Jakarta – Indonesia's military on Wednesday urged the country's new national assembly to endorse East Timor's independence vote and formally free the territory it invaded in 1975.
Police Brigadier General Taufiequrochman Ruki, reading out the views of the 38-strong parliamentary faction of military and police MPs said the military favored letting East Timor go.
Sydney – East Timorese resistance leader Jose Ramos Horta launched a bitter attack on former Australian prime minister Paul Keating on Tuesday, accusing him of betraying the people of East Timor.
Susan Sim, Jakarta – In an extraordinary display of the lobbying skills of Golkar leaders, party chief Akbar Tandjung was set to be elected Speaker of Parliament (DPR) without a vote being cast last night.
Tom Allard – The Indonesian Foreign Minister told his Australian counterpart, Mr Downer, as early as February that Indonesia was arming pro-integration groups.
According to an article in the Bulletin magazine, the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Mr Ali Alatas, told Mr Downer arming of the groups was "legitimate".
United Nations – Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday proposed a United Nations transitional authority for East Timor that would oversee all aspects of civilian life and include some 10,000 peacekeepers and police.
Vaudine England and Agencies, Jakarta – Soldiers and riot police lounged in makeshift camps under flyovers and in central parks across Jakarta as their leaders held festivities to mark Army Day at the palm tree-lined grounds of Cilangkap military headquarters.
The multinational force in East Timor (Interfet) was wise to avoid a firefight earlier this week with members of the resistance force, Falintil, by backing away from demands that the guerillas surrender their weapons. This is a directive that must be backed by the resistance leader, Mr Xanana Gusmao, if loss of life and suspicion of Interfet among East Timorese is to be avoided.
Dili – Falintil resistance fighters will be allowed to retain their weapons in their camps pending further disarmament negotiations, despite a UN mandate to disarm all groups, an Interfet spokesman said Tuesday.
By James Balowski
Slobodan Lekic, Dili – Stung by criticism of alleged bias, the commander of the international peacekeeping force in East Timor demanded today that pro-independence rebels hand in their weapons.
Jakarta – Thousands of Indonesian students in the capital and other cities in Java and Sumatra Tuesday marked the 54th Indonesian Armed Forces Day with mass protests demanding the military return to barracks, witnesses and reports said.
Vaudine England and agencies, Jakarta – All bets are now off for the forthcoming presidential poll in the wake of several startling, democratic events in the country's highest political body, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).
Terry J. Allen, Vermont – Quietly tucked away in the hills of Vermont, Norwich University, the only private military college in the country, has continued to educate and train future members of the Indonesian army, even as President Clinton has effectively frozen all relations with that country's military in the wake of the violence in East Timor.
Vaudine England – Indonesia's military plans a simple celebration of its 54th birthday today, but is paying little heed to growing unpopularity at home and abroad.
Last year's Army Day involved intricate performances by a dazzling array of marching bands, including one group of drummers dressed as frogmen complete with flippers.
Documents which would reveal Britain's secret role in Indonesian politics in the Sixties that led to "one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century" and Jakarta's eventual annexation of East Timor are being kept under lock and key.
Associated Press, Waimori – The international peacekeeping force is being too cautious in dealing with the remnants of the militias which ravaged East Timor, the commander of the pro-independence guerillas said yesterday.
Jakarta – Some 150 Indonesian students took to the streets of Jakarta Monday, calling on the newly-elected national assembly, now in its first session, to implement reforms.
Lhokseumawe – Some 800 students in Indonesia's restive province of Aceh rallied Monday to demand an East Timor-style referendum on self-determination.
Balibo – An escapee from the refugee camps in West Timor said on Sunday that pro-Indonesian militias were hunting down East Timorese men there and killing them.
Sydney – Australia would not sanction its own investigation into war crimes in East Timor, Defence Minister John Moore said Sunday.
Australian lawyers are planning to head to East Timor as part of an International Committee of Jurists investigation into alleged atrocities.
Jakarta – A student died in hospital in the Indonesian city of Bandarlampoung Sunday, a second victim of clashes between protestors and security personnel, a university employee said.
Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – Indonesia's supreme legislative assembly elected a leading reformist as speaker on Sunday in its first contested vote since the 1950s, a step which could be crucial in the fight for the presidency.
Moris Morissan, Jakarta – Indonesia on Friday reported its seventh straight month of falling prices in another sign that the grass roots of its shattered economy were recovering from crisis.
Indonesia's generals are under scrutiny for human rights abuses in East Timor but have they covered their tracks? David Jenkins, Mark Dodd, Bernard Lagan and Simon Mann investigate.
Lewa Pardomuan, Jakarta – Indonesia's top legislative body will elect a new president on October 20, bringing forward an event many hope will halt the country's leadership drift under the deeply unpopular incumbent, B.J. Habibie.
Mark Dodd, Dili – Australian soldiers have taken control of two towns in militia heartland along East Timor's volatile border with Indonesian West Timor, in their biggest operation since landing in the territory 12 days ago.
Dafna Linzer, Kupang, – In the ramshackle Tuapukan camp, home to 10,000 refugees from East Timor's chaos, Indonesia's red-and-white flag flies proudly above unfinished roofs of dried palm fronds and straw.
Dili – The bodies of 13 people, many of them showing traces of violence, have been found in a mass grave near Dili, a spokesman for the United Nations said on Saturday.
Bandar Lampung – Lampung Military Police yesterday began investigating eight military officers allegedly involved in the shooting that took place during a students protest in front of the Bandar Lampung University (UBL) campus on Tuesday. One student was killed during the demonstration.
Jakarta – A second day of clashes between local tribesmen and migrants in the mining town of Timika in Indonesia's remote Irian Jaya province killed four people, raising the death toll in two days to 14, reports and a tribal activist said Friday.
Agencies in Dili, Los Palos and Jakarta – British Gurkha soldiers yesterday arrested two members of a group of East Timorese militiamen who were holding more than 4,000 people in the eastern port of Com, military sources said.
The militiamen appeared to be preparing to move the 4,000 people out of the territory, the sources said.
Claudia Gazzini, Jakarta – Protests broke out across Indonesia on Thursday over grievances ranging from the UN-backed intervention in East Timor to the pace of democratic reform.
Dili – The mutilated and charred remains of at least nine people were discovered in a burnt-out pickup truck on the outskirts of Dili Wednesday, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
Waimori – Pro-independence guerillas said yesterday they had seized control of most of the eastern part of East Timor after clashes with retreating militia and Indonesian soldiers.
Mark Dodd, Dili – When paramilitary toughs supported by Indonesia's discredited military force in East Timor finally set down their cans of petrol and matches, hundreds of innocent people had been killed, tens of thousands made homeless and whole towns and villages razed.
The UN Human Rights Commission will go ahead with an inquiry into alleged human rights atrocities in East Timor with or without co-operation from Indonesia, a spokesman said yesterday.
"We would hope for co-operation from Indonesia, but if they fail to give their co-operation, it will not deter us from going forward," UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said.
The multinational force in East Timor must rapidly expand to start building peace and security in the territory, East Timorese leaders Xanana Gusmao and Jose Ramos Horta told correspondents at a press conference, sponsored by Portugal, at Headquarters this afternoon.
Tony Wright, Canberra – The Federal Government is considering selling billions of dollars worth of prime defence land throughout Australia to pay for its massively expensive military commitment to East Timor.
Ambon – A total of 217 fatalities were recorded in communal clashes across the province between July and September, police said on Tuesday.
Maluku Police chief Col. Bugis Saman told a media conference that the number of casualties was likely to be higher due to unconfirmed reports by people of missing relatives.
Compere: Well, finally returning to East Timor. The crisis may have soured Australia's relationship with Indonesia, but the Federal Government is making it very clear it's not going to encourage independence elsewhere in our giant northern neighbour. Yesterday AM reported on smuggled footage from Ambon showing demonstrators being fired on by the military.
Jakarta – Australian flags were burned Monday in at least two Indonesian cities, while anti-Australian rallies took place in two other cities amid whipped-up resentment against Canberra's role in East Timor, witnesses and reports said.
Bandar Lampung – The mourning of Yap Yun Hap who died of gunshot wounds had hardly lifted from the Indonesia University campus grounds, when news broke through that another student, M. Yusuf Rizal (23), has fallen victim at the Bandar Lampung University of Lampung on Tuesday (28/9).
Jakarta – A human rights lobbyist on Wednesday called on the United Nations to conduct the same sort of inquiry it is making into alleged atrocities in East Timor in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province.
Jakarta – In an unprecedented move, Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Wiranto brought together on Tuesday leaders of six major political parties to hammer out a commitment to ensure the General Session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) runs smoothly.
Craig Skehan, Jakarta – East Timorese independence supporters say they are being terrorised in Jakarta and elsewhere by militiamen with shadowy political connections.
Jakarta – Some 1,000 Indonesian students returned to the streets here Wednesday in a peaceful protest against military violence.
The protesters, mostly from the University of Indonesia, massed at a busy roundabout in the capital's main thoroughfare, chanting slogans and brandishing signs against what they called the military's meddling in all aspects of life.
Jakarta – Protests against a new state security bill in Indonesia claimed another life Tuesday when security forces shot dead a student in clashes in the Sumatra island city of Bandar Lampung, hospitals and reports said. At least 27 others were injured in the protest, which followed the deaths of at least seven people, one a student, in similar protests in Jakarta last week.
[The following is a compilation of several reports sent to ASIET (Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor) by the Central Leadership Committee of the People's Democratic Party (KPP-PRD) in Jakarta.]
East Timorese refugees in Indonesia, including the resort island of Bali, are being threatened with death by soldiers and militiamen, but plans for a large-scale evacuation are being delayed by the reluctance of foreign governments to accept large numbers of refugees.
Chris Michaud, New York – Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer on Tuesday praised Indonesian President B.J. Habibie's policies on the troubled East Timor region, saying that without Habibie the saga may never have been resolved.