Responding to comments made today by Australian Prime Minister John Howard, the Free West Papua Campaign strongly criticised any plans to interfere with the process by which visas are granted to Papuan asylum seekers.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The attorney general has questioned police for failing to investigate Maj. Gen. Muchdi Purwoprandjono, a former deputy chief of the State Intelligence Agency (BIN), in connection with the murder of human rights campaigner Munir.

Ruslan Sangadji, Palu/Jakarta – Representatives of the Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) and the country's largest Muslim organization Nahdlatul Ulama are calling for a stay of execution for three Poso death-row convicts until the men's claims of innocence can be fully examined.

Ridwan Max Sijabat – Manpower and Transmigration Minister Erman Suparno gathered with top aides in a daylong meeting Thursday, amid increasing signs the government may bow to pressure to scrap planned revisions to the 2003 Labor Law.

M. Azis Tunny, Ambon – Three thousand workers of Djayanti Group's Seram Plywood employed at PT Artika Optima Inti in Seram regency, Maluku, staged a rally for a second day Thursday to protest against the management's decision to lay off 2,589 of its workers.

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandar Lampung – Dozens of illegal sawmills around Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park in West Lampung, which had stopped operating during the past several months, are again processing timber from the park and nearby community-owned resin plantations, environmentalists say.

Hera Diani, Jakarta/Serang/Chiang Mai – For nearly three decades, Slamet Rahayu, 58, has worked in the fight against tuberculosis by finding and monitoring TB patients in neighborhoods in Central and East Jakarta.

Michelle Grattan, Canberra and Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – John Howard says most Australians do not want West Papuans seeking refuge here.

Urip Hudiono, Jakarta – Indonesia's economy is expected to continue slowing down this year, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Thursday, with high inflation and interest rates still battering consumption and private investments.

Jerry Norton, Jakarta – Playboy magazine may no longer rate on the sexual cutting edge in some places, but the first edition in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, caused a stir on Friday.

Tb.Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – The government is defending its much-criticized decision to revive issuing forestry concessions to timber companies in Aceh, saying the plan was vital to support the reconstruction of the tsunami-ravaged province.

M. Rizal Maslan, Jakarta – Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono says that he has the names of six to seven non-government organisations (NGO) that are manipulating the Papua issue. Sudarsono is asking the NGOs to be transparent about their funding sources. If not, they will be audited.

Andra Jackson – Exiled West Papuan independence leader Jacob Rumbiak is well placed to challenge the credibility of Indonesian assurances that 43 West Papuan refugees could have been safely returned to Indonesian-controlled West Papua.

Mark Baker – It is now evident the chorus of cheers that greeted the Immigration Department's prompt and uncharacteristic decision to grant temporary residence to 42 West Papuan asylum seekers was premature.

The search continues for a boatload of Papuan asylum seekers thought to have mistakenly landed on an island in Papua New Guinea in their quest to get to Australia.

Reports emerged this week that six asylum seekers from the Indonesian province had landed on an island in Australia's north.

Mark Forbes, Jakarta – Papua's first directly elected governor has warned Indonesia must deliver "justice, equality and prosperity" or face the prospect of more violence and an exodus of asylum seekers.

Canberra – Indonesia's respect for human rights in its Papua province has improved and Australia shouldn't encourage the region's independence, the Australian prime minister said, despite his country's acceptance of refugees from the province.

The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) called participation of the commander of Indonesia's Kopassus Special Forces in a US military conference a bad precedent and a setback for efforts at reform and accountability. Major General Syaiful Rizal is in Hawaii this week to attend the Pentagon's annual Pacific Area Special Operation Conference (PASOC).

Armia AM, Lhokseumawe – As a result of delays in the ratification of the Acehnese version of the Draft Law on Aceh Government (RUU-PA), thousands of university and high-school students in the city of Lhokseumawe held a Aceh Peace action at the North Aceh Regional House of Representatives (DPRD) on Thursday April 6.

John Birmingham – What was Bill Leak thinking last weekend? There he was, a senior diplomat, respected authority on Australian foreign relations, widely known to have the ear of John Howard and the autonomy to pronounce on government policy without fear of contradiction, and in a fit of madness he throws it all away just to... Oh, sorry. That's right. He's none of those things.

Jakarta – Considering the massive level of deforestation in tsunami-hit Nangroe Aceh Darussalam province over the last five years, the government should review its decision to revive eight forestry concessions there, an environmental organization says.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The recent memo-writing scandal involving Cabinet Secretary Sudi Silalahi shows that a culture of corruption is still deeply rooted in officialdom, despite the efforts of the government to rid itself of the scourge, observers say.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Of the more than 100,000 state officials nationwide required by the Anticorruption Law to report their personal wealth to the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK), only half have complied, the commission says.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – Vice President Jusuf Kalla adopted a soothing approach Wednesday to a seething labor protest outside his office in Central Jakarta.

Kalla sat down with 10 labor union representatives after an estimated 60,000 protesters gathered to denounce controversial changes to the 2003 Labor Law.

Jakarta – Thousands of workers in the country's main cities took to the streets Wednesday to voice their objection to the proposed revisions to the 2003 Labor Law.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Labor unions pooled their resources Wednesday in stepped-up protests nationwide against planned revisions to the labor law, with worker absenteeism due to demonstrations of the past two weeks causing mounting losses to industry.

Parliamentarians, union leaders and academics have been included on an Indonesian government list of prominent Australians supporting Papuan separatism.

The list also contains the names of a swathe of activist groups.

It was prepared by a group of senior Indonesian MPs with input from the country's intelligence agency, known as the Badan Intelejen Negara, or BIN.

Indonesian importers have called for a boycott of Australian goods as anger grows over Canberra's decision to grant temporary visas to 42 Papuan separatists who arrived in Cape York in January.

Abdul Khalik and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Indonesia may end up breaking its own laws if it keeps trying to secure the return of 42 Papuan asylum seekers recently granted temporary visas in Australia, an official says.

Telly Nathalia, Jakarta – Thousands of Indonesians rallied across the world's fourth-most-populous country on Wednesday to protest against a parliamentary move to revise employment laws.

Conflict is mounting in Indonesia over proposed changes to the country's labour laws. A bill to amend the current manpower act is due to be tabled in the House of Representatives next week. The changes would allow investors to put workers on limited contracts and would reduce severance payments for sacked employees.

Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh said Tuesday he simply followed orders in the decision to drop criminal charges against several delinquent debtors from the Bank Indonesia Liquidity Support (BLBI) program.

He said his office implemented the directive of Coordinating Minister for the Economy Boediono and Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati in March.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – A leading corruption watchdog lambasted the government Tuesday for its failure to recover the bulk of taxpayer money stolen by corrupt businesspeople and officials.

Coordinator of Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) Teten Masduki rated as poor the performance of each agency enlisted to pursue people accused of corruption and seize their assets.

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Bogor – The massive illegal logging of Papuan merbau timber is being fueled by five giant international flooring companies, which are neglecting to check whether they have bought legal timber, a new report says.

Jakarta, Palu, Kupang – The government should delay the execution of three men on death row for inciting sectarian conflict in Poso, Central Sulawesi, to ensure justice was done, legal experts say.

Peter King – The fracas between Indonesia and Australia over West Papuan refugees may blow over, but the underlying issues won't go away anytime soon.

Cartoonists might make light of it, but the view from Jakarta of separatist unrest in Papua is anything but funny. Papua is many times larger than East Timor and Aceh combined.

Jakarta – The National Police signed a memorandum of understanding Tuesday with Britain to increase police cooperation between the two countries to combat transnational crimes and terrorism.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Stop by Floor M of the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry on Jl. Gatot Subroto in South Jakarta to witness a finely honed bureaucratic process in full working order.

Bandung – Hundreds of pedicab drivers in Bandung protested outside the office of civilian guards on Monday after the alleged beating of a driver on Saturday.

Pedicab driver Agus Sarifudin said the protest had not been planned. "It's spontaneous," he said.

Damien Kingsbury, Melbourne – In asking the question, is Papua in danger of becoming another East Timor, Ahmad Qisa'i does little more than highlight a number of misunderstandings about East Timor, Papua and Australia (Jakarta Post, March 29).

Jakarta – Robust demand for Indonesia's crude palm oil (CPO) and rubber helped push up the country's total exports for the first two months of the year by nearly 19 percent from the same period last year, offsetting a drop of more than 10 percent in oil and gas exports in February.

Jakarta – Residents of a village in Rawakalong, Depok, have filed a lawsuit against a textile factory, saying their wells are filling up with diesel fuel from its leaking pipes.

The late Adam Malik, long Indonesia's foreign minister and later vice-president, was called the "kancil" after the mousedeer which, in his country's folktales, uses cunning and humour against bigger predators. In one story Mr Malik's admirers used to tell – not one found in illustrated children's books – the mousedeer evades a tiger by running into a hollow log.

Some people following the case of the three Christians awaiting execution for their alleged involvement in the Poso violence in 2000 have no doubt recalled the movie In the Name of the Father, based on the real-life story of the Guildford Four, who were wrongly convicted for an IRA bombing.

Jakarta – Thousands of village heads from around the country staged a street rally in Jakarta on Monday to push for better pay.

Ruslan Sangadji and Yemris Fointuna, Palu/Kupang – Two of three men on death row in Poso, Central Sulawesi, told police Monday they were advised by their legal counsel not to reveal the names of 16 men who masterminded a wave of sectarian violence.

Jakarta – Defying the stance taken by Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) leaders, moderate young activists from the nation's biggest Muslim organization say they oppose the controversial pornography bill.

Grouped in the NU Youth Forum, the activists said the House of Representatives should address issues more urgent than the much-debated legislation.

The Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) is to join the annual Pacific Area Special Operation Conference for the first time since a military embargo was imposed on the country by the United States in 1998.

Jakarta – Indonesian Defence Forces (TNI) chief Marshal Djoko Suyanto said military cooperation between Indonesia and Australia would remain normal despite the souring of Indonesia-Australia relations following Canberra's action in granting temporary visas to 42 Papuan asylum-seekers.