Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – The central government has relented a little in its approach toward East Timorese refugees by postponing the planned closure of refugee camps in East Nusa Tenggara province until December this year.

Jane Perlezm Bukit Meranti – On a Friday, just before noon prayers in the simple wooden mosque, soldiers stormed into the village of Bukit Meranti, herded the people together and, according to two residents, marched them towards a neighbouring hamlet, torching houses as they went.

Dili – Three Indonesian ministers made a three hour visit to East Timor on Saturday, in an effort to enhance bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

Agus Maryono, Purwokerto – The Cilacap plant of the country's third largest cement producer PT Semen Cibinong recently dismissed 600 of its 900 temporary workers in the name of efficiency, an official said here on Monday.

Despite peace negotiations held in Geneva last month, the Indonesian armed forces (TNI) is continuing its offensive against the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in the north of Sumatra. The current operations are part of a brutal civil war that has raged for 26 years and cost the lives of at least 12,000 people.

Banda Aceh – At least six people, including two alleged members of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), were killed in separate incidents in the restive province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam over the weekend, reports said.

Bukit Meranti – In Aceh, the northernmost, natural gas-rich province of Indonesia, the guerrilla war by separatist guerrillas of the Free Aceh Movement has ebbed and flowed since 1976.

In its current phase, the Acehnese are on the defensive, pushed back from the urban centres now thick with patrolling soldiers and police.

Shefali Rekhi – Two visiting Indonesian lawmakers dismissed the problem of militancy and terrorism in their country as "not a big deal" yesterday.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – President Megawati Sukarnoputri is facing mounting calls from Indonesian legislators to reshuffle her 10-month-old Cabinet, which has been criticised for poor performance and a lack of teamwork.

Craig Skehan – East Timor has made a claim for all of the $30 billion Greater Sunrise gas field in the Timor Sea as part of a bid to pressure Australia into sensitive negotiations on maritime boundaries.

Australia is offering East Timor an 18 per cent stake in Greater Sunrise.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Amid mounting controversy over its political role, the Indonesian Military (TNI) said on Monday that it wanted to remain in the legislature until 2009, until it consolidated itself.

There are many sound reasons why the United States – and Australia – should resist wading back into the moral quagmire which military co-operation with the Indonesian armed forces represents.

Sydney – Australia and East Timor pledged to continue their close friendship Monday during East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao's first official visit abroad since his country became independent on May 20.

Canberra – Militiamen responsible for violence when East Timor voted for independence could not expect reconciliation without first facing justice, President Xanana Gusmao said on his first official overseas visit on Monday.

The leader of the world's newest nation said the re-integration of those seeking forgiveness was a major challenge for tiny, impoverished East Timor.

[East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao has made clear for the first time that former militia leaders returning from exile in West Timor will not be granted amnesty for their role in the violence surrounding the independence referendum in 1999.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – East Timorese leaders acceded on Friday to demands by former prointegration militia commander Joao da Silva Tavares and thousands of his followers, paving the way for them to return to the newly declared state of East Timor.

[The Timor Sea Agreement between Dili and Canberra, is due to be ratified by the East Timorese parliament soon. However, the looming ratification is causing serious unrest among MPs and other groups in East Timor, mainly over a perceived lack of consultation by Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri in negotiations for the treaty.]

East Timor considers the creation of the International Criminal Court a priority and will soon sign the UN convention establishing the tribunal, Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta said Monday.

Ramos Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said Dili had "no doubts" about the importance of setting up an international court and would add its support "without reservations".

Jakarta – Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) chairwoman Wardah Hafidz said on Saturday that the number of poor people without ID cards in the city could be five times greater than the 100,000 reported earlier by the Jakarta Bureau of Statistics.

"It must be far more than only 100,000. It could be five times higher," she said.

Jakarta – Local exporting companies are mostly optimistic that their export sales to the Asia-Pacific region and Europe will increase over the next 12 months, but they are somewhat less upbeat about the United States and African markets, according to a survey.

Nani Farida, Sabang Island Aceh – Amiruddin sits idly on a bench, casting his sight at the open sea in front of Sabang harbor. There was not a single ship docking at the harbor that day.

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandarlampung – A Lampung-based corruption watchdog has revealed a conspiracy between the Lampung provincial legislative council and a real estate developer in the construction of 26 houses for councillors.

Gay Alcorn, Washington – The White House is now confident that Congress will approve the resumption of military ties with Indonesia, according to a leading adviser to the Bush Administration.

Two Indonesian legislators have criticized Attorney General Muhammad Abdurachman for organizing a lavish wedding reception for his daughter while the country was combatting corruption and a crippling economic crisis.

Parliamentarians also called on the government to check whether such exhibition of wealth by an official ran counter to the law.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Despite his unpopularity and lacklustre performance, Jakarta's Governor Sutiyoso is likely to be picked by Parliament to head the city administration for a second term.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Indonesia and East Timor have identified a number of residual problems that they will attempt to resolve following the new country's independence which was finally declared on May 20, 2002.

Dili – Thirty-one officials from Indonesia met East Timorese leaders yesterday to push its former province to compensate Jakarta for assets left behind when it pulled out amid bloodshed in 1999 – a request that has been steadfastly rejected in the past.

Oslo – East Timorese Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta said on Friday the doors of his newly-independent country were open to pro-Jakarta militia members, now living in exile in Indonesia.

[Deliverance: The Inside Story of East Timor's Fight for Freedom. By Don Greenlees and Robert Garran, Allen & Unwin, 375pp, $35.]

Peter Coleman – Everyone made a "colossal miscalculation" in East Timor, according to this compelling and authoritative book – the Australian Government for a start.

Clare Black, Oslo – East Timor, a brand new nation barely one month old, hopes that the rebirth of its legendary gourmet coffee will bring some much-needed income to its people who are amongst the poorest in the world.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Police in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara, have detained five Acehnese people, allegedly members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), for having falsified identity cards and passports.

Banda Aceh – Security uncertainty in the NanggroeAceh Darussalam province has taken its victim again with anotherprovincial councillor of the United Development Party (PPP), Nasri Zamzam, 43, was shot to death on Thursday evening, a report said on Friday.

Five more people, including two separatist rebels, have been killed in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province, the military and residents said.

Soldiers shot dead a suspected member of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in a gunfight at Indrajaya in Pidie district on Friday, said local military chief Colonel Supartodi.

Kupang – Senior Indonesian government officials on Saturday expressed willingness to allow East Timorese policemen and officials to pursue higher education in Indonesia.

The agreement was reached during an official visit Saturday to East Timor by more than 30 senior Indonesian officials, including three ministers.

Don Greenlees, Jakarta – Indonesia is sending a delegation of three ministers to East Timor in a signal that it wants a co-operative relationship with its former possession, declared independent on May 20.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Indonesia's potential ambassadors perceive the job as a chance for a vacation and have little idea of how to promote the country overseas, a parliamentary commission claims.

Muhammad Nafik, Jakarta – Analysts predict that less than 10 political parties will be eligible to contest the 2004 general election should the proposed bill on general elections be enacted.

Jill Jolliffe – An incursion by Indonesian warships into East Timorese waters last month was a ploy by military hardliners to prevent President Megawati Sukarnoputri attending independence celebrations, according to East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

They are Dr Alkatiri's first comments on the incident, which cast a shadow over the May 20 celebrations.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta – Poverty remains a major problem in Jakarta because the city administration's programs fail to address its underlying causes, according to an activist.

Jakarta/Ambon – Skepticism loomed on Friday over the neutrality and capability of the newly established team to investigate human rights abuses in Maluku because it is run by the government, human rights activists said on Friday.

Jakarta – The International Financial Corporation (IFC), the investment arm of the World Bank, warned on Friday that the country's weak legal system was scaring away badly needed foreign investors, after the Central Jakarta Commercial Court declared Canada's Manulife Financial Corp's local insurance unit bankrupt.

Sanur – The Indonesian government is expected to complete the repatriation process of 10,000 families of refugees back to East Timor by August this year, in a bid to resolve thecomplex refugee problems and to ease the financial burden that the state has to shoulder for the past few years.

Muhammad Nafik, Jakarta – The bill on general elections, which provides that members of the military will be able to vote and be elected in the 2004 general election, is a good start but on its own is insufficient to take the military out of politics, say observers.

Banda Aceh – Two Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel, two alleged members of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) and three civilians died in armed conflict here on Wednesday and Thursday, a military officer said on Thursday.

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Imagine a squalid three-by-four-meter house under a large water pipe on the Western Flood Canal in Tanah Abang, Central Jakarta. Its walls consist of used plywood and rough concrete that supports the pipe. It has no kitchen or toilet.

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – There are many theories to explain why the government's various programs to eliminate poverty have been futile. In Jakarta, one problem is clear: Over 100,000 poor do not have ID cards, which make public services unavailable to them.

Jakarta – A fight broke on Thursday between North Jakarta public order officers and around 200 becak (pedicab) drivers in Sungai Bambu subdistrict in Tanjung Priok, North Jakarta.

The clash at midday left a car destroyed by fire and another car damaged, while three officers were injured.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Is that a rice cooker or a bomb in the shopping bag? Bomb paranoia has struck Jakarta and other major cities as residents are scared stiff at the sight of unattended bags, boxes and odd-looking items after the latest spate of explosions to rock the country.

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Mayor Abdillah of Medan, the North Sumatra capital, introduced new fares for public minivans on Thursday following a protest by hundreds of minivan drivers grouped under the Association of Medan Public Minivan Drivers/Owners (Kesper) earlier in the morning.

Bernie K. Moestafa, Jakarta – How do we explain the sight last Wednesday of the Indonesian delegation shopping in one of Rome's most expensive arcades while attending a world summit on hunger?

Bad timing maybe, but a note by prominent Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid that Indonesians were not serious about running the state, could be nearer to the truth.