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BENARNEWS- Protesters set fire to buildings and attacked a prison in the capital of Indonesia's Papua province on Thursday, as unrest sparked by perceived racist treatment of Papuans showed no signs of ending.
The rally involving thousands of people in Jayapura came after clashes between security forces and protesters in Deiyai regency in the same province left a soldier and two civilians dead on Wednesday.
"Several public facilities and property in Jayapura were vandalized and burned by rioters," national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said. "We are trying to put the situation under control with the help of community leaders."
The chairman of the Papuan People's Assembly, Timotius Murib, said that protesters were not only venting their anger at racism, but also at a communications blackout imposed by the government since last week.
"We are already in a dire situation. It's not just the issue of racism but the lack of internet and communications. This is also violence," he told BenarNews.
Murib said protesters were also demanding for a vote on self-determination.
"This is because Papuans have been subjected to violence, so they are asking to be independent from the Republic of Indonesia," he said.
Crowds set fire to a building belonging to the state telecom company PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia, the Papuan People's Assembly of tribal leaders, the post office and a shopping center, witnesses said.
Protesters also attacked the city's Abepura prison and set the facility's workshop on fire, prompting some inmates to escape, CNN Indonesia television reported.
Thick columns of smoke were seen billowing from the buildings.
Some protesters also attacked security personnel with rocks and wooden sticks, prompting police to fire tear gas.
Some officers were injured but there were no reports of fatalities, police said.
The violence left the city paralyzed, with shops, schools and offices closing early.
 

 
'They must not use live ammunition'
Some Jayapura residents said they were unable to make phone calls and send text messages, while electricity was out in parts of the city.
The minister for political, legal and security affairs, Wiranto, urged security personnel to exercise restraint.
"The security forces have been instructed not to take repressive measures," he told reporters in Jakarta on Thursday. "Their action must be persuasive and measured and they must not use live ammunition."
Meanwhile, Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo warned protesters not to engage in "anarchic acts" and urged security forces to take firm action.
"We all lose if public facilities that we have built together are damaged," the president said on television.
"The government remains committed to improving welfare in Papua, so that our fellow citizens and the children of Papua can achieve progress and prosperity," he added.
On Wednesday, 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, police said.
A soldier was fatally wounded by an arrow in the clashes and two protesters who grabbed firearms from security forces were killed, according to the military and police.
The rallies were 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.
"These protests are totally unprecedented," said Veronica Koman, a human rights lawyer who has advocated for Papuan dissidents for years. "Because Papuans are also protesting across the country."
The chant "Free Papua!" has been a common rallying cry at these protests, a sign of general discontent with Jakarta's rule in the resource-rich far-eastern 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.
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 Aug. 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.

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Demonstrators march in Jayapura, the latest in an "unprecedented" wave of protest rallies in Indonesia's easternmost province, Aug. 29, 2019. [BenarNews]

No to referendum
Wiranto said the government was heeding the protesters' demand for action against those who humiliated Papuans, but he warned that the government would not entertain their demand for a referendum on self-determination.
"The unitary state of Indonesia is final and it's non-negotiable, including Papua and West Papua," he said.
"I don't believe such demands should be made," he added.
The speaker of the House of Representatives, Bambang Soesatyo, said the government should consider sending a commando unit to quell the unrest.
"We have a special operations command unit which was recently formed and we can deploy them," he told reporters.
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.


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BENARNEWS- Foreigners will face restrictions when entering Papua and West Papua, Indonesia's security minister said Tuesday, after authorities deported four Australians whom they accused of joining an anti-Jakarta protest during ongoing unrest in the two far-eastern provinces.
In the latest violence, unidentified men armed with spears, arrows and sickles attacked traditional gold miners in Yahukimo regency in Papua province, killing five people, police in Jakarta said Tuesday.
Security affairs minister Wiranto said foreigners would be restricted from entering the Papua region for security reasons, with conditions imposed on those requesting to visit. He did not spell out the conditions.
"What if there's a riot and [a foreigner] gets killed?" Wiranto told reporters.
"It will only create more problems and there will be an outcry," he said. "So, it is better to ban [foreigners] and narrow the problem."
"It could be hard to distinguish between foreigners who come to provoke and well-meaning visitors who come as tourists because they look the same," he said.
Under current arrangements, foreign journalists have to obtain a special permit to visit Papua for news coverage, despite a pledge by President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo in 2015 to lift all government restrictions on international media in the restive region.
Clashes between security forces and protesters in Papua have killed at least one soldier and four civilians in the past week, according Indonesian authorities.
Papuan activists, however, claimed that at least eight civilians were killed by security forces, including seven in Deiyai regency during clashes between security personnel and protesters last week.
A university student named Mikael died of gunshot wounds and several others were injured on Sunday after police opened fire in an attempt to disperse two groups clashing in the provincial capital Jayapura, deputy mayor Rustan Saru said.
The fighting began after a native Papuan injured a migrant from Sulawesi island using a spear, Rustan told BenarNews.
The unrest, which started on Aug. 19 with arson attacks on government buildings in West Papua, was sparked by perceived harsh and racist treatment of Papuan students by security forces and vigilante groups on Java, the country's most populous island.
On Aug. 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.
Australians deported
The Indonesian government sent 2,500 police to Jayapura over the weekend as tensions rose between indigenous Papuans and migrants from other parts of the country after protesters torched government and commercial buildings in the city on Thursday.
Four Australians were deported on Monday for allegedly taking part in an anti-government protest at the mayor's office in Sorong regency in West Papua on Aug. 27, the immigration department said.
Wiranto said Papua was calm on Tuesday and that "misinformation and incitement have decreased."
An internet blackout imposed in Papua on Aug. 21 could be lifted on Thursday if the situation continued to be favorable, he said.
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 involved only 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.
Traditional gold miners attacked
Meanwhile, five people were killed and three others injured when residents armed with crude weapons attacked dozens of traditional gold miners in Yahukimo, national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said Tuesday.
"We are still collecting more information because the location is very remote," Dedi told BenarNews. It was not immediately clear when the attack occurred, authorities said.
A researcher on Papua said that sending more troops to Papua could worsen the situation.
"It could lead to new human rights violations, which would only strengthen resentment against the government," said Aisah Putri Budiatri, a researcher with the Indonesian Institute of Sciences' Papua study group.
Usman Hamid, director of Amnesty International Indonesia, warned of attempts to pit ethnic Papuans against migrants.
"This is even more dangerous and should not be allowed to happen," he told BenarNews.
In Jayapura, indigenous Papuans account for about 45 percent of the population, according to a 2010 government census.
The chant "Free Papua!" has been a common rallying cry at these protests, a sign of general discontent with Jakarta's rule in the resource-rich far-eastern region, which enjoys a degree of autonomy as part of the central government's attempts to mollify demands for independence.
The government was open to dialogue with Papuans to improve the situation, but allowing Papua to separate from Indonesia was out of the question, Wiranto said.
"Dialogue is important. It is needed," he said. "But we won't entertain demands for independence."
He said a referendum on self-determination was irrelevant because it had been done before.
"It was a unanimous decision and is supported by many countries, so it cannot be reversed and reviewed again," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian authorities arrested three people Wednesday in Central Sulawesi province on suspicion of involvement with the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen (MIT), a militant group linked to Islamic State extremists, the local police chief said.
Members of the national police's Densus 88 anti-terrorism unit arrested Mohamad Arkam and Adi Saputra in their rented home in Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi, provincial police chief Brig. Gen. Lukman Wahyu Haryanto told BenarNews.
Arkam, 25, and Adi, 21, both construction workers, were taken in for questioning after the arrest and interrogation of another suspect, 35-year-old Zainal Abidin, in Parigi Moutong regency earlier in the day, Lukman said.
"What is clear is that they are linked to terrorism," Lukman said. "We are still delving into the case so we can't yet reveal the extent of their involvement."
The police chief said the trio was suspected of links to the MIT, whose members have sworn allegiance to the Islamic State group and has been active in the Poso area of Sulawesi Island in recent years.
Police seized machetes, knives, cellphones, and an air gun from the suspects' home, he said.
Andi Akbar, a lawyer representing Arkam and Adi, said police had violated his clients' rights by failing to produce a search and arrest warrant when taking the two men into custody.
"They were bundled in and taken in a car without asking any questions. This is not in accordance with the procedure," Andi told BenarNews.
Arkam's wife, Risna, alleged that police took pictures of her while she was half-naked.
"I told them to wait until I got dressed properly, but they didn't listen," Risna told reporters in Palu.
Risna said her husband was only a construction worker.
"Every day my husband goes to work at 8 a.m. and comes home at 4 p.m.," she said. "He has nothing to do with terrorism."
Adi's wife, Reski, provided a similar account, saying police did not allow her to dress properly before they came in.
"They took pictures and video and took my husband," she told reporters. "My husband works together with Arkam as a construction worker. I reject accusations that he was involved in terrorist acts."
 

 
Potential escape paths blocked
Authorities said MIT's overall strength had been reduced to seven fighters, including its leader Ali Kalora, following recent killings of other members of the militant group.
In July, police said security forces had blocked off potential escape paths from MIT's hideout in Poso Pesisir Selatan, a district of Poso, and cut off supplies to the militants' lair.
Earlier in July, the government extended Operation Tinombala, a joint military-police task force that has targeted MIT militants on Sulawesi since January 2016, by three months.
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 Indonesia's most-wanted militant.
Santoso had 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 the Islamic State group in the Middle East. During his leadership, at least three non-Muslim farmers in the same district in Parigi Moutong regency were beheaded in 2015, authorities said.
Continuing recruitment
Despite suffering setbacks, the MIT has continued to recruit people to its ranks, Muhammad Lukman S. Tahir, a security analyst at the University of Alkhairaat Palu, told BenarNews.
"The death of Santoso was not the end of MIT," Tahir said, estimating that MIT currently has 12 followers in Poso.
"I suspect the three people arrested today wanted to join Ali Kalora in Poso but their movements were detected by Densus," he said.
"The movement led by Ali Kalora continues to recruit young people to Poso," Tahir said, adding that the internet had become a recruitment tool for the group.
Tahir also criticized the Tinombala operation, which he described as a waste of money.
"In my opinion it should just be disbanded," he said.
"Central Sulawesi is already peaceful but the operation is making it as if it was dangerous," he said. "Even though the threat is present, it can be handled with a different approach."


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BENARNEWS- The Indonesian government partially lifted an internet blockage in parts of Papua and West Papua provinces on Thursday as calm started returning to the region after more than two weeks of violent protests left at least 13 people dead.
Officials imposed the blackout on Aug. 21 to stop what they called fake news from spreading after protesters torched government buildings during anti-government rallies.
"After consulting relevant authorities, we consider the security situation to be favorable, so we decided to lift the internet restrictions," Ferdinandus Setu, spokesman for the Communications and Information Technology Ministry, told BenarNews.
He said access remained restricted in 13 regencies, but the internet blackout could be lifted in the coming days.
On Aug. 17, anti-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 the national flag by throwing it into a sewer.
Activists said security personnel hurled racist taunts at them including "monkeys" and "pigs."
Two days later, arson attacks on government buildings in West Papua prompted the government to send 1,500 police and soldiers to the province.
Officials in Papua said at least 13 people were killed, including eight civilians and a soldier in Deiyai on Aug. 28 when security forces clashed with protesters armed with arrows and other crude weapons.
The protests were sparked by perceived harsh and racist treatment of Papuan students by security forces and vigilante groups on Java, the country's most populous island, activists said.
Papua police spokesman Ahmad Mustofa Kamal said five more people had been arrested for allegedly carrying crude weapons during recent rallies, bringing to 69 the number suspects who have been detained. Police confiscated 40 slingshots, dozens of sharp iron bars, arrows and knives.
On Wednesday, police in East Java named a prominent human rights lawyer, Veronica Koman, as a suspect for allegedly inciting unrest. Police said some messages and images that she had uploaded on Twitter contained misinformation and inflamed anger in Papua.
On Thursday, national police chief Gen. Tito Karnavian accused the separatist umbrella group United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) and the pro-referendum National Committee of West Papua (KNPB) of orchestrating the anti-government protests in the region.
"What has happened in Papua was designed by these groups for a specific purpose – to create chaos," Tito told the state-run news agency Antara in Jayapura on Thursday.
He said the protests were intended to draw international attention ahead of a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva on Sept. 9. Tito claimed the groups incited unrest by spreading misinformation to force the U.N. General Assembly to discuss the Papua issue when it convenes on Sept. 23 and 24.
"The ULMWP and KNPB are responsible for the various events that have taken place. We have the names [of suspects] and legal action will be taken," Tito said, adding that security and order had been restored in the two provinces.
ULMWP chairman Benny Wenda, who lives in exile in Britain, challenged Tito's allegations.
"Rather than address our cry for freedom, the Indonesian government prefers to launch propaganda to divert attention," Wenda said in a statement sent to BenarNews.
"Rather than uphold our right to self-determination, [security minister] Wiranto is forming militia groups, trying to turn Indonesian settlers in West Papua against us – just as he did in East Timor," Wenda said.
Wiranto was the Indonesian armed forces commander in August 1999 when East Timor voted to break away from Jakarta in a U.N.-sponsored ballot, which was preceded and followed by violence blamed on army-backed pro-Indonesian militiamen.

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Indonesian security minister Wiranto (center) sings during a cultural event in Jakarta promoting peace in the Papua region, Sept. 1, 2019. (AFP)

Chief's statements challenged
Suarbudaya Rahadian, a spokesman for the Civil Society Coalition for Democracy, called Tito's accusations against pro-independence groups reckless.
"The protests were triggered by the feeling of being demeaned and insulted. There need not be a mastermind for such action," he told BenarNews.
He urged the police chief to provide evidence to back up the allegations.
"Such claims are easy to make but should not have been made in this volatile situation," he said.
Meanwhile, rights activists said police were holding six Papuan students who took part in a protest outside the presidential palace in Jakarta on Aug. 28 when banned separatist Morning Star flags were displayed.
Suarbudaya said one of the activists, Surya Anta, had been held in a windowless isolation cell in the Mobile Brigade headquarters in Depok, south of Jakarta, where guards have been playing Indonesian patriotic songs non-stop.
"I visited him yesterday. He was isolated and separated from the others and the condition was inhumane," Suarbudaya said. He urged police to release the student activists.
"They are accused of treason, and that is very dangerous. All they did was speak out against injustice experienced by the people of Papua," he said.
The Papua region, which makes up the Indonesian half of New Guinea island, was incorporated formally 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 involved only 1,000 people.
The Free Papua Movement (OPM) launched a movement to establish 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.
Since then, the Indonesian military has been accused of gross human rights violations during decades of anti-insurgency campaigns. Rights activists have said impunity for violators is the norm.


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BENARNEWS-  Indonesian and international media groups urged lawmakers on Thursday to reject a bill revising the country's criminal code, warning that some of the proposed changes, including a ban on insulting the president, threaten freedom of expression.
The House of Representatives (DPR) is expected to pass the bill to amend the criminal code on Sept. 24, but calls are growing for lawmakers to postpone it.
"The House of Representatives must revoke these articles if they are committed to freedom of the press," Abdul Manan, chairman of the Alliance of Independent Journalists, told reporters on Thursday.
An article in the bill that stipulates a prison term of up to four and a half years for anyone who insults the president and vice president "is a step-back for democracy" because the Constitutional Court had removed such provisions 13 years ago, the International Federation of Journalists said in a statement.
"The decision to maintain these articles shows that the authorities are simply ignoring recommendations from key stakeholders," IFJ said.
"We urge the authorities related with this matter to reconsider the bill and hold the plan to pass the law," it said.
Legislators are pushing for revisions to the Criminal Code of Laws, arguing that the original dates back to the 350 years of Dutch colonial rule in the Southeast Asian country. Before 2006, the criminal code carried penalties against insulting the president, but the Constitutional Court annulled the provisions after a judicial review, saying they were no longer relevant.
Critics said other problematic provisions in the bill include those about sex outside marriage, distribution of what authorities would deem as "fake news," contempt of court and religious blasphemy.
Justice and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly said deliberations on the bill would be finished on schedule.
"The Bill on the Criminal Code is going ahead and will be completed. We hope the government and the DPR will sort out remaining [issues]," Detik.com, a news website, quoted Laoly as saying.
"After the deliberations are completed, we will bring it to a plenary session," he said.
Under the draft bill, consensual sex outside marriage is punishable by up to two years in prison and an unmarried couple who live together could face six months in prison. The unwed couple could be reported to the authorities and charged, but only their parents or children could file a complaint.
The bill contains 722 articles and would take effect three years after parliamentary approval. It does not include provisions on terrorism. Indonesia strengthened its 2003 anti-terrorism law in May last year when its parliament passed a bill formalizing a military role in counter-terrorism efforts.
Targeting religious minorities
In other proposed amendments, anyone who publicly incites people to leave any of the six recognized religions in Indonesia could also face up to four years in prison under the revised penal code's provisions on religious blasphemy.
Human rights groups said the current blasphemy law had been used to target members of religious minorities in the world's largest Muslim-majority country, including Islamic sects deemed deviant.
Last year, a court in North Sumatra province sentenced a Buddhist woman of Chinese descent to 18 months in prison for committing blasphemy by complaining about noise coming from a neighborhood mosque.
The 44-year-old woman named Meiliana was found guilty of showing hostility to religion and blasphemy after she complained that the Muslim call to prayer was being played too loudly at the mosque near her house.
Meiliana has denied the charges, but angry locals threw rocks at her house and mobs burned Buddhist temples and other buildings owned by local ethnic Chinese.
In 2017, Jakarta Gov. Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama was sentenced to two years for blasphemy for remarks deemed insulting to Islam. He was released in February.
Conservative Muslim groups held protests against Ahok in 2016 and 2017 after an edited video posted online made it appear that he had said the Quran deceived people.
Ahok lost the Jakarta gubernatorial election to former Education Minister Anies Baswedan, who courted support of conservative Muslim groups despite his liberal credentials.
The blasphemy law was only used in eight cases in its first four decades but convictions jumped to 125 during the 10-year rule of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, according to Human Rights Watch.
Another 23 people have been sentenced since President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo took office in 2014, the group said.
'Interference in personal matters'
Under the bill, aborting a fetus of more than six weeks would be punishable by up to four years in prison, with no exceptions given to rape victims.
"There's too much interference in personal matters of citizens," Erasmus Napitupulu, director of the Jakarta-based Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR), told BenarNews, referring to the proposed amendments to the criminal code.
"In my opinion the colonial character of the bill remains strong, when the revisions are supposed to bring new things to Indonesian law," he said.
There are no specific references to LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups) in the bill, despite initial fears voiced by advocacy groups that it would criminalize homosexuality.
The LGBT community has been under increased pressure in Indonesia in recent years, with rhetoric and actions of some government officials and local leaders fanning an uproar against the country's sexual minorities.
Police have raided places frequented by gay people in recent months, briefly detaining hundreds suspected of being homosexuals.
Last year, officials in Pariaman, a coastal city in West Sumatra province, issued a municipal regulatory law that included a fine of up to 1 million rupiah (U.S. $71) for LGBT activities.
Taufiqulhadi, a member of the bill's parliamentary working committee, told BenarNews that provisions in the draft criminal code reflected Indonesian values and were not intended to control the private activities of citizens.
He said citizens who are opposed to particular articles can file a judicial review with the Constitutional Court.
"We are a country that believes in God," Taufiqulhadi said. "The bill is aimed at creating order in society and promoting legal awareness for all the people of Indonesia."


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BENARNEWS- A blanket of haze that forced Malaysian officials to close hundreds of schools was caused mainly by forest fires within that country while some of the dirty air could be blamed on Indonesia, an official in Jakarta said Tuesday.
Malaysian authorities ordered schools closed in Sarawak state on Borneo island, which is also home to several Indonesian provinces, after air quality there reached unhealthy levels because of haze they blamed on Indonesian fires. At least 409 schools were closed, affecting 157,479 students, according to the Sarawak State Education office.
Officials said 500,000 facemasks had been delivered to Sarawak, where the Air Pollutant Index (API) reached an unhealthy level of 201 on Tuesday morning. The API considers a level of 50 or below healthy.
Meanwhile, Indonesian Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar accused Malaysian authorities of not being transparent about their own forest fires.
"There is information that they refuse to reveal because the haze that entered is from Sarawak and the Peninsula of Malaysia, while some of it may have come from West Kalimantan," Siti told reporters. "Therefore, they should make an objective explanation."
Siti said she would contact the Malaysian ambassador in Jakarta to urge Indonesia's neighbor to provide what she called "correct information."
Satellite images on Sept. 4 and 5 showed a sharp increase in hot spots indicating fires in some areas across Southeast Asia, particularly in the Malay Peninsula and Vietnam, according to Dwikorita Karnawati, the head of Indonesia's Meteorological, Geophysical and Climatological Agency. There were 1,423 hot spots on the Malay Peninsula on Sept. 7, from 1,038 the previous day, she said, adding that many hotspots were also detected in Sarawak.
Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) detected a combined 1,656 hotspots in the Sumatran provinces of Riau, Jambi and South Sumatra and the Bornean provinces of West, Central and South Kalimantan on Sept. 8.
BNPB said authorities had deployed 9,000 personnel to put out forest fires in six provinces on Sumatra and Kalimantan.
"We are deploying 37 helicopters to extinguish fires using water bombings and an aircraft in Riau to create artificial rain," BNPB spokesman Agus Wibowo told BenarNews.
Haze reduced visibility to 800 meters (2,620 feet) in Pekanbaru, the capital of Indonesia's Riau province on Sumatra island, local media reported Tuesday. Schools were closed in parts of the province and clinics saw an influx of patients complaining of respiratory problems.
Haze also forced two flights at Supadio airport in Pontianak, West Kalimantan province, to be cancelled on Monday, an airport official said.
 

 
Suspects
At least 175 people and four companies were considered suspects linked to the forest fires in Sumatra and Kalimantan, national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said without naming the companies or individuals.
"Of those, 21 have been submitted to the prosecutor's offices," he told BenarNews.
Meanwhile, environmental activist group Walhi urged the government to review forestry and plantation licenses granted to companies.
Walhi executive director Nur Hidayati said Indonesia had not learned from previous forest fires.
"It is time for the government to reveal companies whose concessions caused fires," Nur told BenarNews. "The number of permits granted by the government does not reflect the government's capacity to supervise them."
Earlier this year, environmental watchdog Greenpeace said plantation owners had failed to pay more than U.S. $1 billion in fines imposed by Indonesian courts in recent years for damages caused by agricultural fires and illegal logging.
The courts ruled for the government in 10 lawsuits 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 ($192.2 million), according to Greenpeace.
The watchdog said another lawsuit brought against a timber company over illegal logging carried out since 2004 resulted in a fine of 16.2 trillion rupiah ($1.1 billion).
Agricultural fires are an annual hazard in Indonesia and haze often affects neighboring Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Air pollution can reach hazardous levels, disrupting economic activity and forcing schools to close.
The Singapore National Environment Agency on Tuesday said the API could move into the unhealthy range if the haze persists or worsens, Channel News Asia reported. The Singapore government reported readings fell between 85 and 96 while readings between 101 and 200 are considered unhealthy.
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- President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo on Tuesday promised to find jobs for 1,000 university graduates from Papua and West Papua provinces, among other pledges, as he met for the first time in Jakarta with Papuan leaders since anti-government protests left at least 13 dead and dozens behind bars.
But a West Papua rights activist said that many Papuan leaders had been arrested and the group of 61 leaders who sat down with Jokowi at the presidential palace did not adequately represent the aspirations expressed by Papuans in recent weeks. Activists are seeking a referendum on Jakarta's rule over the impoverished but resource-rich region at that eastern end of Indonesia.
Anti-Jakarta protests ignited by alleged racism against Papuan students on Java island broke out on Aug. 19 in the country's two easternmost provinces, with crowds torching government buildings and clashing with security forces. Authorities in Jakarta declared the death toll at five, but local officials and activists said at least 13 people, including a soldier, were killed during the outbreaks of violence.
During the meeting in Jakarta, Jokowi promised better treatment of Papuans, including providing jobs at state-owned enterprises.
"I will force them [the companies] to hire Papuan fresh graduates, 1,000 of them initially," Jokowi told the tribal leaders.
He also promised to award government posts across the country to native Papuans.
"Without affirmative action, competition is very tough in all provinces," he said.
In addition, Jokowi agreed to the Papuan leaders' request to build a presidential palace in Jayapura, the capital of Papua province.
Abisai Rollo, leader of the Skouw tribe and speaker of the Papua House of Representatives, who was among those meeting with the president, urged Jokowi to show compassion to Papuan youths involved in the protests.
"They should not be punished, and instead be educated because they are the future of Indonesia," Rollo told reporters. "We are opening our hearts and setting aside our differences to hold dialogue."
Abisai said the president agreed to the delegation's requests.
"God wants Indonesia to pay more attention to Papua. If previously Papua was not fully embraced, it has to be fully embraced now," he said.
Meanwhile, West Papua human rights activist Yan Christian Warinussy said those who met with Jokowi did not represent the real concerns of the community, according to the Tempo news site. He said the participants were chosen by the state intelligence agency and the security ministry, but no one from the National Committee for West Papua, a group behind a non-violent campaign seeking a referendum on regional self-determination, attended the meeting.
Calls for UN action
Indonesian authorities have accused the separatist umbrella group United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) and the pro-referendum National Committee of West Papua (KNPB) of orchestrating the anti-government protests in the Papua region. The ULMWP is led by Britain-based Papuan separatist leader Benny Wenda.
Police said the protests were intended to draw international attention ahead of a Sept. 9 meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council and to force the U.N. General Assembly to discuss the Papua issue when it convenes on Sept. 23 and 24.
On Monday, national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said police had arrested what he described as an "intellectual actor," who allegedly mobilized people to take to the streets to protest alleged racism against Papuan students in East Java province. The suspect, identified by initials FBK, was arrested on Friday at Jayapura airport.
Police have named 95 people as suspects involved in the protests, Dedi said, including a human rights lawyer, Veronica Koman, who has been accused of inciting Papuans through her "provocative" Twitter posts. Koman is believed to be overseas and police said they would enlist Interpol to locate and arrest her.
A coalition of human rights groups on Monday urged police to drop charges against her.
"What Veronica did was in defense of human rights of Papuan students who were her clients," said group spokesman Tigor Hutapea.
"She was not spouting hate speech or spreading lies. What Veronica did was not a criminal offense," he said.
National police: No evidence of IS involvement
Meanwhile, the spokesman for the Indonesian national police questioned a statement made last week to parliament by Indonesia's defense minister, in which he alleged that an Islamic State-linked group was calling for jihad in Papua.
"There is a group affiliated with the Islamic State [operating] in Papua that has called for a jihad there," Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu told a hearing of a parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, security and intelligence – an apparent reference to the outlawed Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD). He did not say if members were involved in the recent violence and did not provide more details.
"The presence of JAD in Papua was detected about two years ago, but we are still looking into whether they were involved in the riots, because there's no legal evidence," Dedi told BenarNews.
Human Rights Watch (HRW), meanwhile, said that at least 10 Papuans were killed in the recent violence and urged the government to investigate.
"We consulted forensics experts and photos showed some of the wounds were consistent with those caused by live bullets," Andreas Harsono, a HRW researcher in Indonesia, told BenarNews.
Andreas also urged police to release Papuan activists who have been detained.
"Arresting activists is wrong. What they did is simply raised [banned separatist] flags and shout 'freedom,' which is not a crime," he said.
HRW said a video showed uniformed police shooting into a crowd of Papuan protesters inside the Deiyai Regency office on Aug. 28 and another showed civilians, police, and soldiers surrounding a Papuan student dormitory in the Abepura neighborhood in Jayapura.
Police have denied using live rounds to deal with Papuan protesters and said that another group of protesters had attacked security forces with arrows and spears during what had started as a peaceful protest in Deiyai.
On Aug. 1, one person was killed in clashes near the student dormitory in Abepura when police opened fire to separate two clashing groups, Jayapura deputy mayor Rustan Saru has said.
Tensions rose later in the month when migrants calling themselves Paguyuban Nusantara (the Archipelago Community) were involved in a stand-off with Papuans who had occupied the governor's office and replaced the Indonesian flag with the separatist Morning Star banner.
Dedi said Paguyuban Nusantara consisted of coastal residents from different ethnic groups, including Papuans. He denied allegations that security forces backed them.
"We feared there would be clashes between different ethnic groups and we wanted to prevent that," he said.
The Papua region, which makes up the Indonesian half of New Guinea island, was incorporated formally 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 involved only 1,000 people.
The Free Papua Movement (OPM) launched a movement to establish an independent state for the region in 1965, three years after Dutch colonizers ceded sovereignty over the territory to Indonesia. OPM has been waging a low-level separatist insurgency against Jakarta's rule.


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BENARNEWS- Jakarta pledged Friday to deploy more personnel and aircraft to battle forest fires that have spread haze across the region in recent days, while Indonesian and Malaysian officials have traded blame for the air pollution.
A diplomatic row between the neighboring countries erupted this week after officials in Indonesia denied that haze in Malaysia came from forest fires burning through peatland on Sumatra and Borneo islands.
The smog from the blazes has forced schools across the region to close and residents to flee their homes
"The haze has crossed to neighboring countries, obviously troubling people who are affected, and at times disrupting flights," Indonesian security minister Wiranto said after meeting with other officials to discuss the fires.
"We need to send additional firefighting personnel and equipment to extinguish the fires," he said. "We are also preparing rapid reaction firefighting forces in critical locations with aircraft ready to seed clouds to induce rain."
Wiranto said the forestry ministry had deployed almost 2,000 firefighters, but did not say how many additional personnel would be sent. He said the military was also preparing to send more aircraft to affected areas, but he gave no details.
The National Disaster Management Agency said more than 9,000 people were involved in efforts to extinguish the fires.
The number of hot spots from fires on Sumatra and the Indonesian part of Borneo had dropped to 974 on Thursday, from 1,619 the previous day, according to online data from the ASEAN Specialized Meteorological Center (ASMC).
Wiranto laid most of the blame for the fires on small farmers.
Police said this week that at least 175 people, most of them farmers who use slash-and-burn methods of clearing land, were arrested on suspicion of links to forest fires.

In Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau province on Sumatra, civil servants prayed for rain at the mayor's office on Friday as haze had reduced visibility to as low as 200 meters (984 feet) in parts of the region.
"We ask to God for rain because we need water urgently to extinguish the fires in Riau which have reached dangerous levels," said Pekanbaru mayor Firdaus, who uses only one name, according to the state-run Antara news agency.
Some Riau residents have fled to Padang, the capital of West Sumatra province, about 362 km (226 miles) southwest, where haze was less intense.
"I have brought my family here to get fresh air," Pekanbaru resident Ivo Rambe told BenarNews in Padang on Friday.
"Pekanbaru is no longer safe. Schools are closed and children are not allowed to go outside. This is a sad situation," she said.
Another Pekanbaru resident, Purwanto, said he did not know when he would return to his city.
"Where I live, the haze is so thick it's hard to breathe," he said.
The West Sumatra government issued a circular calling on officials to distribute masks to residents.
"Air quality is deteriorating. People need to be given face masks so they are not exposed to pollutants," West Sumatra Deputy Gov. Nasrul Abit told BenarNews.
Haze has also blanketed parts of Malaysia and forced the closure of more than 400 schools in the state of Sarawak on Borneo this week.
Officials said 500,000 facemasks had been delivered to Sarawak, where the Air Pollutant Index (API) reached an unhealthy level of 201 on Tuesday morning. The API considers a level of 50 or below healthy.
On Wednesday, Indonesia's National Disaster Management Agency said fires had destroyed more than 328,000 hectares of plantation and forest nationwide this year, mainly in six provinces on Sumatra and Borneo.
Environment and Forestry Minister Siti Nurbaya Bakar told Reuters news agency on Friday that some forest fires in Indonesian territory had started on plantations belonging to four local subsidiaries of Malaysian palm oil companies.
She said the plantations had been sealed off in connection with forest fires in West Kalimantan and Riau provinces.

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An Indonesian police officer hands out a face mask to a motorcycle rider in Padang, West Sumatra, Indonesia, Sept. 13, 2019. [Sulthan Azzam/BenarNews]

Trading accusations
On Tuesday, Siti said that haze in Malaysia came from forest fires there, and accused Kuala Lumpur of not being transparent about its own forest fires.
Yeo Bee Yin, Malaysia's environment minister, responded by citing satellite data, which showed there were 474 hotspots in Indonesia's Kalimantan and 387 in Sumatra on Tuesday, while there were only seven in Malaysia.
"Let the data speak for itself," she wrote on Facebook on Wednesday. "Minister Siti Nurbaya should not be in denial."
Yeo said Thursday that Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad would write a letter to Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo about the matter.
Siti did not say if Jokowi had received a letter.
On Thursday, Malaysian Ambassador to Indonesia Zainal Abidin Bakar said Kuala Lumpur was not pointing fingers at Jakarta over the current haze problems, instead the country was offering some forms of assistance in tackling the forest fires.
Zainal Abidin said an official letter from the Malaysian government through Yeo had been made available to the Indonesian government, according to Malaysian news agency Bernama.
"It is not a protest letter, but (the letter) is of Malaysia's intention to help dealing with haze (to fight fire at forest and agricultural areas in Indonesia)," he told reporters.
In Malaysia on Friday, pollution in 30 areas had reached unhealthy levels as of 5 p.m., authorities said.
At least 29 schools in Selangor state were closed due to haze on Thursday, affecting 45,265 students, according to Malaysian education officials.
Experts said forest and peat fires could result in a significant increase in carbon dioxide emissions.
"Carbon dioxide emissions cause the greenhouse effect, which in turn causes global warming," said Daniel Mudiyarso, a climate scientist at the Bogor-based Center for International Forestry Research.
Daniel said the current bout of fires had not reached the level of 2015, when 11.3 million tons of carbon were emitted per day for two months, more than the 8.9 million tons emitted by 28 European countries combined.
The 2015 fires killed at least 24 people, according to the Indonesian government. The World Bank estimated economic losses as a result of the fires at $16 billion (226 trillion rupiah).
The slash-and-burn practices of forests, considered to be the cheapest and easiest way to clear land for farming, have been blamed for the fires.


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BENARNEWS-  Indonesia's powerful anti-corruption commission has been hit by turmoil as proposed changes to the law governing the body and a new leadership board appointed by parliament sparked allegations that the government and lawmakers are trying clip its wings.
Leaders of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Friday said they were surrendering their responsibilities to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo after the House of Representatives elected a police general accused of ethical violations to lead a new five-member board of commissioners for the next four-year term.
"After considering the situation that is becoming increasingly precarious, we as officials in charge of the KPK, with a heavy heart, hand over the responsibility of managing the KPK to Mr. President," KPK chairman Agus Rahardjo said at a news conference on Friday, referring to Widodo.
He said he felt that KPK was "being besieged from all sides."
KPK leaders and activists have criticized Jokowi's approval of a parliamentary initiative to amend the law governing the commission, saying that the proposed changes would jeopardize its independence.
Transparency International, a Berlin-based NGO that monitors corruption worldwide, said the proposed revision of the law governing the KPK "demonstrates continuous efforts by legislators to systematically weaken the institution."
"Attempts to weaken the independence and authority of the KPK have serious potential to undermine its commendable anti-corruption efforts in recent years," Delia Ferreira Rubio, chairwoman of Transparency International, said in a statement last week.
Feared and respected
This year, the commission lost a case for the first time when the Supreme Court overturned a corruption conviction and 13-year jail sentence for Syafruddin Temenggung, former chairman of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency.
Since it was established in 2002, the KPK has secured the convictions of former ministers, governors, central bankers, legislators, as well as business tycoons, making it one of the most respected and feared institutions in the country.
Jokowi on Monday praised the current KPK leadership as having performed well.
"From the outset, I have never doubted the current KPK leadership," Jokowi told reporters.
"As for the revisions to the KPK law at the House of Representatives, let us monitor together so that KPK remains strong in fighting corruption," he said.
But the president's words are unlikely to convince the skeptical public.
The cover of the respected news magazine Tempo featured a picture of Jokowi and his shadow with a long Pinocchio nose, under the headline "Promises, Promises."
The proposed changes to the KPK include the establishment of a supervisory agency tasked with monitoring the commission's conduct and restrictions on its ability to wire-tap suspects.
Phone surveillance has resulted in the convictions of many senior officials caught while accepting bribes.
Currently, KPK investigators do not require the approval of an external body to conduct wiretapping.
A recent Tempo editorial said that of the estimated 1,000 cases the KPK has handled during the past 17 years, about a quarter have involved politicians.
Masinton Pasaribu, a lawmaker from the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said KPK must exercise its powers prudently.
"KPK must be subjected to supervision, so the establishment of a supervisory body is necessary to ensure justice," Pasaribu said. "Wiretapping can violate human rights, so its mechanism must be regulated."
Betrayal of reform
On Monday, lawmakers made official their appointment of five new KPK commissioners led by Inspector-General Firli Bahuri, a former investigator for the agency and the incumbent police chief of South Sumatra province.
KPK officials had earlier accused Firli of having met with two suspects being investigated by the agency, while he was working as an investigator.
An activist with Indonesia Corruption Watch, Kurnia Ramadhana, said the appointment of Firli and the proposed changes to the KPK law amount to a betrayal of reform.
"We are moving farther from the dream of a clean government, free of corruption, collusion and nepotism," he told BenarNews.
Agus, the KPK chairman, was conciliatory on Monday, as he urged staff members to take an active part in drafting policy under the new commissioners.
"When the KPK leadership have been formally appointed by the House, there's no more reason to reject them," he told reporters.


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BENARNEWS- The Indonesian parliament on Monday raised minimum marriage age for girls from 16 to 19 years, as the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation responded to pressure to end child weddings.
The House of Representatives' revision of a 1974 law on marriage was welcomed by officials and activists in a country where, according to the United Nations children agency UNICEF, on average more than 3,500 Indonesian girls are married every day.
Under the revised law, marriageable age for boys remained unchanged at 19.

"All 10 factions agreed that the minimal marriageable age for men and women is 19 years," legislator Totok Daryanto told reporters. 

Exceptions can be made for those younger than 19 with court approval, he said.

Legislators from the Muslim-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the United Development Party initially proposed a minimum marriage age of 18 for girls, but they relented.
About 14 percent of girls in Indonesia are married before the age of 18, according to UNICEF, citing 2017 data. Indonesia, the world's fourth-largest country with 260 million people, has the eighth highest absolute number of child brides in the world, at almost 1.5 million, the U.N. agency said.
Marriage of girls below 15 has shown the largest decline since 2008, whereas marriage among girls 16 to 17 years old has not changed significantly, according to Indonesia's National Socioeconomic Survey, citing a national sample of about 200,000 households.
"After 45 years, we're finally seeing changes in the law that will protect Indonesian children's future," Yohana Yambise, the minister of women's empowerment and child protection, told reporters. 

Previous attempts by non-government organizations and women's rights activists to increase the marriageable age for girls to 18 were unsuccessful.

In 2015, the Constitutional Court rejected such a petition, arguing that Islam and other religions did not set the minimum age for marriage, and that puberty is usually an indication that girls are ready for marriage.
But in December last year, the same court ordered the legislature to increase the marriage age for girls, in response to a petition filed by former child brides and gender-rights activists.
UNICEF said its data indicates that acceptance of child marriage occurs at all economic levels in Indonesian society. In 2015, nearly one in eight girls who married before the age of 18 were from households with the highest levels of expenditure, it said.
While poverty is a major factor, young girls are also married off by their wealthy parents in some parts of the country because of traditional beliefs, such as the notion that women who do not get married young will end up being spinsters and therefore embarrass the family, according to experts.

Nina Nurmila, a member of the National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan), said the minimum marriage age should have been raised to 21 for both men and women.
The challenge is to get religious courts across the country to stick to the new law, she told BenarNews. 

"We know many parents still deem marrying off their children at a young age to be preferable," she said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's government has been criticized as insensitive for launching a social media campaign to promote palm oil at a time when forest fires – often blamed on clearing land for plantations – are raging on Sumatra and Borneo islands, sending a pall of smoke over neighboring countries.
The Ministry of Communications and Information, backed by online influencers, launched the Sawit Baik (Palm Oil is Good) campaign on Monday, with a discussion at a Jakarta hotel on the benefits of the crop.
"The government launching a Sawit Baik campaign at a time when many people are suffering from smog in Sumatra and Kalimantan, demonstrates a lack of empathy with the plight of the people," Nur Hidayati, executive director of the National Forum for the Environment (Walhi), an NGO, told reporters.
Indonesians on social media immediately condemned the campaign.
"Can you even really say this is simply a case of 'bad timing' from our government's part? 'Cause, you know, #SawitBaik kind of looks like officials are a bit dense about what's literally happening in the country right now," Sheany Yasuko, a Twitter user, posted online.
"If the government can sacrifice the general population's respiratory health for local tobacco farmers and conglomerates, of course it can do so for an export industry like palm oil," wrote another Twitter user, Rocky Intan.
But Septriana Tangkary, a director for economic information at the communications ministry, said palm oil was the largest foreign exchange earner in 2017, valued at U.S. $23 billion.
"Palm oil has many benefits. Soap contains palm but in Indonesia it is mostly turned into crude palm oil," she said.
The Twitter account for the campaign, @sawitbaikid, said it sought to provide "comprehensive information about Indonesian palm oil" and respond to negative campaigns against it. It said the effort was backed by the Indonesian Oil Palm Plantation Fund Management Agency (BPDPKS) and government ministries.
Jokowi: 'This must have been organized'
On Tuesday, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo inspected an area devastated by the fires in Riau province and took part in an Islamic ritual to pray for rain at the airbase in the city of Pekanbaru.
"If we look at the extent of the fires, this must have been organized," Jokowi said, urging authorities to prioritize prevention.
 

 
Police said Monday they had identified five palm oil companies as suspects in connection with the forest and plantation fires on Sumatra and Borneo. In total, police have named almost 200 people as suspects linked to fires.
The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) said Tuesday that officials had detected 2,984 hot spots across Sumatra and Borneo.
Authorities were deploying almost 6,000 additional personnel on top of more than 9,000 already on the ground fighting the fires, BNPB said on Monday.
Neighboring Malaysia had closed 671 schools and distributed half a million face masks in Sarawak last week as smoke from the fires raised concerns about public health. The Malaysian education ministry said about 460,000 students had been affected.
As of 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sri Aman town in Sarawak state, near Kalimantan in Indonesian Borneo, has reached hazardous level with reading of 395 air pollutants, almost four times the 100 benchmark, according to 24-hour Air Pollutant Index of Malaysia. 

At least 30 areas in five states – Selangor, Perak, Kuala Lumpur, Melaka and Negri Sembilan – have recorded unhealthy air quality readings ranging from 102 to 187.
Meanwhile, more than 2,600 people were reported suffering from respiratory problems as a result of the haze, Indonesian officials said.
A diplomatic row erupted last week between Indonesia and Malaysia after officials in Jakarta denied that haze in Malaysia came from forest fires on Sumatra and the Indonesian part of Borneo.
Forest fires is an annual hazard in Indonesia during the dry season and the resulting haze often drifted to neighboring countries, including Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand.
In 2015, the worst forest fires in two decades killed at least 24 people, according to the Indonesian government. The World Bank estimated economic losses as a result of the fires at U.S. $16 billion (226 trillion rupiah).
On Tuesday, Malaysian Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad told reporters authorities had noted an increase in the number of patients with conjunctivitis due to haze.

"The haze from the fire in Indonesia has yet to be resolved and has caused the number of patients seeking treatment for conjunctivitis to increase between 20 percent and 30 percent nationwide," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's anti-corruption commission, facing a threat to its independence after changes to its founding law, on Wednesday named the country's sports minister a suspect in a corruption case related to funding of the National Sports Committee (KONI).
Sports and Youth Minister Imam Nahrawi is suspected of accepting 26.5 billion rupiah (U.S. $1.17 million) in bribes from KONI between 2014 and 2018 in return for facilitating its funding, said Alexander Marwata, deputy chairman of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
KONI is an office of the ministry Nahrawi heads that is tasked with developing and promoting Indonesian achievement in sports at the regional, national and international levels.
Imam's personal assistant, Miftachul Ulum, was arrested earlier this month as part of the investigation, Alexander said.
"After examining facts from the investigation and trials, KPK has found enough initial evidence [to name Imam a suspect]," Alexander told reporters.
He said Imam had ignored three summonses sent by the commission since July.
Imam, a politician from the National Awakening Party (PKB), a member of the governing coalition, denied the charges.
"Just prove it. Do not make accusations without evidence," Imam, 46, was quoted as saying by CNN Indonesia.
"I hope it's not political. I will face it and naturally, the truth must be fully revealed," he said.
In May, the Jakarta corruption court sentenced KONI secretary general Ending Fuad Hamidy and treasurer Johnny Awuy to 32 months and 20 months in prison, respectively. Three sports ministry officials are currently on trial in the same case.
Wednesday's announcement came amid turmoil at the KPK after the House of Representatives (DPR) on Tuesday passed a law governing the commission that anti-graft activists say could undermine its independence.
The amendments to the KPK law include provisions on the establishment of a supervisory agency tasked with monitoring the commission's conduct and that has the power to decide whether the commission can wiretap a suspect.
Currently, KPK investigators do not require the approval of an external body to conduct wiretapping, a tool which has resulted in the convictions of many senior officials caught while accepting bribes.
The amended law, which is opposed by the current KPK leaders, also stipulates that the body falls under the executive branch.
Wiranto, the minister for security and political affairs, denied that the changes were designed to weaken the KPK.
"Wiretapping is a violation of people's privacy. The KPK is allowed to wiretap, but if their power is unlimited it will make things complicated," Wiranto told reporters.
"Having an approval process can prevent them from making things up, so there will be accountability. This will strengthen the KPK," he said.
Meanwhile, dozens of students who rallied outside the KPK headquarters in Jakarta to express their opposition to the revision of the law clashed briefly with police, local television reported.
Transparency International, a Berlin-based NGO that monitors corruption worldwide, warned last week that the proposed revision of the law governing the KPK "demonstrates continuous efforts by legislators to systematically weaken the institution."
Since it was established in 2002, the KPK has secured the convictions of former ministers, governors, central bankers, legislators, as well as business tycoons, making it one of the most respected and feared institutions in the country.
Last week, lawmakers appointed five new KPK commissioners for the next four-year term led by Inspector-General Firli Bahuri, a former investigator for the agency and the incumbent police chief of South Sumatra province
KPK officials had earlier accused Firli of having met with two suspects being investigated by the agency, while he was working as an investigator.


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BENARNEWS- Three civilians were killed and four others wounded when Indonesian security forces clashed with suspected separatist insurgents in easternmost Papua province, officials and residents said Wednesday.
The fighting between government troops and suspected West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) rebels took place on Tuesday in Olen, a village in Puncak regency, an official who oversees the regency said.
"The injured have been taken to Timika to receive treatment," Willem Wandik told BenarNews, referring to the main town in neighboring Mimika regency. Military officials said they were verifying the casualty figures.
Security forces fired on a honai or a traditional house, after they saw several armed men entering it, witnesses said.
"The victims who were shot were all in the house" a resident who declined to be named for security reasons told BenarNews. He said he heard a series of gunshots while he was on a lunch break.
Locals said government forces were in the area to hunt a rebel group led by Goliat Tabuni and Anton Tabuni in Puncak's Gome area.
Lt. Col. Eko Daryanto, a spokesman for the Indonesian military's Papua command, confirmed there had been a gunfight in the area, but said the number of casualties was still being investigated.
Gome district chief Nius Tabuni said around 800 people had sought refuge at a church in Yenggernok Village, fearing clashes between rebels and security forces.
About 20 homes had been torched by unknown men, he said.
Crowds also burned government buildings and clashed with security forces when Papua and neighboring West Papua province were rocked by three weeks of violence that started on Aug. 19 over allegations that security forces had mistreated and hurled racist abuse at Papuan students on Java island.
Authorities said five people were killed during the outbreaks of violence, but Papuan activists reported at least 13 deaths.
Last week, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo met with Papuan leaders at the presidential palace in Jakarta and promised better treatment of Papuans, including providing jobs at state-owned enterprises.
On Tuesday, police said they had arrested the chairman of the pro-independence West Papua National Committee (KNPB), Agus Kossay, and his associate, Donny Itlay, in Sentani, near the Papua provincial capital, Jayapura.
Kossay has been named a suspect and was wanted by police in connection with the unrest.
"Agus [Kossay] was arrested by the joint team to account for his actions," Papua police chief Inspector General Rudolf Rodja told reporters.
On Wednesday, human rights lawyers file complaints about the Jakarta and East Java police departments with the National Police Commission, a watchdog, for allegedly violating the rights of six Papuan students who are in police custody in Depok near Jakarta.
Tigor Hutapea, an attorney for the six Papuan students, said authorities prevented him and his legal team from meeting their clients.
"They seemed to be trying to stop us from meeting our clients, which is unusual," he told BenarNews.
Meanwhile, in East Java province, police chief Inspector General Luki Hermawan told reporters he would issue a wanted-person notice on Thursday for human rights lawyer Veronica Koman, who has been charged with inciting unrest in Papua, after she ignored repeated summonses for questioning.
Police have accused Koman of inflaming anger in Papua through some of her Twitter posts in August following a crackdown on pro-independence Papuan students in Surabaya, the capital of East Java.
Plane reported missing
In other news out of Papua, authorities said that a passenger plane carrying four people, including two pilots, lost radio contact with air traffic control during a flight from Timika to Ilaga in Puncak regency on Wednesday.
A search was under way for the Rimbun Air plane that was supposed to land at the airport in Ilaga around 11 a.m. Wednesday, said Polana B. Pramesti, Indonesia's director general of civil aviation.
Aviation accidents are common in jungle-clad Papua, where air transport is vital due to limited road networks.
On June 28, a military helicopter with 12 servicemen aboard disappeared after lifting off from Oksibil in Papua's mountainous Pegunungan Bintang regency. Nearly three months later, authorities in the region say they have found no trace of the missing chopper.


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BENARNEWS- Poor law enforcement, corruption and scant government funding contributed to recurrent agricultural fires that have ravaged large swathes of forest in Indonesia and engulfed parts of the country and its neighbors with noxious smoke and ash, experts said Friday.
Using fires to clear land is illegal and punishable by up to 10 years under Indonesia's 1999 law on the environment, but local leaders often turned a blind eye to the practice, said Herry Purnomo, a scientist at the Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).
"Economic incentives to use fires are huge. To clear land without burning it can cost about 5.5 million rupiah ($391) per hectare, but with fires you only need 300,000 rupiah (U.S. $21) and that's a gap that is hard to resist," Herry told BenarNews.
Haze from fires currently burning out of control in Indonesia has been the worst since 2015, authorities said. The smog has forced the closure of many schools across the region. Health officials in affected countries have warned about the air pollution being toxic, and people have complained about difficulties breathing.
By the end of this week, the haze had reached Thailand and the Philippines after blanketing parts of Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. Reports emerged that hundreds of endangered orangutans on Borneo Island were also suffering from breathing in the dirty air.
According to Herry, local leaders who fear losing votes for cracking down on the practice was a factor in weak law enforcement, especially during election seasons.
"Law enforcement rarely exists on the ground," Herry said. "The central government often blames local governments, but local officials have to face their own people and can't just stop the practice without providing alternatives that don't cost much."
Small farmers, corporations, as well as members of the local business, political, military and police elite are all responsible for the fires on Indonesia's Sumatra and Borneo islands, he said.
This week, Indonesia's Ministry of Environment and Forestry blamed the country's timber and plantation industries for the recurring forest fires, saying in a statement that only about 22 percent, or 2,179 companies with forestry permits, had submitted mandatory reports on fire control.
"Law enforcement is not strong enough against mid-level offenders, who are organized but without legal entities," Herry said.
The government had not spent enough money on early fire detection efforts involving local communities, he said.
"In some cases, only 1 million rupiah (U.S. $71) is allocated per month for 10 people. How can they conduct patrols and buy gasoline for their motorcycles?" Herry said.
The environment and forestry ministry only has a budget of 7 trillion rupiah (U.S. $497,000) while it oversees 125 million hectares (309 million acres) of forest, he noted.
Police: Hundreds named as suspects
In Jakarta, national police spokesman Muhammad Iqbal said 244 people and six plantation and timber companies had been named suspects in connection with the fires.
"The number of companies to be named suspects will certainly increase. We are working hard to gather evidence and to enforce the law to prevent a repeat of the fires," he said.
Air quality has markedly improved in Riau province on Sumatra, Iqbal told reporters. But toxic haze has forced neighboring Malaysia to close more than 2,000 schools, as air quality deteriorated to "very unhealthy" levels on an official index in many parts of the country.
Daniel Murdyarso, a forestry professor at the Bogor Institute of Agriculture, said a lack of deterrence could be one of the culprits.
"What is needed is to create a deterrent effect by imposing multiples charges – environmental, criminal and corruption – on offenders. This should be applied to all, including those who buy land that has been cleared by burning," Daniel told BenarNews.
He said despite a ban on land-clearing by fire, setting fire to weeds and discarded biomass by local farmers was still not considered a legal violation.
He urged the government to involve local communities more in preventing forest fires.
"The government can't go it alone. Its authority must be used to mobilize communities and enforce the law to create public order," he said.
Some relief from rain
In Central Kalimantan province in Indonesian Borneo, rain induced by cloud seeding brought a respite on Friday for some communities, said Agus Wibowo, spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB).
A CASA C-212 aircraft dropped 800 kilos (1,700 pounds) of salt to create artificial rain over Pulang Pisau regency in Central Kalimantan, resulting in a 30-minute downpour, Agus said.
"Weather modification operations will continue and intensify to extinguish forest fires so that we will see clear skies again," he said in a statement.
However, air quality remained at hazardous levels in parts of the province, with almost 500 fire hotspots detected, according data released by BNPB on Friday.
In total, 2,873 hotspots were detected across six provinces on Sumatra and Kalimantan, the Indonesian name for Borneo, with air quality indexes showing readings ranging from hazardous to moderate, BNPB said.
The agency said more than 884,000 patients with respiratory problems had been recorded in the six provinces since February, when the current bout of forest fires began.
There are no official estimates available on the extent of losses from the haze, but BNPB said almost 330,000 hectares (815,000 acres) of forest have been ravaged since the onset of the fires this year.
BNPB chief Doni Monardo inspected burned out areas in Kalimantan in a helicopter and concluded that the fires were deliberately lit, Agus said.
"There was a regular pattern and only areas outside plantations were burned," Agus told BenarNews.
More than 29,000 workers and 44 helicopters had been deployed to extinguish the fires, a sharp increase from more than 9,000 a week ago, the disaster management agency said Friday.
'They create trouble every year'
Haze blown by monsoon winds has also begun affecting some areas of the Philippines, officials in Manila said Friday.
Light to moderate haze was covering the southern city of Zamboanga, the central cities of Cebu and Dumaguete and the western province of Palawan, Landrico Dalida Jr., the deputy administrator of the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, told the Associated Press.
"It's visible, meaning there are particles that are really coming from those areas in Indonesia and they reach us," Dalida said.
Air quality in some parts of Sarawak, in Malaysian Borneo, hit unhealthy and hazardous levels on Friday, authorities said.
On Wednesday, Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said his government was considering a law to penalize local companies that refuse to shoulder responsibility for fires burning in estates they own in Indonesia.

"We also want to take action against Malaysian companies which have estates outside Malaysia, which are contributing towards the haze because of burning in their estates," Mahathir told reporters. 

Indonesian authorities have named local subsidiaries of four Malaysian palm oil conglomerates –Sime Darby Plantation, IOI Corporation, TDM Berhad and Kuala Lumpur Kepong Berhad –among those accused of causing the forest fires.
In Singapore, air quality improved on Friday, with the 24-hour Pollutant Standard Index reading at 59 to 64, within the moderate range, the Straits Times reported.
Smog from Sumatra has severely affected five southern-most provinces in Thailand and is expected to stay for another three days, Thananchai Wannasut, the environmental director in Songkhla province, said Friday.
"On Sept. 18, we measured fine particles at 100 micrograms per cubic meters of air and 230 micrograms at its peak, the worst in 3-year period," Thananchai told BenarNews.
The country's air safety level is 50 micrograms per cubic meters of air.
Meanwhile, Thai Minister of Public Health Anutin Charnvirakul said he had ordered local health authorities to prepare masks for residents. He warned people to seek immediate treatment in cases of breathing difficulty, coughing or dizziness.
At the Indonesian consular office in Songkhla, a small group of residents gathered to urge Indonesia to solve the haze problem.
"We demand that the Indonesian government solve the issue as soon as possible, prevent occurrences of the issue as they create trouble every year," Sarawuth Srisong, a participant in the small protest rally, told BenarNews.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian police on Monday arrested nine people suspected of planning attacks on law enforcement targets, authorities said, as Singapore announced three Indonesian domestic workers with alleged Islamic State ties had been taken into custody.
Anti-terrorism personnel in Indonesia arrested nine suspected members of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a militant network affiliated with IS, in Jakarta and West Java province, national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said.
"All of the suspects who were arrested belong to a network and all are connected," Dedi told reporters.
The suspects conducted military training in Mount Halimun in Sukabumi regency, Dedi said.
He said police found 500 grams of Triacetone triperoxide (TATP) explosives at the home of one of suspects.
"The evidence confiscated is highly explosive and substantial. It was going to be assembled to be used in [terrorist] acts," Dedi said, adding the explosive was destroyed because it was too risky to keep.
North Jakarta Police Chief Budhi Herdi Susianto said officers found a goodbye letter written by one of the suspects, who allegedly planned a suicide attack using the explosive at a police station.
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks in the past two decades.
In January 2016, authorities blamed JAD for a gun and bomb attack that killed eight people, including the four attackers, in Jakarta's central business district.
It also was blamed for coordinated attacks in the Indonesian city of Surabaya in May 2018, when two families carried out suicide bombings on three churches and a police station. Those attacks killed 24 people, including children as young as 9 who joined their parents in the attacks.
An Indonesian court in July 2018 outlawed JAD in a verdict that was seen as making it easier for law enforcement officials to arrest suspected members.
Domestic workers detained under ISA
In Singapore, three female Indonesian nationals were detained under Singapore's Internal Security Act on suspicion of financing terror activities linked to IS, the nation's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement Monday.
The women, identified as Anindia Afiyantari, 33, Retno Hernayani, 36, and Turmini, 31, had worked as domestic workers in Singapore for between six and 13 years, the ministry said. 

"The trio were radicalized in 2018 after they viewed online materials related to the terrorist group Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and became convinced that IS was fighting for Islam and that its use of violence against 'infidels' was justified," the statement said.
"Their radicalization deepened after they joined multiple pro-IS social media chat groups and channels," it said.
The ministry said the trio developed a network of pro-militant foreign contacts through the internet, including online boyfriends who allegedly encouraged them to migrate to the southern Philippines, Afghanistan or Africa to join IS.

"Anindia was prepared to take up arms for IS in Syria and become a suicide bomber, while Retno aspired to live amongst IS fighters in Syria and participate in the conflict there," the ministry said.
Dedi said he and other Indonesian officials knew of the arrests.
"Yes, it has been communicated with Detachment 88," Dedi told BenarNews, referring to the police anti-terrorism unit.


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BENARNEWS- At least 20 people were killed and dozens injured on Monday when fresh violence broke out in two locations in Indonesia's Papua province, officials said, as security forces dealt with hundreds of people revolting against Jakarta's rule.
Chaos erupted when an angry mob set fire to cars and torched government buildings in Wamena, the largest town in Indonesian westernmost highlands, provincial military spokesman Eko Daryanto said.
At least 16 civilians were killed and 65 others injured by the time authorities announced that the rioting had been brought under control, officials said.
"Some of those killed were people trapped in burning buildings," Eko told BenarNews. A few of the fatalities were migrants from outside Papua, he said, without elaborating.
In Jayapura, about 250 km (156 miles) northeast of Wamena, four people were killed and 10 injured Monday in clashes between security personnel and university students, according to Aloysius Giyai, the head of the Papua health department.
"We are still looking into the causes of the deaths," Giyai told reporters. He said a soldier was among the fatalities.
The violence came less than two weeks after President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo met with Papuan leaders at the presidential palace in Jakarta and promised better treatment of Papuans, including providing jobs at state-owned enterprises. Earlier outbreaks of violence precipitated the meeting.
Papua and West Papua provinces are reeling from more than two weeks of deadly unrest sparked by perceived harsh and racist treatment of pro-independence Papuan students by security personnel on Java island in late August.
Monday's violence in Wamena was sparked by a rumor that a teacher hurled a racist epithet against indigenous Papuans last week, authorities and residents said. They did not release details of what was said.
National police spokesman Brig. Gen. Dedi Prasetyo said officers fired tear gas and warning shots.
"We are trying to prevent the anarchic action from spreading," Dedi told reporters. "Right now, the situation is under control."
Meanwhile, the Communications and Information Technology Ministry said it restricted internet access in Wamena.
The government restricted data telecommunications services temporarily while allowing people in Wamena to send short text messages and make voice calls, the ministry said in a statement posted on its website.
Jayapura violence
The violence in Jayapura involved students who attended universities outside their home province but who had returned home to protest the perceived racist treatment against native Papuans. They wanted to set up a post at the state-run Cenderawasih University, but were prevented from doing so by police, who accused the students of trying to provoke others, according to Dedi.
"The university's administrators objected to the presence of the students because they were disrupting classes," the spokesman said.
The students were moved to a different location called Expo Waena but they clashed with security forces there, police said.
A soldier died of stab wounds while three of the students were killed, possibly by rubber bullets, Dedi said.
In Jakarta, Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo urged people to not believe rumors circulating on social media.
"The anarchic action [in Wamena] began with a hoax," Jokowi said, in a statement distributed by the presidential press office.
"I appeal to the public to check and cross-check any information they see on social media and not fall for it because it could threaten stability and security," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian riot police clashed with protesters in Jakarta, Makassar, Medan and two other cities Tuesday, on the second day of nationwide rallies over fears that lawmakers are attempting to roll back democratic reforms and other concerns.
In Jakarta, about 3,000 students who tried to force their way into the House of Representatives (DPR) building were prevented by police firing tear gas and water cannons.
"We want to meet with DPR leaders. Come here, talk to us," said a protest leader, standing on the back of a truck fitted with loudspeakers.
Police also battled rock-throwing protesters in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province, and Medan, the main city in North Sumatra province. Medan protesters vandalized and burned police vehicles, according to local media.
Meanwhile in Bandung, several students fainted after police fired tear gas and water cannons at protesters who tried to tear down a gate at the West Java council building, local media reported.
"There was vandalism and provocation to pit the police against the students at the scene," West Java police spokesman Trunoyudo Wisnu Andiko said, according to Merdeka.com.
Seven-point declaration
In a seven-point declaration, protesters made a raft of demands, including an end to forests fires set for agricultural purposes and to "militarism" in the rebellious Papua region in eastern Indonesia, and freedom for political prisoners there.
The declaration called for the government to pass laws to reduce sexual violence and to protect domestic workers, and to hand down justice for perpetrators of past human rights abuses.
Protesters demanded the government revoke recent changes to the law governing the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and reject proposed revisions to the nation's criminal code.
Transparency International, a Berlin-based NGO that monitors corruption worldwide, said the KPK revision "demonstrates continuous efforts by legislators to systematically weaken the institution."
KPK changes include establishing a supervisory agency tasked with monitoring the commission's conduct and restricting its ability to wire-tap suspects.
Since it was established in 2002, the KPK has secured the convictions of former ministers, governors, central bankers, legislators, as well as business tycoons, making it one of the most respected and feared institutions in the country
University of Indonesia student Rifqi Siregar called on the government to listen to the people.
"The revisions to the criminal code are riddled with flaws. The government must be firm in fighting corruption by rejecting the new law on KPK," he told BenarNews.

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Protesters try to enter the Surakarta Regional House of Representatives in Solo, Central Java, Indonesia, Sept. 24, 2019. (Kusumasari Ayuningtyas/BenarNews)

Parliament postpones vote
Tuesday's protests occurred on the same day parliament postponed a vote on the criminal code that would ban insulting the president and penalize consensual sexual contact outside of marriage. Jokowi had requested the postponement to allow for deliberations by the next parliament, which is to be seated in October.
It also postponed votes on three other bills, including one governing the prison system, which critics said contains provisions allowing home leave for prisoners and removing restrictions on sentence cuts for those convicted of corruption, House speaker Bambang Soesatyo told reporters.
"This should give time for the government and the House to study and inform the public better about the content of the bills so they can be better understood," Bambang said. "We are listening to the voices of the young people out there."
The bill to change the criminal code would have allowed a prison sentence of up to one year for consensual sex outside of marriage while a couple living together without being married could face a sentence of up to six months. The bill requires complaints from spouses, parents or children for police to press charges.
In addition, anyone convicted of insulting the president or vice president could face a prison term of up to 4½ years. Insulting the president and vice president was decriminalized by the Constitutional Court in 2016 following a legal challenge.
Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko said Jokowi was dealing with issues including fresh violence in Papua province that left 32 people dead on Monday, and forest fires on Sumatra and Borneo islands.
"What should be understood is that the government has reached an agreement with the House of Representatives to deliberate revisions of the criminal code, the agrarian bill, the corrections bill and the others," Moeldoko told reporters. "Don't add more burdens to the president who is already dealing with difficult situations."


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BENARNEWS- Marhamah is among nearly 16,000 residents of this capital of Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province who live in dilapidated tents a year after an earthquake and tsunami killed thousands of people here.
As Indonesians prepare to mark the first anniversary of the twin disaster on Saturday, frustrated survivors including Marhamah, a mother of four, are trying to get their lives back to as normal as possible and keep a positive outlook. The provincial government, meanwhile, says it is doing all it can to reconstruct damaged homes and buildings, but acknowledges those efforts are slow.
"What else can we do? We must keep spirits high, right?" said Marhamah, whose husband works as a motorcycle taxi driver while she operates a mom-and-pop store in front of their tent to supplement their income.
"Even though we're still living in tents, the most important thing is we are still alive," the 50-year-old told BenarNews.
Before the earthquake and tsunami struck, she and her husband owned a shop selling rice from their home.
"The income was big enough," Marhamah said. "Now everything is gone. It's not just our house that was swallowed by the earth, but also the business that we had built for 15 years."
Despite the setbacks, Marhamah is grateful that her family is safe.
"Worldly possessions can be gained, but lives lost cannot be recovered. Thank God we all survived," she said.
A tsunami that devastated coastal areas followed soon after a 7.4-magnitude earthquake hit Central Sulawesi on Sept. 28, 2018.
The back-to-back disasters killed at least 4,547 people, including hundreds believed buried when their homes were sucked under by torrents of mud, in a process called liquefaction where water-logged soil turns into quicksand.
On Wednesday, Palu Mayor Hidayat posted a statement on Instagram calling on residents to pray together to mark the anniversary.
He advised them against excessive partying or lighting of fireworks on Saturday. He also ordered nightspots such as karaoke lounges, massage parlors and bars to close and banned restaurants, cafes and hotels from holding live music performances that day.
 

 
In the Balaroa area of Palu, more than 1,000 people live at a temporary camp. It is located in the same area where others are believed to have lost their lives when their homes were swallowed during the disaster, officials and NGO workers said.
"There's no clear information when we will get a temporary home, let alone a permanent one. I don't know what to do about this government," Susilawati, 39, told BenarNews.
"We have to make do with living in tents and rely on odd jobs for income," said Susilawati, who lives in the camp with her husband and child.
The camp is equipped with an emergency school, a common room, two prayer rooms and a children's playground. Only four of the 10 toilet booths function and electricity use is limited.
Close to 16,000 people affected by the disaster live in tents within the camps in Palu while another 1,339 people stay with their relatives and need housing as well, according to Adriansa Manu, coordinator of Sulteng Bergerak, a coalition of civil society groups.
"When people are still living in camps, it is the fault of the local government. The government should fulfill their rights," he said.
Many of those in the camps were not as fortunate as Marhamah and her family.
Nurlina, 60, a civil servant pensioner, lost her husband, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren in the disaster.
At first, she stayed with a relative in Makassar in South Sulawesi province, but returned to be reunited with her son at the Balaroa camp.
"Remembering that day always brings tears to my eyes, but this is what God has ordained," she said.
"Now my son works in a grocery shop. If we have money we would like to move to a permanent house and open a shop, even a small one," she said.
'A lot of work to do'
More than 58,000 people across the province need permanent housing, according to Hidayat Lamakarate, a spokesman for the provincial government.
"These are people whose homes were badly damaged and no longer habitable," Hidayat told BenarNews.
In addition, more than 5,850 families must be relocated because they live in designated disaster-prone zones, which require the government to buy their property, he said.
So far, about 3,000 families in Palu and Sigi regency have received permanent housing, while no such housing has been built in Donggala regency, Hidayat said.
Longki Djanggola, the province's governor, concedes that reconstruction has been slow.
"There's still a lot of work to do, including building permanent houses. We continue to push for immediate construction. We want it to be completed in 2020," Longki told BenarNews, adding his government had received 102 billion rupiah ($7.2 million) in funds from Jakarta to rebuild Central Sulawesi.
Finding the right locations to construct permanent housing has been an issue as well.
"Some locations are far from where the victims used to live and in other cases, facilities are not in accordance with the wishes of the survivors. We understand that," he said.
While his government has done a reasonable job providing schooling and health care for survivors, finding jobs is a challenge, Gov. Longki said.
"It's rather slow because there are administrative and other matters that need to be ironed out," he said.
Sahruddin Baco, a former resident of the Balaroa camp, left it two months ago. He had grown fed up with waiting to be assigned a permanent new home built by the government.
He now rents a house.
"I was tired of living on handouts. For eight months I spent my days waiting for aid to come," said Saharuddin, who works as an app-based motorcycle taxi driver and earns about 50,000 rupiah ($3.50) a day.
"Things have gotten better after I moved to the rented house with my wife," he told BenarNews.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo on Friday offered condolences to the families of two students who were killed on Sulawesi island during protests against legislation that critics say would undermine civil liberties and anti-corruption efforts.
One student, Muhammad Immawan Randi, died of a bullet wound to his chest on Thursday when students clashed with police outside the legislative building in Kendari, the capital of Southeast Sulawesi province, police and officials said.
Another student, Yusuf Qardawi, succumbed to his injuries early Friday while being treated in a hospital, police said.
"I, on behalf of the government, would like to extend our condolences on the passing of Randi and Yusuf Qardawi, both students at Halu Oleo University in Kendari," Jokowi told reporters.
"May everything Randi and Yusuf Qardawi fought for be of benefit to this nation and they be granted a noble place on His side," he said.
He urged police to investigate the deaths.
"I have ordered an investigation because the national police chief told me that there was no order whatsoever to carry firearms during the rally," he said, urging the public not to engage in speculation.
Tens of thousands of students have been holding daily demonstrations across the country against proposed changes to the criminal code that include the criminalization of sex outside marriage, cohabitation, insulting the president and most abortions.
In Jakarta, more than 260 students and 39 police officers were injured on Tuesday during clashes between police and protesters outside the national parliament building, officials said.
Violence also broke out during similar rallies in several other cities this week.
Protesters also demanded the government annul the recently passed law governing the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
KPK changes include establishing a supervisory agency tasked with monitoring the commission's conduct and restricting its ability to wire-tap suspects.
Jokowi on Thursday sought to allay concerns that his government would roll back two decades of democratic reform.
"Don't you ever doubt my commitment to safeguarding democracy," he told reporters after a meeting with senior leaders and advisers at the presidential palace.

He also said he was considering issuing a decree that would annul the new KPK law.

"We will decide and inform the public soon," he said.

Since it was established in 2002, the KPK has secured the convictions of former ministers, governors, central bankers, legislators, as well as business tycoons, making it one of the most respected and feared institutions in the country.

The bill to change the criminal code would have allowed a prison sentence of up to one year for consensual sex outside of marriage, while a couple living together without the blessings of marriage could potentially be imprisoned for up six months. The bill requires complaints from spouses, parents or children for police to press charges.

In addition, anyone convicted of insulting the president or vice president could face a prison term of up to 4½ years. Insulting the president and vice president was decriminalized by the Constitutional Court in 2016 following a legal challenge.
The parliament has postponed passage of the bill, which had been scheduled for Sept. 24, at Jokowi's request. It is expected to be deliberated again by the next parliament, which is to be seated in October.


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BENARNEWS- Journalists in Hong Kong on Monday hit out at police violence against reporters and correspondents covering the three-month-long protest movement in the city, as lawyers of an injured Indonesian reporter said she would pursue compensation after being shot in the eye.

Veby Indah, a journalist for Indonesian-language publication Suara, was "seriously injured by a projectile fired from a police 12 gauge shotgun," according to a statement from her lawyers on Monday.

It said Veby was likely injured by a bean bag round or a rubber bullet, as spent rounds of both types were found near the scene of her injury, the journalist's lawyers, Vidler & Co, said in a statement to their Facebook page.

Veby had been on an elevated footbridge and was wearing a high-visibility vest and helmet emblazoned with the word "Press," the firm said.

"This projectile was fired at a potentially lethal distance and from a low angle where the impact could only be on the upper body or head," Veby's lawyer, who gave only a surname Vidler, said. "This was in breach of manufacturer guidelines, any conceivable professional instruction and international norms."
"Ms. Veby is lucky to be alive and but for her protective goggles, she would definitely have been blinded," he said. "At present, very substantial visual impairment still remains a possibility."

He said Veby would be filing criminal complaints against the Commissioner of Police and the officer who shot her, as well as civil proceedings for compensation.

Shot at close range
The Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) said it was "gravely concerned" at the injuries suffered by Veby and would carry out a separate investigation.

"We deplore the use and threat of violence towards journalists covering events in Hong Kong from any source and calls on police and protestors to allow journalists to carry out their job of reporting the facts without risk of serious injury or threats of violence," the group said.

The Foreign Correspondents' Club of Hong Kong also expressed concern over the shooting of the Indonesian journalist.

"Footage from the incident shows she was clearly identified as a journalist and that the police officer fired a parting shot from only a few meters away," the group said.

It said eyewitness reports from journalists, and video and photos shared on social media in recent weeks had shown journalists being hit by tear gas canisters and rubber bullets, police targeting clearly identifiable journalists with pepper spray, and with water cannon containing pepper spray, as well as verbal threats.

It also hit out at police officers for "deliberately shining bright lights at journalists to impede their access and coverage [and] blocking journalists' cameras and video cameras especially while making arrests of protesters."

Meanwhile, police chief superintendent John Tse said violence had escalated over the weekend, as protesters threw more than 100 Molotov cocktails, set large fires and attacked police officers.

Police had fired water cannon and 328 tear gas canisters as well as other projectiles to "clear the crowd."

Tse also confirmed online video that appeared to show an officer firing a live ammunition round, saying the officer had fired into the air to disperse protesters who had surrounded him.

'A Day of Grief'
Police made 157 arrests during the weekend's clashes, of people as young as 12. More than two dozen injuries were reported by local media, he said.
London-based rights group Amnesty International has called the response of the Hong Kong police force to the protesters' civil disobedience and political vandalism "outrageous" and "repressive."
Protests that erupted in June in Hong Kong against plans by the city's government to allow extradition to mainland China have grown into a broader movement, even after Hong Kong leaders pledged to scrap the plan by withdrawing the planned legislation.

The protesters' five key demands are: the formal withdrawal of planned amendments to extradition laws; an amnesty for arrested protesters; an end to the description of protesters as rioters; an independent inquiry into police abuse of power; and fully democratic elections.
Police have banned a planned march to be held on Tuesday, which will mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China on Oct. 1, 1949.

Protesters are likely to defy the ban, with multiple protests planned under the theme "A Day of Grief."


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BENARNEWS- President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said Monday he was ready to hold talks with separatist leaders to solve the conflict in Indonesia's Papua region, as thousands of Indonesians who had migrated there were evacuated from Wamena, a highland town where 33 people died in violence last week.
A protest involving hundreds of high school students that was provoked by alleged racist remarks from an instructor descended into chaos in Wamena on Sept. 23, with crowds setting fire to government buildings, shops and homes, authorities said. On the same day, security forces clashed with student protesters in the provincial capital Jayapura, leaving three civilians and a soldier dead, police said.
"I will meet anyone who wants to meet me," Jokowi told reporters at the Bogor Presidential Palace, when asked if he was ready for dialogue with pro-independence groups such as the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) and the National Committee of West Papua (KNPB).
The government has blamed ULMWP and KNPB for the unrest that has gripped Papua and West Papua provinces since last month, when thousands of protestors took to the streets across the mainly Melanesian region demanding a vote on self-determination. The protests broke out over alleged racist epithets that had been used against Papuan students on Java island.
Authorities said five people were killed during the initial violence in August and early September, but Papuan activists said they recorded at least 13 deaths.
Officials said the unrest was intended to draw international attention to Papuans' demand for a referendum during the ongoing 74th U.N. General Assembly in New York.
ULMWP chairman Benny Wenda, who is based in Britain, welcomed Jokowi's gesture.
"We welcome what was conveyed by the government of Indonesia. But we will only hold dialogue if all soldiers and police are withdrawn from the land of Papua without conditions," Wenda told BenarNews.
The chairman of Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) urged Jakarta to engage Papuan leaders in a dialogue.
"In my opinion, this is the best solution. If it is not resolved through dialogue, we are worried there will be greater ramifications, including an international intervention," Ahmad Taufan Damanik told reporters in Jakarta.
Almost 7,300 people have sought refuge in police and military headquarters, as well in church and government buildings in Wamena after last week's violence, said John Richard Banua, the administrative head of Jayawijaya regency, of which Wamena is the main town.
Tensions rose in Papua in December after separatist rebels allegedly killed 19 members of a crew building a highway in Nduga regency. Authorities immediately sent more than 750 soldiers and police to the region after the killings.

Five people tagged as suspects
Police have said that most of 33 people who were killed in last week's violence were migrants from outside Papua. Five people had been named suspects over the riot, officials said.
The military said more than 3,100 migrants who feared they would be targeted had been evacuated to the provincial capital Jayapura.
"They will be helped to return to their home provinces, especially women and children," armed forces chief Air Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto told reporters, adding that men had been advised to return to Wamena to rebuild the town's economy.
Security Affairs Minister Wiranto also urged those who fled Wamena to return.
"You can imagine, if they flock out of Wamena, who will drive the economy?" Wiranto told reporters in Jakarta.
The Papua region, which makes up the Indonesian half of New Guinea island, was incorporated formally 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 involved only 1,000 people.
Wamena resident Obelom Wakerkwa told BenarNews that the students who took part in the protests did not engage in vandalism and arson attacks.
He said he saw security forces firing warning shots in front of the protesters.
"That enraged the high school students and the situation became out of control," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia swore in a new parliament on Tuesday as about 1,000 students rallied outside the legislative complex here against laws that, critics said, would curtail freedoms and the country's fight against corruption.
Days of nationwide protests against the passage of a bill governing the Corruption Eradication Commission and proposed revisions to the criminal code have led to violent confrontations between police and demonstrators in recent days.
Security was tight in the capital on Tuesday, with 24,000 personnel deployed in the streets of Jakarta leading to the Parliament building and key locations, police said.
Puan Maharani, the only daughter of former President Megawati Sukarnoputri, was sworn in as the speaker of the 575-member House of Representatives (DPR). She is the first woman to serve in that role.
After taking the oath, she pledged to make parliament "the people's house."
"We will embrace all the aspirations of the people," Puan, a granddaughter of the country's first president, Sukarno, said in her speech.
Members of a coalition supporting President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo make up 60 percent of the legislature. Jokowi is scheduled to be sworn as president for a second term on Oct. 20 after winning the April 17 presidential election.
At least two students have died and hundreds others injured in clashes since protests began on Sept. 23, authorities said.
Unlike the protests in the previous days, Tuesday's demonstrations in Jakarta were largely peaceful, officials said, with about 1,000 students handing out flowers to anti-riot police while urging the new parliament not to pass the bill on the criminal code in its present form.
"They must listen to the aspirations of the people. Don't just prioritize the interests of their groups and parties," 20-year-old Bimo Wardhana, a student majoring in information technology, told BenarNews.
The new lawmakers are expected to deliberate immediately on the criminal code after their predecessors postponed its passage at Jokowi's request.
Outside parliament, student demonstrators sang patriotic songs, laid wreaths and displayed a mock tombstone to protest the death of two students during clashes with security personnel on Thursday in Kendari, the capital of Southeast Sulawesi province.
Muhammad Nurdiansyah, leader of the alliance of Indonesian Student Executive Boards, shouted to riot police: "Please remember, the people you shot the other day, were students, your fellow citizens."
New lawmakers must not forget their promises to voters, said Hikmawan Saputra, a student at Jakarta State University.
"We want to remind DPR members that they are elected representatives of the people," he told BenarNews. "They are elected not to betray the people."

Criminalizing sex outside marriage
Tens of thousands of students have been holding daily demonstrations across the country against proposed laws that would criminalize sex outside marriage, cohabitation, insulting the president and most abortions.
Protesters have also demanded that the government annul the recently passed law governing the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
Changes to the KPK include establishing a supervisory agency tasked with monitoring the commission's conduct and restricting its ability to wire-tap suspects.
The bill to change the criminal code would have allowed a prison sentence of up to one year for consensual sex outside of marriage, while a couple living together without the blessings of marriage could potentially be imprisoned for up to six months. The bill requires complaints from spouses, parents or children for police to press charges.
In addition, anyone convicted of insulting the president or vice president could face a prison term of up to 4 ½ years. Insulting the president and vice president was decriminalized by the Constitutional Court in 2016 following a legal challenge.

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Indonesian marines hold flowers handed out by student protesters during a rally outside the parliament in Jakarta, Oct. 1, 2019. AP

At least 209 protesters and 41 police were injured in clashes on Monday, Jakarta police spokesman Argo Yuwono said. He said 519 people were arrested but did not say what charges they were facing.
"We are still delving into their roles in yesterday's rioting," Argo told BenarNews.
Some observers greeted the new parliament with pessimism.
Titi Anggaraini, executive director of the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), said the fact that more than 50 percent of the newly sworn House members were old faces who drafted the controversial legislation was a cause for concern.
"I am quite alarmed because the figures involved in the ratification of controversial laws such as the revision of the criminal code and the KPK still retain their positions," Titi told BenarNews.
"These people were supposed to inspire public confidence in the parliament, but they have instead raised doubts about our democratic process," she said.
Perludem deems the performance of the previous parliament to be poor, passing only 84 of 189 bills they took up in the 2014-2019 period, Titi said.
But the new parliament should learn from past mistakes and not pass bills hastily just to achieve targets, said Ujang Komarudin, a political analyst at Al Azhar Indonesia University, told BenarNews
"Given that many bills are problematic and have been rejected, lawmakers should not be careless in drafting legislation," he said. "The new legislators have tougher tasks because the credibility of the DPR has been undermined."


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo is confronting a host of troubles that are testing his leadership as he prepares to start his second five-year term in office on Oct. 20.
Student-led nationwide protests, sometimes violent, have broken out in response to the passage of a bill governing the country's anti-corruption agency and proposed changes to the criminal code that critics say would undermine freedoms and curtail anti-graft efforts.
Two students died after clashes between protesters and police in the city of Kendari on Sulawesi island last week.
The government backed both bills, but the president last month asked parliament to postpone passage of the criminal code legislation, which had been scheduled for Sept. 24, after mounting public opposition and street protests.
In the restive easternmost region of Papua, protests and deadly rioting have left dozens of people dead amid growing calls for a referendum of self-determination for the mainly Melanesian region, where security forces have been accused of rights abuses.
The president has also been criticized for the government's handling of fires that have ravaged large swathes of forest and sent air pollution to hazardous levels on Sumatra and Borneo islands.
"Mr. Jokowi is supposed to start his second term with stronger political capital than the first term," said Noory Akthariza, a political analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta.
"But he has faced criticism from all fronts as the recent events have raised questions about his commitment to democratic values and the fight against corruption," Noory told BenarNews.
"Jokowi must address the protesters' concerns because many of them voted for him," he said.
Dealing with dissent
Jokowi won April's presidential election with 55 percent of votes, compared to 53 percent in 2014. His rival was former general Prabowo Subianto in both elections.
When Jokowi came to power in 2014, the former furniture businessman was hailed as an outsider untainted by excesses associated with the 32-year-rule of autocratic president Suharto.
But critics now are saying that his government's approach to dealing with dissent harkens back to the Suharto era, known as the New Order.
Since last month, police have declared an Australia-based Indonesian human rights lawyer a fugitive, accusing her of inflaming the unrest in Papua; charged an activist filmmaker with hate speech; and briefly detained a musician who raised funds for student protesters.
Riot police have also been accused of using excessive force on protesters.
Under pressure, Jokowi last week said he was considering issuing an emergency decree to annul the revised law governing the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), the country's most respected law enforcement body.
But lawmakers, who say that the KPK has unchecked powers, warned that such a move would be an affront to the legislature.
Political parties belonging to the ruling coalition also rejected the idea, Surya Paloh, chairman of the Nasdem Party, said Wednesday.
"For the time being, no such thing is being considered," Surya, who is also a media mogul, told reporters.
He pointed out that the law was being challenged by a group of students at the Constitutional Court and a decision on the petition was still pending.
"If the president issues such a decree, we're worried he could be impeached," he added.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla said revoking the KPK law could undermine the government's credibility, and might not end the protests.
Changes to the KPK include establishing a supervisory agency tasked with monitoring the commission's conduct, and restricting its ability to wire-tap suspects, which has been instrumental in the arrests of lawmakers, police and government officials.
Jokowi, in a recent interview with Bloomberg, said he was not ruffled by the protests.
"Indonesia is a democracy," the president told Bloomberg.
"If people want to express their opinions, they can, but the most important thing is no anarchy, no riots, no destroying public facilities."
'He needs parliamentary support'
Jokowi's second term will be an uphill battle for him, said Zaki Mubarak, a lecturer in politics at Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University.
"Keeping the governing coalition intact will not be easy. We are seeing in recent days cracks emerging between the president and coalition parties," Zaki told BenarNews.
"This could make it difficult for Jokowi to push through his programs, because he needs parliamentary support," he added.
Global economic uncertainty and stagnant economic growth will also complicate Jokowi's second term, Zaki said.
"Indonesia is not ready to respond to the U.S.-China trade war and its policy has been clumsy, unlike Malaysia and Vietnam which have seen growing investment as companies are moving out of China," he said.
Indonesia's economy is expected to grow below 5 percent this year, according to the World Bank.
To attract foreign investment, Jokowi has vowed to introduce major changes to labor laws and open up more sectors of the economy.
"Every year there are 3 million new workers in the job market," Jokowi was quoted as saying.
"They must be given room to enter the job market. Second, we want to address investors' complaints. We have to revise the law and we hope that more investment will create competition among companies to get better workers."

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Laborers calling for a living wage take part in a rally outside the parliament in Jakarta, Oct. 2, 2019. [AFP]

An analyst at the Lingkar Madani think tank, Ray Rangkuti, warned that Jokowi's failure to meet protesters' demands could create instability.
"By issuing a decree, Jokowi can restore public confidence and demonstrates that the government is committed to eradicating corruption," Ray told BenarNews.
"Now the ball is in Jokowi's court. Will he listen to the demands of the people or acquiesce to the wishes of politicians with vested interests?" he said.
The students who have staged protests in major cities across the country have made a raft of demands, including an end to forests fires set for agricultural purposes and to "militarism" in the rebellious Papua region in eastern Indonesia, and freedom for political prisoners there.
They also urged lawmakers to withdraw problematic provisions in the criminal code bill, pass laws to reduce sexual violence and to protect domestic workers, and to hand down justice for perpetrators of past human rights abuses.
The bill to change the criminal code would have allowed a prison sentence of up to one year for consensual sex outside of marriage.
In addition, anyone convicted of insulting the president or vice president could face a prison term of up to 4½ years. Insulting the president and vice president was decriminalized by the Constitutional Court in 2016 following a legal challenge.


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BENARNEWS- Shops have started to reopen and some people are returning to the streets of Wamena, where nearly 40 percent of the population of this town in Indonesia's restive Papua province fled or were displaced by anti-Jakarta rioting in late September.

But it's an uneasy calm, although Indonesian government officials have assured people that it is safe to come back here. Thirty-three people were killed and dozens injured during the rioting on Sept. 23, in which protestors torched government buildings, businesses and homes, according to official figures from the authorities.

Around 16,000 of the 42,000 residents of Wamena, the largest town in the province's highlands, were uprooted or evacuated as a result. Most of those who fled were Indonesian settlers or migrants who had moved to Papua, Indonesia's easternmost province, from other parts of the archipelago.

"I just returned because Wamena is safe, but my son is still in the village because he is still afraid to go to school," Hence Hubi, a resident who fled to Kurima in Yahukimo regency after the riots, told a BenarNews correspondent who was visiting Wamena.

The rampage broke out when a protest by high school students against alleged racist remarks by a teacher disintegrated into chaos on Sept. 23. 

Many residents are haunted by the event and it will take them time to overcome their trauma, said Ribka Haluk, an official who heads the province's social affairs department.

Yosep Wibisono, a local high school principal, agreed.

"The problem among teachers is trauma. It was a traumatic experience for them because the event started in schools," Yosep told BenarNews.

On Monday, Indonesian Home Minister Tjahjo Kumolo announced that Wamena was safe again.

"If people want to go back, there's no problem," he said.

During a cabinet on Tuesday, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo ordered that government buildings, schools and other public facilities that were destroyed or damaged in Wamena be reconstructed or repaired immediately, said Basuki Hadimuljono, the minister for Public Works.

"Rebuilding will be carried out using locally sourced materials [and] involving local contractors and with assistance from the TNI," Basuki told reporters, referring to the military.
Dozens of government buildings and schools were badly damaged, while 450 shops and 165 homes were burned during the riot, he said.

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A volunteer sorts out bags of relief supplies at an aid depot in Wamena, Indonesia, Oct. 6, 2019. [Victor Mambor/BenarNews]



The Papua region, which makes up the Indonesian half of New Guinea island, was formally incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, after 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 involved only 1,000 people.

The region has since been the scene of a low-level separatist insurgency. The population of Papua and West Papua, a neighboring province, is mainly Melanesian.

The Sept. 23 riot was the worst since 2000 when 30 people were killed during clashes between local residents and security forces.

"The event of September 23 was smaller than in 2000. But the number of victims is higher," Andi, a migrant who has lived in Wamena since 1977, told Benar.

Fearing new unrest, migrants have fled the town in large numbers. 

In the wake of the Sept. 23 violence, the Indonesian military flew more than 11,000 people out of Wamena, said an air force commander, First Marshal Tri Bowo Budi Santoso. Nearly 5,000 people left town aboard commercial flights, authorities said. 

More than 1,700 people have been internally displaced while an unknown number of people have fled to neighboring districts such as Lanny Jaya, Tolikara and Central Mamberamo, officials said. 

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Restrictions on foreigners
In Jakarta on Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs defended a policy to restrict access to Papua for foreigners.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that diplomats from the British, Canadian and New Zealand embassies had all asked the ministry for permission during the last month to visit Papua, but all their requests had been denied.

"It is clear ... that foreigners, including diplomats are not yet allowed to visit Papua, until the situation becomes favorable," ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah told BenarNews. 

"If they insist on visiting Papua while the restrictions are still in place, they should explain the motivations behind the requests," he said, adding, "Restrictions of access to areas with security problems have also been applied in many countries."

However, Human Rights Watch on Monday called on Indonesia to lift restrictions on access to the Papua region by foreign media. It also urged authorities to launch an independent investigation into the Wamena riots that caused thousands of indigenous Papuans and other Indonesians to be displaced from their homes.  

Brad Adams, Asia director for the New York-based watchdog, said the circumstances around the deaths of the 33 people were unclear.

"An independent investigation is needed to examine the role of the security forces and to prosecute anyone responsible for wrongdoing," he said in a statement.

"The situation in Wamena is tense, yet it's difficult to verify the circumstances because no journalists can independently go into the area to interview witnesses," Adams added. "Having independent monitors on the ground will help deter abuses by both the militants and security forces, which would benefit all Indonesians."

Papuan separatist leader: 'Indonesia must show good faith'

Jakarta has blamed the separatist United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) and the National Committee for West Papua (KNPB) for unrest that has gripped Papua and West Papua since August, when thousands of protestors took to the streets to demand a vote on self-determination. 

Late last month, President Jokowi said he was ready to hold talks with Papuan separatist leaders to solve the conflict.

"I will meet anyone who wants to meet me," Jokowi told reporters then.

ULMWP chairman Benny Wenda said Jokowi must show that he is serious about solving the conflict's root causes. Before any talks can take place, according to Wenda, Jakarta would have to agree to discuss a referendum on self-determination and withdraw an additional 16,000 troops and police it sent to the region in August. 

"In order for us to believe that this has changed, Indonesia must show good faith and agree to our pre-conditions," Wenda, who is based in Britain, said in a statement released on Monday.

"Our will to achieve a democratic referendum, to uphold our right to self-determination, has never been stronger."


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BENARNEWS- The suspect who mounted the first ever militant attack on an Indonesian cabinet member was flagged in a police report weeks earlier and monitored for three months by security authorities, officials said Thursday.
Wiranto, the country's coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, was stepping out of a car when Syahrial Alamsyah lunged at him with a knife in Pandeglang, a town in Banten province west of Jakarta, national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo told reporters.
Syahrial is believed to belong a cell of the Islamic State-linked Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) in Bekasi near Jakarta, National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Budi Gunawan said.
"We have monitored the perpetrator since three months ago," Budi told reporters, adding that the suspect had moved from one place to another for months.
The attack, witnessed by villagers and children, also involved a woman named Fitri Andriana, believed to be Syahrial's wife, police said.
Wiranto suffered "two deep wounds" to his stomach and was flown by helicopter to Jakarta's Gatot Soebroto Central Army Hospital, where he underwent a three-hour surgery, officials said.
The minister was attacked as he was shaking hands with residents. He was in Pandeglang to open a new building of the local university.
Wiranto, a former armed forces chief who goes by one name, was in intensive care late Thursday. Two others were wounded in the attack, including a local police chief, Commissioner Dariyanto, and one of the minister's aides.
Police said the woman stabbed Dariyanto, but it was not immediately clear who attacked the aide. Local reports said police seized from the suspects two kunai knives, which are spear-shaped, with blades on both sides.
Wiranto, 72, is the first cabinet minister to have been attacked by a suspected militant.
Quiet people
Neighbors in Syahrial's hometown in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province, described him as a quiet but good man.
"He married twice but got divorced. He left the town around 2016 or 2017," Rizaldi told CNN.
Another neighbor, Ismawati, said she was surprised to learn that Syahrial was involved in the attack. She described him as "a nice man who was always ready to lend a helping hand."
"He socialized well. He doesn't have a home here anymore because it was demolished to make way for a toll road project," she told CNN.
Dedi, the police spokesman, said authorities were still trying to determine whether the woman who took part in the attack was Syahrial's wife.
"Looking at her ID card, the woman is not married, while the man is a divorcee," he told reporters.
"They just lived together in a rented house," he said, adding that they had rented the home in Pandeglang, a regency of Banten province, since February this year.
Syahrial and Fitri were mentioned in a police report about the arrest of nine JAD suspects, including a local leader known as Abu Zee (alias Abu Ghurobah) last month in Bekasi, a town on the outskirts of Jakarta.
At that time police said they were married by Abu Zee. 

Police searched Fitri's family house in Brebes regency in Central Java province on Thursday, Kompas.com news website reported.
Neighbors described her as a quiet girl who did not like to socialize.
"Her parents said she worked as a domestic assistant. She rarely visits and when she did she rarely went out," neighbor Masiroh was quoted by Kompas as saying. 

Village chief Untung Andi Purwanto said Fitri appeared to have grown more religious after spending some time out of her hometown.
She also took up archery as a hobby.
"At home, she kept bows and arrows. There were about six of them," Untung was quoted as saying. "We had no suspicion. We did not want to cast aspersions."
Meanwhile, personnel of the elite anti-terror group Densus 88 arrested a female police officer in Yogyakarta late last month, accusing her of links to the same JAD cell as Wiranto's attacker.
Nesti Ode Sami, a police officer in North Maluku, had deserted her post there in early September, and her name had been placed on a wanted-persons list, CNN-Indonesia reported, citing a provincial police official.
She was the first known female police officer to get involved in violent extremism, officials said.
"The result of our investigation show that she was deeply radicalized, based on her social media. It shows that this person was actively affiliated with the JAD network," national police spokesman Asep Adi Saputra told reporters Wednesday in Jakarta.
She had been in touch with Abu Zee in Bekasi, he said.
"This has to do with one of the terrorist networks that we apprehended two weeks ago," he added, referring to the arrests of nine suspected militants in various locations in western Java that was announced by police on Sept. 23.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's security minister was in intensive care late Thursday after a man suspected of being an Islamic State supporter stabbed him in a brazen attack witnessed by villagers and children, police said.
Wiranto was stepping out of a car when a man lunged at him with a knife during a visit to the town of Pandeglang in Banten province west of Jakarta, national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said.
Wiranto, a former armed forces chief who goes by one name, was flown by helicopter to Jakarta's Gatot Soebroto Central Army Hospital, where he underwent a three-hour surgery, officials said. Police said he suffered "two deep wounds."
"He's now in the ICU [intensive care unit] to be stabilized," Cabinet Secretary Pramono Anung told reporters. He said the three-hour surgery went well.
"I saw him myself after the surgery and he was well taken care of," Pramono said.
Two other people were also wounded, including a local police chief, Commissioner Dariyanto, and a Wiranto aide named Fuad, officials said.
The suspect was accompanied by a woman who stabbed the police chief. Both were subdued by security personnel and are now in custody, police said.
"It is believed that the two suspects have been exposed to the radical teachings of ISIS," Dedi told reporters, using another name for the Islamic State (IS) militant group.
He said the suspects were believed to be members of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local IS affiliate.
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, who visited Wiranto in the hospital, said he had ordered the national police and intelligence agency to "investigate and take strong action against the perpetrators and the network behind today's event."
"We call on all citizens to fight radicalism and terrorism," Joko told reporters. "Only with joint efforts can we weed out radicalism from our beloved nation."
Connected to JAD
Television footage showed the attacker stabbed Wiranto on his left side while he was shaking hands with residents. Several children who were nearby saw him stumble to the ground. Aides shoved him back into the car as bodyguards pinned down the suspect and tied his hands behind his back.
Local reports said police seized from the suspects two kunai knives, which are spear-shaped, with blades on both sides.
The director of Berkah Hospital in Pandeglang, Firmansyah, told CNN Indonesia that Wiranto received two stab wounds to the lower left abdomen.
Dedi said Wiranto's expected arrival in Pandeglang was widely known to the public. He identified the suspects as 31-year-old Syahrial Alamsyah (alias Abu Rara) and the woman as Fitri Andriana, believed to be his wife.
Wiranto, 72, is the Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs minister. He served as chief of the Indonesian National Armed Forces from February 1988 to October 1999 during the nation's transition from authoritarian rule to democracy. He ran unsuccessfully for president in 2004 and for the vice presidency five years later.
In January 2000, Indonesian human-rights investigators recommended that Wiranto and five other military officials be investigated for rights abuses that took place when the Indonesian military carried out deadly assaults in which thousands were killed after East Timor sought independence from Indonesia in 1999.
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks in the past two decades.
In January 2016, authorities blamed JAD for a gun and bomb attack that killed eight people, including the four attackers, in Jakarta's central business district.
It also was blamed for coordinated attacks in the Indonesian city of Surabaya in May 2018, when two families carried out suicide bombings on three churches and a police station. Those attacks killed 24 people, including children as young as 9 who joined their parents in the attacks.
An Indonesian court in July 2018 outlawed JAD in a verdict that was seen as making it easier for law enforcement officials to arrest suspected members.
Authorities should be vigilant for potential copycat attacks by lone wolves, said Stanislaus Riyanta, a terrorism analyst at the University of Indonesia.
"In the next few days, there will be important events in Indonesia that could attract radical people or groups to take action in the name of their ideology," Stanislaus said, referring to the swearing-in of Jokowi as president for a second term on Oct. 20, and anticipated student protests during the event.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo ordered police Friday to tighten security for senior officials after his top security minister was wounded in a brazen knife attack by Islamic State-linked suspects, amid concerns the militant group was trying to take advantage of post-election unrest.
Minister Wiranto, a former chief of Indonesia's armed forces, was stepping out of a car during a working visit west of Jakarta when a couple identified as members of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local militant network with IS links, lunged at him and others with knives, police said.
The minister was stabbed twice in the stomach during the official visit to Pandeglang, a town in Banten province on Java island, on Thursday. The 72-year-old former general was recuperating after a three-hour surgery at an army hospital in the Indonesian capital.
"Yesterday, I immediately ordered the national police chief to ensure that officials be given additional security," Jokowi told reporters after visiting Wiranto a second time at the hospital.
"Although there are already security precautions, they should be improved," Jokowi said without elaborating.
Jokowi described Wiranto's condition as "stable, improving" and said the minister was "able to communicate."
The president said government leaders would continue to be close to ordinary citizens despite heightened security measures, adding that they could still take "selfies" with him.
Jokowi, 58, who was re-elected in April, is known for posing for selfies while visiting mosques.
"No change in the pattern of security, but the vigilance among presidential guards will be enhanced," Jokowi said.
Television footage showed the attacker stabbing Wiranto on his left side while the minister shook hands with residents. Several children who were nearby saw him stumble to the ground.
Aides shoved Wiranto back into the car as several men pinned down the suspect and tied his hands behind his back.
According to standard security procedure in Indonesia, ministers are each assigned four bodyguards, including two police officers armed with 9-mm pistols.
It was not immediately clear how many bodyguards were with Wiranto during the attack.
Citing police information, local reports said the suspects used two kunai knives – spear-shaped weapons with blades on both sides – in the first such attack against a cabinet minister in Indonesia.
Wiranto, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, suffered wounds in his small intestine and doctors decided to perform an operation, Agus Zaini, a member of the minister's staff, told reporters Friday.
"Wiranto's post-surgery condition is good, even though he still has to undergo treatment," Agus said.
Three other people – a local police chief, a local ulema or Muslim scholar named Fuad, and one of Wiranto's aides – also suffered knife wounds in Thursday's attack, but authorities said their injuries were not life-threatening.
'Wage war at home'
Police said the couple who launched the attack, Syahrial Alamsyah (alias Abu Rara) and Fitri, believed to be Syahrial's wife, were loosely linked to JAD and had been monitored by authorities for months.
IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in an audio message released last month, ordered his followers to redouble their efforts to further the militant group's cause after it lost control over its self-proclaimed caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq earlier this year.
Sidney Jones, director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict and an expert of Islamic militancy in Indonesia, said the attack on Wiranto showed that pro-IS groups "remain committed to acts of jihad in Indonesia."
"They believe that by doing so they are following the orders of al-Baghdadi," Jones told BenarNews. "All that matters is, [as] al-Baghdadi said, if you can't join us, then wage war at home."
The attack may have been carried out in retaliation for the arrest of local JAD head Fazri Pahlawan (alias Abu Zee Ghuroba) last month, Brig. Gen. Dedi Prasetyo, the national police spokesman, said Friday.
Indonesian security officials admitted Thursday that Syahrial and Fitri had been under surveillance for three months after they were identified in a police report about the arrest of nine JAD suspects, including Abu Ghurobah, in Bekasi, a town on the outskirts of Jakarta.
Jones said attacks such as the one on Wiranto were difficult to prevent and would involve little planning by militant suspects.
"You can just decide on the spur of the moment to act," she said. "We don't know how long it was planned and I don't think we can necessarily fault the security forces for not being able to prevent it."
Taking advantage of unrest
Stanislaus Riyanto, a security analyst at the University of Indonesia, said pro-IS militants might take advantage of post-election unrest and anti-government student protests nationwide to create instability.
"This should not be underestimated. They may carry out small-scale attacks, but the impact can be significant, and they are hard to detect," he told BenarNews.
Jones agreed that extremist groups had paid greater attention to domestic politics in recent years.
"I think that we do need to be concerned about the presidential swearing-in. I think the security forces need to be on extra high alert," she said, referring to Jokowi's oath-taking for a second term on Oct. 20.
The fact that a woman also carried out Thursday's stabbing spree is another indication of growing involvement of female militants in attacks, not just in Indonesia but also in other countries, Jones said.
"I think that women are playing a more active role and they are encouraging each other via social media to take on these, in their view, heroic actions," she said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia and Malaysia expressed concern Monday that Southeast Asian Islamic State fighters may escape from prisons in northern Syria amid the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the area and a Turkish military operation targeting Kurdish forces there.
The fears over the status of at least 700 IS-linked Indonesian detainees and about 50 Malaysian detainees were further compounded by reports that hundreds of prisoners associated with the militant group have escaped from a camp during Turkish airstrikes and intense fighting in the area at the weekend.
The fast-escalating conflict in Syria's northern border region took a major shift on Monday after Kurdish forces announced that they had struck a deal with the Syrian government, as Turkey stepped up its military offensive after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the remaining U.S. forces out of the area.
"Naturally it's a concern. Indonesians who stay there pose a high level of threat," said Didik Novi Rahmanto, chief of the task force dealing with foreign fighters at Densus 88, Indonesia's counter-terrorism police unit.
"They will also be a threat if they come here," Didik told BenarNews.
Didik said at least 34 Indonesian citizens were imprisoned in Syria on allegations that they fought alongside the Islamic State (IS). He said about 700 others, many of them wives and children of IS fighters, are languishing in camps near the border with Iraq.
In neighboring Malaysia, the police's counter-terrorism chief AyobKhan Mydin Pitchay told BenarNews that 11 suspected Malaysian fighters are being held at the Al Hasakah prison in northeastern Syria and 40 others in other detention centers. They were among 65 who were believed to have travelled to the Middle East to join the IS's so-called caliphate, Ayob said.
"We are afraid that the detainees at the camp and the prison will escape and sneak into a third country or join any local militant group to wage war against the Bashar army," he said, referring to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Ayob said his men were still trying to confirm reports that a large number of IS fighters had escaped Al-Hasakah prison in Syria as they took advantage of the Turkish attack in the area.
"At the moment, as far as we know, the Malaysians at the Al Houl camp are safe while those at the Al-Hasakah prison, we have yet to receive any update on that," he said.
U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to pull out American soldiers from the area has come under criticism, with lawmakers and others accusing him of betraying the Kurds who fought alongside with the U.S. military to defeat the IS in Syria. Security analysts had warned that the Turkish incursion could undermine Washington's efforts to eliminate the IS, allowing the extremist group to rebuild its forces.
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday he would ask NATO allies to punish Turkey for its invasion of northeast Syria, accusing Ankara of causing the release of dangerous Islamic State detainees, Agence France-Presse reported.
"This unacceptable incursion has also undermined the successful multinational 'Defeat ISIS' mission in Syria, and resulted in the release of many dangerous ISIS detainees," Esper said in a statement.
On Sunday, about 785 foreign women and children with IS links escaped from the Ain Eissa camp in northeastern Syria, as militant affiliates inside the camp took advantage of the Turkish offensive to overpower the guards and force the gates open, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Didik of Indonesia's counter-terror group Densus 88 said his task force was closely monitoring the developments in Syria.
Suhardi Alius, chief of Indonesia's National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT), who also acknowledged that Jakarta was closely monitoring the news, said than an estimated 100 to 200 people, mostly women who had claimed to be Indonesians were being detained in three camps in northeastern Syria on suspicion of IS links.
"They cannot be just repatriated," Alius told BenarNews. "There must be an assessment and this cannot be done in Indonesia. It has to be done there. A decision will involve all stakeholders and related ministries."
"There are steps to taken and these are not easy. They have been radicalized and we have to keep them from radicalizing other citizens," he said, adding that an undetermined number of IS foreign fighters had moved to Afghanistan.
"There are not many of them, but this shows that those who have been radicalized can move from one conflict area to another," he said.
Last week, a knife-wielding couple, believed to be IS suspects, stabbed Indonesia's top security minister Wiranto, who is recovering from surgery at a military hospital. More than 20 suspected militants have been arrested in a counterterrorism crackdown.
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks in the past two decades, including in January 2016, when IS-linked militant launched a gun and bomb attack that killed eight people, including the four attackers, in Jakarta's central business district.
Local IS-affiliated militants were also blamed for coordinated attacks in the Indonesian city of Surabaya in May 2018, when two families carried out suicide bombings on three churches and a police station. Those attacks killed 24 people, including children as young as 9 who joined their parents in the attacks.
According to the United Nations, more than 40,000 foreign fighters from 110 countries might have travelled to join terror groups in Syria and Iraq.
Almost 500 suspects had been arrested by Malaysian police since 2013 for their alleged militant links, according to figures provided by the Special Branch's counter-terrorist wing. The country has also been a transit point for Indonesian militants seeking to travel to the terrorist infested southern Philippines.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian police on Tuesday said they uncovered alleged suicide attack plots targeting officials, security personnel and places of worship on Java island by suspected members of a militant network affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) just days after a man and a woman linked to the network allegedly stabbed the nation's security minister and two others.
Police and military officials also announced increased security measures leading up to President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's second inauguration on Sunday.
National police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said anti-terrorism unit Densus 88 personnel arrested two suspected members of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) on Tuesday and seized bomb-making materials including chemicals RDX and HMTD during a West Java raid.
"It was an interesting finding because the bombs that were being prepared for use by suicide bombers were highly explosive," Dedi told reporters. "They were different from those usually assembled by JAD and other terrorist groups. The chemical mix is more dangerous."
The two suspects, identified by their initials S and LT, were believed to be would-be suicide bombers whose targets included police and places of worship in Cirebon, Dedi said. Police also arrested two suspects in Bandung, the capital of West Java province, and confiscated air rifles, knives and other crude weapons.
The arrests brought to 26 the number of militant suspects rounded up across the country since Oct. 10, when the two suspected JAD militants armed with knives attacked security minister Wiranto and two other people, police said.
Wiranto, a former chief of Indonesia's armed forces, was stepping out of a car during a working visit to Pandeglang, a town in Banten province west of Jakarta, when a couple lunged at him and others with knives, police said.
Police said the couple who launched the attack, Syahrial Alamsyah (alias Abu Rara) and Fitri Andriana were loosely linked to JAD and had been monitored by authorities for three months.
Wiranto is recovering in an army hospital in Jakarta after surgery.
Suicide plots
Dedi said based on questioning of some of most recently arrested suspects, investigators believe JAD militants were plotting to carry out suicide bombings on places of worship and police headquarters in central Java.
"The would-be suicide bombers have been prepared to carry out terrorist acts in Solo and Yogyakarta," Dedi said.
The suspects had been given orders to carry out attacks "anywhere, any time," Dedi told BenarNews. "Their main targets are police. The next targets are state officials."
He said the planned attacks likely were intended to avenge the arrest of nine JAD suspects near Jakarta last month.
On Monday, Dedi said militants arrested in different parts of the country had been communicating by using instant messaging platform Telegram, which is known for secure encryption. Despite the communication, they acted independently in deciding their targets.
Inauguration security
About 31,000 security personnel are to be on duty during Jokowi's second inauguration on Oct. 20, police and the military said. The event is expected to be attended by six foreign heads of state and government and about 150 foreign representatives.
"The TNI (military) has prepared 8,500 personnel from various units who are ready to be moved when requested by the national police," armed forces spokesman Maj. Gen. Sisriadi told BenarNews.
The number was in accordance with standard procedure for handling unexpected events such as a riot, said Sisriadi, who goes by one name.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Andika Perkasa said he is ready to mobilize all his forces to safeguard the inauguration.
"We have prepared almost all personnel, not only from combat units throughout Indonesia. Our focus is dealing with major events this week," he told reporters at a news conference.
Dedi said there is no intelligence information indicating a plan for a terrorist attack during the inauguration.
Indonesia has been rocked by weeks of street protests led by university students against legislation that critics said could undermine democratic reforms and the fight against corruption.
Clashes between security forces and the protesters left five civilians dead in Kendari on Sulawesi island and Jakarta, and hundreds injured.
On Monday, military commander Maj. Gen. Eko Margiyono said street protests would be banned through the inauguration on Sunday.
"Any demonstration would be illegal," Eko told local media


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo could be saddled with managing a huge coalition during his second term in office, analysts said, as five of nine political parties represented in parliament have declared their support.
Those five parties represent 349 of the 557 parliament seats – but Jokowi's coalition could grow even larger if three parties that supported his challenger, Prabowo Subianto, join following recent meetings, the analysts said.
Such a move by Gerindra, the Democratic Party, and National Mandate Party would represent 525 seats. Only the Prosperous Justice Party remains firm in its opposition, according to the analysts.
"It would be detrimental for our democracy because there would not be a proper check and balance," Ujang Komarudin, an Al Azhar Indonesia University political analyst, told BenarNews on Friday. "On the other hand, the coalition has the potential to stir an internal conflict since each party has its own vested interest."
Jokowi and his running mate, Ma'ruf Amin, are to be sworn in as president and vice president for a five-year term on Sunday. Authorities will deploy 30,000 military and police personnel to secure the event.
Moving forward, Jokowi must manage the expanded coalition or could see a conflict among members as his term nears an end and candidates gear up for the 2024 election, Paramadina University political analyst Hendri Satrio said. Jokowi cannot seek a third term.
"The parties could go their own way to pursue their own interests, as we have seen during the past five years," he said.
Amy Searight and Brian Harding of the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) pointed out that the coalition partners are angling for cabinet posts where they can direct resources according to their interests.
"Notably, Jokowi has pledged that 55 percent of the cabinet will be composed of 'professionals' rather than political party leaders, with the core economic team expected to be filled by technocrats, including the current finance minister Sri Mulyani in some capacity," Searight and Harding said in a report, "Jokowi 2.0: Policy, Politics and Prospects for Reform."
"He has also said the cabinet will include millennials, as well as at least one ethnic Papuan."
Public trust
A researcher at the anti-graft watchdog Indonesia Corruption Watch (ICW) said Jokowi will be challenged to restore the public trust during his second term.
Students have held a string of protests urging the government to repeal controversial laws, such as the anti-graft law that serves as the legal basis for the establishment of the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
ICW researcher Kurnia Ramadhana said corruption eradication could be a top legislative agenda since Jokowi has emphasized that he would not involve KPK in scrutinizing candidates for cabinet posts.
"Based on what has been happening, we can see that corruption eradication issue would be sidelined in the next five years," he said.
Charles Honoris of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle said he is optimistic that Jokowi will enjoy support during his second term. Honoris was referring to a survey earlier this month by Kompas daily showing Jokowi's administration enjoying a satisfaction rating of about 58.8 percent.
"I think it shows that the public appreciates the work the government has done, despite the dynamics of the recent situation," Honoris said. "I think it would be a good point for Jokowi and Ma'ruf Amin to govern the country for the next five years."
Security measures
Leading up to Sunday's event, security measures were beefed up following the stabbing of Security Minister Wiranto on Oct. 11. Wiranto is recovering at the Gatot Soebroto Army Hospital in Jakarta and it is unclear if he will attend the ceremony.
On Friday, presidential guards practiced security measures in the parliamentary building compound following a show of force on Thursday by troops at the National Monument area.
Meanwhile, Jakarta police blocked roads in front of the parliament building on Friday.
"This is a security measure for the inauguration day. We will open the road again after the ceremony," police spokesman Muhammad Nasir said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian opposition leader Prabowo Subianto, a former general who has a checkered human rights record and was defeated in this year's presidential election, on Monday said he accepted an offer to join President Joko Widodo's government as a cabinet member.
Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, was sworn in on Sunday as president for a second term after a fiercely fought election on April 17. He is expected to announce his new cabinet line-up on Wednesday.
Jokowi held separate meetings Monday with prospective ministers, including Prabowo, former campaign manager and businessman Erick Thohir, and Nadiem Makarim, founder of the country's home-grown taxi hailing app Gojek.
"I have been asked to help strengthen the president's cabinet," Prabowo, a former Army special forces commander, told reporters after meeting with Jokowi.
"And I am allowed to announce that I have been asked to assist the president in the field of defense," Prabowo said, adding that he expected the appointment to be formally announced on Wednesday. Local media reports had suggested he would be appointed defense minister.
"I will work hard to achieve the targets set [by the president]," Prabowo said in remarks published on the website on the Cabinet Secretariat.
Expectations that Prabowo would join the cabinet grew after he met with Jokowi at the presidential palace earlier this month.
Rights activists say Jokowi's embrace of Prabowo, who was accused of responsibility for the kidnappings of pro-democracy activists in the last days of President Suharto's rule in 1998, reflected his lack of commitment to human rights.
"Jokowi should not appoint people implicated [in human rights violations] to strategic positions," Feri Kusuma, an activist for the human rights group Kontras, told BenarNews.
Ubaidillah Badrun, a political analyst at the Jakarta State Islamic University, said Prabowo's decision to join the government showed that he was pragmatic and not ideological.
"By joining the government, Gerindra [Prabowo's party] may think they'll have better electoral chances in 2024," he said, adding that Prabowo might try another run for president.
Jokowi won April's presidential election with 55 percent of votes, compared to 53 percent in 2014. His rival was Prabowo in both elections.
In June, Indonesia's Constitutional Court rejected as baseless a petition by Prabowo, who alleged massive and systematic electoral fraud as he sought to overturn results of the last presidential polls in which the former general garnered 44.5 percent.
Prabowo, 68, is the former husband of Titiek Suharto, a daughter of the late President Suharto. They were married in 1983 and divorced in 1998. During his days as a top general, Prabowo was dogged by allegations of rights abuses, including during unrest that brought down his former father-in-law 21 years ago.

Political analysts: 'Detrimental for our democracy'
Analysts said Jokowi could have difficulty managing a huge coalition during his second term in office, with Prabowo's Gerindra party joining, leaving only Islam-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) as the only opposition group.
"It would be detrimental for our democracy because there would not be a proper check and balance," Ujang Komarudin, an Al Azhar Indonesia University political analyst, told BenarNews on Friday. "On the other hand, the coalition has the potential to stir an internal conflict since each party has its own vested interest."
Surya Paloh, chairman of the Nasdem party and a member of the ruling coalition, echoed the sentiment.
"It's not good if there are no checks and balances. If no one wants to, Nasdem can be the opposition," Surya told Kompas TV news channel on Sunday.
In his inauguration speech on Sunday, Jokowi vowed to help usher in the country's goal to be among the world's five largest economies by 2045.
"However, all of that will not come easily," he said. "We must work hard, and we must work fast. In a competitive world, we must continue to develop new ways and new values."
He also promised to streamline the bureaucracy and boost human development in his second term.
"The task of our bureaucracy is to ensure that the benefits of government programs are felt by the public," he said.
But the president has been criticized for failing to address the issue of corruption and human rights in his speech.
Student-led nationwide protests, sometimes violent, broke out last month in response to the passage of a bill governing the country's anti-corruption agency and proposed changes to the criminal code that critics say would undermine freedoms and curtail anti-graft efforts.
Five civilians were killed after clashes between protesters and police in the city of Kendari on Sulawesi island and Jakarta.
In the restive easternmost region of Papua, protests and deadly rioting have left dozens of people dead amid growing calls for a referendum of self-determination for the mainly Melanesian region, where security forces have been accused of rights abuses.
The president has been criticized for the government's handling of fires that have ravaged large swathes of forest and sent air pollution to hazardous levels on Sumatra and Borneo islands.
"The focus was more on the issues of development, efficiency and human resources. If we look closely, this is similar to the government of Suharto," Firman Noor, a political analyst at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, told Tempo.co., referring to the late former president who ruled with an iron fist for 32 years before resigning under pressure in 1998.
"I think the president has not been sensitive and this is deplorable," he said.
The students who have staged protests in major cities across the country have made a raft of demands, including an end to forests fires set for agricultural purposes and to "militarism" in the rebellious Papua region in eastern Indonesia, and freedom for political prisoners there.
They also urged lawmakers to withdraw problematic provisions in the criminal code bill, pass laws to reduce sexual violence and to protect domestic workers, and to hand down justice for perpetrators of past human rights abuses.
The bill to change the criminal code would have allowed a prison sentence of up to one year for consensual sex outside of marriage.
In addition, anyone convicted of insulting the president or vice president could face a prison term of up to 4½ years. Insulting the president and vice president was decriminalized by the Constitutional Court in 2016 following a legal challenge.


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BENARNEWS- Muhammadiyah leaders in Jakarta, Oct. 15, 2019.

Ismira Lutfia Tisnadibrata/BenarNews

Leaders of Indonesia's two largest Muslim organizations say they are still analyzing China's treatment of Uyghurs to verify whether the minority group is subject to human rights violations.
The U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, Joseph Donovan, held separate meetings with the leaders of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah in the past week, during which he called on them to speak out about allegations of abuses in China's Xinjiang province, home to the Uyghur Muslim minority.
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 Chinese detention camps since April 2017.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, has not been vocal amid concerns that it would be seen as interfering in another country's internal affairs.
Following a meeting with Donovan, NU chairman Said Aqil Siradj said his organization would try to determine what is happening in Xinjiang.
"If there are human rights violations, we will make our voice heard, but if it's a political issue and they want to be independent, it's an internal affair [of China]," he said following Monday's meeting at NU headquarters in Jakarta.
"We are still collecting information. Our team and the government will analyze the information," he said.
Donovan said he had urged NU, which boasts more than 80 million members, to review its stance.
"I asked NU to take another look at the situation there. I pointed out that in a recent letter to the United Nations secretary general, five international human rights organizations described what is going on in Xinjiang as one of the most pressing human rights issues of our time," Donovan told reporters.
Released on Sept. 16, the letter from Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Commission of Jurists, International Federation for Human Rights and World Uyghur Congress expressed "deep concern about the arbitrary detention of more than 1 million Muslims in the Xinjiang region of China."
"We also request that you openly support the formation of a fact-finding U.N. team to assess the scale and type of violations that have taken place in Xinjiang," it said.
Last week, Donovan conveyed a similar message in a meeting with Indonesia's other large Muslim organization, Muhammadiyah, which has an estimated 30 million members.
Muhammadiyah said the allegations should be verified.
"This issue must be looked at carefully and there must be proof that violations of human rights took place," the group's secretary general, Abdul Mu'ti, told reporters after meeting Donovan at the group's Jakarta headquarters.
"Don't let human rights be used as a political commodity by certain countries toward others, because such problems happen everywhere," he told reporters.
Skepticism
China has been criticized and faced 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.
While the Chinese government initially denied the existence of the camps, it changed tack this year and began describing the facilities as "boarding schools" providing vocational training for Uyghurs while discouraging radicalization and helping to protect the country from terrorism.
Reporting by RFA's Uyghur Service, a sister publication of BenarNews, and other media organizations, however, has shown that those in the camps have been detained against their will and are subjected to political indoctrination. They routinely face rough treatment, endure poor diets and unhygienic conditions in the often overcrowded facilities.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Commerce blacklisted 28 governmental or commercial entities from China it said were implicated in rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic Muslim minorities in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR).
For its part, Indonesia has failed to stand up for the Uyghurs because it rejects interfering in China's affairs and its Muslim groups have been cultivated by Beijing, the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) said in a report released in June.
The report said Indonesians believed Chinese explanations that the mass detentions without due process were necessary for security and they doubt human rights reports and testimony by Uyghur representatives who have visited Jakarta to appeal for help.
"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," IPAC said, referring to a long-running Indonesian conflict.
The fact that China is Indonesia's largest trading partner and second largest investor adds to Jakarta's reluctance to speak out, it said.
IPAC said NU and Muhammadiyah treated 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 accepted invitations to visit Xinjiang and most seem to take China's assurances of protecting religious freedom there at face value.
In February, China arranged guided tours for Indonesian Muslim leaders and reporters to see the "vocational training centers."
"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," IPAC said.
The Indonesian Foreign Ministry has denied that Indonesia has been silent on the Uyghur issue, saying it had summoned the Chinese ambassador in December 2018 to seek an explanation about the allegations.
Earlier this month, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo slammed China over its repressive policies against the Uyghurs while calling on the international community to join Washington in protecting religious freedom.
Speaking at a Vatican conference on religious freedom, Pompeo singled out China as one of the worst perpetrators of abuse against people of faith, particularly in Xinjiang.
He highlighted the case of Zumuret Dawut, a Uyghur mother of three who in 2018 was detained for months in a camp where she said she was forced to recite Chinese propaganda, beaten for providing food to an ailing fellow prisoner and injected with unknown drugs



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BENARNEWS- Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo on Wednesday named his election rival Prabowo Subianto, a former general who has faced accusations of human rights abuses, as his defense minister, angering rights activists as he unveiled his second-term cabinet.
Jokowi, 58, said Prabowo "knows more than I do" as he announced that he had tapped the opposition leader for one of the country's most powerful posts.
"I believe I don't have to tell him about his job," the president told reporters at the Merdeka Palace, referring to Prabowo.
Gen. Tito Karnavian, who this week resigned as the chief of the national police, was named minister of home affairs, while a former deputy military chief, Fachrul Razi, will serve as religious affairs minister.
Other appointees to the 34-member cabinet are technocrats and entrepreneurs, including former DC United football club owner Erick Thohir, who was named minister of state-owned enterprises, and Nadiem Makarim, founder of the country's home-grown taxi hailing app Gojek, who will lead the education and culture ministry.
"My message to the cabinet ministers: Don't get involved in corruption!" Jokowi said.
"We all have to work hard, work smartly and work productively," he said. "Those who are not serious, be careful, I'll replace them mid-way."
Following his campaign for clean government, Jokowi was sworn in Sunday as president for a second five-year term after defeating Prabowo, his sole challenger in April's bitterly fought election.
The president's announcement came a month after thousands of students took to the streets and rallied against new bills they said would weaken the government's Corruption Eradication Commission. The commission has gained public respect in recent years because of the arrests of hundreds of government officials.
Last year, Transparency International ranked Indonesia – Southeast Asia's largest economy – 89th of 175 countries in its Corruption Perceptions Index.
Rights activists criticized Jokowi's appointment of Prabowo, who was dismissed from the military over accusations that he ordered the kidnappings of pro-democracy activists during the last days of President Suharto's rule in 1998.
As a commanding officer of the Kopassus special forces, Prabowo is alleged to have led a massacre in 1983 as part of a counter-insurgency operation in East Timor in which more than 300 people were killed, according to multiple sources.
"Actually, it's hardly surprising. Both Jokowi and Prabowo pay little attention to human rights," said Haris Azhar, founder of human rights group Lokataru.
A group of pro-Jokowi volunteers, called Projo, said they were disappointed with Prabowo's appointment.
"The rival camp which was defeated by people who are opposed to intolerance, anti-democracy and human rights violations has ironically been given respected positions in the cabinet," Projo secretary general Handoko told reporters.
Jokowi's newly appointed presidential spokesman, Fadjroel Rachman, declined to comment on the decision to include Prabowo in the cabinet.
Among "most polarizing generals"
"Prabowo is perhaps one of the most polarizing generals since maybe [former military chief] Benny Moerdani in the 1980s," Evan Laksmana, a defense analyst at the Jakarta-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, told BenarNews.
"As such, Prabowo is a huge gambit [for Jokowi]," he said. "It's likely that his tenure could be
really good or really bad.
"On the defense side, too many high-stake question marks. I hope Jokowi's gambit pays off, otherwise we'll have to pick up the tab down the line," he said.
Jokowi also appointed Prabowo's aide at Gerindra, Edhy Prabowo, as fisheries and marine resources minister.
Pledging to champion democracy and bolder action against corruption, Jokowi won April's presidential election with 55 percent of votes, compared to 53 percent in 2014. Prabowo was his rival both times.
In June, Indonesia's Constitutional Court rejected as baseless a petition by Prabowo, who alleged massive and systematic electoral fraud as he sought to overturn results of the last presidential polls in which he garnered 44.5 percent.
Prabowo, 68, is the former husband of Titiek Suharto, a daughter of the late President Suharto. They were married in 1983 and divorced in 1998. During his days as a top general, Prabowo was dogged by allegations of rights abuses, including during unrest that brought down his former father-in-law 21 years ago.
Meanwhile, the executive director of the Criminal Justice Reform Institute (ICJR), Anggara, criticized the president's decision to retain Yasonna Laoly as justice and human rights minister.
The ministry has been denounced for allegedly not taking adequate public consultation on controversial bills, including one of the revisions to the criminal code, which has been bashed for provisions that could threaten freedom of expression.
"The public has the right to know because it is the people who will be impacted by new regulations. The problem is that until now the process has not been transparent," Anggara told BenarNews.
Student-led nationwide protests, sometimes violent, broke out last month in response to the proposed changes to the criminal code that critics say would undermine freedoms and curtail anti-graft efforts.
Five civilians were killed after clashes between protesters and police in the city of Kendari on Sulawesi island and Jakarta.
Analyst praises picks
Ridlwan Habib, a terrorism analyst at the University of Indonesia, said Fachrul Razi, who served as deputy commander of the armed forces between 1999 and 2000, could strengthen the fight against extremism in his new role as religious affairs minister.
"Unlike [his predecessor] Lukman Hakim, who could not approach organizations that are considered hardline, Fachrul Razi can embrace hardline clerics. I think it's very good," he told BenarNews.
He said that Tito, who once headed the police anti-terrorism unit, was in the position to tackle extremism in the civil service as the minister of home affairs.
Fachrul Razi, speaking after being sworn in, vowed to tackle religious extremism in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation.
"It happens that I like reading religious books and I'm of the view that people who subscribe to radical Islam interpret the religion wrongly," he told reporters.
"Islam spreads compassion for all, so making enemies, not to mention killing many people, is clearly wrong," he said.
But Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country's largest Islamic organization, questioned Jokowi's decision not to appoint an Islamic scholar to the post, which traditionally has been held by an NU member.
"I and other members of the boards have received many questions regarding the religious affairs minister," Robikin Emhas, NU's executive director, told BenarNews.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo visited Papua province Monday to inspect destruction from an anti-Jakarta riot that killed dozens of people last month, as critics complained that he had failed to address human rights issues at the heart of the conflict.
The visit was Jokowi's first to the country's easternmost province since a wave of street protests, sometimes violent, began in August over alleged racist remarks against Papuan students on Java island.
"We want everything to return to normal," Joko said in remarks released by the cabinet secretariat.
Mobs torched government buildings, shops and homes after a rally descended into chaos on Sept. 23 in Wamena, the largest town in Papua's highlands. At least 40 people were killed and about 16,000 of the 42,000 residents were uprooted or evacuated as a result.
Jokowi urged local authorities to rebuild the town's Wouma market immediately along with homes and shops with assistance from the military and state-owned companies.
"We should learn from the recent events and unite to rebuild Papua," he said.
Later, Jokowi traveled to the provincial capital Jayapura and officially launched the new Youtefa Bridge, which cost 1.8 trillion rupiah ($128.4 million) to build.
"A bridge can serve many functions and its multiplier effect can benefit the people," Jokowi said.
The president promised to pay closer attention to Papua and West Papua provinces and visit the region two or three times a year during his second five-year term, which began last week. On Sunday, Jokowi visited West Papua.
"This is my 13th visit to Papua and we are determined to develop Papua to make it more advanced," Jokowi said.
The president made constructing roads, bridges and infrastructure in Papua a priority in his first term, but that effort came into question in December 2018 when armed rebels killed 19 workers building a trans-Papua highway.
The government said that those killed were civilians working for a state-owned construction company, but the West Papua National Liberation Army, the armed wing of the separatist movement, insisted they were soldiers.
Rights activist reacts
Papuan human rights activist Theo Hasegem said that despite Jokowi's frequent visits, no rights abuse cases have been resolved during the president's watch.
"If the conflict continues, who will enjoy the infrastructure development? That is a question that Papuans have been asking," Hasegem told BenarNews.
The Wamena riot came a few weeks after protests that began in late August killed about a dozen people. Government buildings and schools were damaged while 450 shops and 165 homes were burned, according to the government.
The riot was the worst since 2000 when 30 people were killed during clashes between residents and security forces.
The government has blamed the separatist United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) and the National Committee for West Papua for the unrest that has gripped Papua and West Papua since August when protesters took to the streets to demand a vote on self-determination.
The Papua region was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, after 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 involved only 1,000 people.

Late last month, Jokowi said he was ready to hold talks with separatist leaders to solve the conflict.

But ULMWP chairman Benny Wenda said the prospects of any talks depended on the government's willingness to discuss a referendum on self-determination and withdraw 16,000 additional troops and police sent to the region in August.


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BENARNEWS- A former Indonesian terrorist has started a WhatsApp group to foster dialogue and community among fellow ex-militants who are trying to reintegrate into society, but some occasionally still exchange radical views, according to a corrections officer who monitors their messages.
Joko Tri Harmonto, 41, is the founder of the messaging group whose members include 35 former inmates who served terrorism-related terms and five corrections officers working with them to get their lives back on track. He was sentenced in 2004 to six years in prison for helping assemble explosives used in the 2002 Bali Bombings – Indonesia's deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 202 people.
"I don't think we want to commit an act of terrorism again. Like me, they want to focus on their families and jobs," Joko, who was freed on parole in 2008 and owns a restaurant near Solo, Central Java, told BenarNews, referring to his fellow chat group members.
He launched the WhatsApp group two years ago and started a foundation that supports ex-terrorist convicts in their path back into society through a program that trains them to have business skills.
Kristin Yuniastuti, one of the parole officers who work as counselors for ex-terrorism convicts in Solo city as part of a rehabilitation program run by Indonesia's Ministry of Law and Human Rights, is a member of the chat group.
She has observed some former convicts disseminate radical content or opinions via the platform. Members sometimes share unsubstantiated and inflammatory content, such as reports about Muslims being attacked and calls to fight Indonesia's "tyrannical" government, she said.
Kristin said she did not believe this indicated that the ex-convicts were returning to their old militant ways.
"Their ideology is never gone and at times they let it show," she told BenarNews.
"But they will think a thousand times if they want to commit an act of terrorism and risk going to jail again," she said, adding that their ideological fervor fluctuated.
Kristin said that she and the four other counselors from the corrections office in Solo joined the WhatsApp group because eight of the former convicts who belong to it were under their supervision.

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Indonesian parole officer Kristin Yuniastuti discusses her efforts to mentor terrorism convicts in Central Java province, during an interview in Solo, Oct. 21, 2019. [Kusumasari Ayuningtyas/BenarNews]

Kristin said she would not be drawn into heated discussions on the WhatsApp group or directly reprimand members for posting radical content or fake news.
"They sometimes show their antipathy for us. At times when they had started to open up, they withdrew again because of the debate in the group," she said.
The three other correctional officers working with Kristen declined to be interviewed.
Yusuf Adirima, a chat group member who was convicted in 2004 of possessing explosives for terrorist purposes and was released in 2009, admitted that he sometimes shared posts related to jihad.
"Even if there are posts calling for jihad, usually there will be a light-hearted reprimand, so there is no fuss," said Yusuf, who today runs a restaurant.
In Jakarta, Lenggono Budi, who directs the correctional supervision office at the Ministry of Law, said he was not aware of the WhatsApp group created by Joko, who is also known as Jack Harun.

"There's no prohibition for them to communicate via WhatsApp, but of course we're concerned," Lenggono told BenarNews, responding to a question about alleged radical content and fake news appearing in post among chat group members.
Handling Bahrun Naim
Earlier in Kristin's career as a corrections officer, she was assigned to supervise the parole of Muhammad Bahrunnaim Anggih Tamtomo (alias Bahrun Naim), after he had served two years in prison for hiding a cache of bullets. But after his release in 2012, he became involved in terrorist activities and left Indonesia to join the Islamic State (IS) extremist group in Syria.
According to Indonesian and American officials, Bahrun Naim became a financier of terror networks in Indonesia and a master recruiter, who convinced at least 100 of his countrymen to join IS. He also allegedly groomed women to become suicide bombers.
The U.S. government alleged that he organized and funded a terrorist attack, which killed four civilians and four extremists in central Jakarta on Jan. 14, 2016. The attack was the first terrorist act claimed by IS in Indonesia.
Kristin declined to discuss her past interaction with Bahrun Naim, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Syria last year, according to U.S and Indonesian officials.
"Those convicted in terrorism cases need a special approach," said Kristin, 51.
"I have to be pro-active, visit their houses, get to know their families, and their neighborhoods," she said, adding, "I also try find out what about their network, because the approaches are different depending on their background."
Thayep Malik, a researcher at the Prasasti Perdamaian Foundation, an Indonesian NGO that helps ex-convicts reintegrate into society, said former militants often find it difficult to fit into a new community.
The foundation runs a program to provide former terrorism convicts with an opportunity to start businesses by providing them training in entrepreneurship.
"They prefer to live in an environment where people share their ideology," he told BenarNews. "The government and civil society groups must help them create a community that is more moderate."


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BENARNEWS- Police in Indonesia's North Sumatra province said Tuesday they were ending their investigation after determining that an Indonesian environmental lawyer, who had opposed a China-backed hydropower project in the area, died from motorcycle crash injuries earlier this month.
Golfrid Siregar, who worked for environmental advocacy group Walhi, was found unconscious on Oct. 3 in the provincial capital Medan by a pedicab driver who took him to a hospital where he died three days later.
"It has been concluded that the cause of his death was a single-vehicle traffic accident," Tatan Dirsan Atmaja, a spokesman for the North Sumatra police, told BenarNews.
Previously, police said toxicology results showed Siregar had consumed alcohol and was riding his motorbike when it crashed.
Fellow activists have raised suspicions that Siregar's death may have been linked to his human rights and environmental work.
Last year, Siregar sued the governor of North Sumatra in the State Administrative Court for issuing a permit for construction of the Chinese-funded hydroelectric power plant in the Batang Toru rainforest on Sumatra Island.
Environmentalists and scientists said the project could threaten the habitat of 800 Tapanuli orangutan. The Batang Toru Ecosystem is the only known home to this species of orangutan, which was discovered in 1939 and recently listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Siregar also filed a police complaint on behalf of an environmental expert who claimed his signature had been forged on a feasibility report for the power plant project.
In August, he lodged a complaint with the national police, accusing North Sumatra investigators of misconduct related to their decision to drop an investigation into the alleged forgery.
Activists with Walhi, also known as Friends of the Earth Indonesia, said Siregar's death was suspicious because he suffered no apparent injuries other than blunt force head trauma. In addition, his laptop, wallet, mobile phones and wedding ring were missing.
On Monday, a member of Walhi's national council, Mualimin Pardi Dahlan, urged national police to take over the case.
"We think the [North Sumatra] police have not been fully transparent. Their conclusion is premature," he told BenarNews. "It is important that this be fully uncovered so there will be no speculation and prejudice about the cause of Golfrid's death."
Ray Lumban Gaol, Walhi's advocacy manager in North Sumatra, said Siregar was not a drinker.
"A nurse [who treated him] at the hospital also said they did not smell alcohol," Lumban Gaol said.
In addition, the damage to Siregar's motorcycle was minimal compared with the seriousness of his injuries, Lumban Gaol said, adding repairs cost only 50,000 rupiah (U.S. $3.56).
In response to Walhi's request, national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said the investigation was thorough.
"It ended at the provincial police," he said, adding that three people had been named as suspects for allegedly stealing Siregar's belongings.
While saying the investigation was finished, North Sumatra police spokesman Tatan said anyone with new information on Siregar's death was welcome to come forward.
"Please submit any finding to us so we can follow up," he said.
Rights groups press for investigation
The case of Siregar's death has drawn calls from leading rights advocacy groups, including Human Rights Watch, for Indonesian authorities to conduct an impartial investigation into the case.
In a letter to President Joko "Jokowi" on Oct. 16, Amnesty International (AI) urged him to call for a probe into Siregar's death.
"The investigation of Golfrid's death must be more thorough and, in considering the circumstances, the authorities must consider the risks and challenges linked to his work," AI said.
"Suspicions about the circumstances of Golfrid Siregar's death are heightened by the fact that there have been a long series of problematic incidents over the past few years, involving physical attacks, threats, intimidation, and the criminal investigation of environmental human rights defenders."
Walhi has criticized the 22.4 trillion rupiah ($1.6 billion) hydropower project, which is scheduled to be completed in 2022, and has urged Bank of China to evaluate its decision to fund it.
PT North Sumatra Hydro Energy (PT 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.
The Indonesian firm denied that the project would threaten protected animals, saying the plant would cover an area of 301 acres, or only 0.07 percent of the Batang Toru ecosystem.
The company has said it had no role in Siregar's death.
"We call [on the media] to respect the presumption of innocence and not to engage in speculation by linking PT NSHE [directly or indirectly] to the death of Golfrid Siregar," company spokesman Firman Taufik said in a statement earlier this month. "It should be noted that PT NSHE is not a party that is in dispute [with Walhi


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BENARNEWS- An Indonesian Muslim cleric who is a member of a council of theologians which helped frame Islamic laws, including flogging for some offenses, was publicly caned Thursday in Aceh province for an extramarital affair with a married woman.
Mukhlis bin Muhammad, a member of the Aceh Ulema Consultative Council in Aceh Besar regency, became the first religious figure to be sentenced under the sharia law in the deeply conservative region.
He received 28 lashes from a hooded man in a caning ceremony attended by about 100 spectators at a public park in the provincial capital Banda Aceh.
The woman with whom the 46-year-old Mukhlis had an affair was caned 25 times.
Mukhlis and the 33-year-old woman, both of whom are married, were found guilty by Aceh's sharia court of ikhtilat, or being alone together while unmarried, after they were caught being together in a car at a beach near Banda Aceh last month.
Two lashes were deducted from the sentences because they had spent more than a month in detention.
The couple covered their faces with their hands as they were led to a raised platform to be caned by two officers.
Sharia law in Aceh regulates mixing of the sexes, gambling, drinking and selling liquor, sex outside marriage, rape, sexual harassment and homosexual sex.
"To those who are flogged today, let's reflect and ask for God's forgiveness. Let us protect ourselves and not be alone together without being accompanied by a family member," Banda Aceh Mayor Aminullah Usman said a speech read out by an official.
At the same ceremony, an 18-year-old woman was flogged for a lewd act with a boy, who was spared because he was a minor.
Aceh Besar deputy regent Husaini Abdul Wahab said the punishment meted out to the cleric showed that the application of sharia law was not discriminatory.
"The law applies to all, even if they are MPU members," he told reporters.
Husaini, who is an Islamic cleric, said Mukhlis would be dismissed from the organization because he had tarnished its reputation.
Public events
Canings in Aceh are carried out publicly, a spectacle that attracts hundreds of camera-wielding people, including children, despite a rule prohibiting people younger than 18 from watching.
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, 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.
Officials said details about moving canings to prisons had not been 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. A higher court increased his sentence to eight years in August.


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BENARNEWS- The United States and its allies will deliver "sustained and systematic pressure" against the Islamic State, Washington's chief counter-terrorism coordinator said Friday, a day after the militant group confirmed the death of leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and named his successor.
Ambassador Nathan Sales, the U.S. State Department's counter-terrorism coordinator, delivered this message as he unveiled the department's 2018 annual terrorism report, which underscored that the terror group has proven its ability to adapt by inspiring followers online and advancing its global presence.
"ISIS remains our top national security priority. We're aware of the fact that it has selected a new leader," Sales told a news conference in Washington, using the other acronym for Islamic State (IS). "We will continue to subject that organization to unrelenting counter-terrorism pressure. ... We will dismantle the group regardless of who its leadership cadre is."
On Thursday, IS confirmed for the first time that al-Baghdadi was killed during an Oct. 26 raid by U.S. Special Forces in northwestern Syria. The group made the announcement on the messaging service Telegram, where it also identified its new leader as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi.
Sales said the United States and its allies liberated about 7.7 million men, women and children from brutal IS rule when in March it smashed the militant group's so-called caliphate. It once controlled wide swaths of land covering an area as big as Great Britain in parts of Syria and Iraq.
He said hundreds of IS fighters were captured and detained by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a U.S. partner, but many of those battle-hardened terrorists, including Muslims from Southeast Asia, headed home from the war zone in Syria and Iraq or traveled to their home countries, posing new dangers. Sales did not provide figures.
"Over the last year, ISIS's global presence evolved with affiliates and networks conducting attacks in the Middle East, South and East Asia and Africa," Sales said.
The State Department's annual report underscored that Iran has remained the world's top sponsor of terrorism. The department accused Tehran of funneling almost U.S. $1 billion each year "to support terrorist groups that serve as its proxies and expand its malign influence across the globe."

The report also highlighted Washington's anti-terror cooperation with Southeast Asian nations, citing numbers from Indonesia's attorney-general who said that the country had convicted 150 of 370 suspected terrorists arrested between May and December 2018.
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, has faced a resurgence of recent extremist attacks in recent months.
Three church bombings in Surabaya, capital of Indonesia's East Java province, on May 13 and one bomb blast at an apartment near the city and the attack at a police headquarters the following day claimed 27 lives, including 13 perpetrators, police said.
The attackers had ties to the local terror group JAD, which has IS links, according to investigators
The State Department's terrorism report said that the Philippines remained a top destination for IS-linked fighters from Indonesia and Malaysia, and a potential destination for those fleeing Syria and Iraq.
Last year, the report said, Washington funded programs to counter radicalization. It did not provide figures.
The report said tactics and use of technologies used by IS and other terror groups evolved throughout 2018.
"For example, the increased use of commercially available drones and encrypted communications, as well as low-tech vehicle and knife attacks, presented additional challenges for the international counter-terrorism community," it said.


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BENARNEWS- Jakarta said Monday that it was ready to accept Indonesian Islamic State fighters captured by Turkey in neighboring Syria during a recent offensive against the Kurdish militia.
"We are prepared to deal with them," the head of the Counter-Foreign Terrorist Fighters (FTF) Task Force at Indonesia's Densus 88 anti-terrorist police unit, Didik Novi Rahmanto, told BenarNews.
Didik said an estimated 28 Indonesian IS detainees were believed to be among those who were abandoned by forces from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) after Turkey's offensive in northeastern Syria against the Kurdish YPG militia, the main element of the SDF.
The Turkish move followed a decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to withdraw forces from the region which sparked concern about the fate of IS detainees there.
"Because of the Turkish attack on the SDF, the detainees were abandoned so there were some who ran away," Didik said.
"We don't know how many ISIS prisoners from Indonesia are being held by Turkey. There could be more [than 28]," he said.
Turkey's Interior Minister, Suleyman Soylu, warned on Monday that the country would send captured IS members back to their countries even if their citizenships had been revoked, Reuters reported.
"We will send back those in our hands, but the world has come up with a new method now: revoking their citizenships," Soylu said, alluding to the refusal of some European countries to take back captured IS fighters.
Turkey considers YPG as a terrorist group linked to Kurdish insurgents seeking independence from Ankara rule.
The SDF has been a leading U.S. ally against IS and has kept thousands of militants in jails across northeastern Syria.
Indonesia's National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) has anticipated the prospect of IS militants returning, said the agency's director for prevention, Brig. Gen. Hamli.
"Obviously we are prepared," Hamli, who goes by one name, told BenarNews. "Some of them have returned before."
There have been conflicting reports about the number of Indonesian IS fighters and their families in Syria.
Citing data from border authorities in Syria, Didik said there were an estimated 1,500 IS fighters and their families from Indonesia, including 700 languishing in three camps.
He said repatriating them would not be easy considering the cost, the threat they pose and work required to deradicalize and rehabilitate them.
"The mechanism has so far involved legal proceedings [for fighters] while women and children are subjected to a program at the Social Affairs Ministry facility in Cipayung [in eastern Jakarta]," he said.
Stanislaus Riyanta, a terrorism analyst at the University of Indonesia, said returning IS fighters could pose a security threat.
"This is something to be aware of. If they can freely return to society, they can actually build new cells," he said
"They have to go through legal proceedings because they have joined a banned organization. After that they also have to undergo deradicalization and rehabilitation," he said.
Indonesian security officials had earlier said at least 100 Indonesian men, women and children were languishing in several Syrian camps.
Jakarta has said it is in the process of verifying the citizenship of those who claimed to be Indonesian citizens and is still considering whether they will be repatriated.
The Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) said in a report in August that Indonesia should begin repatriating its most vulnerable citizens who joined IS and not let them remain in the camps where they face intimidation from other supporters of the extremist group.
In March, the SDF declared they had captured the last bastion of IS, which once controlled a swath of land that spilled across the boundaries of Iraq and Syria.
The victory of the SDF ushered in complex issues, including the extradition – or legal proceedings – for captured foreign militant fighters, as well as their wives and children.
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 three-year grace period. By the time people turn 21, they are required to notify Indonesian immigration authorities if they intend to keep or renounce their citizenship 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 of 31,500 foreign fighters who had joined IS in Syria were from Indonesia.


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BENARNEWS- Police in Indonesia's North Sumatra arrested a pair of suspects in connection with the killing of two activists who were involved in land disputes with palm oil companies, officials and a press advocacy group said Tuesday.
Maraden Sianipar, 55, and Maratua Siregar, 48 – who also both worked as freelance journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF) – were found dead last week after being stabbed near a palm oil plantation in Labuhanbatu regency.
Their suspected killers, identified by their initials V.S. and S.H., were arrested on Tuesday morning in their homes in the same regency, local police chief Agus Darojat said, adding that they could face the death penalty if convicted of premeditated murder.
"According to the suspects, they killed the two victims in revenge linked to palm oil plantation land," he said in a statement without elaborating. He said police are searching for four more suspects.

North Sumatra police spokesman Tatan Dirsan Atmaja told BenarNews the victims were "a journalist and an activist."
The two had worked for Pindo Merdeka, an online news magazine that closed in 2017, according to the Alliance of Independent Journalists and their former employer.

A press advocacy group wants the killings investigated properly.

"We call on the Indonesian police and prosecutor's office to do everything possible to find the perpetrators and instigators of this double murder and, if necessary, to create a special team of investigators," Reporters Without Borders (RSF) said in a statement on Monday.
RSF said after Pindo Merdeka closed, the two worked as freelance journalists covering land disputes between palm oil companies and residents in Panai Hilir district in Labuhan Batu.
"The nature of the reporting undertaken by these two journalists in recent years should be the source of a significant body of hypotheses about the identity of those behind their deaths. No lead should be neglected," said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF's Asia-Pacific desk.
Meanwhile, Pindo Merdeka owner Paruhum Daulay told a local website that Maratua, also known as Sanjay, founded an advocacy group called Gapotsu. The group advocates for residents involved in disputes with plantation companies.
"He was a good person. Hopefully the police can resolve this case quickly," Paruhum told Tempo.co.
A friend of Martua said he had advocated for local people in land disputes for 10 years.
"It was Sanjay who invited Maraden to fight for the community in land disputes," he said.
Maraden ran unsuccessfully for the Labuhanbatu council as a National Democratic (Nasdem) Party candidate in this year's legislative elections.
Lawyer's death raises suspicions
In a separate case last month, lawyer Golfrid Siregar, who worked for the environmental advocacy group Walhi, was found unconscious in the provincial capital Medan and died in a hospital three days later. Police ruled his death as accidental, saying he had crashed his motorcycle after drinking beer.
Fellow activists questioned the finding, saying his death may have been linked to his human rights and environmental work.
Last year, Golfrid sued the governor of North Sumatra in the State Administrative Court for issuing a permit for construction of a Chinese-funded hydroelectric power plant in the Batang Toru rainforest on Sumatra Island.
Environmentalists and scientists said the project could threaten the habitat of 800 Tapanuli orangutan. The Batang Toru Ecosystem is the only known home to this species of orangutan, which was discovered in 1939 and recently listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
In addition, the lawyer filed a police complaint on behalf of an environmental expert who claimed his signature had been forged on a feasibility report for the power plant project.
In August, Golfrid lodged a complaint with the national police, accusing North Sumatra investigators of misconduct related to their decision to drop an investigation into the alleged forgery.
The company building the power plant, PT North Sumatra Hydro Energy (PT NSHE), has denied any involvement in his death.
Muhammad Isnur, advocacy chairman for the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, urged authorities to protect environmental activists.
"Intimidation and threats against environmental and human rights defenders must stop," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Police in Indonesia's North Sumatra province on Friday arrested a man they allege commissioned the killings of two activists who were involved in a land dispute between residents and palm oil companies.
Maraden Sianipar, 55, and Maratua Siregar, 48 – who both worked as freelance journalists, according to Reporters Without Borders– were found dead last week after being stabbed near a palm oil plantation in Labuhanbatu regency.
The man allegedly ordered the killings to stop the activists advocating for residents whom he had accused of encroaching on a palm oil plantation, police said.
"Because he often had quarrels with farmers from the Maraden Sianipar group, [the man] ordered the executions," North Sumatra police chief Agus Andrianto told reporters.
BenarNews is withholding the identity of the man who is linked to a palm oil company because he or a lawyer representing him could not be reached to respond to the police's allegations.
Agus said police arrested four suspects earlier this week while three others remained at large. The suspects could face the death penalty if convicted of premeditated murder.
On Tuesday, police announced the arrests of the first two suspects, whom the authorities identified by their initials V.S. and S.H. They were taken into custody that morning from their homes in Labuhanbatu regency near the plantation.
"According to the suspects, they killed the two victims in revenge linked to palm oil plantation land," local police Chief Agus Darojat said in a statement at the time without elaborating.
Two more suspects were arrested Wednesday night.
Independent investigation sought
Press advocacy groups have called for an independent investigation into the killings of Maraden and Maratua, noting they worked as freelance journalists covering land disputes between palm oil companies and residents in Panai Hilir district in Labuhanbatu.
Previously, the pair worked for Pindo Merdeka, an online news magazine that closed in 2017, according to the Alliance of Independent Journalists and their former employer.

Pindo Merdeka owner Paruhum Daulay has told a local website that Maratua, also known as Sanjay, founded an advocacy group called Gapotsu. The group advocates for residents involved in disputes with plantation companies.
Maraden ran unsuccessfully for the Labuhanbatu council as a National Democratic Party candidate in this year's legislative elections.
In a separate case last month, lawyer Golfrid Siregar, who worked for the environmental advocacy group Walhi, was found unconscious in the provincial capital Medan and died in a hospital three days later.
Police ruled his death as accidental, saying he had crashed his motorcycle after drinking beer.
Fellow activists questioned the finding, saying his death may have been linked to his human rights and environmental work.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia launched a website that allows the public to report civil servants who post online content deemed as radical and a threat to the country's unity, officials said Tuesday, amid a government crackdown on Islamic militancy.
The website, aduanasn.id, is aimed at ensuring that government workers are loyal to the state ideology of Pancasila and are not influenced by radical ideologies, said Johnny G. Plate, the minister of communications and information technology.
"[Civil servants] need to remember that our ideology and constitution are final," Plate told a news conference at the launch of the website in Jakarta, adding that those government workers who are reported to the site could be given warnings, demoted or dismissed.
A recent Defense Ministry study suggested that 18 percent of about 4 million civil servants were opposed to Pancasila, which espouses the belief in one God, humanity, unity, democracy and social justice.
Offending content that can be reported to the new site include posts expressing hatred against the government and the state ideology, as well as hate speech targeting ethnic, racial and religious groups, according to the Frequently Asked Questions section of the website.
The site is supported by 10 government institutions, including the State Intelligence Agency and the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT).
"Reports must be supported by valid data and accurate information, not hoaxes, because the aim is to develop a strong sense of nationalism among civil servants," Plate said.
To "like" and share an offending social media post indicate an endorsement, ministry spokesman Ferdinandus Setu told reporters.
"When a person likes a post that promotes an ideology other than Pancasila, it means that they share the same views," he said.
"Freedom of speech is a necessity in a democracy, but civil servants must be loyal to the state. If they want to criticize the government, they must do so in official government forums," Ferdinandus said.
The identity of those who submit reports would be kept confidential and any information would be subjected to verification, he said.
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks in the past two decades.
More recent attacks include suicide bombings in Surabaya in May 2018, when two families blew themselves up at three churches and a police station. Those attacks killed 24 people, including children as young as 9 who joined their parents in the attacks.
Lawmaker: Reporting could lead to libel
A legislator from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), Nasir Djamil, criticized the launching of the website, saying it was unnecessary and could cause problems.
"It is rather misguided to create a website and invite the public to report, because making such reports requires knowledge," Nasir told BenarNews, adding that the method could give rise to libel.
He said government institutions should instead strengthen internal supervision.
"Better internal control is needed," he said. "Each institution should encourage internal supervision to monitor the behavior of civil servants."
Tjahjo Kumolo, the minister for bureaucratic reform, said civil service recruitment tests would include questions to weed out applicants with radical ideologies.
"There will be questions about the national outlook, Pancasila and the general threat of radicalism," Tjahjo told reporters.
Meanwhile, the Religious Affairs Ministry said it was in the process of replacing more than 150 Islamic textbooks in schools with ones that promote moderation and diversity.
"We are rewriting religious books for schools throughout Indonesia. God willing, this will be completed this year," the ministry's director general of Islamic education, Kamaruddin Amin, told reporters.


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BENARNEWS- A 24-year-old student blew himself up Wednesday in a suspected "lone-wolf" suicide bombing that injured at least six other people outside a police station in Medan, Indonesia's fourth largest city, authorities said.
The suspect, identified as Rabbial Muslim Nasution, an Indonesian citizen, set off an explosive belt in the parking lot at the headquarters of the Medan city police after escaping a routine security check at the entrance, national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said.
"The perpetrator acted as a lone wolf," Dedi told reporters, adding that police were investigating any link to a terrorist network.
Six people, including four police officers, were slightly injured in the explosion, he said.
"I was queuing when I heard a loud explosion and saw smoke coming from the scene," a woman named Lila, who was at the police station, told Metro TV, an Indonesian channel. "I shouted, 'Bomb! Bomb! Get out!'"
The suspect was a university student who was born in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province, according to information released by police. But his neighbors told local news outlets that Rabbial was a high-school dropout.
The bombing took place a month after two suspected Islamic State-linked militants stabbed and wounded then-Security Minister Wiranto and two other people with a knife as he was visiting Banten province.
Police have arrested at least 40 people across the country since the Oct. 10 attack on Wiranto, including those allegedly planning attacks on police targets and houses of worship on Java island.
 

 
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks in the past two decades, with more recent strikes being blamed on Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local militant network affiliated with Islamic State.
Last year, two families blew themselves up at three churches and a police station in coordinated suicide attacks in the East Java city of Surabaya. Those bombings, which authorities tied to JAD, killed 24 people, including children as young as 9 who joined their parents in the attacks.
In a separate development, police spokesman Dedi said that a suspected JAD militant believed to have bomb-making skills was arrested in Bekasi, a town on the outskirts of Jakarta, on Tuesday.
The man, identified as Patria, received military training in the southern Philippines in 1999 and fought in Afghanistan, before travelling to Syria in 2012 and established links with the Free Syrian Army (FSA), a group seeking the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad, Dedi said.
The suspected bomber in Medan might have been an Islamic State sympathizer, Stanislaus Riyanta, a security analyst at the University of Indonesia, told BenarNews.
"The police are seen as 'taghut' (tyrants) by ISIS," Stanislaus said, using another name for the Islamic State. "This could be the motive for the act of terrorism."
He also said that the attack could have been intended to avenge the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakar al-Baghdadi, who was killed when he detonated a suicide vest during a raid by U.S. Special Forces in northwestern Syria late last month.
"Baghdadi's death may have triggered ISIS sympathizers to take action in retaliation. This has been predicted," he said.
But he said it appeared that that the bomb was of poor quality as it did not cause mass casualties.
But Rakyan Adibrata, a terrorism researcher at the International Association for Counter-Terrorism and Security Professionals (IACSP), said the attack was unlikely to have been motivated by al-Baghdadi's death.
"It makes more sense that it was carried out to avenge the arrest of fellow militants since last month," he told BenarNews.
Rakyan said the bomber might have been radicalized by JAD.
"The modus operandi is the same: a lone attacker targeting the police. Attacks carried out by one person are not necessarily lone-wolf attacks, unless they are self-radicalized, and plan, assemble the bomb and carry out the attack on their own," he said.
Presidential spokesman Fadjroel Rachman condemned the attack, saying that terrorism would not be tolerated.
"The government will not allow acts of terrorism to disrupt security, peace and social and economic activity of the people," he said in a statement.
He said President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo had ordered authorities to tackle the threat of terrorism by working together with the public.
The speaker of the national parliament, Puan Maharani, urged communities to remain vigilant.
"We must work together to prevent such an attack from happening again," she told reporters.
"[Previous attacks had] happened in places we thought were safe," she said. "All strains of society must anticipate them."


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BENARNEWS- Cambodian opposition figure Sam Rainsy was denied entry into Indonesia on Wednesday after a visit to Malaysia, according to an airline's statement, as the self-exiled leader struggled to return to his home country to push for democratic reforms.
Rainsy was scheduled to take an afternoon flight from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta on Wednesday, but he was not aboard the plane bound for the Indonesian capital.
In a tweet around 3:30 p.m. local time, Rainsy announced that he and two other members of his Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP) were traveling from Malaysia to Indonesia and expected to arrive in Jakarta aboard Malaysia Airlines flight 723 about two hours later.
"Malaysia Airlines denied boarding of the said passenger under the instruction of the Indonesian authorities. For further details please contact the relevant authorities," said a statement issued by the carrier, also known as MAS.
Indonesian authorities confirmed that Rainsy was not in the country but denied that he had been barred from entering.
"There has been no order to bar entry for the person. Upon checking, Sam Rainsy is not in Indonesia territory," Immigration Department spokesman Sam Fernando told BenarNews.
Shown the MAS statement, Fernando said, "I don't know. From our side, that's all we can say."
Rainsy told Radio Free Asia, an online news service affiliated with BenarNews, that he had missed his flight. He did not elaborate.
"My presence in Indonesia will speak volumes about our common interests," Rainsy said by telephone. He is scheduled to leave Malaysia for Indonesia at 9 a.m. Thursday (local time).
Rainsy earlier talked to reporters in Kuala Lumpur after meeting around 20 Malaysian lawmakers at the nation's parliament.
"Here in Malaysia, we have many friends and like-minded people," Rainsy said after his closed-door meeting with the legislators.
Asked about Rainsy's status, Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah simply said: "I don't know," and declined to answer further questions.
Rainsy, who lives in self-exile in France, and other opposition leaders have been trying to re-enter Cambodia to lead what they describe as a restoration of democracy there.
Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen has labeled the plan part of a rebellion and has vowed to arrest the opposition leader on sight.
Rainsy's earlier attempt to get there via Thailand was thwarted late last week when he was refused permission to board a Thai Airways plane in Paris.
He was later allowed to land in Malaysia, which he described as "a political success."
"Democracy will prevail. Democracy has prevailed in Malaysia. Democracy will prevail in Cambodia," he said after arriving in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday.


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BENARNEWS- The recent killings of two activists in Indonesia's North Sumatra province were the latest in a list of physical and legal attacks on local environmentalists, say human rights advocates and conservationists who demand that the central government stop such violence.
Police have arrested at least five suspects in the case. These include a palm oil executive who allegedly commissioned the murders of journalists-turned-activists Maraden Sianipar and Maratua Siregar, who were involved in a land dispute between residents and palm oil firms. Their bodies were found on Oct. 30 and 31 after they were fatally stabbed.
"[The government] does not seem to be serious in protecting the rights of citizens, including activists," Andreas Harsono, an Indonesian researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW), told BenarNews.
The killings of Maraden and Maratua stemmed from a dispute over 750 hectares of plantations controlled by a local businessman.
"There was resistance from the local people who feel they were entitled to it and who wanted to cultivate it. The problem is complicated," Andreas said.
Physical and legal threats against environmental and land rights activists have been on the rise in recent years, according to Walhi, an environmental advocacy group also known as Friends of the Earth Indonesia.
Earlier this year, unidentified attackers torched the house of Murdani, Walhi's director in West Nusa Tenggara province. The environmental group said it suspected the arson was related to the group's work.
Walhi's environmental campaigner, Dwi Sawung, said violence against activists during the rule of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo – who last month took office for a second term – had been fueled by his government's push for investment to shore up a sluggish economy.
"Investors have been given free reign by the government and security forces to do anything for the sake of investment. It's investment at all cost," Dwi told BenarNews.
Dwi said the government should prioritize environmental protection and human rights in its development push.
"Otherwise it will be a time bomb which could turn into bigger problems," he said.
In Jakarta, presidential spokesman Fadjroel Rachman declined to comment.
Other threats
Activists also find themselves being threatened by law enforcers, Walhi said.
In its 2018 annual report, the organization said that at least 32 activists were victims of "trumped up" charges, which included incitement, destruction of property and spreading communism.
Meanwhile, at least 555 cases of forest and plantation disputes were reported to the Presidential Office of Staff, but little action was taken to solve them.
Also last year, the Supreme Court sentenced environmentalist Hari Budiawan to four years in prison after finding him guilty of spreading communism during a 2017 anti-mining protest in Banyuwangi, a regency in East Java province. A lower court had sentenced him to 10 months in prison but the justices increased the jail term.
In October, activists criticized police in North Sumatra for dropping an investigation into the death of lawyer Golfrid Siregar, who had sued the local government on behalf of Walhi over a China-backed hydropower project.
Police said Golfrid died after he crashed his motorcycle while driving under the influence.
HRW's Andreas said that cases of violence against environmental activists stemmed from conflicts linked to increased land grabs during the government of Jokowi's predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
"[The government at that time] handed outs permits for land clearing easily, especially since 2004 at the onset of regional autonomy, which allows permits to be given at the regency level," Andreas told BenarNews.
In 2017, more than 650 cases of land disputes affected 650,000 families, followed by 410 cases that affected 87,568 families the next year, according to Andreas. He cited data from the Agrarian Reform Consortium, an Indonesian NGO that works to promote prosperity for farmers and secure ownership, possession and use of agricultural resources for peasants, fishermen and indigenous people.
A 2015 joint study by NGO Transformation for Justice Indonesia and Profundo found that 5 million hectares (12.3 million acres) in Indonesia were controlled by 29 tycoons who owned 25 palm oil business groups.
In Jambi, another province on Sumatra island, members of the indigenous Orang Rimba community have been fighting for land taken over by a palm oil company with permission from a local government leader.
They were promised an area of ​​5,000 hectares (12,355 acres) by Jokowi in 2016, but instead the land was occupied by ethnic Malays.
Masinton Pasaribu, a lawmaker with the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle – Jokowi's party – called on regional governments to listen to local people.
"They must not serve as tools of repression. Government institutions should act as intermediaries between the local communities and investors," he told BenarNews.
Masinton condemned the killings of the North Sumatra activists as a blatant violation of human rights.
"If the company is involved, we demand that its owner be put on trial and the company be closed," he said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's human-rights commission called on the government Thursday to take an active regional role in pushing for democracy in Cambodia, as the body's chief met in Jakarta with exiled Cambodian opposition leader Sam Rainsy, who said he would stay in a country near his homeland while preparing for his long-awaited return.
Rainsy, who has been accused by Cambodian authorities of plotting a coup, arrived in Indonesia on Thursday from neighboring Malaysia, where he spent the past few days after arriving last weekend from his self-exile in France.
"Indonesia should speak out more on the issue of democracy in Cambodia at ASEAN and encourage Hun Sen to start a dialogue," Achmad Taufan Damanik, chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), told BenarNews after meeting with Rainsy in Jakarta.
"ASEAN should not keep silent," Taufan said, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which traditionally refrains from making overt criticism of human rights records of its 10-member countries.
"Even though ASEAN members can't interfere in domestic affairs of another member, at least there should be a dialogue on how not to use violent means," he said.
After his meeting with Taufan, Rainsy spoke to reporters, praising Indonesia for respecting his rights and allowing him to enter the country.
"Indonesia is an example for ASEAN," he said. "And we have a lot of admiration. We respect Indonesia because they show the way."
Teuku Faizasyah, the spokesman for Indonesia's foreign ministry, told BenarNews that the Cambodian opposition leader was welcome to stay as a tourist.
"As long as one doesn't violate Indonesian laws, why not?" Teuku said. "During a holiday people can meet colleagues and friends. There's nothing wrong with meeting friends."
Separately on Thursday, Rainsy told Radio Free Asia (RFA), an online news service affiliated with BenarNews, that he held talks with three Indonesian opposition members of parliament and another legislator before meeting Taufan, the human-rights commission chief.
"They push for the respect for a universal human rights, especially human rights in Southeast Asia," he said, referring to Komnas HAM. "Spiritually, they encouraged us to struggle for human rights and real democracy in Cambodia."
Rainsy, the acting president of the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP), was blocked from boarding a flight on Wednesday from Kuala Lumpur to Jakarta on the instruction of Indonesian authorities, according to a statement from the Malaysian Airlines.
Indonesian foreign ministry and immigration officials, however, denied any knowledge of an official ban.
Rainsy, 70, and other opposition leaders have been trying to re-enter Cambodia to lead what they describe as a restoration of democracy in their homeland.
Before he landed in Malaysia on Saturday, Rainsy attempted to get back to Cambodia through Thailand, but authorities thwarted his plans late last week when he was refused permission to board a Thai Airways plane in Paris.
Asked about his next step, Rainsy told BenarNews on Thursday: "It depends on the situation, I want to go back to Cambodia."
"If the situation changed, I will go back to Cambodia immediately because the European Union is putting pressure on Cambodia," he said.
It was not immediately clear if he was referring to a European Union's confidential 70-page report warning Prime Minister Hun Sen's government that it had not taken enough steps to prevent a loss of its special trade privileges, which could potentially deliver a major blow to the Cambodian economy.
The EU report, which was marked "sensitive" and accessed by RFA, also noted "further deterioration" of Cambodia's human rights record since a review process was launched nine months ago.
Rainsy says he intends to stay near Cambodia
In a separate interview with RFA while he was Jakarta on Thursday, Rainsy also did not make clear his next destination, but merely said he would stay "near Cambodia."
"So, it is faster when I need to go to Cambodia," he said, without elaborating.
"I believe the situation in Cambodia is changing and changing fast within one month because the EU is putting out its condition very clear," Rainsy said. "The political prisoners who have been arrested and detained unjustly in recent weeks and months will be all set free."
Rainsy made the comments hours after Hun Sen, who had been facing an upsurge in international pressure over his human-rights record, said he had ordered judicial authorities to release more than 70 opposition activists arrested in recent weeks on accusations of plotting to overthrow the government.
"There are over 70 people, please hurry up work on this case so that these brothers can be released on bail," Hun Sen, who has ruled Cambodia for more than 34 years, said in a speech in the southern province of Kampot.
The arrests occurred in the run-up to Rainsy's announcement that he would return from exile in France to rally the opposition.
"The ones who don't have court warrants and just feel scared, please come back," Hun Sen said. "Nobody will touch you."


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BENARNEWS- The widow of a man who blew himself up outside a police station in the Indonesian city of Medan had discussed launching an attack on Bali island, police said Thursday as investigators sought the bomber's religious teacher.
Rabbial Muslim Nasution, a 24-year-old university student, set off an explosive belt at city police headquarters in Medan on Wednesday after passing through a routine security check at the entrance, killing himself and injuring six others, including four police officers, officials said.
Rabbial's widow, who was arrested late Wednesday and whom the authorities identified only by her initials, D.A., had talked with a female inmate held at the city's women's prison about plotting an attack on Indonesia's most popular tourist destination, national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said.
"In their online communications, they planned a terrorist act on Bali. We are delving into that," Dedi told reporters.
Dedi said Rabbial might have been influenced by his widow, adding that she underwent radicalization first.
"We suspect that he was exposed [to extremism] through his wife," Dedi said, adding police are trying to determine if they were part of a militant network.
The Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium, a think-tank, said supporters of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), an Indonesian militant network affiliated with Islamic State (IS) extremists, claimed via online messaging that Rabbial had pledged allegiance to its new caliph, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi, on the eve of the Medan attack.
Authorities in Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries had warned of potential terrorist attacks to avenge the death of the top IS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who blew himself up as U.S. Special Forces pursued him during a raid in Syria late last month.
In a separate development on Thursday, counter-terrorism officers announced the arrests of 10 suspected members of JAD. They were arrested on Java island and the Sumatran province of Riau between Saturday and Wednesday, Dedi said.
Three of the six people who were injured in Wednesday's bombing underwent surgery, according to Antonius Ginting, chief of the Bhayangkara Police Hospital in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province. Officials did not release information on the victims' conditions.
Analyst Sidney Jones said Rabbial and his widow might have joined a group on the instant messaging service Telegram, whose members were IS supporters.
Any claim attributed to IS about Wednesday's suicide attack should be treated with caution, said Jones, director of the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC).
"We have to be careful about such claims. In the past, when ISIS made claims, we could believe them. But in the past six months, they have claimed things that had nothing to do with them," Jones told BenarNews, using a different acronym for Islamic State.
Jones said that information about plans to launch an attack on Bali should be taken with a grain of salt.
"It could mean that Bali has been mentioned but that doesn't mean there was any operational planning," she said.
Jones also cast doubt on whether JAD was involved in the Medan attack.
"In general, Medan people are not affiliated to JAD. There was never a JAD structure in Medan," she said.
Meanwhile, police said they were looking for a man who had been described as Rabbial's spiritual teacher.
"We have the identity of the alleged imam," North Sumatra Deputy Police Chief Mardiaz Kusin Dwihananto told reporters.
The bombing took place a month after two suspected IS-linked militants stabbed then-Security Minister Wiranto and two other people as he was visiting Banten province.
Police have arrested at least 40 people across the country since the Oct. 10 attack on Wiranto, including those allegedly planning attacks on police targets and houses of worship on Java.
Four linked to fighting in Syria
Of the 10 suspected militants arrested since Saturday, four had fought alongside IS in the conflict in Syria, Dedi said. It was not clear when the four returned to Indonesia from the Middle East.
"There are those who participated in military training and fought alongside ISIS in Syria," the spokesman said.
That region is home to many more alleged militants as an Indonesian counter-terrorism official has said there are an estimated 1,500 IS fighters and their families from Indonesia, including 700 in three camps. The government has not decided whether to repatriate them, saying it is in the process of verifying their citizenship.
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks in the past two decades, with more recent strikes being blamed on JAD militants.
Last year, two families blew themselves up at three churches and a police station in coordinated suicide attacks in the East Java city of Surabaya. Those bombings, which authorities tied to JAD, killed 24 people, including children as young as 9 who joined their parents in the attacks.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian authorities said Friday they had arrested 19 militant suspects at several locations across the archipelago as part of their probe into this week's suicide bombing that targeted a police headquarters in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province.

The suspects were taken into custody during raids by law enforcement officers on Sumatra, Java and Ambon islands in the wake of Wednesday's attack, which injured six people, including four policemen, the national police chief said.

"As part of the investigation into the case, we have arrested about 19 people," Gen. Idham Azis, the country's top police officer, told reporters during a visit to Palu in Central Sulawesi province. "Whether they are part of an old network, we are still investigating."

He did not provide more details.

National police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said one of the 19 suspects worked at Krakatau Steel, a state-owned steel mill in Banten province.

"We will reveal his role later," Dedi told BenarNews. The 54-year-old suspect was arrested along with two other people on Wednesday, he said.

Another police spokesman, Muhammad Iqbal, said security has been beefed up at police stations across the country after the bombing.

Police have been targets of attacks by Islamist militants in Indonesia in recent years.

"Those who wear jackets or carry rucksacks will be subjected to checks. I appeal to the public to understand if our colleagues conduct such checks. It's not that we are not friendly, we are just taking preventive measures," Iqbal said.

Police have identified Rabbial Muslim Nasution, a 24-year-old Medan-born university student as the suspect in Wednesday's bombing, which they initially described as a "lone-wolf" attack.

They said Rabbial set off an explosive belt outside city police headquarters after passing through a routine security check at the entrance. He was the lone fatality in the explosion.

On Thursday, police said Rabbial's widow, whom authorities identified only by her initials, D.A., had talked with a female inmate at the Medan women's prison about plotting an attack on Bali, the country's most popular tourist destination.

Dedi said Rabbial might have been radicalized by his wife. She was among the 19 suspects arrested in connection with the Medan attack.

Supporters of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), an Indonesian militant network affiliated with Islamic State (IS), claimed via online messaging that Rabbial had pledged allegiance to its new caliph, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi, on the eve of the Medan attack, according to the Terrorism Research and Analysis Consortium (TRAC), a think-tank.

But any claim attributed to IS about Wednesday's suicide attack should be treated with caution, according to Sidney Jones, director of the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC).

"We have to be careful about such claims. In the past, when ISIS made claims, we could believe them. But in the past six months, they have claimed things that had nothing to do with them," Jones told BenarNews, referring to the Islamic State group.

Authorities in Indonesia and elsewhere in Southeast Asia had warned of potential terrorist attacks to avenge the death of the top IS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. He killed himself and three of his children by detonating a suicide vest during a raid by U.S. forces in northwest Syria last month.

Also on Thursday, the national police said they had arrested 10 suspected militants during raids mounted in Sumatra and Java island between Saturday and Wednesday. The suspects were members of JAD, including four who had returned to Indonesia after serving as IS fighters in Syria and Iraq.

On Friday, however, it was unclear whether any of those 10 suspects were among the 19 arrested as part of the dragnet into the Medan attack, or whether any were linked to the Medan bombing.

It took place a month after two suspected IS-linked militants stabbed and wounded then-Security Minister Wiranto and two other people as he was visiting Banten province.

Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks in the past two decades, with more recent strikes being blamed on JAD militants.

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BENARNEWS- Indonesian police said Monday they had arrested 43 people in their investigation into last week's suicide bombing in North Sumatra, and that the bomber and many of the suspects had direct links with a local pro-Islamic State group.
Rabbial Muslim Nasution, 24, who carried out the Nov. 13 attack that injured six people outside the Medan city police headquarters, and his wife who is among the suspects in custody both belonged to a Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD) militant cell, whose leader was also arrested in the probe, authorities said. Police identified Rabbial's widow as well as the cell's alleged leader by their initials only.
"D.A. and her husband were part of the JAD group led by Y. (also known as Anto)" national police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo told reporters in Jakarta. Police had initially described the bombing in Medan as a "lone-wolf" attack.
Twenty-one of the 43 suspects were believed to be JAD members operating in North Sumatra and Aceh, neighboring provinces on Sumatra island, and the other suspects were picked up during raids elsewhere in  Indonesia, Dedi Said.
"They have direct links with the JAD network, which covers North Sumatra and Aceh," he said.
In addition to the 43 in custody, members of the elite Densus 88 squad killed two suspected JAD bomb-makers on Saturday as the pair allegedly resisted arrest and tried to attack the officers during a counter-terror raid in Deli Serdang, a regency of North Sumatra, officials said.
"The two who died were skilled bomb-makers and they assembled the bomb used by R.M.N.," Dedi told reporters, referring to Rabbial Muslim Nasution by his initials.
Some of the suspects linked to the Medan attack had undergone military training under Anto's leadership on Mount Sibayak in Karo, another regency in North Sumatra, Dedi said, adding that they had also sworn their allegiance to the new overall leader of Islamic State (IS), Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi.
Four of the suspects turned themselves in after their families persuaded them to surrender to police, Dedi said.
Rabbial's widow had communicated with Ika Puspitasari, a former Indonesian migrant worker in Hong Kong who has been serving a four-year term in a Medan prison since 2017 for helping fund militant plots to attack police targets on Java and Sumatra, Dedi said. Last week, police alleged that Rabbial's wife had talked with a female inmate in Medan about plotting a terrorist attack on Bali island, Indonesia's top tourist destination.
On Monday, Dedi said that the wife had helped Rabbial acquire materials for the bomb that he used in last week's attack.
Police said that Rabbial set off an explosive belt outside the city police headquarters after passing through a routine security check at the entrance, injuring six people, including four officers. He was the lone fatality in the explosion.


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BENARNEWS- Six activists who were detained after a rally demanding a referendum on self-determination for Indonesia's Papua region could soon go on trial on charges of treason after police submitted their case files to prosecutors, their lawyers and families said Tuesday.
The activists have challenged their arrests in a separate pre-trial motion and will not drop it even though their files were submitted to the Central Jakarta prosecutor's office on Monday, said Tigor Hutapea, a lawyer at the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH) who is representing them.
"After the submission of case files, the trial will usually begin in two weeks," Hutapea told BenarNews.
The six activists – Surya Anta, Charles Kossay, Dano Tabuni, Isay Wenda, Ambrose Mulait and Arina Elopere – were detained at the Mobile Brigade police headquarters near Jakarta after being arrested in August. All but one of them are ethnic Papuans.
They have been charged with treason for allegedly raising the Morning Star separatist flag at a rally in Jakarta in August to demand a referendum on self-determination for Papua, amid unrest in the country's easternmost region that was triggered by perceived ill treatment of Papuans on Java island.
More than 40 people were killed in the unrest between August and September in Papua and West Papua provinces, which make up the Indonesian half of New Guinea island.
Jakarta has blamed the separatist United Liberation Movement of West Papua (ULMWP) and the National Committee for West Papua (KNPB) for the uprising that started in mid-August, when thousands joined protests calling for a vote on self-determination.
Police arrested dozens of pro-referendum Papuan activists in the wake of the unrest, which prompted authorities to send thousands of additional police and troops to the region.
A pre-trial hearing to challenge the arrests of the six activists had been scheduled for Nov. 11, but was postponed because the defendant – the Jakarta police – did not show up.
A new hearing is scheduled for Nov. 25, Hutapea said.
"In our opinion, the two-week delay is unusual because it can obstruct the justice process for the suspects," he said. "The delay should have been just one week."
Andreas Harsono, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said there were at least 25 political prisoners in Indonesia, including 22 who had been detained since the unrest in Papua in August.
"The government must release all political prisoners, because it will make it difficult for Indonesia in international forums. Many countries will question this, including the United States and Japan," Andreas said.
Hutapea said the families of the Papuan activists had been having difficulty visiting them in detention.
Yumilda Kaciana, the wife of Dano Tabuni, said the police had twice cancelled an appointment she had made to visit her husband.
"Our disappointment grew when lawmakers from Papua were allowed to meet with the detainees, even though there was no appointment," Yumilda told reporters.
"Why is there different treatment?" she said.
Another lawyer with the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute, Oky Wiratama, said the police did not properly notify the defense attorneys and the activists' families prior to the transfer of the case files to the prosecutor's office, which usually signals that a trial is imminent.
"We were told only via a WhatsApp short message. We received it only on Sunday," Oky said.
"There should be an official letter to inform about the transfer," he said.
National police spokesman Argo Yowono denied that families and lawyers were prevented from visiting the detained activists.
"We work professionally and follow the rules," Argo told BenarNews, adding that the police were ready to face a pretrial suit.
The Papua region was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, after 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 involved only 1,000 people.
The provinces of Papua and West Papua make up one-fifth of Indonesia's land mass. Only 5.9 million of Indonesia's 250 million people live there.
Tensions rose in Papua in December 2018 after separatist rebels allegedly killed 19 members of a crew building a highway in Nduga regency. Authorities immediately sent more than 750 soldiers and police to the region after the killings.


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BENARNEWS- The son-in-law of slain militant leader Santoso, once Indonesia's most-wanted terrorist, has joined the small band of Islamic State-linked extremists he once led in Central Sulawesi province, police said Wednesday.
Security forces killed Santoso, the leader of the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen in the jungles of Poso, a regency in the province, in July 2016, but have failed to eradicate members of his group despite years of operations against them, analysts said.
During the past few months, anti-terror officers have either killed or arrested suspected members of the group, known locally by its Bahasa acronym MIT, but authorities said the militants were still recruiting more members.
"A follower who recently joined is Hairul, alias Irul," provincial police spokesman Didik Supranoto told reporters Wednesday. "What is known is that Hairul is the son-in-law of Santoso."
Hairul, known for his bomb-making skills, has become an influential figure in MIT, even though he only joined last year, Didik said.
"Some of the homemade bombs that officers have confiscated were Hairul's handiwork. We don't know yet whether he learned his skills from Santoso," Didik said.
The government launched Operation Tinombala, a joint military-police task force, in January 2016 with a mission to capture MIT militants in Central Sulawesi.
Tinombala replaced a similar operation that began in the area in 2015.
Santoso had 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, Indonesian authorities said.
Security forces captured Santoso's successor, Mohamad Basri, two months after his death in 2016. During the same year, authorities announced that they had reduced MIT's ranks from an estimated 40 people to fewer than 10 fighters.
But in March this year, Sidney Jones, director of a Jakarta-based think-tank, the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), cast doubt on police claims that security forces had reduced the MIT armed strength to less than a dozen.
"We don't know exactly their real number because they are constantly moving in the jungle," she told BenarNews at the time. "The question is: is it possible that more people have joined without police knowing it."
First Indonesian to pledge allegiance to IS
Santoso, also known as Abu Wardah, was born on Aug. 21, 1976. He was the first Indonesian militant to publicly pledge allegiance to the Islamic State group based in the Middle East. In 2015, during his leadership, at least three non-Muslim farmers in Parigi Moutong regency were beheaded, authorities said.
Brig. Gen. Lukman Wahyu Hariyanto, Central Sulawesi's police chief, told reporters in July that the hunt for MIT militants would continue until the end of the year.
The operation, which involves more than 600 joint military and police personnel, has focused on narrowing the group's escape routes and blocking logistic supplies, he said.
"That way we hope their space for movement will be more limited, making it easier for troops to capture them," said Lukman. "The point is that they are surrounded. It means that if they move just a little, they will be caught."
Cases of terrorism decline
Meanwhile in Jakarta, national police chief Idham Azis said Wednesday that terrorism-related acts had dropped from 19 in 2018 to only eight through 2019 to date.
"The number of terrorist acts declined by 57 percent compared to last year," Idham told a parliamentary hearing.
Police have arrested 275 people on terrorism-related charges this year, including at least 74 suspects who were arrested after last week's suicide bombing at a police station in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province. The attack killed the bomber and injured six other people, including four officers.
Investigators said they suspected that the bomber, 24-year-old Rabbial Muslim Nasution, and his widow belonged to Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a militant network affiliated with Islamic State.
The Medan attack took place a month after two suspected militants stabbed and wounded then-Security Minister Wiranto and two other people as he was visiting Banten province.
Idham said both cases were linked to JAD.
"The perpetrators were radicalized through social media and wanted to attack the government and its apparatuses because they are considered tyrants," he said.
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks in the past two decades, with more recent strikes being blamed on JAD militants.


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BENARNEWS- An Indonesian lawyer who is wanted by police in her home country for alleged incitement of violence because she disseminated information via Twitter about recent unrest in Papua says she's a target of online threats.
During anti-Jakarta protests and violence that convulsed Indonesia's easternmost region in late August and September, Veronica Koman, through her feed on the social media channel, was a source for regular information about the situation in Papua and West Papua. The neighboring provinces are largely closed off to Western media and information there is tightly controlled by Indonesian authorities.
Koman, a 31-year-old human rights defender and Indonesian of Chinese descent who lives in Australia, says she has been the target of death and rape threats as well as racist and misogynistic abuse via social media. She's even been called a traitor because of her tweets about the situation in Papua and a crackdown on pro-Papuan independence activists in Surabaya, East Java that sparked weeks of protests.
"I'm not mad or hold grudges. I knew it was coming," she told BenarNews in a phone interview from Australia.
"I have made it my personal mission to inform other people about the situation in Papua," she said, adding, "There's been impunity in Papua because people are not aware of what's going on. If we could expose more human rights abuses there, the situation would not be this bad."
Koman takes things in stride and even jokes about her status as a fugitive in the eyes of police in Indonesia. They have charged her with inciting unrest through her messages on Twitter.
"Gonna tell my kids that this was when I was named Citizen of the Year," she quipped in a tweet Wednesday that featured an image of police displaying a large photograph of Koman at a press conference.
The human rights defender has more than 45,000 followers on Twitter.
A non-Australian citizen, Koman lives Down Under with her foreign husband whose nationality she declined to reveal. During the unrest, she would send out her tweets from Australia after gathering information from her Papuan contacts in the Papua region and elsewhere in Indonesia.
In September, Indonesian police declared Koman a fugitive and said they would seek Interpol's cooperation to arrest her.
Koman said that she goes about her daily life as usual and is not in hiding. Last week, she attended a rally in Australia to protest against the police killing of an Aboriginal teenager.
"I'm not guilty so I'm not running, but I will not surrender myself either," she told BenarNews.
"I have never been contacted by Indonesian or Australian authorities," she said, adding she never got the two summonses that police said they had sent her.
Last month, the Australian Council for International Development (ACFID) honored Koman with the Sir Ronald Wilson Human Rights Award. In its citation, it recognized her for documenting and disseminating information about the situation in Papua, exposing rights violations in that region, and providing legal representation for Papuans in trouble with the Indonesian authorities.
"Amid the recent internet blackout and mass demonstrations in West Papua Ms. Koman disseminated information about the escalating situation on social media and functioned as a key source of information to the outside world," ACFID said in naming her a recipient of the award on Oct. 23.
The award honors Koman for the "courage she has shown to continue to stand up for the human rights of West Papuans ... despite intensifying harassment and intimidation," the council said in a news release.
ACFID also called on the Australian government to provide Koman with protection "to which she is entitled as a human rights defender."

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A police officer raises his rifle as the local market burns during a protest in Fakfak, a regency in Indonesia's West Papua province, Aug. 21, 2019. [AP]

'We really hope that she would come'
In Indonesia, authorities have accused Koman of spreading misinformation through her social media posts about police treatment of Papuan student protesters in Surabaya in August.
News about allegations that security forces had treated the Papuan students harshly and hurled racist abuse at them ignited mass protests, some of which descended into violence in Papua and West Papua.
Weeks of unrest in the region left more than 40 people dead. Police have charged six activists with treason for flying the banned Papuan separatist Morning Star flag during a rally demanding a referendum on self-determination in Jakarta in August.
In Jakarta, national police spokesman Argo Yuwono urged Koman to turn herself in.
"We have communicated it with the international relations division [at the national police] to make her available for questioning. We really hope that she would come," Argo told BenarNews.
"If she refuses to come, well what else can we do? We have to respect rules," he added.
The provinces of Papua and West Papua make up one-fifth of Indonesia's land mass. Only 5.9 million of Indonesia's 250 million people live there.
The region has been the scene of a low-level separatist conflict since it was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, after 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 involved only 1,000 people.
Indonesian forces have been accused of gross human rights violations in its anti-insurgency campaign.
Koman, who supports a vote on self-determination for Papua, said she had in the past two years received threats from "state and non-state actors" for her work exposing abuses by security forces and defending pro-independence activists in the region.
The Indonesian government has restricted access to Papua for foreign journalists, citing concerns for their security.
Koman said she was not always into activism and was once an ultranationalist herself.
"I used to have the belief that the integrity of Indonesia was not negotiable," she said. "But then I read a lot of papers, including those by academics from foreign universities, and I was shocked to find how bad the situation was."
"Since I found out that many Papuans feel that they are being colonized by Indonesia, I started to question my nationalism. To date I have never found a Papuan who doesn't want independence," she said.
Koman said she hoped that someday she could return to her home country to be reunited with her family and resume her work as lawyer.
"I'm sad because my family, my friends and my work are there. Now I can't practice law and do advocacy work on the ground," she said.


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BENARNEWS- Counterterrorism officials in Indonesia are touting as a de-radicalization success story what they say is the transformation of Bali bomb-maker Umar Patek behind bars, and have just rewarded the convict for good behavior by granting his Philippine wife Indonesian citizenship.
Umar, whose real name is Hisyam bin Ali Zein, has served seven years of a 20-year sentence at a prison near Surabaya for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings – the country's deadliest terrorist attacks – but he could be released on parole in 2024 on account of his good behavior, officials said.
"He is an example to fellow inmates both in terrorism and other cases, and also appeals to those outside to return to the right path," Suhardi Alius, who heads the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT), told BenarNews on Friday.
Earlier this week, Suhardi handed Umar's wife, Ruqayyah bin Husein Luceno, a certificate of Indonesian citizenship at a ceremony at the prison in Sidoarjo regency, where Umar is incarcerated. The inmate, whose beard is dyed red, touched the document as he stood between his spouse and the BNPT chief, while other officials surrounded them.
Suhardi said Umar had been requesting citizenship for Ruqayyah since 2011, and authorities finally granted his wish as a reward for years of good behavior in prison, where Umar was sentenced in 2012.
"We hope that he remains steadfast and will become a good person when he is free," the BNPT chief said.
Umar, 49, was arrested in the Pakistani district of Abbottabad in January 2011, four months before U.S. Special Forces killed al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in a raid in the same area. Umar was deported to Indonesia in August that year.
He testified during his trial in 2012 that he was involved in assembling the explosives used in the Oct. 12, 2002 bombings that targeted Bali nightclubs, but he denied taking part in planning the attack.
The bombings killed 202 people, mostly foreigners, including 88 Australians. The attacks were blamed on Jemaah Islamiyah, a Southeast Asian militant network linked to al-Qaeda.
In 2008, the Indonesian government executed Imam Samudra, Amrozi and Mukhlas for their roles in the bombings.
BNPT's head of de-radicalization, Irfan Idris, said Umar was an example of successful efforts to reform convicted militants.
"Changing people is not as easy as turning the palms of our hands," Irfan said.
"Of course, some change, some don't and some are still thinking," he added.
Irfan said Ruqayyah had played an important role in Umar's transformation by remaining supportive and persuading him to abandon extremism.
Umar has been cooperative and followed all de-radicalization programs diligently, while his speeches and writings have been a big influence on other inmates, Irfan told reporters.
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks in the past two decades, with more recent strikes being blamed on militants affiliated with Islamic State.
In May 2018, Suhardi said at the time that some 800 convicted militants were enrolled in state-sponsored de-radicalization programs, which the government launched in 2012.

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Indonesian officials lift up convicted terrorist Umar Patek after a flag ceremony marking National Awakening Day at a prison in East Java, May 20, 2015. [BenarNews]

Umar: 'Return to the right path'
In a video, Umar thanked his wife and family for their support.
"Those are the ones who have always encouraged me to embrace the Republic of Indonesia," he said. "I appeal to those who still harbor extremist beliefs to return to the right path."
So far, he has received a total of 10 months in sentence cuts for good behavior and could be released as early as 2024 after serving two-thirds of his term, if his request for parole is approved, prison Gov. Tonny Nainggolan told Kompas.com, an Indonesian news website.
Four years ago, BNPT officials said they already were succeeding in putting Umar on the path to reform.
In May 2015, prison officials allowed him to carry Indonesia's red-and-white flag at a ceremony marking National Awakening Day, which commemorates the rise of Indonesian nationalism in the early 20th century.
"My motivation for bearing the Red and White flag is that I am an Indonesian citizen and I wish to show how I love my country, Indonesia," the Bali bomb-maker said at the time.
Sidney Jones, director of a Jakarta-based think-tank, the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) and an expert on Islamic militancy in Indonesia, said she believed that Umar was sincere in his repentance.
"I have no doubt whatsoever. I believe he is genuinely remorseful after what he has done in Bali," Jones told BenarNews.
"He changed at his own volition, not because of the success of the de-radicalization program, also because he has been treated well by the community around him," she said.


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BENARNEWS- Eighty-five Chinese nationals have been arrested on suspicion of involvement in an online scam that swindled more than U.S. $2.5 million from their compatriots during the past few months, Indonesian authorities said Tuesday.
Police arrested the suspects in several locations across the country during the weekend following a tip-off from Chinese law-enforcement officials, Jakarta police chief Gatot Eddy Pramono told reporters.
The arrests came days after Malaysian police detained almost 700 Chinese nationals on allegations that they were involved in a syndicate that targeted people in China through an online investment scam. It was not clear if the two cases were connected.
Gatot said some of the suspects pretended to be police officers and prosecutors as they contacted their victims to make them believe that they had been embroiled in legal problems. Others posed as bankers and offered fake investment schemes, he said.
"We will communicate with the Chinese police and the immigration office on how to deal with them," Gatot said, adding that all the victims were Chinese and all money from the illegal activity went through the banking system in China.
The syndicate managed to collect more than 36 billion rupiah (U.S. $ 2.5 million) from their victims over a period of four months, Gatot said.
Gatot said Jakarta investigators received information about the illegal activity from their Chinese counterparts two weeks ago and immediately launched a probe, arresting suspects in six locations in Jakarta, the neighboring South Tangerang city and in Malang city in East Java province.
Jakarta police spokesman Yusri Yunus said the suspects entered Indonesia on tourist visas and opted to operate in the country because the nation has an inexpensive internet infrastructure.
Syndicate members operated for the duration of their visas and were replaced by other people when their visas expired.
Other than the 85 Chinese citizens, police also arrested six Indonesian citizens, officials said.
Iwan Kurniawan, the Jakarta police director for general crimes, said the six Indonesians were considered witnesses.
"So far there's no evidence that they were directly involved," Iwan told reporters.
Last week, police in neighboring Malaysia said they had busted one of the largest online scam syndicates in the country when they arrested almost 700 people during a raid at a building near Kuala Lumpur.
The building housed around 1,000 Chinese nationals who had allegedly worked for the syndicate since May, but more than 300 of them eluded capture in the raid, Khairul Dzaimee Daud, the director-general of Malaysia's Immigration Department, told reporters Thursday.
An initial probe revealed that the syndicate offered its victims back in China lucrative returns on their investments over a short time, he said.
The building that was raided functioned as a call center, and so there was no cash to be seized during the operation, the immigration chief said.
A source in the immigration department said each of the Chinese workers received around U.S. $600 in monthly wages, but if they secured an investment from one of the people targeted in the scheme, they each would get a commission of $1,670.
In July 2017, Indonesian police said they had detained more than 150 Chinese nationals accused of carrying out a similar sophisticated scam that netted about $450 million.
Authorities said the syndicate operated by tracking down information on wealthy Chinese businessmen and posing as lawyers from the Attorney General's office. The scam participants would then negotiate to make legal cases go away upon payment of a certain amount.


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BENARNEWS- Three people went on trial Wednesday in Indonesia's second-largest city on charges of hate speech and misinformation for allegedly provoking recent anti-Jakarta protests that turned deadly in the restive Papua region.
Syamsul Arifin, Tri Susanti and Ardian Andiansah, all civilians, heard their indictments read by prosecutors in separate courtrooms at the Surabaya District Court in East Java province.
The prosecutor, Muhammad Nizar, accused Tri of making false accusations on television that Papuan university students had desecrated an Indonesian flag in front of their dormitory in Surabaya by throwing it into a ditch during an anti-Jakarta protest in the city.
Tri's allegations angered members of nationalist organizations, prompting a protest outside the Papuan students' dormitory and a police raid on the building, the indictment said.
"It was found that these events were caused by a hoax motivated by ethnic and racial prejudices perpetrated by the defendant Tri Susanti," the indictment said.
The indictment also accused Tri of sending WhatsApp messages to a nationalist group urging members to protest at the dormitory and claiming that the Papuans were preparing to attack with machetes and arrows.
In a separate trial, prosecutors charged Ardian with spreading information intended to incite hatred or hostility by allegedly uploading a video to his YouTube channel with the title "Papuans' dormitory picketed by locals for refusing to raise the Red and White (Indonesian) flag."
Meanwhile, Syamsul was accused of spreading racial and ethnic hatred through public speeches, his indictment read.
A lawyer for Tri, Sahid, said the indictment was vague.
"We will respond to it. We will uncover the facts and leave the cause to the judges," Sahid, who goes by one name, told BenarNews.
The trials were adjourned until next week, during which witnesses are scheduled to be heard.
The Surabaya protests broke out on Aug. 16 after a flag pole at the Papuan students' dormitory toppled and the flag was found in the ditch.
The students said they did not know what happened to the flag, but the next day, more protesters gathered outside the dormitory. Some in the crowd threw rocks at the building and hurled racist epithets such as "monkeys" and "pigs."
Later, heavily armed riot police stormed the building and arrested 43 Papuan students, who were released hours later.
News about allegations that security forces had treated the Papuan students harshly and hurled racist abuse at them ignited mass protests, some of which descended into violence, and growing calls for a referendum on self-determination in the mainly Melanesian region.
Weeks of unrest in the region left more than 40 people dead.
Police have charged six activists with treason for flying the banned Papuan separatist Morning Star flag during a rally demanding a referendum on self-determination in Jakarta late August.
Police are also seeking the arrest of Australian-based Indonesian human rights lawyer Veronica Koman, whom they accuse of spreading misinformation through her social-media posts about police treatment of the Papuan students in Surabaya.
The provinces of Papua and West Papua make up one-fifth of Indonesia's land mass. Only 5.9 million of Indonesia's 250 million people live there.
The region has been the scene of a low-level separatist conflict since it was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, after 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 involved only 1,000 people.
Indonesian forces have been accused of gross human rights violations in its anti-insurgency campaign.


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BENARNEWS- At least thirty-eight people in Indonesia's easternmost provinces were named treason suspects over the last week in connection with attempts to raise the Papuan flag, police and lawyers told BenarNews.
Dozens more were arrested and questioned as security forces moved to prevent flag-raisings on Dec. 1, which some Papuans consider their national day.
Raising the Papuan flag is illegal in Indonesia, where tensions are high in Papua following violent demonstrations earlier this year and escalating demands for a referendum on independence for the region.
Twenty people arrested Saturday in Sentani, an area near the Papuan provincial capital of Jayapura, are expected to be charged with treason, Yohanis Mambrasar, a lawyer with the Papua Human Rights Advocates Association (PAHAM), confirmed to BenarNews.
"That's right. Twenty people have been named treason suspects. They will be charged under Article 106, in conjunction with Article 87, and Article 110 in conjunction with Article 88 of the Criminal Code," he said.
Of these, six also will be charged with possessing weapons and one will face charges of incitement, said Victor Makbon, the police chief in Jayapura.
The 20 suspects and 14 others who were questioned and released came to Jayapura from other parts of the province to attend a flag-raising, Mambrasar said.
Seven people arrested in Manokwari, a coastal town in West Papua province, were being held for questioning after being picked up on Nov. 27, a local police official said.
"They are still under police custody at Manokwari Police Headquarters, while investigators are still looking for a man with the initials A.N." who allegedly incited them to hold a protest, said Musa J. Permana, who heads the Crime and Research Unit at the regency's police department. Police would release more information about the case soon, he added.
However, Yan Warinussi, a lawyer from the Legal Aid Research, Study and Development Institute (LP3BH) said police had named seven of the eight people detained in Manokwari as suspects.
Meanwhile, West Papua Police Chief Brig. Gen. Herry Rudolf Nahak said police had arrested 11 people and charged them with treason after a flag-raising ceremony on Dec. 1 at Puncak Malanu, in Sorong, another coastal town in West Papua province.
Arrests also took place in Fakfak, on the southern coast of West Papua, including dozens who allegedly attempted to raise a flag at the official residence of the regent, the top local official. Twenty of these people allegedly had cards stating they were members of the West Papuan National Liberation Army (TPNPB).
Fakfak police chief Ary Nyoto Setiawan said 23 people had raised Papua's Morning Star flag in Warpa Kayuni village.
"About 20 will be named treason suspects," he said.
Two leaders of the United Liberation for West Papua were questioned by police in Jayapura over an appeal to worship to commemorate Dec. 1, the date Papuans declared independence from Dutch colonial rule in 1961.
Four men arrested during worship at Gembala Baik Church in the largely Christian province were released without charges early Monday after questioning, according to LBH Papua, the Papua Branch of Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation. The pastor of the church, James Kossay, was also questioned by police and released.
Police previously charged six activists with treason for flying the banned flag during a rally demanding a referendum on self-determination in Jakarta late August.
In addition, they are seeking the arrest of Australian-based Indonesian human rights lawyer Veronica Koman. She is accused of spreading misinformation through her social-media posts about police treatment of the Papuan students in Surabaya.
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.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's government is taking steps to protect workers in the fishing industry, including 22,000 Indonesians aboard Taiwanese boats, a maritime affairs official said Tuesday, a day after Greenpeace reported that nearly three dozen had been subjected to "forced labor."
The government recognizes that there is a lack of clear regulations on the recruitment and placement of workers on domestic and foreign fishing boats, said Basilio Dias Araujo, a senior official at the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs.
"The government is aware that there are many cases of human trafficking, forced labor and modern slavery at sea in the fishing sector, both on national and foreign boats," Basilio told BenarNews.
He said the National Team for the Protection of Seafarers and Fishing Ship Crew Members, which was formed within the last year, was working to improve training and protection. Existing laws on sea navigation and fishermen protection do not specifically address the issue of local and migrant workers working as crew members on fishing boats.
"This will be a fundamental and comprehensive overhaul in the fisheries sector, which had been overlooked in the past. We are looking at a new regulation being issued," Basilio said.
The study released Monday by Greenpeace Southeast Asia and the Indonesian Migrant Workers' Union (SBMI) revealed that 34 Indonesian migrant fishermen working on 13 suspected foreign fishing boats had reported unsatisfactory conditions.
"Four main complaints have been identified: deception involving 11 foreign fishing vessels; withholding of wages involving nine foreign fishing vessels; excessive overtime involving eight foreign fishing vessels; physical and sexual abuse involving seven foreign fishing vessels," the 52-page report, "Seabound: The Journey to Modern Slavery on the High Seas," stated.
Indonesian migrant fishermen had their salaries deducted to pay guarantee deposits and processing costs for the first six to eight months of their employment, forcing them to work ridiculous hours for little or no pay, it said.
Greenpeace said the study involved reviewing documentation including contracts, complaints filed, salary schedules, passports and plane tickets.
Citing the Taiwan Fisheries Agency, the report said 21,994 migrants from Indonesia and 7,730 from the Philippines were working on Taiwanese boats operating in distant waters as of June 2019.
These two countries combined represent the majority of migrants on Taiwan's distant water fleets – a $2 billion industry and one of the top five distant water fishing fleets on the high seas, Greenpeace said.
"Reports documenting the experiences of Indonesian and Filipino migrant fishers reveal a common pattern throughout the recruitment process, the terrible working conditions onboard vessels, as well as the uncertainty of repatriation when vessel operators are caught violating fishing laws in foreign countries," it said.
Crew member turns advocate
Zaenudin, an Indonesian who worked as a crew member on a Taiwanese fishing boat, told BenarNews about his experience while working off Fiji.
For seven months beginning in October 2017, Zaenudin said he worked under inhumane conditions and experienced harsh treatment from superiors and cooks.
"The conditions and food on the ship were not adequate. Every night at work we were only given fish boiled with salt and rice to eat," he said.
Zaenudin, who had to pay his own way back to Indonesia, is dedicated to advocating for victims of forced labor at sea.
"I have chosen to help fellow fishing boat workers because I don't want them to go through what I did. I know how it feels to be treated cruelly," he said.
An SBMI official said workers were not the only ones who were hurt.
"Events like these have created family disputes that sometimes ended in divorce because the workers came home empty-handed," said Maizidah Salas, SBMI coordinator of education and socialization.
Greenpeace said dwindling fish populations were forcing boats to travel farther, resulting in higher operation costs and increasing the possibility of exploitation of migrants.
The NGO urged members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), particularly governments in the Philippines and Indonesia, to take actions to end what it called modern slavery.


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BENARNEWS- Fires that ravaged large swathes of Indonesian forest this year cost the country U.S. $5.2 billion in damage and economic losses, the World Bank said Wednesday, underscoring that respiratory illnesses linked to poor air quality from the blazes could have long-term impacts on health and education.
The fires burned more than 620,000 hectares of forest – an area nine times the size of the capital Jakarta – between January and September in eight provinces, mainly on Sumatra and Borneo islands, the bank said in its quarterly report for Indonesia.
"The forest and land fires, as well as the resulting haze, led to significant negative economic impacts, estimated at $157 million in direct damage to assets and $5 billion in losses from affected economic activities," the report said.
The estimated loss did not include the effects of exposure to haze, such as illnesses and reduced quality of education due to health impacts on teachers and students, the report said, which also emphasized the possible strain on the palm oil sector that could potentially affect at least 16.2 million people working in the industry.
Haze from the blazes caused more than 900,000 people to suffer from respiratory health diseases, halted airport operations and temporarily closed hundreds of schools in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore, officials said.
"Recurring fires and haze also further exacerbate the negative global perception toward Indonesia's palm oil production that had led to declining demand from European countries, as well as the European Union's (EU) plan to phase out palm-oil based biofuel by 2030," the World Bank report said.
"This year's spike in fire activities are unlikely to help Indonesia's bilateral negotiations with the EU through the World Trade Organization," it said.
This year's economic loss is equivalent to 0.5 percent of Indonesia's gross domestic product and could slash growth by 0.09 and 0.05 percentage points this year and in 2020, respectively, according to the World Bank, which provides loans and grants to the governments of poorer countries.
Fires are considered the cheapest option among all methods to prepare lands for cultivation, or to claim lands in areas with disputes, where landownership is uncertain and where enforcement is weak, the Washington, D.C.-based financial institution said.
It said about 44 percent of the areas burned this year were located in peatlands, where fires are harder to suppress once started and release thick haze and carbon emissions into the atmosphere.
The carbon emissions from the Indonesian forest fires this year are estimated to be almost double the emissions from this year's wildfires in the Brazilian Amazon, the report said.
Smog from Indonesia's forest fires this year also choked neighboring Malaysia, where authorities distributed two million face masks to students in affected areas in September, according to state news agency Bernama.
The bank urged the Indonesian government to introduce a strong fire-prevention policy by enforcing the current moratorium on primary forests and peatland conversions and preventing conflict through land-tenure settlement policies.
Forest fires costly to extinguish, authorities say
Experts have said poor law enforcement, corruption and scant government funding contributed to recurrent forest fires in Indonesia.
The National Disaster Management Agency (BNPB) said the government spent a record $240 million on operations to extinguish the fires this year, which were the worst since similar fires in 2015 when 2.6 million hectares were destroyed.
"This was the first time that forest fires had cost that much money," a BNPB deputy for rehabilitation and reconstruction, Rifai, was quoted by Kompas.com news portal as telling a seminar on Wednesday.
Using fires to clear land is illegal and punishable by up to 10 years under Indonesia's 1999 law on the environment, but analysts said local leaders often turned a blind eye to the practice because they fear losing votes, especially during election seasons.
In September, the government blamed the country's timber and plantation industries for the recurring forest fires, saying that only about 22 percent, or 2,179 companies with forestry permits, had submitted mandatory reports on fire control.
The environmental advocacy group Greenpeace said in a new report released last week that some of the world's best-known brands are fueling climate change by sourcing palm oil and wood pulp linked to Indonesian forest fires.
Greenpeace said peatland fires and ongoing deforestation mostly to produce cheap commodities, such as palm oil, contributed to Indonesia's status as the world's fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases.
It urged Jakarta to be more transparent and make concession data public so that ongoing deforestation and fires can clearly be linked to the companies responsible for those lands.


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BENARNEWS- As China moves to strengthen its economic and military footprints in South and Southeast Asia, some of its neighbors are expressing concern about the regional superpower, according to two U.S. studies released this month.
Pew Research reported that many residents surveyed in Indonesia and the Philippines have expressed disappointment about China, while AidData, a think-tank, reported that Beijing's efforts in Bangladesh are geared toward keeping Russia and India in check.
"Even while China's rise is largely perceived as positive in emerging economies, there are pockets of discontent," Pew said in its study, "China's Economic Growth Mostly Welcomed in Emerging Markets, but Neighbors Wary of Its Influence."
"n the nations that welcome China's economic growth, few feel similarly about its growing military might. Rather, most tend to view China's growing military as something bad for their own countries."
Among the notable findings in its survey – Pew pointed that Filipinos and Indonesians have about the same confidence in North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un as they do in Chinese President Xi Jinping. It asked more than 2,200 respondents in the two countries if they had confidence in Xi and Kim to "do the right thing regarding world affairs."
In the Philippines, 58 percent of the respondents had a positive view of Xi compared to 56 percent for Kim, while Indonesians were slightly more positive about Kim – 33 percent to 32 percent. Both world leaders were less popular than Japan's Shinzo Abe, who recorded positive views of 73 percent in the Philippines and 40 percent in Indonesia.
Meanwhile, nearly half of all respondents in both countries – 49 percent in the Philippines and 48 percent in Indonesia – see Chinese investment as bad for their countries.
Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said his country was willing to cooperate with China but was not tied to Beijing to strengthen the economy.
"Our country has the capacity to negotiate on the issue of investment," he told BenarNews, adding, "we are not a country that can be dictated to, because we have many sources of funding that are competitive."
Teuku said Indonesia had no restrictions on doing business with other countries.
"We don't favor one country over another. If our people accept investment from a country, it's good and other countries should follow suit," he said.
Pew's report also pointed out that China's neighbors generally took a more negative stance toward its military.
In the Philippines, which has challenged the Chinese Navy's incursion into South China Sea territory claimed by Manila, 71 percent of respondents took a negative view of Beijing's military. In Indonesia, on the other hand, 44 percent had negative views compared to only 28 percent positive.
China and Bangladesh
AidData, in its report "Silk Road Diplomacy: Deconstructing Beijing's Toolkit to Influence South and Central Asia," said Chinese officials were mindful of the need to expand diplomacy to manage negative reactions to its economic and military strength.
"Chinese leaders are keen to avoid instability in neighboring countries that could spill over into unrest at home. Moreover, Beijing wants to project strength in order to check the influence of its regional rivals, India and Russia," the report said in its introduction.
AidData is a research lab at William & Mary University's Global Research Institute.
China has stepped in to support development in Bangladesh to the tune of U.S. $10.2 billion for infrastructure projects in and around Dhaka as of 2017, according to AidData.
"Chinese leaders recognize the benefits of cultivating strong ties with Bangladesh to access deep-water ports in the Bay of Bengal, a cheap workforce for China's manufacturing operations and an attractive export market for its consumer electronics sector," AidData reported.
Chinese companies have relocated manufacturing operations to Bangladesh over the last two decades to combat rising labor costs at home, the report pointed out.
"Maintaining good relations with Bangladeshi leaders is also critical for China to protect its investments in Bangladesh and along the Maritime Silk Road," AidData said, referring to China's One Belt, One Road (OBOR) project.
The Maritime Silk Road is part of China's plan to boost its global trading links by developing overland and maritime routes connecting the world's most populous nation to markets in Europe.
Despite Beijing's efforts, former Bangladesh Ambassador to Beijing Munshi Faiz Ahmad said he had seen anti-Chinese sentiment grow among Bangladeshis.
"The common people have become anti-Chinese because of the Rohingya crisis and Beijing's support for Myanmar. The common people's perception is if China has been a friend, why do they give unflinching support to Myanmar on the Rohingya issue at the international level?" Ahmad told BenarNews.
AidData's report points out that Bangladeshi elite also are disappointed by China's alignment with Myanmar.
"[T]his disappointment is unlikely to dissuade them from partnering with Beijing to advance the country's economic and geopolitical interests, even as it may negatively influence perceptions of Beijing among the average Bangladeshi," the report said.
Ahmad noted that China had an ulterior motive for working to improve relations with its regional neighbors, pointing to efforts to influence India.
"Actually, China wants to bring India closer as the One Belt, One Road project would not succeed without India's support. China will not benefit maintaining confrontational relations with India," Ahmad said.
Pew's interviews
The Pew Research Center, which is not associated with the U.S. government, describes itself as "a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping America and the world. It does not take policy positions."
The Indonesian results were based on face-to-face interviews with 1,212 people between June 24 and Aug. 8. Pew said the results had a margin of error rate of 4.3 percentage points.
The Philippine results were based on face-to-face interviews with 1,035 people between May 25 and June 22, with a margin of error rate of 4.3 percentage points.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's two largest Muslim organizations called on China on Monday to end human rights violations against the Uyghur minority, in a departure from their previous muted stance.
The call by Muhammadiyah and Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) came almost two months after the U.S. ambassador to Indonesia met with leaders of the two powerful groups and urged them to speak out about the mass incarceration of Uyghur Muslims at internment camps in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
"The government of China should stop all violations of human rights, especially against the Uyghur community, under whatever pretext," Muhammadiyah, which claims some 30 million members, said in a statement.
China is believed to have locked up an estimated 1.8 million Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in internment camps since April 2017 amid a government crackdown on Islamic extremism in Xinjiang.
Beijing denies any allegations of mistreatment of Uyghurs and says the camps provide vocational training. It has refused to allow international observers into the camps.
"We urge the government of China to be more open in providing information and access to the international community about its policy on the Uyghur community in Xinjiang," Muhammadiyah said in the statement.
The group's comments followed a U.S. newspaper report last week that Beijing had launched a "concerted campaign" to convince Indonesia's religious authorities and journalists that the internment camps in Xinjiang were a "well-meaning effort" to provide job training and combat extremism.
Views in Indonesia about the camps had changed after more than a dozen top Indonesian religious leaders visited the so-called re-education facilities, according to the Wall Street Journal report. Donations and other financial support from Beijing had also helped blunt criticism of its treatment of Uyghurs, the report said.
The article linked the silence of Muslim groups on the Uyghur issue to China's charm offensive, in which Beijing allegedly courted clerics, politicians and journalists to support its policies in Xinjiang by offering Chinese government-sponsored trips to the region.
Muhammadiyah, however, questioned the accuracy of the news report without being specific.
NU deputy chairman Robikin Emhas, who was among a group of Indonesian Muslim leaders who visited Xinjiang at the invitation of the Chinese government in February, told BenarNews "there were problems" in Beijing's treatment of the Uyghurs.
"Religious people can only practice their religion privately. In public they cannot practice their religion," Robikin said.
He also said that Muslims consumed non-halal food and could not pray in camps where the Chinese government said they received vocational training to lure them away from extremism.
"We appeal for the provision of halal food to be guaranteed," he said. "We also [urge Beijing] that [the Uyghurs] be allowed to practice their religion."
Muhammadiyah, in its statement, also urged Indonesia – the world's most-populous Muslim-majority country – to take a stronger stance on abuses against the Uyghurs.
"The government of Indonesia should be more active in its role as a member of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Conference) and a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council to muster diplomacy toward ending human rights violations in Xinjiang and several other countries," it said.
On Friday, NU deputy secretary general Masduki Baidlawi also clarified that his group's stance on the Uyghurs was not linked to any financial incentives.
A change in stance
The criticism of Beijing by Muhammadiyah and NU marked a turnaround from their earlier stance on the Uyghur internment camps.
After separate meetings in October with Joseph Donovan, the U.S. envoy, Muhammadiyah and NU leaders said they were still analyzing China's treatment of Uyghurs to verify whether rights abuses were taking place in Xinjiang.
"If there are human rights violations, we will make our voice heard, but if it's a political issue and they want to be independent, it's an internal affair [of China]," NU chairman Said Aqil Siradj said at the time.
"We are still collecting information. Our team and the government will analyze the information," he added.
In July, the NU chairman said he had visited Xinjiang in 2016 but did not notice Muslims being persecuted.
"Islam is growing well in China. The government there is paying attention to Muslims by renovating mosques and hundreds of halal restaurants have been opened," CNN Indonesia quoted Said as saying.
Four months earlier, Muhammadiyah secretary Agung Danarto had also denied the existence of internment camps in Xinjiang.

"Places, camps, dorms and classrooms were very comfortable and decent, and look nothing like prisons," Agung said in a statement posted on the organization's website in March.
Foreign ministry criticized
This week, Muhyiddin Junaidi, the head of international cooperation at the Indonesian Council of Ulema, a semi-official body of theologians, criticized the Foreign Ministry for its perceived silence on China's treatment of the Uyghurs.
"It seems that we are too mindful of China's feelings because they are one of the biggest foreign investors. Maybe the government is worried that investors will leave if we speak out," Muhyiddin told BenarNews.
Muhyiddin, who led a delegation that visited Xinjiang in February, said his group was not allowed to talk freely to locals during the tour of what he described as a vocational training center.
"The Chinese government insists the Uyghurs are terrorists, radicals and separatists, but we should not make sweeping generalizations like that," he said.
"They have different definitions. If you wear a headscarf in public, you are radical. It's a violation of human rights but according to China it's not because it's in their constitution," he said.
Muhyiddin said the group did not witness a detention camp during the visit.
"But looking at the activities and policies, I can see that there's a lot of persecution carried out by China against the Uyghur people," he said.
No 'megaphone diplomacy,' foreign ministry spokesman says
Teuku Faizasyah, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said Indonesia did not engage in "megaphone diplomacy" with China over the Uyghur issue but had made its stance known by summoning the Chinese ambassador in Jakarta for clarification earlier this year.
"We do things behind the scenes, engage in constructive discussions with friend countries, with nothing in mind but trying to find common views. If we talk too much publicly there will be a deficit of trust, so it's more harmful," he told BenarNews last week.
A report in June by the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) had said Indonesia was reluctant to speak out on the Uyghur issue because the nation rejected interfering in China's affairs.
"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," IPAC said, referring to a long-running conflict in far eastern Indonesia, for which Jakarta has been repeatedly accused of committing rights abuses.
The fact that China is Indonesia's largest trading partner and second largest investor adds to its reluctance to speak out, IPAC said.
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.
Reporting by the Uyghur Service of Radio Free Asia (RFA) – with which BenarNews is affiliated – and other media organizations, however, has shown that those in the camps are detained against their will. They are also 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.


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BENARNEWS- An Indonesian man and three Indonesia-based companies violated American export laws by transporting airplane parts to an Iranian airline under global terrorism sanctions, U.S. justice officials allege in an eight-count indictment announced this week.
The indictment marked the latest U.S. government action against companies or individuals in Southeast Asia who allegedly breached sanctions targeting Tehran.
The charges were filed on Dec. 10 against Sunarko Kuntjoro, 68, and the three firms – PT MS Aero Support (PTMS), PT Kandiyasa Energi Utama (PTKEU), and PT Antasena Kreasi (PTAK) – the United States Department of Justice (DoJ) said on Tuesday.
Kuntjoro, the majority owner and president of PTMS, conspired with Iran-based Mahan Air and a company executive, as well as with an unnamed American person and company, between March 2011 and July 2018, the department alleged in a news release.
"The conspiracy involved transporting goods owned by Mahan through PTMS, PTKEU and PTAK to the United States for repair and re-export to Mahan in Iran and elsewhere," it said.
Efforts by BenarNews to contact Kuntjoro on Wednesday were not immediately successful. Calls to Indonesian phone numbers listed on the PTKEU and PTAK websites were not answered. PTMS, for its part, does not have a website, and a phone listing for the firm was not available.
Kuntjoro and the Indonesian companies are charged with conspiracy to unlawfully export U.S.-origin goods and technology to Iran and to defraud the United States. Other charges against him and PTMS include unlawful export to an embargoed country, conspiracy to launder money and making false statements.
DoJ said two of the charges against Kuntjoro carry maximum sentences of five years while two other charges carry 20-year sentences.
"The maximum potential sentence in this case is prescribed by congress and is provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by a judge," the department said, adding that defendants were presumed innocent until proven guilty in court.
Kuntjoro remains at large in Indonesia, the Bloomberg news agency reported.
The indictment against him follows a July 23 advisory from the U.S. Department of the Treasury that those who engage in unauthorized transfers of American-made aircraft, parts or technology, or who conduct business with designed Iranian airlines including Mahan Air, would face "enforcement or sanctions actions."
U.S. authorities have accused Mahan Air of aiding the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's elite Qods Force by ferrying weapons and personnel around the Middle East.
"Persons considering continued aviation business with Iran need to understand the role that many Iranian commercial airlines play in supporting the Iranian regime's efforts to foment regional violence through terrorism, its weapons programs, and other destabilizing activity to include exploiting its own people through brutal human rights abuses against women, political opponents and others," the treasury department said in the advisory.
2018 actions
Last year, U.S. treasury officials imposed sanctions against Malaysian and Thai companies for dealing with Mahan Air.
In July 2018, the treasury department announced that all transactions within U.S. jurisdiction involving assets of Malaysian-based Mahan Travel and Tourism Sdn. Bhd. would be blocked as a result of the sanctions. At the time, the Malaysian company had served Mahan Air for at least eight years as its sole travel agent in Malaysia, providing reservation and ticketing services.
The department warned those operating in the civil aviation industry to "implement appropriate controls to ensure compliance with legal requirements and sanctions."
Two months later, U.S. treasury officials designated My Aviation Co. Ltd., headquartered in Bangkok, as serving as Mahan's general sales agent in Thailand. They said that My Aviation had booked passengers on flights and worked with local freight companies to ship cargo aboard Mahan flights to Tehran.
"This Thailand-based company has disregarded numerous U.S. warnings, issued publicly and delivered bilaterally to the Thai government, to sever ties with Mahan Air. This action should serve as a warning that the U.S. is intent on ensuring that the aviation industry ceases providing services to, and profiting from, this terrorist-affiliated airline," Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said in a Sept. 14, 2018, news release.


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BENARNEWS- The recent arrest of eight suspected pro-Islamic State militants in Indonesia's far-flung Papua province signifies that extremists are exploring new hideouts and locations for paramilitary training away from their usual bases on Sumatra and Java islands, counter-terrorism officials and analysts say.
Papua, located some 3,700 km (2,300 miles) east of the capital Jakarta, is seen as a "safe place" to avoid detection as the police's special counter-terrorism squad, Densus 88, conducts operations in other parts of the country, they say.
The idea to search in Papua for potential hideouts and training sites was conceived by a Sumatra-based cell belonging to Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a pro-Islamic State (IS) group that authorities have blamed for most terrorist attacks in Indonesia since 2016, according to a source in Densus 88.
"The idea to scout out locations for training in Papua came from the head of JAD Lampung named Solihin. He felt that Papua would be safe as it has yet to be touched by Densus all this while," the source told BenarNews.
"They are looking for alternatives. Poso remains the favored choice for locations [for paramilitary training]," he said of JAD.
Solihin was arrested in March this year, the source said.
"The men were not able to find a location before they were arrested," he said, referring to the eight suspects taken into custody earlier this month. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because he said he was not authorized to speak to the press.

[https://www]

Residents drive past a burning government building during a protest that turned violent in Wamena, Papua province, Indonesia, Sept. 23, 2019. [AP]

Papua: 'A logical choice'
The suspects were captured during raids in several locations in Jayapura, the capital of Papua province. The predominantly Christian region in Indonesia's far east is where separatist crowds staged anti-Jakarta protests, which turned violent in August and September.
Police said they seized knives, laptops, explosive materials and a bomb from three houses rented by the eight suspected JAD members.
"From the initial information that we received, the suspects who were caught have been on the run since their group was exposed by the police," said Adhe Bakti, executive director of the Center for Radicalization and Deradicalization Studies (PAKAR), an Indonesian think-tank.
"Papua is a logical choice as it is remote and they (pro-IS) hope they will not be detected by the police," he told BenarNews.
According to Adhe, the arrests of the IS-linked suspects in Papua were the "first" in that province but before this, pro-IS suspects were arrested in West Papua, a neighboring province. Indonesia's Papua region makes up the western half of New Guinea island.
In September, Indonesian police spokesman Dedi Prasetyo said that JAD's presence was first detected in Papua in 2017, and its members had become increasingly active there since last year.
Dedi said JAD had planned to bomb the Manokwari police headquarters in West Papua in 2018, but Densus 88 managed to capture them and foil the attack.
Prior to the recent arrests, Adhe said, IS had spread to almost every province in Indonesia, except for three provinces including Papua. Indonesia has 34 provinces.
"The two provinces which have not been sounded (out)...are North Sulawesi and Bangka Belitung (Sumatra island), based on preliminary research by PAKAR in 2018," Adhe said.
While there are no IS teachings being spread in North Sulawesi by the extremist group's network, the province has been used as a gateway to enter the southern Philippines, especially via the Sangihe islands, according to Adhe.
Indonesian extremists have made their way to Mindanao island in the southern Philippines to fight alongside pro-IS groups like the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).
Mindanao island is seen as a "jihad zone" where pro-IS groups seized Marawi city for five months in 2017 before government troops regained control. It was the most serious assault by IS in Southeast Asia that unsettled governments in the region.
Indonesian extremists were among foreign fighters who had converged there during the Marawi siege.
Analyst: JAD fragmented
JAD, according to Indonesian authorities, is led by Aman Abdurrahman, a jailed Muslim cleric who has pledged allegiance to IS and was sentenced to death last year for ordering terrorist attacks in the country.
JAD is Indonesia's largest Islamic State affiliate. But PAKAR's Adhe prefers to define JAD not as a single organization but a network of pro-IS groups because, in his view, not all JAD cells are led by Aman Abdurrahman.
He warned that in the short-term, pro-IS groups continue to pose a threat to Indonesia, especially since many of them are fragmented and dispersed throughout the country, making it difficult for police to detect them.
"[P]ro IS in Indonesia is not well-consolidated and fragmented into several groups," Adhe said.
Adhe said in some provinces, there could be between two to six pro-IS groups.
"The strength of JAD or pro-IS in my terminology is worrying enough in the context of how widespread their operations are," Adhe said.
Yudi Zulfahri, a former convicted Indonesian militant, said that from his monitoring of social media and interactions online, there are people in Papua who are "pro-radical groups."
Yudi, who was jailed in 2010 for his involvement in a terror training camp in Indonesia's westernmost Aceh region, now runs a deradicalization organization called Establish Peace.
"These groups are people currently living in Papua. It is very interesting to study JAD's network in Papua right now," Yudi told BenarNews.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia will not interfere in Chinese domestic affairs, President Joko Widodo's chief of staff said Monday, amid pressure on Jakarta to speak up against the mass internment of minority ethnic Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang province.
The comments from Moeldoko, a former commander of the armed forces, came as peaceful protests sprang up across Indonesia, the world's largest majority Islamic country, and in neighboring Malaysia, with demonstrators calling for freedom for the nearly 2 million Uyghurs and other Muslims held in Xinjiang camps.
"Each country has its own sovereignty to regulate its citizens," Moeldoko told reporters in Jakarta when asked why Indonesia was not more vocal about the Uyghur issue. "The Indonesian government won't interfere in the domestic affairs of China."
China began locking up an estimated 1.8 million Uyghurs and other minority Muslims in a vast network of internment camps in April 2017 over accusations that members of these groups harbored "strong religious views" and "politically incorrect" ideas.
Beijing's ambassador to Jakarta Xiao Qian met with Moeldoko last week, after which he denied allegations of rights abuses in Xinjiang.
The meeting came amid renewed attention to the issue in Indonesia after a U.S. newspaper reported earlier this month that Beijing had launched a "concerted campaign" to convince Indonesia's religious authorities and journalists that the Xinjiang camps were a "well-meaning effort" to provide job training.
Xiao said after meeting Moeldoko that reports about rights violations in Xinjiang were false, as he invited Indonesians to visit the province to see for themselves the situation in the autonomous region.
"Problems in Xinjiang are similar to those in other countries. This is part of our efforts to fight radicalism and terrorism," Xiao told reporters after the meeting in Jakarta.
On Sunday, about 100 people chanted slogans and carried signs that said "Save the Uyghurs," during a protest rally in Banda Aceh, capital of Sharia-ruled Aceh province, a BenarNews reporter witnessed.
Hundreds of protesters also gathered outside the Chinese embassy in Jakarta on Friday and chanted "God is Great" and "Get out, communists!" as they demanded an end to mass detentions of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.
In Malaysia's Kajang town in southeastern Selangor state, dozens of demonstrators held placards and marched during a "silent protest" on Saturday as they expressed their support for the Uyghurs.
The participants, some of whom had plastered their mouths with tape to symbolize the alleged censorship suffered by the Muslims in Xinjiang, urged passing vehicles to blast their horns in support of the demonstration. It took place at the entrance of a convention center where the Chinese embassy had organized the "Beautiful Xinjiang Cultural Show."
On Thursday, Mahfud MD, Indonesia's coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, told reporters that he had conveyed to Xiao some of the concerns voiced by Indonesian Muslim groups about the treatment of the Uyghurs.
"Our diplomacy is soft diplomacy. We do not interfere, but we look at things objectively," Mahfud said.
"We are mediating and looking for the best solution, not confrontational," he said.
Meanwhile, the top Islamic jurist in Malaysia's Perlis state urged Muslim countries to initiate a boycott of Chinese products over the detention of the Uyghurs.

Mohamad Asri bin Zainul Abidin said political and religious leaders from the Muslim world should exert more economic and diplomatic pressure on Beijing for its treatment and alleged human rights abuse of the minority Muslim group living in its westernmost province.

"We need to go to the extent of boycotting China's products. They know the strength of our purchasing power," Asri told Al Jazeera on Friday on the sidelines of a summit of mainly majority-Muslim countries in Kuala Lumpur.

"The decision should be taken at the highest levels of Muslim countries and the ulama [religious scholars and guardians]" to address the Uyghur issue, he said.
Last week, Charles Santiago, a member of the Malaysian Parliament for the ruling coalition, urged Muslim leaders attending the summit in Kuala Lumpur to discuss the mass incarceration of Uyghurs.
But Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who hosted the four-day, top-level meeting from Dec. 18-21, indicated that it did not discuss the plight of the Uyghurs.
"In the first place, this conference is about improving the situation in Muslim countries," Mahathir told reporters.
"It is not directed at other countries because we don't expect other countries to take our advice and not do things which are bad for the Muslim countries," he said. "That is the purpose of this conference and we didn't single out many of the instances where wrong things were done to many Muslims and Muslim countries."

Departure from previous stance
Last week, Indonesia's two largest Muslim organizations – Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah – called on China to end human rights violations against the Uyghurs, in a departure from their previous muted stance.
Rights groups have accused Beijing of trying to erase Uyghur culture, language and religious traditions. But Chinese officials have repeatedly denied those allegations.
A report in June by the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) had said Indonesia was reluctant to speak out on the Uyghur issue because the nation rejected interfering in China's affairs.
"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," IPAC said, referring to a long-running conflict in far-eastern Indonesia, for which Jakarta has been repeatedly accused of committing rights abuses.
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.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia will not interfere in Chinese domestic affairs, President Joko Widodo's chief of staff said Monday, amid pressure on Jakarta to speak up against the mass internment of minority ethnic Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang province.
The comments from Moeldoko, a former commander of the armed forces, came as peaceful protests sprang up across Indonesia, the world's largest majority Islamic country, and in neighboring Malaysia, with demonstrators calling for freedom for the nearly 2 million Uyghurs and other Muslims held in Xinjiang camps.
"Each country has its own sovereignty to regulate its citizens," Moeldoko told reporters in Jakarta when asked why Indonesia was not more vocal about the Uyghur issue. "The Indonesian government won't interfere in the domestic affairs of China."
China began locking up an estimated 1.8 million Uyghurs and other minority Muslims in a vast network of internment camps in April 2017 over accusations that members of these groups harbored "strong religious views" and "politically incorrect" ideas.
Beijing's ambassador to Jakarta Xiao Qian met with Moeldoko last week, after which he denied allegations of rights abuses in Xinjiang.
The meeting came amid renewed attention to the issue in Indonesia after a U.S. newspaper reported earlier this month that Beijing had launched a "concerted campaign" to convince Indonesia's religious authorities and journalists that the Xinjiang camps were a "well-meaning effort" to provide job training.
Xiao said after meeting Moeldoko that reports about rights violations in Xinjiang were false, as he invited Indonesians to visit the province to see for themselves the situation in the autonomous region.
"Problems in Xinjiang are similar to those in other countries. This is part of our efforts to fight radicalism and terrorism," Xiao told reporters after the meeting in Jakarta.
On Sunday, about 100 people chanted slogans and carried signs that said "Save the Uyghurs," during a protest rally in Banda Aceh, capital of Sharia-ruled Aceh province, a BenarNews reporter witnessed.
Hundreds of protesters also gathered outside the Chinese embassy in Jakarta on Friday and chanted "God is Great" and "Get out, communists!" as they demanded an end to mass detentions of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang.
In Malaysia's Kajang town in southeastern Selangor state, dozens of demonstrators held placards and marched during a "silent protest" on Saturday as they expressed their support for the Uyghurs.
The participants, some of whom had plastered their mouths with tape to symbolize the alleged censorship suffered by the Muslims in Xinjiang, urged passing vehicles to blast their horns in support of the demonstration. It took place at the entrance of a convention center where the Chinese embassy had organized the "Beautiful Xinjiang Cultural Show."
On Thursday, Mahfud MD, Indonesia's coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, told reporters that he had conveyed to Xiao some of the concerns voiced by Indonesian Muslim groups about the treatment of the Uyghurs.
"Our diplomacy is soft diplomacy. We do not interfere, but we look at things objectively," Mahfud said.
"We are mediating and looking for the best solution, not confrontational," he said.
Meanwhile, the top Islamic jurist in Malaysia's Perlis state urged Muslim countries to initiate a boycott of Chinese products over the detention of the Uyghurs.

Mohamad Asri bin Zainul Abidin said political and religious leaders from the Muslim world should exert more economic and diplomatic pressure on Beijing for its treatment and alleged human rights abuse of the minority Muslim group living in its westernmost province.

"We need to go to the extent of boycotting China's products. They know the strength of our purchasing power," Asri told Al Jazeera on Friday on the sidelines of a summit of mainly majority-Muslim countries in Kuala Lumpur.

"The decision should be taken at the highest levels of Muslim countries and the ulama [religious scholars and guardians]" to address the Uyghur issue, he said.
Last week, Charles Santiago, a member of the Malaysian Parliament for the ruling coalition, urged Muslim leaders attending the summit in Kuala Lumpur to discuss the mass incarceration of Uyghurs.
But Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, who hosted the four-day, top-level meeting from Dec. 18-21, indicated that it did not discuss the plight of the Uyghurs.
"In the first place, this conference is about improving the situation in Muslim countries," Mahathir told reporters.
"It is not directed at other countries because we don't expect other countries to take our advice and not do things which are bad for the Muslim countries," he said. "That is the purpose of this conference and we didn't single out many of the instances where wrong things were done to many Muslims and Muslim countries."

Departure from previous stance
Last week, Indonesia's two largest Muslim organizations – Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah – called on China to end human rights violations against the Uyghurs, in a departure from their previous muted stance.
Rights groups have accused Beijing of trying to erase Uyghur culture, language and religious traditions. But Chinese officials have repeatedly denied those allegations.
A report in June by the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) had said Indonesia was reluctant to speak out on the Uyghur issue because the nation rejected interfering in China's affairs.
"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," IPAC said, referring to a long-running conflict in far-eastern Indonesia, for which Jakarta has been repeatedly accused of committing rights abuses.
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.
Muzliza Mustafa contributed to this report from Kuala Lumpur.


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BENARNEWS- Thousands of people took to the streets in Indonesia and Malaysia on Friday to protest against China's internment of nearly 2 million ethnic Uyghurs and other Muslims in camps in the Xinjiang region, amid growing calls for action over their plight.
The demonstrations took place as Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad vowed not to extradite Uyghurs who seek refuge in his country.
"The issues of oppression against Islam worldwide, including the Uyghurs, exist and must be acknowledged by all parties," Mahathir said, reiterating that his government would not interfere in China's internal affairs.
He was replying to a parliamentary question on whether Malaysia would take in Uyghur refugees or send them to a third country.
"If Uyghurs are fleeing to Malaysia to seek asylum, Malaysia will not extradite them even if there is an application from China," he said. "They are allowed to go to the third country because they have valid fears over their safety."
After Friday prayers about 1,000 mostly Muslim protesters gathered in heavy rain outside the Chinese embassy in Jakarta, in the largest demonstration to date in the Southeast Asian country against Beijing's crackdown on Muslim minorities. Many of the protesters wore white Islamic garb and skull caps.
They waved banners that read: "China, stop genocide of ethnic Uyghurs," "Shame on you China for depriving Uyghurs of their freedom," and "Over one million Uyghurs arbitrarily detained in China, Indonesia must speak out."
Slamet Maarif led the large protest in the Indonesian capital.
"Under the pretext of fighting radicalism, Uyghur Muslims are denied the freedom of worship, economic, social and political rights as well as their culture and humanity," he told the crowd of demonstrators.
Slamet urged the Chinese government to end human rights violations against the Uyghurs and open access to independent international investigators, while calling on Indonesians to show solidarity by boycotting Chinese-made goods.
"We call on the people of Indonesia, especially Muslims, to boycott Chinese products, withdraw all deposits from Chinese banks, and stop all forms of cooperation with China," he said, reading out the protesters' demands.
Hundreds of demonstrators also gathered on Friday outside China's consulate-general in Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city.
"As fellow Muslims, we also feel sick here when our brothers are oppressed in Xinjiang," Djoko Satria, one of the protesters in Jakarta, told BenarNews.
Another demonstrator, Teti Irawati, urged the Indonesian government not to turn a blind eye to the plight of the Muslims in China.
'The Indonesian government must not remain silent about the suffering there, because according to our constitution, occupation and oppression must be abolished," the 48-year-old woman told BenarNews.
Smaller protests against China also occurred in Jakarta and Banda Aceh last week.
The demonstrations came amid renewed attention to the issue in Indonesia after a U.S. newspaper reported about a "concerted campaign" by Beijing to convince Indonesian religious authorities and journalists that the Xinjiang camps were a "well-meaning effort" to provide job training and combat extremism.
Views in Indonesia about the camps had changed after more than a dozen top Indonesian religious leaders visited the so-called re-education facilities, according to the report by the Wall Street Journal. Donations and other financial support from Beijing had also helped blunt criticism of its treatment of Uyghurs, the report said.

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Members of Hizbut Tahrir Malaysia rally outside China's embassy in Kuala Lumpur to condemn the detention of Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region, Dec. 27, 2019. [S. Mahfuz/BenarNews]

Hundreds rally in KL
In neighboring Malaysia, about 700 of members of various groups gathered in front of the Chinese embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
In a joint memorandum, the groups, including Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM) and Hizbut Tahrir, urged Beijing to respect the rights of the Uyghurs.
"We demand the Chinese government to stop the extreme discrimination and ask them to close the camps in Xinjiang that are housing hundreds of thousands of Uyghurs that are oppressed by Beijing," ABIM's leader, Muhammad Faisal Abdul Aziz, told reporters.
Embassy officials refused to meet protest representatives, who said they were hoping to hand over the document with their statements.
"We left the memorandum in the mailbox in front of the Chinese embassy for their further action. This is the second time our memorandum is left undelivered to any representative of the embassy," he said.
The protesters also criticized the Malaysian government, with Hizbut Tahrir demanding stronger action against Beijing, including severing diplomatic ties.
In September, Prime Minister Mahathir told BenarNews in an interview that China's economic and military strength may have prevented Muslim nations from criticizing Beijing's repression of the Uyghurs.
"[C]hina is a very powerful nation," he said at the time. "You don't just try and do something which would anyway fail, so it is better to find some other less violent ways not to antagonize China too much, because China is beneficial for us."
On Dec. 24, however, the youth wing of Mahathir's Bersatu party urged his government "to take the initiative to mediate a solution to the ongoing religious suppression in China," as it called on Beijing to immediately cease "all oppressive actions upon the Uyghurs."
 

 
Indonesia takes non-interference stance
Meanwhile on Dec. 23, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo's chief of staff, former Gen. Moeldoko, said Indonesia would not interfere in China's internal affairs regarding the detention of Uyghurs.
"Each country has its own sovereignty to regulate its citizens," Moeldoko told reporters when asked why Indonesia was not more vocal about the Uyghur issue. "The Indonesian government won't interfere in the domestic affairs of China."
He made the remarks days after meeting with Beijing's ambassador to Jakarta, Xiao Qian, who said afterward that allegations of rights abuses in Xinjiang were false. The Chinese envoy invited Indonesians to visit the province to see for themselves the situation in the autonomous region.
China began locking up an estimated 1.8 million Uyghurs and other minority Muslims in a vast network of internment camps in April 2017 over accusations that members of these groups harbored "strong religious views" and "politically incorrect" ideas.
Last week, Indonesia's two largest Muslim organizations – Nahdlatul Ulama and Muhammadiyah – also called on China to end human rights violations against the Uyghurs, in a departure from their previous muted stance.
Human rights groups have accused Beijing of trying to erase the Uyghur culture, language and religious traditions. But Chinese officials have repeatedly denied those allegations, saying the "boarding schools" in Xinjiang provide vocational training for the Muslim minority.
On Thursday, a leader of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's biggest Muslim group, compared the situation in Xinjiang to that in the easternmost province of Papua, where security forces fighting separatist insurgents have also faced accusations of human rights abuses.
"If we allow the conflict to drag on, not only China will suffer, but the entire region will be destabilized," NU leader Yahya Staquf was quoted by CNN Indonesia as telling a discussion in Jakarta.
"The same goes with Papua, a separation would be hugely destabilizing," he said.
Nihsa David in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.

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Malaysian demonstrators carry signs criticizing the detention of Uyghurs in China's Xinjiang region, during a protest rally outside the Chinese embassy in Kuala Lumpur, Dec. 27, 2019. [S. Mahfuz/BenarNews]



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BENARNEWS- Indonesia lodged a strong protest with Beijing on Monday and accused it of trespassing, after confirming that dozens of Chinese fishing boats and two coast guard ships had entered its territorial waters at the edge of the South China Sea.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs filed the diplomatic protest while the nation's Maritime Security Agency (Bakamla) told BenarNews it would intensify sea patrols after at least 65 Chinese ships had sailed since Dec. 19 into Jakarta's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off its Natuna islands, which lie at the southern end of the contested sea. Most of the Chinese vessels were fishing boats but a pair were from China's coast guard, Bakamla said.
A recent meeting of several government ministries confirmed there had been "violations of Indonesia's EEZ, including illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and violations of sovereignty by China's coast guard [ships] in the Natuna waters," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"The Foreign Ministry has summoned China's ambassador in Jakarta and conveyed our strong protest over the incidents. A diplomatic note of protest has also been issued," the ministry said.
It was not immediately clear who met Xiao Qian, the Chinese envoy to Indonesia, as Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi was with President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo in Central Java province on Monday morning.
The ministry's statement reiterated Indonesia's position that it had no overlapping jurisdictions with China and did not recognize the so-called Nine-Dash Line – vaguely located demarcations on maps that Beijing has published as part of its official claim of sovereignty to nearly all of the South China Sea.
"Indonesia will never recognize China's Nine-Dash Line because the drawing of the line is in violation of UNCLOS," it said, referring to the U.N. Convention for the Law of the Sea. The law grants countries 200 nautical miles (230 miles) from their coast, where they can claim exclusive fishing, mining and drilling rights.
The ambassador noted Indonesia's concerns and would report back to Beijing, the statement said, adding that the two countries agreed to maintain good relations.
A Chinese embassy spokesman did not immediately respond to a request from BenarNews for comment.
Indonesia to increase patrols
Tensions between China and its neighbors have risen in recent years as Beijing 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 asserted its claim in 2017 by renaming the waters around islands as the North Natuna Sea and establishing an integrated military unit in the chain.
Bakamla said it would intensify patrols in response to the alleged encroachment by Chinese fishing vessels.
"We will increase the number of security personnel by cooperating with various agencies such as the Ministry of Defense, the Navy and the Ministry of Fisheries," Bakamla chairman Achmad Taufiqoerrohman told BenarNews.
He did not provide details on numbers of personnel involved.
Achmad said Bakamla patrols began spotting Chinese-flagged ships on Dec. 19.
"We chased them out, but after Dec. 24, they returned to our EEZ and insisted that it was their fishing ground," he said.
"Our sovereignty is non-negotiable, but actions must be measured, depending on the situation on the ground ... because we can't do it ourselves if we are outnumbered," he said.
He urged the international community to take action against China.
"Because they (the Chinese) are disregarding international law. Even now they are still in our EEZ, although some are drifting away to the north. We will continue to push them out," he said.
Hikmahanto Juwana, an international relations expert at the University of Indonesia, said Jakarta should take a harder line on China over the territorial encroachment.
"Indonesia can protest a thousand times but [violations] will continue to happen if the area is empty and there is no fishing activity. Indonesia should not have just expelled the boats, but arrested them," he said.
Indonesia began a crackdown on illegal fishing after President Joko Widodo took office in 2014. Under the leadership of Susi Pudjiastuti, the Fisheries and Marine Resources Ministry sank more than 550 boats caught illegally fishing in Indonesian waters during a five-year period.
But the policy of sinking foreign boats is in doubt under the new minister, Edhy Prabowo.
Edhy said last month that the scuttling of confiscated boats was "a good policy, but it was not enough."
"What to do after that? We have to develop the industry. How is our fisheries industry faring? What about our fishermen's yield? These are things we have to improve," he said.
Edhy said his ministry was considering donating impounded boats to local fishermen with court approval, instead of destroying them.


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BENARNEWS- China has a right to sail ships near the Natuna Islands, a foreign ministry spokesman said Thursday, as Beijing hardened its stance in a diplomatic spat after Indonesia protested about dozens of Chinese boats, including two coast guard ships, entering its Exclusive Economic Zone late last month.
When a reporter asked him about an Indonesian government statement a day earlier saying there was "no legal basis" to Beijing's claims that its ships could sail in Indonesia's exclusive zone (EEZ) in the South China Sea, foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang rejected that assertion.
China's "position and propositions comply with international law, including UNCLOS [the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea]," he told a press conference in the Chinese capital. "So whether the Indonesian side accepts it or not, nothing will change the objective fact that China has rights and interests over the relevant waters."
"The so-called award of the South China Sea arbitration is illegal, null and void and we have long made it clear that China neither accepts nor recognizes it. The Chinese side firmly opposes any country, organization or individual using the invalid arbitration award to hurt China's interests," he said.
In 2016, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague ruled in favor of the Philippines in its complaint against China, saying there was no legal basis for Beijing to claim historical rights in the sea. Beijing rejected the ruling and launched a building spree in territories it controls in the sea.
On Monday, Indonesian officials summoned Chinese Ambassador Xiao Qian and lodged a protest with Beijing after confirming that 63 Chinese fishing boats and two coast guard ships had sailed into Jakarta's territorial waters off the Natuna islands since Dec. 19.
The next day, as he responded to the initial criticism from Indonesia, Geng told a press conference that China had sovereignty over the Nansha Islands – the Chinese name for the disputed Spratly Islands in the South China Sea – "and has sovereign rights and jurisdiction over relevant waters near the Nansha Islands."
"China has historical rights in the South China Sea" and Chinese fishermen have long been engaging in "legal and legitimate" fishery activities in waters near those islands, he told reporters Tuesday.
"The China Coast Guard were performing their duty by carrying out routine patrols to maintain maritime order and protect our people's legitimate rights and interests in the relevant waters," the Chinese foreign ministry spokesman added.
On Wednesday, Indonesia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement dismissing China's historical claims to the Indonesian Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) on the grounds that Chinese fishermen have long been active in those waters. Those claims are "unilateral" and "have no legal basis and have never been recognized by the 1982 UNCLOS," the Indonesian ministry said.
"We urge China to explain the legal basis and provide clear a definition for its claims on Indonesian EEZ based on 1982 UNCLOS," the statement said.
Nine-Dash Line
China, through its so-called Nine-Dash Line – vaguely located demarcations on maps – claims most of the South China Sea as its own, while Vietnam, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Brunei have overlapping claims.
In 2016, a dispute erupted between Indonesia and China after Beijing accused the Indonesian Navy of firing at a Chinese fishing boat and injuring a crew member during a standoff in Natuna waters, an area that Beijing claimed as its traditional fishing ground. Indonesian officials said warning shots were fired at several Chinese-flagged ships allegedly encroaching, but no one was injured.
In 2017, Indonesia asserted its claim to the region at the far southern end of the South China Sea by renaming the waters around the islands as the North Natuna Sea and establishing an integrated military unit in the chain.
Muhammad Haripin, a researcher at the Indonesian Institute of Sciences, said Jakarta should take a stronger stance against foreign fishing boats entering its waters illegally.
"They must be arrested so that there is a deterrent effect," Haripin told BenarNews. "The government can also provide security for Indonesian fishermen so they will not be afraid to go to the sea."


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia is boosting patrols in its maritime territory in the South China Sea after incursions by Chinese coast guard and fishing boats in recent days.
The head of Indonesia's Maritime Security Agency (Bakamla) said the country would defend its waters off the Natuna Islands – an archipelago at the southern reaches of the contested sea – after more than 60 Chinese ships trespassed in its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in late December.
"We will be present there and we will stake our claim," ​​Vice Admiral Achmad Taufiqoerrohman, the chief of Bakamla, told reporters after meeting with cabinet ministers in Jakarta on Friday.
"The Indonesian National Armed Forces (TNI) will also exert their strength," Achmad said.
He did not indicate how many additional personnel or ships would be deployed, saying those details were confidential.
TNI said it had already deployed three ships, one maritime reconnaissance aircraft and an Indonesian Air Force plane to patrol Natuna waters. Another ship was on its way to the region from Jakarta, the military said in a statement.
After Jakarta lodged a diplomatic protest over the December incursion, Beijing's foreign ministry defended the presence of Chinese boats around the Indonesian islands, saying that "China has rights and interests over the relevant waters."
Chinese boats including three coast guard vessels were again spotted in Natuna waters on Friday, according to Indonesian media outlet Tempo.
"When we conduct air patrol this morning, we find 30 boats there. I have deployed more security personnel," it quoted the Bakamla chief as saying.
Gas fields near the islands are believed to hold up to 226 trillion cubic feet of gas, according to data from the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.
Following a series of encounters with Chinese ships in Indonesian waters in 2016, including one in which the Indonesian Navy fired warning shots at Chinese-flagged vessels, Indonesia further irritated Beijing by renaming the area the North Natuna Sea.
Jakarta then launched an ambitious five-point plan for developing the Natunas that involved military facilities, fisheries, tourism, oil and gas, and preserving the environment.
"It is our right to develop the Natuna waters," Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told reporters on Friday. "We would also like to emphasize again that there have been violations by Chinese vessels in Indonesia's EEZ."
Overlapping claims
Indonesia has traditionally not been among countries in the region engaged in territorial disputes over the South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which about U.S. $5 trillion in trade passes annually.
China, through its so-called Nine-Dash Line, claims almost all of the sea, while Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan have their own overlapping claims to portions of those waters.
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In a 2016 ruling on a case brought by the Philippines, the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague said there was no legal basis for Beijing's maritime claims. But China rejected the ruling and launched a building spree in territories it has taken over in the sea.
China's Nine-Dash Line overlaps with Indonesia's EEZ in waters off the Natunas, U.S.-based experts on the South China Sea told BenarNews.
Evan Laksmana, a senior researcher at the Jakarta-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said the Natuna waters had been one of Indonesia's potential flashpoints since the 1990s because of their location in the South China Sea.
"If the military anticipated some form of conflict spillover, from regional countries fighting with each other ... the Natunas are among the likeliest or closest scenarios," Evan told BenarNews.
"In addition to the problems in the South China Sea, I think this 'maritime crises over fisheries' potential has given an additional public momentum for the TNI to put in place pre-existing policies and plans to beef up military security in the area," he said.
A future 'Pearl Harbor'
In 2018, Indonesia began building a military base on Natuna Besar, the regency's main island, which will reportedly house several branches of the armed forces when completed as well submarines, warships and fighter jets. Ryamizard Ryacudu, the defense minister during President Joko Widodo's first term, envisioned the base as a future "Pearl Harbor."
"The Natuna Integrated TNI Unit is part of our strategic plans to develop our strength to provide deterrence against threats, especially at the borders," military commander Air Chief Marshal Hadi Tjahjanto said during the facility's launch in 2018.
Military officials did not grant BenarNews access to the site during a visit to the regency in December, and TNI officials in Jakarta declined to respond to questions for this report.
Civilians in Natuna privately expressed doubts that tourism could flourish in a place with such a heavy military presence.
But the government has established a network of parks in the island chain, and plans to nominate Natuna as a UNESCO Global Geopark due to its biodiversity and unique geological features.
"What triggered the central government to beef up the military is the South China Sea issue," Rohdial Huda, a former fishing boat captain and entrepreneur in Ranai, told BenarNews.
The plan to strengthen the local economy by promoting tourism and fisheries could boost the country's prestige, according to Rohdial.
"National pride does not only come from fighting strength, but also economic strength. If the economy is strong, so is our self-esteem. If the economy is weak, we are weak too," he said.
Hardiansyah, the head of tourism and culture in the islands, said he was optimistic that the central government's plan to make Natuna a tourism hub could increase regional revenue.
The government is building a seaport in Senoa Bay off one of the Natuna islets that will allow tourists from Singapore and Malaysia to come by boat.
"Currently, tourism contributes Rp 2.7 billion (U.S. $193,800) [to the local economy] and we hope it will increase 10-fold or maybe more," Hardiansyah told BenarNews.
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Jakarta has also poured money into developing Natuna's fishing industry in the past five years. In October, the government launched the Natuna Integrated Marine and Fisheries Center, which had been in development for three years and cost 221.7 billion rupiah ($15.9 million).
Dedy Damhudy, head of the fisheries empowerment division at the Natuna Regency Maritime and Fisheries Office, said programs and policies introduced by Jakarta had contributed to bigger catches.
"During the last four years, the impact has been significant. There have been plenty of fish. Coral reefs have been rehabilitated," Dedy told BenarNews.
Natuna is unique among Indonesian territories because it borders so many countries, including Vietnam, Cambodia, Singapore and Malaysia. Fishing boats from countries closer than China commonly trespass in the area, local fishermen say.
The government policy of seizing and sinking foreign fishing boats was popular among Indonesians but exposed the government to criticism from affected countries. That policy may change under Edhy Prabowo, Indonesia's new minister of maritime affairs and fisheries.
"New minister Edhy seems [to be] moving towards overturning his predecessor's policies, so it seems possible that blowing up ships may no longer be the priority for the new ministry. But we have to wait and see," said Evan of the CSIS in Jakarta.
Edhy has said that the scuttling of confiscated boats was "a good policy, but it was not enough."
"What to do after that? We have to develop the industry. How is our fisheries industry faring? What about our fishermen's yield? These are things we have to improve," the minister said recently.
Edhy said his ministry was considering donating impounded boats to local fishermen with court approval instead of destroying them.
Meanwhile in Ranai, it is often fishermen who inform the Navy about the presence of foreign boats.
"In this storm season, they enter our territory saying they need to take cover. But they don't go to port. They keep taking fish. Just last year, we saw hundreds of them. The ships are huge, dozens of tons. Some are more than 100 tons," Rusli, a local fisherman, told BenarNews in December.
Confrontations even occur, with boat rammings on the open sea.
"We are OK as long as the Navy or fisheries patrols keep going out. If someone escorts us, we don't feel afraid," Rusli said.

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A fishmonger (left) sells fish to a customer at a market in Ranai, in Indonesia's Natuna regency, Dec. 6, 2019. [Nosa Normanda/BenarNews]



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BENARNEWS- Indonesia's sovereignty over waters off the Natuna Islands cannot be negotiated, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said Monday, after local media reported that Chinese ships, which had entered Jakarta's Exclusive Economic Zone in the South China Sea, were refusing to leave.
The Indonesian military was dispatching four ships to the region in addition to three warships and two aircraft deployed there last week, Vice Adm. Yudo Margono, chief of the Joint Regional Defense Command, said on Sunday. On Friday, dozens of Chinese fishing boats and a trio of Chinese coast guard ships had been spotted in Natuna area waters, according to an Indonesian news report.
"On the Natuna issue, I think all statements [from Indonesian officials] so far have been good, that the sovereignty of our territory is non-negotiable," Jokowi said during a cabinet meeting.
In addition to the military ships, about 120 fishermen from the northern coast of Java island would be sent to the Natunas to strengthen the Indonesian presence in the region, according to Mohammad Mahfud, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs.
"We want to mobilize fishermen from the northern coast and maybe from other areas too to fish and conduct other activities there," Mahfud said.
Officials said that about 30 Chinese ships had been sighted in Indonesian territory and refusing to leave, the national news agency Antara reported on Sunday. Government officials could not be reached on Monday to report on the status of the Chinese ships in the region.
"They were accompanied by two coast guard vessels and one Chinese fishing surveillance vessel," Margono, the vice admiral, told Antara. "We are also actively communicating with Chinese coast guard vessels so that they immediately leave the waters."
Margono said the Indonesian ships would stay in the region until China left the EEZ.
China is Indonesia's biggest trading partner and third-largest foreign investor.
A diplomatic row between the two countries erupted last week after Indonesian officials complained that dozens of Chinese fishing boats and coast guard ships had trespassed since Dec. 19 into the economic zone off the Natunas, a group of Indonesian islands in the southern reaches of the disputed South China Sea.
"Foreigners can't enter our territory even an inch without the government's approval," Mahfud told reporters. "We are not at war, we are simply protecting our sovereignty, but there's no negotiation because the area is ours and it's final under international law."
Last week, the Indonesian government dismissed as "legally baseless" China's historical claims to the waters off the Natunas on the grounds that Chinese fishermen have long been active in those waters. Jakarta summoned Chinese Ambassador Xiao Qian to lodge a protest over alleged violations, but Beijing officials insisted they had a legitimate right to sail ships in the area.
Overlapping claims
In 2016, after a series of encounters with Chinese ships in Indonesian waters, including one where the Indonesian Navy fired warning shots at Chinese-flagged vessels, Indonesia irritated Beijing by renaming the maritime region the North Natuna Sea.
Jakarta then launched an ambitious five-point plan for developing the Natunas involving military facilities, fisheries, tourism, oil and gas, and preservation of the environment.
Indonesia has traditionally not been involved in territorial disputes over the South China Sea, a strategic waterway through which about U.S. $5 trillion in trade passes annually.
China, through its so-called Nine-Dash Line, claims almost all of the sea, while Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan have their own overlapping claims to portions of those waters.
A South China Sea analyst based in the United States said Beijing's Nine-Dash Line overlaps with Indonesia's EEZ in waters off the Natunas.
"A half of one of China's nine dashes in the South China Sea lies within the EEZ claimed by Indonesia based on its Natuna Islands," Alexander Vuving, a professor at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies in Honolulu, told BenarNews.
"And the imagined Nine-Dash Line significantly overlaps with the waters claimed by Indonesia as its EEZ around the Natuna Islands, although China does not claim the Natuna Islands."
BenarNews staff in Washington contributed to this report.
CORRECTION: An earlier version misattributed the quote about foreigners not being able to enter Indonesian territorial waters to Vice Adm. Yudo Margono.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia sent four F-16 fighter jets to patrol its Natuna Islands, officials said Tuesday, as President Joko Widodo prepared to visit the area after asserting that Jakarta's sovereignty in waters off the chain in the South China Sea was "non-negotiable."
Tensions between Jakarta and Beijing have risen since last week after reports that dozens of Chinese fishing boats, backed by Chinese coast guard ships, had entered waters in Indonesia's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), prompting Indonesia to double its naval presence in the region.
"The four F-16s departed today," Air Commodore Ronny Irianto Moningka, chief of the Roesmin Nurjadin Airbase, told reporters in Riau province, which includes Natuna regency.
"We have no intention of provoking any other parties. We only safeguard our territory," he said, describing the scrambling of the fighter jets as "a routine operation." Ronny did not say how long the patrol would last.
In Beijing, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told reporters Tuesday that "China and Indonesia have been in communication with each other through diplomatic channels."
"China always views bilateral relationship with Indonesia from a strategic and long-term perspective," he said. "We believe Indonesia will also have in mind the bigger picture of bilateral relations and regional stability, properly resolve differences with China, and foster favorable atmosphere."
Beijing claims nearly all of the contested South China Sea, a vital sea lane through which about U.S. $5 trillion of shipping trade passes each year. Indonesia is not among the nations with overlapping claims in the sea, but Beijing says the waters off the Natuna islands are part of traditional fishing grounds for Chinese fishermen.
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan also have their own overlapping claims to portions of the sea.
'We are not at war'
Meanwhile on Tuesday, Ryan Martinson, an analyst at the U.S. Naval War College's China Maritime Studies Institute, wrote on his Twitter account that "currently at least four Chinese maritime law enforcement ships [were] operating in Indonesia's EEZ."
He identified the ships as "Zhongguohaijing, Haijing35111, Zhongguohaijian 2169 and a China coast guard vessel."
On Monday, Martinson also posted on Twitter that the Chinese coast guard cutter Haijing 35111 had left the Fiery Cross Reef in the South China Sea and sailed in the direction of the Natuna islands.
The Chinese ship stopped over on one of the islands in the Spratly group, where China had refueling facilities, local reports said, citing data from Marine Traffic, a maritime intelligence provider with a website that tracks ships.
"This shows the value of China's Spratly bases for grey zone coercion in the South China Sea," Martinson tweeted.
Maritime Traffic also confirmed that Haijing 35111 and another ship, Zhongguohaijing, were in waters within Indonesia's EEZ on Tuesday, about 200 km or 124 miles off the Riau Islands, local reports said. These also underscored that the vessels were within Beijing's so-called Nine-Dash Line, a demarcation unilaterally placed by Beijing on Chinese maps to show its claims in the sea region.
The movement of the Chinese coast guard ships came as Jakarta dispatched four more warships to the Natunas on Monday, in addition to three warships and two aircraft deployed there last week.
Apart from the military ships, about 120 fishermen from the northern coast of Java island were being sent to the Natunas to strengthen the Indonesian presence in the region, according to Mahfud MD, Indonesia's coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs.
"We want to mobilize fishermen from the northern coast and maybe from other areas too to fish and conduct other activities there," Mahfud told reporters Monday. "We are not at war, we are simply protecting our sovereignty."
Indonesian Vice Adm. Yudo Margono, chief of the Joint Regional Defense Command, told reporters on Sunday that about 30 Chinese ships had been sighted in Indonesian territory.
"They were accompanied by two coast guard vessels and one Chinese fishing surveillance vessel," he said.
Vice Admiral Achmad Taufiqoerrachman, chief of the Marine Security Agency (Bakamla), told reporters that Chinese fishing boats and coast guard ships were still in Natuna waters as of Tuesday morning.
"The Foreign Minister's report said that there are still two coast guard [ships] around them," he said.
Jokowi weighs in
Last week, the Indonesian government dismissed as "legally baseless" China's historical claims to the waters off the Natunas and Jakarta summoned Chinese Ambassador Xiao Qian to lodge a protest over alleged violations.
During a cabinet meeting on Monday, Jokowi emphasized that the waters off the Natuna Islands could not be negotiated.
"On the Natuna issue, I think all statements [from Indonesian officials] so far have been good, that the sovereignty of our territory is non-negotiable," he said.
Members of Jokowi's "advance team" met on Tuesday with Natuna district chief Hami Rizal, along with other local officials, to prepare for the president's scheduled visit, Antara said. Officials declined to give the exact date of Widodo's visit, it said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian President Joko Widodo vowed on Wednesday to enforce his country's sovereignty over waters off the Natuna Islands as he visited the region amid diplomatic tensions with China over maritime rights.
The visit to the island chain in the South China Sea was the second of his presidency, after Jokowi, as he is known, held a cabinet meeting aboard a warship in the Natunas in June 2016, following a similar flare-up of tensions due to Beijing asserting claims on nearby waters.
"I'm here to make sure that legal sovereignty over our maritime resources in the exclusive economic zone [EEZ] is enforced," Jokowi said during the visit, according to remarks released by his office.
The president also inspected two warships and an air force base near Ranai, the main town in the island group.
Jokowi later tweeted that he was informed by his military chief that there were foreign ships in Indonesia's EEZ, but not in its territorial sea.
"In that zone, international vessels can pass freely, but Indonesia has a right to resources within it. Indonesia has sovereignty rights to arrest or expel foreign vessels that are trying to exploit the resources illegally," he said on Twitter.
The EEZ is an area extending up to 200 nautical miles from the baseline of a coastal state. Territorial seas extend 12 nautical miles from that baseline.
'We expelled them'
A deputy of operations at the Maritime Security Agency (Bakamla), Chokky Hutabarat, said the Chinese ships had begun sailing away from Indonesia's EEZ.
"We expelled them. They have moved away to the north," he told BenarNews.
Jakarta has deployed at least eight warships in the region off the Natunas to ward off encroaching Chinese fishing vessels, and sent four F-16 fighter jets to the area on Tuesday.
On Jan. 5, military officials said about 30 Chinese ships had been sighted in Indonesian territory, accompanied by two Chinese coast guard ships and a fishing surveillance vessel.
The previous month, the Foreign Ministry summoned Chinese Ambassador Xiao Qian to protest the presence of at least 65 Chinese ships in Indonesia's EEZ off the Natuna islands.
China has insisted that its fishermen have legitimate rights to operate in the area.
In Natuna, Jokowi met local fishermen at the newly established Integrated Marine and Fisheries Center.
"The government wants our marine resources in Natuna to be exploited for the utmost benefit of the people here," he told the fishermen.
"Don't ever question or doubt. Natuna has always been Indonesia," he added.
On Tuesday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said Jakarta and Beijing had communicated through diplomatic channels.
"China always views bilateral relationship with Indonesia from a strategic and long-term perspective," he said. "We believe Indonesia will also have in mind the bigger picture of bilateral relations and regional stability, properly resolve differences with China and foster favorable atmosphere."

Stronger pushback?
Beijing claims nearly all of the contested South China Sea, a vital sea lane through which shipping trade valued at about U.S. $5 trillion passes each year.
Indonesia traditionally has not been among nations speaking out about overlapping claims in the sea, portions of which are contested by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan.
Following a series of encounters with Chinese ships in Indonesian waters in 2016, including one in which the Indonesian Navy fired warning shots at Chinese-flagged vessels, Indonesia further irritated Beijing by renaming the area the North Natuna Sea.
In 2018, Indonesia began building a military base on Natuna Besar, the regency's main island, which will reportedly house several branches of the armed forces when completed as well submarines, warships and fighter jets. Ryamizard Ryacudu, the defense minister during Jokowi's first term, envisioned the base as a future "Pearl Harbor."
Evan Laksmana, a researcher at the Jakarta-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said the government should seek "a realistic strategic outcome" in dealing with China.
"Getting Beijing to publicly renounce its (illegal) claims seems like a bridge too far as they remain central to China's domestic legitimacy," he said in an opinion piece in the Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
"Instead, we should focus on getting China to modify its behavior in the North Natuna Sea in the long run," he said.
Indonesia should consider a stronger pushback beyond protest notes, including recalling its ambassador in Beijing if China refuses to leave the waters, Evan said.
"There are other steps we can take should the need arise, including reviewing existing cooperative activities and engagement," he said.
"If anything, Jokowi should be more willing to take risks in his final term. There are no easy paths to long-lasting legacies and there is none harder than laying a strong foundation for a more equitable strategic partnership with China," he wrote.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian officials are welcoming offers from China, Japan and the United States to help build the Southeast Asian nation's "smart and green" new national capital on Borneo island, a project expected to begin later this year.
The involvement of foreign consultants, including those from the three countries, is needed to attract investors to the project, said Danis Hidayat Sumadilaga, director general of human settlements at the Ministry of Public Works.
"There have been offers from Japan, China and the United States. We welcome all of them," Danis told BenarNews, adding that foreign involvement could "enrich the existing design so that it becomes more attractive."
China is seeking a role in designing urban landscapes and water management, while the U.S. wants to help build infrastructure such as roads and bridges, Danis said. Meanwhile, Japan has expressed interest in building the future city's transportation and energy system.
Danis said the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime and Investment Affairs was vetting the proposals from the three countries. While he did not name companies that would participate in the project, he said they had been involved in infrastructure projects in Indonesia and had good track records.
Adam Boehler, the chief executive officer of U.S. Development Finance Corp. (DFC), is to visit Jakarta this week and could discuss investment opportunities in the infrastructure sector, according to an official at the American embassy who declined to be identified or release additional information.
In a statement, the embassy said Boehler was scheduled to meet regional business leaders and senior government officials during his visit to Asia, which includes stops in Japan and Vietnam. The DFC is an independent government agency that provides financing for development projects.
Officials at the Chinese and Japanese embassies could not immediately be reached for comment.
In 2019, Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo announced that the country would move its capital from traffic-choked and crowded Jakarta to a location on Borneo, citing lower risks of natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions as among considerations.
Government officials hope to start moving the capital to an area in East Kalimantan province in 2024, the last year of Jokowi's second and final term in office. Basic infrastructure construction such as roads, dams and irrigation could begin in the second half of 2020, officials said.
'Looking for smart ideas'
The new city is expected to cost 466 trillion rupiah ($33.5 billion) to build with part of the funding coming from public and private partnerships.
Last month, the Public Workers Ministry announced three winners of a contest to design the new environmentally sustainable capital.
"We are looking for smart ideas," said Suharso Monoarfa, the head of the National Development Planning Board (Bappenas).
Bappenas gave the designers six months, starting this month, to prepare the masterplan with the help of foreign and local consultants picked by the government, Suharso told BenarNews.
The Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment, Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan, said he had picked consultants from China and Japan to assist with the initial design work, national news agency Antara reported. He said experts from other countries might join the project later.
Luhut said Japanese investment giant SoftBank Group had offered to invest $100 billion in the new capital and its chief executive Masayoshi Son was scheduled to visit Jakarta on Friday.
"It's too good to be true, but it's ongoing and we are working on it. I told him that we are asking for only $25 billion and that's more than enough for the next five years," Luhut told Antara this week.
In addition to the SoftBank pledge, the United Arab Emirates said it planned to contribute to an Indonesian sovereign wealth fund to finance infrastructure projects in the new capital, Jakarta's ambassador to UAE told Detik.com, an Indonesian news portal. 

Jakarta, with a population of 10 million people – or 30 million including its satellite cities – is grappling with frequent flooding and traffic congestion. As much as 36 percent of Indonesia's current capital could be underwater by 2050 mainly because of mass extraction of groundwater, according to a study by the Bandung Institute of Technology.
Still, some environmental activists have criticized the planned move to Borneo, warning that building a new city in the middle of a forest could harm the environment, including endangered species such as orangutan.


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BENARNEWS- South Asian nations will face "low-end" terrorism by Islamic extremists in 2020 while their Southeast neighbors will see a multi-faceted threat as fighters return home from the Middle East, a Singapore-based think tank warned in its annual threat assessment released earlier this week.
The International Center for Political Violence and Terrorism Research based its new year's outlook, "Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses," on trends over the last 12 months in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand.
"Islamist terrorism will persist into 2020, mainly in the form of low-end urban terror attacks involving knives or other stabbing instruments, vehicles and locally assembled IEDs [improvised explosive devices]," the report said of South Asia. "This is exacerbated by the prospect of battle-hardened regional militants returning home from the Syria theater."
The center, which is located at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, offered a similar outlook for Southeast Asia. It said countries in that region could face "multi-faceted terrorist threats from regional fighters returning from abroad, online radicalization and possible lone-wolf attacks."
The report pointed out that knife-related attacks were most common while Muslim terrorist groups, including those linked to the Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda, were "increasingly relying on family or kinship networks to plan and execute attacks."
In 2019, the threat landscape in Bangladesh was marked by IS extremist ideology and efforts by groups linked to al-Qaeda to relaunch, the report found.
"IS' current strategy in Bangladesh is to target the police and promote lone-wolf attacks, particularly in the capital, Dhaka," it said.
The report called developments related to IS troubling because of the group's ability to recruit from existing terror groups and radicalized youths. It noted that a video was released in November featuring IS supporters in Bangladesh pledging allegiance to the organization's new leader.
For 2020, the report calls IS ideology a potent threat, adding that lone-wolf attacks cannot be discounted. In addition, efforts to review al-Qaeda-linked groups are expected to continue.
While the report pointed to IS-linked groups having a foothold in Bangladesh, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal and other government officials have denied the group's existence in the country.
Southeast Asia
Indonesia suffered from eight terrorist attacks in 2019 while 10 were stopped, compared with 15 attacks and a dozen foiled plots in 2018, according to the think tank.
Law enforcers, politicians and the general election last year were targets for some of those attacks in 2019, the center noted in its report, adding it expected low-grade attacks in the future.
"The involvement of family networks, particularly wives, in militant activities continues to be a feature in Indonesia," it said.
The report stressed "the need for deradicalization initiatives targeting women and children, that should be differentiated from existing programs that largely cater to male terrorist offenders, and, to some extent, their wives."
Terrorism in the Philippines, particularly in the southern Mindanao region, was highlighted by the emergence of a new IS emir to succeed Isnilon Hapilon who was killed near the end of the Marawi siege in 2017, localized suicide attacks, recruitment of foreign fighters and the use of fake news, the report said.
"Islamic groups in Mindanao have a track record of releasing false information as part of opportunistic attempts to gain attention and financing. BIFF [Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters] is known to routinely issue warnings of imminent attacks and bombings to residents in North Cotabato and Maguindanao in order to instill fear," it said.
The report's 2020 outlook includes the entrenchment of suicide attacks as, it predicted, Mindanao will remain "a desired destination for aspiring foreign fighters from Southeast Asia and beyond," with eastern Malaysia's Sabah state used by militants as a transit route to the nearby southern Philippines.
The report warns Malaysia that it could face threats from self-radicalized IS-linked militants and from locals returning from Syria and Iraq who could carry out attacks on their home soil.
"Going forward, the threat landscape for Malaysia remains very much linked to Islamist terrorist developments globally," it said. "Further, the foreign militant influence needs to be addressed holistically, so that Malaysia does not remain a transit point of choice, as it currently is."
Thailand
Thailand has been marked by violence in the predominately Malay-Muslim Deep South since 2004, but saw the number of attacks targeting civilians decline in 2019.
Despite that good news, attacks outside the region including coordinated bombings in and around Bangkok in August "suggest insurgent groups have retained the capacity to launch attacks beyond the conflict area," the report said.
It pointed out that peace efforts between government officials and MARA Patani, an umbrella group representing Deep South militant groups, made little progress last year as the Barisan Revolusi Nasional (BRN), the region's largest rebel group, had little to do with the talks.
In addition, Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha has shown no intention of making political concessions or allowing for regional autonomy.
"The Thai state will eventually need to address this issue if the dialogue is to be meaningful," the report said.


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BENARNEWS- Jakarta still has not taken a firm decision on whether to repatriate about 30 Indonesian fighters and more than 150 of their family members who have languished in Syrian camps after Islamic State's last bastion fell, the new Indonesian security minister said Friday.
Citizens suspected of being foreign terrorist fighters and their families number around 600, said Mahfud MD, Indonesia's coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs.
"[They are] in different countries and we must talk about how to repatriate, or whether doing so would pose a danger," Mahfud told reporters at his office in Jakarta after a meeting with Shigenobu Fukumoto, Japan's director general for counter-terrorism.
"From Syria alone, we have 187," of whom 31 are men, he said.
"Those who were clearly involved in terrorism could be tried in Syria. If that's the case, the government cannot interfere," Mahfud said, commenting publicly on the issue for the first time since becoming Indonesia's top security official in October.
He did not specify where the hundreds of others of foreign terrorist fighters (FTFs) were located. Some of the fighters had left Syria and settled in other countries, he said without elaborating.
In March 2019, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) declared they had captured the last bastion of Islamic State (IS), which once controlled a swath of land that spilled across the boundaries of Iraq and Syria. The SDF victory ushered in a series of concerns, including extradition, rehabilitation or criminal trials for captured FTFs as well as their wives and children.
The Indonesian government later said it would try to bring them home to face criminal charges or undergo rehabilitation, while addressing security concerns because most of the women and children were not fighting for IS.
The latest figure given by Mahfud is smaller than one given in a report in November by Indonesia's elite counter-terrorism police unit Densus 88. Citing data from border authorities in the Middle East, it claimed there were 1,500 IS fighters and their families from Indonesia, including 700 living in three Syrian camps.
In August 2019, the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) urged Indonesia to begin repatriating its most vulnerable citizens who had joined IS and not let them remain in the camps where, the think tank reported, they faced intimidation from supporters of the extremist group.
"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 at the time.
"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," she added.
Commenting then on IPAC's 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."
On Friday, after his meeting with Fukumoto, Mahfud said Indonesia wanted to work with Japan to fight terrorism.
"As a follow-up to the meeting, there will be a kind of joint forum to regularly discuss terrorism and regional security issues," he said.
"Japan is also worried about terrorism, because it has become more sophisticated. It has involved women and children, the transfers of money via smartphones, so it's become more digitalized," Mahfud said.


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BENARNEWS- About two in five Indonesians see China as the most influential country in Asia, according to a private poll which relegated the United States to second place for the first time in almost a decade.
The perception among Indonesians of China being the region's most influential power jumped to 39 percent in 2019 from 19 percent in 2011, when a similar survey was done, according to the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI), which released poll results Sunday.
"Usually in a study like this, the United States would come out on top and Japan at number two. But from 2016 to 2019 there has been a shift in people's perception," LSI Executive director Djayadi Hanan told a news conference. "China has overtaken the U.S. and Japan."
The LSI survey asked the respondents from across the country: "According to you, which country is the most influential in Asia?"
The Indonesian perception of U.S. and Japanese influence in Asia fell, respectively, from 29 percent in 2011 to 18 percent, and from 23 percent to 14 percent over the same period, poll results showed.
Djayadi said a different study was needed to explain why the survey participants responded the way they did.
The survey, involving a random sampling of 1,540 respondents, was conducted in July, months before bilateral diplomatic tensions between Indonesia and China over maritime rights erupted two weeks ago.
For the first time since the previous survey was conducted nine years ago, about 66 percent of those polled also responded that Beijing wielded significant or strong influence over Indonesia, compared with 49 percent for the United States.
However, the rising perception of Chinese influence was also accompanied by increasing negative sentiment, which more than doubled compared with the 2011 poll.
"If we look at the trend from 2011, the percentage of those who believe China is favorable to Asia and Indonesia has declined," Djayadi told BenarNews. "Meanwhile, perceptions of China as harmful increased."
Negative perceptions for the United States and Japan have not changed significantly, Djayadi said.
LSI conducted the survey with the Asian Barometer, an applied-research program at National Taiwan University.
Djayadi said those who view the Indonesian government's economic performance negatively tended to see China as more influential.
Anti-China sentiment during last year's elections, including accusations that President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo was "too cozy with China," helped create negative perceptions about Beijing's influence, Djayadi said.
"These include the hoax that Jokowi was a Chinese lackey," he said.
Yohanes Sulaiman, a lecturer at Universitas Achmad Yani, said the survey findings needed to be accompanied by an analysis of media reports and public discussion.
"Is China considered to be more influential because it is more influential, or because the media or public discourse dwelled more on China issues," Yohanes said on Twitter.
Survey released amid tensions
The survey's findings were released amid tensions between Indonesia and China over maritime rights off the Natuna Islands in the South China Sea. The tensions were raised after Chinese fishing boats and Chinese coast guard ships entered waters in Jakarta's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Beijing claims nearly all of the contested South China Sea, a waterway through which about U.S. $5 trillion of shipping trade passes each year. Indonesia is not among the nations with overlapping claims in the sea, but Beijing says the waters off Indonesia's Natuna islands are part of traditional fishing grounds for Chinese fishermen.
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan have their own overlapping claims to portions of the sea.
On Monday, Vice Admiral Yudo Morgono, chief of the Joint Regional Defense Command I, told reporters that Indonesian naval forces had repelled dozens of Chinese fishing vessels escorted by China's coast guard ships over the weekend.
The Indonesian military had earlier said that the Chinese ships had left Indonesia's EEZ waters after President Joko Widodo visited the Natunas last week.
Yudo warned that stronger action would be taken if the Chinese ships made similar incursions again.
"In line with President Joko Widodo's order, the boats will be captured and [their crews] will face legal proceedings," Yudo said.
Tia Asmara in Jakarta and Hadi Azmi in Kuala Lumpur contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Dwi Siti Rhomdoni was waiting for her coffee at a Starbucks store in the heart of the Indonesian capital that morning, when the bomber blew himself up about two meters away.
The blast's impact threw her to the floor and knocked her unconscious, Dwi recalled.
As she regained consciousness she heard people, some covered in blood, call out for help. A man standing in front of her had nails planted in his chest – shrapnel from the explosion.
"My ears were ringing, my vision blurry, my head dizzy. I was dazed," Dwi, 37, told BenarNews in an interview at the same Starbucks outlet. "I said to myself 'I don't want to die here.'"
Eight people did die – four attackers and four bystanders – and 23 others suffered injuries in the Jan. 14, 2016, attack in central Jakarta, the first terrorist strike in Indonesia claimed by the extremist group that calls itself the Islamic State (IS).
Four years on, Dwi and other victims of the attack are still struggling to overcome the mental and physical scars it left behind.
'Hatred only breeds more pain'
For about a year, Dwi, who suffered cervical fractures and bruises on her left chest and legs, said she was too afraid to set foot in any Starbucks store. She left her job as a public relations officer.
"Every day I was angry at the situation. I couldn't watch TV and I dreaded the prospects of being disabled and unable to work," she said.
Then she met Kurnia Widodo, a repentant ex-bomb maker who had served six years in prison for a failed terrorist plot, at an event initiated by the Indonesian Alliance for Peace (AIDA). The group seeks to empower victims of terrorist attacks in Indonesia through personal stories of survival and forgiveness.

Dwi was seething. She refused to look at Kurnia's face or talk to him.
But she mustered the courage to ask him: "Are you genuinely remorseful or are you just paying lip service? You could have chosen not do it, but you did it anyway."
"Hatred only breeds more pain. I came to the realization that the former convicts genuinely wanted to make amends and were deeply remorseful. So, I forgave them," she said.
The explosion that threw her to the floor four Januarys ago was followed by a second bomb blast and a barrage of gunfire, as anti-terrorist police battled militants outside the Starbucks next to a shopping center on Jalan Thamrin, one of the main roads in Jakarta's central business district.
Investigators determined the attackers were followers of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a local IS affiliate.
In 2018, JAD founder and chief ideologue Aman Abdurrahman was sentenced to death for leading a string of attacks carried out by the militant network, including the January 2016 Jakarta attack. In addition, six people have been sentenced to between three and 10 years in prison for their roles in the attack that injured Dwi and others.

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Agus Kurnia revisits the site where he was hit by bomb fragments during the 2016 terror attack in Jakarta, Jan. 12, 2020. [Tia Asmara/BenarNews]

Another victim, Agus Kurnia, 28, has struggled with hearing loss from injuries caused by bomb fragments. "My heart sometimes beats faster and my ears hurt. I prefer seclusion now," he told BenarNews.
"Because I live in Kampung Bali, I have to pass by that location every day. I was scared at first, but I tried to overcome the trauma," he said, referring to his home in a Jakarta neighborhood.
"I didn't want to make a long detour because it's too tiring," said Agus, a marketing officer at a restaurant.
He recalled the time that an unattended suitcase at an airport caused him to hide behind a column.
Lucky
Both Dwi and Agus say they are more fortunate than many other victims of terrorism in Indonesia.
"Others have had more severe wounds. There are those who suffered burns to 70 percent of their bodies. Some have become blind and have fractured jaws. Some others are permanently disabled and can't work anymore," Dwi said.
She and 13 others who were wounded in the 2016 attack have joined the Indonesian Survivors Foundation (YPI), which is dedicated to caring for victims of terrorism.
All but one have received cash compensation ranging from 28 million rupiah (U.S. $2,000) to about 202 million rupiah ($14,700) based on a 2018 court ruling.
Agus urges the government to pay attention to the victims by providing them with permanent jobs, including people injured in earlier terror attacks.
"There are still many other victims who have not received help out there. I am just luckier because I have received a lot of help," he said.
One of those other victims, Nanda Olivia Daniel, 40, was injured in the 2004 bombing of the Australian Embassy, where a suicide bomber killed eight people and injured 150.
She said she had not received compensation from the government because a compensation law passed in 2018 does not apply retroactively.
"There is no other choice but to wait because we are victims of past attacks. I will accept any amount," she told BenarNews.
State revising compensation rules
Help could be coming.
Susilaningtyas, deputy chairwoman of the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK), which represents the government, said the regulation on victim compensation, restitution and assistance was being revised but those revisions are not complete.

"We cannot implement it because it has not been signed by the president. We are sorry that the victims have to wait. We hope that this revision will be completed soon so payments can be made immediately," she told BenarNews.

In 2019, LPSK has paid 1.7 billion rupiah ($124,000) compensation to 21 victims of the 2016 attack, Susilaningtyas said.
In addition, at least 595 of about 800 people who claimed to have suffered from any terror attack in Indonesia have received some form of assistance from the government over the past two years.
"The assistance has been in the form of medical and psychological care as well. We are cooperating with various hospitals," she said.
To receive assistance, victims need to meet requirements including statements from the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) and medical records.

BNPT Chairman Suhardi Alius said his agency was paying attention to the victims and their families, and working with relevant ministries to deliver assistance.
"We also provide psychological support, livelihood assistance and other things that BNPT can do," he says.
Meanwhile, Dwi said she no longer dreaded sitting in Starbucks, but could not drink the beverage that made it famous.
"I'm still traumatized because at that time I was ordering a coffee," she said.

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Nanda Olivia Daniel, a victim of a 2004 terrorist attack, shows injuries on her right fingers during an interview in Jakarta, Jan. 13, 2020. [Tia Asmara/BenarNews]



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BENARNEWS- Indonesian immigration authorities arrested an American journalist for alleged visa violations, officials and a lawyer said Wednesday, as press and human rights advocates suggested the charges could be linked to his coverage of environmental issues and land disputes.
Philip Jacobson, an editor with the environmental news site Mongabay.com, was arrested and jailed Tuesday in Palangkaraya, the capital of Central Kalimantan province. He already had been barred from leaving the city for a month as authorities investigated his visa case, said Aryo Nugroho, director of the Palangkaraya Legal Aid Institute (LBH).
"His visa and passport were confiscated by the immigration authorities on Dec. 17," Aryo told BenarNews.
Jacobson is accused of violating his visa terms by working as a journalist despite holding a visitor's visa, the immigration department and Aryo said. A foreigner wishing to work in the media must obtain a separate journalist's visa.
A spokesman for Indonesia's Ministry of Law and Human Rights, said Jacobson was being questioned following his arrest.
"From our initial investigation, there were activities that should have not been carried out under his visa terms," spokesman Arvin Gumilang told BenarNews.
Mongabay founder and CEO Rhett A. Butler questioned the legal action against Jacobson. The website describes itself as a U.S.-based platform specializing in reporting on environmental conservation and science news.
"We are supporting Philip in this on-going case and making every effort to comply with Indonesia's immigration authorities," Butler said. "I am surprised that immigration officials have taken such punitive action against Philip for what is an administrative matter."
Jacobson arrived in Palangkaraya on Dec. 14 on a multiple-entry business visa to meet with the local chapter of the Indigenous Peoples Alliance of the Archipelago (AMAN), which is advocating for local farmers in a land dispute, Mongabay said.
A day after Jacobson attended a meeting between the AMAN chapter and members of the Central Kalimantan parliament on Dec. 16, immigration officials confiscated his passport and put him under city arrest as he was about to catch a flight out of Palangkaraya, it said.
"He provided an explanation during the questioning and if he is deemed guilty, he apologizes. He just wants to be deported," Aryo said.
Jacobson's legal team has been in contact with the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta, according to Aryo while embassy officials did not respond to a BenarNews request for comment.
Advocacy groups react
Word of the journalist's arrest drew swift criticism from free press and human rights advocates.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called for Jacobson's "immediate and unconditional release."
"Philip Jacobson's totally disproportionate arrest clearly amounts to intimidation," said Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF's Asia-Pacific desk, in a statement.
"The zeal that immigration officials have displayed in this case has fueled suspicion that the aim is to silence Jacobson, who has often visited Indonesia in the past decade and has covered several environmental scandals including cases of illegal deforestation on the island of Borneo," he said.
A Human Rights Watch researcher in Indonesia said journalists should be free to work in Indonesia without fear of detention.
"Philip Jacobson's treatment is a worrying sign that the government is cracking down on the kind of work that is essential to the health of Indonesian democracy," researcher Andreas Harsono said.
Abdul Manan, chairman of the Alliance of Independent Journalists of Indonesia (AJI), called Jacobson's detention excessive.
"If he was guilty, he should just be deported," he said.
Climate of intimidation 
Human rights activists had previously urged the government to stop what they said were growing physical and legal threats against activists and environmentalists.
In November, two activists who were involved in a land dispute between residents and a palm oil plantation company were found dead in North Sumatra province. Police have arrested at least five suspects in the case, including a palm oil executive who allegedly commissioned the killings.
Earlier this year, unidentified attackers torched the house of the West Nusa Tenggara province director of the environmental group Walhi. Members said they suspect the arson was in retaliation for the group's work.
In a report released at the end of 2018, Walhi said that at least 32 activists were victims of "trumped up" charges, which included incitement, destruction of property and spreading communism. Meanwhile, at least 555 cases of forest and plantation disputes were reported to the government, but little action has been taken.
In 2018, Indonesia's Supreme Court sentenced environmentalist Hari Budiawan to four years in prison after finding him guilty of spreading communism during a 2017 anti-mining protest in in East Java province.
In October 2019, activists criticized police in North Sumatra for dropping an investigation into the death of lawyer Golfrid Siregar, who had sued the local government on behalf of Walhi over a China-backed hydropower project.
Police said the lawyer died after he crashed his motorcycle while driving under the influence.


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BENARNEWS- The launch of a Chinese-backed coal-fired electricity plant has raised questions about Indonesia's commitment to renewable energy sources and if it can meet a goal of renewables powering about a quarter of its energy plants, analysts and environmental activists said.
Unit 1 of PLTU Java 7, built in Banten province by the state-owned China Shenhua Energy Company Limited (CSECL) at a cost of U.S. $1.8 billion, began operations on Dec. 16, four months ahead of schedule. The second unit is expected to be completed next year.
Once finished the two units will make up the largest power plant in the sprawling archipelago, Southeast Asia's most populous nation, officials said. It will have a capacity of 2,000 megawatts (MW) and require 7 million tons of coal each year to churn out all that electricity, they said.
But according to green energy advocates, the plant's construction is not consistent with the government's target of using renewable sources to power 23 percent of Indonesia's energy plants by 2025, as stipulated in the National Energy Plan (RUEN).
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo launched a program to generate 35,000 MW of electricity after he first took office in 2014. He started his second five-year term last October.
"Almost 80 percent of the targeted 35,000 MW are coal-fired plants. Indonesia is still far from meeting the commitment of the Paris Agreement," Mamit Setiawan, executive director of Energy Watch, an NGO, told BenarNews.
He was referring to a pact where world leaders meeting the French capital in December 2015 committed their countries to combating climate change and global warming by reducing emissions from fossil-based fuels such as coal.
"Renewable energy still takes a back seat and is not a priority," he said.
The Java 7 project is being built by a joint venture between China Shenhua Energy and PT Pembangkit Jawa Bali (PJB), a subsidiary of the state-run power company PT PLN. The two companies formed a consortium under the name PT Shenhua Guohua Java Bali Generation (PT SGPJB).
China Shenhua Energy controls a 70 percent stake in the project, which is being funded by a loan from the China Development Bank. CSECL did not respond to a request from BenarNews for comment.
Throughout 2019, Indonesia added 385 MW of renewables, according to the Indonesian Clean Energy Outlook report released by the Institute for Essential Services Reform (IESR) in December.
As of the end of last year, the total installed capacity of renewables was 10,170 MW, with hydropower still dominating, followed by geothermal, bioenergy, wind, solar and waste power, the report said.
Meanwhile, PLN, the state-run power company, predicts that the additional capacity of coal-fired power plants in 2020 could reach 5,500 MW.
In its report, the institute urged the government to improve the climate for investment in renewable energy through a stronger regulatory framework and better planning.
"Although investors started losing their faith in the Indonesian market, the majority of them will still be in the wait-and-see mode," IESR said. "The return of these investors next year will very much depend on policy and regulation quality."
"The government must see that 2020 is a year to restore investor confidence and a year to strengthen the foundations of sustainable energy transformation in Indonesia," the report added.
PLN spokesman Dwi Suryo Abdullah acknowledged that investors in the energy sector were more interested in coal-fired power plants.
In addition to much lower costs, the return on capital is also more guaranteed, he said.
"We're just talking about the target of fulfilling electricity. In Java, the number of electricity users is huge and we want to avoid another power deficit," Dwi Suryo told BenarNews.
Batang Toru
Java 7 is not the only China-backed project in Indonesia that has come under criticism.
PT North Sumatra Hydro Energy (NSHE), an independent power producer in which China's ZheFu Holding Group owns a majority stake, is building a 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 warned.
The Batang Toru Ecosystem is the only known home to the Tapanuli orangutan, a species discovered in 1939. It has been identified as a distinct species. The International Union for Conservation of Nature recently listed the species as critically endangered.
PT North Sumatra Hydro Energy denied that the project would threaten protected animals.
Interconnectedness
A spokesman for the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), Agung Pribadi, said the PLTU Jawa 7 Unit 1 would contribute significantly to the electricity supply on Java and Bali islands, strengthening the regions' interconnectedness.
"We know that the economy grows rapidly in Java and Bali. With the additional electricity supply from Java 7, industrial supply will be more secure," Agung told BenarNews.
PLN's Dwi Suryo argues that the Java 7 plan is far more coal efficient than conventional coal-fired power plants because it uses the so-called ultra-super critical boilers.
The technology, he said, could cut the use of coal to almost half.
But, he said, the company remains committed to promoting renewable energy sources.
"Most importantly, to get investment we still have to look at opportunities. The cost of producing renewable energy is high, not to mention that production is not as efficient as coal," he said.
However, a member of the House of Representatives' energy committee, I Nyoman Parta, accused the ministry of energy of not being serious in developing renewable sources despite interest among investors, especially in geothermal.
"It's just a matter of habit. If you always wake up at 10, being told to wake up at 5 can make your morning upside down," Bisnis, an Indonesian daily newspaper, quoted Nyoman as saying.


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BENARNEWS- A Chinese-controlled firm said Tuesday it had quarantined all 3,000 of its Chinese employees who work at an industrial complex in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi province, amid fears that the new coronavirus could spread here after hundreds of new workers arrived from China last week.
The workers at the plant in Morowali regency were being monitored for any signs of infection, said Dedy Kurniawan, a spokesman for the Chinese-owned company, the PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP). China's Tsingshan Holding Group holds the majority stake in the park, which produces nickel and stainless steel.
"When the news of the outbreak came to the fore, the management immediately implemented strict procedures," Dedy told BenarNews.
"To facilitate the examinations, 3,000 foreign workers have been quarantined. If they are found to be free from the virus, they will be released from the quarantine," he said, adding that so far, no one was found to be infected.
Dedy said the move followed the arrival of 600 workers from China last week, including 15 from Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province in China, considered ground zero for the virus. The quarantine began on Jan. 25, the same day the company announced a temporary freeze on bringing workers from China.
Production continues despite the quarantine of the Chinese workers who are housed in dormitories on the campus of the industrial park. The plant also employs 28,000 Indonesians, according to officials.
While the government so far has confirmed no cases of the coronavirus in Indonesia, Central Sulawesi health chief Reny Lamadjido said her department was in touch with IMIP officials and that two local hospitals were ready to treat patients in case of an outbreak.
"Because there are thousands of foreign workers, the majority of whom are from China, the area is our focus. But we are also on alert in other places," Reny told BenarNews.
Elsewhere in Southeast Asia, the Philippines was monitoring more than two dozen people but none had yet been diagnosed with the coronavirus, officials said. Malaysia and Thailand, on the other hand, had confirmed seven and 14 cases, respectively, as of Tuesday.
Globally, there were at least 4,690 confirmed cases, including 80 in countries other than China as of Tuesday, according to a tracking map created by Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
The World Health Organization has classified the risk level of spreading the coronavirus as very high in China, where the government reported the death toll had reached at least 106.
[https://www]
Johns Hopkins University is mapping the flow of the coronavirus across the globe. (Courtesy Johns Hopkins University)
Stuck in Wuhan
The Chinese government has imposed a lockdown on Wuhan, where public transportation and other services have stopped as authorities struggle to contain the spread of the virus.
Indonesian students have urged their government to help them return from China. Government officials said 243 Indonesians were in Hubei province, including many in its capital, Wuhan.
"We really hope that the Indonesian government will immediately repatriate us, or at least get us out of Wuhan first," Siti Mawaddah, a student at Hubei University, said on Kompas TV.
She said she and other Indonesians had been confined to their rooms for eight days because of a government lockdown.
"Being confined to our room is not good for our health. Every day we hear that the number of victims continues to increase, as if we were just waiting for our turn to be infected," she said.
Meanwhile, about 50 Filipinos in Wuhan were seeking help to return home, government officials said.
"I wish to inform the public that the government will take care of you whether you choose to stay or return home. For those who choose to return, you will be taken care of in a health facility for monitoring and further medical management," Health Secretary Francisco Duque said.
Thai officials reported that 54 students and 10 workers were in Wuhan, and none had been diagnosed with the virus.
Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand
In Manila, Philippine health authorities said they were monitoring people for possible coronavirus infections, as the government implemented tougher security at ports of entry.
"We now have 27 persons under investigation in the Philippines," Health Undersecretary Eric Domingo told reporters, adding they included Chinese, Brazilian, American and German nationals who had travelled to Wuhan recently. Of that total, several have been cleared and none have been found to be infected with the coronavirus.
On Tuesday, immigration and coast guard authorities said two cruise ships from China carrying hundreds of tourists were allowed to dock in Manila, but were later turned back after pressure from local officials.
The latest developments also forced immigration officials to take steps to slow the flow of Chinese immigrants, including indefinitely suspending flights between the Philippines and Wuhan.
"We are now temporarily suspending the issuance of visas upon arrival for Chinese nationals to slow the influx of group tours," Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said in a statement.
On Tuesday, The Malaysian Ministry of Health confirmed three new cases of the coronavirus, bringing the nationwide total to seven.
Among the most recent cases is the daughter-in-law of a 66-year-old Chinese man, who was the first to be diagnosed with the coronavirus in Singapore. The man, a resident of Wuhan, traveled to Singapore with his family on Jan. 20 and tested positive for the virus.
Meanwhile, Thai officials on Tuesday confirmed new coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 14.
"We found another six cases, all of whom are Chinese patients. Interestingly, these six are from Hubei, five are from the same family, and are between the ages of 60 and 6," said Dr. Sukhum Kanchanapimai, permanent secretary for the Public Health Ministry.
Thai officials said the outbreak and subsequent travel restrictions could mean a loss of 50 billion baht (U.S. $1.6 billion) in tourism dollars from Chinese visitors. They estimate about 2 million fewer Chinese likely will visit the country this year.
Luis Navales and Jojo Rinoza in Manila and Wilawan Watcharasakwet and Nontarat Phaicharoen in Bangkok contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- China doubled its investments in Indonesia to U.S. $4.7 billion last year, replacing Japan as the second largest foreign investor after Singapore, according to figures released Wednesday by the Indonesian investment agency.
In the fourth quarter of 2019 alone, Chinese investments accounted for just over 20 percent of total foreign investments for the year, according to Indonesia's National Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM).
"The government does not give priority to Chinese investment. It's just that China is known to be very aggressive," BKPM chairman Bahlil Lahadalia told reporters in Jakarta.
China also drove up investments from 2018, when it invested $2.4 billion in the Southeast Asian nation, down from $3.3 billion the year before.
"Chinese investors also conduct feasibility studies faster than Japan. For Japan, studies can take three to four years," Bahlil said.
Japan fell a spot as it saw its investments drop from $4.95 billion in 2018 to $4.3 billion last year. Bhima Yudhistira Adhinegara, an economist at the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance, blamed the decline on weakening car sales.
While retaining the top spot, Singaporean investments in 2019, valued at $6.5 billion, showed a significant drop from $9.2 billion spent the year before, according to the investment board.
China invested in capital-intensive sectors and large projects such as infrastructure and manufacturing, Bahlil said, adding that more than 1 million jobs were created last year, with the largest investments made in the transportation and telecommunications sectors.
Total actual domestic and foreign investment last year was valued at 809.6 trillion rupiah ($59.4 billion), exceeding the target of 792 trillion rupiah ($58.1 billion), BKPM said.
Bahlil said his agency would focus on speeding up approval of investments to make it easier for investors to do business in the country.
"We continue to focus on quality investment that engages medium and small enterprises to a create multiplier effects for the surrounding communities," Bahlil said.
Jokowi's priority
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, who was re-elected last year, has made improving Indonesia's infrastructure a priority.
During his first term, Jokowi embraced Chinese investment, even attending the 2017 unveiling of Beijing's One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative.
China then laid out plans to invest more than $1 trillion in building a network of ports, roads, railways and other logistics-related projects stretching through Southeast Asia, South Asia and beyond to boost global trading links to markets in Europe.
Multibillion-dollar projects under the OBOR banner in Indonesia feature the construction of a high-speed rail link and dams.
Jokowi's focus on infrastructure has resulted in Beijing being awarded turnkey projects, where raw materials and labor are imported from China, Bhima said.
"Massive development in the smelter sector has also attracted Chinese investors to Indonesia," the economist said.
Politically, he added, there is a sense that Jokowi is courting China in a departure from his predecessor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who sought to cultivate ties with European countries, the United States and Japan.
"Political preferences affect the flow of investment from China," Bhima said.
To aid investment, the Jokowi government has proposed a series of omnibus bills to override laws seen as discouraging job creation. The Indonesian parliament has agreed to debate the bills this year, but labor unions said the proposed legislation could remove some of the protections enjoyed by workers, and make it easier for companies to fire employees and hire temporary staff.
Where investment money comes from does not matter, said David Sumual, an economist with Bank Central Asia.
"The rules must be clear: there must be transfer of technology and employment for locals," he said, adding that Indonesia has had difficulty attracting investors because of red tape.
"We are not competitive with other countries in terms of labor regulations, taxation. Rules often change while investors need certainty," he said.
Environmentalist concerns
Some Chinese projects in Indonesia have been criticized for their potential impacts on the environment and wildlife.
Last month, the government launched a coal-fired power plant in Java's Banten province that is being built by the state-owned China Shenhua Energy Co. Ltd. (CSECL) at a cost of $1.8 billion. With the addition of a second unit in the same area to be completed next year, it will be the largest power plant in the sprawling archipelago nation, officials said.
Green energy advocates complain that the plant's construction is not consistent with the government's target of using renewable sources to power 23 percent of Indonesia's energy plants by 2025 as stipulated in the National General Energy Plan.
Previously, environmental groups and scientists warned that a 510-megawatt hydropower dam being constructed in the Batang Toru rainforest on Sumatra Island by China's ZheFu Holding Group, would threaten the survival of about 800 Tapanuli orangutan.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto visited Russia on Wednesday as part of his "defense diplomacy" that has taken him to seven other countries as his country's president pushes to modernize its military arsenal.
Prabowo held talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Shoygu and was to meet with officials from the federal military-technical cooperation service, defense export agency Rosoboronexport, and weapons maker Kalashnikov Group, the Russian embassy in Jakarta said in a statement.
"We are ready to improve relations between Russia and Indonesia in a more progressive way, including in the field of military and military-technical cooperation," the embassy quoted Shoygu as telling Prabowo in Moscow.
Shoygu called Prabowo's visit a milestone ahead of the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries. The Indonesian defense chief responded by saying that Indonesia considered Russia "as one of the most powerful countries in the world."
"Russia, or before that the Soviet Union, always helped Indonesia in times of need, has always been by our side," Prabowo said, according to the statement.
On Monday, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said that he wanted Indonesia's military to have the most modern and sophisticated weaponry.
"I want the development of our weapons system to adopt the latest technology in which everything is digitalized," Jokowi told reporters in Jakarta.
"It requires a leap forward, but I'm sure that our state-owned enterprises in partnership with foreign companies have what it takes," he said.
Prabowo's spokesman, Dahnil Anzar Simanjuntak, said the minister was likely to discuss the possibility of procuring Russian missiles.
"Many things [are on the agenda]. But one that he has in mind is missiles," Dahnil told reporters last week. He did not elaborate.
Dahnil said Prabowo's Russia visit would be the last stop in his "defense diplomacy" trips, after which Jokowi would decide whether to follow up on his minister's recommendations on weapons procurement.
Prabowo, a former general who has faced accusations of human rights abuses when he was the commander of the Indonesian army's special forces (Kopassus), has also visited Malaysia, Turkey, China, Japan, Philippines, France and Germany since being appointed defense minister in October. Prabowo ran against Jokowi in both the 2014 and 2019 presidential elections.
His travel to Russia came four months after the Indonesian parliament passed the government's 2020 budget of U.S. $180.3 billion, including allocations of 131.2 trillion rupiah ($9.6 billion) for the Defense Ministry, a 20 percent increase from last year's defense spending plan.
Trip to France
Prabowo's Jan. 13 meeting in Paris with French counterpart Florence Parly attracted controversy on social media after La Tribune, a financial newspaper, reported that he was interested in buying 48 Dassault Rafale fighter jets, four submarines and two corvette warships from France.
Deputy Defense Minister Wahyu Trenggono, however, told reporters there was no plan for now to purchase French-made weapons.
"All we did was have a look. No plan yet," Wahyu said. Local media also reported that Prabowo had played down the French newspaper's story.
"That's probably their [the French government's] wish," the Jakarta Post quoted Prabowo as saying last week, as he conceded that there was an urgency for Indonesia to modernize its weaponry systems.
Apparently responding to the controversy, Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati urged the defense ministry to be prudent in its weapons spending.
"The ministry's budget comes from taxpayers, as well as domestic and foreign loans," Sri Mulyani wrote on Instragram last week.
She urged the ministry and the military to sit together and design an efficient acquisition plan.
"We don't want changes in high-ranking officials at the Ministry of Defense or the TNI (military) to result in changes in planning for purchases of equipment after the budget has been decided, and therefore we have to start again from scratch," Sri Mulyani said.
Barter deal for Russian jets
Meanwhile, under a deal signed in 2018, Indonesia has agreed to purchase 11 Russian-made Sukhoi SU-35s for $1.14 billion, in exchange for Russia having to buy Indonesian commodities, such as rubber.
Indonesian Air Marshal Yuyu Sutisna was quoted by the state-owned news agency Antara in October as saying that Jakarta was still pursuing plans to acquire the Russian-made fighter jets in the next five years, although that push has struggled with delays.
Indonesian negotiators had expressed concerns over an American law signed by President Donald Trump in August 2017 that could apply sanctions against entities doing business with Russia, according to defensenews.com.
But while Indonesia seeks to diversify its weapons procurement sources, officials still consider Washington as Jakarta's leading source of defense hardware, analysts say.
Yuyu Sutisna said during a visit at an airbase in Riau Province that Jakarta would submit a request to purchase two squadrons of F-16 fighter jets this year as part of the plan to upgrade the nation's weaponry.
"Insya Allah [God willing], we will buy two squadrons in the next strategic plan 2020-2024. We will purchase the newest type of Block 72 Viper," he said, without elaborating on exactly how many planes would be purchased. A squadron in an air force or naval aviation is usually a unit composed of 12 to 24 aircraft usually of the same type.
"If we have them, we will be among those having sophisticated F-16s," he said.
In total, the country has 33 F-16 Fighting Falcons that have, until now, been one of the main weapons of the Indonesian Air Force, Antara said.
Last month, Prabowo and his South Korean counterpart Jeong Kyeong-doo agreed to move ahead with a joint project to develop a next-generation fighter jet, even though Indonesia has failed to pay $255 million in installments to Seoul before the agreed September deadline.
Under the scheme, Indonesia will shoulder 20 percent of the development cost of the $7.36-billion KF-X project, but it "failed to pay the full 301 billion won ($255 million) it was supposed to pay by the end of September, according to data from the Defense Acquisition Program Administration," the state-funded South Korean news agency Yonhap said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian authorities deported an American environmental journalist on Friday after detaining him for more than six weeks over an alleged visa violation, his lawyer and employer said.
Philip Jacobson, 31, an editor for the non-profit environmental news website Mongabay.com, was detained in the city of Palangkaraya in Central Kalimantan province on Dec. 17 after attending a hearing between an NGO advocating for the rights of indigenous people and the local parliament.
He formally was arrested on Jan. 21 on charges of violating his visa terms and taken into custody, but was released three days later.
He was confined to city arrest until immigration authorities dropped the case on Thursday, said Aryo Nugroho, a lawyer at the Legal Aid Institute (LBH) in Palangkaraya.
Jacobson flew from Palangkaraya Airport in Central Kalimantan to Jakarta on Friday, where he was detained for several hours before boarding a flight to the United States, Mongabay reported.
"We are relieved that Phil has finally been granted his freedom," Mongabay founder and chief executive officer Rhett A. Butler said in a statement.
"His prolonged detention over this matter was profoundly concerning, but we are very pleased that authorities dismissed the charges and released him," he said.
Aryo said Jacobson should never have been arrested.
"His freedom would not have been achieved without the support of everyone concerned at home and overseas, especially advocates of press freedom," Aryo said.
"Philip is a journalist, not a criminal," he said. "This case has strengthened our resolve to fight for press freedom, truth and justice for all people."
Mongabay said Jacobson entered the country on a business visa for a series of meetings. Immigration officers confiscated his passport a few hours before he was scheduled to fly out of the city, questioned him for hours and ordered him to remain in Palangkaraya pending an investigation.
His arrest drew condemnation from domestic and international press advocacy groups with some suggesting that it might have been linked to his work covering environmental issues and land disputes in the country.
Jacobson thanked his supporters.
"It's good to be out of prison and I'm relieved the prospect of a five-year jail sentence is no longer something I have to contemplate," Jacobson said in a statement released by Mongabay.
"Indonesia has received praise in the last few years for its efforts to combat climate change and curb deforestation, positive developments that Mongabay has covered," he said. "Meanwhile, the press has a duty to cast a critical eye on events."
Jacobson said he would be applying for a new journalism visa at an Indonesian embassy "at the earliest opportunity."
Human rights activists previously urged the government to stop what they said were growing physical and legal threats against activists and environmentalists.


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BENARNEWS- A day after the Philippines confirmed the first coronavirus death outside China, residents of Indonesia's Natuna Islands on Monday protested the government's decision to quarantine its evacuated citizens in the remote region.
Malaysia, meanwhile, pledged to house evacuees "far from the public" as an airplane arrived in Kuala Lumpur carrying its citizens home from Wuhan, the epicenter of a rapidly spreading virus that has killed at least 360 people.
Hundreds of residents of the Natuna Islands demanded that 238 Indonesians who have been evacuated from China be quarantined on a warship, despite assurances from the government that the returnees were not infected by the coronavirus.
"It's not that we are heartless and have no humanity, but the shelter is not standardized and health facilities and doctors are also limited. Even if only one person is infected with the coronavirus, they could transmit it to the population," Abid Juong, one of the demonstrators who gathered at a local legislative building, told BenarNews.
The Indonesians arrived in Batam, an Indonesian island near Singapore, from Hubei Province in China, on Sunday and were immediately transported to a military base in Natuna, where they will be quarantined for 14 days, authorities said.
Other nations have also taken sweeping steps to contain the flu-like coronavirus, which is believed to have originated in a market that traded illegally in wildlife in Hubei's provincial capital, Wuhan. Chinese health officials confirmed more than 17,200 infections with 361 deaths as of Monday.
The U.S.-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said confirmed cases of the virus had been reported in 27 nations outside China.
Indonesia's move took place as Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte urged Filipinos on Monday not to engage in xenophobia, a day after his government reported the death of a Chinese man in Manila, the first coronavirus death outside China. The man was already infected when he traveled to the Philippines in January, officials said.
Manila has banned the entry of all foreign nationals travelling from China and confirmed two cases of the virus, adding to the 150 cases that have been reported in two dozen other countries.
"If the question is if I will bar Chinese from entering, the answer of course is no. That is an utter disrespect to a human being. ... This mentioning the Chinese and blaming them is xenophobia," Duterte said.
"Stop this xenophobia thing," he added.
He said that Chinese nationals flying in from outside China would be allowed to enter the Philippines, where health authorities were awaiting confirmation on whether 48 other patients currently under observation were infected.
On Thursday, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak a global emergency. Authorities said the infections had surpassed the total in the 2002-2003 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic, which killed about 800 people
Sprayed
Indonesian Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto said none of the Indonesians repatriated on Sunday were believed to have contracted the coronavirus.
"They have passed the three stages of screening by the Chinese government, it has been confirmed that all of them are in good health," he told reporters. "But after arriving here, I have to make sure they are in good health."
Health workers were seen spraying the Indonesians who flew from Wuhan, China to Batam, Indonesia, as they disembarked from a plane with a substance that local reports described as an antiseptic.
The Health Ministry said there had not been any confirmed cases of the virus in Indonesia, which was visited by about 2.1 million Chinese tourists last year.
Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said Sunday the government had decided to bar entry to visitors who have been in China and would ban flights to and from China starting Wednesday.
"All visitors who arrived from mainland China and who have been there for 14 days will not be allowed to enter or transit in Indonesia, temporarily," she told reporters.
Meanwhile, the Indonesian Ministry of Trade said the government was considering suspending imports of food and beverages as well as live animals from China.

Hotline
In Malaysia, a Foreign Ministry official told BenarNews that an Air Asia flight arrived in Wuhan on Monday to evacuate 141 people, including 116 Malaysians. Local media reported that the same flight arrived early Tuesday (local time) in Kuala Lumpur.
The official, who asked not to be identified as he was not authorized to discuss the matter with the media, described as "exaggerated" local reports that repatriated Malaysians would be housed in a facility "very, very far from public" with 24-hour police surveillance.
"It's far and safe from the public," the official said. "And at the center we also have zoning, so there will be no direct contact except with the medical team."
Most of the non-citizens being evacuated are Chinese nationals married to Malaysians, the source said.
The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) responded to the spread of the virus by convening a videoconference last week at its Center for Military Medicine, according to a report by the diplomat.com.
Medical representatives from eight of the ten ASEAN countries discussed preventive measures and early testing for those suspected of being infected, it said.
On Monday, the ASEAN's official Twitter page provided hotline numbers that can be accessed by nationals of its 10 member countries.
"If you experience fever, cough and difficulty in breathing, do not panic," the posting said. "Seek medical care immediately or dial these numbers."
Jason Gutierrez in Manila contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- An Indonesian court on Wednesday acquitted a Catholic woman who was accused of blasphemy for entering a mosque with her dog while wearing her shoes, ruling that she was mentally ill.
Suzethe Margaret, 52, was arrested in June last year after she entered the mosque with her dog in the Sentul area in Bogor, a regency on the outskirts of Jakarta.
A panel of three judges at the Cibinong District Court said expert testimony proved that Margaret had been suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.
"Considering that the defendant cannot be held accountable, there is no choice but to acquit her," presiding judge Indra Meinantha Vidi said. "What she has done was part of her mental illness."
Suzethe was caught on video yelling at mosque caretakers and insisting that her husband was going to be married there to another woman in an Islamic ceremony. The video, which circulated online a month after her arrest, showed Suzethe arguing with worshippers as her dog ran around the mosque.
Indra said Suzethe had hallucinated and heard whispers that her husband was going to get married at the mosque.
The prosecutor sought an eight-month prison sentence for the woman.
Locals who attended the sentencing expressed dissatisfaction at the verdict.
"Remember her name. If you see her on the street, call her crazy," a courtroom spectator shouted.
Ruslan Suhady, a member of the Al-Munawaroh mosque management, expressed disappointment at the ruling, saying that Suzethe did not appear to be mentally ill.
"If she had been crazy she would have dressed like a tramp, or been naked. She was neatly dressed," he said.
Suzethe did not say anything as she left the courtroom after the judges ordered her release.
Her lawyer, Alfonsus Atu, called the verdict "fair."
"From the outset, investigators and prosecutors knew that she was ill," Alfonsus said.
During the trial, Suzethe's defense lawyer said she had received therapy for schizophrenia in 2013.
Rights advocates: Law targets minorities
Human rights groups said the current blasphemy law had been used to target members of religious minorities, including Islamic sects deemed deviant, in the world's largest Muslim-majority country, where many citizens consider dogs to be impure.
The blasphemy law was only used in eight cases in its first four decades, but convictions jumped to 125 during the 10-year rule of former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono between 2004 and 2014, according to Human Rights Watch.
Another 43 people have been sentenced under the law since President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo took office in 2014, the group said.
Andreas Harsono, a researcher for Human Rights Watch in Indonesia, welcomed Suzethe's acquittal.
"From the humanitarian point of view, it's good," he told BenarNews.
"But in countries where democracy is advanced, there's no law regulating religious blasphemy," he said.
While Suzethe's acquittal signified a step toward repealing the blasphemy law, six new provisions on religious blasphemy have been proposed in the revised criminal code bill currently being debated in the House of Representatives, Andreas said.
"This is another step back. More provisions mean more discrimination for minorities," he said.
In 2018, a court in North Sumatra province sentenced a Buddhist woman of Chinese descent to 18 months in prison for committing blasphemy by complaining about noise coming from a neighborhood mosque.
The woman named Meiliana was found guilty of showing hostility to religion and blasphemy after she complained that the Muslim call to prayer was being played too loudly at the mosque near her house.
Meiliana has denied the charges, but angry locals threw rocks at her house and mobs burned Buddhist temples and other buildings owned by local ethnic Chinese. She was released on parole in May last year.
In 2017, Jakarta Gov. Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama was sentenced to two years for blasphemy for remarks deemed insulting to Islam. He was released in February.
Conservative Muslim groups held protests against Ahok in 2016 and 2017 after an edited video posted online made it appear that the governor, a Christian, had said that the Quran deceived people.
Ahok lost the Jakarta gubernatorial election to former Education Minister Anies Baswedan, who courted support of conservative Muslim groups despite his liberal credentials.


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BENARNEWS-Indonesian police shot dead a suspected militant who hurled a homemade bomb at officers who were trying to arrest him on allegations of links with a banned group affiliated with the Islamic State in Riau province on Sumatra Island, officials said Friday.
A policeman was injured in the incident that took place on Thursday on a fishing boat in the Kampar river in Pelalawan district, according to Senior Commissioner Sunarto, provincial police spokesman.
Police identified the slain 29-year-old suspect as Wahyu (alias Ibnu Thayyi) and said he was believed to be a member of Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), an Indonesian group that was designated by the U.S. State Department in January 2017 as a terrorist group.
"When asked to surrender, the suspect threw a pipe bomb at the officers, so they had no choice but to 'paralyze' him," Sunarto, who uses only one name, told BenarNews.
National police spokesman Asep Adi Saputra declined to provide details of the arrest, saying police were still investigating.
Local media reported that Wahyu, who had a wife and a child, had disappeared from his village in Jambi province since last month.
"I have lived in this village for a long time but we did not know he was involved in terrorism," village head Razali was quoted by the news portal Tribunnews as saying, referring to Wahyu.
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country, has been hit by a string of terrorist attacks in the past two decades, with more recent strikes being blamed on JAD, which was founded in 2015 by Aman Abdurrahman, who was sentenced to death in 2018 for his role in a series of deadly terrorist attacks.
An Indonesian court outlawed JAD in a July 2018 verdict that was seen as making it easier for law enforcement officials to arrest suspected members.
JAD was tagged as an illegal group two months after the coordinated attacks in the Indonesian city of Surabaya, where two families carried out suicide bombings on three churches and a police station. Twenty-four people were killed, including the attackers who used their children as young as 9 in the bombings.
The group has also been linked to the terror attack in January last year in the southern Philippine island of Jolo, where an Indonesian couple blew themselves up at a cathedral, killing 23 and wounding more than 100.
But last year, Indonesian police noted only eight acts of JAD-related terrorism in Muslim-majority country, a 57-percent decline from 2018, according to security analyst Zachary Abuza.
"The few attacks that did take place tended to be counterproductive, with over 280 suspected militants arrested in 2019," he said.
The arrests included at least 74 suspects who were detained after the November 2019 suicide bombing at a police station in Medan, the capital of North Sumatra province. The attack killed the bomber and injured six other people, including four officers.
Investigators said they believe that the bomber, 24-year-old Rabbial Muslim Nasution, and his widow, belonged to JAD.
The Medan attack took place a month after two suspected militants stabbed and wounded then-Security Minister Wiranto and two other people as he was visiting Banten province.
Both cases were linked to JAD, police said.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian police said Friday they were keeping an eye on any citizens planning to join Islamic State's Afghan branch after United Nations counterterror officials warned that IS was now focusing on recruiting Southeast Asian fighters for its operations in Afghanistan.
The U.N. Security Council's Counter-Terrorism Committee, in a report to the world body last week, said Islamic State's efforts to recruit militants from Southeast Asia was "reported to be shifting from a focus on travel to Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic to joining ISIL-K [Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant in Afghanistan – Khorasan]."
"The police have known this for some time and we continue to watch out for any Indonesians who may try to travel to Khorasan," national police spokesman Asep Adi Saputra told BenarNews, referring to IS's self-proclaimed wilayat (province) in Afghanistan.

In Kuala Lumpur, Ayob Khan Mydin Pitchay, the chief of the national police's counter-terrorist wing, said his division had not noticed a new trend in Malaysian militants gravitating toward Afghanistan.

Decades ago that country was a magnet for Muslim extremists from around the globe, including Southeast Asians, who fought in past conflicts or were trained there by al-Qaeda.

"We do not see any change in the trend so far involving Malaysians. We will continue monitoring individuals believed to be supporting Islamic State," Ayob told BenarNews.

"This ISIL-K is not that popular among Malaysian, Indonesian or Philippine fighters. Most of its members are those hailing from Pakistan, Afghanistan and India," he said.

The U.N. committee's report, published on Jan. 31, updated the Security Council about the worldwide threat from IS after the group's last bastion in Syria fell in March 2019 and its top leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was killed during a raid by U.S. Special Forces last October.

"The issue of foreign terrorist fighters remains acute, with Member States continuing to assess that between one half and two thirds of the more than 40,000 who joined the 'caliphate' are still alive," the report said. "This is expected to aggravate the global threat posed by ISIL, and possibly [al-Qaeda] for years to come."

Despite the geographical shift in IS's recruitment efforts targeting Southeast Asians, "groups affiliated with ISIL especially remain a persistent and growing threat to the region," the report said, using another acronym for Islamic State.
"Returnees to the region from Iraq and the Syrian Arab Republic are especially dangerous, as they may improve the capabilities of groups and change the methodology of attacks," the report added.
A great majority of fighters entering the volatile southern Philippines were from elsewhere in Southeast Asia, it said. In 2017, pro-IS fighters took over the southern Philippine city of Marawi for five months until government forces flushed them out in a battle that destroyed the city.
After Islamic State burst onto the scene in 2014, hundreds of fighters and their families from Southeast Asia left their home countries to join the IS ranks.
Yet nearly a year after the Syrian town of Baghouz - IS's last Mid-East bastion - fell to Syrian Kurdish forces, the Indonesian and Malaysian governments still are wrestling with the question of whether to repatriate scores of their citizens who have languished in camps across the region in the wake of IS's territorial defeat. Over the years, however, a relatively small number have been allowed to come home. 

Officials with Indonesia's National Counterterrorist Agency (BNPT) and military officials in the Philippines declined BenarNews requests for comment on the U.N. report's findings on the recruitment of Southeast Asian fighters toward the IS branch in Afghanistan.

ISIL-K, which was established by former Taliban fighters, announced its formation in an online video in January 2015, U.N. officials said. The group has since carried out bombings and attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The Khorasan wilayat that IS established originally encompassed India, Pakistan and Afghanistan, said Sidney Jones, director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), a Jakarta think-tank.

"Previously, the name Khorasan covered all these areas, but after May 2019, it only refers to Afghanistan," she said.

According to a researcher at the Institute for International Peace Building in Jakarta, Thayep Malik, "since there was a replacement for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, there has never been an announcement of a move to Khorasan."

Some Indonesian militants nonetheless have traveled to Afghanistan, he said.

"They might be looking for a safe area for their base. But the Taliban will not stay idle because it considers [IS] an enemy," he told BenarNews.

"It is not easy to establish a base in Afghanistan again because they will face the Taliban."


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BENARNEWS- A tearful TV plea by the young daughter of an Indonesian Islamic State (IS) fighter languishing in Syria has stoked a debate in Indonesia about whether the government should take back citizens and their children who traveled to the Middle East to fight for the terrorist group.
For months, officials with Indonesia's government have wrestled with the question of what to do with hundreds of citizens – many of them women and children – who have been confined to camps since Islamic State's (IS) last bastion in Iraq and Syria fell in March 2019.
But a BBC interview with Nada Fedulla, who said her father had taken her with him when he left Indonesia in 2015 to join the extremist group, has gone viral on social media since airing last week. It has added new fire to a national debate on whether citizens and their families who joined IS in Syria or Iraq should be allowed to return home.
Agustinus, a Jakarta resident, said nobody had forced the Indonesians to go to the Middle East.
"Surely, they knew the risks," he told BenarNews. "I don't believe they should be repatriated."
Augustinus worried that people who had gone to Syria or Iraq would still hold onto radical ideas and not be able to tolerate citizens who disagreed with their ideology.
"I think people who have been exposed to such an ideology are difficult to change," he said. "Who can guarantee they will not get involved again with terrorism after returning here?"
But others think Nada and others should get a second chance.
Nasdiana, a Jakarta resident, said the interview touched her and she believed that Nada and people like her should be allowed to return.
"I can see that she is genuinely remorseful. They will have a better future if repatriated," she said.
She said the government must prioritize women and children who live in Syrian camps, but those who fought for IS should be prosecuted.
"If they feel sorry, they can still be guided again to the right path," Nasdiana told BenarNews.
In the interview from Syria, Nada recalled how she had dreamed of becoming a doctor in Indonesia but wound up in the camp in Syria, years after her father took her there when he left Indonesia to join IS.
Now, the visibly remorseful Nada said, she wanted to return to her home country.
"I'm really tired here. We're thankful if there are people who forgive me," she told a BBCNews correspondent as tears streamed down her face.
On Wednesday, the day the interview aired, Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo said that if it were up to him, he would not allow IS followers to return to Indonesia, but he said the government would make a decision on their fate after a meeting involving relevant institutions.
"We're still deliberating and soon we will decide," he said. "We're weighing pros and cons. Everything must be considered carefully."
"If you ask me — but we haven't held an executive meeting over this — I'd say no [to their repatriation]," the Coconuts news website quoted him as saying.
Security minister Mahfud MD said a decision was likely to be made in May or June.
Father: 'The craziest thing in my life'
Nada told the BBC that she was taken to Syria in 2015 by her father, Arif Fedulla, who was tempted by promises of a better life under IS's self-proclaimed caliphate.
Her father is now a prisoner of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led militia who declared they had captured IS last bastion, the Syrian town of Baghouz, last March.
The Indonesian government has said more than 600 citizens who joined IS in the Middle East were stuck in camps in the region.
Nada said her father had apologized to her.
"Before I didn't know my father would bring us here. When I was in school, I really wanted to be a doctor and I really liked to study," Nada said in the interview.
She said she had seen IS fighters display the bodies of their victims.
"Sometimes we saw ... they slaughter people and they [do] it on the street [to make] people see the heads and the bodies," she said.
Nada's father said he regretted his decision to bring his child to Syria.
"The craziest thing in my life is bringing my family to Syria. Everyone makes mistakes in his life. And this is the biggest mistake in my life," he told the BBC.
PKS: Many 'innocent little children'
IS once controlled a swath of land that spilled across the boundaries of Iraq and Syria until they were defeated by U.S.-led allied forces and the SDF, whose victory also ushered in a series of concerns, including extradition, rehabilitation or criminal trials for captured foreign fighters, as well as their wives and children.
Pro-IS Indonesians entered Syria between 2015 and 2017, mostly through Turkey, according to security officials in Jakarta.
In August 2017, Indonesia repatriated 18 citizens from Syria and subjected them to a month-long deradicalization program.
Based on intelligence information, Indonesians in Syria are staying in three camps – Al-Hol, Al-Ruj and Ain Issa – where they are guarded by different groups, Suhardi Alius, chief of Indonesia's National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT), said Friday.
"There are three authorities – the SDF, the Syrian government and the Kurdistan government," he told reporters in Jakarta, adding that most Indonesians at the camps were women and children.
Suhardi said he had requested intelligence agencies in friendly countries help with the verification of the Indonesians.
Citing "humanitarian grounds," leaders of the opposition Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) called for the former IS members and their families to be repatriated.
"I feel sorry for them stranded there. Their children, their parents are there," Mardani Ali Sera, PKS central advisory board chairman, told reporters. "Many of them are innocent little children."
But, under the country's citizenship law, those who left for Syria and joined IS lost their citizenship, according to one analyst.
"When they joined ISIS, they considered it as their country, therefore they willingly gave up their Indonesian citizenship," Hikmahanto Juwana, a lecturer of international law at the University of Indonesia, told BenarNews, using another acronym for IS.
He said some of the Indonesians had intentionally destroyed their passports.
"In theory they are stateless, but they are not in Indonesia," he said, "So the government does not need to be bothered about their citizenship."


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BENARNEWS- The Indonesian army has pinpointed the wreckage of a helicopter that went missing in Papua province almost eight months ago with 12 people on board, a general said on Monday, as officials declined to comment on claims that insurgents had shot it down.
The Russian-made Mi-17 helicopter lost contact minutes after takeoff on June 28, 2019 while carrying supplies and troops from Oksibil district in Pegunungan Bintang Regency to Sentani, near the provincial capital Jayapura.
"I saw firsthand the location of debris from a height of 12,500 feet," Papuan military commander Maj. Gen. Herman Asaribab said in a statement.
The military, which said the cause of the helicopter crash was not yet known, resumed the search last week after receiving reports that local residents had found the wreckage in Oksop village in Oksibil.
Herman said the military had yet to retrieve the remains of all of the victims – 12 military personnel, including five border security forces – because of difficult terrain and changing weather conditions.
"Next, we will focus on evacuating the [remains]. Evacuation must be prepared carefully considering the location of debris is on a cliff with an angle of almost 90 degrees," Herman said.
Authorities had deployed more than 1,000 personnel to look for the helicopter.
Maj. Gen. Sisriadi, spokesman of the National Armed Forces, declined to comment on claims by the separatist West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) that it had shot down the helicopter.
"We focus on evacuating the fallen warriors first. For the cause, later it can be known when the [helicopter debris] have been collected," Sisriadi told BenarNews.
TPNPB spokesman Sebby Sambon earlier told reporters the group had shot down the helicopter and found its wreckage on Feb. 4.
Sambon also said that the rebels seized weapons found from the crash site.
"If the Indonesian security forces come to our area to take away weapons that TPNPB OPM has captured, we are ready to fight," he said.
The Papua region, which makes up the Indonesian half of New Guinea island, was formally incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, after 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 involved only 1,000 people.

The region has since been the scene of a low-level separatist insurgency.
News about allegations that security forces had treated the Papuan students harshly and hurled racist abuse at them ignited mass protests, some of which descended into violence that left more than 40 people dead in August and September.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesia will not repatriate hundreds of citizens who fought for the Islamic State terror group in Syria and Iraq, but will consider bringing back some of their children on a case-by-case, the nation's security minister said Tuesday.
Officials made the decision to protect the world's largest Muslim-majority country from "the virus of terrorism," said Mahfud MD, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs.
"We have no plan to bring home terrorists, will not bring home FTF [foreign terrorist fighters] to Indonesia," Mahfud told reporters. "If these foreign terrorist fighters come back they can become a new virus."
Mahfud made the statement at the presidential palace in Bogor, south of Jakarta, after a meeting with President Joko Widodo and other top officials.
"Children younger than 10 will be considered [for repatriation], but on a case-by-case basis, whether they have parents or they are orphans," he said.
For months, officials have wrestled with the question of what to do with hundreds of Indonesians – many of them women and children – who have been confined to camps since IS's last bastion in Iraq and Syria fell in March 2019.
But a tearful plea to go home by Nada Fedulla, the young daughter of an Indonesian IS fighter in Syria, during an interview with BBC, reignited the debate after it went viral on social media last week.
Citing information from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, Mahfud said 689 Indonesians had joined IS in Syria and other countries. Only 228 of those citizens have been identified, he said.
The figure is almost half of the 1,500 reported by the anti-terrorism police unit Densus 88 in November 2019.
"The government will also collect more valid data on the number and identity of people who are considered involved in terrorism by joining ISIS," Mahfud said, using another acronym for Islamic State.
Meanwhile, the executive board of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), Indonesia's largest Islamic organization, said it opposed the idea of repatriating IS fighters.
"The board rejects the return of ISIS combatants because they went there out of their own volition," NU chairman Said Aqil Siradj told reporters in Jakarta.
Said made the statement after meeting with Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi, who had sought advice from the NU board on what to do with Indonesians who were languishing in Syrian camps.
"They burned their passports because they said they were the passports of an idolatrous country. They consider ISIS as a state, they have thrown away their citizenship and joined ISIS. So there is nothing wrong if the government rejects them," he said.
Retno said the government would continue to collect more information about Indonesians in Syria. "We want to verify first, because we have received a lot of data and they are confusing," she told reporters.
According to the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) in 2017, at least 1,321 Indonesians had joined IS worldwide. More than 80 of those citizens had been declared dead, officials said.
Clear legal status
M. Syauqillah, chairman of terrorism studies at the University of Indonesia, said the government needed to explain to the public the legal basis for its decision not to repatriate its citizens.
"[The law] stipulates that Indonesian citizens could lose citizenship if they join a foreign army. But do we interpret ISIS as a foreign army, even though it's an unlawful combat force, a terrorist group?" he told BenarNews.
He said those who burned their passports did not automatically lose their citizenship.
Syauqillah said the government had two options: issue an emergency decree or amend the citizenship law.
"It must be prepared for the possibility of a legal challenge," he said.
"Not repatriating them does not guarantee that they will not re-enter Indonesia because our borders are porous," he said.
Yon Machmudi, an expert in Middle East and Islamic affairs at the University Indonesia, deplored the government's move.
"De-radicalization is difficult to do, especially among former combatants, but many of them are children and deradicalization can be done," he told a forum in Jakarta.
He said BNPT should, instead, device programs to ensure that those who returned did not pose threats to society.
"It's better for them to return and be subjected to restrictions than to enter by other [illegal] means undetected, which could have adverse repercussions," he said.
In August 2019, the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) urged Indonesia to begin repatriating its most vulnerable citizens who had joined IS and not let them remain in the camps where they could face intimidation from supporters of the extremist group.
"There's no need to wait for an all-encompassing policy to begin to bring back those most at risk," IPAC director Sidney Jones told BenarNews at the time.
"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," she said.


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BENARNEWS- A Singapore court convicted and sentenced two Indonesian maids to prison terms Wednesday for sending money to supporters of the Islamic State (IS) extremist group, an official from Indonesia's embassy and Singaporean media said.
Defendants Turmini, 31, and Retno Hernayati, 37, pleaded guilty at the Singapore District Court to terrorism-financing charges in separate cases, an embassy spokeswoman confirmed.
"They both pleaded guilty. The next step is being discussed with their lawyers," Ratna Lestari Harjana, an official with the embassy, which provided the defendants with consular assistance in their cases, told BenarNews.
Turmini, who goes by one name, was sentenced to three years and nine months for transferring 1,217 Singapore dollars (U.S. $878) to a man named Edi Siswanto, the Straits Times newspaper reported.
Retno received an 18-month sentence for sending 140 Singapore dollars (U.S. $101) to her fiancé, Fikri Zulfikar, the paper said. She raised the money through a combination of her own cash and donations she collected.
Edi and Fikri both allegedly supported the IS and its Indonesian affiliate, Jemaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD).
Nicholas Khoo, Singapore's deputy public prosecutor, said the money Turmini had donated was "the largest amount before the courts," according to the Straits Times.
Khoo said cash was remitted on five occasions, "which was the most number of occasions any offender has donated to terrorism."
Turmini and Retno were among four Indonesian domestic workers arrested by Singapore in September 2019 under the city-state's Internal Security Act, on suspicion of being involved in terrorism-financing activities.
The other two were Anindia Afiyantari and an unidentified fourth Indonesian. This woman was found to have not been radicalized but was deported to Indonesia because she had not reported the activities of the other three to police although she was aware of them, the Singaporean home ministry said in a news release in September.
Anindia's case is pending, the Straits Times reported.
Turmini, Retno and Anindia were radicalized in 2018 after viewing online materials linked to IS, according to the statement from the ministry.
"Their radicalization deepened after they joined multiple pro-ISIS social media chat groups and channels. They were drawn to the violent visuals disseminated on these platforms, such as ISIS's bomb attacks and beheading videos, as well as recycled propaganda on ISIS's past victories in the battlefield," the ministry said then, using another acronym for IS.
The three became acquainted with each other around the time they were becoming radicalized, it said.
"Over time, they developed a network of pro-militant foreign online contacts, including 'online boyfriends,' who shared their pro-ISIS ideology," the ministry said, adding that they evolved into strong supporters of JAD and "actively galvanized support online for ISIS."
The trio's arrest brought to 19 the number of radicalized foreign domestic workers detected in Singapore since 2015, the ministry said in September, noting that the 16 others had been repatriated after they were investigated.
An estimated 120,000 Indonesians were working as maids in Singapore as of January 2018, according to the New Paper, a local publication.
In 2017, the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC), a Jakarta think-tank, reported that dozens of Indonesian women working in Hong Kong had used their earnings to support IS after being recruited over the internet by the extremist group.
The report explored how dozens of Indonesian migrants in Hong Kong had become vulnerable to extremist recruitment as religious teachings and prayer groups grew alongside demand in the labor market for more nannies, domestic helpers or caretakers for the elderly.
IPAC urged Indonesia – the world's most populous Muslim country – to work with labor recruiting agencies to prevent radicalization of migrants.
"Some of these women were drawn in by jihadi boyfriends they met online," Nuraniyah, an IPAC analyst, said at the time the report was released.
The report identified at least 50 female radical workers in East Asia who had taken part in a variety of extremist online discussion groups, including 43 who had worked in or were working in Hong Kong, three in Taiwan and four in Singapore.


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BENARNEWS- A military search team found the bodies of all 12 servicemen who were killed when their helicopter crashed in the mountains of Indonesia's Papua province eight months ago, the army said Friday, amid insurgents' claims that they shot it down.
The army pinpointed the wreckage of the Russian-made Mi-17 from the air Monday, photographing the debris field strewn along steep and rugged terrain at an elevation of 12,500 feet (3,800 meters) in Oskop district, after area residents had located the crash site.
The search team reached the site on Thursday after walking for five hours from their base camp in the Mandala mountain range, the military said in a statement. Twelve people, including the crew, were aboard the chopper that went missing in late June.
"Tomorrow (Saturday) we will start evacuating the remains. The team will carry them to a location that can be reached by our helicopter," the head of the search team, Col. Binsar Panjaitan, said in the statement, adding that bad weather on Friday hampered an immediate evacuation of the bodies.
The army helicopter lost radio contact with ground control minutes after taking off on a flight to carry supplies and troops from Oksibil district in Pegunungan Bintang regency to Sentani, near the provincial capital Jayapura, on June 28, 2019.
Military officials said the cause of the crash was still not yet known, while declining to comment on recent claims by the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) separatist rebel group that they had downed the big helicopter.
Sebby Sambom, a spokesman for the rebels, told reporters earlier that they found the chopper's wreckage on Feb. 4 and their forces had seized weapons from the crash site.
Dax Sianturi, a commander and spokesman for the Indonesian military in Papua, on Friday denied the rebels' claims that they had looted weapons from among the dead soldiers.
"According to information from local figures, the weapons are mostly likely being kept by villagers in a nearby village not far from the crash site," Sianturi told BenarNews via a text message.
Nine of the bodies of the dozen dead soldiers were identified by the nametags on their uniforms, Sianturi said, according to the Associated Press.

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An aerial photo shows the wreckage of a Russian-made Mi-17 Indonesian Army helicopter that crashed in Pegunungan Bintang Regency in Papua province, Feb. 10, 2020. [Handout/Papua Region Military Command Information Bureau]

In other news out of Papua, a military tribunal this week sentenced an Indonesian soldier to life in prison after convicting him on charges of selling ammunition to the rebels.
The army serviceman, Wahyu Insyafiadi, received the sentence for selling 2,600 pieces of ammo, including bullets, to the rebel side, Agence France-Presse reported Friday.
Two other military personnel received jail sentences of 15 years and 30 months, respectively, for their roles in the ammunition sales, according to AFP.
The Papua region, which makes up the Indonesian half of New Guinea island, was formally incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, after 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 involved only 1,000 people.

The Papua region, as it is known, has since been the scene of a low-level separatist insurgency. The region at the far eastern end of Indonesia is made up of Papua and West Papua provinces.
Air transport is vital in the largely jungle-clad region due to its limited road networks.


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BENARNEWS-The father of a high school student who was one of four protesters killed by soldiers in Indonesia's troubled Papua province in 2014 demanded justice for his son, a day after the National Commission on Human Rights ruled the shooting "a gross violation."
Alpius Gobai, Yulian Yeimo, and Alpius Youw – all 17 – and fellow student Simon Degei, 18 were shot and killed during anti-Jakarta protests in Paniai regency on Dec. 8, 2014. Violence erupted in Enarotali, the regency's capital, after two soldiers who had been challenged by local teenagers the previous day for reckless driving allegedly attacked the youths, seriously injuring one of them.
"We want the perpetrators to be tried and punished according to the law. My child is dead and he won't come back, but the culprits must be tried," Obet Gobai, the father of Alpius, told BenarNews on Tuesday.
He was speaking from Paniai, through a relative who interpreted for him. Obet does not speak Indonesian but said the shootings occurred in broad daylight and were witnessed by many people.
On Monday, more than five years after the killings, a team set up by the national commission known as Komnas HAM – an independent body – concluded that soldiers were responsible for the incident.
"By acclamation, we decided that it was a gross violation of human rights," Komnas HAM Chairman Ahmad Taufan Damanik said in the statement.
Team leader M. Choirul Anam said the Paniai incident met criteria necessary for a gross human rights violation, saying it was part of a pattern of "widespread or systematic crimes directed against a civilian population."
The team questioned 26 witnesses, inspected the scene of the shootings in Enarotali, examined documents and consulted experts during its investigation, the commission said.
The team also found indications of "obstruction of justice" in the aftermath of the shootings, Choirul said.
It submitted a report on the investigation to the Attorney General's Office on Feb. 11.
Meanwhile, human rights activists called on Indonesian leader Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to act on the report.
"We urge the president to take concrete steps following Komnas HAM's investigation into the Paniai incident and to order the attorney general to immediately conduct an investigation," Yati Andriani, coordinator for the Commission on Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (KontraS), told BenarNews.
Yati said the report could be the first step in efforts to heal the wounds of the Papuan people. She also called on Jokowi to start a dialogue with Papuans and end what she called "the militaristic approach."
John Gobay, secretary of the Papuan Customary Council, urged the government to establish a human rights court in Papua where the Paniai case could be tried.
"The Papuan public must be able to see the judicial process with their own eyes. If a human rights court is established in Papua, it will be easier for witnesses to testify," Gobay said.
Chief of staff: 'No structural of systematic attacks'
In Jakarta, presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko challenged the Komnas report. The Paniai incident was not a gross human rights violation, he insisted, adding there were no orders for soldiers to shoot.
"Paniai was a sudden event. It must be seen in that context because there were no structural or systematic attacks," Moeldoko said on Monday.
Moeldoko, who commanded the Indonesian military at the time of the shooting, said soldiers were responding to an attack by the crowd.
"Don't make an inaccurate conclusion," Moeldoko said.
AI speaks out on Papua
On Tuesday, the director of the Indonesian chapter of Amnesty International said the Paniai case was one of many attacks allegedly conducted by the military in Papua.
"According to a 2018 Amnesty report, the Paniai case was only one of a total of 69 extra-judicial killings that occurred from 2008 to early 2018," Usman Hamid said.
Meanwhile, Mahfud MD, the coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, said he had not seen the report.
"I have not received the letter. I just read about it in the news. Why should I make statements to the media?" Mahfud told reporters at the presidential palace in Jakarta on Tuesday.
In a report released a year after the shootings, Amnesty and KontraS said the Paniai case was "not an isolated incident but speaks to a culture of impunity that continues to exist in the Papua region."
"Previous administrations have also turned a blind eye to human rights violations carried out by security forces, including unlawful killings, excessive use of force, and torture and other ill-treatment, which is evident from investigations that have been delayed, dropped, or their findings buried, leaving victims and their families without access to truth, justice and reparations," the groups said.
The Papua region, which makes up the Indonesian half of New Guinea island, is home to a separatist insurgency that has simmered for decades. The region was incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, after 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 involved only 1,000 people.
Ronna Nirmala in Jakarta contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Indonesian officials confirmed Tuesday that radioactive material had contaminated a piece of land in a residential complex near Jakarta, sparking public health concerns as nuclear authorities vowed to investigate its source.
An elevated level of the isotope Caesium-137 was detected during a routine radioactivity test near a multi-family housing in Serpong, about 30 km (18 miles) west of Indonesia's capital, according to Bapeten, the nation's Nuclear Energy Regulatory Agency.
"This is unusual because it's not a place for dumping nuclear waste," Research and Higher Education Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro told a news conference on Tuesday.
Around 5,000 people, including 1,000 children, live in the Batan Indah residential complex, local officials said.
Nine people who live near the contaminated site have been put under observation and contamination test results are expected to be completed in the next three days, according to Bapeten, which has been regularly checking activity levels in the area since 2013.
Caesium-137 is used in medical radiation therapy devices for treating cancer and in industrial equipment to measure the thickness of materials such as paper or sheets of metal, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The contaminated land within the complex is about 4.5 km (2.8 miles) from a research nuclear reactor operated by the Center for Scientific and Technological Research.
"The contamination is not from the nuclear reactor," Bambang said.
"There's no contamination of radioactive [material] at the nuclear facility. Management [at the reactor] has been very good, so there's no way any contamination can find a way to another area, because it's quite far," he said, adding that police and nuclear authorities were investigating.
Bapeten, in a statement on Friday, said it had detected radiation levels of 140 microSv per hour in the location, alarming residents who raised questions about its source. The safe level is 0.11 microSv per hour, authorities said.
Workers have excavated the soil that was exposed to radioactive waste, Bapeten chief Jazi Istiyanto said. He said he suspected that the contamination came from waste from industrial use.
"This cannot be classified as a nuclear accident, but pollution of radioactive waste. It's a far cry from the Fukushima and Chernobyl accidents," he said, referring to the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan that was triggered by the 2011 earthquake, and the nuclear reactor accident at Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986.
Jazi said Bapeten would collect the data on users of radioactive isotope Caesium-137 throughout the country to help with the police investigation.
Questions raised on Jakarta's plans to build nuclear plants
The discovery of radioactive waste in a residential area raised questions about the government's plans to build a nuclear power plant, said Greenpeace, the environmental conservation group.
"This incident is a bad precedent for the government and Batan because they have failed to maintain public safety from the danger of radioactive waste," Greenpeace's climate and energy campaigner Hindun Mulaika said in a statement.
"Not only must nuclear reactors be safe from technical errors, human and natural disasters, the disposal of nuclear waste also needs special attention," she said. "This incident is a strong warning to governments that are aggressively promoting nuclear use in the energy sector."
Indonesia has no nuclear power industry, although it has conducted feasibility studies in West Kalimantan province. Results on those studies, as well as infrastructure reviews, are expected to be completed in the next two to three years, officials said.


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BENARNEWS- Security forces shot dead an elementary school student during an alleged firefight in Papua that killed two people dead and injured two others, a local Catholic leader said Thursday, in the latest violence in Indonesia's troubled easternmost province.
However, the Indonesian military said the slain boy was an 18-year-old separatist rebel, when he was killed in a clash with soldiers earlier this week.
Melki Tipagau, 12, and Kayus Sani, 51, were allegedly shot and killed by security forces in Galunggama, a village in Intan Jaya regency, said Father Yustinus Rahangiar, a member of the Catholic deanery overseeing the Monis, the largest tribe in the area.
"The boy was diminutive, small. I'm not sure he could carry a weapon," said Yustinus, who visited the boy's home.
"He (Melki) was in sixth grade, age 11 or 12 years. If people say this child is 18 years old, that must be wrong. I am sure because he was my disciple," the priest told BenarNews.
A woman and a girl identified as Heletina Sani and Kalopina Sani were injured in Tuesday's incident, he said.
Yustinus said the killing of a child would create an atmosphere of fear among local youths.
A list of pupils at the YPPK Bilogai Elementary School seen by BenarNews included the name Melki Tipagau, born Feb.14, 2008.
School Principal Stefanus Sondegau said Melki was a 6th-grade student there.
"In the last few months many children from Galunggama have not come to the school because of an unfavorable security situation," Stefanus said.
But Col. Eko Daryanto, spokesman for the military's 17th regional command Cenderawasih, which oversees Papua province, said Melki Tipagau was a member of the Free Papua Organization (OPM) separatist group and 18 years old.
He said Melki was killed during clashes between rebels and a joint team of soldiers and police, and that a teenage girl was wounded by a ricocheted bullet fired by OPM members.
"The person killed was an 18-year-old OPM member and the wounded is 14 years," Eko told BenarNews by telephone Thursday.
In a statement a day earlier, Eko said Melki's body was found with a gun after the firefight in Galunggama. He did not say what kind of gun it was.
"Some time after the gunfight, the joint team carried out a search of the scene and found some evidence including a male corpse (18 years old) by the name of Melki Tipagau, of the Moni tribe, who was killed during the firefight and carrying a gun," Eko said.
Eko said the military had received information from a tribal chief that Melki had joined the separatist group.
Other evidence found at the scene included a laptop, a cellphone, a handy talky, two homemade guns, a facsimile machine, a bow and several arrows, he said.
Sebby Sambom, spokesman for the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), the armed wing of OPM, disputed the military's account, saying all the casualties were civilians.
"The real story is that Indonesian security forces shot dead and wounded native Papuan civilians," Sambom said in a statement Wednesday.
The statement identified the casualties as Yoparu village head Kayus Sani, Melki, his mother Heletina Sani, 31, and Malopina Sani, 11.
Violence has been on the rise in Intan Jaya since December, after Jakarta deployed more security forces in the area.
On Dec. 12, suspected rebels shot dead two government soldiers, while a resident was killed and two others were wounded by security forces last month.
The uptick in armed violence has prompted the Papuan Indigenous Council to call on the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to form a fact-finding team to investigate.
On Monday, a panel set up by Komnas HAM concluded in a report that Indonesian soldiers had shot and killed four Papuan high schoolers during anti-Jakarta protests in Paniai regency in December 2014.
Komnas labeled the killings as "a gross violation of human rights," and the panel that investigated the incident said it was part of a pattern of "widespread or systematic crimes against a civilian population."
In a report published in July 2018, London-based rights group Amnesty International said that Indonesian security forces had "unlawfully killed at least 95 people" in Papua and West Papua provinces in eight years since 2010. It said a majority of the perpetrators had not been held to account for the killings and most of the victims were activists and protesters.
"Papua is one of Indonesia's black holes for human rights. This is a region where security forces have for years been allowed to kill women, men and children, with no prospects of being held to account," Usman Hamid, Amnesty International Indonesia's executive director, said at the time.
The Papua region was formally incorporated into Indonesia in 1969, after 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 involved only 1,000 people.
Separatists have fought for independence for the mainly Melanesian region since the Dutch ceded the territory to the United Nations in 1962 and to Indonesia the next year.
Ronna Nirmala in Jakarta contributed to this report.
An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated two women were injured.


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BENARNEWS- At least two China-backed infrastructure projects in Indonesia have been disrupted because of travel bans and shipments suspended because of the coronavirus outbreak, project managers said, while employees at an industrial park have been cleared to work after being quarantined.
Thousands of Chinese nationals are constructing a high-speed railway connecting the Indonesian capital Jakarta to Bandung, and a hydropower project in North Sumatra province. But as a result of Jakarta's ban on flights to and from China, many of the workers have been unable to return to Indonesia after going home to celebrate the Lunar New Year, company executives said.
PT Kereta Api Cepat Indonesia China (KCIC), the consortium building the railway, is expected to miss construction targets because about 300 Chinese workers are absent and some materials have not been shipped, the company's managing director, Chandra Dwiputra, told reporters on Friday.
"I can't talk about targets for this year," Chandra said. "The problem is many of those who returned to China are at senior levels and this has affected decision making."
So far, Indonesian officials have reported no cases of the coronavirus (COVID-19), whose epicenter was reported to be Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province in China. As of Thursday, at least 75,000 cases had been detected in 27 countries with most concentrated in China, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). At least 2,100 deaths have been reported.
Chandra said project directors, managers, engineers and consultants were among the absent Chinese workers. The project employs 14,000 people, including 2,000 Chinese nationals.
In addition, nearly 50 percent of materials used in the project including pipes, waterproofing materials and signaling equipment are made in China, and some manufacturers have not resumed production, he said.
"Concrete, steel and some other materials are available here, but if there are no supporting materials, construction will be disrupted," he said.
Chandra said he had asked contractors to replace the Chinese workers with Indonesians temporarily.
"The point is I am encouraging contractors to adjust plans according to the current conditions," he said.
However, Transportation Minister Budi Karya Sumadi said he expected no major disruptions to China-funded infrastructure projects.
"Here, there are no problems," Budi told reporters. "On the contrary we want them to be faster," he said.
Indonesia's president, Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, has made improving Indonesia's infrastructure a priority during his second term in office.
Prior to his re-election last year, Jokowi embraced Chinese investment and attended the 2017 unveiling of Beijing's One Belt, One Road (OBOR) initiative, an estimated U.S. $1 trillion-plus initiative to build a network of railways, ports and bridges across 70 countries.
The $6 billion high-speed railway is OBOR's flagship project in Indonesia.
Hydroelectric project
In North Sumatra, the construction of the hydroelectric power plant has been suspended because of the absence of Chinese workers and it could miss its 2022 completion target date, said Emmy Hafild, a senior adviser at PT North Sumatra Hydro Energy (NSHE).
China's ZheFu Holding Group owns a majority stake in NSHE, which is building the 510-megawatt hydropower dam in the Batang Toru rainforest. More than 120 of the 1,200 employees constructing the plant are Chinese nationals, Emmy told local media earlier this week.
"We don't know how long it will stop, because it depends on the lifting of the ban on Chinese entering the country," Emmy told Kompas.com.
Environmental groups and scientists have called on the government to scrap the project, saying the plant would divide the habitat of about 800 Tapanuli orangutan and increase the risk of their extinction.
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 recently was listed as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The company has said the project would not threaten protected animals, including the orangutan.
Meanwhile, 3,000 Chinese employees at an industrial complex in Central Sulawesi province who went into a quarantine last month amid fears of the coronavirus outbreak have since been released.
Production at the Chinese-owned company, PT Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park, which employs 28,000 Indonesians, continued during the quarantine carried out by the company.
"We are grateful. ... The 3,000 workers from China are declared free from the coronavirus. No one is infected," company spokesman Dedy Kurniawan told BenarNews.
Reny A. Lamadjido, chief of the Central Sulawesi Health Office, confirmed the result.
Slower growth forecast
The project disruptions and other trade issues linked to the COVID-19 outbreak prompted Bank Indonesia, the country's central bank, to cut the 2020 growth forecast for Indonesia, expected to be 5.1 percent to 5.5 percent, to 5.0 percent to 5.4 percent.
Bank Gov. Perry Warjiyo said the revised estimate was in line with the uncertain outlook of the global economy after the epidemic.
In addition, the Ministry of Tourism said Indonesia could lose $4 billion as a result of flight bans to and from China. About 2 million Chinese visit Indonesia annually.
China's ambassador to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) said he expected the negative impact on the economy would be temporary and short-term.
"We are hopeful that with the decisive measures taken by the Chinese government, the epidemic will be controlled and cleared up and production by manufacturers will recover," Ambassador Deng Xijun told reporters in Jakarta.
"So we hope that people-to-people relations, normal trade and investment will be resumed as early as possible."
Tia Asmara in Jakarta contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- Radioactive waste found in a patch of land in a residential complex near Jakarta was dumped there by a former employee of the state-run nuclear energy agency, police said Tuesday.
Investigators had also found depleted uranium and an empty cylinder in two houses in the same neighborhood in Serpong, about 30 km (18 miles) west of Jakarta, authorities said.
An elevated level of the Caesium-137 isotope was detected near a multi-family housing complex during a routine test last week for radioactivity, the nation's Nuclear Energy Regulatory Agency (Bapeten) revealed on Feb. 16.
"The owner [of the radioactive material] is known to be a retired Batan employee," national police spokesman Argo Yuwono told BenarNews.
He was using the Indonesian name for the National Nuclear Energy Agency, a separate institution involved in research and development of atomic technology.
Argo said police had not charged the person, a resident of the complex that houses Batan employees. Around 5,000 people, including 1,000 children, live in the gated community, local officials said.
It was not immediately clear if the former employee was working at the nuclear energy agency when the contamination occurred. Authorities declined to provide more information about him.
So far, police have questioned 17 witnesses including Batan employees and local residents, Argo said.
Bapeten, which regulates and monitors activities on the use of nuclear energy in Indonesia, said it had detected radiation levels of 140 microSv per hour in an empty piece of land in the complex, alarming residents who raised questions about its source. The safe level is 0.11 microSv per hour, authorities said.
Officials have said that the substance did not originate from a nuclear reactor, which is used for research, about 4.5 km (2.8 miles) from the contaminated land.
On Tuesday, Batan chief Anhar Riza Antariksawan urged the police to look into possible illegal possession of radioactive substances.
"Illegal possession of nuclear or radioactive materials is highly prohibited because it could endanger the public," Anhar said in a statement.
Meanwhile, police found a depleted uranium cylinder – weighing about 4.5 kilograms (10 pounds) – and an empty depleted uranium cylinder in the same residential complex in the houses of two current Batan employees, identified by their initials S.M. and E.F., Argo said.
Argo said he did not know if they were linked to the retired Batan employee.
"These things are being investigated. We will make an announcement later," he said.
Civilian uses of depleted uranium include shielding in medical radiation therapy and industrial radiography equipment, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Abdul Qohar Teguh, spokesman for the nuclear regulatory agency Bapeten, said the radioactive contamination was still within safe limits, so it was not necessary to evacuate the complex.
"Once the source was secured, the soil returned to normal background values. So there is no need to evacuate the residents," he said.
Cleaning work on contaminated soil resumed on Monday after it was halted at the weekend for evaluation, Batan spokesman Heru Umbara said.
So far, workers have collected 337 drums of contaminated soil, which will be sent to the Batan radioactive-waste technology center for inspection, Heru said, adding that the work was expected to be completed this week.
Bapeten chief Jazi Eko Istiyanto said last week that the radioactive contamination was a far cry from the nuclear disaster at Fukushima, Japan that was triggered by a 2011 earthquake and tsunami, and the nuclear reactor accident at Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986.
Bapeten said that two out of nine residents had tested positive for exposure to Caesium -137 last week, but the contamination was still within values acceptable to the human body.
"So there's no need for special treatment, just a routine medical check-up if needed," he said.
According to Bapeten data, 13,000 licenses have been issued for the use of radioactive substances, mostly to in-health and manufacturing sectors.
Indonesia has no nuclear power industry, although it has conducted feasibility studies in West Kalimantan province. Results on those studies, as well as infrastructure reviews, are expected to be completed in the next two to three years, officials said.


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BENARNEWS- An Indonesian parliamentary committee on Wednesday gave the go-ahead for the acceptance of 14 unmanned aerial vehicles and the upgrade of three Bell helicopters paid for by the United States under a security assistance scheme.
The Indonesian military will use the ScanEagle drones to conduct maritime surveillance, including in waters off the Natuna islands where Jakarta and Beijing have been engaged in a stand-off over fishing rights, the Defense Ministry said.
"We approved the government's receipt of grants from the United States in the form of 14 ScanEagle UAV units and the upgrade of three Bell 412 helicopters," Meutya Hafid, chairwoman of the House of Representatives' committee on defense and foreign affairs, told reporters.
Acceptance of any foreign military grant requires the approval of the parliament's defense committee, according to a 2013 Defense Ministry regulation.
"These ScanEagle drones will be used for surveillance, including in Natuna. The Indonesian Navy will definitely use it," Deputy Defense Minister Sakti Wahyu Trenggono told reporters.
Tensions between Indonesia and China over maritime rights off the Natuna Islands in the South China Sea were raised in January after Chinese fishing boats and coast guard ships entered waters in Jakarta's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Beijing claims nearly all of the contested South China Sea, a waterway through which about U.S. $5 trillion of shipping trade passes each year. Beijing says the waters off Indonesia's Natuna islands are part of traditional fishing grounds for Chinese fishermen.
The security assistance accepted Wednesday is authorized under the U.S. Arms Export Control Act, and is part of a U.S. $47.9 million package of ScanEagle drones announced last year to Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam.
The U.S. assistance package for Indonesia is valued at $28.3 million for the drones and $6.3 million for the upgrade of the Bell 412 helicopters, the Defense Ministry said.
The ScanEagle, made by Insitu Inc., a subsidiary of the U.S. aircraft maker Boeing, can operate above 15,000 feet (about 4,572 meters) and has a flight endurance of up to 20 hours, according to Boeing.
Indonesia does not operate any ScanEagle drones, but last year acquired the CH-4, a dedicated unmanned combat aerial vehicle made by China. The drone was showcased at an event marking the Indonesian military's 74th anniversary in October.
Indonesia plans to buy a total of six CH-4 drones within the next few years, the military has said.
Jakarta is developing its own medium-altitude long-endurance drone called the Black Eagle, with a prototype released last year.
President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo, whose government has embarked on a drive to modernize its military, urged the country's arms makers to build advanced unmanned aerial vehicles.
"We need to keep up with technological advances," Jokowi said in a speech at a Defense Ministry's leadership meeting.
"[W]e have seen that armed drones are capable of destroying armored vehicles from near and far with precision," he said. "The TNI (Indonesian military) must take bold action by starting to build those things."
No strings attached
Moeldoko, Jokowi's chief of staff, said the U.S. aid package had nothing to do with Indonesia's plan to purchase fighter jets from Russia.
"We have a cooperation scheme. It's nothing new. There are no strings attached," Moeldoko told reporters.
In 2018, Indonesia agreed to purchase 11 Sukhoi SU-35 fighter jets from Russia, valued at $1.14 billion. Russia agreed in return to buy Indonesian commodities valued at $570 million.
But the deal has been up in the air after U.S. President Donald Trump in August 2017 signed the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which could apply sanctions against entities doing business with Russia.
When asked about the progress on the Sukhoi purchase, Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto said last week: "God willing. Let's pray for it."


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BENARNEWS- Southeast and South Asian nations scrambled to provide answers to their Muslim citizens Thursday after Saudi Arabia blocked foreigners from travelling to Islam's holiest sites just months ahead of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, as transmissions of the coronavirus soared in the Middle East with Iran confirming 245 infections and 26 deaths.
Riyadh on Thursday suspended visas for the minor "Umrah" pilgrimage as it also closed its borders to foreigners visiting Mecca during Hajj and the Kaaba, the holiest shrine in Islam, in an extraordinary move that left tens of thousands of pilgrims in limbo at airports worldwide, including those from Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh.
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority nation, requested an exemption for its citizens as it underscored that Jakarta had not yet recorded any confirmed case of the deadly flu-like disease known as COVID-19 on its soil.
"We are negotiating, so that those who are already there can perform 'Umrah' and those who have not come will not be barred," Indonesian Vice President Ma'ruf Amin told reporters, emphasizing that Jakarta had already urged Saudi authorities to exempt Indonesians from the entry ban.
Umrah, an Islamic pilgrimage to Mecca that can be undertaken at any time of the year, attracts millions of visitors to Saudi Arabia. Millions more attend the 10-day Hajj, which is based on the Islamic lunar calendar and scheduled for late July into early August this year.
About one million Indonesians travel to Saudi Arabia each year to perform Umrah, officials said.
"I don't think Umrah should be stopped. Even if it's temporary, we hope Indonesia is exempted. If the reason is the coronavirus, we have no cases," Ma'ruf said.
Saudi Arabia's decision indicates the level of concern about the outbreak potentially striking the oil-rich kingdom tasked with protecting Islam's holiest sites.
"Entry to the Kingdom for the purpose of Umrah and or visiting the Prophet's Mosque in Medina is temporarily suspended," the Saudi foreign ministry said in a statement posted on its website.
It said tourist visas of visitors "from countries with confirmed coronavirus outbreaks" had been temporarily suspended. 

The statement did not provide a timeframe for when the suspension would be lifted.
There have been no confirmed cases of the virus in Saudi Arabia, according to authorities in Riyadh, although newspaper reports said at least five of its citizens in Kuwait and Bahrain had been infected after visiting Iran, the hardest-hit nation in the Middle East.
In Indonesia, Riyadh's decision thrust pilgrims under a cloud of confusion, and travel operators expressed concerns that their customers may be sent back upon landing in Saudi Arabia.
Almost 7,000 Indonesians were stranded at local airports on Thursday, said Ali Machzumi, chief of "Umrah" affairs at the Religious Affairs Ministry.
About 4,000 other pilgrims were scheduled to leave for Saudi Arabia from other Indonesian cities such as Surabaya, Bandung and Makassar on Thursday, Ali said, adding that planes carrying nearly 1,200 had already departed on the same day.
"But it's not clear because they are likely to be returned as they are now in transit in Dubai and Malaysia," he told BenarNews.
At Jakarta's international airport alone, more than 2,700 people were about to board flights when they were told they had been cancelled, he said.
At the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, more than 100 Malaysian and Indonesian pilgrims could be seen roaming around the pre-departure lounge on Thursday after Saudi announced its decision, according to state-run news service Bernama.
Malaysian travel agencies urged the Malaysian king to intervene over the temporary suspension.
"I appeal to His Majesty to hold discussions with Saudi Arabia's King, King Salman Abdulaziz Al Saud, to reconsider the suspension of visas for umrah," Mohd Akil Mohd Yusof, deputy president of the Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents, told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur on Thursday.
Mohd Akil said around 270,000 Malaysians visited Saudi Arabia last year for Umrah.
In Bangladesh, pilgrims grappled with anxieties after officials of airline companies said that they had received directives from the Saudi foreign ministry not to carry passengers with pilgrimage visas.
M. Shahadat Hossain Taslim, president of Hajj Agency Association Bangladesh, told the Daily Star that almost 1,000 Bangladeshis were "stranded" at the three airports in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet after they were prevented from boarding flights for Saudi Arabia.
Three days before Riyadh issued its decision, Bangladesh's cabinet secretary Khandker Awarul Islam told reporters that 137,198 pilgrims had signed up for the annual Hajj.
Since authorities reported that the virus had jumped from its epicenter in China, Kuwait has recorded 43 cases – all involving people who had been to Iran – while the United Arab Emirates has reported 13 and Bahrain has 33, according to the World Health Organization's latest tally of infections.
Iran has emerged as a major hotspot in the Middle East, authorities said, with the highest death toll outside China at 26.
Iraj Harirchi, the head of Iran's government task force on the coronavirus, who had earlier urged the public on national television not to overreact about the virus' spread had himself tested positive for the illness.
Almost 2.5 Muslims from across the globe visited Saudi Arabia last year, according to authorities in Riyadh.
Disease outbreaks have taken place during the Hajj, including cholera in 1821, during which an estimated 20,000 pilgrims died. About 44 years later, about 15,000 worshipers also lost their lives during cholera outbreak that was also spread worldwide, health authorities said.
Passengers seek government intervention
Back in Indonesia, would-be pilgrim Ade Suherman, 68, and his wife received the news about Saudi Arabia's decision while they were about to board their planes at Jakarta's Soekarno-Hatta airport.
"We've had out bags collected and are already inside. We are still waiting for news from the travel agency," Ade told BenarNews.
Other Muslim worshipers hope that the Indonesian government could intervene.
"I hope the government will help us," said 62-year-old Nur Hayati, a pilgrim from Cirebon in West Java province. "We have been certified healthy and ready to go."
Bram Riza Nurulhuda, a 41-year-old pilgrim who had been in Medina since Tuesday, vowed to complete his pilgrimage.
"Here I am doing the morning prayer at the Nabawi Mosque. It is business as usual and there has been no clear action from local authorities," he told BenarNews. "On Friday, God willing, I will go to Mecca."
Up to 60,000 pilgrims from Indonesia had been scheduled to depart to Saudi in the next two weeks, according to Syam Resfiadi, chairman of the Association of Umrah and Hajj Organizers (Sapuhi).
Ronna Nirmala and Ami Afriatni in Jakarta contributed to this report.


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BENARNEWS- A woman and her mother in Indonesia have tested positive for the new coronavirus, making them the country's first confirmed cases of the disease, President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo announced Monday at a news conference with the nation's top health official.
The 31-year-old woman tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, after contact with a Japanese citizen in Jakarta in mid-February, Health Minister Terawan Agus Putranto said. She was believed to have then transmitted the disease to her mother.
"This morning I received information from the health minister that a mother and her daughter have tested positive for the coronavirus," Jokowi told reporters.
Before Monday, officials in the most populous nation in Southeast Asia had insisted that it had no cases of the coronavirus, although its immediate neighbors had detected multiple cases, and other countries had reported infections from people who had recently traveled to Indonesia.
The patients from Depok on the outskirts of Jakarta were being treated in isolation at the Sulianti Saroso Infectious Diseases Hospital in the capital and were in stable condition, Terawan said.
The daughter was believed to have contracted the disease after meeting a Japanese woman at a night spot in Jakarta, he said.
The minister said the Japanese woman had tested positive for the virus in Malaysia on Feb. 28 and relayed the news to the Indonesian woman.
The woman and her mother sought care at a hospital in Depok on Feb. 26, more than a week after they began showing symptoms of the virus, Terawan said.
The Health Ministry is monitoring 48 people in Depok who are suspected of having come into contact with the two patients, said its directorate general for disease prevention and control, Anung Sugihantono, adding that they all appeared to be in good health.
Anung told reporters that laboratory tests were required for people who had close contact with the woman and her mother.
Terawan said his ministry had ordered dozens of workers at the first hospital where the women were treated to isolate themselves at home after making contact with the two patients.
"Contact must be traced from the moment they left the house, anyone they spoke to," he said.
The Ministry of Health has prepared 100 hospitals across 32 of the country's 34 provinces to care for patients with the coronavirus.
International standard
Jokowi said Indonesia was ready to deal with an outbreak of the coronavirus, saying that the country's health care was up to international standards, despite concerns expressed by some that the country might be ill-prepared.
"We also have the budget. If we are not serious about tackling this, it's going to be very dangerous because this is a disease we need to watch out for," said Jokowi.
Indonesians on social media have criticized the government for what they perceived as official preoccupation with the economic consequences of the virus instead of informing the public about how to deal with an outbreak.
A member of the Indonesian Public Health Expert Association (IAKMI), Hermawan Saputra, said it was likely that some cases of the coronavirus in the country had not been detected.
"It's possible that some people were infected and died. But, because they did not receive treatment and their families refused autopsies, they were not recorded," Hermawan said.
Indonesia is considered vulnerable due to its 10 international airports and direct flights to Wuhan, the capital of China's Hubei Province, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak.
Singapore's Ministry of Health announced Sunday that two citizens and a Myanmar national living in the city-state had tested positive for the coronavirus after visiting Batam, an Indonesian island nearby, from Feb. 21-23.
Authorities in Batam were monitoring 15 residents known to have come into contact with the Singaporeans.
The global death toll from the coronavirus surpassed 3,000 on Monday, with the number of people infected reaching more than 89,000.
The vast majority of cases and deaths are in China, but the number of cases and fatalities connected to COVID-19 outside China have surged in three countries – Iran, Italy, and South Korea.
"In the last 24 hours there were almost 9 times more cases reported outside China than inside China," the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told reporters at a media briefing in Geneva.
On Sunday, Thailand reported its first death from the virus, a 35-year-old man who worked as a subcontractor for Thai duty-free giant King Power.
Meanwhile, 69 Indonesian crew members from the coronavirus-hit Diamond Princess cruise ship docked in the Japanese city of Yokohama arrived home Sunday and started a 28-day quarantine period on an uninhabited island off Jakarta Bay, Human Development Minister Muhadjir Effendy told reporters over the weekend.
Eight other Indonesian workers on the ship were being treated in Japan after testing positive for the virus, he said.
The arrival of the 69 followed the return of 188 Indonesian crew members from the Hong Kong-based World Dream cruise ship on Friday. The World Dream crew would be quarantined for 14 days in a separate block on the same island, officials said.


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BENARNEWS- Two religious study groups in Indonesia's West Sumatra province produced supporters of the Islamic State militant group who departed to Syria and Afghanistan, according to a new report by a think-tank that questions the effectiveness of the Indonesian government's anti-radicalism efforts.
The groups, which were established in the cities of Padang and Bukittinggi, expanded their reach through trading and migration networks, direct exposure to radical clerics and movements to new areas, according to the report released by the Jakarta-based Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC).
"The West Sumatra study calls into question the wisdom of the Indonesian government's approach of treating radicalism as a problem of insufficient nationalism, curable by indoctrination in the state ideology, Pancasila," IPAC director Sidney Jones said in a statement accompanying the report's weekend release.
"The problems here were more concrete," she said, referring to "a mosque that hosted extremist discussions for more than a decade without any attention from local authorities and deportees from Turkey who returned home without sufficient monitoring."
On Tuesday, a national police spokesman and an official at the National Counter-terrorism Agency (BNPT) declined to comment on the IPAC report, titled "Learning from Extremists in West Sumatra."
Meanwhile, BNPT had identified several provinces as regions in Indonesia most vulnerable to terrorism.
"West Sumatra is included in the list of 10 provinces prone to terrorism," Irfan Idris, BNPT director for deradicalization, told BenarNews on Tuesday.
At the end of 2019, BNPT announced that militants were planning to carry out attacks in West Sumatra. Targets included police stations, government offices and places frequented by tourists, it said.
Last July, members of the anti-terrorism police unit Densus 88 arrested a militant suspect named Novendri in Padang for alleged links to the outlawed Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), a network affiliated with IS.
Similar starts
The 14-page IPAC report said the Padang and Bukittinggi groups were believed to have started as local branches of the Indonesian Mujahidin Council (MMI), a pro-sharia advocacy group established in West Sumatra in 2005.
Their leaders often had divergent views, the report said, pointing out that the Padang group wanted to carry out attacks while the Bukittinggi group was not keen on engaging in violence at home, it said.
By 2013, a member of the Bukittinggi group who had become radicalized wanted to join the Islamic State (IS), but ended up in the northwestern Syrian city of Idlib with the al-Nusra Front (also known as al-Qaeda in Syria).
The report made two points – the first that the Indonesian government made little effort to understand the group's ongoing ties to the al-Qaeda network.
"The second point is that the Bukittinggi group, for the most part, was not interested in violence. They wanted an Islamic state, they wanted to be part of the caliphate and they wanted to fight Islam's enemies in Syria. But that does not seem to have translated into a desire to harm anyone in Indonesia," IPAC said.
Meanwhile in 2017, a member of the Padang group joined IS in Khorasan, an IS "province" in Afghanistan, and called on Indonesians to join him, the report said.
By December 2018, word was out that IS families were encouraged to move to Khorasan to join the fight. One of the most senior Indonesians in Syria, Abu Walid, began making arrangements and sending money to IS fighters to move with their families to Afghanistan, according to the report.
Among other findings, the report concludes that local officials missed several opportunities to work with community leaders to intervene as members of the two groups became attracted to IS and before they left the country.
"In Bukittinggi, the MMI cells-turned-ISIS supporters met at the al-Jihad Mosque from 2006 to 2017 – more than 10 years. In all of that time, surely there was knowledge within local law enforcement of how the discussions there had taken a radical turn," it said using a different acronym for IS.
The report said local officials could have encouraged clerics and donors to take over mosque development committees, which would give them more say over which groups would be hosted.
Citizens stuck in Syrian camps
For months, government officials have wrestled with the question of what to do with nearly with 700 Indonesians – many of them women and children – who have been confined to camps in the Middle East since IS's last bastion in Iraq and Syria fell last March.
In August 2019, IPAC urged Indonesia to begin repatriating its most vulnerable citizens who had joined IS and not let them remain in the camps where they could face intimidation from supporters of the extremist group.
"There's no need to wait for an all-encompassing policy to begin to bring back those most at risk," Jones told BenarNews at the time.
Last month, the Indonesian government announced it would not repatriate hundreds of citizens who fought for IS in Syria and other countries, but would consider bringing back some of their children on a case-by-case basis.
Security Minister Mahfud MD said the decision had been taken to protect the world's largest Muslim-majority country from the virus of terrorism.
"An effective rehabilitation, reintegration and monitoring program for deportees, now numbering well over 550, is still lacking in Indonesia," Jones said in releasing the new report. "Knowing how deportees have fared even several years after their return could help in the development of programs for future returnees."
The report's final paragraph states, "much more thought needs to go into the design, implementation and evaluation of these [targeted rehabilitation and reintegration] programs based on a detailed understanding of the backgrounds of the individuals concerned.
"A thorough appraisal of existing government-funded programs is long overdue."


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