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Monday, November 24, 2014
Breaking News: Secret Documents Link Hendropriyono, As'ad to Munir Assassination. Suppressed Report Says Munir Was BIN "Operational Target," Urges Criminal Probe of Hendro. Draft of As'ad Letter Surfaces; BIN Candidate Worked With Poisons Expert. Assassination Was "Carefully Planned." Hendropriyono: Part 2.
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Sunday, November 16, 2014
The Komnas HAM Report on the Talangsari Massacre
See:
"Breaking News: Gen. Hendropriyono Admits 'Command Responsibility' in Munir Assassination. Says Talangsari Victims 'Committed Suicide.' Agrees to Stand Trial for Atrocities; Legal Implications for As'ad, Wiranto, CIA. Hendropriyono: Part 1"
"Meeting Monday With Komnas HAM, the Indonesian Government Human Rights Commission"
Jakarta Post, Nov. 15, 2014: "Komnas HAM publishes reviews of 7 major human rights abuses"
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Sunday, November 2, 2014
Meeting Monday With Komnas HAM, the Indonesian Government Human Rights Commission
I am due to meet today (1:00 pm, Monday, November 3 WIB) with Komnas HAM, the Indonesian government Human Rights Commission.
The agenda will be up to the commissioners, but I hope we will be able to discuss my recent interviews with Gen. Hendropriyono and their implications for legal prosecutions.
Hendropriyono admitted "command responsibility" (tanggung jawab komando) in the 2004 assassination of Munir, and agreed to stand trial for Munir and the massacres in Talangsari ('89) and East Timor ('99).
He also agreed that he was calling for the release of all internal Indonesian and US government documents relating to these atrocities.
The agencies holding such documents include BIN (Indonesian intelligence), the TNI (armed forces) and POLRI (national police), and the US CIA and NSA and the US State Department and White House.
Appropriate targets for prosecution for killing civilians include Generals Hendropriyono, Wiranto, Prabowo, Ryamizard, Sjafrie and Sutiyoso, as well as the ex intelligence man As'ad.
As'ad was Hendropriyono's top deputy at the time of the Munir assassination and is currently touted as a top candidate to be President Jokowi's new BIN chief.
It has been reported that Generals Sjafrie and Sutiyoso are also in contention for the BIN job.
Gen. Ryamizard has just been appointed as Indonesia's new Defense Minister .
And just as Hendropriyono bears command responsibility for the assassination of Munir, Ryamizard bears command responsibility for the massacres by his forces in Aceh.
Gen. Wiranto is under UN indictment for command responsibility in '99 Timor.
Hendropriyono's acceptance of command responsibility strengthens the cases against these generals.
I especially would like to urge that Komnas HAM investigate the US government, and move the Indonesian authorities toward prosecution of US officials.
General Hendropriyono told me that he worked with the CIA.
At the time of the Munir assassination, CIA and BIN had a "liason relationship."
All of the Indonesian officials named above had US government backing and sponsorship.
Hendropriyono, Prabowo and Sjafrie were especially close to US agencies (CIA, DIA, and Special Forces, respectively), and Wiranto received a US green light at a crucial moment in the Timor terror.
Indonesian authorities could subpoena US documents and call US officials to testify. And they have the right to indict US officials who served as murder accomplices.
I will tell Komnas HAM that I will do whatever I can to aid their efforts.
Allan Nairn
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Monday, October 27, 2014
Breaking News: Gen. Hendropriyono Admits "Command Responsibility" in Munir Assassination. Says Talangsari Victims "Committed Suicide." Agrees to Stand Trial for Atrocities; Legal Implications for As'ad, Wiranto, CIA. Hendropriyono: Part 1.
By Allan Nairn
Jakarta
General A.M. Hendropriyono, one of Indonesia's most powerful figures, has admitted "command responsibility" in the assassination of the country's leading rights activist.
In two nighttime interviews at his Jakarta mansion on October 16 Hendropriyono made statements that appear to open him to prosecution and may create problems for the CIA, the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI), and for Joko Widodo -- Jokowi -- Indonesia's new president.
Hendropriyono is a key Jokowi adviser, is a core leader of the TNI, and was working with the CIA when his intelligence unit, BIN, killed the activist Munir.
In detailed, on-the-record discussions with me Hendropriyono, perhaps inadvertently, ended up submitting himself to close questioning.
By the time it was over he had abandoned some of his and TNI's longest standing defenses, and had agreed to stand trial for three major atrocities: the Munir murder, the 1999 terror campaign that devastated occupied East Timor, and the 1989 Talangsari massacre that earned him the nickname "the Butcher of Lampung."
Hendropriyono also ended up agreeing that he was calling for the release of all internal documents held by the Indonesian and US governments relating to these cases.
By admitting "command responsibility" and opening to the door to certain facts, Hendropriyono places legal pressure on two men -- the general, Wiranto and the intelligenge man, As'ad -- who have moved to the center stage of Indonesian politics after being touted for the Jokowi cabinet.
The encounter with Hendropriyono was unexpected and at times bizarre. The first session started with him trying to flatter me, and ended with me telling him that I hoped Munir's killers would be jailed for life.
In between, the discussion was, at times, complex. It will be described in several installments.
-----
I had called Hendropriyono's cell phone, from New York, on October 14 hoping that I could get a comment from him on his role in killing civilians.
During last summer's Indonesian presidential campaign that resulted in Jokowi's election, I had repeatedly called for Hendro to be tried for crimes against humanity.
But what got far more attention, indeed, at times saturation coverage, was my running confrontation with Jokowi's opponent, General Prabowo. I had published an off-the record interview with Prabowo in which Prabowo ruminated on fascist dictatorship, talked about how to do massacres, discussed his extensive work with the Pentagon/ US Intelligence, and insulted the highly regarded cleric and late President, Gus Dur.
Prabowo demanded that the army capture me, called me a liar, an American imperialist, an "enemy of the state," and pointed out -- correctly -- that the TNI had previously captured me seven times and that Suharto had banned me from the country as "a threat to national security." Responding to Prabowo, TNI declared that I had become an "Operational Target" (TO).
I challenged the army to grab me, challenged Prabowo to bring me to court, and -- on the matter of American Imperialism -- challenged Prabowo to join me in calling for the living US presidents to be put on trial for atrocities, and for the US mining giant, Freeport McMoRan, to be expelled from Indonesia. Prabowo backed down on all fronts and received ridicule, so finally, on the campaign's last day, he filed criminal charges against me. His aides later explained that among other things the charges related to "inciting hatred of the army," and, after the election results were in, "causing Prabowo to lose."
It was against this background that Hendropriyono, one of the pillars of the Jokowi campaign, indicated that rather than talking on the phone he wanted to talk in person, in Jakarta. I was heading to Jakarta anyway, and within hours of entering the country, went to Hendro's corner estate in Senayan, Jakarta.
As he entertained a delegation from Malaysian intelligence, and I waited in a sitting room, a member of Hendro's family told me that Jokowi had already offered him three ministries, including MENKOPOLKAM, the top military/ intelligence post. Relatedly, just that day, Hendro's son-in-law, General Andika, had been announced as the new head of PASAMPRES, Jokowi's personal security detail. In a cabinet in front of me was a photo of Hendro with Generals Wiranto and Sutiyoso, and to the right a photo of Hendro with his old aide, General Susilo, who later became President. In between was a bust of Napoleon -- a Hendro favorite, a family member explained.
----
After he ushered me in, Hendro started by saying that he was "honored" to meet and receive me because I had hurt Prabowo in the campaign. He suggested that Prabowo was "totalitarian."
I replied that I attacked all the generals, including him. Hendropriyono said he knew that, and said that if he was not mistaken I had attacked him particularly for Talangsari.
I said that was true, but I had attacked him for many things, also including Munir and 1999 Timor.
Hendro wanted to talk about Talangsari first.
By all accounts -- including Hendro's to me, what had happened there had been a bloodbath, but he started by saying: "There was no other way to do it, Allan Nairn."
He said that as regional commander he controlled both the army and the National Police BRIMOB, and moved in to confront religious militants who were armed with "bows and arrows."
He said "They said I was togut. Togut means extremist who will always finish the Muslims..."
He said of the rifles vs. arrows showdown, "Of course ... we won because we were stronger."
Hendro said: "We encircled the huts that they built in the village together with the villagers. Nobody was out (of the huts) because of forbidden by their chiefs, by their leaders... I said that 'we will attack you and I ask you to go out from the house and surrender.'"
Then at some point, by Hendro's account -- and that of everyone else -- the encircled huts went up in flames.
Survivors and witnesses say Hendro's men lit the fires, and shot and tortured unarmed villagers.
Their testimony to the government human rights commission (KOMNASHAM) and to human rights groups like Munir's Kontras is detailed.
But, to my astonishment, as we sat there in his Jakarta mansion, Hendropriyono said that the dead at Talangsari had actually killed themselves.
"Suddenly they burned their own huts. That made so many people die," he said.
(He estimated the death toll at 100, maybe 200, overwhelmingly unarmed, with many women and children)
I asked incredulously, "So you're claiming they killed themselves?"...
"Yes, they burned, they burned their huts."
"In effect you're saying they committed suicide."
"Yes ...
"Bunuh diri?" ('Committed suicide?'), I asked in Indonesian.
"Bunuh diri" ('Committed suicide'), General Hendropriyono replied.
He suggested they might have done this out of fanaticism.
I returned to the point, seeking clarity:
"Jadi, bapak kata bahwa orang itu bunuh diri?" ('So you're saying that those people committed suicide?')
"Bunuh diri," -- suicide, Hendro replied with finality.
So I said:
"As I'm sure you know, there are many witness testimonies from survivors of Talangsari given to KOMNASHAM and others that say that those hundred or 200 were killed by your troops, were killed by you in a massacre. So why not face this in a trial? Would you agree to be put on trial and make the argument in a court like you've just made to me?"
"Yeah, of course it was not true," Hendro replied, skirting the question.
I said: "You could say that in court. You could tell it to the judge."
But again, Hendro did not want to answer.
Instead, he digressed. He started with an attack on "the Indonesian human rights organizations," i.e. Munir's Kontras, and similar groups.
Hendro said that the human rights groups had paid off witnesses to implicate him, a charge that was ironic since it had been extensively reported that Hendro himself had made payments to witnesses, for, he said at the time, religious purposes.
(When I later mentioned Hendro's payoff charge to a table full of Kontras people, they were shocked -- and couldn't stop laughing; "As if we had the cash!," one exclaimed.)
But the thing that most bothered Hendro was the fact that the rights groups, including KOMNASHAM, had agreed to hear testimony from child survivors of Talangsari, ie. from people who were still minors at the time of the inferno.
He was evidently upset that these surviving children had been taken seriously.
They "were still kids," he said. They "didn't know what was going on."
It was, of course, the case that Talangsari child witnesses were resorted to.
But this was because Hendro and his men had killed their parents, according to the rights groups.
And in fact there was testimony from adult survivors as well, and in any event child testimony was often used in such cases.
In 2013 I was called to testify in a genocide trial in Guatemala. In the dock was the US-backed ex dictator, General Efrain Rios Montt.
In that case, then-child testimony was used extensively. Rios Montt was convicted of planned massacres and sentenced to 80 years (the oligarchy later froze the case; the General remains under house arrest.)
General Hendropriyono didn't want such testimony here.
----
But while complaining about the children, General Hendro appeared to slip up.
He himself reopened the issue of possibly being compelled to stand trial.
"I'm quite sure that if we go to court, (the) court will go and look at the witness(es)," he remarked, his point being that the court would disregard the children and false, paid-off witnesses.
So I jumped in: "So then what you're saying is that it should go to court, and you should be put on trial for Talangsari, and you do not fear that, you would accept that? You would accept being put on trial for Talangsari?"
Hendro, paused, recoiled and mumbled: "I cannot, mmm, I think I have..."
"What would you do? Tell me, what you would do if you were me," the General insisted.
"I would not kill people," I said, but I wanted to get back to the point:
"Oh yes of course!," Hendropriyono replied.
"At that time," he replied.
"I'm talking about now," I said. "Because that time has passed. I'm talking about now."
"Everything that I did," he said, "everything that they accused me (of), there is nothing for me to prefer not to accept. I will face."
This concession was fundamental, and it opened doors.
End of Hendropriyono: Part 1.
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Bloody Hands and a Crucial Victory
As he was in the campaign, Jokowi is, in government, surrounded by killers.
He could have kept them all out, but he chose not to.
The blood on their hands is now on his.
But that does not necessarily mean that the killers will, in the end, prevail.
(Though it is quite possible that they will kill more civilians in the meantime).
This is an epic struggle for power.
If people put pressure on Jokowi there's a decent chance they can win concessions.
Indeed that has apparently happened already, in a crucially important way.
As of noon Friday, General Wiranto had been written in as MENKOPOLKAM, a coordinating post that in the hands of a man like him could have given him vast de facto power over the army, police, and intelligence.
But according to very high level people, Wiranto was removed at the last minute -- Saturday night -- specifically in response to objections from mobilized critics/ activists. (See Friday - Sunday blog entries and Tweets at @AllanNairn14).
At the same time, though, Jokowi gave power to General Ryamizard, the TNI's ideologist for killing civilians, a man who oversaw Aceh massacres and praised the army assassins of a Papua leader as "heroes."
The chief of BIN (intelligence) was not announced Sunday with the cabinet posts, but As'ad, implicated in the Munir assassination, is said to still be in the running.
Allan Nairn
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Saturday, October 25, 2014
Lembaga Negara Mendesak Jokowi Tidak Memasukkan Pembunuh ke Kabinet
25 Oktober 2014
Komnas HAM telah menyerahkan daftar 174 nama bertanda merah yang terkait kasus Hak Asasi Manusia kepada Presiden Jokowi.
Nama-nama ini terdiri dari para pejabat (bekas atau masih menjabat) yang terlibat dalam pembunuhan, penculikan atau kejahatan-kejahatan serupa. (Komnas HAM jelas menyiratkan bahwa Jen. Wiranto dan Jen. Hendropriyono tercatat dalam daftar tersebut).
Komnas HAM meminta agar Presiden Jokowi tidak memasukkan seorangpun dari daftar nama itu ke dalam kabinetnya.
Jokowi menggunakan data KPK guna mendiskualifikasi calon-calon yang bermasalah.
Apakah ia akan melakukan hal yang sama dengan daftar yang telah dibuat Komnas HAM?
Jika tidak, maka pemerintahan Jokowi seolah akan lebih mementingkan kasus-kasus pencurian uang ketimbang pembunuhan tak berperikemanusiaan.
Allan Nairn
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A Government Body Asks Jokowi to Exclude Murderers from the Cabinet.
The Indonesian government human rights commission, KOMNASHAM, has submitted to President Jokowi a list of 174 people who have their own human rights red marks ("tanda merah").
These are current or ex officials implicated in massacre, abduction or similar crimes. (The commissioners strongly implied that Gens. Wiranto and Hendropriyono were among them).
The commission asked President Jokowi not to appoint any of them to his cabinet.
Jokowi used the anti-corruption commission (KPK) data to disqualify cabinet candidates.
Will he do the same with the human rights commission list?
If he doesn't, that will show that the Jokowi government acts as if the unlawful taking of lives is less important than the unlawful taking of money.
Allan Nairn
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Friday, October 24, 2014
A Question for President Jokowi
A question for President Jokowi: How many civilians does a general have to kill before he becomes ineligible for your Clean Cabinet?
Allan Nairn
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Breaking News: Jokowi siap memasukkan para jenderal pembantai massal Wiranto dan Ryamizard ke kabinet
24 Oktober 2014
Breaking News: seorang jenderal dekat Kubu Jokowi, mengatakan kepada saya siang ini (24 Oktober, 12:15 WIB) bahwa Jokowi siap mengumumkan Jenderal Wiranto dan Jenderal Ryamizard sebagai anggota kabinet.
Jokowi selalu mengatakan, ia ingin kabinet yang bersih. Namun sepertinya, ia mempertimbangkan untuk menunjuk seorang jenderal yang telah didakwa melakukan kejahatan kemanusiaan (Wiranto). Seorang jenderal lain yang dipertimbangkan adalah Ryamizard, yang memimpin pembantaian di Aceh serta secara terbuka menyasar warga sipil sepanjang Darurat Militer.
Jika ini benar, Jokowi akan dituntut pertanggungjawabannya atas kejahatan-kejahatan mereka.
Allan Nairn
Lihat:
UN Indictment of Wiranto for "Crimes Against Humanity: Murder, Deportation and Persecution"
"Wiranto: Case No. #5/2003, Brief in Support of the Application for the Issuance of an Arrest Warrant for Wiranto" (District Court of Dili)
"Red Marks Next to Their Names: Is Jokowi Serious About Being Clean?"
"Tanda Merah Calon Menteri: Apakah Jokowi Sungguh-Sungguh Ingin Membangun Kabinet Bersih?"
"General Ryamizard: The Ideologist for Killing Civilians"
"Jenderal Ryamizard: Sang Ideolog Pembantaian Warga Sipil,"
Kompas: "Jurnalis Investigasi Allan Nairn Ingatkan Jokowi Jangan Pilih Menteri Pelanggar HAM"
(2014/10/22)
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The "Brief in Support of ... the Issuance of an Arrest Warrant for Wiranto"
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The Indictment of Gen. Wiranto
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Breaking News: Jokowi Said Ready to Name Massacre Generals to Cabinet. Gens. Wiranto, Ryamizard in Running.
A well-informed general said to me this afternoon (October 24, 12:15 pm WIB) that President Jokowi is on the verge of naming Gens. Wiranto and Ryamizard to his cabinet.
Jokowi says he wants a clean cabinet, yet he is supposedly considering appointing a man under indictment for crimes against humanity (Wiranto), and another who presided over Aceh massacres and openly targeted civilians (Ryamizard).
If this is true Jokowi will become accountable for their crimes.
Allan Nairn
See:
UN Indictment of Wiranto for "Crimes Against Humanity: Murder, Deportation and Persecution"
"Wiranto: Case No. #5/2003, Brief in Support of the Application for the Issuance of an Arrest Warrant for Wiranto" (District Court of Dili)
"Red Marks Next to Their Names: Is Jokowi Serious About Being Clean?"
"Tanda Merah Calon Menteri: Apakah Jokowi Sungguh-Sungguh Ingin Membangun Kabinet Bersih?"
"General Ryamizard: The Ideologist for Killing Civilians"
"Jenderal Ryamizard: Sang Ideolog Pembantaian Warga Sipil,"
Kompas: "Jurnalis Investigasi Allan Nairn Ingatkan Jokowi Jangan Pilih Menteri Pelanggar HAM"
(2014/10/22)
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Thursday, October 23, 2014
Jenderal Ryamizard: Sang Ideolog Pembantaian Warga Sipil
23 Oktober 2014
Salah seorang pendukung kunci Jokowi yang muncul di Istana Negara hari selasa lalu adalah mantan Kepala Staf Angkatan Darat, Jenderal Ryamizard Ryacudu.
Ryamizard adalah orang kepercayaan Megawati, pimpinan partai Jokowi. Ryamizard pernah membantu menaikkan Mega ke kursi presiden dengan turut serta menyingkirkan pendahulunya, presiden Gus Dur.
Satu hal yang paling menonjol dari Ryamizard: di tubuh TNI, dialah sosok terdepan dalam merasionalisasikan pembantaian warga sipil.
Di bulan Oktober 2004, saya menulis laporan terkait pasukan Ryamizard di Aceh:
"Minggu lalu Amnesty International mengeluarkan laporan tentang Aceh yang mencatat bahwa 'pelanggaran hak asasi manusia ... begitu luas sampai-sampai tak satu pun aspek kehidupan di provinsi tersebut yang tak terjamah.' ... Amnesty berbicara tentang 'eksekusi ekstra-yudisial warga sipil oleh militer' yang terjadi baru-baru ini--jumlahnya ratusan, kata para aktivis setempat secara terpisah--termasuk, menurut Amnesty, 'aksi pembunuhan di luar batas-batas hukum, terhadap perempuan dan anak-anak.'"
Ketika ditanya tentang salah satu pembantaian—pembantaian terhadap anak-anak di dekat Bireuen, Aceh—Ryamizard menjawab dengan sebuah lelucon tentang pisang goreng dan diam-diam membela aksi tersebut, mengatakan bahwa perempuan dan anak-anak pun bisa membunuh.
Pernyataan itu mungkin terdengar menjijikan, namun belum ada apa-apanya jika dibandingkan dengan penyataan publik—dikutip Antara (8 Desember 2003)--dimana Ryamizard mengatakan bahwa warga sipil sah menjadi sasaran tentara jika mereka "tidak menyukai " kebijakan militer atau menyuarakan “pendapat yang sama” dengan para pemberontak anti-pemerintah.
Ketika membicarakan warga sipil yang tidak senang dengan kondisi Darurat Militer, sesungguhnya Ryamizard mengklarifikasi definisi TNI mengenai apa saja yang bisa membuat seseorang dikategorisasikan sebagai musuh.
Ia menunjukkan bahwa siapapun yang “tidak senang” seperti itu akan didefinisikan oleh TNI sebagai "GAM"--atau anggota Gerakan Aceh Merdeka.
"Orang-orang yang tidak senang dengan darurat militer di Aceh adalah orang GAM," kata Jenderal Ryamizard, "Jadi jika omongannya sama dengan anggota GAM, maka dapat dipastikan mereka adiknya orang-orang separatis itu."
Kategorisasi ini sangat penting karena secara resmi pendekatan TNI terhadap GAM adalah "buru dan musnahkan”, seperti yang diambil dari kata-kata Jendral Endriartono pada Mei 2003, dikutip oleh Amnesty International.
Kini operasi militer di Aceh sudah berakhir, namun pembunuhan warga sipil terus terjadi di Papua dan di tempat-tempat lainnya. Sejauh yang bisa diketahui, doktrin Ryamizard masih berlaku.
Jika Jokowi ingin mengakhiri praktek pembunuhan--atau pemenjaraan--terhadap rakyat hanya karena negara tidak menyukai pendapat mereka, sudah sepantasnya ia menyeret jenderal-jenderal seperti Ryamizard ke meja hijau, bukannya malah memberikan jabatan yang lebih tinggi.
Allan Nairn
Untuk laporan Antara yang mengutip pernyataan Ryamizard tentang orang-orang yang tidak suka dengan Darurat Militer, lihat Laksamana.Net, 8 Desember 2003, 8:00am, "Gen. Ryamizard 'With Us or Against Us'" dapat diakses di JoyoNews.org .
Untuk kutipan tentang pisang goreng, dan pembunuhan anak-anak dan perempuan, lihat majalah Time, 2 Juni 2003 , dan artikel saya tanggal 21 Oktober 2014 "Tanda Merah Calon Menteri: Apakah Jokowi Sungguh-Sungguh Membangun Kabinet Bersih?" Versi Bahasa Inggris: "Red Marks Next to Their Names: Is Jokowi Serious About Being Clean?"
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General Ryamizard: The Ideologist for Killing Civilians
"Last week Amnesty International released a report on Aceh noting that 'human rights abuses ... are so pervasive that there is virtually no part of life in the province which remains untouched.' … They spoke of recent 'extrajudicial executions of civilians by the military' -- local activists say hundreds of them -- including 'the unlawful killing of women and children.'"
Allan Nairn
For the Antara report quoting Ryamizard on people who dislike the state-of-siege being GAM see Laksamana.Net, December 8, 2003, 8:00am, "Gen. Ryamizard 'With Us or Against Us' Ryacudu," available on JoyoNews.org .
For the fried bananas/ killing-women-and-children quotes see Time magazine, June 2, 2003 , and my October 21, 2014 piece "Red Marks Next to Their Names: Is Jokowi Serious About Being Clean?").
NOTE TO READERS: News and Comment is looking for assistance with translating blog postings into other languages, and also with fund raising and distributing the blog content more widely. Those interested please get in touch via the e-mail link below. NOTE TO READERS RE. TRANSLATION: Portions of News and Comment are now available in Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Danish, French, German, Russian and Spanish translation (click preceding links or Profile link above) but translation help is still needed -- particularly with older postings, in these and all other languages. NOTE TO READERS RE. POTENTIAL EVIDENCE: News and Comment is looking for public and private documents and first-hand information that could develop into evidence regarding war crimes or crimes against humanity by officials. Please forward material via the email link below. Email Me