Wednesday January 30 2008 Doctors learn lesson from Soeharto saga Page 5 Page 12 Page 21 Italian President Giorgio Napolitano wrapped up Tuesday’s consultations with the country’s political leaders aimed at ending the uncertainty following Romano Prodi’s resignation as prime minister Center-right leader and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi who is desperate to take advantage of his Forza Italia party’s opinion poll surge told reporters he had asked Napolitano to call an early election “We think that there is no other way to go than back to the ballot box to give the country an operational government as quickly as possible ” he said after meeting with the president — AFP Tigers say 18 killed in bus bombing Tamil Tiger rebels said Sri Lankan troops Tuesday ambushed a school bus and killed 18 people including 11 children as the military reported killing 67 militants in two days of heavy fighting The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam LTTE said a “deep penetrating unit” of the military carried out the bomb attack against the school bus in the district of Mannar where heavy fighting has been raging for weeks “All the passengers in the bus were either school children or teachers returning from a sporting event ” the LTTE said in a statement — AFP Saudi Arabia culls thousands of birds Saudi authorities have culled nearly 160 000 birds after a new case of the deadly strain of bird flu was found on a farm outside Riyadh state media said Tuesday The Saudi Press Agency said 158 000 birds were exterminated at al-Kharj 150 km south of the capital after the H5N1 strain of bird flu was found there — Reuters Villain or hero — Editor Rights body to probe Soeharto cases Desy Nurhayati The Jakarta Post Jakarta A mid mounting calls for the government to grant Soeharto a hero status the National Commission on Human Rights said Tuesday it would continue investigations into past atrocities implicating the late former president The commission’s chairman Ifdhal Kasim said even though Soeharto had died and the criminal charges against him had been halted it did not mean human rights abuses that occurred during Soeharto’s term were closed “We will continue our investigation on the case and hope to finish it by early March ” Ifdhal told Antara “Although Soeharto who was politically responsible for the cases has died we can still find his cronies the ones who organized and executed the abuses ” Ifdhal said “We will probe these people and demand they be held responsible ” He said the investigation would be conducted case-bycase and would be prioritized on five major cases including the arrest of political activists in Buru island between 1969 and 1979 and the mysterious shootings — known as the Petrus case — in 1981 to 1985 Other cases include the July 27 1996 incident in Jakarta involving supporters of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle PDI-P the Tanjung Priok case in 1984 and the case of Military Operation Areas DOM in Aceh and Papua from the 1970s to 1990s The Buru island incident involved at least 10 000 political prisoners while the Petrus incident victimized some 5 000 people who were allegedly criminals Petrus occurred in provinces across Java and some areas in Sumatra and Kalimantan The Tanjung Priok clash left 24 people dead and many others injured During the DOM incident hundreds of thousands of people were kidnapped and abused Ifdhal said the commission would continue investigations based on reports by previous commissioners “We will also summon witnesses including military officials ” he said Indonesian Military TNI chief Gen Djoko Santoso declared last week TNI was willing to cooperate with the commission to reveal human rights abuses implicating its officials “We welcome TNI’s commitment to cooperate with us so that there will be no official who refuses to be present during court sessions ” Ifdhal said Soeharto died on Sunday at the age of 86 and received a state funeral The Golkar Party faction on Tuesday proposed to grant Soeharto the status of a national hero Faction chairman Priyo Budi Santoso said Soeharto was one of the nation’s “best figures” who deserved the status because of his dedication He said the faction would forward its proposal to Golkar chairman Jusuf Kalla who is also Vice President for feedback from the government Presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangeng told The Jakarta Post the government had yet to discuss the proposal for the title of hero Andi said the government did not see the issue as a priority “The government’s priority is to give back everything that has been the people’s right ” he said “But we do not forbid anyone to propose anything this is a democratic country ” Soeharto’s government took 16 years to name founding president Sukarno a national hero Antara Rezza Estily WHEELS AND WATER Two men attempt to save a motorcycle from being washed away by floodwaters on Jl Setiabudi in a hilly area of Bandung West Java Tuesday Heavy rains and storms also caused trees to fall in several parts of the city on Tuesday BI governor claims innocence in graft case involving lawmakers The Jakarta Post Jakarta B ank Indonesia BI governor Burhanuddin Abdullah on Tuesday denied allegations he was involved in an alleged graft case involving House of Representatives lawmakers “I am both shocked and saddened by the allegation I will hire a lawyer to settle this case ” Burhanuddin told reporters from his office “Time will tell that I am innocent ” The Corruption Eradication Commission KPK announced Monday that Burhanuddin along with BI legal affairs director Oey Hoey Tiong and former head of BI’s communication bureau Rusli Simanjuntak were suspects in the case surrounding the misappropriation of BI funds worth Rp 31 5 billion about US$3 38 million Three BI officials allegedly transferred money to various members of a House commission overseeing financial affairs during the amendment of the law around the central bank in 2004 The KPK alleged the three BI officials obtained Rp 100 billion from the Indonesian Banking Development Foundation and transferred Rp 31 5 billion to the House members as a bribe to smooth the amendment process Funds worth Rp 68 5 billion were used to hire some lawyers to settle BI liquidity support BLBI cases Antara Prasetyo Utomo Italian president wraps up crisis talks Former president and architect the New Order regime Soeharto died of multiple organ failure Sunday Do you think Soeharto was a villain a hero or both Send your thoughts via SMS to 62 811 187 2772 Please include your name and city Vol 25 No 270 Choppers used as Kenya violence spreads www thejakartapost com TEXT YOUR SAY T W E N T Y - F O U R PA G E S Anti-corruption conference REBUTTAL Bank Indonesia Governor Burhanuddin Abdullah addresses a press conference at his office involving former BI governor and deputy governors The transfer of funds was discovered during an audit by the Supreme Audit Agency BPK in 2006 “Based on BI regulations all of BI strategic and principle policies are determined during a collegial gubernatorial meeting not based on one’s own deci- sion ” Burhanuddin said “We decided to hire the lawyers to optimize our work because our financial report at that time got a disclaimer which affected our performance ”he said commenting on the use of Rp 68 5 billion BI funds Burhanuddin who will end his term as BI governor on May 17 was elected BI’s governor in May 2003 House member Max Moein said KPK should have named all BI officials who attended the gubernatorial meeting as suspects “All of the officials including BI senior deputy governor and deputy governors should have been named as suspects because they made the decision collectively ” he said “We need to see whether there is political motive behind KPK’s decision ” he said However Max who was part of the House’s commission overseeing financial affairs in 2004 denied House members received Rp 31 5 billion from BI No House members have been questioned in connection with the funds transfer case Commenting on the case Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said “I believe BI has its own mechanism to settle the problem ” The law surrounding the bank says if BI’s governor is not able to perform BI’s senior deputy governor will step into the position adt nkn U S propped up Soeharto ‘despite rights abuses’ P Parameswaran Agence France-Presse Washington T JP J Adiguna IN DEMAND A man sells biographies of former president Soeharto from the parking lot at the Astana Giribangun family mausoleum in Karanganyar near the royal city of Surakarta Central Java Tuesday Sales of books on the former leader reportedly increased after he was rushed to hospital earlier this month he United States declassified documents Monday detailing how Washington propped up ex-Indonesian leader Soeharto who died at the weekend at the expense of democracy and human rights The documents declassified following requests under a freedom of information law showed the U S administration did not use its leverage to bring Soeharto to account during his 32-year reign until his last months in office “One thing that is clear from the tens of thousands of pages of which we had declassified concerning U S ties with Soeharto from 1966 to 1998 — at no moment did U S presidents ever exercise their maximum leverage over his regime to press for human rights or democratization ” Brad Simpson of the National Security Archive told AFP The body a non-governmental research institute at George Washington University in Washington collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the U S Freedom of Information Act Simpson who directs the Archive’s Indonesia and East Timor documentation project said the only time Washington “decisively intervened” in Indonesia was in 1998 when it was reeling from a financial meltdown amid unprecedented riots Bill Clinton the Democratic U S president at that time phoned Soeharto about half a dozen times pressing the Indonesian leader to adopt a stringent adjustment program demanded by the International Monetary Fund according to the documents Soeharto adhered to the demands of the U S and IMF “I think it is indicative of the kinds of pressure U S could bring to bear when it decides that it is in our interest to do so but this was done on behalf of international financial institutions never on behalf of human rights activists and the prodemocracy movement in Indonesia ” Simpson said The declassified documents include transcripts of Soeharto’s meetings with Presidents Richard Nixon Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan as well as Secretary of State Henry Kissinger They also mirrored U S perceptions of Soeharto from the earliest years of his violent rule including the 1969 annexation of West Papua the 1975 invasion of East Timor and the so-called “mysterious killings” of 1983-1984 The U S was a steadfast ally of Soeharto for much of his rule providing him aid weapons and diplomatic support as it regarded him as an effective bulwark against communism Soeharto made his first visit as head of state to the U S in May 1970 amid rampant corruption and a major crackdown on political parties at home but at the White House meeting Nixon told the Indonesian leader he was presiding over one of the “largest democratic countries in the world ” “There are no issues between the U S and Indonesia ”Kissinger wrote to Nixon approvingly “and relations are excellent ” In his talks with President Gerald Ford at the White House five years later Soeharto brought up the question of Portuguese decolonization in East Timor and declared “the only way is to integrate the territory into Indonesia ” Ford gave no response according to the documents There also was no mention of human rights in Indonesia in the briefing papers of Soeharto’s meeting with President Reagan in October 1982 Two years later when Vice President George H W Bush visited Jakarta on the heels of an alleged massacre of hundreds of civilians in East Timor and “mysterious killings” in Indonesia the discussions centered largely on U S ties with the Soviet Union and China The U S embassy in Jakarta estimated that the government had summarily executed about 4 000 people at that time documents showed Human rights abuses during Soeharto’s rule included a 1965-1966 crackdown on suspected communists and sympathizers estimated by historians to have killed at least half a million people Following Soeharto’s death Sunday he was hailed by the U S embassy in Jakarta as a “historic figure” who “achieved remarkable economic development ” “Though there may be some controversy over his legacy ” Soeharto “left a lasting imprint on Indonesia and the region of Southeast Asia ” the embassy statement read