Jakarta – The draft budget proposal for regular perks for high-profile Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, who was recently in the public eye over allegations of corruption, is raising eyebrows.

Dili – East Timor's outgoing bishop, Carlos Belo, hit back Friday at accusations he had made a fool of an Indonesian human rights court hearing charges against Indonesian military officers, saying he would never appear before it.

Banda Aceh and Lhokseumawe – Neat rows of red and white flags around Banda Aceh's historic Baiturrahman mosque are the Indonesian government's way of saying that, despite a truce signed on December 9th, Aceh is and always will be its sovereign territory.

John Ward and Peter Symonds – In the wake of violent protests in the capital of Dili on December 4, the East Timorese government, backed by UN officials, has attempted to deflect attention from the country's mounting social tensions by blaming politically-motivated "provocateurs".

Jakarta – The family of missing poet Wiji Thukul rejected the Yap Thiam Hien human rights award mainly because a foreign-based mining company is allegedly involved in several human rights violations partially sponsors to the award.

Craig Skehan – Australia's Foreign Minister has cautioned Vanuatu that any change to Indonesia's boundaries to provide for independence for the province of Papua would result in bloodshed.

New York – The Indonesian ad hoc court for East Timor has utterly failed to bring to justice the perpetrators of the 1999 violence in East Timor, Human Rights Watch charged in a new briefing paper released today.

Sidney Jones, Jakarta – Since President Soeharto resigned in May 1998, violence and conflict seem to have become part of Indonesian life.

[The United Nations and legal workers in East Timor have accused the international community, including Australia, of failing to offer continuing support to the country's reconstruction. More than six months after independence, there is broad agreement that the justice system is in crisis.

Jill Joliffe, Dili – The recent resignation of Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo as head of the Catholic Church in East Timor has brought to a close a courageous and painful period in the life of the Nobel laureate. And, in the current volatile climate, it has also heightened the feeling of political insecurity in the newly independent nation.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) is considering dropping its plan to sue US-based The Washington Post daily provided it writes a letter apologizing to TNI for the use of unverified intelligence reports by its reporters.

Tony Sitathan, Jakarta – When Indonesia's national monument to independence, the Monas, underwent a major renovation project recently, another national hallmark – bureaucratic corruption – had no such overhaul.

Nigel Wilson – The East Timor parliament has ratified the Timor Sea Treaty with Australia, further embarrassing the Howard Government.

The office of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri confirmed last night that parliament had voted 65 to 13 to approve the treaty on the administration of petroleum reserves between Darwin and Dili.

Veronica Brooks, Canberra – The Australian government Wednesday said it welcomes the passage of East Timor's legislation implementing the Timor Sea Treaty.

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer also told Dow Jones Newswires that Australia's legislation on the treaty will be ready for introduction into parliament in early 2003.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Dominggus dos Santos, the suspected main actor in the deadly riot in Dili, East Timor on December 4, was arrested on Monday night in the Indonesian territory of Atambua, Belu regency, when he was trying to escape from the United Nations Civilian Police (CivPol). Kupang military chief Col.

Banda Aceh – Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri said on Tuesday a landmark peace pact agreed with Aceh rebels was a dream come true, although both sides have started to accuse each other of violations.

Lela E. Madjiah, Surabaya – Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu dismissed on Monday the possibility of Army troops in Aceh laying down their arms following last week's signing of a cessation of hostilities agreement by the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Geneva, Switzerland.

Jakarta – Indigenous youth and migrants clashedin Kalimantan on Monday leaving at least one person dead, AP reported.

More than 20 houses were torched in the fighting between migrants from Madura island and local Malays in West Kalimantan province, about 800 kilometer north of Jakarta, said a military officer who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Life appears to be returning to normal in Aceh, a week after an historic peace deal was signed in Geneva.

Previous deals between the Indonesian government and separtists from the troubled province at the northern tip of Sumatra have failed.

Jakarta – Around 30 suspected separatist rebels, some armed with automatic rifles, ambushed a group of government officials in Indonesia's Papua province on Monday. At least two of the attackers were injured, officials said.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Police here dispersed a separatist street parade at the Cendrawasih University compound, arrested three people and confiscated two flags representing the so-called state of Western Melanesia.

Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) Chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto cautioned against demands for a trial on past human rights abuses in Aceh, saying Sunday it should not be pressed upon if it threatened the nascent peace process in the troubled province.

Jakarta – A human rights court trying an Indonesian army general heard the first live televised testimony Monday from witnesses in East Timor.

In a broadcast funded by the World Bank, a former Indonesian soldier and a former police detective gave separate accounts of deadly attacks on a church in Suai town and the Dili Catholic church diocese offices in September, 1999.

Chris Brummitt, Jakarta – Indonesian security forces looked on but did nothing when a pro-Indonesia mob attacked a church in East Timor, killing at least 27 people, a witness said Monday during the trial of an army general accused over the violence three years ago.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – The peace deal between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) could go into a tailspin as the rebels still eye independence.

They want the 2004 election to be turned into what observers described as a "referendum" to decide whether Aceh should stay or break away from Jakarta.

Dili – The parliamentary inquiry into Dili's deadly rioting found that street demonstrations began "spontaneously" but appeared to have turned into mob action for "political motivations", the commission's chief told Lusa Monday.

Phil Zabriskie – When East Timor formally celebrated its independence in May, it closed the chapter on four centuries of stern Portuguese colonization and 24 years of brutal Indonesian occupation. The mood was finally one of hope for the future, of anticipation of a peace dividend.

[Inside Indonesia's Special Forces, By Ken Conboy, Equinox Publishing (Asia), 2002, 320pp.]

As many as six people have been killed in Aceh by Indonesian troops hunting separatist rebels despite the signing of a peace pact December 9, a resident and a rebel commander said.

Mark Baker, Dili – The Federal Government is locked in a bitter dispute with East Timor over control of multi-billion-dollar oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea that is threatening to delay desperately needed revenues to the newly independent country.

Mark Baker, Dili – It is a simple but splendid house with whitewashed walls and a high-pitched roof of traditional timber and thatch. It sits beside a village on the eastern outskirts of Dili with a view that sweeps across the harbour.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – Five gunshot victims interviewed by The Age in the Dili hospital yesterday say they were shot by roaming groups of special police in the capital's outer suburbs after the main rioting last week had subsided.

Nethy Darma Somba and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta/Jayapura – The government has for the time being shelved plans to create three new provinces from the country's easternmost province of Papua after Papua Governor J.P. Salossa strongly argued against the move.

Jakarta – The country's green organization Walhi said on Friday they plan to sue state-owned forestry company Perhutani for alleged illegal logging above a hotspring resort in Mojokerto, East Java that was flattened by a massive landslide, AP reported.

Walhi would file a lawsuit against Perhutani on behalf of the victims of the accident.

Another person has been shot dead in Aceh province where a ceasefire between Indonesian troops and separatist rebels is in force, humanitarian workers said.

Nigel Wilson – Australia's relations with East Timor have been tested by claims Foreign Minister Alexander Downer verbally abused Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

The Australian has learnt that at a meeting in Dili on November 27, Mr Downer was strongly critical of Dr Alkatiri and his officials.

Sidney Jones – The war on terror is well under way in Southeast Asia, leading to concern among many civil rights leaders. Over the last two decades, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia have removed authoritarian leaders, curbed the power of the politicised military and expanded civil liberties.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – At least 8,000 East Timorese families seeking refuge in West Timor had decided to stay in Indonesia, a local military commander said Thursday.

The government was now preparing a transmigration scheme and developing housing complexes for them, Kupang military chief Col. Moeswarno Moesanip said.

Jakarta – Indonesian prosecutors on Thursday demanded a 10-year jail term for a senior army intelligence officer, the minimum sentence by law if he is found guilty as charged of crimes against humanity in East Timor in 1999. Lt. Col.

The Indonesian army has ordered an inventory of its TNT stocks after quantities of the explosive were found in two of six plastic pipes buried close to the East Java home of a key suspect in the October 12 Bali bomb attacks.

Prangtip Daorueng, Jakarta – Tuesday's peace accord signed between the Indonesian government and Acehnese rebels is not the first attempt at peace, but many Acehnese who are gathering and praying together, many in tears, after hearing news of the pact hope it will be the last.

Washington wants Jakarta to quickly wrap up its investigation of an ambush near the world's largest copper and gold mine that left two Americans and an Indonesian dead some three months ago.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Indonesia's failure to uphold human rights this year was due to simultaneous policies of the executive, legislative and judicial institutions, the National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) disclosed on Tuesday.

Debbie A. Lubis and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The country's failure to conduct a fair and impartial human rights trial will become the subject of an international discourse next year, including at the International Human Rights Commission in Geneva, a rights activist warned on Tuesday.

Jon Land – Dili, the capital of East Timor, was hit by a wave of protests and riots on December 3-4. The unrest culminated in at least two deaths and scores of injured, when police fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse angry crowds of students and youth.

United Nations – A preliminary inquiry into last week's riots in East Timor has found that some of the people behind the violence fled afterwards to neighboring Indonesia, the tiny new nation's UN ambassador says.

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Tim Shorrock, Washington – The killings last August of two Americans, allegedly at the hands of Indonesian soldiers with the apparent consent of the high command, haven't dampened enthusiasm within the Bush administration and the US business community for closer US ties with the Indonesian military.

Jennifer Hewett – One of Indonesia's most influential moderate Muslim leaders has criticised the Australian Government's flirtation with the idea of working with the Indonesian special forces unit, Kopassus, to combat terrorism.

Jake Skeers – Despite considerable opposition from ordinary people, particularly in the northern city of Darwin, the Australian government has resumed the process of deporting about 1,800 East Timorese who fled Indonesian rule during the 1980s and 1990s.