Jakarta – Indonesia would have to cut energy subsidies at the beginning of next year despite probable protests unless oil prices retreat, Vice-President Jusuf Kalla said on yesterday.

Jakarta – After months of speculation, the new government confirmed on Thursday it would reduce the fuel subsidy for next year, making a hike in domestic fuel prices in the near future inevitable.

Jakarta – Bank lending this year is expected to grow by more than 20 percent, partly driven a by steady but slow improvement in the domestic business climate, Bank Indonesia deputy governor Maman H. Sumantri says.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Despite the general rejection of violent acts carried out in the name of Islam, a large percentage of Indonesians were not tolerant toward people of different faiths, a survey revealed on Thursday.

Jakarta – The Central Jakarta administration will evict hundreds of street vendors from Jl. Kramat Raya and Jl. Salemba soon after the Idul Fitri holiday.

The administration officials have informed the vendors about the plan and advised them to move, the city administration's official news portal Beritajakarta.com reported on Thursday.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – Fearing a massive influx of migrants after the Idul Fitri holiday, Governor Sutiyoso again warned would-be job seekers against coming to the city.

A Dutch autopsy has found that arsenic poisoning killed a high-profile Indonesian human rights campaigner on a flight to Amsterdam two months ago.

The victim's group, Tapol, claimed the man was murdered. It joined the Dutch Foreign Office in calling for a high-level criminal inquiry into his death.

Jayapura – Papuan rebels went on a rampage in Puncak Jaya regency causing Rp 19 billion in damages, a top government official said on Thursday.

The alleged rebels attacked and set fire to residential houses and government offices, said Elieser Renmaur, the regent of Puncak Jaya.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The Constitutional Court was established in 2003 to provide legal certainty in the face of conflicting laws, but its ruling on Papua's division on Thursday is likely to create more legal ambiguity in the country's easternmost province.

Oct. 4, 1999: Law No. 45/1999 issued to establish West Irian Jaya and Central Irian Jaya provinces, the regencies of Paniai, Mimika and Puncak Jaya, and the Sorong mayoralty. Jan. 1, 2001: Law No.

Pandaya, Jakarta – In recent years Indonesia has sadly been witnessing a wide variety of religious conflicts that have corroded the glue that keeps this multiethnic, multi-religious nation together.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – The Jakarta administration said on Wednesday it had locked up 6,943 people in a crackdown on homeless people, beggars, street urchins, sex workers and other members of the city's dispossessed from January to November.

During a similar operation last year, the city detained 2,300 people.

Jakarta – Two oil and gas firms plan to make new investments next year in what seems to be a positive development in the country's oil and gas sector, which has seen output declining due to a lack of investment.

Tiarma Siboro and Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – As the November 19 deadline for the end of the civil emergency draws near in the troubled province of Aceh, the new government is urged to return to an inclusive dialog with all representatives of the people.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – The Indonesian Government has barred all foreign journalists from the troubled provinces of Aceh and Papua, the first such ban for at least four years.

Jakarta – It is hoped that the government can resolve the conflict in Aceh peacefully in the lead up to the end of the period of civil emergency on November 18. Furthermore the government is being asked to reduce the state of civil emergency in Aceh to one of a civil authority.

Jakarta – Indonesia said yesterday its new Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono will soon visit the United States to lobby for an end to an arms embargo imposed over the Indonesian military's role in atrocities committed in the former East Timor.

Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said it would take place early next year at the latest.

Jon Afrizal, Jambi – Dozens of farmers in Tungkalulu district, West Tanjungjabung regency, Jambi province, ran amok on Wednesday at an oil palm plantation, destroying several security posts, police said. No injuries or casualties were reported in the incident.

Surabaya – The East Java chapter of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) will propose that the country's largest Muslim organization establish a new political party to accommodate the interests of its members.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Commissions of the House of Representatives held their first hearings on Wednesday – nearly a month after it went into session – seeming to indicate that the House had eased out of the rivalrous deadlock that left it virtually paralyzed.

Tony Hotland, Jakarta – A number of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) urged the government on Wednesday to immediately relocate people living near Buyat Bay in North Sulawesi following the discovery of high levels of heavy metal contamination by a government-sanctioned team.

Kurniawan Hari and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – At least Rp 1.35 billion (US$150,000) in taxpayers money will be wasted as the House of Representatives prepares to deliberate 36 of the 67 bills left over by their predecessors.

Jakarta – Indonesia plans to issue a new law to crack down on rampant smuggling which has hit commodity prices, Trade Minister Mari Pangestu said yesterday.

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – Foreign direct investment (FDI) approvals have declined by 11 percent this year as of October, as compared with the same period in 2003, the latest data from the Coordinating Investment Board (BKPM) showed on Wednesday.

East Timorese NGOs this week called on the US Congress to end all assistance to the Indonesian military and to work for justice for victims of past human rights violations.

Sixteen NGOs wrote that they are looking to Congress "to provide leadership by ending all assistance to the military which so damaged our country.

The saga over the massive corruption case at Bank BNI has taken a new turn this week with new allegations of bribery and extortion between the suspects and their investigators. One would have thought that since the return of the prime suspect Adrian Waworuntu, after he had fled abroad, it should have sped up the investigation and brought the case to a close once and for all.

Veronica Brooks, Canberra – East Timor's government must return to the negotiating table with more realistic expectations if a protracted maritime boundary dispute between Australia and the impoverished nation is to be resolved, Industry and Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane said Thursday.

Tapol is deeply shocked to learn that it has been confirmed Indonesia's foremost human rights activist, Munir, died as the result of foul play.

Ramidi, Jakarta – Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial) says the policy of implementing a state of civil emergency in Aceh has failed. The policy has only succeeded in creating a regime which is militaristic, corrupt and which has no respect for human rights and a system of democracy.

Meriam Debora, Jakarta – The United Worker Alliance (Aliansi Buruh Bersatu, ABB) says it has rejected the new provincial minimum wage (UMP) increase for Jakarta to 711,843 rupiah because the amount is less that the minimum cost of living in Jakarta which is as high as 759,953 rupiah per month.

Jakarta – The Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs, Widodo AS, has admitted that the operation to restore security in Aceh, as one of five programs which make up the integrated operation under the state of civil emergency, has not been able to fully overcome the problems of separatism in the region.

Jakarta – The former governor of East Timor, Abilio Jose Osorio Soares requested that the gross human rights abuse cases in East Timor be determined through a Truth and Reconciliation Commission [KKR]. "All Indonesia has to do now is to arrange it so that what occurred before the ad-hoc human rights laws came into existence would be dealt with through KKR.

Dear President Yudhoyono,

We write to congratulate you on your electoral victory and recent inauguration as the first president ever to be chosen directly by the Indonesian people. We wish you every success in the complex and important undertaking ahead of you.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – The Attorney General's Office is looking into the possibility of building new cases against the military officers widely believed to have been responsible for the atrocities that occurred before and after the East Timor referendum in 1999.

Neither the current East Timor government nor the international community has made a particularly high priority of bringing to justice those responsible for the human rights abuses perpetrated in 1999, when East Timor broke away from Indonesia.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Following the Supreme Court acquittal of former East Timor governor Abilio Soares from human rights violations, the prospect that other suspected abusers would be brought to justice has dimmed, as the Attorney General's Office (AGO) said on Monday it would not contest the decision.

Indonesia's Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is taking-on one of the toughest problems of his presidency – the long-running separatist conflicts in Aceh and Papua. Against his proposed reforms are many of the Parliament's major parties, which can block legislation; the Indonesian armed forces, and the people of both provinces, who need something more tangible than promises.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Golkar deputy leader Marwah Daud Ibrahim said on Monday that she was ready to challenge party leader Akbar Tandjung in the party's leadership election at its 7th national congress in Bali from December 15 to December 20.

Our society is so image conscious. We love the ceremony, the symbolism, the pageantry, but without grasping the substance. A chronic herding mentality molds standards of social behavior; custom is glorified without moral purpose and performed without conviction.

Jakarta – The North Jakarta administration plans to send squatters living on the riverbanks in its jurisdiction elsewhere, as it holds them responsible for annual floods in the city.

"We may clear the riverbanks after the Idul Fitri holiday," Mayor Effendi Anas said at City Hall on Monday, without mentioning an exact date. Idul Fitri is on November 14 and November 15.

Oxford, UK – The international campaign calling on Kofi Annan to set up an official United Nations review of the UN's conduct in the 1969 Act of "Free" Choice received a huge boost today when a recent UK Government Minister pledged his support to the campaign.

Nur Raihan, Banda aceh – The commander of the Iskandar Muda Territorial Military Command, Endang Suwarya, says that Aceh needs to remain under a state of civil emergency when the current period ends on November 18. Basically, the security situation which has begun to improve may deteriorate if the status is reduced.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The study of a joint team involving 14 government agencies has found indications that Buyat Bay in North Sulawesi has high levels of arsenic, prompting the government to warn residents around the bay not to consume water from wells and to reduce fish consumption.

Yenni Djahidin, Washington, D.C. – Indonesian Ambassador to United States, Soemadi D. M. Brotodiningrat followed the US elections closely. He spoke recently with The Jakarta Post correspondent Yenny Djahidin in Washington about the elections and the bilateral relation between the two countries. The following is the excerpts of ther interview.

Jakarta – TNI (armed forces) chief General Endriartono Sutarto says that placing TNI headquarters under the department of defense requires maturity on the part of the minister of defense in order that the TNI not be used as a tool of power.

Jephraim P Gundzik – Compared with other countries in Southeast Asia, economic performance has been disappointingly modest in Indonesia since the 1997 regional financial crisis. Overly tight fiscal policy courtesy of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has prevented any recovery of domestic investment, containing gross domestic product (GDP) growth.

In Indonesia, at least three people are dead, and as many as 20,000 may have been displaced, after raids in Puncak Jaya district in Papua province. Thousands of Papuans who fled the raids, allegedly by Kopassus Special Forces, are sheltering in the Highlands and badly in need of food. It's believed at least two people died when villagers were fired on from a helicopter.

Jakarta – Soaring oil prices raising government spending on the fuel subsidy, and coupled with the shortfall in a number of revenue targets, has left the government under intense pressure to avoid a wider-than-expected 2004 budget deficit.

Indonesia's president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is having a tough time fulfilling his electoral promises. He's facing a deadlock in the Parliament which is stopping him from implementing promised reforms. The next few weeks and months will be a key test for the president as he comes under increasing pressure from power-hungry factions.

Jakarta – Indonesia's parliament Speaker Agung Laksono has said that the two opposing coalitions in the legislature have agreed to put an end to their current deadlock, with the People's Coalition promising to attend plenary and commission meetings.