Jakarta – New political parties continue to surface. After 27 new political parties registered recently with the department of justice and human rights, there is now one more party, the National Liberation Party of Unity (PPPN or Papernas), that is ready to follow suit.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Former political prisoners linked to the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), and human rights activists are unhappy about the government's seeming unwillingness to establish the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (KKR).

They said Saturday the commission was their last hope to have their reputations rehabilitated and their rights recognized.

Benito Lopulalan, Jimbaran – Survivors and relatives of the 20 people killed in suicide bombings on Indonesia's Bali one year ago held a sombre memorial Sunday amid stepped-up security on the resort island.

Bandar Lampung – The Bandar Lampung City Preparatory Committee for the National Liberation Party of Unity (KP-Papernas) plans to start socialising the new party this afternoon at the Lampung Cultural Gardens.

Dili – Unidentified men set the Dili headquarters of East Timor's main political party Fretilin on fire today, but there were no casualties, a member of the fire brigade said.

The fire partially gutted the office building and spread to three nearby homes, sending plumes of thick black smoke into the air.

Kadek Krishna Adidharma, Ubud – Despite the lateness of the hour for the sleepy artisan town of Ubud, a star-studded cast began to gather at 8:30 p.m. at the open stage of Puri Saraswati on Friday night for Tribute to Pramoedya.

At the end of November, a new broad, left party will hold its founding congress in Indonesia. The National Liberation Party of Unity, or PAPERNAS, is an initiative of the main revolutionary organisation in the country, the People's Democratic Party, PRD.

In communist and authoritarian countries it has been common for rulers to order historians to write official history textbooks is such a way as to dignify those in power and help ensure that they remain unchallenged. For such regimes there is zero tolerance for any efforts to question their version of history.

Jakarta – Indonesia is angry at Washington's refusal to give it access to a suspected al-Qaeda member and Indonesian citizen held in Guantanamo Bay.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – A group of legislators and human rights activists lodged a protest Friday against last week's executions of three Christian men in Central Sulawesi, saying they were against the law.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – On Aug. 11, 2006, The Jakarta Post received notice of the arrival of a small package that would prove valuable in showing that, despite all the talk of democracy and freedom of speech, little has changed in the way the bureaucracy works.

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Blitar – At 78, former legislator Putmainah's eyes light up when she recounts her past activities in the women's division of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

The 3rd Annual National gathering for the Australian Coalition of West Papua Support Groups affirmed the right of the people of West Papua to Self-determination and decolonisation.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Former chief of the Army's Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) Lt. Gen. (ret.) Prabowo Subianto denied Thursday that he berated then president B.J. Habibie as he was about to be removed from his position, or that he planned a coup to overthrow the government.

Hera Diani, Jakarta – Activists urged lawmakers Thursday to revise the demography bill or change it into a civil registry law, as they believe the bill still maintains religious discrimination and interferes with civil administrative affairs.

Morgan Mellish, Jayapura – A group of 40 international donor organisations, including the Australian government and the World Bank, flew to the troubled Indonesian province of Papua this week to meet recently elected governor Barnabas Suebu.

Lindsay Murdoch – The man appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, to head a new mission in East Timor has decided not to take the job, in a setback for plans to help the country recover from months of violence.

ID Nugroho, Sidoarjo – Shrimp pond owners are resigned to losing their livelihood from the government's plan to directly dump hot mudflow into a local river from the gas exploration well disaster in Porong, Sidoarjo, East Java.

Farmers from Jabon district fear dumping of the mud without treatment to remove any toxic materials will decimate their shrimp stocks.

Jakarta – A new showdown is brewing between the House of Representatives and the Attorney General's Office, this time over the decision to charge a human rights campaigner with graft.

The South Sulawesi prosecutor's office has declared Achmad Ali, a member of the National Commission on Human Rights, as a suspect in a Rp 250 million (US$27,000) graft case.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Former rebels may lose upcoming direct elections in Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam because they have split into two rival groups, analysts say.

Jakarta – The challenge of staging polls in Indonesia's Aceh this year should not derail a peace pact signed in 2005 between separatists and the government, an analyst said Thursday.

Jakarta/Sidoarjo – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Wednesday declared areas swamped by the mudflow in Sidoarjo, East Java, a disaster zone and ordered some 3,000 affected families to be permanently relocated.

Ary Hermawan, Jakarta – Environmental activists poured some 700 kilograms of toxic mud outside the office of welfare minister Aburizal Bakrie on Wednesday to protest the government's handling of the Sidoarjo mudflow disaster.

Jakarta – Election officials in Indonesia's strife-torn Aceh province have ordered that potential candidates for upcoming provincial polls must be able to recite from the Koran, Islam's holy book, in order to run, a local report said Thursday.

Chris Brummitt, Porong – Factories that once produced watches and shoes lie under a sea of thick, stinking mud. Villagers stand on hastily constructed dams and gaze at the thousands of homes swallowed by brown sludge.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – An Acehnese woman is fighting to contest this year's direct gubernatorial election, saying the local poll body unfairly declared her unable to read the Koran.

Passing a Koranic reading test is one of the requirements for candidates to vie for the Dec. 11 gubernatorial election in Aceh, which applies Islamic sharia law.

Sutarto, Jakarta – Sidney Jones, President Director of the International Crisis Group for Southeast Asia, estimates that regional leaders' election in Aceh will be safe.

The indication is that the votes of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) will be divided so now there is no reason to encourage people to oppose the GAM.

Ary Hermawan, Jakarta – A member of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM), Achmad Ali, claims the South Sulawesi Prosecutor's Office has wrongly named him as a suspect in a graft case without questioning him.

Natalie O'Brien – Indonesia is not surprised at revelations the 43 Papuan refugees who caused a diplomatic incident when they arrived in Australia by boat in January had been hand-picked in a well-orchestrated plot to cause a rift between the two countries.

Jakarta – Dozens of former employees of Hotel Indonesia, otherwise known as Inna Wisata, staged a protest in front of the hotel management's office on Jl. Buncit Raya, South Jakarta, demanding immediate payment of an overdue retirement fund.

Riky Ferdianto, Jakarta – Yesterday (27/9) the South Jakarta District Court rejected an appeal against the Order to Stop Prosecution (SP3) in the case involving former president Suharto.

The appeal was lodged by the People's Movement to Try Soeharto (Gemas), the Association of Indonesian Legal Advisors (APHI) and the Committee Without a Name (KTN).

Neles Tebay, Rome – The International Crisis Group (ICG) published early this month its report on Papua titled Papua: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions.

Jakarta – Peace in Indonesia's once-restive Aceh province should hold even if former separatist rebels running in December's local elections fail to win any posts, analysts said on Thursday.

Dili – International police in East Timor fired tear gas to disperse groups of youths fighting on the streets of the capital today and later arrested some at a refugee camp, witnesses said.

Yemris Fointuna, Maumere – The National Police denied Tuesday accusations that one of three Catholic convicts, Dominggus da Silva, was tortured before being executed last week.

The family of da Silva, who was executed for inciting violence against Muslims in Central Sulawesi in 2000, insisted that his body be exhumed for a second time to check for evidence of torture.

Max Lane – Several prominent Indonesian historians have come under criminal investigation for writing an official history textbook in 2004 in which they no longer insisted that the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI) was the mastermind of an attempted left-wing coup in September 1965.

East Timor's police force has begun returning to work in the capital Dili. It is the first time this has happened since the city descended into violence earlier this year.

This week The Australian published an opinion piece by Mark Aarons attacking journalist John Martinkus, and New Matilda, for articles we have published on the recent violence in East Timor.

Indra Harsaputra, Sidoarjo – The East Java Police have issued a shoot-on-sight order against anybody trying to disrupt activities of the National Mudflow Mitigation Team at the disaster site in Sidoarjo, East Java.

Khairul Saleh, Palembang – An ammonia gas leak Saturday at state fertilizer company PT Pusri in Palembang, South Sumatra, made residents living near the factory sick, an environmental group says.

Jakarta – Major labor organizations are protesting what they call rampant violations of the law on social security programs by employers, as well as alleged dismissals of unionists for protecting workers.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – The government and the House of Representatives once again engaged in heated debate Tuesday over whether to deliberate a bill on state secrecy.

Indonesia is investigating a possible cluster of bird flu cases after a man died and his brother and sister were hospitalised, one of them testing positive for bird flu, a doctor said yesterday.

Paul Alexander, United Nations – East Timor needs fair elections, reconciliation and a big injection of international aid to overcome the recent violence that battered the fledgling nation, Foreign Minister Jose Luis Guterres said Wednesday.

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – Residents of Saritem, the oldest red-light district in Bandung, West Java, were enraged Tuesday when public order officers began closing brothels as part of a plan to totally close down the area by November this year.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Vice President Jusuf Kalla is under fire for his statement that democracy is less important than political stability and security in attracting foreign investors to Indonesia.

Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – Two-years after the establishment of the much-hyped Jakarta Transportation Board (DTK), there has been no breakthrough achieved to resolve the city's disorganized transportation system, a study shows.

A. Hamzah, Jakarta – "Pertamina calls on you to become a Pertamina gas station owner as a token of participation in national development." You may be puzzled by this call, which can be found on Pertamina's website.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The management of state-owned insurance company PT Jamsostek has transferred two leaders of the Jamsostek Workers Union (SPJ) to far-flung branch offices as an internal battle rages on.

Tito Sianipar, Jakarta – Munir's widow, Suciwati, has filed a lawsuit against PT Garuda Indonesia Airlines for 13 billion rupiah. The civil lawsuit was heard at the Central Jakarta District Court yesterday.