Dili – It was announced on 21 December 2004 that the governments of East Timor and Indonesia had agreed on the formation of a Truth and Friendship Commission to look into the Referendum-related violence which took place in East Timor in 1999, however, the precise details as to how this will be achieved remain unclear.

Aboeprijadi Santoso, Amsterdam – Indonesia has asked East Timor to initiate a joint-commission of truth and reconciliation to resolve the issue of the violence during and after the United Nations-organized vote in East Timor in 1999.

Kupang – Atambua Bishop Anton Pain Ratu has called on the Timor Leste government to grant amnesty to former pro-Jakarta militia as part of efforts to end refugee problems in West Timor, East Nusa Tenggara province.

Bob Burton, Canberra – Despite his reputation as a progressive social thinker, former Australian Labor Party prime minister Gough Whitlam – according to just declassified documents – refused to criticise the invasion of East Timor by the Indonesian military in December 1975 or the subsequent brutal treatment of its population.

A law regulating demonstrations and assemblies passed by East Timor's parliament violates basic rights to free expression and assembly, Human Rights Watch said today. President Xanana Gusmao should refuse to sign this law.

After 25 years of repression and persecution, the tiny country of East Timor is racked with poverty and in desperate need of rebuilding. John Vidal on the efforts being made to help the Timorese stand on their own two feet

1. In response to the proposition for the establishment of a UN Commission of Experts, on Tuesday, December 21, 2004, the Governments of Indonesia and Timor Leste declared the establishment of bilateral Truth and Friendship Commission (TFC).

Indonesia has rejected UN plans for a commission that would study Jakarta's resolve to punish those responsible for human rights abuses in East Timor in 1999.

There have been mixed reactions this week to a proposal by Indonesia and East Timor to set up a joint commission to investigate the violence in East Timor four years ago. The plan was announced on Tuesday after talks between Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his East Timorese counterpart Xanana Gusmao in Bali.

John Aglionby, Jakarta – Indonesia and East Timor have agreed to set up a truth and friendship commission to address the issues of 1,500 murders and thousands of other human rights violations committed during the 1999 independence referendum in East Timor.

Shawn Donnan, Jakarta – Indonesia and East Timor announced this week they would establish a bilateral "truth and friendship commission" to heal wounds between the two countries left by the 1999 violence in which Jakarta's military and associated militias laid waste to East Timor.

The United States welcomed creation of a joint Indonesia-East Timor commission on the 1999 bloodshed in the former Portuguese colony, but made clear the necessity of a separate UN inquiry as well.

Washington – US officials do not want a planned Indonesian-East Timorese commission on 1999 violence in East Timor to supplant UN efforts to determine if justice has since been done, a senior US official said on Wednesday.

Indonesia and East Timor announced plans for a historic joint commission to draw a line under past hostilities and resolve the 1999 bloodshed that marred the East Timorese march to independence.

Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – Indonesia and its former province East Timor are set to reject an idea to establish a commission of experts to review the judicial processes of human rights abuse cases involving Indonesian military and police officers during a meeting with UN Secretary General Kofi Annan this week, a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in Jakarta.

East Timor's cabinet has passed a landmark petroleum law that will open the door to foreign firms seeking oil and gas exploration licences and create millions of dollars in revenue for the impoverished nation.

Dili – East Timor's Serious Crimes Unit (SCU) indicted 14 people Friday for war crimes committed in 1999, in what the joint Dili-United Nations body said would be its last indictments before winding up its investigations.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – The leaders of Indonesia and East Timor have quietly agreed to discuss setting up a "truth and friendship commission" that would reconsider the massacre of East Timorese about the time of their 1999 vote for independence.

Reporter: Anne Barker

Eleanor Hall: East Timor has upped the ante in its dispute with Australia over oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

[East Timor: Testimony. Elaine Briere. Between the Lines Books. 128 pages, 64 photographs, $56.95.]

Stephen Langford – For people involved in East Timor's struggle, this book is a must-read. I have Elaine Briere to thank for my start in East Timor solidarity, and I am an admirer of her photography, and of her documentary on East Timor, Bitter Paradise.

Dili – Dili understands the worries of investors over corruption in East Timor and the government is determined to crackdown on the emerging phenomenon in tandem with aid donors, Foreign Minister Josi Ramos Horta said Tuesday.

John Vidal, Dili – The only way to reach the village of Fatuhei in East Timor is a four-hour hike over tropical mountains. You are then in one of south-east Asia's most isolated places – seven miles from the nearest school and health clinic, 10 from a rudimentary road, and 20 from any public transport.

Brendan Nicholson – Troops in East Timor were allegedly told to stop filing reports on Indonesia's role in the violence there.

East Timor wants the United Nations to extend its mission here for at least another year after its current mandate expires next May in order to strengthen the nascent state's still-fragile security institutions, Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta said Friday.

An army whistleblower today found some backing for his claims after a government review found Australian troops in East Timor had been cut off from top secret information.

Late today, Defence Minister Robert Hill released details of a review by Inspector General of Intelligence and Security Ian Carnell into claims by army officer Lance Collins.

Nigel Wilson – John McCarthy, Australia's ambassador to Indonesia at the time of the Australian-led peacekeeping mission in 1999, yesterday confirmed Indonesia was critical of Australia's argument on maritime boundaries.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Over 270 people, who were deported from East Timor, were moved into a dormitory belonging to East Nusa Tenggara's Manpower and Transmigration Office in Kupang on Thursday.

Reporter: Anne Barker

Mark Colvin: A court in East Timor has jailed a former pro-Indonesia militia leader to 15 years jail for murder and crimes against humanity.

Dili – East Timor's human rights court has sentenced a senior member of a pro-Jakarta militia to 15 years in prison for organizing an attack on the house of an independence leader's house which left a dozen people dead.

Jean-Pierre Catry – Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, told the Security Council this year that: "Limited revenue and widespread poverty within the country continue to pose severe constraints on Timor-Leste's social and economic development.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) here Wednesday condemned the expulsion of 253 Moslems from East Timor, saying the action was a violation of the Moslems' human rights.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – After five hours of immigration checks in Motaain, on the border of East Timor and Indonesia, 62 people were deported from the neighboring country, finally arriving on Monday evening in Atambua, the capital of Belu regency in East Nusa Tenggara.

Cynthia Banham – The East Timorese Foreign Minister, Jose Ramos-Horta, has accused Australian officials of attempted blackmail during recent negotiations over the new nation's maritime boundaries.

Mark Dodd – An Australian businessman working in East Timor has been found guilty by the World Bank of corruption in connection with the procurement of school equipment for the impoverished country.

Tom Noble, Dili – East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao wants Australia to be fairer in negotiations over disputed oil and gas reserves, saying the delays are profoundly affecting the new nation's economy and it was "a matter of life and death for the state we are building".

Reporter: Mark Colvin

Mark Colvin: East Timor's Foreign Minister, Jose Ramos Horta, says the relationship between his country and Australia seems to be at its lowest point since the liberation in 1999.

Eight former pro-Jakarta militiamen have been jailed in East Timor for crimes against humanity committed in the mayhem surrounding a 1999 UN-backed vote that led to the country's separation from Indonesia.

A special court Thursday convicted the eight of abducting and torturing two independence supporters in Dili in May 1999.

East Timor President Xanana Gusmao warned Friday his emerging nation still faces the threat of incursions by armed militias, most likely from Indonesia's West Timor.

Mark Dodd, Darwin – The chief investigator of the Bali bombings, Inspector-General Made Mangku Pastika, is himself under investigation for East Timor war crimes.

Dili – Eight East Timorese anti-independence militiamen have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from four to eight years for crimes against humanity committed in 1999, Dili's UN- backed Serious Crimes Unit (SCU) announced Monday.

Have successive Australian governments been lapdogs to the Indonesian military in their assessment of the impact of East Timorese independence on the interests of Indonesia? Clinton Fernandes, a former military intelligence officer and now a historian, certainly thinks so.

Rod Mcguirk, Canberra – A senior East Timorese official Thursday lamented the likely scrapping of a $5 billion natural gas project in the Timor Sea because of a deadlocked border dispute with Australia.

Lachlan Colquhoun in Sydney and Shawn Donnan in Jakarta – Woodside Petroleum, Australia's biggest oil and gas producer, said on Wednesday it would halt its investment in the A$6.6bn (US$5.2bn) Sunrise project in the Timor Sea following the breakdown of talks between Australia and East Timor over how to split the revenues.

Irwin Arieff, United Nations – The Security Council extended the life of a UN peacekeeping mission in East Timor for a final six months on Tuesday after Secretary-General Kofi Annan argued the fledgling nation was still too fragile to stand up on its own.

Canberra – Australia staked its claim Tuesday to its vast undersea continental shelf, asking the United Nations to grant it rights to minerals and other resources under a tract equivalent to almost half the country's land mass.

Veronica Brooks, Canberra – East Timor's government must return to the negotiating table with more realistic expectations if a protracted maritime boundary dispute between Australia and the impoverished nation is to be resolved, Industry and Resources Minister Ian Macfarlane said Thursday.

Neither the current East Timor government nor the international community has made a particularly high priority of bringing to justice those responsible for the human rights abuses perpetrated in 1999, when East Timor broke away from Indonesia.

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta – The Attorney General's Office is looking into the possibility of building new cases against the military officers widely believed to have been responsible for the atrocities that occurred before and after the East Timor referendum in 1999.

Jakarta – The former governor of East Timor, Abilio Jose Osorio Soares requested that the gross human rights abuse cases in East Timor be determined through a Truth and Reconciliation Commission [KKR]. "All Indonesia has to do now is to arrange it so that what occurred before the ad-hoc human rights laws came into existence would be dealt with through KKR.