Followers of Unapproved Faiths Denied Rights

A seminar on agnostics and ancestral beliefs revealed that agnostics and followers of unofficial religions are often denied civil rights in Indonesia because the state only recognizes six religions.

Participants from 35 remote communities who inherited their faith from their ancestors attended the seminar.

“The [blank] strip on the religion column in their identification card [KTP] often caused them to lose their civil rights such as birth, marriage, death certificates and even denied health services,” Eva Kusuma Sundari, of House Commission III which oversees legal affairs, said on Friday. “They are also denied their rights to education and jobs because they don’t have a religion.”

“You can say that the discrimination against followers of ancestral beliefs is systematic from the day they were born until the day they die. The public often rejected their bodies to be buried in public cemeteries,” Eva said.

Eva said that Law No.23/2006 does not require agnostics and followers of unofficial religions to fill in the religion column in their KTP, but to simply put a strip on the column or leave it vacant.

“However, the Home Affairs Ministry’s breakthrough to allow agnostics [and followers of other religions] to provide a letter from their organizations didn’t help solve the discrimination problem,” she said.

She added that the government’s authority to determine whether or not a religion is official has been straightened out by the Supreme Court, which ruled that the government does not have the authority to determine the legality of a religion.

“Therefore, the decision which said that the state only recognizes six religions is automatically invalid. Based on the Supreme Court’s ruling, the Home Affairs Ministry, including the directorate general of civil administration, should implement the law. This means the requirement to fill up the religion column is no longer in accordance with the Constitution,” said Eva.

Saturday 22 December 2012

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/followers-of-unapproved-faiths-denied-rights-eva/563110

Mystery man found dead on suburban street after dropping from plane near Heathrow came from Mozambique

Detectives believe they have finally unravelled the identity of 'The Man who fell to Earth' onto a suburban street near Heathrow Airport, thanks to a British woman in Switzerland.

It was three months ago the man, an African in his 20s or 30s, plummeted 2,500ft to his death from the undercarriage of what is believed to have been a British Airways plane landing from Luanda, Angola.

He hit the ground in Portman Avenue, East Sheen, a wealthy street beneath the flightpath, with only some rudimentary possessions, small change and, crucially, a mobile SIM card in his pockets.

His identity had been a mystery but after a pain-staking trawl for information that led them to the woman in Switzerland, police now believe they know who he is, according to The Independent.


They are not yet releasing his name publicly but say the victim - called The Man who fell to Earth in a poem left at the spot where he died - was from Mozambique.

The breakthrough came when they trailed information found on the SIM, which opened them up to a world of information about his life.

Among the several Botswanan and Zambian numbers on his Angolan-registered phone was that of the British-Swiss woman, who had sent him a message saying: 'I need a favour.'

After several failed attempts at contacting her, the intrigued woman responded to detectives' messages and told them their description matched that of the man she had employed as a housekeeper in South Africa in 2010.

Unprompted, she then described a tattoo on his arm bearing the initials ZG, which was his nickname



After 2010 it is thought the man had travelled across Africa, through Botswana and Zambia in search of work, before crossing the border into Angola and making the decision that would ultimately cause his death - to move to England.

When detectives arrived at the scene on September 9, they initially thought they were dealing with a violent crime.

But the man's injuries and a witness's report of a thump at 7.42am changed the course of the investigation.

It was at precisely that time that BA flight 76 from Luanda had passed overhead.

It is thought the man managed to clamber aboard the aircraft by evading security at Luanda Airport under the cover of darkness, and then escaping the attention of pilots during pre-flight checks.

British Airways maintain there is 'no direct evidence' he was on their flight but police are certain this was the case.

It is almost certain the man would have been dead by the time he fell to earth - temperatures would have fallen to as low as -60C during the 4,000-mile flight.

Saturday 22 December 2012

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2252148/Police-say-identified-man-dropped-Heathrow-bound-plane.html

Indonesia's killing fields

It was one of the bloodiest massacres of the 20th century, well hidden from the outside world - the systematic killing of communists or alleged communists in Indonesia in 1965 and 1966. Researchers estimate that between one and three million people died.

Never before have the executioners spoken out in as much detail as in the recently-released documentary The Act of Killing. In this film, killers in North Sumatra give horrifying accounts of their executions, and even re-enact them.

The killers have always considered themselves heroes because their acts were supported by the government and large parts of society. Many executions were directly committed by the military.

In the years that followed, Indonesians were bombarded with anti-communist propaganda and, until today, most people do not know what really happened.

The film, and a recent report by the Indonesian national human rights commission that called the killings crimes against humanity, have launched a new debate on how the country should deal with this very traumatic past.

Mass graves have yet to be exhumed and victims are yet to see some kind of justice. In many villages, killers and victims' relatives are still living with the awkward reality that 'our neighbour has killed my father'.

Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen talks to former executioners and finds out why so many people - mostly Muslim youths - turned into cold-blooded killers, and why this dark episode in Indonesian history is still very sensitive and alive today.

'The Act of Killing'

By Syarina Hasibuan, producer

When a friend told me of a documentary about an executioner involved in the killing of alleged communists in 1965, I did not believe her. I had never heard of anyone confessing to this - let alone a documentary about it screening at international film festivals. I was dying to see it and, luckily enough, I was one of the first Indonesians, along with a small group of journalists, to attend a secret screening of The Act of Killing in Jakarta. We were told not to reveal the location of the screening for security reasons, which reveals just how sensitive this bloody period in Indonesian history remains today.

After I watched it I felt shocked, confused and betrayed. Shocked to find out how horrible the situation was at that time - with people living in fear and killings taking place everywhere, every day. Confused because I did not know what to think of Anwar Congo, the executioner in the film. Somehow I did not hate him because I saw him as an uneducated man, brainwashed by the government into believing that he was doing the right thing by killing all those people. It was clear that his actions haunted him for life. I felt betrayed because the government never told us the real story when I was growing up. They lied to us. And now I wanted to know more.

As an Indonesian who grew up during President Suharto's 'New Order' regime, I was taught that the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), which was one of the biggest political parties in 1965, was violent and that its members did not believe in God. When I was a child, if we hated someone we used to call him or her a communist - meaning that we thought the person was evil. That is how brainwashed I was.

In elementary school every year on September 30, teachers would ask us to watch a three-and-a-half hour long government sponsored film about how the Communist Party had planned to topple the government. The film showed how, on one day in 1965, the PKI had kidnapped seven top military men in the middle of the night, killed one of them in front of his wife and children, and brought the others to a rubber plantation, where they tortured and mutilated them. Throughout it all, they were singing, dancing and shouting "Kill! Kill! Kill!". Then they threw the dead bodies into a well.

Many of the scenes in that film were too violent for elementary school students to watch. But I guess the aim was to brainwash the younger generation, to imprint the most gruesome parts of that film onto our brains so that whenever we heard of the PKI we thought of evil. And, for a long time, it worked.

I grew up not understanding what actually happened in 1965; I did not know that maybe up to three million people had been killed because they were accused of being involved in the PKI. If my parents or grandparents knew about it, they never spoke of it.

After watching The Act of Killing I felt we should make our own story about the killings. I talked to victims, executioners, witnesses and investigators to find out more about what actually happened. And the more I talked to people, the more gruesome the picture that formed in my head.

After the military accused the PKI of being behind the murder of the seven military men, PKI members all over Indonesia were hunted down, put in prison without trial, tortured or killed. Civilians and students from religious boarding schools were used as executioners. And the military released some of the most violent criminals from prisons and ordered them to carry out executions. Hundreds of dead bodies were found floating in rivers every day.

The situation was so chaotic that a person could easily be accused of being a PKI member simply because someone did not like them. Killings even happened between family members.

Ndoren is an old man who does not know his real age. He has only two teeth left, but smiles a lot. He told us he was an executioner. We went with him to Luweng Tikus, or the Rat hole as local people call it - the location where soldiers forced him to kill more than 40 people, some of whom he knew personally.

In front of the 42 metre deep hole he told us his story, continuously warning us not to go any closer. The alleged communists were brought in by the military after walking in the dark for hours, with their hands tied. They were lined up in front of the hole. Then, one by one, Ndoren hit each of them on the back of the head with a crowbar and threw them into the hole. He said they hardly struggled, as if they had already accepted that they were going to die.

The stench from the hole was so bad that villagers far away could not bear it. The hole was covered until 2002 when human rights activists opened it up and found human bones and skulls inside.

After Suharto's downfall 14 years ago, people cautiously started to speak out. Victims and human rights organisations asked the government to at least apologise for what happened. Nearly 50 years after the events of those years, the National Commission for Human Rights conducted a four-year long investigation into the case and concluded that crimes against humanity were committed and that the military was responsible.

Still nothing much changed. I am happy that elementary school students no longer have to watch the same propaganda film we were forced to endure. But Indonesia's 'killing fields' remain absent from the history books. The communists are still considered devil-like in the eyes of many Indonesians and grandchildren of Communist Party members still do not want to admit to this in public. There are still those who prefer not to talk about what happened in 1965. Why open up old wounds, they say. Let us keep it buried.

But there are also many Indonesians, like myself, who want to know what really happened. What is it that has divided our country for so long? Did the PKI really plan a coup and kill those army generals, even though their position was so strong at the time? What was it that made my fellow Indonesians so willing to kill one another that they would even execute family members?

I am happy that they have partially excavated Luweng Tikus and found the skeletons. But many others remain scattered across Indonesia. And we have a long way to go before we have all the answers we deserve. I believe that if we want to learn from the past we must know the truth about our history.

Saturday 22 December 2012

http://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/101east/2012/12/2012121874846805636.html

10 dead, eight injured in Bauchi-Gombe road accident

At least 10 persons have been confirmed dead and eight others seriously injured in a fatal auto accident that occurred along Bauchi–Gombe federal highway on Friday.

Confirming the incident in Bauchi, the Acting Sector Commandant of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Mahmud Kachalla disclosed that the unfortunate accident occurred when a Volkswagon Golf car, a Honda and a motorcycle had a head-on collision in Alkaleri town, some kilometers away from Tsohuwar Gwaram village in Bauchi state.

Kachalla disclosed that five women, three men, a boy and a girl lost their lives in the accident.

He also added that out of the eight persons that sustained various degrees of injuries, “five were male adults and one a female adult and two young men.”

The safety boss who attributed the cause of the accident to reckless driving revealed that the victims of the ill-fated Golf car were returning from a condolence visit in Jigawa State.

He said that the timely arrival of FRSC personnel in Alkaleri prevented further disaster, saying that his men came to the accident scene and rushed both the dead and the injured persons to the Alkaleri General Hospital for medical treatment.

Kachalla urged motorists to always obey traffic sign while driving especially during this festive period.

Saturday 22 December 2012

http://dailypost.com.ng/2012/12/22/10-dead-eight-injured-bauchi-gombe-road-accident/

119 dead: West Frankfort remembers horrid Christmas mine disaster

When people are hammered by a horrible tragedy such as the one that occurred in Newtown, Conn., last Friday, it is the most natural human emotion to compare it to local disasters. In West Frankfort, such memories emerge instantly. Especially at this time of the year.

On Dec. 21, 1951, this community took center stage in the world news. The tragedy at the Orient No. 2 Mine 7:35 p.m. Friday, Dec. 21, 1951, which took 119 lives, still lives in the community as if it were yesterday. Much like the loss of the children and educators will live on in Newtown.

When we remember the event, it is not to delve into sadness. It is to honor always those who were lost and the gallant reaction of a community that pulled together to heal itself. It is part of who we are and what we are. Lives were changed forever.

The horror began to unfold early and as the hours passed by, slim hopes began to fade. The Associated Press reported early on: "Hopes faded last night for the rescue of from 50 to 60 men trapped in an explosion-shattered coal mine after 28 burned and torn bodies were brought to the surface. Sweating rescue crews continued their desperate probing through thick smoke and gas to reach the men 550 feet underground at the Orient No. 2 Mine near here (West Frankfort)."

Appeals were broadcast for more rescue volunteers and, as always, miners responded to help their brothers in coal. The junior high school, then located behind the current post office, was converted into a morgue. One local man, L. Goebel Patton, remembers it well. Patton, 99, recalls earlier that evening a basketball game between Marion and West Frankfort, contested at the (then) brand new high school gymnasium (now Max Morris), had been rudely interrupted by a desperate official seeking out a local doctor to go to the mine immediately.

Patton said they came to him on the other side of the gym, watching the game, and asked him to go and open the junior high school building. Patton was superintendent of schools at the time. As word spread, it was reported that about 700 of the 2,000 spectators also left the gym. The scope of the tragedy began to unravel.

History is vague about whether or not an announcement was actually made over the loud speaker at the game.

"I opened the junior high and remained there for about 42 straight hours," Patton said. "It was such a bleak moment. I identified many of the bodies. It was a grim task."

Patton also served later on the coroner's jury defining the accident.

West Frankfort Public Safety Commissioner Jerry Harkins was in the seventh grade and attended Central when the tragedy occurred but he remembers it vividly. His father, Fred, was a firefighter and was in the school helping to identify bodies. "Dad told me to stay outside and not come in," Harkins remembers. He has another grim recollection. When the kids did return to school their eyes would burn from the residue of formaldehyde.

Harkins did put the memories to good use in his career. When he was a safety inspector for Old Ben mines he would tell the sad tale when he talked to new miners. "They really paid attention," he added.

Jim McPhail, public figure and lifetime resident, was a freshman in high school on that fateful day. Like so many others, he was attending the basketball game. He remembers no announcement over the public address but people couldn't help but notice that they were going around to the doctors and medical personnel in the crowd. Soon the word began to circulate that there had been a "bump" in the mine. In the vernacular, all miners at the time knew what that meant. "The crowd began leaving in large numbers. I went down to Central Junior High where a crowd was gathering and getting larger all the time. We just stood around stunned."

McPhail was like everyone else in town. Everyone knew someone who was killed and most knew several. The youngster recalls attending the funeral of Jim Homer Summers, the dad of his buddy. Like many others, the rites were held at his home because the funeral homes were pressed to and beyond their limits. "The funerals seemed endless. There were even some at Christmas. It cast a pall over the holiday. As long as there are people alive who lived through this ordeal, the memories of those miners will live on."

There are a thousand such stories throughout West Frankfort and each teller seems to remember it as vividly as though it happened yesterday. This newspaper chronicled it for weeks, months and years to come. West Frankfort was center stage for the world press with journalists coming from around the nation. Wherever the mineral was extricated from the bowels of the earth, people reached out with prayers and physical help.

Local agencies and organizations were put to the task and all responded immediately. As always, the churches played a large role in consoling survivors. Everyone wanted to help. The crew of the Daily American worked around the clock to keep the people informed. They summarily withdrew all Christmas advertising, without consulting the merchants, because they deemed the happy ad images were inappropriate. Profit motive took a back seat to human dignity. Editor W. Henson Purcell spent 48 hours straight on the police radio handling calls internationally. Travel wasn't as easy then and the radio stations carried constantly updated reports to a wide area.

Other than the loving memories that pour out on this date, there were more practical results stemming from the tragedy which constitutes the legacy of the lost miners. Labor leaders poured into town and in the name of these, and miners everywhere, new safety rules and regulations were formulated. Their sacrifice helped future brothers.

Appropriately, Christmas became better during the last 60 years. But every year on this date a host of local people bow their heads in respectful loving memory for those who were lost in such a tragic manner And as long as that happens, their loss will not have been in vain.

Saturday 22 December 2012

http://www.dailyamericannews.com/article/20121221/NEWS/121229821/1001/NEWS#art-tit

Rising number of unidentified bodies hint at secret killings

The rise in the number of unidentified dead bodies in state hospitals is a clear indication of the spurt in secret killings, according to a private charity organisation. The Dhaka Medical College Hospital (MMCH) and Sir Salimullah Medical College Hospital (SSMCH), the two major government hospitals of the city, receive about five unidentified dead bodies every day, according to statistics provided by Anjuman Mofidul Islam.

In most cases, autopsy done on these unclaimed corpses revealed the cause of death as murder or accident, and the bodies were often without limbs or the head. Police usually file a case of unnatural death (UD) in such incidents by taking a photo of the victim. After a while, the file starts gathering dust and the case does not progress much due to lack of leads. And then, these bodies are buried by Anjuman Mofidul Islam.

According to sources, Anjuman Mufidul Islam receives four to five unidentified bodies from the DMCH and SSMCH, while local police stations also hand over some bodies to them.

The organisation buried 128 dead bodies in August this year. In July, it buried 113 bodies. From July 2011 to June 2012, the organisation buried a total of 1,181 bodies. Between July 2010 and June 11, they buried 1,054 dead bodies, while the number was 1,596 from July 2009 to June 2010.

Mohammad Abdul Halim, director (service) of Anjuman Mufidul Islam, told The Independent that most unidentified bodies sent to them were of teenagers and that a number of victims died of gun wounds, stab injuries, or asphyxiation. Sometimes, the organization receives bodies that had been hacked to pieces, he added.

About the process of burial, Halim said, "We receive a number of dead bodies daily, but due to insufficient facility for preservation, we bury them as soon as possible. Moreover, some bodies come to us in a really bad state as they often get damaged during transit or due to bad preservation in hospital morgues.”

“Sometimes, we find rats in the bellies of the bodies, which is why it is not possible to keep the bodies for identification for long. Only a handful of the corpses get identified,” he added.

The Independent found that a woman named Rahima Begum had come to the DMCH with a young girl called Ziamin, on October 7, 2012, around 12pm. She soon left Ziamin at the hospital on the pretext of buying some medicine. Doctors later found that the girl had died a long time ago. Ziamin’s body was first sent to the DMCH morgue and then handed over to Anjuman Mufidul Islam.

On October 10, around 2 am, some transport workers found a big bag near the Gabtoli bus terminal underpass. When police opened the bag, they found the dead body of a 17-year-old boy inside the bag. Though police filed a case in this regard, the mystery behind the incident remained unresolved and the body was deposited at the Anjuman Mufidul Islam morgue.

Professor of sociology at Dhaka University (DU) Masuda M Rashid said that the number of unnatural deaths was on the rise due to the negligence and inefficiency of law-enforcement agencies. “Besides, complete lack of exemplary punishment also encourages criminals to thrive under the nose of law-enforcers,” he added.

“Moreover, foreign films and the internet are teaching youths how they should commit crimes,” he said.

Former inspector general of police (IGP) Abdul Kaiyum said people did not get information about their missing relatives due to lack of awareness. “Besides, the authorities concerned did not make announcements about the unidentified dead bodies,” he added. Dhaka metropolitan police (media and publication) deputy commissioner Masudur Rahman said, “Though it is difficult to investigate a UD case, we try our best to get the victims’ identities.”

Saturday 22 December 2012

http://www.theindependentbd.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=147188:rising-number-of-unidentified-bodies-hint-at-secret-killings&catid=129:frontpage&Itemid=121

Forensics team racing to finish identifying typhoon fatalities

A forensics team from the National Bureau of Investigation is working double time to process hundreds of dead bodies left in the wake of Typhoon “Pablo” so these could be identified and buried before the year ends.

Nearly three weeks since the killer typhoon devastated this landlocked town, over 300 bodies remained unburied, according to Marlon Esperanza, municipal information officer.

Of the 351 unidentified bodies, 111 were already in coffins and 240 others still in body bags. The bodies were laid out inside the town’s damaged public cemetery, where the forensic examination was being conducted.

Esperanza said some of the survivors of the typhoon want the bodies buried even if these had not yet been identified, but the task of digging a common grave for the dead was being punctuated by delays due to days of rain.

The rains were also hampering the search and retrieval operations for more than 500 still missing who, by now, might be dead, Esperanza said.

“People are still searching for family members and friends,” Esperanza said.

Bernardith Pebusot, municipal sanitary inspector, said they were not certain when a mass burial could actually take place as NBI forensic experts continue to do the gargantuan task of processing the bodies.

“Maybe by January 2 next year, the forensics will finish their work,” Pebusot said.

Pebusot admitted that with dead bodies scattered about–many still underneath layers of earth and debris– the whole town can now be considered “health hazard.”

She also pointed out that the foul odor that hovers in the air indicated decaying flesh, either of humans or animals.

Pebusot said that as much as officials want to prevent villagers from going back to their neighborhoods to rebuild their damaged homes, the officials could not do anything at the moment. “We cannot force them to move out as they want to rebuild their homes,” she said.

Saturday 22 December 2012

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/328405/forensics-team-racing-to-finish-identifying-typhoon-fatalities

Traffic accident kills 7 in Indonesia’s West Java

Seven passengers of a tour bus were killed in a crash with a truck in Cipularang toll road, West Java Indonesia on early Saturday.

The Tri Star bus carrying people from Central Java’s city of Puwokerto to spend holidays in the capital city of Jakarta. It hit the back of the truck with high speed, police overseeing the crash location said.

“The bus driver said that he was sleepy at that time,” head of traffic unit at Cimahi police station, Asep, said, adding that the bus rammed the truck at a speed of 70 kilometer per hour.

“Due to the crash, the front left part of the bus was totally torn apart,” he added.

He said that the bus driver is now detained in police station for further investigation. The driver could face four years of imprisonment if he is proved of committing negligence that costs others’ lives, the detik.com reported.

Most of the death victims were those sitting in that part, he said. Among the total of 36 people onboard the bus, including the driver and one crew, seven were instantly killed on the scene, two others badly injured. All of the passengers were rushed to MH Thamrin and Efarina Etaham hospitals located near the toll road.

Saturday 22 December 2012

http://www.nzweek.com/world/traffic-accident-kills-7-in-indonesias-west-java-39141/