Nick Everett, Jakarta – On May 19-21, more than 60 peace activists from 26 countries met at Hotel Wisata to assess the challenges faced by the global peace movement and to develop a plan of action. The conference coincided with the Indonesian government's resumption of its all-out war against the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

Something is not quite right with this picture: Key Cabinet ministers arriving in their chauffeur-driven Volvo sedans to a Cabinet meeting on Monday to consider which direction to take on the status of Indonesia's relations with Sweden. It is not terribly ironic in itself that they are driven around in Volvos – a fine Swedish automobile.

Relations between Indonesia and Sweden sink to a new low, over the fate of Aceh's rebel leaders. Some 50-exiled leaders of GAM or the Free Aceh Movement – live in and are citizens of Sweden, including GAM founder, Hasan di Tiro.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Major donors, who pledge billions of dollars in loans to Indonesia on a yearly basis, called on the government yesterday to start making progress on its reform promises.

Dadan Wijaksana, Jakarta – Indonesia's traditional donors grouped under the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI) have welcomed the country's macroeconomic improvements, but warn that slow progress in structural reform could impede economic growth.

Darren Goodsir, Denpasar – Waving his arms and yelling at his lawyers to respond to his religious chants, Imam Samudra – the alleged brains behind the Bali bombings – strolled into court on the first day of his trial yesterday, displaying his now-familiar bravado.

Sari P. Setiogi, Jakarta – The government is not postponing the new visa policy but is merely implementing a six-month transition period instead, spokesman Ade E. Dahlan for the Directorate General of Immigration at the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights said on Monday.

Public demand for action to uncover the mystery behind the 1998 May riots that led to the downfall of the Suharto regime apparently still has a long way to go before it achieves success.

[The following article will be published in the forthcoming issue of the Tapol Bulletin.]

R. William Liddle – How likely is it that Indonesia will once again be ruled by the Indonesian Military (TNI)?

The Indonesia-headquartered Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) claims that members of the Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI) – which holds its interim meeting in Jakarta this week – are risking Indonesia's forests by not paying enough attention to the sale of forest assets to state-owned Bank Mandiri.

Indonesia summoned the Swedish ambassador to express disappointment at his country's response to a demand for action against exiled Acehnese rebel leaders.

Simon Montlake – As recently as 1999, Indonesia idled in the AIDS slow lane. At the time, health officials attempted to curb the spread of the disease by concentrating on the nation's premier high-risk group – sex workers and their clients.

A'an Suryana, Jakarta – The National Awakening Party (PKB) concluded its three-day national meeting late on Thursday by naming its chief patron, Abdurrahman Wahid, its presidential candidate.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – People living in Jakarta will be jailed for up to three months without trial and fined during a massive city administration crackdown on illegal residents starting June 12.

An Indonesian group linked to the al-Qaeda network held a high-level meeting last month in Indonesia, possibly to identify new terrorist targets, The Australian newspaper reported.

Arya Abhiseka, Jakarta – A noted abortion expert said on Wednesday the high number of maternal deaths from unsafe abortions was partly the fault of the media, which has failed to educate the public about the issue.

Haidir Anwar Tanjung, Pekanbaru – With the beginning of the dry season, an increasing number of forest fires have been detected in Riau and Kalimantan, raising a thick haze that could disrupt air transportation in the region and neighboring countries, Malaysia and Singapore.

Jakarta – Flora & Fauna International (FFI) and the Team for the Conservation of Sumatran Tigers (TPHS) have received reports on the unchecked poaching of Sumatran elephants and other protected species in Kerinci Seblat National Park (TNKS) in Jambi.

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – Public bus drivers are forced to pay, on average, up to Rp 40,000 for legal and illegal fees each day, a factor that has caused their services and safety to worsen, a survey reveals.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – Two key suspects in the Bali bombings testified yesterday that Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir is the head of Jemaah Islamiah, the al-Qaeda linked terror organisation blamed for the attacks.

Phar Kim Beng, Hong Kong – As the international spotlight focuses its glare upon the Bali bombing trial in Jakarta and renewed separatist violence in Aceh, it is all too easy to assume that Indonesia is a hotbed of radical Islam. But this is to ignore the bigger picture, and the distinctive features of Islam as it is practiced in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

Nick Everett – On May 21, I was arrested for attending a protest in Jakarta. Australian Books not Bombs convener Kylie Moon, South Korean student activist Yung-Chan Choi and South African anti-war activist Lydia Cairncross were also arrested.

London – Indonesia failed to take decisive action to end human rights violations last year, Amnesty International said Wednesday. The London-based rights watchdog, in its report on 2002, said the country showed "little progress" in its attempts to tackle impunity in human rights cases.

Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta/Manado – Regionalism is the latest, unintended consequence of the much-debated national education bill, which has already divided the nation along religious lines.

Thousands of Muslims from the Islamic Solidarity Forum (FUI) held a rally in Yogyakarta on Tuesday to demand the House of Representatives endorse the bill as it is.

Nana Rukmana, Cirebon – Thousands of sugar cane farmers in the West Java regency of Cirebon threatened to boycott the supply of sugar cane to sugar producers unless the government raised the price of sugar cane, said the chairman of the local sugar cane farmers' association.

Oyos Saroso H.N., Bandar Lampung – With no protection from the government, farmers in Lampung are having a difficult time surviving a time of economic hardship. Over the last few years, thousands of farmers have cut down their coffee plants to grow rice because of falling coffee prices both at home and abroad.

Jakarta – Rupiah on Monday reached its highest level against the dollar since August 2000, sparking concerns that the upturn could be overdone and harm the country's exports.

Women's groups in Indonesia have welcomed a new law that paves the way for more women to enter parliament.

Jakarta – Indonesia has banned the sale of 78 brands of traditional medicine – some of them said to enhance sexual performance – because they contain hazardous chemicals, officials said yesterday.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Some Indonesian cigarette manufacturers are dodging tax payments to the government to the tune of millions of dollars each year, said officials investigating the matter.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – A further split has cast a shadow over the United Development Party (PPP), the nation's largest Muslim-based party, as a walkout spoiled the finale of its four-day congress on Friday.

A'an Suryana and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Political leaders asserted on Friday that reform had moved at a snail's pace over the past five years, and that fresh leadership blood was needed to salvage and accelerate reform in the country.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Despite predictions that Indonesian state oil and gas company Pertamina faces a bleak and uncertain future after the government lifted its decades-long oil and gas monopoly, Pertamina president Baihaki Hakim this week announced his blueprint for the future.

Leo Wahyudi S – On May 21, 1998, then president Soeharto yielded to demands to step down during the bloody rallies that followed the earlier May riots. Five years have passed since then and the country has seen three presidents. Yet, many people have voiced the same criticism: The country's leaders have failed to make things better.

Nick Everett, from Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific (ASAP) and co-convenor of the Sydney Walk Against War Coalition and Kylie Moon, coordinator of Books Not Bombs – a youth coalition against the war, were arrested in Jakarta on Wednesday, May 21.

Tangerang – Hundreds of motorcycle taxi (ojek) drivers blocked Jl. Rawa Bokor near the Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Wednesday as part of their rally to protest PT Angkasa Pura's decision to ban them from entering the airport.

Annabel Crabb, Canberra – Australian military co-operation with the Indonesian army and its special forces unit, Kopassus, would not be affected by their involvement in Jakarta's attack on the rebellious Aceh province, Defence Minister Robert Hill said yesterday.

Jakarta – Indonesian police with water cannons drove back hundreds of students Wednesday protesting the slow pace of reform since the downfall of ex-dictator Suharto five years ago.

At its peak, the nighttime rally had about 400 demonstrators, some of whom tried to tear down the main gate to the tightly guarded Parliament in Jakarta.

For a second straight day, the Indonesian military has continued its offensive against Aceh's separatist rebels, with an order to exterminate those who refuse to surrender. The assault began yesterday after last-ditch peace talks between Jakarta and the rebels broke down in Tokyo on the weekend.

Jakarta – Discrimination against women remains rampant in Indonesian workplaces, the International Labor Organization (ILO) says.

In its report titled Time for Equality at Work, the ILO said that discrimination took various forms, but the most blatant example was discrimination over wages.

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The country's commercial courts, renowned for being ineffective and corrupt, must be reformed to encourage more investment and in turn boost economic recovery and growth, an expert said.

John McBeth, Jakarta – Indonesia's 25-year reign as the world's largest liquefied-natural-gas (LNG) exporter is under threat, though it's taken a distracted government years to wake up to the fact.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – About 200 victims of the May 1998 riots were forced by police to change the route of their march on Tuesday to commemorate the fifth year of the tragedy.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Publicly listed state-owned pharmaceutical giant Indofarma is in the public eye over its miraculous transformation of a reported Rp88.6 billion profit in the first three quarters of 2002 into a net loss of more than Rp20 billion (US$2.3 million) by the end of the year.

Jakarta – More than a thousand people staged a rally on Tuesday at television stations SCTV and Trans TV on Jl. Gatot Subroto in Central Jakarta to protest their continued airings of performances by controversial dangdut singer Inul Daratista.

Zakki Hakim, Jakarta – The toll road operators' plan to increase tolls by about 25 percent at the end of the month has upset local motorists, especially as many have said the companies have not committed themselves to improving services.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – What will it take for the world to believe that Indonesia is serious about fighting terrorism? New anti-terror laws have been passed, the Bali bomb suspects are being tried and Abu Bakar Bashir is being kept in jail during his trial, yet too little credit has been given to the country, says the government.

Herbert Docena, Jakarta – Organisers of the "Iraq and the Global Peace Movement: What Next?" conference, which will be held here on May 19-21, expect attendance by as many as 200 delegates from the broad anti-war coalitions that have emerged in the United States, Europe, Latin America, Africa and Asia.

Alexander Irwan – Last year, the Partnership for Governance Reform in Indonesia published a study entitled "The Poor Speak Out: 17 Corruption Cases", which covered several poor communities in Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Makassar.