Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The blasts that rocked the Indonesian capital came a day after the reopening of Paddy's bar which was devastated in the Bali bombings.

Now, Indonesians are wondering how they will pick up the pieces of an economy which had just begun to show signs of recovery from the earlier attack, the Iraq war and the Sars outbreak.

There are fears the Jakarta bombing has shaken the commitment of President Megawati Sukarnoputri to Indonesia's five year experiment with democracy. Two major terrorist strikes in twelve months has prompted a senior government minister to argue that some of Indonesia's new found civil liberties may have to be sacrificed.

An Indonesian court on Thursday found an Islamic militant called Amrozi guilty of the Bali bombing last October and sentenced him to death.

At the Marriott Hotel bomb site in Jakarta, investigators have been sifting for clues into the attack, but suspicion has already fallen on regional terror network, Jemaah Islamiah because of a mounting series of parallels to the Bali bombings.

Jakarta – Hundreds of university students grouped in the Greater Jakarta University Students' Executive Body (BEM) staged a rally in front of the parliament here Wednesday demanding the discontinuation of the ongoing annual People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) session.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Three student activists were acquitted on Wednesday by the Central Jakarta District Court on charges related to a rally that was held last January 22.

"I couldn't believe it. I thought I would be punished," said Rico Marbun, one of the defendants.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, the country's two largest Muslim organizations, led a chorus of condemnation against the bomb attack on JW Marriott Hotel and called on people to remain calm.

Former Indonesian military chief general Wiranto, who is accused by rights groups of war crimes in East Timor, said he would contest next year's presidential election on a ticket from the party of former dictator Soeharto.

"I'm ready to be the sixth president of Indonesia in 2004," Wiranto was quoted by the official Antara news agency as saying yesterday.

MPRS Decree Number XXV/1966 on the Dissolution of the Indonesian Communist Party and Prohibitions on Marxist, Leninist and Communist Teachings is still being maintained as law. However for the families who have been affected by this "collective sin" as a result of this decree, the issue is not one of the decree being revoked or not(1).

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Some 300 bajaj (three-wheeled motorized vehicles) were parked at the City Council compound on Wednesday in a noisy and smoky protest against the administration's plan to replace them with the Kancil (four-wheeled vehicles).

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The Indonesian Navy is currently questioning four Marine soldiers over their alleged involvement in the murders of a businessman and his Army's Special Forces (Kopassus) bodyguard last month.

Palu – A powerful bomb exploded again on Thursday morning, in the sectarian conflict-torn city of Poso, Central Sulawesi province.

The explosion killed Bahtiar, alias Manto, 20, from Kayamanya and damaged buildings, Antara reported. The bomb exploded at 9am local time.

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – The deadly bomb blast at the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta on Tuesday will undoubtedly hurt confidence in the an economy that had just started to recover as nervous investors and tourists shun the country, experts said.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – With Indonesia's power needs hovering on the critical, a mothballed specter from the unlamented Suharto past – a 1,320-megawatt coal-fired plant in central Java – is being resurrected along with more than two-score other Suharto-era plants that were halted when the aging dictator fell from power in 1998.

Jakarta – On July 28, the government of South Kalimantan (Borneo) and Indigenous Dayak commmunity leaders strongly denounced Placer Dome, a Vancouver- and Sydney-based mining company, for its plans for mining operations in one of the last protected tropical forests in Indonesia.

Jakarta – A wealthy Indonesian businessman once implicated in a bank scandal that led to the downfall of former president B.J. Habibie jumped to his death from a hotel window yesterday.

Mr Marimutu Manimaren, 46, a commissioner of the troubled Indonesian conglomerate Texmaco, leapt from the 56th floor of Aston Hotel in downtown Jakarta, said police Major Kusdiantoro.

Agus Maryono, Cilacap – Civil servants, including teachers here, say they have been forced to buy T-shirts bearing the picture of the local chairman of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), Fran Lukman.

Indonesian share prices and the rupiah currency plunged after a huge explosion in a luxury hotel in Jakarta's business district.

Jakarta stocks ended down 3.06 per cent yesterday with the composite index finishing at 488.53 points, its lowest close in more than two months.

Matthew Moore – There have been five explosions in Jakarta this year, only one of which police have solved – and that was a bomb exploded by a member of its own bomb squad.

And yet, despite all of these bombings, most of the news about Indonesia's campaign against its home-grown terrorist threat has been good. At least it was until yesterday.

Matthew Moore, in Jakarta, Sean Nicholls, Tom Allard and agencies – A massive lunchtime car bomb at a prestigious Jakarta hotel killed at least 14 people and wounded 150 yesterday in an attack that appeared to be aimed at foreigners.

[The following is a statement issued by Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific on August 6.]

Following a July 31 meeting in Jakarta between security and defence chiefs on both sides, the Australian government reiterated its support for closer military ties with the Indonesian armed forces (TNI), including the discredited Kopassus special forces.

The People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) agreed to cut short its Annual Session from 10 days to seven in an attempt to save the state budget Rp 6 billion from the total allocation of Rp 20 billion . However, the Rp 2 billion-per-day event is still too expensive in the eyes of ordinary people.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – President Megawati Soekarnoputri may breath a sigh of relieve, at least for the time being, as there are no prospects that she will be unseated by legislators in the same way that former president B.J. Habibie was unseated in 1999.

There seems to be little doubt that the Marriott hotel was targeted because it is US-owned and frequented by foreigners. Jakarta's American expatriates held their July-4th celebrations at the hotel, and it was a popular lunch spot for western businessmen. But will those same businessmen now reassess their commitment to Indonesia?

Presenter/Interviewer: Deborah Steele

Max Lane – The 2004 election campaign has started. There have been two important initiatives. The first relates to the major establishment parties, those with substantial numbers of MPs in the parliament. The second is the creation of the left-wing People's United Opposition Party (Partai Persatuan Oposisi Rakyat, or Popor).

Following is a brief look at some bombings in Indonesia since 1999. The list is by no means complete, as dozens of explosions occurred over the past three years in the Maluku islands and Central Sulawesi amid deadly religious clashes.

The withdrawal of noted Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid from the presidential race by way of the Golkar convention has revealed the existing of two contending forces with different hidden political agendas within Golkar that were trying to manipulate Madjid for their own interests.

Nana Rukmana, Majalengka – The declining price of cloves has prompted farmers in Talaga and Baturajeg districts to uproot their clove trees, saying they could no longer afford to maintain their plantations .

Some of them have tried to switched to fruit growing in the hope of making good their losses on cloves.

When Paul Keating was prime minister, Australia and Indonesia signed an "agreement on maintaining security", a pact strong on symbolism but light on substance.

Jakarta – As Indonesian authorities clamp down on pirated entertainment products, vendors' kiosks at a Jakarta shopping mall are forlornly empty. The sellers sit glum and idle.

Getting rid of a bad image which has long been planted in the minds of society is not an easy matter. The polemic over the issue of the revoking of MPRS Decree Number XXV/1996 on the Dissolution of the Indonesian Communist Party and Prohibitions on Marxist, Leninist and Communist Teachings has yet to end.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Past rights violators could take advantage of the planned Truth and Reconciliation Commission as a means to whitewash the past and keep their hands clean, rights activists warned on Saturday.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – In the end, the murky world of politics, where money, power and clout sometimes hold more sway than the merits of goals and projects, probably got to Muslim scholar Nurcholish Madjid.

And this could have influenced his decision to withdraw his bid to compete for Golkar's presidential nomination.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) removed the only potential hurdle for a smooth Assembly session on Sunday by withdrawing its proposal to repeal a decree banning the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and the dissemination of communism, Marxism and Leninism teachings in the country.

When Nurcholish Madjid announced last week that he was withdrawing from the Golkar convention that will be held to select its presidential candidate, he was not the only one who felt disgusted at the country's second largest party.

When Indonesia's human rights court sits this week to close the book on 18 trials arising from the bloodshed that ravaged East Timor four-years-ago, one fact stands out – most of the suspects have been acquitted.

That outcome has already been heavily criticised by international and local human rights groups.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – President Megawati Soekarnoputri has claimed that her government has accomplished numerous achievements, and has lashed out at her critics saying their rap merely served the interests of certain people.

Jakarta – The factions of Golkar Party, United Development Party (PPP), Group Representatives and Regional Representatives have rejected the idea of revoking the Provisional People's Consultative Assembly (MPRS) Decree No 25/1966 on the dissolution of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).

Theresia Sufa and Bambang Nurbianto, Bogor – Some 300 residents of Bojong village and surrounding areas in Bogor regency welcomed Jakarta Sanitary Agency head Selamat Limbong and entourage with a protest on Friday.

The villagers also threw stones at a waste treatment facility, breaking several windows. There were not injuries or arrests during the protest.

Jakarta – Thousands of dirty and noisy motorised rickshaws in Indonesia's capital may soon go the same way as their pedal-powered predecessors – rounded up and dumped into the Java Sea.

Jakarta – The economic policies taken by the administration of President Megawati Soekarnoputri have failed to push for the higher economic growth needed to create more jobs, economists say.

Jakarta – Indonesia is on track to achieve its full year budget target, the International Monetary Fund's country representative David Nellor, said Friday.

The projection comes after the government reported a realized deficit in the first half of only Rp 2.5 trillion (US$295 million), he said.

A'an Suryana, Jakarta – Leaders of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) across the country have thrown their support behind chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri, including her controversial decisions in the elections of regional government heads.

Indonesia's highest constitutional body opened its last annual session before the country's legislative system is reformed next year.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Australia has moved to resume contentious joint military exercises with the Indonesian Army's special forces.

Eleanor Hall: Australian Defence analysts and Indonesia watchers are raising concerns today about the merits of proposed joint-exercises involving Australia's Defence Forces and Indonesia's still controversial special forces, or Kopassus.

Muklis Ali and Dean Yates, Jakarta – Indonesia's president denounced on Friday what she called the "blind fanaticism" of Muslim militants accused of the Bali bombings, describing it as a "terrifying threat".

In rare remarks about Islam and terrorism, Megawati Sukarnoputri told Indonesia's parliament in an annual progress report such a threat had to be cut off at its roots.

A'an Suryana, Jakarta – The Golkar party's popularity has been at stake following the withdrawal of noted Muslim intellectual Nurcholish Madjid, popularly known as Cak Nur, from the party's presidential race, say political observers.

Max Lane – The 2004 election campaign has started. There are two kinds of issues that people seem to be looking at. The first relate to the so-called major parties, those with substantial numbers in the House of Representatives.

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – NGO activists have called on the government to address the increasing inequity between rich and poor farmers before the issue explodes into a social conflict.