1. Hambali -- 5 columns, 1 lines, 30<\/p>\n
U.S. grants RI access to question Hambali<\/p>\n
The United States has granted Indonesia access to interrogate
\nIndonesian-born terrorist suspect Hambali more than two weeks
\nafter his arrest in Thailand and his transfer to a U.S. custody.<\/p>\n
Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said on Wednesday
\nthat he received confirmation about the permission to question
\nHambali from U.S. ambassador to Indonesia Ralph L. Boyce.<\/p>\n
"There was confirmation from the U.S. ambassador to Indonesia
\ntoday that the Indonesian Police would be given access to
\ninterrogate Hambali," Hassan told reporters.<\/p>\n
However, he said there was not yet a clear timetable and it
\nwas not known if there would be any conditions for the Indonesian
\npolice to interrogate Hambali, who has been implicated in the
\ndeadly Bali bombings on Oct. 12, 2002, the JW Marriot Hotel
\nbombing in Jakarta last Oct. 5, and a string of church bombings
\non Christmas Eve in 2000.<\/p>\n
Hassan went on to say that it was not necessary to challenge
\nthe interrogation of Hambali in the U.S. or in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
"There is a common international interest to fight against
\nterrorism under the name of multinational cooperation," he said.<\/p>\n
With the U.S government giving Indonesian Police access to
\ninterrogate Hambali, it was the second time since the war on
\nterror began in 2001, that police investigators have been allowed
\nto question a terror suspect, with Indonesian connections, being
\nheld by the U.S.<\/p>\n
The first terrorist suspect in U.S. custody questioned by the
\nIndonesian Police was Omar al-Faruq, believed to be a top aide of
\nal-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Southeast Asia.<\/p>\n
During the interrogation, al-Faruq disclosed a link between
\nAbu Bakar Ba'asyir and Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) as well as a plan to
\nlaunch a series of bombing attacks and to assassinate President
\nMegawati when she was vice president.<\/p>\n
However, al-Faruq's interrogation by the Indonesian police was
\nreportedly conducted under strict conditions set by the U.S.
\ngovernment including "yes and no" questions only.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian Police had reportedly sent officers to the U.S.
\nfollowing Hambali's arrest.<\/p>\n
In addition to interrogation access, much of the local
\npopulation and media have also called on the government to bring
\nHambali back to Indonesia and try him in his homeland.<\/p>\n
President Megawati Soekarnoputri and U.S. President George W.
\nBush, apparently spoke on the phone about the Hambali issue and
\nthere have been varying reports about what was discussed.<\/p>\n
Hambali, born as Encep Nurjaman in Sukamanah village, Cianjur,
\nWest Java, 39 years ago, was arrested in Thailand on Aug. 11.<\/p>\n
He was reportedly carrying a phony Spanish passport under the
\nname of Daniel when he was arrested, making it difficult to
\ndetermine whether or not he still holds his Indonesian
\ncitizenship.<\/p>\n
With a possibly complicated status, the Indonesian government
\nhas been seemingly reluctant to provide protection for Hambali's
\nrights while under U.S. custody.<\/p>\n
2. Terror -- 3 columns, 1 line, 20<\/p>\n
Court to deliver Ba'asyir verdict next Tuesday<\/p>\n
The treason trial of cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir is coming to a
\nclose, with the Central Jakarta District Court setting a Sept. 2
\ndate for the judges to deliver their verdict.<\/p>\n
Ba'asyir made his last-ditch effort on Wednesday to evade the
\n15-year jail sentence demanded by prosecutors, for plotting the
\nassassination of then vice president Megawati Soekarnoputri and
\nviolating immigration law.<\/p>\n
"I am not guilty. This trial is about my struggle for the
\nimposition of sharia. It is fueled by the enemy of God: the U.S.
\ngovernment and its allies," he told the court.<\/p>\n
The trial began on April 23, but the cleric has been detained
\nsince October last year, following his arrest while hospitalized
\nin the Central Java town of Surakarta.<\/p>\n
Ba'asyir, 65, has been accused of heading the Jamaah Islamiyah
\n(JI), a shadowy organization, believed to have links with the al-
\nQaeda terror network.<\/p>\n
JI is blamed for a string of deadly bombings in recent years,
\nincluding the Bali attack last October, which killed 202 people,
\nand this month's JW Marriot hotel blast in Jakarta, in which 12
\npeople died.<\/p>\n
He is also accused of approving the bombing of churches in
\n2000, that killed in total 19 people.<\/p>\n
Ba'asyir said on Wednesday he had only engaged in a peaceful
\ncampaign for the imposition of sharia in Indonesia.<\/p>\n
His defense lawyers have repeatedly criticized the work of the
\nprosecutors, saying the dossiers and indictment against their
\nclient were unfounded and based on speculation only. They also
\nquestioned the validity of testimonies delivered by key witnesses
\nvia teleconference.<\/p>\n
Head of the Jakarta Prosecutors' Office Salman Maryadi refuted
\non Wednesday the defense lawyers' accusation, saying the
\nindictment had been based on testimonies from witnesses presented
\nduring the lengthy trial.<\/p>\n
"It is not true that the indictment is based only on
\ntestimonies from witnesses through teleconference," he told
\nreporters here.<\/p>\n
Separately, in the trial of Bali bombing suspect Ali Imron, a
\nwitness told the Denpasar District Court that the quantity of
\nexplosives used in the Oct. 12, 2002 attack was less than that
\nclaimed by another prime suspect, Amrozi.<\/p>\n
Sarjio, the witness, said two days prior to the blasts he and
\nanother suspect, Abdul Ghoni, blended 18 kilograms of aluminum
\npowder and three kilograms of sulfur.<\/p>\n
Previously Amrozi and Ali Imron said they used 600 kilograms
\nand 1,025 kilograms of explosive materials respectively.<\/p>\n
Sarjio said, that he was barely aware that the substances were
\nmeant for the assemblage of a bomb. "I thought the explosives
\nwere for producing firecrackers," he said.<\/p>\n
But, he added that he had learnt about assembling a bomb
\nduring his stay in Pakistan.<\/p>\n
He said that he had left for Bali only after receiving orders
\nfrom Imam Samudra, allegedly the field operator of the bomb
\nattacks.<\/p>\n
"I spent my first week here doing nothing. And I started
\nworking on the second week, when the first two packages arrived,"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
The trial was adjourned until Wednesday to hear the
\nprosecutors' sentence demand.<\/p>\n
3. Aceh -- 3 columns, 2 lines, 20<\/p>\n
Aceh remains volatile as
\ncouncil speaker abducted<\/p>\n
A chief concillor was abducted in Langsa, East Aceh and several
\nbodies were recovered in Peurelak in the regency on Wednesday,
\nhighlighting the situation in the province the military has
\nrecently claimed to have been gradually returning into normal.<\/p>\n
Budiman Samaun, 54, chairman of the Langsa regency legislative
\ncouncil was reportedly missing on Wednesday but witnesses said he
\nwas abducted by rebels.<\/p>\n
Quoting several witnesses, the local police said Budiman was
\nabducted by unidentified men when he was riding a motorcycle on
\nhis way from his residence in Matang Seulimeng to Seulalah
\nsubdistrict in the Langsa town on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
"He was taken away, and so was his motorcycle," said Aceh
\npolice spokesman Commissioner Sayed Husaini quoted a witness as
\nsaying in Langsa.<\/p>\n
Sayed said that the police was still chasing for the abductors
\nand investigating motives behind the abduction.<\/p>\n
Separately, the spokesman of the military operation in Aceh
\nLt. Col. Achmad Yani Basuki said that the abduction was executed
\nby four people.<\/p>\n
He explained that the four people abducted the chief
\ncouncillor demanding ransom from his family. "This abduction is
\ntypically similar with other abductions in other areas in the
\nprovince," he said, citing that GAM has abducted several people
\nto seek funds for the separatist organization.<\/p>\n
Budiman's abduction has made a longer list of councillors
\nabducted in Aceh. Many of them were shot dead while many others
\nwere released after paying ransom. The latest fatality struck
\nAmirudin, a councillor at Langsa Regency from the United
\nDevelopment party fraction and, later, he was killed.<\/p>\n
Yani said that a female corpse was found at 8 a.m in the
\nregency. The victim was known as Dahnir, 31, residence of Pasir
\nPutih village in Peureulak district. "The victim was dead after
\nshe was shot in the back of her head and necks," said Yani.<\/p>\n
The military has said the situation in Aceh was gradually
\nreturning into normal while GAM leaders have been in difficult
\npositions after three F-16 Falcon and OV-10 Broncos bombers
\ndropped bombs and fired rockets to GAM hideouts in a two-day air
\nstrikes on Monday and Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, RCTI television reporter Ersa Siregar who along
\nwith his cameraman Ferry Santoro has been taken hostage for
\nmonths was in a critical condition after suffering an exhaustion.<\/p>\n
Ishak Dawood, GAM spokesman in East Aceh confirmed that Ersa
\ncollapsed on Tuesday night due to exhaustion.<\/p>\n
Ishak said that his group was willing to release Ersa out for
\nmedical treatment, on the condition of a week-long cease fire.<\/p>\n
4. BBM -- 2 columns, 3 lines, 15<\/p>\n
Team finds corruption
\nin rice-for-poor
\nprogram<\/p>\n
An independent monitoring team revealed on Wednesday a clear
\nviolation in the implementation of the fuel subsidy compensation
\nprogram which was supposedly aimed at reducing the impact of
\nhigher fuel prices on the poor.<\/p>\n
"We are not ruling out possible violations by some of our
\nbrothers," said James Hellywarang, coordinator of the monitoring
\nteam from 35 universities across the country.<\/p>\n
He said that some residents, who did not qualify for the low-
\ncost rice, were still allowed to purchase the subsidized rice,
\nand then turned around and sold it to the poor at higher prices,
\nthus profiting from their poor neighbors.<\/p>\n
James chose not to make public the specific data on the
\nviolations that they had documented, saying that his team had yet
\nto finished their report.<\/p>\n
"But, the percentage is very, very small," he added quickly.<\/p>\n
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla
\nadmitted that many of the poor did not get the subsidized rice.<\/p>\n
"It's our fault, but we will improve soon as this year's
\nprogram is not yet complete," he said when asked to comment on
\nthe independent monitoring team's statement in a press
\nconference.<\/p>\n
Also attending the presentation were Minister of Energy and
\nMineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro, Minister of National
\nEducation Abdul Malik Fajar, State Minister of Communications and
\nInformation Minister Syamsul Mu'arif and Minister of Social
\nAffairs Bachtiar Chamsyah.<\/p>\n
This year, the government allocated Rp 4.4 billion
\n(US$517,600) for the fuel subsidy compensation scheme in the form
\nof below-market-price rice and other services. The government
\nalso has provided similar programs such as inexpensive health
\nservices, social services, primary education, higher education,
\nreligious education, transportation, water facilities, small-
\nscale enterprise help, coastal people's empowerment and
\ncontraception.<\/p>\n
Although the program was supposed to begin in January, Kalla
\nadmitted that only the rice and education programs had been
\nrunning for the 12 million or so poor people across the country.<\/p>\n
"The government only got around to disbursing the funds in
\nMay," he said, adding that the government had not yet disbursed
\nmost of the money.<\/p>\n
The government has only implemented 11 percent of the program
\ndue to financial shortages, he said without elaborating.<\/p>\n
The government introduced the fuel subsidy compensation scheme
\nin 2000 to ease the burden of the fuel subsidy phasing-out on
\nlow-income people. It has cut off the fuel subsidy in accordance
\nwith the IMF bailout program requirements, which has been in
\neffect since 1997.<\/p>\n
The government decided to do a check on the use of the funds
\nfollowing reports that some of the money had missed its target
\ngroup, the poor, in 2001 due to corruption and shoddy
\nimplementation.<\/p>\n
5. Media -- 4 columns, 1 line, 30<\/p>\n
Press reporting not impartial in Aceh: Watchdog<\/p>\n
Most national newspapers and television stations have failed to
\nuphold the basic principle of covering both sides in reporting
\nthe Aceh conflict, a media watchdog says.<\/p>\n
Head of Aceh News Watch Agus Sudibyo said on Wednesday that
\nmonitoring of reports by 13 Jakarta-based print media and all
\nJakarta-based television stations from July 28 through Aug. 12
\nindicated that their reports were biased, as they did not cover
\nboth sides of the conflict.<\/p>\n
Most of the media preferred to get information from official
\nsources rather than ordinary people in Aceh and the separatist
\nFree Aceh Movement (GAM), he said.<\/p>\n
"It is pitiful that our media is not finding alternative news
\nsources," Agus said when presenting the results of his monitoring
\nproject at a discussion here on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
He added that many reports on the Aceh conflict mixed facts
\nwith journalists' opinions.<\/p>\n
According to Agus, the monitoring was part of efforts to
\npromote and build control into the so-termed integrated operation
\nin Aceh, launched on May 19.<\/p>\n
The monitoring, funded by the Institute for the Study of Free
\nFlow of Information (ISAI), started last July and is expected to
\nend in December this year. It will publish its evaluations
\nfortnightly.<\/p>\n
The 13 print media monitored were: Tempo, Forum, Gatra, Suara
\nPembaruan, Harian Terbit, Warta Kota, Indo Pos, Rakyat Merdeka,
\nKoran Tempo, Pos Kota, Media Indonesia, Republika, and Kompas.<\/p>\n
ISAI also monitored nine television stations: Metro TV, SCTV,
\nRCTI, TV7, Indosiar, TPI, TVRI, Lativi, and Trans TV.<\/p>\n
Ivan Harris, a news editor with SCTV, acknowledged that his
\ntelevision crews had to remain physically close to the martial
\nlaw administration in order to ensure their security.<\/p>\n
"Of course we want to cover both sides, but the situation in
\nAceh has prompted us to seek protection from the Indonesian
\nMilitary (TNI)," Ivan said in the discussion.<\/p>\n
Ivan also blamed the rough terrain in Aceh and the lack of
\ntelecommunications services for the failure of his TV station to
\nrun balanced stories.<\/p>\n
However, he said that although SCTV decided to stay close to
\nTNI in Aceh, the station would continue to supervise its
\nperformance in the province.<\/p>\n
"We shall ensure that TNI does not carry out human rights
\nabuses during the military operation in Aceh," Ivan said.<\/p>\n
Bambang Sukartiono from Kompas daily and TV 7 TV station
\nconcurred with Ivan, saying that attempts to cover both sides
\nwere difficult to achieve in practice due to limited access to
\nthe separatist movement.<\/p>\n
"Enforcement of the military operation has reduced access
\nwithin Aceh," Bambang added.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, military analyst Indro Cahyono from the University
\nof Indonesia (UI) said most media institutions had degraded the
\nnews value of the Aceh conflict by burying Aceh stories on their
\ninside pages.<\/p>\n
Television reports from July 28 through Aug. 8
\n---------------------------------------------------------------
\nNews Source MetroTV SCTV RCTI TV7 TVRI
\n---------------------------------------------------------------
\nMilitary 39 12 18 15 24
\nPolice 23 - 12 3 8
\nGAM 5 - 10 1 -
\nPublic 18 2 23 6 12
\n----------------------------------------------------------------
\nSource: ISAI<\/p>\n
Print media reports from July 28 through Aug. 12
\n------------------------------------------------
\nNo. News Source Percentage
\n-------------------------------------------------
\n1. Military 33
\n2. Police 9
\n3. Government 18
\n4. House 4
\n5. GAM 5
\n6. Non-governmental organizations 4
\n7. International 2
\n8. Religious leaders 10
\n9. Public 9
\n10. Journalists 4
\n11. Others 2
\n-------------------------------------------------
\nTotal 100
\n--------------------------------------------------
\nSource: ISAI<\/p>",
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