The Wire

A group of Indonesian human rights activists are visiting Australia, to give their neighbour an update on how their country is progressing with democratic reforms. While much progress has been made in reducing legal loopholes for the military, the group says that Indonesian police need to be reformed to combat incidents of abuse in custody. Whilst calling on the Rudd Government to take a tougher stand on this, the group also welcomed the recent findings of the coronial inquest into the death of five journalists in Balibo, East Timor in 1975. The coroner found evidence that the journalists had been deliberately killed by members of the Indonesian military and referred the case the Federal Government for war crimes.