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East Timor News Digest 7 – July 1-31, 2010

Balibo 5 killings

Refugees & asylum seekers Opinion & analysis

Balibo 5 killings

Balibo five revisited

Jakarta Post - July 29, 2010

Abdullah Alamudi, Jakarta -- The discovery of a grave in a South Jakarta cemetery of the five Australian-based journalists killed in Balibo, East Timor, nearly 35 years ago, may soon shed some light on their ashes or remains.

The journalists, known as the Balibo Five, died on Oct. 16, 1975 while covering the Indonesian invasion on the then Portuguese colony.

A larger than normal tombstone with an epitaph bearing the names of the five men: Gary Cunningham, Greg Shackleton, Malcolm Rennie, Tony Stewart and Brian Peters, was found.

Underneath their names is a statement that says, "No words can explain this pointless death in Balibo."

The wrong spelling of the word "explain" raised suspicion that the wordings of the epitaph was either written in East Timor or by an Indonesian. Or was it purely misspelling by the tombstone workers?

Judging from the location of the grave in the cemetery, one could conclude that they were originally moved from the old Karet Cemetery in Central Jakarta with other deceased to the present Tanah Kusir in Bintaro, South Jakarta, when the government was constructing a road over a part of the cemetery in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

How the ashes or remains of the Balibo Five ended in the Karet Cemetery is yet to be uncovered. Over the past three and a half decades the cause of their deaths has been controversial.

Both the Australian and Indonesian governments said they were killed in a crossfire between the invading Indonesian military troops and the Free East Timor Liberation Front (Fretilin).

But the Australian press and witnesses at the coronerial inquests in Sydney said the five journalists were deliberately executed by a number of elite members of the Indonesian army and then burned.

For decades, many Indonesians believed that the ashes of the five journalists were scattered in East Timor or in the Timor Sea to avoid identification.

But it is yet to be proved if the ashes or remains are buried in Tanah Kusir -- if indeed there are ashes or remains in there -- actually belong to the Balibo Five.

DNA forensic investigation is needed. It's going to be a tough legal battle between relatives of the deceased and supporters of press freedom and government accountability in both countries against their respective governments.

Successive Australian governments since Gough Withlam have been holding the opinion that the five journalists were caught in a crossfire. And who wrote the epitaph, "No words can explain this pointless death in Balibo," is still a mystery.

However, the remains of the so-called "forgotten sixth member of the Balibo Five", Roger East, 50, an Australian journalist working for AAP-Reuters, who traveled to East Timor to investigate the death of his five compatriots, is still unknown. East was captured in Dili by Indonesian soldiers on Dec. 7, 1975, and was killed the next day in the wharf area. His body was reportedly dumped in the sea.

East's relentless efforts to uncover the truth about the Balibo Five was portrayed in the film under the same title but ended his life in the barrels of Indonesian soldiers in Dili.

The discovery of the Balibo Five's grave came about during the visit of the widow of Greg Shackleton, Shirly, to Jakarta.

She was asked to appear at the State Administrative Court (PTUN) last month as a witness for the Legal Aid Press (LBH Pers) and the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) against the Film Censorship Board (LSF) that banned the screening of the film, Balibo Five, during the annual Jakarta Film Festival early this year.

The Balibo Five journalists and their "forgotten" sixth member may have been long dead, but their sacrifice to uncover the truth has become great inspiration to many young Indonesian journalists.

It is now up to the Indonesian government to remove any legal barriers that may block efforts to identify the ashes and remains of the Balibo Five and shed light on the grave at Tanah Kusir cemetery.

[The writer is a journalist.]

Final resting place of killed Balibo Five a mystery

Jakarta Post - July 12, 2010

Jakarta – A government spokesman said Sunday he had never heard of a grave at Tanah Kusir cemetery in Jakarta, believed to be the final resting place of five foreign journalists killed in then East Timor in 1975.

Shirley Shackleton, 78, the widow of Greg Shackleton, one of the five murdered journalists, visited the cemetery on July 9 and requested an Australian government forensic team investigate whether her late husband was really buried there.

"There must be forensic tests to prove the bodies buried in that cemetery are really the five late [Australian-based] journalists," Shackleton said as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

At the cemetery is a black marble gravestone inscribed with the names of the five journalists. However Defense Ministry spokesman I Wayan Widhio said in a text message that he had never heard of the grave.

Shackleton had sent a letter to the Indonesian government, requesting permission to repatriate her husband's remains on Jan. 20, 2010, but has so far not received any response.

Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah declined to say whether the government would allow Shackleton to bring back the remains of her husband and his colleagues to Australia.

"Technically the families can request the Australian Embassy in Jakarta to facilitate that," he told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

In an Indonesian book titled Eyewitness to Integration of East Timor by journalist Hendro Subroto, the five Australia-based newsmen – Australians Gregory Shackleton and Anthony Stewart, New Zealander Garry James Cunningham and Britons Malcolm Rennie and Brian Peters – were buried at the cemetery on Dec. 5, 1975. The funeral was attended by then Australian ambassador to Indonesia Richard Woolcott and the secretary-general of Indonesian Journalists Association Sunardi.

However, a member of the armed forces who joined the military operation there, Gatot Purwanto, said he did not know exactly the validity of the information about the cemetery. He said that after the five journalists were killed, he was ordered to relocate the bodies.

The journalists were killed in 1975 during the invasion of Balibo in Timor Leste or East Timor as it was known before gaining independence from Indonesia.

Both the Indonesian and Australian governments maintain the journalists died in crossfire between the Indonesian Army and East Timorese guerillas. An Australian coroner's investigation, however, said that an Indonesian military special team was behind the deaths.

Shackleton's widow was in Indonesia to stand as witness in a case to overturn the ban of the film Balibo at Jakarta State Administrative Court on July 8.

She said the depiction of her husband's death in the movie directed by Robert Connolly was accurate, maintaining that she believed her husband was murdered after surrendering to Indonesian troops.

Shackleton said she was convinced of this by evidence given to an Australian inquest on the deaths of her husband and his fellow newsmen.

Wahyu Dhyatmika from the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) said Shackleton learned about the cemetery in Tanah Kusir from a friend who was a journalist for ABC Australia.

"Her friend said there was a cemetery in Tanah Kusir, Jakarta, with the names of her husband and the four other dead journalists written on a gravestone," he told the Post. He added that Shackleton then asked permission to exhume the bodies to conduct DNA tests proving their identities once and for all.

Wahyu said the cemetery was moved to Tanah Kusir in 1979. The journalists were believed to be buried at Tanah Abang in Jakarta in 1975, before the cemetery was moved to its current location. (rdf)

Balibo Five widow visits husband's grave for first time

The Australian - July 9, 2010

The widow of one of the Balibo Five has paid her first visit to his grave, 35 years after the death of the five newsmen in East Timor.

Shirley Shackleton, 78, sat today beside the grave in a Jakarta cemetery which holds the remains of her husband Greg Shackleton, together with those of Brian Peters, Gary Cunningham, Malcolm Rennie and Anthony Stewart.

The five were killed on October 16, 1975, and their bodies burned after they filmed an attack on Balibo by Indonesian soldiers. Their remains were buried in Jakarta by the Australian government, and now lie together below a single black headstone in a well-tended cemetery.

Ms Shackleton, who lives in Melbourne, has campaigned for years to learn the truth of how her husband died. Jakarta has always maintained the five died in crossfire as Indonesian troops fought East Timorese Fretilin rebels.

However NSW deputy coroner Dorelle Pinch found in 2007 that the Balibo Five were executed by Indonesian special forces to stop them from revealing details of Indonesia's invasion of East Timor. Her finding sparked an Australian Federal Police war- crimes investigation into the murders.

Invited by Indonesia's Alliance of Independent Journalists, Ms Shackleton was in Jakarta to testify at a hearing challenging Indonesia's banning of the movie Balibo, which portrays the five being executed by Indonesian troops.

Indonesian government censors banned the movie last year, saying it failed to show an Indonesian perspective and it would strain relations with Australia. (Additional reporting: AFP.)

Wife of Balibo reporter blames his death on army

Agence France Presse - July 8, 2010

Stephen Coates – The wife of an Australian reporter allegedly killed by Indonesian forces in East Timor in 1975 told a Jakarta court on Thursday that she believed her husband was shot after surrendering to the Army.

At a hearing called over a ban on a controversial movie about the events, Shirley Shackleton said she was convinced by evidence given to an Australian inquest into the deaths of her husband and four other foreign journalists.

"It found that their hands were in the air giving themselves up, they were not armed and were wearing civilian clothes and the perpetrators of this atrocity were members of [the Indonesian Military]," she said.

"Balibo," the first feature film ever shot in East Timor, premiered in Melbourne last July before an audience that included East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta, who says Indonesian forces murdered the reporters.

Starring Anthony LaPaglia, it tells the story of the five journalists killed when Indonesian troops overran the East Timorese town of Balibo in October 1975, and a sixth who died later in the full-scale assault on Dili.

Jakarta has always maintained that the so-called "Balibo Five" died in a cross-fire as Indonesian troops fought East Timorese Fretilin rebels.

Indonesia banned the film but groups including the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) have launched a legal challenge to the censors' decision.

Shackleton, 78, said she returned to Jakarta to support the filmmakers' bid to lift the ban "because they reached their objective to clarify the lies and the cover-up. In good Aussie slang... the cat is out of the bag."

The ban has stirred debate over the nature of free speech and democracy in Indonesia. It has also threatened to overshadow relations between Canberra and Jakarta after Australian police last year launched a war crimes investigation into the deaths.

An official from the film censorship board told the court that "Balibo" was "one-sided" as it failed to include the official Indonesian version of events.

Speaking before the court convened, Shackleton said the case was "important to establish whether democracy is alive and well in Indonesia". "I hope the ban will be lifted," Shackleton said, adding: "Isn't that what democracy is based on?"

At least 100,000 East Timorese lost their lives during the brutal Indonesian occupation.

Balibo widow speaks out against film censorship

Jakarta Post - July 9, 2010

Arghea Desafti Hapsari, Jakarta – More than three decades have passed since Shirley Shackleton heard the devastating news that her husband, a journalist covering the conflict in then East Timor, was killed.

But Shackleton, now 78, still embraces every opportunity given to her to seek out the truth behind the tragedy.

"This is not just about vengeance. This is about accountability. That's the justice I want," she said Thursday, minutes before entering a courtroom in Jakarta where she testified on the banning of the film Balibo.

The controversial film was banned last year by the Film Censorship Board (LSF). It recounts the story of five journalists who were killed during the invasion of the town of Balibo in East Timor – Timor Leste as it was known before independence from Indonesia – in 1975.

Both the Indonesian and Australian governments have always maintained that the journalists died in crossfire between the Indonesian Army and the East Timorese Fretilin rebels. Investigations into the case, however, have alleged Indonesian forces were behind the deaths.

"I want [the perpetrators] to be given the right to clear their names in a court of law. They have that basic right. No one has ever asked them to account for their actions. They deserve the right that I've got here today by coming to appear in court," Shackleton said.

She told the court she believed her husband was murdered after surrendering to Indonesian troops. Shackleton said she was convinced by evidence given to an Australian inquest on the deaths of her husband and his colleagues.

"It found that their arms were in the air, giving themselves up. They were not armed and were wearing civilian clothes and the perpetrators of this atrocity were members of [the Indonesian military]," she added.

She said she "supported the cause of the film Balibo because they've reached their objectives to clarify the lies and the cover up. In good Aussie slang the cat is out of the bag".

The ban on the film has sparked heated debate on how well democracy and the freedom of expression is implemented in the country.

The LSF banned the film on the grounds that it depicted violence and that the film only used Australian and Timor Leste sources, a matter that concerned the Indonesian government. The film tells a story of the Timor Leste's fight for independence under Indonesian oppression during the New Order regime. The military is especially sensitive on the topic.

LSF legal division head Tedjo Baskoro said after Thursday's hearing that Balibo could also hurt the relationship between Indonesia and Australia. "It opens old wounds," he said.

Shackleton lamented that the Indonesian government was not dealing with its past sins. "They've kept it hidden away by banning [the film]. So the people took over, which is another good step in the way of democracy," she said.

The case, she added, was "important to establish whether democracy is alive and well in Indonesia". "The censorship destroyed all the credibility of a country wishing to be part of the free world," Shackleton told The Jakarta Post.

During the hearing, a representative from the LSF asked Shackleton, who claims to have watched the film many times, if she saw sadistic footage in the film. Shackleton, who was accompanied by an interpreter, said yes. After the session, however, she learned that her interpreter had mistakenly used the word "violent" and not "sadistic".

"I think the film does show violence but it was nowhere near sadistic," she said, adding that she would write the court to inform them of the mistake.

Australian wife of Balibo reporter prepares to meet censors

Agence France Presse - July 7, 2010

The wife of an Australian reporter allegedly killed by Indonesian forces in East Timor in 1975 said on Wednesday that she trusted the Indonesian people to make up their own minds about what happened.

Shirley Shackleton, wife of late journalist Greg Shackleton, is in Jakarta to testify before a court that is hearing a petition against the government's banning of the movie "Balibo" last year.

"Tomorrow I'll be cross-examined rather fiercely in the court. I'm nervous about that as I want to do well," she told Indonesian reporters at a press conference.

Asked what she thought of Indonesia's official claims that the reporters were accidentally killed in crossfire rather than executed in cold blood, she said: "That's been rubbish for 35 years. They were just doing their job like you are."

"Balibo," the first feature film ever made in East Timor, premiered in Melbourne last July before an audience including East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta, who says Indonesian forces murdered the reporters.

Starring Anthony LaPaglia, it tells the story of five journalists killed when Indonesian troops overran the East Timorese town of Balibo in October, 1975, and a sixth who died later in the full- scale assault on Dili.

Jakarta has always maintained that the so-called "Balibo Five" died in crossfire as Indonesian troops fought East Timorese Fretilin rebels.

Indonesian banned the film for national security reasons but groups including the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) have launched a legal challenge against the censors' decision.

"A film should never be banned in a country which is a democracy. Any organization that tried to ban what the people want to see is making a mockery of democracy," Shackleton said.

"This is about the film and the rights of the people here to watch, think, believe and say what they want, not what the government wants them to do.

"This film lets the cat out of the bag, you can't keep it quiet any longer, the cat escapes. They have made a problem if they want to censor the film. I trust the Indonesian people to make up their own mind."

Refugees & asylum seekers

East Timor president: No refugee centre plans

Agence France Presse - July 28, 2010

Dili – East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta said Wednesday his country had "no plans" to build a detention centre for asylum seekers as proposed by Australia, but remained open to discuss the idea.

"The government of Timor-Leste has no plans to build or authorise a processing centre to be opened in Timor-Leste," he told AFP, using his tiny country's formal name.

"It's not true that we have any plan to build a centre. What's true is that my government and I are studying the idea and proposal by the Australian government and then we'll see whether Timor-Leste will accept it.

"We're keeping an open mind. We'll decide after we hear the details."

Foreign Minister Zacarias Albano da Costa said Canberra had yet to clarify its position three weeks after Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard revealed surprise plans to ship asylum- seekers to impoverished East Timor.

The proposal, seen as a bid to strengthen Gillard's credentials on immigration and border security ahead of August 21 polls, has been slated by East Timorese lawmakers but the country's leaders have not ruled it out.

"So far we haven't received any concrete proposal from Australia. We haven't said anything to them," da Costa told reporters late Tuesday after a meeting in Dili with his Indonesian counterpart, Marty Natalegawa.

"Our position remains the same, that Australia, Timor-Leste and other countries in the region have to consider this issue through an appropriate forum."

Australia's foreign minister held talks in Indonesia on July 15 to try to muster regional support for the initiative, amid general confusion about Canberra's intentions.

Natalegawa said more discussions were needed. "We need to have more conversation, to be better informed, to be better appreciated," he said.

Gillard has made the offshore processing centre a pillar of her election strategy, while admitting it had not been approved by any of the potential host countries including East Timor.

Asylum seekers are a sensitive issue in Australia and the near- daily arrival of undocumented boats from Asia – usually with the help of Indonesian traffickers – has put immigration to the fore of the election campaign.

Australia ignoring East Timor detention 'no' vote

Radio Australia - July 26, 2010

The Australian Government's proposal to develop a regional processing centre for asylum seekers East Timor looks more shaky by the day.

The Government says an Australian delegation visited East Timor last week for discussions and had productive talks. But East Timor's Deputy Prime Minister says the Australians arrived when many Timorese politicians were visiting China.

Presenter: Sara Everingham

Speaker: Mario Carrascalao, East Timor's Deputy Prime Minister

Sara Everingham: The Australian government says it sent a team of officials to East Timor last week for initial discussions about the proposal of a regional processing centre for asylum seekers. East Timor's Deputy Prime Minister Mario Carrascalao says they weren't formal talks.

Mario Carrascalao: No there is no negotiations until now.

Sara Everingham: East Timor's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has delegated responsibility for negotiations with Australia to President Jose Ramos-Horta. But when the Australian team visited, Dr Ramos-Horta was in China. East Timor's foreign minister was there too, in fact 100 officials from East Timor took part in the China trip. The Australian delegation met representatives from Timor's Ministry for Foreign Affairs and from the president's office. Mario Carrascalao says they did not meet one minister in East Timor's government.

Mario Carrascalao: Then they went back there was no negotiation no position being taken.

Sara Everingham: Mario Carrascalao is also the acting foreign minister. He says in those meetings the Timorese probably just reiterated the position that the government is open to hearing Australia's proposal. He wants to make it clear the conversation went no further.

Mario Carrascalao: This is not, as I say, not an issue here in Timor-Leste, nobody talking any more on that, because practically we know that the majority of the people are going to refuse, you know, to reject this proposal.

Sara Everingham: Earlier this month East Timor's parliament passed a unanimous resolution opposing Australia's proposal. The Australian government shrugged it off saying the vote wasn't well attended. But Mario Carrascalao says it was representative of the opinion in East Timor. He says he too is opposed to the idea.

Mario Carrascalao: After the resolution taken by the parliament it is not easy for any minister to take a step that is to go against what had been decided by the parliament.

Sara Everingham: The Australian government insists there is still life in its East Timor solution. A spokeswoman for Australia's minister for foreign affairs, Stephen Smith, says East Timor's top political leaders have indicated willingness to continue discussions about Australia's proposal. She says as part of those talks Mr Smith recently had a phone conversation with his East Timorese counterpart. She says Australia is also discussing its plan with officials from the region at the ASEAN-related meetings this week in Hanoi.

Timor talks are 'going nowhere'

The Australian - July 20, 2010

Mark Dodd – Negotiations for an offshore refugee processing centre in East Timor appear to have stalled.

Although talks are continuing, The Australian understands they are severely restricted by caretaker provisions during the election and no deal can be reached until after the poll.

Julia Gillard says finding a solution to the problem of Australia-bound asylum-seekers is shaping up as a major election issue.

The Prime Minister has committed her government to a regional solution to the problem that would involve an offshore processing centre.

Ms Gillard says an offshore refugee processing centre would deter people-traffickers behind the surge in asylum-seeker boats arriving off the northwest coast.

In East Timor, opposition is hardening against the plan, described by Mr Carrascalao as "neo-colonialist" and one that is uniformly opposed by the country's parliament.

He warned that the negotiations appeared to be "going nowhere" and said it was "unfair" of Australia to offload its asylum- seeker problem on East Timor – the region's poorest and most fragile country.

Once East Timor – one of the world's newest democracies – became more stable and prosperous, the request could be considered, but now was not the right time, the veteran Timorese politician said.

Although sympathetic to Canberra's concerns, he warned that if the proposal were adopted, it risked causing deep divisions within East Timor, still fragile as it recovers from bloody political violence four years ago that resulted in the deployment of an Australian-led peacekeeping force to restore law and order.

"It's not welcome, and I do believe I'm reflecting the views of the parties and all Timorese people," Mr Carrascalao said.

"I don't think this plan will be allowed to go ahead. We're also facing another problem, the attitude of our other neighbour, Indonesia, and Indonesia has to be consulted on this."

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said yesterday talks would continue with Dili, but "within the constraints of the caretaker provision", which rules out any agreement being reached during the election campaign.

"So far as asylum-seekers are concerned, let me make a couple of general points," Mr Smith said.

"Firstly, you have the government progressing its offshore processing centre proposal, and within the constraints of the caretaker provision, that will continue in the course of the campaign.

"I was in Indonesia, in Jakarta last week. I had discussions with my Indonesian counterpart, Marty Natalegawa. Yes, we had agreed that I would have further discussions with him in Hanoi during the ASEAN-related meetings, and I'd also agreed with Zacarias da Costa, the Foreign Minister from East Timor, that he and I would have discussions in Hanoi as well."

Jakarta non-committal on plan for regional asylum-seeker centre

Australian Associated Press - July 15, 2010

Indonesia appears lukewarm on Australia's plan to build a regional asylum-seeker processing centre in East Timor.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith briefed his Indonesian counterpart Marty Natalegawa on the Gillard government's proposal during talks in Jakarta today.

Asked later if Indonesia supported the plan, Dr Natalegawa was non-committal. "Further conversations are still to be had on this issue," he told reporters.

Dr Natalegawa said he agreed there was a need for a better regional framework to deal with people smuggling and asylum seekers, of which a processing centre was a "potential component". "I can understand the rationale," he said, but would not be drawn on the specifics of location.

Mr Smith said their discussions on the topic were "productive". "This is something we will progress in the weeks ahead," he said.

The pair would meet again on the sidelines of next week's ASEAN meeting in Vietnam to discuss the matter further, he said.

The government says East Timor remains its first choice for a processing centre even though the country's parliament this week rejected the proposal.

Mr Smith was also expected to meet with Indonesian Trade Minister Mari Pangestu during his 24 hours in Indonesia. He was also scheduled to open the Australia-Indonesia Facility for Disaster Reduction.

Earlier, Mr Smith attended the opening of the 2000th school built under the Australia-Indonesia Basic Education Program, where he received a warm welcome from students.

East Timor needs to sort itself out first

Agence France Presse - July 15, 2010

East Timorese Deputy Prime Minister Mario Viegas Carrascalao yesterday rejected an Australian proposal to process asylum- seekers.

Mr Carrascalao said East Timor had too many problems of its own to deal with Australia's as well.

"Timor Leste is not a colony of another country. We have sovereignty and our people have rights to decide for themselves what they want," he said. "We don't want another country to dictate to us. We're already independent and won't be a puppet of any other country."

Julia Gillard is negotiating with the government in Dili about her plan to establish a regional refugee processing centre in East Timor to handle asylum-seekers trying to reach Australia by boat.

The migrants generally pay Indonesian people smugglers to arrange the dangerous trip to Australian waters in unseaworthy boats, and many die or need to be rescued each year as they try to make the crossing.

East Timorese MPs voted on Monday to reject Ms Gillard's proposal, and several government and opposition leaders have expressed strong objections.

But President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao have not ruled out the idea, and Ms Gillard says she is determined to win their approval.

Opposition within Mr Gusmao's government appears to be growing, however, with Mr Carrascalao echoing fellow Deputy Prime Minister Jose Luis Guterres's earlier rejection last week.

"My personal opinion is that I am against the proposal as our people have many problems to be solved and that's enough for us. Don't find more problems from another country which will trouble our development," he said.

"Australia is a big and vast country. There should be a place for the refugees there."

Australia shrugs off East Timor setback

Agence France Presse - July 13, 2010

Talek Harris, Sydney – Australia said on Tuesday it remained in talks with East Timor over a regional asylum seeker center despite a rejection by the tiny country's Parliament, which dealt the pre-election policy a severe blow.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said East Timor's government was still discussing processing refugees seeking asylum in Australia – a major plank of her election strategy that has become mired in difficulty.

Australia's first woman leader, who is expected to announce the polls within days after ousting the once hugely popular Kevin Rudd last month, was speaking after 34 of Timor's 66 lawmakers voted against the plan.

"This was a vote on a resolution in the East Timorese Parliament at a time when the Parliament was not well attended," she told reporters in Canberra, adding that officials were involved in discussions in East Timor on Monday.

"The East Timor government continues to confirm to us that it is open to the dialogue about the regional processing center, and we're in that dialogue now."

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith is also holding talks on the proposal this week in Indonesia, a major transit point, following criticisms that Gillard did not consult widely enough before making her announcement.

The prime minister was forced to backtrack last week when she clarified East Timor was only one possible location for the center, despite earlier indicating that it would be built there.

The controversy has taken some gloss off the straight-talking, Welsh-born lawyer's image, which had gleamed after she settled a damaging mining tax row just days into her premiership.

"The East Timor solution is totally and utterly sunk," said opposition leader Tony Abbott.

Australia's ruling Labor Party and opposition have both unveiled tough policies on asylum seekers, with Greens party chief Bob Brown saying the debate reminded him of 1990s anti-immigration firebrand Pauline Hanson.

Gillard's "Timor Solution" has won favor with about two-thirds of voters, although a similar number also believes the policy was badly thought-out, according to a poll of voters released this week.

Australia currently processes asylum seekers on Christmas Island, an Australian territory in the Indian Ocean, but a steady flow of refugees has overwhelmed facilities and forced the reopening of centers on the mainland.

The arrival of mainly Afghan and Sri Lankan refugees proved a thorn in Rudd's side after he scrapped the harsh mandatory detention policy of his conservative predecessor, John Howard.

Timor parliament rejects Australian refugee plan

Agence France Presse - July 12, 2010

Nelson da Cruz, Dili – Timor's parliament voted Monday to reject an Australian proposal for the impoverished country to become a regional refugee processing centre for Australian-bound asylum seekers.

All 34 lawmakers present for the vote, or a majority of just one in the 66-seat House, agreed to "firmly reject any plan to set up a refugee detention centre in East Timor", according to a statement.

"We urge the government to reject any proposal which conveys an intention to build a refugee processing centre in our national territory," the declaration said.

"We hope that the government handles this matter as a political issue and takes a firm stance in dealing with our international colleagues, including with the Australian government."

New Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard has flagged a plan for East Timor to host a new regional processing facility for migrants who arrive off northern Australia in rickety people- smuggling boats.

She has spoken to East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta but the Dili government says it has yet to see a detailed proposal.

Gillard, who ousted Kevin Rudd in a Labor party leadership challenge last month, told reporters in Australia earlier Monday that Canberra was having a "dialogue" with East Timor about the issue.

"But I also want to be realistic with the Australian people. This will take some time," she said.

"There is no quick fix here but we are in dialogue with East Timor and we are also briefing our regional neighbours about this regional approach. I'm determined to get it done. I announced it last Tuesday and I have been determined each day since to get it done," she added.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said Sunday that Australia would hold talks with East Timor and Indonesia this week, rejecting criticism that Gillard did not properly consult before announcing the policy.

Dozens of boats carrying asylum seekers from Asian trouble spots like Sri Lanka and Afgahnistan arrive in northern Australian waters every year, mostly with the help of Indonesian-based people smugglers.

Gillard says a regional solution like a processing centre in East Timor would undermine the smuggling networks while easing pressure on Australia's overloaded detention facilities.

Ramos-Horta and East Timorese Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao have said they are open to the Australian idea and await detailed proposals.

But senior officials from Gusmao's National Congress for the Reconstruction of East Timor (CNRT), the opposition Fretilin party and local human rights groups have expressed strong objections.

"As an independent country, we must not accept the Australian government's proposal because we don't have the capabilities," CNRT lawmaker Paulo Martins told AFP. "The Australian government actually has the capability to set up a detention centre in their country."

East Timor, a mainly Catholic country of just over a million people, is still dependent on foreign aid more than 10 years after its bloody vote to split from Indonesia.

Australia is a major donor of aid and has about 400 troops in East Timor as the leader of an international force providing security for the fledgling country.

Australian officials to visit East Timor for asylum-seeker talks

Australian Associated Press - July 11, 2010

Australian officials will travel to East Timor this week to continue discussing plans for a regional asylum processing centre.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said today he had spoken with East Timor's foreign minister Zacarias da Costa about the plan.

"We have decided in the first instance our officials would deal with it and then he and I will have a further conversation... to progress the matter," Mr Smith told ABC Television. "We will be sending officials to East Timor in the course of this week to start a detailed discussion."

He also clarified that at this stage East Timor is the only country Australia has approached to host a regional processing centre, although The Weekend Australian reported that Manus Island, in Papua New Guinea, is a possible site.

"We haven't opened up, and are not proposing to open up a conversation with another country," Mr Smith said.

Julia Gillard revealed last week that she wants to set up a processing hub in East Timor for unauthorised boat arrivals that make it to Australia. But the Prime Minister has come under fire for failing to discuss the idea with East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao before announcing the policy.

But Mr Smith said the policy was announced in an "entirely appropriate manner", noting Ms Gillard had spoken to President Jose Ramos-Horta about it. "He is a person who is integral to the operations of East Timor," Mr Smith said, adding that he has since spoken to Mr Gusmao.

"And the end result of that conversation was prime minister Gusmao saying he wanted President Ramos-Horta to take charge of discussions. People who expect you can announce it with a bow-tie on top, or announce it on day one, frankly don't appreciate the reality of a very difficult issue."

Mr Smith today also announced that former ambassador to Iran Greg Moriarty had been nominated as Australia's next ambassador to Indonesia. He said Mr Moriarty was well qualified to take over the job from Bill Farmer, who has been serving in the post since 2005.

"He's a very good, professional, department of foreign affairs officer," Mr Smith said. "He will be a first-class ambassador to Indonesia."

Mr Moriarty, who is "well known" to Indonesia's foreign minister Marty Natalegawa, has recently dealt with some delicate issues, including the repatriation of bodies from the Sundance Resources plane crash in the Congo.

Australia backs away from Timor refugee plan

Agence France Presse - July 9, 2010

Sydney – Australia's new prime minister Julia Gillard on Friday talked up her plan for a regional refugee centre to tackle people smuggling but backed away from suggestions it should be built in East Timor.

Gillard Tuesday launched her bid for a regional processing hub with assurances she had discussed the plan with East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta, whom she said had indicated his initial support. Her remarks were widely interpreted as inferring that the tiny island nation would be the site for such a centre, drawing a hostile response both domestically and in aid-dependent Timor.

Gillard was met with angry protests about the plan as she hit the hustings in the mining city of Perth ahead of looming elections, with one man flinging an egg at her as she passed, sparking a security scare.

She moved to shift the debate away from East Timor, denying she had definitively said the fledgling nation would be home to the centre.

"Earlier this week I made the case that regional processing needs to be part of our long-term solution to unauthorised arrivals," Gillard said in a speech.

"I said in my speech that one possibility was a centre in East Timor. I said that there is no quick fix and that a careful dialogue is needed," she added. "The dialogue with other regional neighbours is also continuing."

The prime minister, who deposed former leader Kevin Rudd in a lightning coup just two weeks ago, said the ultimate destination would be decided through regional negotiation.

She hit back at suggestions that she failed to properly consult impoverished East Timor before naming it at the centre of her policy, saying no "concrete proposal" had yet been made.

"Those critics who want to declare the approach dead in week one are mistaken and will, I'm afraid, be disappointed," she added.

Gillard earlier said she would rule out building the centre "anywhere that is not a signatory to the (UN) refugee convention," and noted that did not exclude Papua New Guinea.

Offshore processing in Manus Island, part of Papua New Guinea, was a central part of the former conservative government's so- called "Pacific Solution" of locking up and processing boatpeople offshore.

Gillard has denied her tough regional plan is a return to the hard-line Pacific Solution, an approach which is being advocated by the conservative opposition as Australia prepares for national elections.

Immigration is a sensitive issue in Australia, where boatloads of refugees arrive after perilous voyages from Asia, often in rickety fishing vessels, as they escape countries such as Afghanistan and Sri Lanka.

Gillard's insistence that the centre be built in a UN-signatory nation rules out key transit countries Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Vanuatu, Tonga and island states in Micronesia.

East Timor PM open to Australia asylum-seeker plan

Agence France Presse - July 8, 2010

Dili, East Timor – East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao said Thursday his government was open to discussing Australia's proposal to process Australia-bound asylum seekers in the impoverished nation.

New Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard said Tuesday she had initial support from President Jose Ramos-Horta for the detention centre, in a pre-election bid to stem an influx of undocumented migrant boat arrivals.

Opposition to the plan has grown in East Timor, with Deputy Prime Minister Jose Luis Guterres saying the aid-dependent country is not ready or willing to house refugees, but Gusmao sounded a more positive note. "We are open-minded and open for discussion in participation to solve the problem," he told reporters.

"This is not only Australia's problem but also the region's problem. So the government cannot avoid this issue," he said, adding that his nation had a responsibility to help.

"We were refugees in other countries and also in our own country," he said of East Timor, which is still dependent on foreign aid more than a decade after its bloody vote to split from Indonesian rule.

Gillard, who unveiled the tough proposal this week as she builds towards elections to be held this year, vowed to press on with the plans and said she would hold talks with Gusmao in the coming days.

"This is something that we are going to get done," she told public broadcaster ABC late on Wednesday. "I have spoken to the president of East Timor. I've spoken today with the president of Indonesia.

"And I have tasked Australian officials to now move around the countries of our region working through the issues to create a regional processing centre."

Gillard has said that a regional processing centre would "wreck" the people-smuggling trade that brings dozens of boats to Australia's north each year.

Australia is a major donor of aid to East Timor and has about 400 troops there as the leader of an international force providing security for the fledgling country.

Growing opposition to 'Timor Solution'

ABC News - July 8, 2010

Sara Everingham, Dili – Prime Minister Julia Gillard's plan to send asylum seekers to a regional processing centre in East Timor is running into increasing opposition from the country's politicians.

East Timor's deputy prime minister, Jose Luis Guterres, says his country is "very unlikely" to accept the idea, which Ms Gillard announced at a press conference earlier this week.

Ms Gillard says she is yet to speak to East Timor's prime minister, Xanana Gusmao, who will have the final say on the decision. The issue is expected to be top of the agenda when Mr Gusmao meets with president Jose Ramos-Horta in Dili today.

Arsenio Bano, the vice-president of East Timor's main opposition party Fretilin, says the proposal was badly timed.

"I think Timor should reject the proposal, simply because there is no condition in Timor to do that," he said. "In economic and social conditions – we are one of the poorest countries in Indonesia."

But Mr Bano says opposition to the idea is not just about money and whether or not Australia would assist with the centre.

"I don't think that's a problem with assisting. I think the question is whether Timor wants to be a processing centre or other type of Pacific Solution," he said. "I don't think it is appropriate for Timor."

Aderito Hugo da Costa, an MP and member of Mr Gusmao's party, agrees.

"Money is not the point, not the issue," he said. "The issue is how we have time to look at an outside problem rather than look at our own peoples' problems which are still very, very serious."

Igniting tensions

Mr Bano says there are also worries that a processing centre for asylum seekers could inflame social tensions in East Timor.

"If we want to decide to accept any refugees in Timor we have to be able to offer the same level of services that we offer to our own people so you avoid discrimination [and] other problems [like] racism and so on," he said.

Ms Gillard discussed her proposal with Dr Ramos-Horta but she has not spoken with Mr Gusmao.

Jose Belo, the editor of the east Timorese newspaper Tempo Semanal, says that was a mistake. "They thought that the president was the one that was going to make the decision, it's wrong, it's actually the executive right of the Government," he said.

Ms Gillard says she will speak with Mr Gusmao in coming days. But he is likely to prove a tough audience.

In recent months he has expressed discontent with Australia on a number of fronts and his push to have gas from the Timor Sea piped to East Timor to be processed onshore has been frustrated. Australian company Woodside has opted for a platform floating at sea.

Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith has defended the Government's consultation process.

"President Ramos-Horta is more than just a head of state, that's quite clear from the way in which he operates and the way in which he works closely in conjunction with Prime Minister Gusmao," he said.

"There's nothing inappropriate with Prime Minister Gillard having that conversation with the president."

But Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says Ms Gillard failed to consult the right people about her offshore processing policy.

"I don't know that she consulted with Stephen Smith... before she made her announcement about a refugee processing centre in East Timor," he said. "Stephen Smith would have been able to tell her you've got to talk to the government, not to the president."

Federal Opposition immigration spokesman Scott Morrison says the fact that Ms Gillard has not yet spoken to Mr Gusmao shows the Government is not serious. "This policy is not even half-baked, it hasn't even been put in the oven," he said. Asylum boat stopped

The Opposition has also accused the Government of deliberately suppressing the release of information about the arrival of another boat carrying asylum seekers. Australian authorities intercepted the boat late on Tuesday but the information was not publicly released until last night.

In a statement, Home Affairs Minister Brendan O'Connor says the Government releases information in a timely way once the facts have been checked.

Mr Morrison has accused the Government of withholding the information to allow the Prime Minister to promote her "East Timor solution". He says it has "exposed her political motives and her political agenda writ large".

"Here we have a Prime Minister who said that she wanted debate based on the facts, and then has suppressed those facts to suit her own political and media timetable," he said. "This is the sort of political spin and manipulation that would put even Kevin Rudd to shame."

East Timor president cautiously backs refugee plan

Associated Press - July 7, 2010

Rohan Sullivan, Sydney – East Timor's president said Wednesday he supports in principle an Australian plan to turn his country into a regional center for processing asylum seekers but does not want his tiny, impoverished nation to become an "island prison."

Jose Ramos Horta said Wednesday that Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard had raised the proposal with him but that there were few details so far.

He told Australian Broadcasting Corp. television he supported the plan in principle, but only if East Timor's government agrees and if the facility were a temporary stop for people who would be resettled in other countries.

Ramos Horta, awarded the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize for helping end Indonesia's brutal rule of East Timor, serves in the largely ceremonial role of president, while the government is led by Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.

"I would never turn my back on people who flee violence in Afghanistan, or whatever," Ramos Horta said. "But on a temporary basis, so that they can be sent to a third country where they can start life with dignity and with promise of a better future."

"I wouldn't want Timor-Leste to become an island prison for displaced persons fleeing violence," Ramos Horta said, using the country's official name.

East Timor, which has a population of just 1 million, has faced political turmoil and chronic unemployment since gaining independence in 2002 after nearly four centuries of foreign domination.

The half-island nation would need financial help to manage a center. It would also need assistance to feed, house and clothe asylum seekers and give them medical care and jobs in the community.

East Timor's Deputy Prime Minister Jose Luis Guterres said Tuesday he doubted his country had the capacity to run such a center.

Gillard on Tuesday proposed that East Timor would become a UN- approved processing hub for asylum seekers as a way to stem a recent influx of boat people trying to reach Australia from Afghanistan and other countries. The asylum seekers have become an issue in elections expected to be held within months.

On Wednesday, Gillard announced a $21 million (25 million Australian dollar) package to help Asian countries combat people-smuggling. Indonesia will get patrol boats and planes, while police in Malaysia, Thailand, Pakistan and Sri Lanka will get surveillance and other equipment.

The new policy brings Gillard's government closer into line with the conservative opposition by keeping asylum seekers out of the country while their applications are processed, though it retains humanitarian protections sought by the United Nations.

The opposition is campaigning on a return to an earlier policy that detained asylum seekers in camps in Pacific island countries without UN oversight. Many asylum seekers spent years languishing in the camps under the plan, which was heavily criticized by the UN.

Conservative leader Tony Abbot dismissed Gillard's plan as an empty election promise with little international support and said the center would never be built.

But Gillard said she would be "relentlessly pursuing" the policy as a solution for Australia and other countries. She did not name any, but Indonesia has had to deal with asylum seekers passing through on their way to Australia. Thailand and Malaysia have faced asylum seekers from Myanmar.

"The idea is that for the whole region, not just for Australia, but for the whole region, it would be a better solution and a more durable solution to have a regional processing center where asylum-seeker claims are processed," Gillard said.

Dili ready to help but says costs are a worry

Sydney Morning Herald - July 7, 2010

Hamish McDonald, Asia-Pacific editor – The East Timorese President, Jose Ramos-Horta, is "sympathetic" to the Australian Prime Minister's request to set up a processing centre for asylum seekers in his country, but has not yet given his agreement.

It would have to be part of a regional agreement, involve no cost for his country, and be a "temporary" arrangement with time limits on the handling of refugee claims.

Mr Ramos-Horta said East Timor would not use agreement to bargain for concessions in other areas, such as a bigger share of benefits from the Greater Sunrise natural gas field in the Timor Sea, or access to seasonal work in Australia for Timorese.

"I personally am sympathetic to the idea, out of my humanitarian concern about providing assistance to people who flee violence and extreme poverty," he said from Dili yesterday.

"I would agree in the context of some international, regional arrangement and without financial liabilities for Timor Leste," he said, adding that his government would also expect timelines for processing cases and finding settlement in Australia or third countries.

Julia Gillard raised the matter in a phone call only yesterday, although he had spoken to her earlier after she took office. "I will have to consult with the Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao, whom I will see only on Thursday," he said, adding: "It is not yet a 'yes'... I personally would never ever turn my back on any individuals fleeing persecution, fleeing violence."

The Nobel laureate recalled that in 2001, during the Tampa crisis, the then foreign affairs minister, Alexander Downer, had called him and asked if East Timor would take the Afghan asylum seekers on board the Norwegian ship off Christmas Island. He had agreed, but in the end the refugees were taken to Nauru and Manus Island under the "Pacific solution".

The New Zealand Prime Minister, John Key, also received a phone call from Ms Gillard on Monday evening. The 30-minute conversation was the first time the regional processing centre had been raised, Mr Key said.

No asylum boats have reached New Zealand shores, and the country is likely to be asked to accept approved refugees from the centre for resettlement.

Mr Key said New Zealand would neither increase its refugee quota of 750, nor accept a reduction in the quality of refugees it takes, nor sacrifice security checks. "We are prepared to sit down with the Australians," Mr Key said.

"But the solution from our perspective has to ensure that it acts as a strong deterrent for those who are engaging in people smuggling and doesn't act as some sort of magnet to increase the number of boats that are coming to Australia – and maybe one day to New Zealand."

In Indonesia, Sri Lankan asylum seekers reacted with confusion, then sadness, after Ms Gillard said any attempt to reach Australia was likely to result in their being sent home.

At first pleased to hear that the freeze on processing would be lifted, they were devastated by news the UN guidelines were now much tougher for them to be resettled in Australia.

[With Kirsty Needham and Tom Allard.]

East Timor asylum plan a legal minefield

The Australian - July 7, 2010

Stephen Fitzpatrick in Jakarta and Paul Cleary – East Timor MP Jose Teixeira was thoroughly perplexed yesterday by Julia Gillard's announcement of plans for an asylum-seeker processing centre.

"It would be a legal minefield, to say the least, with the amendments that would be required to the Immigration Act to make it happen," said Mr Teixeira, who was resources and energy minister in the former Fretilin government and now sits on the parliamentary foreign affairs committee.

"Fretilin disagrees with Timor Leste being set up as a processing centre for asylum-seekers bound for Australia," he said. "It is unfair to burden emerging countries like ours with such an issue.

"We take our international commitments seriously, and believe to go down this path would not be a good way to comply with our international obligations and our constitutional guarantees for those seeking asylum."

His scepticism was shared by many, including some in Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao's own coalition administration.

One government source, who asked not to be named, said Ms Gillard's announcement came as a complete shock. "To be blindsided like this? No, it wasn't on," the source said. "Nobody was happy."

East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta last night confirmed he had given his in-principle support to Ms Gillard but admitted to the ABC's Lateline program that he was yet to speak to Mr Gusmao about the plan. "We will discuss, but we need to hear some more specific details," he said. "If our Prime Minister agrees with the concept of the idea, then let's have our technical people meet to work out some details."

But a senior source said the announcement by Ms Gillard "should have been done with more respect. "It was done with a complete disregard for domestic politics."

Mr Teixeira said the young country's constitution had deliberately put an emphasis on the plight of the displaced, given East Timor's experience with exactly that issue, and would not easily accommodate the sort of measure being proposed by Ms Gillard.

Other Timor analysts agreed the plan was unlikely to go through, with some pointing out that Mr Ramos-Horta did not even have the authority to agree to such a deal. "(Mr Ramos-Horta) is the President, and as such he's not a member of the government," one said. "The President can't make deals, he can't make policy, he can't make laws. The government controls policy and it controls bilateral relationship issues."

An outraged opposition politician was heard to say shortly after Ms Gillard's statement: "So they don't want the LNG (liquefied natural gas) to be processed here, but they do want us to process asylum-seekers," referring to the ongoing disputes over access to East Timor's undersea wealth.

Mr Ramos-Horta told the ABC's Lateline program last night that many details of the proposal still needed to be ironed out. He said he supported the reigonal response proposed by Julia Gillard, however he said he would like to see asylum seekers have freedom while awaiting processing.

"All we would need if we agree is... financial assistance to manage the centre, to feed the people, to provide them while they are here with medical care, with clothing, with proper shelter and maybe with a temporary job while they are waiting so they don't sit idle in the center as prisoners," he told Lateline.

"I wouldn't want this place to become an island prison for these persons... If they are here they would have a certain freedom."

East Timor has no facility capable of housing hundreds, let alone thousands, of the Afghan, Iraqi, Iranian, Sri Lankan and other asylum-seekers making their way via Malaysia, through Indonesia and on to Australia, usually via either Ashmore Reef or Christmas Island.

Such facilities would need to be built from scratch and would far overshadow the living conditions of most ordinary East Timorese.

Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs Jose Luis Guterres said the proposal was "not an easy matter" for the young country and would need to be examined by foreign affairs and national security ministries.

[Additional reporting: Paul Maley, Lanai Vasek.]

Gillard unveils 'East Timor solution'

Australian Associated Press - July 6, 2010

Karlis Salna – Julia Gillard has flagged offshore refugee processing through East Timor as she seeks to reposition Labor on the asylum seeker issue ahead of the federal election.

The prime minister, in her second full week in the job, has torn up elements of Labor's border protection policy under Kevin Rudd and embraced the processing of refugees in third countries.

In an address to the Lowy Institute in Sydney on Tuesday, the prime minister said Labor's tougher stance on border protection was aimed at wrecking the people smuggling trade at its source.

Under Ms Gillard's push for greater regional co-operation to deal with the problem, a processing centre would be set up in East Timor.

The plan has been discussed with East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta and New Zealand Prime Minister John Key.

Both are open to the idea although East Timor Deputy Prime Minister Jose Luis Guterres said his country did not currently have the capacity to bring the plan to fruition.

It has also been raised with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). A spokesman told AAP the UNHCR was considering the plan.

Ms Gillard said the purpose of the new centre would be to ensure that people smugglers had no product to sell.

Under the plan, asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat would be taken to East Timor to be processed, paving the way for the use of Christmas Island to be wound back.

"Arriving by boat would just be a ticket back to the regional processing centre," Ms Gillard said.

There was a mixed reaction from refugee advocates, with the Refugee Council of Australia describing the move as "positive" while others slammed it as a reworking of the Pacific Solution.

Greens leader Bob Brown labelled the plan an election fix. The prime minister was willing to employ the poorest country in the region as a "shunting place" for refugees, Senator Brown said.

No details were given on the cost or how long it might take to establish the processing centre. "Details in relation to the operation and funding of the project will be addressed as these discussions progress," a spokeswoman for the prime minister told AAP.

Ms Gillard said Labor's policy goal was clear. "It is to wreck the people smuggling trade by removing the incentive for boats to leave their ports of origin in the first place," she said.

Earlier in the day, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott revealed a number of new planks in the coalition's policy, including turning away asylum seekers who deliberately discarded their documentation before arriving in Australia.

The coalition would also seek to bring more "objectivity" to the refugee approval process by taking decision making powers away from immigration officers on Christmas Island.

The new measures add to the coalition's policies of restoring the Pacific Solution and temporary protection visas. "My message to voters from now until polling day will be that if you want to stop the boats you have to change the government," Mr Abbott said.

But in an effort to present Australians with a clear policy choice, Ms Gillard completely rejected turning the boats around, a position she previously supported, and which Mr Abbott still advocates.

Ms Gillard said turning asylum seeker boats around was unworkable and would risk lives at sea. "Today, let me say one thing loud and clear: our nation would not leave children to drown. We are Australians and our values will never allow us to embrace this kind of evil."

The prime minister also announced the freeze on the processing of claims for asylum seekers from Sri Lanka would be immediately lifted, while a similar suspension for Afghans would remain under review.

It's expected many Sri Lankan asylum seekers in detention in Australia will be sent home, relieving pressure on facilities such as on Christmas Island.

If re-elected, Labor would also seek to increase penalties for people smuggling, Ms Gillard said.

Australia: East Timor could process asylum seekers

Associated Press - July 6, 2010

Rohan Sullivan, Sydney – Australia's new leader proposed Tuesday to stop an influx of asylum seeker boats by making East Timor a hub for processing UN refugee claims for people fleeing war and persecution – an idea the tiny, impoverished nation said it was still considering.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard said she also had discussed the proposal with UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres – who has apparently not yet signed off on it.

Gillard's announcement was a shift in policy that aims to defuse a politically and racially charged debate that has flared in Australia ahead of elections expected to be held within months.

Australia receives just a tiny proportion of the world's asylum seekers, but in the past three years has witnessed a surge of people arriving via Indonesia in rickety boats – some 150 in the past three years carrying around 4,000 people.

Each new boat receives wide media coverage and stirs feelings among many Australians that the country is being forced to take them in.

The asylum seekers, mostly Afghans and Sri Lankans who have paid criminal syndicates to bring them to Australia, have overflowed a detention center at remote Christmas Island – an Australian territory – and many have been moved to the mainland while their applications are assessed.

In her first major speech touching on foreign policy, Gillard on Tuesday said Australia had an obligation to treat legitimate asylum seekers fairly while also ensuring its borders are secure.

She proposed the creation of a regional center for processing refugee claims under UN auspices, and said that East Timorese President Jose Ramos Horta had agreed to discuss the possibility. Gillard said she had proposed the idea to Guterres, though she did not say what his response was.

"A regional processing center removes the incentive, once and for all, for the people smugglers to send boats to Australia," Gillard said. "Why risk a dangerous journey if you will simply be returned to the regional processing center?"

Some refugee advocates cautiously welcomed the plan, as long as applications were assessed under UN guidelines, applicants were treated humanely, and that other countries agreed to accept those who were judged to be legitimate asylum seekers.

"From our perspective this is a positive thing," said John Gibson, the president of the Refugee Council of Australia.

He said it differed from an earlier government's system of detaining asylum seekers in prison-like camps on the pacific island of Nauru because it would involve the United Nations.

Others said Gillard's plan recalled the earlier policy, dubbed the "Pacific solution," and called for more details. "If what the government has in mind is simply a re-badged Pacific solution then this is of course unacceptable," said Claire Mallinson of Amnesty International.

Gillard said New Zealand had been asked to support the plan – a likely sign the country would be asked to resettle some people whose applications were approved for refugee status at the center.

She offered few other details – such who would pay for the East Timor center – but said she would pursue the idea "relentlessly."

East Timor's Deputy Prime Minister Jose Luis Guterres said the government was considering Gillard's plan, but that his impoverished nation was not ready to establish such a center, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

"We have so many issues that we have to deal with and bringing another problem, another issue to the country, I don't think it's wise for any politician to do it," Guterres was quoted as saying.

Australia grants nearly 14,000 places a year to migrants for humanitarian reasons, among nearly 190,000 total migrants a year, according to official figures. Fewer than 2 percent of humanitarian immigrants arrive by boat from Asia.

While migration is generally accepted as positive for the country – Gillard herself is Welsh-born and emigrated as a toddler with her family – Australians have long been divided on the issue of sea-borne asylum seekers.

Many people want the government to take a tougher line, while others advocate a more open policy. The issue has helped decide elections in the past.

Gillard named the issue as a top priority soon after ousting Kevin Rudd as prime minister in a June 24 revolt in their Labor Party. Gillard on Tuesday sought to appeal to both sides of the debate.

"It is wrong to label people who are concerned about unauthorized arrivals as rednecks," Gillard said.

She later added, "Australians' basic decency does not accept the idea of punishing women and children by locking them up behind razor wire, or ignoring people who are fleeing genocide, torture and persecution."

The leader of the main conservative opposition party, Tony Abbot, also launched his policy on Tuesday with a promise to "turn back the boats" with tough measures against asylum seekers arriving by sea.

East Timor 'not ready' for asylum centre

ABC News - July 6, 2010

Sara Everingham, Kerri Ritchie and staff – East Timor's deputy prime minister says his country does not have the capacity to set up a regional processing centre for asylum seekers.

Earlier today Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced the Government was negotiating with East Timor on setting up a centre to handle new boat arrivals before they arrived in Australia.

She said she had held talks with the United Nations, as well as East Timor president Jose Ramos-Horta and New Zealand prime minister John Key, on setting up the centre and asked for the "patience and support" of the Australian people.

East Timor's deputy prime minister Jose Luis Guterres says his government has already sent a message to Australia's embassy in Dili saying East Timor is not ready to establish such a centre.

But he says his government is considering the request and will send an official response to Australia in a few weeks time.

"We have so many issues that we have to deal with and bringing another problem, another issue to the country, I don't think it's wise for any politician to do it," he said

He says the regional processing centre is being discussed by several ministries in East Timor's government.

East Timor's foreign minister Zacarias da Costa also confirmed his country has been in talks with Australia about how both countries can work together to deal with asylum seekers.

He says he does not know if the outcome of the discussions will be a processing centre in East Timor or elsewhere.

"We are a new country. Of course our borders are not yet 100 per cent secure. We are still developing our policies and we've been working together with Australia to strengthen our own mechanisms," he said.

"Australia understands very much that it's also in its interest that Timor Leste is safe and secure and has its own mechanisms to deal properly with this situation. This has always been on the table.

"And of course the president has a chance to discuss over the phone with the current prime minister Julia Gillard. I was not informed on the details of the discussion, but I believe all the issues of the interests of both countries were briefly touched by president Horta and Prime Minister Julia Gillard."

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key says he is open to the idea of a processing centre in East Timor, but he says his government will not be increasing its refugee quota. He also says New Zealand will not be sacrificing its security checks on asylum seekers.

"These boats are becoming larger and therefore more capable of coming to New Zealand. The second thing I said to Julia Gillard last night is New Zealand's not interested in increasing the number of refugees that we take under the UNHCR program – which is 750 – nor would we accept a deterioration in the quality of those refugees," Mr Key said.

'Hollow slogans'

During her policy announcement Ms Gillard took aim at what she called the Opposition's "rhetoric" and "hollow slogans" on turning asylum seekers back at sea.

She noted that last year Australia received 0.6 per cent of the world's refugees and said the Opposition's insistence on "turning boats back" was a "fairytale" which would result only in the asylum boats being scuttled and their passengers having to be rescued by Australian vessels.

Ms Gillard promised to "wreck the people-smuggling trade by removing the incentive for the boats to leave the port of origin in the first place". "The purpose [of the new centre] would be to ensure that people smugglers have no product to sell," she said.

"A boat ride to Australia would just be a ticket back to the regional processing centre... to ensure that everyone is subject to a consistent, fair assessment process.

"I told the UN High Commissioner that my Government is not interested in pursuing a new Pacific Solution. Instead, Australia is committed to the development of a sustainable effective regional protection framework.

"I want to reassure Australians this is not about a quick fix, there is no quick fix. Only this sort of long-term approach will deliver what we need."

Earlier Mr Abbott promised to give the Immigration Minister the final say on refugee status decisions.

The new Coalition policy presumes that an asylum seeker who deliberately destroys their identity documents is not a refugee, and makes it tougher for asylum seekers who arrive by boat to be resettled in Australia.

A Coalition government would also scrap the current Government's merit review panel and give asylum seekers the same legal rights in Australia they have in Indonesia.

The Opposition also plans to boost the Immigration Minister's powers to challenge the granting of visas in individual cases. Mr Abbott said a democratically elected minister should play a greater role in determining who is granted refugee status.

The Coalition would also increase the number of places for asylum seekers who apply from offshore and it has proposed a scheme for community groups to privately sponsor refugees.

Asylum limbo

Ms Gillard also said the Government was lifting the suspension on processing claims for Sri Lankans after the release of a new UN report overnight, clearing the way for all Sri Lankan asylum claims to be processed as far as possible.

Dr Sam Pari from the Australian Tamil Congress has welcomed Ms Gillard's announcement, as well as the warning that people who are not genuine refugees will be sent back.

"We've always been fine with that. People who deserve protection should be given refugee status, however those posing to be refugees who are not refugees should be sent back," Dr Pari said.

But the Sri Lankan asylum seekers who were involved in a six- month stand-off at the Indonesian Port of Merak late last year say they do not know if the Australian Government's new policy applies to them.

The ethnic Tamils are still being detained at the Tanjung Pinang detention centre in Indonesia, months after their boat was seized by Indonesian authorities in response to former prime minister Kevin Rudd's phone call to Indonesia's president.

A spokesman for the Tamils, who did not want to be named, says they are unsure if that applies to them because they are being held in Indonesia. He says they have no idea when their claims for asylum will be heard by the United Nations Human Rights Commission.

The Immigration Department said 1,050 people were currently affected by the visa freeze on Afghan and Sri Lankan asylum seekers. Of those, 866 were Afghans and 184 were Sri Lankans.

A department spokesman said 2,571 "irregular maritime arrivals" were in detention on Christmas Island and 1,695 on the mainland.

Opinion & analysis

Indonesia fears influx from East Timor solution

Sydney Morning Herald - July 15, 2010

Andrea Booth – Australia's failure to consult Indonesia about an asylum processing centre in East Timor is likely to exacerbate tensions between our two northern neighbours.

Foreign Minister Stephen Smith arrived in Indonesia yesterday, with talks on the issue anticipated. Officials here won't say it, but it was wrong of Australia not to consult Indonesia on its policy.

Indonesian Institute of Sciences researcher Dr Tri Nuke Pudjiastut said South-East Asian countries should not assist asylum seekers in isolation. "We should be dealing with this as ASEAN. Indonesia should bring this problem to ASEAN."

While East Timor says it won't join ASEAN until 2011, it is part of the ASEAN Regional Forum.

Leaving individual countries to deal with asylum seekers on their own may be better for Australia, as it sharply reduces irregular migration – as seen by former PM John Howard's measures – but it's clearly a selfish and irresponsible road to take, ultimately weakening the region's strength. Nothing stands in isolation. National procedures need to be based on responsibility sharing.

Not only is the move reckless, but Indonesia fears it cannot support potential refugees entering its borders amid domestic disasters, particularly as it and East Timor are still delimiting borders.

Indonesian Institute for Strategic Studies senior researcher Bantarto Bandoro said border control had been flailing since the separation of East Timor from Indonesia.

"This is one of the weakest spots that may drag the two countries into turbulent relations, as both countries seem to show a lack of awareness on how to solve this ongoing [border] problem," he said.

Bantarto said tension remained between the two countries on unresolved border areas after about 300,000 East Timorese, or 53,000 families, fled to Indonesia in 1999 when the anti- independence Timorese militia, supported by the Indonesian government, launched a scorched earth campaign. The violence killed about 1400 civilians and destroyed much of East Timor's infrastructure.

Weak security at the border will mean that refugees can enter Indonesia and East Timor without detection. Indonesia may end up bearing the responsibility of refugees if East Timor cannot properly manage a processing centre, which might be the case as Timor is still mired in internal challenges. Its infrastructure and economy are poor after years of fighting for independence.

Indonesia is still struggling to support East Timorese refugees who refuse repatriation and are living in its province of East Nusa Tenggara. CIS Data has shown the Indonesian government stopped providing relief in 2002.

Moreover, Indonesia is also accommodating asylum seekers from the Middle East and other areas of conflict, particularly since Australia asked for help intercepting boats bound for its shores.

Indonesia has taken in about 14,000 Afghan refugees intercepted on their way to Australia, while 255 Sri Lankan refugees were intercepted by the Indonesian Navy in October last year. But, as Tri Nuke says, Indonesia is still reluctant to sign the Refugee Convention, so an Australian processing centre will not be placed there.

Expecting Indonesia to accommodate a possible influx of refugees from an East Timor processing centre while also grappling to support its own citizens affected by natural disasters, such as last year's Padang earthquake and the 2006 Sidoarjo mudflow, seems a bit too much to ask. Many of the victims of these incidents still do not have homes.

Indonesia also faces increasing poverty – about 120 million of its people live on only $2 a day.

Indonesia's natural disaster and poverty crisis, and its infamous corrupt government and hard-line groups creating social, political and economic turmoil, are enough to show it cannot bear the weight of potential refugees crossing the border from East Timor.

[Andrea Booth is an Australian journalist based in Jakarta.]

Timor solution blind-side may backfire on Gillard

Sydney Morning Herald - July 8, 2010

Damien Kingsbury – A few years ago, a Burmese couple on the run from that country's brutal military regime sought asylum in Australia. They had landed in East Timor and went to the embassy. Their application for refugee status was ultimately refused and, unable to return to Burma, they stayed in Dili. The couple worked, saved and in time opened a Burmese restaurant, the Dili Beach Cafe, which has since become one of Dili's social and culinary landmarks.

The East Timorese government accepted this Burmese couple, and it has accepted the few others who have braved East Timor's still difficult conditions to start a new life, because the East Timorese understand what it is like to need asylum.

President Jose Ramos-Horta was a refugee between 1975 and 1999, as was first prime minister Mari Alkatiri, many of both the first and second governments, as well as the many expatriates who have since returned to help rebuild their original home. Many East Timorese found refuge in Australia, but many were also rejected, at one point on the fiction that, as technically Portuguese citizens, they had a "home" to go to.

Now Australia is asking East Timor to act as a processing point for asylum seekers it continues to be unwilling to accept on its own shores. It is a plan that could possible work, but it is also a plan that might well fail. It is certainly a plan laden with historical irony.

The government's announcement to seek to have asylum seekers processed in East Timor is in direct response to the general negative perception of asylum seekers arriving in Australia by boat. Asylum seekers are again a wedge issue for the government which, looking down the barrel of an election, is seeking to have it neutralised.

The announcement has so far only been outlined in broad form and it appears that such discussions about it that have been had have been with President Jose Ramos-Horta. Ramos-Horta has said that if East Timor accepts Australia's asylum seekers it will do so humanely. It will not lock them up, but probably let them wander freely. As a political outcast for a quarter of a century, he knows what it is like to be forced to flee one's home.

The problem is, however, that despite Ramos-Horta's frequent contributions to public debate and his propensity to seek solutions to vexing questions, he is a largely ceremonial president in what is a parliamentary republic. Ramos-Horta has no executive authority and his last public intervention, on the Woodside Timor Sea dispute, earned him little more than the ire of the East Timorese government. Ramos-Horta is a decent person, but he is not the "go-to" man for political decision making.

The question, then, is whether the "East Timor solution" has been put to the government of East Timorese, rather than its largely symbolic head of state. The initial indication is that it has not, and this may cause problems. East Timorese woke yesterday morning to the news that Australia wished to house its asylum seekers in their country. In the words of one anonymous minister, they were "blind-sided" on the issue. In East Timor, there is a feeling that they have recently been blind-sided twice by Australia.

The last was the unilateral announcement by Woodside Petroleum to process liquid natural gas on a floating platform in the Timor Sea. The East Timorese government had expected to be consulted first, and to its own preferred option of on-shore processing. But this failed to happen and they were consequently furious.

Despite being organisationally separate, the Australian government was in part blamed for Woodside's decision, and there remains an expectation in East Timor that the Australian government will pressure it to accept the East Timorese on-shore processing preference.

Since then, the East Timorese government generally, and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao in particular, have toned down their rhetoric. However, what appears to be a lack of consultation is likely to at best be regarded as undiplomatic and at worst a serious insult.

The question is, then, can the Gillard government keep the "East Timor solution" on track. Gillard is a competent negotiator, as seen over the recent mining industry agreement. And Australia has a very competent and astute diplomatic core in Dili, which will no doubt now be working overtime on this issue.

Assuming the East Timorese government does not suggest in similarly undiplomatic terms that the Australian government goes away, there will be a big question around "what's in it for us?" Pressure on Woodside may well be a part of that, although difficult for the government to carry, especially in light of the recent mining "super profits" tax debacle.

There will certainly be a question around funding asylum seekers, and other support mechanisms. And, should there be an initial agreement, there will then be the question of legislative changes – always slow moving in East Timor – to the immigration act to allow the agreement to proceed.

The "East Timor solution" is, then, far from being a done deal. From Gillard's perspective, though, what she will want more than anything is less an immediate deal than time.

The Prime Minister has shown she can get an agreement and does not need to have this one signed off before an election – she just needs Australian voters to know it is a live option. What she does not want, however, is for the government of East Timor to close the door in her face.

East Timor retains an overall good relationship with Australia, but it is also becoming more assertive, confident in its ability to stand as an increasingly financially independent state.

The Australian government's test will be whether it can at least hold open the possibility of a deal on asylum seekers until after an election. The further test for Gillard will be whether she can work on the international political stage, as well as the domestic one.

Judging by this first international outing, the Prime Minister knows something that no one else, including the East Timorese government, seems to know, at least at this stage. Either that, or she might have a second look at where she is getting her international advice.

[Professor Damien Kingsbury is in the School of International and Political Studies at Deakin University. He has an Australia Research Council grant to study the politics of East Timor.]

Offshore processing plan: Someone forgot to tell East Timor

Crikey.com - July 8, 2010

Damien Kingsbury – The announcement by the Gillard government that it intends to use East Timor as a processing stop-over for asylum seekers is either a very clever political ploy or a blunder that has the potential to derail her run for a second term for her government. At its heart appears to be a qualified endorsement from a man who has no capacity to offer it – East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta.

The asylum seeker issues will no doubt be a central election issue and the Gillard government is looking to neutralize it. Using East Timor as a point of processing asylum seekers is smart because it keeps asylum seekers off-shore and hence satisfies voters who believed the 'Pacific solution' was a good idea.

It is also smart politics because East Timor is a signatory to the Refugee Convention, has a good if limited history on asylum seekers and continues to be viewed with sympathy by much of Australia. If asylum seekers are sent to East Timor, the chances are they will not be locked up but allowed to roam freely, and will be supported by the Australian government which will assist the Timorese economy. But there are, of course, real problems.

The first problem is that it is far from clear that the Gillard government has spoken to anyone else about this other than President Ramos-Horta. Unfortunately, despite his propensity to speak out on issues, he is a largely ceremonial president with no executive authority. His recent intervention in the Woodside Petroleum dispute over processing LNG from the Timor Sea earned him a blunt rebuff from the East Timorese government.

The view within Dili was otherwise one of surprise – no-one seems to have been forewarned, much less consulted about this proposal. Indeed, one minister was privately saying that the East Timorese government had been 'blind-sided'. This is at best poor diplomacy.

As noted by Fretilin opposition spokesman Jose Teixeira, such a move will require a change to East Timor's immigration act, which would at best take months, given the slowness of the legislative process there and the debates this will undoubtedly raise.

Further, prime minister Xanana Gusmao has recently been critical of Australia's aid program and its refusal to push Woodside to establish an LNG processing plant on East Timor's south coast. The East Timorese government equates Woodside with the Australian government, despite their obvious separation, and he has lambasted Woodside for its own announcement on a floating LNG platform. East Timor was, he said, 'blind-sided' on this decision as well.

Being blind-sided again, then, will not go down well in East Timor. So, if East Timor does agree, it will try to extract a hefty price from Australia, not just in terms of support for the asylum seekers, on top of its $100 million aid program, and some longer term benefit for East Timorese citizens who still largely live in dire poverty. It will also want to see the Australian government put real pressure on Woodside, which it has so far refused to do. Woodside, for its own part, is not likely to accept such pressure with much enthusiasm.

In short, the 'East Timor solution' does not look to have been well planned and has a high probability of falling over. However, if Gillard can hold together a process of negotiation until after an election, expected to be called sooner rather than later, then she will have neutralized the issue in the short term and have the luxury of time after an election - assuming Labor wins - to deal with the problems the proposal raises in the longer term.

PM Gillard does have strengths as a negotiator and perhaps she can pull this one off. But PM Gusmao has been in a feisty mood lately and is likely to be at best taciturn if not outright combative. A genuine 'East Timor solution', then, seems some way off.

East Timor is a far better option for asylum seekers than Indonesian camps or the Pacific islands, if it is done right. For a start, the asylum seekers would probably be free, if within the confines of the island. Others have even started new and productive lives there, despite its obvious difficulties.

But it is a long way from certain that East Timor's government will agree to this proposal, which it is difficult to view as other than a stop-gap measure. And an initial outright refusal would damage the Gillard 'brand', perhaps fatally.

To try to ensure the 'East Timor solution' stays on track, it is highly likely that Australia's Ambassador to Timor-Leste, Peter Heyward, will be fully exercising his considerable diplomatic and personal skills.

If this proposal stays alive as even just a possibility, it will be in large part due to this diplomat's role. If it does not stay alive, Gillard and co can only look to what appears to be their own lack of planning. But if that eventuates after the election, then perhaps they won't care quite so much.

[Professor Damien Kingsbury is in the School of International and Political Studies at Deakin University.]

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