Dan Murphy, Wonosobo – Maya Friera's letter home is filled with re-assurances for her parents. The 8-year-old promises she's studying hard and saying her prayers every day.

East Timor's foreign minister Jose Ramos-Horta says the country's fledgling judicial and prison systems are frail because there are insufficient judges.

An Indonesian prosecutor has proposed that controversial human rights trials be moved to Dili, the capital of neighbouring East Timor.

Sharon Labi, Dili – They idolise Britney Spears, watch lots of TV and worry about what to wear to school.

Sharon Labi, Fatuk-Hun – The red juice of the betel nut stains her teeth and runs down her chin, settling in the cracks of her lips and the wrinkles of her weathered face.

Jamie Walker – According to the army, it began as a Melbourne Cup day joke.

A special fund to compensate former Indonesian government employees and pensioners in East Timor expects to make its first payments next month, a founder of the fund said Monday.

Phil Goff – The Foreign Minister Phil Goff says it is a matter of shame that New Zealand, Australia and the United States did not strongly oppose the Indonesian invasion of East Timor i

Jakarta – The Indonesian government will host the 55th session of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Committee for South-East Asia Region on September 11-13, according to an o

Vannessa Hearman – On August 15 an Indonesian court convicted Abilio Soares, the former Jakarta-appointed governor of East Timor, of failing to rein in subordinates in September 1999 as

[It's three years since the violence that accompanied East Timor's vote for independence.

Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo has called to East Timor's political leaders and the international community to begin moves to establish an international court to try those responsible for t

[Kirsty Sword was a resistance fighter who became the First Lady. Now comes the hard part. Susan Wyndham profiles the wife of the East Timorese leader.]

East Timor's religious leader has said that the Timorese people are "disenchanted" after three months of independence.

Dili – The fledgling nation of East Timor risks being exploited by organized crime and developing institutionalized corruption, because of its poverty and rudimentary legal system.

Mari Alkatiri – It is a truism of the developing world that the blessing of petroleum wealth can be a curse.

[The following review of Don Greenlees and Robert Garran, "Deliverance: The Inside Story of East Timor's Fight for Freedom" (Allen & Unwin), is by John Martinkus.

Jill Jolliffe, Gugleur – Gugleur has little to recommend it. Its people are subsistence farmers and the maize crop has failed this year.

East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao took stock of his new nation on Friday in a speech marking 100 days of independence, calling for greater grassroots democracy to check potential abu

Dili – East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao on Friday asked his critics for more time to solve the vast problems facing the newly independent nation.

Jakarta – East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao urged his people on Friday to focus on the task of nation-building as the territory marked its first 100 days of independence.

Stewart Taggart in Dili and Lor – Times have changed for Commandante Elias Falour. Once he was a leader in the East Timorese guerrilla resistance.

Peter Symonds – The outcome of the first trials by an Indonesian court over the massacres in East Timor in 1999, prior to and following the UN-sponsored vote on independence, has proved

John Aglionby – For anyone who is not in Indonesia's military it must be hard to understand why Colonel Herman Sedyono is not in jail.

Jill Joliffe, Dili – East Timor's Government is likely to ask the United Nations to set up an international tribunal to hear war crimes cases after key suspects were acquitted by a Jaka

East Timor Action Network/US (ETAN) said today that it was "deeply disturbed" by East Timor's decision to give US troops in the new nation immunity from prosecution by the International

Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said Tuesday that East Timor's judges and court officials are to be trained in Portuguese and rejected a reported preference by the UN for the use of Indone

Alexandre Assis, Dili – East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao was very angry when he heard the verdict of the Central Jakarta Ad Hoc Human Rights Court that set free the main suspects –

Ian Martin – The trials before an ad hoc human rights tribunal in Jakarta of officials implicated in the 1999 crimes in East Timor are not only failing to do justice: They have turned t

A document drawn up by the United Nations Mission in East Timor says that the training of judges and support to courts and Timorese jurists should be undertaken in Indonesian, a policy

Jill Jolliffe, Suai – UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson rode into the eye of East Timor's human rights storm at the weekend when she visited the scene of the September

Washington – The newly independent state of East Timor has signed an agreement exempting US military personnel from prosecution in the International Criminal Court, the US State Departm

Andrew Perrin – The former custodians of the Hotel Flamboyan in Baucau, the picturesque seaside town on East Timor's northeast coast, had a lot to learn about hotel management.

In East Timor, the Bishop of Dili has called for the creation of an international tribunal to try crimes committed during the independence vote three years ago.

Gde Anugrah Arka, Jakarta – The UN's human rights chief visited an East Timor massacre site on Saturday and was told by victims' families an international tribunal was needed to examine

Dili – East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao on Friday said the government may consider pushing the United Nations to convene a special war crimes tribunal to try Indonesian officers all

Tom Wright, Dili – Try to find coffee from East Timor, barely three months old as a nation, and you'll probably come up empty-handed.

Dili – UN human rights chief Mary Robinson arrived in East Timor on Friday condemning Indonesia's trials over atrocities in the territory in 1999 and said she would take her concerns to

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – East Timor's new government faced a second day of protests yesterday, when a dissident political party demonstrated outside government offices.

Jill Jolliffe – Most of Dili's shops were closed and shuttered yesterday as about 2000 former guerrilla fighters put on a show of force against the Fretilin government of Prime Minister

James Dunn – At last Indonesia's human rights tribunal has begun passing verdicts on the 18 accused who have appeared before it.

Matthew Moore, Jakarta – The United States has criticised Indonesia's acquittal of six out of seven people accused of war crimes in East Timor, highlighting the prosecution's failure to

Jakarta – Human rights activists pledged on Monday to step up a global campaign for the establishment of an international tribunal for those involved in the mayhem in East Timor in 1999

The commander of the East Timor Defense Force (ETDF) said Tuesday that the Dili government should build a monument to honor resistance fighters killed in the independence struggle again

[Australia is to talk to East Timor about Indonesia's acquittal of army officers accused of human rights crimes in East Timor.

Jerry Norton, Jakarta – US criticism of Indonesian prosecutors over verdicts in East Timor human rights cases was out of line and would be better directed at judges in the case, a spoke

Jakarta – Relations with the US will not be affected by the acquittal of six defendants allegedly involved in the violence that engulfed East Timor in 1999, Indonesia's foreign minister

Washington – The United States on Monday criticized the Indonesian prosecutors who failed to secure convictions for six out of seven security officials charged with crimes against human

The acquittal of six members of Indonesia's security forces on charges arising from the horrific massacre of three East Timorese priests and the scores of civilians they were sheltering

The Australian Government has been told it has an obligation to support the establishment of an international tribunal to prosecute those Indonesians involved in the 1999 bloodshed in E