Mark Riley, New York – The Prime Minister has asked to meet with the United Nations Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, as the UN comes under pressure to accelerate its withdrawal from Ea

United Nations civil police in the Suai region of East Timor have detained two people suspected of committing infractions of election campaign rules, a UN source told Lusa on Friday.

Rodney Joyce, Aiwo, Nauru – South Pacific island nation leaders on Friday backed Indonesian plans for autonomy in Irian Jaya rather than the independence Melanesian separatists are seek

Jakarta – House of Representatives (DPR) speaker Akbar Tandjung hailed on Wednesday the decision by President Megawati Soekarnoputri to appoint M.A.

Mark Dodd, Dili – With an army of street kids recruited to plaster seafront coconut trees with stickers, and a UN vehicle pressed into service blaring raucous political messages, the Ti

Brussels – Two Belgians held hostage for over two months by a separatist group in the Papua New Guinea jungle have been released, the Belgian Foreign Ministry said on Thursday.

Jakarta – The owner of a car repair shop who is facing a possible death sentence for the bombing of the Jakarta Stock Exchange building told the court on Wednesday that he was a scapego

Marianne Kearney – Anti-corruption campaigners and human-rights lawyers yesterday criticised President Megawati Sukarnoputri's choice of Attorney-General as a step back in the governmen

Jakarta – Pro-independence leaders in Irian Jaya and Aceh were unmoved Thursday by President Megawati Sukarnoputri's apology for past suffering inflicted on the restive Indonesian provi

Aout 200 ex-Falintil members on Tuesday staged a one-day sit-in at UNTAET headquarters to demand that the United Nations fulfill its promises to the former freedom fighters.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – President Megawati Sukarnoputri has disappointed observers in Jakarta by appointing as Attorney-General a low-key prosecutor who failed to pursue senior milit

Jakarta – Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri Wednesday called for dialogue rather than violence to settle separatist pressures in Aceh and announced she would visit the restive

Max Lane – Militant trade union leader and former political prisoner Dita Sari has been awarded the Raymond Magsaysay Award, considered an Asian Nobel Prize, for being a "leader of new

Sam Frost – Oil giant ExxonMobil's operations in the Indonesian province of Aceh are to be examined by a US court, after 11 Acehnese filed a suit against the company, claiming to have s

Eighty supporters of Solidarity for the Acehnese Peoples Movement, mostly non-Acehnese, held a protest in Jalan Thamrin, a central Jakarta thoroughfare, on August 7.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – The Indonesian navy is stepping up patrols in the Straits of Malacca to block supplies to separatist rebels in Aceh, while President Megawati Sukarnoputri pu

Craig Skehan, Nauru – A senior member of the Irian Jayan independence movement who slipped into Nauru for the annual gathering of Pacific island leaders despite an official ban, made an

Max Lane – In moves which confirm activists' appraisals that her government represents a return to power of those allied with former dictator Suharto, the government of newly-elected pr

Mark Dodd, Dili – A former member of the independence movement Fretilin, Dr Abilio Araujo, expelled for his links with Indonesia, has returned to East Timor after 26 years' self-imposed

Max Lane – Military generals and figures linked to the regime of former dictator Suharto have done well in the first cabinet of newly-elected President Megawati Sukarnoputri, which was

Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia will sell assets cheaply, if necessary, to meet state-budget targets and to conform to the prescriptions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), said th

Michael Schuman – A deteriorating Indonesian economy could constrain new President Megawati Sukarnoputri's efforts to pursue much-needed reforms.

Pip Hinman – It doesn't come as much surprise that PM John Howard has been so quick to visit Jakarta.

Jakarta – Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri Wednesday swore in career prosecutor Muhammad Abdur Rahman as her new attorney general, a choice which left human rights advocates d

Medan – A court in the North Sumatran capital of Medan has jailed for 11 years a man found guilty of making and posting 14 bombs to churches and clergymen on Christmas Eve last year.

Jakarta – Responding to the increasing number of terrorist attacks in the country, Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has instructed all b

Joe Leahy – Antonio, a farmer in the arid highlands south of East Timor's capital Dili, points at a distant ridgeline.

Unidentified assailants have thrown stones at a vehicle carrying Democratic Party (PD) supporters on a campaign tour of the Liquiga district west of the East Timorese capital.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Australia has buried the hatchet with Indonesia's new government over East Timor, opening the way for renewed contact between the two countries' armed forces.

[Source: RDP Antena 1 radio, Lisbon, in Portuguese. Excerpt from report by Portuguese radio on 14 August]

Jakarta – Hundreds of angry pedicab drivers set fire Tuesday to two Jakarta city council vehicles during an attempt to get them off the streets of the Indonesian capital, witnesses said

Jakarta – Some 74 becak (pedicab) drivers, formed a union here on Monday to fight for the right to peddle the streets of Jakarta.

Jakarta – Human rights groups accused the the Indonesian army of hampering the hunt for the fugitive son of former dictator Suharto, as police interrogated his wife yesterday.

Jakarta – Former president Abdurrahman Wahid, familiarly known as Gus Dur, warned the new government against the arbitrary arrest of prodemocracy activists, saying it would sow hatred a

Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia's big-bang decentralisation programme took effect eight months ago and gave wide-ranging powers over taxation, education and exploitation of resources to

Jakarta – Indonesia will not agree to an international probe into the massacre of 31 people in strife-ridden Aceh province because it would infringe upon its sovereignty, Foreign Minist

Jakarta – Australia's prime minister on Sunday became the first foreign leader to visit new Indonesian President Megawati, vowing to be a good mate as his troubled neighbour moves towar

Jakarta – Australia has urged fellow members of the Pacific Forum not to debate independence for Indonesia's Irian Jaya province at its annual meeting this week, an Indonesian MP said M

Robert Go, Jakarta – President Megawati Sukarnoputri's efforts to re-establish stability in the regions will involve a temporary pulling back of Indonesia's decentralisation programme,

[Source: Media Indonesia, Jakarta, August 13]

Thousands of people made their way to Dili on Saturday to take part in the UDT mammoth campaign.

Certain political parties have resorted to door knocking campaigns forcing people to vote for them.

Mark Dodd, Dili – His name is distinctive, and in coming months Australians may hear a lot more of the East Timorese independence leader LuOlo.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The Indonesian police have come under fire for their half-hearted attempts at arresting the fugitive son of former President Suharto.

[Source: RDP Antena 1 radio, Lisbon, in Portuguese]

Jakarta – An investigation into the July 26, 2001 murder of Justice Syafiuddin Kartasasmita has revealed that fugitive Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra had once offered the judge billions o

Lynn Fredriksson – Recent reporting in Indonesia has predictably focused on expectations about newly appointed President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – While Indonesia's new Cabinet has won praise for its high percentage of seasoned professionals, it will have to move fast to prove its capability.

Jakarta – Newly appointed Minister of Forestry M.

Associated Press in Jakarta – An angry mob beat and burnt a man to death after he allegedly tried to steal a chicken from a coop outside a house on the outskirts of Jakarta, news report