Introduction

Dita Indah Sari — then Indonesia’s only woman political prisoner — was sentenced to five years jail on April 22, 1997. Her “crime” was daring to fight alongside Indonesian workers struggling for a better life.

Like Dita, thousands of the regime’s opponents — communists, radical nationalists, students, Muslims and labour activists — have been tried for subversion and other political “crimes”.

Political prisoners in particular, are often held under intolerable conditions — poor food, limited access to friends and relatives, overcrowding, inadequate recreational activity, no provision of reading or writing materials, radio or newspapers. Many are denied access to legal protection and are detained for long periods before going to trial even though the state has yet to prove a case against them.

Indonesia has signed, but not ratified, the 1987 UN Convention Against Torture. Nor is it party to other international treaties such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The US State Department in its 1992 country report concluded that in Indonesia “torture and mistreatment of criminal suspects, detainees, and prisoners are common, and the legal protections are violated by the government”.

Indonesia’s criminal code, enacted in 1981 and confirmed again in 1997, formally established judicial independence and the concept of separation of powers, and it includes some mechanisms to prevent the unlawful arrest and ill-treatment of suspects.

In practice, however, obstacles such as lack of counsel, consultations between judges and the military and the control of the appointment of judges by the government ensure that judges have a strong bias against defendants. Guilty until proved innocent is the rule.

Those who seek to exercise their legal rights are often subjected to harassment and threats of rearrest and torture. Lawyers also have been targets of intimidation. Direct military interference in the courts is particularly evident in political trials and in regions where there is a large military presence such as East Timor, Aceh and West Papua.

Even formal protections can easily be sidestepped by charging suspects under the Anti-Subversion Laws, which carry a maximum penalty of death and prohibit a wide and largely undefined array of political activity. These laws essentially allow the military to act as if there is a state of national emergency and to do whatever they like in political cases.

After gaining independence, Indonesia adopted the existing repressive political laws in its entirety. Suharto expanded these laws in 1969 to penalise any activity deemed to be inconsistent with, distort, undermine or deviate from the state ideology of Pancasila (as defined by the government). In a report on the Indonesian legal system, the Lawyers Committee For Human Rights described the law as a vague and broadly defined statute which can be used whenever the regime wishes to persecute someone for exercising their fundamental rights to freedom, assembly, association and religion. Amnesty International estimates that more than 150 prisoners of conscience have been convicted and are being held under these and related laws.

Following massive riots at the Madaeng prison in Surabaya, East Java, where Dita was jailed, she was moved to a smaller, more isolated prison called Kebon Waru in the small east Javanese city of Malang.

Dita is the only political prisoner in Kebon Waru and it is far more difficult for friends and family to visit. Unlike other prisoners, visits are restricted to 30 minutes and even then, family members are often not even allowed to see her. She has no access to newspapers, radio or television except for cartoons. Kept in isolation she is not allowed to have contact with other prisoners. These conditions mean that her situation is far more difficult than for the other People’s Democratic Party prisoners. On October 22, 1997 her family and lawyers lodged an official complaint to the governments National Human Rights. To date, the commission has failed to respond at all.

On November 15, 1997, Dita was evacuated to a nearby hospital with a severe case of typhoid and is now is in intensive care. As this book goes to print, she is still unconscious and has to be fed by a drip. Typhoid is usually associated with unsanitary living and eating conditions.

This is the story of an activist, a feminist and a trade unionist who dared to challenge the Suharto regime — whose courage, tireless struggle and self-sacrifice has won the respect of activists and ordinary Indonesians alike. Dita’s story is the story of one activist among many fighting for the rights of Indonesian workers and for an end to the brutal Suharto dictatorship.

Postscript

Dita is currently incarcerated in the West Tengerang Women’s Prison n the outskirts of Jakarta. She was move there after international protests about the conditions in Malang Prison, where she contracted typhus in November 1997.

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 An IWD message from Indonesia

Dita Sari, chairperson of the Indonesian Centre for Labour Struggle (PPBI) and a leader of the People’s Democratic Party (PRD) in Indonesia, was arrested by the Suharto dictatorship in the wave of repression that began last July. She was arrested on July 8 while leading a peaceful demonstration of 20,000 workers demanding wage rises and other improvements.

Dita Sari has been an outspoken defender of women’s rights in Indonesia and a courageous supporter of freedom in East Timor. She was a guest speaker at the 1995 International Women’s Day rally in Perth and sent the following message from Surabaya prison on the occasion of IWD 1997.

I write this letter in a narrow and miserable cell in a jail in Surabaya. This regime has chosen me as the lone woman among 15 people on trial for subversion. The PRD has many women activists, especially from among the workers. We think that one of the measures of the progress of the movement here is the participation of women activists, both quantitatively and qualitatively.

As a president of a trade union, I cannot separate myself from a special solidarity with the women worker activists, even though I am aware too that every activist is tested in the end via their commitment and loyalty. The regime has struck out at us with full force so that our party and its mass organisations are covered with bleeding wounds. Everywhere, the regime spreads the word that we are the same as the old Indonesian Communist Party; the regime is trying to create mass hysteria and to legitimise its repressive action against us. It needed an appropriate scapegoat and it chose the PRD. This is not a government that stands firm to defend the sovereignty of the people and their economic and political rights. It is a government built on authoritarian foundations in order to defend special economic interests and capital.

We have survived well the early period of big disruption to our organisation. Our women cadres from the students and workers have stepped forward to take leading positions in consolidating our organisation. The terrorised workers have freed themselves from fear. And the peasants, swallowed up by the repression, have began to rise up again.

And in the prison, the flames still burn bright among the cadres. Belief in the justice of our struggle and our deep love for the mass of workers are the two things which keep me going. Of course, there are moments when I experienced the bitter pain of losing everything, of a sense of failure, of loneliness. There are times that I must struggle with myself and accept that I will lose the productive years of my youth. And I think: can I handle all this?

Yet, the next morning, I always awake warmed by sweet memories of struggling together with the workers, the people. There are women in the prison here who were workers too, and each time I look at them, I feel their hands reach out to me to make sure I do not fall.

The emergence of Megawati Sukarnoputri, a woman, as a figure supported by tens of millions of people is a sign of the progress and qualitative advance made by the pro- democracy movement and of the movement to end capitalism’s use of patriarchy to manipulate us.

Now we wait for the right moment, and prepare our forces, so that we will have an era of democracy where all will have the same rights, where women will have the opportunity to emerge as leaders in all fields.

I truly hope one day to be able to be with you again, as I was two years ago, and to discuss with you the economic and political issues affecting women. Your solidarity and international support, from countries where workers are also treated unfairly and women continue to be exploited, is something which strengthens our resolve here.

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 Dita Sari hospitalised with typhoid

SiaR - November 19, 1997 (slightly abridged)

Malang — The chair of the Centre for Labour Struggle (PPBI) which is affiliated with the People’s Democratic Party (PRD), Dita Indah Sari, is in intensive care at the Syaiful Anwar Hospital in Malang (East Java) suffering from typhoid. According to political activists close to her, Dita, who was sentenced to five years jail in the Sukun Women’s prison in Malang for subversion, was first hospitalised last Saturday (15/11).

Because Dita’s condition is very weak, the medical team have had to attach two intravenous drips. According to the team, her blood pressure is extremely high reaching 155 mmHg compared to a normal blood pressure of 110 mmHg and her temperature is 39 degrees Celsius. According to the team, day and night, Dita is delirious and frequently shouts in her sleep.

The security around Dita’s room is very tight. Aside from two to three Malang police there are also guards from the Sukun Women’s prison.

A SiaR correspondent and a number of journalists who tried to get permission to visit Dita were not allowed to enter [the hospital] without permission from the Sukun Women’s prison and the head of the hospital.

“Without permission you cannot go in. Only Dita’s family may visit” said Dita’s guards.

The head of the Sukun Women’s prison, Sri Hartati SH, who was contacted by SiaR, said that they are giving her the best possible treatment. “Dita is a good kid. We are trying to treat Dita as well as possible. Wipe her mouth, watch her if she is delirious, give her compresses and medicines”, she said.

“Initially were tried to treat Dita ourselves [in the prison], but because her condition deteriorated we decided to send her to hospital, we were worried about her health if we delayed any longer” added Hartati.

She refused to answer when asked if it was possible that Dita’s illness was a result of the conditions of her cell or that her prison rations were not clean.

As reported previously, Dita’s treatment at the Sukun Women’s prison had resulted in protests by her family and lawyers because the prison did not respect her rights and applied discriminatory treatment against her. Dita was not allowed to receive [any outside] information, she was forbidden from reading newspapers, magazines, books or to watch television. To pass the time, Dita could only do embroidery.

Translated by James Balowski

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 Documents from: “Dita Indah Sari: Jailed for daring to struggle” from ASIET

Contents

Introduction

Dita’s biography and political history (see above)

Dita Sari hospialised with typhoid (see above)

1997 IWD letter by Dita (see above)

Green Left Weekly interview Dita, IWD 1995 See Women and the plight of the Indonesian working class

Women in Indonesia - By Becky Ellis See Women and the plight of the Indonesian working class

People’s Democratic Party’s program for a people’s coalition government People’s Democratic Party’s program for a people’s coalition government

From the ASIET dossier “The struggle for democracy in Indonesia”
“Dita Indah Sari: Jailed for daring to struggle” was prepared by ASIET (Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor) in co-operation with the People’s Democratic Party. Published and distributed jointly by ASIET (Australia), IndonesiaAlert! (US) and GDPI (Netherlands).
First Printing December 1997

Editing, design and layout by James Balowski, Edwin Gozal, Jill Hickson and Janet Parker.

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