Military officers deployed to villages

The Indonesian Military (TNI) is reactivating its intelligence unit that used to work within the community to help the police fight terrorism.

TNI chief General Endriartono Sutarto said that the military unit, comprising non-commissioned officers known as Babinsa, would gather all information required to help prevent acts of terrorism.

During the authoritarian rule of Suharto, Babinsa carried out surveillance work for the government and helped maintain security and order in the grass roots.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono asked the military to actively take part in the war on terror during the TNI’s anniversary on 5 October. The request came soon after Bali fell prey to terror attacks for the second time in three years.

Human rights activists warned of the possible return of the military to non-defence areas, which they said would derail the ongoing military reform.

The Jakarta Post
8 November 2005

Polio in Aceh

Indonesia tallied its first case of polio in Aceh province, where health services already are strained following last year’s devastating tsunami, the health minister said.

Polio has sickened 259 children since it reappeared in Indonesia in March following a decade-long absence, she said, adding that the virus had spread to ten provinces.

Most of the cases have been in Java, less than 100 kilometres from the teeming capital Jakarta.

Health officials expressed concern about the emergence of polio in Aceh where – ten months after the 26 December tsunami – tens of thousands of people still live in crowded and sometimes squalid refugee camps.

Associated Press
18 October 2005

Journalists not to be imprisoned

Chief Justice Bagir Manan has given a directive to judges across the country to fine, not imprison, any journalist found guilty in a criminal case related to a press dispute.

However, Bagir said criminal charges against media outfits were still applicable despite calls from some journalists for the courts to use the Press Law, instead of the Criminal Code, in hearing media disputes.

Indonesian courts have jailed a number of journalists in the past. The latest case occurred in May when two journalists from Lampung were jailed for nine months for libelling Alzier Dianis Thabranie, the leader of Golkar Party’s Lampung chapter.

The Jakarta High Court also upheld in April a decision by a lower court sentencing Bambang Harymurti, the chief editor of Tempo weekly news magazine, to one year in prison for libel against business tycoon Tommy Winata.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati
The Jakarta Post October 2005

Govt to send in Army for bird flu battle

The increasing number of birth flu deaths in the country is prompting the government to deploy troops and volunteers to conduct door-to-door checks to find fowls infected with the virus.

The search would first be concentrated in Greater Jakarta and areas deemed ‘difficult’ for officials to detect the avian influenza virus, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said.

Susilo said the Greater Jakarta had become the government’s initial focus because four of the five people who died of bird flu had lived in the area.

In Indonesia alone, nine people are confirmed to have contracted the virus in the past 10 months, with five of them dying.

The government also plans to increase the country’s stocks of flu medicines, including Tamiflu and Relenza, from 750,000 pills to about 20 million pills.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Rendi A Witular
The Jakarta Post
15 November 2005

Four die in cult clash in Palu

Police personnel and members of a little known cult clashed on Tuesday in a Palu subdistrict, leaving three policemen and a cult member dead.

The deadly clash between police and cult members, the first of its kind reported in the country, happened after a team of 16 police personnel attempted to arrest a cult leader in the morning. The leader was deemed responsible for spreading misleading teachings about Islam.

When the police tried to arrest their leader, the knife-wielding cult members attacked the police. One cult member was shot dead during the clash.

The sect has reportedly blended Islam with local traditions with the leader, called Mahdi, believed by the members to be the last Prophet as promised by the Koran.

The sect is just one among many that exist in the world’s most populous Muslim nation. The government has often taken an uncompromising stance against such groups, alleging that they have the potential to disturb social harmony.

Ruslan Sangadji
The Jakarta Post, Palu
26 October 2005