INTERNATIONAL CONFEDERATION OF FREE TRADE UNIONS (ICFTU)
ICFTU Online...
177/980827/JR
(By Jean ROM)
While a special mission of the International Labour Organization
(ILO)
is in the Indonesian capital since Monday (24 August), in order
to help
the government adapt its labour legislation to international standards,
security forces last Tuesday attacked a group of over 300 textile
workers who were marching to the very premises of the ILO in Jakarta
to
press their demands. Meanwhile, the new Indonesian authorities
still
detain a large number of political prisoners, including at least
one
independent trade unionist, whilst the official trade union federation,
inherited from the Suharto regime, is in its death throes.
Brussels, 28 August 1998 (ICFTU Online): Among the prisoners
still held
in Indonesia is Dita Indah Sari, the young leader of the PPBI,
the trade
union arm of the PRD opposition party, who has been languishing
in
prison since June 1996. Sentenced to five years' imprisonment
in 1997
for "subversion", she suffered a particularly severe
prison regime until
the recent political changes in the country. Last July Fahmi
Idris, the
new Indonesian Labour Minister, promised a senior representative
of the
Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging (FNV, the ICFTU's Dutch affiliate)
that she would soon be released. The minister declared himself
to be
"personally concerned" by the case, and committed to
obtaining her
freedom. Since then, Jakarta has gone silent on this question.
Dita
Sari's name was not on the list of detainees granted an amnesty
last
week, during the annual independence day ceremonies. All that
has
happened is that her sentence has been reduced by one month, according
to information received by the FNV in Amsterdam. Her continued
detention is all the more surprising as Coen Pontoh and Mohamed
Sholeh,
two militants involved with Dita Sari in the major labour movements
of
June 1996 and condemned to similar sentences, were among the waves
of
prisoners released following the fall of the Suharto regime.
ICFTU sources say the reason for Dita Sari's continued detention
is that
the release of detainees linked to the PRD is the subject of tough
bargaining within the new authorities. Indonesian human rights
activists have told the ICFTU that a list of "releasable"
detainees has
been presented to the government. The list, which had the backing
of
Justice Minister Mulada, included Dita Sari, but the military
within the
government then vetoed her release. According to the influential
Tapol,
published in London, and which is an authoritative source of information
on human rights in Indonesia, General Wiranto, head of the Armed
Forces
(ABRI) and Defence and Security Minister, and General Feisal Tanjung,
Minister-Coordinator of Political affairs and Security, maintain
the
upper hand in these decisions. A number of senior ABRI officers
have
apparently spoken against the release of activists close the PRD,
which
has recently been labelled "neo-Communist". The accusation
of communism
weighs heavy in Indonesia, where everyone remembers the anti-Communist
purge which, in the 1960s, propelled General Suharto to power
at the
cost of over half a million deaths.
With many trade unions throughout the world placing further
pressure on
the Indonesian government to free Dita Sari (the ICFTU and FNV
have
again intervened during the last few days, in particular via diplomatic
channels), the ILO mission, which has been in Jakarta since Monday
morning, will be unable to bring up the case of the detained trade
unionists with the government, at least not officially. The remit
of
the mission, referred to as "Direct Contacts" in UN
jargon, is limited
to advising the government on adapting the new Indonesian labour
laws to
international standards. The exercise mainly relates to the Convention
on Freedom of Association (ILO Convention 87), which the government
has
just ratified after decades of ferocious resistance.
Meanwhile, the position of the official trade unions has being
growing
more complicated from day to day. Riven by strong opposition
the
current leadership, ever since the latter agreed to withdraw a
demand
for an across-the-board wage rise, before the government finally
gave
way under the pressure of unofficial strikes and demonstrations
last
June, the official trade union appears to have moved beyond the
stage of
falling apart. Last week, the 13 professional federations affiliated
to
the former FSPSI single trade union, which was closely controlled
by the
former regime, announced that they were withdrawing from the
organization and would shortly be setting up a new democratic
trade
union confederation at an extraordinary congress. The leaders
of the 13
federations are accusing the FSPSI of "making many mistakes
which have
caused heavy losses to workers".
Right now, the former leadership and the new structure are
each
preparing their own meetings. In turn APRO, the ICFTU's regional
organization in the Asia-Pacific region, has dispatched its General
Secretary, T. Izumi, to the country, to examine the situation
closer at
hand.
Pressed to define his stand on what the FSPSI President denounces
as a
"rebellion", the Labour Minister has taken shelter behind
the
international standards ... in order not to take a position.
"The
government is bound to respect ILO Convention 87 and to respect
trade
union freedom and independence .... For this reason it cannot
interfere
in the FSPSI's internal affairs", Fahmi Idris declared a
few minutes
after receiving the declaration published by the 13 trade union
federations.
During this time, movements by Indonesian workers to press
their
protests and demands keep shaking the country, where the military
continue to maintain a heavy hand. Most of these are spontaneous
strikes, however, a certain and growing number of actions now
appear to
be organized by embryonic independent trade unions.
One such case was the demonstration which was severely repressed
by the
police yesterday (25 August) in Djakarta. 250 workers had travelled
to
the capital from a textile factory in Surakarta (Central Java,
550 km
from the capital) to denounce to the National Human Rights Commission
(a
semi-governmental body) the non-application of a ministerial decree
raising their salaries by 15%. Whilst they were marching to the
ILO
premises some fifty policemen from a mobile brigade attacked them,
beating them with rattan canes.
A number of workers were injured during the police intervention.
The
group finally found refuge in the premises of the Indonesian Legal
Aid
Foundation (LBH), an NGO close to the independent trade unions,
where
they waited in vain for the arrival of an ILO representative,
who had
been invited to visit them. The demonstrators then set out again
for
the ILO, this time without the police intervening, and came across
the
leader of the Direct Contacts mission, the Dutchman P.F. Vanderheijden,
and the ILO representative in Jakarta, the Australian Alan Bolton,
who
had gone out to meet them. According to AFP, it was on the street,
surrounded by Police Lieutenant-Colonel Imam Haryanta and Regional
Military Commander Widodo, that the ILO officials listened to
the
strikers' demands.
Contact: ICFTU Press, tel.:++32 224 02 12 (Brussels). For further
information, visit our internet site (http://www.icftu.org).