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☆ Deadlier and more media savvy, separatist rebels evolve in Indonesia's Papua
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( Kate Lamb | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

[1/2] Egianus Kogoya, young West Papuan rebel commander, sits on a captured plane piloted by New Zealand national Philip Mehrtens in Indonesia's Papua region in this undated picture released on February 14, 2023. Separatist rebels kidnapped New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens, 37, after he landed his small plane in the remote Papuan highlands on Feb 7. An estimated 500 fighters identify as members of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement (OPM). Cahyo Pamungkas, a researcher from the National Research and Innovation Agency, said the separatists are using social media to get their message out. "Social media is a tool of resistance to deliver the stories from Papua because national media is mainly dominated by perspectives from Jakarta," he said.

☆ Stocks of Indonesia’s GoTo surge 5% as it says profit targets will be met ahead of time
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-17 | by ( Sheila Chiang | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

GoTo Group expects group contribution margin, which shows revenue after variable costs, to become positive by first quarter of 2023 - a year ahead of schedule. Shares of Indonesian tech giant GoTo Group surged as much as 4.96% on Friday morning a day after the group said it will hit its profitability targets earlier than expected. GoTo, which is made up of ride-hailing giant Gojek and e-commerce marketplace Tokopedia, went public in April last year. GoTo said in a Thursday release that adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization will likely "become positive within the fourth quarter of 2023." The company expects group contribution margin, which shows revenue after variable costs, to become positive by March — that's four quarters ahead of previous guidance.

☆ Exclusive: WHO investigating links between cough syrup deaths, considers advice for parents
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Jennifer Rigby | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

The deaths of children from acute kidney injury began in July 2022 in Gambia, followed by cases in Indonesia and Uzbekistan. The WHO has said the deaths are linked to over-the-counter cough syrups the children took for common illnesses and which contained a known toxin, either diethylene glycol or ethylene glycol. The WHO, working with Indonesia’s drugs regulator, also issued an alert in October about cough syrups made by four Indonesian manufacturers and sold domestically. The manufacturers are: PT Yarindo Farmatama, PT Universal Pharmaceutical, PT Konimex, PT AFI Farma. PT Universal Pharmaceutical Industries’ lawyer, Hermansyah Hutagalung, said it had pulled from the market all cough syrups deemed dangerous.

☆ Indonesia Risks Confrontation With China Over Gas Project in South China Sea
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Jon Emont | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Indonesia intensified naval and air patrols around the Natuna Islands after it inaugurated a military command base on the cluster’s main island in 2018. Around a remote cluster of islands in the South China Sea, Indonesia is pushing back against Beijing’s expansive claims over the strategic waterway. It announced last week that it had approved plans to develop a large natural-gas field near the Natuna Islands. The field sits within Indonesia’s 200-mile exclusive economic zone, which means that under international law, Jakarta has the right to exploit natural resources there. But China’s claims cover almost all of the South China Sea, extending to the area where the gas field lies, nearly 1,000 miles from the Chinese mainland.

☆ Rohingya recount stories of hunger and desperation in escape to Indonesia
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-28 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

PIDIE, Indonesia — Rohingya Muslims who survived a harrowing 40 days on a boat across the Indian Ocean to end up in Indonesia have recounted stories of hunger and desperation, saying more than 20 of those on board died on the way. Rohingya men resting at a shelter in the Pidie district of Aceh province on Monday. A Rohingya child rests in a temporary shelter in Laweueng on Tuesday. Rohingya attempting sea crossings to Thailand and Muslim-majority Malaysia and Indonesia often set off between November and April when seas are calmer. Indonesia has seen nearly 500 Rohingya reach its shores in the past six weeks, according to the UNHCR.

☆ Indonesia says bauxite export ban to proceed as scheduled in June 2023
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Reuters Staff | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

JAKARTA (Reuters) -Indonesia will ban exports of bauxite, the main ore source of aluminium, starting from June next year to encourage domestic processing of the material, President Joko Widodo announced on Wednesday. The timing of the bauxite export ban is in line with Indonesia’s current mining law. The World Trade Organization last month ruled in favour of the European Union in a dispute on nickel ore exports, which Indonesia is appealing. Jokowi on Wednesday said he is certain Indonesia’s next export ban would face lawsuit, but said it will not deter him. The president has previously said he wanted to expand the export ban to cover tin, bauxite, gold, copper and palm oil.

☆ Indonesia to announce ban on exports of a commodity, without saying which
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Reuters Staff | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Once the world’s biggest exporter of nickel ore, Indonesia stopped exports in January 2020, a move that had enticed foreign investors, mostly from China, to build smelters in the resource-rich country. Today, later, we will announce (an export ban on) one more commodity,” Jokowi told an economic forum. Jokowi said his nickel export ban had helped Indonesia jumped up the value chain for nickel-based exports, which then boosted overall shipments and improved its current account position. The World Trade Organization last month ruled in favour for the European Union over dispute on nickel ore exports, which Indonesia is appealing. Jokowi on Wednesday said he is certain Indonesia’s next export ban would face lawsuit, but said it will not deter him.

☆ Indonesia confirms bauxite export ban to proceed as scheduled
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Fransiska Nangoy | Bernadette Christina | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The timing of Indonesia’s ban, however, is in line with its current mining law. The measure, which led to a dispute at the World Trade Organization (WTO), also helped boost the value of Indonesia’s exports. China was the biggest importer of Indonesia’s bauxite until Jakarta introduced a mineral export ban in 2014, which it lifted in 2017. Indonesia’s bauxite reserves are enough for up to 100 years production, he said. He said there was a possibility that legal action could be pursued against Indonesia for banning bauxite exports, but it would not deter him.

☆ Bali bomber Umar Patek apologizes for nightclub attacks that killed 202
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

An Indonesian bomb maker convicted for his role in the deadly 2002 Bali nightclub attacks has apologized to the victims’ families, after his release from prison was met with outrage in Australia. Umar Patek, a member of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah group, was jailed for 20 years in 2012 after he was found guilty of making bombs that ripped through two Bali nightclubs, killing 202 people, including 88 Australians and 38 Indonesians. “I apologize to the Australian people who have been deeply impacted by the Bali bombing,” he added. Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles said soon after he was freed that it was a “difficult day” for Australians who lost loved ones and relatives in the attacks. Paul Vanni, community and partnerships officer at Sydney’s Coogee Dolphins rugby team, which lost six members in the Bali attacks, dismissed the apology.

☆ Umar Patek: Bali bomber released on parole in Indonesia after serving half of 20-year sentence
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Jakarta, Indonesia CNN —Indonesia has released on parole Umar Patek, a bomb maker in the deadly 2002 Bali attacks, the Ministry of Law and Human Rights said on Wednesday. After his release on Wednesday, Patek is required to join a “mentoring program” until April 2030, according to the ministry statement. In August, Indonesia’s government said that Patek was eligible for parole after his sentence was reduced, a decision that sparked criticism from the victims’ families. “I think this going to be a very difficult day for many Australians – all Australians – to hear about the release of Umar Patek,” Marles told ABC radio. Three of the masterminds of the Bali bombings – Imam Samudra, Amrozi bin Nurhasyim and Ali Ghufron – were executed in 2008.

☆ Indonesia’s Parliament passes law criminalizing adultery
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesia’s Parliament passed a long-awaited and controversial revision of its penal code Tuesday that criminalizes extramarital sex for citizens and visiting foreigners alike. After ratification, the new criminal code must be signed by the president, according to Deputy Minister of Law and Human Rights Edward Hiariej. The criminal code will not apply immediately. Widodo had instructed Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly to get input from various communities while lawmakers discussed the articles. “These laws let police extort bribes, let officials jail political foes, for instance, with the blasphemy law,” Harsono said.

☆ Indonesia Bans Sex Outside Marriage
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-06 | by ( Feliz Solomon | Ismira Lutfia Tisnadibrata | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

JAKARTA, Indonesia—Lawmakers approved an overhaul of Indonesia’s criminal code that gives the state sweeping new powers to punish people for offenses such as blasphemy and sex outside of marriage, in the latest sign of a conservative shift in the world’s most populous Muslim nation. Parliament unanimously approved a bill on Tuesday that replaces parts of the country’s existing code, created under Dutch colonial rule in the early 1900s. The new rules, which apply to both Indonesisans and foreigners, also make it a crime to insult the country’s head of state and government institutions.

☆ Indonesia’s Mount Semeru erupts, burying homes in volcanic debris
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

Mount Semeru in Lumajang district in East Java province spewed thick columns of ash nearly 5,000 feet into the sky Sunday. Villages and nearby towns were blanketed with falling ash, blocking out the sun, but no casualties have been reported. Hundreds of rescuers were deployed Monday in the worst-hit villages of Sumberwuluh and Supiturang, where houses and mosques were buried to their rooftops by tons of volcanic debris. The government moved about 2,970 houses out of the danger zone, including from Sumberwuluh village. People were advised to keep off the southeastern sector along the Besuk Kobokan River, which is in the path of the lava flow.

☆ Another OPEC? Indonesia wants to create a cartel for battery metals
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Julia Horowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The nickel market is also structured very differently than the market for crude oil, with private firms rather than national companies running the show. The country now accounts for more than 38% of global refined nickel supply, according to data from market intelligence firm CRU Group. People who track the nickel market are skeptical such an arrangement is workable. But other countries that have direct access to battery metals and other important minerals also want a say. “The metals market and its importance to the energy transition is something we’re all waking up to and adapting to how it’s going to work in practice,” Bronze said.

Indonesian lawmakers passed a sweeping new criminal code on Tuesday that criminalizes sex outside marriage, as part of a tranche of changes that critics say threaten human rights and freedoms in the Southeast Asian country. The new code, which also applies to foreign residents and tourists, bans cohabitation before marriage, apostasy, and provides punishments for insulting the president or expressing views counter to the national ideology. “All have agreed to ratify the (draft changes) into law,” said lawmaker Bambang Wuryanto, who led the parliamentary commission in charge of revising the colonial-era code. “The old code belongs to Dutch heritage … and is no longer relevant.”The world’s largest Muslim-majority nation, Indonesia has seen a rise in religious conservatism in recent years. Under the laws, sex outside marriage carries a potential one-year prison term, and the crime of blasphemy, already on Indonesia’s books, could now lead to a five-year prison sentence.

☆ Indonesia's highest volcano unleashes lava river in latest eruption
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

Indonesia's highest volcano erupted Sunday, releasing searing gas clouds and rivers of lava on the Java Island. The evacuation of people, which includes children and seniors, living near the volcano in East Java province had also begun with 93 residents so far evacuated to shelters, Indonesia’s disaster mitigation agency, BNPB said in a statement. Indonesia’s Center for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation, PVMBG, raised the warning to its highest level, its chief told Reuters in a text message. Semeru’s last major eruption was in December last year, when the rumbling volcano erupted with fury and left 51 people dead in villages that were buried in layers of mud. Several hundred others were injured with serious burns, and the eruption forced the evacuation of more than 10,000 villagers.

☆ Soil DNA analysis from paw prints could help Sumatran tigers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-04 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

In her experiments to date, Watsa has been able to detect Sumatran tiger DNA in soil and determine the sex of the animal. Paw prints made by 4-year-old Sumatran tiger Rakan at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park help researcher Mrinalini Watsa develop a cost-effective technique to detect tiger DNA in soil. He believes DNA techniques could help scientists better understand how some tigers disperse between different areas, which can be hard to pick up with cameras. “DNA techniques will also be useful where camera trapping is difficult,” he added, such as the remote, mountainous regions in Southeast Asia. The analysis of tiger DNA in soil samples could help forensic investigations in the battle against the illegal wildlife trade.

Mount Semeru, which lies around 640 kilometers (400 miles) southeast of the capital Jakarta, began erupting at 2:46 a.m. local time Sunday (2:46 p.m. Pyroclastic flow rolls down the slope of Mount Semeru during an eruption in Lumajang, East Java. Standing at 3,676 meters (12,060 feet), Mount Semeru is the tallest volcano on Java – and one of its most active ones. People take shelter at a community hall in Candipuro village following Mount Semeru's volcanic eruption in Lumajang, East Java on December 4, 2022. Rescue workers monitor the flow of volcanic materials from the eruption of Mount Semeru, in Lumajang, East Java, Indonesia, on December 4, 2022.

CNN —An earthquake of 6.1 magnitude hit Indonesia’s West Java province on Saturday, the country’s geophysics agency BMKG said. According to the BMKG, the epicenter of the earthquake was on land and there is no potential for a tsunami. “In response to the earthquake that happened earlier, once again, remain calm, alert but there is no need to stop your daily activities,” Suharyanto said. It comes after a deadly magnitude-5.6 earthquake shook West Java on November 21, with a final death toll of 334. Suharyanto said 56,320 houses were damaged in that quake, more than a third of them badly.

☆ Indonesia set to make sex outside marriage an imprisonable offense
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

Reuters —Indonesia’s parliament is expected to pass a new criminal code this month that will penalize sex outside marriage with a punishment of up to one year in jail, officials have confirmed to Reuters. Ed Wray/Getty ImagesDecades in the making, the new criminal code is expected to be passed on December 15, Indonesia’s deputy justice minister, Edward Omar Sharif Hiariej, told Reuters. “We’re proud to have a criminal code that’s in line with Indonesian values,” he told Reuters in an interview. A previous draft of the code was set to be passed in 2019 but sparked nationwide protests. A revised version of the criminal code has been discussed since Indonesia declared its independence from the Netherlands in 1945.

☆ Indonesia central bank says monetary policy to remain pro-stability
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Reuters Staff | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Slideshow ( 4 images )JAKARTA (Reuters) - Indonesia’s central bank governor Perry Warjiyo said on Wednesday that monetary policy will remain pro-stability and that energy subsidies next year will allow Bank Indonesia (BI) to raise interest rates in a measured way. Warjiyo said inflation expectations remain high and reiterated that BI will steer core inflation toward its target range of 2%-4% in the first half of 2023. In 2024, he expected inflation to be within a range of 1.5%-3.5%. Warjiyo said other central bank tools will be geared toward maintaining economic growth, which is seen between 4.5%-5.3% next year and between 4.7%-5.5% in 2024. (This story has been corrected to fix core inflation target to 2-4%, not 2-3%, in paragraph 3)

☆ Death toll in Indonesia earthquake rises to at least 252
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Angie Ling | The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

The death toll from an earthquake on the Indonesian island of Java has risen to at least 252, officials said Tuesday, after rescuers recovered more bodies from the rubble of collapsed buildings. The greatest damage from the 5.6-magnitude earthquake Monday afternoon was in Cianjur, a city south of the country's capital, Jakarta. Local officials announced the higher death toll in an Instagram post, up from 162 the night before. A 6.2-magnitude earthquake in West Sumatra province killed at least 25 people in February, while an earthquake the same size killed more than 100 people last year in the province of West Sulawesi. Aditya Aji / AFP - Getty ImagesMore than 2,800 homes were damaged in the earthquake, according to the Cianjur government’s Instagram post.

☆ Indonesia Earthquake Death Toll Rises to at Least 268
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Ismira Lutfia Tisnadibrata | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The death toll from the 5.6-magnitude earthquake that shook Indonesia’s main island of Java on Monday rose to at least 268, the country’s disaster-management agency said, as search-and-rescue teams continued to find bodies under wrecked buildings. The quake caused large-scale destruction in the Cianjur area of West Java and was felt as far away as the capital, Jakarta, around 40 miles northwest. It occurred at a shallow depth of 6.2 miles, leading to violent shaking at the surface.

☆ After Deadly Indonesia Earthquake, Rescue Workers Search for Survivors
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Ismira Lutfia Tisnadibrata | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A cat being rescued from a damaged home in the Cianjur area of Indonesia’s West Java on Tuesday. Rescue teams continued their search for survivors a day after a 5.6-magnitude earthquake jolted Indonesia’s main island of Java, killing dozens of people, triggering landslides and causing extensive damage to homes. The governor of West Java said late Monday that at least 162 people had died and hundreds more were injured. The death toll was expected to rise, authorities said, as teams expand their area of operations and continue to find bodies under wrecked buildings.

☆ Indonesia Earthquake Kills at Least 56 and Injures More Than 700
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Dave Sebastian | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Rescuers helped a man hurt in the 5.6-magnitude earthquake that hit Cianjur, Indonesia, on Monday. An earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Java on Monday, leaving at least 56 people dead, around 700 injured and hundreds of buildings damaged, officials said. The 5.6-magnitude earthquake was centered in the Cianjur area in West Java at a shallow depth of 6.2 miles, according to Indonesia’s meteorological agency. The temblor didn’t have the potential to create a tsunami, the agency said.

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