Apriadi Gunawan and Ridwan Max Sijabat, Medan – The Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) held their first joint public gathering here Tuesday, paving the way for the country's two largest political parties to form a strategic coalition to contest local elections and the 2009 presidential election.

Green Left Weekly's Vannessa Hearman spoke to Agus Jabo, chairperson of the National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas), in Jakarta about the new party's campaign plans and its defence against ongoing attacks from right-wing organisations.

What are your hopes for the 2009 presidential and general elections?

The shooting of the villagers in Pasuruan

Rajawali Nusantara Corporation (RNC), having links with the Indonesian Naval Forces - Navy's Eastern Fleet in Surabaya, cultivated a disputed land in Alas Tlogo Village, Lekok, Pasuruan, East Java. The villagers had been claiming the traditional ownership of the land for sometime.

Jakarta – Both the government and non-governmental organizations acknowledged Tuesday the need for a new Truth and Reconciliation Commission law that would be focused on the pursuit of justice for victims.

Jakarta – All ten factions in the House of Representatives agreed during a plenary session Tuesday to enact a new Taxation Arrangements and Procedures Law, with the government and lawmakers expressing the hope that it will place taxpayers and the tax service on a more equal footing.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Thousands of people gathered at Dharmaloka heroes cemetery in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, on Tuesday to pay their last respects to Abilio Jose Osorio Soares, the last governor of East Timor before it declared independence through a UN-organized referendum in 1999.

Dili – East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta ordered security forces on Tuesday to stop hunting for an army renegade accused of involvement in last year's wave of violence.

Jayapura – The governor of Papua, fresh off a tour of remote villages, said past development efforts have failed to lift the majority of rural Papuans out of poverty.

Governor Barnabas Suebu, who visited villages in Supiori, Biak Numfor and Waropen regencies during his two-week tour, said more than 80 percent of people in rural areas were living in absolute poverty.

Jakarta – Vice President Jusuf Kalla has reiterated his wariness toward the application of Western-style democracy in Indonesia.

Speaking before a visiting delegation from the Netherlands-based Institute for Multiparty Democracy (NIMD) on Monday, Kalla said the application of Western democracy in Indonesia would create injustice and inequality.

Indonesian militant Abu Dujana plans to sue the police, alleging he was shot in the thigh by members of an elite anti-terrorist unit after surrendering, one of his lawyers says.

Dujana, who is believed to head a military wing of the South-East Asian militant group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), was captured on June 9 during a police raid in Central Java.

Jakarta – Members of the House of Representatives are currently deliberating the bill on Military Tribunal but are at odds with a well-known human rights organization over whether soldiers convicted of crimes should serve time in civilian prisons.

Fabio Scarpello, Denpasar – After a military-civilian clash over disputed land in East Java turned deadly last month, outraged locals are urging Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to act decisively in taming trigger-happy soldiers and reigniting the stalled reform of the Indonesian armed forces.

ID Nugroho, Sidoarjo – Police officers were forced come between two groups of mudflow victims in Sidoarjo, East Java after the groups accused one another of providing false information in efforts to receive compensation.

Police officers invited representatives from each group to a reconciliation meeting beside the main thoroughfares of Sidoarjo.

Anissa S. Febrina, Jakarta – Land disputes seem to be a dime a dozen in Indonesia right now. In the last four weeks alone the country has seen arguments and wars arise over car park lots, residential and commercial properties and farming fields alongside Navy developments.

Anissa S. Febrina, Jakarta – Heartless speculators, a corrupt judicial system, an incomplete and untrustworthy land ownership database and greedy politicians.

Add them all together and you have a country covered in land disputes – only a few of which make good reading.

Prodita Sabarini, Jakarta – A non-governmental group is urging residents to play an active role in monitoring the performance of the city's next governor and deputy governor, who will be elected in an August poll.

Jakarta – Hundreds of laborers with the Force Labor Alliance staged a rally at the Cakung Bonded Zone, North Jakarta, to demand the government scrap the current outsourcing and working-under-contract system.

Adisti Sukma Sawitri, Jakarta – The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) admitted on Sunday that senior members had offered to support several generals as candidates for deputy governor in return for money.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Indonesia's plan to diversify its purchase of military equipment may be realized with British defense companies eyeing Indonesia as a promising market for their products and a potential production base.

Jakarta – Nearly half the residents of Indonesia's remote Papua province have never heard of HIV/AIDS despite the virus' prevalence there being 15 times the national average, a new internationally funded research report shows.

Palu, Central Sulawesi – Human rights groups in Palu, Central Sulawesi, urged the police Friday to investigate attacks on student activists allegedly by hired thugs.

Activists from the Anti-Corruption Students Coalition (KMAK) staged a peaceful rally at the Palu District Court on Thursday, demanding Tadulako University rector Sahabuddin Mustapa be convicted for corruption.

The Territory coroner has ruled out investigating the suspected murder of a Darwin journalist by the Indonesian military.

Roger East is suspected of being killed by invading Indonesian forces at Dili's wharf on December 8, 1975, after travelling to East Timor to investigate what happened to five colleagues who were killed two months earlier. He was 29.

The news that East Timor may be considering setting up a composite defence force of some 3000 personnel has aroused a curious, and generally negative reaction here in Australia. Some of the comments border on the absurd – for example, the ridiculing of the size of the force and the need for 'such a small nation' to have a force of this size.

Activists from the Indonesian Student League for Democracy (LMND) and the National Liberation Party of Unity (Papernas) in the East Kalimantan city of Balikpapan have been the targets of harassment by the local government officials, police and the military (TNI).

Gone is the debate over whether independent candidates should have the right to contest the election for the Jakarta governor in August.

Even if the Constitutional Court says independent candidates do have this right when it delivers a verdict on the issue later this month, it will be too late to change Jakarta's poll.

Prodita Sabarini, Jakarta – Almost 30 percent of eligible Indonesian voters think academics and intellectuals would make the best regents, governors and presidents, a much higher proportion than those preferring candidates from political parties, a survey has found.

Jakarta – Police announced Friday they were holding the overall leader of regional terrorist group Jamaah Islamiyah (JI), identified as Zarkasih.

Also on Friday, another terrorist suspect arrested along with Zarkasih, Abu Dujana, said to head JI's armed wing, was shown on a tape saying that religious figure Abu Bakar Ba'asyir once led the group.

Jakarta – Hundreds of employees of Hotel Indonesia and the now-defunct Hotel Inna Wisata who were laid off three years ago rallied outside the Grand Indonesia business complex in Central Jakarta on Thursday to demand severance pay.

Ary Hermawan, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has ordered all government departments to take a firm action against thousands of secretive bank accounts containing some Rp 30 trillion (about US$3.3 billion) in public funds.

Presi Mandari, Jakarta – Indonesian police said Friday they had captured the head of Southeast Asian extremist network Jemaah Islamiyah, blamed for some of the deadliest terror attacks in the region.

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – Indonesia faces a return of US military aid restrictions unless it prosecutes the general responsible for Jakarta's bloody withdrawal from East Timor and drastically reforms its armed forces' business arrangements, its parliament has heard.

Jakarta – Many people in Indonesia's Aceh province remain traumatised two years after a peace deal ended almost three decades of war and if left untreated could trigger violence, a report said on Friday.

Jakarta – Civilians in Indonesia's Aceh, which was wracked by a long-running civil conflict, suffer high rates of mental trauma that could trigger more violence, a report said Friday.

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – Around 150 members of the Mosque Movement Front (FPM) and the Anti-Apostasy Front took to the streets of Bandung on Thursday to demand the closure of private homes being used for church activities. They marched from the al-Ikhlash Mosque in Soreang Indah to the Katapang district office in Bandung.

[Negligent Neighbour: New Zealand's Complicity in the Invasion and Occupation of Timor-Leste by Maire Leadbeater, 234 pages, Craig Potton Publishing.]

Australia obviously has a keen interest in the outcome of the East Timorese election, to be held on June 30. East Timor is Australia's nation-building project. Australia sent troops to East Timor in 1999 to help the tiny country on its way to independence from Indonesia and it helped restore calm when violence broke out in 2006.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – The US has praised Indonesia for making significant efforts to combat human trafficking, but in its latest report says the country still does not fully comply with the minimum standards in eliminating trafficking.

Jakarta – Last weekend's arrest of Abu Dujana, the alleged leader of regional terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), by Indonesia's anti-terror squad has deservedly won Jakarta widespread praise. The capture of the Afghan-trained militant may also help to dampen renewed enthusiasm in the US Congress for yet another proposal to cut military aid to Jakarta.

What the government announced as a new package of bold measures to reinvigorate investment and empower micro and small businesses in a bid to accelerate economic growth turned out to be largely a wish list from President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Adisti Sukma Sawitri, Jakarta – Teething problems in the legislation of direct elections make "money politics" and "political monopolies" inevitable in the Jakarta gubernatorial election, observers say.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Indonesia's improved human rights record and efforts to reform its armed forces appear to have not been enough to stop a US House of Representatives panel from proposing cuts in military aid to the country.

The United States House of Representatives is again considering cutting military aid to Indonesia because of its failure to reform its military and to prosecute senior officers for the violence in East Timor in 1999.

Last November the US agreed to resume military ties with Indonesia after 1999's violence in East Timor caused them to be cut.

Ed Davies, Jakarta – Islamic militants in Indonesia have suffered a serious blow with the capture of the country's most-wanted man, Abu Dujana, but experts believe they are still capable of mounting attacks.

Jakarta – The son of former Indonesian dictator Suharto plans to appeal a Guernsey court decision to extend a freeze on his money allegedly hidden there at the request of Indonesia, his lawyer said Thursday.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The security and defense commission at the House of Representatives warned Wednesday of a potential repetition of violent clashes as numerous cases of civilian-armed forces land disputes remain unsettled.

Jakarta – A visiting United Nations representative sees positive developments on human rights promotion in Indonesia, but pointed to serious constraints in fulfilling these rights.

Suherdjoko, Kudus – Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Kudus regency, Central Java, on Tuesday to reject the central government's plan to build a nuclear power plant in nearby Jepara regency.

Havana – The excellent relations between Cuba and Indonesia have been highlighted by the Diplomatic Corner television show in Indonesia.

The topic was discussed by Cuban ambassador to Indonesia Jorge Leon, and former director and main consultant of the Darmais Oncological Hospital, Dr. Samsuridjal Al Dauzi.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Political analysts said Tuesday that fewer political parties would lead to a more effective government. A higher election threshold along with incentives for parties to amalgamate and quality improvements were among their suggestions.

Jakarta – A no-show by city officials meant the first meeting between the city council and the administration to discuss the dengue fever bylaw had to be postponed Tuesday.