Suherdjoko, Semarang – A joint study by three Yogyakarta universities has found that 97 districts in 27 of Central Java's 35 regencies and cities are at risk for landslides.

Chris Brummitt, Jakarta – Indonesia has banned three films about its long and bloody occupation of East Timor, saying allowing local audiences to see them could "reopen old wounds" as the two countries try to move forward.

The films were due to be shown at a film festival last month in the Indonesian capital.

Ruslan Sangadji, Palu – Already shaken by religious violence and terrorist attacks, residents of Poso regency in Central Sulawesi were forced to take cover late on Monday when rival police and military units became involved in an armed clash.

Also on Monday night, a small explosive device went off on a street near a church, police said.

Jakarta – The House of Representatives (DPR) confronted on Monday Transparency International Indonesia over Transparency International's recent report, which singled out the legislative body as the most corrupt institution in Indonesia along with political parties.

Dmli – The Timorese dioceses of Dmli and Baucau and 12 non-governmental organizations today criticized in Dmli the initiative of the Government to sign Thursday an agreement to share petroleum revenues from the Timor Sea with Australia.

Dili – East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said Wednesday that his country's police force had acted in self defence when they shot dead three former pro-Jakarta militiamen near the border.

He also criticised Indonesia for failing to prevent militiamen from infiltrating East Timor.

Dili – Police in East Timor who shot dead three ex-militiamen trying to enter the country last week were acting in legitimate self-defense, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said Wednesday.

Damien Kingsbury, Indonesia expert and Associate Professor of International and Political Studies at Deakin University, writes:

Journalists and freedom of expression advocates in East Timor are calling for international opposition to a new law that would punish defamation with jail time and unspecified fines.

Jakarta – The Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR) on Wednesday denounced the shooting of three Indonesians by Timor Leste border police last Friday (Dec. 6).

"We should remind (the Timor Leste police) that the shooting should be the last. Don't repeat it, or face the consequences," Hopuse Speaker Agung Laksono said.

Nigel Wilson – The Maritime Union of Australia is threatening an international industrial campaign to force oil giant ConocoPhillips to employ more East Timorese on projects north of Darwin.

However the first step in the campaign – a bid to disrupt the loading of the first cargo from the new Darwin Liquefied Natural Gas project – appears to have failed.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Despite current unfavorable economic indicators, optimistic 2006 budget parameters set by the Indonesian government assume the country's US$280 billion economy will grow by 6.2% to $304 billion, and that inflation will be pegged at about 8%, as will interest rates be pegged.

Bambang Parlupi, Jakarta – As Jakarta's population has grown to over 11 million, the city has failed to balance this expansion by increasing the size of its greenbelts, or open green spaces (RTHs). This problem has been exacerbated by the continued loss of open spaces meant to serve as an urban buffer zone.

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – The saying "home sweet home" no longer applies to Sijeruk residents in the Central Java town of Banjarnegara, who lost most of their property after a massive mudslide buried their village last week.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – After living in a tent in a tsunami refugee camp for months, Cut Samsidar left Aceh Besar regency for Medan two months ago to work as housemaid.

She said she could no longer stand the conditions in the camp as aid was no longer forthcoming. She still is at a loss to know why the assistance has been cut off.

The Australian lobby group that has been calling on the Australian Government to negotiate permanent maritime boundaries with East Timor, is now hoping that the temporary resource sharing agreement set to be signed in Sydney this week, will pave the way for Woodside Petroleum to commit to an onshore processing facility in East Timor.

Fadli, Batam – The number of foreign tourists visiting Batam city last year fell short of expectations with only 1,005,000 vacationing in the city between January and December last year, far below the government target of 1.5 million.

Tantri Yuliandini, Jakarta – A woman in Tangerang, Banten, was sentenced to five years in jail for torturing her five-year-old daughter, and another mother was accused of burning her two small children, also in Tangerang.

Meanwhile, in a house in Cilincing, North Jakarta, seven-year-old Eka Rosiana was found strangled to death.

Atambua – Around 1,500 protesters burned pictures of East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao on Monday following the killing of three former pro-Jakarta militiamen by East Timor police near the border with Indonesia.

Olle Tornquist, Oslo – Donors often say that the major obstacle in the post-tsunami relief and reconstruction work is poor co-ordination of the organizations involved. This may be true, but the observation does not help much unless we discuss why.

Freeport-McMoRan, an American company that operates a giant open-pit copper and gold mine in Papua, is a major contributor to Indonesia's economy.

The company is also one of Indonesia's most reckless polluters and a source of hard cash – cash the company concedes is protection money – for the Indonesian military, which has one of the worst human rights records anywhere.

Bambang Parlupi, Jakarta – Air pollution in Jakarta is causing increasing concern, with air quality failing to improve significantly from year to year. Seventy percent of this pollution comes from motor vehicles, 25 percent from industry and the remaining from other activities like burning rubbish.

Slamet Susanto, Banjarnegara – Rescue workers on Saturday called off the search for bodies buried in the Banjarnegara landslide disaster, with the total death toll now at 58. Revising down earlier estimates that over 100 people had gone missing, the search and rescue team stated on Saturday that 16 people were still missing.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – Two young men put on their goggles and start counting down before jumping out of the window of their house into their flooded garden. Then come two officials in a rubber dinghy, announcing belatedly that the area was flooded.

[Jalan Raya Pos, Jalan Daendels (Jalan Raya Pos, Daendels' Highway). Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Lentera Dipantara, October 2005, 145 pp.]

Dili – A UN-sanctioned panel investigating human rights violations during Indonesia's 24-year occupation of East Timor found that as many as 183,000 people were killed, disappeared, starved or died of illnesses linked to the conflict, an adviser said.

Jakarta – Atambua Bishop Mgr Anton Pain Ratu feels the allocation of 1,500 TNI personnel from the Army's Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) on the borders of Indonesia and Timor Leste is too much.

Jakarta – The House of Representatives rebuked on Thursday the Ministry of Health for refusing to share responsibility for the widespread use of harmful preservatives, such as formaldehyde, in various basic foods.

Tantri Yuliandini, Jakarta – In a face-saving society, most women would rather die than admit that their husbands beat them – and many women have.

Indonesia is braced for a public backlash in Australia against any death sentences meted out to the Bali Nine.

Prosecutors in Denpasar will in the next fortnight start making sentence demands for the nine Australians, who were arrested last April over a failed bid to smuggle 8kg of heroin worth $4 million from Bali to Sydney.

The Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) said the tenure of the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM) in Aceh should end as originally scheduled because otherwise a bad precedent would be set, a spokesman said.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Defying opposition from critics who demanded an independent probe, the government officially set up a Security Operation Command (Koopskam) on Thursday, in a bid to halt attacks in Central Sulawesi and find the unknown assailants.

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – Environmentalists and government officials on Thursday urged the immediate relocation of people living and working in flood plains or hilly areas to prevent massive human casualties, as more landslides and flooding disasters would probably occur in the near future.

Jakarta – Dozens of students from the Jakarta State Islamic University (UIN) protested in front of the Jakarta Police Headquarters on Thursday condemning the arrest, for blasphemy, of Lia Aminuddin, the leader of The Eden sect.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has endorsed the Judicial Commission's plan to reselect all the 49 justices at the Supreme Court as part of sweeping reforms to the country's corrupt judicial system.

Tiarma Siboro and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The government's decision to establish a Security Operation Command (koopskam) to investigate and curb the violence in Palu and Poso has sparked strong reactions from local non-governmental organizations.

Dwi Prasetyo, Sijeruk – Indonesian rescuers searched on Friday for more bodies buried under tons of mud after massive landslides on Java island while helicopters flew food and medicine to some villagers still cut off.

Surabaya – The sweet, pungent scent of cloves and tobacco hangs heavy in the air as women paste, roll and snip cigarettes, their fingers flying faster than the eye can follow as tourists observe the public face of one of Indonesia's most successful companies.

Jakarta – Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has obligated the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police to purchase weapons or other products produced by the ten strategic industry State Owned Enterprises (SOEs).

This instruction is aimed at developing the domestic strategic industry, and will start to be carried out again this year.

Aguswandi, Banda Aceh – The one-year commemoration of the tsunami could be the last time the world focuses on Aceh. Despite promises that the world will not forget Aceh, it is very likely that the commemoration marked the beginning of the end of global attention to Aceh. After all, second anniversaries are rarely heard of.

Lhokseumawe – Indonesia withdrew the last of its police from Aceh province Thursday under a peace agreement with separatist rebels that was propelled by the tsunami one year ago.

The withdrawal – delayed several times in the past week due to a shortage of ships – was the last military step required under the deal to end a 29-year war that claimed 15,000 lives.

For thousands of East Java residents, the new year had a nightmarish beginning. Like a thief in the night, flash floods and landslides rudely awoke residents late on Sunday night. The floods killed more than 60 people, displaced thousands more and damaged thousands of houses and vehicles.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Despite the precious little progress the Indonesian Military (TNI) has achieved in the area of internal reform, it has does have something to be proud this year: the lifting of the arms embargo by the United States.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – An active duty Army soldier has been arrested for piracy in the busy Strait of Malacca, in another blow to the already tarnished image of the Indonesian Military (TNI).

First Adm. Halim Hermanto said the low-ranking soldier was arrested on Monday along with four civilians in the waters off Aceh province.

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – Police fired warning shots as around 500 former employees of state aircraft maker PT Dirgantara Indonesia (DI) and university students were about to stage a protest against President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on his visit to the company on Tuesday.

Hera Diani, Jakarta – The official secrets bill, which will be deliberated by the House of Representatives later this month, should respect and uphold the freedom to access information, activists warned on Tuesday.

Valarie Tan, Singapore – A Singapore-made film "Passabe" was recently banned in Indonesia while Eric Khoo's "Be With Me" was disqualified from the Oscars.

Iman Dwianto Nugroho, Jember – Salimah, a woman at her 40s, looked pale. Her clothes blackened with mud, the frail villager has not had food for two days. "Unless food aid is dispatched into our area soon, the death toll, especially among the children, will rise," she told Antara.

Rendi Akhmad Witular and Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – The government has gathered its strategic state enterprises together to develop the country's arms industry and increase self-reliance in defense.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono surely has his own way of measuring the capability of the three candidates for the top post in the Indonesian military (TNI), in the form of a shooting contest.