Jakarta – The Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) claims a report by state investigators that confirmed the military orchestrated recent atrocities in East Timor was clearly biased.

TNI Commander Admiral Widodo Adisutjipto yesterday told parliament the military will meet with the investigators to "clarify" the findings before following up the report.

Canberra – Australia received information from a wide variety of sources on developments in East Timor but could have done nothing more than it did to pressure Indonesia to rein in militia violence, Prime Minister John Howard said today.

Mr Howard said Australia made 120 separate representations to Indonesia from the start of the year to the time of the East Timor ballot.

Indonesia's National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) has announced that it will shortly summon General Wiranto, Minister-Coordinator for Political and Security Affairs to explain the involvement of the military (TNI and the police) in the violence and human rights abuses perpetrated in East Timor from January this year.

On a November 22, US Ambassador to the United Nations, Richard Holbrooke, visited Dili, the capital of East Timor, and Atambua, an area in West Timor which hosts substantial numbers of displaced persons who have not been able to return to their homes in East Timor.

Lincoln Wright – Secret defence documents on East Timor show the Howard Government was well-informed about how the Indonesian armed forces were fomenting militia violence in the run-up to the independence ballot.

Jon Land – United Nations officials have come under heavy criticism from leaders of the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT). In a move to reduce tension between CNRT and the United Nations Administration in East Timor, the head of UNTAET, Sergio Vieira de Mello, held "informal" talks with CNRT leader Xanana Gusmao in the town of Aileu on November 17.

Margaret Allum – The federal minister for immigration, Philip Ruddock, announced on November 19 that the government has dropped its appeal against the Federal Court's September 1998 decision in the test case of Kon Tji Lay, an East Timorese seeking refugee status in Australia.

Louise Williams – A key Australian intelligence source in East Timor warned more than a year ahead of September's carnage that Indonesian-backed militia units would fight a bloody "scorched earth" battle if independence was won, but his confidential reports were dismissed as "alarmist and irrelevant".

With East Timor in a mess, what will become of the natural resources off its coast? It depends, writes Bernard Lane, on which country you speak to.

Between Australia and the former Indonesian province of East Timor there is no single maritime boundary.

Richard Holbrooke is heading to Dili as a representative of the UN, but he's carrying the baggage of a shameful past of covering up for Indonesian human rights abuses.

The irony of US Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke's visit to East Timor in the coming week will not be lost on any East Timorese whose memories go back to the 1970s.

Dili – Indonesia's top military brass plotted the systematic destruction of East Timor and the murder of all independence leaders should the territory vote to break from Jakarta, the country's own human rights investigators said Saturday.

Basilio Araujo is subdued. Over breakfast in a modest hotel in south Jakarta, the former spokesman of the East Timorese pro-integration forces is less than his usual talkative self as he contemplates the future for the defeated militias.

Jakarta – The Indonesian government on Thursday rejected a UN commission to arrive here soon to probe post-ballot human rights violations in East Timor but pledged to bring justice to anyone found responsible for the violence.

Allen Myers – "John Passant's Requiem for the Left" is the title of a peculiar article in the November issue of Workers Online, the internet magazine of the NSW Labor Council.

Passant, who describes himself as an "antiwar socialist", writes that the left has "capitulated" on the question of East Timor:

James Dunn – As horrifying details emerged about the TNI-backed militia rampage which followed the East Timor independence referendum demands have grown from within and outside the United Nations for an international investigation.

Dili – Thousands of East Timorese refugees poured across the border to their homes Monday after talks among UN agencies, the Indonesian military and pro-Indonesian militia, the United Nations said here.

Joanne Collins, Manatutu – East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao has launched another attack on the international effort to rebuild the ravaged territory, saying aid organisations were not co-operating with Timorese officials.

Dili – UN-appointed rapporteurs investigating human rights abuses in East Timor Monday described the situation as devastating and are likely to recommend an international tribunal.

Sian Powell, Dili – The pro-Jakarta militia in East Timor conducted a concerted two-stage campaign to split up families, warning men they would be killed if they did not flee, then forcibly transporting the remaining women and children to West Timor.

Tom Fawthrop, Suai – As red tape and obstruction delay the United Nations investigation of human rights abuses in East Timor, a witness has identified an Indonesian army officer who allegedly directed one of the worst atrocities.

Maliana – Returning East Timorese refugees on Friday said militia in West Timor had seized their belongings and forced them to pay to cross the border.

Constantino Marquez crossed the frontier at a stony river bed near the town of Maliana with his family of seven. They carried a mattress and a few green vegetables.

David Lague, Dili – There are 80,000 East Timorese still missing more than seven weeks after Interfet, the Australian-led international force, halted a violent rampage in the former Portuguese territory, according to estimates compiled by the peacekeeping troops.

Alexander Higgins, Geneva – Failure by a UN panel last week to approve a special investigation of alleged atrocities in East Timor risks the loss of evidence that could be used in any future international trial of militias or the Indonesian military, an official said today.

Jakarta – An Indonesian rights body said Monday it had found evidence of organized human rights abuses by pro-Jakarta militia in West Timor, and urged Jakarta to protect the remaining 230,000 refugees East Timorese there.

Jakarta – The Indonesian press on Monday expressed relief the country's army had completed its withdrawal from East Timor in a dignified manner, and called for reconciliation to heal the bitter wounds of the past.

Dili – Hundreds of East Timorese Sunday looted the empty barracks of the Indonesian army in Dili several hours after the last occupying troops sailed out of the harbour under the cover of darkness.

Dili – Standing bolt upright after singing the national anthem, the Indonesian soldiers cleared their weapons in unison and marched off across the tarmac as the sun set on Dili's Comoro airport.

Human rights group Amnesty International lashed out at the UN Thursday for dragging its feet in sending investigators into East Timor as it released a new report detailing alleged atrocities there.

Dini Sari Djalal, Atambua – Claudio de Jesus Lai trusts very few people. The East Timorese anti-independence activist mans the gates of Tenubot refugee camp in Atambua, West Timor, sternly interrogating visitors. "Western countries are using Asians to spy on us," he snaps at a visiting reporter. "How do I know you're not one of them?"

Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Ermera – In a country where most people grow just enough rice and corn to slake their hunger, Jose Madeira Ximenes never consumed any of his crop.

Oekussi – At least 34 people were believed to have been killed in the East Timorese enclave of Oekussi, victims of militia atrocities, according to a list compiled by returning refugees.

Dili – Civilian and military police have discovered another mass grave holding up to 10 bodies at a site on the outskirts of Dili, officials said Monday, as the Australian-led multi-national peacekeeping force spread into more devastated territory in the East Timorese enclave of Oecussi.

According to recent reports, the UN mission in East Timor has been able to account for just over 150,000 people out of an estimated population of 850,000.

Dili – International investigators excavating a well near Liquisa in East Timor have abandoned the site after unearthing 11 bodies, an Interfet spokesman said Saturday.

Other badly decomposed remains could be seen but the investigation was called off when the site became too dangerous, Interfet officers said.

Agencies in Dili – Multinational forces stormed into the Oecussi enclave by sea yesterday securing the last slice of East Timor just days before an expected assault by militia groups.

"This morning Interfet established a lodgement in the enclave," Interfet commander Major-General Peter Cosgrove said, adding that Jakarta had not been informed of the planned action.

Dili – East Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao returned to a tumultuous and emotional welcome in his devastated homeland Friday, and told his people: "We are independent now and forever."

Darwin – East Timor resistance leaders plan to use the Portuguese escudo as their currency for at least the territory's transitional period under UN administration.

Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Suai – Scores of 7.62mm shell casings litter Father Francisco's bedroom floor. At least 60 bullet holes pockmark the bamboo-scaffolded facade of Ave Maria Cathedral. A thick coating of dried blood stretches across the entrance to a church schoolroom. A pile of underwear sits at the foot of a staircase.

Jakarta – Indonesia's national assembly early on Wednesday ratified the results of East Timor's independence vote, clearing the way for the territory's freedom from the country that invaded it in 1975.

David Boey – International relief teams sent to help displaced East Timor residents in the town of Suai have learned of alleged atrocities committed by roving gangs of militiamen working with Indonesian Army troops.

One incident was said to have involved the slaughter of about 200 Suai residents, who had sought refuge in the Church of Fatimah on Sept 6.

Dili – Peacekeepers battled with anti-independence attackers on East Timor for more than an hour Saturday, killing three of the militiamen and wounding three others, peacekeeping officials said.

Suai – Indonesian soldiers and pro-Jakarta militia slaughtered as many as 200 people in a church compound in this town in southwestern East Timor in September, an eyewitness claimed Saturday.

Andrew Marshall, Dili – Hundreds of anti-independence militiamen are still active in East Timor and the border is not yet secure against more entering, the head of the UN-mandated multinational force said on Friday.

Dili – The head of the multinational force in East Timor, Major General Peter Cosgrove said Thursday that Indonesia had admitted its forces fired the first shots in a border clash last weekend.

Dili – The United Nations said Wednesday it had uncovered no evidence to support allegations that pro-Jakarta militia engaged in mass murder in East Timor.

"We've heard horrendous stories for which so far there's not a shred of evidence," Michel Barton, spokesman for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) in Dili told Reuters.

Joanna Jolly, Dili – By 9am the crowd outside the stadium in East Timor's capital Dili has already begun to swell in anticipation of the arrival of the day's first refugees being flown back from Indonesian West Timor.

Sydney – Australia has begun talks with East Timorese leaders over the Timor Gap treaty under which Australia and Indonesia share oil revenue from the Timor Sea, officials said Wednesday.

Andi Jatmiko, Liquica – Dozens of anti-independence militiamen who fled East Timor are secretly returning with plans to launch a guerrilla campaign against the international peacekeepers charged with keeping them out.

Melbourne – Independent East Timor will be a western-style democracy with open institutions and a diversified economy driven by exports of coffee, oil, gas and tourism, the man likely to be its first leader has promised.

Five hundred members of TNI battalions who are East Timorese met last Wednesday to pledge their loyalty to the pro-integration struggle by joining the PPI, the Force to Struggle for Integration, in a ceremony attended by Udayana military commander, Major-General Adam Damiri.

"I naturally welcome your dedication," said Adam, "but not as members of the TNI."