avoid local interference and
provocation in Poso.

The four suspects in the embezzlement of humanitarian aid for Poso, Andi
Azikin Suyuti, Ivan Sidjaya, Agus and Abdul Kadir, have been flown to
Jakarta to face the court. If convicted, they should also be imprisoned in
Jakarta as their return to Poso would only trigger more violence.

The President must establish an independent and inclusive fact-finding
commission to comprehensively investigate the conflict. The current Task
Force will not be effective as it is dominated by officers of the police
and military. They tend to cover up the involvement of police and
soldiers.

Not only local people but also members of the security forces have
committed violent crimes in Poso. Therefore, a security operation alone
will not be enough. Instead, it should be accompanied by a welfare
operation. An independent agency like Aceh's Rehabilitation and
Reconstruction Agency (BRR) could also be set up in Poso with a similar
mission.

The government also needs to solicit public involvement at the grassroots
level in eradicating terrorism, crime and communal conflict. In upholding
order, the police need to deploy at least one police officer to each
village or sub-district.
-- The writer is a correspondent of The Jakarta Post.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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, December 26, 2005
The Situation in Ambon / Moluccas – Report No. 499

1. Visits By Ministers – Regular visits by cabinet ministers from Jakarta
confirm the sincere concern of the central government in relation to the
situation in the Provinces of the Moluccas and the North Moluccas.

Communication and Information Minister Sofyan Djalil recently came to
Ambon on a one-day visit and called on the people to maintain the peace
and harmony that has prevailed in the province lately. He expressed his
admiration for the positive things and progress which had been achieved
after succeeding in putting an end to the prolonged communal conflict that
began in January 1999.

Speaking in the Al-Fatah Mosque, he said: "I urge the Muslim community to
live in harmony with other religions’ followers, to avoid violence and to
be open and forgiving to each other".

He asked the people of the Moluccas to follow the example of South African
Leader Nelson Mandela who had been magnanimous and forgiving to those who
had hurt him.

Another Minister that came to visit the Moluccas, was State Minister for
Acceleration of Development in Disadvantaged Regions, Syaifullah Yusuf.
The government is currently paying close attention to the many hundreds of
Indonesian islands and islets on its borders. One such island is the
island of Kisar, only a few miles North of the sovereign state of
East-Timor and not far from Australia either. Arriving at Kisar together
with Governor Karel Albert Ralahalu, he learned that most of the local
people are living in poor economic conditions, whilst some 50% of the
population is afflicted by diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis. He
affirmed that he would see to it that poverty alleviation and economic
development on the island would be high on the central government’s list
of priorities. He also surveyed medication efforts by a combined Moluccas
team, which is taking place from 23 to 27 December on the island and on
the nearby islands of Leti, Moa and Lakor (“Lemola”).

The minister celebrated Christmas with the local people “as a
manifestation of the central and provincial government`s concern and
attention for the impoverished people in the disadvantaged regions”.

On this occasion the Minister brought with him 20 thousand Christmas
packages as a token of national solidarity, each containing 5 kg of rice,
5 kg of sugar, 10 packets of noodles, a tin of milk and a botol of frying
oil at a total value of Rupiah 55.000,- (5 Euro), which would be
obtainable ad only Rupiah 5.000,- a package. In Ambon a similar (unfairly
executed?) distribution recently led to demonstration and protest by the
poor (and habitually “disadvantaged”).

2. Police on High Alert – Like all over Indonesia, in the Moluccas, too,
all police personnel is on high alert on occasion of the Chrismas
celebrations. Via TV and Radio broadcast and also via the pulpits of
churches and mosques, people are being urged to abstain from any
fireworks. However – typically Ambonese – we seldom heard so many
firecrackers as during this Christmas night: all night long, up to 0.400
a.m. there was a terrible noise of exploding crackers. Worth noticing:
just across the road is Police Headquarters, but in such cases police is
seemingly scared to interfere. The Ambon cathedral seemed to be considered
as a main target of potential terrorists, for no fewer than thirty police
personnel guarded the compound during Christmas Eve. As many as four
TV-crews (commercial stations from Java) came to report on the Christmas
Celebration, led by Msgr. P.C. Mandagi, bishop of Amboina.

3. Acknowledgement

This report may be the last one of 2005. We are grateful to those who have
supported us in various ways, encouraging and enabling us to continue
sending out worldwide these simple reports on the situation in the
Moluccas. Internet in Indonesia is still a slow-moving and expensive
business. So we are most grateful for the financial assistance from
notably Misereor-Aachen and Cordaid-The Hague and from some private
persons as well. This financial support enabled the Crisis Centre also to
cope with various other expenditure, mostly on behalf of resettling and
returning IDP-s. Wishing you a peaceful New Year.

C.J. Böhm msc
Crisis Centre Diocese of Amboina
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Jakarta Post.com
Features
December 27, 2005
Land tenure reform proposed to save community forests
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Sumbanese winner of the Kalpataru award, Katrina Koni Kii, has more than
seven small green hills surrounding her modest house in North Wejewa, West
Sumba, where she grows various crops and plants, including thousands of
sandalwood trees.

Her sandalwood forest brought her to the presidential palace to receive
the award from the President himself earlier this year.

In the rural area in which she lives, where people live far away from each
other, smallholders cultivate small plantations near their homes. However,
nobody has title documents for their plantations.

Meanwhile, data from the Ministry of Forestry far away in the shows that
the state owns 120 million hectares of forest land. Some of this in
reality, however, consists of private plantations and forests, like those
owned by Katrina.

The differing interpretations often spark conflict and land disputes,
which in turn can lead to increasing deforestation.

"Conflicts between communities who assert claims over the land and the
resources within forest areas, and other parties who have interests in
forests have arisen over the past 15 years," said a press statement made
available by the Nairobi-based World Agroforestry Center (ICRAF) on Dec.
19.

"The conflicts cause massive deforestation, decreasing biodiversity,
forest fires, soil erosion, devastation of forests' hydrology systems,
which in turn impoverish the people," the statement continued.

Therefore, a study largely conducted by Arnoldo Contreras-Hermosilla from
the Washington D.C.-based Forest Trends and Chip Fay from ICRAF, have
proposed land tenure reform to specifically determine who is responsible
for particular forest areas.

The study, written in English and published in a thin folio-sized book
titled "Strengthening Forest Management in Indonesia through Land Tenure
Reform: Issues and Framework for Action", shows that of the total 120
million hectares of forest land claimed by the state, only 12 million
hectares have actually been confirmed as being legally owned by the
government.

The study was launched and discussed during an event at the Ministry of
Forestry in Central Jakarta on Dec. 19.

It also reveals that a staggering 33 million hectares of the claimed
forest areas are in reality not forests. They have either been denuded, or
are given over to settlements, grassland or agricultural use, the study
says.

"The diminishing forests are due to massive logging both by large
companies or by small-scale logging investors. Some of the forest loss is
also due to the activities of villagers," said Martua Sirait, an activist
with ICRAF, during the discussion, which also involved a number of
ministry officials.

Locals more reliable
In the discussion, some forestry activists revealed that at the local
level, administrations sometimes usurped the rights of local people over
forests and sold them to small-scale logging investors.

Sirait said that his organizations had seen that smallholders engaged in
agroforestry were much more trustworthy in preserving their forests
compared to the private sector or the government.

"In many areas, we find that farmers who grow export crops, like cocoa or
coffee, between the trees in their forests are more concerned with
preserving the environment compared to others," Sirait said.

He said that they preserved the environment because it represented their
livelihoods.

"In Papua, for example, many tribal communities depend on their forests
for hunting. Of course they preserve their forests. Therefore, the
government should give these local communities security of tenure over
their forests," Sirait said.

However, he admitted that this would give rise to the possibility of
communities selling their forests to logging investors for cash.

"It's not difficult to formulate special ownership arrangements for
forests. The government could grant non-transferable titles, or whatever
they think is necessary," Sirait said.

He added that security of tenure over their forests was important for
traditional communities.

"Ownership documents provide assurances that the government will never
turn the forests over for settlement purposes or for harvesting by
loggers," Sirait said.

Sirait said that the study, on which he along with the other three
activists worked as contributors, was aimed at changing the simplistic
interpretations that led to mismanagement.

Ministry of Forestry officials attending the discussion accepted the
criticism of the ministry contained in the study.

The study, which sets out a framework for land tenure reform, also
recognizes the difficulties involved. Of the 24 measures required to bring
about meaningful reform, the average difficulty level averages 3.3, with 5
representing "extremely difficult".