Jakarta – Some 1,000 Indonesian farmers on Tuesday rallied peacefully in the national parliament complex here to demand land reform and the return of farmlands forcibly taken over by the Suharto-era government.
"Return our land that has been forcibly taken over by conglomerates," read a banner waved by the protestors from the Union of Indonesian Farmers.
LH, NL/FW, BS & Lyndal Meehan, Jakarta – The plot behind the bombing of the Attorney General's office on July 4 and its connection to the Suharto family continues to unfold. The bombs involved have been traced back to the Army and a former member of President Suharto's personal guard and four employees of one of Tommy's companies are being investigated.
Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Violence by pro-Jakarta militia in West Timor camps has sabotaged plans by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to register 125,000 East Timorese waiting to return to East Timor or resettle in Indonesia.
Daniel Cooney, Dili – No one knows who really owns the blackened, burned-out building where Canadian businessman Kirk MacManus is trying to set up East Timor's first supermarket.
A Portuguese man claims it, saying the army threw him out when Indonesia invaded in 1975. Later, it housed an Indonesian bank. Then came East Timor's secession last year.
Jakarta – A joint military-police investigation team initiated on Monday an inquiry into the involvement of both military and police personnel in the July 27, 1996 attack on the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) headquarters on Jl. Diponegoro in Central Jakarta.
Sydney – US Secretary of Defense William Cohen confirmed Monday that the US is reestablishing military links with Indonesia. But he denied his country is selling arms to Jakarta.
Vaudine England, Jakarta – Men in Indonesian military uniform have been filmed providing covering fire for Muslim fighters as they attacked a Christian neighbourhood in the violence-wracked Maluku Islands. The footage has highlighted Christian calls for foreign troops to intervene, but such a move would be politically dangerous for President Abdurrahman Wahid.
George J. Aditjondro – The religious war between Christians and Muslims in Maluku (the Moluccas), which has taken anywhere between 3,000 and 10,000 lives in 18 months, is a tragedy that so far has not attracted much concern outside church circles in Australia.
Daniel Cooney, Jakarta – Indonesia's military admitted Tuesday that some of its troops have taken sides in the long-running Christian-Muslim war in the Maluku islands.
Vaudine England, Jakarta – Corruption and weak law enforcement promise to make the polluting haze caused by Indonesian forest fires a perennial problem. Farmers and contractors are burning forests to clear land for palm oil and rubber crops, and the logic of that market, in which raw commodities sell for much-desired dollars, will keep the fires burning.
Vaudine England, Jakarta – "We wish a lot of the talking would stop and everyone would just get on with their jobs," said a housewife who lives in sight of Jakarta's green and mushroom-shaped parliament building.
United Nations – Six Indonesian non-government organizations are opposing resumed military ties with the United States, saying it would send signals that Washington supported Indonesia's alleged human rights abuses in East Timor.
Jakarta – Indonesia's Defence Minister, Dr Juwono Sudarsono, has blamed rogue army officers for inflaming religious war in the riot-torn Maluku islands, where seven people died in fighting between Christians and Muslims yesterday, bringing the death toll over four days to at least 28.
Daniel Cooney, Jakarta – Christians and Muslims waged fierce street battles in the Maluku islands, leaving at least 11 people dead, hospital officials said Sunday.
The National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) must form an a commission to resolve the abductions of pro-democracy activists in 1997 and 1998.
Jakarta – The ongoing economic crisis and political instability in Indonesia since mid-1997 have pushed up unemployment to 37.4 million, a local newspaper controlled by the former ruling Golkar Party said Saturday.
Biak – Thousands of Irian Jaya people raised for the first time the Morning Star separatist flag without fear of punishment or harsh measures from security authorities on Friday.
Jakarta – Nearly 3,000 volunteers of a militant Indonesian Muslim jihad (holy war) force are still in the riot-torn eastern city of Ambon, a report said Saturday.
Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Relations between President Abdurrahman Wahid and his Vice-President, Megawati Sukarnoputri, have soured dramatically, raising questions about the stability of the country's coalition government.
Don Greenlees – Indonesia's Defence Minister, Juwono Sudarsono, has requested Australian military assistance in meeting the huge humanitarian burden in the country's violence-racked eastern islands.
Lisbon – East Timor's first transitional government was hailed yesterday as a crucial step forward by the pro-independence leader Mr Xanana Gusmao.
L Hakim/SWA & LM, Jakarta – Vice Director of the General Crime Division at the National Police Headquarters, Senior Superintendent Makbul Padmanegara, has admitted that their investigations point to heavy military involvement in the 27 July 1996 raid on the offices of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI). An officer is set to be called on Monday. Who is he?
H Dharmastuti/SWA & LM, Jakarta – The fate of 14 people abducted in the dying days of the Suharto regime remains unknown.
Jakarta – A mass brawl broke out again in the Matraman area of East Jakarta on Thursday as residents of the bickering Palmeriam and Berlan subdistricts pelted rocks and threw Molotov cocktails at each other.
Time is running out for Indonesia's first democratically chosen president. The task is vast. Last October Abdurrahman Wahid was given the presidency of one of the world's largest countries, spread across 17,000 islands and with numerous ethnic groups.
Jakarta – Top reform leaders blamed each other on Thursday over last night's aborted meeting between them, boding ill for a speedy resolution to the current political disharmony, despite the tension and strife which is dragging down the country.
Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid is facing yet another threat to his already shaky presidency with the latest bid by his political opponents in parliament to probe into two cases of irregularity in which he is allegedly involved.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Dili – Lakan Feralafaek, one of a score of money changers who ply their trade on the sidewalk in front of East Timor's only bank, is more than happy to exchange foreign notes for the new official currency, the US dollar.
Maryadi/FW & LM, Pontianak – Indonesia's most prominent environmental protection group, WALHI, has slammed President Abdurrahman Wahid and the current government for their lack of commitment to environmental issues.
A July 12 meeting between Indonesia's top four political leaders was indefinitely postponed at the very last minute. The meeting was to have brought together the president, vice president and speakers of the upper and lower houses of parliament, each from a different political faction, to prepare for the August People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) session.
John McBeth in South Kalimantan and North Sulawesi – They come equipped with scores of excavators and more than 500 trucks. Their backers have wealth and influence. They have been known to cajole and threaten.
Jakarta – Security authorities have seized thousands of weapons and explosives in a series of arms sweeping operations in Maluku, which remains tense despite the two-week imposition of a civil emergency status.
John McBeth, Talawaan – An ecological disaster looms over North Sulawesi's Minahasa Peninsula. Rampant illegal gold mining is pouring hundreds of tonnes of mercury into the environment. The deadly flow threatens to undermine the economy, contaminate food crops and leave a horrifying health problem for future generations.
Banda Aceh – Three Acehenese civilians died in military custody after being shot and then arrested by Indonesian security forces, witnesses and hospital staff said Thursday. The bodies were taken to a local hosptial early on Thursday, a hospital employee said.
C.A Tanjung/SWA & LM, Jakarta – Thick smoke blanketing Pekanbaru, the capital of Riau Province, Sumatra, since Wednesday has been attributed to land clearing activities by businesses holding Forest Concession Rights (HPH), coconut palm oil plantations and small scale farmers all extending the boundaries of their land.
Marian Wilkinson, Sydney – An Australian intelligence agency learned from an intercepted Indonesian Army radio message that Australian television crews were in danger and would be targeted, hours before the October 16, 1975, attack at Balibo in East Timor, a new book has revealed.
Dini Djalal, Jakarta – Husein could do nothing when the mob set his son Dian on fire. "If I had protested, they would have killed me too," he says simply. "I held in my emotions." Dian, 24, and three of his friends had been caught trying to steal a motorbike in the town of Jati Murni, West Java.
Jakarta – Regional Autonomy Minister Ryaas Rasyid has warned that some local bureaucrats and politicians were using the Indonesian government's new decentralisation policy to blackmail businesses.
John McBeth, Jakarta – For members of a visiting group of US editors, a mid-afternoon conversation with President Abdurrahman Wahid in late June ended in near-complete bewilderment.
Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) yesterday appointed three commission members to revise its rejected report on the 1984 massacre in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.
Jakarta – Indonesia's central bank said Thursday it can fully implement a new monetary policy only once economic stability in the country is restored.
The appropriate timing for such a policy change has not been determined, Bank Indonesia senior deputy governor Anwar Nasution was quoted as saying by AFX-Asia, an AFP financial affiliate.
Maryadi/Lyndal Meehan, Jakarta – Smog in and around Pontianak, West Kalimantan, caused by slash and burn land clearing has reached hazardous levels while the local government has yet to even "fly the flag" and inform residents of the dangerous situation.
North Sumatra – Looting of plantations has become a major headache in Indonesia, hitting bottom lines in the sector and threatening investment and privatization plans.
The problem is compounded by land disputes as plantation companies have been accused of failing to pay compensation for properties that villagers claimed belonged to their ancestors.
Jakarta – The official number of HIV/AIDS cases in Indonesia now stands at 1,283, although health experts predicted the real figure could be as high as 350,000 or more, a senior official said.
Jakarta – A recent poll conducted by the Center for Electoral Reform showed the majority of Indonesians supported direct presidential elections. Nuri Soeseno of Cetro said on Wednesday the poll showed 72.6 percent of 1,998 respondents in five cities – Jakarta, Medan, Surabaya, Makassar and Pontianak – favored direct presidential elections.
James Balowski – The government of President Abdurrahman Wahid appears to be indulging in a veritable orgy of investigations into human rights violations – ranging from the post-ballot violence in East Timor last September, military abuses in the provinces of Aceh and West Papua and state-sponsored violence against political dissidents during former dictator Suharto's 32-year rule.
Max Lane – The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) has announced that it will be implementing measures to increase Timorese participation in the executive bodies of UNTAET.
Bogor – Hundreds of illegal miners working at gold-rich Pongkor Mountain thronged the Bogor Council building on Monday, complaining about violent measures they had suffered from security officers of mining firm PT Aneka Tambang.
Jakarta – Despite sinister political maneuvers and other efforts to discredit President Abdurrahman Wahid, the one thing in his favor is that there's no one good enough to replace him. That's the result of a new survey which asked respondents who should replace Wahid if he resigns or is ousted before completing his five-year term in office.
Jakarta – The situation in Dumai municipility, 200 kms from the Riau capital of Pekanbaru, remained tense yesterday, as self-titled commander of Free Riau, Muhammad Sabri, continued to slam the shooting by police on Monday of four local protesters.