Adam Gartrell – East Timorese children were taken from their families and resettled in Indonesia under policies similar to those that created Australia's stolen generation, a Queensland researcher says.

Helene van Klinken says soldiers took many East Timorese children, sometimes by force, during Indonesia's occupation of the tiny country from 1975 to 1999. The experiences of those children were often comparable to those of Australia's Aborigines, she says.

"The Indonesians thought they were doing good and acting out of noble intentions," said van Klinken, who recently finished her PhD on the topic through the University of Queensland.

"The Indonesians who took away children wanted to help develop the province by educating the children, but they often did so with no regard for how parents and children might suffer because of their separation."

Unable to access government records, Ms van Klinken's research relied on oral histories. She interviewed parents, children, officials and leaders in East Timor and Indonesia. Stories were diverse, she said.

"Some children were treated no differently from the soldiers' own children, while others had to work in slave-like conditions," she said.

While some of the children were grateful for a chance at an Indonesian education, others were bitter that they had been separated from their families, she said.

Today, East Timor's independence and Indonesia's democratisation have made it easier for families to reunite. "However, it still requires resources which most do not have," van Klinken said.

Government/civil service

East Timor defends 'jobs for mates' allegations

ABC News - May 29, 2009

Corruption allegations continue to be directed at East Timor's finance ministry, with the latest claims centring on Finance Minister Emilia Pires's hiring of foreign advisers, including Australians.

East Timor's opposition says the advisers are overpaid and are not qualified for the jobs and the country's deputy Prime Minister says corruption exists throughout government. The opposition alleges Ms Pires hired unqualified friends as advisers.

The adviser positions are funded by the World Bank, and Fretilin vice-president MP Arsenio Bano says some of those hired do not have the educational qualifications outlined in the job advertisement's selection criteria, while others with higher qualifications were overlooked.

"It is becoming clear that the money that has been sent by the donor has not been used transparently enough," he said.

"One of the examples that we now continue to insist that the Government should be accountable for [is that] since 2008, we have be calling for accountability, responsibility of the Government, and Government has not provided any information at all to the Parliament of Timor-Leste."

The Opposition says a recently-appointed adviser is a long-time friend of Ms Pires and does not have a degree, but is being paid $US216,000 ($277,000) from the World Bank's multi-million-dollar Public Finance Management Capacity Building Project.

World Bank documents show that foreign advisors earn much more than the Prime Minister of East Timor, and nearly as much as the Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. East Timor is the poorest country in Asia, where the medium income is $US1 a day, or around $400 a year.

Paper trail

According to some documents obtained by Radio Australia, the Opposition's claim that some of those hired by the Finance Ministry do not have university degrees is true.

But Ms Pires insists that the best people have been chosen for the positions, and educational qualifications only accounted for one part of the selection process.

"There were many other criterias: work experience in the field, understanding of the environment here, there were quite a few criterias, and all these people had to go through it," she said.

"Then you bring all that together and then you do a grading and then these people passed the test according to technical team that did the interviews and the screening."

Ms Pires says she has been fighting corruption since she came into office and believes the country's economy is improving, as figures suggest.

East Timor is now one of the five fastest growing economies in the world. The country last year recorded non-oil GDP growth between 11 and 12 per cent, according to the World Bank.

"When we came in we inherited a country on the brink of becoming a failed state," Ms Pires said. "We needed the best people to turn the country around. I think the results over a year and half have proven that. We would have been able to do that if we had incompetent people."

Whether or not the recent corruption allegations aimed at the finance ministry are simply the result of political bickering, the World Bank told Radio Australia in a statement that it is looking at the matter closely.

"The World Bank is reviewing contracts between the Government of Timor-Leste and consultants under the Planning and Financial Management Capacity Building Program (PFMCBP) in Timor-Leste as part of its supervision of the project. The World Bank's policy is not to finance consultant contracts that fail to meet appropriate standards of competition and expertise," it said. "While good results have been achieved through the PFMCBP, the technical assistance has been costly.

"The World Bank has raised its concerns with Government about the need to reduce the number of consultants and ensure that international technical assistance delivers quality expertise and value for money for the citizens of Timor-Leste. The government shares these concerns and supports the review underway."

Corruption in government has been a much-discussed problem for East Timor since the country gained independence in 1999.

And the country's Deputy Prime Minister, Mario Carrascalao, says it is still very much an issue for East Timor. He believes as much as 20 per cent of the country's Budget is squandered or lost to corruption.

"For instance, I went outside of Dili, about 20 kilometres, I found that there's 26 houses that have been built and then abandoned, nobody uses those houses you know," he said.

The Deputy Prime Minister says his government is making strong efforts to stamp out corruption in office. The Finance Ministry has recorded strong gains for the country and the Department's Minister also says eradicating corruption is a top priority. But a history of corruption in East Timor's Government and a relatively strong opposition means allegations will continue to surface amid the country's economic headway.

World Bank on defensive in East Timor over advisers' pay

Agence France Presse - May 13, 2009

Dili – The World Bank has been forced to defend its consultants in East Timor after the salaries of those hired by the finance ministry were leaked to local media, sparking widespread anger.

Public outrage has reached boiling point over generous remuneration packages offered to foreign advisers in a country where half the population of about 1.1 million people lives below the poverty line.

The World Bank, however, says the salaries are set by the finance ministry in line with internationally accepted market rates, and calls the publication of the contract details a breach of privacy.

"I am concerned that the privacy of these individuals has been breached, in an environment in which they are by implication being identified as miscreants for accepting international market-rate salaries," World Bank country director Nigel Roberts said.

Bank communications associate Aleta Moriarty added: "The publication of the personal details of these well-qualified professionals is obviously a matter of concern.

"It could, if further fanned, have implications for their willingness to continue with their employment in (East Timor). Should this occur, the net result will undoubtedly prove negative for development."

The issue of contention is the salaries of international advisers employed as part of the Planning and Financial Management Capacity Building Program, or PFMCBP, a five-year project to strengthen East Timor's finance ministry.

On April 24, the Tempo Semanal newspaper published on its Web site contracts of international advisers working in the PFMCBP with annual salaries ranging from about $100,000 to more than $500,000.

The opposition Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor, or Fretilin, has jumped on the issue to attack the government of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.

"The main concern is the process of recruitment and transparency in the ministry of finance. We have been asking questions but received no answers at all," Fretilin member of parliament Arsenio Bano said.

"International advisers are employed on huge salaries in a country where half the population lives below the poverty line. It's irresponsible."

The PFMCBP is funded by the World Bank through its International Development Association with support from donors.

Consultants are recruited by the finance ministry but it is the World Bank, along with donors such as Australia and New Zealand, that forks out the money to the foreign experts.

An international adviser employed as part of the PFMCBP said the publication of the contracts had "put a lot of strain to our already heavy and difficult workload."

Finance minister Emilia Pires has deflected the opposition's barbs on the grounds that the government isn't liable for the advisers' salaries.

"All the foreign advisers plus some local advisers within my ministry are actually funded by the foreigners' money," she said last month, referring to the World Bank and donors.

"Sometimes we do not explain enough about what we are doing, but that is because we are just too busy trying to get the results and improve the lives of our people."

The World Bank's Moriarty said the consultants had "achieved significant results which have been of widespread benefit to the Timorese people".

"Budget execution increased from $76 million in 2005-06 to $550 million in 2008," Moriarty said.

"This spending, along with increased outlays on infrastructure and goods and services, delivered an estimated 12% rate of economic growth. These results can be directly attributed to work by PFMCBP consultants."

War on corruption

Charges fly over corruption in Timor

Sydney Morning Herald - May 11, 2009

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – The East Timorese Government has admitted that corrupt officials are "well established" in areas such as tax, customs and procurement as a row deepens over highly paid foreign advisers.

The Finance Minister, Emilia Pires, blames the opposition Fretilin party for the corruption, saying the Government is under attack because of "our refusal to partake in the corrupt practices of a small few".

"There is no corruption in my office except for that which was established by the former [Fretilin] government and it is being stamped out slowly, which is why the Ministry of Finance is now the target of these unwarranted attacks," Ms Pires said.

For weeks Fretilin, the largest political party, which lost power in 2007, has alleged growing corruption in government departments in Dili, particularly the Ministry of Finance.

The party leaked documents to Timorese journalists last month revealing that foreign advisers in East Timor, some of them Australian, were being paid more than Australia's Prime Minister.

Fretilin yesterday asked the Prosecutor-General, Ana Pessoa, to investigate claims of a vendetta against an Australian adviser in the Finance Ministry, Graham Daniel, over what he is paid.

Ms Pires will today release documents in Dili showing that when Fretilin was in power it authorised salaries to foreign advisers as high as $US568,000. Some of the contracts were paid from Fretilin's state budget while most of the present foreign advisers in Dili are on World Bank contracts.

Australian business people have complained about the awarding of contracts. The Government awarded a $US400 million contract to a Chinese Government-owned company to build two power plants without calling for open tenders.

Human rights/law

Aussie faces East Timor conspiracy trial

Australian Associated Press - May 6, 2009

The brother of an Australian woman accused of conspiring to assassinate East Timor's president and prime minister says he cannot believe the case is actually going to trial.

Angelita Pires, a dual Australian-East Timorese citizen, was the first person to be arrested over the February 2008 attacks.

The 42-year-old was then the girlfriend of rebel leader Alfredo Reinado, who was shot dead in an ambush that left President Jose Ramos Horta critically wounded.

Ms Pires says she played no part in the rebel attacks, but East Timorese authorities last week announced she would face trial on July 13. Her brother, Antonio Pires, who lives in Darwin, does not believe the trial will be fair.

"I have a sense of disbelief that the case is actually going ahead, to start with," he told AAP. "I just didn't think they could actually make up a case based on what's happened."

Mr Pires said he was dismayed by the way the authorities announced the trial date: on national television, before Ms Pires or her lawyers were informed.

Jon Tippet QC, the lead Australian counsel for Ms Pires, echoed those concerns. "It does not instil confidence in the rule of law and the right to a fair trial in the new Democratic Republic of East Timor," Mr Tippet said.

Mr Tippett said he intended to complain to the president of East Timor's Court of Appeal about the way the announcement was handled.

"All future decisions about the conduct of the trial must be given to the parties before the information is released to the press," he said.

"The Australian taxpayer has contributed significantly to the establishment and operation of the East Timorese justice system and this case is a test of that system's capacity to ensure that Angelita Pires, an Australian citizen, receives a fair trial."

Mr Tippett said the case against his client had no substance.

Health & education

East Timor resisting legalized abortion

Zenit.org - May 25, 2009

New York – The predominantly Catholic nation of East Timor is under pressure from the United Nations for its laws that penalize abortion, even in the case of rape and incest.

The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute reported last week that East Timor's policies are being scrutinized by the UN committee responsible for overseeing compliance with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which will meet for its 44th session in July.

The country's new penal code, which will take effect at the beginning of June, continues to penalize the practice of abortion, though it adds an exception for cases where the mother's health is in jeopardy.

A report from East Timor to the committee states that abortion is a "sensitive issue" in the country, "especially given the traumatic events of recent years" when a 24-year Indonesian occupation enforced family planning programs that were "widely resented" by the people.

The report notes that in the Timorese culture, contraception is generally unpopular, as both men and women see it as "fueling promiscuity and sexually-transmitted diseases while decreasing the number of children."

The Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute stated that despite general support in East Timor for the continued criminalization of abortion, several non-governmental organizations such as the Alola Foundation and Rede Feto, with the support of the United Nations Population Fund and the United Nations Children's Fund, have been lobbying for more liberalized abortion laws.

It also reports that under the guise of promoting "gender equality," the UN committee is pushing for the "modification of customs and practices" regarded by them as "discriminatory."

Additionally, the UN body responds with opposition or indifference to Timor's reference to their long-standing customs, distrust of foreign influence, and the "reproductive rights" abuses suffered by Timorese women under Indonesia's rule.

The Timorese report states that the nation values gender distinctions as they help to protect the integrity of the family, as well as the well-being of women.

Economy & investment

East Timor may invest 10 percent of $4.6 billion fund in equities

Bloomberg - May 5, 2009

Aloysius Unditu – East Timor, the world's newest democracy, may invest about 10 percent of a $4.6 billion petroleum fund in regional equities seeking to diversify from US Treasuries, the government's economic adviser said.

The government needs the parliament's approval for the plan, Joao M. Saldanha, an economic adviser to the government, said in an interview in Bali, Indonesia yesterday.

The government is looking for higher-yielding assets to boost income as the US dollar declines. The fund, set up in 2005, manages the revenue from oil and gas produced in the Australia- East Timor Joint Petroleum Development Area. East Timor, where 41 percent of the people live on less than $1 a day, plans to use profit from the fund to develop the nation.

We need to diversify to other instruments," to boost earnings from the fund, Finance Minister Emilia Pires said in an interview in Bali.

The dollar traded at $1.3391 per euro as of 9:35 a.m. in Singapore from $1.3406 in New York yesterday. It earlier reached $1.3438, the lowest level since April 6.

Revenue from the oil and gas area may increase to $15 billion by 2025, according to Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade.

The fund earned $129.4 million in the final quarter of last year, according to the Banking & Payments Authority of Timor- Leste. JPMorgan Chase & Co is the custodian for the fund.

East Timor, which voted for independence from Indonesia a decade ago, expects its economy to expand 8 percent this year, unchanged from last year, said Saldanha.

East Timor says it won't approve Woodside LNG plan

Bloomberg - May 6, 2009

Angela Macdonald-Smith – The East Timor government said it doesn't intend to approve plans that Woodside Petroleum Ltd., Australia's second-largest oil and gas producer, has said it will put forward to develop the Sunrise field in the Timor Sea.

Progress on the natural gas project has stalled, the Pacific nation said in an e-mailed statement today. Woodside's partners in the venture include Royal Dutch Shell Plc and ConocoPhillips.

Perth-based Woodside said May 1 the Sunrise partners expect to reach an agreement in the second half on how to tap the field, choosing between a floating liquefied natural gas plant or piping the gas to Darwin in Australia for processing. The East Timor government said today it favors an onshore plant on its soil and is also considering leaving the field for future development.

"We have made it clear to Woodside our position," the government said in the statement. "We have not, and do not intend to approve their development plans, no further engagement or negotiations will be entertained as stands."

Australia and East Timor completed a treaty in February 2007 for the administration of the Sunrise field, which straddles a boundary between Australian waters and an area jointly managed by the two countries.

Woodside fell for the first time in five days, dropping 0.3 percent to A$42 in Sydney trading. The exchange's benchmark energy index declined 0.7 percent.

'Good oilfield practice'

Jon Ozturgut, vice-president of Sunrise LNG Development at Woodside, said in a May 1 interview that while East Timor would prefer the venture builds an LNG plant on its territory, the treaty requires the partners to choose the project design that offers the "best commercial advantage."

The Sunrise venture "will work with the Timor-Leste and Australian governments to secure the timely approval of a field development plan to develop Greater Sunrise to the best commercial advantage, consistent with good oilfield practice," Woodside spokesman Roger Martin said today in an e-mailed response to East Timor's statement.

"It's not just about making money," East Timor's Secretary of State for Natural Resources Alfredo Pires said in an interview today. "You need to look at the greater aspects of how resources should benefit the resource owners."

That includes jobs and developing skills, he said by telephone from Dili. As East Timor is already receiving royalties from the ConocoPhillips-operated Bayu-Undan gas project, which sends fuel to Darwin for processing, there's no financial imperative for the rapid development of Sunrise, he said.

'Only fair'

"The fact that one pipeline has gone already to Australia, we feel that it's only fair that the other one comes to Timor- Leste," Pires said. "We also have studies that confirm that the Timor-Leste option is much more viable than we had been led to believe."

Woodside owns about 33 percent of Sunrise and is the operator, while Houston-based ConocoPhillips has a 30 percent stake, Woodside's 34 percent-shareholder Shell owns 27 percent and Osaka Gas Co. holds 10 percent. The field, which lies 450 kilometers (280 miles) northwest of Darwin, is estimated to hold about 5.4 trillion cubic feet of gas and 240 million barrels of condensates, a type of light oil.

"Relationships are good" with East Timor, Woodside Chief Executive Officer Don Voelte told reporters in Perth on May 1. "They're conciliatory, we're working together and there has got to be opportunities for everybody."

East Timor, where 41 percent of the people live on less than $1 a day, plans to use royalties from oil and gas projects to fund social development. The country started a petroleum fund in 2005, which now holds $4.6 billion.

Police/military

East Timor police take over district from UN

Agence France Presse - May 15, 2009

Dili, East Timor – UN police returned control of a district to East Timorese police Thursday for the first time since bloody clashes threatened to plunge the country into civil war in 2006, the UN said.

The unrest, triggered by the desertion of 600 soldiers over claims of discrimination, forced 155,000 people or 15% of the population to flee their homes, and triggered the return of UN forces to the tiny country.

But three years later the UN peacekeeping mission said the conditions were stable enough for the National Police of Timor- Leste to start resuming their full responsibilities.

The first handover of control took place in Lautem district on the far east of the half-island state.

"UN police will remain in the district to provide advice and monitoring, particularly in the area of human rights protection," the UN said in a statement.

East Timorese Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao last month said the government was rebuilding confidence in the state.

"In only three years since the crisis, people have regained trust and confidence in each other and in state institutions, consolidated peace and stability through national dialogue and reconciliation initiatives," he said.

East Timor won formal independence from Indonesia in 2002 after a bloody 24- year occupation that killed as many as 200,000 people.

Opinion & analysis

Balibo: Film, truth and justice

Commentary by Damien Kingsbury - May 28, 2009

The movie ‘Balibo’ headlining the coming Melbourne International Film Festival will again put in the spotlight the murder and its cover-up of six Australian based journalists in East Timor in 1975 - five in the border village of Balibo and one in Dili eight weeks later. There will be some who argue that the events depicted in ‘Balibo’ are now part of history, that again raising this issue serves no productive purpose and, perhaps, that we still don’t know what really happened in that remote border village on 16 October 1975.

Despite these often self-serving objections, what ‘Balibo’ does remind us of is that grave crimes have gone unpunished. It also shows that the mistakes of our governments still reverberate, and its continued inability to be honest about these events tells us much about the difference between the type of society we think we live in, and that which we actually live in. As a society, we retain a stain that can only be removed with the application of transparency and accountability. On 16 October 1975, Indonesian special forces led by Yunus Yosfiah murdered Australian-based journalists Greg Shackleton, Tony Stewart, Gary Cunningham, Brian Peters and Malcolm Rennie, who were reporting on Indonesia’s then covert invasion of East Timor. Roger East, who went to investigate their deaths, was murdered in Dili during the formal invasion, eight weeks later, on 7 December.

‘Balibo’ recreates these events, and the circumstances around them, with great skill and accuracy. But more than simply telling a story, ‘Balibo’ reminds us that the Indonesian military commanders who thereafter perpetrated massive crimes in East Timor continue to lead lives of impunity. As with the crimes against humanity that were pursued for decades after World War II, the crimes committed in East Timor have not disappeared because of the passage of time. It is simply that their perpetrators have managed to evade justice.

As a movie, ‘Balibo’ is confronting, heart-wrenching, and raises a sense of legitimate anger. These responses parallel how many Australians responded to events in East Timor in 1999, when by their numbers they compelled the Australian government to finally intervene.

Such responses also parallel how many Australians felt in 1975, and in the years since. If the concerns of 1975 faded, it was because our governments so effectively covered-up the truth of these events, and the horrors subsequently perpetrated upon the people of East Timor. The Indonesian government led that complicity, culminating in the carnage and its ignominious departure from East Timor in 1999. But our own governments, under Whitlam, Fraser, Hawke, Keating and Howard, participated in that complicity.

The movie ‘Balibo’ also captures the reality that East Timor’s its people were just ordinary human beings caught in terrible circumstances. The scenes, too, in the forests and of streams, over the steep mountains and of the sea and sky are so accurate because they are East Timor. Dili’s emblematic Hotel Turismo had, and retains, the atmosphere of a Graeme Greene novel.

‘Balibo’s’ critics will attack it not for its art, but citing that Australia’s relationship with Indonesia is, these days, positive, and East Timor is now an independent state with its own aspirations and struggles. What they are unlikely to admit it that the problems that East Timor has endured since independence have been rooted in its brutal past.

Importantly, too, two of the generals who were so instrumental in East Timor’s misery are now competing for Indonesia’s vice-presidency. Wiranto and Prabowo Subianto were not expected to be successful, but that men who might legitimately face charges of crimes against humanity could run for office a heart-beat from leading Indonesia speaks volumes. This impunity continues to gnaw at the people of East Timor, as well as the families and friends of the murdered Australian journalists. On grounds of truth, it is difficult to fault director Robert Connelly’s film, from the order and accuracy of events to the dress of the characters. Notably, Yunus Yosfiah, is shown to murder Brian Peters. On the back of his gruesome work in East Timor, Yunus rose to become a Lieutenant-General, and later Indonesia’s information minister.

The remnants of Australia’s discredited ‘Jakarta Lobby’ might claim that its depictions have not yet been proven. Yet the now formally recorded eye-witness accounts have become too overwhelming for any doubt to remain. The 86 people, including Roger East, murdered on Dili wharf on 7 December 1975, is known because others who lived were made to count as they were shot.

In the following few years, somewhere between a quarter and a third of East Timor’s population were killed or died of starvation or preventable disease, establishing a record of brutality matching that of Pol Pot’s Cambodia. ‘Balibo’ takes us back to the first fearful moments of that unimaginable human catastrophe, precipitating that which followed. Connolly is to be congratulated for creating, with ‘Balibo’, a landmark piece of Australian cinematography. He is also to be congratulated for reminding us of crimes still unpunished and of wounds that, without justice, remain unhealed.