Masked motorcycle riders pull up around 4am at East Java building that has been the target of protests
Indonesian police are investigating allegations of masked motorcycle riders throwing bags of snakes into a West Papuan student dormitory in Surabaya and “deliberately spreading terror”.
The hostel was the site of anti-Papua protests last month, which then sparked rolling and often violent protests across Indonesia, including in the Papuan province.
Continue reading...Plan formally announced in August will see 1.5 million people move to new capital, but residents and conservationists have expressed deep concerns
Sugio’s orchard is his life’s work and a great source of pride for the 79-year-old resident of Tengin Baru village in Indonesia’s East Kalimantan. The orchard sits back from the main road, which in places is no more than a potholed track that cuts through jungles and villages. The plot of land is tranquil and filled with birdsong.
For 42 years Sugio has cultivated his hectare, diligently planting a variety of colourful fruits and vegetables. He points out corn, durian, rambutan, pepper and sweet potato plots; ducks and chickens wander around in the afternoon sun. “We have everything we need here,” he says. “Our family can’t even eat everything before it spoils, so we sell it at the market. Our life is already perfect.”
Continue reading...Residents inhaling smoke from peat and trees burned hundreds of miles away
An increase in Indonesian forest fires – the sharpest rise since 2015 – has infuriated neighbouring Malaysia, where residents are inhaling smoke from peat and trees burned hundreds of miles away.
More than 14 megatonnes of carbon dioxide were discharged from the blazes on 5 September, more than triple the average on this day over the previous 15 years, according to satellite data from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service.
Continue reading...Fishermen report seeing ‘snouts in the dark’ on Malacca Strait, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes
A mystical Malaysian island is grappling with a “sea-borne invasion” of wild boar, which some believe are swimming kilometres across one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes before destroying crops.
“The sea-borne invasion of wild boars leaves us in despair as the animal population is increasing,” said Norhizam Hassan Baktee, chairman of the Malacca agriculture committee, of the influx on the island of Pulau Besar.
Continue reading...At a pivotal moment in the region’s struggle for self-determination, there is seething anger as well as hope
At the base of the verdant mountains of Sentani, where dense, tropical jungle overlooks a sprawling teal lake, worshippers stream into church, men in suits and ties and sandals or batik shirts, women with colourful woven bags strung from their foreheads and slung over their backs.
Grey clouds hang low over the house of worship, a wood and tin shed with concrete floors and large open windows that let in the thick humid air.
Continue reading...At least one Indonesian soldier and six civilians have been reportedly killed in the restive region
Up to six protesters and one soldier have been killed in clashes across the restive West Papua and Papua provinces, although protesters and police dispute how many have died.
A source at one protest in the Deiyai Regency told The Guardian on Thursday that police had fired lived rounds into a crowd of demonstrators outside the regency offices on Wednesday. Six people were killed and two seriously injured, the source, who requested anonymity fearing reprisals, said.
Continue reading...Documents reveal ‘muted’ attempts to convince Indonesian officials to allow free vote to proceed
The US government knew for months that Indonesia’s military was supporting and arming militias in East Timor in the lead-up to the 1999 independence referendum but continued to push for stronger military ties, declassified documents have revealed.
The hundreds of documents provide a window into US policy on the months of terror inflicted on the Timorese and the “muted” attempts by the US to convince Indonesian officials to allow a peaceful and free vote to proceed.
Continue reading...Choice of Borneo for £27bn project raises fears of forest destruction and pollution
Indonesia has announced plans to move its capital from the climate-threatened megalopolis of Jakarta to the sparsely populated island of Borneo, which is home to some of the world’s greatest tropical rainforests.
President Joko Widodo said the move was necessary because the burden on Jakarta was “too heavy”, but environmentalists said the $33bn relocation needed to be carefully handled or it would result in fleeing one ecological disaster only to create another.
Continue reading...Rallies that began after military taunted Papuans with racist slurs have led to the government blocking internet in the region
Thousands of protesters were expected to take to the streets in six regions of West Papua on Monday, one week after violent demonstrations flared across Indonesia’s easternmost provinces, leaving one dead and dozens injured.
Activists expect thousands will join the protests as the population of highland areas is largely comprised of indigenous Papuans, compared with coastal towns such as Jayapura, where migrants from across Indonesia make up half of the population.
Continue reading...Jakarta cuts online access to Papua ‘and surrounding areas’ until the atmosphere ‘returns to being conducive and normal’
Indonesia has deployed more than 1,000 security personnel to West Papua and cut internet access, amid days of violent demonstrations in what activists say are the largest protests to occur in the region in years.
On Wednesday, violent unrest occurred in Fakfak, where a market was set ablaze and street battles erupted between police and protesters.
Continue reading...Large demonstrations and violent protests have taken place across the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua. On Wednesday, Jakarta said it was sending a further 1,000 security personnel to tackle the unrest, sparked by the arrest of Papuan students in the Indonesian city of Surabaya. Indonesia’s communications ministry cut the internet to its most eastern province on Wednesday ‘until the atmosphere of Papua returns to being conducive and normal’. Jakarta has battled an independence insurgency in the region since it was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a widely discredited UN-sponsored ballot
Continue reading...Depending who you ask, Cosmo Park is an ingenious urban oasis or an ill-conceived dystopia
It’s Thursday and the residents of Jakarta’s Cosmo Park are out jogging, watering their plants or walking their dogs along neat asphalt roads.
Neighbourhood kids pedal their bikes under frangipani trees and peach-coloured bougainvillea to the pool and tennis court. Apartments, comfortable and modern, sit side by side, with barbecues and toys stacked outside.
Continue reading...Charges yet to be laid against former Melbourne nightclub promoters William Cabantog and David Van Iersel
Two former Melbourne nightclub promoters are being held in Bali amid reported links to a cocaine-trafficking operation.
The men have been named in media outlets as William Cabantog, 35, and David Van Iersel, 38.
Continue reading...Popular video blogger whose image of the menu went viral now faces police inquiry
Indonesia’s national airline has come under fire for banning the taking of in-flight images after a popular video blogger posted a photo online showing a handwritten menu he was handed in business class.
The travel v-logger Rius Vernandes was also reported to police after the post, which led to the airline Garuda Indonesia being widely mocked online. The photo was uploaded with the caption: “The menu is still being printed sir.”
Continue reading...Marital rape not being prosecuted enough, campaigners say, in a country where women face growing harassment
Activists have warned of an “epidemic” of sexual harassment and violence against women in Indonesia, in the wake of two recent cases of horrific domestic abuse.
In one incident, a man in Jakarta reportedly slashed his wife’s throat with a machete after she refused to have sex with him, an act witnessed by their two children, aged seven and 14.
Continue reading...Kickstart the domestic market so Asian countries rejecting Australian waste is no longer a problem, industry suggests
Australia could quickly solve the problem of Indonesia and other countries rejecting its waste if governments invested in recycling manufacturing as promised and required the use of recycled material in public projects, industry and environmental groups say.
Jakarta announced on Tuesday it would return 210 tonnes of Australian household rubbish – the latest demonstration of opposition in south-east Asia to receiving exported waste. Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia have each turned back shipments and warned they would not become dumping grounds for developed countries after China banned imports of foreign plastic rubbish.
Continue reading...Greenpeace estimates 50m hectares cleared by 2020, warning companies must evolve to prevent ‘climate breakdown’
An area twice the size of the UK has been destroyed for products such as palm oil and soy over the last decade, according to analysis by Greenpeace International.
In 2010, members of the Consumer Goods Forum, including some of the world’s biggest consumer brands, pledged to eliminate deforestation by 2020, through the sustainable sourcing of four commodities most linked to forest destruction: soya, palm oil, paper and pulp, and cattle.
Continue reading...Mount Sinabung in North Sumatra, Indonesia, sent a huge plume of thick ash 7km high into the sky during an eruption on 9 June. Residents living near the volcano were urged to use masks when ash rains down and those living along the rivers upstream were warned of cold lava floods during rains. There were no reports of casualties.
Continue reading...ALP had pledged to renegotiate agreement if it won office but will now wait until parliament resume to decide whether to ratify it
Labor is holding out its support for the Indonesian free trade agreement signed off by the Coalition in the previous parliament, as the trade minister, Simon Birmingham, warns against a retreat into protectionism following a meeting of G20 trade ministers.
Speaking to Guardian Australia following the meeting in Tokyo over the weekend, Birmingham said that given trade tensions between China and the US, the country’s signed agreements with Indonesia, Peru and Hong Kong carry additional importance.
Continue reading...Region begins pushback against deluge of plastic and electronic waste from UK, US and Australia
For the past year, the waste of the world has been gathering on the shores of south-east Asia. Crates of unwanted rubbish from the west have accumulated in the ports of the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam while vast toxic wastelands of plastics imported from Europe and the US have built up across Malaysia.
But not for much longer it seems. A pushback is beginning, as nations across south-east Asia vow to send the garbage back to where it came from.
Continue reading...