Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and A'an Suryana, Jakarta – As no single faction in the House of Representatives is truly fighting for labor rights, it is high time for Indonesian workers to unite and build a strong political party that could win influence in the decision making process in the country.

Jayapura – The Irian Jaya Provincial Police on Saturday handed over 19 pieces of evidence concerning the murder of pro-independence Papuan leader Dortheys Hiyo Eluway to the Military Police.

Three army officers have been detained as suspects in connection with the killing.

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta A daughter of former president Sukarno said on Sunday the political party she led would likely merge with three other parties with similar support bases.

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta The City Council's decision to establish several special committees could encourage corruption and collusion, activists warned on Saturday.

Jakarta (Translated by JSMP) – The Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) considers that the process of the Ad Hoc Human Rights trials that relate to the murders in East Timor in the period after the popular consultation are still falling well short of international standards.

Riyadi Suparno, Semarang – As recently as the early 1960s, wild birds could be heard singing, entertaining farmers on the slopes of Mount Merbabu, Central Java. And jungle fowl, deer, monkeys, even tigers were a common sight, wandering through nearby forests.

Tasikmalaya – A little-known outfit calling itself the Taleban Brigade has taken advantage of the new autonomy laws to get the authorities in this West Java city to issue edicts to enact its radical agenda.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – The Supreme Audit Body (BPK) chairman Satrio Budihardjo Joedono blamed Law No. 16/2001 on foundations on Sunday for preventing his office from auditing military foundations, but fell short of demanding the law be scrapped.

Jakarta – Security personnel in the country are reluctant to arrest or take legal action against their colleagues involved in brutality against journalists, according to two prominent press associations.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Several regional TV stations that have sprouted across Indonesia during the past year are now on the verge of collapse due to low ratings, inability to attract advertisements and high operational costs.

Berni K. Moestafa, Jakarta – For decades oil has driven the country's growth. But with the government cutting back on fuel subsidies, more industries are seeking cheaper energy alternatives, with gas leading the pack in both demand and supply.

Industries knew that the days of cheap fuels were over when the government last year began to peg fuel prices at market levels.

A lawyer for Tommy Suharto admitted that she had given over 600 dollars to witnesses who later changed their testimony in Tommy's murder and weapons trial.

Grace Nirang, Jakarta – The streets of Indonesia's strife-torn city of Ambon were deserted on Sunday after another day of violence but Islamic militants warned tensions could flare again following the arrest of their leader.

Don Greenlees, Jakarta – Three years after East Timor was laid waste by Indonesian military-sponsored militia, the country's President-elect, Xanana Gusmao, declared yesterday that justice for the perpetrators would take a back seat to social development in the priorities of the first independent East Timorese Government.

Indonesia's army chief has urged his countrymen to forget their traumatic past with East Timor and embrace its sovereignty, amid lingering bitterness about the territory's breakaway.

Andrew Quinn, San Francisco – California's Supreme Court, in an important free speech ruling, said on Thursday that sportswear giant Nike Inc. can be sued for false advertising over a publicity campaign that sought to dispel reports that Asian sweatshops are used to produce its famous footwear.

East Timor's president-elect Xanana Gusmao met Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri in Jakarta to personally invite her to attend his country's independence celebrations later this month.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Witnesses in their testimony on Thursday highlighted a clear link between civilian guards roaming East Timor in the run-up to 1999 ballot and military forces, saying local authorities established and recruited the paramilitary force.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI)/National Police faction in the House of Representatives (DPR) has taken the same position as the House's Commission I for political and security affairs, rejecting a visit by President Megawati Soekarnoputri to East Timor next month, according to reports.

Mark Baker – East Timorese Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta has ruled out any backing for separatist movements within Indonesia once the country achieves its independence next month.

[Daniel Casey was on hand to watch the world's newest country, and our neighbour, embark upon the road to democracy with its people tackling the ballot box for the very first time.]

Ambon – Blasts rocked the eastern Indonesian city of Ambon yesterday and gunshots rang out as hundreds of loyalists protested against the flying of balloon-borne flags on the 52nd anniversary of a separatist group.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Terrorism and piracy were on the agenda but a restoration of full military ties with the United States was uppermost among Indonesia's concerns, with its military chief calling for cooperation to be "reawakened".

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The Indonesian government has ordered several provinces to revoke "problematic" laws and regulations in a bid to reign in regions which are exercising too much power.

Dean Yates, Jakarta – In the past two months foreign investors have snapped up a bond by Indonesia's top mobile phone firm, a US investment fund paid good money for the country's biggest retail bank and creditors agreed to roll over more state debt.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – A witness in the human rights trial into the East Timor mayhem said on Wednesday that top state officials in Jakarta should have been held accountable for the violence that ravaged the former Indonesian province in 1999.

Jakarta – Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri will attend East Timor's landmark independence handover on May 20, despite strong opposition from MPs.

"Ms Mega is planning to attend. I repeat, Ms Mega is planning to be present" at the celebrations, top security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Tuesday, according to the state Antara news agency.

Dean Yates, Jakarta – Indonesian and US defense officials Thursday wrapped up security talks that covered issues from terrorism to piracy, marking a step forward in relations after military ties were slashed in 1999.

Jupriadi, Makassar – Thousands of students in the South Sulawesi capital of Makassar marched on Wednesday to commemorate the killing of three local students in a clash with security forces in 1996.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Armed Forces (TNI) has replaced its navy and air force chiefs in a routine military reshuffle, the head of the military announced yesterday.

Navy Chief of Staff Indroko Sastrowiryono was replaced by Admiral Bernard Kent Sondakh, currently inspector-general of the armed forces, Admiral Widodo Adisucipto told reporters at a press conference here.

Jakarta – Former Indonesian military chief Wiranto, who launched a solo album of classic Indonesian love songs last year, will soon provide the voice for a cartoon character.

General Wiranto will lend his voice to an elephant character in a local folk tale.

Bogor – About 100 alleged prostitutes were netted in a series of operations launched separately by the police and the local administration on Monday and Tuesday night following Saturday's attacks on a number of hotels and suspected brothels in Cipayung, part of the Puncak resort area.

Hundreds of loyalist Muslims staged a noisy protest in Indonesia's eastern city of Ambon against independence supporters flying flags attached to air balloons to mark the anniversary of a separatist group.

Annastashya Emmanuelle, Jakarta – The internal rift within the beleaguered United Development Party (PPP), mainly between the veterans and the newcomers, is widening as evidenced by fresh demands from the party's youth wing to move its congress up to 2003.

Kasparman, Padang – Some 7,000 temporarily employed teachers in West Sumatra are threatening to go on strike in protest against the provincial administration's alleged discriminatory recruitment policy and its neglect of their conditions of service.

Name: Jose Alexandre Gusmao
Nom-de-guerre: Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao
Date of Birth: 20 June 1946
Place of Birth: Manatuto, East Timor

General Kofi Annan recommended Tuesday that the Security Council approve a new UN mission for East Timor to last two years beyond its independence, slated for May 20. The proposed mandate, dubbed UN Mission to Support East Timor (UNMISET), would center on aiding good governance and assuring domestic and border security.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – A witness testified before the ongoing Human Rights Court on Tuesday that he was ordered by his superior to bury at least 25 bodies, including three Catholic priests, after a massacre at St. Ave Maria Church in Suai town, Covalima regency, East Timor on September 6, 1999.

Pip Hinman, Sydney – The news that two Acehnese activists sought refuge in the Finnish embassy in Jakarta on April 10 didn't surprise Erwanto, an Acehnese activist currently visiting Australia. "Aceh is like hell on Earth", he said. "Already this year more than 700 people have been killed, almost all of them civilians.

Jakarta – A soldier told Indonesia's new human rights court Tuesday he was asked by his commanding officer to transport and bury bodies from a church massacre in East Timor, among the worst of atrocities that followed a 1999 vote for independence..

Jason Tedjasukmana – Here's why Iwan Fals matters: because boy bands don't take on dictatorships. They don't stand up when everyone else is hunkering down. They don't put to song what others are afraid to put in print. Pop stars should give a damn-when they do, remarkable transformations are possible.

Pramoedya Ananta Toer – Grandmother Satima and mother Saidah, according to Pramoedya Ananta Toer, made him who he is.

Two women gave me life. Two women of one flesh and blood, but sundered by fate. Two women who then defied that fate. Two women who taught me that the individual matters, above anyone or anything else. Two women who are my heroes.

Phil Zabriskie – Who is Xanana Gusmao? A Portuguese journalist put that question to Gusmao himself shortly before he was captured by the Indonesian military in November 1992. The answer, a celebrated freedom fighter battling a brutal oppressor, seemed plain to most everyone – except to the freedom fighter himself.

Dili's interim government has approved a USD 75 million budget for East Timor's first year as an independent state.

The East Timor Action Network (ETAN) described Friday's UN Commission on Human Rights statement on East Timor as "a rotten birthday present for the soon-to-be independent nation."

The Chairperson's Statement on the Situation in Human Rights in East Timor was issued in Geneva today.

Stockholm – East Timor's new president, former guerrilla leader Xanana Gusmao, on Monday urged Aceh separatists fighting for independence from Indonesia to follow East Timor's example and pursue a peaceful solution.

Jakarta – The mother of an Indonesian suspected of links to international terrorism said Thursday she was "shocked" to hear he had been jailed for up to 12 years in the Philippines.

A mob of protestors including Islamic students torched and vandalised six suspected brothels and injured four people during a rampage at an Indonesian hill resort, police and reports said.

Following the adoption of a statement on East Timor by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (the Commission) in Geneva last Friday, Amnesty International expressed its disappointment that once again the Commission has succumbed to pressure from the Indonesian Government not to address either the grave human rights situation in Indonesia or its poor record on holding perpetr

Grace Nirang, Jakarta – Indonesian farmers may be fed up with the low prices they get for their coffee but young people in the world's fourth most populous country can't get enough of the trendy bean.

Farmers in the world's fourth largest producer desperately want out of coffee, but plans are brewing in the big cities for even more trendy cafes serving the stuff.