Mark Dodd – East Timor will double its spending on police and defence this financial year, under a national budget worth $US451.9 million ($601 million).

Dili – Intra-mural opponents of former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's continued leadership of East Timor's dominant FRETILIN party said Monday they hope to convene an extraordinary congress to elect new party leaders.

Youths burnt several houses to the ground in the East Timorese capital yesterday in the latest outbreak of unrest to hit the strife-torn country, eyewitnesses and international peacekeepers said.

"There were around 50 houses burnt," said Marito, a 46-year-old resident of the Comoro neighbourhood where gang battles raged earlier this year.

Jerry Norton, Dili – An agreement critical to advancing development of the Timor Sea's biggest gas resource could go to East Timor's parliament in September or October, and would likely be approved, the country's prime minister said.

Jerry Norton, Dili – During the day, Fernanda Gomez stands at her tiny roadside kiosk selling canned goods and sundries in front of the blackened remains of burned-out houses in her village near Dili.

Mark Dodd – East Timor's highest court has declared legal the controversial "show of hands" vote that endorsed the leadership of then prime minister Mari Alkatiri at a national party congress in May.

Jakarta – For more than two decades, the brutal military occupation of East Timor, a distant, impoverished, peripheral territory, brought Indonesia little but disdain and dishonor on the world stage.

Reporter: Geoff Thompson

Tony Eastley: One of Indonesia's most senior officials has said that his country ran East Timor like a police state and used bribes and allowed militia violence in a failed attempt to defeat the 1999 referendum on independence.

Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – One of Indonesia's most senior officials has admitted that his country was directly responsible for failing to stop the murderous chaos that accompanied its withdrawal from East Timor in 1998.

East Timor's parliament has passed the 2006-7 fiscal year budget, the young nation's largest ever at 315 million dollars, after a delay caused by violence and political upheaval in May.

Andy Alcock – For those who have supported the independence of Timor Leste (TL) for over 30 years, Timorese and others, the events occurring there over the past few months are heartbreaking.

Two human rights groups today commended the UN Secretary-General's continued attention to the need for accountability for past human rights crimes in Timor-Leste, but called his proposals to the Security Council "inadequate."

Violence erupted again in Dili at the weekend as gang members armed with slingshots and rocks roamed the streets. Several people are believed injured and up to six houses burnt down in the worst attacks in the city since the prime minister, Mari Alkatiri, was forced from office in June.

Nelson da Cruz, Dili – More than two months after battalions of foreign troops arrived in East Timor to restore calm, tens of thousands of refugees are still living in grim camps, saying they are too terrified to return home.

Todd Crowell, Hua Hin, Thailand – The turmoil in East Timor and the subsequent deployment of Australian and other peacekeeping troops has prompted much soul-searching, especially among human-rights activists for whom the cause of an independent East Timor was an article of faith.

Australian police could be deployed in East Timor for another five years and in greater numbers after the strife-torn country asked the United Nations to set up an 800-strong multinational force.

Lindsay Murdoch – East Timor's former interior minister, Rogerio Lobato, twice admitted during closed court hearings that he armed civilian Timorese so they could murder enemies of the ruling Fretilin party, court monitors have revealed.

Australia will cut its peacekeeping troops in East Timor by the end of this year, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer announced today, signalling that tension is easing in the troubled state.

Jeremy Ballenger – With the present situation slowly heading for political resolution, time has come to consider the next steps for the fledgling government of Australia's newest neighbour.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – United Nations peacekeepers have abandoned at least 20 babies fathered with poverty-stricken Timorese women.

Mark Dodd – Lawyers for East Timor's disgraced former interior minister, Rogerio Lobato, have accused Australian soldiers of breaking international human rights laws when they hauled him from his home last month on charges of gun running.

His Excellency Kofi Annan Secretary General
The United Nations
1 United Nations Plaza New York
New York 10017-3515

July 21, 2006

Dear Mr. Secretary General,

We are writing on behalf of three coalitions of NGOs concerned with the transitional justice process in Timor-Leste.

Morgan Mellish, Dili – Australian police have taken over patrolling the streets of Dili from the army, in a sign authorities are confident order has been re-established in East Timor's capital.

The head of the international taskforce, Brigadier Mick Slater, said the change was a major step towards shifting the mission from a military operation to a police operation.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Life in Dili's refugee camps isn't too bad. A boy sits on sacks of rice strumming his guitar. Mothers stir pots of boiling food. Men doze blissfully in their families' United Nations-supplied tents.

Trucks bring fresh water twice a day. There are deliveries of high-protein corn, rice, cooking oil and soap.

Avelino Coelho da Silva, Dili – The conflict that arose recently in Timor Leste has caused more suffering for the nation's poor people, confronting them with an uncertain economic and political future.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Australia's military presence in East Timor will be wound back, starting with at least 300 personnel, the Prime Minister, John Howard, announced during a flying visit to the country's violence-ravaged capital Dili. The force, which peaked at more than 3000 in early June, would not be withdrawn "prematurely", he said yesterday.

United Nations – UN special envoy Ian Martin on Wednesday stressed the need for a "substantial" UN police presence in volatile East Timor to create the conditions for credible parliamentary and presidential elections next year.

Howard is off to East Timor today, allegedly to meet the Aussie troops and the new PM Jose Ramos Horta. But we can be assured that his main purpose in meeting Horta will be to encourage, nay, demand, that he puts the CMATS agreement on Greater Sunrise to East Timor's parliament to ratify. Indeed Horta has already flagged that this is his intention.

Mark Dodd and Stephen Fitzpatrick in Jakarta – On his first day in office this week, East Timor's new Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta accepted a cache of illegal weapons from a former soldier, Vincente "Railos" da Conceicao.

Kalinga Seneviratne, Sydney – East Timor's new Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta has been warmly welcomed by Australia's foreign minister Alexander Downer as a leader who could help solve the country's political crisis. But analysts in the region doubt if Horta can deliver the goods, where his own country is concerned.

Marianne Kearney, Dili – Mr Joao Cancio Freitas might be the director of Dili's Institute of Technology, but like almost three quarters of this city's population, he has spent weeks living in one of the dozen refugee camps dotted around Timor Leste's capital.

East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao has sworn in a new cabinet, taking the tiny nation a step closer to normalcy after deadly violence in May left it in disarray.

Damien Kingsbury – The appointment of Jose Ramos Horta as East Timor's interim prime minister is a move towards installing a unifying figure for a small nation that, for a moment, appeared to be in danger of fragmenting. A fragmented nation, in this case, would have meant a failed state.

John Martinkus – Three weeks ago in East Timor I was given information from senior members of the East Timorese military that confirmed what the now deposed prime minister had been saying all along.

Dili – East Timor's new prime minister Jose Ramos-Horta is the candidate best placed to unify the traumatised nation but the Nobel laureate could still face opposition and challenges lie ahead, analysts warned.

Dili – Nobel prize-winner Jose Ramos-Horta has been named as East Timor's new prime minister, President Xanana Gusmao announced Saturday, ending weeks of political uncertainty in the nation.

Dili – Jose Ramos-Horta, the Nobel peace laureate who spent decades campaigning for East Timor's independence from Indonesia, was appointed the nation's prime minister Saturday.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – East Timor's deposed prime minister, Mari Alkatiri, last night lashed out at Australia, saying there was an attempt to demonise him in the media and that some government ministers and officials "don't like me".

Jon Lamb – The political crisis in East Timor has deepened following the resignation of East Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri on June 26. As pro and anti-government protests and gang violence continue, a resolution of the present crisis has been hamstrung by the internal political manoeuvres of the political elite.

Tim Anderson – "We did not expect that the elected leader of a party with an overwhelming mandate could be forced to stand down in this way in a democracy." – Fretilin press release, June 26, 2006.

Lindsay Murdoch in Dili and agencies – East Timor's ruling Fretilin party has moved to restructure the office of the country's top prosecutor in a move seen by opposition MPs as an attempt to protect the deposed prime minister Mari Alkatiri from criminal prosecution.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Nobel laureate Jose Ramos Horta, who has taken control of East Timor's crippled Government, has called for Australia to lead a UN peacekeeping force for at least 12 months.

Whit Mason – In the past few weeks, two Australian dreams have come crashing to earth. First, there was chaos in East Timor and then the Socceroos' defeat by Italy. Notwithstanding some dubious officiating in the latter, both disappointments stemmed from much the same shortcoming.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – A meeting of East Timor's parliament tomorrow will underline the surreal political world in which the troubled fledgling nation is now existing.

John McBeth – A descendant of Islamic-proselytising Yemeni traders, educated in the then-Marxist-ruled states of Angola and Mozambique, the newly deposed prime minister of Timor Leste Mari Alkatiri is a complex and enigmatic figure who has easily worn the image of the villain in the months of unrest that has wracked Asia's newest country.

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta – The joint Indonesia-Timor Leste Truth and Friendship Commission said Friday it received backing of Indonesian Military (TNI) and government officials to query all those allegedly involved in human rights abuses following the 1999 independence referendum.

Nick Everett – East Timor's current political crisis began when a group of soldiers from the country's west – which grew from 140 to 591 – signed a petition claiming discrimination inside the 1300-strong East Timorese Defence Force (FDTL).

Singapore – Petty regional divisions have been stirred up for political gain in East Timor which is still struggling to define its identity after centuries of foreign domination, analysts say.

The worst crisis since Southeast Asia's poorest nation gained independence four years ago reached its peak Monday when unpopular Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri resigned.

James Dunn – The reluctant resignation of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri yesterday may have eased the crisis in East Timor, but the situation will remain very unsettled until the underlying issues have been resolved.

Mark Colvin: I'm joined now by Damien Kingsbury, Associate Professor at Deakin University's School of International and Political Studies, a close follower of East Timor's politics for many years.