Indonesia is an intricate country of over twenty-six provinces in South-East Asia comprising thousands of islands of various sizes and a wide variety of ethnic groups. It contains some three hundred language groups and dozens of religions, and while the majority of its 212 million people practice Islam, Indonesia actually has six official religions.

Indonesia won independence from the Dutch in 1949, and has since faced several internal problems, largely due to the variety and character of its makeup. It's outermost extremities have been particularly vulnerable to rebellion and revolt, straining the capacity of the Indonesian military and raising concerns in the international community that the central government in Jakarta sometimes has difficulties maintaining its territorial integrity.

Recent and long-standing conflict in these particular regions led to invitations for a PBI presence by local humanitarian, non-governmental groups and Komnas HAM (National Human Rights Commission).

Many individuals and organizations work for peace and humanitarian assistance within areas of conflict around the world. These individuals and groups are routinely threatened and are often kidnapped, killed or simply disappear. The situation in Indonesia provides a perfect scenario for Peace Brigades International and our particular methods of non-partisan protective accompaniment (we do not get involved in the politics of independence and resource distribution).

The Wamena sub-team carries out peace building activities and provides limited protective services, and assess the security situation and the need for PBI activities in the area.The Jayapura sub-team continues to maintain a PBI protective presence in the region; assesses the need for and logistics of providing PBI services in areas outside of Jayapura, including Manokwari and Merauke.

Jakarta remains the hub of PBI networking for all of our sub-teams in Indonesia. In addition to coordination, high-level and grassroots networking, this sub-team also provides limited protective accompaniment.