TIMOR TODAY 24 February 2000

For full text see…. http://www.easttimor.com/

PHOTOS:

a) Australian Maj. Gen. Peter Cosgrove, commander of the Interational Force for East Timor (INTERFET), waves goodbye from the deck of the Jervis Bay, an Australian naval transport ship, as he leaves East Timor upon the completion of INTERFET's mission yesterday. (AP Photo/Ed Wray)

NEWS

1) Australia-led force leaves East Timor in U.N. hands 24/02/00 (Reuters) DILI, East Timor - The Australian-led multinational force formally left East Timor on Wednesday and handed over to United Nations peacekeepers, five months after going in to end a wave of mass killings.

2) Airspace protest reveals Indon- Australia tensions 24/02/00 (Sydney Morning Herald) The Australian Government yesterday denied Indonesian claims that Australian aircraft had intruded into the country's airspace, revealing continuing tensions between the two countries.

3) Plans to summon Wiranto as "military expert" on East Timor 24/02/00 (AFX - Asia) The lower house of parliament plans to summon former armed forces chief General Wiranto next month as "a military expert" to explain last year's violence in East Timor, a senior MP said.

4) Indonesia to halt aid to East Timorese refugees by April 24/02/00 (Antara) KUPANG, Indonesia Feb 23 Asia Pulse/Antara - Indonesia, already short of funds, will stop channelling humanitarian aid to East Timorese refugees in East Nusa Tenggara province from April 1.

5) Indonesia's Darusman -- the man in Indonesia's hot seat 24/02/00 (Agence France Presse) Attorney General Marzuki Darusman is the man in Indonesia's hot seat, handling five politically-explosive cases which could make or break him and the government's reform efforts, analysts said.

6) Small business applications pour into East Timor 24/02/00 (Agence France Presse) DILI - Hundreds of small businesses have applied to operate here in what the United Nations described as a possible economic resurgence in the scarred East Timorese capital.

7) IMF warns of too rapid aid to East Timor 24/02/00 (Reuters) DILI, East Timor - Aid set to pour into ravaged East Timor could end up damaging the economy if it is not kept under control, a senior International Monetary Fund official warned.

8) Bureaucracy drive stalls at 1st attemp 24/02/00 (Japan Economic Newswire) East Timor's first step in setting up a bureaucracy suffered a setback Tuesday when the seven-member public service commission that will lay down details on the hiring of civil servants failed to convene its inaugural meeting.

PRESS RELEASES

9) Five months on, the plight of East Timor's refugees remains desperate 24/02/00 (TAPOL) With the full knowledge of the international community there are still over 150,000 East Timorese refugees in the Indonesian territory of West Timor. Disease and intimidation remain endemic, while the dangerous security conditions seriously impede repatriation efforts.

REPORTS

10) Situation in East/West Timor, sectarian violence elsewhere 24/02/00 (US Committee for Refugees) As the emergency phase of relief assistance to the island of Timor (both to devastated East Timor as well as to West Timor, which is still Indonesian territory and which still housing 110,000 refugees) has begun to wind down, many NGOs have begun tofocus on post-conflict rehabilitation through a variety of projects.

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