Malang – Of 1,000 respondents, 92.4% answered that they would abstain from voting [golput, golongan putih/white movement] in the coming general election in a pole conducted in Malang since be beginning of January.

Louise Williams, Jakarta – The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry has proposed a new economic policy to support indigenous entrepreneurs.

The move is an attempt to reduce the overwhelming power of the country's small groups of ethnic Chinese businessmen and defuse potentially explosive racial tensions.

The Indonesian Antinuclear Society (MAI) appealed to the House of Representative's to abrogate enactment of the Bill on Nuclear Power, which according to plan should take place today, Wednesday (26/2). Because the Bill which was discussed and passed hastily, still contains many weaknesses and could become legitimization to construct a nuclear power plant without referendum.

Vice President Try Sutrisno said that the majority of various recent riot actions, which were carried out by using the potential of the youth towards negative and destructive actions, should be responded to by introspection regarding the guidance and development of the potential of the youth in its entirety.

Jakarta – A top Indonesian military officer has warned that encouraging people not to vote was against the law, following a recent statement by the Catholic Church which told its followers it was not a sin to refuse to vote in this year's general election.

Minister of Justice Oetojo Oesman and People's Republic of China's Deputy Minister of Justice Xiao Jianzhang met in Jakarta on Tuesday (25/2). In that meeting, legal cooperation was discussed as well as the possibility of a renewed fathoming of an extradition agreement, and the problem of illegal immigrants.

The executive board of the Malang (East Java) branch of KNPI, the Indonesian National Youth Committee organised an opinion poll in a bold move, seeking the opinion of nearly a thousand young people in the area about their voting intentions at the forthcoming elections. 92.4 per cent answered that they would support 'Golput', in other words boycott the election.

James Balowski – According to a chronology sent to ASIET by the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD), four students, Yudha, Irwan, Ikra and Indah are believed missing following a raid by security forces on a boarding house in Bandung, West Java, on February 26.

Jakarta – The Indonesian armed forces (Abri) should reduce its non-defence roles and concentrate more on their defence duties to allow democracy to flourish, members of the state-run Indonesian Institute of Science were quoted as saying yesterday.

Jakarta – A top Indonesian military official has said that encouraging people not to vote in the upcoming general election is against the law, a local newspaper reported Tuesday.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Democratic Union Party (PUDI) denied yesterday charges made by Armed Forces Chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung last week that it was behind recent unrest.

PUDI chairman Sri Bintang Pamungkas said his organization shunned violence although it adopted a "noncooperative" policy toward "people who refuse political reform".

Susan Sim, Jakarta – The leader of Indonesia's second-largest Islamic organisation has resigned from his post in a Suharto-linked Muslim association amidst talk that he had angered the President with his criticism of the government's handling of the Busang gold find and the activities of American mining company Freeport.

Susan Sim, Jakarta – Indonesia's Environment Minister has described talk of a nuclear power plant in the country as premature as yet another local non-government organisation attacked the nuclear energy Bill due to be passed by Parliament tomorrow.

Jakarta – I Gusti Agung Anom Astika, one of the leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PRD) has refused to be a witness in the subversion case against the Secretary General of the PRD, Petrus Hariyanto. His statement was given to the South Jakarta Court on Monday, February 24.

Jakarta – The head of the Indonesian United Democratic Party (PUDI), Sri Bintang Pamungkas, along with PUDI leaders have gone to the National Human Rights Commission to lodge a complaint against armed forces chief General TNI Feisal who they consider discredited PUDI.

Ignatius Damianus Pranowo – who was brought from Jakarta along with Budiman Sudjatmiko and Ken Budakusumandaru – where evicted by the judge in the subversion case against Dita Indah Sari and Coen Husein Pontoh Spt, being heard in the Surabaya State Court on the afternoon of Tuesday 25 Feb.

Jakarta – The government has urged the House of Representatives to ratify immediately the Nuclear Weapon-Free Zone in Southeast Asia (NWFZ-SEA) treaty.

Amsterdam – International experts begin a two-day conference in Amsterdam Wednesday to consider how to eradicate the most exploitative forms of child labor such as child prostitution, debt bondage and slavery.

[Herald Correspondent Louise Williams goes behind the lines in the fighting in Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo.]

Sei Duri, West Kalimantan: Two nights ago the tribal war party came - boys just out of childhood, the black mark of battle upon their foreheads, the feathers of swiftness tied to their heads, the torches and knives of destruction firmly in their grasp.

San Francisco – As Nike opened a new store in San Francisco's bustling Union Square Saturday, human rights advocates protested what they call worker exploitation at the sports and footwear giant's factories in Indonesia.

The prosecutor, M Salim in the Central Jakarta State Court on Thursday, February 20, again requested the appearance of Bambang Widjojanto, the chairperson of YLBHI [Yayasan Lembaga Bantuan Hukum Indonesia, Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation]. Bambang has been ordered to be a witness in the subversion case against PRD chairperson Budiman Sudjatmiko.

Bandung – Tension gripped several parts of the Indonesian city of Bandung following a traffic accident and a riot on Tuesday evening which left four people dead and seven others hospitalised.

Residents and passers-by went on a rampage after two people were killed in a traffic accident, The Jakarta Post reported yesterday.

Jakarta – Indonesian authorities are to charge 25 people, including four accused of subversion, over a December riot in the West Java town of Tasikmalaya in which four people died, a report said yesterday.

Subversion carries a maximum death penalty in Indonesia.

Joe Leahy and Agencies in Jakarta – The military has arrested 86 people during a resurgence of ethnic conflict which has left hundreds dead and forced more than 1,000 people to abandon their homes in West Kalimantan.

British-made Scorpion tanks were among the army equipment inspected in Jakarta on Thursday 20 February by top generals of the Indonesian military dictatorship, checking security preparations for the Indonesian elections scheduled for 29 May this year, [Republika Daily, 21.2.1997]

Jakarta – Indonesian security authorities will deploy 10,000 policemen and soldiers backed by tanks in the capital to safeguard general elections with campaigning getting under way in April, a report said Friday.

Military chief General Feisal Tanjung inspected the 10,000 troops at the huge open parking lot of the Senayan sports complex, the Republika daily said.

Buy Astra? Or sell Astra? It depends on what Mohammad "Bob" Hasan will do when he takes over at Astra International, Indonesia's largest manufacturing force. Hasan - king of the Indonesian logging business and golfing buddy of President Suharto, right, - will be anointed Astra's president commissioner at a special shareholders' meeting on Feb. 19.

Jakarta – A special Indonesian parliamentary commission had recommended unanimously the passing of a Bill which would allow the government to control the use of nuclear energy, reports said here yesterday.

Megawati Sukarnoputri, accompanied by a team of sixty lawyers, responded to a police summons Thursday, two days after her husband Taufik Kiemas had been questioned by the police.

Jakarta – The Indonesian military arrested 86 people following the latest ethnic clashes in West Kalimantan province, which remains tense after almost two months of unrest that has left hundreds dead, reports and sources said yesterday.

Jakarta – In Indonesia, doing business is largely a matter of whom you know. And few executives know more people than Mohamad "Bob" Hasan.

Mr Hasan, 72, just helped settle a tussle for control of the world's largest gold deposit. The tale of how the dispute got settled is a good example of how business gets done in Indonesia these days.

John McBeth and Jay Solomon in Jakarta – It's hard to get any closer to the top. Timber tycoon Mohamad "Bob" Hasan and Indonesian President Suharto have been friends for more than 30 years and they play golf together twice weekly.

Nigel Holloway in Washington and John McBeth in Jakarta – February 20, 1997At a United States Air Force base near Tucson, Arizona, 28 Lockheed Martin F-16 strike aircraft stand in pristine condition. They've never flown on a combat mission but they've been caught in a dogfight of a very different kind.

Dini Djalal, Bangkok – Some of them are no older than 12 and not much bigger than the guns and spears they carry.

Jakarta – Three weeks of ethnic violence in an Indonesian province in Borneo have left hundreds of people dead and community leaders at a loss as to how to resolve the conflict.

Louise Williams, Pontianak, West Kalimantan – Dayak tribal leaders have sent out the so-called "red cup" of war across Kalimantan and say a peace pact between the tribal "head-hunters" and migrant workers will not hold, according to a Dayak source.

Jakarta – The Indonesian armed forces will not soften its tough stance in handling the recent unrest that has jolted the multi-ethnic country in the past few months, the Jakarta Post reported yesterday.

Joe Leahy, Jakarta – Further peace efforts are needed in West Kalimantan to avoid a repeat of ethnic clashes which have rocked the province in the past two months, a senior member of the National Commission on Human Rights warns.

John McBeth and Margot Cohen in Jakarta – Days of savage blood-letting in West Kalimantan, which led to Malaysia closing part of its border with Indonesia, have served as a disquieting reminder of what can happen in an ethnically diverse country when extremists among two groups one indigenous, the other migrant harbour a Balkans like animosity that seems to defy solution.

Richard Borsuk, Jakarta, Indonesia – Bankers and securities analysts piled into PT Astra International's news conference Wednesday for a glimpse of the Indonesian auto assembler's new chairman.

[Following is an op-ed column from the February 20, 1997 San Francisco Chronicle.

Jakarta – A war of political colours in a Central Java town took another turn this week after supporters of an ousted opposition leader painted the town square in the colours of the national flag.

Jakarta – Bre-X Minerals Ltd will not receive any payment for the 30 per cent stake in the Busang gold deposit that it gave to its Indonesian partners, said Mohamad "Bob" Hasan, an Indonesian businessman who helped broker the agreement.

"It's very straightforward," Mr Hasan said.

Richard Cole, San Francisco – The multi-billion dollar Nike empire and its muscular sports machine rolled into town Thursday to launch a new store, but instead ran into the city's protest movement and eked out a public relations draw.

Jakarta – The attitude and conduct of the whole state's apparature must totally be reorganized, so that it will be more communicative and persuasive. This is as one of the efforts to lessen, or even check the various riots which presently are ever more flaring up.

Jakarta – About 300 people have died as a result of recent ethnic clashes in West Kalimantan and four people are being investigated for allegedly sparking the unrest, military (Abri) officials are reported to have said yesterday. "It's not true that the number of victims killed reached more than 1,000 like it was quoted in an English-language newspaper in Jakarta.

Taufik Kiemas, the husband of Megawati Sukarnoputri, complied with a summons from the Jakarta police and was accompanied by twenty lawyers and hundreds of Megawati supporters. He was interrogated for seven hours. During the questioning, he was accompanied by four lawyers.

Jakarta – The head of the Jakarta Police, Maj-Gen Hamami Nata has said Megawati Sukarnoputri will be questioned as a witness by police this Thursday (February 20).

"If she doesn't appear for this second request, she will be called in a third time. If she doesn't turn up, she will be 'met' by police" he said on February 18.

Richard Borsuk, Jakarta – The government gave its formal blessing to the recently settled ownership battle for the giant Busang gold find, and an official used the occasion to deliver a message to all mining companies: Don't worry.

Jakarta – Business tycoon Muhammad "Bob" Hasan, a close associate of Indonesia's President Suharto, is tipped to take a key role in the country's largest carmaker PT Astra International, brokers and analysts said yesterday.