Damar Harsanto and Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – Thirty-four political parties filed a complaint with the Jakarta Police on Wednesday against members of the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights' party verification team, alleging that they accepted bribes during party screening.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Major political parties contesting the 2004 general election have failed to woo support from poor people living in urban areas, according to a recent poll.

Evi Mariani, Jakarta – Lack of knowledge about sex, reproductive health and illegal drugs has put Indonesian adolescents at risk, while data made available by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) shows that 23.5 percent of the country's adolescents have no idea what HIV/AIDS is.

Indonesia's chief security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that separatist rebels in troubled Aceh province are the country's greatest threat, well ahead of terrorists. "Our top national security priority is fighting armed separatisms in Indonesia and here the most serious military threats came from the armed rebels in Aceh," he told a conference in Canberra Thursday.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – The Medan district court is scheduled to begin the trial next week in Medan of 11 alleged members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) on charges of planting bombs in three separate locations in Medan last year and early this year.

Amid the ongoing military operation to quell the armed rebellion in Aceh, it is very difficult to meet with GAM leaders. Ishak Daud, GAM Commander for East Aceh gave an exclusive interview to The Jakarta Post's Tiarma Siboro at his base camp in an undisclosed area in the province recently.

Jakarta – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has completed its 10th review of Indonesia's performance under a 5.2 billion-dollar extended fund facility arrangement and approved the release of a further US$493 million loan.

Yuli Tri Suwarni and Blontank Poer, Bandung – Around 200 hard-line clerics urged the government to include Islamic sharia law in the revised Criminal Code (KUHP) as they cut short their two-day meeting here, which was originally scheduled to have ended on Wednesday.

Indonesia is to restrict the number of countries which receive free travel visas to just 10. Thirty-eight countries, but not Singapore, will be affected by the new ruling, which is being introduced for security reasons and will take effect from December 1.

Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta – The lack of political will to combat corruption has once again positioned Indonesia as one of the most corrupt countries in the world, anticorruption activists say.

Jakarta – Standard Poor's Ratings Services Wednesday raised its long-term foreign and local currency ratings on Indonesia by one notch to reflect the country's good fiscal performance and growing stability in economic conditions.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – This week yet another glitzy road show will set out to sing the praises of yet another Indonesian bank that has clawed its way back to financial health. The People's Bank, Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI), Indonesia's oldest and fourth-largest bank, is going public.

Paul Robinson – An Australian union official has been jailed in East Timor by United Nations police after a demonstration outside a local airline office owned by Australian travel company executives.

The Justice and Human Rights Ministry's team tasked to ascertain whether political parties are eligible to contest next April's general election has been accused of taking bribes.

At least 34 new political parties, including 12 that have passed the ministerial team's screening process, on Wednesday reported the alleged graft to the Jakarta Police.

A bitter industrial dispute in East Timor has taken a turn for the worse, with the arrest of an Australian trade union official by United Nations police. The official was taking part in a protest at Dili Airport on Sunday, organised by striking East Timorese employees of Timor Aviation Services.

Alan Sipress, Laga – On a narrow road strung perilously along a rock ledge above the beach, Cornelio Gama stopped his jeep and motioned to the spot where his rebel band had ambushed a column of three dozen Indonesian soldiers.

Indonesian judges jailed three men for more than four years for their part in last year's Bali bomb attacks in which 202 people died.

In separate trials on the resort island, judges handed down sentences for the men accused of assisting those accused of the bombings, seen as the worst global terror acts after the September 11, 2002, attacks on the United States.

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – The Bandung State Administrative Court ordered on Tuesday that state-owned aircraft maker PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI) revoke its resolution suspending its 9,643 employees since July 11 this year.

"The resolution must be revoked on the grounds that the company violated the 2003 Manpower Law," said Arpani Mansyur, who presided over the trial.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Observers have warned the public not to be overly optimistic about the newly established Constitutional Commission, saying that the final say was still in the hands of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Defense lawyers for former Jakarta military police chief Maj. Gen. (ret) Pranowo asked the ad hoc rights tribunal for the Tanjung Priok massacre to reject the prosecutors' indictment against him on Tuesday, saying it lacked legal merit.

Robert Go, Jakarta – A fire gutted South-east Asia's largest textile bazaar on February 19, and Tempo, Indonesia's best-selling magazine, has been feeling the heat ever since.

Nusa Dua – A number of human rights activists and members of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from ASEAN member countries plan to stage a demonstration on Tuesday to protest human rights abuses by the leaders of ASEAN.

Jakarta – Aceh-Papua Solidarity (Solidaritas Aceh-Papua, SAP) – which is made up of a number of non-government organisations (NGOs) – has called on the government not to extend the military emergency in Aceh. In order to resolve the conflict, SAP is calling for a return to dialogue.

Gel Wilson – Australian officials expect talks on a maritime boundary between Australia and East Timor to be "long and intricate".

The issue is a major test of Australia's relations with the new country, with ownership of oil and gas reserves worth billions of dollars at stake.

Jakarta – The Berlin-based group Transparency International on Tuesday listed Indonesia near the bottom of its list of corrupt countries, on the same level as Kenya but ahead of Myanmar, Angola, Cameroon, Paraguay, Nigeria and Haiti.

The list rates 103 nations on a score out of a possible perfect 10, with Indonesia placing 122th place with a score of 1.9.

Dili – Prosecutors in East Timor on Tuesday charged 17 Indonesian and East Timorese members of the Indonesian army with murderous attacks on independence supporters and other civilians.

Officials Monday vowed to fight investor perceptions that Indonesia is a haven for corruption and terrorism as a high-level business summit got under way in Bali almost a year after deadly terror bombings on the resort island.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak and Evi Mariani, Jakarta – As the administration continues to evict squatters from land owned by the city and private companies, political parties have begun to calculate the potential loss of voters.

Recent polls conducted by several research and survey institutes show growing public sympathy and support for retired Gen. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as a possible presidential candidate.

A. Junaidi and Indra Harsaputra, Jakarta/Surabaya – A team of 80 historians tasked with revising the national history book, are gathering new data and information on former president Soeharto's roles in a number of crucial events.

Tiarma Siboro and Andi Hajramurni, Surabaya/Makasar – President Megawati Soekarnoputri told the Indonesian Military (TNI) on Sunday to "build a bridge over the country's troubled water" resulting from various conflicts and competition among political interests, which have harmed the nation's integrity.

Leo Wahyudi S. – Forced evictions conducted by the city administration usually end in clashes between public order officers and the "illegal" occupants. People often end up in hospital due to their injuries; one even died in the last eviction in Cengkareng, West Jakarta.

The Jakarta Post talked to some people on the use of violence by public order officers.

Tiarma Siboro, Surabaya – President Megawati Soekarnoputri pledged on Sunday to resolve the conflict in Aceh as quickly, wisely, and justly as possible but fell short of divulging any time frame or new ways of thinking about ending the rebellion there.

Jakarta – The New Order regime [of former President Suharto] which was brought down by the wave of demands for reformasi in 1998, is returning to power though the 2004 general elections.

A'an Suryana, Jakarta – Military observers said on Friday that the Indonesian Military (TNI) had made some progress in reforming in the last 5 years, but pointed out other problems that it must improve to meet the nation's expectations and uphold democracy.

To celebrate its 58th anniversary, which falls on October 5, the Indonesian Military (TNI) has picked "Make the general election a success" as the commemoration's theme. The following is an excerpt of the question and answer session with TNI Commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, which was attended by The Jakarta Post's Tiarma Siboro.

In Indonesia, one of the country's most respected journalists and intellectuals, Tempo-media group co-founder Gunawan Mohamad, has had his Jakarta home confiscated by the courts....Simultaneous moves to seize a key Tempo office have so far failed on grounds that the company doesn't own the building concerned.

Evi Mariani, Jakarta – More than 1,000 people became homeless in a forced eviction on Thursday at a 15-hectare plot of land in Tanjung Duren Selatan subdistrict, West Jakarta.

Indonesia's military campaign to crush separatist rebels in Aceh province, now in its fifth month, has created a humanitarian crisis, a human rights group said in a report.

Tiarma Siboro, Surabaya – Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto called on soldiers on Thursday to uphold discipline as the armed forces were taking measures to restore their battered image.

Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta – The planned revision of the Criminal Code (KUHP) should focus on repressive articles and outdated laws, instead of criminalizing private matters, experts said.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The government pledged on Thursday to take stern measures against officials who misused humanitarian aid allocated by the state for Aceh but said the amount of losses was relatively small.

Makassar – Tension still engulfed the newly created regency of Mamasa, some 380 kilometers from the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar, on Thursday after three deaths in attacks by rival villagers.

The attacks took place on Monday and Tuesday, and involved those supporting and those opposing the division of Polewali Mamasa (Polmas) into two regencies – Polewali and Mamasa.

The East Jakarta District Court on Monday issued an asset preservation order covering the home of Tempo magazine co-founder Goenawan Mohamad. This was followed by the issuance of a similar order against the editorial offices of the Koran Tempo daily by the South Jakarta District Court.

Banda Aceh – Eight separatist rebels and three civilians have been killed in Aceh province where an anti-rebel campaign is in its fifth month, the Indonesian military said Friday.

Jakarta – The number of tourists visiting Indonesia fell in August, nearly a year after the Bali bomb blasts, while arrivals fell almost 20 percent in the first eight months of 2003, the statistics bureau said on Thursday.

Jakarta – Indonesian lawyers have criticised plans by the Justice Ministry to criminalise sex outside of marriage and some sexual acts by minors, a report said yesterday.

The ministry is drafting an amendment to the criminal code to include acts not currently categorised as crimes but seen as immoral. These include living together and sex outside of marriage.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Living in sin, committing adultery and practising black magic will be punished with long jail sentences under Indonesia's draft new criminal code.

The tough provisions in the code, intended to replace much of the criminal law left by Indonesia's former Dutch colonisers, include jail terms of up to 12 years for casual sex.

Kurniawan Hari and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Leaders of the House of Representatives (DPR) have instructed legislators deliberating the water resource bill to make several revisions on some contentious articles, Deputy Speaker Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno said on Tuesday.

A'an Suryana, Jakarta – Another survey has found that the public are disappointed with the performance of President Megawati Soekarnoputri's administration, with poor law enforcement the utmost cause of discontent.