THROWN OUT
Three East Timorese who entered the French Embassy in Jakarta in October were unceremoniously thrown out by a Frenchman and local security guards after spending less than two hours there, according to one of the Timorese, Alberto da Silva, 23. The French Embassy later denied the Timorese had been there. The eviction contravenes the right of asylum written into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since September 1995, 89 Timorese have been given asylum in Portugal after entering embassies in Jakarta. In September and August other Timorese were granted asylum after entering the Spanish and French embassies, but failed in a bid to enter the Japanese embassy when threatened by security guards.AFP 20 August 1996, Reuters 24 September & 17 October 1996
STOLEN ART
Police have so far managed to recover 22 of 25 valuable paintings stolen from the National Museum in Jakarta. The theft became known when some of them were offered for auction at Christie's in Singapore. They were probably stolen by Museum employees and bought by ML, a Singapore resident with property in Jakarta. Some of the paintings were foreign gifts to President Sukarno in the 1960s. Most famous among the stolen art were an 1867 portrait of Governor-General van den Bosch by Raden Saleh, three landscapes by Affandi, and two paintings by Basuki Abdullah. There were also works by Cezanne, Renoir, Picasso, Toulouse and Kandensky.Kompas 27 September & 5 October 1996
FISH FUSS
The Navy in one week in September expelled 50 mainland Chinese trawlers with 1000 crew for fishing illegally in the area around Irian Jaya. The Chinese were equipped with false papers authorising them to fly the Indonesian flag. They obtained them from corrupt harbour officials in Gresik, East Java. In October the Navy arrested another 24 Taiwanese and Thai boats with 300 crew operating illegally in Eastern Indonesian waters. Navy patrols in the rich fishing grounds there have been increased but remain inadequate.Media Indonesia 26 September & 7 October 1996
GIFT QUERIED
Indonesia became a major issue in the feverish last days of the American presidential election, when Republican campaigners faulted the Democrats for accepting a US$425,000 gift from James Riady. Riady has spent time in Little Rock, Arkansas, and has ancestral ties to mainland China, but is an Indonesian citizen. The Riadys own Lippo Bank in Indonesia and hundreds of companies throughout Asia. James Riady appears to be an important unofficial link between Presidents Clinton and Suharto.New York Times 11 October 1996
SEE YOU IN COURT
Japan, the USA and the European Union are taking Indonesia to arbitration at the World Trade Organisation for infringing free trade agreements. At the 1994 APEC summit, President Suharto was the most vocal proponent of free trade. But in February 1996 he decided Indonesia needed a 'national car' with special tax breaks, and awarded the job of making it to his son Tommy. Tommy has no car factory, so he is now importing fully built-up Korean cars. The first of 45,000 of them are already on the market, undercutting the Japanese cars that have long been dominating it. Some Indonesian economists critical of the President's favouritism see the WTO challenge as the trial Indonesians could not have in Jakarta.Far Eastern Economic Review 17 October 1996
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