Vaudine England – A week after vicious ethnic clashes broke out in Pontianak, the capital of Indonesia's West Kalimantan province, thousands of displaced Madurese are still too scared to leave seven refugee camps despite the lack of medical care and a shortage of water.

Banda Aceh – Three policemen and a civilian were killed as separatist rebels and Indonesian government forces clashed in the restive province of Aceh, police said Thursday.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Weeks of calls for President Abdurrahman Wahid to resign have resulted in affirmation of support from his Vice-President and signs that his staunchest critic, Amien Rais, is on a losing streak.

Budi Sugiharto/BI & GB, Jakarta – Following yesterday's demonstration by taxi drivers from Surabaya Taxi, around 200 Srikandi taxi drivers went on strike and demonstrated at the Surabaya Provincial Legislative Council Thursday over a new fee system set to be introduced today. Fees have been increased from Rp 77,000 (US$7.50) per day to Rp 111,000 (US$13) per day.

Jakarta – National Police spokesman Sr. Supt. Timbul Sianturi said on Wednesday that the police would soon question more former top government and civilian figures over the July 27, 1996 incident.

"Police will soon question those who attended a meeting prior to the July27, 1996 incident," Timbul told reporters at National Police Headquarters.

Kerry-Anne Walsh, Canberra – An investigation has been launched into allegations that Australian soldiers on duty in East Timor brutalised and tortured captured pro-Indonesian militia members.

NL& BS/Fitri & KR, Jakarta – Thousands of employees from 60 branches of the giant Hero supermarket chain across Java and Bali went on strike and rallied causing many stores across Jakarta to close to the public, Wednesday. The protesters poured into the Hero headquarters on Jl Gatot Subroto, South Jakarta, and many others also rallied at their respective Hero branches.

East Timorese solidarity activists in Australia have condemned federal government attempts to maintain control of large parts of East Timor's oil-rich seabeds, accusing it of being "still greedy for blood money".

Max Lane – On August 22, hundreds of members of the Riau Farmers Union demonstrated outside the Indonesian People's Bank in Pekanbaru demanding rural assistance loans so that they could buy seeds for the next harvest season.

Protesting community members in East Kalimantan were violently attacked by the Indonesian Mobile Police Brigade (BRIMOB) on October 8. Seven protesters were shot, several were seriously wounded, and two were declared missing. The violence ended a peaceful, 14-day blockade of UNOCAL's Tanjung Santan oil refinery.

Jakarta – A pro-independence leader Wednesday ordered his supporters in Indonesia's easternmost province of Irian Jaya to ignore a police order to vacate a building and lower a separatist flag flown there, a report said.

Jakarta – Tension between Indonesia's two main Muslim organizations heightened Wednesday with thousands of supporters of President Abdurrahman Wahid threatening their rivals with violence if its chairman seeks to unseat the president in mid-term.

Jakarta – Mines and Energy Minister, Purnomo Yusgiantoro, yesterday said that despite the grant of regional autonomy, oil and gas industry operations will still be controlled by the central government, although other aspects of the mining sector may be handed over to the regions.

Indonesia: An Eyewitness Account By Michael Maher Viking, Penguin Books 274pp. $30

Review by Pip Hinman – "Suharto had promised to build foundations that would secure Indonesia's future. Instead, he bequeathed his people a house of cards".

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Indonesia's dangerous flirtation with anti-Americanism is gathering pace in the wake of fresh threats to American tourists and the decision by the US Embassy in Jakarta to stay closed until at least tomorrow.

Calvin Sims, Jakarta – Relations between the United States and Indonesia have deteriorated rapidly after a series of high-profile disputes between the American ambassador and officials and lawmakers, who have accused the US of meddling.

Jakarta – The Indonesian rupiah plunged to its lowest level of the year Tuesday, prompting the government to promise further central bank intervention this week to prop up the ailing currency.

The rupiah touched a 10-month intra-day low of 9,500 to the dollar before staging a slight technical rebound to 9,350-9,380 by late afternoon. It closed Monday at 9,385-9,425.

Jakarta – An Indonesian parliamentary committee investigating financial scandals allegedly linked to President Abdurrahman Wahid was accused by a sacked member on Monday of working to bring down the embattled president, reports said.

Vaudine England – Attacks by men in Muslim garb wielding staves inside Jakarta nightclubs and bars – and last week at City Hall – are unlikely to happen again, according to a senior policeman.

Hamish Mcdonald, Tarawa, Kiribati – Pacific nations – including Australia – have given secessionists in Indonesia's West Papua province an important win with a formal statement of concern about bloodshed in the territory.

Jakarta – State-owned insurance company PT Jamsostek called on labor unions to help promote the 1992 law on social security programs for workers, saying the way the government enforces the law is not effective enough.

Banda Aceh – At least seven bodies were found, one of them of a policeman, in the separatist-plagued Indonesian province of Aceh, police and residents said Monday.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Months after an accord was signed between Aceh's separatist rebels and the Indonesian Government, the brutal war in the province has deepened.

Nurul Hidayati/BI, Jakarta – Despite the political instability and the ongoing conflicts that threatened the integrity of Indonesia, the Youth's Pledge taken by inspiring youths during the Dutch colonization in 28th October 1928, still play a major role as an adherent in holding the country intact.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Already testy ties between Washington and Jakarta could suffer further strain following revelations yesterday of a naval incident in the waters around Maluku Islands last week involving two Indonesian warships and an American destroyer.

More than 250,000 Australians face paying up to $100 for a tourist visa to travel to Indonesia as relations between the countries take a new dip.

Chris McCall, Merauke – West Papuans will not let the separatist flag be brought down in the south even if their leaders agree, their regional chief says.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Beheadings and chopping attacks between indigenous Malays and migrant Madurese in the West Kalimantan city of Pontianak have left at least seven dead, prompting a curfew and shoot-to-kill orders for hundreds of police rushed in by Jakarta.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – The latest outbreak of ethnic violence which erupted this week in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, may spin out of control as police struggle to control ethnic-Malay gangs who yesterday beheaded several Madurese youths and continued to roam the streets.

Jakarta – A tense calm descended on the riot-torn city of Pontianak on Borneo island Saturday after three days of bloody ethnic clashes that killed at least 10 people, reports and the military said.

Jakarta – Indonesia's newly established State Officials Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN) has requested high salaries and luxury cars for its members, but the government is likely to turn the proposal down, a state minister said.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab yesterday played down death threats delivered to the US Ambassador to Indonesia, Robert Gelbard, the latest in a series of spats between the two countries.

Amy Chew, Ambon – It happened suddenly. A group of men armed with machetes and calling themselves Christians descended upon the small Ambon village in Indonesia's farflung Maluku islands. It was a Muslim village. Without hesitation Kojip, a community leader, stepped forward and offered his life in exchange for those of his family and friends.

It was a surprise for a small group of demonstrators marching near the home of former Indonesian President Suharto yesterday to demand that he be put on public trial. After years of brutal clashes in the streets, the police greeted them with a smile and a welcome banner, instead of the usual riot shields and tear gas.

Jakarta – Moody's Investors Service said Friday it had upgraded the debt and deposit ratings of eight Indonesian banks, reflecting improvements in their financial fundamentals and in Indonesia's external position. The deposit ratings of the eight banks were raised to Caa1, according to a Moody's statement received here.

Jakarta – At least five people were killed and four injured in renewed clashes between local Malays and settlers in the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan on the island of Borneo on Thursday, reports and the military said.

Pontianak – Indonesian riot police fired blanks to keep apart two feuding communities yesterday after a row erupted between locals and migrants in the western part of Borneo island.

By mid-afternoon, police in the West Kalimantan capital of Pontianak were stationed between local Malays and migrants from the island of Madura, off Java.

Jakarta – Indonesia has accused Australia's opposition party of interfering in its sovereignty following a call by the party's president for a self-determination ballot in Irian Jaya, a report said Thursday.

Chris McCall, Wamena – Separatist leaders in Irian Jaya'stense Baliem Valley say they are under police pressure to accept sole responsibility for bloody riots this month, but have so far resisted. Their claim came amid a military build-up in the valley ahead of December 1, the date Irian Jayans regard as their independence day.

Vaudine England – Four East Timorese militia leaders have sent a second letter to the United Nations, the Pope and governments pleading for international protection and accusing their colleagues in the Pro-Integration Armed Forces (PPI) of threatening their lives.

New Zealand soldiers killed a third militiaman yesterday during a close-range gun battle in East Timor and shot at another in a separate skirmish. No New Zealand soldiers were injured in the fights, which took place three hours apart about 6km northeast of Suai, near the West Timor border.

Jakarta – Former East Timorese militia boss Eurico Guterres on Thursday accused Indonesia's attorney general of endangering his life by threatening to expel him to his former homeland.

Michael Vatikiotis – Friday, around 3pm, and a tannoy rudely blares from a wall inside the US embassy in Jakarta. "There is a large demonstration outside the embassy at this time," squawks the speaker. "There will be no entry or exit from the embassy ..." Trapped.

Romawaty Sinaga, Jakarta – Following a long battle, the militant Indonesian National Front for Workers Struggle (FNPBI) has finally won legal status as one of the country's 38 recognised unions.

Vaudine England, Surabaya – The first talks in months between East Timorese independence leaders and West Timor-based anti-independence groups took place in Surabaya yesterday to discuss ways to reconcile the former combatants. The informal meeting took almost two days to arrange but, once it happened, it looked like a family reunion.

Lindsay Murdoch, Semarang – Nersia Emaculada De Nercio sits on the edge of a bed in the dormitory of an orphanage she shares with dozens of other children in central Java. She clutches the tattered photographs that are now the only link she has with her family, somewhere hundreds of kilometres away in the squalid refugee camps of West Timor.

Chaidir Anwar Tanjung/GB, Jakarta – Caltex operations in Bengkalis, Riau, on Sumatra island, have been halted once again by disgruntled locals demanding employment at the oilfields. The situation seems to be deteriorating further as Caltex workers told the Riau Legislative Council that the company has discriminated against them in wage and contractual matters.

In August 1975, as the Suharto dictatorship was preparing to invade East Timor, Australia's ambassador to Indonesia, Richard Woolcott, sent a cable to Canberra urging compliance with Indonesia's plans to annex East Timor.

Jon Land – While little has been revealed about the discussions during the first formal round of negotiations between the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) and Australia on the future of the Timor Gap Treaty, the Australian government has made its position clear: it does not think that the terms of the treaty should change significantly (if at all) an

Jakarta – Indonesian forces shot dead three alleged rebels during armed clashes in the troubled province of Aceh in north Sumatra, as separatist representatives seek a team to probe the escalating violence there, reports said Wednesday.