Jesse J. Holland, Washington – Congress is moving toward sending money to Indonesia to help train its police but has yet to warm up to the White House's call for increased relations with the country's military forces.
The House on Friday agreed to provide $8 million to help train Indonesia's police forces in anti-terrorism as part of the $29 billion anti-terrorism bill.
Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Aceh Governor Abdullah Puteh met House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung and People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais on Wednesday to lodge a complaint against what he called the unfair allocation of state revenue from the exploration of natural resources in the oil-rich province.
Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Promising to boost professionalism in the Indonesian armed forces (TNI), army chief Endriartono Sutarto appeared before a parliamentary commission hearing yesterday to stake his claim to the coveted military commander's post.
Edith M. Lederer, United Nations – Acting with unusual speed, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution Thursday recommending that the 189-nation General Assembly admit East Timor as a new member.
Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – Thousands of poultry farmers declined to pay a special poultry tax to the West Java provincial administration because of their losses in the fierce competition with the chicken cartel.
Berni K. Moestafa, Jakarta – A major increase in construction, overexploitation of groundwater and unstable soil are causing parts of Jakarta to subside by up to eight centimeters a year, making the capital prone to more flooding, a surveyor company's report said.
Jonathan Steele – It's a hard world to be born into, even for nation-states. This week East Timor, half of a small island a few hundred miles north of Australia, became the youngest member of the so-called international community.
The head of East Timor's Roman Catholic Church, Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, has said that the Dili correspondent of the Portuguese Lusa news agency "should be withdrawn from East Timor" for having written an article on church power in the new country which was "full of insults and lack of education".
Reacting Thursday to calls from East Timor's religious leader for the expulsion of a Portuguese correspondent from Dili, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said there will be freedom of the press in the new nation.
Jakarta – The European Parliament has issued a resolution calling on Indonesia to formulate an immediate peaceful solution to the conflicts in Maluku, Aceh and Papua, while affirming its recognition on Indonesia's integrity, a report said.
Jakarta – At least 100 Gaspermindo taxi drivers thronged the City Council building on Wednesday, complaining about a lack of transparency in the taxi company's management.
Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – The police admitted on Wednesday that some officers were out of control when they beat and kicked students during Tuesday's demonstration to mark the fall of former authoritarian president Soeharto.
Denpasar – About 150 students staged a peaceful rally on Tuesday at the Bali legislative council building to protest what they called continuing state-sponsored violence against civil society.
Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Police in Labuhan Batu, North Sumatra, arrested on Tuesday five Acehnese people who were trying to smuggle a huge cache of M-16 automatic rifle ammunition and 103 boxes of medicine from Jakarta to strife-torn Aceh.
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – About a dozen children, each with a piece of paper and a pen in hand, gathered together and were engaged in a serious discussion.
They may look like ordinary children but they have experiences that many people could never imagine. They are abused street children.
Jakarta – Britain has offered its help to convince the United States to restore military relations with Indonesia, the Indonesian defense minister said Wednesday.
Jon Land – As the official festivities wind down in East Timor following the May 20 independence celebrations and the international dignitaries fly back to their comfortable and privileged lifestyles, a beckoning question for most East Timorese remains, what does independence hold?
Bandung – Hundreds of people from the Forum of Struggle for the Disabled (Forpadi) marked National Awakening Day with a rally here on Monday.
Jakarta – The Central Jakarta District Court sentenced seven defendants on Tuesday to two months and 15 days each for the March attack on the offices of the Commission for Mission Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) in Menteng, Central Jakarta.
Jakarta – Unlike other historical days, the fourth year of the reform movement was observed in a bitter mood on Tuesday, with students nationwide taking to the streets to vent their disappointment with the political elite's failure to comply with the reform agenda.
Denpasar – Some 150 students from various groups staged a peaceful demonstration here on Tuesday at the Bali Legislative Council, protested what they called the continuing state-sponsored violence against civil society.
Aaron Goodman, Dili – The unfurling of East Timor's flag and the lighting of fireworks on Sunday marked the formal coming out of the newest country of the millennium, one whose test of nationhood will be under way for many years to come.
Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – Bandung Police are questioning more than 40 crews of container trucks after a rally they held to protest widespread levies and demand a whole day of access to Padalarang toll road ended in violence on Tuesday.
Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Due to a greatly increased amount of construction and over-exploitation of groundwater, the city's land has subsided up to 91 centimeters in recent years, a city official said on Tuesday.
Jakarta – At least 40 protesters were detained at Jakarta Police headquarters following clashes that broke out separately in Megaria and Jl. Cendana in Central Jakarta on Tuesday, reports said.
In trying to rein in Jakarta, Australia put its special relationship with the Indonesian army on the line, write Don Greenlees and Robert Garran in the third of four exclusive extracts from their book Deliverance.
Jakarta – Hundreds of students staged rallies in at least six cities throughout the country on Tuesday to mark the downfall of former president Soeharto and to remind the government under President Megawati Soekartoputri to meet the pledge for reforms.
Jakarta – Hundreds of students of various universities from Jakarta, Bogor and Bekasi on Tuesday threatened to stage huge rallies if the government was unable to improve the condition of the nation within one month.
The students claimed the rallies they would stage would be similar to the ones which lead to the downfall of then president Soeharto in 1998.
Robert Go, Jakarta – Surabaya businessman Lukman Hartono knows he is a marked man in the eyes of predatory immigration officials in Indonesia.
As an ethnic Chinese, it is: Pay up and get paperwork "expedited". Refuse to pay, and face probing questions and hassle.
East Timor hailed its move to democracy May 20 by signing the Timor Gap Treaty with Australia just hours after becoming the world's newest independent state. However, the signing of the treaty was more an empty symbol of goodwill than a declaration of cooperation between the two on developing the Timor Sea's vast natural resources.
Jakarta – Severe economic hardship and political instability have undermined efforts to eradicate child labor in the country, Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea said on Monday.
Vaudine England – Indonesian media greeted the birth of an independent East Timor with congratulations and the stated desire for better ties. But behind the positive rhetoric remains a Government and armed forces determined to avoid responsibility for past abuses in the new nation.
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Investigation into the killing of Papuan pro-independence leader Theys Hiyo Eluay last year points at the possible involvement of high ranking officers, National Military Police Chief Maj. Gen. Sulaiman A.B. said on Monday.
Jakarta – Acehnese separatist rebels have warned civil servants to stay away from state facilities, which they plan to attack.
Free Aceh Movement (GAM) spokesman Tengku Sofyan Dawod said from the group's foreign base in Norsborg, Sweden, that the prior warning was issued to avoid futile fatalities in the long-standing conflict.
Dean Yates, Dili – About the only thing pro-Jakarta militias didn't destroy in their rampage after East Timor voted in 1999 to break free was something they couldn't touch – the territory's stunning natural beauty.
Jakarta – Students, activists and members of non-government organizations held various protests and rallies to commemorate National Awakening Day on Monday, reports said.
Semarang – A demonstration held by the Democratic Front for Poverty Eradication (FDPRM) turned violent on Monday when the group was attacked by dozens of people claiming to be members of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) Two demonstrators, a plainclothes police officer and a local photojournalist were injured in the violence.
Ian Timberlake, Jakarta – Four years after restrictions on free speech ended with the fall of strongman Suharto, Indonesian reporters fear a recent government crackdown could signal a return to this nation's repressive past.
Jakarta – The Free Aceh Movement armed wing (AGAM) joined the worldwide chorus of congratulations for the people of East Timor on their independence and the inauguration of Xanana Gusmao as the country's first president.
Lincoln Wright – To avoid provoking Indonesia, Australia should pull its 1450 troops out of East Timor after the United Nations leaves in 2004, according to a new defence report.
But the Howard Government should help upgrade East Timor's police force to improve security.
Joseph Fitchete, Lisbon – Bill Clinton presumably didn't notice any problems during East Timor's independence celebrations last week. After nearly two days' flying time to the Pacific as the Bush administration's representative, Clinton spent only a few hours in Dili, the new capital.
Jakarta – East Nusa Tenggara Military district chief Col. Moeswarno Moesanip consoled some 30,000 pro-integration East Timorese refugees who were politically estranged in West Timor following East Timor's independence on Monday, saying all sides, including the military must accept the reality.
Simon Montlake Tanahmerah – From the mangrove-fringed shore, the waters of Bintuni Bay look deceptively calm. Only a metal platform a few miles offshore hints at the riches beneath this remote bay in eastern Indonesia.
Aboeprijadi Santoso and Yemris Fointuna, Dili/Kupang – Despite reconciliatory gestures from their leaders, the future of ties between Indonesia and its new neighbor East Timor hangs in the balance due to a legacy of wide-ranging unfinished business.
Lyall Johnson – As East Timor celebrated its nationhood yesterday, 1600 East Timorese asylum seekers living in Australia faced an anxious wait to see if they could remain in the country many have called home for more than a decade.
I Wayan Juniartha and Agus Maryono, Denpasar/Purwokerto – President Megawati Soekarnoputri said the unabated crisis the country was facing had been exacerbated by the yawning gap between the political classes and the masses.
Jakarta – Former president B.J. Habibie's written testimony in the Rp 40 billion Bulog scandal read during a hearing on Monday has solidified the case against his former minister/cabinet secretary Akbar Tandjung.
Tangerang – Some 75 artists from the Tangerang Arts Council staged a rally at the municipal administration office on Monday to demand the administration provide them a space to put on exhibitions and performances.
Dili – Australian soldiers marred East Timor's independence day by stealing flags from outside a Dili hotel, an Australian businessman claimed.
Hotel Dili manager Gino Favaro also accused the six soldiers of threatening a local security guard with a rifle butt.
Tom Hyland, Dili – On its first day as an independent nation, East Timor yesterday warned Australia of a tough fight ahead for a greater share of Timor Sea oil and gas revenue, even as the two sides signed a treaty to exploit resources in the energy-rich seabed area.