Paige Taylor – Maria Reinado struggles daily with her memories of a husband and father who was unfaithful and never met their fourth child because he "loved his country too much".

"Sometimes I hate him so much," Ms Reinado said through tears at her rented unit in Perth this week.

But in her first interview, the widow of East Timor's police commander-turned-rebel chief Alfredo Reinado told The Weekend Australian she still loved and missed the tormented man who rejected overtures of peace and died in a hail of bullets.

The 41-year-old was killed on February 11 last year at the home of Timorese President Jose Ramos Horta, ending a headline- grabbing 10 months on the run.

Mr Ramos Horta was almost killed in the gunfight, and documents obtained by The Australian in July showed the Australian Federal Police believed political figures could have lured Reinado to the President's compound to be assassinated, saying it might have been a "successful trap to finally silence Reinado".

His death was something Ms Reinado had been fearing and preparing for since May 2006 when, pregnant with their daughter Felicity, she fled from the violence with their three children to make a home in Perth.

But Ms Reinado still cannot quite believe that the boyish man who courted her at her 15th birthday party in her mother's loungeroom in Dili is the same angry soldier who led 600 other rebels away from the main ranks of the East Timorese army in March 2006.

"He could be a rebel for all those people, but he's my husband – you know, he's a man, he's a wonderful father," Ms Reinado said.

She said Reinado was a calm young man who always seemed to know what to do.

But their 14-year marriage was controversial and estranged Ms Reinado from her stepfather and by default from her mother – her family was from the neighbouring Indonesian island of Flores, and her stepfather had wanted her to marry an academic from Java.

And Reinado, the proud advocate of his people, was chastised for taking an Indonesian bride. "When they knew I am an Indonesian, they even told Alfredo, they said: 'Oh, don't you feel ashamed, we kicked the Indonesians out from East Timor and look at you – you are married to one'," she said. "It was so hurtful."

Ms Reinado said she did not believe her husband carried a hatred of Indonesia, but he was traumatised to the end by what the Indonesian army did to him after capturing him as a child and making him work as a porter.

She said he was later "adopted" by an Indonesian family whose abuse included tethering him to a table.

"He told me about that – every time he talks to me about that he's in tears, but he's trying not to show his tears to me," Ms Reinado said.

"And I said, 'You know, it's OK if you want to talk, you can talk', and he was just like 'It's hurting me'.

"I say, 'You have to let it out sometimes', so we hug and sometimes he talks about his past, about how bad that was when the Indonesians mistreated him. Even his adopted family sometimes hit him and tied him under the table."

Ms Reinado said she believed the treatment had affected Reinado deeply, and shaped the man he became.

"It was so bad – sometimes he got angry because of what they did to him, and sometimes he realised that because of all those things he's been through, it makes him what he is now, he's become stronger."

Ms Reinado and the four children – Billy, 15, Donovan, 12, Tiffany, 5, and Felicity, 2, whom Reinado never met because he was by then in hiding in the hills above Dili – were granted visas to live in Australia after Reinado's death.

Ms Reinado said money was tight but life was good in Perth. The children attended Catholic school and they were comfortable in their two-bedroom unit in Perth's northeast.

She regretted not having friends in the Timorese community, particularly given that she and Reinado had lived briefly in Perth in the 1990s when Billy was little. "As soon as Alfredo was involved in these political things, everyone was scared," she said.

In the months before Reinado's death, the couple were in regular mobile phone contact but argued about what Ms Reinado suspected were his infidelities. She said she never trusted the woman later revealed to be his lover, Angelita Pires.

"She's saying Alfredo was going to leave me and all these things... I think she's a snake," she said. "She spoke with me twice, if I'm not mistaken, by saying 'Mrs Reinado, I'm Alfredo's lawyer' and I say 'How's my husband?', she say 'Oh, he's doing fine, don't you worry, I'll look after him'."

Ms Reinado said that three days before Reinado was killed, he had sought to assure her about his rumoured lovers by telling her: "You know, I don't really like them."

Ms Reinado said it was an important conversation, and he seemed happy when she told him she still loved him.

"In a way, sometimes I think it is meant to be that he died, so he can rest in peace," she said. "No more hiding, no more sleeping in the bush."

Political parties/elections

East Timor opposition claims success in village polls

Agence France Presse - October 16, 2009

Dili – East Timor's opposition Fretilin party said there had been a "huge swing" against the government in recent village or 'suco' elections, even though candidates were supposed to be independent.

"The suco elections, our community leaders elections, held across the country last Friday show that the (ruling coalition) parties' votes have crashed," Fretilin lawmaker Arsenio Bano said in a statement.

Fretilin says 66 percent of the newly elected local councils are aligned with the party or its allies, despite village-level candidates being barred from running as representatives of political parties.

Official results from the vote do not record candidates' party affiliations, so it is impossible to verify the opposition's figures.

Electoral Commission official Arif Abdullah Sagran said Fretilin's figures could not be verified. "If there's a media release saying they won more than 50 percent, then it's from them, it's not from us," he said.

The claims cap off a tense week in East Timorese politics after Fretilin pushed a no-confidence motion against the government in parliament over the release from custody of an indicted Indonesian former militia leader.

The coalition led by Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao survived the attack, but the debate was rowdy and government spokesman Agio Pereira slammed Fretilin for attempting to "create instability".

Fretilin Secretary-General Mari Alkatiri said the village election results were reason enough for the government to call early elections, amid concerns about stability in the tiny half- island nation.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warned Monday that underlying community-level tensions remain in East Timor seven years after it gained formal independence from Indonesia, leaving the door open for conflict.

"More time is required to ensure that the various efforts aimed at tackling the many political, institutional and socio-economic challenges facing the young nation... are allowed to take root in democratic institutions and processes," he said in a report on the UN mission in East Timor.

President Jose Ramos-Horta has cited the peaceful village elections as a sign of stability and "political maturity".

East Timor votes in village polls

Agence France Presse - October 9, 2009

Dili – East Timor voted on Friday in village elections seen as a test of the fledgling country's stability a decade after its historic independence referendum which led to its bloody split from Indonesia.

Past elections in East Timor have been marred by tension and fighting and the United Nations mission is keen to see the village vote pass smoothly ahead of its eventual departure and general elections in 2012.

UN Police and the national force, the PNTL, are jointly handling security and extra officers have been deployed to all polling station areas, UN Police Commissioner Luis Carrilho told AFP ahead of the vote.

"We are not expecting any incidents, but if any incident were to happen, we would be ready to deal with it," Mr Carrilho said.

Village councils help find solutions to community problems that impact directly on security, as disputes are often solved through community leaders. The 2004-5 village elections were predominantly peaceful but in 2006 a split in the armed forces incited clashes in the streets of Dili, forcing more than 100,000 people to flee their homes.

Fighting around the 2007 parliamentary election led to two deaths while in February 2008, Jose Ramos-Horta, who won the 2007 presidential election, was targeted by assassins, leading to a lockdown of Dili.

Aid & development

East Timor falls in UN development rankings

Associated Press - October 7, 2009

Dili – Tiny East Timor reached a new low in the UN's annual measurement of human development, falling even further down the list of 182 countries measured for overall quality of life.

The desperately poor Southeast Asian nation of 1.1 million people fell to 162 on the list, compared to 150 in the 2007/2008 Human Development Index. It came in at 140 in 2005, the first year it was included.

The UN Development Program began tracking the index in 1990, weighing average life expectancy, income and literacy.

East Timor, which broke from Indonesia in 1999, has one of the highest rates of foreign assistance in the world at more than $8,000 per person. Roughly $8.7 billion has been spent by the United Nations, foreign donors and the Australian military over the past decade.

The 2009 Human Development Index ranking is based on data from 2007, a year after East Timor descended into chaos as police and army forces battled in the streets of the capital, Dili. About 15 percent of the population ended up in camps and the government was forced from power.

East Timor ranked 122 out of 135 countries for the income component. Overall, it fared better than just 19 African countries and Afghanistan. It came below Pakistan, Sudan and Congo. Norway topped the list, above the United States at 13, while Niger was ranked last.

Security & border issues

Indonesia inches closer to settlement on Timor border dispute

Jakarta Post - October 12, 2009

Camelia Pasandaran – Indonesia and East Timor are trying to work out disputes over their territory by agreeing on an exact border between the two nations, a government official said on Monday.

"We are now in the process of finalizing border lines between Indonesia and East Timor," said Saut Situmorang, a spokesman for the Ministry of Home Affairs.

He said a government team was delineating borders along several coordinates based on historical international border agreements.

"As soon as we can set up the border line, we will build border posts which may only be passed legally," Saut said. "The border team should be able to find solutions to the border issues as soon as possible."

East Timor, a former Portugese colony, voted for independence in a UN-sponsored referendum in 1999 after a quarter-century of occupation by Indonesia.

However, the long process of border negotiations between the two countries has resulted in a series of accusations that East Timor was encroaching on Indonesian territory.

For example, Robby J Manoh, a village head on the Indonesian side of the border, has alleged that East Timor has claimed sovereignty over land in a village in Kupang district, West Timor.

"East Timor has claimed sovereignty over Naktuka, which is three kilometers into Indonesia's territory from the border," he was quoted as saying by state news agency Antara.

The two countries have met three times to discuss border issues, but have so far failed to reach an agreement on the Naktuka area. Robby said East Timor had violated "the status quo" agreement by placing 42 families in the area. "They are tightly secured by East Timorese police," he said.

According to Robby, the border runs along the Noel Besi River between Indonesia's Kupang district and East Timor's Oecussi district. An agreement between the Portuguese and Dutch colonial governments in 1904 states that the Noel Besi River belongs to Indonesia.

However, East Timorese have reportedly moved across the river and named the Nonomna canal as the new border.

"An Indonesian military post is only about a kilometer from the canal. Now East Timor claims the canal as the border," Robby said. "We want the government to solve the problem soon so it won't develop into a conflict."

UNMIT/ISF

Signs of stability in East Timor

ABC News - October 24, 2009

The new Australian Commander of the International Stabilisation Force (ISF) in East Timor says there are many signs of progress in the country.

Commodore Stuart Mayer took over as the Commander of the Australian and New Zealand forces in East Timor yesterday. He says East Timor is stable, but still faces challenges.

"You have a very high number of young people, unemployment, getting meaningful work for the young people so they can be committed to the country so they feel invested in its future so they don't need to turn to alternative ways of gaining their security," he said.

"There's no indication of that happening but we want to continue to provide the opportunities so they are channelled in a productive way."

There are about 650 Australian defence force members in East Timor as part of the ISF.

Brigadier Bill Sowry was the Commander of the ISF for the past nine and a half months, before handing over to Commodore Mayer. He also says there are increasing signs of stability.

"Determining how they see the future of the ISF, once they've had that they will have discussions with our government and the United Nations because it is a trilateral arrangement," Brigadier Sowry said.

He says he has seen significant changes in his time as Commander of the Australian and New Zealand forces in East Timor.

"The Esplanade on the beach here in Dili is awash with people of an evening walking buying food from the various night-time cooking stalls that dot the beach, the numerous restaurants that are there, traffic everywhere," he said.

"So people are out and about there's not that sense of caution that was previously there nine months ago."

EU supports building security before withdrawing UN from Timor

Deutsche Presse Agentur - October 23, 2009

New York – The European Union concurred with the United Nations Friday on the need to strengthen East Timor's capability to handle its own security before the UN mission there can be withdrawn.

During a debate in the UN Security Council on the situation of East Timor, known also as Timor Leste, Swedish Ambassador Anders Liden said the island nation's recent successful elections and relief to displaced people are signs of maturity.

"At the same time, the process of handing over responsibilities to the national police force must continue with a view to setting the ground for a future transition and drawdown of the UN mission," Liden said. Sweden currently holds the rotating EU chairmanship.

The EU is among organizations and countries that provide significant financial assistance to the government in Dili. The UN mission in East Timor has about 2,800 staff, most of them international police sent to train an East Timorese police force.

The international community has provided security and development aid for East Timor since it gained independence from Indonesia 10 years ago.

Thailand's UN Ambassador Norachit Sinhaseni, speaking on behalf of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), called for clarity in the UN mission's future presence in East Timor in order to work out an effective transition to the national police force.

"We should all strive for a nation-building process that is a process of, by and for the people of Timor-Leste," Sinhaseni said. "ASEAN stands firm in solidarity of Timore-Leste as a regional partner and, above all, a friend."

The UN special envoy for East Timor, Atal Khare, told the council that Dili held local elections in October in a "generally peaceful atmosphere" with the help of the UN and national police. Some 67 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots.

Khare said national elections planned in 2012 would require more international support, including helicopters, to face emergency situations.

"The touchstone for success in Timor-Leste is not whether or not crises occur, but how future crises are met and resolved," Khare said. "The goal should be to ensure that there are handled in a responsible manner that does not threaten the state, and instead provide an opportunity for enhanced social cohesion and development."

Australian defence minister commits to East Timor's security

Deutsche Presse Agentur - October 3, 2009

Dili – Australian Defence Minister John Faulkner visited East Timor Saturday and reiterated his country's commitment to maintaining security in the newly formed country, officials said.

Faulkner met with East Timorese Vice Prime Minister Jose Luis Guteres, Defence Secretary Julio Tomas Pinto and Chief Major Lere Ana of the Falintil-FDTL (Force de Defesa de Timor Leste) on a brief trip to Dili to discuss the military cooperation among the two countries.

"I am very happy that the minister of Australia reiterated the strong support of Australia to the stability of Timor Leste [East Timor]," Guteres said after the meeting.

Australia and New Zealand have maintained an international stabilization force of around 800 troops in East Timor since 2006 at the invitation of the government.

"It's been a very important opportunity to talk with my Timorese colleges and also hear about the improvements of the security situation," Faulkner said.

East Timor on August 30 celebrated the 10th anniversary of a referendum that launched the territory on its bloody path to independence from Indonesia, which invaded the former Portugese colony in 1975 and annexed it the following year.

The 1999 referendum led to a rampage by pro-Indonesian militias, who killed about 1,400 East Timorese and destroyed much of the country's meagre infrastructure.

Security was restored by an international peacekeeping force and the territory was put under United Nations administration until it became an independent country in 2002.

Seven years after independence, the government still has trouble keeping the peace with factions and remnant militias with its local army of 1,300 troops.

"As a country in the modern world we have to count on our neighbors in order to protect our common interest," Guteres said.

Government/civil service

East Timor government survives no-confidence vote

Agence France Presse - October 13, 2009

Dili – East Timor's opposition stayed on the offensive Tuesday after the government survived a no-confidence vote over its decision to free an Indonesian militia leader accused of crimes against humanity.

Members of the opposition Fretilin party and its allies brought the motion before the house, accusing the government of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao of breaking the law by releasing militia leader Martenus Bere from custody.

After a fiery day-long debate which was broadcast on national television, MPs voted late Monday by a margin of 39 to 25 against the motion, officials said.

Had it succeeded, President Jose Ramos-Horta could have dissolved parliament and called an election, a remote prospect given his support for the government's policy of leniency toward rights abusers of the past.

Fretilin lawmaker Arsenio Bano said MPs were scared to censure the government over the Bere affair, which has drawn criticism from the United Nations and independent rights groups like Amnesty International.

"They refused to censure the... prime minister despite his public admission, repeated several times to parliament yesterday, that he ordered the release of Martenus Bere," Bano said in a statement.

Former prime minister Mari Alkatiri led the charge against the government, saying Bere's release less than a month after his arrest in August was unconstitutional and undermined East Timor's independence.

Bere was arrested after crossing into East Timor on August 8, five years after being indicted for his role in a string of human rights violations including the 1999 Suai church massacre in which up to 200 people were killed.

Gusmao, who led East Timor's resistance against Indonesian rule before its 1999 vote for independence, defended freeing Bere as a "political decision" that was "in the national interest".

Bere has stayed at the Indonesian embassy in the capital Dili since his August 30 release.

Government MPs argued his release was necessary to prevent reprisals against Timorese studying in Indonesia, and said a trial would have done nothing to improve reconciliation between the two countries.

Gusmao and Nobel prize laureate Ramos-Horta insist that building cordial ties with Indonesia is more important than dwelling on its crimes, despite UN calls for an international tribunal.

Indonesia's brutal 24-year occupation of East Timor ended with bloody violence by Indonesian troops and their militia proxies who opposed the 1999 UN-backed independence vote.

Timor government faces no confidence vote

Associated Press - October 12, 2009

Guido Goulart, Dili – East Timor's government faced a no- confidence vote Monday over the release at Indonesia's request of an alleged militia leader accused of war crimes in the slayings of women, children and priests in a church a decade ago.

The opposition Fretilin party put forward the motion in the House of Representatives Monday to protest Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao's order to set free Maternus Bere on Aug. 30. The Supreme Court believes the move violated the constitution and has launched an investigation.

Gusmao, an independence-era icon who began his 5-year-term in August 2007, told the legislature at the start of the debate Monday that he accepted responsibility for Bere's release. "It was purely a political decision for our good relationship with Indonesia," he said.

The case has become a test for the infant nation, highlighting the continuing challenge to establish an independent and viable judiciary after breaking from hundreds of years of colonialism in 2002.

If half the members present in the 65-seat body support the motion, the government will be dissolved and new elections ordered within three months in what could spark new instability. It appeared set for a close vote, with house members bitterly divided.

"The government's decision to free Mr. Maternus Bere from Becora Prison clearly violated the constitution," Fretilin's motion said. "Only a court has the power and competence to order a citizen in prison to be freed from custody."

East Timor is enjoying relative stability after assassination attempts against its leaders in early 2008. Even those who opposed Bere's release may not support the bill for fear of disrupting the peace. A vote was expected late Monday night, said house speaker Fernando de Araujo.

An Indonesia national, Bere had been at large for 10 years until his arrest on Aug. 8 after crossing into East Timor from Indonesia for a family gathering. Bere is one of the alleged leaders of the 1999 Suai massacre, when pro-Indonesia militias killed dozens and possibly hundreds of people sheltering in the village during the bloody aftermath of East Timor's referendum for independence that left at least 1,000 people dead.

Preparations for his trial were underway when he was handed over to the Indonesian Embassy as the nation marked the 10th anniversary of the historic Aug. 30 vote for independence, in which the nation of 1.1 million chose to break from Indonesia after 24 years of occupation.

Indonesia waited for confirmation of Bere's hand-over before sending officials to Dili, East Timor's capital, to attend a public ceremony with President Jose Ramos-Horta, an Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman has said.

Human rights groups say the handover demonstrated the weakness of the judiciary and that giving in to the political demands of powerful neighbor Indonesia undermined democratic institutions.

The United Nations has expressed concern and called for East Timor's leaders to abide by international law. Arrest warrants issued by a UN-backed serious crimes unit are outstanding for nearly 400 suspects in the 1999 violence, but East Timor has favo red reconciliation rather than prosecution.

East Timor officials' pay hikes slammed

Agence France Presse - October 8, 2009

Dili – Pay hikes for lawmakers and high-level officials passed Thursday in East Timor are "out of proportion with the economy", the opposition National Union Party said.

"With these sorts of conditions we are creating an elitist group running the country," party leader Fernanda Borges told AFP.

The proposals received the seal of approval by parliamentary Committee C, which deals with issues related to the economy, finance and corruption. The pay increases still have to be promulgated by President Jose Ramos-Horta, whose new monthly salary of US$2,500 (S$3,476) plus an allowance of US$2,500 is the measuring stick for all the other salaries.

"It's creating structural inequality that will lead to more jealousy in the country. You should measure it with the country's capacity and whether it's sustainable or not," Mr Borges said.

The president saw his earnings more than tripled under the new deal. Lawmakers who currently make a total of about US$1,200 a month will now earn a base of US$1,625 plus an allowance of US$1,056. The raises come in the same week as the United Nations released its annual human development rankings, which saw East Timor fall 12 places to rank 162 out of 182 countries, based on data from 2007.

"People in this country still haven't got anything. There is still so much unemployment. No one is giving them food," Mr Borges said.

Graft & corruption

East Timor deputy prime minister 'abused power': leaked report

Agence France Presse - October 4, 2009

Matt Crook, Dili – East Timor's deputy prime minister abused his power by securing a plum United Nations job for his wife in which she was overpaid thousands of dollars, a leaked ombudsman's report alleges.

The July 9 report by East Timor's Ombudsman Sebastiao Ximenes, obtained by AFP, recommends an investigation be opened into Jose Luis Guterres over allegations that he improperly gave his wife, Ana Maria Valerio, a job as counsel to the UN ambassador in New York in 2006.

Guterres's actions were "an abuse of power, and breached the applicable laws resulting in irregularities and prejudice to the state in favour of the family," the report said. "This conduct amounts to acts of collusion and nepotism," it said.

Appointees should be career diplomats who have worked through various lower-level posts, prerequisites Ana Maria Valerio did not fulfill," the damning report said.

The alleged abuse of power included the leader's wife being overpaid about 12,000 dollars in housing allowances reserved only for East Timorese diplomats and citizens working overseas who don't have homes, according to the report.

Guterres was appointed as East Timor?s ambassador to the United States in 2002 before becoming the country's ambassador to the UN.

He returned to East Timor in 2006 to take up the post of foreign minister, but before he left, he gave his wife her new job, breaking a number of anti-corruption laws in the process, the report says.

Current Foreign Minister Zacarias Albano da Costa was also accused in the report of failing to "immediately (stop) these payments to Ana Maria Valerio... after he took office in 2007."

Ombudsman Ximenes has passed the report to East Timor's prosecutor general. In August, opposition Fretilin party lawmakers called for Justice Minister Lucia Lobato and Finance Minister Emilia Pires to be sacked after a report by Ximenes alleged abuse of power by the pair.

The latest corruption scandal comes the same week that a proposal was put forward in parliament to more than double the monthly earnings of East Timor's lawmakers.

Human rights/law

Suspect in East Timor massacre back in Jakarta

Associated Press - October 30, 2009

A suspected militia leader accused in a massacre of dozens of women, children and priests in a church in East Timor a decade ago, had been returned to Indonesia, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Friday.

Maternus Bere arrived in the country on Friday and was taken to a hospital with health problems, said ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah. He faces no charges in Indonesia and will be a free man after treatment.

An Indonesian national, Bere was indicted by UN prosecutors in 2003 on charges of crimes against humanity, including murder, persecution, forced disappearances, torture, extermination and abduction.

More than 1,000 people were killed by pro-Indonesian militias when East Timor voted to break from Indonesia in 1999, but more than 300 suspects remain at large. Leaders from both countries oppose criminal trials so rights activists have called for the establishment of a UN tribunal.

Bere was recognized during a visit to Suai, the town where the massacre took place in September 1999, and was arrested by Timorese police in early August.

He was handed over to the Indonesian Embassy at Jakarta's insistence after negotiations between the two governments on Aug. 30, the 10th anniversary of the tiny country's vote to become an independent state.

East Timor's Supreme Court is investigating whether Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao violated the constitution by ordering Bere's release.

Judges say political leaders illegally bypassed the courts with the release, highlighting the continuing challenge to establish an independent judiciary.

East Timor court jails alleged hit-squad chief over 2006 violence

Deutsche Presse Agentur - October 9, 2009

Dili – An East Timorese court on Friday jailed a militia leader for 32 months for his role in widespread violence that left 37 people dead and more than 100,000 displaced in 2006.

Vicente "Rai Los" da Conceicao was accused of leading a hit-squad set up by then-interior minister Regerio Lobato, allegedly tasked with eliminating government opponents.

Chief Judge Costancio Basmeri said de Conceicao was found guilty of "carrying weapons, corporal offences and criminal acts."

The court also sentenced one of de Conceicao's men, Leandro Lobato, to a year and a half in prison.

In 2006, East Timor was rocked by violence between various factions in the security forces, as well as street gangs.

The crisis began when hundreds of soldiers from the west of the country deserted, claiming that they had been discriminated against by the government of then-prime minister Mari Alkatiri.

The violence led to Alkatiri's resignation and the arrest of interior minister Lobato. It also prompted the deployment of thousands of international peacekeepers, led by Australia.

Meanwhile, one of the victims of the violence, Januario Pereira, expressed doubt that de Conceicao would ever spend time in prison.

"This is just theatre," Pereira said. "There will be a political intervention in the judicial system, so maybe they will not stay in prison."

Economy & investment

Gusmao leads Timor group to lobby China for gas plant

The Australian - October 16, 2009

Steve Holland – An East Timorese government delegation led by Prime Minster Xanana Gusmao is in China looking for support for its bid for a major gas processing plant to be built in East Timor instead of Darwin.

Woodside Petroleum, part of the joint venture with Conoco Phillips, Shell and Osaka Gas to develop the billion-dollar Sunrise gas project, has ruled out East Timor for the site of the gas processing plant.

But East Timor's government said onshore development for the Greater Sunrise gasfield in East Timor could "transform' the impoverished nation.

Deputy Finance Minister Rui Manuel Hanjam said a government- commissioned feasibility study had shown that it was technically viable for the plant to be built in East Timor.

"The point is the nation wants the pipeline to go to East Timor," he said. "Perhaps we can seek alternative solutions from China or other countries that are more independent, such as Malaysia.

"If we (Australia and East Timor) really want to have an equal distribution then the pipeline should come to East Timor. This would help the government's plan to eradicate poverty and boost future economic growth, especially for the country's southern parts. Essentially, one pipeline has already gone to Australia, so the next one should go to East Timor."

Woodside has said the joint venture has spent more than $350million on exploration, appraisal, marketing, technical and commercial feasibility studies since the fields were discovered in the mid-1970s.

The Greater Sunrise fields, believed to contain around 8 trillion cubic feet of gas, are located within the Joint Petroleum Development Area of the Timor Sea, about 170km from East Timor. Woodside has considered a floating platform processing plant, which would be a world first, and could alleviate political complications.

But Woodside spokesman Roger Martin said Darwin was the best option for an onshore processing plant. "The joint venture is required, under the treaty between Australia and East Timor, to develop the project according to the best commercial advantage and that's what the screening process has been about. The screening process has followed the guidelines," he said.

East Timor's government has sent a delegation to attend the 10th Western China International Economy and Trade Fair.

As well as Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, the delegation includes Minister of Foreign Affairs Zacarias da Costa, Minister of Finance Emilia Pires, Minister of Infrastructure Pedro Lay, and Secretary of State for Natural Resources Alfredo Pires.

But the East Timor independent monitoring organisation Lao Hamutuk has questioned the reasons for the government's China visit.

Charles Scheiner from Lao Hamutuk said: "Perhaps the visit is related to the new Budget and Financial Management Law which parliament passed on September 24."

"This law allows the Minister of Finance to borrow money from governments like China without any parliamentary or public oversight of the terms or repayment of the loan."

Justice & reconciliation

Activists seek justice for death of Dutch journo

Jakarta Post - October 28, 2009

Jakarta – Activists in London demanded Monday that Indonesian authorities bring to justice those responsible for killing Dutch Financial Times correspondent Sander Thoenes in then East Timor, which gained independence from Indonesia after a 1999 referendum.

A press release sent to The Jakarta Post by the International Press Institute (IPI) said Thoenes went to East Timor (now Timor Leste) in September 1999 to report on the aftermath of the referendum vote for independence from Indonesia and the landing of Indonesian troops on the island. UN and Indonesian investigators found that he was shot at point-blank range by Indonesian troops after falling off his motorcycle.

"Both UN and Indonesian investigations into the murder of Sander Thoenes have identified members of the Indonesian military as being responsible for the crime. The fact that these individuals have not been prosecuted shows a disturbing lack of will by Indonesia to end the impunity connected with the killing of Sander Thoenes and other journalists," said IPI press freedom manager Anthony Mills, who attended a commemoration event for Thoenes at the Frontline Club in London.

Sander's brother, Peter, read out a protest at the event, saying: "The Indonesian government has consistently delayed, obstructed and ridiculed any prosecutions of these criminals on their payroll. In doing so, that government has made it clear to the international community that it happily condones all kind of atrocities committed by its military up to this day."

Thoenes, who was 30 years old at the time of his death, had been working as the Financial Times Indonesia correspondent since September 1997, after the Asian financial crisis had started to spread in the region.

On the day Thoenes was murdered, the Financial Times had published an article by him titled "Military's power undimmed by humiliations," in which Thoenes analyzed the Indonesian military's grip on power in spite of the humiliation of having been ousted from East Timor and political reforms that challenged their role in politics.

Defense & security

East Timor begins first joint military manoeuvres with US

Deutsche Presse Agentur - October 14, 2009

Dili – East Timor's first joint military exercise with the United States began Wednesday with the arrival of the USS Bonhomme Richard assault ship.

The manoeuvres with 2,500 US troops and Australia forces are to last through October 24, aimed at bolstering the skills of East Timor's armed forces. Besides field exercises, the troops are also to carry out humanitarian assistance activities.

US Ambassador Hans Klem said jungle training, urban training, infantry training, beach landings, and engineering and medical projects would be conducted.

Work began Wednesday with the establishment of medical and dental clinics, Klem said after participating in the arrival of the USS Bonhomme Richard in the Maubara subdistrict, 40 kilometres west of Dili.

East Timor President Jose Ramos Horta said he was optimistic that the exercises would help the military learn modern techniques and would allow the US forces to study local guerilla techniques.

Ramos Horta also said his country appreciated the humanitarian assistance the US forces were bringing. "Thousands of East Timorese will benefit from medical care," he said.

East Timor, which became independent in 2002, has a small force of 1,300 personnel that the government hopes to boost to 2,000 by the year 2012.

Book/film reviews

Books offer Australian perspective on East Timor killings

Jakarta Globe - October 16, 2009

Belinda Lopez – In Blok AA1 of the Christian cemetery in Kebayoran Lama, an engraved headstone marks the resting place of young journalists shot by the Indonesian military.

The five men from Australia died in East Timor on this day in 1975. The five identified themselves as Australians to the soldiers, who then killed them as the military continued its advance into the town of Balibo, on the border of West Timor.

So declared a coronial inquest in the Australian state of New South Wales in 2007. The fallout from the findings has been a cultural and legal revival of interest in an incident that has stubbornly refused to be forgotten.

The Indonesian version is that the journalists were caught in the crossfire between its soldiers and the East Timorese resistance. Now, a prickly phrase war crime – has seeped past East Timor activist circles into the official Australian vernacular. An Australian Federal Police investigation was launched in August, and the diplomatic alarm bells have begun to sound.

Readers in Indonesia wishing to examine the Australian and East Timorese perspectives to an investigation being labeled hurtful" and "a waste of time" by politicians here may have to order material online.

In Australia, the literary treatment on the subject is stacking up. It now includes Tony Maniaty's Shooting Balibo" and Jill Jolliffe's "Balibo," two pieces of nonfiction released this year to complement the release of Balibo," the film.

Readers will find an unapologetically Australian version of events in the books by Maniaty and Jolliffe, both Australian journalists.

"Balibo" was originally released in 2001 as "Cover Up: The Inside Story of the Balibo Five." In her updated version, tailored to better suit the structure of the movie, Jolliffe has thickened out an already detailed autopsy on the case.

Some of the Indonesian figures she examines are still very much active in public life. Mohammad Yunus Yosfiah, a former minister of information and currently an influential Prosperous Justice Party (PPP) member said to reside in Bandung, was one of the men mentioned in coroner Dorelle Pinch's 2007 report.

She recommended that criminal proceedings be brought against both Yunus and former soldier Christoforus da Silva, now believed to be living in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara. Jolliffe collated eyewitness accounts accusing both men of shooting at the journalists in 1975.

Prabowo Subianto, a former general and the chairman of the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra), is linked to another atrocity in East Timor in her book.

Jolliffe's own relationship with Indonesia has never been friendly. She began working as a stringer in East Timor just a month before the Balibo incident and has followed the story ever since. Jolliffe told the Jakarta Globe she was banned from Indonesia between 1975 and 2001, but entered the country illegally on several occasions, including in 1998, just after former President Suharto fell.

In 2001, she was granted safe passage by the Indonesian government to travel into West Timor with then-president and current Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao of East Timor. During the trip, Jolliffe said, Indonesian police appeared at the losman (small motel) she was staying at in Kupang in the middle of the night, demanding a list of journalists staying there.

I do not want to be biased against Indonesia," she said, "and I think it's very sad that I don't really feel secure enough to go back there now."

Jolliffe said that after years of being stalked by Indonesian agents near her home in Darwin, Australia, she was again followed this year by someone she believed was from the Indonesian consulate. "I have to be a little careful of my security."

Maniaty, meanwhile, has never been to Indonesia, but since the launch of his book he has become an advocate of the need to seek justice against those involved in the Balibo incidents.

He spent only two short periods of time in East Timor, the first as the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's correspondent at the time the journalists died in Balibo in 1975. He warned his five colleagues beforehand not to visit the site where they would ultimately die.

A friend of director Robert Connolly, Maniaty returned to East Timor to work on the "Balibo" film as a consultant, offering insights to the actors playing the five young journalists. He received a thumbs up from his publishers to write an "on the road with the film crew" book, Maniaty said. Instead, "I sat down and 1975 just poured out of me."

In his own words: "The book is about a young man caught in the events of 1975, with a bit of filmmaking in 2008. It became the book I needed to write."

Shooting Balibo" is a memoir about the demons of memory, survivor's guilt, journalism and youth. That said, it is certainly not the book of record. Maniaty writes eloquently but subjectively, and Indonesian readers will confront a perspective they are unlikely to encounter in their own country.

A lot of people in Indonesia say – and I can see their point of view – that 'yeah, that's all behind us, we want to move forward, we don't want to keep on raising these issues,'" Maniaty told the Globe. "The bottom line is, no murder should go unprosecuted."

[Shooting Balibo: Blood and Memory in East Timor. By Tony Maniaty. Penguin Books, 320 pages. Balibo. By Jill Jolliffe. Scribe Publications, 392 pages.]

Opinion & analysis

Howard's new lies on East Timor

Direct Action - October 2009

Jon Lamb – During August and September, Australian and international media outlets ran numerous articles, opinion pieces and commentaries marking the 10 years since the people of East Timor voted for an end to the 24-year-long Indonesian military occupation. On August 30, 1999, 98% of registered voters participated in a United Nations-sponsored referendum. Nearly 80% voted for independence, in defiance of a relentless campaign of terror by the Indonesian military (TNI) and TNI-sponsored militia gangs.

In September 1999, massive protests in Australia and Portugal, along with solidarity protests in North America, Europe and parts of Asia made a decisive impact in ensuring the result of the UN- referendum was implemented. In last month's media commentary there was little mention of this mass campaign or the hard work of solidarity committees and activists over the previous 24 years.

Media coverage

If you were to believe some of the media coverage, such as that carried in the September 5-6 Australian, the independence of East Timor came about through the efforts of the Australian government under the leadership of then-Prime Minister John Howard. According to extracts printed from the book The March of Patriots by the Australian's "editor-at-large" Paul Kelly, Howard (and foreign minister Alexander Downer) "secretly" supported independence for East Timor from late 1998. Kelly declares that "in early 1999, Howard and his foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer recognised that an independent East Timor was likely and they worked to achieve the result". This claim is presumably based on remarks made to Kelly by Howard, as Kelly provides no documented sources for it.

Of course, Kelly turns reality on its head. There was, at the time, no more an inconvenient foreign relations situation for the Howard government than the tireless determination of the East Timorese to continue to demand their national independence. This determination became more emboldened following the collapse of the Suharto dictatorship in Indonesia in May 1998, precipitated by a dire financial crisis and a growing and vibrant pro- democracy movement led by students and other youth radicals. The phony offer of greater autonomy for East Timor proposed by the caretaker president Habibie was received with derision and widely rejected within East Timor.

Damien Kingsbury, associate professor at Deakin University and researcher on East Timorese politics and society, refuted Kelly's claims in an opinion piece posted on Crikey.com on September 8. Referring to the Kelly article as a "self-authored puff piece", Kingsbury noted: "By late 1998, Indonesia had already been involved in discussions with Portugal and the UN about moving towards some sort of resolution to the East Timor issue, and the Indonesian army had begun forming its anti-independence militias from that time. Howard's letter to... Habibie in December 1998 suggesting a protracted process of resolution was intended to ensure that Australia was no longer seen to be unquestioningly endorsing East Timor's incorporation into Indonesia at a time when Indonesia no longer held such a view.

"Howard's foreign minister, Alexander Downer, publicly accepted Indonesia's patently false denials about the militias, despite intelligence briefs to the contrary. In a discussion between DFAT [Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade] secretary Ashton Calvert and senior US envoy Stanley Roth, Roth said that a full- scale peace-keeping operation in East Timor was necessary. Calvert, acting on government orders, refused. Roth later said Australia's policy of keeping the peace-keeping option at 'arms length was essentially defeatist.'

"Howard also opposed having official Australian observers to the ballot, and only accepted the need for a small parliamentary delegation at the last moment, and after the creation of a politically independent Australian NGO observer group.

"Australian Defence Forces were similarly told not to prepare for involvement in East Timor, including no logistic support for the ballot or to send military observers. It did, however, plan to extract Australian civilians if and when the situation deteriorated. Yet just two weeks ahead of the ballot, Downer told Australian observers in the courtyard of Dili's Resende Inn that they should not expect assistance if the security situation deteriorated further. The message was clear: do not stay. That was the same message being sent at that time by the militias, who wanted no witnesses to their carnage.

"At this time, the Australian government was acting against – and denying the content of – a flood of since leaked intelligence showing the Indonesian army was working to derail the ballot. The Howard government's position on East Timor was, in public, that it should remain as part of Indonesia and, in private, that it would do nothing to hinder that outcome."

SAlt's rewriting of history

Curiously, it is not just the conservative pages and airwaves of the establishment media that get this period of history and struggle wrong. In an editorial piece titled "10 years of hell: the legacy of Australian intervention in Timor", the September edition of Socialist Alternative (SAlt)'s magazine claimed: "By the time the [August 30, 1999] ballot took place, the Howard government was preparing for the future. Australia now declared that it was neutral regarding the vote's outcome, opened discussions with the East Timorese leadership about arrangements for independence, and began making preparations for a military intervention." It further claimed that the Howard government's "decision to intervene was actually taken before the demonstrations [in Australia] got underway. Popular demands for intervention succeeded only in providing a left-wing cover for Howard's militarism."

Just as with Kelly's article, the facts about the events of the time are completely distorted, though for SAlt the rewriting of history is driven by the need to defend the position they took at the time of opposing the mass campaign for Australian troop deployment to stop the TNI-organised slaughter in East Timor.

At the time, and ever since, SAlt refused to accept that the mass campaign, led by other socialist groups, unions, solidarity groups, church and human rights organisations (here in Australia and internationally), forced the Howard government to act to stop the slaughter when it was steadfastly opposed to any such intervention. SAlt and some other left groups argued that under no circumstances should working people call upon, let alone mobilise to force, imperialist governments to use their troops to act in the interests of working people. To do so, they claim, is to sow illusions in imperialist governments. While a mass campaign took to the streets pressuring the Howard government to act, against the long-held and strategic ties between Canberra and the TNI, members of SAlt and some other left groups finger- waved from the sidelines.

With respect to one of the specific claims presented by Socialist Alternative – and which they more-or-less share with Howard apologist Kelly – was it true that the Howard government was planning to intervene militarily prior to the demonstrations and, if so, what evidence is there to support this? SAlt provide none. They cannot, because it was exactly the opposite of what the Howard government position was and what it was prepared to do.

There is extensive documentation available that the Howard government, throughout 1998-99, was providing cover for the covert plans and activity of the TNI and its militia gangs, the purpose of which was to derail the UN referendum. Downer repeated ad nauseum that the violence was the result, not of a TNI plan, but "rogue elements", while also parroting Indonesian government warnings that civil war would break out and that security for the ballot must rest in the hands of the Indonesian military and police.

Role of demonstrations

Much of this is covered in the 2004 book Reluctant Saviour written by Clinton Fernandes, the Australian Defence Force's principal intelligence officer in and adviser on East Timor in 1999. In his book, Fernandes also describes how the Australian government decided to intervene after mass demonstrations made it politically untenable not to do so. Prior to these demonstrations, there were no advanced logistical preparations, there were no advanced strategic or tactical policy proposals and there were no pre-arranged agreements or prior discussions with the Indonesian government or TNI. The only plan of action in place was the possible evacuation of Australian civilians in the event the situation worsened and their safety could not be guaranteed.

Fernandes concluded the chapter discussing the intervention: "It is important to dispel illusions about how and why the troops were sent in. They were not sent in because of the goodwill of the Australian government, but because of massive protests that increased rapidly in both size and fury. Protests such as these, which threaten even more serious action, are significant to politicians, because they signal deep and wide support within the broader community that has been created over many years.

"The Indonesian military forcibly deported tens of thousands of East Timorese to West Timor and elsewhere in Indonesia within two weeks. In another two weeks, it would have ethnically cleansed more than half of the population of East Timor. This campaign would have resulted in the decimation of the productive base of East Timorese society and the annihilation of almost the entire leadership of the national liberation movement. The Howard government's plan fitted in with this strategy by removing foreign witnesses. Instead, the government was forced to turn against an ally it had supported even after the victory of the independence forces had been announced."

In Australia, the demonstrations escalated in size from a few hundred to more than 30,000 each in Sydney and Melbourne within just six days. According to Max Lane, a long-time solidarity activist and former chairperson of Action in Solidarity with Indonesia and East Timor, which helped organise the protests, "These mobilisations were not only driven by a sense of solidarity with the East Timorese people but also with intense and growing anger at the Australian government's inaction. This was an anger that had accumulated for more than two decades, as successive Australian governments collaborated with Jakarta's illegal occupation of East Timor. It was reflected in the phenomena of protests taking place in towns and centres across Australia where there had rarely been any political actions on any issue."

Lane also told Direct Action that, "Both the US and Australian governments were willing to accept the implementation of the scorched earth policy and the mass deportations from East Timor. Perhaps – but only perhaps – they may have later insisted on East Timor's independence, after the damage was done. But it is also conceivable that they may have accepted the Indonesian government's and military's lies about facts on the ground, that East Timor was undergoing a civil war. Above all else, it was the mass protests in Sydney, Melbourne and Lisbon that forced Canberra and Washington to suddenly move to end the TNI-backed massacres."

The rise of this mass movement in Australia in support of the East Timorese independence struggle forced Canberra to end its support for the TNI's supposed provision of public security in East Timor. The arrival of the Interfet troops secured the referendum result, the departure of the TNI and the cessation of the violence. SAlt's claim in its article that "Popular demands for intervention succeeded only in providing a left-wing cover for Howard's militarism", supposedly weakening public opposition to this militarism, is refuted by its observation, in the same article, that in the lead-up to the March 2003 US-UK-Australian invasion of Iraq there was "strong popular opposition" which "placed a limit on Australia's involvement and contributed to Howard's increasing unpopularity".

East Timor since independence

After a three-year UN-supervised transition period, East Timor became an independent nation-state in September 2002. Today, East Timorese victims of the TNI's war crimes and gross human rights abuses are still waiting for real justice and compensation. East Timor is still one of the poorest nations in the world, despite some recent limited improvements in the economy and social conditions. The UN-administered transitional period proved to be overly bureaucratic and often simply a gravy-train for foreign career diplomats and teams of over-paid foreign consultants.

When the East Timorese took full control of national administration in May 2002, they inherited an administration with many problems and the combined distortions of the previous UN administration and the Indonesian military occupation. These problems became obvious very early in the functioning of the new parliament and government and the approach taken by the East Timorese political elite to solve these. Ultimately, a significant factor which blocked the resolution of these problems was the unwillingness of the East Timorese political elite to mobilise its greatest resource – the East Timorese people – during and since the UN transitional period to enforce greater accountability, transparency and democratisation. The sense of identification among the masses with the national liberation struggle weakened and social cohesion and solidarity began to quickly erode. This is the background to the political and social crisis that unfolded in 2006.

But these social and economic problems in East Timor have also been compounded by the miserly and predatory acts of the Australian imperialist state, typified by its theft of tens of billions of dollars in oil and gas revenue obtained illegally from the Timor Sea. East Timor's rich oil and gas reserves were the main strategic motivation for successive Australian governments supporting the Indonesian occupation of East Timor. The East Timorese leadership prior to the 1999 referendum had spelt out very clearly that it would not accept the Timor Gap treaty that existed between Australia and Indonesia and demanded that the maritime boundary between Australia and East Timor be established according to the principles of international law. The Australian government position was to bully and cajole East Timor, declaring it "ungrateful" for wanting to control its own resources. The issue has still not been resolved and Canberra continues to receive millions of dollars each day in royalties and company taxes that rightfully belong to the people of East Timor.

With the Australian Federal Police announcement on September 8 that it has commenced investigations into the murders of the Balibo 5 journalists, the time has come for some real justice for the East Timorese people. Just as in 1999, winning real justice for the people of East Timor will take a solidarity movement campaigning on the streets, in workplaces and universities against the policies and actions of the Australian government and big business. The solidarity movement is obviously not of the strength that it was in 1999, but there still remains an enormous amount of empathy and support for the East Timorese people in Australia and internationally. The next few years will be a big test for East Timor and the challenge in Australia remains to pressure the Australian government to compensate the East Timorese people fully for Canberra's aiding and abetting of the Indonesian military invasion and occupation. Concerted public pressure is required to force the Rudd government to support an international war crimes tribunal and to end Australia's theft of East Timor's oil and gas revenues.