East Timor News Digest 1 – January 1-31, 2010
- Archives reveal Australia-Indonesia tension over East Timor - Radio Australia
- Timor aid stoked tensions with Indonesia - Radio Australia
- East Timor snubs Woodside, invites Petronas to develop field - Associated Press
- East Timor stands firm - Herald Sun
- Woodside shares dip after East Timor ultimatum - Associated Press
- Timor to block Woodside's oil development plans - Associated Press
- East Timor stalemate to drag on - Australian Associated Press
- Warning on Timor police after musician is shot - Sydney Morning Herald
- Calls for East Timor police to disarm - Radio Australia
Archives reveal Australia-Indonesia tension over East Timor
Radio Australia - January 5, 2010
Secret Cabinet documents from 1979 released by the Australian National Archives on January 1 confirm high tension between Australia and Indonesia over East Timor, as famine spread in the Indonesian-occupied territory. Indonesia's then-foreign minister is revealed to have accused Australia of being noisy and sanctimonious over the situation, as the Fraser Cabinet faced growing pressure to do more to help an estimated 200-thousand starving East Timorese.
Presenter: Linda Mottram, Canberra correspondent
Speakers: Professor Arief Budiman, Indonesia Program, Melbourne University; Dr Jim Stokes, historical consultant, National Archives Australia
Mottram: Indonesia's sensitivities over East Timor were in no way new. Sympathies in Australia for the tiny territory's independence movement only inflamed them.
SFX: 'Indonesia out of East Timor, Indonesia out of East Timor...'
Mottram: The ABC's Jim Bonner reported in November 1979 on a demonstration in Perth airing some of the concerns of East Timorese exiles.
Bonner: What seemed to be upsetting most of the Timorese was that aid sent to Indonesia for East Timor was being sold rather than distributed to those in need.
SFX: 'All that Red Cross help they put them in the shop and sell them, foods and medicines, everything and we got witness, eye witness.'
Mottram: For the Suharto regime, despite Australia being the only other country to recognise Indonesia's violent 1975 annexation of East Timor, Australia wasn't to be trusted. Professor Arief Budiman is head of the Indonesia Program at Melbourne University and remembers the attitudes.
Budiman: When East Timor wanted to be independent, many Indonesians did not agree. They were thinking that East Timor was encouraged by Australia to destabilise Indonesia because Australia was afraid Indonesia become a country that was too strong.
Mottram: At around the time of the demonstration in Perth, Cabinet documents show the Fraser government in Canberra was considering that issue of aid to East Timor. And it was causing particular angst in the Australia-Indonesia relationship at that time. Dr Jim Stokes is historical consultant to the National Archives.
Stokes: In November Cabinet was told that 200,000 East Timorese needed urgent food and medical aid.
Mottram: Cabinet was also told that beyond those 200,000 many more were suffering various stages of malnutrition. The submission was presented by the acting foreign minister, Michael MacKellar and described the causes of the famine as civil war and Indonesian military operations during the previous four years. The aid effort that was underway was plagued by administrative problems and high costs. The ABC's Warwick Beutler covered the story from Jakarta.
Beutler: The failure of the Indonesian Red Cross to spend the money is something of a mystery, with conflicting stories being told by the Indonesians and the Australian Embassy.
Mottram: Warwick Beutler had also interviewed Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Dr Mochtar Kusuukatmadja, about the extent of starvation, in the two years since Indonesia had issued an amnesty and East Timorese who'd fled to the hills steadily filed back to government camps.
Mochtar: Now within the limited means we did what we could but it was obvious even at that time that we needed outside assistance.
Mottram: But Indonesia considered Australian media coverage of the situation in East Timor, particularly criticisms of Indonesia, were a very big problem. The November 1979 Cabinet submission on the situation describes a firey response from Dr Mochtar on the issue. Jim Stokes again.
Stokes: Foreign Minister Mochtar had given the Australian embassy in Jakarta a dressing down over what he called 'sensational reporting', complaining that Australia was noisy and sanctimonious.
Mottram: Dr Mochtar went further and said he was seriously considering whether Indonesia could do without Australian aid, despite what he'd told the ABC in his interview. He had gone on to announce that Australian aid for East Timor would be welcomed if offered, but he wouldn't ask for it, the Cabinet submission records. And so Australia proceeded to offer an additional two million dollars in 1979, though it trod carefully about how it was delivered, says Dr Jim Stokes.
Stokes: Cabinet agreed to provide an additional $2 million in aid to be channelled through the Red Cross, which had good relations with Jakarta, whereas the Australian Council for Overseas Aid was regarded in Jakarta as actively pro-Fretilin.
Mottram: The Cabinet was clearly trying to work around Indonesia's sensitivities, which Arief Budiman says were excessive.
Budiman: The difference between Australia and Indonesia could be solved if there is a personal approach and open negotiations to kind of put the boundary where Australia can intervene and where Indonesia would play its role. Also Suharto was not a very diplomatic person, he was a military man so he reacted too strong I think to Australia. There was no genuine negotiations to solve the problem peacefully. This has something to do with the military mind of Suharto.
Timor aid stoked tensions with Indonesia
Radio Australia - January 1, 2010
Linda Mottram – Secret cabinet documents from 1979 have confirmed the high tensions between Australia and Indonesia over East Timor, as the Fraser government balanced how best to give aid while famine spread across the occupied territory.
Indonesia's sensitivities over East Timor were in no way new, but sympathies in Australia for the tiny territory's independence movement only inflamed them.
East Timorese exiles demonstrated alongside Australian supporters from time to time, including in Perth in November 1979, specifically over the issue of famine in East Timor and food aid.
"What seemed to be upsetting most of the Timorese was that aid sent to Indonesia for East Timor was being sold rather than distributed to those in need," the ABC's Jim Bonner reported from the Perth protest.
"All that Red Cross help, they put them in the shop and sell them – foods and medicines, everything. And we've got [a] witness, [an] eyewitness," said one of the exiles at the protest.
For the Suharto regime, despite Australia being the only other country to recognise Indonesia's violent 1975 annexation of East Timor, Australia was not to be trusted.
The head of the Indonesia Program at Melbourne University, Professor Arief Budiman, remembers the attitudes.
"When East Timor wanted to be independent, many Indonesians did not agree," he told Radio Australia.
"They were thinking that East Timor was encouraged by Australia to destabilise Indonesia because Australia was afraid Indonesia would become a country that was too strong."
About the time of the demonstration in Perth, cabinet documents released by the National Archives of Australia show the Fraser government was considering the issue of aid to East Timor.
"In November (1979), cabinet was told that 200,000 East Timorese needed urgent food and medical aid," Dr Jim Stokes, historical consultant to the National Archives of Australia, said.
Cabinet was also told that beyond those 200,000, many more were suffering various stages of malnutrition.
The submission was presented by the acting foreign minister, Michael MacKellar, and said the famine was caused by civil war and Indonesian military operations in the preceding four years.
The military's tactics had been violent and destructive and drove many East Timorese into the jungle.
An aid effort that was underway was plagued by administrative problems and high costs, a story that was reported from Jakarta by the ABC's Warwick Beutler.
"The failure of the Indonesian Red Cross to spend the money is something of a mystery, with conflicting stories being told by the Indonesians and the Australian embassy," his report said.
Mr Beutler had also interviewed Indonesia's then foreign minister, Dr Mochtar Kusumaatmadja, about the extent of starvation in the two years since Indonesia had issued an amnesty and East Timorese who had fled to the hills steadily filed back to government camps.
"Now within the limited means, we did what we could but it was obvious even at that time that we needed outside assistance," Dr Mochtar said.
'Sensational reporting'
But Indonesia considered Australian media coverage of the situation in East Timor, particularly criticisms of Indonesia, to be a very big problem.
The November 1979 Cabinet submission on the situation describes a fiery response from Dr Mochtar on the issue.
"Foreign minister Mochtar had given the Australian embassy in Jakarta a dressing down over what he called sensational reporting, complaining that Australia was noisy and sanctimonious," Dr Stokes said.
Dr Mochtar went further and said he was seriously considering whether Indonesia could do without Australian aid, despite what he had told the ABC in his interview.
He went on to announce that Australian aid for East Timor would be welcomed if offered, but he would not ask for it, the cabinet submission records.
And so Australia proceeded to offer an additional $2 million in 1979, though it trod carefully about how it was delivered.
"Cabinet decided that aid should be channelled through the Red Cross, which had good relations with Jakarta, rather than the Australian Council for Overseas Aid, which Jakarta regarded as actively pro-Fretilin," Dr Stokes said.
Professor Budiman said Indonesia's reactions to Australia were excessive.
"The differences between Australia and Indonesia could be solved if there [was a] personal approach and open negotiations to put the boundary where Australia can intervene and where Indonesia would play its role," he said.
"I think because of the situation at the time maybe, [it was] the political rhetoric.
"Also, Suharto was not really a diplomatic person. He was a military man, so he reacted too strong, I think, to Australia. "There was no genuine negotiations to solve the problem peacefully. This has something to do with the military mind of Suharto."
East Timor snubs Woodside, invites Petronas to develop field
Associated Press - January 20, 2010
Malaysia's national oil company Petronas said Tuesday it has been invited by East Timor's government to help develop a disputed oil and gas field worth billions of dollars.
The comments come after Timor last week rejected proposals by a consortium led by Australia's Woodside Petroleum Ltd to develop the Greater Sunrise field, estimated to hold 240 million barrels of light oil and 154 billion cubic metres of natural gas.
Petronas and the Timorese government have conducted a joint feasibility study on developing the field.
"We have been advising them on how development of gas resources should take place. They have approached us whether we are interested to participate and we are studying it," Petronas Chief Executive Hassan Merican told reporters. He didn't give further details.
Greater Sunrise must be approved by both Timor and Australia, according to a 2007 treaty between the neighbouring states.
The deal gives the parties until 2013 to agree upon a joint development plan but Timor's latest position shoots down all proposals put forward so far by the Woodside consortium which includes Royal Dutch/Shell, Osaka Gas and ConocoPhillips.
Woodside has said it favours piping Greater Sunrise gas to the Australian city of Darwin or building a floating plant over the gas field so that tankers can be loaded at sea.
But the Timor government said neither of those options was acceptable. It wants the gas piped to Timor.
Australia's government has said it remained committed to the treaty and was waiting to see Woodside's final plan before passing judgment.
Analysts have said Woodside had previously resisted the Timor pipeline concept because a deep seabed trench between Great Sunrise and the Timor coast made the option uneconomical.
East Timor stands firm
Herald Sun - January 15, 2010
Ben Butler – East Timor could leave the Sunrise gas and oil field in the Timor Sea undeveloped if Australian company Woodside refuses to build a pipeline to Timor's south coast.
"The Government is looking at all options to develop a thriving onshore petroleum industry," East Timorese Secretary of State Agio Pereira said yesterday.
East Timor is at loggerheads with Woodside, which has ruled out building the 150km pipeline in favour of building either a 500km pipeline to Darwin or a floating liquefied natural gas plant over Sunrise.
If the parties cannot reach agreement by 2013, Sunrise will remain untapped. It is believed East Timor regards securing the plant as an issue of national sovereignty that is crucial to the fledgling country's national interest.
Mr Pereira said 250 hectares on East Timor's south coast had been set aside to build a liquefied natural gas plant.
East Timor and Malaysian oil giant Petronas had also completed "comprehensive" bathymetric mapping of the coast's sea bed, he said.
"All findings conclude the Timor-Leste option is a much more commercially viable, economically sound and technically feasible option, holds much less risk and much more benefit than Woodside's original assertions," Mr Pereira said.
Woodside said it and its joint venture partners, Royal Dutch/Shell, Osaka Gas and ConocoPhillips, were "finalising a development theme selection that will accord with key treaty requirements", a spokeswoman said.
"Following selection of the preferred concept, Woodside will work with the Timor Leste and Australian governments to secure the timely approval of a field development plan to develop Sunrise.
"The development of Sunrise will deliver significant social and economic benefits including petroleum revenues, taxes and training and employment opportunities to both Australia and Timor-Leste," she said.
Yesterday, a spokesman for the East Timorese Natural Resources Ministry told Reuters that the Government was considering inviting Petronas to develop the field if there was no agreement with Woodside.
But it is believed the East Timorese Government, which has committed to acting in "good faith" under the treaty with Australia, would prefer to strike a deal with Woodside. Woodside shares closed yesterday down 16 at $48.42. (With Reuters)
Woodside shares dip after East Timor ultimatum
Associated Press - January 15, 2010
Canberra – Woodside Petroleum Ltd. shares slipped Thursday after East Timor's government said it will block proposals by a consortium led by the Australian oil and gas company to develop a disputed oil and gas field worth billions of dollars.
Malaysia's state-run energy company Petronas declined to comment on whether it would consider stepping in to exploit the Greater Sunrise field and the Timorese government said it hadn't issued such an invitation to the company. Petronas and the Timorese government have conducted a joint feasibility study on developing the field.
Greater Sunrise – estimated to hold 240 million barrels of light oil and 5.4 trillion cubic feet (154 billion cubic meters) of natural gas – must be approved by both Timor and Australia, according to a 2007 treaty between the neighboring states.
The deal gives the parties until 2013 to agree upon a joint development plan. But Timor's latest position shoots down all proposals put forward so far by the Woodside consortium which includes Royal Dutch/Shell, Osaka Gas and ConocoPhillips.
In their toughest stance to date, Timor says it will not support Woodside's development plan, possibly rendering the 2007 treaty meaningless.
Woodside shares dropped 0.2 percent to AU$48.42 ($45.04) on Thursday, while other resource stocks gained ground on the back of firmer commodity prices. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index of Australian shares rose 0.6 percent.
Resources and Energy Minister Martin Ferguson said on Thursday that Australia was waiting to see Woodside's final plan before passing judgment.
"The government is awaiting a final development proposal from the joint venture and the government remains committed to the treaty," Ferguson said through his spokesman Michael Bradley.
Woodside has said it favors piping Greater Sunrise gas to the Australian city of Darwin or building a floating plant over the gas field so that tankers can be loaded at sea.
East Timorese Secretary of State Agio Pereira said in a statement on Wednesday that neither of those options was acceptable. The government wants the gas piped to Timor.
Pereira referred to a joint study with Petronas of Greater Sunrise which found "conflicting results" in Woodside's costing of the Timor pipeline option.
The Timor government said Thursday it had not invited Petronas to tap Greater Sunrise but was keeping its options open to pipe oil and gas to Timor.
"The government has extended no such invitations or offers as implied in the press," the government told The Associated Press in a statement. "The government will confirm it is looking at all options to develop a thriving onshore petroleum industry," it said.
Petronas said Thursday it was not appropriate to comment on the Greater Sunrise project at this stage and refused to comment on whether the company would bid for the project if invited by Timor. "Petronas has been working with East Timor and will continue to do so," said company spokesman Azman Ibrahim.
Woodside said in a statement Wednesday that it is still considering development options with its joint venture partners and will seek to "develop the reservoir to the best commercial advantage, consistent with good oilfield practice."
David Wall, an oil and gas analyst with stockbroking firm Hartleys, said Woodside had previously resisted the Timor pipeline concept because a deep seabed trench between Great Sunrise and the Timor coast made the option uneconomical. Wall tipped that Woodside would opt for a floating plant.
[Associated Press writer Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia contributed to this story.]
Timor to block Woodside's oil development plans
Associated Press - January 13, 2010
Anthony Deutsch, Jakarta – East Timor's government said Wednesday it will block proposals by an Australian-led consortium to develop a disputed oil and gas field worth billions of dollars, the latest move in a long-running battle over where the resources should be processed.
Proposals to exploit "Greater Sunrise" – estimated to hold 240 million barrels of light oil and 5.4 trillion cubic feet (154 billion cubic meters) of natural gas – must be approved by both sides, a 2007 treaty between the neighbors states.
The deal gives the parties until 2013 to agree upon a joint development plan. But Timor's latest position shoots down all proposals put forward so far by the consortium headed by Australian oil and gas company Woodside Petroleum Ltd.
Timor is already tapping a $5 billion petroleum fund established with income from another field in the Timor Sea, but the vastly larger Greater Sunrise is seen as key to developing the young democracy and lifting its 1.1 million people out of poverty.
In their toughest stance to date, Timor says it will not support Woodside's development plan, possibly rendering the 2007 treaty meaningless.
"The current proposed plans of Woodside and the consortium partners to pipe gas from the Greater Sunrise field to either Darwin or a floating LNG (liquid natural gas plant) would not be approved by the government," Secretary of State Agio Pereira said in a statement.
"The executives of Woodside have underestimated the government's priority in ensuring that the resources owned by the people of Timor-Leste are properly managed," Pereira said.
Woodside, which leads the consortium including Royal Dutch/Shell, Osaka Gas and ConocoPhillips, has argued that piping the resources to an existing processing plant in Darwin, more than 300 miles (500 kilometers) away, is the most commercially viable option. It has also researched a floating gas processing plant, which would be the first in the world and cost billions of dollars.
But East Timor, an underdeveloped country with no major industry to speak of, wants to run a deep sea pipeline to its coast, about a third of the distance of a pipeline to Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory. It has been looking for commercial partners to develop a multibillion dollar national petrochemical industry that is says would spur economic growth and dent towering unemployment.
Woodside said in a statement Wednesday that it is still considering development options with its joint venture partners and will seek to "develop the reservoir to the best commercial advantage, consistent with good oilfield practice."
It said "the development of Sunrise will deliver significant social and economic benefits, including petroleum revenues, taxes and training and employment opportunities to both" countries. With billions of dollars in tax revenue and profits involved, the fight over Greater Sunrise could not be of higher stakes for Timor.
The former Portuguese colony broke from Indonesian occupation a decade ago and is struggling to feed, shelter and educate its population. It ranks among the least developed countries in the world and is the poorest in Southeast asia.
While it is now relatively stable, Timor, also known as Timor Leste, has been wracked by violence and political upheaval in recent years.
Australia, seeking to maintain regional stability, rushed troops to Timor in 2006 amid deadly battles between rival police and army forces. In 2008, President Jose Ramos-Horta was shot and nearly killed by rebels.
The potential windfall from oil and gas could help rebuild a nation that has been devastated by centuries of foreign rule that wiped out a third of the population, but there is also the risk of creating inequality and local discontent that has plagued other oil-rich nations.
"While the government will continue to act in good faith with our partners; the decision for development of Greater Sunrise will not be left to the discretion of Woodside's executives," Pereira said.
The latest of three treaties on the Timor Sea was signed with Australia in 2007. The Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea or CMATS, stated that revenue from Greater Sunrise would be split equally. But the deal will be "terminated" if a joint development plan is not agreed upon in seven years or petroleum production does not commence within 10 years, it says.
East Timor stalemate to drag on
Australian Associated Press - January 13, 2010
Rebecca Le May – A stalemate between East Timor's Government and a Woodside Petroleum-led joint venture to develop the $6.6 billion Sunrise LNG and oil project is likely to drag on.
Sunrise lies partly within the Joint Petroleum Development Area while the remainder virtually straddles the territorial waters between Australia and East Timor.
East Timor Secretary of State Agio Pereira was quoted in an Associated Press report on Wednesday as saying the government would not support Woodside's development plan, possibly derailing a 2006 treaty between the two nations that was ratified the following year.
A Woodside spokeswoman said the company would issue a statement on the matter late on Wednesday.
Hartleys oil and gas analyst David Wall said Mr Pereira's comments could mean negotiations between the company and East Timor will drag on.
The treaty involved setting aside Timor Sea maritime boundary claims for 50 years and increased East Timor's share of Sunrise revenues to 50 per cent, from 18 per cent under a 2003 agreement.
Woodside shelved the project in 2005 and has for the past few years described it as being at the end of its long pipeline of projects.
However, last month Woodside said it was targeting a final investment decision by the end of this calendar year. Central to the dispute with East Timor's government has been the development concept.
Woodside is considering whether to use a floating offshore processing vessel or build a pipeline to transport product to an expanded Bayu Undan LNG plant at Darwin, but East Timor wants a processing plant built on their shores.
Mr Wall said Woodside had previously resisted the pipeline to East Timor concept, saying a trench in the ocean floor between Sunrise and the southeast Asian nation made the proposal uneconomic.
He said friction over the matter had "never gone away". "It will probably be floating LNG," Mr Wall told AAP on Wednesday. "It's a disagreement on tax, really."
Mr Wall said the project could prove a much-needed boost to East Timor's economy. But its government could hold out for a bigger prize, he said.
"The Timorese need the tax dollars. Woodside is not going to be short of projects (if Sunrise is blocked)."
Woodside and joint venture partners Shell, Osaka Gas and ConocoPhillips have spend hundreds of millions of dollars exploring and studying the Sunrise fields.
They were discovered in the mid-1970s and are estimated to hold about 5.13 trillion cubic feet of gas plus about 226 million barrels of condensate, a form of light crude oil.
Warning on Timor police after musician is shot
Sydney Morning Herald - January 7, 2010
Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – The alleged killing of a popular musician by an East Timorese policeman has prompted demands for the Government in Dili to rein in heavily armed police units.
The shooting of Kuka Lebre, 25, allegedly by an off-duty policeman with a police-issued weapon, has also raised questions about the training given to East Timorese police by foreign security forces in Dili, including Australian.
The International Crisis Group has warned that the police are pursuing a paramilitary-style approach that has blurred the lines of responsibility between them and soldiers, increasing the possibility of future conflict between them. Violence erupted between police and soldiers in 2006.
The International Crisis Group says that a police taskforce established in 2007 that provides much of the routine patrols in Dili and elsewhere has been responsible for an increase in alleged cases of excessive use of force and ill-treatment during arrest, unlawful searches of houses and abusive behaviour.
Despite the presence of hundreds of foreign police serving in the United Nations mission in East Timor, the taskforce has had only limited international oversight, the group says.
It says the UN has in effect bungled the redevelopment of the police force that collapsed amid the 2006 violence and will leave behind a weak institution when it completes the handover of formal control this year.
The UN has failed to resolve serious disciplinary or criminal charges against more than 250 still serving police officers, the ICG says.
Fretilin, the largest opposition party, will demand a parliamentary inquiry into the issue and management of police weapons after Lebre was shot at an alcohol-free party he had helped organise in Dili on December 28 that was gatecrashed by troublemakers.
Police refused for 45 minutes to allow Lebre, the youngest survivor of the 1992 Dili massacre, to be taken to hospital after he was shot in the stomach.
The UN mission in Dili has issued a statement saying a policeman had been suspended "due to the gravity of the alleged misconduct and in order to allow an objective disciplinary inquiry".
The death of Lebre, who was from a well-known Dili family, prompted an outpouring of grief and tightening of security in Dili.
Jose Teixeira, Fretilin's spokesman, called on the Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao, who is also Security Minister, to tighten control of police weapons, including an immediate audit and inspection of arsenals.
"It is a major concern that weapons are supposed to be secured in police stations but police instead take them home," Mr Teixeira told the Herald.
Much of the training of the police since 2008 has been done by the Portuguese Republican National Guard, who are soldiers subject to military laws.
Australia has about 55 police and civilian advisers deployed in the police force in a wide variety of roles, including training, management and administration.
An Australian Defence Force spokesman said yesterday that it was committed primarily to assisting the East Timorese army.
The International Crisis Group recommended in a report that the Government develop independent oversight for the police force by overhauling its internal disciplinary functions, including making them transparent. Another option was to appoint an ombudsman.
The group said the Government should clearly demarcate in law and policy the roles of the police and the army.
Calls for East Timor police to disarm
Radio Australia - January 6, 2010
East Timor's Chief of Police has suspended an officer while police investigate the shooting death of a 25-year-old man. The incident sparked angry protests on the streets of the capital and some victims advocacy groups are calling for East Timorese police to be disarmed.
Presenter: Stephanie March
Speakers: Jose Ramos Horta, East Timor's President; Gyorgy Kakuk, spokesman, UN Mission in East Timor; Francisco Gutteres, East Timor's State Secretary for Security
March: The day after 25-year-old Baldir Lebre Correia died at a home in Dili, his supporters took to the streets. They wore t- shirts with Mr Correia's image and nickname 'Kuka' printed on the front. The demonstrators chanted and carried banners with messages like "an innocent youth brutally killed by a policeman". East Timor's President Jose Ramos Horta responded strongly to the man's death in an interview with the East Timorese newspaper and online broadcaster Tempo Semanal.
Horta: There cannot be leniency when it comes to issues of discipline. Any police officer or army soldier who misrepresents his or her uniform with indiscipline, with abuse, use weapons – not only threatened people but shooting at people for absolutely no reason – there cannot be any flexibility on that they must be summarily fired.
March: President Ramos Horta met with the dead man's family the day after the shooting. He says the state should be prepared to pay compensation if police officers act inappropriately. One police officer has been suspended from duty over the incident. The spokesman for the United Nations mission in East Timor, Gyorgy Kakuk, says two investigations are under way.
Kakuk: There is an ongoing internal inquiry to see exactly what has happened that goes within the police system. And there is a criminal case which has already been handed over to the public prosecutor.
March: Like many East Timorese who lived through the brutal Indonesian occupation, the dead man was no stranger to violence and guns. He was one of the youngest survivors of a massacre in Dili's Santa Cruz cemetery in 1991, when Indonesian troops opened fire on thousands of young East Timorese, killing many. In the wake of Mr Correia's death, victims advocacy groups are calling for police to be disarmed before they attend public disturbances and only be allowed to carry tear gas and batons. East Timor's State Secretary for Security Francisco Gutteres says many of the police that patrol the streets of Dili are unarmed. He says for those who do carry guns, the policy is that police should only use weapons as a last resort.
Gutteres: Weapons is the last resort. This is a policy that was established. Now we look at the implementions and how could implement that policy effectively. Then maybe we look at the training. We see maybe we need more training because this is a police force that is only 10 years old, so we need a bit more time in terms of getting these things done.
March: A representative for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in East Timor said in the year July 2008 to July 2009 there were too many incidents of police using excessive force during arrests. However, the overall number of alleged human rights violations by East Timorese police has been declining. Mr Gutteres says police disciplinary measures and the criminal justice system are getting better at dealing with incidents.
Gutteres: In the recent month we have dismissed seven police officers, one including a high level commander of a district, he was dismissed.
March: East Timor's police force is in the process of introducing a new merit-based promotion system, that Mr Gutteres hopes will encourage officers to do the right thing.
Gutteres: We take into account disciplinary issues as the most important element of the promotion. And at least this give some impact. And it discourage many of the police officers to act beyond the rules and regulations established.
March: The United Nations has had responsibly for security in East Timor since 2006, when the police and military engaged in bloody conflict. The UN is now almost half way through the process of handing responsibly to local forces district by district, and unit by unit. The United Nations say they hope the hand over will be complete by the end of 2010.