[Source: Sydney Morning Herald - January 2, 2000]

Table of contents

Introduction

Terry Townsend – The streets of what is left of Dili, the capital of East Timor, were packed on October 31, 1999, as tens of thousands of people joined a procession led by Catholic Bish

Jakarta – A former battalion commander in East Timor admitted on Thursday that his troops ambushed two foreign journalists in the territory's capital of Dili on September 21.

Keith B.

Dili – East Timor's leader Xanana Gusmao said here Friday that he foresaw the territory obtaining full independence in at most two years – a year less than currently envisaged.

Dili – East Timor's independence leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao said Friday that East Timor will be the first new independent nation of the new millennium, but not with him as pr

Dili – Several dozen Muslims who fled the recent violence in East Timor returned home to a protest by East Timorese who said they are not welcome, a UN official said Friday.

Jakarta – Efforts to bring to justice those behind the violence in East Timor received a double blow this week with the former armed forces chief rebuffing a domestic inquiry and the go

Jakarta – Former Indonesian armed forces chief General Wiranto on Friday told a human rights commission there had been no plan or policy for either a genocide or crimes against humanity

Railako – There was not much left of body number 258, but a team of UN civilian police officers and soldiers from the International Force for East Timor (Interfet) set out Thursday to f

Dili – Seven people were wounded after a suspected member of a pro-Indonesian militia threw a hand grenade in the border area between East and West Timor, a spokesman for the internatio

Canberra – More than 100,000 refugees in West Timor were trapped in makeshift camps and living in a state of constant fear under the rule of the militia groups that destroyed East Timor

Keith B.

Geneva – More than 119,000 East Timorese have now returned to the territory – most of them from Indonesian West Timor, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees said here Tues

Kupang – A pro-Jakarta East Timor militia chief accused the Indonesian government on Friday of abandoning its own supporters, but said he would not disband his group, which is accused o

Atambua – One week after the commander of pro-Indonesian militias ordered his forces to disband, militias remain present here but their power is fading, aid workers say.

Jakarta – The commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) yesterday in Jakarta revealed it's new investigation results from East Timor, concerning the violence whic

Lindsay Murdoch – Eurico Guterres looks a beaten man. Gone are his thug bodyguards and the copy-cat red beret uniform of Indonesia's elite Kopassus forces.

Michael Richardson, Dili – Now that the East Timorese independence coalition no longer has a common enemy to hold it together, there are signs that it is starting to fracture.

David Nason – The Australian consortium behind the failed Dili Lodge hotel venture in East Timor hoped to reap an annual profit of nearly $7 million, while initially operating tax-free

Jakarta – East Timorese militia supremo Joao da Silva Tavares has officially disbanded an umbrella organization for pro-Indonesian militias ordering them to hand over all arms, a report

Dili – A commander of one of East Timor's anti-independence militias has admitted he was behind one of the territory's most horrific massacres and claims he was acting on the orders of

Dili – UN police in East Timor have been overwhelmed by the number of murder cases they must investigate with limited resources after the wave of violence that swept this territory afte

Hamish Mcdonald, Dili – The Australian commander of the United Nations peacekeeping force in East Timor has appealed for the international community to continue to pressure Indonesia to

Joanne Collins, Kupang – Pro-Jakarta militiamen armed with pistols and clubs threatened UN aid officials in Indonesian West Timor on Friday, preventing them from entering camps for East

Michael Ware. Dili – East Timor's political heavyweights and leading lights, now is crunchtime.

Dili – Eighteen East Timorese freed by Jakarta under a presidential amnesty program arrived in their homeland Saturday to an emotional welcome.

Nora Boustany, East Timor – An American relief worker who arrived Sunday from East Timor described horrific conditions in resettlement camps she visited across the border in western Tim

Dili, Tim Johnson – Timorese Tuesday celebrated East Timor's first free anniversary of Indonesia's invasion of the former Portuguese colony on December 7, 1975.

Jon Land – As investigations by both the United Nations and the Indonesian Human Rights Commission continue into the Indonesian military's involvement in the killing and destruction whi

The Victorian branch of the ALP has voted against a proposal to provide the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) with $5000 for urgent reconstruction work in East Timor.

Jakarta – Influential security minister General Wiranto on Monday denied allegations of a systematic effort by militias to prevent East Timorese refugees in West Timor from returning to

Geneva – Conditions in refugee camps in West Timor are deteriorating, with provincial authorities reporting that at least 35 people, mostly children, died in one camp over a 10-day peri

Jakarta – The militia have been haunting the East Timorese refugees currently residing in camps in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).

The bodies began to wash ashore about a week after Indonesia invaded East Timor 24 years ago.

Dili – A five member UN mission Friday wound up nine days of investigation into allegations of atrocities in East Timor but it declined to say whether an international tribunal to try t

Mark Dodd, Dili – As East Timor struggles to rebuild, a United Nations decision to introduce the Portuguese escudo into the fragile economy has caused mass confusion among an impoverish

Max Lane – A formal administration of East Timor by the United Nations was established on November 27 when the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) issued its first reg

Dili – The number of East Timorese refugees returning from Indonesia has dropped despite Indonesian promises to help speed up their passage, the UN refugee said on Wednesday.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta has returned to East Timor after almost 24 years in exile. He writes of the task of rebuilding a nation.

Karen Fredericks, Brisbane – The spokesperson for the Brisbane East Timorese community has hit out at the refusal by federal immigration minister Philip Ruddock to grant the Internation

Jakarta – A government-sanctioned inquiry said on Wednesday that the Indonesian Military (TNI) was directly or indirectly involved in extra-judicial executions in the ravaged territory

Jakarta – President Abdurrahman Wahid said on Tuesday that he would order next week the release of 18 East Timorese political prisoners still in Indonesian jails.

Pip Hinman – Following a fact-finding tour to East Timor, Indonesia's National Human Rights Commission (Komnas HAM) has announced it will subpoena senior Indonesian generals, including

Lindsay Murdoch – A pro-Jakarta militia leader has told investigators he helped murder an Indonesian journalist, two priests, two nuns and three other people in East Timor on the orders

Dili – Nobel peace laureate Jose Ramos Horta Wednesday returned to East Timor after 24 years in exile to a rousing welcome honoring his tireless efforts to end Indonesia's occupation of

Alas Selatan, East Nusa Tenggara – An investigation team discovered at least 25 decaying bodies in three mass graves here on Thursday.

Sonny Inbaraj, Dili – All's not well in the urgent distribution of food and seeds in East Timor, before the heavy monsoon rains expected this week makes planting impossible and roads im

Sydney – Former Indonesian military chief General Wiranto orchestrated the post-referendum militia violence in East Timor to back his own political ambitions, an Australian magazine sai

Jakarta – The Indonesian Defense Forces (TNI) claims a report by state investigators that confirmed the military orchestrated recent atrocities in East Timor was clearly biased.