Tim Dodd, Jakarta – Indonesia's tropical forests are responsible for one of the country's largest export sectors – wood, pulp and paper products worth $7.5 billion in 1998.
But the abundant forests which produce this money-spinner are fast disappearing under pressure from illegal clearing and short-sighted resource management.
The findings of both UN and Indonesian human rights investigations into the atrocities in East Timor are soon to be made public. Marian Wilkinson reports on the evidence so far.
Vaudine England, Jakarta – A leading activist says the plethora of human rights inquiries under way across Indonesia constitute a form of "human rights tourism" and they can still fall prey to clever military propaganda.
Darwin – A Dutch journalist shot dead in East Timor was probably killed by Indonesian troops, an Australian coroner said yesterday.
Northern Territory coroner Mr Greg Cavanagh was handing down his findings from an investigation into the killing of Mr Sander Robert Thoenes, 30, whose mutilated body was found in the East Timorese capital Dili on September 22.
Sangwon Suh and Dewi Loveard, Jakarta – Would the person who is really in charge of Indonesia please stand up? With rumors of a military coup swirling around in Jakarta, Muslim-Christian violence exploding in the outer regions and Islamists calling for a holy war, a casual observer might be forgiven for thinking that the situation in Indonesia is spinning out of control.
Jakarta – The Indonesian government faces an uphill task to stay on the road to recovery this year and will need loans of between 4.2 billion dollars and 4.7 billion dollars from its main donors to finance the 2000 budget, the World Bank said Friday.
Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid and Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Thursday called on supporters of her party to work to assure that Indonesia remains united.
Vaudine England, Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid has found a way to secure the retirement from the military of generals he appointed to his cabinet.
But critics say General Wiranto, now Co-ordinating Minister for Politics and Security, may yet evade prosecution over allegations of human rights abuses while he was armed forces chief.
Jakarta – Hundreds of students staged a noisy protest outside the office of the Caltex oil company in Riau, one of the country's richest provinces, the company said on Thursday.
PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia spokesman Poedyo Oetomo said that protesters were demanding a three-day suspension of oil production and urging Caltex employees to stage a walkout.
Banda Aceh – A new separatist group acting as an umbrella organization for several pro-independence movements in Aceh province is demanding both the military and the Free Aceh rebels agree to a cease-fire.
Kupang – The real losers in East Timor's tumultuous transition to independence from Indonesia, the pro-Jakarta militias and their supporters, met at a rundown hotel here Wednesday to decide what to do now.
Jakarta – Indonesia's illegal logging industry is backed by high-level corruption, an international environmental group charged here on Wednesday, as the World Bank said the country's commercial forests could be exhausted within 10-15 years.
Max Lane – The commander-in-chief of the Indonesian armed forces (TNI), Admiral Widodo, has met President Abdurrahman Wahid to assure him that the TNI is not planning a coup.
Tim Murphy – Students from West Papua occupied the Dutch embassy in Jakarta on January 17. They are demanding that Holland fulfil its promises to help West Papua achieve independence from Indonesia.
Karen Polglaze, Jakarta – New Indonesian laws could prevent the trial of military officers accused of orchestrating violence in East Timor that left hundreds dead and whole towns razed, an international rights body has warned.
Indonesia's militant trade union, the Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggle (FNPBI), on January 20 condemned the minister of finance Bambang Sudibyo's proposal to increase the salaries of senior politicians. The increases are contained in the plan for the national budget being discussed by parliament.
Tim Dodd, Jakarta – In a significant thawing of the relationship with Indonesia, President Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday withdrew his travel boycott on Australia and said he would like to make an official visit.
Dario Agnote – With a pack of Australian-made apricot jam and some bread she picked up from a heap of thrash, Margarita Pereira, a skinny 8-year-old, and her eight siblings hurry back home.
For the first time, Pereira said she and her brothers and sisters will be able to taste the dark-colored sandwich spread.
Associated Press in Dili – Gangs of youths wielding machetes and clubs rioted on Tuesday in Dili's main marketplace, seriously injuring at least four people, eyewitnesses said.
Slobodan Lekic, Sabang – Indonesia's president on Tuesday accused disgruntled army generals and radical Muslims of provoking violence that threatens his fledgling democratic government and the unity of the sprawling Southeast Asian nation.
John Martinkus, Dili – The Nobel Peace laureate Mr Jose Ramos Horta has blamed the Indonesian military for the militia border incursions that have seen Australian troops under fire in the past week.
Nisid Hajari – No one would mistake the calm of Ambon for peace. The capital of Maluku province – epicenter of a yearlong orgy of religious violence – has been carved up into exclusive "sectors" by its Muslim and Christian residents.
Jason Tedjasukmana, Ambon – A twisted pile of scrap metal from buildings gutted during a year of armed conflict lies near one of the many "borders" separating Ambon's warring Muslims and Christians. The mass of corrugated steel, door frames and pipes represents opportunity for scavengers who can sell the metal to traders in East Java.
Dili – East Timor will adopt the US dollar as its official currency under United Nations rule, a senior member of the National Council for Timorese Resistance (CNRT) told Reuters on Monday.
The decision has angered the CNRT, the main political organisation representing the Timorese, which lobbied strongly for the Portuguese escudo.
Banda Aceh – Preparations for a planned consultative congress on the future of the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh are nearing completion, participants said Monday on the eve of a visit by President Abdurrahman Wahid to the region.
"There has already been a lot of progress," said Amin Aziz, an academic who has been active in preparing the congress.
Cameron W. Barr, Ambon – On the morning of December 23, a group of Muslims murdered scores of Christians, including women and children, at a plywood factory on the Indonesian island of Buru, according to three Christian employees who offer credible evidence of having survived the attack.
Louise Williams, Mataram – The lobby of Lombok's expansive Senggigi Beach Hotel is bristling with machine guns. The verdant tropical gardens beyond are dotted with soldiers and idle staff, their Hawaiian-print uniforms still neatly pressed. The white sand beach, the resort's swimming pools, the rows of deck chairs all lie empty.
Jakarta – Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said here Monday that Jakarta and Canberra have agreed to look to the future and start rebuilding their relationship, dragged to an all-time low over the East Timor crisis.
Jakarta – Nine people were killed in the troubled Indonesian province of Aceh, days ahead of a planned trip by President Abdurrahman Wahid to try to stem violence amid a rising clamour for a referendum on self-rule.
Jakarta – Former Indonesian president Soeharto, facing accusations of corruption and self-enrichment on a vast scale, can expect to be amnestied – but not his family or cronies, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid was quoted as saying today.
Singapore – Thirteen people were injured when Indonesian police and military joined forces early on Sunday to disperse demonstrators at a resort on the Indonesian island of Bintan, the resort operator said.
Jakarta – Two environmentalists, including a British activist, were attacked and beaten by loggers in a national park in central Indonesia, a UK-based environmental group said Sunday.
Marian Wilkinson and Peter Cole-Adams – Australia would consider a request to hand over classified intelligence material to the Indonesian human rights inquiry investigating war crimes in Timor, the Foreign Minister, Mr Downer, said.
Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid has nominated reform of the legal and regulatory system as central to Indonesia's economic recovery and development.
In an address to the plenary session of the House of People's Representatives, delivered in conjunction with this week's budget, Mr Wahid said legal certainty would ensure justice was enforced.
Richard Galpin, Jakarta – Police in the Indonesian capital Jakarta have detained more than 100 men, some of them armed, as they tried to enter the city from the Moluccan Islands and West Timor.
Andrew Kilvert – Military authorities and political enforcers associated with the former Soeharto regime appear to be building up East Timor-style militias in the contested province of West Papua, human rights activists warned yesterday.
Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Indonesia's Government fears that provocateurs linked to elements of the military and the regime of the corrupt former president Soeharto have begun a campaign to provoke religious and separatist violence across the archipelago.
Linda Tenenbaum – Four months after the Australian-led military occupation of East Timor, the United Nations is establishing a colonial-style administration in the former Indonesian territory. Already, its callous indifference to the plight of the local population is fuelling growing resentment.
By Dewi Loveard, Jakarta – A local conflict rooted in long- simmering religious enmity. That is how Jakarta views the Muslim-Christian fighting in Ambon and other parts of the Maluku island chain. Scene of bitter sectarian strife over the past year, the Malukus have seen a fresh outbreak of violence in recent weeks.
Vaudine England in Jakarta and Agencies in Mataram – Sporadic looting and attacks on ethnic Chinese and Christians continued for a fourth day on the tourist island of Lombok yesterday.
But by afternoon a measure of calm had been restored by the hundreds of troops and police rushed to the island east of Bali. Tourists on Lombok continued to flee, however.
Associated Press – At least seven people have died in the latest round of violence in the strife-torn Aceh province, human rights activists said on Friday.
The head of the People's Crisis Centre in the Bireum region said five bodies were found on Thursday with gunshot wounds. He said two of the dead were student human rights activists.
Tim Dodd, Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid expects his first Budget, which tries to meet a multitude of conflicting economic challenges, to return Indonesia to pre-crisis growth levels of 6-7 percent within five years.
Associated Pressm, Washington – The United States gave Indonesia's fledgling democracy a vote of confidence on Thursday by substantially increasing aid to the world's fourth most populous nation.
Jakarta – Indonesia's new Government unveiled its first Budget yesterday with pledges to reform the bankrupt banking sector. But it shied from granting the country's independence- minded regions more control over their finances.
John Martinkus, Dili – Pro-Indonesian militia challenged the authority of Australian troops in the East Timorese enclave of Oecussi this morning, the fifth time in the past three days.
The clashes with the militia, including one this week in which militiamen were wounded and one reportedly killed, have baffled the Australian-led Interfet UN peacekeeping force.
Ray Brindal, Canberra – Australia and East Timor stand to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties if oil and natural gas projects in the zone of cooperation in the Timor Sea proceed, an East Timorese spokesman said Thursday.
Tensions are rising as the rebuilding of East Timor begins, Conor O'Clery writes from Dili.
Margot Cohen, Jakarta – It was a gut-wrenching evening for the Defenders of Islam.
Jakarta – The Indonesian government on Thursday asked parliament to approve a 10.5 percent rise in overall defence and security expenditure, but a 71.9 percent cut in development spending for the armed forces.
John Aglionby, Jakarta – The foreign office minister John Battle yesterday defended the resumption of British arms sales to Indonesia in spite of the rapidly escalating social unrest, a divided military and warnings from other countries.