The film will be only be available in Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines from October 6-9. As part of the joint screening, a regional forum, “Press in Distress: Will independent media survive in Southeast Asia?,” will also take place on October 8, 4 pm Manila time. The forum will be accessible globally to anyone who registers.

This event will feature Rappler CEO Maria Ressa, together with other media owners and champions of independent media and press freedom in Southeast Asia: Arif Zulkifli, CEO of Tempo (Indonesia) and Steven Gan, co-founder and editor-in-chief of Malaysiakini (Malaysia). They will be discussing the nature of threats faced by Southeast Asian journalists and what this means for democracy in their respective countries.

This event is organized by the Aliansi Jurnalis Independen (AJI), Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), Freedom Film Network, Gerakan Media Merdeka (Geramm), Active Vista and DAKILA.

Interested participants can register here.

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Funerals were held Monday, December 24, for several members of an Indonesian pop band killed when a tsunami slammed into a stage where they were performing in an open-air concert.

Relatives of Muhammad Awal Purbani – bassist for the group Seventeen – sobbed and hugged each other at a service in Indonesia’s cultural capital Yogyakarta, including a 3-year-old daughter and his wife who was several months pregnant.

The group’s road manager Oki Wijaya, guitarist Herman Sikumbang and crew member Rukmana Rustam were also buried Monday in separate services in their hometowns.

Local media have reported that Wisnu Andi Darmawan, the band’s missing drummer, had been found dead Monday.

Seventeen’s frontman Riefian Fajarsyah – whose wife is still missing two days after the disaster –posted a picture of the band online and suggested that Darmawan had been killed.

That would leave Fajarsyah as the only surviving member of the group, which has released a half dozen albums and commands a large fan base in their native country.

“So long my beloved drummer Andi Seventeen, Allah loves you,” he wrote.

“Be at peace my friend. Endless prayers for you, Bani (bassist) and Eman (guitarist). 

“It’s been an honor and a pride to share a stage with you. We were not just work partners, we were family in life and death.”

A visibly distressed Fajarsyah told local broadcaster NET TV that was praying his wife would be found alive. 

“Please pray so Allah can give us a miracle.”

On Sunday, December 23, the band’s lead singer posted a picture online of he and his wife kissing in Paris with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

“Today is your birthday – I want wish you a happy birthday in person. Come home soon, honey,” he wrote in the caption of the photo.

The funerals were among dozens of services held across the country for some of at least 281 people killed by Saturday night’s disaster.

With no warning, the powerful tsunami swept over popular beaches on southern Sumatra and the western tip of Java and inundated tourist hotels and coastal settlements. (IN PHOTOS: Death and destruction in Indonesia)

The band was playing Saturday night, December 22, to a crowd at a company-sponsored event at the Tanjung Lesung Beach Resort on the western tip of Java when the wall of water hit.

Dramatic video posted online showed the tsunami smashing into the concert, hurling band members from the stage and slamming into the audience.

On the video, fans can be seen clapping and cheering before a wave rips under the stage, sending the band members and their equipment crashing into the men and women dancing at the front.

The shocking video then suddenly stops. – Rappler.com

CARITA, Indonesia  – Asep Sunaria heard a loud “whoosh” just seconds before a wall of water threw him off his motorbike, swallowing his house and the village he called home until Saturday night, December 22.

As rescuers hunted for survivors of the volcano-triggered tsunami that killed at least 281 people along Indonesia’s coast, 42-year-old Sunaria was trying to come to grips with a disaster that struck without warning. (IN PHOTOS: Death and destruction in Indonesia)

“The water came from over there with a sound like the wind – ‘whoosh’,” he recounted to Agence France-Presse.

“I was shocked. I didn’t expect it at all – there was no warning … At first I thought it was just a tidal wave but the water rose so high.”

He and his family sprinted from Sukarame village to higher ground, leaving them with only the clothes on their back.

But they were among the lucky ones.

Some villagers perished when the powerful tsunami struck on Saturday night, sweeping over popular beaches of southern Sumatra and the western tip of Java and inundating tourist hotels and coastal settlements. (READ: Shocking video shows tsunami rip through stage as band performs)

Experts say it was likely triggered by a massive underwater landslide following an eruption of the Anak Krakatoa volcano in the Sunda Strait.

“My family are safe but my house has been destroyed – everything’s gone,” said Sunaria.

“Now I’m looking for bodies that have not been found. We only found one yesterday and we’re looking for spots where more bodies could still be buried.”

Another villager, Sunarti, waded through knee-deep water as she searched for belongings outside her destroyed house.

“We found two dead bodies over there yesterday,” the 61-year-old indicated.

Sunarti said her 100-year-old mother survived and was staying at higher ground until they could be sure there would be no more killer waves – something experts have warned remains a serious risk.

“My life was already tough,” Sunarti, who like many Indonesians goes by one name, told Agence France-Presse. 

“We’re very poor and now this happens”

Down the road in Cilurah village, survivor Ade Junaedi said he witnessed nature’s fury firsthand.

“It happened very quickly,” he said.

“I was chatting with a guest at our place when my wife opened the door and she suddenly let out a panicked scream. I thought there was a fire, but when I walked to the door I saw the water coming.”

Back in Sukarame village, Sunarti and her hungry neighbors waited for outside aid to arrive in their stricken community.

“There’s been no help at all so far,” she said.

“Some people are starving.” – Rappler.com

CARITA, Indonesia (UPDATED) – Dozens of filled body bags were hauled away from buildings flattened by Indonesia’s volcano-triggered tsunami on Monday, December 24, as the death toll climbed to 373 and search teams pushed on with the grim hunt for corpses.

Rescue teams used their bare hands, diggers and other heavy equipment to haul debris from the stricken area around the Sunda Strait, as thousands were evacuated to higher ground. (READ: Shocking video shows tsunami rip through stage as band performs)

Experts warned that more deadly waves could slam the devastated region after Saturday night’s disaster, as questions swirled over why the killer wave caught a disaster-prone country’s monitors completely off guard.

The powerful tsunami swept over popular beaches on southern Sumatra and western Java and inundated tourist hotels and coastal settlements.

Some 1,459 people were injured with another 128 missing, disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said, giving an updated toll late Monday.

“The lack of a tsunami early warning system caused a lot of victims because people did not have the time to evacuate,” he said.

Hundreds of buildings were destroyed by the wave that left a tangled mess of corrugated steel roofing, timber and rubble at Carita beach, a popular spot for day-trippers on the west coast of Java.

Beachside cottages at one resort were flattened while the dining room’s mud-caked floor was strewn with smashed chairs and tables, utensils and spilled cups of ice cream. (IN PHOTOS: Death and destruction in Indonesia)

In the lobby, a Christmas tree remained standing, surrounded by fallen holiday ornaments and toppled-over flower pots.

“The military and police are searching the ruins to see if we can find more victims,” said Dody Ruswandi, a senior official at the disaster agency, adding that the rescue effort was likely to last a week.

In devastated Sukarame village, Sunarti waded through knee-deep water as she searched for belongings outside her destroyed house — and waited for aid to arrive.

“There’s been no help at all so far,” the 61-year-told AFP from the flattened hamlet.

“Some people are starving.”

Indonesian president Joko Widodo visited the area Monday.

It was the third major natural disaster to strike Indonesia in the space of 6 months, following a series of powerful earthquakes on the island of Lombok in July and August and a quake-tsunami in September that killed around 2,200 people in Palu on Sulawesi island, with thousands more missing and presumed dead.

The vast archipelago nation is one of the most disaster-prone nations on Earth due to its position straddling the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide.

‘Saw the water coming’

Experts say Saturday’s tsunami was likely triggered by a massive underwater landslide following an eruption of the Anak Krakatoa volcano in the Sunda Strait.

Unlike those caused by earthquakes, which trigger alert systems, such tsunamis give authorities very little time to warn residents of the impending threat.

“It happened very quickly,” said survivor Ade Junaedi.

“I was chatting with a guest at our place when my wife opened the door and she suddenly screamed in panic. I thought there was a fire, but when I walked to the door I saw the water coming.”

Richard Teeuw, a geohazard expert from the University of Portsmouth in England, said the eruption and landslide may well have destabilised the volcano, heightening the risk of another tsunami.

“The likelihood of further tsunamis in the Sunda Strait will remain high while Anak Krakatoa volcano is going through its current active phase because that might trigger further submarine landslides,” Teeuw said.

Dramatic video posted on social media showed a wall of water suddenly crashing into a concert by pop group “Seventeen” — hurling band members off the stage and then flooding into the audience.

Two band members were killed along with its manager, while three others, including the lead singer’s wife, are missing.

Front man Riefian Fajarsyah posted a picture online of he and his wife kissing in Paris with the Eiffel Tower in the background.

“Today is your birthday — I want wish you a happy birthday in person. Come home soon, honey,” he wrote in the caption of the photo, which was posted Sunday.

Anak Krakatoa, which forms a small island in the Sunda Strait between Java and Sumatra, emerged around 1928 in the crater left by Krakatoa, whose massive eruption in 1883 killed at least 36,000 people and affected global weather patterns for years.

Oxfam and other international aid agencies said they would help in the aftermath, as local rescuers evacuated the injured and set up tarpaulins to provide shelter. – Rappler.com

MANILA, Philippines – Over 200 have died and at least a thousand people have been injured after a tsunami slammed without warning the beaches around Indonesia’s Sunda Strait.

The tsunami struck the coast of southern Sumatra and the western tip of Java on Saturday night, December 22, after a volcano known as the “child” of Krakatoa erupted, according to Indonesia’s national disaster agency.

The destructive wave left a trail of uprooted trees and debris strewn across beaches. A tangled mess of corrugated steel roofing, timber, and rubble were dragged inland at Carita beach, a popular spot for day-trippers on the west coast of Java. (READ: Shocking video shows tsunami rip through stage as band performs).

Just recently in the city of Palu on Sulawesi island a quake and tsunami in September killed thousands of people.

On December 26, 2004 a tsunami triggered by a magnitude 9.3 undersea earthquake off the coast of Sumatra in western Indonesia killed 220,000 people in countries around the Indian Ocean, including 168,000 in Indonesia. – Rappler.com

CARITA, Indonesia – Dramatic video posted online showed the tsunami that struck Indonesia smashing into an open-air concert, hurling members of a pop band from the stage and slamming into the audience.

Riefian Fajarsyah, lead vocalist of the band “Seventeen” later posted an emotional video to his 260,000 Instagram followers in which he said the group’s bassist and road manager were killed.

The band was playing Saturday night, December 22, to a large crowd in a marquee at the Tanjung Lesung Beach Resort on the western tip of Java when the wall of water hit.

On the video, fans can be seen clapping and cheering before a wave rips under the stage, sending the band members and their equipment crashing into the men and women dancing at the front.

Terrifying video shows tsunami crashing into the Indonesian band Seventeen in concert at the Tanjung Lesung Beach, Banten. The band’s bass player and road manager are dead, three other band members and the singer’s wife are missing. #Tsunami #PrayforBanten #PrayForAnyer pic.twitter.com/mLlTr0donT

— Ericssen (@EricssenWen) December 23, 2018

The shocking video then suddenly stops.

Fighting back tears and wiping his eyes, Fajarsyah said two more band members, a crew member and his wife were still missing.

“We lost our bassist Bani and our road manager Oki,” he said in the video, in which he is wearing a green shirt with the band’s Seventeen logo stitched into the chest.

“Andi (drummer) and Herman (guitar) and Ujang (crew) have not been found. Please pray so that my wife Dylan (Dylan Sahara) will be found soon.”

“The rest are thankfully safe although suffering from injuries and broken bones. Please pray so my wife Dylan, Andi and Herman and Ujang can be found soon.”

Seventeen posted earlier this week on their Instagram page that they would be playing at the Tanjung Lesung Beach Resort from December 21 to 23. – Rappler.com

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Lion Air announced on Monday, December 17, it was funding a multi-million dollar search effort using a Dutch company for the second black box and missing victims from doomed flight JT-610. 

The Boeing 737 MAX vanished from radar 13 minutes after taking off from Jakarta on October 29, crashing into waters off the north coast of Indonesia’s Java Island and killing all 189 people onboard.

Authorities called off the grim task of identifying victims of the crash last month, with only 125 people officially identified after tests on human remains that filled some 200 body bags.

Following requests from victims’ families, Lion said it had allocated 38 billion rupiah ($2.6 million) to hire a Dutch company to continue the search with its ship, the MPV Everest.

“The search operation will focus on the latest coordinates of the crash… with an operational time of 10 consecutive days in December,” the airline said in a statement.

The MPV Everest, a 142-meter long vessel with state-of-the-art remotely operated vehicles, will arrive near the crash site on Wednesday.

Bad weather had delayed its trip from the Malaysian port of Johor Baru. 

News that the hunt for the wreckage would continue with the new vessel was welcomed by Evi Syamsul Komar, whose nephew was aboard the flight.

“We have heard many promises before, we don’t know who to trust anymore, but our family is still waiting,” Komar told AFP.

Dozens of family members whose loved ones were killed in the crash protested in Jakarta last week, demanding the search continue.

They called on authorities to help retrieve the remaining 64 bodies and pay compensation.

Nearly 30 relatives of the crash victims have filed lawsuits against Boeing, alleging faults with the new model 737 MAX led to the deaths.

The preliminary crash report from Indonesia’s transport safety agency suggested that pilots struggled to control the plane’s anti-stalling system immediately before the crash.

Investigators also found that the Lion Air jet should have been grounded over a recurrent technical problem before its fatal journey, but did not pinpoint a cause of for the accident.

The plane’s cockpit voice recorder is yet to be found.

A final report is not likely to be filed until next year. – Rappler.com

JAKARTA, Indonesia – A 6.1-magnitude earthquake hit Papua, in eastern Indonesia Sunday, December 16m US seismologists said, but no tsunami warning was issued.

The quake was about 158 kilometers (98 miles) south-southwest of the province’s capital Jayapura at 6:42 pm (0942 GMT), at a depth of 61 kilometres, according to the US Geological Survey.

The quake was felt in Jayapura, but residents didn’t panic, a military spokesman said. 

“I felt it at home,” Papua’s military spokesman in Jayapura Dax Sianturi said. 

Officials are still assessing the impact of the quake, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Indonesia experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire,” where tectonic plates collide.

Last September, a 7.5-magnitude quake and a subsequent tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi island killed more than 2,200 with a thousand more declared missing.

On boxing day December 26, 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck Aceh province, causing a tsunami and killing more than 170,000 in Indonesia. – Rappler.com

WAMENA, Indonesia (UPDATED) – Indonesian security forces took up the grim task of searching for more bodies on Thursday, December 6, after they retrieved 16 corpses in the aftermath of a massacre by suspected separatist rebels in restive Papua province, the military said.

The deaths, believed to be of construction workers, mark the deadliest bout of violence in years to hit a region wracked by a low-level independence insurgency.

The dead were being sent to the city of Timika from the remote district of Nduga, a mountainous region where the attack happened Sunday, said local military commander Binsar Sianipar.

The dead have not yet been publicly identified and the military did not supply details about how they were killed, saying autopsies would be conducted.

An earlier eyewitness account supplied by the military detailed the killing of at least 19 people, including in execution style shootings or having their throat slit.

Previous local media reports put the number of dead between 24 and 31.

On Thursday, the military warned that it was not yet clear whether all the dead worked for a state-owned contractor that has been building bridges and roads as part of efforts to boost infrastructure in the impoverished region.

Another 20 people – including 5 employees of the contractor – have been evacuated from the area, but not all the company workers have been accounted for yet.

Some in Papua view Indonesia as a colonial occupier and its building work as a way to exert more control over a region that shares a border with Papua New Guinea, an independent nation.

One soldier was killed and two were wounded earlier this week when they were sent to the remote site to investigate reports about the killings, according to authorities.

On Wednesday, the military supplied an account from one survivor identified by his initials “JA” who claimed about 50 rebels entered the workers’ camp on Saturday and led them away with their hands tied behind their backs.

The following day, the rebels shot dead a group of workers, while some tried to escape, the account said.

The attackers allegedly recaptured half a dozen workers and slit their throats, according to the witness, who said at least 19 employees had been killed in all.

A Facebook account purportedly run by the National Liberation Army of West Papua (TPNPB) said the armed group had killed 24 workers on the orders of regional commander Ekianus Kogoya.

Indonesia routinely blames separatists for violence in Papua and conflicting accounts are common.

This weekend, about 500 activists – including an Australian – were arrested in a nationwide police crackdown that coincided with rallies on December 1, a date many Papuans consider their anniversary of independence from Dutch colonialists.

Papua declared itself independent on that date in 1961, but neighbouring Indonesia took control of the resource-rich region two years later on the condition it hold an independence referendum.

Jakarta officially annexed Papua in 1969 with a UN-backed vote, widely seen as a sham. – Rappler.com

WAMENA, Indonesia – Indonesian soldiers hunted Wednesday, December 5, for rebels suspected of killing as many as 24 construction workers  in restive Papua province, as an eyewitness account supplied by the military described a grisly mass execution.

The survivor’s account detailed the killing of at least 19 people, which if confirmed would mark the deadliest bout of violence in years to hit a region wracked by a low-level independence insurgency.

A Facebook account purportedly run by the National Liberation Army of West Papua (TPNPB) said the armed group had killed 24 workers on the orders of regional commander Ekianus Kogoya.

Authorities have yet to confirm how many were killed in the weekend attack.

On Wednesday, some 150 military personnel were focusing their operation at Nduga, a remote mountainous region where a state-owned contractor has been building bridges and roads as part of efforts to boost infrastructure.

Many Papuans view Indonesia as a colonial occupier and its building work as a way to exert more control over an impoverished region that shares a border with Papua New Guinea, an independent nation.

Indonesian president Joko Widodo said Wednesday he backed the hunt for those behind what he described as the “alleged assault”.

“I have ordered the chiefs of the military and national police to chase and arrest all the perpetrators of these barbaric and inhumane acts,” he told reporters in Jakarta.

Police and military teams sent to the area on Monday, December 3, came under rebel gunfire with one soldier killed and another wounded in the firefight, authorities have said.

Four workers – including 3 suffering gunshot wounds – were among a dozen civilians who have been evacuated from the area so far.

On Wednesday, the military supplied an account from one survivor identified by his initials “JA” who claimed about 50 rebels entered the workers’ camp on Saturday, December 1, and led them away with their hands tied behind their backs.

The following day, the rebels shot dead a group of workers, while some tried to escape, the account said.

The attackers allegedly recaptured 6 workers and slit their throats, according to the uninjured witness, who said at least 19 employees had been killed in all.

Rights abuses

Previous local media reports pegged the number of dead between 24 and 31.

AFP has confirmed with relatives that the eyewitness worked for the contractor in the area where the killings allegedly took place, but his account of a massacre could not be independently verified.

Indonesia routinely blames separatists for violence in Papua and foreign media need permission to report there so obtaining reliable information is difficult.

The military has long been accused of rights abuses against Papua’s ethnic Melanesian population including extrajudicial killings of activists and peaceful protestors.

This weekend, about 500 activists – including an Australian – were arrested in a nationwide police crackdown that coincided with rallies on December 1, a date many Papuans consider their anniversary of independence from Dutch colonialists.

Papua declared itself an independent nation on that date in 1961, but neighboring Indonesia took control of the resource-rich region by force two years later. It officially annexed Papua in 1969 with a UN-backed vote, widely seen as a sham.

Papua experienced several spasms of violence this summer including the killing of 3 local people, allegedly by rebels.

But much of the past violence has involved skirmishes between rebels and Indonesian security forces.

It is unclear how the rebels are funded, but some of their arms flow in illegally from across the border in Papua New Guinea while others are snatched from Indonesian military personnel, according to authorities.

In August, Pole Jakub Skrzypski was arrested in Papua over an alleged arms deal involving separatists and he could face life in prison if convicted. His trial date has not yet been set. – Rappler.com