1) O’Neill: I maintain dialogue with Widodo

2) In Indonesia, an Oscar-nominated Film Reopens Old Wounds

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http://www.thenational.com.pg/?q=node/103818

1) O’Neill: I maintain dialogue with Widodo 

Source: 

The National, Friday February 26th, 2016 

PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill is continuing dialogue with Indonesian President Joko Widodo on the issue of West Papua.

“As Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, and as current chair of the Pacific Islands Forum, I am maintaining ongoing dialogue with the Government of Indonesia and with President Joko Widodo,” he said.
“We will continue this dialogue in a respectful manner with a focus on building mutual understanding in relation to the safety and security of our millions of Melanesian brothers and sisters across our border.”
He said this after a meeting with Solomon Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare in Port Moresby where the issue was discussed.

Sogavare is visiting in his capacity as the chairman of the Melanesian Spearhead Group. O’Neill said PNG remained a strong supporter of the work of the MSG Secretariat located in Vanuatu.
“The work of MSG has to stay relevant for the people of the region,” O’Neill said.
They also discussed the disaster in Fiji following Cyclone Winston.
“The disaster from the cyclone in Fiji was widespread, and the region expresses its sympathies for the unfortunate loss of life,” he said.
“MSG, as well as the Pacific Islands’ Forum, and individual countries look to requests for assistance that will come from Fiji in the recovery phase of the disaster.
“For PNG, we will deliver any support direct to where it is needed, as has been the process with drought relief in PNG, instead of sending this through bureaucratic channels.”

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HTTP://EN.TEMPO.CO/READ/NEWS/2016/02/27/114748795/IN-INDONESIA-AN-OSCAR-NOMINATED-FILM-REOPENS-OLD-WOUNDS

SATURDAY, 27 FEBRUARY, 2016 | 10:50 WIB

2) In Indonesia, an Oscar-nominated Film Reopens Old Wounds

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia's first film production to be nominated for an Oscar is at once a source of national pride and of shame for the world's third-largest democracy.

"The Look of Silence" centers on one of the worst massacres since World War Two, when at least 500,000 people died in violence that raged after then-general Suharto and the military took power following an abortive coup in 1965. A million or more people were jailed, suspected of being communists.

Up for best documentary at Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony, the film has forced many to confront one of the darkest periods in Indonesia's history and remains banned from commercial cinemas.

"Successive governments have failed to address the events of 1965 as a lesson that needs to be learned by the nation," said Muhammad Nurkhoiron of the national commission on human rights.

"There needs to at least be official recognition but that hasn't happened. But we feel happy this film has been nominated so the world can see those events are finally being questioned."

Government officials did not respond to repeated requests for comment on the film.

Despite the ban, "The Look of Silence", which has an Indonesian co-producer, is available online and had hundreds of private screenings across Indonesia.

This year's nomination will be the second for director Joshua Oppenheimer, whose similarly-themed "The Act of Killing" lost out in the best documentary category in 2013.

While the first film unveiled some of 1965's unrepentant killers who still remain free, "The Look of Silence" tells the same tale through the eyes of a victim's family.

In the film Adi Rukun comes face to face with the alleged torturers and killers of his three siblings.

"It was the hardest thing I've done in my life," Rukun said in a telephone interview. "What I wanted was to hear a confession, but I saw them feel no remorse."

The films go beyond tracking the cathartic journeys of those involved to show how many continue to turn a blind eye to past crimes.

"I hope the films will energize the movement in Indonesia against impunity and against a system based on fear and intimidation," Oppenheimer told Reuters by telephone.

Indonesia began a transition to democracy in 1998 after more than three decades of authoritarian rule.

The 2014 election of Joko Widodo as president, the first leader to come from outside the country's political and military establishment, offered hope to human rights activists that past violations would finally be addressed.

That has not happened, and last year Indonesia censored several events to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1965 killings.

"The hope is small," said Nurkhoiron. "But these films are a step to reconciliation with the past."

 

REUTERS

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