Jakarta – Some 100 Indonesian workers Tuesday held a rally to mark the launch of their Digging and Construction Labor Union (IKAPERGABIN).
"Stop perpetuating poverty. Use conglomerates money to better our fate. Stop slavery and opression," said some posters carried by the workers who gathered at a park.
Lisbon – East Timor guerrilla chief Taur Matan Ruak said on Tuesday that Indonesia's offer of autonomy could be a basis for talks but offered no ultimate solution to the future of the disputed territory.
"I accept (autonomy) but not as a final solution," Matan Ruak said in an interview with Portuguese state radio RDP-Internacional from his mountain hideout in Timor.
Lisbon – A leader of East Timor's guerillas said Tuesday that the armed struggle for independence would continue because Indonesia has refused to negotiate an end to Jakarta's rule in the half-island territory.
Jakarta – Separate groups of farmers and workers demonstrated in the western Indonesian city of Medan on Tuesday over land appropriation and wages, the Suara Pembaruan evening daily said.
Jakarta – A prominent critic of former leader Suharto Monday urged the government of President B.J. Habibie to call on friendly foreign states to freeze all Suharto-linked assets in their countries.
Sydney – Indonesian opposition leader Amien Rais said Monday he could form a coalition government if elected to power but still insisted on major reforms, including a reduced political role for the army. Rais, leader of the National Mandate Party, told a student audience here he was confident President B.J. Habibie would stay in office long enough to call polls.
Jakarta – About 15,000 Moslem youths packed the Senayan Sports Hall on Sunday for the launching of the Jakarta chapter of the Justice Party, declaring readiness to contest the planned general election in May next year.
Bogor – An expert has expressed concern that the rood crisis and malnutrition affecting an untold number of babies in various Indonesian areas will lead to the birth of stupid generations in the future.
Jakarta – A group of university graduates in the troubled territory of East Timor have set up a forum advocating a referendum on self determination for the former Portuguese colony, reports said here Monday.
Jakarta – Indonesian forestry companies grouped under Masyarakat Perhutanan Indonesia will launch an investigation of an estimated $2.04 billion which former President Suharto's golfing partner Mohamad "Bob" Hasan collected between 1991 and 1997. Bob Hasan served as the chairman of MPI from 1991 until March this year.
Jakarta – A group in the remote Indonesian province of Irian Jaya has called for a mass rally in support of independence from Indonesia, the official Antara news agency said Monday.
Jakarta – A long-time critic of former president Suharto was allowed to return to Indonesia Sunday but the euphoria was overshadowed by fears of a new clampdown on dissent after police tried to break up a human rights seminar.
Jenny Grant, Jakarta – Experts have advised separating the police from the armed forces and redefining the President's control over military affairs as part of moves to democratise the law-and-order system.
Bogor – Hundreds of farmers took to the streets yesterday in this West Javanese hill town and in Jakarta to protest against the taking of their land by real estate and golf course developers, witnesses said.
Jenny Grant, Jakarta – The mental and physical growth of a generation of children is under threat as Indonesia's economic crisis worsens. More than half the children under two years old in Java, the most populous island, were suffering from malnutrition, Unicef, the UN Children's Fund, said yesterday.
Jenny Grant – Faced with increasing demonstrations, the Governor of North Sumatra has armed hundreds of his staff with rattan sticks.
Louise Williams, Jakarta – Indonesia's former president has threatened to sue those claiming he abused his power to amass a personal fortune during his 32-year rule. Mr Soeharto issued the warning after his first meeting with the two senior officials charged with investigating his wealth.
Jeffrey A. Winters, Chicago, Illinois – At the end of July 1997, the World Bank's country director, Dennis de Tray, and the vice president for East Asia and the Pacific region, Jean-Michel Severino, issued an angry press release denying that a large portion of the bank's loan funds routinely leaked into the hands of corrupt officials in the Indonesian government.
William Mccall – Nike shareholders on Wednesday rejected a proposal to tie executive compensation more closely to the wages that are paid at the company's contract factories in Asia.
Paris – Indonesia took another step on its long road to recovery on Wednesday when it agreed to reschedule $4.2 billion in foreign debt and received a new endorsement of its economic reforms from the IMF.
Shoeb Kagda, Medan – Indonesia's third largest city is bracing itself for further social unrest as between 2,000 and 3,000 farmers are expected to march to the provincial governor's office today demanding land reforms.
Jakarta - Students and farmers staged street rallies in several Indonesian cities on Wednesday despite the massive presence of security forces, witnesses said.
Irwan Firdaus, Jakarta – Students protesting the policies of Indonesia's government demonstrated in three cities today, defying troops sent to put down discontent in the Southeast Asian nation.
Jakarta – The government-sponsored fact-finding team investigating the May riots asserted on Monday that, despite some officials' denials, sexual assaults and rapes did take place in the unrest in Jakarta and other cities which also left 1,200 people dead and led to the downfall of former president Soeharto.
Jakarta – Indonesia yesterday said that half of the country has been hit by food shortages. Food Minister A. M. Saefuddin told Parliament that 150 out of 308 regencies were facing a food shortfall, and 53 of the 150 were facing a severe shortage. The shortfalls were in 25 of Indonesia's 27 provinces.
Jakarta – The Indonesian military has named a former commander of the troubled territory of East Timor to head the armed forces' command and staff school previously headed by a son-in law of ex-president Suharto, a report said Tuesday.
On Wednesday, 16 September a centre where street children are given refuge under the care of Father Sandyawan Sumardi was attacked for two hours in the middle of the night by a gang calling themselves the Mosque Youth.
Michael Richardson and Philip Segal, Singapore – As official Indonesian investigators prepare to question former President Suharto for the first time this week about his wealth, experts are cautioning that any criminal wrongdoing will be hard to prove and that the tracing and recovery of money and assets will be equally difficult, especially if they are outside Indonesia.
Jakarta – East Timor can use Indonesia's offer of autonomy to the former Portuguese colony to create a "climate of tolerance" to prepare for self-determination, says resistance leader Xanana Gusmao.
Jakarta – Deeper instability is threatening Indonesia as confidence in the four-month-old government of President B.J. Habibie wanes, analysts say.
Bombay – Indonesian opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri said the country could break out into a fresh bout of violence if the government dithered on its plan to hold elections or tried to keep her out of the polls.
Dili – The nephew of an independence rebel leader has charged the Indonesian military were holding the former Fretelin commander and demanded his release, a copy of a statement said here Sunday.
Jenny Grant, Jakarta – In the first case in which President Bacharuddin Habibie has taken legal offence at public criticism, Indonesian police have summonsed actress Ratna Sarumpaet as a "witness to insulting the President".
Louise Williams, Jakarta – All ministers who served under the former president Soeharto, including President B.J. Habibie, have been ordered to declare their personal wealth ahead of the questioning of Mr Soeharto in the first official investigation into corruption under his regime.
Faced with food riots and student protests, Indonesia's President is tainted by his links with the hated former regime. David Jenkins reports on a country in crisis.
Jakarta - Maj. Gen. (ret) Theo Syafei and Maj. Gen. (ret) Raja Kami Sembiring Meliala led an illustrious pack of former military officers, former Golkar leaders and businessmen who formally joined the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) under Megawati Soekarnoputri on Friday.
Ratna Sarumpaet ignored a police summons which ordered her to appear for questioning today. But the Jakarta police are insisting that she should appear so the director of the Satu Merah Theatre Group received a second summons today ordering her to appear on Monday, 21 September.
To Indonesians who can afford it, reform implies political and economic change. To millions of people flung into poverty since the Crisis began, however, the rallying cry of "Reformasi!" has come to mean permission to do whatever they like – loot, flout the law, overthrow officials. In hard-hit Central Java people are willing to do just about anything to survive.
Jakarta – Hundreds of angry villagers in Indonesia's Central Java province went on the rampage Friday and attacked the residences of two village chiefs, burning one to the ground, the state Antara News Agency said.
Jakarta – The Indonesian government has set May 26 as the tentative date for parliamentary elections, which will be held under new democratic electoral laws, a newspaper reported Friday.
Jakarta – Looters will be shot on sight in the densely-populated Indonesian province of East Java on orders from the police chief there, press reports said Thursday.
Jakarta – Hundreds of protesting Indonesian students and youths tested security forces Thursday, stepping up street demonstrations despite warnings from the military.
Jakarta – A former military officer in charge of distributing rice in Jakarta has admitted to syphoning off half of the food grain for profit as prices soared beyond the reach of the poor, reports said Thursday.
Jakarta – Indonesia's former president Suharto, facing questioning this week by a government probe into his wealth, says he doesn't have "even one cent" stashed in foreign bank accounts.
Jakarta – Indonesia will release 15 East Timorese political prisoners next week, a visiting delegation from the International Federation of Human Rights said here Thursday.
Jakarta – Twenty six East Timorese political prisoners ended on Monday their two-week long hunger strike to press for the release of armed resistance leader Xanana Gusmao and other political prisoners in their occupied homeland, according to Jakarta's official news agency, Antara.
Jakarta – About 100 people marched down busy streets here on Wednesday demanding that the Indonesian military give up its political role. The protesters marched from the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation towards the Ministry of Defense to protest at the military's "dual function" of the last three decades, witnesses said.
Grainne Mccarthy, Jakarta – Speculation that Indonesia is planning to implement capital controls roiled financial markets despite denials from the country's president and central-bank officials that such a move is in the cards.
Jakarta – Rioting mobs burned shops and houses in Bagansiapi-api, a fishing town on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, news reports said Wednesday. Hundreds of people took part in the rampage that began Tuesday evening and ended early Wednesday.
Bekasi – Idris strokes his grey, straggly moustache apologetically and says he would like to offer the three small pink cakes that have seen better days – but they came from the rubbish. Agus, his seven-year-old son, eyes the cakes jealously. They are for supper.