November
9, 2006: After two years of negotiations, the government has agreed to a treaty
with Australia to cover police, military and nuclear cooperation, as well as
counter- terrorism, people smuggling and drug trafficking. This will make
coordination on these matters much easier, and make it more difficult for
terrorists and other criminals to operate between Indonesia and
Australia.
November
8, 2006: A Moslem man from Sulawesi, has gone on trial for the beheading of
three Christian schoolgirls last year. Christians in Sulawesi are liable to
resume violence against Moslems if the three men recently indicted, for killing
the schoolgirls, are not convicted. Christians believe the courts are lenient
on Moslems who kill Christians, at least compared to the punishment given
Christians for similar crimes.
November
7, 2006: In Papua, three local tribal separatists were sentenced to long prison
terms after being convicted of killing three people in a 2002 attack outside a
gold mine. Even though the FBI got involved in the investigation (because two
of the dead were Americans), many still believe the trial was a cover-up to
protect the soldiers who really did the killing.
November
3, 2006: Police in East Timor's capital quickly intervened to prevent All Souls
Day rowdiness from turning into a major disturbance. Stone throwing gang
members were quickly dispersed. The police are at least able to deal with large
groups of gang members, but it's the small groups of thugs that have much of
the city, and countryside, terrorized.
