End of a nightmare The end of Indonesian rule in East Timor was as traumatic as its beginning 24 years ago. Catherine Napier asks what lessons have been learnt.

Analysis: Long road to recovery

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Key figures

The role of Xanana Gusmao
Many East Timorese are hoping the charismatic rebel leader can make the transition from rebel fighter to leader of an independent East Timor.

• General Wiranto: Army leader under pressure
• Bishop Belo: Timor's spiritual leader
• Jose Ramos Horta: Timor's leader in exile
• The lost world of the Timor rebels: Jonathan Head

"Indonesia has proved it does not want to end the violence" - Xanana Gusmao
From the archive (1996): BBC News reports on the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Bishop Belo and Jose Ramos Horta

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The world intervenes

The military challenge
Defence Correspondent Mark Laity looks at the military risks facing the Australian-led intervention force and its prospects for success.

• Who makes up the Timor force?


• Text of the UN resolution on intervention
• Vietnam veteran leads Timor force
• Indonesia's military: Who's in control?
• East Timor's shadowy militias
• Aid agencies face major challenge

Correspondent Clive Myrie sees a Gurkha patrol respond to militia firing

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After the vote

Dili: Back to year zero
"As we left, driving past the evidence of this orgy of violence, the soldiers laughed and grinned" - Matt Frei reports from East Timor's capital.

• Eyewitness: The Timor militias in action
  
• Journalists tell of Timor terror
• Analysis: Jakarta's long-term concerns

Jonathan Head reports on being attacked
"The number of refugees is growing daily" - BBC's Matt Frei

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Polling day

Timor goes to the polls
After 300 years of Portuguese rule and nearly a quarter of a century under Indonesian military occupation, the East Timorese people braved threats of violence to vote on the territory's future: Simon Ingram reports.

• Timor chooses independence
• New dawn for Timor?
• Jonathan Head answers your questions

At first light, they were on their way to vote - BBC TV news
"The people have been waiting for deliverance" - BBC's Jonathan Head
Listen to the song "Hakotu Ba" (Please Decide) by East Timorese group Lahane - commissioned by the UN to persuade East Timorese to vote.

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Indonesia in transition

• Timor and the end of empire
• The fragile archipelago: Catherine Napier


• Power struggle in Jakarta
• Indonesia elections 99 (Special report)


• The trials of East Timor: Matt Frei
• Eyewitness: Remembering 1975

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Feedback

• Our correspondent Jonathan Head answers your questions (24 September)
• Your questions answered, by correspondent Jonathan Head (3 September)
• BBC News Online readers back intervention
• Your questions to Indonesia's presidential spokeswoman answered

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Other stories

• Mass grave unearthed in Timor
• Killings and rapes in Timor enclave
• Spiritual leader returns home
• Oil: Saviour of East Timor?
• Peacekeepers kill two militiamen
• In pictures: The bishop comes home
• Howard under fire over Timor
• The cost of rebuilding
• Asia's angst over Timor intervention
• Refugees return to shattered land
• Timor militias face atrocities probe
• Timor atrocities unearthed
• Howard addresses Australian nation
• Dili: a smouldering shadow
• From our correspondent: Australia's sense of guilt
• Eyewitness: Out of Timor - but still pursued
• Habibie statement: Full text
• Eyewitnesses speak of Timor devastation
• IMF suspends talks with Indonesia
• Eyewitness: Dili - a city on fire
• Portugal's obsession with Timor
• East Timor on the Web
• East Timor's future: Key quotes

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