Sara Everingham, Dili – For the first time in nearly seven months, Australian woman Angelita Pires can relax, after being acquitted of involvement in a plot to assassinate East Timor's leaders.
Ms Pires was the girlfriend of Major Alfredo Reinado, the rebel leader who was fatally shot during an assassination attempt last year on East Timor's president and prime minister.
Guido Goulart, Dili – An East Timorese court on Wednesday convicted and sentenced 24 rebels to up to 16 years in prison over the attempted assassinations of the fledgling democracy's president and prime minister. Another four defendants were acquitted.
Tito Belo, Dili – An East Timor court jailed on Wednesday 27 people for between nine and 17 years over the attempted assassination of President Jose Ramos-Horta and an attack on the prime minister, while freeing an Australian.
From March 23 until May 3, Zely Ariane will be touring Australia, speaking at Direct Action forums, at universities, to trade union meetings and at other venues. Ariane is the National Spokesperson of the Committee for the Politics of the Poor-Peoples Democratic Party (KPRM-PRD), one of Indonesia's left-wing political parties.
The UN Security Council has voted unanimously to extend the mandate of its mission in East Timor (UNMIT) for another year.
Edith M. Lederer – The Security Council voted unanimously Friday to extend the UN peacekeeping mission in East Timor for a year and backed plans to reduce its police contingent ahead of a possible pullout.
Clinton Fernandes – Australia conducted two military interventions in East Timor during the 20th century and both have been falsely reconstructed into myths that vary sharply from the historical record.
Ref: IOR 40/2009.177
AI Index: ASA 57/002/2010
H.E. the Permanent Representative
23 February 2010
Open letter to all members of the Security Council: the situation of justice in Timor-Leste
Dear Ambassador,
Dili – East Timor's first anti-corruption commissioner was sworn in Monday during a parliamentary ceremony that was broadcast live around the tiny nation.
But on his first day in the job former human rights lawyer Aderito Soares was obliged to play down concerns that Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao's government is not fully behind him.
Lindsay Murdoch – Lawyers representing Angelita Pires, the lover of East Timor's slain rebel leader Alfredo Reinado, say she has been "viciously vilified" by people in positions of power.
The lawyers have also described the refusal of East Timorese President Jose Ramos Horta to testify in person at her trial in Dili District Court as a "serious denial of justice".
Dili – East Timorese prosecutors Thursday sought up to 20 years' jail for 28 people including an Australian citizen charged over the attempted assassination of the president and prime minister in 2008.
As an organization that works for human rights, HAK Association is concerned with the situation in Bobonaro and Covalima Districts, especially the population's right to security. HAK considers the reaction of the National Police of Timor-Leste (PNTL) to the "Ninja" group as an obligation of the competent organs of the state to comply with their human rights commitments.
Sara Everingham – Lawyers for a Timorese-born Australian woman standing trial over an alleged plot to assassinate East Timor's President say new evidence has come to light that further undermines the prosecution's case.
Angelita Pires and 27 men are on trial for attacks on President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao two years ago.
Lawyers for a Timorese-born Australian woman standing trial over an alleged plot to assassinate East Timor's President say new evidence has come to light that further undermines the prosecution's case.
Adam Gartrell – One of Australia's top forensic pathologists has added to doubts about the official account of the alleged attempt to assassinate East Timor's top political leaders.
Sunanda Creagh, Jakarta – The East Timor government said on Thursday that it still has not awarded a contract to any company to develop a pipeline or LNG facility from its lucrative Greater Sunrise gas field.
Rob Taylor, Canberra – High-profile prosecutions will not end widespread corruption in East Timor and a long public re-education campaign will be needed to fight graft and nepotism, the country's new anti-corruption tsar said on Friday.
Dili – An academic and human rights activist has been named East Timor's first anti-corruption commissioner.
Aderito de Jesus was confirmed as Anti-Corruption Commission chief after winning unanimous approval in a parliamentary vote on Tuesday, government spokesman Agio Pereira said yesterday.
2 February 2010
Excellencies,
Members of the United Nations Security Council
United Nations,
New York, New York, 10017 USA
Hon. Ameerah Haq
Special Representative of the Secretary-General of the United Nations
Timor-Leste
Dear Members of the United Nations Security Council,
Dili – The brutal beating of a demonstrator by East Timorese police in front of UN officers raises serious questions about the world body's training of the local force, an opposition lawmaker said Monday.
Malaysia's national oil company Petronas said Tuesday it has been invited by East Timor's government to help develop a disputed oil and gas field worth billions of dollars.
Ben Butler – East Timor could leave the Sunrise gas and oil field in the Timor Sea undeveloped if Australian company Woodside refuses to build a pipeline to Timor's south coast.
"The Government is looking at all options to develop a thriving onshore petroleum industry," East Timorese Secretary of State Agio Pereira said yesterday.
Canberra – Woodside Petroleum Ltd. shares slipped Thursday after East Timor's government said it will block proposals by a consortium led by the Australian oil and gas company to develop a disputed oil and gas field worth billions of dollars.
Rebecca Le May – A stalemate between East Timor's Government and a Woodside Petroleum-led joint venture to develop the $6.6 billion Sunrise LNG and oil project is likely to drag on.
Sunrise lies partly within the Joint Petroleum Development Area while the remainder virtually straddles the territorial waters between Australia and East Timor.
Anthony Deutsch, Jakarta – East Timor's government said Wednesday it will block proposals by an Australian-led consortium to develop a disputed oil and gas field worth billions of dollars, the latest move in a long-running battle over where the resources should be processed.
Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – The alleged killing of a popular musician by an East Timorese policeman has prompted demands for the Government in Dili to rein in heavily armed police units.
East Timor's Chief of Police has suspended an officer while police investigate the shooting death of a 25-year-old man. The incident sparked angry protests on the streets of the capital and some victims advocacy groups are calling for East Timorese police to be disarmed.
Presenter: Stephanie March
Secret Cabinet documents from 1979 released by the Australian National Archives on January 1 confirm high tension between Australia and Indonesia over East Timor, as famine spread in the Indonesian-occupied territory.
Linda Mottram – Secret cabinet documents from 1979 have confirmed the high tensions between Australia and Indonesia over East Timor, as the Fraser government balanced how best to give aid while famine spread across the occupied territory.
Matt Crookm, Dili – The tiny nation of East Timor could face a deadly AIDS epidemic, with promiscuity among youths, low condom use and general ignorance leading to a sharp increase in reported cases, doctors said.
"Most likely it will be a disaster in the near future," said Dr. Daniel Murphy, founder of Bairo Pite Clinic, one of four voluntary AIDS testing centres in Dili.
The Malaysian High Court has awarded compensation to 29 activists who were wrongfully detained in Malaysia 13 years ago. The group were part of a regional conference, held in the Malaysian capital in 1996, to discuss East Timor's struggle for independence. The forum was attacked by 400 people led by the ruling UMNO party, and police arrested more than 100 people.
Kuala Lumpur – The Malaysian High Court on Tuesday ordered the government to compensate 29 rights activists for wrongful detention over a controversial gathering to discuss East Timor 13 years ago.
The court awarded a total of RM870,000 (253,000 dollars) to the activists, who were held by police in the Malaysian capital for up to six days.
Adrienne Francis - There are renewed concerns that one of Australia's worst exotic pests may have hitchhiked to East Timor.
In September, a Timorese environmental group accused Australian peacekeepers of introducing cane toads during operations in 1999. However, it was later proved to be a case of mistaken identity.
Wendy Bruere – A young Jose Ramos-Horta, shown as the foreign minister of a newly independent East Timor, implores Roger East, an aging Australian journalist, to travel to his country to run a media agency.
There is not a single reason why the Film Censorship Board should ban the screening of Balibo at the current Jakarta International Film Festival. Whether the board realizes it or not, either on its own initiative or at the behest of a third party, the board seems to be engaged in a show of strength.
The Timor Leste (formerly East Timor) story and that of Col. (ret) Gatot Purwanto, 62, are intertwined. This former Special Forces (Kopassus) officer can be said to have witnessed all of the bloody incidents that happened in Indonesia's former 27th province. In fact, Gatot was involved in East Timor since the beginning of his military career.
The ban on screening Balibo recalls the 1975 deaths of five foreign journalists in East Timor. One witness of this incident, a former intelligence officer, believes the element of dramatization is inevitable, resulting in a fictional film featuring images of a brutal military.
Sydney – Australia said on Thursday that it would reduce its troop commitment in East Timor by more than a third following a prolonged period of stability in the tiny nation.
Tom Allard, Jakarta – As they cowered in a flimsy shack in a banana grove, the Balibo Five were killed by ferocious volleys of gunfire from Indonesian soldiers and their Timorese allies in a lengthy assault on their hideout, Gatot Purwanto says.
Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) has insisted the foreign journalists known as the Balibo Five were accidentally killed in East Timor in 1975, despite an admission by a former army colonel that the newsmen were executed by Indonesian soldiers.
Stephen Fitzpatrick – The retired Indonesian commando at the centre of the Balibo Five killings says he will refuse to give evidence to an Australian Federal Police investigation into the incident, since he has no authority to do so.
Adam Gartrell, Jakarta – An Australian Federal Police (AFP) probe into the Balibo Five killings is still in its early stages and it's too soon to say if investigators will seek to interview witnesses in Indonesia, commissioner Tony Negus says.
Markus Junianto Sihaloho & Ashlee Betteridge – The Armed Forces on Tuesday shrugged off a former soldier's statement that Indonesian military forces killed the so-called Balibo Five and burned their bodies to conceal evidence the military was active in that area.
Matt Crook, Dili – The UN mission in East Timor needs to hand over formal control of the country's national police force as soon as possible to avoid doing irreparable damage, according to an influential think-tank.
Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – The Balibo Five were deliberately killed during Indonesia's 1975 invasion of East Timor, according to a retired commando who was in the special forces squad that shot them.
A former Indonesian army colonel has admitted Indonesian soldiers deliberately killed the so-called Balibo Five journalists to cover up the invasion of East Timor.
Gatot Purwanto says a rational decision was made to kill the Australia-based newsmen, contradicting Indonesia's long-held official line they died in crossfire.
Rod McGuirk, Jakarta – A former Indonesian army colonel has told a magazine that soldiers deliberately killed five Western journalists in East Timor in 1975, contradicting his government's line that they accidentally died in a crossfire.
Talek Harris, Sydney – Relatives of five journalists killed in the East Timor border town of Balibo in 1975 on Tuesday welcomed a former soldier's "milestone" statement that they were shot by invading Indonesian troops.
Former Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans has been appointed Chancellor of The Australian National University by the University Council today.
..."Gareth Evans has made an outstanding contribution to Australian life and international affairs over his long career. His national and international standing makes him a perfect fit for ANU," Professor Chubb said...