Dili – Australian Green Party leader Bob Brown said in Dili on Wednesday he is pessimistic about negotiations between East Timor and Australia over the disputed maritime boundary between the two countries.
Talking to reporters after meeting with East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, Brown said Australia would not change its mind on the boundary.
Now to East Timor, where for the last three days, teams from there and Australia have been in bitter negotiations over where our sea boundaries lie and who will control the oil and gas royalties within them, worth an estimated $30 billion. This has been an ongoing issue between the two countries, which to date has been handled reasonably amicably.
Vannessa Hearman, Melbourne – On April 14, 50 members of the Timor Sea Justice Campaign met outside the High Court to launch the group. Comedian Rod Quantock was joined by protesters disguised as Prime Minister John Howard and foreign minister Alexander Downer. They waded in the ornamental pool, making a grab for Timorese oil, represented by black balloons.
Viseu, Portugal – Economic difficulties in the world's newest nation, East Timor, are a potential source of violence, President Xanana Gusmao has warned.
Nigel Wilson – Australia is being painted as a bully and an ogre for refusing to accept an East Timor argument that a maritime boundary should be negotiated that gives East Timor control of potentially billions of dollars in oil and gas revenues.
Bob Burton, Canberra – As protests mount in East Timor, the Australian government is under increasing pressure to agree to a maritime boundary halfway between the two countries rather than a border that would deprive the world's newest nation of billions of dollars in oil revenues.
Jakarta – Indonesia's largest political party picked a retired general indicted for human rights abuses in East Timor as its presidential candidate Wednesday, drawing condemnation from critics who called him a war criminal. The Golkar Party of ex-dictator Suharto selected Gen.
Sonny Inbaraj, Dili – East Timorese activists have thrown their support behind their government's refusal to ratify an agreement giving Australia the lion's share of disputed oil and gas fields in the Timor Sea as talks begin here this week to demarcate the two countries' maritime boundaries.
Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Denpasar – East Timor Attorney General Longinus Montero said on Sunday the trial of former Indonesian Military chief Gen (ret) Wiranto for his alleged role in crimes against humanity and war crimes in the former Indonesian province might not materialize due to lack of evidence.
Tanya Nolan: East Timor and Australia will this afternoon start nearly a week of talks, on the increasingly tense issue of a permanent maritime boundary.
And in the lead-up to the meeting in Dili, East Timor has turned up the pressure by threatening not to ratify an agreement for a seabed oil and gas project, worth $8 billion. From Canberra, Graeme Dobell reports.
Erwin Z, Jakarta – A total of 278 Indonesian citizens currently residing in the An-Nur mosque, Dili, East Timor, have requested that the Indonesian Representatives' Office (KUKRI) in the country to pay attention to them as they have been isolated by the East Timorese authorities.
Dili – Tiny East Timor has launched another swingeing attack on Australia as the two countries begin formal talks to settle their sea border and the ownership of billions of dollars in offshore oil and gas revenues.
Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said the issue is "a matter of life and death" for his country, which was Asia's poorest nation upon independence in May 2002.
David Fickling, Sydney – East Timor risks becoming "another Haiti" because of an attempt by Australia to exploit offshore oil and gas reserves between the two countries, according to its president, Xanana Gusmao.
Sydney – Australia was on Monday accused of bullying impoverished East Timor about the division of revenue from a multi-billion dollar oil and gas field as talks to establish boundaries began in Dili.
Mark Colvin: Australia and East Timor appear to be on a potential collision course over the future of a seabed boundary between the two countries.
Officials from both countries are in Dili today for the start of new talks to resolve what's shaping up as a major thorn in bilateral relations.
Tom Allard – The liberation of East Timor has frequently been cited by the Prime Minister, John Howard, as one of his proudest achievements in eight years of government. True enough, a nation was born and no Australian lives were lost in restoring order and quashing militia remnants in the ravaged former Indonesian province.
Hamish Robertson: Here at home, the controversy over allegations of bias and intimidation in Australia's intelligence services has deepened this morning.
A new report has been released, backing claims by top military intelligence officer, Lieutenant Colonel Lance Collins, who says he's been victimised by a "pro-Jakarta lobby" in the intelligence community.
Jakarta – East Timor's last Indonesian-appointed governor Friday denounced a Supreme Court ruling convicting him for the 1999 bloodshed there, saying he was a scapegoat for army generals who escaped punishment.
Jose Ramos-Horta – I have been fighting for the independence of my country since the early 1970s. I lost three brothers and a sister, as well as countless friends and relatives, to the violence visited upon my people during 25 years of brutal Indonesian occupation.
Sydney – A coalition of church and aid groups on Friday called for Australia to grant East Timor concessions in a border dispute over the resource-rich Timor Sea as the countries prepare for talks in Dili Monday.
Mark Forbes, Canberra – The barrister whose report was used to deflect allegations of intelligence failings made by a senior military analyst says his views do not invalidate those allegations.
Scott Burchill – Just as fish cannot perceive the sea, humans are often unaware of the ideas and influences that shape their thoughts. Contested political arguments and dubious moral preferences are often presupposed rather than critically examined.
Mark Colvin: One of the key claims in the Collins case is the statement by the Lieutenant Colonel that Australian Defence intelligence on East Timor was distorted by a pro-Jakarta lobby.
The Indonesian government has rejected claims that it is failing to prosecute those responsible for the carnage in East Timor following its vote for independence.
Indonesia set up an ad hoc human rights court in 2001 to investigate and judge individuals suspected of crimes against humanity in East Timor in 1999.
Amnesty International has accused the United Nations of dragging its feet in bringing Indonesian officers to justice for the army-backed militia atrocities in East Timor in 1999.
Tony Jones: Back now to our top story, the Colonel Collins affair and the Government's attempts to deal with it.
As we said earlier, the Defence Minister tonight released an internal legal review by a Melbourne QC that's highly sceptical of the Collins allegations. But do we now have the whole story?
Tom Allard – As an intelligence officer at Australian theatre headquarters in Brisbane, Lieutenant-Colonel Lance Collins was charged with writing highly classified reports on East Timor.
In July 1998, he wrote a chilling assessment that the Indonesian military was sponsoring militia violence and the Indonesian province was a powder-keg.
Maputo – East Timor's foreign minister, Josi Ramos Horta, has accused Australia of delaying negotiations to demarcate the two countries' maritime borders in order to drain oil- and natural gas-riches from the Sea of Timor.
Mark Colvin: More details, meanwhile, are emerging about the character of the intelligence officer at the centre of the calls for a royal commission and the battle he fought within the Defence Force against claimed bias and intimidation.
About a dozen people have rallied outside the Darwin office of the Member for Solomon this morning, to protest against Australia's treatment of East Timor in oil and gas negotiations.
East Timor's Prime Minister Mari Alkitiri has indicated his parliament will not be ratifying an agreement that allows the oil and gas reserves to be developed.
Sydney – Energy giant Woodside has warned it will scrap a multi-billion dollar oil and gas development in the Timor Sea unless East Timor ratified a controversial border treaty with Australia.
Nigel Wilson – East Timor says it may call on the US to broker a deal with Australia on maritime boundaries that would give it access to billions of dollars in oil and gas revenues now under Australian jurisdiction.
Indonesia's Supreme Court has upheld a three-year prison sentence handed to a former East Timor governor for crimes against humanity during the territory's bloody breakaway from Jakarta in 1999.
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The Supreme Court's decision find former East Timor governor Abilio Soares Jose Osorio Soares guilty of rights violations has drawn criticism from activists, who claimed the verdict was "discriminatory and insidious".
Jakarta – For the third consecutive time in recent weeks, the Supreme Court has acquitted a defendant of all charges of involvement in the 1999 mayhem in East Timor.
Jill Jolliffe, Dili – A human rights expert has called for new charges to be laid against senior Indonesian leaders, based on war crimes evidence salvaged from smouldering barracks during their army's 1999 retreat from East Timor.
Jakarta – Indonesia's Supreme Court has upheld a special court's decision to acquit a middle-ranking officer and to sentence a senior government official on charges of gross human rights violations in East Timor in 1999 when its people voted to separate from Indonesia, court sources said late Wednesday.
Jill Jolliffe, Dili – An international expert says Australia "shares some responsibility" for the 1999 atrocities in East Timor, despite its leading role in the United Nations peacekeeping force.
Dili – Sitting in his cramped jail cell, Joanico Gusmao readily admits he helped torch a village and stabbed to death a pro-independence supporter during the violence that enveloped East Timor in 1999.
Rachland Nashidik – The past is catching up with General (ret) Wiranto. The Serious Crimes Unit (SCU) of the Attorney General's Office of East Timor (now Timor Leste) has proposed a legal motion for the arrest of the former defense and security minister/Indonesian Military commander.
Peter Kammerer – The tussle between East Timor and Australia for oil and gas reserves under the Timor Sea is becoming markedly vocal and tactical.
Canberra's insistence on a bilateral resolution to sea border issue is not fair
Brad Howarth – The newest nation is struggling to its feet, but little will happen without foreign investment.
Nigel Wilson – The federal Government's release of exploration acreage in the Timor Sea has been described as "a slap in the face" for East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.
Shadow resources minister Joel Fitzgibbon said it was another example of the Australian Government bullying East Timor over maritime boundaries.
Max Lane – On March 24, the Senate resumed debate of the Greater Sunrise Unitisation Bill 2004, a bill to allow for the implementation of the Greater Sunrise International Unitisation Agreement that the East Timorese government was pressured to sign last year. The IUA covers how government revenues from the Greater Sunrise gas field are to be calculated.
If Australia and East Timor cannot agree on a maritime boundary, let the court decide.
Canberra – Parliament passed legislation Monday allowing Australia and East Timor to share revenue from a Timor Sea gas and oil field in a deal that a Greens lawmaker said robs one of the world's poorest nations of vital revenue.
Jakarta – Indonesian will no longer pay attention to East Timor's Serious Crime Unit (SCU) which has accused several Indonesian officials of human rights violations, a spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday.
Dili – Tiny East Timor accused its giant neighbour Australia on Friday of breaching international law by issuing exploration licences in a disputed section of a giant gasfield in the sea area between them.
Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said his country is committed to honouring agreements with Canberra about the Greater Sunrise field.
Reporter: Anne Barker
Hamish Robertson: A children's schoolbook which portrays the President and Prime Minister of East Timor as monkeys has caused a diplomatic outcry.
A Washington-based organisation, the International Republican Institute, has compiled the book to teach children about the processes of democracy.