Pekanbaru – Margarine, lipstick, ice cream, shampoo, chocolate – all use palm oil as a crucial ingredient but with booming demand, the plantations are swallowing up forests, a conferenc

We may have good reason to congratulate ourselves for the peace in Aceh, which has now lasted for six months, the longest in decades, but we must never forget the role played by our int

David Costello – If our leaders were to have a collective brain meltdown and press Jakarta over Papua, the regional fallout would be dramatic

The government, in refraining from forcing its will on Papuans in the protracted dispute over the status of West Irian Jaya, seems to have learned from the past.

Charles Scheiner – Imagine a vast land mass, laden with gold and timber and populated only by a few "primitive" tribes.

[Talk by Scott Burchill, senior lecturer in international relations, Deakin University Forum for West Papua, RMIT University, Victoria, Australia, February 15, 2006.]

Soeryo Winoto, Jakarta – "He who knows not that he knows not is a fool, shun him!" That's the old saying for ignorant people who are not aware of their ignorance, but instead believe th

Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso has become obsessed with the idea that the megalopolitan concept of development is the answer to the capital's numerous long-standing problems.

The installation this week of Marshal Djoko Suyanto, previously chief of the air force, as head of Indonesia's armed forces made front-page news.

Roy Tupai – Former East Timorese pro-Indonesia militia leader Eurico Guterres, currently appealing his five-year jail sentence for crimes against humanity, has been elected chairman of

Sian Powell, Tampak Siring, Bali – The presidents of East Timor and Indonesia agreed yesterday to publicly ignore the conclusions of a damning UN-sanctioned report that found Jakarta co

Overprescribed and overpriced.

There is no doubt that almost nobody in Indonesia openly agrees with pornography.

Thousands of officials and politicians across the country, including 200 executives of state companies, are currently embroiled in corruption investigations, as the government escalates

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Playboy magazine, which was due to make its debut in Indonesia next month, is at the center of a growing anti-pornography debate in Indonesia.

The uproar over the cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad has yet to blow over.

What the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten did in September was absurd. It failed to exercise self-restraint or consider what is fit to print.

Hugh White – In Jakarta, they fear that one of their worst nightmares may be coming to life.

Carla Bianpoen, Contributor, Jakarta – Both the Helsinki Accord and the BRR (Aceh and Nias Rehabilitation and Reconstruction Agency) are failing to include women, says Samsidar, Nobel P

The Socialist Alliance calls on the federal Coalition government and the ALP opposition to learn the lesson of East Timor in relation to West Papua.

Joseph Nevins, New York – The logic of reparations for war-related crimes has a long history.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Indonesia has scored a major victory in the war on corruption after the return to the country of a crooked banker who fled before being sentenced in absentia to e

The government submitted the final draft of its Aceh government bill to the House of Representatives on Thursday, a major step following the historic peace agreement signed in Helsinki

Infrastructure development can be dilemmatic at times.

Aboeprijadi Santoso, Brussels, Helsinki – A reception on Jan.

Aguswandi, Banda Aceh – The fundamental problem facing Muslims and others seeking to understand Islam is not that there are too many versions of Islam.

Australia's enthusiastic embrace of Indonesian democracy overlooks the bleak truth that sweeping political reforms in Jakarta falter when powerful vested interests stand in the way.

Sian Powell's exclusive report on atrocities against the people of East Timor during the 24 years of Indonesian occupation, published in The Australianyesterday, was grim reading, detai

Throughout history there are examples of relatively minor incidents having far-reaching consequences.

An American teacher has survived a traumatic experience in Papua in which her husband was killed, and has returned here in a bid to speed up the search for justice for herself and the o

The welcome resolution of East Timor's dispute with Australia over oil and gas revenue from the Timor Sea means about $150,000 for every man, woman and child in the recently independent

As reported in this paper, hundreds of containers containing goods meant for Aceh tsunami survivors have been languishing in Indonesian ports for at least nine months.

The current furor over rice imports flared up when late last year the trade minister gave clearance to the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) to import over 70,000 tons of rice to supplemen

Olle Tornquist, Oslo – Donors often say that the major obstacle in the post-tsunami relief and reconstruction work is poor co-ordination of the organizations involved.

Freeport-McMoRan, an American company that operates a giant open-pit copper and gold mine in Papua, is a major contributor to Indonesia's economy.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Despite the precious little progress the Indonesian Military (TNI) has achieved in the area of internal reform, it has does have something to be proud this year

For thousands of East Java residents, the new year had a nightmarish beginning. Like a thief in the night, flash floods and landslides rudely awoke residents late on Sunday night.

Sometimes, it's the little things that count.

Gary Brown – One can only boggle at the folly of the Federal Government's decision to resume co-operation with the Indonesian Special Forces unit, Kopassus.

Tom Benedetti, Vancouver – The attention that the tsunami brought to the previously overlooked conflict in the Indonesian province of Aceh is contributing to an end to three decades of

The first phase of the Aceh peace agreement ended pretty much on schedule before the turn of the year. The Indonesian Military (TNI) withdrew the last of its non-local troops.

This time last year, we ended 2004 on an extremely subdued note.

Lisabona Rahman and Paul F.

In one tsunami-devastated area of Aceh, a visitor asked a medical team, "Where are the midwives?" There were none, while only a few weeks after last December's tragedy, an official with

John McBeth – It was five years ago.

The murderer of Munir has been found guilty. Pending his appeal, Pollycarpus B.

Jeff Kingston – The legacies of Indonesia's brutal occupation of East Timor from 1975 to 1999 – when there were at least 102,800 conflict-related deaths – remain divisive in this small,

John McBeth – The commission formed to investigate human rights abuses during Indonesia's bloody 25-year occupation of the former East Timor, now Timor Leste, has just issued its report

The reports coming out of Papua about a famine that has taken the lives of 55 people since November punctuate the suffering of a country still reeling from the recent fuel price increas

Adirito de Jesus Soares, Dili – This week marks the 30th anniversary of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, with the people of East Timor organizing different activities to commemora