Karen Michelmore, Baucau – Two people were injured when supporters of rival political parties clashed during campaigning in East Timor's presidential elections, a candidate said today.

John Aglionby, Dili – Xanana Gusmao, East Timor president, on Thursday accused the ruling Fretilin party of corruption, arrogance and mismanagement that had put the fledgling country on a path of violence and economic stagnation since its 2002 independence.

Dili – Gangs from rival political parties scuffled and threw rocks in East Timor, injuring at least 20 people, authorities said Friday, in what was believed to be the first violence directly related to next month's presidential elections.

Jakarta – Top Indonesian military officer claimed Friday that violence in East Timor was triggered by widespread cheating from United Nations body overseeing the territory's historic 1999 vote for independence.

Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo, Jakarta – An ex-Indonesian Military (TNI) officer has told the Indonesia-Timor Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship that the TNI complied with Indonesian law at the time of Timor Leste's 1999 referendum.

Geoff Thompson – The former head of Indonesian military intelligence has cited an Australian 60 Minutes television crew as an example of the United Nations trying to influence the outcome of East Timor's independence referendum in 1999.

Major General Zacky Anwar Makarim is a former member of Kopassus and chief of Indonesian military intelligence.

Karen Michelmore, Jakarta – An East Timorese woman has told how she was repeatedly raped by a pro-Indonesia militia member in the months after the nation's historic 1999 referendum "because the pro-independence won".

Dili – The political tension is rising in the East Timorese capital, Dili where President Xanana Gusmao has accepted the leadership of a new party that has been labelled as "a nest of liars," by former prime minister, Mari Alkatiri.

The only Indonesian jailed over the violence surrounding East Timor's historic 1999 independence vote has apologised to Indonesia for the unrest that tainted its international image.

Pro-autonomy militia commander Eurico Gutteres also called on the people of East Timor to unite and move past the violence of the past, in order to build a strong independent nation.

Telly Nathalia, Jakarta – The Indonesian president who allowed the East Timor referendum on independence said on Tuesday the mayhem that followed the vote could have been avoided had the United Nations not declared the result earlier than agreed.

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – Fugitive rebel leader Alfredo Reinado has again humiliated Australian troops hunting him in East Timor's mountains, this time releasing a letter telling his supporters how they should vote in presidential elections.

Karen Michelmore, Jakarta – East Timor's United Nations-sponsored vote for independence was a fraud, Dili's former mayor and alleged militia organiser said today.

Paul Toohey – A failed effort to heal an injured child has led to the machete killings of three East Timorese women branded as sorcerers.

"The United Nations condemns all violence and acts that support of violence in East Timor, calls for their immediate end, and demands that all those responsible for such violence be brought to justice" (Security Council Resolution, 1999)

Max Lane – On April 9, East Timor will hold its second presidential election, which will be followed by parliamentary elections. The East Timorese political system combines a president, who is commander-in-chief of the army and who has veto powers over legislation, with an executive cabinet headed by a prime minister who is elected by the parliament.

Dili – A fugitive East Timor rebel leader, who has eluded a manhunt by crack Australian troops, is at the centre of fears that unrest could mar the country's landmark presidential election next month.

Stephen Skinner – Timorese people are starving on our doorstep. That's the blunt report being received in Darwin by former Territory Government agricultural scientist Rob Wesley-Smith, who's better known as a long-time East Timor activist.

East Timor's fugitive rebel leader Alfredo Reinado fired on Australian troops before they shot back, killing five of his supporters, Australia's military commander in the country says.

Brigadier Mal Rerden yesterday said Australian troops, who had Reinado surrounded at his mountain base earlier this month, did everything they could to convince him to surrender.

[The following letter was written by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Progressio and TAPOL.]

Francisco Guterres (Lu'Olo)
President of the National Parliament
National Parliament
Dili Timor-Leste

14 March 2007

Dear Mr Guterres,

Dili – Street violence and worries about renegade soldiers are disrupting preparations for next month's elections in East Timor – polls seen as crucial to the tiny nation's future – an official said Wednesday.

Mark Dodd, Dili – The UN has admitted holding talks with the lawyers for East Timor army fugitive Alfredo Reinado after twice denying it was involved in negotiations to secure his surrender.

Jeff Kingston – East Timor is an ill-starred land that has endured more than its share of violence, neglect and deprivation. Since February 2007 there has been a renewed surge in violence, initially due to gang turf battles and increasingly aggressive clashes between gangs and international peacekeepers.

Dennis Shanahan – It used to be a proud boast of Australian troops on the ground in East Timor in the latest security assignment that they had never fired a shot. Not one; not into the air and certainly not at people.

Rod McGuirk, Dili – East Timorese election authorities said Saturday that all eight candidates had been approved to contest this divided nation's presidential polls next month.

A measure of calm has returned to the streets of Dili after the violence which erupted again last weekend in the wake of the failed attempt to capture fugitive rebel leader Alfredo Reinado. Some fear this is merely the calm before a bigger storm. And calm is a relative term.

Damian Kingsbury – The decision by East Timor's courts to convict and jail former interior minister, Rogerio Lobato, on charges of manslaughter and arming gangs last year should come as a welcome sign that this small, teetering state can still pull back from the brink.

Hannah Beech, Dili – Every day, the fancy jeeps cruise past Palmira Pereira's shack on the northern coast of East Timor. Sometimes, the passengers inside the air-conditioned vehicles raise their hands in greeting, and Pereira, or one of her 10 children, waves back.

Roy Callinan, Same – A few hours before dawn on Feb. 26, East Timor's most wanted man, rebel leader Major Alfredo Reinado, drove into the small town of Same, 50 km south of Dili, with about 70 armed supporters. Many residents of the town sympathized with Reinado, who has been a focus of anti-government feeling since he led a mass desertion from the Army last April.

Vannessa Hearman – Australian soldiers fired on three youths in Dili on February 23. One youth died at the scene – a camp for internally displaced people (IDP) near Dili Airport. The others were injured; one later died in hospital.

Damien Kingsbury – The assault in East Timor by Australian troops on outlaw Major Alfredo Reinado and his gang in Same, and the worsening of violence and destruction in Dili, has highlighted that political conflict in East Timor is a long way from over.

Lindsay Murdoch in Dili and agencies – About 20 youths attacked the Dili Club, a restaurant-bar owned by an Australian and popular with foreigners, roughing up patrons before United Nations police arrived. No one was seriously injured.

Lindsay Murdoch and Mark Forbes in East Timor – Security forces in East Timor were bracing last night for escalating violence after Australian soldiers killed four Timorese men in a botched raid to capture the rebel leader Alfredo Reinado.

Guido Goulart, Dili – East Timor's president invoked emergency powers on Monday to quell unrest after hundreds of young men blockaded roads with burning tires and concrete blocks, demanding that foreign troops pull out. Australia said it would evacuate nonessential government workers and the US issued a travel warning.

Sydney – Reporters Without Borders has hailed the warrant issued on 1 March 2007 by Sydney coroner Dorelle Pinch for the arrest of Yunus Yosfiah, the former Indonesian army officer who led the attack on the East Timor border town of Balibo on 16 October 1975 in which five journalists working for two Australian TV stations were killed.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Street gangsters have a favourite place on Dili's waterfront. Just past the fortified Australian embassy residential compound, they run to hide behind a high fence on a building site with an unending supply of rocks.

Hamish McDonald – It was the week the Balibo inquest cut to the chase. After 15 days of hearing from those outside the intelligence tent, some of its former inhabitants were brought into the open. But only with the greatest nervousness by the present-day masters of the intelligence community, despite the passing of more than 31 years since the Balibo Five journalists died.

A former Indonesian cabinet minister implicated in the deaths of five Australian and British journalists in East Timor in 1975 is remaining defiant in the face of calls for his arrest.

An Australian coroner has issued an arrest warrant for Mohammed Yunus Yosfiah after hearing evidence that he was seen shooting at the journalists in the town of Balibo 32 years ago.

Dili – Rebel East Timorese soldiers raided a police post and seized a large haul of automatic weapons, the United Nations and local officials said Monday, raising fresh security concerns in the tiny nation ahead of elections in April.

Karen Michelmore, Jakarta – The Indonesian government today declared the case of five Australian journalists' deaths in East Timor more than 30 years a closed matter.

Sydney – An Australian coroner on Thursday issued a warrant of arrest for a retired Indonesian cabinet minister in an inquiry into the death of five journalists in East Timor 32 years ago.

Hamish McDonald – Within seven minutes of an Indonesian army radio message being intercepted in Darwin, saying five Australian journalists had been deliberately killed in East Timor in 1975, it was translated and sent to prime minister Gough Whitlam, senior ministers and officials.

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Mark Dodd – Renegade East Timor military leader Alfredo Reinado has threatened to defend himself "to the death" from a heavily armed post in the central town of Same, where he was yesterday surrounded by Australian SAS troops.

At the beginning of this month's long overdue inquest into the deaths of the five Australian-based newsmen at Balibo in 1975, the Crown counsel heralded the hearings as the first "open, public and completely independent" inquiry of a judicial nature into the case.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – A US court has cleared the way for the hearing of a challenge to the rights over the Timor Sea's vast oil and gas reserves.

Lawyers for oil explorer Oceanic Exploration are preparing to take the company's claim against US-giant ConocoPhillips to the US District Court in southern Texas.

Adam Bennett, Sydney – A Sydney coroner has invited a former Indonesian general and government minister to give evidence about the deaths of the Balibo Five, as he was again linked to their killings.

Adam Bennett, Sydney – A NSW coroner hearing an inquest into the death of one of five Australian journalists in East Timor more than 30 years ago has agreed to hear some evidence in secret.

Hamish McDonald – Australia's spooks are often aghast at the way highly classified intelligence material and techniques leak out into the public domain in the United States.

A government intelligence chief destroyed documents revealing the deaths of Australian-based journalists in East Timor in 1975 to stop news of the killings spreading.

Paul Mulvey, Sydney – Three decades on, Shirley Shackleton still wakes in fright, sitting bolt upright in bed as she relives the moment she sensed her husband had been killed. It's a recurring, but now rare, nightmare.

The Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF), set up by Indonesia and Timor Leste, has finally begun to show its face with its inaugural public hearings.

There is apprehension all around as we follow testimonies regarding the violence before and after the 1999 referendum which led to Timor Leste's independence.