Jakarta – A gang of unidentified men raided the Jakarta office of the Institute for Human Rights Study and Advocacy for West Papua (Els-Ham Papua Barat), a Papuan human rights group that has accused the military of involvement in an ambush that killed two Americans, its coordinator said here on Monday.

Jakarta – The Aceh provincial administration is to introduce caning as punishment in the upcoming fasting month Ramadhan for Muslims who do not carry out their religious obligations.

Aceh Ulema Consultative Assembly (MPU) chairman Muslim Ibrahim said on Saturday that caning would be meted out on Muslims in Aceh who took lunch during the fasting month.

Nani Farida and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Banda Aceh/Jakarta – Nearly 2,000 Acehnese gathered and prayed on Sunday for peace, ahead of the next set of talks between the government and the Aceh Separatist Movement (GAM).

Don Greenlees – Agents from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and Western diplomats believe Indonesian soldiers fabricated evidence after the August 31 shooting of two American and one Indonesian employee of the giant Freeport copper and gold mine in Papua.

Sidney Jones – In the aftermath of the 12 October bombing in Bali, Indonesians are convinced they have terrorists in their midst. They're just not sure who they are. Absurd, as it may seem, if talk shows and media commentaries are any indication, the most likely candidates in most Indonesians' minds are the US government and the Indonesian army. Al-Qaeda is a distant third.

Jakarta – Indonesian troops have shot dead six suspected rebels in Aceh a day after the government said it was ready to sign a truce with the province's separatist movement.

Apriadi Gunawan and Haidir Anwar Tanjung, Medan/Pekanbaru – A joint police-military team from Asahan, North Sumatra, killed two suspected rebels from the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and arrested four others in the waters off Asahan on Friday.

Ellen Nakashima and Alan Sipress, Jakarta – Police have told senior Indonesian military officials they believe Indonesian soldiers were responsible for the August 31 ambush near a copper and gold mine in Papua province that killed two Americans and an Indonesian, according to a senior military officer and a high-ranking intelligence officer.

Australia, with a nod from Washington, is rebuilding its relationship with Indonesia's military. Michael Millett, Marion Wilkinson and Matthew Moore look at the realpolitik behind the moves.

[A group of Indonesian journalist today said the Australian Government is incorrect in thinking Abu Bakar Bashir was the man responsible for the Kuta Beach bombings. The journalists say the Government has no proof to support these claims.]

Transcript:

Sonny Inbaraj, Melbourne (Inter Press Service) – Australia's move to restore links with Indonesia's feared special forces after the October 12 bombings in Bali is risky and short-sighted, say activists and analysts.

Darren Goodsir, Kuta – Investigators hunting the Bali bombers have unearthed credible links between the Kuta explosions, the closure last month of the Australian embassy in East Timor in a terrorist alert and the arrest of Jemaah Islamiah followers in Singapore in August over an alleged plot to attack key western targets.

Tony Sitathan – The recent bomb blasts in Bali have created what some experts describe as a "terrorism risk premium" not just to Indonesia but to all of Southeast Asia. Many economists warn of capital flight and low foreign investment.

Lisbon – The World Bank is studying, with a view to financing, a Portuguese publishing firm's proposal to produce 50,000 school books for use in East Timor's education system.

Banda Aceh – Some ten unidentified gunmen shot dead a middle-aged couple identified as Hasan Basri, 50, and his wife Rosmawati, 45, at their home in the Idi Rayeuk area of East Aceh district on Tuesday, the provincial military spokesman Major Zaenal Mutaqin confirmed here on Thursday.

Jakarta – Suspected gross human rights violator in East Timor, Eurico Guterres, said he had felt neither guilt nor sorrow over what he did in the region before it separated as an independent country.

Damon Kingsbury – Defence Minister Senator Robert Hill has said that in a bid to counter terrorism, Australia will restore its links with the Indonesian army's special forces, Kopassus, and strengthen intelligence links with the country.

This decision was disturbingly predictable and very short-sighted.

Matthew Moore, Mike Seccombe and Marian Wilkinson – The Indonesian Government has flatly rejected a suggestion by Australia's Defence Minister, Robert Hill, that Australian troops could pursue terrorist organisations in Indonesia.

Kuta – Indonesian Vice-President Hamzah Haz yesterday paid his first visit to the scene of the devastating Bali bombing and said the attackers aimed to break up the country and wreck its economy.

East Timor's Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta says his country is ready to ratify the Timor Sea Treaty and the Australian Government will owe his people an explanation if it decides to delay proceedings.

"Resuming military ties with Indonesia's notorious Kopassus special forces is not the answer to terrorism", said Max Lane, chairperson of Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific (ASAP).

John Pilger – What passing bells for these who die as cattle?" wrote the great First World War poet Wilfred Owen. His famous line might have been written for those who perish in today's secret wars and terrorist outrages.

[There are fears that the Indonesia is facing a period of increasing instability with worrying signs of tensions on the predominantly Catholic island of Flores.

Nani Farida, Jakarta/Banda Aceh – Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam Governor Abdullah Puteh said on Wednesday that the recommencement of a dialog between the government and the Free Aceh Movement would take place in Geneva on October 31 or November 1, with the Henry Dunant Center (HDC) mediating the peace talks.

Jakarta/Brussels – Widespread criticism of President Megawati's performance following the 12 October attacks in Bali means she is no longer a virtual certainty for re-election in 2004 but other political and security consequences remain question marks.

Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta – Dozens of street vendors who had been evicted from Pulogadung bus terminal in East Jakarta visited the City Council on Wednesday, asking for the legislators' help to force the city administration to allow them start trading again.

Jakarta – The fate of two demonstrators charged with insulting the President and Vice President by stomping on their pictures during a protest, is expected to be announced by the Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday.

I. Overview

Nearly two weeks after the Bali bombings, Indonesia is still in a state of shock, and it is difficult to assess the longer-term impact with any accuracy. This preliminary analysis suggests that:

Muhammad Nafik, Jakarta – Cracks in the wall the Golkar Party has built up around its embattled leader Akbar Tanjung are becoming increasingly evident, as support from party legislators for the demanded suspension of the convicted House of Representatives speaker gains momentum.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – A tripartite wage committee consisting of the city administration, employers and worker unions agreed on Monday to increase Jakarta's provincial minimum wage (UMP) by almost seven percent beginning in January, a senior businessman said on Tuesday.

[Made Pastika, the Indonesian police investigator mentioned by Robert Gelbard in our recent interview, is considered one of the best in the country. Until last week, he was focused on another terror attack. Two months ago, three teachers, two of them American, were gunned down in West Papua, Indonesia's easternmost province.

Max Lane, Jakarta – As of October 18, the Indonesian police investigating the terrorist bombing of the Sari night club on October 12 – which killed nearly 200 foreign tourists and Indonesian workers – have not announced any clear leads as to who carried out the attack.

Five more people including two soldiers and a separatist rebel have been killed in the Indonesian province of Aceh, the military and residents said.

Prosecutors are meanwhile studying police reports on two foreign women who have been detained in Aceh since September 11 to decide whether to charge them with visa violations, said Zainal Said of the Aceh prosecutor's office.

President Xanana Gusmao defended Wednesday a dynamic of national reconciliation rather than the setting up of an international court to try human rights abuses committed in East Timor.

James Balowski – The brutal murder of nearly 200 people in Indonesia's tourist resort of Kuta on the island of Bali on October 12 occurred as the US is attempting to pressure Jakarta into supporting its War on Terror. As part of this effort, Washington and Canberra are also attempting to re-engage with the Indonesian armed forces, the TNI.

Ambon – The Ambon District Court here on Monday sentenced 14 men for between two and five years for raising four flags of the outlawed South Maluku Republic in the provincial capital Ambon on April 25, Antara news agency reported. They are all members of the Maluku Sovereignty Front pro-independence movement.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Hundreds of East Timorese refugees sheltering in Kupang and Belu regencies have refused to be repatriated, pending the disbursement of Christmas bonuses promised by the Indonesian government.

Yeoh En-lai – Bali's famous beaches and spas are not the only places experiencing a dry spell. The island's other hallmark, its lush-green, terraced paddy fields, are also facing long-term damage from a six-month long drought.

Jakarta – About 1,000 street vendors were forcibly evicted from in and around the Pulo Gadung bus terminal in an operation involving around 2,200 officers from the East Jakarta public order agency, the police and the district military command on Sunday.

Nani Farida, Banda Aceh – A visiting director of the Geneva-based Henry Dunant Center (HDC), a mediator of peace talks between the Indonesian government and the secessionist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), criticized the government's decision to set a deadline for a dialog with the movement.

Jill Jolliffe, Balibo – The Victorian Government will establish a medical clinic in the East Timor house used by five Australian-based journalists whom Indonesian invaders killed.

The villagers of Balibo, where the journalists were killed in 1975, are enthusiastic about a State Government plan to build a memorial clinic there.

Results of Investigation into the attack on Freeport employees in Timika, Papua, finds corporation allows impunity of criminal acts by Indonesian armed forces

I. Introduction

Brief Historical Context of Papua, Indonesia and Freeport

Matthew Moore, Jakarta and Brendan Nicholson – Indonesia was last night bracing for demonstrations after police detained the radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir for questioning over alleged terrorist acts, the nation's second decisive step against terrorism in less than 24 hours.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Jakarta is now armed with tougher anti-terror decrees, but the question remains whether it can aim and pull the trigger at the right targets as it tries to prevent a repeat of the tragedy in Bali.

Lindsay Murdoch – For three months Omar al-Faruq refused to talk. But CIA interrogators at a US-held military base in the Afghan desert used sleep deprivation, isolation and other undisclosed techniques banned in the US to break the 37-year-old Muslim cleric they believed to be a key al Qaeda representative in South-East Asia.

On October 12, the world was shocked by the explosion at the Sari Club on Legian road in Kuta, Bali. It is appropriate that we feel great sorrow and condemn the bombing which killed almost 200 people. The perpetrators of the bombing must be arrested and tried as quickly as possible.

Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri has signed two emergency decrees to combat terrorism following the devastating Bali bombing, Justice Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra said today.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government is planning to build a nuclear power plant by the year 2015 at the latest to meet the country's mounting power needs.

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – Welcoming the agreement newly signed by law enforcers to combat mounting graft in the country, anticorruption activists called on Thursday for the establishment of a proper witness protection mechanism and of an independent commission to audit court decisions to support the fight against corruption.

Ibnu Mat Noor, Banda Aceh – Volunteers with the Indonesian Red Cross in Aceh have evacuated six casualties bearing gunshot wounds, including one state official, from four different locations in the strife-torn province, graphic evidence that violence is still rampant.