Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Armed assailants have attacked a remote village in Indonesia's strife-torn former Spice Islands, killing at least 34 people, injuring scores and setting buildings and places of worship ablaze, the military said yesterday.

Chris McCall, Jakarta – Radical students went on an anti-military rampage in Jakarta yesterday and police were ordered to stand aside for fear of unleashing worse violence.

Mark Dodd, Dili – The East Timor independence leader Mr Xanana Gusmao has threatened to boycott a key international donors' meeting in Portugal because of concerns over the UN's accountability with donor funds. The Lisbon donors' meeting scheduled for June 23 is expected to hear UN budget proposals for East Timor.

Jose Manuel Tesoro, Jakarta – For three months, the third floor of Indonesia's parliament complex resembled a workers' dormitory. Figures dozed on the dirty floor as clothes hung out to dry.

Jakarta – Indonesia's government will ask an independent commission to look into possible human-rights abuses by a major US mining company in West Papua province, a minister said.

Jakarta – Residents living near the private residence of former president Suharto and his family in Menteng are appealing to students to halt their protests in the upmarket neighbourhood.

Interviewed by The Jakarta Post separately, the neighbours urged the students to hold their protests at other sites, such as the Attorney-General's Office or the House of Representatives.

A respected reformist in President Wahid's cabinet, Laksamana Sukardi was controversially dismissed as minister for investment and state enterprises on April 24. Sukardi claims vested interests were behind his sacking and is demanding clarification from Gus Dur (as Wahid is popularly known). He recently gave his views on the matter to Asiaweek's Dewi Loveard.

Jakarta – A group of about fifty pro-integration East Timorese carried out a vicious attack today on the office of Solidamor in Jakarta.

Lesley McCulloch, Jakarta – It seems that with each day that passes criticism of Indonesia's President, Abdurrahman Wahid, gains momentum. No-one denies that many things are certainly different than they were 12 months ago – and that these changes have been for the better – but are they the changes that really matter?

Narendra Aggarwal - Indonesia's economy is expected to expand by about 3.5 per cent this year, driven by consumer demand, but it is too early to say if the same rate of growth will continue into next year, a top private sector economist has said.

Michael Vatikiotis, Jakarta – Is Indonesia's new-found stability coming apart? Events this past week certainly make it seem so. A resurgence of popular protest and social tension has caused nervousness in financial markets and sent the rupiah tumbling. Meanwhile, opposition to the six-month-old administration of President Abdurrahman Wahid is starting to flex its muscles.

Jakarta – An environment official says certain members of the Singapore government and business community have been paying bribes to local government officials at Batam to obtain permission to dump waste in waters off the industrial island.

Jakarta – Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Indonesia's best-known author, is to be honoured by France for his services to literature. The French embassy here said Friday that Pramoedya would be named a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres later this month.

Elizabeth Becker, Washington – The Clinton administration has quietly resumed military cooperation with Indonesia, senior defense officials said today, eight months after cutting off those ties following massacres in East Timor.

I Made Sentana, Bekasi – Yudi Winarno hasn't left work in almost a month. But he's not working overtime. Mr. Winarno is leading a sit-in of about 900 of the 1,500 workers at PT Sony Electronics Indonesia, a unit of Japan's Sony Corp.

Jakarta – Indonesian police fired teargas and beat up student protestors on Thursday near the house of former president Suharto, in the latest protest calling for him to be tried for corruption.

Banda Aceh – Security forces in the strife-torn province of Aceh broke ranks Thursday, fighting between police and members of the military claimed the lives of at least three police officers, witnesses said. The deaths put into further jeopardy the Indonesian province's impending cease-fire.

Ambon – A Muslim leader in this riot-hit eastern Indonesian city on Thursday warned the authorities against trying to expel a militant Muslim group blamed by many for the resurgence of sectarian violence here last week.

Jakarta – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid on Wednesday defended his policy of leniency towards the country's military generals and former leaders found guilty of gross misdeeds in the past.

Yang Razali Kassim - The general is not saying. But it's what he fails to say that confirms it: dissatisfaction is building up within the military against President Abdurrahman Wahid.

Revitriyoso Husodo and Sri Wahyuningsih of the People's Cultural Network (JAKER) in Indonesia spoke to Green Left Weekly's Julia Perkins during her recent visit there.

Desi Utomo – In Indonesia, racism is one of the most pressing problems facing society.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Indonesian Defence Minister Juwono Sudarsono said yesterday that the police and military did not have sufficient funding to deal with the sectarian and separatist violence that has dogged the country and spooked investors.

Jon Land – East Timorese asylum seeker and independence activist Naldo Rai is being forced by immigration authorities and government officials to leave Australia.

Along with around 1600 East Timorese asylum seekers, he faces an uncertain future.

Palu – Three people were killed and 15 others injured while scores of houses were set ablaze in fierce clashes that erupted in the town of Poso on Tuesday.

James Balowski – On May 12, the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) signed a three-month "peace accord" at a secret location in Geneva. A government statement said the cease-fire would come into effect on June 2 and would be reviewed regularly.

May Sair, Jakarta – Textile company Texmaco has black-listed 15 workers who led a strike at a factory here for better wages. It is refusing to allow the 15 to join the workers' negotiating team or to re-register for employment.

Bandung – Some 200 textile companies in the West Java chapter of the Indonesian Textile Association (API) threatened on Tuesday to stop production if the electricity rate hike was not revised within a week.

Paul Jacob – The Indonesian military's territorial affairs chief yesterday cautioned against any move towards a federal system, saying it could expose the country to "larger costs and higher risks".

Cameron W. Barr, Jakarta – For Abdurrahman Wahid, Indonesia's first democratically elected president, the honeymoon is over. At least by the political standards of mere mortals.

Jakarta – The city witnessed another wave of anti-Soeharto protests on Monday when over 1,200 university students from different groups rallied at the Presidential Palace, Attorney General's Office and near the residence of former president Soeharto.

Mark Dodd, Dili – Making the transformation from a revolutionary front to an orthodox political party is a lot harder than it seems for East Timor's biggest pro-independence group, Fretilin.

Susan Sim, Jakarta – The Indonesian military will begin a pilot project by the end of the year to phase out the territorial units that used to operate all over the country on behalf of political and other vested interests in Jakarta, the chief of its territorial affairs said yesterday.

Chris McCall, Jakarta – They catch the thief, beat him, often burn him alive. When the police arrive they find a corpse and no one knows who the killers are.

Michael Shari, Jakarta – What happens when a government puts its biggest bank up for sale and no one's much interested? Cacuk Sudarijanto doesn't even want to think about it. As head of Indonesia's vast debt cleanup operation, he's responsible for unloading Bank of Central Asia later this month.

Jakarta – On the eve of the second anniversary of Suharto's downfall, more than 500 students protested in front of the ex- dictator's home Saturday, demanding he be brought to trial for alleged corruption during 32 years in power.

Brendan Nicholson – Indonesia's President Abdurrahman Wahid plans to visit Australia in July – the first Indonesian leader to do so in 26 years.

As fresh violence erupts in Indonesia's North Maluku, an Australian-based mining firm trapped in a no-man's land has its own battle to fight. Lindsay Murdoch reports.

Islamic extremists have obtained a large cache of high-powered weapons they plan to use in a jihad, or holy war, on an isolated island in eastern Indonesia.

Ambon – Troops were issued with shoot-on-sight orders and three people were shot dead by snipers yesterday, as Christians called for UN troops to intervene in the escalating sectarian violence in Ambon. Meanwhile, trapped civilians tried to flee the troubled city.

Jakarta – In the words of a close advisor, Indonesian President Abdurrahman's Wahid's honeymoon, especially with the country's press, is "sliding away fast" after only six months in office.

Kwangju – A coalition is very possible between the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle (PDI-P) and the Golkar Party to build a force in the General Session of the MPR in August 2000. The chairperson of the People's Advisory Assembly (MPR) Amien Rais stated this because of the disappointment of the efficient work of Abdurrahman Wahid's government.

Jakarta – Graphic campaigns promoting condom use to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS have failed to change sexual behavior, an expert said.

Publisher of the Jakarta-based journal WartAIDS Chris W. Green told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday that "if there was a reason not to use condoms, then people will use that reason".

Jakarta – A government sweep in Tarakan, East Kalimantan last week allegedly found indications of involvement in the multi- billion dollar Borneo illegal timber trade of Malaysian military elements and timber companies, Forestry and Plantations Ministry secretary general Suripto said.

Chris McCall and Agencies – Activists in Aceh yesterday urged Jakarta to set up a full human rights inquiry into abuses in the province if it wants a de facto ceasefire with separatist rebels to work.

Jakarta – Two international human rights bodies yesterday dismissed as "seriously flawed" the just-concluded trial of 24 Indonesian soldiers and a civilian for a massacre in Aceh province, saying it had missed the real culprits in the slaughter.

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Former Indonesian military chief General Wiranto was grilled for more than seven hours on Tuesday by the Attorney-General's Office over his allegedly complicity in the devastation of newly-free East Timor last September.

Jakarta – Two years after former Indonesian president Suharto was ousted from office, large parts of the industrial empire that was forged by his family are still very much in business.

Jakarta – Some 150 Indonesian reporters accredited to the presidential palace went on strike yesterday to protest against shrinking access to information there.

The boycott followed the expulsion by presidential guards of journalists covering the arrival of ministers in the front yard of the Bina Graha, the office of President Abdurrahman Wahid, said one of the reporters.

Chris McCall, Jakarta – People in Aceh have reacted coldly to the jailing of 24 soldiers and their civilian informant over the massacre of 57 people at a school last July, saying it is just window dressing.

Chris McCall – Top Indonesian human rights activists heaped scorn on yesterday's convictions in Aceh, saying they set a bad precedent for future human rights trials over a host of unsettled cases from the past.