Jeff Kingston – On July 15 in Bali the leaders of Indonesia and East Timor met and received the final report of the Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF) and issued a joint statement accepting the findings and recommendations.

[Unfinished Nation: Indonesia before and after Suharto. By Max Lane. Verso 2008 312 pages. RRP (Australia) $49.95. Reviewed by Nick Everett.]

Filmmakers have recreated scenes of chaos in the heart of East Timor's sleepy capital, blocking streets and sending up plumes of smoke for Balibo – an Australian movie about Indonesia's bloody 1975 invasion.

Between 60 and 70 locals took part and 30 East Timorese soldiers dressed as Indonesian troops holding fake rifles for the shoot, United Nations (UN) police say.

Matt Chambers – Woodside Petroleum has ruled out a $15 billion East Timor liquefied natural gas export plant to process output from its Greater Sunrise fields.

East Timor's natural resource secretary of state said the decision would be a "major problem" for the Government.

Stephanie March, Dili – East Timor's inaugural Journalist of the Year awards last week provided much-needed encouragement for professionals facing an uncertain future, as authorities draft a press law that could make defamation a criminal offence.

Dili – Since it was built in 1983, residents of Dili have watched the retaining wall of the Pantai Kelapa road along Timor-Leste's coastline slowly erode.

Katie Chalk – Every morning, when Madalena opens her front door, she is faced with what has to be one of the most beautiful views on earth. High in the mountain ranges of Lequidoe, East Timor, she watches the sun spill over countless unspoilt peaks, with distant mists dissolving into a sky of impossible blue.

Dili – The report of the Commission for Truth and Friendship on who was behind the violence surrounding East Timor's independence vote in 1999 ignores justice, a Catholic Church official says.

Ben Doherty – There is food now, for the markets are open, and the men have found work on local farms.

But Dominges Enriques has lived too many – nine – of her 34 years at Noelbaki to believe it will last. Her family has no land of its own to work, and without it she must buy her food. Soon it will be expensive once more. She knows her children will go hungry again.

Australian Paul Stewart was just 15 when Indonesian soldiers murdered his cameraman brother in East Timor.

More than 30 years later, he hopes a new film about the Balibo Five killings will be as much about the suffering of East Timorese during Indonesia's 1975 invasion as it is about the newsmen who died.

Our dried voices, when
We whisper together
Are quiet and meaningless

- TS Eliot, The Hollow Men

Dawn Gibson – As the mini-bus pulls to a stop, a swarm of excited children press their faces against the windows, all big brown eyes and grins.

Last week saw the much-anticipated release of the Truth and Friendship Commission (CTF) final report. The Commission was established by the governments of Indonesia and East Timor. It sought to establish the truth about violence that surrounded East Timor's independence vote.

Mike Steketee, National Affairs Editor – Downer's achievements as our longest serving foreign minister aren't all he claims and must be balanced against some calamitous mistakes

Savouring his record as Australia's longest serving foreign minister, Alexander Downer offers as his greatest achievement the creation of a free and independent East Timor.

When the Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF) was set up in August 2005 by the governments of Timor-Leste and Indonesia to 'establish the conclusive truth regarding the events prior to and immediately after the Popular Consultation in 1999', there was scepticism about what it would achieve.

HS Dillon, Jakarta – The report of the joint Commission for Truth and Friendship, recently presented to the two heads of state who established the body, could certainly be lauded for ending a culture of denial by affirming that gross violations of human rights preceding and immediately after the East Timor referendum did indeed take place.

Kornelius Purba and Tony Hotland, Singapore – US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday expressed her appreciation over the findings of an joint government investigation into human rights abuses in the former East Timor.

Warren Reed – By any measure, our intelligence agencies are the eyes and ears of the nation. But in the lead-up to the violence and killings of 1999 in East Timor it seemed that Canberra's political masters were like two of the wise monkeys, seeing nothing and hearing nothing. The third monkey, however, had a lot to say, the nature of which bore little resemblance to the truth.

Eko Waluyo, Sydney – At the handover of a report by the joint Indonesia-Timor Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF) in Bali, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono accepted the report and expressed deep regret for the role the Indonesian military played in systematic human rights abuses in East Timor in 1999.

Aboeprijadi Santoso, Jakarta – The final report of the Indonesia-Timor Leste Truth and Friendship Commission (CTF), titled Per Memoriam ad Spem (Through memory toward hope) is a political document of compromise rather than a complete and verified factual report on what, when and why violence occurred in connection with the August 1999 popular consultation in East Timor.

Dian Kuswandini, Jakarta – Although the government has taken the blame for the East Timor violence in 1999, there remains an opportunity for individuals to seek redress through national or international courts, the National Commission on Human Rights says.

When the Commission of Truth and Friendship was set up in August 2005 by the governments of Timor-Leste and Indonesia to "establish the conclusive truth regarding the events prior to and immediately after the Popular Consultation in 1999", there was scepticism about what it would achieve.

A recent report into the violence surrounding East Timor's independence vote in 1999 places the blame for crimes against humanity squarely at Indonesia's feet.

Hamish McDonald – Hilario Madeira was the sort of priest who makes you understand how the balance of the global Catholic congregation is shifting to the developing world, away from a jaded Europe.

Usman Hamid, Jakarta – On July 15, Indonesia and Timor Leste officially accepted a report produced by the joint Commission for Truth and Friendship (CTF). The report concludes crimes against humanity took place, with militia groups, the military, the police and the civilian government bearing institutional responsibility.

Paul Toohey – There was never any question that it would tread softly. After all, it was called the Commission for Truth and Friendship, not the commission for truth. It was set up by the leaders of East Timor and Indonesia not merely to rake over the horrors of 1999 but most of all to find a way forward for two neighbours with a history of bad blood.

Ben Doherty, Jakarta – Former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid, who plans to contest next year's election, has supported the establishment of a war crimes tribunal to try Indonesian military figures accused of inciting violence during East Timor's independence vote in 1999. Mr Wahid said further formal investigation of alleged human rights violations was needed urgently.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) on Thursday admitted partial responsibility for gross human rights violations in East Timor in 1999, saying it would abide by any government decisions to follow up on a joint truth commission report.

This Report presents the results of the two and a half years of work by the world's first bilateral Truth and Friendship Commission. It is comprised of nine chapters.

I. Mandate and implementation

Clinton Fernandes – Imagine the reaction if an inquiry assigned responsibility for the Holocaust without mentioning Hitler, and focused only on the last few months of World War II. Yet that is what the Truth and Friendship Commission has tried to do in the case of East Timor.

Abdul Khalik, Nusa Dua, Bali – A joint truth commission report has found several high-ranking military officers supported pro-Jakarta militia groups that perpetrated gross human rights violations in East Timor in 1999.

New York – UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that the early release of a report blaming Indonesia for crimes against humanity in East Timor in 1999 would mark the first step toward achieving justice and reconciliation.

Olivia Rondonuwu, Nusa Dua – East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao is satisfied with Indonesia's expression of regret over violence surrounding Dili's 1999 independence vote and says it is now time to move on.

Andi Abdussalam, Jakarta – The governments of Indonesia and Timor Leste in Bali on Tuesday expressed deep regret over the gross human rights violations committed during and after the referendum that led to the secession of East Timor from Indonesia in September in 1999.

Bruce Haigh – The release of a joint Indonesian-East Timor report on Tuesday by the Commission for Truth and Friendship into the causes of the crimes against humanity in the run-up to East Timorese independence in 1999, raises the issue of the culpability of Australia in the crimes committed by Indonesia's military, the Tentara Nasional Indonesia or TNI, and its militia surrogates.

In 2000, the then Indonesian president, Abdurrahman Wahid, performed one of the most difficult acts a nation's leader can perform. He apologised to the victims, both dead and maimed, of his country's violent actions.

Denpasar – East Timorese members of the bilateral commission with Indonesia on atrocities committed in 1999 suggested amnesty recommendations for the crimes but were turned down by their Jakarta counterparts, commission officials said Tuesday.

Aubrey Belford, Nusa Dua – Indonesia on Tuesday accepted a truth commission report blaming it for gross human rights abuses in East Timor in 1999, amid fresh calls for the perpetrators to face international justice.

Yemris Fointuna and Abdul Khalik, Kupang, Jakarta – Former pro-integration militias have rejected a truth commission report that blames them and the Indonesian government for gross human rights violations during the 1999 carnage in East Timor.

Geoff Thompson

Mark Colvin: Indonesia has accepted that its own officials, military and police, funded, armed and collaborated with the violent anti-independence militias that ran riot in East Timor eight years ago.

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has expressed his "deepest remorse" to those who lost their lives and property.

Mark Forbes, Denpasar – President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will reject a recommendation he apologise for Indonesia instigating gross human rights abuses during East Timor's 1999 independence vote, instead expressing regret, according to his Defence Minister, Juwono Sudarsono.

The Commission of Truth and Friendship will formally submit its findings to Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his East Timorese counterpart, Jose Ramos-Horta later today. The 300-page report was prepared by a Commission set up by both governments, to hear evidence of crimes against humanity committed around East Timor's vote for independence in August 1999.

Natasha Robinson – A few grainy photographs, a couple of dog-eared letters home, and the contradictory memories of friends. For actor Anthony LaPaglia, piecing together the life of executed Australian journalist Roger East has not been an easy task.

Meidyatama Suryodiningrat, Jakarta – The casualty list piled into the newsroom like a high-scoring sports box line. Even in Jakarta little imagination was needed to hear the distant screams as gloomy dispatches filled the day.

Daniel Flitton – The sorry history of violence in East Timor did not begin with the militia rampage following the 1999 independence ballot. For more than two decades after Indonesia's 1975 invasion, the Timorese suffered. Thousands needlessly died.

Olivia Rondonuwu, Nusa Dua – Indonesia and East Timor expressed regret on Tuesday for violence surrounding Dili's 1999 independence vote after a joint probe blamed state institutions for "gross human rights violations."

This week the report of the bilateral Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF) will be handed over to the presidents of Indonesia and Timor-Leste. The report concludes that crimes against humanity took place for which militia groups and the Indonesian military, police and civilian government bear institutional responsibility.

The governments of Indonesia and Timor-Leste have missed an historic opportunity to provide justice for more than 1,000 people killed during Timor-Leste's vote for independence in 1999, Amnesty International said today.

International tribunal needed in wake of commission of Truth and Friendship report

A former militia leader who claims the Indonesian military drugged him and gave him weapons to kill independence supporters in East Timor says the generals responsible must be held to account.