David Fogarty, Singapore – Deputy US Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz called on Indonesia on Friday to ensure transparency in its military offensive in Aceh province and said independen

Dean Yates, Banda Aceh – Their allegations of Indonesian military brutality cannot be verified, but the pain etched on their faces is real.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Two key suspects in the Bali bombings testified yesterday that Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir is the head of Jemaah Islamiah, the al-Qaeda linked terror organis

Phar Kim Beng, Hong Kong – Aceh, like East Timor, has seen its share of separatist problems for the greater part of the past 30 years.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Despite several shortcomings, the government said on Wednesday the ongoing military operation to crush the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in the province had

Lhokseumawe – Fatimah stopped a car carrying several journalists and begged them to load her belongings into the car.

Banda Aceh – Indonesia's military reported increased rebel casualties in Aceh province yesterday but admitted that troops were having a tough time confronting highly mobile guerillas wh

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Public bus drivers are forced to pay, on average, up to Rp 40,000 for legal and illegal fees each day, a factor that has caused their services and safety to

Jakarta – Chief of the Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) Gen Endriartono Sutarto said human rights group the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) should look i

Jakarta – Flora & Fauna International (FFI) and the Team for the Conservation of Sumatran Tigers (TPHS) have received reports on the unchecked poaching of Sumatran elephants and oth

Haidir Anwar Tanjung, Pekanbaru – With the beginning of the dry season, an increasing number of forest fires have been detected in Riau and Kalimantan, raising a thick haze that could d

Arya Abhiseka, Jakarta – A noted abortion expert said on Wednesday the high number of maternal deaths from unsafe abortions was partly the fault of the media, which has failed to educat

Phar Kim Beng, Hong Kong – As the international spotlight focuses its glare upon the Bali bombing trial in Jakarta and renewed separatist violence in Aceh, it is all too easy to assume

Chris Brummitt, Lawang – By the time the military arrived at dawn, most men had already fled this isolated village in Indonesia's Aceh province.

As the do-gooders move on, carpetbaggers and corrupt locals are left to count the loot.

Nick Everett – On May 21, I was arrested for attending a protest in Jakarta.

Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta/Manado – Regionalism is the latest, unintended consequence of the much-debated national education bill, which has already divided the nation along religious lin

London – Indonesia failed to take decisive action to end human rights violations last year, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

London – A weak judicial system in newly independent East Timor undermined human rights there last year, Amnesty International said Wednesday.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Three residents of Kuyawage village in the Papua regency of Wamena have reportedly starved to death after fleeing their homes to avoid a sweep by the Army

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – A court case in which a bodyguard of East Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri is said to have kicked a Chinese-Malaysian businessman, calling him a monkey, is be

Jakarta – Papuan tribal leaders and students from Greater Jakarta urged the government on Tuesday to revoke forest concessions given to dozens of companies that have failed to preserve

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – About 100 members of a nationalist youth organization attacked on Tuesday the office of a local human rights watchdog, the Commission for Missing Persons and V

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – As part of the government's campaign to end separatism in Aceh, the state has begun prosecuting 18 alleged members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) for

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – It was almost midnight in Tokyo when Indonesia's chief negotiator, Wiryono Sastrohandoyo, waited inside a holding room at the Japan International Cooper

Tiarma Siboro, Lhokseumawe – The Indonesian Military (TNI) will sue the Koran Tempo daily newspaper for allegedly publishing incorrect reports over the killing of 10 civilians during a

James Balowski, Jakarta – Following the breakdown of last-ditch talks in Tokyo between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), Jakarta on May 19 launched a "security

Cokro Hamid, Jakarta – As Indonesian troops launched a full-scale military offensive in Aceh, there have been protests in other parts of Indonesia, especially Jakarta.

International and local human rights activists condemned an attack on an Indonesian watchdog group over its opposition to the military offensive in Aceh.

New York – Indonesian police failed to stop two organized attacks on Kontras, a prominent Jakarta-based rights group, Human Rights Watch said today.

Banda Aceh – Police in Aceh have named 43 persons linked with separatist movement as suspects for treason.

Ten days ago Indonesia launched a full-scale military invasion into the northern province of Aceh, just hours after talks broke down between the government and the Free Aceh movement.

Dean Yates, Banda Aceh – Indonesia has told foreign aid workers to leave troubled Aceh for security reasons and says Jakarta wants to take over all humanitarian assistance in the provin

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Compared to Papua province's population of 2.1 million, the prevalence of HIV/AIDS cases in the province has reached an alarming level with a total of 1,2

Kurniawan Hari and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – A number of legislators on Monday regretted most reports on Aceh by both domestic and international media, and demanded the governm

A'an Suryana, Jakarta – A human rights activist criticized on Monday the arrest of Aceh students and rights activists during the first week of a major military campaign against rebels i

Matthew Moore, Banda Aceh – Indonesian soldiers in armoured personnel carriers have begun escorting truck convoys in war-torn Aceh in an attempt to break a blockade by separatists that

Kathy Marks, Banda Aceh – The group of men drinking coffee at a roadside stall sprang out of their chairs as the convoy of trucks and buses passed by in a cloud of dust.

Nana Rukmana, Cirebon – Thousands of sugar cane farmers in the West Java regency of Cirebon threatened to boycott the supply of sugar cane to sugar producers unless the government raise

Jakarta – Rupiah on Monday reached its highest level against the dollar since August 2000, sparking concerns that the upturn could be overdone and harm the country's exports.

Women's groups in Indonesia have welcomed a new law that paves the way for more women to enter parliament.

The UN Special Crimes Unit in East Timor has charged former militia commander, Joao Tavares, and four Indonesian TNI, or military, officers for atrocities in the territory before and af

The United Nations Serious Crimes Unit has indicted General Wiranto, the former governor of East Timor, Abilio Soares and six other senior military officers, for murder and persecution

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The media cannot not be required to take legal responsibility for its coverage of the ongoing military operation in Aceh because a news report is not

Robert Go, Banda Aceh – The bodies of two men lay on wooden tables in the morgue at Banda Aceh's main hospital. Both were unwashed and bloodied.

Tim Johnston, Banda Aceh – The Indonesian army has been accused of using British-built Hawk aircraft to attack separatist rebels in the province of Aceh.

Chris Brummitt, Banda Aceh – Indonesia moved heavy artillery into rebel areas of Aceh on Monday, stepping up its offensive against the region's poorly armed separatists.

John Aglionby, Banda, Aceh – After only a week of its offensive against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which military commanders promised would end in the separatists' elimination, Indon

A series of explosions rocked the district town of Lhokseumawe in North Aceh, as the death toll continued its climb at the end of the first week of a massive government operation to cru

Dean Yates, Banda Aceh – As the battered truck pulled up after negotiating some of Aceh's dangerous country roads, 20 traders crowded around, eager to get their supplies of tomatoes, ch