Castro at Vatican thanks pope for mediating thaw with US

Yahoo – AFP, Jean-Louis De La Vaissiere, 10 May 2015

Cuban president Raul Castro (R) pictured with Pope Francis after their

private audience at the Vatican on May 10, 2015 (AFP Photo/Vincenzo Pinto)

Vatican City (AFP) - Cuban President Raul Castro met with Pope Francis at the Vatican Sunday, thanking the pontiff for his role in brokering an historic rapprochement between Havana and Washington, a papal spokesman said.

"Raul Castro thanked the Pope for his mediation between Cuba and the United States," said Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi of the exchange that also focused on Francis' upcoming visit to Cuba.

Cuba's President Raul Castro (L)during a

 meeting with US President Barack Obama

 on the sidelines of the Summit of the

 Americas at the ATLAPA Convention 

center in Panama City on April 11, 

2015 (AFP Photo/Mandel Ngan)

The first South American pope played a key role in secret negotiations between the United States and Cuba, which led to the surprise announcement in December that the two countries would seek to restore diplomatic ties after more than 50 years of tensions.

During the meeting Castro offered the pontiff a painting by Cuban artist Kcho inspired by the plight of illegal immigrants stranded at sea -- a subject close to the pope's heart.

Francis in turn presented Castro a medal of Saint Martin de Tours, a French saint celebrated for having given his coat to a beggar, and urged others to "clothe and support the poor."

Castro, who was accompanied by his Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, held a private hour-long meeting with the pontiff in a small room adjoining the Paul VI Audience Hall, where large gatherings are held in the Vatican.

View galleryCuba's President Raul Castro (L)during a meeting …

Cuba's President Raul Castro (L)during a meeting with US President Barack Obama on the sidelines …

Their discussions, conducted in Spanish, were described by the Vatican as "very cordial".

Castro a Francis fan

Castro said he was "very struck" by the Catholic leader's "modesty and wisdom" and promised to attend all the masses given by Francis on his Cuba visit in September.

Picture released by the Vatican Press

Office shows Pope Benedict XVI with 

Cuban leader Fidel Castro (R) during a

 meeting in Havana on March 28, 

2012 (AFP Photo)

"I read all the Holy Father's speeches," Castro said, adding that if the pope "continues to speak in this way, one day I will start praying again and return to the Catholic Church. And I'm not saying that as a joke."

Pope Francis arrived ten minutes ahead of Castro.

A dozen uniformed Swiss Guards stood to attention in front of the building when the limousine bearing the Cuban flag arrived.

The Holy See has revealed the Argentine pope personally mediated between the US and Cuba, and that the Vatican hosted delegations from the two countries in October.

The Vatican announced last month that Pope Francis would visit the Caribbean island in September, becoming only the third pontiff to do so after John Paul II in 1998 and Benedict XVI in 2012.

Jorge Bergoglio, then auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires and now Pope Francis, accompanied John Paul II on the first papal visit to Cuba, during which John Paul II called for Havana to be brought in from the cold.

"Let Cuba open itself to the world, and let the world open itself to Cuba," he urged, two years after hosting Castro's ailing older brother Fidel for talks at the Vatican.

From Cuba, Francis will continue on to the US for a meeting with President Barack Obama.

Cuban president Fidel Castro (R) listens to

 pope John Paul II on the tarmac of the 

Jose Marti International Airport in Havana 

January 21, 1998 (AFP Photo/Michel

Gangne)

Castro's Vatican visit, announced only Tuesday, followed a visit to Russia, where the Cuban leader attended a grandiose World War II victory parade on Saturday.

He was to meet Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in Rome later on Sunday.

The Catholic Church has consistently backed calls for the lifting of the US trade embargo against Cuba, while staunchly supporting Cuban Catholics and pressuring Havana to release political prisoners, many of whom are Catholic activists.

The Vatican has also kept its distance from Cuban exiles based in Miami, Florida, who have long clamoured for Havana's Marxist regime to be ousted.

When the now retired Benedict XVI visited Cuba in 2012, he had lengthy, warm talks with Fidel Castro, who is now 88.

The Vatican's mediation between Cuba and the US administration was a diplomatic success for the Holy See and had a considerable impact in mainly Catholic Latin America.

Other diplomatic efforts have been less successful, including a bid to help resolve the political crisis in Venezuela and a longstanding drive to encourage reconciliation between the Colombian government and guerrilla movements in that country.

Related Article:

"Not Your Father's New Age" - Feb 14/15, 2015 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Text version)

".. Everything that has transpired during these years has been realized potential. That is to say that we see the potentials of what you might do, and report on that and only that. Much of what we see now is realized quickly. When we told you in 2012 there would be a new pope, 13 months later it happened. This was not prophecy, but rather a potential. We saw it coming because we have the overview and we knew of the anxiety of the existing pope, the health of the man, and we also knew of the potentials of a South American pope to come forward. All of these things should be a "connect the dots" for you. I come yet again, not with prophecy, but with information given with a congratulatory attitude of potential. ..."

Almost 500 Rohingya rescued off Indonesia: officials

Yahoo – AFP, 10 May 2015

Migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh pictured at a shelter in Matang Raya

village in northern Aceh, Indonesia on May 10, 2015 (AFP Photo/Reza Juanda)

Jakarta (AFP) - Rescuers on Sunday brought ashore 469 migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh after their wooden boat arrived off Aceh in northwest Indonesia, an official said.

"We received a report from fishermen this morning that there were boat people stranded in the waters off north Aceh," Aceh provincial search and rescue chief Budiawan told AFP.

"We despatched teams there and evacuated 469 migrants who are Rohingya from Myanmar and Bangladeshis. There are women and children among them. So far, all of them are safe," he added.

He said the group would be taken to a detention centre in north Aceh district, where police and immigration officials would carry out "further processing" which would include investigating their motives.

Darsa, a disaster management agency official who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told AFP the group had arrived near a beach in north Aceh district early Sunday and were told to swim to shore.

"One of the migrants who could speak Malay told me that their agent had told them they were in Malaysia, and to swim to shore," he said.

"Some of them did. But later they found out from fishermen that they were in Indonesia," he added.

According to the migrant, five boats had departed from Myanmar last week to escape the conflict in their country, Darsa said.

"He said the Muslims were beaten and had hot water poured on them and they just wanted to get out of Myanmar as soon as possible, to anywhere where they could seek refuge," he said.

Buddhist-majority Myanmar views its population of roughly 800,000 Rohingya as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, and they have been targeted in outbreaks of sectarian violence there in recent years, prompting many to flee.

Migrant women and children from Myanmar and Bangladesh wait at a shelter

 in Matang Raya village in northern Aceh, Indonesia, on May 10, 2015 (AFP 

Photo/Reza Juanda)

Darsa said there were 83 women and 41 children on board. One of the women was pregnant and some of the children were aged under 10.

"There was little food and water on the boat. Some of them were not doing too well and needed medical attention," he said.

Thousands of Muslim Rohingya have braved the dangerous sea crossing from Myanmar to southern Thailand and beyond in recent years.

Many hope to go on to mainly Muslim Malaysia but the migrants have often fallen prey to people-traffickers in Thailand.

The UN considers the Rohingya to be one of the world's most persecuted minorities.

Indonesia says to ease Papua reporting curbs, frees prisoners

Yahoo – AFP, May 10, 2015

Indonesian leader grants clemency to Papuan political prisoners

Abepura (Indonesia) (AFP) - Indonesian President Joko Widodo said Saturday decades-old reporting restrictions for foreign journalists in Papua would be lifted and ordered the release of a group of political prisoners in the insurgency-hit eastern province.

The moves signalled that Widodo, who took office last year, is easing the tight grip that Jakarta has long kept on the mineral-rich province, where poorly armed fighters have for years fought a low-level insurgency against the central government.

Widodo has taken a keen interest in Papua, pledging to improve livelihoods in the heavily-militarised area which lags behind other parts of Indonesia in terms of development.

He revealed in an interview with a group of reporters in Abepura, Papua, that from Sunday foreign journalists would be allowed full access.

"Tomorrow I will declare it," he said. However, implementing the change could prove tough.

Human Rights Watch researcher Andreas Harsono predicted there would be resistance from some quarters, including the foreign ministry which currently oversees the visa issuing process.

He said there would also be "a lot of pressure to implement it" in the coming months.

Indonesia has long been deeply sensitive about foreign journalists covering Papua. Applying for permission to go there is complex, and it is rarely granted.

Punishments for foreigners caught illegally reporting can be harsh -- two French journalists were given short jail terms last year for trying to make a documentary on the separatist movement without authorisation.

Presidential clemency

The disclosure came shortly after five political prisoners -- convicted over a 2003 raid on an Indonesian military weapons arsenal -- were granted clemency by Widodo. They will soon walkfree from Abepura prison.

Dozens of Papuan separatists are in jail for committing treason for acts such as raising the pro-independence "Morning Star" flag and taking part in anti-government protests.

Widodo shook hands with the five ethnic Melanesian prisoners at the prison, presenting each with a letter confirming the remainder of their sentences was being waived.

"Today we are releasing these five detainees to stop the stigma of conflict in Papua," he told reporters at the prison.

"We need to create a sense of peace in Papua. This is just the beginning."

The release marks a change in approach from previous governments. During the 10-year rule of president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, only one political prisoner in Papua was granted clemency, according to Human Rights Watch.

However Human Rights Watch's Harsono called on Widodo to go further by offering prisoners amnesties. Prisoners have to request clemency and admit guilt before it is granted, but this is not a requirement for an amnesty.

There are still regular flare-ups of violence in Papua, where insurgents are fighting on behalf of the mostly ethnic Melanesian population.

Indonesian troops are regularly accused of abusing Papuan villagers in the name of anti-rebel operations, but Jakarta denies allegations of systematic human rights abuses.

Jakarta took control of Papua, which forms half of the island of New Guinea, in 1963 from former colonial power the Netherlands.

Inauguration of Maratua Airport Seen Helping Boost East Kalimantan Tourism

Jakarta Globe, May 08, 2015

Students reach the finish line of the Gallon Rafting Competition 2015 held by
Mapala Islamic University on the Martapura river in Banjarmasin, Kalimantan on
 May 3, 2015. A total of 27 organizations from universities in Kalimantan participated
in the competition. (Antara Photo/Herry Murdy Hermawan)

Jakarta. The government of East Kalimantan will inaugurate a new airport on Maratua island in Berau regency in June support the region’s tourism development, according to a report by state-run news agency Antara.

Zairin Zain, the head of East Kalimantan’s transportation office, told Antara on Thursday that the airport’s construction was expected to facilitate domestic and foreign tourists.

Maratua island is in the Derawan archipelago, a group of islands off the coast of East Kalimantan. The area is renowned for its crystal blue water and abundant sea life, which is popular with divers.

“The government is ready to inaugurate the airport, which has 1,400-meter long runway, in June this year,” Zarin was quoted as saying by Antara. “The airport construction costs Rp 92 billion [$7 million].”

The airport will also function as an “outer layer of defense” for Indonesia, Zarin told Antara.

Iran's Rouhani says not for police to enforce Islam

Yahoo – AFP, 4 May 2015

President of Iran Hassan Rouhani is distancing himself from efforts to 

involve religion in law enforcement (AFP Photo/Don Emmert)

Tehran (AFP) - Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Monday it was not up to the country's police to deliver Islamic guidance, distancing himself from efforts to involve law enforcement in religion.

Rouhani, a relative moderate, last week faced criticism from the Islamic republic's clerical establishment and conservative lawmakers for insisting the police had no role to play in religion.

But in a speech to teachers on Monday he took up the issue again, saying it was for officers to carry "handcuffs and pistols", not to act like clergy.

"If we tell them you are the seminary and you can also interpret Islam, there would be chaos," he said.

"All teachers in schools, universities and of course in the seminaries whose mission is to better understand and express religion" have a responsibility to "teach, spread and explain Islam," he said.

"But you can't just tell anyone... (to) interpret" Islam, he added.

Rouhani last year spoke out about draft legislation that would have given more power to police and volunteer militias to enforce women's compulsory wearing of the veil.

"We should not be overly focused on one issue, such as bad hijab, to prevent vice," he said, in reference to women deemed not properly veiled.

The proposed law was later ruled unconstitutional.

And last month he told law enforcement commanders that "police should only enforce the law", drawing a rebuke from the country's powerful religious establishment.

Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, the head of Iran's highest clerical body, the Assembly of Experts, said the government is "bound to implement the laws of Islam, and cannot say no to Islam."

Conservative lawmakers also wrote a letter protesting Rouhani's remarks, saying it was up to the government "to defend Islam in any meeting".

Rouhani was elected in 2013 to replace the more conservative Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and has faced resistance from hardliners on a range of issues, including efforts to reach a deal with world powers on Tehran's contested nuclear programme.

DJ legend van Dyk unites Middle East with dance music

Business Insider - AFP, Shaun Tandon, 4 May 2015

German DJ Paul van Dyk poses on January 30, 2012 in Cannes, southeastern
France (AFP/File Valery Hache)

New York (AFP) - He is unlikely to be named a Middle East peace negotiator, but DJ superstar Paul van Dyk says that his music in a way has succeeded where politics has failed.

"The Politics of Dancing 3," the German DJ's latest album which was released Monday, brings together artists from around the Middle East in a sign of how electronic music has increasingly become global.

Van Dyk -- often considered a pioneer of trance music, although he dislikes the categorization -- brought both established and emerging DJs into the studio for the album, which is driven by fast-paced driving beats and catchy, accelerating melodies.

"The collaborations I did, they very clearly show how uniting music is," van Dyk told AFP in New York, where ahead of the album's release he played a six-hour set at a Brooklyn warehouse.

"Someone from Israel could never travel to Lebanon, and definitely has big issues going to Egypt or other places, so musically we don't have those boundaries.

"We are miles ahead in terms of the 'politics of dancing,' compared with the politics out there," he said.

Range of collaborations

"The Politics of Dancing 3," van Dyk's seventh studio album, features a collaboration with Aly and Fila, the Egyptian duo who have emerged as one of trance's biggest acts, as well as a separate track with the Israeli trance duo Las Salinas.

Van Dyk also worked with star Turkish DJ Ummet Ozcan and emerging Egyptian DJ Mohamed Ragab, and brought in vocals from Singaporean singer and former television talent contestant Daphne Khoo.

Van Dyk's previous two installments of "The Politics of Dancing" consisted of mixes but the latest album has only one such track -- his remix of "Around the Garden" by Algerian DJ Mino Safy, which van Dyk said captivated him when he first heard it.

Van Dyk said he selected artists for their music and that his political point was incidental rather than deliberate. The album also features European DJs including Giuseppe Ottaviani and Michael Tsukerman.

Still, van Dyk said he was struck about how two of his friends -- one from Tel Aviv and the other from Beirut -- bonded when they met in the Spanish clubbing island of Ibiza.

"They could have otherwise never met each other. And they just say, 'Look, we are just like any young people. We want healthy, peaceful living. Why can't we have this with our countries being so close?'"

Upfront about drugs

Raised behind the Iron Curtain in East Berlin, the 43-year-old van Dyk became a major force in electronic music during the boom in clubbing in the 1990s and gained wider exposure through his work with New Order.

The original inspiration for "The Politics of Dancing" series came not from the Middle East -- or from the unconnected 1983 song of the same name by the British New Wave band Re-Flex --but from New York, where authorities cracked down on the thriving clubbing scene in the late 1990s as part of then mayor Rudy Giuliani's law-and-order approach.

"I was trying to explain, it's not just people getting drunk and dancing. It is actually a youth culture that unites people from all these different cultural or religious backgrounds," van Dyk said.

With electronic music growing rapidly, van Dyk said it was important to acknowledge the pitfalls -- particularly drug overdoses.

Van Dyk said that the problem was especially acute in the United States due to clubs' strict prohibitions against admitting young people under 21, who take the scene underground.

"If I were to have children, I would want them when they were 15 or 16 going to a club in a safe environment and having a good time rather than going to an open field.

"It's almost pathetic that one is preferred over the other here, but the wrong way around, I believe," he said.

Van Dyk said that he was not entirely comfortable serving as a role model, but hoped nevertheless to set an example.

"I got into contact with electronic music as a teenager in front of the radio in East Berlin," he said.

"I never really made that connection that I had to take drugs to enjoy the music."

Related Article:

Ireland's 'Singing Priest' becomes global sensation

Indonesian Prisons Chief Resigns After Drug Scheme Unveiled

Jakarta Globe, Erwin Sihombing & Farouk Arnaz, May 04, 2015

Soldiers guard the waters surrounding Nusakambangan prison island.
(Antara Photo/Idhad Zakaria)

Jakarta. The Indonesian government’s top official in charge of prisons handed in his resignation on Monday following the discovery last month that a drug kingpin on death row was continuing to run his empire from behind bars with the help of officials.

Handoyo Sudrajat, the Justice Ministry’s director general of corrections, said he had been unable to “impose enough supervision” and “impose tough reforms” in prisons across the country.

“I wasn’t successful in managing the prisons. This [resignation] is what I can do to show my responsibility,” Handoyo said on Monday.

Handoyo, previously a state auditor and later the head of graft prevention at the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), said he planned to retire.

His withdrawal comes just weeks after police arrested Freddy Budiman, a drug convict at the ostensibly high-security prison island of Nusakambangan, off the south coast of Central Java.

The arrest stemmed from the capture in March of one of Freddy’s alleged pushers, who told police that he was  still taking orders from the death-row inmate.

Freddy has since been transferred to a detention facility at the National Police’s detectives’ unit, where he is under constant surveillance.

Two guards at the prison island have also been arrested for helping him run his drug ring in exchange for promises of cash, cars and houses.

The National Police’s internal affairs unit has arrested an anti-narcotics officer on suspicion of taking bribes from Freddy, a police source said on Monday. The officer was previously involved in Freddy’s initial case.

British grandmother prepares for execution in Indonesia

Yahoo – AFP, May 4, 2015

British grandmother prepares for execution in Indonesia

London (AFP) - A British grandmother on death row in Indonesia is writing goodbye letters to her family and believes she could be executed at any time, she wrote in an article on Sunday.

Lindsay Sandiford, 58, said she was expecting to die shortly, after seven foreign drug convicts were executed last week, causing a storm of international protest.

"My execution is imminent and I know I might die at any time now. I could be taken tomorrow from my cell," Sandiford wrote in British newspaper the Mail on Sunday.

"I have started to write goodbye letters to members of my family."

Sandiford, originally from Redcar in northeast England, wrote that she planned to sing the cheery popular song "Magic Moments" when facing the firing squad.

"I won't wear a blindfold. It's not because I'm brave but because I don't want to hide -- I want them to look at me when they shoot me."

She said her greatest sadness is that she may never meet her two-year-old granddaughter, who was born after her arrest.

Sandiford was sentenced to death on the island of Bali in 2013 after she was convicted of trafficking drugs.

Customs officers found cocaine worth an estimated £1.6 million ($2.4 million, 2.2 million euros) hidden in a false bottom in Sandiford's suitcase when she arrived in Bali on a flight from Thailand in 2012.

Sandiford admitted the offences, but says that she agreed to carry the drugs after a drug syndicate threatened to kill her son.

She described Andrew Chan, 31, one of two Australians killed by firing squad on Wednesday for his role in a plan to smuggle heroin, as "one of the heroes of my life".

The two had become close friends in prison, where Chan had spent a decade after being arrested as one of the so-called "Bali Nine" group of smugglers.

The execution of Chan, who became a Christian pastor in prison, and another Australian Myuran Sukumaran, 34, cast a pall over relations between Australia and Indonesia.

A mentally ill Brazilian man and four African men were also executed. A Filipina single mother, Mary Jane Veloso, was granted a last-minute reprieve.

Sandiford's family have recently launched a fundraising drive to raise money to lodge an appeal at the Indonesian Supreme Court, after the British government refused to fund the legal fight.

If the challenge fails, Sandiford still has the option to appeal for clemency from Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

Mercy pleas of the convicts executed on Wednesday had been rejected.

In death, Australia's drug-smuggling pair become celebrated cause

English.news.cn, Matt Walsh,   2015-04-29

Bodies of executed Australian drug smugglers return home from Indonesia http://t.co/G3fyqmQU1s (AFP file pic) pic.twitter.com/7oqgWQoGrr

— China Xinhua News (@XHNews) 2 mei 2015

CANBERRA, April 29 (Xinhua) -- The execution in Bali on Wednesday morning of Australian drug-smuggling pair Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran brings to a close one of the most hotly- debated social justice issues in recent Australian media.

Detained in Denpasar attempting to smuggle heroin back into Australia ten years ago, the pair's case developed into a cause celebre as time went on, dominating media coverage when any snippet of news - positive or otherwise - emerged out of Kerobokan jail.

The pair was sentenced to death in 2006 for attempting to smuggle eight kilograms of heroin out of Bali.

While their cause received muted support initially, campaigning efforts were stepped up markedly when it became apparent they were not just repentant but actively trying to improve their lives in prison.

And when, in February, Indonesian authorities signed papers approving the pair's move to Nusakambangan Island, where death-row prisoners are sent for execution, the campaign for clemency in Australia went into overdrive.

Political figures began to plead with new Indonesian President Joko Widodo and his administration. Widodo dismissed any protests from Australian government officials, signaling that the death penalty in Indonesia was "still the law" and there would be no amnesty for the Australians.

But relentless bipartisan support was thrown behind the pair, and the Australian press was persistent in its efforts to secure a reprieve for Chan and Sukumaran. Television current affairs programs made much of their efforts at rehabilitation while inside prison.

Australia's Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop worked tirelessly to persuade the Indonesian government for leniency. Prime Minister Tony Abbott labeled the decision to carry out the executions as "revolting" and publicly stated that "millions of Australians are sick to their guts" as the end drew closer for Chan and Sukumaran. There were veiled threats that Australians would boycott Bali as a tourist destination.

Deputy Opposition Leader Tanya Plibersek even gave an emotional speech in Australian parliament in March, detailing the personal experience of her husband - who was convicted of drug smuggling - touching on what might have become of her family had he been caught somewhere else.

The case of the Bali nine duo was as momentous as it was perplexing in Australia. The public increasingly came to believe these convicted drug smugglers, the sort of people Australians seldom had sympathy for, had redeemed themselves.

The men had spent a decade inside a Balinese prison, where they had taken huge steps towards total rehabilitation.

Chan led English classes for fellow inmates, and was ordained as a pastor and held church services in prison. He also attained a theology degree after studying while incarcerated.

Sukumaran became an established artist and was a holder of a fine arts degree. He was tutored inside Kerobokan by well-known Australian artist Ben Quilty, a former Archibald Prize winner, and his works began to win widespread acclaim.

Both men were described as model people and mentors to other inmates. The governor of the prison even testified in court try and ensure their release from death row. They were held up as a glowing example of the redemptive powers of the prison system.

The Australian people will never know what could have become of the men had they been given another ten years to rehabilitate.

Some of the blame for their predicament has been aimed squarely at the Australian Federal Police (AFP). The law enforcement agency made the decision to alert Indonesian authorities to the drug smuggling ring instead of waiting for the group to return to Australia.

The offense carries the death penalty in Indonesia and many other countries, but Australia outlawed capital punishment decades ago. The last man hanged in Australia was in 1967.

AFP Commissioner Mick Keelty faced criticism for the decision not to let the group return to Australia to be tried and convicted on Australian soil, where the maximum penalty for any crime is life imprisonment.

In the days leading up to the pair's execution, it wasn't just public vigils and politicians' pleas that surfaced in the media. World-renowned actors took to social media to urge the government to take stronger action.

Geoffrey Rush, Guy Pearce, Deborah Mailman, Joel Edgerton and Tasma Walton were among the throng of local celebrities that called upon Tony Abbott to do more. Actor Brendan Cowell told Abbott to "man up."

Of course there are different voices. One netizen tweeted the ABC saying that Australian media have made heroes if these two convicted criminals.

But all efforts were rendered futile on Wednesday when the Indonesian government finally carried out the executions.

Poignantly, the shots fired at 4 am on April 29 which killed Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, only breathed further life into debate surrounding of one of the most gripping social justice issues in recent Australian history.

The opposition's Finance Minister, Tony Burke, tweeted four words after the grim news from Indonesia: "Lives lost. Nothing gained."

And that seemed to reflect the prevailing, somber public mood in Australia on Wednesday morning.

Editor: ying

Joko Heads to Papua to Kick Off Slate of Developments

Jakarta Globe, Roberth Vanwi, May 03, 2015

President Joko Widodo will visit Papua and West Papua next weekend for
the second time since taking office. (Antara Photo/Prasetyo Utomo)

Jayapura. President Joko Widodo is slated to make a second visit to the restive provinces of Papua and West Papua next weekend to launch several development projects.

Joko will be in the region for four days. The upcoming visit will be the second since he took office last October, following his tour of Papua in December in conjunction with Christmas celebrations.

“The president is slated to arrive in Papua on May 8,” said Brig. Gen. Supartogi, the chief of the military command in Merauke district, one of the places that Joko will visit in Papua.

He added that Joko would tour Indonesia’s easternmost provinces after a visit to Ambon, the capital of the nearby Maluku islands province.

As part of his Papuan tour, the president will visit two traditional markets in Jayapura, including Pasar Prahara in Sentani, which he also visited in December and which is currently undergoing a revamp. He said then that he wanted to support traditional markets.

In Jayapura, Joko is also slated to launch the construction of a bridge and facilities for the 2020 National Games, or PON, which will be held in Papua.

He will also attend the opening of a new public administration school in the provincial capital.

In Merauke, Joko will join a harvest festival and will depart for West Papua’s capital, Manokwari, later the same day, May 10, to launch the construction of a petrochemical factory and a power plant.

On the fourth day, Joko will be in Sorong to kick off the installation of fiber optic cables by state-owned telecommunications firm Telkom and to inaugurate Sorong’s new status as a National Strategic Tourism Zone.

Sorong is best known as the main departure point for visitors to the Raja Ampat islands, an increasingly popular and upmarket diving destination for international tourists.

Joko is scheduled to fly back to Jakarta on May 11.

Kathmandu's 'living goddess' survives quake

Yahoo – AFP, Paavan Mathema, 2 May 2015

The Kumari, considered a living goddess, attends festivities on the last day of

 the 2014 Rato Machindranath chariot festival on the outskirts of Kathmandu (AFP

Photo/Prakash Mathema)

When a devastating quake hit Nepal last week, a nine-year-old girl worshipped as a living goddess was preparing to receive devotees at her home in the heart of Kathmandu's Durbar Square.

As the earth shook, the ancient temples and statues that packed the square collapsed, sending a massive cloud of rubble and dust into the air. But the home of the living goddess, or Kumari, escaped with just a few cracks.

"She protected us," said Durga Shakya, the 55-year-old caretaker of the Kumari house, who like all her entourage is from the Newar community indigenous to the Kathmandu valley.

More than 6,621 people were killed by

the massive eathquake which devastated

 Kathmandu's Durbar Square, a UNESCO

 world heritage site damaged by the 

earthquake in Kathmandu (AFP Photo/

Matthieu Alexandre)

"Look around, the Kumari home is intact. There is a little crack on the other side, but otherwise nothing has happened," she told AFP in Kathmandu.

"Even inside, nothing has fallen down, everything is fine."

The Kumari, a pre-pubescent Newar girl, lives in isolation in her small palace and emerges only on feast days when she is paraded through Kathmandu in ceremonial dress.

The popular tradition combines elements of Hinduism and Buddhism and selection criteria are strict.

Priests say that to become a Kumari, a girl must have a number of specific physical attributes including an unblemished body, a chest like a lion and thighs like a deer.

Even if they fulfil all the physical requirements, aspiring Kumaris must then prove their bravery by not crying at the sight of a sacrificed buffalo.

'Fearless goddess'

Kamal Tara Shakya, a 48-year-old Newar woman who looks after the young girl in her palace, said she appeared unafraid when the quake hit.

"I was in the kitchen, after the quake struck I ran towards her, it (the house) was shaking so badly," Shakya told AFP.

"I took her on my lap. All of us huddled around her and prayed. She didn't say anything. She didn't seem scared."

Once the shaking subsided, Shakya took the young girl to the courtyard of the house where they have remained ever since for fear of aftershocks causing further destruction.

A Hindu devotee offers prayers in front of a statue of Hindu diety Kaal Bhairab

 in the Durbar Square neighbourhood of Kathmandu, on May 2, 2015 (AFP Photo/

Roberto Schmidt)

When AFP visited the house early on Saturday a priest was performing a blessing in the courtyard as staff chopped vegetables in the corner.

Mattresses and blankets lay on the floor, but the house appeared intact.

"I believe in her, she has protected us," said Anupa Shrestha, a 28-year-old housewife who had come to pay her respects.

"It is amazing to see the house okay, it shows her power... I was hoping to catch a glimpse of her, but I was very happy that her house is not damaged."

Durga Shakya believes the quake was a punishment from the gods, and that the Kumari knew it was coming.

"We will have to do an apology puja (blessing), she said.

"This has happened because people have disrespected the gods. This is a religious site, but people were holding all sorts of concerts and gatherings here. They should have been more respectful."

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New path in The Hague is a reminder of Indonesia’s shame

DutchNews, April 30, 2015

When Jozias van Aartsen, the mayor of The Hague, unveiled the Munirpad (Munir Path) in a quiet neighbourhood on April 14, he did more than honour the slain Indonesian human rights defender Munir Thalib, writes Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch. 

The naming of the Munirpad was also an uncomfortable reminder to the Indonesian government of its failure to bring to justice those who had ordered Munir’s killing on September 7, 2004. 

Munir’s widow, Suciwati, told reporters before she left Jakarta to attend the ceremony:  ‘It’s ironic when the Netherlands recognises [Munir’s] achievement, but Indonesia, his own country, gives impunity to the perpetrators [of his murder].’ 

Sceptical 

Suciwati has reason to be sceptical about the Indonesian government’s commitment to fully investigate Munir’s murder. Despite former Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s promise in 2004 that finding Munir’s killers was ‘the test of our history,’ the government has failed to do so. 

There is certainly no shortage of possible suspects. As Indonesia’s best-known human rights defender, Munir made many powerful enemies among people with abusive records. 

Munir founded the highly effective Commission for Disappeared Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) to campaign against enforced disappearances. In 2002, Munir established the Jakarta-based human rights research group Imparsial. 

Passion 

Underlying all of Munir’s work was a passionate pursuit of justice in a country whose three decades of authoritarian rule under Suharto had run roughshod over the rule of law and permitted the killers of more than 500,000 alleged ‘communists’ in 1965-66 to avoid prosecution for their heinous crimes. 

But that activism ended when Munir died from arsenic poisoning. The arsenic was allegedly added to his orange juice on a Garuda Indonesia flight from Jakarta to Amsterdam. An Indonesian police investigation resulted in the conviction of three Garuda employees. 

On December 20, 2005, a Jakarta court sentenced an off-duty Garuda pilot, Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto, who had moved Munir from economy to business class, to 14 years in prison  for administering the arsenic. Pollycarpus was released on parole in 2014. 

An Indonesian court subsequently sentenced Indra Setiawan, Garuda’s then chief executive officer, and Rohanil Aini, Garuda’s then chief secretary, to one year jail terms for producing falsified documents that let Pollycarpus get on that flight. 

Evidence 

Despite those convictions, there is troubling evidence that the prosecutions of those three Garuda staff failed to uncover the full circumstances of Munir’s killing and that the masterminds remain at large. 

Sceptics point to the fact that Pollycarpus was also an agent for the State Intelligence Agency (Badan Intelijen Negara, or BIN). Despite allegations that linked the order for Munir’s murder to the agency’s former deputy director, major general Muchdi Purwopranjono, an Indonesian court cleared him of responsibility in Munir’s killing in December 2008 due to lack of evidence after trial proceedings dogged by allegations of witness intimidation. 

Activists have alleged that the government withheld key evidence during the trial, including recorded mobile phone conversations between Muchdi and Pollycarpus. 

Hampered 

In September 2009, Human Rights Watch said that the evidence presented during the Muchdi trial was compelling, but that the prosecution was hampered by the systematic retraction of sworn statements to the police and pressure on the South Jakarta court from Muchdi’s supporters. 

Witnesses withdrew statements they had made to the police, claiming to have forgotten basic facts, or failed to appear in court. Most were former or current intelligence officers or retired members of the military. 

Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo has an opportunity to correct the failure of his predecessor, Yudhoyono, to investigate Munir’s killing adequately. The president could start by ordering the National Police to surrender any evidence withheld or overlooked during the trials of both Pollycarpus and Muchdi, as well as investigating allegations of witness intimidation related to the dismissal of charges against Muchdi in 2008.

If Widodo fails to act, the Munirpad in The Hague will remain a reminder of the long road to justice for Indonesia’s murdered rights defender Munir. 

Andreas Harsono is Indonesia researcher at Human Rights Watch.

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Munir Said Thalib, center, his wife Suciwati, left, and an unidentified staff member of

the Indonesian Human Rights Monitor (Imparsial), moments before the human rights

defender boarded a flight on Garuda Indonesia on Sept. 6, 2004. (Photo courtesy

of Imparsial)

.

US Stays Out of Row on Indonesian Executions

Jakarta Globe, AFP, Apr 30, 2015

Supporters of Australians on death row in Indonesia Andrew Chan and Myuran
Sukumaran light candles during a vigil at Martin Place in Sydney on April 28,
2015. The two were later executed by firing squad. (AFP Photo/Saeed Khan)

Washington. The United States, where the death penalty is still carried out, on Wednesday steered clear of a storm of global protest triggered by Indonesia’s execution of seven foreign drug traffickers.

The seven — two from Australia, one from Brazil and four from Africa — were shot along with one Indonesian, despite strident foreign appeals and pleas from family members.

“We don’t have much to say on this, other than we’re aware that they have executed eight [sic] foreign citizens convicted of drug trafficking,” State Department acting spokeswoman Marie Harf said. “As we’ve said, none of these eight were Americans.”

She spoke as the US Supreme Court heard arguments on Wednesday about lethal injections, after states began using alternative drugs — believed by some to cause pain and suffering — to carry out the executions.

A total of 18 out of 50 US states and the US capital Washington have abolished the death penalty, and the number of executions has fallen in recent years since the capital punishment was reinstated in 1976.

Of the 1,407 executions performed in the US since 1976, 13 have taken place so far this year.

Australia has withdrawn its ambassador to Jakarta in protest at the execution of their nationals, and the European Union has expressed dismay.

In Massachusetts meanwhile, defense lawyers are trying to save Boston bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev from a federal death sentence after he was convicted of carrying out the 2013 Boston bombings in which three people were killed.

US attorneys have argued that the 21-year-old of Chechen descent deserves to die for one of the bloodiest attacks on US soil since the 2001 9/11 attacks.

Agence France-Presse

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