Jakarta – Police say former Army chief Hartono signed the order for the 1996 attack on the headquarters of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).

Hartono and five other retired generals, including ex-president Soeharto, will soon be summoned for questioning over their alleged roles in the attack, police said yesterday.

Jakarta – Aceh, at the westernmost tip of the Indonesian archipelago, has remained through the ages a staunch Muslim stronghold which has defied all outside attempts at domination.

Mark Dodd, Dili – At least one suspected militiaman was wounded in a heavy exchange of fire between Australian peacekeepers and a group of pro-Jakarta militia who had crossed into East Timor yesterday, a senior United Nations military official said.

Thomas Wagner, Jakarta – About 25 youths held a protest outside the presidential palace on Thursday that appeared to be the first public demonstration by Indonesia's ethnic Chinese minority in many years.

Jakarta – In what is seen here as another blow to the Indonesian justice system, the Attorney General's Office admitted that five state prosecutors are suspected of taking a 12 billion rupiah (S$2.4 million) bribe to conceal evidence.

Geneva – Separatists from Indonesia's northern Aceh province remain committed to their goal of independence, according to a written statement released hours after agreeing a three-month ceasefire with Jakarta here Friday.

The Free Aceh Movement (GAM)'s commitments to achieve its solemn goal remains intact until Aceh gains its independence", said the GAM's statement.

Jakarta – The government of President Abdurrahman Wahid has expressed concern over the increasing number of abortions in Indonesia, having noted that at least 2.3 million women resorted to terminating their pregnancies last year.

Geoffrey Barker – Specially modified RAAF PC3 Orion aircraft are flying electronic spy missions against Indonesia in secret operations that gravely threaten Canberra's efforts to restore relations with Jakarta.

Jakarta – The Indonesian rupiah dropped sharply in panic selling Friday, breaching the psychological support level of 8,500 against the dollar before strengthening on state bank intervention, foreign exchange dealers said.

Jakarta – The Dharmais Foundation, formerly controlled by ex- president Soeharto, has admitted that it channeled funds to timber tycoon Mohamad "Bob" Hasan's widely diversified Nusamba Group.

Kupang – The Timorese People's Party (PPT) intends to soon register itself with UNTAET [UN Transitional Authority in East Timor ] and become one of the political parties to contest the first East Timor elections, expected to be held at the beginning of 2001.

Mark Dodd, DilI – In a groundbreaking decision, East Timor independence fighters will work alongside United Nations peacekeepers as liaison officers, a senior UN military official said yesterday.

In the wake of Labor leader Kim Beazley's meeting last week in Jakarta with Indonesia's President Abdurrahman Wahid and PM John Howard's response to Wahid's announcement on April 27 that he was postponing his May visit to Australia, media commentators have claimed that there is a major policy difference between Beazley and Howard over Australia's "relationship" with Indonesia.

Jakarta – Indonesian student protestors on Wednesday urged Attorney General Marzuki Darusman to speed up a government probe into the wealth of former president Suharto which has dragged on for almost two years.

Julia Perkins, Jakarta – After marching with thousands of other workers on Parliament House here on May 1, 1500 workers from the Indian-owned textile company Texmaco camped outside overnight to protest against their treatment by their employer and demand higher wages.

Budiman Sujatmiko, chairperson of Indonesia's People's Democratic Party (PRD), has been active in the movement for democracy in his country since 1988, when he was a student at Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University.

Thousands of people protested in Indonesia on April 1 against policies demanded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in exchange for loans – these include cuts to subsides on fuel, public transport, electricity and education. An increase in prices on basic needs will drastically affect the lives of millions of poor Indonesian people.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) urged politicians and the government on Tuesday to enhance political stability by not exaggerating political differences.

Agencies in Banda Aceh – For the first time in Indonesia's landmark human rights trial in Aceh, soldiers yesterday admitted they had executed civilians but said they were innocent of murder because they were only following their commander's orders.

Jakarta – Virtually no new money has entered the forestry and plantation sectors the past two years because potential investors have been frightened off, an executive said on Tuesday.

Jakarta – After two decades of opposition, the Petisi 50 (Petition 50) group was unrelenting on Tuesday, marking its anniversary with a strong warning that allies of its old foes, the New Order regime, were still threatening democratization.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – The discredited former special forces commander, Prabowo Subianto, has announced in Jakarta that his almost two-year exile in Jordan is over and that he is transferring his commercial activities back to Indonesia.

Jakarta – The Ministry of Industry and Trade, and the Military have agreed to work together to create a conducive and safe environment for businesses operating in the country, according to Minister of Industry and Trade Luhut Pandjaitan.

Jakarta – Despite being more democratically elected and rambunctious in its work, the current legislature is seen to be less qualified and productive than previous ones, a senior observer and politician has said.

Bandung – Continuing worker protests may prompt at least 20 foreign manufacturing companies to relocate outside Indonesia, the Indonesian Business Council says.

Council chairman Sofyan Wanandi said the companies, mostly owned by South Korean investors, included 13 firms operating in Jakarta and its surrounding areas and seven in Karawang, West Java.

Compere: An embarrassed Telstra is confronting something today; that its operation in East Timor is in breach of the local law.

Ambon – Up to 200 members of the Laskar Jihad (Jihad Force) Muslim group have entered riot-torn Ambon from Namlea Port on neighboring Buru island, police said. Maluku Police spokesman Maj. Jakriel Phillip said on Monday that police and intelligence officers have been deployed to monitor the group's activities.

Jakarta – Indonesia's economic growth this year should easily meet official forecasts of between three and four percent, the government said in the latest revised letter of intent to the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Jakarta – An Indonesian newspaper has agreed to run a front- page apology for seven days and build a mosque following protests over an article which angered a Muslim group, a journalist and a report said yesterday.

Jakarta – A gold mining firm has started vacating its mine in Indonesia's East Kalimantan following a three-week blockade by residents angered over land compensation issues, a mine official said Tuesday.

Bogor – A group of 100 masked-men brandishing sharp weapons and wooden sticks raided and burned nine dimly lit kiosks and a discotheque at Kampung Kemang and Kampung Kirey at noon Sunday.

Warren Caragata, Jakarta – Can the country's grocers fight off foreign giants? The new Carrefour supermarket on Jalan Sudirman, Jakarta's busy main thoroughfare, may look like the French hypermarches in Paris or Marseille: food on one side; electronics, books, and clothing near the door. But the resemblance ends there. The deli carries no goose-liver pate or Camembert.

Jakarta – Once powerful generals are facing inquiries into various crimes. Munir, co-founder and advisory board member of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) shares his reasons for pessimism with The Jakarta Post. An excerpt of Thursday's interview follows:

Jakarta – The first wave of hardline Muslim jihad fighters arrived in Indonesia's bloodied Spice Islands yesterday with the army saying it was powerless to stop them.

Banda Aceh – One of the two military commanders in the restive Indonesian province of Aceh admitted yesterday to having ordered his troops to catch a traditional leader and his followers "dead or alive".

Washington – Secretary of State Madeleine Albright is demanding punishment for those responsible for an "orgy of violence" in East Timor after it voted for independence from Indonesia.

The prospects are promising, she said Friday, citing recent moves by Indonesian investigators to question top generals.

Surabaya – Police at Indonesia's second biggest port of Surabaya yesterday allowed hundreds of hardline Muslim jihad fighters to board a commercial ship sailing to the strife-torn spice islands or Maluku.

The UN has made solid progress despite early snags, but problems persist, reports Herald Correspondent Mark Dodd in Dili.

Mark Riley, New York – The architect of East Timor's administrative blueprint for independence has accused United Nations bureaucrats of putting the territory's future second to their own careers in a way that "borders on criminal negligence".

Jakarta – Indonesian troops will remain in Aceh after the government signs a truce with separatist rebels next week and there will be no referendum on self-rule for the troubled province, Foreign Affairs Minister Alwi Shihab said Friday.

Jakarta – Two retired generals separately testified before National Police investigators on Thursday and Friday that the country's former "political patron" was behind the July 27, 1996, violence.

Tim Dodd, Jakarta – For five days this week Indonesia's media was in hot pursuit of the story that President Abdurrahman Wahid planned to retire on his 60th birthday in September this year.

Wellington – Foreign Minister Phil Goff Friday sent Jakarta a list of assets held by former Indonesian president Suharto and his family in New Zealand. The list was sent to Indonesia's Attorney General Marzuki Darusman and included a multi-million dollar alpine lodge, Lilybank Station.

Jakarta – The former chief of East Timor's Battalion 745 in Los Palos, Major Jacob Joko Sarosa, confirmed yesterday his superior had told him to mobilize troops after the East Timor ballot on August 30 last year. He said barring an order from his superior, the troops would still remain in military barracks.

Jose Manuel Tesoro, Jakarta – On April 20, in a house on Irian Street in Jakarta's residential district of Menteng, two top Indonesian leaders broke fast together.

Washington – The United States said on Friday it saw "promising prospects" for Indonesia's domestic investigation into atrocities in East Timor last year. But if the Indonesian judicial system failed to deliver credible justice, the international community would have to take on the task, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright told a seminar for editors on war crimes.

Jakarta – The future of post-Suharto Indonesia hinges on how the nation handles its military, according to a report by the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) released Thursday.

Jakarta – Former vice president Gen. (ret) Try Sutrisno and former armed forces commander Gen. (ret) L.B. Moerdani were questioned on Wednesday over their roles in a 1984 shooting in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, that left at least 40 people dead.

Mark Dodd, Dili – United Nations police and human rights investigators have begun inspecting what is claimed to have been a militia torture centre used last year to force independence activists to support integration with Indonesia.

Jakarta – Indonesia will more than double monthly allowances for impoverished state teachers, Finance Minister Bambang Sudibyo said yesterday, but rejected their demands for a 300-per-cent wage hike.