East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao has taken another swipe at the new country's politicians in a Christmas message to his people.

Simon Elegant, Venelale – During the bloody insurrection that produced the new nation of East Timor, Hasan Basri presented residents of the small town of Venelale with a proposition: give me your youngest children. I will feed them, I will educate them, and most importantly, I will protect them.

Dili – East Timor's outgoing bishop, Carlos Belo, hit back Friday at accusations he had made a fool of an Indonesian human rights court hearing charges against Indonesian military officers, saying he would never appear before it.

New York – The Indonesian ad hoc court for East Timor has utterly failed to bring to justice the perpetrators of the 1999 violence in East Timor, Human Rights Watch charged in a new briefing paper released today.

John Ward and Peter Symonds – In the wake of violent protests in the capital of Dili on December 4, the East Timorese government, backed by UN officials, has attempted to deflect attention from the country's mounting social tensions by blaming politically-motivated "provocateurs".

[The United Nations and legal workers in East Timor have accused the international community, including Australia, of failing to offer continuing support to the country's reconstruction. More than six months after independence, there is broad agreement that the justice system is in crisis.

Jill Joliffe, Dili – The recent resignation of Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo as head of the Catholic Church in East Timor has brought to a close a courageous and painful period in the life of the Nobel laureate. And, in the current volatile climate, it has also heightened the feeling of political insecurity in the newly independent nation.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Dominggus dos Santos, the suspected main actor in the deadly riot in Dili, East Timor on December 4, was arrested on Monday night in the Indonesian territory of Atambua, Belu regency, when he was trying to escape from the United Nations Civilian Police (CivPol). Kupang military chief Col.

Nigel Wilson – The East Timor parliament has ratified the Timor Sea Treaty with Australia, further embarrassing the Howard Government.

The office of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri confirmed last night that parliament had voted 65 to 13 to approve the treaty on the administration of petroleum reserves between Darwin and Dili.

Veronica Brooks, Canberra – The Australian government Wednesday said it welcomes the passage of East Timor's legislation implementing the Timor Sea Treaty.

A spokesman for Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer also told Dow Jones Newswires that Australia's legislation on the treaty will be ready for introduction into parliament in early 2003.

Dili – The parliamentary inquiry into Dili's deadly rioting found that street demonstrations began "spontaneously" but appeared to have turned into mob action for "political motivations", the commission's chief told Lusa Monday.

Chris Brummitt, Jakarta – Indonesian security forces looked on but did nothing when a pro-Indonesia mob attacked a church in East Timor, killing at least 27 people, a witness said Monday during the trial of an army general accused over the violence three years ago.

Jakarta – A human rights court trying an Indonesian army general heard the first live televised testimony Monday from witnesses in East Timor.

In a broadcast funded by the World Bank, a former Indonesian soldier and a former police detective gave separate accounts of deadly attacks on a church in Suai town and the Dili Catholic church diocese offices in September, 1999.

Phil Zabriskie – When East Timor formally celebrated its independence in May, it closed the chapter on four centuries of stern Portuguese colonization and 24 years of brutal Indonesian occupation. The mood was finally one of hope for the future, of anticipation of a peace dividend.

Mark Baker, Dili – The Federal Government is locked in a bitter dispute with East Timor over control of multi-billion-dollar oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea that is threatening to delay desperately needed revenues to the newly independent country.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – Five gunshot victims interviewed by The Age in the Dili hospital yesterday say they were shot by roaming groups of special police in the capital's outer suburbs after the main rioting last week had subsided.

Mark Baker, Dili – It is a simple but splendid house with whitewashed walls and a high-pitched roof of traditional timber and thatch. It sits beside a village on the eastern outskirts of Dili with a view that sweeps across the harbour.

Nigel Wilson – Australia's relations with East Timor have been tested by claims Foreign Minister Alexander Downer verbally abused Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

The Australian has learnt that at a meeting in Dili on November 27, Mr Downer was strongly critical of Dr Alkatiri and his officials.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – At least 8,000 East Timorese families seeking refuge in West Timor had decided to stay in Indonesia, a local military commander said Thursday.

The government was now preparing a transmigration scheme and developing housing complexes for them, Kupang military chief Col. Moeswarno Moesanip said.

Jakarta – Indonesian prosecutors on Thursday demanded a 10-year jail term for a senior army intelligence officer, the minimum sentence by law if he is found guilty as charged of crimes against humanity in East Timor in 1999. Lt. Col.

Jon Land – Dili, the capital of East Timor, was hit by a wave of protests and riots on December 3-4. The unrest culminated in at least two deaths and scores of injured, when police fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse angry crowds of students and youth.

Debbie A. Lubis and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The country's failure to conduct a fair and impartial human rights trial will become the subject of an international discourse next year, including at the International Human Rights Commission in Geneva, a rights activist warned on Tuesday.

United Nations – A preliminary inquiry into last week's riots in East Timor has found that some of the people behind the violence fled afterwards to neighboring Indonesia, the tiny new nation's UN ambassador says.

Dili – East Timor's government promised Tuesday to tackle the fledgling state's chronic youth unemployment but warned that a repeat of last week's deadly and destructive riots would only drive foreign investors away.

Jake Skeers – Despite considerable opposition from ordinary people, particularly in the northern city of Darwin, the Australian government has resumed the process of deporting about 1,800 East Timorese who fled Indonesian rule during the 1980s and 1990s.

Geoffrey Barker – Prime Minister John Howard's offer of extra aid to East Timor's police and judicial services was a necessary but hardly sufficient response to last week's violence in Dili.

Paul Toohey – The Timorese woman with the seen-it-all face, owner of a street stall in Dili, is joined by other local women as she demands in a maternal way that Kirsty Sword Gusmao hand over her baby boy.

Sword Gusmao obliges and passes four-month-old Kay Olok to the woman, who suddenly beams with pride at the opportunity to cradle the President's son.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – The United Nations may be facing new embarrassment in East Timor following reports that people arrested in last Wednesday's riots had been beaten in custody.

Dili – East Timor, still grappling with chronic unemployment and poverty six months after independence fuelled unrealistically high hopes, was according to one analyst "a dry field into which someone threw a match."

United Nations and government officials are investigating who threw the match which sparked off a day of rioting, arson and looting last Wednesday.

When an independent East Timor was finally proclaimed in May, everyone wanted to come to the party. Australians, particularly, felt a strong affinity with the East Timorese because of the role Australian troops and civilians played in restoring stability after the carnage of 1999.

Antony Funnell – East Timor's Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, refused my interview request when he landed in Australia last Friday. We had just traveled from Dili on the same plane. His refusal came as little surprise. Even then, people in the East Timorese capital were bracing themselves for the possibility of street protests and violence.

David Shanks – Dr Dan Murphy is at his most passionate when describing the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder on the resilient people of East Timor.

Dili – East Timor said on Friday that Indonesian-backed militiamen responsible for hundreds of deaths in 1999 were regrouping and may have been behind this week's violent rioting in the capital.

Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific is alarmed, but not surprised, at the violence that has erupted in East Timor in recent weeks. It is directly linked to the growing nation-wide frustration at continuing high unemployment, poverty and corruption in the Fretilin-led government.

Dili – Foreigners fled East Timor as security forces fired warning shots in clashes with students yesterday, a day after two people were killed in riots that prompted angry mobs to loot shops and torch the prime minister's house.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – As residents of Dili swept up the debris yesterday, they wondered how things could have gone so wrong. The toll from the previous day's rioting was two students dead, more than 20 people injured, buildings and cars burnt out and a vicious attack on the Dili mosque.

Tim Dodd, Jakarta – UN administrator Sergio de Mello, who ran East Timor for 2 1/2 years until its independence in May this year, believes the country's 30-year history of violence is the main factor behind this week's riots.

The former Governor of East Timor, Mario Carrascalao, says the Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri must prove his claim that people with political aspirations are behind this week's violence in Dili.

[East Timor is quiet today after mob violence in the capital Dili, left at least two dead, scores injured, and key buildings burnt to the ground. The unrest began a few days ago with the arrest of a student at Dili University, and exploded after the killing of another student during protests outside UN police headquarters.

Rod McGuirk, Dili – The operator of a central Dili supermarket razed in riots this week vowed today never to do business in East Timor again.

The Hello Mister Supermarket has become an icon of the reconstructed city since it opened in March 2000.

As many as five protesters were shot dead in the East Timor capital, Dili, yesterday when hundreds of students clashed with police near parliament, witnesses said.

United Nations peacekeepers surrounded the parliament as the crowd torched a supermarket and damaged other buildings. The witnesses said it was the police who had opened fire on the demonstrators.

Jill Jolliffe (with Mark Forbes, agencies), Dili – East Timor's capital, Dili, was torn by riots yesterday in the worst violence since 1999, after police shot dead at least two student protesters.

The government last night imposed a state of emergency with a 7pm curfew after student rioters trashed the parliament building and torched hotels, shops and a mosque.

Kathy Marks, Sydney – East Timor was placed undera virtual state of emergency yesterday, witha curfew in the capital, Dili, after student riots in which up to five people were killed and the Prime Minister's house was burnt down.

[East Timor authorities have imposed a curfew and sent troops onto the streets of the capital Dili, following a day of rioting in which as many as five people have died. Several businesses, including the ANZ bank, were targetted, after a large crowd which was demanding the release of an arrested student went on the rampage.

More than ever, Australia has a direct interest in the reform of Indonesia's corrupt, politicised legal system. With the arrests of the main suspects in the Bali bombings it is to this legal system that Australia will now look to mete out the appropriate punishment for a horrendous crime.

James Balowski – On November 27, an Indonesian court sentenced notorious militia chief Eurico Guterres to 10 years in prison for crimes committed during the violence in East Timor following the 1999 referendum for independence.

[East Timor's independence celebrations have been marred by a series of anti-government protests, centered on the failure of former resistance fighters to find employment. This week a police station in Baucau has been attacked by an angry mob and 3000 anti-government protestors have rallied in Dili.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – Thousands of people packed Dili Cathedral yesterday to hear Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo's reasons for quitting as head of the East Timorese church and leaving the territory.

The special service followed his unexpected announcement last week that Pope John Paul had accepted his resignation on grounds of physical and psychological ill health.

Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta – Human rights activists see no hope that the ad hoc human rights court will uphold justice and punish military and police officers for their alleged involvement in the 1999 East Timor violence.

Don Greenlees, Jakarta – Shortly after dawn on April 7, 1999, independence, let alone justice, for the East Timorese seemed a distant dream in the fearful and empty streets of Liquica.