John Martinkus, Memo – Local residents here on the East-West Timor border remain terrified of an Indonesian attack following this week's shooting incident between Indonesian troops and Australian Interfet soldiers.

[Source: Sydney Morning Herald - January 2, 2000]

Table of contents

Introduction

General background

International Commission of Inquiry On East Timor

Terry Townsend – The streets of what is left of Dili, the capital of East Timor, were packed on October 31, 1999, as tens of thousands of people joined a procession led by Catholic Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo.

Jakarta – A former battalion commander in East Timor admitted on Thursday that his troops ambushed two foreign journalists in the territory's capital of Dili on September 21.

Keith B. Richburg, Tuapukan Refugee Camp – Zelia Soares and her family had decided to go home, to leave this refugee camp in western Timor and take their chances in the newly independent East Timor.

Dili – East Timor's leader Xanana Gusmao said here Friday that he foresaw the territory obtaining full independence in at most two years – a year less than currently envisaged.

Dili – East Timor's independence leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao said Friday that East Timor will be the first new independent nation of the new millennium, but not with him as president.

Gusmao has been widely regarded as the main contender for the presidency when East Timor, now under UN administration, becomes independent.

Dili – Several dozen Muslims who fled the recent violence in East Timor returned home to a protest by East Timorese who said they are not welcome, a UN official said Friday.

Jakarta – Efforts to bring to justice those behind the violence in East Timor received a double blow this week with the former armed forces chief rebuffing a domestic inquiry and the government again rejecting an international tribunal.

Jakarta – Former Indonesian armed forces chief General Wiranto on Friday told a human rights commission there had been no plan or policy for either a genocide or crimes against humanity in East Timor.

Railako – There was not much left of body number 258, but a team of UN civilian police officers and soldiers from the International Force for East Timor (Interfet) set out Thursday to find as much as they could.

Dili – Seven people were wounded after a suspected member of a pro-Indonesian militia threw a hand grenade in the border area between East and West Timor, a spokesman for the international peace force here said.

Canberra – More than 100,000 refugees in West Timor were trapped in makeshift camps and living in a state of constant fear under the rule of the militia groups that destroyed East Timor, an Amnesty International report said today.

Keith B. Richburg, Dili – Australian troops in East Timor are examining a newly discovered grave site in the Oe-Cussi enclave that may contain the remains of as many as 50 victims of last September's bloody rampage by Indonesian army troops and allied militias, which followed the territory's overwhelming vote to secede from Indonesia.

Geneva – More than 119,000 East Timorese have now returned to the territory – most of them from Indonesian West Timor, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said here Tuesday. With the exception of three minor incidents since Friday, UNHCR staff had also reported an easing of conditions in some militia-controlled camps in West Timor, spokesman Paul Stromberg said.

Kupang – A pro-Jakarta East Timor militia chief accused the Indonesian government on Friday of abandoning its own supporters, but said he would not disband his group, which is accused of terror in the territory.

Atambua – One week after the commander of pro-Indonesian militias ordered his forces to disband, militias remain present here but their power is fading, aid workers say.

Jakarta – The commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) yesterday in Jakarta revealed it's new investigation results from East Timor, concerning the violence which was conducted before and after the UN sponsored plebiscite. The results show evidence that the militia were paid by local administrators and the military.

Lindsay Murdoch – Eurico Guterres looks a beaten man. Gone are his thug bodyguards and the copy-cat red beret uniform of Indonesia's elite Kopassus forces. Gone also are his bravado and threats to kill.

Instead, the militia leader – who ordered mass murders and the destruction of East Timor – is living under an assumed name in a seedy hotel in north Jakarta.

Michael Richardson, Dili – Now that the East Timorese independence coalition no longer has a common enemy to hold it together, there are signs that it is starting to fracture.

David Nason – The Australian consortium behind the failed Dili Lodge hotel venture in East Timor hoped to reap an annual profit of nearly $7 million, while initially operating tax-free and paying wages of less than 60c an hour for local staff.

Jakarta – East Timorese militia supremo Joao da Silva Tavares has officially disbanded an umbrella organization for pro-Indonesian militias ordering them to hand over all arms, a report said here Tuesday.

Dili – A commander of one of East Timor's anti-independence militias has admitted he was behind one of the territory's most horrific massacres and claims he was acting on the orders of Indonesian special forces.

Dili – UN police in East Timor have been overwhelmed by the number of murder cases they must investigate with limited resources after the wave of violence that swept this territory after its August 30 vote for independence.

Hamish Mcdonald, Dili – The Australian commander of the United Nations peacekeeping force in East Timor has appealed for the international community to continue to pressure Indonesia to allow the remaining 100,000 displaced people in West Timor to return home.

Joanne Collins, Kupang – Pro-Jakarta militiamen armed with pistols and clubs threatened UN aid officials in Indonesian West Timor on Friday, preventing them from entering camps for East Timorese refugees.

Michael Ware. Dili – East Timor's political heavyweights and leading lights, now is crunchtime. Real positions of influence and power are up for grabs, and the manoeuvring is under way.

Dili – Eighteen East Timorese freed by Jakarta under a presidential amnesty program arrived in their homeland Saturday to an emotional welcome.

Nora Boustany, East Timor – An American relief worker who arrived Sunday from East Timor described horrific conditions in resettlement camps she visited across the border in western Timor, where she said she saw mass graves of children, and refugees living as the virtual hostages of Indonesian soldiers and local militias.

Dili, Tim Johnson – Timorese Tuesday celebrated East Timor's first free anniversary of Indonesia's invasion of the former Portuguese colony on December 7, 1975.

Veteran independence campaigner Jose Ramos-Horta told Kyodo News his people's hearts are filled with sorrow for the many who died during the initial assault on Dili.

Jon Land – As investigations by both the United Nations and the Indonesian Human Rights Commission continue into the Indonesian military's involvement in the killing and destruction which took place in East Timor, the Howard government remains reluctant to divulge vital intelligence that would aid these investigations.

The Victorian branch of the ALP has voted against a proposal to provide the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) with $5000 for urgent reconstruction work in East Timor.

Jakarta – Influential security minister General Wiranto on Monday denied allegations of a systematic effort by militias to prevent East Timorese refugees in West Timor from returning to their homeland.

Geneva – Conditions in refugee camps in West Timor are deteriorating, with provincial authorities reporting that at least 35 people, mostly children, died in one camp over a 10-day period, the UN refugee agency said at the weekend. Thirty-two of the victims were children under five.

Jakarta – The militia have been haunting the East Timorese refugees currently residing in camps in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). Militia are still emotionally charged over not succeeding in their "mission" and have been terrorising and threatening the refugees...

The bodies began to wash ashore about a week after Indonesia invaded East Timor 24 years ago.

"I buried one man over there on the beach," said Joao Pereira, 56, who was a waiter at the seafront hotel Turismo when Indonesian troops landed on December 7, 1975.

Dili – A five member UN mission Friday wound up nine days of investigation into allegations of atrocities in East Timor but it declined to say whether an international tribunal to try those responsible would be necessary.

Mark Dodd, Dili – As East Timor struggles to rebuild, a United Nations decision to introduce the Portuguese escudo into the fragile economy has caused mass confusion among an impoverished population now faced with a choice of four currencies, none of them freely convertible.

Max Lane – A formal administration of East Timor by the United Nations was established on November 27 when the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) issued its first regulation.

Dili – The number of East Timorese refugees returning from Indonesia has dropped despite Indonesian promises to help speed up their passage, the UN refugee said on Wednesday.

"We are very shocked," said Ariane Quentier of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). "If you look at the figures, they have even got worse."

Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta has returned to East Timor after almost 24 years in exile. He writes of the task of rebuilding a nation.

I left East Timor on December 4, 1975, three days before the Indonesian invasion. A private plane took me from Dili to Darwin. I have been abroad ever since, representing the cause of East Timorese independence.

Karen Fredericks, Brisbane – The spokesperson for the Brisbane East Timorese community has hit out at the refusal by federal immigration minister Philip Ruddock to grant the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) access to refugees in safe haven facilities.

Jakarta – A government-sanctioned inquiry said on Wednesday that the Indonesian Military (TNI) was directly or indirectly involved in extra-judicial executions in the ravaged territory of East Timor after the August 30 self-determination ballot.

Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid said on Tuesday that he would order next week the release of 18 East Timorese political prisoners still in Indonesian jails.

He made the pledge at a meeting with East Timor independence leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao, who received a red carpet welcome befitting a head of state, at Merdeka Palace.

Pip Hinman – Following a fact-finding tour to East Timor, Indonesia's National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) has announced it will subpoena senior Indonesian generals, including General Wiranto, minister-coordinator for political and security affairs, to explain their involvement in the violence and human rights abuses in East Timor since January.

Lindsay Murdoch – A pro-Jakarta militia leader has told investigators he helped murder an Indonesian journalist, two priests, two nuns and three other people in East Timor on the orders of a general in Jakarta.

Dili – Nobel peace laureate Jose Ramos Horta Wednesday returned to East Timor after 24 years in exile to a rousing welcome honoring his tireless efforts to end Indonesia's occupation of his homeland.

Alas Selatan, East Nusa Tenggara – An investigation team discovered at least 25 decaying bodies in three mass graves here on Thursday. They were the alleged victims of a militia attack on a church in the East Timorese town of Suai in early September.

Sonny Inbaraj, Dili – All's not well in the urgent distribution of food and seeds in East Timor, before the heavy monsoon rains expected this week makes planting impossible and roads impassable.

Sydney – Former Indonesian military chief General Wiranto orchestrated the post-referendum militia violence in East Timor to back his own political ambitions, an Australian magazine said Wednesday.