East Timor4s chief minister, Mari Alkatiri, has expressed concern over mounting domestic violence against women, urging his people to put an end to such practices as part of the territo

Jill Jolliffem Dili – Just a block away from the imposing United Nations building that dominates the Dili waterfront, two East Timorese girls are soliciting outside Tom's Place, a recen

Dili – The threat of violence from pro-Indonesian militias opposed to East Timor's independence has decreased significantly, raising hopes that thousands of peacekeepers may soon be abl

Don Greenlees, Jakarta – Militia groups opposed to East Timor's separation from Indonesia are a spent force, incapable of presenting a military threat across the border from West Timor,

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – East Timor's charismatic leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao and former pro-Jakarta militia leader Joao Tavares agreed on Tuesday to end their hostility and

Canberra – Indonesia and Australia will set up a tripartite consultative forum to help East Timor solve problems that may arise in its transformation into an independent state, Indonesi

Dili – With East Timor due to become the world's newest nation in six months, hundreds of people rallied Wednesday to mark the territory's first declaration of independence 26 years ago

The Constituent Assembly today approved a motion recommending that East Timor's first presidential election be held in the first or second week of April 2002, and that the voting proces

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – Indonesian authorities say they do not regard last year's Memorandum of Understanding between East Timor and Indonesia on transfer of prisoners as valid, East Timo

Don Greenlees, Jakarta – United Nations prosecutors in East Timor have lodged an indictment against 21 people, including senior Indonesian military, militia and government officials, ov

Kupang – A top military officer here said East Timorese refugees in East Nusa Tenggara province no longer feel they have leaders.

Paul Osborne Brisbane – The problems of East Timorese refugees in West Timor and the disarmament of militia should be resolved within three months, the emerging nation's foreign ministe

Karen Polglaze, Melbourne – The interests of the people of East Timor would have been totally compromised had former Labor prime minister Paul Keating stayed in the top job, Prime Minis

Nigel Wilson – Government-level talks in East Timor next week are seen as the last chance of early development of vast Timor Sea gas reserves.

Joanna Jolly, Dili – Thousands of East Timorese gathered at the Santa Cruz cemetery on Monday to commemorate the 10th anniversary of a brutal massacre by Indonesian troops that shocked

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – Ten years after the massacre that shocked the world, memories are still raw in East Timor.

Atambua – A man lobbed a Korean-made grenade into the middle of a crowded East Timorese refugee camp in Manumutin village, Atambua, early Sunday but the device failed to explode, a loca

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – As of January 2002, the government will no longer provide any financial or food assistance to East Timorese refugees in West Timor as it will reinstate the Ind

Robert Garran – Indonesian troops attacking the East Timorese town of Balibo in October 1975 had good reason not to want five Australian-based journalists to escape, according to a new

Jill Jolliffe, Dili – The news that Japan has authorised its troops to serve overseas, despite the country's pacifist constitution, sends shudders down the spine of Marta Pereira, an ag

Jakarta – The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said Tuesday that it has helped repatriate 188,646 East Timorese refugees from Indonesia's West Timor in the past two years.

United Nations – The Security Council decided Wednesday that the UN-administered territory of East Timor should become independent on May 20 next year.

Jakarta – Chief of the Udayana Military Command overseeing Bali, East and West Nusa Tenggara, Maj. Gen. Willem T.

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – In line with the planned establishment of an independent East Timor early next year, Indonesia and East Timor have agreed to demilitarize their border areas to

Disparity between the lifestyles of UNTAET personnel and the people of Timor Lorosae is sowing the seeds of social envy.

Setiyardi, Timor Lorosae – Floating hotels are a symbol of high living, an irony in stark contrast to widespread poverty in Timor Lorosae.

Hong Kong – East Timor's future president Xanana Gusmao has recalled his fury when Australia refused to accept temporarily a handful of East Timorese students fleeing persecution in Ind

More than 3,200 East Timorese refugees returned home from Indonesia during October, the UN High Commission for Refugees said Monday in Dili, underlining it was the biggest one-month inf

Jakarta – The Indonesian government has decided to halt humanitarian assitance to East Timorese refugees in West Timor at the end of the year, a senior minister said in remarks publishe

Presenter: The commemoration of East Timor's newly-gained independence has been scheduled for 20 May [2002], however, the chief minister of the provisional government, Mari Alkatiri, sa

Virginia Marsh – If all had gone to plan, divers would now be laying a pipeline along the seabed linking Darwin to the substantial gasfields off its shores and a decades-old dream would

Evelyn Leopold, United Nations – East Timor's newly elected constituent assembly asked the United Nations on Monday to grant it independence next May 20, paving the way for a reduction

Dili – Indonesia-East Timor trade relations have good prospects in future so that there is glimmer of hope that certain parts of their common borderline will eventually be opened for ac

Dili – Indonesia's currency, the rupiah, especially of the Rp 5000 to Rp 50000 denomination, is still legally accepted as a means of exchange in Timor Lorosae, along with the US dollar.

Yemris Fointuna, Atambua – At least 800 East Timorese refugees, formerly grouped under the Mahidi militia group from Ainaro regency, returned to their homeland on Wednesday and received

Over 500 refugees crossed the border this morning in the second day of mass refugee returns from camps in Indonesian West Timor.

Jakarta – East Timor's foreign minister Jose Ramos Horta has supported the US-led air attacks on Afghanistan, saying his people have personal experience of the "scourge of terrorism."

Ramani de Silva, Dili – The Constituent Assembly elected in September had been in place for less than two weeks when on September 26 a demonstration of around 300 people demanded that i

Slobodan Lekic, Dili – When the Indonesian army helicopter suddenly appeared above a rebel camp hidden in East Timor's towering mountains, Agostinho Sidabatur didn't hesitate.

Simon Montlake, Jakarta – More than two years after Indonesia's bloody revenge on East Timor for a pro-independence vote, hopes of justice for thousands of victims are fading fast.

Dili – In its first concrete step toward drafting a new constitution, East Timor's national assembly Wednesday set up four commissions tasked with preparing sections of the national cha

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang – Along with government aid for the 290,000 East Timorese remaining in Indonesia being discontinued at the end of December, the refugee status for people now liv

Julie Chao, Dili – After Salvador Ferrera cast his ballot two years ago for independence for East Timor, he fled into the hills.

Fabiola Desy Unidjaya, Jakarta – Former deputy Army chief of staff Gen.

Dili-East Timor's newly elected Constituent Assembly today unanimously adopted a set of Rules and Procedures for the 88-member body following a two-week debate.

The Indonesian Government has shown new signs of its determination to rid itself of East Timorese refugees, and thousands of them are now likely to be forced back across the border with

Washington – A US judge has piled 66 million dollars in damages on a top Indonesian general, concluding after a civil lawsuit lodged in a US court that he was guilty of crimes against h

Kupang – The government has said that, as of December this year, there will be no more humanitarian aid for around 290,000 East Timorese who opted to stay in Indonesia and are now livin

[East Timor is finally on the road to independence but there is still a long way to go.

A former pro-Indonesian militia member has received a 16-year sentence from the Special Panel for Serious Crimes in Dili.