Jakarta – The idea of dividing West Papua into five provinces has been mooted again. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is reported to have welcomed the proposal which was raised by Papuan governor J.P. Solossa and a number of Papuan groups.
It's realisation however mush be trough the agreement of the soon to be formed Papuan People's Council (MRP).
Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Some members of the House of Representatives have expressed opposition to articles in the draft revision of the Criminal Code that could threaten press freedom.
They said they would challenge the government-sponsored draft, which will soon be opened for deliberation in the House.
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The Ministry of Defense has finalized the first drafts on the revision of legislation on security and defense, which aim, among other things, to help create more professional military and police forces.
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The Indonesian government is expected soon to ratify the international bill on human rights, a move that could improve the country's image in the global community.
Gordon G Benton – It is more than likely that there will be an unholy battle over the desolation in Aceh and North Sumatra on who is going to rebuild the infrastructure, towns and villages.
Dili – East Timor's leaders want national consensus on how to deal with Indonesian atrocities committed in 1999, but will move to set up a Truth and Friendship Commission with Jakarta regardless of negative public reaction, Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta said Friday.
Among the donors to tsunami survivors in Indonesia's Aceh, Turkey stands out. Not for bringing money, shelter or food, but for flying their flag – an emblem that bears an uncanny likeness to the outlawed insignia of separatist rebels.
Jakarta – Teachers and academics doubt the government's planned national final exam will be able to narrow the gap in education between schools across the country.
M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – In a party held to celebrate his 80th birthday at the Taman Ismail Marzuki (TIM) building Indonesia's most credible candidate for the Nobel Prize for Literature, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, displayed a trait that was in sharp contrast with his customary nature.
Not too long ago there was a time when the public, and journalists in particular, lived with a collective daily dose of fear. A fear of speaking out about one's political opinion no matter how benign this expression might be. Any voice that even remotely could displease authorities was self-censored.
Dear Secretary Rice,
We, The Forum of Aceh People, an Acehnese civil society group who work for peace and democracy in Aceh, have read that you intend to reopen the IMET military training program for Indonesia and build again a structural relationship with the Indonesian military. We urge you not to do this.
Laksamana.Net – The government has reportedly accepted a proposal to divide resource-rich and rebellious Papua province into five provinces by 2009, despite the Constitutional Court's recent annulment of a controversial law dividing it into three provinces.
Teams collecting corpses in the Indonesian province of Aceh have estimated it will take at least another six months to find all the tsunami victims, the Red Cross said. Volunteers have been pulling scores of bodies from the rubble daily since the December 26 disaster, a grim task complicated by rapid decomposition in tropical temperatures.
Indonesia has urged the global community to heighten vigilance to ensure rampant corruption does not swallow billions of dollars of tsunami aid as it promises a March deadline to begin large-scale reconstruction in ravaged Aceh province.
Ken Guggenheim, Washington – Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz praised "a new era" of democratic rule in Indonesia, but said no decision has been made yet about lifting restrictions on ties with the Indonesian military.
Dili – The port authorities of the East Timorese and Portuguese capitals signed an accord Wednesday for broad bilateral cooperation.
The agreement was signed for Dili by the minister of transportation, communications and public works, Ovmdeo Amaral, and for Lisbon by Ambassador Joco Ramos Pinto.
Zely Ariane has been the secretary-general of the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD) since 2003. Indonesia's only openly operating socialist party, It played a central role in the movement to overthrow Suharto between 1994 and 1998 and has been at the forefront of attempts to unite the fragmented opposition to the neoliberal economic policies of the post-Suharto governments.
Thousands of Indonesians left homeless by the tsunami will be able to move into newly-finished barracks next week, but despite the promise of shelter, food and water, many instead want to return to the windswept piles of rubble they once called home.
Indonesia's capital Jakarta and five provinces have been placed under alert for a possible dengue epidemic following a growing number of fatalities and infections, officials said.
[The following open letter was sent by the UK base human rights organisation Tapol to British Foreign Office Minister, Douglas Alexander, on 9 February 2005.]
Douglas Alexander
Minister of State
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
Dear Mr Alexander,
Human Rights Abuses in Aceh
Jon Lamb – A 30-second television advertisement screened on January 26 during the Australian Open tennis tournament has returned to the limelight the theft of East Timor's oil and gas resources by PM John Howard's Coalition government. At prime time and to a record number of viewers, the message was very clear: stop stealing East Timor's oil and gas wealth.
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – The government has set up a team tasked with reviewing Indonesia's membership of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) due to the country's falling crude oil production, which is bringing the country closer to becoming a net fuel importer.
John Mcbeth – Moulding tragedy into a political turning point in disaster-stricken Aceh presents both a glittering opportunity and a dangerous pitfall for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's three-month-old administration.
The measure of a nation's greatness lies in its ability to reconcile its diversity.
There continue to be many things wrong with this country. Every day, this and other newspapers report an endless stream of injustices that occur across the archipelago. Still, amid all that is wrong it is heartening to find some things so gloriously right.
Veronica Brooks – East Timor's bid to establish a viable oil and gas exploration industry has received robust early interest from multinational petroleum companies, according to the nation's top energy official.
Jay Solomon,Medan – Textile trader Shie Hok Lai lost everything when the tsunami destroyed his shop and home in Indonesia's Aceh province December 26., but the ethnic Chinese businessman is getting ready to start over again – in the same place.
Geneva – Donor countries are failing to provide enough funds for temporary housing and job creation for survivors of December's Indian Ocean tsunami, a senior United Nations official said on Monday.
Margareta Wahlstrom, the UN's special tsunami relief envoy, also urged governments to convert their aid pledges into cash as quickly as possible.
Banda Aceh – The United Nations on Tuesday pronounced the often chaotic relief effort to aid Indonesian tsunami victims a success but warned that the toughest part of the operation was still to come.
Indonesian soldiers prevented an Associated Press journalist from traveling in tsunami-wracked Aceh, a war-torn region that was off limits to foreigners before the disaster.
Jakarta – The Ministry of Maritime Affairs and Fisheries has focused its efforts on sea supervision and the issuance of permits in an effort to stop illegal fishing during the first 100 days of the new administration.
Hera Diani, Jakarta – Religious leaders have confessed that strict law enforcement and harsh punishments are more effective than religious teachings in combating corruption.
Nana Rukmana and Rusman, Indramayu/Samarinda – Central government needed to inject more funds into the Indramayu regency because the administration was short of money to run the local elections, the region's regent says.
Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – What's in a name? Lawmakers on Monday questioned the move by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to create a new Ministry of Communications and Information.
An Indonesian prosecutor sought an eight year jail sentence for hardline cleric Abu Bakar Bashir for allegedly engaging in terrorism acts linked to a series of deadly bombings in recent years.
Jim Lobe, Washington – As US President George W. Bush last week reiterated his strong support for spreading freedom abroad, his administration was preparing to remove a major obstacle to restoring full ties with Indonesia's armed forces (TNI), widely regarded as one of the world's most abusive militaries.
Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono explained to UN General Secretary Kofi Annan last night, Friday February 4, that the Indonesian government will not be internationalising the handling of the conflict with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called for equal treatment before the law for Malaysian employers who failed to pay the salaries of their Indonesian workers.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was behind his deputy Yusuf Kalla's successful bid to take the leadership of the country's largest political party Golkar, a report said.
Samarinda – The state has suffered at least Rp 267.4 billion (US$29.6 million) in losses from 15 graft cases in East Kalimantan in recent months, in which 21 people have been named suspects by local prosecutors.
Rendi A. Witular and Zakki P. Hakim, Jakarta – While the business community is still facing chronic government red tape in running their businesses here, Vice President Jusuf Kalla is urging them not to use is as an excuse to collude with government officials.
Hera Diani, Jakarta – In what looks like a return to the New Order bullying of the press, the government's draft of the new Criminal Code contains numerous articles that could threaten press freedom.
Padang – Some 7,000 members of the Padang Market Traders Association (KPP) held a protest against the Padang municipality's plan to build a shopping mall on the site of the Goan Hoat bus terminal, located near Pasar Raya market.
The plan will likely have a serious impact on the traders, as it will block people's access to the market.
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The government is altering the rules on how regional elections should be carried out in the resource-rich provinces of Aceh and Papua, a move which some say undermines the special autonomy status of the two regions and the independency of the election process.
Jambi – Pancakarya residents in Limun district have their own way of fighting illegal loggers, by declaring 400 hectares of forest area as the village's restricted forest.
"The people want to try and keep this forest free from the chainsaw's reach," said Akmal, one of the village's elders.
Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao
President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste
Your Excellency
Two human rights groups today called the US Department of State's plan to allow Indonesia to again participate in the full International Military Education and Training (IMET) program short-sighted, a betrayal of the numerous victims of human rights violations by the Indonesian military (TNI), and a serious setback for justice.
Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Residents of Sukabumi Selatan subdistrict in West Jakarta will likely win the battle against 51 illegal denim processing plants, which have been blamed for polluting the area.
The Indonesian government's plan in Aceh to register and relocate more than 100,000 people displaced by the tsunami to semi-permanent camps threatens their right to return home, Human Rights Watch and Human Rights First said today. The Indonesian government needs to ensure that any relocation program in the province fully respects the rights of the displaced people.
Matthew Moore, Lamno (Aceh) – Almost everyone is on a hopeless search, but one family breaks the circle of doom.
Tears of grief are still falling across Aceh's tsunami-devastated west coast, but Cutchairiah is one of the few people here with reason to cry tears of joy.
Diane Farsetta – "I hope that, as a result of our efforts, as a result of our helicopter pilots' being seen by the citizens of Indonesia helping them, that value system of ours will be reinforced," said Colin Powell, one week after the tsunami wrought havoc across South and Southeast Asia.