Chris McCall, Laivai – L7 is disgusted with East Timor's government. Its leaders ran away from war to save their skins, he said, and are now back to squabble over the spoils of independence.
"They went away and they did nothing for this country," he said. "In the end Falintil struggled on its own. In the end Timor was independent."
Washington – A US rights group has urged Washington and the United Nations to press Jakarta to colaborate with East Timor in trying Indonesian officials accused of crimes against humanity in the formerly occupied territory and called for the creation of an international criminal court.
United Nations General Secretary Kofi Annan has recommended to the Security Council to slow the withdrawal of UN troops from East Timor. Citing the frequency of security-related incidents over the last three months, Mr Annan said there was a need to readjust the downsizing plan.
Presenter/Interviewer: Kanaha Sabapathy
Kate Stockdale, Darwin – Local community organisations, politicians and activists – meeting regularly as the Refugee Action Network (RAN) – are campaigning to allow all 1800 East Timorese asylum seekers to stay in Australia.
The Australian Parliament is expected to ratify the Timor Sea Treaty this week, ensuring a 20-billion dollar contract for natural gas can go ahead. East Timor ratified the Treaty in December and has been nervously waiting for its bigger neighbour to do the same before a crucial March 11 deadline.
Dili – East Timor on Wednesday created a new post of vice-prime minister in a bid to boost government efficiency in the world's newest nation.
Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri appointed Justice Minister Ana Pesoa to the new post. Pesoa, of the ruling Fretilin party, is to be replaced at the Justice Ministry by her deputy, Domingos Sarmento, the prime minister said.
Nigel Wilson – Last-minute negotiations are taking place on arrangements between Australia and East Timor that could result in legislation implementing the Timor Sea Treaty being introduced into Parliament either today or tomorrow.
Reverend David Pargeter – In 1990 a large regional military power, Iraq, invaded a small neighbour, Kuwait, after accusing it of stealing oil from an oilfield straddling their common border. Both major political parties in Australia supported military intervention to drive Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
Max Lane – The article by Jose Ramos Horta defending the "aggressive strategy" of the US administration of George W Bush towards Iraq is not a surprise. Horta's approach to diplomacy throughout the struggle for East Timor's independence was always based on offering assurances to Washington that an independent East Timor would be friendly towards US interests.
Jakarta – The East Timor government on Monday sought to distance itself from indictments issued against a former Indonesian armed forces chief over violence that ravaged the tiny territory in 1999.
Larry Schwartz – The boys have been asking their father why they must leave family and friends in suburban Melbourne and go to another country.
Kium Kit Lim says: "They ask me, "Why must we go to East Timor? Why can't we stay here?" I say it's because we came here late. The little one says, "I'm an Aussie. You go back. I'll stay here."
Dili – Sitting by the road on the Dili waterfront, Jose Belo Pereira ekes out a living selling coconuts to passers-by. His two-dollar-a-day profit is not exactly what he hoped for under independence.
Dili – Timor Leste prosecutors charged more than 50 people, including a former police chief and a militia boss, with crimes against humanity yesterday over violence surrounding a 1999 vote for independence from Indonesia.
Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Denpasar – East Timor President Xanana Gusmao voiced disappointment over the court's issuance of dozens of indictments of senior Indonesian officials for serious crimes committed in the territory in 1999, fearing that it could undermine ongoing reconciliation between the two countries.
The drought may be finally breaking in Australia, but in East Timor continuing drought is causing severe problems. A number of children have already died and the current weather conditions are hampering the recovery effort in several parts of the country.
Transcript:
Dili – East Timor prosecutors charged more than 50 people on Friday, including a former police chief and a militia boss, with crimes against humanity over violence surrounding a 1999 vote for independence from Indonesia.
Mark Baker, Singapore – East Timor has warned that hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues vital for the country's development could be lost because of the Australian Government's refusal to ratify a treaty on joint development of oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.
Mark Dodd, Dili – In the laboratory of Cafi Cooperative Timor (CCT), senior adviser Alistair Laird, a "cupping" expert, is applying a final quality-control test to assess the fragrance, aroma and taste of a range of samples of East Timor's finest organic certified arabica coffee beans.
Nug Katjasungkana, Contributor, Dili – On Tuesday, the Dili-based Office of the Prosecutor General of Timor Leste issued an indictment of former military commander Gen. (ret) Wiranto and six other officers who served in East Timor, as well as former governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares, of crimes against humanity.
The failure of Indonesia's rights tribunal to bow to international demands for the prosecution of the alleged perpetrators of human rights abuses in East Timor has prompted the indictment of several high-ranking officers, including former military chief Gen. (ret) Wiranto, observers said.
Jill Jolliffe, Darwin and Tom Allard, Canberra – United Nations prosecutors have charged the former Indonesian defence chief General Wiranto with crimes against humanity for his role in the violence surrounding East Timor's 1999 referendum on independence.
Five other officers have also been accused, along with ex-governor Abilio Osorio Soares.
The international rights group Human Rights Watch called on Indonesia to turn over for trial its officials accused of organizing atrocities committed in East Timor in 1999.
In a statement released here, Human Rights Watch urged Jakarta to extradite the officials for trial in the East Timor capital Dili.
Dili – East Timorese officials blamed anti-independence militias Tuesday for an attack that killed two people, injured four and heightened security fears in the world's newest nation.
A man aged 29 was killed on the spot in Monday's attack in the Maliana district bordering Indonesian West Timor. A 64-year-old man died in hospital Tuesday, his relatives said.
Yemris Fointuna and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta/Kuala Lumpur – The military commander overseeing the West Timor province promised tighter security along its border with East Timor where one person died on Monday in an attack allegedly staged by pro Jakarta militia who crossed the border to West Timor.
Jakarta – Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said Tuesday Indonesia would ignore UN indictments of former armed forces chief Gen.(ret) Wiranto along with six other generals for crimes against humanity during East Timor's bloody independence vote in 1999, AP reported.
"He is a free man ... Why take action?" Hassan said on Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The United Nations Serious Crimes Unit has indicted General Wiranto, the former governor of East Timor, Abilio Soares and six other senior military officers, for murder and persecution in the lead-up to East Timor's independence in 1999. But with the Indonesian Government unlikely to hand any of the men over for trial, will justice ever be done?
Jakarta – The United Nations on Tuesday indictedthe former armed forces chief Gen. (ret) Wiranto, along with six other senior generals and East Timor's ex-governor for crimes againsthumanity during the territory's bloody independence vote in 1999, AP reported.
Dili – Some 200 East Timorese staged a rally in the new nation's capital Dili on Tuesday to demand compensation for their past services to former ruler Indonesia.
Dili – Anti-independence militias have launched a "terrorist strategy" to undermine Timor Leste's government before the planned United Nations withdrawal from the country next year, a top UN peacekeeper said.
Dili – Unidentified gunmen killed one person and seriously injured two pregnant women in an attack Monday on a minibus in East Timor, officials said.
The group fled after the attack at 12:45 pm near the village of Aidabaleten in Maliana district, said Deputy Defence and Security Minister Roque Rodrigues. He gave no further details.
Shepard Forman, New York – Even as the United Nations focuses like a laser on Iraq, it must not lose sight of its other commitments.
Kuala Lumpur – Saying the US government deserves more credit for its Iraq policy, East Timor's Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta on Saturday criticized what he called "illogical anti-Americanism" fueled by fears of a US-led attack on Baghdad.
East Timor's foreign minister Jose Ramos Horta, in New Zealand this week on a private visit, once had 10 brothers and sisters. Now he has six. Four died in the violent and suppressive regime which ruled East Timor for 25 years. Ian Stuart of NZPA reports.
Deborah Snow – Charges are understood to have been laid against a former senior soldier in the Special Air Service after a long investigation into allegations of serious misconduct by members of the elite unit in East Timor.
Australia's Immigration Minister Phillip Ruddock has been asked to establish a special visa category in a bid to allow a group of East Timorese to stay in the country.
The special visa would apply to about 18-hundred East Timorese asylum seekers who are facing deportation.
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Noted religious leaders grouped in the National Moral Movement (GMN) called on the government to halt the East Timor human rights trials, claiming that they were politically motivated.
Jakarta – Former foreign minister Ali Alatas said on Wednesday that the offer of secession from Indonesia to the East Timorese in the UN-organized ballot in August 1999 was a "premature" decision of (former) president B.J.Habibie's government.
East Timorese asylum seekers have a special case to be allowed to stay in Australia.
Jakarta – A former Indonesian military chief for East Timor said Monday he tried to prevent massacres in East Timor in September 1999 and that none of his own men were involved.
"None of the witnesses who were heard in court said that the TNI [the armed forces] was involved in the attacks," Colonel Noer Muis told a human rights court.
Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – West Timorese people have demanded the United Nations to revoke a security status imposed on the province after a mob killed three UN humanitarian workers in 2000, saying it was keeping away aid workers, tourists and foreign investors.
Zakki Hakim, Jakarta – A coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will use the occasion of the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) in Geneva next month to press for international intervention in the ongoing East Timor human rights trials.
Jill Jolliffe, Dili – A small group of East Timorese ex-prisoners listens, transfixed, to the text of the UN's 1987 Convention on Torture.
For the first time they learn that the people who tortured them are considered criminals. The listeners break into broad smiles and give thumbs-up signals.
Paul Toohey – Critically needed containers of medical, health and school supplies have been stockpiled on Dili's wharf because of heavy smuggling and what East Timorese-based aid workers say is suspicion of Australia's motives.
Jakarta – Former Indonesian military chief General Wiranto on Thursday defended his record over East Timor's bloody 1999 breakaway from Jakarta, saying he had helped prevent a civil war there.
Canberra – The United Nations and Australia agreed it was too early to withdraw peacekeepers from East Timor after riots in December but its police must be strengthened so they can take over from troops, Prime Minister John Howard said.
Royal Abbott, Melbourne – Five Melbourne mayors have joined the Victorian government in appealing to Canberra to halt plans to forcibly deport 1,400 East Timorese who have been denied permanent residency.
Many of the East Timorese have lived legally in Australia for 10 years and have established roots they are unwilling to sever to return to their once-troubled homeland.
Stephen Steele, Washington – More than three years after East Timor voted for independence, access to adequate health care, education and basic human rights remains out of reach for most people in the country, said an East Timorese human rights worker.
John Ward and Peter Symonds – The Australian government is deliberately delaying the signing of an agreement with East Timor, known as the Timor Sea Treaty, as a means of blackmailing the small, newly independent country into conceding a greater share of off-shore oil and gas reserves to Canberra.
Dili – The commander of Australian UN peacekeepers in East Timor has dismissed reports that former anti-independence militiamen have infiltrated from Indonesia and were behind recent attacks on Timorese villages.
The UN Special Crimes Unit in East Timor has charged former militia commander, Joao Tavares, and four Indonesian TNI, or military, officers for atrocities in the territory before and after a UN sponsored vote for independence from Indonesia in August 1999. They are among 32 people, including 15 TNI soldiers, accused of murder, torture, persecution and other crimes.