Golkar deputy chairman Marzuki Darusman talks to Yang Razali Kassim about the many politically volatile issues facing Indonesia today

Q: The spate of violence in Indonesia has taken a baffling turn. The brutalities are now not only between ethnic but also religious, even tribal, groups. How does one make sense of all this?

Brian Woodley, Dili – East Timor's main pro-Indonesian group, which claims to run the militias behind a campaign of terror across the province, demanded yesterday the UN-sponsored referendum on August 8 be abandoned.

The call came after Indonesian President B.J. Habibie announced the formation of a team of ministers to oversee the UN-monitored poll in East Timor.

Sander Thoenes, Jakarta – Indonesia's opposition party has yet to reveal its party programme for next month's general election but the supporters of Megawati Sukarnoputri have indicated that they favour restrictions on foreign investors and free trade.

Andreas Harsono, Jakarta – It is still more than six months until Indonesia will choose a new president, but the most likely candidates are already out in force in a display of public politicking that hasn't been seen for a generation.

Catholic leaders march on day of peace in East Timorese capital. Residents of East Timor's capital Dili witnessed a rare display of peace today ... as hundreds of Catholic nuns, priests and Nobel Laureate, Bishop Carlos Belo marched through the city.

Jakarta – Following the military's revelation that at least 10 people were killed in recent clashes among party supporters, leaders of the 48 political parties contesting the June 7 general election agreed on Tuesday to stop all precampaign activities.

Jakarta – Thousands of students Wednesday peacefully marked the first anniversary of the shooting of their peers which triggered days of rioting and helped pressure former president Suharto to resign, as security was tightened in the capital in anticipation of street demonstrations.

Kafil Yamin, Bandung – Asih is only in her 40s, but she is already a grandmother four times over. She married at 12 and had three children by the time she turned 15. When she was 27, she saw her eldest daughter, Atikah, get married. Atikah was all of 14.

With less than four weeks left to the June 7 general election, signs are growing that the polls – the most crucial this country has held in its 54-year existence – will not quite be as free and fair as the government promised they would be.

The Deputy Head of the Provincial Government in Aceh, Yusri Hadjerat (who belongs to the ABRI faction in local government) told students and the people to "kill" the provocateurs who have been causing unrest. "If you meet with a provocateur, whether they belong to GAM or to the military or whoever they may be, they must be killed," emphasised Yusri in Banda Aceh on Tuesday 11/5.

Mark Dodd, Dili – The guns of the East Timorese armed resistance would remain silent despite desperate attempts to provoke them by pro-Indonesian militias and their Indonesian army allies, a senior pro-independence official said yesterday.

Lhokseumawe – Five grenade blasts Tuesday rocked the headquarters of the air defence battalion in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province but there were no casualties, the military said.

The early morning attack on the base in this major city in Sumatra island came a week after soldiers, including some from the base, opened fire at civilians leaving at least 41 civilians dead.

K. Basrie, Banda Aceh – Victims and witnesses of the May 3 shooting at Krueng Geukueh in North Aceh asserted over the weekend that the military has lied to the world about the incident, in which at least 41 people, including children and women, were killed.

Many Indonesians, both in the Christian minority and the Moslem majority, are uncomfortable with the sudden prominence of Islam in politics. Sander Thoenes reports on disquiet over exploitation of religion in the election campaign

Canberra – The Australian government will open a consulate-general office in East Timor in order to monitor the changes occurring in the Indonesian province.

AusAID, the government's aid body, will also open an office in Dili, according to an Australian government statement Tuesday.

Dili – As a consequence of continuing clashes between pro-independence and pro-integration groups, the Dili-based Suara Timor Timur has again been forced to cease publication.

Jakarta – Activists have deplored the government's recent rejection of a United Nations (UN) report on violence against women in Indonesia, on the grounds that its content was akin to viewpoints held by non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Jakarta – Indonesian President B.J. Habibie said on Monday he was appointing Justice Minister Muladi to the powerful post of state secretary after the resignation of Akbar Tandjung, the chairman of the ruling Golkar party.

"The state secretary's post will be taken over by Minister of Justice Muladi because he knows a lot about the law," Habibie told reporters.

Jakarta – Fresh violence broke out in the eastern Indonesian islands of Maluku as villagers from three villages clashed on the weekend, leaving 14 houses burned, a report said here Monday.

Maluku province spokesman Major Philipe Jekriel said the clashes broke out on Saturday and Sunday in Ambon, the Antara news agency said.

Jakarta – Party functions held by the ruling Golkar across Java over the weekend were met with hostile receptions, and at one site led to an emergency rescue of chairman Akbar Tandjung.

A helicopter flew Akbar and his wife from Jember to the neighboring East Java town of Lumajang on Sunday, after Golkar supporters were ambushed by opposition parties.

Jakarta – Indonesia's ruling party Golkar may be barred from campaigning for the June 7 elections after charges that it had used money from an aid programme for its own political gains, a newspaper reported on Monday.

To the East Timorese people, the members of the CNRT To all those in a position of leadership, in Dili, especially Youth of Loriko Aswain.

Philip Shenon, Washington – The Clinton administration has decided to offer riot-control training to the Indonesian police in preparation for next month's national elections despite concerns from human rights groups over the abysmal human rights record of the police there, administration officials say.

Dili – New violence flared between pro-and anti-Indonesia factions in the East Timor capital Sunday, with shots fired and attacks on foreign journalists.

As dusk fell in town, gunfire had left at least one man dead and another wounded, and small fires of tyres and wood were burning in the middle of downtown streets.

Sydney – The Indonesian military is not abiding by its promise to stay neutral in the run up the the August ballot in which 800,000 East Timorese will vote whether to accept limited autonomy or become a free country, Australian officials said Saturday.

Vaudine England, Lhokseumawe – The day after special services were held in mosques around Aceh to commemorate the dead from Monday's massacre, four Hercules aircraft brought more than 400 special police officers to Lhokseumawe in Aceh province.

Dili – The United Nations' top police officer arrived in troubled East Timor Saturday, saying he had little time to set up crucial security arrangements for an Aug. 8 ballot on the future of the crisis-wracked territory.

Jakarta – President B.J. Habibie reiterated on Thursday his warning of a communist threat, Marhaenism and socialism – which some people dub "Komas".

In a meeting with a group of youths at Merdeka Palace, Habibie said the ideologies remained a threat to the nation, according to State Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Agung Laksono.

Anthony Goodman, United Nations – The UN Security Council unanimously endorsed Friday agreements that will enable the people of East Timor, a former Portuguese colony that Indonesia annexed in 1976, to decide their own future in an Aug. 8 vote.

John McBeth, Jakarta – While Indonesian students and other activists were expending their considerable energies trying to get rid of President B.J. Habibie and drag his predecessor to court, a funny thing happened on the way to the forum. Politicians quietly chipped away at reform initiatives that would have reshaped Indonesia's political landscape.

Krueng Geukueh – An army massacre of unarmed protesters in Indonesia's Aceh province may breathe new life into the restive territory's independence movement, diplomats and residents said on Thursday.

Vaudine England, Banda Aceh – Contrary to official claims yesterday that the death toll in Monday's massacre in the Aceh province town of Lhokseumawe was 31, human rights groups said the toll was at least 63 and could easily reach 100.

Jakarta – More than 60,000 police and troops will be deployed to safeguard the Indonesian capital when election campaigning starts this month, a report said here thursday.

Dili – Hundreds of East Timorese students in Dili demonstrated peacefully Thursday, for the third day in a row, waving banners and chanting slogans in favor of an independent East Timor.

The early morning rally was the first reaction in the East Timor capital to news that the UN-brokered East Timor plebiscite accord had been signed in New York by Portugal and Indonesia.

For twenty-three years, the people of East Timor have awaited this agreement which acknowledges their right to self-determination.

The agreement signed on May 5th in New York attests to the fact that the immeasurable sacrifices of the East Timorese people throughout this long period of oppression have not been in vain.

New York – The people of East Timor will be asked to to choose between two questions in the territory's August 8 plebiscite.

Jakarta – Student groups from several universities disclosed on Tuesday that they plan to mobilize thousands of students on May 12 to join a mammoth rally for the first anniversary of the Trisakti University shooting incident in which four students died.

Dan Murphy, Jakarta – Lucrative deals no longer flow to former President Suharto's children and some of his best-known cronies. But for most of Indonesia's elite, the tight links between business and politics remain intact.

Lhokseumawe – A regional military commander in troubled Aceh province has defended the army's shooting of protesters, as officials said Wednesday the death toll had risen to 31.

Colonel Johny Wahab was quoted by the Kompas daily Wednesday as saying the protestors action threatened the entire town of Lhokseumawe, the main town in the North Aceh district on Sumatra island.

Jakarta – The recent violence in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province may make it impossible for people there to take part in the June 7 elections, the head of the country's election commission was quoted Wednesday as saying.

Commission head Rudini said his men would visit Aceh on Thursday to determine if ballotting was possible, the Jakarta Post said.

Last Wednesday, 5 May, the autonomy proposal of Indonesia for East Timor was signed in Jakarta and Lissabon. In three months time, the East Timorese will cast their votes in a UN-supervised 'direct ballot' whether to accept or reject that proposal.

[The following is the text of the "Agreement between the Republic of Indonesia and the Portuguese Republic on the question of East Timor" signed on May 5, 1999.]

The Governments of Indonesia and Portugal,

[FORTILOS received the following information today from Yayasan HAK, Dili, Timor Lorosae.]

Jakarta – President B.J. Habibie is concerned over clashes involving Muslim sympathizers of political parties.

New York – The two main East Timor opposition parties, FRETILIN and the UDT (Timorese Democratic Union), want the UN to guarantee that their leaders resident abroad will be allowed to return to the territory before the August 8 plebiscite on autonomy or statehood.

Jakarta – Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) Marzuki Darusman has said the defiance of East Timor's pro-integration militias against any United Nations (UN) presence in the territory signifies the armed forces (TNI)'s determination not to let East Timor achieve independence.

Mark Dodd, Dili – Pro-Indonesian paramilitary groups formed and in some cases armed by the Indonesian military are continuing their campaign of violence and intimidation only days away from the signing of a United Nations-brokered agreement for a ballot on self-determination for East Timor.

The Medan-based daily, Waspada in its Tuesday May 4 edition has confirmed that the number shot dead in the massacre in North Aceh on Monday 3 May is 23 and says that 101 are wounded.

Jeremy Wagstaff, Soreang – This country has endured wrenching change in the past year. Violence is so commonplace that killings of fewer than 50 people often go unreported. Thieves steal hubcaps from cars stopped at red lights.

Jakarta – Indonesian Justice Minister Muladi said Monday he believed jailed East Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao should be released so he can make a greater contribution to peace efforts in the troubled territory.