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BENARNEWS- An Instagram account featuring comic strips about a Muslim gay man's struggles went dark early Wednesday (Jakarta time), just days after the Indonesian government demanded that the social media site remove it over public concerns in the largest Islamic-majority country.
BenarNews could not determine if the person responsible for the @alpantuni account took the account offline or if Instagram responded to the government's demand. Instagram's press office did not immediately respond to an email seeking clarification.
On Tuesday, Indonesia's Ministry of Communication and Information Technology said Instagram had not responded to a Feb. 2 letter demanding that the account be blocked for causing public unease, government spokesman Ferdinandus Setu said.
"We don't know why it has taken so long. We need an explanation from them," he told BenarNews.
The account, which had more than 6,000 followers before it went dark, listed its bio as "gay Muslim comics for people who can think." It featured 13 comic strips containing Indonesian text, including one depicting two men having sex.
Another post showed the character named Alpantuni telling himself that he would have been happier had he chosen to come out instead of leading a double life.
Homosexuality is not a crime in Indonesia except in Aceh province where Sharia law is in force.
Rudiantara, the minister of communication and information technology, had said the government was heeding requests from the public that the account be removed.
LGBT attacks
In recent years, the rhetoric and actions of some government officials and local leaders have fanned an uproar against the country's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community.
The communications ministry blocked thousands of websites containing pornographic content, as part of the government's "healthy internet" campaign.
In addition, police have raided places frequented by gay people and briefly detained hundreds suspected of being homosexual. Officers filed charges against some of them for committing prostitution or pornographic acts.
The Pariaman city government, in West Sumatra province, recently issued a bylaw of a public order that includes a fine of up to 1 million rupiah (U.S. $71) for LGBT activities. The regulation contained clauses to penalize LGBT people "who conduct activity that disturbs public order" or commit "immoral acts with the same-sex," according to a media report citing the by-law.
Last year, the government of Cianjur regency in West Java issued a circular urging Muslim preachers to talk during their Friday sermons about the "dangers" of homosexuality.
Most of the country sees the LGBT community as a threat, according to a 2017 survey by Jakarta-based Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting. The survey showed that 85.4 percent of the nation felt threatened by LGBT people – a figure which increased to 87.6 percent three months later.
Additionally, 79.1 percent of respondents objected to having LGBT neighbors. Despite those concerns, 57.7 percent of Indonesians believed that LGBT members had rights and about 50 percent believed the government was obligated to protect them, according to the survey.
Almost exactly a year ago, Feb. 8, 2018, Indonesian lawmakers, who were following the advice of Muslim clerics, sought to approve a set of revisions to the country's penal code that would criminalize extramarital sex and gay sex.
While the revisions never passed, then-U.N. human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein and parliamentarians from Southeast Asian countries called on Indonesia to not inflame discrimination against LGBT people and others.
"At a time when it is consolidating its democratic gains, we urge Indonesians to move forward – not backward – on human rights and resist attempts to introduce new forms of discrimination in law," Zeid said on the final day of his three-day trip to Indonesia's capital.


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BENARNEWS- An investigation team sent by Indonesia to Manila last week could not confirm Philippine claims that an Indonesian couple carried out twin bombings that killed 23 people at a Jolo island church, a senior counter-terror source in Jakarta told BenarNews.
Philippine Interior Secretary Eduardo Año had claimed that an Indonesian man and woman were responsible for the Jan. 27 explosions at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral in Jolo, capital of Sulu province in the southern Philippines.
"There were no DNA profile of the couple, no finger prints according to the post-mortem done on body parts found at the crime scene," the Indonesian security source told Benar via a phone interview from Jakarta.
Philippine security forces have arrested and filed murder charges against five suspected members of the Abu Sayyaf, a ragtag band of militants linked with the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.
Authorities in the Philippines, including President Rodrigo Duterte, claim that those five men worked with a couple, believed to be Indonesians, who bombed the church.
Indonesian investigators arrived in Manila early this month to help probe those suspicions.
Six days after the bombings, Año told CNN that the couple was sometimes mistaken for Malaysians. "I'm certain they are Indonesians," he said, identifying the man as "Abu Huda" and adding he had been in Sulu province "for a long time already."
The woman arrived in Jolo days before the bombings, Año said.
But the Indonesian source told BenarNews that the team of counter-terror investigators has not yet received concrete evidence from Philippine authorities since returning to Jakarta this week.
The source said Philippine authorities had told the team that the Indonesian bomber was named "Abu Huda" and was believed to have travelled to Manila on Jan. 21 with his 10-year-old daughter.
"Indonesian police checked every single passenger who flew out to Manila on January 21 from all airports in the country. Police also checked every male passenger who travelled to Manila with a 10-year-old female child (on that day)," he said.
"There was no 'Abu Huda' on the immigration list. Abu Huda is highly likely an alias, a nickname that is commonly used by militants. Under such circumstances, it is very difficult to establish the identity of this Abu Huda," the source said.
The counter-terrorism source said the Indonesian investigation team also failed to obtain from Philippine authorities the alleged bombers' digital footprint.
"Indonesian police sent to Manila did not get any digital footprint of the alleged couple that could have shed light on where they went, who they communicated with, anything that could have helped establish their identities," the source said.
"Under such circumstances, it is going to be very difficult to make headway in this investigation," he said.
'One-sided'
When the Philippines first announced that Indonesian suicide bombers were behind the blast, Indonesian Security Minister Wiranto urged Filipino authorities not to rush into accusing Indonesians as the perpetrators before confirming the facts.
He described the statements from Manila as "one-sided news."
"Until now the coordination has not been completed, and responsibility remains with the Philippine authorities themselves – the police, the parties concerned in the matters," Wiranto told reporters in Jakarta.
Analysts have also raised doubts over the Philippine claims linking Indonesians to the bombings
"There's no evidence! Different officials are saying different things – Malaysians, Yemenis, Indonesians," Sidney Jones, director of the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, told the Jakarta Post last week. "They actually have no clue."


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BENARNEWS- Plantation owners failed to pay more than a billion dollars in fines imposed by Indonesian courts in recent years for damages caused by agricultural fires and illegal logging, environmental watchdog Greenpeace said Friday.
The courts ruled for the government in 10 lawsuits brought by the state against timber companies and palm oil plantation owners whose land clearing practices caused fires between 2012 and 2015, ordering them to pay fines totaling 2.7 trillion rupiah ($191.4 million), according to Greenpeace.
The announcement came before President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo was scheduled to debate challenger Prabowo Subianto in the second of three debates leading up to the April 17 election. Sunday's square-off is to focus on energy, infrastructure, natural resources and environmental issues.
Greenpeace said another lawsuit brought against timber company over illegal logging carried out since 2004 resulted in a fine of 16.2 trillion rupiah ($1.1 billion).
"As citizens, if we don't pay taxes we will be punished. But why have the owners of these big companies not been forced to pay the fines and have their assets confiscated," said Arie Rompas, a forest campaigner for Greenpeace Indonesia.
"Compensation paid by these companies will be beneficial to the people and can be used to fund for large-scale reforestation as well as emergency health care and infrastructure in the event of new fires," he said in a statement.
In 2014, the government filed a lawsuit against a company that supplied Indonesia's largest pulp and paper company with timber. The next year, forest fires broke out in the company's forest lands in South Sumatra, Greenpeace said.
In 2017, the Supreme Court upheld a lower district court ruling that ordered a palm oil company to pay 366 billion rupiah ($25.9 million) in fines and reparations for forest fires that destroyed a swathe of the Tripa peat swamp in Aceh province. Tripa is home to Sumatran orangutans.
In October 2018, the Indonesian Environment and Forestry Ministry said it had urged a Sumatra district court to execute a court order for the fine $1.1 billion fine imposed on the timber company.
"Any delay will create legal uncertainty and violate people's constitutional right to a better and healthier environment," the ministry said in a statement at the time.
Annual hazard
Agricultural fires are an annual hazard in Indonesia and haze produced by them often affect neighboring Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Air pollution can reach hazardous levels, disrupting economic activity and forcing schools to close.
A study by researchers from Harvard and Columbia universities found that more than 100,000 people in Southeast Asia likely died prematurely in 2015 as a result of agricultural fires in Indonesia. Researchers attributed the deaths to breathing high levels of carbon-based particulates.
In addition, at least 24 people were killed in forest fires in 2015, according to the Indonesian government. The World Bank estimated economic losses as a result of the fires at $16 billion (226 trillion rupiah).


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BENARNEWS- Following up on what Indonesian officials hailed as their country's success in staging the 2018 Asian Games, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has sent a formal letter expressing Indonesia's interest in hosting the Olympic Games in 2032, an official said Tuesday.
The president's letter to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) – relayed through Indonesia's ambassador to Switzerland earlier this month – marks the first time the Southeast Asian nation has made such an initial move toward bidding to be in the running for hosting the world's most prestigious sporting event.
"The next step will be to submit a proposal. There are 30,000 pages that must be filled out. We have been given until 2020," Gatot Hendrarto, an assistant to the deputy minister for sports at the Youth and Sports Ministry, told reporters in Jakarta. He confirmed that Ambassador Muliawan Hadad had submitted the letter to IOC officials at the body's headquarters in Lausanne.
Last September, Jokowi, who is seeking re-election on April 17, said IOC officials were impressed by Indonesia's efficiency in hosting the Asian Games and its ability to attract public interest. If selected for staging the 2032 Games, Indonesia, the largest country in Southeast Asia and world's fourth most populous one, would be the first in the region to host the Olympics.
"The IOC is of the view that we deserve to host bigger multi-sport events, capitalizing on the success of the Asian Games," Gatot said.
The Asian Games, held last year in the capital Jakarta and Palembang on Sumatra island, were hailed as a major success despite initial chaos in a ticketing system that contributed to low attendance in some stadiums, according to media reports.
"The IOC has recognized Indonesia's capability while organizing the 2018 Asian Games and Para Games that were successful. I think this is quite a strong foundation," Antara, the state-run news agency, quoted Ambassador Hadad as saying.
Other nations, however, have also expressed interest in submitting bids to host the 2032 Olympic Games, including India and a potential joint bid from South Korea and North Korea. Representatives of the two Koreas met with Olympic officials last week to discuss sending unified teams to compete in some sports in the 2020 games in Tokyo and also talked about their plan to submit their own 2032 host letter, according to published reports.
The IOC's decision could take years as previous host cities normally were announced seven years before the event, according to published reports. If that schedule were to be followed, the announcement on the 2032 games would be made in 2025.
In 2017, the IOC announced the host cities for both the 2024 and 2028 games – Paris followed by Los Angeles. Both cities will be hosting their third Olympics and emerged as the two finalists for the 2024 games after three other countries withdrew their bids, according to reports.
To date, only three Asian nations have hosted the Olympics: Japan, South Korea and China.
A counter-competition
Indonesia's relationship with the IOC has not always been positive.
After Indonesia barred Israeli and Taiwanese athletes from competing in the 1962 Asian Games in Jakarta, the IOC banned the nation from competing in the 1964 Olympics.
In response to the Olympic ban, Indonesian founding President Sukarno established the Games of the New Emerging Forces (GANEFO) as the developing world's answer to the Olympics.
The first GANEFO games, attended by 51 nations, took place in Jakarta in April 1963. GANEFO disbanded after the 1966 games in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, because members stopped sending teams to avoid being suspended by the IOC.
Indonesian athletes returned to the Olympics in 1968.
A hurdle
Retired Indonesian badminton star and Olympic medalist Taufik Hidayat welcomed the country's efforts and stated intention in applying to host the Olympics in 13 years.
"Obviously we will be very proud if we are trusted to host the games, because not every country can," he told BenarNews.
He warned that the country had a lot of work to do to be able to host such a major sporting event.
"Are sports facilities up to Olympic standards? What about infrastructure such as the athletes' village and road access? These things are not going to be easy," he said.


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BANARNEWS- Indonesia on Friday said firm action would be taken against officers who abused a detainee after United Nations experts called for an investigation into the incident and other cases of rights violations in the restive Papua region.
A group of U.N. human rights experts said in a statement on Thursday the incident in which a snake was used by police interrogators in Papua to scare a suspected thief into confessing reflected "a widespread pattern of violence" and other abuses by Indonesian security forces in Papua.
"The police are undertaking an investigation into the incident and have stated that disciplinary action will be taken against the individuals in accordance with the rules," Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said.
"This was the action of individuals and is against the national police's rules and regulations," he added, declining to give further details.
The U.N. expert group, which consists of four special rapporteurs and one rapporteur, said tactics including the use of torture were often used against indigenous Papuans and human rights defenders.
"This latest incident is symptomatic of the deeply entrenched discrimination and racism that indigenous Papuans face, including by Indonesian military and police," they said.
"We urge the Government to take urgent measures to prevent the excessive use of force by police and military officials involved in law enforcement in Papua," the experts said.
"This includes ensuring those who have committed human rights violations against the indigenous population of Papua are held to account," they added.
The experts said they were also "deeply concerned about what appears to be a culture of impunity and general lack of investigations into allegations of human rights violations in Papua."
A video circulating online earlier this month showed police in Jayawijaya regency coiled a large snake around a man they accused of stealing a mobile phone.
The man, his hands tied to the back, cowered and screamed in fear as a policeman was heard asking the suspect: "How many times have you stolen a cellphone?"
The local police have apologized for the use of the snake but defended the action, saying it was not meant to harm the detainee and that the animal was tame.
They also said the officers involved had been questioned by the police ethics board.
Other snake incidents?
A lawyer who advocates for human rights in Papua, Veronica Koman, has said police often use snakes while interrogating Papuans, including those arrested for suspected separatist activities.
"When this snake video surfaced, many Papuans, particularly activists who have been in and out of jail for political reasons, said that they have long known that snakes are being used by police and military," she told BenarNews.
She said Sam Lokon, a member of the pro-independence National Committee for West Papua (KNPB), was also interrogated using a snake after he was arrested in January.
"He was put in a cell with a snake. He was beaten, kicked, slapped, and his head was pushed towards the snake to force him to admit that he had stolen a motorbike," she said.
A low-level separatist conflict has been taking place in Papua, a region where the population is predominantly Melanesian, since the 1960s.
Security forces have been accused of human rights abuses while conducting counter-insurgency operations.
In some of the worst violence to hit Papua, nineteen construction workers and a soldier were killed in early December in attacks claimed by the West Papuan National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the separatist movement.
In response, security forces have carried out operations to hunt the separatist rebels in Nduga regency, where the killings took place.
Rebels said the anti-insurgency campaign had forced hundreds of people to flee to the jungle in fear of the military, with schools and health clinics abandoned.
Papua declared its independence from Dutch colonial rule on Dec. 1, 1961, but that was rejected by the Netherlands and later by Indonesia.
In 1963, Indonesian forces invaded the region and annexed it, and six years later held a controversial referendum in which, according to rights groups, security forces selected slightly more than 1,000 people to agree to the region's formal absorption into the archipelagic nation.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia is pushing ahead with plans to develop a fishing zone on the edge of the South China Sea, a senior official said Tuesday, as the country seeks to assert sovereignty amid claims of overlapping rights by China.
The government plans to construct the Integrated Marine and Fisheries Center, which would include a cold storage facility that has been in development for two years on the Natuna Islands, Maritime Affairs Coordinating Minister Luhut Pandjaitan said. The island-chain lies in the far southern reaches of the South China Sea.
"We are studying details of how the port and other facilities will be built," Luhut told reporters on Tuesday.
"We have the right to be there," Luhut said when asked if the plans were part of Indonesia's effort to maintain sovereignty over waters off the Natunas.
In 2016, navy patrols confronted Chinese fishing boats in waters off the islands at least three times, as the government increased its crackdown on illegal fishing. Indonesia accused the Chinese of fishing within Indonesia's exclusive economic zone, or EEZ. China responded by calling the waters traditional fishing grounds and said there were overlapping "maritime rights and interests" in the area.
Tensions between China and its neighbors have risen as the superpower has sought to assert its control of the South China Sea in the face of competing territorial claims from countries in the region. China claims most of the sea as its own, while Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei have overlapping claims to territories in the sea.
Last week, Luhut told reporters that the government would deploy a tanker in the Natuna Sea bordering the South China Sea to guarantee fuel for fishermen.
"We will also deploy TNI (military) patrol ships, so no country will claim that it's their traditional fishing ground," he said at the time.
Vietnamese boats seized
In a related development, Marine and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti said that a navy patrol had seized four Vietnamese-flagged fishing boats over the weekend for allegedly operating illegally in Natuna waters.
The navy also expelled two Vietnamese government-owned surveillance ships from Indonesia's EEZ after they showed hostile intent, Susi said in a statement obtained by BenarNews.
"The Indonesian government strongly condemns the actions of Vietnam's Fisheries Resources Surveillance vessels for attempting to obstruct the process against the four Vietnamese fishing boats," she said.
"The navy has been at forefront of our efforts to uphold sovereignty at sea," Susi said. "The Indonesian government does not tolerate illegal fishing in our territory."
Aaron Connelly, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), said plans for a fishing center reinforced President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's stance on the Natunas and maritime sovereignty in general but its South China Sea policy was unchanged.
"What Indonesia won't do is take on the broader South China Sea issue," he said, citing fear of losing Chinese investment and of stoking regional tensions.
Evan Laksmana, a senior researcher with the Jakarta-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said Indonesia's stance on the South China Sea dispute had been half-hearted.
"Sometimes explicitly and publicly standing up for our interests is as important, if not more important than silently developing ambiguous responses," he told BenarNews.
"After all, while the various Natuna economic and security development plans clearly have regional implications, they haven't been driven by geopolitical development alone," he said.
In December, the Indonesian military inaugurated an integrated unit in the Natunas. Hadi Thajanto, air chief marshal of the Indonesian Air Force, said the unit would be tasked with warding off threats such as illegal fishing.
The unit, comprising a few hundred personnel including members of army engineering corps, will be equipped with a surface-to-air missile defense system, the military said. Other facilities include a port, a hangar to support military aircraft and a hospital.
In the future, the unit will become part the Regional Defense Joint Command and will include army, air force and navy personnel, the military said.
CORRECTION: An earlier version incorrectly described Aaron Connelly as Southeast Asia director at the Lowy Institute. He formerly held that position there.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian authorities on Wednesday deported the last group of nearly 300 Bangladeshis who were detained by police in Medan city on Sumatra island while apparently trying to cross illegally into neighboring Malaysia to work, officials said.
The final 34 people leaving for their home country from Kualanamu International Airport in Medan brought the number of Bangladeshis deported from Medan this month to 288, according to Icon Siregar, head of the immigration department in North Sumatra province.
"They all had their passports and it turns out that after we checked, they also had return tickets, so this made repatriation easier," he told BenarNews.
Police and immigration officers rounded up the Bangladeshis in several locations in Medan on Feb. 5 and 6, officials said. Nearly 200 were found crammed in a shop house with little to eat.
Officials said the Bangladeshis entered Indonesia legally, taking advantage of visa-on-arrival facilities, through airports in Surabaya and Bali.
The first group departed from Medan on Feb. 11, Icon said. Representatives from the Bangladeshi embassy in Jakarta and the Indonesian Foreign Ministry were at the airport as they left.
Icon said that the 288 Bangladeshis were banned from entering Indonesian territory for six months
Meanwhile, officials at the Bangladesh embassy declined to comment and an email sent to the mission went unanswered.
North Sumatra police spokesman Tatan Dirsan Atmaja said no one had been charged with any crime.
"We are still investigating and still coordinating with the immigration office," he said.
In Dhaka, the head of the migration program for BRAC, Bangladesh's largest NGO, said he was aware that the last batch of Bangladeshis in Medan was due to return home soon, but he was not sure about how many there were.
"Some two hundred Bangladeshis have returned from Indonesia in recent days. Most of them are returning via Kuala Lumpur," Sharful Hasan told BenarNews.
In transit
Icon said he believed the Bangladeshis had chosen Medan as a transit point before traveling by boat to Malaysia, because of the city's proximity to the country.
"The indications are that they were transiting here, planning to go to Malaysia to work. We suspect there's a (human trafficking) syndicate there in Malaysia," he said.
"In Medan, of course there are facilitators. But the syndicate is in Malaysia and they work together," he said.
Medan Legal Aid Institute director Ismail Lubis said undocumented job seekers, both Indonesians and foreigners, often used fishing boats to reach Malaysia.
"They take alternative routes from Tanjung Balai (in North Sumatra). They depart from ports built by local communities," he told BenarNews.
"They usually leave at midnight. The boats usually take them to Port Klang or Malacca. They arrive there at night to avoid attention," he said.
Ismail said he believed agents working illegally were responsible for holding the Bangladeshis in Medan.
"We have had experience with Indonesians from East Nusa Tenggara and Papua. There were illegal brokers in North Sumatra who send undocumented workers to Malaysia," he said.
Jesmin Papri in Dhaka contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian and Australian officials signed a much-awaited free trade agreement on Monday, paving the way for the elimination of most tariffs and closer economic ties between the two neighbors.
Indonesian Trade Minister Enggartiasto Lukita signed the trade deal with Australian counterpart Simon Birmingham in Jakarta, ending nearly a decade of negotiations.
Under the agreement, all Indonesian goods will enjoy zero tariffs when entering Australia, while duties on 94 percent of Australian goods imported by Indonesia will be eliminated gradually.
Enggartiasto described the deal, formally called the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, as historic.
"This agreement is very beneficial for the two countries and is comprehensive, not only in terms of trade in goods but also investment and services," he told reporters after the signing ceremony.
"Trade between the two countries has been too small, so we hope that it will increase with this agreement," he said.
It is subject to ratification by both countries' parliaments.
Birmingham said the deal would take ties between Indonesia and Australia to a new level, "one in which our economic and trade relations will be much deeper, stronger and richer."
"There's more business opportunity in Australia, but also more business opportunity in Indonesia as a result of that shared collaboration and the joint productive value that comes from making things together," he said.
The Indonesian government said industrial sectors such as automotive, textile, footwear and agribusiness would benefit from the trade agreement.
In return, Indonesia will grant automatic import permits for Australian agricultural products and meat.
The deal will allow Australian universities to operate in Indonesia and Australian companies to have greater stakes in sectors such tourism, health and mining.
Australia also will increase the number of work and holiday visas given to Indonesians from 1,000 to 4,100 in the first year, before growing to 5,000 annually six years after ratification.
Indonesia and Australia are members of the G-20 group of major economies, but are not each other's top 10 trading partners, despite their proximity.
Total bilateral trade between Indonesia and Australia was valued at U.S. $8.6 billion in 2018, according to the Indonesian Trade Ministry.
But goods from Indonesia make up only 1.2 percent of Australian total imports from around the world, while Australian goods account for 3.4 percent of Indonesia's imports, Enggartiasto said.
Negotiations for the pact, which started in 2010, concluded in August, but the signing was delayed after Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Canberra was considering moving its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Indonesia, the country with the world's largest Muslim population, is a staunch supporter of the Palestinians and has warned that such a move could undermine efforts for a two-state solution.
In December, Australia formally recognized West Jerusalem as Israel's capital, but stopped short of moving its embassy.
The chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), Rosan Roeslani, said Australian investment in education and health could improve Indonesia's competitiveness.
"With the huge trade potential of two countries, it is very important for Indonesia to immediately carry out the economic reform process needed as part of its [free trade] commitments," Rosan said.
Relations between Indonesia and Australia are often testy, but bilateral ties improved under former Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, with the two nations agreeing to restore full military cooperation in 2017.
The two nations in the past years have been embroiled in spats over issues such as Australia's perceived interference in East Timor, a former Portuguese colony occupied for more than a decade by Indonesia but which voted for independence in 1998. 

A diplomatic rift also took place in 2013 after reports surfaced that Australian intelligence services had spied on then-Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his inner circle.
Australia briefly recalled its ambassador to Jakarta after Indonesia executed two Australian drug convicts in April 2015, despite pleas from Canberra to spare their lives.


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BENARNEWS- Calm has yet to return to Nduga regency in Indonesia's Papua province where separatist rebels killed 19 construction workers in December, forcing residents to flee to escape clashes between the insurgents and government security forces, officials and residents said Wednesday.
Soldiers and police launched an operation code-named "Operasi Nemangkawi" to capture those responsible in the killings of workers who were building the Trans-Papua Highway. Regional military spokesman Col. Muhamad Aidi said no arrests have been made.
"We have been focusing on restoring security, protecting citizens and displaced people," Muhamad said.
Meanwhile, fears abound that more violence could erupt.
"We are afraid to return to our village because there are still soldiers and police," Usman Lokbere, an Nduga resident who fled to Wamena, the main town in Jayawijaya regency, told BenarNews on Wednesday.
In addition to efforts to capture the suspected killers, the military sent 600 soldiers to Nduga this week to resume the construction of bridges as part of the highway that stretches more than 4,300 km (2,687 miles) from Sorong, the largest city in West Papua province, to Merauke regency, and is scheduled to be completed in 2019.
"The TNI (Indonesian Armed Forces) personnel are currently on their way to Timika, then to Nduga," said Osman Marbun, head of the Jayapura National Road Development Center (BBPJN).
The soldiers, based in the capital of South Sulawesi province, are to provide security while working on the construction project, according to a military official.
"The 600 TNI personnel will be deployed around the Trans Papua road, between Wamena and Mumugu," regional military chief Maj. Gen. Yosua Pandit Sembiring said.
The West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), armed wing of the Free Papua Movement (OPM), claimed responsibility for the killings, alleging that the people they killed were soldiers from the military's engineering detachment, and not civilian workers.
Construction on parts of the highway has been stalled for months, but President Joko Widodo has vowed to finish the project as part of his promise to develop the resource-rich area.
Criticism
Papuan House of Representatives member Laurens Kadepa criticized the military's move, saying sending reinforcements was not a solution and would only add to the climate of fear.
"Indonesia is being watched closely by the international community, global church councils and even the United Nations due to the ongoing violence in Papua, but the central government still maintains the practice of violence," he told BenarNews.
"The spotlight (on Indonesia) should have prompted the government to reform security measures in Papua," he said.
Human rights activist Peneas Lokbere said sending hundreds of soldiers contradicted claims by authorities that security had been restored in Nduga and that residents have returned to their villages.
"If indeed the situation in Nduga is peaceful, why is the TNI sending reinforcements? That will only prolong people's trauma," he said.
Nduga resident Raga Kogoya called the decision to send more troops unfair.
"We are only a few, why must we continue to be subjected to security operations," Raga told BenarNews.
Daniel Kogoya, spokesman for the Nduga Regency Regional Secretariat, said the local government remains focused on providing food and health care to residents who were uprooted from their homes by the violence.
"Many people are still displaced. They have little food to eat and their health is deteriorating," Daniel said. "Displaced children have been unable to attend classes while exams are approaching."
Papua is one of the archipelago's poorest regions despite its rich natural resources. It declared independence from Dutch colonial rule on Dec. 1, 1961, but that was rejected by the Netherlands and later by Indonesia.
In 1963, Indonesian forces invaded the region and annexed it, and six years later held a controversial referendum in which, according to rights groups, security forces selected slightly more than 1,000 people to agree to the region's formal absorption into the archipelagic nation.


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BENARNEWS- Three government troops and at least one rebel were killed in a shootout Thursday when scores of guerrillas attacked soldiers who were guarding the construction of a major highway in far eastern Indonesia's Papua province, the military said.
The attack in Nduga regency took place a few days after the Indonesian armed forces (TNI) announced the deployment of 600 additional soldiers to the area to safeguard the completion of the Trans-Papua Highway project. Construction was disrupted in early December when separatist rebels killed 19 members of a crew working on the project in Nduga, military officials said.
In Thursday morning's incident, two dozen soldiers who were assigned to provide security for the project came under attack from a large group of rebels in Mugi, a district of Nduga, said Muhammad Aidi, spokesman for the Indonesian military command in Papua.
"There was a sudden attack by about 50-70 people armed with various weapons, including military-standard weapons and traditional weapons such as arrows and spears," Aidi told BenarNews.
The body of one suspected insurgent was found on the site, but soldiers believed that more rebels may have died in the encounter because the insurgents had left weapons at the scene, Aidi said.
"We saw them carry their members who were shot," he said.
Aidi said the attackers were believed to be members of a Papuan rebel faction led by Egianus Kagoya.
The group, which calls itself the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), claimed responsibility for killing the 19 construction workers three months ago. The rebels claimed at the time that the workers were members of the military's engineering detachment.
TPBPB spokesman Sebby Sambom denied that any rebels were killed in Thursday's clash.
He said fighting broke out after eight government soldiers interrogated a local named Amos Kogeya, and set fire to several traditional houses belonging to residents.
The blazes attracted the attention of TPNPB members, who immediately went to the location, Sebby said.
"We pursued TNI members. We received a report that five TNI members were killed in the clashes. On our side, no one was killed," Sebby told BenarNews.
The dead body found by the soldiers belonged to a civilian, Sebby said, identifying him as 52-year-old farmer Amiri Nimiangge.
"The body has nothing to do with the gunfight," Sebby added.
Elsewhere in the troubled mineral-rich province, an activist with the West Papua National Committee, Victor Yeimo, called for a referendum on self-determination in Papua to resolve the conflict peacefully.
"We are urging the U.N. Human Rights Commission to come Papua. Indonesia must have the political will so that the conflict in Papua can be resolved peacefully and democratically through a referendum," Yeimo said.
Laurens Kadepa, a member of the Papuan legislative council, said soldiers faced a difficult situation because separatist rebels mixed in with the local population and had to deal with difficult terrain.
"I deplore the deaths of TNI members and civilians. This violent conflict must be stopped immediately," Kadepa said.
Earlier this week, the military said it was sending 600 reinforcements to Nduga to resume construction of the Trans-Papua road, after work on the project was halted in the wake of the early December killings of the 19 workers. Following the incident and fighting that ensued then between Indonesian security forces and Papuan rebels, Jakarta sent 154 police and soldiers to Nduga.
The killings of the three soldiers on Thursday was the first insurgency-related fatality on the military's side since a soldier was killed at Mapenduma airport in Nduga on Jan. 29, when rebels tried to shoot down an airplane carrying Indonesian officials.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Nduga residents still have not returned to their villages out of fear of being trapped in armed clashes between separatist groups and security forces.
A low-level separatist conflict has been taking place in Papua, a region where the population is predominantly Melanesian, since the 1960s.
Papua declared its independence from Dutch colonial rule on Dec. 1, 1961, but that was rejected by the Netherlands and later by Indonesia.
In 1963, Indonesian forces invaded the region and annexed it. In 1969, the region held a controversial referendum in which security forces had selected slightly more than 1,000 people to agree to Papua's formal absorption into the archipelagic nation, according to human rights advocacy groups.


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BENARNEWS- The wife of a suspected militant detonated a bomb during a siege at a house in Indonesia's North Sumatra province, killing herself and her 2-year-old child, police said on Wednesday.
Police had surrounded the house in Sibolga city on Tuesday, a day after they arrested the woman's husband, identified as Husain (alias Abu Hamzah), on suspicion of terrorism links, police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo told reporters.
The woman allegedly detonated an explosive device when officers tried to enter the house on Tuesday, injuring a policeman, Dedi said.
After a 10-hour standoff, she was believed to have detonated another bomb in the early hours of Wednesday, he said.
"The bodies have been recovered and sent to Sibolga Hospital," Dedi said.
The blast took place 10 months after three families involved their children as young as nine, including two small girls, in carrying out suicide bombings that killed 28 people at churches and a police station in Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, officials said.
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, who is scheduled to visit Sibolga on Sunday, said the police operation had nothing to do with the upcoming presidential election scheduled for April 17.
"We appreciate the police for their hard work," Jokowi told reporters.
Dedi said the homemade pipe bomb used by the woman to kill herself and her child contained potassium, bolts, nails and broken glass. "We have received information that the wife blew herself up," Dedi told The Jakarta Post.
Husain was believed to be a member of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a militant network affiliated with the extremist group Islamic State (IS), national police chief Tito Karnavian told reporters.
Police said JAD members were responsible for the suicide bombings on three churches and the police headquarters in Surabaya in May last year.
Thirteen members of three families were among those who died in the attacks – the first suicide bombings involving family members in the world's largest Muslim-majority nation of more than 260 million people.
Dedi said the president's visit to Sibolga would go ahead despite the incident.
Woman was radicalized by her husband, police say
Police had tried to persuade the woman to surrender by bringing in local community and religious leaders, but she did not budge, officials said.
Tito said she had been radicalized by her husband Husain. He did not elaborate.
Tuesday's siege in Sibolga followed the arrest of a man identified by authorities only by his initials R.I.N., alias Putra Syuhada, on Saturday in Bandar Lampung, capital of Lampung province.
Police alleged that R.I.N., who was arrested after being reported by his family, was planning to launch terrorist attacks on several police targets in Jakarta.
That man was among five terrorist suspects who were arrested during the past week, including one in possession of suspected bomb-making materials such as nails, bolts and cans in West Kalimantan, police said.
New recruit
Husain was a new JAD recruit radicalized by a former convict who was involved in the bombing on the Riau provincial police headquarters last year, said Ridlwan Habib, a University of Indonesia security analyst.
"He learned to assemble bombs. But he had never joined a military training or traveled to Syria," Ridlwan told BenarNews.
Ahmad Syamsudin in Jakarta contributed to this report.
Updated to add direct quote from police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo.


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BENARNEWS- An Indonesian court on Thursday sentenced a married couple to prison for their roles in suicide bombings last May on three churches and police headquarters in the country's second largest city, Surabaya.
The couple and a third defendant were the first suspects to be convicted in connection with last year's attacks, which authorities blamed on Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), an Indonesian militant network affiliated with the extremist group Islamic State (IS).
Judges at the West Jakarta district court found Agus Satrio Widodo, 35, and his wife, Damayanti, guilty of being involved in a criminal conspiracy and aiding criminal acts of terrorism. Agus was chairman of the Jombang branch of JAD, the court found.
"The bombings were the work of JAD and designed to create the atmosphere of terror," presiding Judge Agus Setiawan ruled. "The defendant Agus, as the chair of JAD in the Jombang area, cannot be absolved from them."
In a separate development on Thursday, police said they had found and confiscated hundreds of kilos of explosives from two homes, including a house where a woman and her 2-year-old child died when she detonated a bomb in North Sumatra province the previous day, police said.
In the West Jakarta courtroom, Agus was sentenced to eight years and his wife was sentenced to three years and four months following the trial that began in November 2018.
In addition, Syamsul Arifin, who was tried in the same courtroom at the same time, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for inciting followers to attack police and the military, and for organizing militant training. Police identified him as the head of JAD in Blitar regency in East Java province. Surabaya is the provincial capital.
The prosecutor had sought 12 years in jail for Agus and five years for his wife, but the judges said their expressions of remorse were mitigating factors. The couple shook the judges' hands after the verdict was read out loud but neither commented.
The couple was linked to the series of attacks in May 2018, when two families, including children as young as 9, carried out suicide bombings on three churches and a police station in Surabaya, killing themselves and 15 bystanders.
The next night, three members of a family died when their bomb exploded during a police raid on a Surabaya apartment, bringing the death toll to 28.
Bomb-making materials
On Thursday, police announced they had confiscated 300 kilos (661 pounds) of bomb-making materials including from the house where a woman killed herself and her child on Wednesday.
Officers identified the woman as the wife of a suspected JAD militant named Husain (alias Abu Hamzah), who was arrested Tuesday for allegedly plotting to attack police targets. National police spokesman Brig. Gen. Dedi Prasetyo said Husain had been a member of the militant group for six years and had been trained to build bombs.
Materials found at Husain's house included five pipe bombs, four gas cylinders and 100 kg (220 pounds) of flash powder, Dedi said.
"In total there were 300 kilograms. Some have been destroyed, some have been secured for the purpose of the investigation," Dedi told BenarNews, adding that the materials could be used to create powerful bombs.
Police anti-terrorism unit Densus 88, meanwhile, was hunting for people suspected of providing money to Husain to buy the explosives, Dedi said.
Al Chaidar, a terrorism analyst, questioned whether Husain and his alleged accomplices belonged to JAD. He said they were members of Jamaah Anshar Daulah Khilafah Nusantara, which was formed in 2016 and is affiliated with IS. The group has an estimated 900 members across Sumatra, he said.
"They were indoctrinated by Bahrun Naim through a number of channels on Telegram (messaging service) and other social media outlets. Plans for this attack might have been aimed at proving their existence," the analyst based at Malikul Saleh University told BenarNews.
Bahrun Naim, an Indonesian militant who fought with IS in Syria, was killed by U.S. forces in June 2018.
Stanislaus Riyanta, a security analyst at the University of Indonesia, said Husain's alleged plots likely were not linked to a presidential election scheduled for April 17.
"The setbacks suffered by IS in Syria have triggered its sympathizers to take action in their respective countries," he told Benar.
Also on Thursday, a suspected militant identified by authorities only by his initials, R.G., and whose alias is Abu Riky, was arrested in Rokan Hilir regency on Sumatra island, Dedi said.
The suspect had allegedly posted about terrorist events on social media platforms including WhatsApp, and had sent messages inciting people to commit terrorism.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's security minister assured the public Thursday that the government would be able to ward off any attempts by hackers to disrupt upcoming national polls, as the elections commission chief warned that a voter database had been targeted by cyber attackers from countries including China and Russia.
Wiranto, the country's coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, made the statement the same day when Arief Budiman, chairman of the National Election Commission (KPU), told reporters that a voter database had been targeted by both domestic and foreign hackers, including those with Chinese and Russian IP addresses.
Wiranto told reporters that officials had anticipated such cyber attacks. Manipulating vote counts would not be easy, he said.
"If that could be done, there is no need for elections in the world because they are useless," he said. "We have made every effort to ensure that does not happen."
Incumbent President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo faces retired Gen. Prabowo Subianto in the April 17 presidential and legislative polls. The electoral fight is a repeat of the 2014 election in which Jokowi narrowly beat Prabowo.
Arief said the electoral commission's cybersecurity experts had managed to ward off attacks that included attempts to manipulate or modify content of the voter database.
"We have overcome them. Sometimes it only involves defacing, but there have also been attempts to breach the main system," he said.
"It's been happening a lot and the attackers can come from anywhere, inside and outside the country," Arief said.
Responding to reports that hackers from China and Russia were involved in such attacks, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Beijing did not interfere in other nations' domestic affairs, Bloomberg reported.
A Russian spokesman called the allegations "baseless."
"We don't like it when it's done to us and we never do it ourselves," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow on Wednesday.
Cyber attacks intensifying: analyst
Wasisto Raharjo Jati, a political researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, said cyber attacks targeting the KPU were not new but the intensity had increased since 2014.
"There have been questions about the neutrality of the KPU," he said. "KPU should be neutral but it has not done its job well so it's been the target of frequent hacking attempts."
Prabowo's camp has alleged that the official electoral roll contained more than 17.5 million voters with the same birth dates and called for the data to be audited.
The Electoral Supervisory Agency has also found dozens of foreigners with Indonesian identification cards being listed on the voter role, despite not being eligible to vote.
Wasisto said that Russian and Chinese IP addresses were used by local hackers, so they were not tracked by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.
"The country has a bandwidth network that is faster and so that it is not touched by the law," he said.
Information technology expert Onno W. Purbo said that even without cyber attacks, KPU's servers were prone to crashes.
"It doesn't have to be attacked. If millions of people try to access it, it will overload," he said. "Imagine 200 million Indonesians trying to find out election results, I can guarantee that their site will be down."
Onno said Indonesia had a shortage of information technology experts.
"It's not easy to find network administrators and reliable programmers in Indonesia. There are only a handful of network security experts and network forensic experts," he said.
Elsewhere, Titi Anggraini, director of the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), said there was no need for the public to be alarmed about cyber attacks.
"Voting is done manually. Vote counting is also done manually," she said. "Foreign hacking won't affect anything."


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BENARNEWS- Incumbent President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo is still the frontrunner one month before Indonesia's presidential election, with the most recent surveys indicating that he is favored by more than 54 percent of voters.
Four surveys released this month put Jokowi's electability at between 54 and 57 percent, compared to around 34 percent for the opposition candidate, former general Prabowo Subianto.
About 11 percent of voters were still undecided, according to the surveys.
A poll released on Sunday by the private pollster Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting (SMRC) predicted that Jokowi would win 57.6 percent of the votes if the election were held now.
"The gap between Jokowi and Prabowo continues to widen," SMRC director Djayadi Hanan said.
"Is it going to change in one month? We don't know," he added.
Rising conservatism
Next month's election is a rematch of the 2014 contenders. That year, Jokowi beat Prabowo narrowly.
Jokowi picked Ma'ruf Amin, the conservative 76-year-old chairman of the Indonesian Council of Muslim Scholars (MUI), for his running mate, apparently aiming to bolster his religious credentials amid accusations from hardline Islamic groups that he is hostile to them.
Islamist groups such as the Islamic Defenders' Front (FPI) have rallied around Prabowo in their short-term goal to prevent Jokowi from being re-elected, but they are unlikely to succeed, said the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) in a report released last week.
"Their support for [Prabowo] is conditional and half-hearted, but measures taken by the Jokowi government to try to weaken, co-opt and stigmatize them as extremists have only strengthened what otherwise would be a fragile alliance," IPAC said.
"Their fear of a Jokowi victory is much stronger than their reservations about Prabowo," it said.
While Ma'ruf has moderated his comments to appeal to more liberal voters, the Prabowo camp has sought to portray its vice presidential pick, Sandiago Uno, a wealthy 49-year-old businessman educated in the United States, as a pious Muslim.
"The idea of Prabowo as a strongman and Sandi, the charming, pious entrepreneur as his right-hand man, embodies two trends in Indonesia: nostalgia for the Suharto-led New Order and rising conservatism of the middle class," IPAC said.
VP candidates face off
During a televised debate between Ma'ruf and Sandiaga on Sunday, the two avoided engaging in heated arguments on key policy issues.
Ma'ruf peppered his talk with Arabic and Islamic phrases to impress conservative religious voters during the debate, which focused on education, health, employment and culture.
Sandiaga sought to appeal to younger voters by emphasizing his entrepreneurship prowess, but also tried to demonstrate his knowledge of Islamic terms while showing reverence to his rival by calling him kyai, a Javanese honorific for a Muslim cleric.
It was the third in a series of televised debates involving presidential and vice-presidential candidates ahead of the election.
"Leaders must work for the benefit of their people," Ma'ruf said in his opening speech.
"Our vision is for Indonesia to be an advanced nation. The key to achieve this lies in its people, a population that is intelligent, productive and has good morals," Ma'ruf said, using an Islamic term, "akhlaq."
Ma'ruf said that if he and Jokowi were elected, the government would establish a national research council, build a Sydney-style opera house to show case Indonesia's arts, and provide free training for job seekers.
"We will conserve our culture and we will globalize our culture so that it becomes known and developed," he said.
Ma'ruf said wider internet coverage had allowed the country to produce more business startups and "unicorns," a term for companies with capital valued at U.S. $1 billion or more.
Sandiaga for his part promised that a Prabowo-Sandiaga government would solve problems that have dogged the country's national health insurance scheme; provide incentives for research; and require foreign workers to master the Indonesian language.
"Stories like that of Ms Lies who had to stop treatment because she had no coverage must not be allowed to happen, even more so when we're going to be among the world's five biggest economies in 2045," Sandiaga said, referring to a cancer patient he met while campaigning.
"Health workers must be paid on time. Drugs must be paid on time. There should not be long queues for patients," he added.
Indonesia introduced universal health coverage in January 2014, with the aim of having all Indonesians covered by 2019.
But the agency that administers the national insurance scheme, BPJS Kesehatan, has grappled with a deficit of 16.5 trillion rupiah ($1.2 billion).
Sandiaga's promise to require foreign workers to master Indonesian appears to be intended to allay concerns among some Indonesians about the perceived influx of Chinese laborers amid Jokowi's focus on building infrastructure.
"There was no debate where one candidate argues and the other attacks the arguments," Idil Akbar, a political analyst at Padjadjaran University, said of the encounter.
Wasisto Raharjo, a researcher on politics at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, said Sandiaga appeared to be reluctant to argue strongly against Ma'ruf due to the latter's stature as an elderly cleric.
"There was no constructive debate where the candidates correct each other. Maybe Sandiaga was too reverent with Ma'ruf," he said.
"But Sandi was good at using catchphrases that resonate with many people, such as the issue of foreign workers," he added.
Ma'ruf was instrumental in the jailing last year of former Jakarta governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, an ethnic Chinese Christian, on charges of blasphemy.
Conservative Muslim groups held large protests against Ahok in 2016 and 2017 in the run-up to a gubernatorial election in which he was a front-runner, after an edited video made it appear like he said that the Quran deceived people.
An MUI fatwa declaring Ahok's remarks blasphemous bolstered Muslim opposition to him and paved the way for his prosecution.
Ahok lost the Jakarta gubernatorial election to a Muslim candidate, Anies Baswedan, and was later sentenced to two years in prison for blasphemy. He was released in January.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's leading environmental group said Wednesday it was seeking a meeting with Bank of China representatives to discuss a Chinese-funded dam project in North Sumatra province that, activists and scientists warn, could threaten the world's rarest orangutan species.
The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) asked for the meeting after officials from the bank, which is financing the U.S. $1.6 billion hydropower project, announced they would evaluate it in response to concerns raised by conservationists.
The bank's move was encouraging but direct talks were critical for reaching a common understanding of the issue, said Dana Tarigan, Walhi's executive director for North Sumatra.
"Many of the environmental, social and biodiversity risks are fairly complex, and so we hope a meeting can help clarify and dispel common misconceptions regarding the dam's real impacts," Dana told BenarNews.
PT North Sumatra Hydro Energy (NSHE), an independent power producer in which China's ZheFu Holding Group owns a majority stake, is building the 510-megawatt hydropower dam in the Batang Toru rainforest on Sumatra Island.
The plant will divide the habitat of about 800 Tapanuli orangutan and increase the risk of their extinction, environmental groups and scientists have said.
The Batang Toru Ecosystem is the only known home to the Tapanuli orangutan, which was discovered in 1939. It has been identified as a distinct species, and was recently listed as a critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
PT North Sumatra Hydro Energy denied that the project would threaten protected animals.
Dana said Bank of China had sent an email to Walhi last year promising to investigate the concerns raised by environmentalists, but the bank had never informed the group of the findings.
"We hope that we will get firm answers, not just normative platitudes from officials of the Bank of China," he said.
"We appreciate the statement, but it's meaningless if construction is going ahead," he added.
Construction would destroy some of the most critical low-altitude habitats of the orangutans, cutting the connection between the eastern and western block of the habitat, according to Erik Meijaard. He directs the conservation program at Borneo Futures and is a professor at the Center of Excellence for Environmental Decisions at the University of Queensland in Australia.
Bank of China could not be immediately reached for comment. But a statement on its website that was posted on March 4 said officials had taken "note of the concerns expressed by some environmental organizations about the hydroelectric dam project."
"We attach great importance to corporate social responsibility in our global operations and ensure that our business activities abide by local laws and regulations. We are committed to supporting environmental protection globally and upholding the principles of green finance," the bank said.
"Bank of China will evaluate the project very carefully and make prudent decisions by duly considering the promotion of green finance, the fulfilment of social responsibility as well as the adherence to commercial principles," the statement went on to say.
Project expected to be finished in 2022
Part of Beijing's One Belt, One Road (OBOR) plan, the project in the Sumatra rainforest underscores how China's global infrastructure drive can threaten the environment, said Bill Laurance, director of the Center for Tropical Environmental and Sustainability Science at James Cook University, which is also in Queensland.
The director general for electricity at Indonesia's Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, Rida Mulyana, said the project was on track to be completed by 2022, local media reported over the weekend.
The project has attracted criticism from environmentalists worldwide, as China's aims to link Beijing with Asia, Europe and Africa by building massive highways, railways, ports and other infrastructure under OBOR.
The Alliance of Leading Environmental Researchers and Thinkers (ALERT), led by Laurance, sent a letter to Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo last year, urging him to stop dam-related development in the orangutan habitat.
Earlier this month, a provincial administrative court in North Sumatra rejected a petition filed by Walhi demanding that the permit for the project be revoked. The court ruled that construction could proceed.
NSHE said the plant would cover an area of 122 hectares (301 acres), or only 0.07 percent of the Batang Toru ecosystem.

Only a small part of the project area is in the home range of up to seven orangutans, it said.

The project is backed by the China Export & Credit Insurance Corp., also known as Sinosure, a major Chinese state-owned enterprise, and the Bank of China. Beijing-based engineering firm Sinohydro hydropower has been awarded the contract to build the dam.

The hydropower plant is one of the priority projects under the Jokowi government's drive to upgrade the country's infrastructure. Jokowi is up for reelection in mid-April.

The hydropower plant is not the only China-funded project that has triggered controversy in Indonesia.
Greenpeace blamed the Celukan Bawang coal-fired power station in Bali, a U.S. $700 million project built by China Huadian Corp., for "poisoning" the island that is a top tourist destination in the country.

In August, a court threw out a lawsuit brought by Greenpeace and local people against Bali's governor and the company, ruling that the local government's decision to issue a permit for the project was lawful.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian national airline Garuda said Friday it was moving to scuttle a multibillion-dollar order for 49 Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets after two deadly crashes of the same model, including last year's crash of a Lion Air plane in the Java Sea.
Garuda Indonesia sent a letter to the Boeing Co., the American-based manufacturer of the Max 8, requesting a cancellation of the order worth at least U.S. $4.9 billion, Garuda spokesman Ikhsan Rosan said.
"The reason is our passengers have lost their trust in the aircraft after the recent events," Ikhsan told BenarNews, referring to the Lion Air crash on Oct. 29 and an Ethiopian Airlines crash on March 10. There were no survivors in the disasters, which both involved 737 Max 8s.
Ikhsan said airline officials were scheduled to meet in Jakarta on March 28 with a team from Boeing to discuss the matter.
"It's possible that we'll opt for a different model of Boeing aircraft," he said.
Garuda has ordered 50 Boeing 737 Max 8s, but has only taken delivery of one.
According to the Associated Press, Garuda's move marked the first cancellation by an airline of an order for the plane model.
This week, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) announced it was ordering the temporary grounding of all 737 Max aircraft operated by U.S. airlines or in American territory, saying it based its decision on new evidence and data gathered at the site of the Ethiopian Airlines crash in East Africa.
Indonesia is also among the countries that have grounded all Boeing 737 Max 8s operating in the country, pending inspections.
A Garuda passenger, Herry S.W., said he welcomed Garuda's decision.
"It means that Garuda cares about the safety of passengers," Herry told BenarNews.
He said he felt safer after authorities had decided to ground all Max 8 aircraft temporarily.
"So far, Garuda only has one Max 8. I think it is better to cancel the rest of the orders as a precautionary measure. As a passenger I'm happy because I don't need to be anxious while on the plane."
Garuda could cancel the order based on concerns that the plane is defective, according to Ruth Hanna Simatupang, an Indonesian aviation expert and former crash investigator.
"In the case of Boeing, it could be argued that the defect was known, and the two accidents can serve as evidence," she told BenarNews.
She said she expected other airlines to follow Garuda's move.
"Airlines are already postponing orders or considering cancelling them. This will affect the reputation of Boeing," she added.
Officials with Indonesian budget carrier Lion Air have said that the airline was considering cancelling its order of 200 Max 8 planes and has postponed the delivery of four due for May. Lion has ordered a total of 222, including Boeing 737 Max 9s, in a deal worth U.S. $22 billion with Boeing.
Lion Air has 10 Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft in its fleet.
'Clear similarities'
On. Oct. 29, 2018, a Lion Air Boeing 737 Max 8 plane plummeted into the sea 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta's international airport on October 29, killing all 189 people on board.
A preliminary report in on the Lion Air crash released in November revealed that the pilots had tried to pull the aircraft back up repeatedly when the aircraft's automatic nose-down sensor was activated.
On Sunday, Ethiopian Transport Minister Dagmawit Moges said there were "clear similarities" between the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the Lion Air crash. All 157 passengers and crew were killed in crash of the Ethiopian airliner.
On Monday, Chicago-based Boeing sent a letter to airlines, passengers and the aviation industry in response to grave concerns raised about whether the Max 8 was safe plane to fly.
"Safety is at the core of who we are at Boeing, and ensuring safe and reliable travel on our airplanes is an enduring value and our absolute commitment to everyone," Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in the letter, which was posted on the airplane manufacturer's website.
"Based on facts from the Lion Air Flight 610 accident and emerging data as it becomes available from the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 accident, we're taking actions to fully ensure the safety of the 737 MAX. We also understand and regret the challenges for our customers and the flying public caused by the fleet's grounding," Muilenburg went on to say.


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BENARNEWS- The Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT) group is a shadow of its former self after its leaders were killed or arrested in recent years, but the tiny band of militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) is capable of recruiting more members, analysts said.
Last week, government forces shot and killed three MIT suspects during a gunbattle in the jungles of Parigi Moutong, a regency of Poso district on Sulawesi Island where the group has operated for years, authorities said.
The killings brought to four the number of suspected MIT militants killed by security forces since early March, and reduced the group's overall strength to only seven fighters, officials said.
But the group's real strength is not known, analysts told BenarNews.
"At the grassroots level, efforts to mobilize people to join the group are still ongoing," said Zaki Mubarak, a terrorism researcher at Syarif Hidyatullah Jakarta Islamic University.
"There have been people coming in from other regions."
The three men who were gunned down on March 21 included two militants from the Maluku islands and Sumatra, who were wanted on suspicion of being part of the MIT group that operates in Poso and elsewhere in Central Sulawesi province, police said.
The authorities said they recovered several home-made bombs, 55 bullets and a saw from bags owned by the slain men.
The seven other MIT holdouts on the loose included the group's current leader, Ali Kalora, officials said.
The remaining militants broke off into two groups to elude security forces taking part in the so-called Operation Tinombala, a security task force that has been hunting down MIT militants for years on Sulawesi.
Sidney Jones, director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) in Jakarta, cast doubt on police claims that MIT had only seven members left.
"We don't know exactly their real number because they are constantly moving in the jungle," she told BenarNews.
"The question is: is it possible that more people have joined without police knowing it," she said.
MIT was no longer a big threat to stability but it was important for Indonesian authorities to keep pursuing its members, Jones said.
"Symbolically, Poso is important because it's the only place where the pro-ISIS group can claim territorial control," she said, using another acronym for IS.
'Like two sides of the same coin'
Zaki said MIT has support from another pro-IS network blamed for recent terrorist attacks in Indonesia, Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), and from former members of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the group linked with al-Qaeda. Indonesian authorities blamed JI for the Bali bombings, which killed 202 people in 2002.
"Some elements at MIT have participated in military training in the Philippines sponsored by JI. JAD and MIT are like two sides of the same coin, very close," he said.
Zaki said some residents of Poso and other areas in Central Sulawesi had shown sympathy to the group by providing food and failing to report members to the authorities. This was due partly to a history of deadly Muslim-Christian conflict there, Zaki noted.
In 2016, thousands of local people attended the burial of slain MIT leader Santoso and hailed him as a hero. Santoso, alias Abu Wardah, was killed during Operation Tinombala in July.
Santoso operated out of the surrounding mountains in Poso and conducted paramilitary training for militants, drawing recruits from within and outside the country, including at least six Uyghurs.
Two months after his death, his successor, Mohamad Basri, was captured. That same year, authorities announced that they had reduced MIT's ranks from an estimated 40 people to fewer than 10.
The death of Santoso and the capture of his deputy significantly weakened the group, officials said.
Santoso was the first Indonesian militant to publicly pledge allegiance to IS.
Beheadings
During Santoso's leadership, at least three farmers in the same district in Parigi Moutong were beheaded in 2015 – many of them non-Muslims from other parts of Indonesia.
In late December 2018, villagers in Parigi Moutong found a man's head wrapped in a cloth that had been placed on a bridge. The victim was believed to be have been killed by MIT. When police went to recover the mutilated and headless corpse, gunfire broke out, injuring two of the officers, officials said.
Jones said she doubted that MIT would expand under the leadership of Ali Kalora, who was a foot soldier not seen as an ideologue.
The group also lacked funding and logistics to expand, Jones said.
Weapons smuggled in from the southern Philippines were hard to come by because of tightened border security and joint patrols involving forces from Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines, the analyst pointed out.
In May 2017, pro-Islamic State militants took over Marawi city on Mindanao island in the southern Philippines, laying siege to the city for five months before government forces regained control.
At least 1,200 people – mostly militants – were killed. Much of the city was ruined during the battle between IS-linked gunmen and Philippine government forces. The takeover was the most serious assault by IS in Southeast Asia to date, and left governments across the region unsettled.
"There are too many security forces there. I don't think they will be as big as they were two or three years ago," Jones said, referring to Central Sulawesi.


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BENARNEWS- The campaigns of incumbent Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and opponent Prabowo Subianto have swung into high gear in the final few weeks before Indonesia's presidential election next month, with recent polls showing the latter gaining ground on his rival.
Both the presidential candidates must persuade undecided voters to go to polling stations, analysts said, as recent surveys indicated that the number of people who had not made up their minds ranged from 11 percent to as much as 33 percent of the electorate.
Over the weekend both campaigns kicked off their first large outdoor rallies in the run-up to the April 17 vote, when Southeast Asia's largest nation will hold its first simultaneous elections for parliament and the presidency.
Most polls point to Jokowi being on track for reelection and riding on the successes of his infrastructure drive, including the recent launch of Jakarta's first metro system. But Prabowo could pull off a win, according to analysts.
"Prabowo still stands a chance because even though Jokowi still has a two-digit lead, his electability is dropping, while Prabowo's is rising," Adi Prayitno, a political analyst at the Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University, told BenarNews.
"This should be an alarm bell going off for the Jokowi camp," he said.
Jokowi was favored by 49.2 percent, while support for Prabowo stood at 37.4 percent, according to a survey released last week by pollster Litbang Kompas. About 13 percent of respondents did not disclose their preferences.
The numbers appear to show the gap narrowing between the two candidates. An October poll by Kompas indicated that Jokowi had a comfortable lead of nearly 20 percent. Several other surveys released earlier this month put Jokowi's electability at between 54 and 57 percent, compared with around 34 percent for Prabowo.
During a campaign speech on Sunday in Serang, Banteng province, Jokowi appealed for unity among residents of the diverse and sprawling Muslim-majority country made up of many islands.
"Our great country is blessed by God with religious, cultural, ethnic and linguistic differences," the president told the crowd. "Let us together preserve the unity, because we are one nation."
Jokowi will face Prabowo, a retired general in the army's special forces, in a repeat of the 2014 presidential election that propelled the incumbent to a first term.
Prabowo has benefited from the zealousness of his supporters when the Jokowi camp appeared complacent, Adi said.
"Both candidates must pitch aggressively to undecided voters," he added.

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Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto (center), a former military general, is welcomed by his supporters in Mojokerto, West Java province, Feb. 24, 2019. [AFP]

'I will fight!'
Prabowo did just that during a campaign rally in Merauke, Papua province, on Monday.
"The elite in Jakarta have failed this nation," Detik.com news website quoted Prabowo as telling a crowd of supporters in the mineral-rich far eastern province, where armed separatist groups have fought the Indonesian military for years. "With all due respect, I don't mean to find faults, but I don't mince words," he said.
"The elite only protect their own interests. All they do is collect wealth for themselves and their families," added Prabowo, the former son-in-law of the late Indonesian dictator Suharto, who was one of the country's richest men.
Jokowi, for his part, showed a combative side in a speech in front of thousands of his supporters in Yogyakarta on Saturday.
"I have been silent for 4½ years. I have been slandered, I have been accused of things, I was vilified and looked down on, but I have been silent. But today, in Yogyakarta I say, I will fight!" he said, to the cheers of his supporters who shouted: "Fight! Fight!"
Jokowi was alluding to accusations that he was a communist who had lied about his education, as well as attacks on his character that questioned his Islamic faith and fitness to lead the country.
Analysts said Jokowi was likely to tout his achievements in building infrastructure, including a network of toll roads on Java and Sumatra islands, as well as Jakarta's Mass Rapid Transit, the country' first metro system, which he inaugurated on Sunday.
But Jokowi and his running mate, Muslim cleric Ma'ruf Amin, should be worried about Prabowo's late surge, said University of Indonesia political analyst Aditya Perdana.
"The Prabowo campaign is likely to attack the government's economic record," Aditya told BenarNews.
Under Jokowi's presidency, economic growth has stagnated at about 5 percent. In September 2018, the rupiah fell to its lowest level since the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis.
The country is also grappling with a widening current account deficit.
Ujang Komarudin, a political lecturer at Al Azhar University in Jakarta, said debates among the presidential and vice presidential contenders were more likely to convince swing voters than rallies.
The final two televised debates are scheduled for March 30 and April 13.
"Campaign rallies could affect undecided voters but not in a big way," Ujang told BenarNews.
"Open campaign rallies will only show how many people candidates can mobilize, but to influence undecided voters, debates are more effective," he said.
Zoned campaigning
Indonesia's General Election Commission (KPU) has set campaign zoning for the presidential candidates and their running mates, with each scheduled to attend rallies in 17 provinces in the three weeks leading up to the vote.
A member of the Jokowi campaign team, Lukman Edy, said all political parties supporting the incumbent would mobilize their members so they could attend every rally.
"They will all go out campaigning, including Mr Jokowi, Mr Ma'ruf, chairs of coalition parties and legislative candidates," Lukman told BenarNews.
Analysts said Jokowi had picked as his running mate Ma'ruf, the conservative 76-year-old chairman of the Indonesian Council of Muslim Scholars (MUI), to fend off accusations from hardline Islamic groups that he was hostile to them.
Conservative religious groups such as the Islamic Defenders' Front (FPI) have rallied around Prabowo in their short-term goal to prevent Jokowi from being re-elected
While Ma'ruf has moderated his comments to appeal to more liberal voters, the Prabowo camp has sought to portray its vice-presidential pick, Sandiago Uno, a wealthy 49-year-old businessman educated in the United States, as a pious Muslim.
A member of the Prabowo campaign, Drajad Wibowo said, his team would focus on South Sulawesi, Central Java and East Java – areas known as strongholds for Jokowi's supporters.
"We will pitch our programs such as tax cuts and housing," he said.
Arie Firdaus in Jakarta contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's leading Muslim clerical body met Tuesday to discuss a proposal to declare a fatwa (religious edict) over violent video games, amid concerns that such entertainment may have influenced a man suspected of killing 50 people in a gun rampage at two New Zealand mosques.
The Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) said it was reviewing games such as PUBG (PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds) to determine whether it should issue a fatwa regulating their use among the country's Muslim majority. Fatwas are not legally binding but carry moral weight with devout Muslims.
"We are of the view that PUBG is a factor in the criminal acts of terrorism in New Zealand, but it's obviously not as simple as that," Asrorun Ni'am Sholeh, the secretary of MUI's fatwa commission, told reporters after the meeting.
"This is an opportunity to better regulate [such games]."
PUBG and similar games have come into the spotlight in Indonesia and other countries in the wake of the Christchurch massacre, which the suspect allegedly live-streamed on social media. Some of the footage eerily resembled action scenes from a graphic, first-person shooter video game.
At least 20 million Indonesians play PUBG, a local e-sport official said.
PBUG is a battle royale game that allows up to 100 players to fight for survival. The last surviving player or team wins. The game can be played on a range of devices including mobile phones, Xbox and PlayStation.
"We plan to come up with guidelines on the use of games as a technology product so that it will provide more benefits to users and the community. It could be modeled after the fatwa on social media," Asrorun said.
Five Bangladeshis, an Indonesian and a Malaysian were among those killed in the mass shootings in Christchurch on March 15.
New Zealand's government immediately branded the attack, carried out allegedly by an Australian white supremacist, as a terrorist act.
The suspect, Brenton Tarrant, 28, grew up with computers and was addicted to violent video games, Australian media reported.
Tarrant also urged viewers to "subscribe to PewDiePie," the nickname of Felix Kjellberg, a Swedish video game influencer who has 91 million subscribers on YouTube, reports said.
'We cannot close our eyes'
Indonesia's National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) has not commented publicly on the fatwa issue, but MUI said it would consult the agency.
The potential move by the Indonesian clerical body came after a senior Muslim religious leader, Mohd Yusof Ahmad, the mufti of Negeri Sembilan state in Malaysia, last week called for a ban on PUBG to prevent a repeat of the attack in New Zealand, according to a Malaysian media report.
Meanwhile on Tuesday, Indonesia's communications and information ministry said it intended to explore the idea of regulating the PUBG and other videos game by imposing limits on playtime in the country, the Jakarta Post reported.
However, according to Asrorun, the MUI also views e-sports as a positive thing because they can teach children competitive skills through video-game contests.
"But we cannot close our eyes [to the fact] that some video games have negative content," he said, citing a report from the Indonesian Child Protection Commission that addiction to video games could cause erratic and violent behavior in youths.
Gamers weigh in
The president of the Indonesian E-Sports Association, Eddy Lim, who attended the meeting convened by MUI on Tuesday, said participants concurred that video games with violent or pornographic content should be restricted.
Eddy said he fully supported MUI's initiative to have a role in reviewing games and possibly issue a fatwa on them.
"If they say, after a review, that a game is negative, then we will have no objections to it being banned," Eddy said.
But Eddy believes PUBG is a stimulating game that is not too violent.
"It is more of a game of strategy. In terms of violence, it is rather small," he said.
"PUGB is played by 20 million to 30 million people in Indonesia. If it was a bad influence, there could have been many cases of terrorism," he said.
Other Indonesian game enthusiasts agreed with Eddy about PUBG.
"It's funny, why PUBG? There are many other games that are far more violent than PUBG," Andrue told BenarNews.
The attack in Christchurch had nothing to do with video games, he added.
"Terrorists have existed since before there were video games," he said.
For Andrue, who started playing PUBG two years ago, the game has its benefits.
"We can get to know and communicate with other people. You can be friends with people from abroad. [This game] can also be a source of income because it is a form of e-sport," he said.
"The game isn't to blame. People are to blame."
Akbar Rochyadi, another video gamer, was among those supporting a fatwa on PUBG.
"It's addictive, makes people too lazy to study, [and] makes it difficult to concentrate on their studies," he told Benar.
"The most dangerous thing is it teaches violence to children," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia says it is working to verify the nationalities of dozens of people believed to be members of Indonesian families that joined Islamic State but are sheltering at a camp in Syria after the extremist group's last bastion fell.
The process could take months because Indonesian officials first have to establish how many of these people, including women and children, are citizens before they can figure out what to do with them next, an official with the foreign ministry said.
"We have to verify whether they really are Indonesian citizens or not," Arrmanatha Nasir, a ministry spokesman, told a news conference in Jakarta on Thursday.
He and other officials were responding to questions in the wake of news reports and online videos that surfaced this week, in which members of a group of about 50 people said to be Indonesians pleaded for the government's help in being repatriated.
According to the reports, the group was huddling at the Al-Hol camp for displaced people in northeastern Syria following the capture of the last Islamic State (IS) stronghold in the country by U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces on March 23.
Arrmanatha said many Indonesians who travelled to Syria to join IS no longer had official documents such as passports and identification cards.
The verification could take more than three months and would involve the National Police and the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT), which would have to confirm and cross-check information with various parties including relatives of the displaced people, he said.
"They will investigate whether they were involved with (IS) or not, whether they are Indonesian citizens or not. After that, we will decide what to do," Arrmanatha said.
Since January about 66,000 people had left Baghouz, the last IS bastion in Syria, including 5,000 combatants and 24,000 IS family members, according to a report by the Indonesian-language news website Tirto.id, which covered the story from the Al-Hol camp.
A video posted by Tirto.id showed a woman named Maryam Abdullah, who claimed to be from Bandung, West Java. She said she had come to Syria from Indonesia with her husband, Saifuddin, and their four children.
"My husband is missing, there is no news," she said. "Please help so we can go back to our home country, Indonesia."
Last month, Syrian Kurdish journalist Hisham Arafat posted a video on Twitter showing eight children believed to be Indonesians after they were evacuated from Baghouz.
The children's father was still fighting with IS, while their mother was killed in an airstrike by American-led coalition forces, Arafat wrote in his Feb. 26 report.
No reliable information
Arrmanatha said the government had difficulty getting information about Indonesians in Syria but said most of them had left the Middle Eastern country in 2016.
"The problem is that when they left Indonesia, they did not say they were going to Syria to join ISIS or stay there. So what we can do if there are Indonesian citizens abroad, we advise them to report themselves," he said, using another acronym for IS.
According to 2017 data from BNPT, at least 1,321 Indonesians had joined IS or tried to enlist with the terror group.
This figure included nearly 600 Indonesian citizens who went to Syria and Iraq. Of that number, 84 were killed, 482 were deported while trying to enter Syria, and 62 had returned from Syria. Another 63 were stopped at Indonesian airports while trying to travel to the Middle East.
In November 2018, Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu told BenarNews that around 700 Indonesian citizens had joined IS in Syria and Iraq.
Dilemma
In recent weeks, as Islamic State's so-called caliphate in the Middle East dwindled down to a tiny patch of Syrian territory, countries have debated what to do with their citizens who went to Syria and Iraq to fight for IS or live under areas controlled by it, but who now wanted to go home.
The United States and Britain are among those that have largely refused to reclaim their nationals who strayed into Islamic State's orbit in Syria and Iraq.
Adhe Bhakti, a terrorism expert at the Center for the Study of Radicalization and De-radicalization (PAKAR), an Indonesian NGO, said his country's government was facing a dilemma.
"It won't look good for the government if these people are left stateless or in limbo," he told BenarNews.
Some Indonesians who joined IS had destroyed their travel documents and sold all their assets in their home country, but when things got tough in Syria and Iraq, they changed their minds and wanted to come back to Indonesia, he said.
"From a security standpoint, these people went to Syria not to be tourists. They had an intention to fight  and the level of violence was high," he said, emphasizing that Indonesian authorities should guard against the possibility that returnees could commit terrorist acts back on home soil.
Sidney Jones, who directs the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict in Jakarta, agreed, saying that anyone who had gone to the Middle East to join IS should be viewed as a potential security risk.
"For humanitarian reasons, they are better off being sent home because their position is very difficult. They want to go home and the government should help its citizens," she told BenarNews.
But the government should set conditions before agreeing to repatriate these people, such as compelling them to express remorse for what they did and to pledge not to return to radicalism, she said.
"There must be a special program for ex-combatants. A one-month program at the Ministry of Social Affairs is not enough because they have to be identified by agencies that can assist, or become their mentors," Jones said.


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BENARNEWS- A man whom police identified as a former campaign volunteer for Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto went on trial Thursday for allegedly spreading a hoax about electoral fraud involving millions of pre-marked ballots.
Bagus Bawana Putra was arrested in January after reports circulated on social media that seven containers stuffed with ballots cast for incumbent President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo had been found at Jakarta's Tanjung Priok port. He is charged with spreading false information to cause public unease and could face up to 10 years in prison, if convicted.
Jokowi will face Prabowo, a former army general, in the April 17 election, a repeat of the 2014 vote narrowly won by Jokowi.
"The defendant did not confirm the veracity of the information and instead spread the news on the supposed existence of seven containers in Tanjung Priok containing 70 million ballots already cast for No. 1 candidate (Jokowi), and posted it on social media," the indictment against him read.
The rumored ballots would represent more than one-third of the 194 million Indonesians who are registered to vote, according to figures from the General Election Commission (KPU).
Prosecutors allege that Bagus disseminated the information on social media via Twitter and WhatsApp groups, adding that his action "could cause public unease, divide the nation, and disrupt public order."
Bagus, who wore a black cap and a white shirt under a red vest, told the court he had been framed and claimed he did not fabricate the rumor.
"It was a high-ranking government official whom I have known for a long time who set me up," Bagus said without elaborating.
The KPU filed a police report after the rumor circulated on social media, saying it had the potential to delegitimize the election.
A spokesman for the Prabowo campaign, Andre Rosiade, said Bagus was not part of the candidate's campaign team and was not registered with the election commission.
Bagus is the second person to be tried in the case.
On March 13, a man identified as Jarwoto went on trial in Brebes regency in Central Java province on a similar charge tied to spreading the same information. His case has not been decided and other suspects are awaiting similar trials, according to prosecutors.
KPU denies new allegation
Meanwhile, KPU on Thursday denied allegations made in an online video that its computer system had been rigged in favor of Jokowi.
KPU commissioner Hasyim Asy'ari said its system was safe.
"All counting is done manually, so it's not possible for the computer system to be rigged for the victory of presidential candidate number 01," Hasyim said, referring to the spot on the ballot paper designated for Jokowi and running mate Ma'ruf Amin.
Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) member Mochammad Afifuddin said efforts to counter false news on social media were difficult.
"Official accounts usually post positive things. Fake news usually comes from anonymous accounts," he told BenarNews.
"We are working with the Ministry of Communication and Information to take down accounts that spread hate speech and hoaxes," he said.
Birth dates questioned
As the vote nears, the Prabowo campaign has alleged that 17.5 million registered voters shared the same three birth dates, calling that statistically impossible. Campaign spokesman Hasjim Djojohadikusumo, a businessman and Prabowo's brother, said the campaign would take legal action unless the issue was addressed.
KPU commissioner Viryan Aziz explained that the three dates were used to register Indonesians who did not know when they were born.
Jokowi's campaign, meanwhile, accused the opposition of trying to delegitimize the vote should he win re-election.
Elsewhere, senior opposition politician Amien Rais threatened to start a "people power" movement unless the election commission solved the alleged irregularities.
"If the electoral roll is filled with ghost voters and evidence of systematic fraud is found, I will mobilize the masses to gather at the National Monument (Monas) and start people power," he said this week, referring to a landmark in central Jakarta.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia: Man Stands Trial for Allegedly Spreading Election Hoax



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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's anti-terrorism police shot dead a suspected Islamic militant after he allegedly attacked using a machete as the officers were about to arrest him on suspicion of involvement with a banned terrorist network, a spokesman said Friday.
Members of police's Densus 88 unit were trying to apprehend the suspect in Bandung Barat regency on Thursday when he lunged at the officers with a knife, causing injuries to their legs and abdomens, national police spokesman Brig. Gen. Dedi Prasetyo said.
"He pretended to surrender, but caught the officers off guard and attacked them," Dedi told BenarNews. "We were forced to neutralize him."
A witness, Amir Sutisman, told reporters that the suspect, identified by police by his initials SHS, was outside his house when officers came to arrest him.
"I heard the cry of Allahu akbar [God is great] several times, and SHS was carrying a knife," Amir was quoted as saying by the local news website AyoBandung.com.
The local neighborhood chief, Dedi Kusnadi, told reporters that he had been suspicious of SHS after he was often visited by mysterious guests at night.
JAD member
Dedi said the slain suspect was known to be a member of the local branch of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) led by a man called Arip, who was arrested the previous day in nearby Karawang regency.
JAD is an Indonesian militant network affiliated to the Islamic State group.
Police said on Thursday that Arip was believed to be involved in a number of terrorist attacks in Central and East Java, including a suicide bombing at the Surakarta police headquarters on May 5, 2016.
Last week, police arrested Wisnu Putra, alias Sahid, a subordinate of Arip, on suspicion of planning a robbery to raise funds for planned attacks in the provinces of West Java and East Java.
The group is composed of six to eight members, Dedi said, adding that police were still looking for other suspects.
Police said JAD was responsible for the series of attacks in May 2018, when two families, including children as young as 9, carried out suicide bombings on three churches and a police station in Surabaya, killing themselves and 15 bystanders.
The next night, three members of a family died when their bomb exploded during a police raid on a Surabaya apartment, bringing the death toll to 28.
Last month, a woman killed herself and her child during a siege of her house in Sibolga in North Sumatra province.
Officers identified the woman as the wife of a suspected JAD militant named Husain (alias Abu Hamzah), who was arrested earlier for allegedly plotting to attack police targets.


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BENARNEWS- Lini Zurlia received a torrent of abuse, as well as support, after posting a photograph of herself on Twitter holding a small sign that read "Saya golput" – a declaration of her intention not to vote in Indonesia's upcoming presidential election.
The tweet has turned the 31-year-old self-described queer feminist activist into an icon of the Indonesian golput movement, which literally means "white group" but refers to people who choose to abstain from voting mainly because of their disenchantment with the candidates and political parties.
Her message, posted on March 28, drew nearly 2,200 likes and 1,500 retweets. But it did not sit well with supporters of incumbent President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, she said.
"I was called crazy, ugly, stupid and other names," the bespectacled Lini told BenarNews.
Proponents of voting abstention say they hope that at least 12 percent of Indonesia's 192 million registered voters (see video) will opt not to vote in the presidential and legislative elections scheduled to take place simultaneously on April 17.
The percentage of eligible voters who have not voted has increased steadily, from 23 percent in 2004, when the country's first direct presidential election was held, to 30 percent in 2014, according to the Indonesian electoral commission.
And according to a recent survey, as many as 30 percent of respondents said they planned "to golput" in this year's election, the Straits Times, a Singaporean newspaper, reported this week.
President Joko will face former army general Prabowo Subianto in the April 17 election, in a repeat of the 2014 polls that Jokowi narrowly won.
Some of those Indonesians who have pledged to be non-voters supported Jokowi in the 2014 race, but say they have grown disillusioned with what they see as his failure to keep campaign promises.
These include solving past human rights cases, improving economic growth and promoting pluralism in the world's largest Muslim majority country, which only transitioned to a democracy 21 years ago after the fall of President Suharto, a longtime dictator.
Human rights activists say Jokowi has yet to take meaningful action to resolve past rights cases and has shown authoritarian tendencies with what some say his government's politicization of law enforcement.
Critics said that Jokowi had also failed to step growing religious and ethnic intolerance.
Prabowo, for his part, has a poor human rights record as a commander of the army's special forces in the 1990s. He was accused of kidnapping several pro-democracy activists in the dying days of the Suharto rule in 1998. He has denied the allegations.
Lini is among the disappointed ex-backers of Jokowi. Lini said she voted for Jokowi in 2014 because he was an outsider, and did not come from the country's military and political elite.
"But after he was elected, he has not been firm and made good on his promises," she said.
 
#SayaGolput
In the run-up to the polls, the hashtag #SayaGolput – which also accompanied Lini's tweet – has generated an online debate in Indonesia among those citizens who are eligible to vote but choose to abstain, versus others who criticize people who opt not to vote, according to media reports.
Arip Yogjawan, a leader of the Civil Society Coalition, a grassroots group that says Indonesians have a right to abstain from voting or to cast blank ballots, claimed that non voters had been threatened directly or indirectly because of their views on the issue.
In January, the Legal Aid Institute (LBH), a human rights group, held a press conference to declare that Indonesians had the right to abstain from voting, in response to statements made on social media that campaigning for abstention was illegal.
"Choosing to abstain is not a crime. It's a legitimate political expression," LBH director Arief Maulana said.
However, government officials, namely security minister Wiranto, have warned that people who try to persuade others not to vote through online campaigns can be charged under the draconian electronic information law. Wiranto had earlier suggested that anyone who spread rumors that there would be unrest on election day could be charged under terrorism laws.
"We urge people not to abstain from voting. Come on to the polling stations. It is safe," he said.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), the nation's top Muslim clerical and scholarly body, has said that voting is an obligation for Muslims if there is a suitable candidate, citing a fatwa issued by the council in 2014.
"Choosing a leader is part of religious obligations to guarantee public welfare," the secretary of MUI's fatwa commission, Asrorun Ni'am Sholeh, said late last month.
But Donal, a 43-year-old citizen, said he would not go the polls because he had no confidence in either of the two presidential candidates.
"The candidates are picked based on the flawed electoral system," he said, referring the fact that no independent candidates are in the race.
"I want a president who is honest, firm and courageous. Both candidates don't have those attributes," he told BenarNews.
'Always abstainers in every election'
Syamsudin Haris, a political analyst at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, predicted that the Golput movement would not make a dent on either camp in the election.
"They won't have much of an impact because their number is not significant. There are always abstainers in every election," he told BenarNews.
"People choose not to vote because they are not happy with the candidates or disappointed with the government's performance, while the opposition has little to offer," he said.
He said most voters had made up their minds about the preferred candidate.
"The government needs to be more persuasive to convince voters not to abstain," he added.


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BENARNEWS- As Indonesians prepare to participate next week in one of the world's largest democratic elections, members of minority groups in the sprawling nation are not optimistic that they will be better protected by the next government, no matter who wins.
In a fiery speech at a huge campaign rally on Sunday, presidential challenger Prabowo Subianto vowed that all citizens would be treated equally if he was elected president on April 17.
"Our teachers, our Islamic clerics have always taught us that Indonesia's Islam is one that brings good to all things in the universe," Prabowo told more than 110,000 supporters who packed Jakarta's cavernous Bung Karno National Stadium.
"Our Islam is one of peace and one that respects all religions, races, and ethnicities," he said, to the chants of "Prabowo! Prabowo! Prabowo!"
It was Prabowo's last big rally in Jakarta before campaigning officially ends on April 13, days before voters once again choose between him and the man who narrowly defeated him five years ago, Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, as their next president.
Prabowo's support base includes conservative Islamic groups that have persecuted Ahmadi and Shia Muslims, and oppose lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights.
"Marginalized groups like us can't pin our hopes on either candidate. We have to fend for ourselves," said a spokesman for the Ahmadiyah Indonesia Congregation, Yendra Budiana.
"Let alone the Prabowo camp, which is supported by hardline groups," he told BenarNews.
Yendra said 114 Ahmadis who were expelled from their homes on Lombok island in 2006 still lived in a temporary shelter.
An Ahmadi mosque in Depok near Jakarta has not reopened after it was forcibly closed by local officials in 2017, he said.

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Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto speaks to supporters during a campaign rally at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta, April 7, 2019. [AP]

Prabowo: 'Rights are undermined'
Prabowo's rally on Sunday was marked by conspicuous religious displays.
Supporters, mostly dressed in white, had begun arriving on Saturday night and performed morning prayers together in the stadium.
Prabowo's running mate, wealthy businessman Sandiago Uno, led chants in Arabic praising the Prophet Mohammad from a raised platform erected on the pitch.
The rally ended with a video message played on a giant screen by the leader of the hardline Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), Muhammad Rizieq Shihab, who is in self-imposed exile in Saudi Arabia.
Rizieq said Muslims should vote for Prabowo because he would "not protect deviant sects and vice," liberalism, or the now-defunct Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).
Rizieq shot to political prominence after he led a campaign in 2016 and 2017 to oust then-Jakarta Gov. Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian of Chinese descent, over allegations that he had insulted the Koran in off-the-cuff remarks.
The FPI leader has not been back to Indonesia since police attempted to question him in 2017 over allegations he had engaged in a lewd online chat with a female supporter and a separate charge of insulting the Indonesian state ideology of Pancasila.
In his speech, Prabowo, a retired army special forces general, painted a bleak picture of Indonesia under Jokowi.
"Our national wealth is continuously being taken away. The people's rights are undermined," he said, citing criminal charges ranging from defamation to campaign violations against his supporters.
Prabowo himself has been accused of human rights violations during his time in the army in the 1990s. He was accused of kidnapping several pro-democracy activists in the dying days of the Suharto regime in 1998. He has denied the allegations.

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A banner depicting Islamic Defenders Front leader Muhammad Rizieq Shihab is displayed at a rally for presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto in Jakarta, April 7, 2019. [AFP]

'Racing to the right'
Jokowi has also been criticized for failing to curb anti-gay rhetoric and actions by officials in recent years.
Police have raided places frequented by gay people and briefly detained hundreds suspected of being homosexual.
Several local governments are mulling anti-LGBT bylaws.
The Pariaman city government, in West Sumatra province, recently issued a bylaw that imposes a fine of up to 1 million rupiah (U.S. $71) on LGBT people "who conduct activity that disturbs public order" or commit "immoral acts with the same-sex," according to a media report.
"The plight of the LGBT community under the Jokowi government has been worse than it was during the 10 years of the SBY government," said Dede Oetomo, a sociology lecturer and campaigner for gay rights. He was referring to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Jokowi's predecessor.
"[T]he change of leadership will have little effect on the lot of minority groups such as LGBT," he predicted.
Jokowi's choice as his running mate of conservative Muslim cleric Ma'ruf Amin, who is known for his anti-LGBT views, has raised concerns that he is pandering to religious puritans at the expense of minorities.
Ma'ruf, the head the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), the country's semi-official clerical body, has expressed support for the criminalization of homosexuality and overseen the issuance of controversial fatwas including one that says Ahmadi beliefs are heretical and not part of Islam.
Jokowi, whose 2014 campaign pledges included solving past human rights cases and promoting pluralism, has vowed to protect religious and ethnic minorities as well as marginalized groups.
But his promises have not produced meaningful policy initiatives, according to rights groups.
"Jokowi has not taken firm action against violations of economic and social rights of religious minorities," said Maidina Rahmawati, a researcher at the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR).
"It's as if the government is condoning them," she told BenarNews.
"The two candidates are racing to the right and minorities are just pawns," she said.
On Monday, meanwhile, Indonesia's Supreme Court upheld an 18-month prison sentence for a Buddhist woman convicted of blasphemy because she had allegedly complained about noise from the loudspeakers of a neighborhood mosque in her home province of North Sumatra in 2016.
Indonesia's constitution guarantees freedom of religion, but the government recognizes only six religions: Islam, Catholicism, Protestantism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism. More than 87 percent of Indonesians are Sunni Muslims.
Indonesia's criminal code outlaws deviations from the central tenets of these religions, as do numerous local laws and regulations, according to U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian police on Tuesday announced the arrests of eight suspects in what they described as the biggest human trafficking case they had ever uncovered – a ring that smuggled more than 1,200 domestic workers to the Middle East and North Africa.
The suspects belonged to four syndicates that trafficked Indonesians to countries including Syria, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Turkey, promising their victims lucrative pay as domestic help, national police spokesman Brig. Gen. Dedi Prasetyo told BenarNews.
But in reality, the victims did not receive their wages and were mistreated by their employers, he said.
"The number of victims could be higher as the investigation unfolds," Dedi said but without revealing when the arrests took place. Local news organizations said they occurred in March.
The eight suspects face up to 15 years in prison if found guilty under a 2007 law on human trafficking, he said.
"This is the biggest case that the national police have uncovered," Herry Nahak, chief of the national police's criminal investigation unit, told reporters. Dedi echoed Herry's claim in a statement posted on an official Twitter account.
Since 2015, Indonesia has imposed a moratorium on sending domestic workers to 19 countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The measure was taken following cases of abuse against female domestic workers from Indonesia.
The national police's director-general for general crimes, Brig. Gen. Herry Rudolf Nahak, said police began investigating the case last month after the foreign ministry received reports from victims who managed to escape from their employers.
Initially, police arrested two suspects – identified as Mutiara bint Muhammad Abas and Farhan bin Abuyarman – on suspicion of trafficking people to Morocco.
"About 500 people have been trafficked by the two suspects," Herry said.
The suspects recruited their victims from Sumbawa island in West Nusa Tenggara province, who were then taken to Lombok island and later to Batam near Singapore, before being taken to Morocco.
Another group, led by two women identified as Erna Rahmawati and Saleha, have trafficked people to Turkey, Herry said.
They have allegedly trafficked about 220 people since they began operating last year, he said. Herry Rudolf also did not specify the details of the group's arrest.
"Most of the victims are from Bima in West Nusa Tenggara. They traveled via Jakarta, to Oman, then to Turkey," he said.
Another group, led by Muhammad Abdul Halim, has sent 300 people to Syria and Iraq through Malaysia, authorities said.
The fourth group, led by Ethiopian men identified as Faisal Hussain Saeed and Abdalla Ibrahim Abdalla, trafficked people to Saudi Arabia with the help of an Indonesian woman named Neneng Susilawati, Herry said.
"Faisal is a refugee protected by the UNHCR, so he is free, and has not been deported," said Herry, referring to the U.N. refugee agency.
"He also recruited several foreigners as employees," he said.
Authorities believe that Herry has trafficked about 200 people from West Java and West Nusa Tenggara since 2014.
Indonesia is a major source of trafficking in persons, both cross-border and domestic, with a majority of the victims women being trafficked for work or sexual exploitation, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) .
The national police said at least 1,078 women were victims of human trafficking in 2017.
NGOs estimate that labor recruiters are responsible for more than half of Indonesian female-trafficking cases overseas, according to the U.S. State Department's 2018 Trafficking in Persons Report.
Migrant workers often accumulate debt from Indonesian and overseas labor recruitment agencies, making them vulnerable to debt bondage, with some companies withholding documents and making threats of violence to keep migrants in forced labor, the report said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's election monitors are paying close attention to West Java, the country's most populous province, a week before presidential and parliamentary elections amid concerns of vote buying and intimidation, officials said Wednesday.
Indonesians will go to the polls on April 17 to elect a president and members of parliament at national, provincial and municipal levels. It will be the first time the presidential and parliamentary elections are held on the same day.
Incumbent President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo will face former general Prabowo Subianto in a repeat of the 2014 presidential election.
Home to nearly 33 million eligible voters, West Java came third in an election vulnerability index released by the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) on Tuesday. It trailed the rebellious province of Papua and the central Java province of Yogyakarta, which together represent about 6 million voters, less than one-fifth of West Java's total.
Bawaslu said West Java is vulnerable to threats to free and fair elections such as voter intimidation, campaign disruptions and vote buying.
"Because of the large number of voters, political parties and presidential candidates are fighting tooth and nail in West Java," Bawaslu commissioner Mochammad Afifuddin said.
"The potential for problems is real," he told BenarNews.
Afifuddin did not provide details of such violations in West Java but said the index took into accounts events dating back to a year ago.
Nationally, the vulnerability index is moderate, but slightly increased from September 2018.
Bawaslu's head of enforcement in West Java, Sutarno, said vote buying was a major concern. The agency has taken action on cases of vote buying and two cases have been brought to trial.
"We have received many reports (of vote buying). We have been conducting investigations," Sutarno was quoted as saying by the local news website Ayobandung.com.
Last year in preparation for the 2019 vote, the national police put West Java on the list of top areas vulnerable to electoral disruptions, including threats to security and public order.
Starting in 2016, the province saw a series of massive anti-government rallies by conservative Muslims, including protests against alleged blasphemy by the then-governor of Jakarta, Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama.
The next year brought a standoff between a terrorist suspect and police in Bandung, the provincial capital.
Despite the report, Jokowi chief of staff Moeldoko sought to allay any concern about security.
"All are committed to holding safe elections. The police and security forces are on guard in anticipation of troubles," Moeldoko said.
'Any means necessary'
The executive director of the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), Titi Anggraini, said she is concerned the election will not be entirely free of vote buying.
"The candidates, especially those running for parliament, are pragmatic. The most important thing for them is to win, by any means necessary," Titi told BenarNews.
Last month, a legislative candidate from the Golkar Party in Central Java, Bowo Sidik Pangarso, was arrested by investigators from the Corruption Eradication Commission on suspicion of vote buying.
Investigators said they seized 8 billion rupiah ($565,000) from Bowo. Cash in hundreds of envelopes allegedly was to be distributed at dawn on election day, a practice known as "dawn attacks."
"That is proof that the general election will be marred by the practice of vote buying," Titi said.
A researcher at Indonesia Corruption Watch, Almas Sjafrina said poor political education among the electorate is making it hard to eradicate vote buying.
"The recruitment of political candidates is opaque and not transparent, with little attention paid to candidates' track records," Almas said.
Burhanuddin Muhtadi, a pollster and lecturer at Universitas Islam Negeri Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, wrote last year that the practice of handing out cash or items to influence voters is pervasive in Indonesia.
"My Ph.D research found that as many as one in three Indonesians was personally exposed to the practice in the previous national election. That would put Indonesia in third place on the list of countries with the most vote-buying practices," he wrote on Conversation.com.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian elections supervisors on Thursday said bags with ballots pre-marked in favor of incumbent leader Joko "Jokowi" Widodo were discovered in two Malaysian warehouses just days before Indonesia's presidential and legislative polls on April 17.
Officials said 40,000 to 50,000 ballots were found in the warehouses in Malaysia, where 1 million expatriate Indonesians are eligible to vote on Sunday ahead of the general election.
Yaza Azzahara Ulyana, who heads the Indonesian Election Supervisory Committee (Bawaslu) office in Kuala Lumpur, said she and a colleague went to a building in Selangor state after being tipped off by a campaign volunteer for opposition presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto.
"The place is a warehouse that has been filled with ballots in about 100 diplomatic bags, 10 black plastic bags, and five white gunny sacks labeled Malaysia Post," she said in a statement.
Yaza said she was later informed that 158 bags of marked ballots were found in a second warehouse in Selangor.
Yaza confirmed that ballots had been marked for incumbent President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and for legislative candidates from the National Democratic Party (Nasdem), a member of the ruling coalition. Officials did not say if all of the ballots had been marked for Jokowi or the party.
A video circulating online showed Malaysian police inspecting the bags while a man commented that the ballots had been marked for Jokowi and his running mate, Ma'ruf Amin.
Prabowo supporters voiced concern about possible fraud ahead of the presidential and parliamentary elections. Jokowi, who defeated Prabowo in 2014, called for an investigation.
"If it's true and it's a violation, just report it to the Bawaslu. The mechanism is clear," Jokowi told reporters.
Nasdem, led by media mogul Surya Paloh, called for a probe, as well.
"Nasdem urges Bawaslu and the Indonesian National Police to thoroughly investigate this case to determine whether this is a fact or a political ploy to delegitimize the election," it said in a statement.
Fritz Edward Siregar, a member of the election supervisory committee, said voting by expats in Malaysia should be postponed pending an investigation.
"We urge the General Election Commission (KPU) to conduct a performance evaluation. It is proven that the PPLN (overseas electoral officials) have not carried out their job properly," Fritz told reporters.
KPU commissioner Ilham Saputra said it was investigating and considering the proposal to postpone the vote, but he did not elaborate.
Opposition concerns
Opposition members have accused the Jokowi camp of mobilizing civil servants and employees of state enterprises to support the president's reelection bid, alleging that staff members had been threatened with punishment if they refused.
In addition, KPU has denied accusations that its computer system had been rigged in favor of Jokowi.
Prabowo campaign spokesman Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak questioned whether Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia Rusdi Kirana was involved in the marked ballots, and urged Jokowi to sack him.
Rusdi's son, Devin Kirana is a Nasdem candidate for parliament.
"The Indonesian ambassador in Malaysia should be held to account related to the cast-ballot incident, even more so that the ballots have been cast in favor of his son and presidential candidate 01," Dahnil in a Twitter post, referring to Jokowi's designation on the ballot.
Previously, the Prabowo campaign had alleged that 17.5 million voters were registered under the same three birth dates, calling that statistically impossible. Campaign spokesman Hasjim Djojohadikusumo, a businessman and Prabowo's brother, has threatened to take legal action unless the issue was addressed.
KPU commissioner Viryan Aziz explained that the three dates were used to register Indonesians who did not know when they were born.
Trial of ex-Prabowo volunteer
Meanwhile, a man identified by police as a former campaign volunteer for Prabowo is standing trial for allegedly spreading a rumor about 70 million pre-marked ballots. The rumored ballots would represent more than one-third of the 194 million Indonesians who are registered to vote, according to figures from the electoral commission.
Bagus Bawana Putra was arrested in January after reports circulated on social media that seven containers stuffed with ballots marked for Jokowi had been found at Jakarta's Tanjung Priok port. He is charged with spreading false information to cause public unease and could face up to 10 years in prison, if convicted.
Bagus has told the court he had been framed and claimed that he received the information from a senior government official whom he did not name.
Prabowo campaign officials said Bagus was not part of their team nor was he registered with the election commission.
Ferry Mursyidan Baldan, a member of the Prabowo campaign, called on volunteers and Indonesian citizens abroad to monitor the vote to prevent fraud.
"Events in Malaysia have provided an impetus for volunteers across the world to guard the electoral process. It is very important to protect the reputation of our country," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Established Islamic parties are likely to lose votes to their nationalist counterparts in next week's elections in Indonesia, analysts said, despite perceptions of growing religious conservatism.
Several recent polls suggest that nationalist parties will dominate the 575-strong House of Representatives (DPR), with the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) expected to win the most votes in the April 17 election.
Indonesia's main faith-based party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), is not expected to repeat its 2014 performance, when it won 6.8 percent of the votes, while the more moderate United Development Party (PPP) and National Mandate Party (PAN) may not secure enough votes to pass the 4 percent threshold required to hold a seat in parliament, recent polls suggest.
PPP and PAN won 6.5 and 7.6 percent of the votes in the 2014 parliamentary elections, respectively.
The National Awakening Party (PKB), a member of the ruling coalition that backs President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's bid for reelection, is the only Islamic party expected to secure its parliamentary seats.
"Despite the recent symptoms of identity politics, nationalist parties are expected to dominate," said Ari Nurcahyo, director of PARA Syndicate, a private think tank.
"Islamic parties are struggling with a lack of popular figures and innovative ideas," he said.
"Besides, many Indonesians don't believe in mixing religion and politics, and many have grown weary with misuse of religion in politics while corruption remains rampant," he told BenarNews.
The arrest of PPP chairman Muhammad Romahurmuziy, an ally of Jokowi, has further alienated voters from the party, he said.
Indonesia's Corruption Eradication Commission arrested the PPP leader in mid-March on suspicion he accepted a sizeable bribe to engineer a promotion at the Religious Affairs Ministry, an allegation he denied.
Arsul Sani, PPP secretary-general, said he was optimistic that Romahurmuziy's legal trouble would not have a significant impact on the party's performance at the ballot box.
"PPP is an Islamic party that has been participating in elections for a long time and we are confident that we will still have a place in the hearts of the people," he said.
Diverted
Up to nine of 16 political parties contesting the election may not pass the parliamentary threshold, surveys conducted by pollsters Charta Politika in March and Indopolling Network in April predicted.
Gerindra, the party of Jokowi's rival in Wednesday's presidential election, Prabowo Subianto, is expected to finish second, followed by Golkar, the party of the late former president Suharto.
Both PDIP and Gerindra are likely to benefit from having their own presidential candidates, whose campaigns have dominated headlines and eclipsed the parliamentary race, analysts said.
"Voters are more likely to vote for parties that field presidential candidates. That could be the reason why Islamic parties are diverted to nationalist parties associated with the presidential candidates," said Arya Fernandes, a researcher at the Centre for International Studies in Jakarta.
Ardha Ranadireksa, a researcher with Charta Politika, a private pollster, said that even though PKS is known for the loyalty of its members, it does not have popular politicians, forcing it to back Prabowo's candidacy.
"FPI members who support Prabowo will not necessarily vote for PKS," he said, using the acronym for the Islamic Defenders' Front, a hardline group.
FPI is led by Islamic cleric Muhammad Rizieq Shihab, who shot to political prominence after he led a campaign in 2016 and 2017 to oust then-Jakarta Gov. Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian of Chinese descent, over allegations that he had insulted the Koran in off-the-cuff remarks.
The events leading to Ahok's jailing raised concerns about growing religious intolerance in the world's largest Muslim-majority country. The former governor finished serving his sentence in January.
Sirojuddin Abbas, an analyst at Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting, said simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections meant that political parties not fielding presidential candidates had to work extra had to win votes.
Despite religious fervor on display at Prabowo's campaign rallies, PKS and PAN, which also backs Prabowo, are likely to benefit little, he told BenarNews.
New political parties
Ardha said new political parties such as the youthful Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) had had difficulty garnering support because their platforms were not different from established ones.
PSI is fielding candidates under 40 to attract young voters but is not likely to gain traction in the absence of popular figures, Ardha said.
The secretary general of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI), Raja Juli Antoni, said he was optimistic despite the gloomy predictions.
"We continue to work door to door. We knock on people's doors and their hearts and we also knock on heaven's door," he told BenarNews.


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BENARNEWS- Prosecutors with the U.S. Defense Department have filed new and expanded charges against Hambali, the Guantanamo inmate from Indonesia accused of masterminding two bombings that killed more than 200 people in his homeland, a military commission spokesman said Friday.
The augmented accusations include an eighth charge alleging that Hambali, 55, conspired with al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and 47 others to commit terrorist attacks across Southeast Asia and elsewhere, according to a copy of the charge-sheet filed on April 5 that was obtained by BenarNews.
Among his co-conspirators, according to the document, were two Malaysian associates also detained in Guantanamo and Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, the alleged architect of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks that killed more than 3,000 people in the United States.
"We've received notification of new charges," Ron Flesvig, spokesman of the Convening Authority of the Office of the Military Commissions, told BenarNews.
Flesvig said he could not explain why prosecutors filed the new charge, even though military authorities never moved forward with the initial seven charges that were filed in June 2017 and in December of the same year.
Hambali's lawyer, Maj. James Valentine, mocked the filing of the conspiracy charge as the prosecution's "desperate attempt" to salvage the military commission's credibility. American authorities did not want Hambali's case to go to court because the trial would reveal the torture that his client had suffered from his military captors, Valentine alleged.
"I don't think the U.S. possesses the moral authority or the practical ability to try this case because in order to try this case, in accordance with human rights standards and rule of law standards, they have to reveal the crimes of torture," Valentine told BenarNews.
He questioned the U.S. government's move to assert jurisdiction on the case, instead of allowing Hambali to face trial in Indonesia, where most of his alleged crimes took place.
"He is an Indonesian citizen and he is being charged for crimes that occurred on Indonesian soil," Valentine said. "I think it is an insult to the Republic of Indonesia for the U.S. to capture and then to try that citizen rather than return him to Indonesia."
Just like the two previous charges filed in 2017, the latest charge sheet still accuses Hambali of involvement in the Oct. 12, 2002 bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, on the Indonesian island of Bali.
The seven charges include murder, terrorism and destruction of property. Hambali is also accused of orchestrating an August 2003 car-bomb attack that killed 11 people, including a Dutch man, and injured 150 others at the J.W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta.
In the new conspiracy charge, prosecutors also named radical Muslim preacher Abu Bakar Bashir, who is in prison in Indonesia, as one of his main co-conspirators. The latest legal document also provided details on his involvement in funding the Bali bombings and other terror plans in Australia and Southeast Asia, including the Philippines and Singapore.

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Encep Nurjamen (also known as Hambali) is shown in an undated photo provided by the Federal Public Defenders Office, at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. [Federal Public Defender's Office via AP]

Sent to a secret CIA prison network

Hambali, whose real name is Encep Nurjaman (alias Riduan Isamuddin), was arrested in Thailand in August 2003 with Malaysians Bashir Lap (alias Lilie) and Mohd Farik Bin Amin (alias Zubair). After the trio's arrest, they were sent to a secret CIA prison network before they were moved to Guantanamo, a U.S. military prison in Cuba, on Sept. 4, 2006.
Military authorities under President Barack Obama had classified the trio as "indefinite detainees" under the Law of War, alleging that they were involved in war crimes that stretched from 1993 and were considered too dangerous to release.
Under the U.S. military's legal system, charges that have been sworn-in by prosecutors would need approval from the Convening Authority, the office overseeing the commissions, which can decide if the case would go to trial.
Indonesian officials had indicated three years ago that if Hambali were to be released, they would be reluctant to accept his repatriation for fear that his return could spark a revival among domestic terror cells.
Valentine, Hambali's lawyer, told BenarNews on Thursday that Indonesian's officials had never been allowed to visit his client, who, he alleged, remains chained while in solitary confinement.
"He's chained to the floor the entire time," Valentine said, adding that his client "has suffered the debilitating effects of torture." He declined to elaborate.
Almost 18 years after the 9/11 terror attacks, the military commission system is still wrestling with how much evidence related to torture can be used during trial in Guantanamo, according to the New York Times.
"They can never let the world know what they did to him, so how can they have a fair trial?" Valentine said.
Officials interviewed by BenarNews said they could not explain why it took Pentagon prosecutors more than 10 years to prepare the charges against Hambali.
According to the so-called Senate "Torture Report," which was approved for public release in December 2012, Hambali was not "waterboarded," but other "enhanced interrogation techniques" used against him included long stretches of being shackled in painful positions and being slammed into a wall or being kept in nude and confined in a coffin-like box.
'There is no such option'
In Jakarta on Friday, Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir confirmed that the Indonesian government's access to Hambali was limited because he was being held in a military facility.
"The process follows military rules, all of his lawyers are military lawyers. There's is a military process there as he is considered a military prisoner and they follow military laws," he told BenarNews.
He also said Indonesian embassy staff had met with Hambali's attorneys.
Asked whether Indonesia had requested Hambali's repatriation, Arrmanatha replied, "Is there an option?"
"There is no such option," he said. "This is because he is being detained in a military prison."
Ahmad Syamsudin and Tia Asmara in Jakarta contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and rival Prabowo Subianto traded barbs Saturday as they drew the curtain on their seven-month presidential campaigns ahead of Wednesday's general election.
Jokowi, who is running for a second five-year term, took a jab at his opponent, questioning the former army general's human rights record.
"I don't have past burdens, none. I repeat, I don't have burdens from the past," Widodo said in an apparent dig at Prabowo, whose military service has been stained by allegations of human rights abuses.
At least 100,000 supporters, most of them clad in white, cheered and chanted "Jokowi! Jokowi!" as the president pumped his two arms in a V-shape and flashed the No. 1 sign with his index fingers at the Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta.
Jokowi, accompanied by his vice presidential running mate Ma'ruf Amin, touted his track record in which he created new jobs, slashed inflation by more than half, and grew the world's largest Muslim-majority nation into a trillion-dollar economy.
"We are on the right track. It is true some things need to improve, but it's a process," Jokowi, 57, told the rally, his biggest since the campaign began in September. "No one is a pessimist here. Our main asset as a country is our optimism."
"Our country, Indonesia, will not become extinct!" he said, apparently hitting at Prabowo's previous statements that the nation of more than 262 million people would go to extinction if Jokowi gets re-elected.
Indonesia experienced a boom in infrastructure projects in recent years, but economic growth has stalled at around 5 percent annually since Jokowi took office, falling short of his 2014 campaign promise of 7 percent.
Last year, as the rupiah currency plunged about 9 percent, Prabowo's supporters underscored pressures in the financial markets and created a social-media slogan #GantiPresiden2019' (Change the President in 2019). But the rupiah has rebounded from last year's market rout, gaining about 1.2 percent against the U.S. currency this year.
Jokowi, dressed in his trademark white shirt, stood before cheering supporters on Saturday in a festive campaign rally that featured dozens of renowned musicians.
Prabowo, 67, assembled a similar crowd size at the same stadium last week, where he painted a bleak picture of Indonesia.
"Our national wealth is continuously being taken away. The people's rights are undermined," he said.
In most of Prabowo's rallies, he has criticized Jokowi for failing to achieve higher economic growth targets.
Jokowi still maintains a double-digit lead over Prabowo but that lead has narrowed in recent weeks, according to a survey released last month by pollster Litbang Kompas, which is part of Indonesia's biggest newspaper Kompas.
According to analysts, the April 17 balloting will be a repeat of the 2014 presidential elections in which Widodo narrowly defeated Prabowo, a retired special forces commander.
In this campaign, the two presidential candidates had pushed for nationalistic economic platforms, although religion and race-related issues loomed large. Widodo, who is a popular moderate, was running with Islamic cleric Ma'ruf, sparking concerns that he could be pandering to conservative Muslims.
Both candidates faced off in a final televised debate later on Saturday where they criticized each other on economic, social, trade and financial issues.
During the debate, Jokowi again talked about his government's drive to build roads, airports, sea ports and dams across the archipelago.
"We are improving infrastructure all over Indonesia not just Java. We are not Java-centric, we are Indonesia-centric," he said.
Prabowo accused the Jokowi government of having a penchant for imports.
"We are undergoing deindustrialization," he said. "We are producing nothing."
Similar to his 2014 candidacy, Prabowo during this campaign faced widespread allegations that he took part in some of the nation's worst human rights abuses. But his running mate, Sandiaga Uno, on Friday played down those concerns, saying such accusations only come out during election season. Prabowo has also vehemently denied those allegations.

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Opposition presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto greets his supporters while campaigning in Padang, capital of Indonesia's West Sumatra province, April 2, 2019. [M. Sulthan Azzam/BenarNews]

About 192 million people are registered to vote in Wednesday's presidential and parliamentary elections.
It will be the first time the presidential and parliamentary elections are held on the same day.
Sixteen political parties are fielding almost 8,000 candidates to contest 575 seats in the House of Representatives, but surveys indicate that up to nine parties may not pass the parliamentary threshold of four percent.
Jokowi has promised to boost Indonesia's economy by ushering in what his supporters describe as industrial revolution 4.0, introduce an unemployment benefit scheme and clean up the bureaucracy.
Prabowo has pledged to establish food self-sufficiency, enact justice reform and improve health care and social security systems.
Voters share their views
Andri, a resident of a Jakarta suburb who attended Jokowi's rally on Saturday, said he was optimistic that the president would be re-elected.
"I support Jokowi because it is clear the results of his work are real and his programs are good," he told BenarNews.
Another Jokowi supporter, Dewi Utari, said the president had been able to maintain stability and keep prices of staples affordable.
"My hope is that his performance will improve and he will pay more attention to the lower classes, especially in my area," she told BenarNews.
Rohman, a resident in North Jakarta whose house was demolished in 2016 by the Jakarta administration to make way for development, said he would vote for Prabowo.
"Many poor people need jobs. Food prices have increased and many people are complaining," he told BenarNews.
He said he supported Prabowo because of the candidate's promise to lead the country to prosperity.
Chairudin, a resident of a West Jakarta slum whose house was also demolished in 2016, said he believed Prabowo could lift the Indonesian economy.
"I used to support Jokowi, but he failed to keep his promises" he said, referring to Jokowi's campaign promise not to evict slum dwellers and to revamp homes. "I'm hoping that my home can be built again like before."
The Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF) said Indonesia needs stronger growth to be able to create more jobs and lift citizens out of poverty.
M. Nawir Messi, INDEF's senior economist, told BenarNews that economic issues facing the next government included managing balanced growth and improving investment competitiveness.
"It is necessary to reduce poverty to single digits," Nawir said, "and to make effective use of village funds to improve the welfare and quality of life of rural communities."
Tia Asmara in Jakarta contributed to this report


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BENARNEWS- Citizens are heading to polling stations scattered across Indonesia's vast archipelago as the nation holds its first simultaneous presidential and legislative polls, a single-day exercise in democracy viewed as one of the world's most complex votes ever staged.
More than 190 million Indonesians are eligible to vote Wednesday at more than 800,000 polling stations in three time zones, officials with the General Election Commission (KPU) said.
Over a six-hour span voters will be electing a president, 575 members of the House of Representatives (DPR), 136 members of the Regional Representative Council (DPD) and nearly 20,000 members of local legislatures in 548 provinces, districts and municipalities.
"KPU is ready. I can say that preparations are 99 percent complete," Election commissioner Pramono Ubaid said Tuesday, adding that weather and remote locations had strained preparations for the historic vote.
Officials were "racing against time in many places and battling against unfriendly weather. Some ballot papers needed to be replaced because they were damaged. But we believe all will be ready before voting day," he said.
In Wednesday's presidential contest, Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, the incumbent is again running against challenger Prabowo Subianto, a retired army special forces general whom he defeated in a closely contested election in 2014. Polls are scheduled to close at 1 p.m., although voters who are in line at closing time will be able to cast their ballots, officials said.
On Saturday night, before a three-day campaigning blackout kicked in on Sunday, Jokowi, Prabowo and their respective running mates met for a final nationally televised debate after months of campaigning culminated with rallies that drew tens of thousands of supporters.
 
The Lowy Institute, an independent and nonpartisan think-tank based in Australia, described the scale of the vote in the neighboring country to the north – Southeast Asia's largest democracy – as unprecedented.
"It will be [the] world's biggest direct presidential elections (because the U.S. uses an electoral college) and one of the most complicated single-day elections in global history," according to a recent article in the Interpreter, a daily publication produced by the institute.
"[T]he scale of Indonesia's electoral process is mind-boggling, with five separate elections at once, for the president, both houses of parliament, provincial legislatures and district/city councils," it added, noting that the 2019 parliamentary elections in India, the world's most populous democracy, were being staged in phases over six weeks in April and May.
The election price tag is 27.6 trillion rupiah (U.S. $1.96 billion), according to the Associated Press (AP). Election officials are providing more than 1.6 million bottles of halal-certified indelible ink for voters to dip a finger in after casting ballots at some 810,000 polling stations.
The KPU estimates that more than 17 million people are involved in ensuring that the elections go smoothly, including volunteers, guards and registered witnesses for every polling station, AP reported.
Complaints
The run-up to the Indonesian election, however, has not been entirely seamless.
During the campaigning blackout period, a member of the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) announced that his group had received 25 complaints about vote buying in 13 provinces.
"As many as 22 cases were uncovered by local election supervisors and three cases by the police," Mochammad Afifuddin said.
Bawaslu, which oversees the General Election Agency, has expressed concerns throughout the campaign about efforts to buy votes.
In March, a legislative candidate in Central Java was arrested on suspicion of vote buying, with investigators saying they had seized 8 billion rupiah ($565,000). The cash was parceled out in envelopes and allegedly intended to be distributed to voters at dawn on Election Day.
In addition, Bawaslu officials on April 11 reported finding 40,000 to 50,000 ballots in Malaysian warehouses with many pre-marked for Jokowi and for legislative candidates in the National Democratic Party, a member of the ruling coalition.
"Bawaslu is calling for repeat voting for voters in Kuala Lumpur who voted via mail. This recommendation is to fulfill the right of Indonesian citizens and protect the integrity of the 2019 election," Bawaslu member Divi Rahmad Bagja told reporters on Tuesday, adding that 320,000 were eligible to vote using the mail system.
He also called on KPU to dismiss two of its members based in Kuala Lumpur, where many Indonesian expatriates live.
"The election organizing committee in Kuala Lumpur has been proven to have failed to carry out their duties in an objective, professional and transparent manner," Divi said.


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BENARNEWS- Endorsements from popular Indonesian Islamic preachers could boost chances for presidential candidates, but it is unclear if that support could sway voters in the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, analysts said ahead of Wednesday's general election.
Incumbent President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo and opposition candidate Prabowo Subianto have both tried to woo the support of conservative Islamic leaders.
Prabowo, for his part, has received a flurry of endorsements in the past few days from ultra-conservative preachers such as Abdul Somad and Adi Hidayat, whose sermons on YouTube are popular among young Muslims.
"At least the endorsements for Prabowo will consolidate voters with the same affiliation. The question is: Are voters who support Jokowi switching to Prabowo? Is the influence significant? This is interesting to analyze," said Muslimin, a researcher at Charta Politica, a private pollster.
Prabowo, a 67-year-old former army general known for nationalist rhetoric, has courted the backing of conservative Muslim groups that seek a greater role of Islam in government, including the Islamic Defenders' Front (FPI). But he has denied accusations of wanting to turn the secular nation into a caliphate.
FPI is led by cleric Muhammad Rizieq Shihab, who shot to political prominence after he helped lead a campaign in 2016 and 2017 to oust then-Jakarta Gov. Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, a Christian of Chinese descent, over allegations that he had insulted the Koran in off-the-cuff remarks.
The events leading to Ahok's jailing raised concerns about growing religious intolerance in Indonesia, which has long been considered moderate in its practice of Islam. The former governor finished serving his sentence in January.
Ikrama Masloman, a researcher at the Jakarta-based pollster Indonesian Survey Circle, said the clerics' endorsements of Prabowo was unlikely to significantly boost his election chances.
"It was a little too late. If it had been given long ago, the impact would have been greater," he told BenarNews.
Prabowo's campaign spokesman, Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak, welcomed public expression of support from Abdul and Adi, saying they represented the voices of the people.
"They both command huge influence. There was a survey that suggested that if both were neutral, Jokowi would win. With Abdul Somad supporting Prabowo, Jokowi is certain to lose," he said.
Jokowi's last-minute pilgrimage to Mecca
Abdul Kadir Karding, a deputy chairperson of the Jokowi campaign, however, said the preachers' support for Prabowo would only rally moderate Muslim groups around the incumbent president.
"There's actually a silver lining, that NU and other moderate Islamic groups will unite," he told reporters, noting that Jokowi had received backing from revered NU clerics, such as Muhammad Lutfi and Maimoen Zubair.
Jokowi, 57, picked Ma'ruf Amin, a senior cleric known for anti-gay views, as his vice-presidential running mate apparently to fend off criticism that he was not sufficiently pious.
In an apparent attempt to dispel unfounded accusations that he was not a good Muslim, Jokowi and his family also went to Saudi Arabia over the weekend on a pilgrimage known as umrah.
Photographs circulated by the Jokowi campaign showed him entering the Kaaba, a black cube-shaped building at the center of Islam's holiest mosque in Mecca, and kissing the revered Black Stone.
He also met with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, officials said.
"The crown prince appreciated Indonesia's economic and political stability and said that Indonesia is lucky to have a progressive leader," Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said.
More than 190 million people are eligible to vote on Wednesday in a re-match of the 2014 presidential election, in which Jokowi defeated Prabowo by almost six percentage points.

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A video of the radical cleric Rizieq Shihab is seen on the stadium scoreboard as supporters of candidate Prabowo Subianto gather during a campaign rally at the Gelora Bung Karno stadium in Jakarta, April 7, 2019. [AP]

Islamic parties unlikely to benefit
Even though religious fervor has been strong during campaigning, Islamic parties are not expected to perform better than the previous elections, Ikrama said.
"Even though the issue of religion is prominent in the presidential election, it does not necessarily translate to votes for Islamic parties. Nationalist parties that are fielding their own presidential candidates will win the most votes," he said.
"It's because Islamic parties have no popular figures," he said.
He was referring to Jokowi's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and Prabowo's Gerindra Party.
Several recent polls suggest that nationalist parties will dominate the 575-strong House of Representatives (DPR), with the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) expected to win the most votes in the April 17 election.
Indonesia's main faith-based party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), is not expected to repeat its 2014 performance, when it won 6.8 percent of the votes, while the more moderate United Development Party (PPP) and National Mandate Party (PAN) may not secure enough votes to pass the 4-percent threshold required to hold a seat in parliament, recent polls suggest.
PPP and PAN won 6.5 and 7.6 percent of the votes in the 2014 parliamentary elections, respectively.
The National Awakening Party (PKB), a member of the ruling coalition backing Jokowi's bid for re-election, is the only Islamic party expected to secure its old parliamentary seats.
Concerns that the polarization among Muslims could widen communal divisions after the election are unfounded, Muslimin of the Charta Politica pollster told BenarNews.
"Sentiments may be running high, but I don't think it will have a long-lasting effect," he said. "After the election, I think things will go back to normal."


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BENARNEWS- Incumbent Joko "Jokowi" Widodo claimed victory in his quest for a second term, citing unofficial results from Indonesia's presidential polls showing that he outperformed challenger Prabowo Subianto by 10 percentage points in Wednesday voting.
Jokowi and running mate Ma'ruf Amin captured at least 55 percent of the vote compared to the rival ticket of Prabowo and Sandiago Uno, who drew 45 percent, according to projections of votes by five independent pollster groups – known as "quick counts."
"Based on the results of quick counts by credible pollsters, it appears that I and Ma'ruf Amin are trusted by the Indonesian people to be president and vice president for the period of 2019-2024," the Jokowi-Ma'ruf campaign team quoted the president as saying in a statement issued on Wednesday evening.
Prabowo, however, disputed the quick count-results with a counter claim that he had garnered more votes than Jokowi and won his re-match with Jokowi in presidential polls.
The former general said he had captured more than 60 percent of the vote, adding he had "real numbers" from his own exit poll monitors to back up his assertion.
"Based on the real count, we are in the position of 62 percent. This is the real count, from 320,000 polling stations, or about 40 percent. I have been told by statisticians that this won't change," Prabowo said at his house in South Jakarta on Wednesday evening, in remarks broadcast on TVOne.
Meanwhile, unofficial parliamentary results from quick counts showed nine parties passing the threshold of 4 percent of votes required to have seats in the lower House of Representatives, the DPR.
The top three winners were Jokowi's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) with 20.31 percent of votes; Prabowo's Gerindra with 12.91 percent; and Golkar, the party of the late former president Suharto, with11.79 percent, according to projected results from pollster Litbang Kompas.
Fourth and fifth place went to two faith-based parties, the Islamic National Awakening Party (PKB) and Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), with 9.32 percent and 8.62 percent of votes, respectively.
Other parties projected to win seats in parliament included the Democrat Party of former President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (8.18 percent); Nasdem (7.99 percent); the National Mandate Party (PAN) (6.52 percent); and faith-based United Development Party (PPP) (4.52 percent).
Prabowo: 'Remain calm'
Quick counts have proven accurate in predicting winners in past elections in Southeast Asia's largest nation.
The projections for both the presidential and parliamentary elections were based on more than 97 percent of sample votes counted by the five pollster groups at polling sites nationwide.
Commenting on the quick counts at a press conference in the late afternoon, Jokowi called for national unity and patience.
"We have to maintain our cohesion after the election," Jokowi told reporters at a theater in Jakarta late Wednesday afternoon as Ma'ruf stood by his side.
"We have seen the results of exit polls and quick counts, but we have to be patient, while awaiting official results from KPU (the General Election Commission)," the president said then.
Official results from the General Election Commission are not expected until late May.
After the polls closed, Prabowo urged his supporters to monitor official vote counting to guard against electoral fraud.
"There have been attempts by polling agencies to manipulate public opinion to make it look like we have lost," he said.
"I call on my supporters to remain calm and not to be provoked into anarchic action," he said.
Polls released in the run-up to Wednesday's unprecedented election showed the presidential incumbent enjoying a comfortable two-digit lead. Jokowi, who was seeking a second term, also ran against Prabowo in the 2014 presidential election, in which he narrowly defeated the retired army general.
About 80 percent of 190 million eligible Indonesians turned out Wednesday to vote at some 800,000 polling stations across the country, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Jakarta think tank.
The vote was historic because it was the first time the country held those elections simultaneously along with regional assembly polls.
And its scale was massive.
The polls were open from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. across the Indonesian archipelago, which spans three time zones.
Voters fanned out at polls across the Indonesian archipelago on Wednesday to elect 575 members of the House of Representatives (DPR), 136 members of the Regional Representative Council (DPD) and nearly 20,000 members of local legislatures in 548 provinces, districts and municipalities.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo appeared headed for a second term in office late Wednesday after tens of millions voted across the sprawling archipelago-nation in a democratic exercise billed as the largest direct election ever held.
The 57-year-old former furniture salesman from Central Java took at least 55 percent of votes with more than 97 percent of sample votes counted, according to projections known as "quick counts" by five independent polling organizations.
But his rival, former army Gen. Prabowo Subianto, also declared victory Wednesday night, in a repeat of events that followed the 2014 election. Prabowo eventually conceded a narrow loss to Jokowi after a challenge in the Constitutional Court failed.
Official results are not due until May but quick counts have proven reliable in past elections.
"Based on the results of quick counts by credible pollsters, it appears that I and Ma'ruf Amin are trusted by the Indonesian people to be president and vice president for the period of 2019-2024," said a statement issued late Wednesday by his campaign, quoting the incumbent.
Jokowi supporters paraded around the Hotel Indonesia roundabout in central Jakarta after the announcement, despite warnings against victory marches issued by government officials on Monday.
Opinion polls before voting day consistently showed Jokowi with a comfortable two-digit lead over Prabowo.
The former general said he had "real numbers" from his own poll monitors showing him with 62 percent of the vote.
"Based on the real count, we are in the position of 62 percent. This is the real count, from 320,000 polling stations, or about 40 percent. I have been told by statisticians that this won't change," Prabowo said at his house in South Jakarta, in remarks broadcast on TVOne.
"I will be a president for all Indonesians. Those who supported 01, I will still defend you. We will develop an Indonesia that is victorious, an Indonesia that is prosperous, an Indonesia that is peaceful, an Indonesia that is respected by the world, an Indonesia where no one is hungry," said the 67-year-old former son-in-law of late dictator Suharto, referring to the ballot designation for Jokowi and his running mate, Ma'ruf.
At the end of his remarks Prabowo shouted Allahu Akbar (God is Great) and Merdeka! (Freedom) three times. Then he knelt and kissed the ground, although similar gestures in 2014 were ridiculed by Indonesians on Twitter afterwards.

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Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto shows his ink-stained finger after casting his vote in Bogor, West Java, April 17, 2019. (Reuters)

Election day
About 80 percent of 190 million eligible Indonesians voted at some 800,000 polling stations across the country, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Jakarta think tank.
Over a six-hour span voters were electing a president, 575 members of the House of Representatives (DPR), 136 members of the Regional Representative Council (DPD) and nearly 20,000 members of local legislatures in 548 provinces, districts and municipalities.
Jokowi and his wife cast their ballots at midday in Gambir, Central Jakarta. He declined to speculate on the outcome, asking voters to be patient, and said he was going home to play with his grandchildren.
Prabowo, for his part, hinted that his supporters might act out if the election was not fair.
"We hope and we pray today's election will be fair and peaceful. It will be peaceful if it's fair," he said after voting in Bogor, south of Jakarta.
"In a football competition, if the referee is not neutral, the losing team will not be happy ... It has been proven time and again that my supporters are always orderly and peaceful. But we don't want to be cheated."

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An election worker displays a ballot before handing it to President Joko Widodo at a polling station in Gambir, Central Jakarta, April 17, 2019. (Keisyah Aprilia/BenarNews)

'Mind-boggling'
As polling stations opened in stages across Indonesia, election workers sang the national anthem, swore an oath, and counted blank ballots in front of election monitors before voting could begin.
Noorhayatin, 61, arrived at a polling station in East Jakarta at 6 a.m. to avoid lines.
"I hope with this election Indonesia can have security and justice ... and can choose a president who is trustworthy and able to create a prosperous society," she told BenarNews.
Hours after polls opened, ballots had not still been delivered to polling stations in Wamena and Jayapura, two cities in easternmost Papua province, local reporters told BenarNews.
Mama Yuliana, a resident of the provincial capital of Jayapura, rushed home disappointed after trying to vote early in the day.
"I didn't cook this morning, the family has not eaten, I've already queued at the polling station, but officials say there are no voting materials. This is the most chaotic election we've participated in," she said.
The Lowy Institute, an independent and nonpartisan think-tank based in Sydney, described the scale of the vote in the neighboring country to the north – Southeast Asia's largest democracy – as unprecedented.
"It will be [the] world's biggest direct presidential elections (because the U.S. uses an electoral college) and one of the most complicated single-day elections in global history," according to a recent article in the Interpreter, a daily publication produced by the institute.
"[T]he scale of Indonesia's electoral process is mind-boggling, with five separate elections at once, for the president, both houses of parliament, provincial legislatures and district/city councils," it added, noting that the 2019 parliamentary elections in India, the world's most populous democracy, were being staged in phases over six weeks in April and May.

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Jakarta residents watch election workers counting votes under a bridge in North Jakarta, April 17, 2019. (Keisyah Aprilia/BenarNews)

Concerns
The run-up to the Indonesian election, however, was not entirely seamless.
Workers delivering election supplies across the far-flung archipelago struggled with bad weather and remote locations.
During a three-day campaigning blackout period that preceded Wednesday's vote, a member of the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) announced that his group had received 25 complaints about vote buying in 13 provinces.
Bawaslu, which oversees the General Election Commission, had voiced concerns throughout the campaign about efforts to buy votes.
In March, a legislative candidate in Central Java was arrested on suspicion of vote buying, with investigators saying they had seized 8 billion rupiah ($565,000). The cash was parceled out in envelopes and allegedly intended to be distributed to voters at dawn on Election Day.
In addition, Bawaslu officials on April 11 reported finding 40,000 to 50,000 ballots in Malaysian warehouses, with many pre-marked for Jokowi and for legislative candidates in the National Democratic Party, a member of the ruling coalition. They called for a repeat of voting by mail in the Malaysian capital, where many Indonesian expatriates live.
Keisyah Aprilia, Arie Firdaus, Nurdin Hasan, John Kambang, Victor Mambor, Anton Muhajir and Almira Wang contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Any post-poll unrest would be dealt with sternly, Indonesia's security minister and military chief both warned on Thursday after opposition candidate Prabowo Subianto rejected unofficial counts indicating that incumbent Joko "Jokowi" Widodo had won the presidential election.
Tensions rose after Prabowo claimed victory late Wednesday, hours after polls closed across the country, despite quick counts by at least five independent pollsters showing Jokowi leading with 54 percent of the votes, compared to 46 percent for his challenger.
"We will not tolerate and will take stern action against attempts to disturb public order or unconstitutional acts that undermine the democratic process," Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto, the nation's armed forces chief, told a news conference.
Security affairs minister Wiranto, who uses only one name, said a turnout of nearly 81 percent gave the election winner "strong legitimacy."
Despite the competing claims, Wiranto assured the public that soldiers and police could deal with any threat to national security.
"We appeal to member of the public to remain calm and refrain from engaging in anarchic acts," he said.
Jokowi, who claimed victory in a statement late Wednesday, called for calm and said he had confidence in the accuracy of the quick counts.
"But we are still waiting for the official count from the KPU," Jokowi, 57, told reporters on Thursday, using the acronym for the General Election Commission, which is required to release official results by May 22.
He also said he had sent an aide to meet with the Prabowo camp to talk about reducing tensions.
But Prabowo remained defiant, claiming victory once again on Thursday.
He said his claim was based on his campaign team's own counts that showed him winning 62 percent of the vote in more than 320,000 polling stations.
"We are declaring our victory early because we have proof that there have been various attempts at fraud in many villages, sub-districts, districts, regencies, and cities across Indonesia," Prabowo told a news conference at his south Jakarta house.
Prabowo, a 67-year-old former army special forces commander, was accompanied by his running mate, Sandiaga Uno, and former national assembly chief Amien Rais. The duo were not seen when Prabowo first claimed victory Wednesday night.
Nevertheless, Prabowo urged his supporters to remain peaceful. "We urge our supporters not to be complacent and refrain from acting excessively," he said.
"We will be a president and vice president for all Indonesians, for the glory of our beloved Indonesia," he said, ending his speech with cries of Allahu akbar, the Arabic phrase for "God is great."
Jokowi, meanwhile, said Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, as well leaders from 10 other countries had congratulated him on the peaceful elections.
Representatives of other countries also offered their congratulations.
"This is an interesting experience for me and in my opinion everything went smoothly. It was well organized," a representative of the Japanese Embassy, ​​Miki Nakata, said in a statement received by BenarNews.
Quick counts, which have been accurate in previous elections, also showed that Jokowi's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) was likely to win the parliamentary elections – which were also held on Wednesday – with almost 20 percent of the votes.
Prabowo's Gerindra party was in second place with nearly 13 per cent of the votes, according to quick counts.

About 80 percent of 190 million eligible Indonesians voted at some 800,000 polling stations across the country, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Jakarta think-tank.

Voters were electing a president, 575 members of the House of Representatives (DPR), 136 members of the Regional Representative Council (DPD) and almost 20,000 members of local legislatures in 548 provinces, districts and municipalities.
Papua residents join vote
Seven districts in Papua conducted voting on Thursday after more than 1,000 polling stations failed to provide ballot papers on time, officials said Thursday.
More than 160,000 people were expected to cast their votes in 744 polling stations in South Jayapura and Abepura Districts in the regency of Jayapura.
"Twenty-two regencies had held elections. Only 20 districts in seven regencies conduct the make-up election," Theodorus Kossay, chairman of the Papua Province General Election Commission, told BenarNews.
He said bad weather had delayed the distribution of election-related materials.
Papua Gov. Lukas Enembe said he was disappointed with the election commission. He was one of many voters who arrived to cast his vote on Wednesday in the provincial capital Jayapura, only to find out that the ballots had not arrived.
Victor Mambor in Jayapura, Indonesia contributed to this story.


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BENARNEWS- Officials in Indonesia said Tuesday they were urging Malaysia's public prosecutors to appeal a high court's acquittal of a woman accused of fatally abusing an Indonesian maid and forcing her to sleep outside with a dog last year.
Domestic worker Adelina Lisao, 21, was rescued in February 2018 after she was found sleeping outside her employer's house in Bukit Mertajam in the Malaysian state of Penang. She suffered wounds to her face, hands and legs and died of organ failure at a hospital the next day.
Her employer, Ambika M.A. Shan, was charged with murder and could have faced the death penalty if convicted, but Malaysia's High Court in Penang acquitted her on Thursday without stating a reason.
"We have conveyed our hope that the prosecutor will appeal the verdict," said Lalu Muhammad Iqbal, the foreign ministry's director for the protection of Indonesian overseas workers.
"Because this is a criminal case, it's the public prosecutor versus the defendant. Only the prosecutor can appeal so we can only ask the prosecutor to appeal," he told BenarNews, adding that the Indonesian government respected the Malaysian legal system.
"The Malaysian attorney general is still investigating the decision. We hope that there will be a result soon," he said.
Iqbal said the ministry's goal was for Adelina's family to get justice, adding it was shocked by the court's decision.
"At the time of the verdict, a number of key witnesses had not been heard," he said.
Police and other officials rescued Adelina 14 months ago after authorities received a complaint from a neighbor, local councilman Joshua Woo Sze Zeng said at the time.
Woo Sze Zeng said he found the maid sleeping in the house's carport and suffering from the wounds. She was made to sleep for almost two months on a mat where a Rottweiler was tied up nearby, according to a neighbor.
Police arrested Ambika, 61, and her two children shortly after Adelina was removed from their house.
Ambika's lawyer, Anbananthan Yathiraju, said the court's decision was proper because Adelina had told hospital staff she had not been abused but had come in contact with "chemicals" while cleaning the toilet, Free Malaysia Today reported.
"There is nothing sinister about the acquittal. The accused was acquitted in accordance with the law," he said.
Meanwhile, Indonesian activist Sarah Lerry Mboik said she was holding out hope for justice. She represents Adelina's mother, who lives in a remote part of East Nusa Tenggara province.
"She was just a poor girl who sought a living for her family in her village, but she never received any pay. Just because she was poor doesn't mean she doesn't deserve justice," the People's Development Initiative and Advocacy Foundation activist told BenarNews.
"I hope there's still justice for Adelina. I hope human rights advocates there can further bring this case to light, which stems from human trafficking. Adelina was a victim," she said.
Malaysian support
The Indonesian government's call for an appeal is supported by Steven Sim, who represents the Bukit Mertajam constituency in Malaysia's parliament, and by Tenaganita, a Malaysian group advocating for the rights of women and migrants.
Sim said he contacted Attorney General Tommy Thomas, and Thomas vowed to personally investigate the case.
"I trust the AG and the legal system will uphold justice," Sim said in a statement.
Sim went on to say that Malaysia needed better laws for migrant workers because human rights must be protected for everyone.
"What is more important, we have to ensure such tragedy will not repeat [itself] in this country ever again," he said.
Tenaganita took aim at the court system.
"We are extremely shocked and shaken by the High Court's decision. We cannot imagine the unbearable grief of Adelina's family," Tenaganita said in a statement. "The attorney general's office needs to explain why the prosecution has failed to bring justice for Adelia when there was substantive evidence in this case."
Domestic workers in Malaysia have been victims of verbal and physical abuse committed by employers and such ill-treatment was prevalent because of the lack of legal protection for them.
Victims who free themselves from abusive and exploitative work by running away are inadvertently punished by authorities under the Immigration Act because they become undocumented, Tenaganita said.
It said an online petition launched Sunday had collected more than 12,000 responses.
An Indonesian labor rights group also condemned the high court action.
"Migrant Care urges the Indonesian government to protest and appeal the decision by collecting testimony and evidence that can overturn the decision," Migrant Care Executive Director Wahyu Susilo told BenarNews.
Abuse of domestic workers widespread
Shortly after Adelina's death, The Straits Times reported that 250,000 women, mostly from Indonesia and the Philippines, worked as maids in Malaysia.
The Singapore-based newspaper reported on abuses against domestic workers dating back more than a decade.
Among those was a case in 2004, when a 20-year-old was "tortured by her employer with a hot iron," a case from 2010, when a 26-year-old maid was beaten with a belt, her back scalded with boiling water and her breasts pressed with a hot iron," and a case in 2016 when a 19-year-old was unrecognizable because of "injuries she sustained, after she was assaulted by her employer daily."
Tenaganita reported handling 120 cases involving abused foreign workers from June to December 2017. Of those cases, 82 were women and most of them worked as maids.


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BENARNEWS- Opposition accusations that massive and systematic cheating marred the April 17 Indonesian elections were false and designed to delegitimize results, the security affairs minister said Wednesday, emphasizing that the nation's electoral oversight bodies were independent and endorsed by parliament.
Opposition presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto has rejected unofficial vote results through so-called quick counts by at least five independent pollsters, and claimed widespread attempts at fraud. The counts showed incumbent Joko "Jokowi" Widodo leading with 54 percent of the vote in the presidential election, which was held simultaneously last week with legislative and regional polls across Southeast Asia's largest country.
On Tuesday, Prabowo campaign spokesman Dahnil Anzar Nasution alleged that election fraud was not only "systematic, massive and structural, but also brutal."
Security Affairs Minister Wiranto rejected the latest allegations, saying the General Election Commission (KPU) was an independent institution whose members were appointed by Indonesia's House of Representatives (DPR).
"It never crossed the government's mind to interfere with the KPU and Bawaslu (the Election Supervisory Agency), let alone engaging in a systematic, massive and structural conspiracy in favor of one particular candidate," Wiranto told a news conference in Jakarta.
"The accusations are very tendentious, false, slanderous and baseless and are only intended to delegitimize the government, the KPU and the Bawaslu as election organizers," he said.
Official results of the presidential and parliamentary elections are expected to be announced by the KPU in late May.
"The KPU and Bawaslu are independent, not tied to any institution so they are not controlled by the government."
Over the weekend, a member of the Prabowo team, Said Didu, accused the government of mobilizing officials and workers at state-owned companies across the country to support Jokowi in the election.
On Wednesday, a crowd of pro-Prabowo demonstrators rallied in front of the Bawaslu office in Central Jakarta, demanding the agency declare the election as fraudulent.
Post-election tensions have prompted police to beef up security in the Indonesian capital, with armored vehicles and members of the Mobile Brigade anti-riot police on stand-by in several locations, including shopping malls in the wealthy and mainly ethnic Chinese area of Kelapa Gading.
Members of the ethnic Chinese minority were often targeted during past social unrest in Indonesia.
"Because there's a shortage of personnel in Jakarta, we have deployed members from other regions," national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo told BenarNews, without revealing the number of reinforcements.
"We are anticipating all eventualities," he said.
'People Power'
In March, Amien Rais, a former national assembly speaker and a figure who played a key role in the downfall of President Suharto in 1998, threatened to mobilize "people power" if the April 17 elections were not fair.
"There wouldn't be any bloodshed because it would be people power," he said at the time.
Amien is the chief patron of the National Mandate Party, a member of the coalition that supported Prabowo.
But a spokesman for the Prabowo campaign, Andre Rosiade, said his camp would not take any unconstitutional measures to challenge electoral results.
He criticized the security measures taken by police as excessive.
"It is as if the situation was not safe. It doesn't look good in the eyes of the international community," Andre said.
Last week, Wiranto and Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto, the country's armed forces chief, warned that any post-poll unrest would be dealt with.
"We will not tolerate and will take stern action against attempts to disturb public order or unconstitutional acts that undermine the democratic process," Hadi said.
Meanwhile, the Jokowi campaign said the incumbent had a 10-percentage point lead in the official preliminary count, with votes from another 22 percent of the more than 800,000 polling stations having been counted.
Campaign spokeswoman Irma Chaniago accused the Prabowo camp of making "one-sided claims."
"We are grateful that candidate number 1 is still leading the actual vote count conducted by the KPU," she said in a statement, referring to Jokowi's numerical designation on the ballot.
Nearly 81 percent of 190 million eligible Indonesians voted in last week's polls, according to the government.

Voters elected a president, 575 members of the House of Representatives (DPR), 136 members of the Regional Representative Council (DPD) and almost 20,000 members of local legislatures in 548 provinces, districts and municipalities.


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BENARNEWS- At least 225 Indonesian polling station workers and 16 police officers died mainly from exhaustion when the world's largest Muslim-majority nation held its simultaneous presidential, legislative and local elections last week, officials said Thursday.
The stunning death toll prompted calls for the legislative and presidential elections to be held separately, as April 17 marked the first time that Indonesians voted for all offices in a single day.
"This is higher than the overall death toll of 150 during the 2014 elections" when the legislative and presidential elections were held three months apart, KPU commissioner Evi Novida Ginting Manik told BenarNews.
"The majority of deaths were reportedly due to exhaustion resulting from heavy workload," she said, adding 1,470 other workers were stricken ill.
Almost 81 percent of 192 million eligible Indonesians voted in last week's polls, electing a president, 575 members of the House of Representatives, 136 members of the Regional Representative Council and almost 20,000 members of local legislatures in 548 provinces, districts and municipalities, officials said.
More than 7 million workers were deployed nationwide and 245,000 candidates participated, according to the elections commission.
National police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said only eight officers died during the 2014 election period.
"Exhaustion is the main cause, resulting from working long hours," Dedi told reporters.
The commission has proposed compensation of up to 36 million rupiah ($2,500) for surviving families and up to 30 million ($2,100) each for those suffering permanent disability.
While results have not been declared official, incumbent President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has claimed victory based on the results of quick counts that showed him with a 10-percentage point lead over challenger Prabowo Subianto.
The Australia-based Lowy Institute, an independent and nonpartisan think-tank, described the vote as the "world's biggest direct presidential elections (because the U.S. uses an electoral college) and one of the most complicated single-day elections in global history."
"[T]he scale of Indonesia's electoral process is mind-boggling, with five separate elections at once, for the president, both houses of parliament, provincial legislatures and district/city councils," it said, noting that the 2019 parliamentary elections in India, the world's most populous democracy, were being staged over six weeks in April and May.
2013 ruling
A 2013 Constitutional Court ruling in favor of a citizens group's petition demanding simultaneous elections on cost-saving grounds led to the one-day vote on April 17.
Titi Anggraini, executive director of the Association for Elections and Democracy, expressed hopes that the executive branch and the parliament would review the simultaneous elections.
"Because the scheme is very unreasonable in terms of workload. This is beyond a person's normal work capacity," Titi told BenarNews, while proposing national legislative election be held separately from the elections for provincial and municipal councils.
Legislator Ahmad Riza Patria said the parliament would conduct a review.
"As this was the first time the elections were held simultaneously, we have a lot of evaluation to do," Ahmad Riza told the Detik.com news website.
Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko said he is open to separate legislative and presidential elections, but there should be discussions with parliament leaders.
"This is a political issue. It cannot be discussed at the policy level," Moeldoko said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia next weekend plans to sink dozens of foreign boats that were seized after straying illegally into its waters, including many vessels from Vietnam, the fisheries minister said Monday amid fresh maritime tensions between Hanoi and Jakarta near the South China Sea.
Also on Monday, Indonesia's foreign ministry said it summoned Hanoi's deputy ambassador after the Indonesian navy claimed that two Vietnamese coast guard vessels had rammed one of its naval ships patrolling against illegal fishing near Indonesia's Natuna Islands.
Indonesia on Saturday will resume its practice of sinking confiscated foreign vessels, Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti said.
"On the 4th (of May) we will be sinking 51 boats, mostly from Vietnam," Susi said Monday via Twitter.
This past Saturday, an Indonesian naval ship, the KRI TPD-381, was chasing a Vietnamese trawler suspected to be fishing illegally in the North Natuna Sea, when the Vietnamese coast guard ships engaged in dangerous maneuvers, Indonesia's navy said.
"This morning the deputy ambassador of Vietnam was summoned to the foreign ministry," Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir told reporters.
"Indonesia deeply regrets the incident involving the Vietnamese fisheries surveillance ships KN-213 and KN-264 and the Indonesian Navy KRI TPD-381 vessel," he said.
The actions of the Vietnamese government-owned vessels endangered the safety of Indonesian naval personnel and violated international law, Arrmanatha said.
It was not the first incident involving a naval ship and Vietnam's fisheries surveillance ships in the area.
In February, the navy also expelled two Vietnamese government-owned ships from Indonesia's exclusive economic zone (EEZ) after they showed hostile intent, minister Susi said at that time.
Since 2014, when Indonesian President Joko Widodo's government began fighting suspected marine poachers, at least 488 foreign boats accused of illegal fishing, including 276 Vietnamese-flagged vessels, have been sunk, after crewmen had been removed, according to the Ministry of Fisheries.
Incident at sea
Saturday's clash at sea began when the crew of the naval ship was about to arrest 12 Vietnamese fishermen suspected of fishing in Indonesian territory, said Adm. Yudo Margono, Indonesia's Navy Fleet 1 commander.
"It turned out that a vessel operated by the 'Vietnam Fisheries Resources Surveillance' tried to obstruct the law-enforcement process," he said, calling the move a provocation.
He said the Vietnamese coast guard ship struck the left side of the Indonesian vessel and also hit the fishing boat, which eventually capsized.
A video released by the Navy on social media showed the Vietnamese vessel ramming into the Indonesian warship. Indonesian navy crewmen who were armed with rifles could be heard shouting expletives toward the Vietnamese boat.
Yudo said 12 crew members of the Vietnamese fishing boat were subsequently arrested. They would face trial on charges of illegal fishing, he said.
Two other crew members jumped into the water and were rescued by one of the Vietnamese coast guard boats, he said.
Yudo called on navy personnel to exercise restraint in facing similar incidents.
"We should not be reckless," he said, referring to the Vietnamese coast guard, as he underscored that the action taken by the Indonesian navy had been according to procedure.
Muhammad Arif, a South China Sea researcher at The Habibie Center, a Jakarta based NGO promoting human rights and democratization of Indonesian society, said frequent clashes involving naval patrol ships and foreign vessels the North Natuna Sea were partly due to unfinished negotiations on the maritime delimitation in the area.
"Negotiations on a few spots in the North Natuna Sea with Vietnam have not been completed," he said.
"Such clashes are common but if this keeps happening tensions will increase and it could undermine stability in the ASEAN region," he said.
 
Indonesia, meanwhile, is developing the so-called Integrated Marine and Fisheries Center in the North Natuna Sea in the far southern reaches of the South China Sea, as it seeks to assert sovereignty amid claims of overlapping rights by China.
In 2016, navy patrols confronted Chinese fishing boats in waters off the islands at least three times, as the government increased its crackdown on illegal fishing.
Indonesia accused the Chinese of fishing within Indonesia's EEZ. China responded by calling the waters traditional fishing grounds and said there were overlapping "maritime rights and interests" in the area.
Tensions between China and its neighbors have risen as the superpower has sought to assert its control of the South China Sea in the face of competing territorial claims from countries in the region.
China claims most of the sea as its own, while Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei have overlapping claims.
Indonesia is not a party to the maritime dispute but it has recently asserted its claim by unveiling in July 2017 an updated national map in which the country's northern reaches – the area north of the Natuna Islands – had been renamed the North Natuna Sea and part of its EEZ.
That area had previously been marked in Indonesian maps as South China Sea.
In December, the Indonesian military also inaugurated an integrated unit in the Natunas to ward off illegal fishing and strengthen security.
The unit, composed of a few hundred personnel including members of army engineering corps, will be equipped with a surface-to-air missile defense systems, the military said. Other facilities include a port, a hangar to support military aircraft and a hospital.
In the future, the unit will become part of Indonesia's Regional Defense Joint Command and will include army, air force and navy personnel, officials said.
An earlier version incorrectly identified the organization associated with Muhammad Arif, a South China Sea researcher.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian police and military members should guard against women taking a more active role in potential terrorist attacks by Muslim extremists – as seen in Surabaya in 2018 and in Sri Lanka earlier this month – a Jakarta-based think tank said in a report published Monday.
Suicide bombings carried out in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday underscore that Indonesia has not had to not face coordinated attacks that kill hundreds of people, the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) said in opening its report.
"Indonesia has been lucky thus far that its terrorists generally have had too little experience to think big. With a little imagination and better leadership, these pro-ISIS cells could do far greater damage," IPAC said, using another acronym for the Islamic State (IS).
The report, "The Ongoing Problem of Pro-ISIS Cells in Indonesia," described Indonesia as fortunate to have had "such low-caliber terrorists and high-caliber counter-terrorism police."
Local militant groups, like the one blamed for the April 21 attacks in Sri Lanka, have not been discouraged by IS defeats in the Middle East, but have been emboldened to wage war at home, IPAC reported.
Indonesian officials, meanwhile, have weakened efforts by militant groups through a wave of arrests since the May 2018 suicide bombings of churches and a police station in Surabaya, the report said. Those attacks in the capital of East Java province involved whole families – men, their wives and children in launching suicide bomb attacks. Twelve civilians were killed.
Many of the arrests since then targeted the nation's largest pro-IS coalition, Jamaah Ansharul Daulah (JAD), "damaging the structure but leaving behind several territorial units that remain determined to act on their own," IPAC said.
"Many of these ad-hoc cells in Indonesia have been hampered by geographic dispersal of members, if they were formed online, and by a general absence of any vetting, training or indoctrination procedures, let alone security precautions."
'A broader phenomenon'
The report also pointed to a potential link between Surabaya and a more recent incident in Sibolga involving Indonesian female suicide bombers, and a Sri Lankan woman who blew herself up shortly after the Easter Sunday attacks.
The Sri Lankan woman, who was the wife of one of the suicide bombers, killed herself, her children and police officers who entered her family's home shortly after the April 21 attacks.
Islamic State claimed responsibility for the Sri Lankan attacks, which were carried out by members of a local pro-IS Muslim extremist group, according to news reports. The bombings killed about 250 people at churches and hotels in three cities in the island-nation.
"Surabaya now seems to have been an inspiration for Sibolga, and the involvement of the Sri Lankan woman suggests this could now be a broader phenomenon," the report states.
In March, the wife of a suspected Indonesian militant detonated a bomb, killing herself and her child in Sibolga city in North Sumatra province after police surrounded her house a day after arresting her husband.
Following the attacks in Sri Lanka, a spokesman said Indonesian police were on alert and tracking potential terrorists throughout the country.
"We have been mapping and profiling sleeper cells in all parts of Indonesia by continuously monitoring the movements of these groups," spokesman Dedi Prasetyo told BenarNews.
Recommendations
The IPAC report offered a series of recommendations, with two focusing specifically on women.
The first calls for better programs for pro-IS women detainees. It said 15 women, including some involved in violent acts, were in custody.
"Understanding the backgrounds and motivations of these women is essential for preparing a more targeted rehabilitation program, and they themselves may have ideas about prevention strategies," the report stated.
The report also called for more women to be recruited and trained as members of the counter-terrorist unit Densus 88, including in its intelligence unit.
"The percentage of women in the police more generally remains woefully low, just over 8 percent."
IPAC pointed out that the Sri Lankan attacks showed that IS had identified Christians and Jews as enemies and had encouraged attacks against them.
What happened in Sri Lanka could increase the lure of such attacks by IS supporters in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation.
"The existence of small cells also means that sooner or later, one of them is likely to think of copying the kind of attack that has taken place elsewhere but that to date has not been tried in Indonesia: a truck attack; a random stabbing of a foreigner; a mall shooting. It is easy to dismiss the competence of Indonesian terrorists, but as long as they continue to subscribe to ISIS ideology, they remain a serious threat," the report concluded.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's renewed interest in moving the national capital away from traffic-clogged Jakarta drew a variety of responses Tuesday, with many citizens infusing their comments with cautious excitement.
Explaining it was necessary for the nation's "long-term interests," Jokowi said Monday that plans were afoot to move the capital to a new location, away from the nation's most populous island, Java.
The government needed to "think in a visionary way for the progress of this country and moving the capital requires thorough and detailed preparation," the president told members of his cabinet.
Later, he told reporters that officials were considering Sumatra and Sulawesi islands, as well as Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo), as prospective sites for the country's new capital.
"We haven't decided yet. We have to study further even though for the past three years we have been working on it," Jokowi said Tuesday.
The news dominated conversations among Indonesians on social media, with some expressing skepticism because other presidents had publicly mooted the idea of moving the capital, but never took concrete action.
"The idea was also put forward by previous presidents, usually after Jakarta was hit by flooding. But once the floods subsided, they stopped talking about it," said Nirwono Joga, an urban planning expert at Trisakti University.
He was alluding to last week's flash floods that inundated some parts of Jakarta. The floods killed two people and displaced thousands of others.
"Seeing the pattern, I don't think the government is serious," Nirwono told BenarNews.
"It has always been the same thing: New president means new policy," he said. "Who can guarantee that after Jokowi leaves office in five years his successor will follow up on the construction of the new city?"
A preliminary official count after the April 17 presidential election showed Jokowi on track for a second and final five-year term, with 56 percent of the votes.
His rival, former Gen. Prabowo Subianto, was at 44 percent. Official results are expected to be announced on May 22.
On Monday, National Development Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said that traffic congestion, frequent floods and land subsidence caused by uncontrolled ground water extraction were the main considerations for the move.
About 40 per cent of the capital, home to about 30 million people, is now below sea level and by 2050, the entire North Jakarta area will be submerged, according to experts.
Economic losses caused by the city's traffic jams are estimated at 100 trillion rupiah (U.S. 7 billion) annually, Bambang said.
Moving the capital could take 10 years, citing the experience of countries such as Malaysia and Brazil, and would cost up to U.S. $33 billion, he said.
Palangkaraya: 'Already too crowded'
The city of Palangkaraya on the Indonesian part of Borneo island has frequently been considered as the country's future capital. Founding President Sukarno had also considered Palangkaraya for the country's administrative and political center.
But one Palangkaraya resident expressed doubts on the prospect.
"We in Palangkaraya feel that the city is already too crowded. What's going to happen when it becomes the capital? When the government moves here, people will also follow," said Muhammad Ramadani, a 20-year-old university student.
"We native people will be marginalized," he told BenarNews.
Wasisto Raharjo Jati, a political analyst at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, said it was too early to say whether the Jokowi government would act on the plans.
"Whether the government is serious or not, we will know from follow-up steps taken after today," Wasisto said.
Wasisto said a move away from Jakarta was long overdue.
"Jakarta is bursting at its seams. There have been studies but there was a lack of commitment, only talk," he said.
A director at the environmental group Walhi, Dimas Hartono, sought to curb people's enthusiasm, saying the government still needed to take into account other aspects, such as social, cultural and environmental issues, in its relocation plans.
"The government should not create new problems, because not only does a relocation involve moving the government, but also thousands of people from different backgrounds," Dimas told BenarNews.
The government must also conduct an environmental feasibility study.
"Kalimantan is vulnerable to annual forest and brush fires every year. Will moving the capital solve the problems or even add to new problems for local communities?" he said.
Since the 1950s government officials have been eyeing Kalimantan as a frontrunner for siting the nation's future capital. Palangkaraya, capital of Central Kalimantan province, has a population of about 240,000, according to the latest available data from a 2014 census.
Danny Hilman Natawidjaja, a scientist at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, said Kalimantan was geologically ideal to support a new capital.
"As far as earthquakes, tsunami and volcanic eruptions are concerned, the Kalimantan region, except the eastern part, is safe. It's far from tectonic plate boundaries and there is no major and active fault line," Danny told BenarNews.
"Jakarta is not safe from earthquakes and tsunami. If a major disaster occurs, the country can be totally paralyzed," he said.
"Second, it's a good idea to have the administrative capital separate from the commercial center. Jakarta is both the commercial and administrative capital."
A necessity
Legislator Utut Adianto said a new administrative and political hub was needed.
He said he had studied cases of capital relocations in Kazakhstan, Myanmar and Brazil, and the results turned out to be positive.
"In Jakarta, we cannot move. There are too many vehicles and people. People have become angry," Utut told BenarNews.
"Now there is only an agreement and mind-set," he said. "Do you want to move the capital? Changing habits is a difficult job."


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BENARNEWS- A court in Indonesia's Papua province convicted and sentenced a Polish national Thursday to five years in prison after finding him guilty of treason for aiding separatist activists in the troubled region.
Jakub Fabian Skrzypski is the first foreigner to be convicted of treason in Indonesia, said one of his lawyers, Latifah Anum Siregar.
Simon Magal, a pro-independence activist with whom Skrzypski communicated, received a four-year jail term. The two stood trial together at the Wamena District Court on charges of treason.
"Jakub is disappointed with the verdict, because he has insisted he is innocent all along," Latifah said, adding that her client would appeal. Prosecutors had sought a 10-year sentence.
Latifah said a mobile phone text conversation where Magal asked about obtaining weapons from Poland for Papuan rebels and Skrzypski's response, "I'll see what I can find," was a basis for the treason charge.
"The communication between Jakub and Simon was considered as evidence of initial steps toward treason," she told BenarNews.
In addition, Skrzypski was accused of meeting with Sebby Sanbom, a spokesman for the West Papuan National Liberation Army, an armed faction of the separatist movement, in neighboring Papua New Guinea, Latifah said.
The defense attorney said testimony did not provide evidence that Skrzypski committed a treasonous act, adding the legal process against him seemed forced and stemmed from unfounded fear of foreigners.
The court, however, did not see it that way.
"The charges of treason have been proven legally and convincingly," Wamena District Court Chief Judge Yajid said, according to Agence France-Presse.
Latifah said the indictment cited Skrzypski's meetings with activists of the West Papua National Committee (KNPB), a non-violent group seeking a referendum on self-determination for Papua, as evidence of his intention to take part in a treasonous act.
Prosecutor Febiana Wilma Sorbu had quoted a civil servant as testifying that KNPB was an unregistered and illegal organization.
"If the KNPB is a banned organization in Indonesia, why was only Jakub arrested for meeting them?" Latifah asked.
Magal's attorney, Aloysius Renwarin, also said there was no evidence that his client had committed treason.
"The eight witnesses presented at the hearings did not explain that Simon was involved in illegal transactions," the attorney said, adding Magal would appeal to the High Court. He asked that Magal be transferred to the provincial capital Jayapura or Timika because the detention facility at the Jayawijaya police headquarters was overcrowded.
Skrzypski was arrested in August 2018 while Simon was arrested the next month.
Sorbu said the prosecution team had not decided whether to appeal for a stricter sentence.
Skrzypski interview
In January, when visited by a BenarNews reporter at Jayawijaya police jail, Skrzypski denied being involved in arms smuggling or propaganda on behalf of Papuan rebels.
"I am not a blogger or filmmaker, journalist or activists. I am not a military trainer and I do not have that background. I am not an arms dealer," Skrzypski told BenarNews on Jan. 9.
He complained of poor conditions in detention.
"The cells are very small and the bathroom is not taken care of. The water is filthy. The detention room is cold and there are mosquitos," he said.
During interrogation, police kept showing a photo of him in Switzerland and one of him shaking hands with someone as evidence, he said.
"What do those photos prove? Are they trying to trap me for some political reason, their own ambition, or personal gain?" he asked.
Foreign media access is restricted in Papua and West Papua, Indonesia's two easternmost provinces, which make up about one-fifth of Indonesia's land mass. The region is one of Indonesia's poorest, with low literacy rates and high rates of infant and maternal mortality.
In early December, a Papuan separatist group claimed responsibility for an attack that left 19 construction workers dead. The victims had been building roads and bridges in remote Nduga Regency.
Ahmad Syamsudin in Jakarta contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- A landowner's plan to build a restaurant complex at one of the sites where hundreds of people died in the 2002 Bali bombings has been held up amid a furore by survivors and relatives of those killed in Indonesia's deadliest terror attack.

Local officials this week temporarily halted the plan to build a multi-story commercial development atop the site where the Sari Club nightclub used to stand in this tropical island popular with tourists. It is now an empty lot but the nightclub was one of the places targeted in the bombings blamed on a local affiliate of al-Qaeda that left 202 people dead, including 88 citizens of neighboring Australia, in October 2002. 

Survivors and relatives of victims say they want the old site to be kept as a peace park in memory of the dead. A memorial to the victims today stands next to the lot where the nightclub stood.

"We hope that the governor [of Bali] can come up with the best solution, because this is not only for victims of the Bali bombings, but also for the world," Theolina Marpaung, a representative of the Isyana Dewata Foundation, which brings together Bali bombing survivors, told BenarNews after a meeting on Thursday with Bali Gov. I Wayan Koster, local investment officials and the Australian Consul General in Bali, Helena Studdert.

The meeting did not yield any agreement because the landowner was not present, Theolina said. Another meeting, which a representative of the property owner was expected to attend, has been scheduled for next week.

A representative from the governor's office said I Wayan Koster during the meeting had proposed a land swap with another site located 1.5 km away (nearly a mile) as a potential solution, but the representative did not elaborate. 

Studdert, the top Australian diplomat in Bali, declined to discuss specifics from Thursday's meeting.

"This is a private negotiation. It has no Australian government involvement. It's just the Bali Peace Park Association and the local foundation wishing to sit down with the owner and have a discussion and we are hopeful that will happen," Studdert told reporters.

It was the right of the local authorities to give a permit for the development, yet it was "deeply distressing if something was built without further consultation," the Australian envoy said.

A ground-breaking ceremony for the development was cancelled on Wednesday, with Bali government officials saying the project would not go ahead until the property owner and members of the Bali bombing victims' association had reached an agreement over it, according to Agence France-Presse.

"The construction plan has been temporarily halted, next week we will facilitate a meeting between the owner and representatives of [the] Bali Peace Park Association [BBPA]," AFP quoted Made Badra, the chief of the Bali tourist agency, as saying. The BBPA is an Australia-based organization that represents survivors of and relatives of the Bali bombings.

Australian PM: Working to resolve issue

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, meanwhile, said Canberra had provided support and funding to establish a peace park on the site in Bali for "remembrance and quiet reflection."

"Our Consul General in Bali has been working tirelessly to resolve this issue," Morrison said via Twitter late Thursday.

"The Australian Government will continue to work with the Indonesian authorities to seek to resolve this issue and ensure the memories and families of all those who were murdered in that shocking terrorist attack are properly respected," Morrison added.

Last week, Peace Park Association Chairman David Napoli told the Sydney Morning Herald that, in 2010, the site owners had set the price of the 800-square-metre block of land at 26 million Australian dollars (U.S. $18.2 million).

"A memorial on the roof is just not feasible. It's an outrageous idea, people with disabilities would have trouble getting up there, no one would see it up there, and the price is unbelievable. It's outrageous," Napoli told the newspaper.

Owners of the site reportedly had demanded 5 million Australian dollars up front for a 100-year lease on the top floor for a memorial.

A representative of the landowner, Lyla Tania, said the owner of the former Sari club had the right to rebuild the place. 

"Now, we want to rebuild it but we are being prevented instead of being severely intervened by the BPPA. What right do they have?" Tania told reporters on Monday.

Relatives of the Sari Club owner were also among the victims of the bombings, and there never was any intention to show disrespect to those who died in the attack, Tania added.

Tania said the plan by the owner, Tjia Tjat Tjoy Woen, called for building a five-story restaurant complex with seating for 353 people at the old Sari site.

A building permit was issued in December last year said Made Agus Aryawan, head of the local investment agency. 

"We, as a public service agency, respect the rights of the landowners and processed [the application for permit] according to procedure," he told BenarNews. 

The bombings 17 years ago were carried out by Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian Muslim extremist group linked with the al-Qaeda international terror network. 

In 2008, the Indonesian government executed Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Mukhlas for their roles in the attacks.

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BENARNEWS- Indonesian police arrested five suspected Islamic State-linked militants who allegedly were planning an attack on a large crowd later this month, and killed another in separate weekend raids on hideouts in Central and West Java, a spokesman said Monday.
The suspects were plotting suicide attacks that included targeting mass gatherings as Indonesians await official results of the April 17 presidential and legislative elections that are due out on May 22, according to national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo.
"They are linked to the JAD (Jamaah Anshaarut Tauhid) group founded by Aman Abdurrahman," Dedi said. "During the raids, we found bomb-making materials which were being prepared."
Aman, a militant ideologue who pledged allegiance to Islamic State (IS) leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was sentenced to death by a Jakarta court last year for his role in a series of terror attacks in Indonesia in recent years.
"They will take advantage of any chaos resulting from the mass mobilization of people by carrying out suicide attacks," Dedi said, adding that the suspects caught in the weekend raids were also plotting to attack a police station in Bekasi's Jati Asih area.
Police raided houses in Bekasi, a West Java city east of Jakarta, and Tegal regency in Central Java on Saturday and Sunday, arresting five people. One of the suspects was identified as Solikin (alias Abu Faisa), 34. Police released only the initials of the four others.
Another suspect, identified as T.P., threw a home-made bomb at the police, forcing officers to shoot and kill him, Dedi said.
Solikin, was the leader and the other suspects are members of a JAD branch in Lampung on Sumatra island and had been monitored since 2014, according to Dedi. He said they were radicalized through social media and learned bomb-making skills from other JAD members.
In 2015, Solikin took part in a JAD meeting in East Java when plans to carry out an attack on Jakarta's central business district were discussed, Dedi said. A bomb and gun attack in Jakarta in January 2016 killed four bystanders and four militants.

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National police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo (right) speaks to reporters in Jakarta, May 6, 2019. [Rina Chadijah/BenarNews]

Targeting election-related protests
Dedi said the group was believed to be planning a suicide attack in Jakarta when supporters of opposition candidate Prabowo Subianto are expected to hold a rally to protest election results later this month. Preliminary counts showed incumbent President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo with a lead of about 10 percentage points over Prabowo, the man he defeated in 2014 for the nation's top office.
"This group wanted to use the election momentum, particularly in Jakarta, and planned to launch attacks during protest rallies that lead to anarchic actions," Dedi said, according to the South China Morning Post. "They were planning suicide bombings and other bomb attacks to trigger other terrorist groups to do the same."
Prabowo, whose supporters include hardline Islamic groups, has claimed that the election was rigged. Muhammad Rizieq Shihab, a hardline cleric who has thrown his support behind Prabowo, has demanded that Jokowi be disqualified.
Meanwhile, Amien Rais, a former national assembly speaker and a figure who played a key role in the downfall of President Suharto in 1998, threatened to mobilize "people power" in response to alleged electoral fraud. Amien is the chief patron of the National Mandate Party, a member of the coalition that backs Prabowo.
On Monday, Security Affairs Minister Wiranto said forces would not hesitate to take firm action against "anyone who breaks the law with the aim to delegitimize election organizers."
"For those who continue with efforts to sow disunity, delegitimize government institutions, spread slander and hate speech, please stop your activities," Wiranto told reporters.
"There's a figure who lives overseas who instigates people every day. That cannot be justified," Wiranto said, in an apparent reference to Rizieq, who is on self-imposed exile in Saudi Arabia to escape a police attempt to question him in a pornography case.
Wiranto warned that the government had the power to take down social media accounts with provocative content.
"If we need to shut them down, we will do it. It's justified for national security," he said.
Doubts from analyst
Dedi said police were prepared for potential attacks.
"Therefore, the anti-terror unit Densus 88 continues to keep tabs on the movement of these groups. We are also keeping an eye on sleeper cells that may carry out acts of terrorism," he said.
Zaki Mubarak, a political analyst, at Syarif Hidayatullah State Jakarta Islamic University, cast doubt on police claims that JAD was planning an attack.
"If they had wanted to, they could have carried out a suicide bombing during anti-Ahok rallies. But it did not happen," he said.
Zaki was referring to protests by conservative Muslims against then-Jakarta Gov. Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, a member of the Chinese Christian minority, in late 2016 and early 2017. They were demanding his prosecution over remarks referring to the Quran that were deemed as offensive to Islam. Zaki cautioned against using the pretext of fighting terrorism to muzzle criticism over alleged electoral fraud.
"People rejecting election results is another matter. It is the job of the police to provide security so that any demonstration can take place peacefully," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's investment chief expressed optimism about the future of China's massive One Belt One Road (OBOR) infrastructure initiative in his country, despite lingering domestic criticism about Beijing's growing economic influence.
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo has made improving Indonesia's dilapidated infrastructure a priority, and during his first term embraced Chinese investment and attended the initiative's 2017 unveiling in Beijing. Multibillion-dollar projects under the OBOR banner in Indonesia feature the construction of a high-speed rail link and dams.
Thomas Lembong, chairman of the National Investment Coordinating Board, said this week he believed that "the Chinese leadership will do whatever it takes to make Belt and Road a success."
"Well, I'm very happy, because it's going in the right direction, as far as I'm concerned," he told foreign correspondents in Jakarta on Wednesday.
Lembong also praised Chinese President Xi Jinping for what he described as "a stunningly humble posture" in responding to criticism about OBOR.
Soon after Indonesia's presidential and legislative elections in April, Lembong accompanied Vice President Jusuf Kalla to the second international OBOR forum in Beijing. Kalla witnessed the signing there of 23 agreements between Indonesia and China, which Jakarta has described as business-to-business deals.
The president who just won reelection – according to unofficial "quick-count" projections by independent pollsters – highlighted his infrastructure push during a major post-electoral speech on Thursday. In it, he announced plans to unveil tougher reforms aimed at boosting the economy, as well as lifting Indonesia to developed nation status by 2045.
"First and foremost is infrastructure. Equal development must be achieved. Without it, don't ever dream of Indonesia progressing to be a country with the world's fourth or fifth economy," Jokowi told the National Development Planning Conference in Jakarta, according to Indonesian news outlet Tempo.
Because he was heading into his second and last term in office due to term limits, he said he was no longer burdened by elections.
"So I will do whatever it takes for the country's sake," Bloomberg quoted him as saying.
Opposition politicians and conservative Muslim groups have accused Jokowi of being too soft on China by opening doors to Chinese investment in Southeast Asia's largest economy and, with it, Chinese workers.
A modern-day Silk Road
OBOR, Chinese leader Xi's signature policy, is an estimated U.S. $1 trillion-plus initiative that stretches across 70 countries. It aims to become a 21st century Silk Road by weaving a network of railways, ports and bridges, linking China with Africa, Europe and Southeast Asia.
Beijing's globe-spanning project has drawn criticism domestically and abroad, amid accusations that China is engaging in a "debt-trap diplomacy" by extending excessive credit with the alleged intention of extracting economic or political concessions from the debtor country.
Economists contend that the initiative forces emerging economies to take on unsustainable levels of debt to fund Beijing-backed projects. They highlight concerns by pointing out that a Chinese state-owned company took over a majority stake in Sri Lanka's Hambantota port after Colombo struggled to repay its loans from China.
In Indonesia, the perceived influx of Chinese workers has spawned criticism and was a key issue during campaigning for the April 17 presidential election. The opposition camp tapped into historic sentiment against the country's ethnic Chinese minority and whipped up fears about eroding sovereignty.
"It can't be denied that the Chinese have built a lot of bridges, dams, factories and other infrastructure in recent years," said Achmad Sukarsono, an analyst at Control Risks, a Singapore-based consultancy.
"These things may not be of high quality, but the Chinese get the jobs done, in places where Japanese and Western investors won't take a second look," he told BenarNews.
"The Jokowi government favors the arrangements with the Chinese because they aren't too legalistic, with less attention paid to things like human rights, as long as they deliver and both sides' interests align," he said.
There were occasional tensions in projects where Chinese nationals are employed as menial workers, foremen and managers, Achmad said.
Economist: Benefit to local economy 'minimal'
Indonesia's infrastructure needs cannot be financed by the state budget alone and OBOR is an attractive financing mechanism, said Bhima Yudhistira, an economist at the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance.
"But Chinese investment often comes with workers, raw materials, machinery and technology, with the pretext that they aren't readily available here. So the benefit to the local economy is often minimal," Bhima told BenarNews.
Despite its embrace of OBOR, the government has insisted that any infrastructure project under the scheme should be profitable and conducted on a business-to-business basis.
Lembong, the Indonesian investment chief, acknowledged that the Jokowi government had "burned untold amounts of political capital" with its decision to welcome Chinese investment.
"Supporting Chinese investment in Indonesia exposes us to this hoax and attacks that we're somehow an offshoot of the Communist Party, or secretly Chinese, or openly Chinese, and or secretly pro-China or what have you," he told reporters.
But Indonesia would miss out tremendously if it abstained from Chinese investment, Lembong said.
"What happens then is that Chinese investment will just go next door, to Malaysia, to Thailand, to Cambodia and eventually Myanmar, maybe even the Philippines at some point, and all of them will see enhanced competitiveness, and we will not," he said.
Sino-Indonesian trade grew almost tenfold from 2003 to 2010 alone, when the volume reached 524 trillion rupiah (U.S. $36.1 billion), according to the International Institute for Sustainable Development, a Canada-based independent think-tank.
China was Indonesia's third largest investor after Singapore and Japan in 2018, with investment worth $2.4 billion.
"The government has said all along that we won't meddle except for facilitating and issuing necessary regulations," said Wijayanto Samirin, an economic adviser to Kalla, the vice president.
"We have learned from the experience of other countries and conveyed to President Xi Jinping that China must respect our independence," he told CNBC Indonesia last April.
Projects
OBOR's flagship project in Indonesia, a U.S. $6-billion high-speed railway linking the city of Bandung in West Java and the capital Jakarta, went through initial setbacks after it was launched by Jokowi in 2016 to much fanfare.
Construction resumed last year after a delay for more than two years.
Lembong blamed the delay on "good old-fashioned mismanagement and incompetence" and said the problems were being fixed and the consortium building the railway was now being led by "a younger and more energetic" chief executive.
"The project has been in difficulty," he said, "but I'm confident it's now being fixed."
A China-backed hydropower project in Indonesia already is under the spotlight amid concerns that it could threaten the world's rarest orangutan species.
The U.S. $1.6 billion hydropower plant in the Batang Toru rainforest on Sumatra Island will divide the habitat of about 800 Tapanuli orangutan and increase the risk of their extinction, environmental groups and scientists have said.
Other OBOR projects include a hydroelectric project in North Kalimantan – in the Indonesian section of Borneo – estimated to cost 363 trillion rupiah (U.S. $25 billion) and a series of coal-fired power plants estimated to cost 174 trillion rupiah (U.S. $12 billion).
Achmad, of Control Risks, said problems in securing land also contributed to the delay in the high-speed train project.
But he said smaller Chinese-backed projects in remote places in the archipelago were mostly completed on time.
Jokowi is expected to continue courting Chinese investments in his second term, Achmad said. An official preliminary count after the April 17 election showed Jokowi poised for a second term with a 10-percentage-point lead.
"The Chinese are here to stay and their role is unlikely to be reduced," he said, "because they have contributed so much to Jokowi's programs."


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BENARNEWS- The 59-year-old had worked non-stop for two days last month as head of a polling place in Indonesia's Sleman Regency, his widow recalled.
Lilik succumbed in a hospital on April 23, one of more than 500 poll officials and police who died of exhaustion or illnesses associated with working long hours in the days before, during and after Indonesia's general election on April 17, according to authorities.
"Before being taken to the hospital, he experienced vertigo and vomiting. He just wanted to lie down," Lilik's wife, Sih Sugiarti, told BenarNews. "He had a history of high blood pressure."
His doctor told Lilik he had a blocked artery, said Sih, a 55-year-old mother of three.
Indonesia, a young democracy and the most populous nation in Southeast Asia, had never staged an election on this scale – presidential, legislative, provincial-level and other polls held at the same time on a single day. The vote was the biggest single-day exercise in democracy held in the history of the world, observers said.
But the unprecedented number of deaths of poll workers and others during a peaceful vote has led to calls to stop holding the elections all together at once across the sprawling archipelago.
The General Election Commission (KPU) said 440 polling station officials had died. And according to the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), another 92 monitors along with 22 police officers died while helping to oversee and safeguard the polls.
The causes of death for 18 people have been determined and included heart attack, stroke, liver disease, respiratory failure and brain infection, Health Minister Nila Moeloek announced on Wednesday.
In addition, at least another 4,300 election workers had to be treated at hospitals, the KPU said.
Medical investigations
An election monitoring team from the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) will investigate the deaths next week, commissioner Beka Ulung Hapsara said.
The team will announce its findings before the official vote count is released on May 22, he said.
"We want to obtain valid data directly from the relevant sources so conclusions are not just based on rumors," Beka told reporters.
Djazuli Ambari, chairman of the Indonesian Red Crescent Society, called for a check of medical histories.
"Medical and forensic audits can contain chronological reports on clinical care of the patients. Complete information obtained from the audit can be a basis for consideration in making regulations for next elections," Djazuli said in a statement to BenarNews.
Ani Hasibuan, a neurologist, said she had conducted independent research and was convinced that exhaustion was not the main cause of the deaths, because younger people were among those who died.
"Physiologically, fatigue rarely causes death, unless a person has an underlying disease. I want it to be investigated. It's not enough for KPU officials to say they died of exhaustion," she told the detik.com news website.
Millions cast ballots
The 550-plus officials and policemen who died on or around Election Day were among some 7 million workers deployed at more than 800,000 polling sites scattered nationwide.
Almost 81 percent of 192 million eligible Indonesians voted on April 17, electing a president, 575 members of the House of Representatives, 136 members of the Regional Representative Council and almost 20,000 members of local legislatures in 548 provinces, districts and municipalities, officials said.
In the presidential race, incumbent Joko "Jokowi" Widodo is poised for a second and final five-year term. He has a 10-point lead over challenger Prabowo Subianto, with about 70 percent of the votes counted, according to unofficial projections of results by independent polling groups.
On Friday, hundreds of Prabowo supporters marched in front of the election supervisory agency office in Jakarta to protest what they called voter fraud. Protestors staged a similar, smaller rally in front of the General Election Commission Office on Thursday.
Participants at Friday's rally included conservative Muslim groups such as the Islamic Defenders' Front and Eggi Sudjana, a politician questioned by police over a speech he made last month, in which he stated that a Prabowo loss would be a sign of fraud.
Jakarta police deployed 10,000 personnel including a mobile brigade to maintain security.
Legislative action
Meanwhile, the deaths of poll workers like Lilik Suswanto have brought about a debate and calls for a review of laws mandating simultaneous elections at various levels.
The hundreds who died in connection with this year's vote eclipsed around 150 deaths of poll workers during the 2014 presidential election, which was held apart from legislative elections.
Legislator Rambe Kamarul Zaman said lawmakers agreed to discuss the issue on May 23.
"I agree that there needs to be a change in the rules and mechanism for elections. We expect to come up with many ideas during the discussion," the Golkar Party lawmaker told BenarNews.
Rambe and fellow legislator Ahmad Baidlowi said issues to be considered would include the use of electronic voting machines and a review of the recruitment process for election workers.
"We will evaluate all aspects, of course, but finger-pointing is not helpful. We must see to it that future elections will be better," he told BenarNews.
The number of deaths over the course of more than two weeks did not exceed the average mortality rate for Indonesia, given that there were more than 7 million election workers, Jesse Grayman, a health sector researcher, wrote on Asia Media Center, a website based in New Zealand.
"In fact, it's much less, as it should be since average mortality rates capture the elderly and sick in the general population who would be dying no matter what, and presumably are not working as election workers," he said.
"Another popular comparison is with the reported deaths of Indonesians who undertake the annual Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, a whole order of magnitude higher with anywhere from 200 to 500 deaths out of around 200,000 Indonesian pilgrims every year," he said.
Back in Sleman, Lilik's widow said she would not sue over her husband's death but hoped the government would keep its promise to provide "condolence money" of 36 million rupiah (U.S. $2,500).
"Hopefully the compensation will be given soon," Sih said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia will aim to push interest-free Islamic banking into the mainstream and boost domestic production of halal (permissible) foods, products and services when the world's most populous Muslim-majority country unveils its first Sharia economic master plan on Tuesday, a government official said.
The plan outlines efforts to grow Islamic economic sectors such as finance, manufacturing, food, fashion and tourism, Muhammad Cholifihani, director of financial services at the National Development Planning Board, told BenarNews.
The Sharia plan will not replace the economic system of the multi-religious country but instead support development through Islamic-friendly programs as a component of the overall economy.
"We aim for improvements in terms of economies of scale, economic independence and our ranking in the Global Islamic Economy Report," Cholifihani said, adding that strengthening small- and medium-sized enterprises was among the goals.
Officials hope that by improving the climate for Islamic finance, the government would attract investment from oil-rich Middle Eastern countries and others, which want to invest in ethically and socially responsible projects, according to the planning board.
Officials did not release the master plan ahead of its unveiling.
The government began promoting Sharia economic development in the 2015-2019 National Medium-Term Development Plan. It included Islamic banking as a foundation.
In 2015, the Indonesian Sharia Financial Architecture (AKSI) roadmap was released, followed the next year by a presidential regulation that paved the way for the creation of the National Islamic Finance Committee (KNKS).
Indonesia ranked 10th in the 2018 State of the Global Islamic Economy report in the category of Islamic finance.
Islamic banking accounted for only 5.7 percent, or 444.43 trillion rupiah ($30.8 billion), of the country's total banking assets, as of June 2018. Cholifihani blamed a shortage of funding and skilled manpower for hampering growth in the financial sector, adding that officials would like to the figure grow to 10 percent.
"Growth is not as massive as in other countries," Cholifihani said.
Halal certification
Cholifihani said the government had adopted a law on halal certification issued in 2014. The law mandates the establishment of a Halal Product Guarantee Agency (BPJPH) as a regulator for halal certification.
While BPJPH was established in 2017, the Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI), a semi-official body of Islamic scholars, has not relinquished its role in handling certifications.
"Such an agency is needed because certification will allow Indonesian halal products to be recognized abroad. We have a food and drug department at MUI, but it's not a government agency and not recognized by the OIC (Islamic Conference Organization)," he said.
"There are 17 industrial sectors including agriculture, manufacturing and services that can be labeled halal. The public will be more comfortable because there is halal certification," Cholifihani said.
"The potential will be large in terms of gross domestic product if we can export. Our trade balance will also improve."
Cholifihani said that lower cost of halal certification for micro, small and medium enterprises would improve their value. Under halal or ethical investment standards, Muslims are prohibited from investing in companies involved with alcohol, tobacco, gambling, pork and weapons.
In 2017 alone, consumption of halal products in Indonesia reached 37.6 percent of the total global consumption estimated at U.S. $2.1 trillion. Most of the goods were not produced in Indonesia, according to officials.
"Globally, Indonesia is not a major producer. In fact, many halal products sold in Indonesia come from (non-Muslim) countries like Thailand," Cholifihani said.  "That is a challenge. We are more consumers than producers."
An alternative
Islamic economics offered an alternative for Muslim- and non-Muslim-majority countries amid global uncertainty, said Greget Kalla Buana, a Sharia finance expert at the United Nations Development Program.
The Islamic finance industry, as part of its own sharia economic ecosystem, has grown 10 percent to 12 percent per year on the global scale and has become one of the fastest growing industrial sectors in the world, he said. Islamic financial assets alone are expected to break $3 trillion by 2020.
"This is just Islamic finance, not including other sharia economic sectors. It is clear that the Islamic economy has enormous potential," Greget told BenarNews.
Sharia economic goals are similar to the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), Greget said.
"Linkage with various aspects of human life as explained through the SDGs make Islamic economics not simply about growth figures, but also the substance behind that growth," he said.
"For example, there is a focus on alleviating poverty, hunger and inequality seen from the moral, material, spiritual, social and environmental dimensions. Sharia economic development is needed to support the attainment of the SDGs," Greget said.
The Islamic economic system could offer more benefits than the conventional one, said Rahmatina Awaliah Kasri, a lecturer in Islamic economics at the University of Indonesia.
"In the banking system for example, the profit-sharing system practiced by Islamic banking institutions is conceptually fairer and more stable than the banking system based on the interest system," Rahmatina told BenarNews, adding the sharia economic system could increase financial inclusiveness.
"There are Muslim groups who don't want to use conventional banking and insurance services because they are considered usurious," she said.
Islamic economic instruments such as zakat (alms) and waqf (endowment) could complement conventional government anti-poverty policies, she said.
In addition, growth in Islamic economic sectors could attract global investors, according to Abra Talattov, an economist at the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance.
"Unless Indonesia takes swift action, it will be left behind, because it's lagging behind even countries whose majority of people are not Muslims," ​​Abra told BenarNews.
"Of course the government also needs to build infrastructure both physically and non-physically," he said.
Abara said Sharia economic systems were not in opposition to the conventional ones.
"In the end people think rationally. If a practice is profitable, people will be interested," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Desmonda Paramartha was horribly injured during suicide bombings by a couple and their children at three churches here a year ago, but the university student says she holds no grudges.
On the anniversary of the coordinated attacks – the first terrorist act carried out by an entire family in Indonesia – Desmonda joined hundreds of people of different faiths during a vigil at one of the churches targeted in the May 13, 2018 bombings.
Together at Surabaya's Santa Maria Immaculate Church on Monday night, Christians and Muslims lit candles and prayed for the dead. Fourteen worshippers died in the attacks linked to the Islamic State (IS) extremist group.
"I have forgiven them for everything," said Desmonda, 21, whose injuries to the back and legs took two months to heal. "What strengthens me is the encouragement from my family, my priest, and friends so I'm able to accept and forgive the perpetrators."
Kurdo Irianto, who served as a priest at the church, said it took five months for the congregation to recover.
"Being together helps us overcome the trauma more easily," he said.
During the vigil members of Indonesia's Christian minority and Muslim majority followed each other's religious customs in praying for peace.
"This is a moment to remind us that last year's events have made us even more united despite our differences. We don't feel alone," said Abigail Susana, a representative of the Surabaya Central Pentecostal Church.
Survivors remain traumatized by the bombings even as they try to move on, she said.
"They don't even have the stomach to see CCTV footage from the time of the incident. We changed the worship schedule from morning to afternoon," she said.
Aan Anshori, an activist with the Gusdurian Network, an Islamic group, was among those who took part in the vigil.
"The May 13 events are a reminder to strengthen our faith, fight against all forms of intolerance and radicalism. We must never allow this atrocity to happen again," he told other participants.
Aan said the attacks had strengthened the bond between religious communities in Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city and the capital of East Java province.
"We have become closer, meet more frequently to exchange ideas and look after each other," Aan told reporters.
Tri Rismaharini, the mayor of Surabaya, welcomed efforts by interfaith communities to maintain harmony in the city.
"We appreciate that and we will fully support it," she said.
 
Sunday attacks
On May 13, 2018, the bombers attacked the Surabaya Central Pentecostal Church, the Santa Maria Immaculate Church and the Indonesian Christian Church.
Dita Apriyanto, who police described as the leader of an East Java cell of Jamaah Anshaarut Daulah (JAD), drove a minivan packed with explosives into a church during Sunday services.
His wife, Puji Kuswati, and their two daughters, ages 9 and 12, set off suicide bombs prior to another church service. Elsewhere, the couple's two sons, ages 16 and 18, blew themselves up at a third church using scooters packed with bombs, police said.
JAD is an Indonesian militant network affiliated with IS, according to authorities.
The next day, another family launched a suicide bomb attack at a police headquarters in Surabaya.
Survivors of Tri Murtiono, who carried out the May 14, 2018, suicide bombing at the police headquarters with his wife and three children, two of whom were killed in the attack, declined to comment. Tri and his family approached the police station on two motorcycles laden with explosives before detonating them, officials said.
The bomber's daughter who survived the blast is being cared for today at a rehabilitation center outside of Jakarta under the supervision of the Ministry of Social Affairs, said Kukuh Santoso, a local neighborhood leader.
"That's what I can say, because the perpetrators' relatives still don't want to accept guests, especially from the media. I have been asked to give information to the media," Kukuh said.
In total, the four attacks killed 24 people, including children who joined their parents in the bombings.


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BENARNEWS- The information technology industry must share responsibility for safeguarding the internet from militancy and radicalism, Indonesia's outgoing vice president told world leaders at a Paris summit focusing on eliminating violent extremism online.
Jusuf Kalla said governments should work with technology companies to implement a code of conduct and improve internet governance in a collective effort to counter the extremist threat in the digital sphere.
"The entire information technology industry bears shared responsibility in making the internet safer and healthier for all," he told the Christchurch Call to Action meeting, co-hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern at the Elysée Palace in Paris on Wednesday.
The vice president was representing the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation and the largest nation in Southeast Asia – where governments have been grappling with Muslim extremism and the threat of online recruitment of young people by Islamic State (IS) and other militant groups.
Indonesia was among nine countries and a host of big tech companies – including Amazon, Facebook, Google and Twitter – that adopted the non-binding Christchurch Call at the end of Wednesday's meeting. Kalla was the only senior Southeast Asian leader at the meeting in the French capital.
The United States did not join the Christchurch Call to Action, citing concerns that the pact could violate free speech protections in the First Amendment, according to media reports.
The summit was named after New Zealand's second largest city, where an Australian-born man suspected to be a white supremacist went on a shooting rampage at two mosques on March 15, killing 51 people, including five Bangladeshis, an Indonesian and a Malaysian.
The suspect, Brenton Tarrant, 28, allegedly live-streamed the shootings on social media. Australian media reported that Tarrant was addicted to violent video games.
"Never have so many countries and tech companies come together in reaction to such an attack to work together to use new technology and develop new technology so our communities are safer," Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand's prime minister, told a post-meeting news conference in Paris, according to The Guardian.
The March 15 attack in her country prompted calls for curbs on violent video games, with Indonesian officials and Muslim leaders considering banning games such as PUBG (PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds).
Indonesia's large youth population
Indonesia, a nation of 260 million people, is a prolific user of social media. Government officials in recent years have warned that terrorist organizations including IS were using such online platforms to spread propaganda and recruit young Indonesians.
In 2017, the Indonesian government agreed with YouTube and Twitter to tighten monitoring by allowing selected users to flag material deemed as being linked to terrorism.
In Paris, Kalla said that more than one third of 150 million internet users in Indonesia were young people vulnerable to exposure to radicalism and violent extremism. Indonesia had a program to engage the help of youths in improving content on the internet.
Since 2015, Indonesia has organized a Youth Ambassadors for Peace program to involve young people in spreading peaceful messages online in the fight to counter extremist and hateful ideas on the internet. The nation has appointed 780 youth ambassadors and this year the program expanded by bringing more than 100 young people from other Southeast Asian countries.
"This approach shows that the internet has become the latest battleground, both in conducting and fighting terrorism," he said. "We must empower our young people."
Kalla, who did not join President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's re-election campaign, will leave office after official election results are announced on May 22. Quick counts following the vote last month showed Jokowi with a sizeable lead over challenger Prabowo Subianto.
On Thursday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir said the Paris meeting showed that international cooperation was needed to fight terrorism.
"It takes a joint effort to prevent extremism and radicalism. One of the messages conveyed at the meeting is that no country that is immune from radicalism," he said.
Meanwhile, a researcher on Islamic radicalism claimed that online recruitment had yet to take off in Indonesia, adding that face-to-face recruitment was relatively unimpeded.
"One of the reasons is that terrorists don't entirely trust online recruitment. This is because it is so easy to falsify one's identity online – men can pretend to be women, or vice versa, and fraudsters and intelligence agents can easily pretend to be fellow jihadists," said Solahudin, a researcher on Islamic radicalism who published a study on the topic on the University of Melbourne's website.
"Law enforcement officials have no legal instruments to act against extremists who hold prayer study groups, even in public," he said. "[Islamic State] supporters still freely hold religious study groups in mosques across the country with little concern about being arrested by authorities."


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian police said Friday they had arrested 29 militant suspects who were allegedly plotting to bomb a political gathering when official full results of the country's general election are announced next week.
The suspects were caught in raids across Indonesia during the past month and were believed to be members of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local militant network affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, national police spokesman Muhammad Iqbal told a news conference in Jakarta.
"They were planning to carry out amalia, or a terrorist act, by attacking a crowd of people on May 22 using bombs," Iqbal said. Next Wednesday, Indonesian election officials are expected to announce complete results of presidential, legislative, regional and municipal polls, which were held in the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation on April 17.
Two of the suspects in custody were veterans of the Syrian conflict who had been deported after learning bomb-making skills in Aleppo, Iqbal said.
The police spokesman said the suspects planned to use remote-controlled explosives to target supporters of opposition presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, who were expected to rally on May 22 against alleged electoral fraud in front of the General Election Commission headquarters.
The suspects hoped to exploit the demonstration and create chaos through a bomb-attack, Iqbal said.
"We don't want this to happen to the crowd. Imagine, if there are only 100 people, how many people will fall victims?" Iqbal told reporters.
"We cannot underestimate it and we continue to work. We don't know for sure if there are still [plotters] out there," he added.
In recent days, the Indonesian government said it was deploying up to 32,000 security personnel in the capital Jakarta to safeguard the official announcement of vote results.
"We cannot underestimate it and we continue to work. We don't know for sure if there are still [plotters] out there," he said.
Also on Friday, the U.S. embassy in Jakarta issued a security alert in connection with the official announcement of Indonesian poll results on May 22.
It advised American citizens "to avoid areas where demonstrations or political rallies are occurring and exercise caution if within the vicinity of any large gathering."
"Indonesian police officials have publicly cited a heightened risk of terrorism in connection with the finalization of election results, and media has reported recent arrests of Indonesians on terrorism charges," said the alert posted on the embassy's website.
Suspects share bomb-plot details
While arresting the suspected JAD members, police seized five homemade bombs, detonators, an air rifle, five bullet caches and a knife from the suspects, according to Iqbal, the national police spokesman.
At Friday's press conference, officials also played a video produced by police in which two of the suspects in custody talked about the terror plot.
"I led a number of brothers to carry out amalia [a terrorist attack] on May 22 by using a remote as there will be a crowd on that day. This will be a good opportunity to carry out an attack because democracy is a major form of polytheism," said one of the suspects, whom police identified as Dedi Yusuf.
Another suspect, who was identified only by his initials, E.Y., said in the video: "[The attack] will be carried out by placing the bombs we have assembled and using a remote control as a detonator."
So far in 2019, the Indonesian police's counter-terrorist force, Densus 88, has arrested at least 60 militant suspects and killed eight others during raids nationwide, Iqbal said.
Security minister: 'We want to prevent a concentration of people'
With more than 80 percent of the votes counted, incumbent President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo was leading with 56 percent in the presidential contest against Prabowo, according to official results through Friday.
But his challenger has vowed to reject the official results and alleged that the election was rigged in Jokowi's favor.
On Thursday, Security Affairs Minister Wiranto urged the police, military and local governments to prevent Prabowo's supporters from leaving for Jakarta to carry out their protest on May 22.
"We want to prevent a concentration of people. Don't let people leave their home towns for Jakarta," Wiranto told reporters.
He tried to assure the public that there was no massive or systematic fraud in last month's polls.
"The election is over and the results are there," Wiranto said.


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BENARNEWS- Newly re-elected Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo promised firm action against rioters on Wednesday after six people died and 200 were injured in overnight clashes in the nation's capital between police and supporters of defeated challenger Prabowo Subianto.
Authorities arrested dozens after anti-riot police lobbed tear gas and fired water cannons to disperse demonstrators outside the Election Supervisory Agency in central Jakarta, officials said. Later in the day, the government imposed restrictions on social media to prevent the spread of fake news, security minister Wiranto told reporters.
"I'm open to cooperating with anyone for the sake of our nation's progress, but I will not tolerate those who seek to undermine the security, democratic process and unity of our beloved nation," Jokowi told a news conference.
"There's no place for rioters who damage our country. The military and police will take firm action in accordance with the law," he said, adding that authorities had placed the volatile situation under control.
Prabowo, a retired army general, on Wednesday urged his supporters to protest peacefully, reiterating his message from a day earlier to those demonstrating against the official results of the April 17 election that were announced Tuesday.
"I call on all parties, citizens who are protesting, the police and the military to refrain from engaging in physical violence and religious leaders and netizens from engaging in verbal provocation," he told reporters.
More than two dozen vehicles were burned in several neighborhoods in central Jakarta as protesters, who alleged that widespread fraud occurred in the election, threw incendiary firebombs known as Molotov cocktails at responding police officers.
"The violence overnight has tarnished our country's reputation and must not happen again," Prabowo said.
As of late Wednesday night and early Thursday morning (local time), there were no reports of fresh outbreaks of poll-related violence, according to local media.
The country's election commission on Tuesday said Jokowi had garnered 55.5 percent of ballots cast in the presidential polls, beating his challenger, Prabowo, for the second time in a row. In the 2014 elections, Jokowi received 53.1 percent of the votes and Prabowo took 46.8 percent.
The official results of last month's balloting, which were announced a day earlier than scheduled amid concerns about mass protests, nearly matched the numbers from "quick count" exit polls from independent pollsters.
Prabowo has refused to concede defeat, telling reporters on Tuesday that he would challenge the results which, he alleged, resulted from massive and systematic fraud.
On Wednesday, protesters outside the Election Supervisory Agency threw water bottles and other light objects at anti-riot police, but officers stood their ground, witnesses said.
The crowd dispersed peacefully before dusk.
Shots were fired
Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan said six people were killed and another 200 suffered injuries in the clashes around midnight on Tuesday.
"As of 9 a.m., six people have died," Anies told reporters outside Tarakan Hospital, adding that the bodies were being kept in several hospitals in the city. He did not provide details on cause of death or whether the fatalities were civilians or police.
Anies urged Jakartans to go about their normal business on Wednesday, saying the violence had been confined to a few streets in the center of the sprawling city.
National police chief Tito Karnavian said the six people died from wounds caused by bullets and blunt weapons.
"People died and we are trying to find out what happened," he said. "In the past week, we have arrested a number of people with weapons intended to create unrest."
Tito said the rioters were a different crowd from those who rallied earlier on Tuesday.
"They deliberately attacked security personnel to provoke rioting," he said, describing the rioters as "thugs."
"We arrested some people and they admitted to being paid," he told a news conference.
Rioters also burned several cars in front of a police dormitory, he said.
Police arrested at least 257 demonstrators after the clashes, Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono said.
"They were arrested because they attacked officers, committed destruction and tried to force their way to Bawaslu (the election supervisory agency)," Argo said.
Police seized firecrackers, bladed weapons, arrows and Molotov cocktails from the protesters, he said.
Police were not using live rounds to deal with the protest, national police spokesman Muhammad Iqbal said.
"It should be known that police are not equipped with live bullets," Iqbal told a news conference. "If anyone used live bullets, they are not police security personnel."
Meanwhile, security affairs minister Wiranto said the government was limiting access to social media, including the popular WhatsApp messaging service, to prevent the spread of what he called "hoaxes."
"There's a scenario to create chaos, spread antipathy and hatred against the government," he said.
Some Indonesian users of WhatsApp said they could send text messages and make calls but were unable to post photos or videos.
Facebook, Instagram and WhatApp are among social media and messaging services affected, said Rudiantara, the communication and information technology minister.
"At this time, people will share a lot of videos and photos. This is harmful," he said.
"We prioritize blocking video and photo features because, even without text, videos can incite emotions. Some people will not be able to download videos or photos," he said.
Analysts: One of worst riots since 1998
Wednesday's unrest was one of the worst in Jakarta since a crippling economic crisis in May 1998 triggered widespread unrest that forced longtime president Suharto to resign, said Medi Kosandi, a political analyst at the University of Indonesia.
"In terms of casualties and the magnitude today was far from 1998. The police are well-prepared to deal with such an event and they have enough personnel to prevent the unrest from spreading," he told BenarNews.
Authorities deployed 40,000 police and soldiers to provide security in the capital during the announcement of election results on Tuesday.
More than 1,000 people died in the riots that occurred 21 years ago throughout Indonesia, mainly in Medan in the province of North Sumatra, in the capital Jakarta and in Central Java province, according to news reports.
Economic issues, including food shortages and mass unemployment, spawned mass protests that spiraled into violence, officials said.


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BENARNEWS- The death toll in two days of clashes between police and supporters of losing presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto rose to eight Thursday, as officials indicated that a group once linked to the Islamic State might have incited the violence.
Violence erupted in Jakarta on Tuesday night after protesters hurled fuel bombs, rocks and firecrackers at police outside the offices of the Election Supervisory Agency in the nation's capital. The demonstrators torched more than two dozen vehicles, police said.
"The latest death toll is eight people," Jakarta Gov. Anies Baswedan told reporters after visiting the scene of the clashes. He said 737 people were taken to hospital with injuries, including at least 79 with serious wounds.
Anies declined to reveal the cause of deaths of the eight fatalities.
Protesters disbanded Thursday morning after an overnight unrest, authorities said.
National police chief Tito Karnavian told reporters Wednesday that he believed the rioting was not spontaneous but incited by what he called "thugs" taking advantage of an otherwise peaceful protest.
Tito hinted that extremists might have been linked to the deaths as he displayed a sniper rifle, two handguns and cash that he said had been seized from suspects, who were paraded wearing jumpsuits during a news conference.
National police spokesman Muhammad Iqbal told BenarNews at least 442 people had been arrested on suspicion of attacking police and damaging property.
He said at least seven demonstrators were killed in the two days of rioting. He did not explain the discrepancy in the figures provided by the governor.

Police also did not say who was behind the killings, but the Jakarta Post quoted city police spokesman Senior Commander Argo Yuwono as saying that four of the fatalities had died of stab wounds.
Iqbal said an investigative team had been set up. He also insisted that the fatalities were rioters.
"They were not there to pray or ply their trade," Iqbal said, adding that security personnel were only equipped with batons, shields and tear gas and no live bullets.
Unrest first broke out Tuesday night after protesters attacked police with rocks and firecrackers, forcing security forces to fire tears gas and water cannons, authorities said.
They had gathered to demand action over claims by Prabowo that the April 17 presidential election was stolen by the government of incumbent President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.
The country's election commission on Tuesday said Jokowi had garnered 55.5 percent of ballots cast in the presidential polls, beating his challenger, Prabowo, for the second time in a row. In the 2014 elections, Jokowi received 53.1 percent of the votes and Prabowo took 46.8 percent.
Police: Two people belonged to IS-affiliated group
Iqbal alleged that two people in custody belonged to a West Java-based group called the Islamic Reform Movement (Garis).
"We have identified two suspects from outside Jakarta who are affiliated with a group called Garis (Gerakan Reformis Islam or Islamic Reform Movement)," he said.
Garis' founder, a cleric named Chep Hernawan, claimed in 2014 that he was the Indonesian head of Islamic State (IS), although he later renounced the terrorist group.
But Iqbal said Garis was affiliated with IS and had sent members to Syria.
"They stated (during questioning) that they intended to wage jihad," Iqbal told a news conference. "This is clear that the protests were infiltrated. They wanted to trigger unrest and turn victims into martyrs."
Chep, a Prabowo supporter, told BenarNews that he and his group had no ties to IS. He also denied that Garis members were involved in the violence.
"That's not true. That's a lie. We have nothing to do with ISIS. The police can't just accuse us of having ties to ISIS," Chep said, using another abbreviation for IS.
He said he sent several of students from his boarding school to the scene of the protest as part of medical teams.
"They were taking injured victims to hospitals when they were stopped by Brimob (riot police) and two of the students in the ambulance were detained," he said.
He said the two teenage students had 15 million rupiah ($1,000) in cash to be donated to the poor and orphans in Bekasi, a suburb near Jakarta.
He urged the police to release them and give back the money.

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Police assist their colleagues who suffered injures during the clash with protesters in front of the of the Election Supervisory Agency headquarters in Jakarta, May 22, 2019. [Keisyah Aprilia/BenarNews]

Calm returns in Jakarta
Shops and restaurants were re-opening and a cleanup operation was underway Thursday in areas where rioting took place, local television reported.
This week's unrest was one of the worst in Jakarta since a crippling economic crisis in May 1998 triggered widespread unrest that killed more than 1,000 people and forced longtime president Suharto to resign, analysts said.
Prabowo, in a video message posted online late Wednesday, appealed to the protestors to return home.
"Avoid illegal acts, always compromise and obey the law," he said. "We have to keep in mind the greater interests of the people, so I appeal to you to be calm and patient."
On Wednesday, Jokowi vowed to take firm action against rioters, saying there was no room for those "who seek to undermine the security, democratic process and unity of our beloved nation.
Prabowo, a retired army general, has repeatedly urged his supporters to protest peacefully after the official results of the election that were announced Tuesday, a day earlier than scheduled amid concerns about mass protests. The final vote tally nearly matched the numbers from "quick count" exit polls from independent pollsters.
A spokesman for Prabowo, Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak, said the campaign's legal team would lodge a challenge to the election results with the Constitutional Court on Friday. The court will have until June 15 to rule on the dispute.
The government on Wednesday imposed temporary restrictions on social media and instant messaging services amid fears that photos and videos from the riot could incite "emotions."
Facebook, Instagram and WhatApp are among social media and messaging services affected, said Rudiantara, the communication and information technology minister.
He said the restrictions could last several days and urged citizens to turn to mainstream media for news.
Meanwhile, press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) on Thursday urged Indonesian authorities to investigate what it said were seven attacks on journalists that had taken place during the post-election rioting.
"We call on all the protagonists, both protesters and police, to respect the work of the media by ending all acts of violence and intimidation against journalists," said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF's Asia-Pacific desk, said in a statement Wednesday.
"Allowing reporters to cover these events freely is the best way to enable the public to keep abreast of this conflict and not depend on rumors at this crucial moment for Indonesian democracy," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Endi Sudiana, a community organizer in Taman Mekar, a village in Indonesia's West Java province, is fed up with plastic trash that blankets the roadside next to his house but says there's little he can do about it.
The garbage is mostly imported from industrialized countries, and has become more visible around his village after China last year stopped importing waste from abroad for recycling in an effort to cut down on pollution.
"The problem is, in our regency, even the government has a difficult time handling household waste, and now we have trash from foreign countries," Endi told BenarNews.
In Taman Mekar, located in Karawang regency about 80 km (49.7 miles) from Jakarta, an Indonesian paper company has been dumping imported plastic waste, creating the ever-growing eyesore near his home (pictured above), Endi said.
And to complicate things, many of his fellow villagers see the garbage not as a problem but a source of livelihood, he said, because they can pick through the pile and sell pieces of reusable plastic refuse off to recyclers.
"It's a dilemma for me. Some residents benefit from it but other people like me feel that it's harmful," Endi said as a BenarNews reporter visited him at his house recently.
Elsewhere in the village, scavengers could be seen rifling through a mountain of plastic trash on that hot and sunny morning in mid-May. An odor of burnt plastic wafted through the air.
Some of the residents of Taman Mekar who make a living selling scrap and other recyclables worry that criticism from environmentalists over sharp increases in imported plastic waste could threaten this income source, according to Erik Ramdani, an activist with Forkadas, a local conservation group.
"They have nothing else to do. There are not many jobs around," he told BenarNews.
He advised the reporter not to approach any of the scavengers because, he said, they could be hostile and even violent toward visiting environmentalists and journalists.

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A man picks through plastic packaging in a dumpsite for imported plastic trash, in Bekasi, in Indonesia's West Java province, May 16, 2019. [Ahmad Syamsudin/BenarNews]

Environmentalist concerns
Forkadas and other environmental advocacy groups in Indonesia have urged the central government to tighten regulations on imports of waste from industrialized countries, saying the trash is polluting rivers and doing other harm to the environment.
The flows of plastic waste into Indonesia increased sharply after China imposed restrictions on waste imports, starting in January 2018.
In 2018, Indonesia imported 320.4 million kilos (706. 3 million pounds) of plastic waste in 2018, up from 128.8 million kilos (283.9 million pounds) from the previous year, according to figures from the nation's Ministry of Trade.
Before 2018, China used to take in about 45 percent of the world's scrap plastic, according to a report from Science Advances, a journal published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
As a result of the new Chinese restrictions, Indonesia and other countries in Southeast Asia have since become primary importers of trash that used to go to China.
An Indonesian activist group, which calls itself Ecological Observation and Wetlands Conservation (Ecoton), says that plastic brought in among bales of waste paper imported from foreign countries has been dumped into the Brantas, a river in East Java province.
"We have found that microplastic particles have been contaminating our rivers, water, soil, and 80 percent of fish sampled in the Brantas River contain micro-plastic," Ecoton founder Prigi Arisandi told BenarNews.
Micro-plastic pollution is spread with wastewater from paper and recycling companies that use imported paper and plastic waste from other countries, he said.
Indonesia imports scrap paper to be used as raw material for the domestic pulp and paper industry, but companies only use the paper for production, while the plastic trash that comes with it is sold to local communities, which then sell more valuable pieces of the refuse to recycling companies, Prigi said.
"Indonesia has 55 paper companies, 22 of which are in East Java, and we have found that they import used paper. What is of concern is there's plastic waste in materials that are imported," Prigi told BenarNews.

"We found out that countries such as the United States, Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia dispose of their household waste by exporting it among used paper," he added.
Earlier this month, 187 countries adopted amendments to the Basel Convention, a 1989 treaty that aims to reduce the movement of plastic and hazardous waste across national borders.
Those amendments, approved earlier this month during a conference in Geneva, would enter into force on Jan. 1, 2021 and require nations that export plastic waste to first obtain permission from countries receiving the trash.
Government action
In Jakarta, the director general in charge of waste management and toxic materials at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, told BenarNews that imported plastic was non-hazardous and non-toxic provided it came in the form of scrap and clean plastic.
"Under a 2016 Trade Ministry regulation, such materials can be imported and categorized as residual waste for production. We have strict rules on such imports," said the official, Rosa Vivien Ratnawati.
The environment ministry has proposed revisions to the trade ministry's regulation on importing non-toxic materials, she said.
"Products must be homogeneous, clean and go into production immediately, so they're not resold domestically as waste," Ratnawati said.
Nani Hendiarti, an assistant to the deputy minister of maritime affairs, said the government was drafting a stricter regulation on waste imports.
"Even though it is categorized as an industrial material, it is still waste. We are currently trying to formulate a regulation. What we want is for any waste not to enter Indonesia," she told BenarNews.
No smell, except when wet
Back in Taman Mekar, Endi, the community organizer, said no study had been done on the health and environmental impacts of plastic waste allegedly dumped by local firm PT Pindo Deli Pulp and Paper Mills.
Pindo Deli is part of Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), one of the world's largest paper and packaging companies.
"Unlike local household garbage, it doesn't smell except when it's wet after rain," Endi told Benar.
Residents who collect plastic waste in their house yards usually burn it after they finish scavenging for valuables, Endi said.
"These companies make cardboards but why do they import plastic waste? This has been our question," he added.
A spokesman for Pindo Deli could not immediately be reached for comment. But in a statement to Detik.com, an Indonesian news portal, the company acknowledged that it imported waste from several countries, including the United States.
"We guarantee that the waste is not toxic or hazardous," company deputy manager AdilTeguh told Detik.com.
"We are withdrawing the waste back to our factory and will pay competent vendors to destroy it," he added.
In a letter dated April 29, Wawan Setiawan, the head of the environmental office in Karawang regency, ordered the Pindo Deli factory to halt operations, saying residents had complained that the company was dumping its waste into the Cibeet River.
"We ordered production activity to close because the company does not have the Environmental Feasibility Certificate, but they still carry on with their operations," Wawan said.
Andre Anwar, another resident of Taman Mekar, said local people had grown used to finding valuable items other than recyclables in the piles of trash accumulating around the village.
"Sometimes they stumble upon 100- or 50-dollar notes. I tried to look, but I had no luck," he told BenarNews, He held up half of a torn U.S. $1 bill, which he had found at a nearby dump.
"People here don't know the regulations. There's business to be made from collecting garbage, but there's no information from the local government about the effects of plastic garbage being burned in our backyards," Anwar said.


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BENARNEWS- Two senior ministers, a presidential adviser and the head of the national intelligence agency were targets in an assassination plot linked to last week's political unrest in Jakarta, the national police chief said Tuesday.
Police revealed Monday that they had arrested six suspects allegedly planning to assassinate four "national figures" and the unnamed director of a polling company during two nights of rioting in Jakarta that ended on May 23. The suspects were identified by their initials only: H.K., A.Z., I.R., T.J., A.D., and H.F.
National police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian identified the four who were targets as Security Affairs Minister Wiranto, Maritime Affairs Minister Luhut Pandjaitan, National Intelligence Agency chief Budi Gunawan and Gories Mere, presidential adviser on intelligence.
"This information was gleaned from questioning the suspects, not intelligence information," Tito told a news conference.
A rally by supporters of defeated presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto descended into chaos beginning on May 21 when officers clashed with protesters who threw rocks and fuel bombs, police said. At least eight people were killed over two nights of rioting.
The protesters demanded the Election Supervisory Agency take action in response to allegations by Prabowo's camp that the April 17 election was stolen by the government of incumbent President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo.
Police have insisted that the rioting was not spontaneous but incited by third parties bent on creating chaos to destabilize the country, adding that officers were trying to identify the responsible parties. A total of 458 people have been arrested in connection with the riots.
"We tolerated them protesting on the streets even though they disturbed public order and violated the rights of other road users," Tito said.
Fomenting unrest
Meanwhile, national police spokesman Muhammad Iqbal said three groups were exploiting the protest to stir up unrest.
Iqbal said the first group allegedly involved a former commander of the army's Kopassus special forces, retired Maj. Gen. Soenarko, who was arrested on May 20 on suspicion of smuggling weapons from Aceh province.
Iqbal identified the second group as a hardline Islamic group called the Islamic Reform Movement (Garis), which police said had ties to the Islamic State (IS).
Last week, police said two of the people in custody are members of Garis, whose founder Chep Hernawan claimed in 2014 that he was the Indonesian head of IS but later renounced the terrorist group. Chep said he sent several of students from his boarding school to the riot to serve on medical teams.
The six suspects who allegedly plotted the assassinations made up the third group, Iqbal said.
"This group joined the crowd and carried firearms. They are professionals because they can use firearms and know the home addresses of the targets," he said.
After learning of the alleged plot, Wiranto said he was not deterred.
"The threat was aimed at stoking fear, but we must continue to work hard to make the country secure. Our lives are in God's hands," the minister told reporters.
Amnesty International
In related news, Amnesty International Indonesia (AI) has called for an impartial investigation into the deaths during last week's riots, saying there were indications of human rights violations by security forces.
"Perpetrators of violence, be they from the police force or other parties, must be brought to justice," AI said in a statement, adding that three minors were among this killed. "There must be a thorough investigation to uncover facts."
A video circulated on social media appeared to show riot police beating and kicking a protester.
The riots broke out hours after General Elections Commission (KPU) announced official totals showing that Jokowi received 55.5 percent of the votes in the presidential election, against 45.5 percent for Prabowo. The KPU made the announcement shortly after midnight on May 21, a day earlier than scheduled amid concerns of massive protests.
Prabowo has challenged the election before the Constitutional Court, alleging systematic and massive electoral fraud. The court is expected to rule before June 15.


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BENARNEWS- Soldiers shot and killed four people in Indonesia's insurgency-stricken Papua province during a riot reportedly started by anger over their candidate's failure to win a seat on a local regency council, police and military officials said Tuesday.
Protesters attacked the home of a rival candidate from the same political party in the Fayit district of Asmat regency on Monday, believing he had stolen votes from the politician they supported, local police chief Andi Yoseph Enoch said.
"The soldiers fired shots because the crowd tried to attack them," he said.
Police identified the four victims as Xaverius Sai, 40, Nikolaus Tupa, 38, Matias Amunep, 16, and Frederikus Inepi, 35.
Muhammad Aidi, the Indonesian military spokesman in Papua, said the army had invited police and the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to investigate.
"Yesterday afternoon, after the commander received the news, he immediately contacted the provincial police chief and the local representative of Komnas HAM to form an investigative team. The team traveled to Asmat this morning," Aidi said.
"The service members will face the legal process. We will not cover things up," he told BenarNews, adding that the team would work for three days to collect evidence and question witnesses.
Monday's violence in Papua followed two nights of unrest last week in the Indonesian capital Jakarta triggered by the defeat of opposition presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto. Eight people were killed in the rioting. Prabowo rejected the result of the April 17 election and accused President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's government of systematic fraud at the polls.
On Tuesday, calm returned to Papua after 25 soldiers were sent from a neighboring district, according to officials.
Meanwhile, Papuan Legislative Council member Laurenzus Kadepa, called for an independent investigation without the involvement of the military and police.
"Any team that involves the security forces, who are suspected to be the perpetrators, will not produce anything satisfactory. Based on experience, perpetrators only received lenient punishment," he told BenarNews.
The head of the Asmat electoral commission, Feronikus Ate, declined to comment while community leader Paskalis Kossay said Papua was no stranger to such incidents.
"Unfortunately, incidents of violence like that have hardly been resolved in accordance with the law. As a result, the military and the police feel they can act brutally and kill with impunity," Kossay told BenarNews.
A low-level separatist conflict has been taking place in Papua, a region where the population is predominantly Melanesian, since the 1960s.
In December, separatist rebels killed 19 members of a crew working on a highway project in Nduga regency, prompting soldiers and police to hunt down insurgents.
Papua declared its independence from Dutch colonial rule on Dec. 1, 1961, but that was rejected by the Netherlands and later by Indonesia.
In 1963, Indonesian forces invaded the region and annexed it.
In 1969, the region held a controversial referendum in which security forces had selected slightly more than 1,000 people to agree to Papua's formal absorption into the archipelagic nation, according to human rights advocacy groups.


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BENARNEWS- The elite Indonesian army unit Kopassus will train again with the American military, the Southeast Asian nation's defense chief said Thursday, in the strongest sign that Washington has agreed to improve ties with the special forces group accused of past human rights abuses.
Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu made the announcement after meeting in Jakarta on Thursday with acting U.S. counterpart Patrick Shanahan, during which the two agreed to boost bilateral military cooperation, including on counterterrorism and maritime security.
"Enhancing cooperation will be in the form of dialogue forums, visits by high-ranking military officers, more TNI [Indonesian military] cadets attending education in the U.S., and training for rangers and special forces," Ryamizard told reporters.
In a joint statement, the two sides affirmed support for normalized relations with Kopassus, which is short for "Special Forces Command" in Indonesian. A joint exercise was expected to take place in 2020, it said.
"Both ministries affirm support for the expansion in our army to army exercise next year, and by normalizing the Army special forces relationship beginning in 2020 with a Joined Combined Exercise Training with KOPASSUS," the statement said.
A Pentagon spokesman did not immediately respond to a BenarNews email seeking details on the joint training exercises. But Lt. Col. Dave Eastburn, a U.S. Defense Department spokesman, told Reuters that the training program was still in its initial stages and would likely be for up to six weeks.
Shanahan's predecessor, James Mattis, last year pushed for expanding training for Indonesian military units involved in counter-terrorism, including Kopassus, which gained notoriety after its members were accused of rights abuses during the 1990s in East Timor, when it was occupied by Indonesia.
Kopassus personnel have also been accused of committing atrocities in hotspots in Indonesia, including Aceh province on Sumatra island and Papua, the country's easternmost region.
In 2010, Washington lifted a more than a decade-long ban on military assistance to Kopassus, arguing that the unit had undergone sufficient reform following the fall of authoritarian ruler Suharto in 1998.
Last year, Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights, known as Komnas HAM, said Kopassus members were involved in rape, killings, enforced disappearances and torture between 1989 and 1998, describing those accusations as crimes against humanity.

"The crimes were borne out of the policy to impose a military emergency in Aceh at that time," Komnas HAM team member Mohammad Choirul Anam told a news conference in Jakarta last September.
"We have enough preliminary evidence that crimes against humanity, such as rape and other forms of sexual violence, murder, deprivation of freedom, forced imprisonment and forced disappearances," he said.
The U.S. Congress bans training of foreign military units believed to have involved in human rights abuses under a law sponsored by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.).
Congress began implementing the so-called Leahy Laws in 1998, cutting ties with Kopassus the following year over allegations that its forces had killed civilians and committed rights abuses in East Timor as well Aceh and West Papua provinces.
The laws attach human rights conditions to congressional appropriations of U.S. military aid to foreign countries.

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Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu (left) accompanies Acting U.S. Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan during an inspection of the honor guard in Jakarta, May 30, 2019. [AP]

In Jakarta on Thursday, Shanahan told reporters that he and Ryamizard had discussed growing "our capacity and our level of cooperation."
"The first is expanding, increasing our complex training exercises," the acting American defense secretary said. "There are many things that we share in common in terms of threats – or I will consider opportunities – our ability to work in counter-terrorism, our ability to work on maritime domain awareness."
Last year, as Mattis was preparing for his Jakarta visit, Sen. Leahy described Kopassus as a "criminal enterprise" under Suharto, and said it was unclear whether the elite unit had completely transformed.
"The question Secretary Mattis needs to answer is whether the Indonesian government has punished the Kopassus officers who ordered and covered up those horrific crimes, and whether members of Kopassus today are accountable to the rule of law," the senator told reporters at the time.
Tackling regional threats
On Thursday, the two countries also agreed to tackle threats to security in the Asia-Pacific region, including those posed by returning nationals who fought alongside Islamic State (IS) fighters in Syria and Iraq, the Indonesian defense chief said.
IS-linked militants from Indonesia and the Philippines had been implicated in recent terrorist attacks in both countries, Ryamizard said.
"We must also pay attention to Rohingya refugees. They must be ... humanized, otherwise, terrorists will be waiting in the wings to persuade them to join their ranks," Ryamizard said.
Shanahan was in Indonesia on the first leg of an Asian tour, which will take him to Singapore, where he is scheduled to speak at the Shangri-La Dialogue regional security and defense forum.
Ryamizard said he would attend the forum and talk about maintaining stability and resilience in the face of threats in Southeast Asia.
The region will be stronger and more stable if the countries with combined populations of 560 million people are united, with the support of the United States and partners including Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand and Russia, Ryamizard said.
Concerns that ex-IS militants returning from Syria would become leaders of independent terrorist cells not affiliated with pro-IS militant groups in Indonesia have not yet become a reality but remains something to worry about, according to a recent report by a Jakarta-based think-tank.
"At present, the biggest threat comes from IS supporters who have never left, not from those who returned," Sidney Jones, director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), said in a report published last month.
Ryamizard also said the U.S. had an interest in making the South China Sea accessible to all.
"Indonesia understands that it must maintain peace and cooperation between countries such as joint patrols so that all countries can go through (the South China Sea)," Ryamizard said.
In December, the Indonesian military inaugurated a military unit in the Natuna islands near the South China Sea.
Indonesian navy patrols have clashed with Chinese fishing boats in waters off Natuna in recent years, as the nation has increased a crackdown on illegal fishing in the maritime region and accused the Chinese of fishing in the country's Exclusive Economic Zone.
China responded by calling the waters traditional fishing grounds. Tensions between China and its neighbors have risen as the superpower has sought to assert its control of the South China Sea in the face of competing territorial claims from countries in the region.
China claims most of the sea as its own, while Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei have overlapping claims to territories.


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BENARNEWS- A man suffered serious injuries Monday when a bomb he was carrying exploded near a police outpost in Indonesia's Central Java province, officials said.
It was not immediately clear how many police officers were at the outpost when the blast occurred, but there were no other reports of injuries, officials said. No group has claimed responsibility for the explosion.
"A man approached the police outpost, sat for a moment, and then there was an explosion," national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo told reporters. "It is suspected that the perpetrator was injured in the abdomen."
Gov. Ganjar Pranowo told the Metro TV that the bloodied man was rushed in a police van to a hospital after he was seen lying on the road near the Kertasura Monument, a landmark in Sukoharjo regency.
"This is an attack on the police officers and not the first one. Because of that, we urge the public not to worry, but continue your activities," Central Java police chief Rycko Amelza Daniel told reporters while visiting the scene early Tuesday (local time). Investigators believe the injured man was the perpetrator due to the nature of his injuries, Rycko said.
The explosion occurred as millions of Indonesians were returning to their home villages for Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim festival that concludes Ramadan.
Police said last week that they were on increased alert for possible terrorist attacks during the holiday season, with more than 160,000, police and military personnel, as well as civilian auxiliary forces being deployed.
Eight people were killed last month in two nights of riots during rallies by supporters of defeated presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, who rejected the election result, claiming widespread fraud.
National police chief Tito Karnavian said last week that post-election tensions were adding to security vulnerabilities.
In May, police said they had arrested 29 people on suspicions of planning an attack during planned rallies by Prabowo's supporters. The suspects were caught in raids across the nation and were believed to be members of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local militant network affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, authorities said.
"This is terrorism," Wawan, Hari Purwanto, spokesman for the National Intelligence Agency, told Metro TV, referring to Monday's blast.
"Not all terrorist suspects have been arrested," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Religious activities influenced by Salafism and support for establishing a state ruled by Sharia law have strengthened among Muslim students at state-run universities in Indonesia, according to a new study by a local research institute.
That Islam is under attack is a dominant discourse in religious studies on campuses, with an Islamic state or the imposition of Islamic law being offered as a solution, according to the report by the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace, issued Friday.
"At various public universities, exclusive ideas and movements such as Salafism-Wahhabism, Tarbiyah and Tahririyah are still growing," said the report.
Salafism is a Sunni Muslim movement that embraces a literal interpretation of the Quran and a return to the traditions of the era of the Prophet Muhammad. The official "Wahhabi" religion of Saudi Arabia is based on certain segments of Salafism, and reports have claimed that Wahhabism has fueled global extremism and contributed to terrorism.
"This situation could potentially be a threat to Pancasila, democracy and the Unitary State of Indonesia," Setara said.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, is a secular state with religious minorities, linguistic and cultural diversity and a state ideology that touts pluralism.
Tarbiyah is a movement inspired by the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational Sunni organization founded in Egypt a century ago that seeks to implement Sharia law under a global caliphate.
Tahririyah refers to the teachings of Hizb ut Tahrir, a pan-Islamic political organization that advocates the establishment of an Islamic caliphate. The government banned its Indonesian branch, Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia (HTI), in 2017, as a threat to the nation's unity and pluralism.
"The dissolution of HTI didn't kill the ideas, which are still spreading. There was a lull after the disbandment, but there's an underground movement," said Halili, the research director at Setara, who goes by one name.
Activists influenced by its ideas are seeking to dominate student government on campus, according to the Setara report. "As a result, campus environments tend to be exclusive, averse to non-Muslim leadership of student organizations, or even Muslims who are outside their groups," it said.
Alarmist
Asep Saifudin, a member of the Indonesian Association of University Rectors, said the study did not reflect the views of the majority of students at universities.
"Having said that, we need to see to it that student [organizations] are open about their activities and conduct dialogue with moderate religious scholars so they can widen their religious horizons," he told BenarNews on Monday.
Meanwhile, Nurhaidi Hasan, a researcher at the state-run Sunan Kalijaga Islamic University, called the report alarmist.
"What's happening is the phenomenon of post-Islamism. Yes, there's a bit of Muslim Brotherhood ideology, but it's been diluted," said Nurhaidi, who conducted a 2017 study on millennial Muslim students.
"Students don't read books by Hasan al-Banna or Sayyid Qutb anymore," he said, referring to Muslim Brotherhood leaders. "They read books by popular Indonesian preachers such as Felix Siauw that deal more with day-to-day problems of young Muslims," he told BenarNews.
Felix Sauw, 35, is a former ethnic Chinese Catholic who converted to Islam and became an Islamic preacher. He has written self-help books including "How to Master Your Habits" and "Just Break Up."
Intolerance is a serious issue in Indonesia and not just limited to public universities, Nurhaidi said.
"The government's lack of resolve against intolerance targeting minorities is also part of the problem," he said.
Conservative Muslims
Mohammad Hasan Ansori, an analyst on counter-terrorism at the Habibie Center think tank, cautioned against painting student Muslim activists with one brush.
"Religious study groups such as Tarbiyah are mostly conservative and puritan, but they aren't radical," he told BenarNews on Monday. "They are not opposed to democracy but want Islam to be part of it."
He estimated that less than 1 percent of Muslims students were in the radical category – meaning people who could be convinced to use violence to impose their ideology on others, or who reject democracy and the concept of a secular state.
"But being conservative is one step to being radical as the environment is conducive to radicalism," he said.
Last year, the National Intelligence Agency (BIN) said its own 2017 survey showed that about 39 percent of Indonesian university students had been exposed to radical Islamic ideology.
Many respondents at state and private universities in 15 provinces indicated they would support making Indonesia an Islamic state and expressed support for the IS, according to BIN.
The figures are consistent with findings of the Jakarta-based Alvara Research Center and Mata Air Foundation in October 2017. The groups polled 1,800 students from 25 leading universities in Indonesia and 2,400 students from high schools across Java and other islands.
The Alvara survey revealed that 17.8 percent of university students and 18.3 percent of high school students preferred the concept of a caliphate ruled by a Muslim spiritual leader over Indonesia's current republic.
Reduction of influence
The Bogor Institute of Agriculture (IPB), named by the National Counterterrorism Agency as one of seven campuses where students are at risk of being exposed to radicalism, recently managed to reduce the Islamists' influence. The school confined all religious activities to the campus mosque and promoted activities of diverse religious groups, including non-Muslim ones.
"They are all given facilities and protection, which is unprecedented in the history of IPB," Cahyono, an IPB researcher said at the Setara report's launch.
"Things are changing at IPB. It (the Islamist influence) was massive before. They could even disband a cultural event because they saw it as immoral," he said.
Other public colleges including Gadjah Mada University and the University of Indonesia are having some success in limiting Islamist influence, Halili said.


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BENARNEWS- A man seriously injured in an explosion of a bomb that he carried near a police outpost in Central Java province was a suicide bomber influenced by the Islamic State extremist group, Indonesian authorities said Tuesday.
Seven officers were manning the post in Sukoharjo regency when the bomb went off at around 10 p.m. Monday after the suspect approached it, but none of the officers were harmed, police said.
"From our investigation, the perpetrator was a suicide bomber and he was individually exposed to the beliefs of ISIS," national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo told a news conference, using another acronym for Islamic State (IS).
Police identified the suspect as Rofik Asharudin, 22. Dedi said police were trying to determine whether Rofik was a member of a militant group or an IS sympathizer.
Rofik suffered injuries to his stomach and hand, Dedi said.
Police seized chemicals, wires, pipes, a manual detonator and nails from the home of the suspect's parents, Dedi said, adding that the bomb that exploded was of low intensity.
No group had claimed responsibility for the explosion in Sukoharjo as of Tuesday, SITE intelligence group, a U.S.-based firm that monitors online communications among Muslim militants, told BenarNews.
National news agency Antara said members of elite anti-terror squad Densus 88 were involved in the search in Wirogunan village in Sukoharjo regency.
Meanwhile, neighbor Sri Rohani said Rofik was polite and a good reciter of the Quran.
"On Monday after I still saw him, I asked him where he was going and he said he was going to have a haircut. His hair was rather long," Sri told BenarNews.
She said Rofiq had not frequented the local mosque for a year.
"He used to go to the mosque regularly. He was a devoted worshipper," she said.
The explosion occurred as millions of Indonesians were returning to their home villages for Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim festival that concludes Ramadan.
Police said last week that they were on increased alert for possible terrorist attacks during the holiday season, with more than 160,000, police and military personnel, as well as civilian auxiliary forces being deployed.
Al Chaidar, a security analyst at the Malikussaleh University, said Rofik was not a "lone wolf" militant but a new recruit with the "Semarang branch" of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local militant network affiliated with IS.
"I can't say when (he joined JAD) but he entered our database five months ago," he told BenarNews.
Dedi said Rofik was in a stable condition and expected to recover soon.
Authorities were trying to determine the suspect's motive, according to Hamli, the prevention director at the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT).
"We are still looking into it, so we can't determine it yet," he told BenarNews.
In May, police said they had arrested 29 people on suspicion of plotting an attack during planned rallies by supporters of defeated presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto. The suspects were caught in nationwide raids and were believed to be JAD members, authorities said.
Last year, in attacks that also took place in May, two families carried out suicide bombings at three churches and a police station in Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city and the capital of East Java province.
Two adults and their son were also killed when the bomb they were planning to use for a terror attack exploded inside their apartment in nearby Sidoarjo regency, police said.
Authorities said 29 people were killed, including 13 of the suspects who used their children as young as 9 in carrying out the bomb attacks.


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BENARNEWS- Washington is supplying four Southeast Asian countries with 34 aerial drones through security assistance funds from the U.S. government, State Department officials have confirmed.
The United States is sending a U.S. $47.9 million package of ScanEagle unmanned aerial vehicles to the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam, with officials in Manila and Kuala Lumpur saying the drones will be used for surveillance of local waterways, including the disputed South China Sea.
"Per Acting Secretary Shanahan's recent announcement, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines have purchased up to 34 Scan Eagle Unmanned Aerial Systems under the Foreign Military Sales system," a State Department official told BenarNews, referring to Patrick Shanahan, the acting American defense chief.
"These purchases were funded by ... security assistance funding, and not national funds," the official said.
On May 31, the U.S. Defense Department (DoD) released information on its website saying it had awarded a contract to Boeing subsidiary Insitu to build the drones and deliver them to the four countries by March 2022.
The contract information publicized by the DoD stated that the order combined purchases for the governments of Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam under the U.S. government's Foreign Military Sales program.
The program "is a form of security assistance authorized by the Arms Export Control Act," according to the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA).
Under the contract, Malaysia will acquire 12 ScanEagle drones, the Philippines and Indonesia will each get eight of them, and Vietnam will get six.
In Jakarta, Ministry of Defense officials did not immediately respond to multiple requests for comment from BenarNews.
The portion of the drone package destined for Kuala Lumpur is valued at U.S. $19.3 million, but the aircraft will be paid for entirely by U.S. funds, via the U.S. government's Maritime Security Initiative (MSI), the Malaysian Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
The United States, through MSI, "provided assistance in the form of assets and training to friendly nations including Malaysia to enhance the Maritime Domain Awareness (MDA) in the Southeast Asian region," the ministry said.
MSI, under the U.S. National Defense Authorization Act, aims to build up the capacity of American partner nations in the South China Sea region. The act targets five countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam – for assistance and training paid for by American funding, according to the DSCA.
"As a maritime nation, it is essential for Malaysia to have intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities to monitor its strategic waterways in the Strait of Malacca, South China Sea and Sulu Sea," the Malaysian ministry said.
It emphasized, however, that Kuala Lumpur would collaborate with any country, even Beijing, to boost its security and maritime intelligence capabilities.
"In line with Malaysia's stance to not pick sides and to build friendly relations with everyone, Malaysia welcomes defense cooperation with all interested parties, including the U.S. and China, to ensure the safety and stability of the Southeast Asian region," it said.
The eight ScanEagle drones destined for Manila, meanwhile, follow the March 2018 delivery of six of those unmanned aircraft that were provided by Washington through a U.S. government grant program, according to the American embassy.
The first batch was delivered after Manila had received U.S. intelligence support in helping Philippine government forces drive out Islamic State-linked militants from the southern city of Marawi in 2017.
"The help was first geared toward monitoring militants in the wake of Marawi, but the help has evolved toward the SCS, and the heavy Chinese presence there," a senior Philippine defense source told BenarNews, referring to the South China Sea.
Beijing claims most of maritime region, and has been expanding and militarizing structures it built in the sea, despite earlier agreements to halt all construction activities. The Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia, Vietnam and Taiwan also have territorial claims in the strategic waterway through which more than U.S. $3 billion of trade passes annually.


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BENARNEWS- After starting coordinated air and sea patrols in recent years, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines will launch joint ground exercises in August, in a counter-terrorism initiative that could see a regional force deployed in the southern Philippines one day, Indonesian officials said Wednesday.
The Indomalphi 2019 exercise will take place on Tarakan island in Indonesia's North Kalimantan province and include trainings on shooting techniques and close-range combat, Indonesian military spokesman Maj. Gen. Sisriadi told BenarNews.
"Each country is expected to deploy a company of troops and five observers," Sisraidi said Wednesday, referring to a military unit that typically consists of 80 to 150 soldiers and is usually commanded by a major or a captain.
"The exercise is aimed at improving joint operation capabilities in the land border areas, as part of efforts to anticipate transboundary crime and to create a deterrent effect to terrorism activities in border areas," he said.
Delegations from the three Southeast Asian nations were attending a two-day meeting in Bali, starting Wednesday, to discuss a formal agreement on the trilateral land exercise, he said.
Ryamizard Ryacudu, Indonesia's defense minister, said the monthlong exercise could potentially lead to the deployment of joint forces in the southern Philippines, which is still grappling with Islamic State-linked militants in remote areas of the Mindanao region. 

"We are going to deal with [a] third-generation of terrorists, those who fought in the Middle East but have returned," Ryamizard said in a news conference Wednesday. "Most of them are in Indonesia and the Philippines, and they are just traversing through Malaysia."
He said the exercise would familiarize soldiers with field terrain.
"We need to establish grounds first with the officials and lawmakers," he said. "We can't just do that."
The deployment of foreign troops in the southern Philippines would first require support from Filipino lawmakers and officials.
The 1987 Philippine Constitution specifies that "foreign military bases, troops, or facilities shall not be allowed in the Philippines except under a treaty duly concurred in by the Senate and, when the Congress so requires, ratified by a majority of the votes cast by the people in a national referendum held for that purpose, and recognized as a treaty by the other contracting State."
In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysian officials declined to answer questions from BenarNews. Meanwhile, defense officials in Manila were not immediately available for comment because the Philippines was observing its Independence Day, a national holiday, on Wednesday.
Earlier this month, Ryamizard met with his Malaysian and Filipino counterparts on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue, an annual regional security meeting in Singapore, during which "they agreed to form a land [force] to combat terrorism," Brig. Gen. Totok Sugiharto, the Indonesian Defense Ministry's spokesman, told BenarNews.
"This is an escalated cooperation from the previous coordinated patrols to combat terrorism in the Philippines' Sulu Sea," Totok said, adding that during the exercise, the three nations would also be exchanging intelligence information about militants.
A regional military force would require "political decisions" from leaders of the three nations, a high-ranking defense ministry official told BenarNws, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"The process would not be simple," he said. "That is why we call the maritime and air patrols coordinated patrols, instead of joint patrols, and we focus on securing the borders between the three countries."
Looking to add joint ground patrols
The three nations began trilateral patrols in June 2017 after pro-IS militants launched a siege in the southern Philippine city of Marawi. Five months of fighting ended in October 2017 and killed at least 1,200 people, mostly militants, including the acknowledged Philippine IS leader, Isnilon Hapilon.
During his speech at this year's Shangri-La Dialogue on June 2, Ryamizard said Indonesia has proposed to conduct a coordinated patrol, which he conveyed in the same forum in 2015.
He indicated in the 2018 dialogue that the three neighboring countries were looking to add joint ground patrols to existing trilateral air and sea patrols targeting pro-IS militants in the region.
Indonesia also initiated the Our Eyes intelligence sharing platform, which ASEAN countries agreed in Singapore last year.
"The maritime, air and land military cooperation to anticipate ISIS fighters returnees from the Middle East are the implementation of the 'Our Eyes' initiative. Currently the trilateral cooperation is entering the phase for a joint [ground] exercise, which will be held in Tarakan, North Kalimantan after the troops held their own exercises in their respective countries," Ryamizard said in his speech in Singapore, using another acronym for IS.
The Marawi fighting emboldened other Southeast Asian terror cells aligned with the Syria- and Iraq-based IS, according to analysts.
Among the 31,500 foreign fighters who had joined IS in Syria, about 800 came from Asia, including 400 from Indonesia, the largest Muslim-majority country, Ryamizard said on June 2, 2018, citing intelligence data from his government.
The three Southeast Asian nations were taking the security preparations just months after the United States and its allies announced the territorial defeat of the so-called Islamic State, which once controlled wide swaths of Iraq and Syria.
With the fall of the IS "caliphate" in Syria, officials of the Syrian Democratic Forces estimate that more than 12,000 foreign women and children are being held in camps in Syria alone, and about 1,000 foreign fighters are being held in the country's prisons.
Many governments fear that welcoming back their battle-hardened citizens who fought for IS could pose a security threat.
During the battle of Marawi, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte placed the entire southern region of Mindanao under martial law, in a bid to solve the biggest security crisis to hit the country in recent memory. But analysts have warned that former IS fighters could still penetrate the porous borders of the southern Philippines through Malaysia and across the Sulu Sea.
Duterte had publicly admitted that security forces may have underestimated the militants' firepower, but relented to his defense officials who had asked for crucial intelligence help from the United States, the country's oldest military ally that he had earlier lambasted as he moved for closer ties instead with China and Russia.
A trilateral agreement on a possible regional military force carries a "psychological dimension" that could block "any trans-boundary security disturbance," Mufti Makarim, an Indonesian military and security observer, told BenarNews.
"This agreement doesn't mean that each country's force can enter another country," he said, "but it is more like they can coordinate when they conduct border patrols in their respective territories, so each country is aware that their neighbors are taking the same measures and are doing what is necessary to secure the borders


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, has failed to stand up for the 1.5 million or more Muslim Uyghurs held in internment camps in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region because it rejects interfering in China's affairs and its Muslim groups have been cultivated by Beijing, a Jakarta think tank said Thursday.
The report, "Explaining Indonesia's Silence on the Uyghur Issue" by the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), says Indonesians believe Chinese explanations that the mass detentions without due process are necessary for security and they doubt human rights reports and testimony by Uyghur diaspora representatives who have visited Jakarta to appeal for help.
"The systematic repression of China's ethnic Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang Autonomous Region has caused little angst in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country," said the report.
"The Indonesian government by and large sees the Uyghur crackdown as a legitimate response to separatism, and it will no more interfere in China's 'domestic affairs' than it would accept Chinese suggestions for how it should deal with Papua," it said, referring to a long-running conflict for which Jakarta has been repeatedly accused of genocide.
"The fact that China is Indonesia's largest trading partner and second largest investor adds to its reluctance to speak out, but economic considerations are not the major factor here," it said.
Up to 1.5 million Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities accused of harboring "strong religious views" and "politically incorrect" ideas have been held in detention camps since April 2017.
China has come under strong criticism, and calls for sanctions against officials responsible for the camps, from the United States and other Western countries. The Muslim world, with a few exceptions has remained silent.
Though Beijing initially denied the existence of internment camps, China has tried to change the discussion, describing the facilities as "boarding schools" that provide vocational training for Uyghurs, discourage radicalization and help protect the country from terrorism.
Taking China claims at face value
Reporting by RFA's Uyghur Service and other media organizations, however, has shown that those in the camps are detained against their will and subjected to political indoctrination, routinely face rough treatment at the hands of their overseers, and endure poor diets and unhygienic conditions in the often overcrowded facilities.
In Indonesia, however, China's explanations appear to hold water — even with the large Muslim organizations, IPAC said.
"The country's largest Muslim organizations treat reports of widespread human rights violations with skepticism, choosing to dismiss them as American propaganda in the Sino-U.S. power struggle. Their leaders have also accepted invitations to visit Xinjiang and most seem to take China's assurances of protecting religious freedom there at face value," the report said.
"The hundreds of Indonesian Muslims studying in China by and large have a positive experience, contributing to an unwillingness to acknowledge serious restrictions on religious practice," it added.
China recently organized visits to monitor re-education camps in the XUAR — one for a small group of foreign journalists, and another for diplomats from non-Western countries, including Russia, Indonesia, Kazakhstan and Thailand.
In February, China arranged guided tours for Indonesian Muslim leaders and reporters to see the "vocational training centers" – a policy that worked on Indonesia's two largest Islamic organizations, Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah.
"NU delegates apparently took their host's claims at face value," the report said.
"Once back in Jakarta, the head of NU delegation, Robikin Emha, announced during a news conference that there were no concentration or internment camps and endorsed the policy of countering radicalization through vocational training," it said.
Muhammadiyah secretary Agung Danarto went further, praising camp facilities, it said.
"The camps are great, there [the students] are given life-skills training, and so forth. They get lessons in agriculture, restaurant operation, cooking and automotive repair," the report quoted him as saying.
'Barely registers' with foreign ministry
Indonesia's foreign ministry, meanwhile, faces "so many issues demanding attention in the bilateral Indonesia-China relationship, from the South China Sea to the difficulties of matching China's Belt and Road Initiative to Indonesia's development agenda, that the Uyghur issue barely registers," said IPAC.
Last month, during the Islamic world's celebration of Ramadan, the U.S.-based advocacy group Human Rights Watch (HRW) launched a campaign aimed at persuading Islamic countries to end their silence over the internment camps.
The "Close the Camps" social media campaign called on "the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), its member countries, and other concerned governments to speak up for Xinjiang's Muslims."
Early this month, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback told RFA's Uyghur Service that Muslim countries should join efforts to end the camp system.
"If China is willing to do this to their own Muslim population, what do they think of Muslims around the world that peacefully practice their faith?" he said.
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir denied that Indonesia had not spoken out on the Uyghur issue, saying that the ministry had summoned the Chinese ambassador in December to seek an explanation about allegations of human rights violations in Xinjiang.
"We have not stood idly by. The Indonesian representatives were among few foreign representatives in Beijing who visited the locations (in Xinjiang)," he told BenarNews.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla said in December that he was concerned about reports about China's treatment of the Uyghurs and urged Beijing to respect its international human rights obligations.
"We asked China and its embassy here to explain to the public and Islamic organizations," he said, according to CNN Indonesia.
Uyghurs see 'moral obligation'
An international law expert at the University of Indonesia, Hikmahanto Juwana, said Indonesia must be cautious in reacting to the issue.
"It's not true that Indonesia isn't vocal enough, but there's a belief that we can never support the Uyghurs separating from China," he told BenarNews.
"It's a human rights issue but it is plausible that there are certain parties with an agenda and they don't want China to be a global super power," he said.
Another scholar, however, advocated speaking out for the Uyghurs.
The president of Muhammadiyah University, Syaiful Bakhri, said the international community must not be silent if there were human rights violations such as ethnic cleansing.
"It is only right that Indonesia condemns a government whose conduct is not civilized," he said.
Asked about Indonesia's stance, Uyghur-American Association President Ilshat Hassan said "Indonesia, as the biggest Muslim democracy in the world, has moral obligations to call on China to close all the concentration camps and release all innocent Uyghurs."
"At the least Indonesia should condemn China's crime against humanity toward Uyghur and other Muslim peoples instead of keeping quiet due to Chinese investment," he told RFA.
The IPAC report said that Jakarta officials "have made it clear that they would welcome constructive policy suggestions that might help the Uyghurs without provoking China."
"It is hard to see points of intervention, however, when China is convinced that its 'Strike Hard' campaign has prevented violence in Xinjiang, and when its charm offensive targeting Indonesian Muslims has been remarkably successful," cautioned the report


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BENARNEWS- Three children were among at least 30 people killed Friday in an explosion followed by a fire at a house that was being used as a factory for making disposable butane lighters in Indonesia's North Sumatra province, police said.
The blast was believed to be caused by a gas canister in the factory, said Riadil Akhir Lubis, head of the provincial civil protection agency. Photographs distributed by the agency showed bodies burned beyond recognition as well as the blackened remains of the house located in Sambi Rejo village.
"So far 30 people have died. Everyone inside died," Riadil told BenarNews, adding that the victims were mostly women. The children who died were not believed to be workers.
"According to locals, the children came with their parents who were working at the factory," Riadil said.
Indonesia has seen similar deadly fires in the past. In 2017, at least 47 were killed in an explosion and fire at a firecracker factory on the outskirts of Jakarta.
As of late Friday, the flames had been extinguished and the victims had been taken to a police hospital in the provincial capital Medan for formal identification, according to officials.
Riadil said officials were trying to determine the employment status of the workers.
"Whether the factory is legal or not, we don't know and there are questions about the presence of children there," he said.
A wire service reported that three or four people were able to escape the fire, which began around noon, but Riadil said those people were not in the factory at the time.
Pipit, one of four women who survived, said she was out for lunch with the three others when she heard the explosion and saw smoke billowing from the house, the Tribun Medan newspaper reported.

"My friends, my friends they are all gone. They were all inside," she said.
Bunjai police chief B. Naibaho said the victims were unable to escape when the fire broke out, according to Kompas.com, an Indonesian news website.
"Because they were at the back, the employees could not get out of the house because the front door could not be opened, he said, adding, "the windows were secured with iron grills."
Manpower Minister Hanif Dhakiri said he was sending investigators to the scene to determine if the factory had followed safety standards and employment regulations.
"We want to make sure the employees are entitled to employment social security protection," Hanif said in a statement to media.
Manpower Ministry workplace Director Amarudin said in the statement that the factory employed 50 people, nearly half of whom worked on a part-time basis.
Faisal Riza, whose wife Marlina died in the fire, said all of the workers were women, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
"I was walking to a mosque for prayers when I heard the factory in an alley just about 200 meters from my house was on fire," he said at the hospital where bodies were taken. "I ran to save her, but it was too late. When I got there, the factory was burned down."
AP described the house owner as an elderly woman identified only as Ros who told MetroTV that she had rented the property for the past four years to a businessman from Medan.
Another man, Sofyan, told AP his wife and 10-year-old daughter died in the fire.
"Only a DNA test can confirm the bodies," said Sofyan, who uses a single name. "I want to bring them home soon regardless of their condition. I want to bury them immediately."


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BENARNEWS- Eight citizens of China were among nine people arrested in Indonesia on suspicion of involvement in a human trafficking ring that lured Indonesian women into marriages with Chinese men, police said Tuesday.
National police announced the arrests after labor rights groups revealed over the weekend that trafficking networks had sent nearly 30 local women to China, where some were allegedly exploited sexually. The nine suspects were picked up in mid-June in West Kalimantan, a province in Indonesian Borneo, national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said.
"They promised their victims decent lives in China," Dedi said, adding that the Chinese nationals had been transferred to the custody of the immigration department.
One of the suspects, an Indonesian identified as Agus Matius Wiranata, was offered a fee of 70 million rupiah (U.S. $4,956) for every woman he managed to send to China as a potential bride, the police spokesman said.
The traffickers had promised their victims 20 million rupiah ($1,416) each in exchange for agreeing to go to China and marry local men, Dedi added.
On Sunday, the Indonesian Migrant Labor Alliance (SBMI) reported that human trafficking networks had transported 29 women from West Java and West Kalimantan provinces to China for marriage during the past two years.
Most of the victims were women who had little or no education and were poor, said Bobi Anwar Ma'arif, the alliance's secretary general.
"Chinese men were looking for women from Indonesia and several other countries to marry because it's expensive to marry local women," Bobi said.
Monika's story
One of the 29 women was Monika Normiati (pictured), who ran away from her Chinese husband earlier this year to escape from alleged domestic violence and unpaid labor.
"I was promised that I would have a good life. I would live with my parents-in-law, buy jewelry, receive tens of millions in cash every month. I would be able to send my family money every month too," Monika told reporters on Sunday.
Monika said her father-in-law once stripped her naked after she refused to have sex with her husband.
"Every day, I worked helping my in-laws at their flower arrangement shop. I was never paid any money, and sometimes I did not get any meals," she recalled.
"I couldn't use a cellphone so I couldn't contact anyone," she said.
Once, on a cold night, she said she was forced to sleep outside the house without a mat or a blanket.
Her ordeal began in September 2018, Monika recounted, when she got an offer from an acquaintance via Facebook to marry a "rich man" from China.
She was then introduced to two Chinese men, one around 40 years old, and the other 28. Monika, who is in her early twenties and has an elementary school education, chose the younger man. They were married soon after.
The couple was greeted with a warm welcome at the groom's hometown in Hebei province, where they arrived a few days they wed.
But their honeymoon did not last long, Monika said. It was soon after that her husband, who turned out to be a construction worker, and his family began to treat her badly, she alleged.
One morning she decided to flee from her husband. She took a bus to the city of Wuji and asked the local police to contact the Indonesian embassy.

The police went to her husband's address and asked him to surrender Monika's passport.

"I had the passport but I couldn't leave," she said.

She then met an Indonesian student in Wuhan who sheltered her. 

"They hid me on their campus and put me in a hotel until they managed to buy a ticket back to Indonesia for me," Monika said.

Seriousness of police questioned
In Monika's case, at least three people at the local level played a role in arranging the marriage in China, including agents in Jakarta and women in her home sub-district in West Kalimantan who served as matchmakers, according to Oky Wiratama Siagian, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Institute in Jakarta.
"There were also two men from China who were tasked with finding potential buyers from Jakarta," he said.
SBMI, the association representing migrant workers, and the Legal Aid Institute urged the national police to take strong action against human trafficking networks.

"So far, we have not seen any serious efforts from the police," Oky said.
In April, Indonesian police announced the arrests of eight suspects in what they described as the biggest human trafficking case they had ever uncovered – a ring that smuggled more than 1,200 domestic workers to the Middle East and North Africa.
The suspects belonged to four syndicates that trafficked Indonesians to countries including Syria, Saudi Arabia, Morocco and Turkey, falsely promising their victims lucrative pay as domestic help, police said.
Since 2015, Indonesia has imposed a moratorium on sending domestic workers to 19 countries in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. The measure was taken following cases of abuse against female domestic workers from Indonesia.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's Constitutional Court late Thursday rejected as baseless a petition by opposition candidate Prabowo Subianto, who alleged massive and systematic electoral fraud as he sought to overturn results of presidential polls won by incumbent Joko "Jokowi" Widodo in April.
After the court took nine hours to read out its verdict that removed the last legal hurdle to Jokowi's electoral victory for a second and final term, Prabowo said he accepted the panel's decision. He urged his supporters, who staged protests in the capital Jakarta during the day amid a heavy security presence by police and soldiers, to refrain from violence.
The nine-judge bench of the Constitutional Court ruled that Prabowo's petition had "no legal basis," as it finished reading the verdict at around 9:30 p.m. (local time).
"We hereby reject the plaintiffs' petition in its entirety," chief judge Anwar Usman said. The case file before the judges ran to more than 5,000 pages.
President Jokowi won re-election by capturing 55.5 percent of ballots cast compared with 44.5 percent garnered by Prabowo in the April 17 polls, according to the General Elections Commission (KPU). In what was seen as one of the most divisive polls in Indonesian history, Jokowi received 85.6 million votes while Prabowo got nearly 68.8 million, the final official tally showed.
It was the second time in back-to-back presidential contests that Prabowo, a retired general in the Indonesian army's special forces, lost out to Jokowi.
In the wake of the announcement by the KPU that declared Jokowi and running mate Ma'ruf Amin the winners of the latest election, Prabowo refused to concede defeat. He alleged there had been "massive, systematic and structured fraud" and demanded that Jokowi and running mate Ma'ruf be disqualified.
In its decision, the court said that Prabowo's claim of winning 52 percent of the vote was not backed up with evidence.

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Judges preside over the final hearing on a court challenge to the results of April's presidential election, at the Constitutional Court in Jakarta, June 27, 2019. [AP]

On Thursday night, Prabowo appeared before the cameras to say he would respect the court's decision.
"We understand that this is disappointing to us and our supporters, but we will abide by the constitution and the legal system," Prabowo told a post-verdict news conference where he was accompanied by his running mate, Sandiaga Uno.
He also called on his supporters to not react violently to the verdict.
In late May, at least eight people were killed when clashes broke out in Jakarta as pro-Prabowo protestors clashed with security forces after the election results were made official.
After he lost to Jokowi in the 2014 presidential election, Prabowo lodged a similar petition with the Constitutional Court alleging voter fraud. But he accepted its ruling at the time when it rejected his claims.
"Let's look to the future with optimism. We urge our supporters not to be discouraged," Prabowo said.
"We have to prioritize national unity."
As of late Thursday evening and early Friday morning (Jakarta time), there were no new reports of poll-related violence in the streets.
Jokowi, for his part, declared late Thursday that "the people have spoken and it's been confirmed by the Constitutional Court."
"I call on the nation to unite again and together we develop Indonesia," Jokowi said.
The president also had conciliatory words for Prabowo and his supporters.
"I have never doubted the sincerity of my friend, Mr. Prabowo. He has the same vision to create an Indonesia that is developed, prosperous and just," Jokowi said.

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Supporters of defeated Indonesian presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto shout out slogans while demonstrating near the Constitutional Court in Jakarta, as a nine-member bench was delivering its verdict on a petition of voter fraud filed by Prabowo's legal team, June 27, 2019. [Arie Firdaus/BenarNews]

Fair outcome
Pramono Ubaid Tantowi, an official with the General Elections Commission, described the court's verdict as fair.
"The most important thing for the KPU is that this trial has provided us with an opportunity to respond to the allegations that the KPU favored one candidate," Pramono told reporters.
Prabowo Subianto's campaign had accused the government of mobilizing civil servants, the police and employees of state-owned companies to support Jokowi in the election.
During the day some 1,000 Prabowo supporters rallied outside the Constitutional Court as the judges read out the verdict, but they disbanded peacefully.
The verdict's reading unfolded amid a large deployment of police and soldiers in Jakarta to prevent potential outbreaks of violence. Some 13,000 police officers and soldiers were deployed in and around the courthouse alone. Another 34,000 security personnel stood guard elsewhere in the Indonesian capital, officials said.
On the eve of the court's ruling, Moeldoko, Jokowi's chief of staff, urged people to avoid gathering in big numbers outside the courthouse on Thursday because of a potential threat, according to him, of an attack from some 30 "terrorists" who had infiltrated the capital.
"We have seen [them] and we know them. If something happens, we'll pick them up," Moeldoko told reporters without giving more details.
After the election results were announced last month, Prabowo's supporters took the streets to voice their dissatisfaction but the protests turned violent. Police clashed with demonstrators as pro-Prabowo rallies descended into two days of chaos in Jakarta.
Earlier this week, global human rights watchdog Amnesty International accused Indonesian police of committing serious rights violations with heavy-handed tactics during the poll-related violence.
"Amnesty International has received credible reports of a range of violations by police, including the unlawful killing of 10 people, arbitrary arrests and detentions, and the excessive or unnecessary use of force against protesters and bystanders," the London-based group said Wednesday.
Sobri Lubis, who heads the Islamic Defenders Front, a hardline group that was among conservative religious organizations backing Prabowo in the election, said it would keep standing by its candidate.
"We are committed to the truth. We reject all forms of fraud and injustice," Sobri said.
Some analysts said the presidential election had exposed social and religious divides in Southeast Asia's largest country – and the world's largest Muslim-majority one – that reflected Indonesia's growing pains as a 21-year-old democracy.
Jokowi won in provinces where non-Muslims are the majority, such as mainly Hindu Bali and predominantly Christian East Nusa Tenggara, while Prabowo dominated in religiously conservative regions, including Aceh province where Islamic law is enforced


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BENARNEWS- Two Indonesian women will not be deported home after authorities in Iraq convicted and sentenced them to 15 years in prison under its anti-terror laws for joining the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, Indonesia's foreign ministry confirmed Friday.
Foreign ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah identified the women as Aidha and Amalia, and said they were sentenced this month and in April. Many Indonesians use only one name.
"If they are found guilty under Iraqi law, they have to serve their sentences there," Faizasyah told BenarNews.
The spokesman said it was not clear how the women ended up in Iraq or whether there were other Indonesians linked to IS being held in the Middle Eastern country.
"We have no further information as details are still being verified by the immigration department," Faizasyah said.
The Indonesian government can do little to help citizens linked to IS who face legal troubles in Iraq and Syria because the militant organization is banned in Indonesia, according to Stanislaus Riyanta, a security analyst at the University of Indonesia.
"Certainly, Iraqi and Syrian authorities have the jurisdiction to carry out legal proceedings against anyone involved in IS or other legal violations in their countries," Stanislaus told BenarNews.
"It is better for Indonesia if citizens who join IS are prosecuted in Iraq or Syria, where they committed their crimes, because the Iraqi and Syrian authorities certainly have stronger evidence," he said.
Information about the sentencings surfaced after the Associated Press reported earlier this week about an unnamed Indonesian woman who was sentenced this month in Iraq, and was known to be married to an IS fighter who was killed in a U.S.-led coalition airstrike.
Iraq authorities have detained or imprisoned about 19,000 people accused of being members of IS or carrying out acts of terrorism and as many as 3,000 have been sentenced to death, including dozens of French citizens, AP reported. None of the French citizens have been executed.
Repatriation issues
Faizasyah said questions regarding the possible repatriation of Indonesians involved in the conflict in Syria and Iraq should be addressed to the National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT) and the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security affairs.
Earlier this year, Indonesia's foreign ministry said it was working to determine the nationalities of about 50 people believed to members of Indonesian families who joined IS and were sheltering at the al-Hol camp for displaced people in northeastern Syria, after IS's last bastion fell.
"First, it needs to be verified whether they are Indonesians," Faizasyah said.
The verification could take months and would involve the National Police and National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT), which would have to confirm and cross-check information from relatives and other sources with knowledge of the displaced people, the foreign ministry said.
In 2017, BNPT reported that at least 1,321 Indonesians had joined IS or tried to enlist. Of that number, 84 were killed, 482 were deported while trying to enter Syria, and 62 had returned from Syria. Another 63 were stopped at Indonesian airports while trying to travel to the Middle East.
Last November, Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu told BenarNews that about 700 Indonesian citizens had joined IS in Syria and Iraq.
The government should provide legal assistance to citizens facing legal problems overseas, Jakarta-based security analyst Rakyan Adibrata said.
"Turkey prefers deportation. Iraq prefers to conduct judicial processes there. Diplomatic efforts are needed," he said.
For those repatriated to Indonesia, the government must ensure that they do not pose a security threat at home, Rakyan said.
"Efforts should be made to rehabilitate and deradicalize them to make sure that those who return don't endanger others," he said


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian police on Monday announced the arrest of the suspected leader of Jemaah Islamiyah, al-Qaeda's Southeast Asian militant network that authorities blamed for Indonesia's deadliest terrorist attack, the Bali bombings of October 2002.
Suspect Para Wijayanto, 54, who was on a government most-wanted list since 2003, was arrested with his wife, Masitha Yasmin, at a hotel in Bekasi regency near Jakarta on Saturday, national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said. He did not release details of what led to Para's capture nor did he comment on Masitha's arrest.
In addition, counter-terrorism police arrested three men they described as Para's trusted aides – identified as Abdurrahman, Budi Trikaryanto and Bambang Suyoso – in separate locations on Sunday, Dedi said.
Police allege that Para assumed leadership of Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and rebuilt terror cells after 2007, when a court in the world's largest Muslim-majority country declared it an illegal organization.
"JI underwent a metamorphosis in 2007 after it was disbanded. Para was installed as the emir of JI in Indonesia," Dedi said.
In 2000, Para undertook military training in the southern Philippines, where he learned intelligence and bomb-making skills, said Dedi, who described the suspect as a civil engineering graduate from a reputable university in Java.
Para allegedly had roles in several deadly JI attacks including the coordinated bombings on Christmas Eve 2000 that killed 18 people, and the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202, including 88 Australians.
Police have blamed JI members for other attacks including the 2003 bombing at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Jakarta, in which 12 were killed, the 2004 attack on the Australian Embassy that killed nine, and the 2009 twin bombings at the J.W. Marriott and Ritz Carlton hotels in Jakarta that killed seven along with two suicide bombers.
In addition to his efforts in rebuilding JI, Para provided intelligence and helped recruit militants in Poso, Central Sulawesi province between 2005 and 2007, Dedi said. Poso had been the scene of previous clashes between Muslims and Christians that left thousands dead.
"Para took advantage of his intelligence skills to help the network in Poso which later morphed into the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen," Dedi said.
Fervently opposed to the Islamic State
Sidney Jones, an expert on Islamic militancy in Indonesia and director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), said Para was appointed as JI emir, or leader, in 2008 and appeared to have remained in the leadership role.
Jones said that while JI was a threat, she cautioned against lumping it with Islamic State (IS).
"As far as we know, JI leaders like Para Wijayanto and Abu Rusdan still see violence in Indonesia as counter-productive. They don't support violence and are fervently opposed to ISIS," Jones told BenarNews, using a different acronym for the IS.
She said Para and other JI leaders wanted the group to expand gradually to create a Muslim state in Indonesia.
"That doesn't mean that they don't see violence as legitimate, it's just that they, for the time being, aren't engaged in violence because in their opinion, there's no public support and it creates more harm than good," she added.
Still, JI leaders believe they must prepare for future jihad, Jones said.
"They believe in military training, so it's likely they supported their followers who traveled to Syria, or even sent them there, but not to join ISIS, but fight them," she said.
Jones said JI had severed ties with its co-founder, cleric Abu Bakar Bashir, who is serving a 15-year-jail term, after he founded the Indonesian Mujahideen Council.
Bashir was arrested after the 2002 Bali bombings, but prosecutors could not link him to that attack. A Jakarta court did find him guilty of falsifying documents and sentenced him to 18 months in prison.
The cleric was jailed after his 2010 arrest and sentenced in 2011 to 15 years on charges that he helped fund a training camp for Islamic militants in Aceh province, and incited extremists to carry out terrorist attacks.
Earlier this year, the government announced that Bashir, 80, would be released from custody on humanitarian grounds because of his age and ill health. Later, officials announced that Bashir could be paroled if he signed a pledge of allegiance to the state, but he refused to do so.


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BENARNEWS- Police in Indonesia's Maluku province said they have charged five suspected separatists with treason after security forces raided a house where pro-independence activists had gathered over the weekend.
Authorities confiscated secessionist flags of the banned Maluku Sovereignty Front – South Maluku Republic (FKM-RMS) from the house in Hulaliu village on Haruku island, about 2,400 km (1,490 miles) northeast of Jakarta.
Police have charged the suspects - identified as Izack Siahaya, 80, Teli Siahaya, 50, Johan Noya, 35, Markus Noya, 30, and Basten Noya, 30 – with treason, according to Julkisno Kaisupy, a police spokesman in Ambon, the main island in the Malukus.
They could face life in prison if found guilty.
"They are still being detained. The police are handling the case," Julkisno told BenarNews.
Amnesty International Indonesia (AI) urged the national police to order officers in Maluku to release the activists.
"Installing a flag as a political expression is not a crime. Political activists who carry out their acts peacefully, including those who support independence, have the right to express their political views," AI researcher Papang Hidayat said in a statement.
"The police must immediately and unconditionally release them and guarantee freedom of expression for the people of Maluku," Papang said.
AI said the suspects in detention were not accompanied by a lawyer.
"The police in Maluku must guarantee that they are not tortured or mistreated. The police must also guarantee that they get access to lawyers – chosen by them," Papang said.
Julkisno declined to comment on AI's call for the suspects to be released, but said they were accompanied by a lawyer appointed by police.
A local activist said the flag was displayed inside the house.
"From the aspect of human rights and legal rights, there is no justification for police to arrest or punish the five people, even more so that the reason for the arrest was simply the display of an RMS flag inside the house," Johanis L. Hahury, chairman of the Maluku Human Rights Advocacy Institute (LIAMMA), told BenarNews.
'Prisoners of conscience'
A group of Maluku nationalists proclaimed the RMS on April 25, 1950, after a treaty between the Dutch and the Indonesian governments for a federation of Indonesian states was broken.
The RMS rebellion was defeated by Indonesian forces later that year, but a low-level armed insurgency continued until 1963. The RMS leadership went into exile in the Netherlands in 1966.
In 2007, police arrested 28 pro-independence activists who performed a cakalele war dance and unfurled a separatist flag in front of then-president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono during a ceremony to mark National Family Day in Ambon.
The activists were sentenced to between 15 and 20 years in prison.
Human Rights Watch has alleged that some of the prisoners were subjected to torture and other ill-treatment.
Last year, Indonesian authorities moved six of the prisoners from Nusakambangan, a penal island for hardened criminals off the coast of Java island, to a prison in Ambon, Maluku's provincial capital.
They have refused a government offer of pardon, insisting that they are not guilty of any crime.
Amnesty said the government of current President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo had released 60 "prisoners of conscience" in rebellious Papua province and Maluku since he took office in 2014.
"In recent years, Amnesty International has noted that the number of political activists in Papua and Maluku prosecuted on charges of treason has been decreasing," AI said.


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BENARNEWS- A woman who wore sandals and brought her dog into an Indonesian mosque has been charged with blasphemy despite police and family reports that she is mentally ill, officials said Tuesday.
The 52-year-old woman, identified by her initials S.M., was arrested Sunday after entering a mosque in Bogor, West Java while carrying a dog, an act deemed offensive to Muslims because canine saliva is considered impure. In addition, shoes are to be removed before entering the holy place.
S.M.'s family said she suffered from mental illness, a condition confirmed by police following a psychiatric examination at the R. Soekanto Police Hospital in Jakarta. The woman's medical record showed that she suffered from schizophrenia and underwent psychiatric treatment in 2013 but did not complete her therapy, Bogor police spokeswoman Ita Puspita Lena said.
Despite her history of mental illness, S.M. will be brought to trial, Bogor police chief Andy M. Dicky said.
"We will still process the case. The psychiatric record will be presented in court. The judges will decide whether it's a mitigating factor," he said.
S.M. was charged with blasphemy, an offense under Indonesia's criminal code that can carry up to five years in prison, Ita said.
A video of the incident has gone viral on social media in the Muslim-majority country. It shows an angry S.M. telling mosque caretakers that she was looking for her husband, whom she said was marrying another woman in a ceremony at the holy place. She can be heard in the video claiming to be a Christian.
The video has sparked widespread condemnation of the woman.
Among those appealing to Muslims to remain calm and not overreact was Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
"We must not retaliate [by attacking] a church. Her action has also been condemned by the leaders of the religion to which she belongs," he said while praising mosque officials for not taking the law into their own hands.
Syafruddin, director of the Indonesian Mosque Council (DMI), took a harder stance. He said the woman's action could cause unrest.
"The case should be handled transparently. There should be no cover-up," he told reporters.
Meanwhile, the deputy chairman of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) called on the public to help prevent any unrest by refraining from sharing the video online.
"If someone who is sane did it, it is clear that this is blasphemy," he said. "But it is another matter if the person is insane, maybe depressed or has a mental disorder."


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BENARNEWS- A unity pact struck reportedly by separatist rebel factions in Papua province is an attempt to win public support, the Indonesian military said Friday, while it was still searching for a helicopter that vanished in the region a week earlier with 12 servicemen on board.
The head of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) announced this week that three rebel groups resisting Jakarta's forces in the far eastern province had agreed on May 1 to come together and unify militarily under the banner of the West Papua Army.
ULMWP's claims, however, were "a ploy to gain public sympathy," said Muhammad Aidi, a spokesman in Papua for the Indonesian armed forces (TNI).
"They've been saying that for a long time," he told BenarNews. "For us, whether they are united or divided is not an issue."
He added a warning.
"No sovereign country will tolerate separatism. Raising an army is a violation of the law. Not only will they have to face the TNI, but also the entire people of Indonesia," Aidi said.
Maj. Gen. Sisriadi, TNI's national spokesman, described the Papuan rebels as "criminals."
"The TNI will continue to assist the police in enforcing the laws in Papua, by looking for and arresting wanted armed criminals who have carried out criminal acts such as the destruction of property, the killing of civilians and other atrocities," Sisriadi told BenarNews.
"Several important people from the armed criminal groups in Papua have realized their mistakes and surrendered their weapons to the military and promised to work together with the people to develop Papua as an integral part of the Unitary State of Indonesia," Sisriadi said, referring to rebels.
Search teams, meanwhile, have been out looking every day – weather permitting – but so far have uncovered no traces of the army helicopter that went missing during a flight in remote and densely forested Papua on June 28, Aidi said. Its jungle-clad terrain and limited road networks make air transport vital to the troubled region.
The Russian-made Mil Mi-17 lost contact with ground control a few minutes after lifting off from Oksibil, an administrative center in the mountainous Pegunungan Bintang regency, the military said.
"Still nothing, we have not found any signs of it," Aidi said, adding that there had been no radio contact with the crew and passengers since the helicopter disappeared.
"There's still a possibility that the helicopter made an emergency landing. We are still hopeful," he said.
All 12 people on board were TNI personnel. There was one officer among them, a second lieutenant, according to Aidi.
The crew did not send out any distress signal and officials suspect that bad weather, which can develop rapidly, was a factor. The control tower reported the helicopter missing at an altitude of 7,800 feet (2,400 meters), five minutes after leaving Oksibil, according to the Associated Press.
It had stopped there to refuel while transporting troops and supplies to a border post near Indonesia's frontier with Papua New Guinea, AP reported.

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Indonesian soldiers carry rifles as they walk toward a helicopter to fly to Nduga district in Papua province, Dec. 5, 2018. [Antara Foto/Iwan Adisaputra via Reuters]

'Unity is our strength'
Papua New Guinea is where the three rebel factions – the West Papua Revolutionary Army, the West Papuan National Army and the West Papua National Liberation Army – met in early May and agreed to join forces as a united army against Jakarta rule, according to Benny Wenda, the Britain-based leader of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua.
"This is important because it is the first time all the military factions have come together in the history of our struggle," Wenda told BenarNews. "Unity is our strength. For the first time ever, we are politically unified under the ULMWP, and militarily unified under the West Papua Army."
"This development shows the world that we are ready for independence, ready to form a government free from Indonesian colonialism," he added.
However, a faction of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) led by Jeffrey Bomanak and its armed wing, the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), disputed Wenda's claims about the unity pact.
"The OPM-National Liberation Army is not part of ULMWP. OPM had existed even before there was ULMWP. We are soldiers, while UMWP is a civilian movement," Bomanak told BenarNews on Friday.
Sebby Sambom, a spokesman for the West Papua National Liberation Army, said his faction was not involved in the congress in Papua New Guinea that led to the declaration of a unified West Papua Army. TPNPB commanders, such as Goliat Tabuni, Egianus Kogoya and Puron Wenda, did not attend that meeting, he said.
"I heard that the extraordinary congress was held in Vanimo (PNG) in May. But we know nothing about it, so we reject all the outcome," Sebby told BenarNews.
The Papuan armed separatist movement is often seen as being made up of fractious groups, whose fighters lack modern military equipment. Most of their weapons are traditional instruments such as spears, bows and arrows. The few firearms they possess usually are captured from government security forces.
Hipo Wangge, a researcher at the Marthinus Academy think-tank in Jakarta, cast doubts on Benny's claim about the establishment of a unified rebel army.
"The nature of the liberation [movement] has been fragmented since the 1960s," Wangge said.
Increased military activity
Indonesian security forces have intensified operations in Papua after rebels killed 19 road construction workers and a soldier in Nduga regency in December last year.
Indigenous teenagers and boys who appear to be barely adolescent were involved in armed separatist groups in Papua, AP reported last month.

Wenda disputed the report and said the separatist movement was "committed to the full implementation of international law, unlike the illegal Indonesian occupation."
"Since December 2018, over 30 civilian children have been killed in brutal Indonesian bombing raids and ground operations," Wenda alleged.
The military and police have denied that civilians were targeted in counter-insurgency operations. Human rights groups have accused Indonesian forces in Papua of committing serious abuses with near impunity.
In December, residents of Nduga were forced to flee to escape clashes between the insurgents and government security forces who were sent to capture those responsible in the killings of the workers who were building the Trans-Papua Highway.
The construction of bridges as part of the highway that stretches more than 4,300 km (2,687 miles) from Sorong, the largest city in West Papua province, to Merauke regency has since resumed following the deployment of more than 600 soldiers to secure the project. It is scheduled to be completed later this year.
Papua is one of the archipelago's poorest regions despite its rich natural resources. It declared independence from Dutch colonial rule on Dec. 1, 1961, but that was rejected by the Netherlands and later by Indonesia.
In 1963, Indonesian forces invaded the region and annexed it, and six years later held a controversial referendum in which, according to rights groups, security forces selected slightly more than 1,000 people to agree to the region's formal absorption into the archipelagic nation.


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BENARNEWS- President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo spoke about measuring life by how people help others as Indonesia bade farewell Monday to an official who kept the public informed about frequent natural disasters in the country even while battling lung cancer.
The president was evoking the words by which Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency, was known. Sutopo died early Sunday at Guangzhou Modern Cancer Hospital in China where he had been treated since mid-June, and was buried in his hometown of Boyolali in Central Java province on Monday.
"During earthquakes, landslides, tsunamis or fires, Mr. Sutopo kept us informed so that we could remain on alert and not be confused," Jokowi said in a statement.
"Life is not about how long it is, but it's about how much we are of help to other people," Jokowi said. "He stayed true to that adage."
Sutopo's death at 49 unleashed an outpouring of grief among Indonesians, who had followed his reports on television and social media posts that provided updates on natural disasters, ranging from earthquakes to tsunamis and landslides, which occur regularly across the archipelago.
Sutopo, who is survived by his wife and two children, was widely praised for insisting on carrying out his day-to-day duties with gusto despite what he described as "unbearable pain" after being diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer in early 2018.
He died just hours before a strong earthquake struck off the Molucca Islands in eastern Indonesia on Sunday night. For more than five hours, the disaster agency that Sutopo had run so efficiently was unable to post information on possible damage or casualties despite a tsunami warning being issued and later lifted by the country's meteorological agency.
In an interview with BenarNews last November, Sutopo said he sometimes fielded phone calls and text messages from journalists and wrote press releases while undergoing chemotherapy sessions in a hospital. He kept a list of more than 3,000 local and foreign journalists.
Keeping himself busy eased the pain, Sutopo said. During 2018, he reported on and fielded media inquiries as earthquakes devastated parts of Lombok and Sulawesi islands between July and September, killing more than 3,500 people.
"When I work I forget all the pain, even more so when my press conferences are attended by many journalists," he told BenarNews.

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Muhammad Ivanka Rizaldy Nugroho prays at his father's grave, July 8, 2019. [Kusumasari Ayuningtyas/BenarNews]

Sutopo's social media accounts were not totally devoted to his work. He showed his romantic side last year when he revealed that he wanted to meet Raisa, a popular singer known for her love songs.
Twitter users began using the hashtag #SutopoMeetRaisa to draw attention to his wish to meet the pop star.
Raisa got the message and video-called him in October 2018 to wish him a speedy recovery. A month later, the pair met in a building where Sutopo had gone to do an interview and Raisa was promoting her new song.
"My Twitter today has #RaisaMeetSutopo all over it. I've read all the stories in your tweets, friends, and it made me feel like I've known Pak Sutopo for a long time. He's loved by many. Keep your spirit and keep on inspiring, Pak Sutopo " Raisa tweeted at the time.
Fake news fighter
Even as he battled cancer, Sutopo made it his mission to fight fake news disseminated over social media and instant messaging services.
His Twitter feed regularly debunked hoaxes and fake news circulating online about disasters, including videos of old volcanic eruptions being passed off as new along with chain messages warning of impending earthquakes.
Septiaji Eko Nugroho, chief of the Indonesian Society Against Fake News (Mafindo), said Sutopo was an exemplary figure among public officials in a country where government agencies are not immune from corruption.
"In this era of social media, every disaster is almost always accompanied by the dissemination of inaccurate information. Most of this misinformation is spread by people who are well-intentioned, who want to help, or want to warn their loved ones," Septiaji said. "He was acutely aware that disinformation at a time of a disaster could mean life or death for people affected.
"He had a constant positive attitude and always exuded optimism," Septiaji said. "Indonesia has lost a teacher, an exemplary civil servant and a fake news fighter, a figure who put public interest above all else."

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Mourners carry the casket of Sutopo Purwo Nugroho into a funeral home in East Jakarta, July 7, 2019. [Tia Asmara/BenarNews]

On Monday, neighbor Manaor Simbolon, described Sutopo as a humble man who liked to exercise regularly.
"He was a good person, friendly and cheerful. He was active in the community. We, his neighbors, will miss him dearly," said Simbolon who was among hundreds of people paying their respects at Sutopo's house on the outskirts of Jakarta.


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BENARNEWS- A team from Indonesia's counter-terrorism agency visited Syria and Iraq two weeks ago as part of efforts to gather facts as Jakarta considers whether to allow battle-hardened citizens who fought alongside Islamic State to come home with their families, officials said Tuesday.
About 100 Indonesians, including children and women, are languishing in several camps along the border between the two Middle Eastern countries, where they were taken after the last IS bastion fell early this year, said Suhardi Alius, director of the National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT).
"We went there, and we took their testimony about what they went through. We were told that the women only got marriage proposals, while the men were dogged by demands to be fighters," Suhardi told a Jakarta forum on the future of ex-IS returnees.
"The other day, we entered Iraq and we obtained information on how many are still there. We are glad that the men will face legal proceedings there," he said, without saying when the visit took place. "For us, it's better that way, because even if they return, they will have to face the law (at home)."
Brig. Gen. Hamli separately told BenarNews that the small team visited Syria and Iraq two weeks ago and returned early this month.
"The team was there to verify the identity of Indonesians, check their passport, assess their level of radicalism and, if they should return, what de-radicalization programs are suitable for them," he said. "It was a preliminary assessment."
Hamli said Indonesian officials were holding talks with Syrian and Iraqi authorities about possible repatriation, which was expected to take place after Jakarta had finalized its assessment.
He said returnees would undergo a rehabilitation program at a Social Affairs Ministry facility in Bambu Apus sub-district in East Jakarta for a month.
"If one month is not enough, it can be extended, depending on the level of their radicalism," he said. "But otherwise they will be returned home."
In June, the foreign ministry said that two Indonesian women would not be repatriated after Iraqi authorities convicted and sentenced them to 15 years in prison under that nation's anti-terror laws for joining IS. The women, identified as Aidha and Amalia, were sentenced last month and in April, respectively, but the ministry said it was not clear how the women ended up in Iraq.
Iraq authorities have detained or imprisoned about 19,000 people accused of being members of IS or carrying out acts of terrorism, and as many as 3,000 have been sentenced to death, including dozens of French citizens, according to the Associated Press. None of the French citizens have been executed.
Under Indonesian law, Suhardi said, citizens who fight for a foreign country could be stripped of their citizenship, but the question of whether those who joined IS in the Middle East should be allowed to return to Indonesia remains controversial.
"It has not been decided, because it's a sensitive issue. Are we going to sacrifice those children? Are they guilty?" he said. "There are many women and children in the camps."
"Even if there's a decision to bring them back, we have to assess the risks. We have to find ways to mitigate them," he said. "We have to build a system. We give them a second chance."
Those Indonesians in the camps along northern Syria's border with Iraq include 24 children and 29 women, according to the foreign ministry.
Debate at home
With the demise of IS's self-proclaimed caliphate, America's European allies are also grappling with the fate of their citizens in the war-torn Mid-East nations. Many have been reluctant to take back their citizens who have been taken captive or are languishing in Syrian camps after siding with or fighting for IS, despite the urging of U.S. President Donald Trump.
While discussing the fate of Indonesian citizens in Syria, officials in Jakarta have not publicly invoked the case of Shamima Begum, the 19-year-old British woman of Bangladeshi parentage, who ran away from her home in London and made her way to Syria with two other teenage girls in 2015 allegedly to join the IS.
British authorities revoked Begum's citizenship in February, in an action that could render her stateless.
While Britain allows dual nationality, Indonesia recognizes it only for children up to 18 years, with a 3-year grace period. By the time children turn 21, they are required to notify Indonesian immigration authorities if they intend to keep their citizenship or release it in favor of the other nationality.
The government will soon decide what to do with the children and women in the Syrian camps, Joedha Nugraha, the foreign ministry's director for the protection of Indonesians overseas, told BenarNews
"The Indonesian government will prioritize the humanitarian aspect while at the same time ensuring security and law enforcement are guaranteed," he said.
In 2017, BNPT reported that at least 1,321 Indonesians had joined IS or tried to enlist. Of that number, 84 were killed, 482 were deported while trying to enter Syria, and 62 had returned from Syria. Another 63 were stopped at Indonesian airports while trying to travel to the Middle East.
Citing intelligence data from his government, Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu told a security forum in Singapore last year that about 400 out of 31,500 foreign fighters who had joined IS in Syria were from Indonesia.
Sri Yunanto, a staff expert at the ministry of security and political affairs, said the government would face challenges if it decided to allow IS fighters to return.
"If we want to be firm, just revoke their passports. We can't root out a deep-seated ideology in just one month," Sri told the forum.
Noor Huda Ismail, an expert on Islamic militancy in Indonesia and founder of a foundation dedicated to rehabilitating former militants, called for a more humane approach.
"No one is born a terrorist," he said. "People can change."
Indonesia could be an example to the world for handling former foreign fighters, officials said.
"Most of them wanted to join the caliphate to escape corrupt governments. They could be educated to spread the message countering the caliphate narrative," Noor Huda said.
Legislator Meutya Hafid, who was taken hostage by militants when she was working as a journalist in Iraq in 2005, said her experience proved that even terrorists had their human side.
"If they had no humanity left, I wouldn't be alive today," Meutya said. "Some members of the public don't want them to return, but the government should not make a decision based on emotions."


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BENARNEWS- An Indonesian court convicted and sentenced a firebrand Islamic preacher, who earlier gained notoriety for calling the country's president a traitor, to three years in prison on Tuesday for assaulting two teenagers who had impersonated him last year.
Bahar bin Smith, 33, the founder of an Islamic school in Bogor, West Java, was found guilty of causing grievous injury to the teens aged 18 and 17 on Dec. 1, 2018, judges at the Bandung district court ruled.
"The defendant is legally guilty of committing violence against children which resulted in serious injuries," Chief Judge Edison Muhammad ruled.
Video footage of the attack, which went viral on social media, showed the long-haired and blond cleric kneeing one of the teens in the face, according to a local news report.
In addition to the prison sentence, the court ordered Bahar to pay a fine of 50 million rupiah (U.S. $3,540).
The preacher made national headlines last year when he called Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo a "sissy" and a "traitor" during a speech.
"If you voted for him in the last [2014] election, you will be held to account in the hereafter. You voted for a furniture seller and you deserve whatever is happening to you," Bahar told his followers in the speech.
Police questioned him after receiving hate-speech complaints but did not file charges.
Following his arrest on the assault charges, Bahar warned the president: "Wait for me and feel the sharpness of my tongue."
The sentence was more lenient than the six years requested by the prosecutor, with Judge Edison citing Bahar's remorse and polite behavior during the trial as mitigating factors.
The defendant said he did not intend to attack the teenagers, but was trying to warn them not to pass themselves off as him.
"If I had had bad intentions, I could have told my students to finish them off," Bahar told the court.
After hearing the verdict, Bahar, shook hands with the judges, kissed an Indonesian flag in the courtroom and shouted "Allahu akbar (God is great)!"
Lawyer Ichwan Tuankotta, said his client had not decided whether to appeal, but said he was glad the sentence was lower than what the prosecutor requested.
"We appreciate the judge's decision," Ichwan said.
Police deployed about 1,000 officers to provide security inside and outside the courthouse in Bandung, where hundreds of Bahar's supporters rallied.
"Free our teacher!" one supporter shouted.
Bahar has had at least one previous brush with the law.
He was arrested in 2012 and later released after he and his followers attacked a Jakarta café during Ramadan.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian defense chief Ryamizard Ryacudu updated ASEAN counterparts in Bangkok on Thursday about efforts to collaborate in dealing with militancy and other regional security challenges, as he presented a paper on the "Our Eyes" counter-terrorist initiative spearheaded by Jakarta.
The 10 members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations later in the day adopted official terms of reference for "Our Eyes," which ASEAN approved last October in a bid by six of its members to share intelligence and build a database to counter violent extremism across the region.
Terrorism, separatism, drug trafficking, natural disasters and outbreaks of disease were among security threats facing Southeast Asia, Ryacudu told his counterparts during the 13th ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting hosted by Thailand.
"The ASEAN defense ministers have agreed to form working groups to deal with these problems, including intelligence cooperation through the Our Eyes initiative," Ryacudu said in a statement posted by the Indonesian Defense Ministry. "This is one of the clear examples of successful ASEAN cooperation in the field of defense.
"In addition, trilateral measures in the form of joint sea and air patrols have been effective and will be expanded with joint land operations involving Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines."
During his presentation, Ryacudu also highlighted the region's diversity along with its natural and renewable resources that attracts the other nations to the region, Indonesia's national news agency, Antara, reported.
"Hence, it comes as no surprise that the world community is also keen to join forces to collaborate in the region. We have also agreed to have a collaborative community to deal with various security issues that have the potential to disrupt stability in the region, for which some steps for cooperation have been taken, including the prevention of terrorism and others," he said, according to Antara.
Previously, the Indonesian foreign ministry said "Our Eyes" was meant to revolutionize efforts by Southeast Asian countries to combat counter-terrorist efforts. The five other ASEAN members that agreed to collaborate in the initiative are the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore and Brunei.
The joint effort was envisioned as a way to increase cooperation among intelligence branches of each county while blocking militant-recruitment efforts. During the October 2018 meeting of ASEAN leaders, Indonesian officials pointed out that joint patrols with the Philippine navy had lowered the terror threat in the region.

"There will be challenges to work together, but the desire of government leaders to overcome traditional barriers and expand international cooperation has the potential to change the counter-terrorism landscape in Asia, by preventing incidents like Marawi from happening again," the Indonesian foreign ministry said at the time.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian authorities said they were investigating whether Jemaah Islamiyah, which carried out the 2002 Bali bombings and other terrorist attacks in the country, was involved in establishing palm oil plantations and other enterprises as funding sources for its operations.
It has been years since JI was linked to any bombings in the world's largest majority-Muslim country, but police believe the militant group may be investing in palm oil production, among other economic activities, as a source of money for its mission to turn Indonesia into a Sharia state.
"We suspect they are building a strong economic foundation in order to realize their plans," national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo told BenarNews.
Police were not aware of any immediate plans by JI to carry out new terrorist attacks, he added.
"They own palm oil plantations in Kalimantan and Sumatra," he said, referring to Indonesian Borneo and the western island of Sumatra.
"If we seize or destroy those plantations, it will affect the group's revenue to some extent, but again, we are still investigating how large their plantations are or whether they have other businesses," Dedi said.
JI, a Southeast Asian militant group affiliated with al-Qaeda, was blamed for the country's deadliest terror attack, the bombings that killed 202 people 17 years ago on the island of Bali, Indonesia's biggest tourist draw.
In late June, counter-terrorism police arrested Para Wijayanto, the suspected chief of JI who had been on a government most-wanted list since 2003, and three of his aides.
Para, who undertook military training in the southern Philippines in 2000, became the group's leader and rebuilt its cells after Indonesia declared Jemaah an illegal organization in 2007, police allege. He was picked up in Bekasi, a city near the capital Jakarta, on June 29.
Dedi said police were questioning a suspected JI treasurer, whose name authorities have not released, after they arrested him in Magetan regency, East Java, on July 3.
The suspect, Dedi said, managed JI's finances under a structure established by Para.
JI paid its top leaders between 10 million (U.S. $714) and 15 million rupiah ($1,070) per month through proceeds from the plantation business, the police spokesman said.
Dedi did not say when JI started the plantation business or how large it is, but said it was registered under a company, not in the name of individual members of the militant group.
"Anything confiscated from the terrorist group will be used as evidence in a trial. It can be impounded or destroyed, depending on a court's order," Dedi said.
Asked whether police still considered JI a terrorist group, Dedi replied:
"It's been declared an outlawed organization ... and they still have members and sympathizers. They are not gone yet, as indicated by the arrest of Para Wijayanto.
"We continue to be vigilant against the threats (posed by JI)," he said.

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A worker prepares to plant a palm oil tree at a plantation in Meulaboh in West Aceh regency on Indonesia's Sumatra island, March 28, 2019. [AFP]

'Stopped acts that attract attention'
Para, 54, a civil engineering graduate, allegedly had roles in several deadly attacks perpetrated by JI, including the coordinated bombings on Christmas Eve 2000 that killed 18 people, and the 2002 Bali bombings, in which 88 Australians were among the dead.
Between 2003 and 2009, the group was also blamed for deadly bombings at hotels in Jakarta as well as the Australian embassy and another attack in Bali.
"JI still exists because their dream of establishing an Islamic state is always there," said Noor Huda Ismail, an expert on Islamic militancy who started a foundation devoted to rehabilitating former militants.
"JI is not only a terrorist organization, but a social movement. They have their own resources, including schools and plantations," he said.
In the past the group relied on funds raised through robberies to finance their operations, said Sofyan Tsauri, a former JI member.
"JI members are indeed more adaptive in running the organization," Sofyan told BenarNews.
"They have stopped acts that attract attention. It could be that they are consolidating their strengths, including financially."
However, according to another analyst, JI has weakened since an Indonesian court declared it a banned organization 12 years ago, but he warned that it remains a threat.
Some of its battle-hardened members who trained in Afghanistan and the southern Philippines had abandoned the group and were laying low, said Adhe Bhakti, an analyst at the Center for Radicalism and De-radicalization Studies (PAKAR).
"They are trying to live regular lives," Adhe told BenarNews.
He estimated that JI has 1,000 members and the group under Para managed to send six people to Syria to take part in the conflict there.
As for JI's military wing, known as Asykari, it remains active in Java and in Lampung, a province on Sumatra, he said.
JI also is recruiting new members, but it opposes the ideology espoused by the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, which has been linked to terrorist attacks in Indonesia in more recent years, said Sidney Jones, director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) in Jakarta.
"[T]hey have eschewed violence because they believe Muslims in Indonesia are not under attack. They aspire to establish an Islamic state, but not the ISIS-style caliphate," she told BenarNews, using another acronym for IS.
Tia Asmara and Rina Chadijah contributed to this report from Jakarta.


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BENARNEWS- Government security forces have surrounded remnants of the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT) linked with the Islamic State (IS) militant group after locating their hideout in the jungles of Central Sulawesi province, Indonesian police said Monday.
A joint police and military team have in the past few days cornered MIT leader Ali Kalora and his six men, blocking off potential escape paths from their hideout in Poso Pesisir Selatan, a district of Poso regency, police sources said.
"One thing is certain that if they move, they will be arrested because their escape routes have been surrounded," national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo told reporters in Jakarta.
Poso is MIT's longtime stronghold in the province on Sulawesi Island, where government forces have been hunting the militants down for years.
Dedi said security forces had cut off supplies to the militants' lair.
"When the supply runs out, God willing, they will go down and be arrested. If they persist, they will die," he said.
Security forces have killed four suspected MIT militants since March, bringing the outlawed group's overall strength down to seven fighters, including Ali Kalora, according to the authorities.
Operation Tinombala, a joint military-police task force that has targeted MIT militants on Sulawesi since January 2016 was extended last week by another three months, Central Sulawesi police chief Brig. Gen. Lukman Wahyu Hariyanto said.
Tinombala replaced another joint operation to pursue the militants on Sulawesi, Camar Maleo, which began in 2015. On July 18, 2016, the task force killed Santoso, MIT's overall leader, who was then the country's most-wanted militant.
"The operation has been extended to narrow the movement of the MIT," Lukman told BenarNews.
"Hopefully, they will all be caught soon," he said.
Lukman shared Dedi's optimism about the operation.
"The point is that they are surrounded. It means that if they move just a little, they will be caught," he said.
Lukman said the MIT holdouts reportedly are armed with only two firearms and several home-made bombs.
Before he was killed, Santoso (alias Abu Wardah) operated out of the mountains in Poso, where he also conducted para-military training for militants. The training sessions drew recruits from other parts of Indonesia as well as from abroad, including at least six Uyghurs.
Two months after his death, Santoso's successor, Mohamad Basri, was captured. Also in 2016, authorities announced that they had reduced MIT's ranks from an estimated 40 people to fewer than 10 fighters.
Santoso was the first Indonesian militant to publicly pledge allegiance to IS. During his leadership, at least three farmers in the same district in Parigi Moutong were beheaded in 2015 – many of them non-Muslims from other parts of Indonesia.
Two locals slain by MIT
Didik Supranoto, spokesman for the provincial police department, said the holdover militants were responsible for killing a father and his son in Parigi Moutong regency last month.
The bodies of Tamar, 49, and Patmar, 27, were found with their throats slit in a field about 10 km (6.2 miles) from their village on June 25.
"The investigation found that the MIT was the perpetrator," Didik told BenarNews.
The victims were targeted because they had provided information to police, he said, noting that the two had escaped another attempt on their lives five years ago.
"They were targeted in 2014 because they were believed to have informed (security forces) of the whereabouts of MIT members who often passed by local people's plantations," he said.
"They were afraid (after the first attack) so they only told their family, not the authorities," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian advocates for free speech and gender equality hailed President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's decision to override a Supreme Court ruling and grant amnesty to a woman convicted for making public a recording of her school principal engaging in a lewd phone conversation.
Still, provisions in Indonesia's online information laws used to prosecute Baiq Nuril Maknun, a former school administrator from Lombok Island, and sentence her to six months should be quashed to shield sexual harassment victims from being caught up in similar court rulings, advocates said.
"[T]his is an appropriate thing to do," said Anggara Suwahju, executive director of the Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, adding that the legal proceedings against Nuril were problematic from the start.
"She is a victim of sexual abuse," Anggara told BenarNews. The institute, an independent research group that focuses on reforming Indonesia's criminal laws and justice system, had recommended amnesty for Nuril before the president authorized it.
In a letter to the House of Representatives (DPR) explaining his rationale for granting amnesty to Nuril, Jokowi said the ruling was "contrary to a public sense of justice" and that her legal options had been exhausted.
"Her action has been viewed as simply a struggle in an attempt to protect her honor and dignity as a woman and mother," Jokowi wrote earlier this week.
The DPR is expected to meet later this month to take action on Jokowi's letter to free Nuril.
The lawmakers will respond and likely approve the president's letter by July 25, just before a parliamentary recess, Deputy House Speaker Agus Hermanto said.
"My sense is that all factions agree, so I hope this won't take long," he told reporters.
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court rejected a last-ditch effort by Nuril, 40, to have her sentence and conviction overturned.
The court's decision provoked a public outcry that put a spotlight on the Information and Electronic Transaction (ITE) law's lack of protection for women who are alleged victims of sexual abuse. The law has landed regular social media users, government critics and celebrities in jail for defamation and for transmitting content considered to have violated morality.
In 2014, Nuril recorded a phone conversation where the principal at the school where she worked boasted about his sexual escapades. She said the recording was transferred to a computer by a friend and later ended up online without her knowledge.
The principal, who is named Muslim, filed a defamation lawsuit against Nuril after the recording went public, but a lower court cleared her in 2017.
The Supreme Court overturned the acquittal last year, sentenced Nuril to six months in prison for transmitting content that violates morality under the ITE and ordered her to pay a fine of 500 million rupiah ($35,765). Earlier this month the court rejected Nuril's request for a case review.
'Miscarriage of justice'
"The ITE law has been used too easily nowadays and this is a cause for public concern," said Chairul Huda, a criminal justice analyst at the Muhammadiyah University.
"In the cause of Baiq Nuril, it was a miscarriage of justice," he told BenarNews. "If the president thinks that the application of the law in her case is not correct, he should also grant amnesty to people convicted in similar cases."
At least 292 cases involving violations of the ITE law were filed in 2018, most of which were defamation cases, according to the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet).
The law's provisions on transmission of content that violates morality was supposed to be used against those involved in pornography, according Ellen Kusuma, a campaigner for SAFEnet. The law provides for up to six years in prison for anyone found guilty of online defamation or transmission of content deemed immoral.
"In practice, the article has been used to prosecute victims of sexual harassment, while perpetrators walked free," she told BenarNews. "These problematic provisions must be annulled to prevent more people from falling victim."
Nuril, who has not been jailed, was present at a parliamentary session on Tuesday when the president's letter was read out.
"It's one step closer (to freedom)," she told reporters.
Her lawyer, Widodo Dwi Putro, said he hoped the presidential amnesty would be a first step in changing the country's stance on freeing people who do not deserve to be jailed.
"I am optimistic that this will be the first amnesty for non-political prisoners," he told BenarNews.
Previously, Indonesian presidents granted amnesty to political prisoners and former separatist rebels from Aceh province.
"Hopefully it will become a legal breakthrough in Indonesia, that everyone is equal before the law," the lawyer said.
Thaufiek Zulbahary, a member of the National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan), said women in Indonesia were not adequately protected against sexual harassment.
She called on the government to pass a bill that would categorize the type of harassment suffered by Nuril as sexual violence.
"Cases like Miss Nuril's are common but there are no legal provisions against such verbal violence," Thaufiek said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian police on Tuesday identified a married couple who they believe perpetrated a suicide bombing that killed 23 people at a church in the southern Philippines in January.
Authorities established the identities of the two after interrogating a pair of suspected members of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local militant group affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, following their recent arrests, national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said.
"The two Indonesians, Rullie Rian Zeke and Ulfah Handayani Saleh, are believed to have carried out the suicide bombings in the Philippines," Dedi said during a news conference, adding that the Indonesian couple had entered the Philippines illegally.
The announcement marked the first time that the names of the suspected bombers was made public in the neighboring Southeast Asian countries.
The married couple were deported from Turkey in 2017 after they allegedly tried to cross its border to enter IS-controlled territory in Syria, Dedi said. He revealed their names while briefing journalists on latest information gathered by police from their investigation into the IS network in Indonesia.
The Jan. 27 twin bombings at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral in Jolo, the capital of Sulu province in the Philippines, was one of the worst terrorist acts to strike that country in years. The explosions, which also injured more than 100 people, took almost a year of planning, Philippine authorities said.
Suspects who were earlier arrested by Philippine authorities after the bombings had revealed that the bombers were Indonesian, but the couple's identity could not be established then, Dedi told reporters in Jakarta.
Sidney Jones, director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, a Jakarta think-tank, said Rullie and Ulfah left to join IS via Turkey in March 2016, taking with them their three children, but Turkish authorities caught them in January 2017 and deported them back to Indonesia.
"They underwent a short rehabilitation program and were allowed to go home," Jones said.
Dedi said that a JAD suspect, identified as Novendri, who was arrested in West Sumatra province last week, was assembling bombs to be used in planned attacks on Indonesia's Independence Day on Aug. 17.
Novendri's targets would have included police stations in the provincial capital Padang and other areas in West Sumatra, he said.
"He is connected to JAD in other Indonesian regions and overseas," Dedi said, adding that police were hunting other suspected plotters.
The other JAD suspect, identified as Yoga, was arrested in June in Malaysia and had been tasked with establishing a liaison between JAD and pro-IS militants in the Philippines, Dedi said.
Dedi said Novendri and Yoga acted at the behest of a wanted militant named Saefullah (alias Chaniago), who police believe is currently in Khorasan, Afghanistan.
Saefullah has received money transfers totaling 413 million rupiah ($29,500) via Western Union from countries such as Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, Maldives and Germany, the spokesman said.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, has been hit by a spate of terrorist attacks, more recently carried out by JAD militants.
Last year, two families carried out suicide bombings at three churches and a police station in Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city and the capital of East Java province.
Two adults and their son were also killed when the bomb they were planning to use for a terror attack exploded inside their apartment in nearby Sidoarjo regency, police said.
Authorities said 29 people were killed, including 13 of the suspects who used their children as young as 9 in carrying out the bomb attacks.
Abu Sayyaf leader suspected
In the Philippines, authorities blamed Abu Sayyaf senior leader Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan for masterminding the Jolo church attack.
Little is known about Sawadjaan, except that he is a senior member of the group, which in the early 2000s was known to have joined in the planning and carrying out of kidnap-for-ransom raids.
The church attack happened five months after a German of Moroccan descent drove a car packed with explosives through a checkpoint on Basilan island, killing 11 people.
On June 28, two IS-linked suicide bombers also detonated explosives while trying to enter a military camp on Jolo island, killing themselves and six people. Philippine authorities identified one of the two attackers as a 23-year-old Filipino named Norman Lasuca, the first local suicide bomber.
Sawadjaan replaced Isnilon Hapilon as the IS head in the region, after the latter was killed two years ago near the end of the five-month siege of the southern Philippine city of Marawi.
Mindanao has been under martial law since the Marawi siege that killed more than 1,200 people, most of them militants. Security officials have not lifted the order to allow troops to pursue militant stragglers who are believed trying to regroup.
Several foreign militants are believed seeking shelter in deep jungle areas and hinterlands in Mindanao, where they are trying to regroup and recruit young Filipinos to joint their movement, the military said.
On Tuesday, Philippine National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. said he would recommend a martial law extension for another year due to a sustained rebellion in the region.
"We don't have a problem in terms of abiding but there are some terrorists. So, we also must improve our deployment of technical equipment," he said.
Also on Tuesday, Lt. Gen. Cirilito Sobejana, the commander of the Western Mindanao Forces based in Zamboanga, said Sawadjaan's group could be coddling several other foreign bombers.
He said operations to get the foreigners were ongoing, but declined to elaborate because it may compromise military tactics.
He said they had been continuously working along with their U.S. counterparts to identify the second suicide bomber in the latest attack on Jolo.
"All remedies are being done by our concerned agencies to establish as to who really was the second bomber," Sobejana said.
"We are working closely and continuously conducting the matching of the DNA among the other members of the terror group involved in the previous bombing incidents," Sobejana said.
Mark Navales in Cotabato, Philippines, contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia is setting up a strategy to counter violent extremism, the nation's anti-terror chief said Tuesday, underscoring that the Islamic State militant group "remains an eminent threat" in the Southeast Asian country that had suffered devastating terror attacks in recent years.
Despite its defeat in the Middle East, the Islamic State (IS) has changed its terror tactics by extending its sphere of influence in Southeast Asia's local terrorist networks, according to Suhardi Alius, head of Indonesia's National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT).
"For Indonesia, the influence of ISIS remains an eminent threat, particularly those related to Foreign Terrorist Fighters returnees and re-locators, including the so-called 'frustrated travelers,'" Suhardi said in a speech, using the other acronym for IS.
Suhardi issued his remarks at the United States-Indonesia Society in Washington just hours after police in Jakarta identified a married Indonesian couple who they believe perpetrated a suicide bombing that killed 23 people at a church in the southern Philippines in January. The couple once tried to reach IS territory in Syria, authorities said.
"BNPT is embarking on setting up a national action plan to counter violent extremism," Suhardi said, emphasizing that the move would signify Indonesia's adherence to a United Nations resolution requesting countries to establish blueprints to repel terrorism.
He said the plan, including what he called three pillars – prevention, law enforcement with strengthened legislative framework, and international cooperation – would prevent conditions "conducive to terrorism" and radicalization.
"The basis of work for the national action plan is a whole of government and whole of society approach," he said, as he emphasized that a draft of the document would be prepared after consultations with several groups before it would lead to a presidential decree.
In March this year, U.S.-backed forces declared they had captured the last IS bastion in eastern Syria after pummeling the extremist group, which once controlled a swath of land that spilled across the boundaries of Iraq and Syria.
The victory of Syrian Democratic Forces ended the suffering inflicted by the militants' horrific rampage in the region, but also ushered in other complex issues, including the extradition – or legal proceedings – for captured foreign fighters, as well as their wives and children.
Indonesian security officials who visited Syria and Iraq in June said about 100 Indonesian men, women and children were languishing in several camps along the border between the two Middle Eastern countries.
Suhardi, who arrived in Washington on Tuesday, told BenarNews that his three-day visit would include meetings with Pentagon and National Security Council officials.
"They want to know about our 'soft approach' in countering terrorism," he said, referring to U.S. officials.
During his speech, Suhardi said his agency had developed "soft" measures, including engaging members of the local community and former militants, in efforts to defeat radicalism. Such measures include providing support for two Islamic boarding schools established by former terrorists in North Sumatra and in East Java provinces, he said.
"If we counter radical ideology using violent means, it might seem that we've destroyed it, but actually it didn't die and it could rekindle itself as new terrorist cells," he said.
Suhardi also said that Jakarta would create a task force to decide on the fate of the Indonesians with militant links in the Middle East.
The task force will be led by BNPT, foreign affairs representatives and officials from the National Intelligence Agency (BIN), the Ministry of Social Affairs and military officers, among others, he said.
Under Indonesian law, Suhardi said, citizens who fight for a foreign country could be stripped of their citizenship, but the question of whether those who joined IS in the Middle East should be allowed to return to Indonesia is "debatable."
Citing intelligence data from his government, Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu told a security forum in Singapore last year that about 400 out of 31,500 foreign fighters who had joined IS in Syria were from Indonesia.
Evolution of terrorism
During the last three years, Indonesia has witnessed the evolution of terrorism, from al-Qaeda to IS-inspired bombings, Suhardi said.
"The latest bombing in Surabaya showcased how a family was influenced by a Foreign Terrorist Fighter returnee," he said, referring to the terror attacks in May last year in which two families carried out suicide bombings at three churches and a police station in Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city and the capital of East Java province.
Authorities said 29 people were killed, including 13 of the suspects who used their children as young as 9 in carrying out the bomb attacks.
Suhardi told BenarNews that the IS-linked Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), which had been outlawed in July 2018, poses the biggest security threat in Indonesia.
"But we have to keep our vigilance against all [terror] cells with terrorism experience, such as those that can resurface anytime," he said.
JAD militants carried out attacks during the past three years, including one that killed four people in January 2016 in Jakarta, the first terror strike claimed by IS in Southeast Asia.
JAD became the second organization to be outlawed by an Indonesian court since 2008, when authorities banned Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), the group blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people.


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BENARNEWS- As he begins his second term, Indonesia's president should be careful to not implement policies that could repress free speech and worsen political and religious divisions exposed by the April election and its aftermath, a Jakarta-based think-tank says in a new report.
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo should refrain from using defamation laws to silence critics while addressing social grievances voiced by hardline Muslim groups, according to the report published by the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) on Tuesday.
"The challenge for President Jokowi in his second term is to ensure that policies aimed at undermining extremism do not exacerbate the political polarization that the election revealed," IPAC said.
An analyst with the think-tank expanded on this.
"The Jokowi government's decision to take a tougher line against extremism is welcome, but he needs to ensure that tactics used do not feed a new narrative of repression," IPAC analyst Nava Nuraniyah said in the report.
"He can do that by ensuring there are clear criteria for curbing hate speech, that defamation laws are not used to arrest individuals for casual criticism of public officials and that there is a clear distinction made between criminal incitement and legitimate dissent," she said.
IPAC said Jokowi should ensure that all Muslims in the country benefit from government policies, otherwise he could be seen as favoring only the moderate and Java-centric Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country's largest mass Muslim organization that backed his electoral campaign.
Jokowi won in Central and East Java, the stronghold for NU, as well as in provinces where non-Muslims are the majority, such as mainly Hindu Bali and predominantly Christian East Nusa Tenggara, while his challenger, Prabowo Subianto, dominated in staunchly Muslim West Java and most of Sumatra island.
"While being careful not to appease the intolerant religious right, the president can focus on ensuring that he is less vulnerable on the inequality charge by ensuring that his economic programs are not concentrated on Java and in NU-dominated areas but are spread evenly across different Islamic groups and regions," IPAC said.
Post-election unrest
In the aftermath of the election, police arrested two of Prabowo's prominent campaigners, Eggy Sudjana and Lieus Sungkarisma in May on charges of treason for allegedly threatening to mobilize masses over concerns the election was rigged. They have since been released from detention while charges have not been dropped.
A rally by Prabowo's supporters descended into chaos, beginning on May 21, when officers clashed with protesters. Nine people died and scores were injured over two nights of rioting.
The protesters had demanded that the Election Supervisory Agency take action in response to allegations by Prabowo's camp that the election was stolen.
Police have insisted that the rioting was not spontaneous but incited by third parties bent on creating chaos to destabilize the country.
In addition, national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo denied that security personnel had acted repressively in dealing with pro-Prabowo supporters.
"We took action to prevent acts of terrorism which can endanger the nation," he told BenarNews.
"We don't want Indonesia to become another Syria, Iraq or Yemen. Security is very important for national development and our welfare as a nation," he said.
The May protests were much smaller than rallies organized by hardline Muslim groups in late 2016 and early 2017 against then-Jakarta Gov. Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama over accusations that he had blasphemed Islam.
Ahok, a Christian of Chinese descent who had served as deputy to Jokowi when the latter served as Jakarta governor before running for president, was convicted of blasphemy and sentenced in 2017 to two years in prison. He was released in January.
Security threats
The IPAC report said police had come to see ultra-conservative Muslim groups as one of the biggest security threats facing Indonesia.
This translated into a greater reliance on repressive tactics, including arrests and intimidation, unusually tight enforcement of rally permits, stepped up scrutiny of social media, and an effort to portray political Muslims as being one step away from violent extremists, the report said.
A presidential spokeswoman defended the government's actions.
"Law enforcement officers take action based on valid evidence and the due process, and we have an impartial judicial system," Jaleswari Pramodhawardhani told BenarNews.
"In countering attempts by certain groups to undermine Pancasila (the state ideology), the government makes no compromises and has taken decisive steps including dissolving radical mass organizations through courts," she said. "In addition, the government continues to promote religious moderation by involving relevant stakeholders."
She said courts had the final say in these cases.
"All actions taken by law enforcement officers must ultimately go through a mechanism in the judiciary that cannot be intervened," she said.


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BENARNEWS- An Indonesian who carried out a deadly suicide attack with his wife at a Philippine church was radicalized as a teenager, introduced to bomb making more than a decade ago, and underwent a brief rehabilitation stint, the nation's top counterterrorism official told BenarNews.
Rullie Rian Zeke, 35, and spouse Ulfah Handayani Saleh, 32, were named by Indonesian police this week as the bombers who killed 23 people and injured more than 100 others during Sunday services at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral in Jolo on Jan. 27 – one of the worst terrorist acts to strike the Philippines in years.
"He joined a radical group in 1999 and was taught bomb making in 2008," National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) chief Suhardi Alius said of Rullie.
The couple who infiltrated the southern Philippines had been released in 2017 from a month-long Indonesian government rehabilitation program, which followed their deportation from Turkey, where they unsuccessfully tried to join the Islamic State (IS) extremist group in Syria, Indonesian police said.
The couple and their three children traveled to Turkey in March 2016. They were part of a group of 75 people – 17 men, 24 women and 34 children – who were expelled en masse by Turkish authorities in January 2017.
Suhardi said this group that returned to Indonesia was linked to people who would go on to perpetrate a series of deadly bombings in the city of Surabaya in May 2018, in which churches were also bombed.
"They were part of the group representing three generations, grandparents, parents and children," he told BenarNews, adding, "the group influenced the East Java bombings."
He said he met the couple after they returned with the others from Turkey.
Indonesian police said that Rullie and Ulfah were originally from South Sulawesi province.
In 2014, they both came under the tutelage of Khalid Abu Bakar, a member of the Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) militant network affiliated with IS, said security analyst Al Chaidar of Malikussalah University.
"In Surabaya, they expressed their desires to be suicide bombers," Chaidar told BenarNews.
The suicide bombings in Surabaya, the capital of East Java province, were carried out by two families – including children – at three churches and a police station.
Khalid allegedly was the spiritual leader of Dita Oepriarto, who with his wife and their children blew themselves up in the East Java church attacks, according to Chaider. These attacks, along with one a day later at the Surabaya police headquarters, killed 29 people, including 13 suspects.
"The couple may have chosen to go to the Philippines to obey Khalid's instruction. He once stated that: 'If you cannot afford to go to Syria, go to the Philippines because it is considered a second IS caliphate,'" Chaidar said.
'Who can guarantee they were de-radicalized?'
Until this year, Indonesians who returned or were deported after trying to join IS in Syria and Iraq were sent to a facility run by the social affairs ministry in Jakarta before being sent home.
But under revisions to the nation's anti-terrorism laws that were passed in May 2018, in the wake of the Surabaya bombings, Indonesians who served as fighters or joined militant training overseas are now subject to prosecution.
"Before the anti-terrorism bill was revised, we were only able to have them join a one-month de-radicalization program before we could release them to society," Suhardi said this week while delivering a speech in the U.S. capital. "Who can guarantee they were de-radicalized?"
"That is why I asked the foreign affairs minister to please identify these people and monitor them," he said, adding he hoped the new regulation would allow BNPT to ensure that returnees are de-radicalized or charged if necessary.
Suhardi also said Jakarta would create a task force to determine the fate of the Indonesians linked to Middle East militants. The task force will be led by BNPT, foreign affairs representatives and officials from the National Intelligence Agency, the Ministry of Social Affairs and military officers, among others.
Explaining how the couple was able to leave the country without detection after returning from Turkey, Dedi Prasetyo, the national police spokesman in Jakarta, said, "It's always been the case that police and terrorists play hide and seek."
"We will strengthen monitoring in the future," he told BenarNews on Thursday.
Chaidar and Sidney Jones, director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), a Jakarta think-tank, said the couple might have been considered low risk because they never were charged with any crime in Indonesia.
"Maybe because they were not believed to have entered Syria," Chaidar said.
Philippine connection
Tuesday's announcement by Indonesian police naming the couple marked the first time their identities were made public.
Days after the Jolo church bombings, Philippine officials stated that an unnamed Indonesian couple were behind the attack. Shortly after, Indonesian officials questioned Manila's claim because police had not been able to match DNA from the bombers with family members.
Ulfah is believed to have entered the Philippines a few days before the attack to join Rullie, who appears to have been in that country since May 2018, according to Jones.
"There was a photo of him in a Jolo camp, as I recall, from around August 2018," she told BenarNews, adding that both had entered the Philippines illegally.
Indonesian police allege that an Indonesian militant believed to be in the Philippines, Andi Baso, assisted them in getting into the neighboring country.
Andi allegedly was involved in the attack targeting a church in in East Kalimantan, a province in Indonesian Borneo, in November 2016. A 2-year-old was killed and three children younger than 5 were injured a Molotov cocktail was tossed outside the building.
Philippine police, meanwhile, said they were not sure how the couple entered the country, but five Filipinos who were captured recently said they had apparently sailed to Jolo from the nearby Philippine island of Lampinigan.
Philippine police sources said the couple met with Hatib Hajan Sawadjaan, a little-known Abu Sayyaf leader on Jolo island who is the new IS Philippine branch leader. He allegedly plotted and financed the attack on the church.
Chaidar said he was not surprised by the couple's action.
"The materials at the rehabilitation center, as far as I'm aware, revolve around Pancasila (the state ideology) and nationalism. It had no effect on them," he said.
In Washington, Suhardi said Indonesia was setting up a strategy to counter violent extremism, adding that IS "remains an eminent threat" in the Southeast Asian country.
Suhardi said his agency had developed a strategy combining both hard and soft measures, including engaging members of the local community and former militants, to defeat radicalism. Such measures include providing support for two Islamic boarding schools established by former terrorists in North Sumatra and in East Java provinces.
"If we counter radical ideology using violent means, it might seem that we've destroyed it, but actually it didn't die and it could rekindle itself as new terrorist cells," he said.


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BENARNEWS- The Indonesian military on Tuesday launched an elite unit focused on fighting violent extremism, almost a year after the armed forces campaigned for an expanded security role, despite opposition from activists who warned this could lead to human rights abuses.
The new Special Operations Command (Koopsus) consists of 500 highly trained personnel drawn from the army, navy and air force, military (TNI) chief Air Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto said during a ceremony launching the unit.
"When there are threats from inside and outside the country, the TNI commander can immediately order [Koopsus] to move quickly and with a very high success rate," Hadi told reporters in East Jakarta.
"The involvement of the TNI in fighting terrorism is mandated in the law, especially if an action threatens the sovereignty, territorial integrity or safety of the Indonesian nation," Hadi said.
Revisions to Indonesia's anti-terror laws, which were passed in 2018, allowed the military to be formally involved in counter-terrorism operations.
Until now, the Indonesian national police's elite wing, Detachment 88 (Densus 88), had been the country's lead security unit in pursing terrorists.
Brig. Gen. Rochadi, who previously served as director of the military's Strategic Intelligence Agency, was appointed on Tuesday as the new unit's commander.
Earlier this month, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo signed a presidential decree clarifying the military's expanded role in counter-terrorism. The decree stipulates that Koopsus will coordinate with the national police in carrying out its mission.
Hadi said Koopsus was no different from a similar unit formed by former military chief Gen. Moeldoko in 2015. It will be tasked to work with the police and the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT), he said.
Gen. Gatot Nurmantyo, Hadi's predecessor as TNI chief, deactivated the special unit after he took over as commander of the armed forces in July 2015, amid criticism about the lack of a legal basis for the military's involvement in counter-terrorism.
"This is actually a continuation. At that time there was no legal framework that regulated it," he said.
Koopsus was launched a week after BNPT chief Suhardi Alius said in a speech in Washington that the Islamic State, despite its defeat in the Middle East, had changed its terror tactics by extending its sphere of influence in Southeast Asia's local terrorist networks.
Suhardi made the remarks hours after police in Jakarta identified a married Indonesian couple who they believe perpetrated a suicide bombing that killed 23 people at a church in the southern Philippines in January.
Intelligence Role
About 400 Koopsus personnel will carry out preventive measures, including surveillance and intelligence, while the remaining 100 members will be tasked with combating terrorist acts, Hadi said.
National police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said the duties of Koopsus would not overlap with those of the police, particularly Densus 88.
"Densus focuses on law enforcement, while Koopssus has to do with implementation, coordination and synergy in the field of prevention," Dedi told reporters.
Dedi said Koopsus would be needed if there was a major crisis in a public setting, including hostage-taking and a terrorist attack.
He said the military and police had proven to be capable of working together as shown in the ongoing operation to hunt militants belonging to the Islamic State-linked Eastern Indonesia Mujahedeen (MIT) group in Central Sulawesi and in anti-insurgency operations in Papua province.
Starting in early 2015, TNI commandos were involved in efforts to help hunt down MIT members and the group's leader, Santoso, who was Indonesia's most-wanted militant until he was killed in a firefight with security forces in July 2016.
Parliament passed the amended anti-terrorism laws in May last year following a spate of deadly terrorist-related incidents. These included a deadly prison riot involving terrorism convicts in Depok city in West Java province, and a series of suicide bombings at churches and a police headquarters in Surabaya, East Java.
Authorities blamed the attacks on Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local network of IS-affiliated militants.
Activists, meanwhile, have expressed fears that a renewed domestic role for the military could bring back the prominent and, at times, repressive internal security role that it played during the 32-year dictatorship of President Suharto.
Since Jokowi came to power in October 2014, the military has been given a greater role in civilian matters, including involvement in the war on drugs and the deployment of non-commissioned soldiers at the village level.
Soldiers have been deployed to support a government program to create more rice fields as part of a food self-sufficiency drive, a move that harkens back to the era of the later dictator Suharto.
Jokowi's opponent in both the 2014 and 2019 presidential elections was Prabowo Subianto, a former general in Kopassus, the army's special forces unit that was blamed for human rights violations during the 1990s in then Indonesian-occupied East Timor.
The BNPT, for its part, defended the military's involvement in counter-terrorism.
"Without military intelligence, none of our efforts would have achieved satisfactory results," Andhika Chrisnayudhanto, BNPT's deputy for international cooperation, told reporters.
"It is important to bear in mind that in some cases, we do need military involvement," he said.
The speaker of the House of Representatives, Bambang Soesatyo, said he hoped that the formation of Koopsus would also strengthen the monitoring of cyberspace.
"Now it is not uncommon for acts of terrorism and infiltration of foreign ideas to be launched via cyberspace, not through land, sea or air attacks," he said.
The involvement of Koopsus will strengthen Indonesia's fight against terrorism, said Al Chaidar, a researcher on terrorism at Malikussaleh University in Aceh province.
"If they just do surveillance with the involvement of the police, it should not be a problem," he told BenarNews.
Ahmad Syamsudin in Jakarta contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- The leader of Indonesia's largest Muslim organization voiced support Wednesday for Afghan peace talks after meeting in Jakarta with visiting Taliban co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.
Qatar-based Baradar, the Taliban's political head, stopped by the headquarters of the 60-million strong Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) in the Indonesian capital and held talks on Tuesday with its chairman, Abdul Manan Ghani, after meeting with officials from Indonesia's government.
Abdul told reporters on Wednesday that he told Baradar that the warring factions in Afghanistan should sit at one table and agree to make peace based on the spirit of Islamic brotherhood.
"We conveyed our views that they should prioritize dialogue among the factions in Aghanistan and should not let other countries to meddle and compromise an already fragile situation there," Abdul said.
Baradar's visit came as Jakarta is trying to help facilitate negotiations aimed at ending decades of war in Afghanistan, and more than a year after Indonesia hosted a trilateral summit with Islamic scholars from Afghanistan and Pakistan, in the first meeting of its kind between the three nations.
In February last year, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani proposed peace talks with Taliban leaders, who had expressed hopes in recent televised interviews that an agreement would be reached with the United States during a crucial round of negotiations this week in Qatar.
Baradar's Jakarta visit took place after Desra Percaya, a representative of Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, met Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani in Kabul last week.
Rabbani and Desra discussed "Indonesia's efforts for peace in Afghanistan and praised its support for Afghanistan in different areas," the Afghan foreign ministry said in a statement on its website.
Retno herself met Baradar in Doha in May.
During his Indonesian visit, Baradar and his entourage also met Vice President Jusuf Kalla and officials from the government-backed Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) on Saturday and Tuesday, respectively.
NU's Abdul said Afghanistan could learn from Indonesia in how different ethnic groups can maintain largely peaceful coexistence.
"Afghanistan can be a peaceful society, too, especially since it is less diverse than Indonesia and the size is smaller," Abdul said.
Indonesia is the world's largest Muslim-majority country, with about 82 percent of its 260 million people following Islam. It has more than 300 recognized ethnic groups.
On Wednesday, the chief U.S. negotiator for Taliban talks tweeted that he was heading to Doha, Qatar, for what could be the final round of negotiations that could mean the beginning of the end of Washington's nearly 18 years of involvement in Afghanistan.
"I'm off to Doha, with a stop in Islamabad," U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Zalmay Khalilzad posted on his Twitter page as he left Kabul. "In Doha, if the Taliban do their part, we will do ours, and conclude the agreement we have been working on."
Helping attain peace in Afghanistan
Muhyiddin Junaidi, the head of the MUI's international relations department, said it supported peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
"We would like to help create peace in Aghanistan in accordance with our capacity as an organization and to complement the government's diplomatic efforts,"  Muhyiddin told BenarNews.
Muhyiddin said the MUI also offered scholarships for Afghan students to study in Indonesia's Islamic boarding schools and universities.
"We shared ideas on how to respond to various social, economic and cultural problems that Muslims face," Muhyiddin said.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement posted on the group's website that Baradar and his colleagues "highlighted the current situation of Afghanistan, policy and achievements" made by the Taliban.
Indonesian officials have declined to provide details on Baradar's visit.
Baradar kicked off his Indonesian trip with a meeting with Kalla at his official residence in Central Jakarta on Saturday, which was followed by a joint evening prayer session at a nearby mosque.
Kalla's office said in a statement posted on its website after the meeting that Indonesia maintained communication with all parties involved in the Afghan peace talks, as well as with the United States.
The statement has since been removed without an explanation.
An Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman said that the meeting with Kalla was "informal" in nature but declined to comment further.
Baradar fled to Pakistan after the United States invaded Afghanistan in 2001. He was arrested in 2010 and was released from a Pakistani prison in October last year.
In January, the Taliban appointed Baradar as the leader of its political office in Qatar amid peace negotiations with the United States.


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BENARNEWS- A Buddhist man found guilty of physical intimacy outside marriage was among 11 people caned in public in Indonesia's devoutly Muslim Aceh province on Thursday, more than a year after the local government vowed to move such punishments indoors.
The spectacle in the courtyard of the Baitusshalihin Mosque in provincial capital Banda Aceh drew hundreds of witnesses, including children. The public lashings occur nearly weekly throughout the province.
Rony Yokil, an ethnic Chinese Buddhist from neighboring North Sumatra province, was caned 27 times after the Aceh Sharia Court found him guilty of being intimate in a hotel room with his 20-year-old Muslim girlfriend, who also received 27 lashes. Their sentences were cut from 30 lashes because the couple, both in their 20s, had spent three months in detention.
Banda Aceh Mayor Aminullah Usman said Rony had chosen sharia punishment as an alternative to jail time or a fine of gold, making him the third Buddhist and eighth non-Muslim to be subjected to the law since it was introduced in 2014.
The others punished were four unmarried couples and a man who was found guilty of having intimate relations with a minor. They received between eight and 33 lashes.
On Wednesday, two unmarried couples were lashed 100 times each in the northern Aceh city of Lhokseumawe after they were found guilty of premarital sex. A third man received 160 lashes for having sex with a minor.
Public canings serve as a deterrent to others, Aminullah said.
"The caning that we are carrying out is not only physical punishment but must serve as a reminder to those who witness so we do not commit acts that violate Islamic law," he told reporters.
He said the Banda Aceh government had opened an "anti-vice call center" for the public.
"If there are people who know of violations of Islamic law, but have no courage to act, please report. Officers will act on it, so that Banda Aceh is free from immoral acts and sharia violations," he said.
Sharia law in Aceh regulates khalwat (a man and a woman who are not related or married being alone together), gambling, drinking and selling liquor, sex outside marriage, rape, sexual harassment and homosexual sex.
Under current practice, those who are convicted have to endure public flogging, a spectacle that attracts hundreds of camera-wielding people, including children, despite a rule prohibiting people younger than 18 from watching.

 
Move to prisons delayed
In April 2018, Irwandi Yusuf, who was then the governor of Aceh, issued a gubernatorial regulation that canings be carried out inside prisons.
Irwandi said at the time that the move would reduce an international uproar over the practice and Islamophobia as an unwanted byproduct. In addition, Gov. Irwandi said he wanted to spare children from seeing the punishment being meted out in public.
While human rights activists supported Irwandi's plan, conservative Muslim groups voiced their opposition.
Two sharia police officials, who declined to identify themselves, said details about moving canings to prisons had not discussed since Irwandi was arrested on suspicion of corruption in July 2018, after he issued the regulation.
The Jakarta Corruption Court sentenced Irwandi to seven years in prison in April. He is appealing the sentence.
"I have a sense that the acting Aceh governor (Nova Iriansyah) does not support the plan to transfer the canings to the prisons, so the guidelines never saw the light of day," one official said.
Alidar, who goes by one name and heads the Aceh sharia office, said guidelines for moving the canings were not in place.
"It is still being discussed by concerned agencies, including the prosecutor's office and the police. But there are indeed obstacles," he said without elaborating.
An earlier version incorrectly reported that a man was caned for raping a minor.


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BENARNEWS- Neighbors Indonesia and the Philippines this week officially adopted a maritime boundary in the Celebes Sea that they had agreed to in a treaty signed five years ago, officials from both countries announced.
The agreement established the longest Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) boundary in the world, stretching 1,162 kilometers (627.5 nautical miles) in the Celebes Sea, Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said, calling it "an extraordinary achievement."
Retno and her Philippine counterpart, Teodoro L. Locsin Jr., signed protocols of exchange Thursday on the sidelines of meetings of foreign ministers of the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Bangkok, officially approving the bilateral treaty struck in Manila in 2014. Discussions on the boundary began 25 years ago, in 1994.
"We had a strong commitment to solve this complex issue through dialogue and negotiations under the framework of the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS)," Retno said in a statement released by the foreign ministry.
The Philippines and Indonesia, the two largest archipelagic nations in the world, are parties to UNCLOS and are entitled to EEZs that run 200 nautical miles out from their shorelines for the length of their boundaries.
"The agreement is expected to benefit both countries, economically and politically, by promoting more bilateral cooperation in the EEZ in order to advance the common interest of managing and preserving the resources in the EEZ and further strengthening maritime security cooperation between the two countries," the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah praised the outcome reached after more than two decades of negotiations.
"From the aspect of law enforcement, it's clear that there are no more obstacles to activities within the area and maritime cooperation between the two countries," he told BenarNews.
"We hope there won't be any more incidents in waters between Indonesia and the Philippines," he said.
The Sulu-Celebes Sea, encompassing the waters around Indonesia, Malaysia's eastern Sabah state and the Philippines, has become an area of growing concern because of attacks carried out by Abu Sayyaf, a southern Philippine-based militant group.
In 2017, the three nations launched trilateral air and maritime patrols over the waterways to combat kidnappings by Abu Sayyaf and to prevent militants in Indonesia and Malaysia from sneaking into the southern Philippines to help pro-Islamic State militants there.
In addition, Indonesia has asserted its maritime claims by cracking down on illegal fishing in its territory since President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo came to power in 2014. In that time, nearly 500 foreign boats linked to illegal fishing, following legal proceedings, according to the Ministry of Fisheries.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo castigated the state electricity company on Monday after blackouts hit a large part of Java island, including the capital Jakarta, for more than eight hours.
Power has been restored in most parts of Jakarta, West Java and Banten provinces after Sunday's blackout plunged buildings across the capital into darkness. Some areas in the three provinces still had no power or suffered from sporadic outages on Monday, affecting tens of millions of people.
Jokowi visited the headquarters of the state-owned power company PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) and conveyed his disappointment to its board of directors.
"There must have been contingency or back-up plans. My question is: Why didn't they work well and fast?" Jokowi asked the board, including acting chief executive Sripeni Inten Cahyani. She took over last week after the previous head, Sofyan Basyir, was charged with corruption and is facing trial.
"It should never happen again," Jokowi said, appearing in a sour mood.
The president said a similar blackout hit Java and Bali islands in 2002 and it should have served as a lesson.
"We know, not only this can damage the reputation of PLN, but also hurt consumers immensely, and endanger public transportation, such as MRT," he said, referring to the newly launched metro service in the capital.
Four MRT trains were stuck in the underground part of the railway during Sunday's blackout, stranding passengers, who had to be evacuated. Traffic lights in the capital also went out, causing jams in parts of the city.
Sunday's blackout was caused by faulty transmission circuits that led to a "cascading failure," disconnecting electric plants that supply power to the western part of Java island, PLN officials said.
The president urged workers to fix the problems quickly. "That's all I'm asking," he said.
Sripeni apologized that there would be rolling blackouts before power can be fully restored.
She explained that technicians had expected to restore power within four hours by employing the coal-powered plant in Suralaya, which has a capacity of 2,800 megawatts, enough to supply West Java and Banten provinces. But, in the end, it took more than eight hours to fix the supply shortfall, she said.
"I know all of you here are smart, especially when it comes to electricity. But why did it suddenly drop? Was there no anticipation, no calculation?" Jokowi said. "All of us suffered."
More affluent Jakarta residents sought refuge at generator-powered shopping malls and hotels to escape boredom at home.
Indonesians who have experienced regular blackouts and chronic electricity shortages in other provinces poked fun at Jakarta residents who harped on the lack of electricity on social media.
"Please come to Kalimantan. We are used to rolling blackout," Twitter user Febrio Pahlevisalam said, referring to the Indonesian province on the island of Borneo. "It's only for a day and you don't hear anyone complaining."


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BENARNEWS- More than a dozen foreign companies, including state-owned companies in China, have been supplying weapons and other equipment used by the Myanmar military against ethnic minorities, a U.N. fact-finding mission said on Monday, as it called for an arms sales embargo against Naypyidaw.
At least 14 weapons dealers from seven countries have provided fighter jets, armored combat vehicles, warships, missiles and launchers to Myanmar since 2016, the U.N. Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar said in a report released in Jakarta on Monday.
"The public record made it clear that the Tatmadaw used many of the types of arms and related equipment that these entities were providing to commit gross violations of human rights and serious violations of international humanitarian law," the report said, using the local name for the Myanmar military.
It said many of the companies and states involved in the weapons deals "knew, or ought to have known, that their arms transfers could have a direct and reasonably foreseeable impact on the human rights situation in Myanmar."
Among those firms are Russian companies Irkutsk Corp., which supplied jet trainers, and Rostec, a Moscow-based conglomerate that provided service and upgrades to Myanmar's helicopters; and state-owned China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp., which provided missile systems, and combat-aircraft consortium Aviation Industry Corp. of China, according to the report.
The three-member mission that wrote the 111-page report urged the U.N. Security Council and member states to impose targeted sanctions against companies linked to the Myanmar military.
"Get out of bed with the military. Cut their access to independent resources," Christopher Sidoti, a former Australian human rights commissioner and one of the mission's three legal experts, told a news briefing in Jakarta. "Stop the process of enriching the generals."
"What we want to underline is that we have now come up with a clear conclusion, there's an indisputable link between businesses and the committing of atrocities," said Marzuki Darusman, Indonesia's former attorney general, who served as mission chairman. "It is a report that is accompanied with a healthy dose of anger on our part."
Since 2016, the military carried out crackdowns against civilians in Kachin, Shan and Rakhine states, including the forced deportation of more than 700,000 ethnic Rohingya to Bangladesh in August 2017, the report said.
In September 2017, barely a week after Myanmar soldiers launched deadly "clearance operations" in Rakhine state, the country's military chief, Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, invited local businesses to a donation ceremony in which more than $1.4 million was raised. The event was one of the three fundraisers that brought in a total of $10 million.
"These numbers are really the tip of the iceberg," Sidoti said. "They're certainly not the last word or the total picture, but they are in themselves indicators of the extent of the military's economic involvement in Myanmar."
The report said senior military leaders, including Hlaing and Deputy Commander-in-Chief Vice Senior Gen. Soe Win, own and influence two of Myanmar's "most opaque enterprises," Myanmar Economic Holdings Limited (MEHL) and Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC).
Last year, the mission, which was established in March 2017 by the U.N. Human Rights Council, recommended Min Aung Hlaing and Soe Win be investigated and prosecuted for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Washington lifted its economic sanctions against Myanmar in 2016, but hit Hlaing, Soe Win and two other top generals with sanctions, accusing them of "gross human rights violations" over the mass killings of Rohingya Muslims. The sanctions barred the military officials from traveling to the United States.The Myanmar military has vehemently denied any wrongdoing.
Myanmar military spokesman Brig. Gen. Zaw Min Tun said he wanted to make two points in response to the fact-finding mission's report. He questioned the report's relevance, as the mission was set up to investigate issues related to the Rakhine state.
His second comment focused on the businesses.
"Tatmadaw is operating these businesses officially, and had paid taxes to the state. Most of these enterprises are intended to help the welfare of Tatmadaw members," he told Radio Free Asia (RFA), a sister entity of BenarNews. "As far as I am concerned, there are militaries in many countries that owned and operated similar businesses."
MEHL and MEC own at least 120 companies involved in a variety of businesses, including construction, pharmaceuticals, manufacturing, insurance, tourism and banking.
Both companies, along with at least 26 of their subsidiaries, hold licenses for jade and ruby mining in Kachin and Shan states. International human rights and humanitarian law violations, including forced labor and sexual violence, have been perpetrated by the Tatmadaw in northern Myanmar in connection with their business activities, the report alleged.
Two companies, KBZ Group and Max Myanmar Group, helped build a barrier fence along the Myanmar-Bangladesh border "knowing that it would contribute to the suffering and anguish associated with preventing the displaced Rohingya population from returning to their homes and land," it said.
Officials, companies respond
Max Myanmar and KBZ issued statements in response to the report.
"Max Myanmar Group categorially denies such allegations since the group and Ayeyarwaddy Foundation which undertakes CSR (corporate social responsibility) activities of the group, have been solemnly developed and adopted highest level of 'Human Rights policy' as one of the key guiding principles of its group activities as far as responsible business practices, transparency, discrimination, and human rights issues are concerned," the company said.
KBZ Group said it had received and was studying the report.
"We were never contacted by the mission during the course of their investigation or the development of their report. Therefore, we are not yet in a position to comment further," the company said.
Zaw Min Tun said the fence project began under the former military government and has since received donations for its construction.
"There are similar border fences that exist along India-Bangladesh border, as well as on U.S.-Mexico border. Our border fences are intended to protect national security and sovereignty," he said.
Yu Lwin Aung, a member of Myanmar's National Human Rights Commission (MNHRC), derided the report's allegations that the military had used business ties to commit rights violations, describing it as irrelevant.
"When there is a complaint about the rights violations, we investigate and report the findings to the military, so that they could take actions against the violators," he said. "There are also examples that the military have punished the violators."
Aung said such domestic issues should be resolved through discussions within the Myanmar government, its parliament and military.
The report, which would be presented to the U.N. Human Rights Council in September, also found that at least 15 foreign firms have joint ventures with the military, while 44 others have some form of commercial ties with its businesses.
A Myanmar human rights specialist with Fortify Rights welcomed the new information.
"This report is detrimental to both the military and the 'cronies' who have financial and economic ties with military. It is one step closer for the Western countries to impose sanctions against them,"Nickey Diamond told RFA.
Crimes against humanity
The mission members said they were concerned about justice being served.
"Officials of these companies should be investigated with a view to criminal prosecution for making substantial and direct contributions to the commission of crimes under international law, including crimes against humanity," Sidoti said.
"Perhaps one of the most disturbing findings in our report is the way in which the military is actively soliciting donations from corporations to support its human-rights-violating efforts in Rakhine State against the Rohingya," he said.
The report said at least 45 companies and organizations provided the Tatmadaw with U.S. $10.2 million in financial donations that were solicited in September 2017 by senior Tatmadaw leadership in support of the "clearance operations" that began in August 2017 against the Rohingya in northern Rakhine.
In a report filed in 2018, the three-member mission documented what it described as brutal violations of human rights against ethnic groups, including clearance operations against the Rohingya that began on Aug. 25, 2017.
That report alleged Myanmar security forces killed thousands of Rohingya civilians, raped and sexually abused women and girls, and burned their villages to the ground
More than 740,000 Rohingya fled Rakhine State and crossed into Bangladesh as a result of the military offensive that the United States and U.N. officials had described as "ethnic cleansing."
The refugees who fled from Myanmar to sprawling camps in Bangladesh joined thousands who left the country due to previous episodes of violence, bringing the total number of Rohingya in the camps to 1.2 million.
The Rohingya have said they will not return to Myanmar unless they are granted full citizenship and given guarantees of safety in the country, which considers them illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, denies them citizenship and subjects them to systematic discrimination.
Kyaw Htoon Naing and Thet Su Aung of RFA's Myanmar Service contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia, which took a seat as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council this year, is seeking to boost its U.N. peacekeeping contingent, and add more women to its ranks.
The nation is already the largest contributor in Southeast Asia to U.N. peacekeeping operations, and the seventh largest in the world, with more than 3,000 personnel assigned to eight U.N. missions including in Lebanon, Central African Republic and the Democrat Republic of Congo, according to the government. It has pledged to send another 1,000 troops by the end of 2019.
"We continue to recruit personnel, prepare and enhance the capacity of our personnel because peacekeeping challenges have become more complex by the day and we need to keep up with these challenges," said Burhanudin, head of international relations for the Indonesian military's Peacekeeping Mission Center (PMPP).
In addition, the government is working to boost women's participation in peacekeeping missions, said Burhanudin, who goes by one name.
In 2017, women comprised only 4 percent of soldiers and 10 percent of police officers in U.N. peace operations, according to the U.N.
"The role of women is very important in any peacekeeping mission," Burhanudin told BenarNews. "For example, many tasks can be done more successfully by involving women, including search operations and health outreach."
The female approach
On Tuesday, 300 men, women and children lined up for free medical care at a clinic run this week at the Indonesian military's peacekeeping headquarters on the outskirts of Jakarta. The clinic marked the end of a three-week joint exercise involving Indonesian military personnel and members of the U.S. Army Special Operations Command Pacific.
"The medical civil action program is the final stage in a series of scenarios to prepare peacekeepers to handle infectious disease outbreaks in a U.N. mission area," said Col. Aldrin Petrus Mongan, deputy commander of the PMPP.
Tansya Susan, a navy sergeant participating in the clinic, told BenarNews that she had found her calling as a peacekeeper.
The 34-year-old is one of 22 Indonesian women who were deployed to Sudan as part of the UNAMID (United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur).
"Women personnel were extremely needed there as levels of violence against women and malnutrition among children were high," she said during the medical clinic, adding that people appreciated the female approach to some of their issues.
Tansya, who joined the Indonesian effort in 2017, said she always wanted to be a peacekeeper.
"I feel it's an honor to represent Indonesia overseas in a peacekeeping mission," she said. "The local community in Sudan welcomed us warmly and when we were leaving, they said they would miss us."

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Tansya Susan, an Indonesian Navy sergeant, greets women and children waiting for medical care at the clinic outside of Jakarta, Aug. 6, 2019. (Ahmad Syamsudin/BenarNews)

10 percent
Women account for about 10 percent of Indonesia's peacekeeping personnel, Burhanudin said. The government wants to increase women's representation to 15 percent of military observers and staff officers and 20 percent of police personnel by the end of 2020, but it is facing challenges, including the dearth of women in the armed forces.
"Women personnel are also needed by various military units and if they are married, they need to ask for permission from their husbands," he said.
In addition, while women are interested in joining the military, many cannot pass the physical training requirements, Burhanudin said.
International security analyst Nicole Jenne said Indonesia needs to push female participation if it wants to be recognized by the U.N. as having a strong role in peace-keeping efforts.
"Nevertheless, there is an important obstacle that is the legal position of the man as head of the household, who has to consent to his wife's peacekeeping deployment," she told BenarNews in an email from Chile, where she is a university professor and scholar on Southeast Asia.
"Also, Indonesian society generally believes a mother should not go away on deployment but needs to take care of her kids. Unless these cultural barriers change, it will be very difficult to make big progress and reach the U.N. goal of 25 percent of female peacekeepers," Jenne said.
Winning hearts and minds
U.N. Under-Secretary General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix has been campaigning for greater involvement by women, leading member states in 2016 to agree to increase their numbers.
In a statement issued late last month, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry said the country was seeking to improve the capability of units needed for peacekeeping purposes, including bomb-disposal, medical and specialized police teams.
"Indonesia is committed to increasing the number and role of Indonesian female peacekeepers, in order to support the achievement of U.N. targets for holding minimum female personnel of 15 percent as military observers and staff officers and 20 percent as police personnel," the ministry said.
The deployment of female personnel has contributed to winning hearts and minds of local communities, it said.
Indonesian troops have a strong reputation in international peacekeeping, according to Fitri Bintang Timur, an international relations analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta. No Indonesian personnel were found to have been involved in cases of sexual violence by U.N. peacekeepers, she said.
But achieving U.N. targets for female participation will be tough "because the percentage of women in the police and the military is at around 5 to 10 percent," she said.


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BENARNEWS- Fourteen former members of a decades-old group that seeks to establish an Islamic government in Indonesia renounced that ideology Tuesday, pledging allegiance to the nation in an unusual ceremony organized by the security ministry.
The ex-followers of Darul Islam (DI) took their oath of loyalty to the unified state, 70 years after the group's founder proclaimed an Islamic State of Indonesia (NII) in 1949. Sarjono Kartosuwiryo, the son of DI founder Sekarmaji Marijan Kartosuwiryo, participated in and led the oath-taking at the ministry in Jakarta.
"We are defending the country. We are not receiving anything in return," Sarjono told reporters, when asked why he and the others had decided to pledge allegiance to the Indonesian state.
Sarjono's father was executed by firing squad in 1962 after Darul Islam declared a war against the government and tried to assassinate then-President Sukarno in 1961.
"We need this country, because if it is broken, we will all drown," Sarjono said.
The group pledged to uphold the national ideology of Pancasila and the 1945 Constitution as the foundation for Indonesian statehood. They also vowed to help maintain unity, foster tolerance, pluralism and peace.
After reading the oath, they then took turns kissing the country's red and white flag in a show of loyalty.
Early on, Darul Islam (Islamic State) and its armed wing, the Islamic Army of Indonesia (TII), waged an armed rebellion against Jakarta until the Indonesian government suppressed it in the 1960s.
In more recent decades, the group has morphed into an underground radical movement known as NII. Darul Islam is different from the Middle East-based terror group Islamic State (IS), whose members and supporters include Indonesians.
2 million sympathizers
The Indonesian police have said that NII is recruiting followers in parts of the country, while some ex-members have joined other radical groups such as Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), which is affiliated with IS, and Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), a group linked with al-Qaeda.
Authorities in Indonesia blamed JI for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people and a string of other deadly attacks in the 2000s. Indonesian courts have declared both JI and JAD illegal organizations.
Police have said militants who attacked a police headquarters in Riau province last year were former NII members who had switched their allegiance to JAD.
Sarjono claimed there were about 2 million NII and Darul Islam sympathizers across the country. He called on them to pledge loyalty to the Indonesian state.
"I appeal to my colleagues to unite and build this country," Sarjono said.
Wiranto, Indonesia's coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, who witnessed the pledge-taking ceremony, said he hoped other members of radical groups would follow suit.
"Of course, we hope that this repentance continues to spread so that others who still aspire to change the face of the Republic of Indonesia can follow," Wiranto said.
"We appreciate your sincerity and your loyalty," he told the group.
Analysts: Dangerous factions linger
Sekarmaji Marijan Kartosuwiryo declared the establishment of the Islamic State of Indonesia on Aug. 7, 1949, the same year Dutch colonizers transferred sovereignty to the Republic of Indonesia, which was proclaimed in 1945. On Aug. 17, Indonesia will mark the 74th anniversary of its declaration of independence from the Netherlands.
The Darul Islam movement and TII grew in strength in the 1950s, controlling much of West Java and most of South Sulawesi and Aceh provinces.
Sidney Jones, an analyst on Islamic militancy in Indonesia and director of the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict, expressed doubt that the pledge would inspire others to do the same.
She pointed out that Kartosuwiryo's son, Sarjono, had long worked with the government.
"There are still many dangerous (NII) factions. I am sure there are still factions that want to wage a war, despite the pledge," Jones told BenarNews.
She said the desire for an Islamic state remained strong among NII members and sympathizers, with some joining other militant groups.
Iwan Darmawan (alias Rois), who was sentenced to death for a deadly bombing at the Australian embassy in Jakarta in 2004, was a former NII member, Jones said.
Iwan had a relationship with the Kartosuwiryo family but was believed to have joined JAD after sharing a prison cell with its chief ideologue, Aman Abdurrahman, who founded the group in 2014, according to Jones.
Police said Iwan was involved in planning a bomb and gun attack in Jakarta's central business district that killed people in January 2016, the first terrorist act claimed on Indonesian soil by IS.
Aman was sentenced to death last year for his role in that attack and other more recent strikes carried out by JAD.
Al Chaidar, a terrorism analyst at Malikussaleh University, estimated there are 14 NII factions.
"That means there are 14 leaders," said Chaidar, adding some former members also joined other, more militant groups.
"Of the 14 factions currently in existence, three have pledged allegiance to ISIS," Chaidar told BenarNews, using another name for IS.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu called for a crackdown on separatist rebels in Papua province after suspected insurgents abducted and killed a policeman this week, the state news agency Antara reported Wednesday.
The officer, identified as Heidar, was found dead from gunshot wounds on Monday in Puncak regency after negotiations with his abductors failed, said Senior Commissioner Ahmad Musthofa Kamal, a spokesman for police in Papua.
"Those rebels have to be finished and crushed. They can't just kill people with reckless abandon," Ryacudu said in a video released by Antara on its website. "Don't let them do what they are doing. Launch an operation and crush them."
The Indonesian military deployed 600 soldiers to nearby Nduga regency in March to safeguard the completion of the Trans-Papua Highway, four months after separatist rebels allegedly killed 19 members of a crew working on the project and a soldier there. The 600 were in addition to 154 police and soldiers dispatched to the region immediately after the killings.
The West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) claimed responsibility for the killings, saying the workers were members of the military's engineering detachment.
On Wednesday, a team monitoring the humanitarian situation in Nduga urged Indonesia's government to pull troops out of the regency.
"From the outset we have called on the government to withdraw the troops because it is civilians who are harmed," said Theo Hasegem, director of the Papuan Justice and Unity and a member of the humanitarian team.
Speaking to reporters at a news conference hosted by Amnesty International in Jakarta, Theo said about 1,000 soldiers and police had been sent to Nduga since the December killings.
The anti-insurgency campaign forced more than 20,000 residents to flee to the forest and neighboring regencies to avoid being caught in the violence, Theo said, adding that at least 182 people had died of hunger and disease after fleeing.
"People died because they had been in the jungle for too long," he said. "They were sick and hungry and there was no medical help."
The team urged the government to open Nduga to journalists, church workers and human rights observers so they could see "the truth."
The soldiers were serving an important role, Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) spokesman Maj. Gen. Sisriadi said.
"The TNI's task there is only to help the national police to safeguard the construction of transportation facilities," he told BenarNews.
The Trans-Papua highway is part of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's push to upgrade infrastructure in Papua, much of which is covered by jungle and road networks are limited. The project is scheduled to be completed this year.
"We also help the police catch criminals but we do not harm to civilians," Sisriadi said. "We have rules of engagement, and we comply with existing laws."
He said only one battalion consisting of about 600 soldiers was in Nduga.
National police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo, meanwhile, said police were there to protect the regency's civilians.
"The fact is people feel safe and go about their activities as usual," he told the Tempo news website.
On Monday, Tempo quoted Air Force officials as saying that a search involving civilian flights was still under way for a military helicopter with 12 servicemen on board that disappeared during a flight in Papua on June 28.
The Russian-made Mil Mi-17 lost contact with ground control minutes after lifting off from Oksibil in Papua's mountainous Pegunungan Bintang regency, military officials said.
Decades of conflict
A low-level separatist conflict has been taking place since the 1960s in Papua, where the population is predominantly Melanesian. Papua declared its independence from Dutch colonial rule on Dec. 1, 1961, but that was rejected by the Netherlands and later by Indonesia.
In 1963, Indonesian forces invaded the region and annexed it. In 1969, the region held a referendum in which security forces selected slightly more than 1,000 people to agree to Papua's formal absorption into the nation, according to human rights advocacy groups.
This week, the Indonesian government criticized the tiny Pacific island-nation of Vanuatu for including an exiled Papuan separatist leader, Benny Wenda as part of its delegation to the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), which opened Tuesday in Tuvalu, a tiny nation of 6,000 people.
"We have conveyed our protest through our ambassador in Fiji last week, both in writing and in person with the Secretary General of the PIF in Suva, Fiji, last week," Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Monday.
He said Vanuatu's action amounted to interference in Indonesia's domestic affairs and "a hostile act." Indonesia is not a member of the PIF but has been granted dialogue partner status.
Wenda, who is based in Britain, was expected to be among speakers at the forum as a member of the Vanuatu delegation.
The head of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP), Wenda said last month that three rebel groups had agreed to unify militarily under the banner of the West Papua Army.
Indonesian military officials dismissed his claims, saying they were a ploy to gain public support.
Ahmad Syamsudin in Jakarta contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo called for calm on Monday after protesters set fire to a local parliament building in easternmost Papua region during rioting sparked by allegations that police used racist language and beat Papuan students in recent days.
Thousands marched in Papua and West Papua provinces, which make up the Indonesian half of New Guinea island, to protest alleged racist treatment by security forces and residents against Papuan students who demanded self-determination for the mainly Melanesian region during a rally in East Java on Friday.
"My brothers and sisters in West Papua, I know you are offended, and as we belong to one nation, the best thing to do is to forgive each other," Jokowi said in televised remarks.
"I understand that emotions are high," he said, "but forgiveness and patience should prevail."
Protesters in Manokwari, the capital of West Papua, attacked the provincial parliament and set fire to several other government buildings, police said. Television footage showed thick smoke billowing from the local House of Representatives building.
There were no immediate reports of fatalities.
Protests have also been reported in Jayapura, capital of Papua and the nation's easternmost province, authorities said.
Dozens of people were injured Friday when Papuan students who were demonstrating and calling for self-determination clashed with counter-protesters in the city of Malang, police and Papuan activists said.
The next day, heavily armed anti-riot police fired tear gas on a Papuan students' dormitory in Surabaya, East Java's main city. They arrested and briefly detained 43 people there over accusations that they had desecrated an Indonesian flag, local media reported.
National police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian said the situation in Papua was under control.
"If we need reinforcements, we can send them from the nearest provinces, including Maluku," he told reporters.
Tito said he regretted the events leading to the rioting.
"Many Papuans go to universities in East Java, West Java and Jakarta and there have been no problems," he said.
"There was a misunderstanding and some people used improper words that offended our brothers from Papua," he said, referring to reports that the Papuans were called "monkeys" during Saturday's dormitory raid.
"Please treat our brothers and sisters from Papua well, as we belong to one nation," Tito said. "Never allow ourselves to be pitted against one another and provoked by false information."
'It hurts me'
Thousands of people in Papua province shouted "Freedom!" as they marched peacefully through the streets of Jayapura to the governor's office.
"It hurts me to see that our children are treated badly in Java," Ani Motte, one of the protesters, told reporters.
"Where can you find monkeys with curly hair? Mr. President, I did not give birth to monkeys," she said.
Student leader Alex Gobay warned that should Papuans be expelled from Surabaya, Papuans would do the same to non-native Papuan students studying in Papua.
"We are ready to send them back to Java," Gobay told reporters as other protestors shouted "Expel! Expel!"
The protesters said Indonesia should allow Papuan self-determination if the government failed to address their grievances.
"If you can't accept us, just return the sovereignty to Papuans, so that we can determine our future for ourselves," said one protester who gave his name as Osyo.
 



"We Papuans have honor and dignity," he told the protesters. "I thank you for avoiding anarchic acts. We must not destroy what we have built."
Jayapura police chief Gustav Urbinas said 600 police were deployed to provide security during the rally.
"Everything went peacefully," he said.
Khofifah apologized to Papuans for any mistreatment and offense.
"I would like to stress that in no way do such personal outbursts represent the voice of the people of East Java," she said on television.
Exercise restraint, authorities say
Security affairs minister Wiranto called for a thorough investigation into the events and urged security forces to exercise restraint.
"I call on TNI [military] and police personnel to act in a persuasive and measured manner," Wiranto told reporters in Jakarta.
Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo said he would summon the governors and ask them to explain what precipitated the eruption of violence.
"After the situation improves, regional heads must account for the events in their jurisdictions," he said.
A low-level separatist conflict has been taking place since the 1960s in Papua, where the population is predominantly Melanesian. Papua declared its independence from Dutch colonial rule on Dec. 1, 1961, but that was rejected by the Netherlands and later by Indonesia
In 1963, Indonesian forces invaded the region and annexed it. In 1969, the region held a referendum in which security forces selected slightly more than 1,000 people to agree to Papua's formal absorption into the nation, according to human rights advocacy groups.
Violence has been on the rise in Papua after separatist rebels allegedly killed 19 members of a crew working on a government road project and a soldier in Nduga regency.
In response to the killings, the government sent additional 600 troops to Nduga.
The anti-insurgency campaign has forced more than 20,000 Nduga residents to flee to the forest and neighboring regencies to avoid being caught in the violence, local rights and church activists said.
At least 182 people had died of hunger and disease after fleeing, they said.
Last week, Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu called for a crackdown on separatist rebels after suspected insurgents abducted and killed a policeman in a remote part of Papua province.
"Those rebels have to be finished and crushed. They can't just kill people with reckless abandon," Ryacudu said in a video released by Antara on its website. "Don't let them do what they are doing. Launch an operation and crush them."

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Students and their supporters hold a rally outside a university campus in Jayapura, in Indonesia's Papua province, Aug. 19, 2019. [Yuliana Lantipo/BenarNews]

Tia Asmara and Ahmad Syamsudin in Jakarta contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia imposed an internet blackout to restore order in its easternmost Papua region on Wednesday, officials said, during a third straight day of unrest sparked by the perceived harsh treatment of anti-Jakarta protesters by government security forces.
Demonstrators torched several stalls at a market and a few buildings in Fakfak, a regency in West Papua province, and more than 1,000 policemen were deployed to the region on Wednesday, national police spokesman Muhammad Iqbal said.
"The ministry decided to temporarily block telecommunication data services starting Wednesday until the situation in Tanah Papua returns to normal," the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology said in a statement, using the local term for Papua and West Papua provinces, which make up the Indonesian half of New Guinea island.
Tensions rose when local residents who rallied outside the Fakfak regent's office on Wednesday clashed with a rival group of protesters armed with machetes and iron bars, local resident Freddy Warpopor told BenarNews.
Security forces could do little because they were far outnumbered, he said.
"Members of the local community wanted to voice their aspirations to the regency chief, who promised to convey their message to President Joko Widodo," Warpopor said.
During the rally in Fakfak, the crowd chanted, "We are not Red and White [the colors of the Indonesian flag]. We are the Morning Star [the banned Papuan separatist banner]," witnesses said.
Iqbal, the police spokesman, said 1,200 officers had been deployed to West Papua from neighboring provinces. More than 300 soldiers also arrived in the province on Tuesday to beef up security.
"We are talking to community and religious leaders," Iqbal told reporters. "Soldiers and police are not being equipped with live ammunition."
He insisted that things were under control, especially in Manokwari regency and Sorong city, the scenes of violent protests on Monday and Tuesday.
In Jakarta, Security Affairs Minister Wiranto said he would travel to Papua to calm tensions.
"It's time for us to unite. I'm going there not to inflame things, but to persuade and embrace [Papuans] so that we can live together under the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia," CNN Indonesia quoted him as saying.
Demanding self-determination
On Friday, dozens of people were injured when Papuan students who were demonstrating and calling for self-determination clashed with counter-protesters in Malang, a city in East Java province, police and Papuan activists said.
The next day, anti-riot police fired tear gas on a Papuan students' dormitory in Surabaya, East Java's main city. They arrested and briefly detained 43 people there over accusations that they had desecrated an Indonesian flag, local media reported.
In response, thousands marched in Papua and West Papua provinces on Monday to protest the alleged racist treatment by security forces and residents against the Papuan students.
Protesters in Manokwari, the capital of West Papua, attacked the provincial parliament and set fire to several other government buildings, including the provincial House of Representatives, police said.
Also on Monday in Sorong, a crowd set fire to a section of a prison, prompting a riot that led to the escape of more than 250 inmates, officials said. Most of the escapees remain at large, police said.
No violence was reported in Sorong on Wednesday, but protesters submitted a petition to the mayor demanding that the government act against non-indigenous Papuans who used racist slurs.
"The protesters also demand that the mayor limit the growth of the non-indigenous population, because all this time the influx of outsiders has been out of control," a local resident, Poly Way, told BenarNews.
The petition urged the president, Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, to visit and apologize to the Papuan people in person, he said.

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Protesters gather under the banned Papuan flag in Fakfak, in Indonesia's West Papua province, Aug. 21, 2019. [AFP]

Suspect arrested
Police had arrested one person for suspected involvement in the rioting, said Brig. Gen. Herry Rudolf Nahak, the West Papua police chief.
Nahak urged residents not to be worried about the arrival of additional security personnel.
"I need to explain again that they are here not to frighten residents, but to provide security," he told reporters. "If it's already safe, they will certainly be withdrawn."
A low-level separatist conflict has been taking place since the 1960s in Papua, where the population is predominantly Melanesian. Papua declared its independence from Dutch colonial rule on Dec. 1, 1961, but that was rejected by the Netherlands and later by Indonesia
In 1963, Indonesian forces invaded the region and annexed it. In 1969, the region held a referendum in which security forces selected slightly more than 1,000 people to agree to Papua's formal absorption into the nation, according to human rights advocacy groups.
Violence has been on the rise in Papua after separatist rebels allegedly killed 19 members of a crew working on a government road project and a soldier in Nduga regency.
In response to the killings, the government sent additional 600 troops to Nduga.
The anti-insurgency campaign has forced more than 20,000 Nduga residents to flee to the forest and neighboring regencies to avoid being caught in the violence, local rights and church activists said.
At least 182 people had died of hunger and disease after fleeing, they said.
Last week, Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu called for a crackdown on separatist rebels after suspected insurgents abducted and killed a policeman in a remote part of Papua province.
"Those rebels have to be finished and crushed. They can't just kill people with reckless abandon," Ryacudu said in a video released by Antara on its website.
"Don't let them do what they are doing," he said. "Launch an operation and crush them."


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's president called on police Thursday to act against officers who allegedly made racist taunts that provoked days of unrest in the volatile Papua region, but a Papuan man told BenarNews that locals felt nervous about wandering outside during a fourth day of anti-Jakarta protests.
Pro-separatist activists from Papua became enraged and took to the streets over accusations that Indonesian government security personnel and vigilantes had used racial slurs such as "monkeys" and "dogs" against Papuan students, as well as roughed them up while they were demonstrating in East Java province last week.
"I have ordered the national police chief to take firm legal action against racial and ethnic discrimination," President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said, in an apparent reference to the alleged slurs directed by law enforcement personnel against Papuan students.
"Apologies have been made, and this is a testament to our big hearts as a nation," he told a news conference at Bogor Palace. Jokowi added that he had invited Papuan community leaders to the presidential palace on the outskirts of Jakarta to meet with him next week "to discuss ways to improve prosperity" in deeply impoverished Papua and West Papua provinces.
The situation in the far-eastern region was "returning to normal," the president said without elaborating.
But a resident of Fakfak, a regency in West Papua that became a hotspot for violence during the protests this week, said many locals had started to venture outside their homes on Thursday, although they still worried about new violence breaking out.
"Locals shopped for groceries and went straight home. Some markets are open but security forces are on guard there," the resident, who declined to be identified for security reasons, told BenarNews.
"In general today's [Thursday's] protests were peaceful. People took to the streets and shouted 'Free Papua!,'" he said.
He said he had met with a 50-year-old resident of Fakfak, who had been grazed by a bullet during a protest in the area a day earlier. The source's information about gunfire could not be independently verified on Thursday.
Minister: 'Papuans are our golden children'
The protests broke out on Monday, when thousands of people demonstrated in major towns in Papua and West Papua provinces to vent their anger against racism and call for a referendum on independence for the mainly Melanesian region. Some of the protestors set government buildings on fire, and violence protests spilled over into Tuesday and Wednesday, when a market in Fakfak was destroyed by a blaze.
Smaller protests took place in Papua and in Jakarta on Thursday, while Indonesian officials said that internet services in the far-eastern region remained blocked as a measure for restoring order. On Tuesday and Wednesday, the central government deployed 1,500 security personnel – mostly police officers – to the region to help maintain law and order, according to officials.
On Thursday, Security Affairs Minister Wiranto, along with the chief of national police and the head of the Indonesian armed forces (TNI) visited the Papua region in a collective effort to calm tensions.
"We are here ... to shake hands with our brothers and sisters," Wiranto said on television.
"There are always bad apples, and surely there will be legal action," the state-run Antara news agency quoted him as saying.
"Don't make sweeping generalizations that all other ethnic groups insult ethnic Papuans," he added, saying that "Papuans are our golden children."
However, George Celcius Auparay, an aide to the governor of West Papua, said Papuans were hurt by the perceived race-based insults.
"We have agreed to be one nation, but why are we being treated like this?" he said, adding there should be a presidential decree banning insults targeting the Papuan people.

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Papuan activists, their faces painted with the colors of the separatist Morning Star flag, attend a rally near the presidential palace in Jakarta, Aug. 22, 2019. [AP]

Meanwhile in Jakarta on Thursday, dozens of Papuan activists rallied outside the army headquarters in the Indonesian capital.
Some carried the banned Morning Star flags, a symbol of the Papuan separatist movement, as they called for a referendum on self-determination.
The protesters chanted: "Free Papua! Free Papua!" as riot police looked on.
The crowd forced their way through a police barricade, but were stopped by military personnel. There were no reports of injuries.
In Papua province, police said they had arrested 34 people for alleged involvement in Wednesday's rioting in Timika, a town near the giant Grasberg mine operated by the American firm Freeport McMoRan, Antara reported.
Elsewhere, Indonesia's Ministry of Communication and Information Technology said the blackout on internet service would stay in place "until the situation in Tanah Papua returns to normal." Tanah Papua is the local term for Papua and West Papua, which make up the Indonesian half of New Guinea island.
Members of the public and human rights groups criticized the move.
"This blanket internet blackout is an appalling attack on people's right to freedom of expression in Papua and West Papua," Usman Hamid, the executive director of Amnesty International Indonesia, said in a statement.
"In addition, the decision would also prevent people from documenting and sharing evidence of abuses committed by security forces," he said.
Rudiantara, who heads the ministry, defended its decision to impose a blackout in Papua.
"This is for the national interest and has been discussed with security authorities," Rudiantara told reporters.
"We're not being repressive, unlike in some other countries. People can still make voice calls," he said.
Violence has been on the rise in Papua since December 2018, after separatist rebels allegedly killed 19 members of a crew working on a government highway project and a soldier in Nduga regency.

A low-level separatist conflict has unfolded since the 1960s in Papua. The region declared its independence from Dutch colonial rule on Dec. 1, 1961. But that was rejected by the Netherlands and later by Indonesia.
In 1963, Indonesian forces invaded the region and annexed it.
Six years later, the region held a referendum in which security forces selected slightly more than 1,000 people to agree to Papua's formal absorption into the nation, according to human rights advocacy groups.

Ahmad Syamsudin in Jakarta contributed to this report.
CORRECTION: An earlier version incorrectly attributed the quote about Thursday's protests in Fakfak being peaceful to the 50-year-old resident who was grazed by a bullet. Information about the alleged gunfire and people shopping for groceries all came from a single source.


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BENARNEWS- Racist taunts may have ignited unrest in Indonesia's volatile Papua region this week, but pro-separatist protests that turned violent exposed deep roots of the local population's discontent over being ruled for decades by Jakarta, Papuans and experts said.
Posters declaring "we are not monkeys" were a common sight during the protests in Papua and West Papua provinces that often disintegrated into violence. The unrest flared up after Indonesian police allegedly used racial slurs, including "monkeys" and "dogs," against Papuan students as officers confronted them during a street demonstration in East Java last week.
"Papuans don't usually respond excessively to perceived racism. But this time there was an explosion of anger. That means there are underlying issues that remain unresolved," Adriana Elisabeth, a researcher at the Indonesia Institute of Sciences (LIPI) who specializes in the far-eastern Papua region, told BenarNews.
"There needs to be a dialogue to address the root of the problems, but right now emotions are high so it will take time," she said.
A book on Papua published by LIPI a decade ago listed marginalization, discrimination and unresolved cases of human rights violations as issues that underpinned a prolonged conflict in the impoverished region, where a separatist rebellion has simmered since the 1960s.
Papuans, who are Melanesian, said they were accustomed to being discriminated against by other Indonesians based on their appearance.
"Racism is nothing new to Papuans, but this time it was out in the open, thanks to social media, and security personnel were involved," said Freni Tabuni, a Papuan student attending Pakuan University in Bogor, a regency in West Java province near Jakarta.
"This has made us think twice about being part of Indonesia," he told BenarNews. "We don't trust the government."
Ligia Giay, a Papuan postgraduate student at Murdoch University in Perth, Australia, echoed Tabuni's sentiment.
"This is another example of how the government responds to any Papuan expression of political aspirations," Giay said.
"There is a general agreement that this is the culmination of decades-long racism," she told BenarNews.
In an article published this week on the Indonesian news website Tirto.co, Giay wrote that Papuans had grown used to stereotypes that labeled them as drunkards, backwards, and trouble makers, among other things.
"In the coming days, I suspect we will hear stories about how development is a solution to this racism," she wrote in the article. "Development will elevate Papuans to a level where we will not be equated with monkeys."
The violence began on Monday, when crowds of anti-Jakarta protestors set fire to government buildings in West Papua towns, prompting the Indonesian government to send hundreds of additional police and soldiers to the region and impose an internet blackout in the days that followed. A market in West Papua's Fakfak regency was torched during a protest on Wednesday.
The protesters were venting their anger against racism, while calling for a referendum on independence for their region.
On Friday, police in the Papua province city of Wamena killed a suspected insurgent after officers came under fire from a group of five armed men, local police chief Tonny Ananda said.
A policeman was injured in the gunfight, while the other four gunmen escaped, he said.
"We tried to persuade them to surrender but they opened fire," he told reporters.
There were no reports of protests in Papua and West Papua, but an internet blackout announced by the government on Wednesday remained in place on Friday.
Indonesia's Ministry of Communication and Information Technology had said that the blackout would last "until the situation in Tanah Papua returns to normal." Tanah Papua is the local name for Papua and West Papua.
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The Papua region, which makes up the Indonesian half of New Guinea island, was formally incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 following a U.N.-administered ballot known as the Act of Free Choice.
Many Papuans and rights groups said the vote was a sham because it only involved 1,000 people.
The Free Papua Movement (OPM) launched a fight for an independent state for the region in 1965, three years after Dutch colonizers ceded sovereignty over the territory to Indonesia. OPM has since waged a low-level separatist insurgency against Jakarta rule.
The Indonesian military has been accused of gross human rights violations during decades of anti-insurgency campaigns, and rights activists have said that impunity for violators is the norm.
Violence has risen in Papua since December 2018, when separatist rebels allegedly killed 19 members of a crew working on a government highway project and a soldier in Nduga regency.
"The government has provided education and development, but never asked what the Papuans need. It has not tried to see things the way the Papuans see them," Adriana Elisabeth, the researcher at LIPI, told BenarNews.
The government has denied that Papuans are being discriminated against.
On Thursday, Security Affairs Minister Wiranto described Papua as "a golden child" and noted that the central government had spent more than 100 trillion rupiah (U.S. $7.3 million) in autonomy funds for Papua and West Papua.
"We still remember, the president during his visits there [had] asked for roads to be built and that prices should be the same there as they are on Java, and those things have been done," Wiranto told reporters.
Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, meanwhile, has made building infrastructure in the Papua region a priority.
The killings of the construction workers in December and violence that followed had only strengthened the government's resolve to develop Papua, Jokowi said.
He was widely criticized after urging angry Papuans "to forgive" their abusers after violence broke out on Monday, and without addressing allegations of heavy-handed treatment of the Papuan students by police officers.
On Thursday, however, the president ordered police to take "firm legal action" against those involved in what he called ethnic and racial discrimination.
He announced then that he would invite Papuan tribal and religious leaders to the presidential palace next week to discuss how to "speed up prosperity" in the Papua region. Government officials and a presidential spokesman on Friday did not immediately respond to requests from BenarNews seeking comment.
But for Papuans like Tabuni, the president's words sounded all too familiar.
"We've heard them many times. We don't trust the government, almost 100 percent," said the student in Bogor.
"The government isn't serious," he told BenarNews. "The solution we want is self-determination."
Yuliana Lantipo in Jayapura, Indonesia contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo announced Monday that the country would move its capital from traffic-choked and crowded Jakarta to a location on Borneo, with planners setting a goal for relocating part of the national government there by 2024.
Moving the seat of government to East Kalimantan, a densely forested and thinly populated province in Indonesian Borneo, and building a new capital from the ground up will cost up to 466 trillion rupiah (U.S. $32.7 billion), Jokowi said.
The new administrative center will be built in an area that straddles the border between the regencies of Kutai Katanegara and North Penajam Paser in East Kalimantan province, Jokowi said, ending months of speculation about the site for a new capital.
"The results of our studies conclude that the most ideal location of the new capital is in part of North Penajam Paser Regency and part of Kutai Kartanegara Regency," he said during a televised news conference at the presidential palace in Jakarta.
Jokowi's government will pay for about a fifth of the project's cost while the rest of its construction will be financed through public-private partnerships, the president said.
"As a big nation which has been independent for 74 years, Indonesia has not designed its own capital city [from the ground up]," Jokowi said. Back in the 16th century, Dutch colonizers developed Jakarta as a trading outpost.
In its plan to build a new capital, Jokowi's government will pay for about a fifth of the project's cost while the rest of its construction will be financed through public-private partnerships, the president said.
Jokowi's announcement marked the first time that he named a specific site for the new capital after he revealed his capital relocation plan in April. The announcement on Monday ruled out Sumatra and Sulawesi as potential sites for a capital. Four months ago, the president said that locations on both islands were among those being considered for a future seat of government.
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The chosen area in East Kalimantan is strategic because it is at the center of Indonesia and close to two major cities where there is infrastructure in place – Balikpapan and Samarinda – Jokowi said.  

Jakarta, with a population of 10 million people – or 30 million including its satellite cities – was struggling to cope with its status as an administrative and commercial center, the president added.

"The burden on Java Island is also increasingly heavy, being home to 150 million people, or 54 percent of Indonesia's population," he said.  

"We cannot let Jakarta and Java continue to bear the burdens of population density, traffic congestion, which has become so bad, and air pollution, as well as water problems that need urgent handling," Jokowi said, adding that the city was in danger of sinking.
The risks of disasters such as flooding, earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions are minimal in the area, he added.
As much as 36 percent of Jakarta could be underwater by 2050 mainly because of mass extraction of groundwater, according to a study by the Bandung Institute of Technology.
About 630 million cubic meters of water (166.4 billion gallons) are pumped from the ground each year by high-rise by commercial establishments including hotels, shopping centers and apartment complexes as well as residents, according to the city government.
A bill on the new capital will be drafted soon while the proposal has been submitted to parliament for discussion, Jokowi said.
The government wants to start moving to a new capital by 2024, at the end of Jokowi's second five-year term in office.
Bambang Brodjonegoro, the minister for National Development Planning, said construction could start at the end of 2020.
"By 2024 we can start gradual relocation, while Jakarta will still be pushed to be an international business and financial center," he told the press conference.
Half of the 180,000 hectares (695 square miles) of land allocated for the new capital will be preserved as urban open green spaces, Bambang said.
"We promise that protected forests will be untouched and conservation forests will be rehabilitated," he added.
Some environmental activists, however, have criticized the planned move, warning that building a new city in the middle of a forest could harm the environment, including endangered species like orangutan.

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An aerial picture shows a general view of Samboja in Kutai Kartanegara, one of two regencies in East Kalimantan province where Indonesia's future administrative capital is to be built, Aug. 16, 2019. [AFP via Tribun Kaltim]

Critics: Indonesia must prioritize urgent problems
Bambang Haryo, a lawmaker from the opposition Gerindra party, meanwhile, questioned the need to build a new capital away from Java.
"People are facing urgent problems such as food and clean water. Our foodstuffs cost more than those in Saudi Arabia," he told TVOne, a local news broadcaster.
"Only 60 percent of Jakarta residents have access to piped water, while in some other cities, only 30 percent. We should focus on those issues," he added.
In the view of Nirwono Joga, an urban planning expert at Trisakti University, moving the capital is not urgent, especially at a time of economic uncertainty.
"Floods, traffic jams and urbanization are not an excuse to move the capital. It can take 20 years to create a fully functioning city from scratch," he told BenarNews.
"It is better to distribute development funds to other cities to boost economic growth and create new economic centers outside Jakarta," he said.
A civil servant, Rosalina, said she opposed to plan to relocate Indonesia's capital to Borneo.
"It will need a lot of preparations, including infrastructure and other long-term needs," she told BenarNews.
Moving at least 1 million civil servants to the new city will pose significant logistical challenges, she added.
Athanasius Trilasto Nugroho, a 28-year-old office worker, said moving the capital was a good idea because, in his opinion, Jakarta is too crowded.
"Traffic jams are stressing us out, so there's no harm in the government relocating to relieve Jakarta's burdens," he told BenarNews. 

"Maybe it will be difficult at first for many, because there aren't too many malls there, but they will get used to it," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian police have arrested six suspected militants from Islamic State-linked Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), including two of the group's leaders in East Java and some "closely related" to a family behind the deadly 2018 Surabaya church bombings, a police spokesman said Monday.
The suspects were arrested by the Densus 88 police anti-terrorism unit in separate locations in East Java between Thursday and Saturday, national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo told reporters.
Two of them, identified only by their initials, H.S. and B.L., were allegedly JAD's emirs, or leaders, for Madura and Lamongan regencies, respectively, Dedi said.
"Some of these people are very closely related to the Surabaya bombing suspects, at least know the planning process of the Surabaya bombings, both at the places of worship and the Surabaya resort police attacks," Dedi said.
He was referring to a series of attacks in May 2018, when two families carried out suicide bombings on three churches and a police station in Surabaya, killing 24 people, including children as young as 9 who joined their parents in the attacks.
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks in the past two decades.
Attacks in recent years have been blamed on JAD, a local militant network affiliated with Islamic State.
JAD founder and ideologue Aman Abdurrahman was sentenced to death last year for his role in some of the attacks. The group was also declared illegal in July last year.
Dedi said H.S. and B.L. had attended several meetings organized by JAD, including one in the East Java city of Malang in 2014, which was also attended by Saiful Muthohir, who is serving a nine-year sentence for a January 2016 attack in the capital Jakarta.
The gun and bomb attack in Jakarta's central business district killed four of the attackers and four bystanders.
Police said B.L. had taken part in military training led by Saiful in Batu, East Java, in 2015.
Three other suspects, identified by their initials K.J., S., and I.P.S., were aware of the purchase of firearms by Anang Rustianto, a JAD militant who was arrested in June last year, Dedi said.
A sixth suspect, identified as Y.T., was arrested after he allegedly robbed a gold shop in East Java's Magetan regency on Saturday.
The suspect asked for money from a gold shop attendant while pointing a toy gun and was given 10 million rupiah (U.S. $701) by the cashier, police said.
He then left with five gold rings and three bracelets but was arrested in the parking lot.
Police seized two cans thought to be homemade bombs, one bayonet, an airsoft gun, and two boxes of air rifle bullets from the suspect.
"There are also liquid objects that are still being studied in the laboratory, to find out whether they contain chemicals including TATP (triacetone triperoxide, a high explosive)," Dedi said.


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BENARNEWS- The association representing medical doctors in Indonesia said Tuesday it would refuse to take part in chemically castrating the first convict sentenced to such punishment under the country's toughened up child-protection laws against pedophiles.
In May, a court in East Java province's Mojokerta regency found Muh Aris bin Syukur guilty of sexually abusing nine children, including girls as young as 7, between 2015 and 2018, and sentenced him to 12 years in prison. The judges, in a landmark ruling, ordered that he be chemically castrated to prevent him from committing similar offenses.
The Indonesian Medical Association (IDI) said it would have no role in the castration, even though such corporal punishment was sanctioned under amendments to child-protection laws in 2016.
"We believe that child sex offenders should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, but we cannot administer castrations because doing so will violate our oath to uphold the medical profession's code of ethics," Pudjo Hartono, who heads IDI's professional development council, told BenarNews.
Aris is the first child-sex offender to be sentenced to chemical castration since parliament passed revisions to a related law three years ago. An appeals court in Surabaya last month upheld his conviction.
Chemical castration has not be proven to be effective in the long run and could endanger the health of the person subjected to the punishment, Pudjo said.
Adverse effects of chemical castration include obesity, a swollen face, kidney damage and bone loss, H.N. Nazar, who directs IDI's legal bureau, said on national television. The procedure involves injecting hormonal drugs.
In response to the announcement by the medical association, the attorney general's office will meet with Health Minister Nila Moeloek to discuss a solution, according to Mukri, a spokesman for the office.
"We will take it up with the minister, in light of IDI's refusal to execute castration," he told BenarNews.
Aris, who was arrested in October last year, said he would rather die than be castrated.
"I can accept 20 years in prison, but I don't want to be castrated," local news website JawaPos quoted the 21-year-old, who had worked as a welder, as saying.
"Just shoot me," he said.
Arguments for and against
The revised child-protection law allows convicted pedophiles to be chemically castrated and implanted with electronic chips to track their movements, in addition to a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison or capital punishment.
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo had proposed including chemical castration in the legal amendment, in response to a public outcry over the gang rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl in 2016.
Pudjo said IDI would gladly be involved in rehabilitating both victims and perpetrators of sexual violence.
"Such rehabilitation programs require the involvement of experts from various disciplines," he said.
Yohana Yembise, Indonesia's minister for Women's Empowerment and Child Protection, however, praised the court's verdict and sentencing in the trial of Aris.
"The ministry appreciates the ruling handed down by judges at Mojokerto District Court and the application of additional punishment in the form of castration," she said.
The castration sentence could create a precedent for cases of sexual assault against children, said a deputy chair of the Indonesian Commission on Child Protection (KPAI), Retno Listyarti.
"[Castration] is an additional sentence imposed after the main sentence has been completed. This is part of efforts to deter child predators," Retno said.
"This sentence could also serve as jurisprudence for other judges in cases of sexual crimes against children," she said.
Akmal Taher, a staff expert at the Ministry of Health, said all relevant parties needed to sit together to discuss the merits of castration.
"I'm sure there is a way out," he said.
Castration by injecting anti-androgen substances would not have a permanent effect and is intended to reduce a convict's sexual aggressiveness, Akmal said.
Human rights groups, such as the National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan) have criticized the use of chemical castration against convicts.
"Other countries that have chemical castration have not seen a reduction in sexual crimes against children," Azriana, the head of Komnas Perempuan, told BBC News. "Also it's a very expensive procedure and what we should be spending and investing our money in is services to support and help the victims."
In July, the Victim and Witness Protection Agency (LPSK) said that cases of sexual violence against children had increased in recent years.
LPSK Deputy Chairman Edwin Partogi said the agency handled four such cases every week.
"We believe that the cases are the tip of the iceberg and do not reflect the real number of victims of sexual violence," Partogi said last month.
In 2018, at least 206 cases of child sex abuse were reported, a sharp increase from 81 in 2017 and 25 the previous year, he said


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia should begin repatriating its most vulnerable citizens who joined the Islamic State (IS) and not let them languish in Syrian camps where they face intimidation from other supporters of the extremist group, a think tank said in a new report.
The security situation is worsening at the camps, where IS has found a new area of activity, the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) said in the report titled "Indonesia: Urgent Need for a Policy on Repatriation of Pro-ISIS Nationals from Syria."
"There's no need to wait for an all-encompassing policy to begin to bring back those most at risk," IPAC director Sidney Jones said in a statement accompanying the report on Tuesday.
"The government doesn't have to decide what to do to about 200 people – it can start with five or 10," she said.
In March this year, U.S.-backed forces declared they had captured the last IS bastion in eastern Syria after pummeling the extremist group, which once controlled a swath of land that spilled across the boundaries of Iraq and Syria.
The victory of Syrian Democratic Forces ushered in complex issues, including the extradition – or legal proceedings – for captured foreign militant fighters, as well as their wives and children.
Indonesian security officials, who visited Syria and Iraq in June, said at least 100 Indonesian men, women and children were languishing in several camps along the border between the two Middle Eastern countries.
"The problem is that the longer the government delays taking action, the greater the likelihood of intimidation in the camps and the higher the political risks of repatriation," Jones said.
The report said inmates in the camps could be embroiled in a riot, uprising, prison break or attack, potentially leading to the sudden emptying of the camps and an inability to track them.
Women and children exposed to constant taunts or threats could become further radicalized or traumatized, IPAC said.
"The longer they stay, the more lasting the bonds that could be established with fighter families from other countries, with implications for future transnational collaboration," it said.
More than 120 Indonesians, mostly women and children, are stranded in Syrian camps, IPAC said. It said the Indonesians were living in IS-controlled areas, but they fled after coalition fighter jets started bombing their villages in late 2018 and early 2019, and surrendered to the SDF, a predominantly Kurdish militia opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Some are widows of non-Indonesian foreigners whom they married in Syria, while others are married to Indonesian men who have been detained separately in SDF prisons, IPAC said.
'There needs to be identification'
Commenting on the IPAC report, Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said: "It's just the opinion of a non-governmental group, and we may have different views on this issue."
"The process is not complete because there needs to be identification," he told BenarNews. "Many don't have documents, so there needs to be verification – to determine whether they are Indonesian citizens or not."
Andhika Chrisnayudhanto, director for international cooperation at the National Counter-Terrorism Agency (BNPT), said there had been several meetings involving the security ministry, the foreign ministry, BNPT and other relevant agencies to discuss the repatriation.
"But there's still no decision that we can announce," he told BenarNews.
"The point is we are considering various aspects, especially national security, and also relations with Syria," he said.
IPAC said Indonesia could start with repatriating children, such as the eight orphans found in the al-Hol camp in February, and developing rehabilitation and reintegration programs for
them.
The government can also find foster families to help them get a new start, it said.
If repatriated, Indonesians who played important roles in IS, like SDF detainee Munawar Kholil, could provide important information about the militant group's plans for Southeast Asia and its financial links with regional affiliates, IPAC said.
Kholil, 32, acted as an IS recruiter before he went to Syria in 2012, IPAC said.
"What then are the costs to bringing him back when the advantages of doing so are obvious? At least it is worth considering as a test case, a high-value detainee who could be brought back to certain prosecution but who could potentially be an ally of the government if well-treated," it said.
How other countries are responding
With the demise of IS' self-proclaimed caliphate, European countries are also grappling with the fate of their citizens in Syria.
Britain and some other countries have refused to repatriate their citizens who joined IS.

The British government has revoked the citizenship of some nationals, including Shamima Begum, a 19-year-old woman of Bangladeshi parentage who ran away from her home in London and made her way to Syria with two other teenage girls in 2015.
While Britain allows dual nationality, Indonesia recognizes it only for children up to 18 years, with a 3-year grace period. By the time children turn 21, they are required to notify Indonesian immigration authorities if they intend to keep their citizenship or release it in favor of the other nationality.
In 2017, BNPT reported that at least 1,321 Indonesians had joined IS or tried to enlist. Of that number, 84 were killed, 482 were deported while trying to enter Syria, and 62 had returned from Syria. Another 63 were stopped at Indonesian airports while trying to travel to the Middle East.
Citing intelligence data from his government, Indonesian Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu told a security forum in Singapore last year that about 400 out of 31,500 foreign fighters who had joined IS in Syria were from Indonesia.


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BENARNEWS- Two civilians and a government soldier were killed Wednesday during clashes between protesters and security forces after a rally turned violent in Indonesia's Papua province, security officials said.
A group of about 150 peaceful protesters outside the government office of Deiyai regency were joined by some 1,000 people armed with traditional weapons who attacked security personnel, prompting officers to fire tear gas and warning shots, Papua police chief Rudolf Rodja said. Deiyai is a highland regency in central Papua, about 70 kilometers northwest of Timika city.
A soldier was fatally wounded by an arrow in the clashes and two protesters who grabbed firearms from security forces were killed, Rudolf said.
"Security forces fired back at the crowd who took firearms," he said in a text message.
"Two people from the crowd died," he said, denying an earlier report by a local news website that six civilians were killed.
Four policemen were injured, he added.
Photos released by the Papua police showed at least two policemen with an arrow stuck in their neck and leg.
Papua military spokesman Eko Daryanto said three soldiers were injured.
"Since 4 pm the situation in Deiyai has been brought under control," Eko told BenarNews.
Widespread protests
The rally in Deiyai was part of widespread protests that have been held in Papua and West Papua provinces in the past week against perceived heavy-handed and racist treatment of Papuan students on Indonesia's most populous island, Java.
The chant "Free Papua!" has been a common rallying cry at these protests, an indication of general discontent with Jakarta's rule in the resource-rich region, which enjoys a degree of autonomy as part of the central government's attempts to mollify desires for independence.
The region, which makes up the Indonesian half of New Guinea island, has been the scene of a low-level separatist insurgency since the 1960s.
A Papuan news website, Suarapapua.com, had said six protesters were killed by security forces during the rally in Deiyai.
The protesters were marching toward the government office when security personnel fired shots, the site quoted Agus Mote, a spokesman for the National Committee for West Papua (KNPB), as saying.
KNPB seeks a referendum on independence for Papua.
Street protests have also been held by Papuans across the country in the past week.
About 300 Papuans rallied in front of the Indonesian army headquarters and the nearby presidential palace in Jakarta on Wednesday, some flying the banned separatist Morning Star flags.
"The government must abolish racism and repression against Papuans. They must understand what it means to Papuans to be able to determine their own future," a spokesman for the group, Ambrosius, told the crowd.
Ambrosius also urged the government to lift an internet blackout imposed on the Papua region since last week.
"Blocking means that the Indonesian government is unable to solve and is hiding problems in Papua," he said.
National police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said the internet shutdown was still necessary to prevent the dissemination of false information.
On August 17, heavily-armed riot police forced their way into a Papuan student dormitory in Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, and briefly detained 43 students after accusing them of disrespecting an Indonesian flag by throwing it into a sewer.
Papuan activists said racist taunts including "monkeys" and "pigs" were hurled at them by security personnel.
Unrest began on August 19, when crowds of anti-Jakarta protestors set fire to government buildings in West Papua towns, prompting the Indonesian government to send hundreds of additional police and soldiers to the region and impose an internet blackout in the days that followed.
'Blame ourselves'
The protesters were venting their anger against racism, while calling for a referendum on independence for their region.
The Papua region was formally incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 following a U.N.-administered ballot known as the Act of Free Choice.
Many Papuans and rights groups said the vote was a sham because it only involved 1,000 people.
The Free Papua Movement (OPM) launched a fight for an independent state for the region in 1965, three years after Dutch colonizers ceded sovereignty over the territory to Indonesia. OPM has since waged a low-level separatist insurgency against Jakarta's rule.
The Indonesian military has been accused of gross human rights violations during decades of anti-insurgency campaigns, and rights activists have said that impunity for violators is the norm.
Violence has risen in Papua since December 2018, when separatist rebels allegedly killed 19 members of a crew working on a government highway project and a soldier in Nduga regency.
Cornelius Purba, a senior managing editor at the English-language Jakarta Post, wrote in an opinion piece that the prospects of an independent Papua were growing in light of the recent events.
"You may laugh at me now if I forecast the Papuan people will fulfill their dream of independence much sooner than their expectations, just like the way East Timor separated from Indonesia following the historic Aug. 30, 1999, referendum," Purba wrote.
"Many will no doubt blame the United States or Australia if a Papua exit comes to pass. But seeing the racial abuse against Papuan students and the heightened reactions in Papua, we Indonesians, not just the government, should blame ourselves," he said.
East Timor's vote for independence from Indonesia was preceded and followed by violent rampages by pro-Jakarta militias in what have been described as a "scorched-earth campaign" backed by the Indonesian military.
"We have treated the Papuans the same way we did the people of East Timor."


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