Under a political deal designed to avoid a coup, the Indonesian government has agreed to allow the military to keep its block of 38 seats in the House of Representatives until 2004 and its block of 38 seats in the People's Consultative Assembly (the senate) until 2009. A new constitutional amendment has made it much more difficult to prosecute military officers for previous human rights violations, although the government insists that these prosecutions will go forward.--Stephen V Cole