Jakarta – Bloody rioting among rival mobs of Christians and Muslims flared for a third straight day Thursday on a remote island in eastern Indonesia. At least 22 people were killed, police said.
They feared the death toll could rise as religious strife intensifies on Ambon Island, 2,300 kilometers northeast of the capital, Jakarta.
Canberra – Nobel Peace prize winner Jose Ramos Horta believes the release of classified documents on East Timor will reveal Australian complicity in Indonesian atrocities.
The East Timorese activist said full disclosure of government records on East Timor during the 1970s would also help Australia avoid similar mistakes in the future.
Louise Williams, Jakarta – Indonesia's armed forces were scrambling to contain a backlash over the torture and beating deaths of five men in military custody last week, as details emerged today of the lynching by civilians of another soldier in the troubled northern province of Aceh.
Don Greenlees, Jakarta – Indonesia is paving the way to transfer Xanana Gusmao out of Jakarta's Cipinang jail and place him under house arrest, in a significant concession to international demands the East Timorese resistence leader be immediately freed.
David Liebhold, lhokseumawe – On the northwestern tip of Indonesia, the proud people of Aceh have been dreaming of independence for nearly 100 years. Last week they got tired of waiting.
Jakarta – The South Jakarta district court Monday ruled that a student activist, arrested on suspicion of abducting a police intelligence officer should be released as his arrest did not follow legal procedures.
Jakarta – The family members of former Indonesian Communist Party – PKI – members could not only vote or be elected but could also form a political party providing they did not deviate from the national ideology, Pancasila.
Jakarta – A man who was tortured by soldiers while under detention in the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh has died in hospital, bringing the death toll from the incident to five, a hospital employee said Monday.
Jakarta – Indonesian police admitted Monday they "acted too hastily" in opening fire on a group in the troubled province of Aceh, leaving at least four people injured.
Jakarta – An Indonesian army major being court martialed for the torture of Aceh villagers during which four died faces four years in jail and dismissal from the army, the military police said Sunday.
The security forces have yet again behaved brutally towards Acehnese people. The incident occured at around 1.30am on Sunday 17 January in front of the police station in Blang Jereun, Lhkosukon, North Aceh, when members of the police force opened fire on a group of people who were taking a casualty of a traffic accident to hospital.
Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Watching the Indonesian military is much like watching the Soviet Kremlin of yesteryear. Obscure generals swapping positions within a labyrinthine armed forces (ABRI) bureaucracy are perennial affairs. But Indonesia watchers find it fascinating, and military chief General Wiranto obliged earlier this month by announcing a revamp of his senior command.
Andrew Gilligan – The Indonesian army has admitted for the first time that it tortures people "sometimes", during an investigative "sting" by a television stand-up comedian.
Greg Earl, Jakarta – The Indonesian Government has warned domestic critics it would be courting disaster to back away from a 300 trillion rupiah ($50 billion) bank recapitalisation program which is about to begin.
Jakarta – Indonesian police have shot 41 highway robbers and arrested 362 others along the northern Java island coast as part of a drive to safeguard travelling for millions of people during the Moslem Eid-el-Fitr celebrations.
Clashes among residents from several villages in the district of Sabbang in LUWU regency which have killed at least three people and injured dozens more continued on Thursday.
Jakarta – The country's crippled rupiah tumbled again on Friday to hit an intraday low of 9,300 against the U.S. dollar as stock prices plunged 1.5 percent for the third consecutive day.
Don Greenlees, Jakarta – Indonesia is angry and the East Timorese are cynical. As Don Greenlees reports, the Howard Government's policy switch on Timor always ran the risk of pleasing no one
Louise Williams, Jakarta – "Indonesia is not so fragile," scoffed a former Indonesian ambassador in response to Canberra's claim that an independent East Timor would empower other separatist movements and threaten Indonesia's disintegration.
Hundreds of students demonstrated outside the Aceh regional assembly – DPRD – calling for a referendum expressing their deep disappointment with the central government's failure to call human rights violators in Aceh to account.
Jakarta – Several former high-ranking military and government officers, staunchly critical to the Habibie government, are set to officially launch a new political party in Jakarta today.
Jakarta – East Timor Governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares stressed that he would not resign, despite growing calls for his resignation on the part of prominent local public figures who rallied around the local House of representatives yesterday.
Jakarta – The total number of Indonesian now living in poverty has reached 130 million, a sharp increase from 80 million in mid-last year, an official report said Friday. Two years ago, the number of the poor in the crisis-ridden Indonesia was only 20 million.
Jakarta – Some 25,000 police will be deployed in the Indonesian capital to keep order during the Moslem Eid-el-Fitr holiday next week, a report said Thursday.
"We are deploying 25,000 personnel to safeguard security in the capital area druing Lebaran (Eid-el-Fitr)," Jakarta police chief Major General Nugroho Jayusman said, according to the Media Indonesia daily.
Maputo, Jan 14 (Lusa) - Mari Alkatiri, first vice-president of Fretilin, told Lusa in Maputo on Wednesday that while being "ambiguous" Australia's new policy towards East Timor amounted to a "substantial change." Alkatiri made the statement in reaction to the Australian government's announcement earlier this week that it was now supporting East Timor's right of self-determination as
Andrew Marshall, Jakarta – The Indonesian rupiah dropped more than five percent against the dollar on Wednesday on regional weakness, fears of fresh domestic unrest and wrangling over the new budget.
Jakarta – At least 39,800 hectares of plantations were looted during 1998, causing an estimated material loss of around Rp 196 billion (about US$26 million), a senior official of the Ministry of Forestry and Plantations has said.
Jakarta – Indonesia could lose US$5 billion in foreign investment due to political and security problems, Investment Minister Hamzah Haz was quoted as saying yesterday.
It's late on Saturday afternoon, but the man who runs the fourth-largest nation on earth isn't anticipating any weekend relaxation. I have the mentality of a bicycle, says President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie of Indonesia. If I stop, I fall.
Bandung – West Java Police Chief Major General Chairuddin yesterday said his office would deploy sharpshooters along coastal roads to protect travelers during the post-Ramadhan festivities of Idul Fitri.
Dozens of snipers will assist hundreds of existing security forces dressed to save millions of motorists from possible attacks, looting and theft, he said.
Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – Indonesia's military said on Wednesday it would court-martial 27 soldiers accused of torturing to death civilians in the restive province of Aceh.
Lincoln Wright – Risking possible friction with Jakarta, the Labor Party has backed a policy of funding an autonomous or independent East Timor using Indonesia's share of the oil and gas revenue from the Timor Gap.
Jakarta – The Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI), currently experiencing its lowest level of popularity, is likely to get up to 40 seats in the House of Representatives, according to the latest deliberations of new political bills.
Jakarta – "Deep mistrust" among factions and government representatives has been blamed for the House of Representatives' failure on Tuesday to notch up any progress in its deliberation of the political role of the country's 4.1 million public servants.
Jakarta – A professor at the state-run University of Indonesia (UI) Wednesday took off his blue government-issue shirt at a campus here to symbolize the teaching staff's break from the ruling Golkar party.
Jakarta – A controversial Indonesian minister has broken ranks with the ruling Golkar party ahead of general elections in June, raising speculation he has his own political ambitions, sources and reports said Wednesday.
Jakarta – In one of Indonesia's first student protests of 1999, a small group of activists demonstrated Thursday against the arrests of two students on kidnapping charges.
Some 30 students gathered outside the South Jakarta District Court, where the two suspects face trial for allegedly abducting and torturing a plainclothes policeman at a Nov. 27 rally.
[The following is a summary translation of two reports from Siar news service posted by Down To Earth.]
Jakarta – The Jordanian ambassador yesterday said former president Soeharto's reviled son-in-law, Prabowo Subianto, who is suspected of engineering a series of kidnappings and mass riots, had never applied for citizenship in his country.
Jakarta – The ruling Golkar party's insistence that civil servants be allowed to join political parties is caused by a "sinking ship syndrome", because it sees the bureaucracy as its only lifeboat, says a political analyst.
Serambi-Jakarta – Kontras, the Commission for Missing Persons and to Combat Violence, believes that ABRI, the armed forces, must take responsibility for the assault on detainees during which four persons died. The incident must be thoroughly investigated, said Munir, the director of Kontras in a press conference in Jakarta.
Vaudine England, Jakarta – The nation's greatest living writer, imprisoned by former president Suharto, is trying to reclaim the house taken from him 33 years ago. So far, he is having little luck.
"It feels like just more spite and revenge against me," said Pramoedya Ananta Toer from the house in which he has spent years under house arrest.
Louise Williams, Jakarta – The Indonesian military will today begin sending more than 100 refugees camped in the East Timorese capital of Dili, who fled ongoing security operations around their villages, back to their homes.
Jakarta – Some 3,000 workers at a tile factory in Bekasi, east of Jakarta, held a massive protest yesterday to press their demands for Idul Fitri bonus payouts. The workers also demanded that members of the firm's internal cooperative be sacked, because they always "squandered" the obligatory contributions of the staff.
Jakarta – Two activists kidnapped in the last months of the Suharto regime Tuesday refused to testify about their ordeal at the court martial of 11 soldiers charged with the abduction of scores of political campaigners.
But a third witness, politician Haryanto Taslam of the Indonesian Democracy Party of opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri, agreed to give his testimony.
Atika Shubert, Lhokseumawe – Muhammad, a 20-year old villager near the town of Lhokseumawe, was shot in the leg last week during the Indonesian military's latest campaign to quell separatist ambitions here in the restive province of Aceh. His grandfather, M.
Jakarta – Women activists and scholars, demanding a greater say in politics, are urging that at least 30 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives be allotted to women legislators.
Jakarta – Student movement groups have vowed to take to the streets of the capital again shortly after the Idul Fitri holidays to voice their strong objections to this year's planned general election, their leaders said Monday.
Comment by Hamish Mcdonald – Could Alexander Downer be playing a deep double game with the Indonesians? Could he be luring them into agreeing to an act of self-determination by encouraging their hopes that it will result in some autonomy formula without East Timor leaving Indonesian hands?
Sydney – The Australian government announced Tuesday it will press Indonesia to grant East Timor an act of self-determination in a policy shift which East Timorese activists immediately said does not go far enough.