John Martinkus, Kupang – On the outskirts of the West Timorese capital, Kupang, a dusty former bus terminal still serves as the home for some of the estimated 60,000 East Timorese refug

Tim Dodd – Dili, which becomes the capital of the independent state of East Timor at midnight this Sunday, is a relatively prosperous town for a developing country.

Chris Brummitt, Dili – Children in East Timor are having trouble getting their tongues around their new official language.

Joanne Collins, Dili – Paint is being slapped on fences, scaffolding is coming down from buildings, weeds are being ripped up and soccer fields are getting new goal posts.

Asia's newest nation has been officially listed by the UN as the poorest country in the region.

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

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 f

Nusa Dua, Bali – Udayana Military Commander Maj. Gen. Willem T.

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 t

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 t

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

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

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.

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 t

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

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, l

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 ri

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.

[Ivete D'Oliveira began working with CIIR's Women's Advocacy Programme in August 2001.

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 b

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.

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 Wemas

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

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.

Jennifer Hewett And Jane Counsel – Woodside is caught in another hot debate.

Indonesia's army chief has urged his countrymen to forget their traumatic past with East Timor and embrace its sovereignty, amid lingering bitterness about the territory's breakaway.

Don Greenlees, Jakarta – Three years after East Timor was laid waste by Indonesian military-sponsored militia, the country's President-elect, Xanana Gusmao, declared yesterday that just

East Timor's president-elect Xanana Gusmao met Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri in Jakarta to personally invite her to attend his country's independence celebrations later thi

Mark Baker – East Timorese Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta has ruled out any backing for separatist movements within Indonesia once the country achieves its independence next month.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – Witnesses in their testimony on Thursday highlighted a clear link between civilian guards roaming East Timor in the run-up to 1999 ballot and military forces, s

Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI)/National Police faction in the House of Representatives (DPR) has taken the same position as the House's Commission I for political and security

[Daniel Casey was on hand to watch the world's newest country, and our neighbour, embark upon the road to democracy with its people tackling the ballot box for the very first time.]

Jakarta – Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri will attend East Timor's landmark independence handover on May 20, despite strong opposition from MPs.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – A witness in the human rights trial into the East Timor mayhem said on Wednesday that top state officials in Jakarta should have been held accountable for the v

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – A witness testified before the ongoing Human Rights Court on Tuesday that he was ordered by his superior to bury at least 25 bodies, including three Catholic pr

General Kofi Annan recommended Tuesday that the Security Council approve a new UN mission for East Timor to last two years beyond its independence, slated for May 20.

Name: Jose Alexandre Gusmao
Nom-de-guerre: Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao
Date of Birth: 20 June 1946
Place of Birth: Manatuto, East Timor

Phil Zabriskie – Who is Xanana Gusmao? A Portuguese journalist put that question to Gusmao himself shortly before he was captured by the Indonesian military in November 1992.

Jakarta – A soldier told Indonesia's new human rights court Tuesday he was asked by his commanding officer to transport and bury bodies from a church massacre in East Timor, among the w

Dili's interim government has approved a USD 75 million budget for East Timor's first year as an independent state.

The East Timor Action Network (ETAN) described Friday's UN Commission on Human Rights statement on East Timor as "a rotten birthday present for the soon-to-be independent nation."

Tim Dodd, Dili – With independence only a month off, how bad is the economic problem facing East Timor?

Tim Dodd, Dili – In Dili's old commercial heart is an Javanese bakso (meatball soup) restaurant that does a thriving trade at $US1 a bowl, proving the East Timorese have not lost their

Jakarta – Indonesia's president will attend next month's independence celebration in the country's former territory East Timor, a palace spokesman said Saturday.

Hamish McDonald – Dressed in dun-brown overalls and boots, Fitar dos Reis, Gil Nelson Belo and Gulio Freitas line up under the baking afternoon sun to take their place on a mat and prac

Tertiani ZB Simanjuntak, Jakarta – Defendants in alleged crimes against humanity in East Timor blamed on Thursday the policy of then president B.J.

Dan Murphy, Dili – Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao is a figure of such legendary stature here that no viable challenger ran against him for the presidency of the world's newest nation.

Lee Kim Chew – East Timor's newly-elected President Xanana Gusmao, a poet and freedom fighter, loves the Portuguese language. It gives him a sense of identity.

Michael Kessler – Next month East Timor will become the world's newest nation when the former Portuguese colony, which voted for independence from Indonesia in 1999, formally adopts its

Hamish McDonald – On a roadside in rural Balibo, among knots of people lingering to chat after casting their vote in their country's first presidential election last Sunday, different t