Alex Chadwick, host:

Jakarta – The USA, according to US-Indonesia (USINDO) society President Alphonse Laporta, might impose a new military embargo on Indonesia because every year the Congress has a different budget committee that will discuss the new legislation.

The Southeast Asian Press Alliance has expressed alarm over the media situation in East Timor after Prime Minister Mari Altakiri signed an executive decree approving a penal code that criminalises defamation.

Andrew Steele, Jakarta – The wagons are already circling. In just over one month, swarms of journalists and humanitarian icons spanning from U2's Bono to former US President Bill Clinton will descend on Aceh to take stock of the recovery and reconstruction efforts that have occurred in the wake of last December's tsunami.

Jakarta – Widodo AS, the Coordinating Minister for Politics, Law and Security, has said that the government has taken a rapid response to the hunger cases in Papua.

"I think that the government has already responded quickly to the situation in Papua," stated Widodo.

Labor says the Government must ensure proper safeguards are in place when Australia resumes training exercises with Indonesia's notorious Kopassus special forces early next year.

Reporter: Alexandra Kirk

Mark Colvin: There's been a mixed reaction to the Federal Government's decision to resume training with Indonesia's special forces.

Military cooperation was cut in 1999 when Kopassus trained militias which killed East Timorese people while Australia was leading a peacekeeping mission there.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Australia has invited Indonesia's special forces Kopassus to join a two-week counterterrorism exercise next year, a move which rights activists say is inconsistent.

ID Nugroho, Surabaya – Deddy Prihambudi, the chairman of the Surabaya Legal Aid Institute, who usually speaks in an explosive manner, was, for a moment, unusually quiet.

Rusman, Balikpapan – Illegal logging on Borneo along the Indonesia-Malaysia border has increased in recent years, leading to rapid deforestation, a non-governmental organization (NGO) activist has said.

Arin Widiyanti, Jakarta – Concerned about their livelihoods that are being ground down by the advanced countries, though policies being driven by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), farmers, workers and fisherpeople are urging the minister of trade, Mari Elka Pengestu, to struggle for and to protect their welfare.

Havana – Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of East Timor, Mari Bim Amude Alkatiri, praised Cuba's development and breakthroughs in its health system and its successful cooperation program with other nations.

Jakarta – The National Police have announced the largest-ever reshuffle under chief Gen. Sutanto, which an analyst claims kick-starts a new paradigm that will promote meritocracy. In a telegram dated Dec. 9, made public on Saturday, Sutanto appointed 13 new regional police chiefs, of whom eight will get a promotion in rank.

Jakarta – The Islamic-oriented Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) has claimed it senses a conspiracy to alienate it from the coalition that supports the current administration.

In an open letter to East Timorese President Josi Alexandre Gusmco, Human Rights First congratulated the Timorese leadership and called for the prompt release of the full report of that country's truth commission.

We are shocked and disappointed by the Australia-Indonesia Institute's (AII's) last-minute withdrawal of support for this year's Jakarta International Film Festival (JiFFest) – funds that were committed fully five months ago in support of Australian films and workshops at this year's festival.

Jakarta – Indonesia welcomed Australia's decision Sunday to resume ties with its elite commando unit to help fight terrorism, but human rights activists questioned whether the force had improved its record since Canberra imposed the ban.

Jakarta – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) foresees stronger coordination between the fiscal and monetary authorities in navigating Indonesia's economy through the high inflationary and high-interest rate environment.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The demands for Aceh's partition should not be a priority for immediate discussion so as to avoid shifting the focus of attention from the reconstruction work in the tsunami-ravaged province, lawmakers have said.

Eva C. Komandjaja and Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Jakarta/Malang – In an effort to fight terrorism and other crimes, the government would fingerprint all citizens instead of only students of Islamic boarding schools, police here said on Friday.

Olivia Ward – West Papua is one of the world's most obscure territories, a rain-forested land that is little known except for its exotic beauty.

But human rights lawyer Yan Christian Warinussy says its indigenous people mainly experience the ugliness of poverty and repression, as they struggle for independence from the ruling Indonesian government.

Jayapura/Jakarta – Stunned by reports of famine in a remote Papua district that has left 55 people dead, the government dispatched a military cargo plane on Friday night to carry food aid to the stricken area.

The effort came amid criticism from Papuan leaders that the central and regional governments had neglected their own people, leading to the disaster.

Adirito de Jesus Soares, Dili – This week marks the 30th anniversary of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, with the people of East Timor organizing different activities to commemorate this historic moment.

As the world community prepared to commemorate International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10, human rights activist Todung Mulya Lubis shared on Thursday his observations on the advancement of human rights in the country over the past year with The Jakarta Post's Ridwan Max Sijabat.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Freedom of association is not being upheld in many workplaces here in spite of the seven-year reform movement, a labor union has reported ahead of International Human Rights Day.

Sonny Inbaraj, Dili – Cecelia Soares' eyes glaze over, each time she remembers the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. Thirty years ago, on Dec. 7, 1975, she had just been married for a year and three months earlier had given birth to a baby girl.

Sian Powell, Jakarta – Australia has left organisers of an Indonesian film festival in the lurch on the eve of its opening by withdrawing funding because it objects to a documentary about Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks and three other works.

Cirebon – An NGO activist lashed out on Friday at new minimum wage set up by the local administration, saying that it was well below workers' expectations.

"The government is ignoring the rights of workers to enjoy decent lives," said Yoyon Suharyono, an activist with the Worker and Environment Foundation (YBLH).

Human rights have become part of the daily vocabulary of people at all levels of society. However, it is obvious that not everyone, including the most educated in society, have a correct understanding or a true grasp of just what is meant by human rights.

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – The Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) has urged the government to address environmental problems from a human rights point of view.

Anna Piekarski – Yan Christian Warinussy is a wanted man. Not because he has committed a crime, but because he is trying to protect the law.

Mr. Warinussy is a human rights lawyer in West Papua, a land where, he says, more than 100,000 people have been killed since the Indonesian government took control in 1963.

Tiarma Siboro and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – If responded to by the government, the demands for Aceh's partition into three provinces could undermine the peace accord it signed with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), GAM leaders and Acehnese scholars warned on Thursday.

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – All Indonesians will soon enjoy equal opportunities as regards employment recruitment and placement, and in the remuneration they receive, regardless of gender, religion, race, ethnic group, political affiliation or social status... on paper at least.

East Timor's Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, has announced (on Friday 9 December, 2005) that a resource sharing agreement has been reached between East Timor and Australia.

Adam Gartrell – The sister of one of the Balibo Five journalists, shot dead in East Timor 30 years ago, wants former prime minister Gough Whitlam and several other high profile witnesses to front an inquest into his death.

Dili – East Timor and Australia will sign a deal on Jan. 12 to share billions of dollars in revenues from disputed oil and gas reserves beneath the sea that divides them, East Timor's prime minister said Friday.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The government defended its plan to fingerprint all students of Islamic boarding schools (pesantren) as part of the antiterrorism drive despite opposition from some lawmakers and religious leaders, whom he asked not to display an "allergic reaction" to the proposal.

Machhendra Setyo Atmaja, Jakarta – A sentence of life imprisonment for Pollycarpus Budihari Prijanto is unsatisfactory as he is only a scapegoat. There is concern that the state is protecting the mastermind behind the Munir murder case.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono swore in six economic ministers on Wednesday, emphasizing the importance of improving the country's macroeconomic condition currently in a meltdown due to higher inflation.

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – More than 300 pedicab drivers staged a protest on Wednesday outside the Bandung municipal council building here, demanding that the government revoke a bylaw that bans pedicab drivers from operating in 15 areas in the city.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – An alliance of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) launched on Wednesday a national movement to fight corruption in the country's judiciary system, which they said had reached an alarming level.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The government and lawmakers are listening to demands for the partition of Aceh into three provinces, even though it may infringe on the peace agreement that has put an end to three decades of armed conflict there.

Yuli Tri Suwarni and Eva C. Komandjaja, Bandung/Jakarta – The crackdown on terrorism conducted by an elite police unit has resulted in numerous instances of rights violations as most of the arrests made were illegal, rights campaigners allege.

Serang – High Commissioner Badrodin Haiti, the Banten Chief of Police, regrets the lack of participation by members of the general public as regards pursuing terrorists.

Dili – About 300 East Timorese called for an international tribunal to try soldiers accused of human rights violations as they marked the 30th anniversary of Indonesia's invasion of the tiny territory.

The protesters marched through the capital Dili, waving banners and shouting slogans demanding justice for victims of the occupation.

Sian Powell, Jakarta – Exactly 30 years after Indonesia sent a major invasion force into East Timor, the tiny half-island has come full circle in relations with its giant neighbour: from guerilla resistance to friendly neighbourliness.

Delivering justice for Timor: 31 years and still counting

Keith Suter – Thirty years ago, one of last century's most brutal conflicts began when Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony of East Timor.

About 10 per cent of the East Timorese people were killed. Their resistance lasted until 1999, when Indonesia finally packed up and left. Much of Timor's history is a story of invasion.

Carmela Baranowska – Thirty years ago today, on 7 December 1975, nine US-supplied C-130 aircraft took off from Madiun in East Java, under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Suakadirul. It was five minutes past midnight. Suakadirul's operation was highly secretive and he'd only had two days to prepare his crew and aircraft.

Amy Goodman: We're going to turn first to a documentary I did in 1992. It was a year after the Santa Cruz massacre, in which the Indonesian military gunned down more than 270 Timorese. I had gone to East Timor with my colleague, journalist Allan Nairn. We produced this document when we came back. It's called Massacre: The Story of East Timor.