A militant Indonesian Islamic leader denied knowing reputed al-Qaeda kingpin Omar al-Faruq or being linked to terrorist acts in Indonesia.
"I don't understand any of this. I don't know him and only read about him in newspapers," Abu Bakar Ba'asyir told AFP by telephone from Central Java.
[A prominent Australian scientist, who spent many years doing research in Papua and in neighbouring Papua New Guinea, says he believes the killings last month at the US-owned copper and gold mine, Freeport, will be a turning point in already strained relations between the United States and the Indonesian military.
Jakarta – The Indonesian government and international agencies have agreed that as of December 31 this year, all East Timorese refugee camps in West Timor will be shut down.
Jakarta – At least 70 young people coming from across Aceh province gathered in Banda Aceh on Wednesday to seek a common understanding on government policy and a peaceful solution to the conflict in Aceh.
Nani Farida and Ibnu Mat Noor, Banda Aceh – Dozens of people were injured and more than 80 shophouses burned in the latest outbreak of violence in Aceh.
The Free Aceh Movement (GAM) spokesman for the Pasee region, Teungku Jamaika, said government security forces, particularly the elite Mobile Brigade (Brimob) police unit, were responsible.
Max Lane, Jakarta – Indonesian police used tear gas and water cannons to attempt to subdue a large demonstration outside the parliament of the Jakarta special province on September 11. Tens of thousands of protesters gathered to blockade the parliament building. They also set up check points at surrounding intersections to check vehicles heading towards the parliament.
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Convicted corrupter Akbar Tandjung has clearly lost the respect of fellow politicians as legislators frantically interrupted a plenary session he chaired on Tuesday, questioning his credibility to lead the meeting.
Tim Dodd, Jakarta – Security problems are worsening at the giant Freeport copper and gold mine in Indonesia's Papua province after soldiers guarding the facility discovered a bomb under a bridge on the mine's only access road on Saturday.
Jakarta – The British embassy in Indonesia is very concerned over complaints that police have mistreated a British woman detained since last week in restive Aceh province, a diplomat said on Wednesday.
John Martinkus – In April, 1000 pro-independence demonstrators met Ralph Boyce when the United States ambassador to Indonesia arrived in Jayapura, the West Papuan capital. They were mostly highlanders dressed in feathered head-dresses; some sported the traditional penis gourds.
Jakarta – Trikora Military Commander Maj. Gen. Mahidin Simbolon hinted on Tuesday that the Saturday attack on soldier Pvt. Edi Susanto in Timika-Tembagapura, Irian Jaya, might have involved staff of PT Freeport Indonesia.
Matthew Moore, Jakarta – A Scottish academic detained for a week by police in Indonesia's Aceh province said yesterday she had been beaten, deprived of sleep and threatened with a knife during her captivity.
Geoffrey Barker – East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao yesterday criticised the heavily armed Australian army presence in front of the Australian embassy in Dili and demanded that Australia co-ordinate this with the East Timor Government.
Mr Gusmao's criticism was published as the main front-page article in the Timor Post newspaper.
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1828: Dutch claim natives of western half of New Guinea as subjects of Netherlands' king.
1949: Dutch cede Dutch East Indies to Indonesian Republic, but retain West Papua. No, it's already ours, says Indonesia.
1950s: Anti-Dutch sentiment in Indonesia drives Dutch people out.
[A leading Indonesian analyst says it will take decades to push the Indonesian military out of Indonesian politics. The former foreign policy advisor to former President B.J. Habibie says getting proper civilian control over Indonesia's army will be crucial to the transition to democracy.
Robert Go, Jakarta – Mr T. Gumolo, who runs a diving outfit in North Sulawesi's famous Bunaken National Park, is supposed to pay around $2,000 in import duties for the thousands of dollars worth of scuba gear and components that he buys each year from abroad.
Keith Moor – East Timor is in danger of being infiltrated by crime gangs intent on using it as a stepping stone to Australia.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty said his force was working with the East Timorese Government to lessen the risks.
Dadan Wijaksana and Musthofid, Jakarta – Legislators recommended on Monday that the Indonesian Military (TNI) maintain the nation's dignity and sovereignty by seeking other sources of military aid to end dependency on the US and to curb the resulting US interference in Indonesia's affairs.
Munir, Jakarta – The first round of the ad hoc Human Rights Tribunal on the East Timor case ended in anticlimax as the suspects of crimes against humanity were mostly acquitted from all charges. The verdict cast by the first human rights court conducted in this republic's history carries a danger that we may not have taken seriously.
Dadan Wijaksana and Musthofid, Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto has denied charges that the military's foundations generated enough profit to cover 70 percent of the TNI's budget requirement.
Jakarta – Unidentified attackers raided three remote Christian villages in eastern Indonesia, killing two people, ransacking churches and homes and forcing thousands of people to flee, an official said on Tuesday.
Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) commander General Endriartono Sutarto denies the military has been masterminding violence in several regions to maintain its political power.
Tony Sitathan – Benny Winoto Salim was a businessman dealing with palm oil and its by-products in Medan, Sumatra. In 1997, he set up a chemical trading and distribution company in Jakarta dealing mainly with asphalt and later the supply of an oil-based additive from overseas.
Muhammad Nafik, Jakarta – United States Ambassador to Indonesia Ralph L. Boyce urged the Indonesian government on Monday to "do even more" in countering terrorism as no suspects linked to the al-Qaeda network had so far been arrested by security authorities here.
Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Hundreds of fishermen from several regencies in North Sumatra province staged a rally in front of the legislative building in Medan on Monday, demanding that the government ban the use of trawlers in the province's waters.
Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – Organized criminals, comprising government officials as well as military officers, were the likely culprits behind the widespread illegal logging in the country, an official said on Monday.
It also seemed likely that they were involved with an international network, according to the ministry's data.
Jakarta – Ending a 15-day whirlwind tour of six countries, Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri returned home on Sunday to face critics who say she is no different from her predecessor who liked to travel instead of dealing with problems at home.
Jakarta – Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea revealed here on Monday that a total of 66,367 accidents at the workplace in 2000 had left 4,142 workers dead, 20,970 seriously injured and permanently handicapped, and 87,390 unable to work.
Jakarta – Seven Indonesian soldiers will soon face a court martial for suspected involvement in last year's murder of a Papuan independence leader, a report said Tuesday.
Don Greenlees, Jakarta – The letter came to American-owned Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc and the Indonesian Government a few days after three of the miner's employees were gunned down at its operations in a remote and mountainous corner of Papua.
Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Gunmen have fired at the car of police investigating the murder of three teachers at an international school in the Indonesian province of Papua as evidence mounts of a campaign of intimidation aimed at thwarting the police inquiry.
Jakarta – It's a David versus Goliath tale, except that in this case, Goliath, the freshly re-elected Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, looks set to steamroll over his detractors.
Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Sadum, a semi-employed 55-year-old man, lives with his wife and five children in his five meter by seven meter semi-permanent home on disputed land on the Tembok Bolong coast, Penjaringan district, North Jakarta. To support his family, he works as a porter at Sunda Kelapa port, one kilometer from his house.
Keith Moor – Victorian officers attached to the United Nations found the graves of 24 massacre victims and will this month start exhuming the bodies.
They have identified the senior militia members responsible for torturing and killing the pro-independence Timorese villagers.
Canberra – Australia reopened its embassy in East Timor on Monday after it was closed following a threat against Australian interests in the fledgling nation but said travellers should remain on alert.
Jakarta – Unsure about the outcome of reconciliation attempts by former pro-Indonesia fighters, leaders of East Timorese people in squalid camps in Belu, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), have started urging refugees to participate in transmigration programs to other parts of the country.
Jakarta – The new government in East Timor would try to heal the psychological trauma suffered by many of its people in the 1999 violence when Indonesia withdrew from the territory, the country's health minister said.
Don Greenlees, Jakarta – A plan to train Indonesian military cadet officers at the Australian Defence Force Academy has been scuttled because of objections by senior commanders at Jakarta's armed forces headquarters.
Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Used garments smuggled in from all over the world are flooding the Indonesian market, riling local producers who are unable to compete with the extremely low-priced goods.
Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta – Activists demanded on Sunday the results of the gubernatorial election be suspended following the recent confession by a candidate who admitted paying Rp 200 million (US$22,222) to 40 councillors.
Washington – President George W. Bush on Monday talked about Iraq and the war on terrorism with Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri a week after the United States closed its Jakarta embassy, the White House said.
Berni K. Moestafa and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – As disgraced House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung continued to turn a deaf ear to the mounting calls for him to step down, representatives of dozens of legislators will submit on Monday their petition against him to the House's steering committee.
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has reminded the government of its unfinished investigations into a number of alleged crimes against humanity involving the state in Aceh.
Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Papua's police chief has cast serious doubt on the Indonesian military's claim that separatists were responsible for last month's shooting of 14 people at a remote US mine.
Audrey Young – Jose Ramos-Horta, East Timor's Foreign Minister, is everything his country is not: highly educated, sophisticated and stylish.
For 25 years he roamed the globe as an international spokesman for East Timorese independence, acquiring degrees, a doctorate and a Nobel Peace Prize on the way.
Banda Aceh – Two personnel of the Police Mobile Brigade were killed in a firefight with rebels in Seunuddon, North Aceh, some 300 kilometers east of Banda Aceh on Saturday, according to reliable sources. The bodies of the two policemen who have yet to be identified were taken to the Military Hospital in Lhokseumawe, hours after the firefight.
Banda Aceh – A woman teacher was executed in war-torn Aceh on Thursday, adding to the growing list of more than 50 teachers killed since 1998.
R.K. Nugroho, Jayapura – Police in Papua have so far questioned 21 Army soldiers who were on duty during the shooting at giant copper and gold mining company PT Freeport Indonesia compound in Timika on August 31, 2002 but have said the investigation remained inconclusive with no one yet held responsible for the incident.
Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Gunmen shot and wounded an Indonesian soldier yesterday in almost the same place that a fortnight ago gunmen killed three employees of a giant US mine in West Papua.
Alan Sipress and Ellen Nakashima, Jakarta – The body of a key suspect in the killing of two Americans and an Indonesian in the eastern province of Papua has been identified by his family as an informant for the Indonesian military's special forces, according to a human rights group helping in the police investigation.