Bogor – Hundreds of workers of bicycle tire maker PT Banteng Pratama, staged a rally on Monday at publicly listed tire maker PT Goodyear Indonesia's office to call for a continuation of the contract between the two companies.
The workers asked Goodyear's management not to break the contract with Banteng as it could result in the loss of jobs for over 1,500 workers.
[East Timor's adored first president says he welcomes the tough tasks ahead. Three years ago, Jose (Xanana) Gusmo was a political prisoner languishing in a Jakarta prison. Today he's president of the world's newest nation.
At least seven people, including a woman and three separatist guerrillas were killed in the past four days in Indonesia's Aceh province.
The chief of a village in West Aceh was shot dead by a gunman Saturday, Aceh military spokesman Major Zaenal Muttaqin told AFP.
A former chief of Indonesia's intelligence agency has dismissed US allegations of Islamic terrorist bases in Indonesia and said it was unsupported by evidence.
"The entire statement is based on an analysis, not based on evidence," retired general Maulani told journalists in Solo, Central Java, on Saturday according to the Detikcom online news service.
Don Greenlees, Jakarta – Foreign Minister Alexander Downer yesterday signalled Australia would dismiss any proposals from newly independent East Timor to radically change seabed boundaries because it would risk unravelling thousands of kilometres of boundaries that have already been settled with Indonesia.
Jakarta – Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Friday that "building trust and confidence" were the keys to restoring Indonesian-Australia military ties, according to a report.
Four Indonesian parliamentarians are hanging on to their positions despite their East Timorese electorate having broken away from the republic nearly three years ago.
Amid calls to give up their seats, the MPs insist they are representing the interests of the Timorese remaining in Indonesia.
Irwan Firdaus, Jakarta – Like most lawmakers in Indonesia's Parliament, Natercia Do Menino Jesus Osoria Soares insists she is the voice of her people. The only problem is that the people live in another country.
Jennifer Wells – On the news a few evenings back, CBC correspondent Patrick Brown contextualized the birth of the new nation of East Timor by emphasizing how small it is. With a population of just 800,000 souls, Brown made the point that the former Indonesian-occupied east end of an island is no bigger, people-wise, than Winnipeg.
HT Lee – When Howard claimed Australia is generous by giving East Timor a 90% share of the royalties – what he forgot to mention is that it is only for one of the three oil and gas fields off the Timor Sea – Bayu-Undan.
Michael Richardson, Uotolari – Paradoxically, the neat figure of the Reverend Damianus Wagur seated behind a school desk in his office epitomizes the complexity of East Timor's recent history. Wagur, a missionary teacher from Flores, a predominantly Christian island of Indonesia, directs the senior high school in this town about 250 kilometers southeast of Dili.
The Australian Strategic Policy Institute says disaffected members of East Timor's guerilla group Falintil are forming into armed groups and pose a serious threat to security in the new nation.
At the Northern Territory University in Darwin, the Institute's Elsina Wainwright has released a study on security and defence issues relating to the new nation.
Jesse J. Holland, Washington – Congress is moving toward sending money to Indonesia to help train its police but has yet to warm up to the White House's call for increased relations with the country's military forces.
The House on Friday agreed to provide $8 million to help train Indonesia's police forces in anti-terrorism as part of the $29 billion anti-terrorism bill.
Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh met House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung and People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais on Wednesday to lodge a complaint against what he called the unfair allocation of state revenue from the exploration of natural resources in the oil-rich province.
Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Promising to boost professionalism in the Indonesian armed forces (TNI), army chief Endriartono Sutarto appeared before a parliamentary commission hearing yesterday to stake his claim to the coveted military commander's post.
Edith M. Lederer, United Nations – Acting with unusual speed, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution Thursday recommending that the 189-nation General Assembly admit East Timor as a new member.
Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – Thousands of poultry farmers declined to pay a special poultry tax to the West Java provincial administration because of their losses in the fierce competition with the chicken cartel.
Berni K. Moestafa, Jakarta – A major increase in construction, overexploitation of groundwater and unstable soil are causing parts of Jakarta to subside by up to eight centimeters a year, making the capital prone to more flooding, a surveyor company's report said.
Jonathan Steele – It's a hard world to be born into, even for nation-states. This week East Timor, half of a small island a few hundred miles north of Australia, became the youngest member of the so-called international community.
The head of East Timor's Roman Catholic Church, Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, has said that the Dili correspondent of the Portuguese Lusa news agency "should be withdrawn from East Timor" for having written an article on church power in the new country which was "full of insults and lack of education".
Reacting Thursday to calls from East Timor's religious leader for the expulsion of a Portuguese correspondent from Dili, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said there will be freedom of the press in the new nation.
Jakarta – The European Parliament has issued a resolution calling on Indonesia to formulate an immediate peaceful solution to the conflicts in Maluku, Aceh and Papua, while affirming its recognition on Indonesia's integrity, a report said.
Jakarta – At least 100 Gaspermindo taxi drivers thronged the City Council building on Wednesday, complaining about a lack of transparency in the taxi company's management.
Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – The police admitted on Wednesday that some officers were out of control when they beat and kicked students during Tuesday's demonstration to mark the fall of former authoritarian president Soeharto.
Denpasar – About 150 students staged a peaceful rally on Tuesday at the Bali legislative council building to protest what they called continuing state-sponsored violence against civil society.
Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Police in Labuhan Batu, North Sumatra, arrested on Tuesday five Acehnese people who were trying to smuggle a huge cache of M-16 automatic rifle ammunition and 103 boxes of medicine from Jakarta to strife-torn Aceh.
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – About a dozen children, each with a piece of paper and a pen in hand, gathered together and were engaged in a serious discussion.
They may look like ordinary children but they have experiences that many people could never imagine. They are abused street children.
Jakarta – Britain has offered its help to convince the United States to restore military relations with Indonesia, the Indonesian defense minister said Wednesday.
Jon Land – As the official festivities wind down in East Timor following the May 20 independence celebrations and the international dignitaries fly back to their comfortable and privileged lifestyles, a beckoning question for most East Timorese remains, what does independence hold?
Bandung – Hundreds of people from the Forum of Struggle for the Disabled (Forpadi) marked National Awakening Day with a rally here on Monday.
Jakarta – The Central Jakarta District Court sentenced seven defendants on Tuesday to two months and 15 days each for the March attack on the offices of the Commission for Mission Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) in Menteng, Central Jakarta.
Jakarta – Unlike other historical days, the fourth year of the reform movement was observed in a bitter mood on Tuesday, with students nationwide taking to the streets to vent their disappointment with the political elite's failure to comply with the reform agenda.
Denpasar – Some 150 students from various groups staged a peaceful demonstration here on Tuesday at the Bali Legislative Council, protested what they called the continuing state-sponsored violence against civil society.
Aaron Goodman, Dili – The unfurling of East Timor's flag and the lighting of fireworks on Sunday marked the formal coming out of the newest country of the millennium, one whose test of nationhood will be under way for many years to come.
Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – Bandung Police are questioning more than 40 crews of container trucks after a rally they held to protest widespread levies and demand a whole day of access to Padalarang toll road ended in violence on Tuesday.
Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Due to a greatly increased amount of construction and over-exploitation of groundwater, the city's land has subsided up to 91 centimeters in recent years, a city official said on Tuesday.
Jakarta – At least 40 protesters were detained at Jakarta Police headquarters following clashes that broke out separately in Megaria and Jl. Cendana in Central Jakarta on Tuesday, reports said.
In trying to rein in Jakarta, Australia put its special relationship with the Indonesian army on the line, write Don Greenlees and Robert Garran in the third of four exclusive extracts from their book Deliverance.
Jakarta – Hundreds of students staged rallies in at least six cities throughout the country on Tuesday to mark the downfall of former president Soeharto and to remind the government under President Megawati Soekartoputri to meet the pledge for reforms.
Jakarta – Hundreds of students of various universities from Jakarta, Bogor and Bekasi on Tuesday threatened to stage huge rallies if the government was unable to improve the condition of the nation within one month.
The students claimed the rallies they would stage would be similar to the ones which lead to the downfall of then president Soeharto in 1998.
Robert Go, Jakarta – Surabaya businessman Lukman Hartono knows he is a marked man in the eyes of predatory immigration officials in Indonesia.
As an ethnic Chinese, it is: Pay up and get paperwork "expedited". Refuse to pay, and face probing questions and hassle.
East Timor hailed its move to democracy May 20 by signing the Timor Gap Treaty with Australia just hours after becoming the world's newest independent state. However, the signing of the treaty was more an empty symbol of goodwill than a declaration of cooperation between the two on developing the Timor Sea's vast natural resources.
Jakarta – Severe economic hardship and political instability have undermined efforts to eradicate child labor in the country, Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea said on Monday.
Vaudine England – Indonesian media greeted the birth of an independent East Timor with congratulations and the stated desire for better ties. But behind the positive rhetoric remains a Government and armed forces determined to avoid responsibility for past abuses in the new nation.
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Investigation into the killing of Papuan pro-independence leader Theys Hiyo Eluay last year points at the possible involvement of high ranking officers, National Military Police Chief Maj. Gen. Sulaiman A.B. said on Monday.
Jakarta – Acehnese separatist rebels have warned civil servants to stay away from state facilities, which they plan to attack.
Free Aceh Movement (GAM) spokesman Tengku Sofyan Dawod said from the group's foreign base in Norsborg, Sweden, that the prior warning was issued to avoid futile fatalities in the long-standing conflict.
Dean Yates, Dili – About the only thing pro-Jakarta militias didn't destroy in their rampage after East Timor voted in 1999 to break free was something they couldn't touch – the territory's stunning natural beauty.
Jakarta – Students, activists and members of non-government organizations held various protests and rallies to commemorate National Awakening Day on Monday, reports said.
Semarang – A demonstration held by the Democratic Front for Poverty Eradication (FDPRM) turned violent on Monday when the group was attacked by dozens of people claiming to be members of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) Two demonstrators, a plainclothes police officer and a local photojournalist were injured in the violence.
Ian Timberlake, Jakarta – Four years after restrictions on free speech ended with the fall of strongman Suharto, Indonesian reporters fear a recent government crackdown could signal a return to this nation's repressive past.