East Timor

Timor-Leste celebrates International Youth Day

2011-08-19T19:19:00.000+01:00

Fri. August 12, 12:10h

The Government of Timor-Leste, through the Secretariat of State for Youth and Sports, organized several activities to celebrate International Youth Day on August 12. The activities began on the 6th and went up to the 12th of this month.

According to the Director-General of the Secretariat of State for Youth and Sports, José Luís Pádua de Oliveira, the purpose of these initiatives is the training of young boys and girls for a responsible leadership and civic health. The celebrations are based on the theme "I am ready to contribute to sustainable development" as youth are the future of the country.

Competitions in indoor soccer, conversations, hiking, musical concerts and donating blood were planned initiatives.

A competição de futebol salão reúne dezasseis clubes sediados em Díli: FC Comade Delta II, FC Leão The competition brought together sixteen indoor soccer clubs based in Dili: FC Comade Delta II, FC Leão Balide FC Haburas Surik Mas, FC Neptuno Comoro, FC Manumeta Bidau, FC RGM Raikotu, FC One Box Brother Taibesse, FC Virtu Vila-Verde, FC União Bela-Vista Palácio Lahane, FC Jocar’s Perumnas, FC Rumbia Caicoli, FC Jobla Unidos Lahane, FC Rusa Fuik, FC Reibeira Maloa and FC Fitun Kulu-hun.

The awarded prizes for first, second, third and fourth ranked, were prizes worth 1,000, 750, 500 and 250 american dollars respectively.

The colloquium aimed to bringing together members of the secondary schools council in Dili and was held between August 10 and 12. In this colloquium several issues were discussed, such as youth development in the present and future, climate change, the leadership with the nationalist spirit, the National Youth Policy, the Youth Parliament, the National Youth Council and the principle of the practice of martial arts.

On International Youth Day itself, August 1,2 there was a walk, a musical concert and blood donation.

Source : http://timor-leste.gov.tl/?p=5493&lang=en&n=1

The Dili Village Telco

2011-02-03T21:34:00.000Z

David Rowe and Lemi Soares

A Village Telco is a DIY telephone company that uses mesh Wifi and VOIP to build telephone networks without infrastructure like cell phone towers or land lines. The goal of the Village Telco project is to provide affordable telephony for people in the developing world. It is built entirely with open software and hardware.

The Dili Village Telco is the world's first roll out of Village Telco technology. We are deploying 100 Mesh Potatoes to implement a free local call telephone network in Dili, the capital city of Timor Leste, one of the poorest countries in Asia. Mobile and fixed phone service is available in Dili but simply too expensive for the average Timorese.

A Village Telco is built from low cost, rugged Wifi telephony devices called Mesh Potatoes. Each Mesh Potato provides a single fixed telephone line to the end user, and is connected to other Mesh Potatoes via a mesh Wifi network. Mesh Potatoes are robust to developing world environmental conditions (e.g. accidental abuse, weather, static damage, poor electricity supply) and are designed for low power consumption.

The Mesh Potato is an "open hardware" design and runs Linux and other open source software. The Village Telco team designed the Mesh Potato specifically for our needs - custom, open, hardware for the developing world.

The Dili Village Telco project is gathering important technical, social, and business model data for the Village Telco. This project is being support by ISIF and ISOC grants and Atcom, who have manufactured a special batch of Mesh Potatoes for this project.

In this presentation we will talk about the roll out - what went right with technology and more importantly what went wrong! We will also present the social and business outcomes - i.e. how did this project change peoples lives and how can we make Village Telco networks sustainable businesses for local people in the developing world.

http://linuxconfau.blip.tv/file/4697619/

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Letter on issuing visas to U.S. in Dili

2011-02-03T21:31:00.000Z

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
U.S. Department of State
Washington, DC
via fax
February 2, 2011

Dear Secretary of State Clinton,

We are writing to you about the inability of East Timorese citizens to obtain visas to the United States at the U.S. Embassy in Dili. We urge to you to take action to remedy this situation as quickly as possible.

The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) worked to develop understanding and cooperation between the peoples of the United States and Timor-Leste for nearly 20 years. Since independence nearly eight years ago, we have paid close attention to U.S. government efforts to build strong U.S. relationships with the new nation of Timor-Leste. We believe that the current situation is having a negative impact on that relationship.

For many years, ETAN has hosted and met with Timorese here in the U.S. We have brought a number of them to visit and speak with community groups and public officials. The lack of proper consular facilities in Dili has resulted in delays, frustration and added cost to these trips. Frankly, East Timorese are forced to waste too much time and money by having to travel to Jakarta for their interviews, where they often confront unsympathetic officials with little understanding of the situation in Timor-Leste. Unfortunately, some who are well-qualified to receive visas are turned down.

There is no need for these obstacles to valuable cultural, educational and other exchanges with the United States, which lead many East Timorese to question this treatment as second-class.

In the past , we have been told that the delay in opening visa facilities in Dili is due to the cost. Last year, the U.S. was Timor-Leste's second-largest aid donor, and more than $100 million is in the pipeline for the next few years. This aid provides vital support for government and international NGO programs for health, education and good governance, but it cannot overcome stories of bad personal experiences with the excessively burdensome visa process.

We believe a small investment in issuing visas in Dili would greatly pay off in increased good will between the peoples of our two countries.

We understand that most or all U.S. officials closely involved with Timor-Leste favor this. We urge you to make it happen.

Sincerely,

John M. Miller
National Coordinator, East Timor and Indonesia Action Network

cc:
Ambassador Judith Fergin
Kurt S. Campbell, Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs
Janice L. Jacobs, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs
Joseph Y. Yun, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs
members of Congress
public

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Challenges in the Education System

2011-01-25T20:51:00.000Z

S I S T E R R I T A ’ S L E T T E R 2011

RAILACO

Challenges in the Education System

Difficult Transition from High School to University

Our Class 3 students sat for the senior secondary national exam in October and recently received their results. They are still waiting to receive their official certificate without which they are unable to enter University. I really feel for them. Not only was the exam brought forward from November to October with only a few weeks’ notice but they have had the long wait for results and they keep coming to school every day hoping that their certificates have arrived. Af ter the results had been announced the national university, (UNTL) and the only one subsidized by the Government, changed its entrance requirements. The minimum score was raised to 30 or higher and only 2010 school graduates would be accepted for enrolment. Anyone who had allowed a year or more to elapse between completion of secondary schooling and application for university would not be accepted. This was a big blow to many, including some of our students, who had taken a year off to either work on the family farm or to try and gain some money to help with either further education or their family. There has been a follow-on effect also: the private, and much more expensive universities, now have many more applications from students who had graduated from schools prior to 2010 and have earned some money to pay fees. 2010 graduates who missed out on entrance to UNTL found the only faculties available to them were civil engineering and nursing. While both professions are important it is sad to see students taking them because there is nothing else available.

Inequities in the Local Education System

The marks students gain in their final exams are quite perplexing. Secondary teachers correct the papers and swap schools within their District for this purpose. However, they know the school whose students’ papers they are correcting. This leaves an avenue for corruption wide open! While there is no proof of this happening there are plenty of rumours! Certainly, we are often amazed at the quality of the students who do well and vice versa. Some of the private universities are now conducting their own entrance examinations but the results of these are even more bewildering! I am so pleased that donations to our scholarship programme are enabling all students, who apply, to undertake some tertiary course. During these past two weeks, right up until the evening before I had to leave for Australia, students were coming to request funds. One has to admire their tenacity. Obtaining enrolment often requires them taking a trip to Dili, trudging from tertiary institute to tertiary institute, trying to get back from Dili in the pouring rain, receiving the necessary funds and then returning to Dili, hitching a ride if the microlets are too full or not running. If they would only channel this determination, persistence and motivation into their school studies!

---

Frustrating at times, but a rewarding year for us all . .

The above scenario of the frustrations of the Timorese education ‘system’ fade in comparison to other challenges to be faced this year. Class 3 students have to be taught in Portuguese (presumably having been taught in Portuguese right through every class until this one!!!). The teachers are still learning Portuguese during the school ‘holidays’. These past holidays they were to have training in their particular subject area in Portuguese. Our Economics teacher related to me that when he asked the ‘trainer’ an economic question the reply was that the trainer didn’t know anything about economics he just spoke Portuguese! In our school, which is typical in many ways to schools in the Districts and to many in Dili, the teachers had undertaken their own education in Indonesian. They are acquiring Portuguese inadequately, and with little motivation, from poorly equipped ‘teachers’ of Portuguese. There are still no text books in Portuguese for Class 3. The present cohort of students have not acquired Indonesian and their level of Portuguese would vary little in quality and scope from that of their teachers. The Class 3 teachers described their class procedure, with some sense of humour, as that of teachers using Indonesian text books, which they explain in Tetun to their students to prepare them for subject examinations in Portuguese! When teachers are asked why they don’t revolt they reply that they are scared of losing their contract teaching salary from the Government. That, I think, is almost the saddest part of all.

While I am conscious that this letter is a little late in coming I am doing better than the Ministry for Education – two weeks after school starting we still don’t have a school calendar giving us the official school starting date!

Rita
For the Railaco Mission Team

http://web.me.com/mmus/files/PDF/RailacoLetterSisterRitaNo1-2011.pdf

National Youth Forum

2010-08-12T07:53:00.000+01:00

Commemorating International Youth Day in Timor-Leste

On August 12-13, a National Youth Forum will be convened, as part of the Youth Radio for Peace Building Project. The project – for youth, by youth, and about youth – is being implemented by Search for Common Ground (SFCG), and is funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

The Youth Forum will bring together more than 70 youth leaders (between the ages of 17-29) from all 13 of Timor-Leste’s districts. The Youth Forum will be held at the ex-CNRT facility in Balide, starting on August 12th, International Youth Day. The Youth Forum will also officially launch the International Year of Youth in Timor-Leste.

The Youth Forum will use be facilitated using an innovative methodology called Open Space Technology (OST) to stimulate youth discussion on issues relevant to youth in the country, specifically related to conflict transformation. The Youth Forum will engage youth leaders on topics and themes that are important to Timorese youth, helping youth identify constructive solutions to shared challenges. The issues discussed and feedback from the youth forum will provide SFCG and its media partners with valuable material for creative production of its soonto- be launched youth radio magazine program, Babadok Rebenta!, a key component of the Youth Radio for Peace Building Project. In addition, the National Youth Forum will provide youth the opportunity to develop strong networks as a means to coordinate around issues affecting youth. Finally, the results of the Youth Forum will inform key stakeholders in government and civil society about youth aspirations and challenges, as they develop youth and peace building strategies in Timor-Leste.

For more information about the National Youth Forum or the Youth Radio for Peace Building Project, please contact Jose C. Guterres, SFCG-TL Program Manager: +670 725-3877.

Timor Government won't meet with Woodside over gas plans

2010-05-05T01:22:00.002+01:00

ABC

Timor Government won't meet with Woodside over gas plans

Woodside executives plan to travel to East Timor to convince the government to accept the company's proposal of a floating platform for liquifying gas from Greater Sunrise. [ABC]

Sara Everingham

Last Updated: Mon, 3 May 2010 10:56:00 +1000

East Timor's Government says it won't meet executives from the Australian oil and gas company Woodside to discuss the development of the Greater Sunrise fields between East Timor and Australia.

Woodside executives plan to travel to East Timor to convince the government to accept the company's proposal of a floating platform for liquifying gas from Greater Sunrise.

But the government won't meet them.

It says Woodside will have to stick to the accepted channels for negotiation and deal with East Timor's petroleum regulator.

East Timor's Government wants the gas processed onshore in East Timor.

A source close to the government source says Woodside has underestimated East Timor's ability to strike a fair deal and says the Woodside visit holds little credibility in East Timor because the company has a dubious history of dealing with developing nations.

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The Tasi Tolu Exhumations

2010-03-25T00:47:00.000Z

The case for a CAVR/CTF follow-up mechanism has been given new urgency by the recent find of more remains of human rights victims on the outskirts of Dili and the equally startling discovery that Timor-Leste has no regulations to govern construction on sites of significance. As Dili is in the grip of an unprecedented building boom, with some 1400 companies registered in the construction sector, legislation and the establishment of an oversight mechanism are urgently needed.

This month, 9 sets of human remains were exhumed at the Tasi Tolu site of the future Pelican Paradise hotel west of Dili. The discovery follows exhumations of 16 Santa Cruz victims last year. Initial forensic reports confirm that the Tasi Tolu remains were the victims of extra-judicial executions, possibly from the late 70s-early 80s. The bodies were trussed hand and foot and buried in pits prepared by mechanical ditch-diggers. Bullets were found at the scene, indicating that the victims were executed at the site. The burial site is therefore also a crime site. This also means that, like Tasi Tolu area itself, the site is a place of emotional and historical significance in Timor’s costly struggle for independence.

The discovery has already yielded some positive lessons. The most important of these has been the goodwill and respective contributions of the key stakeholders. The company has cooperated with the exhumations, an important precedent for other developers, although it is not known what, if any, steps will be taken to commemorate the site. Prime Minister Gusmao and his government have provided funding. Members of parliament and the community have taken a close interest and visited the site. Forensic experts have been engaged to ensure that the process is professionally managed, a welcome advance on damaging efforts some years ago when well-intentioned amateurs handled remains from 1999. Finally, it is said that the location of the site is due to a tip-off some years ago by Indonesian military sources. Each of these elements, not least –if true – the information from Indonesian sources, has been critical to the outcome and will be vital to future work of this kind which is only just beginning.

The process, however, has also revealed some serious policy shortcomings and the urgent need for regulations. Timor-Leste has no building regulations to protect or preserve sites of historic, political or cultural significance and to govern building on such sites. UNTAET Regulation 2000/19 (Section 6) on Protected Places provided that the Transitional Administrator, under a directive, may designate monuments, buildings and other sites as property of cultural, artistic or historic significance to the people of Timor-Leste, but this provision has not been translated into contemporary legislation. Such legislation would be clearly in the spirit of the Constitution which, although it does not mention sites, devotes four Articles to the Valorisation of Resistance (Section 11).

The CAVR Report Chega! contains some 14 recommendations that deal directly or indirectly with memorialisation. The most relevant can be found at 3.2.1-3.3.1; 3.7.7 and 12.12. In summary, these call for families to be assisted to locate and re-bury relatives and for significant sites to be registered and memorialised in some way. CAVR took a broad view of memorialisation. In this sense, the concept should be comprehensive enough to cover both sites of human rights violations like the ex-Balide Comarca and Hotel Flamboyan in Baucau (development of its notorious back section is on hold) as well as sites that are historically significant in other respects such the site of the new Palacio Presidencial and Hotel Turismo (currently undergoing renovation).

To this point, however, these timely recommendations have not been acted on. No register of sites or authority exist which companies should consult prior to development or if a discovery is made. The Parliament’s Committee A is currently preparing legislation to establish a CAVR/CTF follow-up mechanism whose terms of reference will most likely include a national memorialisation program. It is to be hoped that this important initiative is speedily enacted and that the Gusmao government uses this legislative and institutional framework to respond to the important issues raised by the Tasi Tolu case.

Comment on Taci Tolu exhumations

Pat Walsh, 22 March 2010

Timor security 'close' to taking over

2010-03-25T00:37:00.000Z

ABC News

Timor security 'close' to taking over

Posted 3 hours 28 minutes ago

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

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

Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston says the East Timorese military are continuing to improve their professionalism.

He has told Australia Network that he is confident they will be able to take care of their own security.

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

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

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Support ETAN in 2010! To make a contribution go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm Thank you for your support.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

Web site: http://www.etan.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/etan009
Blog: http://etanaction.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/134122?recruiter_id=10193810

Send a blank e-mail message to info@etan.org to find out
how to learn more about East Timor on the Internet

Winners: John Rumbiak Human Rights Defender Award for 2009

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Renewed calls for war crimes tribunal in East Timor

2010-03-24T08:01:00.000Z

roduced by Michael Kermode

Audio here: http://www.thewire.org.au/audio/timorFINAL_3%2741web.mp3

A human rights group in East Timor has renewed its calls for an international tribunal for crimes against humanity committed by Indonesian occupation forces from 1975-1999. Earlier this month, the President, Jose Ramos Horta, repeated that a tribunal was unnecessary and support was marginal. But the group, the Timor-Leste National Alliance for an International Tribunal, with the support of a large group of victims, say they are sending a clear message that despite their leader's reluctance, widely unpopular criminal impunity should come to an end. However, the degree of support within Timor for a tribunal is questioned by some, who claim that bilateral and economic relations may come up trumps over justice in the end. Featured in story: Justice John Dowd, President International Commission of Jurists Australia; and Dr Clinton Fernandes, Senior Lecturer in Strategic Studies at the University of New South Wales.

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Support ETAN in 2010! To make a contribution go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm Thank you for your support.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

Norwegian Refugee Council in Timor-Leste

2010-03-23T01:51:00.001Z

22.03.2010 | news Newsdesk

Press release from the Norwegian Embassy in Indonesia

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) has done a tremendous effort to help the country out of the crisis that followed the 2006 riots. A massive refugee problem, involving more than 10% of the population, was facing the tiny nation as the citizens had to flee their homes, or they lost their homes which were put on fire.

NRC started work in Timor-Leste in November 2006, with funds from the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Since then, NRC has built 595 transitional shelters in five different locations, in order to help internally displaced people (IDP's) to move from tented camps, such as Hospital IDP camp into temporary shelters. NRC has also rehabilitated a health clinic in Dili and five offices for the UN dialogue teams.

All transitional camps have now been closed. Further, NRC has built 5 youth centres, supporting youth without a job for training and encouragement in their lives. The last youth centre was opened in Dili 17 March 2010. Finally, since March 2009, NRC has been working with reconstruction/rehabilitation and teacher training for up to 30 schools in rural areas, so benefitting the most disadvantaged communities by ensuring sustainable access to education.

Mr. Alfredo Zamudio, and his very dedicated team, can look back at remarkable results achieved under very difficult circumstances. NRC will end their mission in Timor-Leste within 2010. Their dedicated leader Alfredo Zamudio works hard, with support from the Norwegian Embassy Section in Dili, to ensure that the work done by NRC, and their organisation built up during these years, may be carried on in a sustainable way by the Government of Timor-Leste.

Original news source: http://www.norway.or.id/Norway_in_Indonesia/timorleste/Norwegian-Refugee-Council-in-Timor-Leste-/

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Support ETAN in 2010! To make a contribution go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm Thank you for your support.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

Beyond the Truth: Can Reparations Move Peace and Justice Forward in Timor-Leste?

2010-03-23T01:49:00.000Z

by Leigh-Ashley Lipscomb

Abstract
After hundreds of years as a Portuguese colony and then decades of Indonesian occupation, Timor-Leste (East Timor) finally became independent in 2002. Since then, Timor-Leste has been in the process of building itself as a sovereign nation, fighting to shake off its tumultuous past. Timor-Leste must now decide how best to resolve issues stemming from a brief civil war and Indonesian invasion and occupation (1975-1999), including grave human rights violations on all sides of the conflict. Human rights trials in both Timor-Leste and Indonesia have produced unsatisfying results, but two separate truth commissions recommended reparations--both intrastate and interstate--as a key element of reconciliation and healing. Critical questions remain, however, concerning the value, scope, and implementation of a reparations program within Timor-Leste or between Indonesia and Timor-Leste. Only a sincere, informed, and transparent decision-making process will result in a reparations program that could be a significant and successful part of moving peace and justice forward.

AsiaPacific Issues, No. 93
Publisher: Honolulu: East-West Center
Publication Date: March 2010

Pages: 12

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Support ETAN in 2010! To make a contribution go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm Thank you for your support.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

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Winners: John Rumbiak Human Rights Defender Award for 2009

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Report on the needs of families of the Missing in Timor-Leste

2010-03-23T01:46:00.000Z

This is a report of recent research in Timor-Leste to understand what families of those missing as a result of the conflict seek in response to their victimhood. Whilst the authorities deny the need for prosecutions and talk of 'social justice', rights agencies insist that victims seek prosecutions: neither however has sought the views of ordinary victims. This study uses qualitative research methods with a representative sample of victims, using a list collected by ICRC over a 30 year period serving as a sampling frame. It aims to determine both what victims seek a decade after the end of conflict and their attitude towards those transitional justice mechanisms that have taken place, essentially a victim-centred evaluation of that process.

This research also aims to inform the ongoing process towards the creation of an institution to implement the recommendations of both CAVR and the CTF.

The report can be found at:

http://www.simonrobins.com/Robins%20-%20Needs%20of%20families%20of%20the%20Missing%20in%20Timor.pdf

I would very much welcome any comments or feedback.

Simon Robins.
--
_____________________________________________________________________
Simon Robins www.simonrobins.com
Post War Reconstruction and Development Unit, University of York

Tel: +1 646 881 7828 (US)
Tel: +44 (0)7795 575086 (UK)
_______________________________________________
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East Timor photos charm

2010-03-22T05:31:00.000Z

March 19th, 2010

THE beauty of East Timor is on show as a new exhibition of photographs opens in Darwin tonight.

Former and present Darwinites Kate Sieper and Vicki Kerrigan are exhibiting pictures they took during a visit last year to encourage tourists to visit our impoverished neighbour, and to raise funds for a charity there.

Some of the most beautiful shots show the area around the fishing village of Tutuala, in the far east of East Timor.

Kerrigan, an ABC radio host, said she and Sieper, who works in the Prime Minister's office, caught a fisherman's boat for $US5 to Jaco Island, across the clear green waters, and found themselves quite alone.

"You are quite literally on a deserted island with some of the best snorkelling I have done in my life," she said.

"You don't even need polaroid sunnies (to see the sea glow green) - that's just what it looks like."

If tourists are seeking an off-the-track holiday, Kerrigan said this is as good a place than any.

"There's nobody there. There's just fishermen, virtually no tourists. It is untouched.

"It's such a poor country that even when we went to this eco-resort there was no water to drink.

"We were drinking Timorese coffee for three days.

"It just makes it part of the experience, and you have to be prepared for that when you travel in a country that has suffered as a result of occupation and war."

The exhibition will raise money for the charity Love Life and health, which does education, sanitation and agriculture work in East Timor.

Viva! Happy snaps of Timor Leste opens at CCAE Gallery, Harriet Place, Darwin, March 19.

http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2010/03/19/133111_entertainment.html

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Support ETAN in 2010! To make a contribution go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm Thank you for your support.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

Web site: http://www.etan.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/etan009
Blog: http://etanaction.blogspot.com/
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Send a blank e-mail message to info@etan.org to find out
how to learn more about East Timor on the Internet

Winners: John Rumbiak Human Rights Defender Award for 2009

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E.Timor still waiting for Indonesia apology: president

2010-03-17T01:23:00.000Z

(AFP) – March 16, 2010

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Support ETAN in 2010! To make a contribution go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm Thank you for your support.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

Timor - village phone project

2010-03-03T06:44:00.000Z

Mon, 1 March 2010

4.5 Mb 128 kbps mono 4 minutes 52 seconds.

David Rowe talks about a revolutionary concept to provide a cheap (virtually free) digital telephony netwwork for remote communities in Timor Leste

Direct download: aDavidRoweTL.mp3

Category: Latin Radical -- posted at: 2:08 PM

Posted in Timor Leste

http://vensol.blogspot.com/2010/03/timor-village-phone-project.html

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Support ETAN in 2010! To make a contribution go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm Thank you for your support.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

Victoria helps set up Timor business lobby

2010-03-03T06:20:00.001Z

The Age

Victoria helps set up Timor business lobby

March 3, 2010

VICTORIAN industry groups are pushing to open new markets in East Timor - one of Australia's poorest neighbours - and set up a local lobby to give a stronger voice to Timorese business.

Peter McMullin, of the Victorian Employers' Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VECCI), will go to East Timor today to finalise plans for an inaugural meeting of East Timor's national commercial lobby, expected to be held next month.

To be known as the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Timor Leste, the organisation has been set up with help from Victoria and plans to link the local business community to the Timorese government.

East Timor's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao sought the assistance of Victoria to create a Timorese business association, following the appointment of former premier Steve Bracks as his special adviser.

Business links to East Timor are not extensive but are thought to have significant potential, with Victoria home to the largest East Timorese population in Australia.

VECCI also led a trade mission to East Timor last September with representatives from the building, legal and tourism industries.

The East Timor chamber of commerce is expected to hold its first congress in early April.

DANIEL FLITTON

Victoria helps set up Timor business lobby

March 3, 2010

VICTORIAN industry groups are pushing to open new markets in East Timor - one of Australia's poorest neighbours - and set up a local lobby to give a stronger voice to Timorese business.

Peter McMullin, of the Victorian Employers' Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VECCI), will go to East Timor today to finalise plans for an inaugural meeting of East Timor's national commercial lobby, expected to be held next month.

To be known as the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Timor Leste, the organisation has been set up with help from Victoria and plans to link the local business community to the Timorese government.

East Timor's Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao sought the assistance of Victoria to create a Timorese business association, following the appointment of former premier Steve Bracks as his special adviser.

Business links to East Timor are not extensive but are thought to have significant potential, with Victoria home to the largest East Timorese population in Australia.

VECCI also led a trade mission to East Timor last September with representatives from the building, legal and tourism industries.

The East Timor chamber of commerce is expected to hold its first congress in early April.

DANIEL FLITTON

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Support ETAN in 2010! To make a contribution go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm Thank you for your support.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

Media in Timor-Leste: Freedom Under Challenges

2010-01-25T05:41:00.000Z

By Hugo Fernandes

Jose Belo, founder and editor of Timor-Leste’s local weekly newspaper Tempo Semanal, is familiar with uncertain terms. During the Indonesian occupation, the well-known and respected journalist was imprisoned and detained on numerous accounts for his efforts to expose official corruption. Now, Mr. Belo waits again. In October 2008, after his newspaper published an article alleging that Timor-Leste’s Justice Minister Lucia Lobato had improperly awarded government contracts to friends and business contacts, Mr. Belo was charged with defamation, and a possible prison sentence, if convicted. After a year of investigation, Mr. Belo received official notification from the General Prosecutor that the criminal defamation charges had been dropped, but today, civil defamation charges are still in place against him, with no trial date in sight.

Mr. Belo’s current status is a result of the government of Timor-Leste’s decision in October to remove articles that criminalize defamation from its Penal Code. However, charges of defamation still remain in the Civil Code. Significant legal achievements have been made in the last decade to protect the freedom of journalists. In 2001, the Timor-Leste Journalists Association (TLJA), alongside other organizations, fought to include articles on freedom of expression in the newly-drafted constitution.

More recently, the government and local organizations have attempted to establish a comprehensive media law to protect the freedom of speech and information for print, broadcast, and online journalists. After failed attempts in 2005 and 2006, the current government has requested assistance from UNDP, with input from a number of local journalist associations, to draft a new media law.

Despite such achievements, threats to the freedom of the press still occur, while other challenges such as lack of infrastructure and sufficient training, economic instablility, low readership, and limited access to government officials for comment remain.

Recently, The Asia Foundation and local partners supported an annual award to help motivate journalists and local media outlets to improve their skills, improve the quality of reporting, and promote freedom of the press in Timor-Leste. Timor-Leste’s President Jose Ramos-Horta, a former journalist himself, presented the Journalist of the Year award to TVTL reporter Elizio Pinto Guteres Soares. Mr. Soares also won the Greg Shackleton Prize for best Radio and TV Journalist – an award given in honor of Greg Sackleton, an Australian journalist killed in Balibo Oct. 16, 1975, along with four of his colleaugues (known as the Balibo Five).

Right now, Timor Leste has one weekly and three daily newspapers, one national, three commercial, and more than 15 community radio stations across the country, and one national and one private TV station. In addition, other institutions such as catholic churches, universities, and NGOs host radio stations and publish regular publications.

While censorship is not a major problem for journalists, government attempts to control media by denying access to unscripted government information and officials is. As a result, all news reported out of Dili features similar news angles that journalists were fed during organized press conferences or at official events. Passage of an Access to Information Law is a critical step to improving this problem.

In addition, Timor-Leste’s print media face major challenges with readership and printing costs. With an average income of 50 cents a day and nearly half of the population illiterate, publishers’ expectations are undeniably low. Also, private media must compete with government-sponsored outlets that have the capacity to publish in high volume, with the resources necessary to access a broader audience. Without a higher education system dedicated to journalism training, most of the journalists lack sufficient skills.

In partnership with government agencies, NGOs, and the private sector, The Asia Foundation has provided initial funding to establish a Regional Media Center to address these issues. Such initiatives will hopefully lead to dedicated courses to strengthen the capacity of journalists and the freedom of the press to contribute to building a just and democratic state.

Hugo Fernandes is The Asia Foundation’s Unit Manager in Timor-Leste. He can be reached at hfernandes@asiafound.org .

http://asiafoundation.org/in-asia/2010/01/06/media-in-timor-leste-freedom-under-challenges/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+in-asia+%28In+Asia%29

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Support ETAN in 2010! To make a contribution go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm Thank you for your support.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

SGBV in Timor-Leste: New Report

2009-12-22T08:03:00.000Z

Actionaid Australia and the Small Arms Survey would like to draw your attention to the following new publication from the Timor-Leste Armed Violence Assessment:

After the guns fall silent: Sexual and gender-based violence in Timor-Leste Issue Brief No. 5

Sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) is a pervasive global phenomenon, but is often a politically sensitive and unacknowledged issue. It has serious consequences for the physical, reproductive, and psychological health and social well-being of individuals. It also reflects and reinforces inequalities between men and women. SGBV is increasingly regarded as an impediment to the economic and social development of states.

This Issue Brief considers the scale and magnitude of SGBV directed against women and girls in Timor-Leste. It considers the culture of impunity that pervades the country around SGBV and impedes progress on this issue; the lack of 'enjoyment' of human rights by women and girls due to SGBV; and the systematic failure of the security and justice system to tackle violations. Focusing on both the pre- and post-independence eras, it synthesizes the evidence to help identify entry points for the prevention and reduction of SGBV.

The Issue Brief is available in English and Tetum at:
www.timor-leste-violence.org.

For more information, please contact:

Emile LeBrun
Timor-Leste Armed Violence Assessment
Small Arms Survey (Geneva)
+31 6 4848 2004
emile.lebrun@smallarmssurvey.org
www.timor-leste-violence.org

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Support ETAN in 2010! To make a contribution go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm Thank you for your support.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

Web site: http://www.etan.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/etan009
Blog: http://etanaction.blogspot.com/
Facebook: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/134122?recruiter_id=10193810

Send a blank e-mail message to info@etan.org to find out
how to learn more about East Timor on the Internet

Winners: John Rumbiak Human Rights Defender Award for 2009

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AN ORGY COMMANDED BY AGIO PEREIRA

2009-12-22T08:01:00.000Z

AN ORGY COMMANDED BY AGIO PEREIRA

By ANTÓNIO VERÍSSIMO

That credit may dispense with the ÁGIO PEREIRA?

In edition of the Sol magazine, which we put to the TLN and you can read more below, we read that "visiting Portugal to mark the 10th anniversary of the referendum that opened the door to independence, the Secretary of State the Council of Ministers of East Timor, Ágio Pereira rejects the Australian accusations of existence of corruption in Government and does not accept the hypothesis return to violence.”

These two references of Ágio Pereira in the interview that it was desirable to be intelligent enough to understand the degree of intentional misrepresentation or mistakenly assimilated how he expresses. Deeply declarations pornographic that display the body of a Government composed of players’ porn-politicians who offend public morals of citizen throughout the planet, at least those that read the interview and who know the reality of Timor.

Ágio Pereira says that "does not accept the assumption of a return to violence". Therefore, does not explain the conditions under which admits this. It should be while engendered AMP continues in power and distribute titles, contracts to the heads of hooliganisms groups. And, possibly, the AMP and most of that actually are in possession of Government and satellites institutions lose their seats and back to common citizens to vote in elections? If the opposition led by Fretilin will win elections? Also, as it always happened. Ensures Ágio Pereira that defeated groups not back again for violence to take power? Ensures no repeated violence 2006 or worse? This is not guaranteed, nor the question was it made by journalist. This would be an inconvenient question and politically incorrect.

But certainly the journalist in question is aware that this engendered AMP designed post election results, is Government after its mutinous have caused hundreds of deaths and the destruction of thousands housing, and that whosoever acted violently, was "Thanks" of personalities currently installed in high positions of political power. You must know any citizen minimally informed about East Timor knows this.

Therefore, we can offer an opinion and conclude that pornography of the interview is made by two, otherwise would not be pornographic, or would have lacked additional objects type vibratory, for example.

But the crucial, the climax, is supposed to be reached when something as distinguished corruption comes in scene and undress showing the dishonesties. Agio Pereira “refutes the Australian allegations, existence of corruption in Government “mentions the journalist. And it is well. It was said by the interviewee.

The question: "The Australia Ambassador in Timor identified corruption and lack of experience of Government as the main causes of wasteful external help. How does Dili react? “Agio Pereira responds: "when we talk about money donated most of that is not corruptible. For international projects they bring their consultants and engaged in physical structures. Of way that this project implementation arrangement there is little scope for corruption. Corruption can come from donors, but in the context of recipients the area of corruption is very small. “And yet, when the journalist not satisfied and asks” doesn’t corruption worries? Agio Pereira reply: "when referring to corruption in general, I think all countries are suffering. Australia, Portugal, and USA – this economic crisis was born due to corruption. In a developing country, usually refers to corruption in the context of the management of public money. In our country have been many allegations of corruption, but very little evidence that corruption exists. There is a huge transparency, especially this IV Constitutional Government. "

It shows that this is typical behaviour associated white-collar criminals that is a distraction’s manoeuvre want to justify their errors with similar examples to practice pointing in other directions. Of course that there is a little corruption by all countries, some more than others, however the existing corruption in Timor-Leste achieves huge indexes nothing comparable with those of Australia, which has a very low index in the spectrum world. It is legitimate to Australia and other donors committed to contribute to various sectors benefiting disadvantaged Timorese concern and denounce the existing corruption. In the case of Portugal these repairs do not happen because the Socialist Government itself is facing the corruption and what more it – the so-called KKN in Timor-Leste. It is Collusion, corruption and nepotism.

But, of course, the Timorese corruption is not just pointed to with regard to “recipients sectors", of providing "foreign aid". Corruption is wider, KKN is much wider in Timor-Leste. We saw this in relation to the company of Zenilde Gusmão and other relatives of Gusmão ", for example. Case barefaced there is no any action, unpunished. Other cases are of public knowledge, and even on the list were in times of hopes be solved by new PGR, Ana Pessoa, but it seems that a blanket of impunity like the previous PGR, Longuinhos Monteiro, and meanwhile so many enquiries and proof naming this and that for the "KKN" package – the case of Mário Carrascalão, appointed Vice Prime-Minister and until now did nothing, or nothing has brought benefits to the fight against corruption, at least that had seen. Impunity continues until there are signs that is institutionalised. Why ever talk less in it. It is "our bread each day ".

Agio Pereira says that "in our country there have been many allegations of corruption, but very little evidence that corruption exists. There is a huge transparency, mainly in IV Constitutional Government. “Please, this citizen is responsible for Timorese Government believes that is talking to delayed mental illness? Even the very little evidence that speech gave nothing and if some achievable it will be lower branch of the Administration, however nothing has seen and impunity is the statute.

It is also statute the other impunities. The violations of the Constitution, the subordination of the Judiciary to Political Power, the militarisation of the PNTL, to turn into private army interests of a few, as are accusing etc.

Finally, and in time, partly because the Copenhagen Summit is happening, was asked the Agio Pereira: "… East Timor is part of the Group of countries, that being small islands may be much affected by Global warming. How does the Government follow the situation? “The interviewee hit back: "we have very deep studies on alternatives energies. We have a specific State Secretariat for energy resources, we have a company that is doing a survey on the possible solutions for alternatives energies. Our country has much potential with high mountains and we can explore the potential wind and solar too. And we can be independent and sustainable energy resources. This study should be presented in May 2010”.

Pornographic. It is simply pornographic. Then, if so how justify Agio Pereira everything that has already been spent with the energy central of heavy oil highly polluting? What has already been lost? Who is responsible for the funds already spent and who benefited from them? And until then, what Agio is talking is true – although in accordance with the declared by the Government a few weeks-what are the prospects for action until the alternatives energies work? In reality what is happening with the "business" of heavy oil?

And the journalist could not confront the interviewee with this flagrant pose porn? But what style so horrendous takes the profession forward. Understand the salary is important at the end of the month. Constraints understandable but unacceptable and which are "dissolving" a beautiful and usefulness profession. It is not only in this case. The interviewee commanded the interviewer. Considering the circumstances, the interview was good and the interviewee was smart. But that was an orgy … There it was.

Finally, only the carving of fork, someone comment accompanying fuse wire to Timor, almost since born, currently with a "nice age":

"Agio says:" these past years, we have three public demonstrations against Governments. "

It seems that he forgot the greatest demonstration of them all, and further most influenced the course of events at TL. I am referring of course to demonstration of MUNJ, Rai Los campaign also, Xanana and Kirsty, Horta and Lasama and that served to overthrow the legitimately elected Government.

Agio also forget to mention the active presence and intervention of the American Ambassador what describes as "unprecedented demonstration the Catholic Church itself involved ".

More ahead, says: "but the independence exists, the courts are not elected and interpret laws.”

To add the independence of this sovereignty body only exists while the PR, the PM or any Minister do not remember to disallow, name of a supposed "national interest", as happened recently with the illegal release of Martinus Bere. The interviewer, visibly off this event, also did not rise on the Agio on this contradiction between the theory and practice.

Despite everything, I liked the optimism of Agio and mature as way of talking Timorese democracy, the opposition and a future without conflicts. Also I appreciated very much the confirmation that there is a change of 180 degree Government energy policies: "we can explore the potential wind and solar also. And we remain independent and sustainable in terms of energetic resources ". Bravo! "
That credit may dispense with the Agio Pereira?

Security Sector Reform Monitor: Timor-Leste No. 1

2009-12-22T03:07:00.000Z

Dear all

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

"INTRODUCTION

In mid-2006, large parts of Timor-Leste’s security sector collapsed and the fledgling nation lurched toward civil war. The country’s police (Polícia Nacional de Timor Leste - PNTL) and military (Forças de Defesa de Timor-Leste - F-FDTL) "

I don't agree with this introduction that does not match what had happened in Timor Leste. The information is not correct and is misleading those who believe because it did not follow the evolution of the situation.

I do not want to say that our security forces are perfect we have made mistakes many areas need some improvement but not the method outside want and also you must remember that we are a new country with 10 years of independence.

It is all very nice talking about the Security Sector Reform for Timor Leste but should reflect that your Governments or countries were involved in the crisis of 2006 and which must assume the responsibilities of this mess because the truths are being hidden wanting so wash hands or simply forget everything that had happened.

I believe the published security documents outside are misguided in calling for a reform. What kind of reform? What is the credibility of the Timorese Government corrupt and criminal, conspirators of the 2006 crisis installed and supported by former Australian Government?

You must open our eyes not making Timor Leste a dump field and treat the Timorese with a neo-colonial mentality and support a Government so corrupt.

It is good not come with many stories launching dust in the eyes of the people of Timor Leste; they already suffered and died during the 25 years of Indonesian occupation. You should be ashamed to say these lies above description only to serve your interests. The crisis of 2006 was created and fomented by the policy “regime change “of the PM John Howard initiated by Bush policy, with the aim of overthrowing the Timor Leste Government. Recall that John Howard was always a supporter and sponsor the autonomy and integration of East Timor. Foreign intervention was not for the good of the Timor Leste people was yes to the natural wealth oil and gas. Powerful Australian interests are talking openly about the need for a strong Australian hand on East Timorese policy.

Currently we have seen the hostility of the oil companies against the Timorese government involved in the "Great Sunrise" pipeline to East Timor. The collapse of the police is the fact that the command has abandoned the post in support of conspirators 2006 crisis whose authors are Xanana, Horta, Lasama and their accomplices with Australian Government support. Presently the ex Commandant Paulo Martins is member of the Parliament of Xanana Gusmão CNRT party and the new commandant Longinhos we can also consider one of conspirators. It was only the Dili police headquarters suffered the fall but did not happen in the Districts and Sub districts Station of Timor Leste.

The reform should be made gradually according to the conditions of East Timor and not and never compiled documents imported from outside the United Nations or countries involved in the crisis to be applied to police of Timor Leste. What is the honesty of those countries and how we can trust if were implicated in the crisis and installation corrupt and criminal government? The government of these countries nothing contributed for our liberation struggle working only for our destruction to a failed State and thus remains with the pretext of instability. Some public statements on the Security Reform made by current Secretaries of Defense and Security of States were well explicit in explanations of non-interference of the Nation internal affairs.

Currently all we do they consider wrong such superiority complex pointing fingers and accusing our security institutions. As we all know they had created the mess in 2006 crisis comes to tell us now to put our House in order. Shame! And also should not forget that our police were trained and developed by the United Nations in coordination with the Government of East Timor. What do you or they want? We are not slaves of your interests. I think it is only to make money at the expense of Timor Leste people like” NGO ALOLA” has done belong Xanana wife money deposited in Australian Banks and many more with government subsidies.

Selling these theories this type of research as has always done in many areas: health, education, infrastructure, etc. through its advisers, which is a waste of funds on projects many of these are under the carpet that do not reflect the realities of East Timor. It is a bitter pill to swallow because it is the difficult to hear the truths what happened in East Timor, the way as I express I lived and I followed the situation closely and I am able to refute all details on this subject.

Let’s to decide what is best for our country as an independent nation. What we want is a real security it is fair to all society no outside interference and to maintain stability with a lasting peace to focus on the construction and development of the country.

Nothing is perfect in this world, we are all human beings, our brain to think and think that we cannot better than others, many theories imported from abroad including security only to confuse, destroy and distort our aspirations.

Here are some extracts of intentions of Australia on East Timor.

The post-independence crisis in Timor Leste has drawn attention to the fragility of institutions in that newly independent country. Australian intervention in 2006 has been accompanied by menacing suggestions of a “failed state” - not just a state that cannot govern itself, but one that poses a threat to others, thus justifying intervention. Yet foreign intervention is anathema to independence and self-governance (in East Timorese terms, “ukun rasik an”).

The immediate danger to Timor Leste's established right to self-determination is likely to be an Australian neo-colonial dominance that could reverse the independent path the nation has undertaken, with its new constitution, national development plan and distinctive policies. The internationalization of the intervention (the UN involvement) only slightly diminishes this threat. Powerful Australian interests are talking openly about the need for a strong Australian hand on East Timorese policy.

Australian Government and corporate media have not even condemned the renegade soldiers who took up arms against their own government and shot people in the street. John Howard and Alexander Downer pretend an “even-handed” policy to Timor Leste's elected government and its violent renegades.

President Xanana Gusmao has so far escaped criticism for not denouncing the renegade soldiers and gangs that are acting in his name. Xanana has great domestic popularity and has not been so closely implicated in the policy conflicts with Australia.

The attacks on Prime Minister Alkatiri reflect underlying tensions that have been building for some time. The prime minister, a strong economic nationalist, remains the country's chief strategist. Many of the tensions relate to distinctive policy developments in the seven years since 1999. The best known achievements have been in the oil and gas dispute, but there have also been modest advances in agriculture, health and education. Yet associated with many of these advances have been opposition or hostility from Australia, and its mentor, the US.

There was wide support for the construction of a new constitution (with a bill of rights, a highly democratic electoral system, recognition of shared national resources and customary law) and a development plan. The pursuit of a greedy Australian Government over East Timor's oil and gas resources proved more difficult. Alkatiri led the first round of negotiations (mainly over the Bayu-Undan field), with broad East Timorese and Australian support. The deal shifted Australia's 80-20 offer to a 90-10 settlement. The second round (over the Greater Sunrise field) shifted the Australian “final” position of 18-82 to a settlement of 50-50.

In both sets of talks there was considerable aggravation, particularly the latter, where Australia got its way in deferring fixed maritime boundaries. Australian officials and some academics told the East Timorese again and again that they were “unrealistic” and would get nowhere. Downer told Alkatiri he would give him "a lesson" in politics. Downer and the “realists” were wrong. The East Timorese did not get their full claim, but they came out several billion dollars ahead.

On agriculture both the World Bank and the Australian Government opposed the transitional government's plans (2000-02) to rehabilitate rice fields, and to use aid money for public grain silos and a public abattoir. That is, the Australian Government - blinded by neo-liberal ideology, and their belief in privatization and export orientation - blocked East Timorese developmental plans. Yet few interventions are more destructive to development than obstructing a small, post-colonial nation defining and creating its own institutions.

Whatever their prior knowledge of the Reinado-led rebellion, the Australian Government made good use of it to undermine the elected government of Timor Leste. However, domestic compromises (including two ministerial resignations, the promotion of Ramos Horta and a UN inquiry) seem to have forced a temporary back-down. Yet if the “palace coup” does not succeed on this occasion, we will need to closely watch progress in what The Australian calls the now “poisoned” relationship between the Howard and the Alkatiri governments. At stake is an independent

Herein lies the problem. An oligarchy of Australian business leaders, who consistently opposed East Timorese independence, pre-1999, have openly declared themselves hostile to the Fretilin-led project. The Howard regime gives lip service to East Timorese autonomy, but shares the hostility. This is a strategic hostility as much as opposition to any particular policy. But the ‘protectorate' mindset certainly wants easier access to East Timorese resources, greater privileging of foreign investment, abolition of East Timor's army and a shift in national language policy from Portuguese-Tetum to English-Tetum.

It seems likely that, even with Alkatiri sidelined, a Fretilin-led government will maintain the strategy spelt out in East Timor's National Development Plan and sectoral policies, and backed by the Constitution. Alternatively (and if Murdoch's scribblers have their way), a more ‘Australian friendly' government might be persuaded to abandon its economic nationalist past, and accept protectorate status.

So what is the problem with a small country taking loans from the World Bank and becoming more ‘western friendly'? Isn't this a legitimate way of attracting investment, improving governance and reducing poverty? Let's examine this, in light of experience elsewhere.

The process begins with loans for essential infrastructure, usually power and roads; and in East Timor everyone has been complaining about power and roads. The World Bank would loan money to the government at low commercial interest or (in view of East Timor's low GDP per capita) a very low IDA loan at only 0.7% interest over 35 years. This, at first glance, seems generous. But strict conditions would be attached, in the form of a ‘good governance' contract.

An important section of the ‘good governance' conditions would stipulate that, while the loan is public, the construction and service delivery would be private - a ‘development partnership'. This means that large foreign companies would be contracted to construct the power grid and roads, while others would meter and enforce a ‘user pays' power supply regime. As the ‘good governance' agreement would also stipulates no price subsidies, the only way poor families could access power would be by direct fiscal subsidy. But the government has no spare cash, which is why it would have borrowed in the first place.

Such ‘partnership' schemes have seen even water supplies become unaffordable in major cities from The Philippines to Bolivia. The small middle classes who can afford the fees might get a better service, but the government will still have to intervene to ensure quality and contain the corruption that privatizations

So why do the leaders of developing countries participate in neo-liberal programs, when they are so damaging for ordinary poor people? Sometimes they have been obliged to cut political deals, for independence. Sometimes it is due to policy weakness and a desire to accommodate the big powers - some elements of this are now visible in East Timor. But very often leaders (such as Indonesia's Suharto) enter the business elite themselves, taking commissions, rents and other benefits from cashed up aid and privatization programs. Neo-liberal ‘good governance' (previously called ‘structural adjustment') has most often enhanced this corruption, rather than preventing it.

The Australian role in undermining East Timorese independence is difficult to see now, with a barrage of media influencing the desire to see ourselves as the little country's ‘saviors’. We are nothing of the sort. Australian friends of East Timor should recognize the shocking prospects of neo-liberal protectorate status, and maintain their support for an independent nation.

--- On Tue, 15/12/09, ETAN wrote:

From: ETAN
Subject: Security Sector Reform Monitor: Timor-Leste No. 1
To: east-timor@lists.riseup.net
Received: Tuesday, 15 December, 2009, 5:29 AM
- Show quoted text -

Security Sector Reform Monitor: Timor-Leste

No.1 Friday, December 11, 2009

The Security Sector Reform Monitor is a quarterly publication that tracks developments and trends in the ongoing security sector reform (SSR) processes of five countries: Afghanistan, Burundi, Timor-Leste, Haiti and Southern Sudan. This inaugural issue of the Security Sector Reform Monitor, Timor-Leste, will cover sector-wide developments and trends, but will focus predominantly on police reform.

Download from here http://www.cigionline.org/publications/2009/12/security-sector-reform-monitor-timor-leste

INTRODUCTION

In mid-2006, large parts of Timor-Leste’s security sector collapsed and the fledgling nation lurched toward civil war. The country’s police (Polícia Nacional de Timor Leste - PNTL) and military (Forças de Defesa de Timor-Leste - F-FDTL) were at best incapable of controlling, and at worst complicit in fomenting crime and lawlessness, requiring the government to request an Australian-led peacekeeping force and international policing presence to restore public order.

The tragic events of April–June 2006—in which 37 died in the violence and over 150,000 were driven from their homes—laid bare the dysfunctions of the security sector. “The Crisis,” as the events of 2006 are now known, revealed that there was little substance to many parts of the security sector beyond uniforms and weapons. It became clear that Timor-Leste required a comprehensive and far-reaching security sector reform (SSR) process.

There have been significant changes in the Timorese security sector since 2006, not all of which have been positive. After nearly three years of executive policing authority, the United Nations Police (UNPOL) has begun a staged handover to national authorities. There has also been a marked improvement in relations between the PNTL and F-FDTL. The return to national control of the police is a welcome development as it demonstrates the growing legitimacy of the country’s security institutions and increasing local ownership over the SSR process. However, it comes with some risk; it was the Timorese government’s mismanagement of the security sector that led to the 2006 crisis. Although this edition of the Security Sector Reform Monitor: Timor-Leste will cover sector-wide developments an

Introduction 1

Historical Background of the Security Sector 2

Security Environment 4

The United Nations and SSR 6

Policing 6

Justice Sector 10

Armed Forces 10

Conclusion 11

Works Cited 12

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Behind ‘Balibo’ And Its Banning

2009-12-19T08:30:00.000Z

Behind ‘Balibo’ And Its Banning

A young Jose Ramos-Horta, shown as the foreign minister of a newly independent East Timor, implores Roger East, an aging Australian journalist, to travel to his country to run a media agency. Five young journalists are shot and stabbed as they attempt to surrender to Indonesian soldiers who are mounting incursions over the border. Later, Dili is invaded by Indonesian forces and Timorese civilians are lined up and shot on the pier. East is executed along with them.

These are scenes from Robert Connolly’s film “Balibo,” which portrays the 1975 murder of five Australia-based journalists by the Indonesian military in the East Timorese border town of Balibo. Banned by censors here because of its “potential to reopen old wounds” and “questionable objectivity,” the people behind the film say it is a true story.

Gatot Purwanto, who was an Indonesian army lieutenant at the time and who witnessed the killings, recently told Tempo magazine that the journalists known as the Balibo Five were killed to keep the truth about Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor from the outside world. He also said that the killings were provoked by gunshots coming from the direction of the house that the journalists were in. But his version, clearly at odds with how things played out in “Balibo,” is not accepted by the Indonesian military.

Dr. Clinton Fernandes the film’s consulting historian, whose background includes working as the principle analyst for the Australian Intelligence Corps on East Timor in the 1990s described the movie as “very accurate.” He said that while any film is always a “collection of fragments,” this concept doesn’t detract from film’s veracity.

“It is a true story in the sense that it telescopes events that would have taken much longer,” he said in a phone interview last week.

“In one scene , you find Roger East watching parachutists come down and then he is captured and killed, all in the space of about ten minutes. In reality, we’re talking about something which took about a day and a half.”

Fernandes said that several film techniques were used to convey information succinctly. For example, in the scene where the Balibo Five are killed, the film depicts the same soldier who ordered the killings as the one who carried them out.

“We know for a fact that Dading Kalbuadi [the overall commander of the Indonesian forces in East Timor] was in [the town of] Batugade and he gave the order that anyone found there would have to be killed. Then Yunus Yosfiah and others went and killed the Balibo Five,” he said. “No movie can be expected to give the full version of the discussion, the assault, the killings. You’ve got to do it quickly, which is why what we have is Kalbuadi himself doing the killing.

“We are trying to show that it is a state crime, not a low-level rogue element. The film shows a senior officer participating in the killing because in real life, a senior officer ordered the killing.”

The film’s background is detailed on the “Balibo in depth” link on the balibo.com Web site. This link, curated by Fernandes, provides commentary on the film’s version of what happened versus the reality, and details the events upon which the scenes are based.

For example, the Web site explains the role of Juliana de Costa, a Timorese woman who we see at the beginning and end of the film giving her testimony on the events in East Timor. According to the Web site, she “is a composite character derived from the extensive work of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation.”

The commission, which aimed to document human rights violations during the occupation of East Timor, collected 7,824 statements from people across the country. According to the “Balibo” Web site, these testimonies detail “patterns of abuses, such as arbitrary detentions, torture, rape and massive property destruction.”

“Balibo” also touches on the complicity of Australia and the United States in the invasion, with scenes showing a newspaper photo of Gough Whitlam, Australia’s prime minister at the time, with then-President Suharto. In a later scene, a US-made helicopter shoots at East and Ramos-Horta, who is now the real life president of the country of Timor Leste.

The Web site provides evidence of the Whitlam government’s knowledge of events in Balibo, despite official acceptance of Indonesia’s version that the journalists were killed in cross-fire. A declassified Australian government document dated Oct. 22, 1975 is shown on the Web site, detailing the killing of five Australian journalists by invading forces.

“After the Balibo Five were killed,” Fernandes said, “the Indonesian military paused in their operations, waiting to see what kind of reaction there would be from the Australian government. When no reaction was forthcoming, it was assigned to the Indonesian military that they could treat the Timorese as they wished, which is what they did.”

It was only in 2007 that Australia launched a coroner’s inquest into the deaths of the Balibo Five. The inquest, which found that they had been murdered to prevent news of the invasion from reaching the outside world, was described by Fernandes as “a very robust process.”

“It was the first inquest that had the power to compel testimony of witnesses and to compel production of documents, including intelligence material. It had 66 witnesses, including two dozen Timorese who were bought in to testify,” he said.

“The material presented was very thorough, witnesses were cross-examined and there were numerous eye witnesses that were present at the Balibo square watching the murder of the Balibo Five.”

Fernandes said that after the journalists were killed, their bodies were redressed in military uniforms and the corpses posed behind weapons. “The aim of this was to pretend the Balibo Five were legitimate targets, but when people saw the photographs, they realized that the Fretilin [Timorese] soldiers had disabled the weapons and the photos showed the Balibo Five posed behind weapons that clearly could not have been used,” he said. “There is evidence, not only of the murder, but of the cover-up and of the attempt to portray them as legitimate targets.”

One question is why a film was made about Western journalists, when an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 Timorese died as a result of the occupation.

“To me the Balibo Five is part of the whole occupation of East Timor. I don’t have any specific concern for the Balibo Five that’s different to my concern for war crimes committed in East Timor,” Fernandes said. “And my support for justice for the people of East Timor is only a component of my broader support for justice for the people of Indonesia.”

Both the film and the war crimes investigation into the deaths of the Balibo Five, launched by the Australian Federal Police in September, have been criticized for having the potential to cause diplomatic tension between Australia and Indonesia.

However, for Shirley Shackleton, the widow of Greg Shackleton, one of the journalists killed in Balibo, the pursuit of justice is what matters.

“Murder is murder. It doesn’t matter when it occurred. Every civilized person in the world requires justice,” Shackleton said in a phone interview last week. “Justice is not about vengeance. In a civilized society, justice is about accountability, and until the Indonesian people cooperate to get justice for the Balibo murders, they won’t get it for themselves.”

Fernandes emphasized that the issue of the murders was “not a dispute between Indonesia and Australia, it is a dispute between people in both those countries, between those who support justice and those who want impunity.”

He said he hoped the film would educate Indonesians about events in East Timor. “I know that Indonesian citizens had very little knowledge of what their military was doing in East Timor because the Indonesian military had always tried to control the narrative. They tried to control the narrative of the independence, after the 1965 killings. They tried to control the narrative of the Suharto years, of the occupation of Timor. For me, the ‘Balibo’ film is an attempt to shake that control of the narrative.”

The ban of the film has not stopped the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) from screening the film and a recent article published in the Jakarta Globe said pirated copies of “Balibo” are now widely available throughout the country.

An article on Tuesday quoted AJI founder, Andreas Harsono, saying the journalists would lodge a challenge at the Constitutional Court if the government took steps to enforce the ban.

Shackleton, however, was optimistic that Indonesia’s ban would only heighten interest. “I’m really pleased they did it,” she said. “The thing they have ensured is that everyone got interested in the film.”

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Support ETAN in 2010! To make a contribution go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm Thank you for your support.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

East Timor fighting Darwin gas plant

2009-12-19T08:29:00.000Z

http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2009/12/16/109861_nt-business.html

NT News
East Timor fighting Darwin gas plant

DARWIN may miss out on another gas plant, a leading analyst says.

John Hirjee of Deutsche Bank in Melbourne says one of the four partners in the Sunrise field off the Territory coast may opt for a floating production platform in the Timor Sea, rather than an LNG complex alongside Darwin Harbour.

Woodside was last week reported to have chosen the Darwin option. But Mr Hirjee says in a report that the Australian energy company may go for the floating platform option because of opposition from East Timor.

Sunrise, 450km northwest of Darwin, is being developed by Woodside, Shell, ConocoPhillips and Osaka Gas. It lies partly in the Joint Petroleum Development Area, which means royalties from gas exploitation would be shared between Australia and East Timor.

The Dili government wanted the gas to be piped to a LNG plant in East Timor.

But the joint venture partners ruled that out because of political instability, the lack of skilled workers and the deep undersea trench that lies between the country and Sunrise.

East Timor is now lobbying for its second preferred option - processing the gas on a floating platform.

Australian unions oppose this choice because the platform would be manufactured overseas and be manned by mainly foreign workers.

Darwin would miss out on a $2 billion gas plant, which would employ more than 1000 workers during construction and up to 300 during operation.

The joint venture partners are expected to announce their decision by the end of this year.

ConocoPhillips is believed to have chosen the Territory option.

Shell is thought to want a floating platform. It is not known how Osaka Gaswill vote.

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Support ETAN in 2010! To make a contribution go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm Thank you for your support.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

Please support ETAN in 2010

2009-12-19T08:26:00.000Z

Dear friend and supporter of ETAN,

I have long admired the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN), a clear, effective, and very much needed voice in support of justice, human rights, and accountability. ETAN is the only U.S. group to focus solely on both East Timor and Indonesia, and I am writing to urge you to support it as generously as possible.

To donate by credit card via PayPal - click here:

[]

Few if any other groups in this country are doing the work that ETAN has done for so long. By giving generously now, you can help ETAN meet the challenges of the coming year.

Almost a year ago, I pointed out to you that, "[d]espite President-elect Barack Obama’s familiarity with Indonesia dating from childhood, positive changes in U.S. policy toward Indonesia and East Timor are not assured." If anything, the new administration has muted human rights criticisms of allies; during Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's February visit to Indonesia, for example, she downplayed these issues. The Pentagon is looking for loopholes so it may resume training of Indonesia's notorious Special Forces (Kopassus) unit, which stands accused of some of the worst human rights violations. Willing and eager to confront those in power whenever necessaryin Washington, Jakarta or DiliETAN opposes assistance to a largely unreformed Indonesian military that continues to resist accountability for its crimes in East Timor, West Papua, and elsewhere.

More than a year ago, the Wall Street Journal Asia editorial page urged then-President-elect Obama to continue the training and to resist “liberal Senators and interest groups,” criticizing ETAN by name for demanding that military assistance to Indonesia be conditioned on real human rights accountability. ETAN was not intimidated. It continues to apply pressure to put justice at the center of U.S. foreign policy. When President Obama makes his high-profile return to Indonesia in 2010, ETAN will provide important alternative perspectives on U.S. policy, past and present.

For 18 years, ETAN’s tenacity has had significant results and accomplishments, such as those described in the following paragraphs. East Timorese, Indonesian, and other activists have often expressed their appreciation for ETAN’s ongoing support for justice, self-determination, and genuine independence for East Timor and human rights and accountability in Indonesia. Please join me in supporting ETAN as it carries out this vital work.

This past August 30, the East Timorese people commemorated the tenth anniversary of their courageous vote for independence. The vote itself remains a remarkable tribute to what the human spirit can achieve. As part of the anniversary observance, ETAN helped organize and participated in a ground-breaking conference in East Timor on the continuing struggle for justice that reunited solidarity activists from around the world and brought them together with a new generation of Timorese activists.

ETAN remains central to international coordination of those seeking justice for the many human rights crimes committedwith U.S. backingduring Indonesia's Suharto dictatorship. ETAN works with groups in Indonesia and East Timor to pressure governments and the United Nations to fulfill past promises of justice they would rather forget. ETAN actively monitors ongoing threats to human rights in both countries, acting to apply pressure in defense of activists and others. Its e-mail lists, website, and blog are praised as irreplaceable sources of information and analysis.

Your support is crucial if ETAN is to continue this important work, all of which it accomplishes on a very modest budget. Nearly all of ETAN’s funds support its advocacy and educational work, with very little spent on fundraising or administration.

ETAN counts on your generous response to this annual appeal. Many non-profit organizations are now struggling financially. ETAN is no exception, making your donation at this time all the more important.

Thank you for joining me in supporting ETAN’s invaluable work.

Sincerely,

/s/

Noam Chomsky

How to Donate to ETAN

To support ETAN’s advocacy work, please make your check out to “East Timor Action Network” and send it to ETAN, PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873

Click here if would like a form that you can print out and mail.

To donate by credit card via PayPal - click here:

[]

Or make a monthly pledge via credit card click here

Donations of any size for ETAN's political and advocacy work should be made out to ETAN and are not tax-deductible. U.S. tax-deductible checks for more than $50 can also be made out to "AJ Muste Memorial Institute/ETAN" and will be used to support our educational work.

Please mail your donation to:

ETAN, PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA

see this appeal online at http://www.etan.org/etan/2010app.htm

Malaria control in Timor-Leste during a period of political instability: what lessons

2009-12-19T08:21:00.002Z

Malaria control in Timor-Leste during a period of political instability: what lessons can be learned?

Malaria is a major global health problem, often exacerbated by political instability, conflict, and forced migration.Objectives: To examine the impact of political upheaval and population displacement in Timor-Leste (2006) on malaria in the country.

Method

Case study approach drawing on both qualitative and quantitative methods including document reviews, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, site visits and analysis of routinely collected data.

Findings

The conflict had its most profound impact on Dili, the capital city, in which tens of thousands of people were displaced from their homes. The conflict interrupted routine malaria service programs and training, but did not lead to an increase in malaria incidence.

Interventions covering treatment, insecticide treated nets (ITN) distribution, vector control, surveillance and health promotion were promptly organized for internally displaced people (IDPs) and routine health services were maintained. Vector control interventions were focused on IDP camps in the city rather than on the whole community.

The crisis contributed to policy change with the introduction of Rapid Diagnostic Tests and artemether-lumefantrine for treatment.

Conclusions: Although the political crisis affected malaria programs there were no outbreaks of malaria. Emergency responses were quickly organized and beneficial long term changes in treatment and diagnosis were facilitated.

Author: Joao MartinsAnthony ZwiNelson MartinsPaul Kelly
Credits/Source: Conflict and Health 2009, 3:11

UNDP Supports Special Olympics Team

2009-12-19T08:21:00.001Z

UNDP Supports Special Olympics Team

Smiling and hugging each other, the seven men from the districts of Los Palos, Liquica, Manatuto and Dili disembarked from their Merpati Flight waving a special flag that they had received in Jakarta, acknowledging that Timor-Leste will next year host the Special Olympics for the first time since the restoration of the country's independence in 2002. It was a moment with huge symbolic significance for thousands of people with disabilities in the country. It also demonstrated the power of sports as a transcendental, unifying force throughout the world.

The group was part of a team of 13 Timorese athletes and support staff returning from Dili on 11 November 2009 after representing their country in the Asia Pacific Special Olympics which were held from 6 - 10 November 2009. The team subsequently represented the country in the Peace Games in Kupang from 20-23 November 2009.

Their mission was facilitated by the Ministry of Social Solidarity (MSS) with financial contribution from the Dialogue Project of UNDP.

The US $ 10,000 UNDP contribution was provided courtesy of funding made available through the UN's Peacebuilding Fund in recognition of the crucial role that can be played by sports in promotion of positive national identity as part of programming aimed at strengthening social stability. UNDP also recognizes the important contribution this event will make to raising the profile of persons with disabilities as a source of national pride and important part of the broader Timorese community.

In making the request for support for these activities the Minister for Social Solidarity, Maria Domingas Fernandes Alves highlighted how "supporting the Special Olympics Team of Timor-Leste to participate in these two international sporting events will also contribute to strengthening pride in Timorese national identity and thereby help contribute to community stability, a core goal of the Trust-Building Pillar of the National Recovery Strategy and of UNDP's assistance to MSS."

"The National Directorate of Social Assistance has a long-term commitment to addressing the needs of persons with disabilities" remarked the Director of Social Assistance, Amandio Amaral Freitas, adding: "At this time platforms which help raise the profile of this group as a source of pride for the nation are an important way in which we can help the country move forward in an inclusive and equitable way."

Underscoring the importance of Timor-Leste being host to the Special Olympics next year, UNDP Country Director Akbar Usmani said that UNDP has been a close partner of the Government throughout the recovery process and in the transition best summed up by the Government's own catchphrase 'Goodbye Conflict, Welcome Development' (Adeus Conflicto, Bemvindo Desenvolvimento). "As Timor-Leste is now preparing to play host of this important regional event the nation is also clearly demonstrating the strong role it has to play as a member of the Asia-Pacific community."

The Country Director added that UNDP shares the Government's vision of the importance of Timor-Leste's participation in the international arena "as a key catalyst in strengthening national unity as well as these particular events representing an important opportunity to demonstrate the progressive and equitable approach demonstrated by the Government and in particular, the Ministry of Social Solidarity."

At a press conference on November 11 to welcome the team back from Jakarta, the Secretary of State for Youth and Sport Miguel Manetelo said that Timor-Leste is privileged to host the Special Olympics next year and therefore, should prepare well in advance to ensure that the event is a success.

The Special Olympics Team of Timor Leste was established in November 2008 with the Minister for Social Solidarity, Maria Domingas Fernandes Alves nominated as its president. Currently, it comprises 57 members drawn from all districts of the country.

Rudd rushes in (Balibo)

2009-12-19T08:19:00.000Z

ABC The Drum Unleashed

17 December 2009

Rudd rushes in

Bruce Haigh

For 25 years the invasion of East Timor and the murder of five Australian journalists at Balibo by members of the Indonesian armed forces defined the relationship between the two countries.

It is still significant. In November 2007 the NSW Deputy Coroner, Dorelle Pinch found that, "The Balibo Five...were shot and or stabbed deliberately, and not in the heat of battle." The murders were carried out by Indonesian special force soldiers.

The findings were referred to the AFP for investigation as war crimes. Nothing happened under AFP Commissioner Keelty. It couldn't. Keelty was caught between a rock and a hard place. He had developed a relationship with the Indonesian police and military to thwart people smuggling. It worked because both either ran or received protection money from the people smugglers. He feared that investigating the military over the Balibo deaths would hazard the finely balanced refugee disruption operation in which the AFP was a player with the Indonesian military and police.

Keelty retired in May 2009 and in August his successor Tony Negus announced that the AFP would begin its investigation into the deaths. In September the Indonesian government said that the case should remain closed. In October refugee boats started to arrive in Australian waters and in November the Indonesian government banned the feature film Balibo which portrays the deaths and the events surrounding them. The film was however screened in Jakarta by the Independent Journalists' Alliance on 3 December.

The arrival of the refugee boats could be co-incidental because events in the source countries of Afghanistan and Sri Lanka saw conditions favouring the exit of persecuted individuals and families. Nonetheless the Indonesian military does have the capacity to turn on and off the flow of boats.

The Australian government is well aware of this and has sought to minimise this eventuality with increases in aid to police and military institutions. However when events eventually dictated a different approach the Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, sought a government to government agreement through the Indonesian President, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. The catalyst was a boat of Sri Lankan Tamils fleeing detention from Indonesian holding prisons. How they managed to get out of detention and find a boat to take 260 people to Australia remains a mystery.

Fools rush in where wise men fear to tread and so it was with Rudd. In mid October Rudd thought he had a deal with the Indonesian President after a hasty, and one suspects some-what desperate, phone call. Domestically the Opposition were braying at his heals and he ran even though he held an opinion poll lead of some substance over them.

Rudd was able to get the President to have the boat turned back by the Indonesian Navy. He followed this up with an agreement for Indonesia to accept asylum seekers bound for Australia. The agreement lasted less than a month when Rudd concluded a special deal with another group of Tamils on board an Australian vessel the Oceanic Viking.

Local Indonesian officials and the military demonstrated the limitations of the President's direct authority away from the city state of Jakarta. They refused to accept the refugees under the terms of the newly concluded agreement.

As the AFP can attest the military and police control politics and the many and varied rackets outside of the capital. The military has the primary domestic role of holding the archipelago together. It gives them considerable power. The President and other national politicians exercise power through influence and that power takes time to translate into action which sometimes is effective and sometimes is not. In this instance it was not.

Rudd should have known better. He should have been properly advised, perhaps he was and yet again didn't listen. What possessed him to believe that the Indonesian military would be keen to save his domestic political hide? Yudhoyono's lapse of judgement was just that and it cannot have been long before he was made aware of it from the quarters which matter.

What if anything did Rudd offer to make his deal stick? Cancellation of the order of US built F35 fighter bombers? Vast amounts of money into the pockets of Indonesian generals?

So successful was Rudd that the object of his representations, the boat with 260 Tamil asylum seekers, remains in limbo in the Indonesian port of Merak with the asylum seekers still on board.

Balibo is the skeleton in the closet of attempts to have a workable diplomatic relationship with Indonesia.

The military will use all means available to them to influence, direct and control Indonesian domestic politics on the issue. They will attempt, probably successfully, to thwart Australian investigations.

They appear to have briefed former Kopassus (Special Forces) officer, Gatot Purwanto, to spin a variation of the 'they were caught in crossfire' claim to protect the hide of Yunus Yosfiah, the officer who ordered and carried out the murders.

Purwanto claims that firing came from behind the journalists, forcing Indonesian armed forces to open fire. This claim has been dismissed. There were no Fretilin forces in the area where the shots were alleged to have originated.

Purwanto admitted the bodies were burnt in order to hide evidence of the killing of foreigners. Faced with an awful accident of war the Indonesian authorities might have admitted such a mistake and handed the bodies over. But they could not as the nature of the injuries would have made known that the journalists were deliberately killed. The military hit squad had to get rid of the bodies.

Purwanto is a stalking horse for the military and in particular his old boss in East Timor at the time Yosfiah, who rose, as is the want with the Indonesian military, to the rank of General. Purwanto served for a time as a senior intelligence officer in East Timor, identifying, hunting down and interrogating Fretilin suspects. Many of these interrogations were accompanied by torture.

The AFP must investigate the murders, but in addition to worrying about the knock on effect on the refugee disruption program it has concerns that co-operation on terrorism will be affected. It need not, co-operation has been tainted by contact, at various levels, between the military, police and the Jemaah Islamiah, the main radical Islamic group in Indonesia. Unfortunately the AFP has never been fully included in the loop.

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Support ETAN in 2010! To make a contribution go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm Thank you for your support.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

Xmas concert tour for troops in ET

2009-12-19T08:14:00.000Z

CHRISTMAS CONCERT TOUR
FOR THE TROOPS IN EAST TIMOR

Australian entertainers John Schumann and the Vagabond Crew, singer Chantelle Delaney and comedian Gary Bradbury have begun a series of concerts for Australian and New Zealand Defence Force personnel deployed with the International Stabilisation Force (ISF) in East Timor.

Ten years after the first forces entertainment concert when Australian Defence Force personnel initially deployed to East Timor, the 17th Australian Defence Force Entertainment Tour began with a concert at the ISF Forward Operating Base in the Gleno district South-West of the capital, Dili.

John Schumann and the Vagabond Crew launched the tour with Australian songs, several of which tell the stories of Australian soldiers who have served overseas since the First World War. Comedian Gary Bradbury used knowledge gained from his own military service to entice the service personnel into taking a laugh at themselves in a very Australian way. Singer Chantelle Delaney then sang some well-known covers.

Corporal Sunil Nazareth enjoyed the Gleno concert. He said it was great relief that had the troops both laughing and feeling nostalgic.

"I liked the comedian. He observed a few home truths that were pretty funny," Corporal Nazareth said at the end of the concert.

"Hearing the song I was only 19 touched a chord and Waltzing Matilda is a favourite and especially meaningful when away from home at Christmas on deployment."

Major Matt Wilson, who has served in the Australian Army for over 25 years said the concert was particularly moving.

"To hear such iconic soldiers' songs being performed at a Forward Operating Base by the bloke who wrote it was a great experience," he said.

Earlier in the day the musicians had warmed up their vocal chords performing Christmas carols for children at an orphanage in Gleno. This acoustic show included an impromptu jam session when the local children commandeered the band's guitars. The Entertainment Tour continues with a concert in the Timor Leste Aviation Group hangar where Australian Army Black Hawk helicopters are ordinarily stationed, and this will be followed by a final concert at HPOD, the largest ISF base in East Timor.

Media note: imagery can be found at

http://www.defence.gov.au/opEx/global/opastute/images/gallery/2009/1217/index.htm

Media contacts: Defence Media Liaison: 02 6127 1999 or 0408 498 664

Progress Report (on parliament action

2009-12-19T08:10:00.001Z

CAVR/CTF FOLLOW-UP INSTITUTION: PROGRESS REPORT

18 December 2009

1. Background

On 14 December 2009, the Timor-Leste National Parliament debated a Resolution on the implementation of recommendations from the CAVR and CTF reports. The debate came 4 years and 16 days after the CAVR report was delivered to the Parliament on 28 November 2005. The Parliament’s initiative was led by the President of the Parliament, Fernando de Araujo, and owed much to the work of individual MPs, civil society, UNMIT and the National Consensus Dialogue on Truth, Justice and Reconciliation.

2. Parliamentary Resolution and debate
In its preamble, the Resolution (34/11) acknowledged the work and reports of the two commissions, the need to recognise, honour and alleviate the suffering of victims through just reparations and the necessity of implementing the two sets of recommendations. In its operative section, the Resolution asked the Parliament’s Committee A to prepare draft legislation comprising concrete measures to implement the recommendations and the creation of an autonomous body for that purpose. The Parliament requested that this draft legislation be completed within 3 months (i.e. by the middle of March 2010 at the latest). It also called for the publication of the CAVR Executive Summary and the CTF reports.

All MPs present warmly acknowledged the two reports, strongly endorsed the need and urgency to establish a mechanism to implement the recommendations and voted to refer the framing of legislation to Committee A. The majority, however, preferred that the implementing mechanism be located within the Government not autonomous.

3. Analysis

The media have misreported the debate. The Parliament did not debate or adopt the CAVR or CTF reports. The debate focussed only on a follow-up mechanism to implement recommendations. It is not known if the Parliament will discuss the substance and findings of the CAVR and CTF reports.

The Resolution expresses the mind of those MPs who were present in the chamber for the debate (at least 20 were absent) but does not have the force of law. The status of the new body, its terms of reference and which recommendations it will address from CAVR/CTF will be debated further in Committee A and determined when the Parliament debates the draft legislation prepared by Committee A.

The Resolution indicates that the Parliament favours the idea of a reparations program for victims and that recommendations common to both the CAVR and CTF reports should be jointly implemented by one body.

The reference in the Resolution to the publication of the two reports is a formality. Both reports have already been published and disseminated widely.

During and since the debate one or two MPs have expressed concerns that following-up the two reports will ‘re-open old wounds and create conflict’. In response, it should be emphasised that this is not the intention of the process. The intention is to heal not hurt. Problems are more likely to occur if nothing is done. Second, it should be recalled that similar fears were expressed in 2000-2001 about CAVR. However, the CAVR process (which involved bringing victims and perpetrators together and graphic public testimony by victims about the violations they suffered) never triggered violence. On the contrary it contributed to stability and healing.

Some have suggested that it is the Government’s responsibility to implement the Recommendations because, in CAVR’s case, the Regulation required CAVR to direct its recommendations to the Government. This is not so. CAVR recommendations are directed to a range of institutions. It is the responsibility of the Parliament to decide how the various recommendations are acted on.

4. Other matters

In its recent budget deliberations, the Parliament voted a contingency sum of US$250,000 for the new institution. This fund will be held in a reserve account by the Ministry of Finance until the new body is established. This is further evidence of the Parliament and Government’s support for the new body.

The Parliament’s plan to establish a follow-up mechanism means that the Post-CAVR Technical Secretariat will wind up in the first part of 2010.

Some Governments and other recipients of the CAVR report have stated that they should not respond to its contents until the Timor-Leste Parliament has done so. The Parliament’s initiative this week has now opened the way for long overdue international discussion of Chega! and implementation of its relevant recommendations.

Prior to the debate, local NGOs presented hundreds of signed petitions to the Parliament urging it to urgently act on the implementation of the CAVR report. The majority of the petitions were signed by Timorese from all parts of Timor-Leste. Citizens from 23 other countries, including Indonesia, also endorsed the petition.

The Post-CAVR Technical Secretariat is organising a public information program early 2010 to explain and consult about developments regarding the two reports to key stakeholders, including Government Ministries, victims groups, civil society, and the international community. This program will be undertaken with the support of the European Commission (EC). A report on the program will be provided to Committee A.

Copies of the Resolution adopted by the Parliament are available in Portuguese and English on request.

Pat Walsh
Senior Advisor, Post-CAVR Technical Secretariat, Dili.
Email: padiwalsh@gmail.com Tel (+670) 726 8423

Follow-up institution progress report 18 Dec 09

Spanish Government Expands Support for FAO Baucau Project

2009-12-19T06:57:00.000Z

Spanish Government Expands Support for FAO Baucau Project

18 December, 2009 Dili, Timor Leste, The successful UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Food Security and Livelihoods Project in the District of Baucau in Timor-Leste received fresh additional funding worth 600.000 EUR from the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) in November 2009. This will allow FAO to expand support to food security in Baucau until 2011.

The aim of this project is to increase the variety, quality and quantity of food produced by the communities living around the SeiÃ§al River basin in Baucau District. The Project builds on the farmers' capacity with the aim of promoting progressive transition from subsistence farming to a more market-oriented approach to production. The project focuses on integrating production of staple crops (cereals and tubers), legumes and vegetables and small livestock, by supplying farming inputs (seeds, tools and animals) along with training and new adapted technologies. At present over 2,000 families from 15 Sucos (villages) are benefiting in this Project.

Timorese women have a fundamental role in agriculture, such as house gardens and small livestock activities. Improvement in vegetable production provides food diversification for households and creates surpluses which can then be sold at local markets. Phase II of the Project will continue and expand ongoing food security, livelihoods and human nutrition activities, with a special emphasis on children and women, the most vulnerable groups in the community. The project will promote best practice such as using animal manure for fertilizer as well as using farm by-products as an alternative source of animal feed.

School gardens will be established in each of the communities with the aim of improving nutrition for the students during school time by promoting the consumption of vegetables in the daily diet and to teach children how to produce vegetables at home. These activities will be implemented in synergy with the recently approved joint UN Food Security and Nutrition Programme funded by the Spain-sponsored Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Achievement Fund. .

Mr Fabrizio Cesaretti, Emergency and Rehabilitation Coordinator in Timor-Leste and Mr Francisco de AsÃs LÃ³pez Sanz, Director of the Spanish Cooperation in Timor Leste said today "Thanks to these additional contributions, and AECID's strong commitment with FAO, Spain has become the main donor of FAO activities in Timor Leste. Consequently this joint programme is now able to expand and strengthen the programme of assistance to Timorese farming and fishing communities."

For further information, contact: Fabrizio Cesaretti - Emergency and Rehabilitation Coordinator - Emergency and Rehabilitation Unit - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, FAO Office Number: +670 331 2960 Mobile: +670 737 6389; E-mail: Fabrizio.Cesaretti@fao.org
Internet: http://www.fao.org/emergencies/country_information/list/asia/timorleste/en/

Peace Dividend Trust wins major social entrepreneur award

2009-12-16T06:39:00.000Z

Skoll Foundation Invests in Leading Social Entrepreneurs
Peace Dividend Trust is latest recipient of Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship
Foundation renews support for Skoll Centre at Oxford University
Investments in The Elders and the Middle East Venture Capital Fund promote new approaches to conflict resolution

PALO ALTO, Calif. – December 15, 2009 – The Skoll Foundation announced today new investments in social entrepreneurs and other innovators driving large scale change on critical issues around the globe. Peace Dividend Trust, which makes peace and humanitarian operations more effective and equitable to promote durable peace, received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, which includes a $765,000 grant. The Foundation also invested $500,000 to support the work of The Elders, a group of eminent global leaders brought together by Nelson Mandela to support peace building, address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity. The Foundation also approved a $2.5 million investment in the Middle East Venture Capital Fund, which will fund information and communications technology companies originating in the Palestinian Territories. Finally, the Foundation renewed its commitment to the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University with a $3.6 million grant, with a focus on developing talent and scholarship in social entrepreneurship, as well as building the Centre’s role as a global hub for social entrepreneurship.
“As the Foundation enters its second decade, we are increasingly focused on entrepreneurial approaches that hold the greatest promise for significant impact on pressing global issues,” said Sally Osberg, President and CEO of the Skoll Foundation. “The investments we’re announcing today are highly leveraged ways to both tackle tough issues, such as local economic empowerment in conflict zones, and to build out a stronger ecosystem to support innovators tackling these tough issues. We’re excited to begin working with this diverse group of innovative leaders and social change organizations.”
Peace Dividend Trust
In 2001, Scott Gilmore was working for the UN peacekeeping mission in Timor-Leste, on leave from the Canadian diplomatic service. He grew frustrated at how management and operational problems hampered the peacekeepers’ ability to achieve the strategic goals of the mission. Staffing practices, for example, prevented the UN mission from hiring local staff despite high unemployment. Scott started an informal group of development and peacekeeping professionals to share lessons learned in the hope of improving operational efficiency. In 2004, he launched Peace Dividend Trust (PDT). PDT focuses on the nuts and bolts of how peace missions operate to help those in charge learn from past failures, disperse benefits as widely as possible, and implement innovative, yet practical approaches to economic development. PDT has grown to over 100 people, has offices in five countries, and has operated in over 12 peace and humanitarian missions.
Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship
The Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at the Oxford University’s Said Business School is a leading academic institution for the advancement of social entrepreneurship worldwide. It was founded in 2003 with a $7.5 million investment by the Skoll Foundation. During the past six years, the Skoll Centre has provided MBA scholarships for exceptional social entrepreneurs, created the first endowed chair in social entrepreneurship at a business school and launched the flagship Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. While the Foundation will continue to support the Skoll World Forum via a separate dedicated grant, this new $3.6 million Foundation investment will be directed to four areas:
Developing Talent. The Centre will deepen its offering of world-class graduate education that provides students with the vision and skills to bring together market-oriented approaches and social innovation.
Advancing Scholarship. As part of a leading international university, the Centre will pursue interdisciplinary research around social entrepreneurship, particularly in the areas of social finance and performance measurement.
Creating a Collaborative Hub. The Centre will strengthen its role as a nexus between social entrepreneurs, students and faculty, and key influencers in business, government, academia, social investment, multilateral organizations and the media.
Institution Building. In addition to improved staffing/skills alignment, the Centre will build its capacity in communications and branding, governance and impact measurement.
The Elders
The Foundation is making a grant of $500,000 to support The Elders. Created in July 2007 at the impetus of Nelson Mandela, The Elders includes global leaders such as Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, Desmond Tutu and a number of others who have earned international trust, demonstrated integrity and built a reputation for progressive leadership. The Elders engage on a targeted set of critical global issues where their experience and weight can help bridge differences and drive policies forward, including conflict in the Middle East, the peace process in Cyprus, climate change and human rights. Jeff Skoll is one of the founding supporters of The Elders. (www.theElders.org)
Middle East Venture Capital Fund
Lack of a vibrant Palestinian economy is one of the key impediments to peace in the region. Per capita GDP, at just over $1,000 in 2008, is now lower in real terms than it was in 1997. The new Middle East Venture Capital Fund (MEVCF) will invest primarily in private, export-oriented, high-growth information and communications technology companies originating in the Palestinian Territories. The Fund has a target capitalization of $50 million, with a first closing target of $35 million. The Skoll Foundation will invest up to $2.5 million in the Fund. Fund management believes that an opportunity exists to develop entrepreneurial companies leveraging the growing community of technology professionals in the Palestinian Territories. A fast-growing market for technology in the broader Middle East/North Africa region should create a supportive regional ecosystem, as well as potential additional exit opportunities, for the Fund’s portfolio companies.
“Like the other program related investments we’ve made in the ShoreCap Funds, GroFin, Acumen Capital Markets, and the CAPE Fund, the Middle East Venture Capital Fund gives us an opportunity to use an innovative and socially entrepreneurial intermediary to accelerate the provision of capital to underserved markets,” said Richard Fahey, Chief Operating Officer of the Skoll Foundation. “These intermediaries are valuable because they are a highly leveraged ways to tap philanthropic funding to drive large-scale change in the areas in which they operate. While improving conditions for peace is our main objective with this MEVCF investment, we also believe this provides real opportunity for a financial return, remitting capital for the Foundation’s future social investments down the road.”
About the Skoll Foundation
The Skoll Foundation was created in 1999 by eBay's first president, Jeff Skoll, to promote his vision of a more peaceful and prosperous world. Today the Skoll Foundation drives large-scale change by investing in, connecting and celebrating social entrepreneurs and other innovators dedicated to solving the world’s most pressing problems. Social entrepreneurs are individuals dedicated to innovative, bottom-up solutions that transform unequal and unjust social, environmental and economic systems.
The Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship is the foundation's flagship program. There are currently 61 organizations represented by 74 remarkable social entrepreneurs in the program, working individually and together across regions, countries and continents to deliver solutions to the world’s most challenging economic and social problems. The Skoll Foundation connects social entrepreneurs and other partners in the field via an online community at www.socialedge.org, and through the annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship. The foundation also celebrates social entrepreneurs through the work of flagship organizations such as the PBS NewsHour and the Sundance Institute, which help drive large-scale public awareness of social entrepreneurship and its potential to address the critical issues of our time.
Media contact:
Bruce Lowry
Communications Director
The Skoll Foundation
(650) 331-1020
blowry@skollfoundation.org

Southeast Asian Leaders - Go for Solution Not Delusion

2009-12-16T06:30:00.002Z

A Joint Statement, Copenhagen, Denmark, December 14, 2009

Copenhagen - 14 December 2009: We, members of Oilwatch Southeast Asia[i] and Indonesian Civil Society Forum for Climate Justice (CSF), declare our common position and demands on the current climate negotiation in COP 15 UNFCCC Copenhagen. We have witnessed the lack of leadership among industrial countries to significantly cut carbon emission let alone show their responsibility to support developing countries to tackle the impacts of climate change.

Southeast Asia is considered as one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to impacts of climate crisis. Most of the Southeast Asian countries are poor and majority of the population in the region live in deep poverty resulting to a very low capacity to adapt to climate change impacts. The location of the region poses high risk for disasters such as typhoons, droughts, earthquakes, and flooding.

We are disappointed that the negotiations in COP15 UNFCCC do not take into account the reality in the ground that fossil fuel exploitation by industrial countries have been going from strength to strength. Oil and gas projects of transnational corporations are mushrooming and demand for coal is increasing[ii].

Big foreign and private corporations such as Royal Dutch Shell, BHP Billiton, CNUOC, Chevron-Texaco, Amarada Hess, ConocoPhillips and Bumi Resources, are the same actors who plunder natural resources and pollute the environment[iii]. These big corporations control and exploit the rich natural resources of the region particularly fossil resources like oil, gas and coal. Also these entities with the support of international financial institutions like International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Asian Development Bank, are the owners and suppliers of fossil-based technologies and products that the people of Southeast Asian are forced to be dependent with.

Given the fact that burning and consumption of fossil fuels especially oil and coal is the leading cause of global carbon emission, we demand the national governments in Southeast Asia
· To agree on a common position to push for more than 40% carbon reduction from ANNEX I countries by 2020 from the level of 1990.
· To demand from ANNEX I countries to compensate Third World countries from ecological debt and fund their mitigation and adaptation initiatives
· To declare an immediate moratorium on new exploration and commercial operation of oil, gas and coal by big transnational companies in the region.
· To define a concrete timeline and comprehensive plan on eventual phase out of fossil fuel extraction and usage in the region.

In this regard there should be a significant investment on research and fast development of technologies that harness alternative and renewable resources of energy that are cheap, safe and clean. This is needed to make the economy and energy needs of Southeast Asia to veer away from relying on the production and consumption of fossil fuels. Majority of the income and revenues from the existing extraction of fossil fuel in the regions should be automatically appropriated for funding public services

We oppose the false solutions being implemented and pushed for by ANNEX I countries and their transnational corporations such as carbon trading, clean development mechanism, the proposed REDD and ‘clean’ coal technologies. These market-based and profit-oriented solutions put the interest of private corporations and ruling elite above anything else.

We push for the leaders of Southeast Asia countries to unite for truly address the issue of climate change and curb global warming. There should be a reversal of the orientation and framework of economic development and production in the region. In this regard, climate solutions should be based on human security, rectification of ecological debt, land rights, the change of production and consumption pattern, to realize social justice and people’s sovereignty.

These principles ensure in the heart of climate solutions are the welfare and interest of the people and the environment.

The Oilwatch Southeast Asia, CSF, PACC, La’o Hamutuk and TCJ remain committed not only in pushing for genuine climate solutions but also in steadfastly fight along with grassroots communities against agreement, policies, program and projects that will further aggravate climate change and endanger our communities.

Media contacts:
Clemente Bautista, People's Action on Climate Change (PACC), email: entengi2@yahoo.com.ph; cell phone: +45 2639 2749
Ines Martins, Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis, email: ines@laohamutuk.org; cell phone: +45 5274 8769
Siti Maemunah, CSF Indonesia, email: mai@jatam.org; cell phone +45 5049 9567
Penchom Saetang, Thai Working Group for Climate Justice (TCJ), email: toxiccampaign.earth@gmail.com; cell phone: +45 2862 7267
Notes:

[i] Oilwatch SEA is a regional alliance of fossil fuels-affected communities and support organizations from Arakan Oil Watch from Burma; Indonesian Civil Society Forum on Climate Justice (CSF) and JATAM from Indonesia; Friends of the Earth from Malaysia; People’s Action on Climate Change (PACC), Kalikasan People's Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE) and Central Visayas Fisherfolk Development Center Inc. from Philippines, Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis (La’o Hamutuk) from Timor Leste; and Thai Working for Climate Justice (TCJ) and Ecological Alert and Recovery – Thailand from Thailand.

[ii] Almost half of Indonesia coal production, - around 100 million tons - , was extracted by Bumi Resources mostly for export. The company Climate Justice (TCJ) and Ecological Alert and Recovery – Thailand from Thailand.

[iii] Today 80% of 216 million tons total coal product from Indonesia is aimed for export and the demand has been increasing over the year.

***********************************************************
La'o Hamutuk (The Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis)
P.O. Box 340, Dili, Timor-Leste (East Timor)
Telephone: +670-3325013 or +670-734-0965 mobile
email: cscheiner@igc.org website: http://www.laohamutuk.org skype: cscheiner

Tri-nation Timor Sea Cup ties Timor and NT

2009-12-16T06:30:00.001Z

NTNews

Cup ties Timor and NT

December 15th, 2009

Football Federation president Francisco Ley

TERRITORY soccer will export its biggest tournament overseas next year.

The tri-nation Timor Sea Cup launched in Darwin in 2008 is scheduled to kick off in East Timor in May.

High-ranking Timorese and NT soccer officials met in Dili last week to discuss plans for the fledgling nation to host the biggest under-age tournament since its independence 10 years ago.

East Timor won the inaugural title after a clean-sweep of the Northern Territory and West Timor (Nusa Tenggara Timur).

Football Federation NT chief executive Bill Kostandas was delighted to hand the event over to the defending champions, offering his full support in organising and managing the under-21 tournament.

"This event is not only good for developing football relations but important to fostering a closer relationship with our closest neighbours," Kostandas said.

"That passion they have for the game over there is fantastic, you see it in every street with boys and girls of all ages wearing their favourite soccer shirts, be it Barcelona, Chelsea or AC Milan.

"The sort of reception we got from their Football Federation president Francisco Ley and general secretary Amandio de Araujo Sarmento tells me that we can look forward to a pretty special occasion."

Football ties between the NT and East Timor are set to become even closer with visiting NTIS scholarships being made available next year.

As the first intake of soccer players join the institute in the New Year, two athletes and coaches from East Timor will enjoy a month-long stint in Darwin.

There are also plans for the FFNT head office to host an administrator for four weeks. Kostandas said the deal would be a win win for all involved.

"As far as skill and professionalism of their players go, East Timor can teach us plenty. We can give back to them through infrastructure, operational and strategic matters."

http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2009/12/15/109481_ntsport.html

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Support ETAN in 2010! To make a contribution go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm Thank you for your support.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

Journalists threaten to fight Indonesia censorship

2009-12-16T06:27:00.001Z

Journalists threaten to fight Indonesia censorship

By ROD McGUIRK
Associated Press Writer

JAKARTA, Indonesia, Dec 14 (AP) - A journalists group threatened
Tuesday to fight a ban on the war movie "Balibo" with a constitutional
court challenge if the Indonesian government enforces its countrywide
prohibition.

Earlier this month, Indonesia's censorship board banned the screening
of the award-winning Australian movie, which depicts Indonesian
military atrocities in the East Timorese border town of Balibo in the
weeks before the 1975 invasion of the former Portuguese colony.

Since then, the Alliance of Independent Journalists has been showing
the movie in venues around the country, and sales of pirated DVDs are
flourishing without police interference in markets in the capital,
Jakarta.

Police spokesman Col. Untung Ketut Yoga said the government ban cannot
be enforced until police receive written confirmation of its terms
from the government.

Andreas Harsono, founder of the alliance, said the journalists will
lodge a constitutional court challenge if the government takes the
next step of enforcing the ban, which was instituted Dec. 1.

"This is all the legacy of the Suharto regime that we are trying to
scrap piece by piece," said Harsono, whose group began as an
underground free speech movement under the Suharto dictatorship, which
ended in 1998.

The movie, which claims to be based on a true story, depicts
Indonesian troops murdering five unarmed journalists in Balibo to
conceal Indonesia's involvement in East Timor ahead of the invasion.
The reporters were citizens of Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

Australian police have launched a war crimes investigation into the
incident. Indonesia maintains that the five were accidentally killed
in crossfire.

The Robert Connolly-directed movie, starring Anthony LaPaglia, was
withdrawn from the Dec. 4-12 Jakarta International Film Festival due
to the ban.

The constitutional court has lifted bans on five politically sensitive
films about East Timor and Indonesia's restive Aceh province that
prevented their screenings at the 2006 Jakarta film festival.

A lawyer who helped win those challenges, Christiana Chelsia Chan,
said she believed the Balibo ban was similarly unconstitutional.

Such a court challenge would be the first test of Indonesia's new film
censorship laws, passed in October. The laws are the first revision of
censorship regulations since the Suharto era.

Film festival director Lalu Roisamri, who submitted "Balibo" to the
censors, welcomed the prospect of the court appeal. He said freedom of
speech was going backward in Indonesia.

"I'm afraid so, because I think the government is paranoid," Roisamri
said.

Connolly said he had given copyright permission to the alliance to
screen his movie, but that the DVDs being sold in markets were
illegal. He said he had been "naively optimistic" that the government
censors would allow the movie to be screened at commercial cinemas.

"Indonesia is a democracy now, and certainly there is a whole
generation of people in Indonesia who are engaging in their past, as
you can see from the response to the film," Connolly said, referring
to the popularity of the pirated DVDs.

The censorship board said it banned the movie because of its
"questionable objectivity" and "potential to open old wounds."

The movie will be released worldwide next year.

Associated Press Writer Irwan Firdaus contributed to this report.

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Contribute to education,employment and enviroment in East Timor

2009-12-15T03:04:00.003Z

Dear All Reader

At the moment we have launch a new webiste for carbonxchange for more detail please Visit

www.carbonxchange.net.au

Your Contribution is very significant to our country.

Contribute to Education

2009-12-15T03:01:00.000Z

Security Sector Reform Monitor: Timor-Leste No. 1

2009-12-15T02:59:00.000Z

Security Sector Reform Monitor: Timor-Leste

No.1 Friday, December 11, 2009

The Security Sector Reform Monitor is a quarterly publication that tracks developments and trends in the ongoing security sector reform (SSR) processes of five countries: Afghanistan, Burundi, Timor-Leste, Haiti and Southern Sudan. This inaugural issue of the Security Sector Reform Monitor, Timor-Leste, will cover sector-wide developments and trends, but will focus predominantly on police reform.

Download from here http://www.cigionline.org/publications/2009/12/security-sector-reform-monitor-timor-leste

INTRODUCTION

In mid-2006, large parts of Timor-Leste’s security sector collapsed and the fledgling nation lurched toward civil war. The country’s police (Polícia Nacional de Timor Leste - PNTL) and military (Forças de Defesa de Timor-Leste - F-FDTL) were at best incapable of controlling, and at worst complicit in fomenting crime and lawlessness, requiring the government to request an Australian-led peacekeeping force and international policing presence to restore public order.

The tragic events of April–June 2006—in which 37 died in the violence and over 150,000 were driven from their homes—laid bare the dysfunctions of the security sector. “The Crisis,” as the events of 2006 are now known, revealed that there was little substance to many parts of the security sector beyond uniforms and weapons. It became clear that Timor-Leste required a comprehensive and far-reaching security sector reform (SSR) process.

There have been significant changes in the Timorese security sector since 2006, not all of which have been positive. After nearly three years of executive policing authority, the United Nations Police (UNPOL) has begun a staged handover to national authorities. There has also been a marked improvement in relations between the PNTL and F-FDTL. The return to national control of the police is a welcome development as it demonstrates the growing legitimacy of the country’s security institutions and increasing local ownership over the SSR process. However, it comes with some risk; it was the Timorese government’s mismanagement of the security sector that led to the 2006 crisis. Although this edition of the Security Sector Reform Monitor: Timor-Leste will cover sector-wide developments an

Introduction 1

Historical Background of the Security Sector 2

Security Environment 4

The United Nations and SSR 6

Policing 6

Justice Sector 10

Armed Forces 10

Conclusion 11

Works Cited 12

CTF is a step in the right direction: Portuguese official

2009-12-15T02:37:00.000Z

Monday, December 14, 2009 8:06 PM

CTF is a step in the right direction: Official

Mon, 12/14/2009 3:33 PM | World

Portugal's secretary of state for foreign affairs and cooperation Joao Gomes Cravinho was in Indonesia last week to attend the second Bali Democracy Forum (BDF). The Jakarta Post's Lilian Budianto talked to him about the progress of democracy in Asian countries and the growing relations between Indonesia and Portugal, former foes who fought many diplomatic battles over the Timor Leste issue in the past. Following are the excerpts of the interview:

Question: What is your interest in the Bali Democracy Forum?

Answer: Portugal is not part of the region, but we think the Indonesian experience of promoting democracy over the last 10 years is a very interesting experience that should be shared.

The realization of this forum in Bali as a regular event is part of a process of international promotion of democracy that we feel very comfortable with. Portugal recently has the presidency of the Community of Democracy, which is a worldwide organization of democratic countries that promotes mechanisms for democracy. We ourselves have had the experience of a transition to democracy: We were under a dictatorship until 35 years ago, and in 1974-1975 we went through the transition to democracy. One thing we think we share with Indonesia is the approach to the promotion of democracy, which is not dogmatic, one-size-fits-all, the recognition that the world is diverse and paths to democracy are different because they are based on different historical experiences.

At the same time, we also believe in the same fundamental values, values that are encapsulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. And so the trick we all have to try to achieve is, I think, how to find and help other countries find their paths to democracy without compromising on the universal values. Indonesia and Portugal try to do that and that is something we share and that is why I thought it was important for us to be present at the Bali Democracy Forum.

We are looking forward to the next few years. We have relaunched our relations with Indonesia. We say relaunched because in 2011 we will celebrate the fifth century of the first contact between Portugal and Indonesia. Portuguese sailors first came here in 1511 and that experience is very important to our history. It has been a very profound exchange; we gained a lot from Indonesia and we left some legacies here in Indonesia. And we would like to use this moment of five centuries *of contact* as an excuse to celebrate the past and to think of how to use the past as a building block for future relations.

In business terms, our relations are much smaller than they should be; we have lots of opportunities for Portuguese and Indonesian businessmen to get together. What we mean to say is, we have this cultural legacy and historical knowledge of each other; we have no political problems. The issue of Timor Leste was an issue that divided us for some years but that issue has been resolved through close and intense diplomacy between us and has left us a sense that we can work well together.

You mentioned that Portugal and Indonesia have already resolved the issue of Timor Leste. However, the UN has reiterated the importance of bringing the perpetrators of human rights violations during Timor Leste's referendum to justice. How do you see this?

This is a very important issue. Point number one is that what is fundamental is the promotion of good relations between Timor Leste and Indonesia. Portugal will always work toward the consolidation of good relations. The second point is we believe that impunity, in abstract terms, is not a solution for the problems of any country in the long run. But we know this is a complex process that must go at the right speed, sometimes an excessive desire to find a solution that is 100 percent right can derail the process. We understand there is a complex process of transformation going on inside Indonesian society. Timor Leste itself is a new country trying to understand its complex heritage and we would not be interested in creating circumstances that will derail these delicate processes. But the future must be toward the path of justice, because only toward the path of justice will we find true and long-lasting reconciliation.

How does the government of Portugal see the results of the Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF)?

We think it is a part of the process. What has happened so far is not something that will resolve for the rest of eternity issues that need to be worked on over the years. We think it is a step in the right direction and that other steps will undoubtedly come when the time is right.

Does Portugal see Indonesia as a bridge builder to establish better relations with other Southeast Asian countries?

I have visited Indonesia several times and but this is only my second time in Jakarta, and I have been quite struck by the Indonesian approach to foreign policy, which has emerged quite strongly in recent times and I think it has quite an ambitious foreign policy for the next few years. I am struck by the way Indonesia is emerging as a bridge-building nation because Portugal also looks at itself as a bridge-building country in international politics.

I think, Indonesia is creating for itself a very strong foreign policy. The emergence of Indonesia as a country that is listened to by the Arab world, by East Asia, in the UN, is capable internally of promoting consensus and mechanism-finding as a sense of shared values in a diverse society. This is something we admire; we hope Indonesia will be successful in consolidating this in the international arena.

Do you have any concerns in building relations with Indonesia?

Politically, we have no problems between us. We have to work more in the economic field. Culturally, we have a heritage we need to know how to celebrate and use for the future.

Indonesia has managed *itself* remarkably and, particularly in this region, Indonesia can stand out as a lighthouse to say we have managed something which is very difficult, and to show others can do this too if they are guided by the right principles.

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Support ETAN in 2010! To make a contribution go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm Thank you for your support.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

National Police resume responsibility over the Maritime Unit

2009-12-15T02:28:00.000Z

UNMIT
PRESS RELEASE

National Police resume responsibility over the Maritime Unit

14 December 2009, Dili, Timor-Leste – Today Deputy Special Representative of the SSecretary-General of the United Nations for Security Sector Support and Rule of Law, Mr Takahisa Kawakami and Secretary of State for Security, Dr Francisco da Costa Guterres, presided over a ceremony marking the resumption of primary responsibility for the conduct of maritime police operations by the Maritime Unit of the PolÃcia Nacional de Timor-Leste (PNTL).

PNTL's Maritime Unit is the sixth entity in which the PNTL has resumed primary policing responsibility since the resumption process started in May 2009, when primary policing responsibility was transferred to the PNTL in the District of Lautem. This process continued in the Districts of Oecussi in June, Manatuto in July, and was followed by the transfer of responsibility for the administration and management of the Police Training Centre in September. In December, the PNTL resumed responsibility in the Viqueque District.

The Government of Timor-Leste and UNMIT are implementing the resumption process in a gradual manner – district by disstrict, unit by unit. The decision for the PNTL to resume primary policing responsibility for the Maritime Unit was based on the result of assessments of the preparedness of PNTL. The assessments were conducted by joint teams comprising representatives of the Government and UNMIT, including PNTL and the United Nations Police (UNPol), using mutually agreed criteria.

UN Police will maintain their presence in areas where the PNTL have resumed responsibility, in order to support, advise, train and monitor the PNTL in their roles.

The Maritime Unit was originally established in 2001 and is responsible for coastal security, protection of the marine environment, the safeguarding of human life through search and rescue and prevention of criminality and illegal immigration at sea.

*****

UNMIT
KOMUNIKADU IMPRENSA

PolÃsia NasionÃ¡l asumi hikas responsabilidade ba Unidade MarÃtima

14 Dezembru 2009, Dili, Timor-Leste –“ Ohin Vise Reprezentante EspesiÃ¡l SekretÃ¡riu-JerÃ¡l ba Apoiu SetÃ³r Seguransa no Estadu Direitu, Sr.Takahisa Kawakami no SekretÃ¡riu Estadu ba Seguransa, Dr Francisco da Costa Guterres, prezide seremonia ida-neâ€™ebÃ© marka retomada responsabilidade prinsipÃ¡l ba kondusaun operasaun sira polÃsia marÃtima nian hosi Unidade MarÃtima PolÃcia Nacional de Timor-Leste (PNTL) nian.

PNTL nia Unidade MarÃtima nuâ€™udar entidade ba daneen neâ€™ebÃ© PNTL asumi hikas tiha ona responsabilidade polisiamentu prinsipÃ¡l dezde prosesu retomada responsabilidade polisiamentu hahÃº iha fulan-Maiu, tinan 2009, bainhira responsabilidade polisiamentu prinsipÃ¡l transfere ba PNTL iha Distritu Lautem. Prosesu neâ€™e kontinua iha Distritu Oecussi iha fulan-JuÃ±u, Distritu Manatuto iha fulan-Jullu, no tuir fali ho transferÃ©nsia responsabilidade ba administrasaun no jestaun Sentru Formasaun PolÃsia iha fulan-Setembru. Iha fulan-Dezembru, PNTL asumi hikas responsabilidade polisiamentu iha Distritu Viqueque.

Governu Timor-Leste no UNMIT implementa daudaun prosesu retomada responsabilizasaun iha maneira ida-neâ€™ebÃ© graduÃ¡l—distritu ba distritu, unidade ba unidade. Desizaun ba PNTL atu asumi hikas responsabilidade polisiamentu prinsipÃ¡l ba Unidade MarÃtima neâ€™e bazeia ba rezultadu avaliasaun preparasaun PNTL nian. Avaliasuan sira neâ€™e halaâ€™o hosi ekipa konjunta sira neâ€™ebÃ© komposta hosi reprezentante sira Governu no UNMIT nian, inklui PNTL no PolÃsia Nasoins Unidas (UNPol), neâ€™ebÃ© uza kritÃ©ria maka konkorda mutualmente.

PolÃsia ONU nian sei mantein sira-nia prezensa iha Ã¡rea sira neâ€™ebÃ© PNTL asumi tiha ona responsabilidade polisiamentu atu apoia, akonsella, treina no monitoriza PNTL iha sira-nia knaar sira.

Unidade MarÃtima neâ€™e orijinalmente estabelese iha tinan 2001, no responsabiliza ba seguransa tasi-ibun, protesaun ambiente mariÃ±a nian, salvaguarda ba vida umana liuhosi buka no salva no prevensaun kriminalidade, no mÃ³s imigrasaun ilegÃ¡l iha tasi.

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Support ETAN in 2010! To make a contribution go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm Thank you for your support.

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PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

Government says reforms have contributed to a new level of peace in Timor-Leste

2009-12-15T02:26:00.000Z

The Secretary of State for the Council of Ministers and
Official Spokesperson for the Government of Timor-Leste
Ágio Pereira

December 13, 2009

Díli, Timor-Leste

Government says reforms have contributed to a new level of peace in Timor-Leste

The joint announcement that Australia would reduce troops by one third, (250 officers) was a clear indication that both nations are confident in the ongoing stability in Timor-Leste. Secretary of State Ágio Pereira says that reforms across Government and improvements in security, combined with strong social policies and significant economic growth have all contributed to a ‘new Timor-Leste’.

One of the most important reforms was Decree Law 31/2008, which established the organic structure of the Ministry of Security and Defense, thus uniting the two forces who had been divided in the past under one Ministry. In 2009, The Secretariat for Defense recruited 600 new personnel, training was completed for 100 sergeants and 500 received training for other ranks under the new career regime. The FdTL built the capacity to engage in exercises with friendly forces including the ISF and US Marines.

The PNTL have already resumed primary policing duties in Lautém, Oecusse, Manatuto, Viqueque and the Police Training Centre. On the 14th of December is the handover of the Maritime Unit and on December 18th the handover for the Strategic Information Department. One hundred police officers across the 13 districts have attended leadership training at the Jakarta Centre for Law Enforcement and in 2010, some 300 new recruits will be inducted into the force.

Implementing career regimes based on a meritocratic system, pay increases, extensive technical and human rights training and mandatory disassociation with political affiliation has strengthened and professionalized the armed services; bringing a renewed confidence into the communities of Timor-Leste.

Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão has always stressed the relevance of economic development as a necessary foundation in ensuring national stability. When the Government took office the highly centralized systems had immobilized services, especially outside Díli, economic growth was in a downturn and poverty had doubled.

The Governments’ arduous decentralization reforms across line ministries delivered more effective and efficient services to the people; particularly in areas like health, education, justice and finance. Pensions gave relief to the most vulnerable and even though in December 2008, Timor-Leste was included on Relief Web’s Statement of Complex Emergency, titled Global Food Crisis (CE) - listing countries that could be severely affected by the Global food crisis emergency: the Government’s efforts to purchase and subsidize food products, mainly rice, to ensure food security and the adequate delivery of supplies to Timor-Leste averted this crisis. The nation avoided the riots, looting and violence which occurred in many countries due to food shortages.

Secretary of State Ágio Pereira noted “As 2009 comes to a close, we must pay due credit to the discipline, dedication, and hard work of the men and woman of the armed services in Timor-Leste for taking ownership, responsibility and accountability of the nations’ safety and future.

We also pay due credit to members of the ISF who have supported Timor-Leste. The collective effort has brought to our people a ‘new Timor-Leste’; a country that can now grow within a peaceful and stable environment.

Although our nation has a long journey ahead, the successes thus far in establishing a level of both economic stability and national security re- enforce the fact that the policies of the Xanana Gusmão Government are contributing to the betterment of the nation and the people.” ENDS

For More Information Please Contact:
Ágio Pereira +670 723 0011
E-mail: agiopereira@cdm.gov.tl

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‘Balibo’ Film Ban Backfires Badly

2009-12-15T02:24:00.000Z

The Jakarta Globe

Monday, December 14, 2009

Balibo' Film Ban Backfires Badly

The Indonesia Film Censorship Agency's decision to ban the Australian movie "Balibo" early this month appears to have backfired, with stores all over the capital selling the pirated version of the film over the weekend.

Firman, a movie lover, said that until recently he had never even heard of the movie, which tells of the deaths of five journalists, allegedly at the hands of Indonesian soldiers during the 1975 invasion of East Timor.

I only found out about the movie after the National Film Censorship Board [LSF] banned it. I don't even know what the movie is about. I must admit that I bought the pirated version because of the ban," he told the Jakarta Globe.

Ayu, a shopkeeper who sells pirated DVDs, said demand for the movie was high.

We just received the movie on [Sunday] morning and we've sold more than 40 copies," she said. "We are already short on stock, so we quickly ordered a hundred more copies."

The pirated version of the movie is reportedly decent in quality with accurate subtitles.

Prior to the ban, Balibo had a very small market, primarily attracting curious expatriates, journalists and hard core movie buffs.

The movie was submitted to the LSF by the Jakarta International Film Festival (Jiffest), which had originally planned to screen the film during the festival.

Immediately after the ban several arts organizations like the Salihara Community and the Utan Kayu Theater, as well as journalist groups, including the Independent Journalists Alliance (AJI) and the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club (JFCC) arranged private screenings, which were attended by thousands of curious moviegoers.

The film tells the story of five journalists killed when Indonesian troops took over the border town of Balibo in East Timor in October 1975.

A sixth journalist died weeks later when Dili was invaded by Indonesian forces.

Indonesia claims the journalists were killed in crossfire but a 2007 Australian coroner's inquest found that the five were deliberately killed by Indonesian forces, prompting the Australian Police to launch an official investigation into the incident two months ago.

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John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

PETITION ON CAVR REPORT TO THE NATIONAL PARLIAMENT OF TIMOR-LESTE

2009-12-15T02:23:00.001Z

10 Desembru 2009

NGOs to hand over hundreds of petitions to President of the Parliament

28 November 2009 marked four years since the CAVR report Chega! was handed over to the Parliament on 28 November 2005 by then President Xanana Gusmao.

The hand-over was carried out at the direction of the Parliament (Law no 11, 2005) but, although it has had 4 years to examine the report, the Parliament has not yet debated its contents and recommendations.

To mark the occasion and to remind Parliament of its responsibilities, NGOs will today hand over 100s of petitions to the President of the National Parliament, H.E. Fernando Lasama de Araujo. The 3000 petitions have been signed by Timorese and citizens from 23 other countries, including Indonesia.

The petition calls on the Parliament "to give urgent priority to discussion and implementation of the recommendations in Chega! in the near future". The petition states that "failure to respond to Chega! reflects negatively on the Parliament and is impeding implementation of recommendations that are important to victims and the building of the Timor-Leste nation".

The petition is accompanied by a background leaflet that contains an Open Letter to the Parliament signed by three victims. The signatories — Gregorio Saldanha (Dili), Elisa da Silva dos Santos (Liquica) and the Family of Flaviano Lemos (Ermera) — say they are "disappointed" at the failure of the Parliament to make Chega! a priority and that they "feel our contribution to the building of this nation through the CAVR process is not being taken seriously".

The letter calls on the President of the Parliament to discuss Chega! in 2009 and to announce a firm date for that discussion.

The CAVR report, entitled Chega! (Portuguese for 'stop, no more!') documents the work, findings and recommendations of the Comissao de Acolhimento, Verdade e Reconciliacao which began work in 2002 following a decision by the CNRT Resistance Congress of 2000 to undertake a program of reconciliation in Timor-Leste.
The report is available in multiple languages and has been distributed widely in Timor-Leste and internationally with the support of the Presidency of the Republic and the Government of TimorLeste.

The report is available from the Post-CAVR Technical Secretariat, Rua de Balide, Dili and is the currently the subject of a much admired exhibition at the Secretariat.

Asociasaun HAK, ETCRN, FONGTIL.

Further Information, please contact Jose Caetano (ETCRN) 7253877; Edio Saldanha (HAK) 7284602

Mahathir on Timor trip

2009-12-15T02:20:00.000Z

Good for Petronas to win Iraq oilfield rights: Dr M

2009/12/12

Bernama

KUALA LUMPUR, Sat: The rights obtained by Petronas in Iraq to develop one of the world's largest remaining untapped oilfields is a good development, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said today.

He said the national oil corporation should continue working with Royal Dutch Shell to develop the oilfields in the West Asian country.

"If Petronas gets the concession, it's good. Petronas should continue working with Shell," he told reporters after speaking at the Universiti Utara Malaysia Alumni Convention here today.

It was reported yesterday that Shell and Petronas won the rights to develop the Majnoon oilfields as Iraq staged its second auction of oil contracts since the 2003 US invasion.

Shell has a 60 per cent stake in the consortium while Petronas holds the remaining 40 per cent. The Majnoon oilfields in southern Iraq are estimated to have 12.6 billion barrels of reserves, making it one of the largest untapped oilfields left on earth.

Petronas in another consortium comprising China National Petroleum Company of China and French oil major Total won a contract at the second auction to develop the Halfaya oilfields in southern Iraq with an estimated 4.1 billion barrels of reserves.

Dr Mahathir, who is also Petronas adviser, said he was of the view that the situation in Iraq was not yet stable.

Asked about his visit to Timor Leste which ended with his return yesterday, he said he was invited because the country was interested to attract investment from Malaysia.

He was also invited to give a lecture on his views concerning the future of the former Indonesian province.

Dr Mahathir said Malaysia had not shown interest in Timor Leste previously because there were not many opportunities there but the situation was changing as the country was now producing oil and gas.

"Now that there is oil production and new opportunities, I see companies from Malaysia showing interest to invest in Timor Leste," he said. - Bernama

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John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

Gender Trainings in Remote Districts of Timor-Leste

2009-12-15T02:19:00.000Z

News

Gender Trainings in Remote Districts of Timor-Leste

Date: 11 December 2009

Dili With support from UNIFEM, the office of the Secretary of State for the Promotion of Equality (SEPI) in Timor-Leste organized a number of activities during the 16 Days of Activism against Gender Violence from 25 November to 10 December, including a national awareness-raising campaign on a new domestic violence legislation and an international conference on women in post-conflict societies.

A series of trainings on gender issues was undertaken in some of the remotest districts of the country – where many women are unaware of their legal rights and have difficulties in accessing services and justice. The first training session took place in Oecuessi, a coastal enclave situated 80 km within the Indonesian territory of West Timor, with a focus on educating the community about the new laws that make domestic violence a punishable crime.

Implemented by SEPI, the national public education campaign is part of a joint MDG Achievement Fund programme that is coordinated by UNIFEM. It involves national and international non-governmental organizations, the Timor-Leste National Police (PNTL) and United Nations agencies. In a speech on this occasion, Alfredo Pires, the Acting Secretary of State for the Promotion of Equality, underlined that such inter-organizational collaboration was necessary to achieve the goal of ending domestic violence, a widespread problem in this traditionally patriarchal society.

During the long years of conflict in Timor-Leste, women became deliberate targets of sexual violence. In the capital Dili, SEPI hosted delegates from Liberia and Northern Ireland for a conference on UN Security Council Resolution 1325, a key document that addresses the issue of women, peace and security. The conference acknowledged the importance of increasing women’s participation in decision-making at all levels of conflict prevention, peace processes and recovery.

For more information, contact Jennifer Ward, UNIFEM Timor-Leste, jennifer.ward[at]unifem.org.

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Support ETAN in 2010! To make a contribution go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm Thank you for your support.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

Roger East page on Facebook

2009-12-15T01:51:00.000Z

Roger East page on Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=roger+east&init=quick#/profile.php?id=100000479090911

THIS SITE IS IN MEMORIUM. Roger died on 8 December 1975 at the hands of Indonesian soldiers in Dili, East Timor.

Roger East was a freelance journalist who travelled the world for over 20 years documenting the struggles of the 'under dog', the disadvantaged.

He flew to Portuguese East Timor on November 5 1975 to report on the independence struggle of the Timorese and on the looming invasion of East Timor by its aggressive neighbour Indonesia.

He was the last reporter in Dili on December 7 1975 when Indonesia launched its land, air, and sea invasion of Timor.

He was captured by Indonesian soldiers, and on the morning of December 8 he was executed on Dili wharf, his body falling into the sea.

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Support ETAN in 2010! To make a contribution go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm Thank you for your support.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

Local officer tackles UN mission

2009-12-15T01:49:00.000Z

Orilla Packet & Times (Canada)

Starting from scratch

POLICING: Local officer tackles UN mission

Posted By NATHAN TAYLOR, THE PACKET AND TIMES

As a former member of the military, Randy Gosse is well aware of the opportunity to make a difference on and off home soil.

The OPP constable spent a dozen years with the military before joining the Timmins police force, which he left after six years to join the Orillia OPP detachment.

While with the military, Gosse joined United Nations missions in Yugoslavia and Bosnia.

His first mission was to Yugoslavia in 1992, when violent conflicts in that country that lasted a decade were still in their infancy.

In 2005, his second mission took him to the former Yugoslav republic of Bosnia.

But when Gosse left the military nearly a decade ago, his desire to help those overseas remained intact.

He returned to Orillia more than a month ago after spending nearly half a year in East Timor, a Southeast Asian country that became the first new sovereign nation of the 21st century in 2002 after securing its independence from Indonesia.

But much of the infrastructure in the area had been damaged, leaving a new people to, in many ways, start anew.

One important step: Form a competent police force.

Enter Gosse.

"Starting off as a brand-new country, they want everything perfect," he said. "To try to develop a country to become independent, and starting off with so little, was really difficult for them."

Gosse was one of six Canadians, and the only OPP officer, on the United Nations mission in East Timor. He provided "in-service training" -- that is training to those who are already qualified for the job.

Handcuffing and searching techniques and crime-scene procedure are areas in which he helped train. Much of it was, essentially, a refresher for the East Timor cops, who can go a long time without having to handcuff someone.

"We look at Canada as being a safe country," Gosse said.

But it's interesting to compare East Timor to Orillia when it comes to policing.

In Orillia, police might receive a couple of hundred calls for service on a weekend. In East Timor, that number could be just 25.

"You try to make (the training) as relevant as possible," Gosse said.

Gosse did more than just train local officers; he became a local officer.

The UN mandate gave him and other officers on the mission executive authority, meaning he also responded to calls.

"It was the best opportunity for me to interact directly with the police officers," he said of his role as a trainer. "I wanted to train and work with the locals as much as I could. I get the experience of working with other nationalities to learn how they work."

Compared to his previous missions, East Timor was "a really safe, relatively uneventful mission, which is good," he said.

This is the 20th year Canada has been sending its police on international missions, and it's also the 100th anniversary of the OPP.

"(The missions) are a good thing for the OPP," Gosse said.

Travelling "is a big thing for me," he said, adding it makes it easier since he and his wife, also ex-military and now a police officer, have no children.

Next, he'd like to join a mission to Afghanistan to help train police there, where, "if a guy can make $100,000 selling dope, but he becomes a police officer instead, that's noble because he's doing it to make a difference for himself and his family in a positive way."

His lengthy absence from the local detachment, from early May to mid- November, meant more work for some of his colleagues, who stepped up to the plate.

"Without the support of my co-workers, I wouldn't have been able to do that," he said.

ntaylor@orilliapacket.com

Article ID# 2217180

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Support ETAN in 2010! To make a contribution go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm Thank you for your support.

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East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

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Timor-Leste: Strengthening governance through Open Conversation

2009-12-15T01:48:00.000Z

Timor-Leste: Strengthening governance through Open Conversation
Source: The World Bank Group

Date: 10 Dec 2009

As decentralization takes place in Timor-Leste, more and more it becomes a hot discussion topic within society. An Open Conversation with members of civil society, the government, and development partners was held today at the World Bank Office in Lecidere where Justice for the Poor's team delivered a presentation on "Articulations of Local Governance in Timor-Leste: Implications for Decentralization."

Justice for the Poor is a World Bank program that focuses on mainstreaming justice considerations and conflict management into development processes. In particular, the program aims to support the poor and marginalized groups to understand and enforce their socio-economic rights. The Justice for the Poor team was represented by Pamela Dale, David Butterworth, and Geraldo Moniz da Silva; while the Team Leader Matthew Stephenscurrently visiting Dilimoderated the discussion.

How government, donors and civil society can strengthen relevant and effective democratic practices at the local level became the central question that Justice for the Poor's team offered to the participants. The team also presented the findings from their research that was conducted in Aileu and Lautem between June – September 2009.

During the Open Conversation, capacity building became a key issue as most of the participants agreed that it is essential to improve capacity in both the national and local levels in order to ensure that decentralization accurately responds to the people's needs, especially in addressing poverty.

The Open Conversation is part of the World Bank's outreach program that aims to raise awareness in the community about the work that the Bank conducts in Timor-Leste.

Download

* Presentation in English (1.12 mb pdf)
* Presentation in Tetum (234kb pdf)

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/EASTASIAPACIFICEXT/TIMORLESTEEXTN/0,,contentMDK:22415308~menuPK:294027~pagePK:2865066~piPK:2865079~theSitePK:294022,00.html

East Timor: hydrocarbons, invasions and independence

2009-12-15T01:37:00.000Z

East Timor: hydrocarbons, invasions and independence
By Jon Lamb

Twenty years ago, on December 11, 1989, the Australian and Indonesian governments signed the Timor Gap Treaty (TGT), giving the go-ahead to energy corporations to exploit the large natural gas and petroleum reserves located in East Timor’s territorial waters. The deal marked the conclusion of 10 years of delicate negotiations between the Suharto dictatorship and successive Australian governments. Access to these oil and gas reserves that the deal provided was a key strategic focus for Australian governments for nearly 30 years.

The Timor Gap came into existence as a consequence of the maritime boundary negotiations between Indonesia and Australia in 1971-72, which left a “gap” in the boundary adjacent to East, a Portuguese colony at the time. Portugal had refused to participate in the 1971-72 negotiations. Test drilling for oil and gas in the area of the Timor Sea in the early 1970s showed great promise, prompting Australian-based mining companies to push for a quick resolution of the incomplete boundary.

Portugal, however, was not so keen to conclude a separate agreement during negotiations with Australia in 1974-75, preferring to await the outcome of the third UN Law of the Sea Conference which included in its agenda discussions on how maritime boundaries between adjacent countries should be determined. Relations between Canberra and Lisbon soured when the Portuguese government awarded exploration rights to a US-based company (the permit covered some 60,700 square kilometres) over an area that the Whitlam Labor government had also granted rights to a rival Australian-based exploration consortium.

With the rise of a radical pro-independence movement in East Timor in the wake of the April 1974 left-wing military coup in Lisbon against the 48-year-old right-wing military dictatorship in Portugal, it was highly unlikely that an independent East Timor would accept Australia’s proposition to draw a more-or-less straight line and close the gap. Key Australian foreign ministry bureaucrats and members of the government, including PM Gough Whitlam himself, began to more openly support annexation of East Timor by Indonesia, with the view that this would enable a quick and favourable boundary agreement and the commercial extraction of oil and gas.

This position was most articulately expressed by Australia’s ambassador to Indonesia, Richard Woolcott, who in a cable sent to Canberra in August 1975 remarked: “We are all aware of the Australian defence interest in the Portuguese Timor situation but I wonder whether the department has ascertained the interest of the department of minerals and energy in the Timor situation. It would seem to me that this department might well have an interest in closing the gap in the agreed sea border and this could be much more readily negotiated with Indonesia than with Portugal or independent Portuguese Timor. I know I am recommending a pragmatic rather than a principled stand but that is what national interest and foreign policy is all about ...”

Timor Gap Treaty
The belief that negotiations with Indonesia would be resolved quickly proved false. Negotiations did not begin in earnest until February 1979, following the announcement by Fraser government foreign affairs minister Andrew Peacock in December 1978 that Australia would accord full recognition of Indonesia’s annexation of East Timor as a perquisite to concluding the maritime boundary. As the talks were underway, numerous human rights atrocities and war crimes were being committed in East Timor by the Indonesian military. Canberra provided diplomatic cover and support to the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, ensuring favoured status for Australian-based companies and tenders operating in Indonesia.

From the outset of the negotiations, Jakarta expressed the view that it was not going to accept the same principles as those applied during the earlier boundary negotiations. Indonesian foreign minister Dr Mochtar Kasumaatmadja described the 1971-72 negotiation result as one in which Jakarta had been “taken to the cleaners”. This time, Jakarta wanted a boundary based on the median line – or half-way point – between the coastlines of East Timor and Australia. What resulted in the final TGT was a set of zones of “development co-operation” where royalties from mining companies were split on a proportional basis.

After the collapse of the Suharto dictatorship in 1998, the prospects for East Timor’s independence improved dramatically. The East Timorese resistance leadership indicated that an independent East Timor, while supporting the development of the oil and gas fields in the Timor Gap, would not accept the terms of the TGT. In November 1998, National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) spokesperson Mari Alkatiri confirmed that an independent East Timor was not going to be “a successor to an illegal treaty”.

Following the UN-sponsored referendum in 1999, in which the overwhelming majority of East Timorese voted in favour of independence, the Australian government, then headed by John Howard, immediately began to pressure the East Timorese political leadership and the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) to merely replace Indonesia as signatory to the TGT. Both the East Timorese leadership and UNTAET flatly refused this proposition. A further six years of drawn-out negotiations ensued, during which Canberra bullied and cajoled the East Timorese, blustering about how “ungrateful”’ the East Timorese where being.

As a means to avoid the maritime boundary dispute being resolved by internationally accepted means, the Howard government announced in March 2002 that it was withdrawing from the legal mechanisms under the auspices of the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea used to resolve boundary issues that cannot be settled by negotiation. By this time, Canberra had already illegally acquired around US$1 billion in oil and gas royalties that rightfully belonged to East Timor.

In Australia, solidarity activists campaigned against the Howard government’s threats to cut aid to East Timor and thus attempt to deny East Timor its territorial rights and control over its oil and gas reserves. An alliance formed during 2004 called the Timor Sea Justice Campaign, which gained a significant boost with the support of maverick businessperson Ian Melrose, who funded an extremely embarrassing and pointed national media campaign highlighting the Howard government’s belligerence and illegal actions.

In 2006 a compromise was reached which resulted in the signing of the treaty on Certain Maritime Arrangements in the Timor Sea (CMATS), under which East Timor’s share of tax revenues from the Greater Sunrise gas field to 50%, from the previous miserable 18%. East Timor also agreed not to finalise the maritime boundary for a further 50 years. Since then, the dispute between East Timor and Australia has centred on where the downstream processing of the natural gas from the huge Greater Sunrise field should take place. The current East Timor government of PM Xanana Gusmao, with the support of President Jose Ramos Horta, has continued to call for the gas to be processed in East Timor, rather than the option preferred by the Australian and Northern Territory governments, which is to have it piped to Darwin.

‘Under Australia’s control’?
Some of the Australian socialist groups that opposed the sending of Australian troops to stop the Indonesian military-sponsored slaughter in East Timor in August/September 1999 abstained from Timor Sea Justice campaign. In recent coverage on the 10 years since the independence ballot, the publications of Socialist Alternative and Solidarity, for example, have also argued that the sole purpose and result of the Australian-led military intervention in 1999 was to protect the Australian capitalist rulers’ interests in East Timor, including the TGT under which they control of around 90% of the oil and gas reserves in East Timor’s territory. Thus, the October edition of Solidarity headlined its article “Ten years of Australian control of East Timor”. But if this were the case, then the 1999 military intervention can hardly be said to have been successful. Under the arrangements negotiated with post-independence East Timor, Canberra’s control of these reserves has fallen from 90% to about 25%.

Far from maintaining or increasing its control over East Timor’s economic resources, Australian imperialism has had to witnessed a situation where economic competitors from Asia in the form of Chinese, Malaysian, Indonesian and Singaporean companies have significantly increased their presence and influence upon East Timor’s economy. Portuguese-based investors also maintain a significant influence in East Timor, as evidenced by the recent awarding to Portuguese construction firm Ensul of the contract to upgrade the airport facilities at Bacau, East Timor’s second largest city.

The consortium of corporations that exploit the largest oil and gas field under East Timor sovereignty the Bayu-Undan field, royalties from which provide 90% of the East Timor government’s revenues is dominated by a US corporation (Conoco-Phillips, with a 57% stake). Australia’s Santos company only has an 11% stake. Conoco-Phillips acquired its dominant position in the consortium when Australia’s BHP sold its 23% stake in April 1999.

This reality also contradicts the claims of Socialist Alternative, Solidarity and some other commentators on East Timor, who allege that the 2006 political crisis was deliberately engineered or used by Canberra to install a more compliant, pro-Australian East Timorese government in place of the Fretilin government headed by Alkatiri. There is little evidence to support this claim, as the ongoing stand-off between Canberra and the Horta-Gusmao regime over the Greater Sunrise dispute demonstrates.

According to an article in the September edition of Socialist Alternative, “Australia saw Alkatiri as too independent and friendly towards China, and therefore openly backed the creation of a new government under Jose Ramos-Horta and Xanana Gusmao”. This claim lacks any evidence to support it. In fact, the Gusmao government has been pursuing closer relations with Beijing. Thus the November 23 Australian reported that “East Timorese plans to build a naval base for Chinese-made patrol boats has raised concerns about Beijing’s military influence in a region traditionally regarded by Canberra as its own … Last year, the Gusmao government controversially agreed to buy two 1960s-era 43m armed Shanghai Class patrol boats for $25 million, a deal that apparently included construction of a landing dock on the south coast.

While no offer has been made to give China military access, the base underscores growing military links between Beijing and Dili. Those ties are consistent with Dili’s desire to assert more independence from Canberra and Jakarta, said Hugh White, head of Australian National University’s Strategic and Defence Studies Centre.” The Murdoch mouthpiece quoted White as saying: “What Australians fail to recognise notwithstanding our role 10 years ago for East Timor, living next door to a country like Australia is somewhat uncomfortable. Seeking to balance Australia’s role, and for that matter Indonesia’s role, in their international position is a perfectly understandable thing to do.”

[Jon Lamb is a member of the Revolutionary Socialist Party and former coordinator of the Timor Sea Justice Campaign in Darwin]

http://directaction.org.au/issue18/east_timor_hydrocarbons_invasions_and_independence

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Address byXanana Gusmão on occasion of the Bali Democracy Forum II

2009-12-14T05:53:00.000Z

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF TIMOR-LESTE

OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER

ADDRESS BY HIS EXCELLENCY THE PRIME MINISTER OF THE DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF TIMOR-LESTE KAY RALA XANANA GUSMÃO DEMOCRACY FORUM II

Promoting Synergy between Democracy and Development in Asia: Prospects for Regional Cooperation”

NUSA DUA, BALI

10-11 DECEMBER 2009

Your Excellency the President of the Republic of Indonesia
Your Excellencies the Heads of State and Heads of Government
Your Excellency the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Indonesia

Distinguished Delegates

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is with great satisfaction that, after exactly one year, I am here again participating in the Bali Democracy Forum II, with confidence that this meeting will build on the success of last year’s forum in strengthening democracy and cooperation between the many nations represented today. This is the goal that we set ourselves, and that we committed to, at the inaugural Forum.

Promoting regional and international cooperation in Asia, through engaging in a discourse of democracy and development, provides a strategic opportunity for our Nations and for the growth of our economies. It is through this framework of dialogue that we can better progress, and that we can better meet the challenges that we all face as a connected international community.

The Global Economic Crisis, that has marked the year 2009 and which provoked widespread fear of a worldwide depression, has also highlighted the strength of our region and the benefits of our democratic and development processes.

This Crisis brought us troubled times with the People of the developing world suffering greatly. But, the Crisis also brought with it opportunities. It has raised a new consciousness about Asia’s strength and of our region’s emerging place in the World. For it is the economies of Asia that are best weathering the economic storm and that are helping to pull the world out of deep recession.

And so, it should be acknowledged that the measures and reforms implemented by countries in our region – including steps to strengthen economic openness and democratic governance – have had a great impact on our economic resilience. It is in this way, as our region enjoys the world’s fastest rates of economic growth, that we can make contribution at a global level.

Ladies and Gentlemen

We can not emphasise enough the importance of this Forum. Bringing nations together with a commitment to strengthen democracy and development is not an indulgence – it is a necessity. This is because as nations, in our connected world, we can not walk alone in tackling our great challenges.

This point can be no better illustrated by the meeting this week, in another city, on the other side of the globe, where representatives of the world are meeting to agree on a path to tackle climate change. By starting two years ago in Bali, the Copenhagen Conference reminds us all of the importance of regional and international cooperation.

It is, therefore, imperative that the nations of our region meet to engage in dialogue on a central issue that we face – the promotion of democracy and development. It is through democracy and development that we can deliver social and economic improvement for our People and ensure that they have a voice in their future.

It is through promoting regional cooperation, nurturing a common political will to embrace what we have in common and, above all, learning from our successes and best practices in promoting peace, justice, prosperity and freedom, that we can benefit the People of our region.

And so, I must congratulate His Excellency the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Dr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, for his vision, his insight and his spirit of regional solidarity. His leadership in organising this Forum is but another example of his commitment to the consolidation of a more democratic and more developed region.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Our countries are, of course, marked by different histories, cultures, governance frameworks and challenges. There is, however, one common aspiration that brings us together on this day: our unfaltering pursuit of development.

We want to provide better living conditions for our People, ensure that everyone lives in a climate of peace and stability, and to achieve balanced and sustainable economic growth.

These are challenges that, if shared in this enabling environment of dialogue and exchange of experiences, can be pursued with greater success. Promoting synergies with our Asian partners is, therefore, a common agenda to which Timor-Leste is fully committed.

Timor-Leste is the youngest country represented here, and also one of the poorest. However, ten years following our independence, and after a number of missteps, we firmly believe that we can now say: Goodbye conflict, welcome Development!

The confidence that our People have placed in democracy is the noblest expression of their yearning for poverty, hunger, disease and ignorance to be eradicated from Timor-Leste. In other words, to trust in democracy means to trust in development.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Democracy has truly become a reality in Timor-Leste. I am not speaking only of our periodic and regular elections or of the operation of our democratic institutions - these elements alone do not equal true democracy.

It is the motivation and drive of our People, of our emergent private sector and of our young and strong civil society, who as a whole contribute to peace and to our national development and that illustrate to us all that in our democracy it is indeed possible to do better.

We must recognise, however, that achievement of a successful democracy is not an easy task in a country that is poor. For a family that is hungry, that lives in precarious conditions and that lacks access to quality health care, democracy can be a concept that is abstract and academic. And so, it is through economic growth and poverty reduction that we can achieve democratic consolidation.

We must, therefore, acknowledge and respect the circumstances of each nation in their pursuit of democratic ideals. There are no shortcuts in the road towards democracy and development. It can be a long and difficult road to reach the state where democratic values are understood and embraced by all.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

While every country is unique, Timor-Leste, along with several other countries, has a number of geographic, cultural, historic, ethnic and institutional factors that places it in the category of “fragile States”.

And we know that the common characteristics of fragile States are recent or latent situations of conflict and widespread poverty.

In Timor-Leste we are striving, with a true spirit of cooperation between our State institutions, to solve the difficult problems that our young Nation faces: social injustice and insecurity, maladministration and corruption, among others.

We are taking up this challenge with dignity and respect through adopting a common goal. And, with humility, we are placing our struggle on the international agenda with the hope that our progress, and our lessons, can assist other countries that are in delicate or difficult circumstances.

We are committed to assuming our responsibility as a Member State of the International Community and, through using our collective experience, supporting the development and democratic consolidation of other Peoples in need.

This is why at the Third High Level Forum in Accra, Ghana, Timor-Leste volunteered to be one of a group of 7 fragile States to monitor Principles for Good International Engagement in Fragile States and Situations.

And the group consists of Afghanistan, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sierra Leone, Haiti, Côte d'Ivoire and Timor-Leste.

Together, we will all be working to support each other, and to learn from each, as we all seek to move from a state of fragility to one of sustainable progress and development. In this way Timor-Leste acknowledges our responsibility, as a country that is now experiencing stability and economic growth, to provide both: hope and an example to this important group of nations.

And as part of this process, fragile States from around the world will be gathering in Díli in April 2010 to participate in a meeting of the group of 7 fragile States – our G7!

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I can say with confidence that the Timorese People believe we are moving in the right direction. As evidence of this, we need only to look at the manner in which our community elections took place last October. Our People actively participated with pride and maturity, providing a lesson in citizenship and democracy.

In the last two years, we have progressed greatly as a nation. We have enjoyed peace and social stability as never before, we have implemented essential reforms, and we have achieved historic levels of economic growth (which reached over 12% last year) and, we believe, more than 8% in 2009.

Timor-Leste still faces many challenges, but we can rely on the willingness of our political leaders, bold and integrated government policy, and our People who are committed to a better future for their children. And we are of course also fortunate to have natural resources that, if used in a responsible and fair way, can enable our economy to become a successful model of development.

Timor-Leste is in the process of fulfil the commitments of the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI) and for this goal we are in the process of releasing the independent audit report, in the end of this year, for public consultation. Next year, March 2010, all the processes and criteria requested by EITI, regarding the Petroleum wealth is going to be validate by an independent board – a great step in the openness and good governance of our petroleum resources.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

We have been looking closely at the reforms undertaken by other nations in our region, and especially our closest neighbour Indonesia, to inform our establishment of a framework of good governance for our public sector. Through these reforms - and by instilling a culture of professionalism and service delivery in our civil service - we are seeking to ensure that public funds are spent in an effective way for the benefit of our People.

We have recently established a Civil Service Commission to ensure an apolitical civil service, with promotions made on the basis of merit and competence, to achieve better government service delivery for our society.

And we are in the process of establishing an Anti-Corruption Commission, which will be an independent body reporting to the National Parliament and with strong powers to fight corruption.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Timor-Leste is working to meet the necessary conditions to become an effective member of ASEAN.

We wish to increase our participation in regional cooperation frameworks, to contribute towards the development of the region as part of its role in addressing global challenges. This participation will represent another historic landmark for our country, demonstrating to the world that Timor-Leste is ready to contribute to the promotion of tolerance and dialogue, both at national and regional levels.

And as we discuss regional cooperation and democracy, one country is too close for us to remain indifferent or passive to the struggle of its People. I must urge us all to work with focused effort and persistence to respond to the aspirations of the people of Burma.

As part of the Asian community, I stress that if the interest of Burmanese are neglected, then our entire region is affected. And so, we must work to ensure that the fruits of the growth and progress of our region are enjoyed by all the People of our neighbour countries. Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am confident that this meeting will be remembered as one in which we worked with solidarity to empower our region to develop solutions to overcome our common challenges – it will be an important step to make democracy and development a reality in the countries of Asia.

Thank you very much!

Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão
10 December 2009

Timor Sea well reaches total depth

2009-12-11T06:37:00.000Z

Published: Dec 9, 2009

Offshore staff

SYDNEY, Australia -- The Loré-1 well in the Timor Sea contract area JPDA 06-103 has reached a total depth of 3,581 m (11,749 ft), according to operator Oilex. The well intersected the objective Elang and Plover formations close to prognosis and minor oil shows were observed in the Elang section, the company says. Preliminary evaluation indicates that there are zones with limited oil saturation in the Elang formation, which Oilex will evaluate with further wire line logging.

After finishing the Loré-1 well, the rig Songa Mercur will move to the Lolotoe prospect. Lolotoe is a three-way dip faulted anticline with about 300 m (984 ft) of vertical relief. The prospect is targeting a mean prospective oil resource of 90 MMbbl in the primary objective Elang/Plover formations. The water depth at the proposed well location is 105 m (344 ft).

12/09/2009

http://www.offshore-mag.com/index/article-display/4943620175/articles/offshore/drilling-completion/australia-new-zealand/2009/12/timor-sea_well_reaches.html

A Society Of Peace, also HR award winners

2009-12-11T06:32:00.000Z

Timor-Leste: A Society Of Peace

Remarks

By Nobel Peace Prize Laureate,

President J. Ramos-Horta,

On International Human Rights Day

At the “National Parliement”

Dili, 10th December 2009

Your Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As we gather here today to once again celebrate the International Human Rights Day, allow me first to renew my sincere and warmest congratulations to President Barack Obama of United States for his well-deserved Nobel Peace Prize.

On 15th October 2009 following the announcement by the Nobel Peace Committee of this year’s winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, I issued the following statement which I read in parts:

I am pleased and understand why the wise men and women of the Nobel Peace Committee decided that President Barack Obama should, this year, be honored with the Nobel Peace Prize.

In less than a year since he took office, President Barack Obama has injected renewed hope and momentum in the stalled Middle East peace process. He is fully committed to the two-State solution and rightly feels that the Palestinians have been the main victims of this conflict.

One should not expect quick progress in resolving the 60 year-old conflict rooted in generations of mistrust and hatred.

In less than a year, with his inspiring messages of humility, dialogue and peace, President Obama has significantly lessened the tensions in the world, in the Middle East (University of Cairo speech), in relations with Russia, Iran, Venezuela. President Obama’s conciliatory approach, the depth of his intellect and vision of peace, has won over many millions of people.

By giving hope to the millions of disfranchised, the poor and the angry in Middle East, Asia and Africa, President Obama has drained the swamp in which Al Qaeda and other extremist groups operate and recruit. One should not underestimate the power of President Obama’s oratory and conciliatory approach; it has had the effect of, at least, rescuing many young and angry from sliding further into extremism.

His Prague speech on nuclear disarmament and concrete action since then in restarting Nuclear Arms reduction talks, leading hopefully to elimination of all nuclear weapons showed courage.

President Barack Obama’s pledge of more support in fighting extreme poverty is another example of his genuine commitment to peace and justice. He is also more open to a fairer trade regime that favors the developing world.

President Obama is pursuing dialogue with the decrepit military junta ruling Burma. He is right in attempting to engage the military diplomatically as I have advocated for years. I believe that there is a real chance President Obama will succeed in securing Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s release and the start of serious dialogue between her and the military leading to lessening of tensions, mistrust and a new, albeit imperfect, political environment in Myanmar.

Will President Barack Obama succeed? Will he deliver on his promises and do justice to the Palestinians? The negative contrarian forces in the US and Israel are formidable. The extremists in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and elsewhere will not give up. If Israeli hardliners persist in encroaching on Palestinian land with expanded settlements, they will, in a perverse way, strengthen the hand of the extremists and undermine President Obama’s strategy.

When we shook hands and exchanged a few words in the evening of 24th September at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art reception which he and Mrs. Michelle Obama hosted, I told President Obama with his wife Michelle listening attentively: “Mr. President, you cannot fail”. He responded: “We will all work together”. This is President Obama’s belief and style, working with all, reaching out, building bridges, forging consensus.

So I believe that this son of Africa, descendent of Africans who were enslaved for centuries, elected to the most important mission in the world, does deserve the Nobel Peace Prize.

Once again I congratulate President Barack Hussein Obama on the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize.

But this morning, in my office, as a way to mark the International Human Rights Day, I honored several Timorese patriots, our brothers and sisters, with the no less important “Sergio Vieira De Mello Human Rights Award”.

You will recall, the Sergio Vieira De Mello Human Rights Award was created last year jointly by the Presidency of the Republic and UNMIT. Last year’s winners were:

Father Elígio Locatelli, in the category of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, a great man and missionary, originally from Italy, who has adopted Timor-Leste as his own country since 1964; he is the Director of the Fatumaka Technical School, the oldest vocational school in our country; and João Piquino, of the Forum Tau Matan, in the Category of Civil and Political Rights.

This year the Timorese State instituted the Human Rights Prize “Sergio Vieira de Mello” through the Decree 15/2009 of 18 March 2009 and the Presidential Decree 26/2009 of 6 November 2009.

The selection committee reviewed more then 60 submissions, all with strong merit. It was not an easy task for the Conselho de Agraciamentos e Ordens Honoríficas to make a short list and then propose the names to me to make the final decision.

This year’s winners were:

The Comité 12 de Novembro, in the category of Civil and Political Rights And

In the category of Social, Economic and cultural rights:

1. Madre Guilhermina Marçal

2. The NGO PRADET, Dili

3. Orfanato Beata Laura Vicuna, Laga

4. Mana Maria de Lourdes (Mana Lu), of ISMAIK, Instituto Secular Ma’un Alin Iha Kristo

5. Maria de Fátima Wadhoomall Gomes, Shepherd of Igreja Evangélica Assembleia de Deus

I congratulate each and every one of them. And I wish to introduce them to you here today

1. The 12 November Committee is a Timor-Leste NGO created by survivors of the 12th November 1991 Santa Cruz Massacre with the mission to care for the survivors and their families.

Since its foundation, the Committee’s top priorities have been

(a) The registration and verification of victims and survivors of he Massacre

(b) The location, exhumation, identification and re-burial of victims of the 12th November Massacre in collaboration with families and the International Forensic Team

(c) To assist survivors with social services in the areas of health, study and employment.

It also advises the government on a memorial, collection of historical information and contributing to the building of a spirit of nationalism and self-sacrifice amongst the young.

2. Madre Guilhermina Marçal

Madre Guilhermina Marçal, is a Canossian sister. She was born in Same and has been working for the promotion of social, economic and cultural rights, as well as civil and political rights, since the early age of 12, in particular, during the occupation and during the tragic events of 2006.

In 2006 she challenged crossfire and all the risks associated with her condition of woman to evacuate endangered persons of all ranks, genders and ages, and provided them with shelter.

She managed to bring disparate groups from all regions to live in harmony in the Canossian Convent in Balide and share responsibility for the safety of the community.

Currently, she works for the empowerment of women and offers a range of resources for students to build on their education and prepare to become the future leaders.

3. PRADET (Psycho-social Recovery and Development in East Timor)

PRADET opened its doors in 2002 to work on the psychological sector. With all the depression, psychological trauma and mental diseases that were inherited from the past violence, PRADET seeks to provide the most psychologically vulnerable with the necessary tools to overcome their challenges.

PRADET supports and develops projects on Mental Disease Assistance, Victims of Gender Based Violence, Peace and Democracy Assistance for Juvenile Justice, Assistance to Conflict Victims and Provides a Shelter to Victims of Human Trafficking.

4. Orphanage Beata Laura Vicuna, in Laga

The Orphanage Beata Laura Vicuna develops training activities with focus on the household work, supporting the youngsters in their spiritual development into a meaningful future.

Among other activities the orphanage invests in the interpersonal capacities working on good relationship building among all, and especially through skills development and the promotion of sports, arts, music and drama.

5. ISMAIK - Instituto Secular Ma’un Alin Iha Kristo- Mana Lourdes

Sister Lourdes, popularly known as Mana Lu, developed since her teenage years a solidarity network throughout Timor-Leste that has been dedicated to, and focused on, the most vulnerable.

With more then 10 houses across the country, Mana Lu gathers communities in the search for solidarity, faith and resource maximization.

Since 1989 ISMAIK and Mana Lu have been developing activities
(a) from health care with the Clinic of Bairro Pite and Dr. Daniel Murphy to the hosting of University students in Dili,
(b) from orphanages to community development of sustainable agricultural techniques and

(c) from the support to people suffering from tuberculosis and leprosy to the civil education programs of youngsters and Christian faith development, amongst other activities.

6. Maria de Fátima Wadhoomall Gomes,

Maria de Fátima is the Shepherd of Igreja Evangélica Assembleia de Deus and has been working for the promotion of human rights since the sixties.

She started in Ataúro, alongside her late husband, to work with the local communities.

Even though she doesn’t have formal training as a nurse, she acted as a nurse and provided basic heath care to the population in Ataúro.

She was very active in promoting awareness on the need to send children to school and provide them with formal education. She taught women some basic notions of family planning, hygiene, culinary, family education and domestic violence.

These are some of today’s heroes of our country. I am honoring them, thanking them on behalf of the nation, for their courage, self-sacrifice, generosity and inspiring leadership.

Ladies and gentlemen

As we celebrate International Human Rights Day, I want to share with you some thoughts and reflections on the situation in our country, where we are in giving to our people the most valuable human right, the right to peace, the right to live in one’s town, village, home, to walk down our streets, without fear, in complete tranquility and freedom.

Without conditions of real peace, no one can enjoy the most basic political and civil rights or economic, social and cultural rights. Without real peace, we cannot fully implement the rights enshrined in our Constitution and in International Conventions concerning Child and Women’s Rights. Without real peace, we cannot progress on economic rights, rights to employment and housing, rights to adequate education and health and the right to food.

We can be very proud that we have one of the best Constitutions in the world and that, consistent with the principles and provisions of our Constitution, we ratified all seven major International Human Rights Conventions.

We do not have prisoners of conscience or political prisoners; not a single journalist has been harassed or imprisoned since restoration of independence; no media outlet has been fined, suspended or closed down for lack of proper publishing license.

Our civil society is well-organized into numerous NGOs, academia and civic groups. While the vast majority of our people are Catholics, no minority religious groups can allege discrimination or exclusion even when some of the religious sects proliferating now in our country have dubious activities and dubious authority in matters of faith.

However, we have to do more to advance Child Rights and Women’s Rights.

On 18th December the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) will mark 30 years since its adoption.

Our society, like too many others around the world, rich and poor, is plagued with discrimination based on gender and profoundly affected by domestic violence.

We have made progress in giving a voice to women. In the National Parliament, the Executive Branch and in the Judiciary, there are significant numbers of women in policy-making and decision making positions. It is of great comfort to me and to all of us that 30% of the seats in our National Parliament are held by women. The average in the European Union is only 18%.

The number of women elected in the suku elections went up from a miserable 7% in 2004 to 13% in 2009, and women elected as village chiefs went up from 22% in 2004 to 37% in 2009.

However this is still too a modest result when we know that women in our society contribute to at least half of our GDP, our agriculture and trade, and they are the ones who shoulder the burden of looking after everybody in the household.

For hundreds of years men have ruled communities, nations and empires and men dragged humanity to countless wars in which millions of innocent lives were wasted. And yet men seem to think we have the God-given right to rule alone with the exclusion of our grandmothers, mothers and sisters.

So let’s all do more at home, in Government and in our National Parliament to combat domestic violence and discrimination against Women.

Lasama Speak on Anti-Corruption Day

2009-12-11T06:31:00.001Z

TEMPO SEMANAL TVON 9 December 2009 UN Anti-Corruption Day the National Parliament of Timor-Leste did not exercise their duty to elect a Commissioner for the Anti-Corruption Commission.

The President of the National Parliament Fernando Lasama, was forced to hold a meeting with party bench leaders to find a solution to the current deadlock. FRETILIN Members of Parliament rejected to sit in Parliament because they disagree with the candicacy of Dr. Aderito de Jesus Soares. Soares was the first FRETILIN bench leader in the 2001-2002 Constituent Assembly - and left that body in 2002/3 denying to claim his pension benefits as a former Member of Parliament. He was the Timorese to reject calls by Xanana Gusmao to sit on the Timor-Indonesia Truth and Friendship Commission.

On December 4th Parliament bells rang out but most MPs were absent despite being given warning by Lasama to have a special sitting and extraordinary debate to decide upon the matter of the Anti-Corruption Commission. The biggest opposition party FRETILIN only three MPs were present they were DR. Aniceto Guterres, DR. Arsenio Paxao Bano and Cipriana Pereira the other 18 Fretilin MP were absent. Tempo Semanal sources within FRETILIN said the FRETILIN is boycotting to present in Parliament because they are not agreed with the government's candidacy. One of the FRETILIN MP said Aderito has betrayed FRETILIN because he was involved in the Fretilin Mudanca Group which in 2006 logged a case to Court of Appeal against FRETILIN leaders, Mari Alkatiri and Lu Olo over the manner in which they were re-elected to exectutive positions in the FRETILIN party in May 2006. The Parliament seated today 9 December 2009 at 10.00 AM but because the Anti-Corruption Commission law states that 49 MPs are needed to have quorum to vote the number was under the limit and the session was foiled. Before Lasama announced the delay he appealed to each party bench leaders to tell their members to come. "We have to have solution for this matter because it's in the national interest," Lasama said.

--
Posted By TEMPO SEMANAL to TEMPO SEMANAL on 12/09/2009 08:37:00 AM

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TNI dismisses Balibo Five murder claim

2009-12-11T06:27:00.000Z

The Jakarta Post
Wednesday, December 9, 2009

TNI dismisses Balibo Five murder claim

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta

The Indonesian Military (TNI) has insisted the foreign journalists known as the Balibo Five were accidentally killed in East Timor in 1975, despite an admission by a former army colonel that the newsmen were executed by Indonesian soldiers.

Army spokesman Brig. Gen. Christian Zebua told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that the Army was not involved in the killing of the five journalists as admitted by Col. (ret) Gatot Purwanto to Tempo magazine.

"The Army never committed such killings," he said.

Christian said he did not even know Gatot in person.

"I don't know him personally, and I don't even think he knew what was happening at that time. The deaths were purely accidental," he insisted.

Separately, TNI spokesman, Sagom Tamboen, told the Post via text message that Gatot did not admit to the killings.

"Gatot did not say there were such killings," he said.

In an interview with Tempo, Gatot, who claimed he was a lieutenant in the Army's special forces (Kopassus) team that converged on East Timor's border town of Balibo on Oct. 16, 1975, said his team found the five foreign journalists - two Australians, two Britons and a New Zealander - were still alive when the shootout between Indonesian soldiers and Timorese fighters began to die down.

The team infiltrated strategic East Timorese territory just weeks before Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony.

Gatot said that as the team did not know what to do with the journalists - Greg Shackleton, Tony Stewart, Brian Peters, Malcolm Rennie, dan Gary Cunningham - they asked Jakarta what action should be taken. While waiting, he claimed he heard gun shots from where the journalists were being held.

"Our soldiers fired back.the journalists were all [killed]," he said.

Gatot said the team was in a difficult situation because if they were detained then, once freed, they would reveal that it was Indonesian soldiers that arrested them, exposing Indonesia's planned invasion of East Timor.

"Probably, [the shooting] was the best option. If not executed then they could testify that there was invasion by Indonesian military," he said, adding the bodies were then burned to hide the evidence.

Australian Federal Police launched a war crimes investigation into the case in September after the release of the Australian movie Balibo renewed public interest in the case. The film was banned in Indonesia.

Shirley Shackleton, the widow of Shackleton welcomed Gatot's interview - the first senior Indonesian soldier to contradict the official version that the reporters were caught in the middle of a gunbattle and accidentally shot.

"It is a milestone. It's another nail in the coffin of lies," she told Australia's Fairfax Radio Network as quoted by AP on Tuesday. (nia)

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Fretilin ignores Anti-Corruption Commission

2009-12-11T06:26:00.000Z

The Secretary of State for the Council of Ministers and
Official Spokesperson for the Government of Timor-Leste

Ágio Pereira

December 7, 2009

Díli, Timor-Leste

Fretilin ignores Anti-Corruption Commission

On 27 November, the Prime Minister, His Excellency Xanana Gusmão, submitted a letter to the National Parliament which proposed Dr. Adérito de Jesus as a candidate to become the first Commissioner of the newly established Anti-Corruption Commission.

Dr. Adérito de Jesus is considered an outstanding candidate who can bring impartiality, dignity and professional excellence to the position.

The National Parliament was called to assess the candidacy and vote on December 4, 2009 for the appointment of the first Anti- Corruption Commissioner.

Under the law establishing the Anti-Corruption Commission, the Commissioner is appointed by the National Parliament on the recommendation of the Government.

The appointment of the Commissioner must be by an absolute majority of the Members of Parliament, provided that at least three quarters of the National Parliament are present.

Members of opposition did not show up for the vote ensuring that there was no quorum.

This has caused further delays in the establishment of the Xanana Gusmão Government's initiative of the Anti-Corruption Commission, an independent body to tackle corruption nepotism and cronyism.

Secretary of State Agio Pereira responded by saying, “The Anti-Corruption Commission will have full powers under the law to investigate acts of corruption and the 2010 budget has allocated the adequate budget for the establishment of the ACC. Fretilin supported the Anti-Corruption Commission but now seems unwilling to participate in electing a commissioner to launch the process. The Xanana Gusmão Government is ready and willing to ensure this independent body is established and operational as soon as possible.

'Considering the daily corruption allegations against the Government by opposition since August 2007, one would think Fretilin would have been first through the doors of National Parliament to become involved with such an important initiative for the nation. One can only conclude that Fretilin has no serious intention to tackle corruption. The media has been a much better avenue for them to utilize.”

The Xanana Gusmão Government is the first Government to tackle corruption despite the international community recommending anti corruption measures to all previous Governments. ENDS

For More Information Please Contact:

Ágio Pereira +670 723 0011 E-mail: agiopereira@cdm.gov.tl

Ending violence against women and children

2009-12-11T06:23:00.000Z

UNMIT
PRESS RELEASE

Ending violence against women and children

10 December 2009, Dili – On the occasion of the International Human Rights Day the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General in Timor-Leste (SRSG) addressed the special session of Timor-Leste's National Parliament to commemorate the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948. The special session was dedicated to consideration of the rights of women and female children in Timor-Leste.

SRSG Khare highlighted the importance of the role of the Government and civil society in ending violence against women. "This House has shown its concern for ending violence against women and children, in all forms, not only through lending its support to the public campaigns to stop violence against women, but also through its special session on 8 March of this year. This Parliamentary support should also continue, as it is through Parliamentary processes that any Government of the day is held to account, to its people, on human rights obligations enshrined in its Constitution," – he said.

Referring to the progress made by Timor-Leste, SRSG Khare mentioned the country's participation in trilateral discussion of the protection of women and girls in situations of armed conflict and in post-conflict settings as per the UN Security Council Resolution 1325. The Parliament has also supported the adoption of the new Penal Code, which makes domestic violence a public crime.

He underlined the need for the participation of women in all decision-making processes, the prevention and protection of women and girls from gender-based violence, and the promotion and protection of the rights of women. He hoped that the legislative process in this field will continue. "I hope that this House will lend its support and weight to the adoption of the proposed Domestic Violence Law that is to be tabled before it in the coming months," SRSG Khare said.

Speech at farewell ceremony for SRSG Atul Khare

2009-12-11T05:58:00.000Z

Dili, 9th December 2009

Excellencies,

Ladies and gentlemen,

We are gathering here today to bid farewell to Dr. Atul Khare who has served in our country as the Special Representative of the U. N. Secretary-General (SRSG) for three long, intense years.

Prior to this mission, Dr. Atul Khare had served in Timor-Leste from June 2002 to May 2005 as Chief of Staff to the then SRSG Ambassador Kamalesh Sharma and as deputy SRSG totaling six years of tireless service to our people upholding the ideals of the UN.

So I invited you all today to join me in thanking Dr. Atul Khare and his esteemed wife Mrs. Vandna Khare, for their self-less, tireless dedication and kindness to the people of Timor-Leste, to me personally, and to all East Timorese political and religious leaders, leaders of our communities and civil society.

Dr. Khare arrived in Timor-Leste on 17th December 2006 almost four months after the UN Security Council authorized a new enhanced UN Mission for Timor-Leste - UNMIT. The worst of the political and security crisis was over by then. However, in December 2006 serious challenges remained; the situation was still very volatile, marked by sporadic violence, some of which were politically-motivated, but most were caused by rivalries among martial arts groups and youth gangs. In December 2006 we still had as many as 150,000 IDPs scattered in Dili and outside the capital; we were confronting the potentially explosive problem of the so-called “petitioners” and Mr. Alfredo Reinado’s group of heavily armed elements.

Four months after the Security Council authorized a new mission (Res. 1704 of 25th August 2006) with a police force of up to 1,608 elements, 1,070 civilian police personnel had arrived in Timor-Leste. This figure included a Formed Police Unit from Portugal that had been dispatched to Timor-Leste in early June under a bi-lateral agreement between Timor-Leste and Portugal and which transitioned to UNMIT in August 2006.

I wish to pause here to pay due tribute to Finn Rieske-Nielsen who managed the UN Mission in Timor-Leste during the most difficult months in 2006; he was a courageous and tireless presence, every day and night during those difficult days and weeks. His long-standing experience in dealing with humanitarian crisis situations both in Timor-Leste (he has served a total of almost seven years in our country) and other parts of the world equipped him very well to deal with the situation.

Prior to the arrival and full deployment of UNPOL in Dili and in the districts, the burden of assisting the Timorese authorities in restoring law and order in Dili had fallen on troops and police from Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia and Portugal who had been dispatched to Timor-Leste at the end of May and early June 2006 in response to formal appeals from Timorese leaders. [i]

Australia alone had a force of 3,000 men and women, supported by an impressive array of equipment like Armored Personnel Carriers, tanks and helicopters. However, even such a robust force was inadequate and unable to quell the violence pitting rival martial arts groups or prevent the burning and looting of hundreds of humble dwellings, government warehouses and offices. This is not the type of conflict a conventional force is prepared for both in training and equipment. [ii]

Of the four forces on the ground in the second half of 2006, only the GNR was trained and equipped to deal with urban violence. But at company strength it was over-stretched and unable to respond effectively to every serious incident occurring in any part of the city.

The Australian mechanized force and heavily armed infantry soldiers, while impressive when they rumbled through the main streets of Dili, might have provided some valuable deterrence, but the reality was and is that conventional forces, however well trained and equipped, are ill-suited to prevent or stamp out urban violence and social unrest in the tortuous and confusing back alleys of the city.

Without the pretence of writing history or even modestly offering a detached and conclusive analysis of the 2006 crisis, I believe we can, nevertheless retain some salient elements.

I submit that the 2006 crisis was not inevitable. It could have been prevented if those in position of responsibility had addressed the numerous problems that had been timely and clearly identified and which required patient dialogue, imparting of information, followed by simple and inexpensive solutions.

As the tensions and resentment were not addressed they were exacerbated by certain elements in our society who saw in the crisis an opportunity to further their narrow interests.

The violence in certain neighborhoods in Dili was essentially a conflict over land and housing by those who felt left out or dispossessed. The seeds of this conflict began during the second half of Indonesian occupation and exacerbated from 1999 on as large number of individuals returned or flocked to Dili for the first time all competing for a piece of land and housing that had been vacated by departing Indonesian migrants and thousands of East Timorese who fled when they saw their fortunes changed.

The conflict had very little to do with a supposedly regional, ethnic or tribal divide. While Timor-Leste can be divided in geographic terms into three major regions, namely East, Central and Western, these regions do not correspond to perfectly identified, cohesive ethnic groups.

The implosion in the PNTL leadership and in the chain of command in Dili in April/May 2006 led to the break-down of law and order. As a consequence of the break-down in the chain of command in the police force, the government felt compelled to order the FFDTL to intervene in Dili. But this decision deepened the divide in the police ranks and between elements in the police force and the F-FDTL and in the F-FDTL itself.

However, in view of the situation prevailing in Dili on 28th April 2006 with the PNTL unable or unwilling to act to prevent the attack on the Palacio do Governo and subsequent attacks in many parts of the city, I do believe the government had no choice but to call in the F-FDTL.

I must add here that not every PNTL officer or unit in Dili deserted and failed in their duties. I will never forget a heartbreaking scene at the UIR HQTS in Dili when I visited them sometime at the end of May 2006. There were a total of about 40 men and women there, from all regions, crying desperately, their pain was visible, as they felt totally powerless. They had remained firm in their base but deeply concerned they could be attacked and overrun.

The Police Academy continued to function even as hundreds of IDPs were squatting in its grounds. A graduation ceremony of new cadets was even in that period. Credit goes to the Police Academy Director Insp. Julio Hornay who displayed professionalism and leadership qualities in times of crisis. The PNTL Migration Services, led by Inspector Carlos Jeronimo, continued also to function almost smoothly, without interruption.

While some PNTL elements from the districts deserted their base and joined in the conflict in Dili, the vast majority did not.

The basic problem in PNTL was that a huge force was created in haste between 2001 and 2003, with police numbers increasing significantly after 2003; those in charge seemed more interested in numbers than in quality and without considering all implications like strict selection criteria, adequate training, material incentives like reasonable salaries, equipment and infrastructures.

There was serious lack in wise political leadership which impacted upon negatively on the police command and in the entire force.

The U. N. and bilateral donors must ask themselves why they did not consider assisting the I Constitutional Government in providing basic infrastructure and equipment to our nascent police force. Apart from training, isn’t the provision of basic equipment a sine quo non condition to boost the moral, sustain the pride and effectiveness of a police force?

While the F-FDTL was deployed in Dili there was very little violence, arson or looting. There was a palpable fear of the F-FDTL and the common perception that the F-FDTL elements were not constrained in using force or were trigger-happy turned out to be a very effective deterrence.

As the ISF began to deploy in Dili in late May 2006, I discussed and exchanged views with Major-Gen. Taur Matan Ruak about the wisdom of F-FDTL retreating from Dili and return to barracks. The general promptly agreed and upon consultations with the then President of the Republic and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, F-FDTL soldiers and officers returned to the barracks in Tasi-Tolu, Hera, Metinaro and Baukau.

However, as the news of the removal of the F-FDTL from Dili was announced, panic spread and the exodus from the city began almost instantly with tens of thousands of people fleeing to the East towards Hera, Metinaro, Baukau, etc.

My own property and home became one IDP camp as I ordered the gates open to anyone wishing to take refuge with me. Many hundreds of desperate men, elderly, women and children, camped in my property grounds for the following weeks and I learned first-hand about the drama of the IDPs.

The departure of F-FDTL encouraged hooligans to act as they no longer felt constrained and afraid. A wave of house burning and looting began with the friendly international forces on the ground unable to prevent an orgy of arson in spite of their best efforts.

While the F-FDTL was in Dili there was a concerted and persistent campaign in certain quarters to denigrate the soldiers and officers of our armed forces with allegations of widespread killings and outright massacres particularly in the evening of 28th April 2006. Not a single eyewitness, a relative of those allegedly killed had come forward. No massacre took place of unarmed civilians or elements of the so-called “petitioners” group in the night of 28th April 2006 or in the following weeks.

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is not my intention to offer you a detailed review or reflection on the past three years. I might do so at the end of my term as President.

As we gather here to bid farewell to a friend, Dr. Atul Khare and his esteemed wife, Mrs. Vandna Khare, I simply want to remind all of where we were in 2006, and to reflect on some root causes of the 2006 crisis and how we got here, today, in a Timor-Leste that has moved fast and away from the recent violence and is experiencing our best period of peace and economic growth.

When I took office in May 2007, I made it as priorities of my presidency, the restoration of peace and security, reform of the security sector, and poverty alleviation.

In regards to the security sector reform, my first concern was to have a unified, cohesive Timorese leadership view. In this regard I established the High Level Forum comprising the PR, PM and Speaker of the National Parliament. I instituted a Security Sector Review group in my office which liaises with the government agencies and UNMIT. The work of my team and that of the government has been detailed, exhaustive and conclusive.

The Security Council will review the situation in Timor-Leste in its February 2010 meeting. And as you depart, Dr. Atul Khare, I wish to convey to all our views and preference for the following two-three years in regards to the role of the UNMIT/UNPOL and ISF.

This has been the result of extensive review done by my security sector reform team, regular meetings with the Prime Minister and his two Secretaries of State in executive charge of the sector, the President of National Parliament and Members of Commission B of the NP, Maj.-Gen. Taur Matan Ruak, PNTL Commissioner and Commander-General Dr. Longuinhos Monteiro.

As you know I have convened many meetings in the course of the year with the Council of State and Supreme Council of Defense and Security, and in October I held a consultation with all stake-holders, having sent them in advance a detailed questionnaire in order to elicit their analysis and answers.

In view of the above, I wish to state the following:
1. The Timorese people and leadership are indebted and grateful to the peoples and leaders of Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand and Portugal who promptly responded to our appeal for assistance in our time of need at the end of May 2006;
2. The contribution of the four forces was central in helping to contain the violence in 2006 and in restoring peace and security to the people;

3. The Timorese people and leadership are indebted and grateful to the United Nations, in particularly to the Secretary-General and the Security Council for providing a robust response to our nation in time of extreme difficulties.

As the year 2009 comes to a close, we propose that in 2010 the following be accomplished:
1. Full Law and Order responsibilities in the Dili district be devolved to the Timorese authorities by June 2010 with hand-over of policing responsibilities from UNPOL to PNTL;
2. The UNPOL Formed Police Units currently in Dili should be reduced by half and redeployed to Baukau and Maliana, leaving only one platoon each in Dili for purposes of assisting in training programs and as a back-up to PNTL;
3. The hand-over of policing responsibilities from UNPOL to PNTL in the remaining districts must be completed by December 2010;
4. UNPOL units in each district and sub-district, subject to UN own decision on downsizing, should continue to provide all manners of assistance that may be required by their Timorese counter-part, namely, guidance and support in administration and management, continuing monitoring and training. However, like in Dili, UNPOL elements will no longer carry out mobile patrols or intervene except when necessary.
5. The year 2011 must be the year of consolidation of the review and reform processes, correction and improvements, in all aspects.
6. The government must insure that by the end of 2011 all basic infrastructure and logistic requirements of PNTL and F-FDTL have been satisfied.

7. The United Nations will determine the pace and size of the down-sizing of its police contingents in Timor-Leste from 2010 to 2012.

In regards to the ISF, following my regular discussions with the Ambassadors of Australia and New Zealand and ISF commanders, and consistent with our desire, the ISF in 2010 will see its mission further reduced and refocused:
· Between now and the end of December, the ISF will reduce in numbers by approximately one company.
· The ISF will withdraw from its Forward Operating Base at Baucau.
· The ISF will retain a permanent presence in Dili and Gleno.

· The ISF will continue to work with the F-FDTL to provide a presence in the Districts by conducting patrols to engage with the community and monitor the security environment.

The ISF will still be in Dili. However we expect ISF to place more emphasis on community engagement and not engaged in security patrols. We prefer not to see too many heavy weapons and military personnel in our city.

I expect that such activities be planned in consultation with our competent authorities, namely the two Secretaries of State and PNTL Commissioner as well as including the local “suku” chiefs.

You will have noticed that the honor guard in this building is provided by Timorese traditional warriors; security is assured by our unarmed civilian guards; a lively children playground is on the grounds of the presidency; there is a section of the presidential garden with free wireless internet open for the public. As you can see I feel very comfortable with little or no security at all.

I am comfortable with the path that the ISF is taking as I am very confident in its ability to support the needs of both the Government and people of Timor-Leste.

The changes I have just outlined are in some ways subtle and reflect the extensive consultation between our Government, the Governments of Australia, New Zealand and the ISF. More importantly the changes emphasize the significant progress that we have made in the area of security since 2006. I am of the view that the changes have come at the right time, reflect the progress being made in our security sector but also reflect the fact that there is still work to do and that the ISF will be with us and UNMIT till 2012.

As I stated above, at the height of the crisis in 2006, the ISF had over 3,000 force elements in Timor-Leste. This number will be down to less than 600 in 2010, a reflection of the much improved security situation in the country.

The maintenance of a small but robust force is required as we continue the reform process in the two security agencies, a reform process which must be completed by the end of 2011.

We have two years to make greater efforts and achieve greater progress in skills transfer and capacity building in every area, and in providing our forces with every reasonable means required to sustain their moral, self-respect, self-confidence and effectiveness.

Timor-Leste is a Southeast Asian country, inextricably and proudly linked to this dynamic region. I expect the Government to explore opportunities for enhanced regional security and defense cooperation with friends and neighbors like Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, The Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, in areas ranging from police to military training, joint exercises, intelligence training and sharing, maritime security, etc.

If Timor-Leste is to participate in the future in any humanitarian or peace-keeping mission outside our borders, I would envisage that we would do so as part of a regional mission under a regional structure and command. Hence I believe that we must endeavor to engage more our neighbors in the defense and security areas to learn and improve, adjust and adapt to our region.

I am very pleased with our enhanced defense and security cooperation with Portugal, a distant but loyal friend.

The recent visit to our country of a large U. S. marine group of 2,000 was very successful and immensely popular with the common people. The presence of, and activities carried out by, the U. S. Sea Bees, is one of the best example of an ideal bi-lateral defense cooperation that straddles the two areas, military and civilian, providing much needed assistance to local communities. Timor-Leste wishes to incrementally expand this very fruitful relationship with the U.S. .

Timor-Leste must stand on its own feet. We cannot continue to rely on friends and neighbors or the UN for our internal security, peace and stability. The international community and the UN have been overly sympathetic and generous, having committed, on a per capita basis, more resources to this tiny nation than to any other in the world.

Needless to say, not all these resources were invested wisely and benefitted the neediest ones, the poor who are the majority. Nevertheless, we cannot deny the facts of this extraordinary good-will on the part of the international community. However, we must bear in mind that there are many communities and nations around the world in even greater difficulties and need than us.

We are not the chosen children of God or of the UN. Even God gives up on those His sons and daughters who persist in conflict and sin. So more easily would the international community give up if Timorese leaders, political, civil society, religious, academia, private sector, do not walk halfway to meet each other, and together lift our people from extreme poverty, give them the peace and tranquility they desire and deserve.

When I addressed the UNSC in February this year, I promised the Secretary-General and the UNSC that this will be the last UN mission in our country; I told our good friend Secretary-General Ban Kie Moon that when he ends his current mandate and begins a second in one 2012, Timor-Leste will be at peace and relative prosperity and he can tick off Timor-Leste as a problem solved.

While some pseudo intellectuals and mediocre journalists insist that Timor-Leste is a failed State, I will say, with the wisdom of someone who has had a rich and intense life, having witnessed triumphs and survived tragedies, Timor-Leste is on the right track. We have recovered from the 2006 crisis; after years of stagnation or slow growth our economy registered a real 12.7% growth in 2008 and again an almost double digit growth this year. The country is at peace. We can see constant, endless smiles and happiness in the faces and eyes of the people, particularly in our women and children, the most vulnerable group; Dili is a booming town, for good and bad.

There is renewed faith in the political leadership and in the institutions - according to an independent survey conducted a year ago by the International Republican Institute which gave the Government very high marks with the Prime Minister toping almost 80% of approval rate; the F-FDTL and PNTL got very significant marks of around 80% as well. To all I extend my sincere congratulations.

As you depart Timor-Leste, rest assured, Dr. Atul Khare, that UNMIT, under your leadership, has made a significant contribution to the overall well-being of our people, to the climate of peace and security prevailing today in our country. Your professional expertise, humility and honesty, your wisdom which comes from thousands of years of an ancient civilization, endeared you to all and gained our confidence.

Whether as a UN envoy or as a country’s diplomat, I believe that those entrusted with a mission to represent an institution or their own country, if they wish to succeed in their mission, they must be able to gain the respect and confidence of the receiving community and its leaders through discretion, humility, honesty, hard-work. You have succeeded.

To you my friend Dr. Atul Khare and Mrs. Vandna Khare I will not say good-bye as we will see you again and again. I wish you good health, happiness, prosperity in the years to come. I wish your great country, India, the land of the immortal Mahatma Gandhi, peace and prosperity. May the leaders of India summon the wisdom of your ancient, rich and benevolent civilization to help bring peace to South Asia, to the whole of Asia.

END

[i] President Xanana Gusmão, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri and the President of the National Parliament Francisco Guterres Luo Olo wrote letters to the Prime Ministers of Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia and Portugal informing them that the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste wads urgently requesting police and military assistance. On 24 and 25 May, Australia, New Zealand and Portugal sent letters to the President of the Security Council and to the Secretary General of the United Nations stating that they would be sending defense and security forces to Timor-Leste to assist in restoring stability, as requested by the Government of Timor-Leste. On 26 May, incoming international forces secured the airport and other critical facilities, including the UNOTIL compound, where many Timorese had taken refuge. On 25 May 2006 an exchange of letters took place between Timor-Leste and Australia inviting Australia to send armed forces to the assistance of Timor-Leste. This was followed the next day with a Status of Forces Agreement setting out the purpose, rights and privileges’ of those forces. The purpose of the ISF Deployment was to: a. assist Timor-Leste in the restoration of security, confidence and peace in Timor-Leste including through assisting in re-establishing and maintaining public order; b. assist in the provision of security and safety to persons and property in Timor-Leste and the suppression of violence and intimidation; c. as necessary, assist in the evacuation of Australian nationals and nationals of other third countries including personnel of the United Nations; d. at the request of the United Nations Mission in Timor-Leste (UNOTIL) protect and support UNOTIL in carrying out its tasks; and e. facilitate humanitarian assistance operations.
[ii] The International Stabilization Force, led by Australian Commander Brigadier-General Michael Slater, included Australian, Malaysian and New Zealand troops; Including a Portuguese rapid reaction police company of 140elements the international force group reached 3,500. The contribution provided at the height of the crisis in June 2006 was composed approximately as follows:

Australia - 3000 members
Australian Defense Force Infantry Brigade Group with 1x Infantry Battalion plus two additional Infantry companies, Commando Squadron, Field Engineer Squadron, Armored support (33 Armored Personnel Carriers), Aviation Support (8 x Blackhawks Helicopters, 4 x Kiowa Helicopters and daily Hercules aircraft resupply), Extensive Combat Service Support (logistics, transport, administration etc), Royal Australian Navy presence (3 Ships).

Australian Police Response Force - AFP International Deployment group approx 200 including 'special' police response teams.

New Zealand - 200 soldiers
New Zealand Defense Force - Majority Infantry presence plus supporting elements.

Malaysia - 300 soldiers
Malaysian Armed Forces - 300 Royal Malaysian Commandos from 10 Para Brigade, including Malaysian Armored Personnel Carriers. Royal Malaysian Navy Presence - Ship rotations in Dili Port.

Portugal – 140 police (GNR) with a total of 51 vehicles of which six were APCs.

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Timor-Leste:
Peace After The Storm

Speech
by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate,
President J. Ramos-Horta,

During the farewell ceremony in honor of
The Special Representative
Of the U. N. Secretary-General, Dr. Atul Khare

At the “China Hall” of “Palacio Presidente Nicolau Lobato”

An inconvenient truth (Balibo) - Damien Kingsbury

2009-12-09T02:59:00.000Z

ABC

The Drum Unleashed

8 December 2009

An inconvenient truth

Damien Kingsbury

In Indonesian political culture, there was a view that inconvenient or challenging truths should be suppressed in order to retain harmony. This view had largely disappeared from Indonesian political life in the 1950s, but was re-invented by former President Suharto in order to remove challenges to his personalised authoritarian rule between the mid-1960s and the end of the 1990s.

One consequent of this was that Indonesia has refused to accept culpability for the deaths of almost 200,000 people in East Timor between 1975 and 1999. So too Indonesia has steadfastly denied responsibility for the deaths of five Australian-based journalists at Balibo in October 1975, maintaining the fiction that they were killed in cross-fire.

Now, a former Indonesian special forces officer has confirmed what we have known from a range of sources for decades, that the Balibo Five, as they have become known, were murdered by Indonesian troops to cover up the first moments of Indonesia's invasion of that tiny territory.

This stark admission by a former Indonesian army officer, who was at the scene of the crime, that the Balibo Five were murdered by Indonesian troops because they were reporting on an illegal invasion, follows the banning and then illegal screening of the Australian movie Balibo in Jakarta last week.

Balibo is a dramatised account of the murder of the Balibo Five, and the search for the truth of their murder by another Australian journalist, Roger East, who was himself murdered by Indonesian troops at Dili's wharf almost two months later.

The Jakarta Foreign Correspondents' Club intended to screen the movie last week, but was stopped by Indonesia's censorship board, at the behest of the Indonesian military. An army spokesman has since said that the movie should not be screened because it would damage Indonesia's international standing and harm Australia-Indonesia relations.

The army spokesman also said that the search for truth over the murder of the Balibo Five should be based on a "consensus" on those events. This idea of "consensus" also harks back to the Suharto era, in which a confluence of views, usually dominated by the most powerful source – the army – displaced verifiable truth.

Despite the army's attempt to have Balibo banned, an Indonesian sub-titled version was privately screened last Thursday night, and has since been screened to audiences of hundreds in Jakarta, including Indonesian journalists, pro-democracy and human rights activists and others . DVDs of the movie will hit Jakarta's streets soon.

As Indonesia democratises, elements of its former authoritarian rule continue to resurface. As the progenitor for Indonesia's descent into authoritarian militaristic rule the army has, unsurprisingly, been the slowest and most reluctant institution to reform. Yet the tide of openness that necessarily accompanies democratisation has continued to rise.

That a retired Indonesian army officer has finally confirmed what we already knew is surprising only because he has broken ranks on the issue.

Indonesia's has a profoundly troubled past, one of the smaller parts of which was the murder of the Balibo Five which has become, for outsiders at least, emblematic of the much greater horror visited upon the people of East Timor.

There is also the murder of perhaps a half a million or more suspected communists and sympathisers in the mid-1960s, the gross human rights abuses and repression employed in West Papua, Aceh and upon trade unionists, activists and even many ordinary Indonesian citizens who lived under the Suharto regime.

The old political method of suppressing inconvenient truths continues to hold sway in Jakarta, but it is under real challenge. It may be expecting too much to hope for accountability for those responsible for the murder of the Balibo Five, much less the hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions, who have been murdered, tortured or imprisoned in Indonesia.

But it is encouraging that a film that was intended to open a door to the gross human rights violations in East Timor, through the device of focusing on the deaths of six newsmen, has had the type of impact that was hoped for it. And it is encouraging that the heavy-handed attempt to censor the film has had the opposite effect of burying the truth, but rather helping reveal it.

http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/stories/s2765162.htm

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John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

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SENEC in East Timor, Indonesia and Australia

2009-12-09T02:57:00.000Z

Portugal - SENEC in East Timor, Indonesia and Australia

The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Co-operation (SENEC) João Gomes Cravinho will be on an official visit across Asia for political contacts and the strengthening of bilateral relations, December 7-16, with calls on Indonesia, East Timor and Australia.

In Jakarta, the SENEC will have a working session with his Indonesian counterpart Deputy Foreign Minister Tryonno followed by a dinner they will both attend with Indonesian political and economic representatives. The SENEC will also address an audience of International Relations students at a conference on «Portuguese Foreign Policy» at the University of Indonesia.

The SENEC will be in Bali, December 9 – 11, where he will attend the Bali Democracy Forum. He will be in Dili, December 12, for contacts with several East Timorese political leaders. The agenda includes meetings with President Ramos Horta, Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão, Ministers of Finance and Foreign Affairs and the UN representative in East Timor.

While in East Timor, João Gomes Cravinho will also visit the Portuguese Cooperation Cluster Mós Bele, in Maubara, as well as the GNR (Portuguese National Guard) headquarters.

The last leg of SENEC’s trip will be Australia, December 14 - 16, where he will meet the Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Bob McMullan and Portuguese entrepreneurs in Canberra.

http://www.mne.gov.pt/mne/en/noticiasen/200912071520.htm

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Anthony LaPaglia: the thinker

2009-12-09T02:55:00.000Z

John Mangan

December 6, 2009

ON THE question of the Australian film industry's health, Anthony LaPaglia stands relentlessly and loquaciously in the glass-half-full camp. The would-be actor left Adelaide almost three decades ago for America's bright lights and is now a household name in the US, thanks to his starring role as Jack Malone in the long-running TV series Without a Trace. But he has always loved coming home to lend some Hollywood heft to Australian films, including Lantana, Looking for Alibrandi, The Bank and even Happy Feet.

Storm clouds often seem to be gathering over the Australian industry - this time, curiously, it's caught between the pincers of the global financial crisis, which has killed international investment in such speculative fripperies as film, and Australia's relative economic health, which has boosted the Australian dollar, making it expensive for foreigners to shoot their movies here.

For LaPaglia, though, the question of industry health is answered by looking at the movies up for this year's Australian Film Institute awards. They include Balibo, the Australian-East Timorese drama that he produced and starred in, which has been nominated for a staggering 14 awards.

He goes through the list of major Australian films this year - Australia, Mao's Last Dancer, Blessed, My Year Without Sex - before settling on Warwick Thornton's Samson and Delilah, which has been nominated for 13 AFI awards.

''Not to detract from any of the others, Samson and Delilah was the Australian film that impressed me most this year,'' he says in his mid-Pacific accent. ''It's quite a unique film, and not just because it's an indigenous film. It's remarkable that Warwick's a first-time director.

''Part of the genius of the film is that there's almost no dialogue, it's very minimalist, and it's actually very difficult to convey all the different layers, all the different emotions that these kids go through without the use of dialogue. All in all, it's a really wonderful film.''

It's high praise, particularly coming from an actor who is known for his ability to look more like he's thinking than acting, but LaPaglia's enthusiasm for Australian films doesn't end there.

''For the most part, the American film market has become very corporatised, even independent film to a degree, and because of the corporate management mentality, they want to take the safe way. Australian film doesn't have that restraint on it, therefore people are willing to make bolder choices, take more chances. So that's one factor.

''The other factor is Australian movies traditionally don't have much of a budget, and that puts you in the situation of having to compensate for the lack of money with ingenuity. And with big budgets sometimes you can lose focus on what matters the most - do you care about the characters?''

Balibo, which recounts the true story of the killing of five TV reporters and cameramen working in East Timor for Channel Nine and Channel Seven when the Indonesian army invaded in 1975, provided a reminder last week of the power of film when it was banned in Indonesia, having been scheduled for screening at the Jakarta International Film Festival this month.

The gritty drama directed by Robert Connolly, who also directed LaPaglia in The Bank, had its world premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival in July. That screening at Hamer Hall was attended by East Timorese actors and dignitaries, including President Jose Ramos Horta (who is portrayed in the film), and the families of the Australian journalists killed during the invasion. Within weeks, the Australian Federal Police announced they were reopening a war crimes investigation into the killings.

LaPaglia has always preferred to keep his politics private, but with East Timor he's making an exception. ''In terms of my personal politics, in public I've always adopted a stance like I'm Switzerland, because my political beliefs, you know, they're mine,'' he says thoughtfully. ''I've never really put myself out as a political advocate of any description.

''When I saw it [Balibo] at the film festival, I realised I'm going to get asked all kinds of questions about the politics of this, and suddenly I'm going to become a political activist. But in this case, I don't mind at all.''

The movie combined the challenge of one of those relatively humble Australian budgets with the difficulties of filming on location in an undeveloped nation.

''When I landed there, the first thing I was met with was this massive refugee camp right outside the airport. So from the start you know you're in a different place. Then, after a day or so, when you realise your phone doesn't work and your computer's not going to work, you just give up on them, and there's a kind of freedom that you get that's just quite wonderful.''

The lack of facilities affected production every day, in every way, LaPaglia says. ''We had a very small crew, only 18. But everybody was there for the right reasons so everybody pitched in. Tristan Milani (the film's cinematographer) would cook breakfast if the breakfast people got lost, which happened a lot. The young guys playing the Balibo Five, when they weren't working they'd come and swing the boom, we'd all drag camera equipment up mountains.

''It's a physically beautiful island, with incredible beaches, but what impressed me most were the people. Even though they have had a history of being abandoned by the Australian Government, they maintain a very optimistic view. It's infectious to be around.''

Jakarta's official version of the incident is that the five journalists were killed in crossfire. The film portrays a more deliberate process, with an Indonesian officer ordering the shootings.

LaPaglia is animated on the question of what really happened that day in Balibo, and the legitimate expectations a group of journalists might have that the protection for reporters defined in the Geneva Conventions would see them at worst captured and held, especially given the increasingly warm relations between the Whitlam and Suharto governments.

''The Indonesian Government said it (the film) wasn't fair because we weren't telling the story from their perspective,'' the actor says. ''To which I said, 'Well, make your own film, and tell it from whatever perspective you like'.''

And apart from exactly what happened, another question burns for LaPaglia. ''At the end of the day, it really comes down to this: it doesn't matter what anybody says, true or not true, blah, bla-blah, bla-bla-blah. The truth of the matter is they were executed, three Australian nationals, two English nationals.

''Can you imagine today if five people were murdered in one hit, there would be a massive investigation. And yet, for them, there was really nothing except a bunch of smoke and mirrors, these token attempts which basically concluded that it was all their own fault, they shouldn't have been there. And it's like, really, honestly, you're kidding me, aren't you? They're journalists, of course they're supposed to be there, it's their job.''

When LaPaglia and Connolly first decided to tell the story of Balibo, they worked on telling it through the eyes of the Balibo Five themselves.

Roger East, the veteran reporter who met Ramos Horta in Australia and went to East Timor to piece together the details of their deaths, was only a minor character. But LaPaglia, who plays East, says it was all getting too ''soapy''.

''Rob (Connolly) came up with the idea that it would be easier to tell the story from the perspective of somebody from the outside. There was always the danger it would become a bit too diabetic, a bit too precious. So he came up with this idea of telling it through Roger East.''

But once the decision to focus on East had been made, getting more information on the man proved strangely difficult. ''It might be different now, but when we started researching it, Roger East's name never came up in conjunction with the Balibo Five - ever. And when you started looking into Roger East, it was almost like he had disappeared from history.''

Finally, though, they hit the mother lode, receiving a packet of correspondence covering 30 years between East and a friend that filled in all the gaps.

''It turns out Roger is probably one of the most accomplished journalists Australia has ever produced,'' LaPaglia says.

''The problem was he was always an independent, and there's always a certain disdain for independents. He was the first Western journalist to get a legitimate permit to report in China. No one knows how he did it, and he didn't tell.

''But this is a guy who had started his career in the navy, survived the bombing in Singapore Harbour, went on to become a journalist, worked as a journalist in England, South Africa, the United States, he did the civil rights movement, he was in Vietnam, he did everything.''

The research bore fruit, giving the film an earthy power and a powerful climax. LaPaglia is proud of the result.

''It's one of the few examples I can think of - the only example in my life I can think of - where a film has been everything a film should be; both entertaining but also having a social significance and is able to effect some kind of social change.''

LAPAGLIA will be in Melbourne again for the AFI Awards next weekend, and while Without A Trace has finished up after a seven-year run, allowing the actor some time to holiday, he still has several projects on the boil.

One is making the film of The Miracle of Castel di Sangro, a book written by best-selling American author Joe McGinniss about a soccer team in a tiny Italian village that punched above its weight, ending up in Italy's second-top league. The film's cast will include Italian soccer legend Francesco Totti, who LaPaglia assures me is more difficult to get an interview with than the Pope.

''I basically had to wait three days in Italy to get it,'' he says. ''He was really quite charismatic. When I explained I wanted him for a proper acting part he smiled and said to his interpreter, 'I can't act for shit, but it's your money!' ''

LaPaglia also has a Broadway play scheduled for early next year, Lend Me a Tenor, directed by Stanley Tucci and co-starring Tony Shalhoub, who plays the lead role in the TV series Monk.

And then there's a mystery Australian project that the actor says he really can't talk about, except to say that it focuses on a major event in Australian history.

Balibo was seven years in the making, and LaPaglia says that while he loves the idea, he's not holding his breath on the Australian film, or the Italian soccer story.

''Who knows, I would like them to move quicker than that. I have projects that I've been working on for 13 years. Seven years seems like a gift!''

The LaPaglia files

Balibo (2009) Producer and played the lead character Roger East. The film is up for 14 AFI Awards, LaPaglia is up for two.

Without a Trace (2002-2009) Won a Golden Globe for his performance as Jack Malone in this Golden Globe winning drama.

Frasier (2000-2004) Won an Emmy playing an English character, Daphne's brother Simon, in the sitcom.

The Bank (2001) Teamed up with director Robert Connolly and David Wenham to play an evil banker.

Lantana (2001) Won Best Actor AFI Award for his performance as a cop cheating on his wife.

Looking for Alibrandi (2000) Starred with Pia Miranda and Greta Scacchi in this multi-AFI-award-winning film.

The Client (1994) Played Barry Muldano in this Oscar-nominated John Grisham adaptation with Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones.

So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993) Played a frustrated cop opposite Mike Myers.

Anthony LaPaglia has been nominated for two AFI awards. The 2009 Samsung Mobile AFI Awards will be presented on Saturday and broadcast from 9.30pm on the Nine Network.

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Support ETAN in 2010! Go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm to donate. Thank you.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

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how to learn more about East Timor on the Internet

Winners: John Rumbiak Human Rights Defender Award for 2009

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World Politics Review: Lessons Learned in Timor-Leste

2009-12-09T02:53:00.000Z

Lessons Learned in Timor-Leste

Damien Kingsbury

A little more than 10 years after the people of what is now Timor-Leste voted for independence, this small, half-island country has compressed into a few short years what many other post-colonial states have taken decades to achieve. It has been largely destroyed, achieved independence, had a political crisis, transitioned to democracy, and now appears to be heading into a period of political calm and economic growth. After the near-catastrophic events of 2006, Timor-Leste’s prospects are looking relatively positive, even if a number of important caveats apply.

After roughly 300 years of Portuguese colonial neglect came to an end in December 1975, what was then known as Portuguese Timor was invaded by neighboring Indonesia. The territory became a war zone: More than a quarter of the population was killed or died as a result of the subsequent occupation (which was never recognized under international law), and the rest was deeply traumatized.

Twenty-three years later, when Indonesia’s Suharto was pushed from office in 1998, Jakarta was in the midst of a financial crisis. The cost of the occupation of Timor Leste, both financially and in terms of its continuing damage to Indonesia’s international reputation, alienated the new president, B. J. Habibie, and his technocratic peers, and interfered with his attempts to oversee Indonesia’s political reform. Faced with increasing calls for some sort of long-term political transition towards self-determination, Habibie unexpectedly announced that Timor-Leste could vote on whether it wished to be independent or an “autonomous” province within Indonesia.

In an attempt to ensure that Timor-Leste remained part of Indonesia, the Indonesian military (TNI) established pro-integration militias and embarked on a campaign of intimidation and terror. The campaign failed, and in a U.N.-supervised ballot on Aug. 30, 1999, 78.5 percent of registered East Timorese voters chose independence. In response, the TNI and its proxy militias went on a rampage, murdering at least 1,400 people and burning around 70 percent of the country’s infrastructure. International negotiations resulted in an Australian-led multinational military force, INTERFET, entering Timor-Leste. INTERFET brought an end to the destruction and violence, the withdrawal of Indonesian forces, and the return of the U.N. But in the aftermath of the violence, Timor-Leste was left with virtually no infrastructure and a deeply traumatized, poorly educated and largely unskilled population.

In the lead-up to the ballot, popular expectations of independence were high. The post-ballot reality, however, was not only that independence had not delivered a significantly better outcome, but that living conditions actually declined. Meanwhile, the U.N., tasked with building a country from the ground up, ran the territory as a fiefdom.

Despite its many competencies, the U.N. was not especially well-suited to the job of nation-building. Many of its officials were poorly trained, incompetent or just did not care. Rather than imparting skills and building capacity, U.N. officials often found it easier just to do the job themselves, leaving untrained Timorese to watch.

It did not take long before bitterness over this new reality, desperate competition for reduced resources, and political opportunism led to a push for formalizing independence, even if it meant what then looked to be an early international withdrawal. A new constitution was drawn up, in which the parliament would be the executive body of state, with the president occupying a largely ceremonial position. In part, the move to have a ceremonial president was intended to avoid the personal excesses of other executive presidencies, not least that of Indondesia. But the largest party, Fretilin, also wished to hobble presidential aspirant Xanana Gusmao, who had been at odds with Fretilin’s political leader, Mari Alkatiri.

Independence was formally declared in 2002, with Fretilin, led by a group who had spent their exile overseas, taking two-thirds of the parliamentary seats. Gusmao became Timor-Leste’s first president, and Alkatiri was appointed prime minister.

Timor-Leste was at this time one of the poorest, most disadvantaged countries in the world. The new government was faced with running a country still only partially built, reliant on foreign aid and with a population both poorly trained and increasingly desperate. In the face of such circumstances, and with old rivalries resurfacing as the unity of the independence struggle faded into memory, East Timorese divided along political and ethnic faultlines that led to challenges to government authority. Serious rioting in 2003 and 2004 led to heavy-handed police responses, making clear that the decision to only partially retrain the police, many of whom had served under the Indonesian occupation, was an error.

As “liberators of the people,” former guerrilla armies often continue to see themselves as the guardians of the state, rather than as its servants. This has led to the active involvement of newly independent militaries in the politics of many developing countries. Similarly, the politics of post-colonial states can continue to be informed by the methods and networks of the resistance period, including top-down decision making, black market sources of income, a lack of procedural consistency or transparency, and, sometimes, recourse to intimidation and violence. All of these qualities pervaded Timor-Leste’s initial years of independence.

The question was also raised whether the creation of the Falintil-Timor-Leste Defence Force (F-FDTL) was just a sop to ex-combatants from the independence struggle. At around 1,500 troops, the army was too small to be an effective defensive force, a role that was in any case guaranteed by the international community, yet it consumed 8 percent of the budget. Its potential for becoming politically involved, too, worried many.

More positively, income from Timor Gap oil and gas resources began to accumulate in a U.S. Treasury bonds-based “oil fund.” Yet Timor-Leste’s economic problems involved not just having enough funds, but also in developing the capacity to adequately spend them. At one level, a high degree of bureaucratic centralization meant that funds were slow to be distributed, especially beyond Dili. This level of centralized control was intended to limit corruption, which was already problematic. But it also meant that financial liquidity in the districts was in desperately short supply.

In response to growing public disenchantment, the government became increasingly uncommunicative, brittle and tending towards authoritarian. Divisions opened up with the Catholic Church over education policy, the poorly trained police became notorious for corruption and brutality, and the F-FDTL became divided -- between older members and newer recruits, ex-guerrillas and the formerly Indonesian police, as well as along geographic and ethnic lines. Citing discrimination, newer army recruits constituting about a third of the army staged a protest in Dili on April 28, 2006. The protest was joined by other anti-government groups and quickly grew out of control, resulting in widespread rioting. The prime minister called in the rest of the army, and five people were shot dead, with many more wounded.

Thereafter, the state began its descent into chaos. Soldiers attacked the police, killing 11 officers even after they had surrendered. A small group of dissident soldiers went into the hills, attacking “loyal” forces that chased after them. Gangs that were organized around the martial arts, as well as others with links to political elites, attacked both each other and East Timorese from what were perceived to be competing language groups. This linguistic cleavage was quickly defined as a conflict of “East” versus “West,” and although such an oversimplification was inaccurate, its currency quickly defined reality.

As the police force disintegrated and civil violence became widespread, the Fretilin government called in international support in the form of the International Stabilisation Force (ISF) -- comprised of Australian and New Zealand soldiers and Portuguese and Malaysian paramilitary police -- and the renewed intervention of the U.N. and its police contingent. The worst of the violence was contained within weeks, although sporadic outbursts continued until the end of the following year.

As a result of the violence, more than three-dozen people were killed, and around 160,000 people -- who were either displaced from or lost their homes -- quickly settled into internally displaced persons camps in and near Dili. A gang of soldiers led by Alfredo Reinado retreated into the hills, while other dissident soldiers set up camp near Ermera, to the southwest of Dili. At an elite political level, under intense pressure, Alkatiri resigned as prime minister. Gusmao installed José Ramos-Horta as interim prime minister until the scheduled 2007 elections.

The violence and destruction of 2006 had many impacts, not least of which was to shock and further dismay a still-traumatized people. Violence in Timor-Leste, however, had become acculturated, and in some respects domesticated. But the belief that a traumatized and still poorly trained people and government could stand alone was shown to be wanting: It became clear that it was not possible to establish, much less embed, the institutions of state in a few short years, and that limited resources, patronage and corruption were an explosive mix. Timor-Leste reflected problems common to many developing countries -- including desperation, brittle control, institutional breakdown and government failure -- and almost became a failed state.

Ahead of the 2007 elections, Gusmao established a new party, the Congress for Timorese National Reconstruction, whose initials, CNRT, played on the Council for Timorese National Resistance, which had been the coalition of all parties under which Timor-Leste won independence. The CNRT drew from other parties, but especially from disaffected members of Fretilin, many of whom resented the dominance within the party by those who had spent the occupation in exile. The initial voting for the presidency in 2007 demonstrated the erosion of Fretilin’s popular support. The party achieved the largest plurality among a crowded field in first-round voting, but at roughly 30 percent, its tally amounted to half that of the previous election in 2001. In the second-round run-off, the non-Fretilin vote went entirely to Ramos-Horta, who won with around 70 percent.

The election period was tense, with some sporadic violence. However, a relatively high international and military presence allowed the subsequent parliamentary elections to proceed more or less unhindered. Fretilin again won just under 30 percent of the vote, achieving the largest plurality and quickly demanding to be allowed to form a government on that basis. However, Gusmao put together a majority coalition of minor parties, which the new president, Ramos-Horta, appointed to govern, with Gusmao as prime minister.

Fretilin refused to accept this outcome, saying that the constitution gave the largest vote-getter the opportunity to form the government. Its militants immediately went on a rampage, burning houses and killing a small number of people. However, the constitution includes a clause allowing for a majority coalition government. Given that such a majority coalition was available, this outcome was consistent with democratic principle. Reflecting its coalition status, the government became known as the Parliamentary Majority Alliance (AMP).

In the face of continuing pro-Fretilin protests, the AMP government began initiating reforms. Key among them was to make foreign investment easier, to reduce and simplify the tax code and, as its tenure progressed, to increase government spending. It was, Gusmao said, important to save for the future, but not at the expense of being unable to live in the present.

The political situation, however, remained volatile, with Reinado and his gang playing “cat and mouse” with the ISF, dissident soldiers only slowly moving into a cantonment from where they could negotiate their grievances, and the IDP camps becoming the site of political unrest. Then, at dawn on the morning of Feb. 11, 2008, Reinado snapped. Sensing, correctly, that the government’s initial negotiations with the dissident soldiers might ultimately leave him isolated, Reinado and his gang split into two groups, one targeting President Ramos-Horta for assassination, and the other targeting Prime Minister Gusmao.

In the ensuing attacks, Reinado himself and one of his followers were shot dead. Ramos-Horta was shot and critically wounded. Gusmao escaped uninjured.

Ramos-Horta was evacuated first to an Australian military hospital and then to Darwin, Australia, for life-saving surgery. The event sent a shockwave through Timor-Leste and the international community. Yet rather than heralding further state failure, the violence shocked many East Timorese into revising their divided perspectives. Reinado’s death also left the more belligerent anti-Fretilin groups without the galvanizing figure of a romanticized outlaw hero.

The rest of Reinado’s gang was quickly captured or surrendered, and the dissident soldiers, now isolated, agreed to a deal with the government in which they would receive $8,000 in exchange for resigning from the army. With the security environment increasingly settled, the government was then able to clear the IDP camps, assisted by payments of around $5,000 per family to help them rebuild their lost homes. Further, the AMP government purchased large stocks of rice, both for subsequent warehousing and distribution at subsidized prices, in order to alleviate a shortage caused by price increases. The effort was enhanced by the end of a long-running drought, allowing local crops to again return to surplus. The injection of liquidity boosted the economy, and in an environment in which such largesse could have seriously depleted the government’s coffers, an unexpected financial windfall from rising oil revenues assisted the extra spending.

However, the decision to tap into the oil reserve fund was controversial. Fretilin attacked the government for abandoning the previous policy of only using the interest from the fund for government spending. There were also concerns about the potential impact of the so-called “resource curse,” where an economy, buoyed by resource income, inflates the value of its currency, thereby damaging non-resource export capacity, often with implications for employment. The windfall profits also often fuel corruption.

While Timor-Leste’s only export industries were hydrocarbons and coffee, its currency was the U.S. dollar. Meanwhile, unemployment was more determined by subsistence farmers moving to towns in search of paid work, limiting the potential for that component of the “curse.” However, there were numerous allegations about corruption and nepotism, most of which were not well-substantiated at the higher levels of government, but which appeared to have considerable validity elsewhere. To counter this, the government launched an anti-corruption drive, with limited success.

To further increase liquidity among the wider community, and in part to buy off potential disaffection, the government also made payments to resistance veterans. This was later supplemented by a small pension for people over the age of 60, as the average life expectancy had improved to just over 60 years of age, up from the mid-50s just a few years before.

But more importantly, the government moved to decentralize the state, reconstituting each of its 13 districts as a municipality with an elected council and an executive mayor. Each of the districts would have control over spending for a range of areas outside those retained by the central government, with funding to be distributed on a per-capita basis. The purpose of this decentralization was to give local people greater control over their lives, and to ensure that capital was adequately distributed outside Dili.

For the 2008-9 financial year, Timor-Leste recorded 13 percent economic growth, if off of a very low base and almost entirely dependent on government spending. Inflation had fallen to around 6 percent, down from highs in the low teens only a few years previously. More ominously, though, the country’s fertility rate had exploded, with eight live births per female, making it the most fertile country in the world. This not only seriously unbalanced the population, so that about half of Timor-Leste was under the age of 16, but led to population growth that could not be sustained by the productive capacity of the increasingly distressed natural environment. Despite progressive government policies, deforestation continued and potable water supplies remained inadequate. Furthermore, in order to provide electricity for the whole country, the government opted for two heavy oil generators that were not only environmentally unfriendly, but would be increasingly expensive to run.

Timor-Leste’s foreign relations were also tested, especially by Australia and Indonesia. As the main source of imports, Indonesia had considerable capacity to influence Timor-Leste’s internal affairs. As an example, in August 2009, when Indonesia’s foreign minister refused to leave the airport to attend the 10th anniversary of the ballot on independence unless an arrested militia leader was released, Prime Minister Gusmao complied, in breach of his country’s own laws. The release called further attention to how, in order to appease its large neighbor, Timor-Leste had not pursued various charges resulting from Indonesia’s brutal occupation and bloody departure in 1999.

As is often the case, many of Timor-Leste’s problems following independence were common to post-colonial states, while some remained specific to Timor-Leste. Among the former is the challenge, sometimes contentious, of combining separate language groups within a single administrative entity. Although Portuguese and Tetum are Timor-Leste’s official national languages, English and Indonesian are widely used “working” languages, with more than two dozen other languages and dialects also in use. About 70 percent of the population speaks one of the four dialects of Tetum, and 80 percent speak Indonesian. Portuguese is spoken by less than 15 percent of the population, and English is the popularly preferred third language. Since state documents and court hearings are written and conducted in Portuguese, they are inaccessible to most East Timorese. It is common for new states to develop a state language, and it seems that Tetum might become that. Tetum is the spoken language in the parliament, and there is an increasing tendency to publish in Tetum. However, while this process is underway, Timor-Leste faces, at best, linguistic confusion.

On the other hand, Timor-Leste was lucky compared with many newly independent countries, in having a relatively large oil and natural gas supply within its territorial boundaries. If managed carefully, this could underpin development for decades. However, if mismanaged, Timor Leste, like others before it, could experience the “resource curse” of increased corruption, rent-seeking behavior, an artificially inflated economy and an inevitable economic slump.

In the short term, however, much of this wealth is being used to ease some of the burden of poverty that characterized Timor-Leste, and hence to ease pressures that many developing states face before they manage to consolidate state institutions. In this, Timor-Leste has bought itself some time.

As 2009 progresses into 2010, there are increasing signs of East Timorese wanting to again take control of their own affairs. At one level, a push for greater local control is to be expected for an independent state managing to put its brush with civil conflict and potential state failure behind it. At another level, however, is the possibility that moving too quickly towards such decentralized control could result in a repetition of the failures that led to the crisis of 2006, in turn implying a cycle of failure all too common to developing countries.

However, economic growth and redistribution augured well, as did the general policy settings of both the government and the opposition. And importantly, the commitment to electoral politics by the people of Timor-Leste showed that democracy did not require a long history for it to embed itself among the country’s citizens. That, in turn, provided a managed way in which to order and resolve competing interests.

Professor Damien Kingsbury holds a Personal Chair in the School of International and Political Studies at Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia.

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Support ETAN in 2010! Go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm to donate. Thank you.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

Cross-Country Ties an Obstacle to Justice

2009-12-08T08:28:00.000Z

By Matt Crook

DILI, Dec 2 (IPS) - East Timor’s leaders say bringing to justice perpetrators of atrocities committed during the Indonesian army’s occupation would sour relations between the neighbouring countries, but not everyone is so keen to forgive and move on.

Despite high-level stubbornness, justice can still be achieved so long as people continue to make their voices heard, observers said.

"Speaking about justice is part of achieving justice, just as speaking about independence was part of achieving independence" Dr Clinton Fernandes, an East Timor expert from the Australian Defence Force Academy, told IPS.

"Citizens—like the U.N. [United Nations]—do not have their own military or police forces but can create the political will to achieve justice simply by always speaking about it," he added.

For years, the people of East Timor and international supporters have pushed for closure on the crimes against humanity committed during the Indonesian military occupation between 1975 and 1999.

East Timor became independent in 2002, but at a cost of 180,000 lives, either killed in the violence or else left to die of starvation or sickness.

The nation’s leadership is sticking to the line that if riled, Indonesia might close the border with West Timor, lock down trade ties or reconsider the futures of the 6,000 or so Timorese students studying in Indonesia.

In August, Amnesty International released the report ‘We Cry for Justice’, in which one of the recommendations was for the U.N. Security Council to set up a comprehensive plan to end impunity.

The report has now been translated into Tetum (one of East Timor’s official languages) and Bahasa Indonesia in the hope that people in East Timor and Indonesia will be able to see that their voices are being heard.

"Every voice counts to see change on the ground, including media coverage on justice issues," said Isabelle Arradon, researcher on Indonesia and East Timor for Amnesty International.

"Continuous coverage in the lead-up to discussions on [East Timor] at the U.N. Security Council in February 2010 is welcomed to show that the international community supports the calls of the victims on the ground, and to remind U.N. Security Council members that the view of the [East Timor] government is not shared by many in the country," she added.

The firm stance of the nation’s leaders has been criticised by the U.N., which maintains that strong ties with Indonesia should not impede the need for justice.

"To ask for accountability of the individuals who did really horrible things in no way undermines that [relationship]—it only strengthens it," said Louis Gentile, representative of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.

With the recent passing of yet another East Timor massacre anniversary, there is disillusionment on the streets of Dili.

Julio Barreto, 36, was there at Santa Cruz in Dili on Nov. 12, 1991, when Indonesian troops sprayed bullets into crowds of peaceful protesters, killing 270 of them. "We didn’t realize the troops were preparing to shoot at us," he said. "I don’t like them—the people who did this—they are well known as human rights violators, and everyone knows what they have been involved in."

Like many in East Timor, Barreto feels let down by his country’s heads of state for the lack of accountability for the Santa Cruz Massacre and other crimes against humanity.

"Instead of stressing out and thinking of those things that might never happen, I prefer to concentrate on work instead of thinking too much about bringing those people to justice, because it would take the leaders to do it, not the ordinary people like us."

The issue of justice has been a sensitive one for previous governments, but perhaps none has been scrutinised as much as Xanana Gusmao’s current ruling coalition, most notably in recent weeks when the release of an Indonesian former militia leader sparked an international media frenzy.

Maternus Bere, former commander of the pro-Indonesia Laksaur militia, was indicted by the U.N. Serious Crimes Unit for a bevy of crimes against humanity, including his part in the Suai Church Massacre in 1999, in which up to 200 innocent people were slaughtered.

Bere crossed the border from neighbouring West Timor and returned to Suai, a city in East Timor, in August to visit his family. He was arrested and ordered by the court in Suai to be detained, but directives came from Gusmao to release him into the custody of the Indonesian embassy in Dili on Aug. 30 as celebrations marking 10 years since the nation voted for independence began.

Bere spent a secretive two months at the embassy before being taken back to Indonesia on Oct. 30, making him a free man.

In 2003, the Serious Crimes Unit indicted 391 people, including Bere, for crimes against humanity committed in East Timor, and yet most of them have lived as free men in Indonesia.

The initial decision to release Bere could have toppled the government as the opposition Fretilin party and allies tabled a vote of no confidence that was debated on Oct. 12.

Gusmao defended himself, calling it a "political decision" to free Bere.

"[Indonesian foreign] minister Hassan… said that should there be no solution to the case of Martenus Bere, it could affect the relationship between the two countries," Gusmao told parliament. "He added that our refusal to cooperate in such a sensitive matter for Indonesia might force the Indonesian state to review their diplomatic policy towards [East Timor]."

Gusmao’s government survived the no-confidence vote in what observers said was a sign of political stability in the country, but the justice issue is one that refuses to simmer down.

"The struggle for justice is not a contest between Indonesians and non- Indonesians. Rather, it is a contest between those around the world who want justice to prevail and those who want to see impunity prevail," said Dr Fernandes at the memorial rites in October for Sander Thoenes, the ‘Financial Times’ correspondent murdered in East Timor 10 years ago.

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ETAN looks forward to your support. Go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm to donate. Thank you.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

Web site: http://www.etan.org
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Send a blank e-mail message to info@etan.org to find out
how to learn more about East Timor on the Internet

Winners: John Rumbiak Human Rights Defender Award for 2009

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[This message was distributed via the east-timor news list. For info on how to subscribe send a blank e-mail to info@etan.org. To support ETAN see http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm ]

Dr. Ramos-Horta lauches book “I Am the Future” and hails youth as an “immediate priority” of his Presidency

2009-12-08T08:19:00.000Z

The President of the Republic, Dr.José Ramos-Horta, launched the book “Hau Maka Futuro” (“I Am the Future”, with texts by Hanne Eide Andersen and photographs by Ken Opprann, in a ceremony held at the Presidential Palace Nicolau Lobato, in Díli.

“The development of the youth in an immediate priority of my Presidency”, says Dr. Ramos-Horta in the forward of this book, where he reminds the tragic events of the St. Cruz Massacre (1991) and the crisis in 2006.

In 1991, “our young people showed to the world that the gun of the oppressor could never silence their demands to live as people with dignity and to decide the very destiny of their Nation”, highlights the Head of State

In 2006 – adds H.E. - it was with the “indefatigable efforts” of the youth that “the Nation managed to deviate from an endless crisis”.

“The youth urges to be heard by decision makers”, avowed The Nobel Peace Prize, assuring to “redouble the effort in enabling them to be heard”, even because youth constitutes the majority of the Timorese population.

In fact, half of the Timorese population is under 18 years old.

The book “I Am the Future”, as a component of the Díli International Youth Conference on Identity and Nation Building (2008), “serves a medium for the youth to participate in the national decision making process and in the promotion of national unity for the development of the country”, affirms Dr. Ramos-Horta in the forward.

“We cannot afford to have a development style which ignores the participation of our young people (…), so we must enhance our human resources based in this reservoir of vast potential”, adds H.E.

The President applauded this Norway’s initiative, which “debunks the notion that the youth of today are passive agents in development process and are simply waiting for the State to deliver what they aspire for”.

The Foreign Affairs Minister of Norway, Mr. Jonas Gahr Store, also forwards the 180 full colour pages book, full of interviews and facts from all over the country

Attended the ceremony the Join Command Chief of the Armed Forces, Major-General Taur Matan Ruak, the Secretary of State for Youth and Sports, Miguel Manetelu, the Ambassadors from Australia, New Zealand and Republic of South Korea, as well as diplomats from the Norwegian and the Indonesian Embassies.

The ceremony was also attended by representatives of the UNPOL and ISF Command, and by the former Timorese First Lady, Kirsty Gurmao.

PPR – Dili, DEC 01ST, 2009

José H. Meirelles
International Relations/Media Senior Advisor
Presidency of the Republic
Int.Relations Dep.

PBX : +670-333-9999/ext. 242
e-mail: assessor.relintmedia.pr.rdtl@gmail.com
Mobile: +670-751-6413

Digicel announces sponsorship of Timor-Leste football federation

2009-12-08T07:29:00.000Z

Solomon Star

Sports-Regional

Digicel announces sponsorship of Timor-Leste football federation

Friday, 04 December 2009

Digicel, the fastest growing mobile operator in the Pacific, was today unveiled as the first ever sponsor of the Timor-Leste Football Federation.

Digicel Group Chairman, Denis O'Brien, and President of the Timor-Leste Football Federation Francisco Lay, signed the four-year sponsorship deal in the new FIFA House at Democracy Park, in Dili today.

The deal will see Digicel, the biggest sponsor of football in the Caribbean and in Central America, join forces with the Timor-Leste Football Federation to support the development of football from the grassroots level right up to the national team.

Digicel has been involved in a wide range of football initiatives designed to support the development of football in the Caribbean and Central America over the last five years.

Digicel, which has operations in 32 countries worldwide, sponsors 15 Football Federations and Leagues, as well as the Digicel Caribbean Championships and the Copa de Naciones Digicel in Central America.

Digicel also developed the Digicel Kick Start Clinics in the Caribbean, which offer young footballers the opportunity to train with renowned footballers such as Liverpool legends, John Barnes and Ian Rush, as well as spending one week with UK Premier League Clubs, Sunderland AFC and Manchester City.

Speaking at today's press conference, Francisco Lay, said: "Digicel's unprecedented agreement with the Football Federation is the first of its kind in Timor-Leste and a significant moment in the development of football for the country.

The FFTL is proud to be supported by such a prominent sponsor of football, and we look forward to reaping the benefits of Digicel's knowledge, experience and relationships from across their various football properties worldwide," he said.

Digicel Group Chairman, Denis O'Brien said, "Digicel is proud to become the first sponsor of Timor-Leste football. Football is certainly the most popular sport in Timor-Leste, and has a tremendous potential to contribute in building national unity and pride amongst its young people.

With Digicel's strong support, financial backing and expertise, the Timor-Leste national side can now aspire to a prominent position on the international stage sooner than ever."

"Football will unite the entire nation in Timor-Leste, as it continues to do in so many other famous footballing nations around the world, like Brazil, Italy, Portugal and Honduras, to name but a few.

Working with Francisco and his colleagues at the Football Federation, Digicel will help make this happen," he said.

In a special message conveyed to the Federation to mark today's event, FIFA Vice-President, Jack Warner, said: "Over the last five years, Digicel has become the major supporter of football in the Caribbean and Central America. As well as sponsoring football Federations and Leagues across the region, Digicel has been instrumental in developing football clinics for aspiring young footballers with renowned international coaches.

"I am delighted that Digicel is now extending its support of the development of football into Timor-Leste.

"It is so important that countries such as Timor-Leste receive this support so that they can develop their footballers from the grassroots level right through to the National team.

"I would like to wish everyone the best of luck and I look forward to seeing some great talent emerge out of Timor-Leste in the future," he said.

Digicel was announced as the lead commercial sponsor of the Tour de Timor cycling event, which took place in August earlier this year.

The Tour de Timor was the principal sporting event of the historic 10th Anniversary of the Popular Consultation celebrations held in August 2009. Digicel's sponsorship of the event helped to ensure the Tour de Timor was placed firmly on the international stage and the race was covered by an overwhelming media presence from the all over the Pacific rim, Asia and Europe.

The Digicel team was made up of four Timorese cyclists who made their country proud by coming in top position among the Timorese contingent.

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ETAN looks forward to your support. Go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm to donate. Thank you.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

Web site: http://www.etan.org
Twitter: http://twitter.com/etan009
Facebook: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/134122?recruiter_id=10193810

Send a blank e-mail message to info@etan.org to find out
how to learn more about East Timor on the Internet

Winners: John Rumbiak Human Rights Defender Award for 2009

Timor Leste PMs to attend Bali Democracy Forum

2009-12-08T07:06:00.000Z

Japan, Timor Leste PMs to attend Bali meeting

Sat, 12/05/2009

INDONESIA: Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama and Timor Leste Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao will attend the second Bali Democracy Forum that will be held from Dec. 10-11 on the resort island, the Foreign Ministry said Friday.

"They have confirmed their attendance;" ministry spokesperson Teuku Faizasyah told journalists at a weekly press briefing, adding that Hatoyama's participation "shows that Japan is concerned with the efforts to promote democracy in the region".

Japan will co-chair the sessions, Faizasyah said.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd will not attend the conference and will be represented by the country's home affairs minister, Brendan O'Connor. New Zealand will delegate its immigration minister, Jonathan Coleman.

Faizasyah said 29 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Syiria and Tajikistan, will be participating in a meeting aimed at finding a perfect model for democracy in Asian countries.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono is scheduled to open the conference. - JP

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ETAN looks forward to your support. Go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm to donate. Thank you.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

Timor Leste to reconstruct border fence

2009-12-08T03:29:00.000Z

Saturday, December 5, 2009 16:21 WIB | International | | Viewed 101 time(s)
Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara (ANTARA News) - The governments of Indonesia and Timor Leste will reconstruct a border fence in their border area.

"The Timor Leste consul has told the Kupang district administration about the need to rebuild a border fence of the two countries," Petseraen Amtiran, a spokesman of the Kupang administration, said here here on Saturday.

Timor Leste`s Consul in Kupang Caetano Guterres held a meeting with the Kupang District head last Friday (Dec. 4).

The reconstruction of border fence in Naktuka, East Amfoang Sub district, Kupang, was expected to be completed in 2010.

The border fence in the border area had collapsed because of unknown reasons.(*)

The Film and the Reality; Interview/Ex-Kopassus Officer Gatot Purwanto: It Was a Difficult Situation; Editorial; Censorship

2009-12-08T03:20:00.000Z

Balibo: The Film and the Reality

- Interview/Ex-Kopassus Officer Gatot Purwanto: It was a
difficult situation

- Editorial: Balibo 1975

- Balibo’s No Show [The Indonesian Film Censorship Board
banned the screening of the film Balibo at the 11th Jakarta
International Film Festival, reasoning that the film might
reopen old wounds.]

-------------------

Tempo Magazine
No. 15/X
December 08-14, 2009

Cover Story

Balibo: The Film and the Reality

The ban on screening Balibo recalls the 1975 deaths of five
foreign journalists in East Timor. One witness of this incident,
a former intelligence officer, believes the element of
dramatization is inevitable, resulting in a fictional film
featuring images of a brutal military.

FEW people recognized the small, 62-year-old man wearing a
faded blue T-shirt over black denims, his face lined with the
beginnings of wrinkles, his thinning hair turning grey. He sat
relaxed with his legs stretched out in a corner of the Utan Kayu
theater in East Jakarta, on Thursday a week ago, waiting for the
screening of the film Balibo, which tells the story of five
Australian journalists killed in East Timor in October 1975.

The man is Colonel (ret) Gatot Purwanto, a former army
intelligence officer, who served quite some time in East Timor
(now Timor Leste). His last position was Assistant Intelligence
Officer of Command Operations in East Timor. He was discharged
following the Santa Cruz incident in Dili, which erupted in
November 1991. That evening, he toldTempo that his colleagues
had warned him about watching Balibo. “Why should a witness
watch a film about something he personally experienced?” they
taunted him.

In fact, Gatot was at Balibo 34 years ago. Under the code name
Team Susi, he and dozens of Indonesian troops crossed the East
Timor border in preparation of Indonesia’s invasion into the
former Portuguese colony. “I was a first lieutenant at the time,
just three years out of officer training school,” he recalled.
The team commander was Major-General (ret) Yunus Yosfiah. “We
were assisting partisans of UDT and Apodeti,” he said. UDT and
Apodeti were two political parties in Timor who at the time were
pro-Indonesia. About 100 pro-integration militia members had
joined them.

When the film began, Gatot quickly recognized locations used as
settings for the film. “That building used to be the Finance
Department” he said of the opening scene. Gatot, who is fluent
in Tetum, could understand the dialog in this local Timorese
language. He immediately began shaking his head when the film
depicted a scene about Fretilin ideology, the leftist party
fighting for an independent Timor. “They were communists,” he
said with certainty. In the scene, where the lead actor is shot
in the forest by an Indonesian helicopter, Gatot also shook his
head murmuring, “That’s not true.”

But, when the film moved into the main scene with the killing of
the five Australian journalists, Gatot stared with his mouth
open. He sat motionless with his eyes glued to the screen. When
the scene changed to the story of what followed the shooting, he
sat looking surprised and speechless for a long time. Only when
Tempo asked him if his memories of the time were similar to the
way the incident was portrayed in the film, Gatot turned and
replied, “No, no, it wasn’t like that.” He took in a deep
breath, whispering softly, “Not exactly like that.”

* * *

IT is a pity that Gatot Purwanto and Greg Shackleton never met,
considering they have more in common than the first letters of
their first names. They were both 27 years old in 1975, when
their fates led them both to Balibo.

Balibo is a small town in Bobonaro district. The distance to the
border with West Timor is only about 10 kilometers. The remains
of a 400-year-old Portuguese fort still stand on a hill facing
the beach. Gatot admits that his forces captured and shot
Shackleton and his four colleagues: sound man Australian Tony
Stewart, 21, Gary Cunningham, 27, from New Zealand from Channel
7, British nationals Brian Peters, 29 and Malcolm Rennie, 28,
from Channel 9.

The film Balibo, according to Gatot is overdramatized. Even
though he later admitted that the troops did try to hide the
bodies of these journalists by covering them up with dry rice
husks so they would burn slowly. “Until the bodies were
completely destroyed; it took two days,” he explained.

Balibo shows the political escalation heating up near the time
of the invasion and the moments of the five journalists’ deaths.
The director and scriptwriter is the Australian cinematographer,
Robert Connolly. Originally the film was to be shown at the
Jakarta International Film Festival last week. But the Film
Censorship Board (LSF) banned it. The reason given by Mukhlis
Paeni, Director of LSF, was that, “it has the potential to open
an old wound.”

That “old wound” did not come from the south. The Balibo
incident had been diplomatically bandied back and forth, between
Jakarta and Canberra. Yet, the two countries have come to an
agreement. The Australian government accepts the version of the
Indonesian government stating that the five men died in
cross-fire. “This film does not express the opinion of the
Australian government,” said Jenny Dee, press attaché for the
Australian embassy in Jakarta.

Those who disagree with the Indonesian government’s version are
the families and friends of the slain journalists, and human
rights activists in Australia, who are demanding justice. They
believe the five journalists were executed by the Indonesian
Military (TNI), like Roger East, another Australian journalist
who was lost and presumed to be shot dead on the first day of
the invasion of Dili harbor on December 7, 1975. They want the
perpetrators brought to court. For 34 years this case had
surfaced and resurfaced in Australian politics. Those concerned
about human rights kept charging that both the Labor Party as
well as the Conservative Party supported the invasion—as did the
United States and the United Kingdom—to prevent the spread of
communism.

The “old wound” Muklis may be referring to could be the public
at home. Many scenes in the film bring back memories of human
rights abuses carried out by the military in the not-so-distant
past. The familiar icons are disturbing: red berets, camouflage
uniforms, AK-47s, as well as the actors playing the roles of
familiar military figures like Benny Moerdani and Colonel Dading
Kalbuadi (both of whom have died). What is frightening is the
action depicted in the film: groups of civilians being shot at,
public executions, and the faces of women and children crying in
fear.

* * *

THE LSF invited Sutiyoso to view Balibo, two days after the ban,
when they had difficulty contacting Yunus. The former Governor
of Jakarta, Sutiyoso, was a Special Forces soldier in the same
operation as Gatot. According to Sutiyoso, the intelligence
operation called Flamboyan was aimed at assisting the
pro-integration militia to clear the area of “enemies,” or the
Fretilin militia. “This was like entering a lion’s den, a
one-way ticket operation. We didn’t even get to say goodbye to
our families,” he told Tempo, one Saturday morning.

To support the operation, the forces formed three teams, each
with about 50 Special Forces troops. The 1965 Group led the
operation, the second in command came from the 1968 group. The
three teams were given women’s names: Susi, Tuti, and Umi.
Sutiyoso confirmed that Yunus Yosfiah, a major at the time, led
Team Susi. His second in command was Sunarto. Team Tuti was led
by Major Tarub with Agus Salim Lubis as his second in command.
Sunarto and Agus Salim have both passed away. Team Umi was led
by Major Sofyan Effendi with Sutiyoso as his second in command.
“Gatot was in Team Susi,” he recalled.

With the command center in Motaain, they went back and forth to
the border areas. They all wore civilian clothing, their hair
long, with tight shirts in the style of the time over
wide-legged or denim pants. Dading, the leader of the operation
(in the film he is seen as the first one to pull the trigger in
the shooting that killed the journalists), is shown wearing a
scarf around his neck and a cowboy hat. Everyone had a code
name. “My name was Captain Manix, like in the film,” laughed
Sutiyoso.

Team Umi then seized Batugade in a shootout with a Fretilin
ship. But unlike usual procedures, the commander, Major-General
Benny Moerdani told them to remain in the beach town about 40
kilometers from Motaain. “This was strange. It was unusual for
the intelligence forces to do this. Our specialty was hit and
run,” he said, “It was difficult for us to hold the area,
because we were armed only with assault weapons. A month later,
he heard that Team Susi had moved to Balibo and Team Tuti to
Maliana.

“The shooting of the journalists occurred when Team Susi
arrived,” says Sutiyoso. At that time, communication was not
easy, but members of the same team visited each other. So
everyone there heard the news of the five journalists’ death.
“In that battle, no one knew anyone, whether they were
foreigners or Javanese. It was only kill or be killed,” he said.

From his side, the director of Balibo, Roger Connolly, used the
services of historian, Dr Clinton Fernandez from the Australian
Military Academy at the University of New South Wales to give
guidance on the historical context, as well as from a pile of
documents from East Timor, Australia, England, the US and even
Portugal (none from Indonesia). Fernandez concluded that “the
Indonesian Military were involved in efforts to terrorize and
destabilize which were later blamed on pro-independence groups.
After that, they just had to come in to maintain order,” he said
on the official site for the film Balibo.

The sources that Connolly used to describe the moments of the
siege and capture of Balibo come from the prosecutor’s
investigation of the court in New South Wales in February 2007.
Downloadable from the Internet, there are more than half a dozen
witnesses describing what they saw in detail, including the role
Yunus played in the fate of the five journalists. Yunus, when
contacted by Tempo, was not willing to update his previous
statements. Through a text message from his son’s cellphone he
replied, asking what would happen if a national leader were to
be tyrannized by another nation. “If the question is the same,
Pak Yunus’ answer is still the same.” This former Information
Minister (1999) has repeatedly said that he was not involved in
the killings.

According to that report, only one or two of the Fretilin
militia were killed in the shootout at Balibo, the same number
as the victims of the pro-integration side. What caused a lot of
talk from the day of the incident were the deaths of the
journalists, the main theme of the Balibo film.

This testimony is very different from what was recorded by TVRI
journalist, Hendro Subroto, who arrived at the scene a few hours
after the incident. According to Hendro in his book, Eyewitness
to the Integration of East Timor, 17 people died in the battle
of Balibo. The burnt corpses of 15 of them were found at the
Fretilin headquarters, which was bombed by mortar fire. “Four of
the 15 were foreigners. Two more bodies were found in the
forest, one of whom was a foreigner,” he wrote, based on a joint
report by the pro-integration militia. Interestingly, the
witness who said there were 17 victims is the same witness who
testified in the Australian court. But he admitted to lying and
giving a false statement, which he later withdrew.

Then there is the fictional “aspect” of the film. Admittedly,
Balibo does contain a few fabrications. Let us not forget that
Balibo is not a documentary. The film is not free of fictional
scenes. It includes many imaginary figures and incidents, such
as the character of Juliana, taken from the testimonies of East
Timorese about human rights abuses on the first day of the
invasion. There is also the matter of the fight between Roger
East and Ramos Horta at a swimming pool which never took place.

However, the LSF had no problem over the details of whether this
film was close to reality or not. What is important, said the
director of the Evaluation and Socialization Commission,
Djamalul Abidin, is that the LSF has the mandate to apply
censorship on political or ideological grounds. In other words,
it is not necessary to cut the sadistic parts, but in the name
of politics and ideology, the entire film can be thrown out.
Take Sutiyoso, who firmly disapproves of screening this film
because it degrades the TNI. “The TNI is not like that. TNI
follows the principles of Pancasila,” he said.

The question is when: In the film or in reality?

-- Kurie Suditomo, Wahyu Dhyatmika, Nieke Indrietta, Martha
Warta Silaban, Sutarto, Suryani Ika Sari (Jakarta)

--------------------

Tempo Magazine
No. 15/X
December 08-14, 2009

Cover Story

Interview/Ex-Kopassus Officer Gatot Purwanto:
It was a difficult situation

THE Timor Leste (formerly East Timor) story and that of Col.
(ret) Gatot Purwanto, 62, are intertwined. This former Special
Forces (Kopassus) officer can be said to have witnessed all of
the bloody incidents that happened in Indonesia’s former 27th
province. In fact, Gatot was involved in East Timor since the
beginning of his military career. Tragically, it was also there
that his vocation ended.

Just before Indonesia’s invasion of East Timor in 1975, Gatot
would go in and out of this former Portuguese colony, disguised
as a trader. His good looks, neat appearance and sociable manner
made it easy for him to move around. “I was known as Aseng over
there,” he said laughingly, recalling how people often mistook
him for an ethnic Chinese.

Inside Timor, his job was to contact local opposition
politicians and gather intelligence. He was the only Indonesian
officer who was able to penetrate the Fretilin hideout in the
jungle, and speak directly to their rebel chief, Xanana Gusmao.

However, the November 12, 1991 Santa Cruz incident ended his
bright career. As the assistant commander for intelligence in
East Timor, he was responsible for failing to anticipate the
demonstration that became violent. The Indonesian Military (TNI)
was accused of shooting at the people, killing more than 100.
Gatot was discharged from the military.

One bloody incident he remembers well is the attack at Balibo.
Gatot, who was then a first lieutenant, witnessed how five
Australia-based journalists from Channel 7 and Channel 9—Greg
Shackleton, Tony Stewart, Gary Cunningham, Brian Peters and
Malcolm Rennie—were captured and shot.

The five journalists were in the midst of covering the joint
attack by the UDT and Apodeti groups—two rival groups of the
Fretilin at the time—into Balibo in October 1975, supported by
the Indonesian Army. “It seems to have been my fate to be
involved in bloody incidents in East Timor,” lamented Gatot.

Last week, following the screening of the film Balibo, produced
by Robert Connolly, at the Utan Kayu Theater in East Jakarta,
Gatot described his version of the incident depicted in the
controversial film to Tempo reporters Arif Zulkifli, Wahyu
Dyatmika, Sunudyantoro, Yophiandi and Agus Supriyanto.
Excerpts:

You were in Balibo when the five journalists were shot. What
happened?

The battle was not over at the time. The fighting had eased, but
shots could still be heard. At the edge of Balibo town, near the
church on the hill, there were buildings. We shot in that
direction because we heard shots coming from there. When we
approached the buildings, we saw the five journalists inside.
They were captured and they were still alive.

So what did the troops do?

I was still on lower ground, near Pak Yunus (retired Maj. Gen.
Yunus Yosfiah, who at the time was the team commander with the
rank of captain—Ed.). We received a report that foreigners had
been caught. Pak Yunus ordered me to report them to Pak Dading
(retired Lt. Gen. Dading Kalbuadi, at the time the
commander—Ed.), who was at the border area. If I am not
mistaken, Pak Dading then contacted Jakarta, and asked what they
should do with those people.

So, it is not true that the five journalists were killed in the
crossfire between the TNI and the Fretilin?

When they were first captured, they were still alive. We
surrounded them with our weapons. I saw this at a distance of 30
meters from the lower ground of the hill. They were inside and
they seemed to be filming from the top. There were shots coming
from that direction from time to time, which is why we aimed
there and surrounded the building.

What happened then?

It was a difficult situation. If we captured them, the
Indonesian troops would be implicated. We didn’t know what to do
with them, execute them or what. At that very moment, when our
troops were sitting around, suddenly shots came from the
direction of where the journalists were. Maybe someone was
trying to rescue them, we thought. Our troops ran over there, to
find all five of them dead.

Exactly when did the attack happen?

We entered Balibo just before dawn. But when the incident took
place, it was already daylight, maybe about 10 or 11 in the
morning.

When the shooting took place, what were the orders from Yunus
Yosfiah or Dading Kalbuadi?

Nothing yet. From the team leader, Pak Yunus, there were no
orders to kill them or whatever. Pak Dading was still waiting
for instructions from Jakarta. Communications took a long time.
So, the shots happened when we were provoked into shooting at
the place where they were hiding, because shots came from there.

Was there an effort to identify the five journalists? Were they
asked who they were?

No, because none of them spoke Indonesian and none of the troops
spoke English.

But did the troops know they were journalists?

We should have known, because they were carrying cameras and
other equipment. That should have been obvious from those close
to them. The shooting happened from a distance of about 15
meters.

Before the troops entered Balibo, did they know there were five
foreign journalists inside the town?

We didn’t know. That’s why we were shocked and confused when
they were captured. We didn’t know what to do with them.

So, what happened after the shooting?

Pak Dading went to the site. A TVRI reporter, Hendro Subroto,
came along. Then Pak Dading spoke with my commander, Pak Yunus.

What was the condition of the troops at the time? Were any of
the troops blamed for acting without orders?

It was a difficult situation for us. If we kept the journalists,
not execute them, when they got out, they would say, “Yes,
that’s right, the Indonesians captured us.” It could be used as
evidence that we were there. So it was a difficult decision to
make. Perhaps, at that time, people at the top thought the
shooting was the best way out. I am not sure. If they were not
executed, they could be witnesses to the fact that the
Indonesian Army had invaded Timor.

So, the shooting was a rational decision?

Yes…but it was provoked by the shooting coming from where they
were. Later, they found a Thompson gun inside the building, next
to them (the five journalists).

What happened after that?

The bodies of the five journalists were taken to the house of a
Chinese in Balibo, about 300 meters from the location of the
shooting, just inside the town. There, the bodies were covered
with rice husks and then burnt.

Why use the rice husks?

Because they take a longer time. They (the bodies) needed to be
totally disintegrated. That took two days. Some wood was also
used.

Why were the bodies torched? Wouldn’t that have shown that the
troops tried to cover the shooting?

Because we were in a bind at the time. We had to make sure that
the involvement of Indonesian troops was not known. That’s why
we didn’t wear uniforms when we attacked, we wore civilian
clothes. You may have heard of the blue jeans brigade. That was
us with long hair.

Who ordered the bodies to be burnt?

Well, there were orders from… (unclear response). I don’t know
exactly, I was just a young officer then. But we were in a
difficult position. If we let them live, they would tell
everyone it was an Indonesian invasion. If they died and we
abandoned them, there would be evidence that they were shot in
territory controlled by Indonesian guerrillas. So, the simple
way was to eliminate everything. We just claimed not to know
anything. It was the instant reaction at the time.

Besides the TNI, who else was in Balibo at the time?

Besides the Susi Team (advance team), the pro-Indonesian forces
of Apodeti and UDT jointly took part in Balibo. There were
Apodeti leader Thomas Gonzalves and UDT leader Joan Tabarez.
There was one unit of our troops against two of theirs. We were
50, they were about 100.

During the invasion, was there support from Indonesian
battleships?

I think there was. When we entered Balibo, there were shots from
our ships offshore.

Why was Balibo the first target of attack?

Balibo was not the first one. We had advanced quite deeply at
that point, but we were forced to withdraw, running back to
Haikesak (a small village at the Indonesian border), and to
Atambua. After reinforcements came from UDT and Apodeti, we
entered again. The troops had been mobilized and trained since
the end of 1974. At the point, we should have reached Dili,
preparing a dropping zone and other facilities to support the
big invasion, like setting up ammunition dumps in specific areas.

What was the situation in Balibo when you entered it?

Balibo is a small town, with non-descript buildings. There were
five concrete buildings, the biggest owned by a Chinese and
another served as a health center. In areas bordering with
Indonesia, like in Balibo and nearby villages, the population
tended to be supporters of the Apodeti, and more pro-Indonesian.
This was quite different from people on the eastern side, which
could not be accessed by our troops and which were controlled by
Fretilin.

When you were assigned in East Timor, you reportedly had close
relations with Xanana Gusmao?

I befriended Xanana after the operation carried out during the
time of Pak Sahala (retired Lt. Gen. Adolf Sahala Rajagukguk,
former Army Deputy Chief of Staff—Ed.) in 1981. After that
operation, the TNI was sure that Fretelin was in disarray,
falling apart. Finally, all Kopassus troops were withdrawn from
Timor, with only two companies—Nanggala 51 and 52—remaining.

After the troops were withdrawn, they consolidated and attacked
us again. I started thinking, if we keep ourselves low all the
time, how can we advance? I finally opened communications with
Xanana. He welcomed it. Maybe Xanana thought some good could
come from it because at that time he was already thinking that
post-war, he could be in politics. That was sometime between
1982 and 1983.

What did Xanana say?

He was very formal at first. We spoke in Tetum. He always
stressed to me: Indonesia will not be able to continue funding
the war in Timor.

Did your good relations continue?

Yes, we have kept in close touch until today. Since the jungle
days, I have been the only Kopassus officer who is able to meet
with him. So today, if Timor needs intelligence equipment, I
help out. Once, Xanana even asked my help to ‘sterilize’ his
office [from wiretaps].

Going back to the Balibo film. What is your impression of it?

From the start until the middle [of the film], it’s quite
balanced. The film also blamed the governments of Australia, the
United States and Britain, which gave their blessings to the
Timor war. But the main incidents, surrounding the shooting of
the five journalists, were over-dramatized. No one was tortured.
The scene depicting the TNI’s entry into Dili was not that
spectacular.

What do you think of demands to expose and try the Balibo
perpetrators in court?

A lot of time has passed, right? The perpetrators are now old
men. We no longer have a problem with Timor Leste.

Were you against the referendum in Timor Leste?

I thought it was a hurried decision.

Do you think the integration of East Timor between 1975-1999
was a wasted effort?

Look. At the time, the communists had gained control in
Portugal. All areas under their control, including colonies they
thought of letting go, were also influenced by communism. So it
was not wrong for Australia and the US to push Indonesia into
taking over. It was the Cold War at that time.

But Indonesia failed to win the people’s hearts over there.

At that time, East Timor was seen as a dumping ground for errant
bureaucrats. In Timor, without supervision, those petty bureau
chiefs became small kings. They were nepotistic about
recruitment, refusing to hire local people, opting instead to
give jobs to relatives from Java.

-----------------------

Tempo Magazine
No. 15/X
December 08-14, 2009

Editorial

Balibo 1975

There is not a single reason why the Film Censorship Board
should ban the screening of Balibo at the current Jakarta
International Film Festival. Whether the board realizes it or
not, either on its own initiative or at the behest of a third
party, the board seems to be engaged in a show of strength. This
is not only an unhealthy development for our movie industry, but
also for our democracy. The Film Censorship Board believes that
moviegoers are incapable of independent thought, and need to be
regulated and protected, from confusion or the influence of
foreign elements.

The Film Censorship Board specifically views the scene showing
the killing of five foreign journalists during the turmoil at
Balibo, in the early stages of Indonesia’s invasion of Timor
Leste (formerly East Timor), as sadistic. The movie by
Australian director Robert Connolly tells the story of the 1975
incident based on an investigation by Roger East, a journalist
who went to Timor Leste at the invitation of Jose Ramos Horta
(now President of Timor Leste). The Film Censorship Board says
the film’s plot is not based on historical facts and that this
inaccuracy is irresponsible.

But historical facts depend on the person investigating them,
and the outcome of such investigations do not always tell the
whole truth. With an incident shrouded in mystery like a ghost
coming and going, as in the Balibo case, all findings must be
published so their veracity can be proven. The way to test the
truth is not to obstruct anyone from discussing their findings.

In deciding whether to allow controversial films to be screened
or not, the Film Censorship Board should learn from the Catholic
Cinematographic Center, the Vatican body that studies films from
the viewpoint of their morality.

In 1948, the movie Il Miracolo (The Miracle) was released in
Italy. Directed by Roberto Rossellini, an Italian pioneer of
neo-realism, the film attempted to question the issue of
sainthood through Nanni, a young girl. In a drunken stupor, the
village girl is tempted by a vagrant whom she thinks is Saint
Joseph. Nanni then becomes pregnant. She views her pregnancy as
holy, but her fellow villagers scorn her. They taunt her,
physically abuse her and parade her on the streets with a
washbasin on her head. Nanni manages to escape to a church on
top of a hill, whereupon after giving birth, she experiences
spiritual ecstasy.

Issues relating to sainthood are sensitive to the Church. The
Catholic Cinematographic Center condemned the film, but it did
not ban it. The film was shown at the Venice Film Festival,
known for its unwillingness to screen works judged by the
Vatican to be religiously offensive. The official Vatican
newspaper, Osservatore Romano, published an appreciative review.
It said there were “serious objections from the religion’s
viewpoint,” while highlighting the “undoubted fine quality of
the scenes.” It concluded by saying that “we still believe in
Rossellini’s works.”

Such open thinking needs to be cultivated, including in our
country. This is freedom to express an opinion, which is
guaranteed in our Constitution, including the right to screen
films, no matter where they come from.

In some countries, films are banned for many reasons—such as
those containing topics on religion and sadism or more
specifically, on incest and pedophilia. But even those reasons
call for cool-headed thinking. An immediate ban does not have to
be the first step.

We must remember that films, whatever they may be depicting, are
entertainment. People must pay to watch them. Therefore the
premise should be simple: if you do not want to watch it, do not
go to the theater and buy a ticket. This also applies to the
Jakarta Film Festival—seats are limited and moviegoers are
automatically selected. Of course, we should not forget that
digital technology now makes it easy for people to find anything
that is inaccessible in their daily lives. This is precisely why
the censorship and the banning is so absurd.

What should be condemned is the knee-jerk reaction by the Film
Censorship Board, which was supported by a number of
organizations and institutions and an unfortunate sign of
extreme intolerance and stupidity. It is wrong from any
viewpoint. Banning is the language of those lacking in common
sense.

-----------------------

Tempo Magazine
No. 15/X
December 08-14, 2009

Cover Story

Balibo’s No Show

The Indonesian Film Censorship Board banned the screening of
the film Balibo at the 11th Jakarta International Film Festival,
reasoning that the film might reopen old wounds.

THE work area of the Jakarta International Film Festival
(JIFFest) organizers was suddenly filled with journalists. One
after another journalists appeared, asking for confirmation on
the ban and to request a private screening of the Australian
film Balibo. “So many of them have been here,” said Vara, “I’ve
lost track of how many times we’ve shown them the film,” said
Vara, one of the organizers, last Wednesday night. The cellphone
of Lalu Roisamri, director of JIFFest, also did not stop ringing.

The Film Censorship Board (LSF) banned the 111-minute film from
being shown at the Festival. The film is about five foreign
journalists who were killed as they covered the Indonesian
invasion of East Timor in 1975. In one scene, the five
television journalists are being attacked by what is presumably
the Indonesian Military (TNI—whose members in the film speak to
each other in Indonesian) pictured rushing to avoid attacks
during the fighting in Balibo.

Trapped in a house, one of the journalists forces himself to
come out to try to negotiate with the leader of the troops, to
let them go because he and his colleagues are just doing their
jobs as journalists. Bang! His request is ignored and he
receives instead a bullet through the head. A barrage of shots
and torture await the remaining four journalists. Their bodies
are burnt together with their journalistic equipment and film.
This was October of 1975.

Three months later, the film depicts senior journalist Roger
East (played by Anthony Paglia of Without a Trace) being
tortured in Dili. He is tied up and dragged to a field where he
is tortured and shot. Then his body is dumped into the sea. East
was in Dili at that time, invited by Jose Ramos Horta (played by
Oscar Isaac)—the man who would later become the second
President of Timor Leste after its independence from Indonesia in
1999. East was trying to trace the movements of the five journalists
and their disappearance in Balibo.

According to Muchlis Paeni, head of the LSF, the scenes in the
film are extremely sadistic. “We are required to cut out such
scenes because of their violence. It is not so much a political
issue. Even if the film were not about the Balibo incident we
would still be required to censor it,” Muchlis said in his
office last Thursday afternoon. He stressed that such violent
scenes should not be allowed to be shown at a film festival
because they had the potential to reopen old wounds.

He acknowledged that the film directed by Robert Connolly and
produced by Paramount Pictures was interesting, although he
regretted that the information on which it was based was merely
an oral testimony. “It is not based on historical facts whose
accuracy has been proven,” he said.

Jakarta’s former governor, Sutiyoso, supports the decision of
the LSF. “It is a very prejudicial film and extremely dramatic.
Anyone watching it would immediately receive a very negative
impression of the TNI,” he said. When the incidents took place,
Sutiyoso was a captain in the Indonesian Army and participated
in operations in Timor Leste. He was invited by the board last
Thursday to give his opinion of the film.

According to LSF’s Evaluation & Socialization Chairman, Djamalul
Abidin, the ban was in accordance with Government Regulation No.
7/1994 on the Indonesian Censorship Board, Chapter IV relating
to Guidelines and Criteria for Censorship, where it states that
censorship can be implemented, for amongst others, political and
ideological reasons. He said that the board still refers to Law
No. 8/1992 on Films because Law No. 33/2009 still lacks
implementing regulations.

The LSF has in the past refused to allow the screening of
JIFFest films which depict violence and what it refers to as
“putting the TNI in a corner.” In 2000, the film The Army Force
(an Indonesian production) about the 1998 reform movement and
The Black Road (an American production) about the killing of
members of the Free Aceh Movement produced by freelance
journalist William Nelson who covered Aceh and was later
deported, were banned. In 2006, five films were rejected by the
board namely Passabe, Timor Lorosae, Tales of Crocodile,
Promised Paradise and Simon.

Lalu Roisamri regrets the banning of Balibo. “We still wanted to
screen the film and so a discussion was held,” said Roisamiri
who explained that the parties involved had tried to act fairly
about it. She put in a request to the LSF for a screening and a
limited discussion inviting the TNI, the government, the Foreign
Affairs Department (whose staff reportedly agreed with the ban),
non-governmental institutions and media experts. However, her
efforts appear to have failed.

-- Martha Warta Silaban

Ex-Kopassus Officer Claims Journalists Murdered in 1975 East Timor Invasion [+Hundreds Attend 'Balibo' Screening

2009-12-08T03:18:00.000Z

The Guardian & Agencies

December 7, 2009

Ex-Indonesia Officer Claims Journalists Murdered in 1975 East
Timor Invasion

Former lieutenant disputes Indonesian government's claim that
Australian-based journalists were killed in crossfire

by Peter Walker and agencies

photo: East Timor's President José Ramos-Horta and actor Oscar
Issac (left) who plays him in the film Balibo. Indonesia has
banned the film about the alleged murders of journalists during
the 1975 invasion of East Timor. HO/AFP/Getty Images

A retired Indonesian army officer who took part in the invasion
of East Timor in 1975 has said that troops deliberately murdered
five Australian-based journalists, an account which contradicts
an official version of events agreed between the countries.

Gatot Purwanto, at the time a special forces lieutenant, told
the magazine Tempo that he was among a vanguard of troops who
crossed from West Timor, an Indonesian province, into the
eastern part of the island, several weeks before the full
invasion of the former Portuguese colony, which had just
declared independence.

The journalists two British nationals working for a
Sydney-based TV channel, cameraman Brian Peters and reporter
Malcolm Rennie; reporter Greg Shackleton and sound recordist
Tony Stewart, from Australia, and cameraman Gary Cunningham, a
New Zealander were shot dead on 16 October 1975 when
Indonesian troops overran the East Timor town of Balibo.

Indonesia's government has always stated that the men were
killed in crossfire as the troops fought pro-independence East
Timorese fighters, a version officially accepted by the
Australian government.

However, human rights activists have long claimed that the men
were tortured and executed to avoid news of the troops'
incursion reaching the outside world. This account is backed by
East Timor's post-independence president, José Ramos-Horta, who
was a rebel commander at the time.

Asked by the magazine if the Indonesian troops had deliberately
killed the journalists, Purwanto replied: "Yes."

He added: "If they had been left alive, they would say it was an
Indonesian invasion." The men's bodies were burned to hide the
evidence, he said.

Australia swiftly backed the invasion of East Timor, fearing
that otherwise the half-island state, one of its closest Asian
neighbours, could be taken over by communists. Critics allege
that successive Australian governments failed to properly
investigate the deaths for fear of upsetting a key regional ally.

This has gradually changed: in October 2007, a New South Wales
coroner ruled that the men were deliberately killed. In
September this year, Australian federal police opened a war
crimes investigation into the case.

The incident has received further publicity from the release
this year of an Australian film, Balibo, which depicts
Indonesian troops stabbing and shooting the unarmed journalists.
At the film's premiere, Ramos-Horta said the actual incident was
considerably more gruesome.

Balibo, which was shot in East Timor, has been banned in
Indonesia.

---------------------------

[note: The below report does not
say where the screening was held]

The Jakarta Post [web site]
December 7, 2009

Hundreds watch “Balibo” screening

Hundreds of people watched the screening of Australian film
Balibo despite the government ban, which tells of the brutal
killing of five foreign journalists during the invasion of then
East Timor in 1975.

After the screening, the viewers attended a public discussion
featuring historian Asvi Warman Adam and former officer Gatot
Purwanto. Gatot was a witness of the incident.

No officers guarded the event, which was mostly attended by
journalists, tempointeraktif.com reported. (ewd)

---

The Sydney Morning Herald
December 8, 2009

Balibo Five Executed, Soldier Admits

by TOM ALLARD

JAKARTA: An Indonesian officer present when five
Australian-based newsmen died in Balibo in 1975 says they were
executed and their bodies burned to hide evidence of the
invasion of East Timor.

The account by Gatot Purwanto, a former Kopassus officer and
intelligence commander in East Timor, is the first time a senior
Indonesian has admitted there was intent behind the killings of
the so-called Balibo Five and the destruction of their bodies.

''If we let them live, they would tell everyone it was an
Indonesian invasion,'' Colonel Purwanto told Tempo magazine.

''If they died and we abandoned them there would be evidence
that they were shot in territory controlled by Indonesian
guerillas. So the simple way was to eliminate everything. We
just claimed not to know anything.''

Colonel Purwanto was a junior officer in a special forces unit
when the five newsmen - Greg Shackleton, Tony Stewart, Gary
Cunningham, Malcolm Rennie and Brian Peters from Channel Nine -
were killed.

The newsmen from the Seven and Nine networks were in the border
town of Balibo to record the secret invasion.

Colonel Purwanto's comments came amid intense interest in the
killing of the newsmen in Indonesia after the banning last week
of the movie Balibo.

The action of the censors ensured an otherwise obscure film
became headline news.

The interview also coincides with an Australian Federal Police
investigation into possible war crimes committed at Balibo.

The investigation is targeting Yunus Yosfiah, the Kopassus
commander who was accused by the NSW coroner in 2007 of ordering
the murders and personally undertaking some of the killings.

Colonel Purwanto's interview is, at times, contradictory and
full of gaps.

He says Jakarta did not approve the killings and that General
Yosfiah is innocent.

He insists that, contrary to the findings of the NSW coroner,
gunfire came from near the building where the five Australians
were being held. This is part of the official Indonesian account
that the men were caught in crossfire.

But Colonel Purwanto repeatedly uses the Indonesian word
dieksekusi - to execute - to describe the deaths and reveals
that the newsmen were ''captured alive''. This contradicts the
Indonesian version of events.

He also talks frankly of the motivations of the Indonesian
forces. ''If they were not executed, they could be witnesses to
the fact that the Indonesian Army had invaded Timor.''

He also tells of the gruesome job of disposing of the bodies to
destroy any evidence that the newsmen had been in Balibo.

President of the Republic receives credentials from Slovakia Ambassador

2009-12-08T03:02:00.000Z

The Head of State, Dr. José Ramos-Horta, receive today the credentials from the Ambassador of Slovakia, Dr. Stefan Rozkopal, in a ceremony held at the Nicolau Lobato Presidential Palace, in Díli.

Dr. Ramos-Horta hailed the “exceptional bilateral relations” between Timor-Leste and Slovakia, which separated from Czechoslovakia in 1992 trough “a pacific transition” remembered as “a tremendous achievement” at the time.

The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate praised his personal dear friend Dr. Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic.

The President highlighted the “need to deepen bilateral relations”, while speaking about the double-digit national economic growth in 2007 and 2008, increasing to eight percent in 2009; “a figure sustainable for the next years”, His Excellency said.

“The Government – of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão – is determined to pursue investment in infrastructure such as a new airport, a port, roads and electricity supply”, added Dr. Ramos-Horta. He insisted on the imperative of “eradicating poverty and illiteracy, in peace and stability”.

Dr. Ramos-Horta sent his regards to President Milan Kucan, to the Government and to the People of Slovakia.

The Slovakia Ambassador, Dr. Stefan Rozkopal, previously worked in Indonesia from 1996 to 2000 as Deputy Chief of Mission and Charge D’Affairs at the Embassy of his country. He is considered an expert on South-East Asian affairs.

Speaking of his country’s split from Czechoslovakia, the diplomat remarked that that in just 17 years Slovakia as been granted membership to the European Union, NATO and the Organization foe Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

Ambassador Rozkopal said that the industrialization achieved by Slovakia is “an example of the possibilities open to the Timorese People”.

At the level of bilateral co-operation, the diplomat commended the work of the Slovak medical team in the mountains of Timor-Leste.

Dr. Rozkopal has a Masters degree in South-East Asian studies from the prestigious Moscow State Institute of International Relations. He speaks fluent Bahasa Indonesia, English, Russian, German and Polish.

Ambassador Rozkopal will conduct his diplomatic duties vis-à-vis Timor-Leste from Jakarta.

TLGov: Government receives Vote of Confidence

2009-10-14T03:08:00.000+01:00

REPÚBLICA DEMOCRÁTICA DE TIMOR-LESTE
IV CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT
MEDIA RELEASE Díli- October 12, 2009

Statement
By
The Spokesperson of the IV Constitutional Government,
The Secretary of State for the Council of Ministers

Government receives Vote of Confidence

Yesterday marked a new era for the democratic systems in the young seven-year old Nation- State of Timor-Leste.

The Prime Minister, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão, once again demonstrated his commitment to national leadership by willingly engaging in a ten hour frank and open debate over a ten hour period, responding to a Vote of no Confidence introduced by Fretilin.

The debate was broadcast live on television and radio, reaching out to the Nation and aired as far as Indonesia. The Prime Minister patiently listened to the criticisms and demands for explanation; and in turn, responded by providing as much information as parliamentary time permitted.

The Prime Minister reiterated the fact that the public debate, which was an open and transparent process, was a sign of great progress for the nation. During the era of the Former Government, it was extremely rare for the former Prime Minister and Members of Government to accede to respond to routine question time; using the absolute majority in Parliament to kill any move to censure Alkatiri’s Government.

The Prime Minister also reminded Opposition that although the report by the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) “Chega!” had been referred to the National Parliament in November 2005, no initiative was taken to debate and implement the recommendations by the former Government.

For the first time, Xanana Gusmão recounted the consultative process in the Bere case which included all the major office holders of the State; The President of the Republic, the Acting President of Court of Appeal (Natércia Gusmão), the Public Prosecutor General and the leader of the main opposition party, Mr Mari Alkatiri.

Gusmão described the public censure as ‘political opportunism’ on a matter that was deeply sensitive to the Timorese, “Political opportunism is perhaps the most powerful temptation of all in politics: it is very difficult to fight against a trend that is inherent to man, mostly to his smallness and his frailty before ideas and policies that are much stronger and much better prepared.”

Prime Minister, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão, provided the Nation with his vision for the future with an honest and clear –cut approach to politics based on the fundamental national interests which echoed in the hearts and minds of the people.

Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão, once again, proved his commitment to his People and to the Nation. The public debate served to build confidence in the IV Constitutional Government and in the end, the Gusmão Government received resounding support by National Parliament.

ENDS

For More Information Please Contact: Ágio Pereira +670 723 0011; E-mail:
agiopereira@cdm.gov.tl

President of the Republic receives credentials from Israel and Canada Ambassadors

2009-10-12T07:17:00.000+01:00

The Head of State, Dr. José Ramos-Horta, received today the credentials from two new Ambassadors to the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (RDTL), of Israel and Canada, in a ceremony held at the Palace Nicolau Lobato, in Díli.

The Israeli Ambassador, Mrs. Amira Arnon, on behalf of President Shimon Peres and the Israeli People transmitted the best wishes to Dr. Ramos-Horta and the Timorese People.

The Timorese President emphasized the significance of the relations between Israel and RDTL, from the first day of the reestablishment of Independence.

The Nobel Peace Prize Laureate reaffirmed the “danger of nuclear weapons in Middle East” and evoked the call of the US President, Mr. Barack Obama, to total denuclearization.

Dr.Ramos-Horta defended the thesis of “two States” – the Israeli and the Palestinian – in the region, as the unique solution “to achieve peace and democracy” in Middle East.

The Israeli Ambassador holds a Bachelor Arts degree in International Relations, from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem. She holds also a Masters degree in Political Sciences – National Defense, from the Haifa University.

Ambassador Arnon attended a Young Diplomats special program on Middle Eastern Affairs, from the University of Jerusalem, as well as the Military College for National Defense – Israel.

In November 1970, she joined the Foreign Office. Since 1996, the diplomat worked at the UN, New York, Nepal, Turkey, Guatemala and the Balkans (Macedonia, Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina).

In 2009, Mrs. Arnon assumed the post of Ambassador to Singapore and non-resident Ambassador to the RDTL.

The Canadian Ambassador, Mr. Mackenzie Clugston, underlined the RDTL “capacity building” and congratulated the President and the Timorese People.

Dr. Ramos-Horta said he is grateful for the “solidarity” received from Canada since 1999 and mentioned the Canadian officials and police performance under the UN flag.

The Timorese Head of State said Canada is one of the most important contributors to UN and censured the slowness of the reform of the organization, despite the major changes occurred during the last decade in the world.

Mr. Mackenzie Clugston, considered one of the top diplomats of his country, is an expert on East Asian Affairs, with specialization on Japan.

Ambassador Clugston joined the Foreign Service in 1982 and worked in Japan in four different positions: as public affairs officer (1985), trade commissioner (1997), general consul in Osaka (2000) and deputy head of mission (2003).

Graduated from Trent University, master in Public Administration from Queen’s University, Ambassador Glugston speaks fluently English, French and Japanese. The diplomat will cover Timor-Leste from Jakarta.

The ceremony ended with the usual protocol change of gifts.

PPS - Díli, 08OCT-09

President of the Republic meets UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon in NY

2009-09-28T02:04:00.002+01:00

The President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, Dr. José Ramos-Horta, meets on Monday morning the UN Secretary General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon, in his office, in the headquarters of the organization, New York.

This meeting is open to the accredited journalists willing to cover it.

Mid morning, Dr. Ramos-Horta meets Dr. Chung Kwak (Chairman), Dr. Thomas Wash (Secretary General) and Mr. Taj Hamad (Director), of the Universal Peace Federation, at the Timor-Leste Mission.

H.E. meets afterwards Mr. Garry Allen, from the Christian Mission for the UN Community.

In the afternoon, Dr. Ramos-Horta attends the UN general debate: the Timorese Foreign Affairs Minister, Dr. Zacarias da Costa, is the 18th speaker.

The Timorese Head of State leaves to Boston on Tuesday.

PPS - Díli, 27SET09 (to the 28th )

Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste

Presidency of the Republic

José H. Meirelles

Int. Relations/Media Senior Advisor

Nicolau Lobato Palace

Aitarak-Lara, Díli, Timor-Leste

PBX : +670-333-9999

Mobile: +670-751-6413

assessor.relintmedia.pr.rdtl@gmail.com

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ETAN looks forward to your support. Go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm to donate. Thank you.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

Portugal grants 100 million-euro credit line for projects in East Timor [ 2009-09-22 ]

2009-09-24T10:19:00.000+01:00

Dili, East Timor, 22 Sept – The Portuguese government has granted a 100 million-euro credit line to East Timor for projects to be chosen by the East Timor government.

The initial amount of the Aid Credit Line may be increased up to 500 million euros according to a memorandum signed Monday in Dili

The credit line is for funding infrastructure investment projects in East Timor with the participation of Portuguese companies, especially small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), in the areas of energy, transport and communications, health and education.

The two sides also signed a memorandum on double taxation, the convention of which is due to be signed by the end of January 2010, as both East Timor and Portugal consider it important to fight tax evasion and to stimulate private enterprise and create a favourable business climate.

A third memorandum also signed Monday created a technical cooperation programme which includes a visit by technicians from the Portuguese Finance Ministry in October.

The governments of Portugal and East Timor in September signed the Indicative Cooperation Program (PIC) for the next four years, estimated at 60 million euros.

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PT unveils plans for Timor Telecom

2009-09-24T10:16:00.000+01:00

Portugal Telecom (PT) has announced it plans to increase investment in Timor-Leste and develop new projects to help make the island one of the most developed countries in the region in terms of telecommunications, reports Portuguese daily Jornal de Negocios. PT holds a majority stake in Timor Telecom (TT), which holds a monopoly on the telecoms sector in Timor-Leste, having assumed the risk of investing in the country's non-existent infrastructure and creating its telecoms systems from scratch. PT's plans include a project to connect Timor to a high speed data network via a submarine cable linking the island to Australia, Asia and Europe; the launch of community information centres to increase access to the internet; expansion of 3G coverage to all urban areas; increasing population coverage to 90% in the next four years; and raising TT's total subscriber base to 300,000 by the end of the year. Executive chairman of the Portuguese group, Zeinal Bava, has scheduled meetings with the Timorese authorities and shareholders of Timor Telecom (TT), in what will be his first visit to the island. TT provides both fixed and mobile services to around 220,000 customers and says it provides wireless network coverage to 68% of the population.

http://www.telegeography.com/cu/article.php?article_id=30207&email=html

etanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetanetan

ETAN looks forward to your support. Go to http://etan.org/etan/donate.htm to donate. Thank you.

John M. Miller, National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network (ETAN)
PO Box 21873, Brooklyn, NY 11202-1873 USA
Phone: +1-718-596-7668 Mobile phone: +1-917-690-4391
Email john@etan.org Skype: john.m.miller

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Zacarias da Costa announces

2009-09-24T10:15:00.000+01:00

Timor-Leste has become the last Government to officially deposit the instruments of accession to the ozone protection treaties, making the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer the most adhered agreements in the history of the United Nations with 196 participating States.

“We are very pleased to be joining hands with the rest of the world in the fight against the depletion of the ozone layer and the effort towards its recovery.” Dr Zacarias da Costa said

Foreign Minister Da Costa added “Timor - Leste is proud to contribute to the global efforts of the international community to protect the Earth’s protective shield and very happy to be instrumental in achieving the universal participation in the ozone treaties.”

Though over 97% of controlled ozone-depleting substances have already been phased-out, the work by the Parties is far from over. The end of 2009 will mark another significant milestone in the history of the implementation of the Montreal Protocol – all the developing countries will completely stop the use of the major ozone-depleting substances such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

Foreign Minister Dr Zacarias da Costa indicated that:”Timor Leste will participate as the newest member of the ozone family in the coming Meeting of the Parties in Egypt in November”. This historic meeting will be the first to bring together the highest number ever of participating States under an international environmental protection treaty”.

CFCs are being replaced with alternatives that include hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), which will also be phased out in the near future; its alternatives include hydrofluorocarbons (HCFs), which, however, have a high global warming potential and are therefore not good for climate protection.

For the last few years, the Parties to the Montreal Protocol have been exploring possibilities and alternatives to HCFCs that minimize global warming and other impacts on the environment as well as meeting other health, safety and economic considerations.

Minister Da Costa also said that “As these efforts intensify, it is our hope that the Parties to the Montreal Protocol will make significant contribution to climate protection after 2010. Indeed, the ozone-climate protection nexus is likely to be the next main challenge to the implementation of the Montreal Protocol as CFCs and other ozone-depleting substances are terminally phased-out.”

“We undertake to implement and comply with the Montreal Protocol like all other states that preceded us in this important journey We are doing this in solidarity with the international community from which we expect support in the implementation of the Montreal Protocol. .” Minister Zacarias said

For more information please contact:
Maria-Gabriela Carrascalao H
Media Advisor
Ministerio dos Negocios Estrangeiros

Tel: +61- 417 050 754

Email : maria.heard@mne.gov.tl or
mgabrielacarrascalaoh@gmail.com