For all the almost hysterical reporting of unrest in the press, no one has yet tried to create an overall picture of what has happened on the ground. The chronology below is preliminary and based largely on Indonesian-language sources.

In 1997 the international community showed a new willingness to search for solutions to the problems of conflict and human rights violations in East Timor.

Jenny Grant, Jakarta – Rioters in West Java had admitted being paid to initiate unrest, police said yesterday.

Police in the town of Cirebon said their inquiries were focused on seven out of 85 people arrested during three days of attacks against Chinese-owned shops and property.

Singapore - The assets of a handful of Indonesia's richest people could go a long way to bailing out the country if the $43 billion IMF rescue package falters, data published by Forbes Magazine shows.

Jakarta – Landslide support for B.J. Habibie failed to push former environment minister Emil Salim out of the race for the vice presidency yesterday.

Emil, who has strong support from fellow academics, pro-democracy activists and the public alike, will continue his bid for the post in an "exercise of democracy".

Louise Williams, Jakarta – Indonesia's ruling Golkar Party has announced that the controversial Technology Minister, Dr Jusuf Habibie, is its vice-presidential choice, a move which is certain to further undermine international business confidence, as rural rioting continues and the rupiah weakens.

There is still no news of the whereabouts of Pius Lustrilanang, the student activist from the People's Democratic Alliance (Aldera) who has been missing since 4 February 1998.

The Jakarta police force have foiled a plan to explode a grenade at the National Monument on Malam Takbir on 8 February, an event which was attended by President Suharto and Vice-President Try Sutrisno.

Two Korean-made grenades were seized and two suspects were arrested, identified only as Abd, 31, and Fa, 38.

Sander Thoenes profiles Indonesia's likely next vice-president

Jim Della-Giacoma, Jakarta – At least three people have been killed and 154 detained in riots over rising prices directed mostly against shops run by Indonesia's minority Chinese, police and witnesses said on Saturday.

Jakarta – Some 2,000 students threw stones at several stores Saturday morning on Indonesia's Sulawesi Island after their rally to protest higher basic commodity prices turned into a riot, the state-run news agency Antara said.

Michael Dorgan, Jakarta – It's 5:30 a.m. and a new day is dawning. The man many here would like to see as this country's next president has been rousted from a short sleep at a spartan Islamic center and is being rushed to the airport for his next campaign stop.

Yang Razali Kassim, Singapore – In total defiance of the financial markets, and acting on a script by President Suharto, the top brass of ABRI, the Indonesian military, further consolidated their ranks this week behind Research and Technology Minister B J Habibie as possible heir apparent.

Michael Richardson, Singapore – With the Indonesian government short of money and preoccupied with an economic crisis that threatens to lead to serious social unrest, concern is growing in Singapore and Malaysia that the region will again be smothered in smoke pollution from uncontrolled forest fires in Indonesia.

Irwan Firdaus, Sukamandi – In the most violent day of protests yet in Indonesia's economic crisis, thousands went on the rampage in at least eight towns today, venting their anger against Chinese traders they blame for soaring prices and mass unemployment.

Indonesia's security forces plan to tap phones to monitor dissidents calls and pull the plug on conversations that are deemed political, a newspaper said on Friday.

Eighteen members of the People's Democratic Alliance, ALDERA, were arrested at crack of dawn Thursday by a force of 15 policemen, several of whom were in civvies. The police forced their way into the organisation's Bogor, West Java office and rounded up everyone there, without saying a word. The were taken away on three police vans to police headquarters in the city.

Indonesia's plan for a currency board may look attractive. But it is a high-risk gamble that could cause huge damage. The superficial appeal of fixing the rupiah is clear, given that the currency's plummet to only a third of its pre-crisis valueh as wreaked havoc, especially to corporate balance sheets.

Margot Cohen, Jakarta – Fadli Zon has a vision. The former student activist imagines his countrymen cycling slowly down Jakarta's Jalan Thamrin, a central boulevard normally choked with cars. Instead of Western clothes, everyone will be wearing sarongs made of rough cloth. "If necessary, we'll go backwards 10 or 15 years," he says fervently.

Raju Gopalakrishnan, Jakarta – President Suharto accused unnamed groups on Thursday of using Indonesia's economic crisis to undermine his government as the country announced the appointment of a new armed forces chief.

Washington – The IMF is headed for a showdown with its third largest borrower on Thursday, insisting Indonesia was not ready for a rigid currency regime and highlighting political uncertainties there.

Christopher Torchia, Jakarta – It wasn't a bomb, but the box found next to a bank machine in an airport was meant to send a warning. Marked "explosive with remote," the package of plastic pipes and electric wires carried this warning: "Bring down prices or it will happen in other places."

Seth Mydans, Surabaya – The military officer seemed puzzled when asked about the giant Tactica armored water cannon that was parked beside him, in front of the glass-and-chrome Delta Plaza Shopping Center. "Vehicle?" he asked. "You mean those taxis over there?"

Louise Williams, Jakarta – Hundreds of people marched through Jakarta's main business district yesterday protesting against rising prices and unemployment, just a day after the armed forces paraded 25,000 troops in a massive show of force and warned against demonstrations.

Raphael Pura, Jakarta – A food crisis is closing in on Indonesia. The coming crunch could compel the beleaguered country to seek at least $1 billion in emergency funds for short-term food subsidies to supplement an International Monetary Fund-backed financial rescue package announced last month.

Jakarta – About 200 people attacked and set on fire shops and vehicles in an eastern Indonesian town in protest against price hikes, the Jakarta Post reported on Monday. It said at least 16 shops, two cars and two motorcycles were damaged or set on fire during the disturbances on Sunday in Ende town on Flores island.

Louise Williams, Jakarta – Riots over rising food prices hit drought-stricken eastern Indonesia over the weekend as the chief of the armed forces led thousands of troops bristling with firepower in a daunting public display in central Jakarta.

The Asian Executives Poll recorded in the Far Eastern Economic Review (5 February 1998) shows that most businesses in the region will have no confidence in an Indonesia under Suharto's continuing leadership.

Seth Mydans, Semari – When hundreds of rough-looking men burst through the alleyways of the nearby town of Kraton two days ago, throwing stones and waving sharpened sickles, most of them came from here in Semari, a placid village of farmers and fishermen.

Michael Richardson, Singapore – A senior U.S. commander has expressed concern that Indonesia could be on the verge of social and political instability. The question of domestic turbulence is critical to the U.S.

Jenny Grant, Jakarta – Indonesia yesterday estimated the country's foreign debt at US$137.4 billion – higher than previous official figures – and announced it was drafting a new bankruptcy law to deal with the nation's private debt. "Companies not able to solve their debt problems... must have a legal solution.

Jakarta – At least two shops were burned and seven others damaged in an eastern Indonesian town on Saturday during a protest against price hikes triggered by the currency crisis, the official Antara news agency reported.

Louise Williams, Jakarta – Unemployment in Indonesia has jumped by more than five million due to the economic crisis, it was revealed yesterday as the armed forces staged a show of force across Jakarta following rural food riots earlier this week.

Seth Mydans, Surabaya – At precisely 3 p.m. on Thursday, the heavy blue gate of the Gunawan steel plant slid open and hundreds of young men poured through to hear an announcement they dreaded. Would their factory reopen in the morning, and would all of them still have jobs if it did?

Louise Williams, Jakarta – The president of the World Bank, Mr James Wolfensohn, has conceded that the bank "got it wrong" in Indonesia, failing to predict the country's economic collapse and to prevent the growth of monopolies and corrupt practices.

Singapore - A top Indonesian Muslim leader has accused President Suharto's children and associates of primary responsibilty for the country's debt crisis and likened their business operations to organised crime.

Opposition figure Megawati Sukarnoputri Wednesday called on her supporters not to take part in violent protests against the government despite an ongoing economic crisis. "Please avoid violent acts in any form", she said in a statement.

Her plea follows an outbreak of social unrest in several parts of the islands of Java and Sulawasi in recent days.

By Jay Solomon and Kate Linebaugh

Jakarta – The world's fourth-most-populous country is running out of medicines.

Raphael Pura, Jakarta – Asia's crumbling financial markets have plunged Indonesia into deep trouble. But domestic politics could keep it there.

Southeast Asian nations are suffering from many of the same economic ills, but Indonesia stands alone in one critical way: More than any other major Asian nation, it is effectively run by one man.

Jakarta – The Armed Forces (ABRI) reaffirmed yesterday its commitment to renominating President Soeharto even if there was a change in its leadership.

ABRI spokesman Brig. Gen. A. Wahab Mokodongan said the Armed Forces choice of Soeharto was part of its "strategic plan" to help restore the ailing Indonesian economy.

Jakarta – Violent protests have again erupted in key parts of Indonesia, with thousands of people burning shops as they challenged higher food and fuel prices, according to police and news reports Monday.

Raphael Pura, Jakarta – Trying to project Indonesia's political future has become a national obsession, as President Suharto prepares to begin his seventh term next month amid the toughest economic downturn in more than 30 years.

Jakarta – Indonesia's State Logistics Agency, Bulog, won't be releasing in February price controls it maintains over nine basic goods, including sugar, cooking oil, and wheat flour, Bulog President Beddu Amang said Monday.

Yang Razali Kassim – Indonesia's political tension triggered by the financial crisis took a new twist last week when some prominent members of the elite, including the Wanandi brothers, were quizzed by the security authorities in connection with a bomb blast in the capital on Jan 18.

Kafil Yamin, Jakarta – Child malnutrition continues to be a blot on Indonesia's impressive record of poverty reduction in the last three decades.

The rise in prices of basic goods such as rice and cooking oil has led to violent protests across Indonesia, much of it aimed at the ethnic Chinese minority who dominate the retail economy.

Sangwon Suh – Lukman is a supervisor for a construction project in Central Jakarta. But the luxurious apartment complex the 38- year-old was helping build has been put on hold, a casualty of Indonesia's liquidity crisis and drastic economic slowdown. Lukman and his fellow workers are to be laid off.

Jakarta – Fishermen angered by a poor catch and rising prices of basic commodities have rioted in Indonesia's Central Java province, a report said Monday.

Police in the northern coastal district centre of Rembang arrested 21 people over the unrest there and in several other nearby towns some 300 miles east of Jakarta, the Jakarta Post added.

Indonesia had one of the most tumultuous years in its modern history: economic collapse spurred student-led demands for political reform, bringing President Soeharto's three-decade rule to an end in May. His successor and protegé, Vice-President B.J.

Paul Watson, Cikampek – On dust-blown flats that used to be good farmland, a grand shrine rises to honour the greed and sheer gall of Indonesia's first family.

President Suharto and his extended family have their fingers in every conceivable pie in Indonesia - from cellular telephone networks, to power plants, toll roads, banks, and oil and gas exploration.