Jakarta – Thousands of students Wednesday peacefully marked the first anniversary of the shooting of their peers which triggered days of rioting and helped pressure former president Suharto to resign, as security was tightened in the capital in anticipation of street demonstrations.

Jakarta – Following the military's revelation that at least 10 people were killed in recent clashes among party supporters, leaders of the 48 political parties contesting the June 7 general election agreed on Tuesday to stop all precampaign activities.

With less than four weeks left to the June 7 general election, signs are growing that the polls – the most crucial this country has held in its 54-year existence – will not quite be as free and fair as the government promised they would be.

Many Indonesians, both in the Christian minority and the Moslem majority, are uncomfortable with the sudden prominence of Islam in politics. Sander Thoenes reports on disquiet over exploitation of religion in the election campaign

Jakarta – Party functions held by the ruling Golkar across Java over the weekend were met with hostile receptions, and at one site led to an emergency rescue of chairman Akbar Tandjung.

A helicopter flew Akbar and his wife from Jember to the neighboring East Java town of Lumajang on Sunday, after Golkar supporters were ambushed by opposition parties.

Jakarta – Fresh violence broke out in the eastern Indonesian islands of Maluku as villagers from three villages clashed on the weekend, leaving 14 houses burned, a report said here Monday.

Maluku province spokesman Major Philipe Jekriel said the clashes broke out on Saturday and Sunday in Ambon, the Antara news agency said.

Jakarta – Indonesia's ruling party Golkar may be barred from campaigning for the June 7 elections after charges that it had used money from an aid programme for its own political gains, a newspaper reported on Monday.

Jakarta – Activists have deplored the government's recent rejection of a United Nations (UN) report on violence against women in Indonesia, on the grounds that its content was akin to viewpoints held by non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

Jakarta – Indonesian President B.J. Habibie said on Monday he was appointing Justice Minister Muladi to the powerful post of state secretary after the resignation of Akbar Tandjung, the chairman of the ruling Golkar party.

"The state secretary's post will be taken over by Minister of Justice Muladi because he knows a lot about the law," Habibie told reporters.

Philip Shenon, Washington – The Clinton administration has decided to offer riot-control training to the Indonesian police in preparation for next month's national elections despite concerns from human rights groups over the abysmal human rights record of the police there, administration officials say.

Jakarta – President B.J. Habibie reiterated on Thursday his warning of a communist threat, Marhaenism and socialism – which some people dub "Komas".

In a meeting with a group of youths at Merdeka Palace, Habibie said the ideologies remained a threat to the nation, according to State Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs Agung Laksono.

Jakarta – More than 60,000 police and troops will be deployed to safeguard the Indonesian capital when election campaigning starts this month, a report said here thursday.

John McBeth, Jakarta – While Indonesian students and other activists were expending their considerable energies trying to get rid of President B.J. Habibie and drag his predecessor to court, a funny thing happened on the way to the forum. Politicians quietly chipped away at reform initiatives that would have reshaped Indonesia's political landscape.

Jakarta – The recent violence in Indonesia's troubled Aceh province may make it impossible for people there to take part in the June 7 elections, the head of the country's election commission was quoted Wednesday as saying.

Commission head Rudini said his men would visit Aceh on Thursday to determine if ballotting was possible, the Jakarta Post said.

Dan Murphy, Jakarta – Lucrative deals no longer flow to former President Suharto's children and some of his best-known cronies. But for most of Indonesia's elite, the tight links between business and politics remain intact.

Jakarta – Student groups from several universities disclosed on Tuesday that they plan to mobilize thousands of students on May 12 to join a mammoth rally for the first anniversary of the Trisakti University shooting incident in which four students died.

Jakarta – President B.J. Habibie is concerned over clashes involving Muslim sympathizers of political parties.

Jeremy Wagstaff, Soreang – This country has endured wrenching change in the past year. Violence is so commonplace that killings of fewer than 50 people often go unreported. Thieves steal hubcaps from cars stopped at red lights.

N. Priharwanto, Jakarta – Thousands of workers from the Jabotabek industrial zone gathered on the grounds of the University of Indonesia campus in Salemba, Central Jakarta on Saturday (May 1). They came to commemorate May Day and hold a demonstration.

Jakarta – A protest by hundreds of farmers claiming rights to land developed by a state plantation company in West Java left thousands of tree crops and several buildings burned and 120 protestors arrested, a report said here Sunday

John Aglionby, Jakarta – Mobs of angry Balinese have been rampaging through the usually tranquil beach resort of Kuta this week – an area previously thought to be impervious to the tensions tearing apart the social fabric elsewhere in Indonesia.

The spread of the trouble to this area threatens not only the safety of local people but also Bali's tourism earnings.

Jakarta – Five weeks ahead of the June 7 general election, poll watch organizations warned on Friday of various disruptions, including separatists' calls for a boycott in troubled Aceh, bribery and alleged military intimidation of poll monitoring volunteers.

Clashes between local residents, staff and members of the security forces have resulted in at least six deaths and hundreds of injuries at the Indorayon pulp and rayon mill in North Sumatra. As a result of the unrest, President Habibie has been forced to order a temporary shut-down of the factory at Porsea.

Jakarta – Hundreds of labourers and university students held a protest here Saturday demanding the release of jailed labour defender Dita Sari as well as of other political prisoners, a witness said.

The call was made by more than 400 labourers and students who turned up at the state University of Indonesia to hold free speeches on Labour Day.

Brian Toohey – An audience of two. That's all the Western Australian Liberal Senator, Sue Knowles, wanted when she rose to speak in Parliament on Wednesday about what she saw as an important development surrounding Paul Keating's business dealings with Indonesia while prime minister.

Jakarta – Indonesia's president pleaded with his country's wealthy elite Saturday not to flee abroad ahead of a landmark June 7 parliamentary election, which many fear will result in widespread violence.

Seth Mydans, Jakarta – Of course there was corruption under former President Suharto, said his half-brother recently, acknowledging a fact of life well known to all Indonesians.

Jose Manuel Tesoro and Tom McCawley – "We were hunted like pigs." That's how Madurese farmer Amidi describes being driven from his West Kalimantan home recently. After his house went up in flames and one of his neighbors was decapitated, Amidi, his wife and child fled into the jungle. A mob of ethnic Dayaks chased them with hunting dogs.

Elizabeth Bukowski – Pramoedya Ananta Toer may have lost more than a decade of his life to the forced labor camp on Indonesia's Buru Island. But he hasn't lost his spirit, his sense of humor or his hope for a stable, democratic Indonesia.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Riau, Indonesia's most oil-rich province in central Sumatra, has demanded that it become a semi-autonomous federal state despite Jakarta's proposal last week to return a significant proportion of oil profits to the province.

Dr Trabani Rab, the head of the Riau Cultural Institute, said the Riau people would still demand federation.

Jakarta – Hundreds of employees of the state-run water company, PAM Jaya, staged peaceful demonstrations at the British and French embassies and Provincial Legislative Assembly here Thursday, demanding the termination of cooperation between PAM Jaya and two British and French water enterprises.

Jakarta – The last batch of the 3,000-member People's Security (Kamra) civilian force have just completed their 12-day military training course, Jakarta Military Command spokesman Lt. Col. DJ Nachrowi said.

Jakarta – President B.J. Habibie warned Thursday against any revival of communism in Indonesia, urging people to remember the mistakes of the past.

"It is still fresh in our minds how communists ruined the country's life and caused a tragedy in which our heroes were killed," Habibie was quoted by the state Antara news agency as saying.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government will be unable to introduce meaningful legal or political reform if the army remains involved in politics, a US academic expert on Indonesia said here Thursday.

Jay Solomon, Pekanbaru – One of Indonesia's richest provinces is slowly prying control of its natural wealth from the central government, posing a major challenge to Jakarta and some big multinationals at a time when foreign investors are already wary of the archipelago.

Jakarta – Three prominent Muslim parties have formed a coalition for the next general election, saying they want to grab a sizeable share of the votes to champion Islamic values.

The three Islam-based parties are the United Development Party (PPP), the Nahdlatul Ummat Party (PNU) and the People's Awakening Party (PKU).

Tual – Police fired shots Tuesday to disperse battling mobs of Muslims and Christians in a region of eastern Indonesia that has been plagued by religious violence this year. At least four people were killed.

Rioters with knives and bows and arrows set nine houses afire in the village of Cansas on Kei Island, 2,800 kilometers northeast of Jakarta, the Indonesian capital.

Jakarta – Politicians from four of Indonesia's 48 political parties planning to contest in the June 7 general election Tuesday took part in the first ever open public debate among presidential hopefuls.

Ujungpandang – Electoral Commission (KPU) Chairman Rudini said that there was now a distinct possibility that the 1999 general election could be postponed, following the government's suggestion to administratively divide the provinces of Maluku and Irian Jaya before the election.

Jakarta – At least 10 people were injured when security forces opened fire Saturday to quell rioting mobs in Indonesia's riot-torn Maluku islands, residents and reports said Sunday.

Susan Sim, Ujung Pandang – More than two thirds of the 131 million Indonesians eligible to vote in June have registered to do so in the country's first voluntary voter-registration drive, electoral planners said.

And this high sign-up rate, despite a shaky start three weeks ago, could augur well for the major opposition parties, some of their leaders predicted.

Jakarta – An Indonesian human rights group has claimed that more than 50 people have been murdered in a wave of mysterious serial killings this year, news reports said Saturday.

Jakarta – Chairman of the Jakarta Provincial Elections Committee (PPD I) Djafar Badjeber announced on Friday that campaign activities in the city for the June 7 general election were scheduled to start on May 19.

Jakarta – A series of mass murders have thus far killed more than 100 people in Ciamis, West Java, and some of the victims were those who had discredited Suharto or were against his rule. The murders were carried out by two groups led by two men with the initials S and SU.

Jenny Grant, Yogyakarta – The scene would have been impossible at the last elections. At a high-level meeting in a university campus, a long-haired activist told the city's Attorney-General that his monitoring group had found irregularities in the voter registration process.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Deposed president Soeharto, accused of massive corruption and cronyism during his 32-year rule of Indonesia, yesterday attacked the ruling Golkar party he created, saying it has been ruined by vested interests.

Tual – Police fired shots Friday to disperse battling mobs of Christians and Muslims in eastern Indonesia, witnesses said. At least seven people were killed.

The rioting in Tual city was the latest outburst of religious unrest in Maluku province, where more than 300 people have died in fighting this year. Dozens of churches and mosques have been burned.

Jakarta – Preliminary police investigations showed that the Monday bombing of the Istiqlal Mosque here was linked to a group calling itself the Mujahidin Islam Nunsantara Movement, police said yesterday.

Jakarta – More than 1,000 of Jakarta's urban poor staged a mass demonstration here Thursday accusing the government and the World Bank of abusing social safety net funds.

Jakarta – The parents of some 70 students who went missing after taking part in a major pro-independence rally in the troubled province of Aceh on Thursday went to the legislature for help, a rights activist said.