It's hardly surprising that rabid Muslim clerics and shortsighted nationalist professors are blaming the US for the horrendous Bali nightclub bombing.
But something is seriously wrong when Indonesia's leading business newspaper also suggests that foreign countries might have masterminded the carnage as part of a covert plot to take over the nation's rich natural resources.
Multa Fidrus, Tangerang – It is no longer a secret that many police and military officers are involved in illicit businesses in many cities and towns across the country, and that would apparently include Tangerang.
Greg Barton – The long hand of the military may have left its prints on the Kuta bomb. The shocking news from Bali probably couldn't get much worse. But the hard truth is, it just might. Most of the likely explanations for what happened point to systemic problems that are likely to escalate before they subside.
Louise Williams – Radical Islam has long played a bit part on the fringes of Indonesia's murky domestic political scene. The crucial question raised by the Bali bombings is whether the same forces of Islamic extremism have now been recruited to play a similarly destructive role in the international arena; as terrorists.
Kafil Yamin, Jakarta – Before the full glare of television cameras this month, Indonesian army chief Gen Ryamizard Ryacudu walked toward a line of 20 soldiers and tore one-by-one the badges of rank from their uniforms.
David Jenkins – In 1980, five Indonesian members of a so-called Komando Jihad (Holy War Command) hijacked a Garuda jet and forced it to fly to Bangkok. The plane was stormed by Indonesian commandos who killed four of the hijackers and the fifth man died in mysterious circumstances while being taken back to Jakarta.
[Business leaders have called for immediate action from the President to prove her leadership saying they fear social revolution if the government fails to unite to act decisively. The country's economy will be seriously set back by the bombings – with the tourism industry the first and most obvious casualty.]
Port Moresby - The Papua Council Presidium (PCP), on behalf of the people of West Papua, wishes to convey its sincere condolences and deepest sympathy to the families and relatives of the victims of the Saturday, 13th October 2002, terrorist bomb attacks at the tourist resorts in Kuta on the Indonesian island of Bali.
Jakarta – Golkar Party chairman Akbar Tandjung has been anticipating the worst in his appeal of the Central Jakarta District Court's verdict wherein he was sentenced to three years for corruption.
Kanis Dursin, Tamiang, East Aceh – It was only 7 a.m., but hundreds of students had already gathered on the Tamiang Islamic University campus, a two-hectare compound from where King Tengku Arifin ruled in the 19th century.
Banda Aceh – The deputy chairman of the ruling Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle's (PDI-P) Aceh chapter was killed after separatist rebels sprayed his car with bullets, military officials said.
Dean Yates, Bali – Bombs ripped through a packed nightspot on Indonesia's traditionally tranquil tourist island of Bali overnight, killing at least 182 people, many of them foreigners.
Irwan Firdaus – A car bomb destroyed a crowded nightclub on the tourist island of Bali Saturday, sparking a devastating inferno that killed at least 182 people and wounded 300 – many of them foreigners. Officials said it was the worst terrorist act in Indonesia's history.
Robert Go, Jakarta – A top rival of President Megawati Sukarnoputri has gone on the offensive, criticising the leadership and calling for a new man in the driver's seat.
The attacks come at a time when surveys have shown declining popularity ratings for the government.
Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – The antiterrorism bill needs to provide a clear definition of a terrorist act, valid information to arrest terrorists and fair treatment of suspected terrorists, experts said on Friday.
Banda Aceh – Two policemen and a soldier have been killed by separatist rebels in Indonesia's Aceh province, police have confirmed here on Friday.
Banda Aceh – The Banda Aceh Legal Aid Institute has expressed regret over a statement made by Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen Endriartono Sutarto, in which he accused an Acehnese of being behind the recent clash between the army and police in Binjai, North Sumatra.
Tony Sitathan – Irwin Goenawan graduated at the top in his class studying for magister manajeman, the Indonesian equivalent of a master of business administration (MBA) degree. He comes from a middle-class family.
Alan Sipress, Jakarta – The Bush administration has warned Indonesian officials that it will withdraw some diplomats from the country unless police step up efforts to investigate a grenade explosion outside of a US building last month, a senior Indonesian security official said today.
Prostitutes in Indonesia's second largest city, Surabaya, have vowed not to make themselves available to officials to protest at a ruling banning their activities during Ramadan, a newspaper reported yesterday.
Jakarta – Eighty four students who attacked a man they suspected of being an intelligence officer appeared at the Central Jakarta District Court on Thursday and were each ordered to pay a Rp 25,000 (US$2.8) fine or spend three days in police detention.
Banda Aceh – A territorial commander of the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), identified as Abu Arafah, alias Ibrahim, 33, was shot dead at an isolated village in Aceh province, Aceh Police spokesman Taufik Sutiyono said here on Thursday.
Banda Aceh – Indonesian police said on Friday they shot and killed a separatist commander in restive Aceh province but denied rebel allegations he'd been tortured to death.
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan issued a report on East Timor Thursday, stressing what he termed "the vital necessity" of continued UN aid for the world's youngest nation.
Robert Go, Jakarta – The newly-proposed National Security Council (DKN) provides President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government with a layer of protection from possible Islamic and nationalist backlash, if and when it steps up action against domestic terror threats.
Nightclub workers have rallied against a hardline Muslim group that attacked entertainment spots in Indonesia's capital last weekend.
About 700 people, one-third of them female nightclub workers, demonstrated Wednesday in the parking lot of the Jakarta police headquarters.
Lisbon – East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao says he would like to quit but will stay in the job to help his recently independent country grow. "If I could, I'd quit today," Gusmao said in an interview published Wednesday in daily paper Diario de Noticias.
The authorities in Indonesia's Aceh province have ruled out pursuing espionage charges against a Scottish woman detained for the past month, the prosecutor handling their case said.
"According to the chief, if we focus on spying it will be difficult to prove in court later," prosecutor Zainal Said told AFP Thursday.
Haze from forest and ground burning drifted back over Indonesia's Central Kalimantan province, ending the reprieve brought by several days of rain, the meteorology office said.
Bill Guerin – Al-Habib Muhammad Rizieq bin Hussein Syihab, leader of the pro-Suharto radical Muslim group FPI (Defenders of Islam), and his storm troopers may, after two years of apparent immunity from the process of law and order, be about to be brought to account.
Jim Lobe – A group of Indonesian human rights organizations is urging the United States Congress to maintain tough conditions on renewing US training of the Indonesian military (TNI) even as the administration of President George W. Bush is actively enlisting the TNI in Washington's "war on terrorism."
Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – Police attempts to impress the public on the seriousness of legal action against their own officers alleged to have committed crimes seem doomed to failure as many irregularities were found at an open hearing on Tuesday.
Matthew Moore, Jakarta – On the eve of his return home, Australia's ambassador to Indonesia, Ric Smith, has sought to rebut a series of "myths" which he believes are straining the relationship between the two countries.
Jakarta – Indonesia is increasingly serious about confronting apparent efforts by Al-Qaeda to establish a terrorist beachhead in the world's most populous Muslim nation, the US ambassador to Jakarta said on Tuesday.
Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – President Megawati Sukarnoputri has turned up the heat on Attorney-General M.A. Rachman by asking him to resign in the face of allegations of concealing his personal assets from state auditors.
But it is likely to take more than persuasion to make the controversial Attorney-General, who insisted he had done nothing wrong, vacate his coveted post.
Muhammad Nafik and Ainur R. Sophiaan, Jakarta/Surabaya – Legal Aid Institutes (LBH) across the country are on the brink of collapse as the once respected non-governmental organization is suffering from financial difficulties following a bitter internal rift.
Banda Aceh – Two soldiers and one teacher were killed in the latest round of violence in Aceh, provincial military spokesman Maj. Zaenal Mutaqin said here on Tuesday.
Nani Farida, Banda Aceh – Aceh police detectives are questioning 20 colleagues from the elite Mobile Brigade (Brimob) for their alleged role in an arson attack on 80 shophouses in Keude Seuneddon, North Aceh, some 57 kilometers east of Lhokseumawe, last month.
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Indonesia and East Timor agreed on Tuesday to convert Indonesian assets in East Timor, mostly corporate assets, into equity investment in the newly born state.
Concluding the first joint commission meeting on Tuesday, the delegations of both countries agreed to further discussions within the next six months.
Jakarta – A bomb exploded in Indonesia's volatile Ambon city as police tried to defuse it on Wednesday, wounding six people including two police officials.
Residents had found a suspicious package in a market place and called police, a police spokeswoman said.
Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – The inauguration of Sutiyoso and Fauzi Bowo as, respectively, Jakarta governor and deputy governor for the 2002 to 2007 term took place smoothly on Monday without the demonstrations that had originally been planned by a number of non-governmental organizations.
Jill Jolliffe, Dili – A leader of East Timor's parliamentary opposition has described an agreement regulating conditions for US troops in the territory as "an affront to East Timorese sovereignty".
Jakarta – Nearly 400 displaced East Timorese sheltering in West Timor have been forced to eat leaves for the past month as they cannot afford to buy rice, a government official says.
An East Timorese man, wounded in an attack on a refugee-packed compound in Dili in April 1999, told a court here that Indonesian soldiers were among the attackers.
Karen Polglaze, Canberra – Australian ratification of the Timor Gap Treaty could increase the risk of political instability in East Timor, a parliamentary committee was told today.
Indonesian-based Australian journalist John Martinkus explores the fine line between journalism and activism. John Martinkus has at times being accused of being an activist in his reports on the independence movement in East Timor, and more recently the Free Papua Movement (OPM) in the Indonesian province of Papua.
Kafil Yamin, Jakarta – Long stretches of parched paddy fields and vegetable farms lining the road are a testament to the drought that has hit Java and other parts of Indonesia. The arid landscape through Cikarang industrial estate, 60 kilometers south of Jakarta, is dotted with lamb and cattle eating dry grass here and there, the rivers having dried up long ago.
Jakarta – The government is determined to scrap the visa-free facility accorded to nationals of 48 countries in an effort to prevent more of its misuse, Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirajuda said on Monday.
Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Murmurs of discontent within President Megawati Sukarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party-Struggle (PDI-P) are growing louder by the day.
Last week, the party was rocked by allegations from within that some of its legislators had been accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars as bribes from various sources in the past three years.
Semarang – Because the price of tobacco has plummeted to only 5,000 rupiah per kilogram in the last period, the economic conditions for tobacco farmers in the central tobacco plantations in Central Java (Jateng) such as Wonosobo, Temanggung, Demak, and Kendal, is of increasing concern.