Jakarta – About 100 members of the Association of Jakarta Becak (pedicab) Drivers staged a protest at the Ministry of Home Affairs, on Jl. Merdeka Utara, Central Jakarta, demanding the revocation of the city bylaw on public order, which bans them from operating in the capital.

Leo Wahyudi S., Jakarta – Although city buses are not really supermarkets, passengers may buy a variety of goods on them at low prices.

It is very common nowadays to see hawkers getting in and out of buses, not only at bus stops but also at traffic lights in the city. Sometimes even along toll roads during traffic jams.

Jakarta – Excessive logging has pushed to near extinction at least 51 isolated tribes living as nomads in Waropen, Papua, the country's eastern most province.

Head of the Papua Social Welfare Office Onnes Rumandei said in Jayapura on Thursday that forests, which had long been the habitat for these tribes, were vanishing due to excessive logging by forest concessionaires.

Banda Aceh – At least 153 refugees from Central and South Aceh were forced to leave the United Nations Resource Center (UNRC) compound in Banda Aceh, four days after they fled their homes due to increasing violence and security risks.

Jakarta/Ambon – Human rights watchdog, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) blamed the escalating tension in Maluku on the lack of law enforcement and poor coordination between the security and civilian authorities.

A'an Suryana and Berni K. Moestafa, Jakarta – A businessman once shared with an acquaintance his frustration and confusion in doing business in the democratic, but corrupt climate of Indonesia.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) is divided over how to deal with her errant deputy, with some members calling for Mr Hamzah Haz to be summoned to the palace for an explanation.

Muhammad Nafik, Jakarta – Opposition continued to grow on Thursday against the new broadcasting bill, which many critics see as an attempt by the government to once again curb freedom of the press.

If passed into law, they said, the bill will reestablish "repressive" governmental control of radio and television.

Bronwyn Curran, Dili – The flags of the world are fluttering above a frenzy of roof-fixing, painting and construction as East Timor's waterfront capital spruces up to welcome VIPs from 92 countries, including UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and exUS president Bill Clinton, for its giant May 19 independence party.

East Timor Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo complained of the rise in foreign prostitutes in the staunchly Catholic territory, which becomes independent at midnight on Sunday.

The United Nations Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) asked the East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) administration on Thursday to protect East Timorese students studying in Kupang from intimidation carried out by a group of Timorese refugees.

Tangerang – Some 1,000 kindergarten, elementary and high school teachers grouped in the Tangerang branch of the Indonesian Teachers' Union (PGRI) staged a rally at the local municipal offices on Thursday to protest against what they claimed was the discriminative treatment they had been subjected to for so long.

Adam Majendie. Dili – At midnight on Sunday, the eastern part of the island of Timor, 500 kilometers north of Australia, ends four centuries of foreign rule to become the world's newest country. It gains independence only in name.

Tim Dodd, Jakarta – On the eve of East Timor's independence a majority of Indonesians, ranging from the influential political elite to ordinary people, appear ready to accept the new nation as a friendly neighbour.

Alan Boyd, Sydney – Time is running out for a settlement of disputed oil and gas royalties in the Timor Gap, as Australia turns up the diplomatic heat on the fledgling Timorese republic just ahead of its independence celebrations.

Joanne Collins, Manatuto – Fidgeting in his chair and staring at the ground, Matias Soares recalls the night he and other pro-Jakarta militiamen went on a rampage, torching houses one by one, after East Timor voted to break from Indonesian rule in 1999.

Soares and his mates in this seaside town of Manatuto had just looted beer from a kiosk and were roaring drunk.

Lely T. Djuhari, Jakarta – Not everyone will be cheering Monday when East Timor declares its independence and becomes the world's newest nation two years after seceding from Indonesia.

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – The economy grew by 2.47 percent in the first three months of 2002 compared to the same period last year, fueled mainly by strong consumer spending, the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS) reported on Wednesday.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – High, strong fences were erected surrounding some malls and shopping centers here in the wake of the May 1998 riots, yet they fail to ensure business safety, at least for most shop owners who are still traumatized by the bloody incidents four years ago.

Dean Yates, Dili – Caitono Soares erupted in anger when he saw East Timor's national flag being peddled from the back of a car in the capital Dili.

As Bill Clinton leads the US delegation to East Timor's independence celebration, the East Timor Action Network (ETAN) urged that the history of US support for Indonesia's military occupation of East Timor not be forgotten. On May 20, East Timor will become the first new nation of the millennium.

Eric Ellis, Dili – A warrior of the East Timor Defence Force stands guard outside the offices of Aderito Hugo da Costa, editor-in-chief of Dili's Timor Post.

Chris McCall, Dili – Nearly 20 years ago, the remote East Timor community of Muapitine was shaken by a string of killings. The victims were clandestine resistance workers and their own relatives joined in the killing.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Television and radio broadcasting operators warned on Wednesday they would go off air if the House of Representatives (DPR) and the government failed to revise the broadcasting bill currently being deliberated.

Leo Wahyudi S., Jakarta – The Jakarta administration's plan to increase bus fares does not necessarily mean improving drivers' welfare. Bus and public minivan operators claim the benefits for them are limited as they are also burdened with illegal fees, leading to a high-cost operation.

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – The complicated process for obtaining permits for advertising billboards or outdoor advertisement has been used by certain officials of the city administration as a source of illegal levies from the applicants, businessmen said.

Berni K. Moestafa and A'an Suryana, Jakarta – Chatting to a number of commuters at the Gambir station, a man complains about rampant crimes. Politics too is a mess and he thinks the military should return to power. Nostalgia sets in. "It isn't as it use to be, times were better under Soeharto," he said.

Sibylle Kaczorek, Darwin – The fourth solidarity brigade to East Timor organised by Action in Solidarity with East Timor/Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific will leave for Dili on May 13.

Pip Hinman, Sydney – "We have no relationship with Indonesia anymore. We have to find our own way", was how Erwanto, a visiting Acehnese democracy leader summed up his people's determination to win their independence.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Indonesia said it would not follow the Philippines in allowing US troops into the country, even as it held out the prospect for resuming military ties with the United States.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Increasing rice shortages could force many Indonesians into having to give up their favourite dish of nasi goreng by the end of the decade.

According to the US Department of Agriculture, Indonesia will become the world's biggest rice importer this year.

Stephanie Coop – After a lifetime dedicated to fighting for a free East Timor, Jacinto Alves will finally see his country move to full independence Monday, when the United Nations' transitional administration steps aside to make way for the country's first democratically elected government.

The Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggles (FNPBI), the militant trade union federation, organised mass actions across the country on May 1. Pro-democracy groups joined the workers' rallies.

Aceh rebels said they had detained nine female students because of their "close relationship" with Indonesian troops.

Eight high school students and one university student were detained in the Idi Cut area of East Aceh on Thursday and Friday at the request of their parents, said Free Aceh Movement (GAM) spokesman Ishak Daud.

Tim Dodd – Dili, which becomes the capital of the independent state of East Timor at midnight this Sunday, is a relatively prosperous town for a developing country.

And Dili is the only place in East Timor which most of the VIP visitors will see when they arrive for this weekend's independence celebrations.

John Martinkus, Kupang – On the outskirts of the West Timorese capital, Kupang, a dusty former bus terminal still serves as the home for some of the estimated 60,000 East Timorese refugees who have not returned home.

Bogor – Drivers of public minivans in Bogor, West Java, went on strike on Tuesday, demanding that the Bogor city council legalize the increase in bus fares from Rp 900 to Rp 1,000. But city council chairman M. Sahid rejected passing the increase into law.

Chris Brummitt, Dili – Children in East Timor are having trouble getting their tongues around their new official language. After years of speaking Indonesian, they now are having to learn Portuguese, the language of the territory's former rulers.

Jon Land – On the eve of East Timor's independence on May 20, the crucial issue of the Timor Gap has still to be fully resolved. East Timor may lose billions of dollars in oil and gas royalties if the Australian government and the large petrochemical companies get their way.

Joanne Collins, Dili – Paint is being slapped on fences, scaffolding is coming down from buildings, weeds are being ripped up and soccer fields are getting new goal posts.

Rod McGuirk – East Timor has a good chance of becoming financially independent in a few years through Timor Sea energy royalties, the World Bank told donor nations yesterday.

Delegates from 27 countries, including Australia, met in Dili today to consider East Timor's extraordinary request for $US77 million in direct budgetary aid for its first year of independence.

Kautsar, chairperson of the Acehnese Peoples Democratic Resistance Front (FPDRA), attended the second Asia Pacific International Solidarity Conference in April to build support for the Acehnese people's struggle for self-determination. Kautsar spoke with Green Left Weekly's John Gauci.

Don Greenlees, Dili – Francisco Alves voted in favour of East Timor remaining a part of Indonesia in the 1999 referendum on independence. When the vote went the other way, 10 families from the small coastal village of Ulmera, including his own, decided to flee across the border into West Timor.

[Dita Sari is a former Indonesian political prisoner and is chairperson of the militant Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggle (FNPBI) union federation. She is also a leading member of the left-wing Peoples Democratic Party (PRD). Green Left Weekly's Sam Wainwright asked Sari about the PRD's attitude to the movements for national self-determination in West Papua and Aceh.

The commemoration of the forced integration of West Papua (formerly known as Irian Jaya, now Papua) with Indonesia on May 1 was marked by peaceful protests by pro-independence supporters across West Papua's major towns.

East Timor has traditionally been a patriarchal society with limited opportunities for women, but Maria Domingas, an ex-guerilla, says that it is now necessary to "start from scratch" in the struggle for equality between the sexes.

Colum Lynch, United Nations – The United States is seeking assurances from the United Nations that all UN personnel serving in a peacekeeping mission in East Timor would be shielded from prosecution by a local court or international tribunal on war crimes charges, according to US and other Western officials.

Asia's newest nation has been officially listed by the UN as the poorest country in the region. But many see East Timor's economic future as being dependent on the deal it strikes with Australia over oil and gas reserves in the East Timor Sea.

Former Indonesian militia leader Eurico Guterres is being questioned in Jakarta today at the trials of 18-military, police and civilian officials accused of human rights abuses in East Timor. But a new report released by the International Crisis Group has described the trials as a farce.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Army chief Endriartono Sutarto looks set to become Indonesia's next military commander by the end of this month after President Megawati Sukarnoputri forwarded his name to Parliament yesterday.