[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 – 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

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 – 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

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

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

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."

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

Jakarta – Indonesia's parliament speaker on Thursday urged President Megawati Sukarnoputri to snub next month's celebrations marking the formal independence of East Timor, which Jakarta

Rod Myer – The impasse between joint venture partners in the Sunrise gas deposit in the Timor Sea highlights doubts over plans to pipe gas from beyond Australia's north coast to SouthEa

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

Barry FitzGerald – Woodside Petroleum yesterday turned on United States oil and gas giant Phillips Petroleum, accusing it of delaying a $5 billion development of the Sunrise gas fields

Joanne Collins, Dili – Less than three years ago East Timor's seaside capital was a charred ruin, but now Britney Spears CDs, Singapore noodles and beauty salons are easily found in wha

The trial of five Indonesian officers accused of failing to prevent a 1999 massacre in East Timor hit a snag when six witnesses failed to turn up.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – The more than 140,000 East Timorese refugees living in West Timor can not return home till March 20 at the earliest due to transportation problems.

Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) rejects an UNTAET (United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor) proposal that East Timorese public buses be allowed to pass through

Dili – Almost anywhere else there would be unalloyed delight in an 86-per cent turn-out for a presidential election.

Dili – The government buildings around it are gutted, but surviving intact as a minor miracle in the center of Dili is a billboard urging the locals to speak good Indonesian, the langua

Sydney – Foreign Minister Alexander Downer dismissed a claim Monday that Australia had been less than friendly towards East Timor, arguing it had been generous over sharing oil revenues

Hamish McDonald, Maliana – For Isobelle de Araujo it was a bittersweet day.

Jill Jolliffe – Guerrilla hero Jose "Xanana" Gusmao is expected to win a sweeping victory today in a poll for East Timor's first elected head of state, despite an organised attempt to r

Hamish McDonald, Dili – A last-minute dispute has blown up over the treaty that will unlock oil and gas resources worth billions of dollars in the seabed between Australia and East Timo

Hamish McDonald – A tropical cyclone has been hovering close to East Timor, dumping frequent rain on a mountainous island still in wet-season green and leaving officials wondering if th

Marianne Kearney, Jakarta – Tomorrow, East Timor votes for its first president, taking its final steps towards independence.

Jill Jolliffe – It could have been a Meet the Press show anywhere in the world – two presidential candidates on stage in elegant suits fielding questions before an audience of politicia

Dan Murphy, Jakarta – An investigator has uncovered new evidence in the murder of a Dutch journalist in East Timor in 1999 that bolsters the case against an Indonesian Army unit accused

[East Timor approaches the last formal step in its long hard road to democracy and independence – on Sunday the people go to the polls to elect a president.

Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta – The Indonesian Military (TNI) seems to be trying to use the on-going ad hoc human rights trial to wash its hands of gross human rights violations in East Timor,

East Timor's two presidential candidates publicly embraced each other Thursday in Dili, appealing to voters to cast ballots in Sunday's election, the last political milestone before the

Indonesia's powerful former military chief, General Wiranto, has published a book giving his version of East Timor's bloody 1999 breakaway, as he campaigns to clear himself of responsib

Jakarta – Former Indonesian Military (TNI) commander Gen.

Jakarta – The highest-ranking Indonesian officer implicated in a wave of violence that swept East Timor in 1999 defended its former police chief on Thursday, telling a court he had save

Jon Land – Two-and-a half years after East Timor's referendum on independence, the effect of the Indonesian military and militia's post-ballot destructive rampage are painfully apparent

UN transition administrator Sergio Vieira de Mello went to East Timor's border with Indonesia Wednesday to welcome a group of returning refugees, marking the repatriation of 200,000 peo

Dili – East Timor independence hero Xanana Gusmao rode on horseback through streets lined with adoring supporters here Monday as the campaign for the presidency of the world's newest na

Claire Harvey and A'an Suryana, Jakarta – The United Nations' reconstruction effort in East Timor will continue for at least the next decade, a military expert said on Monday.

Tony Parkinson – Former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid is planning to attend East Timor's independence celebrations next month, amid increasing doubts that his successor, Megawa

Dili – Francisco Xavier do Amaral, 66, only had nine days as East Timor's first president in 1975.