Dili – The parliamentary inquiry into Dili's deadly rioting found that street demonstrations began "spontaneously" but appeared to have turned into mob action for "political motivations

Jakarta – Around 30 suspected separatist rebels, some armed with automatic rifles, ambushed a group of government officials in Indonesia's Papua province on Monday.

Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) Chief Gen.

[Inside Indonesia's Special Forces, By Ken Conboy, Equinox Publishing (Asia), 2002, 320pp.]

As many as six people have been killed in Aceh by Indonesian troops hunting separatist rebels despite the signing of a peace pact December 9, a resident and a rebel commander said.

Nethy Darma Somba and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta/Jayapura – The government has for the time being shelved plans to create three new provinces from the country's easternmost province

Mark Baker, Dili – It is a simple but splendid house with whitewashed walls and a high-pitched roof of traditional timber and thatch.

Jakarta – The country's green organization Walhi said on Friday they plan to sue state-owned forestry company Perhutani for alleged illegal logging above a hotspring resort in Mojokerto

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – Five gunshot victims interviewed by The Age in the Dili hospital yesterday say they were shot by roaming groups of special police in the capital's outer suburbs af

Mark Baker, Dili – The Federal Government is locked in a bitter dispute with East Timor over control of multi-billion-dollar oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea that is threatening to

Another person has been shot dead in Aceh province where a ceasefire between Indonesian troops and separatist rebels is in force, humanitarian workers said.

Sidney Jones – The war on terror is well under way in Southeast Asia, leading to concern among many civil rights leaders.

Nigel Wilson – Australia's relations with East Timor have been tested by claims Foreign Minister Alexander Downer verbally abused Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

Prangtip Daorueng, Jakarta – Tuesday's peace accord signed between the Indonesian government and Acehnese rebels is not the first attempt at peace, but many Acehnese who are gathering a

Washington wants Jakarta to quickly wrap up its investigation of an ambush near the world's largest copper and gold mine that left two Americans and an Indonesian dead some three months

The Indonesian army has ordered an inventory of its TNT stocks after quantities of the explosive were found in two of six plastic pipes buried close to the East Java home of a key suspe

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – At least 8,000 East Timorese families seeking refuge in West Timor had decided to stay in Indonesia, a local military commander said Thursday.

Jakarta – Indonesian prosecutors on Thursday demanded a 10-year jail term for a senior army intelligence officer, the minimum sentence by law if he is found guilty as charged of crimes

Debbie A.

United Nations – A preliminary inquiry into last week's riots in East Timor has found that some of the people behind the violence fled afterwards to neighboring Indonesia, the tiny new

Jon Land – Dili, the capital of East Timor, was hit by a wave of protests and riots on December 3-4.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Indonesia's failure to uphold human rights this year was due to simultaneous policies of the executive, legislative and judicial institutions, the National Comm

Jake Skeers – Despite considerable opposition from ordinary people, particularly in the northern city of Darwin, the Australian government has resumed the process of deporting about 1,8

Dili – East Timor's government promised Tuesday to tackle the fledgling state's chronic youth unemployment but warned that a repeat of last week's deadly and destructive riots would onl

Jennifer Hewett – One of Indonesia's most influential moderate Muslim leaders has criticised the Australian Government's flirtation with the idea of working with the Indonesian special

Tim Shorrock, Washington – The killings last August of two Americans, allegedly at the hands of Indonesian soldiers with the apparent consent of the high command, haven't dampened enthu

[International monitors have arrived in Indonesia's troubled province of Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, to help enforce a landmark peace agreement.

Tapol warmly welcomes the agreement on the cessation of hostilities signed today in Geneva by the Government of the Republic of Indonesia (GoI) and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

By Richard C. Paddock, Binjai – It was the kind of rescue the Indonesian army was trained to carry out.

Geoffrey Barker – Prime Minister John Howard's offer of extra aid to East Timor's police and judicial services was a necessary but hardly sufficient response to last week's violence in

Paul Toohey – The Timorese woman with the seen-it-all face, owner of a street stall in Dili, is joined by other local women as she demands in a maternal way that Kirsty Sword Gusmao han

Jakarta – A joint team of police and Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel stormed the headquarters of the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) over the weekend, arresting one rebe

[While the Indonesian government seems to be making progress in Aceh, moderate Muslims say President Megawati's denying them a role in determining the place of Islam in the country's

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – The United Nations may be facing new embarrassment in East Timor following reports that people arrested in last Wednesday's riots had been beaten in custody.

When an independent East Timor was finally proclaimed in May, everyone wanted to come to the party.

Dili – East Timor, still grappling with chronic unemployment and poverty six months after independence fuelled unrealistically high hopes, was according to one analyst "a dry field into

Bill Guerin – In the past three years Japanese electronics giant Sony has shut down 16 plants across the globe and laid off thousands of its workers.

William Nessen, Cot Trieng, Aceh – Inside a 20-kilometre circle of marsh and shoulder-high grass dotted by thick patches of rattan and palm trees, Indonesia's military, the TNI, has aim

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – With as many as 12,000 people killed in Indonesia's Aceh province over the past 26 years, a ceasefire agreement due for signing on Monday is long overdue.

Jakarta – Two home-made bombs were detonated at a vacated behind a hotal in Ambon, Maluku, on Thursday night as Muslims in the area were preparing to celebrate Idul Fitri, the end of th

Jakarta – Timber tycoon Mohammad "Bob" Hassan and Hutomo Mandala Putra, the son of former president Soeharto, received a one month cut in their jail terms as Idul Fitri from the state.

Antony Funnell – East Timor's Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, refused my interview request when he landed in Australia last Friday. We had just traveled from Dili on the same plane.

[East Timor is quiet today after mob violence in the capital Dili, left at least two dead, scores injured, and key buildings burnt to the ground.

The former Governor of East Timor, Mario Carrascalao, says the Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri must prove his claim that people with political aspirations are behind this week's violence i

Dili – East Timor said on Friday that Indonesian-backed militiamen responsible for hundreds of deaths in 1999 were regrouping and may have been behind this week's violent rioting in the

Rod McGuirk, Dili – The operator of a central Dili supermarket razed in riots this week vowed today never to do business in East Timor again.

Tim Dodd, Jakarta – UN administrator Sergio de Mello, who ran East Timor for 2 1/2 years until its independence in May this year, believes the country's 30-year history of violence is t

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – As residents of Dili swept up the debris yesterday, they wondered how things could have gone so wrong.

Dili – Foreigners fled East Timor as security forces fired warning shots in clashes with students yesterday, a day after two people were killed in riots that prompted angry mobs to loot

The explosion which killed three people at a McDonald's restaurant in the Indonesian city of Makassar was caused by a bomb, according to national police chief Da'i Bachtiar.