(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 1 September 1999 CPJ letter addressed to President B. J. Habibie expressing CPJ’s concern for the safety of journalists in East Timor: **New cases and update to IFEX alerts of 1 September, 27 August, 26 August and 25 August 1999** For more information regarding the issues raised in this […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a 1 September 1999 CPJ letter addressed to
President B. J. Habibie expressing CPJ’s concern for the safety of
journalists in East Timor:
**New cases and update to IFEX alerts of 1 September, 27 August, 26 August
and 25 August 1999**
For more information regarding the issues raised in this letter, please
contact Southeast Asia program consultant A. Lin Neumann in Bangkok at
++66-2-252-3429 (lin_neumann@csi.com),
or Asia program coordinator Kavita Menon in New York at ++212-465-1004
ext.140 (kmenon@cpj.org).
September 1, 1999
His Excellency Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie
President, Republic of Indonesia
Office of the President
Bina Graha, Jalan Veteran No. 17
Jakarta Pusat, Indonesia
Your Excellency:
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply disturbed by widespread
instances of violence and intimidation directed against both foreign and
local journalists during the period surrounding the August 30 referendum on
the future of East Timor. In the course of the last week alone, CPJ has
documented numerous cases in which journalists were singled out for attack.
The vast majority of the incidents were apparently committed by pro-Jakarta
militias backed by the Indonesian military.
Militia members have shot journalists, attacked hotels where journalists are
staying, blocked access to news events, beaten cameramen, and threatened to
kill dozens of reporters and photographers. In the current atmosphere,
journalists covering East Timor live and work in constant fear for their
lives. (A detailed list of some of these incidents is attached to this
letter.)
According to the Safety Office for the Media in East Timor (SOMET), a
project of the Jakarta-based Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI),
armed pro-Jakarta militias responsible for pre-election violence against
journalists have continued their harassment in the immediate post-election
period. Journalists have been told that they will not be allowed to leave
the territory, and militia members have been seen stopping reporters from
boarding boats bound for other islands.
“The local journalists are facing not only attacks, but intimidation and
terror. And it is happening every day, every day,” said Ezki Suyanto, AJI’s
head of advocacy, who is coordinating SOMET’s efforts in East Timor.
“Especially for local journalists. The foreign journalists have evacuation
plans. But not for local journalists, they have no help.”
As a nonpartisan organization of journalists concerned with the safety of
our colleagues around the world, CPJ is dismayed that Indonesian security
forces have done so little to protect journalists working in East Timor.
CPJ notes with appreciation that the Indonesian press has become more free
since the resignation of former President Suharto in 1998. But press freedom
is meaningless if journalists face physical attack for practicing their
profession. The Indonesian government has failed to curb the activities of
the militias and to guarantee that journalists are able to work without fear
of physical violence. These failures cast doubt on your administration’s
commitment to a free press.
Foreign Minister Ali Alatas signaled the Indonesian administration’s
unwillingness to protect the press in East Timor this May, when he told a
joint delegation from CPJ and the Brussels-based International Press
Institute that journalists “cannot avoid being attacked. It is a situation
of conflict. These journalists should know they are in harm’s way.” However,
CPJ reminds Your Excellency that Indonesia signed a United Nations-brokered
agreement promising to ensure “a secure environment devoid of violence or
other forms of intimidation,” while acknowledging that responsibility for
“the general maintenance of law and order rests with the appropriate
Indonesian security authorities.”
CPJ therefore respectfully calls on your government to disarm the militias
in East Timor, investigate the incidents documented in this letter, and
bring those responsible for the attacks to justice. We also urge Your
Excellency to instruct police and security forces stationed in East Timor to
guarantee the safety of journalists working there, and to discipline those
officers who do not comply with these orders.
We thank you for your attention to these urgent matters, and eagerly await
your response.
Sincerely,
Ann K. Cooper
Executive Director
cc: Makarim Wibisono, Ambassador to the United Nations
Mohamad Yunus Yosfiah, Minister of Information
Gen. Wiranto, Minister of Defense and Commander of the Armed Forces
Harold Hongju Koh, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human
Rights, and Labor
Stanley O. Roth, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and
Pacific Affairs
Kurt M. Campbell, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and
Pacific Affairs
Ian Martin, Head of the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET)
Alliance of Independent Journalists
Southeast Asian Press Alliance
American Society of Newspaper Editors
Amnesty International
Article 19 (United Kingdom)
Artikel 19 (The Netherlands)
Canadian Journalists for Free Expression
Congressional Committee to Support Writers and Journalists
Freedom House
Human Rights Watch
Index on Censorship
International Association of Broadcasting
International Federation of Journalists
International Federation of Newspaper Publishers
International Journalism Institute
International PEN
International Press Institute
National Association of Black Journalists
National Press Club
Newspaper Association of America
The Newspaper Guild
North American Broadcasters Association
Norwegian Forum for Freedom of Expression
Reporters Sans Frontières
Society of Professional Journalists
Overseas Press Club
World Press Freedom Committee
RECENT ATTACKS ON JOURNALISTS IN EAST TIMOR
Wednesday, August 25
Time magazine correspondent John Stanmeyer and his Indonesian assistant,
Heriyanto, were attacked by members of the anti-independence Aitarak militia
outside the group’s headquarters in Dili as they were taking photographs of
gun-toting militia members. At approximately 11:30 a.m., the two men drove
down the street where the militia has set up its main office. Seeing a group
of some 50 armed men, most of whom were wearing T-shirts advocating autonomy
within Indonesia, Stanmeyer began taking pictures. Militia members demanded
the two journalists leave. When Stanmeyer refused, one of the Aitarak
militiamen pulled a knife. Heriyanto negotiated with the man, and persuaded
him not to stab anybody.
Thursday, August 26
Many journalists came under attack during violent clashes between
pro-independence and pro-integration groups in Dili, in which five people
were killed and dozens injured.
Kornelius Kewa Ama Khayam, a reporter for Kompas, Indonesia’s leading daily
newspaper, was grazed by a bullet in the leg. Five other bullets were
stopped by the bullet-proof vest he was wearing for protection, according to
an article in the Jakarta Post. Unidentified assailants also beat Khayam and
set his motorcycle ablaze. He was taken to a local hospital for treatment
and later evacuated from the territory. Jaka, a reporter for Indonesia’s
state-owned Antara news agency, sustained bruises when he was attacked
nearby.
An Indonesian journalist who requested anonymity told the Japanese news
agency Kyodo that she and three colleagues were threatened at gunpoint by
pro-Jakarta militia members when violence broke out in the neighborhood of
Kuluhun, in eastern Dili. “We are now being sought for what we witnessed,”
the journalist said. She and her colleagues saw a man shot in the back and
neck in Kuluhun when violence erupted.
An estimated 150 heavily armed, anti-independence Aitarak militia members
surrounded an Indonesian military truck in which five journalists, including
Marianne Kearney, a reporter with the Canberra Times, had sought refuge.
Militia members surrounded the vehicle, chanting, “Kill them all, kill all
Australian journalists.” An eyewitness said that the militia members also
attempted to stab a Norwegian journalist, Torgeir Norling, who was outside
the truck but managed to escape after Indonesian police intervened to
protect him. Australian journalists were a particular focus of militia anger
during the campaign.
Militia members also shot at camera crews -two Australians and one from New
Zealand- who were trying to film the attack. They were not injured. One of
the cameramen, Chris Jones of New Zealand television, told National Public
Radio: “All of a sudden they just opened up with guns and threw rocks and
just chased us back all the way through the compound and back to the hotel,
really, where they just pelted the roof with rocks and it was just intense.
It was just intense.”
A reporter with the Irish Times, Tjitske Lingsma, was kicked in the ribs and
threatened with a hand grenade after witnessing the execution-style shooting
of an unarmed man on the street by a policeman.
Following a large pro-Jakarta rally, scores of young men left a motorcade
and stormed through two villages near Dili. One of the militiamen shot at a
group of journalists, hitting Bea Wiharta, an Indonesian photographer
working for the Reuters news agency, in the thigh. A photographer for the
Sydney Morning Herald was beaten during the same incident.
30 journalists were forced to move out of the Hotel Dili after militiamen
ran through the building, waving guns and machetes on their way to attack
the nearby offices of the National Council for Timorese Resistance (CNRT),
the main pro-independence organization in East Timor. Richard Langston, a
New Zealand cameraman, was in the courtyard of the hotel when he heard a
volley of shots and went to get his camera from his room. Within seconds,
swarms of armed men were coming over the hotel’s back fence, shooting with
rifles and other firearms. “One had a shotgun. He was just walking around
looking to shoot,” Langston told the Sydney Morning Herald. “We panicked. We
didn’t know what to do. We ran into the hotel, barricaded the door and lay
on the floor as they fired shots at random into the building. One bloke was
at the door with a machete trying to get in.”
Associated Press photographer David Longstreath and Associated Press
Television News cameraman David Copeland were assaulted by pro-Jakarta
militants near a sports stadium where a rally was being held. Neither was
injured, though their camera gear was damaged.
Friday, August 27
As hundreds of anti-independence militiamen laid siege to the town of Memo,
in the western part of East Timor, militia members armed with homemade guns
and knives blocked access to journalists and threatened a liaison officer
from the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET).
Saturday, August 28
Members of the anti-independence Aitarak militia attacked and shot at a
group of journalists filming a militia gathering near the Dili Hotel. The
gathering took place in the aftermath of a militia attack on the offices of
the pro-independence CNRT. The journalists subsequently ran back to the
hotel and barricaded themselves inside for protection. The owner of the Dili
Hotel received threatening phone calls later that day telling him that his
hotel was now a target of the militias. In the aftermath of the attack, the
Australian government issued a statement concluding that journalists were
particularly at risk. “I don’t think there’s any doubt that journalists are
a particular target and they have to be especially careful,” said Foreign
Minister Alexander Downer.
Monday, August 30
Panca, an Indonesian reporter for East Timor’s local radio station Lorosae
Radio, had his house burned down in apparent retaliation for the station’s
airing of reports regarding violence during the campaign period. On August
28, Panca attended a press conference in Dili held by KIPER (Independent
Committee for Direct Ballot Monitoring), to release the group’s findings on
campaign abuses. His station aired tape of the press conference several
times over the next two days.
Afterward, the reporter began receiving threatening telephone calls that he
believed were related to the station’s news coverage. At about 1:00 a.m. on
August 30, an unidentified man asked Panca’s neighbors to confirm the
location of the journalist’s house, which they did. Two hours later, the
house caught fire and the family’s belongings were destroyed. Panca and his
family escaped the blaze without injury.
Tuesday, September 1
In violence outside the United Nations headquarters in Dili, several
journalists were assaulted, including BBC reporter Jonathan Head. Head was
nearly killed when he fell trying to flee the violence, and a militia member
first kicked him in the skull, and then hit him twice with his rifle butt.
The Associated Press reported Head was also “attacked by one man who threw a
large rock at him and pulled a knife on him.” Head was luckily escorted to
safety, according to a Press Association News report, but he noted that
though “the military are very well-armed . . . they just stood by and did
nothing while this mayhem was erupting.”
A taxi carrying journalists to the UN compound was also reportedly fired on
by militiamen, and had its back windows smashed in.
According to CNN, a number of journalists were forced to take refuge at UN
headquarters when they became targets in fighting between pro-independence
and pro-integration groups. Maria Ressa, who was reporting for CNN from
Dili, said a soldier stationed at a nearby military barracks shut the gates
to the compound, warning “No photos, or I will beat you.” Attackers
dispersed only when riot police were dispatched to the scene, an hour after
the melee began. The journalists who had taken shelter in the UN compound
were eventually evacuated by police, in cooperation with UNAMET.
Recommended Action
Similar appeals can be send to:
Appeals To
His Excellency Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie
President, Republic of Indonesia
Office of the President
Bina Graha, Jalan Veteran No. 17
Jakarta Pusat, Indonesia
Fax: +62 21 778 182
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
