Prime Minister John Howard today urged the United Nations to maintain its support for East Timor and not to skimp on resources for the new nation after it achieved independence.
In a speech to the United Nations Security Council, Mr Howard warned the successes of the past two years could not be maintained without strong international support.
New York – East Timor will have to face up to atrocities committed by the liberation movement during the 25-year independence campaign if the new nation hopes for true reconciliation and peace, its interim Foreign Minister, Jose Ramos Horta, said.
Protestant and Catholic leaders in East Timor have proposed ten alterations to the text of the draft Constitution currently being discussed by the Constituent Assembly in Dili.
Dili – The Constituent Assembly has nearly completed its two-month debate on the 151 articles of East Timor's first Constitution, keeping the popularly elected body on schedule to promulgate the historic document in early March.
Jakarta – Economic factors and not intimidation are now the main reason why many East Timorese refugees are reluctant to go home from Indonesia, the UN refugee agency said Monday.
With less than four months to go before East Timor attains full independence, an estimated 60,000-75,000 of them are still in Indonesian West Timor.
Yemris Fointuna, Jakarta – Prosecutors from the Attorney General's Office have begun questioning two army officers as part of their investigation into the 1999 murder of a Dutch journalist in East Timor, officials said on Saturday.
Jill Jolliffe, Dili – A group of dissidents has accused the governing Fretilin party of trying to usurp democracy and remain in power for five years beyond its elected mandate.
Dili – East Timor has started preparing for its first presidential elections but with full independence to follow soon after, time is of the essence.
The elections in the UN-run territory are scheduled for April 14 with formal independence due to be declared on May 20.
Thalif Deen, United Nations – Malaysian diplomat Nagalingam Parameswaran has expressed disappointment that the United Nations has "closed the chapter" on his allegations that the institution was racist, and that his duties as chief-of-staff at the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) had become "a white mission, an Eastern mission with a Western face".
United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has alerted the Security Council to the potential threat posed to East Timor by Indonesia-based anti-independence militias and underlined the importance of resolving border disputes between Dili and Jakarta.
Jon Land – As East Timor's Constituent Assembly draws closer to finalising the nation's constitution there is increasing debate over whether fresh elections should be held for the proposed Legislative Assembly. Chief Minister Mari Alkatiri is adamantly opposed to such a move, stating that "opting for new elections is openly to want to provoke crises".
The authorities in East Timor have launched a campaign against domestic violence, which they say is widespread in the territory.
The United Nations administrator, Sergio Vieira de Mello, said domestic violence had become a cancer in Timorese society, and should be eradicated.
Dili – East Timor's Constituent Assembly today set 9 March as the date for completion and final approval of the nation's first Constitution.
East Timor's Constituent Assembly passed a motion today to extend its deliberations on the draft Constitution beyond the current 25 January deadline.
A proposal was made to extend the deadline to 28 February, but the motion passed did not specify a date. Instead, the new deadline will be debated by a working commission.
John Aglionby, Jakarta – The last Indonesian soldier of occupation left East Timor well over two years ago, but while many of the physical scars have healed, the mental and psychological trauma sustained during the previous quarter of a century of turbulence, invasion and brutal occupation is still raging.
Thalif Deen, United Nations – A senior United Nations official reacted strongly Thursday to charges the UN's peacekeeping mission in East Timor is dominated by white people and Westerners.
Jakarta – Indonesia's Supreme Court has handed down tougher sentences to three men for the brutal killing of three foreign UN aid workers in West Timor, according to court documents obtained by Reuters on Thursday.
Dili – In a final step toward nationhood, East Timor will hold its first presidential election on April 14, the territory's UN administrator announced Thursday.
East Timorese judges responsible trying crimes against humanity have launched a boycott of court proceedings over a contractual dispute with the UN transition administration, judicial sources told Lusa Wednesday.
United Nations – Rejecting "implicit suggestions of racism," the United Nations on Friday denied an accusation made by one of its officials that the peacekeeping mission in East Timor was dominated by white Westerners.
The charge was made by N. Parameswaran, a Malaysian who resigned this week as chief of staff of the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET).
East Timor's religious leader, Catholic Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, called Friday for the holding of legislative elections for the first post-independence Timorese parliament, instead of the planned transition of the Constituent Assembly into this body.
Lisbon is negotiating with the United Nations over the possibility of taking over command of the UN peacekeeping force in East Timor, it was announced Friday by Portuguese Defense Minister Rui Pena.
Dili – The Constituent Assembly today passed a further four articles of East Timor's 151-article draft Constitution. The articles, all passed by significant majorities, are the following:
Cheah Chor Sooi, Koh Lay Chin and Shamini Darshni, Kuala Lumpur – Prominent personalities today came out in support of Datuk N. Parameswaran's decision to quit as chief of staff of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor over racism in the international body.
Vaudine England – The chief of staff for the United Nations mission in East Timor has resigned, citing management failures and racism as reasons for his departure.
When Nagalingam Parameswaran leaves the capital, Dili, this week there will be no senior manager at the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (Untaet) from a Southeast Asian country.
East Timor's General Prosecutor has issued more than 30 indictments in cases involving major incidents of mass killings and forced deportation, according to the latest figures released by the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET).
A former leading anti-idependence militia leader has canceled his planned return to East Timor. Cancio Lopes de Carvalho told the UN transition administration Monday he had canceled the trip for "technical reasons".
Dili – The Constituent Assembly today passed a further seven articles of East Timor's 151-article draft Constitution. The articles were all passed with significant majorities and include the following:
Tim Dodd, Jakarta – Three East Timorese men killed in an armed raid on their villages on Saturday night were former independence activists. Senior East Timorese officials believe that the attackers were once linked to the pro-Indonesian militia.
Dili – The Constituent Assembly today passed a further five articles of East Timor's draft Constitution relating to the functions of the Council of State and of the National Parliament. All the articles were passed by significant majorities.
Jill Jolliffe, Dili – With the militia leader Eurico Guterres due to be charged with crimes against humanity next week, United Nations officials in East Timor are hopeful that 2002 may represent a new phase in the prosecution of human rights violators.
East Timor's chief minister, Mari Alkatiri, Thursday denounced an unexpected call for legislative elections as an attempt by opposition forces to provoke a political crisis.
The Constituent Assembly today returned from a three-day New Year's break to continue debate on East Timor's first draft Constitution, passing five articles contained in the section on the status, election and appointment of the President of the Republic.
The assembly has now passed 79 of the Constitution's 151 articles.
Jakarta – Indonesian authorities have ceased providing food and cash for tens of thousands of East Timorese refugees stuck in squalid camps in West Timor, an official said Wednesday.
"We have stopped giving out assistance as of January 1," West Timor deputy governor Yohannes Pake Pani told AFP by phone from the capital Kupang.
Jakarta – Indonesia's military said Thursday it would cooperate with a special human rights court set up to try top commanders and militiamen accused of crimes in East Timor in 1999.
"We support it as long as it is in line with our laws," said armed forces spokesman Air Vice Marshall Graito Usodo. He said the men would be provided with defense lawyers for the proceedings.
Jakarta – The safety of refugees is still guaranteed: Even though the government has abolished refugee status for the refugees from East Timor with effect from 31 December 2001, Commander IX/Udayana Military Area Command Maj-Gen Willem da Costa, stated that he would still guarantee their safety.
Jakarta – Indonesia's Supreme Court has assigned 17 judges to preside over the trials of Indonesian soldiers and militiamen accused of human rights abuses in East Timor in 1999, a news report said Thursday.
Indonesian military authorities have said they have discovered evidence of a new movement aiming to achieve independence for the whole of Timor island, according to an article in an Indonesian newspaper.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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: