The International Monetary Fund was fiercely criticised for its failure to salvage the Indonesian economy in 1997-98. Much of the criticism was justified.

East Timor's UN Transition Administration (UNTAET) praised Monday the weapons collection campaign conducted last week by the Indonesian Armed Forces and targeting militias in Jakarta's

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Banned from Jakarta's streets in the late 80s because they were considered inhumane and backward, becaks – or pedicabs – have become the centre of a fierce s

Reuters in Jakarta – A leading international rights group yesterday accused Indonesia's security forces and Aceh rebels of violating human rights with impunity in an increasingly bloody

Seth Mydans – Just at the start of his ill-starred presidency, Abdurrahman Wahid slipped out of his official palace and made a secret pilgrimage to the tomb of a Muslim holy man who pre

Joe Leahy, Dili – Something resembling a commercial bustle has returned to Dili, East Timor's capital. Beaten-up taxis cruise streets frequented by illegal money-changers.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati and Fitri, Jakarta – "Being a becak driver is easy. I just have to use my muscles," said Yatim.

Terry Friel, Lhokseumawe – Rebels in Indonesia's battered Aceh province said on Sunday they could not work with new nationalist President Megawati Sukarnoputri and demanded foreign inte

Abdul Razak Ahmad – Only one road leads to the house of Pramoedya Ananta Toer and I am not on it.

[The following is the state-of-the-nation address delivered by President Megawati Soekarnoputri before the House of Representatives on August 16, 2001 ahead of Independence Day.]

Robert Go, Jakarta – Less than four weeks after she became Indonesia's leader, Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri presided over an emotional Independence Day ceremony in front of what was the Dut

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – Apocalyptic predictions are rife in East Timor as the territory approaches political freedom after centuries of Portuguese colonial rule and a quarter century of I

Banda Aceh – At least 30 bombs or grenade blasts were heard around the main city in the restive province of Aceh in the run-up to Indonesia's Independence Day Friday, residents said.

Lely Djuhari, Jakarta – President Megawati Sukarnoputri, a staunch nationalist, said yesterday she respected East Timor's right to secede from Indonesia, and apologised for atrocities i

Jakarta – With an unstable security situation and well-entrenched separatist movements, Indonesia has become fertile soil for international terrorist groups to sow seeds of violence, ex

Authorities in Indonesia's Aceh province have unearthed a grave containing the bodies of 48 people, a spokesman said yesterday.

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