East Timor News Digest 12 – December 1-31, 2011
- Noam Chomsky: Remember the Santa Cruz massacre - Jakarta Post. December 2, 2011
- Growing up with barely a meal a day - Jakarta Globe. December 11, 2011
- Apartments offered to Timor Leste refugees - Jakarta Post. December 10, 2011
- Woodside, East Timor 'aligned' in wanting Sunrise LNG to proceed - Bloomberg News. December 18, 2011
Noam Chomsky: Remember the Santa Cruz massacre
Jakarta Post - December 2, 2011
Prodita Sabarini, Sydney – American philosopher and linguist Noam Chomsky said justice was escaping human rights abuse victims, as he spoke of Indonesia's dark period in East Timor (now Timor Leste) with the Santa Cruz Massacre 20 years ago, and the West's complicity in that episode of violence.
The prolific left-wing thinker gave his lecture on "Revolutionary Pacifism" in Sydney's Town Hall recently as he received the Sydney Peace Prize awarded annually by the Sydney Peace Foundation.
"Another anniversary that should be in our minds today is of the massacre in the Santa Cruz graveyard in Dili just 20 years ago, the most publicized of a great many shocking atrocities during the Indonesian invasion and annexation of East Timor," he said.
Twenty years ago on Nov. 12 in Dili, the military fired on civilians attending a memorial service of a resistance fighter, killing 270 people. Sixteen years earlier, with the backing of the US and Australia's encouragement, Indonesia annexed East Timor.
Although the Indonesian government considers the chapter of its violent past in East Timor closed since it acknowledged a bilateral truth commission's report that concluded – without naming individuals – that Indonesia committed gross human rights violations during East Timor's 1999 break for Independence, Chomsky, citing the UN's Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, considers it to be a continuing offense.
"The demands of justice can remain unfulfilled long after peace has been declared. The Santa Cruz massacre 20 years ago can serve as an illustration," he said. "The fate of the disappeared is unknown, and the offenders have not been brought to justice, including those who continue to conceal the crimes of complicity and participation."
Human rights organization Amnesty International recently urged the Indonesian government to reveal the details of the shooting in Santa Cruz.
Chomsky's reminder of the impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators and those who were complicit in the violence carried out in East Timor was an illustration of his general theme of his lecture on "Revolutionary Pacifism". He quoted American pacifist thinker and social activist A.J. Muste, who "disdained the search for peace without justice". Chomsky quoted Muste's warning 45 years ago: "The problem after a war is with the victor. He thinks he has just proved that war and violence pay. Who will teach him a lesson?"
In his lecture, Chomsky recalled Australia's dismissive attitude on the invasion, quoting former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans a couple of months before the Santa Cruz massacre as saying, "The world is a pretty unfair place ... littered ... with examples of acquisitions of force." At the same time, Australia and Indonesia made a deal for East Timor's oil.
The former foreign minister stood his ground that Australia had nothing to answer for morally in the annexation of East Timor by Indonesia. Chomsky said that this stance "can be adopted and even respected by those who emerge victorious". He added, "In the US and Britain, the question is not even asked in polite society."
Chomsky said that bringing the offenders and those who concealed and were complicit in the crime was the one indication of "how far we must go to rise to some respectable level of civilized behavior".
The director of the Sydney Peace Foundation, Stuart Rees, as he introduced Chomsky to a standing ovation audience at Sydney Town Hall on Nov. 2, said that Chomsky was chosen for the peace prize as he had been committed to peace with global justice, to human rights and freedom of speech.
In the US, Chomsky has been criticized for his response on the assassination on Osama bin Laden. Chomsky reiterated his criticism on the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq after 9/11 and the killing of Bin Laden in his lecture in Sydney. Chomsky said that the killing of Bin Laden abandoned the "doctrine of 'presumption of innocence'".
Chomsky joined Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Arundhati Roy, Sir William Deane and former secretary-general of Amnesty International Irene Khan as recipients of the Sydney Peace Prize.
Some 2,000 people attended his lecture at the historical building of Sydney Town Hall. In his soft-spoken manner, he mentioned that the public had the power to question the victors of war. In the case of East Timor, he said that in 1999, the pressure from the Australian public and media convinced former US president Bill Clinton to tell the Indonesian generals "that the game was over, at which point they immediately withdrew allowing an Australian-led peacekeeping force to enter."
Chomsky said that there was a lesson for the public in that episode, as Clinton could have delivered the orders earlier, which would have prevented the massacre.
The social thinker read his lecture sentence by sentence in a calm and monotonous tone. His manner of speech did not boast any exemplary oratorical skill; however, the content was clear and his message was direct; and included in that message was that the strategy carried out by the US in the war on terror was destabilizing and radicalizing the Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.
A professor of linguistics at MIT, Chomsky has long been criticizing American foreign policy.
According to The Guardian, he joins Marx, Shakespeare and the Bible as one of the 10 most-quoted sources in humanities and the only one among the writers who is still alive. With the Sydney Peace Prize, Chomsky won a A$50,000 (US$51,030) prize.
Growing up with barely a meal a day
Jakarta Globe - December 11, 2011
Ade Mardiyati – Out of love for Indonesia, Dominggus da Costa, along with his wife and children, decided to leave his hometown of Dili, East Timor in 1999, the year that marked the end of Indonesia's nearly 25-year occupation of his homeland.
At the time, the Indonesian government was offering two options for East Timorese: They could remain Indonesian citizens or become citizens of the newly independent nation.
"I chose Indonesia because I loved this country that gave us life and also because I simply thought that life would be better than if we stayed in East Timor," he said. "I was wrong."
The Indonesian government, Dominggus said, had promised that each family that migrated to West Timor, which is part of Indonesia, would receive a house. Twelve years later, however, Dominggus, as well as other former East Timorese who are now spread throughout East Nusa Tenggara province, still have yet to receive what had been promised.
Some 115 families, including Dominggus's, made the jump, living first in a refugee camp in Tuapukan. There were no proper houses for them to live in, he said.
"All we had was this five-by-six meter house where 10 families, or about 70 people, were squeezed in," Dominggus said. "We struggled just to find space to sleep. There was garbage everywhere and water was scarce. Many suffered from diseases like dengue fever and diarrhea, as well as skin problems. Others died. We lived like that for four years. The government has never given us the houses it promised."
In 2003, the refugees were relocated to Naibonat village. Three years after that, they finally began a new chapter of their lives when the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees provided the families with homes and a block of land for their livelihoods in Manusak village.
However, like many other former East Timor refugees in the province, Dominggus's life today is far from comfortable. Much of East Nusa Tenggara is unsuitable for growing crops.
To survive, the father of seven plants yams and corn on his plot of land and sells them only on the rare occasion that he has a surplus. "It is usually only enough for our family to eat once a day," he said. "We rarely take the yams and corn to the market to sell.
"On a daily basis, we eat yams or corn with any edible leaves we can find around here. Rice is too expensive for us, which costs Rp 7,000 to Rp 8,000 (80-90 cents) per kilogram. Sometimes we trade yams for rice when we want to eat it. We hardly eat fish, let alone meat. They are just too expensive."
For years, thousands of ex-East Timorese refugees in East Nusa Tenggara have had to cope with countless problems, most notably the lack of proper housing.
During a recent visit, sponsored by the European Union, to some locations, the Jakarta Globe found that the houses in which the ex-East Timorese refugees, referred to as "new citizens," live do not meet the basic standards of home.
In camp areas, people reside in modest dirt-floor houses made of dried wood and leaves. Each home has a separate kitchen and bathroom, but neither meet common standards of decency. Typically, animals such as chickens and pigs are kept in a barn just meters away from the house.
Clean water is unavailable in many areas, forcing residents to walk long distances to get what they need for the day.
"A well was included in the housing package UNHCR gave us, but it is too dry here," Dominggus said. "We have to walk 700 meters to get water. Children can normally manage to carry a two-liter container, while adults can carry back 10 liters. We don't have electricity either. We use kerosene lamps at night."
The residents' right to the land is also in dispute because they were resettled in areas where other people had been living for generations.
Through the Aid to Uprooted People program, the EU has provided assistance to address the issues in East Nusa Tenggara and other parts of Indonesia. As much as 5 million euros ($6.7 million) has been allocated to the project, which helps refugees and internally displaced people obtain better access to land, homes, health care, education and jobs.
"We want to help them meet their basic needs and achieve social integration with their communities," said Muamar Vebry, the EU's project officer for post-disaster reconstruction. "We also want to ensure that this help is aligned with the Indonesian government's priorities through a close cooperation with the Ministry for the Development of Disadvantaged Regions [PDT] and the provincial government."
The head of the Kupang region, Ayub Titu Eki, said the central government will provide funds to build 1,000 homes and renovate 750 units in the area in the near future. However, he said, the availability of land remains a problem.
"There is not enough land to build these homes, and locals will demand high prices for their land because they know it is in high demand," he said.
While it is unknown when the homes will be built, thousands of ex-East Timorese refugees are in urgent need of proper housing. "We are also human," said Marcelino Rai, 29, who lives in a campsite in Noel Baki village. "We have the same rights as other Indonesian citizens."
As for Dominggus, opting to remain Indonesian is a decision he said he regrets. "Everything is difficult now," he said. "I worked as a security officer in East Timor and although I earned very little money, I had a house and a little land where I could grow some vegetables. I just thought life would be better here."
Dominggus said he was disappointed that the Indonesian government had broken its promises to the loyal East Timorese who migrated. "But I am not angry," he said. "I am proud that I am still an Indonesian," he said. "I can only pray to God to let me have these hands and eyes for as long as I live so I can keep working for my family."
Growing up with barely a meal a day
Isak Sarmento, 9, was not yet born when his parents, Alasi da Pintu and Alfredu Piris, decided to leave East Timor amid the conflict in 1999. He knows nothing of the chaos that once engulfed the region.
He has no idea that where he lives in Noel Baki village is a campsite where ex-East Timorese refugees, including his parents, resettled years ago. Like most children his age, the second grader enjoys playing with his classmates.
The home where he lives is a semi-permanent structure with two bedrooms and earthen floors. The walls are made of bebak, the midrib of the native lontar tree (Borassus flabellifer), while the zinc roof raises the temperature in the house.
Despite the hardships, Isak seems to be comfortable in his bedroom, although, "There are a lot of mosquitoes here, especially at night," he said.
His mother works on someone else's farm picking and selling vegetables in the market. His aging blind and deaf father stays at home most of the time, performing occasional work as a cattle caretaker for others.
Although children need proper nutrition to develop properly, Isak typically eats just once a day because his parents are too poor to provide anything more. "I wait for my wife to come home from work. If she brings food, then we can eat. If not, we just forget about it," said Isak's father, Alfredu.
Isak's two elder brothers now live in orphanages in Java and Sulawesi. "They can have a better life there," said Alasi, Isak's mother. Inside their house, there is a special corner where they have placed a statue of the Virgin Mary and a cross.
"We put it here so we can pray," Isak said. "In my daily prayers to Mother Mary, I say 'Please give our family food to eat, at least once a day.'?"
Apartments offered to Timor Leste refugees
Jakarta Post - December 10, 2011
Kupang – The Kupang regency administration in East Nusa Tenggara, has offered apartments to refugees from Timor Leste currently staying in makeshift shelters.
Over 1,000 families took refuge in East Nusa Tenggara when East Timor, now Timor Leste, became independent from Indonesia, following a referendum in 1999. They have since lived in shelters while the local government worked to find them permanent settlements.
Regent Ayub Titu Eki said that his administration was looking to provide decent settlements to the refugees. "It's difficult to meet their demands that a settlement be built with cultivated land," he said when meeting with a European Union monitoring team on Wednesday. "The solution is the government builds apartments with the hopes that the rest of the land can be used for cultivation," he said.
The refugees have complained about the settlements provided by the government. "The government has built settlements in a number of locations since 2001. But they are far from access to education, healthcare and economic opportunity. There is no electricity or clean water," Vasco Amaral, a refugee at Tuapukan village, said on Friday.
Margaretha, another refugee, said that around 500 school children might drop out because their parents faced financial difficulties.
The European Union has assisted 4,663 refugees with settlement, social facilities, healthcare, education services and economic empowerment, according to reports.
Woodside, East Timor 'aligned' in wanting Sunrise LNG to proceed
Bloomberg News - December 18, 2011
James Paton – Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (WPL), its partners and the governments of Australia and East Timor are "aligned in their desire" to see the Sunrise liquefied natural gas project developed, the energy company said.
Australia's second-biggest oil producer, led by Chief Executive Officer Peter Coleman, is looking forward to further dialogue with the Southeast Asian nation to try to resolve a dispute that has stalled the proposed LNG venture in the Timor Sea, the Perth-based company said in a statement yesterday.
"Woodside strongly believes it is not beyond all of us to find a solution to the current impasse," the company said.
East Timor, which became a sovereign state in 2002 and depends heavily on oil and gas revenue, aims to reach an agreement over how to develop Sunrise by next year, President Jose Ramos-Horta said in an interview in September. The country has been opposed to plans by Woodside and its partners, including Royal Dutch Shell Plc (RDSA), to use a floating LNG plant.
East Timor wants the natural gas from the Greater Sunrise field, which straddles a boundary between Australian waters and an area jointly managed by the two countries, to be converted to liquid fuel at an onshore plant on its soil.
Renewed talks
Woodside, developer of the A$14.9 billion ($14.9 billion) Pluto LNG venture in Western Australia, has said that floating LNG technology for Sunrise would be the best commercial option and deliver the most revenue to both countries.
"We are not underestimating the difficulty of working through this process, but we do believe that with the support of the leaders of both governments and the joint venturers it is possible," Woodside said in the statement yesterday.
Coleman, who has visited the East Timor capital of Dili to speak with government officials since replacing Don Voelte as Woodside's CEO earlier this year, said last month that the oil and gas producer had renewed talks with the country.