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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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".
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.
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.
[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.
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.
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.
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.
[The Timor Sea Agreement between Dili and Canberra, is due to be ratified by the East Timorese parliament soon. However, the looming ratification is causing serious unrest among MPs and other groups in East Timor, mainly over a perceived lack of consultation by Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri in negotiations for the treaty.]
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.
[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.
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 considers the creation of the International Criminal Court a priority and will soon sign the UN convention establishing the tribunal, Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta said Monday.
Ramos Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, said Dili had "no doubts" about the importance of setting up an international court and would add its support "without reservations".
Sydney – Australia and East Timor pledged to continue their close friendship Monday during East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao's first official visit abroad since his country became independent on May 20.
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta – Indonesia and East Timor have identified a number of residual problems that they will attempt to resolve following the new country's independence which was finally declared on May 20, 2002.
Dili – Thirty-one officials from Indonesia met East Timorese leaders yesterday to push its former province to compensate Jakarta for assets left behind when it pulled out amid bloodshed in 1999 – a request that has been steadfastly rejected in the past.
Clare Black, Oslo – East Timor, a brand new nation barely one month old, hopes that the rebirth of its legendary gourmet coffee will bring some much-needed income to its people who are amongst the poorest in the world.
[Deliverance: The Inside Story of East Timor's Fight for Freedom. By Don Greenlees and Robert Garran, Allen & Unwin, 375pp, $35.]
Peter Coleman – Everyone made a "colossal miscalculation" in East Timor, according to this compelling and authoritative book – the Australian Government for a start.
Don Greenlees, Jakarta – Indonesia is sending a delegation of three ministers to East Timor in a signal that it wants a co-operative relationship with its former possession, declared independent on May 20.
Jill Jolliffe – An incursion by Indonesian warships into East Timorese waters last month was a ploy by military hardliners to prevent President Megawati Sukarnoputri attending independence celebrations, according to East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.
They are Dr Alkatiri's first comments on the incident, which cast a shadow over the May 20 celebrations.
Oslo – East Timorese Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta said on Friday the doors of his newly-independent country were open to pro-Jakarta militia members, now living in exile in Indonesia.
Kupang – Senior Indonesian government officials on Saturday expressed willingness to allow East Timorese policemen and officials to pursue higher education in Indonesia.
The agreement was reached during an official visit Saturday to East Timor by more than 30 senior Indonesian officials, including three ministers.
Sanur – The Indonesian government is expected to complete the repatriation process of 10,000 families of refugees back to East Timor by August this year, in a bid to resolve thecomplex refugee problems and to ease the financial burden that the state has to shoulder for the past few years.
Jill Jolliffe, Dili – East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao has put the new country's politicians on notice to lift their performance, in a free-wheeling attack on the Government just 23 days after it took office.
Jakarta – Indonesian prosecutors dropped their investigation into the killing of a Dutch journalist in East Timor that took place in 1999, a spokesman said Thursday.
[There are fears that violence could once again return to East Timor, after the announcement by former militia leader Joao Tavares that he intends to return home with some 3,000 followers. The refugee body, the UNHCR, has confirmed it will facilitate a meeting on Friday between Tavares and East Timorese authorities who have previously talked about the possibility of an amnesty.
Jakarta – Indonesia paid for anti-independence militias responsible for much of the violence in East Timor in 1999 when it voted for independence, a former government official told a court Thursday.
Jakarta – Witnesses testified before the human rights ad hoc trial for the 1999 East Timor atrocities on Tuesday that pro-Jakarta militia groups attacked proindependence supporters taking refuge in the St. Ave Maria Church in Suai town, Covalima regency, East Timor, on September 6, 1999.
A former district chief in East Timor during Indonesian rule said that provincial authorities had often paid the pro-Jakarta militias who launched an orgy of violence against independence supporters in 1999.
Canberra – The federal government was examining introducing duty-free status for all goods of East Timor origin, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said today.
Speaking at the launch of the Australia East Timor Business Council, Mr Downer said East Timor faced great economic challenges now that it had achieved political independence.
[Australians keen to help in the reconstruction of East Timor are being asked to make a financial commitment. The world's newest nation will be looking in its own backyard for the foreign investors needed for everything from roads and phones to farming and fishing, naming Australia and Asia as the best sources of investment and expertise.
Dear Fellow Citizens,
We have been independent and masters of our destiny for 23 days. Yet, it is somewhat ironic to feel as masters of our destiny without a corresponding feeling of change.
The former chief of East Timorese pro-Jakarta militia groups is planning to return home from exile in Indonesia with some 3,000 followers, a report said.
"The precise time has yet to be determined but what is certain is that we are determined to return to East Timor in the near future," Joao da Silva Tavares was quoted by in Monday's Koran Tempo newspaper as saying.
Don Greenlees – Soon after midnight on May 20, after the East Timorese flag had been raised, and the new nation declared independent, Indonesia's armed forces commander Admiral Widodo Adisucipto went up on the deck of the support ship Tandjung Kambani and watched the celebratory fireworks erupt along the East Timorese shoreline.
Greg Sheridan – Want to hear something strange? East Timorese representatives have had discussions with Indonesian authorities about the possibility of Indonesia's armed forces, the TNI, helping to train East Timor's nascent force.
Jakarta – A former Indonesian district army chief admitted on Thursday that a man alleged to have led a bloody attack on a church in East Timor in April 1999 was a soldier.
Lieutenant Colonel Asep Kuswandi, formerly head of the Liquica district military command, told a human rights court that Tome Diego was a member of the Liquica military.
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta – The Central Jakarta District Court rejected on Tuesday the request by a group of East Timorese refugees demanding former president BJ Habibie to pay Rp 1 trillion (US$115.6 million) in compensation for losses incurred following East Timor's 1999 vote for independence.
Jakarta – A former school teacher told an Indonesian human rights court on Wednesday that he helped load the bodies of murdered priests, women and children from the East Timor township of Suai into cars and drive miles to bury them.
Aaron Goodman, Dili (Inter Press Service) – Augostino da Costa Cabral's eyes were wide open, and his smile seemed unbreakable. But he could not sit still, and was shifting nervously in his seat on the gymnasium floor.