Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – Criticism is gathering against the powerful Aceh Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR) two months after it began the massive project of rebuilding the tsunami-affected province.

Jakarta – Indonesia has made scant progress in changing the outlook of government officials who remain indifferent to providing public service and continue to engage in corruption, the president says.

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – With the primary aim of boosting investment in the private sector, the government has drafted a fairly sound and competitive value-added tax (VAT) and income tax system in its recently completed draft revision of the tax laws, according to an official.

Ati Nurbaiti, Jakarta – A young East Timorese once inquired, "Do you people also experience atrocities?" I said, "What? Of course not." Where did she get such an idea? Youngsters in Indonesia's big cities were not only free of "atrocities", they were out blissfully shopping and loitering in malls, and moaning about the traffic.

Banda Aceh – At least 60 separatist guerrillas have left their rebel stronghold in Indonesia's Aceh province after a peace pact was signed last week.

The move comes a day after 1,300 Indonesian soldiers withdrew from Aceh province, the first major step by Indonesia to begin implementing the historic peace.

His Excellency Kofi Annan
Secretary-General
The United Nations
1 United Nations Plaza
New York, New York 10017-3515

August 22, 2005

Dear Mr. Secretary-General:

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – After the Helsinki peace deal that brought peace to Aceh, the central government has been urged to focus more on resolving the problems in Papua.

Carmel Budiardjo, London – The historic agreement concluded this week between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has been widely welcomed, both in Indonesia and abroad. It was also highlighted by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY), in his Aug. 16 address to the nation to mark the 60th anniversary of Indonesian Independence Day on Aug. 17.

Miswar, Banda Aceh – Indonesian negotiator Sofyan Djalil who is also the minister of information and communication, has started to manipulate the text of the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

Ambon – More troops were withdrawn from Maluku in response to the prevailing peace in the formerly riot-torn province.

Banda Aceh – Civilians who lost family and friends during a three-decade separatist war in Indonesia's Aceh province deserve justice, rebels said Sunday, days after an agreement was signed to end the fighting that claimed nearly 15,000 lives.

Hera Diani, Jakarta – The government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) have agreed to only bring human rights violations cases in Aceh to court that occur after the signing of Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Monday.

Jakarta – The granting of sentence remissions to some 103,000 prisoners in observance of Independence Day has come under fire, with observers noting the recipients included high-profile inmates convicted of terrorism, murder and corruption.

Protests colored the closing day of the West Java Infrastructure Summit on Friday when about 500 people from Jatigede, Sumedang regency, staged a rally outside the venue at the Savoy Homann hotel in Bandung.

The protesters were objecting to the ongoing dam project in their area, claiming that they had been cheated in the land acquisition compensation payment.

Jakarta – The government should immediately issue a regulation requiring occupational safety and health (OSH) programs in small enterprises and home industries to avoid unnecessary accidents at work and a reduction in employee productivity, according to an expert with the International Labor Organization.

Evi Mariani, Sumba Island, East Nusa Tenggara – While people in big cities begin to take up food combining, complete with the complicated calculations of daily consumed nutrition, most people in villages in Sumba still lag far behind in diet knowledge, regarding eating merely as a way to fill their stomachs.

AK-34, Jakarta – Responding to a plan by the Aceh regional house of representatives (DPRD) to issue a new by-law soon, an activist from the Acehnese Popular Democratic Resistance Front (FPDRA), Thamrin Ananda, says that they cannot just issue new regulations because there are a number of important issues that must be considered first.

Salim Osman, Banda Aceh – All hopes for peace in the troubled Aceh province now rest on about 200 monitors who will oversee the implementation of the accord, with mistrust still prevailing between the Indonesian government and rebels.

Jakarta – Criticism about the contents of the peace accord between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) continued on Friday, with legislators questioning the role of the foreign monitoring mission that they said was too powerful and was an "internationalization" of a domestic conflict.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Labor activists and observers predict that more state enterprises will be threatened with massive strikes since most of their staff are underpaid.

Indra Harsaputra, Malang – Tied to an iron pole, the red-and-white flag waves in front of a house on Jl. Piranha Atas Selatan II/5, Malang, East Java.

Ivy Susanti, Jakarta – Indonesia expressed displeasure over a report from a group of Australian researchers, who accuse the Indonesian Military (TNI) of committing genocide in Papua, and condemned the study as "baseless".

Tom Allard – The Indonesian military has murdered independence activists, raped women and razed villages in Papua, a report by University of Sydney researchers alleges.

Citing witness accounts and testimony from church groups and other activists, the report, Genocide in West Papua?, has renewed calls for a change in attitude from Australia.

Eva C. Komandjaja, Jakarta – Thirty-one alleged corruption cases involving more than Rp 3 trillion (US$303 million) in state losses have been investigated since last year, but there has been little progress in taking these cases to court.

Jakarta – Indonesia's military, often accused of human rights violations, is likely to stick to a fresh peace pact in Aceh province despite frustrations over concessions to separatist rebels, analysts said.

Jakarta – Commander in Chief of the TNI, General Endriartono Sutarto said he hoped that all sides in Aceh, incluuding the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) would not bring up mistakes that occurred in the past. He asked all those concerned to think about the future so as to enable the Acehnese to re-build their region.

The financial market has reason to be uneasy about the 2006 state budget proposal President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono unveiled to the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

It seems the key assumptions used for revenue and spending estimates deviate far from what most market players expected.

Jakarta – The massive blackouts that swept parts of Java and Bali have caused industries to suffer billions of rupiah in financial losses due to disruptions in their operations.

The Indonesian Textile Association estimated that more than 100 spinning, weaving and garment industries in Greater Jakarta suffered losses of about Rp 55 billion (US$5.53 million).

Jakarta – The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has criticized the number of Indonesian Military (TNI) organic personnel, which exceeds the number of TNI personnel in other regions.

As details begin to emerge of the proposed deal between East Timor and Australia on how to divvy up the Greater Sunrise gas field located twice as close to East Timor than Australia, it's clear that our impoverished neighbours will be walking away short-changed.

Amnesty International is deeply concerned that the Security Council continues to delay consideration of a detailed United Nations (UN) report on the prosecution of serious violations of human rights committed in Timor-Leste in 1999.

Jakarta/Tangerang/Bogor – Blackouts that affected much of Java and Bali on Thursday resulted in massive traffic jams, stalled trains and delayed flights in the capital and neighboring towns.

Imanuddin Razak, Jakarta – The Aceh peace accord signed in the Finnish capital of Helsinki on Aug. 15, 2005 was indeed a gift and sweet prelude for the Indonesian people and government prior to celebrating the country's 60th anniversary of independence.

Members of the US House of Representatives recently called on President Bush "to reconsider strengthening ties with the Indonesian military (TNI)."

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – The government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) signed an historic peace agreement, though not the first, on Monday in Helsinki, Finland.

Noted lawyer and human rights activist Todung Mulya Lubis, who is on the board of the Jakarta-based Tifa Foundation focusing on empowering civil society, shared his thoughts with The Jakarta Post's Tony Hotland.

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – Following the signed peace deal between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebel group, Aceh will still adhere to most of the key fiscal and monetary policies set by the central government with some exceptions.

Tiarma Siboro and Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – The peace agreement between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) faced its first test on Wednesday when plainclothes police threatened rebels who were released from the Jantho penitentiary in Aceh Besar regency.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – A number of politicians have voiced strong criticism of the Aceh peace deal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), with opposition bloc the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) demanding a court ruling to revoke it.

I. Christianto, Contributor, Helsinki – In spite of the amnesty offered by the Indonesian government to all people linked to the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), many of them who are living in exile overseas have adopted a wait-and-see attitude, with no immediate plans to return home.

The Indonesian military has been blamed for systematic violence, including rape, arson and torture, in the province of West Papua, according to a new report by Australian researchers.

The Australian Democrats have criticised the federal government for ignoring the human rights abuses to avoid upsetting Indonesia.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Lawyers for an Indonesian pilot charged with poisoning leading human rights campaigner Munir Thalib Said, have accused government prosecutors of making up motives behind the murder, saying prosecutors should arrest the real murderer, instead making a scapegoat out of their client.

It was arguably the most important scheduled political speech since the President took office in October. It was not bad, but it was certainly far from inspiring.

Economists may by poring over the numbers and statistical data presented by the President during his first State of the Nation address, but to the average layman it was uninspiringly average.

Nigel Wilson – East Timor has launched an international campaign to attract explorers to the Timor Sea in areas not in dispute with Australia.

A roadshow will begin next month to sell the results of 6600km of seismic data collected earlier this year that the East Timor Government claimed "revealed the presence of potential petroleum structures over the entire area".

Jakarta/Semarang/Medan/Surabaya/Jayapura/Cirebon – Student protests and record-breaking attempts highlighted the 60th anniversary of the nation's independence on Wednesday with the Netherlands formally recognizing the date.

Allan Nairn – In Central Aceh, the TNI has an ethnic Javanese and Gayo militia force that is estimated to be larger than the Aceh-wide GAM. An investigator who speaks the local Gayo language puts their strength at 12,000 people and 6,000 weapons – some homemade, some military issue.

Allan Nairn – The TNI/POLRI is now saying that they have about 35,000 men in Aceh, which, if true, would mean that under the Helsinki deal with GAM signed yesterday they will be temporarily withdrawing about 32% of their troops, not much more than a normal rotation.

Surabaya/Kutai Kartanegara – For the suspected members of the outlawed Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) and their families, the country's anniversary celebration has always been a bitter time, bringing back old memories.

M. Rizal Maslan, Jakarta - If former Free Aceh Movement (GAM) members are granted amnesty, then what about the fate of convicted activists and political prisoners jailed as a result of the Aceh conflict?

Helsinki – After having been at conflict for almost 30 years, the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) have made a historical step by signing a peace agreement.

Both parties still have differences of opinion in terms of human rights violation trials.

Speakers: Malik Mahmood, GAM chief negotiator; Hamid Aaluddin, Indonesian Justice Minister; Allan Nairn, award-winning journalist and activist. His article on the Aceh peace agreement can be found at newsc.blogspot.com