Yogyakarta – Today, Monday 31/10 One hundred Papuan Students who called themselves the Alliance of Papuan Students (AMP) Jogjakarta took part in a long march [in central Java] to protest against the inauguration of MRP members in Papua by the Minister of Home Affairs of the Republic of Indonesia.
Indonesia & East Timor Digest
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October 31, 2005
Sian Powell in Tubu, West Timor – Yosep Palbeno gestures furiously as he tells the story of how he was threatened by five armed East Timorese police officers. Barefoot and grizzled, the market farmer has a garden high in the remote hills of West Timor, on the edge of the international border between Indonesia and the East Timorese enclave of Oecussi.
Alastair Thompson – Timor-Leste Foreign Minister & 1996 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Jose Ramos-Horta knows more than most about independence struggles against Indonesian control.
Scoop took the opportunity of Mr Ramos-Horta's attendance at the 36th Pacific Island Forum to discuss the struggle for recognition by the independence movement from West Papua.
In an effort to accommodate fundamental rights for natives, the Indonesian government set up a people's assembly in the easternmost province Papua on Monday even though protesters say the body will only act as a Jakarta puppet.
Nurvita Indarini, Jakarta – Just because he increased fuel prices, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is facing a class action. Yudhoyono is accused of violating the law by raising fuel prices. Well known Islamic preacher Aa Gym is also being sued.
Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – It was almost dusk on Sunday, but a group of children at the refugee camp were still playing outside despite the mud after a heavy downpour in Banda Aceh.
October 30, 2005
Ellen Nakashima, Lorejo – An old man, thin and stooped, raised a wooden stick over his head and swung it down with both hands. This, he said, was how he executed fellow villagers 37 years ago, striking their necks with an iron bar. The kneeling victims, tied together by their thumbs, tumbled two by two into a hole, now a mass grave.
Simon Parry – Oxfam has built around 300 homes so far at a cost of $ 25,000 each and hopes to build 920 on six different sites around Banda Aceh by the end of the year.
Simon Parry – Her shattered village was one of the most enduring images of the tsunami. Now, 10 months after the horror, Marini Hermansyah cradles her baby daughter in a mosquito-infested camp where survivors fear that the world has forgotten them.
Three teenage Christian girls were beheaded and a fourth was seriously wounded in a savage attack yesterday by unidentified assailants in the Indonesian province of Central Sulawesi.
Ade Rina and Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – Indonesian police beefed up security patrols on Sunday in the Poso area, plagued by sectarian violence for years, after mysterious assailants in black beheaded three teenage Christian girls.
October 29, 2005
Rip Hudiono, Jakarta – All ended well for the government's proposed 2006 state budget, with the House of Representatives passing the budget draft into law on Friday.
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was criticized on Friday for showing lack of commitment in pushing through the military reform program during his first year in office.
Sian Powell and Mark Dodd – From his post high in the misty Indonesian hills of Manusasi, Indonesian First Lieutenant Sujatmin keeps watch on the international border with East Timor.
It's an increasingly important – and potentially dangerous – job. In the past six weeks, there have been nine violent incursions over the border, spurring a flurry of international diplomacy.
Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Despite considerable progress, the Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Agency (BRR) for Aceh and Nias has been facing numerous technical and administrative obstacles that make the reconstruction and rehabilitation work slow in the disaster-devastated region.
Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The central government's plan to appoint all 42 members of the Papuan People's Assembly (MRP) is against the law, undemocratic, and will create a puppet government of Jakarta, protesters in Jayapura say.
Jakarta – After one year in power, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his economics team have so far failed to live up to expectations, with the economy – both macro and micro – showing little sign of improvement, revealed a study by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI).
Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta – Police said on Friday they had named eight followers of a little-known religious sect in Central Sulawesi as suspects for the killings of three police officers.
October 28, 2005
Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – Indonesia, criticised for slow reconstruction in tsunami-hit areas, has set up a special trust fund to speed rebuilding as the disaster's anniversary approaches, the agency in charge of rebuilding said on Friday.
Lloyd Jones – Hundreds of people have rallied in Port Moresby to urge Pacific leaders meeting there to take West Papua's case for independence from Indonesia to the United Nations.
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The government insisted on Thursday that the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) should submit the names of its 3,000 former fighters as part of their integration process into society after a peace deal to end 29 years of separatist fighting.
Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandarlampung – The fishing village of Kuala Penet, situated at the estuary of Way Kambas National Park in Lampung, might be just a small dot on the map, but for environmentalists it is notorious as the center of illegal logging in southern Sumatra.
Jakarta – Poor coordination has been blamed for the slow rehabilitation and reconstruction process in tsunami-struck Aceh, particularly in the areas of housing and economic recovery, a study reveals.
Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Though there has been no singularly mind-boggling achievement in his first year in office, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's bold decision to slash fuel subsidies not once, but twice, puts him in a different class to any of the three Indonesian presidents since Suharto.
Jakarta – The number of mentally ill people in Jakarta has risen dramatically over the past month, so much so that four government mental institutions in Jakarta were overwhelmed, Tempo Interaktif reported on Thursday.
October 27, 2005
Adi Warsidi, Banda Aceh – The number of cases of human rights violations in Aceh following the signing of the Helsinki agreement between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has declined.
Banda Aceh – The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has decided not to submit a list of names of some 3,000 former GAM fighters as requested by the Indonesian government as part of efforts to accelerate the reintegration process of the ex-rebels into the society.
Somewhere in the dark a child cries, someone dies and humanity hides.
These prophetic words perfectly capture the contradictions that prevail in our daily lives; the sense of betrayal felt toward those whom we once held in high esteem. Of broken promises, and deceptive oaths.
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The Ministry of Defense says it will ban servicemen from being involved in the management of businesses owned by the Indonesian Military (TNI) in order to achieve the goal of creating a professional defense force.
Indonesian police say a shadowy sect known as Mahdi is becoming a threat to national security after three officers died in a bloody clash. But others say the sect doesn't exist.
Presenter/Interviewer: Linda LoPresti
Speakers: Dr Thamrin Amal Tomagola, sociologist at the University of Indonesia.
In Papua New Guinea, hundreds of people have rallied in the capital Port Moresby to call for independence for the Indonesian province of Papua.
Some Papuans have been campaigning for self rule since Indonesia's annexation in 1969 under the vote of free choice.
Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – Increasing the allocation in the state budget for the Office of the State Minister of Environment would not help much, an environmentalist claimed on Wednesday, responding to the state minister for environment's complaint about having the lowest budget in Southeast Asia.
A rally will be held in the PNG capital Port Moresby tomorrow to highlight the push for independence in the Indonesian province of Papua. Papua was annexed by Indonesia in 1969 following the controversial act of free choice, and some Papuans have been fighting ever since for self rule.
Fadli, Batam – Some 90 percent of a total of 221,163 electronics factory workers surveyed in Batam are contract workers; a situation that makes them vulnerable to layoffs.
The figure was revealed by a survey carried out in August by the Association of Batam Human Resource Professionals.
Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – House of Representatives lawmakers have warned that the government's plan to revive the military's territorial function in the fight against terrorism would undermine internal reform within the armed forces and put democracy in jeopardy.
Jakarta – A plan to revive a community-based intelligence system run by the Indonesian army as an anti-terrorism measure threatens to harm democracy and lead to human rights abuses, analysts warn.
Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono may be leading the nationwide fight against corruption but a survey reveals that more people now perceive his deputy, Jusuf Kalla, plays an equal or more important role in running the country.
October 26, 2005
M. Rizal Maslan, Jakarta – If President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's favorite soap opera show is "Judgement Day is Nigh", what is former President Suharto's favorite television show? Apparently Suharto isn't very interested in soap opera. In his twilight years he prefers the quiz show "Who Wants to be a Millionaire".
The government has yet to approve a formal resumption of counter-terrorism training and exercises between Australian troops and Indonesia's controversial special force, Kopassus.
But Defence Minister Robert Hill indicated that the government was moving in that direction.
Fitraya Ramadhanny, Jakarta – The presence of militia in Aceh post the peace negotiations in Helsinki still lays the grounds for the potential eruption of new forms of violence. It is because of this that the government is being urged to disband the militia, which still exist.
Gary LaMoshi, Denpasar – Fallout from the October 1 Bali bombings put a damper on the local Hindu Galungan and Kuningan holidays celebrating the triumph of good over evil in heroic times.
Jakarta – A clash between police and machete-wielding members of a shadowy Islamic sect on Indonesia's eastern Sulawesi island has killed four people, three of them police officers, a senior policeman said on Wednesday.
James Balowski, Jakarta – Attending a ceremony to mark the 60th anniversary of the Indonesian military (TNI) on October 5, just days after the deadly bombing in Bali, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono instructed the TNI to "take part in effectively curbing, preventing and acting against terrorism".
Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The controversial decision to provide a new additional monthly allowance for members of the House of Representatives would not guarantee any improvement in the performance of the lawmakers, critics have said.
October 25, 2005
John Aglionby – The peace process begun two months ago by the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (Gam) is developing in a way virtually no observer predicted.
Simon Montlake, Leupung – Most days Farid Maulidi spends patching up a makeshift highway – filling in holes, repairing culverts, shoveling sand, directing traffic. As civil engineering jobs go, it's far from prestigious.
Mark Dodd – A notorious Indonesian army battalion implicated in mass killings, torture and mutilation – including the 1999 murder of a Dutch journalist – is in charge of security along the border with East Timor.
The UN Serious Crimes Unit in East Timor charged Indonesian battalion 745 with the 1999 murders of 21 civilians, including journalist Sander Thoenes.
Jakarta – Over 70,000 workers have been laid off in Indonesia since the government hiked fuel prices on Oct. 1, local media reported on Tuesday.
Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Several factions in the House of Representatives have urged the government to review its fuel price hike policy, which they said had created a huge burden for the majority of people in the country.
Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – It was billed as a way to cushion the blow for Indonesia's poorest of the poor. But efforts to compensate 15.5 million families with cash to offset steep hikes in fuel prices have instead triggered violence.