News items on indahnesia.com

2007

Firefighters battle forest fires on Sumatra
Firefighters battle dozens of land-clearing forest fires on the island of Sumatra, officials told, as thick clouds of haze spread across parts of the region. Donny Osmon, head of a local firefighter agency, said that farmers and agricultural companies began setting the fires last Sunday, at the start of the dry season, to clear brush ... ( read on )

2006

6.0 magnitude earthquake shakes Sunda Strait
An earthquake has hit the Indonesian island of Java, sparking fear two days after an undersea quake triggered a tsunami which left at least 550 dead on the southern coast. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage, but people in the capital Jakarta fled from offices and homes as tall buildings shook. The Hawaii-based ... ( read on )

2006

Tsunami victims to get rice aid from the government
Indonesian Social Services Minister Bachtiar Chamsyah said on Tuesday that the government had prepared 200 tons of rice for tsunami victims in West Java province's southern coastal regions. "The rice assistance will be extended step by step, considering that not all people in the areas experienced house damage in the disaster," the minister said this ... ( read on )

2006

Java deaths rise to 531 amid the search for survivors
Indonesia pledged to build a nationwide tsunami alert system as soldiers pulled bodies from ravaged beaches, homes, and hotels yester day. Parents searched tearfully for their children and the death toll hit at least 531, with nearly 280 people missing. Bodies covered in white sheets piled up at makeshift morgues, while others lay beneath the blazing ... ( read on )

2005

Indonesia to sell 10 pct stake of state-owned gas company
Indonesia plans to sell as much as 10 percent stake of state-run gas distributor PNG this year, part of a strategy to bridge budget deficit, local media reported on Tuesday. "For PNG, the stake that will be sold is maximum 10 percent," State Enterprises Minister Sugiharto was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying. The PNG ... ( read on )

2004

HM Sampoerna 1H Sales IDR8.15T Vs IDR6.99T
PT Hanjaya Mandala Sampoerna (HMSP.JK) Monday said its first half sales this year rose 17% on year to 8.15 trillion rupiah (EUR1=IDR11,088), mostly on stronger cigarette sales. Indonesia's second largest cigarette producer's sales rose from IDR6.99 trillion in the first half of 2003, Sampoerna said in a statement. During the first six months of this ... ( read on )

2004

Gunmen attack Palu church, kill minister
Unidentified gunmen burst into a Christian church in central Indonesia and opened fire, killing the female minister and wounding four worshippers, police said Monday. The killing took place in Palu, central Sulawesi province, which has been hit by sporadic violence between Muslims and Christians since 2001. At least 1,000 people have been killed. Two men ... ( read on )

2003

Indonesia kills 15 rebels
Indonesian troops waging war on separatist rebels in Aceh province have shot dead at least 15 guerrillas in one of the bloodiest days of their two-month offensive, the military said on Thursday. Government spokesperson Ahmad Yani Basuki said three members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) were killed in raids and 12 more in six ... ( read on )

2003

Meeting of MPR to be heavily guarded
Indonesian police say they will deploy 11,000 officers across Jakarta to safeguard next month's annual meeting of the People's Consultative Assembly, the top constitutional body. On Monday a bomb shattered windows and a door at the parliament building complex, which also houses the offices of the assembly, but caused no injuries. National police spokesman, Zairnuri ... ( read on )

2002

New terror group in Southeast Asia
Indonesia's police head says that a new Islamic terror group has sprung up in Southeast Asia, and is working in his country, as well as neighboring Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore. Members of the group -- which goes by the name of Nusantara -- have already been arrested, according to Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar, who ... ( read on )

Other events on this day

2001

The House passes a bill on special autonomy for Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam into law, with 70 percent of oil and gas revenue going to the province and 30 percent to the central govt, and the implementation of sharia for Muslims in the province.

2001

Over 3,000 disadvantaged people, mostly street singers and pedicab drivers grouped in the Urban Poor Consortium (UPC), rally in front of City Hall, protesting raids against them by the city administration.

2001

Aceng Suhari, 52, one of defendants tried for last year's Christmas bombings in Bandung, West Java, is sentenced by the Bandung District Court to eight years' imprisonment. The bomb blast killed four people.

2001

Two people are killed and eight others injured in a two-hour gunfight between two unidentified groups of people in the village of Pendolo, Pamona district in the regency of Poso, Central Sulawesi.

2001

Over 1,500 employees of the state military weapons factory PT Pindad go on strike to protest the management's policy on the elimination of this year's education allowance for their children. Pindad has 3,300 employees, some 2,200 of them based in Bandung.

2000

Army Strategic Reserves Command (Kostrad) chief Lt. Gen. Agus Wirahadikusumah suspends two colonels who allegedly misused funds intended for the procurement of Army equipment from South Korea.

2000

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan urges Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid to take action to stop sectarian unrest in the Maluku islands.

1999

Aceh rebels shoot five riot troops dead and injure 20 others in an ambush in Reng Krueng village in Pidie regency, 170 kilometers east of Banda Aceh provincial capital.

1998

Pius Lustrilanang, 34, an activist who fled abroad seeking safety after revealing his harrowing experience of abduction, returns to Jakarta to a hero's welcome.

1998

Some members of Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Muslim organization establish the National United Solidarity Party (SUNI), chaired by Muslim businessman H. Abu Hasan.

1997

Sixteen people are sentenced to between 2 and 7 months imprisonment by the Banjarmasin District Court, S. Kalimantan, for looting during unrest on May 23, when 123 people were burned alive in a shopping center on the last day of the electoral campaign.

1997

Two journalists of the unrecognized Independent Journalists Association (AJI), Achmad Taufik and Eko Maryadi, are released on parole after serving two-thirds of their sentences. They were sentenced to three years in jail for criticizing Pres. Soeharto.

1995

The Consultative Group on Indonesia (CGI) gives Indonesia US$5.36 billion in aid.

1994

An Indonesian-Singaporean resort and industrial venture inaugurates new primary projects in its tourism and industrial estates on Bintan island, Riau, marking a new era of economic development in the growth triangle.

1993

Experts on Indonesian from Japan, South Korea and China open a two-day symposium on the development of Bahasa Indonesia in the Far East in Tokyo, Japan.

1989

Four naval officers are injured when their helicopter crashes on a field in the Central Java town of Pati.

1988

Pres. Soeharto inaugurates five projects in N. Sulawesi, including a cattle breeding center in Tampusu village, a polytechnic building for the University of Sam Ratulangi in Manado, a hydroelectric power plant in Tangari, a bridge in Randangan.

1988

A court in Tanjungpinang, Riau, fines three Australians, a Briton and two Americans between Rp 5 million and Rp 7.5 million each for attempting to hunt for treasure in Riau waters.

1986

Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI) Commander Gen. LB Moerdani receives the Pingat Gagah Angkatan Tentera medal, the highest award in the Malaysian Armed Forces, from Malaysian King Yang Dipertuan Agong Sultan Iskandar in a ceremony in Johor Baru, Malaysia.

1986

Indonesian First Lady Madame Tien Soeharto is awarded the prestigious PATA Gold Cultural Award by the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA).

1986

The Medan District Court in North Sumatra sentences Tan Seng Ka alias Eddy Sutanto to life for drug trafficking.

1986

President Soeharto inaugurates Indonesia's first purified terephtalic acid (PTA) plant in Plaju, South Sumatra, claiming the plant will lead the country to self-sufficiency in synthetic fibers.

1985

Leading film director Syumanjaya dies of liver disease in Jakarta at the age of 52.

1984

Sunardi DM is reelected chairman of the Newspaper Publishers Association (SPS) for the 1984-1989 term at the association's congress in Surabaya, East Java.

1965

Gen. AH Nasution rejects President Sukarno's proposal of establishing the Fifth Generation, and Political Commissioners.

1949

Representatives of Indonesia and the federal states under Dutch control (BFO) hold the Inter-Indonesia Conference in Yogyakarta to discuss the creation of the Republic of the United States of Indonesia (RIS), RIS-Dutch cooperation and state defense.

1947

Dutch troops leave Surabaya in five landing craft and head for Meneng Bay in Bali, guarded by a battleship, in order to occupy Banyuwangi.

1947

Maj. John Lie, an Indonesian naval officer, smuggles radio transmitter equipment from Malaya to Aceh by penetrating the Dutch blockades in the Strait of Malacca. The radio transmitter is installed at Cot Gue village, eight kilometers south of Kotaraja.

1946

A conference of the Indonesian People's Naval Troops (Tentara Rakyat Indonesia-Laut) held in Lawang, East Java, decides to change its name to the Indonesian Navy (Angkatan Laut Republik Indonesia, ALRI) and to move its HQ from Yogyakarta to Lawang.

1946

Defense min. Amir Sjarifuddin lodges a protest with the Allied Forces over violations of an agreement between the Indonesian government and the Allied Forces' leader in Yogyakarta and the use of Japanese people on a battle field by the Dutch in Bandung.

1913

The Komite Boemipoetra (Indigenous Committee) publishes a satirical article by Soewardi Soerjaningrat in De Expres titled "Als ik eens Nederlander was" (Supposing I was Dutch).