[East Timor authorities have imposed a curfew and sent troops onto the streets of the capital Dili, following a day of rioting in which as many as five people have died. Several businesses, including the ANZ bank, were targetted, after a large crowd which was demanding the release of an arrested student went on the rampage.

Max Lane, Jakarta – Any analysis of Indonesian politics during the last year three years, especially since the downfall of President Abdurrahman Wahid, has to take account of the steady rise in the masses' alienation from the Indonesian political elite.

More than ever, Australia has a direct interest in the reform of Indonesia's corrupt, politicised legal system. With the arrests of the main suspects in the Bali bombings it is to this legal system that Australia will now look to mete out the appropriate punishment for a horrendous crime.

Hundreds of Amarek village residents in Cikupa district, Tangerang, ran amok on Monday afternoon and damaged the office of PT Bintang Abadi at Jl. Raya Serang km.18.

James Balowski – On November 27, an Indonesian court sentenced notorious militia chief Eurico Guterres to 10 years in prison for crimes committed during the violence in East Timor following the 1999 referendum for independence.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Rising wages, coupled with a hyperactive labour force, are turning off foreign investors, some of whom are packing up and abandoning the country.

To bring back investors, Jakarta needs to better control workers and the rate of pay hikes. Indonesia has simply gotten too expensive.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Observers have said the US-led war against terrorism had caused a setback in the promotion of human rights, which was demonstrated in the continuing impunity among security officers charged with atrocities in East Timor.

David Fickling, Darwin – Absurdity is a concept particularly popular with politicians treading on shaky moral ground. Invoke absurdity, and you immediately set yourself up on the side of reason, while ushering all right-thinking people to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you. Those you criticise are self-evidently in the wrong.

Indonesia's West Kalimantan province has lost an estimated 300,000 hectares to illegal logging over the past two years and will become a desert by 2040, reports said today.

Research recently compiled by the University of Tanjungpura, in West Kalimantan, shows that the province has lost 165,631 hectares of forest per year in 2000 and 2001, said The Jakarta Post.

Don Greenlees, Jakarta – Shortly after dawn on April 7, 1999, independence, let alone justice, for the East Timorese seemed a distant dream in the fearful and empty streets of Liquica.

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – Human rights activists see no hope that the ad hoc human rights court will uphold justice and punish military and police officers for their alleged involvement in the 1999 East Timor violence.

Dili – East Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri has rejected President Xanana Gusmao's demand that he sack Interior Minister Rogirio Lobato, saying his cabinet is characterized by "solidarity and cohesion".

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – Thousands of people packed Dili Cathedral yesterday to hear Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo's reasons for quitting as head of the East Timorese church and leaving the territory.

The special service followed his unexpected announcement last week that Pope John Paul had accepted his resignation on grounds of physical and psychological ill health.

Andrew Trounson, Melbourne – Plans to market natural gas from the Greater Sunrise fields in the Timor Sea to markets in Australia are to be abandoned, with the partners in the project now expected to target offshore markets, potential customers say.

Jakarta – At least six people, including two soldiers and a member of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), were killed in the latest violence to hit Aceh, AFP reported.

Three civilians were shot dead by soldiers searching for members of GAM in Manyang Baroh, in the North Aceh district, early on Sunday, the local GAM spokesman Teungku Jamaica said.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Defying President Megawati's instructions, some 500 Papuans gathered outside the residence of former Papuan Presidium Council (PDP) chairman Theys Hiyo Eluay on Sunday to commemorate what they called the independence day of the country's easternmost province.

Jane Perlez, Denpasar – His fingers clasp a long brush and with the finest of strokes, Nyoman Kantor paints the figures of a Balinese myth onto eggshell. Luscious reds, greens and yellows sparkle on the egg, a memento popular with tourists who come to Mr. Kantor's outdoor studio and salesroom.

Robert Go, Jakarta – After the private bank that Ms Sri Astuti worked for folded in 1998, she sought a clerical job at other offices. When no suitable offer came after three months, the mother of two used most of her savings to open a warung, or foodstall, near her home.

[East Timor's independence celebrations have been marred by a series of anti-government protests, centered on the failure of former resistance fighters to find employment. This week a police station in Baucau has been attacked by an angry mob and 3000 anti-government protestors have rallied in Dili.

An explosion shook a government building in the main town of Indonesia's restive Poso district on Sulawesi island, but police say no one was hurt.

Local police say the blast, believed to have been caused by a home-made bomb, slightly damaged the office of a state social welfare group in Poso town.

They say the blast shattered several windows and part of the ceiling.

Joco Boavida – The riot of 4 December 2002 took residents of Dili and news listeners and watchers worldwide by surprise for the extent of anger and violence that suddenly erupted and vanished in so short a time.

Indonesia's sham prosecutions, the need to strengthen the trial process in East Timor, and the imperative of UN

Don Greenlees, Jakarta – Indonesia's Human Rights Court acquitted three army and police officers yesterday over charges of human rights crimes in East Timor – maintaining its unbroken record of refusing to convict senior security force personnel.

Jakarta – Thousands of poor people in Banggai and Banggai Islands in Central Sulawesi are reportedly facing famine, following the sharp decrease in theLuwuk logistics sub-depot's rice stocks, Antara reported.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Pressure is mounting on the police to release 16 people arrested for protesting against the planned reopening of the PT Toba Pulp Lestari (TPL) pulp mill in Porsea, North Sumatra, as the Sweden-based NGO, Jij Vecht Tegen Onrecht, protested the arrests on Friday.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Indonesia has expressed optimism over the possibility of the United States Congress allowing Indonesian Military (TNI) officers to rejoin the US International Military Education and Training (IMET) program.

Hamish McDonald – Reality seems to have dawned this week on Eurico Guterres, the long-haired young firebrand who led one of the most violent pro-Jakarta militia groups in the campaign to deter the people of East Timor from voting for independence just over three years ago.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – The 10-year jail term given to notorious militia leader Eurico Guterres for instigating attacks on pro-independence leaders during East Timor's bloody referendum in August 1999 is the toughest sentence yet to be handed out by Jakarta's human rights courts.

The international community is the only hope East Timorese have of winning retribution for the crimes committed by Indonesia during its 24 years of occupation. Until this happens, justice will remain a mirage for the tens of thousands of people who lost relatives and property.

Japanese technology company Sony Corporation will close its audio equipment manufacturing plant in Indonesia due to labour and tax problems.

Japan's industry and trade minister, Rini Suwandi, has been quoted as saying Sony had been facing labour problems since early this year.

State agencies responsible for managing and protecting the environment have come out in favor of a proposal to establish an integrated agency to deal with environmental crimes, but the affected industries remain entrenched within complex business, government and criminal networks left over from the corrupt regime of former president Suharto.

Integrated agency

Jakarta – The House of Representatives passed on Thursday a controversial broadcasting bill despite protests it will curtail press freedom.

"The bill was endorsed by all but one faction," legislator Slamet Effendy Yusuf told AFP, referring to the small Unity and Nationhood faction who wanted the passage to be delayed to allow a further review, he said.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – The House of Representatives endorsed on Thursday a bill on political parties despite the protest of a number of legislators demanding the adoption of specific rulings to ensure gender equality in politics.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Indonesia's plans to beef up its intelligence network by reviving its regional intelligence posts throughout the country, has led to some questioning about whether the body was becoming too powerful.

Berlin – East Timor's foreign minister, Jose Ramos Horta, reacted angrily Friday to the latest round of acquittals by the Indonesian court trying human rights abuses committed in East Timor in 1999, describing one of them as "scandalous".

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – President Xanana Gusmao has attacked East Timor's politicians, condemning the inefficiency and corruption of the Fretilin-dominated government and demanding that the Internal Affairs Minister, Rogerio Lobato, be sacked.

Nethy Dharma Somba and Fabiola Desy Undjaja, Jayapura/Jakarta – Police in Manokwari, Papua, arrested on Wednesday 13 people who raised the Morning Star flag to mark the fifth anniversary of Papuan independence.

Also on Wednesday, President Megawati Soekarnoputri issued a decree banning of all ceremonies celebrating Papuan independence.

Bill Guerin – Indonesia's once-mighty footwear industry is in danger of collapse if urgent measures are not taken to enable it to reassert itself in a market long dominated by China. Buyers are increasingly moving to Vietnam as Indonesian shoemakers lose their competitive edge.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Jakarta's East Timor trials were supposed to be the place where Indonesia would prove that its military had reformed and could no longer escape punishment for human rights abuses.

[In Indonesia, one strand in the complex hunt for the Bali bombers has taken police to the troubled Maluku islands. Amrozi, one of the confessed conspirators in the Bali terrorist attacks, says he also helped to make bombs that were sent to the eastern island of Ambon in 2000.

Kafil Yamin, Jakarta – It took Indonesia's House of Representatives more than two years of often-heated debate to pass a controversial broadcasting bill on Thursday, but critics here say the law is a return to the repressive measures of the Suharto regime.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto welcomed on Wednesday the planned Tokyo meeting on Aceh, but warned that any foreign assistance for Aceh should have no conditions attached.

Jakarta – Due to personal commitments, a South Jakarta District Court judge postponed on Wednesday for the second time the hearing into a criminal case involving a student accused of insulting President Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – In Dili, widespread shock and disbelief met Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo's announcement of his resignation.

Bishop Belo, a Nobel peace laureate, said he was resigning because of "physical and psychological exhaustion, requiring a long period of rest". The Pope had accepted his resignation, he said.

The conviction yesterday of former East Timor militia leader Eurico Guterres for crimes against humanity and his sentence to ten years in prison has done nothing to dispel the widespread belief that Indonesia is not committed to providing meaningful justice for the victims of human rights atrocities in East Timor, says Tapol the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign.

[In East Timor a tribunal has passed judgement on one of the most notorious militia leaders involved in the violence in the fledgling country three years ago. Eurico Guterres got a ten year jail sentence for crimes against humanity but all along the process has been widely condemned as flawed.]

Transcript:

Anthony L. Smith – Two Americans and one Indonesian were killed on August 31 at the hands of an unknown assailant near the Freeport mining operation in Timika, Papua.

[East Timor's spiritual leader and joint nobel peace prize winner Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo has announced that he'll step down as the Bishop of Dili, due to ill health. The Vatican announced yesterday that the Pope had accepted Bishop Belo's resignation after 19 years in the job.]

Presenter/Interviewer: Peter Mares

Jakarta – The United Nations mission in East Timor said on Wednesday it had launched an investigation into the death of an East Timorese man hit by gunfire during a rally in front of a police station two days ago.

John Pilger – "What passing bells for these who die as cattle?", asked the great WWI poet Wilfred Owen. His famous line might have been written for those who perish in today's secret wars and terrorist outrages.