Category Archives: Indonesia

Indonesia’s defence minister vows to be leader for all as polls suggest election win

Posted on by

Sample counts show Prabowo Subianto, former special commander under Suharto dictatorship, taking 59% of vote

The Indonesian defence minister, Prabowo Subianto, a former general dogged by allegations of human rights abuses, has promised to be a leader for all Indonesians after unofficial figures showed he was on course to win the country’s presidential race.

More than 200 million people were eligible to vote on Wednesday in the world’s largest single-day election, a race to decide who should succeed the popular outgoing president, Joko Widodo, known as Jokowi, as well as future executive and legislative representatives at all administrative levels across the country.

Continue reading...

Indonesia election: president criticised over alleged interference on behalf of Prabowo

Posted on by

The presidential office denies that Joko Widodo has interfered in the upcoming vote

Indonesian President Joko Widodo is facing mounting criticism over alleged interference in the country’s looming elections, as the country prepares to hold the world’s biggest single day vote.

More than 200 million people are eligible to vote in Indonesia’s elections on Wednesday, in which the country’s next president will be selected, as well as future executive and legislative representatives at all administrative levels.

Continue reading...

New Zealand pilot kidnapped a year ago in West Papua will be freed, rebel group says

Posted on by

Separatist fighters who seized Phillip Mehrtens say he will be released to protect humanity and safeguard human rights, but did not say when

Rebels in Indonesia’s West Papua region have said they will release a New Zealand pilot who was taken hostage a year ago as a bargaining chip for their independence movement.

The chief of general staff of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPN-PB), Terianus Satto, said in a statement the pilot would be released in order to protect humanity and safeguard human rights.

Continue reading...

Indonesian fruit picker landed in debt bondage challenges Home Office

Posted on by

Exclusive: Test case likely against UK’s seasonal worker scheme as charity alleges breach of right to be protected from labour exploitation

When Ismael found himself sleeping rough at York station in the late October cold he struggled to understand how an opportunity to pick berries 7,000 miles from his home had so quickly ended there.

He had left Indonesia less than four months earlier, in July 2022. He was 18 and ready for six months of hard work on a British farm to save for a science degree. “I thought the UK was the best place to work because I could save up a little money and help my parents,” he said.

Continue reading...

Australia urged to quash convictions of all Indonesian children jailed as adult people smugglers

Posted on by

Exclusive: Leader of successful class action says government should ‘step in to overturn the convictions’, amid calls for a formal apology

The Indonesian fisher who led the challenge against Australia’s unlawful detention of hundreds of children found on people-smuggling boats has urged the government to help quash all remaining convictions linked to the scandal.

The federal government relied on a deeply flawed age assessment technique – interpretations of wrist X-rays – to detain hundreds of Indonesian children found crewing people-smuggling boats in 2009 and the early 2010s.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

‘The pigs have disappeared’: swine fever threatens food source for millions as disease hits wild herds

Posted on by

Scientists call for urgent intervention, as bearded pig populations are devastated by the deadly virus on islands such as Borneo

Populations of wild pigs are crashing due to the spread of African swine fever (ASF), threatening the livelihoods of millions who depend on them for food, researchers warn.

With a fatality rate of almost 100%, ASF has swept across Asia, Europe and Africa, devastating domestic and wild pig populations over the past 10 to 20 years. The impacts are especially significant in Borneo, in south-east Asia, where bearded pig numbers have declined by between 90% and 100% since it arrived on the island in 2021, researchers said.

Continue reading...

US woman jailed for 26 years over mother’s suitcase murder in Bali

Posted on by

Heather Mack, 28, pleaded guilty to helping boyfriend kill Sheila Wiese-Mack in 2014 to gain access to $1.5m trust fund

An American woman who pleaded guilty to helping kill her own mother and stuffing the body in a suitcase during a luxury vacation in Bali has been sentenced to 26 years in prison.

Judge Matthew Kennelly gave Mack credit for the approximately two years she spent in custody in Chicago awaiting trial since her return to the US in 2021. Mack’s attorney Michael Leonard said her formal sentence will be about 23 years total.

Continue reading...

Hope for rare singing gibbons as pair are released into the wild

Posted on by

Two Siamang gibbons rescued from the illegal pet trade have been rehabilitated in a new Indonesian centre

The forest chorus of South Sumatra in Indonesia has some of its finest singers back: a pair of rare Siamang gibbons, rescued from the illegal pet trade, have been released into the wild.

Siamang gibbons (Symphalangus syndactylus) are known for their distinctive large throat sacs. But their powerful, haunting voices, used for communication and marking territory, are a blessing and a curse.

Continue reading...

Explosion at a nickel plant in Indonesia leaves at least 13 dead and 46 injured

Posted on by

Accident happened during repair work on furnace, says spokesperson for industrial park in eastern Indonesia

At least 13 people were killed and 46 injured in eastern Indonesia on Sunday after an explosion at a Chinese-funded nickel-processing plant, an industrial park official said.

The island of Sulawesi is a hub for the mineral-rich country’s production of nickel, a base metal used for electric vehicle batteries and stainless steel.

Continue reading...

‘Really, really weak’: experts attack claim that Indonesia site is ‘world’s oldest building’

Posted on by

Sensational report that Indonesia’s Gunung Padang site is 25,000 years old is dismissed by archaeologists around the world

It was one of the most sensational science stories of 2023. Researchers claimed last month that the Gunung Padang site in West Java, Indonesia, is the world’s most ancient pyramid and could be more than 25,000 years old.

Such antiquity would be unprecedented. Stonehenge and the oldest major pyramids of Egypt are only a few thousand years old, while the previous record holder, Turkey’s Göbekli Tepe stone monuments, are thought to be about 11,000 years old.

Continue reading...

Up to 220 Indonesians could be compensated after children wrongly jailed in Australia as people smugglers

Posted on by

The children were wrongly deemed to be adults by federal police and Australian courts, who were relying on a wildly inaccurate technique

Up to 220 Indonesians could receive compensation after they were wrongfully prosecuted and detained as adult people smugglers in Australia despite being children at the time.

Earlier this year, the federal government agreed to settle a significant class action brought by a group of Indonesian children who were falsely prosecuted as adult people smugglers between 2010 and 2012.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s free morning and afternoon email newsletters for your daily news roundup

Continue reading...

Fears grow for hundreds of Rohingya refugees adrift for two weeks

Posted on by

UN warns of possible tragedy unless people are rescued from two boats on Andaman Sea

About 400 Rohingya refugees have been adrift in two boats on the Andaman Sea for about two weeks, according to the United Nations, which called on regional governments to help rescue them.

The number of Rohingya Muslims fleeing by boats in a seasonal exodus – usually from squalid, overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh – has been rising since last year due to cuts to food rations and an increase in gang violence.

Continue reading...

Mount Marapi eruption: 23 people confirmed or presumed dead in Indonesia

Posted on by

Rescuers find more bodies, after second eruption halted search for missing climbers on Monday

Rescuers searching the hazardous slopes of Indonesia’s Mount Marapi volcano found more bodies among the climbers caught by a surprise eruption two days ago, raising the number of confirmed and presumed dead to 23.

More than 50 climbers were rescued after the initial eruption on Sunday, and 11 others were initially confirmed dead. Another eruption on Monday spewed a new burst of hot ash as high as 800 metres (2,620ft) into the air and temporarily halted search operations.

Continue reading...

Mount Merapi eruption: 11 hikers found dead on Indonesian volcano

Posted on by

Rescuers say dozens of hikers were on the volcano when it erupted on Sunday, with three found alive and at least 12 missing

Indonesian rescuers have found the bodies of 11 climbers after the eruption of the Mount Merapi volcano in West Sumatra.

A rescue official said three people were found alive on the volcano and at least 12 climbers were still missing. Another official put the number of missing at 22.

Continue reading...

Mount Marapi eruption: 11 hikers found dead on Indonesian volcano

Posted on by

Rescuers say dozens of hikers were on the volcano when it erupted on Sunday, with three found alive and at least 12 missing

Indonesian rescuers have found the bodies of 11 climbers after the eruption of the Mount Marapi volcano in West Sumatra.

A rescue official said three people were found alive on the volcano and at least 12 climbers were still missing. Another official put the number of missing at 22.

Continue reading...

New push for debt relief to help developing world fund climate action

Posted on by

Cop28 hears poorest nations spend at least 12 times as much to service debts than on tackling global heating

The fight against the climate emergency is being hampered by a debt crisis that involves the world’s poorest countries paying more than 12 times as much to their creditors as they are spending on measures to tackle the impact of global heating, a campaign group has warned.

As the Cop28 meeting opened in the United Arab Emirates, Development Finance International (DFI) said a new round of comprehensive and deep debt cancellation was needed to free up much-needed investment in climate emergency adaptation.

Continue reading...

Species of mammal named after David Attenborough believed extinct rediscovered

Posted on by

Long-beaked echidna with spines of a hedgehog and snout of an anteater photographed on last day of expedition

Scientists have rediscovered a long-lost species of mammal described as having the spines of a hedgehog, the snout of an anteater and the feet of a mole, in Indonesia’s Cyclops Mountains more than 60 years after it was last recorded.

Attenborough’s long-beaked echidna, named after British naturalist David Attenborough, was photographed for the first timesince 1961 by a trail camera on the last day of a four-week expedition led by Oxford University scientists in June and July.

Having descended from the mountains at the end of the trip, biologist James Kempton found the images of the small creature walking through the forest undergrowth on the last memory card retrieved from more than 80 remote cameras.

Continue reading...

Joko Widodo’s son chosen as running mate for Indonesia presidential candidate Prabowo

Posted on by

Choice of 36-year-old Gibran Rakabuming Raka as a vice-presidential candidate has fuelled criticism that Widodo is trying to create a political dynasty

Indonesia’s defence minister and presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto said on Sunday he has chosen the eldest son of President Joko Widodo to be his running mate in next year’s election.

The choice of 36-year-old Gibran Rakabuming Raka, now the mayor of Surakarta city, as a vice-presidential candidate for the February vote has fuelled criticism that Widodo is trying to create a political dynasty in the world’s third-largest democracy.

Continue reading...

Dutch self-image challenged as country confronts its colonial past

Posted on by

Exhibition aims to establish common ground amid fractious debate over violence in post-independence Indonesia

Its political centre, The Hague, may call itself “the city of peace and justice”. But in few European countries is the process of confronting the colonial period proving as fractious and divisive as in the Netherlands, where opposing sides have in recent years struggled to agree on who was victim and who was perpetrator.

This month, an exhibition at Amsterdam’s Nieuwe Kerk gallery space and two new books in a major historical series try to establish common ground over the violence that ensued after Indonesia declared independence from Dutch colonial rule in 1945.

Continue reading...

Joko Widodo’s son can run for Indonesian vice-president after controversial court ruling

Posted on by

Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36, does not meet age requirement of 40 but constitutional court – headed by president’s brother-in-law – makes exception

An Indonesian court has made a controversial exception allowing the eldest son of outgoing President Joko Widodo to run for vice-president in the 2024 election.

In a decision that outraged critics of the president, the constitutional court ruled that candidates under the required age of 40 can seek the presidency or vice-presidency in the 14 February ballot provided they have previously held elected regional office.

Continue reading...