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DTE publications

Bestari Raden sentenced

Down to Earth No 63 November 2004

Bestari Raden, indigenous activist and environmental campaigner, has been sentenced to two years and six months imprisonment. The verdict, handed down in October, found Bestari not guilty of part of the main charge of 'rebellion', but guilty of threatening state security and incitement.

Bestari Raden was arrested by military personnel from Southeast Aceh district command in March 2004.

Melayu farmers' long struggle for land rights

Down to Earth No 63 November 2004

The North Sumatran organisation of peasant farmers, BPRPI, is engaged in one of Indonesia's longest running land disputes.

Plantations: fortune of misfortune?

Down to Earth No 63 November 2004

The case of Nyayat village, as told in a new Indonesian-language publication by Indonesian NGO, PENA. Summary translation by DTE.

Nyayat is a hamlet in Sambas district, West Kalimantan, of only 200 Dayak Bekati. To outside eyes, it looks much like any other small village in the province. Most of its inhabitants farm the land traditionally and tap native rubber. The striking difference is that these villagers have refused to accept oil palm plantations on their land.

Women, land and natural resources

Down to Earth No 63 November 2004

Women in Indonesia are disadvantaged by poverty and marginalised by the development process. Control over the natural resources that sustain their lives remains largely out of their hands.

Women and Mining Conference demands justice for women

Down to Earth No 63 November 2004

Mining has a disproportionate and destructive impact on women, including indigenous women and women miners, bringing serious social and environmental problems, creating poverty and continuing to show disrespect for indigenous cultures, customary laws and rights.

Yosepha Alomang - a Papuan woman fighting for human and environmental rights

Down to Earth No 63 November 2004

The indigenous Amungin human rights defender, Yosepha Alomang, grew up in the shadow of the huge Freeport/Rio Tinto gold and copper mine and under Indonesian military oppression in West Papua.

In brief... DTE 63 - November 2004

Down to Earth No 63 November 2004

Munir poisoned

In November it was revealed that leading Indonesian human rights defender, Munir, who died in September whilst on a flight from Indonesia to the Netherlands, was poisoned with arsenic. Indonesian and international colleagues have expressed shock at the news that Munir was murdered. Munir - an outspoken critic of the military, was co-founder of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) and the Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial).