G. K. Goh, Jakarta – Indonesian police fired teargas to disperse a total of 500 student protesters in two separate locations in Jakarta on Thursday in the latest demonstrations over a hefty fuel price hike. The increase at the weekend, by an average 30 percent, has triggered several protests in major cities across the troubled archipelago.

G. K. Goh, Jakarta – Fears of social unrest in Indonesia continued to chip away at consumer confidence in May, state brokerage Danareksa said its latest survey showed on Wednesday. Sentiment about future job prospects fell to its lowest since it started surveys in October 1999, the company said.

Sue Boland – Once the news broke in Australia about the police and militia attack on the Asia Pacific People's Solidarity conference in Indonesia on June 8 and the detention of conference participants, friends and relatives of the detainees in Australia moved into action to publicise what had happened.

Viv Miley & Susan Price – Progressive forces from around the world spoke out and took action as soon as news of the police and militia raid on the international solidarity conference spread.

In Canada, snap protests were organised across the country in solidarity, according to Paul Kellogg, who was one of those detained in Jakarta.

Joanne Collins, Jakarta – The IMF said on Wednesday it was optimistic Indonesia's willingness to revise controversial central bank law amendments would end a six-month deadlock on a vital $5 billion loan programme.

Ahmed Shawki, Columbia, South Carolina – Top US labour leaders gathered for a workers' rights rally here responded immediately to the police crackdown on the Asia-Pacific Solidarity Conference in Jakarta.

An international outpouring of support came soon after from other labour leaders, human rights activists, academics and others.

Susan Price & Viv Miley – One of those detained by authorities after the June 8 raid on the Asia-Pacific Solidarity Conference in Jakarta was Auckland city councillor Maire Leadbeater – prompting a statement from New Zealand foreign minister Phil Goff following her release seeking a formal explanation from the Indonesian government for the police action.

Jakarta – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid on Wednesday said blame for past and present human rights abuses by the country's police and military should be attributed to rogue elements, and not to the institutions.

Sean Healy – The only one of the 32 foreign nationals detained after the June 8 raid on the Jakarta solidarity conference to be singled out for official deportation from Indonesia was Farooq Tariq, the general secretary of the Labour Party Pakistan.

Kerryn Williams, Jakarta – "Since the police first arrived there was an increasing [number] of [militia] members and we predicted that after the police left, they would attack", said Yahgun, a member of the People's Democratic Party and one of the Indonesian participants in the Asia-Pacific People's Solidarity Conference raided by police on June 8. He was right.

Makassar, South Sulawesi – A student rally in Makassar welcomed the latest Indonesian Military (TNI) reshuffle on Tuesday, with some 100 Maluku students studying in the South Sulawesi capital demanding that outgoing Pattimura Military Commander, Brig. Gen. I Made Yasa, be tried for human rights violations.

Peter Boyle – At 6pm on Saturday June 9, 24 hours after the detained foreign participants at the Asia Pacific People's Solidarity Conference were first brought to Jakarta's central police HQ, the remaining 30 foreign detainees were allowed to leave. However, our passports were kept by the police and we were instructed to report back to the police HQ at 10am the following Monday.

Pip Hinman – For one and a half days, from the morning of June 7, the Asia Pacific People's Solidarity Conference, held a holiday resort outside Jakarta, had been proceeding relatively smoothly.

Jakarta – Indonesian police have named as fugitive suspects the heads of two companies involved in a multi-million-dollar share sale dispute with Canadian-based insurance company Manulife, a Manulife lawyer said Wednesday.

Reuters in Jakarta – Indonesia's biggest political party has backed away from efforts to bring forward an impeachment hearing against embattled President Abdurrahman Wahid, local media reported on Wednesday.

Jakarta – Indonesian authorities have given in to demands for transport fare increases as thousands of commuters were left stranded because of a strike by public minivan drivers.

While not nationally-organised, minivan drivers in cities across the country have held demonstrations to protest against the government's decision to increase the price of fuel by 30 per cent.

Max Lane, Singapore – The police raid on the Asia-Pacific Peoples Solidarity Conference on June 8 was just one more in a string of actions taken by the Indonesian police, often working hand in glove with militia gangs, to push back the democratic space won by the student-led mass movement which forced the resignation of former dictator Suharto in May, 1998.

The raid by police on the Asia-Pacific Solidarity Conference in Jakarta on June 8, the brutal militia attack which followed it and the detention of 32 foreign participants has revealed two disturbing returns to the past.

Jakarta – Central Jakarta Police arrested eight people on Tuesday, following a clash between police and protesting students outside the campuses of the Indonesian Persada University (UPI) and YAI accounting school on Jl. Diponegoro, Central Jakarta.

Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – A powerful bomb exploded at a boarding-house in the Indonesian capital Jakarta around dawn on Tuesday, seriously wounding five people, and police later found several unexploded devices in the building.

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Indonesian police fired warning shots and tear gas at more than 700 students protesting over national fuel price hikes in Jakarta on Monday as bus drivers went on strike in eight cities across the country.

Jakarta – City Police arrested on Monday three activists of the umbrella student group City Forum (Forkot) for allegedly provoking public transportation drivers to go on strike following the fuel price hike. The three students are Mixil, Arif Wardoyo and Miftahudin.

Lincoln Wright – A leading United States congressman, who is a major supporter of the alliance with Australia, has called for America to renew its military ties with Indonesia's navy, air force and marines, but not its army.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – A military tribunal yesterday charged nine police officers with the 1998 murder of anti-government student protesters, an event which triggered widespread riots that contributed to the fall of former president Suharto.

MMI Ahyani/HD, Bandung – Five members of Democratic People's Party (PRD) for West Java were arrested by police following unrest in Bandung last 13 June. Those PRD's members were arrested at Kebun Kelapa station Bandung and at Cicadas at noon on Sunday.

[Derwin Pereira looks at how these cukongs are adapting to the new political environment and who are next in line to take their place.]

Jakarta – Eleven military personnel will be tried in a military tribunal on Monday for their alleged role in the shooting of Trisakti students, a military spokesman revealed on Thursday.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – The Bush Administration has decided to restore tentative military contact with Indonesia at a time that Australia is stepping up pressure on Jakarta to punish those responsible for atrocities in East Timor.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The Indonesian government yesterday temporarily revoked a controversial labour decree which cuts long-service payments, in a bid to calm violent street protests carried out by angry workers over the last three days.

The Government delayed a controversial fuel price rise in the face of more unrest yesterday as President Abdurrahman Wahid prepared to leave his troubled country on yet another overseas trip.

Jakarta – The city administration announced on Thursday its plan to recruit some 50,000 civilians to help safeguard the city during the special session of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), scheduled to begin on August 1.

Bandung – A new clash between police and protesting workers erupted here on Thursday, injuring at least nine people and damaging dozens of stores, buildings, two hotels and many vehicles.

Agencies in Jakarta – In a new attempt to stay in power, President Abdurrahman Wahid has authorised prosecutors to launch corruption investigations against three ardent critics, officials at the Attorney-General's Office said yesterday.

Jakarta – Many state officials have demonstrated their unwillingness to disclose their wealth and assets as only 13 percent of the total forms distributed by the Public Servants' Wealth Audit Commission (KPKPN) have been returned.

Jakarta – Police Wednesday detained 76 people following a three-day bloody communal clash in Cirebon regency, West Java, in which four people were killed and dozens were wounded. Police also confiscated hundreds of sharp weapons, Molotov cocktails, arrows and hand grenades from feuding villagers, Antara reported Wednesday.

Jakarta – Thousands of Indonesian workers yesterday held massive rallies in several cities, including the capital, to demand the scrapping of a ministerial labour decree cutting long-service payments.

Jakarta – The National Police released Laskar Jihad Ahlus Sunnah Wal Jammaah commander Ja'far Umar Thalib from custody on Tuesday, though the suspect remains under investigation. Ja'far's lawyer Eggy Sudjana said the police officially released Ja'far via an official letter issued by National Police chief of general crimes Brig. Gen. Aryanto Sutadi, dated June 12.

Lee Siew Hua, Washington – The United States has been urged to help Indonesia to regain the world's confidence and help it to improve its relations with the International Monetary Fund.

Jakarta – A coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), grouped under the Ornop Coalition, urged police on Wednesday to take stern action against members of a hard-line Muslim group who had committed acts of theft and vandalism in connection with the raid on an international conference in Sawangan, West Java, last week.

Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid turned down on Tuesday the demands of the Federation of All Indonesian Workers Union (FSPSI) to nullify two controversial ministerial decrees on labor issues but agreed to give some concessions to protect workers rights.

President Abdurrahman Wahid, fighting for his political life, named the deputy governor of the central bank, Mr Burhanuddin Abdullah, as the new chief economics minister yesterday.

Jakarta – Thousands of Indonesian workers held massive rallies in several cities on Wednesday to demand the scrapping of a ministerial labor decree cutting long-service payments.

More than 1,000 workers from at least 30 labor organizations in the capital Jakarta and its outskirts demonstrated in front of the vice presidential palace facing central Jakarta's Monas square.

Makassar, – Fifty students of the Indonesian Muslim University (UMI) put on a theater roadshow in Makassar on Tuesday as part of a renewal of their protest against the government's plan to raise fuel prices and electricity rates.

Jakarta – Eight people were killed, and 12 others wounded in armed attacks on a Christian neighbourhood and a passenger boat in the strife-torn eastern Indonesian city of Ambon yesterday.

Joanne Collins, Jakarta – The IMF on Wednesday urged Indonesia's new economic team to forge ahead with the revised 2001 budget, saying it was an important precursor to mending frayed relations.

Jakarta – The city administration should discriminate in its handling of hoodlums and street vendors. The city should not arrest street vendors and other informal traders as the police arrest hoodlums, experts said on Tuesday.

Hamish McDonald – A score of Australians has just been caught up in a nasty example of the repressive violence that could easily become the norm again in Indonesia as Soeharto-era forces regroup behind Vice-President Megawati Sukarnoputri's push for power.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – While foreign activists at the Justice Ministry tried to avoid being fingerprinted, the prime local target of a police raid on a labour seminar last week was almost forgotten.

Aloysius Bhui, Jakarta – The revised budget currently being debated in parliament designed to contain the fiscal deficit to 3.8 per cent of GDP should be enough to satisfy the International Monetary Fund but will prove very tough and problematic to implement, analysts said.

Scott Rochfort – Eight Australians detained by Indonesian police after attending a Labor rights conference in Jakarta returned, relieved, to Australia today.