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INFID News Office closed The INFID European Liaison Office
will be closed from September 19, 2002 to October 11, 2002. The Office will
resume its daily activities again in October 15, 2002. INFID Newsletter The second edition of the
bimonthly INFID newsletter is now available in the INFID Secretariat in
Jakarta and the INFID European Liaison Office in Brussels. If you have not
received this bilingual English-Indonesian newsletter and or want to receive
it, please contact one of the two INFID offices above. At this moment, the
newsletter is only available in printed version. Former INFID chairperson elected
Komnas HAM Chief Noted lawyer and former INFID
chairperson Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara was elected chairperson of the
National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) on Sept. 12. Hakim beat
closest contenders Solahuddin Wahid, a deputy chairperson of Nahdlatul Ulama,
Achmad Ali, senior lecturer from Hasanuddin University and the former chief
of the commission, Djoko Sugianto, in a vote by the commission’s 23 new
members. Solahuddin, a younger brother of former president Abdurrahman Wahid,
and Zoemrotin K. Susilo, an executive of the Indonesian Consumers Foundation
(YLKI) and chairperson of INFID, were elected the deputy chairpersons. Sources: JP 13/09 and own source INFID Related Issues Foreign Direct Investment Indonesia was among the countries
with the least success in attracting foreign investors, according to a United
Nations study released on Sept. 17. The UN Conference on Trade and
Development (UNCTAD) in its 2002 World Investment Report produced a new
ranking that compared a country’s share of global foreign investment with its
share of global gross domestic product for the period 1998-2000. Indonesia
ranked 138th out of 140 countries. Economists regard foreign direct
investment as an important factor in boosting a country’s economic growth. Source: AP 17/09 General News Congressional Coordinating Group
on Indonesia Six members of the US Congress
launched a new forum on Indonesia on Sept. 12. The Congressional Coordinating
Group on Indonesia (CCGI) is expected to facilitate communication between the
Indonesian Embassy and Congress, the Indonesian Embassy in Washington said. The
forum is open to all congress members. The initial six members are
Representative Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), Rep. Joseph Pitts ((R-Pensylvania),
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon), Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Washington), Delegate
Eni F. Falemavaega (D-American Samoa), and Del. Robert A. Underwood (D-Guam). A similar initiative took place in
Europe when Working Group on Indonesia of the European Parliament was
launched on July 9, 2002. The Working Group is co-chaired by Mr. Nirj Deva,
MEP and Mrs. Hanja Maij-Weggen. Sources: JP 13/09 and own source New Broadcasting Bill Private television channels said
some new regulations in the broadcasting bill could reinstate the monopoly
exercised by state television TVRI in providing nationwide broadcasting. Under
the bill, only public television stations are allowed to carry out nationwide
broadcasting. All private televisions, therefore, will have to build
broadcasting offices, not just transmitters, in the regions to enable them to
extend their coverage. The Union of Indonesian Television Journalists (IJTI)
had also expressed its objection to the clause. The increasing protests from the
public, including broadcasting unions, have prompted legislators and Minister
of Communication and Information Syamsul Mu'arif to consider a delay in the
endorsement of the broadcasting bill. Previously, the bill was scheduled for
endorsement on Sept. 23, but the special committee will most likely delay it.
Djoko Susilo, a member of the committee deliberating the bill, suggested that
the government refrain from interfering in the news production of radio and
television. The legislator was responding to the dominant role of the
government in the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI), a supervisory
body to be set up later. Based on the broadcasting bill, the KPI will be
granted authority to determine broadcasting manuals, the standard of a
program's quality, and to process all violations of the regulations. Source: JP 12/09 Regional News Aceh The two foreign women arrested in
Aceh may be brought to court or deported, the police said. Aceh Police Chief
Jusuf Manggabarani said that the two women had conducted activities not
allowed under their visas. Scottish academic Lesley
McCulloch, who was detained on Sept. 10 together with her travelling
companion American nurse Joy Lee Sadler, said on Sept. 17 that she had been
"beaten, deprived of sleep an threatened with a knife" during her
captivity. She also admitted she was travelling on a tourist visa after
Indonesian authorities denied her a social and cultural visa to permit her to
continue her research into Aceh’s separatist conflict. Sources: TG 18/09, SMH 18/09, JP
18/09, Kyodo 17/08 Papua Jayapura-based Institute for Human
Rights Study and Advocacy (Elsham) says that the investigation into the
killing of two Americans and an Indonesian by unidentified gunmen two weeks
ago will be a cover-up of the military’s involvement. According to Elsham’s
John Rumbiak, the incident was engineered to justify the role of the
military, to suggest that without their presence the operation of a
multinational mining giant would not work. Two witnesses alleged they saw
armed men in military-style uniforms at the time of the August 31 ambush,
Rumbiak said. The police earlier said they had
discovered more than 100 cartridge cases from ammunition usually used by the
military at the scene. The army has blamed followers of Kelly Kwalik, a local
leader of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) separatists, for the attack. To
support their claim that separatists were behind the killings, military
commanders have said that soldiers shot dead a suspected rebel in a firefight
near the site of the ambush. But the regional police chief, I Made Pastika
said on Sept. 15 that an autopsy has determined that the suspect was too sick
to engage in guerrilla activities and was killed about 24 hours before the
soldiers said they shot him. A day later, he also confirmed that a car of his
investigators was shot at by unidentified gunmen at the same place where the
three teachers working for Freeport were shot a fortnight earlier. Sources: BWM 13/09, AFP 13/09, SMH
17/09, WP 15/09 Abbreviations AFP Agence France-Presse Stichting TitanE |
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