Indonesia

LMND/Papernas: On Thursday (18/12/08), two helicopters flew in circles and used napalm, the kind used by the US troops in Vietnam, against farmers' settlement in Dusun Solok Bongkal, Beringin Village, Sub-District of Pinggir, Bengkalis, Riau. In seconds, about 700 citizens' houses were burnt down, along with the farming lands, productive tools, and furniture that could not be saved by their owners. Furthermore, about a thousand thugs and five hundred armed police personnel were deployed to evict the citizens. Police opened fire not only to scare the citizens, but also aimed at them, so that two citizens were shot. Ironically, a toddler named Fitri (2 years old) was so frightened that she fell into a well and died. During the incident, about 200 citizens were arrested and detained at Mandau Police station, and about 400 more are hiding in the forest of Kampung Dalam, while surrounded by hundreds of police and thugs who hunt them like outlaws. Apparently, the Indonesian Police cooperation with the US military results in the former's use of napalm in a scorched earth against people's houses.

By Kelik Ismunanto
29 November 2008: After such a long period of time in a vacuum, uncertain of how to respond to change caused by neoliberal economic policies, little by little, democracy movement activists have been able to wrest back the political podium.

SURAKARTA, Indonesia, Nov. 18 (AFP)
Indonesian artists protested here Tuesday after police bowed to pressure from Islamic hardliners and shut down production of a film about the 1965-66 massacres of communists.
Protesters rallying outside police headquarters in Surakarta, Central Java, said police should protect the filmmakers from religious fanatics rather than shut down the film.

Jakarta, 22 August 2008: Arus Pelangi is an LGBTI [lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersexual] organization advocating the rights of people with different sexual orientations and gender identities in Indonesia. Our aim is to foster respect and acceptance of LGBTI people in Indonesian society.

Jakarta, August 15, 2008: About 3000 people, many of them women and children from the city's burgeoning urban poor shanty towns organised by the Poor People's Union (Serikat Rakyat Miskin Indonesia - SRMI), held a protest outside the Bureau of Statistics and the Department of Social Affairs in Jakarta to protest official reports about the poverty rate which, they charged, were "clearly very different to the facts in the field". According to UN estimates, nearly half the country's population of 220 million people lives on less than US$2 a day.

By Vannessa Hearman, 16 August 2008: Well known Indonesian labour activist and chairperson of the Deliberative Council of the National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas), Dita Sari, has declared that she will run for the Star Reform Party (PBR) in the 2009 legislative elections.
Sari and around 40 other Papernas members have declared their intention to contest the elections as part of the PBR.

Tribun-Makassar: Peddlers from Makassar Port and a number of students from the People Accuse Front (FRM) protested in front of Makassar provincial house of representatives (DPRD) on Friday August 1, 2008.
Protesters came from various groups such as the National Students' League for Democracy (LMND), National Front of Indonesian Labour Struggle (FNPBI) and Indonesian Poor Union (SRMI) South Sulawesi.
They protested against port authority's - PT Pelindo IV - forcible and inhuman relocation against them, which was carried out rather violently by security personnel in cooperation with the state owned liner, PT Pelni.

Jakarta, Indonesia July 23, 2008: Twelve years ago, dozens of young people declared the birth of a new political party, which had a radical-progressive political line. This event became one of the changes that brought down the New Order regime and gradually expanded the democratic space.

According to Rido Triawan, the chairperson of Arus Pelangi ("Rainbow Current"), an Indonesian LGBTI rights organisation, a new anti-gay and lesbian campaign is sweeping Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, in the wake of hysterical media coverage about a so-called "Gay mutilation murder case".
Verry Idam Henyansyah, better known as "Ryan" confessed to the murder and mutilation of a gay man, Heri Santoso, in Jakarta a few weeks ago. He has subsequently confessed to 10 other murders.

Appeal for solidarity from an Indonesian trade union, July 22, 2008: Animale, a well known French brand that has been around for about 30 years in the fashion industry, has markets in 30 countries, ranging from advanced industrialised countries in Europe to developing ones in Asia, Latin America and Africa.