News about Indonesia

By AUBREY BELFORD
Published: August 2, 2011
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/03/world/asia/03indonesia.html

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Thousands of people rallied for independence from Indonesia in the country’s Papua region on Tuesday, after days of political violence that killed at least 21 people.

Related

Indonesian Army Get HIV / AIDS on Jobs at West Papua

Members of the House of Representatives Commission I ask not to repatriate TNI TNI soldiers affected by HIV / AIDS to the family before any medical decisions.

"I hope the soldiers who suffer from HIV / AIDS was not sent home first, because there were fears, their wives and children will be infected," said a member of Commission I Fayakhun Andriadi, Jakarta, Saturday.

He considered, the presence of TNI soldiers who have HIV / AIDS is a serious problem.

Tom Allard
Media Information - FYI
http://www.smh.com.au/world/indonesia-backdown-on-state-torturers-20100913-1599k.html

September 14, 2010
The Ambon-based unit of Detachment 88, accused of brutality and the torture of peaceful political protesters, will be disbanded, the head of the elite counter-terrorism force, Tito Karnavian, has said.

The decision to remove Detachment 88 entirely from the Malukas archipelago came as a Herald investigation exposed serious abuses of political prisoners in the province by its members last month.

Indonesia's new danger from within
TOM ALLARD SMH Australia
September 13, 2010

Australia paying troops who 'torture'

Ambonese prisoners claim they have been tortured and beaten by Detachment 88, Indonesia's elite counter-terrorism unit funded and trained by Australia.

Its elite counter-terrorism squad is breeding hatred with brutal acts.

Yonias Siahaya's eyes, wide open and full of fear, shift constantly. They dart from left to right, across the crowded ward at Ambon's main hospital, like those of a wild animal just caught and caged.

The ignored Papuan war on PNG’s border
by: Arthur Williams

Source: asopa.typepad.com

“Every day planes come in, vomiting migrants” - West Papuan eyewitness

I HAVE WATCHED the West Papua story for many years but especially since Epel Tito lost the Defence Ministry when he named Indonesia as PNG’s most likely future enemy. He’d also said he was ashamed at the treatment of the Melanesian people by their own government in Jakarta with its transmigration (now called in-migration) policy of swamping PNG’s brothers and sisters with non-Melanesians.

He said he was also ashamed with the lack of support for West Papuan independence by PNG, the biggest Melanesian nation, which shares a common border with the Indonesia colony. Only tiny Vunuatu had the balls to stand up for these unhappy people.

Journalist's death overshadows launch of Papua food project
Press Release by TAPOL and DTE

11 August 2010 - The death of a local journalist has increased concerns about a giant food estate launched today in Merauke, Southeastern Papua by Indonesia's Minister of Agriculture.

TAPOL and Down to Earth, the International Campaign for Ecological Justice in Indonesia are calling for a moratorium on the food project, known as MIFEE (Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate) until independent assessments of the political, economic, socio-cultural, environmental and gender impacts of the project have been undertaken.

The suspicious death of the journalist, Ardiansyah Matra'is, in late July, following threats against him, has been linked to his coverage of this week's local elections for the district head in Merauke.

Source: the Economist

Aug 9th 2010, 9:40 by Banyan

SLOWLY but surely, Papua is emerging as a serious international problem for the otherwise well-liked Indonesian administration of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The latest report on the region by the International Crisis Group (ICG), a think-tank, shows how the government’s own missteps are escalating tensions, which, in turn, will draw increasing foreign attention. The specific issue the report focuses on is the fate of “SK14” , a decision taken last November by the Papuan People’s Council, or Majelis Rakyat Papua (MRP). This recommended that elections for some senior local-government posts be reserved for indigenous Papuan candidates—ie, migrants from Java, the most populous island, and other parts of Indonesia would be excluded.

‘Indonesian democracy stops in papua’

Autonomy isn't Independence

by Philippe Pataud Celerier
Le Monde Diplomatique, June 2010

Indonesian nationalists deny all ethnic and religious claims for separatism in the vast archipelago that makes up their country. But in Papua, people feel exploited, and threatened with cultural, and demographic, annihilation

 
From www.etan.org/news

SBY Implicated in Cover Up of Ambush Murder of U.S. Citizens

1 July, 2009 - Previously secret U.S. State Department documents implicate the President of Indonesia in a probable cover-up in an ambush in West Papua. The documents show Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is running for reelection on July 8, maneuvering behind the scenes to manage the investigation into the August 2002 murder of three teachers—one Indonesian and two U.S. citizens.

West Papuans recently announced a foundational consensus on their legal defence and right to declare national sovereignty, thereby asserting their fundamental human rights and ancestral ownership of land. (The consensus has global significance in that West Papua remains on a scale similar to the Amazon in terms of what is being lost - diversity of local species and tribal societies, and the amount of oxygen produced by the "lungs of Asia".)