Nani Farida, Jakarta/Aceh – President Megawati Soekarnoputri on Sunday dismissed speculation that the Indonesian Military (TNI) would launch an immediate military operation in Aceh should peace talks fail to settle the Aceh problem.

The armed conflict between the Indonesian armed forces, TNI, and the Free Acheh Movement, GAM, is hotting up again and victims have started to fall also.

This condition was spearheaded by the torching of the office of the Joint Security Committee (JSC), the peacemaker of the conflict.

Banda Aceh – Indonesia's military and separatist rebels in Aceh have traded charges over reports of six killings in the province ahead of expected talks next week aimed at saving a floundering peace agreement.

Jakarta – The National Commission on Anti-Violence Against Women (Komnas Perempuan) has expressed its concern over the possibility of the Indonesian government resorting to military force to resolve the Aceh conflict.

Nani Farida, Banda Aceh – The trial of Muhammad Nazar, leader of the Aceh Referendum Information Center (SIRA) who stands charged with sowing hatred against the government, began on Thursday at Banda Aceh District Court.

"The defendant incited the public to carry out actions that violated the law," chief prosecutor Muhammad Masril told the hearing.

Five civilians have been killed in Indonesia's rebellious Aceh province, police and the military said.

The latest killings brought the death toll during an upsurge of violence over the past two weeks to 40, further straining a four-month old ceasefire agreement between the government and separatist rebels.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The Indonesian government has won critical support for "firm action on Aceh" that will likely include a military operation.

The go-ahead will be given only after a final attempt to salvage the four-month old peace pact is made, through a last round of talks with the rebel groups later this month.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The Indonesian government has begun preparations to launch a military operation in Aceh, ending a peace pact that has been shredded in recent days by escalating violence.

Banda Aceh – Muhammad Nazar, 27, chairman of the Information Center for an Aceh Referendum (SIRA), went on trial here on Thursday for sedition, his second brush with the law in two years, AFP reported.

In a final bid to salvage Aceh's shaky peace pact, separatist rebels have agreed to meet with the Indonesian Government in Geneva next week. The decision by the separatist Free Aceh Movement or GAM comes after Jakarta called for a final meeting to iron out growing differences over the six month old peace pact.

Banda Aceh – Marines killed three suspected separatist rebels in a gunfight at sea off East Aceh, Aceh military spokesman Firdaus Komarno said here on Tuesday.

Tiarna Siboro, Jakarta – Hopes for salvaging the Aceh peace agreement rose again on Monday after both the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) agreed to sit down at the negotiating table to discuss various alleged violations of the accord signed last year.

Nani Farida and Arya Abhiseka, Banda Aceh – As fear was once again on the rise here, Acehnese leaders warned the government against launching a military operation in Aceh, saying that it had been proven in the past, that such an approach would certainly not resolve the conflict.

Banda Aceh – Ginger farmer Sulaiman looks pensively across his fertile field in Indonesia's restive Aceh province, afraid fresh military operations could soon shatter the calm ushered in by a landmark peace pact.

Indonesia's longest and bloodiest conflict is in imminent danger of breaking out again, just four months after a peace agreement was signed to international acclaim.

The government last Thursday told troops to be ready to go back to war in Aceh within five days if necessary, unless disputes over the pact can be settled at a meeting of a Joint Council – the final arbiter.

A 10-year-old girl has become the latest victim of violence in Aceh, where a four-month-old peace pact between the Indonesian government and separatist rebels is close to breaking down.

In the weeks to come, President Megawati Sukarnoputri will face a crucial decision whether she will surrender to pressure from the military hardliners trying to force her to take military action in putting down the separatism group the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

Ardimas Sasdi, Jakarta – The process of ending hostilities in troubled Aceh, which has been underway for the last five months, has entered a new, critical phase, which if not handled properly, could wreck the peace plan.

Tiarma Siboro and Nani Farida, Jakarta – Hope for a peaceful solution to the Aceh issue faded on Thursday when the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) declined to attend a Joint Council meeting to discuss violations of the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement.

Jakarta – Indonesia threatened yesterday to resume full combat operations in restive Aceh province as fresh clashes between troops and rebels killed four people, putting yet more strain on a shaky peace pact.

Indonesia's President Megawati Sukarnoputri is facing the apparent unravelling of the peace pact in Aceh province. Just four months after the Government and GAM, the separatist Free Aceh Movement signed a peace deal, international peace monitors have been withdrawn to the capital Banda Aceh after their offices were attacked.

Jakarta – Indonesia's army commander yesterday warned rebels in Aceh province to drop their independence bid or face a military crackdown in the latest challenge to a four-month peace deal.

Banda Aceh – Indonesia's peace pact in Aceh suffered major blows on Tuesday when nine people were reported killed and peace monitors separately ordered their teams across the province to withdraw to the local capital.

The fragile peace pact in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province has come under further strain, with the office of an international peace monitoring group attacked on the weekend, the second attack in little over a month. Some 300-people ransacked the Tripartite Monitoring Team office in East Aceh, destroying computer and other equipment before torching the empty building.

Jakarta (Agencies) – Hundreds of people besieged a peace monitoring office in the restive province of Aceh on Monday, one day after a separate facility was torched, in the latest blow to a landmark peace pact that is threatening to unravel.

Banda Aceh – International peace monitors in Indonesia's Aceh province yesterday said they would withdraw from the south of the province after a mob of up to 900 people threatened to burn down another of the group's offices.

A mob of some 1,000 people ransacked and torched a peace monitors' office in the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh, witnesses and a staff member said.

Indonesia's cabinet met to discuss the increasingly fragile ceasefire in Aceh's bloody separatist war, with the armed forces chief suggesting it might decide to scrap the agreement.

Banda Aceh/Jakarta – The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has called for a delay in the general elections in Aceh until after the holding of an all-inclusive dialog (AID) as stipulated in the peace agreement signed last year.

Jakarta – In an outbreak of violence likely to raise concerns about the peace process in troubled Aceh province, security forces said on Friday they killed five rebels in two separate incidents.

The ceasefire in Aceh's separatist war looked fragile after Indonesian police shot dead three rebels in the seventh armed clash in a week.

Security forces and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) have yet to agree on a demilitarisation plan for the province, almost two months after a crucial phase of the December 9 peace pact began.

Nani Farida and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Banda Aceh/Jakarta – Violence continues to pose a threat to the five-month-old peace accord in Aceh as a fresh firefight took place in Pidie regency on Thursday, claiming the lives of three alleged Free Aceh Movement (GAM) members.

Robert Go, Jakarta – The truce that Indonesia and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels signed last December is already showing wear and tear as Aceh looks to be nowhere near peace.

Although the pact has dramatically reduced the level of violence in the province, there is more distrust between the two sides than ever before.

Police in Indonesia say a Muslim hardliner believed to be close to the Jemaah Islamiah terrorist network has been reported as missing.

Lamkaruna Putra recently reported the alleged abduction of his father, Fauzi Hasbi, alias Abu Jihad, to national police headquarters. The alleged abduction occurred on February 23. The reason for the delay in reporting is not clear.

Jakarta – Indonesia's security minister has warned that a recent peace deal between the government and rebels in Aceh province could break down because of repeated violations by the guerillas.

Nani Farida and Tiarma Siboro, Banda Aceh/Jakarta – Activists representing 41 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Aceh have launched a month-long campaign to save the five-month-old peace agreement that has nearly ended almost three decades of armed conflict there.

Soldiers in Indonesia have killed two suspected rebels in the province of Aceh.

A police official says the two Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels were shot dead after they attacked soldiers investigating reports of blackmail by GAM in the Pidie district. Soliders confiscated an automatic rifle from the scene.

Banda Aceh – A separatist rebel hacked a soldier to death with a machete before being shot dead in the troubled Aceh province, the military said Saturday.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The Henry Dunant Centre (HDC) has warned the Indonesian Military (TNI) and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) against reinforcing military strength during the demilitarization process, saying that the move would violate the peace deal signed last year.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Thousands of people who claim to be Acehnese refugees ignored North Sumatra governor T. Rizal Nurdin's ultimatum to leave the provincial legislative council building, saying they would continue occupying the compound until they obtained resettlement funds.

Amnesty International says two human rights activists in Indonesia's Aceh province are believed to be being held by the military and could face torture or death.

The British-based rights group says Mukhlis Ishak, 27, and Zulfikar, 24, were detained on March 25 by plain-clothed men believed to be from the military intelligence unit, Satuan Gabungan Intelijen.

Medan – Hundreds of angry refugees from war-torn Aceh prevented North Sumatra Governor T. Rizal Nurdin and all provincial councillors from leaving the legislative building for six hours on Thursday, as their demand for immediate disbursement of resettlement funds remained unheeded.

There are fears in Jakarta that the war in Iraq is diverting attention from a conflict much closer to home – in the province of Aceh. Under a demilitarisation deal signed four months ago, Indonesian military and police who've been controlling the province for over a decade, were due to start to withdraw from villages to regional barracks.

Jakarta – More than 36 billion rupiah meant for the Acehnese refugees has been embezzled allegedly by officials who also stole other forms of aid provided by humanitarian groups.

Nani Farida, Banda Aceh – Despite allegations infamous pro-Jakarta militia Laskar Jihad are waging a "holy war" against pro-independence forces in Central Aceh, public transportation services resumed on Monday to ease the regency's isolation.

Nani Farida, Banda Aceh/Jakarta – Acehnese people have lambasted the Joint Security Committee (JSC) enforcing the cessation of hostilities agreement in Aceh, for its failure to stop the rampant extortion committed both by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and security personnel.

Banda Aceh – The Free Aceh Movement has accused the Indonesian military (TNI) of trying to undermine a peace agreement by getting people to harass monitors overseeing the pact.

Apriadi Gunawan, Jakarta – A 12-day-long protest by 600 Acehnese transmigrant refugees over the slow disbursement of resettlement funds has claimed the life of one, and hospitalized four others.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – The government has moved to consult the House of Representatives (DPR) to decide on immediate action against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist group, whom it said had sparked fresh violence in the province.

Ibnu Matnoor, Banda Aceh – The killing of four Acehnese in the latest spree of violence on Saturday has increased the distrust between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), pushing their three-month-old peace agreement closer to the brink of collapse.