Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Stealing the nomination start, the Golkar Party, a political machine that backed the former, repressive New Order regime, has nominated five political figures in its race to return to power in 2004, from whom one will be selected as the party's presidential candidate.

Robert Go, Jakarta – The chief of Indonesia's largest Muslim organisation has warned that an attack on Iraq would spark street riots and the resurgence of radicalism in the world's most populous nation.

Aceh – The police in Banda Aceh are still pursuing a prodemocracy activist Kautsar who mobilized Acehnese to go on strike recently without permission from security authorities.

The spokesman for the Aceh Provincial Police, Adj. Sr. Comr. Sayed Hoessainy, said on Friday the police would continue to hunt the suspect.

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – Four thousand workers of Bandung-based aircraft manufacturer PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PT DI) went on strike on Friday to protest the company's reported plan to lay off 3,500 workers.

The workers, organized by the Communication Forum for PT DI Workers (FKK), laid down their tools for two hours and picketed outside the company's front office.

Bill Guerin – Indonesia has some 200 pharmaceutical manufacturers and 1,600 pharmaceutical distributors. Several international pharmaceutical companies have manufacturing plants and offices in Indonesia, including Astra Zeneca, Bayer, Glaxo Wellcome and Schering. State-owned pharmaceutical giants PT Indofarma and PT Kimia dominate the domestic market.

Zakki Hakim, Jakarta – A coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will use the occasion of the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) in Geneva next month to press for international intervention in the ongoing East Timor human rights trials.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – West Timorese people have demanded the United Nations to revoke a security status imposed on the province after a mob killed three UN humanitarian workers in 2000, saying it was keeping away aid workers, tourists and foreign investors.

Paul Toohey – Critically needed containers of medical, health and school supplies have been stockpiled on Dili's wharf because of heavy smuggling and what East Timorese-based aid workers say is suspicion of Australia's motives.

Jim Buckell – Pressure from the Indonesian Government has forced RMIT University to withdraw official support for a conference on West Papuan independence scheduled for later this month.

Tony Sitathan, Jakarta – Indonesia is hoping to improve its image as a safe haven for foreign direct investment, especially after the Bali bombings. That task will evidently include a tough battle to win the hearts and minds of workers, who account for almost one-third of Indonesia's 220 million population.

Bogor – Floods and killer landslides that followed each other in quick succession in Indonesia – flood warnings reached a peak this month – are the latest reminders that the country has a long way to go in correcting past environmental mistakes.

Jakarta – Former Indonesian military chief General Wiranto on Thursday defended his record over East Timor's bloody 1999 breakaway from Jakarta, saying he had helped prevent a civil war there.

The Free Papua Movement's representative in Vanuatu, Andy Ayamiseba, says the Indonesian plan to split Papua province into three is aimed at crushing the independence movement.

Royal Abbott, Melbourne – Five Melbourne mayors have joined the Victorian government in appealing to Canberra to halt plans to forcibly deport 1,400 East Timorese who have been denied permanent residency.

Many of the East Timorese have lived legally in Australia for 10 years and have established roots they are unwilling to sever to return to their once-troubled homeland.

Canberra – The United Nations and Australia agreed it was too early to withdraw peacekeepers from East Timor after riots in December but its police must be strengthened so they can take over from troops, Prime Minister John Howard said.

Indonesian police have arrested a leading pro-independence activist in Aceh province after accusing him of organising an unauthorised rally.

Muhammad Nazar, chairman of the Aceh Referendum Information Centre (SIRA), was detained after six policemen kicked down the door of his home at 1.30 am, according to his wife.

Separatist rebels in Indonesia's Aceh said they have begun disarming as part of a peace deal but warned that the military must relocate its troops if the process is to continue.

Some weapons were stored at a beach area in East Aceh on Sunday, said the Free Aceh Movement's (GAM) military chief Muzakkir Manaf.

Nethy Dharma Somba and Kanis Dursin, Jayapura – The Papua Legislative Council (Papua DPRD) rejected on Monday the government decision to split up the province into three provinces and vowed to file a judicial review with the Supreme Court against a presidential decree endorsing the establishment of the provinces of Central and West Irian Jaya.

Nani Farida and Ibnu Matnoor, Aceh – The Joint Security Committee (JSC) named on Monday six new peace zones to shore up the fragile peace deal between rebels and the government, which brought an end to almost three decades of a separatist war in the restive province of Aceh.

Aceh arrests and attacks expose sham of Indonesia's commitment to peace process

Over the past week in Aceh, Indonesia has repeatedly violated the December 10 Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA), arresting civil movement activists and carrying out military offensives.

Stephen Steele, Washington – More than three years after East Timor voted for independence, access to adequate health care, education and basic human rights remains out of reach for most people in the country, said an East Timorese human rights worker.

Suwarjono, Jakarta – Although [President] Megawati's supporters have come out into the streets, students are not trembling with fear. This afternoon (Monday), 1000 students from 12 organisations will be calling for the "Tritura" (*) at the presidential palace. Tritura is the three demands of the people (*), reduce prices, try the corrupters and build a self-reliant nation.

After five months jail in an Indonesian prison, Australian academic Lesley McCulloch has been finally been released. The British-born McCulloch was sentenced to five months prison for visa violations in Indonesia's rebel Aceh province. She was detained on September 10 with American nurse Joy Lee Sadler.

Matthew Moore – The academic Lesley McCulloch was yesterday released after five months' imprisonment in Indonesia's Aceh province and will return to Australia next month to write an account of her experience.

Jakarta – About one thousand students from various universities in the Papua capital of Jayapura held a rally Monday to protest the government's decision to divide the province into three, Antara reported.

It was a palace insider, Brutus, who stabbed Julius Caesar from behind, not any external enemy. President Megawati Sukarnoputri also knows that it is highly likely the organized action to pull down her government comes not from outside, but from within her inner circle.

The Indonesian government and Aceh rebels on Sunday entered the crucial demilitarization stage in the process to end a bloody 26-year separatist war in the resource-rich province.

Thousands of Indonesians hit the streets of Jakarta on Sunday, staging a peaceful demonstration against the looming US-led war on Iraq.

Organized by the relatively small Justice Party (Partai Keadilan), it was clearly the biggest ever anti-American protest in Indonesia, involving students, Muslim activists and families carrying babies.

Jakarta – Indonesia has decided to go ahead with its decision to divide the easternmost Papua province into three smaller provinces in the face of objections from local officials and religious leaders who have warned the move may spark unrest.

Kornelius Purba, Aceh – As stipulated by the cessation of hostilities agreement signed by Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the GAM rebels are to begin disarming by February 9, while the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police will at the same time begin pulling back their combat forces to defensive areas.

Nani Farida, Aceh – Demilitarization in the restive province of Aceh is scheduled to start on Sunday as part of last December's peace deal to end long-standing hostilities, but exactly how it will work remains unclear.

Indonesia is gradually winding back the elaborate system of discrimination against its Chinese citizens.

Foreign travellers arriving in Indonesia are still asked if they are carrying pornographic magazines or more than a litre of liquor, but the question asking if you possess material printed in Chinese has suddenly disappeared.

Bill Guerin – Jakarta has officially announced that regional governments can now borrow from foreign sources if certain conditions are met.

Jakarta – The Riau chapter of Koham (Human Rights Commission) will sue 11 plywood and pulp and paper companies operating in Riau for allegedly causing the recent flooding in the province, Antara has reported.

Jakarta – An estimated 140,000 out of 583,000 current tuberculosis sufferers in Indonesia die every year compared to 2 million worldwide, Sri Astuti Suparmanto, the Health Ministry's acting director general for contagious disease control and environmental health, said here on Friday.

Dili – The commander of Australian UN peacekeepers in East Timor has dismissed reports that former anti-independence militiamen have infiltrated from Indonesia and were behind recent attacks on Timorese villages.

John Ward and Peter Symonds – The Australian government is deliberately delaying the signing of an agreement with East Timor, known as the Timor Sea Treaty, as a means of blackmailing the small, newly independent country into conceding a greater share of off-shore oil and gas reserves to Canberra.

Joanne Collins, Jakarta – A UN investigator examining Indonesia's legal system called on the government to take urgent and drastic action to tackle corruption in the country's judiciary, or see badly needed investment dwindle.

Several hundred protestors scuffled with police during a rowdy demonstration outside President Megawati Sukarnoputri's official residence in Jakarta.

The protestors were calling on the president to resign, and carrying signs showing her as the devil.

Police cordoned off the area, but had to resort to a baton charge when the crowd failed to disperse.

The UN Special Crimes Unit in East Timor has charged former militia commander, Joao Tavares, and four Indonesian TNI, or military, officers for atrocities in the territory before and after a UN sponsored vote for independence from Indonesia in August 1999. They are among 32 people, including 15 TNI soldiers, accused of murder, torture, persecution and other crimes.

Jakarta – The Indonesian military (TNI) is undertaking a major reshuffle of 120 strategic positions, including the three deputies to the chiefs of staff of the army, the navy and the air force.

Kafil Yamin, Jakarta – The market is dirty, is chaotic and reeks of animals. Called the Pramuka pet market, its bazaar-like atmosphere, punctuated by the calls of creatures in distress, camouflage well the fact that this untidy sprawl in the eastern part of Indonesia's capital is a key part of a multimillion-dollar smuggling operation.

Jakarta – In the first public admission that the military was behind the killing of Papuan independence leader Theys Eluay, an Indonesian army officer told a court martial yesterday that one of his men strangled the politician.

The Indonesian military has indicated for the first time that it was involved in the murder of Papuan pro-independence leader, Theys Eluay 14 months ago.

Jakarta – About 1,000 Indonesian students staged a rowdy protest outside the home of President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Thursday calling for her to step down.

Hundreds of police formed a cordon to stop the protesters approaching Megawati's official residence in central Jakarta.

Moch. N. Kurniawan and Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – Workers and employers have inched closer to a workable agreement with regard to several contentious and crucial issues in the labor protection and development bill, which is expected to be endorsed by the House of Representatives this month.

Ralf Scharmann, Darwin – Traditional owners in several Top End communities have offered sanctuary to 84 Darwin-based East Timorese asylum seekers who are facing deportation.

Marie Munkara, traditional owner of Cape Fourcroy on Bathurst Island has opposed the government's attempt to deport the East Timorese.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – United Nations investigators have indicted ageing militia chieftain Joao Tavares and two senior Indonesian officers for crimes against humanity committed in the Maliana district of East Timor in 1999.

Jakrta – Indonesian prosecutors demanded on Wednesday that the former military chief in East Timor be jailed for 10 years for failing to halt massacres when the territory voted to split from Jakarta rule in 1999.

Dadan Wijaksana and Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – In an apparent bid to appease public criticism, the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) started another round of legal action against five former bank owners who have been deemed uncooperative in settling their debts to the state.