INDONESIA A NEWS

TNI Chief of Staff General Ryamizard - the man that rules Indonesia with Suharto and Yudhoyono? Read about the new nuclear threat poised by Indonesia further down the page, but first...... Can we believe the Indonesian Government so unselfishly volunteered troops for the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon despite the fact Indonesia itself does not recognize the state of Israel? So how it can somehow keep the peace with the Israelis is somehow lost! Of course every nation which volunteers and even provides troops in such peace keeping roles earns itself "brownie points" with the greater international community and the UN. Of course Suharto corruption pardoning Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (AKA "Mini Suharto") and his efforts to secure a place on the UN Security Council on the basis Indonesia plays an important international peace keeping role (while murderously suppressing their own citizens) adds extra reason for this "gesture". But we belie...

The day after Greenpeace activists dumped 700 kilograms of Sidoarjo's mud in the compound of his office, Coordinating Minister for the People's Welfare Aburizal Bakrie mulled taking legal action against them. On Sept. 27 -- almost at the same time as a Cabinet meeting declared the afflicted region a disaster area -- Greenpeace Southeast Asia demanded that Lapindo Brantas Inc. take full responsibility for the disaster, which has been unstoppable for the last four months. The protesters demanded that the government seek every avenue to stop the mudflow and make sure no taxpayers' money was spent on dealing with the man-made disaster. The mudflow has been gushing out of a gas exploration well controlled by the Bakrie family, one of the largest and most well-connected industrial conglomerates in the country. Aburizal's spokesman firmly says the minister does not want the public to connect the Lapindo case with his office. Furthermore, the spokesman denies any direct link be...

Iran has arrested a religious leader and some of his followers who advocate separating religion and politics after clashes with police, Iranian news agencies reported yesterday.Hundreds of supporters of Ayatollah Mohammad Kazemeini Borujerdi had gathered on Saturday around his house in Tehran to protest the arrest of a number of Borujerdi's followers and restrictions imposed on him, press reports said. "The ones behind Saturday's unrest were arrested. All including, Borujerdi, have been handed over to judiciary officials," said a security official in Tehran governor's office, identified only by his last name, Roshan. Roshan said the police had previously sought to contain these "sectarian elements" but yesterday "they were carrying Molotov cocktails, knives, swords and clubs to confront the police." "They even (for a time) took members of the force hostage and threw acid on policemen and vandalized public property," he said, adding ...

What is the line between law enforcement and torture? This is basically the current debate between relatives, lawyers, priests, friends and supporters of the three Flores villagers, Tibo, Riwu and da Silva, who were executed last Thursday at midnight, and the Indonesian authorities. More specifically this is a question for those defending the human and legal rights of the Flores trio and the Indonesian Police, whose Mobile Brigade (Brimob) members carried out the execution.The state had insisted on taking over the burial of the deceased in secrecy, without involving their families, who were not allowed to pay their last respects properly, with the proper religious rites. This violation of Law No. 2/1964 which stipulates the procedures for carrying out the death penalty triggered the mass protests in Atambua, West Timor and Maumere, Flores, apart from the fact that they were wrongly sentenced by the Indonesian judiciary in the first place. So, blaming local activists for the Atambua an...

Introduction Interviews are frequently an important element of a book, newspaper or magazine article. Copyright law permits an author to automatically claim copyright ownership and protection for an "original" work. Does an interview qualify as a copyrightable work? If yes, who owns an interview – the interviewee or interviewer? On a case-by-case basis courts have either applied federal copyright law, state or common law copyright law when resolving issues involving the protection and ownership interviews. Federal Copyright ProtectionThe Copyright Act of 1976 protects "original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression." An interview will be copyright protected if it satisfies the originality" and "fixation" requirements of US copyright. Although the originality requirement is seldom an issue for an interview the fixation requirement sometimes presents problems. The fixation requirement will only be satisfied if the interview is c...