A shining example of what the Internet can do for community groups, an unusual site on East Timor from Portugal, and a look at what's available on Irian Jaya.

Indonesia-Canada

Non-government organisations (NGOs) share a dream of a healthier, more prosperous and just Indonesia. They will get there by working together. For a fine example of the way NGO networking and the Internet can mesh, look up the Indonesia- Canada Forum: http://www.ics.bc.ca/icf/homepage.html.

This nicely structured site gives details on a great variety of projects run by Indonesian and Canadian NGOs in partnership. Several concern women's issues, others deal with community forest management, refuse disposal, AIDS, human rights and more. The bilingual magazine Alliance, frequently updated on this site, carries articles on things like ecotourism, indigenous peoples, and hydroelectric dams. There are links to several other key Indonesian sites, as well as to documents from international agencies such as Amnesty International, Oxfam, the US State Department, the United Nations, as well as to the comprehensive Gaia forest conservation archives. There is even a small Indonesian dictionary.

Add this one to the bookmarks list on your Web browser.

East Timor

Perhaps no non-Timorese take a greater interest in East Timor than the Portuguese, for whom the issue has become a national preoccupation uniting all political parties. You may like to look up the Portuguese TimorNet on http://www.uc.pt/Timor, run by the University of Coimbra. It offers a variety of material on the history of East Timor from prehistoric times onwards, as well as on its anthropology and geography - everything from flora and fauna to demography. This helps round out the rather one- dimensional image we sometimes get about the East Timorese elsewhere. The site is mostly in English and also offers links to other Internet resources on East Timor. It is still under construction, and is unfortunately a little slow.

Irian Jaya

By comparison with East Timor, Irian Jaya (or West Papua - better not go into the argument over the name now) is less well served. The OPM homepage ishttp://twics.com/~boyjah/westpapua. Light on information, most of it over the name of the somewhat dubious Moses Werror, chairman of the OPM Revolutionary Council in Madang, PNG. 'We released the 12 hostages on humanitarian grounds...'. Mmmmm, see what you think.

A better resourced site, though focussed almost entirely on the Freeport copper mine, ishttp://net.cs.utexas.edu/users/boyer/fp, by Robert S. Boyer. All kinds of stuff there, including links to detailed mountain climbing maps if you have the patience to wait. Of most interest to me was the 'basic documents' link, largely provided by Steve Feld. Here are reports on human rights and environmental issues, for instance the important one by Bishop Munninghof of Jayapura.

There is more out there. When I searched the Web with the phrase 'Irian Jaya' I found several adventure tour operators offering everything from seakayaking in Cenderawasih Bay marine park, through a 'Treehouse People' expedition that sounds extremely patronising, to info on ascending the glacier-covered Mount Jayawijaya almost on the equator (probably not advisable at the moment if you're non-Papuan).

These Web sites do a good job introducing general readers to the issues. But remember, your best source of news archives on East Timor, Irian Jaya/ West Papua, or anything else to do with Indonesia, is still likely to begopher://gopher.igc.apc.org:2998/7REG-INDONESIA.

Gamelan correction

Sigh.... When will I learn to be accurate? The correct address for the American Gamelan Institute site by Jody Diamond I mentioned last issue ishttp://www.sover.net/~frogpeak/agi.html.

Gerry van Klinken