Susan Sim, Ujung Pandang – More than two thirds of the 131 million Indonesians eligible to vote in June have registered to do so in the country's first voluntary voter-registration drive, electoral planners said.

And this high sign-up rate, despite a shaky start three weeks ago, could augur well for the major opposition parties, some of their leaders predicted.

Jakarta – An Indonesian human rights group has claimed that more than 50 people have been murdered in a wave of mysterious serial killings this year, news reports said Saturday.

Jakarta – Chairman of the Jakarta Provincial Elections Committee (PPD I) Djafar Badjeber announced on Friday that campaign activities in the city for the June 7 general election were scheduled to start on May 19.

The East Timor Human Rights Centre (ETHRC) is seriously concerned about the further acts of violence and the deaths of civilians in Dili, the capital city of East Timor, on Saturday, April 17. This most recent spate of acts of violence and killings occurred after a rally for pro-autonomy sympathisers had been organised by the Dili based Aitarak, led by Eurico Guterres.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Deposed president Soeharto, accused of massive corruption and cronyism during his 32-year rule of Indonesia, yesterday attacked the ruling Golkar party he created, saying it has been ruined by vested interests.

Dili – At least eight people and possibly as many as 100 have died in attacks by pro-Jakarta militias on pro-independence supporters in East Timor, a local priest told Reuters Friday.

Tual – Police fired shots Friday to disperse battling mobs of Christians and Muslims in eastern Indonesia, witnesses said. At least seven people were killed.

The rioting in Tual city was the latest outburst of religious unrest in Maluku province, where more than 300 people have died in fighting this year. Dozens of churches and mosques have been burned.

Jenny Grant, Yogyakarta – The scene would have been impossible at the last elections. At a high-level meeting in a university campus, a long-haired activist told the city's Attorney-General that his monitoring group had found irregularities in the voter registration process.

Jakarta – Preliminary police investigations showed that the Monday bombing of the Istiqlal Mosque here was linked to a group calling itself the Mujahidin Islam Nunsantara Movement, police said yesterday.

Jakarta – A series of mass murders have thus far killed more than 100 people in Ciamis, West Java, and some of the victims were those who had discredited Suharto or were against his rule. The murders were carried out by two groups led by two men with the initials S and SU.

Jakarta – Indonesia's Parliament passed an anti corruption law Thursday that requires government officials to declare all their assets to a supervise commission set up by the president.

The new bill, endorsed during a plenary session of House, will apply to all government officials including the president.

Robert Garran – Former Indonesian president Suharto is likely to emerge as one of the most prominent corporate players in Indonesia in coming years, thanks in part to political protection from President B.J. Habibie, a new book claims.

Dini Djalal in Ambon, Pontianak and Jakarta – It seemed like what passes for normal at an Indonesian checkpoint. The soldiers were more brusque than usual, but they were on a dangerous detail – frisking people for machetes in strife-torn Ambon, the eastern island racked by murderous sectarian strife.

Jakarta – The East Timor pro-independence movement on Thursday claimed that the Indonesian military had conducted attacks on bases of rebel forces in two districts, just a day after it committed itself to halt all violence in the troubled territory, a report said.

Kafil Yamin, Jakarta – The ruling Golkar party is among Indonesia's most unpopular organisations, and even the sight of its official yellow colour is enough to elicit violent reactions from many people.

But the chances of the party, which used to be headed by President Suharto, cannot be disregarded in the run-up to general elections in June.

Jakarta – More than 1,000 of Jakarta's urban poor staged a mass demonstration here Thursday accusing the government and the World Bank of abusing social safety net funds.

Jakarta – The parents of some 70 students who went missing after taking part in a major pro-independence rally in the troubled province of Aceh on Thursday went to the legislature for help, a rights activist said.

Paul Kelly – Indonesia's President B. J. Habibie yesterday gave his personal word of honour that he was prepared to give East Timor independence.

Dili – Leaders of warring factions in the troubled Indonesian territory of East Timor on Wednesday signed a peace pact witnessed by Indonesia's military chief and East Timor's two bishops.

In the document, signed at the residence of Dili Bishop Carlos Ximenes Felipe Belo, the groups pledged to "stop hatred, intimidation, and terror and try to help create peace."

Vaudine England – The "disappearance" of activists, whether temporary or permanent, is a political instrument common to past and present governments, a victim who was tortured said yesterday.

The decision by the Habibie regime in 1998 to offer "the widest possible autonomy", including a separate electoral system, flag, and so on, was a retreat by the Habibie regime from the position of Suharto who refused any kind of autonomy.

Jakarta – Indonesia's House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill which will grant greater autonomy to the governments of the country's 27 provinces and their sub-regencies, witnesses said.

Things are quiet in Dili. At a government rally in front of the governor's office, Dili Mayor Domingus Soares publicly announced that Eurico Guterres, the head of the Aitarak "death squad" and vice-commander of all Abri-sponsored death squads, will be in charge of security and stability in East Timor.

Hong Kong – The trial of 11 members of Indonesia's elite special force found guilty of kidnapping pro-democracy activists was a farce designed to protect high-ranking soldiers, one of the nine who was captured and tortured said here Tuesday.

Lhokseumawe – Two people were killed when police in the Indonesian province of Aceh opened fire Tuesday to disperse thousands of pro-separatist students, residents said.

Jakarta – Security forces fired warning shots when hundreds of students demanding a share of oil earnings stormed a Caltex Indonesia housing complex on Sumatra island Tuesday, wrecking cars and smashing office windows, sources said.

Jakarta – A mob attacked a Roman Catholic complex in the predominantly Moslem province of South Sulawesi, throwing fuel bombs that burned several buildings just hours after a blast at a main mosque in Jakarta, police said Tuesday.

Human Rights Watch charged that the government of President Habibie could have prevented the violence in East Timor on Saturday by acting earlier to disarm pro-Indonesia militias.

Hamish Mcdonald – Well-placed sources in Jakarta have supplied what could be the jigsaw pieces that make sense of the puzzling Indonesian policy on East Timor in recent months.

David Jenkins – As East Timor descends into a new round of violence and savagery the time has come for searching questions to be asked of President B. J. Habibie and his sometimes unfathomable Defence Minister, General Wiranto.

Jenny Grant, Jakarta – The People's Democratic Party has nominated three missing people to run as parliamentary candidates for the June general election.

Announcing the move yesterday, party chairman Budiman Sudjatmiko described the men – Petrus Bima Anugerah, Herman Hendrawan and Suyat – as three of its best cadres.

Jakarta – Although the official election campaign period is still a month away, political parties across the country have moved their electioneering activities into high gear.

Jakarta – Security forces mistakenedly opened fire on a crowd of ethnic Madurese migrants and local Malays in Indonesian Borneo killing four people and injuring three others, an official said Monday.

Jakarta – Indonesian Justice Minister Muladi and jailed East Timorese rebel leader Xanana Gusmao on Monday agreed there had been no call for war in the troubled territory against Jakarta.

Jenny Grant – The Indonesian military not only turned a blind eye to Saturday's militia attacks in Dili but had prior knowledge of the planned targets at the most senior level, diplomatic sources claimed yesterday.

Lhokseumawe – Residents Monday raised separatist flags over their homes in several villages of Indonesia's northern Aceh district, a day after the flag figured prominently in a mass rally here, a witness said.

Mark Riley, New York – Indonesia is believed to have gutted the proposed statute of autonomy for East Timor, removing many of the major components and increasing the likelihood of continued clashes in the strife-torn region.

ABRI commander General Wiranto said that East Timor is still part of Indonesia and that any violations of the law by either side are intolerable. Asked about the entry of UN forces, he said this would happen at the appropriate time, ie when a decision has been taken regarding the option that is being offered.

[The following report was received today from Fortilos and posted on the conferences in Bahasa Indonesia: Translated by Tapol.]

Some 150 paramilitaries who were trained by ABRI in East Timor to attack pro-independence activists arrived in Jakarta by ship on Friday 16 April.

Tommy Ardiansyah, Dili – Indonesia's military Sunday rejected the blame for bloody violence that killed dozens of people in the disputed territory of East Timor, accusing pro-independence groups instead.

Dili – They lay hugging the floor, screaming and weeping in terror as the shots and rocks blasted through the windows at the front of the house, trapped and unarmed.

Fires burning in central Sumatra have once again blanketed Singapore in a haze that has pushed up pollution levels in the city-state famed for its "clean and green" image. Parts of Malaysia have also been affected.

Jakarta – The Nobel laureate Roman Catholic Bishop of Dili, Carlos Ximenes Felipe Belo, said Saturday he was scrapping a planned peace mass Sunday in the wake of a deadly rampage by pro-Indonesian militia in the East Timorese capital on Saturday.

Diarmid O'Sullivan, Dili – Tensions are rising in the East Timorese capital, Dili, as thousands of pro-Indonesian militiamen pour in for a show of force today. At dusk yesterday the streets were empty as people hurried home to avoid militia patrols, some escorted by Indonesian soldiers.

Don Greenlees, Jakarta – A confidential Australian embassy report on the killing of East Timorese civilians in the town of Liquica concludes that allegations of a massacre are plausible and accuses the Indonesian military of colluding with militia forces in the lead-up to the incident.

"The Indonesian Government and Armed Forces (ABRI) are failing to protect East Timorese pro-independence supporters despite warnings of attacks by paramilitaries in East Timor, this weekend", Amnesty International said.

Peter Cole-Adams – No strategy is less flattering to a government than playing a waiting game. The appearance of impotence is unbecoming and, if the wait ends in failure, downright humiliating.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – The Portuguese colonialists who ruled East Timor for more than 400 years are fondly remembered for introducing Timorese to the art of the siesta.

[The following summarises a report from Yayasan HAK which was circulated in Bahasa by Fortilos.]