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.

Jakarta – All economic reform targets stated in the latest Letter of Intent (LoI), which has been agreed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have basically been completed, according to a senior government official.

Jakarta – Speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Amien Rais said on Friday that should Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri replace Abdurrahman Wahid as President, she will survive until 2004 if she can maintain a corruption-free coalition in her cabinet.

Jakarta – The House of Representatives Commission II for home and legal affairs selected 11 members on Friday for the new General Election Committee (KPU) who are to be the organizers and adjudicators of the 2004 general election.

The eleven passed a screening conducted over three consecutive days by the House Commission.

Banda Aceh – The trial of an Acehnese independence activist charged with revolt opened at the Banda Aceh District Court on Thursday amid a tight security cordon and a silent protest.

Dan Murphy, Lhokseumawe – The Aceh coffee is thick and sweet, the grounds sticking to the teeth the way they like it here, as a tense group sips and talks in the thatched shade of a cafe across from an ExxonMobil pump station.

Complex and enduring rivalries over natural resources are the real cause of the horrific violence in Kalimantan, writes John Walker.

The recent spate of killings of ethnic Madurese in Central Kalimantan has again exposed how poorly equipped many Australian media are for either accurate reporting or informed analysis of events in Indonesia.

Jakarta – Police fired warning shots on Friday to disperse hundreds of Dayaks who burned at least seven police traffic posts in the Borneo city of Palangkaraya to avenge the killing of four of their tribesmen by police.

Shefali Rekhi – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid might well hold on to power, despite the criticism against him in the wake of the Kalimantan crisis, because the forces opposing him are weak.

"Those who are against Gus Dur don't have support from the major parties, especially from the PDI-P," said Dr Abubakar Eby Hara, a lecturer at East Java's Jember University.

Geneva – An ambitious drive to repatriate tens of thousands of East Timorese from West Timor has ground to a halt because of blatant intimidation of the refugees by Indonesian-backed militias, an aid agency has said.

Roger Maynard, Sydney – Australian troops in the multi-national peacekeeping force which was sent to East Timor 18 months ago were too aggressive, often impossible to comprehend and annoyed other soldiers by wearing dark sunglasses while on duty, a survey has found.

Jakarta – Around 50 supporters of East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres burned an American flag outside the US embassy in Indonesia Thursday to protest Washington's alleged meddling Indonesia's internal affairs.

John McBeth – In jumper, skirt and sandals, Dita Sari looks more like a rural schoolteacher than a trade unionist.

Jakarta – The legal battle between the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) and the mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia opened on Wednesday at the South Jakarta District Court.

Jakarta – President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid arrived home after midnight on Thursday, an hour after some 4,000 youths from different camps rallied peacefully in front of the Merdeka Palace.

The Garuda Airbus carrying the beleaguered President and his entourage landed at Halim Perdanakusuma airport in East Jakarta 40 minutes into midnight amid tight security cordon.

Jakarta – Former minister of mines and energy Ida Bagus Sudjana revealed on Wednesday that ex-president Soeharto told him to "protect" a company belonging to the latter's son, Bambang Trihatmodjo.

Banda Aceh – At least seven people were killed and scores of others injured during a fresh outbreak of violence in Aceh between Sunday and Monday, officials and witnesses reported on Tuesday.

Five bodies bearing bullet wounds and lacerations were found in East Aceh on Monday during the celebration of Idul Adha in the predominantly-Muslim province.

Pip Hinman – The recent well-publicised report by Global Alliance for Workers and Communities on sexual harassment of women workers in Nike factories in Indonesia is hardly earth-shattering news. By now, Nike's legendary exploitation of its global 550,000-strong workforce is well known.

Purwokerto – Some 200 supporters of President Abdurrahman Wahid from Banyumas took to the streets here on Tuesday, burning the Golkar Party flag.

The President's supporters also demanded House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung and People's Consultative Assembly Speaker Amien Rais stop their efforts to unseat Abdurrahman.

Cipatat, Bandung – Army Chief of Staff Gen. Endriartono Sutarto warned on Tuesday that no active Army officers are allowed to attend meetings aimed at discussing any specific political agenda.

Jakarta – The Indonesian distributor of Time magazine censored photos of headless corpses in Borneo in the weekly's latest Asian edition, fearing they might incite more violence, officials said Wednesday.

Max Lane – Despite the humiliating forced resignation of Indonesian President Suharto in May 1998, the political machine that he built during his 33-year reign has remained virtually intact.

Jakarta – Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri should treat mounting support from Islamic political parties with suspicion as the parties might be courting her favour in return for short-term gains, political observers said.

Daniel Cooney, Kualakuayan – Deep in the heartland of Borneo Island, a civil servant named Manarung explains why his tribe is perfectly justified in massacring hundreds of people and driving out tens of thousands of others.

Mark Dodd, Kupang – Elly Pereira was a well known face around Dili in 1999. Short, stocky and muscular, dressed in trademark jeans, T- shirt and dark aviator-style sunglasses, he kept interesting company as a deputy chief of the Aitarak (Thorn) militia.

Djoko Tjiptono/Hendra & GB, Jakarta – Students grouped in the Golkar Disbursement Alliance (ABG) wanted to take over the Jakarta offices of the Golkar Party but apparently have not been successful. Around 100 security officers from the Jakarta city police are on alert at the site. Head of the Jakarta city police, Inspector General Mulyono Sulaiman, is there too.

Jakarta – Speaker of the House of Representatives Akbar Tandjung has joined calls for the involvement of the Indonesian Military (TNI) in maintaining security nationwide.

TNI should be given back its role in maintaining security if the country wants to ward off the threat of disintegration, Akbar said Friday night while in Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Security forces were slow to react to the crisis in Central Kalimantan because ground commanders "misread" the intensity of the conflict, a high-ranking government official said yesterday.

[This is an opinion piece from Tuesday's Asian Wall Street Journal. Mr. Carey is a fellow of Trinity College, Oxford University, where he specializes in Southeast Asian history.]

Jakarta – National Police chief Gen. Surojo Bimantoro said on Saturday that police had arrested 158 people in connection with the killings of Madurese settlers, including the three people who allegedly provoked the riots.

Surojo did not identify the suspects but said the three had been transferred to the National Police Headquarters for further questioning.

Seth Mydans, Dili – Judge Maria Natircia Perreira set her face in a judicial frown and studied the nine scruffy men lined up below her in the dock, she herself once a victim but now ready to hear evidence in East Timor's first case of crimes against humanity.

Jakarta – Five judges have been appointed to the trial of Central Information for Aceh Referendum (SIRA) chief Muhammad Nazar in the Banda Aceh District Court, which will begin on Thursday, Antara reported.

Palangkaraya – "I felt so strong; so powerful." These are the words of a 21-year-old Dayak as he narrated his experience in chopping off the heads of his Madurese victims last week amid the bloody ethnic violence in Kalimantan.

Jakarta – Leading Indonesian politicians met at a Jakarta mosque for what media reports said Saturday were talks on dumping President Ambdurrahman Wahid, now overseas, and replacing him with Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Jakarta – The closed-door meeting between some of the nations top politicians at Al-Azhar Mosque in South Jakarta yesterday was an attempt to use religion for political purposes, says a loyalist of President Abdurrahman Wahid.

Taufikurrahman Saleh, a member of Wahids National Awakening Party (PKB), said there was definitely a political agenda behind the meeting.

Bandung – Around 100 West Java politicians and public figures at a ceremony at the Panghegar Hotel here on Friday signed up to the establishment of the West Java Anti-Communist Front in their efforts to curb what they called "the emergence of new Communism movements".

Mark Dodd – An Indonesian Army commander has told a group of East Timorese who served with the Indonesian military they should renounce violence and return to East Timor respecting the new independent nation's leadership.

Banda Aceh – Seven people were killed in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province, three of them when government troops retook a town held for 14 hours by rebels, police and residents said Saturday.

Two fishermen and an unidentified man were killed, apparently in the crossfire, when the troops retook Idi Rayeuk, a town of some 15,000 people in East Aceh on Friday.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Anger is growing over the continued absence of President Abdurrahman Wahid at a time of ethnic slaughter on the island of Borneo and alleged corruption charges against him.

Dili – Human rights groups Friday welcomed the conviction by a UN court of an East Timorese guerrilla for killing a pro-Indonesian militiaman during 1999's post-independence violence.