Indonesia, with a population of 200 million in 1997, has been struggling to reduce income inequalities and social disparities among its diverse ethnic groups inhabiting the country's 13,000 islands. Chronic poverty is the worst kind of social unrest and political instability are not to disturb national development.

Jakarta – Indonesian pro-democracy leader Megawati Sukarnoputri on Thursday rejected a police summons for questioning over a celebration held by supporters at her residence.

Authorities said the Jan. 10 celebration was an 'illegal political gathering.'

PT Dua Satu Tiga Puluh (DSTP) which will fund the engineering development and construction planning of the jet aircraft N-2130, produced by PT Industri Pesawat Terbang Nasional (IPTN) will reach the breakeven point when 326 aircraft units are produced in the year 2013.

S N Vasuki – Indonesia reported higher inflation and a sharply lower trade surplus yesterday in line with the expectations of most economists.

But economists cautioned that the continued fall in non-oil exports was a worrying sign of an erosion in the country's competitiveness.

S N Vasuki – Indonesia's Lippo Group has positioned itself as a major player in the retail sector with last week's acquisition of a 50.1 per cent stake in PT Matahari Putra Prima which runs the country's largest department store chain.

Jakarta – The Indonesian minister for women's affairs, Mien Sugandhi, will visit Saudi Arabia to investigate reports of Indonesian women working as prostitutes in the country, political sources said Thursday.

Mien will also go to Malaysia to inspect the working conditions of Indonesian women there, the sources said.

Amidst the gloom of Indonesia's authoritarian political system, a ray of light. A government bill to pave the way for the construction of an unpopular nuclear plant in Java was not approved by parliament last December. Instead of being passed into law on 12 December as planned, a deadlock in the committee stage caused it to be held over till this year.

Jakarta, Kompas - the Suara Independen (Independent Voice) trial began at the South Jakarta State Court on Thursday, February 5. Andi Syahputra (31) is accused of insulting the president in October 1996.

John McBeth, Jakarta – When Golkar painted the town yellow, Indonesia's opposition finally saw red. It happened in early January in the historic Central Java city of Surakata, where overzealous loyalists from Indonesia's dominant political party splashed large tracts of the city in Golkar's trademark canary yellow.

Jakarta – An Indonesian activist caught with copies of a banned magazine of an independent journalists' group faces six years in jail for defaming the president, a report said Thursday.

Jakarta – Indonesia's foreign minister said Wednesday that Jakarta hoped Malaysia's closure of part of its border on Borneo due to ethnic violence on the Indonesian side would be quickly lifted.

Jakarta – Jakarta Governor Surjadi Soedirja Tuesday called on his citizents to participate more actively in efforts to fight hoodlums arguing that Indonesia's national capital must be cleared of thugs.

"Hoodlums have to be totally eradicated and that is a job for all of us," he said when visiting Jakarta's Tanjung Priok harbor.

Jay Solomon, Jakarta – Indonesia recorded another healthy trade surplus in November, though analysts expressed some concern about future trends in the country's exports.

Data released Wednesday also showed inflation firmly in check, with a surprisingly modest 5.5% rise reported for January's consumer price index (CPI).

Louise Williams, Jakarta – The Indonesian Government has banned all social and political meetings involving large crowds until after the May national elections, and Malaysia has moved to close its land border with Indonesia in the face of continuing social unrest.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government has ordered a ban on public gatherings which could incite social unrest prior to the May general election, officials said yesterday.

Canberra – Nobel laureate Jose Ramos Horta urged Australia Wednesday to press for an end to the continuing conflict in East Timor by proposing measures such as a permanent UN presence in the province.

Veronica Smith, Washington – US and international labor union chiefs led a raucous demonstration outside Indonesia's embassy Wednesday, demanding the release of a jailed Indonesian labor leader charged with subversion.

Violations of indigenous peoples basic rights are rife in the operations areas of PT Kelian Equatorial Mining in East Kalimantan and PT Freeport Indonesia in Irian Jaya, according to an influential non-governmental organization.

Veronica Smith, Washington – US and international labor union leaders will demonstrate Wednesday in front of Indonesia's embassy here to protest the imprisonment of an Indonesian labor leader, organizers said.

Sonny Inbaraj, Bangkok – It was a moral victory for the second Asia-Pacific Conference on East Timor, or Apcet II as it was popularly known. The 50 Apcet II participants and 10 journalists covering the conference, who were arrested in Kuala Lumpur by Malaysian police last November, had all charges against them dropped last Friday by the attorney general.

Jakarta – The Indonesian province of West Kalimantan hit by fresh ethnic unrest since last week is now calm and under control, an Indonesian army spokesman said according to reports Wednesday.

"Everything is now secure and under control," armed forces spokesman Brigadier General Amir Syarifuddin was quoted by the official Antara news agency as saying.

Pontianak – An Indonesian provincial capital, where there has been unrest since the start of the year, remained tense Wednesday with reports of new violence in other towns.

"The situation is very tense with sporadic violence in the last week," a resident of Pontianak, capital of West Kalimantan, told AFP.

The authorities have tried to impose a curfew in Pontianak.

Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia will only reopen its border post into Indonesia's Kalimantan province once the ethnic violence has calmed down on the Indonesian side, officials said Wednesday. "We are still monitoring the situation in Kalimantan.

[Introductory note by 'Kofi Tubruk': A tribal war has been going on in Banti - which a short distance from Freeport mining operations - since 25 January this year. According to Thomas Wanmang, secretary of LEMASA Council, who was contacted by phone, the war is taking place in an area where there are many security posts.

Kupang – Soerjadi [the government installed head of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) - JB.] has begged PDI members not to read newspapers if they have reports on the PDI. On February 3 he said that reports in the mass media tend to "corner" the party and do not give a true picture, "as far as articles concerning the PDI, it is better not to read them" he added.

Jakarta – Moh. Yogie S. M., minister of internal affairs and chairman of the LPU [Election Institute], issued Directive Number 7 of 1997 on 30 January 1997 concerning Election Campaign Rules as a follow-up to Government Regulation 74/1996 concerning Election Laws and Presidential Decree 99/1996 concerning Election Campaigns.

Michael Richardson, Jakarta – The Mentawai Islands along the southern coast of Sumatra in Indonesia are a picture of tropical paradise: countless remote atolls fringed by white sand beaches and coconut palms.

But below the surface of the crystal-clear azure waters, on the coral reefs that skirt the islands, it is another story.

Paris – Four East Timorese youths who broke into the French embassy in Jakarta on Tuesday will leave for Portugal by Wednesday, the French foreign ministry in Paris said.

Jakarta – Four East Timorese broke into the French embassy here early Tuesday, an embassy source said. Embassy spokesman Dominique Roubert said they entered the embassy early Tuesday morning, but declined to elaborate further.

He did not state whether the four have sought political asylum.

"I confirm that there are four East Timorese at the embassy," Roubert said.

David Barber in Wellington – Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta and East Timor independence campaigners stormed out of New Zealand yesterday, leaving Foreign Minister Don McKinnon wondering: "What did I say?"

Mr Horta left, vowing he would not to return until the Government changed its policy towards the former Portuguese colony, now absorbed into Indonesia.

On February 4, A group of East Timorese students from a number of Indonesian cities held an action at the Surabaya State Court. Their arrival cased a "hubbub".

Jakarta – Jakarta's ethnic Chinese community was asked yesterday not to make any overt displays to celebrate the Lunar New Year following a series of attacks on Chinese and Christian properties by Muslim rioters.

Jakarta – Indonesian authorities are to start building a US$2.4 billion (S$3.4 billion) triple-deck road and railway project in July to overcome Jakarta's transport problems, a report said yesterday.

The project includes a 23.55-km elevated train built above a surface road but under a tollway, the Antara news agency said.

Jakarta – Mining giant PT Freeport Indonesia was the top corporate tax payer in Indonesia in 1995 and Salim Group founder Liem Sioe Liong the top individual tax payer, a senior tax official said at the weekend.

Two of President Suharto's sons were listed the 10th and 13th highest taxpayers in figures released by the director-general of taxation, Fuad Bawazier, on Sunday.

By letter dated 26 April 1996, the Special Rapporteur, in a joint initiative with the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and the Special Rapporteur on the question of torture, conveyed information to the Government concerning a confrontation between university students protesting a rise in transport fares and military personnel which had reportedly

Jakarta – A report published by the U.S. State Department has got strong reactions here.

Political scientist Amien Rais said, "As a sovereign country Indonesia should have self confidence about what we are convinced of and we do not need to be affected by other people's comments."

The latest annual report on human rights surveys by the U.S. State Department does not look too kindly on Indonesia's record for the past year. But the report does not differ all that much from those by some of our own respected human rights groups.

Wellington – Foreign Minister Don McKinnon was Monday clearly surprised but made no formal comment after Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta from East Timor said New Zealand "should drop dead." On Friday after meeting McKinnon, Horta hailed New Zealand's "good, discreet record in putting pressure on Indonesia" but by Sunday he was saying he would never set foot here while the

Gordon Feeney, Jakarta – Australia's ambassador-designate to Indonesia, John McCarthy, has arrived in Jakarta, bringing to a close 18 months of diplomatic tiffs between the two countries.

Mr McCarthy, 54, former envoy to the United States, arrived at the weekend and was due to present his credentials to President Suharto in the near future, an embassy spokesman said.

Elko – Barrick Gold Corporation, the gold mine company from Canada, affirmed not to change the offer of 10 percent of shares in the Busang gold mine for the Indonesian government, although its competitor, Placer Dome Inc - which associates with entrepreneur Mohamad (Bob) Hasan and plans a merger with Bre-X - offers 40 percent shares for Indonesia.

Kuching (Sarawak, West Malaysia) – Local bus companies which ply between here and Pontianak in Kalimantan, Indonesia, have suspended operations out of concern for the safety of their employees and passengers following rumours of more riots there.

Louise Williams – Security forces made further arrests at the weekend following last Thursday's Muslim riots west of Jakarta, and new tensions flared in the city of Bandung, where leaflets were dropped calling on Muslims to attack Christian and Catholic targets.

Jakarta – PT Freeport Indonesia is the biggest corporate taxpayer while conglomerate Soedono Salim pays the most taxes as an individual, an official says here.

Jennifer Hewett, Washington – The United States has accused the Indonesian Government of committing "serious human rights abuses", in contrast to Australia's muted stance on the issue.

In its annual report on human rights in 193 countries, the US State Department criticised Indonesia's record, citing many abuses and what it called "pervasive corruption".

Jakarta – Indonesian Attorney General Singgih has indicated that several political trials now underway could conclude before the start of the election campaign in April, a report said here Saturday.

Without producing a shred of evidence and seemingly desparate to find a way of explaining the widespread unrest in Indonesia, armed forces commander in chief, General Feisal Tanjung is now accusing opposition groups for the unrest. The following is a summary of an item in Kompas today, 22 February:

Jakarta – Indonesia's armed forces chief General Feisal Tanjung said on Friday the military would take sterner measures against riots following disturbances in a town east of Jakarta in which buildings were burned or wrecked.

Kuala Lumpur – Umno members who were part of the group which disrupted the second Asia Pacific Conference on East Timor (Apcet II) on Nov 9 may be facing suits for "assault and battery."

Jakarta – The situation in Indonesia's West Java province was less tense yesterday with shops re-opening and a cleaning up under way a day after Thursday's violent incidents caused widespread damage.

Jakarta – PT Kahatex, one of the largest textile factories in West Java situated on Jl Rancaekek Km 25 (about 25 kilometers from Bandung), on Friday (31/1) was destroyed by some 7,000 of its workers. As a result of that riot, 5 office buildings, 8 factories, 4 storehouses, 1 employees mess, 68 trucks and employee operation cars were damaged and 60 cycles burned by the mob.