Thursday, 28 February 2013

[wanita-muslimah] Pollution-linked ‘cancer villages’ exist: China

23:40 BUDI WIBOWO No comments

http://news.kuwaittimes.net/2013/02/22/pollution-linked-cancer-villages-exist-china/

Pollution-linked 'cancer villages' exist: China

BEIJING: China's environment ministry has acknowledged the existence of "cancer villages", after years of assertions by academics and domestic media that polluted areas experience higher rates of the disease. The use of the term in an official report, thought to be unprecedented, comes as authorities face growing discontent over industrial waste, hazardous smog and other environmental and health consequences of years of rapid growth. "Poisonous and harmful chemical materials have brought about many water and atmosphere emergencies… certain places are even seeing 'cancer villages'," said a five-year plan that was highlighted this week.

The report did not elaborate on the phenomenon, which has no technical definition but gained prominence in domestic and foreign media after a Chinese journalist posted a map in 2009 pinpointing dozens of such "cancer villages".
The ministry acknowledged that in general China uses "poisonous and harmful chemical products" that are banned in developed countries and "pose long-term or potential harm to human health and the ecology". Environmental lawyer Wang Canfa, who runs an aid centre in Beijing for victims of pollution, said Friday it was the first time the "cancer village" phrase had appeared in a ministry document.

"It shows that the environment ministry has acknowledged that pollution has led to people getting cancer," he said. "It shows that this issue, of environmental pollution leading to health damages, has drawn attention." A ministry official who declined to be named could not confirm whether it was the first time it had used the phrase, but said it had previously acknowledged the connection between the environment and human health. Media reports about "cancer villages" emerged as early as 1998. Official sources such as government websites and television stations have altogether reported 241 such locations, a US-based geography professor said in a 2010 study.

The total reached 459 if accounts from "unofficial" sites such as online portals were included, University of Central Missouri academic Lee Liu said in the US-based journal Environment. The villages tended to be near major rivers, where people have congregated for generations but which also tended to attract industrial parks seeking easy access to water. "Water contamination from industrial pollution is believed to be the main cause of cancer villages," Liu wrote. Cancer incidence has shot up 80 percent over the past three decades-a period of breakneck economic growth-to become the country's most common cause of death, the China Daily cited the health minister as saying in 2010.

Today 2.7 million Chinese people die from cancer a year, the paper reported last month, citing the 2012 annual report from the Cancer Registry. Frustration over industrial pollution has sparked several huge protests over the past year and forced officials to promise to shut plants. Several days of thick smog that covered swathes of the country last month prompted a public outcry as well as rare criticism from state-run media and top government officials. The air pollution prompted a rise in hospital visits and forced flights to be cancelled as visibility dropped to as low as 100 metres. – AFP

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[wanita-muslimah] Ledakan Meteor di Atas Sulawesi Masih Paling Besar

20:28 BUDI WIBOWO No comments

http://www.pikiran-rakyat.com/node/225244

Ledakan Meteor di Atas Sulawesi Masih Paling Besar

Jumat, 01/03/2013 - 09:54

WINA, (PRLM).- Gelombang kejut infrasonik yang disebabkan oleh ledakan meteor yang menghantam Rusia beberapa waktu lalu adalah suara paling keras yang pernah dicatat oleh pengawas pengujian nuklir global.

Tujuh belas stasiun pendengar yang dioperasikan di seluruh dunia oleh Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO) telah mendeteksi gelombang suara tersebut saat melintasi bumi. Stasiun terjauh yang merekam suara sub-audible ini lebih dari 9.000 mil jauhnya di Antartika.

Gelombang frekuensi rendah yang dipancarkan oleh ledakan raksasa, akibat ledakan meteor atau bom atom, tidak terdengar ke telinga manusia, namun bisa direkam oleh jaringan sensor CTBTO saat gelombang itu terpancar ke seluruh benua.

"Kami melihat langsung bahwa kejadian tersebut akan sangat besar, dalam urutan yang sama seperti kejadian di atas Sulawesi pada 2009," kata Pierrick Mialle, seorang ilmuwan akustik dari CTBTO. "Pengamatan ini adalah beberapa yang terbesar yang telah terdeteksi stasiun infrasonik CTBTO."

Sampai pekan lalu, ledakan meteor di atas Sulawesi, Indonesia, pada Oktober 2009 adalah peristiwa terbesar infrasonik yang didaftarkan oleh 15 stasiun dalam jaringan CTBTO itu.

Infrasonik telah digunakan sebagai bagian dari alat CTBTO untuk mendeteksi ledakan bom atom sejak April 2001 ketika stasiun pertama muncul secara online di Jerman. Data dari berbagai stasiun dikirim secara real time ke Wina, Austria,
untuk analisis di kantor pusat CTBTO itu. Kedua data mentah dan hasil analisis disediakan untuk semua negara anggota.

Infrasonik merupakan salah satu dari empat teknologi (termasuk seismik, hidroakustik, dan radionuklida) yang digunakan CTBTO untuk memantau dunia atas pelanggaran yang melarang semua ledakan nuklir. Pada 12 Februari 2013, jaringan seismik CTBTO telah mendeteksi peristiwa seismik yang tidak biasa di Korea Utara, yang diukur sebesar 4,9. Pada paginya pemerintah Korea Utara mengumumkan bahwa mereka telah melakukan uji coba nuklir. (Aya/A-147)***

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[wanita-muslimah] Mahfud MD: Konstitusi Buatan Rakyat

16:59 BUDI WIBOWO No comments

Konstitusi Buatan Rakyat

Harus diakui, reformasi 1998 membuat demokrasi kita berkembang lebih bagus. Apa bagusnya? Karena reformasilah kita dapat menggugat dengan keras konstitusi yang berlaku. Ini tak terbayangkan dapat dilakukan pada masa lalu, saat otoriterisme Orde Lama dan hegemoni Orde Baru mencengkeram kehidupan berbangsa kita.

Kala itu kalau ada orang mempersoalkan UUD 1945 dipandang sebagai penjahat, kontrarevolusi, dan subversif, meski persoalannya didekati dari sudut akademis-ilmiah. Kampus-kampus dan para guru besarnya dihadapkan pada dua pilihan: menjadi corong penguasa untuk mengatakan bahwa UUD 1945 itu yang terbaik, atau bertiarap agar tidak dilibas. Tak ada kebebasan akademis, apalagi kebebasan mimbar akademis.

Dulu negara telah membangun tembok sakralisasi atas UUD 1945 dengan kekerasan yang membabi-buta. Padahal itu salah dan melawan arus sejarah. Seperti kata ahli konstitusi terkemuka, K.C. Wheare, konstitusi itu adalah resultante alias kesepakatan produk situasi atau keadaan politik, ekonomi, sosial, dan budaya masyarakat pada waktu tertentu, yang jika situasi dan kebutuhan berubah, konstitusi pun bisa, bahkan harus, diubah pula. Tak ada konstitusi yang dapat dipaksakan untuk berlaku selamanya.

Reformasi 1998 telah merobohkan tembok sakralisasi UUD itu. Sekarang kita sudah bisa mengikuti Wheare, UUD 1945 sudah diubah (diamendemen) secara sah sebanyak empat kali tanpa tekanan dari siapa pun. Dan konstitusi yang sudah diamendemen ini pun membuka pintu lebar bagi siapa pun untuk mempersoalkannya kembali tanpa harus takut ditangkap.

Nyatanya, sekarang ini banyak yang mempersoalkan UUD hasil amendemen yang sedang berlaku secara resmi. Ada yang mempersoalkan isinya, ada yang mempersoalkan keabsahan prosedurnya. Ada yang ingin kembali ke UUD 1945 yang asli, tapi banyak yang ingin mengambil jeda dulu dari menguras energi politik, dan melaksanakan saja UUD yang berlaku sekarang. Jauh lebih banyak lagi yang bersemangat melakukan amendemen kelima dengan alasan mumpung masalahnya masih hangat dan dulu kita melakukan perubahan tanpa pertimbangan yang matang. Menurut pandangan arus besar ini, sekarang saatnya kita berpikir lebih dalam, tidak emosional dan tidak pula terlalu romantis atau sentimental, untuk membuat UUD yang lebih baik lagi.

Menghadapi situasi ini kita pun tak boleh melawan arus sejarah seperti yang dilakukan oleh Orde Lama dan Orde Baru, melawan arus bahwa perubahan adalah keniscayaan. Kita tak boleh dan tak berhak melarang keinginan orang untuk melakukan perubahan seperti halnya kita tak boleh melarang orang untuk berpendapat agar kita kembali ke UUD 1945 yang asli. Ini sama tak bolehnya dengan kita melarang orang bergeming pada sikap bahwa hasil amendemen yang ada sekarang sudah maksimal dan bagus dan tak perlu diubah-ubah lagi.

Semua harus ditampung dan disalurkan melalui proses yang konstitusional agar dapat lahir konstitusi buatan rakyat atau konstitusi yang mencerminkan arus besar kehendak rakyat, tanpa manipulasi oleh pandangan sepihak para elitenya.

Penekanan tentang "konstitusi buatan rakyat" ini penting karena, kalau berbicara perubahan konstitusi, banyak di antara kita yang mengukurnya dengan teori produk pakar atau yang berlaku di negara lain. Misalnya ada yang mengatakan konstitusi kita salah karena tak sesuai dengan teori Trias Politika yang asli sebagaimana diciptakan oleh Montesquieu. Pertanyaannya, siapa yang mengharuskan kita mengikuti Montesquieu? Kalau Montesquieu bisa membuat teori, mengapa kita tak membuat teori yang sesuai dengan kebutuhan kita sendiri? Lagi pula, yang manakah teori Montesquieu yang asli sebagai sistem ketatanegaraan itu? Bukankah setiap negara membuat modifikasi sendiri-sendiri di dalam konstitusinya?

Ada juga yang mengatakan, salah satu kesalahan konstitusi kita adalah tidak jelasnya sistem perwakilan bikameral dengan prinsip checks and balances seperti yang berlaku di Amerika Serikat. Karenanya, parlemen kita pincang karena DPD kita mandul. Pertanyaannya, siapa yang mengharuskan kita mengikuti sistem bikameral ala Amerika Serikat? Bukankah kita dapat membuat desain sendiri tentang parlemen sebagai pilihan politik kita? Bahwa yang ada sekarang dipandang kurang baik, dapat saja kita perbaiki lagi, tetapi tanpa harus membelenggu diri untuk meniru yang berlaku di Amerika Serikat.

Kita berhak penuh untuk membuat teori konstitusi kita sendiri. Hukum tata negara yang berlaku di suatu negara adalah apa pun yang ditulis oleh rakyat di negara itu sendiri di dalam konstitusinya. Itu terlepas dari soal sama atau tidak sama dengan teori tertentu dan tak terkait dengan soal sejalan atau tak sejalan dengan yang berlaku di negara lain.

Sebagai wacana proses pembaruan konstitusi, bisa saja teori, pendapat pakar, dan sistem yang berlaku di negara lain dikemukakan sebagai bahan pembaruan. Tetapi kita tak terikat untuk mengikuti itu semua karena kita memiliki tuntutan situasi dan kebutuhan sendiri.

Mungkin saja ada bagian konstitusi yang sama dengan teori tertentu atau sama dengan yang berlaku di negara lain, sedangkan bagian lainnya berbeda. Itu sah saja sebagai pilihan politik kita sendiri. Yang berlaku tetaplah yang ditulis di dalam konstitusi sesuai dengan politik hukum yang kita pilih sendiri. Dengan sikap dan pandangan seperti itulah kita harus menghadapi tuntutan perubahan kembali konstitusi dengan berbagai variasi alternatifnya. []

Moh. Mahfud MD, Ketua Mahkamah Konstitusi RI

Sumber:

http://www.mahfudmd.com/index.php?page=web.OpiniLengkap&id=13

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[wanita-muslimah] Ibas Terima 900 Ribu USD dari PT Anugrah Nusantara?

14:38 BUDI WIBOWO No comments

http://www.republika.co.id/berita/nasional/hukum/13/02/28/mixp6f-ibas-terima-900-ribu-usd-dari-pt-anugrah-nusantara

Ibas Terima 900 Ribu USD dari PT Anugrah Nusantara?

Kamis, 28 Februari 2013, 21:20 WIB

Komentar : 0

Republika/ Tahta Aidilla

Edhie Baskoro Yudhoyono (ibas)

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REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Nama putera bungsu Presiden Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Edhie Baskoro yang juga Sekretaris Jenderal Partai Demokrat kembali disebut-sebut mendapatkan uang dari PT Anugerah Nusantara, perusahaan milik Muhammad Nazaruddin.

Nama Ibas tertera di dokumen yang diduga milik direktur keuangan PT Anugerah, Yulianis. Dokumen ini beredar di kalangan wartawan. Dari dokumen yang diduga merupakan rekap data keuangan PT Anugerah Nusantara, Ibas disebut menerima uang USD 900.000.

Aliran dana dari PT Anugerah Nusantara ke Ibas dilakukan melalui empat kali pengiriman. Pertama, Pada tanggal 29 April 2010. Ibas menerima kiriman uang sebanyak dua kali yakni USD 500.000 dan USD 100.000. Kedua, pada tanggal 30 April 2010 Ibas menerima dua kali pengiriman uang dari PT Anugrah Nusantara sebesar 200.000 USD dan 100.000 USD.

Sebelumnya Ibas membantah isu tersebut. (baca Ibas: Seribu Persen Saya Tak Terima Dana Hambalang)

Menurut Ibas, informasi yang bergulir seperti lagu lama yang kembali dimainkan. "Ini seperti lagu lama yang diulang-ulang sehingga saya terpaksa harus mengulangi dan menegaskan kembali bahwa saya tidak mengetahui apa pun terkait dengan tudingan tersebut,'' kataya.

Reporter : M Akbar Wijaya

Redaktur : M Irwan Ariefyanto

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[wanita-muslimah] Indonesia Gagal Lindungi Penganut Agama Minoritas

13:41 BUDI WIBOWO No comments

Ref: Kalau gagal melindungi, lantas apa yang harus diperbuat oleh kaum agama minoritas dan etnik minoritas? Duduk termenung memikir nasib yang malang sambil melihat maut berdansa dasi diujung hidung?

http://lampost.co/berita/indonesia-gagal-lindungi-penganut-agama-minoritas

2013-02-28 21:01:00

Indonesia Gagal Lindungi Penganut Agama Minoritas

JAKARTA (Lampost.co): Pemerintah Indonesia dituduh gagal melindungi pemeluk agama minoritas di tengah kekerasan dan intoleransi yang dikatakan meningkat akhir-akhir ini. Tuduhan ini tercantum dalam laporan terbaru organisasi HAM, Human Rights Watch (HRW).

HRW mendesak Presiden Yudhoyono untuk mengambil tindakan tegas dan menghukum para pelaku serangan terhadap pemeluk agama minoritas tanpa pandang bulu. "Jika pemerintah tidak tegas mengatasi kasus kekerasan dan intoleransi agama ini, kita mungkin akan melihat masyarakat Indonesia menjadi kurang memiliki tenggang rasa," kata Phelim Kine, Wakil Direktur HRW untuk kawasan Asia.

HRW juga khawatir kasus-kasus tersebut akan berdampak pada investasi di Indonesia. Kelompok penekan ini menyatakan adanya peningkatan serangan terhadap orang-orang Kristen, Buddha, dan Islam yang minoritas seperti Syiah maupun Ahmadiyah dan banyak di antaranya yang dilakukan kelompok militan Islam.

Menurut HRW, para penyerang mendasarkan aksi mereka berdasarkan intepretasi ajaran Islam Sunni yang sangat konservatif. Lebih 100 orang dengan latar belakang agama yang berbeda diwawancara oleh para peneliti HRW.

Organisasi yang berkantor pusat di New York ini menyatakan sering pelaku serangan hanya mendapatkan hukuman ringan atau tidak dihukum sama sekali. Menanggapi laporan ini pemerintah Indonesia mengatakan secara umum kerukunan kehidupan beragama masih kuat. (BBC/L-1)

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[wanita-muslimah] Report: Religious violence rising in Indonesia

12:32 BUDI WIBOWO No comments

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/02/28/report-religious-violence-rising-indonesia.html

Report: Religious violence rising in Indonesia

The Associated Press, Jakarta | National | Thu, February 28 2013, 2:47 PM

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Indonesia's government, security forces and courts must do more to protect religious minorities from growing episodes of intolerance and violence, an international rights group said in a report Thursday.

Human Rights Watch cited a steady increase in brutal attacks over the past few years due to the government's failure to confront thuggish harassment against Christians, Shia Muslims and the Ahmadiyah, an Islamic sect. It also noted that discriminatory regulations have not only affected those minorities, but also Sunni Muslim communities in some Christian-dominated areas of eastern Indonesia.

Indonesia, a secular country, is the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation. The majority of its 210 million Muslims are Sunni and most practice a moderate form of faith.

The New York-based organization called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to adopt a "zero tolerance" policy for discrimination and violence against religious minorities.

The government responded to the report by saying religious harmony remains strong in Indonesia, and it was unfair to generalize all attacks on minorities as being linked to intolerance.

The report alleged building permits for houses of worship have been denied, police have failed to stop violent attacks, prosecutors have sought weak punishment and in two cases, local authorities refused to honor Supreme Court decisions allowing religious minorities to build places of worship.

The 107-page report was based on research between August 2011 and December 2012, interviewing 115 people, including 71 victims in 10 of Indonesia's 34 provinces.

"The Indonesian government's failure to take decisive action to protect religious minorities from threats and violence is undermining its claims to being a rights-respecting democracy," said Brad Adams, the group's Asia director.

The watchdog organization also cited reports from the Jakarta-based nonprofit Setara Institute, which recorded 264 attacks last year, up from 244 cases the previous year and 216 in 2010.

However, Bahrul Hayat, Secretary General of Indonesia's Religious Affairs Ministry, said a government survey completed at the end of last year indicated that religious harmony in Indonesia is still very strong.

"We noted that a few violations happened, but please don't generalize that intolerance has increased in Indonesia," he said, adding that in some cases religion is blamed as the cause of conflicts when instead some disputes are actually motivated by social, political, economic or even cultural or family issues.

He said most religious issues involve the closing or building of places of worship, but it that is not an issue unique to minority religions.

"Not only churches are having problems in gaining construction approval, but also mosques in some areas," he said. "If they don't meet the requirements of a permit to build the house of worship, the government's permit will not granted. ... This should be understood by people of all faiths."

In the Human Rights Watch report, the hardline Islamic People's Forum and the Islamic Defenders Front were singled out as seeking to justify violence by labeling Ahmadiyahs and Shiites as "blasphemers" and most non-Muslims as "infidels."

The report insisted on the need to enforce national laws and to map out a comprehensive strategy to combat rising religious intolerance.

It also criticized the government for not disciplining cabinet members, including Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali, who encouraged abuses with discriminatory statements such as calling for the Ahmadiyah to be banned in 2011 and proposing one year later that Shia Muslims convert to Sunni Islam.

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[wanita-muslimah] Report: Religious violence rising in Indonesia

12:27 BUDI WIBOWO No comments

http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/02/28/report-religious-violence-rising-indonesia.html

Report: Religious violence rising in Indonesia

The Associated Press, Jakarta | National | Thu, February 28 2013, 2:47 PM

A- A A+

Indonesia, a secular country, is the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation. The majority of its 210 million Muslims are Sunni and most practice a moderate form of faith.

The New York-based organization called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to adopt a "zero tolerance" policy for discrimination and violence against religious minorities.

The government responded to the report by saying religious harmony remains strong in Indonesia, and it was unfair to generalize all attacks on minorities as being linked to intolerance.

The 107-page report was based on research between August 2011 and December 2012, interviewing 115 people, including 71 victims in 10 of Indonesia's 34 provinces.

The watchdog organization also cited reports from the Jakarta-based nonprofit Setara Institute, which recorded 264 attacks last year, up from 244 cases the previous year and 216 in 2010.

He said most religious issues involve the closing or building of places of worship, but it that is not an issue unique to minority religions.

The report insisted on the need to enforce national laws and to map out a comprehensive strategy to combat rising religious intolerance.

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[wanita-muslimah] Papua Liberation Army Leader Pledges No Surrender

12:20 BUDI WIBOWO No comments

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/papua-liberation-army-leader-pledges-no-surrender/574514

Papua Liberation Army Leader Pledges No Surrender
Robert Isidorus | February 28, 2013

Jayapura. The National Liberation Army of the Free Papua Movement, led by Goliath Tabuni, said it had no interest in money or power and that it was purely fighting to achieve an independent Papua.

"We want to be fully independent," Anton Lego Obet Tabuni, secretary general of the organization known as TPN-OPM, told Suara Pembaruan in a phone call.

"We know that [we're being chased]," Anton said. "We will not surrender and we will not back down even slightly in maintaining our ideology. This is serious."

Asked to comment on Insp. Gen. Tito Karnavian's statement linking the shootings that killed eight military officers to the regional elections, Anton denied it.

"We're not looking for positions and therefore the allegation is inaccurate."

Tito said police and military heightened security in Sinak and Tingginambut after an ambush killed soldiers and four civilians.
Tito said the number of officers increased as the regional election process was still ongoing.

"I will not withdraw members of the forces in Ilaga, Puncak district, to preempt any unwanted incidents. Right now the condition is quite conducive," he said.

Tito said that the incidents in Sinak and Tingginambut could have been arranged by candidates who took part in the elections.
"The shootings in Tingginambut and Sinak were not related to the Free Papua Movement issue, but to another."

A leading human rights group has blamed poor law enforcement for the recent murder of the eight soldiers and four civilians in Puncak Jaya.

In a statement on Saturday, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) questioned police effectiveness in the restive province.

After expressing sadness over the deaths, Kontras coordinator Haris Azhar said, "This series of violent acts are crimes that have to be responded to by law enforcement."

Haris said that greater transparency in the legal process following such crimes would likely reduce instances of violence in Papua, given the current extent of secrecy imposed.

Kontras data showed that in Puncak Jaya there were 15 cases of violence since the start of last year, including two incidents in which unidentified people snatched firearms from officers.

In the 15 incidents, nine military officers, two police officers and 10 civilians died. One military officer and nine civilians were also hurt.

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[wanita-muslimah] 'The Act of Killing' Reopens Old, Long-Buried Wounds in Indonesia

12:08 BUDI WIBOWO No comments

http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/entertainment/the-act-of-killing-reopens-old-long-buried-wounds-in-indonesia/574157

'The Act of Killing' Reopens Old, Long-Buried Wounds in Indonesia
Andjarsari Paramaditha | February 27, 2013

'The Act of Killing,' an award-winning documentary by British-based American filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer, contains materials that are prone to disturb viewers, not to mention the historical facts that are still hard to accept to some people in Indonesia. (Photo courtesy of theactofkilling.com).

Bejo Untung was a 17-year-old Indonesian schoolboy when armed soldiers came to his village in 1965, forcing him on the run for years until he was caught, tortured and jailed.

A communist-led coup attempt had just failed, triggering a wave of arrests and killings that ushered in more than three decades of rigid anticommunist education and propaganda. The subject is still so sensitive it is rarely broached in public.

But now a documentary, "The Act of Killing," made by Texan-born director Joshua Oppenheimer, shines a light on that dark era, focusing on the death squads and torture that seem like a myth to the majority of the Indonesian population.

Oppenheimer came up with the idea for the film while working on a different project in North Sumatra and found many relatives of the Indonesians he was talking to had been killed or imprisoned between 1965 and 1966 for trying to form a union.

Most were too afraid to appear on camera to speak with him and suggested he talk to the killers. He took their advice and was horrified by his findings.

"I ... encountered the boastful and shocking way that the killers were talking about what they did," said Oppenheimer in a telephone interview from Denmark.

"That was for me the beginning of the journey. I realized, my goodness, how is it possible that the perpetrators of mass murder should talk loudly and boastfully and with smiles and laughter."

The film, which runs for nearly two hours and won two prizes at this month's Berlin International Film Festival, re-enacts several murders and features a member of a death squad.

Death squads

These death squads were operating systematically across Indonesia mostly in the late 1960s. Estimates put as many as one million people dead in a wave of violence after the aborted coup and purge of communists and alleged sympathizers.

The main character in the film, Anwar Congo, was the one of the most feared death squad leaders in the area around the city of Medan in Sumatra.

"I choke them to death, with steel wire around the neck," Congo says in the film, demonstrating in front of the camera how it was done. "And then pull it, sometimes with a pole. It's easier that way and less blood to clean."

Premiered at the Toronto Film Festival in October 2012, "The Act of Killing" took the Panorama Audience Award and the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the recent 2013 Berlin International Film Festival but there have been no official screenings in the country where it took place.

It has been shown in about 265 underground screenings, with secret invitations sent to small groups, but there is the fear that police might try to block the screenings. Still, some 10,000 have been to see it.

The National Police spokesman did not respond to questions asking whether the officers would have tried to stop showings of the film. Young Indonesians had long been taught that communism was sadistic and evil and given no alternative view to that era.

Until 1998 and the end of the iron rule of Suharto, the leader who took power shortly after the coup, viewing of a violent movie about how six generals and an officer were killed in the coup attempt was compulsory for schoolchildren.

Even last year an attempt by Indonesia's human rights commission to look into the events surrounding the slaughter were effectively blocked by the government.

"Baby rat was my favorite"

Bejo Untung said the movie reflected accurately what happened to him and many others.

Caught and imprisoned in 1970, Untung survived a year of torture - beating and electrocution - in prison and then a camp of several hundred men located in Central Jakarta. Three killed themselves while he was there, while others disappeared and were feared to have been killed. He spent eight years in jail without trial, including a stint of brutal forced farm labor.

"Ten of us were forced to stay in a room which can only fit two," he said of his time in one prison. "We slept like layered cake, my head facing another inmate's toes so we could breathe while we slept."

Most of the protein in his diet came from "anything that moved" in the fields, including frogs, rats, snakes and snails.

"My favorite was the baby rat, it's easy to swallow it alive," said Untung.

He learned to play guitar and piano and made his own instrument during breaks. To learn English, he copied a dictionary word for word onto cigarette papers.

It wasn't until 1979 that political prisoners were released, in order to open the way for Indonesia to receive financial grants from the United States and European nations.

Untung was a private music tutor until retiring and now heads YPKP 65, an organization for victims of the brutality. For nearly six years, he marched in front of the State Palace, the seat of Indonesian government, every Thursday together with other human rights victims, demanding resolution.

Now he and others want Indonesian history to be revised to reflect the truth of that period.

Hilmar Farid, a Jakarta-based historian at the University of Indonesia, said this was a lesson - not to allow absolute power to take hold.

"I doubt that the perpetrators will watch the movie and apologize ... Political interest plays a big part. There is a need to have mass consciousness, mass repentance if necessary."

Oppenheimer said his film, which cost $1 million to make over five years, gave young Indonesians a different chapter to their nation's history.

"From the history lessons in school, I only remember that they [the communists] killed and oppressed people, that's it." said 23 year-old graduate student Frederika Dapamanis after watching the movie. "I was sad and ashamed."

There were also lessons for those older as well.

"For Indonesians old enough to remember the genocide, the film makes it impossible to continue denying what everybody in that generation already knew. They are closer to the perpetrators than they like to believe," Oppenheimer said.

"It's not because they're communist or Indonesian, but they are human beings," he said. "The movie, that's a hurtful truth. Indonesia has to speak out about this. The government has to apologize and the truth has to come out."

Reuters

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