Nurfika Osman – The company uniform at the world's largest copper-and-gold mine in Papua is looking decidedly more severe these days.
Amid a spate of roadside ambushes from gunmen over the last few months, employees of PT Freeport Indonesia have started wearing flak jackets and helmets, the company's spokesman said on Friday.
Febriamy Hutapea – A senior official with the Democratic Party tried to quell a tempest of controversy on Friday, saying there had been no hidden agenda surrounding a recent meeting with a major rival party.
Heru Andriyanto – The Attorney General's Office is putting together a new corruption case against Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra in an attempt to keep the injunction on his 36 million euros ($52 million) kept in the British independency of Guernsey.
Attorney General Hendarman Supandji, however, declined to give details about the case when he met reporters on Friday.
Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – Indonesia has been dealt a blow by Britain's highest court of appeal, with a ruling in favour of convicted murderer Tommy Suharto getting his hands on Euro 36 million ($61.7m) in a Guernsey bank account.
Jakarta – How long will the country tolerate the prolonged slavery of housemaids? The government insists it is difficult and potentially counterproductive to regulate the domestic sub-sector and the House of Representatives has not made the issue a top priority.
John Aglion, Dili – Jose Ramos-Horta, East Timor's president, has called for those responsible for the death of Sander Thoenes, the Financial Times journalist killed during 1999 violence in the territory, to be brought to justice.
Jakarta – Police are verifying intel that the country's most wanted terrorist, Noordin M. Top, has married again – this time to a 19-year-old woman in Pandeglang, Banten, days after one of his lieutenants was killed in Central Java.
Around 370 operators and employees of entertainment centers in Bekasi, east of Jakarta, have demanded that the local authorities pay them a Ramadan allowance following the closure of their work places.
They made the demand in reaction to the forced closure of their businesses and workplaces during the current Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.
The United Nations is preparing for a gradual withdrawal from East Timor early next year and expects Australia will begin to reduce its troop numbers at the same time.
Meredyth Tamsyn – The day, like most others in East Timor, started very early. But it was not the chickens or motorbikes that woke us that day, it was heart-pounding excitement.
Sara Everingham – East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta has dismissed calls by Amnesty International to establish a war crimes tribunal to investigate human rights violations there during 24 years of Indonesian rule.
Matt Crook, Dili – After three years behind bars as a political prisoner in Indonesia, British human rights campaigner Carmel Budiardjo saw firsthand the viciousness of former President Suharto's military dictatorship.
Expelled from the country in 1971, Budiardjo knew there would be suffering when the Indonesian military invaded East Timor in 1975.
Sara Everingham – Thousands of refugees in East Timor displaced during the 2006 military crisis have been moving back to their communities, with only a few remaining in makeshift camps around Dili.
Febriamy Hutapea & Markus Junianto Sihaloho – A Democratic Party official is once again stirring controversy by saying that current negotiations with a major rival party about positions in the next government are merely part of a ploy to pressure coalition members to ease up on their demands.
Nurfika Osman – Industry experts on Thursday blamed corrupt city officials for the sharp decline in the amount of green space in the capital.
Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Human rights activists on Thursday criticized President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for using the military in the fight against terrorists in the country, saying some officers might exploit their role for their own interests as in the New Order regime.
Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandarlampung – Claims that local election officials demanded payment from political parties for legislative seats have emerged from two new regencies in Lampung.
The two regencies – West Tulangbawang and Mesuji – just recently gained autonomy from the Tulangbawang administration.
The nation's best strategy in its battle against terrorism would be to increase the capacity of civilian law enforcement and not provide more authority to military or intelligence agencies, the International Crisis Group said on Thursday.
Jakarta – Drivers working for the US-based company PT Freeport Indonesia have demanded a security guarantee in the wake of shootings near Grasberg mine in Mimika, Papua, in recent months.
Close to a hundred drivers are gathering Thursday morning at a bus terminal near Timika Airport, where Freeport management representatives have arrived to meet them.
Jakarta – Migrant Care, an NGO advocating for the rights of migrant workers, has urged the government to immediately ratify the 2003 ILO convention on the protection of migrant workers and their families to counter increasing abuse against housemaids both at home and abroad.
Tom Allard, Jakarta – The publisher of a popular Indonesian Islamist website and magazine has been arrested by counter-terrorism authorities, accused of organising the financing for attacks on the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton hotels last month.
Camelia Pasandaran – Indonesian media have yet to take full advantage of freedom of the press, senior editorial staff members said.
Camelia Pasandaran – Commercial interests, self-censorship and fear of lawsuits are hindering the growth of high-quality news media in Indonesia, journalists and analysts say.
Camelia Pasandaran – In somewhat unusual circumstances, two beautiful North Sulawesi women wearing skirts slit all the way up to their waists and low cut white silk tops performed a traditional dance in front of the nine-member Constitutional Court on Thursday, as part of a legal challenge against the Anti-Pornography Law.
The terror network blamed for the Jakarta hotel bombings is "larger and more sophisticated" than thought, a think tank said Thursday.
Analysts at the Brussels-based International Crisis Group (ICG) said the group led by Malaysian Islamist Noordin Mohammed Top was finding it "disturbingly easy" to recruit members to carry out fresh attacks.
Often it takes the death of a white man to get the story of West Papua past the gatekeepers of the media.
A decade after Timor-Leste voted for independence, a culture of impunity continues to haunt the country's people.
Havana – The National Parliament of the Democratic Republic of East Timor has passed a resolution to constitute the Parliamentarian Solidarity with Cuba Group.
This Group will have among its goals the promotion of parliamentary dialogue between the two states and the exchange of experiences between deputies.
East Timor's stability is threatened by the failure to prosecute those behind the 1999 violence.
Adam Gartrell – The failure to pursue and prosecute most of those responsible for the violence that marred East Timor's 1999 independence vote poses a continuing threat to the country's stability, a new report warns.
Sunanda Creagh, Jakarta – The United Nations Security council should set up an international criminal tribunal to investigate abuses in East Timor both under Indonesian rule and in the vote for independence, a rights group said on Thursday.
Long-term development in East Timor – which celebrates the tenth anniversary of its vote for independence on Sunday 29 August 2009 – will be "seriously hindered" if justice for past crimes remains undelivered, the international development agency Progressio has warned.
A junior high student in Bandung, West Java complains her religion teacher burned her and fellow students with blown-out matches to teach them about hell.
Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Madalena is 16 but weighs just 13 kilograms, her arms and legs thin and twisted. If she could speak, she would say how happy she is to see Sister Florencia. You can see that in her bulging eyes.
Three key industries – food and beverages, cosmetics and pharmacy – are bracing for hefty additional costs and to risk losing trillions of rupiah in margins if the nation presses ahead with new halal certification procedures under a new bill, associations say.
Agus Maryono, Banjarnegara – The poverty rate in Banjarnegara regency, Central Java, has increased sharply to more than 60 percent as of the first semester this year, compared with the corresponding period last year.
Jakarta – Parliament will most likely pass the corruption court bill proposed by the government, which places the graft court under the jurisdiction of district courts, and call for more career judges than non-career ones.
Camelia Pasandaran – The voters list fiasco of this year's legislative and presidential elections was not solely the fault of the General Elections Commission, the Elections Supervisory Board said on Wednesday.
Jakarta – Coordinating Minister for the People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie claimed Tuesday that he was the most popular candidate for the next Golkar chairman. "I have the highest support," he said after giving a lecture at Bakrie University.
Yemris Fointuna, Dili – A solidarity network for Timor Leste will hold a conference in Dili from Aug. 27-29 to rally international support for poverty alleviation and programs to fight injustice in the tiny country.
Markus Junianto Sihaloho – House of Representatives members responsible for drafting the military tribunal bill were criticized on Wednesday for poor attendance, which had all but sunk any chance of military reform before the House term ends in September.
Urgent Appeal Case: AHRC-UAC-105-2009
Dear friends,
The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information that Krueng Raya police arrested a man without a warrant and tortured him in custody. He died in hospital on the day of his arrest, however no legal action has been initiated against the officers responsible.
Case details:
Ricky Gunawan, Jakarta – Indonesia ratified the UN Convention against Torture almost 11 years ago. This means Indonesia is legally obliged to take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or other action to prevent torture within its jurisdiction.
Patrick Guntensperger, Jakarta – Under former dictator Suharto, the military linked Golkar party dominated Indonesian politics for decades. Now, in a more democratic era, the deceased Suharto's controversial son, Hutomo Mandala Putri, popularly known as Tommy, has to the surprise of many announced his intention to take over the party's reins.
Anita Rachman – Malaysia has agreed on a minimum monthly wage for Indonesian maids and other migrant workers in the informal sector, a key demand of Indonesia during ongoing negotiations on a new labor agreement.
Ary Hermawan, Jakarta – ASEAN countries must consider forming a regional human rights court if they are truly committed to protecting the basic rights of their citizens, a coalition of 70 Asian NGOs said Tuesday.
Arientha Primanita – The new Jakarta Legislative Council was sworn in on Tuesday afternoon, with more than two-thirds of the council comprised of new faces, reflecting widespread disenchantment with the previous legislators.
Dicky Christanto, Jakarta – The Attorney General Office's (AGO) latest admission that a prosecutor was involved in a mediating attempt to save PT Masaro president director Anggoro Widjojo, a suspect in a multi-million dollar corruption case, from prosecution, is proof that many prosecutors still get bribes from graft suspects, a civil society groups coalition says.
Fadli, Batam – The police in Natuna regency, Riau Islands, on Monday released three NGO activists who had allegedly been involved in a free Natuna movement on the grounds that they had yet to be proven to have committed serious separatist efforts.
Debnath Guharoy, Consultant – Just a few weeks ago, the Mega-Pro ticket proclaimed that the "cultural invasion" by the West must be stopped. The JK-Wiranto team took a cue from the growing number of jilbab on the street to promote their wives in crowd-pleasing headgear.
Mark Dodd – East Timor has called for an end to delays over the development of the oil and gas-rich Greater Sunrise field in the Timor Sea after new interest from investors in Malaysia, China and South Korea.