Indonesian President Worried By Growing Religious Intolerance
By KANUPRIYA KAPOOR / REUTERS WRITER| Monday, August 19, 2013
People from Indonesian Muslim hardline groups hold a banner and placards during a protest near the Burma Embassy in Jakarta on May 3, 2013. (Photo: Reuters / Beawiharta)
JAKARTA — Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he was concerned by growing religious intolerance in the country with world’s largest Muslim population, which many analysts say his administration has failed to contain.
Indonesia has recently seen a series of increasingly violent attacks on religious minorities like Christians, Shia Muslims and members of Ahmadiyah, a small Islamic sect which is considered heretical by mainstream Muslims.
“I am very concerned about the continuing incidents of intolerance and communal conflict we see, which are often violent,” Yudhoyono said in an annual address to parliament.
“We should always be able to prevent these if we prioritize dialogue and if the country’s leaders, in government and religious institutions, take collective responsibility.”
Yudhoyono, in office since 2004 and whose current term ends next year, has been criticized for failing to defend the rights of religious minorities.
“President Yudhoyono seems to say all the right words. But he does not talk about legal discrimination that his administration had created over the last nine years,” Andreas Harsono, Indonesia director for Human Rights Watch, told Reuters in an e-mail.
Human Rights Watch released a damning report this year that listed more than 260 violent incidents against religious minorities in 2012. It accused some cabinet members of fanning the violence.
Nearly 90 percent of Indonesia’s population considers itself Muslim but the constitution guarantees freedom of worship in a country that was once home to powerful Buddhist and Hindu kingdoms.
Most Indonesians follow a moderate form of Islam but militants linked to al Qaeda have carried out several major attacks on foreign targets since 2002.
Indonesia has largely managed to root out militant networks though sporadic attacks continue.
Yudhoyono also said he would continue to battle corruption in one of the world’s most graft-ridden countries and another key problem which many observers accuse his government doing little to counter.
Two days before his speech, a top energy official was arrested by the anti-corruption agency (KPK) over allegations he pocketed more than half a million dollars in bribes from an oil firm.
It is the latest in a string of corruption scandals that have also damaged many of the major political parties, including Yudhoyono’s ruling Democratic Party whose popularity has been sliding ahead of next year’s general and presidential elections.
But Yudhoyono made no mention of the latest arrest.
“We continue to try and prevent and eradicate corruption to strive for a ‘Clean Indonesia,’” he said. “And I continue to push law enforcement agencies like the police, attorney general’s office, and even the KPK, to take effective steps to fight corruption.”
Thousands of villagers in a remote part of Papua New Guinea finally have access to the outside world with the opening of a new road.
Samberigi Village in the Southern Highlands [see map below] was promised a road 15 years ago and now, through the determination of a young leader and support from the goverment, it's actually happened.
It's also the first time people in the area have seen a PNG prime minister.
.. where exactly is Samberigi Village? .. chuckle .. here you go ..
Samberigi Map — Satellite Images of Samberigi original name: Samberigi geographical location: Southern Highlands, Papua New Guinea, Australia and Oceania geographical coordinates: 6° 43' 0" South, 143° 52' 0" East http://www.maplandia.com/papua-new-guinea/southern-highlands/samberigi/
.. hahaha .. massive green, eh .. hope you enjoyed that one .. this one gives you more of an idea of the location .. firstly ..
Papua New Guinea (PNG; Tok Pisin: Papua Niugini), officially named the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania that occupies the eastern half of the island of New Guinea (the western portion of the island is a part of the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua) and numerous offshore islands. It is located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, in a region described since the early 19th century as Melanesia. The capital is Port Moresby.
Papua New Guinea is divided into four regions, which are not the primary administrative divisions but are quite significant in many aspects of government, commercial, sporting and other activities.
The nation has 22 province-level divisions: twenty provinces, the Autonomous Region of Bougainville
----- INSERT: Civil war
In May 1990, Papua New Guinea imposed a blockade on Bougainville. Francis Ona responded by unilaterally declaring independence. He set up the Bougainville Interim Government (BIG), but it had little power, and the island began to descend into disarray. The command structure set up by the BRA seldom had any real control over the various groups throughout the island that claimed to be part of the BRA. A number of raskol (criminal) gangs that were affiliated with the BRA, equipped largely with weapons salvaged from the fighting in World War II, terrorized villages, engaging in murder, rape and pillage. Bougainville split into several factions, and a civil war began. .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Bougainville#Civil_war ] -----
and the National Capital District. Each province is divided into one or more districts, which in turn are divided into one or more Local Level Government areas.
Provinces are the primary administrative divisions of the country. Provincial governments are branches of the national government – Papua New Guinea is not a federation of provinces. The province-level divisions are as follows:
1. Central 2. Chimbu (Simbu) 3. Eastern Highlands 4. East New Britain 5. East Sepik 6. Enga 7. Gulf 8. Madang 9. Manus 10. Milne Bay 11. Morobe
12. New Ireland 13. Northern (Oro Province) 14. Bougainville (autonomous region) 15. Southern Highlands 16. Western Province (Fly) 17. Western Highlands 18. West New Britain 19. West Sepik (Sandaun) 20. National Capital District 21. Hela 22. Jiwaka
In 2009, Parliament approved the creation of two additional provinces: Hela Province, consisting of part of the existing Southern Highlands Province, and Jiwaka Province, formed by dividing Western Highlands Province. Jiwaka and Hela officially became separate provinces on 17 May 2012. .. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papua_New_Guinea#Administrative_divisions
=====
Friday 28th May 2010: Port Moresby, NCD
Peace Signing Ends Tribal Fights in Samberigi Valley
Mineral Resources Development Company (MRDC) as manager of Petroleum Resources Gobe (PRG) is pleased to announce today that the Bogasi and Tipurureke Tribes of the Samberigi Valley in the Gobe Oil Project area have agreed to stop their tribal fight and make peace.
[ sorry, the photo is just too huge to out ]
MRDC as manager of the PRG Trust has played a big role in facilitating the peace process by bringing together the warring tribes to a round table negotiation and we are proud to report that the both tribes have now made peace. Southern Highlands Provincial Government has also contributed in logistics in facilitating the peace process.
"The original thinking in PNG, given the facts and figures around sexually transmitted infections and unwanted teen pregnancies - behavioural information - certainly gave us the idea that we were heading towards a sub-Saharan African style epidemic," UNAIDS country co-ordinator Stuart Watson said.
But that generalised epidemic has not happened.
Instead, the virus has been localised to the Highlands, Morobe Province, and the National Capital District.
High-risk communities include sex workers, men who have sex with men and transgender people, as well as those who travel for their work.
Margaret Anton, president of Women Affected by HIV/AIDS, is one of an estimated 25,000 Papua New Guineans living with HIV.
And like many she has faced discrimination from family and friends.
"When people found out I was HIV positive, when I had TB, they didn't want anything to do with me," she said.
"Sometimes I would spend nights on the road, for shelter I would find a tree to sleep under."
Columnist suggests HIV prison
That sort of discrimination even finds a voice in the country's mainstream media.
Timothy Pirinduo is a columnist in PNG's only locally-owned newspaper.
He believes HIV was created in a lab by crazy scientists, and wants new laws to make HIV testing compulsory.
"Once we identify those with HIV/AIDS, then we can separate them from those who are not affected," he said.
"Separating them would be like keeping them in a confinement, kind of a prison kind of set-up."
While Mr Pirinduo's HIV prison is just an idea, deadly preaching is a reality.
Pastor Godfrey Wippon heads PNG's Revival Centres and says his is the fastest growing religious movement in the country.
"It is growing because of healings, miracles, wonders, science happening in this ministry. The Lord heals," he said.
On a beach in Port Moresby, revivalists gather to sing and watch as new recruits are baptised and speak in tongues.
Pastor Wippon believes baptism and prayer can cure AIDS and even bring the dead back to life.
Revival church responsible for death: activist
Health workers have told the ABC revivalists visit hospitals and clinics telling HIV patients to throw away their medication.
In a case that shocked many, one of PNG's first openly HIV-positive women, Helen Samilo, fell prey to the revivalist message.
Even though she was working as an advocate for anti-retroviral treatment, Ms Samilo joined a revivalist church, stopped taking medication, and died in August last year.
""It's just the revival church that told her not to take her medication. They are responsible for her death," Ms Anton, a friend of Ms Samilo, said."
Pastor Wippon sees Ms Samilo's death differently.
"It's just the revival church that told her not to take her medication. They are responsible for her death," Margaret Anton, president of Women Affected by HIV/AIDS, PNG
"She has been healed spiritually. She died physically, naturally. But spiritually she's right with the Lord," he said.
The mainstream churches in PNG are working with the United Nations and non-government organisations to help people access services.
Catholic archbishop John Ribat is a member of the Christian Leaders Alliance.
"Our concern as churches is to come together to address this HIV and AIDS and fight against the discrimination that continues to divide us," he said.
That division and discrimination has also created enclaves of hope.
Ms Anton and philanthropic businesswoman Veronica Charlie are planning to build a permanent care centre to accommodate 50 people ostracised by their communities.
These men, women and children currently sleep in tents or in the open and rely on charity to survive.
For Ms Anton, helping others with HIV is part of positive living.
"I started seeing that God did preserve me, probably for my little boy, probably because I'm going to work along with this wonderful woman who has decided to take us along and build a care centre," she said.
"Using my status I've decided to come out openly and publicly so that I want to be a voice for women out here who have been through stigma and discrimination."
Bougainville: World's newest nation expected to form as islands vote in independence poll
"Guns and Viagra at the Wutung border BY KELA KAPKORA SIL BOLKIN - 20 May 2012"
Region thought likely to break away from Papua New Guinea would be first new country since South Sudan
Nick Perry 3 days ago
Some voters are travelling to polling stations by boat ( AFP/Getty )
The Pacific islands of Bougainville are voting in a historic referendum to decide if it will become the world's newest nation by gaining independence from Papua New Guinea.
The vote will run over two weeks and is a key part of a 2001 peace agreement that ended a civil war in which at least 15,000 people died in the cluster of islands to the east of the Papua New Guinea mainland.
Experts believe the 250,000 people of Bougainville will vote overwhelming in favour of independence ahead of the other option, which is greater autonomy, but the vote will not be the final word.
The referendum is non-binding and a vote for independence would need to be negotiated by leaders from Bougainville and Papua New Guinea. The final say would go to legislators in the Papua New Guinea parliament.
The violence in Bougainville began in the late 1980s, triggered by conflict over an enormous open cast copper mine at Panguna.
The mine was a huge export earner for Papua New Guinea but many in Bougainville felt they got no benefit and resented the pollution and disruption to their traditional way of living.
The mine has remained shut since the conflict. Some believe it could provide a future revenue source for Bougainville should it become independent.
Market Data 
Markets 
AI
