Australia is still atoning for East Timor's suffering 10 years after the independence vote. No nation has paid a higher price for independence than East Timor.

Ezki Suyanto – As East Timorese celebrate the 10th anniversary of the referendum that led to the country's independence, the Jakarta Globe presents contributor Ezki Suyanto's interview with the nation's first prime minister, Mari Alkatiri, 59, at his residence in Farol, Dili, at the end of last month.

Sara Everingham – Thousands of refugees in East Timor displaced during the 2006 military crisis have been moving back to their communities, with only a few remaining in makeshift camps around Dili.

John Aglion, Dili – Jose Ramos-Horta, East Timor's president, has called for those responsible for the death of Sander Thoenes, the Financial Times journalist killed during 1999 violence in the territory, to be brought to justice.

Meredyth Tamsyn – The day, like most others in East Timor, started very early. But it was not the chickens or motorbikes that woke us that day, it was heart-pounding excitement.

The United Nations is preparing for a gradual withdrawal from East Timor early next year and expects Australia will begin to reduce its troop numbers at the same time.

Matt Crook, Dili – After three years behind bars as a political prisoner in Indonesia, British human rights campaigner Carmel Budiardjo saw firsthand the viciousness of former President Suharto's military dictatorship.

Expelled from the country in 1971, Budiardjo knew there would be suffering when the Indonesian military invaded East Timor in 1975.

Sara Everingham – East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta has dismissed calls by Amnesty International to establish a war crimes tribunal to investigate human rights violations there during 24 years of Indonesian rule.

A decade after Timor-Leste voted for independence, a culture of impunity continues to haunt the country's people.

Havana – The National Parliament of the Democratic Republic of East Timor has passed a resolution to constitute the Parliamentarian Solidarity with Cuba Group.

This Group will have among its goals the promotion of parliamentary dialogue between the two states and the exchange of experiences between deputies.

East Timor's stability is threatened by the failure to prosecute those behind the 1999 violence.

Adam Gartrell – The failure to pursue and prosecute most of those responsible for the violence that marred East Timor's 1999 independence vote poses a continuing threat to the country's stability, a new report warns.

Long-term development in East Timor – which celebrates the tenth anniversary of its vote for independence on Sunday 29 August 2009 – will be "seriously hindered" if justice for past crimes remains undelivered, the international development agency Progressio has warned.

Sunanda Creagh, Jakarta – The United Nations Security council should set up an international criminal tribunal to investigate abuses in East Timor both under Indonesian rule and in the vote for independence, a rights group said on Thursday.

Yemris Fointuna, Dili – A solidarity network for Timor Leste will hold a conference in Dili from Aug. 27-29 to rally international support for poverty alleviation and programs to fight injustice in the tiny country.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Madalena is 16 but weighs just 13 kilograms, her arms and legs thin and twisted. If she could speak, she would say how happy she is to see Sister Florencia. You can see that in her bulging eyes.

Mark Dodd – East Timor has called for an end to delays over the development of the oil and gas-rich Greater Sunrise field in the Timor Sea after new interest from investors in Malaysia, China and South Korea.

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The country's top naval official said on Sunday that Indonesia would provide training and possibly sell equipment to East Timor's Navy as part of a broadening of defense ties between the former enemies.

Dili – Ten years after East Timor's historic independence referendum, victims are still waiting for justice for crimes and rights abuses committed during Indonesia's brutal 24-year occupation.

East Timor's president says corruption is still a serious problem in his country but he is committed to stamping it out.

Jose Ramos Horta was speaking as the country began celebrations leading up to the 10th anniversary of the referendum on independence. He says he is determined, together with the Prime Minister, to stamp out corruption.

Australian governments, both Labor and Coalition, knew what was happening.

James Dunn – I saw an early screening of the film Balibo and was quite impressed at the way it presented events surrounding the tragic deaths of journalists in East Timor in 1975.

John Pilger – On August 30 it will be a decade since the people of East Timor defied the genocidal occupiers of their country to take part in a United Nations referendum and vote for their freedom and independence.

Paul Stewart recalls the day in 1975 when a newspaper banner shouted "Five Newsman Missing In Timor". "I knew one of them must be Tony [his brother, television soundman Tony Stewart]."

Stewart, then aged 14, ran home to find his mother, distraught, surrounded by other members of the Melbourne family.

East Timor voted for independence 10 years ago, but its people await a better life, writes Lindsay Murdoch in Dili.

The first time I saw Pedro Unamet Remejio he had just poked his head into the world as gunfire was echoing around the United Nations compound in Dili.

Paul Monk – Robert Connolly's film Balibo graphically reconstructs the murder by Indonesian special forces, on October 16, 1975, of Greg Shackleton, Gary Cunningham, Tony Stewart, Malcolm Rennie and Brian Peters because they had tried to capture on film Indonesia's covert invasion of East Timor.

Comando Falintil-Forca defeza Timor-Leste (F-FDTL), the armed forces of Timor-Leste, celebrated its 34th anniversary here on Thursday.

Jonathan Pearlman – The United Nations is preparing gradually to wind down its mission in East Timor and believes Australia could do the same, says the mission's chief of staff, Gerard Gallucci.

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – Australian forensic experts have identified the remains of three victims of an Indonesian army massacre that took place in East Timor 18 years ago.

Caroline Overington – The family of one of the Balibo Five believes the Rudd government has deliberately inflamed a wrenching dispute over the remains of the dead to avoid having to confront Jakarta over the invasion of East Timor, and the violent death of their kin.

[A new film has opened political and cultural wounds. Author Paul Cleary and filmmaker, Robert Connolly present two informed views on its portrayal of history.]

Paul Cleary

Caroline Overington – A federal police probe into the death of five newsmen in Balibo in 1975 has stalled due to a dispute between the families over whether the remains of the bodies, which are buried in a single grave, should be exhumed and examined for forensic evidence.

Eras Poke, Kupang – Authorities in East Timor arrested an Indonesian on Sunday over his alleged role in a deadly attack at a church there during the upheaval experienced after the country's vote for independence, an Indonesian official said while appealing to the central government for help in the case.

Mark Naglazas – When Damon Gameau was preparing to play Greg Shackleton, one of the five Australian journalists massacred by Indonesian troops in East Timor in 1975, he sought the counsel and blessing of the murdered man's widow Shirley.

Clinton Fernandes – In October 1975, the Indonesian military was conducting a terror and destabilisation campaign in the border regions of East Timor. Its aim was to generate atrocities that could be falsely attributed to pro-independence East Timorese forces. It would then be able to invade under the pretext of "restoring order".

Members of the US-based East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) will gather in Timor-Leste later this month to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the country's historic vote for independence.

Shirley Shackleton wondered whether the truth of her husband's murder could ever be communicated to Australian cinema audiences. This is her response to Balibo.

The director of the film Balibo has renewed calls for a coronial inquest into the death of Roger East, the Darwin-based journalist murdered in East Timor in 1975.

Australian film Balibo, about the murder of five Australian journalists in East Timor in 1975, won two of the five jury prizes at the 2009 St George Bank Brisbane International Film Festival today.

Balibo took out both the Interfaith and Fipresci Jury Awards. The film will close the festival tonight.

Anthony LaPaglia strived for truth about the Balibo Five, writes Philippa Hawker.

"It didn't matter to me what size the role was," says Anthony LaPaglia. "I'd already committed to playing it."

Caroline Overington – The Australian media bears more responsibility than the Australian government for the deaths of five journalists in Balibo in 1975, according to retired diplomat Richard Woolcott.

Dili – East Timor's opposition Fretilin party called for Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao to sack his justice and finance ministers Thursday after investigators recommended action against the pair for "abuse of power."

Kerry O'Brien, presenter: It's now 10 years since the people of East Timor were finally given the chance to decide their political future and vote in a referendum on independence. But the impoverished young nation's Government would prefer to look forward.

An Australian woman charged with conspiring to kill East Timor's President is stressed and concerned by the trial, her Darwin solicitor says.

Angelita Pires, 43, is one of 28 people charged over the attack on President Jose Ramos-Horta in February last year.

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – Defense Minister Juwono Sudarsono and an Armed Forces spokesman on Tuesday both professed to have no information on a report that an Indonesian company had been contracted to supply neighboring East Timor with police and army equipment.

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – A Jakarta company has been awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to supply police and army equipment to East Timor.

Caroline Overington – There is a scene in the new Australian film Balibo that is so sickening in its violence that it is almost unbearable to watch. Five Australian journalists – from Channel Seven and Channel Nine – have gone to Balibo, near the East Timorese border with Indonesia, on the eve of the 1975 invasion.

Balibo is a political thriller that uncovers the true story of five journalists, including New Zealander Gary Cunningham, killed in East Timor in 1975. Maire Leadbeater tells the story behind the story of the film.

Jon Lamb - August 30 marks 10 years since the UN-sponsored referendum on Indonesian-occupied East Timor's political status.

David Curry – Relatives of the Balibo Five have only just received formal government correspondence on the repatriation of the remains of the slain Australian journalists, despite Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's promise before the 2007 federal election to pursue the matter.

Daniel Flitton – Jose Ramos Horta looks a little abashed. The film Balibo is "largely accurate", he says, in its portrayal East Timor's current President as a young revolutionary struggling to draw attention to the plight of his country – but he admits it does feature a couple of "Hollywood" moments.

Alyssa Braithwaite, Melbourne – East Timorese President Jose Ramos Horta hopes the new movie Balibo, about the murder of six Australian journalists in 1975, prompts world leaders to learn from past mistakes.

But the Nobel Peace Prize winner doesn't expect those guilty for the crime to be brought to justice any time soon.