Virginia Marsh and Tom Mccawley – Australia and East Timor are edging towards agreement on a critical new treaty to govern the Timor Gap, paving the way for development of the substantial gas deposits in the resource-rich waters that divide the two neighbours.

Mark Davis – In September 1999, the Australian Army stepped into the carnage of East Timor as the lead contributor in the international force INTERFET. Supposedly, they were there to contain the militias and the fearsome militias proved remarkably easy to contain, Displaying none of their previous bravery, bravado or organisational skills.

The Concelho Nacional da Recistencia Timorense/Congresso Nasional (CNRT/CN) will be dissolved in early June 2001. Ex-members of CNRT will then form the Resistance Veterans Foundation. An extra-ordinary conference will be held between 28-29 May to pave the way for the CNRT dissolution.

Seth Mydans, Jakarta – A strange red banner hangs over the gate of one of the middle-class villas on a quiet street in central Jakarta: "Am I really a criminal for defending the red and white? – E. Guterres." Inside, near a red-and-white Indonesian flag, a group of workmen is building a waterfall and fishpond.

Jonathan Thatcher, Balibo – Maria Maia, her mouth stained scarlet from the juice of the betel nuts she chews, bursts out laughing as she fingers her just-printed photograph on the registration form.

Scott Burchill – Given advance notice that the street bully is about to beat up your neighbour, three courses of action are open to you. The first is to try to dissuade the bully from his violent intent. The second is to warn your neighbour so that he can make preparations to defend himself or flee. The third is to do nothing, sit back and watch the attack.

The leader of the Catholic Church in Dili, Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo urged academics at the National University of Timor Lorosae to use the campus grounds solely for the pursuit of higher edcuation and not for political activities.

"Use the university campus to increase the knowledge of students so that they become quality intellectuals," said Bishop Belo.

Participants at a weekend discussion seminar, organized by the human rights NGO Yayasan Hak, expressed their frustration at UNTAET. Many said they did not understand the Transitional Administration's work-plan and added the people were confused about the 30 August election and the civic education program.

Mark Dodd, Dili – The plight of a 15-year-old East Timorese girl kept as a sex slave for more than 18 months in a militia-controlled refugee camp in Indonesian West Timor has highlighted the vulnerability of refugee children separated from their parents during political violence in 1999, the United Nations said at the weekend.

Chris McCall, Dili – Fed up with Indonesia's feeble attempts at administering justice to accused war criminals, the families of East Timor's dead are getting together to do it their way.

Joanna Jolly, Dili – The head of the UN Central Payments Office, which manages the territory's tiny and shattered economy, told reporters that the world body was taking legal steps and launching an educational campaign urging East Timorese to embrace US greenbacks and coins as the sole legal tender.

Mark Dodd, Dili – United Nations economic planners have launched a campaign to ensure the US dollar is the sole legal tender in East Timor. To back it up, heavy fines will be imposed to deter the unlicensed importation of all other foreign currencies, including the Australian dollar.

The Australian government knew about Indonesian military plans to massacre East Timor independence supporters in 1999 and thought clever diplomacy could prevent it, a former member of the INTERFET forces said.

Vanya Tanaja, Dili – News that Indonesia has formally agreed to set up an ad hoc tribunal to try those responsible for mass murder in East Timor around the period of the 1999 independence referendum was welcomed by Sergio de Mello, head of UNTAET (United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor) on April 27.

[In an extraordinary investigation, reporter Mark Davis returns to East Timor to disclose disturbing new revelations about Australia's secret intelligence information prior to the country's independence referendum. Davis's report in 2000 on militias in East Timor won him both the Walkley for Investigative Reporting and the Gold Walkley.

Partai Asosiacao Social Democrat Timor (ASDT) will this week try to get itself registered with the Independent Election Commission. They intend to use Fretilin symbols and the party's political ideology.

The General Co-ordinator of CPD-RDTL Antonio Aitahan Matak yesterday rejected allegations that the group was behind the threats against CNRT President Xanana Gusmao.

In an official letter, which was obtained by STL, Aitahan Matak said CPD-RDTL cadres never had any intentions to harm Xanana because they were all Catholics.

Chris McCall, Dili – Once branded a gang of dangerous left-wingers, Fretilin is out in the open and may be set to win through the ballot what it lost in 1975 with bullets.

Jill Jollife, Dariwn – An Australian Army intelligence officer who served in East Timor has accused the Federal Government of concealing vital evidence on Indonesian army and militia war crimes in 1999.

A report by members of the Portuguese parliament criticizes the UN Transition Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) as being "costly and not very efficient".

Fifteen militia commanders on Saturday accepted the 30 August 1999 referendum result, because it was, as they said, the decision of the majority.

The decision by the militia leaders was made at a tripartite meeting between CNRT, the Defense Forces of Timor Lorosae (FDTL) and PPI (the militia grouping), in Denpasar, Bali.

Melbourne – Tough negotiations over a Timor Sea oil and gas production treaty are likely to resume between Australia and East Timor later this month in Dili as commercial deadlines loom for a key gas development in the region.

Agencies in Jakarta and Geneva – The United Nations and foreign diplomats yesterday condemned as a mockery jail terms imposed by a Jakarta court on six men convicted in connection with the murders of three foreign aid workers in West Timor last year.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Jakarta has dropped prosecutions against six people who have been under investigation over crimes against humanity in East Timor, including the notorious militia leader Eurico Guterres.

Hamish McDonald – Negotiators for Australia and East Timor yesterday began a secrecy-shrouded meeting in Brisbane in the search for agreement on the seabed boundary in the Timor Sea, after a month of escalating pressure tactics by both sides.

Lindsay Murdoch – Indonesia has dropped prosecutions against six people who have been under investigation for more than 12 months over crimes against humanity in East Timor, including the notorious militia leader Eurico Guterres.

Vanya Tanaja, Dili – Thousands of small traders at the Dili market (Mercado Lama) are being pressured to move to two refurbished markets in Comoro and Becora, on the western and eastern outskirts of the city respectively.

The labor sector must be allowed to participate in the political process because they too have rights, said the Secretary-General of the Socialist Party of Timor Avelino Coelho.

Jon Land – In the wake of the second round of negotiations between Australia and East Timor on the Timor Gap Treaty and the disputed seabed boundary, Australia's big business press are stepping-up its support for Canberra's push to deny East Timor a fair share of the revenue from oil and gas deposits.

Mark Dodd, Dili – The United Nations' Serious Crimes Unit, the taskforce gathering evidence to prosecute perpetrators of the violence that swept East Timor in 1999, is on the point of collapse. Morale is at rock bottom and qualified investigators are quitting amid claims that the unit is under-equipped and badly managed.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – The notorious East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres will be free within weeks after a Jakarta court yesterday sentenced him to six months' jail for inciting violence. The court said the four months he had spent under house arrest in Jakarta while awaiting the outcome of his trial should be deducted from the sentence.

Craig Skehan – The Australian Government yesterday urged Indonesia to push ahead with the prosecution of all those involved in killings and other human rights violations in East Timor in the months leading up to and after the 1999 referendum on independence.

Hamish McDonald – A secret report for the Indonesian Government makes it clear that its military directed the militia violence against East Timor's independence vote and that top generals approved of some of the worst atrocities.

[The Timor massacres were planned in detail: the guns, the trucks, the burial sites. Hamish McDonald has Jakarta's secret report which details the callous and calculating part played by senior Indonesian army and police officers.]

Devi Asmarani, Atambua – Weapons are valued treasures in this border town that has 63,000 East Timorese refugees, and there is always an interested buyer – the Indonesian military.

The reluctant sellers are former pro-Jakarta militiamen, who have been using their guns to intimidate fellow East Timorese from returning home and to make a living by robbing locals.

Jakarta – All crimes committed in East Timor in 1999 and investigated by Indonesia's Human Rights Commission (Komnas Ham) will be tried here soon, a spokesman for the Indonesian Attorney General said Thursday. It will not matter if the acts occurred before or after East Timor's independence ballot, said Mulyoharjo.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Key people accused of complicity in the bloodshed in East Timor are set to escape prosecution because of the bungled wording of a decree issued this week by Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid.

Jakarta – Some Indonesian NGOs – including Kontras (Commission for Missing Persons & Victims of Violence), YLBHI (Foundation of the Indonesian Legal Aid Institute), and ELSAM (Institute for Policy Research & Advocacy) – suspect that the Attorney General's Office (AGO) has tried to cover up Wiranto's involvement in violating human rights in East Timor after the 1999 referendu

Two AID/WATCH volunteers returned from East Timor yesterday and observed that, while East Timorese society has been heartened by the stability and security restored by the Peace Keeping Forces, and by the good relief work supported by the international community, it is distressed and confused by the emerging role of the World Bank.

The East Timorese association of non-governmental organizations NGO Forum said Thursday it was "very worried" about the public stance taken by independence leader Xanana Gusmao minimizing the importance of an eventual international tribunal to try Indonesian atrocities in the territory.

Following Indonesian President Wahid's decision on 23 April to limit the jurisdiction of a new human rights court for East Timor to crimes committed after the August 1999 popular consultation in the territory, TAPOL is calling once again for the immediate establishment of international tribunal for East Timor.

Chris McCall, Dili – They used to supply bombs to Falintil resistance fighters. Now East Timor's Marxists are preparing for battle at the ballot box. In a building once occupied by the feared Aitarak militia, the Timor Socialist Party, or PST, is mapping out its new campaign.

Jill Jolliffe, Dara Lata – Evidence is mounting against retired Indonesian Lieutenant-General Prabowo Subianto for his alleged role in atrocities in East Timor. General Prabowo, a former commander of the feared Kostrad special forces, is former president Suharto's son-in-law. He served in Indonesia between 1976 and the 1990s.

Sibylle Kaczorek – In a country oppressed for 400 years by colonial Portugal, then brutalised by 24 years of Indonesian military rule, and now suffering from dire poverty, the issues of women have long been considered secondary. But now East Timor's socialists are seeking to tackle women's oppression.

Mark Dodd, Dili – About 300 East Timorese supporters of a pro-independence party protested outside the United Nations headquarters in Dili yesterday.

Despite the UN banning weapons in public on Monday, more than 70 supporters dressed in traditional attire and brandished swords. Police did not try to disarm the protesters.

Tanya Vanaja, Dili – East Timor's social and political tensions may boil over into violence during elections scheduled for August, the country's first since it gained freedom from Indonesian military rule in 1999.

The President of ASDT-Fretilin Francisco Xavier do Amaral said East Timorese from 12 districts were in Dili to deliver their aspirations to UNTAET that the Republic of Democratic Timor Leste was already proclaimed on 28 November 1975.

Lindsay Murdoch, Viqueque – Madalena Soares fought back tears as she told how her 12-year-old daughter Cesaltina was stolen.

It was late 1999 – she can't remember the exact date because of the trauma of fleeing East Timor – when Octavio Soares came to see her in a refugee camp in Indonesian West Timor, where she found herself with three of her four children.

Jakarta – Four thieves attacked and stabbed the Australian-born wife of East Timor independence hero Xanana Gusmao on Tuesday in the latest in a string of violent robberies in the impoverished territory, an official said.

Mark Dodd, Dili – East Timor's de facto parliament was hit yesterday with the resignation of a second high-profile political leader in less than a month.