The President of CNRT, Xanana Gusmao said Satruday that the success of the general election this year was still the number one priority of CNRT. He said this when talking to reporters on his arrival back from Jakarta.

Sydney – Nobel peace laureate Bishop Carlos Belo of East Timor appealed Monday for an international tribunal to punish crimes against humanity in his country and help the fledgling nation come to terms with atrocities committed after it voted for independence from Indonesia.

Devi Asmarani, Atambua – Tension is running high in this border town 2 1/2 years after the influx of over 200,000 East Timorese who fled the post-ballot violence in their homeland.

Geraldine Goh, Jakarta – East Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao said new blood is needed to lead his country towards self-rule.

Christiani Tumelap in Atambua and Lindsay Murdoch in Dili – A 16-year-old East Timorese girl allegedly kidnapped as a war prize has defended the notorious militia leader who fathered her son, saying she is "doing just fine" and wants to stay with him and his three de facto wives.

Dili – UN officials in East Timor Friday distanced themselves from a report that accuses senior Indonesian army generals of masterminding the wave of violence that swept the territory after an independence vote in 1999.

Geniva – The United Nations urged Indonesia on Friday to bring those responsible for bloodshed in East Timor to justice and rein in militias intimidating thousands of refugees still in camps.

Jakarta – A former army commander Friday admitted excesses in the Indonesian military in its handling of separatist movements, and publicly embraced East Timor's independence leader Xanana Gusmao.

The head of TNI's Information Center, Air Marshall Graito Usodo said yesterday there was an elite group that was trying to revive nationalistic sentiments in order to "seize back" Timor Lorosae and "annex" it as part of Indonesia.

Air Marshall Graito said this elite group was trying to seek popularity for their cause. But he warned they would not succeed.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – As the East Timorese capital was being looted and burned on a stifling hot day in September 1999, an Indonesian Army officer rushed to the Turismo hotel.

Jakarta – East Timorese leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao insisted on Thursday that overcoming the territory's complex social and economic problems was his most immediate priority, and not the convening of a tribunal to try past human rights abusers.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – An investigation by a former Australian diplomat, Mr James Dunn, identifies a group of still-serving officers who secretly planned and supervised a campaign of violence to counter a surge of support for independence and then to punish East Timorese for rejecting Indonesia's rule.

Jakarta – East Timor's economy has rebounded strongly after violence destroyed the tiny half-island territory nearly two years ago, with 15 percent growth forecast for 2001 and 2002, the Asian Development Bank said on Thursday.

But the Bank cautioned the growth was from an extremely low base and the fledgling economy was still dependent on external financial support.

Craig Skehan – East Timor is set to receive a much larger slice of income from the rich oil reserves it shares with Australia.

Federal Government sources said yesterday Australia was willing to give the incoming independent Government in Dili 80 per cent or more of the income from a joint production zone where the split was previously 50/50.

Soe, Indonesia – Around 70 per cent of the tens of thousands of East Timorese refugees languishing in squalid camps in Indonesia want to return home, an Indonesian military official said on Wednesday.

Dr. Jose Ramos Horta, one of the political leaders of East Timor, thinks that reconciliation among the people of East Timor must be carried out in two areas i.e., political reconciliation and criminal reconciliation.

Jakarta – UN officials believe East Timorese refugees they met during a visit last week to camps in West Timor were instructed to challenge the results of the 1999 independence ballot, a UN spokesman said Tuesday.

UNTAET's Timorization process is not clearly visible within the Transitional administration. Also, the transitional administration does not have a definite target for achieving it. This was stated by the vice-president of CNRT/CN Mario Carrascalao in an interview with Radio UNTAET last week.

An ex-militia leader yesterday appealed for a general amnesty for those who committed human rights crimes in Timor Lorosae.

Jenny Denton – At 11 o'clock on a Thursday morning, a handful of people are standing around outside the Anarchist Bookshop in Newtown, Sydney, waiting to load a truck with food and goods donated for East Timor.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – The United Nations will face renewed pressure to set up an East Timor war crimes tribunal after receiving a report alleging a conspiracy among Indonesian generals was behind 1999's wave of killings and destruction.

Jakarta – Indonesia's government is delaying setting up a human rights court to try crimes committed in East Timor in 1999 because of military pressure and corruption cases taking precedence, rights activists have charged.

Canberra – Australia and East Timor representatives are scheduled to resume negotiations in May on a new treaty covering the share of economic benefits from petroleum production in the so-called Timor Gap area, a spokesman for Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Wednesday.

Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Jakarta – The 22 people suspected by the Indonesian government of orchestrating the wave of violence after East Timor voted for independence could escape conviction for crimes against humanity because the attorney general's office has missed a legal deadline for bringing the cases to trial, according to several Indonesian legal specialists and Western diplomats

Dili – Manuel Carrascalao, a veteran of East Timor's 24-year struggle for freedom, was elected to head the territory's transitional legislature following last month's surprise resignation of independence leader Xanana Gusmao.

He was named speaker of the National Council after rival candidate, Nobel Peace laureate Jose Ramos Horta, withdrew from the ballot.

Jakarta – East Timorese refugees are dying from a rapidly spreading diarrhoea epidemic in fetid camps in Indonesian-ruled West Timor, a Catholic aid group said Monday.

Reuters in United Nations – Xanana Gusmao, the popular East Timorese resistance leader, said overnight he would not be a candidate for president when the former Portuguese colony achieves independence next year.

Stephen Romei, New York – At the risk of exposing himself to political parody, Xanana Gusmao has a simple message for the international community: Read my lips, I will not run for the presidency of East Timor.

Sydney – East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao will inevitably become his country's first president, even though he says he does not want the job, Nobel laureate Jose Ramos Horta said.

New York – Asking the international community to try those involved in criminal actions in East Timor is not a priority to the East Timorese at the moment, East Timorese Resistance Council's (CNRT) former president, Xanana Gusmao, said here Tuesday night.

Civil disturbances in East Timor, the forthcoming elections and the resignation of Xanana Gusmco as president of the National Council dominated discussions in the Security Council today as members heard a briefing by a top United Nations peacekeeping official.

Dili – New violence broke out along East Timor's border with Indonesia when unidentified gunmen threw grenades and fired shots at UN peacekeepers and villages in five separate clashes, officials said Tuesday.

No peacekeepers were injured in Monday's incidents. However, an East Timorese woman was wounded when attackers fired at her house.

Jakarta – Attorneys for East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres Tuesday demanded that weapons charges against him be dropped on the grounds that he was an Indonesian patriot, not a criminal.

Lawyer Suhardi Somomoeljono said state prosecutors had failed to prove Guterres' guilt during the course of the three-month trial.

Singapore – The United Nations' transitional government in East Timor is still struggling, leaving much to "sheer luck" despite 18 months in power, the head of the UN mission running the new nation said Monday.

Yeoh En Lai – Almost two years after the independence referendum in East Timor, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) is bracing itself for another crisis.

Dili – An Australian member of the UN peacekeeping force in East Timor fired on two suspected militiamen near the border with Indonesian West Timor, a force spokesman said Monday.

Ati Nurbaiti, Dili – The rains finally poured in late December, too much in some areas for a good corn harvest. Emergency operations over the past year have alleviated fear of widespread starvation as crops and cattle had been abandoned by farmers who fled the violence with their families.

Charles Scheiner – Eighteen months have elapsed since the Indonesian military and its militia proxies devastated East Timor. A quarter century has passed since the US-supported Indonesian invasion of East Timor began an occupation which killed one-third of the population and kidnapped, raped, tortured and terrorized hundreds of thousands more.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government has rejected as unacceptable the trial in the United States of an Indonesian general accused of gross human rights abuses in East Timor in 1999.

Rita Uli Hutapea/Heather, Jakarta – East Timorese leader, Xanana Gusmao is unimpressed with the Indonesian government's handling of East Timor's transition to independence. He believes the donations have dried up due to the slow implementation of building projects in Timor Lorosae.

John Ruwitch, Jakarta – East Timor leader Xanana Gusmao will remain a key figure in the impoverished territory's painful transition to independence despite resigning as head of the de facto parliament, UN officials said on Thursday.

Dili – After quitting East Timor's interim legislature in a bitter row over the shape of a new constitution, independence leader Mr Xanana Gusmao yesterday announced he will not compete in the nation's first presidential election.

Stephen Collinson, Washington – An activist from East Timor tearfully told on Tuesday of his brother's murder in violence that erupted after the territory voted for independence, as a US court opened a civil trial into an Indonesian general's alleged role in the carnage.

Starting March 27, a United States court in Washington, DC, will hear evidence that Indonesian General Johnny Lumintang is responsible for gross human rights violations and crimes against humanity committed in East Timor. The proceeding will determine the amount of compensatory and punitive damages to be assessed against Lumintang, who is not expected to attend.

Jon Land – Chances are increasingly remote that the Indonesian legal system will bring to justice those responsible for war crimes and human rights abuses committed before, during and after East Timor's August 1999 referendum. Any trial that does take place will be little more than a whitewash.

Dili – UN prosecutors in East Timor condemned on Tuesday the downgrading of charges against six people accused of killing international aid workers in West Timor in September.

The National Council of East Timor today voted against setting up a mechanism that would have allowed the East Timorese people to provide input to the drafting of their territory's first constitution, according to the United Nations mission there, which had supported the idea of national consultation.

Dili – East Timor, preparing the way for eventual independence, will hold its first democratic elections on August 30, the head of the United Nations transitional authority said. Formal independence is not expected until later this year or in 2002.

Mark Dodd, Dili – Seven suspected Indonesian spies have been detected in East Timor, prompting warnings by United Nations officials that saboteurs could try to wreck the territory's first democratic elections.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Death threats and intimidation this week forced United Nations officials to abandon efforts to reunite children living in impoverished Indonesian orphanages with their parents in East Timor.