It's late on Saturday afternoon, but the man who runs the fourth-largest nation on earth isn't anticipating any weekend relaxation. I have the mentality of a bicycle, says President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie of Indonesia. If I stop, I fall.

Bandung – West Java Police Chief Major General Chairuddin yesterday said his office would deploy sharpshooters along coastal roads to protect travelers during the post-Ramadhan festivities of Idul Fitri.

Dozens of snipers will assist hundreds of existing security forces dressed to save millions of motorists from possible attacks, looting and theft, he said.

Jakarta – A professor at the state-run University of Indonesia (UI) Wednesday took off his blue government-issue shirt at a campus here to symbolize the teaching staff's break from the ruling Golkar party.

Jakarta – A controversial Indonesian minister has broken ranks with the ruling Golkar party ahead of general elections in June, raising speculation he has his own political ambitions, sources and reports said Wednesday.

[The following is a summary translation of two reports from Siar news service posted by Down To Earth.]

Lincoln Wright – Risking possible friction with Jakarta, the Labor Party has backed a policy of funding an autonomous or independent East Timor using Indonesia's share of the oil and gas revenue from the Timor Gap.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI), currently experiencing its lowest level of popularity, is likely to get up to 40 seats in the House of Representatives, according to the latest deliberations of new political bills.

Jakarta – In one of Indonesia's first student protests of 1999, a small group of activists demonstrated Thursday against the arrests of two students on kidnapping charges.

Some 30 students gathered outside the South Jakarta District Court, where the two suspects face trial for allegedly abducting and torturing a plainclothes policeman at a Nov. 27 rally.

Serambi-Jakarta – Kontras, the Commission for Missing Persons and to Combat Violence, believes that ABRI, the armed forces, must take responsibility for the assault on detainees during which four persons died. The incident must be thoroughly investigated, said Munir, the director of Kontras in a press conference in Jakarta.

Jakarta – The Jordanian ambassador yesterday said former president Soeharto's reviled son-in-law, Prabowo Subianto, who is suspected of engineering a series of kidnappings and mass riots, had never applied for citizenship in his country.

Jakarta – The ruling Golkar party's insistence that civil servants be allowed to join political parties is caused by a "sinking ship syndrome", because it sees the bureaucracy as its only lifeboat, says a political analyst.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – The nation's greatest living writer, imprisoned by former president Suharto, is trying to reclaim the house taken from him 33 years ago. So far, he is having little luck.

"It feels like just more spite and revenge against me," said Pramoedya Ananta Toer from the house in which he has spent years under house arrest.

Jakarta – Two activists kidnapped in the last months of the Suharto regime Tuesday refused to testify about their ordeal at the court martial of 11 soldiers charged with the abduction of scores of political campaigners.

But a third witness, politician Haryanto Taslam of the Indonesian Democracy Party of opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri, agreed to give his testimony.

Jakarta – Student movement groups have vowed to take to the streets of the capital again shortly after the Idul Fitri holidays to voice their strong objections to this year's planned general election, their leaders said Monday.

Jakarta – Some 3,000 workers at a tile factory in Bekasi, east of Jakarta, held a massive protest yesterday to press their demands for Idul Fitri bonus payouts. The workers also demanded that members of the firm's internal cooperative be sacked, because they always "squandered" the obligatory contributions of the staff.

Atika Shubert, Lhokseumawe – Muhammad, a 20-year old villager near the town of Lhokseumawe, was shot in the leg last week during the Indonesian military's latest campaign to quell separatist ambitions here in the restive province of Aceh. His grandfather, M.

Jakarta – Women activists and scholars, demanding a greater say in politics, are urging that at least 30 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives be allotted to women legislators.

Sydney – The Australian government announced Tuesday it will press Indonesia to grant East Timor an act of self-determination in a policy shift which East Timorese activists immediately said does not go far enough.

Louise Williams, Jakarta – The Indonesian military will today begin sending more than 100 refugees camped in the East Timorese capital of Dili, who fled ongoing security operations around their villages, back to their homes.

Comment by Hamish Mcdonald – Could Alexander Downer be playing a deep double game with the Indonesians? Could he be luring them into agreeing to an act of self-determination by encouraging their hopes that it will result in some autonomy formula without East Timor leaving Indonesian hands?

Jakarta – This city is facing the prospect of buckling under the strain of a number of serious social problems resulting from sharp increases in the number of jobless people and a continuing influx of migrants, a government official has warned.

[The following is the text of a report by Portuguese radio on January 8.]

Angela Tresnasari, Jakarta – Indonesia's military said on Monday it had arrested 30 soldiers in the restive province of Aceh for beating to death and torturing suspected separatist rebels at the weekend.

Jakarta – The government is scheduled to repeal the Subversion Law next week in response to fierce public criticism and in order to bring the Criminal Code into accordance with the recently approved anti-torture convention.

Jakarta – Thousands shouting "Long Live Mrs. President" turned out Sunday to hear opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri launch her campaign for Indonesia's first elections since the fall of Suharto.

Jakarta – Thousands of villagers went on a rampage in Indonesia's South Sumatra, torching vehicles and houses after four suspected thieves were beaten to death by residents of another village, witnesses said on Monday.

Jakarta – Indonesian troops raided a village suspected of harboring a separatist leader holding two military hostages in troubled Aceh province Saturday, arresting 37 residents, the military said.

Jakarta – A 28-year-old political activist testified at a court martial here Friday that he was subjected to repeated electric shock treatment after being abducted during the last months of the Suharto regime.

Jakarta – The Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIPP) now has volunteers in 62 cities in 22 provinces, its secretary general, Mulyana W. Kusumah, said on Thursday. Mulyana told The Jakarta Post that he could not give the total number of volunteers because registration was still in progress.

Jakarta – A 40-strong delegation of representatives from the Indonesian province of Aceh Friday called on President B.J. Habibie to swiftly punish human rights violators in the troubled province.

Have you ever heard of the rumor that the ethnic Chinese, who comprise less than 4% of the Indonesian population, but control 70% of that country's economy? Well, according to a Chinese-Indonesian priest who visited the Philippines recently, many journalists fell for it without even checking the facts.

Jakarta – The leader of Indonesia's largest Moslem organisation on Thursday accused followers of former President Suharto of instigating a wave of ethnic and religious violence that has shaken the country in recent months.

Jakarta – The Indonesian military has released most of the scores of villagers detained in a sweep of separatist targets in troubled Aceh province, a rights official said Thursday.

Jakarta – Mob violence rocked two cities in the Indonesian provinces of Central Java and West Kalimantan, leaving a dozen people injured, including one with a gunshot wound, reports said here Thursday.

Lisbon – The senior commander of the East Timorese guerrilla movement has rejected all attempts to split or discredit the occupied territory's resistance to domination by Indonesia.

Jakarta – Students from Java, Lampung and Bali issued a defiant New Year statement vowing to continue with demonstrations this year as a means to maintain pressure on the government, The Jakarta Post reported yesterday.

Andreas Harsono, Jakarta – Indonesian military commander Gen. Wiranto managed to consolidate his power base after launching a major reshuffle of his command structure that involves 100 officers.

Political observers said the reshuffle announced on Monday had practically sidelined officers who are closely associated to Wiranto's archrival, ousted Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto.

Canberra – Hundreds of East Timorese were fleeing the countryside because of ongoing civilian killings and torture by the Indonesian military, it was alleged today.

The fresh allegations of atrocities were contained in videotapes smuggled out of the former Portuguese island colony and broadcast nationally by SBS.

Jakarta – The dominant party Golkar begged on Tuesday that the powerful Armed Forces (ABRI) reconsider its expressed stance of no longer supporting any political parties, including Golkar, in the coming polls.

Jakarta – Indonesian president B.J. Habibie on Tuesday lashed out at the country's press here Tuesday, accusing it of exaggerated and unbalanced reporting that threatened to spread confusion and unrest.

Jakarta – Indonesian President B.J. Habibie Tuesday defended a much-criticized government plan to raise a 40,000-strong civilian militia saying it was urgently needed to uphold law and security.

Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – Indonesian troops opened fire to disperse a mob near a separatist's home in the troubled province of Aceh whom they claim masterminded weekend violence in which nine people died, witnesses and the military said on Tuesday.

Jakarta – The ruling Golkar is holding out for the right of the country's four million public servants to join political parties, turning its back on mounting calls for the bureaucracy's neutrality in elections.

Jakarta – The Jakarta Police shot 191 suspected criminals for various reasons in 1998, killing 90 of them, but its chief said the action was justified in every incident.

Jakarta – Nearly 50 inmates escaped from a prison in Indonesia's troubled province of Aceh, the state Antara news agency reported Monday.

The 47 inmates pushed through the main gate of the Jantho prison in Aceh Besar district Sunday as guards escorted out two visitors. Five guards were threatened by some of the inmates, who were armed with knives.

Andreas Harsono, Jakarta – About two weeks after Indonesian strongman Suharto stepped down from his 32-year presidency, Indonesian editor, poet and political activist Goenawan Mohamad brought his lieutenants to a villa in the scenic Puncak area in the southern belt of Jakarta.

Dili – Two men were killed and five wounded in East Timor when supporters of a referendum on the future of the troubled territory clashed with an armed militia backing autonomy, a source said Monday.

Militia members at a security post in Ainaro district fired into a mob of about 100 people late on Sunday after warning shots were ignored, the source here said.

Jakarta – Rumours of deaths in police custody and anti-Chinese tensions sparked new unrest in Indonesia, reports said Sunday. One mob set ablaze a police post and a store in Java while another shop was ransacked by angry Moslems on the island of Sulawesi.

Jakarta – New unrest has been sparked in several Indonesian towns by rumours of deaths in police custody, environmental pollution and anti-Chinese tensions, reports said Sunday.

Jakarta – Nine civilians were killed and 23 seriously injured when Indonesian troops fired on "separatists" Sunday after a mob attacked a government building in the rebellious province of Aceh, local police said. Witnesses and human rights groups had earlier put the death toll at six.