Julian Drape – East Timor says it won't be deterred from challenging a multi-billion dollar oil and gas treaty with Australia in The Hague despite raids on a lawyer's office and the home of a key witness.
Officials from both countries met in the Netherlands for seven hours on Thursday with a full hearing at the Permanent Court of Arbitration now likely in late 2014.
For many years, Australia has been stealing the oil and gas from the Timor Sea, in an area which belongs to Timor-Leste under international legal principles. Sadly, Australia has shown its manner and its greed to make our small and poor country in this region lose our resources and sovereignty.
Lenore Taylor – The inspector general of intelligence and security has issued an unusual public statement to deny that any former spy had raised concerns with her or her predecessor about Australian espionage in Timor.
Shirley Shackleton – This week the home and offices of Australian barrister Bernard Collaery were raided, while he was in the Hague seeking arbitration for a fair deal for the Timorese over their share of their own oil.
Gordon Peake and Piers Kelly – With allegations of Australian chicanery during the Timor Sea negotiations, a definitional question emerges for the media: just what is the correct name of our northern neighbour? East Timor or Timor-Leste?
Despite the usual diplomatic niceties at the celebration of the thirty-eighth anniversary of Timor-Leste's declaration of independence in Canberra last week, the raid on that nation's legal counsel in Australia, Bernard Colleary, probably says more about the current state of the relationship between the two countries.
Donald K. Anton – Claims of Australian spying on East Timor are only the latest chapter in a saga of clashes over treaties.
Damien Kingsbury – The new government is not off on the right foot in foreign policy terms, with the Indonesian spying scandal dominating headlines. But a bigger problem looms: East Timor.
Nick Miller – East Timor's government will not be deterred in pressing its case to scrap an oil treaty worth billions of dollars over claims of spying by Australia, an international negotiator says.
Peter Lloyd, staff – East Timor says the Australian Government knew it would call upon the testimony of four whistleblowers in its dispute regarding a $40 billion oil and gas treaty.
It is disturbing that more than a decade after East Timor secured its independence, with the assistance of Australian forces, our nations now are in dispute. Primarily, the quarrel is about the division of many billions of dollars of revenue that will flow from developing gasfields in the Timor Sea.
Bernard Keane – As the United States-style war on whistleblowers and journalists ramps up in Australia, one of the key myths about national security whistleblowers has taken another hammering.
Australia's role in supporting the transition of East Timor, or Timor Leste, to independence in 2002 – making it the first new sovereign state of the 21st century – was pivotal.
The Australia East Timor Friendship Association of South Australia today released a statement regarding the spying scandal against Timor-Leste by Australian security.
Andrew Alcock, AETFA's Information Officer said:
Tom Allard – The former senior spy who blew the whistle on alleged Australian bugging of East Timor's government took his case to the intelligence watchdog but it did not investigate and advised him to get a lawyer if he wanted to take the matter further.
Jane Wardell, Sydney – Attorney-General George Brandis said on Wednesday raids by Australia's domestic spy agency on the Canberra offices of a lawyer representing East Timor over Australian bugging claims were justified on grounds of national security.
East Timor's prime minister says he is shocked by the Australian Government's decision to authorise raids on a lawyer and whistleblower who were set to provide evidence against Australia in The Hague.
East Timor will launch a case in The Hague tomorrow to have a $40 billion oil and gas treaty it signed with Australia ripped up.
Paul Cleary – Oil and espionage have gone hand in hand during the past four decades of contestation over the lucrative petroleum resources of the Timor Sea, so the latest revelations should come as no surprise, least of all to East Timor's government.
Clinton Fernandes – It is not hard to see why ASIO yesterday raided the office and home of a Canberra-based lawyer, Bernard Collaery, and the house of a former Australian intelligence agent.
A lawyer representing East Timor in its spying case against Australia says his office has been raided by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).
Katharine Murphy and Lenore Taylor – A first-hand witness to alleged Australian spying against Timor-Leste in 2004 has been detained and searched at his Canberra home, according to a prominent human rights lawyer and academic, Frank Brennan.
Tom Clarke – Indonesia isn't the only country in our region upset about Australia's spying. East Timor has accused Australia not just of spying on it, but of doing so for economic gain.
Rory Callinan – Six years ago, NSW magistrate Dorelle Pinch recommended that the killings of Australian journalists Brian Peters, 29, Malcolm Rennie, 28, Gary Cunningham, 27, Gregory Shackleton, 29, and Anthony Stewart, 21, in Balibo, East Timor be investigated as a war crime.
David Robie, Dili – On 28 November 1975, Timor-Leste made its fateful unilateral declaration of independence. A week later, a paranoid Indonesian military, fearful of an upstart "leftwing" neighbouring government, staged its brutal invasion and 24 years of repression and massacres followed.
Paulina Quintao – Despite the outcry from the community for the government to ban cigarette advertising in public spaces, the Minister of Health said it won't be able to because there is no law for this.
Reheated allegations that Australia bugged Timor-Leste's leaders during negotiations over resource revenues will reinforce perceptions that colonialism still underpins our foreign policy approach to smaller, less wealthy and more troubled northern neighbours.
But they will surprise few seasoned diplomats and intelligence experts the world over.
Dan Harrison – A senior East Timorese minister has backed Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's call for a code of conduct on spying, questioning whether intelligence gathering by some nations had got out of hand.
This movement was established by the university students who are concerned about the serious crimes committed by the Indonesian soldiers from 1975-1999. The first rally of this movement was held on 2002 during the time where the government demobilized the FALINTIL in Dili, Timor-Leste.
Joanne Wallis – In March 2013 Australia drew down the last members of the Australian Defence Force-led international forces that had been deployed to stabilise Timor-Leste after a major security crisis in mid-2006.
The Abbott Government is facing fresh accusations of spying on a near neighbour and it could cost Australia dearly. The government of Timor Leste – East Timor – believes Australia's overseas spy agency covertly recorded Timorese ministers and officials in Dili in 2004.
East Timor is accusing Australia of bugging its cabinet for commercial advantage and threatening to end a lucrative gas treaty over the claims.
Leigh Sales, presenter: New spying allegations have blown up around the Australian Government, with East Timor claiming Australia bugged its cabinet ahead of crucial talks on a lucrative gas deal in 2004.
Leo Shanahan – East Timor Minister of State Agio Pereira has said allegations of spying by Australian intelligence on Indonesia's President will not be used as ammunition in Dili's dispute with Canberra over espionage.
Conor Duffy, Nikki Tugwell, Peter Lloyd and staff – Australia is under further pressure over spying in the region, with East Timor accusing spies of bugging its cabinet room for commercial advantage, and threatening to scrap a potentially lucrative treaty that could have earned Australia billions in royalties.
Amid the furore over allegations of spying on Indonesia's leaders, East Timor has repeated claims that Australia bugged its leaders during delicate negotiations on the Timor Sea resources treaty in 2004.
Amy Ripley – The respected East Timorese human rights organisation La'o Hamutuk is demanding that the Indonesian government finally be held accountable for their bloody 24-year occupation of East Timor.
Manila, Philippines – Economic losses frrom climate change could reach as much as 10% of Timor-Leste's annual GDP by 2100, making it one of the worst hit in the Pacific, says a new Asian Development Bank (ADB) study.
Fransisco Rosarians, Kupang – Commander of Security Forces of Indonesian-Timor Leste Border, Major Infantry Budi Prasetyo said the number of smuggling in the border area of the two countries was still quite high.
Agustinus Tetiro – State-owned construction companies Waskita Karya and Pembangunan Perumahan have set their eyes on the developing economy of East Timor.
David Robie, Dili – While the Timor-Leste media industry was rejuvenated by a national congress last month that voted on a new code of ethics, one of the country's most independent chief editors has warned against the risks of a "media council elephant".
Celestino Gusmao – University students from Timor-Leste's eastern Baucau district gathered this week to commemorate the 1979 Matebian cave massacre in a month of events focused on protest against the impunity over atrocities during the illegal Indonesian occupation.
The government of Timor-Leste (East Timor) plans to provide Cabo Verde (Cape Verde) land for agriculture, as part of an arrangement that is similar to what it already has with Angola and Paraguay, the Timor-Leste Agriculture Minister said Wednesday cited by Cape Verdean radio.
The Timor-Leste capital Dili's Chinese-built main heavy oil power plant at Hera, about 15 km from the city, still remains at the centre of controversy.
A fact-based page by the advocacy group La'o Hamutuk (Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis) cites many critical performance reports and is headed: "Mega-project or mega problem?"
Havana – A total of 246 medical students in Timor-Leste received their degrees today in that nation as a part of a joint project between the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba and the National University in that Asian country.
Muhammad Al Azhari – A large mixed use property project, managed by an Indonesian building contractor, held a ground-breaking ceremony in Dili, East Timor, last week, signaling a stronger investment future between the infamously hostile nations.
Jakarta – The Timor Leste Attorney General's Office (AGO) plans to strengthen relations with the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) in the future.
Timor Leste Attorney General Jose da Costa Ximenes said on Tuesday the move was necessary to help the country combat corruption.
November 12 is the 22nd anniversary of the Santa Cruz massacre. On November 12, 1991, Indonesian troops opened fire on a memorial procession – turned into a peaceful pro-independence demonstration – at the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste. More than 270 mostly-young Timorese were murdered.
Truth and Justice are the foundations for developing democracy in Timor-Leste
Stephanie Boulet – Legal experts and NGOs in East Timor say laws against domestic violence are failing to reduce rates of violence against women.
The government is nearing the end of a three-year campaign to reduce rates of violence in the country, but NGOs say perpetrators often go unpunished.
Ezequiel Freitas – Members of National Parliament consider the work of the Anti-Corruption Commission (KAK) to be ineffective combating corruption, especially in the area of human resources.
"Their capacity is still low, they have minimal experience and their framework is still weak and needs to be fixed," Member of Parliament (MP) Pedro da Costa said.
Australian RWB correspondent Mark Pearson tells us about an historic congress of Timor Leste journalists which was held in Dili from 25 to 27 October.