SHAFAQNA

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – All 108 passengers and crew survived when a Lion Air plane missed the runway on the Indonesian holiday island of Bali and landed in the sea.

More than 40 people were treated for injuries including broken legs, head wounds and shock, though most were discharged from hospital on the day of the crash, hospital officials said.

The brand new Boeing 737 had flown from Bandung, in West Java, and was about to land at Denpasar airport on Saturday.

"It probably failed to reach the runway and fell into the sea," said Lion Air spokesman Edward Sirait.

He would not comment on the cause of the crash. An investigation has been launched.

"The plane plunged into the sea at high speed," said passenger Ignatius Juan Sinduk from his hospital bed in Denpasar where he was being treated for breathing difficulties after his chest was injured in the crash.

"Everybody screamed and water suddenly surged into the plane. Passengers panicked and scrambled for life jackets. Some passengers fell, some ran into others, it was chaos.

"I managed to grab one [lifejacket] and slowly swam out of the plane and to the shore."

Pilot 'fit to fly'

Budget carrier Lion Air is Indonesia's largest airline and is rapidly expanding.

The pilot had flown for Lion Air for six years and was fit to fly, Sirait added. The airline has been randomly drug testing its crews since several pilots were arrested

Indonesia has been struggling to improve its civil air safety after a string of deadly accidents.

In 2007, Lion Air was among a number of Indonesian airlines banned by the EU for lax safety standards. The ban was progressively lifted, starting in 2009.

The runway at Bali international airport starts next to the sea.

Television footage showed the jet floating in shallow waters with a fractured fuselage and passengers in the water with life

jackets.

According to the Aviation Safety Network, Lion Air planes have been involved in six accidents since 2002, four of them

involving Boeing 737s. Only one of them, according to the site, resulted in fatalities.-www.shafaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- At least eight people have died and 21 more were injured by fighting between Buddhist and Muslim asylum seekers from Myanmar at an immigration detention centre in Indonesia.

Police said the violence broke out early on Friday and lasted for about two hours at the detention centre in the northern Sumatra province, where more than 100 Rohingya migrants and 11 fishermen from Myanmar were being held.

The fight between the detainees reportedly erupted after they heard about communal violence in their homeland, which has left at least 43 people dead and many Muslim homes and mosques destroyed, police said.

"They managed to see some photos of the violence in Myanmar, including buildings on fire, and we believe that's when the violence broke out," local police chief Endro Kiswanto said.

He said all eight Buddhist men, who were reportedly illegal fishermen, were dead when police arrived at the detention centre in the early hours of Friday morning, and 15 Rohingyas were injured.

All of the victims were rushed to a hospital in the provincial capital Medan.

Heru Prakoso, North Sumatra police spokesman told AFP that the detainees fought with pieces of sharp wood. Those killed were "beaten to death with wooden objects", he said.

The detention centre held 280 asylum seekers and illegal fishermen from Myanmar, Prakoso said.

Al Jazeera's Step Vaessen, reporting from Jakarta, said the Buddhist detainees "were clearly outnumbered" by Rohingya refugees, who were on their way to Australia.

"This is a very bizarre incident," Vaessen said. "It's very unclear at this stage why the police or the security guards could not stop them from fighting for two hours".

Secretarian violence

Boats carrying asylum seekers fleeing sectarian violence in Myanmar are increasingly ending up on Indonesian shores. Many of those arriving face long stints in detention awaiting UN assessment for refugee status.

Last month's communal violence in Myanmar has left more than 1,300 homes and other buildings destroyed, according to state media.

Sixty-eight people have been arrested in connection with the unrest, which  has left 11,376 people homeless, the New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.

The clashes were apparently triggered by an argument in a gold shop in the central town of Meiktila that turned into a riot, but witnesses said the wave of violence since then appears to have been well organised.

It is the worst sectarian strife since violence between Buddhists and Muslims in the western state of Rakhine last year left at least 180 people dead, and more than 100,000 homeless.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) this week urged Myanmar to investigate the failure of police to stop the violence.

"The government should investigate responsibility for the violence in Meiktila and the failure of the police to stop wanton killings and the burning of entire neighborhoods," said HRW Asia director Brad Adams.

www.shafaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – Buddhist and Muslim asylum seekers from Myanmar brawled with rocks and knives Friday at an immigration detention center in Indonesia, leaving eight combatants dead and another 15 injured, police said.

The melee broke out at the center in North Sumatra province, where more than 100 Rohingya migrants — most intercepted off Indonesia's coast in rickety boats — and 11 illegal fishermen from Myanmar were being held together, said local police chief Endro Kiswanto.

He said witnesses told police the clash started after a Muslim Rohingya confronted a Buddhist fisherman about sectarian violence in their homeland. Insults were traded, and people began fighting with rocks and knives.

Eight Buddhists were killed, and 15 Rohingya were injured. Three other Buddhists escaped unharmed, Kiswanto said.

All of the victims were rushed to a hospital in the provincial capital, Medan, about 23 kilometers (14 miles) south of Belawan.

"We are still investigating the incident, including how they got knives," he said. "We will expedite their repatriation."

Sectarian violence erupted in central Myanmar last month when mobs of armed Buddhists torched Muslim-owned homes and shops. Dozens were killed and thousands, mostly Muslims, were forced to flee.

Last year, hundreds of people were killed and more than 100,000 made homeless in violence in western Myanmar between ethnic Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims.- www.shafaqna.com/English

Source: ABCNEWS

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –IHRC welcomes the news of the reinstatement of food and water in the Sampang sports complex. Following campaign efforts by an IHRC-led delegation in Sampang, food and water supplies were final reinstated at the Sampang sports complex where 274 Shia individuals are currently refugees.

In January 2013, IHRC led an international Universal Justice Network (UJN) delegation to Sampang, Indonesia. Following IHRC’s extensive discussions with governmental, civil society and religious groups in Indonesia, as well as refugees victim to the attacks in Sampang, the government was pressured into reinstating food and water supplies in the Sampang Sports Complex where 274 individuals are currently refugees.
On 29 December 2011, Shia schools, institutions and individuals in Sampang were attacked, leaving the Shia community no choice but to find a safe haven elsewhere.
275 Shia men, women and children refugees at the Sampang sports complex were initially relying on charities to provide basic food supplies. However, this was soon cut off as the government declared the emergency period over, after just three months. The situation became increasingly threatening after Hashim Hamama, 45, was brutally murdered with a Machete piercing his chest.
IHRC met a number of governmental bodies and religious groups, and conducted extensive research to understand the situation first-hand. The report detailing the findings will be released within the next few weeks.
IHRC’s campaign efforts in Indonesia are ongoing. Further efforts will be made to ensure all refugees are safely returned to their homes, and that the perpetrators of these crimes are brought to justice.-www.shfaqna.com/English

Source:abna

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –The head of Indonesia's Catholic church has announced that he will not participate in the election of the next pope, citing his ailing health.

Cardinal Julius Riyadi Darmaatmadja, 78, told Hidup Katolik, an Indonesian Catholic magazine, that his eyesight was failing and that he would not be able to handle reading the "texts, materials, rules, and so on" necessary for the event.

"My strength had deteriorated, my ability to read weakened. Those tasks require strength, speed and agility," he said.

"I ask forgiveness from the Catholic Church of Indonesia, that I cannot represent [the country] in this very important event."

Darmaatmadja's decision brings down to 116 the number of cardinals below the age of 80, who are qualified to vote for the successor of Pope Benedict XVI.

Benedict is scheduled to officially resign on February 28 at 19:00 GMT.

Earlier in the week, the Vatican said the pope may change rules governing the conclave that will secretly elect his successor, a decision that could fast track the meeting of cardinals in Rome.

Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said on Wednesday that Benedict was considering issuing a "Motu Proprio," a personal document, which has the force of church law, in regards to the changes.

The rule changes could mean that the conclave could start before March 15, which is currently the earliest it can begin.

The Vatican appears to be aiming to have a new pope installed before Palm Sunday on March 24, so he can preside at Holy Week services leading to Easter on March 31.

Turf advantage

Some in the church believe that an early conclave would give an unfair advantage to cardinals already in Rome and
working in the Curia, the Vatican's central administration.

"A short period before a conclave helps the curial cardinals in Rome operating on their home turf," said Father Tom Reese, an expert at Georgetown University and author of several books on the Vatican.

"The longer the pre-conclave period, the more time non-curial cardinals have to talk to each other and to get to know each other.

"The longer the period prior to the conclave, the less dependent outside cardinals are on the curial cardinals."

During the conclave, cardinals are not allowed to communicate in any way with the outside world, nor are they allowed to listen to radio, watch television, make phone calls or use the internet.

Benedict has hand-picked more than half the men who will elect his successor. The rest were chosen by the late Pope John Paul II.

A number of cardinals have said they would be open to the possibility of a pope from the developing world.

"I can imagine taking a step towards a black pope, an African pope or a Latin American pope," Cardinal Kurt Koch, a Swiss Vatican official, told the Reuters news agency in an interview last week.

Of the 116 electors left, 61 are from Europe. Italy, the largest national group, will have 28 cardinals, up from 20 at the last conclave in 2005.-www.shfaqna.com/English

Source:AL Jazeerea

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- The Indonesian economy is booming, according to the latest figures.

Its economy grew by more than six percent last year, which is slightly slower than in 2011, but is still better than most developed countries.

By 2050, it is forecast to become the world's fourth largest economy.

www.shafaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) -- When the Dutch decolonised their East Indies empire after the Second World War they handed it all to the emergent country of Indonesia - all except the territory of West Papua, which forms one half of New Guinea, the second largest island on Earth. This remarkable landmass - split neatly by colonial powers into West Papua and Papua New Guinea - is like few other places in the world.

Its mountainous terrain and dense rainforests have spawned extraordinary linguistic diversity among its indigenous population, some of whom are still in uncontacted tribes. Five decades ago few, if any of these tribes, showed any desire for their land to become an extension of Indonesia, a new nation state with which they shared neither history, culture, religion nor ethnicity, but which wanted resource-rich West Papua within its borders.  

The Dutch resisted Indonesia's demands for a while, beginning to invest in West Papuan education and encouraging nationalism. But eventually global realpolitik intervened in the shape of US President Kennedy. Concerned about the possibility of communism spreading across South and Southeast Asia, the Kennedy administration saw Indonesia as a useful regional ally that should be kept happy.

In 1963, with American backing, the United Nations gave Indonesia caretaker rights over the territory, on condition that a referendum on independence should follow. But when the poll - named, without apparent irony, as the 'Act Of Free Choice' - took place in 1969 it was widely perceived as a sham.

From a population of around of 800,000, just over 1,000 tribal elders were selected by the Indonesians to represent the nation. Allegedly threatened, intimidated and held in seclusion, they voted as they were told. Ignoring well-founded international protests that the referendum had been rigged, the UN accepted the result and West Papua moved from being a Dutch colony to an Indonesian province. 

But a West Papuan resistance movement, the Free Papua Organisation (OPM), soon started fighting back - in the first instance using bows and arrows to capture the guns of the Indonesian military. A sporadic, low level conflict has continued ever since.

It has never been an even fight (a few thousand unfunded guerrillas against the well-equipped modern army of the world's fourth most populous nation) and Amnesty International and other human rights groups estimate that the Papuan death toll has reached in excess of 100,000 over the years. Some believe it might be even higher, although it is hard to know for sure because the Indonesian authorities have never welcomed independent monitors and foreign reporting is banned.

Even today, 15 years after a democracy replaced Indonesia's dictatorial President Suharto, West Papua is still one of the most policed places on the planet - with approximately 30,000 security personnel dealing with an indigenous population of around two million.

According to Jennifer Robinson, from International Lawyers for West Papua, it has also become one of the most brutal places on the planet. "West Papuans have suffered all forms of human rights abuse, whether it be torture, enforced disappearances, killings, extreme restrictions upon freedom of expression," she says. 

Amnesty International is equally critical. In August 2012 it said it continued to receive "credible reports of human rights violations committed by the security forces … including torture and other ill-treatment, unnecessary and excessive use of force and firearms by the security forces and possible unlawful killings. Investigations into reports of human rights violations by the security forces are rare and only a few perpetrators have been brought to justice."

For its part, the Indonesian government routinely denies such charges and claims the actions of its security forces in West Papua are simply a necessary counterpoint to a criminal insurgency that threatens law and order, the safety of the population and the legitimacy of the state. 

Over the last decade, however, the dynamics of this struggle have begun to change, with the emergence - alongside the armed struggle - of a new civic non-violent independence movement, the West Papuan National Committee (KNPB). Its membership has grown exponentially and it has bred a new generation of activists focused on both organising non-violent mass protest and making the outside world more aware of their plight. And that, says Robinson, has provoked the Indonesians into a predictably harsh response.

"In the past few years we've seen a change in the security situation in West Papua - I think in response to the growing momentum behind their campaign for a referendum on self-determination which has got widespread popular support, but which is also gaining momentum internationally. [It has] resulted in a greater security crackdown on all peaceful activists who are in any way affiliated with the independence movement," Robinson says. 

So what lies behind this five-decade-old struggle and why, in the face of Indonesia's heavy handed intransigence, are activists so determined to continue with their campaigns and protests?

People & Power sent filmmaker Dom Rotheroe and fixer Sally Collister to find out. Because it is virtually impossible for foreign journalists to obtain official permission to visit the territory they travelled in the guise of tourists. Filming discreetly, keeping a low profile and evading the attention of the security police they managed to meet up with KNPB supporters and activists and hear a remarkable story of a people committed to doing whatever it takes to gain control of their own destiny.

www.shafaqna.com/English

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) –A 5.9-magnitude earthquake has struck the western Indonesian island of Sumatra, reportedly killing one person.

The quake hit Aceh province around dawn on Tuesday.

Local media said it was felt strongly in the capital Banda Aceh and surrounding districts. It hit at a depth of 37km 
with its epicentre about 112km southeast of Banda Aceh.

Serambi newspaper and other local outlets reported that one girl was killed and several other people injured.

Aceh is often rocked by earthquakes. Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where continental plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

In 2004, a temblor off its shores triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people across Asia. Most of the deaths were in Aceh.www.shfaqna.com/English

Source:AL jazeerea

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) – A 5.9-magnitude earthquake has struck the western Indonesian island of Sumatra, reportedly killing one person.

The quake hit Aceh province around dawn on Tuesday.

Local media said it was felt strongly in the capital Banda Aceh and surrounding districts. It hit at a depth of 37km

with its epicentre about 112km southeast of Banda Aceh.

Serambi newspaper and other local outlets reported that one girl was killed and several other people injured.

Aceh is often rocked by earthquakes. Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire" where continental plates collide, causing frequent seismic and volcanic activity.

In 2004, a temblor off its shores triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people across Asia. Most of the deaths were in Aceh.-www.shfaqna.com/English

Source: Al Jazeera

SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) --  Heavy monsoonal rains triggered severe flooding in large swathes of the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Thursday, with many government offices and businesses forced to closed because staff could not get to work.

Weather officials warned the rains could get worse over the next few days and media reports said that thousands of people in Jakarta and its satellite cities had been forced to leave their homes because of the torrential downpours this week. Read the full story.

www.shafaqna.com/English