East Timorese asylum seekers might find it hard to settle back in their homeland even though it was technically safe to return, the United Nations refugee agency said yesterday.
Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock dismissed requests from refugee lawyers that 1600 East Timorese asylum seekers, some who arrived eight years ago, be issued special visas to stay in Australia.
East Timor's health ministry Thursday formally confirmed the territory's first cases of HIV/AIDS infection.
In a statement, the ministry said three members of an unidentified family had been found with the HIV virus and were receiving "assistance and help. "It is estimated that the family contracted the virus in the last three to four years", the ministry said.
Louise Williams – East Timorese journalists are dismayed over an agreement which will probably leave their newly independent nation without an independent national broadcaster and hands control of television and radio to its former colonial power, Portugal.
Sydnye – East Timor has finally reached agreement with US energy giant Phillips Petroleum on a plan to pipe gas to Australia that could ease the fledgling nation's poverty, its officials said Sunday.
John Phaceas – Development of a $1.5 billion gas pipeline to Phillips Petroleum's Bayu-Undan gasfield in the Timor Sea will go ahead after the US energy giant finally reached agreement with East Timorese authorities over project taxes.
Max Blenkin, Dili – In two months in East Timor, the soldiers of the Townsville-based 2nd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, have not fired a shot in anger, let alone sighted any of the infamous militia. But that does not mean they are prepared to write them off as a completely spent force.
Constituent Assembly President Francisco "Lz-Olo" Guterres said today he expects the assembly to pass East Timor's first Constitution by the 25 January deadline.
"The process is difficult but we expect to approve a Constitution within the extra time that we have allotted for the task," he said.
Catharine Munro, Jakarta – East Timor's best-known militia leader Eurico Guterres today said he was ready to face court for human rights violations during the vote for independence in 1999. The Indonesian nationalist who was born in East Timor said he was ready to turn against the Indonesian government in the international courts.
The Constituent Assembly today passed twelve articles of East Timor's draft Constitution dealing primarily with political and economic rights.
The articles passed today, all with significant majorities, include the following:
The Constituent Assembly today passed the fortieth article of East Timor's draft Constitution, approving eight articles relating to rights of the citizen.
The articles passed today, all with significant majorities, include the following:
Sydney – The commonwealth is fighting a US company's bid to win compensation in the federal court for losing vast gas reserves in the Timor Sea.
Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – The military says it has found evidence that a group on the Indonesian side of Timor island is striving for an independent state, which it wants to call Timor Raya. Col.
Dili – East Timor's Constituent Assembly appears to be gaining momentum in its deliberations, today passing 12 articles covering a wide range of rights issues.
The increased speed in deliberations – as compared with the assembly's previous passage of, in some cases, just one article a day – reflects a change of procedures and longer working hours agreed upon last week.
Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – The Indonesian military is sounding the alarm over a separatist group that is aspiring to unite both halves of Timor island.
East Timor's interim foreign minister, Jose Ramos Horta, visited the Lisbon headquarters of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP) Monday, reaffirming Dili's intention of joining the seven-nation organization.
Debate continued Thursday in East Timor's parliament on the future constitution of the territory, due to become independent next May. Members of the Constituent Assembly voted to remove the term "sexual orientation" from part of article 16 of the final draft constitution which deals with anti-discrimination.
Indonesia has extended its aid programs to some 70,000 East Timorese refugees by one month to the end of January, allowing them more time to decide between repatriation and resettlement in other parts of the country.
The military commander of Indonesian West Timor, Major-General Willem da Costa, made the decision public Thursday.
Members of East Timor's Constituent Assembly approved a motion Thursday extending the period for debate and approval of the future Constitution until January 25, more than a month after the date originally scheduled.
Oslo – Most of the 60,000 East Timorese refugees still abroad are likely to return by the end of 2002 and any linked to pro-Jakarta militias will be treated fairly, the territory's chief minister said on Wednesday.
Jakarta – Indonesia was unlikely to arrest a military officer charged in the first trial of cases of crime against humanity arising from the mayhem surrounding East Timor's 1999 independence vote, a senior rights advocate said Wednesday.
Dili – East Timor's fledgling lawmaking body on Tuesday adopted the tongues of both their native ancestors and Portuguese colonisers as the official languages of the world's newest nation.
Bronwyn Curran, Jakarta – Ten members of a gang responsible for one of the worst massacres linked to East Timor's 1999 vote for independence were Tuesday found guilty of crimes against humanity and given jail terms of up to 33 years, United Nations officials in Dili said.
Jill Jolliffe – In 1996, I had been told about a man who claimed to have been at Balibo when the journalists died, as part of an Australian SAS force. I finally tracked him down and won his agreement to talk on the basis of anonymity. We met at his home in England in 1999. This man now works as a consultant for a Balkan army; in short, he is a soldier of fortune.
Jill Jolliffe – A former defence minister in the Whitlam government, Bill Morrison, has left open the possibility of an SAS operation to evacuate the Balibo Five from the border area of East Timor in October, 1975.
Achmad Sukarsono, Jakarta – Indonesia said on Friday reports the United States gave former president Suharto the green light for the bloody 1975 invasion of East Timor came as no surprise, but would not harm relations with the world's only superpower.
Joanna Jolly, Dili – Hundreds of people commemorated the anniversary Friday of Indonesia's 1975 invasion of East Timor, as speakers demanded justice for 24 years of brutal occupation.
East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao Friday downplayed the impact of newly released US documents showing that Washington had been informed of and approved Indonesia4s invasion of his homeland in 1975.
[Ford and Kissinger gave green light to Indonesia's invasion of East Timor, 1975: New Documents Detail Conversations with Suharto. National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book No. 62. Edited by William Burr and Michael L. Evans, December 6, 2001.]
The new evidence
Jim Wolf, Washington – US President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger gave late Indonesian strongman Suharto the green light for the 1975 invasion of East Timor that left perhaps 200,000 dead, according to previously secret documents made available on Thursday.
Jakarta – Former deputy commander of the East Timorese pro-integration fighters (PPI), Eurico Guterres, on Thursday registered with the Central Jakarta court a class action against former president, BJ Habibie, to pay 1 trillion rupiah in indemnity.
Richard C. Paddock, Dili – The girl's nightmare began when she was 13 and a pro-Indonesia militia burned down her village. Her parents were away from home when gunmen herded her and her neighbors across the border into the Indonesian province of West Timor.
Nigel Wilson – A new wave of confidence is emerging that East Timor and Australia within weeks will reach agreement on key aspects of future development of Timor Sea gas reserves.
East Timor4s chief minister, Mari Alkatiri, has expressed concern over mounting domestic violence against women, urging his people to put an end to such practices as part of the territory4s larger efforts at reconciliation.
Jill Jolliffem Dili – Just a block away from the imposing United Nations building that dominates the Dili waterfront, two East Timorese girls are soliciting outside Tom's Place, a recently opened Australian bar. Some off-duty UN policemen stroll by, stop to consider the offer, then walk on.
Dili – The threat of violence from pro-Indonesian militias opposed to East Timor's independence has decreased significantly, raising hopes that thousands of peacekeepers may soon be able to go home, a U.N official said Friday
Don Greenlees, Jakarta – Militia groups opposed to East Timor's separation from Indonesia are a spent force, incapable of presenting a military threat across the border from West Timor, according to Western diplomats and military officers.
Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – East Timor's charismatic leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao and former pro-Jakarta militia leader Joao Tavares agreed on Tuesday to end their hostility and to work together for peace in East Timor through reconciliation.
Xanana and Tavares reached the agreement in a closed-door meeting in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara.
Canberra – Indonesia and Australia will set up a tripartite consultative forum to help East Timor solve problems that may arise in its transformation into an independent state, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hasan Wirayuda said here Wedensday.
Dili – With East Timor due to become the world's newest nation in six months, hundreds of people rallied Wednesday to mark the territory's first declaration of independence 26 years ago.
Waving East Timorese flags, about 500 people listened to speeches by leading politicians before raising their fists in salute East Timor's largest political party, Fretilin.
The Constituent Assembly today approved a motion recommending that East Timor's first presidential election be held in the first or second week of April 2002, and that the voting process be universal, direct, and secret.
Jill Jolliffe, Dili – Indonesian authorities say they do not regard last year's Memorandum of Understanding between East Timor and Indonesia on transfer of prisoners as valid, East Timor's new Prosecutor-General has said.
Don Greenlees, Jakarta – United Nations prosecutors in East Timor have lodged an indictment against 21 people, including senior Indonesian military, militia and government officials, over the massacre in the Catholic church in the town of Liquica in April 1999.
Paul Osborne Brisbane – The problems of East Timorese refugees in West Timor and the disarmament of militia should be resolved within three months, the emerging nation's foreign minister Jose Ramos Horta said today.
Kupang – A top military officer here said East Timorese refugees in East Nusa Tenggara province no longer feel they have leaders. The sentiment now prevailed among the refugees because those claiming to be their leaders had never paid attention to their fate, Chief of Udayana regional military command Major General Willem da Costa said.
Karen Polglaze, Melbourne – The interests of the people of East Timor would have been totally compromised had former Labor prime minister Paul Keating stayed in the top job, Prime Minister John Howard said today.
Nigel Wilson – Government-level talks in East Timor next week are seen as the last chance of early development of vast Timor Sea gas reserves.
Jill Jolliffe, Dili – Ten years after the massacre that shocked the world, memories are still raw in East Timor. When a short piece of theatre re-enacting the November 12, 1991, slaughter of more than 200 students in the Santa Cruz cemetery was shown to an audience of survivors and families on Saturday, it left them in tears.
Joanna Jolly, Dili – Thousands of East Timorese gathered at the Santa Cruz cemetery on Monday to commemorate the 10th anniversary of a brutal massacre by Indonesian troops that shocked the world and paved the way for the territory's independence.
Atambua – A man lobbed a Korean-made grenade into the middle of a crowded East Timorese refugee camp in Manumutin village, Atambua, early Sunday but the device failed to explode, a local police spokesman said.
Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – As of January 2002, the government will no longer provide any financial or food assistance to East Timorese refugees in West Timor as it will reinstate the Indonesian citizenship of those who choose to stay in Indonesia.