Max Lane – The release of Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) documents on East Timor for the period 1974-76 has provoked former Labor Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and former

Jon Land – Nothing can highlight more the failure of the Indonesian government to rein in the pro-Jakarta militias operating in West Timor than the sham weapons handover that began on S

Mark Dodd, Malibaka – It is only 8am but the sun is scorching, and the 23 East Timorese refugees squat in the shade at the Malibaka River checkpoint after crossing back into their homel

Jakarta – Under international pressure to rein in troublesome militias, Jakarta extended security operations to disarm the West Timor population but on Monday firmly laid the blame for

Jakarta – Former leader of East Timor's Aitarak militia Eurico Guterres warned here Monday that his supporters in West Timor could try to take over an East Timor district if he was arre

Chong Chee Kin, Dili – In a soft, quavering voice, Mr Jose Armando pleaded for a job in front of a group of journalists who had stopped at Kampung Baru, a village in the capital of Dili

Associated Press at the United Nations – Britain joined the United States in warning overnight that Indonesia risked losing foreign aid if it doesn't immediately disarm militias and arr

Associated Press in Kupang – A notorious militia leader surrendered a handgun to police on Saturday after Indonesia's president threatened to have him arrested if he refused.

Vaudine England and Associated Press in Kupang – Two days after the start of what was supposed to be a campaign to forcibly disarm East Timorese militiamen in West Timor, Indonesian pol

United Nations – The UN official running East Timor, Sergio Vieira de Mello, reiterated on Friday that he was "skeptical" about the ability of the Indonesian army to disband militias in

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Indonesia yesterday failed to meet its deadline to disarm Timorese militias, despite increasing international pressure on Jakarta to rein in the army gangs.

Mark Dodd, Suai – Dead men tell no tales, according to the adage, but the body of a dead militiaman can reveal a bounty of information.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Eurico Guterres, the swaggering militia leader blamed for atrocities in East and West Timor who continues to thumb his nose at authorities, has threatened to

Mark Dodd, Dili – Falintil guerillas, acting as scouts for Portuguese peacekeepers, have for the first time opened fire on suspected militia members conducting cross-border raids from W

Vanja Tanaja, Dili – The newest addition to East Timor's political landscape was declared formally at the National Council of Timorese Resistance headquarters on September 20: the Socia

Jon Land – Negotiations on the future of the Timor Gap Treaty between the Australian government, the United Nations Transitional Administration for East Timor (UNTAET) and East Timorese

Mark Dodd, Oecussi – It is the dry season and the villagers of Malelat, a remote collection of thatched huts amid parched mountains, are discussing an impending problem.

Dili – The head of the UN mission in East Timor on Monday branded Indonesian attempts to disarm pro-Jakarta militias as "pathetic" after two UN observers fled a militia riot at a West T

Lindsay Murdoch – The Whitlam Government gave Jakarta every indication that Australia favoured Indonesia's 1975 invasion of East Timor, according to Indonesia's former foreign minister,

Washington – Senior US government officials are actively considering steps, including moving to postpone next month's donors' meeting for Indonesia, if the government of President Abdur

Atambua – Bowing to international pressure, Indonesia has begun to disarm pro-Jakarta Timorese militias even as Attorney-General Marzuki Darusman said that the Indonesian Military (TNI)

Calvin Sims, Jakarta – Indonesia, September 20 Tens of thousands of East Timor refugees living in squalid camps on the West Timor border face starvation by the end of the month, governm

Vaudine England, Jakarta – Several soldiers are among six suspects being questioned by Indonesian authorities over the murder of UN relief workers and an East Timorese militia leader in

Bruce Haigh, Sydney – Critics of the Federal Government's failed policies towards Indonesia and East Timor have been targeted by the Government.

Mark Riley, New York – Indonesia has ordered the West Timorese militia to surrender their arms or have them forcibly removed, as the Wahid Government moves to avert the threat of econom

Andrea Hopkins, Canberra – Secret files released on Tuesday show the Australian government lied about its knowledge of the murder of five journalists in East Timor weeks before Indonesi

Max Lane – Prime Minister John Howard's Coalition government has released foreign affairs documents relating to the 1974-76 period in a cynical ploy to use Australian people's outrage a

Jon Land – When news of the killings in West Timor of workers from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) by pro-Jakarta militia reached Prime Minister John Howard, he

David Lague – Four key government intelligence experts on East Timor were named in the warrant police used on Saturday to search a Federal Opposition staff member's home in an inquiry i

Jakarta – The Indonesian government's plan to resettle pro-Jakarta militias and more than 100,000 refugees on an island just 60 km north of East Timor has been rejected by several leade

Mark Dodd, Dili – United Nations police in East Timor have opened a formal investigation into the 1975 killing of five Australian-based journalists at Balibo and say they may lay charge

Alan Ramsey – It was never a secret. If you were around at the time with your eyes and your brain open, you'll remember.

Jakarta – Indonesia's defense minister has accused foreign powers of inciting rioters to murder three UN aid workers in West Timor last week, media reports said Friday, ostensibly to st

Bertil Lintner, Maliana – An Australian soldier holds his finger tightly on the trigger of his automatic rifle, watching with his unit for movement in the brush across the stream that s

Just-released Foreign Affairs documents show how Australia encouraged Indonesia to grab East Timor by its own early complicity in plans for the takeover, writes Hamish McDonald.

Jon Land – The brutal murder on September 6 of three United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) staff by pro-Jakarta militia thugs at Atambua marks a dangerous turning point fo

Tom Hayland – The depressing saga of Australian efforts to establish the fate of the five Australia-based TV reporters killed in Balibo illustrates the bind that Australian diplomats ha

No check was made to see if any Australians were in the area before Indonesia's attack, Foreign Affairs documents show. Hamish McDonald reports.

Hamish Mcdonald – Australian diplomatic cables released yesterday covering Indonesia's takeover of East Timor in 1974-76 show officials caught in a web of deceit and moral compromise th

Kerry O'Brien: First, the Timor papers, released today, which finally confirm after a quarter of a century of suspicion that Australia was warned in advance of Indonesia's brutal invasi

Compere: We begin by going back almost exactly a quarter of a century to the momentous spring of 1975, the time leading up to the two most contentious and divisive issues of recent Aust

Compere: Well, supporters of East Timor have long interpreted Australia's actions as a betrayal on the broad international stage of an entire people, but there's also that narrower focu

Jakarta – The global group Human Rights Watch on Saturday called for an independent investigation with UN participation of the brutal murders of three UN humanitarian workers in West Ti

David O'Shea – On the balcony of their new home in Kupang, West Timor, her fingers covered in gold rings, Mrs Guterres watches her children play in front of the office that publishes he

Keith Loveard, Vaudine England and Agencies – The United Nations said 20 people were killed in renewed fighting in Indonesian West Timor yesterday, two days after the murder of four aid

Joanna Jolly, Dili – An Indonesian aid worker now in hiding in West Timor believes notorious East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres started arming youths in the provincial capital

Barbie Dutter, Dili – Survivors of the savage militia rampage through a United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in West Timor told of fleeing for their lives as colleagues

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Indonesia promised to send two extra battalions to the West Timor border where militia killed up to six United Nations staff on Wednesday, as speculation aros

Irwan Firdaus, Atambua – Hundreds of gun-toting militiamen staged a show of force Friday in a West Timor village where UN officials fear the militants killed 20 people despite Indonesia

Lindsay Murdoch – The plan was simple and savage: kill Olivio Mendoza Moruk and the pro-Jakarta militia roaming West Timor would go berserk, as they did when they left East Timor last y