Reme Ahmad, Kuala Lumpur – SOME 500 Indonesian textile workers in Negri Sembilan overturned vehicles and shouted profanities at policemen in a violent protest against a midnight anti-drug raid at their hostel.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Indonesia's second-largest political party Golkar is going after President Megawati Sukarnoputri's husband for alleged corrupt business dealings and abuse of power in an apparent attempt to protect party chairman Akbar Tandjung, who is under graft investigation.

Rendi A. Witular, Jakarta – The sharp increases in fuel prices on Thursday boosted the prices of several staples, causing an outcry among the people here.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Yesterday's 22-per-cent hike in fuel prices dealt a second blow within a month to Indonesia's already hard pressed businesses, particularly those operating in the export sectors.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Imam Utomo, Governor of densely populated East Java, is concerned about the increasingly crushing burdens of poverty, hunger and unemployment suffered by his people, as local prices of food, fuel and electricity soar.

Jakarta – Some 150 casual workers of state-owned fertilizer company PT Pupuk Sriwijaya (PT Pusri) went on strike on Thursday, demanding a 100 percent wage increase.

A'an Suryana and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – An internal rift has cast a shadow over the planned Golkar Party executive board meeting early next month, which may be marked by talks on holding an extraordinary congress to demand that Akbar Tandjung account for his troubled leadership.

New York – The Indonesian government failed to address human rights violations last year and the situation in the separatist province of Aceh worsened sharply, Human Rights Watch said.

Jakarta – The total value of Indonesia's 2002 imports is expected to drop by 10 percent year-on-year, an official said Wednesday.

"I forecast for 2002 imports will decrease as a whole from 2001 by about 10 percent," said the import division chief of the state Central Bureau of Statistics, Irlan Indrocahyo.

Max Lane – The Indonesian economy is in a truly parlous state. The combined public and private foreign debt is US$150 billion, standing at 110% of GDP, and more than 40% of the government's revenues are devoted to interest payments on foreign debt. In addition, the government owes another staggering US$64 billion to several Indonesian banks.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – Human rights activists expressed skepticism Tuesday on the fairness of trials in cases of human rights atrocities scheduled to start in February, citing the government's secrecy in recruiting ad hoc judges who were unveiled on Monday.

Jakarta – An Indonesian body charged with monitoring business practices on Wednesday began investigating reports of alleged collusion in the government's bid to sell it shares in the country's largest private bank, Bank Central Asia "We will summons the parties concerned including the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency," said Muhammad Iqbal, the chairman of the government-sanction

Jakarta – A top politician has urged US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz to provide proof that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network was present in Indonesia, reports said Wednesday.

Don Greenlees, Jakarta – President Megawati Sukarnoputri has approved a list of 18 judges to sit on a human rights tribunal trying crimes committed during Indonesia's retreat from East Timor, opening the way for the first trials of soldiers and militiamen more than two years after their bloody retribution over East Timor's vote for independence.

The East Timor Action Network (ETAN) said today that Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri's last minute approval of judges for an ad hoc court on East Timor does not alter its view that the court will not bring to justice all, or even most of, those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in East Timor.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Signs of a crack in the coalition government between the largest and second largest party, which catapulted Megawati Soekarnoputri to the presidency last July, is getting more obvious as the days go by.

Jakarta – The country's largest Muslim organisation, which founded the Nation Awakening Party (PKB), is giving up on attempts to reconcile two rival factions within the party.

Aan Suryana and Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta – The government's decision to reestablish the military command in Aceh and internal conflicts in nearly all major political parties would do harm to efforts to end the military's role in politics, military observers warned on Friday.

Jakarta – Former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid was questioned by police yesterday over allegations that he received nearly US$2 million from an errant son of former president Suharto in an attempt to buy a presidential pardon.

Robert Go, Jakarta – Aid money earmarked by the government to offset the effects of fuel-price hikes on the poor will not help the needy, said activists who work with Indonesia's impoverished urban communities.

Emmy Fitri, Jakarta – The rising price of rice may not affect the middle to upper income households but it is surely having a major impact on the poor small-scale rice vendors.

Upi Sobri, 52, said she had to close her business selling nasi uduk (rice cooked in coconut oil) to school children last week because she could no longer afford the soaring price of rice.

Jakarta – The authorities in the Indonesian capital have refused to halt a wave of forced evictions of Jakarta's poor, which has left almost 50,000 people homeless in the past year, a welfare activist said.

Emmy Fitri, Jakarta – Governor Sutiyoso's plan to use more muscle to order the city, including evicting illegal squatters, will not solve his administration's many problems as he only looking for a quick solution and not a real one, activists say.

Damar Harsanto, Jakarta – As thousands of people displaced by the recent city-led forced evictions cry for help, their representatives in City Council are due to leave for the mountain resort of Puncak, West Java, to discuss the proposed city budget, drawing strong criticism from the public and non-governmental organizations.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – Several legislators said they would boycott Parliament Speaker Akbar Tandjung, a key suspect in a financial scandal, if he refused to vacate his post temporarily while undergoing a legal investigation.

Devi Asmarani, Jakarta – The Indonesian government has failed to lift the country out of the economic crisis despite initial confidence in the new economic team of President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Tempo news magazine concluded in its New Year edition that almost all indicators showed that the country's economy was still in a rut.

Jakarta – Indonesian vice president and prominent Islamic leader Hamzah Haz on Friday warned the United States not to target the world's most populous Muslim nation in its war on terrorism, the official Antara news agency reported.

Jakarta – The price of rice has increased by nearly 30 percent in several areas in Central and West Java, and many are attributing that to the government's plan to increase fuel prices and electricity bills.

In Purwokerto, Central Java, low quality rice, IR, is now Rp 3,000 per kilogram, Rp 600 higher than before.

Washington – US and Indonesian officials believe hundreds of al-Qaeda fighters trained last year at a camp in central Indonesia, and fear sleeper cells could soon become operational there, the Washington Post reported Friday.

Jakarta – Indonesia's former armed forces commander General Wiranto has accused President Megawati Sukarnoputri and her predecessors of failing the reform movement.

"None of the governments has been capable of taking the nation out of the crisis, let alone promoting the people's welfare," Gen Wiranto said on Wednesday, quoted by the Antara news agency.

Jakarta – Indonesia's disgraced former military commander Gen. Wiranto Wednesday described as unfair the prosecution of 19 military officials and militiamen for alleged human rights abuses in East Timor in 1999, saying soldiers under his command did nothing wrong.

His comments come shortly before the trials are scheduled to start in a special human rights court.

Vaudine England and Agencies, Jakarta – The stakes were raised in Jakarta's potentially most explosive political corruption case yesterday when the Attorney-General's Office announced that the Speaker of the House of Representatives (DPR), Akbar Tandjung, was now regarded as a suspect.

Jakarta – An Indonesian court on Monday charged two alleged hitmen with murdering a Supreme Court judge on orders from Tommy Suharto, a son of the former president.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Critics have urged the government of Megawati Soekarnoputri to speed up the ad hoc trial of military officers accused of human rights violations in East Timor in 1999 and Tanjungpriok, Jakarta, in 1984.

Jakarta – More women in Indonesia died during childbirth last year than in any other Southeast Asian country, a health ministry official said Monday.

The rate was 323 per 100,000 births last year compared to 30 each in Malaysia and Sri Lanka, and 50 in Thailand, said the ministry's director general for public health, Azrul Azwar, as quoted by Antara news agency.

Jakarta – Hundreds of Indonesian activists rallied outside the presidential palace Monday to protest plans to raise fuel and electricity prices.

The protestors, mostly from the left-leaning Democratic People's Party, said the rises would only further impoverish the poor, Antara news agency reported.

Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri has scored a poor end-of-year report card from the country's human rights advocates, who accuse her of abandoning reforms and cosying up to figures from the former Suharto regime.

Jakarta – Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Saturday called on the country's soldiers to be firm in carrying out their job and not to be worried about accusations of human rights abuses.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – An educated, professional Indonesian civil servant – let's call him Johannes – once had a senior, apparently stable job in a region outside Jakarta. His pay and responsibilities came from Jakarta and, though nothing like that received by his intellectual equals in the West, it did arrive with reassuring predictability.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – President Megawati Sukarnoputri has come under fire for appointing her businessman husband Taufik Kiemas as head of a ministerial visit to China earlier this month.

Her advisers and party members fear her opponents will exploit this and other political shenanigans of Mr Taufik to dent her image.

Jakarta – Almost one third of Indonesian legislators hardly attended any parliamentary sessions in the 10 months to July, reports said Friday.

Jakarta – United Development Party (PPP) chairman Hamzah Haz, who is also the vice president, is scheduled to meet with Zainuddin MZ, leader of a PPP splinter group, in Surabaya on Jan. 5 to mend the rift in the party, an official said on Thursday.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – President Megawati Sukarnoputri has come under fire for appointing her businessman husband Taufik Kiemas as head of a ministerial visit to China earlier this month.

Her advisers and party members fear her opponents will exploit this and other political shenanigans of Mr Taufik to dent her image.

Bambang Nurbianto and Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – Reforms have come to a complete halt under the leadership of President Megawati Soekarnoputri, as she prefers to collaborate with the remnants of the New Order regime rather than work with reform-minded leaders, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) said on Thursday.

Jakarta – Almost one third of Indonesian legislators hardly attended any parliamentary sessions in the 10 months to July, reports said Friday.

Ambon – At least three people were hurt in a shootout between Indonesian police, soldiers and marines in the riot-torn city of Ambon, residents and a navy officer said Thursday.

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Indonesia's once all-powerful army made a rare admission on Thursday that it was still struggling to instil ideals of human rights among its quarter of a million men.

Michael Richardson, Singapore – The United States has quietly opened the way to resume military training with Indonesia despite a congressional ban.

Vaudine England – President Megawati Sukarnoputri tried to put a brave face on her failure to celebrate Christmas with the indigenous Papuans of Irian Jaya province by sending a letter of apology to Governor Jaap Salossa on Monday. While aides said her absence was due to a cold, analysts said it had more to do with the realisation she might be unwelcome.

Jakarta – Dozens of former employees of the Shangri-La Hotel staged a protest in front of the hotel on Jl. Jend. Sudirman, Central Jakarta, on Monday to mark the one-year anniversary of their dispute with management.

They erected a banner, five meters high and 30 meters long, which they claimed was the biggest ever used in an Indonesian labor protest.