Jakarta – Indonesia will not allow Nobel peace laureate Jose Ramos-Horta to visit his native East Timor, a government minister said on Wednesday.

Ramos-Horta arrived in Jakarta last week, for the first time since Indonesia invaded his homeland and forced him into exile in 1975.

Tim Johnston, Dili, East Timor – Militiamen attacked a UN compound set up to prepare an independence ballot in East Timor on Tuesday wounding six people, the United Nations and hospital sources said.

Jakarta – Pro-Jakarta militia leader Eurico Guterres declared Tuesday that a stoning attack against a United Nations post in the East Timor town of Maliana was a "spontaneous" public reaction against an alleged pro-independence bias by the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET).

Dili – A 100-strong mob of pro-Indonesian militiamen attacked an unarmed UN outpost in East Timor Tuesday, injuring a woman electoral officer and several East Timorese, a UN official said.

Jakarta – Indonesia said an attack on United Nations offices in East Timor on Tuesday was the result of a brawl between supporters and opponents of Jakarta's rule and denied any deliberate attack on the UN.

Jean Pierre Catry – UN Secy Gen Kofi Annan and the Portuguese government have done all they can to facilitate the referendum that will decide the future of East Timor on 8 August. Mr Annan will decide if the referendum can go ahead on schedule or must be delayed.

Jakarta – Exiled East Timorese activist and Nobel laureate Jose Ramos Horta returned to Indonesia after 23 years Saturday, saying he would travel to his homeland even if could not campaign there for independence.

Dili – The UN Mission in East Timor said Thursday it is checking reports of false identity cards being issued to people not qualified to vote in the territory's ballot on self determination.

Jakarta – Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said Wednesday he did not believe it was necessary for the United Nations to delay a self-determination plebiscite in East Timor for two weeks.

Alatas said he was awaiting an official announcement of the postponement from UN Secretary General Kofi Annan but that if it was true, the reasons should be clearly spelled out.

Mark Dodd, Dili – Relations between the United Nations mission in East Timor (Unamet) and Indonesian Government representatives in the territory have plummeted, with the UN branding claims that its personnel ransacked villagers' homes "nonsense and lies".

Dili – A pro-Indonesia group in East Timor Monday called on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to replace the UN mission spokesman in East Timor, accusing him of favoring the pro-independence camp.

Dili – The UN mission in East Timor (UNAMET) has opened four voter registration centres for the UN-monitored vote on the future of the territory and four more will be opened by the end of the week, a spokesman said Monday.

With just seven weeks to go before the UN conducts a ballot on East Timor's future, an atmosphere of fear and insecurity persists in the disputed territory, Amnesty International delegates returning from a research visit said today at the launch of a major report.

Mark Dodd, Dili – The United Nation's senior official in East Timor has issued a bleak assessment of human rights in the territory, days after UN officials saw Indonesian soldiers directing pro-Jakarta militiamen as they burnt houses and beat up an old man.

Peter Alford – Driving towards a hostage handover in the north-west of East Timor on Tuesday morning, a group of UN officials surprised a militia group in the act of terrorising Leotela village. It was hard to miss.

Salemba – Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao, President of the CNRT, participated in the three-day meeting of the Peace and Stability Commission (PSC) that was concluded in Jakarta today. The following points were adopted during the PSC meetings:

Mark Dodd, Dili – The United Nations chief in East Timor, Mr Ian Martin, has personally investigated reports of villagers being abducted by pro-Jakarta militias in East Timor's violence-prone western district.

Dili – The UN mission in East Timor said Friday it has seen Indonesian military-backed militia burning houses and intimidating people, posing a "serious obstacle" to a vote on the territory's future.

Jakarta – Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said Wednesday that Indonesia stood firm in barring the return of self-exiled resistance activist Jose Ramos Horta to East Timor, and warned him against trying to enter the territory illegally.

By Peter Cole-Adams, Mark Dodd and Lindsay Murdoch – The Indonesian Government says it has stopped attempts by the provincial government in East Timor to channel money from an aid budget into the anti-independence campaign for the territory's forthcoming plebiscite.

Jakarta – East Timor's Peace and Stability Commission began Wednesday a series of meetings aiming to define a code of conduct for rival factions before, during and after the half-island's August 8 autonomy-or-independence plebiscite

The Indonesian govt's Taskforce for Implementation of the Consultation in East Timor, in collaboration with the Indonesian Ministry of Information, has set up a Media Centre to handle all information relating to the Consultation in East Timor.

Jakarta – Indonesia on Tuesday sent a second batch of 821 police reinforcements to East Timor ahead of the August 8 UN-monitored ballot to determine the future of the former Portuguese colony.

Mark Dodd, Dili – Indonesian authorities in East Timor plan to use more than $7 million in aid money earmarked for the poor to fund pro-autonomy propaganda and militia groups, according to documents obtained by the Herald.

Mark Dodd, Sarmara village – In a swathe of secluded backwoods villages and hamlets across East Timor's remote coffee-growing highlands, pro-Indonesia militias and their army allies continue a deadly campaign to coerce a hapless population to support their autonomy cause.

On Tuesday, 8 June, members of the Dadarus Red and White militia attacked Memo village, Maliana sub-district in the district of Bobonaro. The attack was directed at the parents of Aniceto Guterres Lopes, Director of the human rights organisation, Yayasan HAK.

Dili – A UN mission on Saturday launched a campaign in East Timor to inform the population of the options available for the future of the territory ahead of a self-determination ballot in August.The UN Assessment Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) published a page of information in East Timor's main daily, "The Voice of East Timor."

Adopts Resolution 1246 (1999) Unanimously; Ballot to Decide on Special Autonomy or Separation from Indonesia

Dili – The UN referendum oversight mission in East Timor has received "all sorts of threats" of hostile actions, a spokesman said Thursday. So far, no attacks have been carried out against the week-old outpost.

Most of the threats are coming from militias battling to keep the province part of Indonesia.

Mark Dodd, Dili – Eurico Guterres, one of East Timor's most hardline pro-Jakarta militia leaders, today strongly defended a reorganisation of his force into what he said was a legal civil defence unit.

Mark Dodd, Dili – The pro-Jakarta government in East Timor has ordered between 10 and 20 per cent of its budget to be set aside for propaganda and training to promote the integration cause in the ballot on self-determination – a move that breaches United Nations-brokered accords signed by Indonesia.

Dili – East Timorese voted in a steady stream Monday in this troubled Indonesian territory, but interest in the elections was low, taking a back seat to a UN-sponsored ballot on self-determination in August.

Lisbon – Reported reprisals against East Timorese for an attack by resistance fighters on Indonesian troops threaten upcoming talks on the future of the territory, resistance leader Jose Ramos Horta said Tuesday.

Dili – The United Nations officially raised its flag in East Timor on Thursday, provoking loud cheers from a crowd of independence supporters and raising hopes of peace in the troubled territory.

"We have waited 24 years for this moment. This is a historic day, and some people say it is the beginning of peace in East Timor," said student Francisco Dionosio Fernandes.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Fresh allegations of killings and kidnappings by pro-Jakarta militia in East Timor emerged yesterday as a diplomatic war of words broke out between Indonesia and the United Nations.

Luciano Alvarez, Dili – For 3 days, Publico accompanied a UN mission on a journey that took them over 500 kms of the disputed territory's terrain: Dili, Baucau, Lospalos, Viqueque and back to Dili."

Too many vested interests mean the chances of East Timor separating peacefully from Indonesia are slim, Asia Editor David Jenkins writes.

On a recent Saturday afternoon, President B.J. Habibie sat in his office and talked about East Timor.

John Zubrzycki, Dili – Pro-Indonesian militia were planning a military-style sweep on Dili tonight conducting house-to-house searches to check whether voters had registered for the June 7 general election, church sources revealed yesterday.

Following the ouster of Indonesia's President Suharto last year, the new government agreed to give the people of East Timor – which was illegally seized by Indonesia a quarter-century ago – the chance to vote for independence.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – United Nations officials arriving in East Timor yesterday complained of a hostile reception from pro-Jakarta supporters as fresh violence erupted in the territory's second-largest town, Baucau, where a man was shot dead by Indonesian soldiers as he took part in a religious ceremony.

[In an exclusive interview with The Jakarta Post, the co-winner of the 1996 Noble Peace Prize, Jose Ramos-Horta, reiterates his support for the New York agreement on a United-Nations-supervised ballot.

Hamish Mcdonald – Even before the UN Assistance Mission to East Timor (UNAMET) is fully deployed, diplomats and political leaders of concerned countries are discussing the option of postponing the autonomy-or-independence vote scheduled for August 8.

Mark Dodd, Dili – The United Nations mission in East Timor will remain until the vote on self-determination for the violence-prone province is completed successfully, a senior UN spokesman said yesterday.

"We're here until it's done, even if it is postponed," said Mr David Wimhurst, the spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission to East Timor.

Jose Manuel Tesoro, Dili – While 110 million Indonesians decide the future of their nation, the 850,000 residents of its youngest province await their own fate – in conditions that are far more uncertain, and far deadlier. On May 14, the first permanent members of the new UN Assistance Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) arrived in Dili.

Mark Riley, New York – The United Nations proposes sending a team of military advisers to East Timor in the face of continuing violence. The team would join a 280-strong UN police contingent ahead of the planned autonomy vote in August.

Lisbon – Pro-Indonesian militiamen launched a manhunt for an East Timorese resistance activist in the territory's capital, Dili, Monday night, with paramilitary groups surrounding four of the city's neighborhoods.

Cameron Stewart and Don Greenlees – UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has been advised the UN-sponsored vote on autonomy for East Timor might not be possible if violence in the territory remains at current levels.

Jonathan Thatcher, Jakarta – Indonesia on Friday abruptly changed the date for East Timor's independence vote, a move greeted with astonishment by Portugal and the United Nations, which had settled on a poll for August 8.

Jakarta said the troubled former Portuguese colony would now go to the polls a day earlier, on a Saturday.

Mark Dodd, Atsabe – United Nations investigators believe that their surprise arrival in this highland town on Wednesday may have stalled plans for a second attack by pro-Indonesian militias.

Mark Dodd, East Timor – United Nations investigators have seen Indonesian Army personnel training loyalist civilian militia in this East Timor town, throwing doubt on Jakarta's promise to ensure the neutrality of its military before the territory's independence vote.