INDONESIA A NEWS

Karina is an atheist, but her friends jokingly call her “the prophet.” That is because she is helping nurture a community for unbelievers in predominantly Muslim Indonesia, where trumpeting one’s disbelief in God can lead to abuse, ostracism and even prison.  “It’s very normal for atheists to be paranoid because the environment does not support them,” said Ms. Karina, 26, who uses only one name. But, she said, “in this group people don’t need to be afraid.”  Indonesian Atheists was founded with a Facebook page in 2008 and now holds regular gatherings. The Internet has offered its members a safe space to air their opinions, and the feeling of community has made them braver about gathering in public. But recent prosecutions of people who made online comments deemed blasphemous by the country’s courts have stoked fears that they too could come under attack. “Members’ growing outspokenness and courage does not indicate that other people increasingly accept us,” said...

The problems began shortly after Tajul Muluk, a Shiite cleric, opened a boarding school in 2004. The school, in a predominantly Sunni Muslim part of East Java, raised local tensions, and in 2006 it was attacked by thousands of villagers. When a mob set fire to the school and several homes last December, many Shiites saw it as just the latest episode in a simmering sectarian conflict — one that they say has been ignored by the police and exploited by Islamists purporting to preserve the purity of the Muslim faith.   Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, has long been considered a place where different religious and ethnic groups can live in harmony and where Islam can work with democracy.   But that perception has been repeatedly brought into question lately. In East Java, Sunni leaders are pushing the provincial government to adopt a regulation limiting the spread of Shiite Islam. It would prevent the country’s two major Shiite organizations from ...

I'm almost packed and about to get on the plane for the Middle East, so I've been thinking a lot about Hizbullah. No, not the Shiite militia and political party that runs much of Lebanon; the Hizbullah here, in Indonesia.   It was a Muslim militia created by the Japanese to fight the Allies in World War II. Now, you're probably familiar with the thread winding from al-Qaeda's attacks on America in 2001, back to the CIA's (Central Intelligence Agency) funding for the Mujahedeen who fought the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. But that's just part of a broader story about outsiders oppressing, fostering and flirting with local Muslim forces. And it stretches from the battle scarred streets of Beirut and Baghdad, across the rugged mountains of Afghanistan, all the way to Bali. The most important name in this Indonesian chapter of the story is Kartosuwiryo. He was an Islamist leader who first got involved in politics in the 1920s and, to this day, he's an...

A SENIOR Indonesian official has confirmed Indonesia would object strongly to the Coalition's policy of forcing asylum boats back into Indonesian waters.  ''It's exactly like you going to someone else's house and throwing dirt there,'' the official said, on the condition of anonymity.  ''Why would we take something that is not our property?'' There are also practical problems with the turn-around policy, the official said. Unless the boats were to be abandoned on the high seas, or handed over to the Indonesian navy mid-ocean, they would need to be towed to land.  But there is no safe port on Java's southern shore because the seas are too high and dangerous. This would mean the Australian navy towing an asylum boat to Tanjung Priok, Jakarta's commercial and military port, which is many hours' sail away on Java's northern shore.  The source said the Australian navy would never be given permission for this kind of ...

As violence escalates in West Papua, one cannot help but recall East Timor and wonder how much worse it must get before Australia and the international community will act. Tensions are at breaking point in the easternmost province of Indonesia after the police shooting of independence activist Mako Tabuni. Human rights activists report Tabuni was unarmed when shot six times by the Australian-trained Detachment 88 forces. Tabuni was deputy chairman of the West Papua National Committee, an organisation advocating independence and the right to self-determination under international law. Tabuni had also been campaigning for an investigation into a recent spate of military killings. The shooting follows years of violence. At least 16 people have been killed in the past month, according to human rights groups, and hundreds of homes raided, with many burnt to the ground. Thousands are reported to be evacuating, seeking refuge in the forest or heading for refugee camps in Papua ...

Since its founding in 1998, hardline vigilante group the Islamic Defenders Front (known by its Indonesian acronym FPI) has perpetuated violence in the name of Islamic morality. Now, Indonesians are calling for an end to the intimidation and intolerance, signaling growing rejection of the group's and its supporters' radical religious ideology.  Palangka Raya, the capital of Central Kalimantan province, was in the national headlines two weeks ago when its residents stopped FPI leaders from landing at the town's airport. Four FPI leaders had flown there to officiate the opening of a new provincial FPI branch but in an act of defiance a crowd of about 800 people staged a protest.  A few hundred, mainly indigenous Dayak people, forced their way onto the airport's apron and runway to confront the FPI officials. Protesters dispersed only when airport officials convinced them that the FPI members would remain on board the plane and would travel on to another destination.  ...

The year 2011 was a tumultuous one for the island of New Guinea, the world's second-largest and perhaps most politically divided island. Papua New Guinea (PNG), the independent country on the island's eastern half, suffered from a four-month political standoff that was at least temporarily resolved in late December.  On the island's western half, consisting of two Indonesian provinces, what started out as a strike over wages at the Grasberg mine spiraled into four months of protests which fueled a revival of the Papuan independence movement. While relative peace had been restored on both sides of the island by year's end, lasting stability will depend on a number of mutable factors in the year ahead.  The key figure in the PNG political crisis - and also the key figure in the country since its independence - is Sir Michael Somare. Somare headed the first "indigenous" government from 1972-1975 before PNG acquired official independence from Australia in 1975....

Dozens of young men and women have been detained for being "punk" and disturbing the peace in Aceh, Indonesia's most devoutly Muslim province. They are being held in a remedial school, where they are undergoing "re-education" . Rights groups have expressed concern after photographs emerged of the young men having their mohawks and funky hairstyles shaved off by Aceh's police. They look sullen and frightened as they are forced into a communal bath. But Aceh's police say they are not trying to harm the youths, they are trying to protect them. The 64 punks, many of whom are from as far away as Bali or Jakarta, were picked up on Saturday night during a local concert.  Aceh police spokesman Gustav Leo says there have been complaints from residents nearby. The residents did not like the behaviour of the punks and alleged that some of them had approached locals for money. Mr Leo stressed that no-one had been charged with any crime, and there were no plans to ...

I still cannot get one sound from the Feb. 6 Cikeusik mob attack on a handful of Ahmadiyah followers out of my head. At some point the shouting and mayhem, which millions have seen on YouTube, seems to subside as a lifeless body in the mud is beaten with wooden staves. There follows a series of sickening wet slaps against the corpse as a crowd shouts in approval.  But that man and two other victims were not murdered, according to prosecutors who chose the lightest possible charges to throw up against the clearly identifiable suspects in the Banten province attack. On Thursday, a court made it official, handing out sentences of three to six months to 12 men accused of leading and carrying out the assault.  Dani bin Misra, a 17-year-old, smashed a victim’s skull with a stone; he was charged with manslaughter and got three months. The leader of the mob of about 1,000 people who attacked 20 Ahmadis, Idris bin Mahdani, was convicted of illegal possession of a machete and got ...

THE military chief of West Papua's Jayapura district last night denied his troops had shot into a crowd of pro-independence activists and killed at least one. Major General Erfi Triassunu said TNI troops and police had only fired into the air to break up the Third Papuan People's Congress after an activist began reading a declaration of independence from Indonesia. According to two reporters at the scene at the Lapangan Zakeus sports ground in Jayapura, police and soldiers broke up the congress's final session, scattering about 5000 activists and taking away at least 100 under arrest. They included Papua Customary Council chairman Forkorus Yaboisembut, who had had just been elected president of a "transitional government for the Republic of West Papua", according to the Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy. Trouble erupted when he led the reading of the declaration and raised a banned Morning Star flag. However, the reporters did not confirm initia...

NDONESIAN security forces opened fire on thousands of striking workers at Freeport-McMoRan' s gold and copper mine early yesterday, killing one man and critically wounding six, a union official said. Police said it was too early to comment and officials from Arizona-based Freeport were preparing an official statement. Workers at the Grasberg mine in West Papua kicked off a strike on September 15, demanding pay increases to $17.50 to $43 an hour from the present $2.10 to $3.50 an hour. About 90 per cent of the mine's 12,000 employees are taking part. Union leader Manuel Maniambo said thousands of striking workers headed to the mine in the mountains by bus and by foot to try to stop replacement workers. When security forces tried to block them, they became angry, throwing rocks and yelling insults, he said. The troops opened fire, killing one worker and leaving another hospitalised in critical condition, Mr Maniambo said. A man named Hanseba died in hospital of gunshot woun...

IN THE aftermath of last week's suicide bombing by a rogue Islamist of a church in the Central Java city of Solo, messages flew around the social networking site Twitter urging followers to go to an extremist website. There, on arrahmah.com, was an article condemning Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for his strong and quickly delivered words against the violent act in Solo, contrasting it with a supposedly weak response to the alleged attacks on Muslims by Christians in Ambon. It continued with a litany of falsehoods, including claims that a village had been burnt down and that thousands of Muslims remained in mosques in Ambon, seeking refuge from the crusader hordes. In two days some 20,000 people had retweeted the message. Disturbingly, it was just the latest in a series of highly inflammatory tweets, SMS and Facebook postings sowing the seeds of disharmony and promoting terrorism in Indonesia. Last month, there were two striking examples of the power of social m...

Malaysian maritime authorities said they arrested six Indonesians attempting to rob a ship in the Strait of Malacca, the latest in a surge of piracy attacks in the strategic waterway.The suspects were spotted by Malaysian patrols early Sunday morning as they tried to board a merchant vessel off southern Johor state near Singapore, Maritime Enforcement Agency chief Admiral Zulkifli Abu Bakar said. "The pirates realized they were spotted and tried to flee on their boat but our patrol vessel gave chase and fired several warning shots before intercepting the pirate ship in Malaysian waters," he told AFP.He said the pirates appeared to have come from the nearby Indonesian island of Batam and had gathered in the area intending to rob three ships. An investigation was under way. The International Maritime Bureau (IMB) in June sent an alert to ships traversing the area, warning of a heightened piracy risk following the hijacking of three tugboats and a barge this year.The gl...

Saudi Arabia has shown a gesture of support and friendship to Indonesia by sparing a housemaid from being beheaded and repatriating her to Jakarta. The news comes at a time when a high-powered delegation from Indonesia is holding talks with the officials of the Ministry of Labor here since Tuesday in an effort to work out a compromise formula to boost relations in the manpower sector and to defuse the crisis in the process. This was disclosed by Tatang Budie Utama Razak, director for Protection of Indonesian Citizens and Legal Entities in Indonesia, on Wednesday. Razak, who arrived with the 12-member delegation from Jakarta to participate in the talks with Saudi officials, confirmed that Darsem Binti Dawud Tawar, 26, arrived in Jakarta on Wednesday morning and was received by her family members, friends and several Indonesian officials. Darsem, from Subang, West Java, was convicted of murder by a Saudi court in 2009 and was sentenced to death for killing her employer, who allegedly...