East Timor News Digest 3 – March 1-31, 2009
- Ex-lover of rebel leader faces court - Sydney Morning Herald
- Angelita Pires charged over Ramos Horta assassination bid - The Australian
- Australia troops in East Timor 'as long as necessary' - Radio Australia
- East Timor in good economic shape, says minister - Radio Australia
- East Timor journalist faces jail time - Radio Australia
- Abortion laws in spotlight - IRIN
- Ramos-Horta puts secret power project on hold - Sydney Morning Herald
- Where is East Timor heading? - Direct Action
Ex-lover of rebel leader faces court
Sydney Morning Herald - March 4, 2009
Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – Authorities in Dili have charged 28 people, including Timorese-born Australian Angelita Pires, over last year's attacks on East Timor's top two political leaders.
Prosecutors say they will ask a Dili court to jail 42-year-old Pires for three years.
The former lover of slain rebel leader Alfredo Reinado will face 19 counts of being the indirect author of attempted murder, including that of President Jose Ramos Horta.
She is also charged with providing some kind of cigarette to Reinado days before the attacks which made him "fearless". Pires, who has been held in Dili for 12 months without charge, strongly denies any wrongdoing.
The charges centre on claims that she influenced Reinado to stage the attacks. Court documents allege she was overheard urging Reinado to kill Mr Ramos Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.
Pires asked not to be quoted when she spoke with the Herald from her home in Dili yesterday.
Most of those charged were members of Reinado's gang who were involved in the attacks on February 11 last year, including his second-in-command, Gastao Salsinha. All are charged with counts of being the indirect authors of attempted murder.
In court documents, Marcelo Caetano is accused of shooting Mr Ramos Horta twice in the back at his presidential villa on Dili's outskirts. Caetano, a member of Reinado's gang, has repeatedly denied being the attacker.
Court documents allege that one of Mr Ramos Horta's security guards identified Caetano as the attacker.
For months after the attacks, Caetano was hunted in East Timor's mountains by hundreds of troops and police, including Australian SAS commandos.
But confusion has surrounded his role since he surrendered with other rebels last April. In October, Mr Ramos Horta told The Age that Caetano was not the man who shot him. Mr Ramos Horta said he found the man who shot him in Dili's Becora jail last year. "He couldn't look me in the eye," the President told The Age at the time.
Shortly before Christmas, Mr Ramos Horta met a small group of rebels in the presence of Longuinhos Monteiro, East Timor's Prosecutor-General, who led the investigation.
Mr Ramos Horta later told journalists he pleaded with his attacker to confess "so that others who were with you but not directly involved with the shooting of me are not penalised".
Strict secrecy has surrounded Mr Monteiro's investigation, which was hampered by a reluctance of East Timor soldiers to fully co- operate and contamination of crime scenes.
The weapons of soldiers who were guarding Mr Ramos Horta were not handed over for Australian Federal Police ballistics tests until three weeks ago. The results are not yet available.
Last month, Mr Monteiro told journalists in Dili that the results of earlier ballistics tests in Australia did not "feel right".
Prosecutors raced to meet today's legal deadline to submit the cases to a court. The trials of the accused are set to begin within weeks.
Angelita Pires charged over Ramos Horta assassination bid
The Australian - March 3, 2009
Paul Toohey – Angelita Pires has been accused of being an indirect author of last year's shooting of East Timor President Jose Ramos Horta and has been charged with 19 counts of attempted homicide.
Ms Pires, 42, the lover of rebel leader Alfredo Reinado, who was shot dead inside the President's Dili compound on February 11 last year, remained free yesterday, having earlier been required to surrender her passport and not leave the country.
The prosecution lodged a document with the Dili District Court on Friday which details charges against Ms Pires and all of the surviving 27 rebels who attacked the President's compound and simultaneously staged an ambush on Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao's motorcade. All 27 have been charged with attempted murder.
Ms Pires has been told she will be jailed immediately if she discusses the case with the media. Most of the prosecution case centres on the alleged influence Ms Pires had over Major Reinado.
The document, from East Timor's Prosecutor-General, Longhuinos Monteiro, alleges Ms Pires urged Major Reinado to go to Dili and kill both the President and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.
It is alleged Ms Pires had given Major Reinado a single marijuana joint in the days before the attacks on Dili and suggested this was part of her attempt to get into Reinado's mind.
Ms Pires is deeply distressed at the charges. A joint Australian-Timorese citizen, she has been prevented from leaving East Timor since early last year. She is defending the charges.
Australia troops in East Timor 'as long as necessary'
Radio Australia - March 6, 2009
Corinne Podger – Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon has told Radio Australia that Australian troops will stay as long as East Timor says it needs them.
"This is a decision we need to make together; they are a sovereign nation state and at the end of the day, we will further draw down when they decide they are capable of maintaining their own security and therefore their own peace and stability," he said.
"People often don't appreciate how crucial our work is here. A stable and secure East Timor is crucial to Australia's own long- term security, so we will be here as long as is necessary."
Mr Fitzgibbon was in East Timor to open an Australian-funded specialist training wing. The new centre will assist with Canberra's efforts to help train the East Timor Defence Force in communications, logistics, engineering and medical skills.
Mr Fitzgibbon, who is making his second trip to East Timor, met President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao in Dili. He was accompanied by Veterans Affairs Minister Alan Griffin and the Chief of the Australian Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston.
"My discussions with both the President and Prime Minister focused on areas for future cooperation, including maritime security and providing additional English language instruction," the Defence Force Chief said.
Mr Fitzgibbon says Australian troops are working not only to assist with peacekeeping, but also in training the army and police.
"Those two organisations are working far more cooperatively together than ever before, so the progress is excellent, but it's still early and peace and stability remains fairly fragile here."
He says last year's assassination attempts on East Timor's leaders is an indication of how fragile the situation remains, and he says increasing employment for young East Timorese must be a priority to ensure the country's stability over the longer term.
"Just like in places like Afghanistan, raising living standards and giving people employment opportunities are critical to maintaining peace and security in the longer term," he said.
"And there is a significant international effort here in terms of foreign aid and capacity building which gives me optimism about East Timor's long-term future."
East Timor in good economic shape, says minister
Radio Australia - March 2, 2009
The United Nations Security Council has unanimously approved East Timor's request to keep its peace keeping force there for another year.
The UN says peace and security have improved since the assassination attempt on President Jose Ramos Horta by rebel forces a year ago but the situation remains fragile.
And in a report also this week, the US State Department says human rights problems remain because of an inadequately trained police force and judiciary. It also has concerns over the level of domestic violence and child abuse.
East Timor's Finance Minister Emilia Pires says the country has a long way to go but is optimistic ten years after the dark days of the Indonesian occupation.
Presenter: Karon Snowdon
Speaker: Emilia Pires, Finance Minister, East Timor
Pires: Two-thousand-and-eight has been a good year for us. We are not suffering as the rest of the world. In fact, given that we are an importing country, we will benefit from the bad news that has happened around the world, in the sense that our import bill should be much lower, we should be able to buy more with the same amount of money.
Snowdon: And East Timor has been lucky in the past year or so to experience double digit GDP growth. Are you expecting the same this year?
Pires: We are working towards that. It all depends. At a minimum, it should be eight per cent at the minimum.
Snowdon: And last year, as far as the budget goes, you had great difficulty in securing extra funding through what I would call a supplementary budget, given that in the middle of last year, import prices for rice and materials were quite high. Given that difficulty to respond to circumstances, are you thinking of reviewing the laws that cover the budget or the petroleum fund in future?
Pires: Yes, indeed we are, because and this is not just because of the difficulties that we faced last year, but right at the beginning, we knew that the law itself may not be appropriate for the current stage of development in the country. So we have our working group working on this and hopefully, within the first part of this year we should be able to get some recommendation for the working group, not only on the petroleum fund law, but also on the type of investment strategy that we should be looking into and should we be using the money to actually create or establish the basic infrastructure in the country that will then work as their requirement for private sector to take off. You can already see a lot of activity, people are coming in to do their bit.
Snowdon: Foreign investment, what sort of increase can you point to say in the last year?
Pires: All I can see, like in Dili, for example, construction is happening everywhere. There has been an increase about 44 per cent in number of taxpayers. Most of them are companies outside.
Snowdon: Turning to security issues in the country, the UN Security Council has agreed to another year's extension to the UN mandate in the country. What does this say about security that it's not yet quite good enough or that East Timor zone forces of law and order are not quite good enough to take over?
Pires: No, security has improved immensely, I mean otherwise all these things would not have happened in Timor. The economy is in a way you could say thriving in that sense that things are starting to move, simply because we have now security and stability. I believe the last report of the UN showed that the crime rate of Timorese was even lesser than that of Australia and you know Australia's crime rate is quite low.
Snowdon: If there's any particular problem it's domestic violence and child abuse, isn't it, in Timor remain quite big problems?
Pires: I am not sure about that, but these whole thing needs a lot of change of mentality. Now in terms of the police force and the armed forces, the whole public service in Timor also faces the same thing. It's to do with human resources, skills and knowledge and that will take some time. For example, the teachers. We have 12,000 teachers and 80 per cent are in need of formal qualification and this government is very much focusing on this.
Meanwhile, while we are increasing the capacity and educating our people, somebody has to do the job, so that services continue to be provided to the people and that applies to the police, it applies to the forces, it applies to the public service, teachers, you name it, doctors, you name it.
East Timor journalist faces jail time
Radio Australia - March 5, 2009
By Murray McLaughlin
Kerry O'Brien, Presenter: Here is a story about East Timor, where a newspaperman who was jailed for his resistance activity during the time of Indonesia's occupation is facing the prospect of being put back behind bars if he's found guilty of a charge of criminal defamation.
The charge has been brought by East Timor's Justice Minister against Jose Belo, whose reported allegations of corruption against the minister in his newspaper 'Tempo Semanal', that translates in English as 'The Weekly Times'. Jose Belo has also worked from time to time for the ABC as a fixer and correspondent. There's growing international disquiet about the charges against him, especially as it's been brought under an old Indonesian criminal code which still prevails in East Timor. Murray McLaughlin reports.
Murray McLaughlin, reporter: A flotilla of freighters waiting in Dili Harbour to unload cargoes of rice is a tentative sign of East Timor's growing prosperity. Yet as this new nation struggles to consolidate, there's widespread disquiet about corruption in official quarters.
Jose Belo, newspaper editor: Corruption, collusion, nepotism is people that took the state money and making the people suffering.
Murray McLaughlin: For the past two years, journalist Jose Belo has campaigned relentlessly against corruption in East Timor through the columns of his weekly newspaper 'Tempo Semanal'. A former resistance fighter, Belo was jailed and tortured several times during Indonesia's occupation of East Timor. During those times he was also a conduit for international news media.
Wendy Bacon, journalism, UTS: Back then he would smuggle out videos, he made access for those journalists who went undercover, he helped get film out. He really – I think you could say that without Jose Belo, we would have known almost nothing about what was happening. Or we would have seen very few pictures of what was happening in East Timor.
Murray McLaughlin: Jose Belo's paper is a weekly, launched in October, 2006 and now boasting a circulation of 8,000. It's backed by the overseas aid agency of the Australian Council of Trade Unions and staff at Fairfax Media. The Fairfax program supports the paper's distribution in East Timor's remote districts and pays the staff of 12 a basic allowance of US$10.
Jose Belo: I talk to my boys and my journalists here that, "Do this, because this is a challenge to the development of the country." And we are very much focussing on the investigation of the corruption, collusion, nepotism in these states.
Murray McLaughlin: Jose Belo used to be a prisoner at Dili's main jail. Now he's investigating the construction of a new security wall at the gaol. The job's worth more than US$1 million. Jose Belo's paper reported last year that the country's Justice Minister Lucia Lobato colluded with the contractor, who's a friend and fellow party member.
Jose Belo: The allegation was that the minister has contacted, or there was exchanging text messages between the minister and the company that (inaudible) the tender before the official tender opened to the public, or invited the companies to come to bid for this tender.
Murray McLaughlin: Should a minister be dealing directly with businessmen who might be tendering for a project?
Lucia Lobato, East Timor Justice Minister: No, we can provide – the project is mine. I can provide information to him about the time, when, where can they start, how can you submit the paper and so on. But this is not my decision.
Murray McLaughlin: Then there was the deal late last year worth more than US$3 million for the supply of diesel fuel to the main electricity generating station in Dili. Jose Belo published a leaked memorandum seeking a letter of credit from the Treasury to pay for the fuel in favour of a company-owned by the Justice Minister's husband.
Jose Belo: It seems like (inaudible) government giving credit to a company, it set a precedent for these other companies. But more interesting here, this company related to a minister, to a minister, that is Minister of Justice husband's company. And while there was other companies offer more good price, very good conditions...
Lucia Lobato: How can people say, the Australians say, that the minister there is a conflict of interest about the conflict interest because I am a Minister of Justice and my husband won the project. And I think it's irrelevant and nonsense. So, he was businessman before I took office. Secondly, there is a tender and my husband also submit for tender. And he won the project.
Murray McLaughlin: More disclosures about government contracts and the Minister of Justice ran over several issues of Tempo Semanal late last year. It all got too much for the Justice Minister. She charged Jose Belo with the crime of defamation under an old penal code still on the books from the time of Indonesian rule. Last December, Jose Belo had to submit to an investigation by the country's prosecutor general.
Jose Belo: After these all investigation, he let me go, but I am now under the – my status today is like a city – it's really city detention, whatever, but they limited my movement, limited my movement.
Murray McLaughlin: While Jose Belo waits for his day in court, the East Timorese Parliament has before it a new penal code which will likely to be enacted early in April. And under that new code, defamation will no longer be a crime.
You don't believe that defamation should be a crime?
Lucia Lobato: Do you ask me I believe or not?
Murray McLaughlin: Yeah.
Lucia Lobato: (Laughs). Why do you want to know my opinion about that?
Murray McLaughlin: Well, you are the Minister of Justice.
Lucia Lobato: Yes, I have explained to you and I say that in the new penal code, defamation is not a crime. So I prepared the draft.
Murray McLaughlin: So you believe that.
Lucia Lobato: Yes, of course. Of course. (Laughs).
Murray McLaughlin: Why then, I ask you again, did you use the old code where defamation is a crime?
Lucia Lobato: Because that it is the law there, it's still there.
Christopher Samson, Labeh – 'The Mirror for the People': Defamation law wasn't our law. That was Indonesian law which Suharto used at the time of the 24 years of occupation to suppress our people.
Murray McLaughlin: Christopher Samson heads up a private organisation funded partly by Australian aid money which campaigns against corruption. He fears that the access against Jose Belo is intimidating other news media in East Timor.
Christopher Samson: Most other journalists will be very scared and are very scared. One, there is no organ that is supporting the journalists in this system. OK, for example, the Prime Minister hasn't said anything about the case.
Murray McLaughlin: The Prime Minister might not have, but East Timor's President Jose Ramos Horta has spoken out and given comfort to the country's journalists.
Jose Ramos Horta, East Timor President: I don't agree with suing Mr Belo under the Indonesian defamation law. But it's not consistent with what we fought for, is not consistent with our constitution and our own beliefs in freedom.
Murray McLaughlin: But in spite of that caution from on high, a jail sentence remains a possibility for Jose Belo, if he's found guilty of criminal defamation.
Jose Belo: But we will see in the court. We'll see in the court. I wish, I really wish there must be justice for this country, that's why we're fight for the 24 years.
Kerry O'Brien: Murray McLaughlin reporting from East Timor.
Abortion laws in spotlight
IRIN - March 18, 2009
Dili – A call for more lenient abortion legislation in this predominantly Catholic country is renewing friction between the Church and pro-abortion activists.
A working group convened by Fokupers ("Communication Forum for Women from the East"), a local NGO supported by others such as the Alola Foundation, has been pushing for a softening of abortion laws.
The issue was highlighted in Dili, the capital, at the second international Women for Peace Conference from 4 to 6 March. Maria Barreto, programme manager for advocacy at Fokupers, told attendees that abortion should be decriminalised in certain situations.
"Abortion is one of the options that is appropriate when the mothers are victims of sexual violence. We are working to protect women. We should understand that we should give options to mothers based on their circumstances," Barreto told IRIN.
Abortion is criminalised under a penal code dating back to the Indonesian occupation of 1975-1999. Fokupers is one of several NGOs pushing for the government to relax the law.
However, in early March, the Dili and Baucau diocese wrote to the Timor-Leste Council of Ministers, the political executive with the power to pass laws, requesting that abortion remain criminalised in all instances. The council later discussed a new penal code, including the proposal to soften the law on abortion. A decision has yet to be made.
At the end of the conference, one of the recommendations put forward by the panel was that the new code should include three circumstances under which abortion is permissible: cases of incest, sexual abuse and if the mother or baby's life is at risk.
However, the move is fiercely opposed by the Catholic Church. About 95 percent of Timor-Leste's 1.1-million population are Catholic. Sister Guilhermina Marc'al of the Canossian Sisters Order in Dili told IRIN the solution should come from tackling fundamental problems, such as poverty, post-conflict trauma and unemployment.
"Education is very important to transform people's minds and moral values. We have a programme for visiting families and we hold gatherings of the youth members," she said.
Illegal abortions
Barreto told the conference that incest occurred frequently in remote areas. Often parents and children slept in the same room, leaving little privacy and sometimes leading to sexual abuse and unwanted pregnancy.
In February, Charles Darwin University researcher Suzanne Belton conducted a study on unwanted pregnancy in Timor-Leste, concluding that the law was highly restrictive and that back- street abortions were common.
Indeed, conference coordinator Filomena Barros Dos Reis said: "There is a lot of gender-based violence in Timor-Leste. Domestic violence and incest are not openly discussed as in other countries. There are unwanted pregnancies as a result of sexual assaults."
Susan Kendall, international mentor for Psychosocial Recovery and Development East Timor (PRADET), a local NGO, told IRIN, "Children are much more likely to be sexually assaulted by someone they know. Part of the problem is the shame that's put on the parents. Sexual assault is not talked about."
At the conference, Kendall said about one-third of the cases of domestic violence the group encountered were alcohol-related. The NGO has been running workshops to raise awareness of the dangers of alcohol abuse to reduce the incidents of domestic violence and sexual assault. mc/bj/ds/mw
Ramos-Horta puts secret power project on hold
Sydney Morning Herald - March 18, 2009
Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – Jose Ramos-Horta has intervened to delay a controversial $400 million deal to buy three highly polluting second-hand power stations for East Timor.
The East Timorese President told Parliament yesterday that serious concerns about the plants – bought from China – needed to be tackled.
Mr Ramos-Horta asked the coalition government in Dili to agree to establish an independent body to carry out an environmental impact assessment and evaluation of the country's largest ever infrastructure project "to determine the risks that the project poses to the environment".
Environmental groups, non-government organisations and the Fretilin opposition have criticised the purchase of the plants amid secrecy and rumours about irregularities in negotiations with the Chinese Nuclear Industry 22nd Construction Company.
The plants would commit gas-rich East Timor to importing heavy oil for at least three decades for plants that use difficult-to- manage technology that has already been phased out in many countries for environmental reasons.
La'o Hamutuk, an independent organisation in Dili that monitors government policy, says the plants – which had operated in China for more than two decades – would create acid rain, water pollution, toxic solid waste, particulate air pollution and heavy greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr Ramos-Horta told Parliament he shared many of the concerns about the plants, including the "technology to be used, its environmental impact, the costs involved and the reciprocal arrangements that were negotiated with the company to whom the contract was awarded".
Mr Ramos-Horta's unusual intervention comes amid growing concern about the lack of transparency in the awarding of government contracts and possible high-level corruption in Dili.
He said the Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao, had assured him the Government would be "meticulous and transparent" in managing the construction of the plants. Construction of the first plant was due to begin last month but has not yet started.
The Government has said the power plants and a national power grid will be operating by the end of this year.
La'o Hamutuk has raised questions about the project since the Ministry of Finance gave only three weeks for expressions of interest in power generation to be submitted in June last year. "We believe that the Government already knew who would get the project and conducted an open tender only as a formality," it says.
The plants would be unable to use oil and gas found in East Timor or in the Timor Sea but would run entirely on expensive imported heavy oil.
La'o Hamutuk says technical information about the plants has been a closely kept secret and, in a written assessment, describes the project as "unrealistic , in addition to depleting the country's finances and subverting honest tender processes, it will block development of more feasible and beneficial alternatives and damage our environment".
Call for East Timorese troops to be trained in Australia
ABC News - March 6, 2009
Stephanie March – East Timor's state secretary for defence, Julio Tomas Pinto, wants to send more of his troops to Australia for training.
Australia's Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon was in Dili yesterday to officially open a new specialist training wing, which will be used to teach English and engineering to Timorese soldiers. The minister also met with the country's leaders to discuss Australia's military commitment.
Mr Pinto says he wants more Timorese soldiers to be trained in combat and peacekeeping at Australian military colleges. "We need assistance from the Australian side to professionalise our military, to hand over the stability for our country," he said.
It is understood East Timor currently sends two soldiers to Australia for training each year, but the Australian Defence Force is unable to confirm that number.
Where is East Timor heading?
Direct Action - March, 2009
Jon Lamb – East Timor has passed through the first year of "stability" since the failed assassination attempts in February 2008 on East Timorese President Jose Ramos Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao. Last year was marked by continued bickering among the East Timorese political elite, with the main opposition party, Fretilin, still regarding the Gusmao-led Parliamentary Majority Alliance (AMP) coalition as only the "de facto government". For the mass of East Timorese, dire poverty continues to dominate their lives.
A report co-sponsored by the World Bank and the East Timorese finance ministry released last November titled Poverty in a Young Nation, found that half the country's population lives on less than US$0.80 per day and a third of those poor live in conditions of "extreme poverty". Poverty is most severe in remote and rural areas where access to adequate health, housing, education and other social services is extremely limited. One social indicator of the extreme poverty conditions is the high number of maternal deaths during childbirth – one in 35. According to a report published in January by the United Nations Children's Fund, women in East Timor are 300 times more likely to die in childbirth than women in developed countries.
Despite the deepening international recession, East Timor's economic prognosis for 2009 is relatively high growth. Horta told the UN Security Council on February 19: "Our economy is doing very well with more than 10 percent real growth at the end of 2008. With a 2009 budget of $680 million and $200 million in donor programs, I believe we will be able to maintain two-digit growth in spite of the international financial crisis."
While East Timor's national budget is heavily reliant upon oil and gas export revenue, it is expected that falling commodity prices will be reflected in reduced cost of imports. The International Monetary Fund, however, expects that the 10.5% growth rate experienced over 2008 will contract to at least 7.8%.
Security threats
The UN Security Council on February 26 voted to extend the presence of the UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) for at least another year, with a resolution noting that the situation in East Timor is generally calm but that security "remains fragile". Similarly, a report released by the Brussels- based International Crisis Group (ICG) on February 9 noted some improvements in the security situation and that the government "does not seem to be facing any serious threat to its survival", having "at least temporarily, been able to address several of the most pressing security threats, in large part by buying off those it sees as potential troublemakers".
The ICG report also noted that, "the current period of calm is not cause for complacency. Security sector reform is lagging, the justice system is weak, the government shows signs of intolerance towards dissenting voices, and it has not got a grip on corruption. These problems, which have been at the root of the instability facing Timor-Leste since independence, must be tackled if the country is to escape the cycle of violence."
While the ICG report accurately highlights these serious problems, it fails to mention the conditions under which East Timor gained its independence from Indonesian rule, including the mismanagement and distortions of the UN transitional administration, which was established after the 1999 independence referendum and ruled East Timor prior to formal independence in 2002.
It was over this period, and through to the present, that the Australian government bullied and undermined the East Timorese political leadership for attempting to assert East Timor's sovereign rights in the Timor Sea over significant gas and oil reserves. It is these two factors that are at the root of the threat of violence between the different factions of the East Timorese political elite.
The Rudd government has recently announced further reductions in the Australian military presence, bringing the Australian contingent in the International Stabilisation Force (ISF) down from 1100 in early 2008 to around 650. The Australian troop presence has been highly controversial since it arrived at the request of the East Timorese political leadership, church and non-government organisations during the violent political crisis of May-June 2006. There have been numerous incidents and allegations of intimidation and heavy-handed responses by Australian troops, including bias against the former ruling Fretilin party.
Canberra has consistently refused to place Australian troops under UN command, despite requests to do so by the East Timorese government and community organisations. This gives Australian troops almost total immunity for their actions, whether on or off duty.
A submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Trade and Defence last December by the prominent East Timorese NGO, Lao Hamutuk, called for a "clear, independent and transparent process for Timorese citizens to report to resolve complaints against the Australian military". Lao Hamutuk also noted that "[Australian soldiers carrying assault rifles] at all times, on and off duty, even where there is a low security risk, such as speaking to small children, playing sport, shopping in [a] supermarket, eating at a restaurant or relaxing at the beach, is inappropriate and insensitive to a population traumatised by a brutal military occupation".
Conflict over oil & gas
The apparent improvement in security conditions has brought to the fore the key question of East Timor's control of its gas and oil resources and the struggle against Australian-owned corporations operating in the Timor Sea. A central point of dispute is over where gas from the large Greater Sunrise field will be processed. Greater Sunrise is estimated to contain reserves of gas and oil worth in the order of US$90 billion.
Horta and Fretilin have strongly argued that the gas should be processed in East Timor, at a processing plant proposed for the country's southern coast. Woodside, Australia's second largest petroleum exploration corporation and a major partner in the consortium developing Greater Sunrise, is opposed to this, preferring re-processing in the Northern Territory. Woodside's position has been strongly supported by both the NT and federal governments.
The February 9 Australian reported that the Woodside-led consortium is now considering using a floating liquid natural gas plant (FLNG). According to Wood Mackenzie energy analyst Richard Quin, "One of the possible ways of lessening the debate as to where the LNG plant should be located would be to proceed with an FLNG development".
Last July, Woodside announced that is was no longer prepared to pursue a pipeline option to East Timor, stating that "the Sunrise joint venture will not conduct any further work on the Timor Leste option. The extensive work that we've done shows it carries the highest capital cost, longest schedule and the most risk of the remaining options."
Unperturbed by Woodside's position, the East Timorese government has continued with its own feasibility studies and research. The results of an East Timorese government commissioned survey and study undertaken by the US-based Deep Gulf Incorporated have found that a pipeline to East Timor is technically feasible.
The East Timorese leadership is not backing down from its position. Horta used an address to the NT parliament last October to denounce Woodside over its stand. "Timor Leste cannot and will not bow to pressures of the Woodside CEO millionaires", stated Horta. He added that Woodside's CEOs were being "dogmatic and political" and that, "We will not bow to unilateral decisions made by these CEOs that manage or mismanage multinationals".
As part of strengthening its push for the pipeline and plant option in East Timor, the East Timorese government announced on November 21 that former prime minister and Fretilin leader Mari Alkatiri was being appointed to manage and co-ordinate negotiations. The move also appeared to be a reproachment between Alkatiri, Horta and Gusmao, who share a common view on where the gas should be processed.
A presidential press release stated: "The three leaders shared opinions and positions relating to Greater Sunrise and valued the knowledge held by Mari Alkatiri regarding the Timor Sea." Alkatiri's role in the negotiations, however, has been revoked following a spat in December between Fretilin and parliamentary members of CNRT, the party Gusmao heads in the AMP coalition.
Anti-Alkatiri coup?
The move to involve Alkatiri in the negotiations is a curious one. Many observers on the left and pro-Fretilin supporters in Australia argued in 2006, and since, that Alkatiri was ousted as PM as part of an orchestrated coup, involving the collusion of the Australian government, Horta, Gusmao and others, in large part because of Alkatiri's hard negotiating stance with the Australian state and the Australia-based oil and gas corporations. They argued that Horta and Gusmao were more amenable and subservient to Australian big-business interests.
One example of this line was contained in an article in the Socialist Alternative magazine in April 2007 titled, "A colonial army on the warpath". While correctly noting some of the heavy- handed actions by the Australian military against East Timorese, the article claimed this was driven by the Australian capitalist rulers' desire to stamp out the influence of China and other foreign investors in East Timor.
According to the article, "The growing Chinese presence could alter the balance of power in the region and threaten Australia's economic and strategic interests. The prospect of China getting effective control of East Timor's sea lanes, for example, is the stuff of nightmares for the Australian ruling class. So Howard essentially organised a coup against Alkatiri, backing the more right-wing and compliant Jose Ramos Horta to take his place."
Yet investment from China and from rival imperialist powers to Australia has not diminished following the alleged coup against Alkatiri, which the Howard government is supposed to have engineered in order to halt the growing influence of these foreign competitors. In April 2008 East Timor purchased two Chinese-built patrol boats. Two of the largest construction projects in Dili – the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building and the new presidential palace – have been made possible with Chinese assistance. Investors from Singapore and Macau have also been pursuing development opportunities, including a $250 million tourist resort, and Chinese capital has been responsible for many of the new shops and restaurants in Dili.
Last October the Gusmao government announced it had awarded a $390 million tender to the Chinese Nuclear Industry 22nd Construction Company for the construction of two new electricity generating plants. The controversial announcement followed an intense debate over the budget and how funds from the Petroleum Fund should be disbursed. The Court of Appeal on October 27 upheld a petition from Fretilin and other opposition MPs opposed to the tender and funding process.
Since the AMP government took office in 2007, East Timor has also strengthened ties with socialist Cuba. These ties were initiated by the previous Fretilin-led government when Horta was foreign minister. At the centre of this relationship are the community health and literacy programs being undertaken by 300 Cuban doctors and medical technicians in East Timor, along with the training of around 700 East Timorese health professionals in Cuba (and 100 in East Timor). This relationship with Cuba has also been attacked by conservative forces within East Timor – most notably those connected to the Catholic Church – but has been strongly defended by the "more right-wing and compliant" Horta.
Last November, Horta also sent a message to US president-elect Barak Obama calling for him to end the 47-year US economic blockade against Cuba, describing it as immoral and politically senseless. Horta also called for this blockade to be lifted in his addresss to the UN General Assembly in September.
The strengthening of ties between East Timor and Cuba and the potential of Cuba's socialist example gaining more influence across different sectors of East Timorese society is as much a concern for the Australian capitalist ruling class, if not more, than the increasing investment from rival companies. According to the schema of Socialist Alternative and others on the left in Australia, the "coup" against Alkatiri ought not to have to seen such developments take place under the "more right-wing and compliant" Horta-Gusmao administration.
War crimes
There is one significant political issue where the East Timorese political leadership share a common interest with the Australian imperialist state and its allies, which is not to pursue an International War Crimes tribunal to bring to account the Indonesian military and civilian figures responsible for orchestrating the carnage that destroyed over 70% of East Timor's infrastructure after the 1999 independence referendum.
Such a tribunal would expose the complicity of the imperialist powers, not just with respect to the events of 1999, but also the role they played in giving financial, military and diplomatic support to the 24-year Indonesian military occupation. While initially supporting such a tribunal, Horta, Gusmao and Alkatiri have all retreated from pursuing one, preferring to restore friendly relations with the Indonesian political elite for pragmatic reasons – East Timor relies heavily on Indonesia for imports of food, fuel and other essentials.
This back-down has deeply angered many East Timorese and contributed to their estrangement from a political leadership that appears incapable and unwilling to pursue a transparent process of justice. On February 18, a statement signed by East Timorese human rights groups, along with international solidarity organisations and supporters, called upon the UN "to seriously examine the recommendations of the [UN] 2005 Commission of Experts report and Chega! (Enough!)", the final report of East Timor's Reception, Truth and Reconciliation Commission. They argued that prosecution of the war crimes orchestrated by the Indonesian occupation authorities in East Timor would support democracy and accountability in both Indonesia and East Timor.
The statement also noted that, "Events between 1975 and 1999 continue to have an impact on the people of Timor-Leste. One of the underlying causes of the 2006 crisis in Dili was that its people continue to suffer from largely-unhealed mass trauma. The manifest failures of local and international justice processes are creating a culture of impunity, in which perpetrators believe they will not be held accountable for murder and other crimes, and where victims often feel that the only justice possible is what they do with their own hands. This attitude contributed to the attempted assassinations of Timor-Leste's President and Prime Minister just one year ago."