The current furor over rice imports flared up when late last year the trade minister gave clearance to the State Logistics Agency (Bulog) to import over 70,000 tons of rice to supplemen

Olle Tornquist, Oslo – Donors often say that the major obstacle in the post-tsunami relief and reconstruction work is poor co-ordination of the organizations involved.

Freeport-McMoRan, an American company that operates a giant open-pit copper and gold mine in Papua, is a major contributor to Indonesia's economy.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Despite the precious little progress the Indonesian Military (TNI) has achieved in the area of internal reform, it has does have something to be proud this year

For thousands of East Java residents, the new year had a nightmarish beginning. Like a thief in the night, flash floods and landslides rudely awoke residents late on Sunday night.

Sometimes, it's the little things that count.

Gary Brown – One can only boggle at the folly of the Federal Government's decision to resume co-operation with the Indonesian Special Forces unit, Kopassus.

The first phase of the Aceh peace agreement ended pretty much on schedule before the turn of the year. The Indonesian Military (TNI) withdrew the last of its non-local troops.

Tom Benedetti, Vancouver – The attention that the tsunami brought to the previously overlooked conflict in the Indonesian province of Aceh is contributing to an end to three decades of

This time last year, we ended 2004 on an extremely subdued note.

Lisabona Rahman and Paul F.

John McBeth – It was five years ago.

In one tsunami-devastated area of Aceh, a visitor asked a medical team, "Where are the midwives?" There were none, while only a few weeks after last December's tragedy, an official with

The murderer of Munir has been found guilty. Pending his appeal, Pollycarpus B.

Jeff Kingston – The legacies of Indonesia's brutal occupation of East Timor from 1975 to 1999 – when there were at least 102,800 conflict-related deaths – remain divisive in this small,

John McBeth – The commission formed to investigate human rights abuses during Indonesia's bloody 25-year occupation of the former East Timor, now Timor Leste, has just issued its report

The reports coming out of Papua about a famine that has taken the lives of 55 people since November punctuate the suffering of a country still reeling from the recent fuel price increas

Human rights have become part of the daily vocabulary of people at all levels of society.

Olivia Ward – West Papua is one of the world's most obscure territories, a rain-forested land that is little known except for its exotic beauty.

Adirito de Jesus Soares, Dili – This week marks the 30th anniversary of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor, with the people of East Timor organizing different activities to commemora

Makmur Keliat, Jakarta – The Indonesian government has relied on three popular arguments to convince the people that the increases in the fuel prices were the right decision.

James Dunn – The 30th anniversary of the invasion of Dili by a large Indonesian force, is a time for sober reflection in Australia as well as in East Timor.

Richard LLoyd Parry Blog – It is a law of guerrilla wars that they are morally murky affairs, in which it is impossible to separate right from wrong or to sympathise unconditionally wit

Britain, a former foreign secretary once declared, had no permanent allies, only permanent interests.

This nation is learning – the tough way – the hard lessons of democracy.

The United States' decision to restore military ties with Indonesia does more than draw a line under past human rights abuses in East Timor.

Importing rice, like raising fuel prices, is always politically controversial.

Aboeprijadi Santoso, The Hague – A Dutch study on Papua, charged with political implications for Indonesia, has been greeted with rejoicing by many Papuans, and led to controversy in th

A perusal of the backgrounds of the suicide bombers who wrecked havoc in Bali on Oct. 1 can serve to tell us a lot about why there seems to be no shortage of terrorists.

Imam Cahyono, Jakarta – The image of the Muslim-based Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) as a clean party committed to good governance with empathy for ordinary people was clear in the resu

Aboeprijadi Santoso, Amsterdam – Conventional wisdom about what happened in Indonesia during the second half of the 1960s generally held leading Army officers, in collaboration with som

Local soap star Anjasmara is naked! And it's an Adam and Eve installation! Is it art or pornography?

Aboeprijadi Santoso, Langsa, Aceh – A new chapter has begun for the region along the southeastern coast of Aceh, a district with a tumultuous past, which has long been the bastion of pr

Enrico Aditjondro – As it turns out, Jose Ramos-Horta has not forgotten about West Papua.

The 42 members of the Papuan People's Assembly (MRP) were installed on Oct. 31, 2005, in Jayapura, capital of the easternmost province of Papua.

[The following Aceh backgrounder was prepared by the Australian solidarity organisation Asia Pacific Solidarity Network (APSN) to provide an background to the three-decade conflict i

Barbaric!

Riwanto Tirtosudarmo, Jakarta – The intention of the Indonesian Military (TNI) Chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto to revive the territorial command is not a surprise at all.

John Roosa and Joseph Nevins – One of the worst mass murders of the twentieth century." That was how a CIA publication described the killings that began forty years ago this month in In

Alastair Thompson – Timor-Leste Foreign Minister & 1996 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Jose Ramos-Horta knows more than most about independence struggles against Indonesian control.

Ellen Nakashima, Lorejo – An old man, thin and stooped, raised a wooden stick over his head and swung it down with both hands.

Bill Guerin, Jakarta – Though there has been no singularly mind-boggling achievement in his first year in office, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's bold decision to slash fuel subsidies not on

Somewhere in the dark a child cries, someone dies and humanity hides.

Fabio Scarpello, Jakarta – Indonesia's renewed "war on terror" in the wake of the latest round of bombings on Bali could pave the way for renewed politicization of the country's militar

Even before he stepped into Merdeka Palace, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's legacy had been assured.

John Pilger – "The propagandist's purpose," wrote Aldous Huxley, "is to make one set of people forget that certain other sets of people are human."

Graham Matthews – In the days following the October 1 Bali bombings, Australians have been subject to a barrage of hypocritical and racist "anti-terrorist" hysteria whipped up by politi

Clinton Fernandes – The destruction of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), 40 years ago following the seizure of power by pro-US military officers headed by General Suharto was a deci

Days after terrorists attacked Bali for the second time in three years, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono attended a ceremony on Wednesday to mark the 60th anniversary of the Indonesia

Pradana Boy ZTF, Malang – The factors that have caused Papuans' desire to be free from Indonesia cannot easily be determined.