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East Timor News Digest 27 - November 25-December 1, 2002
Antara - November 25, 2002
Atambua -- More and more East Timorese refugees in the camps in
Belu regency, East Nusa Tenggara, expressed their wish to return
to their homeland of East Timor especially now on the occasion of
Christmas and New Year.
Coordinator of Disaster and Refugee Afffairs for Belu regency Lt
Col Tjuk Agus Minahasa confirmed this new tendency of the East
Timorese refugees, in Atambua, Beli on Monday. He said that the
number of those taking part in the repatriation program and the
Christmas and New Year Rp 1.5 million bonus for each family, or
Rp 300,000 per person for families of less than five persons, has
reached 86 families comprising 315 people today (Nov 25).
Most of the refugees wishing to return to their homeland came
from the regencies of Bobonaro, Dili, Liquisa and Ermera, and
partly from Ailiu, Manufahi and Lospalos.
They have been staying at their refugee camps in Belu for more
than three years, with the biggest one in Atambua, capital of
Belu regency.
The Belu repatriation organizing committee has made available
more than Rp 75 million from November 4 to 25, including early
retirement funds and lump sums for former East Timorese civil
servants and police personnel, participants of the repatriation
scheme.
Thus, to facilitate the repatriation of thousands of refugees up
to December 31, 2002, at least Rp 300 million would be needed.
"I believe that the mass repatriation will take place starting
the second week of December 2002 close to Christmas and New Year,
during which people wish to get together with their families and
relatives to celebrate the festivities," he said.
Green Left Weekly - November 27, 2002
Ruth Ratcliffe, Darwin -- "I'm here because I don't like
injustice, and I don't like being ashamed of my country",
declared Jack, one of the 250 people who attended a public
meeting in support of the East Timorese asylum seekers on
November 17. The meeting was the biggest event ever organised by
the Refugee Action Network.
"The people we are rallying for here have contributed to the
community for more than a decade. It's not fair to send them
back. They are proud to be Australian and help to make Darwin a
better city", another participant told Green Left Weekly.
Domingos da Silva received a letter from the immigration
department stating that he, his wife and five children must leave
Australia within 28 days. Da Silva told the crowd that his family
wanted to remain in Australia. He said it was very hard for his
children to understand why the government was forcing them to
leave the only country they have ever known.
Joe Mulqueeny, a popular speaker at refugees' rights rallies,
told the meeting that the East Timorese had lived in Darwin
longer than he had: "Why doesn't Ruddock send me back to Ireland
-- or my beautiful wife back to Italy -- but most of all why
doesn't he go back to England -- the land of his forebears!"
Delia Lawrie, Labor MLA for Karama, pledged that the NT Labor
government would help fund the asylum seekers' legal aid and
"lobby at the highest levels to obtain permanent residency for
the East Timorese". Lawrie's pledges were greeted
enthusiastically by the crowd.
The final speaker was Jose Gusmao, who thanked the people of
Darwin for their support for the Timorese cause.
Timor Gap
'War on terrorism'
Human rights trials
News & issues
Religion/Catholic church
East Timor press reviews
West Timor/refugees
East Timorese refugees increasingly wishing to go home
Huge show of support for Timorese refugees
Pressure grows to allow East Timorese to stay
Green Left Weekly - November 27, 2002
Jon Land -- Pressure is mounting against the federal government's moves to deport 1600-1800 East Timorese asylum seekers, some of whom have been seeking refugee status for up to 10 years. At least 84 may be forced to leave by the end of December.
The claims for refugee status of many of the asylum seekers are in the final stages of appeal; a considerable number have received notification from the department of immigration stating that their claims have been rejected.
On November 19, the Senate passed a motion passed calling on the minister for immigration, Phillip Ruddock, to grant the East Timorese asylum seekers special visas on humanitarian grounds. The motion was supported by Labor, the Democrats and the Greens senators.
The motion noted that the processing of the Timorese asylum seekers' claims for refugee status had put on hold for many years and that the Australian government had deliberately delayed final determinations. The motion also recognised that many of the applicants are suffering the effects of trauma and torture. The Senate acknowledged that many of these people have lived in Australia for up to 10 years and have become part of the Australian community.
A report in the November 18 Sydney Morning Herald revealed that an internal Refugee Review Tribunal memo issued in 1995 had referred to a moratorium on the processing of refugee applications from East Timorese. This moratorium was in place until April.
The attempts by East Timorese in 1994 and 1995 to seek refugee status came in the midst of a concerted push by the then Labor federal government to forge closer military, diplomatic and business ties with the Suharto dictatorship. Acknowledging that the East Timorese had a right to refugee status would have jeopardised this process.
Speaking on the popular ABC radio program Australia Talks Back on November 20, Andrew McNaughton, convenor for the Australia East Timor Association (NSW) explained: "Almost certainly, from all of the evidence, [the asylum seekers] would have been found to have been refugees if their claims were processed in a timely manner in the mid- to late-1990s... But because they have been held in limbo for up to 10 years or even more ... now the government says, you're not a refugee anymore, so go back." "The bigger picture of the conditions in East Timor, of the relationship between Australia and East Timor and the fact that these people have put down roots and really weren't fairly dealt with in the first place supports a more sensible conclusion that they be allowed to stay", McNaughton said. Callers to the program unanimously supported the creation of a special humanitarian visa.
East Timorese political and community leaders have also called on Canberra to not deport the asylum seekers. In an interview on ABC radio's Asia Pacific program on November 18, East Timorese leader Jose Ramos Horta stated: "They have been in legal limbo for so many years in Australia ... Most of them will return to East Timor without money, because they were not able to work, and without qualifications because they were not given the opportunity to study or to be trained. So their contribution to East Timor will be very, very negligible ... They will be a burden to society here." Church groups, human rights and solidarity organisations have pledged to step up support for the asylum seekers. A sanctuary network established in the late-1990s may be reactivated if the government moves ahead with the deportations.
Action in Solidarity with Asia and the Pacific chairperson Max Lane, while supporting the call for special visas for the asylum seekers, believes that more should be done: "These asylum seekers, as were all the people of East Timor, are the victims of one of the most brutal wars and military occupations of the 20th century. It was backed by successive Australian governments. The least the federal government could do is to create a special visa category for all East Timorese, entitling them to full employment, study and welfare rights in Australia."
Sydney Morning Herald - November 25, 2002
Rules making it more difficult for people to gain permanent residence in Australia have been necessary to stop an increasing flow of people, by no means all of them genuine refugees, who have used people smugglers to enter Australia unlawfully. These rules have been seen, correctly, as necessary to maintain the integrity of Australia's immigration policies, including its refugee program.
There has been public disquiet, however, with the application of some of the new rules. Under Philip Ruddock, the Immigration Minister, this has often been seen as needlessly harsh. The miserable saga of the Woomera detention camp exemplifies the tension between the need for rules and the need for compassion, especially where the health and welfare of children is a concern. It is a black mark against Mr Ruddock and the Government that they seem unable to see that the perfect enforcement of rules is not always the highest objective of government.
One test of the rules has been the handling of the cases of several hundred East Timorese who fled to Australia during the period of increasingly brutal Indonesian rule and whom the Government now insists should return to their liberated homeland. The Government refuses to grant these people an amnesty.
Mr Ruddock says the delay in determining the applicants' cases was the result of their actions in seeking to win refugee status. "If you have migration rules that operate on that basis, every unlawful [immigrant] that comes to Australia would simply say: 'All I've got to do is outwit you and stay in the community long enough and eventually you'll say it's all too ... hard, I'm entitled to stay."
This is a familiar argument from Mr Ruddock. But it is surely undermined in the cases of East Timorese who had strong claims for refugee status but were never granted it. A former member of the Refugee Review Tribunal says that it was the Government, not the applicants, who from 1995 effectively strung out the process of determining applications for refugee status by East Timorese.
If so, it is hardly fair to insist, many years later, and especially when they have put down roots in Australia, that these people return to East Timor even though there is no longer any danger to them there.
A spokeswoman for Mr Ruddock says the reason claims for refugee status were not processed after 1995 was that East Timorese in Australia had been entitled to apply for Portuguese citizenship but had declined to do that. Yet the department's reasoning on the Portuguese nationality option for East Timorese was rejected by the Federal Court in three cases, in 1997, 1998 and 2000.
It is all very well for Mr Ruddock to insist on the strict application of the rules. But the rules have been applied harshly and -- in relation to at least some East Timorese refugees -- appear to have been subverted by officials dealing with the rules' application. The case, therefore, for tempering the rules with compassion is strong.
| Timor Gap |
Radio Australia November 27, 2002
[Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer has returned to East Timor for the first time since the signing of the Timor Sea Treaty in May. The visit highlights the importance of the so- called Greater Sunrise Field, a sticking point between the two countries that was the subject of today's negotiations with the East Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkitiri.]
Presenter/Interviewer: Quinton Temby, Dili
Speakers: Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer; East Timor's Prime Minister Mari Alkitiri Temby: Ever since the Timor Sea Treaty was signed on East Timor's first day of independence, the Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri has refused to accept the part of the treaty which gives Australia 80 per cent ownership of the multi-billion dollar Greater Sunrise gas field. Australia's response has been to insist that a separate Unitization Agreement which would allow the development of Greater Sunrise to go ahead under Australian terms, be signed prior to ratification of the treaty. This dispute has caused a deadlock in negotiations which Foreign Minister Alexander Downer must having been hoping to break today.
Downer: "We had a very useful mornings discussion with the Prime Minister and with other officials here in East Timor. We want to conclude all of the details of the negotiations we have with East Timor on the unitization of the Greater Sunrise resource before the end of the year consistent with a memorandum of understanding that the two prime ministers of Australia and East Timor signed on the 20th of May this year. We're not placing undue pressure on anybody, but we are taking the view that it's in East Timor's interests as well as of course Australia's interests to get all of the outstanding issues that we can resolve consistent with a Timor Sea treaty, we get those issues resolved as quickly as possible. And we have a memorandum of understanding already on concluding the unitization agreement by the 31st of December."
Temby: Prime Minister Alkatiri, however, seems to have hardened his position on Greater Sunrise. He wants to create a second Joint Petroleum Development Area or JPDA to govern the disputed field.
Alkatiri: "What I have been making clear that we will never accept a linkage between Timor Gap as a JPDA, Joint Petroleum Development Area and agreement on unitization. Because we already adopted our law and our claims are clear. What Australians think is under their jurisdiction, we claim as ours. That is why our overlapping claim has to be treated as a zone with overlappping claims. Zone out of JDPA. And that is why we think that we have to ratify the treaty, without linking the treaty itself with Sunrise."
Temby: So it's mainly an issue of who has what share of Great Sunrise?
Alkatiri: "Of course, of course. It is very important having two per cent of Greater Sunrise, or one hundred per cent of Greater sunrise."
Temby: You want one hundred per cent?
Alkatiri: "Our claim is one hundred per cent, yes."
Temby: While Australia has indicated that the treaty won't be ratified until next year at the earliest, and a hold up in the process would deprive East Timor of vital revenue, Prime Minister Alkatiri doesn't seem to be wavering. Instead he's begun looking in to petroleum exploration with oil companies from allied countries such as Angola.
Alkatiri: "With or without the ratification of Timor Sea Treaty we are going to begin the other activities on oil and gas, onshore and maybe around country, twelve miles around the country."
Australian Financial Review - November 26, 2002
Bruce Hextall -- The development of more than $10 billion of oil and gas projects in the Timor Sea moved a step closer yesterday as debate started in the East Timor Parliament to ratify the Timor Sea Treaty.
The treaty, which also needs to be ratified by Australia, sets out the guidelines for the development of vast oil and gas reserves with the joint petroleum development area lying between the two countries.
Ratification will allow the development of the $3.5 billion Bayu-Undan second-stage liquefied petroleum gas project within the development area.
A second agreement covering the unitisation of national ownership of the Greater Sunrise gas project is expected to follow ratification of the treaty, provided maritime boundaries can be agreed on.
Woodside Petroleum and its partners in the $6.5 billion plus Greater Sunrise project are pushing for an agreement to be reached by the end of the year.
A Woodside spokesman said yesterday the agreement would clarify ownership issues between Australia and East Timor as the project partners move to decide on the best development option.
"We certainly think clarification of the issue would be helpful to the investment community," he said, adding the best outcome would be for all issues relating sovereign ownership of the Timor Sea's oil and gas reserves to be settled at the same time. Only 20.1per cent of the Greater Sunrise project area is in the development area covered by Timor Sea Treaty.
The remainder lies in Australian waters but the governments of both countries hope to put in place a agreement to allow an equitable sharing in the project's benefits.
The push for the agreement comes as Woodside, its partners Shell and US-based ConocoPhillips and Osaka Gas are in the the final stages of reviewing developments options for the project.
Woodside and Shell had favoured a floating offshore facility to produce by LNG and liquefied petroleum gas while ConocoPhillips has advocated piping the gas to Darwin.
The Woodside spokesman said a joint-venture committee was studying a full review of the development options in the hope of reaching a decision early next month.
Australia's ratification will not be subject to parliamentary debate, instead being dependent on a recommendation by the Joint Standing Committee of Treaties which Prime Minister John Howard will take to the Governor-General Peter Hollingworth.
Both the Australian and the East Timor governments signed the treaty in Dili on May 20, covering the development area but ratification is needed by both countries to provide a legal framework for the sharing of revenue from oil and gas developments.
| 'War on terrorism' |
Melbourne Age - November 25, 2002
Jill Jolliffe, Dili -- East Timorese Police Commissioner Paulo Martins said yesterday authorities were worried about the security situation in Dili after a series of incidents in past weeks, including a bomb threat on Saturday targeting Americans.
"We don't have good control over our borders or over entry of arms, which may be coming in illegally," Mr Martins said.
On Saturday night the Esplanade Hotel received a bomb threat and was cleared by police, who, with an Australian Army bomb disposal expert, searched the popular beachfront venue before declaring the call a hoax.
A report from UN intelligence sources released by the ABC a fortnight ago alleged that Jemaah Islamiah operatives may be active in Dili, and said cafes, hotels and other meeting places of foreigners were potential targets. It named the ANZ Bank, which has been sandbagged and blockaded ever since.
Tension in the city has been heightened by attacks on East Timorese policemen -- signs of internal political strife -- plus Osama bin Laden's recently repeated threats against East Timor, which al Qaeda claims was divided from Islamic Indonesia by the actions of the UN and the Australian military force which led the UN peace keeping operation in 1999.
Mr Martins said some caches of weapons buried during the resistance struggle were unaccounted for.
| Government & politics |
Sydney Morning Herald - November 29, 2002
Jill Jolliffe, Dili -- President Xanana Gusmao has attacked East Timor's politicians, condemning the inefficiency and corruption of the Fretilin-dominated government and demanding that the Internal Affairs Minister, Rogerio Lobato, be sacked.
His comments, at a military parade to celebrate the 27th anniversary of East Timor's original and short-lived 1975 independence proclamation, came as the country goes through a period of instability.
Mr Gusmao said that although East Timor had won internationally recognised independence in May, "we are more dependent than ever, living from the power and skills of others".
"It is the sickness that affects many parties and newly independent countries -- of inefficiency, corruption and political instability, where those who govern live well, and the people live in poverty.
"If independence belongs to all of us, and not just Fretilin, I demand that the Government dismisses Minister of Internal Affairs Rogerio Lobato, for reasons of incompetence and neglect."
As President, Mr Gusmao has limited executive powers, although his moral authority is high, while government popularity appears low. He was elected in April with 78 per cent of the national vote.
The Fretilin government of the Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, was elected with a 57 per cent parliamentary majority in August last year.
Mr Lobato is responsible for police affairs, although the United Nations still maintains final control over police and defence forces. His critics say he is ambitious, and accuse him of provoking internal conflicts to enhance his power.
He has challenged police recruitment policies, saying former guerillas should be given priority, and is in conflict with the police commissioner, Paulo Martins. Mr Martins served with the Indonesian police force and is accused in some circles of being a collaborator, although his private support for the pro- independence resistance was well known. The dispute over police recruitment policies has led to resentment of the police by resistance veterans.
A spate of recent assaults on police culminated on Monday with a mob attack on Baucau police station. Police opened fire on the demonstrators, shooting Calisto Soares, 25, in the head. He died on Wednesday in the UN hospital in Dili.
Tensions over unemployment contributed to the conflict; about 6000 people had applied for the 100 police jobs earmarked for veterans as a concession to Mr Lobato. The resignation of Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo on Tuesday has also contributed to the air of instability.
A rival independence celebration was held yesterday by about 3000 demonstrators, including uniformed former guerillas who had travelled to Dili from the countryside to agitate for the Government's dismissal.
| Human rights trials |
Lusa - November 29, 2002
Berlin -- East Timor's foreign minister, Jose Ramos Horta, reacted angrily Friday to the latest round of acquittals by the Indonesian court trying human rights abuses committed in East Timor in 1999, describing one of them as "scandalous".
"It is scandalous and lends no credibility to the ad hoc court in Jakarta", Ramos Horta told Lusa in Berlin, referring to the acquittal of the former Indonesian military commander in Dili, Lieutenant-Colonel Endar Priyanto.
The officer was one of four Indonesian officials acquitted by Jakarta's human rights court earlier Friday.
Ramos Horta, who is on an official visit to Germany, also condemned the minimum 10 year sentence handed down by the court Wednesday to notorious militia boss Eurico Guterres. "It's very little. He deserved the maximum penalty [death] both under Timorese law and Indonesian law", Ramos Horta said.
Germany's cooperation and development minister, Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul, who signed a new aid accord with Ramos Horta, echoed his indignation, calling for an international court "to try and punish" Indonesian officers and officials responsible for crimes against humanity in East Timor.
South China Morning Post - November 29, 2002
The international community is the only hope East Timorese have of winning retribution for the crimes committed by Indonesia during its 24 years of occupation. Until this happens, justice will remain a mirage for the tens of thousands of people who lost relatives and property.
Indonesia was entrusted by the United Nations with bringing to trial those responsible for the violence that shattered East Timor as it pushed for independence three years ago. President Megawati Sukarnoputri promised justice and the arrest and trial of the alleged ring-leaders.
She has not kept her word. The real perpetrators -- those in the Indonesian government and army who directed militia leaders to kill civilians and destroy property -- have not even been questioned. They remain free while a few guilty, but less significant, criminals take the blame.
Militia leader Eurico Guterres was videotaped in April 1999 directing a pro-Jakarta mob to attack the home of independence leader Manuel Carrascalao in Dili. At least 12 people were killed and a dozen more were never found. The attack was one of many Guterres directed.
He was found guilty and sentenced on Wednesday to 10 years in jail. He claims he is innocent and has appealed against the sentence. A 10-year sentence for murder is light to say the least, let alone the fact a massacre was committed at Mr Carrascalao's home.
For East Timor's people, it is also a matter of their former occupier giving an assurance that it is willing to reconcile. As yet, Indonesia does not show that desire. The international community must apply diplomatic pressure to ensure that justice is done. If necessary, it must take control of the judicial process.
South China Morning Post - November 29, 2002
Marianne Kearney, Jakarta -- The 10-year jail term given to notorious militia leader Eurico Guterres for instigating attacks on pro-independence leaders during East Timor's bloody referendum in August 1999 is the toughest sentence yet to be handed out by Jakarta's human rights courts.
But Guterres, 28, is unlikely to see the inside of a prison. Judges ruled on Wednesday that Guterres would not be jailed while appealing over the verdict a process that could take years.
Guterres is not the first to have been found guilty and then told that if he prefers to sit out his appeal at home rather than in prison, he may.
This year, the parliamentary Speaker and Golkar party head, Akbar Tandjung, was found guilty of diverting 40 billion rupiah of state funds. He was also allowed to walk free pending his appeal.
Central bank governor Sjahril Sabirin held on to his job even after having been convicted of corruption in March. The Supreme Court later overturned the conviction.
Judicial rulings in which corruptors and killers are being sentenced but not jailed appear to be part of a growing trend.
"The rulings reflect the judges' special treatment towards these people," says Andi Asrun, of Judicial Watch, who says although the courts now appear to be getting tough on high-profile criminals, the judges still appear to be under either political or financial pressure to allow the defendants to avoid prison cells.
This year, when the attorney-general's office started re-opening corruption cases involving powerful figures such as Akbar, the moves were hailed as signs that President Megawati Sukarnoputri's government was keeping to earlier promises of stamping out corruption.
But now the judges appear to have come up with a typically Indonesian solution, where no one loses out.
Mr Asrun said this trend of convicting a defendant but not enforcing the sentence is a new one that has appeared only in the past 18 months. He said it appears to be the result of negotiations between judges and defendants who offered money in exchange for a non-enforced sentence, or between courts and the government.
The government can still claim it is cracking down on corruption, especially by charging high-profile offenders.
But lawyers agree that other factors, outside the evidence presented in court, are guiding the judges to make such rulings.
Lawyer Frans Winata said of Guterres: "This is a sensitive national issue, because as he has said, he [Guterres] is the victim of the military .... So perhaps the courts don't have the courage to enforce the sentence. Or perhaps the central courts are not quite sure if these people are guilty, so they don't want them to serve straight away," he said.
Mr Winata said if Guterres' appeal to either the High Court or the Supreme Court is successful, the human rights tribunal may be overturned. This also means courts may hand out convictions if under political pressure to charge more people for the East Timor atrocities, knowing that another court could overturn the initial ruling, he said.
Sydney Morning Herald - November 30, 2002
Hamish McDonald -- Reality seems to have dawned this week on Eurico Guterres, the long-haired young firebrand who led one of the most violent pro-Jakarta militia groups in the campaign to deter the people of East Timor from voting for independence just over three years ago.
On Wednesday, Guterres received a 10-year jail term from the Indonesian special tribunal hearing cases relating to the East Timor violence of 1999 -- joining Abilio Soares, who was governor of the then Indonesian province and earlier received a three-year sentence, as the only suspects to be convicted and punished by the court so far. Both are East Timorese who had thrown in their lot with the Indonesian cause.
Until now, all officials from Indonesia proper have been exonerated by the tribunal, despite overwhelming evidence that the militia violence was planned, supported and directed by Indonesian military and government figures all the way back to Jakarta. Those cleared include the former provincial police chief, Brigadier-General Timbul Silaen, as well as eight military personnel including the former district chief, Colonel Herman Sedyono, charged over the specific case of the Suai churchground massacre of September6, 1999.
Speaking after his sentencing, Guterres observed: "It is unfair that a civilian like me must serve 10 years in jail, but all the military and police officers were acquitted even though they were responsible for the violence."
Most analysts would think the sentence well deserved, as the rampages by the Aitarak (thorn) militia led by Guterres were among the most blatant atrocities of that period, especially the April 17, 1999 attack led by Guterres on refugees sheltering in the house of the independence leader Manuel Viegas Carrascalao, in which at least 12 people were killed.
But Guterres does have a point. Are the Jakarta trials now exposed as a hopeless sham, in which the East Timorese defendants are sacrificed to head off foreign pressure for an international war crimes tribunal, while the not-so-hidden Indonesian Army masterminds go scot free? To date this looks the case, with judgements on 12 of the 18 individuals to be tried in Jakarta's ad hoc tribunal over East Timor offences. The prosecutors made only half-hearted use of the raft of evidence compiled by Indonesia's own human rights commission and by United Nations investigators. Army brass and soldiers have turned up in court to intimidate judges.
The 10-year stretch given to Guterres may even be below the minimum (some reports say 11 years) for the charges of crimes against humanity brought against him, and he is yet to be actually sent to prison and will appeal.
The Australian Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, still expresses faith in the process. The Guterres sentence was welcome and appropriate, he said. "It shows that the ad hoc tribunal process in Indonesia is now starting to work and work well," Downer said, noting that appeals had been lodged against the earlier acquittals.
The court itself indicated it would come down against at least one senior military figure yet to be tried -- the former East Timor military commander Brigadier-General Tono Suratman -- over the Carrascalao house attack.
"Tono ignored a report from Manuel that his house would be attacked by pro-Jakarta militiamen. He did not take any action until the incident occurred," the presiding judge, Herman Heller Hutapea, said.
Yet this points, at its most severe, to a finding of neglect of duty. Tono Suratman is the second most senior figure in the Jakarta indictments, the highest being the then regional commander based in Bali, Major-General Adam Damiri, who is disclaiming all knowledge and responsibility.
Leaked intelligence intercepts and other evidence point to the chain of command reaching well up into the Jakarta leadership, with the hardline army general Feisal Tanjung, then co-ordinating security minister in president B.J. Habibie's government, emerging as the top figure.
Suratman and Adam Damiri, now rising stars at armed forces headquarters, are unlikely to blow the plot open. Nor is another key defendant, Colonel Yayat Sudrajat, who commanded the shadowy SGI or Tribuana task force of Army Special Forces (Kopassus) troops who covertly controlled the anti-independence militias like Aitarak.
For Eurico Guterres, a long run as favoured "jago" (fighting cock) among Indonesian loyalists in East Timor, which started when he was "turned" against pro-independence underground groups in 1988 by the notorious Kopassus commander and ex-president Soeharto son-in-law Prabowo Subianto, seems to be over. He has been shafted.
His Indonesian army masters never trusted him anyway. When the results of the UN-supervised ballot of August 30, 1999, were becoming clear, Australia's electronic spy agency, the Defence Signals Directorate, intercepted a telling conversation in which one of the Indonesian officers running the militias, Major- General Zacky Anwar Makarim, voiced fears Guterres would switch to the independence camp. "I'll take care of him if he goes over to the other side," General Anwar said.
[Hamish McDonald reported from East Timor in 1999, and helped compile a book about the Indonesian military's role in the violence, published as Masters of Terror by the Australian National University's Strategic & Defence Studies Centre this year.]
Tapol Press Release - November 28, 2002
The conviction yesterday of former East Timor militia leader Eurico Guterres for crimes against humanity and his sentence to ten years in prison has done nothing to dispel the widespread belief that Indonesia is not committed to providing meaningful justice for the victims of human rights atrocities in East Timor, says Tapol the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign.
The decision by Jakarta's ad hoc human rights court to impose a lengthy term of imprisonment on Guterres is welcome, but ten years is no more than the minimum sentence allowed by Indonesian law for such crimes. It is not expected that Guterres will serve his sentence until after he has appealed, which could take years. "The punishment does not reflect the magnitude of Guterres's appalling crimes," says Tapol.
Furthermore, the proceedings have crucially failed to present Guterres's crimes in the context of a widespread and systematic attack on the civilian population of East Timor masterminded and directed by the Indonesian military, TNI. Despite the availability of overwhelming evidence that the violence was orchestrated by the TNI, it has been the prosecution policy to portray the crimes falsely as part of a conflict between two violent East Timorese factions, which the Indonesian security forces failed to control.
Although further verdicts are expected soon in the ongoing trials of several Indonesian military officers, it is significant that so far the only two persons convicted by the Jakarta court are East Timorese civilians. No Indonesian has been convicted. Former East Timor Governor Abilio Soares was convicted of crimes against humanity in August and sentenced to three-years imprisonment. At the same time, six Indonesian army and police officers were acquitted.
Eurico Guterres was charged in relation to the attack on the home of independence leader Manuel Carrascalao in Dili on 17 April 1999 in which 12 East Timorese were brutally murdered. He was recorded on film inciting thousands of militiamen "to capture and kill if you need" independence supporters who had "betrayed intergration [with Indonesia]". He was not charged in relation to his alleged responsibility for other violent attacks which took place on the same day and on numerous other occasions.
Radio Australia - November 28, 2002
[In East Timor a tribunal has passed judgement on one of the most notorious militia leaders involved in the violence in the fledgling country three years ago. Eurico Guterres got a ten year jail sentence for crimes against humanity but all along the process has been widely condemned as flawed.]
Transcript:
Linda Mottram: Mr Downer has just returned from a visit to East Timor where, at the same time, a tribunal has passed judgement on one of the most notorious militia leaders involved in the violence in the fledgling country three years ago.
But critics are questioning whether its justice.
Eurico Guterres got a ten year jail sentence for crimes against humanity but all along the process has been widely condemned as flawed.
South-East Asia correspondent Peter Lloyd was at the Guterres hearing.
Peter Lloyd: The military fatigues were gone and so were the friends and supporters.
Eurico Guterres cut a lonely but defiant figure as he arrived to face his day of judgement, declaring he had no regrets.
"I am sure and believe that what I did in East Timor was to defend Indonesia", he told reporters.
When the Indonesians first carried out their investigation into the violence in East Timor they concluded that top military officers, including former armed forces chief General Wiranto, should stand trial.
Instead a Human Rights Tribunal was established and the six military officers who have faced it so far have all been acquitted. The only convictions have been of the East Timorese Provincial Governor at the time and now Eurico Guterres.
Sidney Jones is the Indonesia Director if the International Crisis Group.
Sidney Jones: There was nothing in the verdict that suggested that the militia led by Eurico Guterres was created, funded, equipped and so on by the Indonesian military. The whole State role in the violence in East Timor has dropped off the picture.
Peter Lloyd: It's long been argued that the Human Rights Tribunal was fatally flawed by its narrow focus, in the case of Eurico Guterres a conviction for not preventing his men carrying out one massacre among so many.
Sidney Jones: You weren't able to put together the full picture and paint the kind of Indonesian State involvement that would have been necessary to really prove a case of crimes against humanity.
So you focus on a specific attack on a specific house on a specific day and you're basically reverting to a completely ordinary crime, not something that gets at this really huge pattern of violence that took place.
Peter Lloyd: More senior military officer are due to face the tribunal but confidence in the outcome is low.
Sidney Jones believes Governments that once cared so much about justice in East Timor will be indifferent to the issue now that Indonesia's support for fighting terrorism is a higher priority.
Sidney Jones: My guess is that when news of this verdict reaches capitals across the world, including in Europe, Washington and a number of other places, there is effectively going to be a collective shrugging of the shoulders.
This is not an issue now. It is not a priority.
Peter Lloyd: For his part, Eurico Guterres will remain a free man while he appeals. He says he may even write a book.
In Jakarta this is Peter Lloyd for AM.
Jakarta Post - November 26, 2002
Moch. N. Kurniawan, Jakarta -- Former pro-Jakarta militia leader Eurico Guterres put his life on the line for Indonesian Military (TNI) officers accused of past atrocities in East Timor, saying the military had never ordered the establishment of, or helped paramilitary groups.
Eurico was testifying at the human rights tribunal in the trial against former East Timor military commander Brig. Gen. Noer Muis on Monday, where he asserted that there was no link between the military and paramilitary groups in connection with the referendum to decide on the separation of East Timor from Indonesia in August 1999.
The witness claimed that all militia groups, including Attarak which he chaired, were established of their own initiative to maintain the unity of Indonesia.
"We established pro-Indonesia groups, which I refuse to call militia, not upon the request of the military or police but because of our concern for national unity," he told the court.
"I'm ready to be punished if proven guilty." According to him, when Attarak militia group was founded in April 1999, it was under no obligation to report its activities to the military or the police.
Eurico, also a defendant in a related case, revealed that the militia did not obtain weapons from TNI. He said the weapons were seized from fleeing Portuguese soldiers and armed groups who resisted the arrival of Indonesian troops in East Timor in 1975.
Clashes between the pro-integration and pro-independence groups were rampant prior to and after the 1999 referendum, which resulted in independence for East Timor.
Over 1,000 people are believed to have been killed during the period, while 250,000 fled to East Nusa Tenggara.
Eurico lauded fellow defendant Noer Muis, whom he said had initiated and created a peace agreement between pro-Jakarta and pro-independence groups before the referendum took place. "But on the same day when we signed the agreement, my relative was reportedly killed. So it was unfortunate that the agreement didn't work," Eurico said.
He also said Noer Muis and his subordinates were not involved in clashes on September 5 and September 6, 1999 in the compound of Dili Bishop Carlos Belo that killed at least 13 people as well in the office of the Dili Diocese and in a fight in the compound of Ave Maria Church in Suai on September 6, 1999 which left some 26 people dead.
"Noer Muis tried his best to secure Dili," Eurico said. Eurico, however, failed to name persons responsible for the incidents.
Prosecutor Widodo Supriyadi, who demanded a 10-year prison sentence for Noer Muis, was disappointed with Eurico's testimony and said he would present another witness.
| News & issues |
Reuters - November 27, 2002
Jakarta -- The United Nations mission in East Timor said on Wednesday it had launched an investigation into the death of an East Timorese man hit by gunfire during a rally in front of a police station two days ago.
The victim, Calisto Belo Soares, was among a number of residents of East Timor's second largest city of Baucau who protested on Monday over police treatment of villagers who had blocked roads to collect tolls from passing vehicles.
The protest triggered a clash between the demonstrators and police and 30 Portuguese peacekeepers went to the help of local police controlling the crowd.
The UN mission said it would look into the reason why East Timor police fired a large number of warning rounds during the incident.
"[The investigation] is designed to be as thorough and transparent as possible. We will leave no stone unturned to get at the truth," said UN Police Commissioner Peter Miller.
East Timor became an independent country in May after the United Nations administered the tiny territory for almost three years in the wake of a 1999 vote for independence from Indonesia. Its police and military have been trained and supervised by the United Nations Mission of Support in East Timor.
International peacekeepers have been protecting East Timor since machete-wielding pro-Jakarta militia backed by elements in the Indonesian military laid waste to the area after the East Timorese voted overwhelmingly to split from Jakarta rule.
Lusa - November 25, 2002
Baucau -- A mob, including some former guerrilla fighters, ransacked police headquarters and damaged several vehicles in East Timor's second city, Baucau, Monday morning, before being routed by reinforced Timorese and UN police.
Unconfirmed reports said one person had been killed and several wounded in an exchange of gunfire. In Dili the government convened an urgent meeting. It dispatched a medical team and security reinforcements, including a 60-strong unit of Portuguese UN peacekeepers, to Baucau, 200 kms east of the capital.
It is the third time Portuguese peacekeeping troops have been called to assist in dealing with civil disturbances in Timor in the last two weeks, the chief-of-staff of the armed forces said in Lisbon.
Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, in comments to Lusa, said the Baucau attack and other recent incidents pitting mobs against police could "only be organized actions by a group or groups with some coordination". "I'm worried, but I continue to say that the situation can and will be controlled", Alkatiri added.
He acknowledged the unrest could be linked to recent comments by Interior Minister Rogerio Lobato. Lobato went public recently in support of new criteria for recruitment to the police force, saying priority should be given to former nationalist guerrillas, rather than to officers who gained experience under Indonesian occupation, a criteria which had been used in part by the transition UN administration.
By early afternoon, police in Baucau said order had been "largely restored". "There was significant material damage", one officer told Lusa. "Many vehicles and the [police headquarters] building were struck by the fury of the attackers", estimated to number between 200 and 300, some armed with guns, others with knives and machetes.
Sources said a number of former anti-Indonesian Falintil guerrillas had been spotted in the mob. Contacted by Lusa, Portuguese teacher Cristiana Casimiro said she and her 21 other Portuguese colleagues in Baucau were safe. Casimiro said police, expecting trouble, had warned them Sunday to remain at home. Shops and government offices closed when the rampage erupted during the morning.
Tensions had been high, observers said, since a policeman was wounded by a machete blow November 15 when police forcibly dismantled an improvised road toll barrier set up by an unidentified group near Baucau. On Sunday, the home of a suspected leader of that group was burned down in an apparent revenge attack.
| Religion/Catholic church |
Radio Australia - November 27, 2002
[East Timor's spiritual leader and joint nobel peace prize winner Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo has announced that he'll step down as the Bishop of Dili, due to ill health. The Vatican announced yesterday that the Pope had accepted Bishop Belo's resignation after 19 years in the job.]
Presenter/Interviewer: Peter Mares
Speakers: Carlos Belo, Bishop of Dili (archival recording); Abel Guterres, East Timor's Consul General designate to Australia; Geoff Robinson, UN political officer (archive recording)
Belo (archives): Naturally as a small people in these difficult times we need solidarity, of all peoples, of all nations, of the churches. And naturally from Australia particularly, because we are neighbours.
Mares: Bishop Carlos Belo, speaking on a visit to Australia in February 1999, shortly after the potential for East Timor to separate from Indonesia had been suddenly and unexpectedly opened up by Indonesia's interim President B.J. Habibie. Bishop Belo has always been committed to the principle of self-determination in East Timor and he was one of the few East Timorese willing and able to speak out against the abuses of the Indonesian military and the Suharto regime. Abel Gutteres, East Timor's Consul General Designate to Australia, says Bishop Belo shouldered a heavy burden during the decades of struggle for independence:
Gutteres: Because the church was the shelter and the place where people could get together and talk about things and which they could not do outside as such. And that was the leadership that he gave, in terms of helping them spiritually and physically institute a certain discipline within the people and so on. And his contribution has been incredible.
Mares: Does his resignation come as a surprise?
Gutteres: I think for most people, the general population, yes it would be a surprise, yes. But you know those people who are aware of his health, they probably think that he deserves a break.
Mares: In 1996 Bishop Belo's commitment to achieving a just outcome for the East Timorese people earned him the Nobel peace prize, which he shared with exiled East Timorese political leader Jose Ramos Horta. But, Bishop Belo was also a cautious leader. On that visit to Australia in February 1999 he warned against early independence for East Timor, and cautionied that a referendum on independence should wait while the process of reconcilation was pursued.
Belo (archives): We must prepare the people since we have two different opposite groups, those who like independence and those who like integration. I think that is necessary to give time and let the United Nations have talks and later we can organise it.
Mares: Within weeks of Suharto's downfall in May 1998, Bishop Belo launched a reconcilation dialogue in East Timor. Together with fellow Bishop Basillio Nascimento of Bacau, Carlos Belo sponsored reconcilation meetings at a seminary in Dare in the hills outside Dili. But, while pushing for reconcilation, Bishop Belo also warned that militia groups backed by the Indonesian military were threatening violence.
Belo (archives): I met the military commander in East Timor many times. He promised me that they will not give arms but I hear from the leaders themselves that really they military they provide arms.
Mares: During 1999, Bishop Belo appealed time and again for the militia to be disarmed -- but to no avail. And as violence engulfed East Timor in September of that year, pro-Indonesian militia groups even attacked the Bishop's own residence, where thousands of internally displaced people were sheltering.
Robinson (archives): At about midday today in Dili, a group of militia first of all surrounded the Bishop's residence, and then broke their way in, made their way into the compound where there were about one-or-two thousand IDPs. And then very shortly thereafter made their way into the house of the Bishop himself. Inside they were shooting their weapons into the ceilings and onto the floor, and at that time we managed to get through on the telephone to the Bishop who couldn't tell us much. He was in a desperate state, shouting, 'we're under attack!', 'we're under attack!'
Mares: Geoff Robinson, a political officer with the United Nations Mission in East Timor, speaking in September 1999. Last Sunday, at a mass on the waterfront grounds of his re-built residence Bishop Belo told worshippers that the long years of conflict have left him with high blood pressure and vulnerable to a stroke. And on Tuesday the Timor Post newspaper quoted him as saying he needs rest and medical treatment for one or two years. He is expected to travel to Portugal for medical attention, but promised that he would return: "I will not leave East Timor" he was quoted as saying "I will remain here together with you."
Bishop Belo is not without his critics and earlier this year generated controversy by calling for a Portuguese journalist to be kicked out of East Timor. The journalist had written an article that described Bishop Belo as more powerful that President Xanana Gusmao, and criticised his conservative attitude to animism, the traditional belief system that pre-dates Catholicism in East Timor. The Bishop's fiery response to the article, within a week of East Timor's independence celebrations, was widely criticised as a threat to the freedom of the press. For most East Timorese however Carlos Belo is a hero and a symbol of resistance to Indonesian oppression -- and he will be sorely missed as Bishop of Dili:
Guterres: Bishop Belo is unique in himself, his leadership, his role is unique and I don't think anybody will replace him for that. Even though we will probably have another Bishop, but of a different calibre, not the same as a Bishop Belo.
Sydney Morning Herald - November 28, 2002
Jill Jolliffe, Dili -- In Dili, widespread shock and disbelief met Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo's announcement of his resignation.
Bishop Belo, a Nobel peace laureate, said he was resigning because of "physical and psychological exhaustion, requiring a long period of rest". The Pope had accepted his resignation, he said.
Bishop Belo was earlier reported to be unhappy with Vatican plans to reorganise church structures in East Timor by creating a third diocese.
"We don't want him to go -- it was he who saved East Timor. If he leaves there will be many problems," said parishioner Sebastio Calado, adding that he would "like to know who's behind this".
It was typical of responses from those in the street, who suspect the resignation is politically motivated.
Among the most shocked were Bishop Belo's priests in the Dili diocese, who were not consulted. Most church sources refused to comment, staying silent until a speech on Sunday by the leader of the other East Timorese diocese, Bishop of Baucau, Dom Basilio do Nacimento.
Bishop Nacimento has taken over as Bishop of Dili, holding the two positions until a successor is nominated.
"I can't answer journalists' questions, because my own questions haven't been answered," said Father Alvero Monteiro, who accompanied Bishop Belo in the years when he confronted the Indonesian military over its human rights violations.
"We knew he was sick for a long time with high blood pressure, but we were only informed yesterday," he said.
Bishop Belo, 54, returned earlier this month from Europe, where he underwent medical treatment. He is now visiting his family in Baucau.
He was 37 when he was appointed Bishop of Dili to replace Dom Martinho Lopes da Costa. Bishop Belo took a similar stand in defence of Timorese rights, for which he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996, jointly with Jose Ramos Horta.
At the time of East Timor's independence vote in 1999, militia gangs attacked and burnt his residence where hundreds of refugees were sheltering. Shots were fired at him and he was bundled into a car by Indonesian officers and flown to Baucau.
The Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, said he regretted the Bishop's resignation. "We hope he can continue to contribute to the consolidation of peace and stability ... with his opinions and criticisms, because Timor continues to need him," he said.
He has not generally spoken out against the new Fretilin Government, but he has confronted it over specific issues.
Agence France Presse - November 27, 2002
East Timor's Nobel peace prize-winning Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo, a symbol of resistance during the years of Indonesian occupation, said he was resigning as bishop.
Bishop Belo said in a statement he has asked Pope John Paul II to accept his resignation after 19 years because of health reasons. A Vatican spokesman announced in Rome that the Pope has accepted the resignation.
Bishop Belo's communique, written in Portuguese, confirmed local press reports and comments by the bishop at a recent mass.
He is one of two bishops in the country which became independent last May after 31 months of UN stewardship, 24 years of brutal Indonesian occupation and four centuries of Portuguese colonial rule. Bishop Belo could not be reached to elaborate on his statement.
Yesterday's Timor Post newspaper, published before the resignation announcement, quoted him as saying he needs rest and medical treatment for one or two years.
Bishop Belo, stationed in Dili since 1983, received the Nobel peace prize in 1996 together with the current foreign minister Jose Ramos-Horta for their struggle for independence from Indonesian rule.
The bishop was one of the very few people within East Timor who risked speaking out against human rights abuses during Indonesia's occupation.
At a mass on the waterfront grounds of his residence last Sunday, Bishop Belo told worshippers that the long years of conflict have left him with high blood pressure and vulnerable to a stroke.
Bishop Belo's house, now rebuilt, was destroyed in September 1999 during the violence instigated by Indonesian security forces and their militia proxies in retaliation for East Timor's overwhelming vote for independence in a referendum that year. At least 1000 people died in violence before and after the vote.
Agio Pereira, chief of staff to President Xanana Gusmao, said Mr Gusmao had been told of the resignation. Mr Pereira said Mr Gusmao has "the greatest admiration" for Bishop Belo, a personal friend who "in the most tumultuous years played a vital role in the liberation of East Timor."
In the newspaper, Bishop Belo said he returned to Dili from Portugal earlier this month against the advice of officials in Rome and of his doctor, who asked him to rest and seek treatment first. "However, I came back because there was a lot of work that needed my attention," he said.
According to the article, he will return to Portugal and continue his treatment in March or April next year. "When I return I will continue to work with you in Timor Lorosae [East Timor]," he said, while clearly stating that he would no longer be bishop. "I will not leave East Timor. I will remain here together with you."
The Portuguese weekly Expresso, citing unnamed sources close to the bishop, said this month that Bishop Belo had disagreements with the Vatican over its plans to reorganise the Catholic church in the country.
Expresso said the Vatican intends to set up a third diocese in the tiny territory to complement the ones in Dili and Baucau but did not tell Bishop Belo of its plans.
| East Timor press reviews |
Dili - November 25, 2002
On Thursday, an Indonesian airplane of Merpati airlines was forced to return to Dili by the Timorese authorities soon after departing. The order was given after the authorities decided to detain a passenger. STL reported that the orders were initially requested as the plane was still in the tarmac but maibe 'it was misunderstood' or 'ignored' by the pilot of the flight. In related story, Timor Post reported that UN Police detained a Cameroon nationalist last Thursday at Dili airport for allegedly fabricating false money. The suspect was arrested while waiting to board a plane to Indonesia. According to the court, the suspect together with a Timorese, worked on the falsification of the money in the country. The suspects have been identified as belonging to a group codename 419, which has been working in conjunction with a Nigerian group. Another person from Cameroon was also detained on 18 November in relation to this matter. (TP 23/11)
Minister of Health, Dr. Rui Arazjo informed that three people have been diagnosed as HIV positive and three with Aids in Dili. One person passed away. Dr. Arazjo observed that the best way to prevent AIDS is to refrain from practice sex and married couples should avoid sexual relationship outside their marriage. (STL 23/11)
Last Friday various organizations including chief of village and sub-villages conducted a human rights and justice campaign in Ermera District with the aim of establishing a provedor office. (STL 23/11)
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Josi Ramos-Horta must provide facts based on his accusation about the local newspaper Suara Timor Lorosae, said General Prosecutor, Longuinhos Monteiro. Other individuals like the lecturer of Continental Universe (UNICON), Aderito Tilman, were of the same opinion as the General Prosecutor.
Monteiro said even the serious crimes unit up until now has no data regarding STL's being a militia media or sponsored by Kopassus and BAIAS (Indonesian Intelligence group). (STL 23/11)
Three Timorese employee working for the administrative office of Timor Sea have been suspended of their duties, accused of violating internal regulations of privacy and confidentiality. Antonio Sousa, Orlando Xavier and Vicente Lacerda were suspended on 14 November from their duties in the 'Timor Gap Conjunction Authority' for an indefinite period when they complained to a senior staff about low wages, comparing to other Australian workers with lesser experiences. The three retrieved a list of salaries of all workers from a computer. (STL 23/11)
The long dry season is not only affecting Covalima District but also other districts like Bobonaro. STL reported that residents of that area had ploughed their lands back in August awaiting the October rain for cultivation. Now they do not have food contrary to the refugees who have just returned from West Timor, who bring sacks of corn with them. (STL 23/11)
Residents of Lospalos have been facing problems with the long dry season. The most affected are those people from the sub-villages, who have already claimed food shortages. Lautim District Administrator, Olavio da Costa has sent a team to do a survey on five sub-districts regarding this matter, which will be forwarded to Minister of Internal Administration. (STL 25/11)
Timor-Leste Police together with UN Police will maintain patrolling the areas of Wailili, where the incident took place last week. Police Commissioner Paulo Martins told Timor Post he sent a team of the Rapid Response Unit to the area to work together with the rest of the police. Martins said, this type of incident occurs [blocked roads and robbed vehicles] constantly in Gariway. (TP 23/11)
District judges have stated that they are willing to carry on their duties despite being accused of lacking experiences. The public defender and lawmaker from this institute said this is the best way to contribute for this country contrary to comments made by the government official that Timorese judges now lack experience. (STL 25/11)
37 international doctors have arrived in Timor-Leste to provide assistance to the local doctors. The doctors have been divided in two groups. The first one is composed of 15 specialists and the second by 22 general practitioners. (STL25/11)
Dili hospital has not received oxygen supply for the last 2 weeks because the health department has not paid its bills. Doctors have refused to perform any surgery operations for not having oxygen available, said Julio Soares, Dili Hospital Coordinator.(STL 25/11)
President of Social Democratic Party, Mario Carrascalco stated that anyone making any accusations without proof should be taken to court to provide evidence. Carrascalco said those who accused has to the right to appear in a court because otherwise they can use their position privileges to accuse and speak the way they want to [referring to Ramos-Horta's accusations about STL]. " For example, If I was from STL I would take the matter to the court. If no concrete evidence is provided I would ask for compensation to further better the newspaper. If proof correct than the newspapers should be punish for cooperating with other country which ours constitution does not allow,' said Mario Carrascalco. (STL 25/11)
Member of Parliament, Manuel Tilman (KOTA) said the government must ratify the funds allocated to the country by various nations. "I support the idea that funds donated to Timor-Leste by many countries should be used to the development of schools and health which are very important. The new country needs smart and healthy people to carry it forward," said Tilman. (STL 25/11)
November 26, 2002
Suara Timor Lorosae reported that Baucau District Police station was turned upside down by a mob of 100 youths from various youth organizations in Baucau. They were demanding the release of a colleague detained by police for attacking a police officer on Friday 15/11. At around 9.45am, the mob started walking towards the police station, obviously emotional, cursing police and beginning to throw stones. Military advisor L-7 was in a meeting with police in the station. He came out and calmed the mob down. However, moments later a group of youths came from the east and joined the mob and the attack began again, resulting in damage to the station and police vehicles. Police fired warning shots into the air, which only provoked the mob. At approximately 11am Task Force troops arrived firing more shots and the crowd dispersed. Before this at 8.45am, two police vehicles were stoned by a mob. As a result of the disturbance, roads were closed in the city of Baucau. One person was reportedly wounded by gunfire and is now in Baucau hospital, added the newspaper. STL also reported Lieutenant Colonel Falur as saying there are no longer any actual violence in Baucau. He said problems caused by clash with police and people from Kailara, Gariuai last week over illegal roadblocks and extortion of money, as well as the recruitment of ex-clandestine and veterans into the TL police force. He acknowledged issue of possible violence on 28 November, but said that it was made an issue by certain parties to scare people. Timor Post reported that 300 people were involved in the attack of Baucau police station and one of the wounded was a female officer. TP reported on a press conference held by Commissioner Martins who said the incident emerged due unhappiness with the recruitment process among those wishing to join the force. Martins informed that the protesters carried AR15 guns and machetes. He added the situation is now under control with the support of PKF stationed in that district. (STL, TP 26/11)
The incident in Baucau demonstrated that the Timorese Government has an increasing difficulty to impose the authority of the State, stated RTP International, the state-owned Portuguese television station. The Portuguese news agency, Lusa heard Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri about the incidents. "The incidents were organized, but authorities will control this situation. I cannot say clearly who is behind all this but I see that systematic actions are taking place, always in the same sense, and in a uniform way. These actions are organized by a group or by several groups, which act in a coordinated way" he said. In Brussels, where is attending a joint EU-ACP meeting, Francisco Guterres, Speaker of the Parliament said: "This kind of event will tend to disappear as the National situation become more stable. They should not be given too much importance."
Timor-Leste's mission at the UN New York last Saturday received aid in the form of 2 computers, a photocopy machine and a fax machine from the Indonesian mission at the UN. According to Jose Luis Guterres, TL's Ambassador to the UN, it was a sign of brotherhood from the Indonesian government to help rebuild a good relationship. (STL 26/11)
To overcome the problem of food shortages PM Alkatiri yesterday (25/11) asked four departments to assist with food to the districts of Covalima, Lautim and Baucau. The department Agriculture, Internal Administration, Solidarity and General Works will provide food. (STL 26/11)
In an interview with STL on Monday, MP Leandro Isaac said he is perfectly safe in midst of rumours that there have been threats to his safety, that he was going to be arrested, or abducted. (STL 26/11)
PM Alkatiri submitted a draft agreement on administration of management of Timor Gap oil to National Parliament. Opposition, in particular UDT, Kota, PD, PSD, PNT and PST criticized the document as not having a strong legal basis, in particular in relation to international sea boundaries, including concerns regarding Australia's withdrawal from the International Court. MP Eusebio Guterres also questioned the diversion of the pipeline to Darwin, not to Timor-Leste and the effect this would have on the economy, saying that the government was more concerned with foreign exchange coming in through taxes, rather than developing an oil industry. He recommended adding articles on the use of Timorese labour and on the split on profits between Australia and ET. (TP 26/11)
Antonio Aitan Matak, General coordinator CPD RDTL said that at least 400 vehicles were being mobilised to bring people to Dili from all 13 districts to assist the celebration of Independence Day on 28 November. At least 400 people had been involved in the preparatory meeting and they were to return to their districts to mobilize others to attend a flag-raising ceremony in Democracy Field. (TP 26/11)
In the clash between two martial arts groups last Sunday in Raikotu-Comoro left a member of each groups wounded. (TP 24/11)
November 27, 2002
Interviewed by Timor Post, FDTL Colonel Lere Anan said that his forces do not have the competence to intervene in incidents like the Baucau. He said the responsibilities falls solely under police. He added that it's sad to see "the bad legacy" left by the Indonesian occupation in Timor-Leste is re-surfacing. (TP 27/11)
Timor Lorosae on Wednesday reported TLPS Superintendent Martins guaranteed security for groups celebrating 28 November at the Dili Democracy Field. Some groups have requested permission to celebrate and also have asked police to provide security. In relation to the issue of massive demonstrations, the superintendent has not received any notification of such. Truckloads of people have poured into Dili, escorted by police said STL. Regardless of the outcome, police will continue to guarantee safety, however if a large group of people wish to congregate, in accordance with the law they must provide notification so that police can provide security. Police have only received notification from a group wishing to celebrate 28 November, however there is more than one group who want to conduct commemorations tomorrow added the newspaper (STL 27/11)
Aniceto Neves, the Head of Human Rights Association told STL that violence is occurring in the country because the population has not been informed about the government policies. People are getting unclear information. The government must sit with people discuss government decision, he told STL (STL 27/11)
Bishop Ximenes Belo resigned from the position of Administrator in Dili Diocese due to health reasons, reported the media. According to the Bishop, his resignation is due to health concerns, which have been preventing him from fully perform his duties. On Tuesday, Bishop Belo issued the following communiqui: For reasons of ill health, I wrote a letter to the Holy Father tendering my resignation as Apostolic Administrator of the Dili Diocese. As I have been suffering from exhaustion, physical and psychological tiredness, I am in need of a long period of rest with a view to a total recovery of my health.
The Holy Father has accepted my resignation as Apostolic Administrator of the Dili Diocese. My letter was written in accordance with canon 401, par. 2, of the Canonic Law Code, which reads:
"It is impressed upon any diocesan bishop who, on the grounds of precarious health, is less than able to perform his duties, that he should tender his resignation".
I would like to take this opportunity to deeply thank His Holiness for the trust put in me during the 19 years I have been the head of the Dili Diocese. I thank the Clergy, the Faithful and the Lay People for their collaboration and generosity along these nearly twenty years of service to the Church in Timor- Leste.
I pray for you all and dedicate my suffering and illness for the development of the Dili Diocese.
Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, in comments to LUSA, expressed his regrets for Bishop Belo's resignation and said the people and government of East Timor would continue to count on Belo's counsel. Bishop Ximenes Belo has had a positive role in this country and we hope that, even outside the Dili diocese, he will continue to contribute to the consolidation of peace and stability with his opinions and criticism because we think Timor continues to need him", Alkatiri said.
Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta, who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize with Belo, said the bishop's resignation came as a "surprise", despite recent rumors to the effect. "His resignation takes us by surprise and saddens us", Ramos Horta said, describing Belo as one who had "personified" East Timor's struggle for freedom along with President Xanana Gusmco. Belo, he added, left a "strong Catholic Church" and a "solid legacy", permitting a "normal" ecclesiastical transition.
A church source told LUSA that Belo departed Tuesday on a visit to the eastern city of Baucau, wracked in recent days by mob violence, and would only return to Dili on Thursday.
PM Mari Alkatiri stated that one clause that supports the Timor Gap treaty is Section III of the constitution and subsection A that determines the Joint Petroleum Development Area. Clause IV states that ET has the rights to 90 % of oil proceeds from aforementioned area. PM also states that the aforementioned 90 % of the oil and gas is covered under that region. PM states that the legal basis for negotiating the Timor Gap issue is the region that is directly related to the Timor Sea agreement, which is located between the boundaries, reported STL. (STL 27/11)
In an interview with Timor Post, CPD-RSTL coordinator, Antonio Aitan Matak said his group rejects federation because the independence of Timor-Leste is like a federation. Antonio Aitan Matak said CPR-RDTL has not accepted the current government because it is an associated one. (TP 27/11)
Yayasan HAK changes Name The local human rights and justice NGO, Yayasan Hak changed its name last Friday to Human Rights and Justice Association. (STL/P2)
The majority Members of Parliament voted against the proposal of Rui Pereira dos Santos as the Head of Timor-Leste magistrate reported STL. The proposal put forward by KOTA, the PSD and PD were voted against by 40, 20 in favor and 5 abstain. Fretilin will present next candidate name. (STL 27/11)
November 28, 2002
Timorese President Xanana Gusmco request the resignation of Minister of Internal Affairs, Rogerio Lobato on Wednesday, accusing him of "incompetence" and "negligence". "If independence is only Fretilin's I don't have anything to comment. If independence is to all of us, all Timorese, I would like to take this opportunity to ask the government the resignation of the Internal Administration Minister, Mr. Rogerio Lobato, for incompetence and negligence". Xanana Gusmco was speaking in front of the government building in Dili at the start of the official commemorations of 27 years of the unilateral independence proclamation of Timor-Leste by Fretilin. In a live interview with Radio Timor Leste (RTL) Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri said, " the minister is not present in the country. He called me yesterday to inform that he comes back next week. He is currently seeking medical assistance due his illness but I will inform him when he arrives but I think he will know before hand." The Prime Minister added: "This is the government problem and I don't see any changes in the government." Alkatiri stressed that latest incidents in the country cannot be blamed only on one person because they show problems accumulated during the past 24 years with the armed forces or the clandestine movements. "It is the police duties to maintain security and not FDTL. Police have the right to defend themselves, but it does not mean the use of excessive means. Measurement must be taken. The government will find out the reasons behind this entire problem. Whether it is a political or economic the government will have to address it", he said in the interview. (Lusa, RTL)
Indonesia's human rights court found a former East Timor militia leader guilty of crimes against humanity on Wednesday and sentenced him to 10 years in jail. But former militia chief Eurico Guterres, speaking to reporters after he was found guilty of gross rights violations and crimes against humanity during East Timor's 1999 independence vote, said he did not accept the decision. In declarations to the Portuguese news agency, Lusa, about the court decision Manuel Carrascalco, the Timorese leader stressed "totally discontent " with the sentence, affirming that the former militia leader of Aitarak "should be hanged or executed". " I strongly lament that a criminal like these has not been executed or hanged. At least killed. They killed innocents who have not done anything wrong" he said. " Those misfortunes like my 16-year-old son and other 17 refugees that have not done anything wrong to anyone. He cannot be pardoned. He should be hanged or executed". (Reuters, Lusa)
According to a statement issued by Portuguese Council of Ministers, cited by Lusa, Portugal and Timor-Leste will establish a defense bilateral commission on military cooperation . The agreement signed last May must be ratified by the Assembly and includes training and expert advisory with the aim of "strengthening the military cooperation by the two states and friendship ties between the two people". (Lusa)
UNMISET announced Wednesday that it has launched a formal investigation into the death earlier today of a 27-year-old Baucau resident, Calisto Belo Soares, who was critically injured by gunfire on Monday during a violent demonstration outside the headquarters of the Timor-Leste Police Service in Baucau, Timor- Leste's second largest town. During the confrontation outside the police station, demonstrators attempted to storm the station and several police vehicles were badly damaged. A large number of warning shots were fired by national police. At least one firearm was also reportedly carried by demonstrators. The demonstration was called to protest the police response to an incident a few days earlier to a roadblock erected by villagers to collect an unofficial toll from passing vehicles. Police and villagers clashed, a policeman was seriously injured and his attacker also injured. The Monday morning violence was brought under control within hours and Baucau township has been calm since then. A PKF Platoon of some 30 Portuguese troops was dispatched from Dili to Baucau on Monday to support the approximately 100 TLPS officers and 56 UN POL officers in the area. Today, a successful reconciliation meeting was held in Baucau between the community and the police with church and UNMISET Human Rights Unit representatives in attendance.The UNMISET investigation is looking into the causes of the violence and also the reasons an exceptionally large number of warning rounds appear to have been fired by the Timor-Leste Police Service. The investigation is being conducted by the United Nations Police (UNPOL) through its National Investigation Unit with the participation of UNMISET's Human Rights Unit. Representatives of the Timor-Leste Police Service will also be participating. In speaking about the UNMISET investigation, UNPOL Police Commissioner Peter Miller said today, "It is designed to be as thorough and transparent as possible. We will leave no stone unturned to get at the truth." The Commissioner encouraged all witnesses to the violence in Baucau to come forward and share as much information as possible. He said this was vital in order to establish the circumstances leading to Mr. Soares's tragic death. Another investigation of the Baucau incident has been launched by Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri and includes Timor-Leste Public Administration officials and an UNPOL representative. Regarding the death of Calisto Soares: the Deputy Special Representative of the Secretary- General (DSRSG) Sukehiro Hasegawa visited his family at the UN hospital today shortly after the young man died and offered his condolences.
The Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) Kamalesh Sharma today praised Catholic Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo for his years of courage and commitment to the cause of human rights, and for his inspirational guidance to the people of Timor-Leste. Bishop Belo, who shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize with Jose Ramos-Horta, officially announced on 26 November that he was resigning his post of Apostolic Administrator of Dili, attributing his decision to health. Mr. Sharma said, "I am concerned to learn about Bishop Belo's health condition," and he wished the Bishop an early recovery. He also said that he hoped to meet with the Bishop later this week following Mr. Sharma's return from an official visit to Australia.
November 29, 2002
As head of the government I will see who has and has not the capacity to be ministers. I will be the one to dismiss those incapable of doing their duties. It doesn't have to come from the President's speech", with this statement Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri commented President Gusmco's demand for the dismissal of the Minister of Internal Administration, Rogirio Lobato. Alkatiri added: "I don't bring internal government problems to the public. As the head I know the departments that are operating". According to the Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmco's critical speech during the celebrations of November 28 was "positive"to strengthen his government to perform better. He said the Xanana Gusmao's request to dismiss MIA, Rogirio Lobato shows that the President is willing to change the government for the best of the country. The Minister told the media that Gusmco's speech was not an attack to the government but a warning for the government to create good governance against corruption and to better serve the needs of the people. "I want a government against corruption and a government to serve the people and the nation: because I myself will give an example for everybody to follow", said Prime Minister Alkatiri.
Referring to the incidents in Baucau Alkatiri said "the government is considering two options to resolve the problem: development of the economy in the long term or the use of force for the short term."The Minister added: "We are avoiding using force because during 24 years Indonesia military used force and this is the result". The Minister said it is more important to inform the people about what the government has achieved, reported STL.
Timor Post reported CPD-RDTL coordinator, Antonio Aitahan Matak as saying that his group will only sit with the government to commemorate the 28 November, when the country's sovereignty is totally handed to the Timorese people by the UN. He added there must be reforms within the government cabinet and in the parliament in order to overcome the problems currently faced by the nation. Speaking to Timor Post on Wednesday, Falintil-FDTL Chief of Staff, Colonel Lere Anan said that the 28 of November 1985 "was the most important date for the armed forces because the first communication to the international community was done through Agio Pereira. He said 28 November is not Fretilin's day alone. The armed forces and the people have been commemorating this date, therefore we must respect it, said Lere Anan.
MP Francisco Xavier do Amaral said the text of Timor-Leste independence proclamation was written by Fretilin's leader in 1975 in one day. He said the text was written in a rush because the Indonesia military was preparing to launch the invasion.
Timorese Justice Minister, Ana Pessoa considered the dismissal of Minister of Internal Administration, Rogirio Lobato's as "surprise". "I did not expect the request was going to take place, especially when we are not aware of what is happening", said Pessoa commenting the President's speech on Thursday. These comments caused some ill feeling among the Timorese executive, with members of the government admitting that they did not expect Xanana Gusmco's intervention 'this way", reported Lusa. Xanana Gusmco's comment on the recent incidents in Timor-Leste was launched with a "political bomb"when he requests the government to dismiss the Minister of Internal Administration. The attack in Baucau has confirmed in a more direct way, that the credibility of Timor-Leste is "low"and the situation "requires urgent measures,"said a senior staff of the Timorese security to Lusa. The same source added, "the police do not have the legitimate, it's being discredited, it seems not to have the support of the government and has to struggle against antagonism of the population sectors". And added "we are fighting facing a very serious situation where the police officers see themselves weaken among the people". (STL, TP, Lusa 29/11)
STL reported on Friday that Members of Parliament have recently expressed their concern about the situation in the country. They also questioned why the modus operandi of the clashes between youths and police in Liquica, Baucau and Same were the same. All incidents began with an exchange of insults, revolving around dissatisfaction with the recruitment process for the police force, and then escalated into physical confrontation. However, many other issues that have not been resolved by the government were also involved, including government administration. Rui Menezes (PD) said that the government should re-evaluate its policy in relation to the recruitment process. Leandro Izaac and Maria Paixao also expressed the same sentiments said the newspaper.(STL 29/11)
MP Eusebio Guterres, MP, said that PM Mari Alkatiri's statement that due to inadequate security in East Timor the Timor Gap pipeline could not be connected to East Timor was most regrettable reported STL on Friday. "The Prime Minister must guarantee that the country is stable. If the head of the government says that the country is not stable, then investors will not be able to come to East Timor,"said the MP, according to the newspaper. (STL 29/11)
RDTL State Secretary for Mining and Minerals, Egidio de Jesus said that the three East Timorese working in the Timor Gap will not be dismissed, but only "suspended to prevent unforeseen events", reported STL on Friday. Although information had been received that these three workers had violated rules while working on the rig, they were not to be fired but given the opportunity to read and understand the rules and regulations governing their job. (STL 29/11)
Egidio de Jesus, Secretary of State for Mining, Oil and Gas, guaranteed on Thursday that on 21 December electricity in the capital will return to normal (STL 29/11)
'Saka Team' members accused of extortion and robbery in Bobonaro and Suai Districts in 2001-2002 began on Wednesday 27/11 at the Dili District Court. (STL 29/11)
Post on Friday reported that it is going to be difficulty replace a Bishop like Dom Carlos Ximenes Belo and the news of the resignation has created sadness among the people. Members of parliament were also sad with the bishop resignation due to ill health, said Suara Timor Lorosae on its Friday edition (TP, STL)