Robert Go, Jakarta – Market players do not expect miracles, but they see the quick signing of Jakarta's next agreement with the International Monetary Fund as a major test of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's new economic Cabinet.

Comment by Hamish McDonald – The new Megawati Cabinet will reassure foreign lenders and investors that the Government will continue with the economic rescue plan negotiated with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – President Megawati Sukarnoputri finally announced her cabinet yesterday and immediately won praise for achieving a judicious balance of professionals, politicians and personal friends.

Jakarta – Tommy Suharto, the fugitive son of Indonesia's former dictator, has offered to surrender to face questioning over the murder of a senior judge and other alleged crimes, the Jakarta police chief said Friday.

Sofyan Yacub said he was confident Tommy would hand himself in based on a letter to police from his eldest sister Tutut, received Thursday afternoon.

Susan Sim, Jakarta – President Megawati Sukarnoputri's failure yesterday to name a new attorney-general might be indicative of the difficulties her government will have in deciding how to deal with the ghosts of the past – the same ones that her predecessor insists brought him down because he went after them.

Mark Dodd in Dili and Craig Skehan in Canberra – An East Timorese militia leader who served in the Indonesian Army's special forces and is on trial for war crimes – including the murder of a nun – says he was trained by Australian soldiers.

Warren Caragata, Jakarta – On a day when most business executives in Jakarta were chasing rumors about the possible shape of President Megawati Sukarnoputri's cabinet, investment banker Tim Gray was past caring. Let others worry whether her government will prove any more stable than that of her impeached predecessor, Abdurrahman Wahid. Gray is leaving town.

Warren Caragata, Dili – It's the road from nowhere, but it's surprisingly busy. Mafalda Florindo and Isabella Antonine walk along it, smiling betel-stained grins as they talk about cloth they had just bought for a good price. A little farther, Alicin Soares, a rice grower, maneuvers his truck along the dusty track.

Warren Caragata, Dili – The big UN Land Rover that carries Xanana Gusmao and his bodyguards from event to event should have a bumper sticker that says "I'd rather be doing practically anything else." Anyone who doubts that's the case should watch him when he has a camera in his hands.

Banda Aceh – Thirty-one people were killed by unidentified gunmen on a palm-oil plantation yesterday, according to police and separatist rebels who accused each other of carrying out the attack.

Nigel Wilson – For months there have been rumours of problems in the "co-operative" arrangement to develop more than 12 trillion cubic feet of gas in the Timor Sea. Yesterday those rumours were confirmed – with gusto.

Ian Timberlake, Jakarta – The Indonesian military directed a militia campaign of killings, terror and forced deportation against East Timorese civilians, according to a new book on the 1999 atrocities.

Robert Go, Jakarta – By drafting respected technocrats and businessmen into her economic dream team, President Megawati Sukarnoputri made clear her intentions of reclaiming the international community's support and getting the economy back on track.

Yeoh En-lai – Indonesia's military will continue to play a strong role as the present crop of politicians is far from securing the future of the country, Indonesia's former defence minister said yesterday.

Hamish McDonald – A Sydney law professor will head an international study into whether there are grounds for a legal challenge to the incorporation of Western New Guinea into Indonesia in the 1960s.

Jakarta – President Megawati Soekarnoputri has ordered the police to immediately arrest the fugitive son of former president Soeharto, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, after linking him to a series of bomb attacks and the murder of a prominent judge.

Reuters in Jakarta – Indonesia's Megawati Sukarnoputri has set three conditions for running to replace embattled President Abdurrahman Wahid, including guarantees she won't be challenged before her term ends, a newspaper said on Monday.

Mark Dodd, Maliana – Every day a group of women meet at the shop called Nove Nove (Nine Nine) in bustling Maliana market. They share a chilling legacy. In the ninth month of the 99th year they all lost their husbands during a frenzy of army and militia killings that followed the referendum for self-determination.

Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – Indonesia's new president announced her long-awaited cabinet on Thursday, winning immediate praise for her choice of a team to pull the country out of years of crisis.

Almost three weeks after taking office, President Megawati Sukarnoputri announced her new cabinet today.

She said the 31-member body will include retired army general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono as the senior security minister, seen as the most powerful cabinet position. He lost the same post in Wahid's cabinet in June.

Electoral officials in Dili said Thursday that final voters' lists for East Timor's August 30 constituent assembly elections contained 409,019 eligible voters, after additions made in corrections of faulty preliminary lists.

Jakarta – Hundreds of residents of Kendari, the provincial capital of Indonesia's Sulawesi province, smashed windows of Chinese-owned shops in anger at reports that an ethnic Chinese man had abused his local maid.

Jakarta – The chief of the justices team preparing the establishment of an ad hoc human rights tribunal, Benjamin Mangkoedilaga, expects that they could start the court hearings in October this year.

The Indonesian government has rejected a United Nations proposal for a land link between East Timor and its Oecussi enclave in West Timor, a report said Thursday.

The refusal of the proposal by the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) was based on security considerations, said East Nusa Tenggara province vice governor Yohanes Pake Pani.

Banda Aceh – Eleven people – three rebels, four policemen and four civilians – have been killed in the latest clashes between Indonesian government forces and separatist guerrillas in the restive province of Aceh, a report said Wednesday.

Jon Land – With elections to the country's first post-occupation Constituent Assembly due on August 30, East Timor's socialists are building up their support across the country and are confident of good results.

The Socialist Party of Timor is unique amongst all the parties contesting the elections: it's the only one running on an openly socialist and Marxist platform.

Kupang – Police forcibly evacuated some 500 former prointegration militiamen from East Timor on Tuesday. Grouped under the Indonesian Veterans Legion (LVRI), they demonstrated at the governor's office demanding that the Indonesian government pay greater attention to their future.

Max Lane – An intense struggle is underway within the Indonesian elite over how to divide up the spoils after the ousting of President Abdurrahman Wahid. On August 3, 12 days after Megawati Sukarnoputri was elected president by the People's Consultative Assembly, it was announced that it would still be another week before she would announce her cabinet.

Urgent solidarity action is needed from supporters of democracy worldwide to secure the release of activists held by police for organising against the Indonesian regime.

Particularly urgent is the case of the Bandung 19, who have imprisoned as political prisoners by the authorities in police headquarters in the West Javanese city since as far back as June 15.

Mark Dodd – A court holding the territory's first war crimes trial heard graphic evidence yesterday about the torture and murder of a pro-independence guerilla by Indonesian special forces.

Jakarta – Indonesia said on Wednesday tax collection in the first seven months of 2001 was above target, raising hopes the government would be able to meet the full year tax revenue target crucial to help plug its budget deficit.

The ouster of President Abdurrahman Wahid and his replacement by Megawati Sukarnoputri has opened up a new, and likely volatile, era in Indonesia.

Pip Hinman – With Megawati Sukarnoputri freshly installed as president, and the country's armed forces, the TNI, in the ascendancy, the US government is moving swiftly to strengthen military ties with Indonesia.

Jakarta – Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) and the Indonesian Accountants' Foundation (YAI) urged the government on Tuesday to revise political party laws to allow party financial management to be more accessible to public scrutiny.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Police turned up the heat in their search for former dictator Suharto's youngest son yesterday by announcing they had two suspects who had confessed the playboy had paid them to kill the judge who sentenced him to jail.

Surabaya – Tens of thousands of people lined the streets of East Java's Tapal Kuda area on Tuesday to welcome home former president and influential Muslim cleric Abdurrahman Wahid.

The crowds, comprising people from all walks of life, continued to pour into Situbondo's main square in the center of the coastal city, some 160 kilometers east of Surabaya, on Tuesday morning.

Jakarta – The World Bank's private sector arm said on Wednesday it had temporarily frozen all funding to Indonesia mainly because of a court ruling over one of its debtors.

Vaudine England – Aid groups may be reluctant to return to refugee camps in West Timor with as many personnel as before, despite the UN giving the go-ahead for workers to go back.

Ian Timberlake, Jakarta – Petrus Hariyanto sees the fate of his tiny political party as a symbol of what's to come under Indonesia's new president, Megawati Sukarnoputri.

[A number of problems feature in the controversy surrounding the resumption of US-Indonesian military ties, writes Dr. Kusnanto Anggoro, senior researcher at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies and lecturer in the postgraduate studies program at the University of Indonesia, Jakarta.]

Jakarta – Human rights activists applauded on Sunday the renewed presidential decree on the establishment of an ad hoc tribunal to try suspects of gross human rights abuses in the 1984 Tanjung Priok and 1999 East Timor bloodshed.

Tim McGirk, Jakarta – When the scorpion tanks clattered to a halt outside the Istana Merdeka palace in Jakarta, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid was relieved. "Maybe they're here to protect the palace," he remarked.

Pramoedya Ananta Toer – I don't blame President Sukarno for my arrest in the early 1960s. I blame the army. But being a political prisoner in the early 1960s was very different from being a captive of later regimes. Sukarno's political opponents were free to visit their families, to go out walking within a limited area if they wanted to. We were at least treated with respect.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – In a quirk of history, two very different Indonesian women won honours recently.

Megawati Sukarnoputri became President, and 28-year old Dita Indah Sari won a newly created gong – a women's category added this year to the annual Magsaysay Emerging Leaders awards, presented by a Philippine foundation in honour of former president Ramon Magsaysay.

[Excerpt from report by Asih Nurhayati by Indonesian Satunet news web site on 6 August.]

An East Timorese Jose Amaral (29) caught entering East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) claimed on Saturday said he was sent to spy on the activities of TNI/Polri Indonesian National Military Forces/Police and former pro-integrationist militia leaders in Belu district.

Mark Dodd – East Timorese officials have hailed President Megawati Sukarnoputri's decision to expand the terms of an Indonesian tribunal investigating violence in East Timor in 1999.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Scores of Acehnese activists have been arrested in Jakarta in recent days as part of the military's no-holds-barred campaign against separatism in the restive province, Aceh sources said yesterday.

Jakarta – Community leaders in an oil-rich Indonesian province have threatened to block the operations of a Caltex affiliate unless Jakarta reviews a decision to extend its contract by one year, a report said Monday.

Banda Aceh – Indonesian police said Saturday they had arrested a sixth rebel peace negotiator in the restive province of Aceh amid an intensifying anti-guerrilla crackdown by security forces.