Banda Aceh – At least 30 bombs or grenade blasts were heard around the main city in the restive province of Aceh in the run-up to Indonesia's Independence Day Friday, residents said.
The blasts cut power to the provincial capital Banda Aceh for some hours Thursday night and badly damaged four banks, an AFP reporter saw. One was burnt to the ground.
Mark Riley, New York – The Prime Minister has asked to meet with the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, as the UN comes under pressure to accelerate its withdrawal from East Timor and leave an even greater bill to Australia and its regional partners.
Rodney Joyce, Aiwo, Nauru – South Pacific island nation leaders on Friday backed Indonesian plans for autonomy in Irian Jaya rather than the independence Melanesian separatists are seeking for the restive province.
United Nations civil police in the Suai region of East Timor have detained two people suspected of committing infractions of election campaign rules, a UN source told Lusa on Friday.
Brussels – Two Belgians held hostage for over two months by a separatist group in the Papua New Guinea jungle have been released, the Belgian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.
Jakarta – House of Representatives (DPR) speaker Akbar Tandjung hailed on Wednesday the decision by President Megawati Soekarnoputri to appoint M.A. Rachman, a career attorney, as thenew attorney general.
Marianne Kearney – Anti-corruption campaigners and human-rights lawyers yesterday criticised President Megawati Sukarnoputri's choice of Attorney-General as a step back in the government's drive to tackle graft and rights abuses.
Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – President Megawati Sukarnoputri has disappointed observers in Jakarta by appointing as Attorney-General a low-key prosecutor who failed to pursue senior military officers over atrocities in East Timor.
Aout 200 ex-Falintil members on Tuesday staged a one-day sit-in at UNTAET headquarters to demand that the United Nations fulfill its promises to the former freedom fighters.
Domingos da Silva, spokesperson for the ex-Falintil said the group of freedom fighters that did not meet the grade to enter the Timor Lorosae Defense Forces (FDTL) were in dire straits.
Mark Dodd, Dili – With an army of street kids recruited to plaster seafront coconut trees with stickers, and a UN vehicle pressed into service blaring raucous political messages, the Timorese Nationalist Party (PNT) kicked off its election campaign this week.
Jakarta – Pro-independence leaders in Irian Jaya and Aceh were unmoved Thursday by President Megawati Sukarnoputri's apology for past suffering inflicted on the restive Indonesian provinces.
Jakarta – The owner of a car repair shop who is facing a possible death sentence for the bombing of the Jakarta Stock Exchange building told the court on Wednesday that he was a scapegoat and had been framed.
Craig Skehan, Nauru – A senior member of the Irian Jayan independence movement who slipped into Nauru for the annual gathering of Pacific island leaders despite an official ban, made an impassioned plea for regional support before being deported.
Jakarta – Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri Wednesday called for dialogue rather than violence to settle separatist pressures in Aceh and announced she would visit the restive province soon, officials said.
Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – The Indonesian navy is stepping up patrols in the Straits of Malacca to block supplies to separatist rebels in Aceh, while President Megawati Sukarnoputri pursues a political solution to the conflict by summoning Acehnese community leaders to Jakarta yesterday.
Michael Schuman – A deteriorating Indonesian economy could constrain new President Megawati Sukarnoputri's efforts to pursue much-needed reforms.
Eighty supporters of Solidarity for the Acehnese Peoples Movement, mostly non-Acehnese, held a protest in Jalan Thamrin, a central Jakarta thoroughfare, on August 7.
Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia will sell assets cheaply, if necessary, to meet state-budget targets and to conform to the prescriptions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said the country's new minister of state-owned enterprises.
Sam Frost – Oil giant ExxonMobil's operations in the Indonesian province of Aceh are to be examined by a US court, after 11 Acehnese filed a suit against the company, claiming to have suffered human rights abuses at the hands of military units acting on its behalf.
Jakarta – Responding to the increasing number of terrorist attacks in the country, Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has instructed all branches of the security forces to mobilize their intelligence potential to prevent further outrages.
Pip Hinman – It doesn't come as much surprise that PM John Howard has been so quick to visit Jakarta. Barely a day after the new Indonesian cabinet was announced, Howard was on his way to make a deal with the Sukarnoputri-military government.
Jakarta – Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri Wednesday swore in career prosecutor Muhammad Abdur Rahman as her new attorney general, a choice which left human rights advocates disappointed and sceptical.
Megawati said she had chosen someone from within the attorney general's office "to enhance the image of the office, which has recently been not too good."
Max Lane – Military generals and figures linked to the regime of former dictator Suharto have done well in the first cabinet of newly-elected President Megawati Sukarnoputri, which was announced on August 9.
Mark Dodd, Dili – A former member of the independence movement Fretilin, Dr Abilio Araujo, expelled for his links with Indonesia, has returned to East Timor after 26 years' self-imposed exile in Portugal to contest the election on August 30.
Max Lane – Militant trade union leader and former political prisoner Dita Sari has been awarded the Raymond Magsaysay Award, considered an Asian Nobel Prize, for being a "leader of new forces in Asia".The chairperson of the Indonesian National Front for Workers' Struggles, Dita Sari told the People's Democratic Party's August 8 issue of Our Tasks, that she was "very moved [by the aw
Max Lane – In moves which confirm activists' appraisals that her government represents a return to power of those allied with former dictator Suharto, the government of newly-elected president Megawati Sukarnoputri is escalating a targeted program of political arrests.
Medan – A court in the North Sumatran capital of Medan has jailed for 11 years a man found guilty of making and posting 14 bombs to churches and clergymen on Christmas Eve last year.
The sentence was lighter than the 20-year jail term sought by chief prosecutor Freddy Siregar.
[Source: RDP Antena 1 radio, Lisbon, in Portuguese. Excerpt from report by Portuguese radio on 14 August]
Jakarta – Some 74 becak (pedicab) drivers, formed a union here on Monday to fight for the right to peddle the streets of Jakarta. The decision was announced by drivers during a three-day congress held in a field opposite the Gapura Angkasa Building in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta, that started on Sunday.
Joe Leahy – Antonio, a farmer in the arid highlands south of East Timor's capital Dili, points at a distant ridgeline. That is where his family's traditional houses were before Indonesia invaded in 1975.
Unidentified assailants have thrown stones at a vehicle carrying Democratic Party (PD) supporters on a campaign tour of the Liquiga district west of the East Timorese capital.
The incident, which took place early Monday evening, left one car window smashed but no-one hurt and was only reported to police on Tuesday.
Jakarta – Hundreds of angry pedicab drivers set fire Tuesday to two Jakarta city council vehicles during an attempt to get them off the streets of the Indonesian capital, witnesses said.
The two pickup trucks were torched during an attempt by city officials to remove the pedicabs from main streets in the central Roxy and Karanganyar areas, one witness told AFP.
Jakarta – Human rights groups accused the the Indonesian army of hampering the hunt for the fugitive son of former dictator Suharto, as police interrogated his wife yesterday. Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra has eluded authorities since he was convicted of corruption last year and sentenced to 18 months in jail.
Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Australia has buried the hatchet with Indonesia's new government over East Timor, opening the way for renewed contact between the two countries' armed forces.
Jakarta – Australia has urged fellow members of the Pacific Forum not to debate independence for Indonesia's Irian Jaya province at its annual meeting this week, an Indonesian MP said Monday.
Jakarta – Former president Abdurrahman Wahid, familiarly known as Gus Dur, warned the new government against the arbitrary arrest of prodemocracy activists, saying it would sow hatred against the security authorities.
Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The Indonesian police have come under fire for their half-hearted attempts at arresting the fugitive son of former President Suharto. Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala allegedly ordered the murder of a senior judge and masterminded bombings in the capital.
[Source: Media Indonesia, Jakarta, August 13]
Jakarta – The State Intelligence Agency (BIN) will become an umbrella organization for all existing intelligence agencies, according to newly-appointed BIN head AM Hendropriyono.
Robert Go, Jakarta – President Megawati Sukarnoputri's efforts to re-establish stability in the regions will involve a temporary pulling back of Indonesia's decentralisation programme, a move that threatens to spark protests from the country's 350-plus bupatis, or local administrators.
Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia's big-bang decentralisation programme took effect eight months ago and gave wide-ranging powers over taxation, education and exploitation of resources to the country's bupatis.
Thousands of people made their way to Dili on Saturday to take part in the UDT mammoth campaign. UDT supporters in buses and trucks toured the city shouting slogans and waving victory signs before they reached the Democracy field to hear UDT leaders and candidates speak. At the Democracy Field, supporters and on-lookers were entertained by the popular rock band Vi-Almaa-X.
[Source: RDP Antena 1 radio, Lisbon, in Portuguese]
Jakarta – Australia's prime minister on Sunday became the first foreign leader to visit new Indonesian President Megawati, vowing to be a good mate as his troubled neighbour moves towards democracy.
Certain political parties have resorted to door knocking campaigns forcing people to vote for them. This was brought up at a dialogue session with the Democrat Party (PD) campaign manager who visited Aileu on Saturday.
Mark Dodd, Dili – His name is distinctive, and in coming months Australians may hear a lot more of the East Timorese independence leader LuOlo. The Department of Foreign Affairs certainly thinks so, and earlier this year he was flown to Canberra to meet ministry mandarins for talks and a chance for them to get to know the man and the policies he represents.
Jakarta – Indonesia will not agree to an international probe into the massacre of 31 people in strife-ridden Aceh province because it would infringe upon its sovereignty, Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said on Monday.
Jakarta – An investigation into the July 26, 2001 murder of Justice Syafiuddin Kartasasmita has revealed that fugitive Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra had once offered the judge billions of rupiah in return for ruling in favor of the convict in a 1996 corruption case.
Lynn Fredriksson – Recent reporting in Indonesia has predictably focused on expectations about newly appointed President Megawati Sukarnoputri.
Mark Dodd – An Australian-funded program teaching East Timorese to reject corruption hopes to make an impact on political parties competing in national elections this month for an 88-seat constituent assembly.
Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – While Indonesia's new Cabinet has won praise for its high percentage of seasoned professionals, it will have to move fast to prove its capability.