Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid and Vice President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Thursday called on supporters of her party to work to assure that Indonesia remains united.

Karen Polglaze, Jakarta – New Indonesian laws could prevent the trial of military officers accused of orchestrating violence in East Timor that left hundreds dead and whole towns razed, an international rights body has warned.

Indonesia's militant trade union, the Indonesian National Front for Labour Struggle (FNPBI), on January 20 condemned the minister of finance Bambang Sudibyo's proposal to increase the salaries of senior politicians. The increases are contained in the plan for the national budget being discussed by parliament.

Jakarta – Indonesia's illegal logging industry is backed by high-level corruption, an international environmental group charged here on Wednesday, as the World Bank said the country's commercial forests could be exhausted within 10-15 years.

Max Lane – The commander-in-chief of the Indonesian armed forces (TNI), Admiral Widodo, has met President Abdurrahman Wahid to assure him that the TNI is not planning a coup.

Slobodan Lekic, Sabang – Indonesia's president on Tuesday accused disgruntled army generals and radical Muslims of provoking violence that threatens his fledgling democratic government and the unity of the sprawling Southeast Asian nation.

Tim Dodd, Jakarta – In a significant thawing of the relationship with Indonesia, President Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday withdrew his travel boycott on Australia and said he would like to make an official visit.

Nisid Hajari – No one would mistake the calm of Ambon for peace. The capital of Maluku province – epicenter of a yearlong orgy of religious violence – has been carved up into exclusive "sectors" by its Muslim and Christian residents.

Jason Tedjasukmana, Ambon – A twisted pile of scrap metal from buildings gutted during a year of armed conflict lies near one of the many "borders" separating Ambon's warring Muslims and Christians. The mass of corrugated steel, door frames and pipes represents opportunity for scavengers who can sell the metal to traders in East Java.

Louise Williams, Mataram – The lobby of Lombok's expansive Senggigi Beach Hotel is bristling with machine guns. The verdant tropical gardens beyond are dotted with soldiers and idle staff, their Hawaiian-print uniforms still neatly pressed. The white sand beach, the resort's swimming pools, the rows of deck chairs all lie empty.

Jakarta – Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said here Monday that Jakarta and Canberra have agreed to look to the future and start rebuilding their relationship, dragged to an all-time low over the East Timor crisis.

Cameron W. Barr, Ambon – On the morning of December 23, a group of Muslims murdered scores of Christians, including women and children, at a plywood factory on the Indonesian island of Buru, according to three Christian employees who offer credible evidence of having survived the attack.

Singapore – Thirteen people were injured when Indonesian police and military joined forces early on Sunday to disperse demonstrators at a resort on the Indonesian island of Bintan, the resort operator said.

Jakarta – Two environmentalists, including a British activist, were attacked and beaten by loggers in a national park in central Indonesia, a UK-based environmental group said Sunday.

Jakarta – Former Indonesian president Soeharto, facing accusations of corruption and self-enrichment on a vast scale, can expect to be amnestied – but not his family or cronies, Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid was quoted as saying today.

Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid has nominated reform of the legal and regulatory system as central to Indonesia's economic recovery and development.

In an address to the plenary session of the House of People's Representatives, delivered in conjunction with this week's budget, Mr Wahid said legal certainty would ensure justice was enforced.

Richard Galpin, Jakarta – Police in the Indonesian capital Jakarta have detained more than 100 men, some of them armed, as they tried to enter the city from the Moluccan Islands and West Timor.

Tim Dodd, Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid expects his first Budget, which tries to meet a multitude of conflicting economic challenges, to return Indonesia to pre-crisis growth levels of 6-7 percent within five years.

Associated Pressm, Washington – The United States gave Indonesia's fledgling democracy a vote of confidence on Thursday by substantially increasing aid to the world's fourth most populous nation.

By Dewi Loveard, Jakarta – A local conflict rooted in long- simmering religious enmity. That is how Jakarta views the Muslim-Christian fighting in Ambon and other parts of the Maluku island chain. Scene of bitter sectarian strife over the past year, the Malukus have seen a fresh outbreak of violence in recent weeks.

Jakarta – Indonesia's new Government unveiled its first Budget yesterday with pledges to reform the bankrupt banking sector. But it shied from granting the country's independence- minded regions more control over their finances.

Vaudine England in Jakarta and Agencies in Mataram – Sporadic looting and attacks on ethnic Chinese and Christians continued for a fourth day on the tourist island of Lombok yesterday.

But by afternoon a measure of calm had been restored by the hundreds of troops and police rushed to the island east of Bali. Tourists on Lombok continued to flee, however.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Indonesia's Government fears that provocateurs linked to elements of the military and the regime of the corrupt former president Soeharto have begun a campaign to provoke religious and separatist violence across the archipelago.

John Aglionby, Jakarta – The foreign office minister John Battle yesterday defended the resumption of British arms sales to Indonesia in spite of the rapidly escalating social unrest, a divided military and warnings from other countries.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government on Thursday asked parliament to approve a 10.5 percent rise in overall defence and security expenditure, but a 71.9 percent cut in development spending for the armed forces.

Margot Cohen, Jakarta – It was a gut-wrenching evening for the Defenders of Islam.

Singapore – About 100 armed protestors have withdrawn from a power plant they illegally occupied at a Singapore-managed industrial park on Indonesia's Bintan island as part of a truce over land compensation claims, officials said Thursday.

Since the coming to power of Indonesia's brutal New Order regime in 1965, discussion and dissemination of Marxist ideas has been banned in Indonesia. However, on November 20, 200 students and activists gathered at the Bandung Institute of Technology campus for a seminar on the ideas of Karl Marx and their relevance in Indonesia.

Jakarta – A team promoting reconciliation in the strife-torn Maluku islands has named four men suspected of stirring up sectarian violence, and linked former president Soeharto and ex- defence chief General Wiranto to the clashes.

Jonathan Thatcher, Jakarta – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid on Wednesday backed his controversial former top general Wiranto, but said he would have to step down if found guilty of human rights abuses in East Timor.

Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) top brass lashed out at rumors of a coup attempt by the armed forces, saying such a move was contradictory to TNI culture.

TNI Chief of Territorial Affairs, Lt. Gen. Agus Widjojo, said after addressing a seminar on nationalism here that the country's five decade history has never seen a military plan to topple the government.

Vaudine England in Makassar, South Sulawesi and Agencies – Indonesia's leading reformist soldier and the regional commander for Sulawesi, Major-General Agus Wirahadikusumah, wants a neutral peacekeeping force to be deployed in the neighbouring Maluku Islands.

Makassar – A fierce clash between demonstrators, armed with swords and wooden bats, and military troops erupted at about 9pm local time in Makassar on Tuesday evening.

Jakarta – The government has officially revoked Presidential Instruction No. 41/1967, which restricted the observance of Chinese religious practices and traditions.

Ministry of Home Affairs spokesman Herman Ibrahim said on Tuesday that Presidential Decree No. 6/2000 was issued on Monday to revoke the 33-year- old instruction.

Max Lane – For the first time since 1974, a public split has emerged within the Indonesian army's top generals over how best to preserve the political authority of the Indonesian armed forces (TNI). The split has been provoked by the inquiry, launched by the Indonesian National Commission for Human Rights, into the events in East Timor that followed the August 30 referendum.

Jakarta – On Monday, the government announced a planned revision to the 1999 election law which would include dissolving the present General Elections Commission (KPU).

Washington – Indonesia's struggle for democracy is facing tough challenges and must be supported from the outside, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said Tuesday.

Andrew Marshall, Jakarta – Indonesia's powerful bank restructuring agency went on the offensive on Tuesday in the battle over control of the country's largest automaker, Astra International, launching a bid to change the firm's management.

Jakarta – Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid has said he plans to continue replacing senior government and military officials in an effort to wipe out corruption and strengthen professionalism.

Terry McCarthy – On the streets of Ambon, people describe what's happening in their homeland as perang – war.

Jakarta – The marginalization of Christians and a power struggle among local politicians are behind bloody year-long clashes in Indonesia's Maluku islands, analysts say.

Jakarta – The government will intensify taxation efforts and reduce new foreign borrowing and investment spending to control the budget deficit for the 2000 fiscal year at a maximum of 5 percent of the gross domestic product, finance minister Bambang Sudibyo said on Friday.

Jakarta – In the wake of mounting criticism for its alleged indifference, the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas Ham) set up on Friday a commission to investigate atrocities in Maluku and North Maluku.

Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) claims to have uncovered a plot to provoke violence in Ambon and clashes in other parts of the Maluku province, where thousands have been killed and injured in a year of religious rioting.

Vaudine England – Throughout the telling of their individual stories of fighting and displacement, the Christian refugees now in Bitung, North Sulawesi, are clear on one point – the root of each quarrel which became a killing spree was not religion but ethnic and economic competition.

Jakarta – The government decision to start a fresh investigation into alleged widespread sexual abuse during the May 1998 riot received mixed reactions from female activists concerning the relevance of the inquiry.

New York – The United States warned Indonesia's military on Friday not to overthrow the country's new president and to cooperate with national and UN investigations into human rights abuses in East Timor.

Reuters, Tokyo – Indonesia faces a bank-sector meltdown and a political break-up that could trigger a financial crisis, according to a senior official of the Japan Bank for International Co-operation (JBIC).

Michael Richardson, Singapore – Like many other institutions from the rule of former President Suharto of Indonesia, the headquarters of the central bank in Jakarta has an impressive facade.

Reuters in Jakarta – Indonesia's military said on Friday it would send hundreds of crack troops to the bloodied Malukus to help quell widespread violence between Muslims and Christians.