In the weeks to come, President Megawati Sukarnoputri will face a crucial decision whether she will surrender to pressure from the military hardliners trying to force her to take military action in putting down the separatism group the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

A 10-year-old girl has become the latest victim of violence in Aceh, where a four-month-old peace pact between the Indonesian government and separatist rebels is close to breaking down.

Jakarta – The Indonesian military (TNI) has arrested a man suspected of involvement in last week's raid on an armoury in Papua province, a district commander said on Saturday.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Legal confusion has emerged regarding the new policy revoking the free-visa-on-arrival facility extended to nationals of 48 countries, with an immigration official saying the ruling would not come into effect until executory guidelines had been issued.

Megan Saunders – Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock has rejected a plea by the East Timor President, Xanana Gusmao, to allow up to 1600 temporary visa holders to remain in Australia because his country is too poor to take them back.

Ambon – The Indonesian Military (TNI) warned the separatist Maluku Sovereign Front (FKM) on Friday not to hoist the flag of the South Maluku Republic to mark its anniversary on April 25.

"I will arrest those who hoist the RMS flag," chief of the Pattimura regional military command, Maj. Gen. Agustadi SP, was quoted by Antara as saying.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Adding insult to injury of the employees of state-owned Djakarta Transportation bus company (PPD), the government has planned to lay off about 2,000 workers as part of its efforts to improve the company's feasibility.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Unhappiness with the way some countries have been treating its citizens abroad is behind Indonesia's tit-for-tat decision to scrap visa-free entry privileges granted to dozens of nations, including the United States, Australia and Britain.

Dili – Police in East Timor have launched a crackdown on prostitution, raiding two massage parlors in the past month and arresting four people, an officer said Friday.

Prostitution has become an increasing problem in this predominantly Catholic country, while the foreign population rises and an undermanned police force struggles with rising crime.

Jakarta – Indonesia threatened yesterday to resume full combat operations in restive Aceh province as fresh clashes between troops and rebels killed four people, putting yet more strain on a shaky peace pact.

Tiarma Siboro and Nani Farida, Jakarta – Hope for a peaceful solution to the Aceh issue faded on Thursday when the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) declined to attend a Joint Council meeting to discuss violations of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement.

Ardimas Sasdi, Jakarta – The process of ending hostilities in troubled Aceh, which has been underway for the last five months, has entered a new, critical phase, which if not handled properly, could wreck the peace plan.

Jakarta – Indonesia's army commander yesterday warned rebels in Aceh province to drop their independence bid or face a military crackdown in the latest challenge to a four-month peace deal.

Indonesia's President Megawati Sukarnoputri is facing the apparent unravelling of the peace pact in Aceh province. Just four months after the Government and GAM, the separatist Free Aceh Movement signed a peace deal, international peace monitors have been withdrawn to the capital Banda Aceh after their offices were attacked.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) has found strong indications of the involvement of its own members in a recent burglary at the Wamena military district's arsenal that left three dead, including two Army soldiers.

The Federal Government has been accused of leaving East Timorese asylum seekers to starve by cutting off their welfare payments while they wait to hear if they are allowed to stay in Australia.

Bandung – Hundreds of elementary school students staged a rally in front of the West Java provincial legislature building, demanding the local administration to waive their monthly school fees.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Internal security and transnational crime will be the biggest threat to Indonesia's security and the military should be given more powers to handle them, a government White Paper released recently says.

Jakarta – The Star Party of Reform (PBR) failed on Wednesday to make good on its earlier boast that it would gather one million supporters in a rally against the US-led attack on Iraq.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Cash-strapped state-owned television station Televisi Republik Indonesia (TVRI) has 7,158 employees and 395 relay stations in 26 provinces. It reaches out to 81.5 percent of the country's total population, or more than 169 million people, but is being slowly but surely forced off the air.

Jakarta – Some 600 people rallied on Wednesday outside the US embassy, torching an effigy of a gun-toting US President George Bush and describing the war in Iraq as genocide.

A'an Suryana, Jakarta – The role of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to oversee the country's economic reform program is still crucial to help maintain investor confidence in the economy, a seminar concluded on Wednesday.

Jakarta – Some 57 small islands in Indonesia are ready to receive investors willing to develop businesses there, the fishing ministry's Director General for Coastal Areas and Small Islands Widi Agoes Pratikto, said here on Wednesday.

Shawn Donnan and Taufan Hidayat – When Singapore's ST Telemedia paid $630m last November for a 42 per cent stake in Indosat, Indonesia's number two telecommunications carrier, it was widely seen as a major accomplishment for the government in Jakarta.

Human rights activists and legal experts in East Timor have condemned proposed moves to limit the freedom of foreigners. Under its controversial immigration and asylum law, the goverment aims to curtail the activities of foreigners, effectively giving it the green light to deport anyone involved in activities of a "political nature".

Transcript:

Jakarta – With the war in Iraq moving closer to its third week old, anti-American protesters in the country displayed no signs of fatigue as they continued to voice their demand for an end to the US-led attack.

Dean Yates, Jakarta – A decision by Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri to split restive Papua into three provinces has created serious tension and could spark violence, a respected think tank said on Wednesday.

Banda Aceh – Indonesia's peace pact in Aceh suffered major blows on Tuesday when nine people were reported killed and peace monitors separately ordered their teams across the province to withdraw to the local capital.

Hans Gebze is a West Papuan student based in Yogyakarta. He has been involved in political struggle since before 1998. He is a secretary-general of the Alliance of Papuan Students (AMP). Gebze spoke to Green Left Weekly's Max Lane about the West Papuan people's struggle for freedom.

Sonia Kolesnikov, Singapore – The Indonesian economy has so far proven robust, weathering the Bali storm of last October. During the first quarter, the government posted an unexpected budget surplus, while inflation steadily dropped and growth remained robust.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – After four days of an operation to recover 29 stolen rifles and the rebels who allegedly stole them, combat soldiers from the Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) recovered nine of the rifles, six of which they located on the Wamena military district compound, the very place from where they went missing.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – About 3,000 bus drivers, conductors and staff of state-owned Jakarta Transportation company (PPD) planned to strike on Wednesday and attend a rally demanding President Megawati Soekarnoputri solve the company's internal problems.

William Birnbauer – A benign attitude to his country's tormentors is not widely understood, but East Timor's "Mandela" wants to move on. William Birnbauer reports.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The government has forged ahead with its plan to revoke the visa-free facility extended to nationals of 48 countries despite determined opposition from the country's tourism industry.

Max Lane, Jakarta – On March 30, at least 100,000 people marched through this city's streets to protest against the invasion of Iraq by the United States and its British and Australian appendages. In the wake of the mass anti-war march, there are widespread expressions of anti-war and anti-US attitudes – on the streets, at artistic events, in religious services, on TV and radio.

Dili (Agencies) – Prosecutors in East Timor said on Wednesday they have indicted 16 people including eight Indonesian army officers for crimes against humanity before and after the territory's bloody breakaway from Jakarta in 1999.

Jakarta – Indonesia and South Korea are considering co-operating to build a $A334 million nuclear power plant in Madura Island just off the densely populated province of East Java.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Eddie Widiono Suwondo, president of state power utility Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), is struggling to bring the virtually bankrupt monopoly back into the black. Ironically, he has had help from the onetime arch-enemies of PLN – the independent power producers (IPPs) who in effect own and run PLN's monopoly power-supply network.

Banda Aceh – International peace monitors in Indonesia's Aceh province yesterday said they would withdraw from the south of the province after a mob of up to 900 people threatened to burn down another of the group's offices.

Jakarta (Agencies) – Hundreds of people besieged a peace monitoring office in the restive province of Aceh on Monday, one day after a separate facility was torched, in the latest blow to a landmark peace pact that is threatening to unravel.

The fragile peace pact in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province has come under further strain, with the office of an international peace monitoring group attacked on the weekend, the second attack in little over a month. Some 300-people ransacked the Tripartite Monitoring Team office in East Aceh, destroying computer and other equipment before torching the empty building.

Jakarta – Three student activists were tried in court on Monday for public disorder following a rally near the residence of President Megawati Soekarnoputri in January.

Jakarta – The Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) strongly protested the police's decision to declare an editor of Tempo magazine, Ahmad Taufik, as a suspect in a defamation case.

A long-running industrial dispute in Indonesia has come to an end. The Shangri-La Hotel has settled with 80 former workers, who have been picketing the five-star hotel in Jakarta since being sacked in December 2000. The dispute attracted the attention of unions world-wide and at one point drew in the World Bank for criticism.

President Megawati Sukarnoputri has urged police to cease their involvement in illegal logging and timber smuggling.

"Do not repeat the mistakes of police involved in illegal practices," she was quoted as saying by state news agency Antara during a visit to the Indonesian Police Academy in Semarang, Central Java, on Saturday.

Cynthia Banham – Refugee groups are claiming the Federal Government is close to making a decision on the fate of East Timorese asylum seekers that would prolong their limbo status for three to five years.

As East Timor prepares to mark its first anniversary of independence, the nation's opposition parties have united to present a strong alternative to the government. The newly-formed platform of national unity is an attempt to combat what the opposition says is an undemocratic and corrupt government. It's a testing time for the players in the world's newest democracy.

President Xanana Gusmao concedes security will be a concern when United Nations peacekeepers pull out of East Timor.

The troops are due to leave next June, almost five years after the nation gained independence from Indonesia.

Dili – Most of East Timor's opposition parties signed a so-called "national unity platform" Monday, bitterly criticizing Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's cabinet and demanding the formation of a broad coalition government.

Jakarta – The Golkar Party made a belated debut in the anti-war protest stakes on Sunday, more than two weeks after many other groups took to streets across the country to condemn the United States-led attack on Iraq.