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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Geoffrey Barker – Prime Minister John Howard's offer of extra aid to East Timor's police and judicial services was a necessary but hardly sufficient response to last week's violence in Dili.
Paul Toohey – The Timorese woman with the seen-it-all face, owner of a street stall in Dili, is joined by other local women as she demands in a maternal way that Kirsty Sword Gusmao hand over her baby boy.
Sword Gusmao obliges and passes four-month-old Kay Olok to the woman, who suddenly beams with pride at the opportunity to cradle the President's son.
Jill Jolliffe, Dili – The United Nations may be facing new embarrassment in East Timor following reports that people arrested in last Wednesday's riots had been beaten in custody.
Dili – East Timor, still grappling with chronic unemployment and poverty six months after independence fuelled unrealistically high hopes, was according to one analyst "a dry field into which someone threw a match."
United Nations and government officials are investigating who threw the match which sparked off a day of rioting, arson and looting last Wednesday.
When an independent East Timor was finally proclaimed in May, everyone wanted to come to the party. Australians, particularly, felt a strong affinity with the East Timorese because of the role Australian troops and civilians played in restoring stability after the carnage of 1999.
Antony Funnell – East Timor's Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, refused my interview request when he landed in Australia last Friday. We had just traveled from Dili on the same plane. His refusal came as little surprise. Even then, people in the East Timorese capital were bracing themselves for the possibility of street protests and violence.
David Shanks – Dr Dan Murphy is at his most passionate when describing the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder on the resilient people of East Timor.
Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific is alarmed, but not surprised, at the violence that has erupted in East Timor in recent weeks. It is directly linked to the growing nation-wide frustration at continuing high unemployment, poverty and corruption in the Fretilin-led government.
Rod McGuirk, Dili – The operator of a central Dili supermarket razed in riots this week vowed today never to do business in East Timor again.
The Hello Mister Supermarket has become an icon of the reconstructed city since it opened in March 2000.
Dili – East Timor said on Friday that Indonesian-backed militiamen responsible for hundreds of deaths in 1999 were regrouping and may have been behind this week's violent rioting in the capital.
[East Timor is quiet today after mob violence in the capital Dili, left at least two dead, scores injured, and key buildings burnt to the ground. The unrest began a few days ago with the arrest of a student at Dili University, and exploded after the killing of another student during protests outside UN police headquarters.
The former Governor of East Timor, Mario Carrascalao, says the Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri must prove his claim that people with political aspirations are behind this week's violence in Dili.
Tim Dodd, Jakarta – UN administrator Sergio de Mello, who ran East Timor for 2 1/2 years until its independence in May this year, believes the country's 30-year history of violence is the main factor behind this week's riots.
Jill Jolliffe, Dili – As residents of Dili swept up the debris yesterday, they wondered how things could have gone so wrong. The toll from the previous day's rioting was two students dead, more than 20 people injured, buildings and cars burnt out and a vicious attack on the Dili mosque.
Dili – Foreigners fled East Timor as security forces fired warning shots in clashes with students yesterday, a day after two people were killed in riots that prompted angry mobs to loot shops and torch the prime minister's house.
Jill Jolliffe (with Mark Forbes, agencies), Dili – East Timor's capital, Dili, was torn by riots yesterday in the worst violence since 1999, after police shot dead at least two student protesters.
The government last night imposed a state of emergency with a 7pm curfew after student rioters trashed the parliament building and torched hotels, shops and a mosque.
As many as five protesters were shot dead in the East Timor capital, Dili, yesterday when hundreds of students clashed with police near parliament, witnesses said.
United Nations peacekeepers surrounded the parliament as the crowd torched a supermarket and damaged other buildings. The witnesses said it was the police who had opened fire on the demonstrators.
Kathy Marks, Sydney – East Timor was placed undera virtual state of emergency yesterday, witha curfew in the capital, Dili, after student riots in which up to five people were killed and the Prime Minister's house was burnt down.
James Balowski – On November 27, an Indonesian court sentenced notorious militia chief Eurico Guterres to 10 years in prison for crimes committed during the violence in East Timor following the 1999 referendum for independence.
More than ever, Australia has a direct interest in the reform of Indonesia's corrupt, politicised legal system. With the arrests of the main suspects in the Bali bombings it is to this legal system that Australia will now look to mete out the appropriate punishment for a horrendous crime.
[East Timor authorities have imposed a curfew and sent troops onto the streets of the capital Dili, following a day of rioting in which as many as five people have died. Several businesses, including the ANZ bank, were targetted, after a large crowd which was demanding the release of an arrested student went on the rampage.
Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – Human rights activists see no hope that the ad hoc human rights court will uphold justice and punish military and police officers for their alleged involvement in the 1999 East Timor violence.
Jill Jolliffe, Dili – Thousands of people packed Dili Cathedral yesterday to hear Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo's reasons for quitting as head of the East Timorese church and leaving the territory.
The special service followed his unexpected announcement last week that Pope John Paul had accepted his resignation on grounds of physical and psychological ill health.
Don Greenlees, Jakarta – Shortly after dawn on April 7, 1999, independence, let alone justice, for the East Timorese seemed a distant dream in the fearful and empty streets of Liquica.
Dili – East Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri has rejected President Xanana Gusmao's demand that he sack Interior Minister Rogirio Lobato, saying his cabinet is characterized by "solidarity and cohesion".
Andrew Trounson, Melbourne – Plans to market natural gas from the Greater Sunrise fields in the Timor Sea to markets in Australia are to be abandoned, with the partners in the project now expected to target offshore markets, potential customers say.
David Fickling, Darwin – Absurdity is a concept particularly popular with politicians treading on shaky moral ground. Invoke absurdity, and you immediately set yourself up on the side of reason, while ushering all right-thinking people to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with you. Those you criticise are self-evidently in the wrong.
[East Timor's independence celebrations have been marred by a series of anti-government protests, centered on the failure of former resistance fighters to find employment. This week a police station in Baucau has been attacked by an angry mob and 3000 anti-government protestors have rallied in Dili.
Joco Boavida – The riot of 4 December 2002 took residents of Dili and news listeners and watchers worldwide by surprise for the extent of anger and violence that suddenly erupted and vanished in so short a time.
Indonesia's sham prosecutions, the need to strengthen the trial process in East Timor, and the imperative of UN
Hamish McDonald – Reality seems to have dawned this week on Eurico Guterres, the long-haired young firebrand who led one of the most violent pro-Jakarta militia groups in the campaign to deter the people of East Timor from voting for independence just over three years ago.
Jill Jolliffe, Dili – President Xanana Gusmao has attacked East Timor's politicians, condemning the inefficiency and corruption of the Fretilin-dominated government and demanding that the Internal Affairs Minister, Rogerio Lobato, be sacked.
Berlin – East Timor's foreign minister, Jose Ramos Horta, reacted angrily Friday to the latest round of acquittals by the Indonesian court trying human rights abuses committed in East Timor in 1999, describing one of them as "scandalous".
The international community is the only hope East Timorese have of winning retribution for the crimes committed by Indonesia during its 24 years of occupation. Until this happens, justice will remain a mirage for the tens of thousands of people who lost relatives and property.
Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – The 10-year jail term given to notorious militia leader Eurico Guterres for instigating attacks on pro-independence leaders during East Timor's bloody referendum in August 1999 is the toughest sentence yet to be handed out by Jakarta's human rights courts.
The conviction yesterday of former East Timor militia leader Eurico Guterres for crimes against humanity and his sentence to ten years in prison has done nothing to dispel the widespread belief that Indonesia is not committed to providing meaningful justice for the victims of human rights atrocities in East Timor, says Tapol the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign.
Jill Jolliffe, Dili – In Dili, widespread shock and disbelief met Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo's announcement of his resignation.
Bishop Belo, a Nobel peace laureate, said he was resigning because of "physical and psychological exhaustion, requiring a long period of rest". The Pope had accepted his resignation, he said.
[In East Timor a tribunal has passed judgement on one of the most notorious militia leaders involved in the violence in the fledgling country three years ago. Eurico Guterres got a ten year jail sentence for crimes against humanity but all along the process has been widely condemned as flawed.]
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