He said he was very disappointed with a series of attacks against civilians in Papua, such as the shooting in Timika last August, the shooting in Paniai in December 2014 and the shooting of two vocational school students in Timika on Monday night, 28 September 2015 at around 19:00 pm.

"The actions of security forces were very inhumane. It caused one person, named Kaleb Zera Bagau (18) died and Efrando Sabarofek (17) badly injured and now in the hospital. The character of law enforcement officials, especially the police and Task Forces (TNI) lately showed their misbehavior. I as observers and human rights activists in Papua condemned the perpetrators, " said Yones when contacting Jubi, on Tuesday (09/29/2015).

"We, Papuans continue to be killed and we are like animal in the eyes of Indonesia. I demand President Jokowi to pull out the military from Papua because there is no benefit at all for Papua," he said.

Member of Papua Legislative Council, Laurenzus Kadepa to Jubi said, It seems like military and police officials in Papua are racing to kill Papuans.

"Military and police are in a race to kill Papuan people like a hunted animal. Last time two military members shot two Kamoro people in Koperapoka, Timika. And then the police shot two vocational school students in Timika. The shooting of two students was happening at Gorong-Gorong market in Timika, Papua, " said Kadepa. (Arnold Belau/Tina)

Source: http://tabloidjubi.com/en/2015/09/30/human-rights-activist-urges-troop-pullout-from-papua/

Crowds gather in Papua to protest alleged police shooting of students

Radio New Zealand International - September 30, 2015

Crowds have reportedly gathered in the Papuan town of Timika to protest the police shooting of two high school students.

An Australia-based West Papuan campaigner, Paula Makabory, says the 17-year-olds were shot, one of them fatally, near a market in Timika on Monday when they were pursued by Indonesian police.

She says the police were pursuing them because their fathers are said to be members of the rebel organisation, the Free West Papua movement, the OPM.

Ms Makabory says the Papua police chief, General Paulus Waterpauw, has reportedly apologised to the victim's family, but that's been rejected because similar incidents have gone without prosecution. She says crowds gathered in the town last night to protest the killing.

"I have heard that a house has been burned, but I haven't got detail yet. I have heard that people are now demonstrating against this shooting by the Indonesian police and then the family are gathering to mourn together in the KNPB office." Paula Makabory says Monday's shooting is the latest in a string of incidents of Indonesian security forces shooting Papuan youth.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/285629/crowds-gather-in-papua-to-protest-alleged-police-shooting-of-students

Hostage-taking incident used as pretext for extra troop deployment

Tabloid JUBI - September 29, 2015

Jayapura, Jubi – The hostage-taking of two Indonesian citizens by an alleged rebel group in Papua New Guinea has been used as a pretext to deploy more troops on the border, accoriding to a Papuan legislator.

A member of Commission I of Papua Legislative Council for Politics, Law and Human Right Affairs, Laurenzus Kadepa, claimed that the incident was a plan to legitimize military deployment to Papua, in particular in border area.

"I think it was intentionally done in order to expand the number of military personnel at Indonesia – Papua New Guinea border area. If they were been hostage, why they could be released easily?" Kadepa told Jubi by phone on Sunday evening (27/9/2015).

According to him, after this incident was blown up to the public, in the same day, on Saturday (12/9/2015), hundreds of Military personnel from Battalion Infantry 406 Unit – Purbalingga, Diponegoro IV Regional Military Command and Battalion Infantry 411 Raider Salatiga and Brigif 6 Army Command were departed to Papua to be assigned as Special Security Force on Indonesia – PNG border area.

"As reported by an online media, they were departed from Tanjung Emas Seaport, Semarang. They were launched as Border Special Guard by Diponegoro IV Military Regional Commander Major General Jaswandi and Central Java Governor Ganjar Pranowo," he said.

Earlier, on 12 September 2015, two Indonesian citizens who work in a logging company, Sudirman and Badar were reportedly taken hostage and detained by an armed group to PNG area while were in the forest.

On 17 September 2015, both hostages were released. After their release, Papua Police Chief stated the Police still couldn't determine the perpetrators or the rebel group who kidnapped Badar and Sudirman.

Meanwhile, the Cenderawasih XVII Regional Military Commander Major General Hinsa Siburian said there is no extra deployment at the border area. "Not yet. We don't think about it now. I think we have enough strength," said the Commander Siburian at that time. (Arjuna Pademme/rom)

Source: http://tabloidjubi.com/en/2015/09/29/hostage-taking-incident-used-as-pretext-for-extra-troop-deployment/

Reports two students shot in West Papua

Radio New Zealand International - September 29, 2015

A West Papuan human rights campaigner says a 17-year-old high school student was shot dead on Monday in Timika in the Indonesian province.

Australia-based Paula Makabory says another student was badly wounded when the two students were pursued by security forces.

She says the police were pursuing them because their fathers are said to be members of the rebel organisation, the Free West Papua movement, the OPM. Ms Makabory says a major hunt involving dozens of security personnel was mounted to find the students, who were traced to a house.

"The boys got scared. They ran out. That is when one of the boys got shot by the police and the other one also got shot. The one, named Caleb Bagau, 17 years old, died in the crime scene. The other one, named Efrando, 17 years old, in critical condition."

Paula Makabory says a similar incident occurred a month ago in Timika when two West Papuans were shot dead by Indonesian soldiers. She says this comes after similar killings of two West Papuan men in the same area a month ago.

Ms Makabory says a proposed Pacific Islands Forum fact finding mission to the region must go ahead, despite Indonesian opposition.

"That these things happen mean that Indonesia cannot close or isolate West Papua and kill the young people there, to kill the generations there. No, this cannot be done. I mean Australia and New Zealand should wake up to see what happened to West Papuan human rights."

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/285554/reports-two-students-shot-in-west-papua

BIN forms Papua peace task force

Tabloid JUBI - September 29, 2015

Jakarta, Jubi – The State Intelligence Agency (BIN) will form a team called the Papua Peace Task Force to resolve the problems in Papua peacefully, its chairman Sutiyoso said.

"BIN will put forward a peaceful settlement, therefore we are forming the Papua Peace Task Force," said Sutiyoso, at Gedung Nusantara II, Jakarta on Monday (28/09/2015).

He explained that the Task Force is composed of representatives from BIN and also involves some members of the Army Special Forces (Kopassus) who have stayed for long in Papua.

According to him, separatism can be ended by prioritizing the fulfillment of public welfare in the region.

"We talk about separatism in Papua and Aceh (the Meeting with Commission I). So the discussion is not finished but it is clear that it must be serious in handling with separatist, "he said.

He explained separatist movements are everywhere and it could kill the apparatus or civilian. According to him, the action of separatism in Papua is in small groups and spread out.

"In Papua, there are small groups but spread out and it should be taken seriously," he said. However, the persuasive approach must be prioritized by the Indonesia government, he said. He further said that if the approach is neglected by the separatist group, we then must take action accordingly.

He added the budget proposed by BIN amounting to Rp3.7 trillion for 2016, including earmarked for operations in various regions.

He believes that Commission I will fight for the submission of the budget to bolster the performance of the agency. "With the funds, although it is not ideal, but given enough space to do more, "he said.

Source: http://tabloidjubi.com/en/2015/09/29/bin-forms-papua-peace-task-force/

Indonesian food project violates local rights: activists

UCA News - September 24, 2015

Ryan Dagur, Jakarta – Plans to revive a massive commercial agribusiness and biofuel plant in the Indonesian province of Papua violate the land rights of the indigenous and local communities who have inhabited the region for generations, Church and land rights activists said.

The Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate project would convert about 1.6 million hectares of land used by the indigenous Malind people into a plant for food, timber and biofuel production.

Activists said the project will displace most indigenous groups from the area and introduce drastic changes to their way of life. "We call this robbery," said Sacred Heart Father Anselmus Amo, director of Merauke diocese's justice and peace secretariat.

Father Amo said indigenous groups were almost entirely excluded from the decision-making process right from the project's outset. "We have warned [the government] of [the project's] manipulative process since the beginning," he told ucanews.com.

The project was initially announced in 2009 by former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, with the goal of helping the country raise production on crops like rice, corn and soybean.

The project stalled over land rights concerns, human rights abuses, the disruption to conservation areas and the displacement of indigenous communities.

In May, President Joko Widodo announced plans to relaunch the project and said that the area allocated to it would be expanded to 4.6 million hectares.

"The project is full of bad practices, and it is difficult to expect that [the project] will bring about any positive impact on Papuans. Instead, what happens is marginalization," Father Amo said.

According to Pusaka, a nongovernmental organization focusing on indigenous rights, the government so far has granted permits to 41 plantation companies to operate on 1.5 million hectares of land.

Pusaka spokesman Yosafat Leonard Franky said the plantation companies have destroyed the main livelihood of the indigenous people, clearing away thousands of hectares of palm trees. Sago, a starch extracted from the spongy center of tropical palm stems – and a major food staple for the lowland people of New Guinea and the Moluccas – disappeared because of the project.

"Sago serves as the tribal people's cultural and religious identity. It is used in the traditional ceremonies, such as birth and death. Its value is very vital," he said.

Many plantation companies failed to pay attention to the tribal people's customs, he said. "[This project] will [cause] a humanitarian and ecological disaster victimizing the Papuans," he said, noting the project has affected up to 100,000 people.

Wahyu Wagiman of the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy said the indigenous communities have already lost too much. "All buildings related to their culture, including their customary law and way of processing food that was developed on the basis of nature have now gone away," he said.

Source: http://www.ucanews.com/news/indonesian-food-project-violates-indigenous-rights-activists-say/74322

Papuan Muslims celebrate peaceful Idul Adha

Jakarta Post - September 24, 2015

Jakarta – Muslims in Tolikara, Papua, who clashed with a local church congregation in July, celebrated a peaceful Idul Adha holiday on Thursday.

Some 600 Muslims held a Day of Sacrifice prayer, supported by the Evangelical Church of Indonesia (GIDI) and attended by Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa, as well as guarded by 347 police and military personnel, Antara news agency reported.

Khofifah said the Tolikara recovery program following the incident in July "has now officially ended".

The government helped rebuilt the mushala (small mosque) along with 77 kiosks that were engulfed during the July 17, 2015 clash, when an angry mob destroyed a market, after prohibiting Muslims from celebrating Idul Fitri outdoors. One teenager died in the Tolikara incident and 12 were injured. The clash attracted nation-wide attention as the small mosque was burnt down.

After the Idul Adha prayer on Thursday, Minister Khofifah gave two cows for the sacrifice, causing the grand total of cattle for the sacrifice to reach 32. Along with the minister, GIDI donated five cows, the Tolikara Regency Administration gave six and the provincial government provided two.

Separately, a Muslim community in Wamena, a district located 96 kilometers from Tolikara, held a bakar batu (rock over) ritual to commemorate Idul Adha.

A Muslim figure in the Jayapura District, Kahar Yalipele, explained that the ceremony was held during Idul Adha as a part of their regular program to celebrate annual Islamic festivals.

"Bakar batu, our tradition, was also held in the latest Idul Fitri holiday. It is our annual festival, not a new event for us," he said. Non-Muslim Papuans usually roast pig on the burning rocks, but for Idul Adha, the Muslim Papuans roast chicken instead.

Kahar said Muslims in Wamena, Jayapura, are committed to preserving inter- faith harmony and peace in the district. For the event, the Jayapura Municipality donated a cow for the sacrifice. (ags)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/24/papuan-muslims-celebrate-peaceful-idul-adha.html

Human rights & justice

Slow progress in uncovering past rights abuses

Jakarta Post - September 24, 2015

Fedina S. Sundaryani, Ina Parlina and Tama Salim, Jakarta – With only one week before the 50th anniversary of 1965 communist purge, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) acknowledged that no progress had been made in the attempt to establish a joint team to settle past rights abuses since its last meeting with all relevant institutions in early July.

Komnas HAM chairman Nur Kholis told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that the commission had yet to meet with Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan since he replaced Tedjo Edhy Purdijatno last month to continue talks on how the proposed team should begin its work.

"We have not met with the minister yet and last Thursday was supposed to be our first meeting. However, he postponed the meeting as he had another commitment with President Jokowi [Joko Widodo]," Nur Kholis said.

However, Nur Kholis said he remained optimistic about the prospect of the team's establishment. "We have already made agreements during those past [three] meetings. All that we can hope for is that we are committed to moving forward and resolving the cases. It is the only way forward for the country," he said.

In the last meeting held at the headquarters of the Attorney General's Office (AGO) in South Jakarta, Tedjo said that the 15-member team would include representatives from the AGO, the Law and Human Rights Ministry, the National Police, the National Intelligence Agency (BIN), the Indonesian Military (TNI) and Komnas HAM.

At the time, Attorney General HM Prasetyo said that the team would most likely try to resolve the rights issues via non-judicial mechanisms because of complex technical problems such as gathering evidence that would likely stymie any potential judicial solution.

The government has committed to resolving seven past human rights violations; the 1989 Talangsari incident in Central Lampung, the 2001 and 2003 Wamena and Wasior incidents in Papua, various kidnappings and unresolved shootings in the 1980s, the 1965 communist massacre and the 1998 May riots.

Komnas HAM has launched its own investigations into the cases but its recommendations have never been followed up by the AGO.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Muhammadiyah secretary general Abdul Mu'ti told reporters that Jokowi did not plan to issue an apology to the victims and families of the 1965 communist purge.

The statement was made following a closed-door meeting between a number of newly elected executives of the country's second largest Muslim organization with Jokowi at the State Palace on Tuesday.

"One last thing, we asked for clarification from the President regarding the news that the government would issue a statement of apology to the PKI [Indonesian Communist Party]. It turned out that he said there was neither a schedule, nor even the thought [of offering an apology]," Mu'ti said. Mu'ti said Jokowi issued no further statement regarding the purported plan.

"But, I believe he has his own principles on issues related to G30S [PKI's coup attempt]. Muhammadiyah, NU [Nahdlatul Ulama] and other Islamic mass organizations are in the position of supporting the government's stance, including the stance of the TNI," he said.

"So that he [Jokowi] said 'if we apologize to the G30S victims, we will be dealing with Muhammadiyah, NU and TNI'. That is what he [Jokowi] said."

Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said such an apology had never been discussed during any cabinet meetings, adding that "the point is that he has not given it much thought. What he is currently thinking about is how to immediately overcome the effects of a global economic slowdown," he said.

TNI chief Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo refused to comment on Muhammadiyah's statement.

Last month, anti-PKI protests took place in a number of cities following rumors that Jokowi planned to deliver an official apology to families and victims of the 1965 purge during his speech to commemorate the country's 70th anniversary.

Separately, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) criticized Muhammadiyah's statement and said that it was the state's responsibility to deliver an apology over the 1965 purge.

"[The government must] straighten out history and officially, through the state, apologize to the victims for their terrible experiences," Kontras research division head Puri Kencana Putri said on Tuesday.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/23/slow-progress-uncovering-past-rights-abuses.html

1965 mass killings

Government will not apologize for 1965 communist purge: Minister

Jakarta Post - September 30, 2015

The government will not apologize to the victims of the 1965 communist purge and instead will focus on reconciliation, said Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan.

According to Luhut, the government is currently looking for a suitable reconciliation format in accordance with Indonesia's recent condition.

He added that the reconciliation process would not be easy, especially since most of the historical figures had died. "What we need to do right now is keep [the victims'] children and grandchildren [safe] from being burdened by history," said Luhut on Wednesday as quoted by tempo.co.

In addition to the 1965 purge of members and sympathizers of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), there are still several severe human rights-related cases that have not yet been resolved, including the 1984 Tanjung Priok tragedy, the 1989 clash in Lampung, the disappearance of political activists between 1997 and 1998, the 1998 Triksati shootings, the May 1998 riots and the 1998 Semanggi 1 and 2 incidents.

President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has established a reconciliation team to resolve some of the alleged violations of human rights. (kes)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/30/govt-will-not-apologize-1965-communist-purge-minister.html

Activist: US must declassify files on 1965 massacre

Jakarta Globe - September 30, 2015

Jakarta – As the 50th anniversary of the 1965 anti-Communist massacre in Indonesia draws near, several human rights advocates are again pressing US President Barrack Obama to fully declassify all of its files related to what has been described as the one of the worst mass murders of the twentieth century.

Human Rights Watch Indonesian researcher Andreas Harsono said that he will tour the United States until early November along with US Senator Tom Udall and filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer, who has produced two acclaimed documentaries – "The Act of Killing" and "The Look of Silence" – on the subject, to put pressure on the US government to declassify the files. These documents have only been partially released in the last two decades.

"There are three agencies whose documents have not yet been fully declassified: the State Department, the CIA and Pentagon," Andreas told the Jakarta Globe.

"The US government has been reluctant to open the documents because it doesn't want to upset ties with Indonesia, particularly since the US military has many cooperations with its Indonesian counterpart."

In a letter to the Washington Post in 1990, Robert J. Martens, who from 1963 to 1966 was a political officer at the United States Embassy in Jakarta, admitted to having provided a list of 5,000 names to the Indonesian military.

Everyone in the list, leaders of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and its wings in national, provincial down to village levels, is believed to have been killed by the military.

Andreas hoped that declassification of the files will put more pressure on Indonesia to set up a human rights tribunal into the matter. It is estimated that between 500,000 and one million people were killed between 1965 and 1966, with at least a million more imprisoned without due process, tortured, raped or sent to labor camps.

"It is important because conditions back home in Indonesia are not so good and there are attempts to hide the facts and preserve the impunity that the perpetrators have enjoyed," he said.

President Joko Widodo took office in 2014 with high public hopes that he would address past human rights cases, something his predecessors failed to do.

But Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said last week that any talks of President Joko Widodo preparing to issue an apology on the anniversary of the event that triggered the massacre was not true, adding that the president was focused on "more pressing matters."

Andreas said Joko is reluctant to upset those involved in or benefited from the massacre, noting that they are still in power and retain massive influence in Indonesian politics.

The Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah, two of the biggest Islamic groups in Indonesia, have denounced any attempts to apologize for the massacre, as have politicians from former president Suharto's Golkar Party and officials from the PPAD, the military's biggest veterans' association.

"Indonesia is the only country that has not reconciled with its own past," Andreas said, adding that it is important for Joko to keep his words in bringing those responsible to justice.

"This is impunity in the grandest of scale. Because of what happened and the impunity they enjoy, history repeats itself, albeit on a smaller scale," he continued, citing that years of impunity has emboldened security officials and those in power to commit more atrocities during Suharto's 32-year-rule.

Indonesia's Attorney General's Office has said it would work to resolve past human rights cases, including the 1965 massacre, but said that it would emphasize more on reconciliation instead of prosecution, something human rights groups – both local and international – have denounced. "There can never be reconciliation without justice. There can never be reconciliation without the truth," Andreas said.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/activist-us-must-declassify-files-1965-massacre/

Fifty years on, Indonesia urged to address abuses of 1965

Jakarta Globe - September 30, 2015

Jakarta – Fifty years after the bloodbaths of the mid-1960s, authorities in Indonesia continue to ignore the suffering of millions of victims and their relatives, Amnesty International said in a press release on Wednesday.

"Five decades is far too long to wait for justice for one of the worst mass killings of our era," said Papang Hidayat, Amnesty International's Indonesia researcher. "Across Indonesia, victims of the 1965 and 1966 events and their family members have been left to fend for themselves, while those suspected of criminal responsibility walk free," he added in the press release.

"Indonesian authorities must put an end to this injustice once and for all. Today's anniversary must be the starting point for a new era where crimes of the past are no longer swept under the carpet."

The 1965-66 anti-communist purges in Indonesia – led by the military and supported by Western powers – left hundreds of thousands and possibly over a million people dead. Countless others faced torture, arbitrary detention and often both.

The deadly campaign was triggered by a failed coup attempt on Sept. 30, 1965 and ushered in the New Order regime led by Suharto, who was to rule Indonesia until his downfall in 1998.

Since then, Indonesia has gone through a process of democratization that was largely successful but thus far the country has failed to address most rights abuses from the New Order period, including those of the mid-1960s.

"A chilling culture of silence has prevailed in Indonesia where even discussing the killings of 50 years ago has been largely impossible for victims, let alone demanding the reparation or access to truth and justice that they are entitled to under international law," Amnesty said in Wednesday's press statement.

"Far too many brave activists and survivors have faced harassment, intimidation and threats to expose the mass crimes of 50 years ago. Authorities must start listening to the human rights community, not suppressing their voices," Papang said, calling on President Joko Widodo to "ensure that the past is no longer forgotten."

"This is a country that is quickly emerging as a regional leader," he said. "It must takes this position seriously and set an example when it comes to justice, truth and reparations."

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/fifty-years-indonesia-urged-address-abuses-1965/

Screaming 'slaughter the PKI', Islamic youth burn communist flags in Blitar

Tempo.co - September 30, 2015

Hari Tri Wasono, Blitar – Thousands of members of the Islamic mass organisation Nahdlatul Ulama's (NU) paramilitary youth wing Barisan Ansor Serbaguna (Banser) demonstrated in front of the Blitar regent's office in East Java on Wednesday September 30 to commemorate the bloody September 30, 1965 affair

Screaming "slaughter the PKI" (Indonesian Communist Party), the protesters wearing stripped camouflage fatigues pledged to utterly destroy any reemergence of communist ideas, which are often referred to as the New Style Communists (KGB).

"Slaughter the PKI's down to its roots", said protest coordinator Nurmuchlisin during a speech.

The atmosphere became tense when Banser members began shouting "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great). The repeated recitations were followed by reverberations of the patriotic songs "Gugur Bunga" (Autumn Flowers) and "Maju Tak Gentar" (Onward Without Fear), which were played through a megaphone.

The chairperson of NU's Blitar chapter of the Anshor Youth Movement (GP Anshor), Imron Rosadi, believes that a number of organisations and government institutions have been infiltrated by communist ideas.

This is because after metamorphosing into the KGB, he said, the PKI movement is no longer visibly agitating its ideas in society. "If the government remains silent, a civil war will erupt like in 1965" said Rosadi.

There are also indications of the rise of communism through workers from China who are thronging to Indonesia [looking for work]. This is because the Chinese Communist Party once held the reins of power and shifted the economic system from one of capitalism to socialism.

The communist movement in China has similarities with Indonesia, namely recruiting peasants as a basis of struggle. "Chinese workers must leave Indonesia", said Rosadi.

Rosadi also slammed President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo plan to apologise to family members of the PKI who were victims of the 1965 affair. According to Rosadi, it would be inappropriate for PKI family members to receive an apology because they betrayed the nation.

During the action the Banser also set fire to flags with pictures of the hammer-and-sickle in the middle of the road.

Notes

Islamic mass organisations such as Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah played a significant part in the military led purge of alleged communists in the 1965-66 mass killings with many NU kiai (clerics) playing central roles in overseeing and directing the killings in coordination with military officers.

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the report was "Pekik 'Sembelih PKI' Cekam Unjuk Rasa Banser di Blitar".]

Source: http://nasional.tempo.co/read/news/2015/09/30/078705266/pekik-sembelih-pki-cekam-unjuk-rasa-banser-di-blitar

Museum still conveys New Order version of history

Jakarta Post - September 29, 2015

Jakarta – Built during the tenure of Indonesia's second president Soeharto, the Pancasila Sakti (Sacred Pancasila) monument complex in Lubang Buaya, East Jakarta, continues to promote the New Order regime's version of the murder of six Army generals and one lieutenant on the night of Sept. 30, 1965.

The memorial complex comprises sites that have narration, recordings and lurid pictures and dioramas depicting the violence allegedly inflicted by Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members on Lt. Gen. Ahmad Yani, Maj. Gen. R. Suprapto, Maj. Gen. S. Parman, Maj. Gen. MT Harjono, Brig. Gen. Soetojo Siswomihardjo, Brig. Gen. DI Pandjaitan and First Lt. Pierre Tendean.

Historians have long disputed the New Order's version, saying that autopsies of the bodies did not indicate any torture.

On the veranda of the site, for example, the alleged torture of the seven officers is graphically portrayed through several adult-size figures, splattered with artificial blood, rags and sharp weapons, and a recorded narration recounting in graphic detail how the men were tortured.

Despite such gory depictions of violence, the complex still attracts hundreds of visitors, including families with young children. Among the visitors last Sunday were Mike, her husband and three kids who had traveled over 40 kilometers from their home in Sukatani, West Java.

Mike took her family to the site at the urging of 12-year-old son Raihan, who had watched a video about the Pancasila Sakti complex on YouTube. Raihan, who is interested in Indonesian history, said he wanted to learn more about the history of the tragedy, also known as G30S, at the actual location as he felt the video was not comprehensive enough.

"I can learn about many things here [in the complex] as the video did not say precisely what happened on Sept. 30, 1965," said Raihan, adding that he did not get such information in his history classes at school. "The most terrifying part is when a PKI member burned a general's face with a cigarette," he said.

Raihan's father, an Army officer who preferred not to reveal his name, regretted that such history was no longer taught in schools, saying that recent governments did not take the matter seriously enough.

During the New Order era, PKI blame for the 1965 coup attempt was thoroughly instilled into Indonesians, not only through museums, but also in schools.

At the time, students usually learned the version of history from a propaganda film entitled "Pemberontakan G30S PKI" (The Sept. 30 PKI Rebellion) and textbooks. However, since 1998, when Soeharto's New Order collapsed, Indonesian students are no longer obliged to watch the film.

In 2004, the education ministry under Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's administration revised school history books in 2004, saying the PKI had been only one of several instigators of the 1965 coup attempt.

Then in 2006 sole blame for the events was returned to the PKI, on the grounds that having the PKI as the main perpetrator was the most acceptable version for Indonesians.

"Actually, it is difficult to tell whether the PKI was behind the 1965 coup as there is no evidence to prove the party's direct involvement in arranging it," said historian Hilmar Farid.

Autopsy reports on the seven officers' bodies revealed that they had been shot dead, not tortured as was depicted in the memorial complex, said Hilmar.

He added that the PKI's blame was decided only based on circumstantial evidence, such as a speech by PKI leader DN Aidit, who said he wanted to destroy the armed forces.

Hilmar said that since the Reform Era facts that were contrary to New Order propaganda had come to light, allowing citizens to draw their own conclusions about the tragedy.

"The memorial complex is a means for those agreeing with Soeharto's New Order perspective. Others with different perspectives certainly have different options," said Hilmar. (agn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/29/museum-still-conveys-new-order-version-history.html

PKI to gather sympathisers by 'hitching a ride' on Slank concert

Tribune News - September 26, 2015

Jakarta – Former Army Strategic Reserves Command (green berets) Chief of Staff (Kaskostrad) Kivlan Zen claims that the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) is trying to rebuild its forces in order to reestablish a presence in Indonesia.

PKI sympathisers are planning to hold a mass meeting at the Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium (SUGBK) in Senayan, Jakarta on Wednesday September 30 where they will join a concert by the popular Indonesian rock band Slank.

Zen received this information through an SMS message on his cell phone last week. The message was in the form of a call to all former PKI sympathisers to gather on September 30 at the SUGBK to take part in the Slank concert.

The message also appealed to sympathisers to wear red T-shirts with pictures of the hammer-and-sickle or a red flag on them.

"There has been an appeal to former PKI [members] and followers of the PKI's ideas to gather at the Slank concert on September 30. I've already checked this on the ground. The [plan] to hitch a ride [on the concert] really exists", said Zen in Jakarta on Saturday September 26.

Social media has been enlivened by a poster with the words "30 September Movement, Slank Two Finger Salute Concert, dispose the DPR [House of Representatives] Because They're Incapable of Running the Country".

According to Zen this is an attempt by PKI sympathisers to hitch a ride on the Slank concert. Even though the band made famous by the song "Too Sweet" has denied the claim, Zen says that PKI sympathisers will still gather at the concert.

Zen explained that the PKI sympathisers will gather at the SUGBK then head to the DPR building to call for DPR members to resign and the dissolution of the DPR.

"If it goes ahead they will demand that the DPR be dissolved. Because the DPR will prevent [President] Joko Widodo from making an apology to PKI sympathisers and revoke the Tap MPRS Number 25 1966", he said.

The Tap MPRS or Provisional People's Consultative Assembly Decree Number XXV/1966 formally legitimises a ban on the PKI and the spread of communism in Indonesia.

Meanwhile if President Widodo apologies to former PKI members then the sympathisers of the party symbolised by the hammer-and-sickle will regard this as meaning that they are no longer a banned party and can reestablish a presence in Indonesia.

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the report was "Kivlan Zein: PKI Dompleng Konser Slank untuk Kumpulkan Simpatisan".]

Source: http://www.tribunnews.com/nasional/2015/09/26/kivlan-zein-pki-dompleng-konser-slank-untuk-kumpulkan-simpatisan

Sexual & domestic violence

Parents of rape victim pawn motorbike

Jakarta Post - September 30, 2015

Jakarta – The parents of DA, a 3-year-old rape victim, said on Friday that they had been asked to pay Rp 1.2 million (US$81.7) by a policewoman from the Central Jakarta Police women and children's protection unit to file their daughter's case.

Titin, 29, and Samad, 30, are residents of Bendungan Hilir in Central Jakarta. "My husband and I only had Rp 500,000," Titin said. "We were forced to pawn a relative's motorbike to get the money needed."

After securing the money, she said, she and her husband immediately took DA to the Cipto Mangunkusumo National Hospital (RSCM) in Central Jakarta to obtain a medical report.

"It was 9 p.m. and my daughter was tired. She was unwell because her vagina had sustained an injury from the rape. But the test is important because it is the only way that the police can arrest [alleged rapist] Salman," Titin said as quoted by wartakota.tribunnews.com.

DA was reportedly raped by Salman, a 57-year-old widower, on Friday afternoon. She arrived home from school crying and complaining of a pain in her vagina.

Samad immediately checked his daughter's underwear and found an injury to her vagina. He rushed her to the Mintohardjo Navy Hospital in Central Jakarta, but the medical service had already closed.

Samad then took his daughter to RSCM, but the hospital required a letter from the police, which he and Titin rushed to obtain before returning to the hospital.

A temporary medical result showed that the injury to DA's vagina had been caused by a blunt object. "But the hospital refused to check my daughter's underwear until we'd paid an extra fee," Titin said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/30/greater-jakarta-parents-rape-victim-pawn-motorbike.html

Labour & migrant workers

27,000 people lose their jobs in September alone

Jakarta Post - September 29, 2015

Jakarta – Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) chairman Hariyadi Sukamdani has said that in September alone, 27,000 people lost their jobs as companies started to lay off workers when the rupiah weakened and the economy slowed down.

Based on data from the state-owned workers insurance company BPJS Ketenagakerjaan, according to Hariyadi, there had been 724,000 employees who had disbursed their old-age benefits (JHT) from January to December.

"From that figure, 210,000 employees disbursed their funds from Sept 1 to 28, some 27,000 of whom are categorized as being laid off," he said after meeting with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo at the State Palace on Saturday as reported by kompas.com.

According to Hariyadi, data from the BPJS Ketenagakerjaan is more valid than data from other sources, although he believes that the real number of laid off workers could be higher. "If people have already disbursed their old-age benefits, we could assume that they are jobless," he said.

Previously, Indonesian Workers Unions Confederation (KSPI) Said Iqbal said that the issue of lay offs was being exaggerated to lower the bargaining position of workers. (bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/29/27000-people-lose-their-jobs-september-alone.html

43,085 workers laid off since early 2015

Jakarta Post - September 28, 2015

Jakarta – There were 43,085 workers laid off since the beginning of this year and thousands of other workers are set to face the same fate, according to the Manpower Ministry.

"Around 6,496 workers are currently threatened with layoffs," said the ministry's head of the industrial relations and manpower dispute division, Sahat Sinurat, on Monday as quoted by Antara news agency.

He added that the actual number was estimated to be much larger. "These are the numbers that were reported to the manpower agencies," said Sahat.

The layoffs occurred in several sectors that absorb many workers such as the garment, shoes, electronics and coal mining sectors in Jakarta, Banten, West Java, Central Java, East Java, East Kalimantan, North Sumatra and Riau Islands.

In addition to the country's current economic slowdown, the layoffs are also occurring because of a lack of orders coming to the firms and because of a lack of efficiency and the shutting down of companies.

"Currently we are coordinating with the manpower agencies to increase scouting activities in companies," said Sahat.

The government has also issued a circular letter on massive layoffs, which include steps that firms can take before making the decision such as lowering wages and facilities for upper-level workers, decreasing shifts, limiting or erasing overtime work and lessening working hours. (kes)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/28/43085-workers-laid-early-2015.html

Media & journalism

British journalists face five years in Indonesian jail for visa violation

The Guardian (Australia) - September 30, 2015

Oliver Holmes, Bangkok – Two British journalists are facing five years in jail in Indonesia for making a documentary about piracy while allegedly on tourist visas.

Neil Bonner, 32, and Rebecca Prosser, 31, have been held for four months after they were arrested off the western island of Batam on 28 May. Their trial started this week.

The journalists' families, who have until now avoided commenting on the case, told the Guardian they were hoping for a swift release. "We love Becky very much and are so proud of her. We miss her very much and hope she will be home with us soon," Bernard and Carmel Prosser said.

Barbara Shaw, Bonner's mother, said: "Neil is bearing up OK under the circumstances. Neil is heartened by the incredible support he's received – letters from people all over the world. It just shows you what a good man he is."

Bonner and Prosser were making a documentary about piracy in south-east Asia for a London-based production company called Wall to Wall which was funded by National Geographic TV. Batam island, just south of Singapore, is near the Malacca Strait, an important international shipping lane.

They were held on house arrest for most of the time before being transferred to prison this month.

"Neil Bonner and Rebecca Prosser are well-respected documentary filmmakers working for Wall to Wall in the UK. They travelled to Indonesia to film footage for an episode of a National Geographic factual television programme, looking at the good work done by law enforcement agencies in the Malacca Strait to combat piracy," a spokesman for Wall to Wall said.

"A trial process has now begun. Neil, Rebecca and Wall to Wall are cooperating fully with the relevant authorities, and we hope that Neil and Rebecca will be released and reunited with their families as soon as possible, having been detained for four months."

Foreign journalists who want to report in Indonesia need to apply for a special visa which can take weeks to be issued and can be denied. Violations of Indonesian immigration law carries a possible five-year jail term. In the past, Indonesia has deported foreign journalists or given shorter prison terms.

Two French reporters spent two and a half months in jail last year after being caught in Indonesia's Papua province trying to make a documentary on a separatist movement while also on tourist visas.

Reporters Without Borders, a press freedoms advocacy group, said nine Indonesians are also facing a possible two-year jail term or a large fine for helping to film an unauthorised documentary.

A UK foreign office spokesman told the Guardian that "embassy staff are providing assistance to two British nationals detained in Batam, Indonesia".

"We are also in regular contact with their families and legal representatives. We have had a number of discussions with Indonesian authorities regarding this case, and will continue to follow it very closely," he said.

Bonner and Prosser will appear in court again on Thursday.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/30/british-journalists-face-five-years-in-indonesian-jail-for-visa-violation

Environment & natural disasters

Government urged to be more serious about protecting peatlands

Jakarta Post - September 30, 2015

Jakarta – World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Indonesia, an international NGO concerned with conservation, research and environmental conservation, called on the government to be more serious about protecting peatlands by reviewing its developmental policies in those key areas.

"Preventive measures need to be taken continuously to reduce the potential of land and forest fires in the future," WWF Indonesia's manager program for Central Kalimantan, Rosenda Chandra Kasih, said as quoted by Antara in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Rosenda said wildfires affecting Central Kalimantan and several other provinces in Kalimantan and Sumatra every year were due to the government's lack of preparedness to anticipate the droughts.

She said the development of dams needed to be conducted as early as possible to maintain the stability of land humidity and water from inside peatlands throughout the year. It would be less likely for fires to happen in peatlands if there was more water there.

"This effort must be accompanied with peat forest restoration activities to recover its aquatic system," said Rosendra.

WWF Indonesia's conservation director Arnold Sitompul said the government needed to carry out an integrated approach together with regional administrations and local communities to prevent land and forest fires.

"[The government] needs to prepare regional administrations and local people by establishing community groups concerned with fires," he said.

Arnold said most hot spots were in peatlands and that so far the goverment's prevention and control efforts had not yet been effective. As of Wednesday, thick smoke has been blanketing Kalimantan. In the past week, the air quality in Palangkaraya and Pontianak has repeatedly dropped to a level deemed dangerous to human health.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) said on its official website that Palangkaraya's particulate concentration data still stood at a level deemed dangerous for health (463 5g/m3).

Land and forest fires have continued to occur in Kalimantan despite President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's visit to directly monitor fire extinguishing efforts in Central and South Kalimantan. Schools have given their students a vacation for two weeks. The Central Kalimantan health department has recorded that at least 15,000 people suffered from acute respiratory infections due to smoke in September. (ebf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/30/govt-urged-be-more-serious-about-protecting-peatlands.html

Sumatra, Kalimantan fire investigations progress, arrests made

Jakarta Post - September 29, 2015

Jakarta – Up to 218 cases related to forest and land fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan are currently being investigated by police.

"Four of the cases are being investigated by the National Police's Criminal Investigation Corps [Bareskrim Polri] while others are in the hands of provincial police [Polda] and precinct police [Polres]. There are 34 cases in South Sumatra, 68 cases in Riau, 18 cases in Jambi, 57 cases in Central Kalimantan, 25 cases in West Kalimantan, 8 cases in South Kalimantan and 4 cases in East Kalimantan," said Polri spokesperson Suharsono on Tuesday as quoted by kompas.com.

Nineteen of the cases are currently at pre-investigation stage, 136 cases mid-investigation and 63 cases have been handed over to prosecutors. "We have named 204 suspects across all the cases, consisting of 192 individuals and 9 corporations," said Suharsono.

He added that 68 of the individual suspects and five of the corporation suspects had been arrested since they were considered prone to tampering with evidence or going into hiding. "It is very possible that the number of cases and suspects will increase in the future," said Suharsono. (kes)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/29/sumatra-kalimantan-fire-investigations-progress-arrests-made.html

Greenpeace lambasts govt's weakness on climate change

Jakarta Post - September 28, 2015

Bambang Muryanto, Yogyakarta – Environmental group Greenpeace Indonesia has criticized the government for its "weak" commitment to renewable energy development.

Greenpeace Indonesia director Longgena Ginting said the government was targeting renewable energy sources to account for just 17 percent of total energy use up to 2030. "The government's commitment to tackling climate change is still very low," Longgena said.

The environmental activist was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the Buru Baru Festival, an event promoting the use of renewable energy among the people of Baru Beach in Bantul, Yogyakarta, where there is now a renewable energy-fueled power plant.

The two-day event, which ended on Sunday, also aimed to encourage the government to immediately shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind and micro-hydro power.

The festival saw Greenpeace Indonesia, together with hundreds of environmental activists, stage art performances beneath a banner emblazoned with the slogan #ActionForClimate. Workshops promoting green lifestyles were also held.

"This event is being put on simultaneously in 30 countries and aims to promote the importance of the use of renewable energy in tackling climate change," said Longgena.

The activist said carbon emissions resulting from fossil-based fuels were the primary cause of the increase in the earth's temperature.

It was hoped, he went on, that the government would seriously commit to reducing the use of fossil fuels and developing renewable energy, especially given the country's wealth of renewable energy sources, adding that only by doing so could the government achieve its target of reducing carbon emissions by 26-40 percent by 2030. (ebf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/27/greenpeace-lambasts-govt-s-weakness-climate-change.html

Singapore moves against Indonesian firms over hazardous smoke haze

Agence France Presse - September 26, 2015

Singapore has launched legal action that could lead to large fines against Indonesian companies blamed for farm and plantation fires spewing unhealthy levels of air pollution over the city state.

Five Indonesian companies, including multinational Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), have been served with legal notices, according to a Singapore government statement issued late on Friday.

The move followed a bitter diplomatic spat over Indonesia's failure to stop a severe outbreak of smoky haze which has also affected Malaysia and persisted for years.

APP, part of Indonesia's Sinar Mas conglomerate, is one of the world's largest pulp and paper groups and publicly upholds "sustainability" and forest conservation as core principles. Its products include stationery and toilet paper.

APP was asked by Singapore's National Environment Agency to supply information on its subsidiaries operating in Singapore and Indonesia, as well as measures taken by its suppliers in Indonesia to put out fires in their concessions.

The group, which has paper mills in Indonesia and China, did not immediately reply when asked by AFP for comment. Under a 2014 law called the Transboundary Haze Pollution Act, Singapore can impose a fine of nearly $100,000 for each day that a local or foreign company contributes to unhealthy levels of haze pollution in Singapore, subject to a maximum total of $1.95 million.

Firms told to take measure to stop and prevent fires

Singapore is located near Indonesia's vast Sumatra island, where fires have traditionally been set off by farmers and plantations to clear land for cultivation.

Four other Indonesian companies – Rimba Hutani Mas, Sebangun Bumi Andalas Wood Industries, Bumi Sriwijaya Sentosa and Wachyuni Mandira – have been told to take measures to extinguish fires on their land, refrain from starting new ones, and submit action plans to prevent future fires.

Sinar Mas is also involved in palm oil production, an industry widely blamed for forest fires in Indonesia.

In its statement issued on Friday, the Singapore government said it was "examining how to apply more economic pressure against errant companies", including a review of its own procurement policies.

Singapore's minister for the environment and water resources, Vivian Balakrishnan, said the haze problem has lasted "for far too long".

"This is not a natural disaster. Haze is a man-made problem that should not be tolerated. It has caused major impact on the health, society and economy of our region," he said in the statement.

Singapore declared emergency shutdowns of elementary and high schools on Friday after the air pollutant index hit "hazardous" levels. It eased to "moderate" levels on Saturday but a shift in wind direction can quickly change the situation.

The current haze outbreak is the worst since mid-2013. The recurring crisis grips South -East Asia nearly every year during the dry season.

Singapore officials have reacted with outrage to Indonesian vice-president Jusuf Kalla's comments that Indonesia's neighbours should be grateful for good air quality most of the year, and that Jakarta need not apologise for the crisis.

Indonesia has previously said that Singapore-based companies were among those responsible for the blazes.

About 3,000 troops and police have been sent to Sumatra to fight the fires, with Indonesian authorities saying last week that it would take a month to bring them under control.

Source: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2015-09-26/singapore-moves-against-indonesian-firms-over-hazardous-smoke-haze-over-southeast-asia/1497110

Low visibility forces Jokowi to cancel jambi haze inspection trip

Jakarta Globe - September 25, 2015

Jambi – President Joko Widodo has again been forced to cancel a trip to monitor efforts to quell haze-causing forest fires, as visibility was still too low on Friday to safely fly the presidential jet to Jambi's Sultan Thaha International Airport.

Air pollution indexes have moved into hazardous territory in large parts of Indonesia and neighboring countries, and the haze has already forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights in the region. Schools were also forced to close in Singapore on Friday.

Joko was scheduled to visit Muarojambi district together with Forestry and Environment Minister Siti Nurbaya, but visibility in Jambi city was just 200-300 meters on Friday morning

The president had also been slated to visit a community health center treating residents suffering from respiratory ailments as a result of the smoke.

Henrizal, a spokesman for the Jambi provincial government, said it was still unclear if the presidential visit would be rescheduled.

"The visit of the president cannot go ahead today, Friday, as thick smoke continues to blanket Jambi," he said. "Possibly the president will visit the sites of the forest and wildfires in Jambi after the smoke clears."

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/low-visibility-forces-jokowi-cancel-jambi-haze-inspection-trip/

Haze crisis intensifies, disrupts health, Idul Adha celebrations

Jakarta Post - September 25, 2015

Rizal Harahap and Ina Parlina, Pekanbaru/Jakarta – Smoke produced by land and forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan has continued to intensify over the past few days, severely threatening the health of local residents and disrupting celebrations of the Islamic Idul Adha holiday.

In Central Kalimantan, the Palangkaraya municipal administration declared on Wednesday an emergency status after smoke that has blanketed the provincial capital over the past several weeks brought air pollution to a hazardous level.

The level of particulate matter (PM10) in the city was measured at above 1,000 micrograms per cubic meter (5g/m3) on Wednesday, more than twice the minimum level of the "dangerous" category of air pollution.

According to the government's existing guidelines, air quality is considered "healthy" if its PM10 level stands below 50 5g/m3 and "dangerous" when it surpasses 420 5g/m3.

"The emergency status for haze [in the city] is effective from Sept. 22 to Oct. 3," Palangkaraya Disaster Mitigation and Fire Agency's disaster unit head Satriadi said on Wednesday as quoted by Antara news agency.

The Central Kalimantan Health Agency earlier reported that at least 27,000 local residents had suffered acute respiratory infections (ISPA) from July to September and has declared the situation an extraordinary occurrence.

The haze crisis also disrupted the celebration of the Islamic Day of Sacrifice on Thursday morning, with thousands of Muslim residents forced to perform the Idul Adha mass prayers in outdoor or semi-outdoor locations shrouded by smoke.

"We need to pray to God to end the disaster that has hit our land," acting Central Kalimantan Governor Hadi Prabowo said after attending mass prayers at Darussalam Mosque in Palangkaraya.

Central Kalimantan, along with West Kalimantan, Riau, Jambi and South Sumatra, are among the provinces hardest hit by the air pollution originating from fires in peatland and plantations.

In Pekanbaru, Riau, thick smoke also blanketed hundreds of Idul Adha prayer locations across the city, forcing most worshippers to don masks. "We get used to it. What else can we do?" Ridwan Fauzi, a local Muslim resident, told The Jakarta Post.

Meanwhile in Batam, Riau Islands, two commercial aircraft heading to Hang Nadim International Airport had to be diverted on Thursday to Kualanamu International Airport in Medan, North Sumatra, because of poor visibility.

The ongoing haze crisis has been exacerbated by this year's prolonged dry season triggered by the El Niqo weather phenomenon.

North Sulawesi Forestry Agency head Herry Rotinsulu said that fires, triggered by both human error and natural factors, had razed 2,140 hectares of forest in the province.

During his visit to the location of peatland fires in Pulang Pisau regency, Central Kalimantan, on Thursday, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo ordered the digging of canals around the peatland to prevent fires from reoccurring.

"I stood still for five minutes there and the fires got bigger. Canals are key. We need immediate and massive canalization," the President said.

In response to the worsening fires, Jokowi decided to cancel his trip to North Sumatra on Thursday; he had been scheduled to oversee the relocation of Mount Sinabung eruption victims.

[Eva Aruperes in Manado and Apriadi Gunawan in Medan contributed to this article.]

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/25/haze-crisis-intensifies-disrupts-health-idul-adha-celebrations.html

Health & education

Indonesia adopts road map to curb maternal mortality rate

Jakarta Post - September 29, 2015

Hans Nicholas Jong, New York – Indonesia has pledged to support the Global Strategy for Women's, Children's and Adolescents' health, a global road map launched by the UN to end the preventable death of women, children and adolescents.

Speaking as one of the panelists at the launch of the global strategy on Saturday, Health Minister Nila F. Moeloek said the government was fully committed to ensuring the health of mothers in the country, which has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the region.

"Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs] have given us aspiration, ambition and vision that are transformative, especially in regards to the health of women, children, adolescents and infants. Through the implementation of SDGS, Indonesia is committed to realizing and meeting the agreed targets by strengthening the health service system in line with existing cultural conditions," she said at UN headquarters in New York.

Nila said the government had committed to four points, namely implementing regulations, strengthening the intervention strategy, using the continuum of care approach throughout the first 1,000 days in the life cycle and reducing maternal and infant mortality rate.

The ministry's director general of mother and child health and nutrition supervision, Anung Sugihartono, said on Saturday that most of the global strategy, which was a continuation of the old one launched by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2010, had been adopted by Indonesia in a regulation and planning.

"We already have government regulation No. 61/2014 on reproductive health. We have also drafted the national action plan on the preventable death of women and newborns and are now in the process of facilitating provincial governments to make their own regional action plans to reduce the maternal, newborn and infant mortality rate. Because this effort involves multiple sectors, policy implementation at the regional level fully involves regional development planning boards [Bappeda]," he told The Jakarta Post.

Under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the maternal and child mortality rate has fallen faster than at any other time in history. Yet Indonesia is among the countries where the maternal mortality rate actually rose, from 227 per 100,000 live births to 359 between 2007 and 2012, an increase partly blamed on a lack of funding and healthcare services across the archipelago.

Therefore, decreasing the maternal mortality rate is one of Indonesia's four unmet MDGs.

The government has tried to resolve the problem of a lack of funding by allocating Rp 119 trillion (US$814 million) for health care in next year's state budget, or 5 percent of the total budget. This constitutes a significant increase from last year's allocation of Rp 75 trillion, or 3.45 percent of the total budget.

"For the 2016 state budget, we will improve primary health facilities. We will still build hospitals but will prioritize [building] primary health facilities in marginalized and border regions as well as coastal areas," Nila said. Furthermore, the government is mobilizing human resources to the aforementioned regions.

"Because we know the distribution of health officers is not even in our country," said Nila. "Alhamdulillah [God willing], five main types of health officers – midwives, internists, pediatricians, anesthesiologists and surgeons – will want to be sent to regions."

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/29/ri-adopts-road-map-curb-maternal-mortality-rate.html

Indonesia's annual births nearly equaling Singapore's population

Jakarta Post - September 29, 2015

The government is set to revitalize its family planning (KB) program as roughly 4.5 million new babies, equal to 85% of Singapore's population, are born in the country annually.

The government's target population growth rate is 1.1 percent, whereas it currently sits at 1.49 percent.

The head of the national population and family planning board (BKKBN), Surya Chandra Surapaty, said that Indonesia's growth rate of 1.49 percent per year was worrying, especially if such massive growth was not accompanied by global manpower competitiveness.

"The population growth rate of 1.49 percent means Indonesia has 4.5 million new babies [each year], equaling Singapore's population. If [we look at] a 10 year period, that's 10 Singapores," he said after a meeting with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, as quoted by kompas.com.

The fastest growth rates, he further elaborated, were recorded in East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, Maluku and in Riau Islands. It is feared that the babies were going to be a low-income, low-skilled generation since they were mostly born in under-developed or poor regions.

Lack of education is listed as one reason why the KB program failed in those regions. To combat this, the President approved a KB pilot village in West Java set to be inaugurated in January 2016, Surya said.

The BKKBN will also launch several programs to control population growth and at the same time improve the quality of the "prosperous families" program, the children's education campaign and the parenting campaign. (ags)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/29/indonesia-s-annual-births-nearly-equaling-singapore-s-population.html

Graft & corruption

Lawmakers want more police, prosecutors in KPK

Jakarta Post - September 30, 2015

Tama Salim, Jakarta – With the selection of candidates to lead the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) put on hold until the House of Representatives decides whether to follow up on the President's recommendations in a plenary session, dissenting opinions on the eight candidates are emerging among lawmakers.

Mulfachri Harahap, deputy chairman of House Commission III overseeing legal affairs, human rights and security, said on Tuesday that it was hard for political party factions in the House not to be biased when assessing prospective KPK leaders who had no prior experience in the field of law.

"This is a matter of a leader's integrity; all final decisions rest on the judgment of leaders. How would [a KPK commissioner] be able to make a decision if they lacked a sense of law?" Mulfachri said at the House complex.

"If you were not versed in a certain field of expertise but you were given a huge responsibility in that field, how would you build up that sense [of law]?"

The National Mandate Party (PAN) politician acknowledged that legislators were having difficulties in assessing the eight candidates proposed by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo. He said all party factions were currently digging deep into the track records of the eight candidates.

Antigraft watchdogs previously criticized the final choices made by the government-sanctioned selection committee, having singled out three candidates with questionable track records.

The three problematic candidates are Brig. Gen. Basaria Panjaitan of the National Police, ad hoc judge at the Jakarta Corruption Court Alexander Marwata and Saut Situmorang, an expert at the National Intelligence Agency (BIN).

Meanwhile, the antigraft network heaped praise on the other candidates – public attorney and Atmajaya University lecturer Surya Tjandra, former manager of the National Procurement Agency (LKPP) Agus Rahardjo, KPK official Sujanarko, Hasanudin University law lecturer Laode Muhammad Syarif and acting KPK commissioner Johan Budi.

Part of the reason why the selection committee was unable to name anyone with an adequate background in prosecution, Mulfachri continued, was due to the lack of clarity in the law.

He cited Article 21, paragraph 3 of the 2002 KPK Law, which simply stipulates that the institution's leaders are investigators and prosecutors.

Having received Jokowi's recommendations, the House will have to name the eventual KPK leaders: Each member of Commission III will propose their five preferred names, while the winning votes will be made up of the commission's final tally.

Separately, Yenti Garnasih, a member of the all-female selection committee, who specializes in criminal law pertaining to graft and money-laundering, insisted on returning the debate to the group's final decision. "It is a decision collectively made by the nine of us," she told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

She said that even though not one of the eight candidates was particularly well-versed in prosecution, she believed it was up to the eventual KPK leaders to make it work.

Before the committee handed in its recommendations to the President, Yenti was an active proponent of choosing candidate leaders from the police and from prosecutors. "A good sentence, if not executed well, would be for nothing," she previously said.

Yenti was coy about having her professional judgement on the matter neglected in the candidate selection process, but said that the future selection of leaders should retain the view of having representatives who were adept in criminal investigations and prosecution.

Surya, one of the candidates short-listed for the KPK leadership, said that anyone with knowledge of prosecution methods should be able to fill the position.

Commenting on the disputed Article 21 of the KPK Law, Surya said that anyone from the KPK leadership would be able to act as an investigator or a prosecutor, as long as he or she had the necessary knowledge.

"KPK leaders are legal practitioners, lawyers and lecturers – they all understand [the process of] litigation," Surya said, as quoted by tribunnews.com.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/30/lawmakers-want-more-police-prosecutors-KPK.html

Anti-criminalization policy may hamper corruption fight

Jakarta Post - September 28, 2015

Haeril Halim, Jakarta – Judicial watchdog Indonesian Legal Roundtable (ILR) has called on President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's administration to annul its plan to issue an anti-criminalization regulation that would prevent law enforcement agencies from directly investigating irregularities in government policies.

ILR researcher Erwin Natosmal Oemar said the implementation of such a regulation could create uncertainty in the country's law enforcement procedures, adding that it would make it harder to prosecute corrupt officials.

Erwin further said that the plan sent a message to the public that the government distrusted the National Police and the Attorney General's Office (AGO) when handling criminal cases related to government programs.

"Through the plan, the government actually acknowledges that widespread criminalization practices committed by the police and prosecutors offices indeed exist. The solution to the poor performance of the two institutions should not come in the form of government regulations but by increasing supervision and reforming the Criminal Law Procedures Code [KUHAP]," Erwin told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Through the new regulation the government has instructed law enforcement institutions to allow the internal departments of state institutions and state auditory agencies such as the Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) and the Development Finance Comptroller (BPKP), as first responders, to examine irregularities, limiting law enforcement institutions' abilities to independently launch their own investigation of suspicious government practices.

The first responders, if they conclude that criminal activities had taken place, can then decide whether to ask law enforcers to step in. The plan also seeks to prohibit law enforcement institutions from briefing the media on the progress of their investigations until a case reaches prosecution stage.

"The negative effect of the plan is that it puts government officials above the law and they may commit corruption in the name of government policy if they feel that they are being protected by the government," Erwin added.

Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) deputy chairman Indriyanto Seno Adji said the antigraft body could understand the government's thinking behind the plan, and emphasized that the KPK's work in eradicating corruption would not be hindered by the up-coming regulation.

But Indriyanto said that there should not be legal immunity for state officials who commit corruption through their policies.

"The KPK will never get involved in matters related to administrative violations but for sure we will step in should we find that government officials have made policies as a result of kickbacks or bribery, so we won't probe based on policies but on the people who drew them up in each specific case," Indriyanto told the Post on Sunday.

Jokowi made the move because of his concerns about the effect that corruption eradication efforts had on existing development programs.

The government has repeatedly stated that the current slow absorption of the state budget by regional governments has been caused by state officials' fears of being prosecuted as a result of their policies.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/28/anti-criminalization-policy-may-hamper-corruption-fight.html

New regulation issued to shield officials from prosecution

Jakarta Post - September 26, 2015

Fedina S. Sundaryani, Jakarta – Amid concerns that corruption eradication campaigns could deal a blow to government programs, the government is preparing a regulation that would force an institution's internal monitoring division or a state auditory institution to evaluate a potential violation against government officials or businesspeople before handing it over to law enforcement agencies.

National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti confirmed on Friday that the government was working on a draft regulation and maintained that it would hinder the work of law enforcement agencies.

"If there is a violation, we have to first make sure that it is a criminal violation [because] there are [other] violations that could be categorized as administrative and civil violations. Because of these, we must be more careful," he said at the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta.

Badrodin said that the government regulation would prevent law enforcers from starting investigations willy-nilly without confirmation from an institution's internal monitoring division or a state auditory institution, such as the Supreme Audit Agency, that there had been a criminal violation committed by members of an institution.

He emphasized that not all violations uncovered while a government project was underway could be categorized as a crime and said that the planned regulation would make it clear as to who would take responsibility in investigating different types of violations.

"If it is only an administrative violation, then we will hand over [the case] to be dealt with internally. If it's a civil law case, then we will hand it over to whoever has the authority. If it is a crime, then we [law enforcers] will start investigating it," Badrodin said.

Previously, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo had expressed concerns about the effects that corruption eradication efforts had on existing development programs.

Following his statement, State Secretary Pratikno said in late August that the government was currently preparing a regulation "that would be a foundation, a room for discretion, so that new innovations can appear".

Pratikno said that such a regulation would encourage officials to be more active in the decision-making process, without being too concerned about its legal implications.

Government officials have expressed concerns that the National Police's detective division, under then detective division chief Comr. Gen. Budi Waseso, had gone too far in investigating several graft cases involving ministries and state-owned enterprises, including an alleged graft case which led to a raid at the state-owned port operator's headquarters in Tanjung Priok last month.

According to data collected by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) from 2004 to May 2015, of the 459 people named graft suspects in the past decade, 116 were from echelon I, II and III positions. This was closely followed by those who worked in the private sector, with 114 suspects.

Meanwhile, Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) researcher Agus Sunaryanto expressed concerns over the planned government regulation as an internal oversight division could likely be biased in its evaluation of violations taking place in government institutions.

"I'm worried that since the internal oversight division is not a separate entity from it's ministry or institution, it would seek to resolve the case informally," he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

He added that it would be better if the authority to evaluate and investigate violation of regulations was given to law enforcement agencies.

"The police force and Attorney General's Office [AGO] investigate cases to see whether a crime occurred and if they have made a mistake, they have the authority to drop the case. I don't see the point in adding another step in the process," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/26/new-regulation-issued-shield-officials-prosecution.html

Terrorism & religious extremism

100 elite soldiers deployed in terrorist hunt

Jakarta Post - September 28, 2015

Palu – The Indonesian Military (TNI) has deployed 100 personnel from two elite forces to support a police-run operation to hunt for members of a terrorist group in Poso regency, North Sulawesi.

The Camar Maleo III operation, which began on Sept. 14, has previously involved more than 900 personnel from the National Police's Mobile Brigade (Brimob). The operation is targeting a group headed by the militant leader Santoso that has been operating in the region over the past four years.

To support the operation, 60 personnel from the Army's Special Force (Kopassus) and 40 personnel from the Army's Strategic Command's Combat Reconnaissance Platoons (Tontaipur) arrived at Poso on Friday to join the current combined forces.

"The soldiers will support the operation for 19 days, starting from Sept. 25," Wirabuana Military Command VII chief Maj. Gen. Bachtiar said, adding that the soldiers had been assigned to limit the movement of the terrorist group.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/28/islands-focus-100-elite-soldiers-deployed-terrorist-hunt.html

Land & agrarian conflicts

2,500 farmers and activists protest at State Palace

Jakarta Post - September 29, 2015

Jakarta – Some 2,500 people took part in a demonstration in front of the State Palace on Tuesday, calling on President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to reform agrarian law and set up a team to handle land disputes frequently occurring in many parts of the country.

The protesters were representatives of several organizations, including the Pasundan Farmer Association (SPP), the Agrarian Reform Consortium (KPA) and the Indonesian Forum for Environment (Walhi) that regrouped on National Farmer Day on Sept. 24.

The protesters gathered at the Istiqlal Mosque starting from 8 a.m. before marching toward the State Palace.

Head of operations at the Jakarta City Police Sr. Comr. Martuani said that the police deployed some 1,000 personnel to secure the street rally. "They included members of the Jakarta City Police and the Central Jakarta Police," he said.

It was reported by kompas.com that the demonstration was peaceful. (bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/29/2500-farmers-and-activists-protest-state-palace.html

Police, TNI oppress residents in land conflicts: Komnas HAM

Jakarta Post - September 25, 2015

Jakarta – The involvement of police and Indonesian Military (TNI) officers has exacerbated thousands of land conflicts in regions across the country, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has said.

The commission has recorded around 9,000 land conflicts, mostly involving business interests, with corporations often using police and TNI officers to enforce confiscation of land from residents.

"As many as 74 percent of cases are caused by the same businesspeople. In other words, there's a land monopoly going on," Komnas HAM commissioner Hafid Abbas told The Jakarta Post.

"There's an intimate relationship between regional governments and businesspeople. Before elections, potential leaders approach businesspeople for campaign capital. Once elected, they award the land in return, no matter what the original use of the land," Hafid explained.

He added that since the fall of president Soeharto, the TNI, notorious for human rights abuses under the dictatorship, had been involved in fewer cases, with police officers instead increasingly implicated.

The police, along with local administrations and businesspeople, were, he said, usually responsible for violence in land conflicts. "To protect businesspeople, local administrations use the police," he said.

Meanwhile, House of Representatives Commission II overseeing home affairs has demanded that the Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry disclose land conflicts in which police and TNI officers are involved.

National Mandate Party (PAN) lawmaker Amran revealed a land dispute involving police officers during a hearing with the National Land Agency (BPN) on Monday.

"On May 27, the police deployed 700 personnel to evict only six houses in Cipinang, East Jakarta. The residents had been there a long time. They bought the land, it wasn't given. There are two certificates claiming ownership of the land. The first one is dated July 29, 2004, while the second claims that the police have owned the land since July 24, 2007. I've checked with the Finance Ministry and found that it's not a police asset. I asked [the BPN] to award ownership rights to the residents, but the agency refused, apparently by order of the police," Amran said.

According to media reports, the evictions took place when the case was still ongoing at the East Jakarta District Court.

The Agrarian and Spatial Planning Ministry has admitted that many land conflicts are unresolved, with only 261 of 4,199 cases this year resolved as of August.

Acting ministry secretary-general Heri Santoso said that the low number of resolutions was down to an internal ministry restructuring. "The budget for spatial planning and control is Rp 1 trillion [US$69 million] but we couldn't use it before August because it was moved from the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry to our ministry in this year's revised budget. Without the internal restructuring, the government usually solves 50 percent of cases annually," he told the Post.

Heri added that the ministry had limited authority in resolving disputes, as it was only in charge of land administration, such as issuing certificates and documents. Authority over land use, he said, was in the hands of local administrations. (rbk)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/25/police-tni-oppress-residents-land-conflicts-komnas-ham.html

Parliament & legislation

Activists left fuming by pro-'kretek' bill

Jakarta Post - September 29, 2015

Jakarta – Antitobacco campaigners have lambasted new provisions in a culture bill recognizing kretek (clove cigarettes) as a part of national cultural heritage and obliging the government to safeguard their existence.

Article 37 of the draft law stipulates that the state acknowledges, appreciates and protects kretek as a part of cultural heritage, while article 49 ordains support through inventory, documentation, facility development and promotion via festivals.

Kartono Mohamad, an advisor with the National Commission on Tobacco Control (KNPT), sees the insertion of the articles as reckless and heedless of the dangers of smoking.

"To hold festivals [celebrating kretek] is the same as telling your children to smoke," Kartono told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

Supporting kretek, he said, would also burden the economy, as 60 percent of the cloves used in the production of the cigarettes are imported from China, Turkey, Brazil and Zimbabwe, where they can be sourced more cheaply than local cloves.

The government is currently working to curb tobacco consumption in the country, with the number of smokers standing at around a quarter of the total population.

Measures have included limiting tobacco advertising and helping local administrations to set up smoke-free zones in 160 regions.

The latest effort involves a plan to raise cigarette duties, with the funds directly channeled to the national health insurance (JKN) program.

Tulus Abadi from the Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) said the articles contradicted Article 113 of the Health Law, which states that the government should limit and prevent abuse of addictive substances, including tobacco.

Besides the Health Law, the articles, according to Tulus, also contradict a Jakarta bylaw banning cigarette ads in public spaces. "If the lawmakers approve the bill, [pro-tobacco campaigners] will have grounds to argue for the annulment of the bylaw," he said on Saturday.

The Indonesian Child Protection Commission (KPAI) has suggested the inclusion of a total ban on cigarette ads on radio in the draft of the new Broadcasting Law.

"The insertion of the two articles is very suspicious [....] It is blindingly obvious that there are certain lawmakers in cahoots with the tobacco industry," Tulus told the Post.

Members of the House of Representatives are divided over the provisions. The draft bill was formulated by the House's Commission X overseeing education, sport and history before being discussed with the House Legislation Body (Baleg).

Teguh Juwarno, a Commission X member from the National Mandate Party (PAN), said that the commission had inserted no mention of kretek in the bill, meaning Baleg had added the articles.

"PAN rejected the insertion of the articles. We deeply regret the sudden appearance of these articles after we met Baleg to synchronize our opinions about the draft. The cigarette industry is certainly involved in this," Teguh said.

Yayuk Sri Rahayuningsih, another Commission X member from the NasDem Party, also said that Baleg had inserted the provisions; however, she voiced support for them. "We agree with [the articles] because the tradition is present in every village," she said.

Taufiqul Hadi, a Baleg member, also from NasDem, confirmed that the body had inserted the articles. "Kretek is unique. Only here is there a tradition of mixing cloves and tobacco," he said.

The culture bill is not final, with a House plenary session and government meeting needed before it can be passed into law. (rbk)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/29/activists-left-fuming-pro-kretek-bill.html

Lawmaker probes to require presidential approval

Jakarta Post - September 25, 2015

Tama Salim, Ina Parlina and Fedina S. Sundaryani, Jakarta – Lawmakers have protested against a Constitutional Court (MK) ruling that stipulates the need for a presidential permit to question members of legislative bodies in a criminal case.

The court granted on Tuesday partial concessions to a judicial review disputing an article from the 2014 Legislative Institution Law – otherwise known as MD3 – that provided lawmakers with relative immunity from law enforcement.

Junimart Girsang, deputy chairman of the House of Representatives' ethics council, questioned whether the court ruling would have practical use, considering that it blurred the lines between the responsibilities of the executive and the legislature.

"Would it even be possible for the executive branch to meddle in legislative matters, even if was to uphold the rule of law?" Junimart asked at the House complex on Wednesday.

The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician maintained that the disputed article, in its original form, was sufficient.

The original Article 245 of the MD3 Law requires law enforcers to seek prior approval from the House's Ethics Committee (MKD) to be able to question members of legislative institutions as part of a criminal investigation. If the MKD fails to respond within 30 days, law enforcers can then proceed with the interrogation.

In the controversial court ruling, presiding MK judge Arief Hidayat explained that the authority had been shifted from the ethics council to the president because the MKD, as an internal House body, was not recognized in the Constitution.

"The phrase regarding written permission in Article 245 paragraph (1) of the 2014 MD3 Law contravenes the 1945 Constitution and will have no legal bearing unless it presupposes the approval of the President," Arief said, reading aloud the decision on Tuesday.

Overshadowed by corruption cases, the previous House batch inserted Article 245 into the MD3 Law to create legal protection against probes from law enforcement institutions.

The court ruling comes as a blow to lawmakers, since it authorizes the president to decide whether or not a lawmaker may be subject to criminal investigation.

Citing paragraphs (2) and (3) of Article 245, Junimart argued that law enforcers required no approval to deal with legislators caught red-handed or accused of committing a crime punishable by death, crimes against humanity or crimes that endanger national security.

Seeking written permission also did not apply to lawmakers accused of special crimes such as graft, narcotics abuse or terrorism, he added.

House Commission III chairman Aziz Syamsuddin, on the other hand, claimed that the ruling would not impinge on the law enforcement process, believing that the president would decide wisely whether to approve the questioning of House members.

"I believe that the president will give his or her approval in regard to the summons, so long as it is based on legal facts," Aziz, a member of the Golkar Party, told reporters. He called on his colleagues to respect the ruling.

Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung said that President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo promised not to hinder prosecutions following the MK ruling.

"The President respects the MK ruling [and] he promises that [he] will not use the authority to grant permission to obstruct the law enforcement process," Pramono said in a short message.

Separately, Attorney General's Office (AGO) spokesman Amir Yanto said that the AGO had no choice but to comply with the MK's ruling.

"[The decision] was on the criminal [legal process] and the Constitutional Court's decision is final. Either way, we must comply," he said on Wednesday.

While acknowledging that he had not read the entire court ruling, Amir explained that the AGO would have to thoroughly evaluate the Constitutional Court's decision to see how it would be implemented by state prosecutors.

"It is an additional process that has the potential to [complicate] things, [but] hopefully it won't," he said.

Members of the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR), who along with three other individuals filed the judicial review with the MK, meanwhile claimed that the court ruling failed to address the core problem originally brought up.

The ICJR said that the MK ruling had ignored the root issue in its decision to shift authority from the House ethics council to the President.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/25/lawmaker-probes-require-presidential-approval.html

Opposition to house's kretek protection bid heats up

Jakarta Globe - September 24, 2015

Jakarta – Stern opposition continues to mount among government officials and anti-smoking activists against a bid by the House of Representatives to recognize kretek, Indonesia's clove-flavored cigarettes, as an item of cultural heritage.

The move, in amendments being proposed for the 2010 Cultural Heritage Law, would effectively make it harder for the government to impose restrictions on kretek sales and advertising, and in fact oblige the state to support the manufacture and promotion of the cancer sticks.

"Not every traditional custom must be developed and preserved," Education Minister Anies Baswedan said on Wednesday, "especially when it would condone smoking among students. We definitely disagree [with the House's proposal]."

The Health Ministry has also spoken out against the move, saying it threatens to undermine the government's ongoing efforts to educate the Indonesian public – a population where three-fifths of adult males smoke – about the dangers of smoking.

"By being including in the bill, kretek would no longer be considered dangerous [to health]," said Lily Sulityowati, the ministry's director of non-communicable diseases.

Kartono Muhammad, the chairman of the Association of Indonesian Public Health Experts' Tobacco Control Support Center (TCSC), said that if passed into legislation, the proposal would be "a setback to the country's efforts at tobacco control."

Kartono told the Jakarta Globe on Wednesday that promoting kretek would encourage and justify smoking among minors across the country. "Passing the bill is similar to poisoning the next generations," he said.

One in three Indonesian youths aged 13 to 15 smokes regularly, with half of them addicted to nicotine, according to the 2014 Global Tobacco Adult Survey.

"Another risk to this plan is that kretek will get special treatment in sales and advertising," Kartono said. He added he suspected the newly announced proposal was an attempt to head off a possible tobacco excise hike.

Indonesia already has among the lowest cigarette prices in the world, with the excise accounting for 46 percent of the total price of a pack of smokes – far less than the level of 70 percent recommended by the World Health Organization.

"There may be some wheeling and dealing going on between legislators and cigarette producers," Kartono said.

The timing of the House's proposal has raised more than a few eyebrows, coming just as the cigarette producers' association, or Gappri railed against a government proposal to raise the tobacco excise.

The group claimed on Tuesday that producers had been forced to lay off 15,000 workers this year as demand weakens, and that any increase in prices would lead to further job losses.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla has also expressed his disapproval of the promotion of kretek in the draft, but said he was confident it would not make it through to the final legislation. "It's just a draft that will be discussed at the House. Of course kretek shouldn't be included," he told reporters at his office on Tuesday.

Kartono argued that leaving kretek off the list of cultural heritage would not have any negative impacts on clove farmers or the tobacco industry as a whole. "Smoking kretek is only a habit – a very bad one – not a culture," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/opposition-houses-kretek-protection-bid-heats/

House deputy Fahri in hot water for interfering in Trump fiasco probe

Jakarta Globe - September 24, 2015

Jakarta – Deputy Speaker Fahri Hamzah has come under fire for urging the Ethics Committee at the House of Representatives to keep quiet about a probe against two of his fellow House leaders over their controversial work visit to the United States.

The Committee confirmed on Wednesday that Fahri, a prominent member of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), had sent a letter calling on committee members not to disclose the progress of the probe against House Speaker Setya Novanto, of the Golkar Party, and Deputy Speaker Fadli Zon, of the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party.

Setya and Fadli are being probed for a possible ethical violation for appearing at a press conference organized by US presidential hopeful Donald Trump at the Trump Tower in New York on Sep. 3.

Ethics Committee member Syarifuddin Sudding said Fahri had overstepped his authority by sending the letter, which he called "an intervention" of the probe process.

"House leaders have no authority to ask such things to the Ethics Committee. House leaders are not the Ethics Committee's superior. So [House leaders] have no right to tell [the Committee] what to do," the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) lawmaker said.

Another House deputy speaker Agus Hermanto said he was unaware that Fahri had sent such letter, adding that Fahri was not acting on behalf of all five House leaders.

"That letter is not our decision," the Democratic Party politician said. "Later when [Fahri] returns we will clarify. It would be even better if Fahri himself speak publicly on the matter."

Fahri, Setya and Fadli and their spouses are visiting Saudi Arabia this week, a trip they claim to be financed completely by the Saudi government.

Agus called Fahri's letter inappropriate saying that the Ethics Committee must be free from any intervention and treat every lawmaker as equal.

Political researcher Lucius Karus of the Concerned Citizens for the Indonesian Legislature (Formappi) said Fahri should also face a probe of his own for sending the letter. "What Fahri did was truly unethical, abusing his authority as a House leader to influence the Ethics Committee," he said.

"Fahri has attempted to destroy the transparency and independence of the Ethic Committee probe process. The Ethics Committee must prove that they are free from intervention by seriously investigating these cases. What is at stake is not only the credibility of the Ethics Committee but the House of Representatives as a whole."

Source: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/house-deputy-fahri-hot-water-interfering-trump-fiasco-probe/

Jakarta & urban life

10 years after ban, smoking continues in 70% of public places

Jakarta Post - September 29, 2015

Jakarta – A smoking ban has been in place since 2005 in the capital city, but cigarette smokers still puff in 70 percent of public places where smoking is prohibited, the results of recent research showed.

The research, carried out between 2014 and 2015 at 1,550 places in Jakarta by the Jakarta Smoke Free Coalition, said 1,085 places ignored the smoking ban.

Jakarta Smoke Free Coalition coordinator Dollaries Riauaty Suhadi said on Tuesday that the researchers found people smoking in schools, offices, restaurants, houses of worship, healthcare centers, hotels, shopping malls and other indoor facilities where smoking is prohibited under the city bylaw on air pollution control.

During the data collection, the researchers found various indications that certain places still allowed people to smoke, including cigarette ash, ashtrays and cigarette smoke odor.

"All those indicators showed that there were still violations against the smoking ban regulations because in those places, smoking is prohibited," said Dollaries as reported by kompas.com.

The smoking ban is stipulated in City Bylaw No. 2/2005 on air pollution control, which is elaborated in Gubernatorial Regulation No. 75/2005 on smoking ban areas and Gubernatorial Regulation No. 50/2012 on the supervision, monitoring and law enforcement of smoking ban areas.

Under the bylaw, violators face six months in jail or a Rp 50 million fine. (bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/29/10-years-after-ban-smoking-continues-70-public-places.html

30 lakes and reservoirs in Greater Jakarta disappear

Jakarta Post - September 29, 2015

Corry Elyda, Jakarta – The Public Works and Public Housing Ministry has revealed that at least 30 lakes and reservoirs in Greater Jakarta have been lost in the last 20 years, replaced by housing and commercial complexes, exacerbating the risk of flooding.

The ministry's Ciliwung-Cisadane Flood Control Office (BBWSCC) Operation and Maintenance Department head Gemala Susanti said recently that the number of reservoirs and lakes in Greater Jakarta had declined from 203 in the 1990s to 183 in 2014.

Gemala said the water reservoirs had been converted to other purposes. "I found one area that used to be a lake and is now a provincial administration office," she said, declining to mention the exact location.

Gemala gave another example of a private company that legally owned a lake, locally known as setu or situ, in South Tangerang with the land certificate issued by the National Land Agency (BPN).

"How the lake came to be owned by a private entity, I cannot answer that," she said, adding that her office had tried to sue the company to get the land back but they lost as the certificate was legal.

She said she was grateful that the South Tangerang administration had found a way to prevent any physical construction in the area. "The administration has pledged not to issue a building permit for the area," she said.

Gemala said other reservoirs had been turned into housing complexes. "The residents often complain that their areas are hit by floods. When we check, the area turns out to have been a lake," she said

The department head said her team tried to restore the reservoirs but it was a difficult task. "We cannot find the exact location of most of them as they have been altered for other purposes," she said.

Gemala said her office was now trying to normalize and maintain the remaining lakes and reservoirs, so they would not be abandoned and eventually used by residents or private entities for commercial purposes that ultimately damaged the environment. "Problems in the reservoirs include sedimentation and broken banks," she said.

She said Rp 126 billion (US$8.56 billion) had been allocated to revitalize four lakes – Cimanggis and Cilala, Cikaret in Cibinong, Kebantenan and Gedong, all in Bogor regency. "We've also allocated Rp 61 billion to maintain 130 natural reservoirs," she said.

Gemala said that in order to prevent illegal settlements encroaching on the lakes, her department usually built a jogging track. "Ideally, we cannot build any permanent constructions within 50 meters of the reservoirs. However, we need to ensure that the banks are strong and complete," she said.

Anthropologist Herry "Yoga" Yogaswara said that besides poor law enforcement, the main factor behind the degradation of bodies of water was the increasing distance between people and nature.

"People do not have a sense of belonging to their surroundings anymore. They also do not have a collective memory of how the lake, for example, influences their lives. Hence, when something happens to the lake like pollution or being built upon, they do not care," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/29/30-lakes-and-reservoirs-greater-jakarta-disappear.html

Jakarta's skies are both bluer and dirtier

New York Times - September 27, 2015

Joe Cochrane, Jakarta – The young woman sat on a bench at a bus terminal here one recent morning, listening to her iPod beneath a bright blue sky.

But despite the sunshine and a light breeze, the woman, Fety Dwiyanti, wore a face mask. She did not have the flu or a cold, though, she was just worried about what was getting into her lungs. "It's because of the air pollution and dust," she said. "Every time I go outside, I put it on."

Jakarta, a sprawling city of 10 million, has long had a problem with air pollution. To address it, authorities phased out the use of leaded gasoline 10 years ago, among other measures. But as the economy has grown at a rapid clip over the last decade, the number of vehicles in the capital has soared, with more people able to afford them. And air quality has got worse.

That has led to a strange development: a rise in the number of "blue sky days" – when the air is clear enough to allow views of the lush mountains of nearby West Java – along with higher pollution levels.

"When we see the sky is blue, it's just one indicator that air quality is good, and not really an accurate one," said Dasrul Chaniago, director of pollution control and environmental damage at the environment and forestry ministry.

The ministry estimates that at least 70 per cent of Jakarta air pollution is from vehicles. The main peril to public health is from fine particle pollution – measuring 2.5 micrometers in diameter or smaller and found in, among other things, auto emissions – that can sneak into people's nasal passages and lungs. Such pollution particles are significantly smaller than mould spores, pollens or typical atmospheric dust.

"Car emissions are better," said Agnes Safford, who heads GreenWorks Asia, a Jakarta-based environmental consultancy. "But you're getting more fine particles because there are more cars. So it looks clearer, but it's not better."

While pollution in Jakarta does not compare to the dire levels in cities like Beijing and New Delhi, it is serious enough for the US State Department to have put Jakarta on a priority list of US embassies to be fitted with air quality monitors this year. US embassies in Beijing and New Delhi already have the monitors; results posted online garner intense interest.

Jakarta accounts for around 40 percent of all auto sales in Indonesia; more than 480,000 new cars hit the capital's streets in 2014, in addition to 1.4 million new motorcycles, according to the Association of Indonesian Automotive Manufacturers.

Experts say it will take long-term projects to improve Jakarta's air quality, like the continuing construction of a mass transit system that officials hope will reduce the number of drivers on the streets and highways. Another project involves the city government buying land to create more green spaces.

In the meantime, Jakartans who wear face masks are an increasingly common sight.

Fina Chrisnantari, 30, an assistant in an office management company, says she will continue to wear a mask to and from work. She has been wearing one for about a year. "I'm not sure how much it helps," she said as she waited for a bus in downtown Jakarta. "A few days after being out, you can still feel it in your lungs."

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/jakartas-skies-are-both-bluer-and-dirtier-20150927-gjvr53.html

Armed forces & defense

Army chief calls on Kopassus to dial back its misconduct

Jakarta Globe - September 25, 2015

Robertus Wardhy, Jakarta – Indonesia's Army chief has lashed out at members of Kopassus, the notorious special forces, over two recent incidents in a litany of criminal conduct.

"There are still soldiers from the Indonesian Army who taint the name of their force and the Army with their arrogant and selfish attitudes [...] by engaging in misdeeds or even acting against the law," Gen. Mulyono, the Army chief of staff, said at a ceremony at the Kopassus headquarters in East Jakarta on Friday.

Mulyono stopped short of elaborating, but appears to have been referring to a pair of incidents this year involving Kopassus members. The first occurred in June in the Central Java town of Sukoharjo, when a group of Kopassus members attacked four Air Force personnel during a brawl that erupted at a local cafe. One of the Air Force members was killed in the incident, while the others were injured.

Less than two months later, two Army soldiers – including a Kopassus member – were investigated for their role in the kidnapping of a Malaysian businessman in Jakarta. They were allegedly hired to force the man to pay off his loans to his Indonesian business partners.

"Like the rice plant, the more its buds are filled with grain, the more it bows downward," Mulyono said of the importance for the elite unit to stay humble. "As soldiers, the higher our ranks and the more professional skills we have, the more humbled we should be and the more ready to give our best service to the public."

Kopassus has a long history of engaging in criminal conduct, including myriad human rights violations during the military's occupation of East Timor, Papua and Aceh. The most notorious incident in recent years occurred in March 2013, when a fully armed group of the special forces soldiers stormed a police jail in Yogyakarta and gunned down four detainees being held on suspicion of killing a Kopassus member.

The military justified the summary execution as an expression of the soldiers' loyalty, and a court martial later sentenced the perpetrators to jail for 21 months to 11 years.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/army-chief-calls-kopassus-dial-back-misconduct/

Criminal justice & prison system

Rich prisoners do not need to respect regulations: former convict

Jakarta Post - September 26, 2015

The appearances of imprisoned graft convict and former low-ranking tax officer Gayus Tambunan in public places is nothing extraordinary for former convict Bona Paputungan, because he often witnessed different treatment of rich and poor prisoners.

According to Bona, who was jailed for seven months at Gorontalo penitentiary for domestic violence, the rich prisoners could receive guests until late in the night, which likely violates the regulations inside the correction centers.

"We, the prisoners, have to respect regulations. But for wealthy people, they do not need to respect the regulations. They could receive guests until late in the night as long as they bribe the officers," said Bona during a decision in Jakarta on Saturday.

Bona, who is also the composer of song "Andai Aku Gayus Tambunan" (If I were Gayus Tambunan), said that in contrast, the poor prisoners have to respect the regulations or they face punishment.

Gayus admitted that he had a meal at a restaurant recently, the photo of which went viral on social media. It was a repeat of a similar incident in November 2010, when Gayus left the prison, while the trial of his case was still ongoing at the South Jakarta District Court.

On that occasion, a Kompas daily newspaper photographer took photos of him watching a 2010 Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions tennis match in Nusa Dua, Bali. Gayus was sentenced to 30 years in prison for a number of corruption and money laundering cases.

Meanwhile, Director General for Penitentiaries at the Law and Human Rights Ministry Akbar Hadi promised to tighten the monitoring system in prisons to prevent any violations against existing regulations.

Apart from installing modern devices to monitor prisoners, he also proposed more security officers escort prisoners, who have to leave their cells.

"In the existing regulation, it is also stated that the prisoners have to be accompanied by prison and police officers when they leave cells. But if there is a requirement that they to be escorted by 10 police officers, the prisoners would not easily visit restricted places," said Hadi. (bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/26/rich-prisoners-easily-leave-prisons-former-convict-says.html

Foreign affairs & trade

Government lauds food import control success

Jakarta Post - September 24, 2015

Jakarta – Agriculture Minister Amran Sulaiman has said the government is striving to control food imports and has saved a significant amount of foreign exchange reserves ahead of the one-year anniversary of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's administration.

"[...] the government has saved Rp 50 trillion [US$3.4 billion] worth of foreign exchange reserves, thanks to its hard work," Amran said as quoted by kompas.com. The minister was speaking after performing Idul Adha prayers at Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta on Thursday.

He added that President Jokowi had given the government directives to protect Indonesian farmers and called on the government to reinforce exports.

Praising the directives, Amran said Indonesia had imported no rice this year, the result, he claimed, of coordination between the Agriculture Ministry and other ministries, including the Public Works and Public Housing Ministry, the State-Owned Enterprises Ministry and the Trade Ministry, as well as the State Logistics Agency (Bulog), to control rice imports.

"In 1998, rice imports reached 7.1 million tons, in the same situation we are facing now, namely a strong El Niqo. We have not yet imported any rice so far despite again facing El Niqo with an intensity at least as strong as, if not stronger than, in 1998," said Amran.

Studies show that El Niqo leads to massive drought that ruins harvests and boosts food imports.

Amran further explained that before this year's Ramadan fasting month, the government had planned to export shallots and currently, Indonesia had exported around 2,000 tons of shallots.

"We have had an adequate supply of shallots. This year, we don't need to import shallots and instead, we are exporting this commodity," said Amran.

It is reported that Indonesia is also exporting corn, with exports reaching around 400,000 tons, and with lower imports of the vegetable.(ags/ebf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/24/govt-lauds-food-import-control-success.html

Mining & energy

Police round up 22 suspects in antimining activist's death

Jakarta Post - September 30, 2015

Fedina S. Sundaryani, Tama Salim and Indra Harsaputra, Jakarta/Surabaya – The East Java Police have named 22 suspects alleged to be responsible for the lynching of a local farmer who mobilized a protest against invasive sand-mining in his village.

East Java Police spokesman Sr. Comr. Raden Prabowo Argo Yuwono told reporters on Tuesday that the 22 suspects were among 36 individuals arrested earlier by the Lumajang Police in East Java for their alleged involvement in the beating to death of Samsul, also known as Salim Kancil.

"We have already searched the crime scene and questioned witnesses. There are now 22 suspects based on the evidence found during our probe into the crime scene," he said. Investigators handling the case did not detain three of the suspects as they were minors.

Argo said that based on the interrogation, police investigators believed the beating was carefully planned and not a spontaneous event. The police were zeroing in on the local village head who was suspected to have masterminded the murder, he added.

"The police are continuing to question the village head and if we can find evidence that he was the brains behind the assault that led to [Salim's] death, then we must enforce the law," he said.

However, Argo declined to disclose the names of all suspects and would not specify whether they were connected to a mining company operating in the area. "Based on our work at the crime scene, we can't claim that there was any involvement by a mining company," he said.

Argo, however, said that the police would move to shut down the sand quarry that Salim protested as it did not have a licence to operate.

The 22 suspects would be charged under articles 338 and 170 of the Criminal Code and could face a maximum prison sentence of 15 years for murder.

On Saturday, Samsul was beaten to death by a group of people in Selok Awar-Awar subdistrict, Pasirian district, Lumajang. The murder has sparked nationwide condemnation and prompted calls for the authorities to find those responsible for the death. The same group also allegedly assaulted 51-year-old Tosan, leaving him in a critical condition.

Three days before the incident, the two victims, along with dozens of fellow villagers, staged a rally to protest against sand-quarrying activities at Watu Pecak Beach, also in Selok Awar-Awar. The protestors claimed that the mining damaged the environment, leaving holes 5 meters in diameter and a meter deep on the beach.

The protest halted the quarrying and blocked dozens of trucks from transporting sand.

Lumajang, home to 1 million people, is located some 150 kilometers southeast of Surabaya, East Java's provincial capital.

East Java has 86,904 hectares of mining areas currently managed by 378 entities, making it the second-largest mining province after West Java, which hosts 206,681 ha of mining sites operated by 455 entities. Meanwhile, East Java Governor Soekarwo vowed to audit the licences of all sand- quarrying locations in the province following Salim's death.

"I am sure that the sand quarry in Selok Awar-Awar, Pasirian district, Lumajang, is an illegal mining operation because mining permits are not easy to obtain since mine developers must spend reclamation funds to repair the holes. We will shut down their operation," he said on Tuesday.

Head of the East Java Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) agency, Dewi Putratni, also confirmed that the mining operation in Selok Awar-Awar could be considered illegal.

"Since 2015, the East Java ESDM agency has only given out one permit for a sand quarry in Lumajang. The documents for all the mineral and coal permits published by the regent should be submitted to the provincial administration," she said.

Separately, a member of House of Representatives Commission III overseeing legal affairs, human rights and security urged law enforcement agencies to swiftly resolve the case and uncover the mastermind behind the murder.

"There is an unseen force that was uncomfortable with the way [Salim] Kancil operated. We all know that all permit processes involve local authorities," Commission III deputy chairman Mulfachri Harahap said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/30/police-round-22-suspects-antimining-activist-s-death.html

Investment in energy well below govt target

Jakarta Post - September 29, 2015

Raras Cahyafitri, Jakarta – Investment in energy, mining, oil and gas exploration and production activities will likely fall far below the government's target this year as investors are holding off on expansion plans amid a gloomy outlook in the world's commodity markets.

According to data provided by the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, realized investment in the energy, mining, oil and gas sectors reached only US$20.87 billion year to date, less than half of the ministry's target of $45.59 billion this year.

Of the total, $9.6 billion was poured into the oil and gas sector during the first nine months, $1.17 billion into new renewable energy, $6.8 billion into electricity development and $3.3 billion into the minerals and coal sector.

"The amount is not bad. However, we understand that decisions on the investments were made before the economic growth slowed down," Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Sudirman Said explained on Monday.

Therefore, he said, the ministry wanted to maintain the investment momentum particularly by streamlining bureaucratic processes and a deregulation policy to deal with the slowing economic growth.

Earlier this month, the government introduced the deregulation of a number of rules that were seen to have hampered investment in the country. The deregulation policy covers 134 regulations in 17 ministries and state institutions. Of the total, 11 regulations are under the ministry.

Among regulations in the energy and mining sectors that have been revised to boost economic growth is a regulation regarding the time line for a contract extension request in the minerals and coal sector. Apart from the deregulation moves, the ministry is also working on a new regulation to encourage development of oil refineries in the country.

Minerals and coal director general Bambang Gatot Ariyono said that realized investment in the minerals and coal sector was about 54 percent of a full- year target of $6.1 billion.

"Despite the weakening economic growth and plunging coal price, the investment keeps flowing. Smelters projects are also progressing," Bambang said.

He cited that the development of 18 smelters processing nickel had reached more than 30 percent completion, with one bauxite smelter hitting over 30 percent and a much awaited copper smelter by PT Freeport Indonesia having progressed by around 11 percent. In the oil and gas sector, the $9.7 billion realized investment as of the end of August was less than a half of the overall target.

"Reasons behind the low realization are various, but partly due to external factors, such as the plunging oil price that has made some projects no longer economical, and changes in operatorship and companies' parent firms so that policies are different," said Upstream Oil and Gas Regulatory Special Task Force (SKKMigas) spokesman Elan Biantoro.

"However, we are still expecting that some of the investment will be disbursed by year-end. Usually, more projects are executed in the third and fourth quarters," he added.

Figures from SKKMigas showed that the oil and gas sector's contribution to state income reached $8.9 billion during January to August. Under the state budget, oil and gas is targeted to give $14.99 billion in total contributions by year-end, far below $28 billion in 2014.

A low oil price and worries on declining national production are behind the lower target. Oil and gas contractors in the country initially planned to invest $20.4 billion this year, according to SKKMigas.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/29/investment-energy-well-below-govt-target.html

Police arrest 18 for death of anti-mining farmer

Jakarta Globe - September 28, 2015

Jakarta – Police in East Java have charged 18 people in connection with the death of a farmer who had been leading a protest against mining activities in his village.

Salim, a farmer from the village of Selok Awar-Awar in Lumajang district, died from his injuries on Saturday after he was mobbed by at least a dozen men who had dragged him from his home. His battered body was later discovered in a rice field.

The same group of men also attacked Tosan, the coordinator of the Anti- Mining Farmers' Forum, who remains in critical condition. Both men were leaders of a protest against a sand mining operation in nearby Watu Pecak beach.

Lumajang district police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Fadly Munzir Ismail said police have arrested a total of 36 people, 18 of whom have been officially charged with assaulting Salim and Tosan.

"Each [of the 18 suspects] had different roles, from recruiting [the attackers], ordering [the assault], and beating the victims, to electrocuting the pair," Fadly said as quoted by Tempo.co news portal on Monday.

"Included among the 18 charged is the mastermind [behind the assault]." The officer however refused to confirm whether the assaults were directly linked to the victims' activities in protesting the mining activities.

"We will work as hard as we can to get to the bottom of the case. We shall see where the case leads us. Will it stop at the 18 [suspects] or lead to others [responsible]," he said.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/police-arrest-18-death-anti-mining-farmer/

Economy & investment

Ailing rupiah taking its toll on Indonesia firms

Jakarta Post - September 28, 2015

Anggi M. Lubis, Jakarta – The performance of the rupiah, which has been steadily depreciating against the US dollar, is casting a dark shadow not only on companies with huge, maturing foreign-denominated debts, but also on companies struggling to find room for growth.

The rupiah slid 2.1 percent this week, the most since November 2013, to close at 14,686 a dollar, according to a report from Bloomberg. It fell 0.3 percent on Friday, touching 14,710 per dollar, the weakest level since July 1998. The currency has fallen 9.2 percent so far this quarter in the worst performance in Asia after Malaysia's ringgit.

Standard & Poor's recent Credit FAQ revealed that the proportion of companies with negative rating outlooks had risen to 20 percent over the past two quarters. In April, the negative outlook stood at less than 10 percent of companies.

"A further depreciation in the rupiah could also complicate refinancing initiatives and raise the funding costs for companies with unhedged US dollar debts," the ratings agency said.

Telecommunications company XL Axiata, for instance, recently repaid an unhedged US$100 million loan to lender United Overseas Bank (UOB) nearly two years ahead of the due date to cushion its bottom line from the impacts of the rupiah's weakness.

XL president director Dian Siswarini said unfavorable global economic conditions had affected the company's financial performance, with unhedged loans leading the company to record losses on foreign exchange (forex) every quarter.

As such, Dian said, the company had decided to bring forward its repayments, adding that the repayment to UOB, which was made with internal cash earlier this month, would not be the last.

The company's losses on forex ballooned from Rp 250.74 billion in the first half of last year to Rp 1.4 trillion in the corresponding period this year, largely as a result of the acquisition of Axis Telekom Indonesia.

According to the company's financial report, around 48 percent of its total $1.55 billion dollar-denominated loans are not hedged.

Christopher Chan, president director of tire maker Gajah Tunggal, said last week that his company was restructuring its business and looking to bring in more dollar revenue by boosting exports, adding that resorting to hedging to address foreign-denominated debts was an increasingly expensive option.

Gajah Tunggal's dollar trade account payable stands at nearly $74 million, according to its January-June financial statement, with an additional $500 million in unsecured notes maturing in 2018.

The company booked Rp 469 billion in forex losses during the period, compared with Rp 97 billion of gains in the same period last year.

Martin Jenkins and Damhuri Nasution from Danareksa Securities said a survey of CEOs had shown that business confidence was deteriorating, with respondents markedly more downbeat about the prospects of the rupiah, which extended its decline following China's shock move to devalue its currency

"In our June-July survey, the Business Sentiment Index tumbled a further 7.0 percent to 117.3, its lowest level since May 2009," the report said, emphasizing that confidence had declined by a sharp 23 percent since the start of the year.

"Persistent rupiah depreciation is a major concern. More than half of all CEOs now foresee further rupiah depreciation going forward," the report went on.

Jenkins and Damhuri said that sentiment on profits and sales was increasingly negative, forecasting contraction rather than expansion.

In addition, liquidity is tightening and the specter of corporate defaults looming, especially if the rupiah slips beyond the psychological threshold of 15,000 per dollar.

The index for liquidity fell 3.3 percent between the May and July surveys, while revenue and profit confidence declined by 6 percent and 3.8 percent, respectively, the pair added.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/28/ailing-rupiah-taking-its-toll-ri-firms.html

People

In Memoriam: Buyung: A fighter for democracy and human rights

Jakarta Post - September 25, 2015

Sabam Siagian – It would be difficult to expect the emergence of a fearless fighter for democracy and staunch advocate of human rights to equal the late Adnan Buyung Nasution, or "Buyung" for short.

Buyung passed away Wednesday morning at Pondok Indah Hospital. When I visited the residence Wednesday evening, a reporter asked me whether the death of Bung Buyung would slow down the movement toward the enhancement of democracy and human rights in Indonesia.

"And what do you think of Buyung Nasution as a national figure? Is he a genuine person or just a showman who craved publicity?" I looked at this young news reporter (perhaps in his mid-20s) with an eager look waiting for my answer.

I told him that the death of Buyung would inspire hundreds, perhaps thousands, of young people throughout Indonesia with a legal background to work either on a full-time basis or as part-time activists, to follow in his footsteps.

"He was not a perfect person. He sometimes made some compromises. After all, he was heading a law firm that had to compete with almost a dozen first-class law firms in Jakarta."

However, I urged the reporter to see Buyung's life story in its entirety.

After completing his law studies at the University of Indonesia, Buyung worked as a public prosecutor at the Special District Court of Jakarta from 1957 until 1961. He then moved to the Attorney General's Office as the head of the public relations office. In that capacity, he was unexpectedly assigned to accompany then US attorney general Robert (Bob) Kennedy during his visit to several parts of Java.

President John Kennedy had assigned his younger brother to Jakarta in his efforts to seek a compromise in the Indonesia-Netherlands conflict on the status of West Irian.

It was through his appointment to the People's Deliberation Council in 1966 that the name of Adnan Buyung Nasution became known to the public. One should know the political context of 1966 in order to appreciate Buyung's role as a legislator. Of course, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) was sanitized from members of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and other radical elements.

The issue was: What to do with president Sukarno? Buyung and his friends insisted that Sukarno should be investigated by an open court, since there were adequate materials that indicated a political linkage between Sukarno and PKI general secretary Aidit in preparing the so-called September 30, 1965, movement. Aidit fled to Central Java and was later captured and shot.

For the first time Buyung was introduced to Gen. Soeharto's step-by-step political style. He was against Buyung's proposal to investigate Sukarno publicly. Soeharto had his own calculation. Sukarno still had fanatical followers who could create trouble.

A remarkable step in Buyung's career was the establishment of the first legal aid and human rights organization in Indonesia in 1970. Known by the initials LBH (Lembaga Bantuan Hukum), then Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin was instrumental in setting up the LBH. Indonesians became aware that every citizen had equal rights before the law.

It was the so-called Tanaka riots in January 1974 that catapulted Buyung's name as a defender of democracy and human rights. It was a complicated story but here is the gist.

Japanese prime minister Kakuei Tanaka paid a working visit to Jakarta in January 1974. University students organized open-air meetings to criticize Japan's excessive economic presence, displayed by large billboards. They demanded a more even spread and called for indigenous industry not to be bulldozed by foreign capital activities.

On Jan. 15, 1974, all hell broke loose. Apparently the legitimate student demonstrations were somehow hijacked by unknown parties and led to destructive actions. Senen market was burned. Showrooms of Japanese cars were destroyed.

After Tanaka left, the military struck back. Hundreds of students were arrested. Buyung made fiery statements, pleading that innocent persons should not be harmed. Consequently, he too was put in detention. It took some time to overcome the incident known as Malari. Unknown to the public, a certain rift within the military between the reformers and the rest had to be settled. Apparently, president Soeharto was worried that the reformers were exploiting the students and vocal intellectuals like Buyung would put their message across that a renewal of the New Order regime should be implemented. After it was all over, apparently some friends advised Buyung to leave the country for a while in order to cool off the heated relationship between Soeharto, his main assistants and Buyung.

He got an opportunity to do graduate studies at Utrecht University in the Netherlands. He succeeded in producing an excellent dissertation with the title "The Aspiration for a Constitutional Government in Indonesia". It shows that Buyung was not merely a trouble maker for his own interest or just to draw the public's attention. His excellent dissertation at Utrecht shows the scholarly aspect of Buyung.

He was unusually restrained lately. It could be his medical treatment, undergoing haemodialysis three times a week. In a short conversation he showed his disillusionment with the current situation.

"People that I knew before suddenly change when they get hold of some power to make decisions. And what's the matter with the press? Can't you be more aggressive and more probing in untangling the funny cases that are happening?"

I accept his reprimand. However, I want to assure Buyung that a new generation is emerging in public life and in the media that is dedicated to upholding democracy and human rights. A new generation that will also remember Buyung as a pioneer that ought to be followed.

[The writer is senior editor of The Jakarta Post.]

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/25/in-memoriam-buyung-a-fighter-democracy-and-human-rights.html

Analysis & opinion

Search for truth continues 50 years after Indonesia's purge

Eureka Street - September 30, 2015

Pat Walsh – Like Tony Abbott before him, Malcolm Turnbull is slated to make Jakarta one of his first overseas ports of call as prime minister. His visit will occur as calls grow louder in Indonesia and elsewhere for the truth to be told about the massacres of up to 1 million Indonesians 50 years ago this October.

Many now regard that bloodletting as one of the worst excesses of the second half of the 20th century. At the time, however, it was accepted in Australia (and in the West more generally) as legitimate collateral damage in the cut and thrust of the Cold War, and was played down in the Australian media.

Harold Holt, the Liberal Prime Minister of the day, expressed his pleasure that '500,000 to 1 million communist sympathisers (had been) knocked off'.

It is assumed, therefore, that Canberra did not then protest the massive miscarriage of justice and international law that occurred, or call for accountability. It can now compensate in a small way for that silence, and for its selective waiving of the recently developed Universal Declaration of Human Rights, by making public what it knew at the time.

Whether or not the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) was behind the murder of six senior generals by army commandos (the '30 September Movement') early on the morning of 1 October 1965 is still contested. It is clear, however, that General Suharto used the crisis to take over the army and announce his intention 'to annihilate the 30 September Movement', which he equated with the PKI – the army's main rival for power in the fading days of the Sukarno regime.

The army began a grisly purge using, it is said, lists of names provided by the CIA. It then mobilised the community to seek out and liquidate anyone who was communist – whether or not they were involved in the 30 September murders – or Indonesians said to be communist (a label that I know to be extremely rubbery, having once been told that I was one).

No charges were laid or trials conducted. Decapitated bodies were dumped in rice fields, canals and forests across Indonesia, particularly Java and Bali. Perpetrators acted with impunity and sometimes in the belief that they were doing the right and patriotic thing. The terror of the period is brilliantly captured in Joshua Oppenheimer's film The Act of Killing.

In addition, a staggering 1.5 million Indonesians were detained by the Suharto regime. During my first visit to Indonesia in 1968, I witnessed some of them crowded into cells in an old Dutch prison in Yogyakarta – The Jesuit with me whispered that many said they were Catholic.

My preconceptions about 'communists' were challenged again when, during the same visit, I bought an exquisitely moulded statue made by a political prisoner in Bandung – Why was someone so gifted being trashed, I wondered?

In his heartbreaking but sometimes beautiful memoir The Mute's Soliloquy, Pramoedya Ananta Toer, who spent 12 years in prison without charge, describes what happened as 'cannibalism'; a nation fed on itself while the world watched in silence or, in some instances, dare I say, celebrated.

Many thoughtful Indonesians believe it is both timely and beneficial to address the issue now. In a 2012 report on the period, Indonesia's human rights commission found that what happened were crimes against humanity. The eminent Jesuit public intellectual, Fr Franz Magnis-Suseno, says 'it is high time that victims are acknowledged'. The government has announced the formation of a non-judicial 'reconciliation committee' but, unhappy with such half measures, an Indonesian led International People's Tribunal will conduct its own examination of the period in The Hague in November. The issue will also feature at this year's Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali.

Some will argue that the killings were 'necessary evil' for the greater good of saving Indonesia from communism, forgetting perhaps that the region hosts several communist regimes today. Others will say, what's the point of revisiting this dark period?

The point, I believe, is manifold. It is to restore the dignity and name of many fine human beings who were denied due process and dehumanised in countless ways. It is to reflect on the enormous cost to Indonesia of dictatorship, a rampant military, a compliant Muslim and Catholic community, the impoverishment of Indonesia's civil society and cultural and intellectual life by the trashing of many of the country's best and brightest, and the reduction to servile timidity of a generation.

It is also to weigh up the incalculable cost of impunity. If the violence had been seriously challenged, would Indonesia have dared invade Timor- Leste a few short years later or take over West Papua during the same period in the way it did?

[Pat Walsh will launch his book Stormy With a Chance of Fried Rice: Twelve Months in Jakarta (KPG) at this year's Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali.]

Source: http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article.aspx?aeid=45523#.VgxI9rQb6-8

Australia's Role in the 1965-66 Communist Massacres in Indonesia

Australian Institute of International Affairs - September 30, 2015

Marlene Millott – Fifty years ago, on September 30, one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century took place on Australia's doorstep.

An estimated half a million people affiliated with the Partai Komunis Indonesia (Indonesian Communist Party or PKI) were massacred by the Indonesian Army, with help from local religious and youth groups. These killings contributed to a reorientation in Indonesian politics, installing General Suharto as president and eliminating the once-strong PKI through violent purges and systematic imprisonment.

Declassified documents have shown that the US and its allies played a significant role in these killings, as the US provided weapons, communications equipment and lists of known communists. As an ally of the US, the Australian Embassy and the Department of External Affairs acted in a way that made Australia an accomplice, by helping to create the conditions that allowed the massacres to take place.

At the end of September 1965, Indonesia was on knife edge. Under President Sukarno, Indonesian politics were dominated by three forces: the Army, nationalism, and the PKI. While both the Army and the PKI pledged loyalty to Sukarno, they were fierce political rivals, and Sukarno played each other off to strengthen his position. In the years leading up to 1965, Sukarno favoured the PKI and it grew in strength, while his foreign policy became increasingly hostile towards the West. The Indonesian Army and the US and its allies watched these developments with suspicion, and formed secret relationships. From 1958-1965, the US secretly trained, funded and advised the Army to turn it into a 'state within a state' that would be ready to take over government if the opportunity arose.

On the night of the 30th of September 1965, the Commander of the Army Lt General Achmad Yani and five Generals were kidnapped by a group calling themselves the September 30th Movement. They were murdered and thrown down a well. The Army and the US embassy had been patiently waiting for an event like this. It declared the PKI responsible for masterminding a coup, seized almost all media outlets and spread the story of PKI treachery. General Suharto extracted a mandate from Sukarno to return order to the country, before setting out to destroy the Communist Party.

Across the archipelago, a campaign to eliminate the PKI saw the murder of an estimated 500,000 people. Victims were rounded up and detained for days, or months, before being executed. The Army was instrumental in the massacres, often accompanied by local militias. Those who weren't killed were transferred to prison camps, with one million people held in detention facilities without trial, with terms varying from a few months to fourteen years.

Following the events of September 30th, Western nations solidified their support for the Indonesian Army, in an effort to remove the PKI from power and sideline Sukarno. The US and the UK, supported by other nations in the region including Australia, carried out clandestine operations which supported and encouraged the Army-led massacres of alleged PKI. Documents from the National Archives of Australia show that the Australian Embassy and the Department of External Affairs were closely aligned with the Indonesian Army, offered support for their activities in overthrowing Sukarno and eliminating the PKI, and used Radio Australia to broadcast Army propaganda in Indonesia that contributed to anti-Communist hysteria.

Cables show that the Australian Embassy was aware that Communists were being rounded up and killed from early October 1965. The Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, Keith Shann, 'personally witnessed' around 250 prisoners being taken away by the Army, and noted that it was impossible to know the number of people killed and detained, but 'it cannot be small'. In February 1966, J.M. Starey, the First Secretary at the Australian Embassy, visited Bali, Flores and Timor, and spoke to Australian students who had been in Lombok. He heard first-hand accounts of the killings by people who had participated in them, and in Flores even saw victims' heads on spikes in some villages. Starey noted that the Army was in control of the proceedings.

The Australian Embassy and Department of External Affairs made it clear they were satisfied with these events. In early October 1965, Ambassador Shann cabled the Department saying that it was 'now or never', and that he 'devoutly' hope[d]' that 'the Army [would] act firmly' against the PKI. In mid-1966, Prime Minister Harold Holt expressed detached satisfaction with the pro-Western shift in Indonesian foreign and economic policy. He casually told the crowd at the Australian-American Association in New York 'with 500,000 to one million Communist sympathisers knocked off, I think it is safe to assume a reorientation has taken place'.

As the Indonesian Army murdered hundreds of thousands of alleged PKI, the Australian Embassy maintained ties with Indonesian Army Generals, discussing anti-PKI activities and ways Australia could assist the Army in its transition to power. A cable from November 12th 1965 shows Ambassador Shann discussed the Army's anti-Communist campaign and Australia's military campaign in Borneo to defend the newly created Malaysia against Indonesian aggression with the Undersecretary from the Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr A.Y. Helmi.

Helmi requested Australian and British troops restrict all patrols and activities in Borneo, so the Indonesian Army could deal with the Communists. Shann reassured Helmi that the Army was 'completely safe in using their forces for whatever purposes they saw fit', knowing those forces would be used to attack PKI members and allies.

The biggest role Australia played in the 1965-66 massacres of the PKI was through broadcasting and supporting Indonesian Army propaganda. In the weeks that followed the attempted coup, the Indonesian Army seized control of virtually all of Indonesia's media, and began an aggressive and pervasive anti-PKI campaign which spread disinformation aimed at discrediting and dehumanising the communists.

During the time of the killings, Radio Australia was under the influence of the Department of External Affairs, which was passed information from the Australian Embassy in Jakarta following instruction from the Indonesian Army. Cables show that through regular daily guidance, Radio Australia was instructed on the topics it should report on and the phrases it should use about key figures and events.

Ambassador Shann urged Radio Australia to focus on the PKI's involvement in the attempted coup, and to 'pound the facts into Indonesians', noting that it is 'excellent propaganda and of assistance to the anti-PKI forces' who were 'refreshingly determined to do over the PKI'. Radio Australia was also encouraged to report manipulations and misconstructions of the truth, in line with what the Indonesian Army requested.

A November 9th 1965 cable showed that Ambassador Shann was approached by an unnamed Colonel from the Army's Information Section and was told that Radio Australia should not focus on the Army, but to 'mention as often as possible youth groups and other organisations, both Moslem and Christian' that were involved in anti-Communist actions, to dilute the culpability of the Army. He also discussed the reporting of a list of other internal and external issues in favour of the Army. Shann concluded the cable with the comment that he could 'live with most of these [instructions], even if we must be a bit dishonest for a while'.

Radio Australia was also told to avoid 'giving information to the Indonesian people that would be withheld by the Army-controlled internal media', and Radio Australia should not compromise the Army's position. Almost all the media outlets in Indonesia were controlled by the Army, and Radio Australia was one of the most popular foreign radio stations in the country. The Army's anti-PKI propaganda was an incitement to violence, which contributed to the mobilisation of parts of the Indonesian population to participate in the massacres. By contributing to the propaganda that swept the country, Australia played a part in encouraging militias and civilians to participate in the slaughter, while justifying the killings through the demonisation of the victims.

Australia's actions as an accomplice to these killings should not be exaggerated. The massacres of the PKI took place against the backdrop of years of tension and hatred between the Army and the PKI, in a complex internal political environment that would have seen the killings take place regardless of any role Australia might have played. Fifty years later, those who committed the atrocities have never been brought to justice. Denial of the killings is rife. Where it is acknowledged, the perpetrators are admired as heroes who saved the nation from a Communist menace. As activist groups across Indonesia struggle to cut through the propaganda and spread the truth about the massacres of the PKI, it is important that Australia's role in these events is understood.

[Marlene Millott is a Research Assistant at Monash University and the Euan Crone Asian Awareness Scholarship recipient for 2014. This article is based on the thesis completed for her Masters in Journalism and International Relations.]

Source: http://www.internationalaffairs.org.au/australian_outlook/australias-role-in-the-1965-66-communist-massacres-in-indonesia/

It's 50 years since the Indonesian massacre of 1965 but we cannot look away

The Guardian (Australia) - September 30, 2015

Laksmi Pamuntjak – As 250 million Indonesians face up to the 50th anniversary of one of the most crushing episodes of our nation's history – the massacre of up to 500,000 or more alleged Communists between 1965 and 1968 by the Suharto regime – the business of confronting the past has reached a new urgency. And it is an urgency that has only a week ago was sharpened by new disappointments.

That new disappointment is our president Joko Widodo's stance on "1965" – as the tragedy is commonly referred to. In a statement in front of the leaders of the Muhammadiyah, the country's second largest Muslim organisation, he has refused to apologise to the victims of 1965. And so ended the campaign promises he made – hollow ones to start with, of giving priority to the country's unresolved cases of human rights violations, including 1965 – that earned him the people's votes.

It is a staggering, utterly dispiriting verdict, especially as it came on the heels of the tide of cynicism, both from those who demand an official public reckoning and from those who oppose it, when it seemed he was still toying with the possibility of a groundbreaking gesture.

This recent development notwithstanding, there still is no easy picture to paint about what we have achieved in terms of our struggle against forgetting. Clearly, right now the call is for action. The call is an accelerated series of concrete measures. An official state apology, even if it were to come to pass, would simply not have been enough. It is too late to pledge mere words, for words too have an expiry date.

It has, after all, been almost 20 years since the fall of the Suharto regime in 1998. After 32 years of obsessive and systematic conditioning by the Suharto regime of the perils of Communism, Indonesians, to the limited yet vigorous extent that they have been able to, have since indulged their new thirst for alternative readings on 1965.

Since 2000, thought-provoking revisionist histories have been produced by the academia. The works of the great Indonesian novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer, previously banned, were sought anew. Survivors of Suharto's prisons published their memoirs with admirable courage and panache. Novelists and documentary filmmakers were emboldened.

That such a surge was even possible has not been taken for granted, for the most part. At school, my generation was taught categorically – with no room for other interpretations – that all Communists were atheists and the enemy of the Indonesian state, and that the defeat of the Indonesian Communist party was crucial to the survival of the nation.

Absurdly, not only has this steady propaganda produced a generation schooled in silence and apathy; it has also given birth to successive generations that are wholly ignorant of that period of history.

A survey published by the Jakarta Globe in 2009 showed that more than half of the respondents comprising university students in Jakarta had never even heard of the mass killings of 1965-1966. Never mind the fact that it happened to be, as stated by a CIA report, "one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century, along with the Soviet purges of the 1930s, the Nazi mass murders during the second world war, and the Maoist bloodbath of the early 1950s." Thus, any sign that "1965" has not been forgotten is a burst of fresh air, a salve to the soul.

Sure, there were the occasional hitches that often seemed like a huge setback: the blatant rejection by a cabinet minister, last year, of the findings of the National Human Rights Committee because he believed that the mass killings were "necessary at the time"; the recent naming of a Suhartoist known for leading the purge, as a national hero; the odious crackdown on a gathering of the families of 1965 survivors, most of them elderly, in Padang Pariaman, West Sumatra. All such insults, on top of the president's flip-flopping, coalesce to sharpen our fear of the limit of what is truly achievable.

For while it is impossible to speak of unveiling the truth as though there is only one truth, it is no longer possible to deny that a systematic, politically-charged pogrom in fact took place and that it was, in the simplest possible terms, a crime against humanity.

We know that no great historical struggle ever occurs in a vacuum, and that the seeds of discontent between the left and the right in Indonesia had been sown for decades prior to the tragedy. Prior to 1965, the left, buttressed by the ascendancy of the Indonesian Communist party, were persecuting the right too. Yet what anyone who has watched Joshua Oppenheimer's landmark documentaries, The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence, or read Tempo magazine's 2012 special edition on 1965, in which the perpetrators spoke unapologetically about their role in the killings, cannot do today is to look away.

As with most calamities in history, our collective memory fails because the collective memory can bear only so much. So what does it mean, these days, to not look away? When each passing year takes us further away from the impact and meaning of the tragedy, let alone the full measure of it?

Could it be possible that as we hit the 50 year mark, and as more stories are being told – stories of ordinary people, people who had been excluded from the panoptic view of history – there is, despite the failures of the current regime, something extraordinary happening at the moment?

Having witnessed for years what continued stigmatisation did to people, I never thought we would reach this point: to be anticipating, in The Hague this coming mid-November, an International People's Tribunal on 1965 Crimes Against Humanity in Indonesia.

This is not to say that this undertaking won't be painful and full of risk. Even those among the survivors have pondered the wisdom of letting sleeping dogs lie. Transcendence may never be achievable, as is rendering "justice" to the hundreds of thousands of victims. The tribunal, which does not seek punitive measures for the alleged perpetrators, but, rather, to issue a morally-charged verdict which will become the basis for future government policy-making, will not be able to provide answers to every question it asks, nor will it able to put those they can into immediate action. As such, it is already facing tremendous opposition from certain quarters in the government with prevailing links to the Suharto regime.

In other words, civil society still has to continue its part in setting up "truth-seeking commissions" in order to reveal abuses, to empower victims in telling their stories, to produce and disseminate a revisionist history (especially in schools), and to find ways of properly compensating the victims and their families and rehabilitate their good name.

But the spirit and the commitment of the tribunal, no matter the ambivalences and reservations it too may contain, suggests that memory is a strange and often wondrous thing: there is, blessedly, such a thing as the duty of memory – and it often imposes a continuity, particularly when the time calls for it, upon the act of remembering. It rebukes us for thinking in terms other than deep outrage, mourning and a call for justice, for to do so would be to dishonor the explicit moral gravity of the subject.

What it embodies promises this anniversary as a marker, a new beginning. It is a time to reckon, reflect, and repair. It is a time to pay tribute to the resilience and vitality of the individual human spirit in the face of unspeakable loss and destruction. Because it isn't as if there is much else we can hang on to, in the face of the self-righteousness and cowardice of those in power.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/sep/30/it-is-50-years-since-the-indonesian-genocide-of-1965-but-we-cannot-look-away

Mystery of Indonesia's coup continues

New Mandala - September 30, 2015

Hamish McDonald – It was a night depicted in the film "The Year of Living Dangerously"; a time when a reckless president ruled a country in economic freefall.

Truckloads of soldiers rumble through Jakarta's dimly lit streets. They haul six army generals out of their homes, killing the three who put up a fight, executing the others back at a camp in a rubber plantation.

What happened afterwards is well known. The Indonesian Army blamed the incident on the Indonesian Communist Party, the PKI, and set off a purge that killed up to a million of its supporters.

A surviving army general, Suharto, seized power in what political scientist Harold Crouch called a "creeping coup". Pushed aside, independence leader Sukarno died five years later in miserable house arrest.

Fifty years on, the identity and motives of those behind the "September 30 Movement" (G30S as it's known in Indonesia) remain almost as unclear as they were in 1965. Conspiracy theories abound. Instead of a PKI "coup attempt", was it a simple army mutiny? A CIA or MI6 false-flag operation? A set-up by operatives of winning general, Suharto?

Recent research, astonishingly in Beijing, is starting to shine some light into this dark corner of history. In 2008 the Chinese Foreign Ministry opened its diplomatic archives covering the years 1961 to 1965.

Before they suddenly closed in mid-2013, Taomo Zhou discovered a document that narrows down this historical detective story. On 5 August, 1965, the PKI general secretary, Dipa Nusantara Aidit, was in Beijing and led a small party delegation into a meeting with Chairman Mao Zedong and other top Chinese figures.

The day before, Sukarno had collapsed and was seen by a team of Chinese doctors sent from Beijing. They got him back on his feet and pronounced him in no imminent danger. But Sukarno's mortality was at the front of everyone's minds.

After hearing a report on Sukarno's health, Mao got straight to the point. "I think the Indonesian right wing is determined to seize power. Are you determined too?" he asked Aidit.

"If Sukarno dies, it would be a question of who gains the upper hand," Aidit replied, before discussing two scenarios: a direct attack on the PKI, or an army effort to continue Sukarno's political balance of nationalist, communist and religious parties, which would be "difficult" for the PKI.

"In the first scenario, we plan to establish a military committee," Aidit went on. "The majority of that committee would be left wing, but it should also include some middle elements. In this way, we would confuse our enemies... If we show our red flag right away, they will oppose us right away."

This scenario matches the revolutionary committee declared that night by Lt-Col Untung, the naively patriotic commander of the presidential palace guard, to forestall what he said was a planned coup by a "Council of Generals" on 5 October. The annual National Armed Forces Day was already bringing large numbers of troops and armour into the capital for a big parade.

As John Roosa explored in his 2006 book Pretext for Mass Murder, Untung was in close collaboration with a PKI operative named Kamaruzaman or "Sjam" who had been working in army circles for years as a spy reporting to Aidit.

The Mao-Aidit transcript firms up Roosa's scenario that Aidit and Sjam launched the G30S attack as a deniable pre-emptive operation to throw the army leadership off balance.

The rest of the PKI central committee was in the dark, let alone the millions of rank-and-file members. The Chinese weapons promised for a "fifth force" (outside the military and police) of workers and peasants had not arrived.

Possibly it was not intended to murder the generals but to bring them as abject traitors before Sukarno. But three were killed during arrest, and the defence minister, General AH Nasution, managed to escape. The decision to kill the others was a panicky improvisation.

The killings were all that the army needed to portray G30S as another example of PKI treachery. Indonesian Army propagandists, and later in 1965 an MI6 disinformation team based in Singapore, embellished them with lurid details. The US Embassy supplied the army with a list of thousands of PKI cadres for targeting.

Suharto, firmly in control of Jakarta, sent a column of special forces into the heartlands of PKI support. In its wake Muslim groups and other traditionalists were authorised to turn on PKI members, hauling them out for mass executions, night after night, choking rivers with bodies.

Even with the Chinese document, mysteries remain. Centrally, why did Aidit and Sjam act? Did they discover a genuine army plan about to be put into action? Or were they led to believe, falsely, that there was one, with Sjam either swallowing the bait or acting as a double agent for the army?

In either scenario, why were so many top generals caught so off-guard? Why was Suharto, in command of the army's rapid reaction forces and the Konfrontasi campaign against Malaysia, left off the hit list? Why did Suharto react so calmly when another officer, Colonel Abdul Latief, warned him the night before something was afoot? Why were the G30S leaders drawn from Suharto's former command in Central Java?

Could it then have been an agent provocateur operation staged by Suharto's own operatives? Suharto was anti-communist, but unlike the murdered generals had not studied at US military schools and was less at home in Jakarta's cosmopolitan elite. The Opsus (Special Operations) unit attached to Suharto's command had already opened clandestine links to the British, to assure them the army was making only token efforts against the new Malaysian federation.

It remains conjecture. Suharto's close colleagues have stuck closely to the official line, even after the end of his rule in 1998 and death in 2008. It is still unknown if MI6 and the CIA were involved in setting up the G30S plot, or were privy to any knowledge of an Opsus/Army operation.

The Western powers were happy to keep alive the story that a "communist coup attempt" triggered the societal tensions that the PKI had previously stirred by promoting atheism and land redistribution, resulting in a frenzy of killing.

Time magazine hailed the PKI's obliteration as the "best news" in Southeast Asia for a long time. Then Australian prime minister Harold Holt declared: "With 500,000 to 1 million communist sympathisers knocked off, I think it's safe to say a reorientation has taken place."

Joshua Oppenheimer's recent documentaries The Act of Killing and The Look of Silence have reawakened consciences inside and outside Indonesia about the human cost of this change, though PKI survivor groups still face intimidation and denial.

Successive post-Suharto governments in Jakarta continue to resist the idea of an official inquiry. The archives that matter, in Washington and London, remain closed. Too much is invested in the post-1965 Indonesian story, it seems, for evidence to emerge that it might have started with a deception campaign that led to mass slaughter.

[Hamish McDonald is author of two books on Indonesia and currently Journalist-in-Residence at the Australian National University's College of Asia and the Pacific. A longer version of this article was also published at Nikkei Asian Review.]

Source: http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2015/09/30/mystery-of-indonesias-coup-continues/

Fifty years later: Confronting ghosts of the past

Jakarta Post - September 30, 2015

Greg Poulgrain, Brisbane – Two months ago President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo tried to stop the discrimination still suffered by descendants of family members accused of being linked to the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) in 1965. His plea was met with non-compliance, but until this moment in history is confronted and resolved it will not pass.

September 30 is the 50th anniversary of a traumatic event that has scarred the collective psyche of Indonesia, an event the Central Intelligence Agency described as one of the worst massacres of the 20th century.

From late 1965 to mid-1966, some say between one and two million people were murdered, but according to the boast of one prominent participant in the killings, Gen. Sarwo Edhie, "It was more like three million".

The first deaths were six army generals killed during a kidnapping operation by the "Sept. 30th Movement" ("G30S"); most of the remainder were from the 20 million members of Indonesia's communist party, the PKI, nearly all impoverished rice farmers.

General Abdul Haris Nasution, defense minister and former army commander, narrowly escaped, whereas then army commander, Lt. Gen. Yani, was one of the first shot. Gen. Soeharto who had taken command of the army when Yani was overseas, was not on the list of those to be kidnapped. He stepped into blood-stained shoes and gallantly took control, blaming the PKI for the generals' death. Proceeding tentatively at first, for Sukarno was still popular as president, Soeharto soon adopted a policy of exterminating the PKI, root and branch. By mid-March 1966, he had ousted Sukarno and taken over the presidency.

The initial killings are still riddled with intrigue because during the trial proceedings, one of the key army officers in G30S, Col. Latief, declared nobody was intended to be killed. He confirmed this when I interviewed him in Cipinang prison in 1998: "Killing was not on the agenda. The generals were to be brought before president Sukarno and asked to explain the rumour there was going to be a coup on Oct. 5." So who actually killed the generals?

A key figure, Sjam, emerged during the trials as the real organizer of the Movement, even though Colonel Untung, of Sukarno's Palace Guard, declared himself the titular leader. He only signed his name to the first 7 a.m. radio broadcast announcing the kidnappings, but Sjam had written it, and Sjam was solely responsible for the second announcement.

Appointed by PKI chairman, DN Aidit, to befriend officers in the armed forces who were sympathetic towards the PKI, Sjam used this position to include in the kidnapping operation persons who would later be described as "pro-PKI", giving credence to the claim it was a communist plot.

Ranked above Latief and Untung, Brig. Gen. Supardjo was a third top member of the Movement. But he had arrived in Jakarta only days before, from his command in Kalimantan, at Sjam's invitation.

There is a common, almost invisible thread in this matrix – Gen. Soeharto. Untung was his close friend, but Sjam was the closest. Latief explained Soeharto was not on the list of those to be kidnapped "because he was one of us [in the Movement]". Sjam's proximity to Aidit gave him authority to confirm to others in the Movement that "Soeharto was on side", a key deception within G30S.

From information he gathered during 33 years in prison, Latief said Sjam was an agent for Col. Suwarto, an officer in charge of Seskoad, the officer training school in Bandung, West Java. Gen. Nasution, whom I interviewed many times in Jakarta, said "Suwarto was CIA".

From his own intelligence group, Nasution revealed that Sjam and Soeharto had been seen together in Bandung visiting Suwarto. If they were conducting "official business", it does not explain Nasution's comment that his wife, after the death of their young daughter who was killed accidentally during the attempted kidnapping, never again spoke to Soeharto.

No doubt PKI individuals were involved in the operation. Yet the evidence, dripping into place over the last half-century, increasingly implicates both Soeharto and Sjam in primary roles. Of course, accusations of Soeharto's inside involvement in G30S have been strenuously denied.

Latief told the court he visited Soeharto's house a few days before Sept. 30 to explain the rationale of the kidnapping operation. This and his eleventh hour visit to Soeharto on the very night, to confirm the operation was about to start, were both dismissed as inconsequential. Moreover, shortly after Latief's visit, Soeharto's final conferral with Supardjo at the military's Kodam V Jaya Complex, Cempaka Putih, has never been mentioned.

The kidnapping began around 3:30 a.m. on Oct. 1, 1965 with disorganized truckloads of lowly-ranked soldiers and PKI youths. To kill anyone who resisted was Sjam's order to the man in charge of the convoy, Dul Arief. A Soeharto top aide, Ali Murtopo, later hunted him down.

The generals' bodies were thrown down a well (the "Crocodile Hole") near Halim Air Force base. Soon after the funeral cortege on Oct. 5, accompanied by 30 truckloads of army para-commandos, violence began in Jakarta. Decades later officially revealed documents tell us the American Embassy secretly supplied Soeharto with lists of 5,000 leading PKI members and arranged for state-of-the-art radio communication to organize the rampage that followed.

Within a month, violence spread. On early Nov. 6 in Kudus, Central Java, a PKI stronghold, 50 persons in green, yellow and black uniforms, kidnapped five people – an old man, a water buffalo trader, a servant, a railway worker and a village official. Their hands and heads were cut off, according to historical accounts. Authorities blamed the PKI and arrested local members, claiming they were involved in G30S.

And so the rampage began. In village after village, the army discovered "documents" implicating local PKI members in G30S. Muslim groups were directed by the army to carry out mass killings which continued for many months. Former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid was not in Indonesia in 1965; but once he became aware of the spiritual pall that has remained over Indonesia since those days, he declared: "We have to be honest with history."

[The writer teaches Indonesian history at the University of the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane. He wrote The Incubus of Intervention: Conflicting Indonesia Strategies of John F. Kennedy and Allen Dulles.]

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/30/fifty-years-later-confronting-ghosts-past.html

Suharto's Purge, Indonesia's Silence

New York Times - September 29, 2015

Joshua Oppenheimer – This week marks the 50th anniversary of the beginning of a mass slaughter in Indonesia. With American support, more than 500,000 people were murdered by the Indonesian Army and its civilian death squads. At least 750,000 more were tortured and sent to concentration camps, many for decades.

The victims were accused of being "communists," an umbrella that included not only members of the legally registered Communist Party, but all likely opponents of Suharto's new military regime – from union members and women's rights activists to teachers and the ethnic Chinese. Unlike in Germany, Rwanda or Cambodia, there have been no trials, no truth-and- reconciliation commissions, no memorials to the victims. Instead, many perpetrators still hold power throughout the country.

Indonesia is the world's fourth most populous nation, and if it is to become the democracy it claims to be, this impunity must end. The anniversary is a moment for the United States to support Indonesia's democratic transition by acknowledging the 1965 genocide, and encouraging a process of truth, reconciliation and justice.

On Oct. 1, 1965, six army generals in Jakarta were killed by a group of disaffected junior officers. Maj. Gen. Suharto assumed command of the armed forces, blamed the killings on the leftists, and set in motion a killing machine. Millions of people associated with left-leaning organizations were targeted, and the nation dissolved into terror – people even stopped eating fish for fear that fish were eating corpses. Suharto usurped President Sukarno's authority and established himself as de facto president by March 1966. From the very beginning, he enjoyed the full support of the United States.

I've spent 12 years investigating the terrible legacy of the genocide, creating two documentary films, "The Act of Killing" in 2013 and "The Look of Silence," released earlier this year. I began in 2003, working with a family of survivors. We wanted to show what it is like to live surrounded by still-powerful perpetrators who had murdered your loved ones.

The family gathered other survivors to tell their stories, but the army warned them not to participate. Many survivors urged me not to give up and suggested that I film perpetrators in hopes that they would reveal details of the massacres.

I did not know if it was safe to approach the killers, but when I did, I found them open. They offered boastful accounts of the killings, often with smiles on their faces and in front of their grandchildren. I felt I had wandered into Germany 40 years after the Holocaust, only to find the Nazis still in power.

Today, former political prisoners from this era still face discrimination and threats. Gatherings of elderly survivors are regularly attacked by military-backed thugs. Schoolchildren are still taught that the "extermination of the communists" was heroic, and that victims' families should be monitored for disloyalty. This official history, in effect, legitimizes violence against a whole segment of society.

The purpose of such intimidation is to create a climate of fear in which corruption and plunder go unchallenged. Inevitably in such an atmosphere, human rights violations have continued since 1965, including the 1975-1999 occupation of East Timor, where enforced starvation contributed to the killing of nearly a third of the population, as well as torture and extrajudicial killing that go on in West Papua today.

Military rule in Indonesia formally ended in 1998, but the army remains above the law. If a general orders an entire village massacred, he cannot be tried in civilian courts. The only way he could face justice is if the army itself convenes a military tribunal, or if Parliament establishes a special human rights court – something it has never done fairly and effectively.

With the military not subject to law, a shadow state of paramilitaries and intelligence agencies has formed around it. This shadow state continues to intimidate the public into silence while, together with its business partners, it loots the national wealth.

Indonesia can hold regular elections, but if the laws do not apply to the most powerful elements in society, then there is no rule of law, and no genuine democracy. The country will never become a true democracy until it takes serious steps to end impunity. An essential start is a process of truth, reconciliation and justice.

This may still be possible. The Indonesian media, which used to shy from discussing the genocide, now refers to the killings as crimes against humanity, and grassroots activism has taken hold. The current president, Joko Widodo, indicated he would address the 1965 massacre, but he has not established a truth commission, issued a national apology, or taken any other steps to end the military's impunity.

We need truth and accountability from the United States as well. US involvement dates at least to an April 1962 meeting between American and British officials resulting in the decision to "liquidate" President Sukarno, the populist – but not communist – founding father of Indonesia. As a founder of the nonaligned movement, Sukarno favored socialist policies; Washington wanted to replace him with someone more deferential to Western strategic and commercial interests.

The United States conducted covert operations to destabilize Sukarno and strengthen the military. Then, when genocide broke out, America provided equipment, weapons and money. The United States compiled lists containing thousands of names of public figures likely to oppose the new military regime, and handed them over to the Indonesian military, presumably with the expectation that they would be killed. Western aid to Suharto's dictatorship, ultimately amounting to tens of billions of dollars, began flowing while corpses still clogged Indonesia's rivers. The American media celebrated Suharto's rise and his campaign of death. Time magazine said it was the "best news for years in Asia."

But the extent of America's role remains hidden behind a wall of secrecy: C.I.A. documents and US defense attache papers remain classified. Numerous Freedom of Information Act requests for these documents have been denied. Senator Tom Udall, Democrat of New Mexico, will soon reintroduce a resolution that, if passed, would acknowledge America's role in the atrocities, call for declassification of all relevant documents, and urge the Indonesian government to acknowledge the massacres and establish a truth commission. If the US government recognizes the genocide publicly, acknowledges its role in the crimes, and releases all documents pertaining to the issue, it will encourage the Indonesian government to do the same.

This anniversary should be a reminder that although we want to move on, although nothing will wake the dead or make whole what has been broken, we must stop, honor the lives destroyed, acknowledge our role in the destruction, and allow the healing process to begin.

[Joshua Oppenheimer is a documentary filmmaker.]

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/30/opinion/suhartos-purge-indonesias-silence.html?ref=opinion&_r=0

Indonesia's forgotten genocide

New Mandala - September 29, 2015

Michael Vatikiotis, Guest Contributor – Fear of the future explains failure to grapple with the past. With each passing year, the memories of violent death dim the way that old photographs lose their colour.

It's now been 50 long years since that night in Jakarta on 30 September when seven Indonesian army officers including six generals were slaughtered by rebel troops, unleashing an orgy of violence across much of Java and Bali where it still remains unclear if more or less than a million people died.

The victims were for the most part ordinary Indonesians from towns and villages across Java and Bali, killed cruelly and without mercy, usually cudgeled or strangled in the middle of the night, on the merest hint of communist sympathy.

Most would have joined some communist party organised activities – with a membership of at least three million, it was one of the largest political parties in the country and had the tacit backing of President Sukarno, the nation's founder. Many of the victims were educated, as it was believed that intellectuals were prone to communism sympathies. You faced death merely if you wore spectacles.

For three long decades, the victims suffered in silence. Every year to mark the attempted coup on 30 September, President Soeharto's New Order government showed a dramatic reconstruction of the events on that fateful night which portrayed the murdered generals as heroes, and the communist plotters as brutal killers, staying silent on the mass killings that followed.

There was hope for a reckoning of the past after 1998, when Indonesia threw off the authoritarian yoke and finally embraced the democratic system envisaged by the country's founding fathers.

But liberal democracy has proven a weak tool for either justice or reconciliation in Indonesia. The media's ability to chronicle Indonesia's tragic past has not resulted in a collective commitment to establishing the truth or holding those responsible accountable.

Instead, the victims have been tortured further – promised some form of recognition in the form of a national apology, only to be told that the killings were justified by an aggressive conservative establishment that continues to stand by its anti-communist beliefs three decades after communism collapsed.

When he was President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono endorsed a National Human Rights Commission report into the killings. The voluminous report recommended action to provide redress to the victims. Yudhoyono contemplated a national apology, but met with fierce resistance from within the ranks of the military and the Islamic establishment, whose members carried out many of the killings.

Perhaps this was a vain hope; Yudhoyono's own father in law, Sarwo Edhie, was the Special Forces General ordered to initiate the crackdown on communists and their sympathisers. To make matters worse, before the end of his Presidential term, Yudhoyono mulled a proposal to make Sarwo Edhie a national hero.

There was renewed hope that Indonesian President Joko Widodo, popularly elected last year and with no links to the old conservative establishment, would finally address the issue. Contemplating an apology for human rights abuses was one of the many vague promises he made as he rode to power. But as the 50th anniversary approaches, his officials say the President has more pressing issues of social and economic development to attend to.

The army remains a strong pillar of the establishment and seems unwilling to make amends for its bloody past. Indeed, there is still anger in military circles about the alleged communist involvement in the deaths of the generals. "We are victims too," one former military officer once told me.

Neither do the Islamic organisations implicated in carrying out the killings want their role highlighted by any move to apologise for the past. News of Joko Widodo's decision not to issue an apology this year came after a meeting with Muhammadiya, the country's second largest Muslim organisation.

Behind the excuses, the disappointment and the failure to address what the rest of the world considers a forgotten genocide, lies a profound fear of the future. "What did the Communists want?" asked a conservative figure at one meeting to discuss reconciliation during Yudhoyono's administration. "They wanted land reform." Then he asked: "Do we have land reform today?"

Fear of social change in a society still plagued by inequality perhaps explains why anti-communists protests still happen each time political leaders contemplate addressing the mass killings. The poverty rate may have halved in the last 15 years, but income distribution has become much more unequal; about 40 per cent of the country's 250 million people still live on less than $2 per day

Threats to social cohesion could also be a factor preventing accountability. Javanese society in 1965 was composed of a more balanced mixture of Christian and Muslim communities; the communist party made gains in the Christian community, and anti-communist sentiment found root among Muslims.

It is no secret that much of the actual killing was carried out by Muslim youth gangs and militia, encouraged and armed by the army. Afterwards many Christians converted to Islam to escape suspicion and further harassment. The legacy of accelerated Islamicisation since then has weakened the traditional cultural mechanisms for maintaining harmony between faiths, and religious conflict is on the rise.

Opening up these old wounds, many Indonesians argue, will only highlight modern inequalities and reinforce social divisions that already frequently result in conflict. So why rock the boat?

The old photographs may fade and the images of death and immense suffering on such a massive scale all but physically disappear, but the collective social trauma lives on in the Indonesian psyche. It appears in the creative works of writers like Leila Chudori and Laksmi Pamuntjak who were born just before or after the killings. It has been vividly expressed by some of the actors themselves – both killers and their victims – in the films of Joshua Oppenheimer.

What photographs hide is how people feel; deep down many Indonesians feel ashamed about a period in their history they can't erase. This dark spot on the past clouds their vision of the future.

[Michael Vatikiotis is a writer and peace mediator whose novel 'The Painter of Lost Souls' dwells on the challenges of remembering Indonesia's violent past.]

Source: http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2015/09/29/indonesias-forgotten-genocide/

Papua now on Pacific radar

Jakarta Post - September 29, 2015

Neles Tebay, Jayapura, Papua – The conflict between the government and indigenous Papuans, particularly those Papuans involved with the Free Papua Movement (OPM), has long been considered an Indonesian domestic affair. The government has rejected the involvement of any foreign parties in the settlement of issues faced in Papua.

Respecting Indonesia's sovereignty, no foreign country has raised the Papua issue at regional or international forums. No country supports the OPM's struggle for separating Papua from Indonesia.

Nevertheless, as Indonesia celebrates 70 years of independence and 52 years since Papua's integration into the republic this year, there have been some new developments involving the Papua issue in the Pacific region.

The new developments began with the formation of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) in December 2014. Three organizations under the umbrella of the OPM gathered in Port Villa.

With the help of Vanuatu, they established the ULMWP to coordinate activities and represent the resistance movement in collaboration with external parties. Since then the OPM has appeared as a more united force with a united voice.

Representing the various Papuan resistance groups, the ULMWP officially applied for full membership at the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), a sub-regional grouping in the Pacific, in February 2015. The MSG comprises Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Fiji and New Caledonia.

The application was supported by representatives from all countries in Melanesia. They have called the people of Papua their "Melanesian brothers and sisters of West Papua" and have declared the Papua issue a Melanesian issue.

Instead of granting the ULMWP full membership, the Melanesian leaders at the 20th MSG summit held in June 2015 in the Solomon Islands decided to offer the group observer status. It was the first political recognition of the OPM.

As an observer, the ULMWP began introducing the Papua issue to all the countries of the Pacific. Within two months, the issue was drawing wider attention – and the OPM was stronger support from Pacific countries.

Such was the support from around the Pacific region, in August 2015 it was decided that the Papua issue would be one of five main agenda items at the 46th summit of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) in PNG in mid-September.

On Sept. 1 and 2, the Pacific Islands Association of Non-Government Organizations gathered in Port Moresby for a civil society partnership forum. The organizations offered a collective public apology to Papuans for their past ignorance and neglect of their suffering.

They jointly called for Pacific leaders "to send a high-level PIF delegation, including civil society organizations [CSOs] and church leaders, on a fact-finding mission to West Papua" and urged for "the re- inscription of West Papua on the UN [Non-Self-Governing Territories] list as an important step toward an independent and free West Papua".

The leaders of 16 Pacific countries gathered in Port Moresby for the 46th PIF summit, from Sept. 7 to 11.

They communicated their collective position on Papua in the PIF's communique, explicitly expressing respect for and recognition of Indonesia's sovereignty over Papua, while raising their concern regarding human rights violations in the province.

The Pacific leaders requested that the Prime Minister of PNG consult with the Indonesian government on the establishment of a fact-finding mission to Papua.

The mission is meant to assess the human rights situation in Papua and West Papua provinces. Consequently, the Papua issue is now a Pacific issue. Its settlement will and should involve Indonesia, all Pacific countries and the Papuans.

Pacific CSOs and leaders of Pacific countries will now be following the situation closely, particularly possible human rights violations in the western half of New Guinea.

Pacific leaders may now raise the Papua issue at sub-regional, regional and even international forums, as 52 years on from West Papua's integration into Indonesia, and after the resulting deaths of thousands of Papuans, the case remains unsettled.

It is necessary for the government to prevent Papua from becoming an international issue. It cannot and will not be settled by deploying more troops to Papua and West Papua and establishing more military commands there.

For five decades now the security approach has failed. The government is strongly urged to explore peaceful means to address the situation.

Given these new developments, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo should appoint a high-level government official, such as a minister, to be in charge of the case. That person could be assisted by a small team of non-Papuans who are fully trusted and respected by Papuans, who could maintain close communications with all parties concerned. Such communication is badly needed to prepare the way for peace talks between representatives of the government and the Papuan resistance groups represented by the ULMWP. This could help to settle the Papua issue through peaceful means.

[The writer is a lecturer at the Fajar Timur School of Philosophy and the Coordinator of the Papua Peace Network in Abepura. In 2013 he was awarded the Tji Hak-son Justice and Peace Award in Seoul.]

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/09/29/papua-now-pacific-radar.html