Banda Aceh – A court here on Saturday sentenced a separatist rebel to 11 years in prison for his part in a long-running independence battle in the oil and gas-rich province of Aceh.

Lhokseumawe – Government troops gunned down 10 suspected rebels and three civilians were found dead in the latest violence in Indonesia's war-torn Aceh province, a local military spokesman said Friday.

An international rights group called for Indonesia to ban officers accused of past abuses from involvement with the war against separatist rebels in Aceh province.

Shawn Donnan, Jakarta – An international human rights watchdog on Wednesday identified at least six senior Indonesian military figures with histories of "gross" human rights violations who are now playing key roles in Jakarta's five-month-old offensive against separatists in Aceh.

Tiarma Siboro and Teuku Agam Muzakir, Jakarta/Lhokseumawe – The government dropped on Tuesday the clearest hint of its intention to extend the martial law now in effect in Aceh, saying that security must be maintained in the province to enable the Acehnese to vote in next year's elections.

Banda Aceh – At least five suspected members of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) were killed in the country's restive province of Aceh on Tuesday, the Indonesian Military (TNI) said.

The rebels were killed in separate gunfights in the districts of Bireuen, Pidie, and North Aceh, TNI spokesman Ahmad Yani Basuki said in Lhokseumawe on Wednesday.

Indonesia's top security official, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has listed terrorism and seperatist wars in the provinces of Aceh and Papua as the major security threats facing his country. And Mr Yudhoyono, who is Co-ordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs, says fighting separatist wars particularily in Aceh, is draining his country's struggling economy.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) claimed on Sunday that it had killed another leader of Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Aceh province.

Military operations spokesman Lt. Col. Ahmad Yani Basuki said government troops killed Nurdin, whose nom du guerre was Saddam Hussein, during a firefight at Langkahan in North Aceh district on Saturday.

Banda Aceh – The wheels of government in many sub-districts and villages in the province of Aceh are still not functioning properly. Of the 227 sub-districts in the province, only 151 are functioning while 76 others have been declared to not be functioning properly.

Jakarta – The Aceh Ad Hoc Team from the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) has asked the government to immediately reduce the security status in Aceh from a military emergency to one of civil order. If the military emergency continues the political aspirations of the Acehnese people will be able to be expressed during the 2004 general elections.

Nani Farida, Banda Aceh – An Aceh woman activist denied on Thursday the treason charge leveled against her, saying she had campaigned for a referendum as part of efforts to settle the prolonged conflict in the province.

"A referendum is demanded by the Acehnese to end the conflict," Cut Nurasyikin told the Banda Aceh District Court.

Banda Aceh – A court martial in Aceh province on Friday cleared 12 soldiers of beating villagers during a hunt for separatist rebels in the province.

The twelve were on trial for assaulting about 50 residents at two villages in North Aceh's Dewantara area in late August after they failed to give information on the whereabouts of Free AcehMovement (GAM) rebels.

Amid the ongoing military operation to quell the armed rebellion in Aceh, it is very difficult to meet with GAM leaders. Ishak Daud, GAM Commander for East Aceh gave an exclusive interview to The Jakarta Post's Tiarma Siboro at his base camp in an undisclosed area in the province recently.

Dulhadi, Jakarta – A class action suit which was launched by the People's Lawyers Union (Serikat Pengacara Rakyat, SPR) against President Megawati Sukarnoputri, TNI [armed forces] chief General Endriartono Sutarto and the chairperson of the People's Representative Assembly (DPR), Akbar Tandjung, over the military emergency in Nangroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD), was rejected by a panel of

Indonesia's chief security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that separatist rebels in troubled Aceh province are the country's greatest threat, well ahead of terrorists. "Our top national security priority is fighting armed separatisms in Indonesia and here the most serious military threats came from the armed rebels in Aceh," he told a conference in Canberra Thursday.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – The Medan district court is scheduled to begin the trial next week in Medan of 11 alleged members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) on charges of planting bombs in three separate locations in Medan last year and early this year.

Jakarta – Aceh-Papua Solidarity (Solidaritas Aceh-Papua, SAP) – which is made up of a number of non-government organisations (NGOs) – has called on the government not to extend the military emergency in Aceh. In order to resolve the conflict, SAP is calling for a return to dialogue.

Tiarma Siboro, Surabaya – President Megawati Soekarnoputri pledged on Sunday to resolve the conflict in Aceh as quickly, wisely, and justly as possible but fell short of divulging any time frame or new ways of thinking about ending the rebellion there.

Banda Aceh – Eight separatist rebels and three civilians have been killed in Aceh province where an anti-rebel campaign is in its fifth month, the Indonesian military said Friday.

Indonesia's military campaign to crush separatist rebels in Aceh province, now in its fifth month, has created a humanitarian crisis, a human rights group said in a report.

Tiarma Siboro, Surabaya – Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto called on soldiers on Thursday to uphold discipline as the armed forces were taking measures to restore their battered image.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The government pledged on Thursday to take stern measures against officials who misused humanitarian aid allocated by the state for Aceh but said the amount of losses was relatively small.

By Teuku Samsul Bahri

A. Grassroots economic situation

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto claimed on Friday that government troops deployed in war-ravaged Aceh had significantly sapped the strength of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in the four-month-old operation.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The government has played down the Human Rights Watch's accusation of gross human rights abuses in the ongoing military operation in Aceh, saying that such an accusation is groundless.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The martial law administration in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam will immediately court-martial 12 soldiers on charges of torturing dozens of villagers in a move that seems calculated to show the international community the military's strong commitment to protecting Acehnese people's human rights.

Jakarta – Indonesia's military claimed partial success on Friday in a four-month campaign to crush rebels in Aceh province but said it needed more time to end the insurgency.

Jakarta – The United Nations must pressure Indonesia into allowing relief aid into its war-torn province of Aceh in order to prevent a full-blown humanitarian crisis from developing in the region of 4.2 million people, Human Rights Watch warned.

The division between Islamic and secular laws will be put to the test in the Indonesian province of Aceh, as the treason trial of five pro-separatist negotiators continues next week. The lawyer representing the men says his clients will claim that, as Acehnese nationalists, they only recognise provincial Islamic laws, and not those of the Indonesian state.

The Indonesian military said soldiers have shot and captured alive a rebel "governor" in Aceh province, marking the first arrest of a senior rebel leader since a major offensive began in May.

Nani Farida, Banda Aceh – The ongoing military operation in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD) appears to now be directly involving the participation of civilians, with around 1,000 villagers from Leupung district in Aceh Besar regency being drafted in to join troops in hunting down Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels hiding in the nearby forest.

James Balowski, Jakarta – Indonesian government officials and high-ranking military officers have been hinting that, despite the military's (TNI) much-touted successes in its war against the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in the province of Aceh, the so-called "integrated operation" may be extended beyond its original six-month deadline.

Jakarta – In order to resolve the conflict in Aceh there must be a new political party which does not have the mentality and methods of the New Order [regime of former President Suharto]. This new political party must have a concrete and clear agenda to resolve the Aceh problem and at the same time the problems of the Indonesian nation.

James Balowski, Jakarta – Indonesian government officials and high-ranking military officers have been hinting that, despite the military's (TNI) much-touted successes in its war against the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in the province of Aceh, the so-called "integrated operation" may be extended beyond its original six-month deadline.

Jakarta – Revoking the status of a military emergency in Aceh is a prerequisite for holding general elections in Aceh. If not, it will be difficult to hope for quality elections.

After blaming the press, human rights groups and anyone who expresses a critical view on the military operation in Aceh as obstacles to the failure of the government to speedily eliminate the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the government has now found a new game to play: the Aceh local bureaucrats.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – The government has prepared the necessary documents to have the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist group and its leaders placed on the United Nations's list of terrorist groups, a government official says.

Eight separatist rebels including a local leader have been killed in fresh clashes in Indonesia's war-torn Aceh province, the military said.

Vannessa Hearman, Melbourne – Rachland Nashidik, who visited Australia at the invitation of Indonesian Solidarity, is program director of Imparsial, a human-rights monitoring organisation in Indonesia. Nashidik's main message, when he spoke at Melbourne University on August 26, was that the Indonesian government must lift martial law in Aceh.

Jakarta - The forced relocation of a population, as has occurred in Aceh, can be viewed as a crime against humanity. Therefore the regional emergency military command (PDMD) must avoid relocating populations forcibly.

James Balowski, Jakarta – As many as 100 women have been raped since martial law was declared in Indonesia's northern-most province of Aceh on May 19.

Banda Aceh – Indonesia's military accused separatist rebels on Tuesday of gunning down a woman and her two daughters at their home in war-torn Aceh province.

Baradan Kuppusamy, Kuala Lumpur – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is sending a delegation to Kuala Lumpur to discuss the fate of some 2,500 Acehnese asylum seekers.

Three people including a soldier have been killed in clashes between troops and separatists in the Indonesian province of Aceh, the military said.

A first sergeant was shot dead during a clash at Bukit Seuntang in North Aceh late Sunday afternoon, said military spokesman Ahmad Yani Basuki.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The 2004 general elections should not be used as an excuse by the government to maintain the presence of thousands of troops in the war-torn Aceh province, says a former minister.

Indonesian troops have arrested 27 suspected separatist rebels in a day of raids in the restive province of Aceh, a report said.

Jakarta - The Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, has explained that the government would not be reducing TNI [Indonesian military] and national police levels in Aceh.

Nani Farida and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – At least 108 people have gone missing in Aceh since the government launched its integrated operation in the troubled province on May 19, a police officer says.

UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers has voiced concern to Malaysia over its plans to expel some 250 asylum seekers, including women and children, who fled the war-torn Indonesian province of Aceh.

Banda Aceh – At least 319 civilians have been killed, 108 disappeared and 117 others have been wounded since the military emergency in Aceh came into force on May 19.