Regional Indonesian Politicians to Ban Or Curb Ahmadiyah

JakartaGlobe, 26 February 2011

Regional chiefs in some Indonesian provinces are moving ahead with plans to either ban completely or restrict the activities of Ahmadiyah followers in their areas, claiming the Muslim sect has stirred up community conflicts.

The mayor of Samarinda, Sjahrie Jaang, said he would curb all Ahmadiyah activities in the East Kalimantan capital and would also soon move to close down its mosques.

Indonesia's Fuel Subsidy Cuts May Be Shelved

Jakarta Globe, 25 February 2011

The country’s top economic minister on Thursday said planned fuel subsidy cuts might be postponed “indefinitely,” citing soaring world oil prices and accelerating inflation. “The government sees that this is not the right time to implement the restriction plan because global oil prices keep rising,” said Hatta Rajasa, the coordinating minister for the economy.

The government had planned to gradually restrict the sale of subsidized Premium fuel only to motorcycles and public transportation vehicles starting in April.

Flight Permits to Two Russian Airlines Granted by Indonesia

Kompas.com, 1 May 2010

The Transport Ministry looks set to licence two Russian airline companies to fly to Indonesia this year. The two Russian airlines, Transaero and Aeroflot, would serve direct flights linking the two countries starting at the end of this year, Air Transport Director Tri S Sunoko said in a press statement on Friday.

Transaero which had so far been conducting Russia-Denpasar charter flights twice a week planned to also operate scheduled flights, he said. Russia’s state-owned Aeroflot meanwhile would fly from Moscow to Denpasar vice versa as of December 2010, he said.

The issuance of flight permits to the Russian airlines was part of aviation service cooperation agreed upon by the two nations at their meeting in Russia on April 29-30, he said.

"The MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) made in Jakarta some time ago has been upgraded to RoD (Record of Discussion)."

The RoD contained a number of agreements related to exchange of traffic rights, code sharing arrangements, co-terminalization and aircraft leasing, he said. Code sharing arrangements are seat sales cooperation carried out by at least two airline companies.

As such, Indonesian-flag carrier Garuda could sell and promote flights to Moscow, Vladivostok, St. Petersburg and Novosibirsk in Aeroflot planes, he said. On the other hand, Aeroflot could sell connecting flights from Denpasar to Jakarta, Solo and Manado in Garuda planes.

Source: Kompas.com

Witness and Victim Protection MoU Ratified

KOMPAS.com, 3 December 2009

The Memorandum of Undertanding (MoU) for witness and victim protection was finally signed by the National Police, National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM), National Commission on Violence against Women (Komnas Perempuan), National Commission for Child Protection (KPAI), and the Witness and Victim Protection Agency (LPSK), at the LPSK office, Jakarta, Thursday.

The MoU was ratified after a prolonged discussion and planning by the LPSK together with the National Police, Komnas HAM, Komnas Perempuan, and KPAI. This was admitted by LPSK chief Abdul Haris Mendawai when interviewed by Kompas.com at the signing.

"Finally the MoU is signed. Actually this is the culmination of LPSK's efforts so far to lobby, discuss, and cooperate with our partners from the National Police Komnas HAM, Komnas Perempuan, and KPAI, and also other government offices and departments."

At the signing, the National Police was represented by National Police deputy head of operational, Insp. Gen. S.Y. Wenas - due to the inavailability of the National Police chief. The other participants were Komnas HAM chief Ifdal Kasim; Komnas Perempuan chief, KamalaCandra Kirana; KPAI chief, Hadi Supeno; and LPSK chief Abdul Haris Mendawai.

The MoU for witness and victim protection essentially is an agreement that all the institutions above are willing support and cooperate with LPSK to increase the effort and service of protecting witnesses and victims in Indonesia.

According to Haris Mendawai, the content of the MoU is not the main issue for the cooperation. The main concern is how the content will be followed-up.

"The importance of the signing is not in the content, but the point is in cooperating and acting upon the MoU so that the quality of witness and victim protection service in this country improves.

Source: KOMPAS.com

Indonesia Government Preparing Regulation on Wiretapping

ANTARA NEWS, November 28, 2009 00:56.

Communications and Information Minister Tiffatul Sembiring said the government was preparing a regulation on wiretapping for law enforcement purposes. "As the Information Technology Law Number 11 of 2008 has been issued, a government regulation needs to be made so that wiretapping cannot be resorted to at will. We already have a concept and we hope to finish the draft of the regulation in six months," he said here on Friday. The issue came to the limelight recently following the playing of a recording of wiretapped phone conversations between a businessman and several ranking law enforcement officials at a session of the Constitutional Court.

He said two agencies allowed to conduct wiretapping now were the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and the police.

The Attorney General`s Office (AGO) was also allowed to conduct wiretapping but so far it did not have the needed device while the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) had the device but was not allowed to do it.

"This is what has to be put in order through the regulation. This however has nothing to do with the case of KPK officials Bibit Samat Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah. The idea to regulate the matter was already raised in 2008," he said.

Bibit Samat Rianto and Chandra M Hamzah were named suspects by the police for having allegedly abused their authority and engaged in extortion in a corruption case they were handling. But the police`s action triggered public outrage because many believed the police`s charges were fabrications.

Citing examples in other countries, the minister said that in countries like Australia, South Korea and Japan wiretapping is put under the authority of the ministry of communications and information. He said there was a kind of ministry of information and communications technology to deal with it.

So, wiretapping should be done by KPK, BIN, the police or the attorney general`s office based on a court decision.

He said it was important to regulate the matter because there were indications now that government agencies were wiretapping each other.

"They are wiretapping people`s conversations. If two people are conducting conversations and they are wiretapped it is a human rights violation," he said.

On the possible establishment of an agency to deal with the matter, the minister said that it was not impossible that a special department would be established where unauthorized people could not enter.

He said it did not mean that a permit had to be obtained from the ministry of communications and information but the authority for issuing it would be determined by the court. He said what was clear was that it must not hinder the anti-corruption drive.

"Wiretapping will be restricted and cannot be used to collect evidence but may be used to collect information to complete initial evidence," he said adding that in other countries it was used to collect supporting evidence.

Source: ANTARA NEWS