[Kabar-indonesia] Indo News - 9/22/05

[Admin]

- Sense of crisis deepening in beleaguered Indonesia
- Disease Threat Greatest Foreign Policy Issue, Congressman Says
- Indonesia on brink of bird flu epidemic
- Time the enemy in bird-flu fight
- Indonesia police detain 35 people over West Java vandalism
- Freedom Of Religion And Freedom Of Worship
- Healthy-looking Suharto seen in public
- Indonesia's Illegal Coal Mines Feed China
- For Survivors of E. Timor Massacres, Justice Still Elusive
*****************************

International Herald Tribune
Sense of crisis deepening in beleaguered Indonesia
By Wayne Arnold International Herald Tribune
Friday, September 23, 2005

Singapore Rising oil prices and fears of a bird flu epidemic are deepening
a sense of crisis enveloping Indonesia and prompting predictions of a
cabinet shake-up next month as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono attempts
to defuse mounting public tension.

The darkening mood stands in stark contrast to the optimism that
surrounded Yudhoyono's victory a year ago in Indonesia's first direct
presidential elections. Despite enduring faith in his own competence as an
administrator, Indonesians are voicing growing doubts about whether his
unwieldy coalition government can steer the country through its mounting
list of troubles.

Analysts warn that the risk of unrest is growing as Yudhoyono prepares to
raise fuel prices in October just as the country celebrates the
traditional Muslim fasting month.

"The situation is not understood by most people here. They oppose it,"
said Kurtubi, an analyst at the Center for Petroleum and Energy Economics
Studies in Jakarta. "But the government has no choice."

Although Indonesia is a considerable producer of oil, economic growth in
recent years and inadequate spending on new wells have made the country a
net importer of petroleum. The government is also saddled with extensive
fuel subsidies that are particularly important to Indonesia's many poor
people.

Yudhoyono is a former general with experience fighting both rebels and
terrorists, and his promises to uproot corruption and revive investment
still inspire confidence among business leaders at home and abroad. So
does his willingness to acknowledge and tackle longstanding problems like
bureaucratic inertia and legal uncertainty.

But because his party lacks a majority in Parliament, Yudhoyono rules
through a coalition that has since stumbled over a string of calamities.
These include the devastating South Asian tsunami, illegal burning of
jungles that covered parts of neighboring countries in choking haze, the
re-emergence of polio, spiraling commodity prices and increasing cases of
avian influenza that the government has labeled an emergency.

With a second hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico threatening still higher oil
prices, anxiety in Jakarta is high. The benchmark stock index dropped 2.6
percent Thursday.

Opposition party leaders have been calling for Yudhoyono to replace his
economics team, saying it had lost the confidence of the people and of
investors, although political analysts have long been predicting that the
president was eager himself to form a more cohesive cabinet.

Yudhoyono alluded to the possibility of a reshuffle last month, saying
that he would review his cabinet's performance.

Coordinating Economy Minister Aburizal Bakrie is a member of the party of
the ousted former President Suharto. He was among a group of politically
connected tycoons who after the Asian financial crisis fought government
efforts to wrest control of their bankrupt companies to help pay for a
huge bailout of the banking system.

He may enjoy the support, however, of fellow party member Jusuf Kalla,
Yudhoyono's vice president.

More speculation surrounds the possible replacement of Finance Minister
Jusuf Anwar, a technocrat formerly at the Asian Development Bank, and of
Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh over what critics complain has been
meager progress in tackling corruption among high-level officials.

But even SBY, as Yudhoyono is widely referred to in Indonesia, has not
escaped criticism, particularly over what many see as his own
indecisiveness. A national magazine recently had a cover story playing on
a popular re-translation of the president's ubiquitous acronym: "Selalu
Bimbang, Ya," or "Forever undecided, right?" The president's spokesman
could not be reached for comment.

The anxiety created by rising living costs has been exacerbated by the
government's admission that it could face an epidemic of the bird flu
virus. Bird flu has killed four people in Jakarta alone, while eleven
other patients remain hospitalized with symptoms of the virus.

On Monday, the government invoked powers to hospitalize and quarantine
those suspected of being infected by the virus. It has since announced
plans to conduct mass slaughters of poultry.

Chicken is perhaps the most widely consumed meat in Indonesia's diet, and
the country has vast numbers of free-range poultry, so the impact on
public consumption is likely to be significant, analysts said.

Already, fears of the virus have sparked travel warnings and sent members
of the foreign investment community in Indonesia rushing to clinics for
vaccines and remedies.

Yet paramount among the fears facing Yudhoyono is the effect of rising oil
prices on his country's 218 million people. Early this month, Yudhoyono
announced plans to cut fuel subsidies in October.

Indonesia subsidizes the price of fuel in the amount of 73 trillion
rupiah, or $7 billion, a year, a figure that it estimates will balloon to
140 trillion rupiah this year as world oil prices rise.

The swelling cost to the government of the subsidies sent the rupiah
plunging in August to its lowest level in four years and precipitated a
similar decline in stock prices.

The subsidies are a legacy of Indonesia's days as a big oil exporter. Few
analysts or economists dispute that the subsidies need to be eliminated.
Not only do the subsidies eat up government revenue that could be used for
public works or alleviating poverty; they also offer relatively little
benefit for the poor.

Subsidies on gasoline prices benefit primarily wealthier Indonesians who
drive fuel-inefficient cars. And the artificially low prices the subsidies
create has given rise to a brisk trade in smuggling Indonesian crude and
refined product out of the country.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
21 September 2005
Disease Threat Greatest Foreign Policy Issue, Congressman Says
Bird flu, HIV could take more lives than war, terrorism, Leach warns

"[T]he greatest foreign policy issue of our times is neither the problem
of war and peace between nation states nor the problem of terrorism, but
rather is the very human vulnerability we all share to disease," says
Representative James Leach.

At a September 21 congressional hearing exploring developments in
Southeast Asia, Leach said the transnational threat from the HIV virus and
the potential for an avian influenza, or bird flu, pandemic that could
endanger millions "are more grave life and death issues than those related
to armaments and evil intents of mendacious minds."

Leach, a Republican from Iowa, is the chairman of the Subcommittee on East
Asia and the Pacific of the House Committee on International Relations.

The hearing was intended to explore a range of issues in Southeast Asia,
Leach said, including the challenges of terrorism and radical Islam in the
region, the possibility that China's initiatives in the region may
marginalize U.S. influence; and human-rights abuses in Indonesia, Burma
and Vietnam.

For ongoing coverage of U.S. and international efforts to combat avian
influenza, see Bird Flu.  For more on U.S. policy in the region, see East
Asia and the Pacific.

Following is the text of the chairman's opening statement:

(begin text)

Opening Statement
Representative James A. Leach
Chairman, Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific
The United States and Southeast Asia
September 21, 2005

On behalf of the Subcommittee, I would like to express a warm welcome to
Mr. Eric John, who is making his inaugural appearance before the Committee
as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of East Asian and
Pacific Affairs.  We look forward to your testimony.

We meet this morning to survey recent developments in Southeast Asia, and
United States policy toward the region.  As the nexus of important
political, economic, and strategic factors, Southeast Asia holds great
promise and also faces significant challenges.  While I know that many of
our friends were disappointed that Secretary Rice was unable to attend the
ASEAN Regional Forum this past July, I want to assure them that the United
States - including the Congress - remains committed to robust engagement
in the region.

I hope that our witness will be able to address two broad questions during
our discussion today.  The first is how best to address the challenges of
terrorism and radical Islam:  In addition to the transnational activities
of Jemaah Islamiya, some countries also face threats from indigenous
militants.  The second is how the United States should regard the growing
role of China in the region.  Some observers question whether China's
initiatives - such as the East Asia Summit scheduled for December 2005 -
are attempts to marginalize U.S. influence.

In addition to these general, region-wide dynamics, I hope that today's
hearing might also explore some of the following, specific circumstances,
and proper U.S. policy responses:

-- Indonesia continues its remarkable process of democratization and
decentralization, and we join the Indonesian government in welcoming the
prospect of durable peace in Aceh.  At the same time, concerns persist
about accountability for ongoing abuses by some Indonesian security
forces, particularly in Papua.

-- As exemplified by the visit of the Vietnamese Prime Minister earlier
this year, the United States and Vietnam are developing an unprecedented
and warming bilateral relationship, with growing trade, security, and
people-to-people ties.  However, the depth of the relationship is
constrained by continuing human rights violations, such as the jailing of
dissidents, the attempt to control religious practice, and brutal
crackdowns in the Central Highlands.

-- Inside Burma, political and humanitarian conditions remain deplorable. 
I am interested in the State Department's thinking on policy options
toward Burma, including recent, innovative proposals to explore these
issues within the context of the UN Security Council.

-- In the Philippines, President Arroyo remains politically embattled due
to allegations of electoral impropriety, while her country faces
challenges from violent insurgents, including Islamist terrorists in
Mindanao.

-- During his July visit to Washington, Singapore Prime Minister Lee
signed a security framework agreement with the United States that should
further bolster our robust defense relationship, which already serves as a
touchstone of stability in the region.

-- On a side issue, I would like to hear more about Cambodia's forced
repatriation of Vietnamese Montagnard asylum seekers earlier this summer,
and about U.S. efforts to halt or mitigate that circumstance.  As you may
know, these were issues that I raised in correspondence with the UN High
Commissioner for Refugees.

-- Finally, and most importantly, it is self-evident but not self-apparent
in U.S. governmental priorities that the greatest foreign policy issue of
our times is neither the problem of war and peace between nation states
nor the problem of terrorism, but rather is the very human vulnerability
we all share to disease.  It is the HIV virus and a potential avian flu
pandemic that are more grave life and death issues than those related to
armaments and evil intents of mendacious minds.  An update on these two
issues as they relate to Southeast Asia is critical.

Again, Mr. John, thank you for appearing before the Subcommittee this
morning.  We look forward to your testimony.

(end text)
-- (Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S.
Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Courier Mail
Indonesia on brink of bird flu epidemic
Rob Taylor
22sep05

Fears of a possibly uncontrollable bird flu outbreak were sweeping
Indonesia last night after the Government warned of a potential epidemic.

Scientists tried to determine whether a five-year-old girl died from the
virus in a Jakarta hospital, where six other Indonesians are being treated
as possible bird flu patients.

Expatriates and Indonesians rushed to buy vaccine as stocks dwindled. Some
major Jakarta clinics said they had none. Australia's embassy in Jakarta
told Australians living in Indonesia, or planning to visit, to obtain
vaccine supplies as a precaution.

In Jakarta, Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said there was a danger
avian influenza in the country of 220 million people could reach epidemic
levels.

But, in a bid to prevent panic, Ms Supari said it would be wrong to
describe the virus as a "frightening epidemic". So far, Indonesia has
confirmed four bird flu deaths. Tests are being conducted on the dead girl
to determine if she was its fifth victim.

Overall, 64 people in four Asian countries are known to have died from the
H5N1 strain of bird flu since late 2003. The strain has also spread to
Russia and Europe.

The World Health Organisation this week warned a global pandemic would be
virtually impossible to stop if the virus mutated to a form which could
easily jump between humans.

In Jakarta, a spokeswoman for the Australian embassy said expatriates
registered with the mission were being advised to buy a supply of bird flu
vaccine.

"We urge Australians to look at the travel warnings," she said.

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has placed government
departments on "extraordinary" alert, outlining a plan to isolate infected
areas and to deal with poultry.

The plan directed 44 public hospitals to treat avian influenza patients.
It also allowed patients with symptoms of the disease to be forcibly
admitted to hospitals.

Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyanto said infected areas were still being
identified but, once they were pinpointed, a mass cull of poultry would be
carried out.

"If we declare one area highly infected, we are going to do a mass
slaughter," he said.

Officials have previously rejected international calls for a mass cull,
warning that its cash-strapped government did not have enough money to
compensate poultry farmers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Inter Press Service
September 22, 2005
Time the enemy in bird-flu fight
By Marwaan Macan-Markaar

Bangkok - As Indonesia grapples with the specter of deaths from bird flu,
public health officials in the region are racing against time to put into
place a pandemic prevention operation that comes down to one word - speed.

The fate of millions of lives in Asia hangs on the speed with which a
patient, infected with a human-to-human transmission of a mutated strain
of bird flu, is diagnosed and prevention measures are implemented.

"We will only have a 21-day golden period to stop the virus spreading and
becoming a pandemic," said Dr Kumnuan Ungchusak, director of epidemiology
at Thailand's department of disease control and a key player in plans
being mapped out to stall the virus ravaging Southeast Asia. "A longer
delay, even a month, can be fatal."

The new urgency follows the deaths announced Wednesday of two young girls
admitted to Jakarta hospitals after they developed symptoms indicating
bird flu. Nine others are currently under treatment for suspected bird flu
in Indonesia.

Indonesia confirmed its first bird-flu deaths on July 20, after a man and
his two daughters died from the virus. A fourth person, a 37-year-old
woman, was confirmed to have died from bird flu on September 10.

Avian influenza has infected more than 100 people in Asia and killed about
half of them since 2004, three health agencies, including the World Health
Organization, said last month. More than 140 million chickens have been
slaughtered in Asia because of concern that the H5N1 virus may mutate into
a form easily transmissible between humans.

On Wednesday, Indonesia's Health Minister, Siti Fadilah Supari, told
reporters in Jakarta that she considered the outbreak the possible start
of an epidemic on the archipelago and that "most definitely there will be
others as long as we are not able to identify positively the sources".

The pandemic-prevention scenario is expected to follow two broad paths,
she explained during an interview. The first is geared toward the
immediate family of the patient diagnosed with the lethal virus. Each
family member coming in contact with an infected relative will be given -
within two days of the patient showing symptoms - a dose of Tamiflu, the
only known drug capable of stopping the spread of a mutated form of the
H5N1 avian flu virus. This regime of Tamiflu will be for a 10-day period,
Kumnuan said.

More challenging, though, is to provide medication for the second part of
this preemptive initiative. "It would require giving [medication to]
around 10,000 people, 100,000 people or even one million who live within
the area where this human-to-human form of the virus has been diagnosed,''
the Thai epidemiologist said.

It is this phase - a novel way to destroy a possible pandemic at its roots
- that has the 21-day window. "This is a very challenging concept, very
new and necessary if we have to save lives," Kumnuan said. "Cooperation at
every level and speed will matter the most."

According to public health officials, Southeast Asia needs to stockpile
antiviral drugs to treat at least 3 million people if the deadly H5N1
virus mutates to one that could explode into a pandemic.

But meeting this demand is already proving to be a problem due to limited
stocks for the developing world. The World Health Organization (WHO) is
due to receive 1 million doses from Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche, the
producer of Tamiflu, by the end of this year and another 2 million by
mid-2006.

To compound that delay, this region appears far from ready to meet the
looming global health challenge that the WHO states could result in 2-7
million deaths around the world.

Already, the region has had 63 fatalities from the H5N1 strain of the
bird-flu virus since January last year. Of the 63 people who have died,
Vietnam has had 43, Thailand 12 and Cambodia and Indonesia four each.
These deaths account for more than half the number of the estimated 119
people who have been infected with the H5N1 strain of bird flu after
having come into contact with poultry infected with the virus.

"Asia is still the weakest link in pandemic preparedness when compared
with what is underway in Europe," said Peter Cordingley, spokesman for the
WHO's Western Pacific regional office (WPRO) in Manila.

Earlier in the week, the head of WPRO said at a conference that there were
still many gaps in the health surveillance systems, so pivotal to
detecting a new virus and mounting a response within a limited time.

"At the national level we need to improve further the capacity for
surveillance and virological investigation. In addition, we need greater
cooperation in sharing specimen samples," said Dr Shigeru Omi, WPRO's
regional director in New Caledonia, an island in the South Pacific.

"Vietnam is on par with Thailand in health surveillance, but poorer
countries like Cambodia and Laos don't have the capacity due to the lack
of resources," Cordingley told IPS. "This is also too big for the WHO and
FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization) to handle. We need a lot of
international help."

The rising concern about a pandemic comes in the wake of revelations by
researchers at the Rome-based Instituto Superiore di Santi that people can
be infected with even bird flu strains considered low-pathogenic avian
influenza. Hitherto, medical researchers have maintained that humans were
only susceptible to the high-pathogenic strain of H5N1 influenza.

Since the winter of 2003, when the current strain of bird flu began
spreading through Asia, more than 100 million birds have died, either
falling to the disease or being culled. Russia became the 11th country
recently to be struck by this spreading lethal virus.

The fear of bird-flu mutating into a virulent virus that can easily spread
from person to person has kept pace with the appearance of the strain
among Asia's poultry and duck populations. That is because humans lack a
natural response to fight the H5N1 strain of the virus.

For people like WHO's Omi, it appears to be a matter of time before
disaster strikes, since, in his view, the current bird-flu virus is
"resilient, unpredictable, unstable and extremely versatile".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ABC/Radio Australia
Indonesia police detain 35 people over West Java vandalism
Last Updated 20/09/2005, 22:58:22 Select text size:

Indonesian police have detained 35 people for vandalising mosques and
houses belonging to a minority Muslim sect in West Java province.

Several mosques and houses were badly damaged and at least three cars
burned in four villages on Monday night.

ElShinta radio reports damage to four mosques, three religious schools and
33 houses after a group of students from a local Islamic boarding school
and residents went on the rampage.

The damaged buildings belong to the Ahmadiya, a Muslim sect which the
country's highest authority on Islam has outlawed as a deviant sect.

The sect is a target of periodic violence.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Paras Indonesia (formerly Laksamana)
September, 22 2005 @ 12:01 pm
Freedom Of Religion And Freedom Of Worship
By: Mochtar Buchori

Do the expressions  “freedom of religion” and “freedom of worship” convey
identical in meaning?

Not, as far as I know of. “Freedom of worship” is, in my understanding,
freedom in express-ing one’s devotion to the Deity of the Divine as
defined in one’s religion. According to Alfred North Whitehead
(1861-1947), “The worship of God is not a rule of safety – it is an
ad-venture of the spirit, a flight after the unattainable.” And according
to Voltaire (1694-1778), “God prefers bad verses recited with a pure
heart, to the finest verses possible chanted by the wicked.”

On the basis of these two statements I have come to the conclusion that
that worship, genuine worship, can come only from a pure heart, and that a
meaningful worship must be done in a way that touches the deepest layer of
one’s heart. Sometimes it has to be done in a way to do it in a way that
differs from the prescribed convention, and this requires courage.

Do we really need freedom of worship? Is freedom of religion not enough?

I am not sure. Most people feel that freedom of religion is all we need.
But there are people who feel that religious worship is a personal
experience, and that it should therefore be done in a way that expresses
one’s personal feelings and true being. Such people feel that perform-ing
worship in a manner they do not really understand does not give them peace
of mind. They feel that true worship can come only from a heart filled
with love and devotion, and not from a heart filled with fear for severe
punishment.

How does “freedom of worship” differ from “freedom of religion”? According
to the Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, compiled by E.D. Hirsch, Jr.,
Joseph F. Kett, and James Trefil, ‘freedom of religion’ is “the right to
choose a religion (or no religion) without interference by the
government.” This is, of course, a definition that is valid only in
American and many other European cultures. Within Indonesia, freedom of
religion does not include the right not to choose religion. Every
Indonesian must choose a religion. And in most cases in Indonesia,
religion is not a personal matter, but one that affects the whole family.
Only in very rare occasions that an Indonesian family comprises members
who embrace different religions.

Why do I bring up this matter? Because lately there have been disturbing
events in our society that in my opinion can destroy the basis and texture
of our society and our culture. The violent ransacking of the Ahmadiyah
compound in Bogor, West Java, the closure of churches by force in a number
of places in Indonesia, the “prosecution” of intellectuals pursuing
liberal thinking in Islam, and the issuance of an edict prohibiting
pluralism and liberalization within Indonesian society.

If my understanding of this situation is correct, then we are really
heading towards a catastrophic situation. If this trend is allowed to
continue we are heading toward the abolition of religious freedom and
freedom of worship in Indonesia. We are heading toward a theocratic
totalitarianism. We are heading toward the destruction of Pancasila as our
state ideology.

I hope I am wrong and that I am just exaggerating things. But I am alarmed
because in these events I see the seeds of a wicked desire, i.e. to change
the nature and the basis of our nation, our society, and our state by
force. It is really a soothing experience to read Solahuddin Wahid’s
article in this psychologically turbulent time that the meaning of
Pancasila as an ideology must be first clarified, before one jumps to the
conclusion that Pancasila is secular and therefore anti-religion. Those
groups advocating violent actions to impose their views and their will on
groups outside their own started from the central idea that their religion
is being surrounded, eroded, and attacked, and that what they have been
doing is no more than ideological self-defense.

Mr Wahid argues that the word ‘secular’ has been used in a confusing way
within Indonesian society. Some people think that ‘secular’ means
anti-religion, while other people think that this word denotes neutrality
in religious matters. It is neither for nor against religion. Accord-ing
to one dictionary ‘secular’ means “worldly rather than spiritual”. It is
also defined as “not specifically relating to religion or religious body.”
Seen in this way being secular is in no way being against religion, and as
such cannot be construed as attacking or offending religious groups. To
me, the word ‘secular’ is not at all dirty.

Is Pancasila a secular ideology, in the sense of being neutral towards
religion? In my understanding, it is not. It provides ample room for
religious life, but it limits the space for religious experience not bound
by religions recognized by the State.

In this kind of climate the claim that the Government of the State is
advancing “religious freedom” should at least mean that the Government
protects groups that seek for more liberal formats of religious worship.
It is not responsible of the Government to assume an indifferent attitude
toward those groups trying to impose their views and their will upon
others in a violent manner. In this sense freedom of worship is the more
important idea in present day Indonesia compared to the idea of freedom of
religion.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Healthy-looking Suharto seen in public
Thursday September 22, 10:52 PM
Jakarta (AFP)

Indonesia's former dictator Suharto appeared healthy but walked with a
cane during a visit to the grave of his wife, a television report showed.

Wearing a traditional grey batik shirt and a black Muslim cap, Suharto,
84, walked unaided with his cane except when going down steps in the
cemetery compound, SCTV television showed on Thursday.

Suharto has suffered two strokes which according to his doctors left him
brain-damaged, an argument which has so far prevented him from standing
trial for corruption during his 32-year autocratic rule that ended with
massive public unrest in 1998.

Suharto escaped trial after his lawyers offered medical evidence that he
could no longer hold or follow a normal conversation.

SCTV showed him accompanied by a large retinue including his oldest
daughters and two oldest sons at the Astana Giri Bangun family cemetery
near Solo, Central Java. His wife Suhartinah and other members of the
Suharto clan are buried there. Suhartinah, also known as Tien Suharto,
died in 1996.

Suharto made no comment.

Since his resignation Suharto has largely been a recluse at his home in
central Jakarta.

In August he made his first public appearance in months when he visited a
former vice president, Sudharmono, in hospital. Suharto walked unaided and
appeared healthy at that time, too.

Suharto himself has been hospitalized several times in the past, for
stroke, intestinal bleeding and heart problems. He was last admitted to
hospital for a few days in May.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Washington Post
Indonesia's Illegal Coal Mines Feed China
-- Demand Transforms Island Nation's Lightly Regulated South Kalimantan
Province
By Alan Sipress
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, September 21, 2005; Page D06

Sungai Danau, Indonesia -- Under cover of darkness, hundreds of trucks
brimming with coal crawl along the main street of this river town on the
southeast corner of Borneo, a column of headlights burning through
billowing dust.

The nightly procession starts about two hours after sunset and presses on
until dawn as the trucks ferry their cargo from scores of often-illegal
mines in the nearby hills to small ports nestled along the banks. Much of
this coal is destined for China to meet that country's voracious appetite
for energy to power its dramatic economic growth.

The Chinese coal rush has helped transform the coast of Indonesia's South
Kalimantan province since late 2003 as traders from China have streamed
into Borneo, seeking to exploit a largely unregulated landscape populated
by dealmakers, gangsters and wildcat miners.

"In the last two years, the Chinese have become very aggressive. They are
hunters searching for coal from everybody," said Moyo Sophyan Toersilo,
who manages one of the larger mining operations in the province.

China, a large and growing consumer of minerals and other natural
resources, is increasingly looking south to Indonesia. Despite a history
of strained relations, trade between China and Indonesia was up by nearly
a third last year and is on track to expand faster this year, according to
Indonesian officials. And following reciprocal visits this year by the
presidents of China and Indonesia, the two governments set a goal of
doubling bilateral trade to $30 billion in the next five years.

Officials have announced that China will expand its investment in
Indonesian oil production and iron ore mines. China has agreed to invest
$8 billion in Borneo plantations for the production of palm oil -- used in
cooking, soap and detergent -- while a major new Chinese tin mine also is
under discussion. Two months ago, during Indonesian President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono's visit to Beijing, top officials signed a deal under
which China will help develop a railway and canals to ship coal from
Sumatra and then purchase about 20 million tons annually for 15 years.

China was a major coal exporter until two years ago, when it redirected
its production to meet local demand. Indonesia has now supplanted China as
the world's second-largest coal exporter, and industry experts predict
Indonesia soon could pass Australia to become the top supplier of steam
coal.

Toersilo recalled the day in April 2004 when Chinese business leaders
first appeared unannounced at his modest office in Sungai Danau. "They
looked like tourists to us," he recounted.

The Chinese quizzed Toersilo about his mining site, production capacity
and facilities for crushing coal for shipment. They requested to see the
port south of town and asked how long it took coal barges to reach ships
off shore. Within a month, they notified Toersilo they would dispatch a
vessel every two weeks to pick up coal for a power plant in China's
southern Guangdong province. Toersilo said he now sends them at least
150,000 metric tons a month.

In June, the head of a provincial chamber of commerce in China asked to
purchase 300,000 metric tons monthly. Toersilo responded his company could
provide nearly half that and expected to begin shipments in September.

But the construction of five new piers to accommodate the trade is running
behind, Toersilo explained. "There just isn't enough port space any more,"
he said.

Industry experts say that Indonesia's official export figures do not
reflect all the coal shipped by small, illegal mining operations in South
Kalimantan, much of it bound for China. "I bet no one has current and
accurate data about what is happening out there," said a senior official
in Indonesia's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.

But few in Sungai Danau can miss the nightly crush of trucks backing up
for three miles along roads cratered from heavy use. After dumping their
10-ton loads at the river ports, the trucks return to the mining pits,
trying to make at least three round-trips before sunrise. Along the route,
hoodlums stop the trucks, extorting illegal tolls to let them pass.

Coal trucks are officially banned from public roads. But the worst of the
gridlock forms right outside the local police station, where uniformed
officers do little more than watch the parade from a bench out front.
Local miners said only a sense of propriety keeps them from hauling cargo
during daylight.

These coal companies operate in a gray area created four years ago by an
Indonesian law allowing local officials, rather than those in Jakarta, to
approve small mining concessions. Bribery is rampant, industry and
government officials said. An estimated 60 new operations have sprung up
in the Sungai Danau area alone, often mining land already assigned to
other companies and leaving behind abandoned pits in violation of
environmental regulations.

China has found enthusiastic sellers among these small operators.

"They will buy any kind of coal from us and pay a good price. There's not
much hassle," said Thamrin Rizal, a former housing developer who
discovered he could earn more by putting his excavators to work mining
coal for the Chinese. Rizal added he only regrets that he can supply no
more than third of what they ask.

Mine operators explained that Chinese business is especially attractive
because the traders offer cash up front. Briefcases crammed with tens of
thousands of dollars in Indonesian currency are constantly changing hands
at hotels in the provincial capital, Banjarmasin, according to Imam
Santoso, a mine manager in Sungai Danau.

At the Hotel Banjarmasin International, where staff report that two thirds
of the guests in their 89-room establishment come from China, the air is
thick with talk of coal.

On a recent afternoon, four Indonesian men and a woman discussed a coal
deal with a Chinese suitor in the hotel's lobby. "With the facilities you
have, how much can you provide?" the Chinese visitor asked.

"I can find anything you want," responded one of the Indonesians. He
produced two pieces of coal from his pocket and passed them around the
table.

The Chinese businessman said that his company was prepared to invest in a
joint venture, financing equipment to crush coal before shipping it. "In
China, our market is growing and we need the raw materials," he said. "I
think it's a very good chance for you."

While Indonesia's corruption and unpredictable legal system have
intimidated potential investors from the United States, Europe and
Australia, the Chinese feel at home, Indonesian officials said. "They fit
in the chaos of Indonesian regulations," said a senior official in the
energy and mineral resources ministry. "It's a perfect match."
-- Special correspondent Yayu Yuniar contributed to this report.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Washington Post
For Survivors of E. Timor Massacres, Justice Still Elusive
By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, September 16, 2005; Page A22

On the day he disappeared, Jacinto da Costa Canisio Pereira, a local
resistance leader in Liquica, East Timor, stood in a priest's bedroom and
prayed, his brother recalled.

"I wanted to stay, to die with my brother," said Graciano Pires dos
Santos. His knuckles, head and legs bear scars from machete, hammer and
bullet wounds inflicted by Indonesian soldiers and the Timorese militiamen
they sponsored, who stormed Sao Joao de Brito Church in April 1999. But as
gunshots rang out and tear gas stung their eyes, Pereira urged him to
leave, he recounted.

Pereira was among about 1,500 people killed in East Timor in a series of
massacres in 1999 at the time of its referendum for independence from
Indonesia.

Time has not dimmed the survivors' memories or fervor. In interviews last
month in villages across this small island nation, the victims' families
said they want to know the truth. Who murdered their relatives, who gave
the orders, where are the bodies? But the truth, they said, is not
sufficient. The survivors, who in some cases live near the people who
burned their houses or carted away the bodies, hunger for justice: they
want the killers charged and tried in an impartial court of law.

The families' insistence on prosecutions puts them at direct odds with
their government, whose leaders, veterans of the 24-year struggle for
independence from Indonesia, now want friendship with the former occupier.

The two countries have created a Commission on Truth and Friendship,
modeled after South Africa's post- apartheid panel. Its aim is to
establish the "conclusive truth" about the crimes up to and after the
August 1999 vote; its work will not lead to prosecutions.

The 10-member panel, formed last month with a one-year term, has the power
to recommend amnesty for people who fully explain their crimes, apologize
and show remorse.

It contains no provision for criminal proceedings or compensation. The
lack of prosecution, critics warn, is a recipe for impunity.

"What's more important for us?" said Jose Ramos-Horta, East Timor's
foreign minister, who proposed the commission to the Jakarta government.
"That democracy slowly is consolidated in Indonesia? Or the blind pursuit
of justice at the expense of stability in Indonesia?"

Ramos-Horta, a 1996 Nobel Peace laureate who spent 24 years in exile, and
President Xanana Gusmao, a charismatic former freedom fighter who spent
more than six years in a Jakarta prison, oppose survivors' calls for an
international war crimes tribunal. The Timor government has also rejected
a recommendation by a United Nations advisory panel that the Indonesian
government reconvene its widely criticized East Timor war crimes trials.
The trials concluded last year with only one of 18 defendants convicted.
New trials, Ramos-Horta asserted, would prompt a backlash within
Indonesia's powerful military and destabilize East Timor's fledgling
democracy.

"Truth is already a major aspect of justice," he said, leaning back in a
swivel chair in his office in the government palace overlooking the Indian
Ocean.

"They're playing word games," said an indignant Rafael dos Santos, the
Liquica parish priest in 1999 and now a Catholic school principal in Dili,
the capital. "A crime is a crime. Justice is justice."

The day before the April 6, 1999, massacre, waves of anti-independence
militiamen advanced over the hills into Liquica, a town of about 55,000.
Hundreds of men, women and children flocked to the church compound on a
hillside sloping to the sea, believing they would be safe there.

The Indonesian-trained militiamen were burning homes and kidnapping
resistance leaders, said the priest and other survivors, whose
recollections, along with an indictment from a UN-funded prosecution team,
form the basis for the following account:

Shortly before 1pm on April 6, a militia leader approached the compound
and asked that Pereira, who was a village chief, and other resistance
members surrender. They refused.

At 1pm, a shot rang out. Hundreds of militiamen, soldiers and police
officers surrounded the compound. Police fired tear gas. Bullets flew.

"People started running every which way," said Helio Domingos da Costa,
Pereira's oldest son, now 22. "The militia started to attack, swinging
machetes ... I was running wildly when suddenly a militiaman came up."

He made a swooping motion with his right arm. "I moved. He missed. Then he
yelled: `Now go inside and die with your father!' "

Pereira and several other resistance members were hiding in the priest's
bedroom and adjoining bathroom. Several teenagers hid in the crawl space
between the ceiling and the zinc roof. Troops climbed on the roof and
fired down.

Dos Santos, the priest, was escorted to the district military command by a
nephew, who was an Indonesian soldier. As the priest was leaving,
Pereira's brother recalled: "I saw many people inside the house try to
grab Father Rafael's robes, touching them and shouting: `We are dying! We
are dying!' "

Pereira's wife could hear the gunfire from a brother-in-law's house, where
she had fled with her three youngest children. The militiamen burned her
house. That afternoon, an Indonesian soldier's wife told her that the men
who had hidden in the priest's home had been killed. "I felt like I wanted
to cry," she said, "but no tears came."

About 5pm, the priest returned to the church. He found no bodies, but
blood was on the bathroom and bedroom floor, along with part of a brain.

A few days later, the military had mopped up the blood, repaired the roof
and patched the bullet-pocked plaster in an apparent attempt to cover up
the massacre, said the priest, who showed a reporter a scarred memento: a
white robe bearing singed holes from bullets that penetrated his closet.

Authorities initially said five people were killed. Liquica police later
told the priest that 113 had been killed. The UN indictment stated that
more than 50 civilians had been murdered.

So far, only one person has been tried and convicted in connection with
the massacre. Pereira's murder case is still open; no one has been
indicted, according to UN records.

Three times in the last six years, Anita dos Santos, Pereira's widow, and
her neighbors have searched for their relatives' bodies. Using shovels and
buckets, they have dug in Liquica, in a neighboring town and in a village
by the sea.

"People would come to say: `This is the site. Dig here,"' she said. "So we
tried. Many times, we tried. We found nothing."

She nodded toward a family graveyard 120 meters away, nestled amid coconut
and tamarind trees. She dreams of being able to bury her husband's remains
there, in a row of stone tombs.

Lower-level militia members who burned and looted homes now live in
Liquica, said Eliza da Silva dos Santos, the widow of a resistance member
who "disappeared" with Pereira.

"Sometimes I see them on the street, driving a car, working in a
government office," she said bitterly. "When I see them, it pains me."

She must repress an urge, she said, to attack them.

The survivors' frustration is deepened by a sense of betrayal by their own
government and the UN.

For years, Eliza dos Santos and Anita dos Santos helped the underground
resistance, passing supplies to rebels. They, like their husbands, revered
Gusmao, the prisoner turned president.

Now, they charge, he and Ramos- Horta, the foreign minister, have
forgotten "the little people."

The women also criticize the UN for closing its special prosecution unit
in May, leaving pending more than 600 cases linked to the 1999 crimes.