Bernarda Rurit, Jakarta – The Free Papua Organization flag the Morning Star reportedly hoisted in Yogyakarta on Thursday morning to coincide with a convention on West Papua held in Lond

Bandung, West Java – Dozens of students in the National Student Front staged a rally at the Indonesia Education University (UPI) campus in Bandung on Wednesday, protesting against capit

Arghea Desafti Hapsari, Jakarta – For any senior citizen, receiving a permanent lifetime identity card should be as natural as the aging process itself. But not so for Nani Nurani.

Jakarta – The HIV/AIDS infection rate is exploding in Indonesian prisons because intravenous drug users are being kept in the same overcrowded cells as other inmates, officials said Thu

Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – Former Bank Indonesia (BI) governor Burhanuddin Abdullah has accused former deputy Aulia Pohan of masterminding the misappropriation of an Indonesian Banking

Triwik Kurniasari, Jakarta – The accountability and transparency of city administrations across the country, including the Jakarta administration, have decreased in the past four years,

Rob Taylor, Canberra – East Timor is facing a food crisis and more than half the fledgling country's youngest children are now going hungry as global food prices soar, a new aid report

Al Makin, Heidelberg, Montreal – Our honorable members of the House of Representatives seem to put "personal bravado" above long-term national interest in their intention to pass "the a

Tony Jones: The Indonesian Government has confirmed that almost 40 police officers have been interviewed about the shooting death of a senior tribal leader at a peaceful rally in West P

Angus Grigg – In less than two months, former Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari will rise in Oslo's City Hall and formally receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

Thousands of Papuans demanded a referendum on independence from Indonesia during a peaceful rally watched by hundreds of riot police.

Jakarta – About 2,000 people rallied in the Jayapura, Papua, on Thursday, calling for independence for the remote, resource-rich area in the far east of the country, Reuters reported.

Dili – Last week on eBay a search for East Timor would have come up with a black, wooden, hand-carved statue of a male, not quite a metre high.

Adianto P.

Moksa Hutasoit, Jakarta – It is as if protest actions are never absent from the lives of Jakarta residents.

Agus Maryono, Purwokerto – A group of farmers in West Ajibarang, Banyumas regency, on Wednesday set fire to seven tons of unhusked rice, claiming they had been betrayed by the Indonesia

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Despite an earlier pledge to cut military spending this year, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has promised the Indonesian Military (TNI) modern equipment to e

Aditya Suharmoko, Jakarta – The government and lawmakers have set a "compromise" 6 percent target for next year's economic growth, as part of a revision to the 2009 budget assumptions.

Mustaqim Adamrah and Desy Nurhayati, Jakarta – The government has unveiled plans for aggressive nontariff barriers aimed at protecting the domestic industry from an influx of overseas g

Desy Nurhayati, Jakarta – The Bakrie family, headed by welfare minister Aburizal Bakrie, is unlikely to go bust any time soon, as the government ponders allowing state firms to buy stak

Farida Iqbal – "The right of self-determination is important because it's part of the pure principle of democracy", Jacob Rumbiak, foreign affairs co-ordinator of the West Papua Nationa

Timika – Five men have been arrested after an outlawed separatist flag was raised in Indonesia's remote Papua province, police said Wednesday.

Jayapura – Police early Wednesday motning pulled down and confiscated four Bintang Kejora (Morning Star) flags of the separatist Free Papua Organization (OPM) which unidentified people

Jakarta Post, Jakarta – About 100 people from the Anti-Corruption Papuan Society Alliance Community (KAMPAK) rallied at the National Police headquarters in Jakarta on Wednesday, demandi

Dian Kuswandini, Jakarta – A convicted accomplice in the murder of human rights activist Munir Said Thalib denied he was ever in contact with the State Intelligence Agency (BIN) or its

Dini Mawuntyas, Jakarta – Around three hundred workers demonstrated at the Regional House of Representatives in Surabaya East Java to demand rise on low pay.

Syaipul Bakhori, Jakarta – Hundreds of workers occupied a timber company in Jambi demanding their unpaid salaries and severance pay.

Indra Harsaputra and Abdul Khalik, Surabaya, Jakarta – The country's soldiers will have to wait at least until after the 2009 elections to exercise their right to vote, after President

The village of Tai Tete is a 40-minute climb from the town of Maliana, in the west of East Timor.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – On any other day, members of the House of Representatives would be on the prowl for TV and print journalists, in an attempt to publicize what they claimed to hav

Yuli Tri Suwarni and Ni Komang Erviani, Bandung, Denpasar – The controversial anti-pornography bill is drawing yet more opposition from various parts of the country, with many fearing t

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) is still heavily politicized, with many of its key members joining the elections race more than 10 years on from the outset of the

Evan A. Laksmana, Singapore – The Indonesian Military (TNI) celebrated its 63rd anniversary on Oct. 5. Its formal commemoration, however, will be held on Oct.

A chasm of perceptions, of mind-sets, is unfortunate but inevitable between a people claiming to have been oppressed and those deeply offended by such a claim.

Aditya Suharmoko, Jakarta – Feeling the heat from the global financial woes, the government has revised down budget assumptions for next year – including economic growth, Finance Minist

Dian Kuswandini, Jakarta – The ideal proportion of votes a party must win to be able to put forward a presidential candidate would be around 20 percent, which would create a solid and e

Dicky Christanto and Luh De Suriyani, Denpasar – More than 5,000 people from various occupations, religions and organizations stormed Denpasar's main thoroughfares Saturday with one goa

Ati Nurbaiti, Banda Aceh – Hasan Tiro, the supreme leader of the former separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM), cited Sunday a string of heroes from Aceh's past in his appeal for his fello

Soibada, East Timor – East Timor president Jose Ramos-Horta said Monday he wants the United Nations to drop its investigation into bloodshed surrounding a 1999 independence vote from In

Dili – The East Timorese ministry of justice is preparing a penal code which would decriminalise many abortions, but with little visible public support and no public debate, civil socie

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – With the global financial crisis currently battering local markets and expected to hit middle and low-income families within the next three months, domestic poli

The General Elections Commission (KPU) has, after some delays, finally published the preliminary list of 11,868 legislative candidates for the total 560 seats in the 2009 elections.

Prodita Sabarini, Jakarta – In the weeks before and after the Idul Fitri holidays many middle-class households are busy with domestic matters.

Hotli Simanjuntak and Ati Nurbaiti, Banda Aceh – Deafening shouts of 'Allahu akbar!' and 'Long live Wali Nanggroe!' greeted the long-awaited senior Aceh figure, Hasan Tiro, who arrived

An opposition plan for a massive march on East Timor's capital and rumours of tension in the police force are raising concerns of a return to instability in the tiny Southeast Asian nat

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – Indonesians should base their lives on the values of pluralism and respect for differences which they have inherited from their founding fathers so as to allow p

Luh de Suriyani, Denpasar – Survivors and relatives of the victims of the 2002 Bali nightclub bombings said prayers and lit candles on Sunday during a small, private ceremony to remembe

Stephen Coates, Banda Aceh – Pink from floor to ceiling and with hot pink windows and doors, the office of the Aceh Transitional Committee (KPA) looks more like a perfumery than the ner

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has called on Indonesian Muslims to alter their perception of mudik (journeying to one's hometown), citing the many people wh

The impact of the global financial crisis will be felt the deepest next year, economists said at a discussion on Friday.