A quick visit to Dili has sobered the Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer.

John Martinkus – What appear to be written orders from East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao to rebel former soldier Alfredo Reinado confirm the close relationship the now escaped crimin

Australia will continue providing military support to help maintain security in East Timor, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said on Monday, amid renewed concerns about stability in th

Lindsay Murdoch in Dili and agencies – East Timor's Prime Minister, Jose Ramos Horta, has warned that voters' hostility towards the ruling Fretilin party could make his country difficul

Mark Dodd – Eight East Timorese refugees were injured yesterday by thugs using police-issue pistols and machetes in Dili, in an attack diplomats fear was designed to trigger a new wave

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Australian security forces hunting Alfredo Reinado, who led a mass escape from Dili's jail this week, should know he has XXX tattooed on the back of his neck.

Quentin Dempster: Returning now to our earlier story, the shootings this afternoon in an East Timor refugee camp, and the so-far fruitless search for 57 men who broke out of a Dili jail

International police and troops in East Timor were searching for rebel leader Major Alfredo Reinado after a mass jailbreak raised serious concern about fragile security in the fledgling

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Alfredo Reinado, the swaggering military police officer blamed for plunging East Timor into chaos, has escaped from Dili's main jail with 55 other prisoners, inc

Two months back, when East Timor's then Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, was dramatically forced to resign after weeks of violence and chaos, from many quarters, there was an audible sigh

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – The Australian Federal Police has defended an officer accused of ordering a senior East Timorese policeman to take off his uniform in public, saying two inquirie

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – For years the United Nations tried to cover up perverted and outrageous behaviour by uniformed and civilian personnel who have served in East Timor since 1999.

Canberra – Former East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said in an Australian television interview that unidentified foreigners had approached army commanders in a failed bid to organ

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – An Australian federal policeman allegedly demanded that a senior East Timorese police officer take off his uniform in public in an incident that has angered Timo

August 25 – The International Federation for East Timor (IFET) today said that the Security Council should create a new UN mission to Timor-Leste which fully integrates all internationa

United Nations – The UN Security Council voted unanimously Friday to authorize 1,600 international police and 34 military liaison officers for a follow-on mission in East Timor – but no

John McBeth – For three years now, the small white house across the street from the football field in the heart of the frontier town of Atambua has been used as a mess by Indonesia's pa

Nelson da Cruz, Dili – At this makeshift camp, thousands of East Timor's displaced people fear for their safety as youths intermittently hurl rocks at their temporary homes and rumours

Mark Dodd – East Timor will double its spending on police and defence this financial year, under a national budget worth $US451.9 million ($601 million).

Dili – East Timor expressed regret Wednesday over two Australian policemen injured in a mob attack by youths overnight, the latest unrest to hit the tiny nation.

Dili – Intra-mural opponents of former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's continued leadership of East Timor's dominant FRETILIN party said Monday they hope to convene an extraordinary cong

Youths burnt several houses to the ground in the East Timorese capital yesterday in the latest outbreak of unrest to hit the strife-torn country, eyewitnesses and international peacekee

Jerry Norton, Dili – An agreement critical to advancing development of the Timor Sea's biggest gas resource could go to East Timor's parliament in September or October, and would likely

Jerry Norton, Dili – During the day, Fernanda Gomez stands at her tiny roadside kiosk selling canned goods and sundries in front of the blackened remains of burned-out houses in her vil

Mark Dodd – East Timor's highest court has declared legal the controversial "show of hands" vote that endorsed the leadership of then prime minister Mari Alkatiri at a national party co

Jakarta – For more than two decades, the brutal military occupation of East Timor, a distant, impoverished, peripheral territory, brought Indonesia little but disdain and dishonor on th

Reporter: Geoff Thompson

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – One of Indonesia's most senior officials has admitted that his country was directly responsible for failing to stop the murderous chaos that accompanied i

East Timor's parliament has passed the 2006-7 fiscal year budget, the young nation's largest ever at 315 million dollars, after a delay caused by violence and political upheaval in May.

Andy Alcock – For those who have supported the independence of Timor Leste (TL) for over 30 years, Timorese and others, the events occurring there over the past few months are heartbrea

Violence erupted again in Dili at the weekend as gang members armed with slingshots and rocks roamed the streets.

Two human rights groups today commended the UN Secretary-General's continued attention to the need for accountability for past human rights crimes in Timor-Leste, but called his proposa

Nelson da Cruz, Dili – More than two months after battalions of foreign troops arrived in East Timor to restore calm, tens of thousands of refugees are still living in grim camps, sayin

Todd Crowell, Hua Hin, Thailand – The turmoil in East Timor and the subsequent deployment of Australian and other peacekeeping troops has prompted much soul-searching, especially among

Australian police could be deployed in East Timor for another five years and in greater numbers after the strife-torn country asked the United Nations to set up an 800-strong multinatio

Australia will cut its peacekeeping troops in East Timor by the end of this year, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer announced today, signalling that tension is easing in the troubled st

Lindsay Murdoch – East Timor's former interior minister, Rogerio Lobato, twice admitted during closed court hearings that he armed civilian Timorese so they could murder enemies of the

Jeremy Ballenger – With the present situation slowly heading for political resolution, time has come to consider the next steps for the fledgling government of Australia's newest neighb

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – United Nations peacekeepers have abandoned at least 20 babies fathered with poverty-stricken Timorese women.

Mark Dodd – Lawyers for East Timor's disgraced former interior minister, Rogerio Lobato, have accused Australian soldiers of breaking international human rights laws when they hauled hi

His Excellency Kofi Annan Secretary General
The United Nations
1 United Nations Plaza New York
New York 10017-3515

July 21, 2006

Dear Mr. Secretary General,

Morgan Mellish, Dili – Australian police have taken over patrolling the streets of Dili from the army, in a sign authorities are confident order has been re-established in East Timor's

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Life in Dili's refugee camps isn't too bad. A boy sits on sacks of rice strumming his guitar. Mothers stir pots of boiling food.

Avelino Coelho da Silva, Dili – The conflict that arose recently in Timor Leste has caused more suffering for the nation's poor people, confronting them with an uncertain economic and p

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Australia's military presence in East Timor will be wound back, starting with at least 300 personnel, the Prime Minister, John Howard, announced during a flying

United Nations – UN special envoy Ian Martin on Wednesday stressed the need for a "substantial" UN police presence in volatile East Timor to create the conditions for credible parliamen

Howard is off to East Timor today, allegedly to meet the Aussie troops and the new PM Jose Ramos Horta.

Mark Dodd and Stephen Fitzpatrick in Jakarta – On his first day in office this week, East Timor's new Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta accepted a cache of illegal weapons from a former s

Marianne Kearney, Dili – Mr Joao Cancio Freitas might be the director of Dili's Institute of Technology, but like almost three quarters of this city's population, he has spent weeks liv

Kalinga Seneviratne, Sydney – East Timor's new Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta has been warmly welcomed by Australia's foreign minister Alexander Downer as a leader who could help solve