Granada, Spain – Indonesia's Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) was awarded the International Press Institute's "Free Media Pioneer '97" prize Monday at the opening of the group's sixth annual meeting.

Today on April 1 the repressive apparatus of the New Order has acted even more brutally against the movement to establish democracy in Indonesia. The Armed Forces ferociously and ruthlessy attacked a HUNGER STRIKE FOR MEGAWATI AND DEMOCRACY being conducted in the Gajah Mada University Boulevarde.

Jakarta – Indonesia's minority parties said yesterday that election funding given by the government was too small to cover campaign costs for the country's May polls.

Jenny Grant, Jakarta – The appearance of President Suharto's daughter, Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, with Indonesia's most influential Muslim leader, Abdurrahman Wahid, at a weekend rally signifies the beginnings of a powerful alliance.

Deutsche Presse Agentur in Jakarta – A court has sentenced 30 people to between three days and three months in jail following riots last week.

The Jakarta Post said the rioters also received probation of three to four months for disrupting public order.

Jakarta – Indonesia's main Muslim party has accused a number of ulamas of inciting last week's riots in a small Central Java town, a report said yesterday.

On 29 May this year, the Indonesian people will be expected, indeed required, to take part in a general election, the results of which will have no effect on the way the country is run. This will be the sixth general election since General Suharto seized power in 1965.

On 29 May this year, the Indonesian people will be expected, indeed required, to take part in a general election, the results of which will have no effect on the way the country is run. This will be the sixth general election since General Suharto seized power in 1965.

Susan Sim, Jakarta – Indonesia's favourite guessing game – who will be the next Vice-President – has been moved up a notch this past week with calls to political parties to name their candidates before the parliamentary election in May.

Jakarta – Trials for about 30 people charged with involvement in riots in Indonesia's Central Java last week have already begun.

"The court has already begun their trials on Thursday and Saturday," said police chief Triyono from Pekalongan, 300 kilometres from Jakarta, where 1,000 people rioted for three days last week.

Jakarta – More than 30 people have been arrested since riots broke out in central Java early this week, the official Antara news agency reported Saturday.

About 60 shops were burned or vandalized, a bank office was damaged and two truckloads of garments were set on fire in riots Monday and Tuesday in the town of Pekalongan, a military spokesman told Antara.

Semarang – The Central Java provincial branch of the United Development Party (PPP) is asking the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) to probe alleged human rights violations in Monday's riot in the Central Java town of Pekalongan.

Leading members of the Dayak community have been blamed for the violent ethnic conflict which took place in West Kalimantan earlier this year. The accusation is contained in a three-page report, purporting to investigate the causes of the unrest by a local 'study group'.

Louise Williams, Jakarta – Police fired rubber bullets into a rioting Muslim mob ahead of an appearance by President Soeharto's daughter Mrs Siti "Tutut" Hardiyanti Rukmana at a pro-Government election rally in central Java on Wednesday night.

Louise Williams, Jakarta – The Indonesian Government has cancelled its invitation to foreign observers to monitor the May national elections, saying Indonesia will not be judged by foreign concepts of democracy.

The New Order military regime apparently has still not ended its hunt for PRD cadre. Miranti, a Surabaya PRD cadre was kidnaped on 18 March by agents in civilian clothes, after she attended a session of the trial of Dita Sari and Coen Hussein Pontoh. Other PRD cadre saw Miranti being forced into a green coloured car about 300 metres from the court

Agencies in Jakarta – Rioters attacked the homes of ethnic Chinese around a town in central Java yesterday during a rampage apparently sparked by a popular singer's switch of political allegiance.

John McBeth, Jakarta – Just back from Germany in early February, Science and Technology Minister B.J. Habibie was summoned to a five-hour meeting with President Suharto. As the minister took notes in a book he habitually uses for presidential tete-a-tetes, Suharto railed against Muslim leader Amien Rais, whom he accused of making "subversive" statements.

Jakarta, Indonesia – Indonesia's government Thursday halted development of the Busang gold deposit, once touted as the world's richest, one day after Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold Inc. said gold levels at the site apparently were "insignificant."

Agencies in Jakarta – Police on Bali have detained four members of the Indonesian Democracy Party (PDI) who were planning to hold a political "long march" between Bali and Jakarta, a report said.

The police yesterday questioned the four, including the plan's initiator, Roch Basuki Mangunprojo, in Badung, Bali, according to the daily Suara Pembaruan.

[Sue Lloyd-Roberts, BBC Special Correspondent, exposes the trade that gives the Indonesian regime the muscle to clamp down on dissent.]

Jakarta – The Indonesian Democracy Defense Team (Tim Pembela Demokrasi Indnesia, TPDI) has confirmed that four PDI pro-Megawati Sukarnoputri figures have been called by the police in relation with the PDI anniversary and the July 27, 1996 riots.

A judge in Britain has blocked attempts to stop the government from selling military equipment to Indonesia. Judge John Laws says the campaign by three lobby groups was honourable, but purely political. The British government has given export permits for water cannon and armoured vehicles to Indonesia.

Washington – The US has decided to postpone the sale of nine F-16 jet fighters to Indonesia because of human rights violations in the Southeast Asian country, the White House has announced.

The prosecutor in the trial of Dita Indah Sari, chair of the Indonesian Workers Centre of Struggle PPBI, and Coen Pontoh, coordinator of the education and propaganda department of the National Peasants Union, has asked the court to pass down a sentence of eight years against Dita Sari and six years against Coen Pontoh.

Speaking to a huge crowd of about five thousand people, Megawati Sukarnoputri (the ousted leader of the PDI who has been excluded from contesting the elections on 29 May) said that the Executive Council of the PDI under her leadership would shortly be issuing an instruction on how to act in the run-up to the forthcoming general election.

Jakarta – The detention of Sri Bintang Pamungkas (General Chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Union Party (PUDI), Julius Usman (Chairman), and Saleh Abdullah (Secretary General), which has already lasted 20 days, as of Tuesday (25/3) has been extended with 20 days, to mid April next.

Semarang – Military authorities in this Central Java city are planning to deploy at least 20 pythons to safeguard the May general election and the March 1998 presidential election.

Jakarta – The United States should set aside human-rights concerns and go ahead with the delayed sale of F-16 warplanes to Indonesia, former Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell was quoted as saying yesterday.

Surabaya – V/Brawijaya Commander Maj-Gen Imam Utomo has said that his party [the army] will forbid a PDI long-march which will who's route will go through Java-Bali.

"For the moment, political activities, approaching the 1997 general elections have not been given permission, or have an relation with the public interest", he said yesterday.

[Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and the Institute for the Study of the Press and Development (LSPP).]

On 20 March 1997 AJI will publish its second annual report, on this occasion in conjunction with the Institute for the Study of the Press and Development (LSPP). This summarizes its main findings.

Susan Schmidt, Washington – Three months after he left his Justice Department job in disgrace in 1994, Webster Hubbell scheduled a 7 a.m. breakfast meeting in Washington with an old friend just in from Indonesia, James Riady.

Jim Erickson, with bureau reporting – Nuclear generating plants spew no pollutants into the atmosphere, they provide far more energy per unit of fuel than any other source, and spent fuel can be reused. But people fear the genie held captive beneath the cooling towers.

[The original chronology covered the dates March 24-26 1997 and it was assumed that the writer meant February not March. Some details in the original text were also unclear - JB]

Jenny Grant, Jakarta – President Suharto has defended Indonesia's electoral process, insisting it is not a device to re-elect his Government.

"The election is not a ploy by the Government to maintain the status quo. It's a forum for the people to exercise their basic rights," he told a weekend gathering of the Indonesian Ulemas Council, the nation's top Muslim body.

Background

Ong Hock Chuan, Jakarta – With a ruling party victory a foregone conclusion in Indonesia's May 29 general election and President Suharto almost certain to stand for another term, speculation in Jakarta has focused on who will be the next vice-president and likely presidential successor.

Jakarta – The Minister of Justice, Oetojo Oesman, said that they [the ministry] always monitors the actions of all judges, including those trying the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD) activist in the Central and South Jakarta, and Surabaya state courts.

Seth Mydans, Jakarta – He owns forests, paper and plywood mills, airlines and banks, and last month he brokered a deal that gave him a major share in what may be the world's largest gold deposit.

But the biggest asset of Mohamad (Bob) Hasan is worth more than gold. As he said recently, "I've been friends with the president for more than 40 years."

9.05 Students gather outside the Social and Political Sciences Faculty

9.30 Activist Helmi, with fist raised in air, starts the action calling on students to get involved.

9.40 Intelligence operatives identified taking notes behind a nearby car.

After more than 50 years of independence, Indonesian politicians and government officials are debating whether civil servants should be given the freedom to vote for any of the political parties or to vote for the ruling group only.

We have just received a report that human rights activist Saleh Abdullah has been arrested as part of a general crackdown on non-governmental organizations in Indonesia.

It was probably the first time that a person was arrested for issuing and sending greeting cards. Eraordinary! But, then, Sri Bintang Pamungkas greeting cards were also quite unusual.

Jakarta – A total of 273,653 hectares of rice field disappeared between 1980 and 1996, with an average of 17,000 hectares lost everyyear.

How could it be, that nobody in Europe seems to mind that this Indonesian company, which is employing (or, rather, exploiting) female East Timorese workers, and is exporting its product to Portugal, regardless of the trade embargo between Indonesia & Portugal, is now becoming a NATO supplier?

Jakarta – An aide to a prominent former legislator has been arrested on charges of publishing a banned book by his boss that authorities say insults President Suharto, police said Friday.

In a country where the army makes no bones about channeling its support to the ruling political group, Golkar, talk of factionalism within Indonesia's military always causes concern. In the past, such groupings were described as fluid. But foreign military sources in Jakarta say they have spotted a worrying new trend.

Yogyakarta – The United Development Party's (PPP) plan to bring the yellowization case to green, is not just a bluff. Seven PPP Regional Executive Board leaders of the Surakarta area agrred to sue Governor Soewardi, They officially authorized the case to the UII Legal Consultancy and Aid Institution (LKBH) Yogyakarta, on Monday (3/17).

Jakarta – With 70 days to go before May 29 parliamentary elections, the military says it will crush any security threats and is threatening to arrest independent election monitors.

Jakarta – Indonesia's special forces chief Major-General Prabowo Subianto says the country's armed forces (Abri) need a larger budget to improve their professionalism, the official Antara news agency reported yesterday.