Lindsay Murdoch – Three Dili District Court judges have sentenced 24 rebels to jail terms of up to 16 years but their verdicts have raised more questions than they answered about the attacks on East Timor's top two political leaders on February 11, 2008.

The judges said after hearing five months of evidence that Marcelo Caetano, the rebel accused of shooting the President, Jose Ramos-Horta, twice in the back, did not do it.

They accepted the evidence of Australian Federal Police officers who examined bullet fragments were taken from Mr Ramos-Horta during surgery in Darwin that they did not come from Caetano's automatic weapon.

Only hours before the judges delivered their verdicts to a packed court on Wednesday, Mr Ramos-Horta said there was no doubt Caetano was the shooter, although he had earlier insisted he was not.

Mr Ramos-Horta said he had subsequently had a "flashback" to that day. He said Caetano had made a tearful confession to him and had apologised, saying he did not intend to kill him. But the judges accepted Caetano's protestation of innocence.

The judges said that all nine of the rebels who went to the President's house, including Caetano, "acted in concert and collaboration" to kill Mr Ramos-Horta, for which Caetano was jailed for 16 years. But they said it was not known which one fired the shots that almost killed him.

Buried in a long judgement are the judges' findings that the official version of how the rebel leader, Alfredo Reinado, and one of his men, Leopoldino Eposto, were killed at the President's house did not happen.

They said that based on the evidence, Francisco Marcal, a security guard at Mr Ramos-Horta's house, did not kill the two men from a distance, as he had claimed.

Government ministers still insist that that is what happened. But the court had heard that AFP ballistics tests showed Reinado and Esposto were shot dead by two different weapons.

Forensic analysis pointed to the shots being fired at close range, which suggests execution. Neither of the weapons used was the one that Mr Marcal testified he was carrying.

The judges condemned the rebels who went to the President's home fully armed. All were sentenced to 16 years' jail. They also condemned a second group of 11 rebels that ambushed the Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao, the same day. They received an average of 10 years' jail.

Lawyers for the rebels intend to appeal against the verdicts and sentences. The unknowns

- Who shot Jose Ramos-Horta twice in the back? Court found Marcelo Caetano, the rebel accused of firing the shots, did not do it.

- Who shot Alfredo Reinado and Leopoldino Esposto? Court found the guard Francisco Marcal did not fire fatal shots at rebels, as he claimed. The rebels were killed with different weapons, neither of which was Marcal's.

Lover acquitted over East Timor murder plot

Sydney Morning Herald - March 4, 2010

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Angelita Pires, the East Timorese-born Australian lover of the slain rebel leader Alfredo Reinado has been acquitted of conspiring to kill East Timor's top two political leaders.

Amid emotional scenes outside Dili District Court, Ms Pires said she never had any doubts that she would be freed. "It was a hoax, a set-up," she said. She would dedicate her life to Reinado's struggle for justice.

Ms Pires has told friends she would like to enter politics and has been approached about a Hollywood movie about her life.

Three judges found 23 of Reinado's men guilty of crimes relating to the attacks in Dili on February 11, 2008, and sentenced them to up to 16 years in jail. Ms Pires said she would fight to clear their names.

Marcelo Caetano, who was accused of shooting the President, Jose Ramos-Horta, twice outside his home, was sentenced to 16 years' jail for charges including conspiring to kill. But the judges found his automatic weapon was not the weapon that shot Dr Ramos-Horta.

Hours before the verdicts were delivered, Dr Ramos-Horta told the Herald that Caetano had confessed to him that he had shot him, but had apologised, saying he did not intend to kill him.

Gastao Salsinha, Reinado's second in command, was sentenced to 10 years and 8 months in jail. The judges said those who took part in an ambush of the Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao, did not intend to kill him, only to destabilise East Timor. Mr Gusmao was unhurt in the attack.

Australian and Timorese forces surrounded the court as the verdicts were delivered. Ms Pires sobbed with her head in her lap when she heard them.

Dr Ramos-Horta, who has often publicly criticised Ms Pires for influencing Reinado, is likely to be furious at the outcome.

Before the verdicts were announced, Dr Ramos-Horta attacked the defence lawyers who had said the evidence pointed to a conspiracy in which Reinado was lured to Dr Ramos-Horta's house to be assassinated.

"There are lunatics who make this kind of conspiracy theory," he told the Herald. Reinado had arrived at the house of a country's president armed with heavy weapons. In any country, if a person did that they would be shot dead. "You don't even get close to the president. You are shot from a distance."

Jon Tippett, QC, a Darwin-based barrister who led Ms Pires's defence, said before the verdicts were handed down that the prosecution had failed to prove that any of the accused intended to hurt the President or Prime Minister.

The evidence had shown Reinado was killed by two people whose weapons had not been recovered. "We don't know who the murderers are. They are not telling anyone," Mr Tippett said.

Ms Pires said she was only Reinado's lover and rejected claims she was a key player in a plot to assassinate the leaders.

The court heard that two men had overheard her telling Reinado the day before the attacks "go and kill the two dogs". Her lawyers denied this and criticised prosecutors for failing to call the men to give evidence.

Ms Pires has had her passport confiscated, stopping her from obtaining medical treatment in Darwin, where her family live. She was pregnant to Reinado when he was killed but lost the baby. The Australian Government funded her defence.

Pires relieved at not guilty verdict

ABC News - March 4, 2010

Sara Everingham, Dili – For the first time in nearly seven months, Australian woman Angelita Pires can relax, after being acquitted of involvement in a plot to assassinate East Timor's leaders.

Ms Pires was the girlfriend of Major Alfredo Reinado, the rebel leader who was fatally shot during an assassination attempt last year on East Timor's president and prime minister.

Yesterday Ms Pires was found not guilty but 24 of her co-accused were found guilty and face jail sentences ranging from nine to 16 years.

Outside the Dili District Court, Ms Pires fought back tears as she thanked those who had supported her battle in the courts.

"I'm extremely relieved to be exonerated by the court of any involvement in the events of February 11, 2008," Ms Pires said. "My life has been on hold for over two years and it has been an enormously stressful and emotional time for me and for my loved ones."

Ms Pires' mother, Maria Pires, has been following events from her home in Darwin. "I can't explain to you how I feel. I was screaming, crying, jumping and I just don't know what to say," Maria Pires said. "But at least I'm happy because justice has been done."

Ms Pires says she was charged simply for being in a relationship with Reinado, who was shot dead during the attack on the president.

Co-accused found guilty

While the panel of judges found there was not enough evidence to convict Pires, they found 24 of her co-accused guilty. Most of them are former soldiers and police who deserted their ranks and became rebels during the security crisis of 2006.

Yesterday their supporters gathered at the court to hear the verdict. One of the supporters said the rebels were not responsible for the attacks and this decision would only make them more bold and angry.

Defence lawyers Andre Fernandes says he will appeal but the matter should be left with the courts. "Personally I am not happy with it," Mr Fernandes said.

"We have to respect it and we have to follow the legal way and we have to appeal it. I hope that everybody will respect the law. It's not good for the country if we have any kind of problem any more."

East Timor's police commander, Longhuinos Monteiro, says he too hopes nobody tries to take the law into their own hands.

"The judicial system itself is working according to its own way so if any distrust or they feel that it's not in favour of their rights they can appeal," he said.

East Timor's president and prime minister are yet to respond to the verdicts.

East Timor jails 27 over assassination bid

Reuters - March 3, 2010

Tito Belo, Dili – An East Timor court jailed on Wednesday 27 people for between nine and 17 years over the attempted assassination of President Jose Ramos-Horta and an attack on the prime minister, while freeing an Australian.

Nobel laureate Ramos-Horta was shot and badly wounded when mutinous soldiers loyal to rebel leader Alfredo Reinado attacked his Dili home in early 2008. Reinado was killed during the ensuing shoot-out. East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped unharmed in a separate attack on his house.

Twenty-seven defendants were jailed at the Dili district court on charges including possession of weapons and attempted assassination related to the two attacks.

But Angelita Pires, an East Timor-born Australian woman and the girlfriend of Reinado, was cleared of helping the group of rebel soldiers involved in the attacks.

"Angelita Pires is free because she is not responsible for the assassination attack on February 11 and the ambush of the prime minister's convoy," said judge Constancio Basmeri.

"At the time, she acted as counsellor to Alfredo Reinado but she had no intention of killing the president and prime minister."

Pires said after the verdict that she would continue to fight for the other defendants. "I will stand and defend my colleagues who are certainly innocent and I will do everything I can to bring the real assassins to justice," she said.

East Timor, a former Portuguese colony which was invaded and occupied by Indonesia in 1975, achieved full independence in 2002, but has struggled to achieve stability.

Foreign troops were sent in to restore order after the army tore apart along regional lines in 2006, when about 600 soldiers were sacked, triggering factional violence that killed 37 people and drove 150,000 from their homes.

Security since then appears to have improved, although the 2008 assassination attempt was a major setback for the tiny nation.

[Writing by Sunanda Creagh; Editing by Ed Davies and Sugita Katyal.]

East Timor convicts 24 rebels over murder plots

Associated Press - March 3, 2010

Guido Goulart, Dili – An East Timorese court on Wednesday convicted and sentenced 24 rebels to up to 16 years in prison over the attempted assassinations of the fledgling democracy's president and prime minister. Another four defendants were acquitted.

President Jose Ramos-Horta nearly died of gunshot wounds received in an attack in his Dili compound on Feb. 11, 2008, and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao narrowly escaped unharmed from an ambush of his motorcade later that day.

The defendants were mostly former soldiers and police who became rebels and fugitives after factional rivalries within East Timor's security forces erupted into violence in 2006, killing dozens and toppling the then government.

Angelita Pires, the only female defendant, was among those acquitted. The Australian-East Timorese citizen was the lover of rebel leader Maj. Alfredo Reinado, who was fatally shot by the president's guards during the first attack.

Lt. Gastao Salsinha, who replaced Reinado as leader and commanded the failed attack on Gusmao, was sentenced to 16 years in prison. The shortest sentence was nine years and four months.

At the end of their seven-month trial in Dili last month, prosecutors asked for sentences of up to 20 years in prison on charges of conspiring or attempting to murder the two leaders.

Damien Kingsbury, professor of international studies at Deakin University in Australia, said the trial was the greatest test of East Timor's judiciary since the nation split from Indonesia in 1999 and achieved formal independence in 2002.

"The judiciary is under a great deal of scrutiny at the moment and this is easily the single most important case to have ever gone before it," Kingsbury said.

But he did not agree with predictions that the verdicts could spark violence in the capital. "I don't think the reaction will go beyond a bit of active debate," Kingsbury said.

Balibo 5 killings

Indonesian soldier denies role in Balibo

The Australian - March 29, 2010

Rory Callinan – The Indonesian soldier alleged to have stabbed Australian journalists to death at Balibo has denied any involvement in the 1975 killings and intends to move back to East Timor, where his daughter works for the government.

Speaking in his first interview from his West Timor home, Christoforus da Silva confirmed he had taken part in the Balibo fighting in October 1975, but said: "I only found out the journalists were there after the fighting was over."

Australian-based newsmen Brian Peters, Gary Cunningham, Malcolm Rennie, Gregory Shackleton and Anthony Stewart were believed murdered on October 16, 1975, and their bodies burned after they filmed an attack on Balibo by Indonesian soldiers.

A NSW coroner's inquest into Peters's death found da Silva had stabbed or shot him to prevent the revelation that Indonesian special forces attacked Balibo, rather than East Timorese irregulars.

But Mr da Silva said last week he was not even aware he had been accused of the killing. "Oh no, no, this is untrue," he said when told over the phone through a translator of the coroner's finding.

"We came across the border and got to Balibo about 5.30am. We fought for about an hour until 6.30, and then we occupied Balibo.

"I never saw any white people. We only heard there were five journalists in the town when someone from Jakarta contacted us after the fighting to tell us. We stayed there for about two weeks and then handed over to the military."

The Australian Federal Police last August launched a war crimes investigation into the deaths following coroner Dorelle Pinch's findings. The AFP declined to comment on the investigation.

One alleged witness quoted by Ms Pinch, East Timorese Olandino Guterres, who took part in the attack, said he saw Mr da Silva force out one of the journalists from the room where he was hiding by threatening to toss in a grenade. Mr Guterres said a white man with reddish hair emerged through the doorway with his hands in the air, repeating the words: "I'm a tourist, sorry."

"He then observed 'Chris' remove a dagger from his belt and stab the man in the left side of his back near the shoulder blade. The wounded man fell in the corridor just in front of the bathroom. Chris removed his dagger and ordered several Timorese to remove him," noted Ms Pinch.

Greig Cunningham, brother of murdered Seven Network cameraman Gary, said yesterday Mr da Silva's denials were disappointing but expected.

"He's been denying it all his life," he said. "However, I find it amazing he doesn't know what was going on with the inquest."

Mr da Silva is in his 60s, and according to friends is living in a small house in the West Timorese provincial capital of Kupang. He says he suffered a stroke last year and is not well. He has several daughters, one named Antonia who lives in the East Timorese capital, Dili, and works for a government department.

Relatives said Mr da Silva was still an East Timorese citizen and hoped to move back when his youngest daughter finished her studies in Indonesia next year.

Efforts to confirm the claims with Mr da Silva were unsuccessful as he declined to take any more calls from The Australian.

Mr Cunningham said he was surprised Mr da Silva had wanted to return to East Timor. "The Timorese are pretty forgiving, but as (President Jose) Ramos Horta said, the exception is these journalists," he said.

Journalist Jill Jolliffe, whose book on the killings was made into the successful film Balibo, has interviewed many East Timorese who knew Mr da Silva.

"I would say he speaks knowingly when he denies his participation. He would be extremely conscious of the affair. He's aware the indictment has been recommended," said Jolliffe, who was threatened by armed men when she travelled to Kupang to investigate him in 2003.

She said local Timorese who joined the Indonesians during the occupation "described him to me as a particularly cruel person".

After the invasion, Mr da Silva spent many years living in Baucau, about 130km east of Dili, and married an East Timorese woman from Suai, near the Indonesian border. She died in the 1990s leaving him to raise his daughters.

This week neighbours in the district spoke positively about Mr da Silva and his family.

"He was a very strong man and very fit and he liked sports. He liked to train all the boys in boxing and he would play football," said retired official Francisco Varela, whose daughter became close to one of Mr da Silva's daughters.

Efforts to contact the East Timorese government yesterday were unsuccessful.

Justice & reconciliation

East Timor still waiting for Indonesia apology: President

Agence France Presse - March 16, 2010

Tokyo – East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta said Tuesday that Indonesia still needs to apologise for its brutal occupation of the half-island even if relations between the neighbours have improved.

"The only thing still missing is an apology... by those who were directing all the suffering," Ramos-Horta told reporters during a visit to Japan.

East Timor gained formal independence in 2002 after a bloody 24- year occupation by Indonesia that led to the deaths of up to 200,000 people.

A reconciliation commission established jointly by East Timor and Indonesia found in 2008 that while gross human rights abuses were committed by Indonesian forces, there should be no more trials and no further arrests.

Nobel Peace laureate Ramos-Horta, despite having lost three siblings in the conflict, has been opposed to the establishment of an international tribunal for crimes committed during the 1975-1999 occupation.

Last week he was forced to deny claims by Amnesty International that he would support an international tribunal to investigate the atrocities.

"I remain firmly unconvinced that the interests of the victims of my country and the cause of peace and democracy are best served with an international tribunal," he said in a statement.

The president said he told the meeting that he would not oppose an international tribunal, but he would under no circumstances push for it to be established.

Indonesia's former president Abrurrahman Wahid apologised when he visited East Timor in 2000 but successive leaders including current President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono have stopped short of an apology, instead expressing regret.

The government in Dili has been pursuing a policy of appeasement with Jakarta, its biggest trade partner and an active supporter of East Timor's membership bid for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

"We have excellent relations with Indonesia... Normalising relations with Indonesia was decisive for our own peace and stability, and integrating in the region," said Ramos-Horta.

But "it doesn't mean that we do not respect the suffering of the victims. Our state does not want to put the burden of helping the victims on anyone else, in this case Indonesia. We seek to help all the victims."

Ramos-Horta on his visit also met Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and energy sector executives. He also secured 700 million yen (7.7 million dollars) in grant aid for forest preservation and renewable energy projects.

The half-island state is one of the world's poorest countries and heavily dependent on natural gas exports. It was battered by plummeting energy prices during the global economic downturn.

Ramos-Horta is due to visit the city of Hiroshima to participate in a forum on nuclear disarmament.

East Timor president insists does not want war crimes tribunal

Agence France Presse - March 10, 2010

Dili – East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta on Wednesday denied claims by Amnesty International that he would support a tribunal for abuses committed during Indonesia's occupation.

Amnesty had claimed he was in favour of the establishment of an international tribunal for crimes committed during the 1975-1999 occupation, should the UN Security Council set it up.

But Ramos-Horta said Amnesty International had "inaccurately reported and thus misrepresented" a discussion he had with Amnesty members at the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom on March 5.

"I remain firmly unconvinced that the interests of the victims of my country and the cause of peace and democracy are best served with an international tribunal," he said in a statement.

The president said he told the meeting he would not oppose an international tribunal – but he would under no circumstances push for it to be established.

East Timor gained formal independence in 2002 after a bloody 24- year occupation by neighbour Indonesia that led to the deaths of up to 200,000 people and there have been calls to try the perpetrators.

A reconciliation commission established jointly by East Timor and Indonesia found in 2008 that while gross human rights were committed by Indonesian forces, there should be no more trials and no further arrests.

In August, Ramos-Horta rubbished a call by Amnesty International for there to be an international tribunal set up.

"Why always should East Timor be an international experiment with international justice? I have opposed and continue to oppose an international tribunal for East Timor," he told reporters.

The president also said restoring good relations with Indonesia is more important than "prosecutorial justice".

Indonesian military doubts talk of East Timor military tribunal

Jakarta Globe - March 9, 2010

Markus Junianto Sihaloho – The Indonesian military on Tuesday said it doubted claims by Amnesty International that East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta had promised to support the establishment of an international criminal tribunal by the UN Security Council over crimes committed during the 1975-99 conflict with Indonesia.

In a press release on Tuesday, Amnesty International said that Ramos-Horta had told the human rights group in a private meeting that he would support the establishment of such a tribunal, should the UN Security Council be behind it.

In a meeting with Claudio Cordone, Amnesty International's interim secretary general on Friday, the Timor president was said to accuse the United Nations of "hypocrisy" for using his government's antitribunal stance as a pretext for not establishing it.

Military spokesman Air Vice Marshall Sagom Tamboen said that he doubted Amnesty International's claim.

He said East Timor's ambassador to Indonesia, Manuel de Araujo Serrano, on Monday visited Military Chief Gen. Djoko Santoso at his headquarters in Cilangkap, East Jakarta, and stressed his country's willingness to build better ties with Indonesia, especially with the military.

"So it means that there is no problem between the two countries. The Indonesian military is even seen by East Timor as a reference for the establishment of its armed forces," Tamboen said.

Tamboen added that anything dealing with the past conflict between the two countries was to be aired by the Truth and Friendship Committee (KKP) established by two states.

"The main spirit of the agreement is that what happened in the past would be left behind and both countries would move forward together by building mutual relationships," Tamboen said.

He said the recommendations produced by the KKP over past incidents in East Timor involving Indonesia had been agreed to, approved and signed by the leaders of the two nations.

"If there were another purpose [to criminalize the Indonesian military over the case], then they should not have agreed and signed all the recommendations made by the KKP," Tamboen said.

Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has previously said that he would not support an international tribunal into the human rights abuses that occurred during Indonesia's rule over the former Portuguese colony.

At last year's 10th anniversary of his country's vote for independence, he reportedly called on the UN to stop gathering evidence against the killers of hundreds of Timorese, saying his people must put the past behind them. He also called on them to forgive Indonesians who "committed heinous crimes against us."

Foreign Affairs spokesman Teuku Faizasyah said Jakarta would verify what exactly Ramos-Horta had told Amnesty International. "Because as far as we know, Indonesia and Timor Leste have agreed to settle the problem through the KKP," Teuku said.

He said Indonesia would always have a commitment to improving its relationship with Timor's government. "Any such propaganda would never influence the good relationship between Indonesia and Timor Leste," he said.

Amnesty International has repeatedly urged the UN Security Council to set up a tribunal with jurisdiction over all crimes committed from 1975-99, when East Timor was occupied by Indonesia.

Agriculture & food security

Sowing hope in hungry East Timor

ABC News - March 26, 2010

Tim Lee – There are two distinct seasons in East Timor – the wet season and the dry season.

For many East Timorese, the time in between includes three to four months known as the hungry months, when last year's supplies of rice and maize have run out and the new season's crops have yet to yield.

East Timor president Jose Ramos-Horta is acutely aware of his country's annual famine.

"This for me is a most pressing and heartbreaking situation. I see people who cannot even afford to have a proper meal a day," he said.

"The number one priority for us is food security to eliminate malnourishment.

"Children who are stunted because of malnutrition in the first few years of their lives, they cannot perform too well in school because they are malnourished.

"It takes time, it takes years for us to improve agriculture with better productivity, better seeds, better farming techniques and better roads for the goods to circulate faster and cheaply."

It's almost 10 years since East Timor gained its independence from Indonesia. The steps on its march to nationhood have often been faltering. The departing Indonesian forces left a country in ruins, its infrastructure in tatters. Political unrest has further stymied progress.

So the impending wet season makes the farmers restless. Everything depends on good rains and bountiful crops.

In the mountains south of the capital, Dili, a woman stabs the earth with a digging stick, bobbing as she flicks seeds into the thin jungle soils, a method unchanged in centuries.

East Timor's demographics are staggering. This farmer has five children aged under 10. The national average is eight children per family. Half of East Timor's population is less than 10 years old.

Of East Timor's 1 million people, about three quarters live in rural areas and subsist on about one hectare of land. Infant and maternal mortality rates are among the highest in the world.

Children are seen not so much as burdens but as essential labourers, and most endure hard physical work from the age of six, lumping firewood from the forest or produce to and from market.

Fighting famine

Of the many hundreds of aid organisations that have worked in East Timor during the past decade, it would be hard to find one more elemental or effective than Seeds of Life.

Rob Williams is an agronomist with the aid agency, which is funded by the Australian Government.

"Seeds of Life aims to do two things," he said. "One is to increase yields on farms. The second is to train East Timorese scientists, East Timorese researchers to a level where they can solve their own agricultural problems so they can do research that assists their farmers."

Seeds of Life scientists have identified and propagated the best strains of the country's staple food crops of corn, rice, peanut, sweet potato and cassava.

"We've tested these new varieties on thousands of farmers," Mr Williams said.

"And as a result of this, last year we distributed about 100 tonnes of seed in five-kilogram lots that have gone out to more than 20,000 farming families, so it's starting to have a large impact on farming families in East Timor.

"The varieties are public domain varieties, which means the farmer can plant them, keep the seed and plant them again the next year."

In East Timor's Alieu district, Senor Zacharias Mouzinho Gusmao proudly shows us his flourishing corn crop, a high-yielding variety with large cobs.

It is one of two new corn varieties introduced, tested and released by Seeds of Life in partnership with the ministry of agriculture. Sold as fresh corn, it has made Senor Gusmao a tidy sum.

Demand for crops

Throughout the country's farming districts, word has spread of the new, superior varieties, and Seeds of Life cannot meet demand.

In Baucau province in the country's east, newly installed seed cleaning and bagging machines have revolutionised the process of seed distribution.

And nearby, in a communally planted field, local dignitaries attending a field day are pulling large sweet potato tubers from the red soil. The new variety is yielding about 18 tonnes per hectare – double the traditional varieties and on par with world standards.

These sweet potatoes are being sold in Dili and for the first time families have some disposable income. Some say they will now be able to send their children to school. In Dili, agriculture minister Senor Mariano Assanami Sabino says his most pressing duty is overcoming rural poverty.

"And how to realise the dream of the majority of people in Timor Leste," he said. "We fight for the independence and continue the fight of how to reduce the poverty in Timor Leste."

Local workers

Locally trained staff members are crucial to the success of Seeds of Life. "We currently have a group of 40 young researchers, mostly graduated from the University of East Timor as agronomists," Mr Williams said.

"We've taken them on board and we're training them in many, many skills. Some never knew how to ride a motorbike when they started with Seeds of Life.

"Some now can interview in English. They can go out and run a field day by themselves. They work with farmers testing the new innovations. They can conduct their own research experiments to choose the best varieties for their own country."

One of those trainees, Luis Perriera, distributes the new varieties in the Maubisse region of the country's central highlands.

"The farmers really like it. I've been working with them for the last two years in this district," he said.

"They can see with their own eyes that the yields are better and they prefer to keep growing the new varieties.

"The farmers themselves will be producing more seed so that they can grow their own seed in future years.

"I think it's very important work, very worthwhile work because I am working for the development of my own country through agriculture, and in this way we can marry the hard work of the farmers together with the new varieties to get better yields for farmers."

Rebuilding research stations

Seeds of Life is working closely with East Timor's ministry of agriculture to rebuild research stations.

"After the violence in 1999 when Indonesians left East Timor, all the research stations in this country were destroyed," Mr Williams said.

"Many of the trained, professional staff in East Timor were Indonesians who then moved back to Indonesia, so there was a large gap of trained people in East Timor.

"Seeds of Life has a mandate of rebuilding and re-establishing three agricultural research stations in this country."

Loes Research Station is a 12-hectare site on a fertile river plain several hours' drive west of Dili. "The research stations are important to Seeds of Life," Mr Williams said.

"That's the locations where we test a large number of varieties on a small number of locations before choosing a small number of varieties to test on a large number of locations."

Rowan Clarke and his fiancee Rebecca Andersen are Australian agronomists based at Loes with Seeds of Life.

After the violence and civil unrest in 1999, the complex lay abandoned and derelict for almost a decade. Now it is undergoing a spectacular revival. The land and buildings are being repaired under Mr Clarke's guidance.

"The story is there was only one building that had been burnt and that was probably accidental," Mr Clarke said.

"But the rest had just been robbed of anything of any value. All the roofing iron went with the Indonesians. The copper was all taken out of the wiring. The white ants had been through any wood and they were just shells."

Ms Andersen trained in horticulture and decided to work in East Timor after a holiday there. She says their work is important for the country's food security.

"We've got about 15 varieties of maize that we've got on station at the moment and about another 15 peanut varieties, and about 20 cassava varieties, and we're also beginning to test kava crops and different types of legumes," she said.

"I think the ministry of agriculture has the leading priority in the country and so places like this are making a really big impact on food security."

UNMIT/ISF

Timor security 'close' to taking over

ABC News - March 24, 2010

The Australian Defence Force Chief says he believes East Timorese forces will be able to take full responsibility for the country's security in the near future.

The number of Australian troops in East Timor has been recently reduced to 400.

Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston says the East Timorese military are continuing to improve their professionalism. He has told Australia Network that he is confident they will be able to take care of their own security.

"I think as we look forward they'll reach that stage in the not too distant future," he said.

"What we're seeing at the moment is the United Nations transition a lot of the police stations around Timor Leste to the Timorese police service."

Timor village chief accuses Diggers

Melbourne Age - March 16, 2010

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – Australian soldiers in East Timor have been accused of asking Timorese their political views, in violation of the country's constitution.

Soldiers from the Australian-led International Stabilisation Force (ISF) who went to a village in eastern Lautem District reportedly asked people at a meeting to raise their hands if they like the present coalition government better than the former Fretilin government.

Village chief Mateus Fernandes Sequeira has lodged a complaint about the February 23 incident, saying that asking people to reveal their political leanings could create further conflict in a country racked by violence in recent years.

An Australian Defence Force spokeswoman confirmed that civilian researchers had been conducting surveys throughout East Timor on matters related to peace and stability.

But the spokeswoman said at no point had Australian soldiers presented a question as part of community forums. She said translation could have caused confusion in the village.

La'o Hamutuk, a non-government organisation in Dili, said coercing people to reveal publicly who they supported was "dangerous and destructive".

"It can lead to violence or retaliation, undercutting the stabilisation that the International Stabilisation Force is here to enforce," it said.

La'o Hamutuk said when Australian soldiers arrived in East Timor in 2006 to help quell violence there were many reports of them pressuring Timorese citizens to align with or against a particular leader or faction.

"In the crisis atmosphere and with the soldier's inadequate orientation and inexperience, this was regrettable but perhaps understandable," La'o Hamutuk said. "However, after nearly four years here they ought to know better."

Jose Teixeira, spokesman for Fretilin, the largest political party, said the behaviour of the soldiers was inappropriate. "It harks back to the bad old days of 2006 and 2007 – during the Howard government – when Fretilin complained widely about political bias by the ISF," Mr Teixeira said.

East Timor's constitution guarantees the right to keep political views private.

Australian Defence Chief Angus Houston last month criticised soldiers in East Timor for not doing enough to care for a woman, 65, who had been struck by an ADF vehicle on a Dili street. The ADF was unaware for days the woman had died within hours of being taken to a Dili hospital.

Air Chief Marshal Houston told a Senate estimates committee that steps would be taken to ensure the neglect was not repeated.

Human rights/law

East Timor bones affair 'embarrassing' for Australia

ABC News - March 12, 2010

Sara Everingham – The President of East Timor says it is embarrassing for Australia that Northern Territory police took five years to test remains believed to be those of the country's first prime minister, Nicolau Lobato.

The remains were sent in 2004 but were not tested until recently and the results were inconclusive. Northern Territory police say they will transfer the remains to the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine for further testing.

East Timor's President, Jose Ramos-Horta, has told Fairfax newspapers it is puzzling to him and embarrassing for Australia that it took five years to test the bones.

An East Timor activist says Northern Territory police have not given enough importance to the testing of remains. Gregorio Saldana, who helps families identify the remains of people who went missing during the Indonesian occupation, says the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine will do a better job.

"The police in 2003 or [2004] took remains to laboratory but they didn't give enough importance," he said.

He says it is important for East Timorese to know if the remains belong to the country's national hero.

"I want to say that to the police and whoever including in the process they can support and can facilitate to identify the remains because it is important for our country for our leader our first Prime Minister and second President Nicolau Lobato."

Northern Territory police say a number of factors have delayed the process of testing the bone samples. Police say they only have male DNA samples and female samples are also likely to be required.

East Timor hotel development reveals multiple graves

Reuters - March 11, 2010

Tito Belo, Dili – The construction of a luxury hotel near East Timor's capital has uncovered machine-dug graves containing remains of people who may have been killed during the country's occupation by Indonesia, scientists said on Thursday.

An estimated 180,000 East Timorese died during the 25-year occupation by Jakarta and the United Nations estimates around 1,000 died in violence surrounding the 1999 vote that led to the nation gaining independence.

When a property developer was given approval to build a five-star hotel on waterfront land in Tibar, in Dili's west, the government called in a group of Australian forensic scientists to investigate the site first.

"This area has long been talked about by various people, a lot of the community in Dili, as having been used by the Indonesians as a place to dispose of bodies," said Soren Blau, a scientist at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine and a member of the investigative team.

"None of those stories have ever been verified," said Blau. The team found two machine-dug graves about 2 metres (6 ft 7 in) deep, one containing seven skeletons and one containing two.

"They were piled on top of each other," Blau told Reuters by telephone, declining to elaborate on the victims' gender or cause of death. "I can say there is evidence of things like ligatures and blindfolds."

The team is working with the government and local community to identify the skeletons and some bones may be taken to Australia for tests. "There are many families who perhaps might think this is their relative," she said.

Blau said that Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao visited the site on Thursday.

A joint Indonesia-East Timor Truth and Friendship Commission set up in 2005 revealed cases of torture, rape, kidnappings and killings perpetrated during the Indonesian occupation, but the commission did not have the power to prosecute.

Amnesty International has called for the creation of an international tribunal to investigate crimes committed during the occupation but President Jose Ramos-Horta has opposed the idea.

East Timorese activist Gregorio Saldanha, who has been helping the scientists at the Tibar site, said he believed there were about six other such sites around Dili.

"We want to collect all the bones and put them in a special place," he told Reuters in Dili. "We are doing this to dignify the victims and bring peace to the families of victims."

Saldanha said he did not expect the families to take legal action.

"So we hope the Indonesian authorities can tell us where the victims were buried and we want to make clear that our effort has no relation with any legal aspect," he said. "Our intention is to dignify families of victims."

[Additional reporting by Sunanda Creagh in Jakarta; Editing by Alex Richardson.]

Mass grave uncovered on hotel site in East Timor

ABC News - March 6, 2010

Sara Everingham – East Timor's latest attempt to create a brighter future has unearthered a tragic reminder of its turbulent past, with the construction of a new luxury hotel and golf course leading to the discovery of a mass grave.

The hotel is sitting on prime real estate in Dili, in the west of the capital at a beachfront location.

Jon Sterenberg is one of the Australian archaeologists working with the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine and the East Timorese Government searching the site for the remains of people killed during the Indonesian occupation.

Dr Sterenberg says it is painstaking work and the exhumation is just one part the process.

"The remains will be very carefully washed because they're very, very fragile," he said. "They've been under the water for a long time."

He says artefacts such as ballistics, ligatures and identification documents – if they exist – will be carefully collected. Researchers say many East Timorese will be watching closely to see what they find.

Pat Walsh helped establish East Timor's Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation, and says many families will be hoping to find answers to lost loved ones.

"We know from the International Red Cross that somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 families are looking for missing or disappeared," she said. It is estimated more than 100,000 civilians died during the Indonesian occupation of East Timor.

The site slated for the hotel is just one of the many construction sites now around Dili and as East Timor continues to develop it is likely more grave sites will be found.

Mr Walsh says uncovering East Timor's past will help build a peaceful future.

"That will contribute to community development and peace here, I'm sure," he said. "People remain deeply upset about these issues."

Gregorio Saldanha is the coordinator of the 12th of November Committee, which is searching for the remains of those killed in the massacre at the Santa Cruz Cemetery in East Timor in 1991.

Mr Saldanha will liaise with families to help identify the remains. "I think it's very important for all Timorese we don't forget that these dead is the result of all people who gave their life to found this state," she said.

He says many East Timorese families hope to rebury the remains of their loved ones. "To give our recognition, our respect, dignify them, it's very important; not today but for the future," he said.

Women & gender

Women's day celebrations underway in East Timor

ABC News - March 7, 2010

Sara Everingham, Dili – Celebrations for International Women's Day have begun early in East Timor. About 50 people – men and women – participated in a fun run and walk from the centre of Dili to the east of the city this morning.

It was organised by a cross-party coalition of female politicians as part of celebrations leading up to international women's day on Monday.

Maria Paixo, the chairwoman of the parliamentary women's caucus, says conditions are improving for women in East Timor. "Very slowly, but little by little we will run," she said.

Ms Paixo says a draft law defining domestic violence and giving more support to victims should help improve the rights of women in the country. "In East Timor patriarchal culture is very, very high... and this law will give more improvement to the rights of all women in East Timor," she said.

Economy & investment

East Timor primed to ride Asia's development wave, economist says

Agence France Presse - March 30, 2010

Dili – The tiny, impoverished nation of East Timor is on the cusp of an economic explosion that will eclipse even China in terms of growth, a top UN economist said on Tuesday.

Jeffrey Sachs, a special adviser to the UN secretary general, told an audience at the National University of East Timor that the government needed to be smart about how it spent billions of dollars in oil and gas revenues.

"I want to make a prediction right here – you can hold me to it. Timor-Leste will grow faster between 2010 and 2020, economically... than China," he said in a public lecture, using the Portuguese form of the country's name.

The leading economist and global development expert, on a six-day visit, said Asia was catching up quickly with developed economies and East Timor, one of the poorest countries in the world, would ride the regional wave to greater prosperity.

"Timor-Leste will accomplish this kind of convergence over the next generation, so what's happening in Asia will happen in this country very powerfully," he said.

Sachs said that extreme poverty could be eradicated if the government focused on investment in human capital, infrastructure and developing sectors such as tourism and agriculture.

East Timor has been on a rocky road since formal independence in 2002. More than half of all children under five are malnourished and about 40 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

Sachs said the government of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao needed to inject oil and gas revenues, amounting to some $5 billion, into the economy.

"You need to invest in your own future, so rather than building up this big cash balance, better to use the funds to invest in infrastructure, human capital, agricultural modernization, hydrocarbon sector development and the other areas," he said.

East Timor threatens to scuttle gas development

ABC News - March 13, 2010

East Timor's president Jose Ramos-Horta says his country is serious about making sure its interests are not ignored in the development of the Greater Sunrise Gas field.

East Timor's government wants the gas processing plant built in East Timor. The field's developer Woodside says it will soon make a choice between building a floating plant in the Timor Sea or a pipeline to Darwin.

Dr Ramos-Horta says it is possible East Timor will not allow the development to go ahead.

"If it's an arbitrary decision that we know is politically motivated, based on prejudices about a small developing country – if the decision is based on that and seems like it's based on that rather than technical and commercial considerations – then obviously we can not agree," he said.

"For Australia, one pipeline more, one pipeline less to Darwin – it wouldn't make a terrible difference. But to Timor, it would ensure its prosperity into the future. So this is a political question. It's a moral, ethical question besides the commercial consideration."

Opinion & analysis

Sects, lies and videotape

Inside Story - March 31, 2010

James Scambary – Here is the destruction of '99; here is the destruction of 2006, and here is the destruction of 2007," exclaims Mateus, a wide sweep of his hand encompassing a densely packed row of derelict, weed-infested houses covered in gang graffiti.

Mateus is a resident of the conflict-prone village of Luromata, in the west of Dili, and the dates refer to the major waves of violence that have afflicted the Timorese capital over the past decade. "The government came here in 2007 to do peace talks, but since then we have seen nothing," he says.

Close by, several heavily tattooed youth, members of the martial arts group Kera Sakti, sit listlessly by the roadside. One of them, very drunk, is slumped over with his head in his hands. "If the government comes here again," Mateus says with sudden vehemence, "We will stone them and burn their trucks. We don't want them here."

Local residents claim that Luromata has always been "hot" (a colloquial term used to denote violent tension), but the same scene and sentiments would be encountered in much of the western part of the city. Under the Indonesian occupation, this once sparsely populated area was developed into dense housing complexes for the Indonesian military and civil service. After the occupation ended in 1999, the complexes were populated by a wave of rural migrants; they are now a crowded patchwork of uneasily coexisting ethnic enclaves.

They are also among the poorest parts of the city, and some suburbs are not much more than shanty towns. Many have no proper water supply or garbage collection, or have no government services at all. While development agencies sometimes talk of bridging the urban-rural divide, in this case both sides of the divide can be seen in the ten-minute drive between Luromata and the graceful gardens and boulevards around the Government Palace.

Not surprisingly, the western sector of the capital also contains the heaviest concentration of gangs and crime. Like pressure cookers, these suburbs are always ready to boil over into a wider conflict, as they did in 2006. That violence lasted two years, killing as many as 200 people, destroying up to 6000 houses and leaving more than 140,000 people displaced.

The conflict largely ended after the combined attacks on the prime minister, Xanana Gusmao, and president, Jose Ramos-Horta, in February 2008 by Major Alfredo Reinado (who was killed in the attack) and his followers. While this calm can partly be attributed to shock at such assaults on two revered national figures (and, of course, on conflict fatigue), there was also a sense of hope that with a new government, things would change. Now, the honeymoon seems over, and the truce is fracturing.

Fighting, sporadic but at times intense, sometimes involving over 300 people at a time, is taking place in eight neighbourhoods across the city. That the conflict has not widened is partly because of the strategic placement of twenty-four hour police posts in other trouble spots. In the rural areas, low-level conflict has broken out again in a number of areas in which historical grievances have festered for decades. Previously dormant groups have reappeared in the border regions, much as they did in 2005 during the alarming but largely unheeded spike in violence ahead of the major outbreak in 2006.

Since January, a joint national police and army force has been conducting an intensive manhunt in the two border districts of Bobonaro and Cova Lima, following two killings there by alleged "ninjas." In East Timor, ninjas are not quite the mythical figures of 1990s Hollywood action films; they are much more recent and real. During the Indonesian occupation, they were the black-clad masked intruders, many of them drawn from the criminal underworld, hired by the Indonesian military to harass and kill independence supporters. Nowadays, they are feared criminal gangs with reputed magic powers that help them evade detection or capture. Rumours of such groups can quickly spread fear and panic in the community.

Whether there are ninjas or not is not really the issue. What is certain is the existence of widening discontent and communal conflict. Countless long running property disputes and payback vendettas fester across this remote, often inaccessible region. Quite often these disputes are violently enacted by the different factions of some fifteen martial arts groups, which between them have an estimated 90,000 members. The national, mass nature of these groups has made them a destructive force in Timorese society, and their conflicts are again spreading.

Syncretic or millenarian groups or social movements have also proliferated in this region. Mostly they are a minor nuisance, preoccupied with extracting "membership fees" from locals. But sometimes their conflict with other groups can turn deadly, as it did in the mountainous western Ermera district in November 2006. Seven people were killed in just over a week in a dispute that spread throughout the western region and then into Dili, leading to renewed conflict that lasted another year. Even now new groups are being formed; one group is reputedly parading around an eleven-year-old boy as the son of Christ. Groups like these were the harbingers of social discontent before the outbreak of the 2006 conflict.

Two such groups, Bua Malus and the CPD-RDTL, have been targeted by the joint police-army operation, and many of their members have been arrested but later released. The operation is an almost a replica of the response to the Atsabe killings of 2003, and equally controversial. Those killings were initially blamed on Colimau 2000, a millenarian resistance sect not unlike these two groups, composed of veterans, farmers and unemployed youth. As in the current security force operation, the army rounded up dozens of Colimau 2000 members, breaching the constitutional restriction on their deployment in internal conflicts and ignoring due process or proper investigation. All but three of the group were later freed without charge.

As with that exercise, the current operation has come under heavy criticism. Yayasan HAK, a local human rights group, found evidence of a litany of human rights abuses committed by the joint forces. There is also a widespread and compelling belief that the main aim of the operation is to save face after a series of high-profile police brutality cases.

The national police have never been high in public estimation. They are perceived as largely ineffective, riven by regional, family or gang affiliations and tainted by association with the former Indonesian regime. After police involvement in the violence of 2006-07, some communities began to regard them as perpetrators rather than protectors. Many communities regard the army in a similar light.

In numerous recent cases police have been involved in gang fights, extortion, shootings and the use of excessive force, but two incidents have particularly provoked public outrage. One was a highly publicised, unprovoked bashing of an unarmed man during the launch of a fishing competition. A video clip of the bashing found its way onto YouTube and so the usual terse rebuttal by the secretary of state for defence, Julio Pinto, was not possible.

The most controversial incident, though, was the fatal police shooting of an unarmed teenager (which is being treated as a murder) during a fight at a party, just before Christmas. The shooting led to emotional street protests and the abrupt withdrawal of the national police from the streets of Dili.

These incidents have underscored serious concerns about the readiness of the national police force to resume full responsibility for policing. The excessive force used by members of this highly factionalised and politicised organisation sparked the wider civil disturbance that exploded into violence in 2006 (as it did in the 2002 Dili riots). Tensions between the army and the police led to a series of lethal confrontations between the two forces that year, ending in the massacre of twelve police. Most observers now agree that despite the formation of a joint command, these tensions still exist. There is also general agreement that there has been little real reform of the police force. An International Crisis Group Report published in December 2009, for example, identified a backlog of 250 cases of police facing disciplinary or criminal cases, and found that some of the key figures involved in the 2006 crisis still occupy senior posts.

Despite these problems, the United Nations mission to East Timor, UNMIT, under heavy pressure from the government, has announced the progressive handover of policing to the national force. Yet a report by Australian National University-based scholar Bu Wilson, leaked in late 2009, claimed that not only was the police force abjectly unprepared for resuming active duty, but that the whole reform and handover process was itself "a many layered fiction."

The most ominous finding of the report, which Wilson prepared for the Conflict Prevention and Peace Forum, was that few of the issues that led to the 2006 clashes between the security forces had been resolved. These include the severe factionalisation of the security forces along regional and operational lines and a lack of demarcation in their roles, leading to competition between the two forces. The report, whose findings were echoed by the International Crisis Group report and a UN human rights report released around the same time, found that this situation remains largely unchanged, with a number of police units bearing army-style long arms and receiving paramilitary style training, and the army continuing to be deployed in internal conflicts.

The report also questioned the logistical and operational capacity of the police, with many district and sub-district stations lacking either transport or radio communications, with no vehicle or equipment maintenance budget to remedy the situation. It was equally scathing of the way UNMIT has handled the process. It found, among other failures, that three years after the commencement of the United Nations mandate, there is no agreement between UNMIT and the government of Timor-Leste on a mechanism for removing suspect police. It also found that the mentoring and monitoring of police to assess their readiness to return to full duties was dysfunctional to the point of being non-existent. Some UN officials admitted that they did not really have the capacity to conduct such a process.

The lack of process and justice for former perpetrators is part of a wider pattern of impunity that has meant many of the issues of 2006-07 have been left unresolved. Some of the key figures behind the 2006 violence have received government contracts rather than jail sentences. Many others, such as the Petitioners, the group of around 495 army deserters whose protests sparked the 2006 violence, have been paid off, as have the internally displaced victims of the violence who lost their homes in the conflict. As seen recently in the Solomon Islands, however, such a chequebook approach to conflict resolution rarely has more than a temporary effect.

Across political lines, many people have been angered by the pardoning or release by presidential decree of former militia members Joni Marquez and Maternus Bere, who were guilty of serious crimes in the 1999 militia rampage. While the recent conviction of members of the group who carried out the February 2008 attack on the prime minister and the president is welcome news, there is strong speculation that they too, may be pardoned. The fact that nobody has been convicted for shooting President Ramos Horta has left more questions unanswered than resolved, with conspiracy theories rife about the involvement of Xanana Gusmao himself.

Justice, or the lack of it, in East Timor always has its discontents. The recent conviction of two ex-soldiers for crimes related to the 2006 crisis has run into opposition from some quarters close to the army. One parliamentarian has ominously declared that he will not let them be imprisoned. Known to many by his resistance code name, L7, this MP commands a sect-like group known as Sagrada Familia, with a membership numbering in the thousands. Another figure with connections to this group, Lito Rambo, has formed a new protest movement calling itself the FALINTIL and Youth Resistance Reserve Force; opposed to the conviction of these two men, the group attracted hundreds of people to its first rally. Such a development bears a strong resemblance to the rise of a number of violent, gang-linked, anti-state groups in 2006, formed to protest at the imprisonment of Major Alfredo after his capture by international forces.

In parallel with these developments, disillusionment with the current government has been growing. Although the economic growth rate is 14 per cent, the figure is largely comprised of government spending, some of it of questionable value. The construction industry is certainly booming, but much of this activity involves rehabilitating derelict government buildings – once seen as symbols of the inertia of the previous government – along with new government developments, including the giant Presidential Office, and expatriate housing. The benefits don't appear to have trickled down to the general population – or at least that is the perception, which in East Timor can be as potent as fact. Much of the skilled labour for major construction projects is provided by foreign labour.

Up to 6000 houses were destroyed in the 2006-07 violence, but very few have been rebuilt or replaced. Although loose plans exist for urban planning schemes and social housing, but without tangible government commitment these remain just talk. Many vital social services continue to be provided by churches and international donors, and many feted government achievements such as road construction or the return of the internally displaced have been driven largely by international donors.

Almost weekly, new corruption allegations have eroded the government's public image. The government's $80 million national stimulus project, launched in August 2009, has been plagued by widespread allegations of waste, corruption and cronyism. Critics of the project allege that many of the projects funded under this initiative do not follow basic procurement guidelines, are of poor quality or are left incomplete. The only person to be charged with any offence so far, however, has been a local journalist for reporting the corruption. A widely respected and popular new anti-corruption czar, Aderito Soares, was recently appointed. But whether he has the powers and government willpower to support him remains to be seen. Previously unthinkable symbols of growing inequality, such as gleaming new BMW convertibles, are now not uncommon in the streets of Dili. Plush new shopping malls and gated communities, serving expatriates and the new urban elite, have proliferated in the increasingly gentrified beachside suburbs surrounding the diplomatic area. This, is in a country where the average income is still estimated at little over 50 cents a day. Such overt flaunting of wealth is certain to provoke social envy, another major catalyst in the 2006-07 communal violence.

As occurred during the heyday of the initial United Nations mission after the 1999 referendum, this highly visible affluence and the international presence serve as a magnet for rural youth migrating to the city in search of a share of the boom times. This influx leads to further overcrowding in the already densely packed predominantly migrant areas in the west of the city. These areas were already tense from the return of internally displaced families from the 2006-07 violence and this influx must certainly be seen as a key factor in the renewed urban conflict.

Many people now speak of a sense of something about to happen, just as they did before the attacks on the prime minister and the president. There are signs of new tension between the government and the main opposition party, Fretilin, and tensions within the governing coalition parties themselves, which has often translated into conflict in the past.

It is still difficult to gauge the current security situation with the presence of around 1600 members of foreign security forces and the national police force yet to assume full duties. It is important to remember that the 2006 implosion occurred after a major reduction in the international security presence. While there had been many signs of growing tensions prior to that outbreak, it still caught most people by surprise. There are similar signs of such tension now.

The United Nations has extended its mission for another year, although it will be reducing its presence. East Timor's deputy prime minister, Jose Luis Guterres, has agreed that the mission should remain in the country until 2012. Given current levels of tension, it is comforting that the mission will remain for at least another year, but it is neither a tenable nor desirable long term option. The UN and international presence must be seen as part of the problem as well as part of the solution, which ultimately, only the East Timorese people can provide.

A major source of social friction in East Timor is lack of state legitimacy. If the state cannot provide equal access to resources people will revert to their own informal networks, in competition with other groups. If the state cannot deliver justice and security, people will provide their own; the growth of a diverse array of non-state groups serving both as security and agents of vigilante justice is testament to this. If East Timor is to avoid a repeat of the 2006-07 violence, the government must act now to distribute resources and opportunities equitably, reform the security forces, support and respect the justice system, and demonstrate that it is not above the law itself.

[James Scambary is a Research Fellow at the Institute for Social Research, Swinburne University of Technology.]