Region & Country

This report reviews Indonesia’s unimpressive record in bringing to justice those responsible for gross human rights violations.

Intercommunal violence in Indonesia’s Maluku region during the past two years has left over 5,000 people dead and displaced roughly 500,000 more.

Tensions in Aceh have escalated sharply in recent weeks, prompting the government in Jakarta to promise to accelerate the implementation of autonomy plans and announce a small humanitarian aid package.

Beginning in early August, a series of violent incidents have brought more attention to the prospects for large scale conflict in Central Asia than at any time since the end of Tajikistan’s civil war.

There has been since the fall of Soeharto’s New Order in May 1998 a drastic decline in the political influence of the military.

Almost a decade after the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements, Cambodia is at peace and the government is at last secure enough to contemplate the trials of some Khmer Rouge leaders.

Several thousand people have died and hundreds of thousands have become refugees in the last eighteen months as the result of inter-communal fighting in Indonesia’s Maluku islands. The conflict continues at a high level of intensity despite the declaration of a state of emergency in June 2000.

Indonesia has undergone an extraordinary transition during the last two years from a society long ruled by a military-backed authoritarian leader to one in which an elected government was installed through an open and largely democratic process.

The past two years has been a highly turbulent period for Indonesia.

The international community collectively heaved a sigh of relief when Cambodia’s rival factions moved back from the brink of disaster and agreed to form a fresh coalition government in November 1998 after weeks of violent protests and political deadlock.

Cambodia’s electoral process re-lit the candle of democracy that had first flickered into flame with the restoration of peace in 1991, after more than two decades of strife.

Cambodia is set to take to the polls in barely six weeks time, with some fearing the elections will cement in place a de facto dictatorship and others seeing them as the last chance to ensure that the country’s fledgling democratic process remains on track.

This report studies the background to the latest crisis affecting the Southeast Asian nation of Cambodia. It examines current conditions in the country, assesses the key issues requiring redress and offers a number of specific recommendations for international policy-makers aimed at shoring up political stability