Mark Dodd, Dili – Almost a year since voting to end Indonesian rule, East Timor is about to launch into open politicking about the shape of its independent state once the United Nations interim administration ends.
The UN is to draft legislation allowing political campaigning for the first democratic parliamentary elections next year.
Vaudine England, Jakarta – The upsurge in fighting on the border between East and West Timor is the latest sign that the Indonesian military's special forces remain outside the control of the Government, Jakarta-based diplomats say.
Mark Dodd, Aileu – Fighters from the former guerilla resistance force Falintil, in their first move out of forced cantonment since the United Nations entered East Timor, will join UN peacekeepers in hunting down pro-Indonesian militia launching cross-border raids.
Jakarta – Indonesian Foreign Minister Alwi Shihab on Saturday said some soldiers might have encouraged the pro-Jakarta militias in the border area of East Timor.
"It is possible that certain individual [soldiers] have encouraged the militias' operations, but as an institution it is obvious that the military doesn't want the incidents to happen," Shihab told journalists.
Andrew Perrin, Ainaro – Fearing UN peacekeepers cannot guarantee their safety, villagers in East Timor's mountainous central south-west have fled to the forest or formed vigilante groups against possible militia attack.
A group of prominent East Timorese leaders, spanning the territory's historical political spectrum, are organizing a new center-right political party with the apparent blessing of independence leader Xanana Gusmao, a key organizer said Wednesday.
Jon Land – Pro-Jakarta militia operating out of refugee camps and other bases in West Timor show no sign of scaling down their attacks upon refugees or United Nations soldiers and humanitarian staff.
Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Indonesia yesterday denied responsibility for intensified attacks by militias on international forces inside East Timor.
Brian Toohey – Well-trained soldiers dressed in Indonesian battle fatigues, and carrying Indonesian semi-automatic rifles, are trying extremely hard to kill Australian and other UN troops in East Timor. Yet influential commentators persist in urging Australia to ignore this malevolent behaviour in an effort to repair relations with Indonesia.
Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – Indonesia conceded on Friday it could not fully control its border with East Timor where another UN soldier was killed in a gunfight with pro-Jakarta gangs, and said the only solution was to close refugee camps in West Timor.
Joanna Jolly, Dili – With its chrome chairs and international menu, the City Cafe could be in any modern capital around the world. But it is in the burnt-out city of Dili, two doors up from the site of a brutal massacre and just strolling distance from the former headquarters of one of East Timor's fiercest militias.
Jakarta – Two UN agencies on Saturday pulled most of their foreign staff out of the West Timor border town of Atambua, a day after pro-Jakarta militia encircled and threatened their offices, UN officials said.
Joanna Jolly in Dili and Agencies – United Nations peacekeepers are gearing up for further trouble from pro-Jakarta militiamen as the anniversary of the territory's independence vote draws nears.
Dili – The head of the UN peacekeeping mission in East Timor has demanded that Indonesia arrest and disarm militia leaders responsible for an attack in which a Nepalese soldier was killed and four others wounded.
Dublin – UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson, will start a three day visit to East Timor tomorrow to monitor developments there since last year's unrest. Although it's gone from the headlines there is continuing violence if obviously not at the same levels as after last year's independence vote.
Jon Land – Despite the announcement on July 31 by Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid that refugee camps in West Timor controlled by the pro-Jakarta militia will be closed, the fate of tens of thousands of East Timorese refugees remains perilous. The terror campaign, which has intensified in recent months, will continue until the militias are disarmed and disbanded.
Joanna Jolly, Dili – Ethnic-Chinese businessmen trying to re-establish East Timor's economy have become a target for hostility and extortion by the local community.
The Chinese are re-starting the profitable wholesale, retail and supply operations they ran before last year's independence vote, but face strong opposition from indigenous East Timorese.
Dili – UN peacekeepers in East Timor are now facing a well trained and disciplined anti-independence militia force that continues to use Indonesian-West Timor as a safe haven, Australia's visiting defense minister said Friday.
The Timor Gap Treaty signed between Australia and Indonesia during the rule of former president Suharto is illegal, and is not recognised by either the United Nations or the East Timorese people.
Jon Land – The confrontation on July 24 between pro-Jakarta militia forces from West Timor and a detachment of New Zealand soldiers from the United Nations peace-keeping force – the third such incident along the western border since the end of May – highlights again the serious threat that the militia gangs pose.
Mark Dodd, Dili – The United States Ambassador to Indonesia has condemned Jakarta's "lamentable and inexcusable" failure to disarm militias operating from West Timor.
Jakarta – Indonesian authorities plan to register all East Timorese refugees still on Indonesian soil and make a last offer, to either stay or return home, a report said Tuesday.
Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Former guerilla fighter Mr Xanana Gusmao will become the first president of independent East Timor. After insisting for months that he would refuse the job, Mr Gusmao now says he plans to accept nomination for the presidency at United Nations-supervised elections scheduled for late next year.
Denis Peters and Linda McSweeny, Canberra – Australian unions and a prominent law firm have warned that workers rebuilding East Timor could be exposed to asbestos contamination.
Don Greenlees, Jakarta – The Harco Hotel in central Jakarta is a dreary resting place for people travelling on the cheap. For 100,000 rupiah ($20) a night, visitors are led down a narrow concrete passageway to a small cell. It's not a place to linger.
Lisbon – East Timorese youth rejected the foreign military base. It is one point of declaration of East Timorese Youth Congress that was held from July 10 to 15 in Dili, the capital of East Timor. They rejected a military base in East Timor because they are concerned on its negative impact, such as unstable situation in Southeast Asia and an acculturation with western culture.
Mark Dodd in Suai and David Lague in Bangkok – A price has been put on the heads of Australian and New Zealand peacekeepers in East Timor, with the ears of the young Kiwi soldier killed on Monday cut off as a bounty trophy, senior military sources said yesterday.
Jakarta – Just hours after the UN Security Council called on Jakarta to crack down on anti-independence gangs conducting raids in East Timor, an Indonesian court Wednesday threw out criminal charges against a prominent militia leader.
Mark Riley, New York – The United Nations had begun closed-door discussions with key diplomats to bring forward the withdrawal of peacekeepers from East Timor before the death of a New Zealand soldier in a gun battle on Monday.
The killing and mutilation of a New Zealand peacekeeper in East Timor threatens further damage to Australia's fragile ties with Indonesia after the Howard Government yesterday demanded that Jakarta stop militia raids from West Timor.
Jon Land – As East Timor moves towards full independence under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET), the obligations and conduct of the UN, international aid organisations and foreign governments continue to come under scrutiny.
Vanja Tanaja, Dili – On July 19, an Indonesian investigation team arrived here to interview witnesses to the worst atrocities that took place from April to September last year.
Damian Milverton, Washington – The international effort to repair the devastation in East Timor is meeting with some success but at the same time is exposing many of the pitfalls in development economics.
Jakarta – A respected legal aid activist says the government must guarantee the security of witnesses who are scheduled to testify later this year on atrocities conducted by pro-Jakarta militias and the Indonesian Defense Forces in East Timor last year.
East Timor – The United Nations High Commission for Refugees announced Friday that it has withdrawn its personnel from the Betun refugee camp in Indonesian West Timor. UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond told media in Geneva that the decision followed violent incidents carried out by armed militias opposed to the repatriation of East Timorese refugees.
Mark Dodd, Dili – An Indonesian judicial team in East Timor to investigate violence by Jakarta's military and its local allies last year faced a hostile reception at the weekend.
Mark Dodd, Dili – The United Nations mission in East Timor yesterday said it had no plans to arrest notorious pro-Jakarta militia leader Eurico Guterres, who is implicated in human rights abuses committed about the time of last year's independence vote.
Justice John Dowd, Sydney – A royal commission is needed into why the Whitlam Government turned a blind eye to the Balibo killings, writes Justice John Dowd.
Jakarta – At least 547 East Timorese refugees sheltering in squalid camps throughout Indonesian-controlled West Timor have died in the past nine months, the province's governor said Wednesday.
Dili – The Humanitarian Assistance and Emergency Rehabilitation Pillar recently released its three-part assessment of the Consolidated Appeal Process (CAP). The East Timor CAP is a mechanism established in September 1999 to coordinate the overall humanitarian programme of the international community in the territory.
Jon Land - Up to 120,000 East Timorese are still languishing in refugee camps throughout West Timor 10 months after the post-referendum rampage by the Indonesian military and their pro-integration militia proxies forced around 290,000 East Timorese across the border.
Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Violence by pro-Jakarta militia in West Timor camps has sabotaged plans by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to register 125,000 East Timorese waiting to return to East Timor or resettle in Indonesia.
Daniel Cooney, Dili – No one knows who really owns the blackened, burned-out building where Canadian businessman Kirk MacManus is trying to set up East Timor's first supermarket.
A Portuguese man claims it, saying the army threw him out when Indonesia invaded in 1975. Later, it housed an Indonesian bank. Then came East Timor's secession last year.
Lisbon – East Timor's first transitional government was hailed yesterday as a crucial step forward by the pro-independence leader Mr Xanana Gusmao.
Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Dili – Lakan Feralafaek, one of a score of money changers who ply their trade on the sidewalk in front of East Timor's only bank, is more than happy to exchange foreign notes for the new official currency, the US dollar.
Marian Wilkinson, Sydney – An Australian intelligence agency learned from an intercepted Indonesian Army radio message that Australian television crews were in danger and would be targeted, hours before the October 16, 1975, attack at Balibo in East Timor, a new book has revealed.
Max Lane – The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) has announced that it will be implementing measures to increase Timorese participation in the executive bodies of UNTAET.
Kupang – Peace has been restored to the West Timor town of Oesau following the July 1 mass riot in which remnants of the feared pro-Jakarta militia gangs from East Timor torched 16 houses and burnt down barns containing dozens of ill-fated cows.
Greg Ansley, Dili – New Zealand troops have broken a militia-linked extortion racket in a crackdown on organised crime in the western border region of East Timor. In a dawn raid on two villages, soldiers of 2/1 Battalion NZ Infantry Regiment and United Nations police officers arrested eight alleged racketeers.
Dili – Militants of East Timor's newest political party have seized a building destined to serve as a police station in the eastern district of Viqueque, claiming it as their headquarters.