Shawn Donnan, Jakarta – Since his government last year brought about what looks like the end of the separatist conflict in Indonesia's tsunami-wracked Aceh province, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has drawn effusive praise internationally.

Andra Jackson – A group of West Timorese is seeking asylum in Australia from Indonesia claiming they have been pressured into carrying out attacks against Christians in their village.

Jakarta – Dozens of high school students protested about the dangers of lead pollution in the air at the National Monument in Central Jakarta on Saturday.

Makassar – A soldier was killed and three seriously wounded when a police truck rammed into a crowd of people amid a dispute between military troops and police officers in Manado, North Sulawesi.

Wirabuana military commander Maj. Gen. Arif Budi Sampurno, overseeing security in Sulawesi, ordered an investigation into the incident that took place early Sunday.

Jayapura – A man was arrested by Jayapura Police officers Saturday, allegedly for hoisting the outlawed Morning Star flag, the symbol of the Papuan independence struggle.

The government submitted the final draft of its Aceh government bill to the House of Representatives on Thursday, a major step following the historic peace agreement signed in Helsinki last August by Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

Sian Powell – In September 1999, a young East Timorese woman was brought to a militia post in Gleno. In the days immediately after the independence ballot, she was at the mercy of men who had lost the fight to keep East Timor within Indonesia.

Phelim Kyne, Jakarta – Investors in New York have asked US investigators to determine whether millions of dollars allegedly paid by mining giant Freeport to Indonesian military officers in Papua province amounted to bribery.

M. Rizal Maslan, Jakarta - Around 25 people from the Papuan Anti-Militarism People's Front (FRPAM) arrived at the offices of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) on Jalan Latuharhari in Menteng, Jakarta, at around 11am on Monday January 30.

Australian refugee advocates say they are alarmed by the Indonesian Government making a direct request to Prime Minister John Howard for the return of 43 Papuans.

Indonesian President Suslio Bambang Yudhoyono has assured Mr Howard that the group will not be prosecuted if they are returned.

Russell Skelton – Australia and Indonesia are headed for a diplomatic crisis over the fate of 43 West Papuan asylum seekers whose claims of persecution now appear likely to be recognised.

The Australia West Papua Association calls on the new Defence Minister, Brendan Nelson, to re-think the plan to renew ties or train with the Indonesian military and in particular the Indonesia special forces Kopassus. Without going into any great detail of its past history, Kopassus has been notorious for its role in human rights abuses in East Timor and West Papua.

Jakarta – Three more children have contracted polio in Indonesia, bringing the total cases to 302 since the crippling disease resurfaced last year, the United Nations Children Fund ( UNICEF) has said. Indonesia will hold another nationwide immunisation drive targetting 24 million children under five on Monday in a bid to eliminate the virus, UNICEF said in a statement Saturday.

Rendi Akhmad Witular, Karawang, West Java – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono appealed to labor unions Friday not to use welfare issues for political means, which could jeopardize efforts to improve the country's investment climate.

Yudhoyono said protests on labor problems should be conducted within the law and peacefully to avoid tarnishing the image of local workers.

Jakarta – Regional administrations are using the money paid out to schools under the national fuel compensation scheme as an excuse to cut back on their education budgets, a study has found.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The final draft of the government's bill on Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam opens the possibility for the redrawing of its borders, which would violate the peace agreement signed by Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement.

Suherdjoko and Andi Hajarmurni, Semarang/Makassar – Incessant rain over the last three days has inundated several cities in Central Java and South Sulawesi, forcing thousands of residents to flee their submerged homes for higher ground.

Jakarta – The group of junior high school students waited impatiently on the side of the road on busy Jl. Plumpang, North Jakarta. And waited.

The International Crisis Group's Southeast Asia project is analyzing recent developments of terrorism in Indonesia, which most recently saw a bomb explosion kill seven people in Central Sulawesi on New Year's Eve.

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – Primum non no cere – above all, do no harm – is the rule for all physicians when they treat patients.

But the reality here is often different, with doctors prescribing patients many medicines they do not need and which could have significant side effects. Their patients, meanwhile, are none the wiser, especially if they are children.

A group of Papuan asylum seekers being held in immigration detention on Australia's remote Christmas Island is expected to meet their lawyers for the first time this weekend.

Jakarta – Four hunger-strikers seeking adequate compensation for their properties acquired by the government for a transmission line project received a dead chicken and a threatening note Thursday.

The chicken carcass and letter were wrapped in a plastic bag and found in front of compound where they were protesting in Central Jakarta, witnesses said.

The Hon John Howard MP
Prime Minister of Australia
C/o Australian High Commission UK
Strand London WC2B 4LA

27 January 2006

Dear Prime Minister Howard,

We write concerning the plight of the 43 men, women and children refugees from West Papua who arrived on the Australian mainland by boat on 18 January.

Infrastructure development can be dilemmatic at times. The construction of a power network in southern Java, for example, has been met with resistance by residents in West Java and Yogyakarta. Already months behind schedule – it was scheduled to be completed last October – the network is meant to complement the overloaded northern Java power network.

Aboeprijadi Santoso, Brussels, Helsinki – A reception on Jan. 20 at the Indonesian ambassador's residence in Helsinki, thousands of miles from Aceh, provided an occasion that symbolically highlighted the success, so far, of Aceh's peace process.

Leony Aurora, Jakarta – Businesspeople, arguing that power rates are already higher than those in neighboring countries, are threatening to refuse to pay proposed additional charges, even if it means having their power cut off.

Semarang – At least 300 farmers in the plantation area of Rumpun Sari Kaligintung owned by PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) IX, have complained about the company to the governor. They are demanding that the government revoke the company's business permit (HGU) because they believe it has implemented a system of forced cultivation on local farmers.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The long-awaited labor court has been promoted as a fairer, faster and less expensive means to settle industrial disputes, which are likely to rise amid tough economic times.

Sian Powell, Jakarta – Relations between Indonesia and East Timor have soured, with Jakarta canceling President Xanana Gusmao's visit to deliver a report alleging Indonesian crimes against humanity.

Mr Gusmao had planned to deliver the 2500-page report to Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono tomorrow on his way home from the UN in New York.

Jakarta – Malls decked out in festive red and restaurants offering special delicacies for the upcoming Chinese New Year are cold comfort when one's citizenship is still questioned, Chinese-Indonesians say.

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Malang, Kupang – Flash floods swept through the East Java cities of Malang, Kediri and Jombang on Wednesday, leaving one person dead and destroying dozens of residences as well as public buildings.

Jakarta – Unlike the old system for handling industrial disputes under the Regional and Central Committee for Settlements of Industrial Disputes (P4D and P4P), the new one based on the labor court cuts through complicated legal proceedings.

Washington, D.C. – The West Papua Advocacy Team at the Robert F.

Jakarta – Taking an industrial dispute to the labor court will figure at the end of a new, expedited process of seeking a settlement.

If a dispute does reach the court after negotiations and mediation have failed, judges will be obliged to study cases registered with the court within seven days and required to finish trying them within 30 days.

Aguswandi, Banda Aceh – The fundamental problem facing Muslims and others seeking to understand Islam is not that there are too many versions of Islam. There is only one Islam, but there are a thousand possible interpretations of its texts and precepts. All lay people claim to possess the indisputable truth, all claim that no version but their own can be true.

Hera Diani, Jakarta – Every morning, traffic-jammed commuters throughout Jakarta get something to think about, as street vendors weave through the lines of cars, flashing posters of pouting models, posing in flimsy lingerie.

In the city's Glodok electronics center, pirated pornographic DVDs are often in plain view and the sellers yell out the movie names to passersby.

Anissa S. Febrina, Jakarta – While public sympathy is rarely on the side of a firm that lays off workers, the fact is that Indonesian employers have long had it far from their own way.

Andra Jackson – A Catholic bishop has warned that Indonesian authorities are "trying to get to" the 43 West Papuan asylum seekers on Christmas Island.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Human rights activists have criticized the government's defensive stance on a report by an independent commission, which claims that up to 180,000 people died during Indonesia's 24-year occupation of East Timor (now Timor Leste).

The Timor Leste government submitted the report to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Saturday (Indonesian time).

Sydney – A new report backing claims that Indonesian soldiers deliberately killed the Balibo Five journalists has sparked fresh calls for Australia to hold a full judicial inquiry into their deaths.

Washington – US-supplied aircraft played a crucial role in enabling the Indonesian military to crush East Timorese resistance to its invasion and occupation of the territory in the late 1970s, according to a report by an East Timor commission.

Tb. Arie Rukmantara, Jakarta – Tsunami-hit Aceh will soon face an environmental disaster if the government keeps on issuing logging concessions in the province's forests, an environmental group says.

Sarah Stephen – On January 18, 43 West Papuans stepped onto Australian soil at Mapoon on the west coast of Cape York Peninsula. Amazingly, they had traversed 425 kilometres at sea in a 25-metre traditional dugout canoe fitted with an outboard motor. They were flying the West Papuan flag, outlawed by the Indonesian government.

Reporter: Hamish Fitzsimmons

Peter Cave: A military build-up in the Indonesian province of Papua has heightened tensions between the Government and independence activists, and is said to have been prompted by the arrival in Australia last week of 43 Papuan asylum seekers.

Ivy Susanti, Jakarta – The Indonesian government urged the group of 43 Papuans seeking asylum in Australia to return home, and pledged that there would be no punishment.

Jakarta – The Judicial Commission promised Tuesday to investigate the judges who acquitted two military generals of all charges in connection with the 1984 Tanjung Priok massacre where troops shot dead up to 100 people.

Colum Lynch, United Nations – US political and military support for Indonesia was vital to its ability to invade East Timor in December 1975 and to sustain a brutal 24-year occupation that cost the lives of at least 100,000 people, parts of a Timorese inquiry made public Tuesday show.

The Association of Land Transportation Owners (Organda) is giving the government some room to maneuver on its threat to call a nationwide strike in early February.

Semarang – Thousands of farmers from the Central Java National Farmers Union (Serikat Tani Nasional, STN) went to the offices of the Central Java governor in Semarang on Wednesday January 25. The demonstrators gave speeches and put up posters and banners that opposed rice imports that they believe will severely damage farmers.

Luhur Hertanto, Jakarta - The government has finally completed compiling the Draft Law on a Government for Aceh and is ready to submit it to the House of Representatives (DPR). President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will today - Wednesday January 25 - study the final draft to prepare a Presidential Instruction (Ampres).