K. Basrie, Banda Aceh – Victims and witnesses of the May 3 shooting at Krueng Geukueh in North Aceh asserted over the weekend that the military has lied to the world about the incident, in which at least 41 people, including children and women, were killed.

Many Indonesians, both in the Christian minority and the Moslem majority, are uncomfortable with the sudden prominence of Islam in politics. Sander Thoenes reports on disquiet over exploitation of religion in the election campaign

Canberra – The Australian government will open a consulate-general office in East Timor in order to monitor the changes occurring in the Indonesian province.

AusAID, the government's aid body, will also open an office in Dili, according to an Australian government statement Tuesday.

Dili – As a consequence of continuing clashes between pro-independence and pro-integration groups, the Dili-based Suara Timor Timur has again been forced to cease publication.

Jakarta – Activists have deplored the government's recent rejection of a United Nations (UN) report on violence against women in Indonesia, on the grounds that its content was akin to viewpoints held by non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Jakarta – Indonesian President B.J. Habibie said on Monday he was appointing Justice Minister Muladi to the powerful post of state secretary after the resignation of Akbar Tandjung, the chairman of the ruling Golkar party.

"The state secretary's post will be taken over by Minister of Justice Muladi because he knows a lot about the law," Habibie told reporters.

Jakarta – Fresh violence broke out in the eastern Indonesian islands of Maluku as villagers from three villages clashed on the weekend, leaving 14 houses burned, a report said here Monday.

Maluku province spokesman Major Philipe Jekriel said the clashes broke out on Saturday and Sunday in Ambon, the Antara news agency said.

Jakarta – Party functions held by the ruling Golkar across Java over the weekend were met with hostile receptions, and at one site led to an emergency rescue of chairman Akbar Tandjung.

A helicopter flew Akbar and his wife from Jember to the neighboring East Java town of Lumajang on Sunday, after Golkar supporters were ambushed by opposition parties.

Jakarta – Indonesia's ruling party Golkar may be barred from campaigning for the June 7 elections after charges that it had used money from an aid programme for its own political gains, a newspaper reported on Monday.

To the East Timorese people, the members of the CNRT To all those in a position of leadership, in Dili, especially Youth of Loriko Aswain.

Philip Shenon, Washington – The Clinton administration has decided to offer riot-control training to the Indonesian police in preparation for next month's national elections despite concerns from human rights groups over the abysmal human rights record of the police there, administration officials say.

Dili – New violence flared between pro-and anti-Indonesia factions in the East Timor capital Sunday, with shots fired and attacks on foreign journalists.

As dusk fell in town, gunfire had left at least one man dead and another wounded, and small fires of tyres and wood were burning in the middle of downtown streets.

Sydney – The Indonesian military is not abiding by its promise to stay neutral in the run up the the August ballot in which 800,000 East Timorese will vote whether to accept limited autonomy or become a free country, Australian officials said Saturday.

Vaudine England, Lhokseumawe – The day after special services were held in mosques around Aceh to commemorate the dead from Monday's massacre, four Hercules aircraft brought more than 400 special police officers to Lhokseumawe in Aceh province.

Dili – The United Nations' top police officer arrived in troubled East Timor Saturday, saying he had little time to set up crucial security arrangements for an Aug. 8 ballot on the future of the crisis-wracked territory.

Jakarta – President B.J. Habibie reiterated on Thursday his warning of a communist threat, Marhaenism and socialism – which some people dub "Komas".

In a meeting with a group of youths at Merdeka Palace, Habibie said the ideologies remained a threat to the nation, according to State Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Agung Laksono.

Anthony Goodman, United Nations – The UN Security Council unanimously endorsed Friday agreements that will enable the people of East Timor, a former Portuguese colony that Indonesia annexed in 1976, to decide their own future in an Aug. 8 vote.

John McBeth, Jakarta – While Indonesian students and other activists were expending their considerable energies trying to get rid of President B.J. Habibie and drag his predecessor to court, a funny thing happened on the way to the forum. Politicians quietly chipped away at reform initiatives that would have reshaped Indonesia's political landscape.

Krueng Geukueh – An army massacre of unarmed protesters in Indonesia's Aceh province may breathe new life into the restive territory's independence movement, diplomats and residents said on Thursday.

Vaudine England, Banda Aceh – Contrary to official claims yesterday that the death toll in Monday's massacre in the Aceh province town of Lhokseumawe was 31, human rights groups said the toll was at least 63 and could easily reach 100.

Jakarta – More than 60,000 police and troops will be deployed to safeguard the Indonesian capital when election campaigning starts this month, a report said here thursday.

Dili – Hundreds of East Timorese students in Dili demonstrated peacefully Thursday, for the third day in a row, waving banners and chanting slogans in favor of an independent East Timor.

The early morning rally was the first reaction in the East Timor capital to news that the UN-brokered East Timor plebiscite accord had been signed in New York by Portugal and Indonesia.

For twenty-three years, the people of East Timor have awaited this agreement which acknowledges their right to self-determination.

The agreement signed on May 5th in New York attests to the fact that the immeasurable sacrifices of the East Timorese people throughout this long period of oppression have not been in vain.

New York – The people of East Timor will be asked to to choose between two questions in the territory's August 8 plebiscite.

Jakarta – Student groups from several universities disclosed on Tuesday that they plan to mobilize thousands of students on May 12 to join a mammoth rally for the first anniversary of the Trisakti University shooting incident in which four students died.

Dan Murphy, Jakarta – Lucrative deals no longer flow to former President Suharto's children and some of his best-known cronies. But for most of Indonesia's elite, the tight links between business and politics remain intact.

Lhokseumawe – A regional military commander in troubled Aceh province has defended the army's shooting of protesters, as officials said Wednesday the death toll had risen to 31.

Colonel Johny Wahab was quoted by the Kompas daily Wednesday as saying the protestors action threatened the entire town of Lhokseumawe, the main town in the North Aceh district on Sumatra island.

Jakarta – The recent violence in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province may make it impossible for people there to take part in the June 7 elections, the head of the country's election commission was quoted Wednesday as saying.

Commission head Rudini said his men would visit Aceh on Thursday to determine if ballotting was possible, the Jakarta Post said.

Last Wednesday, 5 May, the autonomy proposal of Indonesia for East Timor was signed in Jakarta and Lissabon. In three months time, the East Timorese will cast their votes in a UN-supervised 'direct ballot' whether to accept or reject that proposal.

[The following is the text of the "Agreement between the Republic of Indonesia and the Portuguese Republic on the question of East Timor" signed on May 5, 1999.]

The Governments of Indonesia and Portugal,

[FORTILOS received the following information today from Yayasan HAK, Dili, Timor Lorosae.]

Jakarta – President B.J. Habibie is concerned over clashes involving Muslim sympathizers of political parties.

New York – The two main East Timor opposition parties, FRETILIN and the UDT (Timorese Democratic Union), want the UN to guarantee that their leaders resident abroad will be allowed to return to the territory before the August 8 plebiscite on autonomy or statehood.

Jakarta – Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) Marzuki Darusman has said the defiance of East Timor's pro-integration militias against any United Nations (UN) presence in the territory signifies the armed forces (TNI)'s determination not to let East Timor achieve independence.

Mark Dodd, Dili – Pro-Indonesian paramilitary groups formed and in some cases armed by the Indonesian military are continuing their campaign of violence and intimidation only days away from the signing of a United Nations-brokered agreement for a ballot on self-determination for East Timor.

The Medan-based daily, Waspada in its Tuesday May 4 edition has confirmed that the number shot dead in the massacre in North Aceh on Monday 3 May is 23 and says that 101 are wounded.

Jeremy Wagstaff, Soreang – This country has endured wrenching change in the past year. Violence is so commonplace that killings of fewer than 50 people often go unreported. Thieves steal hubcaps from cars stopped at red lights.

Jakarta – Indonesian Justice Minister Muladi said Monday he believed jailed East Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao should be released so he can make a greater contribution to peace efforts in the troubled territory.

Jakarta – A protest by hundreds of farmers claiming rights to land developed by a state plantation company in West Java left thousands of tree crops and several buildings burned and 120 protestors arrested, a report said here Sunday

N. Priharwanto, Jakarta – Thousands of workers from the Jabotabek industrial zone gathered on the grounds of the University of Indonesia campus in Salemba, Central Jakarta on Saturday (May 1). They came to commemorate May Day and hold a demonstration.

Jakarta – Hundreds of labourers and university students held a protest here Saturday demanding the release of jailed labour defender Dita Sari as well as of other political prisoners, a witness said.

The call was made by more than 400 labourers and students who turned up at the state University of Indonesia to hold free speeches on Labour Day.

Brian Toohey – An audience of two. That's all the Western Australian Liberal Senator, Sue Knowles, wanted when she rose to speak in Parliament on Wednesday about what she saw as an important development surrounding Paul Keating's business dealings with Indonesia while prime minister.

Jakarta – Indonesia's president pleaded with his country's wealthy elite Saturday not to flee abroad ahead of a landmark June 7 parliamentary election, which many fear will result in widespread violence.

Jakarta – Police suspect 11 victims found in a mass grave in East Timor were members an anti-independence militia group that has been accused of carrying out attacks and atrocities against civilians, a newspaper reported today.

Jakarta – Five weeks ahead of the June 7 general election, poll watch organizations warned on Friday of various disruptions, including separatists' calls for a boycott in troubled Aceh, bribery and alleged military intimidation of poll monitoring volunteers.

John Aglionby, Jakarta – Mobs of angry Balinese have been rampaging through the usually tranquil beach resort of Kuta this week – an area previously thought to be impervious to the tensions tearing apart the social fabric elsewhere in Indonesia.

The spread of the trouble to this area threatens not only the safety of local people but also Bali's tourism earnings.

Clashes between local residents, staff and members of the security forces have resulted in at least six deaths and hundreds of injuries at the Indorayon pulp and rayon mill in North Sumatra. As a result of the unrest, President Habibie has been forced to order a temporary shut-down of the factory at Porsea.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Riau, Indonesia's most oil-rich province in central Sumatra, has demanded that it become a semi-autonomous federal state despite Jakarta's proposal last week to return a significant proportion of oil profits to the province.

Dr Trabani Rab, the head of the Riau Cultural Institute, said the Riau people would still demand federation.

Jose Manuel Tesoro and Tom McCawley – "We were hunted like pigs." That's how Madurese farmer Amidi describes being driven from his West Kalimantan home recently. After his house went up in flames and one of his neighbors was decapitated, Amidi, his wife and child fled into the jungle. A mob of ethnic Dayaks chased them with hunting dogs.

Elizabeth Bukowski – Pramoedya Ananta Toer may have lost more than a decade of his life to the forced labor camp on Indonesia's Buru Island. But he hasn't lost his spirit, his sense of humor or his hope for a stable, democratic Indonesia.