Maritime boundary negotiations between Australia and East Timor resume tomorrow with representatives from the two governments meeting in Sydney to focus on crucial details of a proposed temporary resource sharing deal.

Jemris Fointuna, The Jakarta Post, Kupang – Hundreds of Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) supporters went on a rampage on Tuesday night in Manggarai, after their candidates for regent and vice regent were refused registration by the local General Elections Commission (KPU). Their candidacy was rejected because they had missed the registration deadline.

Jakarta – The International Labor Organization (ILO) launched a report on Wednesday, which for the first time presents comprehensive global and regional data on forced labor and call for a global alliance to eliminate the practice.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) decision to expel 12 members of a dissenting group opposed to Megawati Soekarnoputri's leadership is likely to deepen the party's internal conflict, says a respected party member.

Bogor – Representatives of about 6,000 workers of textile producer PT Great River Indonesia staged a rally at the Bogor Council on Wednesday, demanding that councillors force the company to reemploy their colleagues.

"We will continue the strike until we reach an agreement with the company," a worker, Martanto, said.

Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) has seized around Rp 3 billion (US$315,789) out of a total of some Rp 20 billion in funds allegedly given by private firms to the General Elections Commission (KPU) as kickbacks.

Jakarta – The multiparty political system has not significantly contributed to regional autonomy and politicians continue to ignore their constituents demands and aspirations, a study says.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto has suspended six officers, four of them from the military intelligence unit, to enable them to contest the upcoming regional elections.

Sunariah, Jakarta – TNI (armed forces) chief General Endriartono Sutarto has revealed that post-tsunami there has been an increase in the number of Free Aceh Movement (GAM) members. It is suspected that GAM prisoners who escaped have rejoined GAM's forces.

Luhur Hertanto, Jakarta – Don't think that all of GAM's (Free Aceh Movement) members fell victims to the tsunami. Recent armed contacts between GAM and the TNI (armed forces) in Aceh is evidence that GAM is actually even stronger.

Bill Tarrant, Lamkruet – The tents are like ovens in the scorching sun and leak in the rain. The children have no toys and their fathers have no jobs. The food's grim and the ground turns into cesspools in a downpour.

Hera Diani and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – As the May 1998 riots remain unfinished business amid four administrations and two independent investigations, activists say that the ball is now in the House of Representatives' court.

Jakarta – As Soeharto left hospital on Wednesday after seven days of treatment for intestinal bleeding, the government has been urged to bring the former dictator to justice rather than granting him a possible amnesty for the alleged abuses he committed during his 32-year rule.

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – The parents of four Trisakti University students shot dead during a protest in May 1998 said on Wednesday that they had lost faith in the government's resolve to punish those responsible, but vowed to continue fighting for justice.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – A senior Papuan police officer has been replaced and four other are being questioned for alleged human rights violations following a violent clash between separatist supporters and police personnel on Tuesday in Jayapura, a police spokesman said on Wednesday.

Seth Mydans, Dili – East Timor After ducking and dodging for more than five years, it appears that the Indonesian officers responsible for the devastation of East Timor in 1999 have reached safe ground and will avoid prosecution under a new agreement signed by the leaders of both countries.

Vannessa Hearman – On April 29, Greens Senator Kerry Nettle met with local East Timorese in Darwin and condemned the "resource-sharing" deal offered to the Timorese by the federal Coalition government as "manifestly unfair". She said that the deal currently offered to the Timorese would "rob East Timor of at least $40 billion in revenue".

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono
President of Indonesia
Istana Merdeka
Jakarta 10110 Indonesia

11 May 2005

Dear President,

Munir murder investigations

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Post-tsunami rebuilding has been stalled by a delay in releasing Government money.

The Indonesian Government has done nothing to start reconstruction in the tsunami-devastated province of Aceh, the official in charge of rebuilding says.

Jayapura – The separatist trial of Philip Karma and Yusak Pakage who are each facing five years jail at the Jayapura State Court on Tuesday May 10 has ended in a riot. As a result of the clash, scores of local people and police officers suffered injuries and some 26 vehicles were damaged.

Jakarta – Indonesia will increase its budget for the armed forces from Rp14.7 trillion (RM6.1 billion) to Rp23 trillion (RM9.6 billion) aimed at, among others, improving the effectiveness of measures taken against illegal logging, illegal fishing, smuggling and human trafficking.

Putrajaya (Malaysia) – East Timor will wait patiently – even if takes 20 years – for Indonesian military and militia members to be tried for human rights abuses during the country's bloody break from Indonesia in 1999, its foreign minister said onTuesday.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Members of the General Elections Commission (KPU) maintained their innocence against charges of corruption before House of Representatives legislators on Monday, attempting to throw guilt onto the KPU secretariat general.

Banda Aceh – Up to a quarter of the children caught up in the Dec. 26 earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia's Aceh have mental health problems that need professional treatment, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday.

Most of the tsunami-affected adult population is also suffering from trauma-related distress, a WHO-funded study by the University of Indonesia found.

Helen Hill – On Wednesday in Brisbane, East Timorese and Australian negotiators will again meet to debate rights to the taxation revenues in the Timor Sea.

To most Timorese, this is about determining permanent maritime boundaries with Australia, which they never had and which they regard as their right and part of self-determination.

Jakarta – After months of stonewalling, the former secretary of the National Intelligence Agency (BIN), Nurhadi Djazuli, agreed on Monday to meet the government-sanctioned fact finding team investigating the murder of human rights campaigner Munir Said Thalib.

At least 13 people including two policewomen were injured when an angry crowd threw stones at the trial of a popular pro-independence activist in Indonesia's Papua province, officials said.

Jakarta – Dozens of people were injured Tuesday when police clashed with independence supporters in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua, news reports said.

HT Lee – The next round of talks between East Timor and Australia over the Timor Sea oil and gas riches begins on Wednesday in Sydney – just in time to be buried in the post-budget avalanche. Foreign Minister Lord Downer hopes the talks will tie up the loose ends to the creative solutions proposed by his East Timorese counterpart Jose Ramos-Horta.

Dili – Traffic moved freely through the center of the East Timorese capital Monday for the first time in nearly three weeks, following the signing of an accord between the government and the Catholic Church that put an end to non-stop, church-sponsored demonstrations.

The Indonesian official co-ordinating the recovery of tsunami-hit Aceh has said reconstruction there has hardly begun, five months after the disaster.

Kuntoro Mangkusubroto said he was shocked at how little had been done for almost 600,000 survivors who lost their homes on 26 December 2004.

Rosliwaty Ramly, Putrajaya – Timor Leste is one of the world's least developed countries whereby the majority of its women are illiterate, uneducated subsistence farmers who are marginalised in the social, cultural, economic and political sectors, according its country report.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – An incident of bullying, threats and violence on a basketball court at Jakarta's top school for expatriate children has brought Southeast Asia's biggest economy firmly back into the international spotlight, for all the wrong reasons.

Denpasar – The Indonesian army is to form a special battalion to guard the country's 240-km-long land border with East Timor or Timor Leste in East Nusatenggara, a spokesman said.

Amended versions of Australian businessman Ian Melrose's previously refused Timor Sea TV ads have been resubmitted to the Commercial Advisory Division (CAD) of Free TV Australia and are scheduled to air nationally on Monday evening on networks Seven, Nine and SBS.

Sik – Umno Youth said it has been accused of helping the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) when its members were in Sumatra to help victims of last year's tsunami.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – The rampant programs on television depicting violence and sex begs a question: Are people in the TV industry equipped with any knowledge of ethics?

Marilyn Rodrigues – Catholic advocates for East Timorese asylum seekers are shocked and disappointed that some have had their residency applications rejected on unnamed "serious character grounds".

More than 1400 East Timorese asylum seekers who came to Australia in the early to mid 1990s have been given permanent residency.

Marilyn Rodrigues – Asylum seeker Sereneu (Simon) Pereira hated to tell his "friends and mothers" at St Anne's Nursing Home, Hunters Hill, that he faces having to leave them and go back to East Timor.

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandarlampung – Local journalists say the nine-month imprisonment of two of their colleagues over a report on alleged corruption will not discourage them from unveiling more graft cases.

Slobodan Lekic, Jakarta – Indonesia must do more to pursue justice in the shooting deaths of two American schoolteachers three years ago before Washington can agree to restore military ties with Indonesia, a senior US diplomat said Saturday.

Ivy Susanti and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Adm. William J. Fallon, the newly-appointed commander of the US Pacific Command, said on Friday he was upbeat that his country would soon resume full military ties with Indonesia, which were downgraded 13 years ago.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – The government has finally issued the much-awaited regulation on land acquisition in an effort to speed up the construction of massive infrastructure projects, sacrificing rights of property owners opposed to the projects.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Chairman of the National Awakening Party (PKB) Muhaimin Iskandar asserted on Friday he would not dismiss or recall any dissenting PKB legislators who had opposed the party's national congress last month.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Apparently not wanting to go down alone, General Elections Commission (KPU) treasurer Hamdani Amin, who has recently been declared a graft suspect, told investigators on Friday that all the KPU officials had received money from private companies, which had won business tenders from the commission.

Eva C. Komandjaja and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The antigraft team set up recently by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono may overlap with the duties of other existing anticorruption bodies, thus could put efforts to eradicate the crime in disarray, observers say.

Mike Carlton – The mindless cruelties and the rank stupidity of this country's immigration policies grow more disgusting with each passing week.

Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta – A two-month joint operation against illegal logging in Papua has ended with "satisfying" results, the National Police and the Ministry of Forestry said on Friday.

Hera Diani, Jakarta – The current uncertain relationship between the state and Islam stems from the Soeharto regime's unclear vision about how it dealt with extremist movements, Muslim scholars say.

When Director General for Land Transportation Iskandar Abubakar launched the idea of having all private vehicles undergo a roadworthiness test in 2003, he was met with strong resistance from the public. There was widespread suspicion that the test would be a ruse to extort money from motorists.