Carmel Budiardjo – Three events in the past couple of weeks point to a new strategy by the ABRI leadership in projecting a different image for the armed forces in post-Suharto Indonesia:

Following a flood of complaints from people in Aceh about years of unrestricted abuses by the security forces and reports of the discovery of nearly a dozen mass graves, the armed forces commander, General Wiranto, made an unscheduled 12-hour visit to Aceh on Friday to accounce the ending of special military operations in the region and the withdrawal of "non-organic" troops from th

Fourteen non-governmental organisations in Aceh have issued a joint statement in response to the decision announced two weeks ago by the armed forces commander, General Wiranto, to end Aceh's status as a military operational region, to withdraw non-organic troops from the region, and to make an apology for the past actions of Indonesian troops in the region.

Jakarta – The mass media has recorded the establishment of 56 new political parties since government restrictions were lifted in the aftermath of Soeharto's resignation. Some have been registered with the Ministry of Home Affairs and some have not.

Jakarta – The armed forces promised Friday to begin removing troops from Aceh province, where the military has been accused of killing thousands of people suspected of being separatists in the last decade. The defense minister and armed forces commander, Gen.

Jakarta – Indonesia's armed forces are readying to step in to protect the country's businesses from looters and thieves as reports mount of people driven to pillage through desperation.

Joyce Teo, Singapore – To stave off severe food shortages in Indonesia during the coming months, the country is importing ever-increasing amounts of rice, mostly with the help of foreign countries, agricultural analysts and industry sources told Dow Jones Newswires.

Jakarta – A rights organization Friday said it suspected Indonesian military involvement in the disappearance of five people after a bloody pro-independence demonstration early last month which left one dead in the remote province of Irian Jaya.

Jakarta – A group of Muslim students staged a protest at the defense ministry Friday, demanding new investigations into a riot that left more than a dozen Muslims dead in the Indonesian capital 14 years ago.

Jenny Grant, Jakarta – Local leaders yesterday rejected a breakthrough agreement to discuss autonomy for their province which they said sidestepped demands for a referendum and the release of jailed resistance leader Xanana Gusmao.

A representative of the Forum of Concern for Human Rights in Aceh, in a three-day visit to Pidie, North and East Aceh had brought to light 800 cases of atrocities which took place during the period of the military operational designation of the region, including thirty which are particularly gruesome.

Melbourne – Former Indonesian political prisoner and democracy advocate Sri Bintang Pamungkas said on Thursday his party would contest general elections expected next year, questioning whether new President B.J. Habibie could break the legacy of the former Suharto regime.

Jakarta – A group of retired generals, former Cabinet ministers and senior politicians pledged Thursday to struggle for more democracy in Indonesia as a united front. The group, calling itself "Barisan Nasional," or national front, declared that a major aim would be to weaken the influence of the ruling Golkar party in the government.

Shoeb Kagda, Surabaya – On the road leading into the town centre from the airport, Surabaya's economic decline is starkly visible. On both sides of the road, rows and rows of small shops are shuttered and closed two months after bloody riots and looting brought the city to its knees.

Surabaya – Thousands of people in East Java armed with knives, sticks and metal chains blocked a planned visit yesterday by Muslim leader Amien Rais to a town near Indonesia's second city of Surabaya, residents said.

Alcina Monteiro, Lisbon – East Timor resistance leader Jose Ramos-Horta on Wednesday welcomed a deal between Portugal and Indonesia to open talks on autonomy for the Indonesian-occupied territory, but he cautioned that any final accord would need to be put to a referendum.

Jakarta – Eight soldiers have been identified as suspects by an army investigation into the fatal shooting of a student at a pro-independence rally in Indonesias province of Irian Jaya, the official Antara news agency said on Wednesday.

Jakarta – Indonesian legislators have urged the government and the armed forces to end military operations in Aceh and withdraw combat troops from the province in northern Sumatra, news reports said on Wednesday.

Jenny Grant, Jakarta – The armed forces have systematically violated human rights in the province of Aceh and should be brought to justice, a member of a fact-finding team said yesterday.

Andrew Marshall, Jakarta – Nearly half of Indonesias children have failed to enrol for the new school year as deepening poverty forces more parents to put their children to work, the countrys education minister said on Wednesday.

Indonesia's crippled companies can draw little comfort from this week's launch of an agency to help restructure their crushing foreign debts, analysts say – they need hefty debt write-offs, not just rescheduling, to save them.

Jenny Grant, Jakarta – The once-untouchable Indonesian general and son-in-law of the former president Soeharto, Lieutenant-General Prabowo Subianto, will be called before a military inquiry for his alleged role in a series of kidnappings, the military announced yesterday.

Several leading human rights activists have expressed their dismay with the decision of the armed forces commander in chief, General Wiranto, to set up a military Honour Council, DKP, to investigate Lieutenant-General Prabowo and two other top-ranking officers, all connected with the army's elite force, Kopassus, in connection with the abduction of activists.

Mantik Kusjanto, Jakarta – Indonesia in July posted its second highest monthly inflation rate this year with prices jumping 68.72 percent on a year-on-year basis as latest figures showed a further slowdown in trade.

When he took the reins from Suharto in May, B.J. Habibie was generally viewed as a short-term, transitional President. Since then, he has confounded the skeptics by spearheading political reforms that depart radically from the policies of his predecessor.

Jakarta – City Military commander Maj. Gen. Djadja Suparman has warned Jakartans of the existence of certain parties who have been attempting to spread rumors and terror in the capital to create social unrest.

Vienna – A massive inflow of foreign money early this year supports suggestions that former Indonesian President Suharto moved billions of dollars to Austrian banks shortly before his downfall, an Austrian business newspaper has said.

According to an Antara report published in Waspada on 2 August, fourteen bodies have been discovered in a mass grave on Sanglang Island in the Sunda Strait. News of the discovery of these bodies has spread to people in the districts of Serang and Cilegon, West Java. It is thought that they may be the bodies of the fourteen activists still believed to be missing.

Jakarta – Rebels struggling for independence for East Timor say they will continue to fight Indonesian troops despite fresh diplomatic efforts to bring peace to the troubled territory.

Indonesia's chief of police, Lt. General Roesmanhadi has announced that all expressions of opinion through demonstrations, rallies, public meetings and announcements in the mass media or through the Internet by persons or groups that fail to notify the police in advance will be dispersed and regarded as unlawful.

Many hundreds of people in Aceh are now coming forward to give evidence of disappearances, killings and torture during the time the region has been designated as a 'military operational district'. The following information is taken from a report in an Acehnese daily, Serambi Indonesia, 29 July 1998:

Jakarta, Cindy Shiner – Defense Secretary William S. Cohen arrived here tonight on his first visit to Indonesia since violent upheavals in May ended three decades of authoritarian rule and forced the military to come to terms with its role in a freer and more modern society.

Sander Thoenes, Jakarta – Indonesian parliamentarians have found seven mass graves in the province of Aceh, according to a report on Friday in a prominent newspaper. The graves are the most dramatic discovery following recent revelations of human rights abuses allegedly committed by the government of former president Suharto.

Andreas Harsono, Dili – The most likely transition from being only a "province" of Indonesia to being either an independent state or an autonomous area would pose enormous challenges for the relatively small East Timor.

Jakarta – Mystery surrounds a missing student activist who apparently turned up alive and well in the southern Philippines, with officials and his family saying he may not be the man they are looking for.

Jenny Grant, Dili – East Timorese are either watching or being watched. Residents say the "Mauhu", the network of spies linked to the military, are monitoring every office, home and church in the troubled territory. At night markets, they swarm to overhear private conversations, keep tabs on locals and offer foreigners free motorbike rides in exchange for scraps of information.

Sydney – Three Indonesian secret police (SGI) thugs in civilian clothes gunned down East Timorese student leader, Pedro Arazjo, 24, outside his home in Dili early on Thursday, according to Timorese separatist leaders. Family members told how the three gunmen banged on the Arazjo family home door in the Dili suburb of Bairro Pite at about two o'clock in the morning.

Jakarta - Reports on the rape of Chinese Indonesian women during the widespread rioting last May have been baffling the people as these reports lack proof, an observer here has said.

Jakarta – The leaders of 11 political groupings have formed an opposition forum to prevent a victory by the ruling Golkar party in the next elections in 1999, newspapers quoted leaders of the political groups as saying. "A Golkar victory should be prevented, Golkar should the halted, rather than let the state be ruined," Ridwan Saidi, head of the Masyumi Baru Party, said.

Jakarta – Around one hundred people from the People's Democratic Party (PRD), Papuan People's and the East Timore People's jointly demonstrated in front of the offices of the Minister of Justice on Thursday, July 31. They demanded that the government immediately release all political prisoners without conditions.

John McBeth, Jakarta - Just a few months ago, Badan Urusan Logistik Nasional was the government-run monopoly everyone loved to hate. As late as April, the logistics agency for basic foodstuffs, better known as Bulog, was the prime example of all that was wrong with doing business in Suharto's Indonesia.

Jakarta – Jailed East Timorese rebel leader Xanana Gusmao met Thursday in a Jakarta jail with Theo Syafei, the man who arrested him, to discuss the future of the former Portuguese colony.

Sander Thoenes – Customers at Maria Olandina Alves's little bamboo eatery get a spoonful of outspoken views on the latest news in East Timor included with the meal.

Jakarta – Church officials and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) expressed their belief yesterday that a number of bodies found recently near Biak island, Irian Jaya, might be related to the military's shooting on pro-independence activists earlier this month.

Sydney – The United States is encouraging Indonesia's military to exercise restraint as the embattled Asian country copes with financial meltdown and social unrest, Defense Secretary William Cohen said Thursday.

Carol Giacomo, Sydney – Conditions in financially embattled Indonesia are expected to worsen significantly by the year's end, according to US and Asian officials. Some of the estimates go far beyond current projections, fanning fears that the world's most populous Moslem nation faces starvation and could implode.

Paris – Here are the main points of the statement issued by the World Bank after some 30 donor countries and international organisations agreed here on Thursday to provide 7.9 billion dollars to Indonesia:

Indonesia began its much publicised troop withdrawal from East Timor yesterday but the army immediately announced they would be replaced.

Banda Aceh – Non-governmental organisations (NGO) have told a parliamentary group investigating violence in this autonomous Indonesian region that some 600 women had been raped over the past seven years, many allegedly by the military.

Jakarta – The Irianese community in Jakarta called on President B.J, Habibie yesterday to grant immediate autonomy to their home province and accused the central government of failing to bring prosperity to their territory.