Ian Hunter, London – Australian special forces and navy divers were scouting the terrain of East Timor and Indonesian forces deployments inside the territory months before the actual landing of United Nations-approved peacemakers last month, a senior Australian defence source has revealed.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government announced on Monday it has issued a regulation on the establishment of a human rights tribunal which would also cover alleged atrocities committed in East Timor.

Singapore – Pro-Indonesian militias are undergoing training in guerilla warfare with the aim of killing Australian soldiers spearheading a multinational force in East Timor, Singapore's Sunday Times said.

Dili – An Interfet foot patrol has shot dead a militia fighter near the East Timor border with Indonesian West Timor, an Australian army spokesman said Sunday.

Jakarta – Families of Indonesian veterans of East Timor protested at the Australian embassy here on Saturday, burning an effigy representing Australian soldiers.

Jakarta – At least ten people have been killed and scores injured in renewed clashes between Muslims and Christians in an island in the riot-torn Indonesian province of Maluku, reports said Friday.

Tom Fawthrop and Marianne Kearney, Kupang – More than 230,000 East Timorese refugees in West Timor camps are being pressed to declare whether they want to return home or stay in Indonesia.

Jakarta's Ministry of Transmigration has been preparing a resettlement plan to absorb more than 250,000 East Timorese, with promises of two hectares of land and a house.

Agence France Presse, Cassa – The armed men involved in a fatal clash with international peacekeepers in East Timor were from a feared militia that has committed a series of atrocities, witnesses said yesterday.

Vaudine England, Jakarta – The most open secret in Jakarta's murky political world is about the meeting which presidential frontrunner Megawati Sukarnoputri had with chairman of the ruling Golkar party, Akbar Tanjung.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the party which obtained the largest votes at the last general elections, says it has no intention to mobilize the masses no matter what the result of the presidential election on October 20 as non-violence has become its policy.

Rene Flipo, Maliana – The few people who greeted the first international peacekeepers to arrive in the devastated and deserted town of Maliana yesterday recounted tales of terror, massacres and forced deportations.

Lewa Pardomuan, Jakarta – Violence between Indonesian troops and separatists is hurting the local economy and scaring off investors in the northern Sumatran province of Aceh.

Jakarta – Muslim leader Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid Thursday emerged as a strong contender to be Indonesia's next president in a race with opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri and incumbent B.J. Habibie.

Agencies in Jakarta – Opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri's chances of becoming Indonesia's next president weakened yesterday as a political rival won a key post and her party's main ally pondered withdrawing support.

Several hundred Megawati supporters demonstrated in central Jakarta, demanding the country's legislature select her as the next leader.

Medan – Five people were seriously injured on Thursday in a clash between riot police and workers demanding a pay rise near the Indonesian city of Medan, witnesses and hospital sources said.

Dili – Indonesian commandos are conducting covert operations inside East Timor aimed at sabotaging the international peacekeeping effort, foreign military officials say.

United Nations – Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday proposed a United Nations transitional authority for East Timor that would oversee all aspects of civilian life and include some 10,000 peacekeepers and police.

Tom Allard – The Indonesian Foreign Minister told his Australian counterpart, Mr Downer, as early as February that Indonesia was arming pro-integration groups.

According to an article in the Bulletin magazine, the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Mr Ali Alatas, told Mr Downer arming of the groups was "legitimate".

The multinational force in East Timor (Interfet) was wise to avoid a firefight earlier this week with members of the resistance force, Falintil, by backing away from demands that the guerillas surrender their weapons. This is a directive that must be backed by the resistance leader, Mr Xanana Gusmao, if loss of life and suspicion of Interfet among East Timorese is to be avoided.

Tim Dodd – General Wiranto knows who to blame for Indonesia's problems. It's a man in a black dinner suit with a mobile phone who is secretly directing the host of dark forces tearing at the unity of the nation.

Dili – Falintil resistance fighters will be allowed to retain their weapons in their camps pending further disarmament negotiations, despite a UN mandate to disarm all groups, an Interfet spokesman said Tuesday.

Jakarta – Indonesia's military on Wednesday urged the country's new national assembly to endorse East Timor's independence vote and formally free the territory it invaded in 1975.

Police Brigadier General Taufiequrochman Ruki, reading out the views of the 38-strong parliamentary faction of military and police MPs said the military favored letting East Timor go.

Sydney – East Timorese resistance leader Jose Ramos Horta launched a bitter attack on former Australian prime minister Paul Keating on Tuesday, accusing him of betraying the people of East Timor.

Susan Sim, Jakarta – In an extraordinary display of the lobbying skills of Golkar leaders, party chief Akbar Tandjung was set to be elected Speaker of Parliament (DPR) without a vote being cast last night.

Vaudine England and Agencies, Jakarta – Soldiers and riot police lounged in makeshift camps under flyovers and in central parks across Jakarta as their leaders held festivities to mark Army Day at the palm tree-lined grounds of Cilangkap military headquarters.

By James Balowski

Terry J. Allen, Vermont – Quietly tucked away in the hills of Vermont, Norwich University, the only private military college in the country, has continued to educate and train future members of the Indonesian army, even as President Clinton has effectively frozen all relations with that country's military in the wake of the violence in East Timor.

Vaudine England – Indonesia's military plans a simple celebration of its 54th birthday today, but is paying little heed to growing unpopularity at home and abroad.

Last year's Army Day involved intricate performances by a dazzling array of marching bands, including one group of drummers dressed as frogmen complete with flippers.

Documents which would reveal Britain's secret role in Indonesian politics in the Sixties that led to "one of the worst mass murders of the 20th century" and Jakarta's eventual annexation of East Timor are being kept under lock and key.

Jakarta – Thousands of Indonesian students in the capital and other cities in Java and Sumatra Tuesday marked the 54th Indonesian Armed Forces Day with mass protests demanding the military return to barracks, witnesses and reports said.

Vaudine England and agencies, Jakarta – All bets are now off for the forthcoming presidential poll in the wake of several startling, democratic events in the country's highest political body, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

Slobodan Lekic, Dili – Stung by criticism of alleged bias, the commander of the international peacekeeping force in East Timor demanded today that pro-independence rebels hand in their weapons.

Lhokseumawe – Some 800 students in Indonesia's restive province of Aceh rallied Monday to demand an East Timor-style referendum on self-determination.

Balibo – An escapee from the refugee camps in West Timor said on Sunday that pro-Indonesian militias were hunting down East Timorese men there and killing them.

Jakarta – Some 150 Indonesian students took to the streets of Jakarta Monday, calling on the newly-elected national assembly, now in its first session, to implement reforms.

Associated Press, Waimori – The international peacekeeping force is being too cautious in dealing with the remnants of the militias which ravaged East Timor, the commander of the pro-independence guerillas said yesterday.

Sydney – Australia would not sanction its own investigation into war crimes in East Timor, Defence Minister John Moore said Sunday.

Australian lawyers are planning to head to East Timor as part of an International Committee of Jurists investigation into alleged atrocities.

Jakarta – A student died in hospital in the Indonesian city of Bandarlampoung Sunday, a second victim of clashes between protestors and security personnel, a university employee said.

Tomi Soetjipto, Jakarta – Indonesia's supreme legislative assembly elected a leading reformist as speaker on Sunday in its first contested vote since the 1950s, a step which could be crucial in the fight for the presidency.

Moris Morissan, Jakarta – Indonesia on Friday reported its seventh straight month of falling prices in another sign that the grass roots of its shattered economy were recovering from crisis.

Lewa Pardomuan, Jakarta – Indonesia's top legislative body will elect a new president on October 20, bringing forward an event many hope will halt the country's leadership drift under the deeply unpopular incumbent, B.J. Habibie.

Mark Dodd, Dili – Australian soldiers have taken control of two towns in militia heartland along East Timor's volatile border with Indonesian West Timor, in their biggest operation since landing in the territory 12 days ago.

Dafna Linzer, Kupang, – In the ramshackle Tuapukan camp, home to 10,000 refugees from East Timor's chaos, Indonesia's red-and-white flag flies proudly above unfinished roofs of dried palm fronds and straw.

Indonesia's generals are under scrutiny for human rights abuses in East Timor but have they covered their tracks? David Jenkins, Mark Dodd, Bernard Lagan and Simon Mann investigate.

Dili – The bodies of 13 people, many of them showing traces of violence, have been found in a mass grave near Dili, a spokesman for the United Nations said on Saturday.

Bandar Lampung – Lampung Military Police yesterday began investigating eight military officers allegedly involved in the shooting that took place during a students protest in front of the Bandar Lampung University (UBL) campus on Tuesday. One student was killed during the demonstration.

Jakarta – A second day of clashes between local tribesmen and migrants in the mining town of Timika in Indonesia's remote Irian Jaya province killed four people, raising the death toll in two days to 14, reports and a tribal activist said Friday.

Agencies in Dili, Los Palos and Jakarta – British Gurkha soldiers yesterday arrested two members of a group of East Timorese militiamen who were holding more than 4,000 people in the eastern port of Com, military sources said.

The militiamen appeared to be preparing to move the 4,000 people out of the territory, the sources said.

Tony Wright, Canberra – The Federal Government is considering selling billions of dollars worth of prime defence land throughout Australia to pay for its massively expensive military commitment to East Timor.

Dili – The mutilated and charred remains of at least nine people were discovered in a burnt-out pickup truck on the outskirts of Dili Wednesday, an AFP reporter at the scene said.