Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Indonesia's sovereignty over Papua and West Papua may face less of a challenge from the US Congress after a visiting delegation from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) outlined progress achieved in both provinces to congressmen.
Indonesia & East Timor Digest
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June 11, 2007
M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Recent occurrences of violence allegedly involving members of the Indonesian Military (TNI) do not necessarily indicate the military has strayed from its path to reform, an analyst has said.
An apology from the Indonesian Military (TNI) concerning the recent shooting incident in Pasuruan, East Java, would benefit investigators and improve the image of members of the TNI, a rights monitoring group has said.
Tangerang – Some 300 workers of garment producer PT Miju went on strike Saturday, accusing the company of failing to pay their May salaries on June 5 as promised.
"We only received part of our April salary, but the company had promised to give us full payment for the May salaries," said one of the striking workers, Hamdan.
Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Farmers in East Nusa Tenggara have lost 25 to 40 percent of their income due to irregular rainfall, while fishermen in the Maluku islands have complained of poor catches in recent years as they lose their ability to predict sea climate and fish movements.
Anne Barker – As the Balibo Five inquest winds up, there are calls for another coronial inquiry into a sixth Australian-based journalist who was murdered in East Timor in late 1975.
Darwin-based newsman Roger East has become the forgotten man in the Balibo saga that has dragged on for more than three decades.
June 10, 2007
Greg Ansley – Balibo sits astride a road weaving through the mountains of the far west of Timor-Leste (East Timor). To the north is an ancient Portuguese fort, its ramparts placed high on a peak as protection against attack.
June 9, 2007
Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Hundreds of Papuans rallied Friday in Papua and West Papua provinces during a one-day visit by special representative of the UN Secretary General on Human Rights Defenders Hina Jilani. In both provinces, Jilani was greeted with rallies.
Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – The Indonesian Embassy in Washington is lobbying lawmakers in the US Congress in an effort to block a proposal to restrict US aid to the Indonesian Military (TNI) over alleged violations of human rights.
Jakarta – Attorney General Hendarman Supandji said Friday that his office is utilizing a new method of collecting evidence for the case review of the murder of rights activist Munir Said Thalib.
Jakarta – Activists and legislators said Friday that the state has acknowledged human rights at the policy level but has failed to implement its values in practice, especially in relation to protecting human rights defenders.
Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Finance Minister Sri Mulyani and Industry Minister Fahmi Idris are now much richer than they used to be. On Friday the ministers updated their wealth figures with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – Jakarta's neighboring cities has been irked by being named the nation's dirtiest in the Environment Ministry's annual cleanliness competition, officials said.
All of Jakarta's five municipalities won Adipura awards this year, a slight improvement over last year's haul of four awards.
June 8, 2007
Jakarta – Hundreds of people rallied Friday in West Papua, calling on the United Nations to put pressure on Jakarta to overturn a 1969 referendum that joined the territory to Indonesia, organisers said.
Ted Sprague – In the midst of the hue and cry over the non-renewal of RCTV's license in Venezuela, freedom of speech is being blatantly violated in other parts of the world. In Indonesia, an event to discuss Marta Harnecker's book 'Understanding the Venezuelan Revolution' was disrupted through intimidation by the police and hooligans.
Jakarta – The struggle to make independent candidates (non-political parties) be included in the Jakarta Governors Election this year failed. Until the deadline of gubernatorial candidates registration yesterday (7/6), the Constitutional Court did not issue the decision to change the Regional Governance Decree, which does not give room for independent candidates.
Multa Fidrus, Tangerang/Jakarta – More than 2,000 workers at two North Jakarta factories were fired without notice Tuesday after they demanded better salaries and benefits.
Jakarta – The Attorney General's Office will proceed with its investigation and disregard the recent public statement made by Raymond "Ongen" Latuihamallo, one of the key witnesses in the murder of rights activist Munir Said Thalib.
Jakarta – Police have performed the worst out of all public institutions over the last seven years, with many people complaining about undue delays, the National Ombudsman Commission revealed.
Dominikus DS, an assistant at the commission dealing with the improvement of public services, said Wednesday many people had filed complaints about the police.
Australia's defence chief says a former Indonesian general who was invited to give evidence at the Balibo inquest during a visit to Sydney last month was not involved in the 1975 killing of five Australia-based journalists in East Timor.
Bruce Haigh – The NSW coronial inquest into the killing of five journalists in East Timor in 1975 has achieved far more than earlier government inquiries into the deaths.
The Deputy NSW Coroner, Dorelle Pinch, has been able to uncover facts that other investigations could not, and the inquest has confirmed the cover-up engaged in by successive Australian governments.
Loro Horta – After the relatively violence-free presidential elections in East Timor in April-May 2007, many hope that the country may finally be heading on a road to normality after more than two years of internal violence and chaos. But if the successful two-round presidential polls are an important first step, severe challenges lie ahead.
June 7, 2007
Criminals in East Timor will be offered the chance of clemency for crimes committed in the past year under a new bill passed by the fledgling nation's parliament this week.
Christine Kearney – Ugly. Rapacious. Bruising and governed by the narrowest definitions of national interest. These are a few of the descriptions that spring to mind after reading this devastating portrait of Australia's negotiations over oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea.
Banda Aceh – Angry residents in Indonesia's Aceh have disabled a tsunami warning system after a false alarm spread panic in a province still traumatized by the deadly 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, an official said on Thursday.
Jakarta – Ongen Latuihamalo, one of the key witnesses in the murder case of Munir Said Thalib, has confirmed that he saw Munir on his September 2004 flight to the Netherlands but denied being an acquaintance of the rights activist.
Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Indonesian Navy chief Admiral Slamet Soebijanto brushed off allegations of gross human rights abuse in last week's deadly clash between Marines and residents in Pasuruan, East Java, and maintained that the soldiers' behavior was justified.
Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Legislators from several political parties are busy collecting political support to back a motion urging the House of Representatives to make an official statement on the alleged use of illegal funds during the 2004 presidential election.
Jakarta – The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) has criticized the planned construction of waste incinerators in the capital.
Executive director of Walhi's Jakarta chapter, Slamet Daroyni, said Tuesday the incinerators would pose a risk to the environment and public health. "The incinerators are not eco-friendly," he said.
June 6, 2007
Nograhany Widhi K., Jakarta – Around 300 people from the Urban Poor Union (SRMK) demonstrated in front of the Constitutional Court on June 6 demanding that the court review Law Number 32/2004 in relation to independent candidates in the election of regional heads.
Evidence given by different witnesses to the Sydney coroner's court inquest into the death of Brian Peters and four other journalists in the East Timor town of Balibo on 16 October 1975 indicate that former Gen. Sutiyoso, now governor of Jakarta, may have been an army captain in "Team Susi," the Indonesian military unit responsible for taking Balibo that day.
Mark Forbes Herald, Jakarta – Human rights abuses by the military and its continuing role in Indonesia are under renewed scrutiny after marines shot dead four villagers in East Java.
Jakarta – The National Land Agency is avoiding taking any action on the Pasuruan land dispute case until the President meets with governors from across the country.
"We are intensively following developments. We want to facilitate a resolution, but we also have to consider other social matters, so we will wait until after the meeting," land agency chief Joyo Winoto said.
Jakarta – The Constitutional Court is examining the 2000 Human Rights Court Law, as requested by a former unit commander of the Army's Special Forces (Kopasus) convicted of involvement in the forced disappearances of activists in 1997 and 1998.
Inadra Subagja, Jakarta – A key witness in the Munir murder case, Raymond Latuihamalo alias Ongen, has spoken for the first time about Munir's activities while he was in transit in Singapore. Ongen said he saw the late Munir sitting with a person at the Coffee Bean in Changi Airport.
Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Rogue prosecutors in North Sumatra have ways to help certain people arrested on corruption and drugs charges escape prosecution.
The presence of such prosecutors in the province is public knowledge, which may be the reason Attorney General Hendarman Supandji said North Sumatra was close behind Jakarta in this area.
Jakarta – After three years of delays, the Attorney General's Office (AGO) announced Tuesday it will form two special teams to investigate corruption cases involving Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support (BLBI) funds debtors.
Jakarta – Aware that the Indonesian language is spoken by most people in Timor Leste, the country's government has decided to make the Indonesian language, or Bahasa Indonesia, its working language.
Visiting Timor Leste President Jose Ramos-Horta said that Bahasa Indonesia was even used in state offices for day-to-day communication.
Shirley Shackleton – The sudden departure on May 29 of visiting Jakarta governor, General Sutiyoso, after being asked to give evidence at the inquest into the death of Brian Peters in East Timor in 1975, further incriminates him in the plot to kill five Australian journalists in Balibo, East Timor, in 1975.
June 5, 2007
East Timor President Jose Ramos Horta has praised a much-criticised commission probing the violence that accompanied his nation's break from Indonesian rule in 1999, saying it could be a model for other nations.
Jakarta – Indonesia and its former colony East Timor agreed Tuesday to extend by six months the work of a joint truth commission tasked at gathering the facts surrounding Indonesia's military rampage ahead of East Timor's 1999 vote for independence. The commission's mandate now extends until February.
A Darwin-based East Timor activist says there is more than enough evidence for the Northern Territory coroner to hold an inquest into the death of an Australian man 32 years ago.
Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – Two supporters of East Timorese President Jose Ramos Horta have been shot dead by off-duty police as trouble mounts ahead of parliamentary elections.
Andi Haswidi, Jakarta – The latest trade figures show that Indonesia's monthly exports declined 3.7 percent in April to US$8.85 billion from $9.19 billion a month earlier.
The monthly decrease was due mostly to a 3.45 percent decrease in oil and gas exports and a 3.75 percent decrease in non-oil and gas exports, the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported Monday.
Jakarta – Rights activists have asked the President to issue a decree nationalizing all commercial military interests, claiming military involvement in business is the root of rights violations against civilians.
Tony Hotland, Jakarta – A World Bank-sponsored report launched Monday said Indonesia was lagging behind other countries and not making the most of the several options that would help the country deal with the impacts of climate change.
Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Pasuruan – A meeting between disgruntled villagers and commander of the Navy's Eastern Fleet Rear Adm. Moekhlas Sidiq on Monday over a disputed plot of land in Pasuran, East Java, ended in a walkout.
Apriadi Gunawan and Yuli Tri Suwarni, Medan/Bandung – In separate protests Monday, farmers in North Sumatra and West Java demanded the government intervene to resolve prolonged, sometimes violent land disputes.
In both provinces, protesters evoked the tragedy of last week's killing of four villagers in East Java during a protest against the Navy over a plot of land.
Raden Rachmadi, Kukuh S Wibowo, Jakarta – Imparsial, the human rights monitoring organization, viewed that the case of shooting at civilians in Alas Tlogo Village, Pasuruan, is a violation that should be put on record at the human rights court. "This is a crime against humanity," said Imparsial's Executive Director, Rachland Nasidiq, yesterday (4/6).
Jakarta – The Indonesian government was grateful and delighted with the use of Bahasa Indonesia as one of the official languages in neighboring Timor-Leste, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Tuesday.