Indonesia

Starting with Austria reopening small shops on 14 April, almost all European countries have now begun easing their pandemic lockdowns, or announced plans to do so (Italy from 4 May, France from 11 May). Iran has reopened the bazaar in Tehran. Schools have restarted in Beijing and Shanghai. The World Health Organisation, however, has declared that “the worst is yet to come”. Its worry is not so much about a second wave in Europe, as first waves elsewhere. Africa so far shows 1,428 deaths, far fewer than Europe or the USA, and concentrated in Algeria and Egypt (over half that total between them)...

On 5 April, a small but lively protest assembled opposite the Indonesian Embassy in London to object to the brutal military occupation of West Papua by Indonesia. West Papua is the western half of the island whose eastern half is Papua New Guinea, an independent state. The Free West Papua Campaign which organised the protest, coinciding with other protests on the same date in the Netherlands and Australia, is calling for solidarity with a West Papuan boycott of the Indonesian presidential and assembly elections that will take place on 17 April. Although it has controlled the territory since...

In May the US mining company Freeport McMoRan sacked 3,000 workers at the Grasberg copper and gold mine in West Papua, Indonesia. Workers had just begun a 30-day strike protesting against the company’s furlough policy — the temporary laying off of workers because of breaks in production. The company has been in dispute with the Indonesian government over new conditions for its licence to mine in West Papua and this had interrupted production. Since 2011 there have been a number of strikes at the mine over wages and conditions, the backdrop to which has been continuing human rights and...

Following attacks in Paris and Beirut in November last year, along with the shooting down of a Russian passenger jet, Daesh has stepped up its deadly operations outside of the claimed borders of its “Caliphate” in Iraq and Syria. Reflecting tactics that have long been the preferred method of Al Qaeda, Daesh claimed responsibility for the bombing of the Sarinah shopping mall in Jakarta Indonesia on 14 January. The attack, which killed four and injured many others, took place near foreign embassies and the UN and hotels used by foreign tourists. Indonesia is not the most fertile recruiting...

On 26 days in September and October, carbon emissions from Indonesia’s peat and forest fires equalled the daily emissions of the entire US economy. The Washington-based World Resources Institute (WRI) also calculated that over the course of a three week period from late September, the output of carbon dioxide from the fires during three weeks from late September exceeded Germany’s annual total carbon emissions. Land concession owners illegally light fires every year in Indonesia. Arson is the cheapest way to clear the land before planting oil palms. The fires have caught the world’s attention...

Thousands of Rohingya migrants, fleeing Myanmar, may be facing death as they drift in the Andaman Sea in boats provided by and now abandoned by people smugglers. The Rohingya, a persecuted minority in Myanmar, are being turned away from Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia. Boats reaching the coasts of these countries are being towed back out to sea and left adrift after being handed basic provisions, despite starvation, disease, and increasing violence on the boats. The UN now estimates as many as 8,000 migrants are adrift, and that as many as 25,000 migrants set off from the Bay of Bengal...

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Students all over Europe — and, indeed, the world — are planning a wave of high-level direct action as part of the Global Week of Action, called by the “International Students Movement”. This movement, while originating as the initiative of a small number of activists based in Germany, has used the internet and social networking sites to create an impressive worldwide network of contacts that have responded to its calls for international action for free education.

By Harry Glass The former Indonesian dictator Suharto died on 27 January, without facing justice for the millions he killed or the wealth he appropriated during his 33 years in power. Suharto came to power in 1965, when he led a military coup to overthrow the nationalist Sukarno government. His first act was to physically exterminate the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), having at least half a million of its members and supporters killed. His forces and Islamic militias eventually murdered perhaps two million opponents. Suharto made Indonesia safe for capitalism and western corporations. As...