Robert Go, Jakarta – Foreign donors make this a merry season for the cash-strapped Indonesian government.

Andi Hajramurni and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Makassar/Jakarta – A soldier and a policeman were wounded on Thursday in shoot-outs between troops and police in the town of Palopo, Luwu rege

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – The Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD) announced some big names among the 36 candidates that qualified for the Regional Representatives Council (DP

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – While the news this week that the European Union, the US and Canada are to end the current textile quota system to meet a World Trade Organization ruling is a sev

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – The World Bank has announced an ambitious new lending program for Indonesia where money will go to organisations or local governments that can show they have ta

Jakarta – The 2004 general election are expected to become an arena for the restoration or recycling of the old powers from the New Order [regime of former President Suharto] who are ge

The World Bank announced plans to boost lending to Indonesia to help lift millions out of poverty but said much of the extra aid depends on greater efforts to fight rampant corruption a

Dewi Santoso, Jakarta – With HIV/AIDS emerging as an increasingly ominous threat, the government appears to lack concrete plans to fight the virus, non-governmental organization activis

Indonesia's dilapidated infrastructure poses a greater threat to human life than terrorism and will hamper long-term growth unless there is urgent new investment, the World Bank says.

Jakarta – As the globe commemorates World AIDS Day on December 1, Indonesia's response continues to remain dangerously slow while millions of its people continue to obliviously engage i

Sandy Darmosumarto, Jakarta – The lack of financial institutions in the eastern part of Indonesia is the main reason for the state-owned pawnshop company Perum Pegadaian to further expa

Evi Mariani, Jakarta – Hundreds of evicted fishermen and their families living along the banks of the Muara Angke river in North Jakarta will again be forced to move, as the Jakarta adm

Irvan NR, Palu – Four people were killed in two separate attacks on a single village in the Central Sulawesi town of Poso over the weekend, apparently targeting Balinese migrants.

Robert Go, Jakarta – The latest Indonesian banking scandal, in which hundreds of millions of dollars disappeared into thin air, may seem like a run-of-the-mill bank-fraud case, but besi

Ian Timberlake, Jakarta – On paper Indonesia doesn't have much of a problem with HIV and AIDS.

Ben Terrall – George W.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Contrary to the general fear that security issues could be the major threat to the success of the 2004 general elections in Papua, a local election offici

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Just when investors might have been thinking it was safe to look at Indonesia a little less skeptically, the biggest banking scandal to hit the country since the

Jakarta – Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri yesterday lashed out at members of her own party, calling them "thugs" who are out of touch with voters – an apparent attempt to rei

Jakarta – Secular-nationalist parties in Indonesia will have the vote of Muslim voters in next year's election.

Jakarta – An influential politician who helped topple Indonesia's previous president explained Thursday why he believes current leader Megawati Soekarnoputri should also go.

Jakarta – The Army's special forces (Kopassus) chief must stand trial for crimes against humanity over a massacre which took place almost 20 years ago, the country's human rights court

Jakarta – A plenary meeting of the House of Representatives endorsed on Thursday 13 bills on the creation of 24 new regencies in 13 provinces into law.

Indonesia could become a world-class mining country but new investors are steering clear because of legal uncertainty and red tape, according to an annual survey of the industry.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Indonesia's director general of taxation, Hadi Purnomo, under strong pressure to increase income tax receipts, has responded by using gijzeling – the Dutch term f

Jakarta – Approved foreign investment in Indonesia rose sharply in the first ten months of this year to US$9.31 billion from $6.81 billion a year earlier, the National Investment Coordi

Jakarta – The proposed resumption of marine sand exports to Malaysia and Singapore is part of a certain political party's scheme to raise funds for its 2004 general election campaign, a

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Experts have expressed concern that a planned Truth and Reconciliation Commission will serve as a legal whitewash of past gross human rights abuses, allowing p

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Thousands of troops were deployed to Poso in Central Sulawesi yesterday as residents braced themselves for more violence following reports of murder and unrest

ID Nugroho, Malang – Chairman of the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW) Teten Masduki proposed that both Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah issue election guides suggesting followers

ID Nugroho and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Surabaya/Jakarta – Nahdlatul Ulama chairman Hasyim Muzadi called for a moral movement to eradicate corruption because the law had proven toothless.

Jakarta – Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) chairman Hasyim Muzadi criticized the country's security authorities for issuing repeated warnings of possible disturbances ahead of the 2004 elections, s

Irvan NR, Palu – Poso Police headquarters was besieged on Sunday by thousands of people protesting the death of terrorist suspect Hamid Sudin, who was shot and killed by police attempti

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Indonesia's House of Representatives, now debating privatizing the country's water supply, should probably take a close look at the one place in the nation where

Sidney Jones (Dow Jones Newswires) – Indonesians are not happy with the war against terrorism, despite the success of their police in fighting it, primarily because they don't trust the

Keith Andrew Bettinger, Washington – The unilateralism and anti-terror policies of the United States are increasingly damaging its relations with the largest Muslim nation in the world,

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Beleaguered by the unpopular policies that prompted many of its cadres to join other parties, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuanga

Otto Syamsuddin Ishak, Sociologist, Jakarta – The government has prioritized the extension of martial law over an evaluation of achievements made in the last six months.

Jakarta – TNI (armed forces) chief General Endriartono Sutarto has asserted that the TNI are not soldiers for hire.

M.

Dewi Santoso, Jakarta – In less than two months, dozens of squatters living under a section of Pluit-Cawang overpass toll road in North Jakarta will not only lose their makeshift tents

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Irked by allegations of involvement in numerous human rights abuses, spokesmen from the Indonesian Military (TNI) expressed on Tuesday their opposition to a tr

Jakarta – Two witnesses of the bloody 1984 Tanjung Priok incident withdrew on Tuesday their written and signed statements in the dossier against defendant Maj. Gen. (ret) Pranowo.

Dadan Wijaksana and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – While at first it was deemed solely a run-of-the-mill scam confined to the banking sector, the Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) scandal has now

Tiarma Siboro and Teuku Agam Muzakkir, Jakarta/Lhokseumawe – Hundreds of protesters from the country's two troubled provinces took to the streets on Saturday to demand for an end to mar

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Medan – An investigation by the Leuser Management Unit (UML) concluded over the weekend that the recent flash flood that swept through a North Sumatran resort t

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – Samani, a man in his late 40s, works as a night guard at the Jakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH Jakarta).

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Legal and human rights leaders deplored a threat by two civilian security groups, who are apparently linked with Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob

Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia's second-largest political party, Golkar, is working behind the scenes to turn the recent deadly clash between its cadres and supporters of President Mega

Moch. N.