Sadanand Dhume, Yogyakarta, Bandung and Jakarta – At first glance, there's nothing extraordinary about the small religious school outside Yogyakarta in central Java. Its mosque is a modest affair. The scrawny chickens strutting about in the dirt could belong in any Asian village. And the lush green vegetation all around is common on this fertile island.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Jaded residents here are going about their business as usual despite the looming threat of unrest as politicians and their supporters head for a showdown next Monday.

By Susan Sim, Jakarta – Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri is not fully convinced that Parliament has sound constitutional reasons to impeach President Abdurrahman Wahid on the basis of the second censure that it is set to slap on him next Monday.

Robert Go, Jakarta – An IMF review team slipped out of Jakarta late Tuesday night without resolving its stalled US$5-billion bailout programme here, signalling the agency's lack of confidence in the government and leaving the economy in a path towards a meltdown.

Robert Go, Jakarta – The Indonesian government appears keen to show that there is little "legal certainty" for foreign investors in the country, even after warnings from international donors that further loans would be tied to, among other things, reform measures for the judiciary.

Jakarta – Up to US$300 million of mining investments in Indonesia are caught in legal limbo because of a new ban on mining in protected forests, said the Indonesian Mining Association (IMA).

Some 120 mining firms own exploration permits in forests which are now protected, and they may have to abandon their investments in these areas, said IMA official Paul Coutrier.

Jakarta – Indonesia received a symbolic boost of confidence from donor countries yesterday, but was told in clear terms that further funds will be tied to definitive progress on several key reform issues.

Sibylle Kaczorek – In a country oppressed for 400 years by colonial Portugal, then brutalised by 24 years of Indonesian military rule, and now suffering from dire poverty, the issues of women have long been considered secondary. But now East Timor's socialists are seeking to tackle women's oppression.

Tanya Vanaja, Dili – East Timor's social and political tensions may boil over into violence during elections scheduled for August, the country's first since it gained freedom from Indonesian military rule in 1999.

Mark Dodd, Dili – About 300 East Timorese supporters of a pro-independence party protested outside the United Nations headquarters in Dili yesterday.

Despite the UN banning weapons in public on Monday, more than 70 supporters dressed in traditional attire and brandished swords. Police did not try to disarm the protesters.

The President of ASDT-Fretilin Francisco Xavier do Amaral said East Timorese from 12 districts were in Dili to deliver their aspirations to UNTAET that the Republic of Democratic Timor Leste was already proclaimed on 28 November 1975.

Vaudine England, Jogyakarta – Hundreds of people are signing up for membership of a new anti-communist front at the head office of the Golkar political party, organisers claim.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Indonesia is in a mess. The rupiah is sliding, the economy is in a rut and more violence is forecast. For the ordinary man, life could never have been more miserable. Why? It's because of the politicians!

Jakarta – A flag of the separatist South Maluku Republic (RMS) was Wednesday briefly flown in Ambon the capital of Indonesia's Maluku province before police took it down, a participant and a report said.

Lindsay Murdoch, Viqueque – Madalena Soares fought back tears as she told how her 12-year-old daughter Cesaltina was stolen.

It was late 1999 – she can't remember the exact date because of the trauma of fleeing East Timor – when Octavio Soares came to see her in a refugee camp in Indonesian West Timor, where she found herself with three of her four children.

Jakarta – Four thieves attacked and stabbed the Australian-born wife of East Timor independence hero Xanana Gusmao on Tuesday in the latest in a string of violent robberies in the impoverished territory, an official said.

Mark Dodd, Dili – East Timor's de facto parliament was hit yesterday with the resignation of a second high-profile political leader in less than a month.

Marianne Kearney, Pangkalanbun – Indonesia's new Forestry Minister, Mr Marzuki Usman, said after touring forests in Kalimantan that he was shocked by the breakneck speed at which the country's parks were being destroyed.

Banda Aceh – Independence fighters in the Indonesian state of Aceh pledged Sunday that they were ready for all-out resistance against new government troops being sent to the region.

The Free Aceh Movement (GAM), which has been fighting for independence for the last 25 years, also warned non-Acehnese to leave the province immediately.

Shinta M Sinaga/Fitri & HY, Jakarta – Around six thousands workers are set to march along the streets of Jakarta to celebrate May Day – International Labour Day - on May 1st, 2001. On that day, all employers are urged to give their workers the day off.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Indonesian soldiers were airlifted to the restive province of Aceh yesterday to mark a new phase of a potentially long and bloody guerilla warfare against rebels fighting for an independent state.

Devi Asmarani, Atambua – Tension is running high in this border town 2 1/2 years after the influx of over 200,000 East Timorese who fled the post-ballot violence in their homeland.

The President of CNRT, Xanana Gusmao said Satruday that the success of the general election this year was still the number one priority of CNRT. He said this when talking to reporters on his arrival back from Jakarta.

Jakarta – Indonesia on Monday outlined five key steps to keep its budget deficit at the forecast 3.7 percent of gross domestic product in 2001 amid fears of an uncontrollable blowout.

Jakarta – The Pro-democratic Activists Network (PRODEM) and the Action Study Circle for Indonesian Democracy (LS-ADI) carried out a protest at Jakarta Stock Exchange (BEJ) building today, April 23. They demanded that the IMF, which resides in the JSX building, immediately cancel Indonesian foreign debt that accrued during the era of the New Order government.

Daniel Cooney, Nyaru Menteng – Seven-month-old Nabima often has nightmares. She wakes in the night screaming and crying, says Lone Droscher-Nielsen, who is looking after the little orangutan on Borneo Island.

Jakarta – Over the next two weeks, the Indonesian government will send 200 judges to riot-torn areas such as Aceh, Maluku and Irian Jaya to restore their battered systems of justice.

Jakarta – The chairman of the former ruling Golkar Party, Akbar Tandjung, said on Sunday that Indonesia would get a lot better when the party wins the general election in 2004 and takes control in the country again.

Jakarta – Experts see the announcement of public servants' wealth as a good start in fighting corruption, but say it will take time before any effect is seen.

Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association chairman Hendardi said on Saturday that announcing official's wealth would be useless unless it was followed by investigation.

Kornelius Purba, Jakarta – According to the official data, Vice President Megawati Soekarnoputri is 17 times wealthier than President Abdurrahman Wahid, whose personal assets are valued at Rp 3.5 billion.

Sydney – Nobel peace laureate Bishop Carlos Belo of East Timor appealed Monday for an international tribunal to punish crimes against humanity in his country and help the fledgling nation come to terms with atrocities committed after it voted for independence from Indonesia.

Geraldine Goh, Jakarta – East Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao said new blood is needed to lead his country towards self-rule.

Christiani Tumelap in Atambua and Lindsay Murdoch in Dili – A 16-year-old East Timorese girl allegedly kidnapped as a war prize has defended the notorious militia leader who fathered her son, saying she is "doing just fine" and wants to stay with him and his three de facto wives.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Chief security minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono yesterday advised foreign businesses to start dealing directly with local administrations, in the clearest admission yet that Jakarta's economic sphere of influence would decline as decentralisation kicks in.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – An investigation by a former Australian diplomat, Mr James Dunn, identifies a group of still-serving officers who secretly planned and supervised a campaign of violence to counter a surge of support for independence and then to punish East Timorese for rejecting Indonesia's rule.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – As the East Timorese capital was being looted and burned on a stifling hot day in September 1999, an Indonesian Army officer rushed to the Turismo hotel.

Jakarta – East Timorese leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao insisted on Thursday that overcoming the territory's complex social and economic problems was his most immediate priority, and not the convening of a tribunal to try past human rights abusers.

Banda Aceh – Violence in Indonesia's Aceh province has left at least five people dead since Thursday, hospital staff said.

Jakarta – A policeman and three separatist rebels were killed in the continuing violence in strife-torn Aceh, an official said on Thursday.

Police's Cinta Meunasah II Operation spokesman Comr. Sudarsono said two rebels of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) were shot dead in West Aceh regency of Gagak village in Darul Makmur district on Wednesday.

Dili – UN officials in East Timor Friday distanced themselves from a report that accuses senior Indonesian army generals of masterminding the wave of violence that swept the territory after an independence vote in 1999.

Jakarta – Indonesia's disgraced former military chief General Wiranto Friday accused the country's political leadership of driving the nation to the edge of an abyss and mobilizing personal militias.

Marianne Kearney, Surabaya – Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri's PDI-P party is launching its own counter-offensive to staunch mass violence on the streets, and cleverly projecting the party as the one struggling to hold Indonesia together as President Abdurrahman Wahid again threatened "nationwide rebellion" if the parliament proceeds with impeachment attempts.

Jakarta – A group of influential Muslim clerics and organizations in East Java launched on Thursday the Ukhuwah Islamiyah Forum (FUI) which aims to promote peace and national unity and pledges to prevent President Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid's fanatical followers from thronging the capital.

Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid warned on Thursday of a "nationwide rebellion" against the House of Representatives (DPR) if its attempts to oust him continue.

Speaking at a seminar on the country's future, Abdurrahman added that the DPR's attempt to impeach him was "legally impossible".

Geniva – The United Nations urged Indonesia on Friday to bring those responsible for bloodshed in East Timor to justice and rein in militias intimidating thousands of refugees still in camps.

Jakarta – About 40,000 refugees of the strife-torn North Maluku have returned to their homes in the regencies of Halmahera, Morotai, Bacan and other islands after living for nearly two years in refugee camps.

North Maluku Governor Muhyi Effendie said on Thursday that the refugees – both Muslims and Christians – decided to go home on their own initiative, Antara reported.

Jakarta – A former army commander Friday admitted excesses in the Indonesian military in its handling of separatist movements, and publicly embraced East Timor's independence leader Xanana Gusmao.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Indonesia and the International Monetary Fund broke an impasse over the country's swelling budget deficit problem yesterday, but the obvious solution proposed by the international lender and other aid agencies – lifting generous fuel subsidies – could amount to political suicide for President Abdurrahman Wahid's government.

The head of TNI's Information Center, Air Marshall Graito Usodo said yesterday there was an elite group that was trying to revive nationalistic sentiments in order to "seize back" Timor Lorosae and "annex" it as part of Indonesia.

Air Marshall Graito said this elite group was trying to seek popularity for their cause. But he warned they would not succeed.

Jakarta – Formal support for Megawati Soekarnoputri to replace President Abdurrahman Wahid grew on Wednesday as two house factions stated their political backing for a change of leadership.

Support came from the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the United Development Party (PPP) who separately expressed their desire to see the Vice President succeed Abdurrahman.