Human Rights

'Human Rights' is no longer a dirty word within Jakarta's establishment. An official National Human Rights Commission, now in its third year, is overwhelmed with work. KRISHNA SEN caught up with Marzuki Darusman, its deputy chairman. Joining in was academic Arief Budiman. She asked them what 'human rights' actually mean in Indonesia, and what difference the Commission has made.

While top officials hail the Australia-Indonesia security agreement, ARTHUR KING is appalled to find that, on the ground in East Timor, youths who resist still face torture.

Modern gay men in Indonesia learn to live alongside traditional concepts of homosexuality. DEDE OETOMO explains.

Should child labour be abolished or regulated? WENDY MILLER spoke with activist ARIST MERDEKA SIRAIT during the Child Labour Conference at Melbourne's Monash University.

There is concern within the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) about human rights abuses committed by its members. Part of the evidence is a manual on human rights recently issued by Maj-Gen Dunidja D., Military Area Commander in Irian Jaya. All soldiers in Irian Jaya are required to carry it as part of their personal equipment.

Authorities blame the recent Jakarta riots on the coalition PRD. It has hundreds of members, but military leaders liken it to the PKI of the 1960s, which had millions. Who are these 1990s activists? VANNESSA HEARMAN visited with one of the coalition partners earlier this year, and filed this inside story.

Australian volunteer LEON JONES was living in Aceh in the lead-up to the violence that eventualy left up to 2000 dead.

KERRY BROGAN talks with two women whose husbands 'disappeared'.

Street children are not social misfits. They are creative exiles from an oppressive state system, according to LAINE BERMAN and HARRIOTT BEAZLEY.

TOM PLUMMER talks with a graphic artist in Yogyakarta whose work is drawing international praise.

PETER HANCOCK finds that women in a rural Nike factory are considerably worse off than those who work in other factories.

IRIP NEWS SERVICE speaks with a member of Dili's Catholic Commission for Education and uncovers an assassination attempt against Nobel prize winner Bishop Belo

AHMAD SOFIAN explores the lives of young people on hundreds of isolated fishing platforms in the Malacca Straits

Remember the election last May? MAS SUJOKO was there and listened in to the people's vote, recorded on walls all over Yogyakarta.

What are the prospects of Islamic opposition? How democratic will it be? GEORGE ADITJONDRO finds much to be hopeful about.

'I write the truth and if I have to die for it, well so be it' wrote Udin shortly before he died. AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL investigates.

PETER CRONAU and MATTHEW BROWN find that Cold War methods live on in Indonesian consulates around Australia.

Why is it so hard to remember the evils of the past? ROB GOODFELLOW explores the pain, and the exhilaration, of memory.

A new movement resists the terror and expresses solidarity with the Chinese Indonesian women who were raped in Jakarta in May