Banda Aceh – Seven people, including two soldiers were killed in the latest violence in the restive Indonesian province of Aceh, residents and police said Wednesday.
The victims died in three districts just days ahead of a meeting between government representatives and Aceh rebel forces in Geneva on Saturday to decide on whether to extend a three-month truce.
Tom Hayland – The depressing saga of Australian efforts to establish the fate of the five Australia-based TV reporters killed in Balibo illustrates the bind that Australian diplomats had created for themselves.
Just-released Foreign Affairs documents show how Australia encouraged Indonesia to grab East Timor by its own early complicity in plans for the takeover, writes Hamish McDonald.
No check was made to see if any Australians were in the area before Indonesia's attack, Foreign Affairs documents show. Hamish McDonald reports.
Hamish Mcdonald – Australian diplomatic cables released yesterday covering Indonesia's takeover of East Timor in 1974-76 show officials caught in a web of deceit and moral compromise that led to a foreign policy disaster. Revelations in hundreds of pages of until now secret documents include:
Jon Land – The brutal murder on September 6 of three United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) staff by pro-Jakarta militia thugs at Atambua marks a dangerous turning point for 120,000 East Timorese refugees languishing in camps around West Timor.
Jakarta – Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs Rizal Ramli said Indonesia's five-year National Development Programs plan will adopt a more strategic and selective approach to reflect the current changing environment.
Jakarta – Governor Sutiyoso, a retired three-star Army general, admitted on Monday that military personnel were assigned to take over the PDI headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro, Central Jakarta, on July, 27, 1996 after then president Soeharto had implicitly ordered some senior military and police officers to stop the free speech forum which was being staged at the building.
Jonathan Thatcher, Jakarta – It could be the pre-crisis boom days. Jakarta's marbled shopping malls are packed and the road to weekend villas in the mountains south of the capital is thick with the fumes of new cars.
Yogi Arief Nugraha/BI & GB, Jakarta – Sixteen years after the massacre of Muslim protesters in the Tanjung Priok port area of Jakarta, families of the victims and their supporters continue to be highly critical of efforts to bring the military perpetrators to justice.
Kerry O'Brien: First, the Timor papers, released today, which finally confirm after a quarter of a century of suspicion that Australia was warned in advance of Indonesia's brutal invasion of East Timor in 1975 and condoned it.
Compere: Well, supporters of East Timor have long interpreted Australia's actions as a betrayal on the broad international stage of an entire people, but there's also that narrower focus of betrayal of our own people, especially the five young men from Channel 9 and Channel 7 who died at Balibo.
Dan Murphy – The notion that Indonesia's civilian leaders do not really control their armed forces has swiftly evolved from frightening suspicion into undisputed fact.
Compere: We begin by going back almost exactly a quarter of a century to the momentous spring of 1975, the time leading up to the two most contentious and divisive issues of recent Australian political history. In domestic affairs the dismissal, and in foreign policy the Indonesian invasion of East Timor.
Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – It had been a disastrous few days for Kiki Syahnakri, the Indonesian military officer in-charge of West Timor. He may even lose his job over last week's murder of United Nations staff in the border town of Atambua.
Padang – Tension gripped Pasaman regency, located some 150 kilometers southwest of here, on Monday following an overnight riot involving thousands of locals in the Airgadang Simpang plantation area. Thousands of locals stormed the plantation at 10am on Sunday, demanding a share of the land.
Jakarta – Labor unions are allowed to be involved in practical politics in their efforts to fight for workers' political and economic interests, Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Al-Hilal Hamdi said on Tuesday.
Jakarta – Dozens of people calling themselves the Anti-Luxury Cars Movement (GAMM), staged a rally at the Jakarta Convention Center on Jl. Gatot Subroto, South Jakarta, on Monday demanding the government ban the import of luxury cars.
Yogi Arief Nugraha/Swastika & AP, Jakarta – After ransacking the Organization of Land Transportation Owners (Organda) office in South Jakarta, thousands of taxi drivers from the Citra taxi company moved to the House of Representatives building on Jl. Gatot Subroto, today.
David Liebhold, Jakarta – Stephen Dowling is afraid to start his car these days. The director of AriaWest International has received death threats over a dispute between his company-35% owned by AT&T-and state-controlled Telkom Indonesia. As the quarrel heats up, Dowling, 44, is constantly watching his back.
Jakarta – Claims by protestors that Maninjau Water Electric Power Plant (PLTA) in West Sumatra has polluted Lake Maninjau and damaged fishery cultivation at the lake, are groundless, say local officials. Protestors are seeking closure of the plant.
Singapore – Former Indonesian president Suharto's children ignored advice to not abuse their position for financial and business gain, according to excerpts of Singapore Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew's memoirs published Sunday.
Jakarta – Military police in the West Kalimantan capital of Pontianak raided a factory that was manufacturing firearms illegally and confiscated several long-barrelled rifles, ammunition and machines.
David O'Shea – On the balcony of their new home in Kupang, West Timor, her fingers covered in gold rings, Mrs Guterres watches her children play in front of the office that publishes her husband's anti-independence newspaper, Timorfile.
Jakarta – The worker's union of one of the 11 Nike subcontractors in Indonesia on Friday denied the allegations aired by antiexploitation activists at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
Jakarta – Gold mining firm Newmont Minahasa Raya in Minahasa, North Sulawesi, resumed operations early on Friday after a blockade of the company's ore crusher by protesters ended.
Jakarta – The Indonesian government has ruled out extending a peace deal in war-torn Aceh province beyond December, news reports said on Saturday.
Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Wednesday's killing of the three United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) workers in West Timor illustrates some disturbing trends in Indonesia.
Barbie Dutter, Dili – Survivors of the savage militia rampage through a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in West Timor told of fleeing for their lives as colleagues were murdered and mutilated by a mob armed with machetes.
Joanna Jolly, Dili – An Indonesian aid worker now in hiding in West Timor believes notorious East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres started arming youths in the provincial capital, Kupang, days before this week's murders in Atambua.
Keith Loveard, Vaudine England and Agencies – The United Nations said 20 people were killed in renewed fighting in Indonesian West Timor yesterday, two days after the murder of four aid workers.
Jakarta – The global group Human Rights Watch on Saturday called for an independent investigation with UN participation of the brutal murders of three UN humanitarian workers in West Timor.
Bandung – Activists demanded on Friday that West Java Governor R. Nuriana be suspended to facilitate the legal process of the local high court relating to alleged corruption involving Rp 209 billion (US$25.2 million) within his administration.
Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Indonesia promised to send two extra battalions to the West Timor border where militia killed up to six United Nations staff on Wednesday, as speculation arose that the chain of command in the country's armed forces had broken down.
Lindsay Murdoch – The plan was simple and savage: kill Olivio Mendoza Moruk and the pro-Jakarta militia roaming West Timor would go berserk, as they did when they left East Timor last year.
The killers left nothing to chance: they sliced his throat and cut off his testicles. Moruk became a martyr among the thugs of the militia.
Jose Manuel Tesoro and Dewi Loveard, Jakarta – Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri's sunny smiles at the August 26 induction of Indonesia's new cabinet made it seem as if the past three days had never happened.
Irwan Firdaus, Atambua – Hundreds of gun-toting militiamen staged a show of force Friday in a West Timor village where UN officials fear the militants killed 20 people despite Indonesia's promises to impose control in the territory.
Banda Aceh – At least 12 people, including three policemen, were killed in an upsurge of violence in the Indonesian province of Aceh, police and rebels said Friday.
Banda Aceh – An Indonesian officer and two non-commissioned officers were killed on Friday when their jeep was hit by a grenade in Indonesia's restive Aceh province, police said here. Two other non-commissioned officers were seriously wounded in the attack, in the Bandar sub-district of central Aceh, Superintendant Yatim Suyatmo told
Chris McCall, Jakarta – Troubled Aceh prepared a hero's burial for its slain son Jafar Siddiq Hamzah yesterday as fellow human rights activists around the world condemned his murder. They said the killing was part of a pattern of growing intimidation of rights workers in the Sumatra province.
Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia yesterday signed its latest set of reform pledges with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to obtain US$400 million in fresh funds. But this time, the country has more say in the programme and will tailor it to changing conditions.
Kuala Lumpur – A Malaysian businessman working in the North Sumatra capital of Medan has been kidnapped for ransom, reports said yesterday quoting his wife.
John McBeth, Jakarta – The day before Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid announced his new "All-the-President's-Men" cabinet, Golkar party Chairman and House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tanjung decided there was nothing to keep him in Jakarta and boarded a plane for the United States to attend to personal and business matters.
Jakarta – State-owned PT Timah Tbk, the world's largest integrated tin maker, said protests at its main Bangka island plant had halted operations at two units, and warned the situation could be serious.
Jakarta – General Abdul Haris Nasution, an Indonesian independence hero who narrowly escaped assassination in 1965, died yesterday at 81.
The retired five-star general, former army chief and Cabinet minister died in Jakarta's Gatot Subroto military hospital, Antara reported. The cause of death was not specified, but Gen Nasution went into a coma after a recent stroke.
Marianne Kearney, Indonesia – In A bid to halt rampant illegal logging, Indonesia's Forestry Minister has announced a proposal to put a ban on all log exports from Indonesia until it can guarantee a sustainable logging industry.
Jakarta – A chronoloy of major events since East Timorese voted for independence from Indonesia on August 30, 1999.
Aug 30, 1999: East Timorese vote for self-determination in record numbers in a UN-supervised ballot.
Sept 4: Announcement of the vote results shows 78.5 percent of East Timorese voted for independence from Indonesia.
Jakarta – When East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia last year, feared militia leader Eurico Guterres made his displeasure known by sending his armed followers to the airport to block any East Timorese from leaving.
Budi Sugiharto/GB, Sampang – An angry mob has destroyed around 85% of the local legislature in Sampang on the island of Madura, East Java. Tensions have been mounting all week as protests rejecting the election of a new Regent have steadily grown larger and more confrontational.
Vaudine England – Tension had been escalating in the refugee camps of Indonesian West Timor for several weeks before yesterday's attack on the UN office in Atambua, in which three staff, all foreigners, were burned to death.