VZCZCXRO4991
RR RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM
DE RUEHJS #0045 2760701
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 030701Z OCT 07
FM AMCONSUL SURABAYA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 0065
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHJA/AMEMBASSY JAKARTA 0058
RUEHJS/AMCONSUL SURABAYA 0067

UNCLAS SURABAYA 000045 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/MTS, EAP/GTIP, EAP/RSP, EAP/PD 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON PHUM PGOV ELAB KWMN SMIG ID
SUBJECT: EASTERN INDONESIA: ANTI-TRAFFICKING EFFORTS IN LOMBOK 
 
REF: SURABAYA 33 
 
This Message is Sensitive but Unclassified.  Please Protect 
Accordingly. 
 
¶1.  (SBU) Consulate General Surabaya Pol/Econ Officer and 
Pol/Econ Assistant assessed anti-human trafficking efforts 
during a visit to the island of Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara 
(NTB), September 11-13.  Anti-trafficking NGOs described poor 
coordination of anti-trafficking activities and victims' 
assistance between NGOs, provincial social services, and police. 
 Adding to problems within the anti-trafficking community, at 
least one provincial parliamentarian is reported to have been 
directly responsible for intimidating drafters of local 
anti-trafficking legislation. 
 
"There is No Trafficking Here" 
------------------------------- 
 
¶2.  (SBU) Lombok -- a poor, agrarian and predominantly Muslim 
part of NTB -- is trying to become better known as a destination 
for foreign tourists than for its tobacco fields and legions of 
overseas workers. NTB currently ranks second after East Java as 
a supplier of overseas workers.  A hopeful billboard at Lombok's 
airport reads, "Welcome to Lombok, Bali's Sister Island." 
Officials in the provincial capital say that tourist trade has 
yet to make inroads beyond beaches such as Sengigi, located in 
Western Lombok nearest Bali.  Provincial social services 
officers cited a weak educational system and few employment 
opportunities outside the agricultural sector as key drivers for 
the labor outflow. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Lombok ranks near the bottom on most socio-economic 
indicators,  including literacy, education levels and 
expenditure per capita.  This pushes tens of thousands of 
residents to migrate each year in search of a better job and 
income, making them vulnerable to trafficking.  According to GOI 
statistics, some one in 11 migrant workers originated from 
Lombok in 2005, compared with the fact that only one in 58 
Indonesians are from Lombok. 
 
¶4. (SBU) In recognition of NTB's growing trafficking problem, 
NTB has established a Provincial Action Committee for combating 
trafficking, child labor and child prostitution.  However, 
anti-Trafficking NGOs report that corruption and conflict of 
interest among several provincial parliamentarians have rendered 
the Committee ineffective.  Indeed, provincial officials, 
including the Governor, Mr. H. Lalu Serinate, are described as 
the key stumbling blocks to progress against human trafficking. 
According to anti-trafficking NGO Panca Karsa, on the same day 
that Governor Serinate stated publicly that "there is no 
trafficking problem here," Panca Karsa was assisting 12 new 
trafficking victims in its shelters. 
 
Provincial Interference 
----------------------- 
 
¶5. (SBU) One NGO reported that a provincial assembly member in 
charge of regulating worker recruitment practices is himself an 
investor in a placement agency.  When a legal drafting team 
comprised of provincial officials and NGO lawyers held meetings 
during the drafting process, "hired thugs" burst into their 
meeting and threatened to beat them up if they did not stop. 
Drafting team members were certain that the thugs worked for 
local placement agencies and were sent there to intimidate them. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  At the local level, there is widespread recognition 
of the need to tighten regulations on recruiting by placement 
agencies.  Improved legislation is moving slowly forward at the 
sub-provincial level with varying degrees of progress.   Despite 
some access to training and funds, the NTB-based NGOs we spoke 
with reported difficulty in coordinating province-wide 
anti-trafficking efforts.  Differences in focus and expertise 
were cited as significant barriers to creating an effective 
overall strategy.  The NGOs requested U.S. assistance to help 
jump start these efforts and encourage greater cooperation and 
coordination.  Panca Karsa is the recipient of a small grant 
from the Department of State through DRL.  Beauty Erawati, the 
director of LPH APIK (Associasi Perempuan Indonesia untuk 
Keadilan dan Demokrasi) will soon be traveling to the U.S. on an 
international visitor's program grant. 
 
MCCLELLAND