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East Timor News Digest 7 – July 1-31, 2007
Melbourne Age - July 28, 2007
Annabel Stafford, Canberra – Films or books praising East
Timorese people who used violence in their fight for independence
could be banned under proposed censorship laws before Federal
Parliament, despite changes to the proposal intended to protect
free speech.
University of New South Wales law professor George Williams made
the warning yesterday as federal Attorney-General Philip Ruddock
promised to override the states in a bid to bring in new laws to
ban films, books and video games that encourage terrorism.
Mr Ruddock's pledge to push ahead with the laws came after he
failed to convince his state counterparts to agree to outlaw such
material by changing the National Classification Code. South
Australia and NSW had agreed to the changes at a meeting of
attorneys-general in Hobart, but the other states refused.
Victorian Attorney-General Rob Hulls did not rule out agreeing to
toughen the current laws banning materials that incite crime or
violence. But he believed there had to be more consultation
before a ban was brought in, a spokeswoman said.
Mr Hulls also slammed Mr Ruddock for acting unilaterally. The
federal legislation, which has already been introduced to
Parliament, contains more protections than an earlier proposal by
Mr Ruddock's department.
Material that depicts terrorist acts, but whose depiction could
"reasonably be considered to be done merely as part of public
discussion or debate or as entertainment or satire" is not to be
refused classification.
The Age believes that the protections were added to the
legislation in response to concerns raised within the Coalition.
But Professor Williams, director of the Gilbert + Tobin Centre of
Public Law at UNSW, said the changes would not be enough to
protect free speech.
Professor Williams said he was most concerned about provisions
that would ban material that, by praising terrorist acts, might
encourage someone with a mental impairment to engage in such an
act.
"I am not aware of anyone ever having used what someone with a
mental impairment would do... as a test (of whether something
should be banned)," Professor Williams said. "It's an
extraordinary suggestion... and it could lead to the banning of
material that no reasonable person would think ought to be
banned."
If "applied to the maximum, then you could be banning all sorts
of things", Professor Williams said.
Under the proposed law, material that praised East Timorese who
used violence in their fight for independence or was positive
about Nelson Mandela's struggle against the apartheid regime and
which could lead someone – even someone with a mental impairment
-- to "think that would be a good idea to resist a similar
regime... could be banned".
But Mr Ruddock said the test of how material would affect someone
with a mental impairment was not so very different from the
current test of how a reasonable person might be affected.
In any case, if a law protected from "a reasonable person who
will go out and bomb you, but not from an impressionable person
(who might be influenced to carry out a terrorist act)... then it
seems to me you have the wrong test", Mr Ruddock said.
ABC News - July 26, 2007
Protesters in East Timor have staged a demonstration against
Prime Minister John Howard as he left Dili, accusing Australia of
interfering in East Timor's political affairs.
Mr Howard flew to East Timor this morning to meet Australian
troops in Dili and hold talks with political leaders, including
President Jose Ramos Horta, regarding the country's security and
Australia's troop presence.
Mr Howard also had lunch with several hundred soldiers at one of
three Australian defence bases.
The visit coincided with renewed uncertainty over East Timor's
future, with still no clear winner from last month's
parliamentary elections.
Dr Ramos Horta asked Australia to keep troops in the country
until the end of next year to help strengthen the country's
fragile security and stability. Mr Howard made no promises, but
says Australia will not turn its back on East Timor.
"It cannot be assumed that we will stay indefinitely," he said.
"That's not the purpose of our involvement. The purpose of our
involvement is to stabilise the situation. "When it's fully
stabilised and we are satisfied that it will remain stable is the
time to contemplate withdrawal."
Fretilin party protesters this afternoon waved anti-Australian
banners.
But before he left, Mr Howard denied Australia was interfering in
East Timor's politics.
"We respect the sovereignty of East Timor," he said. "We do not
intend to abuse in any way our position by taking it upon
ourselves to give public advice to the leadership of this country
as to how to handle the democratic process."
The Prime Minister also met United Nations' leaders in Dili, and
the interim foreign minister.
Political/social unrest
Truth & friendship commission
Sutiyoso affair
Legislative elections
Human rights/law
Aid and development
Language & culture
Opinion & analysis
East Timor media monitoring
News & issues
Depicting violence in independence struggle could be banned
East Timorese rally against Australian 'interference'
East Timor asks for Australian troops to stay on in 2008
Agence France Presse - July 26, 2007
East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta on Thursday asked visiting Australian Prime Minister John Howard to keep Australian peacekeepers in the young nation until the end of 2008.
"I told the prime minister that I want to see the ISF (International Stabilisation Force) here at least until the end of 2008 because we've just started to reorganise East Timor's police and defence force," Horta said.
"They've just started to modernise so it will be difficult for this country to take care of its security affairs alone," he told reporters after half-hour talks with Howard at the presidential palace in the seaside capital of Dili.
Howard made a lightning day-long visit to East Timor during which he also met with Australian troops, who have been here since May last year when street violence erupted.
The unrest stoked by factions in the military and police left 37 people dead and forced some 155,000 people from their homes. At Dili's request, thousands of international peacekeepers, headed by the Australian contingent, were dispatched to restore calm. About 1,100 Australian troops remain on duty in East Timor.
Parliamentary elections last month were supposed to open a new chapter in the young nation's democracy. But while they were peaceful and the turnout was high, no party won the absolute majority required to govern alone and parties have been bickering over how to form a government.
Ramos-Horta, a Nobel peace prize winner elected just ahead of the parliamentary polls, has the constitutional authority to decide the composition of the new government and is pushing for a national unity arrangement.
He has given the parties until July 30, when parliament holds its first session, to decide on an arrangement.
The oil and gas-rich nation – which is one of the world's poorest countries – faces huge social and economic challenges. Some 100,000 East Timorese are estimated to remain in refugee camps and the UN launched an appeal for millions of dollars in urgent humanitarian aid in Dili on Wednesday.
Horta said Howard would not immediately give a commitment on whether the troops would stay on.
"They have decided that they will be here until the end of 2007. For 2008, they are going to review and evaluate the situation in Timor-Leste" before deciding, he said, referring to East Timor by its formal name.
But Howard also said the troops were in East Timor at Dili's request and would stay "for the period of time that you request," Horta cited him as saying.
Howard told reporters that East Timor had "a special place in the hearts of many Australians" and that Australia would not abandon the nation while it was needed.
The two leaders also discussed Australian scholarships for East Timorese students, Horta said.
"He (Howard) did not close the door on this idea and his officials will come here in a short time to negotiate with the Timorese government to discuss a more concrete agreement," he added.
Howard also met with acting prime minister Estanislau da Silva for talks on security and defence before boarding a plane back to Australia. Da Silva said the Australian leader told him a government was needed quickly so that the nation could get on with development work.
The acting premier is a member of the former ruling party, Fretilin, which won 21 seats in the 65-seat parliament. Trailing in second place was a new movement set up by independence hero Xanana Gusmao, which has allied with three smaller parties and wants to form a coalition government with 37 seats in parliament.
Melbourne Age - July 20, 2007
Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – The hunt for Alfredo Reinado has been officially called off in East Timor's central mountains and the rebel military leader and his heavily armed men are being given safe conduct passes.
The decision brings to a humiliating end a five-month operation by Australian troops that included elite Special Air Service (SAS) soldiers.
Prosecutor General Longuinhos Monteiro made the declaration to give East Timor's most wanted man safe passage in a letter to Mal Rerden, the commander of Australia's 800 soldiers in East Timor.
In the letter, a copy of which has been obtained by The Age, General Monteiro ordered Australian and other international security forces to "cease executions of all warrants made for Major Alfredo and his elements". General Monteiro said that "for security purposes" Reinado's group would be given security passes, a copy of which he sent with the letter.
Weeks earlier the country's then prime minister and now President Jose Ramos Horta ordered a halt to the hunt for Reinado who was wanted on charges of murder and rebellion, saying the decision would help the country recover from last year's violent upheaval.
But the Fretilin Government refused to sign any papers backing the order. Reinado is a cult-hero figure among many Timorese, his popularity remained strong even after a botched SAS-led attack on his mountain base in the town of Same on March 4. The attack is a rare exception where the SAS has failed to accomplish a mission in its 50-year history.
Five of Reinado's men were killed after SAS commandos dropped down ropes from four helicopters, their automatic rifles blazing. Reinado escaped and for months was helped by villagers to elude the Australians.
Meanwhile, East Timor is in leadership limbo after no party won more than half the vote at parliamentary elections on June 30. Fretilin and an alliance formed by former president Xanana Gusmao have agreed to form a unity government.
Talks are continuing over who should be prime minister. The new 65-seat Parliament is due to be inaugurated on July 30.
The Australian - July 14, 2007
Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – Australian troops have surrounded East Timorese military rebel Alfredo Reinado in an attempt to head off deadly clashes with disgruntled supporters of the former ruling Fretilin party.
The heavily armed former military police commander is still insisting on holding talks with the country's leadership, but has refused to surrender a cache of automatic rifles stolen from a police post several months ago.
He is wanted on murder and illegal weapons charges, although senior UN officials in East Timor concede that even if he is ever brought to trial, it would most likely be on the reduced charge of manslaughter, in relation to a firefight with serving members of the country's army last year.
Major Reinado was yesterday being contained by Australian troops near the central town of Same, where he travelled several days ago from his heartland Ermera district town of Gleno.
The rebel band's latest move was described yesterday by one Western diplomat as "really poorly timed... (with) lots of charged Fretilin youth around looking for a fight".
Same is the town where Australian soldiers killed four of Major Alfredo's followers in a bungled attempt to capture him in March.
The major's appearance there this week followed the surrender to UN police last week of a man claiming to be one of his followers, an event hailed by President Jose Ramos Horta as a step forward in solving the crisis.
Mr Ramos Horta, who previously had ordered a suspension of the Australian-led International Stabilisation Force hunt for the fugitive, said this week he would meet Major Reinado only if he and his men put down their arms, which include police-issue HK33 rifles.
However, Major Reinado's lawyer, Benevides Barros, said his client had been given permission to retain a single pistol and three special bodyguards for any meeting with Mr Ramos Horta.
"I met President Horta to discuss a weapons surrender, but he was adamant Reinado should give up all his rifles but could keep a pistol. I will be telling Reinado this," the lawyer said. Mr Barros called on Mr Ramos Horta to break the current siege, saying it would not solve the standoff.
Major Reinado has been on the run since going AWOL at the height of last year's violence in East Timor, which claimed dozens of lives. He spent a brief period under arrest late last year but was able to escape from a jail guarded by New Zealand soldiers.
Prosecutor General Longuinhos Monteiro holds grave fears that the current tense situation could deteriorate into a catastrophic firefight, and says he and Major Reinado's lawyers have been trying to find ways to get the rebel out of Same and back to Ermera district. "However, the conditions right now make that impossible," Mr Monteiro said.
Mr Monteiro is adamant that Major Reinado's proposed "dialogue" is a misunderstanding by the hot-headed, Australian-trained soldier – albeit one fed by Mr Ramos Horta, who has continued to openly use the word while insisting the runaway must face justice. The prosecutor-general says the only viable option for Major Reinado is surrender.
Observers note that continuing negotiations over the makeup of a new parliament with former guerilla leader Xanana Gusmao at its head have relied on support from admirers of Major Reinado, including many "veterans", or retired former anti-Indonesian xguerilla fighters who were never integrated into the new country's armed forces.
Although the former ruling Fretilin party won 21 seats in the 65-seat house in the recent parliamentary elections, it is unlikely to gather the coalition strength needed to form a minority government.
This looks more likely to be achieved by Mr Gusmao's National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction, or CNRT, which picked up only 18 seats but has been in meetings with the Association of Timorese Social Democrats/Social Democratic party alliance, and the Democratic Party.
However, Fretilin still insists it will lead the next parliament -- with an outside, though firming, scenario for this being a CNRT-Fretilin unity administration that has Mr Gusmao as prime minister.
| Political/social unrest |
Associated Press - July 22, 2007
Dili – Security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets at gangs of youths in East Timor's capital Sunday, after an explosion went off at a base for Australian troops and houses were set ablaze, officials and witnesses said.
At least six people were injured in the violence, which occurred days after politicians failed to decide who should lead a new coalition government.
East Timor's ruling elite remain bitterly divided a year after factional fighting between police and army units spilled onto the streets, killing 37 people and driving 155,000 others from their homes.
Order was largely restored with the arrival of international troops, but isolated incidents continue and – with inconclusive parliamentary elections last month – the future remains uncertain.
An explosion occurred at the heliport used by Australian troops on Sunday night, said Ivan Benitez, a spokesman for the International Stabilization Force, adding that no one was injured in the blast and that an investigation was being conducted.
At least one house was burned to the ground and others were on fire in the capital, Dili. Gangs of boys also were burning tires in the streets, said UN police spokeswoman Monica Rodrigues, adding that "police dispersed them by firing tear gas and rubber bullets."
At least six youths were admitted to the main hospital but their injuries were not life-threatening, doctors said.
East Timor, a former Portuguese colony of less than a million people, faces major security, humanitarian and economic challenges just five years after it became Asia's newest state in a UN-backed independence vote.
Unemployment hovers at around 50 percent, and aid agencies have warned that a fifth of the population is threatened by food shortages after crop failures.
Rival political forces have until July 30 to decide who should lead a new coalition government, but talks headed by President Jose Ramos-Horta on Thursday yielded no results.
Leaders of the Fretilin party, which won the most votes in last month's elections but not a majority, met with an alliance headed by the new party of independence hero Xanana Gusmao, the National Coalition for the Reconstruction of East Timor.
Both sides rejected calls for power-sharing, however, apparently split over who should take the top job of prime minister.
| Truth & friendship commission |
Agence France Presse - July 31, 2007
Jakarta – Indonesia's foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda has called on a commission set up to examine violence surrounding East Timor's 1999 independence vote to ignore a UN boycott threat, a report said Tuesday.
The United Nations warned last week that it would not send any officials to testify to the Indonesia-East Timor Commission for Truth and Friendship (CTF) unless it changes its terms of reference to disallow it to recommend amnesties.
"Whatever the world says, including the United Nations, let them do so... Just be self-confident about our own process, because the governments of both countries consistently support the commission," Wirayuda said in Manila, according to Kompas newspaper.
He said that the UN had offered no alternative solution to the CTF and also had an interest in their officials not testifying. "They would not want to have what is being called fraud by UNAMET to be uncovered," the minister said, referring to the UN body that organised the independence referendum in East Timor.
Indonesia has long accused UN workers of favouring pro- independence supporters during the ballot and instigating some electoral fraud to help them.
East Timor and Indonesia, which ruled the former Portuguese colony for 24 years, established the CTF in 2005. The commission is aimed at reconciliation rather than prosecuting those suspected of perpetrating crimes.
Indonesian CTF chairman, Benjamin Mangkudilaga, said on Monday that he did not believe the UN stance would affect the commission.
The world body is demanding that the commission amend its terms of reference to state that it has no authority to recommend amnesties for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes or gross violations of human rights.
The East Timorese voted overwhelmingly in favour of breaking away from Indonesia, but the ballot triggered an orgy of violence blamed on militias backed by the Indonesian military. Some 1,400 people were killed and much of the nation's already paltry infrastructure deliberately destroyed.
East Timor's leaders have taken a largely conciliatory stance towards Indonesia since then, arguing that good relations with its giant and more powerful neighbour are crucial to its future.
Agence France Presse - July 30, 2007
Jakarta – A commission set up to examine violence surrounding East Timor's 1999 independence vote brushed off Monday a UN boycott threat.
The United Nations warned last week that it would not send any officials to testify to the Commission for Truth and Friendship (CTF), which has no prosecution powers, unless it rules out recommending amnesties.
"It will not affect us at all," said the Indonesian CTF chairman, Benjamin Mangkudilaga. His East Timorese counterpart, Jacinto Alves, could not be reached for comment.
Mangkudilaga said that the CTF was a bilateral affair set up by East Timor and Indonesia and had nothing to do with the UN.
The world body is demanding that the commission amend its terms of reference to state that it has no authority to recommend amnesties for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes or gross violations of human rights.
UN officials have been asked to give testimony to the commission, which is set up along the lines of South Africa's post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
"This commission was formed by the presidents of both countries and it is those two who have the authority to decided on whether to review (the terms of reference)," Mangkudilaga told AFP.
Mangkudilaga said that to his knowledge, the leaders were unlikely to order a review of the terms and noted that many people asked to testify have refused. Dozens of witnesses and experts, however, have presented testimony.
East Timor and Indonesia, which ruled the former Portuguese colony for 24 years, set up the CTF in 2005.
The East Timorese voted overwhelmingly in favour of breaking away from Indonesia in a 1999 UN-sanctioned referendum, but the vote triggered an orgy of violence blamed on militias backed by the Indonesian military.
Some 1,400 people were killed and much of the nation's infrastructure was deliberately destroyed.
East Timor's leaders have taken a largely conciliatory stance towards Indonesia since then, arguing that good relations with its giant and more powerful neighbour are crucial to its future.
Deutsche Presse Agentur - July 28, 2007
Jakarta – Indonesia urged the international community to respect a joint truth commission tasked at gathering the facts surrounding Indonesia's military rampage ahead of East Timor's 1999 vote for independence, local media reported on Saturday.
"The international community should respect and support efforts by Indonesia and Timor Leste as sovereign nations to solve their past problems with a future-oriented approach," Indonesian foreign ministry spokesman Kristiarto Legowo was quoted by The Jakarta Post as saying.
The comments came after UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Thursday criticized the commission for granting amnesties to those suspected of serious human rights abuses during the elections. A spokesman for Ban said United Nations officials would not testify before the panel unless "the terms of reference are revised to comply with international standards."
Among those called to testify before the joint panel is Ian Martin, the UN special representative in East Timor in 1999.
The commission "cannot endorse or condone amnesties for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes or gross violations of human rights, nor should it do anything that might foster them," a spokesman for Ban said Thursday. "It is the firm intention of the secretary general to uphold this position of principle."
Indonesia and its former colony East Timor had agreed that the truth and friendship commission would not prosecute anyone found guilty of human rights abuses during the balloting eight years ago.
"The important things is that we do not allow ourselves to be held hostage by the past," Ramos Horta, the current East Timor leader, said after visiting Indonesia in early June. "It will set a precedent for other countries to deal with similar situations."
The Indonesia-East Timor Commission of Truth and Friendship is similar to South Africa's post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and occupied the former Portuguese colony for 24 years. As many as 200,000 civilians died during that period. East Timor voted to become independent in the UN-sponsored referendum in 1999, and became a nation in 2002 after being administered by the UN for more than two years.
Human-rights groups have criticized the commission because it lacks the ability to bring senior members of the Indonesian Armed Forces to justice for ordering military-backed militias to massacre Timorese civilians and raze villages.
Both countries had agreed to extend by six months the work of the joint truth panel. The commission's mandate is now set until February 2008.
Australian Associated Press - July 27, 2007
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has told UN officials not to testify before a panel investigating the 1999 killings in East Timor because it could recommend amnesty for serious crimes. Indonesia and East Timor agreed to work together to investigate the events of 1999, when Timorese voted for independence under UN supervision.
The two countries have organised a Commission of Truth and Friendship to try to put the tragedy behind them.
Riots blamed on militia, backed by the Indonesian army, killed many Timorese, forced 250,000 people from their homes and burned most buildings to the ground in the former Portuguese colony.
Indonesia says only about 100 people were killed before Australian troops stopped the mayhem, followed by a UN peacekeeping mission.
Ban said the commission was allowed to recommend amnesty, even for serious crimes.
"The United Nations' policy, however, is that the organisation cannot endorse or condone amnesties for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes or gross violations of human rights, nor should it do anything that might foster them," Ban said in a statement.
"Unless the terms of reference are revised to comply with international standards, officials of the UN will therefore not testify at its proceedings or take any other steps that would support the work of the CTF," he said.
Among those called to testify is Ian Martin, who was the UN special representative in East Timor in 1999. He is now the UN envoy in Nepal.
Both Indonesia and East Timor have set up parallel systems to prosecute those responsible but UN reports have described those efforts as inadequate. The commission cannot prosecute but its hearings are likely to have an impact on the Indonesian public and government.
Militia leader Eurico Guterres, the only person jailed in Indonesia for the violence, is serving a 10-year sentence.
Human Rights and Timorese victims groups have harshly criticised the commission for not challenging witnesses and cross-checking facts. They say the truth was being distorted, particularly by those blaming the United Nations for inciting violence when it organised the independence referendum.
East Timorese voted overwhelmingly to split from Indonesian rule. The 1999 referendum was made possible, in part, by the fall of Indonesian strongman Suharto a year earlier, who had the support of the military.
United Nations - July 26, 2007
New York – United Nations officials will boycott a commission set up jointly by Indonesia and Timor-Leste to foster reconciliation after the latter's bloody struggle for independence, unless it is precluded from recommending amnesty for crimes against humanity and other gross violations of human rights.
UN policy "is that the Organization cannot endorse or condone amnesties for genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes or gross violations of human rights, nor should it do anything that might foster them," Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson said today. "It is the firm intention of the Secretary-General to uphold this position of principle."
Spokesperson Marie Okabe noted that the Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF), established by the two countries in 2005, had on several occasions invited former staff members of the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET), including former Special Representative of the Secretary-General Ian Martin, to testify at its proceedings.
But the CTF's terms of reference into the bloodshed that followed Timor-Leste's vote for independence from Indonesia in 1999, and in which nine local UN personnel were killed, do not preclude it from recommending amnesty "in respect of acts that constitute a crime against humanity, a gross violation of human rights or a serious violation of international humanitarian law," she added.
"Unless the terms of reference are revised to comply with international standards, officials of the United Nations will, therefore, not testify at its proceedings or take any other steps that would support the work of the CTF and thereby further the possible grant of amnesties in respect of such acts," she said.
Today's statement follows a report to the Security Council last August from then-Secretary-General Kofi Annan in which he said that it "would be deeply regrettable, however, if the reconciliation process foreclosed the possibility of achieving accountability." Ms. Okabe said that report "clearly outlined" the UN's position.
"Though it will not take part in the process, the United Nations is informed about the ongoing proceedings of the CTF and wishes, therefore, to also take this opportunity to say that it stands unequivocally by the exemplary work of UNAMET during the popular consultation in 1999 and throughout the course of its mandate," she noted.
Jakarta Post - July 24, 2007
Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo and Ary Hermawan, Jakarta/Sanur – Several human rights NGOs have criticized the fourth session of the joint Indonesia and Timor Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF) in Bali, saying it was summoning more "actors" in than victims of the aftermath of the 1999 referendum that led East Timor's secession from Indonesia.
"Those testifying at the commission's sessions are people who blame the UN for inciting more violence in Timor Leste, rather than victims, who are trying to conceal the truth," impunity division head at the Commission for Disappearances and Victims of Violence (Kontras) Haris Ashar, said Monday.
"Out of the 47 people who have testified at all three previous sessions, only seven of them are victims. Up until now, the commission has only tried to produce a version of the 'truth' according to the actors."
The victims who testified are Florido De Jesus Brites, Esmeralda Dos Santos, Nonato Soares, Adelino Britto, Fares Da Costa, Berta Santos and Lucia.
Haris added the unwillingness of CTF members to call more victims was a proof that the commission was functioning only as an "extended hand" of the actors, alleged human rights violators, who were trying to acquit themselves.
"Moreover, we regret the poor performance of the joint commission, which has spent about US$4.5 million, but we realize that it's hard to dissolve or stop the commission," Haris said in a media statement representing other human rights groups such as Elsam, Imparsial and the Human Rights Watch Group.
During the hearing at the Sanur Paradise Hotel on Monday, David Ximenes, former vice president of the National Council for East Timorese Resistance (CNRT), said that the two countries were trying to seek the truth about the 1999 referendum, and did not want to jail people.
"If there's anybody who thinks that (we are going to jail people), then he's definitely lost in space. (The dialogue) is meant to produce a mutual understanding, to clear things that are obscured," he said. "The process is irreversible. If anybody is jailed (for the violence), the victims still will not come back to life."
He said the CNRT was an alliance of nationalists that fought for East Timorese freedom and whose members had no intention of harming other people.
Former Liquica regent Leonito Martins, who testified before Ximenes, restated allegations that the 1999 referendum was unfair as many voters found the ballots had been punched before they voted. He also said the United Nations Mission in East Timor did not report the activities of five Australian nationals alleged to have encouraged the East Timorese to secede from Indonesia.
CTF co-chair from Timor Leste, Dionisio Babo Soares, said the allegations had long been repeated but were never supported by strong evidence. "In this case, the attendance of the United Nations officials involved in the referendum process is important. They can give us information about the validity of such allegations," he said.
The other two witnesses testifying at Monday's session were former Liquica District Military chief Lt. Col. Asep Kuswani and former member of the election watchdog Rector Forum, Yan Rizal.
Scheduled to testify on Tuesday are Sakunar pro-integration commander Simao Lopes; former treasurer of the East Timor People's Front Jose Estavao Soares; victim Domingos Alves; and former East Timor intelligence chief Col. Yayat Sudrajat.
Jakarta Post - July 23, 2007
Ary Hermawan, Sanur/Bali – The Indonesia-Timor Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF) will begin its fourth hearing session here today with only seven key witnesses in attendance.
The CTF has once again failed to present five United Nations officials involved in the 1999 referendum that led to the bloody attacks by Indonesian Military-backed militias on independence supporters.
Former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan, former head of the UN Mission for East Timor (UNAMET) Ian Martin, former general prosecutor for serious crimes Siri Frigraad and former UN civilian police commander Allan Mills did not reply to invitations sent by the CTF. Commander of the Military Liaison Officers, Maj. Gen. Rezaqul Heider, replied to the commission, saying he was on leave.
The UN does not support the commission's investigation because it provides amnesty for those who perpetrated gross human rights violations, CTF co-chair from Timor Leste Dionisio Babo Soares said.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour, during a five-day visit to Jakarta last week, criticized the amnesty provision in the CTF, saying it was "not a step forward", and expressed her concerns, as did the UN.
Soares, however, said the witnesses absent from the session would not affect the commission's report on the 1999 violence. "It does politically affect the image of CTF, but it will not reduce the factuality of the truth we are trying to disclose," he said.
"We are reviewing documents approved by the international community, including the UN. We are working professionally according to internationally accepted standards," he said, adding a truth commission could recommend amnesty for rights violators if they are cooperative, show remorse and swear not to commit crimes again.
His statement slightly contradicted that of his Indonesian counterpart, Benjamin Mangkoedilaga, who was quoted by Kompas daily as saying the absence of witnesses from the UN would affect "the true value of the report". He said the commission would continue to invite the witnesses to testify at the commission's session despite their clear reluctance.
Among the seven witnesses who will appear are the former intelligence chief in East Timor, Col. Yayat Sudrajat, former Liquica Military head Lt. Col. Asep Kuswani, former Liquica regent Leoneto Martins, former vice chairman of the National Council for East Timorese Resistance David Ximenes and victim Domingos Alves. "(Leoneto Martins) is allegedly directly responsible for the mayhem in Liquica," Soares said.
Domingos Alves, he said, was a victim of violence by pro-Jakarta supporters and his attendance was meant to give a more balanced account of the violence that occurred in the newly-born country after the referendum.
The hearing will be held at the Sanur Paradise Plaza Hotel in Bali today and tomorrow. It will be followed by a seminar Saturday on the enhancement of friendship between Indonesia and Timor Leste.
| Sutiyoso affair |
Canberra Times (Australia) - July 23, 2007
James Dunn – Jill Jolliffe's report detailing Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso's involvement in the torture of prisoners in East Timor (Canberra Times, Saturday, July 14) raises questions that go well beyond the NSW coronial search for those responsible for the Balibo murders.
It involves another troubling cover-up of Australia's support for Indonesian moves to conceal the crimes against humanity committed during those 24 years of occupation of East Timor. Australia and the United States quite shamefully failed to support UN recommendations that an international tribunal be set up to identify the military commanders responsible for very serious crimes against humanity, and the brutal culture that had developed in the Indonesian military, the TNI.
The Indonesian withdrawal in 1999 offered a unique opportunity to expose that culture and the commanders, but we were soon to learn that the humanitarian concerns of key international players like Australia, were secondary to their determination to prevent anything that would destabilise the new Indonesian regime, in which an unreformed military continued to be a main player.
Interfet forces, to the frustration of officers like Lieutenant- Colonel Lance Collins, were actually discouraged from collecting evidence of war crimes. Moreover, when I was preparing a report for the UN on the crimes committed in 1999, I got generous support from the Irish, Canadians and New Zealanders, but none from our diplomatic mission.
What I did get was encouragement from Indonesian human rights officials who declared that the full public exposure of their military's misdeeds was essential if their democratic goals were ever to be attained. One such supporter was Munir, a courageous human rights activist who was later to be murdered, allegedly on orders from Indonesia's main intelligence agency which then frustrated attempts to identify those responsible.
In the end in my view, there was a subtle cover-up. Our efforts to secure UN Security Council support for a formal investigation came to nothing, despite the helpful efforts of Sergio Vieira de Mello and Kofi Annan. The US, Australia and other influential players had other ideas.
They were against any exposure that might destabilise the restless Indonesian political scene.
In East Timor itself, the position of president Xanana Gusmao was very unhelpful. He exhorted his people to forgive the past and look to the future, denying them a measure of closure. For most, this dismissal of justice merely served to intensify the trauma that inhibits the confidence and trust of a people, whose terrible past ordeals appear to matter nothing to the outside world.
The joint truth and reconciliation commission Indonesia agreed to has turned out to be little more than a sideshow in which the Indonesian generals who have agreed to appear, have blamed the UN or the Timorese, disclaiming any responsibility for their part in the events of 1999.
For those of us who have examined or lived through the events of the past, the real situation is very different. Tens of thousands of East Timorese were killed or tortured, especially in the first five years of occupation, as part of a deliberate policy. From the outset, officers like then Captain Yunus Yosfiah and his Special Forces colleague, Captain Sutiyoso, treated those who dared to resist or question appallingly, using torture and summary executions.
Timor became a cruel military training ground, with most of today's TNI general staff, including President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono himself, having served there.
A number of these generals have been indicted by UN prosecutors for crimes against humanity, and it is shocking to learn these indictments have in no way hampered their careers. We know about Yunus Yosfiah and Sutiyoso, but there is Major-General Tono Suratnam, now a senior headquarters general, who (then a colonel) bears a responsibility for atrocities in the Dili area.
Major-General Mahadin Simbolon, then a brigadier-general, played a commanding role in the destruction of East Timor in September 1999, and went on to command TNI forces in West Papua.
As for then Kopassus Major Prabowo Subianto, he bears a heavy responsibility for the Creras massacre in 1982, in which more than one thousand Timorese non-combatants were gunned down as a reprisal action. Then there is Lieutenant-General Sjafrei Sjamsuddin, one of the planners of the militia and its agenda of violence, who is currently secretary-general of Indonesia's Defence Department.
Not all of these officers are escaping human rights scrutiny.
Indonesian human rights agencies are calling for the removal of a sector commander in West Papua, Colonel Burhanuddin Siagian, who has been indicted for a particularly nasty atrocity in the Maliana region in 1999. However, the fact that the TNI has ignored such indictments, and the recommendation of Indonesia's own human rights commission, is an indication of how little impact its nation's shift towards respect for human rights has had on a military which, like the KGB, saw itself as a ruthless protector of an authoritarian state.
It would be unfair to blame Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, an officer noted for his humane approach, for his intervention, for he clearly is not familiar with a background which, even in the Defence Department, is apparently being kept in the dark. As has been revealed in Balibo coronial inquiry, it is likely past atrocities by Indonesian troops in East Timor were made known by intelligence agencies to the governments of the time.
[James Dunn is a former diplomat who served as UN expert on crimes against humanity in East Timor in 2001-02.]
Canberra Times - July 17, 2007
Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston has defended his support for Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso over a Sydney coroner's bid to question him about the 1975 killings of five newsmen, despite fresh evidence accusing the governor of torture.
Australia's Chief of Defence Force said he was unaware of the torture allegations before they appeared in Saturday's Canberra Times and could not "provide any additional comment" on the matter.
A diplomatic row erupted after Lieutenant-General Sutiyoso abruptly cancelled an official visit to Australia in early June when Acting Coroner Dorelle Pinch sent a detective to his hotel to request his testimony. He claimed police had entered his room using a master key.
Evidence had earlier been tendered identifying General Sutiyoso as a commander of the 1975 Indonesian special forces operation in which five television reporters were killed.
The inquest, which is expected to conclude soon, is into the death of 26-year-old cameraman Brian Peters, one of the so-called Balibo Five, who lived in Sydney.
At a press conference on his return to Jakarta from Sydney, General Sutiyoso angrily denied involvement, and Indonesian protesters converged on the Australian embassy.
Air Chief Marshal Houston said at the time that the governor had told him he was nowhere near Balibo when the killings occurred, an added that he "never doubted his innocence". He described the governor as a "long- standing friend of Australia".
The Canberra Times revealed exclusively on Saturday that Sutiyoso, then an army captain, had run torture sessions for military prisoners in East Timor's second city of Baucau less than two months after the Balibo killings. Witnesses said Captain Sutiyoso helped set up a torture centre in a former Portuguese hotel, although its commander was a Major Leo, also identified by the inquest as a Balibo commander.
Joao da Costa, who was held for three months in 1976 at the torture centre, said, "Sutiyoso often led my interrogations". "I was given electric shocks, and had cigarettes stubbed out in my face and on my body during interrogations commanded by Sutiyoso," he said.
"On one occasion I was covered in blood. I pleaded with him to point his gun at me and give me a bullet." Another Baucau witness known as FS said he saw Captain Sutiyoso at a holding centre at nearby Tiu Lali where prisoners awaited execution.
In response to questions from The Canberra Times, Air Chief Marshal Houston said yesterday that he felt "very deeply for the families who suffered this terrible tragedy".
He said his remarks in June had expressed "regret at the NSW police incident which occurred in the hotel in which Governor Sutiyoso was staying during his visit to Sydney".
NSW premier Morris Iemma, who hosted Governor Sutiyoso's visit to Sydney in June, added his apologies at the time to those of Air Chief Marshal Houston and Australian ambassador to Jakarta Bill Farmer.
Mr Iemma's media adviser said yesterday that the premier stood by his apology. "He apologised to the Governor of Jakarta for the breakdown of communications between NSW government agencies," the spokesman said. He said the torture evidence "wouldn't change the circumstances" under which the apology was offered.
Canberra Times - July 14, 2007
Jill Jolliffe, Baucau – A top-ranking Indonesian official at the centre of a bitter diplomatic dispute last month has been identified as a key figure in the systematic torture of military prisoners after the invasion of East Timor.
Former independence fighters in East Timor's second city of Baucau have accused Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso of conducting regular torture sessions there in the 1970s.
In exclusive interviews with The Canberra Times, former prisoners have also described seeing the former intelligence officer at a holding centre in Baucau where many detainees were executed.
Lieutenant-General Sutiyoso cut short an official visit and stormed out of Australia in June saying he felt "slighted" by a Glebe Coroners Court request that he testify over allegations he was a commander at the border town of Balibo during a 1975 attack in which five television newsmen were killed.
Acting Coroner Dorelle Pinch began hearings in February into the death of cameraman Brian Peters, one of the men known as the Balibo Five, who lived in Sydney.
She is expected to deliver a verdict soon and may seek indictments for crimes against humanity under the Geneva Conventions for former Indonesian information minister Yunus Yosfiah, who also refused to testify, and alleged Balibo henchman Christoforus da Silva.
The diplomatic row sparked by General Sutiyoso's reaction has now extended the spotlight to him. Baucau witnesses say he had arrived with forces from Group Ume, which spearheaded an attack on the town less than two months after the unit had acted in Balibo.
Ume had set up an interrogation centre in a former Portuguese hotel which it renamed the Flamboyan, after Operation Flamboyan, the military code name for the Balibo attack.
Witnesses said the then Captain Sutiyoso had helped set up the torture centre, although its commander had been a Major Leo. Joao da Costa was an early victim.
"I was held at the Flamboyan for three months in 1976 and Sutiyoso often led my late-night interrogations," he said. "I was given electric shocks, and had cigarettes stubbed out in my face and on my body during interrogations commanded by Sutiyoso... On one occasion I was covered in blood. I pleaded with him to point his gun at me and give me a bullet."
Australia's ambassador to Indonesia, Bill Farmer, apologised to General Sutiyoso over the court's approach, in which he claimed a detective had opened his hotel door with a master key.
When demonstrators took to the streets in Jakarta, NSW Premier Morris Iemma also apologised, to the anger of families of the Balibo Five.
Son of Channel Seven cameraman Gary Cunningham, John Milkins, said the families had waited 32 years "for an apology from the Indonesian Government and here we have the spineless federal and state governments apologising to somebody who was, in fact, very close to the Balibo incident."
A second ex-guerrilla, who asked to be known only as FS, said he had been questioned by General Sutiyoso in 1979 about his unit's command structure. He identified General Sutiyoso to The Canberra Times from a photo.
He said he had not been personally hurt by General Sutiyoso, but that two of his cellmates had confirmed his reputation as a sadistic torturer.
"Sutiyoso interrogated my friend Armindo Pereira do Rego," FS said. "When he came back to our cell he had been beaten, burnt with cigarettes and given electric shocks. Afonso Henriques was also given electric shocks under Sutiyoso's command."
A middle-ranking resistance fighter, FS described General Sutiyoso in 1979 as "a colleague" of Balibo commander Yunus Yosfiah. He said that after the first interrogation, General Sutiyoso had sent him to Dili by helicopter for questioning by Mr Yosfiah.
The interrogation had been conducted in the San Tai Ho building, also a torture centre run by Intelstrat, a wing of Indonesian military intelligence services. In later years, Christoforus da Silva also appeared in Baucau and befriended local man Jose Manuel Aparicio.
Scion of a noble family, Mr Aparicio collaborated with the Indonesian army and he said Mr da Silva had trusted him as a result. He said Mr da Silva had confessed that "he had fired the first shot in Balibo, and that Yunus was his commander. He told me it was very, very secret". He was also told "that Sutiyoso had taken part in the slaughter at Balibo".
| Legislative elections |
Green Left Weekly - July 25, 2007
[Max Lane spoke to the Socialist Party of Timor's (PST) secretary-general, Avelino da Silva Coelho, in the wake of East Timor's June 30 parliamentary elections, in which the PST received 0.96% of the vote.]
No party or figure from the national liberation movement achieved more than 29% in the parliamentary elections. How do you explain that?
The people are not yet making their choices based on ideology or political line. They react emotionally, which also explains the volatility of the way they vote. In this sense, democracy is developing only slowly. The decline in the vote also reflects a crisis in leadership, as well as the emergence of a greater number of parties. Along with this is a great deal of pork barrel politicking. In the search for alternatives, these factors still weigh most strongly. Political consciousness is weak. Primordial and emotional, including family and friendship linkages, factors are still strong.
So what were the ideological or policy differences between the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction, Fretilin and Democratic Party?
There were absolutely no differences. They all campaigned for a free market economy. They all argued for same policies; there were no significant differences. We will be able to see later, the character of the economy they develop.
And the main differences with the PST?
We campaigned on a clear program and with a cleqar ideological basis. We openly explained Marxist-Leninist principles. Although we did not get many votes this time, we are convinced this served a useful purpose, starting to get people used to discussing these ideas. The important thing for us now is to intensify our ideological work in building the party.
The PST's votes were down on the Presidential elections?
In the Presidential elections people also decided on the basis of which figure they supported or had some sympathy for. In the parliamentary elections, they chose a party. That may have made a difference. Actually if we are realistic, we must note that the PST's votes this time were less than in the parliamentary elections in 2001, when we achieved 6483 votes, This may have been a result of the mushrooming of more parties and the still very volatile attitude towards parties. The capital we have now of 4000 votes gives us good prospects for building to the future, whether through a front of some kind or not.
So what are the PST's plans now?
We will be consolidating the internal structures of the party. Up until now party members have not had to pay dues. They join [and] get a membership card but the ties are very loose. We are going to make dues compulsory. This way we will be able to see the real number of our militants. If you do not pay dues, you will not be a member of the party. Only a sympathiser. There will be a stricter provision for party branches to keep good membership records and report monthly on their activities to the political bureau. We will intensify the political membership for those dues paying members. There will be more concrete division of labour and allocation of party tasks to members. We need amore structured and disciplined party. The party must be ready for the coming regional elections.
How do you think the proposed unity government will fair?
It will not work. The political climate is very unstable. There may have to be early elections.
Would the PST join such a coalition?
The PST is too small. The important thing is to prepare the PST for the next elections.
What will happen with the PST members who were elected on he CNRT list?
Only one was elected. The PST hopes that they will be able to campaign on a range of different legislation.
Is it time for the foreign military forces to exit from Timor Leste?
The internal conflicts have not yet been resolved here.
Associated Press - July 24, 2007
Dili – Rival parties in East Timor have failed to agree on the formation of a new government, the president said Tuesday (July 24th), raising the prospect of political deadlock in the tiny nation.
East Timor's ruling Fretilin party won the most votes in bitterly contested parliamentary elections in June following the ousting of the prime minister last year amid widespread violence, but fell far short of a ruling majority.
The party insists it has the right to head any new government, but is up against a coalition of rival parties headed by former president Xanana Gusmao that controls more seats in the legislature.
"All political parties have not yet reached agreement on a new government," said President Jose Ramos-Horta, who according to the constitution has the final say on its formation. He said a Wednesday (July 25th) deadline he had given the parties to come up with a compromise was "flexible."
Ramos-Horta has repeatedly urged the parties to form a national unity government amid fears that political tensions could again erupt into violence in the country, where tens of thousands still live in camps after last year's bloodshed.
Ramos-Horta said he would announce a new government by the end of the month.
A spokesman for the Gusmao coalition said if Fretilin formed the government it would go into opposition. Such a bloc would outnumber Fretilin, meaning it could vote to reject the government's legislative program, forcing fresh elections.
East Timor, which broke free from Indonesian rule in 1999 in a UN-sponsored referendum, faces major security, humanitarian and economic challenges just five years after it officially became Asia's newest state. Unemployment hovers at around 50 percent, and aid agencies have warned that a fifth of the population is threatened by food shortages after crop failures.
The Australian - July 17, 2007
East Timor's ruling party Fretilin and an alliance led by ex- president Xanana Gusmao have agreed to form a unity government after last month's legislative elections, the country's president said yesterday.
No party won more than half the vote in the June 30 parliamentary elections and both Fretilin and the party set up by Mr Gusmao, CNRT, had previously ruled out a proposal by President Jose Ramos-Horta to form a unity government.
"The Fretilin party and the alliance have accepted the grand inclusion government but the problem is who will be prime minister and from which party, whether from Fretilin or the alliance," Mr Ramos-Horta said.
He said he would meet the parties this week to discuss the details, including a decision on the post of prime minister: "We hope we will find a good platform to maintain unity and stability."
Mr Ramos-Horta said the next government should focus on restoring stability and shoring up the economy.
The new parliament is due to be inaugurated on July 30 and Mr Ramos-Horta said a cabinet should be formed by the end of this month.
Fretilin won 21 seats in the 65-seat chamber in the election while the CNRT won 18 seats, the Association of Timorese Democrats-Social Democratic Party (ASDT-PSD) 11 and the Democratic Party eight. Smaller parties took the rest.
Fretilin is led by Mari Alkatiri, East Timor's first post- independence prime minister.
Mr Gusmao's CNRT, which the resistance hero established this year as a vehicle to become prime minister, the ASDT-PSD and the Democratic Party have formed a coalition. Fretilin, which led the 24-year struggle against Indonesian rule, remains popular, especially in the east of the country, but its candidates fared badly in the election.
Mr Gusmao, who ended his term as president in May, appears to have become frustrated by the pace of progress under Fretilin rule and by the factional infighting that broke out in East Timor last year.
The Fretilin government's sacking of 600 rebellious soldiers triggered factional fighting, and in the ensuing mayhem 37 people were killed and 150,000 were driven from their homes. Foreign troops led by Australia intervened to restore order, but sporadic violence and unrest have continued.
Troops from the Australian-led International Stabilisation Force surrounded fugitive East Timor rebel Alfredo Reinado's position in Alas village, Same district, last week in an attempt to head off deadly clashes with disgruntled supporters of the Fretilin party.
The heavily armed former military police commander is still insisting on holding talks with the country's leadership, but he has refused to surrender a cache of automatic rifles stolen from a police post several months ago.
He is wanted on murder and illegal weapons charges although senior UN officials in East Timor concede that even if he is brought to trial, it would most likely be on the reduced charge of manslaughter, in relation to a firefight with serving members of the country's army last year.
Agence France Presse - July 16, 2007
Dili – East Timor's president said Monday he was pushing political parties deadlocked since elections last month into forming a unity government but they were disputing who would be prime minister.
"I think that in order to maintain unity and stability in this country, my idea of inclusive government is the best," President Jose Ramos-Horta, who has the final say on the government's composition, told reporters.
The ruling Fretilin party won 21 seats in the tiny nation's 65- seat parliament in June 30 elections, well short of the majority required to govern.
Trailing in second place was a new movement set up by independence hero Xanana Gusmao, which has allied with three smaller parties and proposed to form a coalition government with 37 seats in parliament.
Ramos-Horta said he feared the alliance proposed by Gusmao's National Congress for the Reconstruction of East Timor (CNRT) would be unstable, but that Fretilin could not form a government as it had won insufficient votes.
"The alliance, they are open and flexible towards this idea," he said, referring to a unity government. The problem is who will be prime minister, whether it is from Fretilin or from the alliance... I will let them continue to reflect," he said.
The parties first met on Friday for talks with Ramos-Horta, a Nobel peace laureate who was elected to his post in May.
Fretilin's former prime minister Mari Alkatiri and Gusmao, sworn political rivals, have headed the negotiations.
The first session of parliament for the new government has been set for July 30.
Elections in the former Portuguese colony followed ongoing violence and political tension since bloodshed on the streets of the capital, Dili, last year. The unrest left 37 people dead and forced 150,000 into camps.
International peacekeepers were deployed to restore calm and along with some 1,700 UN police are still providing security in the half-island nation. East Timor gained independence in 2002 after a bloody separation from occupying Indonesia, which ruled it for 24 years.
Agence France Presse - July 13, 2007
East Timor's president Jose Ramos-Horta met Friday with political parties deadlocked over forming a government in the wake of elections last month and set a date for their first parliamentary session.
East Timor's president met Friday with political parties deadlocked over forming a government in the wake of elections last month and set a date for their first parliamentary session.
The ruling Fretilin party won 21 seats in the tiny nation's 65- seat parliament in June 30 elections, well short of the majority required to govern, but wants to continue in power.
Trailing in second place was a new movement set up by independence hero Xanana Gusmao that has allied with smaller parties and proposed to form a coalition government with 37 seats in parliament.
"Today was the first meeting that brought together Fretilin and the alliance, which is positive, and it was held in a positive atmosphere. This kind of dialogue has not happened before," President Jose Ramos-Horta told reporters.
"The conversation was friendly, so that is important, and we will continue this friendly atmosphere as we try to find a solution that is the best for the country," he said.
Fretilin has objected to Gusmao's proposed government, saying it should have the right to rule, and the constitution is unclear on the matter. The final decision now rests with Ramos-Horta, a Nobel peace laureate.
Fretilin's former prime minister Mari Alkatiri as well as Gusmao, sworn political rivals, attended the Friday talks.
No agreement was reached on the composition of the government but July 30 was set as a date for the first session of the parliament, Ramos-Horta added. The move effectively sets a deadline to resolve the stand-off.
The elections followed ongoing violence and political tension since bloodshed on the streets of the capital, Dili, in April and May last year.
The unrest left 37 people dead and forced 150,000 into camps. International peacekeepers were deployed to restore calm and along with some 1,700 UN police are still providing security in the half-island nation.
East Timor, once a Portuguese colony, gained independence in 2002 after a bloody separation from occupying Indonesia three years earlier.
The Australian - July 9, 2007
Stephen Fitzpatrick, Jakarta – East Timor's court of appeals will ratify today the results of the country's parliamentary election, setting the stage for a potentially brutal showdown between former ruling party Fretilin and the powerful coalition opposing it.
Although Fretilin gained the highest simple majority in the national poll, with 29 per cent of the vote, it will probably have to stand aside in the parliament for an alliance headed by former president Xanana Gusmao's National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT).
Signs that this will not happen easily or peacefully intensified at the weekend, with Fretilin secretary-general Mari Alkatiri declaring his party was "open to any party to form a coalition, but if they are against us, Fretilin will form a government". He had previously insisted his party would not enter any kind of national unity government, acknowledging the detrimental effect this could have on the country's emerging democracy.
However, since provisional results from the June 30 election began showing that Fretilin, despite being well ahead of Mr Gusmao's 24 per cent result, could not form government alone, Mr Alkatiri has been fighting a rearguard action in public, insisting his party retains the right to rule.
The constitution requires the grouping that forms government to hold a clear majority in the 65-seat house – something no party achieved alone. Fretilin's result gives it 21 seats, and CNRT's just 18.
However, Mr Gusmao's party is now expected to go into coalition with the Social Democratic Association of Timor-Social Democratic Party alliance (11 seats) and the Democratic Party (eight seats).
The ASDT-PSD alliance is headed by former Indonesian-era governor Mario Carrascalao, who still carries significant clout in the politically riven society, and the PD by former guerilla fighter Fernando "Lasama" de Araujo, who has strong support from veterans of the 24-year armed struggle against Jakarta.
President Jose Ramos Horta has been conducting intense negotiations with all groups, fully aware that any spoiling action by Fretilin could tip East Timor back into the kind of imbalance that led to extreme violence last year.
But Mr Ramos Horta, who replaced Mr Alkatiri as prime minister at the height of the troubles last year before becoming President in elections this year, is aware there is enough ambiguity in the constitution to produce a power vacuum.
The country's founding document says a prime minister must be nominated "by the most-voted party or by the alliance of parties with a parliamentary majority" and then appointed by the president, "having heard the political parties represented in the parliament".
Mr Ramos Horta said at the weekend that he would approve a prime ministerial suggestion based on "which of the various parties can persuade me they are in a position to form a government that is stable, that is long-lasting".
He has repeatedly called for a government composed of all East Timor's major political elements, but has also backed Mr Gusmao for the prime ministership.
Reuters - July 9, 2007
Tito Belo, Dili – East Timor's ruling party, Fretilin, plans to form a minority government if attempts to link up with coalition partners fail after recent parliamentary elections, the party's secretary general said on Monday.
The plan comes after CNRT, a party set up by former president Xanana Gusmao, said last week it had lined up partners to form a coalition government. CNRT came second in the June 30 polls with 24 percent of the vote, behind Fretilin's 29 percent support.
"We are still negotiating with other parties and we have already submitted letters to them," said Mari Alkatiri, who stepped down as prime minister last year after a wave of violence when the army split along regional lines.
"We are awaiting their response, but if they all refuse to cooperate with us it means that we must form a minority government."
Fretilin won 21 seats in the 65-seat chamber in the election, Faustino Cardos Gomes, the head of the National Election Commission, said on Monday. CNRT won 18 seats, while the Association of Timorese Democrats-Social Democratic Party (ASDT- PSD) won 11 and the Democratic Party 8. Other smaller parties took the rest.
Gusmao's CNRT, which the resistance hero established this year as a vehicle to become prime minister, ASDT-PSD and the Democratic Party said on Thursday they had formed a coalition.
'Entitled'
Alkatiri said that Fretilin was entitled to appoint the prime minister and form a government under the constitution since it had won the most votes.
But a spokesman for the CNRT alliance said by telephone the group had a majority so it could form a government. "We are still discussing who will be prime minister and ministers. The coalition will have strong governance because we have many representative in the national parliament...," spokesman Zacarias da Costa said by telephone.
Both Fretilin and CNRT had ruled out forming a unity government, an idea floated by President Jose Ramos-Horta.
Julio Tomas Pinto, an analyst at the National University of Timor Leste, said political leaders needed to work together. "I think if Fretilin governs the consequence is the (CNRT) alliance will not approve the annual budget," he said. On the other hand, he said, if the CNRT alliance formed a government security could be threatened since Fretilin supporters would feel left out in the cold after winning the most votes.
Fretilin, which led the 24-year struggle against Indonesia, remains popular, especially in the east of the country, but its candidate fared badly in the recent presidential election.
Gusmao, who ended his term as president in May, appears to have become increasingly frustrated by the pace of progress under Fretilin and the factional infighting that was blamed for contributing to the chaos and bloodshed last year.
Factional fighting broke out in East Timor last year, triggered by the Fretilin government's sacking of 600 rebellious soldiers. In the ensuing mayhem 37 people were killed and 150,000 driven from their homes. Foreign troops led by Australia intervened to restore order, but sporadic violence and unrest have continued.
Green Left Weekly - July 4, 2007
Peter Boyle – East Timor is holding parliamentary elections on June 30. Many commentators predict former president Xanana Gusmao's new party, the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT), will form government, ousting the current ruling Fretilin party. However, a new government is unlikely to bring an end to the severe social and economic crisis besetting the country, Tomas Freitas from Luta Hamutuk ("Struggle Together"), a Timorese activist group that monitors the state budget and the petroleum fund (now worth US$1.4 billion), told Green Left Weekly's Peter Boyle. Freitas is also a member of the Consultative Council on the Petroleum Fund, which is comprised of government and civil society representatives.
The corporate media in Australia says that Fretilin was becoming a violent dictatorship and has lost the confidence of the Timorese people. Is this true?
The campaign of the opposition parties is about all the unresolved conflicts from the crisis last year. For instance, the unresolved problem of the 600 soldiers who left the army – the Petitioners' Group – the unresolved conflict with [former East Timorese army major] Alfredo Reinado, the internally displaced people camps, etc. The opposition parties blame Fretilin for all these conflicts, but it is not the only party responsible for the clashes last year.
In some areas Fretilin members have been intimidating people, but the opposition parties also do this. Recently 13 houses of Fretilin members were burned by opposition supporters.
Some individuals in some parties – Fretilin and opposition – give money to martial arts youth gangs to intimidate other parties. Both sides play this game.
Meanwhile, Reinado is distributing a CD that condemns [former prime minister Mari] Alkatiri, [President Jose Ramos] Horta and Xanana [as "communists"] and there are rumours that he is trying to get support from the US. He is quite popular in the west and he is dangerous. Some soldiers from the Petitioners' Group have joined him. He will be a problem for the next government.
How corrupt is the Fretilin government?
We cannot really see corruption at the ministerial level, but in the civil service there is corruption, especially in the customs, immigration, public works, transport and procurement departments.
But if the opposition forms a new government this is still going to carry on. It is hard to control because the problem is the low salaries of civil servants and other Timorese workers. Who can survive on $80 a month?
The UN and World Bank say they want to fight corruption but they insist that the Timorese wages remain low while their advisers get paid very high salaries.
Some of the opposition parties, including the Socialist Party of Timor (PST), want to use more of the money going into the petroleum fund to address the economic crisis, especially in agriculture. They say that the money should be spent now because people are starving and East Timor cannot afford to put it into the petroleum fund.
The government has a contract with the major donor countries (who provided $15 million for last year's budget) that requires the money to be spent on their terms, including paying for specialists and advisers that they send. Since 1999, the agriculture office has been run by these overseas "advisers" from the World Bank and foreign donor countries.
There are only three or four Timorese with any senior role. The agriculture minister says that it would be possible to go and spend more of the petroleum fund directly on agriculture only if we were willing to give up the foreign donors' budget support by breaking our agreement with them.
Only 80% of the money for agriculture in the budget is spent. So even spending the funds for agriculture already provided in the budget is being blocked by this bureaucratic agreement with the donor countries. As well, the government doesn't even know how to spend the money for agriculture.
Xanana blames the Fretilin government for the crisis but it is his fault as well. He was the one who agreed to have a donors' meeting with so much power. He supported the national development plan. Fretilin has only implemented his policy!
The plan failed because of the question of human resources. It totally depends on advisers from outside and it keeps Timor dependent. The UN, UN Development Program and World Bank are still there running things and the crisis is their fault too. They say the Timorese police and the troops are "not professional" but they gave training to these police and troops.
Who do you think will win the parliamentary elections?
Fretilin will win the biggest vote, based on the results of the presidential elections, but it won't have a majority and it is hard for them to form a coalition government. So an opposition coalition will probably form a new government and Xanana hopes to be prime minister.
The real power in this coalition will be the Timorese Social Democratic Party-Social Democratic Association [PSD-ASDT], led by Mario Carrascalao [governor during Indonesian occupation] who is pro-foreign investor.
If Xanana wins do you think there will be any big change in policies?
I think there will be a change. Horta has said we want to cooperate with World Bank, we want to cooperate with the UN even on the question of an oil pipeline coming to Timor or not [Australia has pushed for a pipeline to go to Darwin, which would rob East Timor of the income associated with processing the oil]. All these problems will come out.
It may not be more pro-Australian, but it will be more conservative and more pro-business. When Horta was elected president he was upset that the Australian government did not send a special delegation to the ceremony and in his speech he talked about better links with Indonesia, Portugal and other countries but not Australia.
Also Xanana has some advisers who very strongly want to have the oil pipeline come to Timor. He doesn't attack Fretilin on the petroleum fund because he agrees with it. He is better than Horta on this issue.
What do you think of the role of Australia in East Timor today? Should the troops stay or leave?
They should leave. Both sides of the conflict in Timor don't like Australia anymore. Reinado supporters in the western side are angry with Australian troops and in the eastern side they are angry after Australian troops killed two young men. Just Horta wants to keep the Australian troops!
South China Morning Post - July 3, 2007
With about half the vote counted in East Timor's parliamentary elections, the crucial role of the minor parties has become more clear – and the head of the small Democrat Party is emerging as the potential key to Xanana Gusmao's future.
Fernando "Lasama" de Araujo says he supports the former president's party ahead of the ruling Fretilin party, but some issues still need to be resolved.
With the support of the Democratic Party and its allied bloc, Mr Gusmao's National Congress for East Timor Reconstruction (CNRT) party is on track for achieving a razor-thin majority.
However, it was unclear whether Mr Lasama supported Mr Gusmao to be prime minister. "We do not have any significant differences with Xanana, but there are still issues to discuss," he said.
With more than 250,000 votes tallied, Fretilin was leading with about 30.1 per cent, compared to CNRT's 22.1 per cent. Behind them are the Timorese Social Democratic Association/Social Democrat Party with 16.7 per cent and the Democrat Party with 11.6 per cent.
The two minor parties have a pre-election agreement to stick together in government or in opposition.
East Timor's law calls for a party or a coalition to control an absolute majority in parliament in order to form a government. This small-party support is therefore essential to Mr Gusmao if he is to snatch power away from Fretilin.
In regards to joining CNRT in power, Mr Lasama's doubts centre on the presence of Fretilin Mudansa within Gusmao's party.
Fretilin Mudansa is a reformist wing of Fretilin that supported CNRT during the election, after strong disagreements with Mari Alkatiri, the secretary-general of Fretilin. It is still unclear whether Fretilin Mudansa will stay in government with the CNRT or return to Fretilin and push for a change in leadership.
"We would still consider working with Fretilin Mudansa, but we need to understand their views on several issues," Mr Lasama said.
Mr Lasama, a student activist during the resistance who spent seven years in prison in Jakarta around the same time as Mr Gusmao, rejected the principle of an all-encompassing government of unity, as advocated by President Jose Ramos Horta.
"We do not agree with this principle, but we would like to use the best human resources available in the country to push for reforms," he said, underlining that the party does not rule out working with some of the most capable ministers from Fretilin.
Associated Press - July 3, 2007
Dili – For the third time in as many months, East Timor's people lined up and voted in high numbers. But the show of democracy could not mask mounting challenges facing Asia's newest nation five years after it proclaimed independence.
Its 1 million people are increasingly dependent on the international community for food and safety, the political elite is bitterly divided and the economy is in tatters. Some experts say the nation may be on the path to becoming a failed state.
Parliamentary elections were held on Saturday and early counts indicate a tight race between the new party of independence hero Xanana Gusmao and the ruling Fretilin.
None of the 14 competing parties are expected to win a simple majority needed to form a government and elect a prime minister, meaning a possibly lengthy period of coalition talks will be needed.
The vote count continued Tuesday and showed Fretilin with a lead of nearly 19,000 ballots over Gusmao's National Congress for the Reconstruction of East Timor. The results were based on 247,000 counted ballots, or nearly 50 percent of those registered to vote.
Turnout figures were not available, although officials have said they were high. Final results are not expected until later this week.
Campaigning for the polls and two earlier rounds of voting for president was mostly peaceful but divisive, driving the country's political leaders further apart when reconciliation was needed, election advisers and political observers said.
East Timor descended into fear and lawlessness last year when clashes between security forces morphed into widespread gang warfare, looting and arson in the seaside capital, Dili. At least 37 people were killed and 155,000 driven from their homes.
The 2007 "failed states index," compiled by the independent Washington-based not-for-profit Fund for Peace and published in the latest edition of Foreign Policy magazine, ranked East Timor 20th in the "alert" category, behind Sudan, Iraq, Somalia and Zimbabwe, among others. The ratings are based on 12 social, economic, political and military indicators measured in 177 countries.
East Timor's lowest grade was in state legitimacy, largely due to the unclear circumstances last June when Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri resigned during the violence under pressure from political opponents.
"The pressures facing East Timor are particularly destabilizing because it is such a new country without established institutions," said Joelle Burbank, a Fund for Peace research associate. "Government legitimacy in a new country is particularly important, making East Timor's poor score in this category that much more destabilizing."
Indonesia's troops unleashed a scorched earth campaign after the country voted to break free from Jakarta-rule in 1999 in a U.N- sponsored ballot, destroying as much as 70 percent of the infrastructure. Thousands of homes and businesses were torched last year.
Despite sizable offshore oil and gas reserves, around half of East Timor's work force is unemployed and 40 percent of the population lives in poverty. Aid agencies warned last month that nearly 200,000 people, a fifth of the population, face severe food shortages.
"There are no jobs. Besides, there is still no guarantee that we are safe on our way to work," said Xisto Carlos, 24, who was two semesters away from graduating in computer science when his home was torched. "We can't say the past five years have been good years for us," he said.
East Timor's leaders and the United Nations say foreign troops will be needed for years. "The major problem is security, state authority," said Alkatiri. "People need to feel again this state has its own authority. It's own power to deal with the problems."
He dismisses talk of a failed state. "This is a transitional period, from the full destruction of the country, to the reconstruction. You can only really talk of a failed country after 20 or 30 years of independent government, not after 4 or 5 years," Alkatiri said.
The United Nations, which administered East Timor until it became an independent state in 2002, was winding down its mission when the unrest flared. By May 2007, it had ratcheted its staff back up to more than 2,800, including 1,600 police officers from 39 countries.
Much of the future depends on the ability of the resistance era- foes to work together, experts say. "If not, I fear for our stability and the possibility that we will become a failed state," said Julio Tomas Pinto, a professor of political science at East Timor's La Paz University.
Australian Associated Press - July 1, 2007
Karen Michelmore and Jill Jolliffe, Dili – Almost 30 years on, Zulira and Adelino Coelho are still waiting desperately for news on their son.
Like thousands of East Timorese, whose family members were killed or disappeared during the nation's turbulent past, they are also still waiting for justice.
But as counting in East Timor's weekend parliamentary elections got underway today, the issue of justice and accountability remains as distant as it has always been. Analysts say justice was not an issue among the major parties during the election campaign.
It has been 27 years since 19-year-old Danino Paizao Coelho da Silva was taken away by Indonesian forces in Dili during Indonesia's rule over the tiny half island, never to be seen again.
Mrs Coelho says it is impossible for her family to move forward until he is found.
"We are still waiting for information whether our son is still alive or not," Mrs Coelho said. "If our son is dead, please tell us where his body is. If he's still alive, if they put him in jail, please tell us which jail. We are still waiting for that, we cannot stop thinking about this until there is a result."
In early counting in the parliamentary elections, East Timor's four major parties; the ruling party Fretilin, Xanana Gusmao's CNRT, the Democratic Party and a Social Democratic Party Coalition, were in the lead.
A new political party PUN (Partido Unidade Nacional) – the only one which actively campaigned on the issue of justice – was coming in about sixth place out of the 14 political groupings, although figures were sketchy and unreliable.
PUN President Fernanda Borges said justice was vital for East Timor's future stability but most political parties were fearful of raising the issue.
"People are waiting for a change in government to realise this dream of theirs," Mrs Borges said.
"It is really just a dream to get justice. We have so many orphans and so many widows. It is what the people want and it hasn't taken place. If we are going to be a state that is based on the rule of law, then we actually have to address this issue."
Justice, if it ever comes, is likely a long way off. Eighteen months after its release, there has been no response to the 204 recommendations made by the truth and reconciliation body, the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in Timor-Leste (CAVR), which investigated the violence during Indonesia's 24- year rule and 1999 vote for independence.
East Timor and Indonesia's leaders have set up the Commission of Truth and Friendship to establish the "conclusive" truth of the violence surrounding the 1999 vote and to foster reconciliation instead of prosecution.
"I think it's a question of time," Mrs Borges said. "These things don't go away. It's embedded in people's hearts to have justice and this state will never function as a democratic state, as a state that respects human rights, preserves the rule of law and actually serves the interests of the people, if we don't have this justice take place because everything revolves around that."
Kyodo News - July 4, 2007
Vote counting from East Timor's parliamentary election neared completion Wednesday, showing no political party will be able to clinch an absolute majority needed to govern in its own right, making a coalition government most likely.
As of 5:30 p.m., 399,218 votes, about 94 percent of the national total, had been counted from the country's 13 districts, the National Election Commission announced.
The Fretilin party was in the lead with 112,897 votes, 29.19 percent, followed by its main rival, the National Congress for the Reconstruction of East Timor (CNRT) newly set up by former President Xanana Gusmao with 88,726 votes, 22.97 percent, election commission spokeswoman Maria Angelina Lopez Sarmento said.
Trailing the two main parties are an alliance of the Social Democratic Association of East Timor and the Social Democratic Party, with 15.79 percent, and the Democratic Party, with 11.65 percent.
"The turnout is about 81 percent, similar to that of the runoff of the presidential election (last month)," Sarmento added.
The election was participated in by a total of 12 individual parties and two coalitions of two parties each. Parliamentarians are elected through a party-list proportional representation system. A party must win an absolute majority, at least 33 seats, to rule in its own right.
Fretilin, whose members dominate the outgoing parliament, lost some of its luster after violence rocked the country in April and May last year, leaving at least 37 people dead and many thousands displaced.
Currently, more than 60,000 refugees still live in camps in some major cities in the country of 1 million people due to the violence that erupted after then Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri sacked 600 rebellious soldiers. The violence forced Alkatiri, Fretilin's secretary general, to resign as premier.
Despite Gusmao's popularity, many analysts had predicted his party would likely win only 20 to 25 percent of the popular vote. But it could set up an agreement with the Democratic Party and the Social Democratic Association of East Timor-Social Democratic Party alliance that Gusmao helped establish to gain a majority.
However, in a press conference later on the day, Fernando de Araujo, president of the Democratic Party, proposed a "national unity" Cabinet, sharing power proportionally among parties that get seats in parliament.
"We are facing many problems. We have lack of trust to each other and differences between East Timorese are very deep, so for the best of this country, it's better to go to this way," Araujo said.
"I hope that leaders of this state are willing to a little bit show their whole hearts to seek the best solution for this country. Don't put their own interests above others because if they do so, we will go nowhere," he added.
He believes that since Fretilin will likely get most votes, that party "has rights to determine more than others."
Alkatiri himself, however, has repeatedly said Fretilin will not set up a coalition with Gusmao's party and prefers to be in opposition.
In a related development, Social Democratic Party President Mario Viegas Carrascalao also put aside a possible coalition with Gusmao's party at this time.
"The CNRT can be a natural alliance (for us), but for the time being, I haven't eyed to set up a coalition with them, because there are former Fretilin members inside the party," he told a small group of East Timorese reporters. "It's something unacceptable to work with them," he added.
Meanwhile, in an interview with the Australian Associated Press, President Jose Ramos-Horta said the next government will be formed based on a coalition of several parties and he called for it to learn from the past mistakes made by Fretilin when it was in power.
"Once they produce a government with a majority, the leaders of the various parties comprising the coalition will always have to be very sensitive, humble, so the coalition can stay intact, so the government can function," Ramos-Horta said.
"If the leaders are not wise, humble and pragmatic enough, they will fail miserably and it will be heartbreaking for the poor people who have elected them," he added.
A Japanese election observation mission said the election was generally carried out peacefully without major confusion. Mission chief Katsunari Suzuki told a press conference the election was "a test case to judge whether democracy in this country consolidates itself or not."
Suzuki said all the stages in the election, from preparations to vote counting, took place in accordance with election rules despite some minor technical problems, such as some polling stations closing slightly earlier than stipulated in the rules.
He said he hopes that claims of irregularities found during the process can be settled "not through violence" and the will of the East Timorese people expressed through the election can be accepted by all.
East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, gained its independence in 2002 after two-and-a-half years under UN administration following a popular vote in 1999 in which its people voted to separate from Indonesia.
| Human rights/law |
The Australian - July 24, 2007
Mark Dodd – A District Court judge in Dili has overturned a presidential decree offering amnesty to East Timor army rebel Major Alfredo Reinado.
The decision is a big embarrassment to the UN mission in Dili whose mandate includes reforming the country's notoriously weak justice sector.
Last month, acting under pressure from politicians, East Timor's top law officer ordered the Australian military commander in Dili and his UN police counterpart to stop the hunt for Reinado.
The 39-year-old Australian-trained former military police commander is wanted for subversion and involvement in last year's deadly political violence.
Prosecutor-General Longhuinos Monteiro's June 27 letter raised concerns of double standards because former interior minister Rogerio Lobato, an Alkatiri loyalist, is currently in jail after being found guilty of illegally arming civilians during last year's bloody mayhem.
Now a UN judge says Mr Monteiro's decision was unconstitutional and criminal charges could result.
"Not only is the letter for safe passage by Reinado and his group invalid – it is clearly a crime to interfere with or otherwise seek to hinder the due execution of an outstanding warrant of arrest.
"Graver is the fact that the Prosecutor-General issued a letter to police and military authorities when he has no legal authority to do so," said Judge Ivo Rosa.
Judge Rosa warned there was compelling evidence to launch a criminal investigation into the issuing of the amnesty decree first announced by President Jose Ramos Horta.
The lastest brouha over Reinado follows the failure of East Timor's political leaders to agree on a new coalition government to lead the country.
Rival parties have until July 30 to decide who should lead a new coalition government although talks headed by President Horta last Thursday broke down.
Leaders of the Fretilin party, which won most votes in last month's elections but not enought to rule in their own right met with an alliance headed by the new party of independence hero Xanana Gusmao, the National Coalition for the Reconstruction of East Timor.
Power sharing between the two parties was not an option with both groups split over who should become the next prime minister.
Australian Associated Press - July 3, 2007
Karen Michelmore, Dili – East Timor's Court of Appeal has been asked to decide if a controversial new law which grants widespread amnesties for most crimes committed in the past year violates the tiny country's constitution.
President Jose Ramos Horta today said he would send the bill to the court for an opinion on its constitutionality and whether it violates the country's international obligations, before deciding whether he will sign it or veto it.
East Timor's parliament last month quietly passed the law, which could lead to amnesties for thousands of offenders for a wide range of crimes – from fireams offences, crimes against security to larceny.
"Today I'm actually sending it to the Court of Appeal for an opinion on the constitutional implications, whether such a law is in conformity... or violates some of the principles of international law, and in particular our constitution," Ramos Horta told AAP.
"I wouldn't sign... a law with such implications without seeking a clarification from the highest court in this country. I don't have a view one way or another at the moment, once I study the issue from every angle, one dimension is the constitutionality of the law, another is obviously political implications." The court has one month to deliver its opinion.
Both the United Nations and East Timor's government watchdog, the Provedor, have raised serious concerns with the law, including that it will hinder efforts to hold people accountable for last year's political crisis in which 37 people were killed.
East Timor's government has said the law will help the country move forward from last year's crisis of violence, with prosecutors grappling with thousands of cases in the fledgling country's justice system and prisons "bursting at the seams".
But analysts fear the law could spark new tensions in the nation, particularly if jailed former government minister Rogerio Lobato is among those to be released.
In a recent report, think-tank the International Crisis Group said the new clemency law was "apparently intended especially for Rogerio Lobato", who in March was convicted of murder and distributing weapons to civilians during last year's crisis.
"According to Mudansa (Fretilin Reform group) members, Lobato agreed to take the blame for the distribution of weapons in 2006 on condition that he would be amnestied," the report says.
"If he is not, he might try to implicate (former Fretilin Prime Minister Mari) Alkatiri. If he is amnestied, it may have implications for attempts to prosecute others accused of involvement in the 2006 violence."
Deputy Provedor for Human Rights Silverio Pinto Baptista said the victims of last year's violence needed justice.
"Just imagine if the perpetrators of a crime, if they just let them free, and the victims can do their own payback," he said. "They will seek their own justice, not through the law. There's the potential that problems will happen."
| Aid and development |
Agence France Presse - July 17, 2007
Oecussi – Sika and Siska were not born prematurely and yet between them the twins weigh a little over four kilograms (nine pounds), a testament to food shortages gripping impoverished East Timor.
"The food shortages here touch all ages: the babies, the men, the women," explained Cuban doctor Orestes Laza at the main hospital in Oecussi town, where facilities are still very basic. "The only supply is rice and vegetables," he said.
More than 90 percent of the doctors in East Timor are from Cuba, thanks to a cooperation agreement between Dili and Havana.
Often infants remain in good health as long as they are breastfed, added Laza. But Nonak, the mother of Sika and Siska, does not have enough milk, probably because she is malnourished herself from a poor diet of just rice.
The 29-year-old lives in a village seven kilometres (four miles) from town in the mountains. East Timor's farmers depend on traditional agriculture for their food, mainly rice and corn.
But poor weather and a recent plague of locusts have caused a 30 percent decline in crop production in the last year, East Timor's UN humanitarian coordinator Finn Reske-Nielsen warned earlier this month.
This leaves "one fifth of the population, or more than 200,000 people, vulnerable to food shortages during the coming lean season, which runs from around November to around February," he said.
Oecussi is among the six worst-hit districts out of the 13 in East Timor.
Maria Sore, 45, is another malnutrition victim. She appeared extremely weak lying in her bed, her husband at her side who confirmed their desperate plight. "We live in the mountains and we do not have any more rice to cultivate. There remains a little corn but the rice plantations were made barren by the dryness," Adolfo Siqueira said.
Oecussi, an area of some 2,700 square kilometres (1,080 square miles), is an East Timorese territory surrounded by Indonesia's West Timor province.
The quirk of its existence is historical: Oecussi was the arrival point of Portuguese Dominican missionaries to Timor in the middle of the sixteenth century, from where they spread their Roman Catholic religion. Though the colony was integrated into Indonesia without protest in 1976, it politically remained closely connected to East Timor.
But it takes 12 hours by ferry to get there from Dili, the capital of East Timor. "Oecussi was always more vulnerable because it is an enclave," said Dorte Jessen from the UN's World Food Programme (WFP).
Here a kilogram of rice costs 50 cents, compared to 40 cents elsewhere in the country, due to the cost of transportation. Importing is difficult, she said, "because all the countries in the region need more rice".
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation and WFP estimate that the cereal deficit for East Timor this year and next will reach 86,364 tonnes. With commercial imports anticipated at 71,000 tonnes, the shortfall needs to be filled through food assistance.
Voice of America - July 2, 2007
Nancy-Amelia Collins, Dili – East Timor is suffering from food shortages caused by floods and plagues of locusts that cut the harvest of the country's most important crop, corn, by 30 percent this year.
Rice, cassava, and other cereal crops have also been hard hit. Aid officials fear the situation will worsen as heavy rains continue to cause floods in parts of the country.
The United Nation's World Food Program and the Food and Agricultural Organization say at least 15,000 tons of emergency food assistance is needed to avoid a crisis.
Tarek Elguindi, the WFP country director in Dili, says the situation is grave. "About 200 to 220,000 people will be required to [be] assist[ed] October to March 2008. This is in addition to displaced people in Dili and other places, so it's a grim picture we have to face," he said.
Officials estimate around 10 percent of East Timor's one million people still live in refugee camps more than a year after fighting between security forces forced them to flee their homes. Although around three thousand international peacekeepers have restored order, many of the displaced are either still too afraid to return home or had their homes destroyed in the violence.
All of this worries the WFP's Elguindi. He says donors must respond quickly or the situation will likely worsen. "It is food, it is not like bank transfer you transfer in 48 hours. It is food to come here, [it takes] from three to five months to reach here," he added. "So really we need it immediately, immediately."
The country's June 30 parliamentary elections could slow the government's response. Elguindi says political leaders will be busy forming a new government and will not focus on the issue of hunger. "So we're talking about the end of the year and nobody will be around to take care of it and nobody will be experienced to deal with it and this is a concern," he said.
The head of the UN's Mission in East Timor, Atul Khare, says there are concerns the food crisis could cause more violence in the country. "If there is a shortage of food, it can on occasion lead to a lot of disenchantment and corresponding security challenges for this young nation. So we are concerned about it," said Khare.
East Timor, which became fully independent in 2002, is desperately poor and more than half the population is unemployed.
President Jose Ramos Horta, who was elected last month, says there is enough food for the next few months, but agrees more is needed to stave off starvation.
"We believe we have enough at the moment for the immediate needs for the next few months, but the same time as new needs arise because of the unexpected rains and floods, we are going to order more," said Mr. Horta. "We have our own resources, but also we have some significant resources from the consolidated appeal that we launched a few months ago together with the United Nations."
Last year's violence shattered the young nation. But the peaceful presidential and parliamentary elections over the past three months have raised hopes the country may finally be on the path to stability. Most people here hope that will translate into a future where everyone will have enough to eat.
| Language & culture |
International Herald Tribune - July 23, 2007
Dili – The rumble of a generator and the whir of ceiling fans muffled the quiet words of a judge as he questioned a witness in a murder trial one recent hot, still afternoon.
But even if they could have heard him, most of the people sprinkled through the little courtroom – including the defendant and the witnesses – could not have understood what he was saying.
The judge was speaking in Portuguese, the newly designated language of the courts, the schools and the government – a language that most people in East Timor cannot speak.
The most widely spoken languages in this former Portuguese colony are Tetum, the dominant local language, and Indonesian, the language of East Timor's giant neighbor.
For a quarter of a century, Portuguese had been a dying tongue, spoken only by an older generation. It was banned after Indonesia annexed the territory in 1975 and imposed its own language.
In a disorienting reverse, a new Constitution reimposed Portuguese after East Timor became an independent country in 2002. The marginalized became mainstream again and the mainstream was marginalized.
Linguistic convenience was sacrificed to politics and sentiment. In a nation that had never governed itself and had few cultural symbols to unite it, this language of resistance to the Indonesian occupiers was an emblem – particularly to the older generation – of freedom and national identity.
The choice has brought a tangle of complications, disenfranchising a generation of Indonesian speakers and introducing a new language barrier to the country's many other problems.
Along with a struggle to provide health care, education, government services, jobs and even food for its people, this destitute nation is now on a crash course to learn its own language, importing scores of teachers from Portugal to help.
"I have finished two levels of Portuguese, but I still don't speak it well, just basic Portuguese," said Zacharias da Costa, 36, a lecturer in conflict management at National University of East Timor.
Within five years, according to the government's plan, he will be required to teach all his courses in Portuguese, a language that is hardly heard on the campus here.
An official bulletin board at its entrance carries 14 notices from teachers. Eight are written in Tetum, four in Indonesian and two in English. None are in Portuguese.
For all its awkwardness, East Timor's experience is not uncommon, Robert Kaplan, a senior co-editor of the journal Current Issues in Language Planning, said in an interview by telephone.
The imposition of new national languages happens when countries are colonized, and it happens when they decolonize, he said. And sometimes, as in East Timor, it happens once more when they decolonize again.
East Timor's language problems are those of many countries that decree a language shift – complicating the daily business of the nation and cutting off its people from their history and literature, written in what will one day become an alien language.
In Azerbaijan, for example, a former Soviet republic that is now fully independent, a simple change in alphabet, from Cyrillic to Roman, has created a new class of illiterates.
East Timor's courts are among the hardest-hit institutions. Translations back and forth among Portuguese, Tetum and Indonesian produce a game of telephone in which testimony is often distorted, outside monitors say.
During a just-completed parliamentary election, news conferences were held in four languages, sometimes producing somewhat different versions of the news.
At the newspaper Timor Post, which is printed in English, reporters said they could not read government news releases in Portuguese, so they ignored them.
The reported number of Portuguese speakers in East Timor varies widely, perhaps because of different methods used in surveys and perhaps because of the effects of the current language training programs.
The United Nations reported in 2002 that only 5 percent of the population of 800,000 spoke Portuguese. In the 2004 census, 36 percent said they had "a capability in Portuguese," said Kerry Taylor-Leech, a linguist at Griffith University in Australia, who has written about the languages of East Timor.
"Since the 1990s you'll see that a language shift has taken place," she said. "The changes from what I see are taking place quite rapidly."
According to the census, 85 percent claimed a capability in Tetum, 58 percent in Indonesian and 21 percent in English.
The new Constitution names Portuguese and Tetum as the country's two official languages, but Tetum is seen as thin and undeveloped, and most of the nation's official business is conducted in Portuguese.
Agence France Presse - July 11, 2007
Sebastien Blanc, Dili – With a new president and parliament, East Timor is poised for reconciliation after more than a year of simmering political tension. But one schism remains: language.
In the extreme minority are the very few East Timorese who speak Portuguese, despite the more than four centuries that Lisbon had a presence in the tiny Asian nation of about one million people.
Yet Portuguese, along with the local vernacular Tetum, is one of East Timor's two official languages. Tetum is spoken by about 80 percent of the population, along with 16 local dialects.
While sufficient for everyday conversation, Tetum does not possess the rich vocabulary required to express sophisticated concepts and is not much use, for instance, in teaching a biology course or writing a judicial decision.
Geographically, the most widely used language is that of another former occupier, Indonesia. Tetum is not spoken in some remote pockets like Los Palos in the country's east.
"Indonesian – or bahasa Melayu – is still the single most widely spoken language, the language of higher education and the working language of bureaucracy," said Australian academic and East Timor expert Damien Kingsbury. "It is politically divisive, as is Portuguese, but it has the advantage of already being in place."
Jakarta's 24-year rule over East Timor began in 1975 shortly after Portugal's withdrawal and was marked by atrocities and mistrust, saw the complete prohibition of the teaching of Portuguese and its use in the media.
"But the language was never fully expelled, thanks to the resistance," said Benjamin de Araujo E Corte-Real, linguist and vice chancellor of the national university, referring to East Timor's guerrilla campaign against Indonesia's occupation.
Portuguese also survived thanks to the Catholic church, which continued to hold masses in the language.
Corte-Real disputes a 2001 World Bank study which found that only five percent of East Timorese could speak Portuguese. No formal language census has ever been carried out.
According to the academic, the population has a "predisposition toward Portuguese," and the survey neglected to take into account that when speaking Tetum, people are unconsciously using a great deal of Portuguese. About 40 percent of Tetum's vocabulary is estimated to come from the Romance language.
He also emphasises that Portuguese was chosen as an official language "as part (of) our self-affirmation," noting that use of the language sets East Timor well apart from neighbouring Indonesia and Australia.
Newly elected president, Nobel peace prize winner Jose Ramos- Horta, is a polyglot diplomat, juggling English, Portuguese, French and Tetum with ease.
His recent speeches in Indonesian, a language he is yet to master, have elicited smiles among his audience, but the presidential effort testifies to the importance that, historical animosities aside, Indonesian still carries.
East Timorese radio and television are flooded with Indonesian programmes, the nation's youth know more about Indonesian rock bands than Portugal's fado singers, and students dream about studying in Indonesia.
Those against the use of Portuguese say it has never been essential in the nation and cannot help develop it, citing as examples other Portuguese-speaking nations that are located far away and are typically poor.
They say it is an injustice that a young East Timorese must master the language in order to enter the civil service, which already has a poorly skilled pool of people to select candidates from. And once in the service, Indonesian tends to be used on a day-to-day basis.
Many young people, as well, did not understand how a government directed by a Portuguese-speaking elite from abroad – in particular Mozambique – managed to be elected in 2001, a year ahead of formal independence.
Defenders of Portuguese sometimes accuse the United Nations and other international organisations of favouring the recruitment of English-speaking rather than Portuguese-speaking Timorese.
English, which along with Indonesian was declared a "working language" of East Timor upon independence, is preferred by many young people.
"Most adolescents want to learn English as it's the language of development and jobs. If you want to get ahead in Timor, English is the ticket," said Andrea Bartoli, from the Centre for International Conflict Resolution at New York's Columbia University.
The linguistic diversity throws up some quirks. During the first presidential poll, the national election commission's spokesman was a Catholic priest who announced results that varied depending on whether he was speaking in Tetum, English, Portuguese or Indonesian – leaving journalists scratching their heads.
Meanwhile the United Nations christened its compound in the capital Dili, "Obrigado Barracks," a successful pun on "obrigadu barak" which in Tetum means "thank you very much."
| Opinion & analysis |
Green Left Weekly - July 18, 2007
Jon Lamb – The June 30 election has resulted in neither of the two main contenders – the ruling party Fretilin and the recently formed CNRT (National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction) – gaining an outright majority for a new parliament. Fretilin secured 29% of the vote, followed by CNRT with 24%. After the result was announced by the National Election Commission on July 9, a process of wrangling ensued within the East Timorese elite over how the government shall be composed and who shall lead it.
The close margin between Fretilin and CNRT, led by former president and national hero Xanana Gusmao, has intensified the tussle for leadership of a government of national unity – or Grand Inclusion as it has also been called. Fretilin Leader Jose Teixeira referred to the process in a July 6 interview on ABC Radio as "horse-trading". President Jose Ramos Horta, considered close to Gusmao, has been involved in consultations with elected parties and other groups, such as the bishops from the two dioceses of East Timor.
With nearly 47% of the East Timorese people opting for one of the other 12 parties or coalitions, the result indicates that the traditional appeal of much of the older political elite has slid dramatically since the 2001 Constituent Assembly and presidential election.
Fretilin's vote was nearly halved but Gusmao, with his historical prominence in the independence struggle and more recently as president, was not able to muster enough support to win over the bulk of Fretilin's former support base. These voters turned to other smaller parties, from Christian-influenced parties, through to parties with traditional-based ties, through to the leftist Socialist Party of Timor (PST). The National Unity Party (PUN), which had not run in previous elections, gained nearly 5%, in part due to tacit approval of its policies from the leadership of the Catholic Church.
Two of the newer formations attracted solid votes – 15.73% for the coalition between the Timorese Social Democratic Association (ASDT) and the Social Democratic Party (PSD), and 11.3% for the Democratic Party (PD). The vote for these parties and other smaller parties was especially strong in districts in the west and south-west, as well as in the capital, Dili. Seven parties won a place in the 65-seat parliament: Fretilin (21 seats), CNRT (18), ASDT-PSD (11), PD (8), PUN (3), the AD KOTA-PPT coalition (2) and the United National Democratic Timorese Resistance (Undertim – 2).
While CNRT and Fretilin have criticised each other over the economic and social policies that each have campaigned on, they do not hold fundamentally different ideological outlooks on the substance of these policies. Differences are primarily in how some of these policies are implemented, reflected most sharply in the proposed administration and use of income from the Petroleum Fund.
Despite some incidents of confrontation between party supporters, including acts of intimidation and violence, all reports from election observers to date have declared that the ballot took place in fair and largely peaceful conditions. The high turnout of just over 80% of registered voters (including many first-time voting Timorese youth) points to a strong push for change and for a government that can deal with the major social and economic problems that most East Timorese people face.
The leadership of both the CNRT and Fretilin have made public statements that they would not form a unity government. CNRT declared that it had secured the support of ASDT-PSD and PD to form a coalition government. "We have decided to make an alliance for the stability of the country. We will work to establish terms of reference", Gusmao stated at a press conference on July 6.
The Fretlin central leadership met over the weekend of July 7-8 and announced that it too was negotiating with other elected parties to form a coalition government. At a press conference on July 9, Fretilin secretary-general Mari Alkatiri said Fretilin "does not abdicate its right to form government" and that "stability is the most important question at the moment".
PUN leader Fernanda Borges was reported in the Suara Timor Lorasae and Diario Nacional on July 12 as saying: "We want to be the opposition party in the national parliament, to focus on justice and go against cronyism, corruption and nepotism in the country." Cornellio Gama (also known by the alias "L7") – a former Falantil guerrilla leader and head of Undertim – called for Fretilin and CNRT to "collaborate and work together".
The friction between the leadership of CNRT and Fretilin has entered a new phase with calls for a government of national unity. The pressure is now upon these parties to set aside differences and stitch-up an acceptable deal and compromise while ensuring they hold strong ministerial and executive roles, as well as enough influence over their coalition partners to keep a government of national unity together.
Eureka Street - July 12, 2007
Paul Cleary – A potentially unstable coalition government with few detailed policies and weak administrative ability is now certain to emerge after East Timor's first post-independence poll resoundingly rejected the party which had championed the country's long struggle for independence.
Results from the 30 June poll indicate that the ruling Fretilin party saw its vote collapse to around 29 per cent. This is less than half the vote it received in the 2001 poll. The newly-formed CNRT party led Mr Xanana Gusmao, the hero of East Timor's armed resistance struggle, came second with around 24 per cent of the vote. It is now vying with Fretilin for the allegiances of minor parties to secure a 51 per cent majority in parliament.
Whatever the composition of the coalition government, East Timor is now facing an uphill battle to secure its future and avoid a cycle of weak or failing governance. Dedication to creating jobs for a young and fast-growing population, and to improving administrative capacity so that the country can effectively spend its oil revenue, are the essential prerequisites for turning an unstable coalition into a strong and cohesive government.
The Gusmao-led CNRT has targeted the major weaknesses of the Fretilin government – its highly centralised and dysfunctional administration which made it unable to roll out programs to improve the lives of an impoverished and massively unemployed million-strong population. This poor performance was in spite of having the benefit of massive revenue from ConocoPhillips' Timor Sea oil and gas project.
After 24 years of violence and Indonesian occupation, East Timor had until last year been a success story in the difficult business of post-conflict reconstruction. It was seen as a model for Iraq and Afghanistan.
But the country lapsed back into renewed conflict in May 2006 after the Fretilin government mismanaged a minor dispute within the armed forces. A dearth of job opportunities, reflecting four years of economic contraction in per capita terms, created the conditions for renewed conflict. Australian and other international peacekeepers, which had left the country prematurely in 2004, were forced to return in May last year when warring armed forces factions put the country on the brink of civil war.
Mr Alkatiri's government succeeded in alienating the majority of the population with an authoritarian and undemocratic approach to government. He became infamous for making insensitive remarks, threatened to close down newspapers and tried to make defamation a criminal offence. His government was so ineffective that it was unable to spend the money it had available; about one third of the modest 2005-06 budget was unspent in a country with massive needs.
Mr Alkatiri's mismanagement outraged Mr Gusmao, who served in the largely ceremonial post of president from 2002-07. This is why the former poet, painter and pumpkin farmer shelved his retirement plans and overcame bad health to make an audacious bid for executive power. Mr Gusmao had used his moral authority to force Mr Alkatiri to stand down as prime minister last year.
Mr Gusmao's CNRT has the support of the powerful Catholic Church and is joined by a young and impressive Timorese, Mr Dionmsio Babo Soares, a lawyer who has a PhD in anthropology from the Australian National University and worked recently on policy issues for the Asia Foundation in East Timor. He is also a popular musician and football commentator. But it remains uncertain as to whether Mr Gusmao or Mr Alkatiri can lock in the support of two key minor parties, the Democratic Party and ASDT- PSD.
Mr Babo Soares, who has been published widely on post-conflict reconstruction, said recently that in government the party would "enact immediate and swift reform" to decentralise government administration. Under the Fretilin government's highly- centralised administration, even the smallest expenditures had to be approved by ministers. When ministers were travelling overseas, as was often the case, the business of government ground to a halt.
The new president, Mr Jose Ramos-Horta, who is closely aligned to Mr Gusmao, has vowed to be an activist president on economic management and, with the help of advice from a coterie of economists from the US and UK, has proposed popular fiscal measures to address poverty and unemployment. Mr Ramos-Horta has called for abolishing income tax for businesses and individuals below a threshold and making East Timor a free trade zone.
The former government was unable to strike the right balance between spending and saving. The challenge for the new government is to effectively administer programs to generate jobs and encourage private sector activity. There is an urgent need to circulate money in East Timor, where barter remains important. Handouts and expenditure should be targeted and they should be based on merit and mutual obligation. Veterans who made countless sacrifices during the Indonesian years are worthy of pensions. Mothers who shoulder the vast majority of the domestic work, and who are good financial managers, could effectively use a child endowment in a country where 40 per cent of children are undernourished.
And public works projects to improve infrastructure and soak up some of the massive pool of unemployed youth would also be an effective target for public expenditure.
The creation of a rural credit bank to promote private sector activity would be another worthy goal for the new government, provided it is properly managed. In a country where the acronym KKN (which stands for corruption, cronyism and nepotism) is a common refrain, the new government could learn from the fiscal discipline established by the Fretilin party, while governing with greater sensitivity and effectiveness.
Asia Times - July 10, 2007
Fabio Scarpello, Dili – Democracy is taking hold in East Timor, but the inconclusive result of recent parliamentary elections is raising the specter of new political confrontation rather than resolution.
The June 30 polls were held against the backdrop of last year's political violence, which saw then-prime minister Mari Alkatiri step down in the wake of political violence after the army split on regional lines and international peacekeepers were called in to restore calm.
Alkatiri's Fretilin (Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor) party won 29% of the vote, more than the 24% earned by former president and rebel leader Xanana Gusmao's party, known as the National Congress for the Reconstruction of East Timor (CNRT), and which has since the election formed a coalition with three more parties, representing a parliamentary majority. However, vague election laws have left both Fretilin and the CNRT-led alliance claiming the right to form the next government.
So far neither side has budged and it appears that President Jose Ramos Horta could eventually be called on to mediate the electoral deadlock. Although the situation is currently calm, there are concerns in some quarters whether both sides' supporters would peacefully accept a decision in the other's favor.
Despite the lingering doubts, East Timorese and the political actors can so far pride themselves for their healthy display of democratic will. An estimated 81% of the 548,000 registered voters cast their ballots across roughly 700 polling stations nationwide. The 3,000 national and international election observers indicated that the polls were free and fair.
The new political landscape presents a more diverse set of ideas and personalities than it did in 2001, when the country's first Parliament was formed under the administration of the United Nations. Then the Fretilin party dominated the electoral process, controlling 55 of the 88 seats.
One way or another, East Timor will have a coalition government and a strong opposition, healthy signs of a budding democracy. To be sure, memories of the anti-Indonesian resistance war and the cult of personalities it gave rise to still played heavily on voter's minds, shown by Fretilin and the CNRT placing first and second.
Yet both parties received fewer votes than expected and several smaller parties consolidated their support bases. In particular, the strong performance of the coalition of the Timorese Social Democratic Association (ASDT) and the Social Democrat Party of East Timor (PSD), collectively known as ASDT-PSD, which won 16% of the vote, and the Democrat Party (PD), which won 11.3%, signals a new sophistication of the young country's politics.
Fringe parties are also expected to play a significant role in government. The National Democratic Unity of Timorese Resistance, a coalition of three small parties led by the Sons of the Mountain Warriors and the National Unity Party (PUN), are the other parties that won seats in the 65-seat chamber.
Among these, the PUN is arguably the one to watch. Led by Fernanda Borges, the party managed a respectable 5% of the vote on its first attempt, and Borges' mix of new political ideas and the support she enjoys from the local Catholic Church could see her party transform itself into a major contender in the future.
In the immediate future, Fretilin and the CNRT will still dominate the political scene – either as coalition leader or in opposition. Although it won the largest number of votes, Fretilin emerges from the democratic ballot badly bruised. It is still East Timor's largest political party, but the 29% of the vote it garnered is a far cry from the 57% it won back in 2001.
Fretilin has so far failed to win the support from other parties to join a ruling coalition, and party secretary general Alkatiri appears bent on forming a minority government based on its winning the largest number of votes. His legal argument is based on an article in the electoral law, which appears to require that any coalitions must be formed prior to the actual vote.
On the other hand, the constitution says, "The prime minister shall be designated by the political party or alliance of political parties with parliamentary majority and shall be appointed by the president of the republic, after consultation with the political parties sitting in the National Parliament."
The CNRT, which won a lesser 24% of the vote, contends that the constitution should legally override the election law and therefore the newly formed coalition has the right to form the next government. Such a position is backed by certain independent legal experts.
However, the final decision will rest on President Ramos Horta, who has already said he will choose a coalition on the basis that it will ensure a stable government. It is widely expected here that Ramos Horta will offer Fretilin a window of time to present its case, but then revert to the CNRT-led coalition.
The CNRT coalition also includes the ASDT-PSD and the PD, and also has the indirect support of the PUN, which, however, decided not to join the group formally.
Some political analysts contend that putting those disparate groups under one political umbrella will make a CNRT-led government wobbly, not to mention short on governing experience. Yet it will also likely enjoy a window of goodwill from the electorate and more clearly represents a fresh political start.
So far Gusmao's party has been shy on voicing detailed policies but rather has articulated new grand visions. The CNRT aims to stimulate economic growth and fight poverty by injecting money into the grassroots economy. The funds will come from the national Petroleum Fund, a US-based account where East Timor has saved its oil and gas revenues since September 2005.
The party has stated that, if needed, it is willing to use all of the US$1.4 billion saved so far to kick-start the economy. What the CNRT has not yet sufficiently explained is how this windfall will be implemented and monitored. Doubts persist as to whether East Timor has the institutional capacity and integrity to absorb large cash infusions efficiently at the grassroots level without major seepage.
At the same time, the CNRT is strongly advocating more decentralization of power and says that if it is in power it will aim to devolve decision-making to local leaders and local government – though it is unclear how this will be achieved and over what time frame.
On the foreign front, a CNRT-led government is also likely to ask for an extended UN mission in the country and continue with the current policy of reconciliation with Indonesia, the island nation's former occupier. However, the CNRT is also seen as closer to Australia than Fretilin, which, critics say, could see East Timor taking a softer stance in ongoing negotiations with Canberra over disputed oil and gas fields.
The two countries still must decide who will get the downstream contract for the Greater Sunrise oil and gas fields in the Joint Development Area. Fretilin drove a hard bargain in the past, and made overtures to China to help develop the area, when it was decided to share the upstream revenue equally. That policy could change with a CNRT-led government.
[Fabio Scarpello is AdnKronos International's Southeast Asia bureau chief.]
Melbourne Age - July 4, 2007
Damien Kingsbury – When the people of East Timor went to the polls for the third time this year, they completed a political cycle that has been remarkable in part because of its relative success, but in part because it has happened at all. Yet a little over a year ago, many people thought that East Timor's fledgling democracy had failed. Had it done so, it would have been conforming to common experience.
The history of decolonisation has been that the expectations of independence have been very high, and the capacity to deliver on them very low. In most cases, rather than improving, capacity in post-colonial states has fallen following independence, and this was the case in East Timor.
What was already an impoverished territory was dealt the twin blow in 1999 of having most skilled workers leave and having its infrastructure destroyed. This followed 24 years of institutionalised violence in which about a quarter of the population died and the rest were profoundly traumatised.
When liberation arrived, it was with an expectation that all the evils of the previous quarter decade, and Portuguese colonial neglect before that, would be remedied. Not surprisingly for what is one of the world's poorest countries, the modest changes available left most disappointed and many angry.
In other post-colonial states, this experience has led to upheaval, in response to which fragile governments became increasingly authoritarian. Despite a good early start, East Timor's Fretilin government also began this slide and, by April last year, the state was in chaos.
Much blame for this chaos has also been directed at the international community, in particular the United Nations, for withdrawing too early. Australia was also guilty of that, along with acting like the regional bully over the Timor Sea oil negotiations. Australia did lead East Timor's separation from Indonesia and it has increased aid.
But for 24 years Australia also denied atrocities it well knew were happening and then snatched away much of East Timor's oil. All of this has added to internal tensions and divisions.
More positively, the people of East Timor have warmly embraced electoral politics. The official turn-out for elections has officially been above 80 per cent but, allowing for out-of-date and doubled-up voter rolls, the actual turn-out has been more than 90 per cent. That puts East Timor's embrace of voluntary voting on a par with Australia's compulsory voting.
With what is looking like a small increase on its devastating presidential vote, to just above 30 per cent, Fretilin will still be the largest single party in the new parliament. As such, it should be first invited to form government. But its chances of doing so are limited, and there will most likely be a new coalition government, headed by former president Xanana Gusmao.
Despite grumbling and a few accusations, the ruling Fretilin party gracefully conceded the presidency. Privately, some of its senior ministers are now saying it is ready to accept the loss of control of parliament.
Having so badly failed to retain the confidence of the people, Fretilin will engage in some serious soul-searching. Fretilin is unlikely to change its policies, which are generally sound, but it is likely to reconsider the leadership of Mari Alkatiri and a challenge appears likely.
If acceptance of Fretilin's parliamentary defeat reflects its graceful acceptance of its defeat in the presidential elections, the coming change of government will bode very well for democratic deepening.
Indeed, East Timor appears to be making the critical step towards becoming a consolidated democracy. The return of the international community to East Timor has helped this political process and has acted as a guarantor for its outcome.
But, in the final analysis, if the people of East Timor did not want it, the international community would have little chance to impose such a democratic guarantee.
Set against profound poverty, still very limited capacity and a sometimes ambiguous international interest, East Timor's elections will constitute proof in themselves of the young country's progress. The elections alone will not ensure political stability, much less fulfil what are now largely empty hopes for the future.
But the recent elections do show that, despite problems, if the people are given a chance they will embrace making free decisions about their own future.
[Associate Professor Damien Kingsbury of Deakin University is in-country co-ordinator of the Victorian Local Governance Association observer mission to East Timor's elections.]
| East Timor media monitoring |
[Compiled by the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor Leste (UNMIT).]
Horta appeals to reduce child birth rates
During the World Population Day ceremony held by the Ministry of Finance and UNFPA on Thursday (12/7) at the Hotel Timor in Dili, President Jose Ramos-Horta appealed to the Timorese people to help decrease the rate of child birth from seven to two. Mr. Horta said that this year's statistics show that there are currently approximately 1 million people. He added that if each family continues having 7 children, the population will increase by 2 million in two years also adding to the preoccupations of the nation. (STL)
UNPol: No political violence in Uatolari
UNPol said that it has not received any reports of violence involving political party supporters in Viqueque district. "We have only received one report of an incident that occurred last Sunday at the Uatolari Market. This was not a politically related incident," said UNPol Spokesperson, Monica Rodriguez on Thursday (12/7). (STL)
Political parties need to explain article 106 of the constitution
The Vice President of Committee B for Defence and Foreign Affairs at the National Parliament, Clementino dos Reis Amaral said that political parties must explain article 106 of the constitution to their supporters in order to avoid conflicts. The article relates to the formation of the new government. (STL)
ETCRN congratulates CNE and STAE
The East Timor Crisis Reflection Network (ETCRN) congratulated the CNE and STAE for the good conduct of the parliamentary elections on 30 June. The ETCRN Coordinator, Jaimito Candido said that the Timorese have been able to organize their first presidential and parliamentary elections successfully. (STL)
UNMIT to hold meeting with political parties
The United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) will hold monthly meetings with the political party leaders. The decision was made when UNMIT held a meeting with political parties last Thursday (6/7). (STL)
UNDERTIM will help Fretilin to form government
The UNDERTIM party led by Cornelio Gama and Cristiano da Costa will help [the ruling party] Fretilin to form a government by giving them some ideas, however they will not join them in a coalition. "UNDERTIM will maintain its political autonomy," said UNDERTIM Secretary-General Cristiano da Costa on Thursday (12/7) after meeting with President Jose Ramos-Horta in Dili. (TP)
Alfredo will not store weapons in containers
Attorney-General Longuinhos Monteiro said that fugitive Alfredo Reinado Alves and his men refused to store their weapons in the containers provided by the state. Reinado's lawyer Benevides Correia on the other hand explained that they are waiting for some issues to be clarified before using the containers. (DN)
Angelina: Complaints to CNE do not affect the election results
At a press conference held at the CNE office on Thursday (12/7) in Dili, the CNE spokesperson, Maria Angelina informed that the CNE received 83 complaints during the electoral process. Ms. Angelina said that out of the 83 cases, only 11 cases went against the electoral law or were considered criminal offenses, but as announced by the Court of Appeals these cases would not affect the results. (DN)
New serious crimes unit will be established in Timor-Leste
Attorney-General Longuinhos Monteiro on Thursday (12/7) informed that a new Serious Crimes Unit will be established in Timor-Leste to investigate the cases from 1999. (DN)
Alkatiri: opposition against the government will be an enemy
The secretary general of Fretilin Mr. Mari Alkatiri has stated that any opposition party that opposes the Government will be an enemy of the Government. "It is clear, however that the role of the opposition is not entirely as a traitor as an opposition is needed to overview the government's programmes," said Mr. Alkatiri. (TP)
No political parties have bad intention toward the country
Mr. Mariano Sabino, the general secretary of Democratic Party (PD) which proposes to be one party within an alliance said on Wednesday at the Hotel Timor, that no one political party has bad intentions. Rather they are united in their view of democracy and self determination. "Today's democracy is the result of Fretilin's struggle for self-determination"Based on the current situation PD hopes to create a government open to every party in order to solve the crisis within the country," said Mr. Mariano. (TP)
UNDERTIM wants Xanana and Mari Alkatiri working together
Following the announcement of results by the Court of Appeal on Wednesday, the political party UNDERTIM has called upon Xanana Gusmao and Mari Alkatiri to end their political differences.
UNDERTIM will hold two seats in the government. "UNDERTIM needs Fretilin and CNRT to collaborate and work together. All parties should respect that Fretilin won the election with a simple majority and Fretilin is also giving its respect to the minority who have seats in the parliament," said Cornelio Gama L-7, the president of UNDERTIM on Wednesday (11/7) in his residence in Fatuhada, Dili. (STL)
Horta's decision on Reinado is legal
The political expert of the National University of Timor-Leste (UNTL), Alarico da Costa Ximenes told journalists on Wednesday that the declaration by the President of Republic, Jose Ramos Horta on Alfredo Reinado Alves and his men is legal. He explained that Horta's decision reflects the power of law from the four essential organs in Timor-Leste, namely the national parliament, president, government and judiciary. "The presidential decision is a wise one. It reflects the need for stability in Timor-Leste and the need for Reinado's safety." (STL and DN)
PUN intends to be an opposition party in the national parliament
The National Unity Party (PUN) who has one three seats in the national parliament, will not take part in the proposed alliance between CNRT, ASDT-PSD and PD, preferring to become an opposition party in the national parliament. "We want to be the opposition party in the national parliament, to focus on justice and go against cronyism, corruption and nepotism in the country," declared the president of PUN, Ms. Fernanda Borges on Wednesday (11/7) at PUN's office in Taibisse, Dili. (STL and DN)
The alliance is ready
The coalition parties' (CNRT, ASDT-PSD and PD) alliance will become the opposition party when President of Republic nominates Fretilin to form the new government. The ASDT's Secretary-Geral, Gil Alves, the president of national council of PSD, Zacarias Albano da Costa, CNRT's representative, Duarte Nunes and PD's representative, Adriano Nascimento, declared on Wednesday (11/7) in Hotel Timor, Dili, that the alliance parties signed an MOU for the functioning of their majority coalition, stipulating that they will work together on all aspects in the national parliament. (STL)
Alkatiri doesn't discuss the future concept of the new government
The Secretary-General of Fretilin, Mari Alkatiri refused to discuss the future concept of East Timor's new government, saying instead that he wants to discuss the platform and programme of the political parties. "Essentially, Fretilin wants to go forward," he said. He mentioned that, so far, Fretilin has received official letters from three parties, CNRT, ASDT-PSD and PD. The letters state that these parties are ready to have dialogue led by the president of republic. (STL)
Fretilin militants condemn violence in Uatolari
The militants and sympathizers of [ruling party] Fretilin condemned the violence in Viqueque district, sub-district Uatolari. The last incident happened on 30 of June after the Election Day result; three houses were burnt, one person was injured and several shops were looted.
Manuel Tilman: NP's mandate will end in September 15
The member of national parliament from KOTA, Manuel Tilman, stated on Wednesday (11/7) in national parliament that according to the law for the national parliament (NP), its mandate will end on 15 of September this year. He stated that before 15 of September (on the 14 September) all members of national parliament will leave their seats for the new members of national parliament. (TP) UNDP-AusAID strengthen cooperation for the development of Timor-Leste
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID) strengthen their relationship and cooperation to assist the development of East Timor. This cooperation was formalized during a signing of an accord on Monday (9/7) in Dili by the UNDP Country Directory, Akbar Usmani and the AusAID Development Corporation Counselor, Robin Scott – Charlton. "AusAID and UNDP agree to increase assistance through governance cooperation, especially law and justice, elections and the parliament," said the UNDP press release. (TP)
Menezes: the government should force a dialogue with Alfredo
The Spokesperson of the Democratic Party (PD), Rui Menezes said that the government should force a dialogue with Alfredo in order to confirm his status. Mr. Menezes said that before the President makes decisions on whether Alfredo should be allowed to carry weapons or not, a dialogue should take place in order to determine his status. Elizario Fereira, a member of Fretilin, said that there is no difference between a pistol or a weapon, except for maybe the size. "According to the constitution, no civilian is allowed to carry a weapon," said Mr. Fereira. (DN)
Longuinhos: "State will provide boxes to store Alfredo's weapons"
The Attorney-General of Timor-Leste said that in line with the President's decision to allow Alfredo to carry a pistol, the state will provide boxes to store Alfredo's heavy weapons. Longuinhos explained that the containers will be distributed through the Attorney-General and will be transported by ISF helicopters. (DN)
Tomas Cabral: STAE and CNE duties end
While attending the announcement of the results of the Parliamentary Elections on Wednesday (11/7) at the Court of Appeals in Dili, the STAE Director, Thomas Cabral told journalist that with the announcement of results, the roles of STAE and CNE have come to an end. "We should all accept the results and wait for the formation of the new government," said Mr. Cabral. (DN)
Timor-Leste will be a failed state if Fretilin forms a government
The President of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Mr. Mario Viegas Carrascalao reportedly called on Fretilin not to form a minority government as this would cause a new crisis and the downfall of the government. "Timor-Leste will be a failed state if the minority runs the nation without consulting the opposition -- which refflects the majority," said Mr. Carrascalao on Tuesday (10/7) in Dili. (STL)
The Coalition of CNRT, ASDT-PSD, and PD sign MOU
CNRT, ASDT-PSD and PD officially signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on Monday (9/7) in Dili to form a coalition. The MOU was signed by the representatives of each party, namely Xanana Gusmao (President of CNRT), Francisco Xavier do Amaral (President of ASDT), Mario Viegas Carrascalao (President of PSD) and Fernando de Araujo Lasama (President of PD). (STL)
ISF will not capture Reinado The Chief lawyer of former Military Police Commander Alfredo Reinado Alves, Benevides Correia Barros said that the International Stabilization Forces (ISF) will not capture Reinado and his men as per the order made by the President to halt the search operations. "ISF was there because Reinado was armed but they would not have been able to arrest him," said Mr. Benevides on Tuesday (10/7) in Dili. (STL)
Ramos-Horta supports inclusive government
President Jose Ramos-Horta wants to see a government that includes representatives from the different parties, rather than a Fretilin-dominated parliament. The President of [the ruling party] Fretilin, Francisco Guterres Lu-Olo informed that Fretilin's door is open to all political parties who are interested in forming an inclusive government.
Alfredo is only authorized to carry a pistol
President Jose Ramos-Horta reportedly authorized former Military Police Commander Alfredo Reinado Alves to only carry a pistol. "I made the decision to halt the search operation to capture Reinado and his men, but this does not mean that they are allowed to carry weapons. Reinado and his three guards are only allowed to carry pistols," said Mr. Horta on Tuesday (10/7) in Dili. (STL)
Coalition will not join Fretilin
The Spokesperson of the coalition parties (CNRT, ASDT-PSD and PD), Zacarias da Costa, said that the coalition has ruled out the option of joining Fretilin in forming a new government. "As the opposition party, we cannot guarantee cooperating with Fretilin to form this government," revealed Mr. Zacarias on Tuesday (10/9) in Dili. He added that if Fretilin formed a government, the coalition would not support any of the programmes that Fretilin would pass in the Parliament. (TP)
Alkatiri: Fretilin has not formed a government yet
The Secretary-General of Fretilin, Mari Alkatiri said that Fretilin has not yet formed a new government or identified a Prime Minister. He added that it is still early and Fretilin is still consulting with other political parties. (TP)
Ramos-Horta: Alfredo violated the agreement
President Jose Ramos-Horta reportedly said that the former Military Police Commander, Alfredo Reinado Alves and his men violated the agreement which forced the ISF to restrict his movement last Sunday (8/7) in Same. Mr. Horta said that under the agreement Reinado was not allowed to carry weapons and should have come to Dili to meet with him. "I gave ISF the order to monitor Reinado and his men, who showed up at the PNTL and UNPol offices, against the agreement made," said Mr. Horta on Tuesday (10/7) in Dili. (TP)
Lu-Olo: "President should not forget the constitution"
The President of [the ruling party] Fretilin, Francisco Guterres Lu-Olo said that the President of the Republic should not forget the country's constitution, particularly article 106, which states that only the leading party can form a government and name the new Prime Minister. He said that although Fretilin won the minority votes, the President of the Republic should invite the other parties to discuss ways to form a new government. According to Mr. Lu-Olo, the President has the responsibility to ensure that a new government is formed. (DN)
PSD replies Fretilin's letter
The President of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Mario Viegas Carrascalao, said that PSD has replied to the letter from Fretilin inviting other political parties to form the new government. Mr. Carrascalao said that the national stability of the country is the responsibility of the President of the Republic based on the country's constitution. He also revealed that he has no ambitions to be East Timor's next Prime Minister. He said that he was in politics to solve the problems of the people and the country. (DN)
Lu-Olo: "I am happy that CNRT replied to Fretilin's letter"
The President of [the ruling party] Fretilin, Francisco Guterres Lu-Olo, on Tuesday (10/7) said that he was happy that CNRT replied to the letter sent by Fretilin. He also confirmed that Fretilin has not publicly announced the content of the CNRT letter. (DN)
UNMIT: The security situation in the country remains calm
The UNMIT Spokesperson, Ms. Allison Cooper, said that although the security situation across the country has been calm, PNTL and UNPol have maintained their patrols – especially in high-rrisk areas – to guarantee security. (DN)
Monteiro: "Ramos-Horta asked Alfredo to hand-over the weapons"
After meeting with President Jose Ramos-Horta on Tuesday (10/7) in Dili, the Attorney-General Longuinhos Monteiro told journalist that the objective of the meeting was to get the order from the President to disarm Alfredo and his men. (DN)
CNRT replies to Fretilin's letter
The Secretary-General of [the ruling party] Fretilin, Mari Alkatiri, on Monday (9/7) said that Fretilin sent letters to six political parties regarding the possibility of setting up a coalition for the upcoming government. He informed that the National Congress for the Reconstruction of Timor-Leste (CNRT) has replied Fretilin's letter saying that it was a good idea and that they would be open to negotiations with Fretilin on how to form the new government. (DN)
Ramos-Horta: "Fretilin should form coalition government"
President Jose Ramos-Horta reportedly said that although [the ruling party] Fretilin clearly won the elections, it still needs to set up a coalition with other political parties in order to form the new government. Mr. Horta also revealed that in order to have stability in the country, Fretilin should not form a government on its own. (DN)
Ramos-Horta: "Alfredo has no right to carry weapons"
In response to reports that the former military Police Commander, Alfredo Reinado Alves and his men were surrounded by the International Stabilization Forces (ISF) on Sunday (8/7) in Same, Manufahi district, President JosC(c) Ramos-Horta said that he gave the orders to ensure that Reinado and his men were not armed. He said that Reinado is no longer a member of the F-FDTL and as a civilian, he has no right to carry weapons. (DN and STL)
Fretilin will form a big inclusive government
The President of [the ruling party] Fretilin, Francisco Guterres Lu-Olo, on Monday (9/7) in Central Committee Fretilin (CCF) in Dili, said that Fretilin won the parliamentary elections and plans to form a big inclusive government. "The National Political Commission of Fretilin welcomes the President's recommendation to include other political parties when forming the new government," said Mr. Lu-Olo. (DN)
Alkatiri: "Stability is Fretilin's priority"
The Secretary- General of [the ruling party] Fretilin, Mari Alkatiri, on Monday (9/7) at the CCF in Dili, declared that Fretilin's priority is to ensure stability and consolidate peace in the country. (DN)
Prime Minister: "Petitioners' lives are important to the government"
Prime Minister Estanislau Aleixo da Silva said on Monday (9/7) at the National Parliament that the government's door is always open for all the petitioners. He informed that the problems of the petitioners will be discussed and have already been presented by Notaveis Commission publicly. (DN)
Allison Cooper: "No information about Fretilin's plans to demonstrate"
The UNMIT Spokesperson, Mrs. Allison Cooper reportedly said that UNPol and PNTL have not received any schedules of Fretilin demonstrations in Dili. According to Ms. Cooper, everyone has the right to demonstrate, but also need to submit their purpose, duration and venue to the police 72 hours in advance. "UNPol and PNTL are ready to secure Fretilin's supporters who want to demonstrate, but they should submit their request in order for the police to provide security during the demonstration," said Ms. Cooper. (DN)
Ximenes: "CNE should announce results to the Court of Appeals"
The President of the Court of Appeals, Claudio Ximenes, called on the CNE to announce the results of the Parliamentary Elections to the Court of Appeals. Mr. Ximenes informed that even if the people have accepted the results, the Court of Appeals has not yet received any cases or the official results from the CNE. (DN)
Fretilin cannot form a government on their own
The Secretary-General of the Democratic Party (PD), Mariano Sabino, told journalists on Monday (9/7) at the PD office in Dili, that Fretilin should explain to its supporters that it cannot form a government on its own since it only has the minority seats (21 seats). (STL)
Dialogue with Petitioners
Prime Minister Estanislau Aleixo da Silva reportedly asked the Commander of the F-FDTL to organize a dialogue between the petitioners and F-FDTL. Mr. da Silve said that the F-FDTL Commander has been mandated by the government to liaise with the petitioners to solve the problem. (STL)
Seven political parties could not pass the threshold
The preliminary results of the Parliamentary Elections were publicly announced yesterday (9/7) in Dili by the CNE. The CNE President, Faustino Cardoso said that seven political parties could not pass the threshold needed to take a seat, namely Republican Party (PR) with 4,406 votes (1,02%), PDRT 7,718 votes (1,86%), PDC 4,300 votes (1,03%), UDT 3,753 votes (0,90%), PMD2,878 votes (0,69%), PST 3,982 votes (0,96%) and PNT 10,057 votes (2,42%). (TP)
Alfredo appears in Same
Even though the state has decided to halt the search operation to capture the former Military Commander, Alfredo Reinado Alves and his men, it is obvious that the International Stabilization Forces (ISF) are still tracking him. When Reinado and his men went to Same to meet with UNPol and PNTL regarding the dialogue, they were surrounded by an ISF helicopter and two cars. Reinado and his men did not panic and said that they had a letter allowing them to be there. (TP)
Ramos-Horta: the clemency law is full of discrimination
In regards to the clemency law approved by the National Parliament, President Jose Ramos- Horta said that the clemency law not only violates the Constitution of East Timor but it is also full of discrimination. "The clemency law goes against the Constitution of East Timor, because such law only applies to the events of 2006, and does not include the incidents that occurred in 1975 and 1999," said Mr. Horta a few days after visiting Timor Telecom. (TP)
The coalition government should be better than Fretilin
The President of Social Democratic Party (PSD), Mario Viegas Carrascalco, has said that the future government led by an alliance should be better than one led by [the ruling party] Fretilin in response to the crucial programme faced by Timorese people. "Alliance government has to be better than Fretilin's, however if this is not to happen, let Fretilin form the government and we all have to recognize it," said Mr. Viegas. On the other hand, the President of the Democratic Social Association Timor-Leste (ASDT), Francisco Xavier do Amaral, said that they propose Mr. Mario Viegas Carrascalco to become Timor- Leste's Prime Minister. (STL)
Political parties should respect the sovereignty of the people
At a press conference held by the World Forum for Democratization in Asia (WFDA) on Friday (6/7) in SOMET's office in Dili, the WFDA representative said the election has finished and it is now time for all political parties to respect peoples' sovereignty and focus on development. Mr. Miclat also congratulated all Timorese who contributed to the democracy of this new country in a peaceful manner. (STL)
People in Oecusse support the coalition of government
The CNRT Coordinator of Oecusse District, Jeferino da Cruz Sau, on Friday (6/7) in Ambeno said that the population of Oecusse supports former President Xanana Gusmco to form a coalition of government to resolve last year's crisis. "I am very happy with the decision made at the national level to form the coalition government," he said. (STL)
Alliance of four political parties: ambition to have power
The Secretary-General of UNDERTIM, Mr. Cristiano da Costa, on Saturday (7/7) at UNDERTIM's office in Dili, declared that UNDERTIM considers the alliance formed by four political parties, such as, CNRT, ASDT, PSD, and PD, as an ambitious concept for power sharing. He said that such a coalition could not serve the Timorese people and even if the four parties have decided upon the coalition they could not lead the government without confirming that Fretilin is the winner of the election. (TP)
Fretilin should move forward
At a press conference held on Friday (6/7) in CCF Comoro Dili, the President of [the ruling party] Fretilin, Francisco Guterres Lu-Olo, said that Fretilin's main responsibility now is to work with the other parties to solve the problems that the people are facing. (TP)
UNMIT: Important to contribute to stabilization of Timor-Leste
At the meeting with all political parties on Friday (6/7) at the UNMIT Headquarters in Dili, the Special Representative of Secretary-General in Timor-Leste, Mr. Atul Khare, said that it was important for political parties to move forward in way that was legally correct and contributed to the continuing political stabilisation of Timor-Leste. During the meeting, the parties thanked the United Nations and its agencies for the ongoing assistance provided during the campaigning, voting and post- election phase. They all agreed that the most important role for all of them now was to form a parliament and opposition that would represent the citizens of Timor-Leste. (TP)
New government should eliminate corruption
The Director of Lalenok ba Ema Hotu (LABEH), Christopher Henry Samson, reportedly called upon the new government to eliminate corruption. "The new government should organize itself and eliminate the corruption that existed during the Fretilin era," said Mr. Samson. (TP)
Maria Angelina: "Fretilin cannot form a government by itself"
In response to the preliminary results of the Parliamentary Elections, which gave Fretilin the lead, the CNE Spokesperson, Maria Angelina Sarmento, said that although [the ruling party] Fretilin had the majority of the votes, it could not form a government as it only had 33 seats. (DN)
Lu-Olo and Alkatiri: "Fretilin respects the people"
At a press conference held on Friday (6/7) in CCF Comoro Dili, the President of [the ruling party] Fretilin, Francisco Guterres Lu-Olo, and the Secretary-General of Fretilin, Mari Alkatiri, said that Fretilin wants to respect the wishes of the people who cast their votes for Fretilin in the Parliamentary Elections. They said that the Timorese people want peace, stability and development for the future of this new nation. (DN)
Manuel Tilman: Alliance of four parties an assault on power
In response to the alliance of government, the president of KOTA, Manuel Tilman, said that the action of the four political parties who formed a coalition for the government is an assault on power. He said that based on the law (article 106), the winning party can select a Prime Minister who is then nominated by the President of the Republic; in Timor-Leste, Fretilin is the party who won the parliamentary election, so it has the right to choose its Prime Minister. (DN)
People questioning security matters
Despite the presence of the International Stabilization Forces (ISF) in Timor-Leste, some people are still questioning the security matters in the country, particularly with regards to the feeling to the incidents of rock throwing in the capital. The journalists observed that people are questioning the security situation in the country since they are concerned that people unhappy with the new Government might cause disturbances. (DN)
Rodolfo TOR: "there will be a penalty for members of the PNTL"
At a press conference held by the Human Rights and Justice Provedor (PDHJ) on Friday (6/7) in Caicoli, Dili, the UNPol Commissioner, Rodolfo TOR stated that they will investigate the members of PNTL who have abused their power. "Firstly we will investigate and evaluate, and this will include penalties for the guilty members of PNTL, so that the Timorese people can be confident in us," said Mr. Tor. (DN)
Political parties agree to build national unity
After meeting with the representatives of the political parties on Friday (6/7) in UNMIT headquarters, Obrigado Barracks, Caicoli, Dili, the UNMIT spokesperson Ms. Allison Cooper said that the 14 political parties and two coalitions had agreed to build national unity in peaceful manner – guaranteeing to serve and develop Timor-Leste. Furthermore Ms. Cooper explained that the objective of the meeting was discussion talking about the strategy for this country, and how UNMIT will give its support to the East Timor government for the next five years, especially in the areas of security, education, health and any other essential matters. (DN)
Fretilin-PD negotiating a coalition
The counting of votes for the parliamentary election ended on Thursday (5/7); however there is no party with a majority of votes. Even if ruling party Fretilin received the most votes, this historical party has not yet managed to form a coalition which could then form a government.
Their result of 29% forces them to negotiate with opposition parties such as the Democratic Party (PD). Fretilin's leaders, namely Arsenio Bano, Aniceto Guterres, Elizario Ferreira and Filomeno Aleixo met PD's leaders, Mariano Sabino, Jose Nominando Buras and Marcelino Magno, on Thursday (5/7) at Hotel Timor to negotiate a possible coalition. (TP)
Child dies in IDP camp
Due to the crisis last year, Tasya da Costa, an 8 month-baby, moved with her Mother and Father to the IDP camp in Becora Church, Dili. She passed away on Wednesday (4/7) at 4:30hrs. Her Mum, Afina, reportedly said that Tasya got a cough for two days due to the storms and heavy rains of the last few days. (TP)
CNRT's charisma loses out to Fretilin's history
The counting of the votes for the parliamentary election concluded on Thursday (5/7). The result shows that CNRT under Xanana Gusmao could not beat the historic party of Fretilin led by Mr. Francisco Guterres Lu-Olo. Before the election, national and international analysts said that CNRT will win thanks to Mr. Xanana's charisma. In response to this analysis, the Secretary General of the ruling party Fretilin reportedly said that it is a major message for all Timorese people and people worldwide: namely that the tiny nation does not belong to one person but to all the people of Timor-Leste.(TP)
Alfredo requests more clarity on the dialogue with the state
Benevides Correia, the lawyer of former military police commander, Alfredo Reinado, on Thursday (4/7) in Dili said that that Alfredo needs to know the details of the proposed dialogue with the state, such as talking points and objectives of the dialogue, and how long it will be conducted. Mr. Benevides also said Alfredo will be contacted when his proposed clarifications are accepted by the state. (TP)
PDHJ recommends 12 cases to police
The Human Rights and Justice Provedor (PDHJ) will present its reports and recommendations related to allegations of power abuses by the police to the general commander of PNTL and UNPol. "Tomorrow is the important day for PDHJ to recommend 12 cases to the police," said acting coordinator of PDHJ, Amandio de SC! Benevides on Thursday (4/7) through a press release. He also explained that the presented recommendations are based on law No. 7/2004 article 3, 5, 27 and 28 about the status of Human Rights and Justice Provedor (PDHJ). He added that the allegations have been made by members of the community from March 2006 – March 2007. (TP)
PD wants Xanana and Alkatiri to embrace one another other
The vice president of Democratic Party (PD), Jose Nominando Buras said on Thursday (4/7) in national parliament, that it is time for former President of Republic, Xanana Gusmao, and former east Timor Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, to put their differences behind them. He said that Xanana and Alkatiri are the representatives of both the victorious party CNRT and the historical party Fretilin, so they should take the lead in encouraging all political parties to form a National Unity Government for all Timorese. (STL and DN)
Lu-Olo: Fretilin can form government
The President of ruling party Fretilin, Francisco Guterres Lu-Olo affirmed that Fretilin can form a solid coalition government. "The way is open for all parties to set a coalition and form the new government, we have not known yet which party we should have a coalition with," said Mr. Lu-Olo on Thursday (5/7) after meeting with President of Republic, Jose Ramos Horta in Palasiu das Cinzas Caicoli in Dili. (STL)
Two chairs left in the parliament
Based on the preliminary result of parliamentary election, there are five parties and two coalitions who get seats in parliament, namely Fretilin (20 seats), CNRT (17 seats), coalition ASDT/PSD (11 seats), PD (8 seats), PUN (3 seats), Democratic Alliance KOTA/PPT (2 seats) and UNDERTIM (2 seats). That covers 63 of the 65 seats, so there still two seats left. Which party will get them? (STL)
The law of clemency is unconditional
After visiting to Timor Telecom Company on Thursday (5/7), the President of Republic, Jose Ramos Horta said that the clemency law sent by the national parliament confuses him, so he has sent a letter to the court of appeal. The court can then give him an idea of its constitutionality. "I have sent the letter to the court of appeal, and I will wait for the response from the court of appeal. If the court of appeal says that clemency law is unconstitutional, I will not promulgate or veto such law. I will listen to civil society and seek another clemency law which can be adopted. Mr. Horta also revealed that the clemency law passed by national parliament is not constitutionally sound, since the law only applies to authors of the crisis raised last year, excluding the incidents of 1974, 1975 and 1999.
The vice-President of National Parliament, Jacob Fernandes, disagreed, saying that the clemency law approved by national parliament is not unconstitutional, and that is why it was sent to the President for promulgation. According to Mr. Jacob, clemency laws are either constitutional or unconstitutional, and that decision rests with the court of appeal. (STL and DN)
Mari and Xanana should embrace one another
The president of Democratic Alliance (AD) from KOTA and PPT, Mr. Manuel Tilman reportedly declared that Mari Alkatiri and former President of Republic Xanana Gusmao should be embracing and tolerating each other to enable them to form National Unity government. He added that, based on the preliminary results, it will probably be very difficult for a one party to run the government, so it needs the nation to adopt a mature approach. (DN) Horta explains how the new government will be formed
The President of the Republic, Jose Ramos Horta met Bishop of Diocese Dili, Mgr. Alberto Ricardo da Silva on Wednesday (4/7) in Lecidere, Dili. After the meeting, Mr. Horta told journalists that the objective of the meeting was to inform the Bishop about the counting developments across the country, and also about how to form the new government and parliament. "I also informed the Bishop about my consultations with all political parties to get their ideas of how best to transition to the new government and national parliament," said Mr. Horta. (DN)
Mario: "ASDT/PSD is not seeking a coalition with CNRT"
The president of the Social Democratic Party (PSD), Mario Viegas Carrascalao, reportedly stated that the coalition of ASDT/PSD does not see any possibility to make a coalition with CNRT, since they do not known the ideology of CNRT. He also revealed that the door has closed on the possibility of making a coalition with Fretilin. (DN)
Deonisio: "impossible that CNRT could make people slaves"
In response to the statement from Feliciano Alves who said that CNRT will turn people into slaves if it wins the election, the Secretary General of the National Congress for the Reconstruction of Timor-Leste (CNRT), Deonisio Babo, revealed that such a statement is false and has no basis. He said if CNRT were not led by Mr. Xanana, it could be true. However, since CNRT is led by Xanana Gusmao, it could not possibly turn people into slaves should they win the parliamentary election. (DN)
Democratic Alliance (AD) supports Fretilin
The president of Democratic Alliance (AD) composed of KOTA and PPT, Mr. Manuel Tilman, declared on Wednesday (4/7) in national parliament that AD totally supports for the victory of ruling party Fretilin and will make a coalition with them to form the new government. He revealed that AD has signed an accord with the historic party to prepare for a coalition. (DN)
The timing of the new Govt is determined by President of Republic
At a press conference held by CNE on Wednesday (4/7) in Election Media Center Caicoli, Dili, the CNE spokesperson, Maria Angelina Sarmento stated the timing for the formation of a new government and national parliament is decided by the President of Republic. She mentioned that it is not CNE's responsibility if parties fail to form coalitions and the new government, it is the responsibility of sovereignty organs to solve the issue. (DN)
Major security for the vote-counting
PNTL and UNPol are providing major security to the vote counting process taking place in GMT, Dili. The supervisors, brigadas and journalists are checked twice by police before entering into GMT, and they are not allowed to smoke or bring in any items that could be a risk to the ballots. Their phones must also be switched off. (DN)
PDHJ calls on president to take measures concerning clemency law
According the letter to the press from Human Rights and Justice Provedor (PDHJ) received by DN on Wednesday (4/7), PDHJ called on the president of republic Jose Ramos Horta to veto the clemency law. "Based on constitutional article 151 and PDHJ's statute articles 25 and 28, PDHJ has the right to call on the president of the republic to veto such a law. It is not the appropriate time to create the clemency law," said acting coordinator of PDHJ Amandio de SC! Benevides. (DN)
Lu-Olo: Fretilin will form government or opposition
The ruling party Fretilin has not taken any decision as to whether it will form a government, even thought it leads the preliminary result of parliamentary election. The president of the ruling party Fretilin, Francisco Guterres Lu-Olo, stated that if Fretilin gets a majority number of votes with the final results, it wants to form a solid, inclusive government to implement its programme. "We want a solid, inclusive government. Fretilin will become the opposition or form a coalition with another party if t doesn't get the majority it needs," said Mr. Lu-Olo on Wednesday (4/7) in national parliament. (STL)
Politically PD will have coalition with Fretilin
There are two options for Democratic Party (PD) after the results of the parliamentary election: it can either become the strongest opposition in national parliament, or form a coalition with another party to form the government. And there is still a chance for coalitions with Fretilin or CNRT. "Politically PD can have a coalition with ruling party Fretilin," said Rui Menezes on Wednesday (4/7) in the PD office Colmera, Dili. (STL)
Xanana and CNRT has the right conditions to form the government
According the the preliminary results of the parliamentary election held on 30 June 2007 two parties, Fretilin and CNRT are leading, nevertheless, neither party has the majority required to form a government. The National Congress Reconstruction of Timor-Leste (CNRT) led by former president of republic, Xanana Gusmao, is best positioned to form a government in coalition with opposition parties such as PSD, ASDT, PD and UNDERTIM. (STL)
Political party rejects the model of national unity government
The president of Democratic Party (PD), Fernando de Araujo Lasama, reportedly declared that PD rejects to the creation of a National Unity government. According to Mr. Lasama, a national unity cabinet should be formed, not national unity government. He revealed that a national unity cabinet could solve the problems faced by the nation right now. (TP)
UNMIT prediction: displaced people may suffer until 2008
At an UNMIT press conference held on Tuesday (3/7) in Dili, DSRSG Finn Reske-Nielsen stated that UNMIT and the East Timor government predict that IDPs will continue to face difficult conditions until 2008. He said that it is very difficult for IDPs to return home, because many of them have lost their homes. (TP)
SOMET congratulates STAE and CNE
The International Solidarity Observer Mission for East Timor (SOMET) reportedly congratulated CNE, STAE and all Timorese people for the last Saturday's parliamentary election in Timor- Leste which was largely free, fair and peaceful. "Despite some minor problems, our observers report that East Timorese voters went to the polls in large numbers to peacefully exercise their right to vote,- said Jill Sternberg, the Dili based co- coordinator of SOMET. (TP)
Horta calls on F-FDTL to respect human rights
At an F-FDTL workshop on Human Rights on Tuesday (03/7) in Dili, President Jose Ramos-Horta called upon the F-FDTL to ensure the respect human rights, following their involvement in the crisis last year. "F-FDTL and police officers wear the national uniform, carry weapons and should promote law and order and respect human rights," said Mr. Horta. (STL and TVTL)
Close competition between CNRT and Fretilin
The preliminary elections results show that [ruling party] Fretilin has a slight lead with 101,699 votes (28, 86%), however 141 ballot boxes still remain to be counted. From the remaining boxes, it is expected that the votes will either go to CNRT or Fretilin - Fretilin to receive thee majority of the votes from Baucau and Ermera Districts while CNRT hopes to have a majority in Dili, Bobonaro and Liquica. (STL)
Indonesian will not replace Portuguese in Timor-Leste
In response to queries regarding the official language of Timor- Leste, the Minister of Culture and Education, Mrs. Rosaria Maria Corte-Real, reportedly said that Indonesian will not replace Portuguese as the official language of the country. However, she also said that knowledge of the Indonesian language would be beneficial for maintaining good relations – political and economic – with its neighboring country. (STL)
Rerden: "ISF conducted patrols across Timor-Leste"
The Commander of International Stabilization Forces (ISF), Brigadier Mal Rerden, reportedly said that prior to the parliamentary elections on 30 June, the ISF supported UNPol and PNTL in preparing the elections security plan. Mr. Rerden mentioned that the ISF provided 20 helicopters for the operation and 800 ISF officers from Australia and New Zealand cooperated with UNPol to conduct 140 patrols across Timor-Leste. (DN)
UN provides 123.500 tons of food to Timorese people in need
At an UNMIT press conference held on Tuesday (3/7) in Dili, DSRSG Finn Reske-Nielsen stated that the UN will provide 123.500 tons of food to assist the people of Timor-Leste. (DN)
WFP and FAO report identified six districts facing food crisis
At an UNMIT press conference on Tuesday (3/7) in Dili, DSRSG Finn Reske-Nielsen said that the WFP/FAO report identified six districts which are in danger of facing a food crisis from October 2007 until March 2008. "Manatuto, Baucau, Bobonaro, Ermera, Lautem and Oecusse districts have been identified by the WFP/FAO as the risk areas," said Mr. Reske-Nielsen, who was accompanied by the Acting Director of WFP, Ms. Angeline Rudakubana and the FAO Director Chana Epeskorku. (TP)
Horta: too early to define the status of Alfredo
At an F-FDTL workshop on Human Rights on Tuesday (03/7) in Dili, President Jose Ramos-Horta said that the status of former military Police Commander, Major Alfredo Reinado Alves, will be decided after the proposed dialogue with him. (DN and TP)
ISF: Mission Impossible to arrest Alfredo
The ISF Commander, Brigadier Mal Rerden, acknowledged that the operation to capture former military Police Commander, Major Alfredo Reinado Alves and his men was complicated. He said that the difficult terrain made it difficult to use modern military equipment. "I think the Timorese people understand that owing to the difficult terrain in this country, it was difficult to find their hide-out," said Mr. Rerden. (TP)
Counting of Votes will end on 15 July
At a CNE press conference held on Tuesday (3/7) in Dili, the CNE Spokesperson, Maria Angelina Sarmento, informed the media that the counting process for the parliamentary elections will end on 15 July 2007. "An end date has not been determined by the law but the CNE expects that all votes will be counted by the 15th of July," said Ms. Sarmento. She also appealed to the media to confirm their information regarding statistics and preliminary results prior to publishing. (TP)
Petitioners did not destroy the nation
The Vice Chairman for Security, Defence and Foreign Affairs at the National Parliament, Mr. Clementino dos Reis Amaral, reportedly said that the petitioners want to contribute towards the stability of the country. "The petitioners never wanted to destroy the nation. They are Timorese and want to contribute to the stability of the country," said Mr. Reis on Monday (02/7) at the National Parliament. (STL)
Coalition protests, transferring votes to Fretilin
On the second day of the counting process, the ASDT/PSD coalition in Baucau complained that the polling staff transferred their votes to the ruling party Fretilin. This incident, which also delayed the counting process in the District, was objected by national, international and political party observers. CNE Coordinator of Baucau District Lucas Ximenes said that the ASDT/PSD coalition has good reason to bring this case up to the national authorities for investigation. (STL)
PNTL Screening will take place
At a press conference held on Monday (2/7) in Dili, the Director of the Police Academy, Inspector Julio da Costa Hornai, said that the PNTL screening process will resume in the coming days. He explained that the objective of the screening process is to determine the candidate' ability, dedication and professionalism to do the job. The screening will focus on the candidates' behaviors towards community work, knowledge and respect for human rights, detention, etc. (STL, TP and DN)
European Union praises the media
At a press conference held on Monday (2/7) in Dili, the Electoral Observers Commission of the European Union acknowledged the good conduct of the media during the electoral process. (STL)
Horta: "refusing elections results demonstrates lack of loyalty"
President Jose Ramos-Horta on Monday (2/7) called upon the Timorese people, especially the party leaders, to accept the results of the parliamentary election. Not accepting the results would demonstrate lack of loyalty to the nation and the people. "Essentially we all have to recognize the results of this election. If we refuse to do so, we would destroy the democratic efforts of the people and their sacrifices they have made," said Mr. Horta. (DN)
Estanislau: "People must remain calm and accept results"
Prime Minister Estanislau Aleixo da Silva reportedly called upon the population and political party supporters to remain calm and accept the results of the parliamentary elections, which will be announced in a few days. (DN and TP)
Atul Khare: "The security situation remains calm"
At an UNMIT press conference held on Monday (02/07) in Dili, the SRSG, Mr. Atul Khare, said that the security situation throughout the country remained calm throughout the electoral process. (DN)
Some Administrators wrote down the registration card numbers
Democratic Party (PD) representative Juliao Mausiri Agosto said that some village representatives and administrators wrote down the numbers of voters' electoral cards before they cast their votes. (TP)