Roy Tupai – A human rights group has criticized the US government for inviting the chief of the Indonesian Army's elite Special Forces (Kopassus) to a recent regional military conference aimed at combating terrorism.

Multa Fidrus, Tangerang – Barflies and ladies' men of Tangerang regency had best live it up while they can.

The regency is considering adopting the ordinances on prostitution and the sale of alcoholic drinks that were set forth in Tangerang municipality last year.

Urip Hudiono, Jakarta – The government, in another effort to improve the country's investment climate, has completed a new bill prohibiting regions from arbitrarily imposing local taxes.

Rini Kustiani, Jakarta – The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) believes that the national political parties do not want former GAM members to joint them.

Jakarta – Indonesia and the United States will restore their joint military training programs, especially for elite forces, after they were halted due to the US military embargo imposed on Indonesia for alleged gross human right violation in East Timor in 1999, an Indonesian military official said.

Jakarta – About 5,000 workers from one of the country's largest trade union organizations swarmed the streets Wednesday in Jakarta and Surabaya to reject the government's proposal to revamp revisions to the labor law.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Hundreds of workers in Medan are camping out in front of the North Sumatra provincial council building to protest alleged abuses at the furniture company they work for.

The employees of PT Cipta Mebelindo Lestari began their protest March 16, accusing the company of intimidating workers and denying them their basic rights under the Labor Law.

Jakarta – More than 25 percent of the natural forests in Papua have been sold in concessions to timber firms exporting to Japan, the US, the European Union and China, said the director of Greenpeace in Southeast Asia, Emmy Hafild, on Wednesday.

Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, Jakarta – It is naive to think that the country's top circle of political-security decision makers could so easily lead the nation into folly.

But Indonesia's impulsiveness in recalling its ambassador from Canberra after Australia granted temporary visas to 42 Papuan asylum seekers remains a crude and unnecessary response.

Max Lane, Sydney – The arrival of 43 Papuan refugees in Australia followed soon after by the violent dispersal of otherwise peaceful student demonstrations in Papua has resulted in two weeks of sustained media coverage of the situation in Papua and its implications for Australia.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – The business community and labor unions agreed Tuesday to support the government's plan to insure dismissed workers through state-owned insurance firm PT Jamsostek.

B. Herry-Priyono, Jakarta – For a few months in 1981, I was a casual worker at a pharmaceutical factory in Central Java. Then between 1992 and 1995, I had the privilege of working among the urban poor, including industrial workers, in Greater Jakarta. It was a period when the confidence of the New Order regime was at its peak.

After triggering a wave of protests, the government's version of the draft revision of the labour law has been canceled.

Jakarta – It could have been fueled by an overreaction to fears of authoritarianism making a return, or fanned by eager-to-please businesspeople posturing before political leaders.

John Martinkus – I was last in Papua early in 2003, reporting on the rise of Islamic militia groups aligned with the Indonesian Army on the PNG-Papua border, the intimidation and attacks on human rights workers by the Indonesian military and the outrage of Papuan leaders at the insincerity of the government in Jakarta in honouring the 2001 autonomy law.

Banda Aceh – Her face heavily made-up, 'Bella Saphira' struts a darkened length of cement path along the Krueng Aceh river in Indonesia's Banda Aceh, wearing a loosely flowing dress but no Islamic veil.Elsewhere in the staunchly-Muslim province of Aceh, which has been gradually implementing Islamic sharia law, Muslim women are required to cover their heads – but then, Saphira is not

Max Lane – On April 5, the Papuan People's Assembly (MRP) issued a resolution calling for the closure of the huge Freeport mine, a demand that had been raised by student protesters at a March 15-16 demonstration and at protests earlier in the year in both Papua and other parts of Indonesia.

Sarah Stephen – Soon after the federal government's decision to grant 42 West Papuan asylum seekers temporary protection visas, an April 2 national day of action in solidarity with West Papua welcomed the decision while urging the government not to ignore the human rights situation in West Papua.

Markus Makur, Timika – The National Commission on Human Rights urged Mimika regency administration and mining company PT Freeport Indonesia to pay more attention to tribal communities in the regency.

Tiarma Siboro and Nethy Dharma Somba, Jakarta/Papua – Security authorities suspect "outside elements" may have been involved in Monday's deadly attack on a military post in Papua, with the hunt continuing for the killers.

Jakarta – About 300 hard-line Indonesian Muslims vandalized a building housing the office of Playboy magazine on Wednesday in a protest against its publication in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Hugh White – Australia's debate over Papua in the past fortnight has fallen into the ruts worn in our national consciousness by East Timor. We hear of principles on one side, and pragmatism on the other. But that is a false dichotomy, as we all should have learned from East Timor.

Jakarta – The business community warned Monday the government's decision to review proposed changes to the labor law at the urging of workers would jeopardize investment prospects amid still high labor costs.

Bruce Haigh – For as long as the Indonesian army administers West Papua, abuses will occur toward the indigenous Papuan population. The raison d'etre of the military is to hold the archipelago together – an archipelago inherited by the Javanese from the Dutch after a guerilla war. The Indonesian Republic came into being on December 27, 1949.

Jakarta – The Indonesian military is stirring up unrest and intimidating residents in the remote province of Papua, an independence campaigner charged.

Jakarta – Protesting government policy, around 200 students are planning a hunger strike in front of the State Palace – although they will not be doing anything dramatic like sewing their mouths shut.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – A rift within the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI), which used to be dubbed "locomotive of democracy" has peaked with its chief being fired last week.

This time the conflict is between executive chairman Munarman and veteran lawyer Adnan Buyung Nasution, who chairs the foundation's powerful supervisory body.

Rebecca Bream and Shawn Donnan – Freeport-McMoRan has faced a litany of criticism in recent months over the operation of its Grasberg copper and gold mine in Indonesia's remote and conflict-torn Papua province.

Minutes after James Leong and Lynn Lee arrived in Jakarta to present their documentary on East Timor, Passabe, at a film festival, they were told it had been struck off the programme.

Given the subject, it is easy to understand why the Indonesian authorities were concerned.

Panca Nugraha, Mataram – Hundreds of people vandalized and set fire to the Labuapi Police station in West Lombok regency Sunday, injuring two officers.

The incident was caused by news that police had shot and killed a resident of Karang Bangkot, which is located about 15 kilometers from the West Nusa Tenggara provincial capital Mataram.

M. Wahid Supriyadi – The granting of temporary protection visas to 42 West Papuans has given new ammunition to anti-Indonesian activists.

Wahyoe Boediwardhana and Blontank Pour, Malang/Surakarta – Thousands of Muslims staged a rally in Malang, East Java, strongly opposing the publication of the Indonesian edition of Playboy on the grounds that it would promote pornography in Indonesia.

Sydney – Australia Sunday has signalled a tougher line on refugees from Indonesia's troubled province of Papua as it faced what the foreign minister called a "crisis" in relations with its giant Islamic neighbour.

Tom Hyland – Efforts are under way to start peace talks aimed at settling the growing dispute over control of the Indonesian province of Papua.

As tensions in the territory spill over into a diplomatic row between Jakarta and Canberra, an umbrella organisation of Papuan independence groups is seeking the talks, with an Australian academic acting as intermediary.

Ellen Nakashima, Singapore – A Singapore timber trader boasted that the cargo he had sent to India was a hardwood known as merbau, prized for its use in elegant flooring and door and window frames. The species has been so heavily logged in Southeast Asia that conservationists consider it threatened.

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Welfare-based job security could be a win-win way of settling the current the industrial conflict between workers and employers and repairing the investment climate in the country.

Rendi Akhmad Witular, Jakarta – The government has officially postponed its plan to submit the controversial draft of the labor law amendment to the House of Representatives following waves of massive, rowdy street protests across Indonesia.

Jayapura – Papuans seeking for political asylum in Australia are a bunch of traitors, a Papua youth leader said Sunday.

Tom Hyland – "There is sensitivity in Indonesia about her sovereignty over West Papua, a sovereignty which Australia has never disputed and a sovereignty which Australia fully respects and fully supports." - John Howard, March 30.

Tom Hyland – Papuan refugees given asylum in Australia claim they are victims of a secret war carried out by undercover Indonesian forces aimed at destroying the independence movement.

The Australian Government's latest responses to the problems of West Papua and asylum seekers contain an ugly echo of previous times when the underlying causes of human suffering were ignored for reasons of brutal political expediency.

Tiro – Ibrahim looks out toward what was once his modest vegetable farm in Indonesia's Aceh province, before decades of separatist conflict reduced his fields to little more than mud.

"I would like help to get my garden back that I had in the mountains, beyond the rice fields, so that I could grow more cocoa and onions," he says wistfully.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The government is sticking to its guns in the debate over whether the military court should be the only court to try soldiers.

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Pasuruan – A small shop damaged by a passing Navy tank has sparked anger among hundreds of residents of four villages of Grati district in Pasuruan, East Java.The residents protested Thursday by blocking the major Pasuruan-Probolinggo route using bamboo trees. The blockade led to heavy traffic jams along 20 kilometers of the busy road for nearly two hours.

Louise Dodson, Mark Forbes in Jakarta and Craig Skehan – The Immigration Department may be forced to consider Australia's interest, not just humanitarian concerns, when deciding who is allowed asylum.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – The many poverty reduction programs the government implemented in 2005 took only a million people out of absolute poverty, a survey reveals.

Tom Allard – In the sad, bloody history of Papua, there have been fleeting moments of optimism, the last of which, dubbed the Papuan Spring, occurred in 2000.

Ferra Kambu remembers it well. A devout Christian and health worker, she joined the separatist movement under the leadership of Theys Eluay, a tribal chief.

Hera Diani, Jakarta – In a village in West Kalimantan, a patient's relative threatened a nurse with a traditional sword because she was reluctant to treat him, a discussion heard on Friday.

"It was not even a nurse's job, it was a doctor's," Achir Yani S. Hamid, the president of the Indonesian Nurses Association, told a forum on Indonesian public health.

Multa Fidrus, Tangerang – Eighteen-month-old Citra stares vacantly up at the ceiling of her parents' small house in Dadap village in Serpong, Tangerang. The malnourished child was sickly at birth.

"I don't have the money to take her to hospital for treatment," said her father Nurhasan, who is a farmer.

Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – While smokers are being held accountable for air pollution, it is not clear what the consequences are for car owners who fail to get an exhaust emissions test done.