Australia says the decision on a permanent seabed boundary with East Timor should be deferred for up to 100 years to allow oil and gas projects to go ahead.

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – Mismanagement at the Leuwigajah dump in south Cimahi was to blame for the collapse of mountains of garbage on Monday, which killed over 55 people and flatten

Urip Hudiono and Sri Wahyuni, Jakarta/Yogyakarta – To hike or not to hike.

Abdul Khalik, Banda Aceh – Standing in front of his ruined house in Lampu'uk, Lhoknga in Aceh Besar regency, 35-year-old Effendi expressed his determination to stay and rebuild his hous

Eva C.

Jakarta – Indonesia's president praised Thursday the progress made in peace talks between government negotiators and separatist rebels from tsunami-wracked Aceh province, but he caution

The Indonesian government and Aceh separatists have wrapped up peace talks, setting a date for new talks and reporting major progress, but no breakthrough, on an offer of special autono

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Indonesia expects to reach a peace pact with rebels in Aceh province by mid-year, but will not grant any form of direct self-rule to the separatist organisat

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – For the past few weeks, M.

Jakarta – The customs agency, airport security and the Soekarno-Hatta Animal Quarantine office often work in cahoots with smugglers to bring protected animals out of the country, a sour

John Aglionby – Mohammed Yassin has trouble falling asleep at night.

All too frequently this nation has refused to come to terms with its past.

Abdul Khalik, Banda Aceh – Humanitarian volunteers are still finding corpses in Aceh, almost two months after the tsunami struck the stricken province, a relief worker says.

Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – Tricky details could trip up an apparent political breakthrough for Indonesia's rebellious Aceh province after rebels agreed to drop a demand for independence

Matthew Davies – Publicity about the tsunami relief effort in Indonesia's Aceh province has mostly depicted Indonesia's military (TNI) in an unprecedented favourable light.

[This letter was sent to Green Left Weekly for publication by Zely Ariane, the international affairs spokesperson of the Aceh solidarity group SEGERA.

Sunariah, Jakarta – Armed forces (TNI) chief General Endriartono Sutarto has question the desire by the leadership of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) for self-government, one of the pre-co

Palembang (South Sumatra) – Dozens of Palembang students protested on Tuesday against the central government's plan to raise fuel prices in the near future.

Gunawan Mashar, Jakarta – For the umpteenth time, on Wednesday February 23 students from the South Sulawesi provincial capital of Makassar have again hijacked fuel tankers.

[West Papua and Indonesia since Suharto – Independence, Autonomy or Chaos? By Professor Peter King. University of NSW Press, 2004. 240 pages, $40 (pb).]

A survey of 1,305 businesses and top managers of local and multinational firms here named Jakarta as the most corrupt city in the country.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – A number of international human rights observers have expressed their pessimism that offering amnesty for human rights violators would be effective in revealing

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – As Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhyono and several of his ministers were wooing investors in Singapore last week, the Indonesian affiliate of French oil

Rendi A.

The Bush administration is trying to convince the American Congress to restore some US military assistance to Indonesia.

Jakarta – An inter-ministerial work group is now investigating the existence of military businesses.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Outgoing Air Force Chief of Staff Marshall Chappy Hakim has suggested that the President consider a high ranking Air Force officer as the next commander in chie

Rescuers sifting through the debris of a garbage landslide in Indonesia say that any of the more than 100 missing who have not suffocated or been crushed to death have probably died of

Rendi A. Witular and Eva C.

Dili – East Timor will ask the United Nations Security Council to extend its peacekeeping mission in the fledgling nation, Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta said Tuesday.

The December 26 earthquake and tsunami disaster that devastated Indonesia's restive province of Aceh, killing 123,071 people, has strengthened the Acehnese people's sense of Indonesian

Jayapura – The number of people living with HIV/AIDS has reached an alarming level in the nation's easternmost province of Papua.

Indonesian prosecutors accused Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir of failing to prevent militants allegedly under his leadership from carrying out terror attacks, including the Bali bombing

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – International experts on truth and reconciliation commissions have expressed concerns about Indonesia's recently passed law on the establishment of such a commis

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – Two days of heavy rain forced over 50,000 residents in south Bandung to flee to safety on Monday as their houses were inundated by floodwaters up to three me

Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono denied on Monday reports that the government would again combine the Indonesia Military (TNI) and the National Police in an effort to boost

Jakarta – Indonesia's top intellectual and a longtime contender for the Nobel Literature prize believes that the influx of foreigners and aid money into tsunami-devastated Aceh could br

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Just like government officials, corruption watchdogs showed no surprise on Friday at the results of a survey placing Jakarta as the most corrupt city in the

Banda Aceh – Separatist rebels in tsunami-ravaged Aceh province exchanged gunfire with Indonesian soldiers escorting an aid convoy over the weekend, but no relief workers were injured,

Separatists from tsunami-hit Aceh province will demand a full withdrawal of the 50,000 Indonesian security forces from the region as part of a negotiated settlement to end the long-runn

Shawn Donnan, Calang (Aceh) – Almost two months after the Asian tsunamis, survivors in some of the hardest hit areas of Indonesia's Aceh province have begun rebuilding, turning to scave

A survey by Transparency International Indonesia (TII) has ranked Jakarta as the nation's most corrupt city.

The president is the supreme commander of the Indonesian armed forces. The 1945 Constitution – both in its amended and original forms – clearly stipulates such.

John Mcbeth (Straits Times, Asia News Network), Singapore – The recent oil strike by Australian-owned Santos off the coast of East Java and major untapped oil and gas deposits in ExxonM

Eva C.

Imanuddin Razak, Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Endriartono Sutarto's term in office has been extended twice.

Vaudine England – The lonely mosque, the last thing standing in the once-thriving seaside community of Lampuuk just west of Banda Aceh, now plays host to a huddle of tents.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Minister of Forestry Malam Sambat Kaban said on Friday he planned to meet with Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo

"This is a smuggler... ha... ha... He is a mafia [member]... ha... ha...," an unidentified man told undercover investigators.

"I don't care," has apparently become a catchphrase among government officials, following President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's example.