Jakarta – The Constitutional Court ruled Tuesday that a law requiring migrant workers to have a minimum junior high school diploma qualification was against the law.

Hera Diani, Jakarta – Six months after the government and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) signed a peace deal, the Acehnese say they are feeling more secure but many still worry the accord could break down at any time, a survey says.

The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) denounced today's formal notice that the Department of State will consider provision of lethal military equipment to Indonesia. ETAN called it a major step undermining military reform and justice for the people of Indonesia and East Timor.

Bhimanto Suwastoyo, Jakarta – Indonesia will miss a deadline Friday to pass a crucial law granting autonomy to Aceh but the province's peace process should remain on track if the two sides maintain open dialogue, analysts said.

Panca Nugraha, Mataram – Four suspects in an attack on an exploration camp run by US mining giant Newmont in Sumbawa, West Nusa Tenggara, are being treated at separate hospitals after being shot by police Sunday after they resisted arrest, police said Tuesday.

Raden Rachmadi, Jakarta – The result of the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) research in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam province on March 8-18 shows that most of the people there yearn for the establishment of a local party.

James Balowski, Jakarta – On March 16, left-wing Acehnese political activists publicly launched the Acehnese Peoples Party Preparatory Committee (KP-PRA), which they hope will provide the basis for establishing the first local political party.

Wellington – About 10,000 houses built by international aid agencies for tsunami victims in Indonesia are unfit for human habitation and may have to be rebuilt, a newspaper reported Wednesday.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Fears that Canberra is stoking support for Papua to break away from Indonesia sparked Jakarta's strong reaction last week to Australia granting visas to Papuan asylum-seekers, analysts said.

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – Legal experts have slammed the government for not taking legal action against PT Freeport Indonesia over its alleged violations of the country's environmental laws.

Andrew Steele, Jakarta – Islam maintains a more visible place in secular Indonesia than it has in years. New mosques are popping up everywhere, while more and more women wear jilbabs, or Islamic headscarves, than before.

Richard Chauvel – Indonesia's extreme sensitivity and depth of feeling about Papua is reflected in its decision to recall its ambassador.

Papua's economic importance to Indonesia is symbolised by the controversial Freeport gold and copper mine, which is Indonesia's largest corporate taxpayer, worth $US1.2 billion ($1.7 billion) last year.

Dili – East Timor's capital was under tight security Tuesday as shops shut, public transport dwindled and some people sought refuge in a church after mobs went on a weekend rampage.

Slobodan Lekic – The spotlight of international justice has shone on Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic to hold them accountable for alleged war crimes. But many are asking: what about Suharto?

Budiriza, Jakarta – Indonesian Police Chief, Sutanto has said he assumes that rumors spread by foreign parties are aimed at splitting Indonesia apart.

He called on all elements of the nation not to be provoked because this would only further the interests of the foreign parties.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The odds are stacked against non-Muslims who want to build places of worship because the new joint ministerial decree on their construction is actually more restrictive than its predecessor, a religious figure says.

Thousands of workers in a number of cities took to the streets Monday in opposition to a proposed amendment to the 2003 Labor Law.

Jakarta – Violence against religious freedom continued Sunday in West Java when a group of some 200 self-styled religious vigilantes forced Christians to close their church in Bogor.

Police were at the scene during the incident, but did not stop the angry mob, which purportedly consisted of residents from the Griya Bukit Jaya housing complex and other nearby residents.

Dili – Authorities expect to pacify tensions pitting East Timor's ethnic groups that led to rioting in Dili at the weekend within days, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said Monday.

Authorities "will continue to manage the situation with calm", Alkatiri told Lusa, saying the government was encouraging people from the east who fled the capital to return home.

Joniansyah, Tangerang – About five thousand workers in Tangerang District this morning (27/3) took to the streets to rejecting the revision the State Decree13/2003 on Manpower Affairs.

Jakarta – The United States, Japan and the European Union (EU) are suspected are likely harboring forestry products from China, which came from illegally felled trees, a report by a coalition of international and Chinese organizations alleges.

Canberra – Australia tried to soothe ties with Indonesia on Monday after granting asylum to 42 boat people from the country's troubled Papua province and as media reported more Papuans were heading to Australia.

Harold Crouch – Indonesians have reacted with outrage at the Australian decision to grant temporary protection visas to 42 of the 43 Papuans who reached Cape York in an outrigger canoe two months ago.

Damian Kingsbury – Australia's decision to grant 42 West Papuan asylum seekers temporary protection has put the relationship with Indonesia under its most serious strain since the East Timor debacle of 1999. It has also highlighted contradictions in Australia's policy towards Indonesia.

Andra Jackson – An anglican minister from Victoria witnessed a confrontation in West Papua between protesters and Indonesian police, who fired rifles and tear gas into the air before charging into a demonstration that turned into a deadly riot.

Nancy-Amelia Collins, Jakarta – East Timorese police have arrested seven people two days after rioters rampaged through Dili, the capital of the world's youngest nation. Many of those involved in the violence were recently fired soldiers.

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Malang – Muati, 60, seems to enjoy preparing the tobacco, which she blends with other ingredients and puts inside a roll of cigarette paper.

Greg Roberts, Kiunga, Papua New Guinea – Muslim extremists from The Philippines and elsewhere are claimed to be setting up bases in Papua with the blessing of elements of the Indonesian military.

Papua New Guinean Catholic bishop Giles Cote said the extremists were entering Papua to fight supporters of the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM).

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – North Sulawesi has formally expressed its opposition to the pornography bill and at least three other provinces are expected to follow suit, lawmakers said over the weekend.

Tony Blair MP
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London SW1A 2AA

26 March 2006

Dear Prime Minister,

Your visit to Indonesia: Concerns about West Papua

Dili – East Timor's Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri today called for calm a day after sacked soldiers rampaged through the capital looting shops and pelting opponents with stones.

Tom Hyland – It's unlikely that Alexander Downer believes what he says about the new row that has erupted between Australia and Indonesia over 42 Papuan asylum seekers.

Despite Indonesian protests over Australia's decision to grant protection visas to the Papuans, Downer says "things will settle down after a short period of time".

Carmel Egan – Relying on nothing more than the word of a good friend and their faith in God, the West Papuan 43 turned their dugout canoe south and made for Australia. It was January 13 and the five families of 37 adults and six children were heading, literally and politically, into a storm.

Jakarta – Although disillusioned and even threatened with losing its relevance, the Papuan People's Assembly (MRP) remains the best available channel to address grievances in the province and thus must be engaged more actively in dialog with the government, a report from an international analysis group said.

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Malang – Over 32,000 contract teachers in East Java might have to let go of their dream of becoming civil servants.

Head of the East Java Education Office, Rasiyo, said after a meeting in Malang that based on a 2005 government regulation on the appointment of contract employees as civil servants, the contract teachers might not qualify.

Ati Nurbaiti, Jakarta – Black T-shirts with feminist slogans were selling fast on Thursday to women wanting to express blunt objection to the pornography bill.

Sydney – The Australian government must take the issue of Papua's right to self-determination to the United Nations, the Greens say.

Greens Senator Bob Brown accused the Howard government of hypocrisy over the issue, and called on Foreign Minister Alexander Downer to stand by Australia's international human rights obligations.

When 43 Papuan separatists washed up on Cape York last January in a 25m outrigger canoe and demanded asylum, they opened up the biggest rift in Australia-Indonesian relations since East Timor – one that has led to the recall of Indonesia's ambassador to Jakarta for "consultations".

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Indonesia's bountiful natural resources are generating massive corporate deals, a signal that one of the region's sickest post-Asian-financial-crisis economies is finally reviving. In the process, so too are some of the business families that ruled the roost under former president Suharto's New Order regime.

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – While poor sanitation, inadequate housing and a lack of decent infrastructure all help infectious diseases spread throughout the country, environmentalists say global warming is beginning to play an increasing role in causing human illness.

Jakarta – Health officials, lawmakers and activists are working together to reduce Indonesia's maternal, infant and child mortality rates, which are among the highest in Southeast Asia.

Sian Powell, Jakarta – Indonesian security forces continued to hunt for students in hiding in Papua's jungles yesterday.

Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said a singer invited to the State Palace failed to perform because she was dismissed for showing her belly button. "I was disturbed. I told the singer to home," he said, describing himself as "conservative".

Sian Powell, Jakarta – Hiding in a tattered hut in West Papua's dense jungle and existing on food brought by sympathetic villagers, university student Everistus Kayep is confused by the maelstrom that has engulfed his life.

Two weeks ago he was studying maths and management at Cendrawasih University, on the outskirts of West Papua's provincial capital of Jayapura.

Greg Sheridan – Is there another boat on the way? This is the question now in Australia-Indonesia relations after the granting of temporary protection visas to 42 West Papuans. The West Papuans came here by boat and claimed they were being persecuted in the troublesome province of Indonesia. This is a big, big, big story.

Hera Diani, Jakarta – Christian leaders and members of the Ahmadiyah group presented a united stand Friday in opposing the revised decree on places of worship, and threatened to ignore it unless it is changed to meet their demands.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI), meanwhile, is also dismayed by what it considers the disproportional accommodation of other religions.

Jakarta – The Communion of Churches in Indonesia (PGI) has responded angrily to a government official's allegation that churches have been used as a medium to spread anti-government propaganda by Papua separatists.

Surakarta – A group of Muslims representing several Islamic boarding schools in Surakarta staged a rally at the Gladag traffic circle here Friday over the takeover of the Cepu oil block by ExxonMobil.

They asserted that the United States and other foreign forces were engaging in a new form of colonization through the domination of economic assets.

Jakarta – Indonesia has recalled its ambassador to Australia amid a furore over Canberra's decision to grant temporary visas to 42 asylum seekers from restive Papua province.

Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Yuri Thamrin said its envoy would be called back to Jakarta for "consultations" with foreign ministry officials over the matter.