We’ll have a clearer idea of what is going on here when the dust settles, but two things are worth noting about the Sept. 19 coup d’etat in Thailand. First, the coup leader Gen. Sonthi Boonyaratglin is the first Muslim… Read moreThailand: new GWOT flashpoint?
Note that this is being portrayed openly as a tit-for-tat to counter-balance the scheduled execution of those convicted in the Bali bombings. Note also that the Indonesian military itself has been accused of enflaming the Sulawesi violence through proxy militias…. Read moreIndonesia: Christian militiamen face execution
Jose Ramos Horta, winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, is a figure of towering moral authority, and will hopefully be able to restore both stability and real sovereignty to his nation. But it is painful to watch him take… Read moreRamos Horta to lead East Timor
Exactly four years after winning its independence from Indonesia, East Timor is tragically descending into chaos, and Australia has sent a “peacekeeping” force. Excerpts from a Reuters account via TV New Zealand, May 27: Gangs of youths allied to feuding… Read moreAussie imperialism exploits East Timor unrest
From Reuters, March 30: CANBERRA – An Indonesian cartoon depicting Australia’s prime minister and foreign minister as fornicating dingoes was “grotesque”, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Thursday as bilateral tension flared with Jakarta. Prime Minister John Howard acknowledged that… Read moreAustralia-Indonesia cartoon wars
As we observed in the recent case in Nazareth, the choice of religious targets by the “mentally ill” is not so apolitical as it seems. If nothing else, it reflects a zeitgeist. From Reuters, March 25: Thai Muslim killed after… Read moreReligious violence in Thailand
Another escalation in the ongoing struggle in West Papua. From AP, March 20: Calm returned to Papua Province yesterday after three days of tension following a deadly protest against a massive US-owned gold mine in the eastern Indonesian province. Police… Read moreDeadly protests and sweeps in West Papua
A rather ironic way to note the 20th anniversary of the “People Power” revolution that ousted longtime dictator Ferdinand Marcos in the Philippines. Those who marched in Manila to commemorate the revolution over the weekend did so in defiance of… Read moreState of emergency in Philippines
The latest escalation of the secret war in West Papua is even more eclipsed from the news than usual by the current hideous escalation in Iraq. But, as we witnessed in India last month, tribal peoples armed with bows and… Read moreProtests halt West Papua mine operations
Indonesia’s Environment Ministry is evidently caught between ecologists and nationalists demanding a tougher line on foreign corporate polluters and a judiciary that seems beholden to the corporate shadow government. The New York Times noted Feb. 17 that under the terms… Read moreIndonesians see “slap in face” in corporate pollution settlement
Multiple ethnic struggles in Indonesia made headlines over the New Year’s weekend. On Jan. 2, local police announced they have detained at least one man in connection with the New Year’s Eve bombing at a Christian market in Palu, Central… Read moreIndonesia: corporate-military terror in West Papua revealed
Well, more than 40 years after the damage is done, the government comes clean on the lies that got the US into the Vietnam War. We guess it must be official now that its in the New York Times. But… Read moreTonkin Gulf truth revealed —40 years too late
