Indonesia

If justice prevailed for these poor creatures, the people responsible would be placed in a dark dungeon forever to atone for allowing this to happen. The specimen letter inside this article responds to reports of the death of scores of animals in the Surabaya Zoo, Indonesia, and seeks the immediate closure of the zoo, immediate medical attention to be provided by trained veterinarians to all animals on site, and transfer of all enclosed animals to accredited facilities.

(This article was first published on 6 Sep 2009 & enhanced on 18 Aug 2013.)
Update, 8 Dec 2013 : Keep yourself more informed from these Twitter pages: Women for Schapelle, BobCarr Cover-up & Kim Bax.
Update, 17 Aug 2013 : An ABC radio news bulletin reports: "Convicted Australian drug smuggler Schapelle Corby has not received a sentence cut as part of Indonesia's Independence Day celebrations." This was contrary to earlier reports that she had been given hope of an early release. Unless her sentence is reduced, she is not eligible for release until 24 March 2017. See also: Schapelle to be sent to die in remote Java prison of 5 April 2010, A selective capacity for human compassion? of 24 Feb 2010, Your support for clemency bid needed to save Schapelle's life 12 of  Feb 2010, Schapelle Corby's story told on Truth News Radio of 23 Sep 2009.

On 27 May 2005, Schapelle Corby was found guilty not by a jury, but by a judge, of attempting to smuggle 4.2kg of cannabis into Indonesia and sentenced to 20 years' jail. However, even a cursory look at the case against Schapelle Corby, for example on Wikipedia, will reveal that the evidence against her is almost non-existent, whilst evidence, pointing to the guilt of the Balinese Police, a coverup and the scapegoating of Corby, is overwhelming. The newsmedia's failure to make this widely understood is yet another of countless examples of its failure in its duty to the Australian public.

See also: The political sacrifice of Schapelle Corby of 8 Feb 14 (includes video from Expendable Project story), http://www.freeschapelle.com.au (as of 9 Feb 2014, web-site no longer exists), "Your support for clemency bid needed to save Schapelle's life" of 12 Feb 10, http://www.schapelle.net/, "Kevin Rudd gives Schapelle Corby a raw deal" by Jill Singer in the Herald Sun of 27 Aug 2009, "Schapelle Corby paranoid, clutching doll in Kerobokan jail" by Cindy Wockner and Kormang Suriadi in the Daily Telegraph of 25 May 09, "Premier backs call to bring Schapelle Corby back to Australia" in the Herald Sun of 25 Aug 09, "Schapelle Corby 'clinically insane'" by Adam Gartrell in News Ltd online of 24 Aug 09.

This article identifies a tendency internationally to desensitize the public to the mass-murder by Western-supported governments of whole peoples whom they find inconvenient. Australia has a history of cultivating 'wilful blindness' to these events in our neighborhood, under the leadership of powerful government figures. Geoffrey Taylor here draws our attention to an example of such a complex attitude in an interview with Paul Keating last year. [This article started out as a response to Tigerquoll's comment, "Willful Blindness in East Timor, Sri Lanka, and now West Papua".]

Here is a lovely video about the hope in the lives of rescued baby orangutans in Indonesia.

The pictures inside this email show things that are happening to orangutans in Indonesia, things which should not happen to any creature, human or other. Don't be afraid to look. It can't hurt you.We humans need to be aware of what we as a species are responsible for and to make our leaders responsible too. Orangutans can be helped. This kind of thing does not have to go on. Not all Indonesians are callous. Like good Australians, good Indonesians want support and solidarity in the good fight for peace and harmony with the natural world. Let's help them and the orangutans by sending the letter inside this article.

The callous and evil slaughter and rape of ethnic Tamils last May by the Sinhalese armed forces in Sri Lanka compares with the Indonesian mass murder of East Timorese in the Indonesian Invasion of 1975 and again in the 1991 Dili Massacre.

In September 1974, in central Java, Australia's Prime Minister Gough Whitlam told Indonesia's President Suharto that East Timor was “too small to be independent”. Thirty odd years later the Australian Government turned a blind eye to Rajapaska's Tamil genocide in Sri Lanka.

Seems Australia has quickly forgotten the lessons of Vietnam War. The late Martin Luther King is oft quoted from a sermon he delivered in 1967 on the Vietnam War "A time comes when silence is betrayal".

[This article follows on from the initial article after Rajapaksa's war crime assassinations of surrendering Tamils on 10 May 09: Tamil Tigers - hunted down and exterminated like vermin by Sinhalese President Rajapaksa [22-May-09]]