Political Rights

Indonesia’s claim to sovereignty over West Papua rests upon an unsound legal basis

There are big dangers in declaring success too soon

The story of the Teochiu Huikuan building in Medan provides insights into Chinese Indonesians’ history of dispossession

Chinese Indonesians must re-enter politics in order to fully exercise their citizenship

Human rights groups report on abuses

Political assassinations targeted West Papua’s culture and political identity

Whether Papuans support autonomy or independence, they should be allowed to speak freely

A photo essay about families of the disappeared

While top officials hail the Australia-Indonesia security agreement, ARTHUR KING is appalled to find that, on the ground in East Timor, youths who resist still face torture.

Authorities blame the recent Jakarta riots on the coalition PRD. It has hundreds of members, but military leaders liken it to the PKI of the 1960s, which had millions. Who are these 1990s activists? VANNESSA HEARMAN visited with one of the coalition partners earlier this year, and filed this inside story.

KERRY BROGAN talks with two women whose husbands 'disappeared'.

Why is it so hard to remember the evils of the past? ROB GOODFELLOW explores the pain, and the exhilaration, of memory.

The following excerpts are taken from a diary of letters kept by an Australian woman who lived in Java, Kalimantan and Bali for nine years. In this letter, written in January 1978, the author describes her visit to a detention camp for women political prisoners Just after Christmas 1977. The prisoners have since been released. The letter begins with a description of the long drive from Semarang west to Pelantungan where the camp was located up in the mountains. The visit was arranged by a Dutch pastor, 'Co'. Fenton-Huie was accompanied by the pastor's wife, Phia, and a Dutch nursing sister, Truus. After abandoning their car which could not travel the last stretch of the rough rocky road, the women had to walk the final kilometres to the camp, which also held 40 delinquent boys. The visitors shared a simple Indonesian meal in the house of one of the guards before entering 'a large barracks-type hall' to witness the camp's Christmas concert.

Moral politics