INDONESIA A NEWS

The Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta declared that ''freedom is justice'' as he stepped down as East Timor's president during an emotional ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the country's independence. Dr Ramos-Horta told more than 100,000 Timorese who packed a beachside area on Dili's outskirts early yesterday that their greatest achievement was fighting for and achieving their freedom after hundreds of years of foreign occupation and war during which a quarter of the population were killed or died from starvation or disease. Among dozens of foreign dignitaries who witnessed the ceremony was Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, the Indonesian President, who earlier stood alongside East Timor's Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao, the former guerilla fighter who spent years in Indonesian jails, and spoke about Indonesia's enhanced co-operation and growing people-to-people ties with East Timor. Dr Yudhoyono said it was Indonesia's duty to...

The world’s largest producer of teak, an Indonesian state-owned company on the island of Java, has again been awarded sustainable forest management certification. But the company has a long and sometimes contentious relationship with forest communities in the area, and the forest rights of indigenous communities remain a potential cause of conflict.  “Land rights have long been a source of violence on Java,” Rhett Butler, a leading environmentalist and creator of a leading environmental news website told IRIN. Perhutani (Indonesian state forestry company) exploits 2.4 million hectares of forests in Java - 7 percent of the island area - with earnings of around US$400 million in 2011.  Although Perhutani agreed in 2011 to the voluntary process that promotes eco-friendly management in order to obtain certification, it controls a huge area of forest once used by indigenous communities, many of whom still depend on the forests for their livelihoods.  The company n...

As Hisyam Alizein, alias Umar Patek and a cadre of the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiah (JI), rose to speak during his trial in the West Jakarta district court on March 7, few would have expected the 45-year old hardcore terrorist to apologize to the victims of the 2002 Bali bombings that claimed the lives of 202 people.  The JI had indeed surprised many by its rise and ability to organize repeated high profile symbolic attacks in the early 2000s. Patek, being one of last remnants of the outfit offered asurprise yet again - this time confirming the rapid decline of the outfit since the Indonesian authorities executed the Bali bombers in 2008 - both in terms of its existence and ideology. Nothing else could have been a more convincing statement on the decline of Islamist terror in the archipelagic nation, with larger implications on the entire Southeast Asia.  "I ask for forgiveness from all the victims and their families. Those who lost their lives and t...