Jakarta – A plenary meeting of the House of Representatives endorsed on Thursday 13 bills on the creation of 24 new regencies in 13 provinces into law.

The 24 regencies approved include Kolaka Utara, Kolaka Utara, Bombana and Wakatobi in the province of Southeast Sulawesi, Sumbawa Barat (West Nusa Tenggara) and Lingga (Riau).

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Nani Farida, Jakarta/Banda – Aceh Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda said the government has not dropped the option of having the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) included on the United Nations' list of terrorist organizations.

Banda Aceh – Indonesia's military said Friday it has killed four more rebels in Aceh province, where troops are in the seventh month of an offensive to crush separatist guerrillas.

Jakarta – An influential politician who helped topple Indonesia's previous president explained Thursday why he believes current leader Megawati Soekarnoputri should also go.

Jakarta – Secular-nationalist parties in Indonesia will have the vote of Muslim voters in next year's election.

That is the result of a study carried out by the independent Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) which found the majority of respondents backed Golkar or President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party – Struggle (PDI-P).

Jakarta – The Army's special forces (Kopassus) chief must stand trial for crimes against humanity over a massacre which took place almost 20 years ago, the country's human rights court ruled Thursday.

Judges rejected defence claims that they have no right to put Maj. Gen. Sriyanto Muntarsan, who now heads the Kopassus special forces, on trial.

Jakarta – The Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has asked the regional military commander Major General Endang Suwarya to improve the quality of the integrated operation in Aceh.

Matthew Moore, Banda Aceh – Six months after more than 600 of Aceh's schools were destroyed by fire, virtually none have been rebuilt and thousands of students can't go to school.

And some temporary schools built after the fires are in such poor condition that enough rainwater leaks through holes in the roof to allow grass to grow on the dirt floor.

It was supposed to be a peaceful demonstration to mark the death of a fellow East Timorese activists.

Instead, Simplisio Celestino de Deus remembers how Indonesian troops indiscriminately opened fire on 3,000 unarmed protesters on November 12, 1991. Troops then stormed into the Santa Cruz cemetery, bayonetted survivors and hauled off the dead bodies in trucks.

Jill Jolliffe, Darwin – A United Nations official has pointed the finger at the UN police command for its failure to intervene effectively during riots in East Timor last December.

A UN report just released also said East Timorese police had been unco-operative in an investigation into the riots.

Indonesia could become a world-class mining country but new investors are steering clear because of legal uncertainty and red tape, according to an annual survey of the industry.

"Investment spending on exploration and new mines has now been very low for several years," said the report by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Indonesia's director general of taxation, Hadi Purnomo, under strong pressure to increase income tax receipts, has responded by using gijzeling – the Dutch term for detention without trial used in the Indonesian legal system – to jail foreigners, and his approach is sending a serious shudder through Jakarta's expatriate business community.

The Indonesian government's war against separatist rebels in Aceh has today entered its seventh month, with no end in sight to the bloodshed. Already some 16,000 have been killed in what has been described as Jakarta's biggest military operation in 25-years.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Thousands of troops were deployed to Poso in Central Sulawesi yesterday as residents braced themselves for more violence following reports of murder and unrest over the shooting of a terror suspect.

About 2,300 troops have been deployed here from Jakarta and nearby provinces.

Matthew Moore, Lhokseumawe – Pro-military groups critical of human rights activists are emerging in Indonesia's conflict-ridden Aceh province, raising fears of a resurgence of East Timor-style militias.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – The government has backed down on its plan to have the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) listed as a terrorist organization by the United Nations to avoid turning Aceh into an international issue.

Jakarta – Approved foreign investment in Indonesia rose sharply in the first ten months of this year to US$9.31 billion from $6.81 billion a year earlier, the National Investment Coordinating Board said in a report seen Tuesday.

However, the 37 percent rise was largely due to a change in investment status of many projects rather than new projects, the board said.

Jakarta – The proposed resumption of marine sand exports to Malaysia and Singapore is part of a certain political party's scheme to raise funds for its 2004 general election campaign, a non-governmental organization claimed here recently.

ID Nugroho, Malang – Chairman of the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) Teten Masduki proposed that both Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah issue election guides suggesting followers not to vote for legislative candidates and political parties with unclean track records.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Experts have expressed concern that a planned Truth and Reconciliation Commission will serve as a legal whitewash of past gross human rights abuses, allowing perpetrators to avoid prosecution.

Jakarta – At least 16 suspected Acehnese rebels were killed and nine arrested during a military offensive in Aceh from Thursday to Saturday, the Indonesian Military (TNI) said on Sunday.

A press release issued by the TNI said four civilians were also killed in the operation.

Irvan NR, Palu – Poso Police headquarters was besieged on Sunday by thousands of people protesting the death of terrorist suspect Hamid Sudin, who was shot and killed by police attempting to arrest him in relation to the bloody attacks on three Christian villages in Central Sulawesi on October 12.

ID Nugroho and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Surabaya/Jakarta – Nahdlatul Ulama chairman Hasyim Muzadi called for a moral movement to eradicate corruption because the law had proven toothless.

Jakarta – Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) chairman Hasyim Muzadi criticized the country's security authorities for issuing repeated warnings of possible disturbances ahead of the 2004 elections, saying this would only succeed in causing anxiety.

Netty Dharma Somba & Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jayapura/Jakarta – Papuan human rights activists said they were prepared to support the planned investigation by the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) into alleged atrocities in the province.

Lesley McCulloch – It is too easy for the world to forget Aceh, an embattled, silent and closed province in the northwest of Indonesia. The reason is simple: international journalists are prevented from entering legally and the local media are either embedded in the military or attacked – even kidnapped – when attempting to work independently.

Chris Brummitt, Jakarta – Indonesia's military promised Saturday to investigate claims that it carried out extra-judicial killings and torture in Papua province. But it warned that if the charges were not true, it would pursue legal action against the body that made them, the National Commission on Human Rights.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said on Friday that based on preliminary findings the Indonesian military (TNI) committed gross abuses in Papua in 2001 and 2003, and says it is launching a legal probe into the incidents.

Post-independence confidence in East Timor has declined, with nearly 40 per cent of East Timorese saying they feel worse off now than under Indonesian rule and less than half optimistic about the future, according to a survey.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Indonesia's House of Representatives, now debating privatizing the country's water supply, should probably take a close look at the one place in the nation where water distribution is already in private hands – Jakarta, where a comedy of errors has produced skyrocketing costs and little else.

Laksamana.Net – Not content with murdering Papua province's passive independence leader Theys Eluay two years ago, Indonesian authorities have now destroyed part of a memorial dedicated to the slain activist.

Canberra – East Timor's prime minister Friday accused Australia of deliberately dragging out talks aimed at bolstering his impoverished nation's share of billions of dollars worth of oil and gas under the sea dividing the two nations.

Sidney Jones (Dow Jones Newswires) – Indonesians are not happy with the war against terrorism, despite the success of their police in fighting it, primarily because they don't trust the United States government and don't want to be part of a US-led campaign.

Keith Andrew Bettinger, Washington – The unilateralism and anti-terror policies of the United States are increasingly damaging its relations with the largest Muslim nation in the world, Indonesia, where many view the "war on terror" as anti-Islam. Meanwhile, China is quietly moving closer to the archipelago.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – The tragic tale of Sumaryono – a young man who had been living with part of his intestinal tract protruding through an abdominal incision due to apparent malpractice – exemplified the poor's lack of access to professional medical service in the capital.

Dadan Wijaksana and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – While at first it was deemed solely a run-of-the-mill scam confined to the banking sector, the Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) scandal has now taken on a political dimension, which could lead to a brutal political war ahead of the 2004 elections, a top political analyst said.

Australia is refusing to set a deadline for talks beginning today with its neighbour East Timor on their contentious maritime borders. East Timor is contesting the boundaries set under a 1972 agreement between Australia and Indonesia when East Timor was ruled by Portugal.

Canberra – Australia and East Timor began talks on Wednesday aimed at settling a bitter dispute over carving up the seabed between the two nations, which holds billions of dollars worth of oil and gas reserves.

Otto Syamsuddin Ishak, Sociologist, Jakarta – The government has prioritized the extension of martial law over an evaluation of achievements made in the last six months. One could ask in jest: What party would most potentially be in a state of emergency after November 19, 2003?

Dewi Santoso, Jakarta – In less than two months, dozens of squatters living under a section of Pluit-Cawang overpass toll road in North Jakarta will not only lose their makeshift tents but their access to free healthcare as well.

Frederik Balfour – Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao became President of the world's newest country, East Timor in May, 2002. A veteran guerrilla leader against the 24-year Indonesian occupation of his country, Gusmao faces the challenge of managing the peace for 750,000 people in an impoverished but oil-rich country.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Beleaguered by the unpopular policies that prompted many of its cadres to join other parties, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) has enlisted actors and actresses as its legislative candidates in the upcoming elections.

Dili – Thousands of people gathered Wednesday to remember the victims of one of East Timor's worst massacres under Indonesian rule with a moment of silence and flowers as well as demands for an investigation to find the perpetrators.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Members of the Papuan Presidium Council (PDP) commemorated here on Tuesday the death of former charismatic PDP chairman Theys Hiyo Eluay, who was killed two years ago by Indonesian military personnel.

Jakarta – TNI (armed forces) chief General Endriartono Sutarto has asserted that the TNI are not soldiers for hire. Therefore if there are companies which need security services, the companies concerned do not have a contract with the TNI, but with the government.

Jakarta – Two witnesses of the bloody 1984 Tanjung Priok incident withdrew on Tuesday their written and signed statements in the dossier against defendant Maj. Gen. (ret) Pranowo.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Irked by allegations of involvement in numerous human rights abuses, spokesmen from the Indonesian Military (TNI) expressed on Tuesday their opposition to a truth and reconciliation commission.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – East Timorese politicians are hoping a formal headcount to identify former pro-independence guerillas will end their discontent and return them to the social mainstream.

Unemployed veterans who say their role in the fight for independence from Indonesia has not been recognised are a potential destabilising force for East Timor.

Tiarma Siboro and Teuku Agam Muzakkir, Jakarta/Lhokseumawe – Hundreds of protesters from the country's two troubled provinces took to the streets on Saturday to demand for an end to martial law in Aceh and attempts to partition Papua.

Damien Kingsbury, Melbourne – As the United Nations winds down its presence in East Timor ahead of next May's departure, the fledgling state is still wrestling with forces that could offer it a stable future or, should matters not be well managed, tear it apart. More than ever, East Timor's future is in the balance.