Debate continued Thursday in East Timor's parliament on the future constitution of the territory, due to become independent next May.

Oslo – Most of the 60,000 East Timorese refugees still abroad are likely to return by the end of 2002 and any linked to pro-Jakarta militias will be treated fairly, the territory's chie

Members of East Timor's Constituent Assembly approved a motion Thursday extending the period for debate and approval of the future Constitution until January 25, more than a month after

Jakarta – Indonesia was unlikely to arrest a military officer charged in the first trial of cases of crime against humanity arising from the mayhem surrounding East Timor's 1999 indepen

Dili – East Timor's fledgling lawmaking body on Tuesday adopted the tongues of both their native ancestors and Portuguese colonisers as the official languages of the world's newest nati

Bronwyn Curran, Jakarta – Ten members of a gang responsible for one of the worst massacres linked to East Timor's 1999 vote for independence were Tuesday found guilty of crimes against

Jill Jolliffe – In 1996, I had been told about a man who claimed to have been at Balibo when the journalists died, as part of an Australian SAS force.

Jill Jolliffe – A former defence minister in the Whitlam government, Bill Morrison, has left open the possibility of an SAS operation to evacuate the Balibo Five from the border area of

Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Indonesia said on Friday reports the United States gave former president Suharto the green light for the bloody 1975 invasion of East Timor came as no surpri

Joanna Jolly, Dili – Hundreds of people commemorated the anniversary Friday of Indonesia's 1975 invasion of East Timor, as speakers demanded justice for 24 years of brutal occupation.

East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao Friday downplayed the impact of newly released US documents showing that Washington had been informed of and approved Indonesia4s invasio

[Ford and Kissinger gave green light to Indonesia's invasion of East Timor, 1975: New Documents Detail Conversations with Suharto.

Jim Wolf, Washington – US President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gave late Indonesian strongman Suharto the green light for the 1975 invasion of East Timor that le

Jakarta – Former deputy commander of the East Timorese pro-integration fighters (PPI), Eurico Guterres, on Thursday registered with the Central Jakarta court a class action against form

East Timor4s chief minister, Mari Alkatiri, has expressed concern over mounting domestic violence against women, urging his people to put an end to such practices as part of the territo

Nigel Wilson – A new wave of confidence is emerging that East Timor and Australia within weeks will reach agreement on key aspects of future development of Timor Sea gas reserves.

Richard C. Paddock, Dili – The girl's nightmare began when she was 13 and a pro-Indonesia militia burned down her village.

Jill Jolliffem Dili – Just a block away from the imposing United Nations building that dominates the Dili waterfront, two East Timorese girls are soliciting outside Tom's Place, a recen

Dili – The threat of violence from pro-Indonesian militias opposed to East Timor's independence has decreased significantly, raising hopes that thousands of peacekeepers may soon be abl

Don Greenlees, Jakarta – Militia groups opposed to East Timor's separation from Indonesia are a spent force, incapable of presenting a military threat across the border from West Timor,

The Constituent Assembly today approved a motion recommending that East Timor's first presidential election be held in the first or second week of April 2002, and that the voting proces

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – East Timor's charismatic leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao and former pro-Jakarta militia leader Joao Tavares agreed on Tuesday to end their hostility and

Canberra – Indonesia and Australia will set up a tripartite consultative forum to help East Timor solve problems that may arise in its transformation into an independent state, Indonesi

Dili – With East Timor due to become the world's newest nation in six months, hundreds of people rallied Wednesday to mark the territory's first declaration of independence 26 years ago

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – Indonesian authorities say they do not regard last year's Memorandum of Understanding between East Timor and Indonesia on transfer of prisoners as valid, East Timo

Don Greenlees, Jakarta – United Nations prosecutors in East Timor have lodged an indictment against 21 people, including senior Indonesian military, militia and government officials, ov

Kupang – A top military officer here said East Timorese refugees in East Nusa Tenggara province no longer feel they have leaders.

Paul Osborne Brisbane – The problems of East Timorese refugees in West Timor and the disarmament of militia should be resolved within three months, the emerging nation's foreign ministe

Karen Polglaze, Melbourne – The interests of the people of East Timor would have been totally compromised had former Labor prime minister Paul Keating stayed in the top job, Prime Minis

Nigel Wilson – Government-level talks in East Timor next week are seen as the last chance of early development of vast Timor Sea gas reserves.

Joanna Jolly, Dili – Thousands of East Timorese gathered at the Santa Cruz cemetery on Monday to commemorate the 10th anniversary of a brutal massacre by Indonesian troops that shocked

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – Ten years after the massacre that shocked the world, memories are still raw in East Timor.

Atambua – A man lobbed a Korean-made grenade into the middle of a crowded East Timorese refugee camp in Manumutin village, Atambua, early Sunday but the device failed to explode, a loca

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – As of January 2002, the government will no longer provide any financial or food assistance to East Timorese refugees in West Timor as it will reinstate the Ind

Robert Garran – Indonesian troops attacking the East Timorese town of Balibo in October 1975 had good reason not to want five Australian-based journalists to escape, according to a new

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – The news that Japan has authorised its troops to serve overseas, despite the country's pacifist constitution, sends shudders down the spine of Marta Pereira, an ag

Jakarta – The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Tuesday that it has helped repatriate 188,646 East Timorese refugees from Indonesia's West Timor in the past two years.

United Nations – The Security Council decided Wednesday that the UN-administered territory of East Timor should become independent on May 20 next year.

Jakarta – Chief of the Udayana Military Command overseeing Bali, East and West Nusa Tenggara, Maj. Gen. Willem T.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – In line with the planned establishment of an independent East Timor early next year, Indonesia and East Timor have agreed to demilitarize their border areas to

Disparity between the lifestyles of UNTAET personnel and the people of Timor Lorosae is sowing the seeds of social envy.

Hong Kong – East Timor's future president Xanana Gusmao has recalled his fury when Australia refused to accept temporarily a handful of East Timorese students fleeing persecution in Ind

Setiyardi, Timor Lorosae – Floating hotels are a symbol of high living, an irony in stark contrast to widespread poverty in Timor Lorosae.

More than 3,200 East Timorese refugees returned home from Indonesia during October, the UN High Commission for Refugees said Monday in Dili, underlining it was the biggest one-month inf

Jakarta – The Indonesian government has decided to halt humanitarian assitance to East Timorese refugees in West Timor at the end of the year, a senior minister said in remarks publishe

Presenter: The commemoration of East Timor's newly-gained independence has been scheduled for 20 May [2002], however, the chief minister of the provisional government, Mari Alkatiri, sa

Virginia Marsh – If all had gone to plan, divers would now be laying a pipeline along the seabed linking Darwin to the substantial gasfields off its shores and a decades-old dream would

Evelyn Leopold, United Nations – East Timor's newly elected constituent assembly asked the United Nations on Monday to grant it independence next May 20, paving the way for a reduction

Dili – Indonesia-East Timor trade relations have good prospects in future so that there is glimmer of hope that certain parts of their common borderline will eventually be opened for ac

Dili – Indonesia's currency, the rupiah, especially of the Rp 5000 to Rp 50000 denomination, is still legally accepted as a means of exchange in Timor Lorosae, along with the US dollar.