Jakarta – More than 1,000 workers at an Indonesian household appliances company were laid off after staging a nine-day protest in the eastern city of Surabaya to demand pay rises, legal aid officers and press reports said Wednesday.

Jakarta – An Indonesian rights groups on Wednesday alleged that a military court martial of 11 officers was being rigged to avoid prosecuting a son-in-law of former president Suharto, a release said.

Dili – Four people have been killed and five wounded in separate incidents in the East Timor districts of Maubara and Balibo, a top East Timorese resistance official told Lusa Tuesday.

[The following is a translation by US based human rights activist, John Rossa, of reports from the Diocesan Justice and Peace Commission in Dili, East Timor.]

Bandung – Student leaders agreed on Sunday after a three-day meeting to support the upcoming general election, which they have deemed unfair for being based on defective political laws, as they said to call off the election would lead to more trouble.

Canberra – Irian Jaya's expectations of self determination had been raised by a softening of Indonesia's stance on East Timor, a leading church official said today.

Executive member of the World Council of Churches, Clement John, said he had perceived a definite change in expectation in a recent trip to Irian Jaya.

Nusa Dua – Indonesia has agreed to allow Australia to reopen a consulate in East Timor as part of a push to settle the future of the troubled territory, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Wednesday.

Jeremy Wagstaff, Legok – The inhabitants of this flyblown hamlet are angry. They are angry about rising prices, the lack of jobs, and lingering government corruption, says village headman Effendi bin Musa. They are even annoyed with the ineffectiveness of Mr. Effendi himself, he concedes. But what really made the feathers fly was the price of chickens.

Jonathan Head, Ambon – One man has been killed and seven injured on the Indonesian island of Ambon after the security forces opened fire during renewed inter-religious fighting.

The clash broke out after two Muslim-owned houses were burnt down in the city of Ambon.

Jakarta – An Indonesian military court on Monday sentenced four soldiers to between 24 and 30 months jail for torturing civilian detainees in Aceh province, a report said.

Jakarta – A son of former President Suharto has been charged with corruption, along with a former senior official and another businessman, an Indonesian official said Monday.

Jakarta – A mass fight between two neighbouring villages in West Java left one man dead, eight others injured and more than 100 houses damaged, a report said here Monday.

The fight between people from Danamulya and Kedungsana villages in the Cirebon district on the northern coast of West Java erupted on Friday, the Suara Karya daily said.

Jakarta – Politicians, public figures and university rectors in Central Java have recommended that parties be permitted to campaign on campuses in the run-up to the June 7 general election.

The agreement was reached in a discussion at Amanda Hotel in Bandungan city over the weekend. It was attended by representatives of 112 universities in the province.

Ujungpandang – Regional police chiefs in Indonesia will be sacked if they defy an order from Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) Commander General Wiranto to shoot rioters and criminals on the spot, says an official.

National Police Chief General Roesmanhadi yesterday said all military personnel must obey all instructions issued by their superiors.

Kasa – About 1,500 pro-Indonesian demonstrators rallied Monday in East Timor to voice their support for autonomy and rejection of independence for the troubled territory.

Tensions have been rising in the former Portuguese colony amid fears of an escalation in fighting between groups that want to stay part of Indonesia or break away from it.

Jakarta – Scores of Indonesian students held a vigil at a university here Sunday to mark 100 days after the violent shooting of student demonstrators late last year.

Jakarta – Underscoring its high-profile role in the country, the Indonesian military has warned it would not tolerate any attempt to disrupt upcoming elections and told workers that instead of staging protests, they should help maintain security and order.

Jakarta – Indonesia's minister of economy, industry and finance has clarified Jakarta's position on the Timor Gap, a potentially oil-rich offshore region, saying that "if East Timor chooses to separate from Indonesia, then the Gap region will automatically belong to East Timor".

Che Guevara once said that a crucial problem for armed guerrillas was the ability to survive and keep a check on their bevahiour. This humane aspect of the guerrilla struggle is an integral part of the 23 year struggle of the Falintil guerrillas.

Stephen Vines, Hong Kong – Britain has offered to send troops and money to East Timor for a United Nations-sponsored peace-keeping force. The troops would be deployed in the event of an Indonesian withdrawal, which might take place by the end of this year.

The fact that many Indonesians look in quite a jovial mood these days does not mean that the devastating economic crisis has ended. They simply say they have a jocular topic in their daily conversation: the leakage of a telephone conversation between President B.J. Habibie and Attorney General Andi M.

The children of East Timor, far from being the hope for the future, may be the problem. Louise Williams travelled to a country suddenly on the verge of independence to find a generation schooled in violence.

Atika Shubert, Dili – Civil war, 23 years of Indonesian military occupation and more than 300 years of Portuguese colonialism have bequeathed an unexpected boon to the tiny territory of East Timor, and one that may be the key to its hotly debated independence: some of the world's most sought after coffee beans.

Dili – At least 250 members of the People's Security (Kamra) force who have just completed their training will be posted in six police districts (Polres) in East Timor, a police spokesman said.

Jakarta – Indonesian police in the troubled province of East Timor will open registration for a second batch of 250 civilian militiamen to assist its operations there, the Antara news agency said Saturday.

Jakarta – The basic minimum wage in Indonesia's 27 provinces is to be raised an average 16.1 percent from April 1, reports said Friday.

However, companies that could not afford the raise should apply for a postponment, the director general for industrial relations and labour supervision, Syaufii Syamsuddin, was quoted by the Kompas daily as saying.

Jakarta – After more than two weeks of investigation directly following the unrest, the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) has concluded that the January 19- 23 Ambon riots were, as widely suspected, engineered.

Jenny Grant, Jakarta – A transcript of an alleged telephone conversation between President Bacharuddin Habibie and Attorney-General Andi Ghalib published yesterday suggests the graft investigation focusing on ex-president Suharto is a farce.

Andrew Marshall, Jakarta – Indonesia is in the grip of an economic paralysis that cannot be broken until its debt-ridden, capital-starved companies can escape the straitjacket of their ruinous foreign liabilities.

Jakarta – Indonesia's Parliament passed a law aimed at stamping out monopolies, cartels and other restrictive competitive practices.

The antimonopoly law, which must be ratified by President B.J. Habibie before it comes into force, will regulate mergers and acquisitions, and limit the amount of market share one company can attain.

Hong Kong – Nobel peace laureate Jose Ramos Horta said on Friday he had received commitments from Portugal and other Western nations to help finance East Timor's transition to independence.

Balibo – Thousands of pro-Indonesian East Timorese vowed Friday to defend the troubled territory's integration with Indonesia.

"Integration for us is an independence that will lead the East Timor people to prosperity," said a declaration issued during the rally in Balibo, a town near Bobonaro, which is 165 kilometers west of the provincial capital of Dili.

Canberra – Australian diplomats in Indonesia have warned in a series of confidential diplomatic cables that an independent East Timor would collapse into chaos and violence, according to a newspaper report on Friday.

Dan Murphy, Barro Pite – Martinho Fernandes stands four-square like an ageing middleweight, takes a pull on his beer and declares that he doesn't want to fight--but will if he feels he has to. And he may get that feeling. The 52-year-old civil servant leads a group of East Timorese who favour integration with Indonesia.

Jakarta – Dozens of students protested at the Indonesian military headquarters and the National Strategic Planning Board Thursday over the military's role in politics and alleged corruption in the use of foreign loans.

Jakarta – An Indonesian soldier Thursday told a military court here that more than nine activists had been kidnapped by troops in the last months of the Suharto regime.

Jakarta – Panicked Indonesian security forces shot a nun in the neck on Thursday as they tried to disperse a crowd in the eastern spice islands after a bomb blast, police and witnesses said.

Jakarta – Opposition presidential hopeful Amien Rais has called on several Indonesian parties, mostly Moslem, to unite to prevent the return of current President Habibie to power later this year, newspapers reported Thursday.

Surabaya – More than 10,000 workers gathered outside a large electronics and plastics factory in Surabaya, East Java, Thursday as their campaign for better working conditions entered its sixth day.

Surabaya – After days of mass protests by workers demanding better working conditions, the owners and management of a giant electronic and household gods factory in Indonesia Thursday announced it was willing to meet the demand of employees.

Jakarta – The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said here Wednesday he had appealed to Indonesia to allow it to immediately step up its presence in East Timor, citing disturbing new tensions there.

Jakarta – About 500 people rallied outside the attorney general's office Wednesday in a protest against a corruption investigation of former President Suharto.

The protesters said Suharto, who quit last May amid riots and protests against his authoritarian rule, was innocent and had been framed by his opponents. Suharto, 77, has denied any wrongdoing.

Jakarta – Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas on Wednesday assured investors they would not lose out if East Timor became independent and the Timor Gap oil agreement had to be renegotiated.

"If East Timor finally becomes independent, this matter would have to be renegotiated because the Timor Gap is just south of East Timor," Alatas told journalists at the state Palace.

Jakarta – A teenager died in a violent clash between pro-independence and pro-Indonesian youth groups in the troubled territory of East Timor, the second victim of such clashes there this week, a report said Wednesday.

Jakarta – The Peoples Democratic Party (PRD) has decided to participate in the 1999 elections. The Chairperson of the Central Leadership Council of the Peoples Democratic Party (KPP-PRD), Faizol Reza, announced this at a press conference held in the offices of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) on Tuesday afternoon, February 16.

[The following is a transcript of interview by ABC radio, Asia Pacific's Peter Mares.]

Evidence that Indonesian authorities are indeed honouring their pledge to allow jailed East Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmao free access to the international media.

Jakarta – President BJ Habibie yesterday revealed, for the first time, military movements launched by Lieut.-Gen. [ret] Prabowo Subianto on May 22 last year following the downfall of former President Soeharto, Prabowo's father-in-law.

Jakarta – Indonesia will sponsor East Timor as a member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) if the troubled territory opts for independence, a senior official said here Tuesday.

Dewi Fortuna Anwar, foreign affairs advisor to President B.J.Habibie said it would be "in Indonesia's interests" if the former Portuguese colony joined the regional grouping.

Jakarta – Four junior Indonesian army officers undergoing a court martial for a series of kidnappings admitted on Tuesday abducting political activists in the last months of the Suharto regime.

Jakarta – The Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security, Faisal Tanjung, said that it was not inconceivable that civil emergency law would be instituted if rioting was to continue. Even so, according to Tanjung, President Habibie still refused to decide on initiating emergency law despite a number of his ministers supporting the idea.