Jakarta – More than one thousand protesters from various non governmental organizations (NGOs), grouped into the newly-formed organization the Anti-Debt Coalition (KAU), staged on Wedne

Robert Go, Jakarta – Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji, the first senior Chinese leader to visit Jakarta since diplomatic ties resumed in 1990, yesterday announced a 40-million-yuan (S$

Jakarta – A coalition of Indonesian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on Thursday called on the country's main donors meeting here to determine their new aid pledge, to allow the go

Joanne Collins and Soraya Permatasari, Jakarta – International donors threw crisis-hit Indonesia a generous lifeline of $3.73 billion in aid on Thursday after one senior official bemoan

Jakarta – Jakarta will maintain the status quo on a local government's unilateral takeover of a major cement firm's affiliate, Home Minister Hari Sabarno said Thursday.

Jakarta – Indonesian police said on Wednesday they had arrested an Egyptian suspected of being the chief smuggler responsible for organising a refugee boat for illegal migrants which sa

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Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – The Ministry of Agriculture has accounted for Rp 125 million following its settlement of 35 financial-related irregularities valued at Rp 14.99 billio

Jakarta – Activists criticized on Tuesday the city administration's policy on the eviction of poor urban people, including those living along riverbanks here.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Dr Amien Rais, house speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), chastised legislators for skipping parts of their annual meeting and spending their days w

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Remember the old politicians who made a scene jostling and screaming at each other at the first-day meeting of the People's Consultative Assembly the other

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Lost in the recent hoopla of Parliament's approval of special autonomy for Irian Jaya is the fact that four of the separatist-inclined province's leaders rema

Jake Lloyd-Smith – Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri yesterday fired a parting shot as the Asean summit wound up, saying the US-led military action in Afghanistan should be sus

Bagja Hidayat, Jakarta – About a thousand farmers staged a rally at the legislature complex today, demanding the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Ad Hoc Committee, particularly MPR'

Jakarta – Indonesia's Attorney General's Office said on Tuesday it had formally asked the country's central bank to freeze assets of 28 companies and groups suspected of having links to

Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta – City officials complained on Monday over the interference of city councillors in their drafting of next year's city budget and alleged that they might be tempte

The rupiah plunged to near 11,000 per US dollar late on Monday, the lowest level during President Megawati Soekarnoputri's three-month-old administration.

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Kupang – Afghan and Iraqi asylum-seekers staying at an Indonesian police college here quietly protested Wednesday against their treatment by the Australian military and international re

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Three Islamic parties in Parliament are pushing for the inclusion of Islamic Syariah law in the Constitution to pave the way for its implementation in Indonesia

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The South Jakarta District Court sentenced on Monday former chief of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) Beddu Amang to two years imprisonment for his

Jakarta – A majority of factions in Indonesia's top assembly have agreed to hold the country's first ever direct presidential election in 2004, although the format is still being debate

Jakarta – The World Bank on Monday urged Indonesia to immediately defy provincial government attempts to take-over affiliates of state-owned cement producer Semen Gresik, warning the mo

Dean Yates, Jakarta – The World Bank said on Monday it expected Indonesia to "muddle through" its economic woes, adding the most urgent tasks were to ensure fiscal sustainability and im

Robert Garran – Indonesian troops attacking the East Timorese town of Balibo in October 1975 had good reason not to want five Australian-based journalists to escape, according to a new

Robert Go, Jakarta – Running low on rice and other staple goods, Indonesia is mulling over a barter programme with other Asean countries to trade for those commodities using locally pro

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – The news that Japan has authorised its troops to serve overseas, despite the country's pacifist constitution, sends shudders down the spine of Marta Pereira, an ag

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Indonesians will find out next week whether they will be able to vote directly for their choices of president and vice-president in the 2004 election, after the

Surabaya – Around 3,000 Muslims Friday demonstrated against US-led attacks on Afghanistan in Indonesia's second largest city.

Craig Skehan, Kelly Burke and AAP – Indonesia accused Australia of a failure in diplomacy over boat people yesterday, attacking Canberra's "unacceptable" practice of going public before

Sydney – Australian Prime Minister John Howard was forced to acknowledge Thursday the testiness of his country's relationship with Indonesia as a new diplomatic spat brewed.

Yemris Fointuna, Atambua – East Timorese refugees living in Atambua, East Nusa Tenggara, have destroyed some 700 hectares of protected forests in the regency of Belu for agricultural pu

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The Indonesian media, assessing President Megawati Sukarnoputri's first 100 days in office, said she did not live up to expectations and that her administration

Jakarta – Indonesians working abroad often become victims of extortion at the airport when they return home, a minister said in a newspaper report Wednesday, vowing to replace the relev

Jakarta – Central Bank Governor Sjahril Sabirin was convicted of fraud for his role in allowing an illegal payment to PT Bank Bali, said state prosecutor Jan Mere.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Former Defence Minister and military chief General Wiranto yesterday denied having misused 10 billion rupiah (S$1.7 million) from the state food logistics ag

Jakarta – Indonesia's state-owned electricity company, PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), is seeking foreign loans to avert a likely power shortage in the main islands of Java and Bali

United Nations – The Security Council decided Wednesday that the UN-administered territory of East Timor should become independent on May 20 next year.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – In line with the planned establishment of an independent East Timor early next year, Indonesia and East Timor have agreed to demilitarize their border areas to

Jakarta – Chief of the Udayana Military Command overseeing Bali, East and West Nusa Tenggara, Maj. Gen. Willem T.

Jakarta – The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Tuesday that it has helped repatriate 188,646 East Timorese refugees from Indonesia's West Timor in the past two years.

Banda Aceh – At least four people have been killed and three badly wounded in the latest violence to hit the restive Indonesian province of Aceh, the military and residents said Wednesd

John Aglionby, Jakarta – Megawati Sukarnoputri, Indonesia's president, marked 100 days in office yesterday with the threat of national disintegration, unchecked corruption and rapidly d

Jakarta – Indonesia's navy said on Wednesday it would not detain any asylum seekers found on boats in the country's waters and would even feed needy refugees before they resumed their j

Melbourne – Jakarta has failed to renew a key agreement that allowed Australian and Indonesian police to cooperate directly on stemming the flow of illegal immigrants to Australia, acco

Jakarta – Indonesia's cash-strapped state television station is to start carrying advertising for the first time since it was set up almost 40 years ago, a report said Wednesday.

Hong Kong – East Timor's future president Xanana Gusmao has recalled his fury when Australia refused to accept temporarily a handful of East Timorese students fleeing persecution in Ind

Setiyardi, Timor Lorosae – Floating hotels are a symbol of high living, an irony in stark contrast to widespread poverty in Timor Lorosae.

Disparity between the lifestyles of UNTAET personnel and the people of Timor Lorosae is sowing the seeds of social envy.

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Indonesian police on Monday forcibly evicted 100 Middle Eastern asylum seekers, some of them screaming hysterically, who had been holed up at the UN refugee