Old crime, new crisis

Old crime, new crisis

Of all the human rights abuses committed under the
authoritarian former Indonesian president Soeharto, why has one
military massacre of Muslim civilians been singled out for
accountability, almost two decades after the fact? The answer is
as much entwined in the present day threat posed by extremist
Islam - and its terrorist offshoots - as in popular demands to
right past wrongs.

On September 12, 1984, Indonesia's notorious special forces,
Kopassus, opened fire on a crowd of protesting civilians in
Jakarta's impoverished port district of Tanjung Priok.
Ostensibly, the crowd's anger was provoked by a group of soldiers
who had defiled a local mosque by not removing their shoes. The
real fuel, however, was resentment over official corruption and
misrule. Under Soeharto, all political dissent was brutally
oppressed. Much unhappiness was channelled into the mosques. The
death and injury of perhaps hundreds of devout Muslims at Tanjung
Priok, and the riots and arrests that followed, formed a deep
scar on Indonesian society.

A human rights trial which opened in Jakarta last month
dredges up the bloody past of a cast of serving military officers
implicated in the massacre, including the Kopassus commander,
Major-General Sriyanto Muntarsan. So abusive was Soeharto's rule,
however, that thousands of serious crimes against humanity will
forever go unpunished. The only other charges to have been laid
relate to Indonesia's military occupation of East Timor. This
suggests the Tanjung Priok case, no matter how deserving and
symbolic, is not just about retrospective justice.

For the government of President Megawati Soekarnoputri,
Indonesia's Islamic opposition parties represent a serious
political challenge. Ms Megawati, although a Muslim, rejects the
Islamic identity these parties peddle in favour of tolerance and
respect for Indonesia's religious and ethnic minorities. The US-
led "war on terrorism" has made her political balancing act
especially difficult. This is not because Indonesia's majority
Muslims oppose harsh security measures against terrorists inside
Indonesia. Rather, it is because of deep public unease over
Western stereotypes of Islamic terrorism, which many believe tar
peaceful, moderate Muslims with the extremist brush. This
perceived humiliation of Islam is buoying Ms Megawati's Islamist
political opponents.

Ms Megawati's recent criticism at the United Nations of the
"prolonged, unjust attitude exhibited by big powers" towards
nations which profess Islam was an attempt to revive confidence
in an Islamic identity. While Ms Megawati must continue to crush
terrorism, she must also engender respect for Indonesia's
legitimate, moderate Muslim majority. Justice, however overdue,
for the victims of Tanjung Priok can only help this cause.

The Sydney Morning Herald.

Banking for the world's poor

Microcredit -- tiny business loans extended to poor people in
developing countries -- is a proven development strategy,
expected to benefit 100 million of the world's poorest families
by 2005. But the world's poor desperately need access to a
broader range of financial services -- microfinance is the more
apt term -- to improve their living standards.

The staggering flows of money sent home by migrant workers are
a case in point. The Inter-American Development Bank estimates
that remittances from Mexicans working in the United States this
year will total US$14.5 billion, more than Mexico earns from
tourism or foreign investment.

Too often, however, those who get the money are victimized by
rapacious fees and exchange rates. Governments can help by
reducing transaction fees, but what the recipients need most is a
place to put their money. In many countries, the poor, especially
in rural areas, lack access to commercial banks. Mainstream banks
need to make an effort to extend their reach. Until they do,
established microlending organizations can help fill the void in
ways that encourage private saving and, equally important,
enlarge development capital in poor communities.

Stanley Fischer, the noted economist and former deputy
director of the International Monetary Fund who is now a vice
chairman at Citigroup, reminded those attending a microfinance
conference earlier this month that during the 1990s East Asian
financial crisis, a large Indonesian bank suffered nearly 100
percent default rates in its corporate portfolio, but only 2
percent in its microfinance portfolio. Fischer, once a
microcredit skeptic, is on the board of Women's World Banking,
which sponsored the conference to drum up Wall Street interest in
microfinance.

Large global banks are starting to think of microfinance as a
viable business, not just a trendy charity. Deutsche Bank, for
instance, is about to open a $50 million fund to provide capital
for microfinance organizations. A real microfinance revolution
could further empower the world's poor.

-- The New York Times

Terror in Istanbul and beyond

The murderous car bomb attacks in Istanbul at the weekend will
achieve none of their apparent political objectives. Turkey is
the most secular of Islamic nations and was possibly targeted for
that reason. It will not be distancing itself from either the
United States or Israel, with both of which its ties are
longstanding and unusually cordial. Turkey is more likely to
remain close to the U.S. and seek, among other things, an
abatement of criticism of its stern treatment of its Kurdish
minority, whose defiance of its authority Istanbul customarily
describes as its own terrorist problem.

Not that those behind Saturday's bombings were of Kurdish
origin. Rather, a radical Islamic group linked to al-Qaeda, the
Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, has claimed responsibility for the
bombings outside two synagogues in Istanbul which killed 18
Muslims and six Jews. It threatens further attacks in other
countries, including Australia.

The group says "Jews around the world will regret that their
ancestors ever thought about occupying the land of Muslims". It
says the U.S. and its allies must "put an end to the war they are
waging against Islam and Muslims in the name of the war on terror
and withdraw from all Muslim lands desecrated by Jews and
Americans, including Jerusalem and Kashmir". It also calls for
the release of all detainees held at Guantanamo Bay and of Sheikh
Omar Abdul Rahman, the spiritual guide of Egypt's Jamaah
Islamiyah, who is jailed in the U.S.

It backs these demands with threats: "We say to the criminal
Bush and his Arabs and Western hangers-on -- in particular
Britain, Italy, Australia and Japan -- that the cars of death
will not stop at Baghdad, Riyadh, Istanbul, Nasiriyah, Jakarta
and the rest until you see them with your own eyes in the middle
of the capital of this era's tyrant, America."

There is not the remotest chance that the wild demands
accompanying these obscene threats will be met. The first
response in all countries under threat will be to heighten
vigilance and increase counter-terrorist measures. That is the
only sensible immediate response. In Australia that means,
especially, taking special care to protect potential targets in
the Jewish community.

That is not to say that reflexive, defensive measures are
enough. For the long haul, the even harder task of achieving
peace and stability in the Middle East, to remove the conditions
in which such hatred breeds, must continue.

-- The Sydney Morning Herald