Jakarta – Trikora Military Commander Maj. Gen. Mahidin Simbolon hinted on Tuesday that the Saturday attack on soldier Pvt. Edi Susanto in Timika-Tembagapura, Irian Jaya, might have involved staff of PT Freeport Indonesia.

John Martinkus – In April, 1000 pro-independence demonstrators met Ralph Boyce when the United States ambassador to Indonesia arrived in Jayapura, the West Papuan capital. They were mostly highlanders dressed in feathered head-dresses; some sported the traditional penis gourds.

Geoffrey Barker – East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao yesterday criticised the heavily armed Australian army presence in front of the Australian embassy in Dili and demanded that Australia co-ordinate this with the East Timor Government.

Mr Gusmao's criticism was published as the main front-page article in the Timor Post newspaper.

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1828: Dutch claim natives of western half of New Guinea as subjects of Netherlands' king.

1949: Dutch cede Dutch East Indies to Indonesian Republic, but retain West Papua. No, it's already ours, says Indonesia.

1950s: Anti-Dutch sentiment in Indonesia drives Dutch people out.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Hundreds of fishermen from several regencies in North Sumatra province staged a rally in front of the legislative building in Medan on Monday, demanding that the government ban the use of trawlers in the province's waters.

Jakarta – Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea revealed here on Monday that a total of 66,367 accidents at the workplace in 2000 had left 4,142 workers dead, 20,970 seriously injured and permanently handicapped, and 87,390 unable to work.

Jakarta – Seven Indonesian soldiers will soon face a court martial for suspected involvement in last year's murder of a Papuan independence leader, a report said Tuesday.

Don Greenlees, Jakarta – The letter came to American-owned Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc and the Indonesian Government a few days after three of the miner's employees were gunned down at its operations in a remote and mountainous corner of Papua.

Jakarta – Unidentified attackers raided three remote Christian villages in eastern Indonesia, killing two people, ransacking churches and homes and forcing thousands of people to flee, an official said on Tuesday.

Jakarta – Ending a 15-day whirlwind tour of six countries, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri returned home on Sunday to face critics who say she is no different from her predecessor who liked to travel instead of dealing with problems at home.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Gunmen have fired at the car of police investigating the murder of three teachers at an international school in the Indonesian province of Papua as evidence mounts of a campaign of intimidation aimed at thwarting the police inquiry.

Jakarta – It's a David versus Goliath tale, except that in this case, Goliath, the freshly re-elected Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, looks set to steamroll over his detractors.

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Sadum, a semi-employed 55-year-old man, lives with his wife and five children in his five meter by seven meter semi-permanent home on disputed land on the Tembok Bolong coast, Penjaringan district, North Jakarta. To support his family, he works as a porter at Sunda Kelapa port, one kilometer from his house.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Mr T. Gumolo, who runs a diving outfit in North Sulawesi's famous Bunaken National Park, is supposed to pay around $2,000 in import duties for the thousands of dollars worth of scuba gear and components that he buys each year from abroad.

Muhammad Nafik, Jakarta – United States Ambassador to Indonesia Ralph L. Boyce urged the Indonesian government on Monday to "do even more" in countering terrorism as no suspects linked to the al-Qaeda network had so far been arrested by security authorities here.

Tony Sitathan – Benny Winoto Salim was a businessman dealing with palm oil and its by-products in Medan, Sumatra. In 1997, he set up a chemical trading and distribution company in Jakarta dealing mainly with asphalt and later the supply of an oil-based additive from overseas.

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – Organized criminals, comprising government officials as well as military officers, were the likely culprits behind the widespread illegal logging in the country, an official said on Monday.

It also seemed likely that they were involved with an international network, according to the ministry's data.

Munir, Jakarta – The first round of the ad hoc Human Rights Tribunal on the East Timor case ended in anticlimax as the suspects of crimes against humanity were mostly acquitted from all charges. The verdict cast by the first human rights court conducted in this republic's history carries a danger that we may not have taken seriously.

Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) commander General Endriartono Sutarto denies the military has been masterminding violence in several regions to maintain its political power.

Keith Moor – East Timor is in danger of being infiltrated by crime gangs intent on using it as a stepping stone to Australia.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said his force was working with the East Timorese Government to lessen the risks.

[A leading Indonesian analyst says it will take decades to push the Indonesian military out of Indonesian politics. The former foreign policy advisor to former President B.J. Habibie says getting proper civilian control over Indonesia's army will be crucial to the transition to democracy.

Dadan Wijaksana and Musthofid, Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto has denied charges that the military's foundations generated enough profit to cover 70 percent of the TNI's budget requirement.

Dadan Wijaksana and Musthofid, Jakarta – Legislators recommended on Monday that the Indonesian Military (TNI) maintain the nation's dignity and sovereignty by seeking other sources of military aid to end dependency on the US and to curb the resulting US interference in Indonesia's affairs.

Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta – Activists demanded on Sunday the results of the gubernatorial election be suspended following the recent confession by a candidate who admitted paying Rp 200 million (US$22,222) to 40 councillors.

Washington – President George W. Bush on Monday talked about Iraq and the war on terrorism with Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri a week after the United States closed its Jakarta embassy, the White House said.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Used garments smuggled in from all over the world are flooding the Indonesian market, riling local producers who are unable to compete with the extremely low-priced goods.

Don Greenlees, Jakarta – A plan to train Indonesian military cadet officers at the Australian Defence Force Academy has been scuttled because of objections by senior commanders at Jakarta's armed forces headquarters.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Papua's police chief has cast serious doubt on the Indonesian military's claim that separatists were responsible for last month's shooting of 14 people at a remote US mine.

Jakarta – Unsure about the outcome of reconciliation attempts by former pro-Indonesia fighters, leaders of East Timorese people in squalid camps in Belu, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), have started urging refugees to participate in transmigration programs to other parts of the country.

Berni K. Moestafa and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – As disgraced House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung continued to turn a deaf ear to the mounting calls for him to step down, representatives of dozens of legislators will submit on Monday their petition against him to the House's steering committee.

Canberra – Australia reopened its embassy in East Timor on Monday after it was closed following a threat against Australian interests in the fledgling nation but said travellers should remain on alert.

Keith Moor – Victorian officers attached to the United Nations found the graves of 24 massacre victims and will this month start exhuming the bodies.

They have identified the senior militia members responsible for torturing and killing the pro-independence Timorese villagers.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has reminded the government of its unfinished investigations into a number of alleged crimes against humanity involving the state in Aceh.

Jakarta – The new government in East Timor would try to heal the psychological trauma suffered by many of its people in the 1999 violence when Indonesia withdrew from the territory, the country's health minister said.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Gunmen shot and wounded an Indonesian soldier yesterday in almost the same place that a fortnight ago gunmen killed three employees of a giant US mine in West Papua.

Alan Sipress and Ellen Nakashima, Jakarta – The body of a key suspect in the killing of two Americans and an Indonesian in the eastern province of Papua has been identified by his family as an informant for the Indonesian military's special forces, according to a human rights group helping in the police investigation.

Jakarta – A US-led attack on Iraq would fuel radicalism and anti-US sentiment among Muslim communities, putting western interests, particularly that of the United States, across the country further at risk, analysts warn.

Banda Aceh – A woman teacher was executed in war-torn Aceh on Thursday, adding to the growing list of more than 50 teachers killed since 1998.

Banda Aceh – Two personnel of the Police Mobile Brigade were killed in a firefight with rebels in Seunuddon, North Aceh, some 300 kilometers east of Banda Aceh on Saturday, according to reliable sources. The bodies of the two policemen who have yet to be identified were taken to the Military Hospital in Lhokseumawe, hours after the firefight.

Audrey Young – Jose Ramos-Horta, East Timor's Foreign Minister, is everything his country is not: highly educated, sophisticated and stylish.

For 25 years he roamed the globe as an international spokesman for East Timorese independence, acquiring degrees, a doctorate and a Nobel Peace Prize on the way.

R.K. Nugroho, Jayapura – Police in Papua have so far questioned 21 Army soldiers who were on duty during the shooting at giant copper and gold mining company PT Freeport Indonesia compound in Timika on August 31, 2002 but have said the investigation remained inconclusive with no one yet held responsible for the incident.

Jakarta – Experts welcomed on Friday the government's plan to provide incentives for rice farmers, but said that the government must also curb the smuggling of cheap rice into the country, which has been hurting farmers' income.

Yuliansyah, Banjarmasin – The Association of Indonesian Private School Employees (Asokadikta) Banjarmasin chapter said Friday that it was planning to stage a large-scale rally to demand that the government give serious attention to the Rp 4 billion in overtime pay for temporary teachers that is still being held by the education office there.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government has delayed plans to pass a controversial new media law that would bar local broadcast outlets from relaying foreign news programmes and allow the government to temporarily shut down news broadcasts deemed to violate the law.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Activists hailed on Friday a bill on witness and victim protection, but demanded that it not only provide protection for witnesses in criminal cases, but ensure leniency for those people involved in criminal cases willing to testify against fellow defendants.

Matthew Moore – The sign at the village gate says Kadun Jaya, but everyone calls it Kilo Sepuluh, or Ten K, because it is 10 kilometres out of town. The town is Timika, deep in the heart of Indonesian Papua and home to the best golf course, airstrip and hotel in the province, all built on the back of the world's richest gold mine, known as Freeport.

Cairo – President Megawati Soekarnoputri has said the support she gave to Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso had nothing to do with his reelection victory.

"If he was reelected as governor, it was not because of me. Never relate it to me," she told a press conference here Thursday night, winding up her state visit to a number of African and European countries.

Armed men in military uniforms were seen at the place where gunmen shot dead two Americans and an Indonesian teacher near the Freeport gold mine in Papua province, a report said Friday.

Nick O'malley – Fresh out of a Dili jail, Edit Horta, sister-in-law of East Timor's foreign minister, Jose Ramos Horta, island-hopped to Darwin in 1994.

She was pregnant and had an eight-year-old son in tow, but the need to escape Indonesia's oppressive rule and be reunited with her three daughters, who escaped two years earlier, kept her going.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Violent incidents such as the shooting of 14 people at a mine in the Indonesian province of Papua last month are likely to continue unless the Indonesian military's involvement in the area's resource projects is scaled right back, a report warns.