TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS -- BREAKTROUGH IN TRAINING

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 JAKARTA 001005 SIPDIS DEPT FOR G/TIP (JSIGMON) EAP/MTS, EAP/MLS, DRL/IL, DRL/PHD DOL FOR ILAB:BSASSER NSC FOR EPHU E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL ELAB ID SUBJECT: TRAFFICKING IN PERSONS -- BREAKTROUGH IN TRAINING KEY AGENCIES REF: A. JAKARTA 616 ¶B. JAKARTA 415 ¶C. JAKARTA 191 ¶D. (07) JAKARTA 1560 JAKARTA 00001005 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (U) This message is Sensitive but Unclassified -- Please handle accordingly. ¶2. (SBU) SUMMARY: In a major breakthrough in fighting trafficking in persons (TIP),senior officials from Indonesia's Manpower Ministry and the Overseas Manpower Protection Agency (OMPA) recently participated in Department of Justice/OPDAT training for prosecutors. These two agencies--which have requested additional USG training--were cited in the 2007 TIP report as being the least willing to take steps to enforce the Indonesia's new anti-trafficking law. Their willingness to participate in training programs is a product of concerted outreach by Mission. END SUMMARY. COMMITTING TO TRAINING ¶3. (SBU) Labatt and the DOJ Intermittent Legal Advisor (ILA) met OMPA Director Jumhur Hidayat in early April. During our discussion with Hidayat, he committed to sending senior officials to OPDAT training and followed through by sending two officials to the April 29 workshop in Bogor, West Java (see below for details of this workshop). After hearing how useful the workshop was, Hidayat committed to send more officials to workshops in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, and Manado, North Sulawesi, two hotspots for trafficking. OMPA subsequently sent four officials to the May 13-14 workshop in Pontianak at its own expense as speakers and participants. The Manado workshop is scheduled for late May. ¶4. (SBU) The Manpower Ministry has made a similar commitment to particpate in OPDAT training. At an International Labor Organization (ILO) workshop held in January, Labatt delivered remarks calling for increased Manpower enforcement against trafficking (ref C). I Gusti Made Arka, Manpower's Secretary General for Supervision and Monitoring, took our comments to heart and in April convened a meeting of all department heads to hear Labatt concerns. At that meetig, he assigned his Deparrtment heads to attend OPAT training which ILAA subsequently arranged. A senior official, who Arka assigned to address the April 29 conference, gave a thoughtful talk on the need for strong law enforcement and regulation, citing 
instances where labor recruitment agencies had engaged in unlawful practices. Arka subsequently asked that similar training be extended to hundreds of officials nationwide, conveyed to ILA in a handwritten note. SUCCESSFUL WORKSHOPS ¶5. (SBU) Four senior Manpower Ministry officials each heading a Manpower department, and two senior OMPA officials, attended the two-day OPDAT training along with 25 experienced prosecutors. Speakers at the Bogor conference included ILA John Shipley; Damianus Bilo, the TIP legal expert working for DOJ and ICITAP; Azhar Usman, director of health and safety regulation for the Ministry of Manpower; Irawati Harsono, a well-known former police official who has worked extensively with TIP cases and victims; Nia Sujani, a prominent labor attorney who has been an active voice on TIP issues; Payaman, a senior Indonesian prosecutor and a member of the Attorney General Office's Terrorism and Transnational Crimes Task Force, which handles major TIP prosecutions throughout Indonesia; and Surung Aratonang, the chief of the Bogor area prosecutor's office. ¶6. (SBU) Working with Labatt to involve officials from the two leading agencies responsible for worker protection, the ILA designed the course to incorporate aspects relevant to these agencies. The training had three goals: --First, to educate participants about the new anti-trafficking law and other Indonesian laws applicable to JAKARTA 00001005 002.2 OF 002 labor trafficking and how they all fit together; --Second, to reemphasize the importance of human trafficking prosecutions and the unique problems and harms of trafficking for purposes of labor exploitation; --Third, to make participants from the regulatory agencies understand that they have a role, and a responsibility, in fighting trafficking. ¶7. (SBU) To facilitate discussion at the conferences, and to ensure a written resource for future consultation by the participants and Pusdiklat, ILA generated a handbook that contained: relevant excerpts of an as-yet-unpublished work about the new law and TIP prosecutions generally; a copy of the 2007 law; a summary of other Indonesian laws that could be used in cases of apparent trafficking; and a "thumbnail" chart prepared by ILA of laws that could be used to prosecute TIP offenders. ¶8. (SBU) DOJ/ILA conducted a similar program in Pontianak, West Kalimantan on May 13. This area on the island of Borneo is a major source of victims who are trafficked abroad, yet prosecutors there have not received any prior programs related to the 2007 anti-trafficking law, such as has been previously provided in Jakarta and other parts of Indonesia. This location, along with Manado, were identified by Labatt during field visits as locations with severe trafficking problems but strong political will to address them if training could be provided (refs A and D). A BREAKTHROUGH ¶9. (SBU) Manpower and OMPA eagerness to train officials at senior levels and requests for more training is a breakthrough for anti-TIP efforts. Manpower has been absent from many TIP discussions in the past and when training has been offered, they sent low ranking officials who had no effect on policy. For OMPA, formed in early 2007, this is the first time that their officials have had any TIP training. With this close cooperation, the U.S. Mission is in a strong position to push for more vigorous protection of workers against trafficking and other exploitation due to the education and goodwill this training had created. HEFFERN