Louise Williams – East Timor's rapidly souring stance towards Australia is all about money.
Oil and gas money. It's an emotive tale of the world's poorest and youngest nation confronting the region's richest nation over a fair share of the wealth beneath the Timor Sea.
John Kerin – John Howard has used a previously top-secret report to comprehensively reject explosive claims of intelligence agency failures by Lieutenant-Colonel Lance Collins.
The rebuff comes in a seven-page letter to Lieutenant-Colonel Collins, obtained by The Australian, in which the Prime Minister rejects the whistleblower's call for a royal commission.
Naval lawyer Martin Toohey today continued his criticism of Australia's spy agency the Defence Intelligence Organisation (DIO), saying it was politicised and misled the public.
Captain Toohey has attacked the Federal Government over its treatment of him and whistleblower Lieutenant Colonel Lance Collins amid allegations of failures by the DIO.
The senior officer who wrote a damning report on the Australian intelligence services says he has been made a scapegoat in a "shabby, tawdry cover-up". John Lyons reports.
Jon Lamb – Human rights and solidarity organisations are deeply concerned by the Golkar party's nomination of General Wiranto for president of Indonesia. Wiranto, the former head of the Indonesian military, was indicted in February 2003 for his role in coordinating the 1999 terror campaign in East Timor, conducted by the Indonesian military and its militia proxies.
Robyn Waite, Dili – During April 14-16, an empty block opposite the Australian embassy in Dili became a fervent and colourful site of protest, as more than 1500 people mobilised to oppose the Australian government's violation of East Timorese sovereignty in the Timor Sea.
Sarah Stephen, Sydney – "Each of us has to choose between being either a champion of human dignity or a collaborator with an increasingly inhuman system", Sister Susan Connelly from the Mary MacKillop Institute of East Timorese Studies told a crowd of 600 people in the Sydney Town Hall on April 21.
Federal Labor today supported a lawyer who wrote a damning report on Australia's intelligence services and who now claims the government has been involved in a shabby cover-up.
Lt Col Lance Collins' claims that Australian officials attempted to suppress crucial intelligence about East Timor may have found an unlikely new ally – a diplomat at the US embassy in Canberra. Paul Daley reports.
Australian Prime Minister John Howard rejected allegations by another senior military officer that his government was involved in a cover-up over a critical report into defence intelligence.
Bob Burton, Canberra – Australia's effort to block East Timor from billions of dollars of oil resources – by refusing to agree to a maritime boundary between the two countries – will be tested by an emerging coalition of community groups, which insist on economic justice for the world's newest nation.
Lisbon – East Timor's president lashed out at Australia, saying in an interview published Tuesday that Canberra had snatched oil reserves that belong to his country.
In an interview with the Portuguese newspaper Publico, President Xanana Gusmao added his voice to the increasingly public spat between the countries over a disputed oil field in the Timor Sea.
James Irwin, Singapore – Some cracks are appearing in Australia's refusal to renegotiate the Timor Sea Treaty with East Timor – the latest being the emergence of past testimony from a key member of the Australian negotiating team, Dean Bialek, that his country should negotiate in good faith with East Timor and not deplete resources in disputed areas.
Melbourne – East Timor would work with former military chief General Wiranto if he is elected Indonesian president despite his alleged war crimes, the fledgling state's first lady said Monday.
Wiranto was last week selected as the presidential candidate for the Golkar Party, which ruled Indonesia for 35 years under former President Suharto.
By anyone's standards, it's been a long day. The flight to Australia, the burden of intermittent media commitments, the trip to Sydney's Taronga Zoo with two screaming toddlers. It's her birthday, too, and no call yet from hubby, President Xanana Gusmao. Yet Kirsty Sword Gusmao, first lady of the fledgling nation of East Timor, is undaunted.
Sydney – Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer accused East Timor of trying to stir up sympathy over its claims for a greater share of oil and gas revenues from the Timor Sea oil reserves.
Alan Boyd, Sydney – Benefactor or bully? Australia has been portrayed as both in its protracted standoff with tiny East Timor over US$30 billion worth of deep-sea oil and gas reserves. So uneven is the contest, between the richest and poorest nations on the southern rim of the Pacific, that Canberra was always going to come off worse in the public relations battle.
Alan Ramsey – Five years ago a brilliant man hanged himself. Five weeks ago a distinguished army officer put his career on the line in an extraordinary letter to the Prime Minister. Both men were driven by remarkably similar circumstances. Each felt betrayed by the closed, insiders' culture of Australia's intelligence community. One succumbed and took his life.
Alisa Newman Hood – Barely two years after achieving independence, East Timor is learning to navigate the stormy seas of new nationhood in more ways than one. Its population, the most destitute in Asia, continues to suffer the typical scourges of the desperately poor: widespread unemployment, illiteracy, high infant mortality and short life expectancy.
Alison Roberts,Lisbon – East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao has launched a fierce attack on Australia's attitude in its dealings with the fledgling country.
Mr Gusmao said there was an unequal struggle with Australia to secure oil and gas resources.
Hugh White – Our key agencies got the big questions right and called the issues as they saw them.
Let's test the recent claims made by Australian Army intelligence officers about the handling of intelligence over East Timor in 1999.
Lisbon – President Xanana Gusmao of East Timor said Thursday that his country's "unequal struggle" with Australia over disputed offshore hydrocarbon resources bore parallels with Dili's independence fight against Indonesia.
Hobart – The East Timorese were fuming over Australia's plans to steal their oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea, Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown said today.
Australia and East Timor began talks earlier this week to establish a permanent maritime boundary in the oil-rich Timor Sea.
Sydney – Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer rejected appeals to settle a maritime boundary dispute with East Timor in international courts Thursday and lashed critics who accuse Canberra of bullying its impoverished neighbour.
Jon Lamb – The recently formed Movement Against the Occupation of the Timor Sea (MKOT) staged a series of peaceful demonstrations in Dili on April 14-16, demanding an end to the theft of East Timor's oil and gas resources.
Jakarta – Rights activists expressed dismay on Wednesday after a former Indonesian military chief accused of crimes against humanity became the Golkar party's presidential candidate.
Wiranto, 57, has been indicted in East Timor for failing to curb army-backed militia atrocities against independence supporters in the Indonesian-ruled territory in 1999.
Vannessa Hearman, Melbourne – On April 14, 50 members of the Timor Sea Justice Campaign met outside the High Court to launch the group. Comedian Rod Quantock was joined by protesters disguised as Prime Minister John Howard and foreign minister Alexander Downer. They waded in the ornamental pool, making a grab for Timorese oil, represented by black balloons.
Last month, the Australian government released new offshore areas for companies to bid for petroleum exploration permits. This includes territory that is much closer to East Timor's coast than to Australia, which East Timor's government claims as part of our national territory.
Mark Forbes, Canberra – A senior army officer may sue the Howard Government over his treatment after warning of widespread failings in the intelligence system.
John Kerin and Steve Lewis – A classified document warning intelligence analysts of the risks of providing advice challenging a "pro-Jakarta lobby" in the bureaucracy was circulated within Australia's defence agencies in the late 1990s, a former senior analyst has told The Australian.
Dili – Australian Green Party leader Bob Brown said in Dili on Wednesday he is pessimistic about negotiations between East Timor and Australia over the disputed maritime boundary between the two countries.
Talking to reporters after meeting with East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, Brown said Australia would not change its mind on the boundary.
Now to East Timor, where for the last three days, teams from there and Australia have been in bitter negotiations over where our sea boundaries lie and who will control the oil and gas royalties within them, worth an estimated $30 billion. This has been an ongoing issue between the two countries, which to date has been handled reasonably amicably.
In the wake of The Bulletin's damning exposi of Australia's intelligence services and the attempted character assassination of Lieutenant Colonel Lance Collins, come further explosive charges against the military and its political masters. John Lyons reports.
Viseu, Portugal – Economic difficulties in the world's newest nation, East Timor, are a potential source of violence, President Xanana Gusmao has warned.
Nigel Wilson – Australia is being painted as a bully and an ogre for refusing to accept an East Timor argument that a maritime boundary should be negotiated that gives East Timor control of potentially billions of dollars in oil and gas revenues.
Bob Burton, Canberra – As protests mount in East Timor, the Australian government is under increasing pressure to agree to a maritime boundary halfway between the two countries rather than a border that would deprive the world's newest nation of billions of dollars in oil revenues.
Sonny Inbaraj, Dili – East Timorese activists have thrown their support behind their government's refusal to ratify an agreement giving Australia the lion's share of disputed oil and gas fields in the Timor Sea as talks begin here this week to demarcate the two countries' maritime boundaries.
Jakarta – Indonesia's largest political party picked a retired general indicted for human rights abuses in East Timor as its presidential candidate Wednesday, drawing condemnation from critics who called him a war criminal. The Golkar Party of ex-dictator Suharto selected Gen.
Tanya Nolan: East Timor and Australia will this afternoon start nearly a week of talks, on the increasingly tense issue of a permanent maritime boundary.
And in the lead-up to the meeting in Dili, East Timor has turned up the pressure by threatening not to ratify an agreement for a seabed oil and gas project, worth $8 billion. From Canberra, Graeme Dobell reports.
Dili – Tiny East Timor has launched another swingeing attack on Australia as the two countries begin formal talks to settle their sea border and the ownership of billions of dollars in offshore oil and gas revenues.
Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said the issue is "a matter of life and death" for his country, which was Asia's poorest nation upon independence in May 2002.
David Fickling, Sydney – East Timor risks becoming "another Haiti" because of an attempt by Australia to exploit offshore oil and gas reserves between the two countries, according to its president, Xanana Gusmao.
Sydney – Australia was on Monday accused of bullying impoverished East Timor about the division of revenue from a multi-billion dollar oil and gas field as talks to establish boundaries began in Dili.
Mark Colvin: Australia and East Timor appear to be on a potential collision course over the future of a seabed boundary between the two countries.
Officials from both countries are in Dili today for the start of new talks to resolve what's shaping up as a major thorn in bilateral relations.
Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Denpasar – East Timor Attorney General Longinus Montero said on Sunday the trial of former Indonesian Military chief Gen (ret) Wiranto for his alleged role in crimes against humanity and war crimes in the former Indonesian province might not materialize due to lack of evidence.
Erwin Z, Jakarta – A total of 278 Indonesian citizens currently residing in the An-Nur mosque, Dili, East Timor, have requested that the Indonesian Representatives' Office (KUKRI) in the country to pay attention to them as they have been isolated by the East Timorese authorities.
Tom Allard – The liberation of East Timor has frequently been cited by the Prime Minister, John Howard, as one of his proudest achievements in eight years of government. True enough, a nation was born and no Australian lives were lost in restoring order and quashing militia remnants in the ravaged former Indonesian province.
Hamish Robertson: Here at home, the controversy over allegations of bias and intimidation in Australia's intelligence services has deepened this morning.
A new report has been released, backing claims by top military intelligence officer, Lieutenant Colonel Lance Collins, who says he's been victimised by a "pro-Jakarta lobby" in the intelligence community.
Jose Ramos-Horta – I have been fighting for the independence of my country since the early 1970s. I lost three brothers and a sister, as well as countless friends and relatives, to the violence visited upon my people during 25 years of brutal Indonesian occupation.
Jakarta – East Timor's last Indonesian-appointed governor Friday denounced a Supreme Court ruling convicting him for the 1999 bloodshed there, saying he was a scapegoat for army generals who escaped punishment.
Mark Forbes, Canberra – The barrister whose report was used to deflect allegations of intelligence failings made by a senior military analyst says his views do not invalidate those allegations.