For years Watchdog has chronicled the squalid saga of the New Zealand assets owned by the members and cronies of Indonesia's murderous and kleptocratic Suharto family. The most prominent has been Lilybank Lodge, the luxury resort in the South Island's Mackenzie Country, created by Tommy Suharto, the most flamboyant of the various repulsive receivers of stolen billions that are the Suharto children. It's a long story, and rather than rehash it all here, simply check it out in our back issues, or look it up on the Watchdog or CAFCA Web pages (addresses on back page. Ed.).

The long overdue overthrow of President Suharto in 1998 meant something of a reversal of fortune for the whole thieves' kitchen of offspring, family and cronies. Young Tommy suddenly had other things on his mind, New Zealand high country resorts were the least of his concerns. Come 1999, it was announced that Tommy had sold the company that owned Lilybank to Alan Poh, his long standing Singaporean business partner. The price? $1. Tommy could carve out a new career undercutting the $2 Shop chain. CAFCA was certainly not alone in smelling a very big rat in this deal. Senior politicians have also expressed great suspicion about it, believing that Tommy had simply parked Lilybank with his mates until things picked up and he could reclaim his far flung empire. Indeed, this suspicion was deepened by the fact that, in the course of researching the NZ assets of the Suhartos and cronies, Bill Rosenberg found that, as of October 2000, (more than a year after the infamous $1 sale), Companies Office records still showed Tommy (under his correct name of Hutomo Mandala Putra) holding 95% of the company which owns Lilybank. This could also have been sloppy paperwork by those supposed to be processing the transaction.

That's where things were at when we last reported on Lilybank (Watchdog 95). Things changed swiftly shortly thereafter. We tipped off one or two financial journalists about the Companies Office records. Coincidentally or not, within a few weeks those records had been updated to remove all mention of Tommy and show Alan Poh as the owner. Journalists once again got interested in Lilybank (there had been a news blackout since the 1999 sale). Mathew Dearnaley, of the New Zealand Herald, who had earlier in 2000 done an excellent investigative feature into the whole NZ connections of the Suhartos and co, wrote an update entitled "Suharto's luxury lodge abandoned" (29/11/00). In it, he spoke to to the mysterious anonymous Aucklander who had rung CAFCA to tell us that he and his unidentified partners had been offered Lilybank for $5 million (rather more than the $1 asking price last time it had been sold). "We were offered it on a plate but the whole thing sounded like a can of worms. It was a bit like being offered a VCR in a hotel for $50" (ibid). Leaving aside the mixed metaphors (how does something sound like a can of worms?), this fellow had correctly identified the deal as involving stolen property, and did not wish to be a receiver.

But the Herald story was incorrect. Lilybank certainly had not been abandoned, nor relocated to Poh's other deer farm at Miller's Flat, in Otago. The Christchurch Press belatedly got interested in the story again (after all, Lilybank is in Canterbury) and established that reports of its abandonment were "ridiculous" and that it remained on the market, advertised in North America for about $9 million (30/11/00; "Suharto farm and lodge still for sale"). And within days, it was announced that it had indeed been sold to unidentified North American interests, for an unspecified price, with all details suppressed until given approval by the Overseas Investment Commission (don't hold your breath). We can only assume that this time around it sold for a bit more than $1. It doesn't take a genius to work out that all or most of the price paid will wind up in one of Tommy's offshore tax haven bank accounts.

CAFCA was asked to comment and said that the Government had missed the opportunity to act on the matter. Phil Goff, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said that was "nonsense"; that NZ had offered to help any Indonesian inquiry, but hadn't heard back. "The ball is firmly in Indonesia's court" (Press; 1/12/00: "Chance to probe missed"). Aziz Choudry, who had personally visited the Indonesian Attorney General, in Jakarta, earlier in 2000, to discuss the subject (see Watchdog 95 for details. Ed.) said that there was still plenty of scope for the Government to investigate. "It also shows there are lessons to be learnt about the idea that you can just buy up land in New Zealand, despite being linked to an appallingly repressive regime" (ibid).

In February 2001, as part of writing this article, we sent a routine Official Information Act request to the OIC, asking for its decision approving the sale of Lilybank and its holding company from Poh to the North American interests. Very swiftly indeed, we received an extraordinary response - the OIC "neither confirm or deny the existence or non-existence of the information requested as the disclosure of the existence or non-existence of the information would be likely unreasonably to prejudice the commercial position of the party(s) who may have supplied the information" (OIC e-mail to CAFCA, 22/2/01). We must have hit a particularly raw nerve. In the more than a decade and a half that we have been dealing with the OIC, we cannot remember ever having received such a response. By contrast, when we asked the OIC for its 1999 decision approving the $1 sale from Tommy to Poh, the document was faxed to us promptly, and without fuss. Something was obviously going on. We swiftly alerted journalists and likely MPs.

And that's as much as we know about Lilybank, at this stage. We'll keep you posted. Thankfully we may have seen the end of Tommy in New Zealand, but his stink lingers after him. There is still quite a mess to be cleaned up.

For at least a year, both the Indonesian and New Zealand governments have been saying that they want to cooperate to investigate Suharto assets in this country. Both had adopted an "after you" posture, with the result that virtually nothing had happened. However, in January 2001, it was reported that Indonesian prosecutors would come to NZ in the near future. The NZ Ambassador to Indonesia had met the Attorney General, Marzuki Darusman, and told him that Indonesia is welcome to use NZ 's legal system to try and recover those assets. But NZ Ministers said that the only Suharto, or former Suharto, assets that they know about are Lilybank and the two Queenstown chalets formerly owned by Tommy's sister, Titiek. Aziz Choudry replied: "It's a bit disappointing that they (Government staff) seem to be just focusing on Lilybank, rather than looking at corporate investments. There are questions we should be asking about the issues of somebody like Tommy being able to buy property in New Zealand" (Press, 19/1/01; "NZ inquiries into Suharto: Govt will help Indonesians"; Kelly Andrew).

We wrote to Matt Robson, Associate Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, pointing out that there is considerably more to the NZ connection than a high country resort and a couple of holiday homes. We sent him the two page list of family and crony assets in NZ, drawn up for the Indonesian Attorney General by Bill Rosenberg (see Watchdog 95. Ed.). Aziz sent a virtually identical letter and list to Phil Goff, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Robson replied to us: "...The focus to date on Lilybank Station is directly linked to the legal basis for the New Zealand government to take such action. The Indonesian Attorney General, with whom the New Zealand Ambassador in Jakarta is in regular contact, has expressed an interest in obtaining information about Suharto assets in New Zealand specifically in connection with the corruption case against Tommy Suharto. This does not rule out the possibility of the New Zealand government taking action concerning other assets located in New Zealand, should the Indonesian Attorney General make a formal request for such assistance with the relevant New Zealand legislation (the Proceeds of Crime Act and the Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters Act. Ed.), but we have not received such an approach.

"The Government's willingness to facilitate a fact finding visit to New Zealand by a representative of the Indonesian Attorney General is testimony to our wish to do whatever we can, consistent with New Zealand law, to support the Attorney General's efforts to bring to justice highly placed people such as Tommy Suharto who benefited from corruption during President Suharto's regime..." (letter to CAFCA, 19/2/01).

This story has got a long way to run, but we pronounce ourselves satisfied that our campaign, with its wonderful 1960s' radical chic title, has succeeded in putting this issue onto the political agenda in two countries (one of which has the fourth largest population in the world), and has galvanised serious action at the highest political level in both of them. CAFCA members may rest assured that none of that would have happened if we, and others like us, hadn't made such a bloody fuss about the whole disgraceful situation for years.

However, Tommy didn't hang around to appreciate the irony. He went underground, and has remained there ever since, making a complete mockery of the Indonesian legal system. The police have conducted comic opera searches of the Suharto family compound, in Jakarta, including trying to get into an alleged underground bunker, and poking around in the bedridden ex-President's bedroom. All to no avail, Tommy remains a fugitive from justice. Perhaps they should check out Lilybank. Stories have been reported of his being captured and then released by sympathetic military and/or police personnel. President Wahid said that the Government knew who was sheltering Tommy, but that "it wasn't that easy to just go in and pick him up".

The Government has acted against him - in November 2000, prosecutors seized five of Tommy's properties in Jakarta as collateral against the unpaid fine and damages. This was the first time that prosecutors had ever moved against the personal property of any of the Suhartos. Lest anyone think that Tommy is just a bit of a rogue, with a penchant for kingsize corruption, bear in mind that President Wahid named Tommy as the prime suspect in the deadly September 2000 bombing of the Jakarta Stock Exchange, which killed 15. But the police simply questioned and released him, saying that they had no reason to hold him. More recently, he was named as a likely suspect in the equally deadly series of bombings of Christian churches in seven cities, including Jakarta, on Christmas Eve 2000. At least 18 people were killed. Ever since President Suharto was overthrown, in 1998, the Suhartos, and their extremely powerful allies from the 32 year long dictatorship, have been engaged in a ceaseless and brutal destabilisation campaign against the infant democratic State that is emerging in Indonesia.

As for Suharto himself, he has done a Pinochet. The Wahid government charged him with massive corruption (he has never been charged with the mass murder of hundreds of thousands, which marked his 1960s seizure of power and the three decades of his rule). The case was dropped, in September 2000, on the grounds that he was too sick. The Government appealed, but the court decision was upheld, in February 2001. The case never got beyond discussions about his health; Suharto never appeared in court. Ever since his overthrow, in 1998, there have been massive protests calling for the prosecution of Suharto and his children. That movement continues. But he is free to spend his dotage in a very comfortable retirement in Jakarta.

Some of the former ruling clique have experienced mild irritants. Bob Hasan, Suharto's closest crony and the man dubbed the "Plywood King", was arrested, held in custody, and sentenced to two years in prison for ripping off the State. Even worse, the Wahid government refused the request of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to release Hasan from prison so that he could attend the 2000 Sydney Olympics in his capacity as Indonesia's IOC representative (appointed by Suharto). Several of Tommy's siblings have been questioned or summoned for questioning in connection with various scams, dating from the days when the Suhartos ran Indonesia as their personal fiefdom (or should that be, thiefdom?).

Prabowo Subianto is Suharto's son-in-law (his wife, Titiek, was the owner of the Queenstown chalets). He was forced to retire as a general after a military court ruled that he had exceeded orders in the kidnapping of anti-Suharto activists in 1998. He went into voluntary exile after he failed in his grab for power during the chaos of his father-in-law's overthrow. Prior to that he was the commander of Indonesian special forces, which acquired a legendary reputation for atrocity. He was up to his neck in the river of blood that the Indonesian military created in East Timor, West Papua, Aceh, and throughout the entire archipelago. He himself was personally brutal. No Indonesian charges have ever been laid against him, and he returned from exile a free man. But, in 2000, he made legal history in the US as the first person to be denied entry under the provisions of the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. This American visa ban is likely to be permanent, and was imposed because of his documented role in the organising of the murderous riots in Jakarta, in May 1998, which featured torture and a systematic campaign of raping Chinese Indonesian women (several hundred of whom are currently in Auckland, defying NZ Immigration attempts to send them back to Indonesia). Thus he has gone from the general once touted by the US as their choice for future Indonesian leader, to a pariah and criminal prohibited from visiting his son in Boston.

Indonesia is currently in a particularly chaotic situation, whether through deliberate destabilisation or not. President Wahid faces the same sort of impeachment process and mass popular uprising that so recently overthrew his near neighbour, President Joseph Estrada, of the Philippines. Corruption has touched Wahid and his inner circle. Vicious communal violence, whipped up by an organised campaign, has claimed tens of thousands of lives throughout the country (beheading and cannibalism in Kalimantan being but the latest outbreak). The violence shows no signs of abating. Separatist movements have acquired new momentum in West Papua, and Aceh (CAFCA was amongst the organisations to meet Australian-based West Papuan independence leader, John Ondawame, when he toured New Zealand in late 2000).

The attempts to punish those from the dictatorship have got nowhere. The Suhartos remain untouched (just like the Marcoses, in the neighbouring Philippines). Switzerland, to which a much more substantial chunk of the Suharto loot went, has, like New Zealand, offered to cooperate in recovering it. But, as with New Zealand, no formal request for cooperation has been received. Indonesia Corruption Watch has called on President Wahid to replace his Attorney General, Marzuki Darusman, for his failure to settle corruption cases and uphold the law. His tenure has seen a conspicuous failure to convict the beneficiaries of the Suharto era's endemic corruption. Darusman has an obvious conflict of interest, as well - he is a senior official of Golkar, Suharto's party, which is still a major force in Indonesian politics, and is responsible for prosecuting fellow party leaders.

On the human rights front, the murderers remain free men. Even in East Timor, which is no longer part of Indonesia, the wheels of justice grind exceedingly slowly. The first UN war crimes indictments involve the murder, a quarter of a century ago, of white journalists (including a Kiwi) during the original Indonesian invasion. So far, nothing has been done about the hundreds of thousands of Timorese who died during the Indonesian occupation, one of the greatest crimes of the 20th Century.

Indonesia's internal situation is not our affair. But CAFCA can do its small part, in New Zealand, to help redress the terrible crimes committed against the people of Indonesia and East Timor by the Suharto family and cronies during their appalling dictatorship. We can also campaign to make sure that these sort of scumbags are not allowed to profit from our country again. We have made surprisingly good progress on this, and won't be letting up just yet.

If you are interested in Indonesia, then the group for you to join is the Indonesia Human Rights Committee, which operates a solidarity campaign to build democracy and ensure human rights in Indonesia. IHRC has been our partner in the Seize The Suhartos' New Zealand Assets campaign, from its inception, in 2000. It produces a newsletter and operates an electronic discussion list.