It was supposed to be a peaceful demonstration to mark the death of a fellow East Timorese activists.

Instead, Simplisio Celestino de Deus remembers how Indonesian troops indiscriminately opened fire on 3,000 unarmed protesters on November 12, 1991. Troops then stormed into the Santa Cruz cemetery, bayonetted survivors and hauled off the dead bodies in trucks.

Jill Jolliffe, Darwin – A United Nations official has pointed the finger at the UN police command for its failure to intervene effectively during riots in East Timor last December.

A UN report just released also said East Timorese police had been unco-operative in an investigation into the riots.

Post-independence confidence in East Timor has declined, with nearly 40 per cent of East Timorese saying they feel worse off now than under Indonesian rule and less than half optimistic about the future, according to a survey.

Canberra – East Timor's prime minister Friday accused Australia of deliberately dragging out talks aimed at bolstering his impoverished nation's share of billions of dollars worth of oil and gas under the sea dividing the two nations.

Frederik Balfour – Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao became President of the world's newest country, East Timor in May, 2002. A veteran guerrilla leader against the 24-year Indonesian occupation of his country, Gusmao faces the challenge of managing the peace for 750,000 people in an impoverished but oil-rich country.

Australia is refusing to set a deadline for talks beginning today with its neighbour East Timor on their contentious maritime borders. East Timor is contesting the boundaries set under a 1972 agreement between Australia and Indonesia when East Timor was ruled by Portugal.

Canberra – Australia and East Timor began talks on Wednesday aimed at settling a bitter dispute over carving up the seabed between the two nations, which holds billions of dollars worth of oil and gas reserves.

Dili – Thousands of people gathered Wednesday to remember the victims of one of East Timor's worst massacres under Indonesian rule with a moment of silence and flowers as well as demands for an investigation to find the perpetrators.

Nigel Wilson – Australia is refusing to give East Timor a timetable for reaching a permanent maritime boundary between the two countries that could affect ownership of billions of dollars in oil and gas reserves.

Sydney – Australia has denied bullying its tiny Pacific neighbour East Timor Tuesday as the nations prepared for talks on finalising a contentious martime border that will determine how billions of dollars in revenues from Timor Sea gas fields is split.

Damien Kingsbury, Melbourne – As the United Nations winds down its presence in East Timor ahead of next May's departure, the fledgling state is still wrestling with forces that could offer it a stable future or, should matters not be well managed, tear it apart. More than ever, East Timor's future is in the balance.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – East Timorese politicians are hoping a formal headcount to identify former pro-independence guerillas will end their discontent and return them to the social mainstream.

Unemployed veterans who say their role in the fight for independence from Indonesia has not been recognised are a potential destabilising force for East Timor.

The first lady of East Timor, Kirsty Sword-Gusmao, has urged Australia to consider the plight of the fledgeling nation when negotiations begin later this week on establishing maritime boundaries.

From a correspondent in Dili – East Timor introduced its own coins today, hoping to spur economic development and create a symbol for the country following its hard-won independence from Indonesia two years ago.

Sandra McLean – During East Timor's independence struggle, few men were more revered than Xanana Gusmao, the leader of the resistance movement. Gusmao was like a god to his people – now he is the president of East Timor, which was declared an independent nation in 2002 after 27 years of Indonesian control.

Louise Williams – The quest for justice for East Timor's victims of human rights abuses under Indonesian military occupation is in effect over. The Government in Dili is making reconciliation with its former ruler an absolute priority.

Just four years after the vote for independence in East Timor, the country's first lady, Kirsty Sword Gusmao, believes the country's peace is still too fragile to enter into the politics of the region.

Dili – East Timor's governing Fretilin party has lost electoral support but retains majority backing after nearly 18 months in power, according to the country's first political poll, sources told Lusa Thursday.

Louis Beckerling – East Timor president Xanana Gusmao warned Asian business leaders yesterday that if people in the poorest countries of the region were left without food, there could be no peace and security.

For several years stories have been circulating, mostly unpublished, concerning claims that Australian soldiers were engaged in acts of torture of militia prisoners in East Timor in 1999. All of those claims were dismissed by internal defence force inquiries but no details of the allegations or the evidence have ever been publicly available.

Deborah Snow – Fresh allegations of torture by Australian troops in East Timor will be made in tonight's SBS Dateline program, with former militia members claiming they were beaten, kicked, and had their heads forced down excrement-filled toilet bowls during interrogation.

Kupang – A top East Timorese community leader in Indonesia, Armindo Soares, said a lot of East Timorese refugees who participated in the repatriation program returned to Indonesia.

Linda Mottram: Australian troops in East Timor are preparing for the pull out of UN peacekeepers next year. They're handing over key duties to the country's new military, though there are warnings from East Timor's leaders that the country's fledgling forces are not yet capable of defending their own borders.

Our Correspondent Mark Bowling reports from Dili.

Kirsty Sword Gusmao, the Australian-born first lady of the world's newest nation, once shared two of her husband's big dreams for an independent East Timor then, when the long battle had been won, to settle down to a rural life growing pumpkins and breeding animals.

Atambua – The Belu district government said it was treating the 26 East Timorese seeking asylum in Atambua as foreign nationals.

"We will never treat them as if they are former East Timorese refugees. They came to this district as foreign nationals in dire need of protection," chief of the Belu police resort Adjunct Chief Commissioner Agus Nugroho said here Saturday.

["A Woman of Independence". By Kirsty Sword Gusmao. Macmillan, 321pp, $30.]

Jill Jolliffe – Today's pilgrimage to Balibo by the families of the five television reporters killed in an Indonesian attack on the East Timorese border town 28 years ago is a turning point in their unfinished mourning and in their quest for the truth about the killings.

Keith Suter – The largest loss of life ever sustained by the Australian media industry took place on October 16, 1975, at the East Timor village of Balibo. Five journalists were killed. All the governments that had citizens involved in the deaths have refused to reveal all that they know.

Waingapu – East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao has expressed anger over attitude of the country's citizens seeking asylum in Atambua, Belu district, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), a military officer said on Thursday.

Kupang – The leaders of two ex-East Timorese refugee organizations have urged the Indonesian government to refrain from deporting 26 East Timorese asylum seekers currently staying in Atambua, East Nusatenggara, citing humanitarian considerations.

A former militia leader, who was sentenced to 10 years for his role in the 1999 East Timor violence, unfurled a giant Indonesian flag yesterday and called on the country to "rekindle" its nationalist spirit.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – East Timor President Xanana Gusmao called on East Timor asylum seekers on Monday in the Indonesia's territory of Atambua here to return to their homeland in East Timor. But, his appeal was quickly rejected by the asylum seekers, who still fear intimidation back home.

Atambua – The Indonesian military and police have agreed to deport 26 East Timorese who are seeking asylum at Belu police resort in Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara province.

The Australian High Commissioner believes that the interim legal framework for Timor Sea petroleum development is a winner for East Timor (letters, October 20).

Dili – An East Timorese court Thursday convicted and sentenced two former pro-Jakarta militiaman for murdering three independence supporters during the country's break from Indonesia in 1999.

Ben Packham, Melbourne – East Timorese trade unionists have ended the nation's first-ever strike. The country's aviation workers ended the two-week strike after reaching an interim agreement with air-freight company Timor Aviation Services.

Dili – East Timorese leaders, returning home from a European tour, expressed optimism Tuesday about continued European Union aid but said Dili's expectations should be "realistic".

Jill Jolliffe, Batugade – East Timorese self-sufficiency came a step closer at the weekend as United Nations peacekeepers handed control of the Indonesian border area to local police.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – As many as 48 East Timorese citizens sneaked into East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province seeking protection from the Indonesia government, claiming they were victims of intimidation, police said on Friday.

Michael Casey, Jakarta – The prime minister of East Timor said Friday that his nation has little hope of overcoming its desperate poverty unless the United Nations extends its presence there and donor countries reject proposals to reduce aid.

Alan Sipress, Dili – Joni Marques is in jail for his role in the ambush and murder of three Catholic priests, two nuns and their traveling companions in 1999, one of the most infamous incidents during this country's violent birth.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – At least five of 14 regencies in East Nusa Tenggara have refused to give land for resettlement areas for thousands of East Timorese refugees still languishing in camps across the province.

Jonathan Steele – Australia, which led an international peace force to help East Timor become independent last year, has become the greatest barrier to the country's hopes of breaking free from reliance on foreign aid, according to stark budget figures released yesterday.

Jakarta – A former pro-Indonesia militia member in East Timor has been jailed for 10 B1/2 years for crimes against humanity including one count of murder, East Timor's serious crimes unit said on Monday.

Alan Sipress, Dili – "Turn around!" the police cadet barked. "Get on your knees! Cross your legs!" The suspect dropped to the hot asphalt and obligingly stretched his arms behind him. The cadet grabbed a wrist. But as he produced a set of handcuffs, he fumbled with the mechanism.

A bitter industrial dispute in East Timor has taken a turn for the worse, with the arrest of an Australian trade union official by United Nations police. The official was taking part in a protest at Dili Airport on Sunday, organised by striking East Timorese employees of Timor Aviation Services.

Alan Sipress, Laga – On a narrow road strung perilously along a rock ledge above the beach, Cornelio Gama stopped his jeep and motioned to the spot where his rebel band had ambushed a column of three dozen Indonesian soldiers.

Paul Robinson – An Australian union official has been jailed in East Timor by United Nations police after a demonstration outside a local airline office owned by Australian travel company executives.

Dili – Prosecutors in East Timor on Tuesday charged 17 Indonesian and East Timorese members of the Indonesian army with murderous attacks on independence supporters and other civilians.

Gel Wilson – Australian officials expect talks on a maritime boundary between Australia and East Timor to be "long and intricate".

The issue is a major test of Australia's relations with the new country, with ownership of oil and gas reserves worth billions of dollars at stake.