President Xanana Gusmao vetoed the East Timorese government's tax-hiking fiscal bill Friday, in his second clash this month with Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri over financial and economic

The head of the UN mission in East Timor met Friday with Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri for discussions aimed to "consolidate and intensify" relations between Dili and Jakar

Emad Mekay, Washington – Two very distinct welcomes have greeted the newest member of the International Monetary Fund (IMF): free-market advice from the Fund and World Bank and warnings

Jakarta – Indonesian prosecutors have demanded a prison sentence of more than 10 years for East Timor's former police chief, saying he did nothing to prevent or to halt militia massacre

A senior Indonesian military officer was accused of ignoring massacres of at least 39 civilians by army-backed pro-Jakarta militias following East Timor's vote for independence in Augus

Jakarta – An East Timorese farmer testified Wednesday that he saw Indonesian soldiers fire on a pro-independence leader's house during the violence that engulfed the territory in 1999.

East Timor formally joined the International Monetary Fund and World Bank Tuesday, with Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri describing the event in Washington as "an important day for us, a hi

Jakarta – The exiled former commander of militias in East Timor said Tuesday he and his followers are prepared to face justice after they return home, but only following a period of rea

Yemris Fointuna, Atambua – As many as 1,175 East Timorese refugees, or 335 families, including 35 Indonesian soldiers and civil servants, left East Nusa Tenggara on Monday for their new

The Indonesian commander of West Timor said Tuesday there were "one or two people" among his forces who "continued efforts" to derail the repatriation of East Timorese refugees, actions

Jean Philippe Chauzy (Extract) – Yesterday some 1,100 East Timorese refugees returned home to East Timor from the towns of Soe and Atambua in West Timor.

On 22 July more than a thousand East Timor refugees set off on their journey to cross the border from West Timor and return home.

Jakarta – East Timor's army on Tuesday replaced United Nations peacekeepers in one district of the new nation – the first step in a 20-month handover which will see the blue berets bow

Jill Jolliffe, Darwin – Three Australian soldiers are being investigated over an alleged assault on a United Nations employee outside a bar at a military barracks in the East Timorese c

Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri has rejected domestic and international criticism of a government amnesty and sentence reduction bill under discussion in the East Timorese legislature, say

An Indonesian general admitted on Monday that some soldiers and civilians have been trying to discourage the tens of thousands of East Timorese refugees in Indonesian West Timor from re

Washington – East Timor, the world's youngest nation, was due to join the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank on Tuesday, the lending institutions said.

Poor countries should spend less money on weapons and seek to resolve their internal differences or differences with their neighbours via dialogue, says East Timor's President Kay Rala

Berni K.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Hopes for East Timorese refugees to escape starvation went up in smoke in just 24 hours on Thursday as the East Nusa Tenggara administration announced it did n

Jakarta – A UN legal investigator looking into Indonesia's judiciary added his voice on Friday to criticism of how the trials into East Timor violence in 1999 were being handled.

East Timorese officials today told a United Nations meeting on children that the new nation was on the verge of adopting an international treaty that protects the rights of youngsters.

Dili and a Portugal Telecom-led consortium signed a 15-year concession Friday for the Lisbon-headquartered company to establish and operate the new country's telecommunications systems.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – The British Government has told families of the two British journalists killed in Balibo, East Timor, in 1975 that it will soon release classified documents concer

John Aglionby – Since the fall of the dictator Suharto, Indonesia's reputation in the field of law enforcement has always been near the bottom of the scale – for instance a British poli

New York – A proposed amnesty law in East Timor could undermine due process and equal protection of the law and allow those responsible for some of the most serious rights abuses to go

President Xanana Gusmao called Thursday to the nations of the North to grant debt relief to the countries in the South, who would, in their turn seek to implement "good governance" with

Jakarta – Indonesia's last governor of East Timor said on Thursday his trial for crimes against humanity during the territory's independence vote in 1999 was bogus and aimed only at def

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – After two months of hearings by the East Timor ad hoc human rights trial, held in the absence of eyewitnesses from East Timor, an East Timorese finall

The East Timor Defense Force (ETDF) assumes responsibility next week for all aspects of security in part of the new nation, and the Dili government was informed Thursday of progress in

A survivor of a bloody attack on a refugee-filled church compound in East Timor in April 1999 said Wednesday he saw uniformed Indonesian soldiers and police fire shots into the compound

Jakarta – Indonesian prosecutors said Wednesday they would seek to reopen the investigation into the killing of a Dutch journalist in East Timor, after receiving new evidence from Dutch

Catharine Munro, Jakarta – Indonesian human rights prosecutors today raised the prospect of dropping charges against some defendants facing trial for gross human rights violations in Ea

Jakarta – An investigation into the murder of a Dutch journalist in East Timor in 1999 is still open, a Dutch police officer said Wednesday after giving Indonesian prosecutors fresh evi

Andrew Trounson, Melbourne – East Timor is getting down to business. And that means playing tough, even with your friends.

The Indonesian military, until recently occupiers of East Timor, may soon begin training officers for Dili's fledgling defense force, the UN mission in the newly independent country sai

Irwan Firdaus, Jakarta – The former commander of Indonesian troops in East Timor went on trial Tuesday on charges of crimes against humanity for allegedly allowing his soldiers to commi

A draft bill on amnesty and pardoning of sentences has been criticized as being "unconstitutional", "too general" and open to "dangerous interpretation", by a leading Timorese nongovern

After signing and approving East Timor's state budget Tuesday, President Xanana Gusmao called for revision of the measures within four months, while also lamenting the lackluster nature

President Xanana Gusmao will address the East Timorese Tuesday in a nationally broadcast speech that an aide described Monday as centered on his two-week delay in signing the government

Nigel Wilson – East Timor's decision to pursue maritime boundaries that might include substantial Australian oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea will not derail talks aimed at definin

Thalif Deen, United Nations – East Timor, the world's newest nation, will ask the United Nations to designate it a "least developed country" (LDC).

Jill Jolliffe – An argument over who is to be East Timor's first ambassador to Australia could lead to a showdown between President Xanana Gusmao and Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

[The following letter to the the Sydney Morning Herald editor was issued by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, Dr Jose Ramos-Horta.]

Two former top Indonesian ministers told a human rights trial yesterday that a savage outbreak of militia violence in East Timor in September 1999 caught the Jakarta government unawares

Prosecutors yesterday demanded that East Timor's former Indonesian-appointed governor be sent to prison for 10 and a half years – just six months more than the minimum sentence for crim

[East Timor's fledgling parliament has made a key decision about the nation's borders which could be the first big test of its relations with Australia.

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – East Timor's Foreign Minister, Jose Ramos Horta, has put pragmatism ahead of human rights in his first foreign policy statement, describing China as the new nation

Rod McGuirk, Darwin – East Timor President and former freedom fighter Xanana Gusmao today said he did not want to see the Indonesian provinces of Aceh and Irian Jaya win independence.

[Deliverance by Don Greenlees and Robert Garran, Allen & Unwin.]