Poisoned Arrows: An Investigative Journey through the Forbidden Lands of West Papua

George Monbiot

At great personal risk and with forged travel documents, George Monbiot bluffed, cheated and forced his way into the remotest place in the tropics: the forbidden territories of West Papua (Irian Jaya), in Indonesia. Sealed from the outside world by the Indonesian army, it is home to tribes who have developed a unique and remarkable culture, and who are now, along with their forestland, being systematically obliterated. This book outlines the Indonesian government’s hugely destructive transmigration campaign which it is driving these people from their ancestral lands into poverty and starvation

London, Green Books, 2003

Jakarta Undercover — Sex ’n the City: Comic Version

Moammar Emka

Moammar Emka’s the sexy best seller Jakarta Undercover — Sex ’n the City, was such a smash hit that it has just been launched in comic form. The comic’s eponymous parent title, with its chapters on Sex Sandwich Sashimi Girls, Honeymoon Sex in a Shaky Pajero, Melrose Place High Callgirls, and Orgy Order Massage Ladies, was marketed as a documentary expose of the sex life of Jakarta’s middle classes. The original book’s success has inspired author Moammar Emka to branch out into a comic version of the book, which crept quietly into book stores across Jakarta in the lead up to Ramadan. Emka is still testing the waters on just how far pornography can be taken on the streets of Jakarta

Jakarta, Galang Press, 2003

Tampering with Asylum: A Universal Humanitarian Problem

Father Frank Brennan

With the Howard Government’s revelation that 90% of the unauthorised boat arrivals in recent years have been proved to be refugees, it is timely to reassess the harsh measures instituted to process these people who were labelled as unlawful queue jumpers. Father Frank Brennan, Jesuit lawyer and human rights advocate, does so in his new book, Tampering with Asylum: A Universal Humanitarian Problem. The book compares Australia’s dramatic over-reaction in closing its national borders to the Tampa’s human cargo with the response of the United States and Europe, and offers a practical blueprint for countries wanting to humanely protect asylum seekers.

Brisbane, University of Queensland Press, 2003

Indonesian Folktales

Murti Bunanta and Margaret Read MacDonald

The tales in this book provide a moving and colourful image of the diversity and richness of the people and lands of Indonesia. Six thematic groups are presented: Jealous and Envious Brothers and Sisters; Stories of Independent Princesses; Stories of Ungrateful Children; Stories about Rice; Stories of Place Legends; and Stories of How Things Come to Be. This book can be enjoyed by people of all ages.

Connecticut, Libraries Unlimited, 2003

Who Did This to Our Bali?

Dewi Anggraeni

Dewi Anggraeni is the Australia correspondent for Tempo magazine and the Jakarta Post. As an Indonesian journalist working in Australia, Dewi is in a unique position to observe and understand how the tragedy of the Bali bombing has played out in Australia, Bali and elsewhere in Indonesia.

Melbourne, Indra Publishing, 2003

The United Nations and the Indonesian Takeover of West Papua, 1962–1969: The Anatomy of Betrayal

John Saltford

This book examines the role of the international community in the handover of the Dutch colony of West Papua to Indonesia in the 1960s. It questions whether the West Papuan people ever genuinely exercised the self-determination guaranteed to them in the UN-brokered Dutch/Indonesian agreement of 1962. Particular emphasis is given to the central part played by the United Nations in the implementation of this agreement. After five years of Indonesian rule, a UN team returned to West Papua to monitor and endorse a controversial act of self-determination that resulted in a unanimous vote by 1,022 Papuan ‘representatives’ to reject independence. Despite this, the issue is still very much alive today as Indonesia faces continued armed rebellion and growing calls for freedom in West Papua.

London, Routledge Curzon, 2002