Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Local villagers set fire to four oil wells belonging to the country's largest oil producer in Riau province in Sumatra, causing as much as US$240,000 damage.

Banda Aceh – Indonesian troops killed at least six people Wednesday as thousands streamed toward the capital of the province of Aceh for a massive two-day pro-independence rally, reside

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Aceh, one of the proudest and most defiant of Indonesia's provinces, has become the first province in the reform era to elect its own Governor, defying Jakar

Pip Hinman – The efforts by the West Papuan people to garner international support for self-determination have taken a number of leaps forward recently.

Jakarta – Police in Riau province yesterday arrested five local residents suspected of masterminding arson attacks on five oil-wells operated by PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia (CPI).

Jakarta – The Indonesian government's inability to drag a son of former strongman Suharto to jail is further damaging its authority and the country's already weak law enforcement record

Bob Burton – While BHP's proclaims that "prevention is better than cure", the company is pressing ahead with investigations into dumping in the ocean wastes from the proposed Gag Island

Jakarta – Some 2,000 pro-independence Acehnese staged a huge rally in front of the UN office in the Indonesian capital Wednesday demanding international intervention to end the fighting

Jakarta – Unidentified men fired shots at the headquarters of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) last night but there were no reports of injuries, witnesses said.

Jakarta – An angry mob on the Indonesian island of Bali has attacked the offices of international conservation group World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), demanding a recent ban on trading

Jakarta – Indonesia promised IMF officials it will direct windfall oil profits towards its staggering debt, accelerate asset sales and move on the privatisation leg of its bank recovery

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The former commander of the Indonesian Forces in East Timor, Major-General Kiki Syahnakri, has been promoted to the position of deputy army chief of staff, the

Bengkulu – Officials here said on Monday 48,000 of 251,000 hectares of conserved forest in the province have been damaged by illegal logging.

Associated Press in Dili – For the first time since East Timor broke free from Indonesian occupation last year, wage earners in the territory will have to pay income tax, according to a

Associated Press In Jakarta – The fugitive son of former dictator Suharto remained in hiding on Tuesday as his lawyers claimed that inmates at a Jakarta penitentiary had made death thre

Vaudine England, Jakarta – In the latest sign of rising disappointment in President Abdurrahman Wahid – a year after he swept to power – a poll has shown that most Indonesians want him

Jakarta – The House of Representatives passed on Monday a law on human rights tribunals which makes it possible to try past abuses.

Budi Sugiharto/Hendra & GB, Surabaya – Around 250 demonstrators from the Solidarity Front for PT Mepoly Labourers staged a demonstration at the East Java Legislative Council (DPRD).

A Dipta Anindita/GB, Jakarta – Around 500 protesters from 13 urban communities in Jakarta staged a rowdy demonstration at the Provincial Legislative Council on Monday.

Chaidir Anwar Tanjung/Hendra & PT, Pekanbaru – Around 500 transmigrants of the Tapung village, Tapung Sub-district, regent of Kampar, South Sumatra, have staged a demonstration in f

Yogyakarta – Yulianti Safitri, 19, moved from one street to another across Sumatra and Java for six years until she ended up in this Indonesian royal city.

Brian Toohey – Indonesia is playing an ugly and dangerous game.

Sydney – Australia's strained ties with Jakarta continued to be hampered by Indonesian politicians exploiting the troubled relationship for domestic political advantage, Foreign Ministe

Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Jakarta – When he assumed office in October 1999 as Indonesia's first democratically elected president in four decades, Abdurrahman Wahid sought to show the countr

Jakarta – Three members of the pro-independence civilian guard in Indonesia's troubled Irian Jaya province have been shot dead and at least 18 other people injured, including a policema

Banda Aceh – The provincial parliament in Indonesia's troubled province of Aceh has elected a new governor as violence between government forces and separatist rebels killed at least se

Jakarta – The fugitive son of former Indonesian president Suharto will likely meet prosecutors on Monday, his lawyers said Saturday as prison officials said his co-accused, Ricardo Gela

Robert Go, Jakarta – Concern is growing in Jakarta that President Abdurrahman Wahid's supporters may take matters into their own hands and act against the leader's detractors, including

Jakarta – Indonesian legislators asked President Abdurrahman Wahid formally yesterday to seek the withdrawal of the tough-talking US Ambassador to Jakarta, Mr Robert Gelbard, the offici

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Anti-American groups yesterday threatened to take 20,000 demonstrators to the streets of the central Javanese town of Solo today, calling for an end to US in

Jakarta – Justice and Human Rights Minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra confirmed yesterday that the government intends to scrap the visa-free facility given to visitors from 49 countries, inc

Robert Go, Jakarta – Presidential spokesman Wimar Witoelar said that Indonesians are being unrealistic if they expect Mr Abdurrahman Wahid alone to lift the country out of the political

Rayhan Anas Lubis/GB, Banda Aceh – The offices of the Aceh Referendum Information Centre (SIRA) in Banda Aceh, capital of Indonesias violence-ridden northern-most province, were raided

Jakarta – Indonesia losses US$1.5 billion in revenues due to poaching of fish every year, according to Maritime and Fisheries Minister Sarwono Kusumaatmadja.

Jakarta – Indonesia has more than 17,000 islands but it could lose about 2,000 of them within 100 years if global warming is not halted, an environmentalist has warned.

Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Jakarta – The US Ambassador to Indonesia, who stands accused by several MPs and officials of meddling in the country's internal affairs, yesterday claimed he was b

Jakarta – Local authorities vowed on Thursday to take stern measures against the proindependence Papuan taskforce who have commandeered a government-owned provincial art building as the

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Weeks of calls for President Abdurrahman Wahid to resign have resulted in affirmation of support from his Vice-President and signs that his staunchest critic,

Vaudine England – A week after vicious ethnic clashes broke out in Pontianak, the capital of Indonesia's West Kalimantan province, thousands of displaced Madurese are still too scared t

Banda Aceh – Three policemen and a civilian were killed as separatist rebels and Indonesian government forces clashed in the restive province of Aceh, police said Thursday.

Jakarta – National Police spokesman Sr. Supt.

Budi Sugiharto/BI & GB, Jakarta – Following yesterday's demonstration by taxi drivers from Surabaya Taxi, around 200 Srikandi taxi drivers went on strike and demonstrated at the Sur

Kerry-Anne Walsh, Canberra – An investigation has been launched into allegations that Australian soldiers on duty in East Timor brutalised and tortured captured pro-Indonesian militia m

Jakarta – Tension between Indonesia's two main Muslim organizations heightened Wednesday with thousands of supporters of President Abdurrahman Wahid threatening their rivals with violen

NL& BS/Fitri & KR, Jakarta – Thousands of employees from 60 branches of the giant Hero supermarket chain across Java and Bali went on strike and rallied causing many stores acro

East Timorese solidarity activists in Australia have condemned federal government attempts to maintain control of large parts of East Timor's oil-rich seabeds, accusing it of being "sti

Max Lane – On August 22, hundreds of members of the Riau Farmers Union demonstrated outside the Indonesian People's Bank in Pekanbaru demanding rural assistance loans so that they could

Jakarta – A pro-independence leader Wednesday ordered his supporters in Indonesia's easternmost province of Irian Jaya to ignore a police order to vacate a building and lower a separati

Protesting community members in East Kalimantan were violently attacked by the Indonesian Mobile Police Brigade (BRIMOB) on October 8.

Indonesia: An Eyewitness Account By Michael Maher Viking, Penguin Books 274pp. $30