Jakarta – At least three people were killed and 100 houses torched in pockets of Indonesian violence reported Saturday.
On the island province of Maluku two people were killed and three injured when a mob of Christians attacked a Moslem settlement, Sergeant Major Yuleini told AFP by phone.
Ambon – An angry mob beheaded two people as the death toll mounted in Indonesia's far eastern Moluccas, residents and officials said on Friday.
The two were attacked on Thursday after they had disembarked from a ship at Tual, the main town on Kai Besar island, a local journalist who saw the bodies said.
Bangkok – Indonesia is suffering severe food shortages and growing malnutrition brought on by rising social unrest and a deep economic crisis, the United Nations said in a report.
In a new report issued here, a UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and World Food Program (WFP) mission called for more international food aid despite predicting a good rice harvest.
Jakarta – Thirteen people were killed when Indonesian troops and police opened fire to fend off a mass attack by rioters in troubled West Kalimantan province, a report said Thursday.
Jakarta – About 2,000 workers in Indonesia's two largest cities demonstrated on Thursday to demand higher severance payments from firms struggling with a crippling economic crisis.
Padang – Two Indonesian communists walked free from their prison here Thursday after serving 33 years there for their alleged involvement in the 1965 coup blamed on the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI).
Jakarta – Indonesia yesterday reported a collapse in foreign investment approvals, a heavy economic blow blamed on fears of growing violence in the run-up to elections.
Investment Minister Hamzah Haz said foreign investment approvals between Jan 1 and March 15 had dropped 90 per cent to US$560 million from US$5.1 billion in the same period last year.
Jakarta – Indonesian police have arrested more than 100 people in West Kalimantan province on suspicion of arson and planning attacks on Madurese settlers, officials said Wednesday.
Jakarta – After 34 years of negligence, Indonesia ratified on Tuesday the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
In a plenary session here, the House of Representatives unanimously endorsed the bill on the ratification of the convention for President B.J. Habibie to sign into a I new law.
Jakarta – Dozens of Indonesian students Wednesday picketed the headquarters of the newly-formed General Election Commission and declared they would boycott the June 7 general elections, the first since the fall of Suharto.
Jakarta – Several Indonesian political prisoners, including pro-democracy activist Budiman Sujatmiko, have gone on hunger strike to press their demand for a just and fair election in June, a report said Wednesday.
Peter Hartcher – Indonesia's former president, Mr Soeharto, has deliberately helped provoke recent violence and bloodshed as a political tactic, one of Indonesia's key Islamic leaders has alleged.
The presidential candidate Dr Amien Rais said he suspected Mr Soeharto of destabilising parts of Indonesia as a way of delaying or disrupting the national election due on June 7.
Surabaya – Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung has warned of reprisals after ruling-party supporters were attacked for the second time in two days.
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Jakarta – Thousands of people attacked the homes of Madurese settlers and a police post in a new outbreak of ethnic unrest in troubled West Kalimantan province in Indonesian Borneo, residents and reports said Tuesday.
Jakarta – A military court on Tuesday handed jail sentences to 11 members of Indonesia's elite special Kopassus force found guilty of kidnapping nine pro-democracy activists in a trial sharply criticised by human rights activists.
Jakarta – Twenty charred bodies were found Monday in homes set on fire during new Moslem-Christian unrest in the Maluku islands, taking the death toll to 55, a report said.
Jakarta – The registration of millions of voters for Indonesia's crucial June 7 elections got off to a sluggish start here Monday with few registrants and many areas awaiting delivery of registration papers.
Jakarta – The trials of an Indonesian official and a businessman charged with corruption linked to a land exchange scheme involving a son of former president Suharto opened Monday.
Jakarta – Religious clashes in the Southeast Maluku town of Tual have claimed at least 11 and injured 50, police and hospital sources said Friday.
Head of the Tual General Hospital, Nona Notanubun, told Antara that a priest, Butje Hehanussa, and his two sons, Hensen Hehanussa and Dani, were killed as a result of machete attacks on Wednesday.
Jakarta – A planned meeting of Indonesia's ruling Golkar party in East Java was cancelled after supporters of another party trashed the venue and ambushed the participants as they made their way there, a report said Saturday.
Abu Shams – The battle for votes in the upcoming Indonesian national elections is already on and it exposes rivalries among the existing Islamic political parties in the country. Among such Islamic parties is the United Development Party, whose leaders have chosen the Kabah which all Muslims face in prayer, as the new party symbol.
Jakarta – Nine students from Trisakti University and a university security guard were badly wounded by riot troops in a clash in a street rally held on Wednesday in front of the Ministry of Defense and Security in Central Jakarta.
Two of the wounded students were women. The university security officer, Riswadi, was assigned to help supervise the students' protest.
Michael Richardson, Jakarta – Indonesia's badly battered economy appears to be stabilizing and could return to growth before the year is out, according to officials and analysts who have been tracking it.
Jakarta – The Indonesian military relinquished command of the police force Thursday as part of a government push to reform the armed forces, which have been tainted by charges of corruption and human rights abuses.
Tokyo – A Japanese contractor allegedly paid at least 40 million yen (340,000 dollars) in kickbacks to cronies of former Indonesian president Suharto and related ministries to get a railway contract, a report said Thursday.
Jakarta – The Indonesian government has proposed scrapping its draconian subversion law and including new articles in the criminal code to cover crimes against the state, reports said Thursday.
Christopher Torchia, Jakarta – Foreign investment will probably flow back into Indonesia's shattered economy if parliamentary elections on June 7 are conducted without any major disruption, former US President Jimmy Carter said Thursday.
Carter, who plans to act as an election observer, described the poll in Indonesia as the most significant in 1999.
Jakarta – Standard and Poor's hurriedly restored Indonesia's long-term foreign currency sovereign rating Wednesday, just a day after a downgrade by the US agency sparked an angry central bank rejoinder.
Performing a rare about-face, the New York-based credit assessor said it had "reset" the rating from "Selective Default" back up to "Triple-C-Plus."
Jakarta – Tension remained high throughout villages in the eastern Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara on Wednesday after clashes between residents that left at least five people dead, police and news reports said.
Lisbon – East Timor resistance spokesman Jose Ramos Horta has announced his support for the NATO military intervention in Yugoslavia and blamed the current situation on the intransigence of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – Around half of Indonesia's children aged under five suffer from malnutrition as economic crisis plunges families into poverty, a UNICEF official said. The figure, based on UNICEF research and experience in the field, represents around 11.5 million children.
Padang – Seven students were injured and 46 arrested after clashes with security forces during a protest here against a Jakarta-appointed caretaker administration put in place after the governor resigned.
Jenny Grant, Jakarta – The court ruling allowing ministers to campaign will undermine public confidence in a fair poll and could threaten the smooth running of the election, analysts said.
Jakarta – The Indonesian Electoral Commission has issued a definitive schedule for the June 7 election process, documents showed Tuesday.
In a ruling issued by the 53-member commission, voter registration for the polls, the first since the fall of former president Suharto, will be held from April 5 to May 4 and the final list of voters issued on May 13.
Jakarta – Some 100 Indonesian students on Tuesday marched to the Elections Commission headquarters here to demand the disbanding of the ruling Golkar party ahead of the pivotal June 7 election.
The Student Action Forum for Reform and Democracy (Famred) chanted "disband Golkar" as their advance was blocked near the office by some 40 anti-riot police and troops.
Jakarta – A senior minister and the national police chief arrived in Indonesian Borneo Tuesday as calm returned after days of grisly ethnic violence that left over 200 dead and displaced more than 28,000 people.
Thomas Wagner, Jakarta – Ever since President Suharto resigned last year during widespread rioting, his successor, B.J. Habibie, has impressed many Indonesians by lifting some of the authoritarian restrictions that they had lived under for decades.
Christine T. Tjandraningsih, Jakarta – An Indonesian committee passed a code of conduct Monday for the general election campaign, set from May 19 to June 4, that includes the ban of street rallies and the disqualification of parties from the June 7 election if they abuse the rules.
Surabaya – The supporters of other political parties have continued to vandalise the Golkar party's flags, banners, stickers, and signs. Most of the Golkar signs mounted in the streets were pulled apart by crowds, many wearing the colours of Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI-Struggle), when mass meetings of that party were being held.
Canberra – Defence Minister John Moore today defended the holding of joint military exercises with Indonesia's armed forces (ABRI following allegations about military operations within Indonesia.
Indonesia's experiment in population control has left a bloody legacy, reports John Aglionby in Pontianak
Sarni Kemal was wearing everything he owns when the headhunters came – a ripped shirt, a pair of grubby jeans and his underpants. When they came, he fled with his wife and eight children into a forest.
Jakarta – The death toll from nearly two weeks of ethnic violence in Borneo rose to about 260 when new attacks on villages killed at least 15 people and dozens of refugees died of injuries or illnesses, newspapers reported Saturday.
Vaudine England, Jakarta – The release of 10 political prisoners after 33 years in jail said little about any government commitment to political freedom, historians and other former political detainees said yesterday.
The 10, jailed for their part in the alleged communist coup attempt of 1965, were freed late on Thursday.
The United Nations special rapporteur on violence against women, Dr Radhika Coomaraswamy, has said that not only have women been raped by military personnel in East Timor, Aceh and Irian Jaya, but that in some cases victims were sent photographs of their own rape.
Jenny Grant, Jakarta – Indonesia's ruling Golkar party could threaten the credibility of June's general election if it resorts to vote-buying, the nation's top electoral official warned yesterday.
Rudini, the chairman of the General Election Commission, said Golkar was ready to "play dirty" by buying votes and forcing the private sector to donate campaign funds.
Jakarta – Indonesia's current economic crisis has led to widespread malnutrition amongst many pregnant women and children, a study conducted by the Helen Keller Indonesia foundation concluded yesterday.
According to the non-governmental organization's report, the social conditions in Jakarta are twice as bad as conditions in Bangladesh.
Raissa Robles in Manila and Vaudine England in Jakarta – About 600 Indonesian rebels have just finished training at a Muslim separatist camp in the southern Philippines, the Philippine military claimed yesterday.
John McBeth in Jakarta and Dini Djalal in Ambon – Ambon has long been a tragedy waiting to happen. Ever since Indonesia became independent 50 years ago, a tradition of nonviolence, known as pela gandong, had kept a tenuous peace between Muslims and Christians.
Vikram Khanna, Singapore – Indonesian political leader Abdurrahman Wahid yesterday said his party, the National Awakening Party (PKB), is open to forming a coalition with the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) led by Megawati Sukarnoputri, as well as with Muslim leader Amien Rais and other democratic parties, to form a government in Indonesia after the general elections in June.
Jakarta – A son of former Indonesian president Suharto will stand trial next month for his suspected involvement in a multi-million dollar land scam, reports said Wednesday.
The dossier on Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, Suharto's youngest son, was handed to the South Jakarta district court Tuesday by a public prosecutor, the state Antara news agency said.