FRAGILE PAST
Villagers found the mummified body of a Dayak chief thought to be hundreds of years old in a remote jungle location in East Kalimantan. With the mummy were ceramics, a sword (mandau), shield, and stone objects. Tanjung Soke is well-known to archaeologists for other cultural finds. But poor resourcing means that valuable discoveries are often sold to overseas collectors rather than reported to the state archaeological service.

Dozens of caves containing prehistoric paintings are threatened by marble quarries about to open in West Timor, archaeologist Fadhlan Intan told a seminar held in Bogor, West Java. 'This is another side to economic development', he said. 'Despite laws to protect prehistoric sites the rules are being continually broken'. Kompas 27 January & 20 February 1998.

MAGIC LEGAL
After more than fifteen years of discussion in legal committees, black magic (santet) has not been made illegal in the new draft criminal code submitted to (outgoing) Justice Minister Oetojo Oesman. 'Black magic is related to beliefs. How could we prove it if is a matter of beliefs? The law can't decide whether this or that religious belief is true or false', said Prof Bagir Manan, an official in the Justice Department. Dozens of people are murdered in Indonesia each year on suspicion they are practising black magic, and it plays a big role in commerce and politics up to the highest level. Some lawyers, including Oetojo Oesman, had argued this was sufficient reason to regulate the practice by law.
Editor 14 August 1993; Kompas 29 January 1998.

DARE-DEVILS DIE
Twenty five and possibly more young men lost their lives in at least nine separate incidents around Central Java in February and March after they accepted dares from their friends to swallow a potent alcoholic drink laced with insecticide and sleeping pills. The party dares were accompanied with bets of up to a million rupiah (AU$300). Most were underemployed casual labourers. 'These people come from marginalised groups', said one psychologist. 'They are not capable of taking part in normal competitions. But while protesting against their environment they end up killing themselves'.
Suara Merdeka 3 February & 22 March 1998.

REPTILES SAVED
An American pleaded guilty in Florida to smuggling rare Frilled Dragons and Fly River Turtles out of Indonesia via the Netherlands. Michael Van Nostrand was sentenced to 8 months jail and had to pay US$250,000 to an Indonesian wildlife preservation project. His reptile import company, one of the largest in the US, lost its licence. The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) will use the $250,000 for a government-approved program to train staff in conservation techniques in Irian Jaya, where the smuggled reptiles came from.

Customs officers at the Surabaya airport foiled an attempt to smuggle 1500 cobras and other rare and endangered snakes to Guangzhou, China. Export documents said the boxes contained bullfrogs. The snakes will be returned to their natural habitat, a forestry officer said.
US Department of Justice, Florida, 3 February 1998; Antara 13 February 1998.

SECRET SERVICE
Angered by the Indonesian military's massacre of civilians in Dili in November 1991, the US government cut its training program for Indonesian soldiers in 1992. Right? Wrong. Documents have come to light showing that the US military gave at least 36 training courses to Indonesian soldiers since the time relations were supposedly cut. Kopassus, the army's most ruthless unit accused of numerous human rights abuses, enjoyed training in sniping, close quarters combat, mortar, demolition, air drops, maritime operations, and psychological warfare. Many other units also received training. The documents were released by Alan Nairn in Jakarta. Nairn, who was in Dili during the 1991 massacre, was quickly deported for his trouble.
Associated Press 18 March 1998; ETAN 19 March 1998.

HOUSE OF HABIBIE
New vice-president B J ('Rudy') Habibie knows how to look after his family. His eldest son Ilham, trained at Boeing, heads the development of the new aircraft N-2130 at the IPTN aircraft factory that Rudy chaired while still Research and Technology Minister. Youngest son Thareq heads a company that often partners with foreign investors who wish to deal with IPTN. Younger brother Fanny has taken over Rudy's running of the Batam Authority, a huge industrial estate just south of Singapore. Fanny was Indonesian ambassador in London before taking up the Batam post. Meanwhile, Rudy's youngest brother Timmy Habibie chairs the family holding company Timsco, among the fifty biggest in Indonesia.
Xpos 21-27 March 1998.

AIDS SHELTER
Merauke, on the south coast of Irian Jaya, has opened a shelter for AIDS patients. It is only the second in Indonesia. The other is in Jakarta. Merauke has the nation's highest HIV/ AIDS infection rates. At any time about a thousand Thai fishermen operate in the Arafura Sea off Merauke. Five to ten percent of them are HIV-positive. They in turn infect local prostitutes, many of them Javanese transmigrants, during shore leave. Local tribespeople historically also have high rates of sexually transmitted diseases. With the full support of local government, the St Anthony Institute shelter also promotes AIDS awareness campaigns.
Kompas 12 April 1998.

TIMORESE FIGHT ON
East Timorese resistance leader Xanana received a visit from South African Foreign Minister A B Nzo in his Jakarta jail cell on 14 April. Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said the hour-long meeting was part of South African mediation to help Indonesia settle the East Timor issue. President Mandela himself visited Xanana on 15 July last year. A Portuguese newspaper reported that US Special Envoy Stanley Roth has twice visited Xanana in prison: in November and January. Two hundred East Timorese students demonstrated in Jakarta on 3 April demanding Xanana's release. A civilian couple and their child were seriously injured, and an Indonesian soldier killed by 'friendly fire', when Indonesian troops invaded a house on the outskirts of Dili. They were looking for Matan Ruak, the new chief of the East Timorese armed resistance. Matan Ruak is the last of Xanana's generation still in the forest. He replaces Konis Santana, who died in an accidental fall on 11 March. Alex David, another senior guerrilla leader, died after being captured last year.
Kompas 15 April 1998; Lusa 23 March 1998; Kabar dari Pijar 4 April 1998; MateBean 17 April 1998.