1. Hambali -- 5 columns, 1 lines, 30
1. Hambali -- 5 columns, 1 lines, 30
U.S. grants RI access to question Hambali
The United States has granted Indonesia access to interrogate
Indonesian-born terrorist suspect Hambali more than two weeks
after his arrest in Thailand and his transfer to a U.S. custody.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said on Wednesday
that he received confirmation about the permission to question
Hambali from U.S. ambassador to Indonesia Ralph L. Boyce.
"There was confirmation from the U.S. ambassador to Indonesia
today that the Indonesian Police would be given access to
interrogate Hambali," Hassan told reporters.
However, he said there was not yet a clear timetable and it
was not known if there would be any conditions for the Indonesian
police to interrogate Hambali, who has been implicated in the
deadly Bali bombings on Oct. 12, 2002, the JW Marriot Hotel
bombing in Jakarta last Oct. 5, and a string of church bombings
on Christmas Eve in 2000.
Hassan went on to say that it was not necessary to challenge
the interrogation of Hambali in the U.S. or in Indonesia.
"There is a common international interest to fight against
terrorism under the name of multinational cooperation," he said.
With the U.S government giving Indonesian Police access to
interrogate Hambali, it was the second time since the war on
terror began in 2001, that police investigators have been allowed
to question a terror suspect, with Indonesian connections, being
held by the U.S.
The first terrorist suspect in U.S. custody questioned by the
Indonesian Police was Omar al-Faruq, believed to be a top aide of
al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in Southeast Asia.
During the interrogation, al-Faruq disclosed a link between
Abu Bakar Ba'asyir and Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) as well as a plan to
launch a series of bombing attacks and to assassinate President
Megawati when she was vice president.
However, al-Faruq's interrogation by the Indonesian police was
reportedly conducted under strict conditions set by the U.S.
government including "yes and no" questions only.
The Indonesian Police had reportedly sent officers to the U.S.
following Hambali's arrest.
In addition to interrogation access, much of the local
population and media have also called on the government to bring
Hambali back to Indonesia and try him in his homeland.
President Megawati Soekarnoputri and U.S. President George W.
Bush, apparently spoke on the phone about the Hambali issue and
there have been varying reports about what was discussed.
Hambali, born as Encep Nurjaman in Sukamanah village, Cianjur,
West Java, 39 years ago, was arrested in Thailand on Aug. 11.
He was reportedly carrying a phony Spanish passport under the
name of Daniel when he was arrested, making it difficult to
determine whether or not he still holds his Indonesian
citizenship.
With a possibly complicated status, the Indonesian government
has been seemingly reluctant to provide protection for Hambali's
rights while under U.S. custody.
2. Terror -- 3 columns, 1 line, 20
Court to deliver Ba'asyir verdict next Tuesday
The treason trial of cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir is coming to a
close, with the Central Jakarta District Court setting a Sept. 2
date for the judges to deliver their verdict.
Ba'asyir made his last-ditch effort on Wednesday to evade the
15-year jail sentence demanded by prosecutors, for plotting the
assassination of then vice president Megawati Soekarnoputri and
violating immigration law.
"I am not guilty. This trial is about my struggle for the
imposition of sharia. It is fueled by the enemy of God: the U.S.
government and its allies," he told the court.
The trial began on April 23, but the cleric has been detained
since October last year, following his arrest while hospitalized
in the Central Java town of Surakarta.
Ba'asyir, 65, has been accused of heading the Jamaah Islamiyah
(JI), a shadowy organization, believed to have links with the al-
Qaeda terror network.
JI is blamed for a string of deadly bombings in recent years,
including the Bali attack last October, which killed 202 people,
and this month's JW Marriot hotel blast in Jakarta, in which 12
people died.
He is also accused of approving the bombing of churches in
2000, that killed in total 19 people.
Ba'asyir said on Wednesday he had only engaged in a peaceful
campaign for the imposition of sharia in Indonesia.
His defense lawyers have repeatedly criticized the work of the
prosecutors, saying the dossiers and indictment against their
client were unfounded and based on speculation only. They also
questioned the validity of testimonies delivered by key witnesses
via teleconference.
Head of the Jakarta Prosecutors' Office Salman Maryadi refuted
on Wednesday the defense lawyers' accusation, saying the
indictment had been based on testimonies from witnesses presented
during the lengthy trial.
"It is not true that the indictment is based only on
testimonies from witnesses through teleconference," he told
reporters here.
Separately, in the trial of Bali bombing suspect Ali Imron, a
witness told the Denpasar District Court that the quantity of
explosives used in the Oct. 12, 2002 attack was less than that
claimed by another prime suspect, Amrozi.
Sarjio, the witness, said two days prior to the blasts he and
another suspect, Abdul Ghoni, blended 18 kilograms of aluminum
powder and three kilograms of sulfur.
Previously Amrozi and Ali Imron said they used 600 kilograms
and 1,025 kilograms of explosive materials respectively.
Sarjio said, that he was barely aware that the substances were
meant for the assemblage of a bomb. "I thought the explosives
were for producing firecrackers," he said.
But, he added that he had learnt about assembling a bomb
during his stay in Pakistan.
He said that he had left for Bali only after receiving orders
from Imam Samudra, allegedly the field operator of the bomb
attacks.
"I spent my first week here doing nothing. And I started
working on the second week, when the first two packages arrived,"
he said.
The trial was adjourned until Wednesday to hear the
prosecutors' sentence demand.
3. Aceh -- 3 columns, 2 lines, 20
Aceh remains volatile as
council speaker abducted
A chief concillor was abducted in Langsa, East Aceh and several
bodies were recovered in Peurelak in the regency on Wednesday,
highlighting the situation in the province the military has
recently claimed to have been gradually returning into normal.
Budiman Samaun, 54, chairman of the Langsa regency legislative
council was reportedly missing on Wednesday but witnesses said he
was abducted by rebels.
Quoting several witnesses, the local police said Budiman was
abducted by unidentified men when he was riding a motorcycle on
his way from his residence in Matang Seulimeng to Seulalah
subdistrict in the Langsa town on Wednesday.
"He was taken away, and so was his motorcycle," said Aceh
police spokesman Commissioner Sayed Husaini quoted a witness as
saying in Langsa.
Sayed said that the police was still chasing for the abductors
and investigating motives behind the abduction.
Separately, the spokesman of the military operation in Aceh
Lt. Col. Achmad Yani Basuki said that the abduction was executed
by four people.
He explained that the four people abducted the chief
councillor demanding ransom from his family. "This abduction is
typically similar with other abductions in other areas in the
province," he said, citing that GAM has abducted several people
to seek funds for the separatist organization.
Budiman's abduction has made a longer list of councillors
abducted in Aceh. Many of them were shot dead while many others
were released after paying ransom. The latest fatality struck
Amirudin, a councillor at Langsa Regency from the United
Development party fraction and, later, he was killed.
Yani said that a female corpse was found at 8 a.m in the
regency. The victim was known as Dahnir, 31, residence of Pasir
Putih village in Peureulak district. "The victim was dead after
she was shot in the back of her head and necks," said Yani.
The military has said the situation in Aceh was gradually
returning into normal while GAM leaders have been in difficult
positions after three F-16 Falcon and OV-10 Broncos bombers
dropped bombs and fired rockets to GAM hideouts in a two-day air
strikes on Monday and Tuesday.
Meanwhile, RCTI television reporter Ersa Siregar who along
with his cameraman Ferry Santoro has been taken hostage for
months was in a critical condition after suffering an exhaustion.
Ishak Dawood, GAM spokesman in East Aceh confirmed that Ersa
collapsed on Tuesday night due to exhaustion.
Ishak said that his group was willing to release Ersa out for
medical treatment, on the condition of a week-long cease fire.
4. BBM -- 2 columns, 3 lines, 15
Team finds corruption
in rice-for-poor
program
An independent monitoring team revealed on Wednesday a clear
violation in the implementation of the fuel subsidy compensation
program which was supposedly aimed at reducing the impact of
higher fuel prices on the poor.
"We are not ruling out possible violations by some of our
brothers," said James Hellywarang, coordinator of the monitoring
team from 35 universities across the country.
He said that some residents, who did not qualify for the low-
cost rice, were still allowed to purchase the subsidized rice,
and then turned around and sold it to the poor at higher prices,
thus profiting from their poor neighbors.
James chose not to make public the specific data on the
violations that they had documented, saying that his team had yet
to finished their report.
"But, the percentage is very, very small," he added quickly.
Coordinating Minister for People's Welfare Jusuf Kalla
admitted that many of the poor did not get the subsidized rice.
"It's our fault, but we will improve soon as this year's
program is not yet complete," he said when asked to comment on
the independent monitoring team's statement in a press
conference.
Also attending the presentation were Minister of Energy and
Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro, Minister of National
Education Abdul Malik Fajar, State Minister of Communications and
Information Minister Syamsul Mu'arif and Minister of Social
Affairs Bachtiar Chamsyah.
This year, the government allocated Rp 4.4 billion
(US$517,600) for the fuel subsidy compensation scheme in the form
of below-market-price rice and other services. The government
also has provided similar programs such as inexpensive health
services, social services, primary education, higher education,
religious education, transportation, water facilities, small-
scale enterprise help, coastal people's empowerment and
contraception.
Although the program was supposed to begin in January, Kalla
admitted that only the rice and education programs had been
running for the 12 million or so poor people across the country.
"The government only got around to disbursing the funds in
May," he said, adding that the government had not yet disbursed
most of the money.
The government has only implemented 11 percent of the program
due to financial shortages, he said without elaborating.
The government introduced the fuel subsidy compensation scheme
in 2000 to ease the burden of the fuel subsidy phasing-out on
low-income people. It has cut off the fuel subsidy in accordance
with the IMF bailout program requirements, which has been in
effect since 1997.
The government decided to do a check on the use of the funds
following reports that some of the money had missed its target
group, the poor, in 2001 due to corruption and shoddy
implementation.
5. Media -- 4 columns, 1 line, 30
Press reporting not impartial in Aceh: Watchdog
Most national newspapers and television stations have failed to
uphold the basic principle of covering both sides in reporting
the Aceh conflict, a media watchdog says.
Head of Aceh News Watch Agus Sudibyo said on Wednesday that
monitoring of reports by 13 Jakarta-based print media and all
Jakarta-based television stations from July 28 through Aug. 12
indicated that their reports were biased, as they did not cover
both sides of the conflict.
Most of the media preferred to get information from official
sources rather than ordinary people in Aceh and the separatist
Free Aceh Movement (GAM), he said.
"It is pitiful that our media is not finding alternative news
sources," Agus said when presenting the results of his monitoring
project at a discussion here on Wednesday.
He added that many reports on the Aceh conflict mixed facts
with journalists' opinions.
According to Agus, the monitoring was part of efforts to
promote and build control into the so-termed integrated operation
in Aceh, launched on May 19.
The monitoring, funded by the Institute for the Study of Free
Flow of Information (ISAI), started last July and is expected to
end in December this year. It will publish its evaluations
fortnightly.
The 13 print media monitored were: Tempo, Forum, Gatra, Suara
Pembaruan, Harian Terbit, Warta Kota, Indo Pos, Rakyat Merdeka,
Koran Tempo, Pos Kota, Media Indonesia, Republika, and Kompas.
ISAI also monitored nine television stations: Metro TV, SCTV,
RCTI, TV7, Indosiar, TPI, TVRI, Lativi, and Trans TV.
Ivan Harris, a news editor with SCTV, acknowledged that his
television crews had to remain physically close to the martial
law administration in order to ensure their security.
"Of course we want to cover both sides, but the situation in
Aceh has prompted us to seek protection from the Indonesian
Military (TNI)," Ivan said in the discussion.
Ivan also blamed the rough terrain in Aceh and the lack of
telecommunications services for the failure of his TV station to
run balanced stories.
However, he said that although SCTV decided to stay close to
TNI in Aceh, the station would continue to supervise its
performance in the province.
"We shall ensure that TNI does not carry out human rights
abuses during the military operation in Aceh," Ivan said.
Bambang Sukartiono from Kompas daily and TV 7 TV station
concurred with Ivan, saying that attempts to cover both sides
were difficult to achieve in practice due to limited access to
the separatist movement.
"Enforcement of the military operation has reduced access
within Aceh," Bambang added.
Meanwhile, military analyst Indro Cahyono from the University
of Indonesia (UI) said most media institutions had degraded the
news value of the Aceh conflict by burying Aceh stories on their
inside pages.
Television reports from July 28 through Aug. 8
---------------------------------------------------------------
News Source MetroTV SCTV RCTI TV7 TVRI
---------------------------------------------------------------
Military 39 12 18 15 24
Police 23 - 12 3 8
GAM 5 - 10 1 -
Public 18 2 23 6 12
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Source: ISAI
Print media reports from July 28 through Aug. 12
------------------------------------------------
No. News Source Percentage
-------------------------------------------------
1. Military 33
2. Police 9
3. Government 18
4. House 4
5. GAM 5
6. Non-governmental organizations 4
7. International 2
8. Religious leaders 10
9. Public 9
10. Journalists 4
11. Others 2
-------------------------------------------------
Total 100
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Source: ISAI