[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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 – 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.

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.

Chris McCall, Ambon – They are the shock troops of a crusade to defend the Christian faith and they are mostly still at school.

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.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Investors took fright yesterday as thousands of protesters blockaded the tightly guarded palace of President Abdurrahman Wahid and his most senior minister warned the country was on the brink of collapse.

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.

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 – 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.

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.

Karawang, West Java – Army chief of staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto warned on Monday that the Indonesian Military (TNI) would take control of security affairs from the National Police if the political situation deteriorates into chaos.

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 – Despite mounting political support for the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) chairperson, Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri, to lead the country, there have been signs of an effort to unseat her from the party's top post, PDI Perjuangan secretary general Soetjipto said on Sunday.

Melinda Liu – Terrified, the victims hid in the jungle. At long last the police came, announcing over loudspeakers that it was safe to come out. So some 300 Madurese-Muslims whose families had settled in Borneo over the last four decades-emerged from the bush. That was the worst mistake many of them would ever make.

Marianne Kearney, Madura – After escaping rampaging Dayak mobs, hiding in the forest for days with her 15-month-old daughter, Ms Biah thought she had survived the most traumatic part of her two-week exodus from Kalimantan.

But when she returned to her uncle's village in Madura, she found that the worst was yet to come.

Jakarta – Exxon Mobil Indonesia's decision to halt oil and gas production in the troubled Aceh province has forced other major companies in the area to shut down too.

PT Arun LNG Co, a major exporter of liquefied natural gas to Japan and South Korea, officially stopped operations on Saturday, the Serambi daily said.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – With unrest, bomb attacks and separatist violence affecting various parts of the country in recent times, many people have condemned the weaknesses of the Indonesian Military's (TNI) intelligence gathering system.

Joe Cochrane – The scenes from Borneo last week were both horrific and horrifyingly familiar. Gangs of local Dayaks in the Indonesian province of Central Kalimantan hunted down ethnic Madurese with spears and machetes.

Hearts were ripped out of corpses; bodies, even those of children, were decapitated. As many as 500 people, almost all Madurese, may have died.

Haidir Anwar Tanjung/FW & GB, Pekanbaru – Twenty villagers representing 439 families came to Riau Provincial Legislative Council to file a complaint over the seizing of their customary land by a giant pulp and paper company.

Blood. countless gallons of blood soaked deep into the clay of a soccer field. There have been two heavy thunderstorms in the four days since 118 children, women and men – Madurese refugees huddled together and promised safe passage – were systematically butchered on the high-school playing field in Parenggean, a logging town deep in central Kalimantan.

Statements by top Indonesian Military (TNI) officers last week signaled mounting pressure on President Abdurrahman Wahid to take a harder line against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), with which he has been negotiating for a peaceful solution to the Aceh problem.

Jakarta – Student groups traded accusations on Saturday of being used by the political elite ahead of the massive antigovernment rally planned on Monday.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – They wanted perfect noses, fuller lips and voluptuous breasts. What they ended up with instead were grotesque snouts, disfigured lips and breast cancer.

Jakarta – Women in this city are often harassed sexually when they take the extremely crowded public trains.

"Almost every day a man will try to press his body against me," Yurike [not her real name], a teacher who takes the train almost every day, said. "If I get angry, they just say 'if you don't want to get touched, don't take the train'," she said.

Jakarta – Some 1,000 activists grouped in the University of Indonesia Student Executive Body (BEM-UI) began a campaign on Friday for a general strike on Monday to put pressure on President Abdurrahman Wahid, also known as Gus Dur, to resign.

Dili – The UN mission chief in East Timor yesterday blamed agitators with links to Indonesia for the recent violence in the capital of Dili and the second-largest city of Baucau.

The country's long and brutal economic crisis is sending increasing numbers of people living in the capital insane, a local newspaper said on Friday.

Jakarta – The United States has reiterated its continuing support for Indonesia to resolve its internal conflicts by peaceful and democratic means.

"The United States strongly supports a peaceful, democratic, constitutional political process in Indonesia," according to a statement by the American Embassy in Jakarta on Thursday.

Jakarta – The Attorney General's Office will not stop the investigation into the riotous 1984 incident in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta, regardless of the peace pact made between victims and military officers.

Mark Dodd, Dili – A small political party that claims allegiance to East Timor's first short-lived independent government has emerged as a thorn in the side of the United Nations administration and the country's main political grouping.