Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission has set up a monitoring mission of reconstruction projects currently underway in the tsunami-hit Aceh and parts of North Sumatra.
KPK head Taufiequrrahman Ruki said the team would oversee a multimillion dollar project carried out by the Aceh Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency (BRR).
Jon Lamb – East Timor's foreign minister Jose Ramos Horta formally requested to a special session of the United Nations Security Council on June 14 that the UN Office In East Timor be extended by at least one month to August 22.
Adi W, Banda Aceh – Indonesia's senior representative on the Aceh Monitoring Mission (AMM), Major General Bambang Darmono, has confirmed that there are no longer any illegal groups in Aceh. If there still are, then these groups must be disbanded immediately.
Oktamandjaya Wiguna, Jakarta – Elements of the Acehnese people, including the Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) and the Aceh Traditions Council (MAA) met with the Aceh Government Draft Bill (RUU PA) formulation team at the Hotel Santika, Jakarta, yesterday (20/6).
Duncan Graham, Gembol (East Java) – Westerners who have seen concerts or videos featuring Indonesia's top entertainer Inul Daratista wonder what the fuss is all about. The archipelago's No 1 dangdut singer and dancer performs fully dressed – and stays that way.
Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Empowering moderates to speak up in the increasingly divided Islamic world is essential to promote peace and cultivate interfaith harmony, the chairman of Indonesia's largest Islamic organization Nahdlatul Ulama said Tuesday.
Tomas Freitas is the director of Luta Hamutuk (Fight Together), a research and advocacy institute focusing on economic issues, including East Timor's Petroleum Fund. The Petroleum Fund is a mechanism to regulate the expenditure of East Timor's oil and gas proceeds.
Agus Supritanto, Manado – The productivity of the Indonesian agriculture sector has declined.
Etty Puji Lestari, a member of the Association of Indonesian Economic Graduates (ISEI), has revealed that between 2001 and 2003, a total of 610,596 hectares of productive paddy-fields were turned into housing or used for other activities.
Jakarta – The Indonesian government's plans to reform military-owned businesses do not sufficiently address the human rights problems fueled by the current system, Human Rights Watch said in a new report released today. The Indonesian military's independent financing undermines civilian control, contributing to abuses of power by the armed forces and impeding reform.
Nurfajri Budi Nugroho, Jakarta – The 42 Papuan asylum seekers who obtained temporary visas in Australia are now biting their finger nails. Their dream of finding work in the Nation of the Kangaroo has run aground (sic).
Hamish McDonald, Boibao Fort – Clanging gongs and beating drums were background noise to testimony by leaders of an alleged political hit squad that might bring down East Timor's embattled Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri.
Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – State higher learning institutes have invited controversy by applying steep admission fees for those who can afford, such as Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB) when it sought Rp 45 million (US$5,000) in education development fees from each new student in 2003.
Ken Yunita, Jakarta – The secretary general of Government Watch (Gowa), Andi W Saputra, says that 60 percent of public officials and level II regional heads used false diplomas to get elected.
Minh Nguyen – Following a period of relative quiet, the notion of failed or failing states is again making headlines in Australia as its troops struggle to disarm warring gangs in East Timor.
Shawn Donnan – To anyone who has followed East Timor's violent birth, the prefab trailer sitting just inside the entrance of the former United Nations compound known as "Crocodile Alley" is an uneasy reminder of the stalled judicial efforts that have followed.
Jakarta – The government will embrace hard-line groups in an effort to persuade them to stop using violence, even though it has already been proven that the groups have broken the law.
Richard Kerbaj – Hundreds of protesters, including four Papuan refugees, yesterday rallied against the Howard Government's proposed migration bill that would lock asylum-seekers in offshore detention centres.
Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) says it will continue guarding PT Freeport Indonesia in the restive province of Papua, despite accusations of human rights abuses against local people.
Hamish McDonald, Dili – New details have emerged about an East Timorese Government minister's efforts to turn police into a private army for the ruling Fretilin party and arm civilian hit squads to cow voters and rivals before next year's elections.
Reporter: Liz Jackson
Most Indonesians consider the government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is doing a good job and trust its leadership, according to a quarterly survey by Roy Morgan Research.
Only 40 percent of respondents in the last quarter of 2005 agreed with the statement "I don't trust the current government", and it dipped another percentage point during January-March 2006.
Jakarta – The illegal logging that continues unchecked across Indonesia has had a worse impact on human lives than expected, experts say.
The unauthorized practice has caused a massive loss of biodiversity, particularly in Papua, that could have eventually been useful to human lives, said Barnabas Suebu, the recently elected new governor of the resources-rich province.
Tom Hyland – Despite a publicised handover of a handful of weapons by rebel soldiers, mystery over the whereabouts of thousands of police guns is delaying efforts to resolve East Timor's security and political crisis.
Shawn Donnan, Jakarta – The United Nations' efforts to seek justice for the 1999 atrocities in East Timor were plagued by mistakes and missteps, abandoned prematurely, and have contributed to the fragile state of the tiny country's fledgling judiciary, according to a forthcoming report.
Tony Hotland and Urip Hudiono, Jakarta – Vice President Jusuf Kalla says the government has no option but to take up the new loans offered recently by foreign creditors as it lacks other financing sources to fully cover this year's budgetary needs.
Jakarta – Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR) chairman Fadloli El Muhir was charged Friday with defaming women protesters, with police declaring the move showed their intent to curb intimidation by mass organizations.
Jakarta – Delinquent debtors and graft suspects will continue to bribe officials and flee the country with the trillions of rupiah they have stolen unless law enforcement agencies are made to clean up their acts, legal experts say.
ID Nugroho and Indra Harsaputra, Sidoarjo – Residents of the once-peaceful East Java town of Sidoarjo are becoming increasingly agitated about the ongoing flow of hot mud from a gas drilling well.
Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Plans to soften the capital punishment law and old ordinances on sedition and to replace the one-year jail term with community service are among the most contentious issues in a bill to revise the outdated Criminal Code.
M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Prospects of a lasting peace in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam appear stronger after the House of Representatives and the government accommodated long-standing demands of locals in the nearly finalized Aceh governance bill.
Jakarta – Legal experts rebuked the central government Thursday for being hesitant to immediately revoke sharia-derived bylaws, which they said clearly flouted higher laws and could cause national disintegration.
Manila – About 300,000 Indonesian survivors were impoverished after a deadly earthquake struck the center of densely populated Java island last month, an Asian Development Bank (ADB) study says.
"The earthquake is estimated to have impoverished an additional 67,000 households and increased the poverty head count ratio by 1.6 percent in the affected areas," the report said.
Chazizah Gusnita, Jakarta – At lease six non-government organisations (NGOs) have declared their full support for 259 PT Securicor Indonesia employees who's future's are now uncertain. This support is necessary because the employees are confronting a large foreign owned company.
Irwan Firdaus, Solo – A militant cleric who served two years in prison for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombings described the blasts Thursday as "God's will" and called those who carried out terrorist attacks across Indonesia holy warriors.
Mark Forbes, Jakarta – A beaming Abu Bakar Bashir walked out of the gates of Cipinang jail yesterday, pledging a renewed campaign to impose sharia law on Indonesia in front of hundreds of chanting devotees.
The United States and Australian governments expressed disappointment and concern at the release of a founder and leader of the terrorist network Jemaah Islamiah.
Jakarta – A decision to replace three Anticorruption Court judges after they ruled Supreme Court Chief Justice Bagir Manan should testify in a graft trial is unfair and irregular, a lawyer and antigraft activist says.
Three non-career judges, Akhmad Linoh, Dudu Duswara and I Made Hendra Kusuma, have boycotted the graft trial of lawyer Harini Wijoso since May 3.
Solo – A firebrand Indonesian cleric who served time for his role in the 2002 Bali bombings has reportedly called Islamic extremists "misguided" holy warriors, as Australia's prime minister called for him to be monitored.
It is a place where the usual rules do not apply. Inmates can be held indefinitely, their fate decided without recourse to the accepted legal and administrative processes. No, not the American prison camp at Guantanamo Bay, but Nauru under Australia's revised detention regime for asylum seekers. Even a Government-dominated Senate committee has had no option but to condemn it.
Scott Burchill – The Howard Government's decision to subcontract the processing of asylum seekers to Australia's poorest neighbours is more than simply a dereliction of its sovereign responsibilities.
With its efforts to combat money laundering becoming increasingly feeble, Indonesia faces the risk of being internationally blacklisted again as a haven for dirty money and a high-risk country for international financial institutions.
Nani Afrida, Banda Aceh – In response to the lack of involvement of women in the peace and integration process in Aceh, several women's rights activists have formed the Aceh Women's League to accommodate the political aspirations of women in the area.
A group of visiting Indonesian MPs say they are not concerned that Papuan refugees recently granted asylum in Australia don't want to meet them.
The 42 refugees had been frightened by a request to meet the Indonesian parliamentary delegation accompanying Indonesia's ambassador to Australia, Hamzah Thayeb, and had refused, their lawyer said on Thursday.
Jakarta – The Indonesian Journalists Association has condemned a Tuesday attack on a group of journalists by a gang of more than a dozen men in Kutai Kartanegara on Tuesday.
M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Calls for the central government to scrap sharia-inspired ordinances adopted in many of the nation's regencies and cities have received a cautious response from top officials.
Home Minister Muhammad Ma'ruf said Wednesday he would first let the country's 33 governors decide whether the bylaws contradicted the Constitution or higher laws.
Jakarta – Former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid has been reported by conservative clerics to the police for allegedly desecrating the holy Koran.
Mark Forbes, Jakarta – Attempts to rehabilitate the reputation of the former Indonesian dictator Soeharto and his family have suffered a further blow, with a botched effort by his ambitious daughter to host nationwide World Cup coverage.
Jon Lamb – Political tensions within the East Timorese elite continue to simmer amidst preparation for the first sitting of parliament since the arrival of the Australian-led international security force. The parliament is expected to discuss and debate the next measures to resolve the nation's political and social crisis.
Decisions about immigration policy must be made independently from concerns about our relationship with Indonesia.
Peter Boyle – Among the cynical circles of Australian foreign policy "experts" committed to Australia playing a neo-colonial role in the Asia-Pacific region, there are some differing views on the Howard government's military intervention in the East Timor crisis.