Kafil Yamin, Jakarta – The ruling Golkar party is among Indonesia's most unpopular organisations, and even the sight of its official yellow colour is enough to elicit violent reactions from many people.
But the chances of the party, which used to be headed by President Suharto, cannot be disregarded in the run-up to general elections in June.
Jakarta – Indonesia's Parliament passed an anti corruption law Thursday that requires government officials to declare all their assets to a supervise commission set up by the president.
The new bill, endorsed during a plenary session of House, will apply to all government officials including the president.
Robert Garran – Former Indonesian president Suharto is likely to emerge as one of the most prominent corporate players in Indonesia in coming years, thanks in part to political protection from President B.J. Habibie, a new book claims.
Dini Djalal in Ambon, Pontianak and Jakarta – It seemed like what passes for normal at an Indonesian checkpoint. The soldiers were more brusque than usual, but they were on a dangerous detail – frisking people for machetes in strife-torn Ambon, the eastern island racked by murderous sectarian strife.
Vaudine England – The "disappearance" of activists, whether temporary or permanent, is a political instrument common to past and present governments, a victim who was tortured said yesterday.
Jakarta – Indonesia's House of Representatives on Wednesday passed a bill which will grant greater autonomy to the governments of the country's 27 provinces and their sub-regencies, witnesses said.
Jenny Grant, Jakarta – The People's Democratic Party has nominated three missing people to run as parliamentary candidates for the June general election.
Announcing the move yesterday, party chairman Budiman Sudjatmiko described the men – Petrus Bima Anugerah, Herman Hendrawan and Suyat – as three of its best cadres.
Jakarta – A mob attacked a Roman Catholic complex in the predominantly Moslem province of South Sulawesi, throwing fuel bombs that burned several buildings just hours after a blast at a main mosque in Jakarta, police said Tuesday.
Jakarta – Security forces fired warning shots when hundreds of students demanding a share of oil earnings stormed a Caltex Indonesia housing complex on Sumatra island Tuesday, wrecking cars and smashing office windows, sources said.
Hong Kong – The trial of 11 members of Indonesia's elite special force found guilty of kidnapping pro-democracy activists was a farce designed to protect high-ranking soldiers, one of the nine who was captured and tortured said here Tuesday.
Jakarta – Although the official election campaign period is still a month away, political parties across the country have moved their electioneering activities into high gear.
Jakarta – Security forces mistakenedly opened fire on a crowd of ethnic Madurese migrants and local Malays in Indonesian Borneo killing four people and injuring three others, an official said Monday.
Fires burning in central Sumatra have once again blanketed Singapore in a haze that has pushed up pollution levels in the city-state famed for its "clean and green" image. Parts of Malaysia have also been affected.
Philip Bowring, Jakarta – The communal horrors of East Timor, Ambon and West Kalimantan are real enough. But they no more describe Indonesia than Kashmir, Bihar and Assam describe India.
Gerry van Klinken – For all his sometimes clownish mannerisms, President Habibie has in many ways been Indonesia's Gorbachev. He rode the crest of a wave of political creativity generated by the massive protests of last year. But now that wave has spent much of its force.
Jakarta – Indonesian has scrapped its draconian subversion law but introduced similar articles against sabotage and the spread of Marxism and Leninism to the criminal code, reports said Thursday.
The House of Representatves axed the anti-subversion law on Wednesday and brought six new articles into the criminal code, the Jakarta Post daily said.
Jakarta – Bitter ethnic clashes between Madurese settlers and local Malays and Dayaks erupted for the fifth consecutive day Thursday in Indonesia's West Kalimantan province, police said. Rival mobs fought with homemade guns and torched each others' homes in the province's Sungairaya sub-district.
Ambon – Sixty-four more bodies of those killed in recent riots in eastern Indonesian islands have been found, bringing the death toll to at least 177 in the clashes that started March 31, an official said Thursday.
Jakarta – Comments by ex-president Suharto expressing doubt about whether Indonesia's June 7 elections will be free and fair show he does not believe in democracy, the deputy chairman of the election commission said Thursday.
"His political concept is based on authoritarianism. He does not believe in democracy," Adnan Buyung Nasution said on television.
Jakarta – The Indonesian military will court-martial a colonel who allegedly promised a Suharto-linked foundation a huge sum if he were reelected as a local government official, a report said Wednesday.
Jakarta – At least nine students were injured and 62 arrested in a number of rallies held across Java on Tuesday to oppose the June 7 general election. The arrests were made following a clash between students grouped in the Indonesian University Big Family (KBUI) and riot police who were attempting to disperse the protesters on Jl. M.T. Haryono in East Jakarta.
John Haseman, Jakarta – The recent outbreak of serious ethnic violence in Indonesia's Borneo province of West Kalimantan has underscored the difficulties Indonesia's armed forces face in trying to maintain domestic stability in a period of unprecedented political change and economic crisis.
Jakarta – Indonesians will be able to study and write about communism for the first time in more than three decades, but promoting Marxism-Leninism will still land them in jail, reports said Tuesday.
Jakarta – Hundreds of Indonesian students shouting "revolution," massed outside parliament here Tuesday to protest June 7 polls and demand the government of President B.J. Habibie step down.
Hundreds of others, who marched towards the parliament without notifying the police, were disbanded by force four kilometres before reaching their destination.
Jakarta – Ethnic clashes between Madurese settlers and ethnic Malays and Dayaks flared up again Tuesday in Indonesian Borneo, which has been rocked by months of savage unrest, a military source said.
Jakarta – In the first case of its kind in Indonesia, people in the oil-rich province of Riau have sued President B.J. Habibie for 22.5 billion dollars in compensation for lost oil revenues, reports said Tuesday.
The first hearing in the class action suit was held Monday in a court in the Riau city of Pakenbaru, the Kompas daily said.
Jakarta – Three jailed Indonesian politicians were in a critical condition in a police hospital Tuesday after staging a week-long hunger strike, their lawyer said.
"Until late last night, the condition of Budiman [Sujatmiko] was very bad ... he is being fed intravenously in hospital," lawyer Johnson Panjaitan of the Indonesian Legal Aid Council said.
Nurul Hidayati, Jakarta - The hunger strike by Budiman Sudjatmiko and his friends has finally ended. On the advice of the doctor who is treating them, the chairperson of the People's Democratic Party (PRD) and his other colleges, ended their action on Tuesday, April 13.
Jakarta – Indonesian police forced hundreds of anti-government and anti-military protesters away from a state-run radio station on Tuesday. At least five students were seriously injured, witnesses said.
Vaudine England, Jakarta – Jakarta's legal community is unimpressed by the charging of Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra.
Jakarta – Entering the sixth day of a hunger strike at the Cipinang prison, five leaders of the People's Democratic Party (PRD) are in a critical condition. Two of them had to be rushed to hospital.
Jakarta – The corruption probe into former Indonesian President Suharto could drag down his successor President B.J. Habibie, the Indonesian Observer newspaper on Monday quoted one of Suharto's lawyers as saying.
Jakarta – To pass the clean governance bill without giving substantial authority to an independent body to implement the power controls would be a pointless and abortive attempt to uproot corruption according to the Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW).
Jakarta – At least three people were killed and 100 houses torched in pockets of Indonesian violence reported Saturday.
On the island province of Maluku two people were killed and three injured when a mob of Christians attacked a Moslem settlement, Sergeant Major Yuleini told AFP by phone.
Jakarta – Indonesia's ethnic Chinese on Saturday formally established a mass organisation to promote awareness of their rights and obligations as Indonesians. The Chinese Indonesian Association (INTI) described itself as nationalist in character.
Bangkok – Indonesia is suffering severe food shortages and growing malnutrition brought on by rising social unrest and a deep economic crisis, the United Nations said in a report.
In a new report issued here, a UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Food Program (WFP) mission called for more international food aid despite predicting a good rice harvest.
Ambon – An angry mob beheaded two people as the death toll mounted in Indonesia's far eastern Moluccas, residents and officials said on Friday.
The two were attacked on Thursday after they had disembarked from a ship at Tual, the main town on Kai Besar island, a local journalist who saw the bodies said.
Padang – Two Indonesian communists walked free from their prison here Thursday after serving 33 years there for their alleged involvement in the 1965 coup blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).
Jakarta – About 2,000 workers in Indonesia's two largest cities demonstrated on Thursday to demand higher severance payments from firms struggling with a crippling economic crisis.
Jakarta – Indonesia yesterday reported a collapse in foreign investment approvals, a heavy economic blow blamed on fears of growing violence in the run-up to elections.
Investment Minister Hamzah Haz said foreign investment approvals between Jan 1 and March 15 had dropped 90 per cent to US$560 million from US$5.1 billion in the same period last year.
Jakarta – Thirteen people were killed when Indonesian troops and police opened fire to fend off a mass attack by rioters in troubled West Kalimantan province, a report said Thursday.
Jakarta – Indonesian police have arrested more than 100 people in West Kalimantan province on suspicion of arson and planning attacks on Madurese settlers, officials said Wednesday.
Jakarta – After 34 years of negligence, Indonesia ratified on Tuesday the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
In a plenary session here, the House of Representatives unanimously endorsed the bill on the ratification of the convention for President B.J. Habibie to sign into a I new law.
Jakarta – Dozens of Indonesian students Wednesday picketed the headquarters of the newly-formed General Election Commission and declared they would boycott the June 7 general elections, the first since the fall of Suharto.
Jakarta – Several Indonesian political prisoners, including pro-democracy activist Budiman Sujatmiko, have gone on hunger strike to press their demand for a just and fair election in June, a report said Wednesday.
x
Jakarta – Thousands of people attacked the homes of Madurese settlers and a police post in a new outbreak of ethnic unrest in troubled West Kalimantan province in Indonesian Borneo, residents and reports said Tuesday.
Jakarta – A military court on Tuesday handed jail sentences to 11 members of Indonesia's elite special Kopassus force found guilty of kidnapping nine pro-democracy activists in a trial sharply criticised by human rights activists.
Surabaya – Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung has warned of reprisals after ruling-party supporters were attacked for the second time in two days.
Peter Hartcher – Indonesia's former president, Mr Soeharto, has deliberately helped provoke recent violence and bloodshed as a political tactic, one of Indonesia's key Islamic leaders has alleged.
The presidential candidate Dr Amien Rais said he suspected Mr Soeharto of destabilising parts of Indonesia as a way of delaying or disrupting the national election due on June 7.
Jakarta – Twenty charred bodies were found Monday in homes set on fire during new Moslem-Christian unrest in the Maluku islands, taking the death toll to 55, a report said.