Jeremy Wagstaff and Jay Solomon – Grisly pictures of Indonesian Chinese rape victims circulating over the Internet and published in major newspapers havestoked international outrage in the last two weeks. The problem: Some of the pictures are fake.

Jean Rom, Brussels – Among the prisoners still held in Indonesia is Dita Indah Sari, the young leader of the PPBI, the trade union arm of the PRD opposition party, who has been languishing in prison since June 1996. Sentenced to five years' imprisonment in 1997 for "subversion", she suffered a particularly severe prison regime until the recent political changes in the country.

Yang Razali Kassim – Possibly the first organised move to probe into a range of alleged atrocities under the New Order regime of former president Suharto got underway this week with the launch of an independent investigative commission in Jakarta.

Jakarta – Some 5,000 people angered by MPs' failure to heed their charges that gubernatorial elections were rigged stoned a local parliament building in eastern Indonesia, a report said Friday.

Jakarta – Security forces fired warning shots to fend off crowds Thursday on the third day of mass looting of rice mills and stores in the densely-populated Indonesian province of East Java, police and military there said.

Andreas Harsono, Jakarta – On May 21, several hours after Indonesian strongman Suharto announced in a nationally-broadcast speech that he would step down from his 33-year authoritarian rule, Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto was relieved of his command of strategic forces in Jakarta.

Grainne Mccarthy and Kate Linebaugh, Jakarta – Just when Indonesia's Badan Urusan Logistik Nasional (Bulog) was being praised for operating multi-million dollar open tenders for the purchase of food commodities, the government fired its chairman in a move which could send the agency back to its corrupt ways, according to traders.

Jakarta – Stocks slipped Wednesday, as early gains by some state-owned companies eased on concern of the country's political situation. The Jakarta Stock Exchange composite index eased 6.216, or 1.7%, to 360.927. Volume stood at 160 million shares valued at 249 billion rupiah. Decliners outnumbered advancers, 60 to 31, with 88 stocks unchanged and 109 others untraded.

On June 4, 1998, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch issued an appeal for release of political prisoners in Indonesia and East Timor, following President Soeharto's resignation and the lifting of some political controls.

Jenny Grant – The discharging of the once powerful son-in-law of former president Suharto from the military should protect other senior figures from the abduction scandal.

Jakarta – Violent clashes erupted at an Indonesian Democracy Party (PDI) congress in Central Sulawesi Tuesday when hundreds of supporters from a rival party faction pelted rocks at the venue, witnesses said.

Jakarta – Indonesian police beat up protesting textile workers here Tuesday to prevent them from marching to the International Labour Organization (ILO) office in the city's business district, a witness said.

Jakarta – Some 150 university students from campuses throughout greater Jakarta took to the streets Tuesday to demand price cuts and the resignation of Indonesian President B.J. Habibie, witnesses said.

Anthony Spaeth – When Indonesian students occupied the country's parliament in May, their principal demand was the resignation of Suharto, president of the country for 32 years. Within days, he had stepped down.

Andrew Marshall, Jakarta – If Indonesia's military believes it can appease public anger over mounting evidence of past atrocities by casting out its most hated figure, it is mistaken, analysts said on Monday.

Surabaya – About 2,000 students demonstrated in Indonesia's second largest city Surabaya on Sunday, demanding that former President Suharto be brought to trial for the country's economic crisis.

Jakarta – Trade unions in all industrial sectors broke ranks and withdrew from the Federation of All Indonesian Workers Union (FSPSI) yesterday in a bid to topple the federation's central executive board.

[Waspada, the Medan daily, published today photographs of the exhumed skulls and bones and of the detention/torture centre ablaze, as well as a photograph of local people joyfully kicking and demolished a photo of Suharto that they had found hanging on the wall - Tapol.]

Lhokseumawe – Indonesian troops began a pullout from troubled Aceh province yesterday to cheers and catcalls from locals who say a nine-year army crackdown involved torture, rape and the dumping of victims in mass graves.

Jakarta – Gangs of grave robbers have been digging up Chinese graveyards in two cities on the Indonesian island of Java and looting them of coffins of valuables and discarding the remains, officials and a press report said Friday.

Kafil Yamin, Jakarta – August 17 this year was the first day of freedom in 32 years for Pujo Prasetyo, jailed for his involvement in the abortive communist-inspired coup of 1965.

Atlanta – US House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Thursday criticized the World Bank for letting money go to waste in Indonesia, after an internal report said that bank funds may have been siphoned off by government officials.

Louise Williams, Jakarta – As the Indonesian military faces a damning human rights investigation, residents of the northern province of Aceh are guarding what are claimed to be mass graves, saying they fear there will be attempts to remove the evidence.

[The following translation of a letter from an Acehnese refugee in a Malaysian gaol which was passed on to Tapol by the Acheh/Sumatra National Liberation Front office in Sweden.]

Ian MacKenzie, Jakarta – Indonesia's armed forces, who have traditionally regarded themselves as the defenders of the country's unity and stability, are under unprecedented fire as they emerge from the shadow of the former president Suharto's regime. Last week was a black one for the armed forces, known by the acronym ABRI:

[This item also included a second story titled "Jakarta's time of terror: a Chinese girl's tragic story" which was omitted because an almost identical item appeared in a previous issue of NetNews.]

Jakarta – The Supreme Court has dismissed a case filed by opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri against the government over her 1996 ouster as head of the Indonesian Democracy Party (PDI), court officials said Wednesday.

Jakarta – Two weeks after its launch, an Indonesian agency tasked with helping the private sector to restructure its massive external debt has found no takers, an official said Wednesday.

Christopher Torchia, Jakarta – Clustered outside an Indonesian courthouse, students clapped when they heard a judge convict two policemen in the killings of campus protesters. Seconds later, they groaned in disappointment when the sentences were announced.

Andrew Marshall, Jakarta – The air at the Bekasi municipal dump on the eastern fringes of Jakarta is thick with flies and the stench of a million tonnes of garbage. Ferreting among the mounds of stinking debris, their clothes, hands and faces smeared with grime, are hundreds of Indonesian children who should be at school.

Don Greenlees – Three ageing Indonesian communists, jailed after the abortive 1965 coup, were granted their freedom yesterday in a round of Independence Day amnesties designed to bolster President B.J. Habibie's claims to promoting human rights.

Jakarta – A recent survey on which party people will vote for shows that a majority of people have yet to make up their minds. However, those who have decided tend to support the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) led by Megawati Soekarnoputri.

Jeremy Wagstaff, Jakarta – In his first Independence Day speech as president, B.J. Habibie used words and gestures to formally break with the authoritarian regime of his predecessor and paint his vision of a new democratic era. But while his marathon address won modest applause, Mr. Habibie is a long way from winning over the skeptics.

Lhokseumawe – Local residents and human rights officials in Indonesia's Aceh province said yesterday anonymous groups had sought to intimidate them since the discovery of mass graves in the area, the site of a separatist insurgency that peaked in the early 1990s.

Jakarta – Around 2,000 villagers in the central Javanese town of Cilacap went on the rampage after their village chief refused to meet them when they came to protest his alleged corruption, reports and police said Friday.

Greg Torode, Jakarta – Ethnic Chinese are starting to flee Indonesia amid threats of rape and rioting surrounding Monday's Independence Day celebrations. Travel agents said flights on Sunday and Monday to Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur were almost full. Many Jakarta Chinese said they were preparing to move their families from houses into hotels.

Jakarta – The city military is soliciting help from foreign groups in its effort to identify people spreading rumors on the Internet of renewed riots in the capital.

Jakarta – The police have arrested 16 people accused of instigating riots in May that caused the death of more than 1,000 people, reports said.

Jakarta – House Speaker Harmoko swore in yesterday 38 new members of the House of Representatives/People's Consultative Assembly (DPR/MPR), including Army Chief of Staff Gen. Subagyo Hadisiswoyo and former Jakarta military chief Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, as part of the preparations for the special MPR session in November.

Jakarta – A coalition of political activists protested at the presidential office here Thursday against new regulations restricting public demonstration and putting key installations including the palace off-limits, witnesses said.

Jakarta – Shops were back in business in the small West Java town of Labuan on Thursday, a day after hundreds of people attacked three ethnic Chinese-owned shops there, police said there. "All shops are open again today, including the Ayung, Babah Java and Nang Tung shops," said Corporal Unang of the police in Labuan, a sleepy town on the southwestern coast of West Java.

Jakarta – A wildcat strike by some 5,000 workers at one of the world's largest copper and gold mines, PT Freeport Indonesia, dragged into its fourth day Thursday with no sign of a breathrough, the company said. "We're hopeful, but there's no breakthrough yet," a Freeport spokeswoman in Jakarta told AFP, adding that negotiations were continuing.

Cindy Shiner, Jakarta – There are two legends in Javanese culture about what happens when a man marries the daughter of a king: The groom could be like Jaka Tingkir, who killed his father-in-law and established a new kingdom. Or he could follow the footsteps of Ageng Mangir, who attempted several coups against another sultan and ended up dead.

Yang Razali Kassim – In a recent gruesome cover story on the situation on Aceh, the Indonesian weekly magazine Gatra recounted the case of a man who was brought at gunpoint by a soldier to a hill in Aceh. Teungku Ayub was given a live demonstration of what could happen to rebels: a fellow villager, tied to a tree, was shot dead and his body left to rot.

Yogyakarta – The Indonesian government is set to free more political prisoners soon, Justice Minister Muladi disclosed here on Monday.

Jakarta – A group of some 20 Indonesian activists Tuesday picketted the Myanmar embassy here to demand the release of 18 activists, including three Indonesians, arrested by the military junta in Yangon.

Jakarta – The abduction of political activists were not ordered by the Armed Forces' (ABRI) top brass, but were carried out because of then Army Special Force (Kopassus) chief Lt. Gen. Prabowo Subianto's interpretation of his superiors' instructions, the Officers Honor Council (DKP) concluded yesterday.

[This article was forwarded to Joyo without date and publication. The journalist writes frequently about Indonesia for The Guardian (UK).]

S. Karene Witcher, Jakarta – A unit of the World Bank aims to be among the first creditors to push a troubled Indonesian borrower over the brink by using Indonesia's new bankruptcy law.

On Monday, August 10, the State Administrative Court (PTUN) in Jakarta announced the success of a People's Democratic Party (PRD) demand challenging the decision to ban the PRD issued by the Minister of Home Affairs, Yogie S. Memet last year. The decision is therefore no longer valid and the status of the PRD as a banned party has been withdrawn.