VNA – Vietnam will create best possible conditions for enterprises from Timor Leste to operate in the country, affirmed Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc.

Victims of serious human rights violations committed during the Indonesian occupation (1975-1999) continued to demand justice and reparations. Security forces were accused of unlawful killings, torture and other ill-treatment, arbitrary arrests, and arbitrarily restricting the rights to freedom of expression and of peaceful assembly.

Background

Emma Rumney – Falling health funding in Timor-Leste must be met with better planning and policies to manage rising costs, the World Bank has said.

The south-east Asian nation has made notable strides in its health system since gaining independence from Indonesia in 2002, at which time it had just 20 doctors for a population of one million.

Paulina Quintao – According to data from the 2015 household census, 40,000 people in Timor-Leste (32%) still defecate in public as they don't have access to a toilet.

While the numbers have declined since the 2010 census, which showed that 39% of the population was publicly defecating, more work still needs to be done to ensure every community has access to toilets.

Paulina Quintao – The Disabilities Association of Timor-Leste (ADTL) has called on the government to create better infrastructure to ensure people with disabilities are able to take part in this year's general election as is their right.

While plans to build a major cement project in Timor-Leste have brought the welcome promise of jobs for local people, the environmental and social costs could be catastrophic.

Paulina Quintao – Although the number of Timorese women in the business sector remains small, more are getting involved as a way of improving their family's economic situation.

Anne Barker – East Timor's former finance minister and dual Australian citizen Emilia Pires is fighting to have her name cleared over charges she corruptly awarded a $1 million contract to her husband's company in Melbourne.

Venidora Oliveira – The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) has established Timor-Leste Coffee Producers Association (APKTL), aimed at controlling the price of coffee in the country.

Minister Estanislau da Silva said the government also planned to set price of coffee based on international standards as currently there was a lack of certainty in relation to quality and price.

Time to Draw the Line
Directed by Amanda King & Fabio Cavadini
2016, 58 minutes
Released February 20 on the Demand.Film platform

A new documentary examines the largely overlooked story of the dispute between Australia and its near neighbour – the new state of East Timor.

Venidora Oliveira – A local NGO is concerned that officers from the National Police of Timor-Leste (PNTL) are misusing their weapons and not handing in their guns after they finish work as required.

Despite claims of progress and reform, East Timor's government is not putting the needs of its population first in planning for a future without oil propping up its economy. That decision blights the lives of many ordinary citizens.

Timor-Leste has terminated one of its maritime treaties with Australia in a bid to find common ground over the disputed Greater Sunrise gas field. But will the move backfire? Rebecca Strating assesses the chances of a resolution to the long-running boundary disagreement.

The descent into A-grade Oceania begins barely an hour outside the Australian mainland. Silvery clouds, deep shades of green-blue ocean, and miles-long beaches appear against a backdrop of huge mountains cradling the capital, Dili.

Paulina Quintao, – Former comfort woman Ines Magalhaes Goncalves travelled to Japan late last year to give testimony at an international conference on human rights about the crimes committed against her by Japanese soldiers in Timor-Leste during World War II (1942-1945).

Paulina Quintao – The government is still unable to calculate annual medical supply needs accurately as hospitals are not providing a daily record of stock quantities and usage.

Minister of Health Maria do Ceo Sarmento Pina da Costa acknowledged that medication supply was an ongoing issue that the ministry still needed to resolve.

East Timor and Australia have agreed to a new maritime border which would give East Timor control of a $40 billion oil field. But not everyone is happy.

Sara Everingham – East Timor's former president Jose Ramos-Horta says after spending months considering whether to run in the country's next presidential election, he has decided to sit it out and make way for new leaders.

Venidora Oliveira – The majority of illegal fishermen in the Timor Sea detected during operations by the Maritime Police come from Indonesia.

The Commander of the Maritime Police, Superintendent Linho Saldanha said many illegal boats have been captured since they started operations.

Paulina Quintao – The Timor-Leste government has yet to build a statue honoring women who struggled for the country's independence.

The Secretary of State for the Socio-Economic Support of Women (SEM), Veneranda Lemos, said the government has plans to build the statue, but the project had not got off the ground because of a lack of funding.

Tricia Aquino, Manila – The Philippines should use its chairmanship of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) this year to accelerate the membership of East Timor in the 10-member regional bloc.

This is according to M.C. Abad, Jr., the former director of the ASEAN Regional Forum, housed in the ASEAN headquarters in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Paulina Quintao – The salt brand Kapal which is produced in Indonesia and has been available in Timor-Leste for many years is intended to be used in pig feed rather than human consumption.

Sara Everingham – A week of conciliation talks ends in East Timor dropping its spying case against Australia as part of negotiations to resolve the long-running dispute over permanent maritime boundaries in the Timor Sea.

Ben Doherty – Timor-Leste has withdrawn its Australian espionage claims in the permanent court of arbitration as a "confidence-building measure", as the two countries continue to negotiate over their maritime border.In 2013 it was revealed the Australian government had bugged the Dili cabinet room of the Timor-Leste government in 2004 – under the guise of Australian aid-sponsored renovations.

Paulina Quintao – Data shows that 20% of Timorese companies producing bottled water do not meet international standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Paulina Quintao – The National Parliament has approved proposed law no. 26/III/2015 on the prevention and fight against human trafficking. Of the 64 MPs, 34 were present, with 32 voting in favor, two abstentions and none against.

Felicity James – A survey of households in Timor-Leste has found most people in the country's capital Dili fear eviction from their land in the next five years.

Land conflict and dispossession in the country are "dormant giants" and pose an increasing threat to stability, according to an Asia Foundation report.

Paulina Quintao – The falling price of coffee makes has saddened growers in Ermera municipality who are struggling to improve their lives and send their children to school.

The President of Ermera municipality authority, Jose Martinho do Santos Soares, said the coffee price is a perennial problem for farmers, which has not been tackled so far.

Josephite nun and human rights advocate Josephite Sister Susan Connelly has urged Australians to maintain pressure on the Federal Government to negotiate a fair maritime boundary with East Timor.

Paulina Quintao – Many young women are marrying early due to a lack of adequate information about sexual and reproductive health issues.

Secretary of State for Youth and Sport (SEJD) Leovigildo da Costa Hornai said one of the most significant obstacles faced by young women was early pregnancy.

Dili (AFP) – East Timor will hold a presidential election on March 20, an official said on Wednesday (Jan 18), and Nobel Peace laureate Jose Ramos-Horta may try to make a comeback as head of state.

It will be the third presidential vote in the tiny half-island nation since it won independence in 2002 following a brutal, 24-year occupation by neighbouring Indonesia.

Thomas Ora, Dili, Timor Leste – Nothing unusual happened when Aitarak – not his real name – moved from Timor-Leste to Malang in Indonesia's East Java province to study law, three years before the country's independence referendum.

Bernardo Almeida, Todd Wassel – Voters in Timor-Leste will head to the polls twice this year for presidential elections in March and parliamentary elections in July – in what will be the first such elections to be held since the UN Mission departed in 2012.

David Hutt – With much of the population living in poverty and oil wealth running dry, Timor-Leste's upcoming elections could be the public's most important decision since independence

Frank Brennan – Without any media fanfare, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop published a statement on 9 January 2017 announcing that Australia and Timor Leste had agreed to terminate the 2006 Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS).

Hands up anyone who believes that the Sunrise gas project in the waters that separate Australia from East Timor will be developed in their lifetime, a challenge that Slugcatcher extends to any children who might be reading this column?

Timor-Leste goes to the polls in 2017 with little in the way of a genuine policy debate. The political scene is dominated by former revolutionary leaders and the jostling between them.

Paul Cleary – When Australian commandos landed in the colony of Portuguese Timor in 1941, they immediately noticed that the gum trees, rocks and ochre-coloured earth were strikingly similar to home.

Michael Leach – Election year in Timor-Leste got off to an unexpected start with Monday's joint announcement that the government in Dili would terminate its 2006 treaty with Australia covering maritime arrangements in the Timor Sea. The decision, which Australia said it would not contest, opens the way for fresh boundary negotiations between the two countries.

Steve Bracks – The revelation this week that Australia will negotiate a maritime boundary with Timor-Leste represents a significant and welcome policy shift within the Australian Government.

Progress in this decades-old dispute is long overdue. Australia's commitment to negotiations is a positive step for both countries, the broader region and the international community.

Babs McHugh – Political and energy analysts have expressed serious doubts that East Timor will ever be able to benefit from a major gas project unless it changes its policy.

East Timor and the Australian Government on Monday announced they would abandon a 10-year-old treaty on maritime borders.

Bec Strating – On Monday, a joint statement from the governments of Timor-Leste and Australia announced that Timor-Leste planned to officially notify Australia that it wished to terminate the 2006 Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS).

John Martinkus – East Timor's cancellation of the 2006 Treaty between Australia and the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS), which centres on the oil between Australia and Timor, is not about money. It is not about the median line. It is not about whether Australia bullied the small country into making the agreement.

Tom Clarke – Australia's dodgy oil and gas treaty with East Timor is dead. Now it's time to negotiate fair and permanent maritime boundaries with our tiny neighbour.

Angela Macdonald-Smith – The fresh uncertainty that has enveloped the Timor Sea petroleum province comes at a critical time for the gas venture that currently provides most of the revenue for tiny, impoverished Timor-Leste.

Ben Potter – The Greater Sunrise gas project in the Timor Sea – which has poisoned relations between Australia and tiny Timor-Leste – won't produce any revenue before the late 2020s if ever, experts say.

Emily Stewart – It is back to the drawing board for a maritime agreement between Australia and East Timor.

At stake are oil and gas reserves worth up to $40 billion but, while both governments fight over future revenue sharing, development of the project has not even started.

Rebecca Strating – The government of Timor-Leste has officially notified Australia of its wish to terminate the 2006 Treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS). The treaty sets out the division of revenue from the Greater Sunrise oil and gas fields, an estimated A$40 billion deposit in the Timor Sea.

Hopes of a clean slate in developing the gas riches of the Timor Sea have now shifted to the international courts in The Hague.

Australia has backed down and agreed to scrap an existing 2006 revenue-sharing deal in the Timor Sea that in Dili's eyes had been hopelessly tainted by alleged Australian spying and bullying.

Damien Kingsbury – East Timor has won a significant moral victory in the Timor Sea dispute, with Australia agreeing to scrap the controversial 2006 Timor Sea treaty. However, East Timor's hope that this now spells the beginning of the end of that dispute, much less that it will secure the country's economic future, might be overly optimistic.