Spreading protests undermine Indonesian military
By Max Lane
Eight weeks after the forced resignation of President Suharto, a strong campaign by human rights groups has forced the Habibie-Wiranto regime to admit that the elite commando corps, Kopassus, was behind the kidnapping and disappearance of political activists during the campaign against Suharto.
Ten Kopassus officers have been arrested. Senior military officers have hinted also that a military council is likely to be set up to investigate the Kopassus involvement and that General Prabowo, Kopassus chief under Suharto, will be summoned.
This is a massive blow to the prestige and self-confidence of the military, which until recently had denied any military involvement in the kidnappings.
Pressure started to mount when the police released Mugianto, a Student Solidarity for Indonesian Democracy (SMID) and People's Democratic Party (PRD) leader, who had been kidnapped in March but later handed over to the police.
Mugianto appeared at press conferences and protests, revealing his story of electric shock torture, beatings and interrogations.
The military hierarchy is now facing demands that it release at least 12 other kidnapped activists, mainly student leaders. There are grave fears for the safety of these activists.
The campaign around the kidnap victims is being spearheaded by two human rights groups. The Legal Aid Institute (LBH) helped established a campaign committee on the issue called KONTRAS, which has been publicising the experiences of PRD activists Mugianto, Waluyo Jati, Karim and Andi Arief.
The Indonesian Human Rights and Legal Aid Association (PBHI) has been publicising the case of Pius, from the Bandung-based student group ALDERA. Both groups have been demanding an independent investigation of the military involvement.
These campaigns have resulted in Andi Arief and Pius becoming prominent spokespersons in the media. Small rallies, delegations of parents of missing activists and press conferences by the human rights groups have become almost regular events in Jakarta.
A campaign has started against the ban on the PRD. A press conference in the LBH office on July 14 was organised by the Committee for Preparation for the Legalisation of the PRD (KEPAL-PRD), headed by lawyer and democratic activist Hendy Kuok.
On July 22, Hendy Kuok led a 50-strong KEPAL-PRD delegation to the National Human Rights Commission, two of whose members said they could not explain why PRD leaders had not been released while other political prisoners had been released.
On July 20, 200 students, workers and farmers demonstrated in Yogyakarta to demand the release of all political prisoners, a referendum for East Timor, a drop in prices of basic goods and a democratic coalition government. A speaker at the rally was SMID leader and recently surfaced kidnap victim Feisal Reza.
On July 12, thousands of members and supporters of Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-Struggle) occupied five branches of the regime's puppet PDI.
Megawati Sukarnoputri has scheduled mass rallies on the anniversary of the armed attack on her headquarters in Jakarta on July 27, 1996.
The Jakarta military commander has banned the meeting in the city, but the sultan of Yogyakarta has given permission for the Megawati forces to use the main city square for a rally.
Local protest actions have been taking place in enormous numbers and in a wide array of forms, driven by anger at local officials' corruption, attempts to get back land confiscated by figures close to the regime, and desperation due to the economic and food situation.
Attacks on village heads, ranging from burning down houses to protest actions outside government offices, have resulted in more than 1000 village heads resigning.
There has also been an increase in worker protests, both spontaneous and organised. Most strikes have been around wages and conditions, especially non-payment of back wages to sacked workers. Others have demanded the release of Dita Sari, the PRD leader and head of the Indonesian Centre for Labour Struggles (PPBI), an end to military intervention in strikes and a reduction in the prices of basic commodities.
On the outskirts of Jakarta, thousands of farmers have occupied land that had been taken away from them to be used by the big flour mill companies associated with Suharto. Thousands more have occupied golf courses in West Java and planted them with crops.
A pointer to the depth of mass desperation has been attacks of plantations, trucks carrying food or goods and marketplaces. Thousands of people raided coffee plantations in East Java July 11-14, shrimp ponds in West Java were swept clean by a raid by 2000 men, and trucks are being waylaid on the highways. Grain storage warehouses have been raided by hungry crowds.
The Indonesian Bureau of Statistics announced recently that it expects the number of people living below the official poverty line to increase from 22 million to 98 million over the next six months.