Paul Toohey – Saturday morning, things went crazy.

Helen Hill – The Australian Government and media have demonised East Timor's PM without knowing all the facts,

Maryann Keady – Three years ago, I wrote a piece talking about attempts to oust Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri in East Timor, then a new struggling independent nation.

Max Lane – On May 24, East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri and the speaker of East Timor's parliament Lu'olo sent a letter to the governments of Australia

It is almost a week now after the arrival there of Australian peace-keepers but peace, you'd have to say, still seems a way off.

Jon Lamb – In response to ongoing clashes between the East Timor Defence Force (FDTL) and rebel soldiers and police, the East Timorese president, prime minister, foreign minister and sp

Dili – East Timor dumped its defense minister Tuesday and the government showed signs of further unraveling, as desperate residents scuffled over scarce food in the capital and looters

James Dunn – East Timor's descent into violence and anarchy, and towards civil war, chaos came as a shock, including to this columnist who has been involved in the affairs of this commu

Tom Allard and Mark Forbes in Dili – A humanitarian and political crisis was escalating in East Timor last night, as mobs looted government food warehouses, burnt properties and shot an

Lawrence Bartlett, Sydney – The explosion of violence in East Timor was the result of an accumulation of ethnic, economic and historical grievances in the young country and the failure

Mark Dodd, Dili – East Timor President Xanana Gusmao has assumed sweeping new executive authority, invoking emergency powers under the country's constitution to help resolve the politic

Tom Hyland – The UN, Australia and the East Timorese Government had multiple warnings of the looming internal security crisis that has plunged Dili into violent chaos.

Washington – A US-based pressure group has warned Australia that its invited military intervention in East Timor to quell unrest did not entitle it to interfere in the country's governm

Prime Minister John Howard had ignored the difficult task facing East Timor in the wake of the ruinous Indonesian occupation, Australian Democrats Leader Lyn Allison said today.

Hamish McDonald – Australian warships silhouetted in the calm blue waters, a squat Hercules on the airfield surrounded by young soldiers armed and wired to the teeth, and John Howard wa

We have watched the unfolding situation in Timor-Leste this past week with deep concern. We do not believe that events had to escalate to this point.

Rita A.

Anthony Deutsch, Dili – East Timor's capital descended into chaos Saturday as rival gangs set houses on fire and attacked each other with machetes and spears, defying international peac

George Quinn – On its independence day almost exactly four years ago, the people of East Timor seemed literally to be singing on the same page.

Mark Forbes – Wide-eyed youths brandish machetes, armed militias rampage through the streets, terrified civilians flee, soldiers lay siege to police headquarters and your sleep is broke

Mark Forbes, Dili – The thud of grenades and chatter of machine-gun fire was drowned out by the drone of a huge, grey Australian Hercules yesterday carrying the men locals pray will del

Damien Kingsbury – Australia's renewed intervention in East Timor will help defuse what was growing into an explosive situation, and which threatened the fledgling state.

Events in East Timor and the response internationally have given rise to a variation on gunboat diplomacy. It is gunboat democracy.

Ambitious politicians misjudge the mood in the military and soon the shooting starts, with the factions fighting over the pathetically small spoils of power.

Rory Callinan, Dili – The large rock flying past the windscreen raised the alarm.

Jill Jolliffe and Rob Taylor, Dili – Heavy casualties have been reported in the centre of Dili where a fierce gun battle raged between rival military factions today.

Dylan Welch – Fighting was raging around East Timor's capital today ahead of the promised deployment of up to 1300 Australian troops to restore order.

Jon Lamb – Heightened tensions within East Timor and rumours of further violent clashes have subsided with the passing of the Fretilin congress, held in Dili on May 17-19.

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Widespread disenchantment with East Timor's government, a poorly led military and widespread poverty and unemployment are fuelling the worst unrest since the

Guido Guilliart, Dili – A surge in violence in East Timor's capital left one soldier dead and seven others wounded Tuesday, the government said, as Australia and New Zealand offered to

Vera Devai – The Australian Government was hampering the investigation into the death of a TV news cameraman in East Timor because of its political ties with Indonesia, NSW police said

Mark Forbes, Dili – Crowds danced to a cover version of Van Halen's Jump in the forecourt of East Timor's battered government headquarters on Saturday night – celebrating the anniversar

Mark Forbes, Dili – East Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's leadership has been overwhelmingly endorsed in raucous, joyous scenes at the ruling Fretilin party conference, after a c

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Dili – Mari Alkatiri was so confident he had stitched up the leadership of East Timor's ruling Fretilin party that by morning tea at the party's national congress y

Graeme Blundell – David Wenham and a cast of East Timorese amateurs are stunning in a new ABC drama about the bloody history of the world's newest nation

Katrina Strickland – There is a scene in the ABC's new mini-series, Answered By Fire, in which a journalist tells a couple of United Nations police that the Australian government receiv

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – East Timor's Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri avoided a leadership challenge this week but it is doubtful his rule will ensure any peace in the world's youngest

Loro Horta – It was a hauntingly familiar scene. Large-scale riots broke out in East Timor late last month, attended by looting, arson and the murder of five civilians.

Mark Dodd and Stephen Fitzpatrick, Dili – Police in East Timor have failed to restore law and order following last month's deadly violence because the Interior Minister is too preoccupi

Paul Toohey – The dirt roads and hills in the western districts of the country are now their home.

Former People's Consultative Assembly (MPR) chairman Amien Rais said for the sake of justice former East Timor pro-integration fighter Eurico Gutteres should be freed from all legal pen

Dili – East Timor's foreign minister Jose Ramos-Horta said his country does not need foreign peacekeepers, shortly after Australia said it had sent two warships close to Timorese waters

Jon Lamb – Fearing renewed violence, tens of thousands of East Timorese have fled Dili to outlying villages and districts.

Jakarta – A number of members of the House of Representatives' Commission I dealing with security, political and foreign affairs paid a visit to former commander of the pro-integration

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – An East Timorese policeman was stabbed to death yesterday after security negotiations broke down in the western district of Ermera, where more than 600 re

Stephen Fitzpatrick – The would-be guerilla fighters playing hide-and-seek in misty highlands far beyond East Timor's capital, Dili, are a mixed lot but they have one thing in common: t

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – An East Timorese police commander has moved to calm panicked residents of Dili, telling them he only took his armed men into the mountains to protect people wh

Bronwyn Hurrell, Canberra – Australia has an affinity with East Timor that dates back to World War II when Australian soldiers were supported and sheltered by the locals, who paid a hig

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Last week's protests in East Timor were sparked by a group of sacked soldiers, but a combination of disaffected youth, poverty and anger as the government tu

Stephen Fitzpatrick and Mark Dodd – More than 20,000 East Timorese, fearing renewed ethnic violence, have fled the riot-torn capital of Dili as the Government made desperate calls for c