Richard Lloyd Parry, Dili – Even before the automatic rifles started firing late yesterday afternoon, the scene around the United Nations headquarters in the East Timorese capital, Dili

Dili – Hundreds of anti-independence militiamen blocked the street outside the UN headquarters in East Timor's capital Wednesday, setting on fire a nearby house and shooting cars drivin

Hamish McDonald – In Dili's airport, members of the Aitarak militia stand in the departure lounge, preventing Timorese and Indonesian families boarding the Merpati Airlines jet to fly t

Joanna Jolly and Agencies in Dili – Anarchy returned to East Timor's capital yesterday with at least five people killed as hundreds of anti-independence militiamen targeted the United N

Mark Dodd, Dili – Thousands of Jakarta supporters in East Timor have packed their belongings, locked their homes and fled across the border into Indonesian West Timor in fear of renewed

Lindsay Murdoch – Pro-integration forces blockaded Dili airport and set up roadblocks around the East Timorese capital late yesterday amid unconfirmed reports that militia had killed tw

Jakarta – Indonesia's leading pro-Moslem newspaper on Tuesday called the UN-run independence ballot in East Timor a conspiracy to undermine the world's most populous Moslem nation.

Despite fears of militia intimidation, the people of East Timor turned out in their thousands to vote yesterday on independence. David Shanks reports from Maliana.

Paul Daley, Canberra – Australia has rejected advances from the United States to cooperate on peacekeeping plans for strife-torn East Timor.

Dili – Indonesian authorities on Tuesday deported four Australian journalists from East Timor, accusing them of inciting violence during the territory's autonomy ballot, a military offi

Steven Gan – Today the people will decide. After 23 years of brutal Indonesian occupation, East Timorese will be given a choice: independence or autonomy.

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Australia's senior observers have given a gloomy assessment of Monday's historic ballot on the future of East Timor, but said there was no alternative but to pre

Washington – US President Bill Clinton has warned the president of Indonesia that relations with the US will be seriously damaged – including an implicit threat to curtail international

Dili – The United Nations on Friday led international condemnation of Indonesia's handling of militia violence in East Timor as an exiled separatist leader called for a UN peacekeeping

Craig Skehan – The Indonesian Government has hit back at foreign critics of the upsurge in violence in East Timor, arguing it does not need outside pressure over its handing of Monday's

Brian Toohey – Australian policy makers have fought long and hard to get the international community to trust Indonesia's security forces to prevent a bloodbath in East Timor.

Militiamen strutted the capital's streets yesterday, a day after going on a deadly rampage, as a final rally in the campaign for next week's vote fell victim to the violence.

The battle for the hearts and minds – and votes – of the East Timorese people will not lose its passion, writes Hamish McDonald from Dili, even after Monday's referendum.

Mark Dodd, Dili – Under intense diplomatic pressure, Jakarta has recalled from Dili a senior intelligence officer alleged to be a key figure behind militia activity in East Timor.

Joanna Jolly, Dili – It was after the thousands opposed to independence had paraded through Dili that a hard-core of several hundred militiamen showed the true colours of the pro-integr

Lisbon – The Indonesian army will fight to the last soldier if a UN peacekeeping force is sent to East Timor without Jakarta's approval, a senior Indonesian diplomat told the Portuguese

Peter Cole-Adams – Australia put military units on standby yesterday to evacuate about 200 Australians, and other foreign nationals, from East Timor after Monday's vote on the future of

Mark Dodd – Something is rotten in the regency of Suai.

Mark Colvin: We begin the programme tonight in Dili, capital of East Timor, where there's been a major and ominous development involving a shoot-out involving pro-autonomy militias and

Lisbon – A photographer with US magazine Time said on Friday he had witnessed Indonesian police shoot dead a 25-year-old unarmed protester in the head during clashes in East Timor ahead

Tim Dodd, Dili – United Nation officials are considering whether Monday's referendum for independence on East Timor can go ahead after pro-Indonesia militia groups fought pitched battle

Jakarta – Jailed East Timor resistance leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao promised on Wednesday to offer amnesty to his political opponents if East Timorese voted for independence on

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Indonesia's top officials in East Timor are preparing to reject the outcome of Monday's ballot on the territory's future, claiming the way the United Nations wil

Gay Alcorn, Washington – The Clinton administration said today that, on a practical level, it was too late for an armed United Nations peacekeeping force to enter East Timor before Mond

Tim Johnston, Dili – A leading opponent of East Timorese independence said on Tuesday that a narrow loss in next Monday's ballot on the future status of the troubled territory would lea

Convinced they will win a historic UN-supervised referendum by a landslide next week, up to 10,000 jubilant supporters of independence for East Timor defied threats by rivals and choked

Jeremy Wagstaff, Dili – The United Nations mission in East Timor has refused applications by 24 Indonesian government-linked youth groups to send observers to this month's referendum on

Peter Cole-Adams – The Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr Downer, telephoned his Indonesian counterpart, Mr Ali Alatas, last night to repeat Australia's concern over security breakdowns in Ea

Mark Dodd – After 24 years of fighting for independence, a senior commander of one of the world's most enduring guerilla groups says he is considering what once seemed unthinkable – a r

The recent surge of violence in East Timor is part of a deliberate pattern to scare voters away from participating in the August 30 referendum on the territory's future status, the Unit

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili Armed militias massing in East Timor near the western border plan to go to war to stop the territory they hold becoming independent, United Nations officials have

Jill Jolliffe, Darwin – Almost exactly 24 years ago, Darwin was put to the test when thousands of traumatised East Timorese refugees fleeing civil war landed from every imaginable type

Jakarta – A pro-Indonesia group has called on the United Nations to count the votes at next week's self-determination ballot at the stations where they are cast, the state Antara news a

Dili – The 24th anniversary of East Timor's main armed separatist group, Falintil, was marked Friday with flag raisings, weddings and baptism across the territory.

The popular consultation moved into a new phase this week, with the end of the registration process and the beginning of the political campaign period, which is scheduled to run through

Don Greenlees – Several hundred East Timorese militiamen handed over a motley collection of homemade pistols and rifles at a military-style parade in Dili yesterday in a symbolic gestur

Dili – Armed pro-Indonesian militia attacked a crowd of people outside a church compound in the East Timor town of Suai, leaving several injured, a rights group said here.

Mark Dodd – With 10 days remaining before East Timor votes on self-determination, the head of the United Nations mission in Dili, Mr Ian Martin, has called for the removal of Indonesian

Stephen Spencer, Canberra – Foreign Minister Alexander Downer today lashed out at critics of Australia's East Timor policy in an extraordinarily bitter speech that also branded his oppo

Sidney Jones, Hong Kong – On August 30, barring further delays, the people of East Timor will vote on whether they wish to remain part of Indonesia as an autonomous region or form an in

There will be fierce retaliation if Jakarta thwarts East Timor's independence ballot, writes Jose Ramos Horta.

Mark Dodd – Indonesia marked its independence anniversary in East Timor yesterday in a gala ceremony that may be its last in the troubled territory, which is less than a fortnight away

Washington – Indonesia is failing to protect voters in East Timor against widespread harassment ahead of an August 30 referendum on the disputed territory's future, Amnesty Internationa

United Nations – In an effort to prevent retaliation against voters, the results of East Timor's upcoming ballot won't contain a geographic breakdown of independence supporters and oppo

Yenny Zannuba, Jakarta – Detained East Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao has warned that his forces will track down and kill Indonesian soldiers caught supplying weapons to rival pro-Jakart