Jakarta – The Armed Forces (ABRI) celebrates its 53rd anniversary on Monday by taking a hard look at its image, pledging solutions to some rights violations, and pleading against being seen as "cruel murderers and destroyers" who inflicted suffering on people.

Kafil Yamin, Bandung – The small, filthy and foul-smelling canal in Cikuya village in West Java is the community's ticket to earning a livelihood. Soon after daybreak everyday, women, men and children troop to the waste-contaminated canal and wash load upon load of used plastic bags, then sell them to traders who in turn reap profits from selling them to reprocessing factories.

Manila – Some 300 leftist activists and ethnic Chinese picketed the Indonesian embassy in the Philippines Monday, to protest alleged abuses against the ethnic Chinese minority in Indonesia. Waving banners saying "Justice for the rape victims" and assailing Indonesian President B.J.

Jakarta – Staff at Tempo, Indonesia's leading weekly news magazine when it was banned by the government of former president Suharto in 1994, announced Sunday they would return the publication to the newsstands this week.

Jakarta – Two people were injured as thousands of farmers in the Indonesian province of West Sumatra protested against a palm oil plantation firm which they said had polluted a local river, sources there said Sunday.

Jakarta – Indonesia's armed forces mark their 53rd anniversary on Monday amid one of their toughest battles to date – the fight to restore their honour as a defender and not oppressor of the people.

Jakarta – The conflicting political pressures of post-Suharto Indonesia have left President B.J. Habibie teetering on a tightrope – too much reform could topple his precarious government, but so could too little.

Jakarta – Indonesian Home Minister Syarwan Hamid on Saturday installed the head of an ancient local royal family as the governor of Yogyakarta, the first governor in the country to be spontaneously elected, newspaper reports said.

Jakarta – The owner of a private Indonesian radio station has closed down a popular pro-reform radio talk show and fired the six staff operating the program, a human rights lawyer said Thursday.

Jakarta – The Japanese-born wife of Indonesia's first president Sukarno has accused former president Suharto of having prior knowledge of the 1965 coup attempt and doing nothing to prevent it, a report said Thursday

Jakarta – Police in the remote Indonesian province of Irian Jaya arrested five men including two officials and a priest for suspected separatism, including calling for a pro-independence rally, a report said Thursday.

Jakarta – In its sternest warning yet, the Indonesian government said Wednesday that protesters who threaten its existence could be sentenced to life imprisonment under a harsh anti-subversion law enacted by ex-President Suharto.

Jakarta – Indonesian authorities have approved in principle an opposition party congress held by popular politician Megawati Sukarnoputri in Bali next week, police chief Lieutenant General Rusmanhadi said Wednesday.

Jakarta – Thousands of Indonesians rallied on Wednesday, the 33rd anniversary of an attempted communist coup, warning that communism was still alive and responsible for riots and looting plaguing the country.

Jakarta – Over 2,000 Indonesian Moslems gathered at Jakarta's main Istiqlal Mosque here on Wednesday in what they said was a show of support for President B.J. Habibie and his reform programs.

Jakarta – After a recent storm of public condemnation over past alleged human rights violations, the Armed Forces (ABRI) took another blow on Monday when an independent survey found its public image wanting.

Jakarta – Police clashed with troops after an exchange of insults on the island of Borneo Tuesday, leaving four people dead and 12 others injured, police and a news report said. A police source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said two police officers and two soldiers had died from gunshot wounds.

Beijing – Vice Premier Qian Qichen on Tuesday repeated China's calls to Indonesia to take action over the violence directed against ethnic Chinese during Jakarta's May riots.

Jakarta – Indonesia's first real attempt at a bankrupcty case in 95 years came unstuck on Tuesday and analysts warned it would make investors even less comfortable with the country's cloudy legal system.

Jakarta – Indonesia Tuesday announced a bank recapitalisation program to restore the ailing banking sector back to health.

"The aim of the recapitalisation is to retain (banks) which has a prospect of surviving and develop, and also primarily to accelerate economic restoration through a restructurisation of their ownership", Bank Indonesia Governor Syahril Sabirin said.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government Tuesday abandoned a proposed law to control protests and demonstrations that critics had said would curb newfound freedom of expression following the end of the authoritarian Suharto regime.

Jakarta – Some 100 Indonesian workers Tuesday held a rally to mark the launch of their Digging and Construction Labor Union (IKAPERGABIN).

"Stop perpetuating poverty. Use conglomerates money to better our fate. Stop slavery and opression," said some posters carried by the workers who gathered at a park.

Jakarta – Separate groups of farmers and workers demonstrated in the western Indonesian city of Medan on Tuesday over land appropriation and wages, the Suara Pembaruan evening daily said.

Jakarta – Thousands of soldiers and police remained on alert in the capital and other cities Tuesday as Indonesia prepared to mark the anniversary of what the government says was a failed communist coup 33 years ago. The military has warned that anti-government groups might use Wednesday's anniversary as an excuse to stage protests.

Sydney – Indonesian opposition leader Amien Rais said Monday he could form a coalition government if elected to power but still insisted on major reforms, including a reduced political role for the army. Rais, leader of the National Mandate Party, told a student audience here he was confident President B.J. Habibie would stay in office long enough to call polls.

Jakarta – A prominent critic of former leader Suharto Monday urged the government of President B.J. Habibie to call on friendly foreign states to freeze all Suharto-linked assets in their countries.

Bogor – An expert has expressed concern that the rood crisis and malnutrition affecting an untold number of babies in various Indonesian areas will lead to the birth of stupid generations in the future.

Jakarta – Indonesian forestry companies grouped under Masyarakat Perhutanan Indonesia will launch an investigation of an estimated $2.04 billion which former President Suharto's golfing partner Mohamad "Bob" Hasan collected between 1991 and 1997. Bob Hasan served as the chairman of MPI from 1991 until March this year.

Jakarta – About 15,000 Moslem youths packed the Senayan Sports Hall on Sunday for the launching of the Jakarta chapter of the Justice Party, declaring readiness to contest the planned general election in May next year.

Jakarta – A group in the remote Indonesian province of Irian Jaya has called for a mass rally in support of independence from Indonesia, the official Antara news agency said Monday.

Jakarta – A long-time critic of former president Suharto was allowed to return to Indonesia Sunday but the euphoria was overshadowed by fears of a new clampdown on dissent after police tried to break up a human rights seminar.

Bogor – Hundreds of farmers took to the streets yesterday in this West Javanese hill town and in Jakarta to protest against the taking of their land by real estate and golf course developers, witnesses said.

Jenny Grant, Jakarta – Experts have advised separating the police from the armed forces and redefining the President's control over military affairs as part of moves to democratise the law-and-order system.

Jenny Grant – Faced with increasing demonstrations, the Governor of North Sumatra has armed hundreds of his staff with rattan sticks.

Jenny Grant, Jakarta – The mental and physical growth of a generation of children is under threat as Indonesia's economic crisis worsens. More than half the children under two years old in Java, the most populous island, were suffering from malnutrition, Unicef, the UN Children's Fund, said yesterday.

Shoeb Kagda, Medan – Indonesia's third largest city is bracing itself for further social unrest as between 2,000 and 3,000 farmers are expected to march to the provincial governor's office today demanding land reforms.

Paris – Indonesia took another step on its long road to recovery on Wednesday when it agreed to reschedule $4.2 billion in foreign debt and received a new endorsement of its economic reforms from the IMF.

William Mccall – Nike shareholders on Wednesday rejected a proposal to tie executive compensation more closely to the wages that are paid at the company's contract factories in Asia.

Jakarta - Students and farmers staged street rallies in several Indonesian cities on Wednesday despite the massive presence of security forces, witnesses said.

Jeffrey A. Winters, Chicago, Illinois – At the end of July 1997, the World Bank's country director, Dennis de Tray, and the vice president for East Asia and the Pacific region, Jean-Michel Severino, issued an angry press release denying that a large portion of the bank's loan funds routinely leaked into the hands of corrupt officials in the Indonesian government.

Irwan Firdaus, Jakarta – Students protesting the policies of Indonesia's government demonstrated in three cities today, defying troops sent to put down discontent in the Southeast Asian nation.

Louise Williams, Jakarta – Indonesia's former president has threatened to sue those claiming he abused his power to amass a personal fortune during his 32-year rule. Mr Soeharto issued the warning after his first meeting with the two senior officials charged with investigating his wealth.

Jakarta – The Indonesian military has named a former commander of the troubled territory of East Timor to head the armed forces' command and staff school previously headed by a son-in law of ex-president Suharto, a report said Tuesday.

Jakarta – The government-sponsored fact-finding team investigating the May riots asserted on Monday that, despite some officials' denials, sexual assaults and rapes did take place in the unrest in Jakarta and other cities which also left 1,200 people dead and led to the downfall of former president Soeharto.

Jakarta – Indonesia yesterday said that half of the country has been hit by food shortages. Food Minister A. M. Saefuddin told Parliament that 150 out of 308 regencies were facing a food shortfall, and 53 of the 150 were facing a severe shortage. The shortfalls were in 25 of Indonesia's 27 provinces.

On Wednesday, 16 September a centre where street children are given refuge under the care of Father Sandyawan Sumardi was attacked for two hours in the middle of the night by a gang calling themselves the Mosque Youth.

Michael Richardson and Philip Segal, Singapore – As official Indonesian investigators prepare to question former President Suharto for the first time this week about his wealth, experts are cautioning that any criminal wrongdoing will be hard to prove and that the tracing and recovery of money and assets will be equally difficult, especially if they are outside Indonesia.

Jakarta – Deeper instability is threatening Indonesia as confidence in the four-month-old government of President B.J. Habibie wanes, analysts say.

Bombay – Indonesian opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri said the country could break out into a fresh bout of violence if the government dithered on its plan to hold elections or tried to keep her out of the polls.

Jakarta - Maj. Gen. (ret) Theo Syafei and Maj. Gen. (ret) Raja Kami Sembiring Meliala led an illustrious pack of former military officers, former Golkar leaders and businessmen who formally joined the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) under Megawati Soekarnoputri on Friday.