Mission & Justice

Stephanie March; 31/7/08

East Timor’s inaugural Journalist of the Year awards last week provided much-needed encouragement for professionals facing an uncertain future, as authorities draft a press law that could make defamation a criminal offence. At a ceremony in Dili on Saturday, Nelson Filomeno De Jesus from Radio Timor-Leste took the top award, named after five international journalists killed by Indonesian troops in Balibo, East Timor, in 1975. His story about a failure of the justice system to deal with child sexual abuse won both the top prize and the Roger East award for Best Electronic Journalism, presented by Hollywood actor Anthony LaPaglia.

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28/7/08

The Indonesian government has assured PNG that there would be no repeat border incursions into PNG by its soldiers.The assurance was conveyed to Foreign Affairs, Trade and Immigration Minister Samuel Abal by his Indonesian counterpart, Hassan Wirajudi, in Singapore last week. There had been a number of alleged border incursions by the Indonesians in the last three months. PNG had protested through a diplomatic note conveyed through the Indonesian embassy in Port Moresby. The apologies from the Indonesians blamed the incursions on “new recruits deployed to the border region”.

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Ben Doherty; 28/7/08

There is food now, for the markets are open, and the men have found work on local farms. But Dominges Enriques has lived too many — nine — of her 34 years at Noelbaki to believe it will last. Her family has no land of its own to work, and without it she must buy her food. Soon it will be expensive once more. She knows her children will go hungry again. Ms Enriques is proudly East Timorese, but she has not been back to her homeland since the violent birth that gave her country its independence in 1999. As she was married to an Indonesian, East Timor was not safe for her at emancipation, and she fears it is still not: “Timor Leste now, it has many problems, and it makes me afraid to go back.” So she finds herself still in Noelbaki, an ad hoc refugee camp built abutting a bus terminal on the outskirts of the port town of Kupang in West Timor. She has lived here for almost a decade.

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Karen Michelmore; 21/7/08

Three death-row Bali bombers will be executed “as soon as possible,” Indonesia’s attorney general said today after the Islamic militants declined to seek clemency from the President. Hendarman Supandji said he hoped that so-called “smiling assassin” Amrozi, his brother Mukhlas and Imam Samudra would be executed before the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan in September. The three bombers face death by firing squad for their roles in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians and three New Zealanders. “We want it as soon as possible,” Mr Supandji he said.

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Hamish McDonald; 19/7/08

Hilario Madeira was the sort of priest who makes you understand how the balance of the global Catholic congregation is shifting to the developing world, away from a jaded Europe. I met him in August 1999 about two weeks before his martyrdom, in his simple church in the town of Suai on the south coast of East Timor, after he conducted a mass for the hundreds of villagers taking refuge in the church grounds and the half-built shell of a new cathedral.

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Sian Powell; 18/7/08

The Indonesian Supreme Court has rejected the Bali bombers’ last legal challenge, clearing the way for imminent executions. At the same time, Australian survivors of the Bali bombers have been notified by the Australian Federal Police that the three bombers may soon face a firing squad. Tracy Ball and her sister, Melinda Kent, were terribly burned by the 2002 bombings on the Kuta strip in Bali. “The AFP rang my sister to say that the last-ditch appeal had been thrown out, and their executions were imminent,” Ms Ball said yesterday. “I believe it, if AFP says it, but I’ll believe they’re executed when they’re executed

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Cliffird Faiparik; 14/7/08

Inodnesian soldiers have defied diplomatic and military protocols and continue to violate international border agreements with Papua New Guinea. Government Ministers Belden Namah (Forest) and his Housing and acting Internal Security colleague, Andrew Kumbakor, were told by villagers and PNG Defence Force personnel at Wutung in Vanimo, Sandaun province, that there had been numerous border incursions allegedly made by the Indonesians at the end of May, June and this month, with the latest being last Saturday and yesterday evening. In one such incident, army personnel said the Indonesians defaced a cement PNG border monument at Wutung by spray-painting it with their 408 battalion symbol. Angry PNG police and soldiers could not retaliate as there were no specific rules of engagement in place. Instead, all they could do was face the Indonesians and order them to leave PNG soil. The ministers and Sandaun Governor Simon Solo were in Vanimo yesterday to get a first-hand briefing from provincial government officials, police and PNG Defence Force personnel on the ground on these alleged illegal crossings.

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Mark Forbes; 15/7/08

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will reject a recommendation he apologise for Indonesia instigating gross human rights abuses during East Timor’s 1999 independence vote, instead expressing regret, according to his Defence Minister, Juwono Sudarsono. In Bali today Dr Yudhoyono and his East Timorese counterpart, Jose Ramos-Horta, will jointly accept the report of the Commission of Truth and Friendship into the atrocities. The report, leaked to The Age last week, blames Indonesia for a co-ordinated campaign of violence, including murder, rape and tortures against Timorese civilians. It recommends both presidents apologise for their contribution to the carnage.

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12/7/08; http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/man-executed-for-killing-42-women-girls/2008/07/11/1215658130757.html

Indonesia executed a man convicted of killing 42 women and girls in a series of ritual slayings he believed would give him magical powers. Ahmad Suradji, 57, was killed by firing squad late on Thursday in western Indonesia despite a last minute appeal by Amnesty International. “He appeared resigned to his fate,” a spokesman for the Attorney-General’s office, Bonaventura Nainggolan, said. “His final wish was to see his wife. We fulfilled this.”

Harlyne Joku; 10/7/08

West Papuans camping at the Apex oval in Port Moresby were evicted at midday yesterday for the fifth time in the last nine months to Rainbow Village, Gerehu, to the premises of PNG Trust Inc, a non-governmental organisation. Human rights activist Tony Fofoe, who witnessed the event, said officers from the National Capital District Commission and Governor Powes Parkop’s office executed the eviction.“They said Mr Parkop had ordered the eviction and showed a letter to prove this,” Mr Fofoe said. He said a contingent of security guards and police told the group that they were illegally residing on an NCD public park and had to move out. Seven trucks were used to move the 150-odd refugees and their belongings to Rainbow. Late yesterday afternoon, the group was erecting makeshift tents and attempting to settle in.

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