Jakarta – Underscoring its high-profile role in the country, the Indonesian military has warned it would not tolerate any attempt to disrupt upcoming elections and told workers that instead of staging protests, they should help maintain security and order.

Jakarta – Indonesia's minister of economy, industry and finance has clarified Jakarta's position on the Timor Gap, a potentially oil-rich offshore region, saying that "if East Timor chooses to separate from Indonesia, then the Gap region will automatically belong to East Timor".

Che Guevara once said that a crucial problem for armed guerrillas was the ability to survive and keep a check on their bevahiour. This humane aspect of the guerrilla struggle is an integral part of the 23 year struggle of the Falintil guerrillas.

Stephen Vines, Hong Kong – Britain has offered to send troops and money to East Timor for a United Nations-sponsored peace-keeping force. The troops would be deployed in the event of an Indonesian withdrawal, which might take place by the end of this year.

The fact that many Indonesians look in quite a jovial mood these days does not mean that the devastating economic crisis has ended. They simply say they have a jocular topic in their daily conversation: the leakage of a telephone conversation between President B.J. Habibie and Attorney General Andi M.

The children of East Timor, far from being the hope for the future, may be the problem. Louise Williams travelled to a country suddenly on the verge of independence to find a generation schooled in violence.

Atika Shubert, Dili – Civil war, 23 years of Indonesian military occupation and more than 300 years of Portuguese colonialism have bequeathed an unexpected boon to the tiny territory of East Timor, and one that may be the key to its hotly debated independence: some of the world's most sought after coffee beans.

Dili – At least 250 members of the People's Security (Kamra) force who have just completed their training will be posted in six police districts (Polres) in East Timor, a police spokesman said.

Jakarta – Indonesian police in the troubled province of East Timor will open registration for a second batch of 250 civilian militiamen to assist its operations there, the Antara news agency said Saturday.

Jakarta – The basic minimum wage in Indonesia's 27 provinces is to be raised an average 16.1 percent from April 1, reports said Friday.

However, companies that could not afford the raise should apply for a postponment, the director general for industrial relations and labour supervision, Syaufii Syamsuddin, was quoted by the Kompas daily as saying.

Jakarta – After more than two weeks of investigation directly following the unrest, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) has concluded that the January 19- 23 Ambon riots were, as widely suspected, engineered.

Jenny Grant, Jakarta – A transcript of an alleged telephone conversation between President Bacharuddin Habibie and Attorney-General Andi Ghalib published yesterday suggests the graft investigation focusing on ex-president Suharto is a farce.

Andrew Marshall, Jakarta – Indonesia is in the grip of an economic paralysis that cannot be broken until its debt-ridden, capital-starved companies can escape the straitjacket of their ruinous foreign liabilities.

Jakarta – Indonesia's Parliament passed a law aimed at stamping out monopolies, cartels and other restrictive competitive practices.

The antimonopoly law, which must be ratified by President B.J. Habibie before it comes into force, will regulate mergers and acquisitions, and limit the amount of market share one company can attain.

Hong Kong – Nobel peace laureate Jose Ramos Horta said on Friday he had received commitments from Portugal and other Western nations to help finance East Timor's transition to independence.

Balibo – Thousands of pro-Indonesian East Timorese vowed Friday to defend the troubled territory's integration with Indonesia.

"Integration for us is an independence that will lead the East Timor people to prosperity," said a declaration issued during the rally in Balibo, a town near Bobonaro, which is 165 kilometers west of the provincial capital of Dili.

Canberra – Australian diplomats in Indonesia have warned in a series of confidential diplomatic cables that an independent East Timor would collapse into chaos and violence, according to a newspaper report on Friday.

Dan Murphy, Barro Pite – Martinho Fernandes stands four-square like an ageing middleweight, takes a pull on his beer and declares that he doesn't want to fight--but will if he feels he has to. And he may get that feeling. The 52-year-old civil servant leads a group of East Timorese who favour integration with Indonesia.

Jakarta – Dozens of students protested at the Indonesian military headquarters and the National Strategic Planning Board Thursday over the military's role in politics and alleged corruption in the use of foreign loans.

Jakarta – An Indonesian soldier Thursday told a military court here that more than nine activists had been kidnapped by troops in the last months of the Suharto regime.

Jakarta – Panicked Indonesian security forces shot a nun in the neck on Thursday as they tried to disperse a crowd in the eastern spice islands after a bomb blast, police and witnesses said.

Jakarta – Opposition presidential hopeful Amien Rais has called on several Indonesian parties, mostly Moslem, to unite to prevent the return of current President Habibie to power later this year, newspapers reported Thursday.

Surabaya – More than 10,000 workers gathered outside a large electronics and plastics factory in Surabaya, East Java, Thursday as their campaign for better working conditions entered its sixth day.

Surabaya – After days of mass protests by workers demanding better working conditions, the owners and management of a giant electronic and household gods factory in Indonesia Thursday announced it was willing to meet the demand of employees.

Jakarta – The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said here Wednesday he had appealed to Indonesia to allow it to immediately step up its presence in East Timor, citing disturbing new tensions there.

Jakarta – About 500 people rallied outside the attorney general's office Wednesday in a protest against a corruption investigation of former President Suharto.

The protesters said Suharto, who quit last May amid riots and protests against his authoritarian rule, was innocent and had been framed by his opponents. Suharto, 77, has denied any wrongdoing.

Jakarta – Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas on Wednesday assured investors they would not lose out if East Timor became independent and the Timor Gap oil agreement had to be renegotiated.

"If East Timor finally becomes independent, this matter would have to be renegotiated because the Timor Gap is just south of East Timor," Alatas told journalists at the state Palace.

Jakarta – A teenager died in a violent clash between pro-independence and pro-Indonesian youth groups in the troubled territory of East Timor, the second victim of such clashes there this week, a report said Wednesday.

Jakarta – The Peoples Democratic Party (PRD) has decided to participate in the 1999 elections. The Chairperson of the Central Leadership Council of the Peoples Democratic Party (KPP-PRD), Faizol Reza, announced this at a press conference held in the offices of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) on Tuesday afternoon, February 16.

[The following is a transcript of interview by ABC radio, Asia Pacific's Peter Mares.]

Evidence that Indonesian authorities are indeed honouring their pledge to allow jailed East Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmao free access to the international media.

Jakarta – President BJ Habibie yesterday revealed, for the first time, military movements launched by Lieut.-Gen. [ret] Prabowo Subianto on May 22 last year following the downfall of former President Soeharto, Prabowo's father-in-law.

Jakarta – Indonesia will sponsor East Timor as a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) if the troubled territory opts for independence, a senior official said here Tuesday.

Dewi Fortuna Anwar, foreign affairs advisor to President B.J.Habibie said it would be "in Indonesia's interests" if the former Portuguese colony joined the regional grouping.

Jakarta – Four junior Indonesian army officers undergoing a court martial for a series of kidnappings admitted on Tuesday abducting political activists in the last months of the Suharto regime.

Jakarta – The Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security, Faisal Tanjung, said that it was not inconceivable that civil emergency law would be instituted if rioting was to continue. Even so, according to Tanjung, President Habibie still refused to decide on initiating emergency law despite a number of his ministers supporting the idea.

Jakarta – Some 50,000 people Tuesday attended the burial of a 25-year-old man shot dead during an incident between pro-independence and pro-Indonesian youths in the East Timorese capital of Dili, a report said.

Jakarta – An Indonesian church group has accused police of opening fire on unarmed villagers during the latest outbreak of Moslem-Christian violence to hit the eastern province of Maluku.

The accusation was made as President B.J. Habibie said Monday that the recent religious clashes in the country had their roots in economic problems.

Jakarta – The ruling Golkar party will nominate incumbent President B.J. Habibie as its candidate for Indonesia's upcoming presidential election, a party official said Monday.

Jakarta – Indonesia's military police have failed to identify any soldiers who opened fire during a student protest in Jakarta three months ago in which 13 people were killed, an official said Monday.

"Up till now the military police have not been able to find the shooters in the Semanggi incident," military police chief Major General Djasri Missin told a press conference.

Susan Sim, Jakarta – Institutional discrimination is still visible in Indonesia because the government has not removed its legal basis, human rights activists said as they took issue with President B. J. Habibie's recent statement that he has abolished all discriminatory policies here.

Jakarta – The newly-launched Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) lashed out at President B.J. Habibie for calling East Timor "a burden" and called on the nation to let go of the troubled territory.

Jakarta – At least 13 people were killed and 43 injured when troops and police opened fire to quell fresh Moslem-Christian clashes in Indonesia's troubled eastern province of Maluku on Sunday morning, residents and reports said.

Jakarta – More than 100,000 supporters of Indonesian opposition politician Megawati Sukarnoputri crowded into a south Jakarta stadium Sunday to endorse her candidacy for the presidency.

Jakarta – Indonesian police opened fire on thousands of workers staging a protest in East Java, wounding four people while another was injured by a rifle butt, a report said Friday.

Some 3,000 workers at PT Sinar Indo Megantara in Surabaya held a protest on Thursday to demand the personnel manager resigns, the Republika daily said.

Jakarta – The newly formed National Awakening Party (PKB) has nominated popular Moslem leader Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid as its candidate for the presidency at the upcoming elections, a newspaper said Friday.

"This is serious. The PKB is nominating Gus Dur," PKB executive Muhaimin Iskandar was quoted by the Jakarta Post daily as saying.

Jakarta – Influential Muslim leader Abdurrahman Wahid has warned that a social revolution in Indonesia could claim up to three million lives and all parties should therefore work to prevent the possibility of such a national disaster, the Indonesian Observer newspaper reported yesterday.

Patrisia Prakarsa, Jakarta – East Timorese rebel leader Xanana Gusmao said Friday dialogue was needed among all groups involved in East Timor to prevent the troubled territory descending into civil war.

Jakarta – The speed of Indonesia's change of heart over the future of East Timor, which could now become independent within months, has worried diplomats watching the troubled territory.

Officially other governments have welcomed President B.J. Habibie's statement Thursday that the former Portuguese colony of less than one million people could be independent by Janaury 1.

Jose Manuel Tesoro, Jakarta – In the Indonesian political equation, the elements – Islamic groups, student fronts, opposition parties, military factions – are legion and ever-changing. Possible permutations – a coalition, a new government, martial law, absolute chaos – multiply daily. But in everyone's political calculus is one shadowy constant: Suharto.

Karen Polglaze, Jakarta – Indonesia would be solely responsible should civil war break out in East Timor, a member of Indonesian President BJ Habibie's supreme advisory council said here today.

Former East Timor governor Mario Viegas Carrascalao also scorned criticisms that East Timor would be a burden on its neighbours, including Australia, should it become independent.

Don Greenlees – Indonesian Justice Minister Muladi yesterday signalled that a ban on Nobel peace prize winner Jose Ramos Horta from entering the country could be revoked to enable him to join in talks on the future status of East Timor.