Banda Aceh – At least 49 people were killed or found dead in the violence-plagued Indonesian province of Aceh during the weekend, hospital and rebel sources said Sunday.

The violence continued as representatives of the government and the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) were meeting for peace talks in Geneva.

Banda Aceh – Optimism looms ahead of the upcoming two-day peace talks between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) scheduled to take place in Geneva from Monday.

Lhokseumawe – Indonesian security forces killed 22 rebels in two separate gunbattles in Aceh province, officials said yesterday. In the most recent fighting, government soldiers shot 20 separatist guerillas in a gunbattle in central Aceh, said military spokesman Lt-Colonel Firdaus.

Banda Aceh – At least five people were killed in Indonesia's Aceh province which has been wracked by separatism, the military and activists said on Sunday.

Jakarta – Indonesia's state oil company Pertamina on Friday described as misguided a human rights case filed in Washington against US oil giant ExxonMobil over its operations in Indonesia.

Letitia Stein, Washington – A human rights group has filed suit against Exxon Mobil, accusing the world's largest oil company of rights abuses in Indonesia. The company has denied the allegations.

Banda Aceh – At least 12 people have been murdered or found dead over recent days in Indonesia Aceh province amid violence pitting separatist rebels against government forces, aid workers and residents said Thursday.

Banda Aceh – The cycle of violence in Aceh seems unending as witnesses and officials reported the death on Monday of at least another eight people in various locations in the province.

G.K. Goh, Banda Aceh – At least 18 people have been killed in violence pitting separatist rebels against government forces in the oil and gas-rich province of Aceh, the Indonesian military and residents said Sunday.

Jakarta – Indonesian officials and rebel leaders from Aceh province will resume peace talks in Geneva next month in yet another bid to resolve a bloody separatist conflict that has raged for decades, local media reported on Saturday.

Banda Aceh – Indonesian military (TNI) troops claimed to have raided two main bases of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist rebel group in the village of Jiemjiem, Bandar Baru district, Pidie regency on Wednesday.

Banda Aceh - Police claimed on Monday that at least 16 people had been killed in guerrilla attacks on transmigration sites in Central Aceh since Sunday. Aceh Police spokesman Adj. Sr. Comr. Sad Harunantyo said the Javanese migrant settlers were killed when the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) rebels on Sunday and early Monday attacked Kresek and Lindung Bulan villages.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – The bodies of six people, including a boy, have been found in Aceh, taking the death toll from a military offensive launched on April 11 to almost 200. Police said the bodies of five of the latest victims were bullet-riddled while a sixth bore torture marks.

Jakarta – Lawyers from Aceh yesterday urged the Indonesian government to ensure that courts are run properly after judges fled the troubled province fearing for their safety.

Vadline England – While politicians jockey for position in Jakarta and peace talks open and close in Geneva, the death toll on the killing grounds of Aceh continues to rise. More than 900 people have been killed so far this year in the province where an independence movement is battling Indonesian security forces.

Medan – The Medan District Court, under heavy security, began on Thursday the trial of Ligadinsyah, alias Azis bin Ibrahim Linggo, believed to be the deputy commander of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) for the Central Aceh area.

Banda Aceh – Fifteen people were killed or found dead in two days in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province, as rebels and the military traded accusations over the torching of scores of homes, authorities and residents said Thursday.

Max Lane, Jakarta – More than 500 people, Acehnese and Indonesians, attended a series of lively debates and cultural events at conference organised by the Acehnese People's Democratic Resistance Front (FPDRA) and the Popular Youth Movement (GPK), a youth organisation in political solidarity with the People's Democratic Party (PRD), held May 18-20.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Indonesia's six-week-old crackdown on Aceh's separatist rebels is as bad as any experienced during the worst years of the military operation conducted under the rule of former President Suharto, residents say. But the bloodshed has done little to dent the separatist movement or to capture the "hearts and minds" of the Acehnese people.

Banda Aceh – Four people, including two rebels and a soldier, were killed in the latest violence in Indonesia's Aceh province as clashes continued between separatist rebels and government troops, a report said here Wednesday.

Jakarta – The Indonesian navy has launched a special operation to cut off the distribution of guns and munitions from Thailand to the separatist movement in Aceh. Five warships were dispatched for the operation, and the navy will also check all ships travelling in waters around Aceh.

Banda Aceh – Clashes on Tuesday between Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist rebels and security forces in the restive province of Aceh have left two civilians dead and 30 houses and shops damaged by fire, police and residents said on Wednesday.

Jakarta – Indonesian police have ransacked a Jakarta office of an Acehnese group linked to a fatal explosion here as the military picked up an Acehnese man suspected of manufacturing weapons for a rebel movement.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Last week's assassination of Aceh's former vice-governor illustrates just how dangerous taking a neutral stance is in Aceh these days.

Banda Aceh – Mobile Brigade Police (Brimob) personnel have been combing villages in Pidie regency, Aceh, over the past two days, in what is suspected to be a mission to track down the Free Aceh Movement's (GAM) war commander, Tengku Abdullah Syafe'i.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Separatist rebels in Aceh declared a state of emergency yesterday, blaming the military offensive for the rising civilian death toll in the province.

Banda Aceh – At least three people were killed and four others were wounded in the latest violence between separatist rebels and government forces in the Indonesian province of Aceh, a report said Wednesday.

Banda Aceh – Continuing violence involving Indonesian government forces and separatist rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) has left at least five killed, police and residents said Sunday.

Jakarta – Sixty-seven people were killed in Aceh province between April 11 and April 29, Aceh's Human Rights Care Forum (Forum Peduli HAM Aceh) revealed on Wednesday.

John Haseman, Bangkok – Indonesia is resuming extensive military operations in the troubled province of Aceh after almost a year of fruitless political negotiations, humanitarian pauses and ceasefires which the government fears have considerably strengthened the separatist Aceh Merdeka guerrilla force (GAM).

Banda Aceh – Independence fighters in the Indonesian state of Aceh pledged Sunday that they were ready for all-out resistance against new government troops being sent to the region.

The Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which has been fighting for independence for the last 25 years, also warned non-Acehnese to leave the province immediately.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Indonesian soldiers were airlifted to the restive province of Aceh yesterday to mark a new phase of a potentially long and bloody guerilla warfare against rebels fighting for an independent state.

Jakarta – A policeman and three separatist rebels were killed in the continuing violence in strife-torn Aceh, an official said on Thursday.

Police's Cinta Meunasah II Operation spokesman Comr. Sudarsono said two rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) were shot dead in West Aceh regency of Gagak village in Darul Makmur district on Wednesday.

Banda Aceh – Violence in Indonesia's Aceh province has left at least five people dead since Thursday, hospital staff said.

Jakarta – Efforts to settle problems in the strife-torn province of Aceh took a new turn when the government revealed on Wednesday a plan to invite the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) to the meeting table for talks.

Banda Aceh – At least six people were killed in renewed violence in the Indonesian province of Aceh at the weekend, police and residents said.

A policeman was killed and three others were injured afer a truck carrying them was ambushed by separatist rebels on Saturday, North Aceh district police Adjunct Senior Commissioner Wanto Sumardi said.

Jakarta – Students from the Front for Anti Violence (Fomapak) staged a rally in front of the US Embassy located on Jl. Merdeka Selatan here today.

John McBeth, Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid and the Indonesian military are engaged in a renewed contest of wills, this time over the rapidly deteriorating security situation in westernmost Aceh province, which could put another nail in the president's political coffin.

Jakarta – Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Purnomo Yusgiantoro said on Wednesday that soldiers currently stationed at the ExxonMobil gas field in Aceh would be redeployed to perimeter duty to encourage the US-based firm to resume operations. Purnomo claimed that the removal of the soldiers was at the request of ExxonMobil.

Pip Hinman – The Indonesian government's "limited" military operation, currently underway, is not just against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), but against the majority of Acehnese who want an end to the violence and a referendum on self-determination.

Banda Aceh – Land transportation from Banda Aceh capital of Aceh province to Meulaboh in West Aceh has been interrupted over the last three days as unknown parties placed felled trees along the roads of the province's south and west coastal areas.

Enrique Soriano – The bleak panorama that unfolds on the drive from Lhokseumawe, the main town in North Aceh, to Medan is punctuated only by the dozens of armed checkpoints manned by the Indonesian army and the police.

Ron Moreau – Soldiers dressed in combat fatigues and black hoods would normally inspire fear in an Acehnese village. But not these commandos. As nearly a dozen fighters approach the edges of a hamlet some 30 kilometers southwest of the town of Bireun, their hoods are revealed to be jilbab-the Muslim head scarves worn by women.

Jakarta – The government must shoulder its share of the blame for any consequences of a military deployment in restive Aceh province, a general has said quoted Thursday.

Jakarta – At least four people have been killed in the latest violence in Aceh, a report said Thursday, a day after the latest peace initiative in the troubled Indonesian province collapsed.

The bodies of two civilians, both with gunshot wounds, were found in separate locations in Langsa, East Aceh, on Wednesday, the province's main daily, Serambi, reported.

Jacqueline M. Koch in Banda Aceh and Lindsay Murdoch in Jakarta – Soldiers patrol villages, their high-powered weapons ready to fire. Tanks rumble along rutted roads. Entire villages suspected of supporting separatist rebels are razed, forcing thousands of men, women and children into crude refugee camps.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Aceh could split from Indonesia within a year if the Indonesian armed forces (TNI) does not step up operations to crush the rebel movement in the restive province, a top security official said yesterday.

Jakarta – The Information Center for Aceh Referendum (SIRA) will soon file lawsuit against the Indonesian Police Chief General Surojo Bimantoro over the murder of three human rights activists in South Aceh on March 29. We will file lawsuit against the Police Chief, said SIRA Presidium Ridwan in Jakarta on the weekend.

Devi Asmarani, Aceh – A simple bus trip at night can turn deadly in this violence-wracked province, where residents live in constant fear of being caught in vicious clashes between Indonesian troops and separatist guerillas.

Jakarta – The guilty verdict handed down to Aceh Referendum Information Center (SIRA) chief Muhammad Nazar drew condemnation on Thursday with some saying the trial, criticized as a political maneuver which made Nazar a prisoner of conscience, contained legal defects.