Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) highlighted four key issues that require the nation's attention in his state speech to commemorate the 68th anniversary of the Indonesian Declaration of Independence in a meeting with the House of Representatives and the Regional Representative Council at the House building in Jakarta on Friday morning, August 16, 2013.

First, the capability in managing the economy amid the uncertain and slowing global economy. Second, the significance of preserving harmony and tolerance. Third, the importance of making the 2014 General Elections and leadership succession a success in peaceful and democratic means. Fourth, the importance of unrelenting efforts in defending the sovereignty and integrity of the United Indonesian Republic (NKRI).

In connection with the government's duty to safeguard the sovereignty and unity of the nation's territories, the president reiterated his administration's commitment to, by all possible means, protecting the sovereignty and integrity of every inch of the nation's land, which is the legitimate and integral part of the United Indonesia Republic (NKRI).

"It is based on that willpower that we will take strict measures against each threat that jeopardizes the sovereignty and integrity of the Republic of Indonesia," the president said in the meeting, which was presided over by Regional Representative Council speaker Irman Gusman.

The president also expressed his gratitude towards God for the cease of conflicts in Aceh, which were resolved peacefully. The president said it was time for the people in Aceh to strive for a better future – a more prosperous, safe, and peaceful one.

On this occasion, the president also called on all parties to refrain from anything that has the potentials to instigate deterioration and cause the nation to backpedal to the unsafe situation in the past.

"I'm calling on all parties, including those in Aceh, with all my heart, to hold tightly to their spirit and sincerity to bury the past conflicts, and move forward to develop ourselves under the United Indonesia Republic (NKRI)," the president said.

In relation to issues in Papua, the president said, the government would continue to prioritize welfare and accelerated development approaches in the province. As to law enforcement and security issues, the president said, the government would take measures with respect to human rights and cultural distinctiveness of the Papuan people.

The president also underscored the central government had been increasing the budget to accelerate and extend the development in Papua. Presently, he said, various development infrastructure programs were still intensively in progress in various regions in Papua.

In addition, he said, the government was also formulating special autonomy plans that could generate added values and breakthroughs for the development and honor of Papua.

President Yudhoyono again emphasized before the meeting with lawmakers of the House of Representatives and the Regional Representatives Council that Aceh and Papua were inseparable parts of the United Indonesia Republic (NKRI). "This stance is final for Indonesia," he stressed.

The president hoped all parties could accept and support this stance. "It is best for all of us, who live inside or outside this country, to desist from any kind of propaganda and provocation that may endanger the sovereignty and integrity of Indonesia," he enthused.

President Yudhoyono said Indonesia had always been respectful of other countries' sovereignty and integrity of other countries, friendly countries. Therefore, he added, Indonesia hoped the same principal could be applied reciprocally.

By this statement, the president appealed to all parties to actively avoid doing political activities that could destabilize the good relationship between Indonesia and friendly countries. "Don't hurt the feelings of Indonesians, because we don't want to hurt other countries' either," he asserted.

The state speech, which was delivered to welcome the 68th anniversary of the Indonesian Declaration of Independence in a meeting with the House of Representatives and the Regional Representative Council, was attended by first lady Hj. Ani Yudhoyono, Vice President Budiono, Mrs. Herawati Boediono, House speaker Marzuki Alie, former president B.J. Habibie, former vice president Hamzah Has, former vice president Jusuf Kalla, chiefs of governmental organizations, ministers of the United Indonesia II Cabinet (KIB II), members of the House of Representatives and the Regional Representative Council, ambassadors of friendly countries, and notables across the nation. (WID/Humas Setkab/ES)

President Yudhoyono's state of the nation speech 'like science fiction'

Tribune News - August 16, 2013

Jakarta – Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician Rieke Diah Pitaloka has criticised President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's (SBY) state of the nation speech as being no different from a work of science fiction.

According Pitaloka, most of SBY's speech was as if it was liberally dosed with spicy terms and English language theories that give the impression of being scientific. It was also accompanied with figures as if to demonstrate the accuracy of his achievements.

"Are these figures based on data and true reality? Or just fiction, only a wrapping for image building? The public is of course intelligent, and is capable of seeing what is actually happening", said Pitaloka at the House of Representatives (DPR) in Jakarta on Friday August 16.

The member of Commission IX on labour affairs and welfare highlighted this by taking an example from Yudhoyono's claim that the welfare of the ordinary people during his administration has continued to improve. Yudhoyono based his argument on Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita (2004=$US1,177, 2009=$US2,290, 2012=$US3,092). In 2014 Yudhoyono stated that Indonesia's GDP per capita will be around $US5,000.

GDP measure the goods and services produced by a country. The question is, do all the Indonesian people enjoy this. Because the fact is that the ones that enjoy this are only those that have economic access.

"Take Papua for example. Its economic growth is the highest in Indonesia, but the poverty rate is also the highest. Let's think positive. A GDP of US$5000 per capita, that means 50 million rupiah per year or 4.2 million rupiah per month for each household. Meaning, per person 1 million rupiah per month", she said.

According to Pitaloka, statistical data from the National Statistics Agency (BPS) shows that the number of people in society with disposable income above 1 million rupiah a month is only 16 percent. Meanwhile those that have disposable income of between 500,000 and 1 million rupiah per month are 30 percent and those with less than 500,000 rupiah stand at 55 percent.

"The question is what kind of prosperity does this mean if as many as 85 percent of the people have a purchasing power that is in fact less than 1 million rupiah a month. Purchasing power shows income per month. Moreover the data released by BPS was not calculated based on conditions following the increase in [subsidised] fuel prices", she said.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Bandung police deny links between 'Sisca' murder and jilted lover

Jakarta Globe - August 14, 2013

The investigation into the gruesome murder of Franceisca Yofi took a dramatic turn on Tuesday as allegations of a failed love affair with a married West Java Police officer surfaced.

Franceisca was reportedly involved in an obsessive relationship with a mid-ranking police officer identified only as "Comr. A," Bandung City Police chief Sr. Comr. Sutarno told Detik.com during a press conference on Tuesday. Investigators found evidence of the relationship in letters and photographs in Franceisca's home.

When the relationship soured, Comr. A reportedly had his fellow police officers spy on his former mistress, hounding her as she moved to three different homes in an apparent attempt to elude her jilted lover.

"We don't know the reason [she moved], but we suspect it is because of him," Sutarno said. "I think Sisca was trying to avoid [him]."

Homicide investigators found evidence that West Java Police officers were still spying on Franceisca at her most recent address in Sukajadi, Bandung -- now a crime scene after two men reportedly dragged the woman a half- kilometer down the road by her hair before mortally wounding her with a machete during a drive-by purse snatching.

"Comr. A asked his officers to spy on the victim," Sutarno said. "The security of the complex [where she lived] admitted it.

Bandung City Police arrested two men, Ade and Wawan, in connection with Franceisca's murder. Both allegedly told police the woman's death was an accident. The men only intended to steal Franceisca's purse, police said.

Investigators interviewed Comr. A and found no evidence that he was involved in his former lover's death. "There's no connection between Comr. A and Sisca's murder," Sutarno said. "He did not kill her, but we are still investigating the case."

Top medals for ministers, heroes

Jakarta Post - August 14, 2013

Ina Parlina, Jakarta – The government awarded Bintang Mahaputera Adipradana medals on Tuesday, the highest civilian honor after the Bintang Republik Indonesia medal, to 11 figures, including eight ministers, for their services to the state.

The awarding of the medals was part of annual celebrations to mark Independence Day this month.

Ahead of the 2014 elections, two chairmen of parties grouped under President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's led coalition were bestowed with the medals.

They are the Coordinating Economic Minister Hatta Rajasa, who is also the chairman of the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the father-in-law of the President's son Edhie Baskoro, and the Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali, who is also the chairman of the United Development Party (PPP).

Hatta denied the award was given to him because of his ties with Yudhoyono. "Let the people judge. I've served 13 years as minister, but I've not expected anything. One must be fully dedicated," he told reporters.

Suryadharma, who is often criticized for his failure to address rising intolerance against minority groups in the country, said the medal was given merely to honor his performance as a minister.

"I cannot reveal my achievements [that were used as a basis for assessing the award]. People may scrutinize this event, but I only work according to my instincts and feelings," said Suryadharma, who previously served as a cooperatives and small and medium enterprises minister.

The President also gave his party supreme assembly secretary Jero Wacik the same medal. Jero is the energy and mineral resources minister.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Djoko Suyanto, who oversaw the selection of medal recipients, said one of the reasons these individuals were chosen was because they had served for two terms as ministers.

"It means they are trusted by the President to ease his burden [in running the country]," he said.

The other five ministers were: State Secretary Sudi Silalahi, Defense Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro, Public Works Minister Djoko Kirmanto, Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Mari Elka Pangestu, and Education and Culture Minister Muhammad Nuh, who recently gained notoriety for his ministry's failure to hold the national exams.

According to Sudi, the selection of the recipients was not in the hands of the President. "Others, including the committee, are the ones who judge it. They received input from various people," he said.

Former Constitutional Court chief justice Mahfud MD, who has announced his readiness to run in the 2014 presidential race and is weighing his options to participate in the Democratic Party's primary, also received the honor. "This is an objective appraisal of my performance. At the same time the medal will encourage me to keep doing good things," he said.

The other two medals were given to the late Rahmah El Yunusiyyah, a Muslim education pioneer, and the late Abdul Rahman Baswedan, who was a part of Indonesia's political history as a member of the Preparatory Body for Indonesian Independence (BPUPKI).

It was not the first time Yudhoyono bestowed similar medals of honor on controversial figures.

In 2011, First Lady Ani Yudhoyono received the Bintang Republik Indonesia Adipradana medal for her "extraordinary services" to the country, which brings with it certain honors, including the right to be buried at Kalibata National Cemetery. At that time, Djoko said Ani was "very active in social affairs", although many criticized the lack of evidence behind this claim.

West Papua

Papuan churches call for dialogue on political aspirations

Jakarta Post - August 17, 2013

Jakarta – While the country celebrates Independence Day, the Oikoumene Churches Forum in Papua called on the central government to organize a dialogue to channel Papuans' political aspirations for independence from Indonesia.

The forum deemed that independence celebrations held in Papua every year masked the real situation in the province, saying that it continued to be plagued by violence against local residents who were being denied freedom of expression.

In a press statement made available to The Jakarta Post on Saturday, it demanded the government stop all forms of violence and repression in Papua.

The forum, according to the statement, urged that the dialogue be mediated by Juha Christensen of Peace Architecture and Conflict Transformation Alliance (PACTA), who brokered peace talks between the central government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in 2005.

The forum cited a number of violations against freedom of expression that it claimed had occurred in Papua as of Aug. 15 this year.

The Papua Police, according to the statement, did not issue a permit for the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) to stage what it called a peaceful rally against the annexation of Papua by Indonesia. The police, it added, had threatened to forcibly disburse any protest rallies on May 1.

Furthermore, it went on, the Papua administration, the local military and the police had banned all people in the province from rallying on May 1, the date that sovereignty over Papua was transferred to Indonesia.

On May 30, the statement added, soldiers and police officers shot at civilians gathered to celebrate the day, claiming three lives and injuring three others. It said that shooting at civilians and the unconstitutional handling of legal cases were rife in Papua.

A 12-year-old-girl, according to the statement, was shot dead by the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) in Lany Jaya regency on July 1.

According to Suarapapua.com, the Free West Papua Campaign (FWPC) said that an official Free Papua Organization (OPM) office opened in the Netherlands on Aug. 15, exactly 51 years after West Papua was annexed by Indonesian after an agreement with Dutch colonists was signed in New York.

A similar office was opened in Oxford, the UK, in April, sparking a strong protest from the Indonesian government.

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa summoned British Ambassador to Indonesia Mark Canning on May 6 and filed a diplomatic protest with the British government following the OPM office opening. (hrl)

OPM: 'Happy Independence Day'

Tempo - August 17, 2013

Jerry Omona, Jakarta – General Coordinator of the Free Papua Organization (OPM), Lambertus Pekikir on behalf of the OPM members wished Indonesia a Happy 68th Independence Day.

"We appreciate and respect Indonesia's independence day and do not wish to hinder the celebration," said Lambert Pekikir, Friday, August 16, 2013.

Lambert hoped that in this year's celebration, violence, intimidation and massacre would not occur again in Papua. "We respect Indonesia's big day and Indonesia should also respect West Papua's big day," he added.

Lambert also asked the Indonesian government to be 'more mature' in seeing what's actually happening. "It's not a matter of drinking and eating. What's happening in Papua is a political matter," he said, adding that it is time for the Indonesian government to give opportunities to Papua to decide its own fate.

Indonesian people, Lambert added, are different from the Melanesian people. He also argued that the striking differences between the two couldn't be settled. "It will remain like that no matter what. Just like the Timorese people and the Indonesian people," he said.

In the meantime, prior to the 68th Independence Day, people in Papua celebrated the day with various ways.

In Sentani, Jayapura Regency, hundreds of members of a motorcycle club enlivened the 'merah putih' (red and white, Indonesian flag) parade by decorating their motorcycles with Indonesian flags and red-and-white themed ornaments.

An intimate atmosphere was also seen during a stone burning ceremony (Papuan traditional way of cooking) and free mass medical treatment provided by the Papua police on Thursday at Angkasapura Sub-regency, Jayapura – The mass medical treatment was then followed by distributing 300 free staple food packages to the locals.

SBY issues appeal as Papua flotilla prepares to sail

The Australian - August 17, 2013

Peter Alford and Brendan Nicholson – Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has appealed to friendly countries to prevent political activity that disrupts good relations as a "freedom flotilla to West Papua" threatens to expose the rawest nerve in the Australia-Indonesia relationship.

The Weekend Australian understands Dr Yudhoyono's government has formally raised its concern with Canberra.

The flotilla is planning to leave Cairns today carrying at least one of the West Papuan refugees at the centre of the last breakdown in the official relationship seven years ago.

Neither government would say yesterday if Jakarta had asked Canberra to intervene to prevent the voyage to Papua province, which both describe as illegal.

The voyage is intended by Free Papua activists and the self-described Federal Republic of West Papua to draw world attention to "ongoing atrocities" by Indonesian security forces.

A senior Indonesian officer, Papua province deputy police chief Paulus Waterpauw warned that any Papuan activist aboard the flotilla who had a "previous criminal record or (if) they are on the wanted list" would be arrested on arrival.

Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa confirmed that his government had held discussions with Australia and Papua New Guinea, where the flotilla plans to berth in about 13 days before crossing into Indonesian waters.

"Indonesia, Australia and PNG are all on the same page in not wanting such a stunt to interrupt or disrupt our relations," he said yesterday.

Dr Natalegawa described the flotilla as "yet another of these cheap publicity stunts on the part of people who claim to be the representatives of Papua totally disconnected with the reality of Papuan development".

He declined to discuss whether Dr Yudhoyono's comments yesterday in his Independence Day speech were directed at Australia.

"Through this confirmation (of mutual respect for sovereignty) I hope that all parties can be actively worked to prevent political activities that can disturb good relationships between Indonesia and other friendly countries," the President told the national parliament.

"Do not hurt the feeling of Indonesia because we do not want to hurt (others)."

News of the flotilla is sure to provoke an upsurge of anti-Australian feeling in the rest of Indonesia, where the belief that Australia continues to hope to separate Indonesia from its two Papuan provinces persists widely, even among politicians.

Indonesia warns 'Freedom Flotilla' not to enter West Papua

SBS News - August 17, 2013

Indonesian authorities have warned Australian activists on a "freedom flotilla" to avoid entering West Papua or risk being arrested.

In his Independence Day speech to parliament yesterday, Indonesia's President urged friendly countries to intervene to prevent political activities that could damage diplomatic relations.

"Do not hurt the feeling of Indonesia because we do not want to hurt (others)."

A flotilla of at least two yachts will set sail from Cairns tomorrow up the coast of Cape York and across the Torres Strait to Daru Island, in southern Papua New Guinea, from where they plan to sail onto the Indonesian- controlled territory of West Papua.

A reported group of 30 Australian Aboriginal, non-Indigenous and West Papuan activists have volunteered to take turns crewing the yachts. Free Papua activists say the aim of the voyage is to draw world attention to "ongoing atrocities" by Indonesian security forces.

But the "Freedom Flotilla" may be turned back as they don't have permission to visit Indonesia. Many are travelling on Aboriginal and West Papua passports which aren't formally recognised.

Senior Indonesian police officer Paulus Waterpauw says any Papuan activist aboard the flotilla who has a "previous criminal record" or is on "the wanted list" will be arrested on arrival.

But activist Amos Wainggai says he remains optimistic the flotilla will be able to enter West Papua. "I hope and I believe that we will be welcomed," he said.

Seven years ago, the 41-year-old and 40 others sailed from West Papua to Cape York where they sought asylum.

"When I was in West Papua I was part of a group that wanted independence," Mr Wainggai, who is now an Australian citizen, said.

"The military found out and then they started looking for me and my friends. If they found me I would have been killed."

Indonesia has been accused of using violence against West Papuans who have sought self-determination.

Mr Wainggai says he knows a number of people who have been killed in his homeland. He hopes West Papua will one day be "free" so that he can live there with his family once again.

"I miss everything, I miss my friends and family," he said. "I want to tell all Australians that we are human beings and we have to look after each other."

The Freedom Flotilla group travelled overland from Lake Eyre to Cairns earlier this month, stopping at Aboriginal communities along the way. A spokeswoman said the group will continue to request permission from Indonesian authorities to visit West Papua.

West Papua came under Indonesian control after a UN-brokered "act of free choice" in 1969.

West Papuan Freedom Flotilla sets sail for Indonesian territory

The Guardian - August 16, 2013

Marni Cordell – A group of Australian and West Papuan activists will set sail from Cairns on Saturday for the Indonesian territory of West Papua, despite fears they could face arrest or worse for arriving in the country illegally.

The West Papuan Freedom Flotilla will make the trip to highlight the abuses faced by West Papuans under Indonesian rule. It is estimated that as many as 500,000 Papuans have been killed since Indonesia acquired the territory in the 1960s.

Approximately 50 people will take turns crewing at least two yachts up the east coast of Australia, through the Torres Strait and on to Papua New Guinea, from where they hope to make the trip to Merauke on the southern coast of Papua.

Participants include Aboriginal elder Kevin Buzzacott and West Papuan leader Jacob Rumbiak and it has been described by organisers as an Indigenous cultural exchange. But one of the participants acknowledges that the trip is also a potentially deadly act of resistance.

AP Stacey, 47, a former Australian soldier who will be on one of the boats, told the Guardian: "Because I've been in the military myself I probably have a better understanding than everybody else of what might happen if it goes pear-shaped.

"There are a number of possibilities. The Indonesian authorities could quite simply turn us back. They could arrest us. I guess the worse-case scenario is they could shoot us."

The Indonesian military and police opened fire on a peaceful protest gathering in the West Papuan capital of Jayapura in October 2011, killing at least six people and injuring dozens.

The Freedom Flotilla participants have been denied Indonesian visas and will be entering Indonesian waters without a sailing permit. They plan to land in Merauke within a fortnight.

The last time Australians arrived in Merauke unannounced and without the proper documentation they were detained in Indonesia for nine months.

The "Merauke five", as they became known, were reportedly looking for tourism opportunities in Indonesia when they landed their small plane in Merauke in September 2008, under the mistaken belief that they could obtain visas on arrival. The five Australians, all aged in their 50s and 60s, were originally given two- and three-year sentences for visa violations.

The Guardian spoke to one of the five, who issued words of warning for the flotilla participants, saying they should expect to be jailed if they turned up without documentation.

A spokesperson for the Freedom Flotilla, Nicky Stott, told the Guardian that they had gone "through all the proper channels" to apply to sail in Indonesian waters and while they were initially granted a permit, it had since been revoked.

"When we applied for our individual Indonesian visas we stated that our intention was to travel to West Papua for a cultural exchange between Indigenous people from Australia and indigenous people from West Papua," she told the Guardian.

"As soon as [the Indonesian government] became aware of that, we were told that our sailing permit had been revoked."

A spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the Indonesian government had raised concerns about the Freedom Flotilla with the Australian government, but that the boats would not be prevented from leaving Australian waters.

Once they reached Indonesian territory it was a "matter for Indonesia" how they dealt with them, the spokesman said.

Papua provincial police spokesman I Gede Sumerta Jaya told the Guardian over the phone from Jayapura on Thursday that he had no idea a group of Australians were planning to arrive by boat without documentation in Merauke.

"We co-ordinate with the [Indonesian] immigration office regarding foreigners entering Indonesia. If they come in without a visa, that's obviously breaking the immigration regulation and we need to coordinate with immigration on that," he said.

Stacey told the Guardian that upon entering Indonesian territory the group would "just have to play it by ear, and hope that the Australian flag counts for something among the Indonesians, which I won't be betting money on.

"If Australia is to retain any sense of moral decency we must take a stand against what is being done right on our doorstep," he said.

West Papua demonstrations for self-determination proceed peacefully

Radio New Zealand International - August 16, 2013

Demonstrations proceeded peacefully in several main centres of West Papua yesterday marking the region's incorporation into Indonesia despite a reported police ban on the protests.

Rallies to mark the 51st anniversary of the New York agreement and express support for West Papuan membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group reportedly took place without incident in Nabire, Timika, Jayapura and Biak.

The West Papua National Coalition for Liberation's Paula Makabory told Johnny Blades the demonstrations appear to have proceeded harmoniously within the police restrictions.

Paula Makabory: And in fact even though eight people were arrested on the preparations for the rally yesterday before on the 13th August but yesterday they keep doing the rally and also some students from AMP organisations and KNPB were together they did the rally as well in the city of Java.

Johnny Blades: So it sounds like there wasn't an excessive response from the security forces?

PM: Yeah I think there is no shooting and they didn't stop the rally even though the police banned it so the main point is you can see how strong the West Papuan would like to stand up to spread the message out here and their rights, especially the right to self-determination. They all stand up also for the same message to support the opening office of the Free West Papuan movement in the Hague, in the Netherlands.

JB: And do you think that the Indonesian security forces are becoming a bit more reasonable in their approach, in their response to these sorts of occasions?

PM: I think after Indonesia being criticised at the UN critical reviews of the Human Rights Committee this is like a positive attitude, while really on the ground, you cannot control them. So for me you cannot say yes or no to these situations because they can do anything anywhere anytime to the West Papuan.

JB: There's a cultural element to a lot of these demonstrations in that they are displaying their Melanesia roots.

PM: Yeah I think the message is quite strong and especially it was done yesterday in memory of that New York Agreement back in the 15th of August 1962 where I think the claims of the West Papuan there is really strong which is they would like to know the legality of this agreement. Then the legality of the Act Of Free Choice back in 1969 and the legality of the Freeport McMoRan deal even before the Act Of Free Choice took place. And here on this ground in West Papua with all the cultural rallies yesterday with the strong support and calling for the right to self-determination of the West Papuan they would like to show the whole region of Pacific Islands or Melanesian countries and the world that they still don't think that they belong under Indonesian rule.

Police respond to KNPB activities in support of OPM office in Netherlands

Bintang Papua - August 16, 2013

The spokesman of the Chief of Police in Papua, Commissioner I Gede Sumerta Jaya, said that the security situation in Papua remained calm throughout the territory of Papua when the KNPB [National Committee of West Papua] organised several demonstrations to commemorate the New York Agreement on 15 August 1962. He alleged that the police had acted with tolerance.

The police official said that as the demonstrators gathered in front of the Taman Budaya Expo Museum in Waena, the police approached the organisers of the demonstration. Agreement was reached with the former Chairman of the KNPB, Buchtar Tabuni, who was in overall charge of the demonstrations that the police would not disrupt the mass action or cause any traffic congestion. The police spokesman said that the Papuans had been given the space to express their aspirations and said that he was pleased that the KNPB activists had complied with the regulations.

As was earlier reported, hundreds of KNPB members organised a peaceful demonstration in the vicinity of the museum, in order to support three planned actions in connection with a Cultural Festival that was held on the morning of 15 August.

Groups of people gathered at several points and performed traditional Papuan dances as well as carrying flags with the morning star symbol and the word LAWAN [RESIST] painted on the flags.

While this was going on, members of the local police force, including officers from Brimob and police officers from Abepura, cordoned off the demonstrators.

In front of the museum, a mobile pick-up unit arrived, carrying several types of equipment such as loud-speakers, generators [genset?] and microphones. Some of the KNPB demonstrators and some students among the crowd delivered speeches

The Chairman of the KNPB, Buchtar Tabuni who was also the person responsible for the demonstration said in a speech that the event was being held to express support for the establishment of the OPM office in The Netherlands on 15 August 2013.

Buchtar Tabuni said: "We would like to express our gratitude to the Melanesian Spearhead Group for the statement they made during their meeting in Noumea, Kanaky from 19-21 July in support of our right to self- determination."

Buchtar also said that they rejected the New York Agreement adopted in 1962 because no indigenous Papuans had been involved. He went on to say that preparations were under way for the establishment of OPM offices in other countries and this should be seen as an acknowledgement of the struggle of the Papuan people to set up a sovereign state of their own, liberating themselves from Indonesian colonialism.

Two KNPB demonstrations in Manokwari

Demonstrations also occurred in the regions of Wosi and Amban with several groups of people gathering together on a podium in Manokwari. A spokesperson for the KNPB, Sarfas Mbiksimbo said that around eighty people from Wosi had gathered together on a special platform.

Meanwhile, a group of around fifty people, most of them students, handed out leaflets calling on all Papuans to support the establishment of the OPM office in The Netherlands. They also unfurled banners proclaiming their Melanesian culture and calling for a referendum.

These KNPB demonstrations were heavily guarded by police officers patrolling Wosi and Amban. The actions continued for about four hours, causing traffic congestion near the meeting points.

[This translation by TAPOL is slightly edited and abridged to clarify the meaning.]

'We're going to their aid'

New Matilda - August 15, 2013

Jenny Denton – A group of Australian Aboriginal, non-Indigenous and West Papuan activists will set sail from Cairns for West Papua on Saturday, on a journey that organisers describe as both cultural exchange and act of resistance.

Around 50 people have volunteered to take turns crewing two yachts up the coast of Cape York and across the Torres Strait to Daru Island, in southern Papua New Guinea, from where they hope to sail on to the Indonesian- controlled territory.

The group includes Aboriginal elders from South Australia, New South Wales and Queensland, a Torres Strait Islander and one of the West Papuan refugees who arrived in Australia by outrigger canoe in 2006.

The voyage, which has been more than a decade in the planning and realisation, was inspired by a sense of solidarity between Indigenous Australian and West Papuan peoples, who share cultural connections as well as experiences of colonial brutality and a struggle for rights.

"The Freedom Flotilla is to explain to the world about the big family of Aboriginal and West Papuan and Torres Strait Islanders," West Papuan leader Jacob Rumbiak told NM.

"This mission can also show people that the international community can take the lead as international peacekeepers to look after world peace and justice, starting from the Pacific region."

Aboriginal elder Kevin Buzzacott, who is from Arabunna country around Lake Eyre, came up with the idea for a flotilla to West Papua 13 years ago. He said the aim was to help the indigenous people of West Papua by drawing international attention to their situation.

"The brothers and sisters up there are in trouble. They've been having difficulties with the Indonesian mob for some years, and it's been a silent type of war. What we're doing, because we hear them calling for our help, is we're going to their aid."

Since the annexation of West Papua by Indonesia in the 1960s, reports of arbitrary arrests, torture, killings and atrocities by the military and police have emerged steadily from the territory.

In October last year Amnesty International Australia called for an end to police violence against demonstrators there, stating:

"The Indonesian security forces have a track record of unchecked abuses, including torture and other ill-treatment, and the use of excessive force against protesters".

The flotilla group has already travelled 5000 kilometres by road from Lake Eyre to the Far North Queensland capital, visiting Aboriginal communities, holding musical and ceremonial events and picking up participants along the way.

While organisers emphasise that the mission is one of culture and peace, its hard political edge will not be overlooked by Indonesian authorities.

"We hope to raise awareness of the plight of the West Papuan people," says organiser Izzy Brown, "and also draw attention to the sovereignty issue of indigenous people worldwide and put the [Indonesian] government on notice that their jurisdiction is in question".

The Indonesian government has revoked sailing permits originally issued for the flotilla yachts and rejected the group's visa applications.

The activists plan to enter foreign waters with "Original Nations" passports created by Aboriginal elders and stamped with visas by Jacob Rumbiak, who is the foreign minister of West Papua's alternative, independent government. The Federated Republic of West Papua was set up inside the territory in 2011. Its president and prime minister have been convicted of treason and are currently in jail.

"We're requesting safe passage," Brown said, "and we're hoping that both the Australian government and the Indonesian government can work to provide that."

From Cairns it will take the boats a week to reach Thursday Island and another two days to sail to the island of Daru. Organisers expect the flotilla to reach West Papua in September.

Prime Minister Kevin Rudd recently reaffirmed the Australian government's support for Indonesia's control of the territory now officially known as the two provinces of Papua and West Papua.

'Freedom flotilla' will sail to West Papua

The Australian - August 15, 2013

Joel Magarey – Australian and West Papuan activists are set to sail to the disputed Indonesian territory of West Papua without permission.

The "peace mission" has united Aboriginal and Papuan activists in support of the West Papuan independence struggle and will see 15 sailors leave on Saturday in a "freedom flotilla" of two yachts headed for the town of Merauke.

Entry into Indonesian waters by the sailors without permission could lead to their arrest.

Although the sailors say they are still "communicating with Jakarta" in an attempt to get permission, they have been denied visas and permits by Indonesian consulates in Australia and some say they are prepared to "go all the way".

They will be carrying "original nation passports" issued by Aboriginal supporters, with stamps issued by a Melbourne representative of the Federated Republic of West Papua, which regards itself as a government in exile.

Adding to the international sensitivity of the flotilla, at least one of the crew members, Amos Wainggai, is one of about 40 West Papuan refugees who arrived by canoe in Australia in 2006 and whose protection by Australia caused a row with Indonesia.

The flotilla plan grew out the identification by West Papuan refugees and Arabunna Aboriginal elder "Uncle" Kevin Buzzacott of "dreamtime stories that travel down from the north and go back up to the north".

"We didn't know about the trauma that was (being done) to them by the Indonesians," Mr Buzzacott said from Cairns yesterday. "We have a responsibility to care for our brothers and sisters from across the water."

Mr Buzzacott left his country of origin, Lake Eyre, in late July with a convoy of West Papuan and other activists, bringing "ceremonial water" to hand to West Papuan elders.

Flotilla spokeswoman Izzy Brown agreed the sailors were concerned about the possible response of Indonesian authorities. She said the mission was peaceful and while safe passage had been requested, if it were not provided some sailors would "go all the way".

West Papua was claimed by Indonesia after a UN-brokered "act of free choice" in 1969 widely considered to have been stage-managed by the Indonesian military.

The Indonesian embassy did not respond to a request for comment yesterday.

Papua student protest in Bogor calls for freedom, self-determination

Pos Kota - August 15, 2013

Bogor – The momentum in the lead up to Indonesia's 68th Independence Day was used by scores of Papuan students to demand freedom and self- determination for the Papuan people. These demands were conveyed during a demonstration at the Tugu Kujang intersection on Jl. Padjajaran in Bogor, West Java, on Thursday August 15.

The action managed to attract the attention of passing drivers, however after finding out the demonstrator's demands, drivers 'curled their lips'. "That takes the cake. In the lead up to the 17 August independence anniversary, how come they're seeking attention so that the Papuan people can determine their own future", sneered one driver.

Not surprisingly, the action at the intersection of Jl. Padjajaran and Jl. Otista created traffic congestion and an escort from the Bogor municipal police. During the action, they brought banners and posters with pictures of the Papuan flag.

"The government must give freedom and the right to self-determination to the Papuan people. We don't want there to be [any more] repression", said the demonstrators. (iwan)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

'Papua is not the Red-and-White, Papua is the Morning Star'

Merdeka.com - August 15, 2013

Arie Sunaryo – The Surakarta district police have seized two large banners depicting symbols of the Morning Star flag belonging to Papuan students that was to be used in a protest action at the Gladag traffic circle in the Central Java city of Solo on Thursday August 15. Meanwhile yet another demonstration was held by scores of Papuan students on Thursday at the Gladag traffic circle demanding that the government give freedom and the right to self-determination to the people of the province.

According to Merdeka's observations, like the other two earlier demonstrations, the protesters sung the song, "Papua is not the Red-and- White, Papua is the Morning Star". This time however they did not adjourn their bodies with logos of or bring pictures of the Morning Star flag.

In a speech, action coordinator Frans Hisage questioned the follow up to the New York Agreement between the Netherlands and Indonesia. This agreement was related to the dispute over the territory of West Papua on August 15, 1962. Among other things, it stipulated an act of self- determination for the Papuan people.

"Indonesia, which was given responsibility to prepare for the administration of the [act] of self-determination and development in Papua did not undertake this in accordance with the New York Agreement. Particularly after the administrative transfer was carried out on May 1, 1963", asserted Hisage.

Satisfied with holding speeches, the students from the Papua Student Alliance (AMP) ended the action by reading out a statement containing three demands.

The demands were, namely, that they be given the freedom and right to self-determination as a democratic solution for the Papuan people, close down and halt all exploitative activities by multi-national companies throughout the land of Papua and, withdraw all organic and non-organic military (TNI) and police (Polri) from the land of Papua.

Scores of police were deployed to secure the action. In addition to police, a number of TNI members could be seen watching over the action from a distance. (bal)

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Papuan actions condemn New York agreement, call for self-determination

Selangkah Magazine - August 15, 2013

Yogyakarta – "Self-determination, the Democratic Solution for the Papuan People", shouted West Papuan students protesting the New York Agreement of August 15, 1962, and supporting the opening of a Free West Papua Campaign office in the Netherlands today, during an action coordinated by the Papuan Student Alliance (AMP) on Thursday August 15 in the Malioboro shopping district in the Central Java city of Yogyakarta.

The demonstration was one of a series of activities conceived by the Yogyakarta city AMP committee, included as part of the Art Platform night on Wednesday evening.

According to Selangkah Magazine's observations, the protesters began gathering on Jl. Abu Bakar Ali, north of Malioboro, then marched to the zero kilometre point in front of the central post office. The protesters adorned their bodies with three colours: red, white and blue, the three colours of the Papuan national flag, the Morning Star.

"New York Agreement was legally flawed, and cannot be accepted. The Papuan people who were the subject of the issue were not invited to sit down together, to discuss where to go. The Papuan people were not involved", shouted one of the Papuan students in a speech.

The students were protesting the contents of the New York Agreement (Pepera), specifically articles 14-21 that regulated an act of self- determination for the Papuan nation based on the international practice of "One Man One Vote", one person one vote.

Indonesia, which was given the authority to prepare the Pepera, did not follow this stipulation, and instead replaced it with "musyawarah" [a traditional consensus decision making process – JB] where the around 800,000 Papuan population at that time were only represented by 1,025 people, that is to say it was not the Papuan people who voted in the Pepera.

The students also highlighted the PT Freeport gold and copper mining company work contract agreement that was made in 1967, long before Papua had determined its course (Papua was still under a status quo or without ownership).

The Papuan students believe that the New York Agreement, which was made without involving the Papuan people as subjects of the issue, was the basis of the problem, after the annexation of West Papua by Indonesia through the Triple Commands of the People (Trikora) by Indonesia founding President Sukarno at the Yogyakarta North Square on December 19, 1961, 18 days after the country of Papua was formed.

On this basis, the AMP issued three political demands. First, urging all related parties to acknowledge and give the right to the Papuan people to self-determination as the only democratic solution for the Papuan people.

Second, urging all parties to immediately call for a halt to operations throughout the land of Papua by multi-national corporations owned by imperialist countries such as Freeport, BP, LNG Tangguh, Mecdo, Corindo and others.

Third, the AMP asked that all Indonesian military and national police immediately be withdrawn from the land of Papua because they are the mother of all violence in the land of Papua.

After reading out a statement, the action concluded with prayers and the hundreds of Papuan students disbanded.

In the Central Java city of Solo meanwhile, police sealed a house lived in by Papuan students who were in the middle of preparing to hold a demonstration on Thursday morning. As a result the demonstration was cancelled.

Selangkah Magazine has been unable to confirm why the police sealed the house although a reliable informant said it was done to thwart the planned action.

In the West Java provincial capital of Bandung, the Bandung AMP committee also held an action, protesting the New York Agreement that failed to involve the Papuan people, and supporting the opening of the Papua campaign office in the Netherlands.

The Papuan students that make up the AMP are in agreement that only self- determination as a nation, which is honest and democratic – not like the 1969 Pepera – is the best solution for the people of West Papua. (AD/BT/MS)

Notes

Trikora – After the Dutch announced the formation of a Nieuw Guinea Raad on April 1961, with the intention of creating an independent Papuan state, Indonesia's founding President Sukarno declared a military confrontation in his Tri Komando Rakjat (Trikora, Triple Commands of the People) speech in Yogyakarta, on 19 December 1961.

[Translated by James Balowski.]

Papua police to organize flag-hoisting ceremony on Cartenz peak

Jakarta Post - August 13, 2013

Jakarta – Papua Police chief Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian has announced a plan to conduct a flag-hoisting ceremony on Papua highest peak, Mount Cartenz, on Wednesday. The ceremony is part of a series of activities to observe the country's 68th Independence Day, which falls every Aug. 17.

Mimika Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Rontini separately said that participants would take six hours to hike to the peak of the mountain from Tembagapura subdistrict.

On the way to the peak, the participants will clean the surroundings to honor the mountain, which is a designated national park and world heritage site, Antara news reported on Tuesday.

Cartenz peak is 4,884 meters above sea level and is the highest peak in the South Pacific and is among the prestigious Seven Summits of the world.

Many believe that the move has been organized to prove that Papua is safe after a string of attacks on both civilians and authorities.(hrl/dic)

SBY seeks to quell Melanesia over Papua

Jakarta Globe - August 13, 2013

Ezra Sihite & Novy Lumanauw – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has sought to quell growing support for Papuan self-determination among Indonesia's Pacific island neighbors, on Monday seeking to demonstrate the area's recent economic progress to visiting Solomon Islands Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo.

Members of the intergovernmental Melanesian Spearhead Group have recently expressed sympathy for self-determination for the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua, and some officials in Jakarta fear it could bolster wider international support for secession.

The MSG comprises Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu as well as the Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) of New Caledonia, a special collectivity of France.

The West Papua National Coalition for Liberation, an umbrella group for organizations seeking West Papuan independence, applied in June for membership of the MSG during the group's summit in Noumea, New Caledonia.

Only after intervention from Jakarta did the MSG delay its decision on the WPNCL application by six months.

"President Yudhoyono invited the Solomon Islands prime minister so they can discuss various bilateral issues, including Papua," Teuku Faizasyah, a presidential spokesman for international issues, said after the meeting. "The president has explained to his guest that Indonesia has done many things to make Papua prosperous and that the development will continue."

Faizasyah said officials from Melanesian countries had also visited Papua, and claimed all the officials had praised Indonesia's development there.

"[The] Solomon Islands has never supported Papuan independence. They understand how serious Indonesia is in developing Papua and empowering the Papuans. On several occasions, they said they respected Indonesia's territorial integration. The MSG also has a similar understanding of Indonesia's serious efforts."

Faizasyah said the visit would counter negative reports about Papua.

Indonesia's military and police have been accused of gross human rights violations in Papua, including extra-judicial killings of pro-independence activists.

Several videos circulating online show police torturing Papuans while foreign media outlets have reported on efforts to spy on Papua activists and limit their freedom.

Jakarta has maintained a massive military presence in Papua and implemented a tight screening process for foreigners wishing to enter the provinces, raising suspicion about national government activities there.

Aleksius Jemadu, dean of Pelita Harapan University's School of Social and Political Sciences, said the Indonesian government needs to boost relations with Melanesian countries if it is to prevent the push for independence gathering momentum.

"I think Indonesia has the economic leverage to persuade the Melanesian countries to support its territorial integrity," he said. "Jakarta can convince the countries that Indonesia is a gateway to an Asian economic miracle and they can be part of the economic prosperity through Indonesia."

The western portion of Papua was integrated into Indonesia following the 1969 so-called Act of Free Choice, but tensions have long persisted.

Faizasyah said Lilo's visit "reflects the determination of the two nations to build their friendship based on the respect of their respective sovereignty."

He added that dealings between the Solomon Islands and Indonesia had been productive over the past five years.

"Our trade relations even registered an average annual increase of 17.28 percent," he said. "The Solomon Islands also works with Indonesia in the fields of energy, fishing, development, media and culture."

Bilateral trade volume was at $15.9 million in 2012, with Indonesia posting a $9.1 million surplus.

Faizasyah said the two leaders also discussed economic cooperation and development programs for the Asia-Pacific and Southeast Asian regions. Lilo is scheduled to remain in Indonesia until Wednesday.

Papua police ban rallies to mark New York Agreement

Radio New Zealand International - August 13, 2013

Police in Indonesia's Papua region have reportedly banned a number of protests and cultural parades planned to protest against the signing of the 1962 New York Agreement.

The deal between the UN, the Netherlands and Indonesia was a precursor to the Act Of Free Choice seven years later which led to Jakarta imposing its rule on the former Dutch colony.

The protests by the pro-independence West Papua National Committee have been planned throughout Papua in Wamena, Yahukimo, Nabire, Biak, Sorong, Manokwari and Timika.

The rallies are also to show support for the opening of the Free West Papua Campaign office in the Netherlands.

Shot at after trying to grab a police weapon in Timika

Antara News - August 12, 2013

Jayapura, Papua – A man was wounded after being shot at when trying to grab a weapon of a patrolling police officer in Timika on Sunday, police said.

The incident occurred after patrolling police asked a group of four men, who were consuming alcoholic drink late that night to stop and told them to go home.

However, after the police returned from their patrol their way was blocked by a larger group of local people, Papua police spokesman Sr. Comr. Gede Sumerta Jaya said.

A police officer came out of the car and walked toward the people, but the people attacked him trying to grab his weapon, which somehow exploded and wounded one of the attackers Andreas Jaomi, Sumerta said.

He said the police had to fire warning shots when the people continued attacking them.

The wind shield of the police car was broken and a police officer was injured hit by rock thrown by the angry people, he said. Andreas was sent to the RS Charitas hospital in Timika for medical treatment.

Security has remained a problem in Papua where separatists are still hiding in the mountain jungles harboring the idea of independence.

Some 650 military personnel deployed along Indonesia-PNG border

Antara News - August 12, 2013

Semarang – Some 650 military personnel of Infantry Battalion (Yonif) 410/Aloguro left Tanjung Emas Seaport at Semerang, Central Java, for Papua on Monday to strengthen Indonesia-Papua New Guinea border security.

Yonif 410 will be replacing Infantry Battalion 310/Kidang Kencana, which has completed its assignments at the border. Military personnel of Yonif 410 will be stationed at the border for six months.

Spokesman for Regional Military Command IV/Diponegora Col. Ramses L. Tobing said Yonif 410 personnel have been given a number of tasks to tighten security along the border.

"Besides, the army has organised various programmes to improve the welfare of locals in Papua," he added. In the next six months, the officers will build a total of 24 posts. "Eighteen security posts and six command posts will be built," he added.

Brimob officer shoots dead mentally ill teenager in Wamena, beat witnesses

West Papua Media - August 12, 2013

An Indonesian Brimob police officer has shot dead an unarmed mentally ill Lani youth in Wamena on Thursday, after the youth allegedly verbally ridiculed the passing heavily armed police patrol on Jalan Ahmad Yani, according to witnesses interview by West Papua Media stringers.

Irwan Janengga, also known as Irwan Wenda (18) was shot dead without verbal warning by a Brimob anti-terrorist officer from Ambon, BrikPol Lua Lusman from the Jayawijaya brigade, who was a member of a five-man patrol that encountered Janengga outside the police post, according to witnesses interviewed by human rights activists and our stringers.

According to witnesses with the initials AW and BK, Janengga taunted the officers with nonsensical words and said, "The plane has landed so (are) storing the goods," (referring to corruption in the police). The five man patrol took offence to this taunting, and several members fired two warning shots from their automatic rifles without a verbal warning. Janengga took no notice of these warning shots, according to the witnesses, and continued his "crazy talk".

As the Brimob officers were preparing to shoot Janengga, the two witnesses shouted to BrikPol Lusman, "Just ignore him, he has nervous disorders of the brain, do not shoot him!". Brikpol Lusman ignored this plea, and opened fire on Janengga, aiming multiple shots directly at the legs, abdomen, head and left hand of victim. Janengga died instantly according to witnesses.

Immediately after the shooting, the 5 police officers began an unprovoked attack and beatings on the two witnesses, and arrested them with force. They were taken then to the Jayawijaya Police HQ, where the witnesses reported to West Papua Media's stringer that they were forcefully interrogated by police, allegedly with the aim to manipulate the official witness statements of the shooting incident according to BK and AW. Upon learning of their detention, the victims families demanded the immediate release of the witnesses a demand with which Police complied by early afternoon on Thursday.

Janengga's body was then brought by another police unit to the General Hospital in Wamena.

The body of Janengga was retrieved from the hospital by his family late on Thursday afternoon, and brought to his home, where the family conducted mourning ceremonies. At the time of publication, the victim was still unburied.

Tiko Kogoya, the victim's aunt, told human rights workers after learning of the testimony of two witnesses after the shooting. "Our victim's family is upset over the shooting of our son." "Our Boy, he was (with) nervous disorders of the brain, he just simply said 'why police shoot'," said Tiko Kogoya.

Tiko continued, "we the victim's family, ask that the perpetrators should be prosecuted in court, act honestly, and be punished accordingly," she said.

Footage shot by local witnesses has emerged of the aftermath of the shooting, showing local people outraged at another unprovoked killing by Indonesian forces on unarmed indigenous Papuan citizens.

Meanwhile Ogram Wanimbo, an activist with the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) Wamena chapter, told our stringer, "The shooting that happened, it is a human rights abuse, since police shot a mentally ill young man because of a nervous breakdown in the brain.. who was sayings word without (being) conscious (of the meaning)", he said.

Ogram also said "We strongly condemn the perpetrators of the shooting, and we are annoyed by his preaching of the case in local and national media, engineering the chronology of the incident, without interviewing witnesses and families of victims... the fraudulent news does not fit the facts of incident," he said.

A human rights worker in Wamena told West Papua Media: "This shooting that was done in service of a State mission, that continues to be done, and will be done by the Indonesian invader forces, through military and police in Papua, are unlawful acts under International law, the ICCPR and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, (all of) which have been ratified into law of the Republic of Indonesia."

Aceh

Komnas HAM report puts Aceh human rights violations back on the table

Jakarta Globe - August 15, 2013

A recent report by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) alleges "gross human rights violations" by the Indonesian Military during its 30-year campaign against the separatist Free Aceh Movement. The report highlights issue that remain to be addressed, according to Amnesty International.

The bloody conflict began in 1976 and ended in 2005 with the signing of a peace pact in the wake of the massive 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami. The war took a brutal toll on the population there, leaving between 10,000 and 30,000 dead, many of them civilians.

"These recent developments from Komnas HAM are positive and show that the issue is alive and needs attention," Isabelle Arradon, deputy director at the Asia-Pacific Program of Amnesty International, said on Thursday. "Many victims believe that with truth, justice and reparation, the peace process can not only be supported but can be strengthened."

In its investigation,, the results of which were released on Aug. 1, Komnas HAM examined five key cases, including the torture and mistreatment of detainees at the Rumoh Geudong military post in Pidie (1997-1998) and the infamous Simpang KKA incident (1999), in which the military killed 21 protesters.

Komnas HAM intends to follow up the investigation with an inquiry, which could eventually lead to criminal investigations and prosecutions in a human rights court.

"We urge Komnas HAM to ensure that these new findings, which offer some genuine hope for accountability, are not just buried in the same way that past reports have been," Arradon said.

The peace deal that ended the conflict called for the establishment of a human rights court and a truth and reconciliation commission for Aceh, but neither of these bodies exist or operate yet, although the the Aceh regional parliament is currently debating a bylaw that would establish such a commission.

"We have been encouraged to see the Aceh parliament taking the establishment of a truth commission seriously, in particular in the face of the almost complete lack of political will at the national level on this issue," Arradon said.

"The Aceh parliament must now ensure that this bylaw is debated, enacted and implemented as soon as possible and that the truth commission operates in line with international law and standards. Such a law would be an enormous step towards justice for the victims of the Aceh conflict."

Komnas HAM has also found that survivors and family members have yet to receive full and effective reparations from the government. Amnesty International reached a similar conclusion in a report earlier this year, which found that measures to compensate victims do not go far enough.

"Aceh lacks a comprehensive reparation program aimed specifically at victims of human rights abuses and their families," Arradon said. "Many women survivors of sexual violence have been unable to receive any financial or medical assistance for what they suffered, and must be supported as a priority."

Eight years after the end of the conflict, the legacy of violence is still part of the daily reality for thousands of people in the region.

"While victims and their families welcome the improved security situation, they cannot understand why their demands for truth, justice and reparations are being ignored," Arradon said.

To mark the eighth anniversary of the conflict's end, Amnesty International will publish a briefing, "No Peace without Justice," which will examine numerous abuses on the part of security forces and examine how countless victims and family members in Aceh are still looking for answers.

"President Yudhoyono, who oversaw the 2005 peace deal ending the conflict, must show his commitment to long lasting peace in Aceh by meeting the victims' demands before his term comes to an end next year," Arradon said.

A key step forward would be to offer a formal and public apology to all victims of past human rights abuses, she added.

Human rights violations committed by the Indonesian Army may amount to crimes against humanity. Amnesty International has called upon actors on both sides of the conflict to come out publicly against impunity for such crimes.

Political parties & elections

Golkar 'settled' on decision to go with Aburizal in 2014 poll

Jakarta Globe - August 15, 2013

Senior officials have sought to play down suggestions that the Golkar Party will re-evaluate its decision to name its chairman, Aburizal Bakrie, as its presidential candidate for next year's election, amid poor poll numbers.

Sharif Cicip Sutardjo, a party deputy chairman, said on Tuesday that the matter of the party's candidate was settled and there would be no backtracking.

"There will be no change [of nominee]," he said at the State Palace as quoted by Tempo.co. "There's no more [questioning]. We've already made the decision at a national coordinating meeting. Twice."

Calls are mounting from in and outside the party for Golkar to consider an alternative candidate to Aburizal, who most opinion polls indicate will finish outside the top three in the 2014 election.

The most recent survey, conducted by the United Data Center (PDB) last month, showed that only 11.6 percent of the 1,200 respondents polled would vote for Aburizal, or less than half of the 26 percent who said they would vote for Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo.

In second and third places respectively were Prabowo Subianto, the founder and chief patron of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), with 20 percent, and Megawati Sukarnoputri, the chairwoman of the opposition Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), with 13 percent.

A survey of nearly 1,800 respondents in June by the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI) produced a similar outcome, with 22 percent for Joko, 14 percent for Prabowo and 9 percent each for Megawati and Aburizal.

Agung Laksono, another Golkar deputy chairman, said he was optimistic about Aburizal's prospects, despite what the polls suggested. He said the party was studying all the aspects of the chairman's candidacy that could be improved and would continue its campaign.

"Over the next few months, I believe there will be an increase in his electability," Agung, who is also the coordinating minister for people's welfare, said as quoted by Tempo.co.

However, cracks have appeared in the united front that Golkar has sought to present for its presidential choice, with some in the party openly calling for Aburizal to step aside in favor of more popular figures such as Jusuf Kalla, the former vice president.

Akbar Tanjung, a former Golkar chairman and one of the most respected figures in the party, previously called for a re-evaluation of the decision not to consider any other candidate, but has not explicitly said that Aburizal should not run.

Analysts doubt credibility of Dems' candidate selection

Jakarta Post - August 15, 2013

Jakarta – The ruling Democratic Party has begun selecting its candidates for the 2014 presidential election, but analysts doubt that the process – inspired by the US presidential primary – would be credible with Pramono Edhie Wibowo, the brother-in-law of party founder and chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, joining the race.

Gadjah Mada University political expert Ari Dwipayana said the selection, also involving top political figures from outside the party, would lead to the naming of the party's favorite candidate.

"There could be a tendency for the party to give a better chance to a particular internal candidate. There is also a possibility that public surveys, which will be held during the convention, could be manipulated to support particular individuals."

He suggested that former Indonesian Army chief Gen. (ret) Pramono Edhie Wibowo would likely win the presidential ticket despite the party's claim that the result of the selection would be based on independent national surveys.

Arman Salam, a political analyst at the Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI), concurred, saying that Pramono was the party's favorite regardless of his low electability. "The fact that the party has reviewed and approached several figures to participate in the convention implies that it has a preference," he added.

Convention committee secretary Suaidi Marasabessy, who is also a member of the party's central executive board, downplayed the criticism, saying that the selection would be fair and credible.

"There is no way that we would do any of these things if we already had a preferred presidential candidate. We will cooperate with three independent survey institutes to conduct surveys involving the public to determine the electability and acceptability of candidates," he said on Wednesday.

Suaidi told The Jakarta Post that there were currently 11 candidates, but he refused to name any of them.

However, several public figures who have expressed an interest in participating in the convention include Pramono, House of Representatives Speaker Marzuki Alie, who is a party member, former Constitutional Court chief justice Mahfud MD, Trade Minister Gita Wirjawan and State-Owned Enterprises Minister Dahlan Iskan.

Pramono, who joined the party in June after his retirement, is among the candidates listed as favorites for president in several surveys. His electability, however, is relatively lower than some of his counterparts.

A National Survey Institute (LSN) survey in March ranked him fifth with 4.9 percent of a total of 1,230 respondents while his counterpart from the party, Marzuki Alie, ranked fourth with 6.8 percent.

Another survey by LSI in November last year, which had only 233 respondents with doctoral degrees, placed him in 14th position while Mahfud, Dahlan and Gita ranked first, third and ninth, respectively.

Arman said that the party's caucus was a strategy to nominate the most publicly appealing figure as its presidential candidate. He added that the convention was likely aimed at raising the electability, popularity and acceptability of the party.

The convention will have four stages: introduction of candidates to the public in Jakarta, aired interviews with candidates, public debates between candidates in several cities and other activities initiated by candidates. The party will also conduct surveys before and after the public debates and then decide upon its presidential candidate based on the results of the surveys. (koi)

Arrest puts Dems in hot water

Jakarta Post - August 15, 2013

Hans Nicholas Jong and Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – The ruling Democratic Party (PD) was quick to deny on Wednesday allegations it was linked to the recent bribery scandal that hit the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry after the nation's antigraft agency arrested the top official at the upstream oil and gas regulatory special task force (SKKMigas) for allegedly accepting US$700,000 in bribes from a foreign company.

The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has charged the SKKMigas head with graft, along with two other men, one of whom is an official from the Singapore-based oil trading company Kernel Oil Pte Ltd. Rudi is the highest official to have been caught accepting bribes by the KPK, which has claimed his arrest to be its biggest sting operation.

The scandal has put the PD, which has long controlled the ministry, in the spotlight. "His arrest has nothing to do with the Democratic Party. I don't know Rudi. The bribe money has no relation to the party," the party's deputy chairperson, Nurhayati Ali Assegaf, told reporters.

Bambang said the KPK had yet to see an indication that Rudi's role in the case had any direct relationship with any political party, but added it was possible the party would question Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik, a senior PD politician and a close confidant of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the party's chairman. "We will summon him if his statement is needed," he said.

Jero, known for his close relation with Rudi, told reporters at the State Palace on Wednesday night that he was ready to face questioning and would let the KPK do its job as it investigated the case.

Rudi was twice selected by Yudhoyono for strategic positions in the oil and gas sector. He was appointed in 2012 as Jero's deputy after the previous official, Widjajono Partowidagdo, died after suffering a heart attack while climbing Mount Tambora in Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara. In January this year, Rudi was selected by Yudhoyono as the head of SKKMigas, a temporary replacement for BPMigas, which was dissolved by the Constitutional Court on Nov. 13 last year.

This is the second graft scandal to hit a ministry led by a PD politician. The KPK previously named former youth and sports minister Andi Mallarangeng, who was a PD executive, as a corruption suspect in the Hambalang scandal.

Rudi's arrest has shocked many of his colleagues at the Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) at which he is a lecturer. He was known to be a "clean" official and was once dubbed the best lecturer and a role model by his alma mater.

The KPK, however, announced on Wednesday that it had officially named Rudi a suspect in the bribery case. "We have decided to name three suspects, S as the briber and A and R as the recipients of the bribes," Bambang told a press conference at the KPK's headquarters in Kuningan, South Jakarta, referring to the suspects with their initials.

It is believed that S is Simon G. Tanjaya, one of the owners of Kernel Oil, while A is Deviardi, who goes by his nickname of Ardi, and R is Rudi.

Both Ardi, who works as a golf trainer, and Rudi are suspected of accepting bribes totaling $690,000 and S$127,000. "This is the largest amount of money we have ever confiscated in a sting operation," Bambang said, adding that Ardi had a close relationship with Rudi.

The KPK charged Rudi and Ardi with Article 12 of Law No. 31/1999 on corruption, while Simon was charged with Article 5 of the same law. The antigraft body conducted the operation following information from the public.

The operation started at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, when KPK investigators followed Simon as he gave $400,000 in bribe money to Ardi at the City Plaza Building in South Jakarta. Ardi then gave the money to Rudi at the official's house on Jl. Brawijaya in South Jakarta at 9:30 p.m.

Ardi went to Rudi's house using a luxury motorcycle complete with a vehicle ownership document (BPKB), prompting speculation that the motorcycle was a part of the bribe.

Ardi spent 30 minutes there, after which he went home using Rudi's car and Rudi's personal driver. As he exited the house, the KPK investigators arrested him and brought him back to Rudi's house.

KPK investigators then found the $400,000 as well as $90,000 and S$127,000 in Rudi's house, while they found $200,000 in Ardi's house on Jl. Hortikultura in Pasar Minggu, South Jakarta.

The KPK investigators also brought in Rudi's driver for questioning and confiscated the luxury motorcycle, a black bag and a stack of documents.

[Amahl S. Azwar contributed to this story.]

95 election officials fired over ethics breaches

Jakarta Post - August 12, 2013

National – The Election Organizers Ethics Council (DKPP) has fired 95 members of the Regional General Election Commissions (KPUD) across the country over ethics violations.

DKPP chairman Jimly Asshiddiqie said over the weekend that the decision was made to deter unethical behavior among election officials, who were expected to hold fair and transparent elections.

Jimly ensured that DKPP would always be prudent in its decision-making. "I always ask DKPP members to think wisely. We are responsible for maintaining the image of the institution before the public," he said.

Media & journalism

SBY asked to act on Yogya journo's murder

Jakarta Post - August 17, 2013

Jakarta – Rights activists in Yogyakarta have urged President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to instruct the police to get to the bottom of the murder of Bernas Daily journalist Fuad Muhammad "Udin" Syafruddin, who was killed in August 1996.

According to a press statement from the Yogyakarta Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) made available to The Jakarta Post on Saturday, 17 years of support from activists demanding that police solve the case had yet to reveal any clue as to who was behind the killing.

In a similar move in early May, dozens of rights organizations, including Local and National Press Legal Aid (LBH Pers), the Media Legal Defense Initiative, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and the Southeast Asian Press Alliance, signed a petition to report the case to the United Nations' special rapporteur on freedom of expression.

Udin was beaten by an unidentified person(s) at his house in Bantul, Yogyakarta, on Aug. 13, 1996, and died at Yogyakarta Bethesda Hospital three days later without ever regaining consciousness.

As a journalist, Udin was known for his reports on abuses of authority that were allegedly committed by Sri Roso.

Udin wrote a report about Sri Roso allegedly bribing the Dharmais Foundation (owned by then president Soeharto) for his reelection as Bantul regent. Sri Roso, who was a colonel with the Indonesian Army, was tried in a military court.

The police insisted a love affair was behind Udin's murder. They arrested Dwi Sumadji, alias Iwik, as the chief suspect in the murder, which they thought was related to a love affair with Udin's wife, but the court acquitted Dwi due to a lack of evidence. The police never continued the case and argued they did not have any new evidence to do so.

The Indonesian Ombudsman (ORI) visited the Yogyakarta Police in April. The police said the toughest challenge to revealing Udin's murderer(s) was accessing Sri Roso's dossier. The ORI then sent a letter to the Jakarta II High Military Court asking it to allow the Yogyakarta Police to access the dossier.

As a response to the letter, according to ORI, the Jakarta II High Military Court sent a letter to the Yogyakarta Police inviting them to fetch a copy of the dossier of then Bantul regent Sri Roso and other related documents.

The ORI applauded the response, saying that the dossier could be used to reveal the facts about Udin's murder.

Responding to the development, Yogyakarta Police spokesperson Adj. Sr. Comr. Anny Pudjiastuti said her side would follow up the letter from the high military court.

The statement the Post received urged the Yogyakarta Police to study Sri Roso's and Iwik's dossiers to find an initial lead to reveal the murder. (hrl)

Police get new hope in journo murder probe

Jakarta Post - August 14, 2013

Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – The Yogyakarta Police have been handed a new avenue of investigation in the murder of journalist Fuad Muhammad "Udin" Syafruddin, whose case has remained unsolved for 17 years, an executive with the Indonesian Ombudsman (ORI) has said.

Speaking to The Jakarta Post on Tuesday, ORI member Budi Santoso of the report completion division said the Jakarta II High Military Court had sent a letter to the Yogyakarta Police inviting them to fetch a copy of the dossier of then Bantul regent Sri Roso Sudarmo and other related documents.

"This can be used as ammunition to reveal the facts about Udin's murder," Budi said.

Udin was beaten by an unidentified person(s) at his house in Bantul, Yogyakarta, on Aug. 13, 1996, and died at Yogyakarta Bethesda Hospital three days later without ever regaining consciousness.

As a journalist, Udin was known for his reports on misappropriations of authority that were allegedly committed by Sri Roso. Udin wrote a report about Sri Roso allegedly bribing the Dharmais Foundation (owned by then president Soeharto) for his reelection as Bantul regent.

Sri Roso, who was a colonel with the Indonesian Army, was tried in a military court. "The dossier [on Sri Roso's bribery case] can be a means of digging deeper into the murder of Udin from the reporting side," Budi said.

Budi added he received the information regarding the Jakarta II High Military Court's letter on Sri Roso's dossier from the Yogyakarta Police. The letter, he said, was dated June 14 and welcomed the Yogyakarta Police to a copy of the dossier.

The letter was a follow up to the ORI's earlier visit to the Yogyakarta Police in April. During the visit, according to Budi, the ORI was informed that one of the toughest challenges to reveal Udin's murderer(s) was accessing Sri Roso's dossier. In response to this, the ORI then sent a letter to the Jakarta II High Military Court asking it to allow the Yogyakarta Police to access the dossier.

The police still insist that a love affair was behind Udin's murder. They arrested Dwi Sumadji, alias Iwik, as the chief suspect in the murder, which they thought was related to a love affair with Udin's wife, but the court acquitted Dwi due to a lack of evidence.

The police never continued the case and argued they did not have any new evidence to do so. However, as the Yogyakarta Police now have access to Sri Roso's dossier, Budi said, "the ball to finish the murder case is now in the Yogyakarta Police's court."

Responding to the development, Yogyakarta Police spokesperson Adj. Sr. Comr. Anny Pudjiastuti said her side would follow up the letter from the high military court. "But we have yet to decide when to send an envoy to Jakarta to get the documents," Anny said.

Timeline of Udin case

Aug. 13, 1996: Fuad Mohammad Syafruddin (Udin) is attacked by unidentified person(s) at his house in Yogyakarta – He dies three days later at Bethesda Hospital and is buried in Trirenggo, Bantul.

Aug. 15, 1996: Bernas runs the first article on the attack of Udin.

Oct. 21, 1996: Bantul Police arrest Dwi Sumaji, alias Iwik, on suspicion of killing Udin in a jealous rage.

Nov. 3, 1997: Prosecutors at the Bantul District Court demand Iwik's release due to lack of evidence.

Nov. 27, 1997: The panel of judges at Bantul District Court declare Iwik innocent.

May 27, 2005: Edy Wuryanto, a senior police officer, is sentenced to 20 months in prison for destroying evidence in the murder case. Edy, as an investigator in the case, was found guilty of perverting the course of justice by destroying a notepad that contained evidence deemed relevant.

Environment & natural disasters

Latest volcanic eruption shows challenge to Indonesia from 'ring of fire'

Reuters - August 13, 2013

Kanupriya Kapoor, Jakarta – A deadly lava flow at the weekend that killed five people and sent hundreds fleeing illustrates the formidable challenges Indonesia faces in coping with the constant threat of eruptions from the world's largest number of active volcanoes.

Mount Rokatenda at the eastern end of the archipelago off the island of Flores, on Saturday became the fifth serious volcanic eruption in just three years.

The most deadly in recent memory was Mount Merapi, near the densely populated city of Yogyakarta in central Java, which erupted in late 2010, killing over 350 people.

"Observation centers in Indonesia have equipment that can detect an increase in geophysical or geochemical activity. So, if there are increasing tremors, it might be a sign of an imminent eruption," said Dr. Agung Harijoko, associate professor of volcanology at Gajah Mada University in central Java, Indonesia's main island.

"But what is worrying is the capability and logistics to deal with such disasters, especially outside Java. The infrastructure isn't very good and residents need to be alerted and educated better."

One of the world's fastest growing economies, Indonesia straddles the "Pacific ring of fire" with nearly 130 active volcanoes, more than any other country.

The Indonesian Red Cross said it was ready to dispatch medical assistance and supplies to victims of the latest eruption, but transportation to the tiny, remote island Palue was not readily available.

"We have some volunteers already on the ground, helping the military with the evacuation. And we have food, blankets, and masks ready to go but... transportation is hard to find," said Aulia Arriani, spokesperson for the Indonesian Red Cross.

"Inter-island transport is almost non-existent there because it's a remote place, and the government has only provided a few ferries so far. We hope to start getting supplies there by Thursday."

According to the US Geological Survey, the ring of fire where several tectonic plates meet and cause 90 percent of the world's seismic activity, accounts for a constant stream of eruptions, earthquakes and tidal waves.

The largest volcanic eruption in modern history was recorded in 1883 when Mount Krakatau, located between Java and Sumatra, exploded into smaller islands, causing thousands of deaths and shock waves that were recorded around the globe. A successor, "Child of Krakatau," has grown into a small island in the same area, sending thick plumes of smoke and occasional bursts of rock into the air.

In 2004, Indonesia bore the brunt of casualties and damage from the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami, which killed over 250,000 people in several countries around the ocean's rim.

Earthquakes are an almost daily event around the country. A 6.1 magnitude quake hit northern Sumatra last month, causing 35 deaths and significant damage to property.

Many farmers choose to live by volcanoes despite the associated risks because of the fertility of the soil and higher rainfall. According to the national disaster management agency, the government often does not have enough funds to relocate people who live in disaster-prone areas.

"On average we only see around two eruptions a year at the scale [of Mount Rokatenda]," Dr. Agung Harijoko said. "So you see people who want to live around volcanoes because they are willing to adapt to the circumstances because the soil is very fertile.... And there are other sociological reasons. People can have a sentimental attachment to the land or they have religious or mystical beliefs about the volcanoes."

Refugees & asylum seekers

Australia's new policy a threat to refugees, Suaka argues

Jakarta Globe - August 14, 2013

Claims by the Australian government that its new policy of sending asylum seekers arriving by boat to Papua New Guinea or Nauru is a success have been met with condemnation by several Indonesian human rights and legal aid organizations.

"In this case, success should be defined as their [the Australian government] success in violating the rights of asylum seekers, a success in putting their lives in danger," says a statement by Suaka, a civil society coalition comprising the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH), the Human Rights Working Group and the Indonesia Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI).

The coalition condemned the deal, signed by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and his Papua New Guinea counterpart, Peter O'Neill, as a violation of the universality principle of human rights.

It said that as a member of the 1951 United Nations Convention on the Status of Refugees, the Australian government had committed to and was required to protect the rights of asylum seekers in its territories without discrimination.

Suaka said the Australian government had deliberately put the refugees in countries that were in far worse condition compared to Australia.

In a recent development index by the United Nations Development Program, which evaluates a country's national income per capita, access to education and average lifespan, Papua New Guinea ranked 156th – compared to Australia, which came in second on the list.

"Papua New Guinea today does not have the capacity nor the national expertise to receive refugees and they also continue to implement the detention of asylum seekers," Suaka said.

"In addition, 50 percent of women in Papua New Guinea have become rape victims, and the facilities for asylum seekers on Manus Island have also often been criticized as conditions there do not promote the human rights, health and the welfare of asylum seekers."

The group pointed out that Nauru was in no better condition, with a recent riot by asylum seekers in the country's detention center pointing to poor facilities provided for refugees.

Data published by the Australian immigration department shows that from September 2012 to March 2013, some 89 percent of asylum seekers entering Australian territory by air had fulfilled the requirements to be classified as refugees. Only 54.7 percent of those coming in by sea qualified as refugees.

As such, Suaka demanded that the Australian government revoke its memoranda of understanding with Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

Graft & corruption

Djoko tries to defend his immense wealth in court

Jakarta Post - August 14, 2013

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – Former National Police Traffic Corps (Korlantas) chief Insp. Gen. Djoko Susilo fumbled through explaining the origin of his immense wealth during a trial at the Jakarta Corruption Court in Kuningan, South Jakarta, on Tuesday.

In his defense against the money laundering charges leveled against him, Djoko provided a presentation detailing his assets, which were allegedly purchased using illicit money.

Hours into Djoko's presentation, presiding judge Suhartoyo questioned the legitimacy of the data, reasoning that when previous witnesses who knew about Djoko's assets testified, they could not provide evidence to back up their testimonies.

He asked Djoko: "What's the references of your data?" According to Suhartoyo, Djoko could have easily manipulated the data to match it with his indictment.

Responding to the panel of judges' doubts, Djoko insisted that the data regarding the cash flow of his businesses, which he claimed was the source of his wealth, was legitimate.

He, however, said he could not provide hard evidence regarding his cash flow as the transactions of his businesses were only based on trusts, and therefore were not documented.

"How could Rp 200 million become tens of billions of rupiah without any proper documentation?" asked judge Gusrizal Lubis, referring to the amount of money Djoko allegedly used as his starting capital.

Djoko is charged with graft and money laundering in his role in the vehicle simulator procurement graft case that caused Rp 144.9 billion (US$14 million) in state losses.

Last week, Djoko rejected prosecutors' demands to present all three of his wives in court and insisted that his marriages were his private business. He was afraid his wives would be put under too much psychological pressure if they were to testify in court, his lawyer, Teuku Nasrullah, said.

Djoko has three children with his first wife Suratmi, whom he married in 1985. He has another two children with his second wife, Mahdiana, whom he married in 2001. In 2008, Djoko, who was then 48, took teen pageant queen Dipta Anindita as his third wife, when she was only 19.

Djoko accumulated Rp 43 billion in assets between 2010 and 2012, using the names of his relatives, including his three wives and two children, Eva Susilo Handayani and Poppy Femialya.

During Tuesday's trial, Djoko tried to justify his decision to list his wealth under his relatives' names by saying that it was so that he could avoid paying progressive taxes.

Judge Pangeran Napitupulu then questioned why Djoko felt the need to avoid paying progressive taxes since 2007, when he started purchasing vehicles using his relatives' names, when in fact the tax policy started to be implemented in 2011.

Djoko explained it was a precautionary measure in case the tax policy was implemented early and added that some of his assets were purchased using Mahdiana's money.

When asked why he did not include Mahdiana in his wealth report submitted to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), Djoko said he did not want to be accused of breaching the police's ethics code. "It is impossible for us as civil servants to expose our businesses, including reports on our wives," he said.

Djoko explained he did not use banking services in his businesses' transactions to avoid such a problem.

Hearing Djoko's reasoning, Gusrizal lambasted him for refusing to allow Mahdiana to testify before the court. "She used a lot of her money to buy the assets. But the data on her money management never appeared before the court," he said. "Then when we hoped she would appear in the court room [to explain the origin of Djoko's assets], you also refused."

Government awards remissions to 182 graft convicts

Jakarta Post - August 12, 2013

Hans Nicholas Jong, Jakarta – The government has cut prison terms of 182 graft convicts during this year's celebration of Idul Fitri, a controversial move that activists say could hamper the country's efforts to eradicate corruption.

Law and Human Rights Minister Amir Syamsuddin said that the remission was one of the rights of the graft convicts that had been stipulated in numerous regulations. "So those who were well-behaved and did not violate the rules were awarded with remissions," he said.

The number, however, is fewer than that of last year when the government granted remissions to a total of 582 graft convicts.

The granting of the remissions this year came on the heels of the enactment of a 2012 government regulations to tighten the extension of remission, parole and other legal rights provided for graft convicts. Under the new regulation, any graft convicts who wanted to receive remissions should serve as justice collaborators first.

Amir, however, said that not all of the graft convicts who received remissions this year were justice collaborators.

Former tax officer Gayus H Tambunan, for example, still received remission despite him not serving as a justice collaborator. Gayus was sentenced to 28 years in prison for multiple convictions; accepting bribes, failing to report gratuities, committing money laundering and bribing police officers to escape detention.

According to Amir, Gayus had been convicted before the new regulation was set effective on Nov. 12, 2012, and thus did not have to be a justice collaborator first in order to be awarded with remission.

He also declined to disclose the name of justice collaborators awarded with remissions during this year's Idul Fitri, saying that the government had to protect their identities.

The government's decision to grant remissions to the graft convicts were lambasted by anti-corruption activists, who said that it was a major drawback to the nation's attempt to combat rampant corruption plaguing the country.

Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) commissioner Bambang Widjojanto said that the government should be more stern and decisive in regards to awarding remissions to graft convicts.

"The government should have a thorough understanding and a firm stance regarding punishment (to graft convicts)," he told The Jakarta Post on Sunday. Bambang added that the government could even go as far as eliminating remissions to graft convicts in the future seeing how corruption could be considered as extraordinary crime. "The government has the rights to postpone and even eliminate the awarding of remissions to convicts with specific type of crimes," he said.

According to Bambang, corruption is considered as extraordinary crime as it had inflicted losses on the state. "Don't you think that the impact from corruption is far greater than the rights to receive remissions which the corruptors should not have received in the first place?" he said.

On the same note, KPK spokesperson Johan Budi questioned the effectiveness of the new regulation in tightening the noose around the corruptors' necks.

"If the new government regulation is considered superior to the old regulation, then how come there are still lots of graft convicts who received remissions?" he said on Sunday.

Likewise, Emerson Yuntho of the Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) also criticized the new regulation.

"It's a shame that the government still grants remissions to corruptors. The new regulation is just there to boost the image (of the government)," he told the Post on Sunday. "They're just pretending to be battling corruption while actually they're compromising and even supporting corruptors."

Punishment for graft convicts too lenient: ICW

Jakarta Post - August 12, 2013

Jakarta – Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) says that most of the 756 people convicted on graft charges in the last three years received lenient punishment, ranging from 18-month to two-year prison terms.

"It is unfair considering that the state lost around Rp 6.4 trillion (US$620.8 million)," ICW researcher Tama Satya Langkun said in Jakarta on Sunday as quoted by tempo.co.

He said that such punishment was not a deterrent to graft. Moreover, he added, graft convicts had the possibility of receiving remissions.

For example, he went on, bribery convicts Angelina Sondakh and Hartati Murdaya were sentenced to only four years and six months and two years and eight months in prison, respectively, in their high-profile graft cases.

Tama said that only five of the 756 graft convicts were sentenced to more than five years. One of the five is Zulkarnaen Djabar, who was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his role in the Koran procurement graft case. (hrl)

Hard-line & vigilante groups

Government on disbanding FPI: Can't touch this

Jakarta Globe - August 14, 2013

Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Farouk Arnaz – The government's reluctance to act against a hard-line Islamic group following its third violent skirmish in the space of two months has exasperated politicians, but the group has denied responsibility for the latest incident.

Nurul Arifin, a deputy secretary general of the Golkar Party, said on Tuesday that an armed attack by a mob from the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) on Monday against a group of villagers in Lamongan, East Java, should spur the government into disbanding the group once and for all.

"If they continue these kinds of law-breaking activities, they should be immediately disbanded," she said.

She warned that the authorities' continued refusal to hold the group accountable for its litany of offenses over the years could compel those fed up with the FPI to take matters into their own hands, thus leading to a cycle of violence.

"Don't let there be a chain reaction of conflicts just because the police are impotent against law-breaking organizations. There should be no room for law-breakers in this country," Nurul said.

Unprovoked attack

Police have arrested 42 FPI members in connection with the attack in the early hours of Monday on residents of Lamongan's Kandang Semangkon village, and named 22 of them as suspects over the violence that left three people injured.

Police also seized 50 sharp weapons from the FPI members, including machetes and samurai swords.

Sr. Comr. Awi Setiyono, a spokesman for the East Java Police, said as quoted by Tempo.co that the incident stemmed from an unprovoked attack last Thursday by three FPI members on three youths from the village. In retaliation, a group of villagers marched on the home of one of the attackers late on Sunday night, but after failing to find him there, attacked his wife.

In the early hours of Monday, an FPI mob stormed the village in revenge, destroying six motorcycles and vandalizing a home. They then took to the streets and attacked innocent bystanders, as well as set fire to two motorcycles in a dealer's lot.

Gen. Timur Pradopo, the National Police chief, vowed that police would take a hard-line against the perpetrators.

"We will always protect the people, and if indeed [the FPI] broke the law, they will be dealt with accordingly," he said in Jakarta on Tuesday. He would not say if the incident, the third in less than two months, warranted the disbanding of the group.

Three strikes

The FPI was involved in a similar clash with residents of East Java's Kendal district on July 18 during an attempt to raid a brothel there.

They damaged several businesses before local residents turned on the hard- liners, forcing the FPI to beat a retreat. As the FPI members attempted to flee the scene, one vehicle ran down a couple on a motorcycle, killing the female passenger and injuring her husband.

In late June, an FPI mob in Makassar, South Sulawesi, vandalized a liquor store.

Nurul said the newly amended Mass Organizations Law gave the government full justification to disband the FPI in light of these actions.

She said Article 62 of the law, passed earlier this year, effectively gave groups like the FPI a "three strikes and you're out" ultimatum, and that the Lamongan incident constituted the third strike.

"The government should at least order a temporary halt to [the FPI's] activities. And if they persist, then under the law the government has the mandate to disband the organization," Nurul said, adding that the government's continued reluctance to act against the FPI was inconsistent with prevailing statutes.

However, Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi has spoken up for the FPI, claiming that its Lamongan chapter, like the Kendal one, is not an officially sanctioned branch of the organization and that therefore the FPI should not be held responsible for its actions.

"I've checked and it appears that the Lamongan FPI isn't registered. I've heard that the FPI hasn't even appointed any officials there, so it's a matter of personal responsibility, not group responsibility," he said in Jakarta on Tuesday.

"I've heard that the FPI's [central board] will take a stance on the matter, and it's better that way. If the [Lamongan FPI] was using the group's name, uniform and symbols unofficially, then the FPI's central board should be firm about the matter."

Gamawan said it was a similar case in the Kendal incident, with the local branch of the FPI not officially recognized by either the organization or the government. He encouraged the FPI to sue individuals or groups that carried out raids or attacks in its name or under its banner.

He added that the government could not bring the Mass Organizations Law to bear against the FPI in either the Lamongan or Kendal cases because the group was not involved as an organization, even if individual members were involved.

Wasn't us

Haidar Alhamid, the chairman of the FPI's East Java chapter, said on Monday that the Lamongan branch had been dissolved in 2010 because of its "insolence" toward Rizieq Shihab, the FPI chairman.

"When I was inaugurated by Rizieq at the end of 2010 along with the heads of the FPI's district and municipal chapters from across East Java, there was no longer any Lamongan chapter," he said as quoted by Kompas.com.

"The Lamongan chapter had gone against the organization's views on relations between the state and religion, and for that, it was frozen."

Muhammad Mahdi, the head of the East Java FPI's high council, said separately as quoted by Tempo.co that the Lamongan chapter had been suspended since September 2010.

He said the suspension was requested by the East Java chapter because of the Lamongan leadership's "lack of discipline," following an attack by its members on restaurants selling alcohol in the run-up to Ramadan that year.

Idrus Al Gadhri, the head of the FPI chapter in Depok, West Java, claimed that Monday's incident was a conspiracy by unscrupulous parties to tarnish the organization's reputation.

"There is no Lamongan branch, and those who were [involved in the clash] are only pretending to be FPI members," he said as quoted by Sindonews.com.

"I've been with the FPI for 14 years, so I know that all negative news about the FPI must be checked thoroughly first." Blaming the Lamongan incident on the FPI, he went on, "is slanderous."

East Java police charge local FPI head with inciting Lamongan riot

Jakarta Globe - August 14, 2013

Farouk Arnaz – A ranking member of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) was charged on Tuesday with leading an early morning attack on local residents in Lamongan, East Java, in the latest crackdown on the notoriously violent organization.

Umar Farouk, the head of the Lamongan district chapter of the FPI, was charged with inciting a riot after more than 40 hard-liners stormed through Kandang Semangkon village, in Paciran subdistrict, on August 11, setting fire to six motorcycles and stabbing one man in the back and head, police said.

The hard-liners were searching for Slamet Badiono, a man accused of stabbing a FPI member's wife after a confrontation at a Playstation cafe in Blimbing urban ward on Aug. 8. The raid, and the ensuing retaliation by village residents, damaged four homes in two villages and ended with the arrest of 51 people early August 12, police said.

"There were 42 FPI members [arrested] and named as suspects." National Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Agus Rianto said. "Meanwhile, nine local residents were also arrested, six of whom were named as suspects."

The series of retaliatory attacks began with a brawl in an arcade in Blimbing urban ward on August 8. The hard-liners reportedly attacked five people during an unspecified dispute. The brawl allegedly angered Slamet, who drove to the home of Zaenuri, a known member of the FPI, on August 11 in an alleged attempt to get revenge.

When Slamet learned that Zaenuri wasn't home, he reportedly stabbed the man's wife and fled the scene. The violence set off a second wave of retaliation as 41 members of the district FPI office, led by Umar, headed to Slamet's home in nearby Kandang Semangkon village.

The hard-liners couldn't find Slamet, so they turned their anger on Muklis, a man they accused of using drugs. The mob damaged Muklis' home and set six motorbikes on fire before heading off in search of their initial target.

The FPI then attacked a second man, Hamzah Soleh, reportedly stabbing him in the back and ear, police said.

That attack angered local residents in Kandang Semangkon, who reportedly set off to Gowa village. The rival mob allegedly vandalized the homes of two FPI members before police arrived and arrested 51 people.

Officers confiscated several "sharp weapons" from the FPI members. They also took the hard-liners' cellphones.

Police are still searching for Zaenuri, the man accused of the initial brawl that sparked the hours of back-and-forth attacks. "We have named him in the wanted list," East Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Awi Setiyono told the Indonesian newspaper Tempo.

Police arrest FPI members, seize weapons

Jakarta Post - August 13, 2013

Indra Harsaputra, Surabaya – The police in Lamongan, East Java, arrested 42 Islam Defenders Front (FPI) members and confiscated weapons after they clashed with a group of people in Dengok hamlet, Kandang Semangkon village in Paciran district on Monday.

East Java Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Awi Setiyono said the clash was triggered by an altercation between three FPI members and three locals on Thursday. The police named the three FPI members – Zaenuri alias Zen, Viki and Gondok. The three locals were Zaenul Efendi, Agus Langgeng and Sampurno -- as suspects in the case.

The alleged attack was committed at a PlayStation rental shop in Gow, Blimbing subdistrict, Paciran. "The three victims suffered stab wounds and bruises," Awi told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Awi said that on Sunday at 11:30 p.m., Slamet Badiono led some 20 Blimbing residents on a revenge mission and assaulted two relatives of an FPI member, Riyan and Sundari. Sundari was stabbed in her left hand and Riyan suffered stab wounds to the head. "The police arrested Slamet and Said," Awi said.

In response to the revenge, Umar Faruk led tens of FPI members on a search for the people who tortured Riyan and Sundari in Dengok hamlet. "They destroyed windows, television sets and six motorcycles," Awi said.

They later moved to Jl. Daendels, Paciran, and seriously injured Hamzah Soleh. FPI members reportedly set fire to two motorcycles and destroyed six others. Another teenager, Ryan Kurniawan, also sustained injuries.

East Java FPI Syuro council chairman Muhammad Mahdi bin Idrus Alhabsyi denied the attack, saying the clash was between martial art clubs and not the FPI. "FPI Lamongan was closed down three years ago due to difference in views with the central FPI," Mahdi said.

42 FPI members arrested following Lamongan clash

Jakarta Globe - August 12, 2013

Forty-two members of the hard-line Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) were arrested early Monday morning following a clash with local residents in Lamongan, East Java.

Although police have not confirmed the initial cause of the confrontation, Indonesian news portal Detik.com that an FPI member's wife was allegedly stabbed by residents of the Gowah hamlet in Lambongan. In retaliation, the FPI assailed locals and burned two motorcycles, according to metrotvnews.com.

Afterward, a group of residents from the hamlet decided to attack the nearby Blimbing Paciran village, an FPI stronghold. Two houses owned by members of the FPI were damaged.

At least three people were wounded in the incident. The FPI were reportedly wielding sharp weapons during the skirmish.

Lamongan Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Solehan told journalists that 42 members of the FPI were taken into custody. "We're still investigating this case," Solehan told Detik.

FPI members clash with residents in Lamongan

Jakarta Post - August 12, 2013

Jakarta – A clash erupted between Lamongan Islam Defenders Front (FPI) members and local residents in Lamongan regency, East Java, injuring one resident and damaging two motorcycles and two houses, a police officer said on Monday.

Tribunnews.com reported that the clash was allegedly sparked by the mistreatment of the wife of an FPI member, which in turn conducted a search to locate the perpetrators in Gowah hamlet, Blimbing village.

Failure to find the perpetrators resulted in FPI members reportedly damaging the houses and other belongings of residents.

The residents countered by attacking neighboring Gowah hamlet, the center of FPI activities in Blimbing village. As the FPI members were armed, the residents eventually withdrew.

Lamongan Police chief AKBP Solehan said officers were immediately deployed to the site to prevent the clash from escalating. The police briefly detained several FPI members for questioning, he said. "We are investigating the case," he said as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Freedom of religion & worship

Religious intolerance 'cannot be justified': Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono

Jakarta Globe - August 16, 2013

Ezra Sihite – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono sought on Friday to defend Indonesia against accusations that the republic was descending into greater religious intolerance.

"It cannot be justified if an individual or a group forces its beliefs onto others," the president said in an speech prior to Independence Day. "And certainly not with threats, intimidation or violence."

The president called on the country's rich diversity, emphasizing that discrimination on religious grounds was contrary to the interests of the country.

"I want to remind all Indonesian people that the state fully guarantees the existence of individual or minority groups," he said. "We have to prevent violence that disturbs the social fabric and national unity."

Human rights organization the Setara Institute recently criticized the government for a lack of grit in cases of religious intolerance, allowing the branches of discrimination to spread and vigilantism to take root.

National agencies were behind only 60 of the 160 responses to incidences of religious intolerance, while citizens instigated the remaining 100, the report said.

In March, the HKBP Taman Sari church in Bekasi district was demolished by Bekasi Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) following objections from a hard- line group, Taman Sari Islamic People's Forum (FUIT). The church was still in the process of obtaining a building permit.

In the same month, Satpol PP sealed the Al Misbah Ahmadiyah mosque in Bekasi under the authority of the city's mayor, Rachmat Effendi, citing a regulation by the West Java government and joint-ministerial decree on the embattled sect. The decree prohibits the Ahmadiyah from proselytizing, but does not preclude the minority religious group from conducting activities pursuant to their religion.

"Violent conflicts happened because of weak leadership and regulations," Maruarar Sirait, an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker, said on Friday. "Data show there are problems with the Ahmadiyah, conflict between Sunni and Shiites in Madura, [embattled church] GKI Yasmin and others. Upholding tolerance should be implemented with real action in the field."

Sufi Muslims feel the heat of Indonesia's rising intolerance

Jakarta Globe - August 15, 2013

Andreas Harsono – The plight of the Al-Mujahadah Foundation madrassa in southern Aceh illustrates the perils of rising religious intolerance for Indonesia's religious minorities. The school, a private institution that instructed dozens of students 8 to 25 years of age in the principles of Sufism – devotion to more mystical interpretations of Islam – lost its dormitory on July 5 due to an apparent arson attack. Less than a month later, on Aug. 1, the wall surrounding the school compound was destroyed in what the school authorities believe was an act of vandalism. Police are investigating the alleged arson attack, but say the school's wall collapsed due to faulty construction.

Suspicions that the school has been singled out for harassment and intimidation aren't unwarranted. In February, Aceh's Ulama Consultative Council (MPU), a government entity that advises the government on Islamic affairs, demanded the school's closure on the basis that it was "strange" and its teachings "false and misleading."

The South Aceh regency government complied with that demand on March 4 by ordering all students to leave the facility. It also told the school's top administrators not to receive guests in their homes as a way to derail possible home-schooling efforts. The same day, a mob of around 70 local Sunni villagers destroyed the school's front gate while police stood by. Now the school sits empty.

The attack on the Sufi community in southern Aceh marks a sinister new phase in the ongoing campaign of intolerance by Islamist militant groups, such as the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI). The targets of that intolerance and acts of related violence have long been Christian groups, Shiite Muslims, and the Ahmadiyah, as well as members of native animist faiths.

Islamist militant groups seek to justify violence by espousing an interpretation of Sunni Islam that labels most non-Muslims as "infidels," and Muslims who do not adhere to Sunni orthodoxy as "blasphemers." The Jakarta-based Setara Institute, which monitors religious freedom in Indonesia, reported earlier this year that the number of reported incidents of violence related to religious intolerance jumped from 244 cases in 2011 to 264 in 2012. Now the Islamist militants seem to have a new target: Indonesia's Sufi population.

Sumatra has become ground zero for this new wave of intolerance and related violence against Sufis due to conservative Sunni clerics who have branded Sufi congregations as "heretical sects." Unlike in other parts of Indonesia, Sumatra's Sunni clerics are less constrained by the relatively tolerant Nahdlatul Ulama, Indonesia largest Muslim organization, which accommodates hundreds of Islamic tariqah (Sufi sects) under its umbrella, but which is relatively weak in Sumatra.

In September 2007, the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI) in West Sumatra issued a fatwa, an Islamic legal ruling, against the local Al-Qiyadah Al- Islamiyah Sufi sect on the basis that they were "heretics." Police responded to the fatwa by arresting the sect's leaders. In May 2008, a West Sumatra court sentenced Dedi Priadi and Gerry Lufthy Yudistira, the sect's father and son leaders, to three years' imprisonment for "blasphemy." Not to be outdone, in April 2011 Aceh's governor, Irwandi Yusuf, issued a decree that banned 14 minority Islamic sects, including Sufi, Ahmadiyah and Shiite groupings.

Expect more such intolerance: in March 2012, the West Sumatra prosecutor's office announced that the province hosted a total of "25 misleading sects" that merited official censure.

It's no mystery why Indonesia's Islamist militants have been emboldened to extend their acts of harassment, intimidation and violence against the country's Sufis. Human Rights Watch issued a report in February documenting an alarming rise in religious intolerance and related acts of violence. The government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has proven unwilling to confront the perpetrators, enforce existing law and judicial decisions, and defend the rights to religious freedom embodied in Indonesia's constitution and international law.

Indonesian government officials and security forces have often facilitated harassment and intimidation of religious minorities by militant Islamist groups or stood by while militants violently attacked religious minority communities. Such actions are in part made possible by discriminatory laws and regulations, including a blasphemy law that officially recognizes only six religions, and house of worship decrees that give local majority populations significant leverage over religious minority communities.

Indonesian government institutions have also played a role in the violation of the rights and freedoms of the country's religious minorities. Those institutions, which include the Ministry of Religious Affairs, the Coordinating Board for Monitoring Mystical Beliefs in Society (Bakor Pakem) under the Attorney General's Office, and the semi-official MUI, have eroded religious freedom by issuing decrees and fatwas against members of religious minorities and using their position of authority to press for the prosecution of "blasphemers."

Human Rights Watch warned in February that a failure by Yudhoyono to act decisively against religious intolerance would foster a form of "toxic osmosis" that would only encourage Islamist militants to target new victims. Instead, Yudhoyono's spokesman dismissed such concerns as "naive" and insisted that incidents of intolerance and violence by militant Islamist thugs against Indonesia's religious minorities were merely expressions of "friction between groups."

When I taught at the Ar Raniry Islamic Institute in Banda Aceh in the 1990s, I got to know some members of the religious minorities now under attack there. They deserve an end to the hate campaigns.

In May 2013, Yudhoyono promised that his government "would not tolerate any act of senseless violence committed by any group in the name of the religion." Indonesia's religious minorities, including the Sufis of Sumatra, need him to deliver on that promise.

[Andreas Harsono is an Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch.]

Official denies forced conversion of Shia group

Jakarta Globe - August 14, 2013

Ezra Sihite – Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi said he did not believe recent reports that Shia Muslims in Sampang district, East Java, were subjected to forced conversions by local officials.

"We have to check it first, I don't think there's such forced conversion," Gamawan said at the State Palace on Tuesday. "Belief is a human's relation with God. The government has nothing to do with forcing [people to convert to certain beliefs]."

Herstaning, a lawyer representing the displaced Shia community, told the Jakarta Globe on Monday that there were 35 Shiites who were forced by officials in Sampang to convert to mainstream Sunni Islam. They were forced to sign letters, witnessed by the local Religious Affairs Agency, head of the National Unity and Political Agency (Kesbangpol), the Sampang branch of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), the Sampang district head and the local Police chief, he said.

They were threatened that residents would set their houses on fire and that their safety might be endangered if they refused to sign the letter – stating that Shia was a deviant teaching – and convert to Sunni on their own will, the lawyer said.

Several Shiites revealed their experiences of intimidation upon returning to their hometowns in Sampang, with some threatened with beheading. The Shiites also confirmed that local authorities seemed to support such conversions.

Gamawan said the government would guarantee the safety of all believers and support the decision to return the displaced Shia community to their hometown, adding that all Indonesian citizens were free to adopt any belief.

"We really need to check it because there are different opinions out there, even mass organizations have their own opinions," Gamawan said. "Clearly the government guarantees people's safety and we are trying to return them to their hometowns."

There were originally 143 Shiite families in the villages of Blu'uran and Karanggayam in Sampang district, but a clash between Sunni and Shia has forced 80 families, who lost their home in the conflict, to live in a sports center in Sampang.

In recent months, the government has forced those families to move to apartments in Sidoarjo, East Java, several hours from Sampang. The government has planned to move them back to their hometowns and is trying to reconcile the conflicting groups.

Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali said he had not heard about the forced conversions in Sampang. "I don't know whether there were forced conversions," Suryadharma said. "What I know is there was a program for people to have common perception and refreshments."

Suryadharma said while there's no conflict between religions in Indonesia, difference percepts to Islamic teachings could create problems.

"There's no problem between Islam and Christianity, between Hindu and Buddhism. They [Shiites] call themselves Muslim, but it's a different Islam, and it creates conflict. So [religious] freedom should be limited by regulation, and it should not be violated," Suryadharma said.

Minister insists he is right on Shia

Jakarta Post - August 14, 2013

Margareth S. Aritonang and Ina Parlina, Jakarta – Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali said on Tuesday that the purpose of the reconciliation program between Shia and Sunni Muslims in Sampang, East Java, was to "enlighten" the former so they would have the same perspective as their Sunni neighbors.

The minister denied the accusation that the government had forced the displaced Shiites, who now live in a camp in Sidoarjo, to denounce their faith should they wish to return home.

"I never forced them to convert to the true teaching of Islam. I never used words like 'repent' or 'conversion'. Expressions I used [in reconciliation meetings] were 'enlightenment' and 'alignment of perception'," Suryadharma told The Jakarta Post at his office in Central Jakarta on Tuesday.

Suryadharma underlined the importance of "enlightenment", saying it was necessary to ensure they would be able to safely return to their villages.

"Members of the [Shia] community can return home after they settle differences with their neighbors and have the same [religious] perspective," the minister said.

"The government and the local clerics are carefully conducting this in order to avoid violence that might cost lives. Who will take responsibility if this happens? Please don't put us in a difficult situation," the chairman of the United Development Party insisted.

Suryadharma refused to identify the Sampang Shia as followers of Shia Islam, the world's second largest Islamic denomination after Sunni.

He only labeled them as followers of Tajul Muluk, who has been declared "heretic" by the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and is now serving a prison sentence after being convicted for blasphemy.

He insisted that the process to align the religious perceptions of the Sampang ulema (religious leaders) and beleaguered Shiites was not an attempt at conversion as it was not a conflict between Sunni and Shia, but a blasphemous act committed by Tajul.

"We must refer to the court proceedings. The court has found Tajul Muluk guilty of blasphemy. Therefore, this is a case of blasphemy. The government never labeled it a Sunni-Shia case," he said.

Tajul, a local cleric, was convicted on blasphemy charges on July 12, 2012, after a mob attacked and ransacked more than 30 houses owned by Tajul and his followers in late August 2011, an attack that killed two people.

In September 2012, the Sampang District Court increased his charges from two to four years in prison for telling his followers that the current Koran was not the original version, and that the true Koran was still in the hands of Imam Mahdi.

Around 235 of his followers have lived in limbo since the attack, forcing them to leave their home village to temporarily live in a relocation site until they were "enlightened", as the religious minister has said.

According to Hertasning Ichlas, an attorney for the Sampang Shia community, 34 community members had returned to their homes by Aug. 7 as they had finally agreed to sign a pledge of nine points stating their willingness to condemn Tajul's teachings and return to "the true teaching of Islam".

Speaking to the Post recently, Shia cleric Iklil Al Milal, who is a brother of Tajul, said he understood the "bitter decision" his fellow Shiites had taken as they were left with no option, otherwise they would risk losing their land for good or suffering intimidation. He said he would understand if more members of the community followed suit due to the dangers ahead, given the "government's clear stance" on the matter.

Iklil, who is among the 235 Shiites evicted from Sampang, said Suryadharma, who is in charge of the reconciliation team, had also told him that he and other Shiites could return to Sampang when they were "already enlightened".

Regardless of mounting criticisms of government's apparently biased stance in carrying out the reconciliation program in Sampang, Home Minister Gamawan Fauzi supported Suryadharma's "enlightenment" policy.

"The government takes a clear stance: ensuring the safety of the people before trying to return them home and maintaining a harmonious life. That's why the government invited the ulema to a dialogue intended to reach a common perspective," he said on Tuesday.

Madura Shiites face conversion threat

Jakarta Globe - August 13, 2013

Camelia Pasandaran – Many Shiite Muslims returning to Madura for Idul Fitri last week were given an ultimatum that forced them to convert to Sunnism or leave the troubled East Java island, in the latest inflammation of hostilities between the different branches of Islam.

Several Shiites in recent days revealed their experiences of intimidation upon returning to their hometowns, with some threatened with beheading and the destruction of their homes if they did not comply.

The campaign appeared to be carried out with the support of the local government, the police and the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), as well as the national government's National Unity and Political Agency (Kesbangpol).

"The [Sampang] district government and some kyai [clerics] have a program to lead people to return to the right path," said one young Shiite, Nukholis, citing Mat Hasan, the local chief in his hometown Nangkernang.

"I'm not threatening you, but people here don't want Shiites to live here," Nurkholis said on Monday, quoting Hasan. He also said that the Indonesian Ulema Council in Sampang wanted me to return to the right path."

Nukholis, a souvenir seller working on Bali, said he was pressured to visit the home of Syaifudin, a Sampang cleric.

When he and four other Shiites arrived, he was met by a group of men that included Fatturohman, the head of the local Religious Affairs Agency; Rudi Setiadi, the head of the National Unity and Political Agency (Kesbangpol); Abdul Manan Ali, the head of the Sampang branch of the MUI; the Sampang district head; and the head of the Sampang Police.

"They wanted us to sign a letter stating that we want to return to the 'right' Islamic teaching on our own will, or [accept that] people would burn my house and kill me." Nurkholis, who converted from Sunni to Shia Islam in 2009, refused to sign. Syaifudin told him that there was no alternative but for him to leave the village.

Nurkholis was taken and held at a police station while a police officer collected his belongings from his house. They offered to escort him to Surabaya, but he instead opted to go to his brother's home in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta. He does not know what happened to the other four Shiites at the meeting.

In a similar case, Islami, a 19-year-old woman, returned to her home village of Blu'uran, also in Sampang. Within days, she, too, was harassed by local authorities. On Saturday, Sampang district officer Kholik pressured her to sign a letter to convert to Sunnism.

"She refused, and she was escorted out of Blu'uran village to Surabaya," Hadi Joban, a lawyer from Universalia Legal Aid Foundation that represents the Shia community, told the Jakarta Globe.

"The official said that if she refused, people would set her parents' house on fire and would behead her. She was scared, and decided to leave."

While Nurkholis and Islami refused, several dozen Shiites did sign the letters to convert.

"There are 35 Shiites who decided to sign under the pressure and threats of the government, religious leaders and police officers," said Herstaning, a lawyer for the Shiites.

"They're just ordinary village people who are not highly educated. Given such intimidation, they were scared and signed the letter. Those people told them that their security is at stake if they refused to sign."

Kesbangpol head Rudi was not available when the Jakarta Globe tried to confirm the reports. Herstaning said he had confronted Rudi, who refused to provide reasons for the forced conversions.

"He only said he was disturbed with the media coverage that hampered the reconciliation in Sampang," Herstaning said.

The Shiite population of Blu'uran and Karanggayam in Sampang has dwindled since a clash last August in which more than 20 people died and dozens of houses were razed.

Of the 143 Shiite families, amounting to 600 people, before the clash, 80 had opted for the safety of the Sampang sports center. But in recent months the government has forced those families to move to apartments in Sidoarjo on the Java mainland, several hours from Sampang.

Those whose homes were not burned in the incident opted to stay in the villages, despite the threat of a flare-up in intolerance.

National Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali has downplayed tensions on Madura, arguing the incidences are not religiously motivated but are the product of a rivalry between brothers: Sunni figure Roisul Hukama and Shiite leader Tajul Muluk.

But Nurkholis said he did not think the warring brothers were responsible for the oppression of Shiites.

"The conflict between Tajul and Roisul is happening, but what we are experiencing is in fact a religious conflict. The sibling rivalry was not what sparked the conflict."

In a meeting several weeks ago attended by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Sampang government, the National Police chief and a representative of the Shiite community, it was agreed that Shiites who lived in the Sidoarjo apartments could return home soon.

Despite the agreement, there has been little effort so far to return the exiled Shiite families to Madura.

Legal aid lawyer Hadi said they still wanted to return home, but they would not bow to local government demands for them to convert to Sunni Islam.

Election may fuel intolerance toward Shia

Jakarta Post - August 13, 2013

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – With the East Java gubernatorial election approaching, the nation's Shia community has expressed concern that persecution against Shiites in East Java will escalate.

Leaders of the Shia community said that politicians, including Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali, would likely use the Shia-Sunni conflict to gain votes. Suryadharma is chairman of the United Development Party (PPP).

He has been accused of condoning the alleged forced conversion of 34 displaced Shia followers in Sidoarjo, who had been promised a safe return to their homes in Sampang, Madura.

"We're afraid that the minister and his party have a political agenda [related to the Sunni-Shia conflict] because he repeatedly quoted statements from Sunni clerics calling for conversion to justify his stance on the matter," Ahmad Hidayat, the secretary-general of Shia organization Indonesian Ahlul Bait (ABI), told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

"The conflict in Sampang is simply a violation of religious freedom. It's a simple matter that has become complicated as government officials and several intolerant clerics from the majority Sunni group are taking advantage."

Religious Affairs Ministry representative Zubaidi has refuted the accusation of Suryadharma's involvement in any attempts to convert the Shiites to the "true teaching of Islam", saying that such an accusation was baseless and out of context.

"The minister as well as this ministry doesn't have the authority to make judgments over certain [religious] teachings. Our primary concern is only how to make sure that all religious groups peacefully co-exist in this country," Zubaidi said.

However, Shia cleric Iklil Al Milal, who is among the 235 Shiites evicted from Sampang, testified on Monday that he was invited to meet Suryadharma at the executive lounge of Juanda International Airport in Surabaya.

The minister allegedly told him that the Shiites could return to Sampang when they were "already enlightened".

"I think the minister only used different words to say that we are deviant, thus we need to be enlightened before we go back home," said Iklil, who is a brother to the imprisoned Shia cleric Tajul Muluk.

Human rights activists have called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to appoint an independent team comprising tolerant and humanitarian figures, as well as interfaith leaders, in order to achieve an impartial and peaceful solution to reconcile the Sampang Shiites with their Sunni neighbors.

The executive director of the Universalia Legal Aid Institute (YLBH Universalia) and an attorney for the Sampang Shia community, Hertasning Ichlas, said: "The reconciliation process has turned political because the PPP has a great number of supporters in the area".

East Java will hold a gubernatorial election on August 28.

Ahmadiyah determined to not let hard-liners ruin Idul Fitri

Jakarta Globe - August 12, 2013

Camelia Pasandaran – As millions of Muslims flocked to mosques across Indonesia on the morning of Idul Fitri last Thursday, a small group braved the early morning chill, considerable distance and narrow alleyways to get to the Al-Misbah mosque in Bekasi.

After the sermon and prayer, group members spilled out of the mosque's back door with glowing faces. The children ran around, shouting with joy, while the adults exchanged smiles and greetings. The heavy police presence outside the mosque didn't seem to dampen their festive spirit.

For the past two years the members of the Al-Misbah Ahmadiyah congregation had endured far worse conditions than those they had encountered on their long trek to the mosque this morning.

Some of them had been locked inside their mosque for weeks when it was sealed off by the authorities earlier this year, and all of them continued to be subjected to relentless opposition and invective from hard-line Islamic groups with the apparent backing of the Bekasi municipal administration.

But among those determined to enjoy the Idul Fitri moment was Rohim, an elderly man who slowly made his way out of the mosque and went to sit with the others at the nearby house of another congregation member.

"I used to be lazy. I rarely went to the mosque," he told the Jakarta Globe. "But all the opposition, rejection and other troubles made me a different man. After the problems started, I began coming here regularly, despite the distance from my home."

It takes Rohim half an hour to travel by motorcycle to the mosque from his home in North Bekasi. But he's not the only one who goes out of his way to pray at Al-Misbah.

While for many of the congregation members the mosque is within walking distance of their homes, 70-year-old Widarsih has to travel five kilometers to get there.

"Praise be to God who has allowed us to have this Idul Fitri prayer in the mosque," she said, smiling as she exited the two-story building.

"I've been visiting this mosque regularly for the past three years, until this year, when the government locked the gates. I've been patiently waiting to be able to get in again. After months of praying at different members' homes, we can finally pray inside, even if we have to get in through the back door and sometimes hide from the police."

No more than 60 people took part in Thursday's Idul Fitri prayer – far fewer than the 400 members that the mosque used to host regularly. Most of the members had gone back to their hometowns for the holiday. Those who remained behind, meanwhile, were determined not to cave into the pressure from hard-liners and government officials.

Imam Murti, who led the Idul Fitri prayer, said the hardship they have faced since 2011 is one of many obstacles they have faced.

"Trouble is God's sunnah [tradition or way] that we have to face as Ahmadiyah members here," he said toward the end of his sermon.

"This mosque was built by our forefathers who dreamed of having a great Ahmadiyah mosque. Should we blame them for building it here? We should be grateful instead for this trouble, which is a test of our faith."

The story of the mosque

Before Al-Misbah was built in 2001, the hundreds of Ahmadis living in Bekasi municipality had to travel several kilometers to pray at an Ahmadiyah mosque in neighboring Tambun. In 1988, they decided to raise funds to build their own mosque, and started scouting for an appropriate location.

They soon found the perfect location, a 1,300-square-meter empty lot on Jalan Terusan Pangrango in Jatibening subdistrict. In 1989 the construction of their mosque began.

"We were not funded by anyone," Ahmad Maulana, the head of security at the mosque, told the Globe. "Our own members raised the money from their own toil over time."

The congregation continued raising funds, and in 2001 they began building a bigger mosque, while the original one was turned into a guesthouse. Over the years they expanded and renovated the new building, all with their own money.

"We're all fully aware that we shouldn't spend all our income, but set some of it aside to build this mosque," Maulana said.

As time went by, the ranks of the congregation swelled as more people moved out to Bekasi and younger members joined.

"I've been an Ahmadi for 50 years now, but it was only three years ago, after I moved to Bekasi from East Jakarta, that I started visiting this mosque," said Widarsih, the commuting congregant.

"I may be old, but I'm not forgetful. You know why? Because I often read the Koran and pray in this mosque."

For years the burgeoning Ahmadiyah congregation built strong ties with other residents living in the vicinity of the mosque, with no sign of animosity or hostility from either side.

"They're nice and friendly," Dikki, an Ahmadi who lives next door to the mosque, said of his Sunni Muslim neighbors.

"Some of their children used to ride their bicycles in the front yard of the mosque before it was sealed off. Other neighbors often used to play badminton or other sports in the yard, and they even held big events there when a stage was required."

But this life of peace and harmony was soon shattered by a relentless and concerted effort by the government and newly arrived hard-line Islamic groups to bring religious activities at the mosque to a close.

When trouble comes calling

"The troubles started when we got a new mayor in Bekasi, Rahmat Effendi," Maulana said. "He used to pray at this mosque before he was elected, even though he's not an Ahmadi. But after his inauguration, things changed drastically."

In 2011, the mayor issued a bylaw banning all activities by the Ahmadiyah. In November that year, the Bekasi Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) made its first attempt to shut down the mosque by placing a large sign out front stating that all activities there had been ordered to cease.

While not succeeding in halting activities of the Ahmadis, the much- publicized ban did however spur a rising tide of hostility and opposition to the Ahmadiyah in other regions across the country.

The Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), a hard-line group notorious for its vigilantism and violence, piled in against the Al-Misbah congregation, thereby giving the authorities even more reason to justify their ban against the minority group.

In February this year, Rahmat told the Globe that he planned to shut down the mosque because it was the source of friction with the local community. "We want to prevent social clashes that will cause losses on all sides," he said. "The government needs to make a decision and stop it."

Rahmat Rahmadijaya, the former imam of the mosque, said the police had told the congregation the real reason the mosque was shut down was because the FPI planned to open a new branch in the area to focus its opposition to the Ahmadiyah. But the mayor denied this, saying the reason for his plan was because the Al-Misbah congregation members had ignored the earlier ban.

On March 8, the government put up another sign outside the mosque. This time, it cited a joint ministerial decree issued in 2008 restricting Ahmadiyah-related activities, a West Java gubernatorial regulation, an edict from the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) and the Bekasi mayor's initial bylaw. Although the 2008 decree only prohibited the Ahmadis from spreading their faith and teachings, the municipal, provincial and MUI orders took a stronger stance.

That same day, the Satpol PP sealed off the entrance to the mosque.

On April 5, in response to the continued activities at the mosque, the Satpol PP officers enclosed the perimeter of the mosque in corrugated metal sheeting – even though 30 congregation members were still inside. The police allowed people to leave, but threatened to arrest anyone trying to go inside.

In May, Rahmat and local Sunni clerics said they would petition President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to institute a national ban on the Ahmadiyah. Around the same time, FPI members were busy canvassing residents to sign a petition stating their objection and opposition to the mosque.

Standing defiant

"Why would I do that?" Inah, a non-Ahmadi Muslim, told the Globe on Thursday. "They're nice people. Why should I object to their being here?"

Throughout Ramadan, the authorities toned down their rhetoric against the congregation. No arrests were made of Ahmadis who entered the mosque through the back door. But when the Satpol PP heard about it, they showed up on July 19 with the intention of placing a bigger lock on the door.

Fortunately for the Ahmadis, the back of the mosque opened up onto the private property of an Ahmadi. "If they insisted, we threatened to sue them for trespassing on private property without a permit," Maulana said. "They canceled their plan."

'Deviant teaching'

The Islamic organizations and government officials who have spoken out against the Ahmadiyah have all accused the group of being heretical because one of the faith's key tenets is the belief that its founder, Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, is Imam Mahdi, the prophesied redeemer who will rule before judgment day.

"The fact about the coming of Imam Mahdi is in the Koran," Maulana said. "The difference is, mainstream [Sunni] Muslims are still waiting, while we believe that he has already come."

He added that contrary to the popular belief among Indonesia's majority Sunni Muslims, "Ahmadiyah is 99 percent similar to mainstream Islam."

"We pray facing the same direction, we use the same Koran, read the same hadiths [guidelines]," Maulana said. "We're not deviant at all."

The Ahmadis have often tried to reason with the FPI mobs that routinely rally against them, but to no avail. Instead of trying to understand, the FPI has tried to drive a wedge between the congregation and its neighbors.

"We were surprised by the FPI's presence here and its claim that the rejection of the Ahmadis comes from the residents," Inah said. "None of the residents here have any problems with the mosque, including the neighborhood unit chief."

On the matter of the ideological difference, Inah said: "It's their problem with God, not mine. We mind our own business."

The FPI's campaign appears to be backfiring, with the group itself growing increasingly unpopular with the Jatibening residents, who oppose the plan by the group to open a new branch there.

A spiritual journey

Rohim was not born into an Ahmadiyah family. Leaning against the doorway of Dikki's house, his eyes light up as he harks back to his past. He was raised a Sunni Muslim by his parents, but went to a Catholic school – a set of circumstances that combined to keep him questioning his faith.

"If my name wasn't Rohim, I might have become a pastor by now. But my name is way too Islamic for a Catholic," he said.

It was the news of the persecution of the Ahmadiyah in Pakistan in 1974 that moved him deep within and compelled him to find out more about the little-known faith.

"I saw how the head of the Majlis Khuddam-ul Ahmadiya [one of the three sub-organizations of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community] in Pakistan was beaten, yet he stayed silent and didn't fight back," Rohim said, tears streaming down his face. "I was stunned with disbelief. What kind of faith could make a person like that?"

He traveled around Java, meeting with Ahmadiyah figures to find the answer. Nine weeks later, he decided to become an Ahmadi. Even as the pressure on the group keeps escalating, Rohim's faith remains unshaken.

"I've been through all kinds of obstacles to reach this stage of my faith. I've embraced Ahmadiyah through my own decision, not because of my parents. Why would I give it up under such pressure?" he said.

While in the past Rohim often didn't go to the mosque if he couldn't afford the bus fare, since the troubles began in 2011 he has made a point to go, no matter what stands in his way.

The congregation's fight is not over. They might still be able to get into the mosque through the back door, but the main entrance remains sealed off. The faithful, though, are undeterred. "They need to understand that rejection will only strengthen our faith," Rohim said.

Minister backs 'Shia conversion'

Jakarta Post - August 12, 2013

Margareth S. Aritonang, Jakarta – Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali has again come under fire for allegedly supporting the forced conversion of Shia followers to Sunni Islam in a reconciliation program the government claimed was meant to end the conflict between the two Islamic denominations in Madura, East Java.

Human rights activists accused the minister of failing to put aside his personal beliefs in the reconciliation process and demanded that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono disengage him from the efforts to return the Shia refugees.

"The government should instead involve people like [former vice president] Jusuf Kalla or Catholic priest Franz Magnis Suseno, for example, in the reconciliation process instead of SDA, who is obviously unable to take a distance with his personal religious belief," Hertasning Ichlas, executive director of Universalia Legal Aid Institute (YLBH Universalia) and an attorney for Sampang Shia community, told The Jakarta Post on Sunday, referring to Surydharma with his initials.

Weeks after the Shiites were evicted from their home villages in Sampang in June this year, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono assigned the Religious Affairs Ministry to lead the reconciliation process in cooperation with the Sunan Ampel State Islamic Institute (IAIN) in Surabaya.

However, Hertasning said that Suryadharma and his fellow United Development Party (PPP) politician, Djan Faridz, who is also the Public Housing Minister, attended meetings where the Shiites were forced to denounce their faith if they wished to safely return to their villages.

Such meetings were also supported by Sampang Regent Fannan Hasib, who was nominated by two Islamic parties, the PPP and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Head of Sampang's Municipal Political and National Unity Office (Kesbangpol) Rudi Setiadi, local police officials and a number of Sunni clerics.

According to Hertasning, 34 out of around 235 Shiites evicted from Sampang have returned to their homes by Aug. 7 as they finally agreed to sign a pledge of nine points which included willingness to return to "the true teaching of Islam" as well as to condemn of the teachings of Shiite cleric Tajul Muluk, who is currently imprisoned over blasphemy.

Hertasning said that Shiites that refused to sign the agreement suffered intimidation; with some of them losing their land for good while a few others should depart for Jakarta to stay in a safe house.

"The reconciliation process has turned political because the PPP has a great number of supporters in the area. We must immediately do something about it especially as the gubernatorial election is coming soon," he said.

The forced conversion scandal has raised concerns from several leading figures, including from former vice president Jusuf Kalla and Din Syamsuddin, chairman of the country's second largest Islamic group, Muhammadiyah.

Kalla, who chairs the Indonesian Mosque Council (DMI) and is also known as a peace broker, said that such a forced conversion was unconstitutional.

"That is not reconciliation. Reconciliation will equally guarantee the rights of conflicting groups. And it is definitely free from imposition of the will [of the majority group]," Kalla told reporters on the sideline of an Idul Fitri open house event at his residence in South Jakarta on Friday.

Meanwhile, Din, who was among Kalla's guests on that day, emphasized that the process should be free from forced belief, especially if it was led by government officials. "There should have not been any coercion. It is unfair for the government to take sides," Din said.

Suryadharma has not yet responded to this accusation, but the Religious Affairs Ministry spokesman Zubaidi told the Post on Sunday that the allegation was baseless. "That's not true. The minister has never done such a thing," he said.

Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi denied that the government had forced the Shia adherents to leave their faith. "It was not a forced conversion. We are actually giving them directions so that they could return to their home village.

There should not have been coercion of belief: Muhammadiyah chairman

Jakarta Post - August 10, 2013

Jakarta – Din Syamsuddin, the chairman of Indonesia's second largest Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah, said on Saturday that there should not have been any forced belief in the process of reconciliation with the displaced Shiites in Sampang, Madura, East Java. Especially if it was led by government officials.

"There should have not been any coercion. If the government takes sides, it is unfair," Din said in Jakarta as quoted by kompas.com.

Din made the remarks when he was asked to respond to reports on intimidation and threats against Shiites who insisted to stay in Karanggayam and Bluuran Sampang villages. They have reportedly been forced to convert if they want their safety be guaranteed.

Din reiterated that any coercion against Shiites in Sampang constituted a criminal act. The state should have taken action because every citizen is free to choose their own beliefs.

According to Din, the conflict in Sampang has to be settled based on the principle of freedom of religion. Sunnis and Shiites have both contributed a lot to Islam, despite differences in perception on who really lead Muslims after Prophet Muhammad, Din said.

"Therefore, for you it's your belief, and for me my belief. But we have to live side by side peacefully. If we can live peacefully with non-Muslims, why can't be live in peace with fellow Muslims?" he asked.

Therefore Din hoped the groups would refrain from mocking each other. "Let God decide which truth is accepted, live side by side peacefully," he said.

Sampang Shiite Spokesperson Hertasning Ichlas previously testified that the Sampang local administration had forced the Shiites to sign an agreement of nine points, which included their willingness to return to "the true teaching of Islam" as well as to condemning of the teachings of Shiite cleric Tajul Muluk, who is currently imprisoned over blasphemy.

According to Hertasning, several members of the Sampang Shia community had been asked to sign the agreement before Sampang Regent Fanan Hasib and Head of Sampang's Municipal Political and National Unity Office (Kesbangpol) Rudi Setiadi.

Islam & religion

Idul Fitri travel death toll reaches 686: Police

Jakarta Post - August 16, 2013

Jakarta – The National Police reported that at least 686 people had died in traffic accidents during the annual Idul Fitri exodus as of Wednesday. As a comparison, the death toll from traffic accidents during the holiday last year was 757 people.

"There have been 3,061 traffic accidents in total," National Police spokesperson Sr. Comr. Agus Rianto said, as quoted by kompas.com on Friday.

He said that 1,120 people had sustained serious injuries while another 4,034 people had suffered minor ones.

He added that the majority of the traffic accidents involved motorcyclists. Last year, he said, the police recorded 6,433 accidents, of which 4,683 involved motorcyclists. (hrl)

Money-hungry religious celebrities spark anger

Jakarta Globe - August 13, 2013

Dessy Aswim – A backlash is building against Muslim TV clerics who aren't afraid to use their religion to garner business investors or demand hefty speaking fees.

An example cited by critics is Yusuf Mansur, a popular ustadz (Islamic teacher) who frequently appears in religious TV broadcasts.

Yusuf has recently attracted unfavorable attention because of claims he has been soliciting investors in a luxury hotel, without holding the required licences. The ustadz's joint business venture aims to establish a condo- hotel in Jakarta focused on serving hajj and umrah pilgrims.

The celebrity cleric claims to have more than 2,000 investors in the business, and says he has managed to accumulate funds worth Rp 24 billion ($2.3 million) from his followers in less than a year, since a call for investments began in July 2012.

Drajat Wibowo, an economist and Muslim scholar, told the Jakarta Globe that business and religion should not be mixed in the same enterprise. "If they want to do business then stop taking money from the public in the name of religion," he said.

Although no one is accusing Yusuf of plans to defraud his investors, Indonesia is certainly no stranger to financial scams.

Earlier this year, many Indonesians lost money in a Ponzi scheme, in which scammers promise outlandish returns and deliver them for awhile by using money from new investors to pay out "dividends" to earlier investors.

Scams promising great return and wealth are aplenty, and often rely on spiritual overtones with promises by dukun, traditional "black magic" shaman.

The main concern is who will or can be held responsible should investments fail, said Hamdi Muluk, a psychologist from the University of Indonesia.

He cited the importance of government regulation to oversee and validate the legitimacy of businesses seeking public investments in order to protect the rights of naive investors. "If it's against the law and has traces of manipulation, such business should be stopped, no matter who runs it," said Hamdi.

Amidhan, chairman of civil religious authority Indonesian Council of Ulemas (MUI), said that Shariah law alone could not protect the public. There must be legally constituted companies set up to handle investors' money in religiously motivated schemes, especially when large amounts are involved, so transparency can be maintained.

"Personally, he [Yusuf] is an honest person, but he needs to build a legal body to support this joint venture. He has established his name and fame and there is no chance that the money will be misused. Those who invest in the business trust him, I don't think he will take advantage of that," said Amidhan.

In the world's most populous Muslim country, there seems an unquenchable demand for preachers in all styles.

The 1990s and 2000s saw the rise and fall of populist preachers like Zainuddin Muhammad Zain, known as Zainuddin MZ, and Abdullah Gymnastiar, or AA Gym, both of whom coupled their religious teachings with light humor.

There is a debate on the religious cleric phenomenon with regards to the lifestyle cleric celebrities lead. There are some Muslim preachers, who despite their popularity and frequent media appearances, lead a modest lifestyle and maintain their privacy.

On the other extreme are preachers who live extravagantly and whose private life often becomes a media sensation involving luxury cars and other expensive hobbies.

The preachers are allowed to live extravagantly as long as they are not showing off their wealth, said Amidhan.

There has however been growing concern that clerics have abused their religious authority by overcharging for sermon services. The fee to invite a celebrity cleric can be upwards of Rp 30 million for a 15-minute speech, especially during the fasting month.

Media helps to sensationalize and distort religion, and becoming a cleric has become a profitable and prestigious profession, said Drajat.

"The media groom preachers and turn them into celebrities, people adore them and are captivated, willing to part with their money in the name of religion," Drajat said. "It should not be supported," he added.

Amidhan said he strongly believes it is sacrilege for preachers to demand fees when they are invited to speak because it is akin to turning a religion into a business.

"As da'i (preachers), if they receive donations when they are invited to preach, it's fine, but it's not right if they demand a fee up front," he said. "They should simply accept the donation given to them, no matter the amount."

Media expert Nina Armando blamed a "symbiosis" between media and preachers -- the preachers need a platform while the media needs content. It is up to the public to exercise their critical faculties when viewing, she said.

Jakarta & urban life

Boost regional jobs to stem Jakarta flow

Jakarta Globe - August 13, 2013

Lenny Tristia Tambun & Hotman Siregar – Only by boosting economic opportunities outside Jakarta can the annual influx of people into the capital following Idul Fitri celebrations be stemmed, an expert said on Monday, as the Jakarta administration confirmed it would not undertake a crackdown like that seen in past years.

Purba Hutapea, head of the Jakarta Population and Civil Registry Agency, said that 51,000 newcomers will soon arrive in town, though roughly 15,000 will likely be transient visitors.

"The data is based on the results of a survey. There are 15,000 people who will only be in Jakarta temporarily, meaning that they will return to their hometown or seek work in the Greater Jakarta Area," Purba said.

A random sample of passengers at the city's main transport hubs will be surveyed throughout the week to provide an estimate of the number and purpose of new arrivals to Jakarta. Last year, according to Purba, around 48,000 newcomers arrived in the capital and stayed permanently.

But police on Sunday said that with nearly 10 million people leaving the capital during the pre-Idul Fitri exodus last week, a much larger number was expected back.

"Based on past experience, we are concerned that those who left Jakarta will return with their relatives, resulting in the addition of more than a million people to the capital's population," Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said.

He said the expected influx of mostly unskilled newcomers looking for jobs in the already crowded city could contribute to unemployment and crime.

There is no law preventing the arrivals, and the best solution is to develop rural and regional economies to compete with the capital's lure, experts say.

Yayat Supriyatna, an urban planning lecturer from Trisakti University, said that unless villages and towns across Indonesia can provide jobs and business opportunities, migration to Jakarta will continue.

"Around 70 percent of the country's economic activity is concentrated in Jakarta. Meanwhile, it's becoming more difficult to be a farmer back in the villages as agriculture is increasingly dominated by big businesses," he said.

Yayat noted that migration to Jakarta did not happen only during Idul Fitri, making it difficult for the city administration to monitor it.

In the run-up to Idul Fitri, authorities urged people leaving the city for the holiday to avoid bringing back newcomers, especially those without useful skills for urban employment.

Speaking after a meeting with Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo and Deputy Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, Purba said that officials in the capital were working closely with the country's outlying regions to discourage urban immigration.

He cited West Java, Central Java, East Java, Bali, Lampung and West Nusa Tenggara as provinces that have historically been significant sources of Jakarta-bound migration. City authorities, Purba added, will also continue to conduct routine identity checks in order to force newcomers to update their documentation.

The Jakarta administration has urged those from outside the capital not to come to the city in search of jobs unless they already have something arranged. "If you don't have a job waiting, then don't come to Jakarta," Basuki said recently.

He said unskilled newcomers or those without guaranteed jobs put more pressure on the city's already strained public services and on the families and friends they stay with. "They're bound to stay with family here, and if they've got no money, that puts these families in a jam."

On Monday, Basuki, however, confirmed that the Jakarta administration was powerless to stop people from coming to the capital.

"People are free to come to Jakarta as long as they don't violate the laws. We are aware that more people are on their way to Jakarta because their relatives have invited them," he said, adding that creating traffic congestion by working as vendors along the capital's streets was one example of violating city regulations.

Basuki said the city would not conduct a special operation, as controversially undertaken under previous administrations, to try to force newcomers to go back home if they did not have an identity card stating a Jakarta address. "It's a waste of time, energy and money," he said.

Yayat said the Jakarta administration would struggle to ensure there are jobs and housing for newcomers.

"If Jakarta fails to provide better public transportation then the traffic problems will worsen, while if it fails to provide cheap public housing, slum areas will grow," Yayat said.

He called on Jakarta and regional administrations to boost efforts to cope with migration problems. This could be done by enhancing development in the provinces and building a culture of entrepreneurship at the local level, and also campaigning to persuade people to stay to help develop their own hometowns, he said.

Armed forces & defense

Lawyers demand acquittal of Kopassus troops

Jakarta Post - August 16, 2013

Bambang Muryanto, Bantul, Yogyakarta – The team of lawyers representing five of the defendants in the case of the prison attack that killed four detainees in Sleman, Yogyakarta, have asked the II-11 Yogyakarta Military Court to acquit their clients over lack of evidence.

The defendants, five out of the total 12 Army Special Forces (Kopassus) soldiers on trial in the case, have maintained that they were not aware of the killings.

Reading a statement to the court on Thursday, defense attorney Lt. Col. Supriyadi asked the panel of judges of the second dossier of the case to ignore the testimonies of some witnesses.

"We ask the panel of judges to ignore the testimony of witness Indrawan," Supriyadi told the court, which was presided over by Lt. Col Faridah Faisal.

Indrawan, an employee at the penitentiary, testified that he opened the prison's entrance door because one of the defendants pointed a gun at him. His testimony, however, was not supported by other witnesses and was denied by the defendants.

The same request was also made for the testimonies given by witnesses Widiatmana and Raden Baskara Putra, who were both prison employees as well.

In this session of the trial, testimony from 17 witnesses was heard. In the previous session, the prosecutors sought a two-year jail term for each for the five defendants.

The five defendants are First Sgt. Tri Juwanto, First Sgt. Anjar Rahmanto, First Sgt. Mathius Roberto Paulus Banani, First Sgt. Suprapto and First Sgt. Hermawan Siswoyo.

The lawyers have also asked the panel of judges to accept the defendants' statements because there had been no evidence that they had planned and helped to kill the four detainees, who were slain after being arrested as suspects in the murder of Chief Sgt. Heru Santosa, a former Kopassus officer.

"The defendants had no idea that Ucok was going to commit the shootings," said Supriadi.

Prosecutors have sought a 12-year prison sentence for Sgt. Ucok Tigor Simbolon and 10-year and eight-year sentences for Second Sgt. Sugeng Sumaryanto and First Corporal Kodik, respectively. The three are the main defendants in the case and have been charged with premeditated murder.

The four detainees who were killed in the raid were Hendrik Angel Sahetapi, Yohanes Juan Manbait, Adrianus Candra Galaja and Gameliel Yermianto Rohi Riwu. In a separate trial of defendants Maj. Sgt. Rokhmadi, Maj. Sgt. Muhamad Zaenuri and Chief Sgt. Sutar, the team of lawyers also said that their clients were not guilty.

They argued that as intelligence officers they had not needed to report to their superior regarding Ucok's leaving for Yogyakarta – where he later attacked the prison and killed the four detainees – because the information had not yet classified as an A1.

Judicial & legal system

Patrialis inaugurated as new Constitutional Court judge amid criticism

Jakarta Globe - August 13, 2013

Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Erwin Sihombing – Anti-corruption activists and human rights groups are threatening to sue President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono over his recent decision to appoint former Minister of Justice and Human Rights Patrialis Akbar as the Constitutional Court's newest judge.

The Civil Society Coalition for Saving the Constitutional Court, which includes groups such as the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and Indonesian Corruption Watch, has said that it will file legal action against the president over his latest nomination.

"We are planning to sue the president regarding his choice for the Constitutional Court judge," Emerson Yuntho, an official with Indonesia Corruption Watch, said on Monday. "The coalition views the appointment as a violation of the 1945 Constitution as well as the Law on the Constitutional Court."

Following two previous attempts to secure a place on the bench of the Constitutional Court, Patrialis was inaugurated on Monday and will replace outgoing deputy chief Ahmad Sodiki, who recently completed his five-year term with the court.

YLBHI advocacy director Bahrain urged the Constitutional Court to issue a strict interpretation of Article 19 of the Law on the Constitutional Court, which states that the appointment of Constitutional Court judges must be done transparently, because many parties tend to elucidate the clause differently.

He said that Patrialis's installation as judge was not done transparently. "The president should have arranged a selection committee to install a judge with high integrity," Bahrain said.

Furthermore, the coalition considers the appointment a consolation prize for a former minister who was rightfully sacked during a previous presidential cabinet reshuffle.

Haris Azhar, a Kontras representative, said that Patrialis's National Mandate Party (PAN) should have offered up other names for the position given his previous failures as the Minister of Justice and Human Rights in 2011.

"The PAN should have had better judgment. I am sure they have other decent candidates – -- not only people with law degrees, but candidates with a good vision and track record," he said.

Patrialis, responding to the opposition to his candidacy, said that the president wouldn't have appointed him as a judge if he was truly unqualified. "I was chosen by the government through comprehensive deliberation," he said.

When asked about the controversy, he said that it is normal. "I used to be in similar legal aid foundations in the past. Don't worry about it, the world is not smooth," he said. He also urged the coalition not to politicize the affairs of the Constitutional Court.

Patrialis tried in the past to join the ranks of the Constitutional Court. When his term as lawmaker with the PAN ended in 2009, he made an attempt to replace judge Jimly Asshiddiqie, but he failed the fit-and-proper test conducted by the House of Representatives.

Earlier this year, he eyed the vacancy left by former court chief Mahfud MD. Competing with four law professors for the position, Patrialis announced on the day of the fit-and-proper test that he had withdrawn his candidacy.

Beside Patrialis, there two other judges were inaugurated during the same ceremony: Maria Farida Indrati and Akil Mochtar.

Police & law enforcement

Rights groups call for total ban on gun ownership for civilians

Jakarta Post - August 16, 2013

Margareth S. Aritonang and Yuliasri Perdani, Jakarta – Human rights activists have called for a total ban on handgun possesion for civilians and a review on the use of guns by the police and the military amid concerns of rising gun violence.

The activists said that allowing civilians to own firearms for safety reasons, particularly among businessmen, could create fear among the general public, especially in resource-rich areas such as the country's easternmost province of Papua.

"There is no need for civilians to possess firearms for any reason, including for self-defense. Therefore, we suggest that the House of Representatives and the government amend existing laws in order to ban gun ownership," Al Araf of human rights watchdog Imparsial told the press at the watchdog's headquarters in East Jakarta on Thursday.

"The government must immediately seize all firearms from civilians and lawmakers, while at the same time review their use among members of the police and the military to avoid firearms being used for personal interests."

There are currently seven regulations on gun control – Law No. 8/1948 on firearms, which allows civilians, besides security guards and competitive shooters, to possess guns for self defense; Law No. 12/1951 on the illegal possession of firearms; Law No. 20/1960 on gun licenses; Government Regulation No. 56/1996 on customs of firearms; National Police Chief Decrees in 2000, 2004 and 2006 that regulate permits to possess and use of firearms.

All of these regulations allow civilians to possess firearms with certain conditions.

The 2004 National Police Chief Decree, for example, requires a gun applicant to undergo health and psychological tests, as well as training to obtain a license. It also obliges a gun owner to annually renew his or her license.

The decree limits civil possession of firearms exclusively for people of certain professions, such as regents, agency heads, company directors and lawyers.

Imparsial recorded around 41,102 guns in the public circulation. Around 17,983 of them are licensed for self defense; 11,869 for members of the police's special squad; 6,551 for use in shooting sports; and 4,699 for security guards, better known as Satpam.

The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said that while the authorities were concerned about rising shooting incidents targeting state apparatus, data showed that trigger-happy officers have claimed more lives.

The NGO recorded at least 361 shootings have occurred in the last three years, claiming 191 lives and injuring 534. Most of the shootings remained unresolved until now, mainly because of the security apparatuses' unwillingness to divulge the involvement of their members in the cases.

"Only a few perpetrators have been brought to justice, because there has been an absence of information accountability and transparency in the National Police and the Indonesian Military [TNI] over a string of shootings perpetrated by their members," Kontras coordinator Haris Azhar said.

Between 2011 and 2013, police officers were involved in 278 shootings that killed 132 people and injured 428 others. "There are two main reasons behind the shootings conducted by the police. First their efforts to arrest criminal suspects, handling protests, land disputes or communal conflicts," he said.

"The second reason, is personal conflicts or firearm negligence." Meanwhile, the Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel were involved in 20 shootings that resulted in 5 fatalities and 35 injured victims. Haris said that the soldiers opened fire due to personal conflicts or negligence

As much as 63 shootings were perpetrated by unidentified gunmen. The accidents killed 54 and injured 71 individuals. "Some refer to the shootings as separatist attacks [...] Almost none of the perpetrators have been caught by the authorities," Haris said.

Parents claim son tortured during police interrogation

Jakarta Post - August 14, 2013

Jakarta – A 17-year-old boy accused of stealing a motorcycle in Toboali, South Bangka, has claimed that five police investigators gave him electric shocks during questioning at the South Bangka Police precinct office in Bangka Belitung province.

His parents, who reported the case to the National Commission on Child Protection (KPAI), said that the police also had sprayed his genitals with water mixed with chili peppers.

"My husband and I visited my son at the South Bangka Police precinct office at the end of last month. We figured out that he had been tortured badly," Suharnaini told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Suharnaini said that her son, identified by the authorities only as JP because he was a minor, had told her about the torture because he could not bear the pain anymore. JP revealed that he had been given electric shocks five times and had endured other forms of physical abuse, including being beaten and kicked, during the interrogation.

"He told me that the five investigators had beaten him so badly that he had vomited blood. We, as his parents, can accept that our son was arrested because of his actions, but we can't tolerate the violence. We want the officers punished," she said.

KPAI commissioner, Muhammad Ihsan, said that JP's case was concrete evidence of violence toward children undergoing questioning by police officers. "Children are very vulnerable to physical abuse during questioning sessions," he said. "Police or investigators are in the habit of using violence in order to get confessions," he said.

The KPAI has reported that as of August, there had been 5,404 criminal cases involving juveniles this year throughout the country, and that 50 percent of them dealt with children under 12 years old. KPAI said that it had recorded 5,358 cases last year, which was slightly lower than the 5,532 cases in 2011. "Most of the children who get arrested are boys," he said.

He added that the KPAI also reported that 70 children experienced torture during interrogations from January last year to March this year. "The methods are all the same. The investigators shock the children's fingers and genitals, hit them in the stomach, beat them with hard objects or threaten them with guns," he said.

Deputy director of Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) Restaria Hutabarat pointed out that the criminal and judicial processes were not friendly to children, hence the abuses, especially physical violence during questioning.

"Children's rights violations often happen within the system, with law enforcers as the main violators," she said.

Restaria added that in 2012, the institute reported that 90 percent of children facing judicial proceedings in Jakarta had not received assistance from either relatives or lawyers. "As a result, many violations happened against these children, including being arrested without legal grounds and being forced to confess to something," she said.

Restaria said that the use of violence against children during interrogations violated the Juvenile Justice System Law No. 11/2012, which aimed to protect children's rights during the criminal investigations and promoted restorative justice for children facing the law.

"According to the law, each child who faces legal or court procedures has the right to due process without torture or ill treatment, as well as inhumane or demeaning incidents," she said.

Meanwhile, National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Ronny F. Sompie said that investigators were not allowed to use violence when interrogating suspects, especially children, as it violated human rights.

"Every investigator should understand the Juvenile Justice System Law, which stipulates that children involved in crimes should have access to alternative dispute resolution procedures," he said.

He added that the resolution highlighted that education measures should be applied when dealing with juveniles. (tam)

National Police declare war on unlicensed firearms

Jakarta Post - August 13, 2013

Jakarta – The National Police intends to crack down on the illegal possession of firearms nationwide to prevent the illegal distribution of arms. The recent shooting of police officers is also a reason for the crackdown.

"Two police officers recently fell victim to recent shootings," National Police deputy chief Comr. Gen. Oegroseno said without further elaboration on Tuesday as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Two police officers, namely Adj. Second Insp. Patah Saktiyono and Adj. First Insp. Dwiyatna, were shot while driving by unidentified armed men in Central Jakarta and Ciputat, Tangerang, respectively.

The police deployed teams to pursue the perpetrators and invited Densus 88 counterterrorism squad to join the hunt. No one has been declared a suspect as yet.

According to terrorism experts, the National Police had long been targeted by terrorists because they were considered a symbol of the state, which had declared war on terror.(hrl/dic)

Foreign affairs & trade

MUI calls on government to recall ambassador from Egypt

Antara News - August 16, 2013

Jakarta – The Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) has called on the government to recall its Ambassador to Egypt, Nurfaizi Suwandi, as a form of protest for the violence against demonstrators in that country.

"President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's statements will hold more meaning if the Indonesian ambassador is recalled from Cairo," said MUI Chairman Slamet Effendy, when contacted here on Friday.

Slamet stated that the political uncertainty in Egypt was likely to continue for some time, because of the military's repressive action against the opposition.

Indonesia, he continued, should take a firmer stand against the violence in Egypt by stepping up efforts to support peace and bring democracy back to the country.

Slamet said the Indonesian government should also call on the United Nations to press General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi to hand back power to the government.

"President Yudhoyono also needs to convene a meeting among members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and discuss ways to urge Egypt to resume its democratic process," he added.

Earlier, President Yudhoyono had pointed out that the use of force against demonstrators in Egypt was contrary to the values of democracy and humanity.

The Indonesian head of state, on his Twitter account, @SBYudhoyono, also called for an immediate end to the use of force against demonstrators in Egypt.

"Excessive use of force and weapons to disperse demonstrators in Egypt is against humanity and democratic values, due to which it must end immediately," Yudhoyono said.

Meanwhile, Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali said his ministry was committed to ensuring the safety of Indonesians in Egypt and, therefore, monitoring the developments in that country closely.

"We are keeping a close watch on the latest happenings there and are prepared to repatriate our citizens for their safety in case the situation there deteriorates," he stated here on Friday.

On August 14 this year, a deadly clash between supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Moursi and those of the new government installed by the military through a coup d'etat erupted in the Egyptian capital of Cairo.

The clash started when the police started breaking up the camps of people holding demonstrations in support of toppled president Mohamed Moursi. According to government figures, a total of 525 people were killed during the clash.

Minister Suryadharma Ali urged Indonesian students in Cairo to keep away from risky places to ensure their safety. "Once peace is restored in Egypt, the Religious Affairs Ministry will send the students back to their respective campuses," said he added.

Mining & energy

Another slap in the face for Indonesia's oil and gas companies

Jakarta Post - August 15, 2013

Amahl S. Azwar, Jakarta – The arrest of upstream oil and gas regulator SKKMigas head, Rudi Rubiandini, late on Tuesday was another blow to oil and gas executives in Indonesia, with the industry still recovering from the 2012 disbandment of the previous regulator, BPMigas, by a court ruling.

Less than eight months after his appointment by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Rudi was arrested by investigators of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) for allegedly accepting bribes from the executive of PT Kernel Oil Pte Ltd., a local arm of Singapore-based Kernel Oil, focusing on oil and oil product trading.

SKKMigas was formed by the government as a temporary replacement for BPMigas. SKKMigas deputy chief Johanes Widjonarko was appointed on Wednesday to assume the leadership of the upstream oil and gas watchdog following the arrest of Rudi.

Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Jero Wacik said on Wednesday that according to regulations issued as a legal basis for SKKMigas, the deputy chief must assume leadership should the chief be "unable to do his tasks."

"He [Widjonarko] will serve as the acting chief of SKKMigas for the time being," Jero said, while Widjonarko could not be reached for comment on Wednesday afternoon as he was still in Tokyo on a visit.

The Indonesian Petroleum Association (IPA) chairman Lukman Mahfoedz, also the president director of the country's biggest publicly listed oil and gas company, PT Medco Energi Internasional, said on Wednesday that projects proposed by contractors worth more than US$100 would require direct approval from SKKMigas chief and would make the appointment of an acting chief crucial.

Other oil and gas executives in the country have expressed their concerns about the industry following the arrest of Rudi, who was finally named a suspect by the KPK for bribery allegations.

Erwin Maryoto, the local spokesman for American oil and gas giant ExxonMobil, which operates the Banyu Urip oil field in East Java, said his company hoped Rudi's detention would not harm its operations. "We do not expect disruptions to the ongoing business process," he said.

Separately, Dony Indrawan, the spokesman of US-based Chevron's local subsidiary, Chevron Pacific Indonesia, the largest oil producer in Indonesia, said the company "expects SKKMigas to operate normally in managing the oil and gas industry in Indonesia and in supporting the committed work programs."

Komaidi Notonegoro, an energy analyst with the Jakarta-based think-tank ReforMiner Institute, said Rudi's arrest would further send negative signals to foreign investors because corruption had entered the heart of the upstream industry.

"Foreign investors now see that in Indonesia, the problems are very complex and thus they will perceive Indonesia to be an unfavorable place to invest their money," he said.