Lela E. Madjiah, Lhokseumawe – The Indonesian Military (TNI) is considering reestablishing the Iskandar Muda military command, which would be an Aceh-specific military command, if the Acehnese people agree to its resumption, a military commander said here on Sunday.

Bandung – Hundreds of prisoners at the Kebon Waru Penitentiary in Bandung, West Java, were involved in an extremely intense riot on Thursday, damaging the warden's office and smashing windows and other property inside the prison.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – The Indonesian military is sounding the alarm over a separatist group that is aspiring to unite both halves of Timor island.

East Timor's interim foreign minister, Jose Ramos Horta, visited the Lisbon headquarters of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP) Monday, reaffirming Dili's intention of joining the seven-nation organization.

R.K. Nugroho, Irian Jaya – Papuans are becoming increasingly impatient with the slow pace of the investigation into the death of independence leader Theys Hiyo Eluay, who many believed was murdered for political reasons.

Indonesia has extended its aid programs to some 70,000 East Timorese refugees by one month to the end of January, allowing them more time to decide between repatriation and resettlement in other parts of the country.

The military commander of Indonesian West Timor, Major-General Willem da Costa, made the decision public Thursday.

Debate continued Thursday in East Timor's parliament on the future constitution of the territory, due to become independent next May. Members of the Constituent Assembly voted to remove the term "sexual orientation" from part of article 16 of the final draft constitution which deals with anti-discrimination.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – National Intelligence Agency chief A.M. Hendropriyono backtracked on Thursday from comments he made one day earlier that an international terrorist group in Poso were exacerbating the Christian-Muslim conflict there.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Legislators rejected on Thursday some articles in the government-sponsored antiterrorism bill which, it was widely feared, would justify human rights abuses.

[On November 21 President Megawati Soekarnoputri signed off on a new anti-corruption law. Teten Masduki, chairman of Indonesia Corruption Watch, in an interview with The Jakarta Post contributor Christiani Tumelap, criticizes the definition of corruption adopted in the new law on the grounds that it only covers activities that cause a financial loss to the state.]

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung's days are numbered as parliamentary speaker and party leader as foes within and outside Golkar conspire to establish a special commission to probe his involvement in a damning financial scandal.

Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta – The City administration is hastily implementing stopgap measures to prevent an outbreak of disease threatened by the mounting piles of trash throughout Jakarta, neglected as a result of the dispute over the Bantar Gebang dump site.

Jakarta – Former president Suharto could not be tried because of illness but it was up to prosecutors whether or not to take him to court again, the Supreme Court said yesterday.

Jakarta – Indonesia signed a new letter of intent with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) yesterday, paving the way for the disbursement of a long-delayed US$400 million (S$732 million) loan.

Members of East Timor's Constituent Assembly approved a motion Thursday extending the period for debate and approval of the future Constitution until January 25, more than a month after the date originally scheduled.

Oslo – Most of the 60,000 East Timorese refugees still abroad are likely to return by the end of 2002 and any linked to pro-Jakarta militias will be treated fairly, the territory's chief minister said on Wednesday.

Four separatist rebels have been killed in the latest violence in Indonesia's troubled province of Aceh, security authorities said.

Soldiers killed four suspected members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in a gunfight Wednesday in Aceh Besar district, said military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Firdaus.

Jakarta – Employees of state-owned cement maker PT Semen Gresik will strike on Friday, with support from its president, if the government does not drop plans to sell a 51 percent of the company to Mexico's cement giant Cemex SA de CV, a union leadersays.

Jakarta – United Development Party (PPP) chairman Hamzah Haz dismissed on Wednesday media reports claiming that his party had received money from the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) and then president B.J. Habibie in 1999.

Jakarta – Indonesia was unlikely to arrest a military officer charged in the first trial of cases of crime against humanity arising from the mayhem surrounding East Timor's 1999 independence vote, a senior rights advocate said Wednesday.

Max Lane – The cities and towns of the northern province of Aceh were almost like ghost towns on December 4, the 25th anniversary of the GAM, the Free Aceh Movement.

Jakarta – Indonesia has proposed raising domestic phone charges by an average of 15 percent starting next year in a move which will help state phone monopoly PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) boost its revenues and reach its fixed line growth target.

Jakarta – The House of Representatives (DPR) passed a bill mandating the creation of a council to help the President develop a policy on national defense into law Monday.

Ambon – The situation in Ambon, the provincial capital of Maluku, was tense on Tuesday morning following an explosion onboard the California passenger boat, which was in Ambon Bay sailing from Benteng seaport to Galala ferry port.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra's lawyer, Elza Syarif, played down on Monday the allegation that there was a deliberate ploy between her client and the police over recent cases released by Tommy's lawyers, which were believed to be aimed at distracting public attention.

Dili – East Timor's fledgling lawmaking body on Tuesday adopted the tongues of both their native ancestors and Portuguese colonisers as the official languages of the world's newest nation.

Chris McCAll, Poso – Osama bin Laden's photo adorns sentry posts along the road into Poso, with the words "jihad post" scrawled on the wooden walls. Above them fly flags bearing Arabic calligraphy and sometimes the image of a sword.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Legal experts strongly criticized on Monday the antiterrorism bill currently being formulated at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, saying that the bill has condoned violence in its articles.

Jakarta – The House of Representatives approved on Monday the controversial National Police bill, which critics claimed was overly militaristic and was possibly open to abuse by the president's office.Only a few changes had been made to the bill which was passed despite severe public criticism.

Bronwyn Curran, Jakarta – Ten members of a gang responsible for one of the worst massacres linked to East Timor's 1999 vote for independence were Tuesday found guilty of crimes against humanity and given jail terms of up to 33 years, United Nations officials in Dili said.

Annastashya Emmanuelle, Jakarta – Jakarta may sink under a mountain of rotting garbage within a matter of days unless the city administration finds new appropriate dump sites for the 25,000 cubic meters of household trash that the city produces daily.

Jakarta – More than 1,000 students and youths demonstrated peacefully in Irian Jaya Tuesday to demand quick answers over the murder of pro-independence leader Theys Hiyo Eluay last month, police said.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) Spokesman Rear Marshall Graito Usodo admitted on Monday that the Air Force charged US$4,500 (approximately Rp 45 million) an hour for air transport, but denied such "a fee" had delayed police deployment to conflict-torn places.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – In an unprecedented alliance, the environment and forestry ministries and the navy have launched a get-tough policy against illegal loggers and timber smuggling.

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Human rights abuses across the country are on the rise this year, particularly in areas of conflict such as Aceh, Irian Jaya, Maluku, Poso in Central Sulawesi and Sampit in Central Kalimantan, activists said on Saturday. They said that abuses involved the military, the police and civilians.

Jakarta – Four more provinces – Riau, South Sumatra, Bengkulu and South Kalimantan – have followed suit by increasing their minimum wages by 20 percent to 30 percent.

Banda Aceh – Four people have been found murdered in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province, apparently the latest victims of separatist violence, health workers said Monday.

The bodies were discovered Sunday in a rubber plantation in Langkat, a district in North Sumatra province which borders Aceh, a local paramedic said.

Jakarta – Indonesia may generate just over half of its targeted 6.5 trillion rupiah (640 million US) in privatisation revenue for the full year, an official said Monday.

Jakarta – The Indonesian parliament on Monday passed a bill that placed the police force directly under the president and stipulated that police violations will be judged by a civilian court and no longer by a military tribunal.

Jakarta – The majority of factions in Indonesia's parliament on Monday rallied behind the idea of a probe into a financial scandal with which its influential speaker has been linked, a move that could boost political instability.

[The world marks the 53rd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Day today, yet, there are no signs that major human rights violations in Indonesia will be properly investigated. The Jakarta Post's Kornelius Purba talked to leading human rights lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis about the issue.]

Question: How do you see our human rights situation?

Kartika Bagus C., Surakarta – Thousands of workers employed in more than 40 textile companies in Surakarta, Central Java, face the threat of mass dismissal amid decreasing textile orders and fierce competition with other textile-producing countries, according to industry executives.

Christian refugees trekked for two days through mountain forest to escape advancing Muslim warriors armed with bombs and rifles, a Christian leader in a riot-torn district in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi said.

Jill Jolliffe – A former defence minister in the Whitlam government, Bill Morrison, has left open the possibility of an SAS operation to evacuate the Balibo Five from the border area of East Timor in October, 1975.

Jill Jolliffe – In 1996, I had been told about a man who claimed to have been at Balibo when the journalists died, as part of an Australian SAS force. I finally tracked him down and won his agreement to talk on the basis of anonymity. We met at his home in England in 1999. This man now works as a consultant for a Balkan army; in short, he is a soldier of fortune.

East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao Friday downplayed the impact of newly released US documents showing that Washington had been informed of and approved Indonesia4s invasion of his homeland in 1975.

Joanna Jolly, Dili – Hundreds of people commemorated the anniversary Friday of Indonesia's 1975 invasion of East Timor, as speakers demanded justice for 24 years of brutal occupation.

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Indonesia said on Friday reports the United States gave former president Suharto the green light for the bloody 1975 invasion of East Timor came as no surprise, but would not harm relations with the world's only superpower.

Jakarta/Surakarta – Well aware that the creation of a special committee to investigate House Speaker Akbar Tandjung's alleged corruption may not materialize due to stiff opposition, legislators are setting up a contingency plan.

Jakarta – Former deputy commander of the East Timorese pro-integration fighters (PPI), Eurico Guterres, on Thursday registered with the Central Jakarta court a class action against former president, BJ Habibie, to pay 1 trillion rupiah in indemnity.