Forwarded to:     rrojas@rrojasdatabank.org
Date forwarded:   Wed, 17 Jun 1998 10:51:04 +0000
Date sent:        Mon, 25 May 1998 23:23:43 -0500
Send reply to:    Forum on Labor in the Global Economy LABOR-L@YORKU.CA
From:             Kim Scipes sscipe1@ICARUS.CC.UIC.EDU
Subject:          FWD: Indonesia briefing (1/3)
To:               LABOR-L@YORKU.CA

May 25, 1998

Folks--

This message and the following one just came from my veterans network,
and I thought would be of interest to all receiving this.  The third
article came from another source, and is a "reprint" of an expose of US
complicity in the original Suharto massacres in 1965.  We've got to keep
pressure on!
Kim

Redistributed for educational, noncommercial use only.

INDONESIA'S `DISAPPEARED'
______________________________________________

     THE NATION
     June 8, 1998
     http://www.thenation.com/issue/0608/0608NAIR.HTM
     By Allan Nairn

     On May 20, as rumors flew that General Suharto was about to
     step down and protesters showed no sign of accepting his
     promises of "transition," tanks rolled through the capital
     and top military men flaunted their power. This week Allan
     Nairn begins a report on a new aspect of complicity between
     the U.S. government and the dictator's armed forces.
     -- The Editors

                              * * *

This spring, just before Jakarta erupted in riots, more than
a dozen activists from Indonesia's pro-democracy movement
suddenly "disappeared" from the streets of the capital and
outlying towns. At the time, amid a public outcry, the Indonesian
Armed Forces (ABRI) denied any knowledge of the apparent
abductions, as did the U.S. government, which joined calls for an
investigation.

Now, new information from U.S. and Indonesian officials and
from "disappearance" survivors indicates that the abductions were
in fact perpetrated by the ABRI high command using U.S.-trained
units, some of which have formal links with U.S. intelligence.

The disappearance issue was -- and is -- political dynamite,
since with the dictator Suharto trembling, the military has moved
to center stage in Indonesian politics. The U.S. State Department
and others have argued that dissidents should accept a deal with
ABRI, telling them that the much-feared military is suitable to
form the core of a new government. (A New York Times news
analysis even claimed that the army "enjoys broad support among
most Indonesians").

Among the units that officials say played a role in the
disappearances are the military-dominated intelligence umbrella
group BAKIN, which engaged in surveillance of the activists; and
the military intelligence agency, BIA, which carried out
abductions and interrogation. In mid-April a close associate of
the BIA commander told me that this unit was holding one
of the "disappeared." The BIA commander, Gen. Zacky Makarim,
reports daily to General Wiranto, the Defense Minister and ABRI
chief.

Both BAKIN and BIA have longstanding ties to the C.I.A. and
the Pentagon. Gen. Benny Murdani, formerly the commander of ABRI
and, until 1993, Defense Minister, told me in a telephone
interview that in his day the relationship included regular
consultation at senior levels and "exchange of information."
Murdani said that BAKIN -- which he calls "the equivalent of the
C.I.A." -- worked with the C.I.A., while BIA dealt with the
Defense Intelligence Agency.

Both of these Indonesian intelligence units have been
implicated in atrocities, and the State Department's recent human
rights reports acknowledge BIA's use of electroshock torture.
Nevertheless, U.S. officials told me the intelligence ties remain
intact, with BAKIN enjoying a formal "liaison" relationship with
the C.I.A., and BIA coordinating day to day with Col. Charles
McFetridge at the U.S. Embassy, as well as periodically with
senior Pentagon chiefs in Washington. (Reached for comment at the
Embassy and asked about U.S. links to BAKIN and BIA, McFetridge
said, "I don't think I care to discuss that" and hung up the
phone.)

In January, when Gen. Feisal Tanjung, then the head of ABRI,
famously warned dissidents that "the armed forces will not
hesitate to cut to pieces all antigovernment groups," he
specifically added that BAKIN would be "watching them all the
time."

One week after this threat, U.S. Secretary of Defense
William Cohen arrived in Jakarta to meet with Suharto and ABRI
leaders, including the commanders of the two intelligence units
and Lieut. Gen. Prabowo Subianto, then the head of the elite
commando regiment KOPASSUS. In response to reporters' questions,
Cohen refused to call for restraint from the armed forces,
saying, "I am not going to give him [Suharto] guidance in terms
of what he should or should not do in terms of maintaining
control of his own country."

Indonesian officials say they took the Cohen visit as a
green light. Within days, the BIA chief, General Zacky, began
convening meetings of key upper-class dissidents in which --
according to one of Zacky's close associates -- he warned them
that "if they wanted to stay alive they should not make his life
difficult."

On January 29, one of those with whom Zacky had met tipped
off activist Pius Lustrilanang that within one week ABRI
intelligence would be placing him under surveillance. I was told
this by Lustrilanang. Independently, a source close to BIA
confirmed to me that the man Lustrilanang named as his informant
had indeed met with Zacky.

Six days later, on February 4, Lustrilanang was abducted by
plainclothes men who blindfolded him, threw him into a car and
took him to a torture center, where he was interrogated,
electroshocked and subjected to water torture.

As the result of a courageous protest campaign by fellow
activists, Lustrilanang and four of the other "disappeared" were
later freed. Their accounts of their experiences indicate that
the torture center -- equipped with six jail cells and
surveillance video cameras -- was the place of captivity for at
least nine dissidents: Lustrilanang, Desmond Mahesa, Haryanto
Taslam, Faisal Reza, Lucas da Costa, Rian, Sony, Djati and Andi
Arief.

In early April, BIA's role in controlling that torture
center was directly confirmed to me by one of General Zacky's key
associates. Asked about Andi Arief, he had checked with Zacky.
The word came back from the BIA commander that "He [Arief] is
with us." (On April 16 Arief, blindfolded, was taken from the
torture center and, through a two-car transfer, turned over to
the ABRI-controlled Jakarta police.)

A source close to General Prabowo says that the
disappearances were a joint operation involving several units,
including BIA, KODAM Jaya (the army's Jakarta District Command)
and the plainclothes intelligence unit (Group 4) of Prabowo's
KOPASSUS regiment. The other four, uniformed, KOPASSUS groups
have been trained by the Pentagon's Joint Combined Exchange and
Training (JCET) program. (This program was suspended in Indonesia
on May 8, after being exposed by The Nation, the East Timor
Action Network, Justice for All and Representative Lane Evans.)
Officials say that Group 4, by contrast, has received special
instruction from U.S. intelligence. (To be continued.)

     Allan Nairn, a veteran journalist and activist, was deported
     from Indonesia in March as a "threat to national security."
     Research was supported by The Nation Institute.

     Copyright (c) 1998, The Nation Company, L.P.  All rights
     reserved. Electronic redistribution for nonprofit purposes
     is permitted, provided this notice is attached in its
     entirety. Unauthorized, for-profit redistribution is
     prohibited.

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