London – A weak judicial system in newly independent East Timor undermined human rights there last year, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

The London-based rights watchdog, in its report on 2002, said the new country inherited an incomplete institutional and legal framework which could not fully protect human rights.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – A court case in which a bodyguard of East Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri is said to have kicked a Chinese-Malaysian businessman, calling him a monkey, is being closely watched by foreign investors.

International and local human rights activists condemned an attack on an Indonesian watchdog group over its opposition to the military offensive in Aceh.

London – Indonesia failed to take decisive action to end human rights violations last year, Amnesty International said Wednesday. The London-based rights watchdog, in its report on 2002, said the country showed "little progress" in its attempts to tackle impunity in human rights cases.

Nick Everett – On May 21, I was arrested for attending a protest in Jakarta. Australian Books not Bombs convener Kylie Moon, South Korean student activist Yung-Chan Choi and South African anti-war activist Lydia Cairncross were also arrested.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Three residents of Kuyawage village in the Papua regency of Wamena have reportedly starved to death after fleeing their homes to avoid a sweep by the Army for those responsible for last month's raid on the arsenal of the Wamena military compound. The identities of the three people were not immediately available.

Jakarta – Papuan tribal leaders and students from Greater Jakarta urged the government on Tuesday to revoke forest concessions given to dozens of companies that have failed to preserve the environment. They argued that a lack of government control has caused illegal logging and forest fires to increase in the country's easternmost province.

As the do-gooders move on, carpetbaggers and corrupt locals are left to count the loot. Eric Ellis discovers that most East Timorese are wondering what went wrong a year after independence.

Phar Kim Beng, Hong Kong – As the international spotlight focuses its glare upon the Bali bombing trial in Jakarta and renewed separatist violence in Aceh, it is all too easy to assume that Indonesia is a hotbed of radical Islam. But this is to ignore the bigger picture, and the distinctive features of Islam as it is practiced in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta/Manado – Regionalism is the latest, unintended consequence of the much-debated national education bill, which has already divided the nation along religious lines.

Thousands of Muslims from the Islamic Solidarity Forum (FUI) held a rally in Yogyakarta on Tuesday to demand the House of Representatives endorse the bill as it is.

Chris Brummitt, Lawang – By the time the military arrived at dawn, most men had already fled this isolated village in Indonesia's Aceh province. More than 70 soldiers herded the few that remained, along with the women, into a prayer house.

But what happened next was in dispute Wednesday as the military continued its offensive against separatists in Aceh.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – About 100 members of a nationalist youth organization attacked on Tuesday the office of a local human rights watchdog, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) here and assaulted five staff members for being critical of war in Aceh.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – As part of the government's campaign to end separatism in Aceh, the state has begun prosecuting 18 alleged members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) for treason and terrorism.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – It was almost midnight in Tokyo when Indonesia's chief negotiator, Wiryono Sastrohandoyo, waited inside a holding room at the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) office for Free Aceh Movement (GAM) leaders to reply to the third draft of the joint statement to salvage peace in the province.

Tiarma Siboro, Lhokseumawe – The Indonesian Military (TNI) will sue the Koran Tempo daily newspaper for allegedly publishing incorrect reports over the killing of 10 civilians during a raid in the first week of a major military operation to rout separatist rebels.

James Balowski, Jakarta – Following the breakdown of last-ditch talks in Tokyo between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), Jakarta on May 19 launched a "security restoration operation" in Aceh – an all-out military offensive to crush GAM and "resolve" the question of Aceh once and for all.

Cokro Hamid, Jakarta – As Indonesian troops launched a full-scale military offensive in Aceh, there have been protests in other parts of Indonesia, especially Jakarta.

Protest and solidarity actions have been organised by the Solidarity Movement with the People of Aceh (SEGERA) and the Ungu Institute, a women's cultural centre.

New York – Indonesian police failed to stop two organized attacks on Kontras, a prominent Jakarta-based rights group, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called for a full investigation into the attacks, which appeared directed at the group because of its work in the embattled province of Aceh.

Banda Aceh – Police in Aceh have named 43 persons linked with separatist movement as suspects for treason.

"Their case will soon be handed over to the prosecutor"s office,' Aceh regional police chief Inspector General Bachrumsyah Kasman said here on Tuesday. He said he would suggest their sentence would be directly implemented soon after it was given.

Kathy Marks, Banda Aceh – The group of men drinking coffee at a roadside stall sprang out of their chairs as the convoy of trucks and buses passed by in a cloud of dust. They had seen little traffic on the main highway through Indonesia's Aceh province since martial law was declared a week ago.

Matthew Moore, Banda Aceh – Indonesian soldiers in armoured personnel carriers have begun escorting truck convoys in war-torn Aceh in an attempt to break a blockade by separatists that has cut supplies of food, medicine and other goods to the province's 4.2 million people.

A'an Suryana, Jakarta – A human rights activist criticized on Monday the arrest of Aceh students and rights activists during the first week of a major military campaign against rebels in Aceh, warning it could worsen human rights violations by the military and the police.

Dean Yates, Banda Aceh – Indonesia has told foreign aid workers to leave troubled Aceh for security reasons and says Jakarta wants to take over all humanitarian assistance in the province.

Kurniawan Hari and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – A number of legislators on Monday regretted most reports on Aceh by both domestic and international media, and demanded the government to find a mechanism to control media reporting in the troubled province.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Compared to Papua province's population of 2.1 million, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS cases in the province has reached an alarming level with a total of 1,263 people with HIV, including 539 who have contracted the fatal disease.

Nana Rukmana, Cirebon – Thousands of sugar cane farmers in the West Java regency of Cirebon threatened to boycott the supply of sugar cane to sugar producers unless the government raised the price of sugar cane, said the chairman of the local sugar cane farmers' association.

Women's groups in Indonesia have welcomed a new law that paves the way for more women to enter parliament.

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandar Lampung – With no protection from the government, farmers in Lampung are having a difficult time surviving a time of economic hardship. Over the last few years, thousands of farmers have cut down their coffee plants to grow rice because of falling coffee prices both at home and abroad.

The UN Special Crimes Unit in East Timor has charged former militia commander, Joao Tavares, and four Indonesian TNI, or military, officers for atrocities in the territory before and after a UN sponsored vote for independence from Indonesia in August 1999. They are among 32 people, including 15 TNI soldiers, accused of murder, torture, persecution and other crimes.

Luhur Hertanto, Jakarta – The People's Democratic Party has responded cynically to the plans to prohibit non-government organisations from entering Aceh because this obviously shows that the government does not want to be control by parties outside of the armed forces (TNI).

Jakarta – Dozens of members of Pemuda Panca Marga (PPM), a youth organization which is supervised by the Indonesian Military (TNI) staged on Monday a rally in front of the office of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) on Jl. Cisadane, Central Jakarta.

Jakarta – Rupiah on Monday reached its highest level against the dollar since August 2000, sparking concerns that the upturn could be overdone and harm the country's exports.

Dean Yates, Banda Aceh – As the battered truck pulled up after negotiating some of Aceh's dangerous country roads, 20 traders crowded around, eager to get their supplies of tomatoes, chillis and dried crackers.

A series of explosions rocked the district town of Lhokseumawe in North Aceh, as the death toll continued its climb at the end of the first week of a massive government operation to crush separatist rebels in the province.

John Aglionby, Banda, Aceh – After only a week of its offensive against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which military commanders promised would end in the separatists' elimination, Indonesia yesterday conceded it would never defeat the rebel army.

Chris Brummitt, Banda Aceh – Indonesia moved heavy artillery into rebel areas of Aceh on Monday, stepping up its offensive against the region's poorly armed separatists.

The Free Aceh Movement said it wasn't intimidated and vowed to keep up its fight for independence in the tiny province. Rebels promised to increase hit-and-run attacks on vehicles plying the main roadways.

Tim Johnston, Banda Aceh – The Indonesian army has been accused of using British-built Hawk aircraft to attack separatist rebels in the province of Aceh. That would contravene an agreement between Jakarta and London that the aircraft would not be used for suppression of internal dissent.

Robert Go, Banda Aceh – The bodies of two men lay on wooden tables in the morgue at Banda Aceh's main hospital. Both were unwashed and bloodied. One showed severe rigor mortis, with limbs at 90-degree angles to the torso.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The media cannot not be required to take legal responsibility for its coverage of the ongoing military operation in Aceh because a news report is not the absolute truth, a practitioner has said.

The United Nations Serious Crimes Unit has indicted General Wiranto, the former governor of East Timor, Abilio Soares and six other senior military officers, for murder and persecution in the lead-up to East Timor's independence in 1999. But with the Indonesian Government unlikely to hand any of the men over for trial, will justice ever be done?

Phil Mercer, Sydney – Australia's foreign minister has warned that a victory for separatist rebels in the Indonesian province of Aceh could result in a disastrous security situation in South-East Asia. Alexander Downer says the Australian Government does not support the Free Aceh Movement in its bid for independence.

John Hamilton – Hilton Lay is a nine-year-old kid with a cheeky grin and one passion in life – Essendon. His proudest possession is a Bombers scarf. He's about as Australian as my own two sons. They, luckily, were born here. But Hilton was born in East Timor, and that's the big problem.

Jakarta – Prices of some basic commodities are climbing in the Aceh capital of Banda Aceh as the ongoing conflict between government troops and separatist rebels has disrupted supplies from the neighboring province of North Sumatra.

Scott Burchill – Delivering the 25th annual Menzies lecture last October, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer declared that "bit by bit, leaders of governments that suppress human rights are being made to feel uncomfortable, however much they bluster and hide behind sovereignty arguments".

Matthew Moore, Lhokseumawe – War in Aceh began on Monday and the Indonesian Army kicked off with its best attempt at a big bang. Passengers watched bemused as six Hercules aircraft dropped 450 paratroopers into the province's only real airport which, not surprisingly, they secured without a murmur.

Apriadi Gunawan, Jakarta – North Sumatra has begun to feel the effect of the war in Aceh, as hundreds of people have been streaming down from the neighboring province seeking refuge.

The displaced people, mostly women, fled their homes in Southeast Aceh regency to safer areas in Tanah Karo and Dairi regencies in North Sumatra, which border Aceh.

Achmad Sukarsono, Banda Aceh – Indonesia said on Saturday civilians in Aceh, scene of its biggest military crackdown in decades, would be given new ID cards to stop separatist rebels blending in with the population.

Matthew Moore, Lhokseumawe – Up to 150,000 civilians in Indonesia's war-torn Aceh province face starvation because of a new tactic of destroying irrigations systems on which farmers rely to grow their crops.

Robert Go, Banda Aceh – Indonesia said yesterday that 58 members of the separatist group, Free Aceh Movement (GAM), and five civilians have died in the troubled province since Jakarta's major offensive began.

A'an Suryana and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Political leaders asserted on Friday that reform had moved at a snail's pace over the past five years, and that fresh leadership blood was needed to salvage and accelerate reform in the country.