Dili – A moral and spiritual "darkness" still haunts East Timor's Catholics, the bishop of Dili said at the Easter Vigil service.

The Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR) and TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign, have condemned the UN Commission on Human Rights for failing to ensure that the perpetrators of gross violations of human rights in East Timor are brought to justice and for agreeing to drop the issue from its agenda next year.

The East Timor Action Network (ETAN) strongly criticized the UN Commission on Human Rights for turning its back on the East Timorese people and jeopardizing current and future UN missions.

Dili – The head of the United Nations' civil police department urged East Timor Thursday to rapidly draft and approve legislation for its police forces. Calling on Dili for action "as quickly as possible", Kiran Debi challenged a seminar in the East Timorese capital "not to waste this opportunity" because "you are losing time and put the future at risk".

In East Timor, continuing militia infilitration has put a spotlight on the United Nations failure to properly secure the border. Local police say militia groups have returned to East Timor, through numerous tracks along the West Timor border. The warning comes as the UN forces prepare to withdraw, leaving border security to the local police.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Activists have urged the international community to ensure that justice is served against all perpetrators of the gross human rights violations in East Timor, now that hopes for a fair trial have evaporated.

Jakarta – People in the East Timor regency of Belu expressed disappointment over the country's recent ruling to impose a US$25 visa on visitors from Indonesia, which it borders.

A number of local figures warned on Tuesday that the visa ruling, which took effect on April 19, would burden East Timor more than it would Indonesia.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Despite the decision of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) to drop from its agenda human rights abuses in East Timor, the opportunity to reopen the rights cases, which have implicated a number of Indonesian Army generals, is still available, a noted lawyer has said.

Next month – our northern neighbour is celebrating it's first birthday as a free country. But while there's much to celebrate – the country's justice system is struggling. Critics say the government isn't doing enough – to bring those responsible for past violence – before a court of law.

Dili – The Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor (CAVR) has already heard over 2,000 statements on human rights violations committed during the 25-year independence struggle against Indonesia, but needs an extension of its mandate, the independent body announced Monday.

Megan Saunders – Ami is only six, but she knows her family is at crisis point. "What have we done wrong?" the youngest of five children asked her mother as the family fought to remain in Australia. "I said to her: 'I don't know, darling' and she starts crying," says her mother, Teresinha Maia.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The chance to bring justice to the victims of the 1999 human rights violations in East Timor has vanished, after the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) agreed over the weekend to drop the agenda from its future meetings.

The head of Indonesia's Supreme Court has hit out at Amnesty International for describing trials of suspects in the 1999 East Timor violence as "not honest, truthful or fair." "That group has never been satisfied with other people's work," Bagir Manan was quoted by the Koran Tempo daily as saying.

An investigation into allegations of unlawful killing and brutality by Australian special forces in East Timor led to a soldier being charged with kicking a militiaman's corpse after an ambush, Army chief General Peter Leahy said.

Three and half years after East Timor voted for independence, 1500 East Timorese asylum seekers are still in Australia. For many it is more than a decade since they escaped the former Portuguese colony's murderous Indonesian regime. Some had fled the 1991 massacre of about 200 East Timorese in Dili's Santa Cruz cemetery.

Elcid Li, Kupang – The reunion took place in no-man's-land. Also called the tactical coordination line, a 300-meter-long strip of beach just outside of Belu regency between East Timor and Indonesia, where neither country's laws apply.

Mari Alkatiri – As the world watched events unfold in the Middle East, we heard talk of the territorial integrity of the nation of Iraq.

Jakarta – Indonesian prosecutors yesterday demanded that a former military chief in East Timor be jailed for 10 years for failing to stop violence leading up to the territory's vote to split from Jakarta's rule in 1999.

Brig-Gen Tono Suratman controlled Indonesian troops in East Timor, now known as Timor Leste, until two weeks before the August 30, 1999, independence vote.

Amnesty International slammed Indonesia's trials of suspects in the 1999 East Timor violence as "not honest, truthful or fair" and urged the United Nations to consider setting up a tribunal.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – A human rights activist has expressed doubts that Indonesia and East Timor are serious about resolving the question of human rights abuses in the former Indonesian province as both are still lack the necessary legal instruments to deal with the cases.

Megan Saunders – Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock has rejected a plea by the East Timor President, Xanana Gusmao, to allow up to 1600 temporary visa holders to remain in Australia because his country is too poor to take them back.

Dili – Police in East Timor have launched a crackdown on prostitution, raiding two massage parlors in the past month and arresting four people, an officer said Friday.

Prostitution has become an increasing problem in this predominantly Catholic country, while the foreign population rises and an undermanned police force struggles with rising crime.

The Federal Government has been accused of leaving East Timorese asylum seekers to starve by cutting off their welfare payments while they wait to hear if they are allowed to stay in Australia.

William Birnbauer – A benign attitude to his country's tormentors is not widely understood, but East Timor's "Mandela" wants to move on. William Birnbauer reports.

Dili (Agencies) – Prosecutors in East Timor said on Wednesday they have indicted 16 people including eight Indonesian army officers for crimes against humanity before and after the territory's bloody breakaway from Jakarta in 1999.

Human rights activists and legal experts in East Timor have condemned proposed moves to limit the freedom of foreigners. Under its controversial immigration and asylum law, the goverment aims to curtail the activities of foreigners, effectively giving it the green light to deport anyone involved in activities of a "political nature".

Transcript:

As East Timor prepares to mark its first anniversary of independence, the nation's opposition parties have united to present a strong alternative to the government. The newly-formed platform of national unity is an attempt to combat what the opposition says is an undemocratic and corrupt government. It's a testing time for the players in the world's newest democracy.

Cynthia Banham – Refugee groups are claiming the Federal Government is close to making a decision on the fate of East Timorese asylum seekers that would prolong their limbo status for three to five years.

Dili – Most of East Timor's opposition parties signed a so-called "national unity platform" Monday, bitterly criticizing Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's cabinet and demanding the formation of a broad coalition government.

President Xanana Gusmao concedes security will be a concern when United Nations peacekeepers pull out of East Timor.

The troops are due to leave next June, almost five years after the nation gained independence from Indonesia.

Ellen Nakashima, Jakarta – On a recent day in a weathered courthouse in Jakarta sat defendant Tono Suratman, an army brigadier general accused of failing to prevent two massacres in East Timor during its bloody breakaway from Indonesia in 1999.

Beside him were eight defense attorneys. Opposite them was the prosecution: two lawyers called out of retirement.

Jakarta – United Nations peacekeepers have arrested two former East Timorese militiamen for alleged involvement in crimes against humanity during East Timor's bloody breakaway from Jakarta in 1999.

Reuters in Melbourne – Corruption poses the biggest risk to the future of East Timor, says its president, Xanana Gusmao.

The world's newest country, which will celebrate its first anniversary next month, was struggling to make democracy work beyond just holding elections every five years, he said.

Dili – An East Timorese court on Saturday sentenced a senior militia leader to 12 years in prison for crimes against humanity committed during the country's bloody break from Indonesia in 1999.

Jose Cardosa Fereira was found guilty of murder, rape and torture against East Timorese civilians who supported the territory's independence from Indonesia .

David Rood – East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao said yesterday he opposed Australia's involvement in the US-led war on Iraq.

Mr Gusmao's views appear to conflict with those of his Foreign Minister, Jose Ramos Horta, who has previously endorsed the use of force in Iraq.

Dili – An East Timor-Australia treaty that serves as the basis for the development of the major oil and gas deposits in the Timor Sea between the two countries came into force Wednesday.

Kalinga Seneviratne, Sydney – Australia's international profile, already hurt by criticism against its role in the US-led invasion of Iraq, is under fire for is its desire to boot out East Timorese asylum seekers who fled the former Indonesian territory more than a decade ago.

Paul Kelly – Iraq is not the only humanitarian issue facing the Howard Government today. East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao made an urgent and desperate appeal to Australia last week and failed to raise a flicker of media interest.

East Timor became a fully independent republic on May 20, following approximately 2½ years under the authority of the U.N. Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET). The country has a parliamentary form of government with its first parliament formed from the 88-member Constituent Assembly chosen in free and fair, U.N-supervised elections in August 2001.

Jakarta – East Timor has formed a new border patrol unit to replace international peacekeepers, the UN said Friday – a sign that the military is assuming greater responsibility for security in the world's newest nation.

Nigel Wilson – The Timor Sea Treaty will formally come into effect next Tuesday with an exchange of notes between Australia and East Timor in Dili.

The exchange will be the final step in the process of replacing Indonesia as the country that Australia partners in developing Timor Sea oil and gas reserves.

East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao has urged Canberra to allow 1,600 of his compatriots who fled to Australia about a decade ago, in the bloody years before independence, to stay.

The asylum seekers would not impose any hardship on the Australian economy whereas destitute East Timor would struggle to provide for them, Gusmao told a conference here about nation building.

East Timor's Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation has been up and running for over three months now and has accepted over 100 minor political criminals back into their villages.

Lisa Clausen – The young boy returned to the mountain village of Letefoho in fear and disgrace. He was a child in 1999 when, swept up in the militia violence that followed East Timor's vote for independence, he burnt down his aunt's house and fled. When he finally came home this year, the teenager had no idea of what he would face.

Jakarta – Ex-president B.J. Habibie told a human rights court Thursday that the bloodshed which swept across East Timor after its independence referendum in 1999 was the work of criminals, not the result of any order from his administration.

Dili – East Timorese leaders expressed their "extreme preoccupation" and "shock" Thursday over the launching of war by Washington and London against Iraq.

President Xanana Gusmco appealed to the international community "not to spare efforts to minimize the social, psychological and economic impact of war on the Iraqi people brought by military intervention".

Geneva – The minister of the Foreign Affairs of Timor said Wednesday that a "better solution" for the problem of Iraq "would be that the United States gave longer to the inspectors from the UN".

Rob Wesley-Smith – Much joy from NT government and business has accompanied the rushing of the Timor Sea Treaty (TST) through both houses of the Australian Parliament 2 weeks ago. But is it a good deal for both sides?

Jakarta (Agencies) – Military authorities in West Timor have arrested six pro-Jakarta militiamen for their alleged involvement in last month's ambush of a passenger bus in East Timor and other acts of violence, agencies reported.

Jakarta – Prosecutors plan to soon appeal a string of verdicts acquitting Indonesian police and military officers accused over the violence that swept East Timor during its break from Indonesia in 1999, a court spokesman said Monday.