There are renewed calls for an international tribunal to re-investigate crimes committed in East Timor against independence supporters in 1999. A Jakarta tribunal has sentenced the last of 18 defendants to appear on charges related to a wave of militia violence backed by the Indonesian military.

Presenter/Interviewer: Sonya De Masi

Jakarta – Hundreds of university students grouped in the Greater Jakarta University Students' Executive Body (BEM) staged a rally in front of the parliament here Wednesday demanding the discontinuation of the ongoing annual People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) session.

An Indonesian court on Thursday found an Islamic militant called Amrozi guilty of the Bali bombing last October and sentenced him to death.

Indonesia, hit on Tuesday by its second high-profile terrorist bombing in less than a year, is acquiring a reputation as a soft target for international terrorism. The country's oil, large Muslim population and strategic location are all contributing factors. But as important as anything are the cumulative effects of chronic misgovernment.

At the Marriott Hotel bomb site in Jakarta, investigators have been sifting for clues into the attack, but suspicion has already fallen on regional terror network, Jemaah Islamiah because of a mounting series of parallels to the Bali bombings.

There are fears the Jakarta bombing has shaken the commitment of President Megawati Sukarnoputri to Indonesia's five year experiment with democracy. Two major terrorist strikes in twelve months has prompted a senior government minister to argue that some of Indonesia's new found civil liberties may have to be sacrificed.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The blasts that rocked the Indonesian capital came a day after the reopening of Paddy's bar which was devastated in the Bali bombings.

Now, Indonesians are wondering how they will pick up the pieces of an economy which had just begun to show signs of recovery from the earlier attack, the Iraq war and the Sars outbreak.

Indonesia's police chief linked the deadly bombing of a Jakarta hotel to the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror network and warned of fresh attacks by the al Qaeda-connected group.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Two weeks ago, I received a phone call from a long-standing and well-placed informant in Indonesia. He passed me critical information that the Jemaah Islamiah (JI) terrorist network was planning a major strike in Indonesia this month.

Former Indonesian military chief general Wiranto, who is accused by rights groups of war crimes in East Timor, said he would contest next year's presidential election on a ticket from the party of former dictator Soeharto.

"I'm ready to be the sixth president of Indonesia in 2004," Wiranto was quoted by the official Antara news agency as saying yesterday.

Palu – A powerful bomb exploded again on Thursday morning, in the sectarian conflict-torn city of Poso, Central Sulawesi province.

The explosion killed Bahtiar, alias Manto, 20, from Kayamanya and damaged buildings, Antara reported. The bomb exploded at 9am local time.

MPRS Decree Number XXV/1966 on the Dissolution of the Indonesian Communist Party and Prohibitions on Marxist, Leninist and Communist Teachings is still being maintained as law. However for the families who have been affected by this "collective sin" as a result of this decree, the issue is not one of the decree being revoked or not(1).

There seems to be little doubt that the Marriott hotel was targeted because it is US-owned and frequented by foreigners. Jakarta's American expatriates held their July-4th celebrations at the hotel, and it was a popular lunch spot for western businessmen. But will those same businessmen now reassess their commitment to Indonesia?

Presenter/Interviewer: Deborah Steele

[The following is a statement issued by Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific on August 6.]

Following a July 31 meeting in Jakarta between security and defence chiefs on both sides, the Australian government reiterated its support for closer military ties with the Indonesian armed forces (TNI), including the discredited Kopassus special forces.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – With Indonesia's power needs hovering on the critical, a mothballed specter from the unlamented Suharto past – a 1,320-megawatt coal-fired plant in central Java – is being resurrected along with more than two-score other Suharto-era plants that were halted when the aging dictator fell from power in 1998.

Jakarta – On July 28, the government of South Kalimantan (Borneo) and Indigenous Dayak commmunity leaders strongly denounced Placer Dome, a Vancouver- and Sydney-based mining company, for its plans for mining operations in one of the last protected tropical forests in Indonesia.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – President Megawati Soekarnoputri may breath a sigh of relieve, at least for the time being, as there are no prospects that she will be unseated by legislators in the same way that former president B.J. Habibie was unseated in 1999.

Jill Jolliffe and agencies, Jakarta – An army general was found guilty of crimes against humanity by an Indonesian court yesterday over bloodshed during East Timor's independence vote in 1999, ending a series of court cases that rights groups have largely branded a whitewash.

Dili – Australian banker Kirk McNamara has been cleared of petty theft charges. On Monday a Dili court dismissed accusations raised by the brother of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Despite a prosecution request for the acquittal of Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri, the ad hoc human rights tribunal decided on Tuesday to slap a three-year jail term on the military bigwig for his involvement in the 1999 mayhem in East Timor.

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – The deadly bomb blast at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta on Tuesday will undoubtedly hurt confidence in the an economy that had just started to recover as nervous investors and tourists shun the country, experts said.

Indonesian share prices and the rupiah currency plunged after a huge explosion in a luxury hotel in Jakarta's business district.

Jakarta stocks ended down 3.06 per cent yesterday with the composite index finishing at 488.53 points, its lowest close in more than two months.

Matthew Moore – There have been five explosions in Jakarta this year, only one of which police have solved – and that was a bomb exploded by a member of its own bomb squad.

And yet, despite all of these bombings, most of the news about Indonesia's campaign against its home-grown terrorist threat has been good. At least it was until yesterday.

Matthew Moore, in Jakarta, Sean Nicholls, Tom Allard and agencies – A massive lunchtime car bomb at a prestigious Jakarta hotel killed at least 14 people and wounded 150 yesterday in an attack that appeared to be aimed at foreigners.

The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) agreed to cut short its Annual Session from 10 days to seven in an attempt to save the state budget Rp 6 billion from the total allocation of Rp 20 billion . However, the Rp 2 billion-per-day event is still too expensive in the eyes of ordinary people.

Jim Lobe, Washington – International human rights groups have denounced as inadequate the three-year prison sentence announced Tuesday in Jakarta against the most senior military officer indicted by Indonesian prosecutors for serious abuses committed against East Timorese civilians in connection with the 1999 plebiscite on independence.

The United States said it was disappointed with the work of an Indonesian tribunal into atrocities in East Timor, after it jailed a convicted general for just three years – a sentence branded by activists here as "a joke."

Max Lane – The 2004 election campaign has started. There have been two important initiatives. The first relates to the major establishment parties, those with substantial numbers of MPs in the parliament. The second is the creation of the left-wing People's United Opposition Party (Partai Persatuan Oposisi Rakyat, or Popor).

Agus Maryono, Cilacap – Civil servants, including teachers here, say they have been forced to buy T-shirts bearing the picture of the local chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Fran Lukman.

Jakarta – A wealthy Indonesian businessman once implicated in a bank scandal that led to the downfall of former president B.J. Habibie jumped to his death from a hotel window yesterday.

Mr Marimutu Manimaren, 46, a commissioner of the troubled Indonesian conglomerate Texmaco, leapt from the 56th floor of Aston Hotel in downtown Jakarta, said police Major Kusdiantoro.

Washington – US-based East Timor activists on Tuesday branded a three-year jail term handed to an Indonesian general convicted of human rights violations as the territory struggled for independence as a "joke."

The condemnation came despite the fact that prosecutors had requested that Major General Adam Damiri be acquitted by the Jakarta human rights court.

Following is a brief look at some bombings in Indonesia since 1999. The list is by no means complete, as dozens of explosions occurred over the past three years in the Maluku islands and Central Sulawesi amid deadly religious clashes.

Nana Rukmana, Majalengka – The declining price of cloves has prompted farmers in Talaga and Baturajeg districts to uproot their clove trees, saying they could no longer afford to maintain their plantations .

Some of them have tried to switched to fruit growing in the hope of making good their losses on cloves.

When Paul Keating was prime minister, Australia and Indonesia signed an "agreement on maintaining security", a pact strong on symbolism but light on substance.

Nurul Hidayati, Jakarta – The presidential decree authorising a military emergency in Aceh is being challenged by the People's Lawyers Union (Serikat Pengacara Rakyat, SPR).

An expert on the genocide in Cambodia has drawn parallels with Indonesia's policies in East Timor. History Professor Ben Kiernan says both Cambodia and East Timor suffered civil war – then genocidal policies from 1975 to 1980 – and ultimately intervention by the United Nations.

Transcript:

Jakarta – As Indonesian authorities clamp down on pirated entertainment products, vendors' kiosks at a Jakarta shopping mall are forlornly empty. The sellers sit glum and idle.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) removed the only potential hurdle for a smooth Assembly session on Sunday by withdrawing its proposal to repeal a decree banning the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and the dissemination of communism, Marxism and Leninism teachings in the country.

The withdrawal of noted Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid from the presidential race by way of the Golkar convention has revealed the existing of two contending forces with different hidden political agendas within Golkar that were trying to manipulate Madjid for their own interests.

When Nurcholish Madjid announced last week that he was withdrawing from the Golkar convention that will be held to select its presidential candidate, he was not the only one who felt disgusted at the country's second largest party.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – In the end, the murky world of politics, where money, power and clout sometimes hold more sway than the merits of goals and projects, probably got to Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid.

And this could have influenced his decision to withdraw his bid to compete for Golkar's presidential nomination.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Past rights violators could take advantage of the planned Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a means to whitewash the past and keep their hands clean, rights activists warned on Saturday.

Getting rid of a bad image which has long been planted in the minds of society is not an easy matter. The polemic over the issue of the revoking of MPRS Decree Number XXV/1996 on the Dissolution of the Indonesian Communist Party and Prohibitions on Marxist, Leninist and Communist Teachings has yet to end.

Jill Jolliffe – An Australian businessman is facing six years' imprisonment in East Timor on petty theft charges laid after a complaint by the brother of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

When Indonesia's human rights court sits this week to close the book on 18 trials arising from the bloodshed that ravaged East Timor four-years-ago, one fact stands out – most of the suspects have been acquitted.

That outcome has already been heavily criticised by international and local human rights groups.

Jakarta – The economic policies taken by the administration of President Megawati Soekarnoputri have failed to push for the higher economic growth needed to create more jobs, economists say.

Jakarta – Thousands of dirty and noisy motorised rickshaws in Indonesia's capital may soon go the same way as their pedal-powered predecessors – rounded up and dumped into the Java Sea.

Theresia Sufa and Bambang Nurbianto, Bogor – Some 300 residents of Bojong village and surrounding areas in Bogor regency welcomed Jakarta Sanitary Agency head Selamat Limbong and entourage with a protest on Friday.

The villagers also threw stones at a waste treatment facility, breaking several windows. There were not injuries or arrests during the protest.

A US journalist arrested in June while reporting on a separatist war in Indonesia's Aceh province expects to be freed Sunday after being sentenced on immigration charges, his lawyer said.

Robert Go, Jakarta – A team dispatched by Indonesia's Parliament to review the progress of martial law operations in Aceh has returned to Jakarta bearing reports of possible violations by soldiers and government officials.