Jakarta – At least 175,000 people die from tuberculosis (TB) in Indonesia each year, primarily due to ignorance and a reluctance to seek medical treatment, an official said on Thursday.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – The East Timorese are distinguished from their Islamic neighbours by their love of pigs, which normally amble at will around city streets.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The Central Jakarta District Court ruled in favor of dozens of becak (pedicab) drivers and street vendors on Thursday in their suit against the City Administration, Jakarta Police and the Jakarta Military Command for arbitrary evictions.

Jakarta – Indonesia had better stop sending its citizens to work as housemaids abroad because they are often treated like slaves, said a minister who claimed that the fate of these workers gave him a headache.

Jakarta – An Indonesian court on Wednesday found three East Timorese militiamen not guilty of murdering a New Zealand peacekeeping soldier in East Timor in July 2000.

Carol Pineau, Dili – East Timor's reluctant president-in-waiting Xanana Gusmao said on Wednesday he would do his best if voters, as expected, choose him to lead the world's newest nation next month.

[Department of Defense News Briefing Torie Clarke, ASD (PA) Wednesday, March 20, 2002 - 12:00 p.m. EST. Also participating was Air Force Brig. Gen. John W. Rosa, Jr., deputy director for current operations, Operations Directorate, the Joint Staff.]

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – A leading environmental watchdog based in North Sumatra blamed on Tuesday at least six plantation companies for the destruction of around 300,000 hectares of forest in Mandailing Natal regency.

Nana Rukmana, Cirebon – Hundreds of students and young people from a number of universities and non-governmental organizations rallied on Tuesday to demand that all officials implicated in a prominent smuggling case in Cirebon resign.

The incident involved 19 shipping containers, which contained luxury cars and electronic equipment.

Tangerang – Some 250 workers of PT Sandang Indo Pratama staged a protest rally at the Municipal Manpower Agency's offices on Jl. Perintis Kemerdekaan I on Tuesday, demanding the dismissal of the company's production supervisor.

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – More than 500 workers of PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) marched to the state railway company's headquarters in the West Java capital of Bandung in yet another move to pressure the newly installed president director to resign.

Jakarta – Noted lawyer and founder of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (LBH) Adnan Buyung Nasution resigned on Tuesday from the Indonesian Military (TNI) defense lawyer team for East Timor human rights case, saying that he wouldconcentrate more on the consolidation of LBH.

[The following statement was issued on March 8 by Dita Sari, chairperson of the Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggles (FNPBI).]

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Detained Parliamentary Speaker Akbar Tandjung looks set to be ditched by his Golkar party in a move to avoid a damning probe into a financial scandal that could implicate several other party leaders.

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – Kepulauan Seribu (Thousand Islands), which became a new regency in November 2001, has been unable to stop illegal trawling and dynamite fishing that is severely damaging its coral reefs.

Jakarta – Two international press freedom groups have strongly criticised the Indonesian government's decision to ban an Australian correspondent from working in the country.

Rendi A. Witular and A'an Suryana, Jakarta – Some 3,000 students from various universities staged a protest rally demanding the formation of a special House of Representatives inquiry into the alleged misuse of State Logistics Agency (Bulog) funds, in which House Speaker Akbar Tandjung is implicated.

Jakarta – A member of Indonesia's once omnipotent Suharto clan goes on trial for his life Wednesday amid heavy security in a case certain to cause a storm of interest.

Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, youngest son of the former dictator Suharto, is accused of murdering of a judge, possessing weapons and fleeing from justice. The first two offences are punishable by death.

Indonesia finally has begun prosecuting the military soldiers, police officers and government officials in charge of East Timor in 1999, the year the territory overwhelmingly voted to become an independent nation.

Catharine Munro, Jakarta – Indonesia's top military brass descended on a courthouse in Jakarta yesterday to give moral support to a group of low-level commanders accused of human rights abuses in East Timor.

Banda Aceh – Fifteen killings have been reported over the past two days in Indonesia's rebellious Aceh province, the army and witnesses said Tuesday.

Debbie A.

Jakarta – The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) reported a rise in the number of refugees returning to East Timor from camps in West Timor, Indonesia, a report said Tuesday.

Manila – Two of the three Indonesians arrested in the Philippines last week have claimed links with leading political parties, police sources said yesterday.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Indonesia's longest-running television station, the state-owned Televisi Republik Indonesia (TVRI), may go off air if it fails to pay the millions of dollars it owes to a satellite operator.

Jakarta – It hurts to see Indonesia being tagged as the most corrupt nation in Asia, said President Megawati Sukarnoputri yesterday while calling on Indonesians to work hard to shed the image.

Ignatius Stephen in Bandar Seri Begawan – Some 76,000 Indonesian workers, including those deported from Malaysia, have turned to Brunei to look for jobs as tailors, construction workers, drivers and cleaners, among others.

Carol Pineau, Dili – Independence leader and presidential candidate Xanana Gusmao is no longer a national leader, East Timor Chief Minister Mari Alkatiri said ahead of April 14 elections.

Chris Brummitt, Jakarta – The government on Monday stood by its decision to ban an Australian journalist whose reports on rights abuses included an article alleging that Indonesian soldiers poured boiling water over a baby.

Banda Aceh – At least 12 people have been killed in the latest outbreak of violence in Indonesia's Aceh province on the weekend, police and residents said Sunday.

Jakarta – A leading Australian media group said Sunday its correspondent had been barred from working in Indonesia because of his reporting on human rights issues.

The "Sydney Morning Herald" (SMH) and its affiliated newspaper "The Age" said they were "gravely troubled and deeply regret" the decision to refuse Lindsay Murdoch an extension of his working visa.

Jakarta – FBI director Robert Mueller has praised Indonesia's efforts against terrorism and says he is looking forward to more cooperation with law enforcers from the world's most populous Muslim country.

A witness to any crime has responsibilities that are essential to maintaining a civilised society. The first responsibility is to the victim, to offer whatever help is possible. The second is to help bring the offender to justice. Australia, as a result of its intelligence gathering, has emerged as a key witness to crimes against humanity.

Don Greenlees, Jakarta – Police chief Timbul Silaen is only hours away from a crowded courtroom in Jakarta, where prosecutors will accuse him of condoning mass murder.

It is a moment that has haunted him since the day Indonesia's attorney-general added his name to a list of 22 people accused of taking party in the destruction of East Timor in 1999.

Vaudine England, Yogyakarta – Revelations from Australian spy transcripts on the degree to which senior generals directed the violence surrounding East Timor's 1999 independence vote have failed to stir public debate.

The disclosure in the Herald this week of highly classified Defence Signals Directorate intercepts gathered during the 1999 East Timor crisis has, understandably, raised concerns within the Government that vital "sources and methods" of intelligence may be compromised.

Catharine Munro, Jakarta – Indonesia began landmark trials focused on human rights abuses in East Timor yesterday, with two high-ranking officials answering charges of crimes against humanity.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Indonesian civil servants will be asked to get their urine tested for drugs, and the results could affect their performance appraisal.

Hamish McDonald – Canberra's predictable reaction to the disclosure of signals intelligence material on the Indonesian Army's covert East Timor campaign has been to try to find and plug the leak.

Craig Skehan – Australian Federal Police are investigating the leaking of classified material showing that high-level Indonesian officials were involved in orchestrating the wave of violence linked to East Timor's independence ballot in 1999.

The Defence Minister, Robert Hill, confirmed the police investigation in Parliament yesterday.

Jakarta – Almost all witnesses to a massacre of civilians in Indonesia's Aceh province last year said the army was to blame, an international rights group reported Friday.

Dan Murphy, Jakarta – Munir had dreamed of this day for years, and as head of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), he had helped to bring it about: the nation's first trial of senior leaders for crimes against humanity, committed in East Timor in 1999.

East Timor4s presidential election campaign kicked off Friday with a rally in Dili and UN administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello predicting a peaceful race.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – In an encouraging sign that Indonesia is willing to prosecute even top officials for corruption, central bank governor Sjahril Sabirin was yesterday sentenced to three years in prison and fined 15 million rupiah (S$2,700) over a bank scam.

Jakarta – A landmark Indonesian human rights court on Thursday began hearing its first case concerning atrocities in East Timor in 1999, with former governor Abilio Soares accused of failing to prevent the massacre of more than 100 people by militia gangs.

Jakarta – US investment firm Farallon has won the bidding to buy Bank Central Asia (BCA), Indonesia's largest retail bank, the government said Thursday.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – Human rights activists were cautioned on Wednesday of what they called an escalation of terror against them after dozens of people attacked the office building of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) on Jl. Mendut in Central Jakarta.

In January 2000, the United Nations International Commission of Inquiry on East Timor and the Indonesian government's own human rights commission both found the Indonesian military responsible for crimes against humanity committed in East Timor in 1999. The UN commission called for the establishment of an international tribunal.

Jakarta – The country's long-delayed human rights trial commences on Thursday amid public skepticism that justice will be done to those responsible for gross human rights violations in East Timor in 1999.

Hamish McDonald – The evidence is contained in the most tightly held archive in Canberra: the electronic data base of the Defence Signals Direct-orate (DSD), the result of months intercepting secret communications between Indonesian officers involved in a shadowy campaign to thwart East Timorese hopes of independence in 1999.