Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – An observer has criticized the government's decision to raise the budget allocations for the military and police without obliging them to promote financial tran

Jacqueline Koch, Jakarta – Last week's acquittals of six army commanders accused of inciting terror in East Timor graphically illustrate the distance Indonesia still has to travel befor

Kupang – Police and Army troops, backed by local civilians scuffled on Monday at Maumere, Sikka regency, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) on the island of Flores, leaving more than 10 people, i

La Remy and Muhammad Nafik, Palu/Jakarta – Central Sulawesi Police chief Brig. Gen.

Jakarta – A Christian separatist leader went on trial yesterday for allegedly plotting a rebellion in Indonesia's religiously divided Maluku islands.

[The Ad Hoc Human Rights Tribunal has acquitted six military and police officers charged with crimes against humanity for failing to prevent the bloodshed in East Timor in 1999.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Disillusioned Indonesians are paying tribute to one of the nation's forgotten heroes and founding fathers, the late Mohammad Hatta.

Jakarta – Economists said the government was being too optimistic with its economic growth target of 5 percent for next year, as stated in its 2003 state budget draft, as they argued th

M. Munab Islah Ahyani, Bandung – A demonstration by workers in Bandung [West Java] has resulted in a worker being shot.

Kenneth Roth, New York – Following the spate of recent business scandals in the United States, President George W.

Jakarta – Indonesia's national assembly chairman Amien Rais yesterday slammed Malaysia over what he called the "inhumane" caning of several illegal Indonesian migrant workers.

The influential chairman of Indonesia's national assembly says his chances of winning the presidency in 2004 have been greatly improved by the assembly's decision to hold direct electio

Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI)'s surrender of its seats in the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) has been applauded by many, but one analyst says the retreat is symbolic, no

A new upsurge in violence in the Poso region of Central Sulawesi is believed to be not only a conflict between Muslims and Christians but more a struggle between local elites.

Tommy Suharto is among more than 35,000 prisoners – almost half of all Indonesian inmates – who have had their sentences cut to mark the country's 57th independence day.

Efforts to stem or halt the rapid disappearance of Indonesia's rich and sprawling forests are stumbling in the face of weak law enforcement in this vast and corruption-prone archipelago

A thick haze caused by fires in Indonesia has disrupted internal air services and forced flight cancellations in Malaysia's Sarawak state on Borneo island, an airport official said.

Jakarta – The International Monetary Fund praised Indonesia's 2003 draft budget on Friday, describing it as "sound" and saying it made big headway in reducing the country's hefty debt b

Fitri Wulandari and Lela E. Madjiah, Jakarta – Indonesia is mobs burning alive criminals, would-be criminals and even the innocent – and taking great delight in doing so.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – A major shake-up of courts in Jakarta and other big cities is in the offing.

Muhammad Nafik, Jakarta – Poor service at public health centers in West Kalimantan has been blamed for the province's high mortality rate among babies and their mothers.

[The Indonesian Government is refusing to act on requests from Singapore, Malaysia and the US for one of its leading Islamic clerics to be arrrested because of his alleged links to t

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Jafaar Umar Thalib, who heads one of Indonesia's top militant groups that is allegedly involved in bloody sectarian clashes in the Malukus and Sulawesi, went

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – The government refuted on Wednesday a report which detailed the Indonesian Military's (TNI) involvement in establishing terrorist groups in the country,

Jane Perlez, Unukan – Bent with the strain of balancing 12 years' of belongings, Zainal, a migrant worker who had just been expelled from Malaysia, struggled to board a navy boat that w

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Hundreds of hoodlums, gambling bosses and prostitutes grouped under the The Poor People's Union (SKM) went on strike on Wednesday in Kupang, capital of East Nu

Jakarta/Palu – Armed assailants involved in attacks in the Central Sulawesi town of Poso remain a mystery, but the authorities' failure to capture them or uncover their identities and w

Stephanie Mann, Washington – The United States is moving toward restoring full military relations with Indonesia after a three-year hiatus.

Jerry Norton, Jakarta – Indonesia's military must stay the course on reforms toward civilian control and respect for human rights if it wants normal ties with the United States, the top

Steven Gutkin, Jakarta – Women in miniskirts gyrate in all-night discotheques, where designer drugs circulate as freely as alcohol. Friday, the Islamic sabbath, is a regular work day.

Jakarta – Indonesian prosecutors on Thursday accused the head of the best-known Muslim militant group of inciting hatred when he delivered a speech earlier this year in the strife-torn

Kuala Lumpur – Choking haze from forest fires in Indonesia has blanketed parts of Peninsular Malaysia, reducing visibility to as low as 1.5 km near the capital Kuala Lumpur, government

Robert Go, Jakarta – The Indonesian government will impose a quota on sand supply to Singapore from next month as part of efforts to block illegal sand mining, and at the same time, to

The youngest son of former strongman Suharto was transferred to an Indonesian prison island where he will serve his 15-year sentence alongside his father's golfing buddy.

Jakarta – Hundreds of students demonstrated outside the South Kalimantan provincial legislative assembly on Tuesday, demanding Governor HM Sjachriel Darham resign for his alleged involv

Bob Burton – The Australian government has defended its embassy officials in Jakarta who lobbied Indonesian security forces and officials to deal with "illegal miners" at an Australian-

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso yesterday refused to share the stage with other political hopefuls, including a becak or pedicab driver, by not turning up at a much-a

Rendi A.

Doctors who examined former Indonesian dictator Soeharto to determine whether he was fit to stand trial said yesterday he was suffering from a brain disease which left him barely able t

Jakarta – Air pollution has cost Indonesia billions of US dollars in economic losses, deputy minister for Technical Infrastructure of Environment Management of the State Ministry for En

Apriadi Gunawan, Jakarta – Some 800 local fishermen staged a demonstration at the North Sumatra legislative council on Monday to protest the recent abduction of fishermen and extortion,

Robert Go, Jakarta – The latest review team of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) left Jakarta on Sunday with some praises for Indonesia's economic reform progress.

Five people were killed and hundreds of houses were burned to the ground during an attack on three Christian villages in Indonesia's Central Sulawesi, residents and the military said.

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Tensions flared anew between Muslims and Christians in Indonesia's troubled region of Central Sulawesi after one person was found dead and three people were

Slobodan Lekic, Jakarta – Despite a $50 million US aid package and a push by Washington to renew military ties, a new report suggests Indonesia's military created the network now said t

Jakarta – Some 3000 workers belonging to Forum Lima (the Forum of Five) staged a protest on Sunday demanding that the House of Representatives (DPR) stop deliberating bills on worker pr

Jakarta – At least 100 residents from Susukan in Ciracas district, East Jakarta, protested on Sunday against PT Jayamix's plan to build a factory in the village.

What will generals do after the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) decided to remove military and police representatives from parliament?

John Aglionby, Jakarta – Indonesia's supreme legislature has expelled the once virtually omnipotent military from the national assemblies and surrendered its right to elect the presiden

A'an Suryana, Jakarta – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed on Saturday reviewing the country's economic situation and the implementation of economic reform measures here, a