Max Lane – Jakarta's long war against East Timor may be (officially) over and may now be less of a "foreign policy issue" in formal Australian-Indonesian relations.

Jakarta – The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) has implicated former Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen.

Richard Lloyd Parry, Dili – The truth is that it had been brewing for weeks, but the trouble really began at the former school building in the ruined city of Dili.

Kupang – Five months after their flight from violence in East Timor, more than 150,000 people are still languishing in West Timorese camps where security is described as "fragile."

Marian Wilkinson – Indonesian security forces drew up extensive plans weeks before the United Nations ballot to move 200,000 people from East Timor using thousands of trucks and escort

[The following is the full text a secret report for the Indonesian Government which makes it clear that the TNI directed the militia violence against East Timor's independence vote and

Xanana Gusmao travelled through six Asian nations last week with his colleague in the East Timorese leadership, Jose Ramos Horta, seeking investment and projecting a desire for new dipl

United Nations – UN investigators have recommended that the United Nations establish an international human rights tribunal to prosecute those responsible for atrocities in East Timor,

The findings of both UN and Indonesian human rights investigations into the atrocities in East Timor are soon to be made public. Marian Wilkinson reports on the evidence so far.

Darwin – A Dutch journalist shot dead in East Timor was probably killed by Indonesian troops, an Australian coroner said yesterday.

Kupang – The real losers in East Timor's tumultuous transition to independence from Indonesia, the pro-Jakarta militias and their supporters, met at a rundown hotel here Wednesday to de

Associated Press in Dili – Gangs of youths wielding machetes and clubs rioted on Tuesday in Dili's main marketplace, seriously injuring at least four people, eyewitnesses said.

Dario Agnote – With a pack of Australian-made apricot jam and some bread she picked up from a heap of thrash, Margarita Pereira, a skinny 8-year-old, and her eight siblings hurry back h

Dili – East Timor will adopt the US dollar as its official currency under United Nations rule, a senior member of the National Council for Timorese Resistance (CNRT) told Reuters on Mon

John Martinkus, Dili – The Nobel Peace laureate Mr Jose Ramos Horta has blamed the Indonesian military for the militia border incursions that have seen Australian troops under fire in t

Marian Wilkinson and Peter Cole-Adams – Australia would consider a request to hand over classified intelligence material to the Indonesian human rights inquiry investigating war crimes

Linda Tenenbaum – Four months after the Australian-led military occupation of East Timor, the United Nations is establishing a colonial-style administration in the former Indonesian ter

Ray Brindal, Canberra – Australia and East Timor stand to reap hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties if oil and natural gas projects in the zone of cooperation in the Timor Sea p

John Martinkus, Dili – Pro-Indonesian militia challenged the authority of Australian troops in the East Timorese enclave of Oecussi this morning, the fifth time in the past three days.

Tensions are rising as the rebuilding of East Timor begins, Conor O'Clery writes from Dili.

Conor O'Clery, East Timor – The electricity power station in Los Palos, a remote town on the eastern plains of East Timor, survived the devastation wrought on the former Portuguese colo

Jon Land – The low wages that workers receive in East Timor today are little different from the pre-referendum rate, but given the dramatic increase in food and basic commodity prices s

Sam King, Dili – The stated aim of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) is to effectively administer the country during the period of transition to a po

Canberra – The commander of the multinational peacekeeping force in East Timor said Monday that he had issued a warning to his troops after a group of women complained of sexual harassm

Jakarta – Indonesia on Monday urged the United Nations to give Jakarta the chance to complete its own inquiry into atrocities in East Timor before stepping up international action.

Ian Timberlake, Dili – East Timor's leadership plans to start paying volunteer public servants as part of measures to ease growing frustration over the lack of progress since Indonesian

Three people have been injured in Dili during violent scuffles when thousands of poor and unemployed East Timorese scrambled to apply for jobs offered by the United Nations administrati

Dili – A number of pro-Indonesian militiamen and members of their families were attacked when they tried to return to their homes in East Timor, a UN official said Friday.

United Nations civilian police have arrested a pro-Indonesian militiaman implicated in one of the first mass murders in East Timor last year.

Jakarta – Over 400 East Timorese who fled their violence-ravaged homeland following the August 30 self-determination ballot have died from various diseases in their refugee camps throug

Dili – A piece of cardboard torn from a Tiger beer carton covers the small beef satays (kebabs) to help them smoke on Emilio Gomes' grill.

John Martinkus, Kupang – Exiled pro-Indonesian militia leader Eurico Gutteres who was widely blamed for the destruction of Dili wants to negotiate a return to East Timor for himself and

Associated Press, Baucau – Gang warfare has broken out in East Timor's second largest city leaving several people injured, UN officials said on Tuesday.

Carmel Egan, Dili – Murder, rape and torture erupted on the East Timorese capital's streets as soon as the historic referendum was declared a victory for independence on September 4, an

Andrew West – An Australian Federal Police officer could face charges after revealing the truth about the bloodbath in East Timor to Australia's Parliament.

Joanne Collins, Dili – East Timor is likely to count Indonesia, its old and often brutal master, as its top trade partner as the devastated fledgling nation strives to rebuild, the Unit

Sam de Silva, Dili – About 400 people marched Wednesday from the office of protest organsier, the Socialist Party of Timor (PST) to the gates of the UNTAET headquarters to protest for t

Annie White: A top East Timorese official has accused Australian aid groups and businesses of profiteering in East Timor.

Dili – In the first serious protest against the UN administration running East Timor, some 200 unemployed laborers demonstrated Wednesday against the use of Indonesian workers by compan

Jakarta – Human rights activists have slammed the latest testimony made by Major General Zacky Anwar Makarim on the violence that destroyed about 70% of East Timor's infrastructure last

Keith B. Richburg, Dili – At one of the two new floating hotels in Dili last week, it was standing room only at the upper-deck bar.

Agencies in Jakarta and Dili – A senior Indonesian army general admitted yesterday that pro-Jakarta militias and some disgruntled Indonesian soldiers had committed murder and arson in E

John Martinkus, Memo – Local residents here on the East-West Timor border remain terrified of an Indonesian attack following this week's shooting incident between Indonesian troops and

Terry Townsend – The streets of what is left of Dili, the capital of East Timor, were packed on October 31, 1999, as tens of thousands of people joined a procession led by Catholic Bish

[Source: Sydney Morning Herald - January 2, 2000]

Table of contents

Introduction

Keith B.

Jakarta – A former battalion commander in East Timor admitted on Thursday that his troops ambushed two foreign journalists in the territory's capital of Dili on September 21.

Dili – East Timor's leader Xanana Gusmao said here Friday that he foresaw the territory obtaining full independence in at most two years – a year less than currently envisaged.

Dili – East Timor's independence leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao said Friday that East Timor will be the first new independent nation of the new millennium, but not with him as pr