Kathy Marks, Banda Aceh – The group of men drinking coffee at a roadside stall sprang out of their chairs as the convoy of trucks and buses passed by in a cloud of dust. They had seen little traffic on the main highway through Indonesia's Aceh province since martial law was declared a week ago.

Matthew Moore, Banda Aceh – Indonesian soldiers in armoured personnel carriers have begun escorting truck convoys in war-torn Aceh in an attempt to break a blockade by separatists that has cut supplies of food, medicine and other goods to the province's 4.2 million people.

A'an Suryana, Jakarta – A human rights activist criticized on Monday the arrest of Aceh students and rights activists during the first week of a major military campaign against rebels in Aceh, warning it could worsen human rights violations by the military and the police.

Dean Yates, Banda Aceh – Indonesia has told foreign aid workers to leave troubled Aceh for security reasons and says Jakarta wants to take over all humanitarian assistance in the province.

Kurniawan Hari and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – A number of legislators on Monday regretted most reports on Aceh by both domestic and international media, and demanded the government to find a mechanism to control media reporting in the troubled province.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Compared to Papua province's population of 2.1 million, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS cases in the province has reached an alarming level with a total of 1,263 people with HIV, including 539 who have contracted the fatal disease.

Nana Rukmana, Cirebon – Thousands of sugar cane farmers in the West Java regency of Cirebon threatened to boycott the supply of sugar cane to sugar producers unless the government raised the price of sugar cane, said the chairman of the local sugar cane farmers' association.

Women's groups in Indonesia have welcomed a new law that paves the way for more women to enter parliament.

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandar Lampung – With no protection from the government, farmers in Lampung are having a difficult time surviving a time of economic hardship. Over the last few years, thousands of farmers have cut down their coffee plants to grow rice because of falling coffee prices both at home and abroad.

The UN Special Crimes Unit in East Timor has charged former militia commander, Joao Tavares, and four Indonesian TNI, or military, officers for atrocities in the territory before and after a UN sponsored vote for independence from Indonesia in August 1999. They are among 32 people, including 15 TNI soldiers, accused of murder, torture, persecution and other crimes.

Luhur Hertanto, Jakarta – The People's Democratic Party has responded cynically to the plans to prohibit non-government organisations from entering Aceh because this obviously shows that the government does not want to be control by parties outside of the armed forces (TNI).

Jakarta – Dozens of members of Pemuda Panca Marga (PPM), a youth organization which is supervised by the Indonesian Military (TNI) staged on Monday a rally in front of the office of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) on Jl. Cisadane, Central Jakarta.

Jakarta – Rupiah on Monday reached its highest level against the dollar since August 2000, sparking concerns that the upturn could be overdone and harm the country's exports.

Dean Yates, Banda Aceh – As the battered truck pulled up after negotiating some of Aceh's dangerous country roads, 20 traders crowded around, eager to get their supplies of tomatoes, chillis and dried crackers.

A series of explosions rocked the district town of Lhokseumawe in North Aceh, as the death toll continued its climb at the end of the first week of a massive government operation to crush separatist rebels in the province.

John Aglionby, Banda, Aceh – After only a week of its offensive against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which military commanders promised would end in the separatists' elimination, Indonesia yesterday conceded it would never defeat the rebel army.

Chris Brummitt, Banda Aceh – Indonesia moved heavy artillery into rebel areas of Aceh on Monday, stepping up its offensive against the region's poorly armed separatists.

The Free Aceh Movement said it wasn't intimidated and vowed to keep up its fight for independence in the tiny province. Rebels promised to increase hit-and-run attacks on vehicles plying the main roadways.

Tim Johnston, Banda Aceh – The Indonesian army has been accused of using British-built Hawk aircraft to attack separatist rebels in the province of Aceh. That would contravene an agreement between Jakarta and London that the aircraft would not be used for suppression of internal dissent.

Robert Go, Banda Aceh – The bodies of two men lay on wooden tables in the morgue at Banda Aceh's main hospital. Both were unwashed and bloodied. One showed severe rigor mortis, with limbs at 90-degree angles to the torso.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The media cannot not be required to take legal responsibility for its coverage of the ongoing military operation in Aceh because a news report is not the absolute truth, a practitioner has said.

The United Nations Serious Crimes Unit has indicted General Wiranto, the former governor of East Timor, Abilio Soares and six other senior military officers, for murder and persecution in the lead-up to East Timor's independence in 1999. But with the Indonesian Government unlikely to hand any of the men over for trial, will justice ever be done?

Phil Mercer, Sydney – Australia's foreign minister has warned that a victory for separatist rebels in the Indonesian province of Aceh could result in a disastrous security situation in South-East Asia. Alexander Downer says the Australian Government does not support the Free Aceh Movement in its bid for independence.

John Hamilton – Hilton Lay is a nine-year-old kid with a cheeky grin and one passion in life – Essendon. His proudest possession is a Bombers scarf. He's about as Australian as my own two sons. They, luckily, were born here. But Hilton was born in East Timor, and that's the big problem.

Jakarta – Prices of some basic commodities are climbing in the Aceh capital of Banda Aceh as the ongoing conflict between government troops and separatist rebels has disrupted supplies from the neighboring province of North Sumatra.

Scott Burchill – Delivering the 25th annual Menzies lecture last October, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer declared that "bit by bit, leaders of governments that suppress human rights are being made to feel uncomfortable, however much they bluster and hide behind sovereignty arguments".

Matthew Moore, Lhokseumawe – War in Aceh began on Monday and the Indonesian Army kicked off with its best attempt at a big bang. Passengers watched bemused as six Hercules aircraft dropped 450 paratroopers into the province's only real airport which, not surprisingly, they secured without a murmur.

Apriadi Gunawan, Jakarta – North Sumatra has begun to feel the effect of the war in Aceh, as hundreds of people have been streaming down from the neighboring province seeking refuge.

The displaced people, mostly women, fled their homes in Southeast Aceh regency to safer areas in Tanah Karo and Dairi regencies in North Sumatra, which border Aceh.

Achmad Sukarsono, Banda Aceh – Indonesia said on Saturday civilians in Aceh, scene of its biggest military crackdown in decades, would be given new ID cards to stop separatist rebels blending in with the population.

Matthew Moore, Lhokseumawe – Up to 150,000 civilians in Indonesia's war-torn Aceh province face starvation because of a new tactic of destroying irrigations systems on which farmers rely to grow their crops.

Robert Go, Banda Aceh – Indonesia said yesterday that 58 members of the separatist group, Free Aceh Movement (GAM), and five civilians have died in the troubled province since Jakarta's major offensive began.

A'an Suryana and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Political leaders asserted on Friday that reform had moved at a snail's pace over the past five years, and that fresh leadership blood was needed to salvage and accelerate reform in the country.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – A further split has cast a shadow over the United Development Party (PPP), the nation's largest Muslim-based party, as a walkout spoiled the finale of its four-day congress on Friday.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Some Indonesian cigarette manufacturers are dodging tax payments to the government to the tune of millions of dollars each year, said officials investigating the matter.

Jakarta – Indonesia has banned the sale of 78 brands of traditional medicine – some of them said to enhance sexual performance – because they contain hazardous chemicals, officials said yesterday.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – Four foreigners were deported to their home countries on Thursday for committing what immigration officials called "a dangerous activity" by participating in a rally to protest the Indonesian government's decision to launch a military operation in Aceh.

Leo Wahyudi S – On May 21, 1998, then president Soeharto yielded to demands to step down during the bloody rallies that followed the earlier May riots. Five years have passed since then and the country has seen three presidents. Yet, many people have voiced the same criticism: The country's leaders have failed to make things better.

[The West Papuan campaign against rule by Indonesia and corporate exploitation of the territory's rich resources is one of the world's most important and least known resistance movements.

Chantal Rumble – As East Timor celebrates its first year of independence, Batemans Bay human rights campaigner James Dunn has launched a book about the country's extraordinary road to freedom.

East Timor: A Rough Passage to Independence, was launched by NSW Premier Bob Carr in NSW Parliament House last night.

Nick Everett, from Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific (ASAP) and co-convenor of the Sydney Walk Against War Coalition and Kylie Moon, coordinator of Books Not Bombs, a youth coalition against the war, say that calls for an end to martial law in Aceh prompted Indonesian police to retaliate.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Despite predictions that Indonesian state oil and gas company Pertamina faces a bleak and uncertain future after the government lifted its decades-long oil and gas monopoly, Pertamina president Baihaki Hakim this week announced his blueprint for the future.

The Indonesian military's attempts to stop reporters quoting rebel statements in Aceh province put journalists covering the war there "at grave risk", a New York-based journalists' organisation said Saturday.

In Aceh where Indonesia's biggest military offensive in a quarter of century continues to gather pace. The Indonesian armed forces, the TNI, say they have killed more than 30 rebels of the separatist Free Aceh Movement, or GAM in a series of clashes, and continue to deny claims that civilians are among the dead.

The BBC's Orlando de Guzman has made a second visit to the site of Wednesday's incident, in the northern village of Mapa Mamplam, and has been told by witnesses that boys, one as young as 12, were among the victims.

Military chiefs have denied the allegations, saying that civilians are never targeted.

Robert Go, Jakarta – As fighting intensifies in Aceh, Indonesia's government plans to start rounding up thousands of civilians in tent camps and intern them for short spells as the military cleanses hot spots of rebel fighters.

Indonesia's military said it has now killed 31 rebels during an all-out attack on separatist guerrillas in Aceh province and the government denied that civilians are among the dead.

Banda Aceh – Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda has gone on the defensive in the face of international concern over Jakarta's military operation against the independence movement in Aceh, the military's biggest offensive in decades.

Matthew Moore, Lhokseumawe – In Indonesia's new war against Aceh's rebels, 12 is now old enough to get shot in the back as you run for your life through a rice paddy.

Two Australian peace activists arrested at a rally in Indonesia earlier this week are expected to arrive in Sydney tonight.

Kylie Moon from Books Not Bombs and Nick Everett, from Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific, were among a number of activists arrested on Wednesday during a protest outside the Presidential Palace in Jakarta.

Tangerang – Hundreds of motorcycle taxi (ojek) drivers blocked Jl. Rawa Bokor near the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Wednesday as part of their rally to protest PT Angkasa Pura's decision to ban them from entering the airport.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – An antiwar rally here ended in the arrest of four foreign and two Indonesian participants on Wednesday while they were expressing solidarity for the Acehnese people who have seen violence return to their home soil.