Nine female protestors from Mount Kendeng in Rembang regency, Central Java, cemented their feet in the aim of not only to protest against cement plant developments in their hometown but also to remind younger generations to respect nature.

The women protested in front of the State Palace on Wednesday, following their first protest on Tuesday demanding to meet with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to voice their frustration against the development of cement plants by state-owned PT Semen Indonesia that would harm the environment and threaten their livelihood as farmers.

"We want to give a message for the younger generation, to show that nature is not only seen as a source of wealth, but also something that has to be preserved," said Sukinah, one of the protesters participating in Wednesday's rally.

They had cemented their feet since Tuesday, where to move around they had the help of other residents.

The nine women came from Kendeng's mountainous area, including Rembang, Pati and Grobogan, where the plants would be built. Besides Sukinah, the protestors include Supini, Murtini, Surani, Kiyem, Ngadinah, Karsupi, Deni and Rimabarwati. The women are often dubbed the "Kartinis of Kendeng", referring to the national heroine praised for her fight for women's rights.

Mt. Kendeng Society Network (JMPPK) coordinator Joko Prianto said the idea of cementing the feet came from the women to represent how they had been "shackled" by cement.

The protest in Rembang began on June 16, 2014, when PT Semen Indonesia started the construction of its plant located on the Watuputih groundwater basin area.

Around 50 female farmers had protested against the firm demanding to halt the construction as it would impact water resources and, therefore directly impact their livelihoods. Local farmers, since, have staged a series of rallies, including camping in front of the said plant.

Potentially, 51 million liters of waters could be lost because of the plant's construction, according to data from the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi). Moreover, a 2011 Rembang regional regulation on spatial planning also categorized the Watuputih groundwater basin as a geological area, which has to be preserved, Joko said.

"These women will keep fighting until they can bring justice for the people and the environment of their hometown," he said.

Meanwhile, other cement firms such as PT Sahabat Mulia Sakti, a subsidiary of the big cement company PT Indocement, PT Vanda Prima Listri and PT Imasco Tambang had also announced plans to build cement plants in Pati, Grobogan and Blora, according to Joko.

In November 2015, Semarang State Administrative Court (PTUN) had annulled the cement plant construction in Pati as it violated the regional regulation on spatial planning. However, other development plans are still in process.

The cement protest was not a reckless act by the women, explained Alexandra Herlina, a Surabaya-based doctor who accompanied the protestors.

The farmers had performed a simulation before going to Jakarta. The protestors also wore plastic casts on their feet to prevent irritation from the direct contact between the skin and cement. Alexandra had recommended the protestors only cement their feet for a maximum of three days or they would suffer lumps on their feet.

Presidential Chief of Staff Teten Masduki told the representatives of the protestors that President Jokowi had acknowledged the protest and wanted to meet with them. However, because of the President's busy schedule, no date for the meeting has been set, Teten said on Wednesday. (vps/rin)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/14/cemented-female-protestors-continue-fight-aginst-cement-plants.html

Protesters cement their feet in front of State Palace

Jakarta Post - April 12, 2016

A number of female protesters cemented their feet in front of the State Palace on Tuesday in protest of a cement plant development by state-owned PT Semen Indonesia in their hometown in Rembang regency in Central Java.

The protesters reject the development of the cement firm in their town because it would cause environment problems and also threaten their earnings as farmers in Kendeng, a mountainous area in Rembang, Pati, Blora and Grobogan, tempo.co reported.

Teten Mastuki, chief of presidential staff, reportedly told the women to foil their plan to cement their feet, but the protesters ignored the demand.

Coordinator of the Mt. Kendeng Society Network (JMPPK), Joko Prianto, said that Teten met with the women had met with the women prior to the protest. "He (Teten) was worried about the plan and banned [the action]," Joko added as quoted by tempo.co.

Earlier in the morning, the protesters had expressed their concern over potential environmental damage, saying that the plant could contaminate water and degrade their livelihoods, a representative from the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta) said.

"Those nine women are frustrated and want to meet President Joko Widodo," LBH Jakarta lawyer Yunita said, adding that they would keep holding the demonstration until they had secured a meeting with the President.

Rembang residents from 14 sub-districts have held similar rallies since 2013 in protest of the cement plant development in Watu Putih. Environmentalists have estimated that potential water loss could reach figures of up to 51 million liters.

The company, however, plan to proceed with the construction project. The construction process began in June 2014 and the plant is expected to start production this year. The new plant will produce three million tons of cement each year. (vps/bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/12/protesters-cement-their-feet-in-front-of-state-palace.html

West Papua

LBH Jakarta: 63 Papuan activists arrested in the last 9 days

Suara Papua - April 15, 2016

Arnold Belau, Jayapura – The Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta) reports that 63 people have been arrested over the last nine days in West Papua. Most of those arrested are activists from the West Papua National Committee (KNPB) and the Regional People Parliament (PRD).

Once again the government's intentions in Papua are being questioned. The LBH Jakarta is strongly condemning the systematic arrest of activists in the lead up to simultaneous actions that took place in Papua on April 13.

The actions, which were led by the KNPB, were joined by around 5,000 Papuans who were supporting the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULWMP) becoming a full member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG).

"We suspect that the security forces will act repressively in Papua in the lead up to the huge actions on April 13. The KNPB is the organisation in Papua that is being most systematically criminalised at the moment. So on the day before [the actions] we along with 47 other organisations from various elements [of society], from students to workers, issued a solidarity statement calling on security forces not to act repressively. And it was proven. We have the names of all 61 [sic] people who have been arrested", said LBH Jakarta director Alghiffari Aqsa in an email sent to Suara Papua on April 15.

The LBH Jakarta notes that 15 people were arrested in Timika on April 5 and on April 12 six people were arrested in Yahukimo and 15 in Kaimana. On April 13, thirteen people were arrested in Merauke, three people in Sorong and 11 people were arrested in Jayapura.

LBH Jakarta public defender Veronica Koman meanwhile said that in addition to this, some of those who were arrested were stripped naked, beaten with rifle butts, kicked and forced to stand in the sun.

"Certainly, those who've been arrested have now been released, except there are still two who are being detained in Timika. One of them has been charged with subversion (maker) even though the person concerned was only leading a prayer meeting on the grounds of a church that supports the ULWMP", said Veronica.

In addition to this, the LBH Jakarta is currently investigating allegations that people were tortured in Dekai, Yahukimo.

"We received a report that six of the people arrested were hit in the head with hammers, kicked in the face with military boots, ordered to crawl [on the ground] and eat dirt, beaten in a cell until they were bruised and bleeding, as well as being ordered to sing Indonesia Raya [the national anthem] and eat money they had in their pockets", she explained.

Veronica continued, "These incidents violate Article 28I of the Constitution, the convention against torture and Article 351 of the Criminal Code. Therefore the Mabes Polri [national police headquarters], specifically the Bareskrim [Criminal Investigation Bureau] and the Propam [Professionalism and Security Affairs Division] must investigate the matter. Perpetrators of torture, even though they are law enforcement officials, must be punished", asserted Veronica.

The arrests, which began a day before the action, were carried out in order to prevent the demonstrations from going ahead. The legal articles used for these arrests are vague and completely fabricated.

In Yahukimo and Merauke, police were unable to explain which articles were used for the arrests. In Kaimana, police said that the arrests were made because the demonstration did not have a police permit.

"We were having an internal meeting to prepare for the action in our own offices weren't we, what did we need a permit for?", asked a LBH Jakarta source in Manokwari as quoted in the email received by Suara Papua.

Furthermore, police also prevented protesters from joining the action and carried out arrests during the action. Police also smashed the windows of a command vehicle in Jayapura even though there was no provocation by the protesters who were demonstrating peacefully.

"The string of incidents over these nine days again demonstrates that there has yet to be any change in the government's attitude towards Papua, it's still very repressive. [The people's] constitutional rights to freedom of expression and opinion are violated repeatedly. The state's presences in Papua is in the form of violence", asserted Alghiffari.

The LBH Jakarta is therefore demanding that President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo take action against the national police and the Papua regional police who have violated the constitutional rights of the Papuan people and order them to immediately release Yus Wenda and Steven Itlay who are still being detained in Timika.

"Our call to the Papuan people is that you are not alone. Continue [expressing] your aspirations!", said Alghiffari.

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the report was "LBH Jakarta: 63 Orang Ditangkap Selama 9 Hari di Papua".]

Source: http://suarapapua.com/read/2016/04/15/3256/lbh-jakarta-63-orang-ditangkap-selama-9-hari-di-papua

Rights group describes Indonesian state hypocrisy in Papua

Radio New Zealand International - April 14, 2016

The head of Indonesia's leading human rights organisation has described how the nation is in a type of denial about festering rights issues in Papua region.

Haris Azhar, the co-ordinator of the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence, or KONTRAS, says there has been no improvement in the area of rights in Papua since president Joko Widodo took office in 2014.

Mr Azhar told Johnny Blades that Indonesia's security forces remain stuck in the past in their attitude towards West Papuans and their conduct in the region.

Haris Azhar: A lot of forces from Indonesian government send their own team or troops, keep sending them to Papua. You know intelligence have their own operations. The military consists of so many units, also go to Papua or sitting there. And they have a good reason to be there: Papua has the longest land border to the other countries. Police also keep planning, doing the operations in Papua. So securitisation with no good co-ordination and consolidations are there. And the way they think about Papua, the way they assess Papua, has no new ground to be applied in Papua. So there's no shift in paradigm on how to see Papua. Therefore this Papua still suffer as all times before. And also you can imagine that the victims now.. I just checked the data in my office. It showed the number last year of more than 1,200 people suffer from harassment, killings, torture and ill-treatment. We haven't put the other issues into this number – the economic and social rights issues.

Johnny Blades: Are any of those cases brought to court? Do the perpetrators of these abuses or beatings or tortures, do they ever get held accountable?

HA: No, no, no. Some of them being arrested and tortured, and the police apply most of the cases as a crime. So those people who were arrested, they will be brought into the court – some of them, not all of them.

JB: What typically have they been arrested for, what is it that they have done?

HA: Demonstrations, these kind of things. This is common in Papua.

JB: Freedom of expression stuff?

HA: Yeah, so this is against their freedom of expression, freedom of opinions, freedom of assembly, you know, that kind of thing. If you are Papuan and you do these kind of things in Papua, then that is associated with a crime or you are subject to being punished. But if you do these kind of things outside of Papua or you are not a Papuan, the game might be changed, the game might be changed. So this is like a discrimination in the security and law enforcement approach to the Papuans.

JB: Many reports about this stuff over the years. Why is it that the Indonesian parliament, successive governments, they don't seem to change the way the security forces conduct themselves in Papua? Is it because they can't?

HA: No. If we talk about the Papuan government, the local government in Papua at the provincial level or the sub-provinces, they are bound to a dirty politics, a dirty system of politics. So they are at some point paralysed to see how to deal with the security forces which are very powerful – they have guns, they have money, they are supported by some corporations. So to deal with it, for the local government, they prefer to deal and bargain, and co-opt with certain situations. That's why they keep receiving a lot of money, because Papua is allocated a huge number of the state budget from Jakarta. So there's no development for real, infrastructure or social structure have been gone with no evidence in a good way that can be delivered to the public. So they just maintain it. A lot of corruption cases, allegation of corruption cases being spread around among the people. So a lot of people enjoy that kind of thing. And how is Jakarta? Jakarta is too busy with themselves. You know, political bargain, surrounded by the media, so many issues. You know, the issue of Papua is not a priority. They may say it's a priority but this is all the things that they always said: Papua is a priority but we will leave it to them, among the Papuans, to solve the situation. But in terms of the killings, the law enforcement, that is a national problem. That is not a local problem.

JB: I was going to ask you: if Papua is a part of Indonesia, how do Indonesians in the rest of the country feel about their fellow Indonesians being brutalised every year?

HA: This is the hypocrisy of the government, the state and also this country. That looking at Papua, they would not leave Papua to be independent, but they let Papua be ignored. They say leave it behind. They have that kind of way. So, if there is an issue in the media, saying that this small group from Papua, they would like to be independent, and a lot of Indonesians, they're just quiet. And also the government, they just said oh we are the united Indonesia, we will not let anyone to go out from Indonesia. But they do nothing, they say nothing, to make Papuans to be better. I have to say this is crazy.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/programmes/datelinepacific/audio/201797062/rights-group-describes-indonesian-state-hypocrisy-in-papua

West Papuans voice support for MSG integration

Radio New Zealand International - April 14, 2016

Yesterday's demonstrations in West Papua have been described as a sign of widespread support for integration with the wider Melanesian community.

The peaceful demonstrations in the main cities of Indonesia's Papua region were attended by thousands of West Papuans under the banner of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua.

The demonstrations, voiced support for the Liberation Movement and its bid to gain full membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group, resulted in dozens of arrests.

One of the key Papuan political groups in the Movement, the West Papua National Committee, or KNPB, was centrally involved in organising the demonstrations. The KNPB chairman Victor Yeimo addressed the demonstration in the Papuan provincial capital, Jayapura.

The Liberation Movement which was last year granted observer status in the MSG, whose full members are Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji, Solomon Islands and the Kanaks of New Caledonia.

Indonesia was also last year granted associate member status at the MSG and has been opposed to the Liberation Movement's participation in political representation of West Papuans.

However a West Papuan lawyer and Catholic lay women activist, Frederika Korain, said the Liberation Movement was increasingly seen as her people's representative body. Moves to engage more with the wider Melanesian region, she said, were strongly supported.

"Papuans feel that it is very genuinely important to be part of the big Melanesian family through that organisation, so that's why the struggle to gain full membership of that regional organisation become one of the desire of all Papuans," Ms Korain said. "That's why you can see yesterday that people went to the streets and supported the rally."

Ms Korain said last week's visit to Papua by a delegation of Catholic Bishops from PNG and Solomon Islands was the kind of regional engagement that needed to be encouraged.

Unable to meet the visiting bishops themselves, the Catholic Women group that Ms Korain belongs to delivered a statement to the bishops, describing their visit as important. Thanking the bishops for their visit, the women pressed upon them that the conditions of life for the indigenous Papuan Catholics were in a poor state.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/301505/west-papuans-voice-support-for-msg-integration

Mass rallies for Papuan independence from Indonesia

UCA News - April 13, 2016

Benny Mawel, Jayapura, Indonesia – Peaceful demonstrations supporting Papuan independence were held in several parts on the predominantly Christian Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua April 13.

There was a heavy Indonesian security presence at a rally attended by thousands in Jayapura, the capital of Indonesia's Papua province where a low-level insurgency has simmered for decades.

Demonstrators were demanding the United Liberation Movement for West Papua be accepted as a member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

"We have the right to be a member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group. We are Melanesians, we are not Indonesians," Bazooka Logo, spokesman for the pro-independence National Committee for West Papua, told demonstrators out the front of the state-run University of Cendrawasih.

The Melanesian Spearhead Group is an intergovernmental organization comprising Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu, as well as the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front, a political party from New Caledonia. The United Liberation Movement for West Papua currently has observer status.

"We say 'no' to Indonesia. Indonesia is not Melanesia. Indonesia is Malay, which doesn't have the right to be a member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group, but Papua does," Logo said.

Daniel Gobay, a seminarian from the Fajar Timur School of Philosophy and Theology in Abepura, said the Indonesian government should understand that the Papuan people have the right to determine their own fate.

"The Indonesian government must know that such a demand must be respected," Gobay said while attending the Jayapura rally. "The Indonesian government or others cannot set a limit on the Papuan people."

According to Logo, similar rallies also were organized simultaneously in several areas in both Papua and West Papua provinces. Rallies also were held in the cities of Yakuhimo, Manokwari, Fak-Fak, Merauke, Timika and Sorong.

While the rallies were peaceful, Logo told ucanews.com that 11 members of National Committee for West Papua were arrested by local police during the rally in Jayapura. In Merauke in Papua province, 13 members of the committee were arrested during a rally there. "They are still detained in local police stations. We don't know when they will be released," Logo said.

Jayapura police chief Jeremias Rontini said the arrests at the Jayapura rally were carried out because the protesters had not obtained a permit for the rally.

On April 5, 15 members of the committee were arrested in Papua's Mimika district during a prayer service for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua to be accepted as a member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

Father Neles Tebay of the Jayapura Diocese has said that the Catholic Church, in collaboration with all religious leaders, has jointly called for a peaceful dialogue to settle the Papua conflict.

"We will continue to promote dialogue until the formal dialogue between the Indonesian government and the Papuans represented by the United Liberation Movement for West Papua takes place for the sake of a lasting peace," Father Tebay told a meeting of several bishops from Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, April 9.

Source: http://www.ucanews.com/news/mass-rallies-papuan-independence-indonesia/75750

11 independence activists detained during rally in Papua

Jakarta Globe - April 13, 2016

Edo Karensa, Jayapura – Eleven activists were arrested when a peaceful rally in support of full membership for the Papua independence movement in the Melanesian Spearhead Group was interrupted by police in Jayapura on Wednesday (13/04).

Hundreds of protesters marching under the banner of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) were prevented by police from staging a rally at Yos Sudarso Park in the heart of the Papua provincial capital.

The protesters, who demanded that the MSG grants permanent membership to the Papua independence movement, were forced to move the rally to the Cendrawasih University in Waena. The 11 activists were detained for allegedly trying to occupy the Papua Provincial Council office on Jalan Sam Ratulangi.

During the rally, the protesters also objected against Indonesia's membership of the MSG, since the association was only intended for Melanesian countries, according to ULMWP leader Markus Haluk.

The ULMWP is scheduled to embark on a campaign in London next month in support of an internationally supervised vote on West Papuan independence.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian government has received support from two MSG members, Papua-New Guinea and Fiji, to upgrade its status from a non-permanent member to a permanent member of the organization. The support came after Indonesian Chief Security Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan's recent visit to the two countries.

Joining the MSG has been one of Indonesia's main foreign policy objectives over the last few years. The government emphasized the fact that Indonesia has a substantial ethnic Melanesian population, in order to win over members of the MSG, especially Vanuatu.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/pro-msg-rally-intercepted-independence-activists-detained-in-papua/

Police, Army asked to stay cool at rallies

Jakarta Post - April 13, 2016

A coalition of rights groups demanded on Tuesday that the National Police and the Indonesian Military (TNI) remain calm over the simultaneous rallies planned in seven cities across Papua on Wednesday.

The West Papua National Committee (KNPB) will stage a rally today in Jayapura, Fakfak, Manokwari, Yahukimo, Sorong, Timika and Merauke, aimed at showing its support for the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) to be granted full membership of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG), in which Indonesia holds an observer status.

The coalition includes the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta), the Press Legal Aid Institute (LBH Pers) and the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (ELSAM).

"Our demand is based on the fact that police and military officers had failed to uphold peace in the latest event conducted by KNPB last week," LBH Jakarta director Alghiffari Aqsa told a press conference in his office in Central Jakarta.

Alghiffari said on April 5, TNI troops and police officers raided a prayer event hosted by KNPB in front of the Indonesian Evangelical Christian Church (GKII) Golgota in Timika, Papua. "Police officers then arrested 15 of KNPB members after committing violence against them," he said, adding that Police had since freed 13 of them, each of whom were now obliged to report to the police for "an unspecified time".

He added that Timika branch KNPB leader, Steven Itlay, was currently "being isolated" at a Mobile Brigade (Brimob) detention center located far from the Timika Police Office.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/13/national-scene-police-army-asked-stay-cool-rallies.html

Liquor businessmen in Papua protest ban, will file lawsuit

Jakarta Post - April 13, 2016

Nethy Dharma Somba – A number of liquor businesspeople in Jayapura, Papua, are protesting Papuan Governor Lukas Enembe's policy to ban the distribution of alcoholic beverages in the province.

They are set to file a lawsuit against the policy with the Jayapura State Administrative Court (PTUN) as they consider it contradicts existing rules.

"We will file a lawsuit at the PTUN against the governor over his alcoholic beverage confiscation procedures, which just look like an expropriation because it can be conducted without any confiscation order letter, while we have a legal permit for distributing alcoholic beverages," said Jason Muabuay, head of the Association of Alcoholic Beverage Vendors and Night Entertainment Owners in Jayapura.

Jason expressed his concerns during a meeting at the Jayapura Legislative Council (DPRD), which was attended by a number of alcoholic beverage businesspeople and distributors and hotel owners and administrators. In the meeting, they conveyed their disappointment over the confiscations and searches conducted by a task force formed by Enembe.

Jason said his association plans to meet Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo and Trade Minister Thomas Lembong to question the Papuan governor's measure, which the latter claimed was based on an integrity pact he issued. According to the governor, the integrity pact was in turn based on a 2013 bylaw on alcohol prohibition.

"The issuance of a bylaw must be followed by a governor's decree as its implementing regulation. Thus, all businessmen can have enough time for preparations so they will be ready once the bylaw on the alcohol ban takes effect," said Josua.

He said vendors and distributors needed time to finish their stocks so they would not suffer great losses once the policy was valid.

Jason said the integrity pact was only a commitment, which was not legally binding. "This cannot be used as a basis to carry out the confiscations," he said, adding that any government policy would be supported as long as it did not inflict losses upon the people.

Jayapura Legislative Council member Kristian Kondobua said it was the right of the association to file a lawsuit against the Papuan governor. "It's your right to take a legal measure against his policy," said Kristian.

Businesspeople in Jayapura say alcohol sales have dropped sharply since the task force intensified liquor searches in entertainment places and alcohol warehouses on Friday.

Some Jayapura residents applauded Enembe's policy, saying that since alcohol searches were conducted intensively, very few drunken people could be found on streets across Jayapura.

"I take passengers to the airport every morning. I used to see drunken people, some of whom lay on the street, but in the last several days, I didn't see them," said Yonas, a driver.

"Now, I dare to take a morning walk on the street because there is no more drunken people. I used to have a morning walk only in areas near my house," said Ludia, a local resident.

Separately, Enembe said he did not fear the association's plan to file a lawsuit against him. "I'm not afraid. We made this policy because we have a special bylaw, which clearly regulates alcohol distribution. If they want to sue me, just go ahead," said the governor. (ebf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/13/liquor-businessmen-in-papua-protest-ban-will-file-lawsuit.html

Mass demos in support of Papua Liberation Movement

Radio New Zealand International - April 13, 2016

Demonstrations in support of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua have been taking place in cities across Indonesia's Papua region today.

Ground reports said large peaceful demonstrations have been held in the seven main cities of Papua and West Papua provinces: Jayapura, Yakuhimo, Manokwari, Fak-Fak, Merauke, Timika and Sorong.

The demonstrations have been voicing support for the Liberation Movement to become full members of the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

The Movement was last year granted observer status in the MSG, whose full members are Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Fiji, Solomon Islands and the Kanaks of New Caledonia.

Indonesia was last year granted associate member status at the MSG and has been opposed to the Liberation Movement's participation in political representation of West Papuans.

Early reports from the Papua cities today indicated large numbers of security forces were being deployed to the demonstrations. West Papua Media reported that by mid afternoon in the Jayapura rally, eleven demonstrators had been arrested and subsequently released.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/301427/mass-demos-in-support-of-papua-liberation-movement

Police arrest 15 KNPB activists in Kaimana, vandalise secretariat

Suara Papua - April 13, 2016

Arnold Belau, Jayapura – The West Papua National Committee (KNPB) reports that on April 12 district police arrested 15 KNPB activists and vandalised the KNPB secretariat in Kaimana district, West Papua.

The incident began when Kaimana police broke up a meeting being held at the Kaimana KNPB secretariat to prepare for an action on April 13 (today – ed). The meeting was broken up at 12.15pm when 50 or so Regional People's Parliament (PRD) and KNPB members had gathered for preparations to support the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) becoming a full member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG).

Then at 4pm the police returned to the PRD offices and the KNPB secretariat located in Bantemi, in front of the Kaimana regent's office. The police, who arrived in six Dalmas troop carriers and two patrol cars, entered the PRD office and KNPB secretariat grounds and then conducted a search. It was when they entered the offices that police damaged facilities and arrested the 15 activists.

Those who were arrested were Yohanes Furay (24) Lilian Tapnesa, Ania Kurita, Simon Egana, Melianus Siwari, Aser Kubewa, Agus Surbay, Elon Aribau, Stevanus Esuru, Yususf Surubay, Sepi Surubay, Melianus Surubay, Alfian Tanggafora, Melianus Siwari and Abd Fata Watora.

"After arresting the 15 KNPB and PRD Kaimana members, the police also confiscated articles belonging to the KNPB. The items seized included nine mobile phones, two printers, five KNPB flags, four motorcycles, two kitchen knives, a lawnmower and two traditional drums. Not only that, the police also vandalised the KNPB secretariat, damaging work spaces, trashing rooms and damaging the door to the KNPB and PRD Kaimana secretariat", said Suhun.

When sort for confirmation meanwhile, KNPB national general secretary Victor F Yeimo told Suara Papua that the arrests were carried out by a joint unit of TNI (Indonesian military) and national police.

"Fifteen activists and people were arrested at taken to the Kaimana district police station. Meanwhile the PRD offices were vandalised by the military. Their small children cried and suffered trauma. We hope that the world is watching how Indonesia confronts our civil and political aspirations which we wish to convey peacefully", he said.

According to data gathered by Suara Papua, on April 5 police arrested 15 KNPB Timika activists. Thirteen of these were released on the condition that they were required to report to police for an unspecified period. Timika KNPB chairperson Steven Itlay meanwhile was declared a suspect on subversion (maker) charges and Yus Wenda was also declared a suspect.

On April 12, police again arrested five KNPB activists when they were handing out leaflets in Dekai city, Yahukimo. Also in Kaimana, police arrested 15 activists from the KNPB and the PRD. On April 13 in Merauke, it was reported that security personnel also arrested a number of KNPB and PRD activists in the Anim Ha area.

[Translated by James Balowski for the Indoleft News Service. The original title of the report was "Polisi Tangkap 15 Aktivis KNPB Kaimana dan Merusak Sekretariat KNPB Kaimana".]

Source: http://suarapapua.com//read/2016/04/13/3241/polisi-tangkap-15-aktivis-knpb-kaimana-dan-merusak-sekretariat-knpb-kaimana

Pacific Archbishops make surprise 'fact-finding' visit to West Papua

ABC Radio Australia - April 12, 2016

A delegation from the Catholic Bishops Conference of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands has made a trip to West Papua, visiting the Catholic faithful in Jayapura.

The Archbishop of Port Moresby, John Ribat, and the Archbishop of Honiara, Adrian Smith were among those who took time to talk to members of the local community in the Indonesian province, the site of conflict between indigenous Melanesians and the Indonesian military and police forces for decades.

Frederika Korain, a West Papua-based lawyer and activist, said the visit was unexpected. "It was a very big surprise for us, because for decades there was no big delegations like that coming to this country. So for us it is really a big surprise".

"We just got information about their visit [on] the first day that they arrived, late in the afternoon when they were already in the city. We just got the news from the students that they met. Once we heard about it, we tried to get their agenda in Jayapura, because we would really have liked to have a chat with them as well," she said.

However Ms Korain said the Indonesian military presence was noticeable, and she felt the meeting was quite closed off to locals. "They came [from the border with Papua New Guinea] by the military buses, two buses, accompanied by huge military officials as well, some of them in uniform and some of them without.

"I don't think [they got an accurate picture of life in Jayapura]... There was no time for them to freely chat with ordinary people, so we used the moment during the meeting, even after the mass, we tried to approach them then we explained to them what was going on in West Papua, especially around the issue of human rights violations."

While it wasn't said explicitly, Ms Korain said she thought the visit was an opportunity for Catholic leaders to see the situation in West Papua for themselves.

"We got that a clear statement, especially from the president of the Bishops Conference in the meeting they had with the Catholic Bishops of Jayapura, they said that they would like to come and listen and see what is going on here. It is a kind of fact-finding," she said.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-12/pacific-archbishops-make-surprise-'fact-finding'/7318710

Rights abuses shade Indonesia's Pacific move

Radio New Zealand International - April 12, 2016

Indonesia's government has been increasing efforts to strengthen diplomatic ties with Pacific Island countries as it seeks to become a full member of the Melanesian Spearhead Group. However, as Johnny Blades reports concern is only growing about rampant rights abuses continuing in Indonesia's restricted Papua region.

Transcript

Indonesia's government has been increasing efforts to strengthen diplomatic ties with Pacific Island countries. Jakarta's move comes in the face of ongoing Pacific concern about human rights abuses in Indonesia's region of West Papua where a separatist conflict has simmered for decades.

Johnny Blades reports

Indonesia is seeking full membership in the Melanesian Spearhead Group. This regional grouping of states – Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and New Caledonia's Kanak movement – has a special interest in assisting self determination for all Melanesians.

Jakarta's efforts to join the fray have gone into overdrive since the United Liberation Movement for West Papua was granted MSG observer status last year. Last week Indonesia's Political and Security minister Luhut Pandjaitan visited Papua New Guinea and Fiji where he said support was secured for full MSG membership.

PNG's foreign minister Rimbink Pato says his country's position has always been that West Papua is an integral part of Indonesia.

Rimbink Pato: So we're not interested in entertaining the issue of self-determination, because that's never an issue for us... The issue of human rights in West Papua is a matter in respect of which the Pacific Island leaders Forum here in Port Moresby passed a resolution.

The Forum leaders' resolution to approach Jakarta about a human rights fact-finding mission to Papua has made little impression on Jakarta. Minister Luhut has warned Pacific states not to meddle in Indonesia's affairs.

The Liberation movement's exiled spokesman Benny Wenda is suspicious of Indonesia's claims to be part of the Melanesian family. He points out that in recent days West Papuans were arrested in Timika for showing support for Melanesian solidarity at a prayer event.

Benny Wenda: There was 13 people arrested just for flying the Melanesian flags like Papua New Guinea, Solomon flag and Kanaky flag were raised with the banner for full membership campaign [for the Liberation Movement], just a prayer meeting. They were arrested, beating and torture. This is while [Minister] Luhut was campaigning for the joining full membership [for Indonesia] in Melanesia. And then back home, the killing continue.

Minister Luhut said Jakarta aimed to convey accurate information about its efforts in Papua region, including what it's doing in the field of human rights. However the information about Papua coming from Haris Azhar, the co-ordinator of Indonesia's leading human rights body, Kontras, is grim.

Haris Azhar: I checked the data in my office. It showed the number last year of more than 1,200 people suffer from harassment, killings, torture and ill-treatment. We haven't put the other issues into this number – the economic and social rights issues.

A Liberation Movement member, Markus Haluk, says that in Papua itself, grassroots support for the Liberation Movement was huge.

Markus Haluk: The people are really supportive because our people, from the beginning, they're fighting for justice and freedom and they're more safer with the Melanesian and pacific family than Indonesia. with Indonesia, over fifty years, five hundred thousand men, women have been killed until today.

MSG leaders are due to meet for their annual summit next month in Port Vila. It remains to be seen whether the full membership of the group will support Indonesia's bid.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/programmes/datelinepacific/audio/201796618/rights-abuses-shade-indonesia's-pacific-move

Bishops' West Papua visit hailed by Catholic women

Radio New Zealand International - April 12, 2016

A Catholic Women's group in West Papua has called for regional support for their people's plight, after a visit to the Indonesian territory by Catholic Bishops from other parts of Melanesia.

23 Bishops from Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji visited West Papua last week. Among them were the Archbishop of Port Moresby, John Ribat, and the Archbishop of Honiara, Adrian Smith.

As they travelled to Jayapura from PNG for what has been described by the Catholic Womens group as a type of fact-finding mission, the bishops were closely accompanied by Indonesian military.

Although restricted in who they could talk with, the bishops had a meeting with the Bishop of Jayapura and met with some students. However, the impact of their visit on a group of Papuan Catholic women has been expressed with deep gratitude.

Important visit

Unable to meet the visiting bishops themselves, the Catholic women delivered a statement to them, describing their visit as important because it was rare for people to visit Papua.

Thanking the bishops for their visit, the women pressed upon them that the conditions of life for the indigenous Papuan Catholics were in a poor state.

"Our people experience violence and death because of the brutal actions of the Indonesian military and police," they said. "Every day more and more migrants arrive. We are becoming a minority in our land and even in our own church while the Indonesian people master all aspects of life."

The bishops have been urged to continue helping raise awareness about the "many cases of violence and injustices" in Papua which have gone unresolved.

"The State does not address these. In fact, they are often the perpetrators or protect the perpetrators, so we feel we have nowhere to turn," read the statement. "Sadly, the Catholic Church in West Papua is largely silent about this and does not give voice to our cry for justice."

Regional outreach

The Catholic Womens group said it wanted the international community to know that West Papuans want to be free to determine their own future. The women told the bishops that the United Liberation Movement for West Papua represents them and has their full support.

Last year, the Liberation Movement was granted observer status at the Melanesian Spearhead Group. The women have asked the bishops to encourage Pacific Islands countries to speak up in support of justice and peace in West Papua, and push for a full fact-finding mission to the Indonesian territory.

A report by the Bishops delegation which visited Papua is expected to be presented by the end of the month.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/301328/bishops'-west-papua-visit-hailed-by-catholic-women

Indonesia CSOs: Stop repression on freedom of expression for the Papuan people!

Tabloid JUBI - April 12, 2016

Jayapura, Jubi – Dozens of civil society organisations comprising elements of the labour, student, women's, urban poor and other social movements support the Papuan people's right to freedom of expression.

"Many people have been arrested in Papua since 2013. According to International Coalition for Papua data, 653 people were arrested between April 2013 and December 2014 (ICP 2015). The KNPB has calculated that 479 people were arrested between the 30th April and 1st June 2015 alone," Alghiffari Aqsa, the Director of Jakarta Legal Aid told reporter in Jakarta, Tuesday (12/4/2016).

He added in the 18 months which Jokowi and Jusuf Kalla have been in power, more than 1000 arrests have taken place, especially targeting pro-independence activists, indigenous people fighting to keep their customary lands and ordinary people who have become the object of state repression for no clear reason.

"Bearing in mind the patterns of repression and police/military impunity that keep on repeating themselves in Papua, as demonstrated once more last April 5th, it is reasonable to believe that the Papuan people will face more repression," he said.

For this reason, he state that Jakarta Legal Aid and dozens of Civil Society Organization fully support the Papuan people's constitutional rights to freedom of expression.

"We also urge the joint police and military forces not to take repressive action against the Papuan people, and in particular against the further actions," he added. (Victor Mambor)

Source: http://tabloidjubi.com/eng/indonesia-csos-stop-repression-on-freedom-of-expression-for-the-papuan-people/

Indonesian rights body notes rampant rights abuses in Papua

Radio New Zealand International - April 11, 2016

Indonesia's leading human rights organisation says there has been no improvement in the area of rights in the Papua region since president Joko Widodo took office in 2014.

President Widodo has pledged more focus on a socio-economic approach to resolving issues for West Papuans.

However, Haris Azhar, the co-ordinator of the Commission for the Disappeared and Victims of Violence, or KONTRAS, says the abuses in Papua are as rampant as they were under previous governments.

"I checked the data in my office. It showed the number last year of more than 1,200 people suffer from harassment, killings, torture and ill-treatment," he said. "We haven't put the other issues into this number – the economic and social rights issues."

Haris Azhar says these abuses are often made by security forces against Papuans for exercising their right to freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and movement.

Source: http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/301234/indonesian-rights-body-notes-rampant-rights-abuses-in-papua

Aceh

Non-Muslim woman receives 28 lashes for selling liquor in Aceh

Jakarta Post - April 13, 2016

Hotli Simanjuntak – The Takengon Prosecutor's Office in Central Aceh regency, Aceh, caned on Tuesday a 60-year-old woman, Remita Sinaga, alias Mak Ucok, for violating sharia by storing and selling alcohol. She was the first non-Muslim to be subjected to the punishment in Aceh.

"Although a non-Muslim, she must comply with the qanun [Islamic bylaw]. She violated the qanun by storing and distributing liquor," said Takengon Prosecutor's Office intelligence division head Lili Suparli.

Remita was initially to receive 30 lashes, which was later reduced to 28 along with her period of detention, for violating Qanun No. 6/2014 of the Jinayat Islamic Criminal Code.

Four others were also caned: Celala village administration chief Umardi bin M. Yusuf, 42, who received 100 strokes for committing adultery with Fatima binti Umar, 30, who also received 100 stokes, and Sarman bin Sukirno, 19, of Simpang Kelaping village and partner Nadia Shofia binti Warisi, 26, of Kyun Uken village in Central Aceh.

The other two offenders, Sarwan and Nadia, were initially handed nine strokes each but were instead given three after their detention was cut. Lili said the convicts were given up to 100 strokes of the cane in accordance with Qanun No. 6/2014.

"Sarwan and Nadia received fewer stokes because they were penalized in accordance with Qanun No. 14/2003 before the enactment of the Jinayat in 2014. So their punishment was in accordance with when the crime took place," said Lili.

Some spectators hooted when the convicts were being caned in the prosecutors office's art hall compound. Qanun No. 6/2014 on Jinayat is a version of Islamic criminal law that is broader and incorporates sharia.

The Jinayat has stipulations on a number of Islamic versions of vice, such as alcohol consumption, gambling, close proximity between males and females who are not muhrim (lawful spouse or male relative), extramarital sex, sexual harassment, rape, accusing others of adultery, sodomy and homosexual intercourse.

Those found guilty of the offenses are subject to punishment in the form of caning, fines, imprisonment and paying restitution. The number of strokes varies from 40 to 200 and the amount of fines from 40 to 2,000 grams of gold.

The law applies to Muslims and non-Muslims living in or visiting Aceh, which is the only province in the country to impose Islamic law.

The approval of the qanun sparked controversy, with some saying it should not apply to non-Muslim while others said it should not be discriminatory but apply to Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Previously, after meeting a foreign ambassador in Jakarta, Governor Zaini Abdullah said non-Muslims would not be subjected to the qanun.

In its draft form, the bylaw also included stoning for adulterers. However, the article on stoning was removed from the draft bylaw after it was strongly criticized by human rights activists.

The implementation of Islamic law is one of the results of the 2005 Helsinki agreement to end a decades-long armed conflict between the Free Aceh Movement and the government.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/13/non-muslim-woman-receives-28-lashes-selling-liquor-aceh.html

Local pop star with antidrug message not Islamic enough for Aceh

Jakarta Globe - April 10, 2016

Lhokseumawe – A concert featuring an up-and-coming local pop sensation was banned by the city administration of Lhokseumawe, Aceh, who said it was violating shariah law.

Dedi Maulana, director of event organizer Aceh Mediatama Indonesia, said he could not understand why the concert, scheduled to take place on Sunday (10/04), was banned. He said the artist Zuhdi, known by his stage name Adi Bergek, had done nothing to violate the shariah law, adopted by the province.

Dedi told Tempo.co that Adi's concert had been green-lighted by the local council of Islamic clerics. Adi had planned to perform alongside musicians from local Islamic choir group Kasidah Islami and has long been using his music to campaign against drugs.

The organizers had also made sure that men and women would be watching Adi's concert while separated by a metal barrier. A place to pray would also be available for the duration of the concert. "Besides, the concert would take place in the middle of the day anyway," Dedi told the news portal.

Dedi said the Lhokseumawe city administration issued the decision on Friday and the organizer was never informed of the reason. "We never understood why and were never involved in the decision. And this happened after we made sure everything [complies with sharia law]," he said.

Officials in Aceh have banned several concerts and fashion shows they deemed un-Islamic in the past.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/local-pop-star-antidrug-message-not-islamic-enough-aceh/

1965 mass killings

Police shut down meeting preparing for national symposium on 1965 mass killings

Portal KBR - April 14, 2016

Ria Apriyani, Cianjur – Police have shut down a meeting by victims of the mass killings in 1965-66 that was to be held in Cipanas, Bogor, West Java on the grounds that members of the Pancasila Youth (PP) and the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) planned to descend on the meeting.

The participants attempted to negotiate with police so that the event could go ahead asking police to arrange a meeting with the leaders of the two groups so they could explain the event.

The owner of the villa where the event was to be held requested that Cianjur police provide security guarantees if the meeting went ahead. [Failing this] the owner pushed to have the event cancelled because they were afraid of a brawl breaking out and that they would be accused of protecting communists and villa won't be able to be rented out anymore.

Ujang, one of the members of the mass organisations threatening the event said that they had been aware of the meeting since last week. According to Ujang, the aim of the event was to reawaken communist ideas. "This event is a gathering of people who want to reawaken communism in Indonesia", Ujung told KBR on Thursday April 14.

In the end the victims of 1965-66 decided to give in and left the villa for a new location to hold the meeting.

According to the participants, the meeting was organised as part of preparations to take part in a government sponsored national symposium on the 1965-66 mass killings. The meeting, which has the backing of Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Binsar, will present victims and perpetrators and will be held in Jakarta on April 18-19.

Despite being given an explanation, the grouping of social organisations totalling around 40 or so people insisted that the event be closed down.

[Abridged translation by James Balowski for the Indoleft news service. The second part of the article covered the national symposium in Jakarta. The original title of the report was "Kepolisian Bubarkan Pertemuan Korban 65/66 di Cipanas".]

Source: http://m.portalkbr.com/nasional/04-2016/kepolisian_bubarkan_pertemuan_korban_65_66_di_cipanas/80356.html

HRW calls on US government to reveal truth about 1965 massacre

Jakarta Post - April 14, 2016

Liza Yosephine – Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said an apology over the atrocities of 1965 would be futile unless the whole truth was revealed.

The International NGO said the government should be held accountable for its actions related to the killings of people who were considered associated with communism, including for what is hidden in secret files held by the US government.

The organization is pushing the President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo administration to ask the US government to release the documents related to the anti-communist purge to comply with a request made by Indonesia's National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) in March.

HRW executive director Kenneth Roth, who is currently in Indonesia, is to speak with government officials, human rights organizations and other relevant stakeholders about the mass killings.

Researchers have estimated about half a million people suspected of being affiliated with the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) were wiped out in 1965 and 1966. "You can't apologize over a blank slate," Roth said during a press conference in Jakarta on Wednesday.

The American human rights advocacy group, together with a local group called the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS), are urging the government to conduct an effective accountability process. The call came as one step to build momentum for the lead-up to a symposium about the 1965 massacre to be held on Apr. 18 and 19.

The symposium, spearheaded by Komnas HAM and the Presidential Advisory Board (Wantimpres), will discuss rehabilitation and compensation for the victims of the tragedy, which took place more than 50 years ago and remains a deeply sensitive topic in Indonesia.

The event will occur ahead of a May 2 deadline for settling serious past human rights violations, as declared by Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan last month.

Roth stressed the importance of beginning the process of reconciliation with a public hearing so as to reveal the extent of the impacts of the massacre, thereby providing the basis of a factual record that the government can then officially acknowledge.

The US advocate said he recently met with Wantimpres member Sidarto Danusubroto and presidential chief of staff Teten Masduki to discuss options for addressing the actions of the troops led by Soeharto, then an unknown major general who filled the power vacuum left by the first president Sukarno, to counter an alleged attempted coup on Sept. 30, 1965.

"There is recognition on the one hand that truth is an essential prerequisite for any meaningful reconciliation process. At the same time, there's recognition that there is serious resistance within certain elements of both the government and society," Roth said of the meeting.

Furthermore, he also urged the incumbent government to take a clear stance in its efforts to resolve the human rights violations, especially in regards to the impacts still felt by the victims and relatives of victims of the tragedy relating to the stigma and persecution for being affiliated, or being accused of being affiliated, with the now defunct PKI.

Roth commended the request made by Komnas HAM, which met with US State Department officials to formally ask for the release of files from the CIA, the Defense Intelligence Agency and other agencies.

The US would have such records, Roth continued, and should Jokowi put his weight behind the request, US President Barack Obama would likely be willing to open up its archives, he added. "We want to know the working level involvement between the US government and the killers in 1965," he said.

Operational detail including cables, diplomatic messages and CIA messages would be useful as part of the effort to tell the history of the violation, Roth further said. When possible, he added, it was also important for the architects of the crimes, the directors and the people who oversaw the killings in the anti-communist purge, to be brought to justice.

The genocide occurred during the time when the Vietnam War was intensifying and fears were rising in Washington about other communist takeovers throughout Southeast Asia. Roth said previously declassified State Department documents indicated the US Embassy in Jakarta in conveyed the names of Communist Party leaders to the Indonesian Army.

US filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer, who made two critically acclaimed documentaries on the 1965 genocide, The Look of Silence and The Act of Killing, also recently urged the US Senate to make available all documents relating to the US' role in the national tragedy.

KontraS coordinator Haris Azhar said the events of 1965 were "the mother of all violence in Indonesia" that caused a spiral of other serious human rights abuses, including the 1989 Talangsari incident in Central Lampung, the 2001 and 2003 Wamena and Wasior incidents in Papua and various kidnappings and unresolved shootings under the dictatorship of Suharto, who came into power in 1966 and led the New Order era under a military-dominated government until his forced resignation in 1998.

Haris asserted that the best way to move forward and avoid any repeat of crimes of a similar nature would be to tell the whole truth to the public and then follow that up with an acknowledge from the government. (dan)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/14/hrw-calls-on-us-government-to-reveal-truth-about-1965-massacre.html

Indonesia urged to hold truth and reconciliation process over massacres

The Guardian (Australia) - April 13, 2016

Kate Lamb, Jakarta – Calls for the Indonesian government to launch a truth and reconciliation process to address the slaughter of half a million suspected communists in the 1960s are growing ahead of a planned government-funded discussion of the atrocities next week.

Human rights activists are hopeful the two-day symposium in Jakarta on 18-19 April will lead to the repeal of a decree banning Indonesians with any family ties to the former Indonesian Communist party (PKI) from government jobs and positions with the military and police. The 1981 regulation currently excludes an estimated 40 million people from such positions.

"These are people who haven't done anything wrong. They might have had a grandparent or a great-grandparent who was allegedly affiliated with the PKI," Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, told reporters in Jakarta. "Ending this process of blacklisting... is obviously an important step and frankly is something that is the sooner the better."

Last September marked 50 years since the start of the mass killings that occurred across the country from 1965-66, amid cold war fears about the global spread of communism. At the time Indonesia had the third-largest communist party in the world.

Given the deep political sensitivities associated with the atrocities, activists say the scheduled talks in Jakarta are a step in the right direction, and could provide the necessary impetus for a broader reconciliation process.

Roth added: "What is needed is to begin with a truth-telling process... an opportunity for the survivors, perhaps for some of the participants, for the descendants to speak publicly, so that the Indonesian people can hear these first-hand accounts."

However, the Indonesian government has repeatedly resisted attempts to openly grapple with this bloody chapter in its history. It has censored and shut down public discussions on the abuses of 1965, and rejected the results of a 2012 investigation by Komnas HAM, the National Human Rights Commission, which detailed gross rights violations from the period.

Late last year a 77-year-old Swedish man was deported and blacklisted for attempting to visit a mass grave on the island of Sumatra, where his father and 40 other suspected communists are buried.

Elected in 2014 on promises of prioritising human rights violations and tackling corruption, the Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, has been largely disappointing on the former issue, said Haris Azhar, the coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence.

"Nothing really has come from Jokowi as president, and nothing impressive has come from his government or cabinet on how to address this," said Azhar.

In the United States, Indonesia's human rights commission has also lodged an official request with the US government to release archived records believed to detail the CIA's covert involvement in Indonesia's 1965-66 massacres.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/apr/13/indonesia-truth-and-reconciliation-process-communist-massacres

US must open its archives on 1965-66 massacre: Human Rights Watch

Jakarta Globe - April 13, 2016

Jakarta – The United States must disclose information contained in its confidential archives related to the 1965-66 anti-communist massacres, as high-ranking Indonesian officials repeatedly said they do not have enough witnesses or evidence to bring those responsible for the massacre to justice, Human Rights Watch said on Wednesday (13/04).

A military-backed purge against Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) members and its sympathizers in 1965-66 killed between 500,000 to one million suspected communists and paved the way for the rise of former President Suharto's New Order regime.

Since taking office in 2014, President Joko Widodo has not taken any significant steps to address the complex repercussions of the massacre. He only formed a committee to seek a reconciliation, instead of bringing to justice those responsible for what has been described as the worst mass killings in the 20th century.

With the Attorney General's Office seemingly reluctant to take the case to court, the Indonesian Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) sent a letter to US President Barack Obama last month, requesting the White House to disclose confidential documents on the 1965-66 massacre.

HRW director Kenneth Roth said Obama would likely disclose the documents had the request been made by Joko himself.

"Komnas HAM has made that request – and it's very important – but still the Indonesian government needs to add its voice for the US government to open the archives," Roth told a press conference in Jakarta.

The archives may not determine the whole justice process in Indonesia, but Roth is convinced they could contribute a lot to the Indonesian government's effort to seek the truth behind the massacre.

"This is not [due to] international or foreign demand; this is [what] Indonesians [desire]. A deep desire to address the terrible crimes is shown passionately and urgently by many Indonesians [..] obviously [by] the survivors, the families, and many ordinary Indonesians," Roth added.

He said it was hugely important to seek the truth as a reconciliation process cannot be built on the basis of censored historical record.

"Seeking justice is difficult, because the perpetrators are old men now. But the truth is not difficult. You can get the truth now," Roth said. "The question now is [...] what's the Indonesian government's position in respect to the truth? If they want it, then ask Obama."

During his visit to Jakarta, the HRW director met several senior Indonesian officials to discuss options to gain access to the US archives, including Presidential Chief of Staff Teten Masduki and Presidential Advisory Board member Sidarto Danusubroto. No official response has been issued.

HRW researcher for Indonesia Andreas Harsono believes Obama and Joko have discussed the idea of opening the US archives during a bilateral meeting in California in February.

"I was told by two different parties – that President Jokowi and President Obama talked about it in Sunnylands," Andreas said, referring to the Indonesian president by his popular nickname.

Until today, it is still a difficult task to discuss the events of 1965-66 in Indonesia from the perspective of the victims and their relatives, or to question the official version of what happened, which presents the purge as having been necessary to prevent a communist takeover.

Many Indonesians still do not know that many innocent lives were lost in the crackdown, with survivors jailed, tortured, subjected to forced labor, treated inhumanely without trial, as well as enduring discrimination long after they were released.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/us-must-open-archives-1965-66-massacre-human-rights-watch/

Labour & migrant workers

Inflation erodes low-wage workers' income: BPS survey

Jakarta Post - April 15, 2016

Anton Hermansyah – Despite a slight month-on-month (MoM) increase in March, the daily income of low-wage laborers in the country's informal sectors are being eroded by inflation, a Central Statistics Agency (BPS) survey has indicated.

Agricultural workers' wages in March were around Rp 47,559 (US$3.61) per day, a 0.3 percent increase from Rp 47,437 in February. Meanwhile, construction workers took home Rp 81,481 per day, a 0.14 percent increase from February's figure.

"However, if we take inflation into account, then their real incomes are actually down. The real wages of workers in the agriculture and construction sectors decreased 0.69 and 0.05 percent, respectively," said BPS head Suryamin on Friday in Jakarta.

However, the wages of two informal sector jobs have inched up. Private hairdressers received an average Rp 24,200 per haircut, a 0.3 percent MoM increase. The salaries of housemaids also rose 0.24 percent in March to Rp 360,164 (US$27.32) per month.

"Despite the inflation factor, their real wages are increasing. Hairdressers' real wages rose 0.1 percent MoM, while housemaids' real wages grew 0.05 percent," Suryamin said. (ags)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/15/inflation-erodes-low-wage-workers-income-bps-survey.html

Unions urge government to protect homeworkers

Jakarta Post - April 15, 2016

Trade unions have called on the government to issue a regulation that protects the rights of homeworkers, including a decent wage and safety as they have been neglected for years.

"We hope the minimum wage of the homeworkers could be close to the provincial minimum wage (UMP)," Trade Union Rights Center (TURC) program coordinator I Gede Pandu Wirawan said in a discussion in Jakarta on Thursday.

"Homeworkers should at least have the rights for social security, safety standards (K3), health and education. Then, they would understand the risk of their work," he added. Pandu also explained that homeworkers are different with domestic workers, and specific rules on homeworkers are not stipulated in the 2003 labor law.

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), a homeworker can be defined as someone who, for a fixed rate of remuneration, carries out work in his or her home for an employer who is not the final consumer of the product or service provided.

Usually, homeworkers have to provide the production tools by themselves and their pay depends on the amount of goods they produce per day, Pandu said.

According to research by the Trade Union Rights Center from July 2015 to January 2016, there are hundreds of underpaid female homeworkers in Cirebon, North Jakarta and Tangerang.

For instance, it is known homeworkers in Penjaringan, North Jakarta, manually sew 10 to 25 pair of shoes, distributed by middleman of well-known international brands Buccheri and Elle, per day. They could get paid as much as Rp 3,000 (22 US cents) for each pair of shoes, with 10 to 12 working hours and no social security, Pandu said.

Most of the homeworkers are women, as they are available to work and take care of household chores at the same time, according to Pandu. "It is like an iceberg. It is hard to count how many homeworkers in plain view as they work at home," Pandu said.

Meanwhile, Dardiri Dardak, a program officer of Partner of Female Workers in Home Industries (MWPRI), also gave an example of homeworkers in Mojokerto, East Java, who had been manually gluing shoes and sandals for local brands. The chemicals in the glue have often led these homeworkers to asphyxiation, according to Dardiri.

He also said that 90 percent of the estimated 2,000 homeworkers in East Java were female. "So, we can see there are 'slavery' practices that are maintained by the companies," Dardiri said. "Without have to organize big buildings, electricity or tools, the companies can just employ hundreds of homeworkers."

The advocacy of homeworkers is included in one of the National Development Planning Agency's (Bappenas) programs called the Access to Employment and Decent Work for Women (MAMPU). The program has involved several NGOs like TURC, MWPRI, the Annisa Swasti Foundation and Bitra Indonesia. (vps/bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/15/unions-urge-government-to-protect-homeworkers.html

Freedom of speech & expression

Government, House to revise defamation charges in ITE Law

Jakarta Post - April 13, 2016

Erika Anindita Dewi – The government and the House of Representatives will focus on an article on defamation in the amendment of the 2008 Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law, as both have agreed to pass the bill in June.

The government and House have completed the bill's problem inventory list, which will be deliberated before the House's recess on April 30. The government held a working meeting with House Commission I overseeing intelligence, defense and foreign affairs on Wednesday.

The key article covers criminal charges for defamation, Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara said at the House complex.

The current law stipulates a maximum sentence of six years imprisonment for people charged under the article. However, the government proposed a maximum four-year sentence to minimize multiple interpretations, Rudiantara said.

Moreover, charges would need to be based on formal complaints. "There must be someone who reports it. Has any party been offended?" Rudiantara told journalists after the meeting.

The House aimed to complete the deliberation of the revised ITE bill by June, Commission I deputy chairman TB Hasanuddin said.

The commission will discuss the bill before late April. Deliberations will continue in May as a final draft would be expected by early June, so Commission I could present it at the House's plenary meeting, according to the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) lawmaker. (rin)

Democracy & civil rights

'Fighting Criminalisation and Wining Democracy' conference held in Jakarta

Solidarity Net - April 12, 2016

Jakarta – A people's conference titled "Fighting Criminalisation and Wining Democracy" (Lawan Kriminalisasi dan Rebut Demokrasi) was held at the Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta) offices in Central Jakarta on April 9.

The event was held in response to the growing number of cases of movement activists from various sectors of society being criminalised. The conference was initiated by a number of different organisations concerned with cases of criminalisation in Indonesia including among others LBH Jakarta, the Indonesian People's United Resistance (PPRI), the Center for Information and Communication Technology Studies Foundation (ICT Watch) and Safenet.

The conference was opened by LBH Jakarta Director Alghiffari Aqsa who outlined various cases of activists being criminalised in order to gag the people's struggle.

"For me the definition of criminalisation is non-criminal actions but which are then prosecuted and the law becomes a tool of power. The criminalisation of [former Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) commissioner] Bambang Widjojanto and Anies Baswedan were quite possibly aimed at weakening the KPK. It is also possible that the motive is to gag activists giving voice to the suffering of the Papuan people such as [recently released high-profile Papuan political prisoner] Filep Karma", said Alghiffari.

Alghiffari continued by outlining the results of several institutions into the performance of the Indonesian national police.

"Based on the research results of the World Justice Project, the rule of law index in Indonesia is only 0.5. Our index for judicial system correction is only 0.1-1. Meaning that in a test of 10 questions, we only got one right. This indicates that our national police cannot be reformed. LBH Jakarta research also shows that for every 10 people arrested by the national police, eight suffer physical intimidation. There is no other way to reform the national police except for an internal revolution of the national police or placing the national police in the correct place so they are no longer a threat to the social movements and the freedom of expression", he explained.

The conference also presented testimonies by victims of criminalisation including that of PT Nanbu Plastics Indonesia worker Saiful Anam. A Facebook status update by Saiful on November 20, 2015 was reported by his employer to police. Yet the trade union led by Saiful was in the process of advocating for contract workers at the factory.

LBH Jakarta public defenders Obed Sakti Dominika and Tigor Gemdita Hutapea were criminalised for assisting workers demonstrating against Government Regulation 78/2015 on setting the minimum wage.

NiasBangkit.com editor in chief Donny Iswandono was reported to police for allegedly tarnished the reputation of the regent of Nias Island because it reported protests by a Nias community against alleged corruption committed by the regent.

Anti-corruption activist Ronny Maryanto who reported findings alleging irregularities in the 2014 presidential election was reported for defamation to police by Greater Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra) deputy chairperson Fadli Zon.

The conference presented 15 speakers as sources from various social organisations in Indonesia. They included Yeni Rosa Damayanti, Esti Setyo Rini (Subang worker), Dadang Trisasongko (TI), Azmir (KPBI worker), Tigor Gemdita Hutapea (LBH Jakarta), Sinung Karto (AMAN), Jeffry Wanda (AMP), Adi Purnomo (KPA), Ramses Arwan (SBMI), Ariska Kurniawati (SP), Dika Mohammad (SPRI), Hasyim (AJI), Adiani Viviana (Elsam), Erasmus (ICJR) and Nur Cholis (Komnas HAM).

The event also included a musical and fine art performance by the Indonesian Cultural Society Union (SeBUMI). In the performance, SeBUMI also articulated the criminalisation suffered by writer Saut Situmorang and the banning of artistic performance that are increasingly occurring in Indonesia.

The conference produced a manifesto signed by all conference participants which was read out at the final even as a form of resistance by the social movements against criminalisation.

The Indonesian People's Manifesto against Criminalisation, Winning Democracy!

Together, we endured the long years without democracy under the New Order regime of former President Suharto. Life in an era without political freedoms, freedom of belief, expression, religion and recreation and declaring differences was not a humane life. The long ranks of victims, the political prisoners, the criminalisation and the persecution as a result of the New Order dictatorship, we will always remember, we will never forget, because this reality destroyed the most important aspect of our humanity as a people and nation that (should have been) civilised.

We are aware that efforts to return to a situation like the New Order, both by remnants of the old forces of the regime as well as the new rulers that can be seen by the criminalisation, intimidation and persecution of critical voices. Because of this therefore, we must defend the gains of a struggle that was full of the blood, tears and sweat of the fighters for this democracy and reform. We do not want to again live in an era without democracy. We do not want the ordinary people to become the victims of the interests of those in power, corporations, the military and police who obstruct political freedoms in the struggle for prosperity, either though the direct breaking up of actions (demonstrations) and campaigns that are tyrannical and brutal, misguided justice or intimidation and persecution.

Thus, we, the People of Indonesia who are fighting for democracy declare:

Fight criminalisation and all types of regulations and legal instruments that have the potential either directly or indirectly to criminalise the people;
Free all victims of criminalisation and political prisoners;
Repeal all legal instruments that obstruct and threaten political freedom, the freedom of expression, belief and religion, and opportunities to fulfill the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of the people;
Law enforcement that is just, not 'blunt' for those at the top and 'sharp' for those at the bottom.

Because, without democracy, we cannot hope to be able to fight for the people's happiness as a people who are modern and civilised, cultured and prosperous.

Long Live the People!

Source: http://www.solidaritas.net/2016/04/pemenjaraan-aktivis-meningkat-konferensi-lawan-kriminalisasi-digelar.html

Political parties & elections

PPP make-up congress elects pro-government chief, but rift remains

Jakarta Post - April 11, 2016

Nurul Fitri Ramadhani – Despite earlier defeats in legal battles over his legitimacy, Muhammad Romahurmuziy has been unanimously elected chair of the pro-government United Development Party (PPP).

After the three-day national muktamar islah (reconciliation congress) Romahurmuziy, whose position had previously been annulled by a Supreme Court ruling, gained the full support of party members as well as government officials, after his rival Djan Faridz declined to attend the congress.

Djan rejected the congress after the government refused to acknowledge his leadership following the Supreme Court's decision to annul a ministerial decree that had legitimized Romahurmuziy's leadership.

Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who attended the congress' closing ceremony, said he had asked Djan to end the party rift and open his heart and accept reconciliation for the sake of the party's unity.

"I have communicated with Djan and urged him to [accept the reconciliation]. He said that he would consider it," Kalla said after the congress, which took place at the Pondok Gede Haj Dormitory in East Jakarta.

"I know that [both camps] are currently engaged in legal processes, but I hope they will be able to resolve this soon," he added.

The congress, which was attended by 1,000 members from 33 regional chapters, declared Romahurmuziy chairman in a smooth process.

Serving as secretary-general under the tenure of Suryadharma Ali, Romahurmuziy had led a faction within the party that declared its support for the government after the 2014 presidential election.

He had been appointed chairman at a congress in Surabaya in October 2014, an appointment that was later accepted by the Law and Human Rights Ministry. Djan, who was later elected chairman at a rival congress in Jakarta, successfully challenged the ministerial decree in court.

This was followed by another ministerial decree authorizing the central board committee as constituted under Suryadharma's leadership to temporarily reconvene and pave the way for the reconciliation congress.

Kalla said the congress should mark an end to the leadership dispute that had riven the party for over a year. "I hope this is over. I'm sure all of the party's members are tired. The government is also tired. The party has many more challenges on its agenda other than an internal dispute. Don't waste money and energy on any more congresses or disputes," Kalla said.

Romahurmuziy then promised a "suitable position" for Djan in the party if he agreed to reconcile. "I'm willing to place him in whatever position he wants, whether it's on the executive board, as vice chairman or secretary-general, whatever can bring him back to us," Romahurmuziy said.

Romahurmuziy also said that he aimed to restore the party to the top three in the 2019 general election, as was achieved in the 1999 and 2004 general elections.

Separately, Djan insisted that Romahurmuziy had no authority to determine the party's legal structure pending the outcome of the legal challenge he had filed in court. He acknowledged that he had talked with Kalla regarding the reconciliation but told him that he could not accept the reconciliation. "Because I obey the law and the national congress has violated the Supreme Court's decision," he said.

Djan camp secretary-general Dimyati Natakusumah said he would not accept the position Romahurmuziy had promised him and would prefer to go through the legal process first. "We shouldn't have held the congress before the legal process was complete. To me, yesterday's congress was just a silaturahmi [friendly visit] between a political party and the President and Vice President, which I really appreciate," Dimyati said.

"It's Romy's camp that filed for the judicial review, but it's also them who held the national congress," he added. Furthermore, Dimyati said, Romahurmuziy's election as chairman was a foregone conclusion as the national congress was merely a repeat of the Surabaya congress.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/11/ppp-make-congress-elects-pro-govt-chief-rift-remains.html

PPP names Romahurmuziy new chairman

Jakarta Post - April 10, 2016

Erika Anindita Dewi – The United Development Party (PPP) declared Muhammad Romahurmuziy its new chairman during its eighth national congress (Muktamar) at Pondok Gede Haj Dormitory in East Jakarta on Saturday.

In the sixth plenary meeting of the Muktamar, Romahurmuziy, who previously served as secretary-general of the PPP leadership group formed at a 2011 Muktamar in Bandung, was elected by acclamation.

According to the congress rules, the election of the party's chairman or central executive board (DPP) chairman must take place in an agreed forum. During the process, the forum leader will ask for approval from all party members on one chairman candidate.

At the meeting, the PPP's DPP deputy chairman Suharso Monoarfa announced Romahurmuziy as the party chairman candidate, drawing applause from over 1,000 PPP members from 33 regional executive boards.

"Do you trust me, who has been involved in the PPP's conflicts over the last one-and-a-half years, to be the real chairman?" Romahurmuziy asked congress participants in his acceptance speech. "We do!" they replied in unison, showing their agreement with the result of the quick vote.

Speaking after his win, Romahurmuziy said he aimed to get more votes in the upcoming legislative election. In 2014, the PPP obtained 8,157,488 votes (6.53 percent of the total) and 39 seats (7 percent).

The three-day meeting was hosted by PPP leaders elected at the Bandung Muktamar. In 2011, then religious affairs minister Suryadharma Ali was appointed party chairman, alongside Romahurmuziy as secretary-general.

The eighth Muktamar was held following the Law and Human Rights Ministry's decision on Feb. 16 to reactivate a decree that recognized the party's leadership elected at the Bandung Muktamar. The PPP is set to compose new rules and bylaws in the eighth Muktamar, which ends on Sunday. (ebf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/10/ppp-names-romahurmuziy-new-chairman.html

Journalism & media freedom

Indonesia owes 8 cases of murdered journalists

Tempo - April 11, 2016

Tito Sianipar, Jakarta – Indonesia will host the World Press Freedom Day on May 3 and 4 next year. Yosep Adi Prasetyo, chairman of the Indonesian Press Council reminded that there is still something that holds Indonesia back from being able to call itself a country with journalistic freedom.

There are eight cases of murdered journalist that have not been solved. The media still remembers Fuad Muhammad Syafruddin a.k.a Udin, a journalist from Harian Bernas Yogyakarta, who was assaulted to death on August 16, 1996. His death remains unsolved until today.

There was also Naimullah, a journalist from Sinar Pagi, whose body was found at the Penimbungan Beach, West Kalimantan on July 25, 1997. Asia Press journalist Agus Mulyawan was found dead on September 25in East Timor.

Muhammad Jamaluddin, a TVRI cameraman, went missing in Aceh in 2003. On December 29 the same year, RCTI reporter Ersa Siregar also went missing in Aceh.

Herliyanto, a journalist with Delta Pos Sidoarjo, was found dead in the woods at Tarokan Village, Probolinggo on April 29, 2006. In July 29, 2010, Ardiansyah Matra'is Wibisono, a local TV journalist was found dead in Gudang Arang, Maro River, Merauke.

One recent case is the death of Alfred Mirulewan, a journalist with Pelangi tabloid, who was found dead on December 18, 2010 in Maluku.

In a special interview with Tempo, Yosep said that the Press Council is also concerned with cases of brutality and violence against journalists. He said that most of the times, journalists that experienced abuse preferred to settle things off court. This, he said, does not give a deterrence effect to the perpetrators.

The Press Council, he said, receives a letter from the UNESCO each year; asking about the development of Udin's murder and the rest. "We always provide answers after confirming with the police. But the police's responses are not so great. On Udin's case, for example, the new chief of regional police would say 'I am the eight Kapolda. This case was handled by my predecessor,'" Yosep said. "This shows that their work is not continuous. Unsolved facts should be new officials' homework."

Regarding the World Freedom Press which Indonesia will host next year, Yosep said that the Press Council wants the cases solved. "We want to tell about Indonesia's success story Indonesia to maintain freedom of journalism since 1999. But we cannot do that if the eight murder cases remain unsolved," Yosep concluded.

Source: http://en.tempo.co/read/news/2016/04/11/055761571/Indonesia-Owes-8-Cases-of-Murdered-Journalists

Environment & natural disasters

Government looks to disband zero-deforestation pledge

Jakarta Post - April 13, 2016

Hans Nicholas Jong – The government is campaigning against a "zero deforestation" pledge (IPOP) signed by leading palm oil producers in Indonesia. This stands in stark contrast to Indonesia's commitment to promoting sustainable agro-forestry practices.

The Agriculture Ministry said on Tuesday the government was looking for a legal basis to disband the pledge. The pledge was initially designed to promote sustainable practices in Indonesia, the world's largest producer and exporter of palm oil.

"The point is that we oppose the IPOP. The Business Competition Supervisory Commission [KPPU] has issued a letter saying that there are indications of a cartel in the IPOP. We will coordinate with the KPPU first and that letter can be used as a basis for its disbandment," the ministry's plantations director general, Gamal Nasir, told The Jakarta Post.

The Agriculture Ministry has joined with the Environment and Forestry Ministry to attack the IPOP, with the latter officially stating its opposition to the pledge last year. The KPPU letter, issued in October 2015, said the IPOP might lead to cartel-like activities as it could create barriers to entry for palm oil farmers who conduct business with IPOP members. The signatories to the pledge are Asian Agri, Astra Agro Lestari, Cargill, Golden Agri-Resources, Musim Mas and Wilmar.

The KPPU said a requirement imposed by the IPOP demanding that its members only buy palm oil from farmers who plant sustainable palm oil was too difficult for small farmers to meet.

"In some points, the pledge is not in line with the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil [ISPO], which is a regulation for Indonesia's palm oil industry," the KPPU letter said.

The ISPO is a certification for legal compliance given out by the government. However, only a few companies in Indonesia are ISPO-certified. All signatories to the IPOP are also signatories to the ISPO.

The Consumer Goods Forum and the Tropical Forests Alliance 2020 lobbied for a better standard than the ISPO, which helped give birth to the IPOP. The IPOP goes beyond mere legal compliance as required by the ISPO.

IPOP members decided to ban clearing on four types of land: Primary forest, peatland, secondary forest and bush, regarded as land with a high carbon content. Meanwhile, the government only bans land clearing in primary forest and peatland as the ISPO only requires producers to avoid planting palm oil trees on high conservation value forest (HCVF), as opposed to IPOP members who are committed to avoiding high carbon stock (HCS) areas.

"That clearly violates the UUD [Constitution] as it stipulates that natural resources have to be utilized for the people's welfare," Gamal said.

However, IPOP legal team member Ibrahim Senen said the government had to prove that the pledge violated the law. "There's no law that bans people from creating a higher standard," he said. Ibrahim also questioned the legal basis for the IPOP's disbandment because the IPOP was simply a pledge, and not a legal subject in the country.

IPOP management team director executive Nurdiana Darus said the pledge did not aim to drive small farmers out of business. "What we are hoping to achieve through the IPOP is the empowerment of small farmers. We are hoping to grow step by step because in the future, the market will demand sustainable palm oil from Indonesia," she said.

Besides raising the concern of cartel-like activities, Gamal also accused the IPOP of submitting to pressure from foreign companies as it requires stricter sustainability practices. "Why do we want to be controlled by other countries?" he asked.

The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce (Kadin), meanwhile, said the presence of the IPOP was important to unlock foreign markets as the country's palm oil industry was often criticized, and sometimes boycotted, by overseas buyers for its unsustainable practices.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/13/govt-looks-disband-zero-deforestation-pledge.html

Health & education

Indonesia shackled by ignorance over mental illness

Straits Times - April 11, 2016

Arlina Arshad – He used to be secured in wooden stocks, but he managed to break free of them. They have since been replaced with the iron chains.

His mother Rukmini, 45, a rice farmer said her heart broke when she first had to lock him up. "I cried, no mother wants to do this to her own son, but I have no choice."

According to official figures, Sulaiman is among more than 18,000 Indonesians with mental illness who are still subjected to pasung, where they are kept in restraints or in a confined space. This even though the decades-old practice was outlawed in 1977.

It is not uncommon for patients to be locked in chains and wooden stocks, and isolated in cramped and filthy chicken coops or goat sheds for years, activists and officials said.

This is a result of the lack of mental health services, trained caregivers and psychiatrists as well as little awareness of psychosocial and intellectual disabilities, said Mr Nahar, a social rehabilitation director at Indonesia's Social Affairs Ministry.

"We know that it's still happening but we are not closing an eye to their plight," he said. "We are serious about helping them despite our less than ideal situation."

President Joko Widodo wants to put an end to the practice by December next year. That is why teams of caregivers have been visiting rural villages since January to free patients from their restraints and provide medical treatment.

"Many who do this are poor and uneducated who have no idea how to deal with mental patients," said Mr Nahar. "So we are now focusing on education."

Only about half of the 445 general hospitals in the country offer mental healthcare services, but about 400,000 Indonesians have severe mental illnesses. Many go unreported, added Mr Nahar.

For some families, the stigma and shame of having family members with mental illness have caused them to shy away from seeking professional help. For others, superstitious beliefs have steered them towards traditional healers instead.

Sulaiman, for instance, was taken to numerous village shamans for treatment when he "turned crazy" three years ago, after his childhood love got married and he was sent off to a religious boarding school.

A neighbour, Madam Sobariah, 45, said: "The faith healers say he has been possessed by demons. He hits people including his parents with sticks and rocks until they are black and blue. He steals chicken and fruits... he destroys crops."

Human Rights Watch (HRW) group in its report Living In Hell released last month, called pasung a "widespread and brutal practice" that takes place not only in rural homes, but also in private and public rehabilitation centres.

HRW disability rights researcher Kriti Sharma said the group recognises that the ministries involved are "keen to work together on this issue, but it is time for the government to translate the rhetoric in Jakarta into practice on the ground.

Indonesian Mental Health Association chairman Yeni Rosa Damayanti said pasung is not unique to Indonesia, but rampant in the Philippines, Laos and Cambodia, Nepal, India and Bangladesh.

A visit by The Straits Times to a privately-run Galuh Rehabilitation Centre in Bekasi, an area in the capital's outskirts, found a few hundred patients with mental illness held in an open hall separated by iron bars.

A few were isolated in smaller rooms, including one who was shackled to a bar because of his penchant for destroying fittings such as water taps and ceiling boards. Owner Suhanda and many other activists say conditions, however, have improved at the centre thanks to donations and caregiver training.

"We used to chain up a lot of patients in the past because we don't have enough manpower to look after everyone. Fights among patients can break out anytime and turn ugly," said Mr Suhanda. "While we don't want them to hurt one another, we now understand they are also human so we have to treat them like one, so no more shackling unnecessarily."

Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/world/indonesia-shackled-by-ignorance-over-mental-illness

Islam and family planning in Indonesia: Force for good or obstacle to change?

Jakarta Globe - April 12, 2016

Jakarta – Family planning experts insist that in countries like Indonesia, there needs to be greater engagement of faith-based communities to make sure everybody's sexual and reproductive health needs are met. But in this sprawling Muslim-majority archipelago, activists face a variety of challenges. That doesn't stop them from trying, though, with some pursuing a rights-based approach firmly rooted in religion and co-opting the very Islamic terminology others use to justify the status quo.

"Every human being, whatever way you swing it, has some connection with the unknown," Undersecretary-General Babatunde Osotimehin, the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), told the Jakarta Globe in an interview. "We must never underestimate the role of faith in people's ideas and beliefs, and what they will and will not do."

Speaking on the sidelines of the International Conference on Family Planning in Bali, which was opened by President Joko Widodo and attended by over 4,400 experts and other stakeholders from all over the world earlier this year, Osotimehin stressed that religion will remain important for many people all over the world.

"This is just not about Catholicism, or Christianity as a whole, it is not about Islam alone, or Buddhism, or whatever," he said. "Faith is a very powerful force in the world. That is what we need to understand."

Are two kids enough?

Indonesia is a bustling democracy with an overwhelmingly young population of over 250 million souls, and over 85 percent identifying as Muslims. The major challenges in terms of family planning – and sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in general – include uneven development, high maternal mortality rates (in many cases due to unsafe abortion) and growing numbers of people living with HIV and Aids, particularly women and youngsters. Related problems are high rates of child marriage and the continued prevalence of female genital mutilation in spite of a government ban.

On the upside, Indonesia's family planning program – and its well-known motto Dua Anak Cukup (Two Kids Is Enough) – has been very successful since its start in the late 1960s, lowering the total fertility rate (TFR) from 5.6 to 2.6 in recent years. However, the decline has started to stall and the TFR target of 2.1 remains out of reach. Some say this is a consequence of an Islamic revival in the officially secular nation since the fall of strongman Suharto in 1998 and subsequent democratization and decentralization of power.

One of the groups benefiting from greater freedom of speech in Indonesia is Hizb ut-Tahrir, which describes itself as "a political party whose ideology is Islam" and its stated objective is "to resume the Islamic way of life by establishing an Islamic State that executes the systems of Islam and carries its call to the world."

The organization is not to be confused with the Islamic State movement in Syria and Iraq, which has been denounced publicly both by the international HT organization and by its Indonesian branch, Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI).

HTI says a Shariah-based caliphate – to be established through education and other non-violent means – is the only way to properly protect families, especially women and children.

When asked about family planning challenges in Indonesia, Iffah Ainur Rochmah, a spokeswoman for HTI, told the Jakarta Globe that family planning (or tanzim an nasl in Arabic) is allowed in Islam, but not birth control (tahdid an nasl), and only as long as there are no permanent alterations to the body.

The decision to regulate one's fertility should be made at the family level, Iffah said, and not by the government. The Indonesian government should therefore refrain from portraying families with just two children in a more positive light than families with more than two children. Also, she adds, family planning should not be presented as a solution to solve the problem of poverty.

"Poverty is rooted in the exploitative capitalist economic system that siphons off wealth to benefit a small group of local and foreign people, instead of the people," explained Iffah. "The root cause of poverty is not the number of residents of this country."

Although relatively few people in Indonesia would readily subscribe to the far-reaching solution proposed by HTI for some of the most urgent family planning and SRHR issues – a caliphate based on Shariah law – many of the group's views on the underlying problems are commonly held throughout the archipelago – by Muslims and non-Muslims alike.

Role of the media

Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest socio-religious organization with tens of millions of members, has long played an important role in Indonesia's family planning program. Apart from educating its members and disseminating religious decrees on the issue, it has also offered contraceptive services at hospitals and clinics, and information at its Islamic boarding schools, or pesantren.

Badriyah Fayumi, deputy chairwoman of NU's Family Welfare Agency (LKKNU) and a former member of the House of Representatives for the National Awakening Party (PKB), says the main challenges in the field of family planning nowadays include high rates of child marriage and divorce, and the rejection of family planning by some Islamist organizations and political parties campaigning on an Islam-inspired platform.

Since the fall of Suharto and the start of democratization, the decision whether or not to use contraceptives increasingly has to be made at the individual or family level, says Badriyah, who also used to head the Indonesian Commission on Child Protection (KPAI).

With the spread of conservative religious views in Indonesia in recent years, the role of progressive religious leaders is becoming more important than ever, she says, adding that positive media coverage of prominent religious figures or celebrities with large families – "five to thirteen children from one wife" – doesn't help.

Badriyah says the government, civil society and the media need to promote progressive religious views while keeping religious leaders involved at both the national and the local level. Iffah, meanwhile, also says she is concerned about the role of the media.

According to the HTI spokeswoman, a strong faith needs to be implanted in individuals so that they refrain from violating Shariah law, for instance by having premarital sex or using drugs. A conducive environment needs to be created to enable people to live their lives in line with religious values and common decency, she added.

"It's not allowed to walk around in public showing your aurat," Iffah said, referring to the parts of people's bodies that many observant Muslims believe need to be hidden from view. "The media also have a major role to play in this, as they portray sex outside marriage and dating as an [acceptable] lifestyle, which has to be banned."

Dealing with HIV and Aids

The government also needs to make sure people can make a decent living, said Iffah, so that they don't need to resort to pornography, prostitution or drugs to earn money. At the same time, non-permanent contraceptive options should be made available to lawfully married couples, as long as they do not contain substances that Muslims are not allowed to use (such as pork products).

"The goal should be to regulate pregnancies," Iffah told the Globe. "But to limit the risk of sexually transmitted diseases and HIV/Aids [the use of contraceptives] is not suitable and the failure rate is high."

"The spread of dangerous diseases should be prevented by putting a stop to promiscuous lifestyles and [searching for] a complete cure," says Iffah. "The use of contraceptive devices by unmarried couples is forbidden, or haram. The fact that there are risks in engaging in sexual intercourse – such as unwanted pregnancy or the spread of disease – cannot be used as a reason to allow the use of contraception by unmarried couples. That would simply amount to promoting and facilitating promiscuity. We [therefore] reject UN programs to campaign for [making available] contraception, or family planning, to adolescents on reproductive health grounds. This can promote promiscuity, which is already rife in this country."

However, simply regulating the sale of condoms – widely available in supermarkets throughout Indonesia – is not sufficient, Iffah said. "This has to be accompanied by education, by making the [religious] ban on premarital sex part of the curriculum [in schools], by providing counseling for the people and the cultivation of a pious lifestyle in the context of the family."

As for those already living with HIV or Aids, the state needs to provide free treatment to people who were infected through blood transfusion, or women who were infected by their husband or children infected by their mother, Iffah said.

HTI is less forgiving for those who contracted HIV in other ways, however. "People suffering from HIV because of a lifestyle involving sex outside marriage, LGBT or drug use, they should be punished severely based on Shariah principles," said Iffah. "Because from an Islamic perspective, they are criminals."

Progressive understanding of Islam

Indonesia's National Population and Family Planning Board (BKKBN) is already working together with faith-based groups like Badriyah's NU, but some experts say more is needed to overcome current problems.

"Muslim religious leaders must have the courage to revise Islamic teachings," says Musdah Mulia, a professor at the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) in Jakarta. "And they must have the courage to respond to contemporary issues of modern societies, such as family planning, reproductive health, gender equality and women's empowerment."

"Islamic organizations must be at the forefront in campaigning for rational, humanist and progressive Islamic interpretation to be able to realize equal access of Muslim women to family planning programs," says Musdah, an expert on Islam and gender issues, "and also to liberate Muslim women from ignorance, from poverty and all forms of discrimination and injustice in upholding the essence of Islam in peace and harmony."

However, it is not always a problem of clashing worldviews or religious interpretations that stands in the way of progress, says Ninuk Widyantoro, a psychologist and a co-founder of the Women's Health Foundation (YKP) who has been advocating on women's reproductive health issues for decades. Rather, she says, religious leaders sometimes merely lack a good understanding of what sexual and reproductive health is all about – "so you have to approach them."

"I've never been refused by any of the pesantren," she says, referring to Islamic boarding schools led by prominent religious leaders. "Don't be afraid to open the dialogue. Don't be afraid to knock on the door."

Access to safe abortion

Abortion has been both common and controversial at the same time in the archipelago since before independence. More than two million Indonesian women are estimated to undergo abortions each year nowadays, mostly illegal and often under unsafe conditions.

Abortion is not allowed in Indonesia except in cases of rape, fetal abnormality or when the pregnancy threatens the mother's life. But even for women facing such harrowing circumstances, Ninuk says the legal battle is actually still being waged.

"It took eight years to approve the [2009] Health Law, including a chapter on reproductive health that mentions abortion," Ninuk told a forum discussion at the Bali family planning conference in January.

"I thought the work was already finished, but then the parliamentarians – because this is a sensitive issue – they asked that just for this chapter we needed a government regulation. It took another five years to finally get the government regulation approved in 2014. Again I thought we were finished, but the last requirement is that we have a guideline for implementation of the regulation. This will likely be finalized soon."

Ninuk says that in a country like Indonesia, and especially in the cultural context of Java, one has to be very tactful when trying to build a dialogue on issues such as SRHR. "Abortion is a very sensitive issue, and it is very much related to [people's] values. You cannot force a doctor, or a community, or leaders to accept this idea. So we have to go slowly."

Iffah, the HTI spokeswoman, said she believed abortion should not be allowed for the mere reason of a pregnancy being unwanted, unexpected or unplanned.

"Indeed there is Islamic jurisprudence [fiqh] that says it [abortion] is allowed before four months or when [the embryo is] not yet given its soul [making it a human being]. But in practice we have to be very careful with this," she said "Because most abortion requests are a consequence of sex outside marriage – it is caused by promiscuity. Don't abuse the Islamic jurisprudence to make it easier to lead a promiscuous lifestyle. We need to close all doors that can lead to sex outside marriage."

A Maria Ulfah Anshor, a commissioner at the Indonesian Commission on Child Protection (KPAI) with a background in various branches of NU, wrote her PhD dissertation on Islamic jurisprudence about abortion.

All religious leaders in Islam – in the four major schools of jurisprudence, or madhhab – agree that abortion is only allowed during the period before the fetus is given its soul, Maria Ulfah explains. If the embryo has already been given its soul, that means it is a living human being and then it can no longer be harmed, except in certain emergency situations.

A major issue of dispute in Islam is when exactly this happens. Some say it happens 120 days after conception, others 40 and yet others stick to periods such as eight or ten weeks – all based on varying interpretations of verses from the Koran or sayings of the Prophet Muhammad, known as hadith.

According to Maria Ulfah it is necessary for organizations like NU to educate people at the grassroots level about family planning and other sexual and reproductive health issues. She says a rights-based approach needs to be used that is based on language and terminology rooted in religion, to give the efforts a better chance of success.

The KPAI commissioner says such an approach is supported by Islamic teachings, as the Koran gives women the right to make decisions about their own bodies, including their reproductive organs. And universal human rights, such as freedom and justice, are also part of Islam, Maria Ulfah stresses.

'Not fighting against faith leaders'

Apart from rights-based approaches, Islam also teaches people about duty, says M. Amin Abdullah, a professor of Islamic philosophy at the Sunan Kalijaga State Islamic University (UIN) in Yogyakarta.

Similar to the HTI perspective, Amin says that indeed it is essential to move away from the birth control (tahdid an-nasl) perspective and to embrace family planning (tanzim an-nasl), which for instance can also be understood to include birth spacing for the well-being of both mother and child.

However, stressing the need for a revitalization of Islamic thought based on a contemporary understanding of the concept of maqasid – or the purpose of the faith – Amin says one of the key responsibilities of mankind is the proper management of Earth and its natural resources.

Environmental destruction, rising pollution levels and climate change, the professor says, point to the need to balance population growth, and that can only be achieved with a well-designed family planning program supported by Muslim religious leaders and a discourse rooted in Islamic thought.

In this, Amin is supported by Risman Musa, a former deputy coordinating minister for people's welfare who now works as a consultant on reproductive health issues.

"The Indonesian government cannot move without the support of the ulema," says Risman, referring to Islamic scholars. The government at all levels should therefore maintain solid relationships with Muslim religious leaders, he says, who can then help scale up the country's family planning program through pre-marriage counseling, or statements at Friday sermons or other religious gatherings.

"Partnership will give people a sense of ownership and ensure acceptability and sustainability," Risman says.

Osotimehin, the UNFPA executive director, also believes religious leaders need to be part of the picture.

"There is no faith that condones death, not one. All faiths are about life. All faiths are about health. All faiths are about the goodness of people," he says. "In many parts of the world, faith leaders do not oppose family planning – if it is used in union. When it comes to married women, they don't fight. Maybe one or two might say they don't believe in the technology, but that is only about the methodology."

"The only point where there is a bit of controversy, is about women who are not married and whether they can use contraception," Osotimehin says. "My view is this: you need to teach them, and all young people – boys and girls – about their bodies. So they know about what is going on. So they know about prevention of pregnancy and prevention of HIV, prevention of STIs [sexually transmitted infections]."

"If you do that effectively, you might prevent a lot of pregnancies, because people understand their vulnerabilities. In my sense, they should be able to access contraceptives, like condoms, but this is the way to break it up. Otherwise you get a situation where we are fighting against faith leaders, while we are not. We need to work with them, to make sure that we preserve life."

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/islam-family-planning-indonesia-force-good-obstacle-change/

Gender & sexual orientation

PPP to propose anti-LGBT propaganda bill

Jakarta Post - April 15, 2016

Erika Anindita Dewi – The Islamic United Development Party (PPP) will submit a bill on the anti-propaganda of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) content to the House of Representatives, a PPP lawmaker says.

The PPP faction in the House has communicated with the House's legislation body (Baleg) to further discuss the draft bill, which emphasizes the ban of LGBT propaganda in the public space, head of House's PPP faction Hasrul Azwar said.

"LGBT content needs to be regulated, as we already regulate alcohol and halal food," Hasrul told thejakartapost.com.

The LGBT anti-propaganda bill was submitted on April 6 by the Indonesian Muslim Brotherhood (Parmusi) in 1973, along with Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Islamic Union Party (PSII) and the Islamic Education Union (Perti) in 1973.

The PPP faction would soon discuss with lawmakers from other factions, said Hasrul. The PPP faction deemed the LGBT as a danger indication in the social relationships and such practice is prohibited by religions, Hasrul said.

Speaking separately, Baleg chairman Supratman Andi Agtas didn't have any knowledge whether the PPP faction had submitted the LGBT anti-propaganda or not.

Previously, the Indonesian Broadcasting Commission (KPI) has cited the broadcasting code of conduct (P3) and the broadcasting programs standards (SPS) to discourage broadcasters from the airing of programs containing LGBT content. The KPI pointed out that many television stations broadcast programs about LGBT issues and people, both in the form of journalistic reports and entertainment.

The Communications and Information Ministry is reportedly drafting a bill to ban websites that promote such activities.

Chatarina Wahyurini of the Indonesia Planned Parenthood Association (PKBI) has criticized the anti-LGBT campaign, saying that the government should take a more serious approach to providing protection and security to every citizen regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

She said the LGBT community should have equal access to public services and space needed to freely express their identity, participate in dialogue and to contribute to the nation in a positive manner. (bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/15/ppp-to-propose-anti-lgbt-propaganda-bill-1460698417.html

Graft & corruption

KPK promises more crackdowns on bribery-riddled prosecutor's offices

Jakarta Post - April 13, 2016

Haeril Halim – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has pledged to step up its crackdown on future bribe-taking acts following two separate arrests it made in the past two weeks involving prosecutors. They were bribed by suspects to compromise the handling of graft cases.

On Tuesday, the KPK arrested two prosecutors from the West Java prosecutor's office after catching them red-handed accepting bribes from defendants in order to devise lenient sentences for defendants currently being tried at the Bandung Corruption Court. The two were also alleged to have arranged a scheme to scrap the role of Subang regent Ojang Sohandi, a possible suspect in the case, from the prosecution. The arrests came just 12 days after the KPK arrested two company executives for allegedly attempting to bribe Jakarta Prosecutor's Office head Sudung Situmorang through prosecutor Tomo Sitepu, who, according to the KPK, would also be prosecuted in the case.

"We need to step up efforts to crackdown on the criminal justice system to better our law enforcement," KPK commissioner Laode Muhammad Syarif told a press briefing when announcing the detention of five people, including the two prosecutors and Ojang.

On Monday, Ojang bribed prosecutors Devianti Rochaeni and Fahri Nurmallo through Lenih Marliani, also arrested, to lessen the sentence of her husband Jajang Abdul Kholik, the head of public service division at Subang Health Agency. Jajang is currently being tried at Bandung court for alleged embezzlement of Healthcare and Social Security Agency (BPJS Kesehatan) funds, which could implicate Ojang. Both Devianti and Fahri are prosecutors handling the BPJS case, which caused Rp 4 billion (US$305,000) in state losses.

Immediately after arresting Devianti at the prosecutor's office, KPK investigators moved to nab Ojang in Subang after discovering the Rp 582 million Lenih used to bribe Devianti was financed by the regent, likely to disengage himself from the case.

Fahri was not in West Java when the sting operation got underway. He surrendered after the KPK asked him to hand himself in to KPK headquarters in order to avoid a forceful arrest.

Hours after the two prosecutors' arrest, the Attorney General's Office (AGO) lambasted the KPK for what it called an "improper raid" without the necessary warrants.

"I will firstly study the report from the West Java Prosecutor's Office to find out whether there was a search and confiscation warrant for the case. Things should not go that way," AGO supervisory division head Widyo Pramono said on Monday.

Laode played down Widyo's accusation, saying the AGO's statement was baseless because the KPK did not conduct a search and confiscation operation, where KPK investigators already had an arrest warrant signed by KPK leaders when they apprehended Devianti.

The two arrests has tarnished the image of prosecutor's offices nationwide as graft-ridden law enforcement bodies.

"With regard to the case involving [Sudung and Sitepu], don't worry about it. We will not stop and we will continue the investigation [of the two]," KPK chairman Agus Raharjo said.

On April 1, the KPK arrested executives of developer PT Brantas Abipraya, Sudi Wantoko and Dandung Pamularno, for bribing Sudung and Sitepu through a middleman identified as Marudut. The KPK arrested Marudut just before handing money over to Sudung. The KPK said it was just a matter of time that the two prosecutors would be named suspects.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/13/KPK-promises-more-crackdowns-bribery-riddled-prosecutor-s-offices.html

Red-carpet treatment for graft convicts

Jakarta Post - April 10, 2016

Pandaya – Indonesia Corruption Watch's (ICW) recent report on the downward trend in prison terms meted out to graft convicts in 2015 is not quite earth-shaking, yet it is still a wake-up call.

Analyzing the litigation of 524 graft cases involving 564 defendants throughout 2015, the corruption watchdog found that last year's prison sentences for corruption convicts averaged 26 months, down from 30 months in 2014.

Combined with the House of Representatives' continual efforts to incapacitate the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the uptrend adds to skepticism about the country's resolve in rooting out the acute corruption involving state officials, politicians and businesses. It also raises question about the common perception that corruption is an extraordinary crime that threatens not only the economy, but also national security. The public sense of justice is also grossly violated.

Consistent light prison terms can be a symptom of judges and prosecutors' lack of awareness that corruption is an extraordinary crime and hence requires extraordinary measures to combat it. This appalling condition persists partly because, as ICW's Danang Widoyoko rightly pointed out at a seminar, the judicial system, where judges are groomed, is also corrupt. This makes them look at corruption just as they would at any other crime, such as stealing a goat.

As ICW has revealed, the whole affair is more complex than many think. It turns out that the corruption court judges have "good" legal grounds to extend brief prison terms. Their reference is none other than Law No. 31/1999 on corruption, which has never been amended.

The minimum sentence for state officials found guilty of abuse of power is one year (Article 3), one quarter of the minimum jail sentence for corrupt non-state officials (Article 2). So don't be surprised if many state officials found guilty of stealing billions of rupiah in public funds have had to spend only a few years behind bars before they are set free, still filthy rich, and laugh all the way to the bank.

Besides, there are a million ways for the inmates to have their prison terms cut. Government Regulation No 99/2012 allows graft convicts to obtain remissions as long as they have already settled the fine and/or restitution as ordered by the court. Oh, even easier: Convicts are entitled to remissions for "good" behavior, as judged by prison wardens.

Of late, the KPK has its doors wide open for graft suspects to become "partners" as justice collaborators. All they need to do is to confess and help unravel the case by detailing the roles of other people. In return, the KPK will seek a shorter prison sentence.

Throughout last year, ICW counted only four convicts who received prison terms of more than 10 years. Ex-Democratic Party chief Anas Urbaningrum got 14 years in the misappropriation of funds for the Hambalang sports complex project. The regent of Klungkung, Bali, I Wayan Candra was incarcerated for 12 years for embezzling funds earmarked for port construction. PT Sanjico Abadi president director Asep Aaan Priandi handed a 12-year sentence in a health equipment procurement case. Finally, PT MAPNA Indonesia boss Mohammad Bahalwan was sentenced to 11 years in a corruption case at state-owned PLN.

Arasdila Caesar, a member of ICW's litigation monitoring division, argues that the light sentences happened because, unlike prosecutors, judges did not have verdict guidelines for graft defendants. "We found wildly different verdicts for similar cases. Some got hefty sentences and others light punishment," he says.

A South Sulawesi civil servant, Isman Idul Fitriansyah, was sentenced to four years for causing state losses of Rp 15 million (US$1,150). Meanwhile, South Nias deputy regent Hukuasa Ndruru got only two years for a graft case that incurred almost Rp 10 billion in losses to the state.

This sort of discrepancy only adds credence to the widely accepted axiom that the more money you steal, the shorter jail term you are likely to receive.

More astonishing yet is Law No. 8/2015 on elections, which allows one-time criminal convicts to run for legislative and executive posts as long as the offenses they committed do not carry a mandatory prison term of five years or more. That explains why some criminal suspects ran in last year's historic simultaneous regional elections, and ironically won. Only recidivists are prohibited from running for executive and legislative office.

And it is equally intriguing that many graft suspects have received jail terms of less than five years, usually four or four-and-a-half years. Could it mean that the very kind judges intend to allow the convicts to run for political posts once they leave penitentiary?

And this red-carpet treatment for graft suspects and ex-convicts has been perfected by General Elections Commission (KPU) Decree No. 9/2015, which gives former criminal convicts the liberty to run for executive and legislative positions with one requirement: They should publicly and honestly disclose their past.

A famous case in point is M. Taufik, the sitting Jakarta City Council deputy speaker. He was sentenced to 18 months in 2006 for a graft case that caused the state to suffer a loss of Rp 488 million when he chaired the city's election commission overseeing the 2004 general elections.

Whether you love it or loath it, Indonesia has a unique way to honor graft convicts.

[The author is a staff writer at The Jakarta Post.]

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/10/red-carpet-treatment-graft-convicts.html

Terrorism & religious extremism

Siyono's family still subjected to threats

Jakarta Post - April 14, 2016

Terror suspect Siyono's family continues to receive threats from the police, a defense team for the family has said. The most recent threat came about when officers from the National Police Internal Affairs Division summoned Siyono's father Mardiyo for questioning over the autopsy carried out on his son.

"This is a form of terror. What does the autopsy has to do with the issue of police ethics?" said Trisno Raharjo of the Humanitarian Defense Team (TPK) in a press conference at the Center for Human Rights Studies at Islamic University of Indonesia on Wednesday.

The TPK was established by the Muhammadiyah Central Board to resolve the case of Siyono, who was allegedly subjected to violence during his arrest by the police's counter-terrorism unit Densus 88 on March 8. He later died on March 10.

An autopsy conducted by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) revealed that broken ribs had caused Siyono's death. Trisno said Mardiyo was questioned by Propam at the Pogung village hall in Klaten on Tuesday.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/14/islands-focus-siyono-s-family-still-subjected-threats.html

Indonesia's feared anti-terrorism squad under fire in hunt for ISIS

Asia Sentinel - April 14, 2016

Siyono's wife Suratmi probably did the best thing she could when she asked for help from Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second largest Islamic organization, to figure out why her husband died in the custody of the Indonesian police's feared counter-terrorism squad Densus 88 last month.

Along with her effort to seek for the truth through Muhammadiyah, she also handed over a folded brown paper bag which she said was given by Densus 88 after her husband' death. Muhammadiyah in a press conference said the paper bag was loaded with Rp100 million (US$7,606) as a "token of sorry" to Siyono's family.

The 34-year-old Siyono, who like many Indonesians has one name, was a resident of Dukuh village in Klaten, Central Java. He was arrested on allegations of involvement in terrorism on March 8 and died in custody on March 10. He was buried on March 13.

He is the 121st person to have died after being arrested by Densus 88 since the elite police unit for counterterrorism was established on Aug. 26, 2004, according to data from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM). The unit, comprising 400-500 personnel, was established on funds by the US State Department, which paid for its weapons, salaries, high-level training in communications interception, close combat warfare and intelligence gathering and analysis.

The unit is given credit for turning the tide in Indonesia's war against the terrorist organization Jemaat Islamiyah. It has now come into the spotlight because of intensifying fears that Indonesians who have slipped out of the country to the Middle East to join the Islamic State, known as ISIS, or Daesh, would be coming home to wreak domestic mayhem. By one estimate, 500 Indonesians are in the Middle East. Some 200 – mostly women and children – have been caught in Turkey and sent back to be kept under surveillance. January attacks in central Jakarta, which took eight lives including four of the attackers, were said to have been organized and funded by Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian computer expert believed to be in Syria.

Densus 88's reputation for effectiveness hasn't been without cost. It has come under scrutiny by human rights groups for its reputation for torture and for "shootouts" with terrorists that may not have been shootouts at all but executions. In 2010, the unit came under fire for a video showing members pressing a smoldering stick against a Papuan separatist's genitals, a plastic bag wrapped around the suspect's head, and one officer holding a large knife next to the pleading suspect's neck.

The police first told a different story about Siyono, whom they said had stashed a handgun and attacked officers while being taken by Densus 88 to a location in Yogyakarta in early March. A scuffle broke out inside the car and Siyono bumped his head, which led to his death, they said.

But an autopsy by doctors affiliated with Muhammadiyah which was conducted at the request of Siyono's wife revealed he died from blunt trauma to the chest, which broke bones near his heart. The autopsy also found no defensive wounds on his body.

After these revelations, the national Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Charliyan on April 5 told reporters the counterterrorism unit had committed several "procedural mistakes" and that this would be investigated.

The House of Representatives plans to summon the chiefs of the National Police and the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) to explain a series of deaths involving Densus 88 and terror suspects in recent years.

"The questions are whether Siyono was indeed a terrorist who warranted arrest, and whether he died because he resisted," said Desmond Mahesa, deputy chairman of House Commission III, which oversees human rights issues, as quoted by local media.

"We plan to meet on Wednesday with the BNPT and next week with the National Police," the Gerindra Party lawmaker said during a hearing with representatives from Komnas HAM and Muhammadiyah.

The January bombings and shootings show that terrorism remains a threat to Indonesia's security despite ongoing counterterrorism measures.

Unnecessary abuses during current counterterrorism operations have highlighted the need for clearer operating procedures for the police. Alleged violations in the arrest and detention of Siyono have heightened concerns that human rights will be compromised from these counterterrorism measures is something real and must be prevented.

The 2003 law was a government response to terrorist attacks in Indonesia, which began to intensify after bombings in Bali in 2002 which killed 202 people, mostly foreign tourists.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said the law revision would give security personnel authority they should have in handling terrorist offences. He said the law revision would empower security elements so that they could take the necessary measures for suspected terrorists. However, he guaranteed that the revision would not be similar to the Internal Security Act (ISA) adopted by Malaysia and Singapore, two neighboring countries widely known for their tough measures in tackling terrorism.

Aside from general success in handling terrorism in Indonesia, there has been a growing concern on the rise of military involvement in the counter-terrorism effort which has been "politically given" to the police to handle.

The decision to give full authority to the police to handle terrorism instead of the military was originally to avoid civilian casualties during its process. However, too many wrong arrests and erased terror suspects has raised concerns over how the police have been handling the issue.

In the past few years, terrorist cells in Indonesia have shifted their target from foreign interests to police officers, who they refer to as the "more immediate enemy."

At the moment, around 2,000 military and police personnel are searching for the militant leader Santoso, who has publicly pledged loyalty to ISIL. He is considered the most wanted terrorist in the country, and his fighters have been on the run for more than three years in the jungles of Central Sulawesi, as part of Operation Tinombala 2016.

The recent involvement of the Indonesian military (TNI) on the chase was after the police realized that they lacked the capability in jungle warfare to be able to do the task. Police chief Badrodin Haiti originally requested that the army raiders and Special Forces train the mobile brigade in jungle warfare.

According to a recent report from Institute for Policy analysis of Conflict (IPAC) the request was passed to the TNI chief, General Gatot, who apparently agreed but then had second thoughts – perhaps not wanting to be accused of militarizing the police and probably not wanting to weaken the case for military engagement in internal security.

The TNI then responded by sending a 60-person special forces (Kopassus) team and a 40-person combat intelligence platoon from the army strategic reserve of command (Kostrad) for training last September.

Source: http://www.asiasentinel.com/society/indonesia-densus88-hunt-isis/

House told to evaluate antiterror squad

Jakarta Post - April 13, 2016

Nurul Fitri Ramadhani and Stefani Ribka – In view of the potential for human rights abuses by special operations police officers, some have called for the National Police to evaluate the work and operational procedures of its antiterror squad, Densus 88.

The call was made by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and Muhammadiyah, an Islamic organization, on Tuesday. The call follows the results of an independent autopsy on Siyono, an alleged terrorist who died under suspicious circumstances while in police custody.

The autopsy showed that Siyono died from a broken rib piercing his heart. The result contradicted earlier statements by the police that Siyono had died from internal bleeding in the head after being hit by a blunt object following a fight with a Densus 88 officer in a car.

"We hope House Commission III will evaluate Densus 88's operational procedures," Muhammadiyah Youth Association chairman Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak said on Tuesday.

Densus 88 arrested Siyono in March without an arrest warrant, and four days later announced his death to his family. He was said to be one of the leaders of the neo-Jamaah Islamiyah (JI) terrorist group.

Komnas HAM found a number of irregularities regarding Siyono's death, including the police's unclear information about the cause of death, their efforts to prohibit Siyono's family from conducting an autopsy and excessive surveillance during the funeral. Furthermore, Rp 100 million (US$7,619) was given to Siyono's wife and brother for Siyono's five children and the funeral.

Komnas HAM chairman Imdadun Rahmat said that, based on the facts, the National Police, particularly Densus 88, were guilty of human rights abuses.

"Moreover, Siyono is not the first one to be abused, and killed, by the police," Imdadun said, revealing that Komnas HAM had recorded 121 similar cases of alleged criminals abused by police officers and tortured to death between 2007 and 2016.

Busyro Muqoddas, head of Muhammadiyah's legal and human rights division, complained about the amendment process to Law No. 9/2013 on the prevention and eradication of terrorism, particularly Article 28 of the draft bill, which grants the police the authority to extend the detention period for a terror suspect by up to one month.

"In two or three days, the authorities can cause a person's death. What will happen if they have one month?" Busyro said.

The House has established a special committee to deliberate the amendment of the Terrorism Law, comprising several members from commissions III and I.

Commission I deputy chairman TB Hasanuddin of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), who is also a member of the committee, said the committee had yet to determine whether to discuss the authority of Densus 88. "Let's not go too far. We need Densus 88. But of course, violating human rights must be punished," Hasanuddin said.

Another committee member, Arsul Sani from the United Development Party (PPP), said the House should not rush to pass the bill before the Siyono controversy was clear.

National Police chief Gen. Badrodin Haiti said the police would consider the results of the autopsy initiated by Komnas HAM and Muhammadiyah in its own investigation into Siyono's death.

"We have our own mechanisms. We'll see if their autopsy matches the results of our own investigation. We'll see whether or not a code has been breached. It could constitute a breach of ethics, discipline or crime," Badrodin said, declining to say that Densus 88 had gone too far.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/13/house-told-evaluate-antiterror-squad.html

Counterterrorism vs upholding human rights

Jakarta Post - April 13, 2016

Elly Burhaini Faizal – It was the saddest day for the family of Siyono, 34, who on March 8 was arrested on suspicion of being a terrorist, who then returned to his hometown, in Pogung, in a coffin five days later – his body showing clear signs of torture.

In a press conference on April 5, National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Charliyan admitted the National Police's Densus 88 counterterrorism unit committed several procedural mistakes and that this would be investigated.

The death of Siyono is the latest example of how counterterrorism measures in Indonesia have the potential for abuse. Security authorities can exploit whatever power they might have in the name of fighting terrorism. In Siyono's case, for instance, the existence of an arrest warrant that Densus 88 had used to arrest Siyono remains dubious.

No state institution so far has admitted to having issued an arrest warrant for the terrorist suspect. Thus, it is questionable for us that under existing legal counterterrorism mechanisms, the government aims to revise Law No. 15/2003 on Terrorism to expand the scope of its counterterrorism capabilities.

Despite ongoing terrorist incidents in areas across Indonesia, the government's plan to revise the 2003 Terrorism Law has drawn concern and criticism, primarily on its potential for rights abuses. In the law's draft revision, security institutions have wider authority to take measures against persons suspected of terrorist activities. On the other hand, the full scope of authority to address terrorist threats may lead to a significant change in the obligation of the state to respect human rights.

The 2003 Terrorism was a government response to terrorist attacks in Indonesia, which began to intensify in 2000 with a car bomb attack at the Jakarta Stock Exchange. A bombing and shootings near Sarinah, a shopping mall on Jl. MH Thamrin in Central Jakarta on Jan. 14, 2016, has shown that terrorism remains a threat to Indonesia's security despite ongoing counterterrorism measures. Eight people, including four civilians, were killed in the Thamrin incident, which also injured more than 20 people.

Unnecessary abuses during current counterterrorism operations have highlighted the need for clearer standard operating procedures. Alleged violations in the arrest and detention of Siyono have heightened concerns that human rights will be compromised from these counterterrorism measures is something real and must be prevented.

Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said the 2003 Terrorism Law revision would give security personnel authority they should have in handling terrorist offences. He said the law revision would empower security elements so that they could take the necessary measures for suspected terrorists. The minister guaranteed the revised Terrorism Law would not be similar to the Internal Security Act (ISA) adopted by Malaysia and Singapore, two neighboring countries widely known for their tough measures in tackling terrorism.

Concerns about potential human rights violations during counterterrorism measures cannot be avoided if we look at additional or revised articles included in the Terrorism Law's draft revision, however.

Article 43A of the draft revision stipulates: "To tackle terrorism, investigators or prosecutors can carry out preventive measures against any persons suspected to committing a terrorist crime and bring or place him or her in detention that is part of their working area, for 6 months at the longest".

"Such a measure has the potential to create detention centers, which are unregulated and prone to all forms of misuses of power, especially the implementation of inhumane actions and torture during the interrogation of suspected terrorists, such as what have happened in the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention center," Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) coordinator Haris Azhar told thejakartapost.com in a recent interview.

A greater military involvement in counterterrorism measures, which is allowed by the draft revision, has also drawn sharp criticism among human rights groups in Indonesia. It is stipulated in Article 43B of the revision that: "The national policy and strategy in the handling of terrorism crimes is conducted by the National Police, the Indonesian Military and related government institutions along with their respected authorities, which will be coordinated by non-ministry government institutions that handle terrorism prevention."

This article highlights a greater military involvement in future counterterrorism measures, which will likely push terrorism prevention away from law enforcement approaches. This article will open a room for the Indonesian Military's involvement in operations other than war, which actually has been regulated in Law No.34/2004 on the Indonesian Military. The law stipulates that any operations other than war involving the Indonesian Military must be based on a political decision jointly made by the President of the Republic of Indonesia and the House of Representatives. Involving the military in terrorism prevention cannot be conducted unless there is a state decision for such involvement.

Passport revocation for every Indonesian citizen proven to be an actor of a terrorism crime as stipulated in Article 12B of the revision not only violates citizenship rights but also has potential for misuse. "Citizenship revocation should not happen as it is a person's constitutional right," rights group Imparsial activist Al Araf told thejakartapost.com.

We must learn the lessons from past incidents, including the death of Siyono, that there are real risks of serious human rights abuse through current counterterrorism measures. It is the ultimate responsibility of the state to protect the whole country from terrorist threats. But, we also must keep the risks of the measures, which might severely affect the human rights of the people, in mind.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/13/counterterrorism-vs-upholding-human-rights.html

Rights activists to treat Siyono's death as criminal case

Jakarta Post - April 13, 2016

Marguerite Afra Sapiie – Human rights activists will treat the case of Siyono, an alleged terrorist, who died during interrogation by the National Police's counterterrorism squad Densus 88, as a criminal investigation, after an autopsy confirmed that torture was the cause of his death.

"We want to take Siyono's case further with criminal sanctions, not just an ethics hearing [for the police]," said Muhammadiyah youth wing chairman Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak during a hearing with House of Representatives' Commission III overseeing legal affairs in Jakarta, on Tuesday.

Attending the hearing included representatives of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras). They conveyed to the Commission their findings about Siyono's death.

Counterterrorism is indeed a priority for Indonesia as any other country, however, the mechanisms used should be in accordance with law and the national ideology, Pancasila, Dahnil said.

He expressed his concern that counterterrorism efforts in Indonesia still neglected human rights principles and such violations still had not been addressed by those in government.

Siyono was one among 121 other victims of Densus 88's counterterrorism operations that either neglected human rights principles, were allegedly conducted without warrants or involved torture, in which the autopsy results had proven in Siyono's case, Dahnil said.

Commission III deputy chairman Desmond J. Mahesa of the Gerindra party said there should be criminal sanctions for police officers who have been proven guilty of violating procedures.

Komnas HAM's investigation revealed suspected attempts by the police to hide the facts behind Siyono's death, including suspending his death announcement, giving bribe money and preventing the autopsy from taking place, Komnas HAM chairman Imdadun Rahmat said.

The money given secretly by Densus 88 to Suratmi and Wagiyono, Siyono's wife and brother, which amounted to Rp 100 million (US$7,619), had reportedly come from the elite squad's own budget, in which Komnas HAM had also asked for the Commission III to probe.

Densus 88 and the local administration of Pogung Village in Klaten, Central Java, the residence of Siyono, had also allegedly urged Siyono's family to sign a statement letter that barred the family from filing a lawsuit or demanding an autopsy, Imdadun said.

There was also inconsistency in the police's statements that explained how Siyono was killed inside a car after three members of Densus 88 arrested him in Pogung, Imdadun said.

Based on the investigation, Imdadun said, the police had violated Siyono's rights as an Indonesian citizen, particularly freedom from torture and the right to life, which are protected under both national and international law.

"Siyono's death also resembled many other counterterrorism cases that involved death outside the court process, the use of torture, and procedural violations on detention and arrest," Imdadun said.

The results of Siyono's autopsy, made public on Monday, revealed a differing cause of death from what the police had claimed, showing that Siyono died from a breastbone fracture in which one of the bones pierced his heart, Komnas HAM commissioner Siane Indriani said.

This contradicts a previous police statement that announced Siyono had died from a brain hemorrhage after attempting to escape after fighting with the officer escorting him by car. (bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/13/rights-activists-to-treat-siyonos-death-as-criminal-case.html

Siyono's death caused by fractured breastbone, autopsy reveals

Jakarta Post - April 11, 2016

Marguerite Afra Sapiie – An alleged terrorist, Siyono, died as a result of a broken rib piercing his heart, an independent autopsy overseen by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), the Muhammadiyah's youth wing and the Forensics Physicians Organization revealed on Monday.

The autopsy, conducted by nine doctors from the Central Java branch of the Indonesian Forensics Physicians Organization, revealed that Siyono had been hit by a blunt object that resulted in five ribs on the left side and one on the right side of his chest being broken. One of the bones pierced his heart, which led to his death, Komnas HAM commissioner Siane Indriani said on Monday.

Another wound found was on Siyono's head, which the police previously claimed had resulted in his death. However, the team found no signs of hemorrhaging in the brain and the autopsy showed that the head wound was not the cause of death.

"No signs showing that Siyono had fought or defended himself from an attack was found during the autopsy either," Sianer said in a press conference.

Muhammadiyah youth wing chairman Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak said the autopsy indicated that the police had lied when they claimed that Siyono had fought with an officer while in custody.

Dahnil also said the autopsy was the only one conducted on Siyono's body, despite police claiming that one had been performed at Kramat Jati Hospital in Jakarta. The police announced that Siyono had died from a brain hemorrhage after attempting to escape and fighting with an officer escorting him by car.

"The police's claim about hemorrhaging being the cause of Siyono's death is false, since no autopsy was conducted before," he said.

The team of forensics doctors also found bruises on Siyono's back, leading to the assumption that he may have been hit with a hard object.

Rori Haryono, a doctor from Diponegoro University's School of Medicine in Semarang who assisted in the autopsy, said that based on anatomic pathology, there were indications that the wounds on Siyono's body were made while he was still alive.

The autopsy was not too difficult to carry out as the dead body experienced saponification, in which the body did not decompose quickly has it had been buried in moist soil, Rori said.

Muhammadiyah, the second largest Muslim organization in the country, agreed to arrange the autopsy as requested by Siyono's wife, Suratmi, who had appealed for it to help her find justice for her late husband.

PP Muhammadiyah Legal and Human Rights Division Busyro Muqoddas said the organization had agreed to Suratmi's request for the sake of transparent autopsy results.

Siyono, a resident of Dukuh village, Pogung, Klaten, Central Java, died on March 11 while in police custody. The National Police's Densus 88 counterterrorism squad arrested Siyono on allegations of involvement in terrorism.

He is the 121st person to have died after being arrested by Densus 88 since the police unit for counterterrorism was established on Aug. 26, 2004, according to Komnas HAM data. (rin)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/11/siyonos-death-caused-by-fractured-breastbone-autopsy-reveals.html

Police alleged to have given Rp 100 million to Siyono's family

Jakarta Post - April 11, 2016

Marguerite Afra Sapiie – Police officers allegedly gave Rp 100 million ($7,619) to the family of Siyono, an alleged terrorist who died under suspicious circumstances in police custody, the National Commission of Human Rights (Komnas HAM) and Muslim organization Muhammadiyah announced on Monday.

The amount of money was revealed by Komnas HAM and the Muhammadiyah Central Committee for the first time on Monday during a press conference to announce Siyono's autopsy results.

Two packages were given, each containing Rp 50 million in Rp 100,000 bills; one to Siyono's wife Suratmi and one his brother Wagiyono, Komnas HAM commissioner Siane Indriani said.

Female members of the National Police anti-terrorist squad Densus 88 are alleged to have given the first batch of money to Suratmi in an envelope when she had gone to see her deceased husband in hospital.

The women handed the money to Suratmi and said that it was to help her raise her five children. The second batch was allegedly given to Wagiyono, Siyono's brother, to help with the burial process. They both received the money without receipt, Siane said.

Both Suratmi and Wagiyono handed the envelopes, unopened, to Muhammadiyah and Komnas HAM when they reported the alleged torture Siyono underwent at the hands of Densus 88. "Suratmi did not want the money," said M. Busyro Moqoddas, chairman of Legal and Human Rights at Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second largest Muslim organization.

Komnas HAM and Muhammadiyah will discuss the matter of the money further, said the former chairman of Corruption Eradication Commission.

The National Police announced that Siyono had died from a head trauma on March 11 during a fight with a security officer in a moving car.

National Police Spokesman Insp. Gen. Anton Charliyan alleged that Siyono had held an important role in a Jamaah Islamiyah militant group. Siyono was thought to know the location of the group's weapons warehouse.

"There are grenades, ammunition and a weapons manufacturer in the building, collected to establish the Islamic State of Indonesia [NII]," Anton said last week as quoted by tribunnews.com.

The police voiced regret over Siyono's death as it meant end of the information chain regarding the whereabouts of the weapons warehouse and the group's activities.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/11/police-alleged-to-have-given-rp-100m-to-siyonos-family.html

NU defends police over Siyono death

Jakarta Post - April 9, 2016

Marguerite Afra Sapiie – Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest Islamic outfit, has come to the police's defense over the death of alleged terrorist Siyono, who died in police custody.

"We believe in the police. They are part of the government and NU sticks by the government in the face of any threat," NU chairman Said Aqil Siroj said on Friday when asked to comment on the death of Siyono.

On April 3, a team of doctors from the central executive board of Muhammadiyah, the country's second-largest Muslim organization, performed an autopsy on the body of Siyono to reveal the cause of his death, which occurred when he was in the hands of the National Police's Densus 88 counterterrorism squad.

Said praised the National Police, and particularly Densus 88, for the successful arrest of Siyono, whom the police had previously identified as the commander of Neo Jamaah Islamiyah (Neo JI), a new cell of militant group JI.

Siyono, who was arrested by Densus 88 on March in Klaten, Central Java, died on his fourth day in police custody; his body, when returned to his family, was covered in blood and bruises. Human rights activists have since criticized the police, especially the counterterrorism squad, accusing the latter of torturing Siyono.

National Police spokesman Brig. Gen. Anton Charliyan asserted that Siyono was the commander of Neo JI, according to the scheme of Neo JI that the force had identified. "Neo JI wants to collect weapons to build a strong force. They want to establish an Islamic State of Indonesia," Anton said as quoted by kompas.com

NU advisory board chairman Ma'ruf Amin, however, called for police officials to reveal the facts of the terror suspect's death. (bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/09/nu-defends-police-over-siyono-death.html

Freedom of religion & worship

Calls grow urging Indonesia to end religious minority ban

UCA News - April 11, 2016

Ryan Dagur, Jakarta – A leading Catholic Church official has joined calls for the repeal of a ministerial decree in Indonesia, which rights groups said would prevent a small religious minority from freely practicing their beliefs.

The decree jointly issued by the Religious Affairs and Home Affairs ministries, as well as the attorney general, on Feb. 29 places a ban on practicing Millah Abraham religious beliefs adhered to by former members of a religious organization called the Fajar Nusantara Movement (Gafatar).

Authorities consider the beliefs heretical because they intermix the religious teachings of Islam, Christianity and Judaism. The decree forbids believers from performing activities, disseminating or interpreting any teaching that deviates from the basic teaching of Islam.

Gafatar is an offshoot of Al-Qiyadah Al-Islamiyah, which was declared a heretical organization by the attorney general in 2007 for also promoting Millah Abraham religious teachings. Those who violate the ban could face a five-year prison sentence.

Father Agustinus Ulahayanan, executive secretary of the Indonesian bishops' Commission for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, said the decree would victimize the believers. "The basic principle is that we respect all human beings. No one should be victimized," he said.

London-based rights group Amnesty International said the decree was in "utter disregard of Indonesia's international human rights obligations and protections in the constitution."

"[The decree] is deeply flawed piece of legislation that unlawfully interferes with the right to freedom of religion and belief and must therefore be repealed immediately," the April 7 statement said.

"The decree would further marginalize this minority group and further risks inflaming the current atmosphere of intolerance and fear that has led to harassment, intimidation and attacks against members of the community," Amnesty said.

Gafatar was founded in January 2012 and had branches in 14 provinces. However, it was disbanded in August after they were not able to get a registration permit from the Home Affairs Ministry. February's ban followed a series of attacks on believers following their failure to get a registration permit.

On Jan. 19, a mob burned down nine houses belonging to former Gafatar members who were forced to flee West Kalimantan's Mempawah district.

Dwi Adiyanto's whose home was among the one burnt, said the decree has added fuel to the fire and gives people extra incentive to attack them. "The decree is like a license [for people] to discriminate against us," he told ucanews.com.

Source: http://www.ucanews.com/news/calls-grow-urging-indonesia-to-end-religious-minority-ban/75699

Residents, hard-line groups protest Bandung church

Jakarta Post - April 11, 2016

Arya Dipa – Supported by hard-line groups, residents of Jatisari village, Buahbatu district held a rally on Sunday to oppose the presence of the East Bandung Karo Batak Protestant Church (GBKP) in Kawaluyaan, Bandung, West Java.

The demonstration, which was supported by the Muslim Ulama Forum, Islamic Reformist Movement, and the Islam Defenders Front, took place on the street in front and beside the church building.

Protesters on a pickup truck addressed the crowd through loudspeakers and held banners reading: "We, residents of RW 06 Jatisari subdistrict, Buahbatu district, strongly object to the presence of the church in RW 06."

Dozens of police and military personnel were deployed to safeguard the church.

East Bandung GBKP leader Sura Purba Saputra said the protest took place during a worship session, which was the sixth that the church had held. "There should not be a demonstration at a place of worship," Sura said by phone.

Church administrators obtained a building permit for the construction of the GBKP in the Kawaluyaan area on June 20, 2012. On Dec. 18, 2015, the Bandung City Integrated Licensing Office said that all requirements for the construction of the house of worship had been fulfilled.

The construction of the new church was aimed at accommodating around 500 churchgoers who were previously forced to cram into a church on Jl. Lombok. The church, added Sura, was unable to accommodate the entire congregation of 3,000 people.

Church administrators said the rally was held to coincide with the appearance of Bandung Mayor Ridwan Kamil, who was due to officially inaugurate the church that day.

"Communication remained open until last night and they said the mayor would arrive at 9 a.m., but the demo began at 8:30 a.m.," Sura said, adding that churchgoers' children had prepared a dance performance to greet the mayor. However, due to the demonstration, the mayor canceled his appearance.

Sura suggested that protesters take legal action if they opposed the presence of the church in their neighborhood. "They should have taken their objections to the State Administrative Court," he said.

Regarding the incident, advocacy division head of the Bandung Legal Aid Institute (LBH) Harold Aaron expressed concern that an incident like this had occurred again.

"This incident is due to the government's inability to properly understand facilitation issues, not merely administrative matters related to licensing, but also how to give the public an understanding of the meaning of diversity in the community," said Harold, who was present at the protest.

Based on Bandung LBH records, religious discrimination remains a problem in Bandung, and Ahmadiyah, Shia and Christian communities continue to be victims.

"There are three aspects of the infringement of religious freedom, namely freedom to practice religion, worship and religious observance, establishment and use of places of worship, as well as teaching and religious education," Harold said, adding that the government had ignored the issue rather than actively taking measures to address it.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/11/residents-hard-line-groups-protest-bandung-church.html

Former Gafatar members happy to return to hometowns

Jakarta Post - April 10, 2016

Apriadi Gunawan – As many as 300 former members of the Fajar Nusantara Movement (Gafatar) in North Sumatra have returned to their communities in various regions throughout the province, ready to restart activities that they left off when they joined the movement.

They arrived in the provincial capital of Medan on March 30 to receive a week of counseling before being sent back home. Previously, they were accommodated in Boyolali, Central Java, after being forcibly evicted from Gafatar's communal farm in Mempawah regency, West Kalimantan.

Former chairman of Gafatar's North Sumatra branch Dadang Darmawan was excited as he was finally able to return to the community that he and his family had left in November 2015 to join Gafatar in Kalimantan.

"We never thought our neighbors would still love us, or welcome us home," he told The Jakarta Post at his house in the Menteng Indah housing complex on Saturday.

As he had returned, Dadang said he would like to start teaching again at the University of North Sumatra. "I want to teach again and I will report to the university next week so I can start working," Dadang, former chairman of North Sumatra's Muslim Students Association, said. He said that before being sent home, he had received mental and spiritual counseling from religious leaders. During the counseling, he said former Gafatar members who were Muslims proclaimed the syahadat (Islamic creed) as a sign that they acknowledged orthodox Islamic teaching.

While former members who were Christians, he added, had to vow in front of a pastor to follow the true teachings of Christianity. "We didn't mind proclaiming the syahadat again, because it's what we must do so we can rejoin society just like before," Dadang said.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) declared Gafatar a heretical movement as it mixed up, or syncretized, three religions, namely Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Nevertheless, Religious Affairs Minister Lukman Hakim Syaifuddin said Gafatar members should be protected from any kind of discrimination or violence.

Another former Gafatar member, Supriadi, 36, was also happy to be returning to the community where he used to live. "After this, I plan to become a farmer," Supriadi said during the homecoming ceremony of former Gafatar members at the Medan Municipality office.

Chairman of MUI's Medan chapter Muhammad Hatta called on the people of North Sumatra, especially in Medan, not to shun former Gafatar members who had returned home. "I urge people not to avoid former Gafatar members, because they are still part of our community," Hatta said.

Head of the political, national unity and people's protection division of the municipality administration, Ceko Ritonga, said they would continue to monitor the former members who had gone back to their families and communities.

He said counseling and several other educative programs by religious leaders and local leaders would still be provided for them.

"We will keep providing assistance for them until they can really mingle and interact with their communities just like in the old days," Ceko said, adding that such efforts were aimed at minimizing any form of opposition in the community.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/10/former-gafatar-members-happy-return-hometowns.html

Land & agrarian conflicts

Rallies should be on weekdays to maintain Bali tourism: Police

Jakarta Post - April 14, 2016

Ni Komang Erviani – Following several large rallies against the planned Benoa Bay reclamation project, the Bali Police have called on people not to stage demonstrations on weekends as protests may disrupt tourism activities on the island.

Police chief Insp. Gen. Sugeng Priyatno said the rallies could furnish Bali tourism with a bad image as such protests had begun to take place almost every weekend, involved thousands of people and caused gridlock.

"I have received text messages from many people, all saying that they feel disturbed [by the rallies]. When people wish to enjoy their holiday, but traffic congestion occurs everywhere, they feel disturbed," Sugeng said.

Mounting opposition to the planned reclamation project has intensified since the Balinese Forum Against Reclamation (ForBali) first initiated the opposition and protests three years ago.

In recent months, thousands of people from a variety of backgrounds, including communities representing at least 35 customary villages across Bali, have joined the rallies. Recently one of these rallies prompted the brief closure of the Bali Mandara toll road in Benoa Bay that connects Denpasar, Kuta and Nusa Dua. The closure reportedly left many tourists with the impression that Bali was a chaotic island.

"Tourists will feel uncomfortable in Bali and consider cutting their visit short. They may even refuse to come back here again," Sugeng said. As a solution, Sugeng said people could still stage the protest against the plan on weekdays.

"It would be better if the rallies were to take place in front of the governor's office or the Bali Legislative Council [DPRD] building so they can immediately respond to the rally," he said. If the rallies continue on weekends, he added, the future of Bali tourism may be severely damaged.

Kuta customary village chief Wayan Swarsa said that, while he respected the Bali Police chief's demand, the rallies had so far been peaceful and had served as an additional attraction, adding that many tourists had enjoyed seeing the rallies as they had been designed with elements of a cultural parade. "We have no intention to destroy our home. We live from tourism and we know how to manage it," Swarsa said.

The planned reclamation of Benoa Bay was proposed by PT Tirta Wahana Bali Internasional, a company controlled by tycoon Tommy Winata. Protesters have demanded that President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo revoke Presidential regulation No. 51/2014 as it had re-zoned Benoa Bay as a business site. Prior to the regulation, Benoa Bay was an environmental buffer zone and green-belt area.

High Priests of the Indonesian Hindu Religious Council (PHDI) have declared Benoa Bay to be a sacred area, narrowing the possibility that the planned reclamation will go ahead. The decision was based on the recommendation of a team of nine high priests.

Customary village chief of Buduk in the Mengwi area of Badung, Ida Bagus Ketut Purba Negara, said that they had made the decision to rally in the streets of Bali instead of expressing their objection at the governor's office and council building because, despite ongoing protest, the protesters had never been heard.

"They did not open any chance for communication. We wish that the governor or the Bali Legislative Council [would] open communication," Purba Negara said.

ForBali coordinator, Wayan Gendo Suardana, said that they would consider the police demand to only conduct rallies during office hours. However, he did not agree that the rallies had harmed people and or resulted in a heavy traffic increase. "If we were to rally in front of the governor's office, it would also cause a traffic jam. So, what's the difference?" he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/13/rallies-should-be-weekdays-maintain-bali-tourism-police.html

Hindu priests declare Benoa Bay a sacred area

Jakarta Post - April 11, 2016

Ni Komang Erviani – The Indonesian Hindu Religious Council's (PHDI) Sabha Pandita (high priests) have issued an edict declaring Bali's Benoa Bay a sacred area.

The decision, which was made during a Sabha Pandita meeting in Denpasar on Saturday evening, aimed to respond to controversy surrounding a planned reclamation project in the bay. The high priests said, however, that they did not make the edict specifically in relation to the reclamation.

"We declare today that Benoa Bay is a sacred area that must be maintained and preserved," said high priest Ida Pedanda Gede Bang Buruan Manuaba, who led the meeting attended by 22 high priests from across Indonesia.

The priests said Benoa Bay had many sacred places because the beach was used for religious rituals such as melasti, a Hindu ceremony to spiritually cleanse the soul and nature. It also had many temples, they added.

Citing an example, the priests explained that the Karang Tengah Temple, which is built in the middle of Benoa Bay, was used for mulang pakelem, a ritual to purify the sea. Many temples can be seen in areas around the bay. "We hope that our decision can be used as guidance for all people," he said.

For Bali, which is predominantly Hindu, the PHDI's religious edict could help to guide the government in forming policies, including on the controversial Benoa Bay project. The decision was made based on recommendations from a team of nine high priests who conducted a study related to the reclamation project from October last year.

Putu Wirata Dwikora, the chairman of the PHDI's Sabha Walaka (intellectual group), said the decision made by the highest forum of the PHDI must be used as guidance for the government in decision-making.

"This also must be used in making decisions on the planned reclamation project. As the high priests have declared Benoa Bay a sacred area, any project that could damage it should not be allowed, including coastal reclamation," Wirata said.

Wirata added that the high priests did not have a stance on the reclamation project. "They only made a decision based on religious context. However, as a sacred area, it is obvious that reclamation cannot be carried out in Benoa Bay," he said.

The planned reclamation of Benoa Bay was proposed by PT Tirta Wahana Bali Internasional, a company owned by business tycoon Tommy Winata. The company is currently carrying out an Environmental Impact Analysis (Amdal) for the project.

Many parties in Bali, including customary villages across the island, tourism stakeholders and environmental activists, have voiced their objections to the plan. (ebf)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/10/hindu-priests-declare-benoa-bay-a-sacred-area.html

Governance & administration

Tax amnesty should be part of tax reform: Analysts

Jakarta Post - April 13, 2016

Ayomi Amindoni – An ongoing debate by lawmakers over a proposed tax amnesty should be part of the country's efforts to reform its taxation system and not just an effort to create an instrument to reach tax revenue targets, experts and business people say.

"If the tax amnesty is established as a means of getting a new tax system, I think we have the opportunity for tax reform, but if its only goal is [to achieve a tax revenue target], we must reject it now," the executive director of the Center for Indonesia Taxation Analysis (CITA), Yustinus Prastowo, said in Jakarta on Tuesday.

Therefore, the government and the House of Representatives must stress that the main purpose of the policy is to harmonize taxation regulations, strengthen the institutions and to make the tax authority more credible and accountable. "With a heavier workload, it can also be an opportunity to strengthen supervision," he added.

Yustinus said sees that President' Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has a vision and willingness to reform taxation, but the institutions and ministries fail to translate it at a practical level. "We all are now stuck in a discourse to pursue a tax revenue target and nobody thinks about a thorough tax reform," he said.

Indonesian Employers Association (Apindo) chairman Sukamdani Hariyadi said the association had been recommending a tax amnesty policy since the administration of president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Moreover, Indonesia's liquidity is in severe condition as its loan-to-deposit ratio is 90 percent, making the real sector unable to expand because of tight liquidity.

"A tax amnesty will provide the right momentum, although potential additional tax revenues of Rp175 trillion (US$13.37 million) from a tax amnesty is too ambitious. We estimated Rp 70 trillion to Rp 80 trillion can be obtained from the tax amnesty," he said.

Arman Imran of the Tax Avoidance Division at the Finance Ministry's directorate general of taxation recommended three solutions in tax reform, including data integration between institutions and strengthening tax regulations. "Currently, the mindset of our tax regulations is only on taxpayer services, whereas compliance is also necessary, especially related to tax evasion," he said.

The House has authorized House Commission XI overseeing banking and financial affairs to start the deliberations over a tax amnesty bill. If the bill is passed into law, the government can offer tax discounts to individuals and companies who want to declare their untaxed wealth. The policy is expected to persuade Indonesians who parked their wealth overseas to bring it back home to Indonesia.

This year's tax revenue target is Rp 1.36 quadrillion, 28.2 percent higher than the Rp 1.06 quadrillion achieved in 2015. (bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/13/tax-amnesty-should-be-part-of-tax-reform-analysts.html

Tax bill deliberations to continue amid protest from factions

Jakarta Post - April 12, 2016

Erika Anindita Dewi – Amid protest from several factions, including Gerindra, the House of Representatives on Monday authorized House Commission XI overseeing banking and finance affairs to start the deliberations over a tax amnesty bill.

The decision was made during a meeting of the House Steering Committee (Bamus) chaired by House Speaker Ade Komarudin.

The meeting decided that the deliberations would start on Tuesday, although on April 6 the same committee decided that the deliberations would only begin after a consultative meeting between House leaders and President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.

"We should pass the tax amnesty bill into a law immediately, to give hope to the national economy," Ade said, adding that he had signed a letter to start the deliberations.

As the deliberation starts, the meeting will be opened by a hearing between Commission XI and a minister assigned by President Jokowi.

Commenting on the decision to start deliberations, House Deputy Speaker Fadli Zon said it was invalid because he had not been invited to the meeting and such a meeting should have been chaired at least by two House leaders. He insisted that the deliberations could only start after a consultative meeting with the President.

Meanwhile, United Development Party (PPP) faction chairman Dimyati Natakusumah supported Ade's move, stressing that the House Steering Committee had agreed with the decision.

Other support came from Golkar Party faction's secretary Azis Syamsuddin, who said there were four factions that wanted a consultancy meeting, while the other six agreed to go ahead with the deliberations.

If the bill is passed into law, the government could offer tax discounts to individuals and companies who want to declare their untaxed wealth. The policy is expected to persuade Indonesians who parked their wealth overseas to bring it back home to Indonesia.

This year's tax revenue target is Rp 1.36 quadrillion (US$102.64 billion), 28.2 percent higher than the Rp 1.06 quadrillion achieved in 2015. (bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/12/tax-bill-deliberations-to-continue-amid-protest-from-factions.html

Parties keep cool after Jokowi summons ministers

Jakarta Post - April 11, 2016

Nurul Fitri Ramadhani – As President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has signaled another Cabinet shake-up is coming, eyes are on his supporting parties with ample ministerial seats.

With both the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the Golkar Party having recently pledged their allegiance to the government, Jokowi, an Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) politician, may have to free up some seats in his Cabinet to welcome their support.

On Friday, Jokowi told the media that he had summoned three ministers to Bogor Palace on Thursday. The three were Administrative and Bureaucratic Reform Minister Yuddy Chrisnandi of the Hanura Party, Transportation Minister Ignasius Jonan and Villages, Disadvantaged Regions and Transmigration Minister Marwan Jafar from the National Awakening Party (PKB).

Also, since last week, Jokowi has reportedly met with members of the elite from various parties, such as Hanura Party chairman Wiranto, NasDem Party chairman Surya Paloh, Golkar Party boss Aburizal Bakrie and newly elected PPP chairman Muhammad Romahurmuziy.

The meetings have given rise to speculation that another cabinet reshuffle may soon take place, although the President denied that the closed-door meetings were about a reshuffle, saying that such summonses were common.

Hanura Party executive Dadang Rusdiana said that Jokowi's meeting with Yuddy had nothing to do with cabinet reshuffle rumors, claiming that Jokowi only advised the ministers to focus on their duty and responsibility.

"We and the ministries should not be distracted by the reshuffle issue. A Cabinet reshuffle is solely the President's authority. Just because some ministries were summoned, doesn't mean they will be reshuffled," Dadang said.

Acquiring less than 6 percent of the vote in the 2014 legislative election, Hanura gets two ministerial posts for its support of Jokowi during the presidential election. Along with Yuddy, Saleh Husin is appointed as Industry Minister.

Yuddy has recently been in the hot seat after issuing his ministry's annual performance assessment report on government institutions, including ministries, after Jokowi hinted that he was planning a second Cabinet reshuffle late last year.

Yuddy also found himself in the middle of a controversy regarding a letter requesting that the Indonesian consulate general in Sydney, Australia, provide transportation and accommodation for his "colleague" Wahyu Dewanto and his family in Sydney and the Gold Coast.

Dadang said that the party did not need to defend Yuddy's position as minister as room was there for the President to reshuffle anyone in the Cabinet anytime. "Hanura will not intervene in the President's decisions on a Cabinet reshuffle," Dadang said.

PKB deputy secretary-general Daniel Johan denied that his party member Marwan had been summoned by Jokowi, saying that Marwan told him that he was in East Java when the matter arose. "[PKB chairman] Muhaimin told us not to over think the Cabinet reshuffle. What we do is work; work to reach the government's development targets," Daniel said.

He also claimed that Jokowi had not communicated with PKB chief Muhaimin Iskandar. PKB gained 9 percent of the vote in the 2014 election and has secured four ministerial posts.

As well as Marwan, Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar Parawansa, Manpower Minister Hanif Dhakiri and Youth and Sports Minister Imam Nahrawi are also PKB members.

PKB executives earlier accused PDI-P of a plot to unseat Marwan due to the strategic position of his ministry, which oversees the Village Fund, a flagship program from Jokowi administration.

PDI-P secretary-general Hasto Kristiyanto predicted that the second Cabinet reshuffle was getting closer, given the President's recent intensive communication with members of the political elite. "It will happen soon, but the result depends on the President," Hasto said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/11/parties-keep-cool-after-jokowi-summons-ministers.html

Jokowi calls on local authorities to speed up spending

Jakarta Post - April 9, 2016

Ayomi Amindoni – President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has urged local governments to accelerate budget spending to boost both local and national economic growth.

The President, speaking during a meeting with representatives of local governments at the State Palace on Friday, said that disbursing funds from the beginning of the year would, as well as aiding the economy, improve the quality of infrastructure projects funded by both state and regional budgets.

"Local leaders should ensure funds are disbursed at the beginning of the year so construction can be started in February," Jokowi said.

He also stressed the importance of the continuity of budget reform as, while the country's budget has experienced significant growth in recent years, productivity capacity remains stagnant because of non-productive spending on operational expenditure and goods.

Therefore, Jokowi said, all local governments need to reduce operational expenditure such as travel expenses, meetings and seminars.

The President stressed that the old paradigm of money following function should be abandoned, replaced with money following program. "All units must also focus on priority programs that have a major impact," he went on.

Jokowi also called on local governments to prioritize spending on domestic goods and reduce the use of imported goods. (bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/09/jokowi-calls-on-local-authorities-to-speed-up-spending.html

Jakarta & urban life

3-in-1 to be reinstated

Jakarta Globe - April 13, 2016

Jakarta – The police will reinstate Jakarta's controversial 3-in-1 carpooling system until the alternative electronic road pricing system is ready.

The decision was made after a temporary suspension of the system led to increased traffic congestion on affected roads in the last two weeks.

Traffic increased 24.6 percent on Jakarta's main thoroughfares for four days last week while the 3-in-1 system was suspended. The carpooling system bans cars with fewer than three occupants from entering several main thoroughfares during rush hours.

"Traffic was particularly bad on roads heading to Semanggi, Sudirman and Thamrin," Adj. Sr. Comr. Budiyanto of the Jakarta Police's traffic unit said on Wednesday (13/04).

The temporary suspension was imposed again this week for three days starting on Monday, and the result was "not much different" from last week. "Traffic ran smoothly only after 10 p.m.," Budiyanto said. "We have proposed the reinstatement of the 3-in-1 system until its replacement is ready," he added.

The Jakarta administration has long planned a transition from the carpooling system to the long-overdue ERP system. The technology and infrastructure for the ERP, which bills drivers for using certain roads by means of onboard units, have been available for quite some time, but the administration still has not signed off on its regulations and payment procedures.

"It may take a long time, maybe one to one-and-a-half years, before that happens," Budiyanto said.

Most Jakartans want 3-in-1 system permanently scrapped

Jakarta Globe - April 12, 2016

Jakarta – More than two thirds of Jakartans polled in a recent survey have indicated that they want the 3-in-1 carpooling system permanently scrapped, arguing that it is ineffective in reducing traffic congestion.

The system, in place since the mid-1990s, was temporarily suspended as of last week. However, the suspension led to an apparent 25 percent increase in traffic on major roads, including Jalan Sudirman and Jalan Gatot Subroto, where the 3-in-1 system is typically in place.

The Jakarta Transportation Agency questioned around 3,300 Jakartans about the suspension in an online survey and found around 70 percent of respondents saying that they would support a move to scrap the 3-in-1 system permanently.

"Actually, the traffic congestion remains a problem, with or without 3-in-1. But at least, the social problems can be resolved [if 3-in-1 system is scrapped]," Jakarta Transportation Agency head Andri Yansah said, referring to child exploitation issues that came to be associated with the system.

The temporary suspension did not seem to have any impact on the public's enthusiasm, or lack thereof, for the city's public transport network. The agency only recorded a 5 percent increase in the number of TransJakarta passengers during the period.

Respondents argued that the 3-in-1 system, which is designed to bar private cars with less than three occupants from some of the city's main thoroughfares during rush hours, has not fulfilled its intended purpose. Jakartans noted that even with the system in place, congestion only shifted from major streets to smaller backroads nearby.

Another downside to the system is the presence of "jockeys" – some of whom take children and babies with them – to bypass the requirements. This one of the main reasons for the temporary suspension of the system.

Andri said more public transportation options will become available, as Jakarta is scheduled to begin the construction of a light rail transit system mid-year, while the mass rapid transit project is scheduled to be completed in 2019.

Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama has earlier said that the technology and infrastructure for an electronic road pricing system – which bills drivers for entering certain streets using an onboard unit – is ready to replace the 3-in-1 system, but that the regulations and payment procedures are not.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/jakartans-want-3-1-system-permanently-scrapped/

Pasar Ikan residents stage last stand against eviction

Jakarta Post - April 11, 2016

Callistasia Anggun Wijaya – Hundreds of residents of Pasar Ikan in North Jakarta on Monday staged a protest in the neighborhood against their eviction by the Jakarta administration as part of a project to revitalize the capital's north coast.

Around 300 residents of Pasar Ikan in Penjaringan faced off against thousands of officers deployed for Monday's eviction. Carrying posters, they staged a sit-in to impede the officers and heavy equipment from entering the neighborhood that they have called home for years..

Some heckled the officers, some wept, while others still attempted to initiate mass prayers. Clashes broke out as residents refused to vacate the area, though no injuries were reported.

Penjaringan subdistrict chief Abdul Khalit led the discussion between residents, city officials and police. City representatives attempted to coax the protesters into leaving, urging them to follow up the matter through the courts rather than through protests.

But residents representative Upi replied with anger. "The courts are on sale to the highest bidder. The procedures take ages too. We will leave this area, but only as corpses," she declaimed.

Residents demanded compensation from the administration, with some claiming to hold official land certificates. They refused to be relocated to the rusunawa (low-cost apartments) prepared by the city, and also asked for the eviction to be postponed as they had yet to to pack up their belongings.

One resident, baby in arms, was weeping disconsolately. "I have family here. The city has offered us a rusunawa unit- but how can my whole family live there?" demanded the woman, who wished to remain anonymous.

The eviction is part of the city's wider plan to clear the Pasar Ikan area, including Luar Batang, home to the historic Luar Batang Mosque. The area is littered with illegal buildings, including homes and kiosks hugging the coastline.

Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama previously said that the eviction was needed for the city to install sheetpiles on the area's riverbanks and coastline as part of flood mitigation efforts.

The city also plans to revitalize the Pasar Ikan and Luar Batang area, home to the Maritime Museum, to create an attractive maritime-based historic tourism area connected to the better-known Sunda Kelapa Port.

At least 4,218 joint personnel were assigned to secure the eviction on Monday, Jakarta Police spokesman Sr. Cmr. Mohammad Iqbal said as reported by Antara news agency.

The figure consists of 2,000 Satpol PP officials, 1,389 Jakarta Police officers, 429 officers from the North Jakarta Police and 400 soldiers from the Jakarta Military Command. Police also deployed two watercannon and one Barracuda. (rin)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/11/pasar-ikan-residents-stage-last-stand-against-eviction.html

3-in-1 to be permanently scrapped, replaced with even-odd

Jakarta Globe - April 9, 2016

Jakarta – Jakarta's three-in-one system will be permanently scrapped while the even-odd policy will be implemented if traffic on affected roads increases again early next week, an official said on Friday.

The decision comes after a four-day temporary suspension this week of the system – which has barred vehicles carrying less than three people from entering several main arteries during rush hour since it was introduced in the 90s – wreaked havoc, with some reports suggesting traffic increased up 24 percent on average.

The provisional suspension will again be imposed next week for three days from Monday. If traffic increases about 35 percent, the even-odd policy will immediately take over. The policy will see cars taking turns every other day to pass through the capital's main thoroughfares based on license plates ending in even or odd numbers.

"The studies for the system were conducted four years," said Andri Yansyah, head of the city's Transportation office. "And we will immediately prepare other matters related to the system, including supervision mechanisms. It will be useless if there is no firm sanction against those who use double plates."

The policy comes during a period of transition towards the long overdue implementation of the Electronic Road Pricing system. The technology and infrastructure for ERP, an alternative which will require cars to pay to pass certain roads using onboard units, has been available, though its regulations and payment procedures are still being prepared by the Jakarta administration.

"That is the only solution. Three-in-one is no longer effective," Andri said.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/news/3-1-permanently-scrapped-replaced-even-odd/

Jakarta's first subway on track to ease city's notorious traffic woes

ABC Radio Australia - April 9, 2016

Adam Harvey, Indonesia – Tunnellers building Jakarta's first subway have hit the halfway point of the crucial six-kilometre underground section, raising hopes the long-delayed $1.6 billion Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) might actually be completed, in a city that has become a graveyard of failed public transport projects.

Jakarta's commuters were promised a monorail line in 2004 and over the next 10 years hundreds of concrete pylons were erected before the oft-stalled project was finally abandoned two years ago, amid arguments about cost.

A network of bus lanes was also never properly finished, and an above-ground rail line is notoriously dangerous at scores of level crossings.

Earlier this week, just days after a groundbreaking ceremony for a fast train project, Indonesian politicians said work on the Jakarta-Bandung line should stop until paperwork and permissions were finalised.

But the first 16 kilometres of the MRT remains on track to be completed in 2018. MRT director Dono Boestami said it had been a long time coming.

"The study was done over 25 years ago. We started the groundbreaking in this location in October 2013. If you ask me why it has taken so long I cannot answer," he said.

MRT director says 'it's better late than never'

Jakarta's traffic congestion is among the worst in the world; eight-lane highways are permanently clogged at the exits and long tailbacks build at tollbooths where drivers must stop to pay cash tolls.

A two-hour journey can double in length if it rains. In this city of 10 million it means deliveries are unreliable, workers are late, and pollution is far worse than it should be.

Dono Boestami said it was costing the country a fortune. "The economic loss is about 65 trillion rupiah ($AU6.5 billion) per year, if by 2020 Jakarta does not improve its transportation system," he said. "It's better late than never."

The MRT is being built with Japanese technology and loans from Japan, although the Jakarta government owns the project.

Jakarta sits on one of the most earthquake prone areas in the world – but the concrete train tunnels 'float' in clay rather than being anchored to bedrock. Dono Boestami said this made them resilient to major quakes.

The first trains should begin rolling on the city's north-south by 2018. Dono Boestami said he was optimistic the second phase of the project would begin by 2017.

Source: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2016-01-28/jakartas-first-subway-on-track-to-ease-citys-notorious-traffic-woes/1541005

Indonesia pulls private buses off roads after deadly accident

ABC Radio Australia - April 9, 2016

Adam Harvey, Indonesia – Indonesia has pulled 1,600 private buses off its roads after a weekend bus crash in which 18 people died.

Witnesses say the driver of a Metro Mini bus ignored a warning siren at a level crossing in West Jakarta and drove around a safety barrier onto train tracks.

The bus was struck by a train and dragged for about 200 metres. Eighteen people were killed, including the driver and his assistant. There was just one survivor.

It is at least the 32nd accident at a level crossing in Jakarta this year, many of them involve buses that are often stopping to pick up passengers. Critics say driver training is poor and the buses are in terrible condition.

Removing private buses will make life even more difficult for frazzled commuters in a city where children and toddlers ride on their parents' motorbikes, without helmets, painted lane markings are there for decoration rather than guidance, and a red traffic light means the car behind yours has to stop.

Jakarta's transport office says it has pulled 1,600 Metro Minis off the road, although on the streets, there appear to be plenty of the buses remaining.

On a wet Jakarta weekday, the traffic slows to walking pace, which makes it a lot easier for commuters to jump aboard a faded orange Metro Mini. The mid-sized buses do not have designated stops, so passengers get on and off where they like.

There is a reasonable chance of getting bowled over by a scooter on the journey from the footpath to the bus, but at 40 cents a ride, most passengers think it is worth the risk. "In regards to the safety, no matter how it is, when it's time to die, you'll die anyway," said passenger Andi.

One passenger, Sadzili, has been catching the orange bus for 10 years. "I think it's safe. I'm just a little bit worried when about to cross a rail track," he said.

A busker, Heri Sandi, climbs aboard in the stalled traffic. "In one day I'll get on about 70 to 80 buses from the morning to the afternoon," he said.

The accident has been on his mind. "I'm scared for sure," he said. "The bus tipped over like that and people died being crushed."

Another passenger, Hamim, is dubious about recalling the buses. "About plans like that, well before they take these buses off the streets they need to provide the replacements," Hamim said. "Without any replacement what would passengers do?"

Andi wishes Jakarta could emulate the transport of other cities. "Air conditioned, where they queue in order, like they have overseas," he said.

"They queue, there's discipline, unlike what we have here. In Singapore and Europe, they queue, they stop in proper stops. Here they stop wherever they want to stop."

It is hoped a new underground train line, due to be completed in about three years, will remove some of the risks of the road for the city of 10 million people.

Source: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2015-12-09/indonesia-pulls-private-buses-off-roads-after-deadly-accident/1524006

Environmental analysis documents flawed in reclamation project, experts warn

Jakarta Post - April 9, 2016

Callista Anggun Wijaya – Environmental researchers have noted flaws in the environmental impact analysis (Amdal) documents used as green lights by the city administration to grant developers permission to proceed with the controversial mega reclamation projects in Jakarta Bay.

Jakarta Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama had granted five Jakarta Bay reclamation permits: G Islet, to PT Muara Wisesa Samudera, F Islet to PT Jakarta Propertindo, I Islet to PT Jaladri Kartika Eka Paksi, K Islet to PT Pembangunan Jaya Ancol and H Islet to PT Taman Harapan Indah.

While each of those companies had submitted Amdal documents, approved by the administration, there were flaws discovered in the documents of I and K islets, head of research at the Nahdliyin Front for the Sovereignity of Natural Resources (FNKSDA) Bosman Batubara said.

To acquire a construction project by the local government developers must possess Amdal, it is a requirement. The documents lack geochemistry measures of the thickness and toxic sediment around the reclamation area, he said.

A research document entitled Rapid Environmental Assessment for Coastal Development in Jakarta Bay published by Denmark-based company DHI Water & Environment at the request of Indonesia's Ministry of Environment, showed that Jakarta bay had been severely polluted by a Copper and Zinc substance.

As such sediment would enter the sea water through the reclamation project, it may impact the biota in the bay as well as people living in the area. An excess of the toxic substance copper may damage organ function and cause anemia, liver and or kidney problems and intestine irritation.

While zinc may cause skin disease due to its corrosive characteristics and damage nerve membranes, according to the research document, published in 2011.

The research was used as a Term of Reference for the Jakarta Bay reclamation project, Bosman said, however the city administration that issued Amdal did not take the research into consideration.

"Although the DHI water document warned of the dangers of the toxic substances in the sediment, if it entered the seawater, the city administration did not include it in its Amdal documents," Bosman told thejakartapost.com on Friday.

Meanwhile, Bandung Institute of Technology's (ITB) Coastal Technical Expertise Group head Muslim Muin believed that the Amdal of the reclaimed islets were invalid.

The mega reclamation project would only cause the capital to face enormous environmental costs such as flooding, the loss of mangrove conservation areas and water pollution.

The construction of the islets would also extend the river flow in the city. Such an extension would cause the water to flow slower amid Jakarta's already bad drainage system, Muslim said. "Such conditions will lead to severe flooding in the capital," Muslim said during a telephone interview.

Moreover, the reclamation project would also change the characteristics of the water in the mangrove area, which will gradually turn from salty water to fresh.

"It will be difficult for the salt water to enter the mangrove area, and this will kill the plantations. We will lose the natural resources of the sea as a result of this project," he added.

The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (WALHI) also urged the administration to stop the ambitious projects citing that, in addition to being connected to the alleged case of corruption, reclamation would threaten the environment.

Walhi has recorded sand theft in coastal areas in Banten, West Java, Lampung and Bangka Belitung that is allegedly related to reclamation project. To create, the vast 5,155 hectares of new land would require at least 600 million cubic meters of sand to be transported from other provinces.

Some of the islands within Jakarta's Thousands Island area have disappeared as a result of recent sand theft, Walhi Jakarta member Mustaqiem Dahlan said on Friday.

Ahok, however, has insisted on proceeding with the reclamation project. The 17 manmade islets will cost an estimated Rp 150 trillion ($11.4 billion) in investment. The governor argued that he had complied with regulations, the 1995 Presidential Decree issued by the late president Soeharto, when issuing the reclamation permits. (rin)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/09/environmental-analysis-documents-flawed-in-reclamation-project-experts-warn.html

Police & law enforcement

Central Sulawesi police officers test positive

Jakarta Post - April 13, 2016

Five members of the Central Sulawesi Police have tested positive for drugs based on urine tests conducted by the National Narcotics Agency (BNN). The test involved Central Sulawesi Police chief Brig. Gen. Rudy Sufahriadi and around 125 of his men.

"On Monday we conducted urine tests at the police headquarters and found that five police members had tested positive for drugs. However, we must further investigate," Central Sulawesi BNN head Sr. Comr. Djoko Marjatno told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Djoko said the police officers had certainly been using drugs, but he could not rule out the presence of medicines or vitamins or the contamination of addictive substances mixed in with their medicines, which were consumed after taking vitamins based on a doctor's prescription.

"If there is positive drug use, the police chief will certainly take firm action against them. We, at the BNN, only help and advise on the medical assessment process," he said.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/13/islands-focus-c-sulawesi-police-officers-test-positive.html

Foreign affairs & trade

United States-Indonesia relations getting better: Envoy

Antara News - April 13, 2016

Padang, West Sumatra – United States Ambassador to Indonesia Robert O. Blake affirmed that relations between his country and Jakarta were getting better.

"Since the past few years, relations between the United States and Indonesia are at the best level," Blake remarked onboard the P-8 Poseidon aircraft on Tuesday.

He explained that the sound relations between the United States and Indonesia were apparent from the various war exercises conducted jointly, including the Komodo exercise in Padang, West Sumatra, from April 12 to 16, 2016.

The Indonesian Navy is hosting the Multilateral Naval Exercise Komodo (MNEK) 2016 to coincide with the IFR 2016 and the 15th Western Pacific Naval Symposium in Padang and Mentawai Islands in West Sumatra Province.

The participating countries are the United States, Bangladesh, India, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Japan, France, Russia, China, Sri Lanka, Australia, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, and Brunei Darussalam.

Blake noted that the United States had sent its warship USS Stockdale and P-8 Poseidon aircraft to support the MNEK 2016 in Padang. "The exercise is viewed not only from the aspect of how frequently it is held but also from its level of difficulty and complexity," the US envoy noted.

Blake expressed pride that Indonesia had involved the United States as a key partner in the MNEK 2016. "In addition to strengthening cooperation among countries, this activity would hopefully offer other benefits including improving disaster management, curbing illegal fishing, and so forth," Blake added.(*)

Source: http://www.antaranews.com/en/news/104144/united-states-indonesia-relations-getting-better-envoy

Economy & investment

Indonesia registers US$1.6 billion surplus in Q1 amid export decline

Jakarta Post - April 15, 2016

Anton Hermansyah – Indonesia registered a trade surplus of US$1.65 billion in the first quarter of this year, amid a 14-percent cumulative year-on-year (YoY) decline in exports to $33.59 billion. The surplus came predominantly from the non-oil and gas sector, which had a trade value of $2.07 billion.

Oil and gas exports in the first quarter of the year slumped 39.5 percent (YoY) to $3.45 billion, while non-oil and gas exports decreased 9.6 percent to $30.14 billion, according to Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

"January 2016 was the lowest point for exports. In the recent two months, February and March, there were slight increases," said BPS head Suryamin on Friday in Jakarta.

In volume, the oil and gas exports actually increased 1.85 percent (YoY) from 131.4 million ton in Q1/2015 to 120.2 million ton in Q1/2016. However, the selling prices dropped by 39.3 percent (YoY) from $513 to $311.7 per ton.

Meanwhile, the export volume of non-oil and gas commodities decreased 9.5 percent (YoY) from 120.6 to 109.2 million tons. The aggregate price, however, rose 4.14 percent from $262.7 to $273.6 per ton.

Along with the drop in exports, the January-March imports decreased as well, by 13 percent, to $31.9 billion. Both oil-and-gas imports as well as non-oil-and-gas imports decreased 36.5 and 8.4 percent respectively.

"Non-oil and gas imports have fallen after local manufacturers started producing goods that substituted the imported ones. We can see it from the decline in capital goods imports by 18.2 percent to $5.3 billion," Suryamin said. (ags)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/15/indonesia-registers-us1-6-billion-surplus-in-q1-amid-export-decline.html

Industry struggles amid fierce competition

Jakarta Post - April 12, 2016

Khoirul Amin – Homegrown automotive component makers are still largely failing to cash in from Southeast Asia's biggest auto market, with regulations working against them and incoming foreign component makers posing a threat to the industry.

Association of Small and Medium-Sized Automotive Component Companies (Pikko) chairwoman Rosalina Faried said recently that Pikko members were finding it difficult to compete under current regulations that favored large-scale businesses.

"It's unfortunate that small component makers are still subject to 10 percent tax for importing raw materials, while the big ones are entitled to government-paid import duties [BMDTP]," she told reporters.

Rosalina said that the situation had put pressure on small component makers, which are still forced to import around 20 to 25 percent of their raw materials from overseas because of a lack of domestic production.

The government provides BMDTP for 25 sectors, including automotive components. However, Rosalina said that small component makers were excluded.

The Finance Ministry's tax and customs directorate general previously announced that the national industry took up only around Rp 194 billion (US$14.8 million) or 33.5 percent of an indicated Rp 578 billion indicative BMDTP last year.

A number of associations have argued that the low take-up of BMDTP is mainly due to the long and complicated procedures that must be undergone in order to make use of the facility.

Afrida Suston Niar, the head of the Industry Ministry's subdirectorate general for four-wheeled vehicles, admitted previously that domestic challenges had left the country's component industry lagging far behind that of neighboring countries like Thailand.

"The challenge is that our component industry still has to import certain raw materials on which import duties are imposed, while they also need to offer their products at competitive prices to beat the competition from their peers in other countries," she said. She implied that the matter was still being discussed with the Finance Ministry.

According to the Industry Ministry's estimates, there are around 600 component companies in Indonesia at present, against more than 2,000 in Thailand.

Pikko comprises 120 member companies spread across Greater Jakarta, East Java and Central Java, with seven having gone bust in the face of fierce competition with foreign component makers, said Rosalina.

She added that many of Pikko's members were still too financially and technologically weak to face head-to-head rivalry with foreign component makers entering the Indonesian market, such as those from Japan. "Most our members are tier-3 and tier-2 companies, while Japanese component makers are mostly tier-1 companies," she said.

In the automotive supply chain, tier-1 companies are direct suppliers of components to original equipment manufacturers (OEM), which manufacture products for end-consumers. Meanwhile, tier-2 companies are those supplying to tier-1 companies and tier-3 companies supply tier-2 companies.

A number of major Japanese carmakers, including Toyota and Honda, have their own production plants in Indonesia, with local content usage hitting up to 80 percent.

Indonesia is currently the largest car market in Southeast Asia with annual sales of around 1 million vehicles, surpassing Thailand with around 800,000 units. However, Thailand still outpaces the country in terms of car production, with total annual output hitting 2.4 million units.

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/11/industry-struggles-amid-fierce-competition.html

Analysis & opinion

A meaningful visit, or another ceremonial trip to Papua?

Jakarta Post - April 15, 2016

Hipolitus Yolisandry Ringgi Wangge, Jakarta – A recent three-day visit by Coordinating Security, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan to Papua, Indonesia's easternmost region, was noticeable for two reasons.

First, Papua is a priority for the administration and the visit of Luhut, one of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's trusted advisors, followed Jokowi's own visits. We can thus imagine how important this visit is, not only for the central government but also for Papuans as a whole.

Second, Luhut's visit showed a strong commitment to overseeing that all policies are undertaken appropriately, particularly since the special autonomy law has been widely criticized as ineffective for improving Papuans' welfare.

However Luhut's visit was no more than symbolic, rather than being truly meaningful for the powerless indigenous people. The key issue is the extent to which Luhut's visit can thoroughly address the fundamental concern of Papuans, namely genuine trust.

Since becoming part of Indonesia through the deeply flawed process called the Act of Free Choice, facilitated by the UN in 1969, Papua has been treated relatively inappropriately by the government and many Indonesians – through inefficient policies, an intensive security approach and racial prejudice.

This treatment has led to distrust and limited sympathy among Papuans toward the Indonesian government and fellow citizens in the western parts of the country. Thus, a visit by such an important figure stimulated more skepticism than optimism among the indigenous people.

Luhut's visit failed to highlight one fundamental problem of Papua: Its political status since it became part of Indonesia. He preferred to discuss more about the progress of developmental programs with Papuan stakeholders, including the building of Post Limit Cross Country Skouw on the border between Indonesia and Papua New Guinea (PNG).

However, the more he avoided talking about political problems in Papua, chiefly the aspirations for independence, the more the government showed to the international community its incapability for handling the ethnic-based conflict.

The concept of dialogue, which many have repeatedly asserted to be an important step toward resolving long overdue problems in Papua, did not receive the minister's attention. Luhut also visited PNG and Fiji, two supporters of Indonesia regarding the Papuan issue in the Pacific.

Through ad hoc economic aid and bilateral agreements with PNG and Fiji, the main objective of that trip was most likely to defuse the Papuan issue in the Pacific, particularly the role of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) in the Melanesian Spearhead Group, an economic group that granted observer status to the ULMWP in 2015.

By providing such support, Indonesia hopes these two countries can either contain the Papuan issue or keep it from becoming one of the central political themes in the Pacific.

In the security sphere, there was no endeavor for a breakthrough during Luhut's trip to Papua. As a former army general and given his current position related to security matters, he was expected to tackle one of the most contentious issues in Papua, particularly regarding initiatives to build a new army territorial command in Manokwari and a police brigade headquarters in Wamena – not to mention the so-called joint expedition, dominated by 670 military personnel, including the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus), and civilians, aimed at conducting research and collecting data on Papua's natural resources and its people.

This research activity is at odds with its primary duties as stated in the 2004 Indonesian Military Law. Instead, Luhut merely promised to resolve past human rights cases in Papua, without details. This is largely lip service since two prominent cases during the past two years, namely those of Paniai in 2014 and Timika in 2015, remain unresolved.

Neither did Luhut's visit address the contentious massive investments across the area. Investment-driven policies have been widely criticized for failing to improve Papuans' quality of life since the area became an Indonesian province. Many giant private investors – mostly in oil palm plantations and agricultural projects – have been exploiting many local forests based on their concessions.

Migration was another issue overlooked by the minister's official trip to Papua. According to the 2014 report of the Justice and Peace Secretariat of the Jayapura Bishopric Mission, huge numbers of people transmigrating on a daily basis have negatively affected the indigenous population in the cultural, political and economic spheres. This has led to ceaseless conflicts between the settlers and the indigenous people.

Moreover, without discussing all of these crucial issues, Luhut's visit casts doubt on how the government handles the area and most importantly how it builds trust among Papuans toward Jakarta.

Accordingly, his visit will be seen by Papuans as another ceremonial activity by officials rather than a genuine and meaningful gesture of reaching out. All in all, Luhut's trip to Papua remains merely symbolic for many indigenous people.

[The writer is a researcher at the Marthinus Academy, Jakarta.]

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/academia/2016/04/15/a-meaningful-visit-or-another-ceremonial-trip-to-papua.html

Without accountability, Densus is no different from its enemies

Jakarta Post - April 14, 2016

Ary Hermawan – The sinister circumstances surrounding the death of suspected terrorist Siyono and the blatant cover-up attempts by the police are no trifles. They reflect a serious loophole in the national strategy to combat terrorism that, if not immediately addressed, would only jeopardize our freedom and put us at a greater risk of terrorist attacks.

The war on terrorism is neither quick nor cheap. It is folly if we decide to prolong and exacerbate it further by allowing the police's counterterrorism squad, the Special Detachment, or Densus 88, to casually use heavy-handed tactics or, worse, totally illegal and unconstitutional approaches to clamp down on local terrorist cells. Not only does it risk radicalizing more Muslims, it gravely compromises our civil liberties.

The police, therefore, must adequately answer the lingering questions that arose following an independent autopsy initiated by the country's prominent Muslim organization Muhammadiyah and the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) on Siyono.

The autopsy, conducted by members of the Indonesian Forensics Physicians Organization, concluded that Siyono's body had not been examined before. This finding contradicted the police's statement that they had carried out their own autopsy and found that Siyono succumbed to his wounds after a scuffle with Densus 88 officers when trying to escape, a claim that the forensics team proved wrong. The examination did not find any sign that Siyono had defended himself.

So who was lying? The police or Muhammadiyah/Komnas HAM? During the press conference to announce the autopsy results, Siyono's grieving widow, Suratmi, said she was given Rp 100 million (US$7,598) by the police, which many allege was a bribery attempt to silence her.

Of course, Suratmi could be lying, but where did she get Rp 100 million from just to frame the police? And why would Muhammadiyah and Komnas HAM make up such a damning allegation when the autopsy findings are incriminating enough to press the police to come clean on what transpired before Siyono's death?

Muhammadiyah and Komnas HAM should not be the only institutions pushing for transparency and accountability with regard to Siyono's highly suspicious death. Other Muslim organizations, moderate or liberal, should make the same demands for this is not about defending or having sympathy for "terrorists". We need to do this to protect our civil rights, to reject any form of unwarranted state violence and to ensure that no citizen can be convicted of any crime without due process.

Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) chairman Said Aqil Siradj's statement that he believed in the police's claims about the Siyono case is at best premature. The police are not the most credible institution in the country.

The public also questioned their willingness to defend minorities and the freedom of speech in the face of attacks against them by violent and intolerant groups. So why the silence for Siyono? Are the police more credible and more professional when they are fighting terrorists?

For years, the police have relied on their "success" in battling terrorism to polish their tainted image and they have been successful in doing that, as it is easier to sway people's opinions when they live in fear. It is any wonder they were quick to frame those investigating Siyono's death as "defenders of terrorists".

The police believe Siyono was the leader of Neo Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a term they coined to describe a network of young Muslim militants who are rooted in the old JI movement. They also claimed Siyono was an important figure in Neo-JI and that he knew the location of the group's arsenal and weapon-making factory.

But did Densus 88 always know what they were saying? The squad might have succeeded in crippling JI and containing local Islamic State (IS) militants, including the terrorist group led by Santoso, but they still made some mistakes.

The police, for instance, were confident that Bahrun Naim was the mastermind behind the Jan. 14 attack in Central Jakarta. A study by the Institute for the Policy Analysis of Conflict later found that an IS-affiliated group, Jemaah Ansharul Khilafah (JAK), led by Aman Abdurrahman carried out the attack.

All of the local pro-IS groups, including the one linked to Bachrun, did try to instigate attacks on Indonesian soil, but there was deep antagonism among these groups. They were competing with each other for influence in the region and therefore it was very unlikely they would coordinate when carrying out the attacks.

It is only natural for law enforcers to make erroneous conclusions and even to arrest and charge an innocent person, but such a mistake becomes unacceptable when they are given a carte blanche to torture and kill in the name of fighting terrorism. Even if Siyono had been a terrorist, there was no justification for his killing.

Terrorism is powered by the notion of martyrdom. Killing terrorists will not end terrorism. It only makes it stronger. Al-Qaeda still exists after the death of its icon, Osama bin Laden. Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) became the IS movement, a global terrorist network, after the death of its notorious founder, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. These terrorist groups survive despite the killings of dozens of al-Qaeda No. 2s and IS No. 2s.

But asking the police to be transparent and accountable in the war on terrorism is more than just an attempt to improve our counterterrorism strategy in order to make us safer while still keeping our freedom. It is also our way to differentiate ourselves from the terrorists.

If Densus 88 refuses to be transparent and cannot be held accountable for its conduct – including for allegedly torturing and killing suspected terrorists and then lying about it – then how are they different from the people they fight against?

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2016/04/14/without-accountability-densus-no-different-its-enemies.html

Indonesia: Remarks by Kenneth Roth, Executive Director

Human Rights Watch - April 13, 2016

Jakarta – Today we will be addressing what to do about the 1965 killings. Why do these still matter and how can we properly address them? Obviously the murder of at least half a million people in the course of a few months is one of the most horrendous crimes of our era and certainly of Indonesia's history.

This is a crime of such a magnitude that it cannot be swept under the rug. Families remember, the survivors remember, the descendants remember. And they are bearing a wound that they want addressed.

This is also relevant for today; this is not simply a matter of ancient history. It is of relevance because Indonesia remains a society and a country of many divisions – there are religious differences, ethnic differences, and territorial differences. And a big question for Indonesia today is how does one bridge those differences?

1965 represents a terrible precedent for how to address differences. It represents a precedent of forcing those differences away through mass murder. And because Indonesia has not really addressed this past, it remains an option. The way to inoculate society against a recurrence is to openly address the events of 1965, tell the truth about them, acknowledge them, have justice where possible, and then move forward. But trying to forget the past, or censor the past, may condemn Indonesia to repeat the past. Human Rights Watch believes it is extremely important that a different approach be taken.

Although I speak here as the representative of an international organization, this is not an international or foreign demand, this is an Indonesian demand. I have heard in the course of my visit – and my colleagues Andreas Harsono and others have heard through many, many years of work here – that the deep desire to address these horrendous crimes is felt passionately and urgently by many Indonesians.

It is obviously felt by the survivors, obviously by the families, but also by many ordinary Indonesians who might not have been personally touched by the killings but nonetheless want to build a society founded on the truthful acknowledgment of the past and a determination, on the basis of knowledge not forgetting, of moving forward and never repeating that kind of lawlessness. This is a deeply Indonesian, a deeply national, demand. This has nothing to do with foreign desires.

Next week, as many of you know, the government is hosting a symposium on this topic. This is a very important first step. And we want to acknowledge that the government is taking a step toward a new approach; it is not repeating the forgetfulness of the past. It is making an initial effort to address the past.

There are several options on the table as to what can be done. I want to begin with one that may not be imminent but is important to acknowledge nonetheless. That is justice. When you have crimes of this magnitude, mass murder involving hundreds of thousands of people, it is important ultimately for the architects of this slaughter to be brought to justice. It is never possible with crimes involving this many people to bring all the day-to-day murders to account. That is an unfortunate practical reality.

I'm also aware that 50 years later, it's not clear how many of the architects of the killings are still alive. So there may be practical limits to the justice option, but it is always critical to seek justice, targeting the architects, the directors, those who oversaw the mass killing.

A second channel is what's been termed rehabilitation. A senior official told me just yesterday that the 1981 presidential decree on "Clean Environment" (bersih lingkungan) issued by President Suharto has never been repealed and continues to be used against victims and descendants of the victims of the 1965 killings, and those alleged to have had links to the Communist Party. This is obviously a deep injustice, a classic example of collective punishment banned under international law. The senior official told me that as many as 40 million people in Indonesia today may be affected – this includes victims as well as relatives and descendants of victims. He said that this is one important reason that politicians always mention human rights in their election campaigns, they know there's a big group of people who are affected.

These are people who've never done anything wrong, they may have had a grandparent or a great-grandparent allegedly affiliated with the Communist Party. Ending the blacklisting is obviously an important step, and, frankly, the sooner the better. There is no need for a lengthy process. This is a decree that can be reversed with another decree and we'd like to see that happen now. Clearly the organizers of the symposium are interested in this and they can show quick action by pushing the government to act on it.

The more difficult issue is the broader question of how you address these past atrocities. There is clearly interest among the Indonesian officials we met with in some kind of apology, some kind of compensation, and some kind of reconciliation. Those are all good things. The question is when do they happen? In particular, do they happen before or after a process of telling the truth about the past?

In our view, you can't apologize over a blank slate, you can't reconcile around censorship, and you can't be compensated for a closed door. What is needed is to begin with a truth-telling process – to begin with an opportunity for the survivors, perhaps some of the perpetrators of killings, for the descendants of victims, to speak publicly, offer their public testimony, so that the Indonesian people can hear these firsthand accounts. This kind of public hearing process would lay a factual basis for what we presume would then be some kind of official truth commission report.

And when that has happened, then it is possible for the government to acknowledge what has happened; then it is possible for the government to express its sorrow for what happened, to apologize; then it is possible for the government to compensate victims or their descendants for what they endured. Those are meaningful actions on the basis of a factual record. They are not meaningful on the basis of a closed information environment.

So in assessing the results of the symposium we are going to be looking in particular at whether there is the initiation of a real, meaningful truth-telling process. That is an essential element of an effective accountability process. Dozens of countries around the world have had truth commissions shed light on past atrocities, issues that are always very difficult matters to address. Why not Indonesia?

The final thing I want to mention is the role of the United States in this. There are still US government records about what happened in 1965 that have not yet been released. We want to learn more about the working-level involvement between the US government and the killers in 1965. Who knew what, and what were the channels of communication? Were names conveyed by the US government and, if so, what happened to those people? It's this kind of operational detail, including CIA messages, that it would be very useful to know as part of the broader effort to tell the story of 1965. This is not a substitute for an Indonesian process; it's one part of a larger truth-telling effort. But we think the US could contribute to the larger process by releasing all of its relevant documents to the public.

This is something the US already has done in other cases, so far always in Latin America. Under President Barack Obama, the government opened the US archives into the US role in the so-called "dirty wars" in Brazil and Argentina; previous presidents opened the archives relevant to Chile, El Salvador, and Guatemala. These have been very useful contributions to truth-telling processes in those countries.

As a practical matter, given the expected bureaucratic resistance within certain parts of the US government, particularly the CIA, the US does this when the country concerned formally requests the documents and is conducting a meaningful truth-telling process. Now in the case of Indonesia, the national human rights commission, Komnas-HAM, has made a formal request to the Obama administration for the documents, and that is very important. In our meetings with Indonesian officials, we have urged the Indonesian government itself to add its voice requesting that the US government open its archives. Similarly, we hope the symposium launches a process that allows the US government to see that a genuine truth-telling process is underway in Indonesia, and that the release of the US archives would make a contribution to such a process.

If that happens, if there is a clear Indonesian government request for the US to fully open its books, and if its request is in furtherance of a meaningful truth-telling process within Indonesia, we're confident that President Obama will do the right thing and open the archives, as he has done in other cases. We realize that there is resistance within Indonesia from the army, the Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama, and others.

Some are not eager for a truth-telling process to go forward. This is where civil society has a role to play. The more the press clamors for a truth-telling process, the more civil society joins in, the more that President Jokowi will have the political backing needed to overcome this resistance and to move forward both in telling the truth here in Indonesia and in requesting the assistance of the US and other governments to open up their archives and contribute their part to the historical record.

So we see the symposium next week as the beginning of what we hope is a historic turn: the beginning of a government-backed effort to really come to terms with this ugly period of Indonesia's past, and to move forward in a way that no longer sweeps this matter under the rug, but reveals as fully as possible what happened, acknowledges it, and lays the foundation for addressing societal divisions according to the rule of law. That is the best way of ensuring that Indonesia will never repeat this terrible period again.

Thank you.

Source: https://www.hrw.org/news/2016/04/13/indonesia-remarks-kenneth-roth-executive-director

Ceremony and pomp in Papua

New Mandala - April 12, 2016

Hipolitus Yolisandry Ringgi Wangge – Recently, Indonesia's Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security, Luhut Panjaitan, made a three-day visit to Papua. His trip to the nation's easternmost region stood out for two key reasons.

First, Papua is a priority for the current administration, and the visit by one of Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's closest trustees follows the President's earlier travels to the disaffected area. Clearly, this latest trip was important – not only for the central government but also for Papuans.

Second, Luhut's visit showed a strong commitment to ensuring that Jokowi's policies for the region are fulfilled – especially the special autonomy law, which has been widely criticised as ineffective when it comes to improving the welfare of Papuans.

Across the board, however, Luhut's visit was nothing more than a symbolic gesture, and totally meaningless for Papua's many powerless indigenous people. The key issue was whether Luhut's visit would thoroughly address the fundamental concern of most Papuans – genuine trust for Jakarta. In this, the trip was an utter failure.

Since becoming part of Indonesia through the deeply flawed Act of Free Choice, facilitated by the United Nations in 1969, Papua has been treated poorly by the government and many Indonesians. This mistreatment includes inefficient policies, intensive and brutal 'security', and racial prejudice – all of which has led to distrust and limited sympathy on the part of Papuans toward the Indonesian government. Thus, a visit by a political figure as prominent as Luhut made locals skeptical rather than optimistic.

Their cynicism was warranted, as Luhut's visit did not touch on Papua's fundamental problem: its political status. Instead of addressing Papua's aspirations for independence, Luhut preferred to discuss the progress of developmental programs. And the more he avoided talking about Papua's political problems, the more the current administration showed to the international community its inability for handling ethnic-based conflict.

Adding salt to the wound, the concept of dialogue, which many have repeatedly vowed to be an important and long overdue step for resolving longstanding grievances, did not receive the minister's attention at all.

In contrast to this Papua visit are Luhut's recent trips to PNG and Fiji, two supporters of Indonesia's 'internalisation' of the Papua issue.

Using economic diplomacy, in the form of ad hoc economic assistance and bilateral agreements, the primary objective of these visits was to defuse the Papuan issue in the Pacific – particularly the role of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP), which was granted observer status in the Melanesian Spearhead Group in 2015. In exchange for Jakarta's support, the Indonesian government hopes PNG and Fiji can either contain the Papua issue or keep it on the sidelines in the Pacific region.

Luhut's visit to Papua also failed to make any breakthrough in the security sphere. Given his background as a former army general and his current position related to security matters, he was expected to tackle one of the most contentious issues in Papua – initiatives to build a new army territorial command in Manokwari and a police brigade headquarters in Wamena.

Another key security issue overlooked was the so-called joint expedition involving the Army, or TNI. While the expedition includes civilians, it is dominated by 670 military personnel, including the Special Armed Forces Command (Kopassus) – a group that has been accused of gross human rights violations in the region.

Supposedly, the expedition is conducting research and collecting data related to Papua's natural resources and its people – even though this is at odds with the Army's primary duties as stated in the TNI law Number 34/2004.

Instead, Luhut merely promised to resolve past human rights cases, without giving any details on how such a promise would be met. This commitment can mostly be seen as lip service, particularly since two prominent cases involving security forces from the past two years remain unresolved – the shooting of civilians at Paniai in 2014, and a raid, burning and arrests at Timika in 2015.

Luhut's visit also failed to address the contentious problem of massive investment across Papua. Investment-driven policies have been widely criticised as not improving Papuans' quality of life. In fact, many "giant" private investors – mostly palm oil plantations and massive agricultural projects such as the Rajawali group, Sampoerna Group, Medco Group, Sinar Mas Group, Salim Group, Musim Mas Group – have been exploiting many local forests after receiving forest utilisation licenses (HPH) from Jakarta.

Many indigenous Papuans have lived in these forests for centuries. In many cases, these "giants" have bypassed and sidelined local tribes to run their businesses. Additionally, such investment is useless as the bulk of Papuans lack sufficient skills to take benefit from these projects.

Migration was another issue overlooked by the minister. According to the Justice and Peace Secretariat of the Jayapura Bishopic Mission, huge numbers of people transmigrating on a daily basis has negatively affected the indigenous population by subordinating Papuans in the cultural, political, and economic spheres. This shift in population leads to never-ending conflict between settlers from outside islands and indigenous Papuans. If not addressed, the transmigration policy will only exaggerate the current demographic structure in Papua, further straining relations between the central government and locals.

Without discussing any of these crucial issues, Luhut's visit casts doubt on how the government is handling the area and most importantly whether it can build trust for Jakarta among Papuans.

Accordingly, his visit will be seen by Papuans as another 'show' by government officers rather than as genuine and meaningful action. All in all, Luhut's trip to Papua remains merely symbolic for many indigenous people. It would seem that once again pomp and ceremony has trumped the needs of Papuans.

[Hipolitus Yolisandry Ringgi Wangge is a researcher at the Marthinus Academy, Jakarta.]

Source: http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2016/04/12/ceremony-and-pomp-in-papua/