Susan Sim, Jakarta – As leaders of Aceh's armed rebel movement hovered on the brink of a peace agreement with Jakarta, officials here warned that if it backed out now, it would find itself isolated.

Banda Aceh – Three military witnesses on Saturday told a court trying 24 soldiers charged with massacring 58 civilians in Aceh province last year that an officer, now declared missing, had ordered the killing of 23 people wounded in a shooting spree there.

Yogyakarta – Skepticism persists about the trial of 24 soldiers and a civilian charged in a mass killing in Aceh last year as violence continued in the strife-torn province on Thursday.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – The long-awaited trial of 24 soldiers charged with the massacre of 58 civilians in West Aceh last July has been called a show that will be hampered by its connections to military legal procedures.

Associated Press in Banda Aceh – A landmark trial of soldiers accused in the massacre of 57 students and teachers in strife- torn Aceh province resumed on Saturday amid tight security as protesters claimed the proceedings were staged.

Banda Aceh – Two policemen and a civilian were killed in the latest violence in Indonesia's strife-torn province of Aceh, police and witnesses said yesterday.

The killings occurred just hours after the opening on Wednesday of a landmark human rights trial in Banda Aceh in which 24 soldiers and a civilian are charged with massacring 57 unarmed villagers.

Batujajar, Bandung – While suggesting that dialog between the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) should continue, the Indonesian Military (TNI) have decided to send troops to the strife-torn province of Aceh.

Banda Aceh – At least eight people were killed and 18 others injured in the latest violence to rack the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh, police and residents said yesterday. Two explosive devices, believed to be hand grenades, were thrown at a guard post at a fertiliser plant near the main town of the North Aceh district, Lhokseumawe, on Monday night.

Jakarta – A senior police officer has been removed from his post and up to 1,000 police and soldiers are being deployed ahead of the expected human rights trial today of soldiers in Indonesia's northern province of Aceh.

A police spokesman said the officer in charge of a crackdown on separatist rebels in violence-racked Aceh had been removed on presidential orders.

Banda Aceh – A major congress to forge peace in Aceh scheduled to start next week has been delayed indefinitely following the massive deployment of security forces in recent weeks.

Banda Aceh – The Aceh People's Congress (KRA) organizers rejected on Tuesday the massive deployment of around 1,700 elite Police Mobile Brigade (Brimob) officers to secure the week-long event which is slated to start here on April 22.

Banda Aceh – A joint team of policemen and military personnel found eight human skeletons – some dressed in military uniforms – during search operations in Aceh Besar, North and West Aceh on Saturday, a military source said.

Jakarta – Two aircraft passengers were wounded when separatist rebels in Aceh province yesterday attacked the police posted at an airport run by an Indonesian subsidiary of Mobil Oil Inc, a rebel spokesman said.

Banda Aceh – Unidentified gunmen killed at least seven people, including three policemen, and injured two in a series of shootings in restive Aceh province, police and residents said Thursday.

Medan – The provincial authorities have banned the Aceh Community Congress (Konggres Masyarakat Aceh), scheduled to begin on Monday and last through Friday, citing security reasons.

Jakarta – The people of Aceh are planning to hold an all-Aceh congress next month to seek a peaceful settlement to the problems of the troubled Indonesian province, organisers said on Wednesday.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – The Indonesian government's attempts to negotiate Acehnese demands for independence or autonomy will be fruitless unless violence in the province decreases, say human-rights groups.

Banda Aceh – Unidentified groups burned 11 school buildings in North Kluet in South Aceh in early hours on Wednesday, leaving Rp 1.8 billion in losses, police said.

Banda Aceh – At least six civilians have been killed or found dead this week in the Indonesian province of Aceh which has been wracked by fighting between separatists and soldiers, police and hospital sources said Wednesday.

The following is abridged from a statement by MUHAMMAD NAZAR, chairperson of the presidium board of the Aceh Referendum Information Centre (SIRA), to Indonesia's President Abdurrahman Wahid, dated March 5. Violence and human rights violations by the state, through its military, are still in progress in Aceh.

Associated Press in Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid said on Tuesday that fighters of the separatist Free Aceh Movement group (GAM) could join the Indonesian military following a peaceful settlement of the civil war in the oil-rich region.

Vaudine England – President Abdurrahman Wahid's latest salvo in his battle to keep rebellious Aceh as part of Indonesia is a pledge to investigate the alleged beating of 20 villagers last Friday, just one day after a ground-breaking attempt for peace talks.

Agencies in Banda Aceh – Indonesian troops yesterday raided four villages in troubled Aceh province searching for rebels, a day after a landmark meeting there between an Indonesian envoy and a rebel leader, residents said.

Jakarta – Despite claims by Indonesia's President that the situation in Aceh province is improving, the Red Cross said yesterday that the violence was as bad as ever, with torture and murder a common occurrence.

Mr Paul Grossrieder, director-general of the International Committee of the Red Cross, said the situation in Aceh was "very critical".

Diarmid O'Sullivan, Lhokseumawe – A brutal crackdown by the Indonesian security forces in the province of Aceh is smothering the separatist movement, local people and observers say. They believe it could compel the Acehnese to accept a compromise peace with Jakarta.

Banda Aceh – Separatist rebels ambushed an Indonesian military truck in the troubled province of Aceh, leaving a civilian killed by a stray bullet and a soldier wounded, police said Sunday.

John Aglionby, Kembang Tanjung – When Mohammed Assegaf and his two friends finished describing how Indonesian soldiers had killed some people and terrorised dozens of others in their part of Aceh province during the past two months, they slipped out of the cafe's back door, across the paddy fields, and away.

Given the background of testy relations between Indonesia and Malaysia, Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad's visit here has proved remarkably successful for both sides. In politics – and economics – the two countries gained something each.

Banda Aceh – Four bodies, believed to be the latest victims of conflict between separatist rebels and Indonesian security forces, have been found in troubled Aceh province, residents and police said yesterday.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Indonesia's armed forces are allegedly targeting human rights activists in the violence-hit province of Aceh as President Abdurrahman Wahid asks for Malaysia's help to broker peace talks with separatist rebels.

Slobodan Lekic, Jakarta – While affirming Indonesia's "territorial integrity," the United States today urged President Abdurrahman Wahid not to use force in quelling a bloody separatist rebellion in the country's north.

Banda Aceh – Six more bodies have been found at separate locations in the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh, as a handgrenade exploded in the office of the North Aceh district chief, injuring four people, police and residents said Friday.

Debra Yatim, Banda Aceh – While students and a largely-male delegation are still in a quandary on how to map out a future for troubled Aceh, the women have already created a blueprint outline.

Banda Aceh – Horror and tension again reigned here over the weekend when three suspected rebels were killed in a gunfight with police in North Aceh, while in Central Aceh the stench of rotting bodies led residents to a hidden mass grave.

Banda Aceh – Nine more people were reported killed in Aceh in the last two days, raising the death toll for the year to 179.

Bandah Aceh – A police chief, a military subdistrict chief and a policeman were shot dead by unknown gunmen today in the latest attacks on security officers in Indonesia's restive Aceh province, police said here.

Associated Press – Sixteen people were killed and eight injured in several clashes between rebels and government troops in Aceh province, the authorities said on Thursday.

Jakarta – The planned trial of 20 men, 18 of them military personnel, accused of shooting down 56 Acehnese in cold blood last July has been postponed because a key witness has gone missing, press reports said yesterday.

Jakarta – An outspoken human rights group said Tuesday that it feared a key suspect in a case of mass murder in West Aceh may have been kidnapped to prevent an upcoming trial of the case.

Coordinator of the Commission on Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), Munir, said he feared Army Lieutenant Colonel Sujono could have been abducted.

Banda Aceh – An armed gang attacked and set fire to the terminal of Malikussaleh Airport, which serves the economically strategic Arun gasfields, about 45 kilometers west of Lhokseumawe, North Aceh, on Saturday night.

Jakarta – The prospects for peace in troubled Aceh province were unclear Thursday, with a separatist leader denying a report that he had reached a cease-fire agreement with the Indonesian goverment.

Banda Aceh – At least five people were killed in Indonesia's unruly province of Aceh as a police spokesman said Wednesday security forces had launched a new offensive against separatist rebels there.

Jakarta – An Indonesian MP who had campaigned for the prosecution of military officers guilty of rights abuses in troubled Aceh province has been found dead, the official Antara news agency said yesterday.

Banda Aceh – A new separatist group acting as an umbrella organization for several pro-independence movements in Aceh province is demanding both the military and the Free Aceh rebels agree to a cease-fire.

Banda Aceh – Preparations for a planned consultative congress on the future of the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh are nearing completion, participants said Monday on the eve of a visit by President Abdurrahman Wahid to the region.

"There has already been a lot of progress," said Amin Aziz, an academic who has been active in preparing the congress.

Jakarta – Nine people were killed in the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh, days ahead of a planned trip by President Abdurrahman Wahid to try to stem violence amid a rising clamour for a referendum on self-rule.

Associated Press – At least seven people have died in the latest round of violence in the strife-torn Aceh province, human rights activists said on Friday.

The head of the People's Crisis Centre in the Bireum region said five bodies were found on Thursday with gunshot wounds. He said two of the dead were student human rights activists.

Banda Aceh – Representatives of 15 international non- government organizations concluded their two-day meeting here on Sunday putting more pressure on the Indonesian government to soon end the violence in the restive province.

Banda Aceh – Representatives of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) have rejected President Abdurrahman Wahid's offer of protection and possible clemency if leaders of the rebel group attend an Acehnese gathering slated for January 25.

Associated Press in Jakarta – At least six people were seriously injured in a gun battle between security forces and separatist rebels in the strife-torn Aceh province, witnesses said on Monday.

A local journalist said soldiers opened fire on a group of rebels in the town of Lhoksukon in north Aceh, about 1,750km northwest of Jakarta on Sunday.