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.

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.

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.

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.

Jakarta – The estimated number of East Timorese refugees still in camps in Indonesia has been reduced to about 50,000, a UN official said Thursday.

Mark Dodd, On board the Curtis Wilbur, East Timor – The deck of an American guided missile destroyer might seem a strange place to train East Timorese police cadets but one hand-picked group of recruits learned some valuable lessons recently.

Vanya Tanaja, Dili – The "Draft Regulation on the Election of a Constituent Assembly to draft the Constitution of an Independent and Democratic East Timor" was presented to East Timor's National Council by the United Nations Transitional Administration for East Timor (UNTAET) on March 2.

Viqueque – Gang violence in an East Timorese town has left at least two men dead and forced dozens of residents and aid workers to shelter in a guarded UN compound, witnesses said Tuesday.

Mark Dodd, Dili – A small political party that claims allegiance to East Timor's first short-lived independent government has emerged as a thorn in the side of the United Nations administration and the country's main political grouping.

Dili – The UN mission chief in East Timor yesterday blamed agitators with links to Indonesia for the recent violence in the capital of Dili and the second-largest city of Baucau.

Jakarta – Around 50 supporters of East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres burned an American flag outside the US embassy in Indonesia Thursday to protest Washington's alleged meddling Indonesia's internal affairs.

Geneva – An ambitious drive to repatriate tens of thousands of East Timorese from West Timor has ground to a halt because of blatant intimidation of the refugees by Indonesian-backed militias, an aid agency has said.

Roger Maynard, Sydney – Australian troops in the multi-national peacekeeping force which was sent to East Timor 18 months ago were too aggressive, often impossible to comprehend and annoyed other soldiers by wearing dark sunglasses while on duty, a survey has found.

Mark Dodd, Kupang – Elly Pereira was a well known face around Dili in 1999. Short, stocky and muscular, dressed in trademark jeans, T- shirt and dark aviator-style sunglasses, he kept interesting company as a deputy chief of the Aitarak (Thorn) militia.

Seth Mydans, Dili – Judge Maria Natircia Perreira set her face in a judicial frown and studied the nine scruffy men lined up below her in the dock, she herself once a victim but now ready to hear evidence in East Timor's first case of crimes against humanity.

Dili – Human rights groups Friday welcomed the conviction by a UN court of an East Timorese guerrilla for killing a pro-Indonesian militiaman during 1999's post-independence violence.

Mark Dodd – An Indonesian Army commander has told a group of East Timorese who served with the Indonesian military they should renounce violence and return to East Timor respecting the new independent nation's leadership.

Geneva – An international resettlement group said on Friday that it had restarted repatriating East Timorese refugees from the Indonesian west of the island after nearly a year-long hiatus due to insecurity.

Seth Mydans, Ermera – There is one happy thing – one glorious thing – in the shamed and broken life of Loren a Martins. Far from her family, hidden away from her neighbors, she lives in poverty in a tiny hillside house where the loud buzz of cicadas fills her loneliness.

Ati Nurbaiti, Dili – Indonesians, who grew up believing they helped East Timor out of a civil war, must wake up to the fact that they are perceived as former colonizers. On the other hand East Timorese are convincing Indonesians that they can be good neighbors.

Mark Dodd, Dili – The head of the UN mission in East Timor, Sergio Vieira de Mello, has given the green light to Indonesia's armed forces to forcibly close militia-controlled refugee camps in West Timor to break the repatriation stalemate.

Regan Morris, Singapore – East Timor's Nobel peace laureate Jose Ramos-Horta says he understands the suffering, humiliation and struggles of people fighting to break free from Indonesia, but he said his newly independent homeland cannot support their cause.

Associated Press in Jakarta – Australian peacekeepers clashed with suspected militiamen in East Timor, UN officials said on Saturday.

Mark Dodd, Dili – East Timor will go to the polls on August 30 – the second anniversary of its United Nations-brokered referendum – in a historic vote that will mark the transition of the world's newest country to full independence.

Jakarta – A pro-integration East Timorese militia member told the North Jakarta District Court on Thursday that he had stabbed a UNHCR humanitarian aid worker after witnessing another man do the same thing.

Jakarta – East Timorese leaders told Indonesian parliamentary heads Friday that unless Jakarta moves soon to try those accused of committing crimes in East Timor, an international war crimes tribunal will be unavoidable.

Mark Dodd, Dili – The Australian wife of the independence leader Mr Xanana Gusmao has blasted Indonesian authorities over their lack of action in securing the freedom of an East Timorese teenage girl raped then abducted by a militia leader as a sex slave.

Jakarta – A retired Indonesian general accused of killing five Australian-based journalists in East Timor in 1975 told a parliamentary hearing here Thursday that new witnesses in the case were lying.

Jon Land – The Australian government is attempting to prevent East Timor from gaining full sovereign rights over vast oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea that are expected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties over the next 20 to 25 years.

Mark Dodd – One of East Timor's most notorious militia leaders will today meet representatives of the community he left devastated to discuss his return home to face justice.

Contents

Dan Murphy, Aileu and Dili – Sergio Vieira de Mello watches impassively as the United Nations flag rises over a group of jungle survival experts, aware of the delicacy of his position as, effectively, the unelected president of East Timor.

Mark Dodd, Dili – East Timor could still press for a United Nations war crimes tribunal unless Indonesia brought to justice those responsible for the political violence in 1999, the independence leader and Nobel laureate Mr Jose Ramos Horta said yesterday.

Vanya Tanaja, Dili – Public hearings held here January 14-24 to discuss the timetable for East Timor's transition to independence have revealed sharply differing views among East Timorese leaders over the political mechanisms to be used to bring into being a fully sovereign East Timorese government.

Mark Dodd, Dili – Senior bureaucrats working for the UN administration in East Timor should focus on developing the skills of local public servants to avoid a vacuum of experienced officials when the world body pulls out, the visiting head of its development program said.

Jon Land – Imagine someone referring to prime minister John Howard and his foreign minister, Alexander Downer, as "more generous than Mother Theresa". You wouldn't be surprised if it came from a Coalition backbencher – but these are the precise words of East Timorese leader Jose Ramos Horta.

Joanna Jolly, Dili – In a legal first for East Timor, United Nations prosecutors yesterday filed multiple rape charges against an Indonesian army officer and two militia leaders. The men allegedly committed the attacks during a wave of violence before and after the 1999 independence referendum.

Mark Dodd, Dili – An East Timorese independence fighter pleaded for acquittal yesterday at the end of his trial for the killing of a pro-Indonesian militiaman in retaliation for the militia violence unleashed after the 1999 vote for independence.

Jakarta – East Timorese are expected later this month to begin preparations for a constituent assembly election likely to be held around August 30, the first major political exercise in the post-Indonesian rule of the territory, a senior UN official said Tuesday.

Jill Jolliffe – The house in East Timor's second city, Baucau, stands derelict, its windows boarded up and a tap running endlessly inside. The family which lived there fled with the Indonesian forces and their militia allies after the 1999 vote for independence.

Jill Jolliffe – United Nations investigators have sought international warrants to arrest three men – including a former Indonesian Government minister – for the murders of five Australian-based journalists in East Timor more than 25 years ago.

[The following are excerpts from an interview with sociologist George Junus Aditjondro with The Jakarta Post's Ati Nurbaiti, following his one-week visit to East Timor in early January. He lectures at Newcastle University in Australia and is a long-time researcher on East Timor and other areas with pro-independence movements.]