Nana Rukmana, Indramayu, West Java – Over 45,000 hectares of rice plants in the Indramayu and Cirebon regencies, known as the rice belt of West Java, have withered following the early arrival of the annual drought, predicted to last until November.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – East Timor foreign minister Jose Ramos Horta reiterated here on Wednesday that his government did not intend to pursue an international tribunal against Indonesian military officials charged with rights abuses in East Timor.

Jakarta – East Timor's prime minister, Mari Alkatiri, called Thursday for an amnesty for prisoners currently serving sentences in Timorese jails for crimes committed around the time of the territory's 1999 bloody independence ballot.

Jayapura – Trikora Military Commander Maj. Gen. Nurdin Zainal who overseas Papua withdrew a defamation suit on Wednesday against EL-SHAM Papua for accusing the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) of involvement in the attack on a PT Freeport employee bus in Tembagapura last August. Two foreigners and an Indonesian were killed in the incident.

Prangtip Daorueng, Jakarta – The Indonesian government is once again using nationalistic propaganda and media censorship to gain public support for its military offensive in Aceh, but journalists and activists say Jakarta would do well to learn from its previous mistakes in East Timor.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – The Indonesian Government is planning new regulations to restrict foreign access to the war-torn Aceh province, as evidence emerges that the Indonesian army has trained militia groups to help its military offensive against the separatist movement GAM.

Jakarta – The Indonesian military said Thursday it will check reports from the country's national human rights commission that a mass grave has been discovered in Aceh province.

The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) told AFP Wednesday that its representatives in Aceh had received information about a grave believed to contain dozens of bodies.

Lhokseumawe – A military tribunal on Thursday found three low-ranking soldiers guilty of beating villagers unconscious during the military's offensive against separatist rebels in Aceh province, and sentenced them to short jail terms. They are the second batch of soldiers found guilty of the same crime during an operation in Lawang village on May 27.

Banda Aceh – All of Aceh's 67,000 civil servants will be re-registered and asked to attend roll-calls to affirm their loyalty to the country, a regional administration spokesman said on Wednesday.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – The House of Representatives endorsed the controversial education bill on Wednesday despite the absence of the largest faction, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).

Jakarta – Six activists in Indonesia's easternmost province of Papua are facing up to 18 months in jail for holding a protest against the authorities, a report said Thursday.

Haidir Anwar Tanjung, Pekanbaru – Choking haze plaguing the main island of Riau and the Riau archipelago, bordering Singapore and Malaysia, has reached an alarming level, raising health concerns and disturbing traffic in the province.

Indonesian troops and separatist rebels have fought their fiercest battle since a campaign was launched last month to crush the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the military said.

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – The government said on Tuesday it would investigate two companies which, according to environmental group Greenpeace's recent investigative report, have been allegedly involved in the supplying of illegal logs from Indonesian rainforests to build the UK's new home ministry office building in London.

Jakarta – About 10,000 youth, mostly high school students, rallied outside parliament yesterday, urging legislators to pass a controversial Bill to regulate religious teaching in private schools.

Jakarta – The government team sent to Sweden to secure that country's cooperation in the war against GAM has handed over evidence to the Swedish government which its claims proves that Free Aceh Movement (GAM) leaders in Sweden are involved in separatist and terror acts in Aceh.

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – The government is reviewing a presidential decree on public procurements to reduce corruption, but the effort has met with stiff resistance from various sides, including business associations.

Jill Jolliffe, Darwin – East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri is aiming to turn former bitter enemies into best friends and neighbours during his first official visit to Indonesia since his nation became independent.

Jakarta – Top level government delegations from East Timor and Indonesia signed an agreement Wednesday to control border traffic between the two halves of Timor island. The accord came after two hours of talks led by Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri and Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, who is on his first official visit to Timor's former occupying power.

Jill Joliff – East Timor's prime minister drew fire from Jakarta yesterday after resuming his call for an international tribunal to try Indonesian officers for alleged human rights abuses during his country's bloody fight for independence.

Andrew Burrell – Four Indonesian state electricity workers arrived in the small village of Bendo in central Java last week on a routine job to replace some power cables. Minutes later, three of them had been bashed to death by a frenzied mob and their bodies burnt.

Berni K. Moestafa, Lhokseumawe – Just hours after claiming to have made significant progress in its operation to crush the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the Indonesian Military (TNI) lost seven soldiers during a clash in Matang Kumbang, Bireun regency, Aceh, on Monday.

Frida Berrigan – Far from the spotlight and far from Baghdad, another shock and awe campaign is underway. On May 19th, Indonesia launched a military campaign to "strike and paralyze" a small band of separatist rebels in the Aceh province.

Vannessa Hearman, Melbourne – Fernando de Araujo heads the Democratic Party (PD) in East Timor, the second-largest party in the country's parliament. He also leads an eight-party parliamentary opposition to the Fretilin government. The opposition coalition includes parties from a diverse range of political perspectives.

Jakarta – The Aceh provincial administration's plan to screen 67,000 civil servants and "severely punish" those found to support the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has sparked criticism.

Tangerang – Some 400 workers from wood processing company PT Tambun Kusuma staged a rally at the Tangerang legislative council on Tuesday amid fears that the management would lay them off.

The protesters accused the company of looking for shortcomings on the part of its workers by claiming that 40 percent of them held fake school diplomas.

Khairul Ikhwan, Medan – There are indications that a number of civil servants in the Aceh provincial government are involved in the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), although none have so far been proven to be so. Aceh governor, Abdullah Puteh has said that the government is in the process of carrying out a more thorough investigation.

Luhur Hertanto, Jakarta – The government will soon conduct a special investigations (Litsus) of state civil servants in Aceh. This follows information which suggests Acehnese civil servants are involved in the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

James Balowski, Jakarta – Although coverage of Indonesia's brutal war in its northern-most province of Aceh has all but disappeared from the international media, it is still front-page news here.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) found human rights and humanitarian law violations in its preliminary inquiry into the imposition of martial law in conflict-ridden Aceh.

Gillian Davey – Immigration minister Philip Ruddock's June 3 decision to grant 379 East Timorese asylum seekers permanent residency in Australia is a decision that all supporters of refugees' right should welcome. The decision ends more than a decade of waiting for the 379 people concerned.

James Balowski – At around 9pm on June 4, two German tourists camping out near Lueng Gayo beach in the sub-district of Teunom in West Aceh were fired on by Indonesian troops (TNI). Lothar Heinrich Albert (54) died from a bullet wound to the chest and his wife, Elisabeth Engel (50), was shot in the knee. She is now being treated at the regional military command hospital.

Banda Aceh – Indonesia's Red Cross said on Wednesday it had taken 151 bodies to hospitals and morgues in Aceh since a fresh military offensive against rebels began, adding all victims had been wearing civilian clothes.

Jakarta – Thousands of children are being trafficked for prostitution in Indonesia and parents or other family members are often to blame, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said on Thursday.

Indonesia's Ministry of Environment has called on PT Freeport Indonesia (FI), the operator of the giant Grasberg copper-gold mine in West Papua province, to completely improve the system of its tailing disposal by the year 2004 or face legal proceedings.

A total of six generals have nominated for the Governor's race in East Java. Three are former regional commanders: incumbent Governor Imam Utomo, Haris Sudarno and Joko Subroto.

The other three are Mohammad Dayat and Deddy Sudarmaji, both former East Java police chiefs, and former vice governor of Jakarta and retired officer Abdul Kahfie.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – East Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri leads a high-powered delegation to Indonesia on Tuesday in a bid to turn former bitter enemies into good friends and neighbors.

Dili – East Timor's prime minister drew fire from Jakarta Tuesday after resuming his call for an international tribunal to try Indonesian officers for alleged rights abuses during the country's bloody fight for independence.

Indonesia's military operation to crush the Free Aceh separatists continues to gather momentum as the war enters its fourth week. The military, the TNI claims it has killed some 160 rebels and taken more than 300 prisoners, with many surrendering.

Matthew Moore and Agencies – As Indonesia's renewed war in Aceh province enters its fourth week, the army has unveiled plans to build an island prison to hold 1000 suspected members and supporters of the separatist group, GAM. The move came as President Megawati Sukarnoputri reiterated that she and her government would not tolerate separatism.

Karen Campbell-Nelson – It is important the women of Timor Leste tell what they know about past violations, to balance the tendency for men to dominate the documentation of history, and to remind social, political, and religious leaders of Timor Leste what is required of an inclusive reconciliation process.

This is how Beatriz Guterres begins telling us what she knows.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – A German tourist shot by Indonesian soldiers in Aceh province said she did not hear any calls from soldiers before they fired warning shots and further shots that hit her and killed her husband.

Lhokseumawe – An Indonesian military court on Monday found three soldiers guilty of beating civilians in war-torn Aceh and sentenced them to four months and 20 days in jail – about half what prosecutors had demanded.

Jakarta – International and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have demanded that the martial law administrator in Aceh to give the media the greatest possible access and lift any restrictions on journalists reporting on the conflict in the province.

Andrew Marshall – Of all the hardware currently deployed in Aceh, US-supplied bombers, British-made jets, tanks, armored troop carriers, assault helicopters, warships" it was a slate-gray Japanese sedan that unnerved us journalists the most.

Jakarta – An East Timorese court sentenced a pro-Indonesia militia leader to seven years in jail Monday for the 1999 killing of an independence supporter after the country voted to end 24 years of Indonesian occupation.

Bernie K. Moestafa and Tiarma Siboro, Banda Aceh – The war in Aceh is taking its toll on village chiefs with 76 in Bireuen regency resigning on Sunday after complaining about the pressure they had to face in dealing with both the Indonesian Military (TNI) and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels.

Jakarta – The government has declared war-torn Aceh off limits to tourists following the shooting of two German tourists last week.

Jakarta – Choking, thick haze that has sporadically hit mainland Riau and Kalimantan has spread and reached other islands, raising health concerns.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – "Because I'm brown, that's why I want to be white." Westerners might still like the bronzed look, but in Indonesia women such as Yusniar are demanding soaps and lotions, creams and even injections that promise to make their brown skins a few shades lighter.