Mark Dodd – One of East Timor's most notorious militia leaders will today meet representatives of the community he left devastated to discuss his return home to face justice.

Vanya Tanaja, Dili – Public hearings held here January 14-24 to discuss the timetable for East Timor's transition to independence have revealed sharply differing views among East Timorese leaders over the political mechanisms to be used to bring into being a fully sovereign East Timorese government.

Mark Dodd, Dili – East Timor could still press for a United Nations war crimes tribunal unless Indonesia brought to justice those responsible for the political violence in 1999, the independence leader and Nobel laureate Mr Jose Ramos Horta said yesterday.

Dan Murphy, Aileu and Dili – Sergio Vieira de Mello watches impassively as the United Nations flag rises over a group of jungle survival experts, aware of the delicacy of his position as, effectively, the unelected president of East Timor.

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Mark Dodd, Dili – Senior bureaucrats working for the UN administration in East Timor should focus on developing the skills of local public servants to avoid a vacuum of experienced officials when the world body pulls out, the visiting head of its development program said.

Jon Land – Imagine someone referring to prime minister John Howard and his foreign minister, Alexander Downer, as "more generous than Mother Theresa". You wouldn't be surprised if it came from a Coalition backbencher – but these are the precise words of East Timorese leader Jose Ramos Horta.

Mark Dodd, Dili – An East Timorese independence fighter pleaded for acquittal yesterday at the end of his trial for the killing of a pro-Indonesian militiaman in retaliation for the militia violence unleashed after the 1999 vote for independence.

Joanna Jolly, Dili – In a legal first for East Timor, United Nations prosecutors yesterday filed multiple rape charges against an Indonesian army officer and two militia leaders. The men allegedly committed the attacks during a wave of violence before and after the 1999 independence referendum.

Jakarta – East Timorese are expected later this month to begin preparations for a constituent assembly election likely to be held around August 30, the first major political exercise in the post-Indonesian rule of the territory, a senior UN official said Tuesday.

Jill Jolliffe – The house in East Timor's second city, Baucau, stands derelict, its windows boarded up and a tap running endlessly inside. The family which lived there fled with the Indonesian forces and their militia allies after the 1999 vote for independence.

Jill Jolliffe – United Nations investigators have sought international warrants to arrest three men – including a former Indonesian Government minister – for the murders of five Australian-based journalists in East Timor more than 25 years ago.

Mark Riley, New York – The United Nations Security Council will consider withdrawing troops from East Timor in four months if the security situation continues to improve.

Mark Dodd, Aileu – The Falintil guerilla force yesterday became the world's newest internationally recognised army – the East Timor Defence Force.

[The following are excerpts from an interview with sociologist George Junus Aditjondro with The Jakarta Post's Ati Nurbaiti, following his one-week visit to East Timor in early January. He lectures at Newcastle University in Australia and is a long-time researcher on East Timor and other areas with pro-independence movements.]

Mark Dodd, Dili – An argument over a traffic infringement sparked an ugly brawl between East Timorese university students and Portuguese riot police yesterday, underscoring growing resentment at the United Nations mission and heavy-handed police tactics.

Dan Murphy, Dili – Almost trembling as he awaits a decision, Joao Fernandes, barely literate and desperately poor, looked nothing like the cold-blooded killer described in the indictment against him.

Mark Dod, Maliana – A community radio station is being used to counter propaganda from pro-Indonesia militia groups and convince thousands of refugees who fled East Timor or were deported after the 1999 independence vote to return home.

Dili – Hundreds of UN workers in East Timor signed a petition Monday against cuts to their daily living allowances.

Dili – Human rights activists Friday welcomed the first successful prosecution of an East Timorese militiaman implicated in the 1999 post-independence ballot rampage, but said Indonesian commanders responsible for the bloodshed have yet to face justice.

Dili – In the first successful prosecution for the destruction of East Timor in 1999, an international court sentenced a pro-Indonesian militiaman to 12 years in prison for murder.

Vanya Tanaja, Dili – Workers at three World Food Program warehouses here took strike action on January 8 and then went to the headquarters of the WFP the next day when the agency took no notice of their protest. WFP is a UN agency in charge of the emergency food relief program.

Jon Land – Speculation is increasing that, after the stalemate that occurred at the first round of talks in October, the federal government and representatives of the East Timorese are readying to compromise on the future of the Timor Gap Treaty when talks eventually resume.

Robyn Marshall, Dili – Aurora Ximenes, the coordinator of the East Timor Women's Network, which comprises 15 grassroots organisations, is angry that women are being sidelined in the transition to independence.

Peter Johnston, Darwin – "We expect over 50% of the first elected parliament – definitely", Estanislau da Silva reassured trade unionists here on January 11, claiming that his party, Fretilin, is the only political group in East Timor with extensive grassroots support.

Mark Dodd, Dili – East Timor's hope for national reconciliation will take a step towards realisation this year with the introduction of a Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation.

Hamish McDonald, Dili – His full name is said to be Ely Foho Rai Boot, which translates from the main Timorese language Tetum as something like Ely Great Mountain, but he is known here just as "L7".

Hamish McDonald – Next month the legendary guerilla army Falintil, an acronym for Armed Forces of the Liberation of East Timor, will cease to exist as its remaining active fighters are absorbed into the new army being formed for their emerging nation.

Jeremy Bowden, Singapore – East Timor is raising the stakes in talks on sharing offshore oil and natural gas revenues with Australia, according to Australian government sources.

Maggie O'Kane – The discovery of the bodies of four women murdered with machetes in different parts of the country last summer passed almost unnoticed in East Timor. Yet the Indonesian occupying army, which killed an estimated 200,000 people in its 24 years there, has gone, driven out by the UN cavalry over a year ago.

Hamish McDonald, Dili – The Australian Government is retreating from its tough opening stance on the oil revenue split in a new seabed boundary treaty with independent East Timor, a senior Timorese negotiator reports.

Jakarta – More than 150 East Timorese journalists, gathering at their inaugural congress in the East Timor capital of Dili, have agreed to build an independent, free press in their new country, a press statement issued Saturday by the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) said.

Jakarta – The South Jakarta District Court began on Thursday the trial of six pro-integration East Timorese for the murder of three United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) staff in Atambua, East Nusa Tenggara in September last year.

Catharine Munro, Jakarta – An unlikely gathering of Indonesian rock stars, criminals and retired soldiers yesterday converged on a Jakarta courtroom in support of East Timorese militia leader Eurico Guterres.

Chris McCall, Jakarta – Sitting in jail waiting to hear his fate, feared East Timor militia chief Eurico Guterres is accusing his nemesis Xanana Gusmao of selling out his people.

Denis Dragovic, Dili – For several months I have been watching the United Nations "rescuing" East Timor. The half-term report is not promising.

The UN's overzealous moves into missions where it lacks the experience, internal structural systems, or competent personnel will inevitably and regrettably lead to continuing failure – and eventual extinction.

Robert Garran – Australia and East Timor remain far apart in crucial talks over revenue from the Timor Gap oil and gas fields that could become a mainstay of the new country's economy.

Kupang – Following a clash between East Timorese refugees and local residents, hundreds of East Timorese refugees were returned to refugee camps, officials said on Wednesday. The refugees were returned to Noelbaki and Tuapukan refugee camps.

Jakarta – A notorious former East Timorese militia leader went on trial here Tuesday charged with inciting criminal activities against the state during a weapons handover in West Timor.

Compatriots! Timorese!

Mark Dodd, Dili – Somewhere in Indonesian West Timor, in a camp controlled by some of the most notorious militia thugs who fled East Timor after its people voted for independence in August, 1999, there is a 16-year-old girl called Juliana dos Santos.

Louise Williams – Sydney, you can't rebuild East Timor with teddies and thongs. And you shouldn't even give a child a teddy to play with outside in a tropical climate, because the soft, new toy quickly becomes a filthy health risk.

Dan Murphy, Jakarta – Shortly after Monitor contributor Sander Thoenes was killed in East Timor last year, it seemed as if justice would be served in his case. But that looks increasingly in doubt.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government has postponed the registration of some 100,000 East Timorese refugees still langishing in squalid camps in Indonesian West Timor, the state Antara news agency said Saturday.

Mark Dodd, Dili – Christmas brings out the best in the East Timorese. Last year, despite the misery and destruction inflicted by the militia and their Indonesian army backers, even the poorest shanty town dwellers could scrounge enough material to build a nativity scene.

Jakarta – Former pro-Indonesia militia leaders from East Timor's Baucau district are preparing for a one-day visit to their homeland to see whether it's safe enough to bring 6,000 refugees home, their leader said Wednesday.

Lindsay Murdoch, Jakarta – Australia has with held from United Nations prosecutors hundreds of hours of secret communication intercepts, which implicate dozens of people, including former armed forces chief General Wiranto, in last year's violence in East Timor.

Jakarta – East Timor militia leader Eurico Guterres will open the new year unlike any other as he faces court proceedings against him on January 2. He is charged with involvement in the seizure of weapons from an Atambua police station in East Nusa Tenggara in September.