Apriadi Gunawan, Parapat, North Sumatra – Ninety local and foreign environmentalists warned against the possible extinction of a total of 226 flora and fauna species in Sumatra because

Nigel Wilson – Last-minute negotiations are taking place on arrangements between Australia and East Timor that could result in legislation implementing the Timor Sea Treaty being introd

Banda Aceh – Indonesia's first Islamic courts for criminal cases were opened in the staunchly Muslim Aceh province on Tuesday as part of efforts to calm separatist passions in the area.

Reverend David Pargeter – In 1990 a large regional military power, Iraq, invaded a small neighbour, Kuwait, after accusing it of stealing oil from an oilfield straddling their common bo

Highly debatable are both the rationale used by the team of more than 30 economists to support their recommendation for abruptly ending Indonesia's reform program with the International

Jakarta – Student Executive Bodies (BEMs) from universities in Greater Jakarta canceled planned demonstrations on Saturday against President Megawati Soekarnoputri's administration, say

Max Lane – The article by Jose Ramos Horta defending the "aggressive strategy" of the US administration of George W Bush towards Iraq is not a surprise.

Robert Go, Jakarta – The majority of Jakarta's 151 traditional markets are firetraps and could suffer the same ill fate as the Tanah Abang textile centre, much of which went up in flame

Imanuddin Razak, Jakarta – Army chief of staff Gen.

Jakarta – The East Timor government on Monday sought to distance itself from indictments issued against a former Indonesian armed forces chief over violence that ravaged the tiny territ

Gita Fajar P.

Jakarta – Nearly 4,000 angry Acehnese surrounded an office staffed by peace monitors including three Thai soldiers in the restive Indonesian province on Monday, threatening the group un

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Got what it takes to be Indonesia's President?

Semarang – Based on intelligence data, there are presently 10,000 ex-political prisoners from the categories A, B and C across Central Java/Yogyakarta, who have established political pa

Jakarta – Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri has criticised a new law, requiring at least 30 per cent of parliamentary candidates in elections be female, as demeaning to women,

Larry Schwartz – The boys have been asking their father why they must leave family and friends in suburban Melbourne and go to another country.

Dili – Sitting by the road on the Dili waterfront, Jose Belo Pereira ekes out a living selling coconuts to passers-by.

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Denpasar – East Timor President Xanana Gusmao voiced disappointment over the court's issuance of dozens of indictments of senior Indonesian officials for serious c

Adianto P.

Dili – Timor Leste prosecutors charged more than 50 people, including a former police chief and a militia boss, with crimes against humanity yesterday over violence surrounding a 1999 v

Jakarta – The persistence of the Indonesian Military (TNI)'s leaders in defending a bill that could allow the institution to regain its power reflects their failure to comply with the r

Moch. N.

Jakarta – A ceasefire in Aceh's bloody separatist war is already looking shaky and major issues must be settled to salvage what could be the last chance for peace, an international rese

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – They crept up around Christmas. Signs on bridges told of their arrival. Long strips of road were painted red as a warning. Bus lanes had arrived in Jakarta.

Ardimas Sasdi, Jakarta – A recent admission by a respected Cabinet member that the ruling Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) was the most corrupt of all political parties mer

In Indonesia, a radical Muslim group has announced its reviving its paramilitary wing.

Telly Nathalia, Jakarta – Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir was handed over to prosecutors in Indonesia on Friday to face trial for treason, police said.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Despite strong criticism from various sides, the Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen.

Martin Griffiths – On Sundays at the beach in Lampu near Banda Aceh, young couples stroll across the sand holding hands, laughing and flirting.

Yuli Tri Suwarni, Bandung – A local newspaper officially reported to police the maltreatment of its photographer by police during a violent demonstration in Bandung, West Java, on Thurs

Mark Baker, Singapore – East Timor has warned that hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues vital for the country's development could be lost because of the Australian Government's r

Berni K.

The drought may be finally breaking in Australia, but in East Timor continuing drought is causing severe problems.

Dili – East Timor prosecutors charged more than 50 people on Friday, including a former police chief and a militia boss, with crimes against humanity over violence surrounding a 1999 vo

The failure of Indonesia's rights tribunal to bow to international demands for the prosecution of the alleged perpetrators of human rights abuses in East Timor has prompted the indictme

Mark Dodd, Dili – In the laboratory of Cafi Cooperative Timor (CCT), senior adviser Alistair Laird, a "cupping" expert, is applying a final quality-control test to assess the fragrance,

John Martinkus, Jayapura – The border between the Indonesian province of Papua and Papua New Guinea has become a no-go area for Indonesian police and human rights workers, according to

Martin Flanagan – Human rights advocate John Rumbiak fled Papua a year ago.

Nug Katjasungkana, Contributor, Dili – On Tuesday, the Dili-based Office of the Prosecutor General of Timor Leste issued an indictment of former military commander Gen.

Moch. N.

Don D'Cruz – When John Howard met recently with Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri he got an important assurance from her: that Indonesia does not regard Australia as anti-Isla

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – The Islam Defenders Front (FPI) is reactivating its feared paramilitary wing, with the same mission as before – fighting against immorality in its own way i

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – The Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) said on Tuesday it had found irregularities amounting to the value of Rp 456.3 trillion (about US$60 billion) in the use of sta

The international rights group Human Rights Watch called on Indonesia to turn over for trial its officials accused of organizing atrocities committed in East Timor in 1999.

Jakarta – A prime suspect in the Bali bombing will recant in court his confession implicating Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir in the blasts because it was made under police torture,

Jill Jolliffe, Darwin and Tom Allard, Canberra – United Nations prosecutors have charged the former Indonesian defence chief General Wiranto with crimes against humanity for his role in

Iggy Kim, Sydney – The Indonesian government's decision to divide West Papua into three provinces is a further attack by Jakarta on the Papuan people's right to self-determination, West

Jakarta – A leading US newspaper, The Washington Post, on Tuesday said it had found "no substantiation" to one of its reports published last year that implicated senior Indonesian milit

Iggy Kim – The Indonesian government has again violated the December 10 Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (COHA). The agreement was supposed to bring an end to violence in Aceh.

Jakarta – Aceh province will inaugurate its first Islamic sharia court on March 4 as part of the broad autonomy granted to curb separatist sentiment, AFP reported.