Asia's newest nation has been officially listed by the UN as the poorest country in the region. But many see East Timor's economic future as being dependent on the deal it strikes with Australia over oil and gas reserves in the East Timor Sea.

Former Indonesian militia leader Eurico Guterres is being questioned in Jakarta today at the trials of 18-military, police and civilian officials accused of human rights abuses in East Timor. But a new report released by the International Crisis Group has described the trials as a farce.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – Army chief Endriartono Sutarto looks set to become Indonesia's next military commander by the end of this month after President Megawati Sukarnoputri forwarded his name to Parliament yesterday.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld urged the US Congress to ease restrictions on military relations with Indonesia, saying Jakarta was dealing with past human rights violations "in an orderly, democratic way."

Banda Aceh – A Free Aceh Movement (GAM) separatist leader in Aceh Besar, Ayah Sofyan, alias Zakaria Yahya, 37, was shot dead during a raid at a rebel base in Kuta Baro village on Saturday, officials and separatists confirmed. Five other people were also killed in the latest violence in Aceh during the weekend.

Jakarta – The International Monetary Fund (IMF) gave a positive report on the Indonesian economy on Monday, saying that macro economic indicators in the first few months of the year were encouraging.

IMF senior advisor for Asia Pacific Daniel Citrin urged the government to stick to the agreed reform program to maintain the current positive sentiment in the economy.

Tim Dodd – The infant Government of East Timor is supposed to have a car registration system and, indeed, there are plenty of vehicles on the road sporting the new TLS plates standing for Timor Loro Sae, as the country is known in the local Tetum language.

Nusa Dua, Bali – Udayana Military Commander Maj. Gen. Willem T. Da Costa, who oversees Bali, West and East Nusa Tenggara provinces, warned on Monday pro-Indonesia East Timorese in East Nusa Tenggara against staging demonstrations on May 20, the day of East Timor's independence.

jakarta – A civilian and policeman testified on Monday at the trial of four soldiers and one policeman accused of gross human rights violations in East Timor in 1999 that they saw all the defendants at the scene of the church incident in Suai.

Jakarta – In a move to commemorate the bloody May riot in 1998, about 200 activists and students staged an anti-violence demonstration in Blok M, South Jakarta on Sunday.

The group staged street theater performances and orations, waved banners and posters and sung songs that urged people not to resort to violence in dealing with various matters.

Tiarma Siboro and Yogita Tahilramani, Jakarta – The National Military Police Headquarters has put a key witness in the November 2001 murder of Papua Presidium Council leader Theys Hiyo Eluay under its protection following an alleged murder attempt against him last Friday, an officer said on Monday.

Rajiv Chandrasekaran, Jakarta – Vexed by assertions that international terrorists may have burrowed into Indonesia, Vice President Hamzah Haz decided to find out for himself – by hosting a dinner at his house for the country's Islamic extremist A-list.

Simon Montlake, Jayapura – When a tall, stocky Army officer came to his home last October with a dinner invitation, Willy Mandowen was reluctant to accept.

Muhammad Nafik, Jakarta – Lies and irregularities uncovered during the ongoing trial of a corruption scandal implicating House of Representatives Speaker Akbar Tandjung have failed to encourage legislators to set up a separate inquiry into the high-profile scandal.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Advocates and Lawyers Association (HAPI) reprimanded on Monday a lawyer defending Tommy Soeharto on weapons and murder charges for influencing witnesses to change their testimony, according to reports.

Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta – Several non-governmental organizations (NGO) officially proposed on Monday to City Council a draft bylaw that aims to replace the controversial No. 11/1988 bylaw on public order, which is considered by many to be unjust.

Kasparman and Apriadi Gunawan, Padang/Medan – Hundreds of public minivan drivers in Padang, West Sumatra went on strike Monday, forcing thousands of students, civil servants and other commuters to find other means of reaching their destinations.

Tangerang – Around 400 workers of PT Mawar Nirwana, a plastic flowers manufacturer in Tangerang, went on strike on Monday, demanding the management dismiss the company's production manager.

Denpasar – A violent clash erupted here on Monday afternoon after police officers attacked 60 student protesters from Udayana University who were staging a peaceful protest to commemorate the Trisakti shooting incident in 1998.

The clash took place at 1:15 p.m. local time at the square in front of the provincial legislative building.

Jakarta – The chairman of the Jakarta Residents Forum, Azaz Tigor Nainggolan, failed to answer a summons from the city police on Monday morning, when he was to be questioned as a suspect in defamation case involving Governor Sutiyoso.

Michael Richardson, Bacau – Marito Reis spent nearly 15 years in Indonesian prisons after he was arrested in 1980 for being a member of the clandestine underground movement supporting the small band of armed guerrillas fighting for the independence of East Timor.

Joanne Collins, Dili – Tiny East Timor, counting down to its independence in a few days, is Asia's poorest country and will need considerable international assistance in the years ahead, the United Nations said on Monday.

As East Timor readies for independence on 20 May, Jakarta correspondent Richard Galpin writes that most of those who wreaked terrible violence after the 1999 vote to end Indonesian rule still walk free.

"It is not to get justice for the victims, it's just lip service" Human rights lawyer Johnson Panjaitan

Chris McCall at Mota Ain, the Timor border – Torn between tears and smiles, the refugees line up with all their worldly goods and wait to go home. Some are even bringing their dead.

Waiting to cross the frontier to his native East Timor, Mateas Soares has little to say except that he has to go home. "It is my place of birth. I have to go back," said the father of four.

Michael Casey, Jakarta – With tales of deception, violence, and corruption, the murder trial of Tommy Suharto is gripping this country.

Jane Perlez, Jakarta – When the United States recast the Central Asian states from dubious dictatorships to necessary allies in the war on terrorism, Indonesia's generals took heart.

Philip Sherwell, Maliana – In a calculated snub to the United Nations and Europe, the prime suspect in the murder of a Financial Times journalist in East Timor in 1999 returned to the territory last week as part of an official Indonesian military delegation on a goodwill visit.

Tim Dodd, Dili – Commodity markets are doing no favours for East Timor, which becomes an independent nation next weekend, with prices for coffee, its most valued agricultural product, languishing in the doldrums.

However, the answer may be as simple as plain vanilla, a product which grows in the same cool, tropical highlands as coffee but can sell for 200 times as much.

Chris McCall in Noelbaki Camp, West Timor – Among decrepit huts, a few hundred disgruntled and demoralised East Timorese militiamen are pondering a bleak future, a shadow of the terror they once were.

Catharine Munro, Jakarta – A major international think-tank has attacked Indonesia's human rights tribunal on East Timor, saying the military's version of events is being reinforced by prosecutors.

Gustavo Capdevila, Geneva – Delegates from the government of Indonesia and from the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) have agreed to negotiate an and to hostilities and a process for electing democratic authorities for the northern Indonesian province of Aceh, an effort to be undertaken "with all speed".

New York (CNS) – A "new consciousness of democratic ideals" and "assertive nationalism" is emerging in East Timor, said Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo of Dili, East Timor.

Tiarma Siboro and Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – An Indonesian Military (TNI) general said on Wednesday that the United Nations had a share of the blame in the violence and human rights violations before, during and after the UN-organized referendum in East Timor in August 1999.

[Ivete D'Oliveira began working with CIIR's Women's Advocacy Programme in August 2001. She talked to Catherine Scott about her work and about the experiences of East Timorese women in the transition to independence.]

Paul Knox – Most poor countries are in hock to rich ones. This is not necessarily a bad thing, any more than a car loan or a mortgage. But overindebtedness is definitely a bad thing. And too many countries have too much debt – often the result of irresponsible behaviour by their own leaders, foreign lenders or both.

Rowan Callick – The human rights trials under way in Jakarta over the events in East Timor in 1999 are reinforcing the near-universal image in Indonesia of the conflict as a civil war between equally matched Timorese factions, with Indonesian security forces as bystanders.

East Timor's Truth and Reconciliation Commission faces huge problems, not least a long local tradition of revenge, writes Hamish McDonald.

Three witnesses told the Human Rights Tribunal on Tuesday that they saw a number of people in military uniform burying victims of a massacre in a mass grave in Metamauk village in Wemasa, Belu, East Nusa Tenggara, in 1999.

East Timorese exiles in Indonesia could help lead a revolt in their former homeland if leaders of the newly-independent nation fail to bring prosperity, an exiles' leader said.

"People in the villages can't pay for their kids' schooling, can't pay for medicine," said Armindo Soares Mariano, acting head of Uni Timor Aswain (UNTAS).

Jakarta – Separatist violence continued in Aceh province on Sunday with at least five rebels killed in a gunfight with Indonesian Military (TNI) troops in Aceh Besar regency.

Jennifer Hewett And Jane Counsel – Woodside is caught in another hot debate. A year ago, the hot political issue facing Clare Martin was her promise to end mandatory sentencing for juveniles. That was if Labor won government in the Northern Territory. Not that anyone expected it to least of all Clare Martin herself.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and A'an Suryana, Jakarta – As no single faction in the House of Representatives is truly fighting for labor rights, it is high time for Indonesian workers to unite and build a strong political party that could win influence in the decision making process in the country.

Jayapura – The Irian Jaya Provincial Police on Saturday handed over 19 pieces of evidence concerning the murder of pro-independence Papuan leader Dortheys Hiyo Eluway to the Military Police.

Three army officers have been detained as suspects in connection with the killing.

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta A daughter of former president Sukarno said on Sunday the political party she led would likely merge with three other parties with similar support bases.

Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta The City Council's decision to establish several special committees could encourage corruption and collusion, activists warned on Saturday.

Jakarta (Translated by JSMP) – The Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) considers that the process of the Ad Hoc Human Rights trials that relate to the murders in East Timor in the period after the popular consultation are still falling well short of international standards.

Riyadi Suparno, Semarang – As recently as the early 1960s, wild birds could be heard singing, entertaining farmers on the slopes of Mount Merbabu, Central Java. And jungle fowl, deer, monkeys, even tigers were a common sight, wandering through nearby forests.

Tasikmalaya – A little-known outfit calling itself the Taleban Brigade has taken advantage of the new autonomy laws to get the authorities in this West Java city to issue edicts to enact its radical agenda.

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta – The Supreme Audit Body (BPK) chairman Satrio Budihardjo Joedono blamed Law No. 16/2001 on foundations on Sunday for preventing his office from auditing military foundations, but fell short of demanding the law be scrapped.

Jakarta – Security personnel in the country are reluctant to arrest or take legal action against their colleagues involved in brutality against journalists, according to two prominent press associations.