Thousands of Indonesians hit the streets of Jakarta on Sunday, staging a peaceful demonstration against the looming US-led war on Iraq.
Organized by the relatively small Justice Party (Partai Keadilan), it was clearly the biggest ever anti-American protest in Indonesia, involving students, Muslim activists and families carrying babies.
The Indonesian government and Aceh rebels on Sunday entered the crucial demilitarization stage in the process to end a bloody 26-year separatist war in the resource-rich province.
It was a palace insider, Brutus, who stabbed Julius Caesar from behind, not any external enemy. President Megawati Sukarnoputri also knows that it is highly likely the organized action to pull down her government comes not from outside, but from within her inner circle.
Jakarta – Indonesia has decided to go ahead with its decision to divide the easternmost Papua province into three smaller provinces in the face of objections from local officials and religious leaders who have warned the move may spark unrest.
Indonesia is gradually winding back the elaborate system of discrimination against its Chinese citizens.
Foreign travellers arriving in Indonesia are still asked if they are carrying pornographic magazines or more than a litre of liquor, but the question asking if you possess material printed in Chinese has suddenly disappeared.
Jakarta – The Riau chapter of Koham (Human Rights Commission) will sue 11 plywood and pulp and paper companies operating in Riau for allegedly causing the recent flooding in the province, Antara has reported.
Nani Farida, Aceh – Demilitarization in the restive province of Aceh is scheduled to start on Sunday as part of last December's peace deal to end long-standing hostilities, but exactly how it will work remains unclear.
Kornelius Purba, Aceh – As stipulated by the cessation of hostilities agreement signed by Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the GAM rebels are to begin disarming by February 9, while the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police will at the same time begin pulling back their combat forces to defensive areas.
Jakarta – An estimated 140,000 out of 583,000 current tuberculosis sufferers in Indonesia die every year compared to 2 million worldwide, Sri Astuti Suparmanto, the Health Ministry's acting director general for contagious disease control and environmental health, said here on Friday.
Bill Guerin – Jakarta has officially announced that regional governments can now borrow from foreign sources if certain conditions are met.
Joanne Collins, Jakarta – A UN investigator examining Indonesia's legal system called on the government to take urgent and drastic action to tackle corruption in the country's judiciary, or see badly needed investment dwindle.
John Ward and Peter Symonds – The Australian government is deliberately delaying the signing of an agreement with East Timor, known as the Timor Sea Treaty, as a means of blackmailing the small, newly independent country into conceding a greater share of off-shore oil and gas reserves to Canberra.
Dili – The commander of Australian UN peacekeepers in East Timor has dismissed reports that former anti-independence militiamen have infiltrated from Indonesia and were behind recent attacks on Timorese villages.
Jakarta – The Indonesian military (TNI) is undertaking a major reshuffle of 120 strategic positions, including the three deputies to the chiefs of staff of the army, the navy and the air force.
Moch. N. Kurniawan and Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – Workers and employers have inched closer to a workable agreement with regard to several contentious and crucial issues in the labor protection and development bill, which is expected to be endorsed by the House of Representatives this month.
Several hundred protestors scuffled with police during a rowdy demonstration outside President Megawati Sukarnoputri's official residence in Jakarta.
The protestors were calling on the president to resign, and carrying signs showing her as the devil.
Police cordoned off the area, but had to resort to a baton charge when the crowd failed to disperse.
Jakarta – About 1,000 Indonesian students staged a rowdy protest outside the home of President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Thursday calling for her to step down.
Hundreds of police formed a cordon to stop the protesters approaching Megawati's official residence in central Jakarta.
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.
The Indonesian military has indicated for the first time that it was involved in the murder of Papuan pro-independence leader, Theys Eluay 14 months ago.
Jakarta – In the first public admission that the military was behind the killing of Papuan independence leader Theys Eluay, an Indonesian army officer told a court martial yesterday that one of his men strangled the politician.
Kafil Yamin, Jakarta – The market is dirty, is chaotic and reeks of animals. Called the Pramuka pet market, its bazaar-like atmosphere, punctuated by the calls of creatures in distress, camouflage well the fact that this untidy sprawl in the eastern part of Indonesia's capital is a key part of a multimillion-dollar smuggling operation.
Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – The World Bank is calling on the government to proceed with its higly criticized plan to actively involve the private sector in managing clean water services to help improve people's access to water.
Nani Farida, Aceh – Residents of the troubled Aceh are angry about what they see as their exclusion from the peace process, which has yet to bring a complete halt to separatist violence.
Residents say that those in charge of the peace process are sidelining them and their efforts to get involved in implementing the December 9 peace pact.
Jakrta – Indonesian prosecutors demanded on Wednesday that the former military chief in East Timor be jailed for 10 years for failing to halt massacres when the territory voted to split from Jakarta rule in 1999.
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – As demands from within Golkar grow for chairman Akbar Tandjung to quit his post, party leaders are now scrambling to save the organization from falling apart by diverting attention away from Akbar's corruption case.
Dadan Wijaksana and Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – In an apparent bid to appease public criticism, the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) started another round of legal action against five former bank owners who have been deemed uncooperative in settling their debts to the state.
Jill Jolliffe, Dili – United Nations investigators have indicted ageing militia chieftain Joao Tavares and two senior Indonesian officers for crimes against humanity committed in the Maliana district of East Timor in 1999.
Ralf Scharmann, Darwin – Traditional owners in several Top End communities have offered sanctuary to 84 Darwin-based East Timorese asylum seekers who are facing deportation.
Marie Munkara, traditional owner of Cape Fourcroy on Bathurst Island has opposed the government's attempt to deport the East Timorese.
Warren Fernandez, Jakarta – Brace yourselves – the next 18 months are going to be tense and turbulent as Indonesia heads down a bumpy road to the 2004 polls.
Jakarta – The UN on Tuesday indicted 32 people- including 15 Indonesian soldiers – for murdering and torturing East Timorese during the country's bloody break with Indonesia in 1999.
It was the largest indictment so far by the UN Special Crimes Unit and accuses Indonesian officers of crimes against humanity for taking part in the violence.
Tiarma Siboro, Lhokseumawe – Compensation money is often given in exchange for a loss of property or a relative, but it cannot bring back a loved one, or in many cases, compensate for the bitter feelings felt.
Nani Farida, Banda Aceh – With the signing on December ember 9, 2002 of the cessation of hostilities agreement between Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), the Acehnese people began to feel emboldened enough to speak about the crimes committed by GAM in the past, starting with the three mass graves found in Kemukiman Manggamat, South Aceh.
Banda Aceh – Separatist rebels in Indonesia's Aceh province yesterday said that they were ready to start handing over weapons under a December ember peace deal but questioned the army's commitment to the pact.
Jakarta – The Indonesian army announced Tuesday that it will replace its commander in Papua province amid allegations his troops killed two US teachers and a prominent politician.
Sarah Crichton – The Federal Court has ruled it cannot hear a US oil company's multi-billion dollar compensation claim against the Commonwealth for loss of rights to vast oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.
To East Timor, where a reported militia insurgency has put a spotlight on Australia's peacekeeping efforts in properly securing the border. Local authorities say they're struggling to repel fresh militia raids from West Timor, prompting calls for a tougher Australian stance on border security.
Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Indonesia's national police headquarters was rocked by a bomb blast early yesterday.
While the explosion injured no one and caused only minor damage, it sent shockwaves through the country's campaign to convince the world that it has implemented effective security measures in the wake of the Bali bombings.
Yuli Tri Suwarni and Agus Maryono, Bandung/Cilacap – State-owned forestry company PT Perhutani has increasingly come under fire for its failure to stop the rampant deforestation blamed for last week's deadly landslides that killed more than 30 people in West Java.
Indonesia's exports rose 1.2 per cent to $US57 billion ($97.3 billion) in 2002 from a year earlier, helped by higher oil and commodity prices as well as a boost in overseas orders for machinery and other manufactured goods.
Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – The country's export performance turned out last year to be better than many had expected, thanks to stronger exports of agriculture and low-end manufacturing products.
The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) reported on Monday that the value of exports rose by 1.21 percent to US$57 billion last year, compared with the level in 2001.
A bomb which exploded at Indonesia's national police headquarters has heightened fears of new attacks in the country, the police chief said.
Berni K. Moestafa, Jakarta – Debuts by new Indonesian artists may soon become a thing of the past.
Digital piracy, through the duplication of CDs and VCDs, is rapidly taking over the market and pushing the local recording industry to the brink of extinction.
Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta – The 2003 city budget, which amounts to Rp 10.98 trillion, will better serve the city administration and council, instead of the general public, critics have said.
This year's budget, which was approved by the council's 11 factions on Friday, increased by about 10 percent from last year's budget, which was Rp 9.7 trillion.
Sri Jegarajah, Jakarta – The United States embassy in Jakarta has denied a New York Times report alleging Indonesian soldiers killed two US teachers last August, saying such a conclusion was premature because investigations were still continuing.
Nani Farida, Aceh – The almost two-month-old cessation of hostilities agreement between Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) is under threat by violations committed by both sides.
Both GAM and the military have been found guilty of numerous violations and neither side has taken action against those responsible for the breaches, leading to a loss of mutual confidence.
Jafar G. Bua, Palu – The arrest of student activists has not lessened the number of demonstrations. In an action today, Monday, around 1000 activists from the Central Sulawesi Poor People's Forum (Forum Rakyat Miskin Sulawesi Tengah, FRMST) demanded that President Megawati Sukarnoputri resign and proceeded to burn posters of Megawati.
Jafar G. Bua, Palu – The Central Sulawesi Poor People's Forum (Forum Rakyat Miskin Sulawesi Tengah, FRMST) protested the arrest of 13 pro-democracy activist during a recent incident when the offices of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDIP) were damaged.
Karen Michelmore, Darwin – Players in the multi-billion dollar Timor Gas treaty are hopeful of an outcome within weeks, as negotiations drag on.
Northern Territory Chief Minister Clare Martin today said she was confident the federal government would soon ratify a treaty with East Timor on sharing royalties from the project.
Jill Jolliffe, Hatolia – The United Nations is in a quandary after insecure border villagers demanded that it extend a controversial military operation that has resulted in mass arrests.