Dili – Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri is studying a possible restructuring of East Timor's government ministries to improve their functioning and the performance of ministers, official sources said Thursday.

East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao said yesterday that it may be necessary to extend the mandate of the 5,000-soldier UN peacekeeping force in East Timor beyond June 2004, its scheduled end, in light of continued instability on the island.

Dili – A captured former anti-independence militiaman has told interrogators in Dili that at least seven armed groups infiltrated East Timor from Indonesia in December, according to two reports obtained by Lusa Tuesday.

The Indonesian government made only half-hearted attempts during the year to hold accountable those responsible for TNI abuses in East Timor. Human rights defenders inside and outside the country called for an international tribunal in light of the failures of the Indonesian justice system.

Dili – The atmosphere of instability looming over East Timor is leading to a deterioration of relations between national and UN security structures.

Tom Hyland – The accused sits with his seven lawyers in the listless heat of a Jakarta courtroom. He occasionally wipes his brow and shifts in his seat but mostly he is straight-backed, gazing with a soldier's practised stare into the middle distance. Major-General Tono Suratman, former Indonesian army commander in East Timor, seems bored.

Australia's foreign minister Alexander Downer has meet his East Timorese counterpart, Jose Ramos Horta, to discuss recent unrest in the developing nation.

Four people were killed recently when a gang armed with automatic rifles stormed villages in East Timor. It was the worst violence in the country since 1999.

Dili – The East Timor Defense Force (ETDF) is currently mounting counter-insurgency operations in an attempt to capture presumed anti-independence militiamen who raided two villages Saturday and killed several inhabitants, the ETDF's commander said Thursday.

Dili – East Timor police said Thursday they arrested two former pro-Jakarta militiamen on weapons charges but declined to say if the men were linked to a recent surge in violence in the newly independent country.

Recent unrest in newly-independent East Timor which claimed five lives is a purely domestic problem and has nothing to do with former ruler Indonesia, Jakarta's foreign minister said.

"It's their internal problems; social-economic problems, high unemployment and the public's too great expectations for economic improvement," Hassan Wirayuda told reporters.

Dili – East Timor's defence force is to send 180 soldiers to a district where attackers killed four villagers over the weekend, a defence source said yesterday.

Jill Jolliffe, Darwin – United Nations officials and East Timorese government leaders are re-assessing security after a weekend border attack with all the hallmarks of a militia incursion from West Timor.

James Dunn – It is hard to feel sanguine about the latest acquittal of the Indonesian Human Rights Tribunal, which has been hearing charges against TNI (Indonesian armed forces) officers and militia leaders in relation to events in East Timor in 1999.

Xanana Gusmao's first new year's address as president of an independent East Timor encapsulated the fragility of his young nation. At the heart of Mr Gusmao's message was an appeal for peace.

Dili – Screaming "We are coming back for you", a gang armed with automatic rifles raided two villages in newly independent East Timor, killing four people and injuring eight, witnesses said yesterday.

Jakarta – A former militia leader who is facing a jail term in Indonesia over atrocities in East Timor said Friday he plans to send a delegation to the new nation to promote reconciliation.

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – Those East Timorese living in camps in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) whose refugee status ended on December 31 have automatically become Indonesian citizens, a senior government official has said.

Shravanti Reddy – What began as a peaceful student protest on December 4 in the East Timor capital city of Dili ended in the largest violent conflict the nation has seen since independence.

Jakarta – A court on Monday acquitted a military commander of crimes committed during East Timor's break from Indonesia, the ninth official to be cleared over the 1999 bloodshed.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – East Timor's President, Xanana Gusmao, has appealed to his people to reject violence in 2003 – but has also renewed criticism of the Fretilin-led government.

"I ask you to remain calm, because violence does not help us build, it only destroys," he said in a new year message broadcast nationally on Saturday.

Berni K. Moestafa, Jakarta – The international community needs to bring pressure to bear on the ad hoc human rights trials being held in Indonesia in order to assure that judges and prosecutors are held accountable for questionable verdicts and justice is served, analysts said.

Dili – President Xanana Gusmao on Friday urged East Timorese to remain calm as the country attempts to solve a slew of problems heading into its first New Year celebrations since gaining independence.

Jakarta – A court Friday sentenced a senior military commander to five years imprisonment for human rights violations during East Timor's break from Jakarta in 1999, the first time an Indonesian security official has been convicted over the violence.

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – Indonesia's landmark human rights trials of alleged gross human rights violators in the former province of East Timor will always raise public concern for their failure to break the cycle of impunity.

East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao has taken another swipe at the new country's politicians in a Christmas message to his people.

Simon Elegant, Venelale – During the bloody insurrection that produced the new nation of East Timor, Hasan Basri presented residents of the small town of Venelale with a proposition: give me your youngest children. I will feed them, I will educate them, and most importantly, I will protect them.

Dili – East Timor's outgoing bishop, Carlos Belo, hit back Friday at accusations he had made a fool of an Indonesian human rights court hearing charges against Indonesian military officers, saying he would never appear before it.

John Ward and Peter Symonds – In the wake of violent protests in the capital of Dili on December 4, the East Timorese government, backed by UN officials, has attempted to deflect attention from the country's mounting social tensions by blaming politically-motivated "provocateurs".

New York – The Indonesian ad hoc court for East Timor has utterly failed to bring to justice the perpetrators of the 1999 violence in East Timor, Human Rights Watch charged in a new briefing paper released today.

[The United Nations and legal workers in East Timor have accused the international community, including Australia, of failing to offer continuing support to the country's reconstruction. More than six months after independence, there is broad agreement that the justice system is in crisis.

Veronica Brooks, Canberra – The Australian government Wednesday said it welcomes the passage of East Timor's legislation implementing the Timor Sea Treaty.

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer also told Dow Jones Newswires that Australia's legislation on the treaty will be ready for introduction into parliament in early 2003.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Dominggus dos Santos, the suspected main actor in the deadly riot in Dili, East Timor on December 4, was arrested on Monday night in the Indonesian territory of Atambua, Belu regency, when he was trying to escape from the United Nations Civilian Police (CivPol). Kupang military chief Col.

Nigel Wilson – The East Timor parliament has ratified the Timor Sea Treaty with Australia, further embarrassing the Howard Government.

The office of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri confirmed last night that parliament had voted 65 to 13 to approve the treaty on the administration of petroleum reserves between Darwin and Dili.

Jill Joliffe, Dili – The recent resignation of Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo as head of the Catholic Church in East Timor has brought to a close a courageous and painful period in the life of the Nobel laureate. And, in the current volatile climate, it has also heightened the feeling of political insecurity in the newly independent nation.

Dili – The parliamentary inquiry into Dili's deadly rioting found that street demonstrations began "spontaneously" but appeared to have turned into mob action for "political motivations", the commission's chief told Lusa Monday.

Chris Brummitt, Jakarta – Indonesian security forces looked on but did nothing when a pro-Indonesia mob attacked a church in East Timor, killing at least 27 people, a witness said Monday during the trial of an army general accused over the violence three years ago.

Jakarta – A human rights court trying an Indonesian army general heard the first live televised testimony Monday from witnesses in East Timor.

In a broadcast funded by the World Bank, a former Indonesian soldier and a former police detective gave separate accounts of deadly attacks on a church in Suai town and the Dili Catholic church diocese offices in September, 1999.

Phil Zabriskie – When East Timor formally celebrated its independence in May, it closed the chapter on four centuries of stern Portuguese colonization and 24 years of brutal Indonesian occupation. The mood was finally one of hope for the future, of anticipation of a peace dividend.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – Five gunshot victims interviewed by The Age in the Dili hospital yesterday say they were shot by roaming groups of special police in the capital's outer suburbs after the main rioting last week had subsided.

Mark Baker, Dili – The Federal Government is locked in a bitter dispute with East Timor over control of multi-billion-dollar oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea that is threatening to delay desperately needed revenues to the newly independent country.

Mark Baker, Dili – It is a simple but splendid house with whitewashed walls and a high-pitched roof of traditional timber and thatch. It sits beside a village on the eastern outskirts of Dili with a view that sweeps across the harbour.

Nigel Wilson – Australia's relations with East Timor have been tested by claims Foreign Minister Alexander Downer verbally abused Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

The Australian has learnt that at a meeting in Dili on November 27, Mr Downer was strongly critical of Dr Alkatiri and his officials.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – At least 8,000 East Timorese families seeking refuge in West Timor had decided to stay in Indonesia, a local military commander said Thursday.

The government was now preparing a transmigration scheme and developing housing complexes for them, Kupang military chief Col. Moeswarno Moesanip said.

Jakarta – Indonesian prosecutors on Thursday demanded a 10-year jail term for a senior army intelligence officer, the minimum sentence by law if he is found guilty as charged of crimes against humanity in East Timor in 1999. Lt. Col.

United Nations – A preliminary inquiry into last week's riots in East Timor has found that some of the people behind the violence fled afterwards to neighboring Indonesia, the tiny new nation's UN ambassador says.

Debbie A. Lubis and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The country's failure to conduct a fair and impartial human rights trial will become the subject of an international discourse next year, including at the International Human Rights Commission in Geneva, a rights activist warned on Tuesday.

Jon Land – Dili, the capital of East Timor, was hit by a wave of protests and riots on December 3-4. The unrest culminated in at least two deaths and scores of injured, when police fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse angry crowds of students and youth.

Dili – East Timor's government promised Tuesday to tackle the fledgling state's chronic youth unemployment but warned that a repeat of last week's deadly and destructive riots would only drive foreign investors away.

Jake Skeers – Despite considerable opposition from ordinary people, particularly in the northern city of Darwin, the Australian government has resumed the process of deporting about 1,800 East Timorese who fled Indonesian rule during the 1980s and 1990s.