Marianne Kearney, Darussalam – Dozens of Muslim and Christian groups are exploiting the chaos wrought by the tsunami in the Indonesian province of Aceh to spread their message and compete for influence, secular aid workers said yesterday.

Ellen Nakashima, Banda Aceh – An Islamic cleric and political organizer, Azmi Fajri Usman, pulled up at a camp of about 200 tsunami survivors stranded in a city park.

"Asalaam alaikum!" Peace be with you, he said, hopping off his motorbike and approaching a few of the survivors as the sun neared its zenith Wednesday. "Is there anyone here who's organized the place?"

Bandung – At least 1,000 workers and former workers from state aircraft maker PT Dirgantara Indonesia (PTDI) held a protest on Wednesday in response to the PTDI directors' plan to sell the company's subsidiary PT Nusantara Turbine Propulsion (NTP) to private investors.

Bangkok – SEAPA is dismayed by Jakarta's stated intent to restrict the movement of aid workers and journalists in Aceh. In the wake of the devastation wrought by the 26 December 2004 tsunami on the province, SEAPA said the latest statements of the Indonesian government and military run against a need to ensure transparency and access to information in Aceh.

Matthew Moore in Banda Aceh and agencies – Indonesia's Vice-President, Jusuf Kalla, said yesterday that foreigners should get out of Aceh as soon as possible. "Three months are enough. The sooner [they leave], the better," he said.

Banda Aceh – Indonesia bore the brunt of the tsunami, suffering 100,000 of the 150,000 fatalities. The world's response has been generous, but is already causing tensions

Petaling Jaya – A team of Malaysian volunteers was forced to bribe its way through a military check point at the Medan-Aceh border yesterday during its journey to deliver medicine and other supplies to the tsunami victims.

Raymond Bonner, Jakarta – As the United States and other world governments prepare to channel hundreds of millions of aid dollars to the tsunami-ravaged regions of Aceh, Indonesia's culture of corruption has emerged as a major concern.

The Indonesian military will send thousands more soldiers into Aceh to help tsunami relief efforts, bringing the total troop deployment there close to 50,000, a military spokesman said.

Yeoh En-Lai, Lhoknga – All that remains of the barracks that housed 2,000 Indonesian soldiers in this village is a huge mound of rubble, crushed in seconds by last month's tsunami. The commander died when his quarters were washed away.

Banda Aceh – Wanting to visit Sigli to report on the activities of Doctors without Borders here, Bruno Bonamigo, producer of Radio Canada Information, reported to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs desk at the governor's house in Banda Aceh.

An official at the desk told Bonamigo that he could go to Meulaboh on the west coast, but not to Sigli, a town on the east coast.

Manila – Two radical Islamic groups that have moved into Indonesia's tsunami-stricken Aceh province aren't likely to attack foreigners or relief workers, but may raise tensions by fostering anti-Western sentiments, said an expert in Manila Thursday.

The leadership of a rebel movement fighting for independence in the tsunami-hit Indonesian province of Aceh has called for ceasefire talks with the government.

Rebel prime minister Malik Mahmud said in the statement that his men were willing to sit down for discussions with Jakarta to ease fears over the safety of foreign humanitarian workers operating in Aceh.

Suherdjoko and Slamet Susanto, Temanggung – About 10,000 people took to the streets of Temanggung regency, Central Java, on Wednesday to demand the resignation of Regent Totok Ary Prabowo for corruption and arrogance.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Legal experts urged the government to scrap an existing ruling, which requires law enforcers to obtain approval from the President in probing state officials in graft cases, arguing that the regulation has only hampered the investigation process.

Jakarta – The often crippling traffic jams and a prolonged economic crisis have not stopped Jakartans from buying new cars.

The Jakarta administration reported on Tuesday the number of new cars on the city's streets has soared over the past four years.

Tangerang – Hundreds of workers and students staged on Wednesday a joint rally at the Tangerang Municipal Council to protest the central government's plan to increase fuel prices as well as to demand a Rp 735,000 minimum wage for 2005.

Mikad, a student at Tangerang Syeh Yusuf University (Unis), said people across the country should oppose the fuel hike.

On Wednesday morning, a major radio station in Jakarta invited its listeners to comment on the Indonesian Military's (TNI) decision to restrict the movements of international aid workers and foreign military personnel while in Aceh.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Two Papua opposition leaders went on trial separately on Wednesday at the Jayapura District Court for treason.

Prosecutor Maskel Rambolangi said defendant Yusak Pakage, 26, led a ceremony to commemorate the self-declared Papua independence day on December 1 last year.

New York – The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by Indonesian government restrictions on reporting in the province of Aceh, which was devastated in the December tsunami. CPJ called on the government today to lift the limitations immediately so independent journalists can fully document the massive international humanitarian effort.

The East Timor Action Network (ETAN) today urged Congress and the Bush administration to maintain restrictions on US military assistance to Indonesia. Congress has limited US weapons and training support for the Indonesian military (TNI) for more than a decade because of human rights violations and other atrocities committed by Indonesia's armed forces.

Jane Perlez, Banda Aceh – The Indonesian military on Tuesday ordered restrictions on foreign aid workers, limiting their free operation to the two main cities hit by the tsunami in an effort to assert control over international relief operations here.

The commander of the Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI), General Endriartono Sutarto, announced Tuesday that foreign aid agencies wishing to distribute relief to people in Aceh would be restricted to two cities, Banda Aceh and Meulaboh. Special permission would be needed to go anywere else. All agencies will now be required to tell the military where they intend to deliver aid.

Bill Guerin – Indonesia's economy, the biggest in Southeast Asia, may not be badly hit by the devastating tsunami disaster. "Given that the energy [mainly oil and natural gas] production facilities in Aceh or Northern Sumatra have survived the tsunami, the overall damage to Indonesia's economy appears to be minimal," United States investment bank Morgan Stanley said last week.

New York – The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by Indonesian government restrictions on reporting in the province of Aceh, which was devastated in the December tsunami. CPJ called on the government today to lift the limitations immediately so independent journalists can fully document the massive international humanitarian effort.

The desire by the government of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to create an opportunity for a peace agreement and end the armed conflict with the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) should be welcomed all elements of society. This positive signal should also be welcomed by GAM.

Damien Kingsbury – The arrival in Aceh of militant Islamic fundamentalist groups has raised the prospect of conflict with foreign aid workers and troops, including Australians, who are helping the tsunami relief operation.

Canberra – Australia's prime minister on Wednesday supported the Indonesian government's demand that foreign aid workers and journalists report their movements outside tsunami-battered Aceh's provincial capital.

Marian Carroll, Jakarta – An Australian Catholic priest yesterday announced an alliance with Indonesia's second largest Muslim organisation to build an orphanage in devastated Aceh province, despite warnings that radical Islamic groups could stir up tensions.

Two-thirds of the total fatalities in the tsunami disaster in Aceh were women and children as they were the ones left at home along the affected coastline.

Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) chief General Endriartono Sutarto has said that Indonesian government needed not to impose non-war martial law in the province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (NAD).

Matthew Moore, Banda Aceh – Alwi Shihab couldn't help himself. Barely two hours after a US Seahawk helicopter crashed near Banda Aceh's airport, the Indonesian minister responsible for the relief effort explained what had gone wrong to a news conference of mainly foreign journalists.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak and Riyadi Suparno, Banda Aceh – The government and the military are caught between a rock and a hard place regarding the presence of more than 2,000 foreign nationals in disaster-hit Aceh.

Guests: Prof. William Liddle, Prof. Jeffrey Winters

Jim Lehrer: Next, politics and aid in the devastated Indonesian province of Aceh. We start with a report from James Mates of Independent Television News.

Paul Toohey – The stragglers below wave plastic flags and shirts as the US Navy Seahawk helicopter settles on an island of broken tarmac in the no-longer-existent village of Panga, some 100km south of Banda Aceh. It is the briefest of touchdowns.

Matthew Moore in Banda Aceh and Karuni Rompies – Rebels in Indonesia's tsunami-stricken province of Aceh have threatened to abandon their two-week-old cease-fire unless the Indonesian military agrees to stop action against them.

INFID Statement on the meeting of the Paris Club, on January 12, 2005 and the Consultative Group on Indonesia on January 19 and 20, 2005

Banda Aceh – Leaders in the international tsunami aid effort expressed concern about how curbs on the movement of workers and a deadline for foreign troops to leave would affect relief in Indonesia's worst-hit Aceh province.

Andrew Quinn, Jakarta – As cash donations pour in from around the world for the victims of Asia's tsunami, fears are rife that corruption will divert big chunks of the aid money before it reaches the disaster zone.

The Indonesian military imposed sweeping restrictions on foreign aid workers in tsunami-hit Aceh, saying the move was needed to curtail a growing threat from separatist rebels.

Military chief General Endriartono Sutarto told reporters the armed forces would accompany and monitor aid groups on all missions outside the provincial capital of Banda Aceh.

On December 25, 2004, one day before Aceh was devastated by an earthquake-driven tsunami, the Indonesian military (TNI) announced that it had just killed eighteen guerrillas in the province.[1] Such news had long since become routine. A week earlier, the TNI killed five.[2] TNI chief Gen.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Monday (10/1/05) met with the ambassadors of Britain, Japan, Libya, Singapore, Sweden and the US to hear their views on how to resolve the separatist conflict in Aceh, said a senior government official.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The first hearing of a judicial review by the Constitutional Court last week of several contentious articles of Law No. 32/2004 concerning direct elections of regional leaders (provincial governors, mayors and regents) has revealed significant public concerns over weaknesses in the law.

Aboeprijadi Santoso, Amsterdam – Indonesia has asked East Timor to initiate a joint-commission of truth and reconciliation to resolve the issue of the violence during and after the United Nations-organized vote in East Timor in 1999.

The Indonesian government said that separatist rebels were not infiltrating refugee camps in tsunami-hit Aceh province and were not responsible for a shooting near the main UN compound, contradicting assertions a day earlier by the country's military and police.

As the Aceh aid effort gathers pace, reports have been emerging from the battered province that Indonesian troops sent in to help distribute aid have instead been selling the supplies to the hungry and desperate victims of the tsunami. The Indonesian military meanwhile has claimed Acehnese rebels have themselves been blocking access to clean water supplies.

Shawn Donnan in Jakarta and David Ibison in Banda Aceh – The government of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono threw open the doors to Aceh, the scene of a long-running separatist insurgency, in the days following the December 26 tsunamis that left more than 100,000 dead in the province, ending a de-facto ban on foreign aid groups working there.

John Pilger – The west's crusaders, the United States and Britain, are giving less to help the tsunami victims than the cost of a Stealth bomber or a week's bloody occupation of Iraq. The bill for George Bush's coming inauguration party would rebuild much of the coastline of Sri Lanka.

Jakarta – The Office of the State Minister for the Environment says its investigation into pollution that damage coral reefs and mangrove forests in Thousand Islands is almost complete.

Concerns remained that an unknown number of tsunami survivors in Indonesia's Aceh province have not received any aid, two weeks after the disaster that killed more than 104,000 people there.