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East Timor News Digest 4 - February 10-23, 2003
Jakarta Post - February 19, 2003
Jakarta -- Former foreign minister Ali Alatas said on Wednesday
that the offer of secession from Indonesia to the East Timorese
in the UN-organized ballot in August 1999 was a "premature"
decision of (former) president B.J.Habibie's government.
"The forwarding of this second option was a 'premature'
decision," Ali, as a witness, told the East Timor human rights
tribunal here where former chief of 164 Wira Dharma Regional
Military Command Brig.
Gen. Tono Suratman appeared as a defendant. As quoted by Antara,
Ali Alatas said the second option, which paved the way for East
Timor to separate from Indonesia after a majority of the
plebiscite's voters rejected Jakarta's offer of wide-ranging
autonomy, should never have been offered.
Habibie, he said, had no right to issue the second option because
he should first have obtained approval from the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR). "I and the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs disagreed with the second option but [my] department's
view was a minority one in the Cabinet," he said.
He added he had suggested the government at the time remain
consistent with the offered wide-ranging autonomy by making
diplomatic efforts to convince the East Timorese people and world
community.
In 1998, Indonesia was gripped by a political and economic crisis
and was strongly pressured by the world community to quickly
resolve the East Timor question.
Reuters - February 12, 2003
Canberra -- The United Nations and Australia agreed it was too
early to withdraw peacekeepers from East Timor after riots in
December but its police must be strengthened so they can take
over from troops, Prime Minister John Howard said.
Howard said after meeting UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New
York Tuesday Australia may offer East Timor more help to improve
its police force.
About 1,000 Australian peacekeepers are serving in the former
Indonesian territory, which gained independence following a
bloody 1999 UN-sponsored vote.
"We both agreed that whilst it would be undesirable to have a
premature withdrawal, the main area of improvement would have to
be in that of domestic policing," Howard told reporters in New
York according to a transcript released Wednesday in Canberra.
"You can't forever use peacekeepers as domestic police and it's a
misunderstanding of their role to think you should."
Two people were killed and 25 injured in December when a mob of
up to 800 youths went on a rampage, besieging parliament and
torching the home of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.
The mob also looted and burned several other buildings including
an Australian-owned guest house and supermarket before finally
being dispersed by UN peacekeepers and police.
The violence was the worse since East Timor became independent
last May. A vote to break away from Indonesia and become
independent in 1999 was followed by a bloody backlash in which
about 1,000 people were killed.
Howard said Australia would consider expanding the role of the
Australian Federal Police, who have helped the nation train its
police.
"If we thought it was going to make a material difference we'd
have a look at it," the prime minister said.
The United Nations, which ran the country between the referendum
and independence, still has responsibility for the security and
police forces.
Transition & reconstruction
West Timor/refugees
Timor Gap
Justice & reconciliation
Human rights trials
News & issues
Health & education
International solidarity
Economy & investment
East Timor media monitoring
Independence struggle
Timor independence option was 'premature decision': Alatas
Transition & reconstruction
UN peacekeepers to stay in East Timor: Australia
The riot of 4 December 2002: who is to blame?
East Timor - December 2002
Joco Boavida -- The riot of 4 December 2002 took residents of Dili and news listeners and watchers worldwide by surprise for the extent of anger and violence that suddenly erupted and vanished in so short a time. Literally, in the twinkling of an eye, an estimated crowd of one thousand people took to the streets of Dili burning and looting, sending visitors scrambling for flight out of East Timor and top executive members rushing for secured hiding places, leaving a helpless public in a state of shock and surprise.
The target half or fully destroyed was selective and telling: The parliament house, government vehicles and motorbikes, Prime Minister's private home and his relatives', the mosque, the affluent "Hallo Mister" supermarket, two leading hotels namely Lorosa'e and Timor, few clothing and appliances stores to name but a few. It is noteworthy that equally accessible and vulnerable to looting, though untargeted, were public markets and street-side vending stalls owned and run by locals.
Whatever reason lies behind the event, the riot of 4 December requires a deeper reading, one that shifts from mere concerns about finding who is to blame to the interpretation of the intricacies of an unresolved past politics of the occupation and resistance including the failures of the defunct UNTAET. The timing of the riot came through too soon in the post-independence period and the degree of violence was so chilling, that to point at the government as the reason for the riot or to reproach any local group for the event may perhaps sound too naive. In fact, blaming local identity groups for the riot is to do the former UNTAET administration an unprecedented favour out of mere political ignorance and misjudgement.
In a short paper as this greater detailed discussion has its limitation. However it is hopeful that this paper somewhat contributes to providing the reader a different outlook of the protests and to influence those concerned not to take the "bottle-lid" approach as UNTAET did to problem solving, as discussed below, but a conciliatory and open dialogue approach to events and issues with prospects for conflict. The arguments put forward in this paper build on informal interviews and the writer's own interpretation and observation of the situation as it has developed thus far.
Background
The violent protest of 4 December culminated a series of protests that took place during the six-month period as of the end of mission of UNTAET in 20 May 2002. During that brief period of six months East Timorese witnessed in Dili over 30 popular protests, setting an average of 5 protests monthly, save demonstrations, riots and roadblocks that took place in Liquica, Bobonaro, Baucau and Viqueque to name few districts. This is too much of a contradiction to give UNTAET a good reason for its claim of success.
Identity groups including CPD-RDTL, ex-Falintil combatants, university students, school students, ex-Indonesian public servants, border control officers, judges, workers, officials of rapid intervention unit, street-side-wanderers, each with their own motives have marched on the government palace shouting their pains of the current situation. Reasons commonly mentioned include unemployment, favouritism, and high university fee, police recruitment of ex-combatants, pension fees, employment and economic discontent.
A deeper reading of the protests however suggests that frustrations with the government, its structure and performance stem from popular disappointment manifested during the transitional administration of UNTAET and the motive was that the administration only favoured the participation of a handful of political players in the transitional process to the exclusion of the wider society. Additional reason claimed during that time was that UNTAET had simply ignored to consolidate the political space by not embarking upon the mopping of a chaotic political past and national reconstruction of infrastructures in the interest of the public. Illustrative of this is a popular catchphrase commonly expressed during the transitional administration, which goes: "... husik ba sira goza, ONU fila mak sira hare..." or "... let them be happy, they will see when UN has gone home...". (My translation).
UNTAET had smartly played the devil's trick on East Timorese by taking the "bottle-lid" approach to avoiding solving problems of political nature during its 19-month-period of administration (October 1999 May 2002). The "bottle-lid" approach refers to the technique UNTAET used for containing popular discontent and preventing it from spilling over in greater scale by keeping the top elite entertained with some cosmetic partnership consultation an approach that UNTAET used it close to perfection. With the departure of UNTAET, the mysterious hand that held the lid also vanished and the expected explosion followed giving way to the gradual build up of street crowds that culminated in the riot of 4 December 2002.
From optimism to pessimism
East Timorese in general were optimist that the end of Indonesian military occupation would mean a better house, a school or university for themselves or their children, a first paid job, a first pair of shoes, a plate of food and a roof of their own. Such was popular expectation and hope gained during the years of occupation, hopes that were also the source of strength and courage, which fueled the spirit of resistance for over 20 years.
However, after nineteen months of UN transitional administration and six months of independence, the much awaited social and economic benefits of ukun rasik an, or independence remain a dream not a reality. As hope fades out and optimism gives way to pessimism, frustration and disillusion have taken crowds to the streets to make public their pain. Youths in particular those who could afford travel expenses have opted for a quiet way of protest: over 500 of them have left the country in search of socio-economic opportunities in England, Ireland and elsewhere leaving behind their loved ones hoping that one day their own fortunes would improve because of the salaries earned in those countries. Others have gone back to Indonesia the country of the government they had fought in the first place, to join their relatives, friends or to pursue their studies. Many have gone quiet feeling useless and hopeless and trapped in their homes because of the lack of cash for internal transport and travel expenses.
As for the majority, the business of rural subsistence remains unchanged by the situation. The rural majority show a mixed feeling of indifference, misery and frustration when talking about the national government. They see themselves as not being affected by the national decisions but where local politics is concerned they are well aware of where, how and to whom the government resources or "projects" are allocated. As for instance a Senhor Antonio, an ex-political prisoner who lives in a rural sub-district of Baucau when asked about his opinion on the benefits of independence his reply was somewhat ironic: "Have UN people gone back? ... I have not been to Dili ... to see independence ... I was born a farmer, and I will die as farmer. I do not expect the decisions of central government to affect my life of a farmer for better or for worse ... Ask those who benefit from government projects what they think of independence". (My translation)
Meanwhile, the degree of violence countrywide is increasing at an alarming rate. Roadblocks, street fights, burning, police- civilian clash, youth intra-groups fighting, cattle thieving, house-break-ins have become the order of the day. Worse still, paramilitary groups seem to have found a niche in several western districts and their attacks on local communities have claimed so far six lives and several injured.
UNTAET
UNTAET had put too much premium on and rushed East Timorese toward multi-party elections without giving political groups much time to consolidate their structure and to formulate substantial policy alternatives for the electorate to chose. Whilst UNTAET excluded local population from participating in the transitional process, under local pressure, it established the National Consultative Council (NCC), which then expanded into the National Council (NC) and which like NCC; their existence was to provide a fig leaf of legitimacy to the "authoritarian rule of the SRSG".
UNTAET left crucial questions about the character of and issues of potential conflict inherited from the politics of past occupation and resistance unquestioned and unmanaged. Questions include social and economic reintegration of ex-Falintil combatants and ex-political prisoners, CPD-RDTL, support scheme for war widows and orphans, management of elite fragmentation following the extinction of CNRT, program to control and to assemble handguns scattered throughout the country, vigorous modernizing bureaucrats as opposed to specialized offices minus specialized skills, to name a few.
In avoiding local politics, UNTAET failed to penetrate the thirteen districts and left them at the mercy of a highly centralized system of administration it had created, which only helped to distance the districts further from Dili. Indeed, during the period of nineteen months, UNTAET seemed to administer East Timor out of a fictitious ivory tower as if it was ruling a colony of unknown and backward subjects who lacked a culture, a social structure and a history.
An effective bureaucracy presupposes and requires well-informed, experienced and vigorous professional experts. For many so-called UNTAET international staffs experience and expertise became an overnight achievement as long as they were 500 kilometres away from home and spoke a language foreign to locals. Yet, some came as restaurant chefs, tourists and backpackers and through the patronage pervading in the system, they were recruited and trusted with the most sophisticated and specialized job of leading East Timor and its people to democracy.
As UNTAET officials soon learnt that the workings of local politics were after all not as simple as they had expected, multi-party elections suddenly became the mission's overnight main objective thus an ideal strategy for a successful exit ensued. The well-informed citizens knew only too well that as East Timorese went to the polling stations, the first independent government of East Timor was about to inherit a myriad of unresolved problems from past and contemporary politics including the politics of UNTAET. As I approached one of the polling boots in town on the multi-party Election Day in August 2001, I overheard someone in the queue saying: "Ita ba hili maka ne'e, maibe se los maka hatene sa problema de'it maka ONU sira sei husik hela mai ita ..." or 'We are going to vote now but who knows for sure the kind of problems we are about to inherit from UNTAET..." (My translation).
The result of the ballots put in place a majority democracy in preference to a consensus democracy. The latter political option would have been an ideal starting point for building East Timor nation and state in this particular phase of democratisation. This option would have diffused power throughout members of the executive and the different groups formal or informal an ideal approach to minimize any negative effects of elite fragmentation, if a stable democratisation was to be secured.
The government
The country's current economic setting is illustrative of a pre- industrial society without a single base of manufacturing and processing of goods, let alone a single exploited commodity for export-earnings. The rumours go that the apparent cash affluence in Dili originates largely from a pyramid of black-market profiteers found across the border in West Timor that truck in soft drinks, clove-cigarettes, cooking ingredients and construction materials and subsequently sold at high prices in kiosks throughout the country, including cash replenishing the street-foreign-currency-exchange. In the short-term, this is beneficial to the many that have no access to state resources, but in the long-term, its cumulative impact will prove negative to efforts of building a national economy.
Against such economic backdrop, the government shoulders two enormous tasks and both are equally challenging and ambiguous. First task is how to meet the needs of a highly demanding society in a period of acute shortages perhaps a demand deserving acknowledgment given the history of 25 years of popular pain. The second task is the challenge of administering a newly born pre- industrial country with and through the pockets of foreign donors. The first task could push the government to make several and repetitive mistakes over the time for the sheer pressure of continuous popular demand on the one hand, and the situational advantage taken by potential spoiling groups or individuals on the other hand. The second task is equally complex. As seen in most third world countries, poor wage employment coupled with limited resources and underprovided job opportunities in private sectors have meant that the state has become an important source of mining resources and public offices have become an unique opportunity for personal enrichment. Indeed, in situations of short supply and uneven distribution of resources, corruption could inevitably become endemic in and outside of public departments.
It is my view that the government own political survival will depend largely on how well or bad the executive will respond to these two challenges. Below is a list of selected issues and themes offering potential scenarios in formation, with respective brief discussions for their political importance as being areas that will meet head-on with the government as it undertakes the two stated tasks above:
Scenario 1: Government and state-building
State building in its first stage presupposes the capacity of the government to reach out to the electorate countrywide for public confidence building. Popular respect for and trust in the government, as seen elsewhere, often come through the capacity of the leadership to stand and deliver towards building and securing a welfare state, where community basic needs are met through the implementation of existing public policies. This requires a degree of decentralization of the executive power, so that authorities at periphery or district levels have more room and flexibility to take initiatives as well as to lead and to take decisions.
Scenario 2: Government and public policy
It has become apparent that so far, the government has not been capable to implement its policy countrywide, let alone the implementation or the enforcement of this, of regulations approved thus far by the legislative. Obviously, this is a slow- moving process but nonetheless bureaucratic centralization, limited skills and capacity, and lack of districts penetration are perhaps the main inhibiting obstacles as identified in this starting-off period. Lessons learnt elsewhere show that factors such as the misuse of state resources and inflated bureaucracies coupled with those already mentioned could also contribute to inhibiting the state capacity of policy implementation. Where and when this situation becomes obvious the implementation of public policy vegetates and the designing process persists more as an exercise of public relations to justify and maintain the flow of foreign aid, a well known practice in some third world countries.
Scenario 3: Government and bureaucracy
The government has taken over from UNTAET the established bureaucratic machinery well furnished with specialized offices but with poor and underprovided specialized staffs and skills. Once such bureaucratic machinery has attempted to run its full course, it will in time jam somewhere along the process leaving the districts at the mercy of inattention, as Dili becomes the only and central focus of interest. This fact will be made worse by the relatively oversized number of top level executive (ministers, vice-ministers and state secretaries totalling over 20) because initiatives at the middle management not to mention lower levels will be likely repressed, modus operandi will be tightly complied and delegated authority will be out of question. Other detrimental possibility as has happened elsewhere in third world political cultures, higher-ranking officers feel obliged to return the favours of their relatives, friends, political groups and business partners. In this scenario, bureaucracy is likely to result in stagnation for its very inefficiency and extravagancy.
Scenario 4: State and party
The apparent fusion of state and party is not advisable if an effective and autonomous state leadership is to be encouraged and developed. For example, few top executive officials concomitantly hold key party posts. In the short-term, this blurred division between state and party can repress the decentralization of power while in the long term it will create a credibility gap due to poor and biased performance of officials concerned. Furthermore, this unclear dividing line between the state and party could generate unnecessary confusion as to where the state authority lies: with the government or with the party.
Scenario 5: Government, ex-Falintil combatants and CPD-RDTL
This love-hate triangular affair has naturally developed over the time, and it is here to stay with or without a third party's initiative and effort to overcome whatever ideological and political differences the trio has. A similar situation was found in Mozambique and Angola and both countries provide a good case in point. The government can find in members of both ex-Falintil and CPD-RDTL a good partner just as it can also find in them a cruel opponent, depending on how the relationship will progress over the time.
Nevertheless, it is in the interest of the public that any serious political fisti-cuffs are to be contained and peacefully managed but for this to be possible, a program for the social and economic reintegration of ex-combatants must be a reality in both planning and implementation. Once ex-combatants have their needs met, CPD-RDTL will have less room for further manoeuvrings. However, in such situations a solution to one group often means a problem to other groupings that is, new problems of other nature will emerge and different groups will claim their share in the equation.
Scenario 6: Executive, legislative and judiciary
The executive is currently enjoying and taking for granted the support of a disciplined Fretilin majority in the legislative assembly this is an expected natural outcome of the working of majority democracy, as long as the assembly remains conscious and alert of the fact that one of its multifunctions is to check on the power of the executive. To encourage that the assembly remains committed to that function and to many others, one important factor is to have a strong and independent judiciary system. Otherwise, the situation as it stands, when coupled with a weak legal system it will provide the executive a greater concentration of power.
Scenario 7: Government and subsistence system
It sounds rather clumsy to discuss "subsistence system" rather than economic system. The reason is that subsistence system still largely determines the livelihood of East Timorese countrywide. In the current system of subsistence, production, consumption and investment, let alone income, spending and saving as they are understood and practiced in the modern market-economy, are still foreign in theory and practice to almost all households nationwide. The kind and level of quantity and quality of consumer spending are just not there to act as the pull and push factor needed to affect investment, employment and general prosperity. As already mentioned, essential goods that are shipped in or trucked in from neighbouring countries, lacking price-fixing, are sold at extremely high prices that even those who are formally employed in private and public sectors complain about the fact. This reality indeed places the government in a very weak position from which to attempt an economic development.
Conclusion
The state has yet to penetrate the social fabric of the wider community; in the countryside, it is true that the government has little or no focus of attention. As Senhor Antonio has pointed out independence has come to Dili but he has not been to Dili to see it just as he was not sure if UNTAET had left the country or was still in Dili. Freedom that came with independence has yet to bring along social and economic rewards to the majority. Youths continue to leave the country in search of the benefits of independence and freedom elsewhere. The remaining majority will keep demanding their price of resistance and their piece of the independence cake. Looting and burning are not an ideal means through which to make one's frustration public. Likewise, multi- party elections cannot solve serious problems of economic poverty nor they can provide solutions to social and political inequalities. Political independence and social freedom arrived but who is to blame for the absence of economic prosperity, so remains the question. As long as expectations and hopes remain, East Timorese can only blame themselves for having left the defunct UNTAET get away with its failures and unmet social and political obligations.
References
[Joco Boavida is a freelance consultant and a part-time lecturer in Comparative Political Systems. He has worked with International Non-Government Organizations (INGOs) and International UN Agencies including UNDP and UNESCO in Malawi, Tanzania, England, Mozambique and Greece. He has served as Political Officer for the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET), as Political Advisor for United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid (OCHA), and as Political/Constitutional Affairs Officer and Civic Education Officer for the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET).]
| West Timor/refugees |
Melbourne Age Editorial - February 18, 2003
East Timorese asylum seekers have a special case to be allowed to stay in Australia.
Last month more than 1000 East Timorese asylum seekers, some of whom have been in Australia for more than a decade, received notice from the Federal Government that they had 28 days to leave the country or be deported. Their applications for permanent residency had been rejected and the Government says they will only able to continue to stay in this country until they have exhausted the appeals process.
In the meantime, the mayors of Yarra, Moonee Valley, Brimbank, Maribyrnong and Dandenong have taken up the cause of the East Timorese who, they say, have become valued members of their local communities. The Government has sought to justify its action on the grounds that the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees no longer considers the East Timorese to be refugees.
But to focus on the technical status of these people is to miss the broader picture. Some of the affected East Timorese are children who were either born in this country or who have spent most of their lives here. The adults, who fled to Australia to escape the brutal conditions at home, have had to overcome trauma and adjust to a new language and society while all the time living with prolonged uncertainty about their citizenship status. The prospect of deportation now adds to their suffering. Many of the East Timorese say they have little or nothing to return to. Once more they must set aside their immediate past and start afresh. After spending years away from East Timor, the question of where home is for these people becomes a legitimate question.
Lawyers for the East Timorese say many members of the community would have qualified as refugees if their applications had been processed more efficiently. The Federal Government in turn has sought to blame the Timorese themselves for their drawn-out quest for permanent residency. It has argued that the East Timorese had automatic rights to Portuguese residency during the Indonesian occupation of East Timor; but the Federal Court found against this claim in three cases in 1997, 1998 and 2000. On the weekend, former Liberal minister Marie Tehan criticised the Government's handling of asylum seekers generally. She argued, rightly, that those detainees who passed the initial assessment procedures should be given a permanent protection visa, not a temporary visa set to expire in three years.
The East Timorese facing deportation provide a sorry example of what can happen when claims are not dealt with expeditiously. Australia's pride in helping East Timor achieve independence must now be tempered by our unwillingness to let these people stay. Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock may believe that, in the interests of consistency, exceptions should not be made for the East Timorese. But there are strong arguments -- historical, political and cultural -- that this community constitutes a special case. It is time to bend the rules.
| Timor Gap |
Wold Socialist Web Site - February 7, 2003
John Ward and Peter Symonds -- The Australian government is deliberately delaying the signing of an agreement with East Timor, known as the Timor Sea Treaty, as a means of blackmailing the small, newly independent country into conceding a greater share of off-shore oil and gas reserves to Canberra.
The treaty, which was agreed last May, was due to be ratified by both sides by the end of last year. The East Timorese parliament carried out its side of the bargain and formally approved the document in December. Australia still has not. As a result, contracts potentially worth billions of dollars are being placed in jeopardy, threatening the main source of revenue for the impoverished half-island.
Even though a parliamentary committee recommended ratification, the treaty was not presented to the Australian parliament in the final session last year. Parliament resumed sitting this week but it is still not clear when, or even if, the treaty will be finalised. A spokesman for Foreign Minister Alexander Downer indicated that the legislation had been drawn up and "would be passed reasonably quickly". But he refused to offer "a strict timeframe," pleading the vagaries of the parliamentary process.
The delay, however, has nothing to do with parliamentary procedure. The Howard government has tied the treaty's ratification to a satisfactory deal with East Timor on what is known as the International Unitisation Agreement (IUA)-a rather pompous title for unsavoury haggling over the division of the substantial oil and gas reserves not covered by the treaty.
The complexities of the process all stem from the ambitions of successive governments in Canberra to control the lion's share of the Timor Sea oil and gas. East Timor only reluctantly agreed to the unfavourable terms in the present treaty, which includes key elements of Australia's previous arrangement with Indonesia. Under the 1989 Timor Gap Treaty, the Suharto dictatorship allocated much of the seabed wealth to Australia in return for Canberra's formal recognition of Indonesia's military takeover of East Timor in 1975.
The current treaty maintains the joint development zone established by Indonesia and Australia. The Howard government has made great play of its offer to provide East Timor with 90 percent of the revenue from this zone, which includes the Bayu Undan field. But most of a far larger field-Greater Sunrise-lies outside the joint development zone and, if the terms of the 1989 treaty were maintained, would go to Australia.
East Timor has insisted that the border between the two countries be set according to the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) not the 1989 agreement. If the border were set according to UNCLOS principles then most of Greater Sunrise and other smaller deposits would fall to East Timor. The "unitisation" talks are a bid to settle the division of the Greater Sunrise reserves.
The Australian government clearly believes that it is on shaky ground as far as international law is concerned. Last March Canberra suddenly announced that it would no longer submit to maritime border rulings by the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. Instead, the Howard government is trying to bully East Timor into submission with its delaying tactics which threaten to undermine commercial projects.
The East Timorese administration is desperate for the revenue from the $US3.5 billion development of the Bayu-Undan field planned by ConocoPhillips. The US-based oil corporation signed a heads of agreement in December 2001 with the Tokyo Electric Power Corporation and Tokyo Gas Corporation to buy most of the output of liquefied gas. But this preliminary agreement will expire on March 11 unless Australia ratifies the Timor Sea Treaty, calling the whole project into question.
Even if ConocoPhillips retains its Japanese customers in what is a highly competitive market, the delay will compromise the construction schedule. The second stage of the project, which is estimated to take three years, is due to be completed by January 2006 in time to begin shipments to Japan. East Timor, which has very few sources of income, is expected to receive some $3 billion in revenue from the Bayu-Undan field over the course of its projected 17-year operation.
The delay in ratifying the treaty and concluding the IUA talks also undermines the consortium seeking to exploit the larger Greater Sunrise field which is expected to have a life of 50 years and to be worth some $20 billion in government royalties. The group of companies-Australian-based Woodside Petroleum, Santos and Royal Dutch Shell-is yet to sign up major customers, in part because the formal arrangements between Australia and East Timor are not concluded.
East Timorese officials flew to Canberra for talks on the IUA agreement beginning on January 21 but the discussions rapidly broke up without agreement. "We were shown the door for reasons which we frankly don't understand," Jonathan Morrow, coordinator of Dili's Timor Sea office, told the British-based Guardian newspaper. "Australia has the opportunity to demonstrate that it is not trying to extract unfair concessions from this new country. It has the power of life and death over East Timor."
The Howard government figures that it has East Timor over a barrel. If the oil and gas projects are significantly delayed or even put on hold, a number of Australian corporations may suffer financially and the Northern Territory, where gas-processing plants for the Bayu-Undan project will be built, would also be hit. But for East Timor the loss of income would be a disaster.
East Timor's entire government budget for 2002 was just $77 million, half of which came from foreign aid and a trickle of money from oil and gas. Estimates of unemployment are as high as 80 percent. Even with a poverty rate set at just 50 US cents a day, a UN survey in 2001 found that 60 percent of people living in rural areas were living below the poverty line. Education and health services are very limited.
Even the Guardian felt compelled to comment: "The spectacle of someone large and powerful picking on a weak and desperate neighbour passes as bullying in the average playground. International politics, however, has a better name for it: diplomacy... The subject of Canberra's latest round with the knuckle-punch and Chinese burn is the most famous bastardised kid in the Asia-Pacific playground. East Timor, less than a year old and struggling to escape from the effects of its 25-year occupation by Indonesia, has got in a fight with its powerful southern neighbour over those most coveted of commodities, oil and gas."
Negotiations between Australian and East Timorese officials are continuing behind the scenes. It is quite possible that Canberra will bully Dili into accepting its terms in time for parliament to ratify the Timor Sea Treaty and meet the March 11 deadline. But the entire affair demonstrates, once again, that the Howard government's deployment of Australian troops to East Timor in 1999 had nothing to do with any concern for the East Timorese people. It was guided by the preoccupation of successive Australian governments since 1975-control over Timor Sea oil and gas.
| Justice & reconciliation |
Melbourne Age - February 15, 2003
Jill Jolliffe, Dili -- A small group of East Timorese ex- prisoners listens, transfixed, to the text of the UN's 1987 Convention on Torture.
For the first time they learn that the people who tortured them are considered criminals. The listeners break into broad smiles and give thumbs-up signals.
Between them they represent years of imprisonment and violence. Two women of different generations have been gang-raped by Indonesian soldiers, one in 1977, the other in 1997. Most have suffered electric shocks under interrogation, some have had fingernails torn out and one has had his head split open with a machete.
They arrived at this three-day workshop for survivors of torture with an air of suspicion, but learned that sharing experiences was liberating.
Psychotherapist Viet Nguyen-Gilham, of the International Catholic Migrations Commission, ran the workshop. She does not pretend to offer torture survivors a magic wand, but hopes to make some difference. In coming months she and her Timorese team will begin work in the countryside.
Filomeno Gomes, 61, was jailed and tortured in 1988, 1990 and 1991 for his nationalist beliefs. All these years later, he rarely sleeps, and suffers from nightmares.
"It helps to talk to others," he says. "The worst thing for me is that our Government has been informed of the situation of ex- prisoners, but has done nothing."
It is almost three years since the international community intervened here, yet only now is the widespread problem of torture being addressed seriously. It affects every aspect of life in contemporary East Timor, where anger is quick to boil over and violence is frequently met with violence.
Dr Nguyen-Gilham's strategy is to put people in touch with their feelings.
"I tend to work from a model of strength and resilience," she says, noting that UN and church attitudes have contributed to repression.
"Two years on from UN entry [the slogan] 'Let's build the new nation' hasn't allowed people to go back over what they suffered during these 24 years," she says. "People have been taught to forget the past and to forgive, and the result is that people's feelings are frozen."
Participants have been selected for their desire to help others as well as themselves, as part of the solution. Each person counselled in this group setting will later become a counsellor, initiating groups with an emphasis on treatment in a community setting.
East Timorese collaborators are a key to success. They present the information, lead discussion and support participants if they become distressed.
Maria da Silva, 49, was arrested in 1977 after Indonesian intelligence agents learned she and some women friends were helping resistance fighters. She was driven to a barracks, and led with one of the other women into an interrogation room full of soldiers. "We denied everything," she says. "We were then undressed and gang-raped, punched and burnt with cigarettes."
Portuguese Bishop Jose Ribeiro tried to enter the prison, but soldiers stopped him.
Ms da Silva's ordeal, including three months of solitary confinement, continued until her release 17 months later. She will testify next week for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's first public hearing on ex-prisoners.
| Human rights trials |
Jakarta Post - February 19, 2003
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta -- Noted religious leaders grouped in the National Moral Movement (GMN) called on the government to halt the East Timor human rights trials, claiming that they were politically motivated.
A member of the movement, Hasyim Muzadi, told a media conference on Tuesday the reason the rights cases should be halted was because diplomatic ties between Indonesia and East Timor had improved.
"This call is not meant as interference with the courts. But the prosecution of the East Timor human rights abuse cases is more political [matter] than criminal," said Hasyim, who leads Nahdlatul Ulama, the country's largest Muslim organization.
A new chapter in relations between Indonesia and its former province started when East Timor's first ambassador to Indonesia, Protestant minister Arlindo Marcal, presented his credentials to President Megawati Soekarnoputri on February 7. Jakarta has appointed a charge d'affaires for its representative office in East Timor.
Hasyim convened the conference to publicize the results of a visit by GMN figures to Australia to campaign against a war in Iraq. The religious leaders flew to Europe later in the day, where they are due to visit Pope John Paul II in the Vatican and the European Union's headquarters in Brussels as part of the same mission.
Cardinal Julius Darmaatmadja of the Indonesian Council of Bishops (KWI) and Protestant minister Andreas Yewangoe of the Indonesian Communion of Churches (PGI) are joining Hasyim on the round-the- world trip.
During the Australian visit last week, Hasyim said he met with Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer to discuss the East Timor rights trial issue.
"I asked Australia during the meeting to put the rights violations in East Timor behind it given that Indonesia and its former province have established diplomatic relationship. There's no more point in talking about the issue [of rights abuses] now," Hasyim said. Downer promised to bring the matter to the Australian parliament, according to Hasyim,
East Timor seceded from Indonesia in 1999 when a massive majority of East Timorese voted for independence during a UN-sponsored ballot. In the presence of a number of world leaders, including Indonesian President Megawati Soekarnoputri, East Timor declared its independence as a republic on May 20, 2002, with Dili as its capital. Several Indonesian civilians, and police and military officers have been tried for instigating the violence that erupted in East Timor in 1999. Most of the defendants have been found not guilty by the human rights tribunal.
Rights activists have expressed their disappointment with the course of the trials, which failed to sentence those few convicted to the maximum permissible sentences. They also accused the government of lacking the political will to put an end to impunity by leaving top military commanders untouched despite their duty to prevent violence at the time.
Agence France Presse - February 17, 2003
Jakarta -- A former Indonesian military chief for East Timor said Monday he tried to prevent massacres in East Timor in September 1999 and that none of his own men were involved.
"None of the witnesses who were heard in court said that the TNI [the armed forces] was involved in the attacks," Colonel Noer Muis told a human rights court.
Muis is charged with failing to prevent attacks on the diocese in Dili on September 5 that year and on the Dili bishop's residence the following day that left 13 people dead.
He is also accused of failing to prevent an attack on a church in Suai on September 6 in which 26 people were killed. Prosecutors have asked that he be jailed for 10 years for gross rights violations.
Muis, reading his defence plea, denied that the military had failed to take any action to stem the violence. He said he had immediately ordered a local commander to help the police halt the violence at the bishop's house. Muis said he sent about 60 reinforcements to help halt the violence in the two incidents in Dili.
In Suai, he said the local commander had deployed all his available forces to halt the attacks on the church and to save people sheltering inside from pro-Jakarta militiamen.
The militias, armed and organised by the Indonesian military, launched a brutal campaign of intimidation before the UN- organised independence vote in August and a revenge campaign afterwards. An estimated 1,000 people were killed.
"During the unrest in East Timor, the TNI deployed 347 personnel to safeguard 23 critical spots in East Timor that were prone to conflict between pro-independence and pro- Indonesia groups," Muis said.
Muis is one of 18 military and police officers or civilians who have appeared before the court. They were accused of gross rights violations in East Timor in April and September 1999.
The court has imposed jail sentences on a former Dili police chief and a former military chief in the territory as well as on the former civilian governor and an ex-militia chief. All four are free pending appeals.
Ten security force members and a civilian have been acquitted in widely criticised verdicts. Three senior army officers including Muis are awaiting verdicts.
Agence France Presse - February 13, 2003
Jakarta -- Former Indonesian military chief General Wiranto on Thursday defended his record over East Timor's bloody 1999 breakaway from Jakarta, saying he had helped prevent a civil war there.
Wiranto, who according to rights groups should himself be in the dock, was testifying for the defence at Indonesia's human right court in the trial of Brigadier General Tono Suratman.
Suratman is accused of crimes against humanity by failing to prevent two massacres in April 1999.
Wiranto, questioned by judges about what he himself did to forestall violence, said he organised a reconciliation meeting between supporters and opponents of independence on April 21.
He described the violence that month as "a risk of the policy taken by former President Habibie," who authorised a United Nations-organised independence referendum held in August 1999.
Wiranto said he had taken all necessary steps to prevent violence. "If we had not taken preventive measures I'm sure there would have been a civil war," he said.
Then-president Abdurrahman Wahid sacked Wiranto as top security minister in February 2000 when a national human rights commission inquiry found him responsible for failing to ensure security surrounding the referendum.
Army-backed local pro-Jakarta militiamen waged a campaign of intimidation before East Timor's vote to separate from Indonesia and a scorched-earth revenge campaign afterwards.
At least 1,000 people are estimated to have died that year and whole towns were burnt to the ground.
Suratman, a former military commander of East Timor, is accused of failing to prevent an attack on the home of pro-independence leader Manuel Viegas Carrascalao in which at least 12 people including Carrascalao's son were killed on April 17.
He is also accused of failing to prevent an attack at Liquica church on April 6 in which at least 20 died.
Carrascalao testified last August that Suratman had laughed off his plea for protection after the attack on his house.
Wiranto's testimony was consistent with the official Indonesian version of the bloodshed -- that police and troops struggled to keep the peace between rival armed factions.
Rights groups say senior Indonesian security officials armed and organised the militias in their attacks on independence supporters.
The rights court was set up to deflect pressure for an international war crimes tribunal.
It has convicted two officers, East Timor's former civilian governor and a militia leader, but has acquitted 10 other security force members and a civilian. Three senior army officers including Suratman are awaiting judgment.
International rights groups have strongly criticised the previous acquittals and described the court as a sham.
Jakarta Post - February 15, 2003
Zakki Hakim, Jakarta -- A coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) will use the occasion of the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) in Geneva next month to press for international intervention in the ongoing East Timor human rights trials.
The coalition said on Friday the demand was aimed at preventing the human rights trials on the East Timor massacre from setting the norm for rights tribunals in the country.
"We will ask the upcoming UNCHR assembly to urge the international society through the UN Secretary-General to request the Security Council to evaluate and assess the rights tribunal on East Timor," said Ikravany Hilman, spokesperson for the coalition.
The coalition expressed its disappointment with the way the ad hoc trial proceeded. Due to the lack of key witnesses, the human rights court has acquitted 11 defendants and in four cases has handed down minimum or light sentences, which have never been executed pending appeals.
The annual meeting will take place from March 17 to April 25.
"Indonesia has practiced impunity in the ad hoc rights tribunal. The trial is only a scam to protect those individuals who have committed gross human rights violations in East Timor, because the tribunal is neither independent nor impartial and has failed to adopt the international standard," he said.
The coalition, therefore, would urge the international community to declare rights violators in the East Timor cases as hostis humani genesis, or "the enemy of mankind", he said.
"As the enemy of mankind, violators can be arrested by government authorities outside Indonesia, who would consider them to be a common enemy," he said.
Rights activists have been campaigning for more human rights tribunals for the Tanjung Priok massacre of Muslim protesters by the military in 1984, the Trisakti and Semanggi shootings of students by police and military during the riots of 1998, and the Abepura killings of activists by the military in then-Irian Jaya, in 1999.
"But because of the case of East Timor, there has been growing concerns that other rights trials will also be a farce," Ikra said.
However, the coalition shelved the idea to set up an international criminal tribunal, as in the cases of the former leaders of Yugoslavia and Rwanda, because it would be expensive and the trials would take a long time, he said.
"We will accept the current rights tribunal with closer monitoring from both local and international parties," he said.
The coalition also called upon the Indonesian government to invite special rapporteurs on torture, who would monitor the protection of human rights in the country.
The coalition consists of dozens of NGOs on human rights, such as the Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam), the Legal Aid Institute (YLBHI), the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), and the Indonesian Human Rights Watch (Imparsial).
| News & issues |
Sydney Morning Herald - February 21, 2003
Deborah Snow -- Charges are understood to have been laid against a former senior soldier in the Special Air Service after a long investigation into allegations of serious misconduct by members of the elite unit in East Timor.
The charges are believed to relate to allegations dating from October 1999, when a battle broke out near the town of Suai between an SAS patrol and members of an Indonesian-backed militia group opposed to Timorese independence.
The allegations are understood to centre on three issues: whether one of the militia members was killed in an execution-style shooting; whether there was any misuse of the corpses of the two militia members who died; and whether other captured members of the militia unit were beaten or otherwise mistreated during their later interrogation by SAS members.
It is understood that the charges were laid earlier this month and are the first to be brought in connection with the investigation, which has dragged on behind closed doors in the Defence Department for more than three years.
At the time of the battle, members of the SAS were part of the United Nations-backed mission to restore order to Timor after the violent upheaval sparked by the vote for independence.
The department has been circumspect about the investigation, which has been conducted against the backdrop of the Timor mission, the subsequent engagement by the SAS in Afghanistan and deployment of some of the unit's members to the Gulf ahead of the looming war on Iraq.
When the Suai allegations originally surfaced in late 2000, General Peter Cosgrove, who headed the Timor mission and is now Chief of the Defence Force, said an initial investigation had found the claims to be groundless but that he had reopened the inquiry after the "rumours resurfaced". He pledged at the time that the inquiry would be "comprehensive" and "impartial" .
Australian Federal Police and UN investigators became involved and late last year it was revealed that the bodies of two militiamen had been exhumed from a mass grave outside Dili as part of the investigation.
At the time, the department said a dozen of 18 allegations had been dismissed, but it is believed that a pathologists' report on the bodies went to Defence headquarters just before Christmas.
A spokeswoman for the department yesterday refused to respond directly to questions about whether any charges had been laid. "The army is conducting an investigation into the allegations and the results will be made public when it is complete," she said, but could not say when that might be.
Jakarta Post - February 15, 2003
Yemris Fointuna, Kupang -- West Timorese people have demanded the United Nations to revoke a security status imposed on the province after a mob killed three UN humanitarian workers in 2000, saying it was keeping away aid workers, tourists and foreign investors.
Head of the West Timor Care Foundation, Ferdi Tanoni said on Friday that 1,500 West Timorese signed a petition asking UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to revoke to the emergency status.
The petition was handed over to US Ambassador Ralph L. Boyce who visited East Nusa Tenggara province on Tuesday.
During the visit, Ambassador Boyce promised to discuss the petition with the UN and other related parties.
Ferdi said he hoped the petition would attract the UN's attention if it came through Washington.
"What the people of West Timor really want is seriousness from the international community," said Ferdi.
West Timor is home to thousands of East Timor refugees who were forced to flee East Timor after a UN vote. Pro-Indonesian militias crossed to West Timor as well.
The murder of an ex-militia leader who was named a suspect in the rampage in East Timor, which apparently triggered an attack on the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Atambua. A mob stormed the office and hacked to death three civilian UN refugee workers.
It prompted UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to suspend UN work in West Timor. International pressure also grew for Indonesia to disband the militias. Security has since improved, although not entirely.
Former militia members now live among legitimate East Timorese refugees, and some have joined the waves of those returning to their new home country. But the UN has not changed the emergency status, and for West Timor it has had an adverse impact on the economy.
Direct flights to and from Australia remain frozen. And the previously low number of arrivals of foreign tourists have yet to return. Although refugees are flowing back to East Timor, humanitarian aid is largely missing in West Timor.
West Timor's local government had complained to Jakarta that the UN status was hurting efforts to attract foreign investment.
The province already lost potential revenue sharing from the Timor Gap oil fields, which are now shared only between East Timor and Australia.
| Health & education |
Catholic News Service - February 11, 2003
Stephen Steele, Washington -- More than three years after East Timor voted for independence, access to adequate health care, education and basic human rights remains out of reach for most people in the country, said an East Timorese human rights worker.
Jose Luis de Oliveira, director of the Association for Law, Human Rights and Justice, known by the Indonesian acronym HAK, said East Timorese institutions are unable to serve citizens due to a myriad of economic and social problems.
At the root of the problems is the absence of justice for the perpetrators of the violence that followed a 1999 UN-sponsored referendum, when East Timorese overwhelmingly rejected Indonesian rule.
More than 1,000 people were killed and most of East Timor's infrastructure was destroyed by militias and retreating Indonesian troops following the vote. An ad hoc human rights trial conducted in Jakarta, Indonesia, acquitted senior-level Indonesian military officials, while convicted militia leaders received minor sentences.
Those acquitted were being tried for ordering the September 1999 massacre at a church in Suai, East Timor. At least 151 people were killed at Suai, although human rights activists say as many as 400 were massacred.
"This was really painful for the East Timorese to hear, that people directly involved in the massacre at the Suai church were set free. This is like saying that what happened to us didn't really happen," he said.
East Timor's fledgling judicial system is ill-equipped to handle such cases, he added. Many militia members and others involved in the 1999 violence have returned to East Timor and remain free.
"The new government has no clear steps toward pushing for a justice process for crimes that happened in the past," he said.
"We have a situation where people aren't feeling any sense of justice, as if independence is just a formality," he said.
De Oliveira attributed the inefficiency of the new government, which took power in May 2002, to the UN transitional government that administered East Timor for the three years after Indonesian rule ended.
"We feel the current situation is in large respect the consequence of a lack of thorough foundation building during the transition," de Oliveira told Catholic News Service in Washington in early February while in the midst of a one-month US speaking tour sponsored by the East Timor Action Network.
De Oliveira said many East Timorese were excluded from participating in the transitional government because of education and language requirements that discriminated against them.
"East Timorese who cooperated with Indonesia and gained higher education are now in higher positions with the new government," he said.
Those who resisted Indonesian rule often lacked higher education, leaving them on the outside looking in with regard to the new government, said de Oliveira.
Additionally, impoverished communities under Indonesian rule have remained poor, leading to rising tensions between young East Timorese and their government.
"We are told that in independence we need people with skills and with higher education and so the people who gave so much for independence cannot contribute in this new structure. Those who suffered the most in the past have the most burdens placed upon them now," de Oliveira said.
"As a result, what would normally be a small incident turned into a huge demonstration and unrest that led to a lot of violence," he said referring to the early December riots in Dili, East Timor's capital, following the arrest of a student protester.
De Oliveira also criticized the East Timorese government for modeling its judicial system on a Portuguese system. East Timor is a former Portuguese colony.
"Less than 7 percent of East Timorese can speak Portuguese, but our judges are coming from Portuguese-speaking countries. This combination of very few East Timorese-speaking Portuguese and the imposition of a foreign system has led to unequal justice," he said. "Most people don't understand their basic rights," he said.
Constancio Pinto, charge d'affairs for the East Timorese Embassy in Washington, said the new government was struggling in providing basic services to its citizens because of lack of funding.
"We are a new and very poor country. More funding from the international community would help," he told Catholic News Service.
| International solidarity |
Radio Australia - February 19, 2003
Australia's Immigration Minister Phillip Ruddock has been asked to establish a special visa category in a bid to allow a group of East Timorese to stay in the country.
The special visa would apply to about 18-hundred East Timorese asylum seekers who are facing deportation.
The President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Francis Carroll, says its the second time he's written to the Minister urging him to give the group sympathetic consideration.
He says many of the asylum seekers have been living in Australia for more than eight years, and have children who have been born and raised in this society.
He says, "I spoke with the minister briefly on one occasion, and he outlined a few cases where there would be a successful application, but certainly there was no likelihood of his granting the special category of visa that we had asked for."
Australian Associated Press - February 12, 2003
Royal Abbott, Melbourne -- Five Melbourne mayors have joined the Victorian government in appealing to Canberra to halt plans to forcibly deport 1,400 East Timorese who have been denied permanent residency.
Many of the East Timorese have lived legally in Australia for 10 years and have established roots they are unwilling to sever to return to their once-troubled homeland.
Their bridging visas have expired and without the intervention of federal Immigration Minister Philip Ruddock they will be compelled to return to East Timor.
City of Yarra mayor, Councillor Sue Corby, said the East Timorese have built lives in Australia. "Many of the children who came here in their early teens have gone on to become symbols of inspiration to all Australians," she said.
Today she joined with the mayors of Moonee Valley, Brimbank, Maribyrnong and Dandenong in asking the state and federal governments to cancel the deportation orders and support the East Timorese community.
Cr Corby said the City of Yarra's Australian of the Year, former Dili student Fivo Freitas, was a typical case. Mr Freitas, 28, a part-time carpenter and full-time community volunteer, received the award for his contribution to the East Timorese and wider Richmond community.
A pro-independence activist in Dili, Mr Freitas escaped to the safety of Australia in 1999 after hearing that the Indonesian security forces were hunting for him.
"I had to escape using a tourist visa, then I got a bridging visa but that doesn't say how long you can stay and now the government says I must go," he said today.
"I like living in Melbourne and I want to integrate into Australia. There is little for me back in East Timor. "
His pessimism about the state of his homeland was echoed by East Timor Consul General Abel Guterres.
"We'd like to welcome them home, but what can we give them?" Mr Guterres said today. "East Timor is in no position to have extra mouths to feed."
He said the issue presented the Australian government with a moral challenge which he hoped would not affect the goodwill between the two nations.
"We hope there is an open heart here despite the difficult circumstances the Australian government finds itself in," he added.
Richmond MP Richard Wynne said Premier Steve Bracks wanted Mr Ruddock to intervene to allow the East Timorese to stay in Victoria.
A delegation of municipal and community leaders plan to travel to Canberra tomorrow to ask the immigration minister to use his discretion to allow the East Timorese to stay.
Mr Ruddock was being sought for comment. A spokesman for Mr Ruddock later said there were no immediate plans to deport the 1,400 East Timorese, and their applications to stay in Australia were yet to be processed.
The spokesman said it was likely that most of them were not refugees and therefore ineligible to stay in the country. "But until we look at their applications, we won't know," he said.
| Economy & investment |
Far Eastern Economic Review - February 27, 2003
Mark Dodd, Dili -- In the laboratory of Cafi Cooperative Timor (CCT), senior adviser Alistair Laird, a "cupping" expert, is applying a final quality-control test to assess the fragrance, aroma and taste of a range of samples of East Timor's finest organic certified arabica coffee beans.
First he pours boiling water on fresh coffee grounds. Sniffing the steamy aroma, he takes a dessert spoon of the dark brew and slurps it noisily, rolling the liquid onto the back of his tongue to enhance the flavour before spitting the contents into a bucket.
"This is an A-grade Estadu, a blend from Ermera and Aifu sub- districts," he pronounces with satisfaction, adding: "I'm looking for good body and flavour and it has to be very, very consistent, no sour beans, no overfermentation."
Competition is keen and price a closely guarded secret among local traders. But Laird estimates the value of this consignment of 10 containers, holding some 200 tonnes of green bean, to be around $50,000 a container, and it has just been sold to a major United States trader, Royal Coffee. "We're still completing last year's coffee. We'll finish this month and we'll probably do 2,000 tonnes of premium grade organic certified arabica," he said.
But a dramatic fall in coffee prices, thanks in part to efficient new producers such as Vietnam, has seen local farmers chopping down coffee trees to sell as firewood. It also highlights another big problem in East Timor. Take a drive into the coffee heartland of Ermera and one can see acres of coffee trees growing on the side of the road, on the hilly slopes and steep gullies. But who owns them? The absence of land-ownership laws has left many of the old Portuguese estates abandoned. Land tenure among the thousands of smallholders is ill-defined, and that is hardly the kind of incentive needed to boost production and quality to benefit from a potentially lucrative market premium.
With annual sales forecast at around 2,000 tonnes, CCT is East Timor's biggest exporter of organic certified coffee.
Consistent quality is the key to premium prices, Laird says. For A-grade mild-washed arabica, it's a certification that can attract as much as an 80% premium on top of the current New York "C" price -- a common coffee-industry benchmark -- of 63 US cents per pound.
In terms of global output, East Timor is a micro-midget whose share of world coffee production is about 0.00006% compared to 35% from Brazil, the world's biggest producer.
But what East Timor does produce is a unique arabica variety that has secured high praise, not to mention a premium value in the niche-speciality coffee market. Although it shuns publicity, US multinational Starbucks is a regular customer for organic certified East Timor arabica.
Coffee remains East Timor's most important export earner, worth on average $10 million per year, with approximately a quarter of the population or 200,000 people relying on the humble bean for a significant proportion of their annual income. But it is a fickle average. East Timor's output is particularly vulnerable to El Nino weather patterns, fluctuating from 4,500 tonnes in 1997 to 10,000 tonnes in 2001.
Until revenue from Timor Sea oil and gas begin to flow in 2004, coffee remains the most important source of income for the world's newest country that, with an annual per- capita GDP of less than $500, also happens to be Southeast Asia's poorest.
The coffee figures can be deceptive because not all the value is added in East Timor. The $10 million average annual value is based on the New York "C" price and is a cost, insurance and freight price delivered to warehouses in North America and Europe. That means the actual value of coffee purchased from East Timorese farmers is about half or $5.1 million for the 2001 crop, according to an industry report compiled by World Bank coffee consultant Jacqueline Pomeroy.
She estimates local transport and processing could add another $1.1 million to give a domestic free-on-board value of approximately $6.2 million, thus generating $155 for each of East Timor's 40,000 coffee-dependent families.
The Australian - February 14, 2003
Paul Toohey -- Critically needed containers of medical, health and school supplies have been stockpiled on Dili's wharf because of heavy smuggling and what East Timorese-based aid workers say is suspicion of Australia's motives.
The East Timorese are concerned that traders disguised as charitable, non-government organisations have been avoiding import duty by bringing in commodities labelled as charitable goods.
Australian charities have been caught up in the Customs crackdown and are battling to prove they are legitimate NGOs to avoid paying a 28-30 per cent import duty on donated goods.
"Containers are being held up for months and months," said the head of an Australian NGO, who is trying to work through the problem and will not be named. "They have so much distrust of outsiders. I think they find it difficult to believe people do things out of the goodness of their hearts.
"People just don't believe you when you say you're a volunteer. The attitude is that if you're rich enough to send this stuff, you're rich enough to pay duty. There is a lot of work being done to try to make the Government understand. It's all very silly."
Ray Fauntleroy, Rotary International's special representative for East Timor, said his organisation had a nightmare trying to get a container-load of refurbished motorbikes off the Dili wharf. Eighty 110cc red Honda postie bikes were ridden from Brisbane to Darwin last year in a charity bash and donated to Rotary in Darwin.
Valued at $1000 each, the 32 bikes were put in a container for Dili and the remainder were sold, with the money going to Rotary's projects in East Timor.
"The motorbikes arrived in Dili on December 14. We did all documentation and followed it to the letter," Mr Fauntleroy said. "They hit me with a bill for $9684, purely for import duties." Rotary, which spent $4100 in barge fees, was also charged $US25 ($42) a day in dock charges.
Despite representations to the East Timor cabinet, the bikes sat on the Dili wharf until two weeks ago when they were suddenly released after Mr Fauntleroy, who refused to pay the import duty, made arrangements to ship the bikes back to Darwin. With a similar Postie Bike Challenge planned for this year, Mr Fauntleroy said Rotary would not donate bikes again unless they got iron-clad guarantees there would be no repeat.
Rotary in Melbourne, which ships donated goods to Dili on behalf of other charitable organisations, has lifted a threat issued in November that it will stop sending any Timor-bound containers.
| East Timor media monitoring |
UNMISET - February 10, 2003
Fretilins's Secretary-General, Mari Alkatiri said on Saturday that his party is the only one which roots come from the people and that there are no Timorese parties with this kind of support. Therefore, aside from adjusting the structure among the grassroots, Fretilin is also getting prepared to govern the country over the next 50 years, not only five, said Alkatiri. Alkatiri spoke to the media at the end of the two day meeting of Fretilin's Central Committee. Meanwhile the government has chosen 65 heads of sub-districts.
Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri on Friday received the credentials of TL ambassador to Jakarta Arlindo Margal. Speaking to the media, the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Hassan Wirajuda said his country will open its embassy in TL this year. (STL, Jakarta Post)
The Korean PKF contingent (ROCKBATT) stationed in Suco Bobometa, Oecussi District distributed 67 boxes of clothes and other goods to the people as well as school material like pens and writing books to the students in that area. The material were distributed during a ceremony attended by around 500 people. ROCKBATT also gave medical assistance to the population in Bobometa according to Timor Post. The residents of that area have been reported as saying that "ROCKBATT when it comes to working with the people and attending its needs". The Head of ROCKBATT in Bobometa, Col. Kim Young Deok, traveled to the border with Fiji PKF to explain in detail the demarcation between Indonesia and Timor-Leste. The two PKF then met with the residents of that area inform them about the matter, reported the newspaper. (TP)
The social, political and economy problems faced by Timor-Leste since the country's independence on 20 May 2002 cannot be blamed only on the Government of Fretilin but also on UNTAET, said Aniceto Neves, the head of the Facts Department of the local Human Rights NGO, Yayasan Hak, reported STL on Monday. (STL)
The Indonesian National Army (TNI) transferred the amount of RP 573 million from Jakarta to CISPE to repay former Indonesian army officers who deducted their salary for housing scheme while serving in the army during the Indonesia period. According to STL the fund is to pay around 1058 former military through the BNU bank in Dili. (STL)
The Timor Lest Government has been carrying out "high level diplomatic approaches via the UN" to pressure Indonesia to immediately extradite 32 perpetrators of violence in the Sub District of Kailako, Bobonaro District, reported STL on Saturday. According to the newspaper, the case dossier of the perpetrators who would be now still at large in Indonesia, has been submitted to the Dili District Courts. However, the courts cannot open the case, because the people are living in another country. "There is no other way than to arrest them and extradite them to Timor Leste (TL) to be tried. This can be done via the International Police (Interpol)." Said Sergio de Jesus Hornai, General Coordinator of Public Defenders on Friday cited by STL.
The 32 indicted have been accused of perpetrating crimes against humanity in the area of Kailako between March-April 1999.. To extradite them to TL the government needs to negotiate continuously with the UN so as to pressure Indonesia to extradite, or via the Interpol method. It is said, the government can cooperate with TL Interpol and Indonesia via a mutually beneficial cooperation. And there are still many opportunities for the government to make use of the UN strength so that the criminals can be taken to court in the region of TL because the place of events was in this country. He said, his side does not want to submit the case dossier of the 32 indicted to the court just to chase numbers to show that the attorney generals is working at maximum.
"I do not meant to criticize the Attorney General for serious crimes, but the submission of the indictment should be followed up with the arrest of the indicted.
"I know bringing them needs time however they are in the list the country is searching for thus they should be immediately arrested," he said. Meanwhile the Anmeftil member, Cirilio Jose Cristovco, SH added, it is difficult to arrest the 32 indicted due to a weak MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) that was signed by the Head of the UN Transitional Government (UNTAET), Sergio Vieira de Mello with the former Attorney General RI, Marzuki Darusman a few years ago. Because of this there needs to be political will between the Indonesian and TL governments to jointly push this case to the courts. Because whatever happens we do not want the relationship of the two countries to be disrupted just because of the actions of these 32 people. However for a smooth process there needs to be serious efforts from the TL government in cooperation with UNMISET.
UNMISET - February 12, 2003
Referring to criticism according to which UNTAET did not pay attention to the judicial area, mainly on what capacity building is concerned, Cirilo Cristovco, a judge of Dili Court told STL that one of the priorities of UNTAET was the establishment of the judicial system, that the mission tried hard but did not succeed. Capacity building, Cirilo Josi Cristovco said, is one of the problems faced by the Timorese judges in the last three years.
The nomination of Foreign Affairs, Vice Minister, Jorge da Conceicco Teme has been approved and he will soon leave the country to become the first TL Ambassador to Australia. Teme told the media on Sunday "he was ready to take on his new duty and work hard to promote TL in Australia", reported STL.
Timor-Leste residents who wish to visit their relatives in West Timor must pay an entry fee visa. STL reported that a West Timor (Atambua) Immigration Official named Romelus Bukang gave the information. He said Timor-Leste has not been categorized as a free visa country therefore Indonesians visiting Timor-Leste must also pay a visa fee.
The Chairman of Suai Court, Francisco Agustinho Pinto said that the Court has not been operating efficiently because it does not have a permanent public defender. He said there are court-hearing proceedings by the judges and prosecutors who returned to Dili soon after the hearing, making it impossible for the judges to make a decision on a case because there are no public defenders.
The organizing commission of the National Dialogue held on January 25 has put together the final report of the event. The report will be handed out to the Government, Parliament, UNMISET and CPD-RDTL. Speaking to the media on Tuesday, the coordinator of the Dialogue, Miguel Manetelu, said it is up to the Government to distribute it to the people. He added that the report is based on what was discussed on that day and does not have a conclusion. He noted, " The success of the dialogue was not from the team but from the collaboration of UNTAET [UNMISET], CPD-RDTL and the sovereignty bodies like the President, National Parliament, and the Government."
In an interview by STL, Antonio Aitahan Matak, the coordinator of CPD-RDTL said that his organisation, formed on 11 September 1974, is the one that carried the process of national liberation to the end, unlike Fretilin, which was formed in Australia on 20 August 1998. Matak told STL that CPD-RDTL held on to Movement Fretilin, which defended the proclamation of independence on 28 November 1975. He also said that the dialogue of 25 January was meant to be with UNMISET because the mission is the "boss" of Timor-Leste. He said UNMISET has violated the resolutions and the UN declarations. He also said that Timor-Leste is still a federated state with the UN and United States of America through the SOFA agreement. He added that many Timorese currently living in Indonesia have not returned because the process of the country is not according to CPD-RDTL. The coordinator of the group reminded that 5 May [1999] agreement did not represent the wishes of the people. But one should not be mistaken by the Special Autonomy with Indonesia, or UN, presented by United Nations, Portugal and Indonesia to the Timorese. He noted that his organisation is represented in five continents and would present a case against UN through UNMISET office because CPD-RDTL would like to amend the international law regarding the activities of UN, which is now practicing in Iraq, wrote the newspaper.
UNMISET - February 13, 2003
Duringa meeting with the new ambassador of Denmark to TL, one of the issues raised by President Gusmco was the prisoner system to allow prisoners to have productive activities like animal husbandry, agriculture and even the possibility to obtain cash to support the family. The President proposed the jail to be distant from the city in order to enable these activities, reported Timor Post.
President Gusmco is scheduled to visit Malaysia, as well to attend the Non-Allied Movement's conference, of which Timor-Leste will become a member. The President will leave on February 24 accompanied by his wife Kirsty Sword Gusmco and a delegation, which includes the Minister of Foreign Affairs Josi Ramos-Horta, reported STL. During a visit to the local Mosque in Dili to celebrate the Idul-Adha day, President Gusmco appealed to different religious beliefs to respect each other. He said, "religion is not meant to divide us but to strengthen our unity". He added that it was his first visit to the mosque and he's happy to see that after all Timorese Muslims have a place to say their prayers.
In an interview with Timor Post, F-FDTL Chief of State, Colonel Lere Anan said FDTL lacks finance to effectively train its forces. Anan said, over the last two years former Falintil members were recruited and formed the first battalion. He said the second battalion, is preparing to take over the duties adding to 1500 the numbers of the defence forces. Colonel Lere said that UN is aware that FDTL is operating on a strict budget because public finances are not enough for the development of the country. Referring to remarks made by CPD-RDTL during the National Conference on January 25, that FDTL should have between 15,000-20,000 members, Colonel Anan said this would be seen as a threat by the neighbor countries (Indonesia and Australia). The money spent on a big defence force would be better of used on the orphans and widows, he said. He added that many members of the Armed Forces have undergone training overseas in different areas without paying anything. He said the last platoon left to Mozambique recently for further training.
UNMISET - February 14, 2003
F-FDTL members deployed in Atsabe on January 5, withdraws today from that region, reported the newspapers. UN peacekeepers from Portugal will continue to provide security there. Speaking to the media President Gusmco said "cases like Atsabe should be under the responsibilities of the police. FDTL would only provide assistance because the police still lack the capacity." (STL, TP)
The investigator team has one more week to conclude the report on the incidents. Prime Minister Alkatiri has reportedly said he is eager to learn the outcome of the result but would like a complete report. He added that this is one of the reasons for his request for a new investigation on the police. The Prime Minister said he has been discussing with President Gusmco and Speaker of Parliament, Francisco Guterres about an in depth investigation. He stressed that TL is currently facing lots of problems like terrorism but the defence is in the hands of UNMISET and it'll be the one working on the security to prevent these problems. (STL)
The Commission for Reception Truth and Reconciliation (CRTR) will hold a public hearing on Monday on former political prisoners jailed between 1975 and 1999 by UDT, Fretilin and Indonesia. Meanwhile the Danish Ambassador for Indonesia and TL announced that his country would finance two internationals staff to be recruited through UNDP to work with the commission. Aniceto Guterres, CRTR director said the commission would have a final say on the recruitment.
Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jorge Teme announced on Wednesday that the planned visit of Prime Minister Alkatiri to Indonesia has been postponed to June due to the busy agenda of the Indonesian President. Teme said the visit is now scheduled for June.
Nine local and internationals NGOs', are organizing a protest tomorrow (Saturday) in Dili against the war in Iraq. The protest is to coincide with similar events around the world. Sahe Institution for Liberation, Lao Hamutuk, Human Rights Team, Fokupers are some of the NGO's participating in this event.
UNMISET - February 17, 2003
A group of around 50 people on Saturday demonstrated in front of the American, British and Australian embassies in Dili against the possibility of an attack against war on Iraq. The demonstration was peaceful. Speaking to the media after a seminar in Dili on "The Crisis in Iraq and its Implication in the Region", on Thursday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Josi Ramos-Horta said that the crisis would divert international attention from Timor-Leste. He said " I think, first, the United States must give an opportunity to the United Nations, above all to Inspector Hans Splix to allow him to work and convince Saddam Husein to abolish the nuclear and biological weapons programmes", said Ramos-Horta.
The Council of Ministers started to discuss the exploration of resources of Timor Sea in its meeting on Thursday, Prime-Minister Mari Alkatiri told the media. According to Alkatiri, a law on domestic violence was approved during the meeting.
Residents of Bobonaro District are concerned with the alleged resumption of activities of Kolimau 2000 in that area reported STL on Monday. The newspaper cited a resident named Domingos Maubau who said, "They have been threatening us. Those who have fled to the jungle are now resuming their activities by stealing animals and assaulting houses and robbing the people". He said these people had fled when FDTL were deployed to Atsabe.
UNMISET - February 18, 2003
Dili -- During the official opening of the office of the Commission of Reception Truth and Reconciliation (CRTR) in Dili on Monday, President Gusmco stated "I hope that this building, so long steeped in tragedy, can be a living centre to document the history of East Timor ... so that young people can learn about the past and make a commitment to protect human rights forever". The CRTR will operate in the renovated Balide prison, built by the Portuguese and used as a prison to torture thousand during the 24 years Indonesian occupation.
On this year first public hearing with the theme "Political Detention" many of the former prisoners recalled the experiences they went through. Julio Alfaro, a Timorese entrepreneur and President of the Former Political Prisoners closed the metallic door of the cell where he spent three years in silence except for a small hole on top of the ceiling where the light can be seen. He said, " We spent 24 hours. Those prisoners, those less dangerous gave us food," adding that "When someone was called for interrogation during the morning most of the time they would return but if it was around nine in the evening they would never returned." He said the prisoners spent their time by conversing through the loophole of the doors.
Speaking at the event the UN administrator Kamalesh Sharma told former prisoners: "I want to pay my respects ... you stand for the many colleagues who did not survive." The old Portuguese jail was restored by Tasmanian firm Pitt & Sherry with $US1 million donated to the commission by the Japanese government. Also present at the event were Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak, Bishop of Dili and Baucau Diocese, Basilio do Nascimento and Members of Parliament
The Head of Indonesian Political Affairs in Dili, Harry Say told the media on Monday that the bank indicated by Indonesian Government to handle former Indonesian civil servants pensions has refused to deal with this issue saying that according to the "Memorandum of Understanding" between Indonesia and Timor-Leste government, the payments are under CISPE responsibilities. Say noted that the bank (TASPEN) rejected the request to come to Timor-Leste to hold an information session about the payments through the local television, reported Timor Post.
Indonesia Government decided to financially support refugees from Timor-Leste who have decided to become permanent resident of Indonesia, said the Deputy Governor of West Timor, Johanes Pake Pani. He said the refugees will be under the care of the Indonesian Public Administration authorities and the Transmigration Department reported the newspaper.
The President of the Timorese Democratic Union (UDT) Joco Carrascalco said he asked for forgiveness to all the Timorese people for any wrong doing from his party before the country gained its independence. He said, " Before the country's independence, on behalf of UDT I asked the Timorese for forgiveness. However, today, with this commission I hope that we can pardon each other. If CRTR wish that we ask for forgiveness to the whole population, I am ready."
The National Parliament Vice-President and a member of Fretilin, Jacob Fernandes said his party asked for forgiveness during the election campaign but is willing to do it again at the commission request, reported the media. Meanwhile President Gusmco said that "true reconciliation" in Timor-Leste will only be possible when the new nation's political parties "ask forgiveness" for errors they committed in the past. Gusmco called to Timorese political parties involved in "political violence" to recognize their "negative behavior" and "ask for pardon from the people," reported the media. To create a tolerant society in Timor "it is crucial to reach the truth in this question" said TL's President.
(Dili, 17 February) The Special Representative of the Secretary- General in Timor-Leste, Ambassador Kamalesh Sharma, said today that the work of peace-building is ongoing and often difficult, and can only be conducted by the people of Timor Leste. He was speaking at the opening of the National Office of the Commission on Reception, Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) at the former Balide Prison in Dili. "This is a daily challenge, a commitment that must be reinforced in the everyday decisions of citizens, government officials, police officers and others", said the SRSG, adding that the CAVR has an important role in helping Timorese citizens to play an active part in building a commitment to human rights and peace in Timor-Leste. Balide was used as a prison until September 1999. Many thousands of Timorese have been interned there, especially after 1975. Thanks to a donation from Japan, the prison has now been refurbished and converted to serve as the CAVR National Office. Several former political prisoners who had been detained in Balide took part in today's inauguration. The SRSG paid special tribute to them. "You stand here free today, carrying the memories of this and other places like it in your beautiful land", the SRSG told the former prisoners, adding that they also stood for the many friends and colleagues who did not survive the suffering. "You have shown, through organizations such as the Association of Ex-Political Prisoners, tremendous leadership in the task of defending human rights in your new country", said the SRSG. During the reconstruction, the graffiti found on the walls was preserved. The cells used for solitary confinement were kept, save for the installation of lightning, as they were found so that visitors can see for themselves the conditions the prisoners were kept under. The SRSG said that the graffiti "continues to speak to us today". "It reminds us of the suffering but also of the deep well of human strength and hope in the most difficult and testing times. It reminds us of the need, throughout the world, to ensure the protection of inalienable rights", he added. The RDTL President Xanana Gusmco, also speaking at today's ceremony, said that the work of the CAVR is important in helping those who suffered to free themselves from the past trauma. "Many people are not yet free", said the President. He added that " peace of mind means that people feel truly free: free from psychological or political pressure, free from economic or social tension, free from past trauma, free from daily shortcomings and free from fear of what tomorrow may bring". But the President stressed that that the sacrifices of those who suffered will only be honoured when Timorese society reaches an equitable level of development, based on steadfast determination to eradicate poverty in the country. "It will be meaningless if we have all the perpetrators in jail but the people continue to face infant mortality, endemic and epidemic diseases, without a decent house, without clean water and food", said Xanana Gusmco. He warned that without a change to the current poor standard of life, the grief lived in the past will not be healed and reconciliation will be a lot harder to achieve. "Peace and stability will continue to be a dream for the people of Timor-Leste", he said.The SRSG for his part congratulated the Commission on its achievements to date, and offered the support of UNMISET in CAVR'S work and in its efforts towards the fulfillment of its humanist inspirations. The opening of the National Office was followed with CAVR's first themed National Public Hearing on political prisoners. The hearing will conclude tomorrow.
PKF has just taken more than 50 Oecussi students on a 'Around Oecussi Field Trip', the first trip of its kind since independence. The field trip was designed and organised by the Korean Battalion (ROKBATT) which is serving in the isolated Oecussi enclave. The aim was to help the students develop an appreciation for the value and importance of the nation's territory and to have them take pride and confidence in Timor- Leste's future. 56 students, one from each of the enclave' schools, took part in the 3-day [13th-15th February] trip that covered 116km along most of the Tactical Coordination Line. The party also included 9 teachers, as well as participants nominated by the local district administration and 3 NGO workers. They were accompanied by 33 ROKBATT members including its Commander, Colonel Kim. Participants visited the [border] Junction Points currently manned by ROKBATT. They also paid a visit to Tumin cemetery where they honoured those who have died and said they would try to carry on the spirit of their ancestors. 19-year old Stanislaus Tefa said that "I would like to take this opportunity to commit myself to studying harder for the benefit of my country and will also have more appreciation for my country." The Commander of ROKBATT, Col. Kim, handed out certificates of completion to each participant and said he hoped that the field trip served as an opportunity "to build a sense of patriotism in the students who will soon become the future of Timor-Leste". He added that he hoped that students who took part in the trip "would commit themselves to building the future of this new nation." ROKBATT gave each participant 2 'Be the Reds' T-shirt, a pair of sneakers and a backpack containing stationery goods, a handkerchief, toothpaste, toothbrush and souvenirs.
PKF (Korean Battalion) is organising a series of quiz competitions in support of the middle schools' scholarship programme in Oecussi. The first 'Ring the Golden Bell' competitions were held at Palaban middle school, near Oecussi town, and at St. Antonio middle school. Students answer questions based on common sense and socials issues in a quiz designed to create in them an enthusiasm for learning. The competition was open to all the school's students. The 30 first round qualifiers were selected through several 'True or False' questions. The final rounds were played as a 'survival round' in which contenders played against each other until only one was left. The winner was awarded stationery goods including a school backpack and a scholarship worth U$30. The competitions were a great success with students eagerly supporting and cheering their classmates. But no-one has actually rung the 'Golden Bell' yet: to do so the contestant still standing at the end of the final round must not only eliminate the other contestants but also answer all the 30 questions of the final round correctly, and no winner has managed that yet. If a winner answers all the questions correctly, they get to ring the 'Golden Bel' and all of their schoolmates are given one item of clothing. A speech competition was also held alongside the quiz competition. 6 contenders, one boy and one girl from each grade competed against each other and the winners were awarded scholarships worth U$ 20. The runner-ups were awarded scholarships worth U$ 10. After the event, 50 teachers and students from St. Antonio middle school were invited to the headquarters of ROKBATT for a buffet lunch and a seminar on the development of the community in Timor-Leste. The winner of the quiz competition, 16-year old Katarina Anunu said that "I myself never even dreamed about winning the competition. I'm very happy to receive such a wonderful award." She also thanked ROKBATT for supporting the event. Programme designer and organiser Major Hwang said that the competition is turning out to be very popular among the students and that they participate very enthusiastically. ROKBATT will continue this programme in the 3 remaining middle schools in Oecussi.
UNMISET - February 20, 2003
Dili -- A group of PKF medical specialists from Thailand has concluded their mission in TL, reported Timor Post. The doctors worked not only in the UN hospital but also provided medical assistant to the Timorese people. Before departing to Thailand Lieutenant Colonel, Chaiptruk and his team went to say goodbye to President Gusmco.
Speaker of the National Parliament, Francisco Guterres told Suara Timor Lorosae on Wednesday that the two MPs, Antonio Ximenes and Josi Andrade's meeting with Kolimau 2000 was not at the request of the Parliament. He added, " the recent meeting with Kolimau 2000 was a personal initiative from the two deputes. Therefore Antonio Ximenes is the one who better knows the problem of Kolimau 2000," said Guterres. (STL)
All the Bishops of Japan have called on their government to apologize to the Timorese people for the military invasion of the country back on February 20, 1942. The announcement was made during the Japanese Bishops conference, which reminded Japan that 40,000 East Timorese were killed during the Japanese invasion. (STL)Nusa Bangsa.
In reality, critics say there is no need to wait for a new citizenship bill since the ruling revoking the citizenship document requirement for Chinese-Indonesians still holds.
For some, Mahendra's reluctance to follow Megawati's instructions is politically motivated. Mahendra, who chairs the Crescent Star Party, plans to run in the 2004 direct presidential polls.
"It was already the president of Indonesia who asked for the elimination of the [citizenship papers] requirement. But how can a minister like Mahendra defy the president?" Lembong asked.
Ironically, Mahendra was born in Belitung, South Sumatra, where there are many Chinese-Indonesians, and can speak Hakka, a south Chinese language. "If we want to get legal documents from the government, we must provide additional certification and pay higher fees," said Guo Hui Xia, 26.
She says she still fears for her life when taking a public bus because of the gruesome series of violent attacks and rapes of ethnic Chinese women in 1998. "If I have to take a public bus, I have to think many times," she said.
Those riots remain a painful episode for Chinese-Indonesians, often perceived to control a disproportionate amount of the economy despite the fact that many of them are struggling to make ends meet like other Indonesians.
Today, "there are 62 discriminative rulings against the Chinese ethnic community still valid in Indonesia", said Ester Jusuf, chairperson of the non-government group Solidaritas Nusa Bangsa.
Other discriminatory laws against Indonesians of ethnic-Chinese origin include a decree by the Ministry of Religious Affairs, which does not include Confucianism or Konghucu among the country's recognized beliefs.
Marriages between Konghucu believers are regarded as illegal and their children illegitimate unless the wedding ceremony is conducted by a Buddhist priest and witnessed by an official at the Religious Affairs Ministry, or they convert to one of the five religions recognized by the government -- Islam, Catholicism, Christianity, Protestantism, Hinduism or Buddhism.
"We're tired of being discriminated against. What we only want from the government and society is to treat us fairly. But we know that this is a thousand-mile journey," Lembong said.
UNMISET - February 22, 2003
Dili -- The chairman of the Commission for Reception Truth and Reconciliation (CRTR), Aniceto Guterrres said if everything goes according to its agenda, the commission will continue the public hearings, with the theme "War Relationship", on May 20. He said in the next public hearings, his team would collect data about crimes against Human Rights committed by political parties in the past.
The Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste joined the International Fund for the Development of Agricultural (IFDA) on Wednesday in Rome during the 25th anniversary commemoration of that UN specialized agency. TL is now the 161 member of IFDA. Present at the event was the Minister of Agriculture, Forest and Fisheries, Estanislau da Silva. In his speech at IFDA assembly Da Silva appealed for the participation of the organization in the development of Timor-Leste.