Chris McCall, Jakarta – Unions threatened nationwide protests yesterday after the Government vowed to press ahead with controversial fuel price increases next month.
It will be the first across-the-board increase since May 1998, when a similar move triggered a nationwide wave of bloody rioting which ended former president Suharto's 32-year reign.
Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – The Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden has established links with Muslim radicals in Indonesia who are behind attacks on Christians in the Maluku islands, according to Western intelligence sources in Jakarta.
Jakarta – The joint team set up by the Attorney General's Office to investigate rights violations in East Timor has ignored the real offenders, a watchdog said on Saturday.
Jakarta – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday appointed 16 judges to the Supreme Court in support of reform of the country's judicial system.
Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – As the Indonesian government considers extending a civil emergency for the strife-torn region of the Malukus, local groups warn that fresh violence could erupt at any time.
Aulia Andri/Swastika & Ari P, Medan – The abduction of four activists from the Consortium for Agrarian Reform (KPA) while protesting outside the General Assembly in early August remains a tug of war between the Jakarta City Police and the KPA, with the KPA believing that the abduction was committed by police officers.
Soraya Permatasari, Jakarta – An Indonesian commission said there were signs that some listed firms, including noodle giant Indofood and some cement companies, might be in violation of an anti-monopoly law that took effect on Tuesday.
Jakarta – Seven people, including four women, were accosted when some 100 members of the Islam Defenders Front (FPI) attacked cafes and bars in Tebet, South Jakarta, on Friday evening, a police officer said on Saturday.
Jakarta – Dozens of older men and women belonging to the Victims of New Order Human Rights Abuse Association (Pakorba HAM) met French human rights activist, Danielle Mitterand, here today.
Chaidir Anwar Tanjung, Pekanbaru – Protected forests at Bukit Suligi in Kampar regency, Riau province on Sumatra's west coast, are being plundered without local authorities lifting a finger and even supporting the illegal industry.
Susan Sim, Jakarta – If history is written by victors and it is left to fiction to lionise the defeated, then General Wiranto and his nemesis, Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman, cannot have crafted a better outcome than the one dictated by the hard realities of Indonesian politics.
Jakarta – Dozens of students in Lampung province took to the streets yesterday to protest against a government plan to increase fuel prices and a rise in public transport fares, reports said.
They gathered at a main intersection in the provincial capital, Bandar Lampung, causing traffic jams, the state Antara news agency said.
Jakarta – An international rights group on Saturday welcomed Indonesia's naming of 19 suspects in the violence that ravaged East Timor after its independence vote last year, but said "serious obstacles" remained in bringing them to justice.
Chris McCall and Staff Reporters – They were among the men to fear in Dili in the bloody weeks before and after last year's independence vote.
Chris McCall, Jakarta – Jakarta yesterday finally named a string of top military and police officers among 19 suspects involved in last year's East Timor bloodbath, but received a suspicious response.
Jakarta – Three Indonesian student activists who picketted the national assembly last month, have related how they and a fellow protestor were abducted at gunpoint and held incommunicado for 13 days, reports said Saturday.
Jakarta – Indonesian investigators were condemned by rights activists Friday for omitting top Indonesian generals and notorious militia leaders from a list of suspects in last year's bloodshed in East Timor.
Jakarta – Indonesia on Friday named three generals as suspects in its probe into the violence that followed last year's East Timor independence vote but immediately came under pressure to go higher up the military chain of command.
Jakarta – The Cabinet's new economic team is not seeking major changes in the International Monetary Fund-sponsored economic reform program, Bank Indonesia acting governor Anwar Nasution said here on Thursday.
Jakarta – With former president Soeharto's appearance as a defendant in his corruption trial in doubt, judicial experts disagreed on Thursday over the legality of trying him in his absence.
Nenden NF/Hendra & LM, Yogyakarta – A 70% rise in economy class railway fares, implemented Friday, are likely to prove extremely burdensome for the poor.
Maryadi/BI & AH Detik, Pontianak – A student protest at the Malaysian Consulate in Pontianak, West Kalimantan, today, Thursday 31 August 2000, has ended with four students being beaten and arrested.
Jakarta – Student reformists who helped topple former Indonesian president Suharto two years ago reacted with anger and disgust Thursday at his failure to show up at the start of his corruption trial.
Mark Landler, Jakarta – The corruption trial of Indonesia's fallen leader, Suharto, got under way here this morning in the converted auditorium of a government ministry building that was crowded with spectators and ringed by police officers, but missing one man: the accused.
Jakarta – Former Indonesian president Suharto's failure to attend the opening of his own trial Thursday had been widely expected but public patience is wearing. Economists, political analysts and a former judge warned of further social unrest if the "stage show" continues.
Djoko Tjiptono/Swastika & LM, Jakarta – Around 40 representatives of the Indonesian Scavenger's Association (IPI) staged a noisy protest at the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) offices in Jakarta Wednesday. They complained that they had been arbitrarily and forcible evicted by the North Jakarta Police and PT Green Garden.
Djoko Tjiptono/Swastika & LM, Jakarta – Around 200 victims of the 27 July incident gathered at Central Jakarta's famous HI Roundabout Wednesday demanding the Jakarta Provincial government reject Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso's accountability speech.
Jakarta – Indonesia's first democratically-elected government will put its reform image on the line Thursday by bringing former president Suharto to trial for corruption. The case will open amid doubts that the former strongman will show up at the court, and assurances of a pardon if found guilty.
Budi Sugiarto/BI & LM, Bojonegoro – For the past nine days journalists from several media organisations in Bojonegoro, East Java, have boycotted all reports and announcements from Bojonegoro Police and have now taken legal action. The beating of a local journalist at a demonstration and the contemptuous response of the police have angered the press.
Jakarta – Indonesia will set up a new agency to oversee state companies in a bid to speed their privatization, chief economics minister Rizal Ramli said yesterday.
Jakarta – Following are summaries of a government report, obtained by Kyodo News, on the flow of funds at seven charity foundations created and chaired by former Indonesian President Suharto while in power.
The information is contained in the indictment on corruption charges filed against Suharto, scheduled to be read by the prosecution during the trial Thursday.
Jakarta – University of Indonesia (UI) students marked the first day of going back to campus after a long holiday by boycotting classes on Monday, following the university's decision not to cancel a policy on an extra school fee.
Denpasar – One person was killed and six others injured yesterday when police opened fire to disperse protesters on the resort island of Bali.
The unrest occurred in the district of Jembrana, 95 kilometer west of Denpasar, when the protesters rallied against the inauguration of a new administrator in Negara, the capital of Jembrana.
Pip Hinman, Sydney – Romawaty Sinaga, the international officer of the militant Indonesian National Front for Workers Struggle (FNPBI), in Australia to meet other trade unionists, has appealed for greater assistance for the emerging independent union movement in her country.
Jakarta – Indonesia's huge public debt is likely to derail its economic recovery, the IMF's Jakarta representative John Dodsworth said Tuesday, urging the new cabinet to make the debt burden its main focus.
Susan Sim, Jakarta – As pep talks go, it was not particularly stirring, but symbolic nonetheless. Work as a solid and compact team; do not be like the previous Cabinet. Your ministries are vital to the nation's economic recovery.
Medan – Two bombs exploded separately in an area near Jl. Bahagia in Medan Tenggara district in the early hours of Sunday morning. There were no casualties but one person was slightly injured. Several buildings, however, were damaged from the incident.
Malangke – At least 1,400 residents from eight villages in West Malangke and Baebunta district in North Luwu regency left their homes on Sunday to escape communal clashes in the area that first erupted on Thursday.
Vaudine England – It is hard to find a mention of East Timor – the province that got away – in daily conversation or reporting in Jakarta. But it's not hard to find the reason why. Almost one year since the East Timorese voted for independence, Indonesian feelings remain bitter and sometimes twisted.
Malangke – Police said on Saturday they found it difficult to arrest perpetrators of unrest in Luwu, while the burning of residents houses in two districts continued.
Jakarta – Multilateral lenders including the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have vowed to support the new Cabinet, particularly the new economic ministers, in their effort to accelerate the country's economic recovery.
Susan Sim, Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid warded off the prospect of a crumbling Cabinet as he and his allies worked yesterday to project an image of a unified and working leadership.
Maumere – At least 2,000 people from 12 villages in the district of Molo Utara have been occupying a marble quarry in the town of Soe, South Timor Tengah regency, since August 12.
Jakarta – The family planning (KB) program in Indonesia has long been perceived as a birth control measure, but ignores the reproductive health of women, who are the backbone of the nationwide movement.
United Nations – A recent amendment to the Indonesian Constitution might force the United Nations to hold an international inquiry into human rights abuses in East Timor, a spokesman said.
Jakarta – In a slum of West Java's Kiaracondong district, hundreds of families live on the border of death. With their shacks just an arm's length from the railroad tracks, husbands, wives and children are at risk each time a train rumbles through.
Jakarta – Pro-Soeharto protesters threatened yesterday to bring around 25,000 people to the Agriculture Ministry building in Ragunan, South Jakarta, the planned site of the former president's trial slated for August 31.
Jakarta – The state of civil emergency in Indonesia's Maluku islands, torn by warfare between Muslims and Christians, should be extended for another month, the national police chief said Friday.
Barry Wain – The way most reports had it, the Indonesian military ambushed unarmed politicians in the final hours of People's Consultative Assembly deliberations in Jakarta last week. They somehow persuaded or coerced the civilians into agreeing that officers be allowed to sit in the assembly until 2009, instead of 2004.
It is no dream team, but can President Abdurrahman Wahid's new Cabinet save his presidency from an early death? Many of the Jakarta elite do not think so, judging by yesterday's negative coverage in the Indonesian media. Devi Asmarani and Marianne Kearney of The Straits Times Indonesia Bureau highlight the good and the bad.