Medan (Agencies) – A strong explosion rocked the back parking lot of mayoralty building here on Monday, injuring one people, agencies reported.
Antara reported the blast in late afternoon damaged two cars and injured a staff of the city administration. The blast came from a bomb which was laid down at a bicycle in the parking lot.
Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Life for Jakartans will get tougher starting this month as they face a 40 percent increase in water charges and a 20 percent increase in bus fares.
Jakarta – The Central Jakarta District Court sentenced six members of the Betawi Brotherhood Forum (FBR) on Monday to six months in jail for an attack on the offices of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) last year.
The United States State Department says serious human rights abuses occured in Indonesia last year.
It says Indonesian soldiers and police murdered, tortured, raped, beat and arbitrarily detained civilians and members of separatist movements.
Ed Aspinall – Immediately after the bombings in Bali on 12 October, there was much speculation in the foreign, especially Australian, press, that this was a watershed event for Indonesian politics. Nothing in the country would now be the same, or so the commentators argued.
Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia launches its election process today, beginning a census of its 210 million citizens and the registration of about 130 million people eligible to vote in April next year.
The plan, according to elections commission KPU, is to send 230,000 bureaucrats door-to-door with questionnaires, in the cities, rural areas and jungles.
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The government launched on Monday a white paper on defense strategy, which calls for maintaining the military's much-criticized territorial function.
The First Commission of the Papuan Legislative Assembly and human rights activists in Papua have expressed alarm about plans to send one thousand more soldiers to Papua.
Police in the Indonesian province of Papua say the accidental discovery of a cache of illegal explosives has led to fears of covert militia activity in the region. Police say tribal leaders in the coastal town of Sorong, where police have arrested a local businessman and Islamic politician, have raised the concerns.
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Jakarta's main thoroughfares turned into seas of humanity as hundreds of thousands of people from various religions and ethnic groups took to the streets in the country's largest ever rally to protest the US-led war in Iraq.
Jakarta – Around 1 million people – originating form at least 25 political parties and social organisations – held a demonstration in Jakarta on Sunday, in the framework of opposing the US invasion of Iraq.
Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – At a glance, Vila Ilhami is a typical housing estate, one of the dozens developed on the outskirts of Jakarta in the past decade to cater to the ever growing number of middle-class families.
Jakarta – The country's four largest political parties organized separate events over the weekend as they begin to gather pace for the general election in April 2004.
Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – With Muslims in Indonesia becoming increasingly devout in recent decades, an exclusively Islamic market has now evolved, offering strictly halal products. They range from exclusive Islamic housing estates to cosmetics and foodstuff.
Take Pusaka Tradisi Ibu, a company that produces the only beauty products in the country with a halal certificate.
Jakarta – A group of migrant workers officially established an organization on Saturday to help them in their struggle for justice and fair treatment.
East Timor became a fully independent republic on May 20, following approximately 2½ years under the authority of the U.N. Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). The country has a parliamentary form of government with its first parliament formed from the 88-member Constituent Assembly chosen in free and fair, U.N-supervised elections in August 2001.
Dean Yates and Telly Nathalia, Jakarta – More than 100,000 angry Indonesians, many carrying young children, jammed the streets of Jakarta on Sunday, shouting anti-American slogans and waving protest banners over the war in Iraq.
Around 200,000 people gathered in front of the United States embassy in the Indonesian capital in the biggest anti-war rally yet in the world's largest Muslim-populated nation.
The protestors gathered in the sprawling Monas square facing the US embassy, guarded by police wielding batons and shields.
Washington (Agencies) – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Friday approved a fresh loan worth US$469 million to Indonesia, bringing its total lending to about US$3.5 billion under the current US$5 billion loan program for the country.
Ambon – Maluku island in Indonesia's Maluku province has been declared a foreigner-free zone, head of the provincial immigration office Wiryono said here on Saturday.
Foreigners who want to visit Maluku island should obtain permission from the Civilian Emergency Authority in Ambon, he was quoted by Antara as saying.
Banda Aceh – A separatist rebel hacked a soldier to death with a machete before being shot dead in the troubled Aceh province, the military said Saturday.
Takaras village in Central Kalimantan is an ecological disaster waiting to happen, with illegal miners reportedly dumping an estimated 160 kilograms of mercury into a local river every month.
Mercury, which is used to facilitate the extraction of gold ore, can cause crippling nerve disorders, brain damage, birth defects and death.
Gary LaMoshi, Denpasar – Along with the refusal of Iraqis to follow the United States and British "shock-awe-welcome liberators" script, a major surprise in the first week of the war has been the reaction of Indonesia.
Jakarta – Indonesia is drafting a regulation under which people who owe more than 100 million rupiah in taxes would be jailed for up to one year without trial.
The move comes amid concern that many taxpayers have been evading tax payments for several years, a burden to the cash-strapped government in Jakarta.
Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Which country has just passed a law to provide two days a month paid menstruation leave for women workers? Perhaps you're thinking northern Europe? Or maybe Scandinavia? If so, you're wrong.
Jakarta – Hundreds of Indonesians protested in several cities on Friday against the US invasion of Iraq, with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan as well as President George Bush coming in for criticism.
Jakarta – A rally calling for peace by hundreds of students in Jakarta on Friday was in marked contrast to a number of other rowdier rallies around the country against the United States-led attack on Iraq.
Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Thousands of people who claim to be Acehnese refugees ignored North Sumatra governor T. Rizal Nurdin's ultimatum to leave the provincial legislative council building, saying they would continue occupying the compound until they obtained resettlement funds.
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The Henry Dunant Centre (HDC) has warned the Indonesian Military (TNI) and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) against reinforcing military strength during the demilitarization process, saying that the move would violate the peace deal signed last year.
Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – Smuggling of protected animals in Indonesia is valued at a whopping US$1.5 billion a year, with Jakarta topping the list with $1.5 million per day or $547.5 million per year, according to a survey.
Jakarta – The South Jakarta district court decided that there was enough grounds to proceed with the lawsuit filed by Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung against Rakyat Merdeka daily's chief editor Karim Paputungan for defamation.
Jakarta – Rallies to protest against the attack on Iraq continued on Thursday across the country, with demonstrators in some cities expanding their targets to parties not affiliated with the United States or its allies.
Medan – Hundreds of angry refugees from war-torn Aceh prevented North Sumatra Governor T. Rizal Nurdin and all provincial councillors from leaving the legislative building for six hours on Thursday, as their demand for immediate disbursement of resettlement funds remained unheeded.
There are fears in Jakarta that the war in Iraq is diverting attention from a conflict much closer to home – in the province of Aceh. Under a demilitarisation deal signed four months ago, Indonesian military and police who've been controlling the province for over a decade, were due to start to withdraw from villages to regional barracks.
Amnesty International says two human rights activists in Indonesia's Aceh province are believed to be being held by the military and could face torture or death.
The British-based rights group says Mukhlis Ishak, 27, and Zulfikar, 24, were detained on March 25 by plain-clothed men believed to be from the military intelligence unit, Satuan Gabungan Intelijen.
Jakarta – Indonesia has criticized the United Nations' Security Council (UNSC) for its failure to take a clear stand against the United States' military campaign in Iraq.
Jakarta – East Timor has formed a new border patrol unit to replace international peacekeepers, the UN said Friday – a sign that the military is assuming greater responsibility for security in the world's newest nation.
Jakarta – If a Muslim group has its way, moviegoers in the Indonesian city of Bandung will no longer get to watch films such as Daredevil or Chicago.
The Kabah Youth Movement yesterday urged 17 theatres in the industrial town 200 km south-east of Jakarta to stop screening US and British films because of the war in Iraq.
Several Indonesian Non Government Organisations say they will refuse funds from America, Britain and Australia, in response to those countries involvement in the war on Iraq. The Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation, several women's rights groups and the country's leading environmental watchdog, known as Walhi, have joined in the action.
John McBeth, Jakarta – Controversial new legislation that would give the Indonesian armed forces unilateral authority to deploy troops in the event of an emergency appears to undermine efforts by reformers to impose civilian supremacy over the military.
Tens of thousands of Indonesian protesters took to the streets on Thursday to oppose the US-British bombardment of Iraq. Many prayed for peace, others wept, some hurled tomatoes at the US Embassy and others "sealed" a McDonald's outlet.
Jakarta – More than 36 billion rupiah meant for the Acehnese refugees has been embezzled allegedly by officials who also stole other forms of aid provided by humanitarian groups.
Jakarta – Environment Minister Nabiel Makarim said here Wednesday the government and the House of Representatives (DPR) had to settle the question of environmental pollution in PT Freeport Indonesia's mining field in Papua this year.
East Timor's Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation has been up and running for over three months now and has accepted over 100 minor political criminals back into their villages.
Yuli Trisuwarni, Bandung – The Ka'bah Youth Movement Muslim organization has threatened all movie theaters in the West Java capital of Bandung to stop showing American and British films until the countries stop attacking Iraq.
Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Women activists demanded the executive board of political parties on Tuesday arrange legislative candidates alternately between men and women to give women a greater chance to meet the 30 percent quota for representation in legislative bodies.
East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao has urged Canberra to allow 1,600 of his compatriots who fled to Australia about a decade ago, in the bloody years before independence, to stay.
The asylum seekers would not impose any hardship on the Australian economy whereas destitute East Timor would struggle to provide for them, Gusmao told a conference here about nation building.
Batam – Local religious and community leaders are angry with the authorities for turning a blind eye to the thriving gambling dens on the island which cater to a largely Malaysian and Singaporean clientele.
Jakarta/Bandung/Semarang – Thousands of workers from Jakarta, Bandung in West Java, and Semarang in Central Java staged separate, peaceful rallies to coincide with the new labor bill becoming law on Tuesday.
Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – Thousands of workers from failing factories, formerly run in whole or in part by international companies, in Greater Jakarta are facing a bleak future as there is not yet an existing law that deals with foreign investors who close up shop without agreeing on settlements with the workers.