When East Timor President Xanana Gusmao began his official visit in Indonesia on Tuesday, he was received with a red carpet welcome and full military honors fitting for all visiting heads of state. But Gusmao is no ordinary visitor. He is a special guest, and should be treated as such.

East Timor's foreign minister said Wednesday that he regretted the decision of the United States to withdraw its military observers from the newly independent nation over fears of possible prosecution of US military by the International Criminal Court.

Lincoln Wright – Defence Minister Robert Hill has rejected claims from a whistleblower that the Defence Signals Directorate spied on journalists to discover who was leaking sensitive intelligence material about East Timor.

Indonesia rolled out the red carpet for the man it once jailed as a subversive as Xanana Gusmao arrived in the capital for his first visit as president of newly independent East Timor.

A smiling Gusmao was garlanded and given a 21-gun salute and honour guard on arrival Tuesday at the palace for talks with President Megawati Sukarnoputri.

Flaws in the indictment of notorious militia leader, Eurico Guterres, are the clearest indication yet of Indonesia's lack of commitment to justice for the victims of human rights atrocities in East Timor, says Tapol, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign.

Beijing – China supports the building of an East Timor army and will work toward friendly ties with it, state media quoted China's defense minister saying Tuesday.

Barry FitzGerald – The Timor Sea has continued to grow in importance for the Adelaide-based and Cooper Basin-dependent Santos, with the group yesterday becoming the managing partner in the big but undeveloped Evans Shoal gasfield.

Mansour Fakih – My first visit to East Timor was early in 2000. The towns were still smoldering, and the atmosphere was tense. I was shocked, angry, and so disillusioned. I never suspected my own people could have done such a thing.

Jill Jolliffe – The United Nations has increased pressure on the Indonesian Government to produce results over war crimes in East Timor by releasing its own detailed indictments for several cases including the Liquica church massacre.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – Human rights activists warned on Friday of another red mark against the country's judicial system should the ad hoc Human Rights Tribunal fail to hold a fair trial on the 1999 East Timor human rights abuses.

Hundreds of East Timorese refugees demonstrated outside the governor's office in East Nusa Tenggara province Saturday demanding a resumption of humanitarian aid, the national news agency Antara reported.

Jon Land – East Timor's recently elected president, Xanana Gusmao, arrived in Canberra on June 17 for his first official state visit to Australia. Accompanied by foreign minister Jose Ramos Horta and other East Timorese representatives, Gusmao stressed that "Australia is the first country that we came to visit and to talk about the future".

Don Greenlees, Jakarta – An Indonesian human rights court yesterday launched the prosecution of notorious former East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres – one of the crucial tests of justice over the violent campaign waged by militias and Indonesian military against East Timor's bid to gain independence in 1999.

[Siri Frigaard Deputy Prosecutor in East Timor's Serious Crimes Unit, overseeing investigations into crimes against humanity in East Timor has admitted that history may be critical of the justice dealt out to perpetrators of the bloodshed and destruction in 1999.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – Eurico Guterres, former commander of the pro-Jakarta Aitarak militia in East Timor, stood trial at the Central Jakarta District Court on charges of murder and torture in the attacks on East Timorese leaders before the 1999 ballot.

Jakarta – A notorious pro-Jakarta militia leader accused of atrocities in East Timor said on Thursday he was ready to die if found guilty of the 1999 massacres, but said the real blame for the bloodshed lies with Indonesia's president at the time.

Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri presented and won an overwhelming vote of confidence from East Timor's parliament Thursday for his five-year government program. The confidence vote was approved by a tally of 69 to four, with seven abstentions. Eight MPs were absent.

Several members of East Timor's parliament called Thursday for proposed legislation to be translated into Tetum, as Portuguese is not understood by all of the 88-member assembly.

Catharine Munro, Jakarta – Eurico Guterres, the militia leader who fought against independence from Indonesia in his native East Timor three years ago, today faced a human rights tribunal in Jakarta to hear charges of abuses.

Jakarta – The Indonesian export volume to neighboring East Timor increased from around 20 million US dollars in 2000 to more than 33 million US dollars in 2001, an official said Thursday.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Local security authorities have broken up a network that allegedly trafficked dozens of East Timorese toddlers over the last year.

The head of the Wirasakti Militry Command in East Nusa Tenggara, Col. Muswarno Moesanip, said on Wednesday that most of the children were taken from refugee camps in the province and sent to orphanages in Java.

Sydney – Former prime minister Gough Whitlam today launched a book which he described as "patronising" of his dealings with East Timor as it sank into Indonesian control.

Author and journalist Bill Nicol has updated his 25-year-old book which was highly critical of the Whitlam government's lack of involvement in trying to secure the struggling nation's independence.

Jill Jolliffe – Pro-Indonesia militia leader Joao Tavares returned to East Timor yesterday for the first time since the violence of 1999.

Speaking after crossing the border at Batugade, the man considered by many East Timorese to be most responsible for militia crimes said he was prepared to stand trial.

Yemris Fointuna and Jupriadi, Jakarta – Twenty-nine more refugees, including one marine, have returned to their hometowns in East Timor after spending more than two years in refugee camps in South Sulawesi province.

Michael J. Jordan, United Nations – Indonesia's commitment to justice is being questioned after Jakarta's decision to shelve an investigation into a Dutch journalist's murder.

The inquiry into the death of reporter Sander Thoenes, killed during a 1999 military rampage in East Timor, was widely seen as a major test of the Indonesian judiciary's credibility.

Catharine Munro, Jakarta – International aid groups are calling for countries including Australia to help head off starvation in the Indonesian province of West Timor.

A two-month survey conducted by five international agencies showed that thousands are facing an acute food shortage following East Timor's secession from Indonesia.

Kupang – Former pro-integration leaders established on Monday the Presidium of East Timorese Refugees to accommodate support for refugees of the former province of East Timor.

One of the founders, Eurico Gutteres, vowed the organization would not get involved in politics, but would merely provide humanitarian assistance for the refugees.

Dili – More than 1,000 East Timorese children who were displaced in violence following the 1999 UN-backed referendum on independence have been reunited with their families, an official of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Monday.

Jake Morland, a UNHCR external relations officer, said returning the children to their parents is the priority of the UNHCR.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – Australia and East Timor moved a step forward in their plans to exploit Timor Sea hydrocarbon resources yesterday with the opening of a joint office in Dili.

Portugal's ambassador to East Timor, Rui Quartim Santos, Wednesday inaugurated the official residence of Dili's Catholic Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, a euros 300,000 building entirely financed by Lisbon.

Dili – About 19,000 East Timorese refugees have returned home in the first five months of this year, the UN said Friday.

This figure is more than the total number of returns for all of last year, said Jake Morland, spokesman for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

I Wayan Juniartha, Tuban, Bali – A senior official of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said here on Wednesday that returning East Timorese children – currently living in Indonesia after being separated from their parents during and after the violent postreferendum mayhem in 1999 – to East Timor might not be the best solution for some of them.

Melbourne – Following are key facts about the Timor Gap treaty, oil and gas developments in the Timor Sea and Australia's need for a new gas supply.

Treaty

Kupang – Former commander of a East Timorese pro-Jakarta militia group (PPI) Joao da Silva Tavares and his almost 35,000 followers are expected to return home to East Timor soon.

President Xanana Gusmao has distanced himself from comments made by Dili's prime minister, Mari Alkatiri, on the non-payment of compensation to Indonesians whose property was destroyed or appropriated after they left East Timor.

Bhimanto Suwastoyo, Jakarta – Survivors of a bloody 1999 attack on East Timorese independence supporters told Indonesia's human rights court Thursday how they fled or feigned death to escape rampaging pro-Jakarta militiamen.

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – Two former top security officers in charge of East Timor testified at the ad hoc East Timor human rights trial on Wednesday, insisting that the task of creating peace and order before, during and after the 1999 independence ballot was simply out of their hands.

East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao said Thursday that he was opposed to any Timorese receiving compensation or war reparations for violence commited during the Indonesian occupation and 1999 militia rampage, as "sentiments cannot be sold".

Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, charging opposition legislators were hobbling action by East Timor's government, warned Thursday he might use his broad Fretilin party majority to rush through urgent legislation.

Kupang – The Indonesian military has detained an East Timorese soldier for illegally entering the Indonesian territory of West Timor to seek his family, a local military commander said Thursday.

[The nation of East Timor is barely a month old, yet already the issue of separation of church and state has reared its ugly head – in the person of Bishop Carlos Belo. East Timorese spiritual leader and joint winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, Bishop Belo, was in a belligerent mood recently after he read an article that criticised him and the Catholic Church.

[The Dutch Government claims it has secured an agreement from Indonesia that it will continue to investigate the murder of a Dutch journalist in East Timor, almost three years ago.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – The central government has relented a little in its approach toward East Timorese refugees by postponing the planned closure of refugee camps in East Nusa Tenggara province until December this year.

Irwan Firdaus, Jakarta – Sitting silently in a packed courtroom, two current and one former Indonesian official listened Wednesday as prosecutors accused them of allowing a mob to kill refugees hiding in an East Timor church in 1999.

Dili – Three Indonesian ministers made a three hour visit to East Timor on Saturday, in an effort to enhance bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

Craig Skehan – East Timor has made a claim for all of the $30 billion Greater Sunrise gas field in the Timor Sea as part of a bid to pressure Australia into sensitive negotiations on maritime boundaries.

Australia is offering East Timor an 18 per cent stake in Greater Sunrise.

Canberra – Militiamen responsible for violence when East Timor voted for independence could not expect reconciliation without first facing justice, President Xanana Gusmao said on his first official overseas visit on Monday.

The leader of the world's newest nation said the re-integration of those seeking forgiveness was a major challenge for tiny, impoverished East Timor.

[East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao has made clear for the first time that former militia leaders returning from exile in West Timor will not be granted amnesty for their role in the violence surrounding the independence referendum in 1999.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – East Timorese leaders acceded on Friday to demands by former prointegration militia commander Joao da Silva Tavares and thousands of his followers, paving the way for them to return to the newly declared state of East Timor.