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Thursday, February 16, 2017
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International
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International
Thursday, February 16, 2017
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Australia increases pressure
Cash offers for PNG asylum seekers to return home
SYDNEY - Officials at an Australian immigration centre in Papua New Guinea are increasing pressure on asylum seekers to return to their home countries voluntarily, including offering large sums of money, amid fears a deal for the United States to take refugees has fallen through.
About a dozen Bangladeshi and Nepalese asylum seekers on Manus Island told Reuters they are being repeatedly called to meet with Australian officials and pressured to take amounts of up to $25,000 to return to those countries, or face deportation. The men, who have been ruled ineligible for refugee status by Papua New Guinea, said officials are also acting with urgency on deportation notices filed weeks or months ago. At least one Nepalese man was removed from his accommodation in the middle of the night last week, they said. “They told me and others that if you go back voluntarily you will get money about $20,000, if you guys go in group you will get more money,” detainee Mohammad Bilal, a crane driver who says he fled Bangladesh for political reasons, told Reuters about a meeting with Australian officials last week. Offering money to failed asylum seekers to return home is not illegal. However, the sums being offered by Australian officials have more than doubled since a year ago, and are far above the funds being offered elsewhere. Germany, for example, recently announced plans to offer up to 1,200 euros ($1,275) to asylum seekers to voluntarily return home. “Substantial assistance packages are available to help non-refugees depart voluntarily, return home and re-establish their lives in their home country,” Australia’s immigration department said in an emailed statement to Reuters. “In cases where non-refugees refuse to depart voluntarily, the government of PNG has indicated that it will enforce the removal of those individuals, in accordance with normal international practice.” The department declined to comment in more detail. Australia does not reveal the cost of its offshore processing program. However, a 2016 report from Unicef and Save the Children estimated the policy had cost A$10 billion ($7.7 billion) over the previous three years. (rtr)
AP Photo/ Achmad Ibrahim
An Indonesian Muslim woman holds a voting paper at a polling station during an election for Jakarta governor in Jakarta, Indonesia, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2017.
Pratikno hints at likely Jokowi-Sby meeting after regional elections
Behrouz Boochani/Handout via REUTERS
Accommodation for detainees is photographed inside the Manus Island detention centre in Papua New Guinea, February 11, 2017. Picture taken February 11, 2017.
Maiden flight of China-built amphibious aircraft expected in first half of 2017
IBP/net
China is rolling out AG600 amphibious aircraft, makes its official debut in Zhuhai.
Unofficial... From page 1
“It’s going to be very hard. The second round is going to be very ugly. The first round issues of religion and ethnicity were ugly enough,” said Tobias Basuki, a political analyst at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Jakarta. Defeat for Ahok would also be
a defeat for Indonesia’s moderate political and religious leaders and further embolden hard-liners, who say a non-Muslim should not lead Muslims. The governorship is also seen as a launching pad into national politics and possibly the presidency. Baswedan said he was open to an arrangement with Yudhoyono to secure his votes for the second round. “The mandate given through the
SHANGHAI - The world’s largest amphibious aircraft, the China-made AG600, has passed engine tests and is expected to make its maiden flight in the first half of this year, state news agency Xinhua said. As China adopts a more muscular approach to territorial disputes in places such as the busy South China Sea waterway, it has stepped up research on advanced new military equipment, rattling nerves in the Asia-Pacific region and in
Washington. State aircraft maker Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) has spent almost eight years developing the AG600, which is roughly the size of a Boeing 737 and is designed to carry out marine rescues and battle forest fires. In November, AVIC displayed the plane at China’s biggest meeting of aircraft makers and buyers, after it completed production of the jet in July.
The aircraft has received 17 expressions of interest so far, Xinhua said late on Tuesday, but gave no further details. The aircraft has a maximum flight range of 4,500 km and a maximum take-off weight of 53.5 tonnes. China also showed off its Chengdu J-20 stealth fighter in public for the first time at the November airshow and in June last year put into service a new, domestically-developed large transport aircraft. (rtr)
ballot this morning is a huge mandate. For us, this percentage is not just votes, it is trust,” he said. Prasetio Edi Marsudi, who heads Ahok’s campaign team, told a crowd of supporters that Wednesday’s vote was mismanaged at some of the 13,000 polling places including lack of ballot papers that meant some people couldn’t vote. “We are still waiting reports
from our team over possible irregularities in some places and we will follow it up with the authorities for further action,” Marsudi said. Official results of the election are due in late February. Ahok had been popular because of his drive to eliminate corruption from the Jakarta administration and his efforts to make the city more livable. But brutal demolitions of
some of the slum neighborhoods that are home to millions and illconsidered outspokenness proved to be his Achilles’ heel. Opponents seized their moment last year when a video surfaced of Ahok telling voters they were being deceived if they believed a specific verse in the Quran prohibited Muslims from electing a non-Muslim as leader. (ap)
JAKARTA - A meeting between President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and former president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) will probably take place after the simultaneous regional head elections on Wednesday, according to Minister/ State Secretary Pratikno. “Let us see after the regional head elections, as today is a national holiday,” Pratikno remarked while responding to the question of newsmen at the Presidential Palace complex on Wednesday. Pratikno said he will directly confirm with President Jokowi regarding a planned meeting with former president SBY. However, he added that the president was still monitoring the developments in the simultaneous regional head elections held across the country.
“Okay, I will ask the president, but the regional elections are in progress, and President Jokowi will continue to monitor the developments in the elections,” he reiterated. Pratikno affirmed that the regional elections in 101 regions should receive greater attention of the president. “Remember that the elections were not only held in Jakarta but also across the country,” the minister/state secretary noted. Earlier, Presidential spokesman Johan Budi had remarked that it was just a matter of time before a meeting between Jokowi and SBY, the Democrat Party chairman, would take place. Personally, Budi said there were no issues between President Jokowi and his predecessor, SBY. (ant)
Minor incidents reported during regional head elections in Papua
JAYAPURA - Several relatively minor incidents were reported during the regional head elections in Papua Province, but overall the elections ran smoothly and safely, an official said.
In Dogiyai District, a candidate hit Kamu Subdistrict Head, because he was disappointed with the distribution of ballot papers, Hery Dosinaen, secretary of the Papua Administration, said here on Wednesday. In Mappy, a car belonging to one of the candidates, carrying money and food, was seized by the local authorities for alleged money politics, he added. In Nduga District, distribution of election logistics was delayed due to bad weather. Polling was also de-
layed n Nduga, a remote area that needed a helicopter to deliver the logistics. The decision to delay or repeat the polling will be decided by the General Election Commission (KPU), and the Papua administration can only monitor its implementation, he stated. Meanwhile, pilkada was held in 11 districts and cities across Papua Province, with the number of eligible voters reaching 1,445,976, and the number of candidates reaching 38 pairs. Voting was held from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. local time across 3,864 polling stations. Papua Police Chief Inspector General Paulus Waterpauw stated that the situation in Indonesias easternmost province of Papua was safe and under control. (ant)
IBP/ap
The election process in Papua
Indonesia lawmaker: Palm oil workers shot orangutan for meat JAKARTA — Palm oil plantation workers killed and ate a critically endangered orangutan on the island of Borneo, according to an Indonesian lawmaker who called for police to investigate what is a frequent but rarely prosecuted crime. Daniel Johan said Tuesday the workers shot the great ape after it ventured onto a plantation in a remote area of Central Kalimantan province,
probably looking for crops to eat. “It’s a blatant offense against Indonesia’s conservation laws,” said Johan. “Police have to investigate this cruel action.” Photos of the butchered orangutan provided by a witness show the beheaded animal sprawled on the ground next to a man holding a rifle. One picture showed the orangutan’s head floating in a pot. In another,
several people are cutting up the primate’s flesh. Last July, the International Union for Conservation of Nature classified Borneo’s orangutans as critically endangered. It estimates their numbers have dropped by nearly two-thirds since the early 1970s and will further decline to 47,000 by 2025. The animals are often killed for
their meat or to prevent damage to crops, a crime that can result in five years’ imprisonment, but prosecutions are infrequent. Their forest habitat has shrunk dramatically over the past half century, a victim of Indonesia’s rush to supply the world with timber, pulp, paper, and more recently, palm oil. Johan said he asked the witness to report the incident to police but
the person feared reprisals. He said the plantation where the orangutan was killed is owned by PT. Susantri Permai. It is a unit of Genting Plantations Bhd., a Malaysia-based palm oil company. In 2011, two Indonesian plantation workers admitted to killing at least 20 orangutans and proboscis monkeys for landowners looking to protect their crops. (ap)