Timeline Indonesia B 2007 - Present
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Indonesia consists of a necklace of some 17,000 islands, over 300 ethnic groups and some 500 different languages. The main island is Java. The population is 85% Muslim. Indonesia has 32 provinces.
(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.A15)(SFC, 12/18/98, p.D2)(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A6)(Econ, 12/11/04, Survey p.8)
The Toadja of Sulawesi use ancestral bones for talismans.
(NH, 6/97, p.14)
2007 Jan 1, Flight KI-574, an Indonesian passenger plane carrying 102 people, disappeared in stormy weather off Sulawesi island. Rescue teams were sent to search in the area where the Boeing 737-400 sent out a distress signal. In 2008 investigators said the pilots had accidentally disconnecting the plane's autopilot. A speed boat capsized in poor weather off the coast of Borneo island, killing 15 people.
(AP, 1/1/07)(AP, 1/2/07)(AFP, 3/25/08)
2007 Jan 9, A landslide in a western Indonesian village killed up to 13 people, burying several homes and a small mosque.
(AP, 1/9/07)
2007 Jan 10, A 14-year-old Indonesian boy died from bird flu, just days after being hospitalized. It was the first H5N1 fatality in the country in six weeks.
(AP, 1/10/07)
2007 Jan 11, Indonesian police raided a house on Sulawesi Island where several alleged Islamic militants were staying, sparking a fierce gun and bomb battle that left one suspected terrorist dead.
(AP, 1/11/07)
2007 Jan 16, An Indonesian passenger train jumped its tracks, sending a crowded rail car plunging nearly 20 feet near the central Javanese town of Purwokerto. Five people were reported killed and more than 250 injured.
(AP, 1/16/07)
2007 Jan 21, A major 6.5-magnitude undersea earthquake has rocked Indonesia's northern Sulawesi province. The earthquake left four people dead and four injured.
(AFP, 1/21/07)(AP, 1/22/07)
2007 Jan 22, In Indonesia 16 people, including a policeman, were shot dead and others wounded in a shootout with residents on Sulawesi, as police searched for suspected militants in the restive town of Poso.
(AFP, 1/22/07)(Econ, 1/27/07, p.42)
2007 Feb 3, Indonesia’s Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said Indonesia will pursue its plans to develop nuclear power as part of efforts to find alternative energy sources to address its growing needs. Officials said flooding has killed at least 44 people and left more than 340,000 others homeless in Jakarta, as neck-high waters submerged large sections of the city. The flooding in Jakarta eventually left 52 people dead.
(AP, 2/3/07)(AP, 2/6/07)(Econ, 3/17/12, p.48)
2007 Feb 6, An Indonesian ban on sand exports went into effect. The ban was directed at Singapore, which purchased sand to reclaim land from the sea.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.42)
2007 Feb 8, In Indonesia fresh rains triggered more flooding, compounding the misery for hundreds of thousands forced from their homes. Irwandi Yusuf, a former rebel leader, was inaugurated as governor of Aceh province, cementing a peace deal to end 29 years of fighting that killed more than 15,000 people.
(AP, 2/8/07)
2007 Feb 10, The death toll from massive flooding in Indonesia rose to 80.
(AFP, 2/10/07)
2007 Feb 18, Twin landslides hit Indonesia's Java island, killing at least 12 people after they were buried under mounds of earth.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 22, A fire broke out on an Indonesian ferry carrying 300 passengers. The number of dead, soon climbed to 49. Scores of passengers jumped into the sea and 120 people remained missing.
(AFP, 2/23/07)(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 25, Levina 1, a charred Indonesian ferry, sank while investigators and journalists were on board inspecting the damage from a fire last week. At least one cameraman drowned and three other people were missing. The death toll from the Feb 22 fire continued to rise.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 26, Indonesian engineers dropped several large concrete balls into Lusi, a volcano, to try to stem a gushing mud eruption that has engulfed hundreds of homes and displaced 11,000 people. Over the next few weeks, authorities plan to drop nearly 1,500 balls, each weighing up to 88 pounds, into the crater that started spewing mud at a gas drilling field on Java island nine months ago.
(AP, 2/26/07)(Econ, 3/10/07, p.79)
2007 Feb 28, Indonesia said it is planning to ban local carriers from operating jetliners more than 10 years old as part of a safety campaign following a string of crashes and accidents.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb, A UN report said all lowland forests on Indonesia’s Borneo and Sumatra islands could be lost by 2022 at current logging rates of 2.8 million hectares a year.
(WSJ, 1/3/07, p.A5)
2007 Mar 3, In eastern Indonesian a bomb packed with nails exploded at a port in the city of Ambon, wounding 12 people. Landslides triggered by days of heavy rain killed at least 40 people in eastern Indonesia, and nearly 30 more were believed to be buried under the mud.
(AP, 3/3/07)
2007 Mar 6, In western Indonesia a 6.3 earthquake crumpled houses across a large swath of Sumatra Island, killing over 70 people and injuring hundreds.
(AP, 3/7/07)(AP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 7, A packed Garuda Indonesia jetliner crash-landed and erupted in flames at Yogyakarta airport, killing 22 people trapped inside the burning wreckage. More than 115 others escaped through emergency exits as black smoke billowed behind them.
(AP, 3/7/07)(Econ, 3/10/07, p.40)
2007 Mar 16, In Indonesia an official said Bird flu has killed a 32-year-old man, taking the death toll in the nation worst hit by the disease to 65.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 19, In Indonesia an official announced that bird flu has killed a 21-year-old man, taking the death toll in the nation worst hit by the disease to 66. In Bali the Hindu majority marked the start of the Muslim year 1386 with the new year holiday called Nyepi, a day of silence, rest and reflection.
(AP, 3/19/07)(Econ, 3/24/07, p.49)
2007 Mar 21, In Indonesia 3 Islamic militants were found guilty of decapitating three Christian schoolgirls in 2005 and dumping their bloodied heads in nearby villages. They were sentenced to between 14 and 20 years.
(AP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 29, Indonesia reopened its border with East Timor because the fugitive rebel who caused its closure is no longer considered a threat.
(AP, 3/29/07)
2007 Apr 3, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told a meeting of Islamic clerics that Muslim nations should ultimately replace coalition forces in Iraq after a period of national reconciliation. Cliff Muntu (21), a student at Indonesia’s Institute of Public Administration (IPDN), died from wounds due to hazing by his seniors. This was the 35th death in the school since 1993.
(AP, 4/3/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Muntu)(Econ, 4/21/07, p.49)
2007 Apr 5, The editor-in-chief of Playboy Indonesia was acquitted of charges that he violated the Muslim nation's indecency laws by publishing pictures of scantily clothed women.
(AP, 4/5/07)
2007 Apr 6, Health officials said teenage girls in Cambodia and Indonesia have died of bird flu as the virus continues to stalk across Asia.
(AP, 4/6/07)
2007 Apr 12, India test-fired a new missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads with a 1,900-mile range. Indonesia said the missile forced 2 of its jetliners off course.
(AP, 4/12/07)(WSJ, 4/14/07, p.A1)
2007 Apr 15, Blind British aviator Miles Hilton-Barber, With the aid of co-copilot Richard Meredith-Hardy, landed his microlight aircraft in Jakarta to complete another leg of his London-Sydney charity flight.
(AFP, 4/15/07)
2007 Apr 20, Thousands of mine workers in Indonesia's remote Papua province protested for a third day as marathon talks with US firm Freeport McMoRan over pay and benefits showed signs of progress.
(AP, 4/20/07)
2007 Apr 24, In Indonesia Richard Ness an American director of Newmont Mining Corp., the world's largest gold producer, was acquitted of charges the company dumped dangerous amounts of toxic waste into a bay off Sulawesi Island.
(AP, 4/24/07)
2007 Apr 25, In Indonesia the MT Maulana, an oil tanker that had just unloaded its cargo, exploded on a Sumatran river, killing four crew members.
(AP, 4/26/07)
2007 Apr 28, It was reported that pro-Indonesian militias had regrouped in the mountainous center of Aceh as the Communication Forum for Children of the Nation (Forkab).
(Econ, 4/28/07, p.47)
2007 May 1, In Indonesia tens of thousands of workers marked May Day by taking to the streets to demand better wages and job security, amid a heavy police presence.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 10, The armed forces of Indonesia and Malaysia agreed to step up cooperation to boost security along shared borders after successful patrols in the Malacca Strait.
(AFP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 29, In Indonesia a teenage girl died of bird flu, taking the death toll in the nation worst hit by the virus to 79.
(AFP, 6/1/07)
2007 May 30, Indonesian marines shot and killed five people on Java island during a violent protest over a plot of land allegedly owned by the force.
(AP, 5/30/07)
2007 Jun 8, In Indonesia Dago Simamora (59), a junior high-school teacher in South Sumatra, was shot dead by a killer on a motorcycle. It was later alleged that he was killed because he was accused of trying to convert girls in his class to Christianity. In 2009 ten members of the Palembang jihadist group that killed him were jailed on terrorism charges. One member said: “Dago Simamora was killed because he forbade his students to wear headscarves at school."
(Econ, 9/12/09, SR p.8)(http://tinyurl.com/mdzqrl)
2007 Jun 9, Indonesian police captured Abu Dujana (37), a leader of the Southeast Asian terror network blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings and a string of other devastating attacks in recent years. Indonesian police also captured Zarkasih (37), aka Mbah, the head of Southeast Asian extremist network Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for some of the deadliest terror attacks in the region.
(AFP, 6/13/07)(AFP, 6/15/07)
2007 Jun 11, Indonesia's tropical rain forests were disappearing 30 percent faster than previously estimated as illegal loggers raid national parks, threatening the long-term survival of orangutans, according to a new UN report.
(AP, 6/11/07)
2007 Jun 12, In Bali, Indonesia, a gathering of religious leaders and victims of terrorist attacks, sponsored by the US Libforall Foundation, denounced Iran’s president for claiming the Holocaust was a myth.
(SFC, 6/13/07, p.A15)
2007 Jun 28, The European Commission said all Indonesian airlines and several from Russia, Ukraine and Angola will be banned from flying to the EU due to safety concerns.
(AP, 6/28/07)
2007 Jun 28, In Sudan China's No. 1 oil company, CNPC, and Indonesia's PT Pertamina agreed to co-develop a Sudanese offshore oil block, ignoring international efforts to isolate Sudan over the crisis in its Darfur region.
(AP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 3, Indonesia barred Eni Faleomavaega, the Democrat congressman for American Samoa, from visiting Papua, but has denied the move is to cover up alleged human rights abuses in the remote region. Faleomavaega has been a critic of Jakarta's policies in Papua.
(Reuters, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 5, Human Rights Watch released a report saying Indonesian security forces have killed and beat unarmed civilians, and on two occasions raped women during recent operations against separatists in Papua province. The 96-page report detailed 8 alleged killings by police and military officers in the province's central highlands since 2005 and several vicious beatings.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi visited Indonesia and said their countries should cooperate to defend the interests of developing nations as they work to enhance bilateral ties.
(AFP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 7, In Indonesia a speeding bus carrying a group of junior high school students and their teachers plunged into a 30-foot ravine on the main island of Java, killing 14 people. Poisonous fumes from the Indonesia’s Salak volcano killed six teenagers who were camping on the mountain.
(AP, 7/7/07)(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 9, In Indonesia prosecutors filed a civil lawsuit against former dictator Suharto (1921-2008), toppled in 1998, seeking $1.54 billion in damages and funds allegedly stolen from the state during his 32 years in power. He allegedly forced state banks and others to contribute millions to the Supersemar Foundation, much of which was siphoned off to companies run by members of his family and cronies.
(AP, 7/9/07)(Econ, 7/14/07, p.48)
2007 Jul 11, A passenger ship carrying 70 people disappeared off eastern Indonesia after reporting engine failure in stormy seas. The bodies of two children were found drifting in nearby waters along with several survivors.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 23, Officials said flash floods and landslides in central Indonesia have inundated villages, destroyed bridges and roads, and sent thousands fleeing their homes with over 80 people killed.
(AFP, 7/24/07)(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, In Indonesia a dozen Christian men were convicted and sentenced to up to 14 years in jail for beating to death and beheading two Muslims to avenge the government executions of three Christians last year.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul, In Indonesia the Constitutional Court again struck out clauses in the criminal code that made it a crime to insult senior figures.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.64)
2007 Aug 1, Denmark, France and Indonesia offered to contribute to a joint UN-African Union mission for Darfur, a 26,000-strong force expected to be made up mostly of peacekeepers from Africa with backup from Asian troops. Sudan accepted a UN resolution approving a joint African Union-UN peacekeeping force in Darfur.
(AP, 8/1/07)(AFP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 3, China banned Indonesian seafood after checks turned up dangerous contamination. Indonesian authorities called the move an apparent reaction to an Indonesian ban on some tainted Chinese products. The Chinese administration said Indonesian products have been found to contain mercury and cadmium, metals that can accumulate in water and soil from burning garbage, mining or other industrial processes.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 8, Millions of people in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, voted for governor for the first time, the latest in a wave of local elections hailed as key to strengthening democracy in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, Researchers from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill reported that coral coverage in the Indo-Pacific, an area stretching from Indonesia's Sumatra island to French Polynesia, had dropped 20 percent in the past two decades. They said the decline was driven by climate change, disease and coastal development.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 12, In Indonesia nearly 90,000 followers of Hizbut Tahrir, a hard-line Sunni organization with an estimated million members, packed a stadium in Jakarta, calling for the creation of an Islamic state.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 12, A woman (29) in Bali died from infection with the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
(www.news-medical.net/?id=28736)
2007 Aug 13, Armed pirates attacked a Malaysian barge in the Malacca Strait and kidnapped 2 Indonesian crew, in the first high sea abduction in the busy waterway in more than 2 years.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Sep 2, Dozens of Muslim clerics issued an edict against the construction of Indonesia's first nuclear power plant on seismically charged Java island, saying the potential dangers far outweighed the benefits.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 6, Indonesia and Russia signed a $1 billion defense deal that will allow Indonesia to buy dozens of helicopters, tanks and submarines, part of visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin's efforts to boost his country's military clout in Asia.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 10, Indonesia’s Supreme Court ordered Time magazine to pay $106 million in damages for defaming former Indonesian dictator Suharto by alleging in a May 1999 story that his family amassed billions of dollars during his 32-year rule. Lower courts had earlier ruled in Time’s favor. Time appealed the decision.
(AP, 9/10/07)(Econ, 5/10/08, p.70)
2007 Sep 12, A massive 8.4 earthquake struck Indonesia, killing at least 10 people, injuring dozens and triggering a tsunami that hit one city on the island of Sumatra.
(AP, 9/12/07)(Reuters, 9/13/07)
2007 Sep 13, Three powerful earthquakes jolted Indonesia in less than 24 hours, triggering tsunami alerts and sending panicked residents fleeing to high ground. At least 10 people were killed in the tremors.
(Reuters, 9/13/07)
2007 Sep 14, Powerful earthquakes struck Indonesia for a third day, terrorizing thousands of people who slept outside in fear of tsunami and falling debris. The death toll reached 21 and seismologists warned that the worst may be yet to come.
(AP, 9/14/07)(Reuters, 9/15/07)
2007 Sep 16, The death toll from Indonesia's massive earthquake rose to 23 as more villagers started returning home.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2007 Oct 17, In Indonesia's Papua region rival tribes armed with bows and arrows clashed close to a US-owned gold mine, killing eight people.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 18, In eastern Indonesia a crowded passenger boat capsized, killing at least 15 people, with several others possibly missing.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 30, An Indonesian court dismissed a legal challenge to the death penalty brought by lawyers for members of an Australian drugs gang on death row for heroin smuggling.
(AFP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct, Hardline Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir likened tourists to "worms, snakes, maggots" and called for signs to be placed in Muslim areas warning them to dress modestly in a speech to an Islamic youth organization in east Java.
(AFP, 3/23/08)
2007 Nov 3, In Indonesia continuous tremors beneath the Mount Kelud volcano, in the heart of densely populated Java island, became so strong that they could no longer be read on seismological instruments, leading scientists to evacuate their posts and warn that an eruption appeared to have occurred. It was a false alarm but the volcano showed signs of an imminent eruption.
(AP, 11/3/07)(AFP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 12, IUCN, a Geneva-based conservation group, said the world's smallest bear species faces extinction because of deforestation and poaching in its Southeast Asian home. The sun bear, whose habitat stretches from India to Indonesia, has been classified as vulnerable by the World Conservation Union.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 16, A coroner urged the Australian government to seek war crimes charges against former Indonesian military officers over the 1975 killing of five Australian newsmen during Indonesia's invasion of East Timor.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 24, In central Indonesia a fire on a crowded passenger bus killed 12 people, including three children.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 25, Two strong earthquakes struck Indonesia’s eastern island of Sumbawa and killed at least three people, including a child, and injured 45 others.
(AP, 11/26/07)(Econ, 12/1/07, p.58)
2007 Nov 26, In Indonesia the capital of Jakarta was partially flooded, forcing thousands of people to flee homes and cutting off a highway to the international airport.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, The Mezzanine, a Panamanian freighter, hit rough seas off Taiwan's north coast and 26 Indonesian sailors were feared dead.
(AFP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, Indonesia, which is losing its forests at a faster rate than any other country, launched a campaign to plant 79 million trees ahead of a critical climate change conference on the resort island of Bali.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Dec 3, In Jakarta, Indonesia, 6 Islamic militants were sentenced to up to 19 years in prison for terrorist acts in eastern Indonesia that include beheading three Christian schoolgirls in 2005 and shooting to death Rev. Irianto Kongkoli in 2006.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, In Bali, Indonesia, climate experts at a massive UN conference urged quick action toward a new international pact to stem global warming. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) hoped for an agreement to mitigate climate change after the Kyoto protocol runs out in 2012.
(AP, 12/3/07)(Econ, 12/1/07, p.73)
2007 Dec 6, In Indonesia American climate negotiators refused to back down in their opposition to mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, even as a US Senate panel endorsed sharp reductions in pollution blamed for global warming.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 8, The chief US negotiator at the climate conference in Bali, Indonesia, said the US will come up with its own plan to cut global-warming gases by mid-2008 and won’t commit to mandatory caps.
(SSFC, 12/9/07, p.A17)
2007 Dec 10, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said a 10-year program has begun to save endangered orangutans from extinction by protecting tropical jungle habitat from logging, mining and palm oil plantations. As many as 50,000 orangutans have been lost over the past 35 years due to shrinking habitat. As of January 2004, about 6,650 Sumatran orangutans and 55,000 Borneo orangutans remained in the wild.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 12, In Indonesia new Australian PM Kevin Rudd completed ratification of the Kyoto Protocol as he pressed for all nations, rich and poor, to commit to fighting global warming.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 13, Nobel laureate Al Gore accused the United States of blocking progress at the UN climate conference, and European nations threatened to boycott US-led climate talks next month unless Washington compromises on emissions reductions.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 14, Indonesia, the nation hardest hit by bird flu, announced its 93rd death due to the H5N1 virus. In China, the military in eastern Nanjing banned the sale of poultry this week after a father and son came down with the disease earlier this month. Health officials confirmed the 24-year-old man died from the virus a day before his father, 52, became sick. It was the country's 17th bird flu death. The WHO confirmed Myanmar's first human case of bird flu and praised the secretive country for its quick and open handling of the infection. State media reported a girl (7) was hospitalized on Nov. 27 and released on Dec. 12 in good condition after being treated with the antiviral drug Tamiflu.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 15, In Indonesia 2 weeks of international climate talks marked by bitter disagreements and angry accusations culminated in a last-minute US compromise and an agreement to adopt a blueprint for fighting global warming by 2009.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 26, In western Indonesia rescuers dug for survivors after landslides and floods triggered by days of torrential rain killed over 87 people.
(AP, 12/26/07)(AP, 12/27/07)
2008 Jan 26, In Indonesia a small cargo plane disappeared and apparently crashed during a short flight over Borneo island, and all three people aboard were feared dead.
(AP, 1/26/08)
2008 Jan 27, Indonesia, the nation hardest hit by bird flu, recorded its 100th human death as the virus picked up speed across Asia.
(AP, 1/28/08)
2008 Jan 27, Former Indonesian President Suharto (b.1921) died. The US Cold War ally led one of the 20th century's most brutal dictatorships over 32 years that saw up to a million political opponents killed.
(AP, 1/27/08)
2008 Feb 2, An Indonesian health ministry official said floods in Jakarta have killed three people and displaced nearly 100,000 after two days of torrential rain.
(AP, 2/2/08)
2008 Feb 7, A new security pact between Australia and Indonesia came into force at a ceremony in Perth attended by the foreign ministers of the at-times testy neighbors.
(AP, 2/7/08)
2008 Feb 7, Libya’s National Oil Corp and Indonesia signed a deal for the north African state to supply the world's most populous Muslim nation with crude oil for the next 20 years.
(AFP, 2/7/08)
2008 Feb 9, A stampede at an Indonesian punk rock concert left 10 people dead and dozens more injured, most of them teenagers.
(AP, 2/10/08)
2008 Feb 15, A 3-year-old Indonesian boy died of bird flu, the country's second death from the illness in one day. The two cases, which were apparently unrelated, brought Indonesia's bird flu death toll to 105.
(AP, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 20, A powerful earthquake struck western Indonesia, killing three people and injuring 25 others.
(AP, 2/20/08)
2008 Feb 28, An Indonesian court rejected a civil case against the youngest son of ex-dictator Suharto for alleged corruption and awarded him 550,000 dollars in a countersuit he filed.
(AP, 2/28/08)
2008 Mar 17, Indonesia and South Africa agreed to reduce obstacles to trade and business and jointly explore new avenues for electricity generation.
(AFP, 3/17/08)
2008 Mar 25, Officials said Indonesia plans to restrict access to pornographic and violent sites on the Internet after the country's parliament passed a new information bill.
(Reuters, 3/25/08)
2008 Mar 28, Indonesian police said they were investigating the deaths over the last 2 weeks of 21 people who drank a concoction labeled an herbal remedy.
(AP, 3/28/08)
2008 Apr 4, Indonesia's Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a notorious militia leader accused in attacks that left about 1,000 people dead following East Timor's 1999 independence vote. With Eurico Guterres' upcoming release, all 18 suspects originally indicted will have been acquitted or set free.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 8, Indonesian Internet companies blocked access to YouTube and MySpace, heeding a government order aimed at stopping people from watching an anti-Islam film by a Dutch lawmaker.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 16, Mount Egon volcano on Flores island in eastern Indonesia spewed ash and smoke 2 1/2 miles into the sky, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of nearby villagers.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 20, In Indonesia several thousand hardline Muslims protested outside the presidential palace in Jakarta demanding that Pres. Yudhoyono ban Ahmadiyah, an unorthodox but moderate Muslim sect founded in India in the 19th century.
(Econ, 4/26/08, p.59)
2008 Apr 21, In Indonesia Self-proclaimed Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leaders Abu Dujana and Zarkasih, blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings, were sentenced to 15 years each at separate trials in the South Jakarta district court.
(AFP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 22, In Indonesia torchbearers ran laps with the Olympic flame in front of an invitation-only crowd after officials changed the relay route from Jakarta's streets to a sports stadium amid pressure from China to keep away demonstrators.
(AP, 4/22/08)
2008 Apr 28, In Indonesia hundreds of protesters in West Java province chanted "Kill, kill" and set fire to a mosque belonging to the Muslim Ahmadiyah sect they claim is heretical. Last week, a team of prosecutors, religious scholars and government officials said the sect "had deviated from Islamic principles" and recommended it be outlawed.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 May 6, Officials in Indonesia said at least 13 illegal gold miners were killed in a landslide in remote Papua province.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 21, In Indonesia thousands of students took to the streets across the country to protest the government's plan to raise fuel prices.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 22, Indonesians faced runaway inflation and higher interest rates after the government vowed to hike subsidized fuel prices by an average 28.7% despite widespread protests.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 23, Indonesia's government raised gasoline pump prices by nearly 30 percent because of the surging cost of oil and gas on the global market. The move triggered generally peaceful protests throughout the vast Indonesian archipelago.
(AP, 6/24/08)
2008 May, Churchill Mining, a London-listed firm, announced that it had found 150 million tons of coal in Indonesian Borneo. In 2011 it raised the amount to 2.8 billion tons.
(Econ, 10/1/11, p.72)
2008 Jun 4, Indonesian police launched a major crackdown on Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), a radical Islamist group blamed for a weekend attack on a rally for religious tolerance, arresting 59 including the outfit's firebrand leader.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 9, Indonesia issued a quasi-ban against a minority Islamic sect in the face of violent protests by Muslim hardliners. Liberal Indonesians accused the government of caving in to extremists. Ahmadiyah leaders said they did not recognize the decree and would appeal.
(AFP, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 12, In Indonesia a local health official said at least 21 toddlers have died of malnutrition in eastern Indonesia in recent months due to a food shortage that threatens the lives of thousands more children.
(AP, 6/12/08)
2008 Jun 13, The leaders of Australia and Indonesia pledged to join forces to fight climate change by saving forests and promoting carbon trading.
(AFP, 6/13/08)
2008 Jun 20, Maftuh Fauzi 27) a student at Indonesia’s National University, died in hospital. He had been among 100 fuel price protesters arrested May 24, but there were conflicting reports about the cause of death.
(AP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 24, In Indonesia about 1,000 Indonesian protesters angered by a student demonstrator's death after his arrest burned tires and hurled stones at police guarding the Parliament. Participants in the demonstration in Jakarta also demanded that the government revoke a 30 percent fuel price increase imposed last month.
(AP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 26, In Indonesia a 1984 Casa-212 plane disappeared during an aerial surveillance mission about 60 miles south of the capital, Jakarta. All 18 aboard were killed.
(AP, 6/27/08)(AP, 6/28/08)
2008 Jul 3, In Indonesia a police source said that a group of 10 suspected Muslim militants detained in raids on Sumatra island by Indonesia's anti-terrorism unit was plotting to attack Western targets. The raids followed the capture of a suspected militant after a tip-off by authorities in Singapore.
(Reuters, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 8, At Developing Eight summit of Islamic nations, meeting in Kuala Lumpur, the leaders of Indonesia and Malaysia called for boosting world food production and finding a permanent solution to skyrocketing oil prices, saying the twin problems have become "grave threats" to the world economy.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 10, Indonesia executed Ahmad Suradji (57), a man convicted of killing 42 women and girls in a series of ritual slayings he believed would give him magical powers.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 10, In Indonesia Asnawi Sandri, a 38-year-old father of two, died in the hospital, days after he came down with symptoms of bird flu. This raised the unofficial toll in the world's hardest hit nation to 111 in three years.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 12, In Jakarta, Indonesia, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono pledged cooperation on biofuels during talks in a bid to take advantage of surging oil prices.
(AFP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 13, Algeria’s government newspaper El Moudjhaid said a consortium of British-based oil services company Petrofac and Indonesian engineering company IKPT provisionally won a contract to build an LNG plant in western Mediterranean port of Arzew.
(AP, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 15, Indonesia's president acknowledged that his country carried out gross human rights abuses during East Timor's 1999 break for independence, but stopped short of offering a full apology and said no one would be prosecuted.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Aug 3, In Indonesia a top health official said a factory worker had died of bird flu west of Jakarta, bringing the death toll in the country worst hit by the virus to 112.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 7, Japan accepted over 200 Indonesian nurses into the country, an unprecedented move as Tokyo struggles to quell a labor shortage triggered by sinking fertility rates.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 16, On Indonesia's Sumatra island at least nine people have died and dozens were injured when a slow-moving passenger train hit a parked freight locomotive.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Sep 15, In Indonesia at least 23 people were killed in a stampede as they crowded an alley to receive $4.25 in cash handouts for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
(AFP, 9/15/08)(WSJ, 9/16/08, p.A20)
2008 Sep 26, In eastern Indonesia a packed ferry caught fire and sank between two coastal villages in the Maluku islands, killing at least eight people.
(AP, 9/27/08)
2008 Oct 21, Indonesia's parliament ratified the Southeast Asian charter committing ASEAN member nations to promote democracy and human rights, clearing the way for its formal adoption before year's end. Anti-terrorism police seized bomb-making materials and a large cache of weapons and ammunition during a raid on a house in Jakarta. Anti-terrorism squads arrested five suspected Islamic radicals believed to have been plotting to blow up Indonesia's largest fuel depot.
(AP, 10/21/08)(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 30, Indonesia's parliament passed a bill banning pornography, ignoring opposition from lawmakers and rights groups who worry it will be used to justify attacks on artistic, religious and cultural freedom.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Nov 9, Indonesia boosted security after three Islamic militants (Imam Samudra, 38, and brothers Amrozi Nurhasyim, 47, and Ali Ghufron, 48) were executed for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people. Emotional supporters thronged ambulances carrying their caskets through narrow streets, some calling for revenge.
(AP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 12, Indonesian health officials said test results from two laboratories in the capital came back positive confirming that a girl (15) died of bird flu last week.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 14, In Indonesia 5 people were killed and 14 were feared dead after a landslide triggered by heavy rain crushed scores of houses in West Java.
(AFP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 17, In eastern Indonesia a 7.5 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sulawesi killed at least 6 people, damaged hundreds of homes and briefly triggered a region-wide tsunami warning.
(AP, 11/17/08)(SFC, 11/17/08, p.A3)(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 23, Indonesia rescued Bank Century at a cost of 6.76 trillion rupiah ($730m). In 2010 Indonesia’s parliament ruled that the bailout was illegal and suggested that indications of corruption be investigated.
(Econ, 3/6/10, p.55)(http://tinyurl.com/y8l28yq)
2008 Nov 24, In Indonesia health workers and rights activists sharply criticized a plan by lawmakers in remote Papua province, who have thrown their support behind a controversial bill requiring some HIV/AIDS patients to be implanted with microchips, part of extreme efforts to monitor the disease.
(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Dec 10, Indonesia launched the Bali Democracy Forum to promote human rights and democracy. The forum was attended by foreign ministers from around 20 countries, with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Australian PM Kevin Rudd as co-chairs.
(Econ, 2/19/11, p.43)(http://tinyurl.com/6hbsxh5)
2008 Dec 11, Indonesia and Malaysia agreed to heighten intelligence cooperation to anticipate rising cross-border crime due to the impact of the global economic crisis.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Dec 16, An Indonesian province beleaguered by a spiraling HIV infection rate scrapped plans to implant microchips in those with full-blown AIDS, following strong opposition from government officials, health workers and rights activists.
(AP, 12/16/08)
2008 In Indonesia Prabowo Subianto (b.1951), a former son-in-law of Suharto, formed the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindara) with backing from his billionaire brother Hashim Dojohadikusumo. Subianto had led a special forces unit under Suharto (1995-1998) that over the years was accused of many atrocities.
(Econ, 3/14/09, p.45)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prabowo)
2008 Indonesia achieved rice self-sufficiency for the first time in 24 years.
(Econ, 1/10/09, p.38)
2009 Jan 4, In eastern Indonesia a series of powerful earthquakes toppled or badly damaged more than 100 buildings and left one person dead and dozens injured.
(AP, 1/4/09)(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 11, In Indonesia scores of people were feared dead after a ferry carrying more than 260 passengers and crew sank in stormy seas off Sulawesi island.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 21, Indonesia’s Health Ministry said 2 people have died of bird flu, apparently after contact with sick chickens, raising the country's death toll to 115.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 27, Indonesian police opened fire on hundreds of people in Papua province during a protest against alleged police violence. 4 people were injured.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 30, Indonesia said it will repatriate 174 "economic migrants" who fled Myanmar claiming persecution, as new accounts emerged of their harrowing sea journey and alleged abuse by the Thai navy. The 174 Rohingya and 19 Bangladeshis being kept at an Indonesian naval base landed in Weh Island off northern Sumatra on January 7.
(AFP, 1/30/09)
2009 Feb 2, Indonesia's navy picked up 198 starving, dehydrated boat people from Myanmar who said they drifted for three weeks after authorities in Thailand forced them to sea in a boat without an engine. Indonesian fishermen had discovered the 40-foot (12-meter) boat off Aceh's coast in northern Sumatra and towed it to shore.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, Indonesia’s central bank cut its key interest rate a half point to 8.25%.
(WSJ, 2/4/09, p.A10)
2009 Feb 12, In Indonesia at least 42 people were injured and hundreds of homes and buildings damaged when a major earthquake struck off Sulawesi island near the Philippines.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 19, About 12 pirates armed with guns attacked the tug and barge in the Malacca Strait and kidnapped two crew members as the vessel was en route to Singapore.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 21, In western Indonesia a Sumatran tiger mauled two illegal loggers to death, bringing to 5 the number of people killed by the critically endangered cats in less than a month.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Mar 3, An official said 4 Indonesians have died of bird flu over the last 2 months, bringing the death toll in the country over the past several years to 119.
(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 5, Indonesia and South Korea agreed to cooperate more closely on a range of issues including defense, the global financial crisis and alternative sources of energy.
(AP, 3/6/09)
2009 Mar 10, Two cargo ships collided off the coast of a central Japanese island, leaving 16 South Korean and Indonesian crew members missing.
(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 11, Forbes magazine released its list of 793 of the world’s richest people. Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, a suspected drug lord and Mexico's most-wanted fugitive, made the list of billionaires with a fortune described as "self made." He was No. 701 on the list. The list included 5 Indonesians.
(AP, 3/11/09)(SSFC, 3/15/09, p.A4)
2009 Mar 12, The leaders of two of Indonesia's biggest political parties signed an agreement on shared goals amid speculation they could join forces against President Yudhoyono.
(AFP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 14, In Indonesia Nasrudin Zulkarnaen, the head of a state-owned pharmaceutical company, was shot dead. On May 4 Jakarta police arrested Antasari Azhar, chairman of Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission, as the alleged mastermind of the drive-by murder.
(Econ, 5/9/09, p.46)
2009 Mar 23, In eastern Indonesia 2 Komodo dragons mauled a fruit-picker to death. An 8-year-old boy was killed in 2007, the first recorded deadly attack on a human by one of the endangered lizards in three decades.
(AP, 3/24/09)
2009 Mar 24, Indonesia's controversial Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said she wants to end vaccinating children against meningitis, mumps and some other diseases because she fears foreign drug companies are using the country as a testing ground.
(AP, 3/25/09)
2009 Mar 24, In Indonesia rangers found the bodies of 2 rare Sumatran elephants with gunshots to the head hours after they were used for a patrol against illegal loggers and several hundred yards from their camp.
(AP, 3/31/09)
2009 Mar 27, In Indonesia torrential rain caused a dam to burst outside Jakarta, sending a wall of muddy water crashing into a densely packed neighborhood and killing at least 96 people with some 130 still missing. The earthen dam, built in 1933 when Indonesia was still under Dutch rule, surrounded a man-made lake in Cirendeu on the southwestern edge of Jakarta.
(AP, 3/27/09)(AP, 3/29/09)
2009 Apr 6, An Indonesian military plane carrying 24 people crashed into an airport hangar during heavy rains and burst into flames, killing everyone on board.
(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 9, Indonesians flooded polling stations across the sprawling island nation, capping a decade of democracy in a parliamentary election that boosted the reform-minded president's chances of re-election. Pres. Yudhoyono’s party won 20.8% of the popular vote. Nine parties appeared to have passed the 2.5% threshold to win seats in the 560-member parliament.
(AP, 4/9/09)(SFC, 4/10/09, p.A2)(Econ, 4/18/09, p.44)(AP, 5/10/09)
2009 Apr 16, Indonesia's top court cleared Time Magazine of charges it had defamed former dictator Suharto in a cover story that alleged his family amassed billions of dollars during his decades-long rule.
(AP, 4/16/09)
2009 Apr 16, Five people were killed and dozens wounded when a blast tore apart a boat carrying more than 40 Afghan refugees off Australia's northwest coast. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation later said it was told the refugees had doused the boat in petrol to try to force the navy to land them in Australia and not turn them back to Indonesia, but that the blast was an accident. On Oct 28 two Indonesian fishermen were jailed for five years for smuggling the boat full of Afghan refugees.
(AFP, 4/20/09)(AFP, 10/28/09)
2009 Apr 19, The annual Goldman Environmental Prize was awarded to 7 activists from 6 nations. Rizwana Hasan (40) of Bangladesh was awarded for exposing environmental damage and exploitative practices used in the country’s ship dismantling industry; Marc Ona Essangui (45) of Gabon, the founder of Brainforest, was awarded for exposing secret agreements for a Chinese mine project that threatened Gabon’s rain forests; Yuyun Ismawati of Indonesia was awarded for designing environmentally safe waste management systems for poor Indonesia n communities; Olga Speranskaya (46) of Eco-Accord in Russia was awarded for her efforts to control and store chemicals in Russia and former Soviet republics; Wanze Eduards (52) and Hugo Jabini (44) of Suriname, leaders of the maroon community, were awarded for their efforts that led to a landmark ruling ending tribal exploitation by the government. Maria Gunnoe (40) of West Virginia was awarded for her fight against the practice of removing of the tops of mountains and filing valleys below with tailings.
(SSFC, 4/19/09, p.A18)
2009 Apr 28, An Indonesian court sentenced a Singaporean man to 18 years in prison on terrorism charges. Mohammad Hasan bin Saynudin (36), who claimed to have met Osama bin Laden on many occasions, was convicted of plotting to kill a teacher and planning a deadly attack on a bar frequented by Western tourists.
(AP, 4/28/09)
2009 May 1, Indonesia's top graft-buster, Antasari Azhar (56), was named a suspect and a mastermind in a murder case, dealing a blow to the agency that's played a key part in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's fight against corruption. He was one of several suspects in the March 14 murder of Nasrudin Zulkarnaen, a businessman who, according to local media reports, had been a witness in a corruption case investigated by the agency.
(Reuters, 5/1/09)
2009 May 4, Indonesia's top graft-buster, Antasari Azhar (56), was arrested as a suspect and a mastermind in the March 14 murder of businessman Nasrudin Zulkarnaen.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 7, In northwestern Indonesia 2 rare Sumatran elephants, believed to have been poisoned with cyanide-laced pineapples, were found dead with their tusks removed. Just 3,000 Sumatran elephants are believed to still be living in their natural surroundings.
(AP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 15, In Indonesia 6 Asia-Pacific countries, meeting at the World Oceans Conference, agreed on a management plan to protect one of the world's largest networks of coral reefs, promising to reduce pollution, eliminate overfishing and improve the livelihoods of impoverished coastal communities. The Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security covered an area defined as the Coral Triangle, which spans Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and East Timor.
(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 19, Environmental groups in Indonesia said Singapore-based Asia Pulp & Paper, one of the world's largest paper companies, plans to clear a large swath of unprotected forest in Indonesia being used as a sanctuary for critically endangered orangutans.
(AP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 20, An Indonesian C-130 Hercules military transport plane, carrying troops and their families, crashed into a row of houses in East Java and burst into flames, killing 99 people.
(AP, 5/20/09)
2009 May 28, A ship packed with Afghan migrants sank off Indonesia's western coast, killing at least 9 people and leaving 11 others missing.
(AP, 5/28/09)(AP, 5/29/09)
2009 May 29, Indonesian government marine geologist Yusuf Surachman said that a massive underwater mountain discovered off the island of Sumatra could be a volcano with potentially catastrophic power. It was discovered earlier this month about 330 kilometers (205 miles) west of Bengkulu city during research to map the seabed's seismic faultlines.
(AFP, 5/30/09)
2009 Jun 7, In Indonesia 19 leading agricultural exporting nations, including Australia, Brazil and South Africa, kicked off talks in Bali aimed at pushing forward troubled world trade negotiations. The Cairns Group of nations accounted for more than 25% of the world's agricultural exports was also expected to take aim at US and European dairy export subsidies.
(Reuters, 6/7/09)
2009 Jun 12, In Indonesia a male Sumatran elephant was found dead in a pulp plantation in Riau province, Sumatra with its tusks removed. Six other endangered Sumatran elephants had been killed in Riau in the last two months and two were found with missing tusks.
(AP, 6/15/09)
2009 Jun 16, In Indonesia 16 miners were rescued after a massive explosion of methane gas collapsed a coal mine owned by local residents in West Sumatra province. 5 of the rescued miners died in hospital and the death toll rose to 31 the next day after rescuers unearthed more bodies. One more miner was believed to be buried.
(AFP, 6/16/09)(AP, 6/17/09)
2009 Jun 30, Indonesia committed to the conservation of its dwindling tropical forests in a multimillion dollar debt-swap deal signed with the American government. Jakarta's payments to Washington will be reduced by $30 million over the next eight years under the US Tropical Forest Conservation Act.
(AP, 6/30/09)
2009 Jul 8, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won a second term. Exit polls gave him a massive lead in only the second presidential vote since the fall of Suharto. Yudhoyono won 61% of the vote. Jusuf Kalla, his former vice-president, won 12%. Megawati Sukarnoputri won 27%.
(AP, 7/8/09)(Econ, 9/12/09, SR p.4)
2009 Jul 12, In Indonesia gunmen killed a security guard working for US mining conglomerate Freeport, then ambushed police responding to the attack blamed on separatist rebels in one of Indonesia's most underdeveloped and remote regions.
(AP, 7/12/09)
2009 Jul 13, In Indonesia a policeman's body was found at the bottom of a ravine near the Indonesian operations of US mining conglomerate Freeport, raising the death toll from a series of weekend ambushes in restive Papua province to three.
(AP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 17, In Indonesia suicide attacks at the Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta killed 9 people including 2 suspected suicide bombers and wounded 53. Suspicion quickly fell on Jemaah Islamiyah and anti-terror desk chief, Ansyaad Mbai, said evidence pointed to Malaysian-born extremist Noordin Mohammed Top. In 2010 the South Jakarta District Court found Amid Abdillah guilty of violating the Anti-Terror Law by helping a splinter of the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah plan the suicide bombings. The same court has earlier sentenced Saefudin Zuhri, an in-law of Top, and Aris Susanto to eight years in prison for assisting and harboring Top and two other suspects.
(AP, 7/17/09)(AFP, 7/18/09)(AP, 7/21/09)(AP, 8/7/09)(AP, 6/14/10)
2009 Aug 2, In eastern Indonesia a plane carrying 16 people disappeared over a jungle-clad and mountainous region of Papua. All aboard were killed.
(AP, 8/2/09)(AP, 8/5/09)
2009 Aug 3, A seven-minute video, apparently made by the Korps Brigade Mobil, or Brimob, the paramilitary police, shows prisoner Yawen Wayeni lying in a jungle clearing in eastern Indonesia moments after troops allegedly sliced open his abdomen with a bayonet. Police said Wayeni, captured for allegedly vandalizing several of their buildings and vehicles, was shot in the thigh and stomach while resisting arrest and that he died on the way to the hospital. The video was made public in the Internet in 2010.
(AP, 8/4/10)(http://hub.witness.org/en/upload/killing-yawan-wayeni)
2009 Aug 7, Indonesia's anti-terrorism unit engaged in a shootout in Central Java during a raid targeting suspected militants behind deadly bomb attacks in Jakarta last month.
(Reuters, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 8, Indonesian police reportedly killed Noordin Mohammad Top, the self-proclaimed Southeast Asian commander of al-Qaida, in a 16-hour siege of a village hide-out in Central Java. Authorities said they could not confirm that a recovered body was that of the militant leader without DNA tests. DNA tests failed to confirm Top’s death. Police raided a house on the outskirts of Jakarta where they killed two suspected militants and seized bombs and a car rigged to carry them. The house was just 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the president's residence.
(AP, 8/8/09)(AP, 8/9/09)(AP, 8/12/09)
2009 Aug 11, In Indonesia UNAIDS regional director Prasada Rao cited a new report saying more than 1.5 million women living with HIV in Asia were infected by their partners and 50 million more are at risk of infection. Rao spoke on the sidelines of the ninth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP), which is being held on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
(AFP, 8/11/09)
2009 Aug 18, In Indonesia a dump truck, packed with more than 60 plantation workers and their families, overturned and killing at least 25 with dozens injured. At least three children were among the dead near Sampit town in Central Kalimantan.
(AP, 8/19/09)
2009 Aug 22, In Indonesia a group of thieves killed an endangered Sumatran tiger in a zoo in Jambi province on Sumatra island and stole most of its body. Police suspected the theft was motivated by the animal's valuable fur and bones. The number of Sumatran tigers has dwindled to about 250 from about 1,000 in the 1970s, according to the Washington DC-based World Wildlife Fund.
(AP, 8/23/09)
2009 Aug 26, A small Indonesian ferry sank off the resort island of Bali, killing nine people while three others are still missing.
(Reuters, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 28, In Indonesia the overcrowded ferry Sari Mulia capsized in the Negara River in the South Kalimantan province, leaving at least 19 people dead and 15 others missing.
(AP, 8/29/09)(AP, 8/30/09)
2009 Sep 2, A powerful 7.0 earthquake rattled southern Indonesia, killing at least 64 people crushed by falling rock or collapsed buildings and sending thousands fleeing outdoors for safety in the middle of the work day. More than 10,000 buildings were severely damaged.
(AP, 9/2/09)(AP, 9/4/09)
2009 Sep 7, A small Indonesian military plane crashed on Borneo with nine passengers and crew aboard, killing four.
(AP, 9/7/09)
2009 Sep 9, Australia announced that it has launched a war crimes investigation into the 1975 killing of five Australian-based journalists during an attack by Indonesian forces in East Timor.
(AP, 9/9/09)
2009 Sep 14, In Indonesia expanded Islamic law was passed by the regional parliament in Aceh province. One key article regarding adultery threatened 100 cane lashes for the unmarried and stoning to death for those who are married.
(AP, 9/14/09)
2009 Sep 17, Armed Indonesian police stormed an Islamic militant hideout in a raid that killed fugitive terror mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top (41) and 3 other militants in central Java. Putri Munawaroh (21) was wounded and arrested after police raided her house, sparking the gunbattle. In 2010 she was sentenced to 3 years in prison for harboring terrorists.
(AFP, 9/17/09)(AP, 7/29/10)
2009 Sep 19, In Indonesia a strong earthquake shook the popular resort island of Bali, injuring at least seven people and sending panicked tourists and residents fleeing out of homes and hotels.
(AP, 9/19/09)
2009 Sep 21, In Indonesia Akbar Risuddin came into the world at a national record 19.2 pounds (8.7 kilograms). He was born to a diabetic mother in a 40-minute cesarean delivery that was complicated because of his unusual weight and size. Guinness World Records cites the heaviest baby as being born in the US in 1879, weighing 23.75 pounds (10.4 kilograms). However, it died 11 hours after birth. The book also cites 22.5-pound (10.2-kilogram) babies born in Italy in 1955 and in South Africa in 1982.
(AP, 9/25/09)
2009 Sep 30, A 7.6 underwater earthquake rocked western Indonesia, briefly triggering a tsunami alert for countries along the Indian Ocean and sending panicked residents out of their houses. The quake toppled buildings, cut power and triggered a landslide on Sumatra island. The UN later said 1,100 had been killed in and around Padang, a port city of 900,000 that sits atop one of the world's most active seismic fault lines along the Pacific "Ring of Fire." At least three villages were obliterated by earthquake-triggered landslides that buried as many as 644 people including a wedding party under mountains of mud and debris.
(AFP, 9/30/09)(AP, 10/2/09)(Reuters, 10/2/09)(AP, 10/3/09)
2009 Sep, Indonesia’s Parliament, regarded as the most corrupt of Indonesia’s institutions, passed a law weakening its Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
(Econ, 10/10/09, p.44)
2009 Oct 1, In Indonesia rescue workers used excavators to pull out victims from the heavy rubble of buildings felled by the previous day’s 7.6 earthquake. The death toll was expected to rise. The region was jolted by another powerful earthquake, causing damage but no reported fatalities.
(AP, 10/1/09)(AP, 10/2/09)
2009 Oct 2, A boat carrying about 100 asylum seekers left an Indonesian port bound for Australia but never arrived. The information was made public in May, 2010, by Australian Customs and Border Protection Service chief executive Michael Carmody during a routine Senate inquiry into government operations.
(AP, 5/25/10)
2009 Oct 8, In Indonesia controversial tycoon Aburizal Bakrie was elected to lead the Golkar party after the Suharto-era ruling party suffered its biggest electoral defeat.
(AFP, 10/8/09)
2009 Oct 9, Indonesian police raided a house near the capital, shooting dead suspected al-Qaida-linked militants Syaiffudin Djaelani and his brother, Mohamad Syahrir, wanted in the suicide bombings of luxury hotels in Jakarta. Djaelani was believed to have recruited two young bombers for the July 17 strikes on the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton.
(AP, 10/9/09)(Reuters, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 21, Indonesia’s customs chief said a group of 10 alleged Iranian drug smugglers, including eight veiled women, were caught with $12.5 million worth of methamphetamines at the main airport. The group had arrived on flights from Malaysia, Syria and Qatar on Oct 19-20.
(AP, 10/21/09)
2009 Oct 30, Indonesian officials and fishermen said thousands of dead fish and clumps of oil have been found drifting near the coastline more than two months after an Australian underwater well began leaking in the Timor Sea on Aug 21.
(AP, 10/30/09)
2009 Nov 9, In central Indonesia 6.7 undersea earthquake killed one person, injured dozens and damaged hundreds of houses on remote Sumbawa Island. Local officials said torrential rains have triggered a series of landslides on Sulawesi island, killing at least 14 residents and burying many more.
(AP, 11/9/09)
2009 Nov 21, Indonesian authorities picked up Abdul Basir Latip, a co-founder of the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf extremist group, at Jakarta airport for using a false passport.
(AFP, 12/16/09)
2009 Nov 22, Nearly 250 people were pulled from the sea after the Dumai Express went down in heavy rain and huge swells off Karimun island in the north of the Indonesian archipelago. At least 29 people were killed and 20 were missing.
(AFP, 11/22/09)(AP, 11/23/09)
2009 Nov 26, In Indonesia police broke up a protest by the environmental group Greenpeace against deforestation on the island of Sumatra, arresting 12 foreign and six Indonesian demonstrators.
(AP, 11/26/09)
2009 Dec 1, Indonesia banned the film “Balibo," an Australian-made film on the alleged murder of six Australian-based journalists by Indonesian troops during the 1975 invasion of East Timor.
(AFP, 12/2/09)
2009 Dec 5, In Indonesia an ecumenical group launched more than 10,000 twinkling paper lanterns into the night sky above Carnaval Beach in Jakarta, setting a world record. Freedom Faithnet Global said it organized the lantern release as a symbol of hope and prayer as part of annual celebrations. This year's celebrations have an environmental focus.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 15, Australian scientists reported the discovery of an octopus in Indonesia that collects coconut shells for shelter, unusually sophisticated behavior that the researchers believe is the first evidence of tool use in an invertebrate animal.
(AP, 12/15/09)
2009 Dec 16, Indonesian police killed Kelly Kwalik (60), one of the most active Papuan rebel commanders, sparking angry protests in a region scarred by unrest and rights abuses. Police said they shot Kwalik after he threatened to open fire on them during a raid on a house in Timika. Kwalik commanded the Free Papua Movement (OPM) in southern Mimika district.
(AFP, 12/16/09)
2009 Dec 19, Hundreds of supporters of a slain Papuan rebel leader Kelly Kwalik pelted Indonesian police with stones as tensions flared ahead of the commander's funeral.
(AFP, 12/19/09)
2009 Dec 30, Former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid (69) died. He briefly ruled during the nation's first tumultuous years of democracy (1999-2001) and sought peace in far-flung secessionist provinces.
(AP, 12/30/09)
2009 Dec, In Indonesia the attorney-general’s office banned 5 books, which it considered a threat to national security.
(Econ, 1/23/10, p.43)
2009 Andrew Beatty, anthropologist, authored “A Shadow Falls: In the Heart of Java," a look at the cultural conflict between Javanism, a pre-Islamic mystical tradition, and orthodox Islam.
(Econ, 4/4/09, p.87)
2009 Marcus Mietzner authored Military Politics, Islam and the State of Indonesia: From Turbulent Transition to Democratic Consolidation."
(Econ, 8/15/09, p.37)
2009 Indonesia joined the G20 club of major economies.
(Econ, 2/19/11, p.43)
2009 Indonesia’s population at this time numbered about 240 million people.
(Econ, 4/4/09, p.18)
2009 Australia’s Defence Signals Directorate (DSD), an intelligence agency, tried to tap the phones of Indonesia’s Pres. Susilo Bambang, as well as his wife and several of his innermost circle. This only became public in 2013.
(Econ, 11/23/13, p.43)
2009 The world Muslim population was estimated at 1.57 billion, or about 23% of the global population of 6.8 billion, including 203 million in Indonesia, 174 million in Pakistan and 160 million in India.
(Econ, 10/10/09, p.62)
2010 Jan 12, The Indonesian government, which has promised to stamp out corruption, was embarrassed by revelations that rich and powerful prisoners are living in luxury behind bars.
(AFP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Indonesia hundreds people pelted each other with stones outside parliament as lawmakers grilled Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati over a controversial bank bailout. Some 400 anti-graft protesters from rival groups set upon each other in the latest sign of mounting anger over pervasive corruption.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 22, In Indonesia incessant rain caused floods in two remote villages in eastern Indonesia leaving eight people dead and 13 others missing.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 24, In Indonesia gunmen attacked a convoy near the world's largest gold mine in Papua, wounding at least seven people including a foreigner.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Indonesia Eko Budi Wardoyo (32), a suspected Islamist militant, was arrested in East Java province. He was allegedly involved in the 2005 bombing of a market that killed 22 people and the murder of a Christian priest in 2004.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 27, It was reported that Italian fashion house Armani has stopped selling online a T-shirt bearing a logo similar to Indonesia's national symbol, Garuda Pancasila, after some bloggers protested and other people called for the label to be sued.
(Reuters, 1/27/10)
2010 Feb 1, Thailand and the United States began their annual Cobra Gold military exercise, now in its 29th year, with South Korea taking part for the first time. Singapore, Japan and Indonesia will also participate in the three-week training exercise, describes as the largest of its type in the world.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 9, Indonesian police said 8 people have died after drinking liquor laced with methanol on the country's main island of Java. The victims had bought the drink from the same stall on Feb 5.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 11, Indonesia's former anti-graft chief, Antasari Azhar (56), was convicted of plotting the murder of a businessman and sentenced to 18 years in prison, in a case that has undermined the country's fight against corruption.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 13, In Indonesia contestants took part in the Social Cultural Transvestite Queen beauty pageant in Banda Aceh, Aceh province. The transvestite beauty pageant was held for the first time in the country's only province that officially adopted Islamic sharia law.
(AP, 2/14/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Indonesia a villager was killed in crossfire and three suspected militants were arrested when police raided a possible paramilitary training ground for the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah in Aceh province.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Indonesia a rain-triggered landslide at a tea plantation on the main island of Java buried scores of workers. At least 46 people were killed or missing.
(AP, 2/23/10)(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Mar 6, In Indonesia a group calling itself "al-Qaida in Aceh" claimed to be the target of a police crackdown. Police have arrested 16 suspected militants in a series of raids in the deeply conservative province of Aceh since Feb 22.
(AP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 9, Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono flew into Canberra with PM Kevin Rudd and Governor-General Quentin Bryce waiting on the red carpet. He was soon appointed an honorary companion of the Order of Australia for his work after the 2002 Bali bombing. Yudhoyono will become the first Indonesian leader to address a joint sitting of Australia's parliament on March 10.
(AFP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 9, In Indonesia 3 terror suspects were killed during raids near Jakarta. One of the dead included Dulmatin, one of the masterminds of the 2002 Bali bombings. Police soon confirmed his identity. An additional terror suspect was arrested in Jakarta earlier in the day, bringing to 24 the number of suspects taken into custody on Java and Aceh since Feb. 22 in a police crackdown on a suspected Jemaah Islamiyah cell.
(AP, 3/9/10)(AFP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 12, Indonesian police killed two suspected Islamist militants in a firefight in remote Aceh province during the latest in a series of raids made since an extremist training camp was discovered there last month. Eight other suspects were arrested.
(AP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 21, In Indonesia a rare Sumatran tiger dragged a man, identified as Darmilus (26), from a hut in Seponjen village near the protected Berbak National Park, and broke his neck as friends tried to rescue the victim.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 24, Indonesian police ordered the cancellation of a conference of Asian gay activists, saying it could prompt violent protests by conservative Muslim groups.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Apr 7, In Indonesia a magnitude 7.7 earthquake shook Indonesia's northwest island of Sumatra, triggering a small tsunami, snapping power lines and sending panicked residents rushing for higher ground.
(AP, 4/7/10)
2010 Apr 11, In Indonesia police arrested 6 terror suspects including Abu Musa (35), a suspect in the 2004 attack on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, and Yusuf Arifin (25), who is said to have received militant training in the southern Philippines. The other four were wanted in connection with a failed plot to assassinate Indonesia's president last year.
(AP, 4/12/10)
2010 Apr 12, Indonesian police raided a home used by suspected terrorists in the far western province of Aceh, fatally shooting Enal Tao (38), allegedly involved in the beheadings of 3 Christian girls. Two other suspects were arrested at the house in Cot Irie village on the outskirts of Banda Aceh.
(AP, 4/12/10)
2010 Apr 14, In Indonesia protesters wielding machetes, sticks and petrol bombs clashed with riot police near the main seaport of Tanjung Priok in northern Jakarta in a series of running battles over a Muslim cleric's tomb, wounding 90 people. The bloody clashes left three dead and 156 wounded.
(AP, 4/14/10)(AP, 4/15/10)
2010 Apr 19, Indonesia’s Constitutional Court ruled 8-1 that a 45-year-old law banning religious blasphemy was constitutional. The law limited officially recognized religions to six: Buddhism, Catholicism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam and Protestantism. Up to 5 years in prison could be imposed for anyone found guilty of heresy.
(SFC, 4/20/10, p.A2)
2010 May 9, In Indonesia an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.4 rattled the North Sumatra province, prompting a brief local tsunami watch, knocking out power and damaging some homes.
(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 11, Indonesia's former chief detective, Gen. Susno Duadji, who has recently exposed corruption among government and police officials, was arrested on allegations that he accepted a bribe in 2008.
(AP, 5/11/10)
2010 May 12, In Indonesia 5 suspected terrorists were killed in two raids, the latest in a series of anti-terror operations nationwide. 3 were killed in Cawang, East Jakarta, and 2 others in the West Java city of Cikampek. One of the suspects killed in the second raid was Saptono, who was involved in a suicide car bomb attack which killed 10 people outside the Australian embassy in 2004. Two days of raids around Java also detained 20 people.
(AFP, 5/12/10)(Econ, 5/22/10, p.45)
2010 May 14, An Indonesian official said police have foiled a plot to assassinate the president and other top officials, massacre foreigners in Mumbai-style terrorist attacks and declare an Islamic state.
(AP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 27, In Indonesia authorities in a devoutly Islamic district of Aceh province have distributed 20,000 long skirts and prohibited shops from selling tight dresses as a regulation banning Muslim women from wearing revealing clothing took effect.
(AP, 5/27/10)
2010 May 28, Indonesia said it will impose a 2-year moratorium on large-scale clearance of rainforests, effective as off January 2011, in return for $1 billion grant from Norway to fund projects as part of the REDD plan (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation).
(http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0527-hance_moratorium.html)(Econ, 10/30/10, p.44)
2010 May 31, Indonesia's failure to ban tobacco advertising or enforce laws against smoking in bars and restaurants came under heavy fire as the UN marked world anti-tobacco day.
(AP, 5/31/10)
2010 Jun 6, In western Indonesia 10 children died when a suspension bridge collapsed. Rescuers were searching for three others still missing.
(AP, 6/7/10)
2010 Jun 16, Indonesia was hit by a series of powerful earthquakes. At least 17 people were killed and more than 4,600 others left homeless.
(AP, 6/16/10)(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 21, In Indonesia the discovery of three dead Javan rhinos has intensified efforts to save one of the world's most endangered mammals from extinction, with an electric fence being built around a new sanctuary and breeding ground.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 23, In Indonesia an elite anti-terrorism squad arrested Abdullah Sunata, the country’s most-wanted man, and two other suspects after raiding their hide-out on the country's main island of Java. At least one person was killed and several weapons seized, including a bomb in a backpack.
(AP, 6/23/10)
2010 Jun 25, In Indonesia 10 people were killed in a fire that ripped through the packed Redboxx Café nightclub in Surabaya in the early hours, including a mother and the baby she apparently gave birth to during the tragedy.
(AP, 6/25/10)
2010 Jun 29, An Indonesian court sentenced 8 Iranians to life in prison for smuggling hundreds of methamphetamine tablets in their stomachs into the resort island of Bali. The Jakarta Post newspaper, quoting police, said Iranian drugs syndicates have become the main suppliers of heroin and crystal methamphetamine to Indonesia, replacing West African countries.
(AFP, 6/29/10)
2010 Jun, Indonesia’s Tempo news magazine ran a cover story revealing that over a dozen senior police officials had suspicious bank accounts, some of which held millions of dollars. A week later an anti-corruption activist, who helped expose the accounts, was brutally beaten by unknown men.
(Econ, 11/6/10, p.56)
2010 Jul 2, Jakarta's annual month-long flora and fauna expo opened. It included sales of the world's most threatened ploughshare tortoise and the critically endangered radiated tortoises, both from Madagascar. While the government has passed legislation banning such illegal trade, dealers continue to blatantly sell endangered species without fear of arrest or prosecution.
(AP, 7/3o/10)
2010 Jul 22, The US said it was dropping a ban on ties with Indonesia's special forces, imposed over human rights abuses in the 1990s, a move that may eventually allow combat training of the once-notorious unit.
(Reuters, 7/22/10)
2010 Aug 4, In Indonesia the Trisal Pratama sank shortly after a collision with another cargo vessel near Selayar island off South Sumatra province. Rescuers saved 11 people, including a 1-year-old girl, but searched the next day for nine others still missing.
(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 6, In Indonesia the Mount Karangetang volcano erupted, sending lava and a searing gas cloud tumbling down its slopes. At least four family members were swept away and feared dead.
(AP, 8/6/10)
2010 Aug 9, Indonesian police arrested top radical Islamist preacher Abu Bakar Bashir. He was accused of funding and training extremists who were planning a wave of attacks in Jakarta.
(AFP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 9, In Indonesia the Hastina III sunk off East Nusatenggara province after a large wave slammed into the wooden ship, sending panicked passengers running to one side. It capsized between Adonara and Lembata islands. 10 people were killed with one missing.
(AP, 8/9/10)
2010 Aug 10, Indonesia and the US launched a biodiversity research centre on the holiday island of Bali to further studies of the archipelago's rich and diverse species.
(AFP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 11, Indonesia's best-known radical cleric, Abu Bakar Bashir, was charged with helping plan terrorist attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of death.
(AP, 8/11/10)
2010 Aug 29, In Indonesia the Sinabung volcano on the island of Sumatra erupted for the first time in 400 years, spewing a vast cloud of smoke and ash into the air and sending thousands of people fleeing from their homes.
(AFP, 8/29/10)
2010 Aug 31, Indonesian police killed five villagers as dozens of people ransacked a station in central Buol district to protest a person's death in custody. The protest followed a motorist's death in police custody on Aug 30. It was unclear why he was detained, but the protesters suspected he was tortured by police.
(AP, 9/1/10)
2010 Sep 2, An international maritime group urged Indonesia to increase patrols in the South China Sea after pirates attacked nine vessels in less than three weeks.
(AP, 9/2/10)
2010 Sep 4, Thousands of Indonesian Muslims rallied outside the US Embassy in Jakarta to denounce an American church's plan to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by burning copies of the Quran. The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, has said it will burn the Islamic holy book on Sep 11, the ninth anniversary of the NYC terror attacks.
(AP, 9/4/10)
2010 Sep 7, Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung volcano shot a towering cloud of black ash high into the air, dusting villages 15 miles (25 km) away in its most powerful eruption since awakening last week from four centuries of dormancy.
(AP, 9/7/10)
2010 Sep 11, In central Indonesia flash floods on Borneo Island killed 10 people and left 14 others missing.
(AP, 9/12/10)
2010 Sep 12, In Indonesia assailants stabbed Asia Sihombing, a Christian worshipper, in the stomach and pounded Rev. Luspida Simanjuntak in the head with a wooden plank when she tried to help him as they headed to morning prayers in Bekasi, 25 miles east of Jakarta.
(AP, 9/12/10)
2010 Sep 13, In Indonesia Yusuf Sipakoly (52), a political prisoner being detained in Ambon, Maluku, died while under police custody. His family claimed that he was tortured by police.
(Econ, 11/6/10, p.56)(http://tinyurl.com/3533o26)
2010 Sep 22, In western Indonesia Muslim militants wearing black masks stormed the tiny police precinct and unloaded their assault rifles, riddling 3 officers with bullets and shining a spotlight on the country's changing face of terrorism.
(AP, 10/10/10)
2010 Sep 23, Mohammed Sofyan Tsauri, a former Indonesian police officer, said he helped al-Qaida train 170 members of a new terror network in Aceh province soon after he left the police force in 2008. On Jan 19, 2011, Tsauri (34) was sentenced to 10 years in prison for supplying weapons to a terrorist cell allegedly plotting a series of attacks on foreigners.
(AP, 9/23/10)(AP, 1/19/11)
2010 Sep 27, Indonesia and France served as co-chairs of the Group of 20 Working Group on Anti-corruption during a 2-day meeting in Jakarta. The WGAC was among the most significant outcomes of the G20 summit in Toronto in June 2010.
(www.deplu.go.id/Pages/PressRelease.aspx?IDP=1002&l=en)
2010 Oct 2, In central Indonesia a train crashed into another parked at a railway station, killing at least 36 people and injuring dozens, many seriously. The next day Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi said Halik Rudianto, the train’s engineer, had failed to stop at a red signal. Rudianto was arrested for negligence.
(AP, 10/2/10)(AP, 10/3/10)
2010 Oct 4, In Indonesia heavy rain unleashed flash floods and mudslides, killing at least 91 people in West Papua province's village of Wasior. Rescuers struggled to reach the area.
(AP, 10/5/10)(AP, 10/6/10)(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 6, In Indonesia helicopters dropped food to isolated villages and security forces helped clear debris and search for survivors as the number of people killed by floods and landslides across Asia climbed to nearly 110. Three-quarters of the deaths were in eastern Indonesia. In Vietnam 11 bodies were recovered in the worst-hit province of Quang Binh, where authorities were also searching for five sailors from a sunken barge. At least seven other bodies were found in Ha Tinh province, five in Nghe An and three in Quang Tri. On China's nearby island province of Hainan, seven straight days of heavy rains left two people missing and forced 64,000 to evacuate.
(AP, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 9, Erwin Arnada (47), the former editor-in-chief of Playboy Indonesia, began a two-year prison sentence for publishing pictures of scantily clothed women, riling free speech activists in the world's most populous Muslim nation. The Supreme Court had found Arnada guilty of violating indecency laws during a closed-door session in August, overruling a 2007 acquittal by the South Jakarta District Court.
(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 13, Australia and Indonesia agreed to further discuss plans for a refugee centre in East Timor to stem the flow of asylum seekers through Southeast Asia on their way to Australia.
(AFP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 15, In Indonesia a rabies outbreak on the resort island of Bali has to date killed 100 people. Bali, an island of 3 million people and one of Asia's top tourist destinations, has been grappling with the outbreak for nearly two years.
(AP, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 22, In eastern Indonesia the Tersanjung, a small passenger ship, sank off the cape of Watumanuk on Flores island. It was reportedly carrying 66 people. 44 people were rescued and 22 remained missing.
(AP, 10/22/10)(AP, 10/23/10)
2010 Oct 23, In Indonesia a small freighter with seven crew was reported to be going down off Flores. Three people were apparently missing while the others survived.
(AP, 10/23/10)
2010 Oct 25, In western Indonesia a 7.7 magnitude earthquake off Sumatra’s coast triggered a 10-foot (3m) tsunami that pounded remote island villages, killing over 400 people and leaving scores more missing.
(AP, 10/26/10)(AP, 10/29/10)
2010 Oct 26, Indonesia’s Mount Merapi volcano erupted, prompting terrified villagers to flee and join the thousands already evacuated from its slopes.
(Reuters, 10/26/10)
2010 Oct 27, In Indonesia helicopters with emergency supplies finally landed on the remote islands slammed by a tsunami that killed over 400 people. Elsewhere in the archipelago the toll from a volcanic eruption rose to 30, including the mountain's spiritual caretaker.
(AP, 10/26/10)(AP, 10/29/10)
2010 Oct 28, Indonesia's Mount Merapi erupted for the second time in a week, blasting vast plumes of ash into the sky, as the death toll from the initial eruption and a tsunami that hit remote western islands reached 377.
(AP, 10/28/10)
2010 Oct 30, In Indonesia clouds of gray ash rumbled down the slopes of Mount Merapi in its most powerful eruption of a deadly week, prompting soldiers to force reluctant villagers to evacuate amid fears of a larger blast as the death toll reached 36. Storms again prevented aid deliveries to increasingly desperate survivors of a tsunami, including a teenage girl with an open chest wound, that killed 413 people in the Mentawai islands. The number of missing dropped by half to 163 as searchers discovered survivors who had fled to the hills.
(AP, 10/30/10)
2010 Nov 1, Indonesia's most volatile volcano, Mount Merapi, one of 22 that have been increasingly active, spewed searing clouds of gas and debris for hours in its most powerful eruption in a deadly week that has left 38 dead.
(AP, 11/1/10)
2010 Nov 4, In Indonesia clouds of hot ash gushed from the Mount Merapi volcano, forcing motorists in cities 20 miles (30 km) away to use their headlights in broad daylight and raising aviation concerns. The death toll climbed to 44.
(AP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 5, In Indonesia searing gas avalanched down the Mount Merapi volcano with a thunderous roar, torching houses and trees and incinerating villagers as they fled. About 70 more people were killed raising the death toll to 122.
(AP, 11/5/10)(Econ, 11/13/10, p.50)
2010 Nov 6, Airlines cancelled at least 36 flights to and from Jakarta, affecting international carriers from Europe to Asia, because of ash from the Mount Merapi volcano.
(AFP, 11/6/10)
2010 Nov 8, In Indonesia frightened residents abandoned their homes in Yogyakarta, a bustling city of 400,000 at the foot of Mount Merapi, as authorities warned the volcano could erupt again at any time. 153 people have been killed in the last two weeks.
(AP, 11/8/10)(AP, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 9, President Barack Obama arrived in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation. He voiced support for Pres. Yudhoyono's efforts to nurture a rapidly growing society even in a time when Indonesia has been hit by earthquakes, a tsunami, and now a volcanic eruption. He also expressed deep concern that Israelis and Palestinians aren't making the "extra effort" to secure a breakthrough for achieving Middle East peace.
(AP, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 10, Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano spewed clouds of ash high into the sky, forcing some international airlines to again cancel flights and President Barack Obama to cut short his visit.
(AP, 11/10/10)
2010 Nov 14, In Indonesia rescuers digging through several feet of ash discovered nine more bodies on the slopes of Mount Merapi, whose explosive eruption a week ago buried whole villages. Confirmation of more deaths trickled in and the toll from a series of blasts at the volcano rose to at least 250.
(AP, 11/14/10)
2010 Nov 15, In Indonesia Gayus Tambunan (31) broke into tears when he admitted in a hearing at the South Jakarta District Court that yes, he was the wigged man captured by photographers at the international tennis match on Nov 5. Tambunan, a midlevel tax official with a salary of just $1,300 a month, was supposed to be in jail. He has been charged with pocketing at least $2.7 million from dozens of big companies to help them avoid paying taxes. 9 wardens have been arrested and face charges of accepting up to $40,000 from the tax official. Tambunan allegedly left the jail at least 60 times since his detention in April. On Jan 19, 2011, he was sentenced to seven years behind bars for corruption.
(AP, 11/16/10)(AP, 1/19/11)
2010 Nov 17, Indonesia’s disaster agency said that the death toll due to Mount Merapi had risen to 275 and that most of the people were killed by searing gas clouds. Others died during panicked evacuations or from respiratory problems and other illnesses linked to the volcano.
(AP, 11/18/10)
2010 Nov 19, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that an inquiry will be launched into a female migrant's suspicious death in Saudi Arabia. Kikim Komalasari, who had worked in Abha city in Saudi Arabia since June 2009, had died from abuse. She was from Cianjur in West Java province.
(AFP, 11/19/10)
2010 Nov 21, In Indonesia the death toll from the Mount Merapi volcano rose to 304 after more victims succumbed to severe burns and illnesses.
(SFC, 11/22/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 21, A global tiger summit meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, approved a wide-ranging program with the goal of doubling the world's tiger population in the wild by 2022 backed by governments of the 13 countries that still have tiger populations: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam and Russia. Experts wild tigers could become extinct in 12 years if countries where they still roam fail to take quick action to protect their habitats and step up the fight against poaching.
(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 23, Saudi media said a Saudi woman (53), accused of torturing her Indonesian maid, has been sent to jail while the maid, Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa (23), receives extensive hospital treatment for burns and broken bones.
(AFP, 11/23/10)
2010 Nov 24, Indonesian Muslim cleric Pujiono Cahyo Widianto (46), who sparked a national outcry by marrying a 12-year-old girl, was sentenced to four years in prison.
(AP, 11/24/10)
2010 Dec 1, Human Rights Watch urged Indonesia to overturn the Shariah laws in Aceh province, in effect since 2001, due to alleged widespread rights abuses.
(SFC, 12/2/10, p.A11)
2010 Dec 10, Indonesian police arrested Abu Tholut (42), one of the country's most-wanted Muslim militants, accusing him of plotting high-profile assassinations and bloody attacks on foreigners at luxury hotels in the capital. Tholut identified four more militants. Anwar Effendi, Wardi, Sukirno, and Sri Puji Mulyo Siswanto were suspected of concealing information about terrorism and of hiding Tholut. All 4 were arrested by the next day.
(AP, 12/10/10)(AP, 12/14/10)
2010 Dec 31, The Jakarta-based Legal Aid Foundation said in a new report that law enforcement officials from police to prison wardens routinely torture Indonesian suspects and convicts to extract confessions or obtain information.
(AP, 12/31/10)
2010 In Indonesia WHO reported that some 400,000 people die each year from smoking-related illnesses. Anti-smoking groups teamed up with Muhammadiyah, the country’s 2nd largest Islamic organization, to issue a fatwa declaring smoking haram, i.e. forbidden under Islam.
(Econ, 5/1/10, p.44)
2010 In Indonesia a video circulated widely on the Internet late showed men in uniform burning the genitals of a suspected separatist and running a knife across the neck of another, sparking an international outcry. In 2011 three soldiers were charged with the relatively minor offense of disobeying orders, which carried a maximum penalty of 30 months in prison. The 3 soldiers were sentenced on Jan 24 for up to ten months in prison, angering rights activists who slammed the lenient verdict as a sham underlining the military's impunity.
(AP, 1/14/11)(AP, 1/24/11)
2011 Jan 10, Canada-based Research In Motion said it will filter pornographic internet content for its Blackberry smartphone users in Indonesia, following government pressure to stop access to porn sites or face its browsing service being shut down.
(Reuters, 1/10/11)
2011 Jan 14, In Indonesia a group armed with guns and arrows attacked an army post in Papua, and one Papuan was killed and another wounded in the exchange.
(AP, 1/14/11)
2011 Jan 17, Canada-based Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM), the maker of BlackBerry, promised Indonesia it will meet the country's request to filter out pornographic content on its smartphones in the next four days.
(AP, 1/17/11)
2011 Jan 28, Two Indonesian passenger trains crashed killing 3 people in West Java province. A crowded ferry burst into flames off Java, killing at least 18 people and sending hundreds to the hospital, many in critical condition.
(AP, 1/28/11)(AP, 1/31/11)
2011 Jan 31, In Indonesia popstar Nazril “Ariel" Irham was sentenced to 3˝ years in prison after sex tapes with his celebrity girlfriends found their way to the Internet.
(SFC, 2/1/11, p.A2)
2011 Feb 2, Indonesian prosecutors formally charged Abu Bakar Bashir (72), spiritual head of the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah network, with planning terrorist attacks. He was also was charged with helping fund a new terror cell in Aceh province and mobilizing foot soldiers.
(AP, 2/2/11)
2011 Feb 6, In central Indonesia a machete-wielding mob of Muslims attacked the home of a minority sect leader, killing 3 and wounding 6 others in Tamanggung. Some 1,500 people, many with machetes, sticks and rocks, attacked about 20 members of the Ahmadiyah Muslim sect who were visiting their leader in his house in Banten province. Java Island. Dani bin Misra (17) smashed a rock repeatedly into the skull of Roni Pasaroni as the crowd yelled "Allahu Akbar" or God is Great. Ahmadiyah is considered deviant by most Muslims and banned in many Islamic countries because of its belief that Muhammad was not the final prophet. Police later arrested 10 suspects related to the attacks. On July 28 twelve members of the mob were received sentenced of 3-6 months. Dani bin Misra was released from jail after 3 months.
(AP, 2/6/11)(SFC, 2/12/11, p.A2)(SFC, 7/29/11, p.A2)(AP, 8/9/11)
2011 Feb 8, In Indonesia more than 1,500 Muslims went on the rampage in Central Java, setting two churches alight and ransacking a school, after a Christian man was sentenced to five years' jail for blaspheming Islam. The group wanted him punished with death.
(AP, 2/8/11)
2011 Feb 9, Indonesia's biggest palm oil producer pledged to follow new standards to protect carbon-rich forests and peatlands, in a move cautiously welcomed by environmentalists including Greenpeace. A suspect was arrested in his Jakarta art shop during a raid carried out by police and forestry officials for allegedly using the Internet to sell hundreds of illegal wildlife parts, from ivory and tiger skins to the teeth of the world's smallest bears.
(AFP, 2/9/11)(AP, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 16, Indonesian marine police said they have up 129 starving men from Myanmar off the coast of Aceh. The refugees all belonged to the Rohingya minority, who are not recognized by Myanmar’s military rulers.
(SFC, 2/17/11, p.A2)
2011 Feb 24, An Indonesian court sentenced Islamic preacher Murhali Barda (37) to five-and-a-half months in jail for misusing his status to encourage "Muslim lions" to rally at a church, which led to the beating and stabbing of two Christians. He had already served about five months and was expected to walk out of jail within days.
(Reuters, 2/24/11)
2011 Mar 3, Indonesian journalist Banjir Ambarita, who covered a police sex scandal, was treated in the hospital after being stabbed in the stomach and chest. Ambarita had written about three police officers who confessed to sexually abusing a female detainee.
(AP, 3/3/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Indonesia a small mail bomb addressed to a moderate Muslim leader exploded in Jakarta as police were trying to defuse it, wounding four people.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 29, Intelligence officials in Indonesia and Philippines said Umar Patek (40), a suspected member of the al-Qaida-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, has been arrested in Pakistan. The senior Indonesian al-Qaida operative was wanted in the 2002 Bali bombings. Patek's exact whereabouts were not immediately known.
(AP, 3/30/11)
2011 Mar 31, Indonesia arrested 43 Afghans who were trying to reach Australia illegally.
(AP, 3/31/11)
2011 Apr 3, Indonesian authorities arrested a Filipino woman, coming from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with more than two pounds (one kg) of heroin at the Adi Sumarmo Airport in Solo. She was allegedly paid $8,000 by an international drug syndicate to carry the heroin.
(AP, 4/7/11)
2011 Apr 11, Indonesian lawmaker Arifinto (50), a member of the staunchly Islamic Prosperous Justice Party who helped pass a tough anti-pornography law, resigned after he got caught watching sexually explicit videos on his computer during a parliamentary debate.
(AP, 4/11/11)
2011 Apr 11, In San Francisco the annual Goldman Environmental prize was awarded 6 people from around the world. The winners included Hilton Kelly for his efforts to cut pollution in Port Arthur, Texas; Francisco Pineda for resisting mining in El Salvador; Ursula Sladek of Germany for creating for reducing her community’s reliance on nuclear power; Prigi Arisandi for her efforts to protect Indonesia’s Surabaya River; Dmitry Lisitsyn for his efforts to protect the Russia’s Sakhalin island; and Raoul du Toit for defending wildlife in Zimbabwe.
(SFC, 4/11/11, p.A12)
2011 Apr 15, In Indonesia suicide bomber Muhammad Syarif (32) blew himself up as police were praying in the West Java town of Cirebon, wounding 30 people in the first attack on a mosque since extremists started targeting the predominantly Muslim country a decade ago.
(AP, 4/15/11)(AP, 4/16/11)(AFP, 10/8/11)
2011 Apr 21, In Indonesia police arrested 19 terror suspects who then led them to five massive bombs buried beneath a gas pipeline near a church just outside the capital. The explosives had been set to detonate by cell phone at around 9 a.m. on Good Friday.
(AP, 4/21/11)
2011 May 7, In Indonesia a passenger plane carrying 25 people plunged into the ocean as it approached an airport in bad weather in the eastern province of West Papua. There were no survivors.
(AP, 5/7/11)(AP, 5/8/11)
2011 May 14, Indonesia's anti-terrorism forces killed two suspected militants in a predawn raid in Central Java. A nearby rice vendor was killed in crossfire in Sukoharjo district.
(AP, 5/14/11)
2011 Jun 3, A global maritime watchdog warned ships traversing the South China Sea bordering Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore following the hijack of three tugboats and a barge in recent weeks.
(AFP, 6/3/11)
2011 Jun 4, In Indonesia two suspected terrorists were killed during a gunbattle in a raid in Poso, Central Sulawesi province. The two were allegedly linked to the assailants who killed two police officers and wounded another last week in Palu.
(AP, 6/4/11)
2011 Jun 16, Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir (72), known as spiritual leader of the militants who carried out the deadly 2002 Bali bombings, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his support of a terror training camp uncovered last year. On Oct 20 an appeals court reduced the sentence to 9 years.
(AP, 6/16/11)(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Jun 18, Saudi Arabia beheaded Ruyati binti Satubi (54), an Indonesian grandmother, for killing an allegedly abusive Saudi employer. In response Indonesia later enacted a moratorium on labor exports to Saudi Arabia effective August 1.
(SFC, 8/10/11, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/3wvhbpm)
2011 Jun 20, In Indonesia Abu Tholut (50), one of the nation’s top terrorism suspects, went on trial on charges of helping set up a terrorist training camp for a group that plotted attacks on foreigners and assassinations of the country's moderate Muslim leaders. Arrested in December, Tholut is one of more than 120 alleged members of the "Tanzim Al Qaeda in Aceh" group to have been captured or killed since the camp was uncovered.
(AP, 6/20/11)
2011 Jun 21, Three Indonesians, radicalized by the teachings of a firebrand Muslim cleric, were sentenced to six years in prison for involvement in a terror plot.
(AP, 6/21/11)
2011 Jun 22, In Indonesia indigenous peoples of Borneo demanded a halt to internationally backed forest conservation schemes, saying they are trampling their rights and robbing their lands.
(AFP, 6/22/11)
2011 Jun 24, Playboy Indonesia's former editor was released from prison after the country's top court overturned his indecency conviction for publishing pictures of scantily clad women.
(AP, 6/24/11)
2011 Jun 25, In Indonesia a passenger bus plunged from a hill into a trench on Sumatra island, killing 14 people.
(AP, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 30, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono appointed his brother-in-law, who rights groups say may have been responsible for abuses in East Timor in 1999, as the nation's new army chief.
(AFP, 6/30/11)
2011 Jul 1, In Indonesia an 18-month-old Sumatran tiger died seven days after it fell into a trap and within three hours of being tranquilized by local conservation officials. The trap was on the border of an acacia forest and an APP logging concession. Estimates of the number of Sumatran tigers remaining in the world range from 300 to 400.
(AP, 7/26/11)
2011 Jul 3, In Indonesia the Mount Soputan volcano erupted on Sulawesi island.
(SFC, 7/4/11, p.A2)
2011 Jul 6, Australia announced it would lift a ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia and resume trade with additional safeguards in place to address animal cruelty concerns.
(AFP, 7/6/11)
2011 Jul 11, In Indonesia a man reportedly trying to show students how to make explosives was killed by a homemade bomb inside an Islamic boarding school on Sumbawa Island.
(AP, 7/12/11)
2011 Jul 14, In Indonesia Mount Lokon on Sulawesi island burst into life late at night and continued to spew ash and searing gas into the air well into the next morning, prompting more than 4,500 residents to head to safety.
(AFP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 15, Indonesian police arrested Abrori Ali, the headmaster of an Islamic boarding school in the Sumba island town of Bima, after a man there died earlier this week, reportedly while trying to teach students how to make homemade bombs.
(AP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 17, In Indonesia the Mount Lokon volcano on northern Sulawesi island erupted again and released the greatest amount of energy so far, shooting soot and debris 11,400 feet (3,500 meters) into the sky.
(AP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 19, In Indonesia some 15,000 underprivileged Indonesian newlyweds from various faiths joined a mass reception to receive free marriage certificates that they otherwise could not afford.
(AP, 7/19/11)
2011 Jul 21, In Indonesia unidentified gunmen ambushed soldiers and killed one of them in the easternmost province of Papua. A small, poorly armed separatist group, known as Free Papua Movement, or OPM, has battled for independence since 1969.
(AP, 7/21/11)
2011 Jul 31, In eastern Indonesia clashes between supporters of rival candidates in upcoming local elections killed 17 people and injured dozens in remote Papua province.
(AP, 7/31/11)
2011 Aug 1, In Indonesia unknown gunmen killed four people in a pre-dawn ambush on a road outside Jayapura, Papua province.
(AFP, 8/2/11)
2011 Aug 2, In Indonesia some 10,000 Papuans protested for independence, defying a heavy police presence a day after a deadly ambush that police blamed on separatist rebels.
(AFP, 8/2/11)
2011 Aug 3, In Indonesia 9 people, including two Australians, two South Africans and five Indonesians, were killed when a helicopter flying to a Newcrest mine crashed with 10 on board.
(AFP, 8/4/11)
2011 Aug 8, In Colombia Muhammad Nazarruddin (32), the ex-treasurer of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's party, was reported arrested in Cartagena after weeks on the run over corruption allegations. Nazarruddin has been on the run since May when anti-graft investigators linked him to a bribery scandal involving contracts on a 23-million-dollar athletes' village for the Southeast Asian Games scheduled in November.
(AFP, 8/9/11)(Econ, 2/25/12, p.51)
2011 Aug 11, Umar Patek (41), a key suspect in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, was escorted home to Indonesia under tight security to stand trial, six months after he was captured in the same northwestern Pakistani town where Osama bin Laden was killed. The al-Qaida-linked militant, had a $1 million bounty on his head when authorities caught up with him on Jan. 25 in Abbottabad.
(AP, 8/11/11)
2011 Aug 15, In Indonesia Deden Sudjana (48), wounded when Islamic hard-liners launched a deadly attack on his minority sect, was sentenced to six months in prison, more than some of those caught on video taking part in the Feb 6 lynching.
(AP, 8/15/11)
2011 Aug 25, In Indonesia Aceh Gov. Irwandi Yusuf (51) agreed to give PT Kallista Alam, a palm oil company, a permit to convert 4,000 acres of peat swamp forest. The land was in the heart of the renowned Leuser Ecosystem already identified as off limits under a presidential moratorium enacted in May.
(SSFC, 12/11/11, p.A22)
2011 Aug 27, Off eastern Indonesia a ferry sank off southern Sulawesi killing at least 12 people. 93 people were rescued, but others were feared trapped.
(SSFC, 8/28/11, p.A6)
2011 Sep 9, In Indonesia the colorful 137-page comic "I Found the Meaning of Jihad," began appearing in bookstores authored by former al-Qaida-linked militant Nasir Abas (42).
(AP, 9/9/11)
2011 Sep 9, Malaysia’s Environment Minister Douglas Uggah Embas sent a letter to his Indonesian counterpart about hundreds of suspected fires on Sumatra island.
(AFP, 9/10/11)
2011 Sep 11, In eastern Indonesia clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs left 5 people dead and more than a dozen injured in Ambon, Maluku province.
(AP, 9/11/11)(AP, 9/12/11)
2011 Sep 12, Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra, in her fist state visit to Indonesia, vowed to improve economic cooperation with Indonesia, particularly in the agriculture, energy and tourism sectors.
(AFP, 9/12/11)
2011 Sep 16, In Indonesia Jakarta city governor Fauzi Bowo called on women not to wear miniskirts when riding on public transport in the capital after a 27-year-old woman was attacked in a public minivan early this month. The next day Governor Bowo apologized for his remarks as some 50 women donned miniskirts to protest his remarks.
(AFP, 9/18/11)
2011 Sep 25, In Indonesia suicide bomber Achmad Yosepa Hayat attacked the packed Bethel Injil Church in Solo, central Java, wounding at least 27 people, some critically, and sending terrified worshippers rushing out into the streets in panic.
(AFP, 9/25/11)(AFP, 10/8/11)
2011 Sep 29, In Indonesia a Casa 212 turboprop plane, carrying 14 passengers including four children, and four crew, went down after departing Medan city, in Sumatra. All 18 were killed.
(AFP, 9/30/11)(AFP, 10/1/11)
2011 Oct 4, An Australian boy (14) was arrested in Indonesia for having bought 0.13 ounces (3.6 grams) of marijuana. He faced 12 years in detention under tough narcotics laws. The boy was released on Dec 4 because he admitted the purchase and repeatedly expressed remorse.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Oct 8, Indonesia's counter-terrorism police arrested five people in connection with the April 15 suicide bombing of a mosque.
(AFP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 10, Indonesian police shot and killed one protester and wounded another as they clashed with striking workers at a mine run by US company Freeport McMoran. The clash erupted when police tried to stop more than 1,000 workers, who began their strike on September 15, from entering a facility at the Grasberg mining complex.
(AFP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 12, Indonesia lawmakers passed a new security bill, the Law on State Intelligence."
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.53)
2011 Oct 13, In Indonesia a 6.0 earthquake jolted the island of Bali, injuring dozens of people and causing panic as hundreds of tourists fled violently shaking buildings.
(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, Greenpeace UK director John Sauven was blocked by immigration officials on arrival at Jakarta international airport and was sent back that night to Britain. He had arrived to campaign against deforestation.
(AFP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 19, In Indonesia at least three people were killed and more than 90 injured during a pro-independence celebration in the Papuan capital Jayapura. Local TV footage showed paramilitary police shooting into the crowd and beating participants with batons and bare fists.
(AFP, 1/30/12)
2011 Oct 21, In Indonesia gunmen shot dead three people at a strike-hit gold and copper mine in the eastern Papua region, raising the number of killings this month to eight at the troubled Grasberg mine, operated by Freeport McMoRan. The strikers, mostly indigenous Melanesians, say they are the lowest paid Freeport workers in the world, earning between $1.50 and $3.50 an hour.
(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct, Indonesia promised to provide all of its citizens with health insurance by 2014.
(Economist, 9/8/12, p.11)
2011 Nov 8, Indonesian police said they had arrested a British-born man accused of molesting nine children following a tip-off from authorities in Britain. The 61-year-old man, who became an Indonesian citizen after changing his nationality, was also allegedly involved in an online child pornography network.
(AFP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 10, The International Union for Conservation of Nature said the Western Black Rhino of Africa has been declared officially extinct. The Javan Rhino was said to be "probably extinct" in Vietnam, after poachers killed the last animal there in 2010. A small but declining population of the Javan Rhino still survived on the Indonesian island of Java.
(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 11, Indonesia opened the 26th Southeast Asian Games with more than 6,000 athletes from 11 countries participating in the biennial games.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 17, The 3-day East Asia Summit (EAS), bringing together the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and eight dialogue partners, opened on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. President Barack Obama became the first US leader to attend an East Asia summit. Leaders from 18 nations gathered to discuss territorial disputes in the South China Sea, democratic reforms in military-dominated Myanmar, mitigating natural disasters, currency, trade and other issues.
(AP, 11/19/11)(Econ, 11/12/11, p.50)
2011 Nov 18, Indonesia’s Lion Air said it is planning to buy 230 planes from Boeing Co. The list price of $21.7 billion will be paid over 12 years though bank financing.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, In eastern Indonesia gunmen killed a mining company guard and wounded two policemen in a patrol car near the large Freeport-McMoRan gold mine.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 19, China’s Premier Wen Jiabao told US President Barack Obama that China would increase the flexibility of the yuan while stressing that reforms had already had an effect. The spoke on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Indonesia.
(AFP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 22, In Indonesia the Southeast Asian Games were formally closed by Indonesia Vice President Budiono. Indonesia earned a table-topping 182 golds among 476 medals, followed by Thailand with 109 among 329.
(AP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 23, Indonesian police said they have arrested two plantation workers for killing 20 endangered orangutans and other apes as pest control for palm oil companies. They were paid one million rupiah ($111) for each dead orangutan and 200,000 rupiah for every monkey killed.
(AFP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 26, In central Indonesia a busy bridge collapsed in East Kalimantan province, killing at least 4 people and injuring 17 others as a bus, cars and motorcycles crashed into the Mahakam river. 40 people were missing.
(AP, 11/26/11)(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Dec 4, In Indonesia 11 people were killed when a high concrete wall collapsed in a housing complex during a heavy downpour in Makassar, Sulawesi island.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 10, Indonesian police in Aceh, the country's most conservative province, raided a punk-rock concert and detained 65 fans, buzzing off their spiky mohawks and stripping away body piercings because of the perceived threat to Islamic values.
(AP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 16, Indonesia's Parliament passed a long-awaited law allowing the government to acquire land for public projects by paying compensation. The law must be signed by the president within 30 days before taking effect.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 17, An overcrowded ship of asylum seekers sank off the island of Java. Indonesian rescuers battled high waves as they searched for survivors. Nearly 250 people fleeing economic and political hardship in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Turkey were trying to reach Australia in search of a better life when their fiberglass ship broke apart. Only 47 people survived.
(AP, 12/18/11)(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 21, In Indonesia 4 people were killed but 100 rescued when an overloaded boat sank. The wooden boat was carrying villagers returning home for the Christmas holidays.
(AFP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 22, Indonesian police arrested eight people in connection with an overloaded boat carrying 250 asylum seekers that capsized on Dec 17 en route to Australia, as the confirmed death toll reached 90.
(AFP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 24, In eastern Indonesia 2 people were killed and 10 others injured during a violent protest as some 1,000 people protested to stop a gold mining project by Australia's Arc Exploration Ltd. and Indonesian partner, PT Sumber Mineral Nusantara. Villagers feared the project will destroy their land and threaten forests and water resources.
(AP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 24, In Indonesia a rampaging wild elephant trampled a farmer to death on Sumatra island. Only 3,000 Sumatran elephants are believed to remain in the wild.
(AP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 27, In eastern Indonesia mudflows streaming from a volcano killed four villagers and about 1,000 others have fled their homes. Mount Gamalama in the Molucca Islands sprang to life this month with a powerful, non-fatal eruption.
(AP, 12/28/11)
2011 Dec 29, In Indonesia a mob led by Sunni fanatics torched Shia property in eastern Java. Local police did nothing to protect the minority Shias.
(Econ, 1/21/12, p.52)
2011 In Saudi Arabia Satinah Binti Jumadi Ahmad, an Indonesian maid, was sentenced to death for murdering her employer's wife in 2007 and stealing money. In 2014 the Indonesian government agreed to pay $1.8 million to free Satinah (41).
(AFP, 3/24/14)(Reuters, 4/4/14)
2011 Indonesia’s population was about 237 million.
(Econ, 2/19/11, p.43)
2012 Jan 16, In Indonesia 30 Pakistani and Afghan immigrants tunneled their way out of an detention center in Surabaya using spoons, nails and wooden sticks. Police soon arrested 11 of the escapees leaving 19 at large.
(AFP, 1/18/12)
2012 Jan 19, Indonesia's forestry ministry said it would conserve nearly half its share of Borneo island, which is covered with dense rainforest, so as to meet a presidential pledge to reduce gas emissions.
(AFP, 1/19/12)
2012 Jan 19, In eastern Indonesia a crocodile swallowed a 10-year-old girl while she played in the Wailolong river with her father, the second death in the same place in two months.
(AFP, 1/19/12)
2012 Jan 20, Indonesian police said a civil servant, who declared himself an atheist on Facebook, has been arrested and is now facing jail for blasphemy after being attacked by an angry mob. Alexander Aan (30), who wrote "God doesn't exist" on his Facebook page, was beaten by a mob of dozens on Jan 18 in his hometown in Pulau Punjung, West Sumatra province. An was also an administrator of a Facebook group promoting atheism with 1,243 followers. His postings no longer appeared online following his arrest.
(AFP, 1/20/12)
2012 Jan 25, In Indonesia 7 people were killed and 51 injured as heavy rains from by Tropical Cyclone Iggy lashed the country, bringing down trees and power lines and damaging hundreds of homes.
(AFP, 1/26/12)
2012 Jan 30, An Indonesian court indicted five activists for treason in the restive Papua region after they raised an outlawed Papuan flag on Oct 19 and declared its independence.
(AFP, 1/30/12)
2012 Feb 13, An Indonesian woman died of H5N1 bird flu a day after being admitted to a hospital in Tangerang district on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta. This was Indonesia's third human death from the deadly disease this year.
(AFP, 2/21/12)
2012 Feb 14, Some 200 Indonesians converged on a Jakarta square to denounce the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), an Islamic vigilante group known for its armed attacks on minorities and moderates.
(AFP, 2/14/12)
2012 Feb 22, Indonesian police and military forces opened fire at the Kerobokan prison on Bali island after a second night of riots. The violence was triggered by the stabbing of an inmate during a brawl a week ago. By night inmates had chased away all 13 guards and seized full control of the compound.
(AFP, 2/22/12)(AP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 27, Indonesia's top court upheld a 15-year jail term against Islamist militant Abu Bakar Bashir for terrorist acts, reversing an earlier decision to slash the sentence to nine years.
(AFP, 2/27/12)
2012 Mar 2, It was reported that thousands of male Indonesian civil servants had their monthly pay transferred to their wives' bank accounts this week in a bid by a local government to stop men having affairs.
(AFP, 3/2/12)
2012 Mar 16, Britain’s Environment Agency said Indonesia has asked Britain to take back 1,800 tons of waste after inspectors found liquid and illegal mixed waste in containers marked as "scrap metal."
(AFP, 3/16/12)
2012 Mar 18, Indonesia police fatally shot five men who were suspected of planning robberies of money changers, jewelers and other targets on the resort island of Bali so they could fund terrorist attacks.
(AP, 3/19/12)
2012 Mar 18, In Indonesia at least 10 members of one family were killed, as their minivan spun out of control after colliding with a moving train and flipped over in a nearby rice field in West Java province.
(AFP, 3/18/12)
2012 Mar 21, In France a package bomb exploded at Indonesia’s embassy in Paris. French investigators soon confirmed that the main suspect is Frederic C. Jean Salvi, who is believed to have studied for several years with Islamic militants in Indonesia.
(AP, 3/29/12)
2012 Mar 27, In Indonesia thousands protested nationwide to reject the government's plan to hike the subsidized fuel price, with sporadic violence breaking out and injuring several people.
(AFP, 3/27/12)
2012 Mar 28, A coalition of environmental groups warned that some 200 critically-endangered orangutans in a protected area of Indonesia’s Aceh province will be wiped out by the end of the year if land clearing in Tripa Swamp is not stopped.
(AFP, 3/28/12)
2012 Mar 29, Thousands of Indonesians rallied nationwide against a planned fuel price hike they say will cause great hardship. Parliament was expected on March 30 to approve raising the fuel price by a third.
(AFP, 3/29/12)
2012 Mar 30, Indonesian police killed two suspected terrorists in a raid on the outskirts of Jakarta. Anti-terror police confiscated a revolver, explosive materials, several books about jihad and documents outlining a bank robbery.
(AFP, 3/30/12)
2012 Apr 8, A tanker travelling from Australia to Singapore found some 120 asylum seekers, all believed to be men from Afghanistan and Iran, on a sinking boat in Indonesian waters and rescued them.
(AFP, 4/8/12)
2012 Apr 9, Indonesia's only province ruled by Islamic law went to the polls to elect its powerful governor, testing a fragile peace following a 30-year war by separatist rebels. Irwandi Yusuf (51), the incumbent who was elected in December 2006, sought a second five-year term as governor of Aceh. Challenger Zaini Abdullah (71) of the powerful Aceh Party won 55% of the vote. Yusuf took 29%.
(AFP, 4/9/12)(Econ, 4/14/12, p.51)
2012 Apr 10, In Indonesia some 120 asylum seekers, mostly Afghans and some Iranians, demanded that Indonesia provide a vessel to allow them to continue to Australia, refusing to leave a tanker that rescued them at sea.
(AFP, 4/10/12)
2012 Apr 11, Indonesian carrier Garuda International and European plane manufacturer Airbus signed a $2.5 billion deal in Jakarta, as British PM David Cameron visited Southeast Asia's biggest economy.
(AFP, 4/11/12)
2012 Apr 11, A huge earthquake struck beneath the Indian Ocean and triggered a burst of large quakes around the world. At least 4 faults ruptured within 100 seconds to create a giant quake with a combined magnitude of 8.7 off the island of Sumatra.
(AFP, 4/11/12)(SFC, 9/27/12, p.A1)
2012 Apr 13, Indonesian police arrested two suspected terrorists in the town of Bima in West Nusa Tenggara province. The suspects were part of a terror group that killed a police officer in a 2010 bank robbery in the north Sumatra town of Medan.
(AFP, 4/15/12)
2012 Apr 14, Indonesian authorities said they had found a boat reported missing en route to Australia and that some 60 asylum seekers it was carrying were believed to have fled. The mostly Afghan asylum seekers on board made a distress call to Australia on April 11, saying they were in rough seas and their boat was sinking.
(AFP, 4/14/12)
2012 Apr 20, Dive operators and conservationists said Indonesia's government is not doing enough to keep illegal fishermen out of the boundaries of the Komodo National Park, a UN World Heritage site. They said enforcement declined greatly following the exit two years ago of a US-based environmental group that helped fight destructive fishing practices.
(AP, 4/20/12)
2012 Apr 21, Indonesian authorities questioned more than 70 mostly Afghan asylum seekers bound for Australia after their boat was hit by a powerful wave, forcing them to swim to shore. There were between 83 and 100 people on the boat. Police made no connection between this case and another reported on April 14.
(AFP, 4/21/12)
2012 Apr 25, In central Indonesia a South African pilot and his Australian passenger were killed when their Susi Air Pilatus PC-6 aircraft crashed. The airline identified the pilot as Jonathan James Willis (28). Indonesian officials identified the passenger as photographer Ian McDougall (57).
(AFP, 4/25/12)
2012 May 1, May Day moved beyond its roots as an international workers' holiday to a day of international protest, with rallies throughout Asia demanding wage increases and marches planned across Europe over government-imposed austerity measures. Thousands of Indonesian workers held Asia's biggest May Day rally, demanding better pay and protection of job security, watched warily by a heavy police and army presence.
(AP, 5/1/12)(AFP, 5/1/12)
2012 May 8, The Indonesia Embassy in Singapore said it is pushing for a ban on cleaning outside windows. 8 Indonesian maids in Singapore have fallen to their deaths from high-rise apartments this year.
(AP, 5/8/12)
2012 May 9, In Indonesia a Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 crashed into a volcano south of Jakarta during a demonstration flight. All 45 people on board were feared dead. The Superjet, Russia's first new model of passenger jet since the fall of the Soviet Union two decades ago, was in Indonesia as part of a 6-nation tour of Asia aimed at drumming up new customers.
(AFP, 5/9/12)(AP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 15, In Indonesia a critically-endangered Sumatran elephant was found dead in Aceh province, the second death from suspected poisoning within a month.
(AFP, 5/16/12)
2012 May 24, In Indonesia a landslide killed 8 of 16 people illegally mining for gold, after days of heavy rain hit a mountainous part of western Java, the country's main island.
(AFP, 5/25/12)
2012 May 27, In Indonesia 3 people were killed and five badly injured when fans pelted each other with rocks and bricks in a violent clash at a football match in Jakarta.
(AFP, 5/27/12)
2012 May 27, Lady Gaga canceled her sold-out June 3 show in Indonesia after Islamist hard-liners threatened violence, claiming her sexy clothes and provocative dance moves would corrupt the youth.
(AP, 5/27/12)
2012 May 30, Indonesian maids began returning to work in Malaysia three years after a ban was enforced because of numerous abuse cases. Fewer arrived than had been expected.
(AFP, 6/3/12)
2012 May 31, In western Indonesia 3 critically-endangered Sumatran elephants were found dead in an oil palm plantation. They were believed to have been poisoned.
(AFP, 6/3/12)
2012 Jun 14, In Indonesia mobs stabbed an onlooker to death, injured four other people and burned five shops, four cars and more than 20 motorbikes, hours after they learned police had shot and killed Mako Tabuni, the deputy chairman of the National Committee for West Papua.
(AP, 6/15/12)
2012 Jun 14, In Indonesia Alexander Aan (30) was sentenced to 30 months of prison and a $10,600 fine for posting pro-atheist and anti-Islam comments on Facebook. He was also fined the equivalent of $10,600. Aan was arrested in January after an angry mob reacting to the Facebook posts stormed his office, where he worked as a civil servant.
(http://tinyurl.com/7nvh7m3)
2012 Jun 17, In Indonesia a boat carrying at least 70 passengers and crew on board, went down after it was battered by waves up to five meters (16 feet) high in Maluku province. 12 people were rescued and 58 remained missing.
(AFP, 6/17/12)(AP, 6/19/12)
2012 Jun 18, In Indonesia 2 tribesmen were killed when rival groups armed with bows and arrows clashed in Indonesia's restive Papua province.
(AFP, 6/18/12)
2012 Jun 21, An Indonesian court sentenced bombmaker Umar Patek (45) to 20 years' jail for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings, bringing to an end a 10-year probe into the nation's deadliest act of terror.
(AFP, 6/21/12)
2012 Jun 21, An Indonesian air force plane, a Fokker F-27, slammed into a military housing complex and ignited a huge fireball while trying to land in Jakarta, killing all seven people aboard as well as two toddlers, their grandmother and aunt in one of 8 damaged homes.
(AP, 6/21/12)(AP, 6/22/12)
2012 Jun 21, Indonesian and Australian navies launched efforts to rescue survivors after a Sri Lanka refugee boat carrying about 200 people, mostly men from Afghanistan, capsized on its way to Christmas Island. Scores were feared drowned in an apparent attempt to seek asylum. 110 people were rescued and about 90 remained missing. On Jan 28 an Indonesian court sentenced Javaid Mahmood (55), a Pakistani man, for attempting to smuggle the asylum seekers. He was the 2nd man found guilty in the case.
(AFP, 6/21/12)(AFP, 6/22/12)(SFC, 1/29/14, p.A2)
2012 Jul 2, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono arrived in Australia as a political storm over people-smuggling raged.
(AFP, 7/2/12)
2012 Jul 3, Australia and Indonesia agreed to work more closely to crack down on people-smuggling, with visiting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono saying his people were victims of the trade as well.
(AFP, 7/3/12)
2012 Jul 28, In Indonesia a group of 150 youths, some as young as 13 and carrying swords and golf clubs, raided the De Most bar in south Jakarta late at night, smashing bottles of alcoholic drinks and damaging the property. Police arrested 62 people, most of them minors, who attacked the bar for serving alcohol during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
(AFP, 7/30/12)
2012 Jul 30, In Indonesia a man died of bird flu, the country's ninth fatal case this year.
(AFP, 8/11/12)
2012 Aug 18, In Indonesia a magnitude-6.3 quake struck near Palu city on Sulawesi Island. At least 6 people were killed.
(AP, 8/20/12)
2012 Aug 26, In Indonesia a Sunni mob attack on Shiites in Sampang, East Java province, saw two men killed with sickles and dozens of homes torched.
(AFP, 8/27/12)
2012 Aug 29, An asylum-seeker boat heading for Australia disappeared off the Indonesian coast with 150 people aboard. Over the next 24 hours rescuers recovered 54 survivors, mostly males from Afghanistan.
(AFP, 8/30/12)(AFP, 8/31/12)
2012 Aug 30, Indonesian fishermen found 50 Sri Lankan asylum seekers, who were trying to reach Australia, on a boat with a broken engine and brought them ashore.
(AFP, 9/1/12)
2012 Aug 31, Indonesian fishermen rescued 43 starving, dehydrated Sri Lankans who had been adrift in a boat for nine days after their engine broke down while trying to reach Australia to seek asylum.
(AP, 8/31/12)
2012 Aug 31, In Indonesia 2 suspected militants were killed in a shootout with police in central Java’s Solo town. The shooting also left one officer dead. Police were attempting to capture a group responsible for the death of a policeman a day earlier.
(SSFC, 9/2/12, p.A7)
2012 Sep 4, Indonesia's justice minister said that his country would extradite Sayed Abbas, an Afghan-born human trafficking kingpin, to Australia next year. He was suspected of having arranged the voyage of a vessel that sank in December, killing some 200 Australia-bound asylum seekers.
(AFP, 9/4/12)
2012 Sep 8, In Indonesia a suspected militant was critically injured when a bomb apparently being prepared for a terrorist attack exploded in a house near Jakarta. At least three other people living nearby were injured along with two suspects who fled.
(AP, 9/9/12)
2012 Sep 17, In Indonesia hundreds of people clashed with police outside the US Embassy in Jakarta.
(SFC, 9/18/12, p.A4)
2012 Sep 26, In Indonesia a passenger ferry collided with a ship believed to be carrying liquefied natural gas and sank west of Sumatra island, killing at least eight people.
(AP, 9/26/12)
2012 Oct 3, In Indonesia more than 2 million factory workers went on a one-day strike across the country demanding better benefits and protesting the hiring of contract workers.
(AP, 10/3/12)
2012 Oct 27, Indonesia's anti-terror squad arrested 11 people over the last 24 hours suspected of planning a range of attacks on domestic and foreign targets including the US and Australian embassies. The suspects belonged to a new group called the Sunni Movement for Indonesian Society, or HASMI.
(AP, 10/27/12)
2012 Oct 27, An Indonesia conservationist said that and orangutan, recently shot with an air rifle, has been rescued in the Indonesian part of Borneo. Rescuers worked to remove 104 pellets from her body. In 2011 conservationists found that villagers living on the Indonesian side of Borneo killed at least 750 endangered orangutans in a year, some to protect crops from being raided and others for their meat.
(AP, 10/27/12)
2012 Nov 3, Indonesian anti-terrorism forces shot and killed an alleged militant and arrested another in a predawn raid in Central Sulawesi province.
(AP, 11/3/12)
2012 Nov 13, Indonesia’s Constitutional Court said parts of the country’s 2001 oil-and-gas law were unconstitutional. The court dissolved BPMgas, the state regulator.
(Econ, 11/24/12, p.72)
2012 Dec 5, In Indonesia Jakarta police spokesman Col. Rikwanto said any police officer over 100kg (220 pounds) must follow a weight-loss program started because of the growing number of overweight officers and the perception that they are unable to provide public protection.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2012 Dec 18, An Indonesian health official said a boy (4) has died of H5N1 bird flu bringing the total to 160. At least 360 people have died worldwide from this virus since 2003.
(SFC, 12/19/12, p.A2)
2012 Indonesia’s population was about 238 million.
(Econ, 2/25/12, p.51)
2013 Jan 5, Indonesia anti-terror police shot and killed 5 suspected Islamist militants over the last 24 hours in raids on the island of Sumbawa.
(SSFC, 1/6/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 17, Indonesia's army deployed rubber boats in the capital's business district to rescue people trapped in floods that inundated much of the city of 14 million people. At least 20 people died and some 40,000 were displaced.
(AP, 1/17/13)(Econ, 1/26/13, p.38)
2013 Jan 21, In Indonesia police said flooding in Jakarta has killed at least 26 people and sent more than 100,000 fleeing from their homes.
(SFC, 1/22/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 22, An Indonesian court sentenced British grandmother Lindsay June Sandiford (56), to death for smuggling 8.4 pounds of cocaine worth $2.5 million in her suitcase onto the resort island of Bali — even though prosecutors had sought only a 15-year sentence. Indonesia has not carried out an execution since 2008, when 10 people were put to death.
(AP, 1/22/13)(SFC, 4/9/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 22, A magnitude 6.0 earthquake rocked parts of western Indonesia, killing a 9-year-old girl, panicking residents and ruining homes.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 27, In Indonesia the death toll from two separate landslides in West Sumatra province rose to 16.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 28, In eastern Indonesia a mob of wild monkeys has gone on a rampage in a village in South Sulawesi province, entering houses and attacking residents. Seven people were injured.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 29, An Indonesian court sentenced British citizen Julian Anthony Ponder (43) to six years in prison for his role in a cocaine-smuggling case that led to a death sentence last week for a British grandmother.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Feb 17, The Harita Bauxite, a bulk carrier, sank near the Philippines. 10 of 24 crewmen, mostly from Myanmar, were rescued. One later died and the rest remianed missing. The vessel was thought to be carrying nickel ore from Indonesia.
(SSFC, 4/7/13, p.46)
2013 Feb 21, In Indonesia some 20 assailants killed eight soldiers killed in two attacks in Papua province. The assailants were identified as members of a local separatist group led by Goliat Tabuni.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Mar 23, In Indonesia 8 members of the Kopassus special forces forced their way into Cebongan prison in southern Java. Sgt. Ucok Tigor Simbolon shot dead 4 men, who had been detained on suspicion of killing a soldier. In Sep Sgt Simbolon was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 11 years in prison. Two accomplices were sentenced to 6 and 8 years.
(Econ, 9/14/13, p.53)
2013 Apr 5, In Indonesia’s in North Sumatra province Buddhist fishermen and Rohingya Muslim asylum seekers from Myanmar brawled with knives and rocks at an immigration detention center, leaving 8 dead and another 15 injured. On Dec 5 a court in medan sentenced 14 Rohingya to nine months in jail for the role in the deadly brawl.
(AP, 4/5/13)(SFC, 12/6/13, p.A2)
2013 Apr 13, In Indonesia a Lion Air plane carrying more than 100 passengers overshot a runway on the Indonesian resort island of Bali and crashed into the sea. All of the passengers and crew were evacuated from the plane. 7 passengers were taken to Sanglah hospital with head wounds and broken bones.
(AP, 4/13/13)
2013 Apr 15, The annual Goldman Environmental Prize was awarded to six activists for their efforts to protect the world ecosystem. They included Nohra Padilla (50) of Colombia, who began organizing waste pickers in Bogota in 1990 into the Bogota Recyclers’ Assoc.; Rossano Ercolini (57) of Italy for setting up a trash collection and conservation system; Kimberly Wasserman (36) of Chicago her grassroots campaign to close polluting coal-fired power plants; Aleta Baun (50) of Indonesia for organizing villages on west Timor against mining companies clearing forests for marble; Azzam Alwash (54) of Iraq for his efforts to restore Mesopotamian marshland; Jonathan Deal of South Africa for his efforts against hydraulic fracturing in Karoo.
(SFC, 4/15/13, p.A10)
2013 Apr 27, In Indonesia an Australia woman (28) was attacked and raped while vacationing with her family near Bali’s popular Kuta beach. Her assailant also stole stole three iPads, two cellphones and $154 in cash.
(AP, 4/29/13)
2013 May 2, Indonesia police arrested Achmad Taufiq (22) and Sefa Riano (29). They were members of a cell allegedly involved in recent attacks against Indonesian police. The suspects told authorities they wanted to retaliate against Myanmar for recent attacks on Rohingya Muslims there.
(AP, 5/3/13)
2013 May 3, In Indonesia up to 2,000 police were deployed to secure the Myanmar Embassy and its ambassador's house before a demonstration by the Islamic Defenders Front. Several hundred protesters showed up dressed in white with some holding banners that read: "We want jihad" and "Stop genocide in Myanmar."
(AP, 5/3/13)
2013 May 13, Indonesia approved a two-year extension to a landmark ban on clearing primary rainforests and peatlands. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed the decree to continue the 2011 moratorium, which barred new logging and palm oil plantation permits under a $1 billion deal with Norway.
(AP, 5/16/13)
2013 May 14, In Indonesia 25 workers were trapped after the collapse at a giant gold and copper Grasberg mine in Mimika district in Papua. On May 22 the last of 28 miners killed was recovered.
(AP, 5/15/13)(SFC, 5/20/13, p.A2)(SFC, 5/23/13, p.A2)
2013 May 16, Indonesia’s Pres. Yudhoyono extended a 2-year moratorium on forest clearing concessions for another 2 years.
(Econ, 5/25/13, p.40)
2013 Jun 1, In Indonesia a truck driver died at the Grasberg mine, owned by Arizona-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., a day after he was injured when liquid ore material flowed into his vehicle.
(AP, 6/3/13)
2013 Jun 3, Indonesia's government said it has ordered that production be halted at a gold and copper mine owned by Arizona-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., during an investigation into recent fatal accidents at the Grasberg mine in easternmost Papua province.
(AP, 6/3/13)
2013 Jun 4, WWF Indonesia said killings of Sumatran elephants are on the rise, with 29 either shot or poisoned last year, including 14 in Aceh province. The report came 3 days after 2 dead Sumatran elephants were found near a paper plantation in Riau, allegedly poisoned by poachers.
(AP, 6/4/13)
2013 Jun 6, Organizers said Miss World has axed the famed bikinis from this year's pageant in Indonesia, replacing the skimpy swimsuits with conservative beach sarongs amid mounting protests from hard-line Muslim groups.
(AP, 6/6/13)
2013 Jun 14, In Indonesia Rusli Zainal, governor of Riau since 2003, was arrested on charges that included dishing out illegal logging permits to finance a forthcoming re-election campaign.
(Econ, 6/29/13, p.39)
2013 Jun 16, Smoke from fires in Indonesia, an annual result of land clearing for palm oil production, again began to smother Singapore and large parts of Malaysia.
(Econ, 6/29/13, p.39)
2013 Jun 20, In Singapore the Pollutant Standards Index, surged to a record reading of 371. People were urged to remain indoors as a smoky haze wrought by forest fires in neighboring Indonesia worsened dramatically. Nearby Malaysia closed 200 schools and banned open burning in some areas.
(AP, 6/20/13)
2013 Jul 2, In Indonesia a magnitude 6.1 earthquake killed at least 22 people and injured hundreds in Aceh province.
(AP, 7/3/13)
2013 Jul 11, In Indonesia some 200 prisoners escaped from a maximum security prison in Medan after a protest over a lack of water and electricity turned violent.
(Reuters, 7/11/13)
2013 Jul 12, In Indonesia security forces regained control of a Tanjung Gusta prison in Medan where inmates had set fires and started a deadly riot that left 5 people dead and hundreds of prisoners, including convicted terrorists, on the loose.
(AP, 7/12/13)
2013 Jul 14, In eastern Indonesia 17 people were killed in a stadium stampede after spectators rioted just before midnight to protest a local boxer's loss in a championship match at the Kota Lama Sport Stadium.
(AP, 7/15/13)
2013 Jul 23, A boat sank off the southern coast of Indonesia. At least 15 people died. 189 of an estimated 204 suspected asylum seekers were rescued. Most were from Iraq, Iran and Sri Lanka.
(Reuters, 7/24/13)(SFC, 7/27/13, p.A2)
2013 Aug 10, In eastern Indonesia gushing hot lava from the erupting Mount Rokatenda volcano killed 6 people sleeping in a beach village on Palue island. Ash and smoke shot up to 2 km into the air.
(AP, 8/10/13)
2013 Aug 13, Indonesia's anti-graft agency arrested Rudi Rubiandini the head of energy regulator SKKMigas to probe allegations he took more than half a million dollars from an oil firm. Pres. Yudhoyono suspended him the next day.
(Reuters, 8/14/13)(Econ, 8/24/13, p.38)
2013 Aug 17, Indonesian police said unidentified gunmen have killed 2 police officers near Jakarta.
(SSFC, 8/18/13, p.A3)
2013 Sep 5, In Indonesia some 1,000 members of the Islamic group Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia resumed protests against the Miss World pageant to be held this weekend in Bali.
(SFC, 9/6/13, p.A4)
2013 Sep 8, Indonesia moved the final round of the Miss World pageant from Java island to Bali amid protests by hard-line Muslims.
(SSFC, 9/8/13, p.A3)
2013 Sep 12, The Netherlands sought to "close a difficult chapter" with its former colony Indonesia by publicly apologising for mass killings carried out by the Dutch army in the 1940s war of independence.
(AFP, 9/12/13)
2013 Sep 27, At least 22 people, mostly children, drowned and scores were missing after an Australia-bound boat, carrying asylum-seekers from Lebanon, Pakistan and Iraq, sank off Indonesia in rough seas.
(AFP, 9/27/13)(SFC, 9/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Sep 28, Miss Philippines, Megan Young 23), was crowned Miss World 2013 in a glittering finale on the Indonesian resort island of Bali amid tight security following weeks of hardline Muslim protests.
(AFP, 9/28/13)
2013 Oct 2, Indonesia’s anti-corruption commission (KPK) detained Akil Mochtar, the chief justice of the contitutional court, and seized almost $260,000 in cash. KPK said the money was a bribe to rig a court ruling over a disputed district election.
(Econ, 10/12/13, p.52)
2013 Oct 7, The 2-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit opened in Bali, Indonesia. At its end leaders agreed that that the Doha round of global trade talks were at an impasse and urged trade ministers to reconvene in December to get negotiations back on track.
(SFC, 10/8/13, p.A4)(SFC, 10/9/13, p.A5)
2013 Oct 17, Indonesian police shot dead Suardi, a suspected militant, and arrested two others, in an ongoing clampdown on terrorism. All three were said to be part of a network led by Abu Uswah, who allegedly taught bomb-making and was shot dead in a raid in January.
(AFP, 10/18/13)
2013 Oct 22, Greenpeace said consumer products such as Oreo cookies and Gilette shaving cream were among an array of products driving the destruction of Indonesia’s forests. Greenpeace accused Singapore-based Wilmar Int’l. for destroying forests in Indonesia to produce palm oil.
(SSFC, 10/27/13, p.A3)
2013 Oct 24, Indonesian police probing the murder of a young woman at a luxury villa stumbled upon a secret collection of exotic animals, including a cross-breed of a lion and tiger. The woman (23) had allegedly had her throat slit by a maintenance worker at the property south of the capital Jakarta after she refused his sexual advances.
(AFP, 10/30/13)
2013 Oct 31, In Indonesia tens of thousands of workers went on strike across the country as its citizens seek a greater share of the spoils from stellar growth.
(AFP, 10/31/13)
2013 Nov 1, In Indonesia tens of thousands of workers went on strike across the country for a second straight day, calling for huge salary hikes as Southeast Asia's top economy enjoys a prolonged boom.
(AFP, 11/1/13)
2013 Nov 3, Hackers claiming links to international activist group Anonymous (Anonymous Indonesia and Anonymous Philippines) defaced dozens of websites belonging to Australian businesses and Philippine government agencies.
(Reuters, 11/3/13)
2013 Nov 3, Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung volcano erupted for the third time in as many months on the western island of Sumatra, forcing hundreds of villagers to evacuate.
(Reuters, 11/4/13)
2013 Nov 9, In Indonesia 13 people died when an Indonesian army helicopter carrying construction workers to build a military outpost crashed in the jungles of Borneo.
(AFP, 11/9/13)
2013 Nov 21, Indonesia's military halted training with Australia as a decision to suspend cooperation due to spying claims took effect, while angry demonstrators in Jakarta declared they were "ready for war" with Canberra.
(AFP, 11/21/13)
2013 Nov 30, In South Africa dozens of Indonesian fishermen, who spent months stranded in Cape Town's harbor, sleeping in cramped and suffocating quarters, were taken ashore to a repatriation center after being stuck at sea on Taiwanese vessels for years without pay.
(AFP, 12/1/13)
2013 Dec 2, Indonesia's anti-graft agency questioned the energy minister over a corruption scandal that has ensnared top oil officials and threatened to tarnish President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's final year in office.
(Reuters, 12/2/13)
2013 Dec 3, In Indonesia top trade officials began talks that will either produce an eleventh hour deal that could boost the global economy by $1 trillion or possibly spell the end of the World Trade Organization's relevance as a forum for negotiations.
(AP, 12/3/13)
2013 Dec 5, Australia and Indonesia announced that they would set up a hotline as part of efforts to repair relations following media reports last month that Canberra had spied on top Indonesian officials.
(Reuters, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 7, In, Balia, Indonesia WTO leaders, ending a 4-day meeting, reached a deal to boost global trade. It was approved by the 159 member economies for the first time in nearly two decades, keeping alive the possibility that a broader agreement to create a level playing field for rich and poor countries can be reached in the future.
(AP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 9, In Indonesia a crowded commuter train crashed into a fuel tanker on the outskirts of Jakarta, killing at least 10 people in a huge explosion and injuring scores.
(Reuters, 12/9/13)
2013 Dec 16, In Indonesia Canadian activist Jeremy Ball visited jailed independence supporters in Papua at the end of a six-month bicycle tour to highlight human rights concerns about the restive eastern region.
(AP, 12/17/13)
2013 Dec 25, Hundreds of Indonesian Christians held a Christmas service in front of the presidential palace in Jakarta to protest at the closure of their churches due to pressure by Muslim hardliners.
(AFP, 12/25/13)
2013 Dec 27, In Indonesia Ambar Arianto Mulyo (59), a Bali Hyatt hotel security employee, was strangled to death after he tried to capture a 15-foot python.
(SFC, 12/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 30, In Indonesia Islamic police in the sharia stronghold of Banda Aceh seized thousands of firecrackers and cardboard trumpets after the city administration banned New Year's Eve celebrations for the first time.
(AFP, 12/31/13)
2013 Dec 31, In Indonesia more than 19,000 people were displaced by the Mount Sinabung volcano on Sumatra that has been erupting for months and shot lava into the air nine times overnight.
(AFP, 12/31/13)
2013 Dec 31, Indonesian police shot dead six suspected terrorists and arrested another in a New Year's Eve raid near Jakarta that broke out into an hours-long gun battle.
(AFP, 12/31/13)
2014 Jan 10, Indonesia's anti-graft agency arrested a former senior member of President Yudhoyono's party, in a long-running case that has damaged the ruling party's popularity ahead of elections.
(Reuters, 1/10/14)
2014 Jan 12, An Indonesian law banning the export of unprocessed minerals took effect, with the government aiming to boost local operations and create more jobs and mining companies warning of losses.
(AP, 1/12/14)
2014 Jan 15, In Indonesia at least 13 people were killed after torrential rain triggered flash floods and landslides on northern Sulawesi island. Some 40,000 fled their homes as water surged through the city of Manado and surrounding areas.
(AFP, 1/15/14)
2014 Jan 17, Indonesia said that it would increase naval patrols after territorial violations by Australia as it tried to turn back asylum seekers. The Australian government apologised unreservedly to Jakarta after its navy "inadvertently" violated Indonesian waters during border security operations.
(Reuters, 1/17/14)(AFP, 1/17/14)
2014 Jan 19, In Indonesia monsoon rains inundated parts of Jakarta, forcing more than 30,000 people to evacuate.
(Reuters, 1/19/14)
2014 Jan 20, Law Wan-tung (44) of Hong Kong was arrested on suspicion of abusing her Indonesian maids as she tried to leave for Thailand. The case sparked widespread outrage and drawn fresh attention to the risks faced by the migrant community. Erwiana Sulistyaningsih (23), a maid who said she had been badly beaten by her employer, was recovering at a hospital in Sragen, central Java, after flying out from Hong Kong in early January.
(Reuters, 1/20/14)(SFC, 1/23/14, p.A2)(AP, 4/4/14)
2014 Jan 21, An Indonesian court sentenced an Islamist militant to 7˝ years in prison for masterminding a plot to bomb the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta.
(SFC, 1/22/14, p.A2)
2014 Jan 22, In Indonesia Andrea Waldeck, British woman, was jailed for 14 years but escaped the death penalty after admitting that she smuggled crystal methamphetamine into Indonesia from China. she had confessed to taking the drugs through the airport in Surabaya.
(AFP, 1/22/14)
2014 Jan 28, In Indonesia two landslides triggered by torrential rain killed at least 19 people and left 10 others missing on the main island of Java.
(AP, 1/28/14)
2014 Feb 1, Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung volcano, that has been rumbling for months, unleased a major eruption killing at least 15 people just a day after authorities allowed thousands of villagers who had been evacuated to return to its slopes.
(AP, 2/1/14)(AFP, 2/3/14)
2014 Feb 3, Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung shot hot ash and rocks high into the air again, halting a search for any more victims from its Feb 1 eruption.
(AFP, 2/3/14)
2014 Feb 6, In eastern Indonesia a police officer and a suspected Islamic militant were killed in gunfire near a mountainous village believed to be a terrorist hideout. Preliminary investigation indicated that the men were part of a terrorist group led by Abu Wardah Santoso, Indonesia's most wanted terror suspect.
(AP, 2/6/14)
2014 Feb 14, In Indonesia a volcanic eruption on Java sent a 17 km (10 mile) ash cloud into the air. More than 56,000 people were forced to flee their homes and four 4 were killed when Mount Kelud erupted.
(Reuters, 2/15/14)
2014 Feb 14, In Indonesia seven female Japanese divers went missing off the resort island of Bali as strong winds and heavy rains hit Crystal Bay. Five of the divers were found alive on Feb 17. On Feb 18 the body of a female diver was found 18 miles west of the rescued divers.
(AP, 2/15/14)(AP, 2/17/14)(AP, 2/18/14)
2014 Feb 20, Rights groups criticized an agreement between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia aimed at giving Indonesian maids more protection in the kingdom, with one saying "justice is still far away" for them.
(AFP, 2/20/14)
2014 Feb 24, Indonesian officials said floods and landslides triggered by torrential rains killed at least 11 people in Papua province.
(SFC, 2/25/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 1, Japan pledged more than $200 million in aid to help the Palestinian Authority, as representatives in Indonesia from 22 nations reiterated their support of the Palestinians' quest for their own state.
(AP, 3/1/14)
2014 Mar 5, In Indonesia an explosion at a navy ammunition warehouse killed one man and injured more than 80 other navy personnel.
(AP, 3/5/14)
2014 Mar 9, Two Indonesian naval personnel were killed during an inspection aboard a Thai fishing boat in Indonesian waters. Thailand police soon arrested three suspects. Four more were arrested in April.
(AP, 4/4/14)
2014 Mar 12, In Indonesia Rusli Zainal, a former governor of Riau, was found guilty of graft and sentenced to 14 years in prison. He had issued logging licenses that resulted in forest destruction.
(Econ, 3/22/14, p.42)
2014 Mar 14, Indonesia reported that Pres. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered relevant ministers and local authorities in peat-rich Riau province to handle forest fires that have been sending out heavy smoke threatening health and disrupting flight operations. Officers in the armed forces were said to be involved in illegal logging and burning.
(AP, 3/14/14)(Econ, 3/22/14, p.42)
2014 Mar 14, Indonesia’s Mega42wati Sukarnoputri, a former president and head of the opposition PDI-P, anointed Joko Widodo, Jakarta’s popular mayor, as her candidate for president.
(Econ, 3/22/14, p.41)
2014 Mar 22, Indonesia police said they arrested three suspected Islamic extremists last week after intercepting a bomb shipment intended to attack brothels. The arrests included Ambo Intang, who was sought for his alleged involvement in the 2012 killings of two policemen in in the Central Sulawesi district of Poso.
(AP, 3/22/14)
2014 Apr 7, Film censors in Indonesia and Malaysia banned the biblical epic "Noah," saying that the portrayal of the ark-building prophet by Russell Crowe was against Islamic laws. Depictions of any prophet are shunned in Islam to avoid worship of a person rather than God.
(AP, 4/7/14)
2014 Apr 9, Indonesia held parliamentary elections. 190 million citizens were eligible to vote. Exit polls gave the opposition PDI-P 19% of the vote.
(Reuters, 4/9/14)(Econ, 4/5/14, p.33)
2014 Apr 18, Off eastern Indonesia a boat loaded with people in a Good Friday procession capsized in high waves, leaving dozens of people missing and at least 7 dead.
(AP, 4/18/14)
2014 Apr 28, Six environmental advocates won this year's Goldman Prize. India's Ramesh Agrawal received the prize for helping villagers fight a large coal mine in Chhattisgarh state. American lawyer Helen Slottje received the award for helping communities fight fracking in New York State. Peru's Ruth Buendia was recognized for helping to prevent construction of two large dams that would have displaced nearly 10,000 indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon. Russian zoologist Suren Gazaryan won for defending protected areas around Sochi from illegal land seizures for Olympic construction projects. South Africa's Desmond D'Sa won for helping to close down one of the country's largest toxic waste dumps. Indonesian biologist Rudi Putra won for helping to shutter 26 illegal palm oil plantations that were causing deforestation in northern Sumatra.
(AP, 4/28/14)
2014 Apr 29, In Indonesia Rudi Rubiandin, the former head of energy regulator SKKMigas, was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in a major graft scandal that reached the top levels of the oil ministry.
(Reuters, 4/29/14)
2014 May 7, An Indonesian official said a woman who was gang-raped by men accusing her of having extramarital sex may be caned publicly for violating Islamic law. The widow (25) said she was raped by eight men on May 1 who allegedly found her with a married man in her house. The men reportedly beat the man, doused the two with sewage, and then turned them over to Islamic police in conservative Aceh province.
(AP, 5/7/14)
2014 May 12, Indonesia said it has banned the popular video sharing site Vimeo, because it contains nudity, which officials in the world's most populous Muslim country consider to be pornographic material.
(AP, 5/13/14)
2014 May 13, Canada-based BlackBerry launched a new lower-cost smartphone designed specifically for Indonesia in an attempt to win back market share that has plunged in recent years but remains higher than in many other nations.
(AP, 5/13/14)
2014 May 14, Indonesia’s anti-corruption agency identified the head of parliament's energy committee and a company executive as suspects in an ongoing graft scandal involving energy regulator SKKMigas.
(Reuters, 5/14/14)
2014 May 19, The Philippines said it has reached an agreement over the weekend with Indonesia on a sea border dispute after 20 years of negotiations, and hopes to sign the pact soon.
(AP, 5/19/14)
2014 May 22, In Indonesia Anne Marie Drozdz (40), a British woman, was found dead in the cultural tourism district of Ubud, Bali island, and that there were signs her villa had been broken into. Police on May 24 arrested construction worker Hambali (32) in Jakarta, where he fled following the robbery and murder of Drodzd.
(AFP, 5/23/14)(AFP, 5/25/14)
2014 Jun 3, In Indonesia a building under construction collapsed on the island of Borneo, killing two workers and burying at least 13 others in Samarinda, the provincial capital of East Kalimantan.
(AP, 6/3/14)
2014 Jun 18, Indonesian officials officially shut a massive prostitution complex in Surabaya amid protests by sex workers, who said their livelihoods were being destroyed. Tri Rismaharini, the first female mayor of Surabaya, had pledged to close down all brothels in the city.
(AP, 6/18/14)
2014 Jun 18, An apparently overloaded boat carrying Indonesian illegal migrants heading home for Ramadan sank overnight in rough seas off western Malaysia. 27 people were missing and 9 were confirmed dead. Nine people were missing after a boat carrying 27 Indonesian workers overturned off Malaysia's west coast in a 2nd similar accident. By the weekend the confirmed death toll from two boat accidents rose to 16 with dozens of others still missing.
(AFP, 6/18/14)(AP, 6/19/14)(AFP, 6/22/14)
2014 Jun 24, Indonesia became the newest country to mandate graphic photo warnings on cigarette packs, joining more than 40 other nations or territories that have adopted similar regulations in recent years. Authorities said major tobacco companies have largely ignored a deadline to put graphic health warnings on all cigarette packs.
(AP, 6/24/14)(AP, 6/27/14)
2014 Jun 30, In Indonesia an antigraft court sentenced Akil Mochtar, a former chief constitutional court justice, to life imprisonment for accepting bribes to fix results in two local elections.
(SFC, 7/2/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 9, In Indonesia some 190 million voters headed to the polls in a hotly contested election for president in Indonesia. Jakarta Gov. Joko Widodo and ex-army general Prabowo Subianto both declared a win after the quick count results were released. The election commission, which began tallying the votes, will produce the official results by July 22.
(AP, 7/9/14)(AP, 7/10/14)
2014 Jul 14, An overloaded fishing boat carrying some 70 illegal Indonesian migrants capsized off southern Malaysia, killing at least 2 people with 9 left missing.
(AFP, 7/15/14)
2014 Jul 22, Indonesia officials said Jakarta Gov. Joko Widodo won the country's presidential election with 53 percent of the vote. Former Gen. Prabowo Subianto, declared he was withdrawing from the contest shortly before the final numbers were released by the Election Commission, saying there was massive fraud during the election, and that it was unfair and undemocratic.
(AP, 7/22/14)
2014 Jul 25, In Indonesia Prabowo Subianto, the ex-general who lost the presidential election to Jakarta governor Joko Widodo, mounted a legal challenge to the result, alleging widespread electoral fraud and irregularities in vote counting.
(AFP, 7/25/14)
2014 Aug 12, In Indonesia the body of Sheila von Wiese-Mack (62), a Chicago-based woman, was found in a bloodied suitcase on the resort island of Bali. Her daughter, Heather Mack (19) and boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer (21) were arrested on Aug 13 and detained as suspects. Schaeffer later confessed to the murder and Heather Mack acknowledged helping him stuff the body into the suitcase.
(AP, 8/15/14)(AP, 9/19/14)
2014 Aug 28, Australia and Indonesia signed a new security agreement to mend a relationship badly damaged by allegations last year that Australia was listening to the telephone conversations of Pres. Susilo Bambang.
(AP, 8/28/14)
2014 Sep 13, Indonesia's elite anti-terrorism squad arrested 7 suspected militants, including 4 Turks believed to be planning to join a jihadist group in eastern Indonesia with possible links to the Islamic State group. Four of the suspects were members of China's ethnic Uighur minority community.
(AP, 9/14/14)(AP, 9/15/14)
2014 Sep 17, Indonesia added more water-dropping helicopters to fight forest and plantation wildfires that are spreading haze across the region, limiting visibility and increasing air pollution.
(AP, 9/17/14)
2014 Sep 24, In Indonesia Anas Urbaningrum, a former top leader of the ruling Democratic Party, was sentenced to eight years in prison for corruption and money laundering.
(AP, 9/24/14)
2014 Sep 24, In Indonesia scientists released some 3,000 tiny wasps in a secure tent-like habitat to monitor their success in an effort to halt an infestation of cassava crops by mealybugs. Scientists hoped their number would multiply to 450,000 prior to release in a month following government approval.
(SFC, 9/25/14, p.A6)
2014 Sep 26, Indonesian authorities arrested Hans Peter Naumann (48), a German man, for allegedly trying to smuggle 239 (8.4 ounce) of cocaine onto Indonesia's resort island of Bali, some of it hidden inside his stomach.
(AP, 9/27/14)
2014 Sep 27, In Indonesia lawmakers in Banda Aceh, a conservative Muslim province, passed a law that punishes gay sex by public caning and subjects non-Muslims to strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law.
(AP, 9/27/14)
2014 Oct 8, In Indonesia rescuers and fishermen found 8 survivors and 17 bodies after two days of searching for a motorboat lost since its captain reported an engine failure on Oct 6 off of Java island. Local reports said it was carrying 49 people who were to have attended a wedding ceremony.
(AP, 10/8/14)
2014 Oct 9, Indonesia officially launched a $263 million project to build a giant sea wall along the coast of its capital, Jakarta, in an attempt to protect businesses and homes from flooding.
(Reuters, 10/9/14)
2014 Oct 13, US plane giant Boeing said Indonesian flag carrier Garuda has placed an order for 50 planes worth almost $5 billion.
(AFP, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 20, Indonesia's Joko Widodo took over as president of the world's third-largest democracy. Widodo said that he wanted his nation to be self-sufficient in food staples sugar, rice and corn within four years.
(Reuters, 10/20/14)
2014 Oct 21, In Indonesia Robert Ellis (60), a British man, was found dead with his throat slashed and dumped in a ditch on the resort island of Bali. His Indonesian wife admitted to the killing day later.
(AFP, 10/22/14)
2014 Nov 3, Indonesia began issuing cards to give the poor access to three programs that included health care, education and cash handouts.
(Econ, 1/10/15, p.54)
2014 Nov 17, Indonesia's President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo announced a sharp increase in fuel prices, saying costly government subsidies would be better spent on infrastructure and development.
(AP, 11/17/14)
2014 Nov 19, Indonesian authorities said two endangered Sumatran elephants were found dead this week near a palm oil plantation in the Tebo district of Jambi province on Sumatra island. Authorities believed they were killed by poachers.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 21, A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia’s North Maluku province.
(SFC, 11/22/14, p.A2)
2014 Dec 8, In Indonesia at least 4 people, including 3 high school students, were killed in the volatile Papua region in clashes between protesters and security forces. The clash had started the previous night when the youths reprimanded a soldier who was riding a motorcycle without the headlights on.
(Reuters, 12/8/14)(AP, 12/9/14)
2014 Dec 13, In central Indonesia a mudslide set off by torrential rains rushed down hills into a village and swept away scores of homes. At least 56 people were killed and 52 others missing.
(AP, 12/13/14)(SFC, 12/13/14, p.A2)(AP, 12/15/14)
2014 Dec 19, In eastern Indonesia the Mount Gamalama volcano on Ternate island in North Maluku province erupted, spewing towering clouds of hot ash into the air and leaving four hikers injured and one missing when they scrambled to safety.
(AP, 12/19/14)
2014 Dec 22, An Indonesian court sentenced five janitors to up to eight years in prison over the rape of a kindergartner boy (6) at an international school in Jakarta. A sixth suspect committed suicide while in custody after drinking bathroom cleanser.
(AP, 12/22/14)
2014 Dec 28, Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501, an Airbus 320-200 with 162 people on board, went missing after pilots asked to change course to avoid bad weather during a flight from Surabaya city to Singapore. It was later rfound that the plane had climbed at excessive speeds to an unusually high altitude before plunging and disappearing.
(AP, 12/28/14)(SFC, 1/21/15, p.A3)
2014 Dec 30, Indonesian rescuers searching for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 pulled bodies and wreckage from the sea off the coast of Borneo. The plane was carrying 162 people when it disappeared on Dec 28.
(Reuters, 12/30/14)
2014 Elizabeth Pisani authored “Indonesia Etc: Exploring the Improbable Nation."
(Econ, 6/21/14, p.79)
2014 Indonesia’s population was about 250 million.
(Econ, 10/18/14, p.44)
2014 According to the World Bank half of Indonesia’s population lived on less than $2 per day.
(Econ, 8/30/14, p.36)
2015 Jan 1, Heavy seas stopped divers reaching the possible wreck of an AirAsia Indonesia jet off Borneo. Nine bodies have so far been recovered from the Airbus A320-200, which crashed Dec 28 en route to Singapore.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 2, Rescue teams battling monsoon rains recovered 21 more bodies from Indonesia’s AirAsia Flight 8501, which crashed on Dec 28. To date 30 of 162 bodies were recovered.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 3, Search teams hunting for the wreck of Indonesia’s AirAsia Flight QZ8501 that crashed with 162 people on board reported four large parts of the plane on the sea bed.
(Reuters, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 5, Indonesia’s transportation ministry announced harsh measures against everyone who allowed AirAsia Flight 8501 to take off without proper permits, including the suspension of the airport's operator and officials in the control tower.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 6, Search teams scouring the ocean for the wreckage of an AirAsia jet, which went missing on Dec 28, found two new metal objects. Indonesian officials believe they may have located the tail and parts of the fuselage of Flight QZ8501 30 meters below the surface, but have been unable to properly investigate the debris so far. Two more bodies were recovered from the sea, bringing the total found so far to 39.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 7, Indonesia's search and rescue agency said the tail of the Dec 28 crashed AirAsia jet Flight QZ8501 has been found on the sea bed about 30 km (20 miles) from the plane's last known location. Forty bodies and debris from the plane have been plucked from the surface of the waters off Borneo.
(Reuters, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 11, Indonesian divers found the crucial black box flight recorders of the AirAsia plane that crashed in the Java Sea a fortnight ago with 162 people aboard. The data recorder was retrieved on Jan 12 and the cockpit voice recorder on Jan 13.
(AFP, 1/11/15)(SFC, 1/13/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 13, Indonesia's anti-graft agency named three-star general Budi Gunawan, President Joko Widodo's sole nomination for police chief, a bribery suspect. Widodo told reporters a day earlier he had chosen Gunawan on recommendation from the National Police Commission.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 14, A Singapore Navy ship located the fuselage of Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501, the passenger jet that crashed more than two weeks ago off the coast of Indonesia, raising hopes that more bodies will be found.
(Reuters, 1/14/15)(AP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 18, Indonesia defied pleas and executed six drug offenders. Brazil and the Netherlands recalled their ambassadors from Jakarta and expressed fury following the executions of two of their citizens.
(AP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 23, Indonesia’s police arrested Bambang Widjojanto, the deputy head of the top anti-corruption body, days after it accused a senior police officer of graft, sparking accusations of police retaliation and demands that the president defend the agency.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 27, Indonesia’s armed forces officially halted the search for victims of AirAsia Flight 8501 that crashed Dec 28. Teams had recovered 70 of 162 people aboard.
(SFC, 1/28/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 10, A Hong Kong woman was convicted of assaulting her Indonesian maid, Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, in a case that sparked outrage for the scale of its brutality. A judge found Law Wan-tung guilty of 18 charges including grievous bodily harm.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2020 Bill Hayden former governor-general of Australia proclaimed that Indonesia will be one of the great powers by this time.
(SFC, 4/26/96, p.A-12)
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Subject = Indonesia
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Return to home
Go to Indonesia A
Indonesia consists of a necklace of some 17,000 islands, over 300 ethnic groups and some 500 different languages. The main island is Java. The population is 85% Muslim. Indonesia has 32 provinces.
(WSJ, 5/22/98, p.A15)(SFC, 12/18/98, p.D2)(SFC, 12/8/01, p.A6)(Econ, 12/11/04, Survey p.8)
The Toadja of Sulawesi use ancestral bones for talismans.
(NH, 6/97, p.14)
2007 Jan 1, Flight KI-574, an Indonesian passenger plane carrying 102 people, disappeared in stormy weather off Sulawesi island. Rescue teams were sent to search in the area where the Boeing 737-400 sent out a distress signal. In 2008 investigators said the pilots had accidentally disconnecting the plane's autopilot. A speed boat capsized in poor weather off the coast of Borneo island, killing 15 people.
(AP, 1/1/07)(AP, 1/2/07)(AFP, 3/25/08)
2007 Jan 9, A landslide in a western Indonesian village killed up to 13 people, burying several homes and a small mosque.
(AP, 1/9/07)
2007 Jan 10, A 14-year-old Indonesian boy died from bird flu, just days after being hospitalized. It was the first H5N1 fatality in the country in six weeks.
(AP, 1/10/07)
2007 Jan 11, Indonesian police raided a house on Sulawesi Island where several alleged Islamic militants were staying, sparking a fierce gun and bomb battle that left one suspected terrorist dead.
(AP, 1/11/07)
2007 Jan 16, An Indonesian passenger train jumped its tracks, sending a crowded rail car plunging nearly 20 feet near the central Javanese town of Purwokerto. Five people were reported killed and more than 250 injured.
(AP, 1/16/07)
2007 Jan 21, A major 6.5-magnitude undersea earthquake has rocked Indonesia's northern Sulawesi province. The earthquake left four people dead and four injured.
(AFP, 1/21/07)(AP, 1/22/07)
2007 Jan 22, In Indonesia 16 people, including a policeman, were shot dead and others wounded in a shootout with residents on Sulawesi, as police searched for suspected militants in the restive town of Poso.
(AFP, 1/22/07)(Econ, 1/27/07, p.42)
2007 Feb 3, Indonesia’s Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said Indonesia will pursue its plans to develop nuclear power as part of efforts to find alternative energy sources to address its growing needs. Officials said flooding has killed at least 44 people and left more than 340,000 others homeless in Jakarta, as neck-high waters submerged large sections of the city. The flooding in Jakarta eventually left 52 people dead.
(AP, 2/3/07)(AP, 2/6/07)(Econ, 3/17/12, p.48)
2007 Feb 6, An Indonesian ban on sand exports went into effect. The ban was directed at Singapore, which purchased sand to reclaim land from the sea.
(Econ, 2/10/07, p.42)
2007 Feb 8, In Indonesia fresh rains triggered more flooding, compounding the misery for hundreds of thousands forced from their homes. Irwandi Yusuf, a former rebel leader, was inaugurated as governor of Aceh province, cementing a peace deal to end 29 years of fighting that killed more than 15,000 people.
(AP, 2/8/07)
2007 Feb 10, The death toll from massive flooding in Indonesia rose to 80.
(AFP, 2/10/07)
2007 Feb 18, Twin landslides hit Indonesia's Java island, killing at least 12 people after they were buried under mounds of earth.
(AP, 2/18/07)
2007 Feb 22, A fire broke out on an Indonesian ferry carrying 300 passengers. The number of dead, soon climbed to 49. Scores of passengers jumped into the sea and 120 people remained missing.
(AFP, 2/23/07)(AP, 2/26/07)
2007 Feb 25, Levina 1, a charred Indonesian ferry, sank while investigators and journalists were on board inspecting the damage from a fire last week. At least one cameraman drowned and three other people were missing. The death toll from the Feb 22 fire continued to rise.
(AP, 2/25/07)
2007 Feb 26, Indonesian engineers dropped several large concrete balls into Lusi, a volcano, to try to stem a gushing mud eruption that has engulfed hundreds of homes and displaced 11,000 people. Over the next few weeks, authorities plan to drop nearly 1,500 balls, each weighing up to 88 pounds, into the crater that started spewing mud at a gas drilling field on Java island nine months ago.
(AP, 2/26/07)(Econ, 3/10/07, p.79)
2007 Feb 28, Indonesia said it is planning to ban local carriers from operating jetliners more than 10 years old as part of a safety campaign following a string of crashes and accidents.
(AP, 2/28/07)
2007 Feb, A UN report said all lowland forests on Indonesia’s Borneo and Sumatra islands could be lost by 2022 at current logging rates of 2.8 million hectares a year.
(WSJ, 1/3/07, p.A5)
2007 Mar 3, In eastern Indonesian a bomb packed with nails exploded at a port in the city of Ambon, wounding 12 people. Landslides triggered by days of heavy rain killed at least 40 people in eastern Indonesia, and nearly 30 more were believed to be buried under the mud.
(AP, 3/3/07)
2007 Mar 6, In western Indonesia a 6.3 earthquake crumpled houses across a large swath of Sumatra Island, killing over 70 people and injuring hundreds.
(AP, 3/7/07)(AP, 3/10/07)
2007 Mar 7, A packed Garuda Indonesia jetliner crash-landed and erupted in flames at Yogyakarta airport, killing 22 people trapped inside the burning wreckage. More than 115 others escaped through emergency exits as black smoke billowed behind them.
(AP, 3/7/07)(Econ, 3/10/07, p.40)
2007 Mar 16, In Indonesia an official said Bird flu has killed a 32-year-old man, taking the death toll in the nation worst hit by the disease to 65.
(AP, 3/16/07)
2007 Mar 19, In Indonesia an official announced that bird flu has killed a 21-year-old man, taking the death toll in the nation worst hit by the disease to 66. In Bali the Hindu majority marked the start of the Muslim year 1386 with the new year holiday called Nyepi, a day of silence, rest and reflection.
(AP, 3/19/07)(Econ, 3/24/07, p.49)
2007 Mar 21, In Indonesia 3 Islamic militants were found guilty of decapitating three Christian schoolgirls in 2005 and dumping their bloodied heads in nearby villages. They were sentenced to between 14 and 20 years.
(AP, 3/22/07)
2007 Mar 29, Indonesia reopened its border with East Timor because the fugitive rebel who caused its closure is no longer considered a threat.
(AP, 3/29/07)
2007 Apr 3, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono told a meeting of Islamic clerics that Muslim nations should ultimately replace coalition forces in Iraq after a period of national reconciliation. Cliff Muntu (21), a student at Indonesia’s Institute of Public Administration (IPDN), died from wounds due to hazing by his seniors. This was the 35th death in the school since 1993.
(AP, 4/3/07)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Muntu)(Econ, 4/21/07, p.49)
2007 Apr 5, The editor-in-chief of Playboy Indonesia was acquitted of charges that he violated the Muslim nation's indecency laws by publishing pictures of scantily clothed women.
(AP, 4/5/07)
2007 Apr 6, Health officials said teenage girls in Cambodia and Indonesia have died of bird flu as the virus continues to stalk across Asia.
(AP, 4/6/07)
2007 Apr 12, India test-fired a new missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads with a 1,900-mile range. Indonesia said the missile forced 2 of its jetliners off course.
(AP, 4/12/07)(WSJ, 4/14/07, p.A1)
2007 Apr 15, Blind British aviator Miles Hilton-Barber, With the aid of co-copilot Richard Meredith-Hardy, landed his microlight aircraft in Jakarta to complete another leg of his London-Sydney charity flight.
(AFP, 4/15/07)
2007 Apr 20, Thousands of mine workers in Indonesia's remote Papua province protested for a third day as marathon talks with US firm Freeport McMoRan over pay and benefits showed signs of progress.
(AP, 4/20/07)
2007 Apr 24, In Indonesia Richard Ness an American director of Newmont Mining Corp., the world's largest gold producer, was acquitted of charges the company dumped dangerous amounts of toxic waste into a bay off Sulawesi Island.
(AP, 4/24/07)
2007 Apr 25, In Indonesia the MT Maulana, an oil tanker that had just unloaded its cargo, exploded on a Sumatran river, killing four crew members.
(AP, 4/26/07)
2007 Apr 28, It was reported that pro-Indonesian militias had regrouped in the mountainous center of Aceh as the Communication Forum for Children of the Nation (Forkab).
(Econ, 4/28/07, p.47)
2007 May 1, In Indonesia tens of thousands of workers marked May Day by taking to the streets to demand better wages and job security, amid a heavy police presence.
(AP, 5/1/07)
2007 May 10, The armed forces of Indonesia and Malaysia agreed to step up cooperation to boost security along shared borders after successful patrols in the Malacca Strait.
(AFP, 5/10/07)
2007 May 29, In Indonesia a teenage girl died of bird flu, taking the death toll in the nation worst hit by the virus to 79.
(AFP, 6/1/07)
2007 May 30, Indonesian marines shot and killed five people on Java island during a violent protest over a plot of land allegedly owned by the force.
(AP, 5/30/07)
2007 Jun 8, In Indonesia Dago Simamora (59), a junior high-school teacher in South Sumatra, was shot dead by a killer on a motorcycle. It was later alleged that he was killed because he was accused of trying to convert girls in his class to Christianity. In 2009 ten members of the Palembang jihadist group that killed him were jailed on terrorism charges. One member said: “Dago Simamora was killed because he forbade his students to wear headscarves at school."
(Econ, 9/12/09, SR p.8)(http://tinyurl.com/mdzqrl)
2007 Jun 9, Indonesian police captured Abu Dujana (37), a leader of the Southeast Asian terror network blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings and a string of other devastating attacks in recent years. Indonesian police also captured Zarkasih (37), aka Mbah, the head of Southeast Asian extremist network Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for some of the deadliest terror attacks in the region.
(AFP, 6/13/07)(AFP, 6/15/07)
2007 Jun 11, Indonesia's tropical rain forests were disappearing 30 percent faster than previously estimated as illegal loggers raid national parks, threatening the long-term survival of orangutans, according to a new UN report.
(AP, 6/11/07)
2007 Jun 12, In Bali, Indonesia, a gathering of religious leaders and victims of terrorist attacks, sponsored by the US Libforall Foundation, denounced Iran’s president for claiming the Holocaust was a myth.
(SFC, 6/13/07, p.A15)
2007 Jun 28, The European Commission said all Indonesian airlines and several from Russia, Ukraine and Angola will be banned from flying to the EU due to safety concerns.
(AP, 6/28/07)
2007 Jun 28, In Sudan China's No. 1 oil company, CNPC, and Indonesia's PT Pertamina agreed to co-develop a Sudanese offshore oil block, ignoring international efforts to isolate Sudan over the crisis in its Darfur region.
(AP, 7/1/07)
2007 Jul 3, Indonesia barred Eni Faleomavaega, the Democrat congressman for American Samoa, from visiting Papua, but has denied the move is to cover up alleged human rights abuses in the remote region. Faleomavaega has been a critic of Jakarta's policies in Papua.
(Reuters, 7/3/07)
2007 Jul 5, Human Rights Watch released a report saying Indonesian security forces have killed and beat unarmed civilians, and on two occasions raped women during recent operations against separatists in Papua province. The 96-page report detailed 8 alleged killings by police and military officers in the province's central highlands since 2005 and several vicious beatings.
(AP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 5, China's Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi visited Indonesia and said their countries should cooperate to defend the interests of developing nations as they work to enhance bilateral ties.
(AFP, 7/5/07)
2007 Jul 7, In Indonesia a speeding bus carrying a group of junior high school students and their teachers plunged into a 30-foot ravine on the main island of Java, killing 14 people. Poisonous fumes from the Indonesia’s Salak volcano killed six teenagers who were camping on the mountain.
(AP, 7/7/07)(AP, 7/8/07)
2007 Jul 9, In Indonesia prosecutors filed a civil lawsuit against former dictator Suharto (1921-2008), toppled in 1998, seeking $1.54 billion in damages and funds allegedly stolen from the state during his 32 years in power. He allegedly forced state banks and others to contribute millions to the Supersemar Foundation, much of which was siphoned off to companies run by members of his family and cronies.
(AP, 7/9/07)(Econ, 7/14/07, p.48)
2007 Jul 11, A passenger ship carrying 70 people disappeared off eastern Indonesia after reporting engine failure in stormy seas. The bodies of two children were found drifting in nearby waters along with several survivors.
(AP, 7/11/07)
2007 Jul 23, Officials said flash floods and landslides in central Indonesia have inundated villages, destroyed bridges and roads, and sent thousands fleeing their homes with over 80 people killed.
(AFP, 7/24/07)(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul 26, In Indonesia a dozen Christian men were convicted and sentenced to up to 14 years in jail for beating to death and beheading two Muslims to avenge the government executions of three Christians last year.
(AP, 7/26/07)
2007 Jul, In Indonesia the Constitutional Court again struck out clauses in the criminal code that made it a crime to insult senior figures.
(Econ, 5/24/08, p.64)
2007 Aug 1, Denmark, France and Indonesia offered to contribute to a joint UN-African Union mission for Darfur, a 26,000-strong force expected to be made up mostly of peacekeepers from Africa with backup from Asian troops. Sudan accepted a UN resolution approving a joint African Union-UN peacekeeping force in Darfur.
(AP, 8/1/07)(AFP, 8/1/07)
2007 Aug 3, China banned Indonesian seafood after checks turned up dangerous contamination. Indonesian authorities called the move an apparent reaction to an Indonesian ban on some tainted Chinese products. The Chinese administration said Indonesian products have been found to contain mercury and cadmium, metals that can accumulate in water and soil from burning garbage, mining or other industrial processes.
(AP, 8/4/07)
2007 Aug 8, Millions of people in Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, voted for governor for the first time, the latest in a wave of local elections hailed as key to strengthening democracy in the world's most populous Muslim nation.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 8, Researchers from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill reported that coral coverage in the Indo-Pacific, an area stretching from Indonesia's Sumatra island to French Polynesia, had dropped 20 percent in the past two decades. They said the decline was driven by climate change, disease and coastal development.
(AP, 8/8/07)
2007 Aug 12, In Indonesia nearly 90,000 followers of Hizbut Tahrir, a hard-line Sunni organization with an estimated million members, packed a stadium in Jakarta, calling for the creation of an Islamic state.
(AP, 8/12/07)
2007 Aug 12, A woman (29) in Bali died from infection with the H5N1 strain of bird flu.
(www.news-medical.net/?id=28736)
2007 Aug 13, Armed pirates attacked a Malaysian barge in the Malacca Strait and kidnapped 2 Indonesian crew, in the first high sea abduction in the busy waterway in more than 2 years.
(AP, 8/14/07)
2007 Sep 2, Dozens of Muslim clerics issued an edict against the construction of Indonesia's first nuclear power plant on seismically charged Java island, saying the potential dangers far outweighed the benefits.
(AP, 9/3/07)
2007 Sep 6, Indonesia and Russia signed a $1 billion defense deal that will allow Indonesia to buy dozens of helicopters, tanks and submarines, part of visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin's efforts to boost his country's military clout in Asia.
(AP, 9/6/07)
2007 Sep 10, Indonesia’s Supreme Court ordered Time magazine to pay $106 million in damages for defaming former Indonesian dictator Suharto by alleging in a May 1999 story that his family amassed billions of dollars during his 32-year rule. Lower courts had earlier ruled in Time’s favor. Time appealed the decision.
(AP, 9/10/07)(Econ, 5/10/08, p.70)
2007 Sep 12, A massive 8.4 earthquake struck Indonesia, killing at least 10 people, injuring dozens and triggering a tsunami that hit one city on the island of Sumatra.
(AP, 9/12/07)(Reuters, 9/13/07)
2007 Sep 13, Three powerful earthquakes jolted Indonesia in less than 24 hours, triggering tsunami alerts and sending panicked residents fleeing to high ground. At least 10 people were killed in the tremors.
(Reuters, 9/13/07)
2007 Sep 14, Powerful earthquakes struck Indonesia for a third day, terrorizing thousands of people who slept outside in fear of tsunami and falling debris. The death toll reached 21 and seismologists warned that the worst may be yet to come.
(AP, 9/14/07)(Reuters, 9/15/07)
2007 Sep 16, The death toll from Indonesia's massive earthquake rose to 23 as more villagers started returning home.
(AP, 9/16/07)
2007 Oct 17, In Indonesia's Papua region rival tribes armed with bows and arrows clashed close to a US-owned gold mine, killing eight people.
(AP, 10/17/07)
2007 Oct 18, In eastern Indonesia a crowded passenger boat capsized, killing at least 15 people, with several others possibly missing.
(AP, 10/18/07)
2007 Oct 30, An Indonesian court dismissed a legal challenge to the death penalty brought by lawyers for members of an Australian drugs gang on death row for heroin smuggling.
(AFP, 10/30/07)
2007 Oct, Hardline Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir likened tourists to "worms, snakes, maggots" and called for signs to be placed in Muslim areas warning them to dress modestly in a speech to an Islamic youth organization in east Java.
(AFP, 3/23/08)
2007 Nov 3, In Indonesia continuous tremors beneath the Mount Kelud volcano, in the heart of densely populated Java island, became so strong that they could no longer be read on seismological instruments, leading scientists to evacuate their posts and warn that an eruption appeared to have occurred. It was a false alarm but the volcano showed signs of an imminent eruption.
(AP, 11/3/07)(AFP, 11/4/07)
2007 Nov 12, IUCN, a Geneva-based conservation group, said the world's smallest bear species faces extinction because of deforestation and poaching in its Southeast Asian home. The sun bear, whose habitat stretches from India to Indonesia, has been classified as vulnerable by the World Conservation Union.
(AP, 11/12/07)
2007 Nov 16, A coroner urged the Australian government to seek war crimes charges against former Indonesian military officers over the 1975 killing of five Australian newsmen during Indonesia's invasion of East Timor.
(AP, 11/16/07)
2007 Nov 24, In central Indonesia a fire on a crowded passenger bus killed 12 people, including three children.
(AP, 11/24/07)
2007 Nov 25, Two strong earthquakes struck Indonesia’s eastern island of Sumbawa and killed at least three people, including a child, and injured 45 others.
(AP, 11/26/07)(Econ, 12/1/07, p.58)
2007 Nov 26, In Indonesia the capital of Jakarta was partially flooded, forcing thousands of people to flee homes and cutting off a highway to the international airport.
(AP, 11/27/07)
2007 Nov 27, The Mezzanine, a Panamanian freighter, hit rough seas off Taiwan's north coast and 26 Indonesian sailors were feared dead.
(AFP, 11/28/07)
2007 Nov 28, Indonesia, which is losing its forests at a faster rate than any other country, launched a campaign to plant 79 million trees ahead of a critical climate change conference on the resort island of Bali.
(AP, 11/28/07)
2007 Dec 3, In Jakarta, Indonesia, 6 Islamic militants were sentenced to up to 19 years in prison for terrorist acts in eastern Indonesia that include beheading three Christian schoolgirls in 2005 and shooting to death Rev. Irianto Kongkoli in 2006.
(AP, 12/3/07)
2007 Dec 3, In Bali, Indonesia, climate experts at a massive UN conference urged quick action toward a new international pact to stem global warming. The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) hoped for an agreement to mitigate climate change after the Kyoto protocol runs out in 2012.
(AP, 12/3/07)(Econ, 12/1/07, p.73)
2007 Dec 6, In Indonesia American climate negotiators refused to back down in their opposition to mandatory cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, even as a US Senate panel endorsed sharp reductions in pollution blamed for global warming.
(AP, 12/6/07)
2007 Dec 8, The chief US negotiator at the climate conference in Bali, Indonesia, said the US will come up with its own plan to cut global-warming gases by mid-2008 and won’t commit to mandatory caps.
(SSFC, 12/9/07, p.A17)
2007 Dec 10, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said a 10-year program has begun to save endangered orangutans from extinction by protecting tropical jungle habitat from logging, mining and palm oil plantations. As many as 50,000 orangutans have been lost over the past 35 years due to shrinking habitat. As of January 2004, about 6,650 Sumatran orangutans and 55,000 Borneo orangutans remained in the wild.
(AP, 12/10/07)
2007 Dec 12, In Indonesia new Australian PM Kevin Rudd completed ratification of the Kyoto Protocol as he pressed for all nations, rich and poor, to commit to fighting global warming.
(AP, 12/12/07)
2007 Dec 13, Nobel laureate Al Gore accused the United States of blocking progress at the UN climate conference, and European nations threatened to boycott US-led climate talks next month unless Washington compromises on emissions reductions.
(AP, 12/13/07)
2007 Dec 14, Indonesia, the nation hardest hit by bird flu, announced its 93rd death due to the H5N1 virus. In China, the military in eastern Nanjing banned the sale of poultry this week after a father and son came down with the disease earlier this month. Health officials confirmed the 24-year-old man died from the virus a day before his father, 52, became sick. It was the country's 17th bird flu death. The WHO confirmed Myanmar's first human case of bird flu and praised the secretive country for its quick and open handling of the infection. State media reported a girl (7) was hospitalized on Nov. 27 and released on Dec. 12 in good condition after being treated with the antiviral drug Tamiflu.
(AP, 12/15/07)
2007 Dec 15, In Indonesia 2 weeks of international climate talks marked by bitter disagreements and angry accusations culminated in a last-minute US compromise and an agreement to adopt a blueprint for fighting global warming by 2009.
(AP, 12/16/07)
2007 Dec 26, In western Indonesia rescuers dug for survivors after landslides and floods triggered by days of torrential rain killed over 87 people.
(AP, 12/26/07)(AP, 12/27/07)
2008 Jan 26, In Indonesia a small cargo plane disappeared and apparently crashed during a short flight over Borneo island, and all three people aboard were feared dead.
(AP, 1/26/08)
2008 Jan 27, Indonesia, the nation hardest hit by bird flu, recorded its 100th human death as the virus picked up speed across Asia.
(AP, 1/28/08)
2008 Jan 27, Former Indonesian President Suharto (b.1921) died. The US Cold War ally led one of the 20th century's most brutal dictatorships over 32 years that saw up to a million political opponents killed.
(AP, 1/27/08)
2008 Feb 2, An Indonesian health ministry official said floods in Jakarta have killed three people and displaced nearly 100,000 after two days of torrential rain.
(AP, 2/2/08)
2008 Feb 7, A new security pact between Australia and Indonesia came into force at a ceremony in Perth attended by the foreign ministers of the at-times testy neighbors.
(AP, 2/7/08)
2008 Feb 7, Libya’s National Oil Corp and Indonesia signed a deal for the north African state to supply the world's most populous Muslim nation with crude oil for the next 20 years.
(AFP, 2/7/08)
2008 Feb 9, A stampede at an Indonesian punk rock concert left 10 people dead and dozens more injured, most of them teenagers.
(AP, 2/10/08)
2008 Feb 15, A 3-year-old Indonesian boy died of bird flu, the country's second death from the illness in one day. The two cases, which were apparently unrelated, brought Indonesia's bird flu death toll to 105.
(AP, 2/16/08)
2008 Feb 20, A powerful earthquake struck western Indonesia, killing three people and injuring 25 others.
(AP, 2/20/08)
2008 Feb 28, An Indonesian court rejected a civil case against the youngest son of ex-dictator Suharto for alleged corruption and awarded him 550,000 dollars in a countersuit he filed.
(AP, 2/28/08)
2008 Mar 17, Indonesia and South Africa agreed to reduce obstacles to trade and business and jointly explore new avenues for electricity generation.
(AFP, 3/17/08)
2008 Mar 25, Officials said Indonesia plans to restrict access to pornographic and violent sites on the Internet after the country's parliament passed a new information bill.
(Reuters, 3/25/08)
2008 Mar 28, Indonesian police said they were investigating the deaths over the last 2 weeks of 21 people who drank a concoction labeled an herbal remedy.
(AP, 3/28/08)
2008 Apr 4, Indonesia's Supreme Court overturned the conviction of a notorious militia leader accused in attacks that left about 1,000 people dead following East Timor's 1999 independence vote. With Eurico Guterres' upcoming release, all 18 suspects originally indicted will have been acquitted or set free.
(AP, 4/5/08)
2008 Apr 8, Indonesian Internet companies blocked access to YouTube and MySpace, heeding a government order aimed at stopping people from watching an anti-Islam film by a Dutch lawmaker.
(AP, 4/8/08)
2008 Apr 16, Mount Egon volcano on Flores island in eastern Indonesia spewed ash and smoke 2 1/2 miles into the sky, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of nearby villagers.
(AP, 4/16/08)
2008 Apr 20, In Indonesia several thousand hardline Muslims protested outside the presidential palace in Jakarta demanding that Pres. Yudhoyono ban Ahmadiyah, an unorthodox but moderate Muslim sect founded in India in the 19th century.
(Econ, 4/26/08, p.59)
2008 Apr 21, In Indonesia Self-proclaimed Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leaders Abu Dujana and Zarkasih, blamed for the 2002 Bali bombings, were sentenced to 15 years each at separate trials in the South Jakarta district court.
(AFP, 4/21/08)
2008 Apr 22, In Indonesia torchbearers ran laps with the Olympic flame in front of an invitation-only crowd after officials changed the relay route from Jakarta's streets to a sports stadium amid pressure from China to keep away demonstrators.
(AP, 4/22/08)
2008 Apr 28, In Indonesia hundreds of protesters in West Java province chanted "Kill, kill" and set fire to a mosque belonging to the Muslim Ahmadiyah sect they claim is heretical. Last week, a team of prosecutors, religious scholars and government officials said the sect "had deviated from Islamic principles" and recommended it be outlawed.
(AP, 4/28/08)
2008 May 6, Officials in Indonesia said at least 13 illegal gold miners were killed in a landslide in remote Papua province.
(AP, 5/6/08)
2008 May 21, In Indonesia thousands of students took to the streets across the country to protest the government's plan to raise fuel prices.
(AP, 5/21/08)
2008 May 22, Indonesians faced runaway inflation and higher interest rates after the government vowed to hike subsidized fuel prices by an average 28.7% despite widespread protests.
(AP, 5/22/08)
2008 May 23, Indonesia's government raised gasoline pump prices by nearly 30 percent because of the surging cost of oil and gas on the global market. The move triggered generally peaceful protests throughout the vast Indonesian archipelago.
(AP, 6/24/08)
2008 May, Churchill Mining, a London-listed firm, announced that it had found 150 million tons of coal in Indonesian Borneo. In 2011 it raised the amount to 2.8 billion tons.
(Econ, 10/1/11, p.72)
2008 Jun 4, Indonesian police launched a major crackdown on Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), a radical Islamist group blamed for a weekend attack on a rally for religious tolerance, arresting 59 including the outfit's firebrand leader.
(AP, 6/4/08)
2008 Jun 9, Indonesia issued a quasi-ban against a minority Islamic sect in the face of violent protests by Muslim hardliners. Liberal Indonesians accused the government of caving in to extremists. Ahmadiyah leaders said they did not recognize the decree and would appeal.
(AFP, 6/10/08)
2008 Jun 12, In Indonesia a local health official said at least 21 toddlers have died of malnutrition in eastern Indonesia in recent months due to a food shortage that threatens the lives of thousands more children.
(AP, 6/12/08)
2008 Jun 13, The leaders of Australia and Indonesia pledged to join forces to fight climate change by saving forests and promoting carbon trading.
(AFP, 6/13/08)
2008 Jun 20, Maftuh Fauzi 27) a student at Indonesia’s National University, died in hospital. He had been among 100 fuel price protesters arrested May 24, but there were conflicting reports about the cause of death.
(AP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 24, In Indonesia about 1,000 Indonesian protesters angered by a student demonstrator's death after his arrest burned tires and hurled stones at police guarding the Parliament. Participants in the demonstration in Jakarta also demanded that the government revoke a 30 percent fuel price increase imposed last month.
(AP, 6/24/08)
2008 Jun 26, In Indonesia a 1984 Casa-212 plane disappeared during an aerial surveillance mission about 60 miles south of the capital, Jakarta. All 18 aboard were killed.
(AP, 6/27/08)(AP, 6/28/08)
2008 Jul 3, In Indonesia a police source said that a group of 10 suspected Muslim militants detained in raids on Sumatra island by Indonesia's anti-terrorism unit was plotting to attack Western targets. The raids followed the capture of a suspected militant after a tip-off by authorities in Singapore.
(Reuters, 7/3/08)
2008 Jul 8, At Developing Eight summit of Islamic nations, meeting in Kuala Lumpur, the leaders of Indonesia and Malaysia called for boosting world food production and finding a permanent solution to skyrocketing oil prices, saying the twin problems have become "grave threats" to the world economy.
(AP, 7/8/08)
2008 Jul 10, Indonesia executed Ahmad Suradji (57), a man convicted of killing 42 women and girls in a series of ritual slayings he believed would give him magical powers.
(AP, 7/11/08)
2008 Jul 10, In Indonesia Asnawi Sandri, a 38-year-old father of two, died in the hospital, days after he came down with symptoms of bird flu. This raised the unofficial toll in the world's hardest hit nation to 111 in three years.
(AP, 7/17/08)
2008 Jul 12, In Jakarta, Indonesia, Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono pledged cooperation on biofuels during talks in a bid to take advantage of surging oil prices.
(AFP, 7/12/08)
2008 Jul 13, Algeria’s government newspaper El Moudjhaid said a consortium of British-based oil services company Petrofac and Indonesian engineering company IKPT provisionally won a contract to build an LNG plant in western Mediterranean port of Arzew.
(AP, 7/13/08)
2008 Jul 15, Indonesia's president acknowledged that his country carried out gross human rights abuses during East Timor's 1999 break for independence, but stopped short of offering a full apology and said no one would be prosecuted.
(AP, 7/15/08)
2008 Aug 3, In Indonesia a top health official said a factory worker had died of bird flu west of Jakarta, bringing the death toll in the country worst hit by the virus to 112.
(AP, 8/3/08)
2008 Aug 7, Japan accepted over 200 Indonesian nurses into the country, an unprecedented move as Tokyo struggles to quell a labor shortage triggered by sinking fertility rates.
(AP, 8/7/08)
2008 Aug 16, On Indonesia's Sumatra island at least nine people have died and dozens were injured when a slow-moving passenger train hit a parked freight locomotive.
(AP, 8/16/08)
2008 Sep 15, In Indonesia at least 23 people were killed in a stampede as they crowded an alley to receive $4.25 in cash handouts for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
(AFP, 9/15/08)(WSJ, 9/16/08, p.A20)
2008 Sep 26, In eastern Indonesia a packed ferry caught fire and sank between two coastal villages in the Maluku islands, killing at least eight people.
(AP, 9/27/08)
2008 Oct 21, Indonesia's parliament ratified the Southeast Asian charter committing ASEAN member nations to promote democracy and human rights, clearing the way for its formal adoption before year's end. Anti-terrorism police seized bomb-making materials and a large cache of weapons and ammunition during a raid on a house in Jakarta. Anti-terrorism squads arrested five suspected Islamic radicals believed to have been plotting to blow up Indonesia's largest fuel depot.
(AP, 10/21/08)(AP, 10/22/08)
2008 Oct 30, Indonesia's parliament passed a bill banning pornography, ignoring opposition from lawmakers and rights groups who worry it will be used to justify attacks on artistic, religious and cultural freedom.
(AP, 10/30/08)
2008 Nov 9, Indonesia boosted security after three Islamic militants (Imam Samudra, 38, and brothers Amrozi Nurhasyim, 47, and Ali Ghufron, 48) were executed for the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people. Emotional supporters thronged ambulances carrying their caskets through narrow streets, some calling for revenge.
(AP, 11/9/08)
2008 Nov 12, Indonesian health officials said test results from two laboratories in the capital came back positive confirming that a girl (15) died of bird flu last week.
(AP, 11/12/08)
2008 Nov 14, In Indonesia 5 people were killed and 14 were feared dead after a landslide triggered by heavy rain crushed scores of houses in West Java.
(AFP, 11/14/08)
2008 Nov 17, In eastern Indonesia a 7.5 magnitude earthquake off the coast of Sulawesi killed at least 6 people, damaged hundreds of homes and briefly triggered a region-wide tsunami warning.
(AP, 11/17/08)(SFC, 11/17/08, p.A3)(AP, 11/18/08)
2008 Nov 23, Indonesia rescued Bank Century at a cost of 6.76 trillion rupiah ($730m). In 2010 Indonesia’s parliament ruled that the bailout was illegal and suggested that indications of corruption be investigated.
(Econ, 3/6/10, p.55)(http://tinyurl.com/y8l28yq)
2008 Nov 24, In Indonesia health workers and rights activists sharply criticized a plan by lawmakers in remote Papua province, who have thrown their support behind a controversial bill requiring some HIV/AIDS patients to be implanted with microchips, part of extreme efforts to monitor the disease.
(AP, 11/24/08)
2008 Dec 10, Indonesia launched the Bali Democracy Forum to promote human rights and democracy. The forum was attended by foreign ministers from around 20 countries, with President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Australian PM Kevin Rudd as co-chairs.
(Econ, 2/19/11, p.43)(http://tinyurl.com/6hbsxh5)
2008 Dec 11, Indonesia and Malaysia agreed to heighten intelligence cooperation to anticipate rising cross-border crime due to the impact of the global economic crisis.
(AP, 12/11/08)
2008 Dec 16, An Indonesian province beleaguered by a spiraling HIV infection rate scrapped plans to implant microchips in those with full-blown AIDS, following strong opposition from government officials, health workers and rights activists.
(AP, 12/16/08)
2008 In Indonesia Prabowo Subianto (b.1951), a former son-in-law of Suharto, formed the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindara) with backing from his billionaire brother Hashim Dojohadikusumo. Subianto had led a special forces unit under Suharto (1995-1998) that over the years was accused of many atrocities.
(Econ, 3/14/09, p.45)(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prabowo)
2008 Indonesia achieved rice self-sufficiency for the first time in 24 years.
(Econ, 1/10/09, p.38)
2009 Jan 4, In eastern Indonesia a series of powerful earthquakes toppled or badly damaged more than 100 buildings and left one person dead and dozens injured.
(AP, 1/4/09)(AP, 1/5/09)
2009 Jan 11, In Indonesia scores of people were feared dead after a ferry carrying more than 260 passengers and crew sank in stormy seas off Sulawesi island.
(AP, 1/11/09)
2009 Jan 21, Indonesia’s Health Ministry said 2 people have died of bird flu, apparently after contact with sick chickens, raising the country's death toll to 115.
(AP, 1/21/09)
2009 Jan 27, Indonesian police opened fire on hundreds of people in Papua province during a protest against alleged police violence. 4 people were injured.
(AP, 1/27/09)
2009 Jan 30, Indonesia said it will repatriate 174 "economic migrants" who fled Myanmar claiming persecution, as new accounts emerged of their harrowing sea journey and alleged abuse by the Thai navy. The 174 Rohingya and 19 Bangladeshis being kept at an Indonesian naval base landed in Weh Island off northern Sumatra on January 7.
(AFP, 1/30/09)
2009 Feb 2, Indonesia's navy picked up 198 starving, dehydrated boat people from Myanmar who said they drifted for three weeks after authorities in Thailand forced them to sea in a boat without an engine. Indonesian fishermen had discovered the 40-foot (12-meter) boat off Aceh's coast in northern Sumatra and towed it to shore.
(AP, 2/3/09)
2009 Feb 3, Indonesia’s central bank cut its key interest rate a half point to 8.25%.
(WSJ, 2/4/09, p.A10)
2009 Feb 12, In Indonesia at least 42 people were injured and hundreds of homes and buildings damaged when a major earthquake struck off Sulawesi island near the Philippines.
(AP, 2/12/09)
2009 Feb 19, About 12 pirates armed with guns attacked the tug and barge in the Malacca Strait and kidnapped two crew members as the vessel was en route to Singapore.
(AP, 2/20/09)
2009 Feb 21, In western Indonesia a Sumatran tiger mauled two illegal loggers to death, bringing to 5 the number of people killed by the critically endangered cats in less than a month.
(AP, 2/22/09)
2009 Mar 3, An official said 4 Indonesians have died of bird flu over the last 2 months, bringing the death toll in the country over the past several years to 119.
(AP, 3/3/09)
2009 Mar 5, Indonesia and South Korea agreed to cooperate more closely on a range of issues including defense, the global financial crisis and alternative sources of energy.
(AP, 3/6/09)
2009 Mar 10, Two cargo ships collided off the coast of a central Japanese island, leaving 16 South Korean and Indonesian crew members missing.
(AP, 3/10/09)
2009 Mar 11, Forbes magazine released its list of 793 of the world’s richest people. Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, a suspected drug lord and Mexico's most-wanted fugitive, made the list of billionaires with a fortune described as "self made." He was No. 701 on the list. The list included 5 Indonesians.
(AP, 3/11/09)(SSFC, 3/15/09, p.A4)
2009 Mar 12, The leaders of two of Indonesia's biggest political parties signed an agreement on shared goals amid speculation they could join forces against President Yudhoyono.
(AFP, 3/12/09)
2009 Mar 14, In Indonesia Nasrudin Zulkarnaen, the head of a state-owned pharmaceutical company, was shot dead. On May 4 Jakarta police arrested Antasari Azhar, chairman of Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission, as the alleged mastermind of the drive-by murder.
(Econ, 5/9/09, p.46)
2009 Mar 23, In eastern Indonesia 2 Komodo dragons mauled a fruit-picker to death. An 8-year-old boy was killed in 2007, the first recorded deadly attack on a human by one of the endangered lizards in three decades.
(AP, 3/24/09)
2009 Mar 24, Indonesia's controversial Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supari said she wants to end vaccinating children against meningitis, mumps and some other diseases because she fears foreign drug companies are using the country as a testing ground.
(AP, 3/25/09)
2009 Mar 24, In Indonesia rangers found the bodies of 2 rare Sumatran elephants with gunshots to the head hours after they were used for a patrol against illegal loggers and several hundred yards from their camp.
(AP, 3/31/09)
2009 Mar 27, In Indonesia torrential rain caused a dam to burst outside Jakarta, sending a wall of muddy water crashing into a densely packed neighborhood and killing at least 96 people with some 130 still missing. The earthen dam, built in 1933 when Indonesia was still under Dutch rule, surrounded a man-made lake in Cirendeu on the southwestern edge of Jakarta.
(AP, 3/27/09)(AP, 3/29/09)
2009 Apr 6, An Indonesian military plane carrying 24 people crashed into an airport hangar during heavy rains and burst into flames, killing everyone on board.
(AP, 4/6/09)
2009 Apr 9, Indonesians flooded polling stations across the sprawling island nation, capping a decade of democracy in a parliamentary election that boosted the reform-minded president's chances of re-election. Pres. Yudhoyono’s party won 20.8% of the popular vote. Nine parties appeared to have passed the 2.5% threshold to win seats in the 560-member parliament.
(AP, 4/9/09)(SFC, 4/10/09, p.A2)(Econ, 4/18/09, p.44)(AP, 5/10/09)
2009 Apr 16, Indonesia's top court cleared Time Magazine of charges it had defamed former dictator Suharto in a cover story that alleged his family amassed billions of dollars during his decades-long rule.
(AP, 4/16/09)
2009 Apr 16, Five people were killed and dozens wounded when a blast tore apart a boat carrying more than 40 Afghan refugees off Australia's northwest coast. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation later said it was told the refugees had doused the boat in petrol to try to force the navy to land them in Australia and not turn them back to Indonesia, but that the blast was an accident. On Oct 28 two Indonesian fishermen were jailed for five years for smuggling the boat full of Afghan refugees.
(AFP, 4/20/09)(AFP, 10/28/09)
2009 Apr 19, The annual Goldman Environmental Prize was awarded to 7 activists from 6 nations. Rizwana Hasan (40) of Bangladesh was awarded for exposing environmental damage and exploitative practices used in the country’s ship dismantling industry; Marc Ona Essangui (45) of Gabon, the founder of Brainforest, was awarded for exposing secret agreements for a Chinese mine project that threatened Gabon’s rain forests; Yuyun Ismawati of Indonesia was awarded for designing environmentally safe waste management systems for poor Indonesia n communities; Olga Speranskaya (46) of Eco-Accord in Russia was awarded for her efforts to control and store chemicals in Russia and former Soviet republics; Wanze Eduards (52) and Hugo Jabini (44) of Suriname, leaders of the maroon community, were awarded for their efforts that led to a landmark ruling ending tribal exploitation by the government. Maria Gunnoe (40) of West Virginia was awarded for her fight against the practice of removing of the tops of mountains and filing valleys below with tailings.
(SSFC, 4/19/09, p.A18)
2009 Apr 28, An Indonesian court sentenced a Singaporean man to 18 years in prison on terrorism charges. Mohammad Hasan bin Saynudin (36), who claimed to have met Osama bin Laden on many occasions, was convicted of plotting to kill a teacher and planning a deadly attack on a bar frequented by Western tourists.
(AP, 4/28/09)
2009 May 1, Indonesia's top graft-buster, Antasari Azhar (56), was named a suspect and a mastermind in a murder case, dealing a blow to the agency that's played a key part in President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's fight against corruption. He was one of several suspects in the March 14 murder of Nasrudin Zulkarnaen, a businessman who, according to local media reports, had been a witness in a corruption case investigated by the agency.
(Reuters, 5/1/09)
2009 May 4, Indonesia's top graft-buster, Antasari Azhar (56), was arrested as a suspect and a mastermind in the March 14 murder of businessman Nasrudin Zulkarnaen.
(AP, 5/5/09)
2009 May 7, In northwestern Indonesia 2 rare Sumatran elephants, believed to have been poisoned with cyanide-laced pineapples, were found dead with their tusks removed. Just 3,000 Sumatran elephants are believed to still be living in their natural surroundings.
(AP, 5/8/09)
2009 May 15, In Indonesia 6 Asia-Pacific countries, meeting at the World Oceans Conference, agreed on a management plan to protect one of the world's largest networks of coral reefs, promising to reduce pollution, eliminate overfishing and improve the livelihoods of impoverished coastal communities. The Coral Triangle Initiative on Coral Reefs, Fisheries and Food Security covered an area defined as the Coral Triangle, which spans Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and East Timor.
(AP, 5/15/09)
2009 May 19, Environmental groups in Indonesia said Singapore-based Asia Pulp & Paper, one of the world's largest paper companies, plans to clear a large swath of unprotected forest in Indonesia being used as a sanctuary for critically endangered orangutans.
(AP, 5/19/09)
2009 May 20, An Indonesian C-130 Hercules military transport plane, carrying troops and their families, crashed into a row of houses in East Java and burst into flames, killing 99 people.
(AP, 5/20/09)
2009 May 28, A ship packed with Afghan migrants sank off Indonesia's western coast, killing at least 9 people and leaving 11 others missing.
(AP, 5/28/09)(AP, 5/29/09)
2009 May 29, Indonesian government marine geologist Yusuf Surachman said that a massive underwater mountain discovered off the island of Sumatra could be a volcano with potentially catastrophic power. It was discovered earlier this month about 330 kilometers (205 miles) west of Bengkulu city during research to map the seabed's seismic faultlines.
(AFP, 5/30/09)
2009 Jun 7, In Indonesia 19 leading agricultural exporting nations, including Australia, Brazil and South Africa, kicked off talks in Bali aimed at pushing forward troubled world trade negotiations. The Cairns Group of nations accounted for more than 25% of the world's agricultural exports was also expected to take aim at US and European dairy export subsidies.
(Reuters, 6/7/09)
2009 Jun 12, In Indonesia a male Sumatran elephant was found dead in a pulp plantation in Riau province, Sumatra with its tusks removed. Six other endangered Sumatran elephants had been killed in Riau in the last two months and two were found with missing tusks.
(AP, 6/15/09)
2009 Jun 16, In Indonesia 16 miners were rescued after a massive explosion of methane gas collapsed a coal mine owned by local residents in West Sumatra province. 5 of the rescued miners died in hospital and the death toll rose to 31 the next day after rescuers unearthed more bodies. One more miner was believed to be buried.
(AFP, 6/16/09)(AP, 6/17/09)
2009 Jun 30, Indonesia committed to the conservation of its dwindling tropical forests in a multimillion dollar debt-swap deal signed with the American government. Jakarta's payments to Washington will be reduced by $30 million over the next eight years under the US Tropical Forest Conservation Act.
(AP, 6/30/09)
2009 Jul 8, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono won a second term. Exit polls gave him a massive lead in only the second presidential vote since the fall of Suharto. Yudhoyono won 61% of the vote. Jusuf Kalla, his former vice-president, won 12%. Megawati Sukarnoputri won 27%.
(AP, 7/8/09)(Econ, 9/12/09, SR p.4)
2009 Jul 12, In Indonesia gunmen killed a security guard working for US mining conglomerate Freeport, then ambushed police responding to the attack blamed on separatist rebels in one of Indonesia's most underdeveloped and remote regions.
(AP, 7/12/09)
2009 Jul 13, In Indonesia a policeman's body was found at the bottom of a ravine near the Indonesian operations of US mining conglomerate Freeport, raising the death toll from a series of weekend ambushes in restive Papua province to three.
(AP, 7/13/09)
2009 Jul 17, In Indonesia suicide attacks at the Marriott and the Ritz-Carlton hotels in Jakarta killed 9 people including 2 suspected suicide bombers and wounded 53. Suspicion quickly fell on Jemaah Islamiyah and anti-terror desk chief, Ansyaad Mbai, said evidence pointed to Malaysian-born extremist Noordin Mohammed Top. In 2010 the South Jakarta District Court found Amid Abdillah guilty of violating the Anti-Terror Law by helping a splinter of the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah plan the suicide bombings. The same court has earlier sentenced Saefudin Zuhri, an in-law of Top, and Aris Susanto to eight years in prison for assisting and harboring Top and two other suspects.
(AP, 7/17/09)(AFP, 7/18/09)(AP, 7/21/09)(AP, 8/7/09)(AP, 6/14/10)
2009 Aug 2, In eastern Indonesia a plane carrying 16 people disappeared over a jungle-clad and mountainous region of Papua. All aboard were killed.
(AP, 8/2/09)(AP, 8/5/09)
2009 Aug 3, A seven-minute video, apparently made by the Korps Brigade Mobil, or Brimob, the paramilitary police, shows prisoner Yawen Wayeni lying in a jungle clearing in eastern Indonesia moments after troops allegedly sliced open his abdomen with a bayonet. Police said Wayeni, captured for allegedly vandalizing several of their buildings and vehicles, was shot in the thigh and stomach while resisting arrest and that he died on the way to the hospital. The video was made public in the Internet in 2010.
(AP, 8/4/10)(http://hub.witness.org/en/upload/killing-yawan-wayeni)
2009 Aug 7, Indonesia's anti-terrorism unit engaged in a shootout in Central Java during a raid targeting suspected militants behind deadly bomb attacks in Jakarta last month.
(Reuters, 8/7/09)
2009 Aug 8, Indonesian police reportedly killed Noordin Mohammad Top, the self-proclaimed Southeast Asian commander of al-Qaida, in a 16-hour siege of a village hide-out in Central Java. Authorities said they could not confirm that a recovered body was that of the militant leader without DNA tests. DNA tests failed to confirm Top’s death. Police raided a house on the outskirts of Jakarta where they killed two suspected militants and seized bombs and a car rigged to carry them. The house was just 3 miles (5 kilometers) from the president's residence.
(AP, 8/8/09)(AP, 8/9/09)(AP, 8/12/09)
2009 Aug 11, In Indonesia UNAIDS regional director Prasada Rao cited a new report saying more than 1.5 million women living with HIV in Asia were infected by their partners and 50 million more are at risk of infection. Rao spoke on the sidelines of the ninth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP), which is being held on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
(AFP, 8/11/09)
2009 Aug 18, In Indonesia a dump truck, packed with more than 60 plantation workers and their families, overturned and killing at least 25 with dozens injured. At least three children were among the dead near Sampit town in Central Kalimantan.
(AP, 8/19/09)
2009 Aug 22, In Indonesia a group of thieves killed an endangered Sumatran tiger in a zoo in Jambi province on Sumatra island and stole most of its body. Police suspected the theft was motivated by the animal's valuable fur and bones. The number of Sumatran tigers has dwindled to about 250 from about 1,000 in the 1970s, according to the Washington DC-based World Wildlife Fund.
(AP, 8/23/09)
2009 Aug 26, A small Indonesian ferry sank off the resort island of Bali, killing nine people while three others are still missing.
(Reuters, 8/26/09)
2009 Aug 28, In Indonesia the overcrowded ferry Sari Mulia capsized in the Negara River in the South Kalimantan province, leaving at least 19 people dead and 15 others missing.
(AP, 8/29/09)(AP, 8/30/09)
2009 Sep 2, A powerful 7.0 earthquake rattled southern Indonesia, killing at least 64 people crushed by falling rock or collapsed buildings and sending thousands fleeing outdoors for safety in the middle of the work day. More than 10,000 buildings were severely damaged.
(AP, 9/2/09)(AP, 9/4/09)
2009 Sep 7, A small Indonesian military plane crashed on Borneo with nine passengers and crew aboard, killing four.
(AP, 9/7/09)
2009 Sep 9, Australia announced that it has launched a war crimes investigation into the 1975 killing of five Australian-based journalists during an attack by Indonesian forces in East Timor.
(AP, 9/9/09)
2009 Sep 14, In Indonesia expanded Islamic law was passed by the regional parliament in Aceh province. One key article regarding adultery threatened 100 cane lashes for the unmarried and stoning to death for those who are married.
(AP, 9/14/09)
2009 Sep 17, Armed Indonesian police stormed an Islamic militant hideout in a raid that killed fugitive terror mastermind Noordin Mohammed Top (41) and 3 other militants in central Java. Putri Munawaroh (21) was wounded and arrested after police raided her house, sparking the gunbattle. In 2010 she was sentenced to 3 years in prison for harboring terrorists.
(AFP, 9/17/09)(AP, 7/29/10)
2009 Sep 19, In Indonesia a strong earthquake shook the popular resort island of Bali, injuring at least seven people and sending panicked tourists and residents fleeing out of homes and hotels.
(AP, 9/19/09)
2009 Sep 21, In Indonesia Akbar Risuddin came into the world at a national record 19.2 pounds (8.7 kilograms). He was born to a diabetic mother in a 40-minute cesarean delivery that was complicated because of his unusual weight and size. Guinness World Records cites the heaviest baby as being born in the US in 1879, weighing 23.75 pounds (10.4 kilograms). However, it died 11 hours after birth. The book also cites 22.5-pound (10.2-kilogram) babies born in Italy in 1955 and in South Africa in 1982.
(AP, 9/25/09)
2009 Sep 30, A 7.6 underwater earthquake rocked western Indonesia, briefly triggering a tsunami alert for countries along the Indian Ocean and sending panicked residents out of their houses. The quake toppled buildings, cut power and triggered a landslide on Sumatra island. The UN later said 1,100 had been killed in and around Padang, a port city of 900,000 that sits atop one of the world's most active seismic fault lines along the Pacific "Ring of Fire." At least three villages were obliterated by earthquake-triggered landslides that buried as many as 644 people including a wedding party under mountains of mud and debris.
(AFP, 9/30/09)(AP, 10/2/09)(Reuters, 10/2/09)(AP, 10/3/09)
2009 Sep, Indonesia’s Parliament, regarded as the most corrupt of Indonesia’s institutions, passed a law weakening its Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK).
(Econ, 10/10/09, p.44)
2009 Oct 1, In Indonesia rescue workers used excavators to pull out victims from the heavy rubble of buildings felled by the previous day’s 7.6 earthquake. The death toll was expected to rise. The region was jolted by another powerful earthquake, causing damage but no reported fatalities.
(AP, 10/1/09)(AP, 10/2/09)
2009 Oct 2, A boat carrying about 100 asylum seekers left an Indonesian port bound for Australia but never arrived. The information was made public in May, 2010, by Australian Customs and Border Protection Service chief executive Michael Carmody during a routine Senate inquiry into government operations.
(AP, 5/25/10)
2009 Oct 8, In Indonesia controversial tycoon Aburizal Bakrie was elected to lead the Golkar party after the Suharto-era ruling party suffered its biggest electoral defeat.
(AFP, 10/8/09)
2009 Oct 9, Indonesian police raided a house near the capital, shooting dead suspected al-Qaida-linked militants Syaiffudin Djaelani and his brother, Mohamad Syahrir, wanted in the suicide bombings of luxury hotels in Jakarta. Djaelani was believed to have recruited two young bombers for the July 17 strikes on the J.W. Marriott and Ritz-Carlton.
(AP, 10/9/09)(Reuters, 10/12/09)
2009 Oct 21, Indonesia’s customs chief said a group of 10 alleged Iranian drug smugglers, including eight veiled women, were caught with $12.5 million worth of methamphetamines at the main airport. The group had arrived on flights from Malaysia, Syria and Qatar on Oct 19-20.
(AP, 10/21/09)
2009 Oct 30, Indonesian officials and fishermen said thousands of dead fish and clumps of oil have been found drifting near the coastline more than two months after an Australian underwater well began leaking in the Timor Sea on Aug 21.
(AP, 10/30/09)
2009 Nov 9, In central Indonesia 6.7 undersea earthquake killed one person, injured dozens and damaged hundreds of houses on remote Sumbawa Island. Local officials said torrential rains have triggered a series of landslides on Sulawesi island, killing at least 14 residents and burying many more.
(AP, 11/9/09)
2009 Nov 21, Indonesian authorities picked up Abdul Basir Latip, a co-founder of the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf extremist group, at Jakarta airport for using a false passport.
(AFP, 12/16/09)
2009 Nov 22, Nearly 250 people were pulled from the sea after the Dumai Express went down in heavy rain and huge swells off Karimun island in the north of the Indonesian archipelago. At least 29 people were killed and 20 were missing.
(AFP, 11/22/09)(AP, 11/23/09)
2009 Nov 26, In Indonesia police broke up a protest by the environmental group Greenpeace against deforestation on the island of Sumatra, arresting 12 foreign and six Indonesian demonstrators.
(AP, 11/26/09)
2009 Dec 1, Indonesia banned the film “Balibo," an Australian-made film on the alleged murder of six Australian-based journalists by Indonesian troops during the 1975 invasion of East Timor.
(AFP, 12/2/09)
2009 Dec 5, In Indonesia an ecumenical group launched more than 10,000 twinkling paper lanterns into the night sky above Carnaval Beach in Jakarta, setting a world record. Freedom Faithnet Global said it organized the lantern release as a symbol of hope and prayer as part of annual celebrations. This year's celebrations have an environmental focus.
(AP, 12/7/09)
2009 Dec 15, Australian scientists reported the discovery of an octopus in Indonesia that collects coconut shells for shelter, unusually sophisticated behavior that the researchers believe is the first evidence of tool use in an invertebrate animal.
(AP, 12/15/09)
2009 Dec 16, Indonesian police killed Kelly Kwalik (60), one of the most active Papuan rebel commanders, sparking angry protests in a region scarred by unrest and rights abuses. Police said they shot Kwalik after he threatened to open fire on them during a raid on a house in Timika. Kwalik commanded the Free Papua Movement (OPM) in southern Mimika district.
(AFP, 12/16/09)
2009 Dec 19, Hundreds of supporters of a slain Papuan rebel leader Kelly Kwalik pelted Indonesian police with stones as tensions flared ahead of the commander's funeral.
(AFP, 12/19/09)
2009 Dec 30, Former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid (69) died. He briefly ruled during the nation's first tumultuous years of democracy (1999-2001) and sought peace in far-flung secessionist provinces.
(AP, 12/30/09)
2009 Dec, In Indonesia the attorney-general’s office banned 5 books, which it considered a threat to national security.
(Econ, 1/23/10, p.43)
2009 Andrew Beatty, anthropologist, authored “A Shadow Falls: In the Heart of Java," a look at the cultural conflict between Javanism, a pre-Islamic mystical tradition, and orthodox Islam.
(Econ, 4/4/09, p.87)
2009 Marcus Mietzner authored Military Politics, Islam and the State of Indonesia: From Turbulent Transition to Democratic Consolidation."
(Econ, 8/15/09, p.37)
2009 Indonesia joined the G20 club of major economies.
(Econ, 2/19/11, p.43)
2009 Indonesia’s population at this time numbered about 240 million people.
(Econ, 4/4/09, p.18)
2009 Australia’s Defence Signals Directorate (DSD), an intelligence agency, tried to tap the phones of Indonesia’s Pres. Susilo Bambang, as well as his wife and several of his innermost circle. This only became public in 2013.
(Econ, 11/23/13, p.43)
2009 The world Muslim population was estimated at 1.57 billion, or about 23% of the global population of 6.8 billion, including 203 million in Indonesia, 174 million in Pakistan and 160 million in India.
(Econ, 10/10/09, p.62)
2010 Jan 12, The Indonesian government, which has promised to stamp out corruption, was embarrassed by revelations that rich and powerful prisoners are living in luxury behind bars.
(AFP, 1/12/10)
2010 Jan 13, In Indonesia hundreds people pelted each other with stones outside parliament as lawmakers grilled Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati over a controversial bank bailout. Some 400 anti-graft protesters from rival groups set upon each other in the latest sign of mounting anger over pervasive corruption.
(AFP, 1/13/10)
2010 Jan 22, In Indonesia incessant rain caused floods in two remote villages in eastern Indonesia leaving eight people dead and 13 others missing.
(AP, 1/22/10)
2010 Jan 24, In Indonesia gunmen attacked a convoy near the world's largest gold mine in Papua, wounding at least seven people including a foreigner.
(AP, 1/24/10)
2010 Jan 27, In Indonesia Eko Budi Wardoyo (32), a suspected Islamist militant, was arrested in East Java province. He was allegedly involved in the 2005 bombing of a market that killed 22 people and the murder of a Christian priest in 2004.
(AP, 1/29/10)
2010 Jan 27, It was reported that Italian fashion house Armani has stopped selling online a T-shirt bearing a logo similar to Indonesia's national symbol, Garuda Pancasila, after some bloggers protested and other people called for the label to be sued.
(Reuters, 1/27/10)
2010 Feb 1, Thailand and the United States began their annual Cobra Gold military exercise, now in its 29th year, with South Korea taking part for the first time. Singapore, Japan and Indonesia will also participate in the three-week training exercise, describes as the largest of its type in the world.
(AP, 2/1/10)
2010 Feb 9, Indonesian police said 8 people have died after drinking liquor laced with methanol on the country's main island of Java. The victims had bought the drink from the same stall on Feb 5.
(AP, 2/9/10)
2010 Feb 11, Indonesia's former anti-graft chief, Antasari Azhar (56), was convicted of plotting the murder of a businessman and sentenced to 18 years in prison, in a case that has undermined the country's fight against corruption.
(AP, 2/11/10)
2010 Feb 13, In Indonesia contestants took part in the Social Cultural Transvestite Queen beauty pageant in Banda Aceh, Aceh province. The transvestite beauty pageant was held for the first time in the country's only province that officially adopted Islamic sharia law.
(AP, 2/14/10)
2010 Feb 22, In Indonesia a villager was killed in crossfire and three suspected militants were arrested when police raided a possible paramilitary training ground for the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah in Aceh province.
(AP, 2/23/10)
2010 Feb 23, In Indonesia a rain-triggered landslide at a tea plantation on the main island of Java buried scores of workers. At least 46 people were killed or missing.
(AP, 2/23/10)(AP, 2/24/10)
2010 Mar 6, In Indonesia a group calling itself "al-Qaida in Aceh" claimed to be the target of a police crackdown. Police have arrested 16 suspected militants in a series of raids in the deeply conservative province of Aceh since Feb 22.
(AP, 3/6/10)
2010 Mar 9, Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono flew into Canberra with PM Kevin Rudd and Governor-General Quentin Bryce waiting on the red carpet. He was soon appointed an honorary companion of the Order of Australia for his work after the 2002 Bali bombing. Yudhoyono will become the first Indonesian leader to address a joint sitting of Australia's parliament on March 10.
(AFP, 3/9/10)
2010 Mar 9, In Indonesia 3 terror suspects were killed during raids near Jakarta. One of the dead included Dulmatin, one of the masterminds of the 2002 Bali bombings. Police soon confirmed his identity. An additional terror suspect was arrested in Jakarta earlier in the day, bringing to 24 the number of suspects taken into custody on Java and Aceh since Feb. 22 in a police crackdown on a suspected Jemaah Islamiyah cell.
(AP, 3/9/10)(AFP, 3/10/10)
2010 Mar 12, Indonesian police killed two suspected Islamist militants in a firefight in remote Aceh province during the latest in a series of raids made since an extremist training camp was discovered there last month. Eight other suspects were arrested.
(AP, 3/12/10)
2010 Mar 21, In Indonesia a rare Sumatran tiger dragged a man, identified as Darmilus (26), from a hut in Seponjen village near the protected Berbak National Park, and broke his neck as friends tried to rescue the victim.
(AP, 3/22/10)
2010 Mar 24, Indonesian police ordered the cancellation of a conference of Asian gay activists, saying it could prompt violent protests by conservative Muslim groups.
(AP, 3/24/10)
2010 Apr 7, In Indonesia a magnitude 7.7 earthquake shook Indonesia's northwest island of Sumatra, triggering a small tsunami, snapping power lines and sending panicked residents rushing for higher ground.
(AP, 4/7/10)
2010 Apr 11, In Indonesia police arrested 6 terror suspects including Abu Musa (35), a suspect in the 2004 attack on the Australian Embassy in Jakarta, and Yusuf Arifin (25), who is said to have received militant training in the southern Philippines. The other four were wanted in connection with a failed plot to assassinate Indonesia's president last year.
(AP, 4/12/10)
2010 Apr 12, Indonesian police raided a home used by suspected terrorists in the far western province of Aceh, fatally shooting Enal Tao (38), allegedly involved in the beheadings of 3 Christian girls. Two other suspects were arrested at the house in Cot Irie village on the outskirts of Banda Aceh.
(AP, 4/12/10)
2010 Apr 14, In Indonesia protesters wielding machetes, sticks and petrol bombs clashed with riot police near the main seaport of Tanjung Priok in northern Jakarta in a series of running battles over a Muslim cleric's tomb, wounding 90 people. The bloody clashes left three dead and 156 wounded.
(AP, 4/14/10)(AP, 4/15/10)
2010 Apr 19, Indonesia’s Constitutional Court ruled 8-1 that a 45-year-old law banning religious blasphemy was constitutional. The law limited officially recognized religions to six: Buddhism, Catholicism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam and Protestantism. Up to 5 years in prison could be imposed for anyone found guilty of heresy.
(SFC, 4/20/10, p.A2)
2010 May 9, In Indonesia an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.4 rattled the North Sumatra province, prompting a brief local tsunami watch, knocking out power and damaging some homes.
(AP, 5/9/10)
2010 May 11, Indonesia's former chief detective, Gen. Susno Duadji, who has recently exposed corruption among government and police officials, was arrested on allegations that he accepted a bribe in 2008.
(AP, 5/11/10)
2010 May 12, In Indonesia 5 suspected terrorists were killed in two raids, the latest in a series of anti-terror operations nationwide. 3 were killed in Cawang, East Jakarta, and 2 others in the West Java city of Cikampek. One of the suspects killed in the second raid was Saptono, who was involved in a suicide car bomb attack which killed 10 people outside the Australian embassy in 2004. Two days of raids around Java also detained 20 people.
(AFP, 5/12/10)(Econ, 5/22/10, p.45)
2010 May 14, An Indonesian official said police have foiled a plot to assassinate the president and other top officials, massacre foreigners in Mumbai-style terrorist attacks and declare an Islamic state.
(AP, 5/14/10)
2010 May 27, In Indonesia authorities in a devoutly Islamic district of Aceh province have distributed 20,000 long skirts and prohibited shops from selling tight dresses as a regulation banning Muslim women from wearing revealing clothing took effect.
(AP, 5/27/10)
2010 May 28, Indonesia said it will impose a 2-year moratorium on large-scale clearance of rainforests, effective as off January 2011, in return for $1 billion grant from Norway to fund projects as part of the REDD plan (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation).
(http://news.mongabay.com/2010/0527-hance_moratorium.html)(Econ, 10/30/10, p.44)
2010 May 31, Indonesia's failure to ban tobacco advertising or enforce laws against smoking in bars and restaurants came under heavy fire as the UN marked world anti-tobacco day.
(AP, 5/31/10)
2010 Jun 6, In western Indonesia 10 children died when a suspension bridge collapsed. Rescuers were searching for three others still missing.
(AP, 6/7/10)
2010 Jun 16, Indonesia was hit by a series of powerful earthquakes. At least 17 people were killed and more than 4,600 others left homeless.
(AP, 6/16/10)(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 21, In Indonesia the discovery of three dead Javan rhinos has intensified efforts to save one of the world's most endangered mammals from extinction, with an electric fence being built around a new sanctuary and breeding ground.
(AP, 6/21/10)
2010 Jun 23, In Indonesia an elite anti-terrorism squad arrested Abdullah Sunata, the country’s most-wanted man, and two other suspects after raiding their hide-out on the country's main island of Java. At least one person was killed and several weapons seized, including a bomb in a backpack.
(AP, 6/23/10)
2010 Jun 25, In Indonesia 10 people were killed in a fire that ripped through the packed Redboxx Café nightclub in Surabaya in the early hours, including a mother and the baby she apparently gave birth to during the tragedy.
(AP, 6/25/10)
2010 Jun 29, An Indonesian court sentenced 8 Iranians to life in prison for smuggling hundreds of methamphetamine tablets in their stomachs into the resort island of Bali. The Jakarta Post newspaper, quoting police, said Iranian drugs syndicates have become the main suppliers of heroin and crystal methamphetamine to Indonesia, replacing West African countries.
(AFP, 6/29/10)
2010 Jun, Indonesia’s Tempo news magazine ran a cover story revealing that over a dozen senior police officials had suspicious bank accounts, some of which held millions of dollars. A week later an anti-corruption activist, who helped expose the accounts, was brutally beaten by unknown men.
(Econ, 11/6/10, p.56)
2010 Jul 2, Jakarta's annual month-long flora and fauna expo opened. It included sales of the world's most threatened ploughshare tortoise and the critically endangered radiated tortoises, both from Madagascar. While the government has passed legislation banning such illegal trade, dealers continue to blatantly sell endangered species without fear of arrest or prosecution.
(AP, 7/3o/10)
2010 Jul 22, The US said it was dropping a ban on ties with Indonesia's special forces, imposed over human rights abuses in the 1990s, a move that may eventually allow combat training of the once-notorious unit.
(Reuters, 7/22/10)
2010 Aug 4, In Indonesia the Trisal Pratama sank shortly after a collision with another cargo vessel near Selayar island off South Sumatra province. Rescuers saved 11 people, including a 1-year-old girl, but searched the next day for nine others still missing.
(AP, 8/5/10)
2010 Aug 6, In Indonesia the Mount Karangetang volcano erupted, sending lava and a searing gas cloud tumbling down its slopes. At least four family members were swept away and feared dead.
(AP, 8/6/10)
2010 Aug 9, Indonesian police arrested top radical Islamist preacher Abu Bakar Bashir. He was accused of funding and training extremists who were planning a wave of attacks in Jakarta.
(AFP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 9, In Indonesia the Hastina III sunk off East Nusatenggara province after a large wave slammed into the wooden ship, sending panicked passengers running to one side. It capsized between Adonara and Lembata islands. 10 people were killed with one missing.
(AP, 8/9/10)
2010 Aug 10, Indonesia and the US launched a biodiversity research centre on the holiday island of Bali to further studies of the archipelago's rich and diverse species.
(AFP, 8/10/10)
2010 Aug 11, Indonesia's best-known radical cleric, Abu Bakar Bashir, was charged with helping plan terrorist attacks in the world's most populous Muslim nation, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of death.
(AP, 8/11/10)
2010 Aug 29, In Indonesia the Sinabung volcano on the island of Sumatra erupted for the first time in 400 years, spewing a vast cloud of smoke and ash into the air and sending thousands of people fleeing from their homes.
(AFP, 8/29/10)
2010 Aug 31, Indonesian police killed five villagers as dozens of people ransacked a station in central Buol district to protest a person's death in custody. The protest followed a motorist's death in police custody on Aug 30. It was unclear why he was detained, but the protesters suspected he was tortured by police.
(AP, 9/1/10)
2010 Sep 2, An international maritime group urged Indonesia to increase patrols in the South China Sea after pirates attacked nine vessels in less than three weeks.
(AP, 9/2/10)
2010 Sep 4, Thousands of Indonesian Muslims rallied outside the US Embassy in Jakarta to denounce an American church's plan to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by burning copies of the Quran. The Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, has said it will burn the Islamic holy book on Sep 11, the ninth anniversary of the NYC terror attacks.
(AP, 9/4/10)
2010 Sep 7, Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung volcano shot a towering cloud of black ash high into the air, dusting villages 15 miles (25 km) away in its most powerful eruption since awakening last week from four centuries of dormancy.
(AP, 9/7/10)
2010 Sep 11, In central Indonesia flash floods on Borneo Island killed 10 people and left 14 others missing.
(AP, 9/12/10)
2010 Sep 12, In Indonesia assailants stabbed Asia Sihombing, a Christian worshipper, in the stomach and pounded Rev. Luspida Simanjuntak in the head with a wooden plank when she tried to help him as they headed to morning prayers in Bekasi, 25 miles east of Jakarta.
(AP, 9/12/10)
2010 Sep 13, In Indonesia Yusuf Sipakoly (52), a political prisoner being detained in Ambon, Maluku, died while under police custody. His family claimed that he was tortured by police.
(Econ, 11/6/10, p.56)(http://tinyurl.com/3533o26)
2010 Sep 22, In western Indonesia Muslim militants wearing black masks stormed the tiny police precinct and unloaded their assault rifles, riddling 3 officers with bullets and shining a spotlight on the country's changing face of terrorism.
(AP, 10/10/10)
2010 Sep 23, Mohammed Sofyan Tsauri, a former Indonesian police officer, said he helped al-Qaida train 170 members of a new terror network in Aceh province soon after he left the police force in 2008. On Jan 19, 2011, Tsauri (34) was sentenced to 10 years in prison for supplying weapons to a terrorist cell allegedly plotting a series of attacks on foreigners.
(AP, 9/23/10)(AP, 1/19/11)
2010 Sep 27, Indonesia and France served as co-chairs of the Group of 20 Working Group on Anti-corruption during a 2-day meeting in Jakarta. The WGAC was among the most significant outcomes of the G20 summit in Toronto in June 2010.
(www.deplu.go.id/Pages/PressRelease.aspx?IDP=1002&l=en)
2010 Oct 2, In central Indonesia a train crashed into another parked at a railway station, killing at least 36 people and injuring dozens, many seriously. The next day Transportation Minister Freddy Numberi said Halik Rudianto, the train’s engineer, had failed to stop at a red signal. Rudianto was arrested for negligence.
(AP, 10/2/10)(AP, 10/3/10)
2010 Oct 4, In Indonesia heavy rain unleashed flash floods and mudslides, killing at least 91 people in West Papua province's village of Wasior. Rescuers struggled to reach the area.
(AP, 10/5/10)(AP, 10/6/10)(AP, 10/7/10)
2010 Oct 6, In Indonesia helicopters dropped food to isolated villages and security forces helped clear debris and search for survivors as the number of people killed by floods and landslides across Asia climbed to nearly 110. Three-quarters of the deaths were in eastern Indonesia. In Vietnam 11 bodies were recovered in the worst-hit province of Quang Binh, where authorities were also searching for five sailors from a sunken barge. At least seven other bodies were found in Ha Tinh province, five in Nghe An and three in Quang Tri. On China's nearby island province of Hainan, seven straight days of heavy rains left two people missing and forced 64,000 to evacuate.
(AP, 10/6/10)
2010 Oct 9, Erwin Arnada (47), the former editor-in-chief of Playboy Indonesia, began a two-year prison sentence for publishing pictures of scantily clothed women, riling free speech activists in the world's most populous Muslim nation. The Supreme Court had found Arnada guilty of violating indecency laws during a closed-door session in August, overruling a 2007 acquittal by the South Jakarta District Court.
(AP, 10/9/10)
2010 Oct 13, Australia and Indonesia agreed to further discuss plans for a refugee centre in East Timor to stem the flow of asylum seekers through Southeast Asia on their way to Australia.
(AFP, 10/13/10)
2010 Oct 15, In Indonesia a rabies outbreak on the resort island of Bali has to date killed 100 people. Bali, an island of 3 million people and one of Asia's top tourist destinations, has been grappling with the outbreak for nearly two years.
(AP, 10/15/10)
2010 Oct 22, In eastern Indonesia the Tersanjung, a small passenger ship, sank off the cape of Watumanuk on Flores island. It was reportedly carrying 66 people. 44 people were rescued and 22 remained missing.
(AP, 10/22/10)(AP, 10/23/10)
2010 Oct 23, In Indonesia a small freighter with seven crew was reported to be going down off Flores. Three people were apparently missing while the others survived.
(AP, 10/23/10)
2010 Oct 25, In western Indonesia a 7.7 magnitude earthquake off Sumatra’s coast triggered a 10-foot (3m) tsunami that pounded remote island villages, killing over 400 people and leaving scores more missing.
(AP, 10/26/10)(AP, 10/29/10)
2010 Oct 26, Indonesia’s Mount Merapi volcano erupted, prompting terrified villagers to flee and join the thousands already evacuated from its slopes.
(Reuters, 10/26/10)
2010 Oct 27, In Indonesia helicopters with emergency supplies finally landed on the remote islands slammed by a tsunami that killed over 400 people. Elsewhere in the archipelago the toll from a volcanic eruption rose to 30, including the mountain's spiritual caretaker.
(AP, 10/26/10)(AP, 10/29/10)
2010 Oct 28, Indonesia's Mount Merapi erupted for the second time in a week, blasting vast plumes of ash into the sky, as the death toll from the initial eruption and a tsunami that hit remote western islands reached 377.
(AP, 10/28/10)
2010 Oct 30, In Indonesia clouds of gray ash rumbled down the slopes of Mount Merapi in its most powerful eruption of a deadly week, prompting soldiers to force reluctant villagers to evacuate amid fears of a larger blast as the death toll reached 36. Storms again prevented aid deliveries to increasingly desperate survivors of a tsunami, including a teenage girl with an open chest wound, that killed 413 people in the Mentawai islands. The number of missing dropped by half to 163 as searchers discovered survivors who had fled to the hills.
(AP, 10/30/10)
2010 Nov 1, Indonesia's most volatile volcano, Mount Merapi, one of 22 that have been increasingly active, spewed searing clouds of gas and debris for hours in its most powerful eruption in a deadly week that has left 38 dead.
(AP, 11/1/10)
2010 Nov 4, In Indonesia clouds of hot ash gushed from the Mount Merapi volcano, forcing motorists in cities 20 miles (30 km) away to use their headlights in broad daylight and raising aviation concerns. The death toll climbed to 44.
(AP, 11/4/10)
2010 Nov 5, In Indonesia searing gas avalanched down the Mount Merapi volcano with a thunderous roar, torching houses and trees and incinerating villagers as they fled. About 70 more people were killed raising the death toll to 122.
(AP, 11/5/10)(Econ, 11/13/10, p.50)
2010 Nov 6, Airlines cancelled at least 36 flights to and from Jakarta, affecting international carriers from Europe to Asia, because of ash from the Mount Merapi volcano.
(AFP, 11/6/10)
2010 Nov 8, In Indonesia frightened residents abandoned their homes in Yogyakarta, a bustling city of 400,000 at the foot of Mount Merapi, as authorities warned the volcano could erupt again at any time. 153 people have been killed in the last two weeks.
(AP, 11/8/10)(AP, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 9, President Barack Obama arrived in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation. He voiced support for Pres. Yudhoyono's efforts to nurture a rapidly growing society even in a time when Indonesia has been hit by earthquakes, a tsunami, and now a volcanic eruption. He also expressed deep concern that Israelis and Palestinians aren't making the "extra effort" to secure a breakthrough for achieving Middle East peace.
(AP, 11/9/10)
2010 Nov 10, Indonesia's Mount Merapi volcano spewed clouds of ash high into the sky, forcing some international airlines to again cancel flights and President Barack Obama to cut short his visit.
(AP, 11/10/10)
2010 Nov 14, In Indonesia rescuers digging through several feet of ash discovered nine more bodies on the slopes of Mount Merapi, whose explosive eruption a week ago buried whole villages. Confirmation of more deaths trickled in and the toll from a series of blasts at the volcano rose to at least 250.
(AP, 11/14/10)
2010 Nov 15, In Indonesia Gayus Tambunan (31) broke into tears when he admitted in a hearing at the South Jakarta District Court that yes, he was the wigged man captured by photographers at the international tennis match on Nov 5. Tambunan, a midlevel tax official with a salary of just $1,300 a month, was supposed to be in jail. He has been charged with pocketing at least $2.7 million from dozens of big companies to help them avoid paying taxes. 9 wardens have been arrested and face charges of accepting up to $40,000 from the tax official. Tambunan allegedly left the jail at least 60 times since his detention in April. On Jan 19, 2011, he was sentenced to seven years behind bars for corruption.
(AP, 11/16/10)(AP, 1/19/11)
2010 Nov 17, Indonesia’s disaster agency said that the death toll due to Mount Merapi had risen to 275 and that most of the people were killed by searing gas clouds. Others died during panicked evacuations or from respiratory problems and other illnesses linked to the volcano.
(AP, 11/18/10)
2010 Nov 19, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that an inquiry will be launched into a female migrant's suspicious death in Saudi Arabia. Kikim Komalasari, who had worked in Abha city in Saudi Arabia since June 2009, had died from abuse. She was from Cianjur in West Java province.
(AFP, 11/19/10)
2010 Nov 21, In Indonesia the death toll from the Mount Merapi volcano rose to 304 after more victims succumbed to severe burns and illnesses.
(SFC, 11/22/10, p.A2)
2010 Nov 21, A global tiger summit meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, approved a wide-ranging program with the goal of doubling the world's tiger population in the wild by 2022 backed by governments of the 13 countries that still have tiger populations: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam and Russia. Experts wild tigers could become extinct in 12 years if countries where they still roam fail to take quick action to protect their habitats and step up the fight against poaching.
(AP, 11/21/10)
2010 Nov 23, Saudi media said a Saudi woman (53), accused of torturing her Indonesian maid, has been sent to jail while the maid, Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa (23), receives extensive hospital treatment for burns and broken bones.
(AFP, 11/23/10)
2010 Nov 24, Indonesian Muslim cleric Pujiono Cahyo Widianto (46), who sparked a national outcry by marrying a 12-year-old girl, was sentenced to four years in prison.
(AP, 11/24/10)
2010 Dec 1, Human Rights Watch urged Indonesia to overturn the Shariah laws in Aceh province, in effect since 2001, due to alleged widespread rights abuses.
(SFC, 12/2/10, p.A11)
2010 Dec 10, Indonesian police arrested Abu Tholut (42), one of the country's most-wanted Muslim militants, accusing him of plotting high-profile assassinations and bloody attacks on foreigners at luxury hotels in the capital. Tholut identified four more militants. Anwar Effendi, Wardi, Sukirno, and Sri Puji Mulyo Siswanto were suspected of concealing information about terrorism and of hiding Tholut. All 4 were arrested by the next day.
(AP, 12/10/10)(AP, 12/14/10)
2010 Dec 31, The Jakarta-based Legal Aid Foundation said in a new report that law enforcement officials from police to prison wardens routinely torture Indonesian suspects and convicts to extract confessions or obtain information.
(AP, 12/31/10)
2010 In Indonesia WHO reported that some 400,000 people die each year from smoking-related illnesses. Anti-smoking groups teamed up with Muhammadiyah, the country’s 2nd largest Islamic organization, to issue a fatwa declaring smoking haram, i.e. forbidden under Islam.
(Econ, 5/1/10, p.44)
2010 In Indonesia a video circulated widely on the Internet late showed men in uniform burning the genitals of a suspected separatist and running a knife across the neck of another, sparking an international outcry. In 2011 three soldiers were charged with the relatively minor offense of disobeying orders, which carried a maximum penalty of 30 months in prison. The 3 soldiers were sentenced on Jan 24 for up to ten months in prison, angering rights activists who slammed the lenient verdict as a sham underlining the military's impunity.
(AP, 1/14/11)(AP, 1/24/11)
2011 Jan 10, Canada-based Research In Motion said it will filter pornographic internet content for its Blackberry smartphone users in Indonesia, following government pressure to stop access to porn sites or face its browsing service being shut down.
(Reuters, 1/10/11)
2011 Jan 14, In Indonesia a group armed with guns and arrows attacked an army post in Papua, and one Papuan was killed and another wounded in the exchange.
(AP, 1/14/11)
2011 Jan 17, Canada-based Research In Motion Ltd. (RIM), the maker of BlackBerry, promised Indonesia it will meet the country's request to filter out pornographic content on its smartphones in the next four days.
(AP, 1/17/11)
2011 Jan 28, Two Indonesian passenger trains crashed killing 3 people in West Java province. A crowded ferry burst into flames off Java, killing at least 18 people and sending hundreds to the hospital, many in critical condition.
(AP, 1/28/11)(AP, 1/31/11)
2011 Jan 31, In Indonesia popstar Nazril “Ariel" Irham was sentenced to 3˝ years in prison after sex tapes with his celebrity girlfriends found their way to the Internet.
(SFC, 2/1/11, p.A2)
2011 Feb 2, Indonesian prosecutors formally charged Abu Bakar Bashir (72), spiritual head of the al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah network, with planning terrorist attacks. He was also was charged with helping fund a new terror cell in Aceh province and mobilizing foot soldiers.
(AP, 2/2/11)
2011 Feb 6, In central Indonesia a machete-wielding mob of Muslims attacked the home of a minority sect leader, killing 3 and wounding 6 others in Tamanggung. Some 1,500 people, many with machetes, sticks and rocks, attacked about 20 members of the Ahmadiyah Muslim sect who were visiting their leader in his house in Banten province. Java Island. Dani bin Misra (17) smashed a rock repeatedly into the skull of Roni Pasaroni as the crowd yelled "Allahu Akbar" or God is Great. Ahmadiyah is considered deviant by most Muslims and banned in many Islamic countries because of its belief that Muhammad was not the final prophet. Police later arrested 10 suspects related to the attacks. On July 28 twelve members of the mob were received sentenced of 3-6 months. Dani bin Misra was released from jail after 3 months.
(AP, 2/6/11)(SFC, 2/12/11, p.A2)(SFC, 7/29/11, p.A2)(AP, 8/9/11)
2011 Feb 8, In Indonesia more than 1,500 Muslims went on the rampage in Central Java, setting two churches alight and ransacking a school, after a Christian man was sentenced to five years' jail for blaspheming Islam. The group wanted him punished with death.
(AP, 2/8/11)
2011 Feb 9, Indonesia's biggest palm oil producer pledged to follow new standards to protect carbon-rich forests and peatlands, in a move cautiously welcomed by environmentalists including Greenpeace. A suspect was arrested in his Jakarta art shop during a raid carried out by police and forestry officials for allegedly using the Internet to sell hundreds of illegal wildlife parts, from ivory and tiger skins to the teeth of the world's smallest bears.
(AFP, 2/9/11)(AP, 2/17/11)
2011 Feb 16, Indonesian marine police said they have up 129 starving men from Myanmar off the coast of Aceh. The refugees all belonged to the Rohingya minority, who are not recognized by Myanmar’s military rulers.
(SFC, 2/17/11, p.A2)
2011 Feb 24, An Indonesian court sentenced Islamic preacher Murhali Barda (37) to five-and-a-half months in jail for misusing his status to encourage "Muslim lions" to rally at a church, which led to the beating and stabbing of two Christians. He had already served about five months and was expected to walk out of jail within days.
(Reuters, 2/24/11)
2011 Mar 3, Indonesian journalist Banjir Ambarita, who covered a police sex scandal, was treated in the hospital after being stabbed in the stomach and chest. Ambarita had written about three police officers who confessed to sexually abusing a female detainee.
(AP, 3/3/11)
2011 Mar 15, In Indonesia a small mail bomb addressed to a moderate Muslim leader exploded in Jakarta as police were trying to defuse it, wounding four people.
(AP, 3/15/11)
2011 Mar 29, Intelligence officials in Indonesia and Philippines said Umar Patek (40), a suspected member of the al-Qaida-linked militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, has been arrested in Pakistan. The senior Indonesian al-Qaida operative was wanted in the 2002 Bali bombings. Patek's exact whereabouts were not immediately known.
(AP, 3/30/11)
2011 Mar 31, Indonesia arrested 43 Afghans who were trying to reach Australia illegally.
(AP, 3/31/11)
2011 Apr 3, Indonesian authorities arrested a Filipino woman, coming from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with more than two pounds (one kg) of heroin at the Adi Sumarmo Airport in Solo. She was allegedly paid $8,000 by an international drug syndicate to carry the heroin.
(AP, 4/7/11)
2011 Apr 11, Indonesian lawmaker Arifinto (50), a member of the staunchly Islamic Prosperous Justice Party who helped pass a tough anti-pornography law, resigned after he got caught watching sexually explicit videos on his computer during a parliamentary debate.
(AP, 4/11/11)
2011 Apr 11, In San Francisco the annual Goldman Environmental prize was awarded 6 people from around the world. The winners included Hilton Kelly for his efforts to cut pollution in Port Arthur, Texas; Francisco Pineda for resisting mining in El Salvador; Ursula Sladek of Germany for creating for reducing her community’s reliance on nuclear power; Prigi Arisandi for her efforts to protect Indonesia’s Surabaya River; Dmitry Lisitsyn for his efforts to protect the Russia’s Sakhalin island; and Raoul du Toit for defending wildlife in Zimbabwe.
(SFC, 4/11/11, p.A12)
2011 Apr 15, In Indonesia suicide bomber Muhammad Syarif (32) blew himself up as police were praying in the West Java town of Cirebon, wounding 30 people in the first attack on a mosque since extremists started targeting the predominantly Muslim country a decade ago.
(AP, 4/15/11)(AP, 4/16/11)(AFP, 10/8/11)
2011 Apr 21, In Indonesia police arrested 19 terror suspects who then led them to five massive bombs buried beneath a gas pipeline near a church just outside the capital. The explosives had been set to detonate by cell phone at around 9 a.m. on Good Friday.
(AP, 4/21/11)
2011 May 7, In Indonesia a passenger plane carrying 25 people plunged into the ocean as it approached an airport in bad weather in the eastern province of West Papua. There were no survivors.
(AP, 5/7/11)(AP, 5/8/11)
2011 May 14, Indonesia's anti-terrorism forces killed two suspected militants in a predawn raid in Central Java. A nearby rice vendor was killed in crossfire in Sukoharjo district.
(AP, 5/14/11)
2011 Jun 3, A global maritime watchdog warned ships traversing the South China Sea bordering Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore following the hijack of three tugboats and a barge in recent weeks.
(AFP, 6/3/11)
2011 Jun 4, In Indonesia two suspected terrorists were killed during a gunbattle in a raid in Poso, Central Sulawesi province. The two were allegedly linked to the assailants who killed two police officers and wounded another last week in Palu.
(AP, 6/4/11)
2011 Jun 16, Indonesian Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir (72), known as spiritual leader of the militants who carried out the deadly 2002 Bali bombings, was sentenced to 15 years in prison for his support of a terror training camp uncovered last year. On Oct 20 an appeals court reduced the sentence to 9 years.
(AP, 6/16/11)(AP, 10/26/11)
2011 Jun 18, Saudi Arabia beheaded Ruyati binti Satubi (54), an Indonesian grandmother, for killing an allegedly abusive Saudi employer. In response Indonesia later enacted a moratorium on labor exports to Saudi Arabia effective August 1.
(SFC, 8/10/11, p.A3)(http://tinyurl.com/3wvhbpm)
2011 Jun 20, In Indonesia Abu Tholut (50), one of the nation’s top terrorism suspects, went on trial on charges of helping set up a terrorist training camp for a group that plotted attacks on foreigners and assassinations of the country's moderate Muslim leaders. Arrested in December, Tholut is one of more than 120 alleged members of the "Tanzim Al Qaeda in Aceh" group to have been captured or killed since the camp was uncovered.
(AP, 6/20/11)
2011 Jun 21, Three Indonesians, radicalized by the teachings of a firebrand Muslim cleric, were sentenced to six years in prison for involvement in a terror plot.
(AP, 6/21/11)
2011 Jun 22, In Indonesia indigenous peoples of Borneo demanded a halt to internationally backed forest conservation schemes, saying they are trampling their rights and robbing their lands.
(AFP, 6/22/11)
2011 Jun 24, Playboy Indonesia's former editor was released from prison after the country's top court overturned his indecency conviction for publishing pictures of scantily clad women.
(AP, 6/24/11)
2011 Jun 25, In Indonesia a passenger bus plunged from a hill into a trench on Sumatra island, killing 14 people.
(AP, 6/26/11)
2011 Jun 30, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono appointed his brother-in-law, who rights groups say may have been responsible for abuses in East Timor in 1999, as the nation's new army chief.
(AFP, 6/30/11)
2011 Jul 1, In Indonesia an 18-month-old Sumatran tiger died seven days after it fell into a trap and within three hours of being tranquilized by local conservation officials. The trap was on the border of an acacia forest and an APP logging concession. Estimates of the number of Sumatran tigers remaining in the world range from 300 to 400.
(AP, 7/26/11)
2011 Jul 3, In Indonesia the Mount Soputan volcano erupted on Sulawesi island.
(SFC, 7/4/11, p.A2)
2011 Jul 6, Australia announced it would lift a ban on live cattle exports to Indonesia and resume trade with additional safeguards in place to address animal cruelty concerns.
(AFP, 7/6/11)
2011 Jul 11, In Indonesia a man reportedly trying to show students how to make explosives was killed by a homemade bomb inside an Islamic boarding school on Sumbawa Island.
(AP, 7/12/11)
2011 Jul 14, In Indonesia Mount Lokon on Sulawesi island burst into life late at night and continued to spew ash and searing gas into the air well into the next morning, prompting more than 4,500 residents to head to safety.
(AFP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 15, Indonesian police arrested Abrori Ali, the headmaster of an Islamic boarding school in the Sumba island town of Bima, after a man there died earlier this week, reportedly while trying to teach students how to make homemade bombs.
(AP, 7/15/11)
2011 Jul 17, In Indonesia the Mount Lokon volcano on northern Sulawesi island erupted again and released the greatest amount of energy so far, shooting soot and debris 11,400 feet (3,500 meters) into the sky.
(AP, 7/17/11)
2011 Jul 19, In Indonesia some 15,000 underprivileged Indonesian newlyweds from various faiths joined a mass reception to receive free marriage certificates that they otherwise could not afford.
(AP, 7/19/11)
2011 Jul 21, In Indonesia unidentified gunmen ambushed soldiers and killed one of them in the easternmost province of Papua. A small, poorly armed separatist group, known as Free Papua Movement, or OPM, has battled for independence since 1969.
(AP, 7/21/11)
2011 Jul 31, In eastern Indonesia clashes between supporters of rival candidates in upcoming local elections killed 17 people and injured dozens in remote Papua province.
(AP, 7/31/11)
2011 Aug 1, In Indonesia unknown gunmen killed four people in a pre-dawn ambush on a road outside Jayapura, Papua province.
(AFP, 8/2/11)
2011 Aug 2, In Indonesia some 10,000 Papuans protested for independence, defying a heavy police presence a day after a deadly ambush that police blamed on separatist rebels.
(AFP, 8/2/11)
2011 Aug 3, In Indonesia 9 people, including two Australians, two South Africans and five Indonesians, were killed when a helicopter flying to a Newcrest mine crashed with 10 on board.
(AFP, 8/4/11)
2011 Aug 8, In Colombia Muhammad Nazarruddin (32), the ex-treasurer of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's party, was reported arrested in Cartagena after weeks on the run over corruption allegations. Nazarruddin has been on the run since May when anti-graft investigators linked him to a bribery scandal involving contracts on a 23-million-dollar athletes' village for the Southeast Asian Games scheduled in November.
(AFP, 8/9/11)(Econ, 2/25/12, p.51)
2011 Aug 11, Umar Patek (41), a key suspect in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, was escorted home to Indonesia under tight security to stand trial, six months after he was captured in the same northwestern Pakistani town where Osama bin Laden was killed. The al-Qaida-linked militant, had a $1 million bounty on his head when authorities caught up with him on Jan. 25 in Abbottabad.
(AP, 8/11/11)
2011 Aug 15, In Indonesia Deden Sudjana (48), wounded when Islamic hard-liners launched a deadly attack on his minority sect, was sentenced to six months in prison, more than some of those caught on video taking part in the Feb 6 lynching.
(AP, 8/15/11)
2011 Aug 25, In Indonesia Aceh Gov. Irwandi Yusuf (51) agreed to give PT Kallista Alam, a palm oil company, a permit to convert 4,000 acres of peat swamp forest. The land was in the heart of the renowned Leuser Ecosystem already identified as off limits under a presidential moratorium enacted in May.
(SSFC, 12/11/11, p.A22)
2011 Aug 27, Off eastern Indonesia a ferry sank off southern Sulawesi killing at least 12 people. 93 people were rescued, but others were feared trapped.
(SSFC, 8/28/11, p.A6)
2011 Sep 9, In Indonesia the colorful 137-page comic "I Found the Meaning of Jihad," began appearing in bookstores authored by former al-Qaida-linked militant Nasir Abas (42).
(AP, 9/9/11)
2011 Sep 9, Malaysia’s Environment Minister Douglas Uggah Embas sent a letter to his Indonesian counterpart about hundreds of suspected fires on Sumatra island.
(AFP, 9/10/11)
2011 Sep 11, In eastern Indonesia clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs left 5 people dead and more than a dozen injured in Ambon, Maluku province.
(AP, 9/11/11)(AP, 9/12/11)
2011 Sep 12, Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra, in her fist state visit to Indonesia, vowed to improve economic cooperation with Indonesia, particularly in the agriculture, energy and tourism sectors.
(AFP, 9/12/11)
2011 Sep 16, In Indonesia Jakarta city governor Fauzi Bowo called on women not to wear miniskirts when riding on public transport in the capital after a 27-year-old woman was attacked in a public minivan early this month. The next day Governor Bowo apologized for his remarks as some 50 women donned miniskirts to protest his remarks.
(AFP, 9/18/11)
2011 Sep 25, In Indonesia suicide bomber Achmad Yosepa Hayat attacked the packed Bethel Injil Church in Solo, central Java, wounding at least 27 people, some critically, and sending terrified worshippers rushing out into the streets in panic.
(AFP, 9/25/11)(AFP, 10/8/11)
2011 Sep 29, In Indonesia a Casa 212 turboprop plane, carrying 14 passengers including four children, and four crew, went down after departing Medan city, in Sumatra. All 18 were killed.
(AFP, 9/30/11)(AFP, 10/1/11)
2011 Oct 4, An Australian boy (14) was arrested in Indonesia for having bought 0.13 ounces (3.6 grams) of marijuana. He faced 12 years in detention under tough narcotics laws. The boy was released on Dec 4 because he admitted the purchase and repeatedly expressed remorse.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Oct 8, Indonesia's counter-terrorism police arrested five people in connection with the April 15 suicide bombing of a mosque.
(AFP, 10/8/11)
2011 Oct 10, Indonesian police shot and killed one protester and wounded another as they clashed with striking workers at a mine run by US company Freeport McMoran. The clash erupted when police tried to stop more than 1,000 workers, who began their strike on September 15, from entering a facility at the Grasberg mining complex.
(AFP, 10/10/11)
2011 Oct 12, Indonesia lawmakers passed a new security bill, the Law on State Intelligence."
(Econ, 11/19/11, p.53)
2011 Oct 13, In Indonesia a 6.0 earthquake jolted the island of Bali, injuring dozens of people and causing panic as hundreds of tourists fled violently shaking buildings.
(AFP, 10/13/11)
2011 Oct 13, Greenpeace UK director John Sauven was blocked by immigration officials on arrival at Jakarta international airport and was sent back that night to Britain. He had arrived to campaign against deforestation.
(AFP, 10/14/11)
2011 Oct 19, In Indonesia at least three people were killed and more than 90 injured during a pro-independence celebration in the Papuan capital Jayapura. Local TV footage showed paramilitary police shooting into the crowd and beating participants with batons and bare fists.
(AFP, 1/30/12)
2011 Oct 21, In Indonesia gunmen shot dead three people at a strike-hit gold and copper mine in the eastern Papua region, raising the number of killings this month to eight at the troubled Grasberg mine, operated by Freeport McMoRan. The strikers, mostly indigenous Melanesians, say they are the lowest paid Freeport workers in the world, earning between $1.50 and $3.50 an hour.
(AFP, 10/21/11)
2011 Oct, Indonesia promised to provide all of its citizens with health insurance by 2014.
(Economist, 9/8/12, p.11)
2011 Nov 8, Indonesian police said they had arrested a British-born man accused of molesting nine children following a tip-off from authorities in Britain. The 61-year-old man, who became an Indonesian citizen after changing his nationality, was also allegedly involved in an online child pornography network.
(AFP, 11/8/11)
2011 Nov 10, The International Union for Conservation of Nature said the Western Black Rhino of Africa has been declared officially extinct. The Javan Rhino was said to be "probably extinct" in Vietnam, after poachers killed the last animal there in 2010. A small but declining population of the Javan Rhino still survived on the Indonesian island of Java.
(AP, 11/10/11)
2011 Nov 11, Indonesia opened the 26th Southeast Asian Games with more than 6,000 athletes from 11 countries participating in the biennial games.
(AP, 11/12/11)
2011 Nov 17, The 3-day East Asia Summit (EAS), bringing together the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and eight dialogue partners, opened on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. President Barack Obama became the first US leader to attend an East Asia summit. Leaders from 18 nations gathered to discuss territorial disputes in the South China Sea, democratic reforms in military-dominated Myanmar, mitigating natural disasters, currency, trade and other issues.
(AP, 11/19/11)(Econ, 11/12/11, p.50)
2011 Nov 18, Indonesia’s Lion Air said it is planning to buy 230 planes from Boeing Co. The list price of $21.7 billion will be paid over 12 years though bank financing.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 18, In eastern Indonesia gunmen killed a mining company guard and wounded two policemen in a patrol car near the large Freeport-McMoRan gold mine.
(AP, 11/18/11)
2011 Nov 19, China’s Premier Wen Jiabao told US President Barack Obama that China would increase the flexibility of the yuan while stressing that reforms had already had an effect. The spoke on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Indonesia.
(AFP, 11/19/11)
2011 Nov 22, In Indonesia the Southeast Asian Games were formally closed by Indonesia Vice President Budiono. Indonesia earned a table-topping 182 golds among 476 medals, followed by Thailand with 109 among 329.
(AP, 11/22/11)
2011 Nov 23, Indonesian police said they have arrested two plantation workers for killing 20 endangered orangutans and other apes as pest control for palm oil companies. They were paid one million rupiah ($111) for each dead orangutan and 200,000 rupiah for every monkey killed.
(AFP, 11/23/11)
2011 Nov 26, In central Indonesia a busy bridge collapsed in East Kalimantan province, killing at least 4 people and injuring 17 others as a bus, cars and motorcycles crashed into the Mahakam river. 40 people were missing.
(AP, 11/26/11)(AP, 11/27/11)
2011 Dec 4, In Indonesia 11 people were killed when a high concrete wall collapsed in a housing complex during a heavy downpour in Makassar, Sulawesi island.
(AP, 12/4/11)
2011 Dec 10, Indonesian police in Aceh, the country's most conservative province, raided a punk-rock concert and detained 65 fans, buzzing off their spiky mohawks and stripping away body piercings because of the perceived threat to Islamic values.
(AP, 12/14/11)
2011 Dec 16, Indonesia's Parliament passed a long-awaited law allowing the government to acquire land for public projects by paying compensation. The law must be signed by the president within 30 days before taking effect.
(AP, 12/16/11)
2011 Dec 17, An overcrowded ship of asylum seekers sank off the island of Java. Indonesian rescuers battled high waves as they searched for survivors. Nearly 250 people fleeing economic and political hardship in Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran and Turkey were trying to reach Australia in search of a better life when their fiberglass ship broke apart. Only 47 people survived.
(AP, 12/18/11)(AFP, 12/20/11)
2011 Dec 21, In Indonesia 4 people were killed but 100 rescued when an overloaded boat sank. The wooden boat was carrying villagers returning home for the Christmas holidays.
(AFP, 12/21/11)
2011 Dec 22, Indonesian police arrested eight people in connection with an overloaded boat carrying 250 asylum seekers that capsized on Dec 17 en route to Australia, as the confirmed death toll reached 90.
(AFP, 12/22/11)
2011 Dec 24, In eastern Indonesia 2 people were killed and 10 others injured during a violent protest as some 1,000 people protested to stop a gold mining project by Australia's Arc Exploration Ltd. and Indonesian partner, PT Sumber Mineral Nusantara. Villagers feared the project will destroy their land and threaten forests and water resources.
(AP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 24, In Indonesia a rampaging wild elephant trampled a farmer to death on Sumatra island. Only 3,000 Sumatran elephants are believed to remain in the wild.
(AP, 12/25/11)
2011 Dec 27, In eastern Indonesia mudflows streaming from a volcano killed four villagers and about 1,000 others have fled their homes. Mount Gamalama in the Molucca Islands sprang to life this month with a powerful, non-fatal eruption.
(AP, 12/28/11)
2011 Dec 29, In Indonesia a mob led by Sunni fanatics torched Shia property in eastern Java. Local police did nothing to protect the minority Shias.
(Econ, 1/21/12, p.52)
2011 In Saudi Arabia Satinah Binti Jumadi Ahmad, an Indonesian maid, was sentenced to death for murdering her employer's wife in 2007 and stealing money. In 2014 the Indonesian government agreed to pay $1.8 million to free Satinah (41).
(AFP, 3/24/14)(Reuters, 4/4/14)
2011 Indonesia’s population was about 237 million.
(Econ, 2/19/11, p.43)
2012 Jan 16, In Indonesia 30 Pakistani and Afghan immigrants tunneled their way out of an detention center in Surabaya using spoons, nails and wooden sticks. Police soon arrested 11 of the escapees leaving 19 at large.
(AFP, 1/18/12)
2012 Jan 19, Indonesia's forestry ministry said it would conserve nearly half its share of Borneo island, which is covered with dense rainforest, so as to meet a presidential pledge to reduce gas emissions.
(AFP, 1/19/12)
2012 Jan 19, In eastern Indonesia a crocodile swallowed a 10-year-old girl while she played in the Wailolong river with her father, the second death in the same place in two months.
(AFP, 1/19/12)
2012 Jan 20, Indonesian police said a civil servant, who declared himself an atheist on Facebook, has been arrested and is now facing jail for blasphemy after being attacked by an angry mob. Alexander Aan (30), who wrote "God doesn't exist" on his Facebook page, was beaten by a mob of dozens on Jan 18 in his hometown in Pulau Punjung, West Sumatra province. An was also an administrator of a Facebook group promoting atheism with 1,243 followers. His postings no longer appeared online following his arrest.
(AFP, 1/20/12)
2012 Jan 25, In Indonesia 7 people were killed and 51 injured as heavy rains from by Tropical Cyclone Iggy lashed the country, bringing down trees and power lines and damaging hundreds of homes.
(AFP, 1/26/12)
2012 Jan 30, An Indonesian court indicted five activists for treason in the restive Papua region after they raised an outlawed Papuan flag on Oct 19 and declared its independence.
(AFP, 1/30/12)
2012 Feb 13, An Indonesian woman died of H5N1 bird flu a day after being admitted to a hospital in Tangerang district on the outskirts of the capital Jakarta. This was Indonesia's third human death from the deadly disease this year.
(AFP, 2/21/12)
2012 Feb 14, Some 200 Indonesians converged on a Jakarta square to denounce the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), an Islamic vigilante group known for its armed attacks on minorities and moderates.
(AFP, 2/14/12)
2012 Feb 22, Indonesian police and military forces opened fire at the Kerobokan prison on Bali island after a second night of riots. The violence was triggered by the stabbing of an inmate during a brawl a week ago. By night inmates had chased away all 13 guards and seized full control of the compound.
(AFP, 2/22/12)(AP, 2/23/12)
2012 Feb 27, Indonesia's top court upheld a 15-year jail term against Islamist militant Abu Bakar Bashir for terrorist acts, reversing an earlier decision to slash the sentence to nine years.
(AFP, 2/27/12)
2012 Mar 2, It was reported that thousands of male Indonesian civil servants had their monthly pay transferred to their wives' bank accounts this week in a bid by a local government to stop men having affairs.
(AFP, 3/2/12)
2012 Mar 16, Britain’s Environment Agency said Indonesia has asked Britain to take back 1,800 tons of waste after inspectors found liquid and illegal mixed waste in containers marked as "scrap metal."
(AFP, 3/16/12)
2012 Mar 18, Indonesia police fatally shot five men who were suspected of planning robberies of money changers, jewelers and other targets on the resort island of Bali so they could fund terrorist attacks.
(AP, 3/19/12)
2012 Mar 18, In Indonesia at least 10 members of one family were killed, as their minivan spun out of control after colliding with a moving train and flipped over in a nearby rice field in West Java province.
(AFP, 3/18/12)
2012 Mar 21, In France a package bomb exploded at Indonesia’s embassy in Paris. French investigators soon confirmed that the main suspect is Frederic C. Jean Salvi, who is believed to have studied for several years with Islamic militants in Indonesia.
(AP, 3/29/12)
2012 Mar 27, In Indonesia thousands protested nationwide to reject the government's plan to hike the subsidized fuel price, with sporadic violence breaking out and injuring several people.
(AFP, 3/27/12)
2012 Mar 28, A coalition of environmental groups warned that some 200 critically-endangered orangutans in a protected area of Indonesia’s Aceh province will be wiped out by the end of the year if land clearing in Tripa Swamp is not stopped.
(AFP, 3/28/12)
2012 Mar 29, Thousands of Indonesians rallied nationwide against a planned fuel price hike they say will cause great hardship. Parliament was expected on March 30 to approve raising the fuel price by a third.
(AFP, 3/29/12)
2012 Mar 30, Indonesian police killed two suspected terrorists in a raid on the outskirts of Jakarta. Anti-terror police confiscated a revolver, explosive materials, several books about jihad and documents outlining a bank robbery.
(AFP, 3/30/12)
2012 Apr 8, A tanker travelling from Australia to Singapore found some 120 asylum seekers, all believed to be men from Afghanistan and Iran, on a sinking boat in Indonesian waters and rescued them.
(AFP, 4/8/12)
2012 Apr 9, Indonesia's only province ruled by Islamic law went to the polls to elect its powerful governor, testing a fragile peace following a 30-year war by separatist rebels. Irwandi Yusuf (51), the incumbent who was elected in December 2006, sought a second five-year term as governor of Aceh. Challenger Zaini Abdullah (71) of the powerful Aceh Party won 55% of the vote. Yusuf took 29%.
(AFP, 4/9/12)(Econ, 4/14/12, p.51)
2012 Apr 10, In Indonesia some 120 asylum seekers, mostly Afghans and some Iranians, demanded that Indonesia provide a vessel to allow them to continue to Australia, refusing to leave a tanker that rescued them at sea.
(AFP, 4/10/12)
2012 Apr 11, Indonesian carrier Garuda International and European plane manufacturer Airbus signed a $2.5 billion deal in Jakarta, as British PM David Cameron visited Southeast Asia's biggest economy.
(AFP, 4/11/12)
2012 Apr 11, A huge earthquake struck beneath the Indian Ocean and triggered a burst of large quakes around the world. At least 4 faults ruptured within 100 seconds to create a giant quake with a combined magnitude of 8.7 off the island of Sumatra.
(AFP, 4/11/12)(SFC, 9/27/12, p.A1)
2012 Apr 13, Indonesian police arrested two suspected terrorists in the town of Bima in West Nusa Tenggara province. The suspects were part of a terror group that killed a police officer in a 2010 bank robbery in the north Sumatra town of Medan.
(AFP, 4/15/12)
2012 Apr 14, Indonesian authorities said they had found a boat reported missing en route to Australia and that some 60 asylum seekers it was carrying were believed to have fled. The mostly Afghan asylum seekers on board made a distress call to Australia on April 11, saying they were in rough seas and their boat was sinking.
(AFP, 4/14/12)
2012 Apr 20, Dive operators and conservationists said Indonesia's government is not doing enough to keep illegal fishermen out of the boundaries of the Komodo National Park, a UN World Heritage site. They said enforcement declined greatly following the exit two years ago of a US-based environmental group that helped fight destructive fishing practices.
(AP, 4/20/12)
2012 Apr 21, Indonesian authorities questioned more than 70 mostly Afghan asylum seekers bound for Australia after their boat was hit by a powerful wave, forcing them to swim to shore. There were between 83 and 100 people on the boat. Police made no connection between this case and another reported on April 14.
(AFP, 4/21/12)
2012 Apr 25, In central Indonesia a South African pilot and his Australian passenger were killed when their Susi Air Pilatus PC-6 aircraft crashed. The airline identified the pilot as Jonathan James Willis (28). Indonesian officials identified the passenger as photographer Ian McDougall (57).
(AFP, 4/25/12)
2012 May 1, May Day moved beyond its roots as an international workers' holiday to a day of international protest, with rallies throughout Asia demanding wage increases and marches planned across Europe over government-imposed austerity measures. Thousands of Indonesian workers held Asia's biggest May Day rally, demanding better pay and protection of job security, watched warily by a heavy police and army presence.
(AP, 5/1/12)(AFP, 5/1/12)
2012 May 8, The Indonesia Embassy in Singapore said it is pushing for a ban on cleaning outside windows. 8 Indonesian maids in Singapore have fallen to their deaths from high-rise apartments this year.
(AP, 5/8/12)
2012 May 9, In Indonesia a Russian Sukhoi Superjet 100 crashed into a volcano south of Jakarta during a demonstration flight. All 45 people on board were feared dead. The Superjet, Russia's first new model of passenger jet since the fall of the Soviet Union two decades ago, was in Indonesia as part of a 6-nation tour of Asia aimed at drumming up new customers.
(AFP, 5/9/12)(AP, 5/10/12)
2012 May 15, In Indonesia a critically-endangered Sumatran elephant was found dead in Aceh province, the second death from suspected poisoning within a month.
(AFP, 5/16/12)
2012 May 24, In Indonesia a landslide killed 8 of 16 people illegally mining for gold, after days of heavy rain hit a mountainous part of western Java, the country's main island.
(AFP, 5/25/12)
2012 May 27, In Indonesia 3 people were killed and five badly injured when fans pelted each other with rocks and bricks in a violent clash at a football match in Jakarta.
(AFP, 5/27/12)
2012 May 27, Lady Gaga canceled her sold-out June 3 show in Indonesia after Islamist hard-liners threatened violence, claiming her sexy clothes and provocative dance moves would corrupt the youth.
(AP, 5/27/12)
2012 May 30, Indonesian maids began returning to work in Malaysia three years after a ban was enforced because of numerous abuse cases. Fewer arrived than had been expected.
(AFP, 6/3/12)
2012 May 31, In western Indonesia 3 critically-endangered Sumatran elephants were found dead in an oil palm plantation. They were believed to have been poisoned.
(AFP, 6/3/12)
2012 Jun 14, In Indonesia mobs stabbed an onlooker to death, injured four other people and burned five shops, four cars and more than 20 motorbikes, hours after they learned police had shot and killed Mako Tabuni, the deputy chairman of the National Committee for West Papua.
(AP, 6/15/12)
2012 Jun 14, In Indonesia Alexander Aan (30) was sentenced to 30 months of prison and a $10,600 fine for posting pro-atheist and anti-Islam comments on Facebook. He was also fined the equivalent of $10,600. Aan was arrested in January after an angry mob reacting to the Facebook posts stormed his office, where he worked as a civil servant.
(http://tinyurl.com/7nvh7m3)
2012 Jun 17, In Indonesia a boat carrying at least 70 passengers and crew on board, went down after it was battered by waves up to five meters (16 feet) high in Maluku province. 12 people were rescued and 58 remained missing.
(AFP, 6/17/12)(AP, 6/19/12)
2012 Jun 18, In Indonesia 2 tribesmen were killed when rival groups armed with bows and arrows clashed in Indonesia's restive Papua province.
(AFP, 6/18/12)
2012 Jun 21, An Indonesian court sentenced bombmaker Umar Patek (45) to 20 years' jail for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings, bringing to an end a 10-year probe into the nation's deadliest act of terror.
(AFP, 6/21/12)
2012 Jun 21, An Indonesian air force plane, a Fokker F-27, slammed into a military housing complex and ignited a huge fireball while trying to land in Jakarta, killing all seven people aboard as well as two toddlers, their grandmother and aunt in one of 8 damaged homes.
(AP, 6/21/12)(AP, 6/22/12)
2012 Jun 21, Indonesian and Australian navies launched efforts to rescue survivors after a Sri Lanka refugee boat carrying about 200 people, mostly men from Afghanistan, capsized on its way to Christmas Island. Scores were feared drowned in an apparent attempt to seek asylum. 110 people were rescued and about 90 remained missing. On Jan 28 an Indonesian court sentenced Javaid Mahmood (55), a Pakistani man, for attempting to smuggle the asylum seekers. He was the 2nd man found guilty in the case.
(AFP, 6/21/12)(AFP, 6/22/12)(SFC, 1/29/14, p.A2)
2012 Jul 2, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono arrived in Australia as a political storm over people-smuggling raged.
(AFP, 7/2/12)
2012 Jul 3, Australia and Indonesia agreed to work more closely to crack down on people-smuggling, with visiting President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono saying his people were victims of the trade as well.
(AFP, 7/3/12)
2012 Jul 28, In Indonesia a group of 150 youths, some as young as 13 and carrying swords and golf clubs, raided the De Most bar in south Jakarta late at night, smashing bottles of alcoholic drinks and damaging the property. Police arrested 62 people, most of them minors, who attacked the bar for serving alcohol during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
(AFP, 7/30/12)
2012 Jul 30, In Indonesia a man died of bird flu, the country's ninth fatal case this year.
(AFP, 8/11/12)
2012 Aug 18, In Indonesia a magnitude-6.3 quake struck near Palu city on Sulawesi Island. At least 6 people were killed.
(AP, 8/20/12)
2012 Aug 26, In Indonesia a Sunni mob attack on Shiites in Sampang, East Java province, saw two men killed with sickles and dozens of homes torched.
(AFP, 8/27/12)
2012 Aug 29, An asylum-seeker boat heading for Australia disappeared off the Indonesian coast with 150 people aboard. Over the next 24 hours rescuers recovered 54 survivors, mostly males from Afghanistan.
(AFP, 8/30/12)(AFP, 8/31/12)
2012 Aug 30, Indonesian fishermen found 50 Sri Lankan asylum seekers, who were trying to reach Australia, on a boat with a broken engine and brought them ashore.
(AFP, 9/1/12)
2012 Aug 31, Indonesian fishermen rescued 43 starving, dehydrated Sri Lankans who had been adrift in a boat for nine days after their engine broke down while trying to reach Australia to seek asylum.
(AP, 8/31/12)
2012 Aug 31, In Indonesia 2 suspected militants were killed in a shootout with police in central Java’s Solo town. The shooting also left one officer dead. Police were attempting to capture a group responsible for the death of a policeman a day earlier.
(SSFC, 9/2/12, p.A7)
2012 Sep 4, Indonesia's justice minister said that his country would extradite Sayed Abbas, an Afghan-born human trafficking kingpin, to Australia next year. He was suspected of having arranged the voyage of a vessel that sank in December, killing some 200 Australia-bound asylum seekers.
(AFP, 9/4/12)
2012 Sep 8, In Indonesia a suspected militant was critically injured when a bomb apparently being prepared for a terrorist attack exploded in a house near Jakarta. At least three other people living nearby were injured along with two suspects who fled.
(AP, 9/9/12)
2012 Sep 17, In Indonesia hundreds of people clashed with police outside the US Embassy in Jakarta.
(SFC, 9/18/12, p.A4)
2012 Sep 26, In Indonesia a passenger ferry collided with a ship believed to be carrying liquefied natural gas and sank west of Sumatra island, killing at least eight people.
(AP, 9/26/12)
2012 Oct 3, In Indonesia more than 2 million factory workers went on a one-day strike across the country demanding better benefits and protesting the hiring of contract workers.
(AP, 10/3/12)
2012 Oct 27, Indonesia's anti-terror squad arrested 11 people over the last 24 hours suspected of planning a range of attacks on domestic and foreign targets including the US and Australian embassies. The suspects belonged to a new group called the Sunni Movement for Indonesian Society, or HASMI.
(AP, 10/27/12)
2012 Oct 27, An Indonesia conservationist said that and orangutan, recently shot with an air rifle, has been rescued in the Indonesian part of Borneo. Rescuers worked to remove 104 pellets from her body. In 2011 conservationists found that villagers living on the Indonesian side of Borneo killed at least 750 endangered orangutans in a year, some to protect crops from being raided and others for their meat.
(AP, 10/27/12)
2012 Nov 3, Indonesian anti-terrorism forces shot and killed an alleged militant and arrested another in a predawn raid in Central Sulawesi province.
(AP, 11/3/12)
2012 Nov 13, Indonesia’s Constitutional Court said parts of the country’s 2001 oil-and-gas law were unconstitutional. The court dissolved BPMgas, the state regulator.
(Econ, 11/24/12, p.72)
2012 Dec 5, In Indonesia Jakarta police spokesman Col. Rikwanto said any police officer over 100kg (220 pounds) must follow a weight-loss program started because of the growing number of overweight officers and the perception that they are unable to provide public protection.
(AP, 12/5/12)
2012 Dec 18, An Indonesian health official said a boy (4) has died of H5N1 bird flu bringing the total to 160. At least 360 people have died worldwide from this virus since 2003.
(SFC, 12/19/12, p.A2)
2012 Indonesia’s population was about 238 million.
(Econ, 2/25/12, p.51)
2013 Jan 5, Indonesia anti-terror police shot and killed 5 suspected Islamist militants over the last 24 hours in raids on the island of Sumbawa.
(SSFC, 1/6/13, p.A4)
2013 Jan 17, Indonesia's army deployed rubber boats in the capital's business district to rescue people trapped in floods that inundated much of the city of 14 million people. At least 20 people died and some 40,000 were displaced.
(AP, 1/17/13)(Econ, 1/26/13, p.38)
2013 Jan 21, In Indonesia police said flooding in Jakarta has killed at least 26 people and sent more than 100,000 fleeing from their homes.
(SFC, 1/22/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 22, An Indonesian court sentenced British grandmother Lindsay June Sandiford (56), to death for smuggling 8.4 pounds of cocaine worth $2.5 million in her suitcase onto the resort island of Bali — even though prosecutors had sought only a 15-year sentence. Indonesia has not carried out an execution since 2008, when 10 people were put to death.
(AP, 1/22/13)(SFC, 4/9/13, p.A2)
2013 Jan 22, A magnitude 6.0 earthquake rocked parts of western Indonesia, killing a 9-year-old girl, panicking residents and ruining homes.
(AP, 1/22/13)
2013 Jan 27, In Indonesia the death toll from two separate landslides in West Sumatra province rose to 16.
(AP, 1/28/13)
2013 Jan 28, In eastern Indonesia a mob of wild monkeys has gone on a rampage in a village in South Sulawesi province, entering houses and attacking residents. Seven people were injured.
(AP, 1/30/13)
2013 Jan 29, An Indonesian court sentenced British citizen Julian Anthony Ponder (43) to six years in prison for his role in a cocaine-smuggling case that led to a death sentence last week for a British grandmother.
(AP, 1/29/13)
2013 Feb 17, The Harita Bauxite, a bulk carrier, sank near the Philippines. 10 of 24 crewmen, mostly from Myanmar, were rescued. One later died and the rest remianed missing. The vessel was thought to be carrying nickel ore from Indonesia.
(SSFC, 4/7/13, p.46)
2013 Feb 21, In Indonesia some 20 assailants killed eight soldiers killed in two attacks in Papua province. The assailants were identified as members of a local separatist group led by Goliat Tabuni.
(AP, 2/21/13)
2013 Mar 23, In Indonesia 8 members of the Kopassus special forces forced their way into Cebongan prison in southern Java. Sgt. Ucok Tigor Simbolon shot dead 4 men, who had been detained on suspicion of killing a soldier. In Sep Sgt Simbolon was found guilty of murder and sentenced to 11 years in prison. Two accomplices were sentenced to 6 and 8 years.
(Econ, 9/14/13, p.53)
2013 Apr 5, In Indonesia’s in North Sumatra province Buddhist fishermen and Rohingya Muslim asylum seekers from Myanmar brawled with knives and rocks at an immigration detention center, leaving 8 dead and another 15 injured. On Dec 5 a court in medan sentenced 14 Rohingya to nine months in jail for the role in the deadly brawl.
(AP, 4/5/13)(SFC, 12/6/13, p.A2)
2013 Apr 13, In Indonesia a Lion Air plane carrying more than 100 passengers overshot a runway on the Indonesian resort island of Bali and crashed into the sea. All of the passengers and crew were evacuated from the plane. 7 passengers were taken to Sanglah hospital with head wounds and broken bones.
(AP, 4/13/13)
2013 Apr 15, The annual Goldman Environmental Prize was awarded to six activists for their efforts to protect the world ecosystem. They included Nohra Padilla (50) of Colombia, who began organizing waste pickers in Bogota in 1990 into the Bogota Recyclers’ Assoc.; Rossano Ercolini (57) of Italy for setting up a trash collection and conservation system; Kimberly Wasserman (36) of Chicago her grassroots campaign to close polluting coal-fired power plants; Aleta Baun (50) of Indonesia for organizing villages on west Timor against mining companies clearing forests for marble; Azzam Alwash (54) of Iraq for his efforts to restore Mesopotamian marshland; Jonathan Deal of South Africa for his efforts against hydraulic fracturing in Karoo.
(SFC, 4/15/13, p.A10)
2013 Apr 27, In Indonesia an Australia woman (28) was attacked and raped while vacationing with her family near Bali’s popular Kuta beach. Her assailant also stole stole three iPads, two cellphones and $154 in cash.
(AP, 4/29/13)
2013 May 2, Indonesia police arrested Achmad Taufiq (22) and Sefa Riano (29). They were members of a cell allegedly involved in recent attacks against Indonesian police. The suspects told authorities they wanted to retaliate against Myanmar for recent attacks on Rohingya Muslims there.
(AP, 5/3/13)
2013 May 3, In Indonesia up to 2,000 police were deployed to secure the Myanmar Embassy and its ambassador's house before a demonstration by the Islamic Defenders Front. Several hundred protesters showed up dressed in white with some holding banners that read: "We want jihad" and "Stop genocide in Myanmar."
(AP, 5/3/13)
2013 May 13, Indonesia approved a two-year extension to a landmark ban on clearing primary rainforests and peatlands. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono signed the decree to continue the 2011 moratorium, which barred new logging and palm oil plantation permits under a $1 billion deal with Norway.
(AP, 5/16/13)
2013 May 14, In Indonesia 25 workers were trapped after the collapse at a giant gold and copper Grasberg mine in Mimika district in Papua. On May 22 the last of 28 miners killed was recovered.
(AP, 5/15/13)(SFC, 5/20/13, p.A2)(SFC, 5/23/13, p.A2)
2013 May 16, Indonesia’s Pres. Yudhoyono extended a 2-year moratorium on forest clearing concessions for another 2 years.
(Econ, 5/25/13, p.40)
2013 Jun 1, In Indonesia a truck driver died at the Grasberg mine, owned by Arizona-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., a day after he was injured when liquid ore material flowed into his vehicle.
(AP, 6/3/13)
2013 Jun 3, Indonesia's government said it has ordered that production be halted at a gold and copper mine owned by Arizona-based Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc., during an investigation into recent fatal accidents at the Grasberg mine in easternmost Papua province.
(AP, 6/3/13)
2013 Jun 4, WWF Indonesia said killings of Sumatran elephants are on the rise, with 29 either shot or poisoned last year, including 14 in Aceh province. The report came 3 days after 2 dead Sumatran elephants were found near a paper plantation in Riau, allegedly poisoned by poachers.
(AP, 6/4/13)
2013 Jun 6, Organizers said Miss World has axed the famed bikinis from this year's pageant in Indonesia, replacing the skimpy swimsuits with conservative beach sarongs amid mounting protests from hard-line Muslim groups.
(AP, 6/6/13)
2013 Jun 14, In Indonesia Rusli Zainal, governor of Riau since 2003, was arrested on charges that included dishing out illegal logging permits to finance a forthcoming re-election campaign.
(Econ, 6/29/13, p.39)
2013 Jun 16, Smoke from fires in Indonesia, an annual result of land clearing for palm oil production, again began to smother Singapore and large parts of Malaysia.
(Econ, 6/29/13, p.39)
2013 Jun 20, In Singapore the Pollutant Standards Index, surged to a record reading of 371. People were urged to remain indoors as a smoky haze wrought by forest fires in neighboring Indonesia worsened dramatically. Nearby Malaysia closed 200 schools and banned open burning in some areas.
(AP, 6/20/13)
2013 Jul 2, In Indonesia a magnitude 6.1 earthquake killed at least 22 people and injured hundreds in Aceh province.
(AP, 7/3/13)
2013 Jul 11, In Indonesia some 200 prisoners escaped from a maximum security prison in Medan after a protest over a lack of water and electricity turned violent.
(Reuters, 7/11/13)
2013 Jul 12, In Indonesia security forces regained control of a Tanjung Gusta prison in Medan where inmates had set fires and started a deadly riot that left 5 people dead and hundreds of prisoners, including convicted terrorists, on the loose.
(AP, 7/12/13)
2013 Jul 14, In eastern Indonesia 17 people were killed in a stadium stampede after spectators rioted just before midnight to protest a local boxer's loss in a championship match at the Kota Lama Sport Stadium.
(AP, 7/15/13)
2013 Jul 23, A boat sank off the southern coast of Indonesia. At least 15 people died. 189 of an estimated 204 suspected asylum seekers were rescued. Most were from Iraq, Iran and Sri Lanka.
(Reuters, 7/24/13)(SFC, 7/27/13, p.A2)
2013 Aug 10, In eastern Indonesia gushing hot lava from the erupting Mount Rokatenda volcano killed 6 people sleeping in a beach village on Palue island. Ash and smoke shot up to 2 km into the air.
(AP, 8/10/13)
2013 Aug 13, Indonesia's anti-graft agency arrested Rudi Rubiandini the head of energy regulator SKKMigas to probe allegations he took more than half a million dollars from an oil firm. Pres. Yudhoyono suspended him the next day.
(Reuters, 8/14/13)(Econ, 8/24/13, p.38)
2013 Aug 17, Indonesian police said unidentified gunmen have killed 2 police officers near Jakarta.
(SSFC, 8/18/13, p.A3)
2013 Sep 5, In Indonesia some 1,000 members of the Islamic group Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia resumed protests against the Miss World pageant to be held this weekend in Bali.
(SFC, 9/6/13, p.A4)
2013 Sep 8, Indonesia moved the final round of the Miss World pageant from Java island to Bali amid protests by hard-line Muslims.
(SSFC, 9/8/13, p.A3)
2013 Sep 12, The Netherlands sought to "close a difficult chapter" with its former colony Indonesia by publicly apologising for mass killings carried out by the Dutch army in the 1940s war of independence.
(AFP, 9/12/13)
2013 Sep 27, At least 22 people, mostly children, drowned and scores were missing after an Australia-bound boat, carrying asylum-seekers from Lebanon, Pakistan and Iraq, sank off Indonesia in rough seas.
(AFP, 9/27/13)(SFC, 9/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Sep 28, Miss Philippines, Megan Young 23), was crowned Miss World 2013 in a glittering finale on the Indonesian resort island of Bali amid tight security following weeks of hardline Muslim protests.
(AFP, 9/28/13)
2013 Oct 2, Indonesia’s anti-corruption commission (KPK) detained Akil Mochtar, the chief justice of the contitutional court, and seized almost $260,000 in cash. KPK said the money was a bribe to rig a court ruling over a disputed district election.
(Econ, 10/12/13, p.52)
2013 Oct 7, The 2-day Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit opened in Bali, Indonesia. At its end leaders agreed that that the Doha round of global trade talks were at an impasse and urged trade ministers to reconvene in December to get negotiations back on track.
(SFC, 10/8/13, p.A4)(SFC, 10/9/13, p.A5)
2013 Oct 17, Indonesian police shot dead Suardi, a suspected militant, and arrested two others, in an ongoing clampdown on terrorism. All three were said to be part of a network led by Abu Uswah, who allegedly taught bomb-making and was shot dead in a raid in January.
(AFP, 10/18/13)
2013 Oct 22, Greenpeace said consumer products such as Oreo cookies and Gilette shaving cream were among an array of products driving the destruction of Indonesia’s forests. Greenpeace accused Singapore-based Wilmar Int’l. for destroying forests in Indonesia to produce palm oil.
(SSFC, 10/27/13, p.A3)
2013 Oct 24, Indonesian police probing the murder of a young woman at a luxury villa stumbled upon a secret collection of exotic animals, including a cross-breed of a lion and tiger. The woman (23) had allegedly had her throat slit by a maintenance worker at the property south of the capital Jakarta after she refused his sexual advances.
(AFP, 10/30/13)
2013 Oct 31, In Indonesia tens of thousands of workers went on strike across the country as its citizens seek a greater share of the spoils from stellar growth.
(AFP, 10/31/13)
2013 Nov 1, In Indonesia tens of thousands of workers went on strike across the country for a second straight day, calling for huge salary hikes as Southeast Asia's top economy enjoys a prolonged boom.
(AFP, 11/1/13)
2013 Nov 3, Hackers claiming links to international activist group Anonymous (Anonymous Indonesia and Anonymous Philippines) defaced dozens of websites belonging to Australian businesses and Philippine government agencies.
(Reuters, 11/3/13)
2013 Nov 3, Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung volcano erupted for the third time in as many months on the western island of Sumatra, forcing hundreds of villagers to evacuate.
(Reuters, 11/4/13)
2013 Nov 9, In Indonesia 13 people died when an Indonesian army helicopter carrying construction workers to build a military outpost crashed in the jungles of Borneo.
(AFP, 11/9/13)
2013 Nov 21, Indonesia's military halted training with Australia as a decision to suspend cooperation due to spying claims took effect, while angry demonstrators in Jakarta declared they were "ready for war" with Canberra.
(AFP, 11/21/13)
2013 Nov 30, In South Africa dozens of Indonesian fishermen, who spent months stranded in Cape Town's harbor, sleeping in cramped and suffocating quarters, were taken ashore to a repatriation center after being stuck at sea on Taiwanese vessels for years without pay.
(AFP, 12/1/13)
2013 Dec 2, Indonesia's anti-graft agency questioned the energy minister over a corruption scandal that has ensnared top oil officials and threatened to tarnish President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's final year in office.
(Reuters, 12/2/13)
2013 Dec 3, In Indonesia top trade officials began talks that will either produce an eleventh hour deal that could boost the global economy by $1 trillion or possibly spell the end of the World Trade Organization's relevance as a forum for negotiations.
(AP, 12/3/13)
2013 Dec 5, Australia and Indonesia announced that they would set up a hotline as part of efforts to repair relations following media reports last month that Canberra had spied on top Indonesian officials.
(Reuters, 12/5/13)
2013 Dec 7, In, Balia, Indonesia WTO leaders, ending a 4-day meeting, reached a deal to boost global trade. It was approved by the 159 member economies for the first time in nearly two decades, keeping alive the possibility that a broader agreement to create a level playing field for rich and poor countries can be reached in the future.
(AP, 12/7/13)
2013 Dec 9, In Indonesia a crowded commuter train crashed into a fuel tanker on the outskirts of Jakarta, killing at least 10 people in a huge explosion and injuring scores.
(Reuters, 12/9/13)
2013 Dec 16, In Indonesia Canadian activist Jeremy Ball visited jailed independence supporters in Papua at the end of a six-month bicycle tour to highlight human rights concerns about the restive eastern region.
(AP, 12/17/13)
2013 Dec 25, Hundreds of Indonesian Christians held a Christmas service in front of the presidential palace in Jakarta to protest at the closure of their churches due to pressure by Muslim hardliners.
(AFP, 12/25/13)
2013 Dec 27, In Indonesia Ambar Arianto Mulyo (59), a Bali Hyatt hotel security employee, was strangled to death after he tried to capture a 15-foot python.
(SFC, 12/28/13, p.A2)
2013 Dec 30, In Indonesia Islamic police in the sharia stronghold of Banda Aceh seized thousands of firecrackers and cardboard trumpets after the city administration banned New Year's Eve celebrations for the first time.
(AFP, 12/31/13)
2013 Dec 31, In Indonesia more than 19,000 people were displaced by the Mount Sinabung volcano on Sumatra that has been erupting for months and shot lava into the air nine times overnight.
(AFP, 12/31/13)
2013 Dec 31, Indonesian police shot dead six suspected terrorists and arrested another in a New Year's Eve raid near Jakarta that broke out into an hours-long gun battle.
(AFP, 12/31/13)
2014 Jan 10, Indonesia's anti-graft agency arrested a former senior member of President Yudhoyono's party, in a long-running case that has damaged the ruling party's popularity ahead of elections.
(Reuters, 1/10/14)
2014 Jan 12, An Indonesian law banning the export of unprocessed minerals took effect, with the government aiming to boost local operations and create more jobs and mining companies warning of losses.
(AP, 1/12/14)
2014 Jan 15, In Indonesia at least 13 people were killed after torrential rain triggered flash floods and landslides on northern Sulawesi island. Some 40,000 fled their homes as water surged through the city of Manado and surrounding areas.
(AFP, 1/15/14)
2014 Jan 17, Indonesia said that it would increase naval patrols after territorial violations by Australia as it tried to turn back asylum seekers. The Australian government apologised unreservedly to Jakarta after its navy "inadvertently" violated Indonesian waters during border security operations.
(Reuters, 1/17/14)(AFP, 1/17/14)
2014 Jan 19, In Indonesia monsoon rains inundated parts of Jakarta, forcing more than 30,000 people to evacuate.
(Reuters, 1/19/14)
2014 Jan 20, Law Wan-tung (44) of Hong Kong was arrested on suspicion of abusing her Indonesian maids as she tried to leave for Thailand. The case sparked widespread outrage and drawn fresh attention to the risks faced by the migrant community. Erwiana Sulistyaningsih (23), a maid who said she had been badly beaten by her employer, was recovering at a hospital in Sragen, central Java, after flying out from Hong Kong in early January.
(Reuters, 1/20/14)(SFC, 1/23/14, p.A2)(AP, 4/4/14)
2014 Jan 21, An Indonesian court sentenced an Islamist militant to 7˝ years in prison for masterminding a plot to bomb the Myanmar embassy in Jakarta.
(SFC, 1/22/14, p.A2)
2014 Jan 22, In Indonesia Andrea Waldeck, British woman, was jailed for 14 years but escaped the death penalty after admitting that she smuggled crystal methamphetamine into Indonesia from China. she had confessed to taking the drugs through the airport in Surabaya.
(AFP, 1/22/14)
2014 Jan 28, In Indonesia two landslides triggered by torrential rain killed at least 19 people and left 10 others missing on the main island of Java.
(AP, 1/28/14)
2014 Feb 1, Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung volcano, that has been rumbling for months, unleased a major eruption killing at least 15 people just a day after authorities allowed thousands of villagers who had been evacuated to return to its slopes.
(AP, 2/1/14)(AFP, 2/3/14)
2014 Feb 3, Indonesia’s Mount Sinabung shot hot ash and rocks high into the air again, halting a search for any more victims from its Feb 1 eruption.
(AFP, 2/3/14)
2014 Feb 6, In eastern Indonesia a police officer and a suspected Islamic militant were killed in gunfire near a mountainous village believed to be a terrorist hideout. Preliminary investigation indicated that the men were part of a terrorist group led by Abu Wardah Santoso, Indonesia's most wanted terror suspect.
(AP, 2/6/14)
2014 Feb 14, In Indonesia a volcanic eruption on Java sent a 17 km (10 mile) ash cloud into the air. More than 56,000 people were forced to flee their homes and four 4 were killed when Mount Kelud erupted.
(Reuters, 2/15/14)
2014 Feb 14, In Indonesia seven female Japanese divers went missing off the resort island of Bali as strong winds and heavy rains hit Crystal Bay. Five of the divers were found alive on Feb 17. On Feb 18 the body of a female diver was found 18 miles west of the rescued divers.
(AP, 2/15/14)(AP, 2/17/14)(AP, 2/18/14)
2014 Feb 20, Rights groups criticized an agreement between Indonesia and Saudi Arabia aimed at giving Indonesian maids more protection in the kingdom, with one saying "justice is still far away" for them.
(AFP, 2/20/14)
2014 Feb 24, Indonesian officials said floods and landslides triggered by torrential rains killed at least 11 people in Papua province.
(SFC, 2/25/14, p.A2)
2014 Mar 1, Japan pledged more than $200 million in aid to help the Palestinian Authority, as representatives in Indonesia from 22 nations reiterated their support of the Palestinians' quest for their own state.
(AP, 3/1/14)
2014 Mar 5, In Indonesia an explosion at a navy ammunition warehouse killed one man and injured more than 80 other navy personnel.
(AP, 3/5/14)
2014 Mar 9, Two Indonesian naval personnel were killed during an inspection aboard a Thai fishing boat in Indonesian waters. Thailand police soon arrested three suspects. Four more were arrested in April.
(AP, 4/4/14)
2014 Mar 12, In Indonesia Rusli Zainal, a former governor of Riau, was found guilty of graft and sentenced to 14 years in prison. He had issued logging licenses that resulted in forest destruction.
(Econ, 3/22/14, p.42)
2014 Mar 14, Indonesia reported that Pres. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered relevant ministers and local authorities in peat-rich Riau province to handle forest fires that have been sending out heavy smoke threatening health and disrupting flight operations. Officers in the armed forces were said to be involved in illegal logging and burning.
(AP, 3/14/14)(Econ, 3/22/14, p.42)
2014 Mar 14, Indonesia’s Mega42wati Sukarnoputri, a former president and head of the opposition PDI-P, anointed Joko Widodo, Jakarta’s popular mayor, as her candidate for president.
(Econ, 3/22/14, p.41)
2014 Mar 22, Indonesia police said they arrested three suspected Islamic extremists last week after intercepting a bomb shipment intended to attack brothels. The arrests included Ambo Intang, who was sought for his alleged involvement in the 2012 killings of two policemen in in the Central Sulawesi district of Poso.
(AP, 3/22/14)
2014 Apr 7, Film censors in Indonesia and Malaysia banned the biblical epic "Noah," saying that the portrayal of the ark-building prophet by Russell Crowe was against Islamic laws. Depictions of any prophet are shunned in Islam to avoid worship of a person rather than God.
(AP, 4/7/14)
2014 Apr 9, Indonesia held parliamentary elections. 190 million citizens were eligible to vote. Exit polls gave the opposition PDI-P 19% of the vote.
(Reuters, 4/9/14)(Econ, 4/5/14, p.33)
2014 Apr 18, Off eastern Indonesia a boat loaded with people in a Good Friday procession capsized in high waves, leaving dozens of people missing and at least 7 dead.
(AP, 4/18/14)
2014 Apr 28, Six environmental advocates won this year's Goldman Prize. India's Ramesh Agrawal received the prize for helping villagers fight a large coal mine in Chhattisgarh state. American lawyer Helen Slottje received the award for helping communities fight fracking in New York State. Peru's Ruth Buendia was recognized for helping to prevent construction of two large dams that would have displaced nearly 10,000 indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon. Russian zoologist Suren Gazaryan won for defending protected areas around Sochi from illegal land seizures for Olympic construction projects. South Africa's Desmond D'Sa won for helping to close down one of the country's largest toxic waste dumps. Indonesian biologist Rudi Putra won for helping to shutter 26 illegal palm oil plantations that were causing deforestation in northern Sumatra.
(AP, 4/28/14)
2014 Apr 29, In Indonesia Rudi Rubiandin, the former head of energy regulator SKKMigas, was sentenced to seven years in prison for his role in a major graft scandal that reached the top levels of the oil ministry.
(Reuters, 4/29/14)
2014 May 7, An Indonesian official said a woman who was gang-raped by men accusing her of having extramarital sex may be caned publicly for violating Islamic law. The widow (25) said she was raped by eight men on May 1 who allegedly found her with a married man in her house. The men reportedly beat the man, doused the two with sewage, and then turned them over to Islamic police in conservative Aceh province.
(AP, 5/7/14)
2014 May 12, Indonesia said it has banned the popular video sharing site Vimeo, because it contains nudity, which officials in the world's most populous Muslim country consider to be pornographic material.
(AP, 5/13/14)
2014 May 13, Canada-based BlackBerry launched a new lower-cost smartphone designed specifically for Indonesia in an attempt to win back market share that has plunged in recent years but remains higher than in many other nations.
(AP, 5/13/14)
2014 May 14, Indonesia’s anti-corruption agency identified the head of parliament's energy committee and a company executive as suspects in an ongoing graft scandal involving energy regulator SKKMigas.
(Reuters, 5/14/14)
2014 May 19, The Philippines said it has reached an agreement over the weekend with Indonesia on a sea border dispute after 20 years of negotiations, and hopes to sign the pact soon.
(AP, 5/19/14)
2014 May 22, In Indonesia Anne Marie Drozdz (40), a British woman, was found dead in the cultural tourism district of Ubud, Bali island, and that there were signs her villa had been broken into. Police on May 24 arrested construction worker Hambali (32) in Jakarta, where he fled following the robbery and murder of Drodzd.
(AFP, 5/23/14)(AFP, 5/25/14)
2014 Jun 3, In Indonesia a building under construction collapsed on the island of Borneo, killing two workers and burying at least 13 others in Samarinda, the provincial capital of East Kalimantan.
(AP, 6/3/14)
2014 Jun 18, Indonesian officials officially shut a massive prostitution complex in Surabaya amid protests by sex workers, who said their livelihoods were being destroyed. Tri Rismaharini, the first female mayor of Surabaya, had pledged to close down all brothels in the city.
(AP, 6/18/14)
2014 Jun 18, An apparently overloaded boat carrying Indonesian illegal migrants heading home for Ramadan sank overnight in rough seas off western Malaysia. 27 people were missing and 9 were confirmed dead. Nine people were missing after a boat carrying 27 Indonesian workers overturned off Malaysia's west coast in a 2nd similar accident. By the weekend the confirmed death toll from two boat accidents rose to 16 with dozens of others still missing.
(AFP, 6/18/14)(AP, 6/19/14)(AFP, 6/22/14)
2014 Jun 24, Indonesia became the newest country to mandate graphic photo warnings on cigarette packs, joining more than 40 other nations or territories that have adopted similar regulations in recent years. Authorities said major tobacco companies have largely ignored a deadline to put graphic health warnings on all cigarette packs.
(AP, 6/24/14)(AP, 6/27/14)
2014 Jun 30, In Indonesia an antigraft court sentenced Akil Mochtar, a former chief constitutional court justice, to life imprisonment for accepting bribes to fix results in two local elections.
(SFC, 7/2/14, p.A2)
2014 Jul 9, In Indonesia some 190 million voters headed to the polls in a hotly contested election for president in Indonesia. Jakarta Gov. Joko Widodo and ex-army general Prabowo Subianto both declared a win after the quick count results were released. The election commission, which began tallying the votes, will produce the official results by July 22.
(AP, 7/9/14)(AP, 7/10/14)
2014 Jul 14, An overloaded fishing boat carrying some 70 illegal Indonesian migrants capsized off southern Malaysia, killing at least 2 people with 9 left missing.
(AFP, 7/15/14)
2014 Jul 22, Indonesia officials said Jakarta Gov. Joko Widodo won the country's presidential election with 53 percent of the vote. Former Gen. Prabowo Subianto, declared he was withdrawing from the contest shortly before the final numbers were released by the Election Commission, saying there was massive fraud during the election, and that it was unfair and undemocratic.
(AP, 7/22/14)
2014 Jul 25, In Indonesia Prabowo Subianto, the ex-general who lost the presidential election to Jakarta governor Joko Widodo, mounted a legal challenge to the result, alleging widespread electoral fraud and irregularities in vote counting.
(AFP, 7/25/14)
2014 Aug 12, In Indonesia the body of Sheila von Wiese-Mack (62), a Chicago-based woman, was found in a bloodied suitcase on the resort island of Bali. Her daughter, Heather Mack (19) and boyfriend, Tommy Schaefer (21) were arrested on Aug 13 and detained as suspects. Schaeffer later confessed to the murder and Heather Mack acknowledged helping him stuff the body into the suitcase.
(AP, 8/15/14)(AP, 9/19/14)
2014 Aug 28, Australia and Indonesia signed a new security agreement to mend a relationship badly damaged by allegations last year that Australia was listening to the telephone conversations of Pres. Susilo Bambang.
(AP, 8/28/14)
2014 Sep 13, Indonesia's elite anti-terrorism squad arrested 7 suspected militants, including 4 Turks believed to be planning to join a jihadist group in eastern Indonesia with possible links to the Islamic State group. Four of the suspects were members of China's ethnic Uighur minority community.
(AP, 9/14/14)(AP, 9/15/14)
2014 Sep 17, Indonesia added more water-dropping helicopters to fight forest and plantation wildfires that are spreading haze across the region, limiting visibility and increasing air pollution.
(AP, 9/17/14)
2014 Sep 24, In Indonesia Anas Urbaningrum, a former top leader of the ruling Democratic Party, was sentenced to eight years in prison for corruption and money laundering.
(AP, 9/24/14)
2014 Sep 24, In Indonesia scientists released some 3,000 tiny wasps in a secure tent-like habitat to monitor their success in an effort to halt an infestation of cassava crops by mealybugs. Scientists hoped their number would multiply to 450,000 prior to release in a month following government approval.
(SFC, 9/25/14, p.A6)
2014 Sep 26, Indonesian authorities arrested Hans Peter Naumann (48), a German man, for allegedly trying to smuggle 239 (8.4 ounce) of cocaine onto Indonesia's resort island of Bali, some of it hidden inside his stomach.
(AP, 9/27/14)
2014 Sep 27, In Indonesia lawmakers in Banda Aceh, a conservative Muslim province, passed a law that punishes gay sex by public caning and subjects non-Muslims to strict interpretation of Islamic sharia law.
(AP, 9/27/14)
2014 Oct 8, In Indonesia rescuers and fishermen found 8 survivors and 17 bodies after two days of searching for a motorboat lost since its captain reported an engine failure on Oct 6 off of Java island. Local reports said it was carrying 49 people who were to have attended a wedding ceremony.
(AP, 10/8/14)
2014 Oct 9, Indonesia officially launched a $263 million project to build a giant sea wall along the coast of its capital, Jakarta, in an attempt to protect businesses and homes from flooding.
(Reuters, 10/9/14)
2014 Oct 13, US plane giant Boeing said Indonesian flag carrier Garuda has placed an order for 50 planes worth almost $5 billion.
(AFP, 10/13/14)
2014 Oct 20, Indonesia's Joko Widodo took over as president of the world's third-largest democracy. Widodo said that he wanted his nation to be self-sufficient in food staples sugar, rice and corn within four years.
(Reuters, 10/20/14)
2014 Oct 21, In Indonesia Robert Ellis (60), a British man, was found dead with his throat slashed and dumped in a ditch on the resort island of Bali. His Indonesian wife admitted to the killing day later.
(AFP, 10/22/14)
2014 Nov 3, Indonesia began issuing cards to give the poor access to three programs that included health care, education and cash handouts.
(Econ, 1/10/15, p.54)
2014 Nov 17, Indonesia's President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo announced a sharp increase in fuel prices, saying costly government subsidies would be better spent on infrastructure and development.
(AP, 11/17/14)
2014 Nov 19, Indonesian authorities said two endangered Sumatran elephants were found dead this week near a palm oil plantation in the Tebo district of Jambi province on Sumatra island. Authorities believed they were killed by poachers.
(AP, 11/20/14)
2014 Nov 21, A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia’s North Maluku province.
(SFC, 11/22/14, p.A2)
2014 Dec 8, In Indonesia at least 4 people, including 3 high school students, were killed in the volatile Papua region in clashes between protesters and security forces. The clash had started the previous night when the youths reprimanded a soldier who was riding a motorcycle without the headlights on.
(Reuters, 12/8/14)(AP, 12/9/14)
2014 Dec 13, In central Indonesia a mudslide set off by torrential rains rushed down hills into a village and swept away scores of homes. At least 56 people were killed and 52 others missing.
(AP, 12/13/14)(SFC, 12/13/14, p.A2)(AP, 12/15/14)
2014 Dec 19, In eastern Indonesia the Mount Gamalama volcano on Ternate island in North Maluku province erupted, spewing towering clouds of hot ash into the air and leaving four hikers injured and one missing when they scrambled to safety.
(AP, 12/19/14)
2014 Dec 22, An Indonesian court sentenced five janitors to up to eight years in prison over the rape of a kindergartner boy (6) at an international school in Jakarta. A sixth suspect committed suicide while in custody after drinking bathroom cleanser.
(AP, 12/22/14)
2014 Dec 28, Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501, an Airbus 320-200 with 162 people on board, went missing after pilots asked to change course to avoid bad weather during a flight from Surabaya city to Singapore. It was later rfound that the plane had climbed at excessive speeds to an unusually high altitude before plunging and disappearing.
(AP, 12/28/14)(SFC, 1/21/15, p.A3)
2014 Dec 30, Indonesian rescuers searching for AirAsia Flight QZ8501 pulled bodies and wreckage from the sea off the coast of Borneo. The plane was carrying 162 people when it disappeared on Dec 28.
(Reuters, 12/30/14)
2014 Elizabeth Pisani authored “Indonesia Etc: Exploring the Improbable Nation."
(Econ, 6/21/14, p.79)
2014 Indonesia’s population was about 250 million.
(Econ, 10/18/14, p.44)
2014 According to the World Bank half of Indonesia’s population lived on less than $2 per day.
(Econ, 8/30/14, p.36)
2015 Jan 1, Heavy seas stopped divers reaching the possible wreck of an AirAsia Indonesia jet off Borneo. Nine bodies have so far been recovered from the Airbus A320-200, which crashed Dec 28 en route to Singapore.
(Reuters, 1/1/15)
2015 Jan 2, Rescue teams battling monsoon rains recovered 21 more bodies from Indonesia’s AirAsia Flight 8501, which crashed on Dec 28. To date 30 of 162 bodies were recovered.
(AP, 1/2/15)
2015 Jan 3, Search teams hunting for the wreck of Indonesia’s AirAsia Flight QZ8501 that crashed with 162 people on board reported four large parts of the plane on the sea bed.
(Reuters, 1/3/15)
2015 Jan 5, Indonesia’s transportation ministry announced harsh measures against everyone who allowed AirAsia Flight 8501 to take off without proper permits, including the suspension of the airport's operator and officials in the control tower.
(AP, 1/5/15)
2015 Jan 6, Search teams scouring the ocean for the wreckage of an AirAsia jet, which went missing on Dec 28, found two new metal objects. Indonesian officials believe they may have located the tail and parts of the fuselage of Flight QZ8501 30 meters below the surface, but have been unable to properly investigate the debris so far. Two more bodies were recovered from the sea, bringing the total found so far to 39.
(Reuters, 1/6/15)
2015 Jan 7, Indonesia's search and rescue agency said the tail of the Dec 28 crashed AirAsia jet Flight QZ8501 has been found on the sea bed about 30 km (20 miles) from the plane's last known location. Forty bodies and debris from the plane have been plucked from the surface of the waters off Borneo.
(Reuters, 1/7/15)
2015 Jan 11, Indonesian divers found the crucial black box flight recorders of the AirAsia plane that crashed in the Java Sea a fortnight ago with 162 people aboard. The data recorder was retrieved on Jan 12 and the cockpit voice recorder on Jan 13.
(AFP, 1/11/15)(SFC, 1/13/15, p.A2)
2015 Jan 13, Indonesia's anti-graft agency named three-star general Budi Gunawan, President Joko Widodo's sole nomination for police chief, a bribery suspect. Widodo told reporters a day earlier he had chosen Gunawan on recommendation from the National Police Commission.
(Reuters, 1/13/15)
2015 Jan 14, A Singapore Navy ship located the fuselage of Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501, the passenger jet that crashed more than two weeks ago off the coast of Indonesia, raising hopes that more bodies will be found.
(Reuters, 1/14/15)(AP, 1/14/15)
2015 Jan 18, Indonesia defied pleas and executed six drug offenders. Brazil and the Netherlands recalled their ambassadors from Jakarta and expressed fury following the executions of two of their citizens.
(AP, 1/18/15)
2015 Jan 23, Indonesia’s police arrested Bambang Widjojanto, the deputy head of the top anti-corruption body, days after it accused a senior police officer of graft, sparking accusations of police retaliation and demands that the president defend the agency.
(AP, 1/23/15)
2015 Jan 27, Indonesia’s armed forces officially halted the search for victims of AirAsia Flight 8501 that crashed Dec 28. Teams had recovered 70 of 162 people aboard.
(SFC, 1/28/15, p.A2)
2015 Feb 10, A Hong Kong woman was convicted of assaulting her Indonesian maid, Erwiana Sulistyaningsih, in a case that sparked outrage for the scale of its brutality. A judge found Law Wan-tung guilty of 18 charges including grievous bodily harm.
(AP, 2/10/15)
2020 Bill Hayden former governor-general of Australia proclaimed that Indonesia will be one of the great powers by this time.
(SFC, 4/26/96, p.A-12)
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