A law regulating demonstrations and assemblies passed by East Timor's parliament violates basic rights to free expression and assembly, Human Rights Watch said today.

After 25 years of repression and persecution, the tiny country of East Timor is racked with poverty and in desperate need of rebuilding.

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Indonesia has rejected UN plans for a commission that would study Jakarta's resolve to punish those responsible for human rights abuses in East Timor in 1999.

John Aglionby, Jakarta – Indonesia and East Timor have agreed to set up a truth and friendship commission to address the issues of 1,500 murders and thousands of other human rights viol

There have been mixed reactions this week to a proposal by Indonesia and East Timor to set up a joint commission to investigate the violence in East Timor four years ago.

Shawn Donnan, Jakarta – Indonesia and East Timor announced this week they would establish a bilateral "truth and friendship commission" to heal wounds between the two countries left by

The United States welcomed creation of a joint Indonesia-East Timor commission on the 1999 bloodshed in the former Portuguese colony, but made clear the necessity of a separate UN inqui

Washington – US officials do not want a planned Indonesian-East Timorese commission on 1999 violence in East Timor to supplant UN efforts to determine if justice has since been done, a

Indonesia and East Timor announced plans for a historic joint commission to draw a line under past hostilities and resolve the 1999 bloodshed that marred the East Timorese march to inde

Adianto P.

East Timor's cabinet has passed a landmark petroleum law that will open the door to foreign firms seeking oil and gas exploration licences and create millions of dollars in revenue for

Dili – East Timor's Serious Crimes Unit (SCU) indicted 14 people Friday for war crimes committed in 1999, in what the joint Dili-United Nations body said would be its last indictments b

Reporter: Anne Barker

Eleanor Hall: East Timor has upped the ante in its dispute with Australia over oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – The leaders of Indonesia and East Timor have quietly agreed to discuss setting up a "truth and friendship commission" that would reconsider the massacre of East

[East Timor: Testimony. Elaine Briere. Between the Lines Books. 128 pages, 64 photographs, $56.95.]

Dili – Dili understands the worries of investors over corruption in East Timor and the government is determined to crackdown on the emerging phenomenon in tandem with aid donors, Foreig

Brendan Nicholson – Troops in East Timor were allegedly told to stop filing reports on Indonesia's role in the violence there.

John Vidal, Dili – The only way to reach the village of Fatuhei in East Timor is a four-hour hike over tropical mountains.

East Timor wants the United Nations to extend its mission here for at least another year after its current mandate expires next May in order to strengthen the nascent state's still-frag

An army whistleblower today found some backing for his claims after a government review found Australian troops in East Timor had been cut off from top secret information.

Nigel Wilson – John McCarthy, Australia's ambassador to Indonesia at the time of the Australian-led peacekeeping mission in 1999, yesterday confirmed Indonesia was critical of Australia

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Over 270 people, who were deported from East Timor, were moved into a dormitory belonging to East Nusa Tenggara's Manpower and Transmigration Office in Kupang

Reporter: Anne Barker

Mark Colvin: A court in East Timor has jailed a former pro-Indonesia militia leader to 15 years jail for murder and crimes against humanity.

Dili – East Timor's human rights court has sentenced a senior member of a pro-Jakarta militia to 15 years in prison for organizing an attack on the house of an independence leader's hou

Jean-Pierre Catry – Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, told the Security Council this year that: "Limited revenue and widespread poverty within the country continue to po

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – After five hours of immigration checks in Motaain, on the border of East Timor and Indonesia, 62 people were deported from the neighboring country, finally arr

Jakarta – The Indonesian Council of Ulema (MUI) here Wednesday condemned the expulsion of 253 Moslems from East Timor, saying the action was a violation of the Moslems' human rights.

Cynthia Banham – The East Timorese Foreign Minister, Jose Ramos-Horta, has accused Australian officials of attempted blackmail during recent negotiations over the new nation's maritime

Eight former pro-Jakarta militiamen have been jailed in East Timor for crimes against humanity committed in the mayhem surrounding a 1999 UN-backed vote that led to the country's separa

Tom Noble, Dili – East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao wants Australia to be fairer in negotiations over disputed oil and gas reserves, saying the delays are profoundly affecting the ne

Reporter: Mark Colvin

Mark Dodd – An Australian businessman working in East Timor has been found guilty by the World Bank of corruption in connection with the procurement of school equipment for the impoveri

East Timor President Xanana Gusmao warned Friday his emerging nation still faces the threat of incursions by armed militias, most likely from Indonesia's West Timor.

Mark Dodd, Darwin – The chief investigator of the Bali bombings, Inspector-General Made Mangku Pastika, is himself under investigation for East Timor war crimes.

Dili – Eight East Timorese anti-independence militiamen have been sentenced to prison terms ranging from four to eight years for crimes against humanity committed in 1999, Dili's UN- ba

Have successive Australian governments been lapdogs to the Indonesian military in their assessment of the impact of East Timorese independence on the interests of Indonesia?

Rod Mcguirk, Canberra – A senior East Timorese official Thursday lamented the likely scrapping of a $5 billion natural gas project in the Timor Sea because of a deadlocked border disput

Lachlan Colquhoun in Sydney and Shawn Donnan in Jakarta – Woodside Petroleum, Australia's biggest oil and gas producer, said on Wednesday it would halt its investment in the A$6.6bn (US

Irwin Arieff, United Nations – The Security Council extended the life of a UN peacekeeping mission in East Timor for a final six months on Tuesday after Secretary-General Kofi Annan arg

Canberra – Australia staked its claim Tuesday to its vast undersea continental shelf, asking the United Nations to grant it rights to minerals and other resources under a tract equivale

Veronica Brooks, Canberra – East Timor's government must return to the negotiating table with more realistic expectations if a protracted maritime boundary dispute between Australia and

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Neither the current East Timor government nor the international community has made a particularly high priority of bringing to justice those responsible for the human rights abuses perp

Jakarta – The former governor of East Timor, Abilio Jose Osorio Soares requested that the gross human rights abuse cases in East Timor be determined through a Truth and Reconciliation C

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The only Indonesian jailed for abuses during East Timor's violence-marred independence vote has been cleared on appeal in a move that has angered rights groups and embarrassed the Jakar

Agus Supriyanto, Jakarta – Eurico Guterres, the former commander of the Pro-Integration Youth (PPI)(1), visited the Cipinang Correctional Institution to look in on former East Timorese