Reports are coming in from all around East Timor that the country's poorest people are missing out on a government rice subsidy aimed at relieving the pressure of the global food crisis.
The government policy is to import rice and sell it for $16 per 32kg bag, regardless of the market price, but much of that rice has not been reaching those who live in rural areas.
Australia's military may be responsible for introducing into East Timor the nation's worst pest – the cane toad.
The resilient and toxic toads, which have wreaked havoc across Australia, are believed to have hitched a ride on military vehicles.
Dili – The East Timor government on Monday began emptying the largest displacement camp left in the capital in the first step in helping 2,000 displaced people return home. The government also launched a new dialogue team to help the displaced sort out their differences with their former neighbors in the strife-torn country, which became independent in 2002.
Dili – Rosalina Soares has no idea who cut off her fingers. She also has machete scars across her upper back and neck. The middle-aged mother of two lost everything. Her home was destroyed – smashed and looted – and her body mutilated, but she has no idea why.
Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – East Timor's top prosecutor, Longuinhos Monteiro, is flying to Canberra to be briefed on the investigation into the February 11 dawn attacks in Dili.
East Timor's prime minister has signalled a gradual reduction in the number of international troops needed in his country. Xanana Gusmao said depending on the circumstances, troops could begin a gradual withdraw from next year. But the leaders of the international military and UN police have warned that timetable is premature.
Presenter: Stephanie March
Simon Roughneen, Dili – East Timor's post-independence politics have confounded outside observers, and for the most part the Timorese themselves.
East Timor's six month gun amnesty has ended. The opposition is describing it as pointless, saying the government should be trying to recover the weapons taken from police during the 2006 crisis. But the government is now focusing on getting its new gun law through parliament.
Presenter: Stephanie March
[Review essay by Dr Clinton Fernandes, UNSW@ADFA The UN in East Timor: Building Timor Leste, a Fragile State, by Dr Juan Federer, Charles Darwin University Press, 2004.]
Table of Contents
Executive Summary
I. Introduction
II. The Security Sector
For the part six weeks, a group of forensic anthropologists from Australia and Argentina have been in East Timor searching for a mass grave allegedly used to bury hundreds of East Timorese killed by Indonesian troops in 1991. The process has unearthed the pain and frustration for victims' families who are desperate to lay their loved ones to rest once and for all.
Ben Doherty and Daniel Flitton – Australia's 750-strong troop commitment to East Timor could be over by the end of next year, as security in the nation steadily improves, the East Timorese Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao, said yesterday.
Hamish McDonald – Xanana Gusmao has had many difficult roles in his 62 years: as rural teacher, guerilla leader, political prisoner, symbolic president of a raw and traumatised new nation.
Havana – A farewell ceremony for a group of six Cuban healthcare service providers in East Timor was held at that country's Health Ministry (MINSA).
Chris McCall, Sydney – East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao says he believes his country has turned the corner, and divisions in the military that triggered several years of civil unrest should not recur.
Marianne Kearney, Dili – Plans to build a massive new power station in East Timor have stirred debate over the use of the tiny and impoverished country's oil profits amid fears the government is squandering its hard-won oil and gas wealth.
Saul Salavador – Thousands of Internally displaced refugees in Timor Leste are finally going home.
For the last two years, they have been living in makeshift tent camps. Their homes were destroyed when the tiny nation descended into communal violence sparked by divisions in the military and police.
Jessica Mahar, West Timor – All Charles Meluk wants is a better future for refugees in West Timor. The 22-year-old East Timorese man has been living in the Noelbaki refugee camp since 1999, when more than 286,000 of his countrymen fled across the border away from the chaos after the vote for independence.
Judicial authorities in East Timor are investigating more than 40 allegations that armed forces have used violence, intimidation, and death threats against civilians.
A United Nations report documents a litany of human rights abuses by local police and army officers in the course of their work.
Ben Doherty and Sarah Smiles – A new guest worker scheme, this one to bring East Timorese workers to the labour-starved Kimberley region of Western Australia, appears likely to be announced as soon as next week.
Paul Toohey – A secret recording of the last meeting between East Timor's President Jose Ramos Horta and rebel leader Alfredo Reinado reveals that the two men had run out of ways to end a stalemate that had held the country moribund for almost two years.
Complaints of human rights abuses by East Timor's fledgling national police have shown a "notable increase" over the past year, the United Nations says.
The UN report said East Timor was at a crossroads in terms of rights, with progress since independence from Indonesia in 2002 tempered by abuses by the security forces and judicial shortcomings.
Lucy Williamson, Jakarta – The UN in East Timor has rejected claims by the country's president that it was slow to act in the aftermath of his shooting earlier this year.
President Ramos-Horta said that international forces had not moved quickly enough to give him medical aid, and to arrest the perpetrators. But in a confidential report the UN says its response was swift.
As East Timor's defence force celebrates it's 33rd anniversary, analysts say it will take time to build the force's strength.
Radio Australia's Stephanie March reports that the transition from resistance fighters to professional soldiers has not been easy.
Jo Chandler – Two weeks ago, the families of "disappeared" victims of the 1991 Santa Cruz Cemetery massacre gathered at a site west of the East Timor capital, Dili, and held a ceremony calling for spirits of their dead to rise out of the earth.
Paul Toohey - East Timor President Jose Ramos Horta has delivered a furious tirade against The Australian, accusing it of inventing an article.
The story in The Australian said rebel leader Major Alfredo Reinado was shot dead at almost point-blank range inside his compound on February 11.
Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – Evidence has emerged that challenges the belief that East Timor President Jose Ramos Horta was shot by a member of rebel leader Alfredo Reinado's gang.
Investigators now believe the shooter was wearing a different uniform from that of Reinado's men – a uniform gang members used to wear, The Age has learnt.
Paul Toohey – Inside the Hotel Becora, as they call Dili's prison, some of the 22 men who face spending the rest of their lives behind bars for the attempted murders of East Timor's President Jose Ramos Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao are starting to talk.
Stephen de Tarczynski, Melbourne – East Timor's most prominent independence leaders – currently holders of the young nation's two highest political offices – may now be the main obstacles to obtaining justice for victims of the 1999 referendum-related violence.
East Timor's main opposition party, Fretilin, is calling for an independent international investigation into the assassination attempt on the country's leadership in February.
Paul Toohey – Questions have been raised as to whether rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was lured down from the mountains of East Timor to be executed after it emerged he was shot dead at almost point-blank range inside the home of President Jose Ramos Horta.
Stephanie March, Dili – Six months ago Victor Alvez's voice rang out through radios and televisions, appealing for peace and calm from the people of East Timor.
Tito Belo, Dili – The United Nations urged on Thursday East Timor not to let those responsible for bloodshed surrounding Dili's 1999 independence vote from Indonesia off the hook, pledging to provide support to prosecute perpetrators.
Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – An offer by a notorious Jakarta gangster to develop the site of a refugee camp in Dili has been accepted by the East Timor Government.
Canberra – East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta has defended his decision to pardon a notorious Timorese militia leader, saying it was unfair to keep him in prison while Indonesians responsible for violence during his country's transition to independence remain free.
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.
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.
[Unfinished Nation: Indonesia before and after Suharto. By Max Lane. Verso 2008 312 pages. RRP (Australia) $49.95. Reviewed by Nick Everett.]
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.