Indonesia - The African Mirror

Jun

2021

COVID-19 far more widespread in Indonesia than official data show: studies

TOM ALLARD COVID-19 is many times more prevalent in Indonesia than shown by official figures in the world's fourth most populous country, authors of two new studies told Reuters. The country of 270 million has recorded 1.83 million positive cases, but epidemiologists have long believed the true scale of the spread has been obscured by a lack of testing and contact tracing. The results of Indonesia's first major seroprevalence studies - which test for antibodies - were revealed exclusively to Reuters. One nationwide study between December and January suggested 15% of Indonesians had already contracted COVID-19 - when official figures…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

Plan to hold Myanmar junta to election pledge

WORLD

TOM ALLARD INDONESIA is pushing Southeast Asian neighbours to agree on an action plan over Myanmar's coup that would keep the junta to its promise of holding elections, with monitors to ensure they are fair and inclusive, three sources familiar with the move said. The proposal from the biggest regional nation falls short of the public demands of protesters and some Western countries for the immediate release of elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi and the recognition of the November 8 ballot her party won in a landslide. Two senior officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters a diplomatically-led…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Indonesia’s Aceh province publicly canes two gay men

WORLD

AUTHORITIES in Indonesia’s Aceh province publicly caned six people accused of breaching Islamic law, including two men who received 77 lashes for having a same-sex relationship, in a punishment Human Rights Watch called “public torture”. Aceh is the only province in majority-Muslim Indonesia to follow Islamic law, and this was the third such caning since Aceh outlawed homosexuality in 2014. The province, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, also imposes caning for crimes such as theft, gambling and adultery. A hooded religious police officer carried out Thursday’s floggings, watched by a crowd wearing face masks. One of the men…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Indonesia names first plane crash victim, steps up ‘black box’ hunt

WORLD

AGUSTINUS BEO DA COSTA and YUDDY CAHYA BUDIMAN INDONESIA has identified a victim from the Sriwijaya Air crash as emergency crews prepared to send in a remotely operated underwater vehicle to search for the jet's cockpit recorders in the sea. The Boeing 737-500 plane with 62 people on board plunged into the Java Sea two days ago, minutes after taking off from Jakarta's main airport. Divers scoured the sea bed on Monday, retrieving human remains, personal possessions and pieces of plane wreckage until fading light ended the search, emergency officials said. Okky Bisma, a flight attendant on the plane, was identified…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Indonesia church decorates Christmas tree with masks, sanitisers to promote COVID awareness

WORLD

HERU ASPRIHANTO A catholic church in Indonesia has decorated a Christmas tree with protective masks and hand sanitisers as a way to spread awareness of COVID-19 in the festive season, as the country's daily death toll hit a record high on Sunday. "The tree was made with the intention of making people more aware of the importance of maintaining health protocols," Markus Marcelinus Hardo Iswanto of the parish of The Catholic Church of Christ the King in Indonesia's second-largest city Surabaya told Reuters. Starting with a bamboo skeleton, the church's followers and the local Muslim community decorated the tree with…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Smuggled orangutans start new life after repatriation to Indonesia

WORLD

YUDI SAPUTRA A pair of critically endangered orangutans, rescued from smugglers on the Thai-Malaysian border in 2017, have arrived in Indonesia to undergo rehabilitation so they can finally be released back into their native forest habitat. Believed to be between the ages of four to six the orangutans, Ung Aing and Natalee, spent three years at Khao Pratab Chang Wildlife Breeding Center in central Ratchaburi province, Thailand. On Friday they arrived in western Indonesia's Jambi province for medical checks, which will include COVID-19 swabs, before a rehabilitation process to prepare them for their jungle home. "We will do a medical…

Oct

2020

By The African Mirror

Netherlands offers compensation to children of executed Indonesians

WORLD

THE Dutch government has offered compensation to the children of Indonesians who were executed by Dutch soldiers during the Indonesian war of independence between 1945 and 1950. In a settlement meant to end lengthy court battles, the government promised 5,000 euros ($5,890) to everyone with a credible claim to their father's execution during the conflict. The war of independence started after the end of World War Two in 1945 and ended in December 1949, when the Netherlands recognised the independence of its former colony. During the conflict, Dutch soldiers executed opponents without any form of trial and tortured prisoners during…