Independence struggle

Guerillas in the midst - Sword tells of struggle for justice

Manly Daily (Australia) - November 4, 2003

Kirsty Sword Gusmao, the Australian-born first lady of the world's newest nation, once shared two of her husband's big dreams for an independent East Timor then, when the long battle had been won, to settle down to a rural life growing pumpkins and breeding animals.

They achieved one, perhaps a little earlier than they dared hope, but will now have to wait a few more years before the other becomes possible.

A year and a half after her husband, Xanana Gusmao, was sworn in as East Timor's reluctant first president, the nearest they have come to it is the rural setting of a hillside village outside Dili which is the site of the presidential compound.

Last week, with roosters providing a background chorus, Sword Gusmao spoke about the remarkable turns her life had taken since she left Bendigo to study languages at Melbourne and later Monash universities.

Those turns have taken her from East Timorese resistance supporter to committed activist and, finally, undercover agent serving in Jakarta as the principal conduit for information smuggled between an imprisoned Xanana Gusmao and the outside world.

The 37-year-old mother of two young sons, who will be special guest at a function in Manly tomorrow night, has been described as a modern-day Nancy Wake and a true heroine because of her undercover work and the risks she took for the independence cause.

But those descriptions don't sit comfortably with her. "I do feel uncomfortable about that, not through any false sense of modesty, just because I always considered that everything I did over the years was really just acting on my conscience and what I knew to be the truth about the situation in East Timor and I had always been told to stand up for just causes," she said.

But Sword Gusmao did consider it important to document that long period of struggle in the new nation's history, which she has now done with her autobiography, A Woman of Independence.

As well as describing the resistance activities, it also charts her love affair with the charismatic former guerilla leader, which grew and was sustained almost entirely through letters and later phone calls from his prison cell.

"I had wanted to record the story of my involvement in East Timor and the remarkable events that led up to independence for a long time, but the demands of my daily life are so tremendous that it seemed a little bit too self-indulgent to be spending time reflecting on the past and writing about it, so I kept putting it off," she said.

The offer of a publishing contract was the impetus she needed to get started. "The demands of the whole rebuilding process and the needs are just so overwhelming at present and there's just so much to be done that I think it's really salutary occasionally to stop and think back and count our blessings really," she said.

"We have to be thankful for what we have achieved already, which is basically getting rid of fear and oppression and intimidation and be grateful for the fact that people are no longer being 'disappeared' from their houses.

"There is no longer arbitrary detention and torture and massacres happening across the country. Hopefully my contribution to recording history will have the effect of reminding people of the struggle and what it took to get to where we are today."

No one associated with that struggle would have expected the next phase reconstruction and the forging of a new nation to be without enormous challenges but Sword Gusmao accepted her destiny was by then inextricably linked with that of Xanana and East Timor.

"I wasn't particularly happy about Xanana's decision to stand for the presidency, nor was he, but it was something that was demanded by the people so I guess you would say it was his destiny, therefore it was mine too," she said.

She had recognised very early in their relationship that it was never going to be easy whether he remained in prison for the full 20 years of his sentence or was freed.

"I knew it was going to be a rocky road and it certainly has been," she said. "Nowadays we are obviously living in freedom but there are huge needs to be met and big expectations of what Xanana is able to contribute to the process, and me as well."

She said living up to people's expectations had been one of the most difficult parts of the job and her new life.

"Obviously nothing prepares you for taking on a role of this magnitude you can't do a course in how to become an effective first lady so I guess I have been learning as I go along, just as Xanana has been learning how to be a president and how people in government are learning how to govern and it's been a sharp learning curve for everybody."

Given East Timor's unique situation, there were no modern-day role models she could follow so she decided to shape the role of first lady for herself by taking hold of the issues close to her heart, which principally have revolved around women and their communities.

Two years ago she set up the Alola Foundation as a means of getting justice and support for East Timorese women who had been raped or had suffered other forms of violence, after being inspired by the story of young Juliana dos Santos.

The 15-year-old, known by the nickname Alola, saw her brother murdered by militia then was kidnapped by a militia leader and carted off to West Timor as a war prize. Despite efforts of her parents and representations to the United Nations, moves to bring her back to her family have been blocked by Indonesian authorities.

It is in the fight for justice and support for women where Sword Gusmao acknowledges she has had most influence in the shaping of policy and influencing her husband's priorities.

This leads to a discussion about the dynamics of the relationship between the former guerilla commander and leader of a patriarchal society and his strong and independent Australian-born wife.

"I think I'm probably one of the few people in Xanana's life who challenges him on some of his decisions and some of his attitudes because, having been the guerilla commander and now president, obviously he commands a great deal of authority and respect and often his word is taken as gospel," she said.

"That has probably been a bit difficult for him to accept, but on the whole I think he has benefited from the fact that I'm a very independently-minded person, as the country has. If I didn't feel passionately about a lot of the issues I am involved in I probably wouldn't have dedicated myself so fully to addressing those issues.

"I have always been an independently-minded person and I like to think those qualities are appreciated and encouraged. That's not to say it's not difficult at times and I do have to sometimes think twice about my approach to ensure that it is in line with the dominant culture, which is essentially a very patriarchal one here in East Timor."

Since she and her husband returned, Sword Gusmao has had to accept that the demands of his job mean having to share him with the nation and putting its needs ahead of her own. But this has become harder since her sons, Alexandre, 3, and 14-month-old Kay Olok have come along.

"I have had to accept that Xanana is father of the nation as well as father to his children and I have had to accept that he has very limited time to spend with them and with us as a family," she said.

"But I suppose I have always been aware of that need to sacrifice my own personal wishes and needs to the needs of the country, so I knew what I was getting into."

Not surprisingly Sword Gusmao won't be sorry when the president's five-year term comes to an end and says that he, too, is "very much counting on being able to retire at the end of his first mandate".

She knows there will be pressure on him to stand again, but says she hasn't felt the need yet to try to counter that push. "I'm not sure I would have to do too much convincing, I think he's going to be very reluctant to put his hand up again," she said.

Transition & reconstruction

Starting from scratch in East Timor

Business Week - November 12, 2003

Frederik Balfour -- Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao became President of the world's newest country, East Timor in May, 2002. A veteran guerrilla leader against the 24-year Indonesian occupation of his country, Gusmao faces the challenge of managing the peace for 750,000 people in an impoverished but oil-rich country.

I had last seen Gusmao in October, 1999, the day the last Indonesian troops left his country. Wearing battle fatigues, he came down from the Timorese mountains to watch as the final chapter of his struggle came to a close on the sun-bleached tarmac of Dili Airport. When I met the President last month, he was wearing a suit, sitting comfortably on a leather couch in the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Hong Kong. He gave me a warm hug -- my first from a President -- lit himself a Marlboro, and began to talk. Edited excerpts of our conversation follow:

Q: What are your biggest challenges as President?

A: First is to strengthen the governing institutions. The judiciary is the weakest. We inherited from UNTAET [the UN Transitional Authority of East Timor] a problem of appointing judges and prosecutors [who lack] training.

There are rumors [about corruption], but you must consider their inexperience, and maybe we have to pay attention to what they earn. Like when we talk about police as agents of law and order -- if they receive a bad salary it's easier [to understand why they don't] defend law and order. We feel that we have to discuss issues like justice, law and order, and police in a wider [context].

Another challenge is how to develop the country -- the poorest in Southeast Asia. How do we face globalization, and how can we survive as an independent nation? The third challenge is making the expectations of our people reality. And lastly, we need to strengthen democratic values and human rights [to give] the people the sense that they are [participants] in the process, not followers or spectators.

Q: What about education?

A: More than half our population is under 20, and yet not all the schools [destroyed in 1999 by Indonesians soldiers and militia] have been reopened. But for me education is a medium- and long- term strategy -- not an immediate priority. We already have thousands and thousands of youth with secondary schooling.

[I emphasize the importance of education to young people] when we talk about attracting investment. I tell the young people [if] they are not skilled, when investors come we will only be the cleaners and the security guards.

Q: What areas are most promising for economic development?

A: We have coffee exports. But we need to establish a new policy with plantations. We know we can't compete in quantity, but we can do it with quality -- for example, we have 100% organic coffee.

We have a plan to be self-sufficient in agriculture in 7 to 10 years. At the moment we import everything. We have no food- processing industry. We even have to import oranges. Yet our land is so fertile. It hurts me. We are also looking to fishing and other sectors. We're now a member of the African-Caribbean- Pacific export treaty with the European Union.

Q: Do you have any agricultural-credit programs?

A: Not yet.

Q: Given East Timor's breathtakingly beautiful coastline and lush, tropical mountains, how about tourism?

A: We have no more than about a hundred tourists on organized tours a year -- maybe a couple of thousand at the most including returning East Timorese. We don't have the infrastructure.

Q: How about foreign investment in tourism?

A: We don't have a legal framework yet. That is something Parliament and the government will do next year.

Q: What's the status of your oil and gas agreements with Australia, with whom you have overlapping claims?

A: Provisionally we said it was O.K. in Bayu Undan field [in a deal for the liquefied natural-gas field operated by Conoco Philips in which East Timor gets 90% of royalties] and Great Sunrise [in which it gets 18%].

We accepted because we didn't want to cause difficulties for the companies in the field. But we are not going to inherit a deal signed between Australia and Indonesia [which invaded East Timor in 1975 and occupied it until 1999]. We don't talk about renegotiating. We are negotiating for the first time as an independent country.

Q: Is the country ready to operate on its own when the UN leaves next May?

A: Yes, but we still need the presence of small mission there. We will still need some advisers in key areas like judiciary, finance, banking, and management. And we still need assistance in making our police more professional and effective.

Q: Are you concerned about militia?

A: Yes ... The problem is that we can't expect that the indicted people will present themselves voluntarily to be tried. But I believe that with more comprehensive policy from Indonesia [where most of the people accused of atrocities are now living], we will surpass this problem.

Q: Do they pose a security threat?

A: Yes -- when they cross the border [from Indonesia] and kill people and go back. The last cases were in January and February.

Q: Are you happy with the progress of the UN-funded Serious Crimes Unit, which is supposed to bring such people to justice?

A: Too much money is being spent on the Serious Crimes Unit. We [believe in] justice, and we defend justice, but if we think about all the processes of building the nation and stabilizing the country, [seeking] justice is important but not the only way.

Many militias are involved and are in West Timor, Indonesia. We can't go there [because there is no extradition treaty with Indonesia]. Of course our people suffered for 24 years [but] the best justice was the recognition of our right to be independent.

People didn't fight just for a flag and a constitution. There were dreams [for] a better life. We could better apply the money [spent on the Serious Crimes Unit] to build a good judicial system. Then investors can trust us, and we can develop our country. [It doesn't make sense] to put everyone in prison [who fought against our independence] with three meals a day, while our people don't have clean water or medical assistance and only eat one meal a day.

Q: What's the government budget?

A: About $72 million -- more than half of which comes from donors.

Q: How do you feel about the US decision to spend $87 billion on Iraq and Afghanistan?

A: I don't say I'm very worried, but very sad. We would hope that by doing everything we could do in terms of stabilizing the process and not denying the values we fought for that we can still receive attention from the international community.

Q: How much does the US give?

A: US aid is active in running programs worth about $25 million. They wanted to reduce that, but our Foreign Minister went to talk to them, and compared to $87 billion it's so small, so they agreed not to reduce it.

Q: Do you have an official residence?

A: No. I live outside town, up in the hills. As President the state gives me a car, and a driver, and guards. But it has meant losing my private life.

East Timorese losing confidence

Australian Associated Press - November 15, 2003

Post-independence confidence in East Timor has declined, with nearly 40 per cent of East Timorese saying they feel worse off now than under Indonesian rule and less than half optimistic about the future, according to a survey.

However, most of the 1,561 surveyed by the non-partisan International Republican Institute voiced confidence in their government, with 90 per cent describing the presidency as good or excellent, and positive appraisals of 75 per cent for the courts, 67 per cent for Parliament and 53 per cent for the prime minister's office.

The poll comes as East Timor is wrestling with a stagnant economy and doubts over the government's ability to run the country after the United Nations departs next year. The survey is based on a representative national sample with an error margin of 2.6 per cent.

"Things aren't perfect here," Deborah White, the institute's country director, told The Associated Press.

"People have said there are problems with this and that," she said. "But when they rated institutions, people overwhelmingly rated them good or excellent. It says to me that there is still confidence in these institutions. People are willing to give the government a chance to solve these problems."

According to the US-funded annual survey, 42 per cent of respondents felt East Timor was better off since the country became independent in 2001, while 38.9 per cent felt it was worse off. Another 17.2 per cent felt the country had not changed.

More significantly, the percentage of Timorese who voiced optimism about the country's future dropped from 75 per cent last year to 48 per cent this year. However, only 30 per cent felt the country was headed in the wrong direction.

Respondents said their concerns about the future were fuelled by unresolved problems, with 65 per cent saying corruption had worsened since independence and 43 per cent saying the economy had deteriorated.

However, Timorese said that freedom, security and the educational system had improved since independence.

Indonesia's brutal 24-year occupation ended in 1999, prompting Indonesian troops and their proxy militias to rampage through the country, killing 1,500 people and destroying much of the infrastructure. The violence ended when UN troops took control and the country attained independence in May 2001.

East Timor introduces own coins

The Australian - November 10, 2003

From a correspondent in Dili -- East Timor introduced its own coins today, hoping to spur economic development and create a symbol for the country following its hard-won independence from Indonesia two years ago.

The silver and gold coins -- called centavos -- depict the country's main exports like fish, rice and coffee. They come in denominations of one, five, 10, 25 and 50 and are expected to eventually replace the US coins currently used for transactions in the half-island state.

There are no plans, however, to replace US bills with Timorese paper.

"The main objective is to facilitate the population to make transactions" using the new currency, said Abrao de Vasconselos of the East Timor Banking and Payments Authority.

"With the American coins, there are no numbers so it's hard for Timorese, especially in rural areas, to understand them."

Vasconselos said the new currency will help the government cut costs and alleviate a chronic shortage of the American coins in rural areas. However, they cannot be used outside the country.

East Timor officially gained independence in May 2002 following more than 20 years of brutal Indonesian rule.

East Timorese voted to break away from Jakarta in a UN-sponsored referendum in 1999, sparking attacks by pro-Indonesia militias that killed nearly 1500 people and destroyed most of East Timor's infrastructure before UN troops restored order.

For many, the currency's debut was another small sign of progress for the impoverished country, which has successfully prosecuted scores of pro-Jakarta militiamen blamed for the violence, formed an army and police and reopened the National University of East Timor.

"As an East Timorese citizen, I am happy today we started to use our own currency," said Gomes, a 34-year-old civil servant who goes by one name. "We have an identity now."

Bid to coax rebels into the fold

Melbourne Age - November 11, 2003

Jill Jolliffe, Dili -- East Timorese politicians are hoping a formal headcount to identify former pro-independence guerillas will end their discontent and return them to the social mainstream.

Unemployed veterans who say their role in the fight for independence from Indonesia has not been recognised are a potential destabilising force for East Timor.

Scattered in hillside bases, some stage occasional hold-ups to demand revolutionary taxes from travellers. Others have formed sects that blend animism, Catholicism and radical politics.

A survey funded by a group of East Timor's international donors, including the World Bank, aims to recognise those who fought, paving the way for economic aid, while unmasking others using bogus guerilla credentials for political ends.

The idea was initiated by President Xanana Gusmao, former commander of Falintil (a Portuguese acronym for the Armed Forces for the Liberation of East Timor), who set up two commissions last year to oversee the project, helped by international experts.

East Timor's future in the balance

Asia Times - November 11, 2003

Damien Kingsbury, Melbourne -- As the United Nations winds down its presence in East Timor ahead of next May's departure, the fledgling state is still wrestling with forces that could offer it a stable future or, should matters not be well managed, tear it apart. More than ever, East Timor's future is in the balance.

Since its vote for independence from Indonesia and subsequent destruction by TNI (Indonesian military) -backed militias in 1999, East Timor has in many respects staged a remarkable recovery. In large part this has been due to United Nations and foreign non-governmental organization (NGO) assistance. A walk along the streets of Dili now reveals that most buildings have been repaired and are in use, businesses thrive and there are more cars, trucks and motorbikes than ever before. In the towns and countryside, such development is a little slower but still at impressive levels compared with two, much less three, years ago.

Most important, where until 1999 there were businesses and vehicles, most East Timorese were second-class citizens in their own homeland, and few had access to the benefits of development that the territory experienced under Indonesian rule.

Development is not just about material progress, but also social and political participation, representation, accountability and freedom. And it is upon such political development that the growth and security of material progress depends.

If East Timor's future is in the balance, then, there is much in its favor. Perhaps key among this is that, in their wisdom, the East Timorese chose to have a ceremonial rather than executive president. This means that critical state decisions are not in the hands of just one person, even if that person is Xanana Gusmao. The reality is that Gusmao will not be president forever, and his eventual replacement might be much less benign or genuinely popular.

The moral authority of the presidency, though, weighs well against the government executive, which in turn is balanced by the elected legislature from which it is drawn. An executive drawn from an elected legislature is always accountable, and must always perform at a level that would not result in a vote of no confidence.

The rule of an independent legal system, without which no state can function effectively, is also in place as a balance against legislative or executive caprice. However, with little time for training, this branch is not yet living up to its full potential.

No state can claim political development without a loyal but critically active opposition, which East Timor is developing. The Democratic Party and Social Democrats in particular provide a real, socially progressive alternative to the governing Fretilin, and may well force Fretilin into a coalition after the next elections. Indeed, the common assumption, especially about the Democrats, is that they are in reality the "reform faction" of Fretilin.

After two positive voting experiences, East Timor's people, too, have taken the democratic process to heart. For a people whose education levels were low under Indonesian rule, a situation that is improving only slowly, people from often surprisingly humble backgrounds are well able to articulate their political views and desires. This alone is perhaps the most positive sign for the future.

However, against these positive attributes, East Timor's political ledger also records some serious negatives, which together have the potential to undo the positive work that has taken place since UN intervention, and which could leave the country in chaos.

Most potentially damaging is the growing unpopularity of the Fretilin government, due to its perceived arrogance, elitism and allegations of abuses of power. Although Fretilin took about two-thirds of the seats in the new legislature and so clearly won government, it did so largely because it represented the core of the older pro-independence movement. The gloss of that victory is now long faded.

In that the Democrats and Social Democrats are a viable opposition, they are so on the basis of their members having been present during the Indonesian period (many being drawn from the East Timorese student resistance). Therefore, they have a perceived sense of connectedness with many ordinary, if still predominantly urban, East Timorese, as a consequence of being present during that time.

However, beyond a vague ideological position, neither party has developed any coherent set of policies, beyond succumbing to World Bank pressure to borrow for infrastructure projects. East Timor almost certainly cannot afford to borrow, and such projects are not likely to return an economic benefit. It is unfortunate then that the one opposition policy position that appears concrete is not especially well considered.

In that East Timor has received a lot of financial and professional assistance from the international community, international attention is now focusing elsewhere. Much has been achieved in three years, but not enough to replace the professional class that, until 1999, largely derived from the rest of Indonesia. In that respect, East Timor will most likely undergo a slump in professional expertise when the UN leaves. Given the sometimes uncooperative responses of the Fretilin government to a number of international organizations, this slump is not likely to be picked up by non-UN agencies.

In particular, elements of the former Internal Political Front, the clandestine urban wing of the armed resistance under Indonesian rule, have not accommodated post-independence civilian rule very well. There is a belief among some East Timorese that certain members of this former organization believe they remain a law unto themselves.

In an environment in which there are real grievances against the government, and in which economic development still leaves many expectations unfulfilled, there is fertile soil for planting the seeds of destabilization. This task has been admirably undertaken by the so-called Committee for the Popular Defense of the Republic of Democratic Timor L'este (CPD-RDTL).

As noted in the Jakarta Post almost two years ago, the CPD-RDTL is in essence a front organization for Indonesian irredentists who wish to see East Timor's independence fail. Not surprisingly, while the CPD-RDTL draws on some disaffected East Timorese youth and a few ex-members of the guerrilla force Falintil, it is also notable for its significant numbers of ex-militia members.

The CPD-RDTL does promote issues that are of genuine concern to ordinary East Timorese, but its tactics of violence, intimidation and extortion recall precisely those used in Europe, especially Germany and Italy, in the 1930s. Populism linked to violence is the stuff of fascism, and the CPD-RDTL is neo-Nazi in all but name. Having earlier said it did not recognize the UN in East Timor, or the outcome of the ballot for independence, the policy position of the CPD-RDTL is now quite unclear. But its actions have been, at best, malignant.

Drawing on a similar source of organization in West Timor, cross-border smuggling and continued threats by members of the Integration Struggle Troops (PPI) militia to "plant the red and white in East Timor" especially destabilizes the border districts of Bobonaro and Cova Lima. This also reflects the underlying reality of tension that exists between Indonesian and East Timor, not least among sections of the TNI, despite official Indonesian pronouncements to the contrary.

Having made a large and costly investment, the international community is unlikely to stand by and watch East Timor be overtly destabilized or fall victim to unilateral action such as a coup. If anything, the strategic location of East Timor both in the archipelago and astride a deepwater shipping and submarine channel also means that the United States in particular will want to see the place remain stable, which in turn means having an accountable government. The recent presence of US warships just off Dili, including an aircraft carrier, was a clear sign that US strategic interest remains high.

Australia, too, remains committed to East Timor, although its very wary of offending Indonesia by retaining too robust a presence along the border. Australia's army battalion is due to withdraw next year, but there are already calls from communities along the border for a military company to remain in each district after that, as a consequence of smuggling and potential militia activity. The East Timorese Border Patrol Unit is now formally in place, but it does have a limited capability.

On a balance of probabilities, East Timor is likely to bump along after next May, certainly with many problems but also with some strengths. If the major political groups can continue to respect the rule of law, then the future of East Timor should be more rather than less positive, compared with the situation under Indonesian rule. However, abandoning the rule of law, or failing to have it properly applied, will almost certainly spell disaster for the fledgling state.

If East Timorese need any motivation to remain on the path of tolerance and respect for the law, they need only to recall their own history. The cost in human life up to 1999 was staggering by any standard -- respected Harvard genocide expert Ben Kiernan estimates 150,000 of 650,000 died between 1975 and the mid-1980s -- and the destruction and death of 1999 have left their own scars. As with Indonesia itself, the price of going back to the bad old days is too high to contemplate.

[Dr Damien Kingsbury is head of philosophical, political and international studies at Deakin University, Melbourne. He recently visited East Timor.]

UN preparing to pull out of East Timor

Radio Australia - November 5, 2003

Linda Mottram: Australian troops in East Timor are preparing for the pull out of UN peacekeepers next year. They're handing over key duties to the country's new military, though there are warnings from East Timor's leaders that the country's fledgling forces are not yet capable of defending their own borders.

Our Correspondent Mark Bowling reports from Dili.

(sound of helicopter)

Mark Bowling: East Timorese troops are busy training in hostile conditions. In this exercise outside Dili, more than 100 heavily armed soldiers run in formation across a saltpan and board helicopters. For most of these young recruits, it's the first time they've been flying.

Military Instructor: Choppers will come in a line - 1, 2, 3, 4.

Mark Bowling: Every move they make is being carefully watched by Australian military instructors.

Eighteen months after independence, East Timor's fledgling army is facing its biggest challenge -- the pullout of United Nations peacekeepers, leaving it with the task of defending its own borders. a task which East Timor's own Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, says it's not ready to take on.

Mari Alkatiri: No, not yet, for sure. The Defence Force is a very embryonic one still. That is the reason why we are asking for assistance in security.

Mark Bowling: With clear memories of Indonesian-backed militia violence, Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta shares the same concern about East Timor's security.

Jose Ramos Horta: I plead with Australia not to disengage from East Timor too soon, too fast.

Mark Bowling: Australia is yet to commit troops to East Timor after next year's UN pullout, but it is involved in passing on military skills under the terms of a defence cooperation pact.

In charge of that program is Colonel Malcolm McGregor.

Malcolm McGregor: We're taking steps to ensure that we're in the country for another decade at least. We're building long-term infrastructure to keep our people here. Progress is being made very rapidly, but it is a long haul.

Mark Bowling: Meanwhile, Australia's role defending East Timor's borders is winding down. Five hundred troops will be home for Christmas. Most of the remaining 500 soldiers will leave with the United Nations at the end of next May.

As part of the pullout, every piece of equipment brought in by Australian troops must leave the country -- a massive logistical operation costing $200-million.

This is Mark Bowling in East Timor for AM.

No security without full stomachs: Gusmao

The Standard (China) - November 6, 2003

Louis Beckerling -- East Timor president Xanana Gusmao warned Asian business leaders yesterday that if people in the poorest countries of the region were left without food, there could be no peace and security.

The famed "warrior-poet" who captured the attention of the world with his heroic fight for the freedom of his country from an often brutal occupation by Indonesia, told delegates at the CEO Forum: "Without full stomachs, there is no security, no democracy, no nothing. People keep telling us we are a great success. But that has been only in one facet and now if people leave us, we will fail."

Since becoming president of one of the poorest countries in the world in April last year, Gusmao has campaigned for a change in the aid programmes conducted by rich nations; debt relief for the most-heavily indebted poor nations; and greater market access for producers in poor countries.

Sharing a panel yesterday with former regional leaders Bob Hawke and Fidel Ramos, Gusmao repeated his appeal for debt relief and private sector aid.

Delegates attending the conference spoke of "Asian growth", Gusmao said, but the experience of some small countries in the region was different.

"How can we survive as a nation? We have tourism. I must say that expats believe we are the best in the world for scuba diving. At least we are the best in something," he said.

But having won independence, East Timor now faced far greater challenges, Gusmao said. He warned that without private sector trust and investment, the country would fail.

East Timor still fragile: first lady

Manly Daily (Australia) - November 7, 2003

Just four years after the vote for independence in East Timor, the country's first lady, Kirsty Sword Gusmao, believes the country's peace is still too fragile to enter into the politics of the region.

The Melbourne-born wife of East Timor's first president, Xanana Gusmao, said she believed it was more appropriate to support West Papua and Aceh against the Indonesian military privately rather than publicly.

"I think it's all a question of timing," Sword Gusmao said at a launch of her book, A Woman of Independence, on Wednesday night at the Manly Art Gallery and Museum.

"I can't speak on behalf of the Government of East Timor but as a private citizen of East Timor I can say I have a great deal of sympathy for that cause and continue to follow it with great interest.

"[But] I think it would be very unwise for East Timor to put its neck out for causes like that in West Papua at present. The reality is that East Timor is newly independent. You could say its peace and that independence are somewhat fragile.

"It would be foolhardy in my view for the East Timorese to put in jeopardy the security and peace they fought so hard for and paid the ultimate price for, to express solidarity with a cause which I don't think would really make the difference between the winning and the losing of their struggle."

The Angus and Robertson Manly launch was one of only two Sydney events marking the release of Sword Gusmao's account of her life as East Timorese resistance supporter, activist and romance with the former guerilla leader Gusmao.

Interviewed by former Manly MP Peter Macdonald, who served as a medical co-ordinator for Timor Aid, the 37-year-old mother of two said she thought Australia's involvement with the US in the war against Iraq had more impact on Indonesian relations than support of East Timor.

"I think that today we are obviously living in a very different geopolitical situation than in '95 and the East Timor leadership see the importance of building a constructive new relationship with Indonesia based on shared values," she said.

"There are probably certain sections of the Indonesian community that will not easily forget what happened in East Timor and will continue to vent that and feel bitterness about it.

"But in terms of Australia's relationship with Indonesia I don't think the stance Australia took in relation to East Timor in 1999 would have long-term adverse effects.

"There are probably a lot of other factors which are far more decisive in shaping that relationship with Indonesia today."

Timor Gap

The blessed curse

New Internationalist 361 - October, 2003

Quinton Temby -- As development of the rich oil and natural gas reserves in the Timor Sea near East Timor takes off, the Government hopes that investment by oil-industry giants will bring the petroleum onshore for processing. Ten thousand jobs could be created and untold billions of dollars added to the Gross Domestic Product. The potential investment, it says, represents "genuine national-interest considerations that may well outweigh royalty and tax-revenue benefits".

But this government hype is from Australia's Northern Territory, where gas from the Timor Sea will be piped. The only benefits to the national interest will be Australia's.

What then of East Timor? Australia's northern neighbour is indeed reliant on its cut of the Timor Sea royalties to transform it from the poorest country in Asia to a viable, independent nation. In the first major development, at Bayu-Undan, gas will be extracted by US oil company ConocoPhillips, piped to Australia for processing and then shipped to Japan for sale.

East Timor will receive about three billion US dollars in royalties and taxation over the 17-year life of the project. But with all the investment set to occur in Australia, some observers are concerned East Timor is missing out on its best chance yet to jump-start development.

The oil companies claim that a pipeline to East Timor -- unlike one to Australia -- isn't technically feasible. But Australian oil-industry engineer Geoffrey McKee cites one engineering study that concluded it would not only be feasible but cheaper than a pipeline to Australia.

He believes that the oil companies have "grossly misled" East Timor about the viability of a pipeline. In a submission to the Australian Parliament, he wrote: "This has deprived East Timor of the most important nation-building benefit to be derived from its Timor Sea resources, namely infrastructure and an energy-export industry located on her shores."

Veteran campaigners for East Timor's independence, like Australian agricultural scientist Rob Wesley-Smith, see the justice in East Timor taking delivery of its own resources. He says that a pipeline could deliver gas to generate electricity, halting the massive deforestation that began when people lost access to subsidized Indonesian fuel and turned to their trees for firewood. Gas would also be a much cleaner source of energy than the current system of diesel-powered generators.

But the push for a pipeline is destined to turn into a dispute between East Timor on one side and Australia and the oil companies on the other. In the next major Timor Sea development of the Greater Sunrise reserves, Australia supports a plan by Shell to process the gas it extracts on the world's first floating processing platform. By contrast, a pipeline that will bring the gas to its shores is East Timor's "preferred option".

Preferred by government, but not by NGOs

Lao Hamutuk, an NGO that monitors international institutions in East Timor, is wary of encouraging the oil industry. After hosting a delegation from the Ecuador-based Oilwatch Network last year, they wrote in their bulletin: "oil- and gas-dependent countries are characterized by high child mortality, malnutrition and disease, poor education and illiteracy, corruption, authoritarianism, vulnerability to economic shocks and high military spending. East Timor already has some of these problems as a result of colonialism, occupation and war -- but oil money alone will not solve them. In fact, the experience of other countries shows that it often makes them worse."

By contrast the East Timorese Government says it isn't in a position to dispense with oil and gas development. It's trying to build a nation from the ruins of Indonesian colonialism and is dependent on donor countries to fund its meagre budget. Generosity waned in the lead-up to formal independence last year, when international donors began to demand an "exit strategy".

Initially, they put pressure on East Timor to take out World Bank loans. But East Timorese leaders saw this could compromise their entire development strategy. According to Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, they agreed instead to cut the budget by 45 per cent and have it tied to the immediate development of the Timor Sea. "It was not easy to make this decision," Alkatiri recalled in a conference with international activists. "[But] if you don't want loans and if you don't get real money from donor countries, you can"t really govern this country.'

Disagreement about whether pipelines should run north to East Timor or south to Australia is only part of a more fundamental and on-going dispute between the region's poorest and richest country over sovereignty in the Timor Sea. It began when East Timor was a Portuguese colony, and took a turn in Australia's favour when, in 1975, Indonesia was poised to invade East Timor. In a secret cable two months before the invasion, Australia's Ambassador to Indonesia, Richard Woolcott, encouraged his Government to support the invasion because boundaries could be much more easily negotiated with Indonesia than either Portugal or an independent East Timor. This support would, he said, be in the interests of the Department of Minerals and Energy.

Woolcott was right. In 1989, after protracted negotiations, the Australian and Indonesian Governments signed the Timor Gap Treaty, carving up the oil and gas reserves. The treaty appeared to be a generous trade-off with Australia, in return for diplomatic support for Indonesia's illegal occupation of East Timor. For supporters of East Timor it was the ultimate blood-for-oil deal, which sacrificed the fate of a whole people for financial gain. For East Timor's guerrilla leader and future president, Xanana Gusmao, it was a "total betrayal" in which Australia had been an accomplice to genocide in order to secure its oil and gas interests in the Timor Gap.

Australia's diplomatic support for Indonesia was only punctured by protests in 1999, after East Timor's UN-sponsored vote for independence was followed by violent military retribution. In September 1999 Australian-led UN peacekeepers entered East Timor to usher out Indonesian troops and secure the country. Only two months later, with East Timor still smouldering, Australia received its first big windfall from the Timor Sea as billions of dollars of oil began pumping out of the highly disputed Laminaria and Corallina reserves.

At this time East Timor must have been the most devastated nation on Earth. Seventy per cent of its infrastructure had been destroyed and most of its people had been driven from their homes. According to the United Nations Development Programme, East Timor had the lowest income per head in the world.

Nevertheless, from 1999 to 2002 the Australian Government took an estimated $1.2 billion in revenue from Laminaria-Corallina. For the same period Australia gave East Timor $200 million in aid. Despite this theft of East Timor's resources at such a critical stage of its development as a nation, Australia's Prime Minister John Howard describes his country's role in East Timor's independence as "without question the most positive and noble act by Australia in the area of international relations in the last 20 years."

While East Timor was a UN protectorate, Australia also pressured it into adopting essentially the same treaty it had enjoyed with Indonesia. On 20 May 2002 -- East Timor's first official day of independence -- the new Timor Sea Treaty was signed. Its main effect is that, despite the end of the Indonesian occupation, Australian control of the Timor Sea is perpetuated.

According to Vaughan Lowe, Professor of International Law at Oxford University, the treaty will prevent East Timor from establishing its rightful maritime boundaries in accordance with international law. As a consequence, oil-industry engineer Geoffrey McKee estimates that almost 60 per cent of East Timor's resources -- some $20 billion worth of oil and gas -- will go to Australia.

In spite of this, East Timor is determined to regain its maritime territory occupied by Australia. However, the arguable Australian claim that the seabed is part of its continental shelf cannot be legally tested. In March 2002, when East Timor looked like it could challenge Australia in the International Court of Justice, Australia abruptly withdrew from the court's jurisdiction on maritime boundaries.

Prime Minister Alkatiri described this as "an unfriendly act". Since then, relations between the two nations have deteriorated further. Alkatiri has said he will attempt to block development of the Greater Sunrise field until Australia agrees to negotiate on maritime boundaries. "Just as we fought to protect our right to our land, we must fight to preserve our right to our sea," he told parliament recently.

While the dispute between the two countries is stirring the same defiant nationalism in East Timor that marked its long struggle for independence, Australia's attitude appears unrepentantly colonial. Australia's Foreign Minister, Alexander Downer, once arrived in the capital, Dili, at short notice and charged into East Timor's cabinet room with an imposing entourage. A leaked transcript of that meeting reveals Downer warning Prime Minister Alkatiri: "We are very tough. We will not care if you give information to the media. Let me give you a tutorial in politics..."

Paradoxically, Alkatiri has an even worse relationship with the leading Australian supporters of East Timor than he does with the Australian Government. While Australian activists have lobbied against their country's bullying of East Timor, they've also been critical of the way Alkatiri has handled the oil and gas negotiations. The last straw for Alkatiri was in June last year when an expatriate Australian organized a demonstration over the Timor Sea Treaty outside East Timor's Parliament. Attending an oil-industry conference in Australia at the time, Alkatiri announced that he would draft legislation to prevent foreigners from protesting in East Timor. Initially passed by the Parliament, it was vetoed by the President as "unconstitutional". It now awaits a final decision by Parliament. If passed it will allow for foreigners to be deported if they "organize or participate in demonstrations, processions, rallies and meetings of a political nature".

For a nation founded on political activism -- in alliance with an international solidarity movement that saw East Timorese take their protest around the world -- it's a sad irony. With East Timor attempting to coexist with powerful and often hostile Indonesian and Australian neighbours, popular and activist support in these countries is indispensable.

The Bayu-Undan pipeline

Length of proposed pipeline: 500 kilometres from the Bayu-Undan gas field, Timor Sea to Darwin, Australia.

Corporate owners: ConocoPhillips (project operator), with co- venturers AGIP, Santos and INPEX.

Cost of building: estimated at $500 million, plus $1 billion for the liquid natural gas (LNG) plant in Darwin which it connects to.

Volume of gas transported: up to 750 million cubic feet of gas per day.

Countries to which gas is to be exported: 3 million tons of LNG a year to Japan from 2006 for 17 years.

[Quinton Temby is an Australian-based freelance journalist.]

Alkatiri accuses Australia of delaying oil talks

Associated Press - November 14, 2003

Canberra -- East Timor's prime minister Friday accused Australia of deliberately dragging out talks aimed at bolstering his impoverished nation's share of billions of dollars worth of oil and gas under the sea dividing the two nations.

Speaking to The Associated Press by phone from the capital Dili, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said his tiny country, desperate to get oil and gas revenue flowing, had been pressured to sign a temporary agreement to carve up the riches earlier this year.

"It was always deadline over deadline to have it done in a timeframe that was not easy for ... a new country to respond to," Alkatiri said of the pressure from Canberra and oil companies.

Officials from Australia and East Timor met in northern Australia earlier this week to begin the long process of setting a permanent maritime boundary between the two nations which would settle once and for all each country's share of the oil and gas field.

Alkatiri said East Timor is eager to set the border fast -- in three to five years -- but added that Canberra is in no hurry, probably because a permanent boundary would scrap existing revenue-sharing treaties that favor Australia.

"We have proposed monthly meetings, they are only ready for twice a year meetings," Alkatiri said. "With this type of schedule maybe my grandson and granddaughter will resolve the problems."

At stake are billions of dollars in revenues needed to drag the half island state out of debt and poverty.

"It would really break our dependency from these donors and the whole process of the development of the country would take another step forward," Alkatiri said.

East Timor gained independence 18 months ago following four centuries of colonial rule by Portugal and 24 years of brutal Indonesian occupation. The country of 800,000 is just beginning the huge task of rebuilding and developing infrastructure.

Outside of Dili, residents live on as little as 55 US cents a day. Many people have no phones, electricity or clean water.

Alkatiri says the border should be drawn in the middle of the 600 kilometers of sea separating one of the world's most affluent nations with one of its poorest. That would place 90% of the oil and gas reserves on East Timor's side.

Australia wants its continental shelf to be the border. In some places that's just 150 kilometers from East Timor's coastline.

Under the current agreement, East Timor gets 20% of the Greater Sunrise gas field, the richest in the area. Australia takes 80%. East Timor also gets 90% of several fields in a "joint development" area to Australia's 10%, but those fields aren't as lucrative.

Not covered by those treaties are three other fields -- Buffalo, Laminaria and Corralina -- which lie on East Timor's side of the disputed area. Australia has a 100% claim on those and has received around US$1.2 billion in revenue since 1999.

Alkatiri said Australia ignored a request early this year to stop production in those three fields until the boundaries are settled.

Dili estimates the current deal will give it about US$4 billion in revenues over the next two to three decades. Under what Alkatiri believes are its "entitlements under international law," the country would get US$13 billion.

Over 20 years the difference is between US$200 million a year and US$650 million a year. East Timor's annual budget is now US$80 million.

Australian officials weren't immediately available for comment but have previously described the current division of riches as generous.

Alkatiri rejected that. "If you applied international law 100% should be ours," he said. "But we are ready to negotiate and resolve the differences."

Australia refuses to set border talks deadline

Radio Australia - November 12, 2003

Australia is refusing to set a deadline for talks beginning today with its neighbour East Timor on their contentious maritime borders. East Timor is contesting the boundaries set under a 1972 agreement between Australia and Indonesia when East Timor was ruled by Portugal. Now the recently independent country wants new borders and a bigger share of the rich oil and gas fields which lie between them.

Correspondent Speakers: Peter Phipps, Globalism Institute, RMIT; Professor Gillian Triggs, Direector of Comparative and International Law at Melbourne University; Marie Alkatiri, Prime Minister of East Timor.

Snowdon: There's a lot at stake in the talks to settle once and for all the borders in the sea between the two countries. For East Timor, finalising maritime boundaries will also set much of its economic future.

Phipps: Currently East Timor is classified as the fourth poorest country in the world.

Peter Phipps is from the Globalism Institute at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. The Institute is a signatory to a letter to Australia's Prime Minister John Howard urging a resolution before the resources are depleted and worthless to Timor. One hundred other non-government organisations worldwide also signed the letter.

Phipps: Basically we see that Australia has some policy choices to make in relation to East Timor. And that what's desirable for Australia's interests is really a stable and prosperous East Timor.

Snowdon; And so basically the letter is urging a quick resolution to the issue?

Phipps: Yeah, there are fears that the Australian government might use sort of procedural delays as a way of avoiding addressing this until after the revenue stream from the gas and the oil fields is really finished.

Snowdon: Under the Timor Sea Treaty and other agreements signed last year with Australia, East Timor's share of the earnings from the oil and gas fields of Bayu Undan in the joint development zone was increased to 90 per cent, from the previous 50/50 split.

That's worth maybe 3 billion US dollars over 17 years and is effectively the country's only income, unless it can develop other industries. (Bayu Undan falls within the jointly managed area of the Timor Gap formed during the disputes in the 70s.) Worth a great deal more are other fields such as Greater Sunrise, the bulk of which are claimed by Australia, which is sticking to boundaries based on the continental shelf.

East Timor wants new boundaries drawn mid-way between the two countries -- and it has international practice on its side. The median line is now most commonly used. Anticipating a fight, Australia withdrew from the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea and the International Court of Justice which might have mediated the dispute, leaving tough bilateral negotiations the only option.

And having said its been generous to increase East Timor's share of Bayu Undan when it was under no obligation to, Australia is loathe to go any further.

Because according to international law expert, Professor Gillian Triggs, a change of boundaries with little East Timor just might not be worth the effort. She says it could jepardise not only billions of resource dollars for Australia but its borders with New Zealand, Indonesia and its Antartic claims. But she adds there could be some room to compromise a little.

Triggs: It seems clear that Australia wants to reach an agreement with ET. And while I'm not privy to those negotiations, to acahive that outcome it may be that Australia will have to move a little closer to a median line.

Snowdon: So it might be that ET is given something of a concession but Australia's unlikely to go all the way and give it what it wants, the median line.

Triggs: I think the way you've stated it is a fair enough summation but there's another ingredient to this that at least couldn't be ignored. And that is that Indonesia could very well say that well look just a moment, we've got a boundary with you which is not a median line and which recognises Australia's full continental shelf claim, we want to renegotiate the boundary. Now that's pretty unusual in international law but Indonesia may feel that its entitled to renegotiation if Australia's made a concession to East Timor.

Snowdon: And there have certainly been comments to that effect by the Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda. It was some tiome ago but he is on the record sayin gthat he would expect a seat at the table if things were to change at all.

Triggs; Well that's correct and the consequences of that could be quite momentous.

Snowdon: Professsor Gillian Triggs, Director of the Institute of Comparative and International Law from Melbourne University.

Neither side is talking publicly today but East Timor' Prime MInister, Marie Alkatiri has had recent talks with Indonesia which a spokesperson, while declining to reveal the details says, have "gone well".

The one day confidential talks in Darwin involve only senior officials, and are to lay the guidelines for future negotiations, which could take years.

In an ABC interview earlier this week, Prime Minister Marie Alkatiri told Mark Bowling, he wants a deadline of between three and five years for the talks with Australia to be finished.

Alkatiri: I hope that Howard and Downer don't start thinking that I am hostile to Australia. I am here to defend the interests of my people as they are hgere to defend the interests of the people of Australia. I have been trying to be polite, I've been trying to be friends with all politicians in Australia but I can never give up everything just to be friends. I can give up boundaries and on the other hand I can give up resources. I cannot really give up both.

Australia and Timor begin maritime boundary talks

Associated Press - November 12, 2003

Canberra -- Australia and East Timor began talks on Wednesday aimed at settling a bitter dispute over carving up the seabed between the two nations, which holds billions of dollars worth of oil and gas reserves.

The one-day talks in the northern port of Darwin are the first round of negotiations that officials say could take up to five years and eventually will set the maritime boundary between one of the world's most prosperous nations and one of its most impoverished.

Australia and East Timor already have signed deals dividing much of the oil and gas fields, but East Timor now says it was forced to give too much to Canberra.

Once the maritime boundary is settled, it will take precedence over those treaties. But Australia's foreign minister said those pacts are good enough for now.

"Although negotiations on a permanent maritime [boundary] may take some time, legal arrangements are already in place to ensure that benefits from the development of Timor Sea petroleum resources will flow to both countries," Alexander Downer said on Wednesday.

Desperate to get oil and gas revenue flowing, East Timor signed two deals with Australia earlier this year to split the proceeds, even though most of the oil and gas would be on its side if the border were drawn equidistant from Timor and Australia.

Currently, the former Portuguese colony, which is only 600 kilometers north of Darwin, gets just 20 percent of the Greater Sunrise gas field, the richest in the area, while Australia takes 80 percent.

The field is estimated to generate about US$7 billion in tax revenues over the next 25 years and lies only 150 kilometers from East Timor and 400 kilometers from Australia.

East Timor also gets 90 percent of several fields in a "joint development" area to Australia's 10 percent, but those fields are not producing much revenue yet.

Dili also believes it's entitled to three oil fields, which have earned Australia US$1.2 billion in tax revenue since 1999, according to an East Timorese nongovernment organization La- Hamutuk.

Australia has said the deals are generous to East Timor, but Dili has disagreed, even though it has inked the pacts.

"[East Timor] doesn't accept the terms of the Greater Sunrise agreement as in any way permanent," Jonathan Morrow, an adviser to East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said after the signing of the deal in March. "We feel we've still got some years left to pressure Australia."

The Timorese government felt compelled to sign the deals to bolster the confidence of resource companies, who were wary of investing millions of dollars into a region where ownership was uncertain.

Andrew McNaughton from the Australia East Timor Association, a nongovernmental group aimed at promoting ties between Australia and East Timor, believes Canberra will be in no hurry to settle the boundary issue because the current deals favor Australia.

"We think East Timor is only getting about 40 percent of its potential assets and Australia is helping itself to the remaining 60 percent," he said.

McNaughton also noted that East Timor relies heavily on its rich neighbor for aid, putting it at a disadvantage in boundary talks. "In the world of real politics Australia holds the power, so a compromise may be the best outcome," he said.

East Timorese officials declined on Wednesday to comment on the talks.

Australia denies bullying East Timor on gas field

Agence France Presse - November 11, 2003

Sydney -- Australia has denied bullying its tiny Pacific neighbour East Timor Tuesday as the nations prepared for talks on finalising a contentious martime border that will determine how billions of dollars in revenues from Timor Sea gas fields is split.

Preliminary talks are scheduled in Darwin Wednesday on a border deal that impoverished East Timor sees as vital in ending its dependence on foreign aid.

A group of more than 100 non-government organisations from 19 countries wrote to Prime Minister John Howard last week raising concerns Australia would "sellout" East Timor in in a grab for the lucrative gas fields.

The letter also urged Australia to settle the border dispute within three years, giving East Timor early access to much-needed revenue of up to 30 billion dollars (21 billion US).

A foreign affairs department spokeswoman said Australia, a strong supporter of East Timor's independence from Indonesia, was committed to consultation with Dili.

"The Australian government has worked hard with the East Timorese since independence to arrive at a regime that allows the utilisation and development of petroleum resources," she said.

"We want to make sure that there's a win in there for both parties." However, she said the Darwin talks would last only one day and centre on methodology for finalising the boundaries, so it was too early to commit to a three-year deadline.

Australia withdrew from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, in March 2002 in what the East Timorese government described at the time as a "hostile act" designed to stop it receiving its fair share from the gasfields.

The most hotly-disputed part of the border concerns the Greater Sunrise field, most of which lies outside an area covered by a joint development treaty between Australia and East Timor.

Instead, the bulk of the field is covered by an interim deal known as the International Unitisation Agreement, which gives 90 percent of revenues to Australia.

The interim deal must be renegotiated during the border talks but the NGOs fear Australia will allow them to drag on from decades so that by the time the issue is settled the gas fields are virtually empty.

Australia claimed 80 percent of Greater Sunrise under the terms of a maritime treaty signed with Indonesia when it occupied East Timor. But after East Timor became independent, Dili claimed a far greater part of the field lay within its maritime boundaries.

No timetable for East Timor boundary

Courier-Mail (Queensland) - November 11, 2003

Nigel Wilson -- Australia is refusing to give East Timor a timetable for reaching a permanent maritime boundary between the two countries that could affect ownership of billions of dollars in oil and gas reserves.

On the eve of preliminary talks on the boundary beginning in Canberra tomorrow, Australian government officials emphasised the talks were about the process for the negotiations, not a timetable.

But the East Timor administration is pressing ahead with an international campaign designed to force Australia to give up control of such reserves as Greater Sunrise (owned by Woodside, ConocoPhillips, Shell and Osaka Gas) and the rapidly declining Laminaria oilfield (owned by Woodside, Shell and BHP Billiton).

When Australia negotiated a joint petroleum development area in the Timor Sea between Darwin and Dili, ahead of East Timor's independence in May last year, critics argued East Timor was being forced to give up access to petroleum resources worth up to $30 billion.

Last week, what's described as a "global coalition of non- government organisations" wrote to John Howard urging Australia to treat East Timor fairly as a sovereign nation.

The letter, signed by 100 NGOs from 18 countries, argued that East Timor's rights as an independent nation to establish boundaries and to benefit from its own resources were at stake.

The letter urged the Prime Minister to set a firm timetable to establish a boundary within three years.

But Australian officials said yesterday this was unrealistic as the history of establishing maritime boundaries suggested such negotiations could take up to 30 years to complete.

Australia had no preconceived ideas about how long long the talks might take but tomorrow's meeting of officials was a "scoping" meeting and no substantive questions would be discussed.

Timor's first lady urges spirit of friendship in sea talks

Radio Australia - November 10, 2003

The first lady of East Timor, Kirsty Sword-Gusmao, has urged Australia to consider the plight of the fledgeling nation when negotiations begin later this week on establishing maritime boundaries.

The negotiations over the resource-rich waters are expected to be both lengthy and difficult, after a temporary treaty was agreed in March. The Australian-born wife of President Xanana Gusmao is in Melbourne afer publishing a personal account of East Timor's path to independence.

Day: Tell us about life in East Timor now, because we heard earlier this year in Australia that many people were starving and that people were living on less than a dollar a day. Is that still the situation?

Sword-Gusmao: Life continues to be extremely hard a struggle even for the vast majority of the population. Unemployment's very high the cost of living's also high. As you say the average daily income is very low and not really sufficient to be able to feed, clothe, educate children. I mean when you consider that most families have on average 7.5 children it's a huge chunk out of the average salary to be able to send them all to school.

Day: What can you to tackle the issue of poverty given that there are so many matters that East Timor, as a developing nation, has to deal with?

Sword-Gusmao: Well I'm doing my bit through the work of the Alola Foundation and obviously my concern is for the women and children of the country in addressing some of their huge needs through work in the education and health fields. We're trying to create a better life for particularly women and their communities give them better prospects for earning an independent income and being able to enjoy finally the benefits that independence has to bring?

Day: What about the Timor Sea Treaty with Australia, which covers the development of those rich oil and gas reserves, will that significantly change the lives of the people of East Timor?

Sword-Gusmao: Obviously it's vitally important that East Timor has access to the resources of the Timor Sea in order to be able to avoid long term dependence on foreign aid. You know the government doesn't want to be having to put its hand out for many years to come and I think it's really important that the negotiations that are about to start in a few days time are carried forward in a spirit of friendship and solidarity with the Timorese people and out of recognition of obviously the huge needs that the country has. Obviously Australia as a wealthy privileged country I think you know we should extend the hand of friendship as we've done for many years, and carry out those negotiations in a spirit of fair go for Timor Leste.

Day: Given that it is so important as you say for East Timor to maximise its return from those resources, do you feel that Australia is seeking to take too much away?

Sword-Gusmao: Look I'm not aware of the details of the negotiations but I do hope and trust that those negotiations will be carried out in favor of East Timor and out of recognition as I said for the tremendous needs of the country. You know obviously we're rebuilding from scratch in every sector and it's something that's unimaginable I think to the average Australian.

Day: Well tell us finally what you see as being in your future. I mean Xanana has taken on the role of President, you've taken on the role of first lady a bit reluctantly. What do you think the future holds for you?

Sword-Gusmao: I think it's probably going to be much of the same for us both for the forseeable future, lots of hard work lots of sacrifice of our personal wishes and our personal dreams for the sake of the country. But you know whilst I grumble about that occassionally and always wish I suppose every working mother does, that I have more time to spend with my children and enjoy their years of growing up and development, I think I consider myself to be essentially very lucky that I'm involved in work that brings the satisfaction of making a difference to the lives of lots of people, to speaking lots of languages every day which is also a very rewarding experience, of being able to participate in the rebuilding of a country which has had an extraordinary past and will have an extraodinary future I hope.

Government & politics

Poll shows Fretilin slipping, but holds majority support

Lusa - November 6, 2003

Dili -- East Timor's governing Fretilin party has lost electoral support but retains majority backing after nearly 18 months in power, according to the country's first political poll, sources told Lusa Thursday.

The poll, which will be released next week, showed that, if elections were held now, Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's Fretilin would get a fraction more than 50 percent of the vote, down from its landslide 57.4 percent in the pre-independence ballot in August 2001.

Sources linked to the polling, which was carried out with the aid of the US International Republican Institute, said the two largest opposition parties made significant gains.

The Democratic Party would get 3-to-4 percent more votes than its 2001 tally of 8.7 percent and the third- ranked Social Democratic Party would take an additional 2 percent, according to the poll.

The more than 1,000 Timorese polled also indicated that the country's most popular figure is the former Catholic bishop of Dili, Carlos Ximenes Belo, a Nobel Peace laureate, with a 95 percent approval rating.

President Xanana Gusmau and Catholic Bishop Basilio do Nascimento drew for second place with 94 percent each.

With a 49-percent approval rating, Alkatiri placed behind Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta (83 percent) and Defense Forces chief Brig. Taur Matan Ruak (74 percent).

Maio Carrascalo, leader of the opposition Social Democrats, also beat out the prime minister with 64 percent preference.

Justice & reconciliation

Timor remembers Santa Cruz victims, calls for probe

Associated Press - November 12, 2003

Dili -- Thousands of people gathered Wednesday to remember the victims of one of East Timor's worst massacres under Indonesian rule with a moment of silence and flowers as well as demands for an investigation to find the perpetrators.

The November 12, 1991, massacre of more than 200 people at the Santa Cruz cemetery in the capital Dili was secretly caught on video and broadcast around the world. It galvanized opposition to Indonesia's brutal 24-year rule of East Timor that ended eight years later with UN intervention.

"Today we are here to remember the martyrs, the heroes who gave their lives for the liberation of this nation," Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta told a crowd of nearly 3,000. "Young people should prepare themselves to study and work hard to build this country and continue the struggle that has been laid by the heroes," he said.

November 12 was declared a national holiday in East Timor and all government offices were closed. During an emotional ceremony, the nation's flag was raised to honor the Santa Cruz victims followed by a one-minute moment of silence.

The crowd -- mostly young people and relatives of the victims -- then marched to the nearby Santa Cruz cemetery. Officials laid flowers at the site of the massacre and families called for justice for their loved ones.

Dressed in black, many of the mourners carried banners that called for the UN to set up a tribunal to investigate the killings.

More than 200 people were killed at the Santa Cruz cemetery, after soldiers shot into a crowd that was protesting the killing of a pro-independence activist by the military.

The event symbolized Indonesia's ruthless occupation of East Timor that started with an invasion in 1975 and ended in 1999, when Indonesian troops and their proxy militias killed 1,500 and destroyed much of the half-island after voters approved an independence referendum.

Indonesia set up its own rights court to investigate the 1999 violence that ended only after the deployment of an Australia-led foreign peacekeeping force.

The Indonesian court has been widely condemned as a sham, convicting only six of 18 Indonesian government and military officials. All remain free pending their appeals. The court's mandate didn't include the 1991 killings and none of those convicted was linked to the Santa Cruz massacre.k

Indonesia

Many Timorese return to and live in Indonesia

Antara - November 5, 2003

Kupang -- A top East Timorese community leader in Indonesia, Armindo Soares, said a lot of East Timorese refugees who participated in the repatriation program returned to Indonesia.

"They do not choose Kupang or other parts of West Timor [East Nusa Tenggara province] as their home, but outside Timor island, like Alor and Flores regencies," he said here Wednesday. Armindo said they left East Timor for Indonesia and became Indonesian citizens.

The former member of East Timor's legislative assembly during the Indonesian rule made the remark in response to the Indonesian government and IOM-initiated repatriation program for ex-East Timorese refugees.

However, this repatriation program would not resolve the ex- refugee-related problems the Indonesian government was facing because many East Timorese repatriated to East Timor went back to Indonesia, he said.

Each of the ex-refugees in Indonesia will reportedly get a compensation of 2.5 million rupiah if they participate in the repatriation program, due to be made effective from November 1 to December 31, 2003. This program is jointly organized by the International Organisation of Migration (IOM) and the Indonesian government .

According to Armindo, it would be better if the budget for the repatriation program was allocated to assist the ex-refugees who still lived in ex-refugee camps to build their new settlement areas.

For those who got involved in this repatriation program should be ashamed because it was like a "humanitarian project". "Because it is a project, then we must put the fate of people at stake," said the acting chairman of Uni Timor Aswain, a pro-Indonesian organisation.

"Ex-refugees here have become Indonesian citizens so that they will be charged with tax by the East Timorese government if they return to East Timor," he added.

More than 250,000 East Timorese fled East Timor after the UN Mission in East Timor announced the result of the UN-organised plebiscite in September 1999, which was in favor for the pro- independence camp.

The victory of the pro-independence faction in the ballot paved the way for the territory to secede from Indonesia. Most of the refugees have come back to East Timor since 2000.

East Timor determined to leave its past behind

Sydney Morning Herald - November 7, 2003

Louise Williams -- The quest for justice for East Timor's victims of human rights abuses under Indonesian military occupation is in effect over. The Government in Dili is making reconciliation with its former ruler an absolute priority.

East Timor's Foreign Minister, Jose Ramos Horta, said his government was solid in its opposition to an international human rights tribunal, despite the deaths of about 200,000 East Timorese during Indonesia's 25-year occupation and continuing public demands for accountability. An international tribunal would humiliate Jakarta.

Dr Ramos Horta said during a visit to Sydney this week that it was essential that the impoverished young nation bury the past and rebuild its strained relationship with Indonesia.

He conceded that Jakarta's year-long human rights trials into the carnage of 1999 were disappointing, not just to the East Timorese people, but also internationally.

The trials of 16 Indonesian military officers and two East Timorese officials accused of orchestrating the violence that preceded the Australian-led military intervention in September, 1999, ended recently with 10 acquittals and six convictions.

The most senior military officer convicted, the former regional commander Major-General Adam Damiri, is free awaiting appeal.

The trials were widely criticised for legal and procedural flaws and light sentences, reviving calls for an international tribunal under the United Nations, such as those convened for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.

An international tribunal can be only convened if a nation's courts are unwilling or unable to deal properly with human rights violations. East Timor's new courts have no jurisdiction over Indonesian citizens, and Jakarta has ignored all extradition requests.

"As Foreign Minister, I will not use my energy to lobby for an international tribunal," Dr Ramos Horta said. "The Government is very solid on this view. We are in a peculiar situation. Indonesia has changed since 1999, the president and government is new; they cannot be blamed for what happened. It would not be fair."

The East Timorese Government is so anxious not to provoke Jakarta that local journalists were told not to bring up the past during a recent visit by the former Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas.

Dr Horta admitted many in East Timor were still traumatised. But, he said, the Government could not be diverted from the overwhelming challenge of building a new nation by sentiments of injustice of desire for revenge.

"Let's not forget the East Timorese were not just victimised by the Indonesians," he said of East Timorese who sided with the Indonesian military and were involved in much of the violence.

East Timor is a tiny nation of mainly rural villages. At village level, getting on with life means facing up to the return of militia gang members to the very communities they terrorised.

These deeply felt grievances are being channelled into a truth and reconciliation commission, based on the South African model, and the most serious cases are being referred to a UN-assisted serious crimes unit for trial.

News & issues

Timor torture

SBS Dateline - November 5, 2003

For several years stories have been circulating, mostly unpublished, concerning claims that Australian soldiers were engaged in acts of torture of militia prisoners in East Timor in 1999. All of those claims were dismissed by internal defence force inquiries but no details of the allegations or the evidence have ever been publicly available. Tonight, three militamen detail their experiences as prisoners of Australian forces.

Their story involves accusations of torture and the apparent disappearance of one of their fellow prisoners.

For the past fortnight we've been providing full details of these claims to the Australian Army. They've offered no denials to these claims and have refused multiple invitations to appear in this program. However late this afternoon, the Chief of the Army announced that an investigation would be launched.

Mark Davis: East Timor, September 1999. Australian troops are sent in to end the murder and mayhem of the pro-Indonesian militias and the Indonesian army, and end it they do. The operation was a great success and the Australian army readily accepted the well deserved applause.

John Howard, Australian Prime Minister: Congratulations and thank you very much for the fantastic job you've done.

But are they as willing to accept responsibility for the darker corners of the mission. At the time, stories were circulating in Indonesia that Australian soldiers were torturing and even murdering prisoners. Reports dismissed here as ludicrous propaganda, but apparently not entirely ludicrous to some within the Australian, British and New Zealand armies who witnessed and reported certain undisclosed events.

Virtually unknown to the Australian public, the Australian Defence Force, the ADF, conducted an investigation for 3.5 years into allegations of mistreatment of prisoners in East Timor, including torture, execution and one case of unnecessary amputation.

In April of this year, the ADF called a press conference in Canberra to suddenly announce that undisclosed allegations had been found to be unsubstantiated.

Canberra press conference: All of the time they were treated properly and correctly under the Geneva convention.

End of story according to the Defence Department.

Senator Chris Evans, Shadow Defence Minister: Mr Chairman, could I ask some questions about this military investigation into the allegations of mistreatment of prisoners in East Timor?

Army Officer: Senator, the investigation concluded and I announced the results on 16 April.

In June, at a Foreign Affairs and Defence Senate committee hearing, Chris Evans sought further details about the allegations and the processes of the inquiry without much success.

Evans: Just trying to be clear in my own mind. The ADF admitted last year the allegations were of a serious nature, allegations of torture and abuse of prisoners. So these are the most serious allegations and obviously there's the allegation concerning the kicking of a body. Now those are most serious. They really besmirch the reputation of the SAS and ADF generally and they need to be dealt with properly. Until that time, all ADF personnel have their reputations besmirched by the fact these allegations haven't been answered.

It was clear that not even a Senate hearing would be privy to the details of the allegations. There's never been a full explanation of how the internal investigation was conducted, how the evidence was judged, who was interviewed and why the claims were dismissed.

Evans: You announce on behalf of ADF that unspecified allegations are found not to be proven and that's it.

Neither the ADF or the Defence Minister, Robert Hill, would appear in this program to explain or defend the army inquiry. But working through a handful of terse press releases, the inquiry has the appearance of being little more than defence force investigators interviewing defence force witnesses to be judged internally by defence force officers. Of 18 allegations involving East Timorese prisoners, only one received any public prominence, an offence of kicking a corpse, which was to be sent to trial.

Army officer: As a result of the investigation, one serviceman has been charged with kicking a dead body and the matter was referred to a convening authority who has decided that the defence force magistrate should try that.

That single charge involving the SAS, was dismissed in August when key witnesses from the New Zealand army refused to attend the trial. A refusal which goes to the heart of the problem of soldiers investigating soldiers.

Evans: The culture of the ADF is to not to share information about these matters. The culture is to say these are internal matters that have to be kept in-house. I don't think that's acceptable.

These are the most serious allegations and issuing a press release every now and then when the matter bubbles to public attention, which gives the minimum information possible, is not acceptable. It's just not good enough. We do need much better information and we do need a full explanation of these most serious allegations and what happened and what was done to follow them up. Because without that, this will continue to be a blight on the ADF and there'll continue to be allegations raised in the years to come. It won't go away.

The army has provided no information about whether they talked to any victims from East Timor at all.

That is what we asked East Timorese journalist Jose Belo to do. Jose spoke with Jao Ximenes, now a fisherman in Dili. In September 1999, Jao was arrested with five other suspected militiamen, although he denies he was a member. Today the only sign of his alleged mistreatment is a smashed toe, deliberately crushed, he claims, under the heel of an Australian soldier during interrogation.

Joa Ximenes, (translation): They forced us to go into the toilets, which were full of wasps. They stirred up the wasps and they stung us. Then they took us to the toilet bowl and they put our faces inside again.

He also claims that one of his fellow prisoners has never been seen again. To verify his story, we searched for and found two of his fellow detainees, now living in Indonesian West Timor.

Caetano da Silva, (translation): My name is Caetano da Silva. I am 38 years old.

Caetano was a member of the notorious Aitarak militia, arrested and interrogated with Jao and now living in the Indonesian town of Kupang.

Johnny Rohiede, (translation): It was inhumane. We were told to lie down on human faeces. They hit us. They say Westerners are never cruel. But they abused us, hit us, mistreated us.

Johnny Rohiede was a driver for Aitarak, now living in Atambua in West Timor. Both he and Caetano confirm Jao's account. They didn't come forward to us with any collective statements. We tracked them down in their homes and interviewed them immediately. Their stories closely match in virtually every important detail.

The Aitarak militia, led by Eurico Gutteres, were one of the most infamous and violent of all the militias in East Timor accused of involvement in acts of murder and mutilation. There would be few who would harbour any sympathy for any Aitarak member. We do not know what the witnesses were suspected of. The only known factor is that they were prisoners at the mercy of the Australian army, who presumably, unlike the militias, are expected to operate with the highest standards of the discipline and integrity.

Rohiede, (translation): They interrogated us again but it was more like torture. When they started hitting us they did not punch us like this. Not like this, like this. And they kicked us with the soles of their feet. Why? So there? be no bone damage if we were examined, just normal bruising. That? how Westerners think.

It was here at Aitarak headquarters where Jao and the others were arrested by Australian soldiers on September 22. Jao recalls five of them being arrested here.

Rohiede, (translation): Luis Heru, myself, Johnny Rohiede7

Johnny recalls six being arrested but in all other respects, their accounts correlate.

Rohiede, (translation): Caetano da Silva, Lorenco Gomes, Joa Ximenes, Yani Ndun. Of these six, only Yani is still missing.

All of the witnesses state that Yani Ndun, a native of West Timor, was arrested with them. Apart from some robust handling, there are no particular accusations of mistreatment at the time of their arrest. But that changed when they were taken inside the more private environs of the Dili football stadium. The Dili football stadium became well known to Australian audiences as an R and R destination for soldiers in East Timor. Before that, it seems it was a primary interrogation centre for the captured militiamen. At the rear of the stadium, in an unused corner, is the room where the militiamen were taken.

Joa Ximenes, (translation): Here. This is it. It? still dirty like it was then. It's still not clean. The five of us were all in here. It's still the same. The shit is still here. Their nests were this big. The wasps were big too. Big red ones. The wasps were this big. All five of us were badly stung and we were in bad shape.

Jose Belo, Timorese journalist, (translation): Show me where did you go?

Joa Ximenes, (translation): We went in here, one person at a time. They put our heads in the toilet bowl. Into the toilet one at a time. One person at a time, with their mouth down the toilet.

Jose Belo, (translation): Were your faces dipped in the shit?

Joa Ximenes, (translation): Yes, covered with shit, the worst kind. The shit is still here. They made us put our mouths here. If we tried to pull away they pushed our necks down to stop us moving.

Jose Belo, (translation): Do you know which foreigners?

Joa Ximenes, (translation): Foreigners from Australia because of their badges. Yes Australia.

Jose Belo, (translation): The men who beat you up were Australian?

Joa Ximenes, (translation): Yes.

Jose Belo, (translation): Do you know their names?

Joa Ximenes, (translation): No, I don't. I just saw their badges.

Caetano and Johnny both confirm the account of this stage of their treatment and each of them maintain they were beaten in the hours to follow.

Rohiede, (translation): Bruises on the back, swollen here, and bruised here when they hit me on the tennis court.

For the past fortnight, despite being provided with full details of these allegations, the ADF has issued no denials or defences other than maintaining that the prisoners would have been kept in accordance with the Geneva convention. They had no response to any of the testimonies we provided them with.

Andrew Byrnes, Centre of International and Public Law, ANU: They're very serious allegations and I imagine the defence forces would want to investigate them vigorously.

We asked international law specialist Andrew Byrnes from the Centre for International and Public Law at the ANU to scrutinise the statements.

Andrew Byrnes: There is a certain detail, a concreteness in the allegations which has, I think, the ring of truth about it when you look at the other sorts or similar sorts of allegations made by victims, there are a number of consistent patterns from the various stories, we don't know whether there's collusion, there's no suggestion that there is but where you get consistency in stories about particular methods, then I think that should certainly alert one to a higher level of credibility.

After their experience at the stadium that evening, the prisoners were taken to the tennis courts at the local high school.

Caetano da Silva, (translation): They threatened me saying "if you don't say which soldiers or police killed people, you will be killed."

Jose Belo, (translation): Who asked all these questions?

Caetano da Silva, (translation): Australians.

All of the three witnesses maintain that Yani was still with them at the tennis courts and that he had been with them at the football stadium.

Rohiede, (translation): Yani, the guy who disappeared, was a bit crazy. We all knew that at times he'd go mad. It was an illness he'd had since he was small. Because he was mad, when Interfet came in with their rifles cocked he said "mister, smoking". They weren'tmad at him, they hit me. I got hit the most.

It was at the tennis courts that Johnny and Caetano last saw Yani and none of his friends or family have seen him since.

Caetano da Silva, (translation): They hit us and kicked us every time we moved. At about 2.30 or three o'lock they brought us out and they blindfolded us and when I saw them with a bag, the kind they use for executions, I wondered if they were going to kill us.

Blindfolded, the prisoners were driven to Dili airport, then serving as an interrogation centre and prison. Both Caetano and Johnny believe that Yani may have been removed from the vehicle on the way to the airport. But Jao believes he caught a glimpse of him there before they were all separated. In any case, it seems that no-one has caught a glimpse of him since.

Rohiede, (translation): After a week when people started coming back, he didn't. They went to 13 districts just to look for Yani. They didn't find him so they came back. They said "we can't find Yani, we've been to 13 districts, he's not there."

Jao maintains that he was the last prisoner released from the temporary airport prison as he told the others when they came searching for Yani.

Joa Ximenes, (translation): I said "I thought the four of you were together." He said "No only three of us left and we thought he stayed with you." I said "I was the last to leave."

Jose Belo, (translation): So in your mind Yani was dead?

Joa Ximenes, (translation): I thought he was dead because I hadn't seen him. His family hadn't seen him either.

The ADF have records of arresting and releasing other members of the group, but no records whatsoever relating to Yani Ndun. His family, who don't wish to be filmed, say they saw him on Indonesian television being arrested at Aitarak headquarters with the others and he's never been seen since.

Andrew Byrnes: I think it's very clear under international law that where state forces take someone into custody, and then they are not able to be produced subsequently, that that state does have a responsibility to explain what has happened to the best of its ability. Now that may...

With no response from the army, it's difficult to speculate on Yani's fate. If he was arrested and is now dead, it may possibly be at the hands of others if he was released on the streets of Dili after the Indonesians had gone, then a very dangerous place for a militiaman with no family in East Timor.

Andrew Byrnes: If someone were released into a circumstance where the people releasing him knew that his life would be subject to immediate threat or they would be at risk of being lynched by a mob, that that would give rise to liability on the part of the releasing force.

There may yet be an explanation offered for the disappearance of Yani, and hopefully some response to the allegations of torture. The responsibility for both ultimately lies with General Cosgrove as the commanding officer of the East Timor operation and in his current post as chief of the defence forces.

Rohiede, (translation): If they violate human rights, punish them just like the Indonesians. If I get protection I'll go and point them out.

Senator Chris Evans: And that leaves the whole thing basically up in the air.

If there is an inquiry, and if the procedures followed for the previous 18 allegations are a guide, we may never hear any details of it, nor how it was conducted, nor who was interviewed, nor if the evidence of victims will carry any weight against the evidence of soldiers and officers.

Australian forces accused of torture in East Timor

Melbourne Age - November 5, 2003

Deborah Snow -- Fresh allegations of torture by Australian troops in East Timor will be made in tonight's SBS Dateline program, with former militia members claiming they were beaten, kicked, and had their heads forced down excrement-filled toilet bowls during interrogation.

Two of the men also say they were forced into cubicles where wasps' nests were present, with their Australian interrogators allegedly stirring up the nests so the detainees would be stung.

The group further claims that one of their number, Yani Ndun, is missing, having last been seen alive in the custody of InterFET, the Australian intervention force in East Timor.

The program says the group of six men were picked up by the Australian army around September 22, 1999, just days after Australian forces landed in the strife-racked province.

The six were all members or suspected associates of the Aitarak militia, one of the most feared of the anti-independence groups, which went on a rampage after East Timor voted for independence from Indonesia in an August 30 referendum.

Three members of the group interviewed by SBS say they were taken by their Australian captors to an empty football stadium where they were forced into wasp-infested toilets and had their heads pushed down toilet bowls.

Jao Ximenes, one of the interviewees, said: "They put our faces in fresh shit in the toilet and they made us sleep there."

Once it got dark, the group say they were taken to a high school and told to sleep on outdoor tennis courts. There they say some members of the group were beaten and kicked, and one hit with a rifle butt.

The army has made no detailed response to the allegations but confirmed it had held two of the men, Jao Ximenes and Caitano Da Silva, in custody. The army denied having any information on the missing man, Yani Ndun, and said that the "interrogation techniques used by Australian InterFET soldiers in East Timor were in accordance with the Geneva conventions".

Book/film reviews

Love and revolution

Courier Mail (Brisbane) - November 8, 2003

Sandra McLean -- During East Timor's independence struggle, few men were more revered than Xanana Gusmao, the leader of the resistance movement. Gusmao was like a god to his people -- now he is the president of East Timor, which was declared an independent nation in 2002 after 27 years of Indonesian control.

But there were times during those days of struggle and subterfuge when Gusmao was shouted at and ignored by a young Australian woman from Bendigo.

Kirsty Sword Gusmao didn't want to argue with Gusmao. In fact, she loved him. However, unlike Xanana, who had lived in the jungle and forsook his own family to fight for East Timor's rights, she had no experience of the commitment, sacrifice and stamina needed to free a country and its people.

In her newly published book, A Woman of Independence, Sword Gusmao reveals how hard it was to share Xanana with East Timor.

For years, she led a strange existence, punctuated by danger, secret missions and contrast. There'd be a lovers' tiff in the middle of organising complex communications about East Timorese operatives. An organ recital followed by a phone call from an imprisoned and grumpy guerilla leader.

Sword Gusmao writes how she went to a music recital with her mother in Ballarat, to arrive back to her flat to find a message from Xanana, "glumly" requesting that she contact an East Timorese associate and ask him to pass on three million rupiah to a former bodyguard of his who was in need of an operation to remove a bullet.

The night before she had returned home to find five messages from Xanana on her answering machine.

Five years earlier they had declared their love for each other.

"He was clearly irritated and curious about my reasons for being out so late," she writes. The conversation ended badly when she told him that just because she had decided to spend an evening doing something other than thinking or writing about East Timor, didn't mean she was having a crisis.

Four years later, living in a newly independent East Timor, Sword Gusmao accepts hers will never be a pedestrian existence.

She married Xanana in 2000 and the couple has two children, Alexandre, 3, and Kay Olok, 1. They live on the outskirts of Dili, East Timor's capital, in a house she describes as "hardly presidential". Certainly, one didn't expect to hear a chicken clucking in the background of a conversation with a First Lady.

"It is not the life you would imagine for a head of state," Sword Gusmao says. "But the reality is that East Timor is the poorest country in South-East Asia."

There are frequent blackouts and Sword Gusmao warns that at any time our phone call could be interrupted. She has just recovered from a bout of malaria. Her two young children also contracted the disease.

Xanana is overseas on presidential business. He is frequently away from the family. Sword Gusmao says finding time together is a battle, although she did manage to convince Xanana to occasionally watch The Wiggles with toddler Alexandre.

"Now he watches soccer to wind down," she says. "We have very little private time as a family and that presents challenges and stresses. All modern relationships have that element to them and I suppose it is a question of degrees. We just have to fight that little bit harder to carve out that time and space as a family."

There are other challenges for Sword Gusmao -- whenever she steps out the front door, bodyguards go with her. Also, although she has a busy agenda representing East Timor, her position as First Lady is not officially recognised -- the country can't afford it.

Kirsty Sword's life-changing journey began when she was a 24-year-old student visiting Timor. Her interest increased when she became a student of Indonesian studies at Melbourne University. In the late 1980s, she worked as a volunteer for Inside Indonesia magazine reporting on human rights, the role of the Indonesian armed forces, or ABRI, and the plight of minority groups.

Through a broad network of Australian and Indonesian friends she learnt about the socio-political life of Indonesia and the facts regarding the country's invasion of East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, in 1975.

"Indonesia and Indonesians were never the enemy," Sword Gusmao writes in her book. "The enemy was repression and ignorance, including the ignorance of our own Australian community about conditions in Indonesian society."

In 1992, she moved to Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, to teach. Her work for the East Timorese independence cause intensified and she ultimately came in contact with the charismatic Falantil guerilla leader Xanana Gusmao, who was serving a 20-year prison sentence.

By then she had a pseudonym, Ruby Blade, which she used to identify herself in written communications with political prisoners and supporters of East Timor.

This was later changed, on Xanana's suggestion, to Mukya, a word in the Fataluku language of Los Palos, meaning fragrant. Sword Gusmao should have known then that the guerilla leader, when it came to his attractive English teacher, had more than grammar on his mind.

Sword Gusmao introduced Xanana to e-mail, which he described as her "sophisticated weapon", and over the next few years it became a vital mode of communication between the imprisoned leader and key independence fighters such as Jose Ramos-Horta, East Timor's diplomat in exile.

Xanana's letters and the daily business of the struggle for independence became an integral part of Sword Gusmao's life. The pair finally met in Cipinang prison in 1994.

The couple's romance is almost a case of fact being stranger than fiction -- a charismatic guerilla fighter falls in love with a young female English teacher.

Even so, she says she did not want their love story to overwhelm A Woman of Independence, a testament to those who have struggled for the Timorese cause.

"My involvement with East Timor predates my involvement with Xanana," she says. However, Sword Gusmao wasn't spared East Timor's pain -- her father was killed by militia. A young nun who befriended her, Sister Celeste Carvalho, also became a victim.