Indonesian authorities, facing international pressure, said they will allow the United Nations refugee agency access to about 400 Burmese Muslims who landed on the country's shores over the past month to help verify their claims of persecution. The decision announced Feb. 6 comes days after a boat carrying nearly 200 men belonging to Burma's Rohingya minority was discovered off Sumatra. Another boat, also with about 200 Rohingya aboard, was discovered in early January.

Some 100 Islamist protesters in Indonesia rallied outside the country's only synagogue Jan. 7, demanding its closure and expulsion of the Jewish community in response to Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip. Protesters marched to the synagogue's gates chanting, "Go to hell, Israel!" The only Jewish religious site in the world's most populous Muslim state—which has no rabbi and only a few followers—closed its doors as the march approached and protesters burned an Israeli flag.

From the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN), Dec. 5:

ETAN Opposes Adm. Blair as Director of National Intelligence
"President-elect Barack Obama's rumored selection of Admiral Dennis C. Blair for Director of National Intelligence is unacceptable," the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) said today. "During his years as Pacific Commander, Blair actively worked to reinstate military assistance and deepen ties to Indonesia's military despite its ongoing human rights violations in East Timor and consistent record of impunity," said John M. Miller, National Coordinator of ETAN.

Sondhi Limthongkul, the media mogul who heads Thailand's anti-government People's Alliance for Democracy, warned that he's ready to call more protests despite the resignation of Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat after a court order to dissolve his governing party. "The PAD will return if another proxy government is formed or anyone tries to amend the constitution or the law to whitewash some politicians or to subdue the monarch's authority," Sondhi told cheering supporters as the protest movement decamped from Bangkok's airport which it had occupied for several days. (LAT, Dec. 3)

Thousands of protesters surrounded Thailand's parliament building early Nov. 24, vowing a "final battle" to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Somchai Wongsawat. Protesters say they will prevent MPs from discussing constitutional amendments they oppose that would rehabilitate members of the outlawed Thai Rak Thai party who were banned from holding office.

Presumed Islamist insurgents detonated two bombs that killed one and left 71 wounded in Narathiwat province of Thailand's restive south Nov. 4, and burned down a school the following day. Nobody was injured in the arson attack, but the two-story schoolhouse was destroyed. More than 80 Buddhist teachers have been killed in southern Thailand since an Islamist insurgency broke out in 2004.

At least five suspects linked to regional Islamist groups were arrested in raids around Jakarta, local authorities said Oct. 22. Weapons, bomb-making instructions and chemicals were reportedly found at one house raided near a state-owned oil storage center, prompting police to say the suspects may have planned to attack it. One was identified as Rusli Mardani, a member of the local terror network Mujahedeen Kompak. "He is a big fish, one of the people who has stirred up a lot of communal violence," said Sidney Jones of the International Crisis Group in Jakarta. (NYT, Oct. 23)

Thai and Cambodian troops exchanged rocket and rifle fire for about an hour Oct. 15 in a border skirmish over claims to the 900-year-old mountaintop temple known to Cambodians as Preah Vihear and to Thais as Khao Phra Viharn. At least two Cambodian soldiers were killed, Cambodia's Foreign Minister Hor Namhong said. Several hundred soldiers from both sides have faced each other at the border since July, when UNESCO approved Cambodia's request to have the temple named a World Heritage site.