[The following is abridged from a statement issued on May 20 by the Movement Against the Occupation of the Timor Sea (MKOTT).]

Dear Australian people,

Warm solidarity greetings from East Timor!

Jill Jolliffe, Darwin – Officially it was a day of celebration, but there was an undertone of pessimism at ceremonies in Dili last Thursday marking East Timor's second independence anniversary and the drastic cutback of the United Nations' peacekeeping mission.

Dennis Shanahan – Australia has pressured the leadership of the fledgling state of East Timor, warning it that more public attacks over oil rights could severely damage the relationship.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao says he has told his country's top law officer it is not in East Timor's interests to try to prosecute Indonesia's former military commander Wiranto for crimes against humanity.

East Timor's independence hero is furious with Australia, he tells Peter Hartcher in Dili.

Xanana Gusmao, the President of East Timor, has accused the Australian Government of pursuing a policy on the rich seabed oil reserves between the countries that "offends our intelligence".

Australia, already exploiting the wealth of the Timor Sea, has bright prospects of much more to come. East Timor, still waiting and dependent on aid from Australia and elsewhere, is impatient. Its determination to win a better deal on Timor Sea resources is straining relations with Australia in a way not seen since it won its independence, with Australia's help.

Sian Powell, Jakarta – Backs straight, arms swinging, faces set: the East Timorese troops and police officers marched slowly past the assembled dignitaries at this week's independence celebrations in Dili's football stadium.

Jakarta – The Supreme Court said on Monday it upheld a conviction of crimes against humanity by a special tribunal against three Indonesians officials for their roles in the church killings of 27 East Timor independence supporters in 1999.

Peter Kammerer – East Timor remains among the world's poorest and least developed nations on the second anniversary of independence, but observers are not as gloomy about its future as might be expected.

Eleanor Hall: The Oxfam Community Aid Abroad report into East Timor is highly critical of the Australian Government, particularly its approach to the Timor Sea oil and gas fields. And the report says it's in Australia's national interest to be more generous and to help prevent East Timor from becoming a failed state.

Dili – Both East Timor and Indonesia are "on alert" for any resurgence of anti-independence militia activity following Dili's assumption of full security control from the United Nations, says East Timor's foreign minister.

Matthew Moore, Dili and Craig Skehan – Five years after more than 14,000 United Nations troops and police restored order to a devastated East Timor, and on the eve of the second anniversary of the country's independence, Dili has taken over responsibility for its defence and internal policing.

A Central Sydney rally has called on the Australian Government to give East Timor its fair share of revenue from Timor Sea oil and gas reserves.

Australia and East Timor are negotiating a maritime border in the Timor Sea. An interim treaty was implemented 12 months ago until a more permanent arrangement is found.

East Timor's Parliament has an unusual gift in mind for its people today, the second anniversary of independence. Since East Timor first raised its national flag in 2002, popular euphoria has been slowly but steadily seeping away. Last year the fragile economy declined.

Dili – East Timor celebrated its second anniversary Thursday while its leaders called for patience in the face of a sputtering economy and a declining UN presence in Asia's poorest nation.

President Xanana Gusmao, a former freedom fighter jailed by Indonesia during its 24-year occupation, told thousands of revelers that the country's future was in their hands now.

John McBeth, Dili – When the clock strikes midnight on May 19, genuine independence will remain elusive for East Timor.

Eleanor Hall: Today marks two years since the creation of the world's newest nation, East Timor. But it seems the euphoria that accompanied its political independence from Indonesia has given way to anxiety about its long-term future.

Jon Lamb – Not much has been publicly revealed about the mid-April negotiations between Australia and East Timor on the maritime boundary. The ABC Four Corners on May 10, however, made it clear that the Coalition government intends to continue to refuse East Timor sovereign control over its territory in the Timor Sea.

James Bowden, Darwin & Iggy Kim, Sydney – A public meeting of 40 people on May 6 had spirited discussion and debate on the Australian government's theft of East Timor's oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea.

Dili – Fledgling nation East Timor is making good progress in rebuilding its shattered infrastructure, cutting its budget deficit and making laws to stimulate its moribund economy, international donors said Wednesday.

However, East Timorese officials insist they need more aid to reduce poverty, establish a judiciary and provide security.

Michelle Nichols, Canberra – East Timor, the world's newest nation, is in danger of becoming a failed state because Australia is dragging its feet on maritime border talks and hindering the development of its neighbour, aid agency Oxfam said on Thursday.

Dili – East Timor wants to find a solution "acceptable to all" for crimes against humanity committed in its territory in 1999 by Indonesian troops and pro-Indonesia militias, its foreign minister said Sunday.

Jakarta – East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao said his government could not annul an arrest warrant for Indonesian retired General Wiranto issued by a United Nations-backed human rights tribunal based in Dili, Indonesia's news agency reported Sunday.

The UN Security Council is set to renew the mandate of the UN Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET) for a further six months, the United Nations said yesterday.

As East Timor prepares for the second anniversary of independence next week, the country remains one of the world's poorest. For most East Timorese, education and basic health care – even access to clean water – are beyond reach. The situation has been highlighted by the death of a 12 year old girl.

Presenter/Interviewer: Marion MacGregor

United Nations – The UN Security Council voted to keep a drastically scaled back UN mission in East Timor to support the legal, law enforcement and security institutions that the government has established since independence two years ago.

Mark Colvin: There's more trouble tonight for the embattled Canberra defence intelligence establishment. The family of Lieutenant Colonel Merv Jenkins, Australia's top spy in Washington during the East Timor crisis, is taking the Federal Government to court.

Dili – East Timor's chief prosecutor has asked judges to revoke an arrest warrant for Indonesian presidential candidate Gen. Wiranto over the 1999 violence in the half-island nation, saying prosecutors needed to further review the case.

Longuinhos Monteiro described the warrant issued by the UN-backed special tribunal earlier this week as "premature."

With a warrant out for his arrest, the general should not be a political candidate.

The presidential campaign of Indonesia's Golkar Party is off to a shaky start – in international eyes at least. A United Nations court in East Timor has issued a warrant for the arrest of the party's candidate, the former Indonesian armed forces commander, Wiranto.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – East Timor's top prosecutor has said there "might be some defects" in an indictment against former and serving Indonesian officers accused of human rights abuses in a move that appears certain to sink any further attempts to prosecute them.

Sian Powell, Jakarta – In an extraordinary reversal, East Timor's prosecutor-general has distanced himself from an arrest warrant issued for Wiranto, former Indonesian armed forces commander and heavyweight presidential candidate in Indonesia's forthcoming election.

Canberra – Australia will leave around 100 peacekeeping troops in East Timor if the United Nations extends its mission in the world's newest country for another year as expected, the government said on Wednesday.

Jakarta – Minister of Foreign Affairs Hassan Wirayuda and several members of the House of Representatives on Tuesday shrugged off the United Nations-backed East Timorese court's decision to issue an arrest warrant for former Indonesian Military chief Gen. (ret) Wiranto after charging him with crimes against humanity.

Four Corners investigates the increasingly rancorous fight between Australia and East Timor over the multi-billion dollar oil and gas bonanza that lies beneath the waters dividing them.

Indonesian's ex-military chief Wiranto has formally announced his presidential candidacy whilst dismissing an arrest warrant issued against him by an East Timor judge as "character assassination." "There are several pieces of information that are behind these charges, there clearly is an involvement of political activities in this country," Wiranto told reporters.

Indonesian presidential candidate, former armed forces chief Wiranto continues to attract controversy. United Nations prosecutors in East Timor have issued an arrest warrant against General Wiranto for alleged crimes against humanity.

East Timor's Prosecutor General has filed a court motion for a "revision" of the case against Indonesian presidential candidate Wiranto, a day after a UN-backed court issued a warrant for his arrest.

John Aglionby, Jakarta – A UN tribunal issued an arrest warrant yesterday against Indonesia's former military commander General Wiranto for crimes against humanity allegedly committed in East Timor five years ago.

Andrew Burrell, Manila – A United Nations-backed tribunal yesterday issued an arrest warrant for Indonesia's former military chief Wiranto, in a move that could become a wildcard issue in next month's presidential election campaign.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – A United Nations-funded court in East Timor has issued an arrest warrant for the Indonesian presidential candidate Wiranto, beginning a process that could see the former military commander arrested if he leaves the country.

Sydney – An Australian journalist has been arrested in East Timor, accused of subversion and threatened with expulsion, an international press freedom organization said Tuesday.

The claim by the group Reporters Without Borders came just a week after the Paris-based group lauded the fledgling nation for having one of Asia's freest presses.

Mark Colvin: It's unlikely that Indonesian authorities will act on the arrest warrant against General Wiranto. They've already failed to act on similar warrants in hundreds of other cases.

The Deputy Prosecutor for Serious Crimes in Dili, Nicholas Koumjian, outlined the case against Wiranto to Anne Barker.

Mark Colvin: Indonesia's former military commander in chief, General Wiranto, is a man of shifting fortunes. Just a few weeks ago, he tasted his first ballot box victory, storming to the presidential nomination for the Golkar Party, formerly led by President Suharto.

East Timor's existence is under threat because of Australia's claims over the poor nation's natural resources, President Xanana Gusmao claims.

Daniel Dasey – A Sydney man accused by East Timor's Prime Minister of being a subversive has denied any wrongdoing, saying he is the subject of a political vendetta.

Journalist and PhD student Julian King, who has lived in East Timor for four years, was arrested in Dili on Thursday and was being held in the city's police station yesterday afternoon.

Deborah Snow – The then head of the Defence Department, Paul Barratt, was angry and perplexed in late December 1998. He had just learned of Prime Minister John Howard's letter to the Indonesian President, B.J.Habibie, suggesting he grant autonomy to East Timor in advance of an eventual act of self-determination.

East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said that an Australian activist and freelance journalist ordered expelled from the country a day earlier had participated in the looting of his home in 2002.

Rochelle Mutton – The worm-ridden body of a 12-year-old girl, who was suffocated by hundreds of the parasites, has alerted authorities to the spectre of worm infestations in East Timor.

Like thousands of other East Timorese children, the girl could have escaped death with the help of a 10-cent tablet.

Jakarta – The US-based Human Rights Watch on Saturday urged East Timor's parliament to exclude serious human rights crimes from a general amnesty law now under consideration that proposes to pardon culprits in the country's 1999 bloodbath.

The newly ordained bishop of Dili, Alberto Ricardo da Silva, has promised to work for reconciliation between East Timorese living in and outside of the country.