Jakarta – One of two men arrested Friday shortly after the blast of a home-made bomb rocked a Protestant church in the Indonesian capital had fought with Muslim rebels in the Malukus, a

Protestors set alight buildings in the hometown of Irian Jaya independence leader Theys Hiyo Eluay, whose body was found after he was abducted in the remote Indonesian province, an acti

Banda Aceh – At least five civilians were killed in the Indonesian province of Aceh where separatist rebels are fighting government forces, residents said Sunday.

Abu Hanifah, Jakarta – Police briefly detained two activists for handing out cotton buds to legislators that they said never listened to the common people.

Ibnu Mat Noor, Banda Aceh – Most of 13 Acehnese leaders who met with Vice President Hamzah Haz in Banda Aceh on Thursday said they preferred a cease-fire and dialog to settle the prolon

Jakarta – The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) is the highest state body, so the text books say. Students all over the country should know that.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Two new television stations have hit the Indonesian airwaves in the last fortnight, and another two will start broadcasting before the end of the year.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – The highest legislative body ends a remarkably peaceful annual session today, having achieved little more than deeper public disenchantment and an agreement t

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The Central Jakarta District Court began hearing a civil case on Thursday filed against Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, Jakarta Police Chief Gen. Ins.

Sydney – Australia should not seek to have constructive relations with Indonesia at any price, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has said amid new criticism from Jakarta.

Robert Go, Jakarta – There is no guarantee that fresh aid to Indonesia will not be diverted by corrupt officials, as graft has become a way of life, said one of President Megawati Sukar

Rendi A.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The South Jakarta District Court sentenced two student activists to five months in jail each on Wednesday for defying police officers during a demonst

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – As of January 2002, the government will no longer provide any financial or food assistance to East Timorese refugees in West Timor as it will reinstate the Ind

Apriadi Gunawan, Medan – Only eight of 286 cases of trafficking of women reported to the police during the last two years have gone to court, according to North Sumatra's Kaukus Perempu

Muhammad Nafik, Jakarta – Justice will remain elusive if the government's move to install 60 judges for human rights courts is not complemented by the appointment of prosecutors, rights

Jakarta – Dadang Sukandar, chairman of the Raudlatul Jannah Foundation, on Wednesday revealed that he had accepted Rp 40 billion in non-budgetary funds from the State Logistics Agency (

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Firm in its first vote on the contentious issue of presidential elections on Wednesday, the Golkar faction at the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Annual S

Jakarta – The current People's Consultative Assembly Annual Session, costing 18 billion rupiah (US$1.6 million), is talking gibberish, which people from Irian Jaya, Sulawesi, Java and S

Lhokseumawe – Indonesia might grant amnesty to rebels in Aceh province if they abandon their armed, separatist struggle, Vice-President Hamzah Haz said yesterday.

Jakarta – More than one thousand protesters from various non governmental organizations (NGOs), grouped into the newly-formed organization the Anti-Debt Coalition (KAU), staged on Wedne

Robert Go, Jakarta – Chinese Prime Minister Zhu Rongji, the first senior Chinese leader to visit Jakarta since diplomatic ties resumed in 1990, yesterday announced a 40-million-yuan (S$

Jakarta – A coalition of Indonesian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on Thursday called on the country's main donors meeting here to determine their new aid pledge, to allow the go

Joanne Collins and Soraya Permatasari, Jakarta – International donors threw crisis-hit Indonesia a generous lifeline of $3.73 billion in aid on Thursday after one senior official bemoan

Jakarta – Jakarta will maintain the status quo on a local government's unilateral takeover of a major cement firm's affiliate, Home Minister Hari Sabarno said Thursday.

Jakarta – Indonesian police said on Wednesday they had arrested an Egyptian suspected of being the chief smuggler responsible for organising a refugee boat for illegal migrants which sa

Moch. N.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – The Ministry of Agriculture has accounted for Rp 125 million following its settlement of 35 financial-related irregularities valued at Rp 14.99 billio

Jakarta – Activists criticized on Tuesday the city administration's policy on the eviction of poor urban people, including those living along riverbanks here.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Dr Amien Rais, house speaker of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), chastised legislators for skipping parts of their annual meeting and spending their days w

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Remember the old politicians who made a scene jostling and screaming at each other at the first-day meeting of the People's Consultative Assembly the other

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Lost in the recent hoopla of Parliament's approval of special autonomy for Irian Jaya is the fact that four of the separatist-inclined province's leaders rema

Jake Lloyd-Smith – Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri yesterday fired a parting shot as the Asean summit wound up, saying the US-led military action in Afghanistan should be sus

Bagja Hidayat, Jakarta – About a thousand farmers staged a rally at the legislature complex today, demanding the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) Ad Hoc Committee, particularly MPR'

Jakarta – Indonesia's Attorney General's Office said on Tuesday it had formally asked the country's central bank to freeze assets of 28 companies and groups suspected of having links to

Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta – City officials complained on Monday over the interference of city councillors in their drafting of next year's city budget and alleged that they might be tempte

The rupiah plunged to near 11,000 per US dollar late on Monday, the lowest level during President Megawati Soekarnoputri's three-month-old administration.

R.K.

Kupang – Afghan and Iraqi asylum-seekers staying at an Indonesian police college here quietly protested Wednesday against their treatment by the Australian military and international re

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Three Islamic parties in Parliament are pushing for the inclusion of Islamic Syariah law in the Constitution to pave the way for its implementation in Indonesia

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The South Jakarta District Court sentenced on Monday former chief of the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) Beddu Amang to two years imprisonment for his

Jakarta – A majority of factions in Indonesia's top assembly have agreed to hold the country's first ever direct presidential election in 2004, although the format is still being debate

Jakarta – The World Bank on Monday urged Indonesia to immediately defy provincial government attempts to take-over affiliates of state-owned cement producer Semen Gresik, warning the mo

Dean Yates, Jakarta – The World Bank said on Monday it expected Indonesia to "muddle through" its economic woes, adding the most urgent tasks were to ensure fiscal sustainability and im

Robert Garran – Indonesian troops attacking the East Timorese town of Balibo in October 1975 had good reason not to want five Australian-based journalists to escape, according to a new

Robert Go, Jakarta – Running low on rice and other staple goods, Indonesia is mulling over a barter programme with other Asean countries to trade for those commodities using locally pro

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – The news that Japan has authorised its troops to serve overseas, despite the country's pacifist constitution, sends shudders down the spine of Marta Pereira, an ag

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Indonesians will find out next week whether they will be able to vote directly for their choices of president and vice-president in the 2004 election, after the

Surabaya – Around 3,000 Muslims Friday demonstrated against US-led attacks on Afghanistan in Indonesia's second largest city.

Craig Skehan, Kelly Burke and AAP – Indonesia accused Australia of a failure in diplomacy over boat people yesterday, attacking Canberra's "unacceptable" practice of going public before