Binsar Bakkara, Tanah Karo, Indonesia – An Indonesian volcano shot a towering cloud of black ash high into the air Tuesday, dusting villages 15 miles (25 kilometers) away in its most po

Rosalina, Jakarta – A number of organisations that are part of the group Friends of Munir held a protest action in Jakarta on September 7 demanding a full resolution to the death of hum

Jakarta – Six years have passed since Munir Said Thalib was fatally poisoned on a flight to Amsterdam on Sept. 7, 2004.

Arientha Primanita, Jakarta – Jakarta is heading toward "ecological suicide" if it doesn't stem overpopulation, an urban planning expert warned on Tuesday.

Adianto P.

Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Putri Prameshwari, Jakarta – The case of 63 Indonesian women who were tricked into practical slavery by an unscrupulous Malaysian businessman is prompting

Armando Siahaan, Jakarta – The legal requirement that a third of a political party's executive board be comprised of female officials was being blatantly ignored, a civil society group

Jakarta – Demonstrators were finally granted a meeting with officials from the Corruption Eradication Commission in Indonesia on Tuesday after one of the protesters reportedly slashed h

Jakarta – Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, the son of deceased dictator Suharto, is suing state-owned airline Garuda Indonesia and the publishers of its in-flight magazine for referring to

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono assembled leaders of tiny political parties at his residence on Sunday evening, in what one observer said was an attempt to g

Ulma Haryanto, Bogor – Hitting back at the Bogor administration's unexplained decision to again seal off their half-built church last week, members of the GKI Yasmin congregation broke

Agus Maryono, Cilacap – It has been more than a year since any significant projects have been launched in Cilacap regency, Central Java.

Jakarta – The editor of the Indonesian edition of Playboy magazine refused to come out of hiding on Monday to face a two-year jail sentence, as his lawyers pledged to challenge his conv

Jakarta – Golkar Party chairman Aburizal Bakrie said Sunday his party would retain members who had been named suspects in a high-profile bribery case centering on the 2004 election of a

Nivell Rayda, Jakarta – In the minds of human rights activists in Indonesia, two events stand out as reprehensible examples of the impunity enjoyed by human rights violators in the coun

Anita Rachman, Jakarta – New research by a prominent watchdog reveals an alarming trend in the fight against graft, showing that well over half of corruption suspects tried in court in

Buol, Central Sulawesi – New evidence of alleged human rights abuses by Indonesian security forces in Buol, Central Sulawesi, has emerged.

AI Index: ASA 21/020/2010

Ulma Haryanto, Jakarta – As the weekend saw protests in different parts of the country against an American church's plan to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks by burning

Alie Usman, Jakarta – Scores of social and non-government organisations that are part of the Friends of Munir movement gathered today to commemorate six years since Munir's death, a hum

Farouk Arnaz, Jakarta – Leading human rights watchdog Amnesty International has called on the government to establish a fact-finding team to probe last Tuesday's deadly shooting of eigh

Taufik Darusman – It is only a matter of weeks or even days before the Corruption Eradication Commission ushers in a new chairman.

Anita Rachman & Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Jakarta – In the face of what appears to be a public relations nightmare, the Democratic Party on Friday blamed the media and political exp

Farouk Arnaz, Anita Rachman & Nurfika Osman, Jakarta – National Police Chief Gen.

Jakarta, Indonesia – Thousands of Indonesian Muslims rallied outside the US Embassy in Jakarta on Saturday to denounce an American church's plan to mark the anniversary of the 9/11 terr

Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Jakarta – Opposition is growing from within the House of Representatives about the controversial plan to build a lavish new office building for lawmakers, but

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – The President's popularity has declined in the first year of his second tenure, but voters are apparently reluctant to switch their support from the President's

Nivell Rayda, Jakarta – Nongovernmental groups are urging the government to participate in the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative, in a bid to combat corruption and minimize po

Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta – Labor exporters have rejected a revision to a bill that intends to empower the National Agency for Overseas Labor Placement and Protection (BNP2TKI) and en

Palu, Indonesia – Indonesian police said Friday they had arrested 11 colleagues over the killing of six people when officers opened fire on a violent mob earlier this week.

Erwida Maulia, Jakarta – Condemnation greeted the President's "feeble" speech on mounting tensions between Indonesia and Malaysia, while a major party in the ruling coalition dropped pl

Sydney – A Thai-owned firm Friday rejected Indonesia's 2.4 billion US dollar compensation claim over a major oil spill off Australia's north which campaigners say hit the livelihoods of

Markus Junianto Sihaloho, Jakarta – Lawmakers on Friday gave tacit support to the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights' request for an additional Rp 3.5 trillion ($389 million) to build

Nivell Rayda, Jakarta – Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle officials on Friday demanded answers from antigraft investigators who have named 14 current and former party lawmakers as

AI Index: ASA 21/019/2010

Armando Siahaan, Jakarta – A survey released on Wednesday by a political research institution confirmed what many already believe to be true: that the public sees current lawmakers as h

Armando Siahaan, Jakarta – Two surveys have shown that the public largely agrees with the view of the major political parties that a reduced number of factions in the House of Represent

Jakarta – The development of a recreational center within a new parliamentary building, the construction of which is due to begin in October, was never decided on by any House of Repres

Ismira Lutfia, Jakarta – Warnings to improve televisions stations' programing during the fasting month seem to have fallen on deaf ears as violence, obscenity and mysticism continue to

Arghea Desafti Hapsari, Jakarta – The guilty verdict for businessman Anggodo Widjojo should lead prosecutors to drop charges of extortion leveled against two deputy leaders of the Corru

Armando Siahaan, Jakarta – Watchdogs on Wednesday said they were still not satisfied with the draft revision to the 2003 Money Laundering Law, even after lawmakers agreed to expand acce

Nivell Rayda & Anita Rachman, Jakarta – The Corruption Eradication Commission on Wednesday named 26 former and current members of the House of Representatives suspects for allegedly

Putri Prameshwari, Jakarta – The law on freedom of information received its first major test on Wednesday when an antigraft watchdog reported the education minister for failing to discl

Jakarta – Far from the glamor connected to international commemorations, families of victims of forced disappearances and gross human rights violations gathered to mark the Internationa

Palu, Central Sulawesi – Indonesian police opened fire and killed five people when an angry mob attacked their station with firebombs in a protest over the death of a man in custody, po

Zoe Kenny, Yogyakarta – The beach-side town of Parangtritis, on the southern coast of Yogyakarta, is currently the site of a protracted and bitter struggle over land between the local g

Vivi Widyawati, Jakarta – Around 800 demonstrators from the National Movement for the Cancellation of Basic Electricity Rate Hikes and the Reduction of Prices held a protest action at t

Arghea Desafti Hapsari, Jakarta – Human rights activists have described Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali's proposal to disband the Ahmadiyah congregation as a "setback" and a

"The greatest threat facing the US is the tyranny of the majority," penned nineteenth-century French writer Alexis de Tocqueville in Democracy in America.

Dessy Sagita & Anita Rachman, Jakarta – Aghast by Religious Affairs Minister Suryadharma Ali's controversial statements advocating the banning of the Ahmadiyah sect, a number of non