Mission & Justice

15/5/08

Australia will compensate a number of Indonesian fishermen after 55 men caught last month were cleared of illegal fishing. The compensation is for the wrongful destruction of boats belonging to some of the fishers. The men were caught during a blitz on illegal fishing in the waters north of Australia in late April, when 33 boats were apprehended. Federal Fisheries Minister Tony Burke said today nine of the boats and 55 fishermen had been found not to be involved in illegal fishing.

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6/5/08

Indoneian prosecutors said today they were suing former president Suharto’s youngest son for more than $US400 million ($470 million) over a business deal involving his failed national car project. The attorney-general’s office, acting on behalf of the finance ministry, is seeking 4 trillion rupiah in damages from Hutomo Mandala Putra Suharto, known as Tommy, and his companies. PT Timor Putra Nasional, set up by Tommy Suharto to build Indonesia’s national car, allegedly defaulted on its loans to Indonesian state banks after the 1997-98 financial crisis. But in 2003, Timor’s assets were sold to a little-known company called Vista Bella Pratama.

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Lindsay Murdoch; 28/4/08

Two rebels involved in attacks on East Timor’s top two political leaders have been arrested at the Jakarta home of a notorious Timor-born gangster known as Hercules, Indonesian police say. Investigators in Dili have established that Hercules, whose real name is Rozario Marcal, was in contact with, and may have met, rebel leader Alfredo Reinado days before he led the February 11 attacks on President Jose Ramos Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao. Indonesian National Police chief Sutanto confirmed that two of four rebels arrested in Indonesia last week were at the home of Hercules, who has close ties to several retired Indonesian military generals. Mr Sutanto was quoted by Indonesia’s official newsagency, Antara, as saying that Hercules was willing to accommodate the rebels “because of humanitarian consideration and was willing to find them a job”. How the men managed to cross the border into Indonesia and then travel to Jakarta is unclear.

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21/4/08

Indonesian police have arrested three East Timorese soldiers in relation to the attacks two months ago on two of East Timor’s most senior leaders, according to the Indonesian president. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono made the announcement on Sa turday in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital. Jose Ramos-Horta, East Timor’s prime minister, and Xanana Gusmao, the president, were attacked in Dili, the capital, in February. Ramos-Horta was critically wounded, while Gusmao escaped unharmed.

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Gabrielle Fito; 18/4/08

Three Indonesians who were caught fishing between the waters of Aitape and Vanimo late last month have been convicted of illegal entry and fined K5,000 each by the Vanimo District Court last Tuesday. The court also ordered that the three convicts be remanded at the Vanimo jail as they had additional charges of illegal fishing that are still pending at the District Court. The three men are Lankaito Nuboba, 45, Lasabau Bantar, 35, and Sebi Agisare, 35, all from North Sulawesi in Indonesia. They were fishing at Ningra beach near Aitape when police and fisheries officers arrested them on March 30. Their outrigger canoe, loaded with fishing gears and a huge catch of fish, was also confiscated and brought to Vanimo.

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11/4/08

Priests on predominantly Catholic Flores Island have introduced a movement to get parishioners to plant a variety of trees at home. After discussing a “family forest” project at a recent recollection, 53 priests serving in Ende episcopal vicariate of Ende archdiocese decided to launch it. The project calls for each Catholic family to plant at least five kinds of trees during the rainy season that starts in November. The March 12 discussion on Responding to the Impact of Climate Change and Global Warming was part of a three-day recollection that started the day before. The recollection was held at the Franciscan sisters’ convent in Detusoko, Ende district, 1,630 kilometers east of Jakarta.

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Tom Hyland; 13/4/08

Canberra is maintaining a diplomatic silence over Indonesia’s failure to punish anyone implicated in the mass murders that led to Australia’s military intervention in East Timor in 1999. Instead, the Federal Government has backed a “friendship” commission set up by Indonesia and East Timor, which is about to report but has no power to call for prosecutions and was boycotted by the UN. The release last week of former militia leader Eurico Guterres after a Jakarta court overthrew his conviction means all those charged by Indonesian prosecutors over the violence that killed about 1500 people have now been freed. Mr Guterres, a former petty criminal with powerful backers in Jakarta, now plans to run for the Indonesian parliament next year.

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12/4/08

Police are cracking down on illegal immigrants in the West Sepik Province. The operation has the backing of the Foreign Affairs, Labor and Industrial Relations and Trade and Industry departments. The major operation, which started on Wednesday, was aimed at flushing out all foreigners who are living and working illegally in the border province. “We are getting too many illegal aliens here. Some are coming through to live and work here, others are passing through to move on into Australia and countries in the Pacific,” provincial police commander, Senior Inspector Sakawar Kasieng said from Vanimo yesterday.

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Stephen Fitzpatrick; 12/4/08

The fine line between sex and therapy has reached a sudden and unexpected climax in Indonesia, with massage parlours in a small East Java town requiring their female staff to wear padlocks on their trousers. The trend has seized the imagination in a country which, while nominally the world’s largest Muslim nation, has a roaring trade in prostitution and remarkably flexible views on sexual practice. At the Dhoghadho massage parlour in the town of Batu, East Java, the staff are keen to distance themselves from the kind of “happy ending” service generally associated with their trade. Dhoghadho’s proprietor, Franky Setiawan, had the brainwave to lock shut the women’s pants after the parlour experienced what he described as “a number of activities not consistent with our aim of providing a family service”.

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Hassna’a Mokhtar; 7/4/08

Garuda Indonesia refused to allow an Indonesian woman to travel from Riyadh last Thursday. The airline agent noticed severe bruises and lacerations on her face and she was handed to a representative of the Indonesian Embassy who was at the airport.  “When the Garuda Indonesia agent noticed the battered woman, he refused to let her board the flight,” said Nasser Al-Dandani, legal adviser to the Indonesian Embassy. “After she arrived at the Indonesian Embassy, she was sent to a hospital for medical examination and treatment.”  According to Al-Dandani, the woman, who was legally sponsored by a Saudi, had worked as a maid for a Lebanese family in Riyadh for the past year and half. The reason she was working for a Lebanese family instead of her Saudi sponsor remains unknown.

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