A'an Suryana, Jakarta – The Golkar party's popularity has been at stake following the withdrawal of noted Muslim intellectual Nurcholish Madjid, popularly known as Cak Nur, from the party's presidential race, say political observers.

Max Lane – The 2004 election campaign has started. There are two kinds of issues that people seem to be looking at. The first relate to the so-called major parties, those with substantial numbers in the House of Representatives.

The US State Department has insisted it had made no decision on whether to send training aid to Indonesia's military, despite reports that it wants to release 400,000 dollars to armed forces tainted by human rights concerns.

Nani Farida, Banda Aceh – Facing two months imprisonment for immigration offenses, an American freelance journalist asserted that he had not committed any acts or activities that violated Indonesia's immigration law.

Jakarta – The People's Democratic Party (PRD) has rejected holding general elections in Aceh for as long as the military emergency in Tanah Rencong [Aceh] continues.

Tiarma Siboro and A'an Suryana, Jakarta – Respected Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid announced his withdrawal on Wednesday night from the Golkar Party convention to select presidential candidates after party chairman Akbar Tandjung moved to participate in the race.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Chinese-Indonesian businesspeople in North Sumatra have alleged that political party activists are extorting money from them ahead of the 2004 elections. The businesspeople said they were intimidated by the activists into giving them money.

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – For the second time, villagers from Bogor regency rallied at City Hall and the City Council building against plans to build a garbage treatment facility in Bojong village.

Jakarta – The House of Representatives Committee on Thursday urged the government to delay the purchase of Russian jet fighters as the deal had violated the current state budget guidelines.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia's new copyright laws promise a tough bite. They give law enforcers the right to crack down on pirated contraband and may improve Jakarta's standing with the United States and other source countries of software and entertainment products.

Multa Fidrus, Tangerang – The Tangerang Prosecutor's Office will investigate a Rp 12.5 billion (US$1.47 million) corruption case in which 45 city councillors have been implicated. The plan to investigate the councillors is based on a report filed by non-governmental organization Independent Institute for State Apparatus Monitoring (Lipan).

Dili – East Timorese police have evicted former governor Mario Carrascalao from his home of 22 years, in what he described as an act of political persecution.

Reports from Indonesia say the government is set to drastically scale down its five year link with the International Monetary Fund. Jakarta will leave the IMF umbrella, but retain a partial relationship with the international lender with what's called post-programme monitoring. The partial relationship means Indonesia could pay off IMF loans over the rest of the decade.

Faiza Mardzoeki, Jakarta – July 25, 2003, marked a setback in the Indonesian women's movement. On that date an Indonesian businessman, Puspo Wardoyo, the owner of the restoran Wong Solo franchise, organized an awards ceremony for males who had married more than one wife.

Jakarta – With an eye to the 2004 general election, the National Mandate Party (PAN) has launched a biweekly tabloid called Media Amanat Rakyat (MAR) to become a vehicle of presidential hopeful and party chairman Amien Rais.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Lhokseumawe – Saturday night is no longer lively in the North Aceh capital Lhokseumawe where youngsters used to gather in street cafes downtown or just ride around on motorcycles.

Jakarta/Yogyakarta – Four out of 30 provinces gave a thumbs-down to Akbar Tandjung, one of the dozens of influential figures who have been nominated to take part in the party's electoral convention, during which the Golkar party's presidential candidate will be selected.

A'an Suryana, Jakarta – In her capacity as chairwoman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), President Megawati Soekarnoputri has admonished her supporters at a national meeting for their disobedience.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak and Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Lhokseumawe/Denpasar – Armed clashes continued in many parts of Aceh province on Tuesday despite the martial law administration's claim that the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) had been terminally weakened.

Tony Sitathan, Jakarta – Just as they have in the developed world, big-box hypermarkets, which are taking over the top end of the retail trade, are causing severe dislocations in the rest of Indonesia's food chain, from smaller supermarkets down to wet markets to the warungs where housewives sell cigarettes and candy out of their living room windows.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Attempts to unravel the May riots in 1998 suffered a severe blow on Monday when the Central Jakarta District Court rejected the request by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to subpoena dozens of retired and active military and police officers.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – The upcoming Annual Session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) has already lost its relevance and is nothing but a waste of state money, a political analyst says.

Tangerang – Hundreds of workers from aluminum melting factory PT Teguh Makmur Sentosa in Benda district rallied at the mayoralty office on Monday, demanding that the administration cancel plans to close the factory for damaging the environment.

Jakarta – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Tuesday welcomed Indonesia's decision to end its five billion dollar IMF assistance program and to enter into post-program monitoring next year.

"We also welcome the intention to sustain reform efforts. We will continue to conduct dialogue," IMF country representative David Nellor told AFX-Asia in an interview.

Lesley McCulloch, Melbourne – The message came via satellite phone. The caller was out of breath and desperate: 15 civilians shot dead by the Indonesian military, including two children. The location: the village of Tutut Sungaimas, West Aceh. The date: July 19.

Nani Farida and Teriani ZB Simanjuntak, Banda Aceh/Lhokseumawe – A House of Representatives delegation visited Aceh on Monday and was quick to judge the military operation in the province a success merely from the number of red and white flags they saw.

Jakarta – Scores of mass organisations, workers, farmers and pro-reformasi students have formed the People's United Opposition Party (Partai Persatuan Oposisi Rakyat, Popor). The driving force behind the party, labour activist Dita Indah Sari, launched [the party] in Jakarta on Sunday afternoon (27/7) saying that they are ready to participate in the 2004 general elections.

Although formally, the regulations and institutions for upholding human rights in Indonesian have made progress, in practice this is still far from the expectations of society. The legal impasse in handling cases of gross human rights violations which involve security personnel has become a measure which the public uses in assessing the progress made in upholding human rights.

Jakarta – The bloody tragedy that killed at least five supporters of Megawati Soekarnoputri on July 27, 1996 was commemorated in a low-key ceremony here on Sunday by victims of the attack on her Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) headquarters.

In the early hours of July 27, 1996, several hundred people belonging to a splinter faction of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), allegedly backed by the military, attacked the PDI headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta, brutally assaulting supporters of the legitimate leader of the party, Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – Kalimantan loses at least 1,000 truck loads of illegal logs every week or about 10,000 cubic meters in the last two months, says a forest ministry official.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Lhokseumawe – Tengku Hanafi, 65, was back at the Baktiya district office in North Aceh for the seventh time this week desperately inquiring as to when he could get his new red-and-white identity card.

Jakarta – Tens of university students staged a rally in front of the trade and industry ministry here Monday to protest the government's decision to purchase Russian Sukhoi aircraft and helicopters.

Russell Feingold – Last month this newspaper printed a powerful article by Dana Priest relating the story of an ambush last summer in Indonesia that left three dead, including two American schoolteachers.

Jakarta – The Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggle (FNPBI), the National Student League for Democracy (LMND), the National Farmers Union (STN) and 53 other mass organisation have established a new party, the People's United Opposition Party (Partai Persatuan Oposisi Rakyat, Popor), which was launched in Jakarta on Sunday (27/7).

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak and Nani Farida, Lhokseumawe/Banda Aceh – The Martial Law Administration in Aceh is intensifying efforts to prevent Free Aceh Movement (GAM) leaders from fleeing the province or country, an official says.

War in Indonesia's Aceh province will last until separatist rebels are rooted out, the military said. "What is clear, the operation to crush Aceh separatist rebels is not limited to six months. As long as those rebels still exist, they will have to be rooted out," Aceh military commander Major General Endang Suwarya was quoted by the official Antara news agency as saying.

Atambua – The reconciliation meeting among East Timorese on the border between Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara province and East Timor continues to reach an agreement on a peaceful life.

Tiarma Siboro and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) is defending its stance in ignoring a subpoena by an inquiry of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) into the deadly 1998 May riots, arguing that the investigation has no legal basis.

Jill Jolliffe, Darwin – A ruling by East Timor's only Supreme Court judge that national law should be based on Portuguese, not Indonesian, law threatens to plunge the legal system into chaos.

Jakarta – The rupiah rebounded slightly on Friday amid market talks that Bank Indonesia had sent inspectors to foreign banks that were aggressively selling the local unit. Bank Indonesia confirmed that it had dispatched officials to some banks earlier in the day.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto apologized to the Acehnese people on Friday for what he called the negative impacts of the war there.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – The central message of a recent seminar here on Islamic extremism was clear and pointed: that moderate Muslims in Indonesia should stand up against radicalism.

There is nothing new in the message. The United States and other countries have periodically urged Indonesia's often-silent majority to take a stronger line against militant groups.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Having a side job is nothing new for members of the military. Just like other professionals, military personnel moonlight to contribute to their basic incomes in an attempt to cope with the soaring price of basic needs, particularly since the financial crisis of 1997.

Imanuddin Razak, Jakarta – The July 19, 2003 shooting spree in a North Jakarta, in which a computer businessman and his military bodyguard were murdered, promptly made headlines in national media, although the motive for the murders seems to have been nothing new.

A'an Suryana and La Remmy, Jakarta/Central Sulawesi – The pressure was turned up another notch on Golkar Party Chairman Akbar Tandjung to quit his presidential candidacy as a former Golkar leader said it would just hurt the party.

While reports from the battle for the governor's position in Central Java naturally tended to focus on the "split" in the ranks of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), a more interesting struggle was submerged as the losers burned portraits of the President and party leader in the streets of Semarang.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – William Nessen, an American freelance journalist who spent weeks traveling with independence-seeking guerrillas in the restive northwestern province of Aceh, went on trial Wednesday on charges of immigration violations.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – The forced sale of one of the world's biggest coal mines appears set once again to damage Indonesia's reputation severely as a destination for mining investment and is likely to leave investors with the knowledge that vested interests, manipulation and harsh government disputes leave them devoid of legal certainty when it comes to doing business.

Dili – In a case observers say could have future impact on foreign investment in East Timor, an Australian construction company launched an appeal Thursday against a judgement ordering it to pay compensation to a former Timorese business partner.