Jakarta

Unless the Indonesian government carries out a comprehensive recovery, hundreds of thousands of Merapi volcano eruption victims are certain to face economic and social destruction.

“One of the worst impacts of the eruption is the destruction of people’s livelihood; the land cannot be used to grow plants and economic activity virtually stops,” said Agus Priyono after visiting disaster relief centres set up by the Poor People’s Union (SRMI) in Magelang municipality.

On May 25, 70 people protested outside the Thai embassy in Jakarta in solidarity with the pro-democracy Red Shirts in Thailand. The protest was jointly called by the Working Peoples Association (PRP), the People’s Democratic Party (PRD), the Confederation Congress of Indonesia Union Alliance (Konfederasi KASBI); the Indonesian Nasional Front for Labour Struggle (FNPBI); the National Student League for Democracy (LMND)

The Indonesian government headed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (commonly known as “SBY”) claims it has reduced poverty in Indonesia from 17.7% in 2006 to 14.2% in 2009.

Indonesian socialist group, the People’s Democratic Party (PRD), made an historic decision to relaunch itself as an open party at its seventh congress on March 1-3.

Thousands of people from various sectors of society protested to mark the inauguration of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as president and Boediono as vice-president near the national parliament on October 20. Yudhoyono was elected to his second five-year term.

The National Student League for Democracy (LMND) held an action at the office of Exxon-Mobil in Jakarta on February 25 to demand the nationalisation of the Indonesian mining sector.

New evidence has been presented in a judicial review of Garuda Indonesia pilot Pollycarpus Budihari Priyanto — who was acquitted last year for murdering renowned human rights activist Munir — that links the murder with the National Intelligence Agency (BIN).

Coinciding with the release of a report by Human Rights Watch exposing endemic human rights abuses in West Papua and the refusal to allow a member of the US Congress to visit the province, protests featuring the Morning Star flag were held.

Indonesian police routinely torture, rape and kill with impunity in West Papua and risk fanning separatism there, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report released on July 5.

A furor has erupted over the recent formation of the GAM party in Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh. Former members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) announced the formation of the party on July 7. Chaired by former GAM military commander Muzakkir Manaf, it adopted GAM’s white crescent and star symbol on a red background as its logo. Former GAM “prime minister” Malik Mahmud later said that Jakarta had agreed to the establishment of a local party in Aceh based on the former rebel group that fought for Acehnese independence from Indonesia.