A former militia leader, who was sentenced to 10 years for his role in the 1999 East Timor violence, unfurled a giant Indonesian flag yesterday and called on the country to "rekindle" its nationalist spirit.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – Around 20 victims of the 1984 Tanjung Priok violence and their families asked the police to protect them from people they said were Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) soldiers.

Evi Mariani, Jakarta – The evictions of the city's poorest inhabitants continued on the second day of Ramadhan, despite promises from Governor Sutiyoso to stop the practices during the holy month.

Jayapura – XVII/Trikora Commander, Maj-Gen Nurdin Zainal MM, on Thursday (28 October) fulfilled his promise to meet with students and residents of Koteka in relation to the "Mulia Case" which resulted in several deaths.

Protests against US President George Bush were staged in several cities across Indonesia on October 21, one day ahead of his brief visit to Bali.

Jakarta – Masked attackers threw petrol bombs at homes in Bali on Monday in revenge for a deadly weekend clash between supporters of rival political parties, police and a party official said yesterday.

Several homes in Buleleng town almost went up in flames during the attacks, said detective Ngurah Darma.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – East Timor President Xanana Gusmao called on East Timor asylum seekers on Monday in the Indonesia's territory of Atambua here to return to their homeland in East Timor. But, his appeal was quickly rejected by the asylum seekers, who still fear intimidation back home.

In Indonesia, for the first time, military officers are being tried for human rights abuses during the regime of former President Suharto. The leader of Indonesia's special force, Kopassus, and 13 other officers have been accused of involvement in a massacre of political protestors in 1984.

Shawn Donnan – A.M. Fatwa, the deputy speaker ofIndonesia's parliament, has cause to be angry.

Atambua – The Indonesian military and police have agreed to deport 26 East Timorese who are seeking asylum at Belu police resort in Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara province.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Papua Hundreds of students and local Papuans staged a protest on Friday in Jayapura, to reject a plan by the General Elections Commission (KPU) to establish a provincial KPU (KPUD) in the soon to be established province of West Irian Jaya.

The continuing terror threat from Islamic radicals will overshadow Ramadan this year in Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-populated nation.

Top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono warned that the extremists who staged bombing attacks on the resort island of Bali and a Jakarta hotel are determined to strike again soon.

The Australian High Commissioner believes that the interim legal framework for Timor Sea petroleum development is a winner for East Timor (letters, October 20).

Zakki Hakim, Jakarta – The government has wasted a golden opportunity to resolve the secession issue in Aceh and Papua by failing to show goodwill to the people of the two resource-rich provinces, further complicating the matter, an expert said.

Jakarta – Indonesia's economy might enter a crucial period from April to September next year but its overall situation would not be significantly different from that of this year, an economic observer has said.

[The article below was published in a slightly abridged form in the Post's opinion pages.]

Max Lane – Prime Minister Mohummad Mahathir's speech at the Putra Jaya meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) articulated an anger against the West which is slowly but steadily accumulating, or re-accumulating, around the world.

Jayapura – Hundreds of Papuans, including students, launched a peaceful rally at the provincial legislative building on Friday to reject the establishment of West Irian Jaya province.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – The Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) is trying to sell the government's entire 52 percent stake in what was described last year as the "best Indonesian retail bank" by industry magazine The Asian Banker.

Lesley McCulloch, Kuala Lumpur – When her husband died in January, Faridah (not her real name) fled with her two-and- a-half-year-old son from the province of Aceh in Indonesia's northwest. The heart attack that killed her husband was, according to Faridah, brought on by the stress of being hounded by the Indonesian military.

Dili – An East Timorese court Thursday convicted and sentenced two former pro-Jakarta militiaman for murdering three independence supporters during the country's break from Indonesia in 1999.

Zakki Hakim, Jakarta – Alarmed by the increasing number of HIV/AIDS cases in Indonesia, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) has decided to revise its five-year program to include HIV/AIDS awareness in its campaigns.

Nani Farida, Banda Aceh – The Banda Aceh District Court sentenced on Tuesday three negotiators of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), including chief negotiator Sofyan Ibrahim Tiba, and women activist Cut Nurasyikin, to prison terms of between 11 years and 15 years.

Max Lane, Jakarta – On October 13, the Indonesian armed forces (TNI) announced the cancellation of a November 6 visit to Australian Defence Force facilities in Perth by a TNI delegation. The decision was in response to the Australian government's policy of vetting individual TNI participants for any joint military programs.

How to describe this urbane gentleman who so smoothly changed his image as Soeharto's loyal man to that of defender of democracy and development? What should we do to stop him from manipulating the proreform forces and prevent him from restoring the power of the New Order regime? Who should be blamed for this messy situation?

Kuta – Police dispersed a peaceful rally staged on Wednesday by some 50 students from the Association of Islamic Students (HMI) and the Muhammadiyah Students Association (IMM), who were protesting US President George W. Bush's three-hour visit here.

Jakarta – Although small in number, demonstrations opposing US President George Bush are continuing in Bali. Twenty demonstrators however, who were unable to break into the airport, were detained at the Siur intersection.

Jakarta – The small, but outspoken, Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) stated here on Wednesday that it was against the visit of US President George W. Bush to Indonesia.

Tantri Yuliandini and Kasparman Piliang, Bukittinggi – Certain cultural values Indonesians hold dearly encourage corruption, making it almost impossible to eradicate such practices, secretary general of Transparency International Indonesia Emmy Hafild said on Tuesday.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Golkar's presidential candidates presented their electoral platforms before some 500 party members from across the country on Tuesday, but analysts said their programs were too general and vague.

Zakki Hakim, Jakarta – Research suggests that 66.3 percent of people living in the city have yet to participate in political activities, especially those concerned with policy-making.

The results of a survey conducted by the Institute for Civil Society (INCIS) on Jakarta's socio-political participation were published in a book launched on Tuesday.

Jakarta - The involvement of the Armed Forces Intelligence Body (Badan Intelijen ABRI, BIA) and ABRI's Social and Political Unit (Sospol ABRI) in the takeover of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) headquarters on Jalan Diponegoro in Central Jakarta on July 27 1996(1), was revealed in a Central Jakarta State Court hearing on Tuesday October 21.

Sian Powell, Jakarta – The chief of Indonesia's special forces will make history tomorrow when his trial begins in Jakarta's central court.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Chairman of the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) Abdul Hakim Garuda Nusantara said on Tuesday that reconciliation would not stop the legal process against rights abusers or justify impunity.

Ben Packham, Melbourne – East Timorese trade unionists have ended the nation's first-ever strike. The country's aviation workers ended the two-week strike after reaching an interim agreement with air-freight company Timor Aviation Services.

Dili – East Timorese leaders, returning home from a European tour, expressed optimism Tuesday about continued European Union aid but said Dili's expectations should be "realistic".

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – The Trikora Military Command, which is responsible for military affairs in the troubled province of Papua, has dishonorably discharged at least 63 soldiers this year, mostly on account of desertion, an officer said here on Monday.

Protests against US President George W. Bush were staged in several cities across Indonesia on Tuesday, one day ahead of his brief visit to Bali.

In Jakarta, about 300 members of the Indonesian Muslim Students Action Front (KAMMI) rallied outside the US Embassy, torching pictures and an effigy of Bush, as well as American flags.

Banda Aceh – A court here on Tuesday handed a 13-year prison term to a negotiator for the separatist rebels of Aceh after convicting him of treason and planning acts of arson, murder and bombings.

Banda Aceh – A court here on Tuesday sentenced a female Aceh independence activist to 11 years imprisonment on charges of treason.

The Banda Aceh District Court said in its ruling Nur Asikin had been found guilty of committing an act of treason by her involvement in the struggle to separate Aceh from the unitary state of Republic of Indonesia.

Police have broken up a training session by Indonesia's official human rights commission in Aceh province, where the military is in its sixth month of a major offensive against separatist rebels.

Jakarta/Banda Aceh – Experts are calling for the revocation of martial law and the establishment of a transitional administration with full support from the central government in Nanggroe Aceh Darusalam in a bid to resolve the conflict there.

The steep decline in the number of bankruptcy lawsuits filed with the Commercial Court in Jakarta by no means indicates a strong recovery in the business sector but is simply further evidence of distrust by businesses in the bombed-out, corrupt court system, especially the bankruptcy regime.

The East Timor Action Network (ETAN) today urged President Bush to set the record straight and restrict all military assistance for the Indonesian military (TNI) when he visits Bali, Indonesia.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Golkar kicked off a preliminary convention last night to pick seven candidates to contest the party's presidential ticket next year.

Amid internal bickering which has significant implications for party unity, Golkar cadres are staring at several well-known contenders, including retired generals and business tycoons.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Golkar's convention deputy secretary Rully Chairul Azwar admitted on Monday that the decision to delay the selection of Golkar's sole candidate from February to April was taken to secure the chances of party chairman Akbar Tandjung.

Jakarta - Prospective presidential candidates who are involved in cases of corruption, collusion and nepotism (KKN), as well as those who have been involved in violations of human rights will not get support from the public.

Jakarta – Leaders of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah Islamic organizations, Hasyim Muzadi and Ahmad Syafii Maarif, in the meeting on Wednesday in Bali will tell US President George W. Bush that US policies in the Middle East, seen as favouring Israel, are one of the root causes of terror attacks in Asia.

Protests against the arrival of US President George W. Bush were held today in a number of Indonesian cities. Protests occurred in Solo, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Denpasar, Jakarta, Jember and Makassar. The protests were marked by US flags and posters of George Bush being burnt.

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – The government plans to revoke the status of 137 parties as corporate entities following their failure to pass the administrative screening conducted by the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights.

Letters giving notice of the revocation are being drafted by the ministry, which will ban the parties from staging political activities.

Jakarta – The approach of Christmas heightens the risk of terrorist attacks in Indonesia, said chief security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono yesterday.