• East Timor Human Rights Centre
  A centre for promotion of human rights in East Timor. Also available at GreenNet
• EAST TIMOR ACTION NETWORK
• Timor Net
  This page contains history and cultural information about East Timor
• Free East Timor on Line Campaign
• Loro Sae home page
  This page is very extensive and intesive sorts of banners, pictures and sounds related to East Timor.
• Free East Timor
  Click here to get East Timor screen savers, animations and banners.
• Etisc
  East Timor International Support Centre

And since the downfall of former president Suharto in May 1998, there has been a significant loosening up of debate on the future for Indonesia and for East Timor.

His successor, President Habibie has promised democratic revolution in Indonesia. New political parties have since been formed in preparation for the elections in June this year, and the East Timorese have been offered a direct vote on whether they would like autonomy or complete independence.

The Republic of Indonesia Foreign Ministry site in English and Indonesian provides an extensive list of links to Indonesian Government institutions, mostly in Indonesian.

The National Commission on Human Rights gives the government line on human rights issues.

The United Nations has been closely involved in trying to bring about an acceptable consensus on East Timor's future and is expected to play an important role in a transition period if and when the territory is given its independence.

Campaigns

Over the past few years there has been an upsurge of new East Timor sites on the Internet, in particular, those of human rights groups campaigning from the West:

• relief and development work at the community level inside East Timor;
• education, community development and advocacy work in Australia (eg. for the East Timorese asylum seekers in Australia) and internationally

'Virtual country'

But just over a year ago, the 1996 Nobel Prize winners, Jose Ramos Horta , Bishop Belo initiated, along with Internet service provider Connect-Ireland an East Timorese Internet domain (.tp) - giving East Timor a presence as a 'virtual country' on the Net.

The site was soon forced to shut down when a highly organised attack, for which the Indonesian government was blamed, brought down the East Timor virtual country domain.

Despite these problems, the site East Timor World under the wing of the Free East Timor site is up and running and gives an extensive range of links to East Timorese sources on the Internet.

Australia and Portugal

The Australian government has been urged by the UN to play a key role in ensuring a peaceful independence vote in East Timor later this year. The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade site has the transcript of Foreign Minister Alexander Downer's speech following his visit to Indonesia and Portugal in February this year. And the site of the Australian Embassy in Jakarta contains recent press releases on the Timor issue.

The Portuguese Ministry for Foreign Affairs site has information on the role of Portugal, the former colonial power.

Human Rights

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International produce extensive reports and briefings on the human rights situation in Indonesia and East Timor.

Opposition parties

Indonesia's main opposition parties have their own positions on East Timor. Amien Rais, leader of the opposition National Mandate Party has said independence should be put to the people of East Timor in a referendum. The head of the PDI, or Democratic Party, Megawati Sukarnoputri has rejected independence for the territory.

News coverage

Antara is Indonesia's official news agency, covering a wide range of topics from national to international news to finance. Registration is required, but the site is free.

Inside Indonesia published by the Indonesian Resources and Information Programme (IRIP), has its own team of writers compiling commentary and analysis on news from Indonesia and East Timor. The site includes translations of interviews (for example with Indonesian Foreign Minister, Ali Alatas) featured in Portuguese newspapers.

For coverage from the Indonesian press, there are a number of newspapers online, including Kompas online and Indonesia Daily News .

U.N. gives go ahead for East Timor peacekeeping force
September 15, 1999
Security Council pushing for late-night vote on East Timor force
September 14, 1999
Indonesia placing no conditions on East Timor force
September 13, 1999
Clinton urges rapid East Timor troop deployment
September 12, 1999
Indonesia rejects immediate use of peacekeepers in East Timor
September 11, 1999
U.N. mission to assess bloodied East Timor firsthand
September 10, 1999

 RELATED STORIES on East Timor:

TIME magazine
   Island of Death
   Being Free Is Not the Same Thing as Being Prosperous
   Inside the U.N.'s Last Refuge

ASIAWEEK
   East Timor's Agony
   One Reporter's Notebook
   Murderous Puppets

APC Conferences/Newsgroups

APC conferences are newsgroups that are only available on APC internet service providers.There are APC services in most countries in the world. The internet does not reach East Timor, but reg.easttimor has been available in East Timor for many years (since before we started using the term "internet") via the APC Pactokservice.
If your web server is not an APC member, then you must telnet to an APC site and login with a valid account and password beforeyou can access the APC member's NNTP news server to read these newsgroups. (Eg. telnet to port 8191 on Pegasus
in Australia to authorise your connection to the Pegasus APC news server so that you can read reg.easttimor on Pegasus).

For more information on how to do this, see Adam's explanation.