Justpeace Blog

scmp - Monday, August 29, 2005


SIMON MONTLAKE
The mountainous land border between Indonesia's West Timor and its territory of East Timor is no longer a flashpoint watched over by United Nations peacekeepers.

As fears of marauding militiamen have faded, the last of the foreign troops have gone, replaced by East Timorese security forces.

Trade between the two countries is brisk, though mostly one way. Almost all of the clothes, toys and food staples sold in East Timor's markets are made in Indonesia, as is the petrol sold at roadside stalls.

But relations between the two countries are anything but normal. The poisonous legacy of Indonesia's brutal 24-year rule that ended in an orgy of violence during the August 30, 1999, UN-run referendum has yet to clear.

International calls for a war crimes tribunal on East Timor have so far gone unheard. Only a handful of those involved in the violence, which cost about 1,500 lives and displaced 250,000 people, have faced trial.

A UN panel of experts recently suggested that an international judicial process was necessary to ensure justice was done. Far from welcoming the UN proposal, East Timorese leaders have distanced themselves from it.

Instead, they have joined forces with Indonesia to create a Truth and Friendship Commission that will investigate the bloody events of the past but has no judicial remit to punish the perpetrators.

The 10-member joint commission, which includes lawyers, human rights experts and a retired Indonesian general, was given a one-year mandate this month to examine legal documents and conduct interviews before issuing a final report.

President Xanana Gusmao, a former resistance leader who was jailed by Indonesia, has urged his people to back the process, offering his own example of forgiveness towards his former captives.

But the move has raised eyebrows among diplomats and aid workers, as well as among Timorese groups working on justice issues.

"Xanana can forgive and he wants other people to forgive too. But it's not that easy," said a western diplomat.

Human rights groups have attacked the commission as a political move to improve relations with Indonesia that will do little to assuage the anguish of the families who lost their loved ones.

Church leaders in this predominantly Catholic country have also urged their followers to support an international tribunal.

Manuel Tilman, an opposition member of parliament, says the ruling Fretilin party has lost touch with the people on this issue. "We want justice. Our people want this, not only the truth," he said.

Behind the posturing, say analysts and diplomats, is a strategic calculation on the part of East Timor that it needs Indonesia more than it needs an international war crimes tribunal.

"Timor has to bend over backwards not to upset its larger neighbour. Indonesia can destabilise [East Timor] any time that it wants," said Damien Kingsbury, an Indonesia-watcher at Australia's Deakin University.

On the streets of Dili, where burned-out houses bear witness to past upheaval, there is surprisingly little anger towards Indonesia. Many people speak Indonesian, watch Indonesian television and stay in touch with relatives living across the border.

Christopher Samson, a protestant preacher who runs an anti-corruption NGO, says Timorese can distinguish between Indonesian people and the military leaders blamed for the 1999 violence.

He argues that the money used for any tribunal would be better spent combating poverty in a country where youth unemployment is close to 50 per cent.

"Let's forget about the past. There's nothing we can achieve ... Indonesia today is a democracy, it's willing to change," he said.

scmp - Monday, August 29, 2005


BENJAMIN ROBERTSON
With daily newspaper images last week of grim-looking Israeli soldiers forcing angry protesters to leave their Gaza Strip settlements, it might have appeared that the roadmap to an Israeli-Palestinian peace is on track.

The reality, suggests the co-founder of a recently formed international think-tank, is far from certain, and if there's to be a true peace between Israel and Palestine - and also the west and Islam - then there needs to be a critical re-examination of the way in which the west views the Muslim world.

"There are three major misunderstandings in the west about the Muslim world," says Alastair Crooke of group Conflicts Forum. "The first is the language we often hear, that these people [Muslims] hate our values and are a threat to our societies ... The second is the use of the term `terrorism' and putting into the same compartment groups that are extremely unalike ... The third is that this is all about the west." He adds: "The use of language has dimmed and obscured our ability to comprehend the realities of a political solution, and those groups that are a solution and those that are a problem."

A former officer with British intelligence agency MI6, Mr Crooke helped launch Conflicts Forum last year in response to growing alarm among public policy formulators that the west's approach to Middle Eastern issues was unconstructive.

The group's website, www.conflictsforum.com, describes its goal as being to "end the isolation and demonisation of Islamist movements by the west ... create the space for their engagement in politics ... stimulate a new and rigorous understanding of armed political action, its causes and its varied nature, and to distinguish between this and what has been labelled as `terrorism'."

Previously posted to global trouble spots such as Afghanistan and Colombia, Mr Crooke's last position was as security adviser to European Union foreign affairs representative Javier Solana. "It's about politics, a political struggle ... the only way you can deal with it is to talk to it, listen to it. Bombing Fallujah is not the way to solve the problem," says Mr Crooke.

Controversially, he advocates engagement and dialogue with terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah - groups that use suicide bombers - and a recognition that they're willing to work within a democratic framework that might one day encourage them to lay down their arms.

"The steps Hamas have taken are clear. A few years ago, people told me Hamas would never enter into a ceasefire. They have entered into a ceasefire ... now they've agreed to take part in parliamentary elections and last week announced they would take part in the Palestinian Authority government, which before they refused to do. Even their language has moved on. Their quarrel is now with `aggressive Zionism'."

There are crucial differences, he says, between groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Hezbollah - who want to create an Islamist state from the bottom up via elections and popular support - and jihadi organisations such as al-Qaeda, who aim to destroy the state from top down, and then rebuild from the ruins.


"These groups are poles apart. I think this dichotomy was well expressed by Moqtada al-Sadr, a Shia cleric in Iraq. In an interview he said, `Look, there are some of my brothers who believe that by working with the provisional government, they can work to bring about an end to the occupation of Iraq. Well, I wish them luck, but I believe, ultimately, they will fail because the US will not allow it. That is why I believe that, first, by resistance we must bring about the end of occupation, and only then will it be possible to create a Muslim state ...' "

Organising ongoing meetings between Islamist groups and western diplomats, Mr Crooke has unsurprisingly drawn criticism for a stance that includes the questioning of the use of the label "terrorist" on groups such as Hamas.

Writing in the Jerusalem Post in April, journalist Daniel Pipes offered this conclusion: "Conflicts Forum offers a seductive alternative to the hard business of waging and winning a war. Unfortunately, its wrong-headed, defeatist and doomed approach amounts to preemptively losing the war. Its counsel deserves a round rejection."

Events since then have perhaps furthered the case that dialogue with groups such as Hamas cannot be ignored. In May's municipal council elections in the West Bank and Gaza, Hamas took 30 of the contested 84 councils, while the ruling Fatah party of Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas took 50.

Hamas announced this month that they would also run in next January's legislative elections - a result that's alarmed some in the west who had actively encouraged elections, but given hope to others who believe that "terrorist" organisations can be won over by the democratic process. "If no position is given to those who want to participate in elections, then the younger people - and it's already happening - will say `what is the point of moderation when we are excluded?'. The only way is to break the system. That's the only way to build a society," says Mr Crooke.

In understanding this trend, he says, the west needs to discard its image of Muslims as being anti-democratic. "All polls show Muslims support elections, reforms and constitutional guarantees. In many cases, Muslims support them more than western societies. What they have a problem with is our policies in Syria, in Iraq, in Iran and in Sudan. It's our policies they oppose."

Observing the withdrawal of Israeli settlers from the Gaza Strip, he cautions against premature expectations of peace, saying Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon may now need to move to the political right to compromise in the run-up to his re-election bid in 2006. This could mean an entrenchment of settlements and construction of the wall in the more politically sensitive West Bank, and the risk of further conflict with armed members of Hamas and Hezbollah.

The key, says Mr Crooke, is an acceptance of the other. "Both sides need to build confidence and build an ability to listen. What is important is it's done from a position of respect rather than a position of contempt. The legacy of the intifada is that each side sees the other as an enemy, not as a human being. There needs to be mutual de-escalation of violence."

(Inter Press Service)Aug 27, 2005
By Kalinga Seneviratne

JAKARTA - Ever since Indonesia's highest Islamic authority, the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI), issued 11 fatwas or edicts against liberal Islam, a fierce debate has begun raging in the world's most populous Muslim nation on what constitutes an Islamic society.

Though Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim nation, in these once-Hindu and Buddhist societies the practice of Islam is colored by the liberalism of the older faiths. Many urban middle-class Indonesians define their liberal interpretation of Islam as "secular". But, MUI's fatwas have thrown a direct challenge to both the government and to liberal Muslims in this country of 200

million people, of which 88% follow the Islamic faith while 8% is Christian and 3% Hindu or Buddhist. The 11 edicts, issued in late July, include one that states that Islamic interpretations based on liberalism, secularism and pluralism "contradict Islamic teachings".

Also banned are inter-faith prayers performed with people of other religions and the intonation of amen to prayers that are led by a non-Muslim, a ritual deemed to be haram (forbidden under Islamic law) as also are interfaith marriages.

Analysts say that MUI's stance is a reaction to the aggressive proselytizing by foreign-funded Christian evangelical sects in the country in recent years and the onslaught of globalize Western culture coming in through media channels and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

"Challenges for the Muslims do not come from Christian evangelism only, but also others, such as the proliferation of pornography, gambling, the spread of religious liberalism, pluralism and secularism," argues Mustofa Kamil Ridwan, a researcher at the Islamic think-tank, the Habibie Center in Jakarta.

In an Inter Press Service interview, Ridwan said suspicions were being created by the activities of some Western-funded NGOs that were "using Islam as their basis but with questionable implementation that is contradictory to the true teachings of Islam - and sometimes too radical".

One such NGO is the Jaringan Islam Liberal (Liberal Islamic Network) an organization that is located within Institut Studi Arus Informasi (Center for Studies on Information Flows) and plays an important role in spreading ideas on democratic reformation in Indonesia.

Like other NGOs, funded by Western donors, this one, too, is in the forefront of campaigns against attempts by the government to enact laws to restrict the spread of pornography, gambling and night clubs.

"Most progressive Muslim thinkers would not be very happy to be portrayed as liberals," suggested Ade Armando, a member of the Association of Indonesian Moslem Scholars.

"I think the term reformist will be more appropriate to refer to progressive groups that try to reinterpret the Islamic teaching in a more contextual approach, that unfortunately challenges the traditional Islamic teachings by the ulamas [clerics]," Armando said.

Ridwan explained that from the "conservative point of view liberalism is really a challenge" because of the fear "liberalism will make their children and the Muslim community leave Islamic values they uphold highly".

MUI has asked non-Muslims not to be upset with the July edicts as they are only aimed at Muslims, and are not the law of the land.

But MUI is gearing up to promote its edicts in regions where people are more religious, conservative and impoverished. It is these poor communities that have become the target of Christian evangelical groups for proselytizing and some ulamas have reacted by including the MUI edicts in their sermons.

Armando argues that it is wrong to portray those who support the ulamas as radicals who believe in using violence to achieve their aims. "They believe it is their sacred duty to create a new Indonesia as a respectable Islamic country," he explained.

"Many [MUI] groups are working in the institution-building level. They introduce alternative models of schools - modern Islamic schools which differ from the madrassas - new Islamic banking system, special novels for Islamic youth, and they also publish magazines, new media - such as CD, CD-ROM, VCD - that teaches Islamic values," Armando said.

Yet, Hasyim Muzadi, chairman of Nahdhatul Ulama (NU), which has about 40 million members and is considered the world's largest Muslim organization, has warned the MUI that its edicts may have a detrimental impact of the development of a civil society in Indonesia.

Muzadi has asked the ulamas to define precisely what they mean by interfaith relations and nationhood, as "we live in a diverse society and this country is not an Islamic state".

Muslim scholar Ahmad Syafii Maarif, a former chairman of Indonesia's second largest Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah, also warned that the edicts may encourage radical groups to take the law into their own hands.

"Although fatwas are not binding, radical groups who have a thirst for power will make use of them for their own interests. It is as if they have been given religious justification,'' he told the Jakarta Post.

But, Ridwan argues that the "edict functions as a provision for the ummah [Muslim community] to decide what they would do" and the ummah itself has the "the last say for themselves".

Thus, the MUI's fatwas play a very important role in the ummah decision-making process. "With the fatwa the ummah feel they have strong hands and are more certain of overcoming the challenges in the midst of very uncertain situation and full of upheaval,'' he told IPS.

Armando blamed the regimes of former presidents Abdurrahman Wahid (a liberal Islamic thinker) and Megawati Sukarnoputri (a woman) for allowing reformists within the Muslim community in Indonesia to gain in popularity.

"Very progressive books were being published in these past several years and progressive radio talk shows were launched. And in these movements, the forbidden organizations [during the Suharto era] dared to also openly surface," he noted.

"These developments, I believe, provoked reactions from the conservative groups. And now, they see SBY [President Yudoyuano] as a new president that they can perceive of as an ally or godfather.

"They [conservatives] also see these movements as being provoked by the activities of [Christian] evangelists."