Southeast Asia: News, Culture, Voices
Sri Lanka: US State Dept. Reports on Possible War Crimes
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Human rights groups have been calling for an investigation into possible war crimes committed in Sri Lanka during the fighting between the government and Tamil Tigers earlier this year. Now the US State Department has issued a report that details a series of alleged crimes – including the killing of children and the use of cluster bombs on civilians.
The displaced in Sri Lanka remain in government camps - five months after fighting has ended. (Photo: HRW)
I spoke to James Ross, legal and policy director at Human Rights Watch, for Free Speech Radio News. He says the report should send “a clear message” to the Sri Lankan government that the US will take these allegations seriously.
Listen to our conversation here.
Meanwhile, the Sri Lankan government is keeping hundreds of thousands of displaced people in camps. They have remained there since the fighting ended in May.
FSRN’s reporter in Sri Lanka, Ponniah Manikavasagam, filed a great story this week that has the voices of refugees on the ground. As one woman says, “We’ve had enough…we don’t want to suffer anymore.” You can hear it here.
Sign up for podcasts of Free Speech Radio News here or listen daily on your local station.
The Jakarta Bombings: What’s Next for Indonesia?
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This week, I spoke on WBAI’s Asia Pacific Forum about the recent attacks on the Marriot Hotel and the Ritz-Carlton in south Jakarta and what the country faces in the days ahead.
(Photo source: washingtonpost.com)
Listen to the segment below:
Asia Pacific Forum, WBAI 99.5fm, July 21, 2009, New York City. Hosts: Leyla Mei and Irene Tung.
On the morning of the bombings, I received an email from a friend in the city. “I’m so angry,” he said. “We’ve been working so hard to make things better for our country.” It’s a sentiment of frustration that I think is shared by many in the country. But questions linger: Who is responsible? Will the violence of the recent past return? How will the country’s neighbors – the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore – react?
A new briefing, released by the International Crisis Group today, concludes that after last week’s bombings “The easiest step and the most unwise would be to turn the anti-terrorism law into an internal security act that allowed for lengthy preventive detention.”
The ICG has long pressed the government on one item in particular: prison reform. Without it, the country’s deradicalization program – which so far has received praise for its work – could be undermined. When I spoke with Sydney Jones, project director of the Southeast Asia region, in her Jakarta office last year, she emphasized this point.
Indonesian media and the Wall Street Journal have identified one of the suspects of the recent bombings as a graduate of the Al-Mukmin school in Central Java. (The school responded to the Jakarta Globe here.) I visited the school last October and spoke with the leader, Ustadz Wayhuddin. I filed a report for World Politics Review in November 2008. Also, you can see a blog post and listen to a radio report from February here.
Radio Reports: Indonesia and Clinton’s Visit
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Public Radio International’s The World, Feb 18, 2009:
After the bombings in Bali that killed more than 200 people, the Indonesian government cracked down hard on Islamic militants. It also developed a program to de-radicalize militants in prison. As Dorian Merina reports, officials are hoping to expand it to the country’s religious boarding schools.
Free Speech Radio News, Feb 18, 2009:
Anti-American protesters in Jakarta demonstrated against Secretary of State Hilary Clinton’s visits to Indonesia today – part of her East Asian tour this week. Clinton met with her counterpart, Hassan Wirajuda, and talked about constructing a wide-ranging alliance with the Muslim-majority nation. Clinton’s visit is being touted as a new step in the U.S.’s relationship with Indonesia: during the Bush administration’s so-called “war on terror”, the nation’s Islamic schools were often characterized as the breeding grounds of terrorism and violence.
But most schools and institutions provide an important place of education for the country’s poor and rural communities, while offering an ideological challenge to fundamentalist groups. FSRN’S Dorian Merina takes us to West Java, where a group of scholars and educators are promoting a progressive agenda of religious pluralism and gender equality – all within the schools themselves.
Ustadz Wahyuddin, current director of the Pondok Ngruki school in Central Java.
Radio Report: Religious Schools in West Java Push Progressive Islam
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When I spoke with Ansyaad Mbai, Indonesia’s top counter terrorism official, he pointed to the country’s Islamic boarding schools as places where the future of Indonesia’s Islam could be decided. U.S. officials have called the schools, or pesantrens, breeding grounds for terrorism. Yet, while a few of the schools have been connected to radical Islam, most provide an important system of education for the country’s poor and rural communities.
Indonesia's top counter-terrorism official, Ansyaad Mbai, in his Jakarta office. October 2008.
I visited a number of pesantrens in West Java and spoke with students, teachers and religious leaders. Listen to the radio report, broadcast this week on WBAI’s Asia Pacific Forum (99.5 FM, New York City).
Read more about the Fahmina Institute here: http://fahmina.or.id/en/
Wearing Jilbab While Reporting: A video interview with my interpreter
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“I would describe myself as a student, as a learner,” said Mita, 25, who accompanied me as an interpreter as I visited pesantrens in Central Java. “I’m open-minded.”
When I asked her to compare her experience of wearing jilbab while reporting with not wearing it during her regular life, she thought about it for a second.
“Yes, of course I feel different,” she said.
Watch our short video interview below.
Bali Bombers: A Visit to the Ngruki School in Central Java
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Ustadz Wahyuddin, current director of the Pondok Ngruki school in Central Java.
YOGYAKARTA, Indonesia — Early Sunday morning, the Indonesian government executed three men convicted of the 2002 Bali Bombings, ending a controversial period of postponements, court appeals and international media attention. The three all have ties to an Islamic boarding school, called Pondok Ngruki, located in Central Java. The school is one of the most notorious in the country for espousing a fundamentalist version of Islam and for producing particularly fervent alumni. I visited the school three days before the executions took place and spoke with the current director, Ustadz Wahyuddin.
Indonesians See Hope in Obama’s Win
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Read the full post of my experience before, during and after the election as I traveled through West and Central Java.
Nine-year-old Barack Obama, seated at far right, during his stay in Jakarta. His Indonesian stepfather, Lolo Soetoro, sits at the far left.
Weekly Radio Report: News from Southeast Asia
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In Southern Thailand, Muslim militants clash with authorities…In Malaysia, the foreign minister retracts from barring Nobel-prize winner Shirin Ebadi from visit to a local university…Prominent journalist Saw Myint Than released from one-month detention in Burma…and Indonesians prepare for the executions of the three Bali bombers.
Listen to the 3-minute news round up, broadcast on WBAI’s Asia Pacific Forum (99.5 FM, New York City) this week.
Counter-terrorism from a Criminologist’s Perspective
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Today, as part of an ongoing project on Indonesia’s deradicalization program, I spoke with police expert Dr. Adrianus Meliala at the University of Indonesia. Meliala discussed how counter-terrorism efforts have changed in a post-Suharto and post-9/11 society.
Indonesia has charted some important successes, but in Meliala’s analysis, better coordination between the different government agencies is needed.
Meliala also offered some background to the US-supported “Detachment 88″ counter-terrorism force based in Indonesia. Watch an excerpt below.
