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INFID News INFID Conference Reminder: INFID XIII Conference
will be held in Yogyakarta, September 29 – October 02, 2002. Information and
registration are available at http://www.infid.be/conference/. INFID Annual Lobby 2002 The INFID delegation for the
annual lobby will be leaving Europe for Japan. The lobby team is scheduled to
arrive in Tokyo on July 14 and will be staying for the whole week there. SNO Questionnaire The deadline of the SNO
Questionnaire has been moved to the second week of August. The deadline of
the other questionnaire, on mapping advocacy activities of European NGOs,
remains as scheduled unless there is a further notice. Postponement, if any,
on this advocacy questionnaire, will not be announced in the SNO. Organisations
involved will be alerted directly instead. INFID Related Issues Debt The Asian Development Bank (ADB)
said it has approved the disbursement of a US$350 million to Indonesia, the
final tranche of the 1.4 billion financial governance reforms program. The
first tranche of 550 million was disbursed in June 1998 and the second
tranche of 500 million was released in January 1999. The approval for
disbursement follows President Megawati Sukarnoputri’s signing of the new
anti-money laundering law in April this year, the bank said. Under the new
law, financial service firms will have to inform the yet-to-be-established
financial transactions reporting and analysis centre about all cash
transactions worth Rp500 million or more, while individuals must report any
cases in which they bring in or take out of the country cash worth Rp100
million or more. Meanwhile, the Japanese government
has promised to provide Indonesia with grants worth US$1.74 billion for flood
control, clean water provision and technical education projects. The projects
include the prevention of sedimentation in the Multifunction Dam in Wonogiri,
Central Java; clean water provision in the villages across Sulawesi island
and development of the Polytechnic of Electronics of the Surabaya Technology
Institute (ITS). In Sumatra, about 3,000 people from 13 villages on the
island are planning to file a lawsuit with the Tokyo District Court to seek
compensation from the Japanese government and its affiliates for damage
caused by a Tokyou-funded hydropower dam. The dam, located on the border
between Riau and West Sumatra provinces, was completed in 1997 and caused the
plaintiffs and 20,000 other villagers to be forcibly resettled. Sources: AA 04/07, APA 08/07, DJ
08/07 General News General Election 2004 President Megawati Sukarnoputri
said a direct presidential election in 2004 might provoke violence and
proposed to delay it until after the general election in 2009. Vice President
Hamzah Haz and other leaders of smaller Muslim parties have also brushed
aside the idea in favour of backroom dealings in the legislature. Supporters
of the direct election idea said the move against such an exercise is not due
to fear of violence but the inability of leaders to campaign. In a direct
election politicians would be forced to concentrate on courting the public
instead of lobbying other parliamentarians. Many politicians know that they
have been losing their popular appeal because of political deals such as the
decision to scrap parliamentary investigation into graft allegations against
Golkar chief Akbar Tandjung. A direct presidential election would also
deprive the political parties’ elites of the final say over who should lead
the country. Sources: ST 04/07, SCMP 04/07 Jakarta’s bomb blasts On July 4 Indonesia’s army
insisted that an explosion at a Jakarta shopping mall near the Army’s Special
Force (Kopassus) headquarters was caused by a home-made bomb although police
have dismissed it as a firecracker. Military intelligence officers said they
had found traces of explosives and batteries at the scene. On July 6 with the
help from Kopassus intelligence police arrested five suspects who allegedly
planted the bombs in basement of the Kopassus-owned four-storey shopping
complex. On July 8 Indonesian military officially connected the suspects with
the Free Aceh Movement. Syahrul, one of the five suspects, denies any link to
GAM. Sources: Reuters 04/07, JP 09/07 Regional News Aceh On July 4 Indonesia’s government
branded the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) a terrorist group for the first time,
hinted that continuing peace talks with the rebels would be difficult. Co-ordinating
Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also
said that the government was considering to implement a state of civil
emergency in Aceh. "We have to explain to the world that enough is
enough," he said. Asking about the possibility to negotiate, he said,
"Would the US and the West talk to terrorists?". The military is
preparing a major assault on GAM with President Megawati sukarnoputri’s
blessing and nationalist politicians’ support. GAM in a press statement said that
"Susilo’s statement branding GAM as a terrorist organisation is just a
desperate effort to change public opinion". Legislators and human rights
activists lashed out the government for branding the Aceh freedom fighters
terrorists. Right activist Munir said the label would only be used to justify
a repressive military operation. Legislator T. Syaiful Hamid said the word
terrorist to describe GAM was out of the proportion while fellow legislator
Ahmad Farhan Hamid worried the use of a "foreign phrase" could
invite outside elements to meddle in the conflict, including the US. Munir
also wanted to ask if the statement were meant to seek support for the
military from the US. On July 9 CNN reported that Osama
bin Laden wanted to move the base of operations for his al Qaeda network from
Afghanistan to Aceh in 2000. Sources: JP 06/07, ST 06/07,
Reuters 04/07, CNN 09/07 Links For Indonesian Military, A Return
to Aceh: http://www.infid.be/returntoaceh.html Why TNI reluctant to vote: http://www.infid.be/tnivote.html Abbreviations AA
AFX Asia Stichting TitanE |