Timor Gap

First lady pleads for East Timor

Australian Associated Press - April 30, 2005

Women and children in East Timor will continue to suffer in poverty unless the nation is able to determine its own wealth, East Timor's first lady Australian-born Kirsty Sword Gusmao said.

Ms Sword Gusmao, who spoke at a women's conference in Melbourne, said the people who had fought so bravely for Women and children in East Timor will continue to suffer in poverty unless the nation is able to determine its own wealth, East Timor's first lady Australian-born Kirsty Sword Gusmao said.

Ms Sword Gusmao, who spoke at a women's conference in Melbourne, said the people who had fought so bravely for independence should not be made to beg for financial autonomy.

"East Timor should not be forced into the position of beggar," she said. "It's not befitting of a country and a nation of people who fought so bravely. "I think it's really important for the country as a whole to have that sense of dignity that as a sovereign nation we're able to stand on our own two feet, at least in the long term."

Her emotional plea for a better deal for the impoverished new nation followed the announcement by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on Friday, that East Timor and Australia had struck a deal over maritime boundaries and oil and gas revenues from the Timor Sea.

Under the agreement, debate over boundaries will be put aside and East Timor will receive up to $A5 billion on top of the 90 per cent share of revenue it currently receives from the joint development area in the Timor Sea.

Ms Sword Gusmao, the wife of President Xanana Gusmao, declined to comment directly on the deal but said there must come a time when East Timor was self-determining.

She said she saw first-hand the poverty of the East Timorese people who suffer among the worst infant mortality rates and whose budget is almost exclusively funded by foreign aid.

She told the Melbourne crowd at Loreto Mandeville Hall about women who earn just $1.50 a day for sewing.

Her charity, the Alola Foundation, was established in 2001 to fight violence against women in East Timor and now works to help women through economic empowerment and education.

"I see, on a daily basis, the need that exists and as a public figure I am confronted with the challenge of trying to respond to those things," she told AAP.

"I am also frustrated because the government doesn't have the basis for meeting those needs in its own right. It is extremely dependent on external aid.

The Timor Sea Justice Campaign has welcomed this week's deal but claimed it did not reflect East Timor's full legal entitlement.

"The deal ignores the establishment of permanent maritime boundaries, that if established... would deliver most, if not all, of the Greater Sunrise field worth an estimated $50 billion in government royalties to East Timor," group spokesman Tom Clarke said.

Timor Sea boundary talks hang in balance

Australian Associated Press - April 28, 2005

Australia and East Timor appear to remain at loggerheads over multi-billion dollar oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea, with no resolution announced at the end of three days of talks.

But Foreign Minister Alexander Downer maintained Australia was not ripping off East Timor over the joint oil treaty and said the federal government wanted to help its tiny neighbour.

"We don't want to keep East Timor poor," he told the Seven Network. "People who claim that about Australia or anyone in Australia are just making rhetoric. Of course we don't.

"But we do have to have some commonsense and legally sustainable boundary with East Timor, which isn't going to unravel our other maritime boundaries.

"I think they understand that and I think we are having a good level of negotiation. Australia's interest isn't to rip off East Timor."

Australia's chief negotiator Doug Chester in Dili was unavailable for comment and a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) spokesman said an announcement on any resolution would probably not be made until tomorrow.

The talks, drawn out over the past year, have stalled repeatedly over the disputed maritime boundary between Australia and East Timor. Australia has been accused of playing hardball over the resources - worth an estimated $41 billion.

Canberra wants the boundary set back closer to East Timor and is seeking most of the royalties from the Greater Sunrise gas field, worth about $9 billion.

It is also asking East Timor to hold off on its permanent boundary claims in return for a guarantee of 90 per cent of revenues from the Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA), worth more than $10 billion.

Meanwhile, East Timor advocates said Australian commercial television networks had refused to screen ads lambasting the federal government over the oil and gas negotiations.

The ads, bankrolled by Melbourne businessman Ian Melrose, depict World War II diggers verbally attacking Prime Minister John Howard over the talks with East Timor.

Mr Melrose funded the screening of the advertisements to coincide with this week's meetings. Two of the five ads have already run on national television across the networks. A third is due to be released today.

But the Timor Sea Justice Campaign (TSJC) said the final two ads were refused approval by the Commercials Advice Division (CAD) of Free TV Australia, which represents all of Australia's commercial free-to-air television licensees.

In the ad, Marvin 'Doc' Wheetly, a WWII veteran who served in the 2/2 Independent Company, says he owes his life to the East Timorese people. "John Howard, you are making me ashamed," he says.

The TSJC is calling for a permanent boundary at the midway point between the two countries. "Obviously, the Australian government isn't keen for these messages to become public," TSJC spokesman Tom Clarke said. "We definitely stand by the ads. We don't think they're defamatory."

Timor Sea ads 'won't go to air'

Australian Associated Press - April 28, 2005

The commercial television networks have refused to screen advertisements lambasting the federal government over Timor Sea oil and gas negotiations, East Timor advocates said today.

The ads, bankrolled by Melbourne businessman Ian Melrose, depict World War II diggers verbally attacking Prime Minister John Howard over the talks with Australia's tiny northern neighbour.

Negotiations, drawn out over the past year, have stalled repeatedly over a disputed maritime boundary.

Australia has been accused of playing hardball over the resources - worth an estimated $41 billion.

Canberra wants the boundary set back closer to East Timor and is seeking most of the royalties from the Greater Sunrise gas field, worth about $9 billion.

Deal near on Timor Gap oil revenues

Sydney Morning Herald - April 27, 2005

Tom Allard -- Australia and East Timor are close to a historic agreement on sharing the revenue from the lucrative gas and oil fields in the Timor Gap after a multibillion-dollar offer by Australia to help develop the fledgling nation.

The upbeat assessment, from a senior Australian Government official, comes as the two nations prepare to resume talks tomorrow in Dili to resolve the long-running and often acrimonious dispute over the estimated $40 billion of royalties from the oil and gas reserves in the stretch of ocean between the two nations.

Advocates for East Timor say the nation is being denied $1 million a day in revenues from the disputed fields.

In what could be a deal-clinching offer, Australia has signalled its willingness to pour billions of dollars into East Timor, in part to develop a petroleum industry for the country.

Australia would put aside discussions over the disputed sea boundary for about 50 years, instead of the 99-year moratorium originally envisaged.

In exchange, East Timor would ratify the stalled Greater Sunrise oil-and-gas project, led by Australia's Woodside, and drop its bid for the project's multibillion-dollar processing plant to be built on its soil.

The late bid for the plant, which derailed talks in October, reflected East Timor's realisation that its economic future would be more secure with jobs and industry development flowing from the Greater Sunrise project, rather than just royalties.

"We were a millimetre away from a deal," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "Now we are close to a deal again but, in the end, it depends on what attitude East Timor brings to the table."

Although Australia will not accede to East Timor hosting the processing plant, it is prepared to provide a long-term aid package that will focus on developing petroleum facilities, related skills training and other infrastructure for the tiny nation.

Sources suggested the extra money could be worth up to $4 billion over two decades.

In a recent press release the Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, said "significant revenues" were already flowing to East Timor and, based on recent oil prices, it would receive about $18.5 billion in royalties over the next 20 years.

East Timor has rejected the current sea boundary between the two countries, which leaves the bulk of the oil and gas reserves lying outside its territory, while Australia refuses to have the boundary dispute taken to the International Court of Justice for independent arbitration.

Since its independence from Indonesia, East Timor has struggled with poverty, high rates of infant mortality and unemployment, and its government has warned it risks becoming a failed state and possible haven for transnational criminals.

This week's talks take place against the background of rallies planned for today in Sydney in support of East Timor getting a better deal.

Emotions have also been stoked by a $2.5 million television advertising campaign featuring Australian World War II veterans who served in East Timor decrying the Australian Government's behaviour over the division of the energy resources.

The official said the controversial advertisements funded by businessman Ian Melrose were "unhelpful for both sides". East Timor is understood to have distanced itself from the campaign. Mr Downer described the advertisements as "dishonest".

This week's talks are the sixth effort to reach agreement in 12 months and follow a successful meeting in March and a flurry of correspondence between the prime ministers of both countries.

Protests to demand recognition of boundary

Green Left Weekly - April 27, 2005

Max Lane, Sydney -- On April 26, a new round of negotiations will start between the Australian and East Timorese governments over the maritime boundary between the two countries.

The Australian government is still refusing to recognise the internationally accepted principle that the border of two countries less than 400 nautical miles apart lies exactly halfway between them. Instead, the federal Coalition government is insisting on a boundary drawn up in such a way that it will give Australia control of most of the oil and gas, which all lies on the East Timorese side of the border halfway between the countries.

Of 80 known examples of maritime borders between two countries less than 400 nautical miles apart, the border being demanded by the Australian government is the only example where the halfway point, or median line, is not accepted as the boundary. The Australian government has declared that it will not accept any ruling by the International Court of Justice or any United Nations body on this matter.

According to solidarity activists campaigning against the Australian government's theft of Timor's oil and gas, there is nothing that actually needs negotiation. The campaign is demanding that Australia recognise the median line border and acknowledge East Timorese ownership of all natural resources on the East Timorese side of the border.

Downer cautions East Timor on boundary

ABC News - April 26, 2005

Australia has warned that East Timor could lose some revenue if it insists on drawing a permanent seabed boundary in the Timor Sea. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer issued the caution as boundary negotiations resumed in Dili today.

The talks focus on oil and gas reserves outside the joint development zone controlled by East Timor and Australia. Mr Downer says new boundaries could mean East Timor will get less revenue than it does now from the joint zone.

"It's sometimes presented to the Australian public that if we drew a median line between Australia and East Timor, East Timor would get more than they get now -- that's not right," he said.

"What we have at the moment is what's called a joint development area between Australia and East Timor and we give East Timor 90 per cent of the revenue from that. If you drew a median line, they may end up with a good deal less than 90 per cent."

Mr Downer says boundary negotiations with East Timor cannot be allowed to unravel existing sea boundaries with Indonesia and other neighbours.

'Honour on all sides'

"We're talking this issue through because what Australia doesn't want is to unravel all of our maritime boundaries which have been laboriously negotiated over many years with all of our neighbours," he said.

"If we can find a suitable settlement that keeps our principles intact but ensures East Timor gets a steady flow of revenue then there should be honour on all sides."

Australia has told East Timor the decision on a permanent boundary should be put on hold for 50 to 100 years while oil and gas reserves are developed.

But Paddy Kenneally from the Timor Sea Justice Campaign says the Australian Government is trying to scare the Timorese into signing an agreement or risk losing revenue.

"The Timorese ought to stick solidly for a justified seabed boundary in a median strip between the two countries," Mr Kenneally said. "If they agree to anything else, they'll be living off the crumbs of the rich Australian table until the oil runs out."

Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, says there needs to be a just settlement for East Timor. "The key thing here is what is fair for Australia and what is fair for East Timor and we need to ensure that this small fledgling democracy has a secure long-term source of revenue so that it can carve out its future free of Australian aid dependency," he said.

Australia must protect its interests - Downer

Associated Press - April 26, 2005

Sydney -- Australia "isn't just a charity" and would protect its own interests in a territorial dispute with East Timor involving potentially billions of dollars from oil and gas reserves, the foreign minister said Tuesday.

The two countries have been embroiled in a bitter row over where to draw the maritime boundary between them -- a line that will ultimately decide who will keep up to US$30 billion in oil and gas revenue.

Energy companies last year suspended plans to tap the Greater Sunrise gas field -- the largest in the Timor Sea that divides Australia's north coast from the impoverished half-island nation -- because the two sides failed to meet a Christmas deadline to reach a border settlement.

Negotiations resumed Tuesday in Dili, with officials from both countries expected to discuss a possible compromise.

East Timor wants the border in the middle of the 600 kilometers of sea separating the two. But Australia wants the same boundary it agreed with Indonesia, which occupied East Timor from 1975- 1999. In some places, that boundary is just 150 kilometers from East Timor's coast.

Under the proposed solution, Australia will pay compensation to East Timor in return for Dili postponing its demand for a greater share of the seabed. The boundary question would be shelved until the energy resources were exhausted.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard ordered his troops to lead a multinational peacekeeping force in East Timor that ended widespread bloodshed by Indonesian military-backed militias after the territory overwhelmingly voted for independence in 1999.

"I'm sure East Timor wouldn't be the independent country it is today if it hadn't been for the Howard government," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told the Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio Tuesday.

"Australia isn't just a charity," he said. "The Australian government and the Australian people have their own interests and they have to be protected."

Downer said Australia wasn't prepared to alter the maritime boundary it negotiated with Indonesia, but would back a settlement that gave East Timor a steady revenue flow from the oil and gas reserves.

High hopes, angry faces over Timor Sea

Australian Associated Press - April 25, 2005

With high hopes for a compromise, Australia and East Timor are to resume talks over multi-billion dollar oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

The talks, drawn out over the past year, have stalled repeatedly over the disputed maritime boundary between Australia and its tiny neighbour.

Australia has in the past been accused of playing hardball over the resources -- worth an estimated $41 billion.

It withdrew from the International Court of Justice's maritime boundary dispute mechanisms two months before East Timor gained independence from Indonesia in 2002, preventing an independent arbiter from settling the issue.

Instead, it clings to a 1972 boundary that hands Australia two- thirds of the sea area between the two nations -- and the bulk of the oil and gas reserves, including the Greater Sunrise gas field worth around $9 billion.

Australia and East Timor signed an interim deal in 2002 -- the Timor Sea Treaty -- to handle the oil and gas resources in what is known as the Joint Petroleum Development Area (JPDA).

Under the deal, East Timor receives 90 per cent of more than $10.2 billion generated from inside the area and Australia gets 10 per cent.

Both governments have indicated the dispute is moving closer to a compromise solution ahead of the resumption of talks in Dili on Tuesday.

Australia has asked East Timor to pass laws allowing Sunrise to go ahead without conditions and to hold off on its permanent boundary claims in return for a guarantee of 90 per cent of revenues from the JPDA for a century.

But advocates for the tiny nation -- where 40 per cent of the population lives on less that 71 cents a day -- say Australia's economic greed is a disgrace.

The Timor Sea Justice Campaign (TSJC) has organised rallies in three capital cities -- Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide -- to coincide with the resumption of talks.

TSJC coordinator Tom Clarke said a permanent maritime boundary half way between the countries would solve the issue and settle the dispute over royalties, while delivering a fair share to the Timorese. Australia is earning $1 million a day from an oil field in disputed territory, he said.

That was unfair to a nation with an annual budget of just $A96.3 million, where more than 50 per cent of adults are illiterate and life expectancy is more than 20 years below that of Australia.

"East Timor just can't afford for these negotiations to drag on," Mr Clarke said. "We are just concerned for the plight of our neighbours and disgraced with our government's actions."

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) deputy secretary Doug Chester will lead the Australian delegation in Dili.

Dili must get fair share of oil and gas revenue: ACTU

Associated Press - April 22, 2005

Australia's top labor union leader demanded Saturday that Australian government negotiators give impoverished East Timor a fair share of multi-billion dollar oil and gas deposits under the sea that separates the two nations.

"East Timor deserves a fair go and a fair share of the billions of dollars being earned from the Timor Sea oil and gas reserves. It is also in Australia's best interests to have a prosperous and stable East Timor as our neighbor," Sharan Burrow, president of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, said in a statement.

Her call came ahead of the latest round of negotiations over carving up an estimated 30 billion Australian dollars (US$23.4 billion) in revenue from the Timor Sea resources.

"These long-term projects will potentially generate thousands of jobs and bring with them numerous flow-on benefits to the local communities," Burrow said.

"The ACTU recognizes that such development would enable East Timor to escape continued poverty and to build a sustainable industry."

Three days of talks are scheduled to start Tuesday in the East Timorese capital.

Energy companies last year shelved plans to tap the US$5 billion Greater Sunrise gas field -- the largest in the Timor Sea -- because the two sides failed to meet a Christmas deadline to reach agreement on the carve-up.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Wednesday that the negotiations will explore a Dili proposal to allow drilling to go ahead while postponing any decision on a new maritime boundary.

East Timor wants the border in the middle of the 600 kilometers (370 miles) of sea separating the two. However, Australia wants the same boundary it agreed with Indonesia, which occupied East Timor from 1975-1999. In some places, that boundary is just 150 kilometers (90 miles) from East Timor's coast.

Under the proposed solution, Australia will pay compensation to East Timor in return for Dili postponing its demand for a greater share of the seabed. The boundary question would be shelved until the energy resources were exhausted.

Timor Sea talks focused on creative solution

Dow Jones Newswire - April 20, 2005

Veronica Brooks, Canberra -- Australia's Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Wednesday maritime boundary negotiations with East Timor will resume next week, marking the sixth meeting in a year as the two sides move closer to a deal.

Downer said the April 26-28 meeting in Dili will concentrate on East Timor's proposal outlined last month for a "creative solution" that would allow oil and gas projects in the Timor Sea to go ahead, pending a permanent boundary being settled.

In particular, agreement on the proposal would enable the US$5 billion Sunrise liquefied natural gas project to begin, while in the longer term providing significant infrastructure and industry development for East Timor.

But Downer said he is cautious about whether a resolution is near. "We've been very optimistic about these talks in times gone by and then the next round of talks haven't been so successful," he told reporters.

"So I think we'll be more cautious in our expressions of how we think the talks will go at this stage. We can just be hopeful that they will gradually lead to a resolution of the differences between Australia and East Timor," Downer said.

The last round of top-level diplomatic negotiations was held in Canberra in early March.

"Under East Timor's proposal, both countries would continue to work together to exploit the Timor Sea petroleum resources, giving East Timor 90% of the royalties from the Joint Petroleum Development Area," Downer said.

"Significant revenues are already flowing to East Timor, and based on recent oil prices East Timor will receive about US$14.5 billion in revenues over the next 20 years -- an average of almost US$2 million per day," the minister said.

Impoverished East Timor's economic well-being rests on Dili's bid for a major redistribution of royalties from the vast oil and gas deposits that lie beneath the sea that divides the two countries.

Negotiations broke down acrimoniously in October last year, prompting oil and gas producer Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL.AU) to shelve its Sunrise project.

The breakdown meant Woodside couldn't meet its end-2004 deadline for legal and commercial certainty that would allow it to capture a 2010 marketing "window" for LNG exports. Woodside has said it won't spend any more money to advance Sunrise and has reassigned staff to other projects.

Woodside owns 33.4% of Sunrise, regarded as the richest prize in the Timor Sea. Its partners are ConocoPhillips (COP) with 30%, Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD) with 26.6% and Japan's Osaka Gas Co. (9532.TO) with 10%.

Australia and East Timor have agreed to an interim revenue- sharing deal covering a part of the Timor Sea that takes in the ConocoPhillips-operated Bayu Undan field.

This Joint Petroleum Development Area splits the government revenues 90%-10% in East Timor's favor.

But East Timor has so far refused to ratify a second revenue- sharing deal known as the International Unitization Agreement. Under this deal, 80% of Woodside's Sunrise gas field would fall within Australian waters and the remaining 20% in the JPDA.

If Dili's "creative solution" gets the green light, negotiations between Australia and its northern neighbor on a permanent boundary would be postponed for decades until the Sunrise resource was exhausted. And if the parties resort back to thrashing out a permanent maritime border, this process would take many years.

In terms of a permanent boundary, Dili wants a border in the middle of the 600 kilometers of ocean separating the two nations.

However, Canberra argues the boundary should be the edge of the continental shelf, which in some places is just 80 kilometers from East Timor's coastline. That border would put the bulk of natural resources in the Timor Sea under Australia's control.

Timor Sea campaign targets Anzac Day

Green Left Weekly - April 20, 2005

Vannessa Hearman, Melbourne -- The Timor Sea Justice Campaign is set to broadcast its next series of television advertisements to coincide with Anzac Day on April 25. The group has chosen this time to focus on Australian soldiers and their relationship with East Timor. Those who feature include Interfet veteran and ex- Australian army major Chip Henriss-Anderssen and World War II veteran Paddy Kenneally, who call on the Australian government to play it fair on oil and gas resources in the Timor Sea.

According to Henriss-Anderssen, "When we went to East Timor we felt we were going to help our neighbours. In many ways we did and I think Australian soldiers are proud of our work there. Unfortunately, the good will of we who served and ordinary Australians who supported us has now been overshadowed by the greed that seems to be driving the actions of our government." Businessman Ian Melrose's last set of ads in March were refused by SBS and Channel 7 due to objections over the line "Stealing from a Third World country kills their children".

Melrose stands by his claim, pointing out that "While East Timorese children are dying of preventable diseases, the Australian government has stolen $1 million from East Timor every single day since 1999". Melrose was first motivated to join the campaign when he read a newspaper article describing a Timorese girl who died from being choked by round worms, which could have been prevented by a cheap tablet.

The ads will coincide with the next round of talks in Dili between Australia and East Timor, which will commence on April 26. Supporters of justice in the Timor Sea will rally outside the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade on that day in Melbourne and deliver postcards addressed to PM John Howard, demanding that Australia sign a maritime boundary agreement with East Timor that is based on international law.

World War II vets soldier on for Timor campaign

Australian Associated Press - April 18, 2005 Nick Lenaghan -- A group of Australian World War II veterans have weathered criticism from the RSL and Canberra over an advertising campaign condemning the federal government's stance on East Timor's oil and gas rights.

In television advertisements being aired over the next fortnight, the veterans, who fought in East Timor in 1941-42, say negotiations are not being conducted in the Anzac spirit and Prime Minister John Howard would not be welcome at their Anzac Day marches.

The RSL has opposed the ads, funded by Melbourne businessman Ian Melrose in his bid to win a better deal for East Timor on allocation oil and gas reserves located in the Timor Sea.

At the campaign launch in Melbourne on Monday, former Army engineers sergeant John Jones, 85, defended his comrades who appear in the ads.

"Any of those Australians has the right to say what he wants to say on Anzac Day if it involves him and his experiences," he said. "As we were leaving we said to the Timorese that we would look after them. We promised because they looked after us. They kept us fed. We would have died otherwise and they allowed us to take some of their food which was in very short supply."

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander slammed the ads as dishonest and irresponsible.

The ads will screen on SBS and commercial networks leading up to Anzac Day and ahead of talks between Australia and East Timor next week.

"These ads are a waste of money. They will have no impact on the negotiation process. They take no account of the fact that we have given East Timor 90 per cent of the reserve for the joint area between Australia and East Timor," Mr Downer said.

Mr Howard said the stance taken by the Australian government was fair, considerate and decent. "But it is also a stance that looks after the interests of the Australian people, which is my first responsibility," he said.

RSL national president Bill Crews said the veterans were honourable men and had a right to express their opinion. But he said it was inappropriate to invoke the Anzac spirit as the basis for criticising the government over the issue.

"My members, or at least some of them or many of them, would be uncomfortable the spirit of Anzac... is now being used in one side of a political debate, irrespective of which side it might be," Mr Crews said.

Negotiations over the massive reserves have foundered on a dispute about maritime boundaries between Australia and East Timor. East Timor has pushed for a sea boundary midway between the two nations, while Australia says it should run along the continental shelf closer to East Timor.

Under an interim deal signed in May 2002, East Timor is entitled to 90 per cent of royalties from oil and gas developments in the area under negotiation. The deal also included an agreement on the Greater Sunrise field, which gave Australia 79.9 per cent of royalties, because most of the project's area was located in Australian jurisdiction. A compromise solution has been suggested to postpone permanent maritime boundary talks for up to a century.

Mr Melrose has spent $2.2 million for campaigns on the issue so far and his last set of TV ads were refused airplay by SBS and Channel 7 after objections about some of their content.

Networks face court over Timor ad ban

Sydney Morning Herald - April 7, 2005

Julian Lee -- Channel Seven and SBS have refused to air an ad campaign condemning the Prime Minister, John Howard, for "stealing" billions of dollars of East Timorese oil and gas revenues, a stance that may trigger court action and highlights the thorny issue of freedom of expression.

The boycott has echoes of a similar action by Channel Nine in the late 1990s when it refused to air a commercial made and paid for by anti-advertising group Adbusters that encouraged Australians to take part in a global "Buy Nothing Day".

This time, however, Channel Nine has agreed to run the Timor ad, made by businessman Paul Melrose. The ad claims that the Australian Government, through its actions, is responsible for "killing children" in East Timor.

Mr Melrose and the pressure group with which he is aligned, the Timor Sea Justice Campaign, are considering taking Seven and SBS to court, saying their refusal to run the ad constitutes a breach of equal opportunity legislation.

The submission of scripts for the next TV commercial tomorrow would be the litmus test, campaign director Tom Clarke said.

"If future ads are also banned or delayed, we will take legal action against the networks for discrimination on the basis of political belief or activity," Mr Clarke said.

"The figures in the ads are conservative and are based on publicly accessible financial reports published by the relevant companies, so one has to ask if the networks have been pressured by the Australian Government.

"I'm sure the Government is not keen for the public to learn that billions of dollars have been taken from East Timor... while Timorese children are dying from preventable diseases."

The next TVC will feature World War II veterans condemning Mr Howard for Australia's position on the Timor Sea oil and gasfields and is due to run on Anzac Day. Mr Melrose and Timor Sea Justice have vowed to continue dogging the Prime Minister at public events until the international dispute is resolved in East Timor's favour.

SBS aired the ad mistakenly last Wednesday and then pulled it for the last two days of the campaign. It said it would not air the ad until it had sought clarification from Mr Melrose on the revenue figure of $2 billion used in the ad, whether he is able to substantiate claims about killing children and that Australia withdrew its recognition of an international court to determine maritime boundaries. SBS has done this only once before: in 1997 it refused to air an ad by the National Farmers Federation over a native title issue.

Although Seven ran the ad that kicked off the Timor campaign during the Australian Open, it said the latest ad failed to "meet required broadcast standards". It declined to elaborate.

Kalle Lasn is the founder of the Media Foundation, the Canadian organisation behind the Adbusters magazine and website that runs campaigns highlighting diverse issues, among them the amount of money spent by fast-food chains on marketing.

Mr Lasn said that only a tiny proportion of his ads -- many of them made on the sly by leading ad creatives -- made it to air.

CNN is the only American network that will run his ads. "They [the networks] have various reasons, such as [the ads] don't meet the technical requirements -- but when you get behind the scenes what they really mean is that you are talking back against the car and fast-food industries.

"So it's like: 'Do you really think that for a lousy $US25,000 we are going to piss off our major sponsors?"' Late last year Media Foundation launched legal action against four of Canada's biggest broadcasters -- CanWest Global, CBC, CTV and CHUM. Mr Lasn said it was a case that could change the rules.

"It's going to take a long time. But if we win, it would give anyone the right to go to the networks, put down their cash and give them the right for their ad to be run."

Activists take protest to seabed boundary to Australia

Radio Australia - April 1, 2005

Australia wants a final decision on the boundary in the Timor sea to be deferred for up to 100 years so that oil and gas projects worth 40 billion dollars can go ahead, and has offered Dili $3 billion to put aside its concerns about sovereignty. But a group of East Timorese activists have travelled to Australia to put pressure on the government over the way oil and gas reserves are being divided up between the two countries.

Presenter/Interviewer: Ben Knight

Speakers: Tomas Freitas, Institute for Reconstruction Analysis and Monitiring in Dili

BK: Somewhere between Australia and East Timor, one country begins and the other one ends. But currently, there's no agreement on where that line should be. What's making the discussions so tricky is that any line on the map will carve through billions of dollars worth of oil and gas.

Currentlly, those resources are being shared under a treaty signed between Australia and East Timor in 2002. East Timor is pushing to have a permanent boundary set up, but has no right of appeal if Australia disagrees, since Australia withdrew from the maritime jurisdiction of the international court of justice in the same year.

There's been some progress. This month, a framework on how to divide the resources was agreed to. And both sides say they're still hopeful a boundary deal can be worked out. But those outside the government are less optimistic.

Tomas Freitas is with the Institute for Reconstruction Analysis and Monitoring -- a non government organsiation based in Dili.

Tomas: Our people just simply... they think about this dispute, they say, if Australia reclaim that Timor Sea, and that Timor bed belongs to them, why didn't they change that name to Australia Sea or Australia Gap? They just think this simply, you know?

BK: Tomas Freitas was in Melbourne last night, one of a number of appearances he's making in Australia to campaign for a maritime boundary. He says he does't want to see his country become a slave to the oil industry at the expense of its environment -- but says the revenue will be crucial to building a nation that can develop different industries. One option reportedly on the table is for the concept of a maritime boundary to be put off comlpetely for 100 years -- with Australia compensating East Timor. But Tomas Freitas says the boundaries must be discussed and decided.

Tomas: We've been fighting for 24 years just to get independence as a new country. We need to have our sovereignty. Our sovereignty is not only we have a flag, we have a language. But we need our territory, you know? We need a border between the two countries. Between Indonesia and Timor yeah, we're clear. But between Timor and Australia, still not clear.

BK: The campaign has strong supporters in Australia -- including from Melbourne businessman Ian Melrose, who has funded a series of telelvison commercials criticising the Australian government for its approach to the negotiations.

Two new commercials were run on channel nine on good Frdiay -- the anniversary of Australia's withdrawal from the international court of justice. But channel 7 and SBS declined to run them. The ads were much the same as those run previosuly -- except for this line...

Audio: Stealing from a third world country kills their children.

BK: But Ian melrose says they were approved by the appropriate authorities.

Melrose: Apart from being very politically sensitive, there's nothing technically wrong with them. All the information was factually correct.

BK: Neither Channel Seven nor SBS would comment last night.

Independence struggle

Michael Costello: Howard didn't want Timor free

The Australian - April 8, 2005

Prime Minister John Howard has always recognised history and its interpretation as a potent political weapon. Thus Howard appropriated from historian Geoffrey Blainey the phrase "the black-armband view of history", which he used to great effect to undermine Aboriginal native title, the concept of the stolen generations and much of the rationale of the reconciliation movement for his political ends.

Even more powerfully, he uses this phrase to imply a lack of patriotism on the part of those who think that as a people we should not only celebrate the good in our past but also acknowledge and learn from the bad.

Howard uses the black-armband line the way the hardline Right in the US slurs Democrats as belonging to the "Blame America First Party". Ugly but effective.

So at a time when an Indonesian president is visiting Australia and a new security pact between the two countries is being discussed, it's worthwhile to recall a few facts about Howard, ex-president Suharto, East Timor and Indonesia. After all, government spin in recent years has been that those rotten Labor types cuddled up cravenly to Suharto and left East Timor for dead, and that it took Howard to stand up to the tyrant and bring freedom to the East Timorese.

Let's start at the beginning. While in Opposition, Howard continually criticised the Hawke and Keating governments for not being close enough to Indonesia and placing too much importance on human rights and East Timor.

When Howard became Prime Minister, one of his first trips overseas was to Indonesia. During that visit, what did he have to say about Suharto, about the security agreement between Australia and Indonesia negotiated by Paul Keating and Suharto, about the defence relationship, about human rights, about East Timor's self-determination?

Howard had nothing but praise for Suharto. In his official banquet speech, he described Indonesia's 30 years under Suharto as being of great benefit to Australia, saying that "so much of this is due to your personal leadership, Mr President". In a subsequent speech, Howard said that during 30 years of great turmoil, Indonesia "has been held together during that period of time by a very skilled and sensitive national leader". To the press, he described Suharto as friendly, engaging, engaged, highly intelligent, very interested and very knowledgeable.

As regards the security agreement and our defence relationship, Howard said: "The agreement has my Government's strong support", and he told Suharto of Australia's readiness to develop further the defence relationship.

What about human rights and East Timor? Howard mentioned neither in his official speech. He told the press that he had told Suharto that Indonesia had to expect agitation about these issues by the Australian press and public, but that he had reassured the president this debate in Australia "should not be allowed to damage or affect or to upset the relationship between our two countries."

He said he had told Suharto that Australia recognised Indonesia's legal sovereignty over East Timor but that there might be value in discussions about the East Timorese having greater control over their ownaffairs.

Howard repeated similar sentiments about East Timor in his famous letter of December 19, 1998, to the new Indonesian president, B.J. Habibie. Early in his letter Howard wrote: "I want to emphasise that Australia's support for Indonesia's sovereignty is unchanged. It has been a longstanding Australian position that the interests of Australia, Indonesia and East Timor are best served by East Timor remaining part of Indonesia." And as regards the question of autonomy, Howard said: "The successful implementation of an autonomy package with a built-in review mechanism would allow time to convince the East Timorese of the benefits of autonomy within the Indonesian republic."

In other words, Howard's whole proposal was designed to maintain and reinforce Indonesia's continuing incorporation of East Timor.

The highly erratic Habibie acted in character. When the then Australian ambassador to Indonesia, John McCarthy, took the email version of the letter to Habibie, the president dismissed Howard's proposal out of hand.

Howard's signed original letter was received some days later by the embassy and, in accordance with diplomatic protocol, it was sent to Habibie's office for the record. On seeing the original signed text, Habibie changed his mind. Indeed, he went much further and much faster than Howard ever imagined or wanted -- calling for an early act of self-determination. The truth is that if Howard is the liberator of East Timor, he is the accidental liberator. It was not what he wanted, nor what he proposed, but he and Australia were swept up in the vortex of events let loose by Habibie's change of mind -- and he played it to the hilt for domestic political advantage in Australia.

Why does this matter? Because history always matters. The story of our past informs our political present and shapes its future. Keating understood that well. So does Howard. That is why he never ceases to tell his version of that story.

Transition & reconstruction

UN extends East Timor mission

Agence France Presse - April 29, 2005

The United Nations will stay in East Timor (Timor Leste) for another year under a new political mission that will significantly reduce the UN troop presence there.

The Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution that will send 45 civilian advisers, 75 police advisers and up to 10 human rights officers to the developing island country until May 2006.

The new UN Office in Timor Leste will replace the UN Mission of Support in Timor Leste, a peackeeping mission that has existed since 1999. At that time 10,000 UN military personnel were deployed to the country after it declared independence from Indonesia.

After several phases of scaling down the force, there are just 466 UN troops left in East Timor this year.

Secretary-general Kofi Annan says that "considerable progress" has been made towards politically stabilising East Timor and promoting human rights, but UN support is still needed.

The new office will be charged with helping develop state institutions, police forces and border patrol units. The political mission should eventually give way to "a sustainable development assistance framework," the resolution says.

In his message, the secretary-general congratulates "the Government and people of Timor-Leste on their achievements in such a short period of time, in the face of overwhelming odds."

East Timor had been occupied by Indonesia for more than 20 years when it voted for independence in August 1999, amidst violence by pro-Jakarta militias that killed an estimated 1,400 people.

The country gained independence in May 2002 after more than two years of UN administration.

West Timor/refugees

Fifty long-time East Timorese refugees to be expelled

Sydney Morning Herald - April 28, 2005

Malcolm Brown -- Fifty East Timorese who came to Australia 10 years ago or more as refugees, settled in the country and sent their children to school, have now been told they are no longer wanted here -- and have just 28 days to get out.

Advocates for the East Timor refugees expressed outrage yesterday, saying another 1600 of their compatriots had been allowed to stay and the decision against the 50 seemed capricious and cruel.

The Timorese, they warned, were being sent back to a country which was too poor to offer them anything and where their own children knew no other language than English.

The decision was communicated by letter and signed by the Minister for Immigration, Amanda Vanstone.

The command involves an offer of $10,000 per family and one-way plane tickets to Dili. But those who received the letters were hardly comforted.

Francisco Martins-Maia, 42, and his wife, Luisa, had gained temporary protection after arriving with their family in 1997. Their children, Franco and Agra, have attended Liverpool High School and Romario, born in Australia, has enrolled at Liverpool Public School.

Mr Martins-Maia made optical lenses, his wife was a florist and their elder son had completed his schooling and was doing work experience in retailing.

Mrs Martins-Maia said: "There is nothing for us in East Timor. We don't have a house. We don't have anything!"

Jose Goncalves, 38, of Green Valley, who arrived in 1994 and worked in a steel frame factory, said: "I want to stay. I have worked ever since I came here. I have never been in any trouble."

At St Anne's nursing home, Hunters Hill, director Maureen Scott, said another of those affected, Simon Pereira, had worked hard there for years.

Phil Glendenning, director of the Edmund Rice Centre, a Catholic social justice institute, said the expulsion directly contradicted an appeal made by the East Timorese president, Xanana Gusmao, not to send the 1600 back because East Timor could not do anything for them. "You have children here who don't speak Portuguese or the East Timor language, Tetum," Mr Glendenning said.

"There is a suggestion that three or four of these people might have been involved in drug offences but there is nothing transparent."

Elizabeth Biok, a member of the International Commission of Jurists, said: "They came out at the height of the Soeharto [former Indonesian president] violence. They have been through the refugee process and have been found to be refugees."

Sister Sue Connelly, of the Institute for East Timor Studies, said the expulsion orders might have something to do with the negotiations over offshore oil deposits.

A spokesman for Senator Vanstone said the decision on these 50 people related to "character issues".

Deportation news shocks East Timor advocate

ABC Radio - April 27, 2005

Reporter: Tony Jones

Tony Jones: Sister Susan Connolly is one of Australia's best- known and longest-serving advocates for the East Timorese people. She's the Assistant Director of the Mary MacKillop Institute for East Timor Studies in Sydney and she joins us now. Thank you for joining us.

Sr Connolly: Thank you, Tony.

Tony Jones: The government's effectively saying here, "We've been extremely compassionate. We've allowed more than 1,400 East Timorese to remain in the country and become Australians. You should trust us that we have good and compelling reasons to reject this 50." Why don't you trust them?

Sr Connolly: I have absolutely no evidence that would assure me that if I were to put my trust in anything that any member of this Government says. I just -- I just have no trust in it at all. I would need independent confirmation of the truth of a statement, and I say that after coming in here tonight, Tony, not knowing before I came in tonight that the accusation, the unsubstantiated accusation, of serious character deficiencies has been made against 50 people, some of whom I know quite well. Now, I would respectfully suggest that the Government put up or shut up.

Tony Jones: Do you have any idea at all what Senator McGauran is getting at here when he refers to serious character grounds as being the reasons?

Sr Connolly: I certainly don't. I do know of, in a few cases, there have been indiscretions, indiscretions that I would look at as being of more of the late teenage variety, and I'm sure...

Tony Jones: Not serious criminal indiscretions or convictions?

Sr Connolly: Certainly not. Serious enough for a person perhaps to have been -- to serve periodic detention. I know that particular person has. Wasn't serious enough to be sent to jail. Has undertaken that punishment with tremendous respect for our legal system, happy to do it -- as happy as you could be in such circumstance -- coming to the end of his time. But...

Tony Jones: You're saying that's the exception rather than the rule?

Sr Connolly: Absolutely the exception. I'm absolutely shocked at this, and I think in a country like Australia, no matter who you are, you should have the right not to have your character blackened just like that by a statement from anybody on national television.

Tony Jones: How many of the 50 -- I know you know of a lot of the cases indirectly. How many of the 50 do you know directly?

Sr Connolly: I would know between 6 to 10 of those directly. I would say I know 6 very, very well.

Tony Jones: You know they have no serious character deficiencies?

Sr Connolly: As well as I could know that about any person that I know.

Tony Jones: You do know specifically one young man on that list, on the rejected list, a young man who came here, I understand, after witnessing or even being caught up in a massacre?

Sr Connolly: That's right. He was caught up in the Dili massacre, so he has those memories, and like all the young ones that we know, they came here as traumatised and bewildered teenagers, and we've come to know and love them over these years, seeing them grow, seeing them grow into compassionate and loving people who look on Australia as their home. I mean, they've lived in Australia for nearly half their life, so you would look on it as your home, wouldn't you?

Tony Jones: Do you know how that particular young man feels about this decision?

Sr Connolly: Yes. He is upset about it. But like the lady who was just interviewed, he's mystified. He's saying, "Don't they like me? What might they do to me?" He's a bit afraid, actually, of perhaps pursuing it because he doesn't want anything against him. It's a terrible dilemma for young people like this to be in.

Tony Jones: Do you think some of these cases, the rationale for some of these cases might go back before they were in Australia, to events in East Timor?

Sr Connolly: Well, if that's the case and if there's such terrible concern in the Government about making sure we get rid of these people, why have they been allowed to stay in Australian society, possibly contaminating the rest of us, for all these 10 to 12 years? I mean, there's something fishy here, Tony. I don't know what it is, but I feel there's something rotten in the state, and it smells like a rat. I don't quite know the style of rat, but there's something smelling here. My own personal feeling is that -- see, the Government has been receiving very bad press lately over the Timor Sea issue. A lot of Australians are waking up at last to the fact that we're not perhaps as generous as we have liked to portray ourselves. And that's due to those wonderful advertisements paid by Ian Melrose where you get the maps and the facts, which is more than you get usually from Government sources.

Tony Jones: But go back to the -- if that were the case, go back to what the Government has done in a broader level, of more than 1,400 East Timorese are going to be allowed to stay here. This is, in the end, a tiny minority. You're saying you simply don't understand why...

Sr Connolly: Tony, nobody in Australia, no Timorese in Australia was told yesterday or today that they were staying. That news is old. Mr Ruddock was responsible for most of those to come in. That news is -- it's like resuscitating a corpse, really, to give us a picture of this vision of Australia being so generous, you know, now we're going to allow all these people to stay, whereas we've known for months that they were. The news today, which is tucked down in paragraph 3 in this story, the news is that 30 -- well, now we hear 50 people -- are being told to go. That's the news, and it shouldn't be dressed up as, you know, just a little bit of a story where we're supposed to be so generous.

Tony Jones: What's life going to be like, do you believe, for the 50 people who go back to what is effectively their homeland, after all, and now an independent country?

Sr Connolly: There aren't many prospects for anybody in Timor at the moment. There's terrible hunger in Timor. It's a shocking thing to have to say.

It's not as if these people are being sent back to East Timor having imbibed wonderful knowledge and skills in Australia. They haven't been allowed to undertake university courses because that's against the asylum seeker thing.

They've been allowed to do certificate courses at TAFE, but not diploma courses. So there's not a great deal they can take back, and when they get back there, if they do, there's certainly not much offering.

Tony Jones: Of course, these 50 can have a final appeal of the minister's decision.

Sr Connolly: That's right, yes.

Tony Jones: If they do have a final appeal, however, they put at risk the financial package, the incentive package which is being offered to them, which could be, for a family, up to $10,000?

Sr Connolly: Yes. They also put at risk their -- like, the Government has no obligation to give them a bridging visa if such an appeal was rejected.

So therefore they may be looking at detention centres. So it's very serious business, and really...

Tony Jones: You mean if they were to appeal, they could be sent straight to a detention centre?

Sr Connolly: No, this is how I understand it -- I stand to be corrected -- but if a second appeal to the minister fails, there is no guarantee they would get a bridging visa, so therefore, they would be looking at a detention centre.

Tony Jones: Do you expect that many of these people will appeal? As you say, you know some of them personally?

Sr Connolly: Well, I think it's come as such a shock in this Anzac week, such a shock, when memories have been brought back to what the Timorese have done for us. Tony, no other people on the face of the earth have lost so many people in exchange for befriending Australian soldiers as the Timorese did. It's something that we should remember like we remember all our war stories.

Like, the Anzac spirit -- Australia has no monopoly on courage, and Australians have got no monopoly on what we call the Anzac spirit, either. The Timorese have stood by us. We have a huge debt to pay for them, and it's not just out of the sense of debt; it's the sense of shared brotherhood in a shared history. It is unique, and they should be treated uniquely. There is another thing. If we treat people who are so close to us, in history and geography, like this, what chance have other people got?

Tony Jones: Sister Susan Connolly, we'll have to leave it there. We thank you very much for taking the time to come and talk to us tonight on Lateline.

Sr Connolly: Thank you, Tony.

Government urged to probe shooting of soldier

Jakarta Post - April 26, 2005

Yemris Fointuna, Kupang (West Nusa Tenggara) -- The West Nusa Tenggara provincial administration called on the central government to hold talks with the East Timor government to ensure a thorough investigation into the recent shooting of an Indonesian Military (TNI) soldier on the border between the two countries. The move was necessary to avoid security instability in the area.

"We have asked the central government to handle the shooting incident thoroughly and the (East Timor) policeman who fired on the soldier must be brought to justice," West Nusa Tenggara deputy governor Frans Leburaya said when asked to comment on the case here on Monday. First Lieutenant Tedy Setiawan was shot by East Timor police on a bank of the Malibaca River in Makir Village, Belu regency, on April 21 as he and several other soldiers pursued a number of East Timorese suspected of trying to smuggle goods into East Timor.

Frans also reminded the relevant local authorities of the rampant smuggling of basic commodities into East Timor from the province -- something facilitated by the fact that the 200-kilometer border has only 58 check points.

Col. Amir Hamka Manan, chief of the Wirasakti Military District responsible for military affairs in West Timor, concurred and said the military had stationed three battalions of soldiers along the border area, but they were not equipped with the necessary equipment to perform their main duties effectively.

Kristo Blasin, deputy chairman of the West Nusa Tenggara provincial legislature, said that the rampant smuggling had a lot to do with the prolonged economic crisis in East Timor.

"Therefore, the TNI and the police must take strict measures against the smugglers and East Timorese entering Indonesia illegally," he said, adding that the government should also pay more attention to the welfare of the soldiers deployed along the border.

Meanwhile, the secretary-general of the UN Mission in East Timor (UNMISET), Sukehiro Hasegawa, said in Dili, the capital of East Timor, that UNMISET would carry out a thorough investigation into the incident and establish procedures for preventing such incidents from occurring in the future.

"Both Indonesia and Timor Leste (East Timor) have agreed that in accordance with the June 24, 2004, Military Liaison Agreement signed between the UNMISET Military Component and the TNI, UNMISET is to play a lead and facilitative role in this inquiry, and will carry out its work according to the Terms of Reference agreed by both countries, and submit its findings to UNMISET within a period of two weeks," he said in a press release.

He said that UNMISET was deeply concerned over the incident, and that was why he had visited the scene of the shooting after the incident.

He called on all sides to cooperate to ensure the success of the investigation.

Government admits food shortage in West Timor

Jakarta Post - March 16, 2005

Yemris Fointuna and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta -- The government promised on Tuesday to provide free rice and labor- intensive jobs for people in several drought-stricken East Nusa Tenggara regencies.

Provincial head of the state commodity regulating body (Bulog) Widjanarko Puspoyo said the institution had some 27,000 tons of rice on hand in the province and had sent 2,000 tons more from East Java to the drought-affected province. The agency said it could also ship additional rice from Sulawesi if needed.

"We'll provide rice for them, as much as they need, because we a have sufficient supply. We'll give the rice for free because they cannot afford to buy it," Widjanarko said.

He was speaking after a meeting with Vice President Jusuf Kalla and Minister of Agriculture Anton Apriyantono on the government's relief measures in East Nusa Tenggara.

Bulog, Widjanarko said, normally sends some 10,000 tons of rice per month to the province.

Drought in southern and eastern parts of the archipelago have put people in 12 regencies at risk of water and food shortages. The regencies affected are Rote Ndao on Rote Island, North Central Timor, South Central Timor, Lembata, Belu, Kupang on Timor Island, Sikka, Ngada and East Flores on Flores Island, East Sumba and West Sumba on Sumba Island and Alor Island.

Widjanarko said the central government obtained the report about a threat of famine in the province this week, but had been aware of the crop failure there since March 12.

"On the national level, there is a national food security council, while in the regions there are provincial food security councils. They carry out rice monitoring. If everybody does their job, we can detect such crop failures early," he explained.

Labor-intensive projects are needed because many farmers are unable to support their families due to the harvest failure, Widjanarko said.

"They can't afford to buy food due to the crop failure. Therefore, we'll give them jobs," Widjanarko said, adding that the projects would be focused on construction of irrigation as it would also help locals cope with their routine problems.

Asked about the government's long-term plan for the province that annually has to cope with drought, Anton said Jakarta was mulling over attempts to develop a large livestock industry in the province.

Separately, the provincial administration predicted that more than 30,000 hectares of farm land could have suffered total crop failure, with financial losses estimated at Rp 191 billion (US$20.5 million).

East Nusa Tenggara deputy governor Frans Lebu Raya told the press in Kupang that his office had sent teams to the drought-affected regencies to check on how serious the threat of famine was.

The province has prepared some 50 tons of rice to be distributed to the regencies.

Most residents in East Nusa Tenggara have been eating corn, nuts, cassava or anything available due to the depleted rice supply. They are also hampered by water shortages.

Justice & reconciliation

East Timor - justice denied?

ABC Asia Pacific - April 6, 2005

In this episode of The Editors, we discuss the commission of truth and friendship set up after Indonesia's occupation of East Timor and deaths of up to 200,000 people. Grace Phan speaks to Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirayuda, and human rights lawyer, Adirito de Jesus Soares. Our panellists include Bambang Harymurti, Editor-in-Chief, Tempo Magazine, Sonny Inbaraj, Bureau Chief for Interpress Services in Bangkok and video journalist, Max Stahl.

Grace Phan: Hello I'm Grace Phan in Singapore, welcome to The Editors. Tonight, Human Rights Abuses, Justice and Reconciliation, sorting out the legacy of Indonesia's occupation of East Timor.

Max Stahl, Video Journalist: These elements of Indonesian army and society are well known to the Timorese, and the Timorese understand them as enemies of peace and as dangerous neighbours.

Sonny Inbaraj, Bureau Chief, Interpress Services: I think the Timorese leadership have made it clear that they do not want any international involvement in this Commission for Truth and Friendship, and that's indeed sad.

Bambang Harymurti, Editor-in-Chief, Tempo Magazine: People like me, Indonesian, we also want to have these bad people to be tried and put in jail.

Grace Phan: Our commentators later, but first there is no doubt that a quarter of a century of Indonesian rule brought a lot of misery to the people of East Timor. From the Indonesian invasion in 1975 until its withdrawal in 1999, an estimated 200,000 East Timorese lost their lives, many at the hands of the Indonesian military or pro-Indonesia militia.

Since then, special courts and commissions in Dili and Jakarta have been set up but they've convicted mostly only low ranking offenders, while indicted senior Indonesian military officers remain free. East Timor and Indonesia have agreed to a so-called Commission of Truth and Friendship, ostensibly to shed light on the abuses associated with Indonesia's withdrawal from East Timor in 1999.

At the time pro-Indonesia militia gangs went on a rampage killing 1,400 people and laying waste vast areas of territory and forcibly deporting a quarter of a million people across the border into West Timor. But the Commission of Truth and Friendship too is accused of being toothless with power to grant amnesty but not prosecute.

Before we debate the commission's bona fides some opinion from the media.

Signing the new accord Indonesia's President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, was quoted as calling the new 10-man commission, "the best and most feasible means to come to terms with and move away from bloodshed". East Timor's President, Xanana Gusmao, described the commission's role as a "mammoth task to seek truth not retribution". Fine words but not universally accepted. The 'Asian Wall Street Journal' was dismissive, it said, "Jakarta set up a joint panel with East Timor to investigate 1999 crimes, but it was accused of circumventing any UN [United Nations] probe". Some Indonesian newspapers were also wary, "Indonesia, East Timor seal deal on past atrocities", said a cool 'Jakarta Post'. But it noted, "observers have expressed scepticism about the joint commission arguing that it is merely a ploy by Indonesia to whitewash any human rights violators and escape justice. The UN remains not yet convinced by the move".

Indonesian's news agency, 'Antara' under the heading, "RI, the Republic of Indonesia, East Timor signed declaration to form Truth Friendship Commission", appeared confused about the commission's purpose. It said, "it remained unclear whether the commission's task would also cover resettlement of the 1999 human rights cases in East Timor, which Indonesia had already settled through the trial and conviction of a number of Indonesian military and police officials".

Commentary in the 'Catholic World News' under the heading, "Truth and Justice Commission on East Timor will lack prosecuting power", quoted Bishop Alberto Ricardo da Silva of Dili saying the "country's people do not support the commission". It concluded, "critics argue that without the power to prosecute the commission offers no hope of bringing rights violators to justice".

After the break we'll canvass a variety of views on the recently announced Truth and Friendship Commission to be set up jointly by East Timor and Indonesia. Is it the road to reconciliation or is it a sham? Back in a moment.

Grace Phan: Welcome back. On The Editors tonight, human rights abuses in East Timor. Is the Truth and Friendship Commission recently announced by Indonesia and East Timor the solution or a whitewash? For the pro-commission view I spoke recently with the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirayuda.

Hassan Wirayuda, Indonesian Foreign Minister: We thought that sovereign governments, Indonesia and Timor-Leste have the rights to establish mechanisms that we thought were able to close this chapter of the past, to bring the closure of these problems in order for us to move forward.

Even on the very names, truth and friendship, somewhat unusual because normally truth and reconciliation. But it was the East Timor, the Timor-Leste side propose that rather than to call it a commission of truth and reconciliation, rather call it truth and friendship commission with arguments that to them reconciliation has taken place in the past three years. Grace Phan: Of course the question still is once you get the truth what are you going to do with it? Is impunity part of the deal?

Hassan Wirayuda: We're not here, there are only two approaches. One is the justice approach, and second one is truth and reconciliation, and consequently when we opted for truth and reconciliation the truth that we find will not lead to the prosecutions. That's why lead to reconciliation rather than prosecutions. So that's why we're not talking here about impunity, because by its very definition truth and reconciliation would not lead to prosecutions.

Grace Phan: That was the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirayuda.

The United Nations has refused to endorse the Truth and Friendship Commission. So have several human rights groups. In an article in the 'Jakarta Post' headed, "East Timor, justice for whom?" human rights lawyer, Adirito de Jesus Soares wrote, "This commission would pave the way for the perpetrators to keep enjoying their impunity. In contrast in the eyes of the victims, an international tribunal would put an end to the impunity enjoyed by those who committed human rights violations both in East Timor and Indonesia".

I spoke to Mr Soares earlier from Dili. Mr Soares how would you describe the Truth and Friendship Commission?

Adirito de Jesus Soares, human rights lawyer: Well, I think from human rights perspective I think it is completely false since I doubt that this commission can do any justice for victims. In general I think this commission will not guarantee anything for victims in East Timor, those who suffered from this 1999 referendum.

Grace Phan: Do most East Timorese share that point of view?

Adirito de Jesus Soares: I think from the victims' perspective, you know, in East Timor there are a lot of victims groups and I think they are coming with very strong voice to have justice, and I think at this stage victims in East Timor are still really unsatisfied with the whole process whether in East Timor or in Dili itself with the special panel for East Timor.

Grace Phan: What do the victims want?

Adirito de Jesus Soares: I think that's the demand of victims here to have justice, and as we follow that whole process here our special panel in Dili of course convicted some of the low fishes that were involved in the human rights violations in 1999, while the whole big fish are still walking freely. And I think from the victims' perspective I think that's the demand that you know people keep demanding for justice. I think we're kind of consistent with the whole UN recognition that back in 1999 that if the national system is unwilling or unable to prosecute the perpetrators, then we should think about the alternative. And I think that's really the strong voice of victims in East Timor, and of course lately you heard our leadership are talking about this Truth and Friendship Commission, but again as I say from human rights perspective this is really a complete farce.

Grace Phan: The Indonesian Foreign Minister, Mr Hassan Wirayuda said truth and reconciliation was successful in South Africa, and it's true that many saw this as a valuable part of the healing process there?

Adirito de Jesus Soares: Well exactly I mean here in East Timor we also have truth and reconciliation commission. We just set up three years ago, but as I said most of the perpetrators that committed human rights violations in East Timor are not here anymore. The commission also can only deal with all these small fishes and they have no power, the commission has no power to deal with serious crimes, dealing with crimes against humanity. I think this is clear from human rights perspective, from international law perspective that once you deal about crimes against humanity that should be brought to justice, not talk about impunity. And I do really, I'm really afraid that this Truth and Friendship Commission that Indonesian government and East Timor government are establishing is going to grant amnesty for those perpetrators. And I think this really is a setback in terms of fighting to stop impunity around the world.

Grace Phan: Hassan Wirayuda said the Truth and Friendship Commission was a mechanism to "close a chapter of the past to enable us to move forward". Do you think that is a reasonable objective?

Adirito de Jesus Soares: I think it's really ridiculous talking to close the past human rights violations which has involved such serious crimes such as crimes against humanity, crimes in genocide. And this is a problem that the world is dealing with and suddenly we see these two countries are thinking to close this past human rights violations. And I think against from human rights perspective I think it's really difficult to see this Truth and Friendship Commission can get information from military generals in Indonesia, I really doubt that Indonesian military generals are going to give information to this Truth and Friendship Commission.

Grace Phan: But even your own president, Xanana Gusmao said, "we are not looking for defendants, we are looking for truth". Do you not see any virtue in that?

Adirito de Jesus Soares: It is a contradiction in terminology, if you talk about truth, if you talk about justice, these are two things that should go hand in hand. We can't say that we are opposing justice while we're neglecting truth, or we are looking for truth while we are neglecting justice. I mean this is really an argument for me really doesn't make sense, and I think really if you talk about justice then we should talk about victims. And I don't see any single word, any agenda in the Truth and Friendship Commission that deals with victims.

Grace Phan: Mr Soares thank you very much. That was human rights lawyer, Adirito de Jesus Soares, speaking to me earlier from Dili. The Editor's panel is coming up right after this break.

Grace Phan: Welcome back, tonight we're examining the recently announced Truth and Friendship Commission set up in the wake of human rights abuses at the time of the Indonesian withdrawal from East Timor five years ago.

The governments of East Timor and Indonesia see the commission as a way of cementing good relations between the two countries. Others though are critical of the commission's lack of judicial power.

So on to our panel now, from Jakarta, Bambang Harymurti, Editor- in-Chief of 'Tempo Magazine'. From Dili, video journalist, Max Stahl, who witnessed much of the violence in East Timor, and from Bangkok, Sonny Inbaraj, Bureau Chief of 'Interpress Services' and former media advisor to East Timor's Foreign Minister, Ramos Horta. Gentlemen welcome to you all.

Sonny Inbaraj, you just heard criticism of the Truth and Friendship Commission, the commission has also been criticised by no lesser organisations than the United Nations and the Roman Catholic Church. Is the criticism justified?

Sonny Inbaraj, Bureau Chief, Interpress Services: I think Grace the criticism is justified in the sense that the setting up of this commission for truth and friendship does not involve any processes set out to prosecute the perpetrators of the 1999 violence. There are no mechanisms for that. There are mechanisms for the granting of amnesty to these people provided they cooperate with the Commission for Truth and Friendship. I think the Timorese leadership have made it clear that they do not want any international involvement in this Commission for Truth and Friendship, and that's indeed sad, because the 1991 international intervention of East Timor was done on the basis that there were grave human rights abuses happening in the country.

Grace Phan: Max Stahl you live in Dili, you videoed the massacre at the Santa Cruz cemetery in East Timor in 1991 when Indonesian soldiers gunned down 271 Timorese and other violence just before Indonesia's withdrawal. In view of those events what is the feeling on the ground in Timor about the resolution of past crimes?

Max Stahl, Video Journalist: There is a strong feeling in Timor I think across the board, even including victims that East Timor's relations with Indonesia are important, that people in Timor want to be friends with Indonesian people. There is not much sense here of desire for revenge.

People in Timor actually like Indonesians generally, they get on well with them, they understand them well, they feel as though they've got to know them in the period that they were here. However they make a distinction between Indonesians and Indonesian people and the army, and particularly some elements of the army such as the intelligence services, Kopassus and others. These units, these elements of Indonesian army in society are well known to the Timorese, and the Timorese understand them as enemies of peace and as dangerous neighbours. They don't trust them and they would love to see them taken out of the game. But that's not very easy and most Timorese are very realistic I find, they had to be realistic over many years in which they were in a very weak position. They had to choose their battles and they could not afford to indulge in taking on battles they couldn't win. Some Timorese feel that this is a battle they cannot win.

Grace Phan: Bambang Harymurti is there not an argument that Indonesia and East Timor have to live side by side and this commission is one way to assist that?

Bambang Harymurti, Editor-in-Chief, Tempo Magazine: Yeah I think it's the intention of this commission from both sides to maintain good relations between two countries, because we live side by side, so we need to live in peace. But also I understand also that the victims of repression by some bad elements in the military or intelligence communities are not only East Timorese but also Indonesians. So people like me, Indonesian, we also want to have these bad people to be tried and put in jail.

Sonny Inbaraj: If the judicial process in East Timor is not addressed it will go down very badly for Indonesia in the sense that all those military commanders who have been associated during the Suharto era would be able to go scott free in Indonesia, there's still a lot of atrocities in Indonesia that are being swept under the carpet. What about Aceh? What about West Papua? So the judicial process in East Timor I reckon will be a test case for Indonesia.

Grace Phan: Why do you think President Xanana Gusmao is so persistent in extending the hand of friendship to Indonesia when Indonesia was central to so much pain to him personally and his countrymen and women?

Sonny Inbaraj: I think first of all Xanana is a very forgiving man, but one thing that I want to bring up Grace is that first in any traumatised society coming out of a post-conflict situation there needs to be an opportunity for people to cry, for people to cry out, to tell others what they've been through. And after it all comes out then there's this whole justice issue that can be brought upon.

Max Stahl: I can well see why the government of East Timor has gone with this and I can see why the Indonesian government has gone with it, from a political point of view the East Timorese government has watched the international community backsliding and basically one way or another not delivering on its commitments, delaying on them and then attempting to put the ball in the court of the East Timorese. I'm not able to tell you what the private thoughts of President Xanana or Foreign Minister Horta or the Prime Minister here have been throughout this process, but I can say that I have noticed they have changed slowly, and they have changed because they notice in my judgement that the international community had no serious intention of delivering on justice and on the promises that they made. And that East Timor was in great danger of being the victims again as a result of being asked to attack Indonesia for whom it absolutely had to have good relations in order to survive and develop, and being asked to be the as it were the little kid in the playground go and spit in the eye of the big guy.

Grace Phan: Bambang Harymurti, Adirito de Jesus Soares wrote in the 'Jakarta Post' in February, "this commission would pave the way for the perpetrators to keep enjoying their impunity". Do you agree?

Bambang Harymurti: It is a bit too premature to say that but on the other hand I think it's good that he wrote that article as a sort of post to make sure that we will have the good people to be chosen as a member of the commission and that this commission will really work hard and work diligently to make sure that the truth will come out.

Grace Phan: Can the United Nations be more successful in prosecuting the perpetrators?

Bambang Harymurti: I think it depends on their approach. If their approach is helping to strengthen the Indonesian civil society who also abhor these perpetrators of human rights abuses, I think it can be fairly successful. But if the approach is a whole new approach to the whole Indonesian society, I think it will have, it will be a failure.

Grace Phan: Let me ask all of you will the commission go any way in providing truth, justice and friendship? Sonny, what are your thoughts?

Sonny Inbaraj: What I personally feel is that this Truth and Friendship Commission would only create divisions in East Timor. The Timorese people want to move forward, they want to put the past behind, but when this issue looms in your mind, an issue which hasn't been addressed this whole traumatic issue, it becomes quite difficult to move forward, to say let's forget the past and let's concentrate on the future.

Bambang Harymurti: This is going to be two democratic societies finding a solution, it's going to be messy, it's going to take time, it's going to not to satisfy everyone, but this is some of the process that we hope at one point will somehow get a closure for the majority of the people on both sides.

Grace Phan: Max, truth, friendship, justice, will we see any of these?

Max Stahl: I'd be very surprised if you get much truth, certainly there'll be no justice. As far as friendship is concerned, the worry about that is if the Indonesian people in the military refuse to cooperate, if they demand as it seems that some of these terms and references imply that the East Timorese members should as it were sign up to a sort of agreement whereby people like the general Wiranto and others will be explicitly absolved of responsibility, and there is a clause in these references which makes you worry that that might be what's implied. If that is the case then the President here and the Foreign Minister, both people of great international status and considerable integrity will be faced with a horrible choice, either they have to demand from the Indonesians something much more serious, which won't be possibly well received by these people and won't be conducive to friendship, or they themselves have to sign up to something which will greatly reduce their credibility, internationally and internally in East Timor. I think this is a very awkward choice and it may well be one that does not produce much friendship.

Grace Phan: Thank you all very much indeed, from Jakarta, Bambang Harymurti, Editor-in-Chief of 'Tempo Magazine'. From Dili, video journalist Max Stahl, and from Bangkok, Sonny Inbaraj, Bureau Chief, 'Interpress Services', he's also a former media advisor to East Timor's Foreign Minister, Jose Ramos Horta.

Coming up after the break, matters of opinion, other issues concerning Asia this last week as viewed by the media.

[Ommitted - JB.]

And that's our program tonight. Please do visit our website, abcasiapacific.com/editors. You can check our program times and also take part in our online poll, our question this week is, will the Truth and Friendship Commission bring Indonesia and East Timor closer to reconciliation? You can vote anytime, the results are tabulated live.

For now I'm Grace Phan in Singapore wishing you goodnight.

Demonstrators demanding justice on 1999's atrocities

Lusa - April 5, 2005

Dili -- Dozens of demonstrators demanding justice greeted the UN Commission of Experts on its arrival Tuesday in Dili to assess progress made by East Timor and Indonesia in trying those responsible for crimes against humanity in 1999 when the Timorese broke from Jakarta's occupation.

The three-member commission, appointed by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in February, met with President Xanana Gusmco shortly after arrival in the Timorese capital at the start of their two- nation mission.

Composed by representatives from India, Japan and the Fiji Islands, the commission was scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri Wednesday.

It was not immediately clear how long the UN team would remain in East Timor, which was torn by Indonesian army-orchestrated violence in 1999, before traveling to Jakarta.

Foreign Minister Josi Ramos Horta told Lusa Dili's "fundamental concern" was for the Commission of Experts to "make concrete recommendations to the United Nations and the East Timorese government about the future" of Dili's UN-backed Serious Crimes Unit (SCU), whose mandate expires on May 20.

The peaceful demonstration organized by non-governmental organizations arose out of concern that Dili might sacrifice justice for victims of the 1999 rampages, largely carried out by anti-independence militias, to its declared policy of building good relations with Indonesia.

Dili and Jakarta agreed in December to set up a Truth and Friendship Commission (TFC), which has yet to begin its work, to deal with the pro-Indonesia violence that left more than 1,500 dead, forced 250,000 into temporary exile in West Timor and destroyed about 75% of the country's infrastructure.

The UN team is also to assess if and how the United Nations should aid the TFC.

Many Timorese and some international voices demand the UN set up an international tribunal to try the crimes against humanity committed in East Timor around the time of its plebiscite for independence after a quarter century of Indonesian occupation. They dismiss trials held in Jakarta as a whitewash.

For its part, Dili's UN-sponsored SCU has acknowledged it tried or investigated only about half of the crimes against humanity and did so against a backdrop of declared non-cooperation from Jakarta.

While Dili has promised to cooperate with the UN Commission of Experts, Jakarta has kept its distance, arguing the UN mission is useless given the bilateral agreement to set up the TFC.

Alkatiri's government has made it clear it does not want to be left with the onus of trying to bring Indonesian officials and officers to justice alone once the SCU ends its mandate next month.

Hundreds call for UN commission to investigate abuses

Kyodo News - April 5, 2005

Hundreds of students and National Alliance for an International Tribunal members demonstrated Tuesday at Dili Airport to press a UN Commissions of Experts to seriously investigate abuses in East Timor in 1999.

The protesters underlined the lack of action on abuses perpetrated on East Timorese by wearing black gags emblazoned with "We need Justice" across their mouths.

They also carried banners calling for the UN commission to bring the "perpetrators of crimes against humanity" to an international tribunal and for the UN "not to wash its hands of the serious crime process in East Timor."

Edio Borges, one of the demonstrators, told Kyodo News the United Nations must take responsibility for crimes that took place in East Timor, stressing the perpetrators must be brought to justice.

Borges blasted an Indonesian ad hoc tribunal that failed to convict most Indonesians accused of crimes against humanity and he also questioned the work done by the UN serious crimes unit in East Timor, which is now ending its mandate.

"The crimes against humanity must be sent to an international tribunal because we don't believe the Indonesian ad hoc and the serious crime unit in East Timor is going to finish this now," Borges said. "So we want to tell the UN not to wash its hands of the crimes happened in East Timor."

The three members of the UN Commission of Experts, appointed last month by Secretary General Kofi Annan are to spend five days in East Timor.

The commission members, Prafullachandra Bhagwati of India, Yozo Yokota of Japan and Shaista Shameen of Fiji, will meet President Xanana Gusmao, other leaders, the East Timor Commission of Truth and Reconciliation and victims and families of victims in East Timor's 13 districts.

Hundreds of thousands of East Timorese were killed, abused or displaced in the bloody aftermath of a UN-administered referendum on independence for the former Portuguese colony in 1999. After Portugal abandoned East Timor in 1975, Indonesia invaded and occupied the colony until rejected by the East Timorese voters in 1999.

Many change the Indonesian leadership and military with widespread abuses during the occupation and in the aftermath of the referendum, but few people have been convicted of any crimes.

Human rights/law

Timorese journalists concerned about proposed media law

Internews Timor Leste - April 14, 2005

Timorese journalists, lawyers and MPs met in Dili on March 22 to debate media freedom and Timor-Leste's draft penal code at a seminar entitled "Media law and human rights" (Lei media ho direitus humanus).

More than 60 people attended the seminar, which was co-hosted by the Judicial Systems Monitoring Program (JSMP) and Internews.

Timor-Leste's Justice Ministry is currently drafting the penal code which includes harsh criminal penalties -- up to three years in prison -- and unspecified fines for defamation by journalists. The code also has aggravated penalties for defamation by journalists involving public officials or public institutions.

The first speaker at the seminar was renowned journalist Max Stahl, who shot the now-famous footage of Timor's 1991 Santa Cruz massacre and is currently based in Timor. He said he was concerned that the criminal code's chapter on defamation would restrict coverage of important news in the name of defending personal honour. "In my opinion, this is a very bad law."

KOTA (Kilbur Oan Timor Aswain) Party president and Timorese MP, Manuel Tilman said two of the articles in the code's defamation chapter contravened guarantees of freedom of expression and freedom of the media contained in Timor's constitution. Tilman also expressed support for the establishment of a Timorese press council.

Editor of the Timor Post, Aderito Hugo da Costa was also concerned that the defamation provisions contravened Timor's constitution. He said the provisions were "totally unproductive" and would not help Timor's media to develop.

However, Judge Rui Pereira dos Santos said he supported the provisions being included in the criminal code.

At the end of the seminar, participants who were opposed to the law suggested lobbying the Ministry of Justice with proposed amendments to the law.

Internews Assistant Chief of Staff, Francisco da Silva said, "Timor's media need to work together to come up with some proposed changes to the law and lobby for them to be accepted before the current draft law is approved by the Council of Ministers or the parliament."

Internews Timor-Leste is funded by the United States Agency for International Development.

Indonesia

Yudhoyono lays wreath at site of Dili massacre

Agence France Presse - April 10, 2005

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono laid a wreath at an East Timor cemetery where Indonesian soldiers massacred dozens of pro-independence protestors 14 years ago.

Yudhoyono's visit to the Santa Cruz cemetery was another step towards reconciliation between Indonesia and the territory it occupied for a quarter of a century, often brutally, before it opted for independence in a UN-sponsored vote.

Indonesian troops opened fire on hundreds of demonstrators who had gathered at the Santa Cruz cemetery in November 1991 to honor pro-independence activist Sebastiao Gomez, who was killed a week earlier by the Indonesian military.

More than 200 people were believed killed in the shooting, which prompted the United States to restrict arms sales to Indonesia and suspend the training of Indonesian soldiers.

A planned protest during Yudhoyono's visit to the cemetery with East Timor Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta Saturday did not materialize. He was instead greeted warmly by about 100 East Timorese, some of whom shook his hand.

The Indonesian president, who served in East Timor as a military officer, then moved on to a nearby cemetery for Indonesian soldiers who died during the occupation.

Speaking after meeting with East Timor parliamentarians, the former general described the tiny country as a "true friend" because, despite its own financial difficulties, it had donated 75,000 dollars for victims of the December 26 tsunami that devastated northwestern Indonesia.

Indonesia remains the worst hit country from the tsunami, with 163,978 people dead or missing. According to the National Disaster Relief Coordination Agency, the number confirmed dead was 126,915 people while 37,063 were listed as missing.

"A friend in need is a friend indeed. I thank all the people of Timor Leste for their attention during our time of distress," Yudhoyono said.

He told a group of about 100 Indonesians living in East Timor that he felt welcomed in the half-island country, where he arrived on Friday for his first visit to Dili since taking office last year.

"I was touched because along the way the people greeted me with enthusiasm. Some people called out my name. This shows that the two countries' relations are excellent," Yudhoyono said.

Yudhoyono had lunch with East Timor President Xanana Gusmao, who spent seven years in a Jakarta jail, before flying back to Indonesia later Saturday.

Speaking after the lunch, Gusmao said the two countries agreed to leave the past behind and look to the future.

"President SBY's visit demonstrates the brotherly and neighbourly relations between Indonesia and East Timor. The two countries are working together to promote common peace and prosperity," Gusmao told reporters, using Yudhoyono's nickname.

Both countries have avoided addressing the military-backed atrocities committed after Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and before it pulled out in 1999.

Indonesia withdrew from the territory in a maelstrom of military-backed violence surrounding the UN independence vote. The United Nations alleged that at least 1,400 people were murdered. Whole towns were razed.

An Indonesian tribunal set up to try military officers and officials for atrocities in East Timor has drawn international criticism for failing to jail any high-ranking Indonesians.

The UN has begun a review of the tribunal, but Dili and Jakarta say the move is unnecessary, preferring to focus on a South African-style truth and reconciliation commission to deal with the past.

On Friday Yudhoyono and East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri signed a border agreement clarifying 96 percent of their mutual frontier and removing one of the last obstacles to reconciliation.

Indonesia, Timor seal border accord amid Susilo visit

Jakarta Post - April 9, 2005

Rendi A. Witular, Dili -- Indonesia and East Timor announced on Friday an agreement on territorial borders as President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono began his two-day visit to the country's former colony.

Witnessed by Susilo and East Timor's Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda and his East Timorese counterpart Ramos Horta signed the agreement after it was discussed by the leaders of the two nations.

"I'm pleased that we have agreed to temporarily resolve the border issue. This is possible because both governments and peoples are determined to improve relationships," Susilo told a joint news conference with Alkatiri.

Alkatiri said the agreement was considered temporary because the two nations still disagreed on the remaining 4 percent of border areas that separate East Timor from the Indonesian province of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT).

"We are optimistic that the remaining border issues can be resolved soon. The agreement shows goodwill on the part of both sides to enhance the relationship," he said, asserting that good relations with Indonesia was essential.

Separately, Ministry of Foreign Affairs' director for Asia Pacific affairs Hamzah Thayib said the remaining unresolved border problems covered three locations between NTT and East Timor, which are delineated by a river.

"There is a problem in resolving these borders because the river banks move closer to Indonesia during the dry season, but shift to East Timor during the wet season," he said.

Hamzah said this made it difficult for the two countries to accurately measure their territories and install border poles.

After the signing of the temporary accord, Indonesia will immediately install poles along those borders areas already agreed upon by the two countries.

The border demarcation deal was one of the last problems to be resolved between Dili and Jakarta.

Susilo's visit to East Timor, his first since taking office last October, went smoothly without any unpleasant incidents, as had been speculated by certain foreign media.

With great enthusiasm, local people flocked Dili's streets to welcome Susilo.

Nicolai, a local rental car driver, said President Xanana Gusmao had appealed to East Timorese people not to stage any demonstrations during Susilo's visit, and repeatedly urged them to forget the past and to start a new relationship.

"I heard that there was going to be a protest by local people to demand compensation for their services as government officials when East Timor was still part of Indonesia. But it was canceled at Xanana's request," Nicolai said.

As a mark of respect to local people, who are mostly Catholic and are observing the funeral of Pope John Paul II, Susilo decided to cancel a state dinner with East Timorese leaders scheduled for the evening.

Susilo will instead have lunch with Xanana on Saturday at the latter's residence in Balibar, Dili.

Also on Friday, Susilo observed the construction of Xanana's future official residence in Lahane, Dili, and planted a "tree of friendship" in the front yard of the luxury house.

The Indonesian president is slated to visit the Santa Cruz Cemetery on Saturday as a gesture to bolster reconciliation between the two countries.

On Nov. 12, 1991, Indonesian troops opened fire on hundreds of protesters who were staging a procession in the cemetery to honor pro-independence activist Sebastio Gomez, who had been killed a week earlier by the Indonesian military.

More than 200 people were believed to have been shot dead in the massacre, prompting the United States to restrict arms sales to Indonesia and suspend training of Indonesian soldiers.

Yudhoyono in East Timor on reconciliation visit

Agence France Presse - April 8, 2005

With a 21-gun salute, Indonesia's president was greeted in East Timor on a visit to bolster reconciliation between Jakarta and the territory it once occupied with brutal force.

National anthems of both countries were played at Dili's rudimentary airport after Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono arrived on a Garuda Indonesian flight direct from a tour of Australia and New Zealand.

Yudhoyono, making his first trip to Dili since taking office last year, was later expected to hold bilateral talks with his Timorese counterpart Xanana Gusmao before signing a frontier accord with Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

The border demarcation deal is one of the last problems to be resolved between Dili and Jakarta, with both governments choosing to draw a line under military-backed atrocities committed under Indonesian rule.

Jakarta invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1976, beginning a quarter century of occupation that was overshadowed by human rights abuses by the Indonesian military. It pulled out in 1999 after a UN-backed independence vote. Some 1,400 people are believed to have been killed that year -- at a time when Yudhoyono was a senior general -- when the occupying military began a scorched earth campaign, razing entire towns to the ground as they withdrew.

East Timor then began two years of United Nations stewardship before gaining full sovereignty in May 2002 at a ceremony attended by Yudhoyono's predecessor Megawati Sukarnoputri.

An Indonesian tribunal set up to try military officers and officials for atrocities in East Timor has drawn international criticism for failing to jail any high-ranking Indonesians. The UN has since begun a review of the tribunal.

On Saturday, Yudhoyono is expected to visit an East Timorese cemetery where Indonesian troops killed dozens of people protesting the death of a pro-independence activist almost 14 years ago.

On November 12, 1991, Indonesian troops opened fire at hundreds of demonstrators who were holding a procession at the Santa Cruz cemetery to honor Sebastio Gomez, who was killed a week earlier by the Indonesian military.

More than 200 people were believed killed in the shooting spree, which prompted the United States to restrict arms sales to Indonesia and suspend training of Indonesian soldiers.

Indonesian officials described the cemetery tour by Yudhoyono, who will also visit a monument to dead Indonesian soldiers, as an attempt to bring the two neighbours closer. "The visit is a gesture that we have agreed to leave behind the past and start a new relationship. It is part of a reconciliation process for the two countries," Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said earlier this week.

According to officials in Dili, a planned dinner in honor of the Indonesian president later Friday has been scrapped because Yudhoyono wanted to watch television coverage of the funeral of Pope John Paul II.

News & issues

Protesters attacked at Santa Cruz cemetery

Green Left Weekly - April 13, 2005

Max Lane -- Around 200 East Timorese protesters were attacked on April 9 by police, including special branch paramilitary forces. The protesters had gathered at the Santa Cruz cemetery, the site of a 1991 protest where participants were massacred by Indonesian military, to commemorate the massacre and protest the East Timorese governments invitation to Indonesian President Yudhoyono to visit the country. Yudhoyono was scheduled to visit Santa Cruz cemetery.

The police stated that the demonstrators had no permit for a protest, although a law requiring such permits had not yet been passed by parliament. After the police seized banners and forced the protest to disperse, the activists relocated to the offices of the Socialist Party of Timor (PST). The police and members of the rapid response unit then surrounded the PST offices. PST secretary-general of the PST, Avelino de Silva, told Green Left Weekly during the stand-off that he had tried three times to enter his office but had been stopped.

Other sources have told GLW that East Timorese government representatives had visited the PST offices earlier in the morning and ordered that there be no protests against Yudhoyonos visit.

From inside the office, students and youth from activist non- government organisations and from the Socialist Youth Organisation draped a banner that read: No impunity Justice for the victims.

Speaking from inside, Tomas Freitas, from the Lao Hamatuk organisation, told GLW reporters in Darwin that the demonstration was protesting against the East Timorese governments policy of reconciliation with the Indonesian government, because it involved dropping the demand for an international tribunal to judge human rights violators during the period of the Indonesian occupation.

Democracy is dead in East Timor, Avelino told GLW. In Jakarta you can demonstrate against SBY [Yudhoyono], but they have made him a god here. They have allowed no banners anywhere protesting SBYs visit, but have forced people to put up welcome banners everywhere. When people gathered outside our office just a while ago, they too were dispersed by force.

The blockade around the PST office was maintained until Yudhoyono left East Timor. On April 9, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation website carried an Agence France Press report that claimed: A planned protest during Dr Yudhoyono's visit to the cemetery with East Timor Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta did not materialise. Instead, he has been greeted warmly by about 100 East Timorese, some of whom shook his hand.

Catholic Church/religion

Fresh calls for government to resign

ABC Radio AM - April 30, 2005

Reporter: Rachel Carbonell

Elizabeth Jackson: A dispute between the church and state in East Timor has escalated, with fresh calls from Catholic leaders for the Government to resign.

Protesters have been demonstrating in the capital Dili for almost two weeks, upset over plans to change religious education in schools in the majority Catholic country.

Observers in East Timor say the demonstration is the biggest since the violent riots of 2002, and that members have swelled to more than 10,000.

The Government denies the demonstration is that big, but is urging protesters to go home, as Rachel Carbonell reports.

Rachel Carbonell: The secular Government of East Timor has upset the largely Catholic population with its plans to make moral and religious education in state schools voluntary.

After more than a week of peaceful demonstrations in Dili, high- level talks between the Government and the church were held.

The country's Muslim Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, emerged saying the issue had been resolved.

Father Agostinho Soares is one of the Catholic Church leaders who organised the demonstration, and he says the dispute is far from over.

Agostinho Soares: I think it is not true. The Prime Minister must resign, because he's not doing his job according to the constitution.

Rachel Carbonell: How many people do you think are now taking part in the demonstration in Dili?

Agostinho Soares: I think a lot of people, especially from the streets, a lot of people. I don't know, maybe, 15,000, something like that.

Rachel Carbonell: The Northern Territory Government's representative in East Timor, Mike Gallagher, who lives close by to where the demonstrations are being staged in central Dili says the numbers have swelled dramatically over the past week.

Mike Gallagher: Troops had come in from the eastern end of the island, which is Lospalos, and also the western end, near the border from Suai. At the moment it is what you'd call a tent city, complete with communal cooking facilities and even now port-a-loos. And a park is situated is front of the bishop's house.

Rachel Carbonell: It sounds as thought the protest, even though it's now continuing into its second week, remains peaceful.

Mike Gallagher: Fortunately that is the case, yes. The church is controlling the people very, very well.

Rachel Carbonell: The Catholic Church says the demonstration is about far more than religious education. It says protesters are concerned about justice, unemployment, hunger, the health system, and responsible and accountable government, and the demonstration won't end until those concerns are addressed.

A spokesman for the East Timorese Prime Minister told the ABC that the demonstrators are in their hundreds, not thousands. He says the conflict with the church has been resolved after a dialogue earlier in the week where an in-principle agreement was reached, and there is now no reason for the demonstration to continue.

The Prime Minister's spokesman says the only issue discussed at the Government's meeting with the church was religious and moral education, and the Government isn't paying attention to the calls for it to resign.

Elizabeth Jackson: Rachel Carbonell with that report.

Timor settles education dispute with Church: PM

Agence France Presse - April 28, 2005

Lisbon -- East Timor's government and the nation's powerful Roman Catholic Church have settled a dispute over an end to compulsory religious classes in state schools, East Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatari said Thursday.

He told Lisbon-based Radio Renascenca he reached the deal Wednesday during a meeting with the former Portuguese colony's two bishops although he refused to say if the government had agreed to go back on its decision to end the classes.

"There is an agreement in principle. I can't say more because I am the prime minister and I still have to bring the issue to cabinet," he said, adding the new law had been misinterpreted.

"What I can guarantee is that we came out of our meeting with a consensus over how to interpret things."

East Timor's secular government decreed in February that religion should not be a compulsory subject in government schools, although it would be made available as an option for all students if they wished.

Thousands of people have taken part in peaceful rallies in Dili, the capital of the predominantly Roman Catholic country, over the past week to demand that Alkatari, a Muslim, resign over the issue.

"I don't see any reason for the protests to continue now that there is an agreement in principle," Alkatari said.

Earlier this week he hinted in another interview with Radio Renascenca that his government could go back on the decision to end compulsory religious classes but said the final decision would lie with the cabinet.

About 96 percent of East Timor's 800,000 people are Roman Catholic and there are Muslim and Protestant minorities.

East Timor gained independence in May 2002, three years after a referendum supervised by the United Nations brought an end to mainly-Muslim Indonesia's occupation of the territory.

Protests in Dili challenge government

Green Left Weekly - April 27, 2005

Jon Lamb -- A series of rallies organised by the Catholic Church in East Timor is another sign of the simmering discontent and frustration held by many East Timorese. Ostensibly rallies about religious education in schools, the demonstrations -- the largest in Dili since the formal declaration of independence in May 2002 -- also took up issues of justice and democracy, with a distinctly anti-government flavour.

The church called the demonstrations, which have varied in size from 2000 up to 5000 people since they started on March 18, in response to the Fretilin-led government's proposal to trial secular education programs in 32 schools, with voluntary religious teaching offered. The move has angered the Catholic Church hierarchy, a significant force in East Timorese society and politics.

Father Domingos Soares, a prominent priest associated with the campaign to end the Indonesian occupation, denounced the government's proposals. "The people and the Catholic Church have joined peacefully for an end to this extremist government", he said. Banners at the protests have criticised the government over lack of accountability and called for an "end to the dictatorship".

The government has accused the Catholic Church of creating a volatile situation. A statement released by Francisco Guterres, the parliamentary speaker and Fretilin president, condemned "the profoundly political and pre-insurrectional demonstration organised by the church hierarchy".

Other East Timorese have been concerned by the actions and statements of both the government and the Catholic Church. Ina Bradridge, a child welfare campaigner and one of the publishers of the weekly Timor Sun, told Green Left Weekly, "I think the church cannot force the state, the government, or the people to have to learn Catholic religion in school".

Bradridge added that she was "Very, very disappointed by the police and government at the way they were armed and holding their big guns... is it necessary to do that? You can't have fully armed police blocking the roads because of a protest. It is disgusting. This is not democracy... this is not the freedom we fought for. I'm really disappointed".

Another concern for Bradridge was the presence of children and young people at the demonstrations. "I don't agree with the church's use of children at the protest... that's not right. As a parent, I have a right over what religion my children are to be taught... it should not be forced by the church".

Tomas Freitas, an East Timorese human rights campaigner, is also concerned by the use of the justice issue by the church. "I think in this instance they are using this issue to push their own agenda about religious education", he told Green Left Weekly. Freitas told how one banner he saw attacked the government's decision because it would lead to the "spread of communism".

The church's use of the lack of justice for the victims of human rights abuses at the recent rallies, nonetheless, does reflect a very deep frustration and sentiment held by many East Timorese.

"About human rights in East Timor... it feels like we've actually got none", Bradridge stated. "I'm not really happy about the present situation. I cannot just point the finger at [prime minister] Mari Alkatiri... what about [president] Xanana, what about [foreign minister] Horta? What are they doing? And what is the church really doing about justice? "We were fighting for more than 24 years and before that over 400 years, for justice. At the end of the day I understand that we have to forgive, we have to move on beyond the past. But a lot of people... such as myself, such as those who were imprisoned, tortured and suffered terrible things, we need to see some results."

Row in East Timor over religion in schools

ABC Online The World Today - April 21, 2005

Reporter: Rachel Carbonell

Eleanor Hall: The President of East Timor is playing down concerns that the dispute between Church and State that's erupted in the young nation could escalate. Police are barricading government buildings in the capital Dili, as thousands of people protest against plans to make religious education in East Timor's state schools voluntary.

It's estimated that 95 per cent of East Timor's population is Catholic, and the Catholic Church wants its faith taught as a compulsory subject. But the country's president, Xanana Gusmao, is insisting on a more secular approach.

From Darwin, Rachel Carbonell reports.

Rachel Carbonell: Leaders from the Catholic Church in East Timor organised the demonstration, which began on Monday. Mike Gallagher is the Northern Territory Government's representative in East Timor. Speaking by mobile phone from close by to the demonstration, he says numbers have swelled overnight.

Mike Gallagher: I started to head back to my usual vantage point, but this morning I was stopped by the warden, and not permitted to go down to where the major groupings are taking place.

The crowd has been increased by the involvement of school children coming from the district. The Seminarians are also joining in, and they're coming down in their various denomination groups. And the crowd has started to gather down adjacent to the government building.

I am on the eastern side, as I was yesterday, and the crowd is there, they are again singing hymns, prayers and making speeches.

Rachel Carbonell: The demonstrators are upset over Government plans to run a pilot program in about 30 schools where morality and religious education will be taught as optional rather than compulsory subjects.

The Government says the decision stems from East Timor's constitution, which states that the young nation is a secular one. The President of East Timor, Xanana Gusmao, wants the two parties to sit down with each other. But his Chief of Staff, Agio Pereira, says the protests are not major concern.

Agio Pereira: Well, the President always urges joint efforts to work on things that are of national interest, and therefore the President continues to urge that all parties break the barriers of misunderstanding and reach agreement, even if at the end they have to agree to disagree.

Rachel Carbonell: Some of the protestors have been calling for the Prime Minister of East Timor, Mari Alkatiri, to resign. Is that a concern?

Agio Pereira: Well, you see, it is normally in the democratic environment that people, when they go to protest, because they have serious sentiments, are negative about the Government. They always call for the Government to resign. In Australia, it's normal people to call for Prime Minister Howard to resign. And it's not unusual to happen. It doesn't happen often here, that's why sometimes people find it unusual.

Rachel Carbonell: Is there any fear that this protest could be destabilising for the Government of East Timor at all?

Agio Pereira: So far there is no sign that can indicate or justify this fear.

Rachel Carbonell: Have you spoken to the President, Xanana Gusmao, about this protest, and if so what did he say to you about it?

Agio Pereira: The President upholds the rights enshrined in the constitution of all the citizens, and at this stage the President views is that these protests as expression of citizens willing to use these rights in the democratic space that is guaranteed by the constitution. And as long as there's no violence, and as long as there's no attitudes that go beyond what is acceptable by law and democracy, the President thinks is a test of our democratic processes of a young nation of less than three years.

Rachel Carbonell: Some witnesses say police are trying to prevent more protestors from joining the demonstration by blocking the access points to the capital from outlying districts. The President's Chief of Staff says that's not the case, police are merely trying to keep the law and order and make sure everything goes smoothly.

Eleanor Hall: Rachel Carbonell with that report.

Activists call on Timor prime minister to resign

Sydney Morning Herald - April 21, 2005

Jill Jolliffe, Dili -- About 5000 East Timorese protesters calling for the Prime Minister to resign were camped in Dili yesterday under banners reading "End the Dictatorship".

The demonstrators, backed by the Catholic Church, have been prevented by riot police from entering the capital's main square, but have remained in a side street.

They are refusing to budge until Mari Alkatiri quits and his majority Fretilin party appoints a new government.

"The people and the Catholic Church have joined peacefully for an end to this extremist government," said Domingos Soares, a nationalist priest and a hero of East Timor's 24-year liberation struggle against Indonesia who is leading the demonstration.

"We want the Alkatiri Government to step down and for Fretilin to choose another." However, Fretilin's central committee held an extraordinary meeting yesterday morning and made it clear that Mr Alkatiri's position was non-negotiable.

East Timor's parliamentary Speaker and Fretilin's president, Francisco Guterres-Lu Olo, said in a communique that the party rejected "the profoundly political and pre-insurrectional demonstration organised by the church hierarchy".

The United Nations and the US embassy have issued warnings to staff that there could be trouble.

Catholic leaders have taken an increasingly militant stand against the Government since it withdrew support for religious instruction in primary schools this year.

But its leaders have struck a popular chord in opposing a deal made with Indonesia by President Xanana Gusmao and Mr Alkatiri that paves the way for pardons for war crimes committed in 1999 by departing Indonesian soldiers and their Timorese allies.

A statement on April 9 by the bishops of Dili and Baucau said impunity for war criminals was a matter of grave concern.

They said the people of East Timor could not "condone impunity for crimes against humanity".

Gusmao says won't allow protest to topple government

Lusa - April 21, 2005

Dili -- President Xanana Gusmao condemned the East Timorese Catholic Church's continuing demonstrations against the government Thursday, saying he would not allow street protests to bring down Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's cabinet.

Gusmao, flanked by Alkatiri and Parliament Speaker Francisco Guterres, also told journalists he disapproved of the use of partisan symbols in a religious demonstration and of religious symbols in political protests.

Timor's Catholic hierarchy, he said, appeared to have "somewhat lost the objective" of the demonstrations in favor of required religion classes in public schools that began Tuesday.

"It's a citizen's right to demonstrate, but, if the demonstrations' objective is to bring down the government, I will not permit it", he said in comments at Dili airport before departing to Indonesia for the Asia-Africa Summit.

A change of government, he added, could only take place through elections and a cabinet reshuffle through the action of the governing party.

Organized by the influential Catholic Church, the demonstrations in Dili were mobilized around demands to keep religion classes as a required subject in public schools but quickly deepened into demands for the government's ouster.

The peaceful, around-the-clock protests, drawing crowds of as many as 3,000, have been led by priests and nuns, with the presence of images of the Virgin Mary and sessions of prayer and hymn singing.

Catholics, government lower their rhetoric

Lusa - April 20, 2005

Dili -- Hundreds of peaceful Catholic protestors kept up their pressure on East Timor's government for a second day Wednesday, but both the religious activists and the government toned down their sometimes inflamed rhetoric.

As more than 2,000 demonstrators prepared to a spend second night camped near Dili's government headquarters to demand mandatory religion classes in public schools, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri praised their "democratic maturity", apparently de-authorizing earlier virulent comments by senior officials.

In turn, the demonstrators largely abandoned Tuesday's demands for the government to resign and accusations Alkatiri was a "dictator", devoting themselves, instead, to prayer and singing.

In a statement issued late Wednesday, the prime minister praised the protestors for their "orderly behavior", saying "the calm atmosphere" would help open "channels of dialogue between the government and the Catholic Church".

He also applauded "the exemplary work" of police keeping the demonstrators some 150 meters away from the government headquarters.

Earlier Wednesday, both the interior minister and the speaker of parliament blasted the church-organized demonstration as subversion aimed to topple the government and threatened to use force.

"We have information that they are preparing an assault on the government palace and have plans to paralyze Dili", Interior Minister Rogerio Lobato told Lusa, adding that police would "resort to legitimate use of force" if demonstrators tried to occupy government buildings.

Separately, Speaker Francisco Guterres issued a communique describing the demonstrations as a "pre-insurrectional" maneuver orchestrated by the Catholic Church in collusion with unspecified opposition forces.

Many of the protestors, including priests and nuns, remained on Dili streets overnight Tuesday after taking part in demonstrations ostensibly against government plans to relegate religious teaching in schools to an optional subject.

More protestors from East Timor's provinces have been prevented from entering the capital by police at checkpoints around the capital. On Tuesday Alkatiri said the unauthorized protest "did not create conditions for dialogue in any manner".

Tensions between the Catholic Church, which claims the adherence of about 96% of the country's 800,000 people, and the government have built up over the past two months.

An increasingly bitter war of words erupted after the government began implementing a pilot program in about 30 public schools to reduce religion classes to optional status.

The government has also said it planned to make church institutions responsible for paying the salaries of religion teachers.

Dili on edge after church urges protest

Melbourne Age - April 20, 2005

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin -- East Timor was last night facing its worst crisis since independence after influential sections of the Catholic Church called people into the capital, Dili, to protest against the Government.

Scores of special police had blocked off the Parliament and key government buildings late yesterday as about 700 protesters gathered near the waterfront, many of them calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

Police also set up road blocks on roads into Dili, stopping hundreds, perhaps thousands, from joining the protesters.

Witnesses said trucks carrying protesters were stopped by police as far away as Batugade, a town 112 kilometres from Dili, on the border with Indonesian West Timor. Groups of people prevented from entering Dili sat by roadsides singing hymns. Some carried crosses and statues of the Virgin Mary.

"The centre of Dili is cordoned off. People can't get in," an Australian businessman in Dili said by telephone last night. "Timorese are saying there has never been anything as potentially serious as this since independence."

All yesterday East Timor's Catholic radio had called on the tiny country's Catholics to "protest against Alkatiri -- kick him out".

The call follows disagreement between the church, the most powerful institution in East Timor, and the Government over school curriculums.

The church wants the Catholic faith to be compulsorily taught in schools, but the Government insists that under the constitution East Timor is a secular state and that no one faith can be imposed on everyone.

Relations between Mr Alkatiri, a Muslim in the predominantly Catholic country, and Bishop Alberto Ricardo da Silva appear to have broken down, even though the two men were seen greeting each other warmly at a function in Dili a few weeks ago.

Timorese are saying there has never been anything as potentially serious as this since independence." Dili businessman

Bishop da Silva replaced the Nobel laureate Bishop Carlos Belo, who resigned in 2002 because of ill health.

East Timor's Catholic radio, which broadcasts in the local Tetum language, yesterday told people: "Don't be scared for freedom." The radio urged police to stop defending Mr Alkatiri and to "defend your own people".

One Australian with strong links to the church, who has worked in Dili since 1999, said last night he believed the crisis had been fuelled by much confusion and misrepresentation. "People need to sit down and discuss the church-state issue in a quiet manner," he said.

Church rallies thousands in anti-government protest

Agence France-Presse - April 19, 2005

Rosa Garcia, Dili -- East Timor's influential Catholic clergy on Tuesday rallied thousands to protest against Dili's "dictatorship regime" in the latest sign of a growing rift between church and state in the fledgling country.

More than 5,000 people gathered outside government offices to demand Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's resignation in the peaceful demonstration, one of the largest displays of anger since East Timor gained sovereignty in May 2002.

The protest was sparked by the government's decision to drop mandatory religious education from the national school curriculum, but is the latest in a series of disagreements between the country's leaders and the church.

The church has also expressed outrage over Dili's move to drop trials over atrocities committed by Jakarta-backed militias during a 1999 plebiscite which saw East Timor emerge from a quarter of a century of Indonesian occupation.

Father Benancio Araujo, a spokesman for Dili Diocese, said protesters would continue their rally for the rest of the week, but would cease if the government agreed to hold talks.

"We will remain here tomorrow and the days after. We are fighting the dictatorship regime of Alkatiri," the priest shouted to the crowd, which responded with repeated cries of: "Justice, justice and truth."

Placards reading "fight against the Alkatiri regime" and "the defender of truth and justice" were held aloft by the protesters.

The priest also called on members of the church, a legacy of Portuguese colonial days, to summon people from beyond the capital to "topple the anti-democratic regime".

Alkatiri who stayed inside his office during the demonstration, issued a statement saying he was willing to talk but was unhappy that the church had organised the protest.

"The government still wants to open a dialogue with the Catholic church, but this demonstration today does not help to create conditions for dialogue," he said.

East Timor's Catholic bishop Alberto Ricardo da Silva earlier this year expressed opposition to a deal between Timorese and Indonesian leaders to drop trials over the atrocities committed during the country's independence process.

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his Timorese counterpart Xanana Gusmao last month formalised a deal to form a Truth and Friendship Commission to deal with crimes during Indonesia's scorched earth withdrawal.

The United Nations has refused to endorse the deal, proposing instead a Commission of Experts to assess why a 1999 Security Council resolution to try those accused of war crimes has failed.

A spokesman for Alkatiri told AFP that da Silva had earlier this month sent a strongly-worded statement criticising the government for failing to listen to the church, which had previously demanded a say in the country's running.

Alkatiri responded, accusing the church of "behaving like a political party", and saying that his government had the legitimacy to agree on the commission and make the education ruling.

Alkatiri was the apparent target of an outbreak of violence in East Timor in December 2002, when riots saw 10 buildings torched or damaged in Dili, including the prime minister's home and houses owned by two of his brothers.

Two people died and 25 were injured in the violence, which was blamed both on anti-government protesters and pro-Jakarta militiamen.

Protesters mobilize against 'dictatorial' government

Lusa - April 19, 2005

Dili -- Hundreds of East Timorese Catholics, angered by moves to demote religion classes in public schools, gathered in front of Dili's government building Tuesday to protest what they call "dictatorial" policies by Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

As dozens of police bared the estimated 2,000 demonstrators, some carrying images of the Virgin Mary, from approaching the government building, protest organizers said they would remain in place and await re-enforcements from across the country until Alkatiri met their demands.

The church-organized demonstration would continue "until a solution is found for the future of East Timor", Father Domingos Soares, the spokesman for the Dili diocese, told Lusa.

In a communiqui, Alkatiri said the unauthorized demonstration "in no way helps to create conditions for dialogue".

President Xanana Gusmao's spokesman, Agio Pereira, told Lusa the head of state would not intervene as it was up to the government to resolve the mounting tensions with the country's influential Roman Catholic Church over the school issue and other demands.

Gusmao, who was "accompanying the situation", believed "the demonstrators and the government will know how to overcoming their differences", Pereira said.

Rev. Domingos, who prayed with the growing crowd and repeatedly charged Alkatiri and his cabinet of authoritarian and "dictatorial" practices, said the demonstration could last for "some days".

Protestants were also participating in the protests, he said, adding he hoped the small Muslim community would also join in. While the protesters' demands remained vague, with speakers referring to the people's "suffering", the two-month-old war of words between the church and the government has centered on Dili's recent pilot program to demote religion classes in public schools to the status of an optional subject.

The demonstrators, who began gathering in Dili's government square early in the morning, launched their unauthorized action despite police having bared the entry into the city of some 200 protesters Monday evening.

Most demonstrators wore black armbands in a sign of mourning for "endangered democracy" and organizers told Lusa 30,000 protest T- shirts had been ordered.

Officials said the demonstration had not been authorized because the request had only been made Monday, not allowing sufficient time for official consideration.

Church accuses government of endangering democracy

Lusa - April 18, 2005

Dili -- The struggle between East Timor's government and influential Roman Catholic Church intensified Monday with the church hierarchy accusing Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's cabinet of being secret Marxists who endanger democracy.

In a "pastoral note", the church hierarchy said it defended "true democracy" and the separation of church and state, while denouncing what it termed was the government's "quick conversion from Marxism".

It charged the government was following policies of "Marxist democracies of the Chinese model or of the retrograde Third World", referring to the ruling FRETILIN party's ideological stance of nearly three decades ago.

The Catholic Church's lastest blast against Dili's cabinet follows two months of mounting tensions that has seen the government accuse the church of making "bellicose declarations" and "unwanted interference" in politics.

The angry public exchanges first erupted over government plans to introduce a pilot program to demote religion classes in public schools to the status of an optional subject.

More recently the church has also strongly criticized the government for its decision to allow a bilateral Truth and Friendship Commission with Jakarta to deal with the sensitive issue of justice for Timorese victims of Indonesian atrocities committed around the time of the country's 1999 independence plebiscite. In an interview with Lusa Sunday, the church's spokesman, Rev.

Domingos Soares, said Dili's polices in the two areas endangered East Timor's fledgling democracy and cultural identity.

"What is happening is that justice is in danger. Democracy is in danger. Timorese culture is in danger. Timorese identity is in danger", Rev. Soares said, adding that the church's stance was one of "defending democracy".

Police stop church supporters entering capital for demo

Lusa - April 18, 2005

Dili -- Police in East Timor prevented about 200 people entering Dili late Monday to attend a demonstration in the capital called by supporters of the country's powerful Roman Catholic Church against a government trial to end compulsory religion classes in schools.

The group, including priests, nuns and seminary students, were traveling in a convoy of trucks and cars and were stopped from entering Dili at a police checkpoint 10 kms from the capital, said a senior police source, citing "orders from above" for the decision to stop the vehicles and their passengers entering the city.

Father Agostinho Jesus Soares, one of the coordinators of the planned protest, dubbed "peaceful demonstration", said the group were told by Timor's police chief, Superintendent Paulo Martins, they had been stopped from entering Dili as there could be people who wanted to cause "disrespect" among the group.

Tuesday's protest has been organized by supporters of Timor's Catholic Church, whose leaders have become embroiled in an increasingly bitter war of words in recent weeks with the Dili government.

The row intensified Monday with the church hierarchy accusing Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's cabinet of being secret Marxists who endanger democracy.

The Catholic Church's lastest blast against Dili's cabinet follows two months of mounting tensions that has seen the government accuse the church of making "bellicose declarations" and "unwanted interference" in politics.

The angry public exchanges first erupted over government plans to introduce a pilot program to demote religion classes in public schools to the status of an optional subject.

More recently the church has also strongly criticized the government for its decision to allow a bilateral Truth and Friendship Commission with Jakarta to deal with the sensitive issue of justice for Timorese victims of Indonesian atrocities committed around the time of the country's 1999 independence plebiscite.

Church behaving like 'opposition party': Alkatiri

Lusa - April 13, 2005

Dili -- Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri has accused leaders of East Timor's Roman Catholic Church of attempting to play the role of political opposition in its recent criticism of a government pilot scheme to end compulsory religious education in schools.

In a statement released Tuesday, Alkatiri responded to charges made this week by Timor's two Catholic bishops that he had caused "great offense" to the country's dominant church in comments he made earlier about the prelate's reaction to plans to change the system of religious instruction in schools.

Alkatiri said the communiqui from the Bishops of Dili and Baucau, Alberto da Silva and Basilio do Nascimento respectively, would go down in Timor's history as the "date the Catholic hierarchy transformed into a political party".

Dili's head of government invited the bishops to join a commission that is overseeing a pilot scheme in 32 schools to make religious education an optional subject.

"Without descending to the same level as the bishops' last statement, we limit ourselves to reaffirming that the decision to change religion classes to a non-compulsory subject is an experiment SWe will study the results of this trial to decide if it will be applied to the whole country or not", Alkatiri's communiqui said.

Bishops blast government for 'great offense' to church

Lusa - April 11, 2005

Dili -- An increasingly bitter dispute between the government of East Timor and the country's spiritual leaders over plans to demote religious teaching in schools escalated Monday after two Roman Catholic bishops accused the Dili executive of causing "great offense" to their church.

In a joint press release, Bishop Alberto Ricardo da Silva of Dili and Bishop Basilio do Nascimento of Baucau said a March 24 government statement attacked "the conviction and fundamental references of the Timrorese", and "diminished the sacred scripture".

Last month's government criticism against the Catholic Church was in response to what Foreign Minister Jos Ramos Horta had described as "unwanted interference" in state plans to make religious instruction in public schools an optional subject.

Under the scheme being piloted in 32 schools, Timor's various established churches will take responsibility for teaching religion.

In their communique, Timor's two senior Catholic prelates also criticized the recent creation of Dili and Jakarta of a Truth and Friendship Commission, a body which will neither give moral compensation to victims of war crimes nor punish those who committed them.

"The people will not accept impunity for crimes against humanity. The victims who suffered these crimes, their families and the people in whose name the crimes were committed deserve more than this".

Daily media reviews

East Timor daily media reviews

UNMISET - April 1-27, 2005

Alkatiri open to reversal in religious class row with church

Timor-Leste's Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri has announced that his government may go back on a decision to end compulsory religious classes in state schools, a reversal demanded by protests backed by the Catholic Church. "The world is made up of changes, a static world does not develop," the Prime Minister told Lisbon- based Radio Renascenca when asked if the government would change its controversial policy.

"The decision was not mine, although everyone is laying all the blame on me because I am the Prime Minister. The decision was made by the Cabinet so any change would have to be made by the Cabinet," he added in an interview with the Catholic radio station.

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta said that the dispute between the Church and government appears to "be reaching an end" after he held talks with a senior clergyman. Following talks with Bishop Basmlio do Nascimento of Baucau, Ramos-Horta said that he was "convinced that given this possibility of an opening, there will be a conclusion to this episode in the next 48 hours".

STL reports that PNTL Operational Commander Ismael da Costa Babo has labelled the demonstration as provocative in nature and therefore not peaceful. He said that the declarations and accusations launched by the protestors in the last few days have the potential to provoke instability and thus the police have asked the protestors not to make similar statements in the future. (AFP, Lusa, STL)

FRETILIN questions presence of foreigners at demonstration

Head of the FRETILIN in the Parliament, Francisco Branco, has questioned the presence of foreigners at the demonstration, which continues today in front of the government palace. He said that their presence violates the immigration law, which specifically prohibits foreigners from participating in anti-government demonstrations in Timor-Leste. Other FRETILIN members in the Parliament said that Father Venancio's invitation on the first day of the demonstration calling for all Catholics to take part in the demonstration could be considered an invitation for foreign Catholics to also take part. If they do, they could be breaking the law and may be charged as such, according to the discussion in Parliament on the issue. (STL)

Shooting incident triggers suspicions in Indonesia

The Indonesian press reports that the Commander of the Wirasakti Provincial Military Command in Kupang, Colonel Amir Hamka Manan, has accused Timor-Leste of violating the norms practiced by neighbouring countries following the shooting of an Indonesian military lieutenant by officers of the Timor-Leste Border Patrol Unit earlier this month.

Manan has accused the BPU of planning the shooting in order to provide cover for the smugglers whom they were chasing. He said that he hoped Timor-Leste's Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri would release the name of the perpetrators and apologize to Indonesia for the incident. Manan was also reported as saying that the first shooting incident of an Indonesian soldier in Indonesian territory signified that there is a threat from Timor-Leste's side of the border. (Timor Post)

UNMISET to hold symposium

The United Nations Mission of Support in Timor-Leste will hold a large international symposium this week to reflect on its peacekeeping operations in Timor-Leste since 1999. The two-day symposium will be attended by prominent figures such as the United Nations Assistant Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations, Mr. Hedi Annabi, Timor-Leste's President Xanana Gusmao, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri and other government ministers.

International organizations, representatives from the diplomatic community and representatives from civil society and academia will also attend the symposium. Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Timor-Leste, Sukehiro Hasegawa said that the aim of the symposium is to reflect on the United Nations and its partner organisations' contributions to Timor-Leste and also to identify future challenges to further develop a democratic and peaceful nation. (STL)

April 26, 2005

Annan calls on donors to help build a better future

In a message to a meeting on Timor-Leste, the UN Secretary- General, Kofi Annan, has urged the international community to "again do its part", calling on donors at a meeting in Timor- Leste to help the tiny Asian nation continue its post- independence march towards sustainable development.

With the current mandate of the UN Mission of Support in East Timor (UNMISET) due to end soon, the Secretary-General said "we find ourselves at a critical juncture". "As Timor-Leste transitions from a peacekeeping into a peace-building phase, I hope you will assist capacity-building efforts with a view to ensuring viable and stable administrative structures."

"I trust your deliberations will contribute further to building better lives for the people of Timor-Leste. The challenges before us are daunting, but with your help, I am confident that they can be overcome," he said.

"I am proud that the United Nations has contributed to creating conditions for peace and stability in Timor-Leste, without which its development efforts could not have proceeded successfully," added the Secretary-General. (UN News)

Timor-Leste church talks collapse

Timor-Leste's powerful Catholic Church said it has slammed the door on possible negotiations with the government after seven days of protests calling for the country's Prime Minister to resign. The Vice Bishop of Dili, Apolinario Guterres, told reporters that discussions had failed to meet the demands of demonstrators who gathered in their thousands outside government buildings. The protests have been held in anger at the Fretilin party-led government's proposal to scrap compulsory religious education in schools, but reflect a growing rift between the church and Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's leadership.

"People do not trust the government. Right now the church is only willing to open a dialogue with the Parliament and Fretilin," said Mr Guterres.

A government spokesman said talks with the church had failed because demands for the removal of the Prime Minister ran contrary to the constitution of Timor-Leste.

The head of the government delegation to the meeting, Minister of Health Dr. Rui Araujo, speaking at a press conference after the meeting, said that the issue of religious education was not an important talking point during the meeting, but rather the Church's demand for the creation of a new government as a means of resolving all the problems currently being experienced by Timor-Leste. (The Australian, AFP, STL, Timor Post)

Indonesian government urged to probe shooting of soldier

The West Nusa Tenggara provincial administration called on the central government to hold talks with the Government of Timor- Leste to ensure a thorough investigation into the recent shooting of an Indonesian Military (TNI) soldier on the border between the two countries. "We have asked the central government to handle the shooting incident thoroughly and the (East Timor) policeman, who fired on the soldier must be brought to justice," said West Nusa Tenggara deputy governor Frans Leburaya said.

Meanwhile, the head of the UN mission in Timor-Leste, Sukehiro Hasegawa, has promised that UNMISET would carry out a thorough investigation into the incident and establish procedures for preventing such incidents from occurring in the future. In a press release yesterday, Dr Hasegawa said that UNMISET was deeply concerned over the incident and that was why he visited the scene of the shooting. (The Jakarta Post)

Donor's conference focuses on poverty

The President of the National Parliament, Francisco Guterres, told the Donor's Conference yesterday that Timor-Leste cannot hide from the reality that it is a poor country and even though many aspects of the administration of the country are now functioning, Timor-Leste continues to need assistance. Speaking also at the conference, the Special Representative of the Secretary General in Timor-Leste, Dr Sukehiro Hasegawa, also appealed to the international community to continue to contribute to Timor-Leste's development. He said that he is pleased with the contribution that the United Nations has made to Timor-Leste's development through the peacekeeping force and support for the national police among others. Hasegawa also thanked donor nations, as well as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Asian Development Bank and NGO's for their contributions and assistance to Timor-Leste since 1999, pointing out that the United Nations could not have done its work here without the support of these partners.

Meanwhile, the Country Director of the World Bank Zhu Xian has said that Timor-Leste is making good progress in the implementation of the National Development Plan. Speaking at the Donor's Conference, Xian also said that Timor-Leste has made an impressive implementation of the government framework in the petroleum sector. Comparing Timor-Leste to other countries, which have mismanaged their non-renewable resources, Xian said that Timor-Leste has demonstrated its dedication to the creation of an excellent framework for transparent and prudent management of petroleum resources. (Timor Post)

UNICEF chief visits national hospital

The Head of UNICEF in Timor-Leste visited the National Hospital yesterday with the objective of analysing immunization and nutrition programs, and consultations for pregnant women. During the visit, hospital staff spoke to the UNICEF chief about the difficulties experienced by the hospital, such as the need for maternity and newborn equipment. UNICEF has reportedly agreed to assist the hospital in these areas. (STL)

April 25, 2005

Government and Church begin dialogue

Representatives of the Catholic Church in Timor-Leste have accepted an invitation from the government to begin dialogue amid the continuing demonstration. It is planned that following today's high-level meeting another meeting will be held on Wednesday between the Prime Minister and Timor-Leste's two bishops.

On Friday, Timor-Leste's Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, under pressure from unrelenting Catholic demonstrations, wrote to the country's bishops proposing talks "as quickly as possible". In his letter, Alkatiri thanked the two bishops for the restrained character of the street protests and called for government-church talks at the highest level, Dili's vicar general, Father Apolinario Guterres, told Lusa news agency.

The continuous demonstrations, which began last Tuesday, were ostensibly launched to press the government into not implementing plans to demote religion classes in the predominantly Catholic country's public schools to the status of optional subjects. However, the protestors, armed with images of the Virgin Mary, rapidly broadened their demands to include denunciations of general government policy and calls for "dictator" Alkatiri to resign.

Questioned by Lusa on President Gusmco's criticism of the use of religious icons to attain political goals, Fr Guterres suggested the President was out of touch with his people. "If the head of state has the right to say what he thinks, he also has the duty to listen to the people to know exactly what the reality is," he said.

Meanwhile, the President has accused the Roman Catholic Church of instigating anti-government protests. President Gusmco said he welcomed the protests as a sign of Timor-Leste's democracy but he criticized demonstrators who are calling for the sacking of the Prime Minister.

"We are thankful that (people) are calling attention to the problems but the change of the government must be done according to the constitution," he said. "If not, then every time you don't like a Prime Minister you can just ask him to resign." (Lusa, Timor Post, STL, Associated Press)

Timor Sea negotiations re-commence

The next round of Timor Sea negotiations between Australia and Timor-Leste will be held this Wednesday and Thursday in Dili. According to the Secretary of State for Tourism, the Environment and Investment, Jose Texeira, this round of negotiations will focus on Timor-Leste's proposal for a 'creative solution'. Australia's Ambassador to Timor-Leste Margaret Twomey told Timor Post that she expects these negotiations to result in a very good outcome for the two countries. (Timor Post)

Timor-Leste to become a member of ASEAN

Timor-Leste will become a member of the ASEAN Regional Forum as early as next year, according to Foreign Minister Jose Ramos- Horta. Speaking to journalists upon his return to Timor-Leste from Indonesia, Ramos-Horta said that the Indonesian Foreign Minister as well as other ASEAN ministers had informed him that Timor-Leste would become a member of the forum next year.

The ASEAN Regional Forum specializes in the discussion of regional security issues. Ramos-Horta said that the final decision on Timor-Leste's membership to the forum will be taken in Laos in June 2006. (Timor Post)

April 22, 2005

President on row over religion in schools

The President's Chief of Staff, Agio Pereira, has played down concerns that the dispute between the Church and the State over compulsory religious education in schools could escalate. Thousands of East Timorese have been demonstrating in the capital for three consecutive days, upset over Government plans to run a pilot program in about 30 schools where religious studies will be taught as an optional rather than a compulsory subject.

In an interview with ABC radio, Pereira said the protests are not a major concern. "The President always urges joint efforts to work on things that are of national interest, and therefore the President continues to urge that all parties break the barriers of misunderstanding and reach agreement, even if at the end they have to agree to disagree," he said.

The Chief of Staff denied that there is fear or indication that the protest could be destabilising for the Government of Timor- Leste. "As long as there's no violence, and as long as there's no attitudes that go beyond what is acceptable by law and democracy, the President thinks this is a test of our democratic processes of a young nation of less than three years."

Meanwhile, President Xanana Gusmco has praised the protestors for the way they have conducted their demonstration peacefully. Speaking at a press conference at the international airport before leaving for the AsiaAfrica Conference in Indonesia, the President said that he also very much appreciated the work of the police in controlling the demonstration.

However, the President expressed disappointment with the use of religious icons during the demonstration as well as the fact that the demands of the demonstration had moved on from that of religion to also include justice and security, among others. He called for the government and Church to initiate dialogue to discuss the matter. (ABC, STL, Timor Post)

Indonesian officer accidentally shot in border incident

An Indonesian security officer was accidentally wounded yesterday when border patrols from both countries were attempting to arrest smugglers near Timor-Leste's frontier with West Timor. The incident occurred early yesterday when the Timorese border police and an Indonesian military patrol chased the group of presumed smugglers on the road from Maliana to Balibo, about 70 kilometres west of Dili. An Indonesian lieutenant was inadvertently shot in the leg during the joint pursuit by the Timorese patrol.

To defuse the tension between forces, the United Nations' envoy for Timor-Leste, Dr Sukehiro Hasgawa, has called a meeting this morning between Indonesian and Timorese commanders as well as UN military observers. (Lusa)

Timor becomes newest applicant to join UN tourism agency

Timor-Leste, the world's youngest country, has become the newest applicant for membership of the United Nations' tourism agency. The World Tourism Organization (WTO) is a global forum that plays a decisive role in promoting the development of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. The Timor-Leste application, together with those of Papua New Guinea, the United Kingdom and Belarus, will be submitted in November to the WTO's General Assembly in Senegal. (UN News)

Timor participates in Asia-Africa Conference

Timor-Leste's President and Prime Minister will participate in the Bandung Asia-Africa Conference today. The United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan along with representatives from approximately 46 countries are expected to participate. Timor- Leste's Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri will open the conference. (Timor Post)

Next donors conference upcoming

The next donor's conference for Timor-Leste will be held next week in order to discuss Timor-Leste's future development. After meeting with Timor-Leste's Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri on Thursday, the UN's Special Representative for Timor-Leste, Dr Sukehiro Hasegawa, said the conference is an important forum for a discussion of the needs of the people of Timor-Leste and of monetary developments, which will support areas such as education and health.

Hasegawa added that after the donor's conference there would be an international conference on 28 and 29 April to reflect on the peacekeeping operations of the United Nations in Timor-Leste between 1999 and 2005. (Timor Post)

April 21, 2005

Prime Minister on demonstration

The Office of the Prime Minister released a statement to the press late yesterday, whereby Mari Alkatiri has congratulated the national police force and demonstrators on their efforts in making the demonstration as peaceful as possible. The statement states that the Prime Minister applauds the fact that no incidents occurred between the demonstrators and the police and congratulates all those who participated in this demonstration for having manifested great democratic maturity.

The Prime Minister said that the peaceful climate that characterises the demonstration helps to nurture the dialogue channels between the Government and Catholic Church. Mr Alkatiri added that he is open to constructive dialogue with the Catholic Church. (Press statement from the Office of the Prime Minister)

Lobato calls on priests to hang up cassocks and threatens protestors with use of force

The Minister of Interior, Rogerio Lobato, has called for the priests involved in the demonstration to hang up their cassocks if they desire to become involved in politics. Lobato, responding to calls for the Prime Minister to resign, criticized the demonstration, saying that the original cause for the demonstration had only been used as a cover for other political aims. In a statement issued yesterday, Fretilin said that it does not accept the political nature of the demonstration as well as the use of religious icons during the demonstration.

Both the Interior Minister and Speaker of Parliament, Fransicso Guterres, also blasted the church-organized demonstration as subversion aimed to topple the government and threatened to use force. "We have information that they are preparing an assault on the government palace and have plans to paralyse Dili," said Lobato. The Minister also added that police would "resort to legitimate use of force" if demonstrators tried to occupy government buildings.

Meanwhile, in a press release yesterday, the Bishop of Dili Diocese, Alberto Ricardo, said that the demonstration was never only about religion, but also about other issues of concern to the people, such as justice for crimes against humanity, food security, health, education, poverty, corruption, press freedom and freedom of speech. (Timor Post, Lusa)

Malaysia and Timor-Leste co-operate in customs and excise

Malaysia and Timor-Leste are set to establish bilateral ties in area of customs and excise, with the aim of improving the quality of customs services in Timor-Leste. At a press conference yesterday, the Deputy Director General of Malaysian Customs, Datuk Abdul Rashid Bolong, said that the focus of this new agreement would be on capacity building, logistics, and a review of legal regulations. (STL)

April 20, 2005

Ireland continues to assist Timor-Leste

The Republic of Ireland has indicated that it will maintain its position in assisting Timor-Leste for the next ten to twenty years. Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta yesterday issued a press release, detailing the commitment made to him by the Irish Prime Minister and Foreign Minister during a visit to Dublin last week. Timor-Leste is one of only two countries in the Asia region that receives assistance from Ireland. (Timor Post)

UNDP offers continuing support to Timor-Leste

The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has promised to continue to support Timor-Leste's development, namely in areas such as infrastructure, finance, human resources, and veteran's affairs. UNDP's Country Director, Naheed Haque, conveyed this information during a seminar at Hotel Timor on Monday, titled Review of Country Program 20032005. Ms Haque also announced that UNDP is also currently stepping up efforts to assist the justice sector in infrastructure and human resource development. (STL)

Local NGO's fold due to poor management

The NGO Forum listed 400 local non-government organisations in Timor-Leste for the year 1999-2000, but data collected in April 2005 indicates that this number has fallen to approximately 200. NGO Forum District Liaison Officer, Duarte dos Santos Xavier, said the folding of such a large number of NGO's was due to poor management.

Meanwhile, the number of international NGO's has fallen from more than 100 at the beginning of Timor-Leste's reconstruction to 70. Xavier attributed the drop in the number of international NGO's to a decrease in the amount of money circulating in Timor-Leste as the UN mission prepares to close. (STL)

April 18, 2005

Alkatiri comments on ethnic divisions in Timor-Leste

At a graduation ceremony for more than 250 new recruits of Timor-Leste's defense force, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said that the military is an institution of the people and must not be fraught with ethnic divisions between the east and west of the country.

At the ceremony, attended by a number of senior government and UN officials, the President of the National Parliament, Francisco Guterres said that the task of Timor-Leste's defense force is to defend the nation's sovereignty, the people and the state. (Timor Post, STL)

Russia and Turkey present credentials to president

Timor-Leste's President Xanana Gusmao was presented with the credentials of both the ambassadors of Russia and Turkey. The new Russian Ambassador to Timor-Leste, Mikhail Bely, said that Russia is providing important assistance to Timor-Leste through the UN Security Council as well as to UNMISET through the areas of transport, military, and police observers.

The Ambassador said that he and President Gusmao discussed the possibility of bilateral cooperation between Russia and Timor- Leste. (Timor Post, STL)

Alkatiri congratulates population on general clean-up

Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri has congratulated those who participated in the clean-up campaign last Friday, which aimed at eradicating the breeding places for Dengue mosquitoes. The Prime Minister, along with the Minister for Planning and Finance, the Secretary of State for Defence, and the Inspector General participated in the event in various areas of Dili. Members of Timor-Leste's police and military also assisted in the clean-up. (Timor Post)

Member of martial arts group stabbed to death

Tobias de Jesus, a member of the martial arts group 'Kera Sakti', was stabbed on Saturday evening in Comoro. It's not yet known who was responsible for the stabbing. Meanwhile, on Saturday evening members of the Timor-Leste police and defence forces were involved in a brawl, which resulted in four civilians being injured. (STL)

April 14, 2005

Big mistake to affiliate martial arts group with political party

The President of Timor-Leste's National Olympic team, Joao Carrascalao, claims it is a big mistake for a martial arts group such as 'KORKA' (Klibur Oan Timor Rai Klaran) to associate themselves with a political party.

Joao Carrascalao made the comments following the declaration by KORKA, aligning itself with the current governing political party, Fretilin. (Timor Post, STL)

Kuwait ambassador presents credential

The Ambassador of Kuwait, Muhammad Fadel Khallef, presented his credentials to the President of Timor-Leste, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao on Wednesday at the Palace of Ashes. Both Timor-Leste and STL reported that Ambassador Muhammad, who is based in Jakarta, announced Kuwait and Timor-Leste will establish ties to assist the development sector, in areas such as infrastructure, oil exploration and clean water.

The Kuwaiti government has also offered US$600,000 for a plan to transform sea water into drinking water. (Timor Post, STL, TVTL)

Dili District court releases four PNTL suspects

Dili District court released four PNTL suspects yesterday, who were accused of being involved in rape case in Tasi Tolu in February 2004. The prosecutor presiding over the case took the decision to release the four suspects because of the lack of evidence available. (STL)

April 13, 2005

Government angered by Catholic Church comments

The increasingly bitter dispute between the government of Timor- Leste and the country's Catholic Church on whether religious teaching should be compulsory in public schools continues to intensify.

Following yesterday's public statement by the Catholic Church in Timor-Leste, whereby the two bishops accused the government of offending the church, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri has today responded, accusing the Catholic Church of transforming itself into a political party.

Local newspaper reports state that the Government is willing to engage in a dialogue on the above matter rather than transforming this debate into a religious war. The communiqui by the Government, published by STL and Timor Post, also accused the hierarchy of the Church of having little interest in finding a solution.

Meanwhile, the Dean of the Faculty of Politics at the National University in Dili, Valentim Ximenes, called on both sides to sit down together and discuss this issue properly in order to avoid confusion. (Timor Post, STL)

President Gusmco urges political parties not to instigate fights amongst population President Xanana Gusmco has urged all political parties to educate, love and teach the population but not to instigate fights among the community through the use of false information and propaganda. He added that political parties should respect and embrace one another in a democracy such as Timor-Leste. President Gusmco made the statement during a visit to Ermera district, where he also called on the local population to prepare themselves for the upcoming election of Chefi de Suco and Conselho de Suco. (Timor Post, TVTL)

MP Amaral on Fatuk Sinai island

MP Clementino dos Reis Amaral from KOTA has called on the governments of Timor-Leste and Indonesia to involve the local community in solving the border demarcation of Fatuk Sinai (or Batek Island). Amaral, a former administrator in an area on the disputed border, said based on his experiences many problems could be solved through local communities.

Meanwhile, MP Joco Gonsalves of PSD has questioned the Minister of Foreign Affairs on whether the signing of the provisional border agreement with Jakarta on 8 April would mean the handover of Fatuk Sinai island to the Indonesian government. (Timor Post, STL)

TL and Indonesia to open border

The Minister of Interior, Rogirio Lobato said the governments of Timor-Leste and Indonesia would soon open the border to a certain extent to facilitate the needs of the population residing there. He said that opening the border would benefit the local population economically.

Minister Lobato clarified that he has spoken to his Indonesian counterpart about allowing the local population, who are residing on the border and who do not hold a passport, to move freely in the area but not to cross the Indonesian border by more than 10 kilometres. Minister Lobato added that apart from economic benefits, the border pass given to locals would also be an opportunity for families living on either side to meet. (STL)

Mayor Ular Rihik: 258 F-FDTL New Cadets to Graduate Mayor Ular Rihik announced that 258 F-FDTL cadets, who completed a basic training course at Nicolau Lobato Training Centre in Metinaro, will graduate on 15 April 2005. (Timor Post)

Dengue fever experts to help Timor-Leste

Two Northern Territory-based dengue fever mosquito experts will fly to Timor-Leste today to help stop a recent outbreak. Twenty- four East Timorese have died from the disease and more than 400 have been hospitalised this year.

The Health Department's senior entomologist Peter Whelan said the two-day trip will be used to get basic information about how the Timorese authorities tackle this virus. (ABC)

April 12, 2005

Bishops blast government on religious teaching in schools

An increasingly bitter dispute between the government of Timor- Leste and the country's Catholic Church over plans to demote religious teaching in schools has escalated after two bishops accused the government of causing "great offence" to their church.

In a joint press release, Bishop Alberto Ricardo da Silva of Dili and Bishop Basilio do Nascimento of Baucau said a 24 March government statement attacked "the conviction and fundamental references of the Timorese" and "diminished the sacred scripture".

Last month's criticism by the government against the Catholic Church was in response to what Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta has described as "unwanted interference" in state plans to make religious instruction in public schools as optional subject. Under the scheme being piloted in 32 schools, Timor-Leste's various established churches will take responsibility for teaching religion.

In the communiqui, the two Roman Catholic bishops also criticized the recent creation of the Truth and Friendship Commission being planned by Dili and Jakarta. They claim the body will neither give moral compensation to victims of war crimes nor punish those who committed them. "The people will not accept impunity for crimes against humanity. The victims who suffered these crimes, their families and the people in whose name the crimes were committed deserve more than this." (Lusa, STL, Timor Post)

Horta to call on Ireland for more aid

Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta has called on Ireland to expand its aid programme to Timor-Leste. Despite international aid totalling more than $1-billion since 1999, Mr Ramos-Horta said "immense needs remain".

Arriving in Dublin yesterday for a four-day official visit said he hoped that donor countries, rich friends, do not leave in haste because there are some oil and gas revenues coming in the future. (The Irish Times)

Guterres on roles of Commission of Experts and CAVR

The Director of CAVR, Aniceto Guterres, has stated that the UN's Commission of Experts and the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) have each got a separate missions and roles. Mr Guterres made the above statement after he was questioned following his meeting with the Commission of Experts last week. He said the role of the Commission of Experts is to evaluate a process, while CAVR is seeking to find the truth, which is then forwarded to the President and the National Parliament before it is made public.

When asked about the meeting between families of victims and the Commission of Experts, Guterres responded by stating that the meeting was sponsored by human rights groups as well as UNMISET's Human Rights unit, not CAVR. (Timor Post)

Guterres: Indonesians have lost their rights over assets

MP Eusebio Guterres claims that Indonesians no longer have any right to reclaim their assets in Timor-Leste. Guterres says that according to Timor-Leste's constitution, private and company assets belonging to Indonesians and Portuguese individuals are now under the ownership of the state. MP Guterres is urging Timor-Leste's government to enforce the existing law. He said the deadline for Indonesians to reclaim any assets or property ended on 10 March 2004. However, he concluded by saying that private assets could legally be reclaimed through a court process and based on paragraph 16 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Meanwhile, MP Leandro Izaac expressed similar sentiments, arguing that if the Indonesian government wants to reclaim their assets then Timor-Leste should do the same. (Timor Post, STL)

Coverage on protests during President SBY's visit

Timor Post runs various headlines on the reactions on a demonstration, which national police prevented from taking place during the visit of Indonesia's President to Timor-Leste on Saturday. The newspaper quoted the Socialist Party of Timor- Leste's (PST) representative, Nelson Thomas Correia, who criticised the attitude shown by the national police (PNTL) for preventing them from protesting.

Meanwhile, Fretilin's Fransisco Branco was reported by Timor Post as saying that PNTL's attitude in preventing demonstrators from expressing their opinion during the visit of the Indonesian President SBY was undemocratic and that the group should have been allowed to protest peacefully. (Timor Post)

April 11, 2005

Indonesia refuses entry for UN experts

Indonesia is set to deny entry visas for three legal experts tasked by the United Nations to investigate why Jakarta failed to punish any military officers over the violence that accompanied Timor-Leste's independence vote in 1999. According to government spokesman, Marty Natelegawa, allowing the three to visit Indonesia would "not be in order" because Timor-Leste and Indonesia have formed their own commission to investigate the violence and promote reconciliation.

He denied that refusing entry to the three would anger the United Nations.

"Indonesia is a respected member of the United Nations. We do not see ourselves as on a collision course with the United Nations," he added. (Associated Press)

Yudhoyono stresses reconciliation in Timor

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono ended a two-day visit to Timor-Leste on Saturday with emphasis on respect for the newly independent nation. During a press conference, Yudhoyono said that the Indonesian people appreciate nations with their sovereign rights and Jakarta looks forward to building a closer relationship between the two countries.

His comments prompted applause during the press conference. The President also said his administration will promote the establishment of better roads between the two countries to improve cooperation and economic and cultural ties.

About 20 Timorese protested his visit, demanding prosecution of those who perpetrated atrocities during the Indonesian occupation and the especially bloody period in 1999, when the UN estimates around 1000 people were killed.

However, in reports carried by local non-governmental organizations and the Green Left Weekly, around 200 East Timorese protestors were stopped from taking part in a demonstration by police, including special branch paramilitary forces. The protestors had gathered at the Santa Cruz cemetery, the site of the 1991 protest where participants were massacred by Indonesian military, to commemorate the massacre and protest the government's invitation to President Yudhoyono.

The police stated that the demonstrators had no permit for a protest, although a law requiring such permits had not yet been passed by parliament. Although the police seized banners and forced protestors to disperse, the activists relocated to the offices of the Socialist Party of Timor (PST). According to the reports, the police and members of the rapid response unit then surrounding the PST office. (Reuters, Green Left Weekly, Lao Hamatuk)

Indonesian President visits site of Timorese massacre

Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono laid a wreath at an East Timorese cemetery on Saturday, where Indonesian soldiers massacred pro-independence protestors 14 years ago. Yudhoyono's visit to the Santa Cruz cemetery was another step towards reconciliation between Indonesia and Timor-Leste. The visit was the first by an Indonesian leader to the graveyard, and the most clear symbol yet of the improving ties between the two countries since Timor-Leste broke away from Jakarta's brutal 24-year rule in 1999.

The Indonesian President, who served in Timor-Leste as a military officer, then moved on to a cemetery for Indonesian soldiers who died during Indonesia's occupation.

Speaking after a meeting with East Timorese parliamentarians, the former general described the tiny country as a "true friend" because, despite its own financial difficulties, it has donated $75,000 for victims of the December 26 tsunami that devastated north-west Indonesia. "A friend in need is a friend indeed. I thank all the people of Timor-Leste for their attention during our time of distress," said Yudhoyono. (AAP, AFP, ABC, STL, Timor Post)

East Timor and Indonesia sign border deal

Timor-Leste and former ruler Indonesia signed a border demarcation agreement on Friday shortly after the arrival of the Indonesian President to Dili. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri witnessed the signing by their foreign ministers.

"This is fruit of hard work. Today is a step forward for both countries and it is because of the determination of the people of the two nations," said Mr Alkatiri. He said the agreement covered 96 per cent of outstanding border issues and that it was a provisional agreement as there is still four per cent of the agreement to be settled, which he believes both countries are willing to solve.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs' director for Asia Pacific affairs, Hamzah Thayib, said the remaining unresolved border problems covered three locations between East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) and Timor-Leste, which are delineated by a river. "There is a problem in resolving these borders because the river banks move closer to Indonesia during the dry season, but shift to Timor- Leste during the wet season," he said. Hamzah said this made it difficult for the two countries to accurately measure their territories and install border poles.

After signing the temporary accord, Indonesia will immediately install poles along those border areas already agreed upon by the two nations.

Meanwhile, as a mark of respect to the Timorese people, who are mostly Catholic and were observing the funeral of Pope John Paul II, the Indonesian President decided to cancel a state dinner with East Timorese leaders that was scheduled for Friday evening. (ABC, Reuters, Kyodo, The Jakarta Post, Timor Post, Lusa)

President SBY calls on Indonesians to be ambassadors in TL

Indonesian President's appealed to Indonesians, who are currently living in Timor-Leste, to be Indonesia's ambassadors in Timor- Leste. During a meeting with his own community in Dili, President Yudhoyono mentioned that he raised the issue of assets and refugees in his address to the National Parliament of Timor-Leste and solutions are being sought.(Antara, STL, Timor Post)

Australia hopes Timor Sea reserves will cut oil imports

Australia's Treasurer Peter Costello says the Bayu-Undan project in the Timor Sea off Darwin will play an important role in making up lost production from existing Australian oil fields. Mr Costello told a meeting of the Northern Territory Cattleman's Association in Alice Springs that total production from all Australian oil fields has fallen by about 220,000 barrels per day since 2002. He said that has led to an increasing reliance on imported oil in the midst of oil prices rises.

Mr Costello says when the Exeter/Mutineer, Enfield and Bayu-Undan oil projects come on line in the next few years they will produce a combined 200,000 barrels per day.

In May 2002, Australia and Timor-Leste signed the Timor Sea Treaty, which allows a temporary joint petroleum revenue sharing area in the Timor Sea.

Under the treaty, Timor-Leste receives 90 per cent of tax and royalty revenues from oil and gas production in the treaty area, which Australia receives 10 per cent. (ABC)

Wirajuda: Timor Gap no longer in the possession of Indonesia

Indonesian Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirajuda, stated that the government of Indonesian no longer has an interest in the Timor Gap. Minister Wirajuda confirmed that since an agreement signed with Australia years ago is being cancelled officially, Indonesia does not have any business on the matter. (Antara)

Amaral: Timor will always turn to Indonesia

Member of Parliament, Clementino dos Reis Amaral, stated that Timor-Leste will always turn to Indonesia because of the reliance on goods from its neighbouring country by the population. He said although Indonesia needs Timor-Leste's political support, namely at the UN, it is Timor-Leste who needs Indonesia's assistance in all development sectors. He added geographically Indonesia is the closest country to Timor-Leste and therefore, Dili would always turn to Jakarta. (Antara)

April 8, 2005

NGO calls on Yudhoyono to discuss Timor Gap with Australia

The West Timor Awareness Foundation (YPTB) says it regrets the stance taken by Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono for failing to discuss the ownership of the Timor Gap during his recent visit to Australia. YPTB Director Ferdi Tanoni says that President Yudhoyono should have been brave enough to bring up this matter for further discussion between Indonesia, Australia and Timor-Leste.

"As de facto, the majority of sources in the Timor Gap are in the waters of Indonesia," stated Tanoni. YPTB's Director also spoke out against the arrest and torture of many Indonesian fishermen in the Timor Sea, whose boats have also been destroyed. According to Tanoni, Indonesia must soon push for a new ratification of all agreements related to the possession of the Timor Gap and re- arrange the median line so that Indonesia will receive parts of oil exploration. (Tempo)

President Gusmco threatens to resign if demonstrations are held against SBY visit and urges Timor-Leste to look to future President Xanana Gusmco has threatened to resign if a local non- governmental organization (NGO) and the families of the victims stage a protest against the visit of the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudohyono. During a press conference, President Gusmco stressed that he has been elected as the President of Timor-Leste by the population and not by one or two groups. Therefore, if any protests are staged against the Indonesian President he would resign and let the President of the National Parliament take over the position.

President Gusmco also urged the people of Timor-Leste to look to the future rather than keep talking and focussing on the past. (Timor Post)

MP Gonsalves urges TL Government to include discussion on rights of former Indonesian civil servants

Member of Parliament Joco Gonsalves has expressed his disagreement with the Government of Timor-Leste for excluding the issue of former Indonesian civil servant during discussions with the President of Indonesia. MP Gonsalves argued that based on the agreement of 5 May 1999, the issue regarding the rights of former Indonesian civil servants is the responsibility of the Indonesian and Portuguese governments as well as the UN. Therefore, the Government of Timor-Leste needs to continue to defend the issue by making efforts to discuss it during the meeting.

In a separate article in the Timor Post, Timor-Leste's Ambassador to Indonesia, Arlindo Marcal, stated that the issue regarding payment to former Indonesian civil servants has never been included in the agenda during meetings sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. (Timor Post)

Australian Ambassador supports UN Mission in Timor-Leste

Australia's Ambassador to Timor-Leste, Margaret Twomey, is reported in the Timor Post today as saying that it is a misunderstanding to think that the Australian government does not want a UN mission in Timor-Leste. She said the Australian government has told the UN Security Council that it would like to see another UN mission without a peacekeeping component but more concentrated on developmental issues, such as governance, police and military, and the court system. (Timor Post)

April 7, 2005

Alkatiri on dialogue with church on school curriculum

Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri is keen to meet with Church leaders on the controversial issue of whether religion should be a compulsory subject in schools. The Prime Minister made the remarks after signing a condolence book for Pope John Paul II in Dili yesterday. He reportedly told a journalist from Timor Post that the best solution is to sit down with the Catholic Church and for each party to present its arguments. The Catholic Church is pressing for religion to remain a mandatory subject in school curriculum. (STL)

Commission of Experts meet local NGOs

The members of the UN Commission of Experts yesterday held a meeting with local human rights groups at UNMISET's headquarters in Obrigado Barracks.

The meeting was attended by Yayasan Hak (Right Foundation), Fokupers, Rede Feto (Women's Network), Forum Tau Matan (Watch Forum), the International Alliance for an International Tribunal and the NGO Forum. Rosentino Amado from Yayasan Hak told the media that the whole objective of the meeting was to find out the experiences and views of non-governmental organizations regarding the crimes against humanity committed in 1999. It was further clarified that the victims' families are still in the same position of demanding justice for the events of 1999 as well as compensation for the destruction caused and a follow-up on the process.

According to newspaper reports, the main demand by the NGO communication was the continuation of justice process, while Yayasan Hak pushed for the establishment of an international tribunal. (Timor Post, STL)

President SBY to be questioned on the rights of former Indonesian civil servants

Local newspapers report that former Indonesian civil servants have prepared a statement regarding their rights as former Indonesian government employees, unconstitutionally removed by the Indonesian government following the referendum in 1999. The reports mention that Vital dos Santos, who has been appointed as the legal attorney to solve the concerns of the former Indonesian civil servants, has prepared a statement to be presented to the Indonesian President during his visit to Timor-Leste tomorrow. (Timor Post, STL)

ADB on Timor-Leste's economy post UNMISET

The Representative of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Dr Charles Andrew, believes that Timor-Leste's economy will experience a decline or have a negative impact on economic activity post UNMISET. Dr Andrew told a press conference that the short-term negative economic activity is due to the reduction of financial support by the international community. He also added that although Timor-Leste's government could replace the current existing donor grant with revenue from Timor Gap exploration, he said the funding had to be managed adequately by the government because of certain trends in the Asia region, which were recently highlighted by ADB. (Timor Post)

April 6, 2005

Protestors call for UN commission to investigate abuses

About 100 students and activists rallied at the airport in Dili yesterday calling on the visiting United Nations Commission of Experts to seriously investigate abuses in Timor-Leste in 1999. As the legal experts landed, the demonstrators, wearing black gags emblazoned with the words "we need justice" across their mouths, claim the joint Truth and Friendship Commission planned by the governments of Timor-Leste and Indonesia would not deliver justice to the victims of Indonesian backed militia. The demonstrators also carried banners calling for the UN Commission to bring the perpetrators of crimes against humanity to an international tribunal and for the United Nations not to wash its hands of the serious crimes process in the country.

The three-member commission, appointed by the UN Secretary- General in February, met with President Xanana Gusmco shortly after arrival in Dili at the start of their two-nation mission. Composed of representatives from India, Japan and Fiji, the Commission is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri today. It's not immediately clear how long the UN team would remain in Timor-Leste. The Commission's main mandate is to assess the progress made by Timor-Leste and Indonesia in trying those responsible for crimes against humanity in 1999. It will also assess if and how the UN should aid the Truth and Friendship Commission planned by Dili and Jakarta.

Keen to improve relations with Indonesia, Timor-Leste's government has rejected the establishment of an international court to try those convicted of crimes against humanity following the referendum in August 1999. Timor-Leste's government has promised to cooperate with the UN Commission of Experts, but Jakarta has kept its distance, arguing the UN mission is useless given the bilateral agreement to set up the Truth and Friendship Commission. (Reuters, Kyodo, Lusa)

SRSG Hasegawa meets President Xanana on a range of issues

During a meeting with the President, SRSG Hasegawa said they discussed a range of issues, including the visit of the UN Commission of Experts and the possibility of a smaller UN mission in Timor-Leste.

Meanwhile, several Members of Timor-Leste's Parliament have publicly expressed their support to the possibility of the UN extending its presence in the country because of the positive impact on the people and the Government. MP Joco Gonsalves from PSD claimed the extension of UNMISET would be very good because the reality shows that Timor-Leste is still in need of UN assistance not just in areas of security but also public administration and legal affairs. (Timor Post, STL)

Minister Maia to Represent Timor-Leste in Vatican's Funeral

Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri yesterday confirmed that the Minister of Education, Armindo Maia, will represent Timor-Leste at the funeral of John Paul II in the Vatican. The Prime Minister said that he, President Gusmco and Minister Ramos-Horta could not attend the funeral due to the official visit by the Indonesian President on Friday. A number of Members of Parliament will also accompany Minister Maia. (Timor Post, STL)

Land and maritime border office to be established

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jose Ramos-Horta, announced that the government of Timor-Leste is expecting to establish a new office to deal specifically with land and maritime borders. The minister also said that funding to establish the office will be provided by USAID as well as the Portuguese government.

Meantime, STL has quoted Ramos-Horta as saying that the Indonesian President will sign a provisional agreement on land border between Timor-Leste and Indonesia during his visit to Dili. (Timor Post, STL)

Minister Lobato on Interpol centre and PNTL's role during visit of Indonesian President

The Interior Minister, Rogerio Lobato, confirmed that his ministry is expecting to operate the facilities at Timor-Leste's Interpol centre in order to detect any illegal activities.

Meanwhile, the Minister also announced that a battalion of PNTL officers would be involved in the provision of security during the visit of Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Friday. (Timor Post, STL)

April 5, 2005

Branco: Truth and Friendship Commission members not yet decided

Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Olimpio Branco, said even though Timor-Leste and Indonesia have signed an agreement on the Commission of Truth and Friendship, the Government has yet to appoint five people, who would become members of this body. (Timor Post)

National press coverage on death of Pope John Paul II

Timor Post quotes the Spokesman of the Vatican, Joaquin Navarro- Valls, as saying that Pope John Paul II's funeral would be held on 8 April. The newspaper also reported that the President of the National Parliament, Francisco Guterres, and MPs conveyed their condolences on the passing of the Pope.

Suara Timor Lorosae (STL) reported that the Government of Timor- Leste has decided to build a statue of the Pope in Tasi-Tolu. This information, relayed by the Chief of Fretilin, Francisco Branco, also said that the Government has the support of all political parties. (Timor Post, STL)

Amaral: Yudhoyono plans to visit National Parliament

MP Clementino Amaral announced that the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudahyono, who will be visiting Timor-Leste on 8 April, would also make an appearance at the National Parliament. Amaral added that during the one hour visit, President Yudahyono will meet the President of the National Parliament for half an hour and that he will also address the Parliament. (Timor Post, Suara Timor Lorosae)

April 4, 2005

Timor to honour Pope with statue and three days of mourning

Timor-Leste has declared three days of mourning following the passing of Pope John Paul II. The government also announced that it would build a statue honouring the man who championed the impoverished country's fight for independence, which according to the Prime Minister, will be constructed in Tasi Tolu.

Yesterday, the streets of the capital Dili were deserted as many crammed into houses of people with radio or television sets to hear news of the pontiff, who lost his battle with illness late Saturday night. With flags flying at half-mast outside all government buildings, Prime Minister Alkatiri said that he had sent condolences on behalf of the people of Timor-Leste.

The Pope is widely revered in Timor-Leste, where 90 per cent of the population is Catholic. He was a rare foreign visitor in the late 1980s during the country's occupation by Indonesia. Independence activists used the spotlight on his 1989 visit to publicise their cause, storming a podium during one of his appearances and unfurling a banner objecting to Indonesia's occupation.

Timor-Leste's President, Xanana Gusmao, hailed the Pope's tenacity in the face of his failing health, his dedication to peaceful causes and his support for Timor-Leste's struggle for freedom. "Even though he was sick, he still managed to function as a Pope. That's why all people from different countries and religions love him and feel lost. He always gave a message of peace, reconciliation and justice," he said. "East Timor's people will never forget the Pope's visit here when he gave us a message of support in our struggle for independence," he added.

Meanwhile, President GusmAo said that the government is currently considering whether to send a representative from Timor-Leste to the Vatican to participate in the Pope's burial ceremony, an issue that will be decided by the National Parliament tomorrow. The government also said that they will arrange appropriate provisions for people of Timor-Leste to participate in any ceremonies being planned by the Dili and Baucau Church Dioceses. A special mass to be held for the pontiff will be announced soon by the two bishops of the country. (AFP, Kyodo, Timor Post, STL)

Security Council tipped to approve new mission The Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Timor-Leste said that the United Nations Security Council is likely to endorse an extended UN presence in Timor-Leste. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Sukehiro Hasegawa said that he had reported to the Prime Minister that the Security Council will most likely approve the new peace-building mission to be created and to be stationed in Timor-Leste. Dr Hasegawa said that this new UN mission may be tasked with building government capacity, with the retention of civilian advisors (Kyodo, Timor Post)

Government 'not brave enough' to hold 2007 elections

The head of the Social Democratic Party, Mario Viegas Carrascalao, believes that the government of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri is "not brave enough" to hold general elections in 2007. Carrascalao said that because the mechanisms that Fretilin established to hold the recent village elections are considered to have been unsuccessful, it is unlikely that there will be elections in 2007. He said that in 2007 the government will begin to create excuses of a technical nature as to why elections cannot be held. He added that if there is pressure from the international community, then possibly there will still be elections. (STL)

April 1, 2005

Election failure due to government intervention

Results from an investigation by the National Electoral Commission show that the failure of the village chief elections in Baucau district, where many voters could not vote because their names were not on the electoral roll, was due to local government intervention.

According to Commissioner Valentim Ximenes, the sub-district Administrators in Baucau district were instrumental in preventing people from taking part in the elections if their names were not on the roll, even if they were in possession of an electoral card. When the Electoral Commission attempted to allow these people to still take part, members of the local government would not allow them to do so. Ximenes said the Commission would consider requesting the courts to allow a repeat election. (Timor Post)

Provedor not to be used as a reconciliation symbol

The Director of East Timor People's Action, Cecilio Caminha Freitas, has asked the government not to use the Provedor for Justice and Human Rights, Sebastiao Diaz Ximenes, as a symbol of reconciliation. Ximenes was elected by a majority in Parliament on Tuesday to head the post.

Freitas said that he has doubts about Ximenes' future integrity and commitment in the position, considering his political background. The Provedor was formerly a campaigner against independence for Timor-Leste and a member of the Front for Democracy and Justice, a pro-autonomy organization. Freitas added that many people are unhappy with his election as the Provedor, even though the election itself was carried out democratically. (STL)

Brazil sends teachers to Timor-Leste

Forty-seven teachers from Brazil out of a total of 17-thousand candidates have been chosen to come to Timor-Leste to train teachers. The Program for Teacher Qualification and Portuguese Instruction was established through an agreement signed by the Brazilian Minister of Education, Tarso Genro, and his East Timorese counterpart, Armindo Maia.

The 12-month program will see Brazilian teachers train Timorese teachers to give lessons on Portuguese language as well as physics, mathematics, biology and chemistry in Portuguese. All the teachers are expected to arrive in Dili this weekend. (Brazzil Magazine)

American Marines depart Timor-Leste

The American doctors and nurses, who provided medical assistance to Timorese for four days this week, have departed Timor-Leste to return to north Sumatra, Indonesia, to provide medical aid to the local population there following the large earthquake that hit the region last Monday. (STL)

Timor-Leste's junior football team win cup

Timor-Leste's junior under-12's football team has once again won the Reverino Cup in Japan. After beating their opponents in five matches, Timor-Leste kept Thailand scoreless in the final, securing a 2-0 victory. The team's trainer, Mr Kim, from Korea, said that he was very proud that the team was able to defeat Thailand, considering that Timor-Leste's senior team lost 8-0 to Thailand in the Tiger Cup last year. He said that he was pleased that Timor-Leste's junior players have such good playing skills. (Timor Post)