INDONESIA A NEWS

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 ...

The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) wishes to bring the attention of the Human Rights Council (HRC) to violations of the right to the freedom of expression and opinion that are being engendered through the use of Indonesia’s legal provisions prohibiting blasphemy. Religious blasphemy is prohibited in Indonesia under Law No. 1/PNPS/1965, with such provisions also being later adopted within the Penal Code (KUHP) under Article 156a. Paragraph (a) of this article uses vague language, which opens the door to abusive uses of this provision, to prohibit any acts and expression of views considered to be blasphemous, and carries a maximum punishment of five years imprisonment. A similar maximum punishment is also carried by paragraph (b) of the article, which prohibits any acts and expression of views calling for others to embrace atheism. Alexander Aan is an atheist currently undergoing a trial at the Muaro Sijunjung District Court, West Sumatra. According to his lawyers from ...

Some Indonesians opposed Lady Gaga's scheduled performance, accusing her of being a 'devil worshipper' [EPA] "Little monsters lost to big monsters", wrote an Indonesian television anchor on his Twitter account shortly after Lady Gaga cancelled her biggest concert in Asia, a sold-out event scheduled to take place in Jakarta on June 3.  The pop star's fans, which she affectionately calls her "little monsters", now have to accept that the woman they saw on Indonesian television, or discovered in DVD shops, cannot visit their country because of safety concerns. Although a small group of Islamic hardliners rejoiced over the news of Gaga's concert cancellation, many Indonesians started to wonder who really has gone gaga here. gguIn fact, this incident does not have much to do with the American singer. Instead, it illustrates a far deeper conflict that is dividing Indonesia. The Lady Gaga saga started a few weeks ago, after some Indonesia...

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...