Nigel Wilson – The East Timor parliament has ratified the Timor Sea Treaty with Australia, further embarrassing the Howard Government.

The office of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri confirmed last night that parliament had voted 65 to 13 to approve the treaty on the administration of petroleum reserves between Darwin and Dili.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) is considering dropping its plan to sue US-based The Washington Post daily provided it writes a letter apologizing to TNI for the use of unverified intelligence reports by its reporters.

Jakarta – Indigenous youth and migrants clashedin Kalimantan on Monday leaving at least one person dead, AP reported.

More than 20 houses were torched in the fighting between migrants from Madura island and local Malays in West Kalimantan province, about 800 kilometer north of Jakarta, said a military officer who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Lela E. Madjiah, Surabaya – Army Chief of Staff Gen. Ryamizard Ryacudu dismissed on Monday the possibility of Army troops in Aceh laying down their arms following last week's signing of a cessation of hostilities agreement by the government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) in Geneva, Switzerland.

Banda Aceh – Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri said on Tuesday a landmark peace pact agreed with Aceh rebels was a dream come true, although both sides have started to accuse each other of violations.

Jakarta – A human rights court trying an Indonesian army general heard the first live televised testimony Monday from witnesses in East Timor.

In a broadcast funded by the World Bank, a former Indonesian soldier and a former police detective gave separate accounts of deadly attacks on a church in Suai town and the Dili Catholic church diocese offices in September, 1999.

Phil Zabriskie – When East Timor formally celebrated its independence in May, it closed the chapter on four centuries of stern Portuguese colonization and 24 years of brutal Indonesian occupation. The mood was finally one of hope for the future, of anticipation of a peace dividend.

Derwin Pereira, Jakarta – The peace deal between the Indonesian government and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) could go into a tailspin as the rebels still eye independence.

They want the 2004 election to be turned into what observers described as a "referendum" to decide whether Aceh should stay or break away from Jakarta.

Jakarta – Indonesian Military (TNI) Chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto cautioned against demands for a trial on past human rights abuses in Aceh, saying Sunday it should not be pressed upon if it threatened the nascent peace process in the troubled province.

Dili – The parliamentary inquiry into Dili's deadly rioting found that street demonstrations began "spontaneously" but appeared to have turned into mob action for "political motivations", the commission's chief told Lusa Monday.

Nethy Dharma Somba, Jayapura – Police here dispersed a separatist street parade at the Cendrawasih University compound, arrested three people and confiscated two flags representing the so-called state of Western Melanesia.

Life appears to be returning to normal in Aceh, a week after an historic peace deal was signed in Geneva.

Previous deals between the Indonesian government and separtists from the troubled province at the northern tip of Sumatra have failed.

Chris Brummitt, Jakarta – Indonesian security forces looked on but did nothing when a pro-Indonesia mob attacked a church in East Timor, killing at least 27 people, a witness said Monday during the trial of an army general accused over the violence three years ago.

Jakarta – Around 30 suspected separatist rebels, some armed with automatic rifles, ambushed a group of government officials in Indonesia's Papua province on Monday. At least two of the attackers were injured, officials said.

[Inside Indonesia's Special Forces, By Ken Conboy, Equinox Publishing (Asia), 2002, 320pp.]

As many as six people have been killed in Aceh by Indonesian troops hunting separatist rebels despite the signing of a peace pact December 9, a resident and a rebel commander said.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – Five gunshot victims interviewed by The Age in the Dili hospital yesterday say they were shot by roaming groups of special police in the capital's outer suburbs after the main rioting last week had subsided.

Mark Baker, Dili – The Federal Government is locked in a bitter dispute with East Timor over control of multi-billion-dollar oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea that is threatening to delay desperately needed revenues to the newly independent country.

Mark Baker, Dili – It is a simple but splendid house with whitewashed walls and a high-pitched roof of traditional timber and thatch. It sits beside a village on the eastern outskirts of Dili with a view that sweeps across the harbour.

Nethy Darma Somba and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, Jakarta/Jayapura – The government has for the time being shelved plans to create three new provinces from the country's easternmost province of Papua after Papua Governor J.P. Salossa strongly argued against the move.

Jakarta – The country's green organization Walhi said on Friday they plan to sue state-owned forestry company Perhutani for alleged illegal logging above a hotspring resort in Mojokerto, East Java that was flattened by a massive landslide, AP reported.

Walhi would file a lawsuit against Perhutani on behalf of the victims of the accident.

Another person has been shot dead in Aceh province where a ceasefire between Indonesian troops and separatist rebels is in force, humanitarian workers said.

Sidney Jones – The war on terror is well under way in Southeast Asia, leading to concern among many civil rights leaders. Over the last two decades, the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia have removed authoritarian leaders, curbed the power of the politicised military and expanded civil liberties.

Nigel Wilson – Australia's relations with East Timor have been tested by claims Foreign Minister Alexander Downer verbally abused Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

The Australian has learnt that at a meeting in Dili on November 27, Mr Downer was strongly critical of Dr Alkatiri and his officials.

Jakarta – Indonesian prosecutors on Thursday demanded a 10-year jail term for a senior army intelligence officer, the minimum sentence by law if he is found guilty as charged of crimes against humanity in East Timor in 1999. Lt. Col.

The Indonesian army has ordered an inventory of its TNT stocks after quantities of the explosive were found in two of six plastic pipes buried close to the East Java home of a key suspect in the October 12 Bali bomb attacks.

Prangtip Daorueng, Jakarta – Tuesday's peace accord signed between the Indonesian government and Acehnese rebels is not the first attempt at peace, but many Acehnese who are gathering and praying together, many in tears, after hearing news of the pact hope it will be the last.

Washington wants Jakarta to quickly wrap up its investigation of an ambush near the world's largest copper and gold mine that left two Americans and an Indonesian dead some three months ago.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – At least 8,000 East Timorese families seeking refuge in West Timor had decided to stay in Indonesia, a local military commander said Thursday.

The government was now preparing a transmigration scheme and developing housing complexes for them, Kupang military chief Col. Moeswarno Moesanip said.

Debbie A. Lubis and Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The country's failure to conduct a fair and impartial human rights trial will become the subject of an international discourse next year, including at the International Human Rights Commission in Geneva, a rights activist warned on Tuesday.

United Nations – A preliminary inquiry into last week's riots in East Timor has found that some of the people behind the violence fled afterwards to neighboring Indonesia, the tiny new nation's UN ambassador says.

Jon Land – Dili, the capital of East Timor, was hit by a wave of protests and riots on December 3-4. The unrest culminated in at least two deaths and scores of injured, when police fired tear gas and live ammunition to disperse angry crowds of students and youth.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Indonesia's failure to uphold human rights this year was due to simultaneous policies of the executive, legislative and judicial institutions, the National Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) disclosed on Tuesday.

Table of contents

Jake Skeers – Despite considerable opposition from ordinary people, particularly in the northern city of Darwin, the Australian government has resumed the process of deporting about 1,800 East Timorese who fled Indonesian rule during the 1980s and 1990s.

Tapol warmly welcomes the agreement on the cessation of hostilities signed today in Geneva by the Government of the Republic of Indonesia (GoI) and the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).

[International monitors have arrived in Indonesia's troubled province of Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, to help enforce a landmark peace agreement. Eventually, there'll be a full complement of 150 peace monitors – one-third from overseas, one-third from the Indonesian military and one-third from the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM.

By Richard C. Paddock, Binjai – It was the kind of rescue the Indonesian army was trained to carry out. Hundreds of soldiers from the 100th Airborne Battalion, wearing war paint and armed with bazookas, grenade launchers, mortars, tanks and a mobile antiaircraft gun, attacked in the dead of night.

Tim Shorrock, Washington – The killings last August of two Americans, allegedly at the hands of Indonesian soldiers with the apparent consent of the high command, haven't dampened enthusiasm within the Bush administration and the US business community for closer US ties with the Indonesian military.

Jennifer Hewett – One of Indonesia's most influential moderate Muslim leaders has criticised the Australian Government's flirtation with the idea of working with the Indonesian special forces unit, Kopassus, to combat terrorism.

Dili – East Timor's government promised Tuesday to tackle the fledgling state's chronic youth unemployment but warned that a repeat of last week's deadly and destructive riots would only drive foreign investors away.

Paul Toohey – The Timorese woman with the seen-it-all face, owner of a street stall in Dili, is joined by other local women as she demands in a maternal way that Kirsty Sword Gusmao hand over her baby boy.

Sword Gusmao obliges and passes four-month-old Kay Olok to the woman, who suddenly beams with pride at the opportunity to cradle the President's son.

Geoffrey Barker – Prime Minister John Howard's offer of extra aid to East Timor's police and judicial services was a necessary but hardly sufficient response to last week's violence in Dili.

Jakarta – A joint team of police and Indonesian Military (TNI) personnel stormed the headquarters of the armed wing of the Free Papua Movement (OPM) over the weekend, arresting one rebel fighter, Julius, and confiscating seven homemade firearms and several documents.

[While the Indonesian government seems to be making progress in Aceh, moderate Muslims say President Megawati's denying them a role in determining the place of Islam in the country's political life.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – The United Nations may be facing new embarrassment in East Timor following reports that people arrested in last Wednesday's riots had been beaten in custody.

When an independent East Timor was finally proclaimed in May, everyone wanted to come to the party. Australians, particularly, felt a strong affinity with the East Timorese because of the role Australian troops and civilians played in restoring stability after the carnage of 1999.

Dili – East Timor, still grappling with chronic unemployment and poverty six months after independence fuelled unrealistically high hopes, was according to one analyst "a dry field into which someone threw a match."

United Nations and government officials are investigating who threw the match which sparked off a day of rioting, arson and looting last Wednesday.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – With as many as 12,000 people killed in Indonesia's Aceh province over the past 26 years, a ceasefire agreement due for signing on Monday is long overdue.

Despite the years of bloodshed, it is hard to be confident that the Indonesian Government and the Free Aceh Movement, or GAM, will both turn up in Geneva and put their names on the line.

William Nessen, Cot Trieng, Aceh – Inside a 20-kilometre circle of marsh and shoulder-high grass dotted by thick patches of rattan and palm trees, Indonesia's military, the TNI, has aimed to end the nation's most persistent rebellion.