John Gauci, Sydney – The large turnout of 230 people for a March 17 dinner and public meeting here on issue "Free Aceh, Referendum now!" is an indication of growing interest in the struggle in Aceh among the Australian public.

The event was organised jointly by Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor (ASIET) and the Sydney-based Aceh Australia Association (AAA).

Jakarta – Ethnic violence in Indonesian Borneo claimed another five lives, police and the military said Wednesday, a month after similar bloody clashes there left at least 500 dead.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid's reply to a censure motion today could trigger a last-ditch round of corrupt deal-making to try to ensure his political survival, according to analysts.

More than 1,000 Wahid supporters demonstrated in Jakarta yesterday and police were on high alert in anticipation of unrest ahead of the parliamentary session.

Vaudine England – The timber tycoon and golfing buddy of former Indonesian president Suharto, Mohammad "Bob" Hasan, has been moved to a high-security island jail following fears he might escape his central Jakarta cell.

Starting March 27, a United States court in Washington, DC, will hear evidence that Indonesian General Johnny Lumintang is responsible for gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed in East Timor. The proceeding will determine the amount of compensatory and punitive damages to be assessed against Lumintang, who is not expected to attend.

Jon Land – Chances are increasingly remote that the Indonesian legal system will bring to justice those responsible for war crimes and human rights abuses committed before, during and after East Timor's August 1999 referendum. Any trial that does take place will be little more than a whitewash.

The National Council of East Timor today voted against setting up a mechanism that would have allowed the East Timorese people to provide input to the drafting of their territory's first constitution, according to the United Nations mission there, which had supported the idea of national consultation.

Dili – UN prosecutors in East Timor condemned on Tuesday the downgrading of charges against six people accused of killing international aid workers in West Timor in September.

Banda Aceh – At least 14 people were killed in a series of clashes between government forces and separatist rebels in Indonesia's restive province of Aceh, police and residents said Sunday.

Dili – East Timor, preparing the way for eventual independence, will hold its first democratic elections on August 30, the head of the United Nations transitional authority said. Formal independence is not expected until later this year or in 2002.

Former workers of the Shangri-La hotel, Jakarta, have clashed with baton-wielding Indonesian police, after threatening to enter the hotel, which re-opened yesterday.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid has sacked a minister from one of the political parties trying to oust him in an apparent bid to remove disloyal aides from his Cabinet.

Jakarta – Jakarta municipal authorities are complaining that the daily anti- and pro-government protests in the Indonesian capital are causing a strain – on their garbage collectors.

The thousands of protesters who staged daily sit-ins at the Indonesian parliament complex this week left behind some 60 cubic metres of garbage a day, the Kompas daily said.

Mark Dodd, Dili – Seven suspected Indonesian spies have been detected in East Timor, prompting warnings by United Nations officials that saboteurs could try to wreck the territory's first democratic elections.

Daniel Cooney, Jakarta – Indonesia has deployed about 1,500 troops to protect Exxon Mobil oil fields from rebel attacks in the violence-plagued province of Aceh, the government said Saturday.

Susan Sim, Jakarta – Thirteen. That was the number of ministers and top generals President Abdurrahman Wahid had fired up until Thursday.

Number 14 was Forestry Minister Nurmahmudi Ismail, a former palace favourite whose regular night visits with Mr Abdurrahman in the early days of the administration led critics to dub them the Night Cabinet sessions.

Jakarta – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid was publicly snubbed by his deputy on Saturday, adding to growing signs of a politically explosive rift at the top of the troubled administration.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Death threats and intimidation this week forced United Nations officials to abandon efforts to reunite children living in impoverished Indonesian orphanages with their parents in East Timor.

Surabaya – More than 5,000 supporters of President Abdurrahman Wahid, armed with sickles, machetes and bamboo spears, blocked Ketapang Port in Banyuwangi, some 290 kilometers east of Surabaya, on Thursday, demanding that the House of Representatives (DPR) withdraw the memorandum it issued on February 1, censuring President Abdurrahman Wahid.

[The following is an article based on a conference paper by sociologist George J. Aditjondro, a lecturer at Australia's Newcastle University. It was originally published in two parts with the second appearing on March 17.]

Newcastle – Recently, the move to push Megawati Soekarnoputri into the presidential seat has become stronger.

Chris McCall and Reuters in Jakarta – Beleaguered President Abdurrahman Wahid won a much-needed boost yesterday when two cabinet ministers opted to stay in his Government and leave the party of his most ferocious political enemy.

Jakarta – The United States government maintained on Thursday its opposition to separatism such as that in Aceh, but warned the Indonesian government to be "conscious of the local people's human rights."

Terry Frie, Malang – Indonesia's leading Muslim group and fanatic supporters of embattled President Abdurrahman Wahid threatened to call millions on to the streets of the capital to defend him.

Jakarta – Army Chief of Staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto dismissed on Thursday speculation that there would soon be a major reshuffle in the Indonesian Military (TNI).

Marianne Kearney, Madura – There seems to be no safe haven for the thousands of Madurese refugees who are fleeing the brutal ethnic violence in Central Kalimantan.

Those who have returned to rural Madura in the hope of finding solace and refuge with their kinsmen face increasing problems of overcrowding and poverty.

Jakarta – The chief of police in the capital of Indonesia's restive Irian Jaya province was quizzed Friday over the deaths of three students in December, a human rights investigator said.

Ambon – There is still gunfire every night in Ambon, the capital of the Moluccas, and sometimes a shattering bomb blast. Once a thriving commercial city, it is now a deadly maze of Christian "red" areas and Muslim "white" ones, a pattern of demarcation that has spread to the neighbouring islands.

Jakarta – Lawyers for the Indonesian timber tycoon Mohamad "Bob" Hasan, a close associate of former president Soeharto, say they will appeal after Hasan was sentenced to six years' jail for corruption.

Jakarta – Indonesia's central bank said on Friday it expects to keep raising interest rates to help ease inflationary pressures stemming from the battered rupiah, but hoped the rise would not be too high.

Mark Dodd, On board the Curtis Wilbur, East Timor – The deck of an American guided missile destroyer might seem a strange place to train East Timorese police cadets but one hand-picked group of recruits learned some valuable lessons recently.

Chris McCall, Jakarta – Rebel leaders in war-torn Aceh yesterday denounced plans by Jakarta to mount a new military operation there and said it would lead to a bloodbath on an appalling scale.

Jakarta – Prosecutors Thursday ordered the temporary release of five political activists facing subversion charges for alleged separatism in Irian Jaya province, lawyers said Thursday.

The move comes a day after Amnesty International condemned Jakarta for jailing dozens of "prisoners of conscience" in an attempt to stamp out separatist movements in several provinces.

Jakarta – The estimated number of East Timorese refugees still in camps in Indonesia has been reduced to about 50,000, a UN official said Thursday.

Jakarta – Indonesian vice president Megawati Sukarnoputri no longer supported President Abdurrahman Wahid and was ready to replace him, despite mistrusting her new allies, according to a senior official of her party.

Jakarta – Police stormed a top-security prison here early yesterday, killing one inmate and injuring three others as they quelled a riot over plans to transfer 50 prisoners to other jails, police said.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The presidential office yesterday denied that the US$300,000 sent to President Abdurrahman Wahid while he was on an overseas trip in Saudi Arabia was obtained improperly, saying it had come from its own coffers.

Banda Aceh – A leading supporter of independence for Aceh walked out of his trial Wednesday when it refused to call Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid or his representative as a witness.

Muhammad Nazar, chairman of the Information Centre for a Referendum in Aceh (SIRA), walked out of the Banda Aceh district court in protest with his defence lawyers.

Vanya Tanaja, Dili – The "Draft Regulation on the Election of a Constituent Assembly to draft the Constitution of an Independent and Democratic East Timor" was presented to East Timor's National Council by the United Nations Transitional Administration for East Timor (UNTAET) on March 2.

Chris Latham & Pip Hinman – On February 20 the "cease-fire" between the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and the Indonesian military (TNI) was extended for the third time since the so-called humanitarian pause in 2000. These declarations mean nothing, Syadiah Marhaban from the Aceh Referendum Information Centre (SIRA) told Green Left Weekly.

Chris McCall and agencies in Jakarta – Indonesians are bracing for more economic misery as their currency crumbles, sparking fears of a repeat of its 1997 collapse.

Supporters of President Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday staged their own demonstration outside the presidential palace, where thousands on Monday called for him to resign.

Jakarta – Thousands of Indonesian students Wednesday abandoned a sit-in at parliament demanding the resignation of President Abdurrahman Wahid, amid rumours his supporters were descending on the complex.

As police squads looked on, some 2,500 students marched out of the back entrance of the sprawling complex after two nights camping in the grounds.

Jakarta – Monday's mass student rally was marked by the hijacking of several buses with their drivers being forced to transport protesters to the scene of the demonstration.

Banda Aceh – The judges of the Banda Aceh District Court ruled on Monday that the court could continue to try Acehnese independence activist Muhammad Nazar, ruling that the court had legal grounds on which to proceed. "The case will go ahead as there are sufficient legal grounds to justify this," presiding judge Farida Hanoem said during the second session of the trial.

Jakarta – Indonesian authorities are planning to launch "limited security operations" against separatist rebels in the troubled province of Aceh, Defence Minister Muhammad Mahfud said Tuesday.

Jakarta – The government decided on Monday to raise fuel prices for industries by 50 percent up to 100 percent on April 1 but keep kerosene and fuel prices at gas stations unchanged until October to protect the poor.

Carol Giacomo, Washington – The United States has assured Indonesia that it would not back a military coup against Jakarta's politically embattled civilian government, US and Indonesian officials said on Monday.

Secretary of State Colin Powell has declared that such a move by Washington would be "unthinkable," a senior US official told Reuters.

Jakarta – A large number of President Abdurrahman Wahids loyalists left East Java for Jakarta yesterday as their rivals mounted protests to demand the resignation of the national leader.

Jakarta – The Jakarta Student Executive Boards' (BEMs) call for a national strike received a mixed response from both the people and university students nationwide, and life practically went on as normal in all cities in the country on Monday, despite student demonstrations in several places.

Viqueque – Gang violence in an East Timorese town has left at least two men dead and forced dozens of residents and aid workers to shelter in a guarded UN compound, witnesses said Tuesday.

Jakarta – No bullets or tear gas were fired when more than 10,000 protesters, mostly students, besieged Merdeka Palace on Monday, intensifying the pressure on President Abdurrahman Wahid to resign.

Rallies against the President also took place in several towns across the country, but the students' call for a national strike did not materialize.