Jakarta – Indonesia said on Friday it was considering buying air defence systems and fighter planes from Russia.

Jakarta – Indonesia's President Suharto has ordered officials to negotiate the purchase of Russian fighter jets and other military hardware, a minister said here Friday.

Military claims that East Timorese armed resistance leader, David Alex, died yesterday while in the custody of the Indonesian military again raises the immediate need for independent human rights monitors to have access to the country, Amnesty International said today.

Greg Earl, Jakarta – The World Bank has warned that Indonesia is failing to make use of a period of high foreign investment and economic growth to resolve economic challenges that threaten its long-term performance.

John McBeth, Jakarta – There are two things President Suharto detests more than anything: critics questioning his administration's legitimacy and outsiders interfering in Indonesia's internal affairs. The Australians had a taste of Suharto's ire in the mid-1980s. The Dutch discovered it five years ago. Now the United States is getting the message too.

We have received an urgent warning from a reliable source in Indonesia that the Indonesian Armed Forces (Abri), are planning an all-out offensive beginning this Friday, June 20, against East Timorese who are suspected to be associated with the Resista nce against Indonesia's illegal occupation of East Timor.

Jakarta – On the eve of U.N. sponsored peace talks in New York, Indonesian military commanders in East Timor on Thursday vowed to crack down on what they described as increasingly "brutal" tactics employed by the disputed region's separatists, a local newspaper reported.

Three men, Virgilio dos Santos Pinto, Cancio da Costa and Gil Fernandes, arrested on or around 14 June 1997, are believed to be in military custody in the town of Los Palos, East Timor, where they are at serious risk of torture or ill-treatment.

The Indonesian government says it's planning to try to place tight controls on what enters the country on the Internet.

Launching a new Internet service in Jakarta, the Minister for Telecommunications, Joop Ave, said it was a basic human right to have access to information.

Louise Williams, Bali – A retired Indonesian naval officer stunned a diplomatic and business audience today by announcing that the geopolitical balance of power in the region meant Indonesia did not need Australia.

A World Bank report says Indonesia does not need nuclear power. The report says Indonesia has the capacity to greatly increase its electricity generation by conventional means.

It says that given the environmental risks, Indonesia should fully exploit this capacity rather than resort to nuclear power.

Indonesia's new Information Minister, General Hartono, says there will be no relaxation in a law which allows the government to ban newspapers and magazines.

Speaking after a meeting with President Suharto, the general said the law was needed in case there were publications which could NOT be tolerated.

Jay Solomon, Jakarta – American Embassy officials here have grown increasingly somber over the past month, listening to the war of words between Indonesia and the US But help is nowhere in sight.

[This information was passed along to Campaign for Labor Rights by the East Timor Action Network (ETAN), in North America, which received it from East Timor Independence, in New Zealand. This report also is based on information provided by Jeff Ballinger, of Press for Change, and Max Surjadinata, in New York.]

Background

Jakarta – Officials say communists were to blame for recent riots in East Java, and troops have been ordered to shoot troublemakers on sight, the official Antara news agency said today.

Susan Sim, Jakarta – The pressure from the human rights lobby in developed countries is getting stronger and developing countries should band together to counter it, President Suharto said yesterday.

Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas made it clear what he thought of objections in the US Congress over the sale of nine F-16 fighter planes to Indonesia when the issue came up early this year.

Landowners in Indonesia's Irian Jaya province have burned down six new houses built for migrants under a transmirgration resettlement scheme.

A leader of the Kwimi village 40 kilometres south of the provincial capital of Jayapura says he ordered the burning because the project had cut down a sago tree forest without adequate compensation for the villagers.

In common letters to Indonesia's National Human Rights Commission, KOMNAS HAM, the UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Executions, and the German Minister of Foreign Affairs seven Indonesian and German organizations urged on the necessity to send another independent fact finding mission to the City of Banjarmasin, the capital of the Indonesian South Kalimant

Farhan Haq, United Nations – Indonesian troops have stepped up a campaign of arrests and atrocities against the civilian population in East Timor, pro-Timorese activists and human rights groups argue.

Jakarta – The head of the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD) department of education and propaganda, I Gusti Agung Anom Astika, was sentenced to four years minus the time he had already spent in jail.

Jenny Grant, Jakarta – Supporters of ousted opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri maintained pressure on the Government yesterday, demanding election results be cancelled and rival Indonesian Democracy Party (PDI) leader Suryadi be sacked.

Police have arrested 15 people after weekend riots on the Indonesian island of Madura in which a Muslim crowd burned shops, a Protestant church and a Buddhist temple.

East Java police spokesman Colonel Sofwat Hadi says police are still investigating the cause of the disturbance.

At least one police officer was injured during the riot.

The Muslim-led United Development Party (PPP) has announced last Friday, June 12, that it would accept the results of last month's election. This means, that the PPP leadership has yielded to the authorities' pressure, and not to their own constituency, who had demanded that the party should reject the results of the election.

The 'East Timorese Students Movement for Peace' (METLP) distributed a document addressed to the Head of the Parliament of Indonesia on Monday 16 June. In conjunction with this, a rally of East Timorese students has been organised at the regional Parliament in Surabaya at 10.00 am.

The vulgar and blatant election fraud by the government, election administrators and the military to ensure a victory for the Golkar's sole majority is no longer being tolerated by the people.

An Indonesian court has jailed two activists from the banned People's Democratic Party or P-R-D after they were found guilty of subversion.

The two men who were convicted of undermining the state ideology, criticizing the armed forces and attempting to topple the government.

Jakarta – Hundreds of people rampaged through a conservative Muslim-dominated town on the East Javan island of Madura, torching shops and a cinema as well as a church and a Buddhist temple.

"I do not know the reason behind it, but hundreds of people disrupted a ceremony at the central square of Bangkalan on Saturday night," an official said.

The East Timor Action Network (ETAN) plans to intensify its congressional lobbying campaign in the aftermath of a flury of activity related to Indonesia in the US House of Representatives this past week.

Earlier this week, the Australian Democrats called on the Australian government to take a public stand against continuing human rights abuses in East Timor following the US Congressional Amendment on East Timor initiated by Senator Patrick Kennedy and resulting also in the cancellation with Indonesia of the IMET defense program.

Dili – Col. Salamat Sidabutar took over his new post as chief of the Wiradharma military command yesterday and pledged to crack down harder on Fretilin separatists.

Dili – On the outskirts of Baucau near the military airport, two stones on the road mark the place where Amaro Belo, a 35-year-old East Timorese, was gunned down by troops of the Indonesian Special Forces (Kopassus) last Friday night at 6pm.

David E.

The Indonesian president creates a comfort zone with the appointment of a new army chief, writes The Nation's Abu Rahman from Jakarta.

Indonesian President Suharto finally replaced army chief Gen R Hartono, one of the most powerful figures in Indonesian politics, after months of rumours and speculation.

Jakarta – A Pos Makasar journalist Mohamad Sayuti known as Sandrego, died as a result of a severe beating in the sub-offices of the regency of Palopo, South Sulawasi, on Thursday June 12. The incident occurred after the journalist was confirming information about deforestation in the region.

Keith Loveard, Jakarta – The outcome of an Indonesian election is supposed to be predictable and, in that regard, the May 29 parliamentary polls did not disappoint. Golkar, the long-ruling party backed by President Suharto, the military and big business, always wins. Only the margin of its victory varies a bit.

Sydney – Indonesian security forces killed on June 9 an East Timorese youth in the province of Viqueque, after accusing him of collaborating with the local resistance self-determination movement, a source has told Lusa.

Jayapura, Irian Jaya – Twelve members of a security disturbance group (GPK) along with 10 adults and 11 children who had been hiding near the Irian Jaya-Papua New Guinea borders have surrendered to the military in Opkim village, Merauke district.

Jakarta – France will not set any political condition if Indonesia wishes to purchase its warplanes, the French Embassy's military attache, Col M Jean Roucher, said here Wednesday.

Roucher was commenting on the departure of an Indonesian group to attend an air show in Le Bourget, France.

Geneva – The UN Development Programme mistakenly included East Timor in a item on Indonesia in a 1997 report, a spokeswoman said here Friday, stressing that the UN has never recognized the annexation of the former Portuguese colony.

Indonesian authorities are reported to have moved hundreds of inmates from a jail in East Java, to other prisons in the region after rioting prisoners set part of the jail on fire.

The Indonesian daily, Kompas, said inmates of the high-security Medaeng prison in Sidoarjo, south of Surabaya, rioted on Wednesday, setting fire to the prison's office and breaking down walls.

Andrew Macintyre – Uncertainty hangs over Indonesia's political future. After roughly two decades of relatively smooth sailing, there are now some doubts about the stability and direction of the national political leadership.

On June 12, the private television station SCTV reported that a riot had occurred at the Medaeng prison, Surabaya (East Java). Dita Indah Sari, chair of the Center for Labour Struggle which is affiliated with the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD) was imprisoned there.

Margot Cohen, Malang – A s village secretary, he knew every trick in the book. Presiding over previous vote counts, he would puncture ballots with a swift flick of a thumbnail, and spoil others with a rusty nail lodged under the table. He cast his own vote as many as six times at different polling stations.

The complete collapse of the PDI in the 1997 election left the Islamically coloured PPP as the only viable non-government party. Does this mean the Indonesian government now faces a Turkish, or even an Algerian scenario of popular opposition focused only on the symbols of Islam? No, it does not.

Jakarta – An Indonesian court in troubled East Timor has jailed a youth to six months and 15 days for involvement in violence in the main town of Dili on Christmas eve, a report said Wednesday.

Jakarta – Chiefs of the Armed Forces services and National Police promoted as full generals called on Armed Forces (ABRI) Commander Gen Feisal Tanjung here on Tuesday to report their new ranks. The newly promoted four-star generals are Navy Chief Admiral Arief Kushariadi, Air Force Chief Marshall Sutria Tubagus, and National Police Chief Gen Dibyo Widodo.

Washington – The US House of Representatives on Tuesday unanimously approved an amendment condemning human rights abuses committed by Indonesia in the former Portuguese colony of East Timor.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government on Wednesday hit out at comments by US congressman Patrick Kennedy after Jakarta's decision to forego its planned purchase of US fighter planes were absurd and outrageous.

Kennedy's statement of a "major human rights victory" following Jakarta's decision not to buy the F-16s was "simply absurd," a foreign ministry statement said.

Indonesia is now perusing a shopping list of jet fighters from various countries after pulling out of a deal to buy nine US F- 16s, a high-ranking source said here Tuesday.

Russian Sukhoi-27s, British Hawk 200s and the French Mirage-2000 were all under scrutiny by military authorities, said the Indonesian source, speaking on condition of anonymity.