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Scholars, religious leaders, legal experts, artists and community groups met in Bali in February to condemn a new parliamentary bill on pornography. The bill, which has been submitted to parliament by the PKS (Prosperous Justice Party) and other Islamic parties, would restrict ‘pornographic material’ in the media and prohibit ‘indecent behaviour’ in public places. It would ban nudity or exposure of body parts, with offenders liable to a prison sentence of up to 10 years.

Speakers argued that the bill would adversely affect the performing arts, including some of Bali’s most popular dances, because it blatantly ignored the crucial fact that Indonesia is a multicultural society with varying social norms and religious values. ‘People in Bali or Papua have a different interpretation to Jakarta of what might be considered pornographic,’ Prof. Dr I Made Bandem stressed.

One Hindu high priest said sexual organs and nudity are often the primary characteristic of his religion’s sacred objects of worship. Others claimed the bill would not only threaten Bali’s creative arts but endanger the primary belief system of Hindus. Tourism businesses are also concerned the bill would cause irreversible damage to their industry, the economic backbone of Bali.

The meeting produced a document rejecting the bill to be presented to parliament in Jakarta, and some participants are planning public protests.

The Indonesian vice president Jusuf Kalla and military chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto have rejected the findings of the United Nations report on the occupation of East Timor, compiled by the independent Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR). The report concluded that the policies of the Indonesian military against East Timor’s civilian population caused the deaths of between 84,000 and 183,000 people – up to a third of the territory’s population — between 1975 and 1999.

Vice president Kalla said some of the claims in the report were ‘exaggerated or simply not true’. Kalla, who had not seen a copy of the report when he spoke to the media, said, ‘the accusation that we committed gross human rights violations in East Timor is absolutely not true’.

General Sutarto also rejected the report, saying ‘I am not convinced that that many (victims) were the result of what the TNI (Indonesian armed forces) and Polri (the national police) did at that time’. He also denied that the military or the police intentionally caused famine in East Timor, as alleged in the report. ‘It is not true that we deliberately carried out massacres using napalm and starving people,’ he said, adding that the military keeps data that will exonerate the actions of the Indonesian security personnel.

The report was presented to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on 20 January by East Timor President Xanana Gusmao. It has not been officially made public, but has been widely reported in the media and can be viewed on the internet at www.ictj.org

Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono has acknowledged that some military and police personnel have committed human rights abuses in Papua. ‘I grant that there’s been incidence of some brutality, torture and rape involving some of our troops’, he said. However he denies any abuses are part of a systematic policy. Juwono made the remarks in response to questions about 43 Papuans, who fled to Australia in January seeking asylum. The group has accused the Indonesian government of genocide against the people of Papua.

Juwono also defended a de facto ban on foreign journalists visiting Papua. He says such visits disrupt national unity, and stir up separatists.

A lack of funding and expertise is increasing the risk of a global human pandemic of bird flu, according to an expert with eight years experience in Indonesia. Dr Andrew Jeremijenko, who works as the project leader of an influenza surveillance study group helping the government, says there is data to show that the virus, which has been killing humans in Indonesia, is different to that killing birds.

‘They don’t seem to be able to match the viruses from the human case to the animal case. And that is putting the world at threat. Every human case is another potential mutation that could turn this virus into a pandemic virus’, he said. Jeremijenko blames poor communication between the Department of Health and the Department of Agriculture for much of the problem. He says countries such as Turkey, Vietnam and Thailand have implemented effective control programs and have since had no human deaths, but in Indonesia the deaths keep on coming with two suspected H5N1 bird flu deaths in the last week in February.