DOWNSIDE LEGACY AT TWO DEGREES OF PRESIDENT CLINTON
SECTION: ASIA
SUBSECTION: INDONESIA
Revised 8/16/99
INDONESIA
Indonesia/Riady - Sweet Coal
Indonesian military training under JCET while IMET banned.
AP Irwan Firdaus "Steps to revive Indonesia's plummeting economy have failed to stem the country's worst crisis in 30 years, President B.J. Habibie told a congress of the ruling Golkar party yesterday. He said the yearlong financial slump that has put millions out of work shows no sign of abating..Many fear more social unrest as the crisis deepens."
Reform Party News 7/7/98 "Newly declassified documents from the hidden files of former Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown show that Brown was directly involved in U.S. arms exports to Asia. The documents were recently obtained from the Department of Commerce using the Freedom of Information Act. The new documents from Brown's files, labeled simply "DEFENSE TRADE ADVOCACY INDONESIA", provide a detailed picture of U.S. weapons sales to the far east during the 1994 APEC conference in Jakarta, Indonesia.."
Washington Times 8/17-23/98 Editorial "At the rate the Democratic National Committee (DNC) is refunding illegal donations that arrived from Indonesia during the 1996 presidential campaign, the International Monetary Fund will soon have to include the DNC among the organizations involved in the international economic bailout of Indonesia. The DNC seems to have more refunds to make. Two weeks ago, investigators for the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee revealed that another $200,000, which originated in Indonesia in the form of travelers checks issued by a bank formerly controlled by the Riady family, made its way stateside in 1996, where much of the money was laundered into illegal contributions to the DNC or used as payments and "gifts" to party contributors and fund-raisers..It should be noted that the matter involving the $25,000 laundered through Mr. Ho came to light only because a committee investigator, not the Justice Department's task force, initiated contact with Mr. Ho last month, though the Justice Department knew of the travelers checks for several months.."
Washington Times Adam Entous 8/20/98 Reuters "Corrupt Indonesian officials may have pocketed or diverted more than 20 percent of World Bank development funds to the world's fourth most populous country, according to an internal World Bank document from 1997. The World Bank, which is investigating separate reports of corruption among its own staff, confirmed the contents of the year-old Indonesian memorandum yesterday
WorldNetDaily, Softwar 7/14/98 July 14, 1998 Charles Smith, Softwar "… The November, 1994 Commerce Department advocacy document shows the Indonesian Paiton project encountered difficulties with financing because the Asian Development Bank (ADB) knew it also contained a Suharto family kick-back. Suharto's son-in-law, according to the U.S. government advocacy document, was known to be a share holder in P.T. Batu. "Ambassador Barry stated that the project is facing two problems," noted Commerce officials on the Paiton project status document dated, November 1, 1994. "(i) the ADB financing may cave in and (ii) EXIM financing. Regarding ADB, technical questions have been satisfied, but ADB is skiddish about involvement of Indonesia's first family (a minority shareholder is married to Pres. Suharto's daughter)."…. Commerce documents show that Lippo business partner Mission Energy (now named Edison Mission Energy) received strong Clinton administration support for the Paiton project. One 1994 document, obtained by Larry Klayman of Judicial Watch, noted the Indonesian government-backed project had "state-of-the-art emissions-control technology... by using low-sulfur Indonesian coal, the project will be one of the cleanest, most efficient coal-fired facilities in the world." Please note the Paiton power plant was designed to burn "low-sulfur Indonesian coal". In 1996 President Clinton created the 1.7 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, placing off-limits the world's largest deposit of low-sulfur coal. The Lippo group is the primary owner of the only other supply of low-sulfur coal in the world, located in Indonesia. Clinton's move left the only remaining low-sulfur coal supply in Lippo hands, creating a Riady monopoly. The move vastly increased the dollar value of Riady's low-sulfur coal reserves in a single stroke of Clinton's pen. The Indonesian coal reserves, co-incidentally, just happen to be located close to the U.S. taxpayer backed Paiton power plant. The questionable parts of the Paiton project are not only centered around coal from Riady. For example, Senator Tom Harkin has a close connection. It just happens that Ruth Harkin, Sen. Harkin's wife, was also 1994 head of the U.S. Government's Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), a major Paiton financial backer. Ms. Harkin approved the OPIC financing for Paiton in 1994. Harkin, a former partner in the law firm Akin, Gump, Strauss, Hauer & Feld, is a close Clinton friend. Harkin's partnership in the powerful D.C. based law firm also included other Clinton friends Robert Strauss and Vernon Jordan…."
Fox Newswire 3/5/99 Reuters Freeper marshmallow "…Thousands of Muslims rallied in Jakarta Friday to condemn communal bloodshed in Ambon that has killed more than 200, with hundreds signing up to rush to the island to join a holy war against Christians…"
Foxnews 3/27/99 Freeper vitolins "…Fresh ethnic violence on the island of Borneo has left around 15 people dead and 180 houses torched, the Media Indonesia newspaper said Saturday…."
International Herald Tribune 4/29/99 José Ramos-Horta "...There has been a flurry of high-minded rhetoric from NATO leaders. British Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote in the April 19 international edition of Newsweek: ''We need to enter a new millennium where dictators know that they cannot get away with ethnic cleansing or repress their peoples with impunity. In this conflict we are fighting ... for a new internationalism where the brutal repression of whole ethnic groups will no longer be tolerated.'' Mr. Blair was referring to Kosovo and Serbia, not to East Timor and Indonesia. Yet in East Timor, paramilitary groups organized and armed by the Indonesian military have killed scores of defenseless civilians in recent weeks. It is no surprise that Mr. Blair does not direct such lofty proclamations at East Timor. His Labour government has granted more weapons export licenses to the Indonesian military than the previous Conservative government. The NATO allies demand complete Serbian troop withdrawal from Kosovo and an international military presence. Britain refuses to demand an Indonesian troop withdrawal from East Timor (for which Portugal remains the administering authority under international law) despite the fact that the territory is illegally occupied. Indonesia invaded it in 1975 and annexed it in 1976, an act never recognized by the United Nations.NATO's leaders threaten senior Serbian officials with a war crimes tribunal. For East Timor, where massacres and ethnic cleansing have been going on for 23 years, there are no suggestions of such a tribunal for Indonesia's military leaders, many of whom have received training in NATO countries. Indonesia receives mild rebukes and gets hundreds of millions of dollars in weaponry and billions of dollars in loans and grants...."
STRATFOR's Global Intelligence Update 5/10/99 Freeper Brian Mosely"...Indonesia's coming presidential elections have created enormous social and political tension domestically, and they have significant strategic implications. With U.S.-Chinese relations at their lowest point in years, the possibility of confrontation over Indonesia is substantial. Indonesia is vital strategically, sitting astride the trade routes between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Everything from Japanese oil supplies, to Singapore's banking system and U.S. power projection in the Persian Gulf, are at risk in an Indonesian crisis. The crisis is also an opportunity for China to do what Russia did in Yugoslavia: make it clear to the United States and the region that China cannot be excluded from the regional dynamic and that the U.S. does not have the ability, without Chinese cooperation, to act in Asia. Everything is in place for a crisis that could dwarf Kosovo in global significance...."
BBC News 6/7/99 "....The people of Indonesia have begun voting in a general election which will lead to the creation of the world's third-largest democracy. President BJ Habibie has called for a large turn-out in the vote - the first free general election for more than 40 years. But there is still concern over possible violence in areas of the country where ethnic, religious and separatist conflicts have claimed hundreds of lives already this year. Matt Frei reports on the election scene from Jakarta Ahead of the vote, President Habibie said that the elections marked the awakening of democracy in Indonesia and that a democratic culture could only be built by a nation capable of restraint. He said Indonesia should be a model of how a big nation could free itself from the "trap of authoritarianism". ...."
www.stratfor.com 5/10/99 "....Indonesia's coming presidential elections have created enormous social and political tension domestically, and they have significant strategic implications. With U.S.-Chinese relations at their lowest point in years, the possibility of confrontation over Indonesia is substantial. Indonesia is vital strategically, sitting astride the trade routes between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Everything from Japanese oil supplies, to Singapore's banking system and U.S. power projection in the Persian Gulf, are at risk in an Indonesian crisis. The crisis is also an opportunity for China to do what Russia did in Yugoslavia: make it clear to the United States and the region that China cannot be excluded from the regional dynamic and that the U.S. does not have the ability, without Chinese cooperation, to act in Asia. Everything is in place for a crisis that could dwarf Kosovo in global significance...."
Associated Press 6/19/99 "….The scheduled arrival today of the first U.N. police advisers to East Timor, due to keep the peace for an Aug. 8 independence referendum, has been delayed for several days. David Wimhurst, spokesman for the U.N. Assistance Mission in East Timor (UNAMET), said he was informed late Friday that the 38 advisers would not fly in from Darwin, Australia, until early next week. The delay was believed to have been caused by pilot scheduling difficulties, he said. Overall, 278 U.N. officers are to oversee the Indonesian police contingent responsible for maintaining law and order for the referendum that will let East Timorese choose independence or autonomy within Indonesia. Fighting in East Timor between militias in favor of and opposed to independence has increased with the approach the referendum…."
SCMP 6/30/99 "...Militia mob stones UN poll post AGENCIES in Dili and Jakarta A mob of about 100 pro-Indonesian militia stoned a United Nations post in East Timor yesterday, injuring several people including a district electoral officer. It was the first violence against international officials supervising the planned August referendum on the troubled territory's future. The UN Assistance Mission in East Timor (Unamet) said in a statement: "One Unamet staff member, a woman district electoral officer of South African nationality, suffered a minor injury to her leg and several East Timorese suffered head and other injuries."..."
Fox newswire 7/31/99 "...The United States is considering sending Marines to serve as U.N. peacekeepers in East Timor, an Australian newspaper said Sunday. The Sunday Age newspaper quoted U.S. defense strategists as saying Washington had considered the commitment of Marines to a U.N. peacekeeping force to be deployed before or after East Timor votes on whether to break from Indonesia on August 30...."
WorldNet Daily 8/3/99 Charles Smith "... Indonesians are struggling to pay American power producers for electricity that is not needed, and which they cannot afford. According to newly released documents from the U.S. Commerce Department, 26 U.S.-sponsored electric power projects are on the block because the Indonesian state power company, PLN, is bankrupt. The crown jewel of electricity projects in Indonesia is the huge Mission Energy/GE PAITON coal-fired electric plant in East Java. In 1994, Mission Energy, part of the California Edison power consortium, put great faith in the Clinton administration and Ron Brown to reach Indonesian dictator Suharto. Mission CEO John Bryson even wrote Brown, thanking him for the overwhelming efforts from 1994 through 1995 to get the Indonesians to buy their Paiton bid. Paiton was billed as the first "private" electric plant in Indonesia. However, "private" ownership in Indonesia means owned and operated by the Suharto "First Family." The Indonesian company that owns, operates and fuels the Paiton plant under a 30 year, no cut contract is PT Batu Hitam Perkasa, owned by Suharto's daughter, Titek Prabowo and her brother-in-law, Hashim Djojohadikusumo. According to the Commerce Department, ".75%" of the Paiton project was reserved for Suharto's daughter Prabowo. Prabowo's cut amounted to an instant $15 million. Her kickback, along with a cut for "brother-in-law" Hashim and various other Suharto relatives was provided up front, in cash, in the form of a $50 million loan. The $50 million loan was to be paid back by the profits (dividends) returned from the $2.6 billion Paiton project. Since there are no profits, there is no pay back. According to the 1994 Commerce Department documents, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) was "skittish" about providing a $50 million bribe to the Suharto family from the U.S. taxpayers. The reluctance to participate in an illegal pay-off, led GE and Mission Energy to seek Clinton help. .....Obviously asking questions would not be good for any project with a built-in $50 million kickback for the local dictator. In 1999, the entire $2.6 billion dollar project is on the brink of failure. The corrupt deals with the former dictator of Indonesia are collapsing faster than the Indonesian economy. The good citizens of Indonesia have learned of the "First Family" take-over of their national resources and they do not approve...."
House of Representatives 4/15/97 Rep Cunningham "...In 1992, Candidate Clinton described as unconscionable Indonesia's treatment of the East Timorese, 200,000 of whom had perished since Indonesia had annexed East Timor 20 years ago. The administration even supported the United Nations resolution criticizing Indonesia's East Timor policy. Around the same time, Mark Grobymer, an Arkansas lawyer who golfs with Mr. Clinton, joined Mr. Huang and Mr. Riady on a trip to East Timor. In April the three men visited Mr. Clinton, and, guess what? The President reversed his position. Human rights activists claimed the administration's concern for Timor would be looked into. John Huang helped raise $425,000 from an Indonesian couple whose primary bread earner was as a landscaper. When it was looked into, and that checks were made concurrently by the same source and it was brought up to the press, the DNC returned the money...."
House of Representatives 4/15/97 Rep Cunningham "...Mr. Huang's message slips from the Commerce Department also showed calls from one Chinese Embassy official in February 1995 and three calls from the Embassy's commercial minister in June and August of that year. Mr. Huang's desk calendar entries had three meetings scheduled with Chinese Government officials. He attended policy breakfasts at the Chinese Embassy in October 1995 and visited the Indonesian Embassy on October 11, 1995. In March, President Clinton, after this meeting in Indonesia by Mr. Huang, in March 1996, President Clinton reversed a key administrative policy on immigration following a $1.1 million Asian fund-raising dinner, the most successful Asian-American political fund-raiser in United States history. Held the previous month and organized by, who else? John Huang, a former employee of Lippo...."
House of Representatives 4/15/97 Rep Cunningham "...President Clinton had previously opposed the practice of allowing foreign-born siblings of naturalized U.S. citizens to come to the United States, based on recommendations of a commission he appointed himself, and affirmed his desire to halt immigration in an early 1996 letter to the Speaker of the House. But in March 1996, President Clinton made a last-minute about-face, after the Indonesian meeting with Mr. Huang and after the fund-raising of $1.1 million, and reversed his position and put top priority recommendations made in a strongly worded John Huang memorandum to Bill Clinton. And then, and now former, Senator Alan Simpson said: I never in 18 years in Congress, and I quote, saw an issue that shifted so fast and so hard...."
FoxNews 8/8/99 AP "...A local journalist investigating corruption was found dead in Aceh, one of Indonesia's troubled provinces, a newspaper reported Sunday. The body of Supriadi, 34, a reporter for Medan Pos, a daily newspaper in neighboring North Sumatra province, was discovered Thursday in an irrigation project in North Aceh, Jakarta's Kompas newspaper reported....."
The Guardian (UK) 4/12/99 Derek Brown "..."The youngest son of former Indonesian President Suharto was in court today (above), smiling and waving to supporters as he faced multi-million pound corruption charges. In East Timor, meanwhile, bloodthirsty pro-government militiamen paraded through the capital calling for all-out war against secessionist guerrillas. The two events, small in themselves, are ominous storm-signals. Indonesia, raddled by graft and shaken by ugly violence, is in grave danger of falling apart. ..."
The Guardian (UK) 4/28/99 John Aglionby "...While the West blusters self-righteously in the Balkans, the situation in East Timor is being allowed to deteriorate. Today foreign office minister Derek Fatchett visits East Timor, the former Portuguese colony the Indonesian government invaded in 1975. He's part of a diplomatic flurry. Yesterday the Australian PM, John Howard, saw Indonesian president BJ Habibie; last week it was the foreign minister of Portugal, the colonial power until the annexation -- which has never been recognised by the United Nations...."
Stratfor 5/10/99 "...Indonesia's coming presidential elections have created enormous social and political tension domestically, and they have significant strategic implications. With US-Chinese relations at their lowest point in years, the possibility of confrontation over Indonesia is substantial. Indonesia is vital strategically, sitting astride the trade routes between the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Everything from Japanese oil supplies, to Singapore's banking system and US power projection in the Persian Gulf, are at risk in an Indonesian crisis. The crisis is also an opportunity for China to do what Russia did in Yugoslavia: make it clear to the United States and the region that China cannot be excluded from the regional dynamic and that the US does not have the ability, without Chinese cooperation, to act in Asia. Everything is in place for a crisis that could dwarf Kosovo in global significance...."
The Guardian (UK) 6/1/99 John Pilger "...The indictment of Milosevic is good news. The crimes he and his gang have committed make him a first class war criminal. However, try as he may, he has yet to approach the record set by the Indonesian dictator Suharto. According to a study commissioned by the Australian Parliament, "at least" 200,000 East Timorese have died as a direct result of the Indonesian invasion and occupation. That is a third of the population or, proportionally, more people than were killed by Pol Pot in Cambodia. When I travelled through the Matabean mountains of East Timor, beneath endless silhouettes of black crosses etched against the sky, I failed to meet a single family that grieved for fewer than five immediate members. Now the slaughter that began with the invasion 23 years ago has returned. In the tumultuous aftermath of Suharto's forced resignation last year, the new regime headed by his stooge, BJ Habibie, offered the East Timorese a vote on autonomy within Indonesia or independence. What Habibie failed to spell out was that real power remained with the army that Suharto built as a force for colonial expansion and domestic oppression and which has devoted itself to destroying the prospect of a free vote set by the UN for August 8.
While the army chief, General Wiranto, gives bogus public support to the "peace process", there is abundant evidence that his officers train, arm and pay death squads to murder and intimidate anyone associated with the independence movement. "Just as it seemed the next generation might not be born in tears," wrote a friend from the capital, Dili, "hope is being snatched away from us." And the Blair government, those noted fighters for "humanitarian values" and against "repressive governments" are up to their necks in it. Britain is the biggest supplier of weapons to the Indonesian military. Everything from surface to air missiles, to anti-riot vehicles and cluster bombs, comes from Britain...."
Washington Post 8/13/99 Keith Richburg "...Just as Indonesia's battered economy was beginning to show signs of recovery, its currency has taken a surprising plunge, reviving the specter of last year's currency collapse and illustrating how political uncertainty continues to control the direction of the financial markets. A corruption scandal at the heart of the country's banking system and fresh violence in the outlying provinces combined today to drive the value of the currency, the rupiah, down ..."
Pacific Stars And Stripes 8/15/99 Jan Wesner Childs "...Nearly 1,500 U.S. Marines and sailors are in Indonesia this week to wrap up CARAT 99, an annual training exercise with several Southeast Asian countries. U.S. government and military officials said the training was not in response to the religious and political violence that has wracked parts of Indonesia for the past year, nor to an upcoming independence vote on the Indonesian island of East Timor. The vote is expected to prompt violence and rioting, and some news reports have speculated the U.S. military could form a peacekeeping force in East Timor...."