Slums in Jakarta Indonesia 1.jpg

The Dutch began to colonize Indonesia in the early 17th century; the islands were occupied by Japan from 1942 to 1945. Indonesia declared its independence after Japan's surrender, but it required four years of intermittent negotiations, recurring hostilities, and UN mediation before the Netherlands agreed to relinquish its colony. Indonesia is the world's largest archipelagic state and home to the world's largest Muslim population. Current issues include: alleviating poverty, preventing terrorism, consolidating democracy after four decades of authoritarianism, implementing financial sector reforms, stemming corruption, holding the military and police accountable for human rights violations, and controlling avian influenza. In 2005, Indonesia reached a historic peace agreement with armed separatists in Aceh, which led to democratic elections in December 2006. Indonesia continues to face a low intensity separatist movement in Papua.

Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population - approx 206 million - but is largely a moderate country. Nonetheless, conservative and fundamentalist ideology is on the rise and it is a growing concern as people become unhappy with a government that is nominally democratic but sustained by corruption and a small group of powerful insiders. An Indonesian government official said: "It seems counterintuitive for us to be worried about Indonesia's small bands of religious radicals in a country of tens of millions of moderates. But there is a battle for the soul of our religion going on here, and the voices that ring loudest these days are the extremists."