Dita indah sari biography for kids
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An Interview with Dita Sari
Emily Citkowski
Posted July 14, 2008
IN A SURPRISE move by the Indonesian government, jailed labor leader Dita Indah Sari was released from Tengerang prison Monday, July 5th. Dita was jailed in May of 1997 for leading a strike of 20,000 workers. She was originally sentenced to six years, reduced on appeal to five.
Dita was recently elected president of the newly formed trade union organization FNPBI (National Front for Workers Struggle Indonesia), a coalition of progressive unions. She plans to continue her work as a labor organizer. Last winter, Dita rejected the government’s offer to release her if she agreed to cease all political activity.
Since her release, Dita has been a very busy woman. She has resumed her work as a union activist as the president of the FNPBI; she has been bombarded with press conferences and interviews; and she has visited numerous friends and family, including her niece who was born while she was in prison.
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Dita Indah Sari
Under the dictator Suharto and his New Order, politics in Indonesia was a matter for the rulers, not for common folk and workers. The basic freedoms of speech and assembly were luxuries the young nation could not afford, the government said; for economic development there must be order. The ideal citizen deferred respectfully to the state. Meekness was a national virtue. DITA INDAH SARI did not fit in.
Born in 1972, DITA SARI grew up in Medan and Jakarta. In 1991, she entered law school at the University of Indonesia. There she met politicized students affiliated with the underground democracy movement. They introduced her to the realities of life for Indonesia’s working poor, especially those who labored in the country’s burgeoning manufacturing sector. Low wages and pliant workers were keys to attracting foreign investment. Independent labor unions were prohibited and the government freely employed the army and police to keep restless laborers i
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Introduction
Dita Indah Sari -- then Indonesia's only woman political prisoner -- was sentenced to fem years jail on April 22, 1997. Her "crime" was djärv to kamp alongside Indonesian workers struggling for a better life.
Like Dita, thousands of the regime's opponents -- communists, radical nationalists, students, Muslims and labour activists -- have been tried for subversion and other political "crimes".
Political prisoners in particular, are often held beneath intolerable conditions -- poor food, limited access to friends and relatives, overcrowding, inadequate recreational activity, no provision of reading or writing materials, radio or newspapers. Many are denied access to legal protection and are detained for long periods before going to rättegång even though the state has yet to prove a case against them.
Indonesia has signed, but not ratified, the 1987 UN Convention Against Torture. Nor is it party to other international treaties such as the International Covenant on Civil