February 11 shooting

Mystery lingers about Dili shootings

The Australian - February 18, 2008

Paul Toohey, Dili – Some 90 of Alfredo Reinado's rebels, most of them armed, broke the East Timor-wide 8pm curfew and entered Dili late on Wednesday night to pay their last respects as their leader and his offsider, Leopoldino Exposto, lay in coffins awaiting burial the following day.

Reinado's adoptive father, Victor Alves, says the men had filed on foot through the backstreets of Dili, under the noses of the Australian-led International Stabilisation Force, Portuguese riot police and East Timorese police.

Mr Alves says they were angry and that night wanted to take revenge on East Timorese F-FDTL army soldiers who had shot and killed Reinado in President Jose Ramos-Horta's villa on Monday morning, but he was able to calm them, urging them not to act out of respect for himself and Reinado.

Mr Ramos-Horta is still recovering in Royal Darwin Hospital. He remains sedated and on a ventilator and is likely to undergo further surgery tomorrow. Hospital spokesman Luke Gosling said doctors were pleased with the outcome of the most recent surgery on Friday.

Events surrounding the attempt to assassinate the President are no clearer to authorities, with United Nations police, sections of the Australian military, the general population and even Mr Ramos-Horta's relatives flatly refusing to believe that Reinado went to the President's home to kill him.

Mr Ramos-Horta had been in close contact with Reinado over the past two years since he and 500 to 600 western-born soldiers abandoned their posts, angry that their eastern F-FDTL colleagues had received preferential treatment and had fired upon them in 2006 when they marched to protest at their conditions.

The Australian has the names of two more of Reinado's band who were with him last Monday morning.

Mr Alves said: "I spoke to (one of them) and said, Why shoot Ramos-Horta? He's a good man. He said to me, 'Father, I didn't shoot him. I shot at them (Mr Ramos-Horta's own F-FDTL guard) because they had shot Ramos-Horta'. I said to him, 'I don't believe you. You shot Ramos-Horta.' He said he didn't do it. He said when the time came, I could look him in the eye. If I believed he shot Ramos-Horta, I could shoot him."

Mystery surrounds how the President was shot in the back when he was walking up the hill into gunfire. The whole thing is taking on grassy knoll dimensions, with Reinado's own men telling Mr Alves that the F-FDTL soldiers shot Mr Ramos-Horta from behind while they hid inside the compound.

The Australian travelled to the Ermera district yesterday, west of Dili, Reinado's old stomping ground. The mood is strange. Normally it is one of the first flashpoints for trouble in East Timor but the youth are unusually subdued. It is not just that there are armed guards and police – the young men have grown up under the rule of the gun and don't show great fear for them.

It is almost as though they are waiting to find out what really happened at the President's villa. One thing they and their Sri Lankan, Bangladhesi and Pakistani UNPOL guards have in common is that no one knows the real story. Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said yesterday the East Timorese Government might want to rethink its policy of seeking a negotiated settlement with rebel fighters.

"As I said to Foreign Minister Zacharias Da Costa, when I saw him in Darwin during the week, that (policy) is something that the East Timorese Government now may well wish to reflect upon, given what's occurred," Mr Smith told the Ten Network.

The man accused of staging the almost simultaneous ambush on Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao's motorcade, Gastao Salsinha, has strenuously denied any involvement in the attack and has also extended an offer to Mr Alves to shoot him if he's lying.

The ISF said yesterday it was business as usual in East Timor, and platoons were posted at junctions in the west of the country. They would not comment on whether there were actions to the south and west of the country to flush out rebels.

[Additional reporting AAP.]

Reinado to Gusmao: You created me

New Matilida - February 15, 2008

John Martinkus – Tonight on Al Jazeera, Xanana Gusmao will answer allegations that he was the late rebel leader Alfredo Reinado's puppet master in the 2006 violence that plunged East Timor into crisis

Tonight on Al Jazeera's 101 East Program, a spokesperson for the East Timorese Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao, will answer for the first time allegations by the late rebel leader Alfredo Reinado that the PM put him up to the violence that plunged the country into crisis in May 2006.

In a DVD statement released before his death, Reinado accused Gusmao of being the puppet master behond the violence. newmatilda.com spoke to investigative journalist John Martinkus about the allegations made in tonight's show.

newmatilda.com: Tell us about the DVD

John Martinkus: In December last year, Xanana Gusmao more or less issued an ultimatum to Alfredo Reinado, saying: look, this is your last chance to surrender peacefully.

Reinado responded by issuing this DVD and statement, in which he very clearly names Gusmao as being behind the violence. He more or less says: you created me, you created the situation.

The statement created quite a stir in East Timor, because this is the first time that he'd ever said anything like this. It was also confirming what a lot of people had been saying all along. Which, of course, is what I've been saying all along too – there have been a series of revelations all pointing in this direction.

The claim has been reported quite extensively in East Timor, but in Australia it only made the press when, in January this year, former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri asked Gusmao to respond to the allegations in Parliament. Gusmao refused.

Up until now, Gusmao has said nothing. When the local press did try to get a statement from him in Dili, he told them that if they followed the story any further and interviewed Reinado, they could be arrested. It's quite interesting that that's how he responded.

Is President Jose Ramos Horta implicated in the statement?

Reinado doesn't mention Horta at all. It's directed solely at Gusmao, basically saying: you are the one who was behind it, you know what's going on, you know that I know lots of things. He's threatening to spill the beans.

Really it was the last card that Reinado had to play. He thought that he'd been protected, he'd been basically unmolested, and he thought it was because Gusmao was protecting him. Gusmao then turned around and said: okay that's your last chance, don't play with me, you have to face justice.

Reinado's response to that was to say: well, you were behind it all along. He was playing a game, saying: if you want to prosecute me, you should go to jail too.

In your opinion are the allegations true?

In the course of investigating what actually happened in May 2006, and the violence that started the crisis, yes, I do think there were communications at that time between Gusmao, Reinado and Rai Los, the other main player in the attack against the East Timorese Military (F-FDTL) that started the whole thing. I definitely think Gusmao was, at the very least, in constant communication with them, if not directing the operation.

Was Monday's attack on Horta a kidnapping attempt, as is now being reported?

There so much speculation going on about what Reinado was actually doing there. Yesterday's report from the Associated Press's Anthony Deutsch is probably the closest thing we've got to what actually happened. Deutsch interviewed one of Horta's guards who was the one who said he shot Reinado. Acccording to him, Reinado and his men arrived at Horta's house and almost began shooting immediately.

There were reports that Reinado was staying at Horta's house, or he was shot as he was trying to negotiate, I don't actually think that's the case. The fact is they rolled up there fully armed, fully kitted out for battle, and ready to fight. And the F-FDTL guards responded to their presence.

This latest attack on both leaders' houses is reminiscent of what Reinado and his men did in 2006, when they launched simultaneous attacks on the F-FDTL, and the Military Commander's house. It looks like the same kind of tactics that were employed during the crisis, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if this was basically Reinado's way of reigniting the crisis to gain some relevancy again.

You also have to look at what happened last time Reinado was about to surrender. Back in early 2007, he had exhausted all his negotiating opportunities and had decided to come in. After having escaped from jail, and being on the run for almost 4 months – he'd been negotiating with the Government, they hadn't really bothered him, they hadn't tried to arrest him – he'd said he was willing to give himself up.

But then what does he do? He goes down to the border, surrounds a police post and seizes about 36 weapons and about 40,000 rounds of ammunition. It was at that stage that Gusmao authorised the Australian operation to go and get him, which of course prompted him to escape again.

This latest attack is very consistent with how this guy has operated in the past. He'd negotiated and negotiated with the government, and then when it got to a point where they couldn't really negotiate any more without him actually surrendering, he'd go and do something like this. It surprised many that Reinado was not caught during over a year and half of truancy.

Is it true that the authorities were just turning a blind eye?

Reinado escaped from prison in August 2006, but there was never any serious attempt to capture him until after he went to the border post in early 2007 and stole those weapons. It was then, once he stole the weapons, that Gusmao was finally forced to act. Finally he turned around and ordered the Australians to do something.

The Australians followed his orders, and did try to catch him, but Reinado escaped – it's not quite clear how or why. Pretty soon after that the order was given by Horta and Gusmao to call off the search for him. You have to remember they were just about to face an election, both of them were trying to court political parties such as the Democratic Party, who were calling for the hunt for Reinado to be called off. The search was really only called off for political gain.

Why did Reinado launch such an audacious attack?

It was the act of a desperate man. It really was his last card. Horta and Xanana had opened up separate negotiations with a large group of military "petitioners", and this meant that Reinado – who had been claiming to represent all the petitioners – was actually losing a bit of his support base. If a deal had been made by Horta and Gusmao that defused the whole petition issue, then Reinado would have been left with just the 20 or so guys that he was with.

A wounded country investigates its tragedy

IRIN News - February 15, 2008

Dili – Timor-Leste's prosecutor-general, Longuinhos Montiero, has now issued 12 arrest warrants for suspects in the 11 February assassination attempts against President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.

Montiero expects to issue five more in the immediate future, and one other warrant is pending, awaiting further investigation.

One of those already issued is for renegade army commander Alfredo' Reinado's ally, former Lieutenant Gastao Salshina, who is suspected of leading the attack against Xanana Gusmao's convoy.

Hermanprit Singh, deputy UNPol (UN Police) commissioner, said security forces were in the process of hunting down the suspects. "We don't need to wait. We, the international security forces, are actually in hot pursuit."

Singh said it was unclear whether the 11 February attacks were an assassination attempt or an attempted kidnapping gone wrong. "What was the group motivated by... it's a matter of investigation," Singh said.

Revenge attacks

The situation in Dili has remained calm since the attacks with a state of emergency declared for another eight days and an overnight curfew.

Nonetheless, local Timorese are beginning to fear Reinado's supporters may retaliate against the Timor-Leste Defence Force (FFDTL) and the International Stabilisation Forces (ISF).

IRIN talked to one of the "petitioners" dismissed from the defence force in 2006, and a strong supporter of Reinado. Only using the name Jose, the former defence force soldier vowed to continue to fight for justice against what he perceived as discrimination in the military against those from the western part of the country.

"Since the attack on Monday [11 February], I've been very sad," Jose said. "I feel very sorry... one of our best commanders died in the attack." He said he has not heard of any plans from his group's leaders to launch reprisal attacks.

Split

Jose confirmed one rumour that had been making the rounds that there had, indeed, been a split, prior to the 11 February attacks, amongst the petitioning soldiers who supported Reinado. Last week, he said, around 90 of the "petitioners" came to Dili to begin dialogue with the prime minister, against the will of Reinado and the other 500 "petitioners".

Speculation

Meanwhile, speculation continues as to the possible motives for the attacks. Media reports have suggested that the attackers were not trying to kill the president and prime minister but take them alive as part of an attempted coup.

There have also been allegations that opposition party Fretilin, paid Reinado and his followers millions of dollars to kill the country's leaders. Fretilin has denied the allegations and said they are defamatory.

Dialogue

What is clear is that Reinado had been engaged in peaceful talks with both Timor-Leste's president and prime minister as recently as December 2007, and last met government officials on 6 February.

Joaquim Fornseca, the prime minister's civil society adviser, and leader of the government-appointed Task Force established to resolve the issues raised by Reinado and the petitioning soldiers, told IRIN, that in recent weeks, many of the petitioning soldiers had been approaching the Task Force to engage in dialogue with them after realising that Reinado was not genuinely interested in helping them resolve their problems.

"In December – when both Alfredo and Salshina did not show up to the meeting we organised between them, the prime minister and the commander of FFDTL – some of them ["petitioners"] started to wonder if Reinado was really serious in fighting for their cause." He said the government's attempts to entice his supporters away from him might have sparked Reinado's anger.

Fornseka also said that in a meeting between Ramos-Horta and Reinado in December 2007, the president had made a promise to Reinado that he and his supporters would be automatically reinstated in the military. "I don't blame the president," Fonseca told IRIN, but there were some concessions that could not be delivered, and I think Reinado felt betrayed in a way."

He said the Task Force had come a long way in getting the FFDTL to allow the petitioning soldiers to re-apply to join the army, but that FFDTL would never agree to simply reinstate them without application or screening process. While there was some concern that the burial services for Reinaldo on 14 February might spark violence, thousands of his supporters gathered peacefully at a service at his home. They chanted "Viva Alfredo" as his coffin, draped with a Timor-Leste flag, was buried in his front garden. (sm/bj/cb)

Plan was to kidnap, not assassinate

Sydney Morning Herald - February 14, 2008

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Investigators believe that gangs of armed men led by East Timor's rebel leader Alfredo Reinado intended to kidnap, not assassinate, the country's two top political leaders during Monday's attacks in Dili.

They have been told that two separate groups of armed men attempted to kidnap the Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao, who managed to flee unharmed.

Seven armed men arrived at the front door of Mr Gusmao's house in the mountains above Dili, sources close to the investigation have told the Herald. One of them knocked on the door and told the security guard who answered: "We're here to take the Prime Minister ... We don't want any fuss."

But Mr Gusmao had shortly before left the house in a convoy to take the 20-minute drive down the mountains to Dili. One of the men at the door then fired one shot, apparently to tip off a second group of men waiting to ambush Mr Gusmao further down the mountain, sources said. The gunmen opened fire on Mr Gusmao's vehicle but apparently aimed at the tires, according to the sources. The driver accelerated through the ambush.

Investigators also believe Reinado went to the home of the President, Jose Ramos-Horta, to kidnap him. But his plans went horribly wrong, sources said, ending in his death and the serious wounding of Mr Ramos-Horta. "All the evidence points to a double kidnapping," a source close to the investigation, being led by the UN police, said.

East Timorese authorities have prepared arrest warrants for 18 men believed to have taken part in the attacks, based on the findings of an initial UN police investigation. One of them is Gastao Salsinha, the commander of 600 soldiers who were sacked when they went on strike over pay and conditions in 2006, prompting violent upheaval. Salsinha was one of the men who arrived at Mr Gusmao's front door, witnesses have told investigators.

East Timor authorities last night extended a 48-hour dusk to dawn curfew another seven days amid fears of a new outbreak of violence during Reinado's funeral, which is expected to be held in Dili today.

Reinado's father, Victor Alves, Mr Gusmao and Atul Khare, the UN's top official in Dili, last night made a joint appeal on television for Reinado's supporters to remain calm.

Political tensions in Dili were fuelled by the circulation of an explosive fake document that claims the former ruling Fretilin party offered Reinado $US10 million to assassinate Mr Ramos-Horta and Mr Gusmao. Fretilin leaders say it is an attempt to destabilise the country. Analysts in Dili say the claims have the potential to provoke violence in Reinado's supporters.

Australian SAS commandos who arrived in Dili on Tuesday will lead 1000 Australian and New Zealand troops in the hunt for those wanted over the attacks.

In Darwin, doctors said it was likely to be at least three weeks before Mr Ramos-Horta could return to his country, and six months before he would be fully recovered.

[With Ben Doherty.]

Rebel commander buried in East Timor

International Herald Tribune - February 14, 2008

Donald Greenlees, Dili – The body of the slain army mutineer who led attacks on the president and prime minister of East Timor was buried in the garden of his home here Thursday in a peaceful ceremony witnessed by hundreds of mourners.

As heavy monsoon clouds gathered overhead and a light rain fell, family members and East Timorese who either sympathized with the cause of the former army major, Alfredo Reinado, or simply wanted to mark his passing watched the burial from crowded muddy alleyways or the rooftops of neighboring houses.

What United Nations officials had feared might be the catalyst for an eruption of violence over the death of a man who had a strong popular following instead suggested that East Timorese might be weary of the periodic unrest and small rebellions that have hampered the country's development.

Since the attacks Monday, in which President Jose Ramos-Horta was shot and wounded and the motorcade of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao was fired on, East Timor has been under a state of emergency because of concerns the incidents could trigger rioting.

While the funeral of Reinado and another slain rebel took place without incident in Dili, Australian special forces soldiers combed the mountains to the south of the capital for the armed men who joined them in the attacks.

Officials from the United Nations, which oversees policing here, and a separate military International Stabilization Force said an operation was under way in the vicinity of a historic Catholic seminary at Dare in the mountains behind Dili to capture Reinado's accomplices, estimated to be fewer than 20 men.

It followed reports that the men had been sighted in the area. The area of the search was sealed off by armored personnel carriers, while helicopters hovered overhead.

The men are believed to be the remnants of a military police unit that deserted with Reinado in 2006 in the midst of a wider internal dispute within the East Timorese Army over discrimination in promotions and conditions.

The mishandling of the dispute resulted in an outbreak of violence in which 37 people were killed and tens of thousands were forced from their homes. It also contributed to the collapse of the first elected government since East Timor achieved statehood almost six years ago.

Government leaders, who until the attacks on Ramos-Horta and Gusmao on Monday had sought a negotiated settlement with Reinado's men, have called on the rebels to surrender or face a military solution. With pressure building on the now leaderless rebels, confidence is growing within the two-year-old UN Integrated Mission in East Timor that the rebels might be persuaded to give up without a fight.

A portrait of Reinado on a banner hanging at his burial depicted the mutineer in a Che Guevara-like manner, in beret and goatee. A UN official said there appeared to be no one with his leadership ability or charisma to take his place among the remaining rebels.

Some contact has occurred between the government and the rebels through intermediaries, the official said. The government insists there will be no deals to secure a surrender now that the rebels have crossed a line by shooting on the country's two top leaders.

There were indications that the resolve of the rebels might be wavering. They have indicated through intermediaries that the attacks Monday had not proceeded according to plan, reinforcing speculation that Reinado had not intended to shoot the president, who had been a stronger supporter of dialogue.

Reinado buried amidst flurry of questions

Inter Press Service - February 14, 2008

Setyo Budi, Dili – Hundreds of people gathered Thursday for the funeral of Alfredo Reinado, the rebel soldier who was slain in an alleged coup bid against the government of President Jose Ramos- Horta.

"I could not believe it when I heard about his death... in our view death will not solve the problem. It can only be solved through discussion," said Victor Alves, Reinado's distraught uncle. Alves called for an end to bloodshed in East Timor, now that his nephew was dead. "Alfredo is already dead and I would like to ask his supporters to remain calm."

What appeared to sadden Alves most was that Monday's incident, which resulted in serious gunshot injuries to Horta, occurred when "a dialogue had been agreed to happen again this week". Reinado's intentions for visiting the president remain unclear and circumstances suggest that he was invited for talks.

Alves' sense of grief and surprise was also reflected by Mari Alkatiri, former prime minister and secretary-general of the left-wing Fretilin party. Horta was known to have initiated moves to gather the leaders of all political parties for a national reconciliation. "On Monday, the President and Fretilin meant to meet. I still don't know who could be interested in this kind of act in this country," Alkatiri said.

There were theories floating around that Fretilin was involved in Reinado's fateful meeting with Horta. But these were dismissed by Fretilin, which formed the first government in East Timor on independence from Indonesia and ruled until 2007. Fretilin began as a resistance movement, first against Portuguese colonial rule and then against Indonesian occupation, between 1974 and 1998.

Leon de Riedmatten from Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, a Swiss-based non-government organisation (NGO) that helped facilitate a dialogue between the Dili government and Reinado, said Monday's shootout was even a bigger surprise. He had arrived in Dili on Monday with the intention of helping with the dialogue only to hear that one of the dialogue partners was dead and the President seriously injured.

The dialogue with the rebels had begun at Maubesi on Jan. 13. Although no agreement was reached, Reinado had offered to help solve the problem of some 600 army deserters who had left their barracks in 2006, claiming ethnic and regional discrimination.

Mystery continues to surround the shootout or the motives behind it. After all, Horta, now in a medically-induced coma in an Australian hospital, had shown eagerness in opening a dialogue with Reinado.

Taur Matan Ruak, commander of East Timor's armed forces, said that an "international commission needed to be set up to investigate the incident." This statement has the support and approval of many leaders including Paulo Azis, a parliamentarian.

"A lot of international police and armed forces personnel are present here, but Reinado couldn't be detected when he went to Dili," he said questioningly.

Eduardo Soares was among the key witnesses. On Monday morning, he was out on a morning walk when he saw two cars speeding towards Horta's house. Soon afterwards, he heard gunshots from the direction of the President's house and decided to walk back to his home, 200 metres away.

"I heard more gun shots, that was when I thought that the president had been attacked," Soares, coordinator of INSIGHT, a local NGO, told IPS.

Reinado's death leaves open the question of how to deal with the rebel soldiers – the immediate cause of the political crisis that has plagued the country since April 2006.

The President's initiative to build a national consensus on the issue has stalled as a result of Monday's incident. Although Reinado's death may be seen by some as a "sudden solution", the problem of the rebel 'petitioners' continues. "We need to stop any violence and strengthen democracy and the rule of law in the country," Alkatiri said.

This is also what Alves wants out of Reinado's death. "The burial will bury all of his good deeds and his struggle, so there are no threats against us."

On Wednesday, Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao got parliament's approval to extend a state of emergency, declared in the country on Monday, for another ten days. Essentially, this withdraws the right to assemble or demonstrate and enforces a curfew from eight pm to six am.

Timorese president walked into gunfight

Associated Press - February 13, 2008

Anthony Deutsch, Dili – The rebels jumped from two cars, firing machine guns as they stormed the compound of President Jose Ramos-Horta. "Traitor! Traitor!" they shouted, hunting for the Nobel Peace Prize winner.

In one of the most detailed accounts yet of Monday's assassination attempt, a guard described how he killed fugitive rebel commander Alfredo Reinado before the president returned from an early morning walk on the beach.

"I shouted Alfredo's name and then opened fire at his head with my machine gun because he was wearing a bulletproof vest," the guard told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because he is prohibited from talking to the media about the attack.

"I fired many times, I don't know how many times," said the guard, who was back on duty Tuesday in his uniform. But gunmen lying in a ditch then shot the president in the chest and stomach.

Along with a separate strike against the prime minister an hour later, the events plunged East Timor into fresh crisis just six years after it voted to break free from decades of brutal Indonesian rule.

Doctors on Wednesday said Ramos-Horta – who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent campaign against the 24-year occupation -- was stable and recovering well from gunshot wounds, but remained in "extremely serious" condition at an Australian hospital.

Parliament extended a 48-hour state of emergency by 10 days until February 23 due to concerns about more unrest. Funerals for the rebels will be held Thursday and plans were under way to issue arrest warrants for 18 suspects in the shootings.

The attack on Ramos-Horta was led by Reinado, who was wanted on murder charges for his role in a 2006 surge of violence that left dozens dead.

A raid on his mountain base by Australian troops killed five of his supporters, but Reinado escaped. Last month, he threatened to march on the capital with his men if the government ignored demands to reinstate hundreds of mutinous soldiers.

"Alfredo Reinado was a traitor and I will gladly go hunt down and fight the others responsible for this attack," said the guard who detailed how he fatally shot the fugitive rebel commander. Two other guards interviewed by the AP on Tuesday corroborated the account.

A friend of Ramos-Horta's who spoke on condition of anonymity because the shooting is under investigation, said Monday's battle raged for around 30 minutes before the president heard shots. Making his way inland, he refused a ride from a passing vehicle and walked up the public road to the house escorted by two bodyguards with pistols, the friend said.

A phone call reporting an exchange of fire came into the nearest police station at 6:59 a.m.; two police units arrived about 15 minutes later. No UN police or foreign troops intervened in the shootout, because Ramos-Horta had said he only wanted protection from Timorese forces, said the UN's deputy country head, Finn Reske-Nielsen.

The shots that hit Ramos-Horta were fired by men laying in wait across from the main entrance to the residence, after Reinado and his bodyguard Leopoldinho da Costa, had been shot dead, the guard said.

During the shooting, an East Timor soldier arrived by car and drove into the line of fire to protect Ramos-Horta, crashing into a signpost and a wooden fence before he too was critically injured.

The attack – in which rebel forces slipped into the capital, Dili, using cars with government license places – has raised questions about who was responsible for protecting the president and why more than 2,000 foreign police and soldiers could not prevent it.

Ramos-Horta has proudly called himself a man of the people who never wanted or needed a heavy security detail and has never shied away from taking risks.

He personally intervened in 2006 when rival gangs roamed the streets looting, burning and attacking people with machetes. He has told stories about driving around the capital, day and night, without any protection.

"President Jose Ramos-Horta was found lying on the ground," said UN deputy police Chief Hermanprit. Two minutes later he was in an ambulance to the hospital, he said.

During Indonesian occupation, Ramos-Horta was East Timor's voice to the world, taking its struggle for independence to the United Nations and becoming its first foreign minister after it won independence in 2002.

In 2006, the firing of nearly 600 mutinous soldiers who said they were being discriminated against – including Reinado and his men -- led to gunbattles between police and army forces that left 37 dead and drove 155,000 from their homes. Tens of thousands still live in dirty camps.

President of East Timor wounded in rebel attack

New York Times - February 11, 2008

Seth Mydans and Tim Johnston – President Jose Ramos-Horta of East Timor was shot and critically wounded at his home on Monday by renegade soldiers in an attack that threatened to intensify the continuing unrest that has destabilized the struggling young nation, according to reports from the capital, Dili.

Mr. Ramos-Horta, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 for his efforts to free East Timor from Indonesian domination, was being evacuated to Australia for medical treatment for a gunshot wound to the stomach, a Timorese military spokesman said.

The spokesman, Domingos da Camara, said the attack was carried out by the leader of a renegade military group, Alfredo Reinado. He said Mr. Reinado had been killed in an exchange of gunfire between the president's guards and two cars that drove by his house early in the morning.

But the involvement of Mr. Reinado could not be independently confirmed in telephone calls to Dili, the capital of East Timor.

An attack on the home of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmco was reported by East Timor television. No one was hurt there, The Associated Press reported.

East Timor won independence from Indonesia in a referendum in 1999 and became a self-governing nation in 2002 after a transition period under United Nations administration.

But it has failed so far to stabilize its young democracy, and tensions mounted earlier this month as rebels loyal to Mr. Reinado fired on Australian troops who are part of a peacekeeping force.

"We're in for another period of instability because there has been more than one shooting this morning," said Sophia Cason of the International Crisis Group in a telephone interview Monday morning.

"There's more than one group involved, and even if the president manages to pull through, the fact that there has been an assassination attempt against him will cause some instability," she said. "There are people who are going to be very concerned and upset about what's happening."

Mr. Reinado had led a revolt against the government since 2006, when factional fighting killed 37 people and drove 150,000 people from their homes. Many of those people remain in tents, saying they are afraid to return to their homes for fear of more violence.

Mr. Ramos-Horta, 58, was elected president last May after serving as the country's foreign minister. He succeeded the former guerrilla leader, Mr. Gusmco, who was later elected prime minister.

Mr. Ramos-Horta had led an international campaign for independence from Indonesia, which occupied East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, for 24 years and had remained the international face of the world's youngest nation. He received the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo.

Last month the International Crisis Group warned that there was a risk of more unrest unless the police and the military were reformed.

In November, Mr. Reinado threatened to use force against the government unless it met the demands of his group of hundreds of military deserters. "I will lead my soldiers down to Dili," he said. "The situation and stability of this country will be worse."

Mr. Reinado's revolt reflected divisions within the police and military and unresolved social and economic issues that have contributed to continuing poverty and instability in East Timor.

"The problem is that a lot of the issues which led to the crisis in 2006 haven't actually been dealt with," Ms. Cason said. "There hasn't been the reform of the military or the reform of the police that's needed.

"The other causes are high-level political disputes, massive unemployment which has led to an increased number of fights between street gangs: all of these issues are still here and none of them have really been dealt with."

East Timor president shot at home

Financial Times - February 11, 2008

John Aglionby, Jakarta – East Timor's president, Jose Ramos Horta, was shot in the stomach in a pre-dawn attack on his home by fugitive members of the country's armed forces, a presidential spokesman said Monday.

Agusto Junior said the Nobel peace laureate, who was elected president last year, was undergoing surgery at an Australian military base in East Timor and would probably be evacuated to the nearby Australian city of Darwin for further treatment. "He will survive, and this country will survive," Jose Guterres, the deputy prime minister, told reporters.

Mr Guterres said two cars drew up to Mr Horta's house, two kilometres outside the capital Dili, before dawn and the occupants opened fire. Guards retaliated and the attackers fled.

An army spokesman said Alfredo Reinado, an army major who has been on the run since leading a rebellion in March 2006, was killed in the incident.

East Timor television reported that the house of Xanana Gusmao, the prime minister, was also attacked but that no one was hurt in that incident.

Security forces deployed in large numbers around Dili on Monday morning but the city appeared peaceful.

The opposition Fretilin party condemned the attack. Mari Alkatiri, prime minister until 2006 and still party secretary- general, said Fretilin was "shocked that this has happened".

"This comes as a total surprise given the recent positive developments, as a result of the president's tireless efforts to find a mechanism of national political consensus to find solutions to the critical issues that are faced by our country," he said.

The precise motivation for the attack is not yet clear. Last August, Mr Horta met Reinado, who was also wanted on murder charges in relation to the 2006 unrest, in a bid to get him to surrender. The talks failed and Reinado had threatened to incite new unrest.

His 2006 rebellion triggered the implosion of the fledgling nation's security forces and left the country on its knees. More than 1,500 Australian-led international forces were deployed to restore order after 37 people were killed and some 150,000 fled their homes. Thousands still remain in refugee camps.

Calm was restored and relatively peaceful elections were held last year. These saw Mr Horta, who took over as prime minister during the crisis after Mr Alkatiri was forced to resign, swap jobs with Mr Gusmao, then president.

East Timor became independent in 2002 after 24 years of brutal Indonesian occupation ended in 1999. The United Nations ran the former Portuguese colony for three years and then downsized its presence very rapidly, which analysts considered a significant contributing factor to the 2006 chaos.

Mr Horta shared the Nobel peace prize in 1996 with Carlos Belo, then the Catholic bishop of Dili, in recognition of their efforts to end Indonesian occupation.

East Timor president shot in stomach

Sydney Morning Herald - February 11, 2008

Jill Jolliffe – East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta is undergoing surgery at an Australian military base in the capital, Dili, after being shot twice in an attack on his home by rebels, a presidential adviser said today.

Rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was shot and killed in the attack, according to Deputy Prime Minister Jose Luis Guterres and an army spokesman.

The home of Timorese Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao was also shot at early today, according to a witness, suggesting this was a half-baked coup attempt.

East Timorese foreign minister Zacarias da Costa said Mr Ramos- Horta is stable after emergency surgery to "locate bullets".

"One had hit him in the back and passed through to the stomach," he said. The president will be evacuated to Darwin "in the following minutes, or hours" accompanied by his sister Rosa, Mr da Costa said.

Ramos-Horta's sister-in-law said the extent of the president's injuries was not yet known. "He was able to talk and we don't know how far is the damage," Maria Gabriella Carrascalao told ABC radio. "Let's hope that it's not very, very serious... We don't know but he could not move," she said.

Mr Ramos-Horta's advisor, James Dunn, told ABC Radio: "My understanding is that he was shot twice in the stomach by Reinado's men, and then of course Horta's army of Timorese military guards returned the fire and according to some reports Reinado was killed."

The attack on Ramos-Horta was followed at 7.45am by gunfire against Mr Gusmao's home, said neighbour Leandro Isa'ac said by telephone from Dili.

Mr Gusmao and his Australian wife Kirsty Sword-Gusmao live at Balibar, in foothills south of Dili. "I heard the gunfire and alerted army commander Taur Matan Ruak, who also lives near here", Mr Isa'ac said.

Gusmao later told journalists the situation in East Timor was "under control" after the assassinations attempts.

Shot in stomach

"President Ramos-Horta was shot in the stomach and is undergoing surgery at the heliport," Agusto Junior, a presidential adviser, told reporters. East Timor's Deputy Prime Minister Jose Louis Guterres said: "He will survive, and this country will survive."

He said two carloads of people went to the President's house at Areia Branca, two kilometres outside Dili about 6am and "assaulted him, but after rapid reaction by security, his attackers fled".

Mr Ramos-Horta's next door neighbour, Luis Vieira, said he was woken at 6.50am (Timor time) by a 20-minute gun battle coming from the President's residence.

Senior UN officials held an emergency meeting at 8am, while UN police and the East Timorese army were said to be at the house soon after the shooting stopped.

Rebel Reinado shot dead

Army spokesman Major Domingos da Camara said house guards had shot dead Reinado, who was wanted on murder charges for a flare- up of violence in 2006. Two cars passed Mr Ramos-Horta's house early this morning and began shooting, he said.

Australian officers with the International Stabilisation Force (ISF) said Mr Ramos-Horta's house in Dili had been cordoned off and troops had rushed to the residence.

Australian non-government organisations in Dili have recommended that their staff remain at home today.

UN spokeswoman Isabelle Abric said via phone from Dili that UN police and the International Stabilisation Force were on high alert and were maintaining a presence on the capital's streets.

"Our first concern is that the situation remains calm and for people not panic... it's too early to say anything about the future at this stage." No evacuations were being considered, she said. "So far everything is calm and hopefully it will remain calm."

Heard the gun battle

Ms Abric, who lives only 50 metres from Mr Ramos-Horta's house, said she heard the gun battle herself. "I've been in a lot of war zones but I did not calculate exactly [how many shots were fired or what calibre the weapons were]. I heard definitely two series of shots which didn't sound to be the same [calibre]."

Reinado had threatened to use force against the Government in November if it failed to concede to demands by a group of army deserters. Reinado was indicted for his alleged role in several deadly shootings between the rebel army troops and police units in April and May 2006.

The fighting spilled over into mayhem that left 37 people dead and drove 155,000 others from their homes. Calm was restored by foreign troops and peaceful elections were held in which Mr Ramos-Horta was elected president, but low-level violence had continued.

East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, gained independence in 2002 after more than two decades of brutal Indonesian occupation.

Rampant poverty

Its new political leaders have vowed to tackle rampant poverty and restore damaged relations between the country's police and army.

Reinado was involved in an incident last week when his rebel group fired up to eight warning shots at Australian ISF troops. The ISF soldiers did not return fire and no casualties were reported.

Today's attack follows growing tension in Dili linked to Reinado and his followers.

Explosion

Following his confrontation last Wednesday with Australian soldiers, an explosion last Thursday rocked the military base at Camp Phoenix, in central Dili. There were no injuries. Camp Phoenix houses elements of the ISF, which includes Australian and New Zealand defence personnel.

Security forces have previously failed to apprehend Reinado, who in January refused to attend a scheduled court hearing tomorrow to face murder and other charges.

Reinado's lawyer said the rebel leader would not submit to the judicial process until the Government met several demands, including that his case be heard by a military court.

The court issued an arrest warrant for Reinado following his escape from prison, but last year Ramos-Horta called off the warrant following a bungled attempt by the Australian military to arrest the rebel in Same, 50 kilometres south of Dili. Five of Reinado's followers died in the mountain raid.

Died in raid

Reinado, who escaped from prison last year and led a group of 600 rebel soldiers, was a key figure in the 2006 violence that plunged the country into violence and was wanted on eight counts of murder.

Mr Ramos Horta called off the military search for Reinado last June so the sides could engage in talks. Last August Mr Ramos- Horta met Reinado to seek an end to the unrest.

"At the meeting, both sides expressed support for a dialogue process with the aim of settling their differences peacefully and ending the armed confrontation," Swiss-based mediators, the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue in Geneva, said in a statement at the time.

It called the meeting "a positive move towards the start of a genuine dialogue process".

Mr Ramos-Horta shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize with Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo for their resistance to Indonesian rule.

[with Edmund Tadros, Dylan Welch and agencies.]

Social/political crisis

Drugs, vice mobsters get foothold in East Timor

Melbourne Age - February 28, 2008

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – A crime syndicate with links to former pro-Indonesian militias supplied drugs to youth gang members involved in violent attacks in East Timor.

This is the finding of an investigation ordered by East Timor's President Jose Ramos Horta. It also found girls as young as 12 were being trafficked into East Timor for prostitution, some at a brothel frequented by United Nations personnel.

A report on the investigation, obtained by The Age, criticises the Australian-led International Stabilisation Force (ISF) and United Nations police in East Timor for failing to "recognise the importance and gravity of this new phenomenon" in the troubled country of 1 million.

"The swiftness in which international drug syndicates mobilised into Timor Leste (East Timor) was underestimated by the international security forces," the report said.

But within days of Mr Ramos Horta receiving the report last month, East Timor and United Nations police began raids in the capital, Dili, and arrested almost 100 Timorese and foreigners on drugs and prostitution charges.

Mr Ramos Horta is recovering in Royal Darwin Hospital from gunshot wounds received in a rebel attack on February 11.

The confidential report said girls aged between 12 and 15 were brought from Indonesian West Timor and held in safe houses in Dili and "only brought out on request" to a brothel operated by a drugs and human trafficking syndicate. The head of the syndicate, an Indonesian, had "strong and lucrative" links to martial arts gangs, the report said.

The report identified two shipments of methamphetamine, known as sabu sabu or ice, into Dili in December by a syndicate "controlled by Timorese-Indonesian nationals with clear ties to, and possibly funded by, ex-militia elements in West Timor".

There is no suggestion that Indonesian authorities are behind any illegal activities in East Timor.

The report said the arrival in Dili of crime syndicates required "serious attention" but warned that without extensive surveillance before police raids the syndicates "might begin to operate in a more clandestine and careful manner, making them harder to track and target".

East Timor security forces have seized a cache of homemade weapons and detained a foreign citizen suspected of helping rebel soldiers involved in the attack on the country's leaders.

Filomeno Paixao, head of the Joint Command, said homemade weapons including a grenade, knives and arrows, as well as 500 military uniforms, had been found in the house of a foreigner near Dili. "We have brought the man to the investigation unit because he is believed to be helping rebels," he said.

[With reporting from Reuters.]

Timor journo 'beaten' by police

The Australian - February 26, 2008

Michael Mckenna – A senior staff member of the East Timor Post newspaper was allegedly beaten and arrested at the weekend in the latest of a series of incidents pointing to a crackdown on press freedom across the troubled country.

Less than a month after Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao threatened to arrest local journalists, claiming inaccurate reporting was contributing to national instability, East Timor Post senior layout editor Agustinho Ta Pasea was arrested on Saturday morning on his way to the Dili printing presses with a computer file of the paper's weekend edition.

Post editor Mouzinho De Araujo told The Australian Ta Pasea claims he was stopped at 2am, beaten by military police and then taken to a police station where he was assaulted again.

De Araujo said his staff member was held for 11 hours on grounds he had broken the 10pm-6am curfew in Dili, introduced during recent unrest: "He wasn't out there because of personal interests, but because of the national interests in trying to keep the people informed. Agus showed his identity card, explained he was taking the edition to be published and then these police punched him. He was later beaten at the police station by several men... Maybe, it is because our newspaper has been tough on authorities."

Ta Pasea was released early on Saturday afternoon with cuts and bruises to his face. The edition of the newspaper was published later that day, instead of the usual time of 7am. De Araujo said he had lodged a formal complaint with police and the Government.

In January, Mr Gusmao said 2008 was a year of reform that would include the local media.

Army censors news as tensions rise

The Australian - February 21, 2008

Paul Toohey – Time reporter Rory Callinan has complained of heavy-handed treatment at the hands of Australian soldiers in East Timor after he and photographer John Wilson were detained for three hours at gunpoint outside of Dili.

Callinan says he and Wilson had driven up a steep, winding road aiming last week to get to the small village of Dare, just above Dili.

The Australian-led International Security Force was there conducting a mass search for major Alfredo Reinado's renegades after deadly attacks on President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao last Monday.

At an ISF-manned roadblock below Dare, Callinan was told that there was no access beyond that point and it was a "media-free area".

The Australian had encountered the same response when it tried to get through and, when ISF public affairs was asked why they were letting truckloads of locals pass through the blockade, was told: "A decision has been made to allow locals through to conduct their normal business. Journalists only want to go through for one reason."

Callinan and Wilson drove back down from the roadblock and with two Timorese interpreters walked for an hour up a jungle trail to try to access Dare by foot. Just outside the village, said Callinan, "two Australians jumped out of the bushes wearing 'camo' paint, pointing their guns, ordering us to get down. "We were told to hand over our mobile phones, all our camera equipment and passports and told to sit without talking. The guy said: 'We're detaining you for your own safety and I can't tell you more.'

"I said, 'So we can't move?' He said, 'I'm telling you, I am detaining you. I can physically detain you if I want, but I choose not to at this point.'

"We were wondering why they were letting dozens of East Timorese wander about with no apparent concern for their safety."

Callinan said they were held for three hours in a jungle setting, with Wilson at one point being ordered to lie on the ground.

After dark they were told they were to be released and could enter Dare. Callinan said they did some interviews with locals and walked out on the road back to Dili, where they were detained again, this time for breaching the nationwide 8pm curfew.

"They confiscated our gear again. We said, 'But you've already detained us for three hours, which is why we are in breach of the curfew'."

Callinan said they got a lecture from public affairs officer Major Phil Pyke and were eventually dropped off at their hotel.

"The East Timorese with us were saying this was the sort of thing that happened under Indonesian times."

An ISF spokesman told The Australian that Callinan could call the Department of Defence in Canberra, where they would go over the rationale for the detention with him.

Lindsay Moller, a photographer with The Australian, also encountered the wrath of two Portuguese guards when he photographed them driving Angelita Pires out of the police compound in Dili.

Ms Pires was at the time under investigation for allegedly conspiring with Reinado to kill Ramos-Horta. The Portuguese officers ordered Moller to delete his photos.

Later that day, when Pires was brought into court by the same two guards, Moller was the only photographer at the scene. Standing outside the court building, he began shooting photographs of Ms Pires as she stepped out of the vehicle, though the guards quickly shielded her face.

One of the guards grabbed Moller by the shoulders, pushing him backwards, screaming in his face and grabbing at his cameras.

Moller declined to delete his photos and was ordered to be seated in the courthouse while the guard took his details. A more senior officer soon ordered the guard to release Moller, having no lawful grounds to detain him.

Timor must overcome poverty, divisive politics

Agence France Presse - February 18, 2008

Belinda Lopez – East Timor, a fragile young democracy rocked by assaults on its two top leaders last week, must work to overcome grinding poverty and a divisive politics to achieve stability, analysts say.

Renegade soldiers launched shooting attacks on President Jose Ramos-Horta, leaving him critically wounded, as well as Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, who fled unharmed, in the latest violent twist in the nation's six-year history. Rebel boss Alfredo Reinado was killed during the attacks and analysts said his death eliminated a key obstacle to peace.

But the struggling, impoverished nation must target the root causes of disgruntlement among its one-million-strong population if it is to emerge as a stronger state in the future, they warned. Reinado joined a rebellion that started two years ago with the mass desertion of around 600 soldiers from western districts who were upset over easterners allegedly being given preferential treatment.

Though he was not part of the original group of deserters, the former army major helped stoke unrest that left 37 dead and deepened regional schisms. But the east-west divide goes much deeper than Reinado, analysts said.

"He was very flashy and charismatic, but he was more the symptom than the cause," said John Miller, a campaigner with the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network. More intransigent roots of the schisms were "poverty and joblessness: the East Timorese have not been able to recover from the Indonesian occupation, from the destruction the Indonesians left behind," he said.

Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and ruled brutally until a 1999 referendum saw the East Timorese vote to break away. Militias backed by the Indonesian military murdered some 1,400 people and left a trail of destruction during the period surrounding the vote.

Unemployment remains high in Dili, at 23 percent, jumping to 58 percent for the 15 to 19 age group, according to 2004 figures. Reinado's belligerence towards East Timor's leaders and championing of regional grievances struck a chord with jobless youths from the west wandering Dili's streets, Miller said, with some coming to see him as a hero.

George Quinn, an East Timor expert at the Australian National University, said poor economic conditions had seen tensions spike over easterners moving in to seek work on the scarce job market. "What happened in 2006 was in some degree a backlash against the intrusion into their world. That issue still has to be addressed," he told AFP.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, who visited Dili on Friday, tapped the issue of unemployment and said he had raised it in talks with his counterpart. "Ensuring young people across Timor- Leste have a job is for business, but also this country's long- term stability," the premier said. But East Timor's cut-throat politics are also to blame for fostering regional divisions, said sociologist and East Timorese politics expert Helen Hill, from Australia's Victoria University.

The east-west divide had its genesis in Portugal's long colonial occupation of East Timor and it had been a sleeper issue, she said. Under Portuguese rule, those from the east came to be known as "faraku" – meaning "fight back" – because of their resistance to the colonisers, while westerners were known as "kaledi", meaning "subservient", Hill said. Indonesia's occupation pushed these identities under the surface, with a strong national identity emerging in response.

But in the post-independence era, Hill said, politicians have lent on regional identity to shore up their support bases.

Xanana Gusmao, the country's prime minister and a leader hailed by many as East Timor's independence hero, was partly to blame, Hill argued. A speech made by Gusmao, a westerner, in his former role as president during the military deserter crisis in 2006, explicitly acknowledged the east-west divide, which spilled into national elections the following year. "That's the sad thing, the political parties hardly talked about different policies, they talked about different identities," Hill told AFP.

Timor's new rebel leader won't give up without a fight

Australian Associated Press - February 16, 2008

The man who claims to be the new leader of East Timor's fugitive rebels says he's heavily armed and will not surrender without a fight.

Former Army Lieutenant Gastao Salsinha says he has assumed command of the rebels, after leader Alfredo Reinado was killed in the lead up to Monday's attack on East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta. Salsinha says he's in hiding in a house in the capital, Dili.

"If the East Timorese army comes to capture me, I will defend myself," he has told Channel Nine. "I am also a soldier so I have dignity as a soldier, if a soldier comes to attack me I will fight back."

But he said he would surrender if his supporters asked him to. "If my supporters are willing me to turn myself into the government, then I will be ready to do it."

Salsinha said he was not "the enemy of Australia" and supported the presence of foreign troops in the country because "they are here to help us, the people of East Timor".

He described Monday's attacks – which saw Ramos-Horta shot and wounded, and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escape unharmed after an ambush – as part of a "very complicated" plan. He would not say whether the rebels wanted to kill the two leaders, or simply kidnap them.

But he added: "If we wanted to kill him (Ramos-Horta) we would kill him directly". "I will not tell you what was the plan of this attack, but I will tell you when I go to court."

Salsinha said Reinado concocted the plan because he "saw that something was not going well". He would not elaborate. With Reinado dead, Salsinha said he was now the leader of the rebels.

"He (Alfredo) is my chief commander and I am the deputy – he got killed already, of course I will replace him," he said. "My objective is to fight for justice. We want everyone in East Timor to live peacefully without fear, with justice. That's what we are hoping to do."

East Timor's prosecutor general has issued 12 arrest warrants over Monday's violence, including one for Salsinha for allegedly leading the ambush targeting Gusmao. Another five warrants are expected to be issued today.

Reinado and Salsinha were among 600 mutinous soldiers dismissed by East Timor's government in 2006, triggering violence in which 37 people were killed and more than 150,000 people forced from their homes.

Salsinha said Reinado was killed on Monday by Timorese troops, about 25 minutes before the president was shot. "My commander Alfredo Reinado went to Metiaut (where Ramos-Horta's house is). He was killed first by the F-FDTL (East Timorese army), and about 25 minutes later the president got shot."

Balibo 5 Killings

UK government to meet Balibo Five relatives

Australian Associated Press - February 28, 2008

The British government will consult with the families of two of the Balibo Five about what action, if any, it should take over the killings of the British-born newsmen in East Timor in 1975.

Foreign Office Minister Meg Munn offered to meet relatives of Brian Peters and Malcolm Rennie – the two British members of the group of five Australian-based newsmen who were deliberately killed by Indonesian soldiers at Balibo in October 1975.

The offer came after Liberal Democrat MP Don Foster called on Britain to ask INTERPOL to issue arrest warrants for two surviving Indonesian military men whom a NSW coroner linked to the killings after an inquest into the deaths.

Munn described the killings as "tragic" and assured the slain men's families the British government was taking the case seriously. "I would now like to offer to meet the honorable member (Foster) and the families of the two British journalists killed... to discuss the outcome of the Australian inquest," Munn said.

Asked by Foster during a debate at Westminster if she would call on Australian police to take the case to court, Munn said it was not up to Britain to "take forward the findings of the coroner's... nor to comment on their accuracy".

"But I can assure him that we have paid close attention to the process of the inquest, and I plan to ask the Australian authorities at a suitable opportunity how they plan to respond to the inquest's recommendations," she said.

Handing down her findings last November, Deputy NSW Coroner Dorelle Pinch found that Gary Cunningham, Greg Shackleton, Tony Stewart and their two British-born colleagues were deliberately shot or stabbed while trying to surrender to Indonesian-led troops who stormed Balibo on October 16, 1975.

Their bodies were then dressed in military uniforms and photographed with guns before being incinerated in an attempt to portray them as combatants killed in a mortar attack.

The Australian Federal Police is still considering whether to charge the surviving former Indonesian military personnel linked to the deaths, Christoforus da Silva and Captain Yunus Yosfiah.

Both the Australian and British governments have been accused in the past of trying to cover up the deaths in order to protect diplomatic ties with Indonesia.

Foster wants the British government to carry out a major review of its conduct in relation to the men's deaths. He said secret government documents released in 2002 showed that Britain's ambassador to Jakarta, John Ford, had warned a month before the Balibo Five were killed that Indonesia was ready to "step up clandestine intervention" and about to invade East Timor but the UK had done nothing to stop it.

The documents also showed that after Britain learned of the journalists' deaths eight days after they were killed, it recommended to Australian officials that it would be "pointless to go on demanding information from the Indonesians".

"When Britons die abroad we anticipate our government doing all they can to help the relatives," Foster said. "We expect the government to seek as much information as possible and to share it with the relatives. Sadly, in this case, the opposite happened. From 1975 until 1995 there was almost complete inaction. The government were involved in a disgraceful cover- up."

Warrants urged over Balibo Five killings

The Australian - February 27, 2008

From correspondents in London – Britain is being urged to order arrest warrants for two surviving former Indonesian military chiefs linked to the deliberate killing of the Balibo Five.

The British government is being called on to take action because two of the Australian-based newsmen killed in East Timor by Indonesian forces in 1975 were born in the UK.

A Liberal Democrat MP, Don Foster, has requested the Government to ask Interpol to issue arrests for the Indonesians, named last year by a NSW coroner in connection with the 1975 killings of the newsmen in East Timor. Two of the victims, Brian Peters and Malcolm Rennie, were British. Two were Australian and one was from New Zealand.

In a speech to be delivered at Westminster tomorrow (AEDT), Liberal Democrats MP Don Foster will demand the government order INTERPOL to issue warrants for the two surviving Indonesian military men a NSW coroner linked to the killings.

A handful of former senior military personnel, including Captain Yunus Yosfiah, who allegedly gave the orders to kill the newsmen, Commander Christoforus da Silva, Major-General Benny Murdani and Colonel Dading Kalbuadi were identified by deputy NSW coroner Dorelle Pinch as being involved in the deaths.

"Murdani and Kalbuadi are dead," Mr Foster's speech says. "The other two are not. Will the minister insist that those accused of the murders face justice – by, if necessary, a UK initiative for INTERPOL to issue warrants for the two surviving Indonesians the coroner names?"

Mr Foster also wants Britain to endorse Ms Pinch's findings and has demanded the British government reveal what reports on the journalists' deaths its intelligence representatives in Canberra saw at the time.

When she handed down her findings last November, Ms Pinch ruled that Gary Cunningham, Greg Shackleton, Tony Stewart and their British-born colleagues Brian Peters and Malcolm Rennie were shot or stabbed while trying to surrender to Indonesian-led troops who stormed the border town of Balibo on October 16, 1975.

Their bodies were then dressed in military uniforms and photographed with guns before being incinerated in an attempt to portray them as combatants killed in a mortar attack. They had been tracked and targeted by the Indonesian military before being killed.

Captain Yosfiah, who later became Indonesia's minister of information, has denied ordering the killings.

Australian Federal Police and the Director of Public Prosecutions are examining the coroner's findings about whether prosecutions could be possible.

Malcolm Rennie's cousin, Margaret Wilson, who lives in London, backed Mr Foster's calls and said she would also like Britain to ban Captain Yosfiah and Commander da Silva from ever setting foot in the country.

"I don't see why they can't," she said. "And if Australia proceeds (with prosecutions) I don't see why Britain couldn't because two of them were British. I would like to see some sort of resolution to this in my lifetime."

Foreign Office Minister Meg Munn is expected to respond to Mr Foster's calls in parliament tomorrow (AEDT).

Keating is ignorant, says widow of slain journalist

The Australian - February 4, 2008

James Madden – The widow of one of the five journalists killed by the Indonesian military at Balibo in 1975 has labelled Paul Keating "ignorant" for attributing the blame for the murders to "irresponsible" Australian news organisations.

The former prime minister claimed on the weekend the five journalists "were encouraged to report from a war zone by their irresponsible proprietors", and that in the wake of the incident large sections of the Australian media had wilfully misrepresented Indonesia as part of a "get square" agenda prompted by the Balibo killings.

His inflammatory views emerged just days after he provoked widespread outrage by describing journalist Paddy McGuinness in the days after his death as "a liar and a fraud who in journalistic terms... had the morals of an alleycat".

Yesterday, Shirley Shackleton, widow of journalist Greg Shackleton, one of the five slain newsmen, said Mr Keating's comments were "ignorant" and "gutless". "He has displayed his total ignorance of what journalists do when they go to report on these situations," Ms Shackleton said.

News organisations had not been irresponsible in sending their crews to the war zone, she said. "The Balibo Five were simply doing their job, like any good journalists. But someone like Paul Keating wouldn't have a clue about it – he does his job from the safety of behind a desk."

John Milkins, son of Balibo victim Gary Cunningham, said Mr Keating's comments were "very disappointing".

"I think it shows that he is very much in the camp of old Labor and Gough Whitlam, in terms of being an apologist (for Indonesia), and for trying to discredit news agencies and their role of keeping politicians honest," he said.

Kevin Rudd also distanced himself yesterday from Mr Keating's comments, although he admitted he had not read the article in question. "The events of '75 are an absolute disgrace. News organisations are not to blame at all. If Paul said that, I disagree with him, but I haven't seen what he said," Mr Rudd said.

Writing for Fairfax newspapers in defence of the reign of former Indonesian president Suharto, Mr Keating said that certain Australian media outlets – most notably the ABC and the Fairfax press – had skewed their coverage of Indonesian affairs as part of a "get square" agenda over Balibo.

"This event (the Balibo murders) was sheeted back to Suharto by journalists of the (Australian) broadsheet press," he wrote.

"From that moment, in their eyes, Suharto became a cruel and intolerant repressor whose life's work in saving Indonesia from destruction was to be viewed only through the prism of East Timor." Mr Keating said media "misrepresentation of the true state of Indonesian social and economic life" had led most Australians to regard Indonesia suspiciously over the past 25 years, despite the fact that "it is evident that Indonesia has been at the fulcrum of our strategic stability".

Social conflicts/refugees

Refugee crisis and internal tensions dog East Timor

Reuters - February 19, 2008

Ahmad Pathoni, Dili – Delvina da Costa complained of squalid conditions and a shortage of food in the refugee camp where she has lived for almost two years, but the prospect of returning to her old neighbourhood in Dili fills her with dread.

Her house in East Timor was burned down in 2006 during a wave of violence that killed 37 people and forced 150,000 from their homes, prompting the dispatch of international troops and United Nations police to restore order in the young impoverished nation of 1 million people.

"We feel it's not safe. There's no guarantee we will be protected from attacks," da Costa, 26, said, holding her naked one-year-old son in a refugee camp near Dili's largest hotel.

East Timor's government and the United Nations have started a programme to relocate some 30,000 refugees living in camps that dot the capital. Starting this month, food rations for the displaced have been reduced by half in an effort to prevent refugees from becoming too reliant on handouts.

Under the $15 million (7.7 million pound) programme, the government will give $4,500 to each family whose home was destroyed as well as a two-month food ration and transport stipend, said Jacinto Gomes, state secretary for social affairs.

Those whose homes were damaged but which can still be repaired will get $3,000 and houses will be built in suburbs for people unable to return to their former dwellings for security reasons.

Gomes admitted that solving the refugee problems is not an easy task. "They have legitimate security concerns but the sooner they can be relocated the better," Gomes told Reuters, adding that he hoped the programme could be completed this year.

Ethnic violence

Allison Cooper, a spokeswoman for the United Nations mission in East Timor, said that in addition to genuine fear, confusion over land ownership was also making it difficult for the refugees to return home. "It's very difficult for people who have become dislocated to actually establish legally that they have land," she said.

The violence two years ago was triggered by the dismissal of 600 soldiers who complained that they had been discriminated against because they were from the western part of the country. The soldiers' sacking by the previous government prompted protests that degenerated into ethnic violence and fighting between factions in the security forces.

Ethnic divisions and conflict in the security forces are in the spotlight again following last week's attack on President Jose Ramos-Horta by army renegade Alfredo Reinado and some of the sacked soldiers who joined his revolt against the government. Ramos-Horta was shot and seriously wounded in the February 11 attack on his house. Reinado was killed while leading the attack.

Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped a separate attack on his convoy the same day which was believed to have been carried out by Reinado's followers.

Reinado became a powerful symbol of East Timor's east-west divide after he deserted to join the sacked soldiers and launched an armed revolt against the government. Many in the west of the country saw him as a hero defending their rights and some politicians in the governing coalition also supported him.

He escaped from jail in Dili in August 2006 and evaded a military operation by Australian troops to capture him in his jungle hideout, where he enjoyed protection from local people.

Crisis situation

The conflict in the predominantly Catholic nation is more complex than a divide between the east and west of the country, said Sophia Cason, an East Timor analyst for the International Crisis Group thinktank.

"Within the east there are so many divisions between groups there. It's not like a cohesive east and a cohesive west," she said. She stressed the need for reform in security forces and for accountability for past crimes, saying that nobody had gone to jail for murders committed in 2006.

"None of these has been dealt with effectively, so hopefully the recent incidents will renew focus on those issues," she said, adding that the government should also address poverty, improve education and create investment opportunities.

Refugees in the Dili camp, who are from the east, said the death of Reinado did not mean the threat against them was over. "He may be dead but there are still others. As long as they are still around, we won't sleep well," said one man, who gave his name as Mariano. His friends nodded in agreement.

Jose Luis de Oliveira, director of East Timor's leading human rights group Yayasan HAK, alleged that some opposition politicians were trying to sabotage efforts to resolve the refugee problems to maintain a situation of crisis even after the death of Reinado in the attack on the president's home last week.

"People say once the Alfredo (Reinado) question is resolved, the refugee problem will be over, but as long as these politicians have not achieved their goals, they will continue to perpetuate the problem," he said, noting that flags of the opposition party, Fretilin, can be seen in most camps.

People in the districts who have to eke out a living have started to become jealous of refugees receiving food handouts and this could create new tensions, he said.

East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, opted to break away from 23 years of Indonesian rule in a violence-marred vote organised by the United Nations in 1999. It became fully independent in 2002 after a period of UN administration but remains one of the world's poorest nations.

[Editing by Sara Webb and Megan Goldin.]

East Timor trying to close refugee camps

International Herald Tribune - February 15, 2008

Donald Greenlees, Dili – When the rain-laden clouds open up, as they frequently do this time of year, the tarpaulin over Alicia Pinto's bed leaks and the pathway outside her tent home becomes a quagmire.

Still, a crowded tent in a camp for internally displaced people on the eastern fringes of Dili is better than going back to where she came from. The house where Pinto lived with her family in Baucau, 120 kilometers, about 75 miles, to the east of the capital, was burned down in riots in April 2006, which forced a large part of the population to flee.

"We are afraid to go back," Pinto, 21, said Friday, as a wood fire filled the entrance to her tent with acrid smoke. "The neighbors won't accept us."

Pinto's family is among an estimated 100,000 East Timorese – about a tenth of the population – to have been ejected from their homes and communities by violence in recent years.

The camps are dotted around Dili, sitting alongside the city's best hotels where in the afternoon foreign workers and better-off East Timorese sip coffee and eat cake. The United Nations integrated mission in East Timor, brought in to help restore order in 2006, counts 58 camps in Dili, occupied by about 35,000 people.

But two years after the camps were set up, the UN mission and the East Timorese government are anxious to see them closed before they become a permanent fixture. Officials express concern over signs of growing aid dependency among some displaced people and the role the camps have played as focal points of unrest in the past.

This month, under instructions from the government of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmco, the monthly food ration supplied by the World Food Program to camp residents has been cut in half.

In the latest food deliveries each individual has been allocated 4 kilograms, or 8.8 pounds, of rice and three-quarters of a liter, or 1.6 pints, of cooking oil. Starting next month, food deliveries by the Rome-based World Food Program will cease altogether.

The United Nations and the government hope that the cuts to food supplies will provide incentives for many displaced people either to return home or to settle elsewhere. The decision to reduce and then end food aid to camps is in part driven by a World Food Program survey last year that concluded that half the occupants of the camps did not need assistance and might have been encouraged to stay on in the camps to receive free food.

"If we do not discontinue this we basically support a policy of creating a nation of beggars and people who live on handouts," said Finn Reske-Nielsen, who coordinates all the United Nations' humanitarian operations in East Timor.

The United Nations and the government aim to replace general food aid with a distribution program that focuses on the most vulnerable people in and outside the camps, including the elderly, the sick and those widowed or orphaned in conflict.

But the goal of some in the United Nations and government to close the camps by the end of the year could prove difficult to achieve. The World Food Program reported in September that almost 87 percent of people in the camps were there because their homes had been destroyed or damaged.

Most of that destruction took place in 2006, when a confrontation between the government and elements of the army spilled over into wider unrest in Dili and various parts of the countryside. During the violence tens of thousands of people were forced from their homes and 37 people were killed.

At the heart of the dispute was a complaint by soldiers from the western districts of the country that they were discriminated against in promotions and conditions. Many communities across the country divided along regional lines, neighbor suddenly pitted against neighbor.

The events of that year also gave rise to the rebellion of Alfredo Reinado, a former military police officer who led the shooting attacks this week on Gusmco, who was unharmed, and President Josi Ramos-Horta, who is being treated for his wounds in Australia. Reinado was killed.

In returning home, camp inhabitants face not only the problems of rebuilding but of settling a complex array of communal issues. In about 6 percent of cases, according to the World Food Program, the homes of displaced are occupied illegally by others.

The East Timorese have in the past shown a considerable ability to reconcile conflicts and rebuild communities.

They have no shortage of experience after the country was torn by civil war in 1975 following the abrupt end of colonial rule by Portugal and virtually razed in 1999, when the people voted in a UN-sponsored referendum to end 24 years of occupation by Indonesia, prompting an angry backlash from the losers. East Timor gained formal independence in 2002.

But many of the victims of the most recent troubles say that even after two years the wounds are still raw. They complain that progress toward reconciliation has been slow.

In the Becora camp in the eastern outskirts of Dili – home to about 362 displaced people – Annabella Fatima da Cruz occupies a tent only a short walk from her old home. Eight months pregnant with her first child, da Cruz says she would like to have a permanent home in time for the birth. She said she would like to go back to her old neighborhood, but that is not an option.

"The situation is not safe," she said. "There was a dialogue, but it has not produced anything yet." She added: "I have no idea how long I will live here. It depends on the government."

The UN mission, which oversees policing in East Timor, and the government say there has been a steady decline in security problems across the country. UN officials are nonetheless sympathetic to the concerns.

"The security situation is improving going by crime statistics," said Atul Khare, the chief of the UN mission, in an interview. "But the actual security situation and fear of insecurity are two different concepts. You can have a great fear of insecurity without any crime at all."

Finn, the UN humanitarian coordinator, is concerned that the camps themselves will serve to perpetuate security problems if they are not shut soon.

"Clearly if we are not careful and we don't solve this problem as soon as possible we run the risk of creating a whole generation of traumatized youngsters who can become a source of societal instability in the longer run," he said.

Indeed, the camps are not necessarily a haven. Humanitarian workers say there are reports that in some camps residents are preyed upon by organized gangs. Last week, the leaders of a large camp near Dili airport ordered residents to reject food deliveries as a protest against the decision to cut the ration in half.

Luiz Vieira, the head of the International Office of Migration in East Timor, said there was also evidence of aid being diverted and sold. "Many people who want to accept the half ration have not because they have been threatened either implicitly or explicitly," he said.

Living conditions dire, as East Timor fighting continues

ABC News - February 10, 2008

Heather Stewart – While there has been relative calm during the wet season in East Timor, more than 100,000 East Timorese are living in appalling conditions in tent cities across Dili and in the fledgling nation's remote districts.

Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has promised a "year of reform" but the refugees have almost given up hope.

It is mid-afternoon in a church hall in downtown Dili. More than 200 men belt out their favourite hymn in preparation for tomorrow's morning mass. Translated, the song's title means "my dream".

And what these East Timorese refugees dream about is a better life than they have had since they won their independence almost a decade ago.

But these men come from Dili camps, and are part of more than 100,000 displaced East Timorese, living in appalling conditions in tents. The tiny structures are just a metre apart, in rows running for kilometres along Dili's main street to the airport.

Babies and toddlers play near open drains as women cook meals nearby. Makeshift clotheslines sag under the weight and a haze of smoke barely masks the stench of animal and human waste.

Mission coordinator Louis Fiera says people just want to go home, but admits people are taking the government-funded resettlement grant and returning to sign into another camp because they still fear for their safety.

"The situation in these camps in Dili and outside are extremely difficult, because people have fled to places that weren't built for to support such large populations," she said.

"You have to deal with the space constraints, shelter constraints, the issues relating to water and sanitation, not enough toilets, et cetera. The situation is of course it's very, very difficult. And each day that passes, I think, is more difficult – if not from a physical perspective, from a psychological perspective. But you know, we are in support of the Government, we try to do whatever we can."

Maria de Fatima has been in her central Dili camp with her family of five for two years, after her home was burnt to the ground by pro-Jakarta militia. She has tears in her eyes as she says she wants to go home, but she is too frightened. "We're afraid and the little ones are afraid," she said.

Seventy-year-old Francisco Soares has also lost everything. "Where would I go to", he asks, "Am I supposed to sleep on the ground?" He has a message for Australians: "We have nothing, no chairs, no tables, nothing to put inside our houses, even if we had a home," he said.

Disease rampant

Aside from the burden of so many people being displaced, Timor Health Minister Dr Nelson Martins says the nation's health statistics are alarming.

"[There is a] high child and infant mortality rate in the region. We're talking about high communicable disease, we're talking about malaria, we're talking about tuberculosis," he said. "This is the highest in the South-East Asia region and western Pacific region. We have huge malnutrition."

But the World Health Organisation's representative to Timor L'este, Dr Alex Andjaparidze, says he is relieved there has been no communicable diseases outbreaks in the camps.

"I can say that the people who have already lived for one year in the camp, there was no communicable disease outbreak, because there was synergetical effort of first, Ministry of Health, after that, UN agencies and NGOs (non-government organisations)," he said.

Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao promises change, but admits spirits are low.

"People are tired, tired of conflict, tired of suffering. We want to shake the consciousness of the people. We have to stop hurting ourselves, killing ourselves. We have to be united in a new process of development," he said.

If you talk about development, you cannot say only developing the infrastructure, you have to say developing in the human resources, the human being because people can feel free of suffering.

But that is not in the short-term going to ease the suffering of the displaced Timorese who can only find comfort in song.

Justice & reconciliation

In East Timor, a sense of injustice drives chaos

Globe and Mail (Toronto) - February 20, 2008

Geoffrey York, Dili – Passengers arriving at East Timor's airport are greeted with an ominous sign posted by the authorities, warning of the roving gangs of child extortionists who threaten physical harm to anyone refusing their "baggage services."

The drive from the airport is equally unsettling. The road is controlled by gangs of violent youths who routinely hurl rocks at each other. Shops and homes are guarded with razor wire and spiked fences. Arson has destroyed much of the capital, Dili, and the streets are filled with camps of refugees who fled the destruction.

Gang warfare, fuelled by poverty and a collapsing social order, has devastated East Timor. But the chaos is also linked to a deeper emotion: the simmering sense of injustice over the thousands of killings during Indonesia's military occupation, and the lack of punishment for the killers. The sense of impunity and injustice has made it easier for the gangs to flourish.

Despite a series of inquiries and commissions, not a single Indonesian has been jailed for the 1,500 deaths caused by Indonesian-backed militias in 1999, when East Timor voted for independence. Nor has anyone been prosecuted for the estimated 200,000 deaths during the 24 years of Indonesian occupation.

"The lack of justice is behind every problem in East Timor," said Mario Carrascalao, a former governor of the territory who now leads the Social Democratic Party. "There's a culture of impunity, and it just encourages more violence."

As much as a third of East Timor's population was killed during the Indonesian occupation, a proportion that makes the slaughter among the worst in human history. The survivors are still waiting for anyone to be punished.

"Justice is very far away," said Gil Soares Ximenes, a 21-year- old refugee whose uncle disappeared during the killings of 1999. "There have been many commissions, but we haven't seen anyone brought to justice, and we don't see anyone admitting any wrongdoing."

At least eight inquiries or court tribunals have been launched since 1999 to investigate the bloodshed of the Indonesian occupation and its immediate aftermath. The inquiries have produced voluminous evidence of the Indonesian military's involvement in murder and other crimes in East Timor, yet their recommendations have been ignored.

Indonesian courts found 18 people guilty of atrocities in East Timor, but almost all were set free when their convictions were overturned. The only conviction to be upheld was that of a Timorese militia leader.

Indonesia's former military chief, General Wiranto, was indicted in East Timor for his leading role in the violent attacks of 1999, but the East Timor government has opted not to seek his arrest through Interpol because it wants to maintain "friendship" with Indonesia. It knows that East Timor is heavily dependent on Indonesian exports and it knows that the country would suffer hugely if Indonesia cut off supplies to the newly independent country.

For the same reason, East Timor's leaders have rejected the widespread calls for an international tribunal to prosecute those who perpetrated the slaughter of 1999. Instead, with Indonesia's support, it has created the "Truth and Friendship Commission," a toothless inquiry that can offer amnesty to anyone who testifies before it.

The commission, boycotted by the United Nations and widely seen as a whitewash, has allowed Indonesia's military officers to testify in closed-door sessions where they deny any wrongdoing. The military leaders are rarely questioned in any systematic way.

"It hurts me inside when they deny that they supported the killings and they deny that they were behind it all," said another refugee, 25-year-old Artur Gomes, who is still waiting for anyone to be prosecuted for the murder of his cousin by Indonesian-backed militias in 1999. "It's been many years already and we've seen no truth and no justice," he said.

"Deep in our heart, there is a wound that needs to be healed. We know that Indonesia could get angry and cut off our supplies if we issue an arrest warrant, but we choose justice, no matter what the risk. We want them to come here and admit what they did."

"The commission hasn't been serious enough about investigating the truth," said Jose Texeira, a lawyer and former cabinet minister in East Timor. It's a discredited process. The message from the international community is that we should forget about justice. We are seen as insignificant."

An earlier inquiry, supported by the United Nations, produced a 2,500-page report that documented Indonesia's involvement in bloodshed from 1975 to 1999. It called for an international tribunal to prosecute those responsible if no other legal process was working. To pre-empt those calls, the East Timor government set up the truth and friendship commission instead.

"The commission is just a waste of money," said Jose Luis de Oliveira, director of a human-rights group in East Timor. "It represents the interests of the Indonesian generals and it justifies their crimes. When a witness describes a rape, the Indonesian officers are laughing. It makes us feel pain."

Timor's mass graves to be excavated

Sydney Morning Herald - February 18, 2008

Susan Wellings – One of East Timor's most bloody massacres is finally to be investigated by a team of Australian forensic scientists who plan to excavate a mass grave and identify up to 400 missing people.

TV footage of the slaughter of peaceful protesters by Indonesian troops at the Santa Cruz cemetery in 1991 was smuggled into Australia and flashed around a shocked world, providing the catalyst for the push towards independence for the embattled population.

Now comes the last act in the drama: the hastily buried remains of the dead will be exhumed and attempts made to identify them, in the hope of bringing closure to the hundreds of families still searching for their missing sons, husbands and fathers.

"More than anything, it's an humanitarian project," said the team's leader, the forensic anthropologist Dr Soren Blau, a week before her departure. "There are still a whole number of families who don't know the fate of their missing ones. By investigating the alleged grave site, and identifying any remains, we hope to be able to give closure to those families, which will hopefully help to heal communities of people, and the country as a whole."

Starting days after the bungled attacks on the country's President and Prime Minister which threatens to tip the country back into chaos, the project – funded by the Australian Government aid agency AusAID and with the co-operation of the Timorese Government – is likely to be a delicate one. But Dr Blau, 37, of the Centre for Human Identification at the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine, with a forensic dentist, a translator and two other forensic anthropologists from Argentina, says she hopes it will be a unifying project for the nation.

"We've held a number of meetings with the families of the missing and at each one, people got up in tears, still crying, 16 years on," Dr Blau said. "They said their sons walked out of home that day, and were never seen again.

"They don't know what happened to them, and need to know. They need to know if they died, and how. If we find their remains, at least their families will be able to take them home, bury them and have a place to grieve, and remember, and move on."

Estimates of the number of dead from that day on November 12, 1991, vary from 200 to 400.

Soldiers opened fire on unarmed demonstrators in what was the first public showing in Dili of support for the resistance movement against Indonesian occupation, with banners depicting Xanana Gusmao, who later became the first president and is now the Prime Minister.

The bodies, said to have been loaded on to military trucks, and injured survivors taken from hospital, have never been found.

"The atrocity has huge significance for the Timorese in terms of the move towards independence," Dr Blau said. "Now, with eyewitnesses guiding us to the alleged mass grave, our primary aim is humanitarian, but we will be collecting evidence and what the Government does with that will be up to them."

'People are still scared of expressing themselves'

The Ottawa Citizen - February 17, 2008

[Against calls to make Suharto a national hero, human rights activists want the world to remember his deadly legacy. Bella Galhos, who escaped to tell the world about the genocide in East Timor, says very little has changed.]

When Indonesian soldiers and doctors walked into a small East Timorese schoolhouse one day around 1985, 13-year-old Bella Galhos tensed up, sensing danger. The girl already had plenty of reasons to fear the Indonesian military.

During the 1975 invasion of her country by Indonesian forces led by regional strongman Suharto, Bella's two brothers, aged four and six, were beaten to death by rifle butts. Her father was jailed for two years, placed in solitary confinement where he lived in his own filth on a ration of rotten food, occasionally having fingernails and toenails removed with pliers during interrogations.

During the years of occupation, there was frequent gunfire in the tiny island country, the constant threat of rape and the mysterious deaths or disappearances of friends and family.

So Bella was suspicious when the visitors to her class pulled out syringes for what they said were immunization shots. She knew something was wrong when all the boys were escorted from the room. "I was struggling," recalls Galhos, now 35. "I was so afraid." It took five or six soldiers to get a needle in her shoulder. Two more injections would follow during the next year.

Galhos later found out the shots contained Depo Provera, a contraceptive drug the Indonesian government used in its forced contraception and sterilization program. The drug's effects are temporary, but if not used properly, can cause serious side effects, including sterility.

The atrocities of Galhos's early years gave rise to an intense drive to help advance the liberation of her country, and to experience for the first time life without military occupation. As a teenager, she got involved with the underground resistance, risking imprisonment, torture or death.

In fact, after each wave of violence, Galhos stepped up efforts to free East Timor from Suharto's grip. When a young political organizer was killed in 1991, Galhos helped organize a massive funeral procession and demonstration in Dili. When that event erupted into a mass killing, Galhos enlisted in the Indonesian military while secretly supporting the resistance. And when she endured the constant sexual assault at the hands of soldiers in Jakarta, she resolved to win the trust of the Indonesian government to represent East Timor in the Canada World Youth exchange program as an example of a compliant, pro-integration East Timorese youth.

Galhos was granted refugee status after arriving in Canada in 1994, and spent four years in Ottawa, studying English at the University of Ottawa and speaking across the continent about the brutalities of the Suharto regime. So when Suharto died last month of multiple organ failure at the age of 86, reports that Indonesians were mourning the leader, in spite of his faults, were greatly exaggerated, Galhos said.

The Indonesian Embassy in Ottawa opened a book of condolence for signing. "Even though there was a lapse of human rights, (Suharto's) still in the hearts of the Indonesian people," embassy official Aang Iswayudha told the Citizen.

"Bullshit," Galhos scoffs. She attributes any public displays of grief to Suharto's lingering legacy of oppression. "People are still scared of expressing themselves."

Last week in Jakarta, Indonesian activists held a protest against calls to make Suharto a national hero. "We held this protest to refuse the calls for the hero title for Suharto as he committed a lot of human rights violations when he was a president," an activist named Mustar told Reuters news agency.

Unlike Suharto's victims, the former leader had the luxury of dying humanely, Galhos adds. "So many of my friends, there are bodies we have still not found. But he died in a nice hospital, in the hands of good doctors, good technology."

On Dec. 7, 1975, Suharto put into motion Operation Komodo, a plan to invade and annex the Portugese colony. By the end of that month, an estimated 20,000 Indonesian soldiers had been deployed to the island, and by the following summer, East Timor was formally annexed as a province of Indonesia. Nearly a quarter- century of military occupation would follow, and estimates of the death toll range from 100,000 to 200,000 East Timorese. Portugal's last census figures in 1974 peg the pre-invasion population at 680,000, by some measures making the killings in East Timor the worst genocide since the Holocaust.

Every family, without exception, has stories, she says. "Some lost most of their family. Some lost half. Always one or two or more. Or all of it, gone." In addition to losing her brothers, her aunt was also "raped to death," Galhos said. The rape of locals by Indonesian troops was fairly common, in a society that was patriarchal to begin with, Galhos explains. "If there's 20 people there, the whole 20 are going to rape you."

And for many survivors, including Galhos's father, imprisonment and torture left lasting physical reminders. "Some parts of his body don't really function well because of too much kicking. They hit him so much."

Her brother was tortured after being rounded up in the aftermath of what would come to be known as the Santa Cruz massacre. It started as a funeral procession to the grave of 18-year-old activist Sebastian Gomez, who was shot by East Timorese agents for Indonesia in October 1991. Galhos, then 19, helped organize the demonstration, which was timed to coincide with a Portugese parliamentary delegation to Jakarta, to raise awareness of the horrors unfolding in East Timor.

The procession of about 5,000 made its way slowly through the Dili streets on the morning of Nov. 12, 1991. As the group arrived at the cemetery, three military vehicles pulled up, each carrying 20 to 25 soldiers. Soldiers jumped off each truck and aimed their M-16 rifles, Galhos recalls.

She was reassured, however, by the presence of US journalists Amy Goodman and Allan Nairn. "I said to my friend, 'You don't have to run. I don't think they're going to shoot us." The soldiers opened fire. "I thought they were firing into the sky to give us warning," Galhos said. "That was a moment I can never forget."

Thousands scrambled to get inside the walls of the cemetery. Galhos ran to the nearest entrance, but could not get through the small door as people clambered to escape. "That's when I saw my friends killed," Galhos said. "I tried to close my eyes because there were bodies all over."

She made it into the cemetery, climbed the wall and, in clothes soaked with the blood of her friends, was taken in by a stranger in a nearby house where she camped for three days. In the days following, she learned that 271 had been killed, an equal number "disappeared," many more wounded and still more detained and interrogated. Goodman and Nairn were beaten almost to death.

A week later, Galhos's brother was released from jail, battered from numerous beatings. "He came home, but man, he changed. He didn't want to talk about any politics. He was absolutely traumatized."

Galhos soon realized it would be impossible to work toward freeing her country from inside its borders. "I kept telling myself, if I want to help liberate East Timor, I would have to get out." She hatched a plan to sign up for the Indonesian military's youth corps while keeping a clandestine link to the resistance, spreading information and supplying leaders with food and medicine.

Officially, she was employed by the Indonesian government at East Timor's only newspaper, producing propaganda in praise of her country's overlords. She toured around schools giving speeches on the blessings of integration. "It was very hard. Some people looked at me like they would eat me up if they could. These were people who lost fathers, mothers, whatever. And there I am talking about how nice Indonesia was."

For two years, Galhos lived a dangerous double life, until she was brought to Jakarta for a thorough evaluation and instruction on her suitability as a representative of East Timor in the Canada World Youth exchange program. During the next month, she faced endless questions about her loyalty to Indonesia. "The next day they will come back to you and ask you the same question. They want to see if anything changed. If it changed, you were in big trouble."

Galhos's resolve was again tested during her stay in Jakarta where she endured several assaults. "They touch you, they humiliate you physically. They went all over my body," she said. "It's a way to say: 'If you're not a good girl, if you don't follow the orders, this is how we show you.'"

But she maintained the charade and won the job over 200 others. On the day she was to fly out of Jakarta, she was searched thoroughly, but guards did not find her uncle's Rhode Island address she had stuffed inside her pen. Her last duty was to pledge allegiance to Indonesia. "When they asked me to kiss the flag, I did, and I cried very hard," Galhos recalls. "They thought I would be missing home and that's why I was crying."

Within days, Galhos claimed refugee status in Canada. In her Vancouver hotel room, she left a box with her military uniform and a note for her escorts, reading: "Thank you, but no thank you. I don't need it anymore."

For most of the next six years, she was based in Ottawa, crossing Canada twice and visiting 33 states to raise awareness of the genocide and to decry the complicity or active support of the occupation by the governments of some of the world's most powerful countries.

In 1999, when East Timor voted for independence with the help of a United Nations peacekeeping force, she dropped everything to head home. "Canada's a nice country, it's beautiful, but no. I need to go back to the place I belong. East Timor's everything to me," Galhos says. She is now in Hawaii working toward a masters degree in psychology. Even now, her choices are guided by a desire to help her fellow East Timorese.

"The situation is still the same in terms of the cycle of violence, and people are not healing. People cannot overcome the trauma. And we do not have any psychologists."

Panels on Timorese 'comfort women' to be displayed in Dili

Kyodo News - February 11, 2008

Keiji Hirano, Tokyo – Human rights campaigners in Japan and East Timor have jointly made a set of panels for exhibition showing testimonies of former "comfort women" in the newly independent nation so the local people can learn about their history during the occupation by the Japanese military.

While the 43 panels were initially created in Japanese for a display at the Women's Active Museum on War and Peace, or WAM, in Tokyo last year, the campaigners in Japan translated them into the official East Timorese language, Tetun, and handed them over to counterparts there earlier this month, they said.

The panels will be displayed at a public hall in the East Timorese capital Dili from February 20, the day when the Japanese military advanced there in 1942, with Mina Watanabe, WAM's secretary general, expecting the visitors "to know the history of the wartime sexual violence in their country."

The research on former comfort women in East Timor started in 2000, with the campaigners – WAM and the East Timor Japan Coalition as well as the HAK Association, or the association for human rights and justice in East Timor – interviewing the survivors about their wartime experiences.

"Young East Timorese researchers came to know the history of wartime sexual violence for the first time through the interviews, and were prompted to record it by themselves," Watanabe said.

The move stirred six of the victimized women, a man born of a comfort woman and a Japanese soldier, and others involved in the wartime brutalities to appear at a public meeting in January 2006 in Dili to directly talk to some 200 local people. The women said no one had ever asked them to talk about the wartime experiences until the researchers visited them.

In a bid to share the research outcomes with the public, one of the East Timorese researchers visited Japan last year to attend talk sessions in several cities, including Sendai, Tokyo and Osaka.

The panels, which also show how the Japanese military invaded East Timor and set up some 20 comfort stations there, are the fruits of the efforts, according to Watanabe.

"We expect the panels to be also displayed at schools and churches in East Timor and the visitors, encouraged by the exhibitions, to provide us with unknown information about the wartime history," she said.

For the translation into Tetun from Japanese and the creation of the full-color panels that stand long use, the campaigners collected some 1.3 million yen from the public, said Akihisa Matsuno, a member of the East Timor Japan Coalition.

"We hope we could compile something like a catalogue of the panel that people can easily pick up if we could raise more money," said Matsuno, also professor at Osaka University.

East Timor officially gained independence in 2002 after two-and-a-half years under UN administration following a vote for independence from Indonesia in 1999.

On Monday, a gunfight broke out between the government and rebel forces in East Timor, in which President Jose Ramos-Horta was reportedly injured seriously.

Matsuno said he hopes the country will be able to return to its normal state and that the exhibition of the panels will be launched as scheduled.

East Timor's past threatens its present

Le Monde Diplomatique - February 2, 2008

President Suharto of Indonesia, who died last month, was responsible for the invasion of East Timor in 1975, for its occupation for almost 25 years, for the murder of so many of its people and for the insecure and traumatised state it remains in despite its emergence as a free, new country six years ago

Angela Robson – Maria's skin is tanned and her long black hair has been washed and combed. She is feeling beautiful today. She does not register a ragged three-year-old boy standing still close by, although he is her son, focusing instead on two visitors who have just arrived. "How are you?" asks one of them, gently kissing Maria on both cheeks. A few minutes ago, Maria was locked away in darkness. Her house has been partly demolished and her bedroom flooded by rain.

Maria is a manic depressive, a danger to herself and her family, says one of the visitors, who is from the mental health group Pradet, which gives counselling and forensic examinations for victims of sexual assault in East Timor. Maria's condition had been treated successfully. Then Pradet's capacity to prescribe medication was suddenly withdrawn.

For many years Maria had been sexually assaulted by her husband, who (during the Indonesian occupation) also sold her as a sex slave. She is cared for by her mother, a tiny woman in her sixties who has tried to manage Maria's condition by locking her in her bedroom. "She was fine until she got married. It was her husband who started locking her away," says his mother. "She was 15. Maria was normal, she was doing well at school."

The counsellor is feeling frustrated about the medication and is not sure when Maria was last assessed. She says there is only one psychiatrist in the country, from Papua New Guinea. When Maria is ill, she runs away and was found walking down the street naked, which makes her more vulnerable to sexual assault. Maria and her mother both receive counselling. Maria's son is extremely withdrawn. He cowers when Maria glances in his direction. For as long as he can recall, his mother has been hidden away. At night, when he hears her sobbing, he wants to unlock the door and join her on her dirty mattress.

Wounds reopened

"The recent violence and the current state of insecurity have reopened wounds among the people in East Timor," says Mira Martins da Silva, Pradet's director. The collapse in state authority, following former prime minister Mari Alkatiri's decision to dismiss almost half the army in April 2006, the flight of thousands from their homes and the emergence of rival gangs are all, she believes, "evidence of a society beset by fear and mistrust".

Hardly a family in East Timor was untouched by the Indonesian invasion in 1975. In the occupation, a third of the nation may have died from bombing, starvation and systematic killing (1). This is besides the forced displacement of most of the population and widespread evidence of rape, torture and other human rights violations.

It is the worst massacre, per head of population, in recent history, comparable to Cambodia under Pol Pot and to Rwanda.

In one of the first investigations into mental health in East Timor, carried out by the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims (IRCT) in 2000, 75% of the population had experienced a combat situation and more than 33% had symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); 20% believed that they would never recover from their experiences.

Mira Martins da Silva says that the combination of "occupation and conflict, and the consequences of not addressing PTSD, have resulted in persistent anxiety and mistrust, which we're now seeing being unleashed on the streets of Dili. We get a lot of female clients who suffer from stress and trauma as a result of violence in the home, or public violence. They don't talk about it generally with other people and so the anxiety bubbles up in other ways. For boys, it's OK to show their anger, to get involved in gang violence, to engage in revenge. Over the past 10 years there's been a realisation that children don't just bounce back from the effects of trauma automatically and they're extremely affected by their immediate circumstances. If they don't have family support it can be quite damaging. If you look back at the events of 1999, and the bloody transition to independence, the children at that time who witnessed those traumatic events are now possibly becoming the perpetrators in the recent crisis and the ongoing unrest."

The IRCT study also found that the East Timorese look first to family members, the church and the local community for assistance. "Pradet has a motto, 'the family is the clinic and the community is the hospital'," says da Silva.

"There isn't a lot in terms of services for people with psychosocial problems and people with mental illness. So we take a community approach and we work closely with families within each district to try and reduce the stigma and to increase the support for the patient."

Birth of a nation

"Midnight 20 May 2002, the world witnessed the birth of a new nation. This was the moment I had long dreamed of but never thought I would live to witness," writes Xanana Gusmao, prime minister of East Timor and resistance leader in the mountains from 1978 until his capture in November 1992. "We wanted to be ourselves – a people and a nation! To stand on an equal footing with all other peoples of the world. It was the highest tribute to our people, to the sacrifices we made for more than 24 years" (2).

After the country voted overwhelmingly for independence in 1999, Indonesian-backed militias and soldiers repeated the violent events that had followed the invasion 24 years earlier. Massacres happened all over the country. Before peace was restored, three- quarters of the buildings in East Timor had been destroyed.

By the time East Timor gained international recognition as an independent state, with the inauguration of Gusmao as president and Mari Alkatiri as prime minister, it had experienced more than 400 years of Portuguese rule and Indonesian occupation. Parliamentary elections were held in June 2007, with Gusmao appointed as prime minister and sworn in with his new cabinet on 8 August. Fretilin, the former ruling party, was unable to form a parliamentary majority and is now in the opposition. Gusmao's main rival, Fretilin leader Alkatiri, said he would not cooperate with an "illegal and unconstitutional" government, sparking violent protests from Fretilin supporters.

'The leaders get what they want'

The missile seems to come from nowhere and cracks the back window of my vehicle. It is getting dark, and the gangs which terrorise Dili every night are flooding out on to the streets. On the bridge behind me, a group of youths are gathering by the edge of the road. One sports two-toned hair and a red bandana; three others strut into the centre of the road.

"Before, we had a common enemy, we threw rocks at Indonesia," says Jose Francisco de Sousa, child protection adviser for the children's development agency Plan East Timor, on secondment to the East Timor government. "Now people are turning on their own neighbours."

A report by Plan East Timor says that it was the leaders who were the key orchestrators of the 2006 violence. Based on interviews with 450 young people from Dili and surrounding districts, it rejects explanations of a deep ethnic divide in the population. "Timor's leaders gave (or promised) money, distributed weapons in the community, incited hatred with divisive words about East and West and vowed to take care of those who supported them. Security hasn't been restored, despite the presence of the large peacekeeping force. Young people who've had their houses attacked think it could happen again.

Young people are used, just like stepping stones in the river, so the leaders can get what they want and never get their feet wet." De Sousa says refugee camps are difficult places to live and work in. Two of its staff were recently attacked with machetes in the Metinaro internally-displaced persons camp. Plan East Timor's regular activities are on hold while they implement emergency programmes. So far they have helped more than 15,000 displaced people, but de Sousa says far more still needs to be done.

Long-term unemployment is rife. In Dili, more than 50% of young people are jobless. "Our young people don't want to inherit a culture of violence and revenge. Despite what has happened, the youth are hopeful."

TVs but no beds

In Motael camp, all mud and tent poles a stone's throw from Dili's waterfront harbour, Gervita listens to music pumping through the air and winces. "This loud noise, it's not good for my heart." There are six television sets on her tent floor but no beds. "My husband used to have an electronics business but last year our house was destroyed." She throws a banana skin to a black-faced monkey tied up near her cooking pots. "We didn't want to come here, but what can we do?"

Standing with her is Francisco Ribela, manager of the camp. He points to a large white Portuguese-style church on the camp edge. "The former Alkatiri government promised to create a neighbourhood for displaced people, but that pledge has not been fulfilled." He begins to shout as the church bells chime eleven. "From what I'm seeing and hearing from the people here, most of the rioters in the barios are Fretilin supporters. They have one aim, to bring down the current government. When the crisis erupted last year, we had humanitarian agencies supporting us, but that help has been reduced. Six hundred people live here permanently, but another five hundred come to sleep at night. I can't see them leaving."

Both cause and symptom

A recent report, by the independent think tank International Crisis Group, claims that the roots of the 2006 violence relate to problems in the security sector: "The potential for political actors to use the army and police for their own purposes remains high. Shared responsibility between the president and prime minister confuses lines of authority. The security sector's problems are both a cause and a symptom of wider political conflict. The UN is already on its fifth mission in the country. It cannot keep coming back to reform the institutions it helped establish. Unless there is a non-partisan commitment to the reform process, the security forces are likely to remain volatile."

The 2007 Failed States Index, compiled by the independent Washington-based Fund for Peace, ranks East Timor in the alert category behind Sudan, Iraq, Somalia and Zimbabwe. Transparency International rates East Timor as highly corrupt.

Although vast offshore oil and gas fields in the Timor sea hold much potential, with approximately $100m in revenues each month, the country is still largely dependant on donor country assistance. While the focus now is on rebuilding, there is widespread poverty: 40% still live below the poverty line, and East Timor ranks just above Sudan in the Human Development Index at 140 out of 177 countries. One of the biggest challenges for the new government will be whether the country's estimated 150,000 internally-displaced people will feel safe to return home.

John Virgoe, Crisis Group's South East Asia director, says: "The government has a chance while international troops maintain basic security and the UN offers assistance to conduct a genuine reform of the security sector, but it will have to move quickly."

Recourse to martial arts

On her fridge in a free clinic for internally displaced persons in Dili's Becora district, two photos compete for Maria Diaz's attention. On some days she stares only at Christ; on others, Che Guevera. She was recently honoured as Woman of the Year by East Timor's president, Nobel peace laureate Dr Jose Ramos-Horta for her outspoken stance on domestic violence. She teaches a weekly martial arts class for girls. She was 12 when her resistance leader father was tortured to death by the Indonesian militia. When she entered a Catholic convent six years later, her fellow nuns had no idea why Maria spent so long in the bathroom each day. Although determined to devote her life to the church, Maria felt unable to renounce her passion for martial arts. Locking herself away, she would train daily in the convent's bathroom. "Many young Timorese joined these martial arts groups to defend themselves and to channel energies which could not easily be expressed. I managed to keep the training secret, but I couldn't stay silent when I knew people were being killed."

Diaz was arrested and interrogated three times by the occupying forces. Her Mother Superior put pressure on her to leave and Diaz went to Spain, where she joined the underground independence struggle. "But I had to have something to defend myself, to protect myself physically and spiritually. I started to study martial arts very seriously."

She feels that the assumption that gangs and martial arts groups in East Timor are always involved in crime is misleading. "Young women and men join these groups to find a sense of peace and belonging; to help unify their communities.

Seven years on from independence, people are hungry and have no money. They are sad and angry and want revenge. We need to develop a strong energy in ourselves to transform this attitude."

No forgiveness

Rain is falling by the time I reach Laussi village, and the clouds hang low. The dirt track to Laussi from Aileu, a resistance stronghold in Indonesian times, traverses an open plateau of rice paddies and vegetable plots. Alisha Mendoza, a woman in her forties, greets me, smiling when I tell her why I'm late. Only 70km from Dili, the journey has been all twists and turns through mountains and dense eucalyptus forest.

During the Indonesian occupation, Alisha and her husband, a well-known commander of Falantil, the military wing of Fretilin, were both arrested for helping the pro-independence movement. She spent 18 days in a detention centre. Her husband was tortured. They returned to their village to find their home had been destroyed.

Alisha leads me to a classroom built from red adobe with a leaking corrugated iron roof. "Outside Dili, East Timor is moving forward," she says. "Here, it is safe. It is peaceful. We're seeing so many good things we never imagined. Hospitals, wells, schools." What does she think about Xanana Gusmao calling on the people, in a spirit of reconciliation, to forgive the late former Indonesian leader Suharto and the Indonesian military?

She brings out a plate of banana fritters and changes the subject.

Memory of trauma on display on ex-political prisoners

Lusa - February 1, 2008

Dili – The building of the former Portuguese and Indonesian prison of Balide, Dili, hosts this week-end an exhibition dedicated to former political prisoners of East Timor between 1975 and 1999.

The exhibition is organised by the Association Memory Alive, which is dedicated to the collection of material on the prisoners Timorese under Indonesian occupation of East Timor.

Films and photographs will be shown Saturday and Sunday in the former prison of the Comarca, name it is known that the building of Portuguese colonial era that embraced, after 1975, the largest number of political prisoners.

It was in this building that served the Commission for Reception Truth and Reconciliation (CAVR) Timorese and where it is installed the file resulting from the investigations and hearings over the years of occupation.

"The ex-political prisoners have not yet been recognized as a group in the fight for independence," said the Agency Lusa the Australian journalist Jill Jolliffe, coordinator of the Memory Alive.

"As a group, continue to suffer from exclusion," explained the journalist, known for its militant monitoring of the situation in East Timor since the start of the Indonesian occupation.

"Those who were always continue to suffer," summed Maria da Silva Benfica on the situation of ex-prisoners after the independence of East Timor.

"Unlike the veterans, former prisoners never have an open door," added Maria da Silva Benfica, one of the collaborators of the Memory Alive.

Maria da Silva Benfica was arrested, questioned and tortured by the Indonesians in 1977, first in the building Tai Sang Ho, in the centre of the capital, and then in the Comarca.

In all, about 10 thousand Timorese passed through the prison during the occupation (1975-199), in prisons in East Timor or Indonesia, said Jill Jolliffe, which for several years has studied the path of ex-prisoners.

Most of these prisoners have suffered some form of torture, said Jill Jolliffe. "It is an impressive number, especially when you consider the universe of affected people," considering the extended families Timorese, stressed.

Jill Jolliffe says, by the way, the disturbing findings of a study done during the transition period after the referendum for independence.

Available data point to 75 percent of Timorese households with a family victims of torture and to 34 percent of the population suffering forms of post-traumatic stress.

This legacy of pain, stressed Jill Jolliffe, has never been addressed or treated. "Without democracy there can be no healing," summarizes the Australian journalist.

Jill Jolliffe believes that the extent of the trauma is one of the factors that contributes to the current eruption of violence in one of the causes of the crisis of 2006.

"The irrational violence since 1999 has much to do with the post-traumatic stress and things that need healing," argued Jill Jolliffe.

"The political violence plays in the domestic violence and is transmitted to the next generation," stressed the journalist. "We must also consider that there is a generation of East Timorese who have never lived in a society with law and order," he added.

The Association Memory Alive has already recorded 52 testimonies from former prisoners on film, 11 of which are edited and transcribed for about 40 Portuguese, the language of the project work.

"The end product should be a small collection or file on ex- prisoners. But that depends on grants that do not yet exist," said Jill Jolliffe. "It is time for ex-prisoners have practical relief and honor due," added the journalist.

UNMIT/ISF

More Australian troops sent after shootout

Green Left Weekly - February 20, 2008

Tony Iltis – East Timorese President Jose Ramos Horta was rushed to Darwin to undergo emergency surgery after being shot three times in a February 11 attack on his residence by armed rebels. The apparent leader of the assailants, Major Alfredo Reinado, was killed in the incident.

Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, who escaped without injury when his car was riddled with bullets in a simultaneous attack, declared a state of emergency in response. Australian PM Kevin Rudd, responding to a call from Gusmao, increased the strength of the Australian-led International Stabilisation Force (ISF) that has occupied East Timor since 2006, dispatching an additional 270 soldiers and federal police and sending the HMAS Perth to Timorese waters.

This brings the number of Australian military and paramilitary in East Timor to over 1100. Speaking on ABC radio on February 15, Rudd would not rule out sending more troops.

Gusmao described the attacks as a coup attempt, a claim echoed by most of the media coverage. However other theories, such as a bungled kidnapping, have also been advanced. ABC Radio Australia reported on February 14 that at Reinado's supporters were claiming that he had not tried to kill Ramos Horta, but had been set up.

However, Reinado's own statements, particularly in 2 DVDs he released, suggested he nurtured a strong sense of having been betrayed by Gusmao and Ramos Horta, and revenge would seem the most likely explanation for the attempted assassinations.

If this is the case, the shootings can be understood as blowback from the murky conspiracies that surrounded the overthrow of former Fretilin PM Mari Alkatiri in 2006. Australia welcomed this overthrow, wishing to see a government more amenable to Australian corporate control of East Timor's maritime hydrocarbon resources.

Reinado, an officer in the military police, was trained at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra. In May 2006 he led a mutiny of about 600 soldiers and police who claimed that they were being discriminated against by the Alkatiri government. This led to fighting between different factions within the security forces and between rival street gangs.

Gusmao, who was then president, called for Australian military support to restore stability – a call subsequently supported by other government figures including Alkatiri. However, the arrival of the ISF failed to stop arson attacks from increasing, eventually leaving over 150,000 people homeless, many of whom are still living as "internally displaced persons" in camps. The violence cost an estimated 37 lives.

While the majority of victims of the violence were Fretilin supporters, Gusmao and Ramos Horta, who was then foreign minister, expressed sympathy for the "petitioners", as Reinado's mutineers became known, and put the blame for the violence on Alkatiri, whose resignation they called for.

Australian government leaders, including then-PM John Howard, joined the call for Alkatiri's resignation after the screening of a documentary on the ABC's Four Corners in July 2006 that accused Alkatiri of establishing a death squad to assassinate his opponents, including Reinado. Alkatiri resigned, but was later exonerated of the allegations by a UN enquiry.

He was replaced as Prime Minister by Ramos Horta. In May 2007, Ramos Horta won presidential elections. In parliamentary elections in July, while Fretilin won the largest number of seats of any party, they failed to get an overall majority and Gusmao became Prime Minister of a coalition of non-Fretilin parties. In both polls, Fretilin complained of hostile interference by Australian ISF troops.

By the time of the presidential elections, Reinado and the "petitioners" were waging a low-level guerilla struggle in the mountains of Same district. It was at this point that the first of his DVDs started circulating, in which he claimed that Ramos Horta and Gusmao had promised him high office in a post-Alkatiri government.

Following a May 4 clash with the Australian SAS, which left 5 "petitioners" dead, Ramos Horta called for an end to military operations against Reinado. The Australian forces meticulously observed this right up until the shooting of Ramos Horta. A week before the assasination attempts an Australian patrol had stumbled across Reinado, but backed away after the latter's troops fired warning shots.

In reality, Reinado's chance at a cabinet position was probably lost when he was arrested by Portuguese police on charges of murder on July 27, 2006. While the Portuguese police are under UN command, the legal status of the ISF is dubious, with it not being under a UN mandate or having its status regulated by any act of the Timorese parliament.

Father Frank Brennan, former director of the Jesuit Refugee Service in East Timor, wrote in the December 12 Eureka Street: "There is a growing perception among local critics of the Timor government that the Australian troops are the personal troops of the President, given their presence without full constitutional mandate and their ready response to Horta's arbitrary command, which showed little respect for the traditional separation of powers between the Executive and the judiciary."

It was Australian ISF troops who were "guarding" Reinado and his supporters when they walked out of jail a month after their arrest, and took to the hills with weapons.

Nonetheless, it was not politically expedient to allow a rebel charged with murder by the UN a position in the government. While Gusmao and Ramos Horta attempted to placate Reinado by allowing him to remain free, it is possible they underestimated his bitterness at being denied what he alleges he was promised.

In his second DVD, which began circulating about a month before the fatal shootout, Reinado directly implicated Gusmao in the 2006 mutiny, stating: "He (Gusmao) calls us bad people, but it was he who created us ... He is the author of the petition. He was behind all of this. Now as a Prime Minister, he has changed his tune and is washing his hands. He has turned against us, those who were ordered and created by him. It was with his support that the petition emerged in the first place ... I give my testimony as a witness, that Xanana is the main author of this crisis; he cannot lie or deny this."

While the DVD circulated widely in East Timor, it was banned from the government television station TVTL. It was barely reported in the Australian or international media. For whatever reason, it appears that Reinado decided to seek his revenge in a more direct manner, costing him his life.

Increasing Australia's military presence cannot increase stability in East Timor. Rather than a force for stability, the ISF has been a participant in fomenting violence and instability.

The partisan and unaccountable nature of the ISF has made it a tool for political leverage. While in opposition, Rudd had argued that Australian forces in East Timor should be under UN command. Unfortunately, his decision to boost the unaccountable ISF suggests he intends to continue the previous government's policy.

Australia's task gets tougher in East Timor

Canberra Times - February 16, 2008

Kevin Rudd's mission to East Timor yesterday was as much about fact-finding as it was about bolstering a government in crisis. On Monday after the shooting of President Jose Ramos Horta Rudd had agreed immediately to Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao's request for more troops and police, and announced he would visit Dili as soon as possible. Now, almost a week later and with rebel leader Alfredo Reinado a martyr, it is still not known whether the shooting was a botched coup or a desperate attempt by the rebels to resolve their claims.

Ramos Horta had returned from his morning walk on the beach to find armed men in his house. In the ensuing battle between the rebels and the President's two guards, Reinado and another rebel were killed and Ramos Horta was seriously wounded. About 90 minutes later, rebels fired at the car carrying Gusmao, who escaped unharmed. The dramatic events mean Australian troops will have to remain in East Timor for an indefinite period.

"Australia is in there for the long run whether we like it or not," says Professor Hall Hill from the ANU. Rudd appeared at a press conference on Monday in Canberra, flanked by Foreign Minister Stephen Smith, Defence Minister Joel Fitzgibbon and Australian Defence Force chief Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston.

"What we've had, apparently, are coordinated attacks aimed at assassinating the democratically elected leadership of East Timor, a close friend and partner of Australia. Australia will stand resolutely behind East Timor at this time of crisis in their democracy," he said.

"I've been around long enough in international relations to know that you wait for all the facts to be in before you reach definitive conclusions. What we know for a fact is that someone out there tried to assassinate the political leadership of our friend, partner and neighbour." Rudd said Gusmao had requested troops and solidarity.

"I believe that when you have got something as fundamentally destabilising as the attempted assassination of the entire senior democratically elected leadership of one of our neighbours, it is obviously a destabilising time with rogue elements at play. Therefore, an appropriate show of force is necessary. That is the judgment of the East Timorese, hence the request that they have made, hence why we have responded to that request."

John Howard sent troops or police to East Timor as well as PNG and the Solomons. He also put more soldiers on ready alert to handle regional crises.

That meant that when it was Rudd's turn to act as regional policeman, he was able to land extra troops in Dili very quickly. As reporters in Dili sorted facts from gossip, it became apparent that an inquiry would be needed to establish what happened.

On Tuesday Rudd said Australia had not established exactly what happened during the fire fights. "There is still a lot of uncertainty about what actually transpired," he said.

He would not comment on the adequacy of the President's security but said he had stayed at Ramos Horta's house. At that time, Australian soldiers were stationed outside.

On Thursday night's Lateline program on the ABC, Rudd said it had been hard to ascertain the facts because Australian personnel had not been guarding the two leaders. "We're still trying to sort out all the facts and it's pretty murky, to be honest," he said.

Jim Dunn does not think the rebels were attempting a coup. As a former Australian consul in Dili, he knows the area well. He questions why the rebels would attack the President and Prime Minister. "That would be the worst way to organise a coup because the houses are miles away from Dili," he says.

"As for killing them, what would be the point? Reinado has been going around leading this gang but he hasn't really hurt anyone, he hasn't killed anybody. "The image he had created was somebody who was able to elude capture but also he was a man of peace. If he had carried out an execution, it would have destroyed his support."

Dunn's early reading of the situation is that it was a daring scheme to force a meeting with the President on the rebels' terms. "If this is correct it was a typical example of Reinado's bravado that went terribly wrong." Dunn does not believe the shootings are necessarily bad news for East Timor's future.

"In the short term there will be a lot of uneasiness around, but if the Government handles it well then it could be used to try to bring in a new sort of era of peace." He would like the Australian soldiers to be part of a United Nations' mission. "So, for one thing, if things go wrong, Australians aren't blamed for it."

Dr Dennis Shoesmith from Charles Darwin University agrees. He says that during a Security Council debate in 2006, Australia insisted the new military mission be Australian-led, despite the former intervention force in Timor being under UN command.

The Howard government got its way, with the support of the United States and Britain. "From that time, the international stabilisation force was seen by many Timorese as an Australian force," Shoesmith says. "That means it is seen as partisan, so you get articles coming out saying it is time for the Australian troops to go. If they did go, there'd be chaos. But there is a view in East Timor that Australia is pursuing its interests and will use this crisis to prolong its control.

"I'm not saying that is necessarily credible but the fact that it's an Australian-led force not a UN-led force sort of confirms that to the critics. The danger with that is that we are perceived in some quarters as neocolonialists or imperialists or whatever and that we are pursuing Australia's national interests and not being dispassionate and disinterested good friends."

Shoesmith says the shooting of Ramos Horta changes the landscape. "Hopefully it will shock people into reconsidering the kinds of disputes they are pursuing."

Independence from Indonesia has not delivered peace to East Timor. The tiny nation is split by ongoing political rivalries. There is often resort to armed forces to pursue political agendas. Ongoing civil strife has been worsened by the failure of authorities to lift living standards, despite the start of oil and gas revenues.

In 2006, a game of brinksmanship between then president Gusmao and then prime minister Mari Alkatiri saw the country descending into lawlessness.

The violence increased after 600 members of the 1400-strong army were sacked. Reinado, a former military police commander, led his followers into the mountains behind Dili and refused to give up weapons until Alkatiri resigned as prime minister.

Foreign troops returned to restore calm but the political instability continues. A recent spark was a video produced by Reinado in which he accused Gusmao of being involved in a plot in 2007 to get rid of Alkatiri. Then there's the ongoing problem that the hard-line Fretilin party rejects the legitimacy of the coalition Government.

"What the country needs if it is going to go through a period of stabilisation is a governing elite that accept the rules of the game and work with each other," Shoesmith says. "It's a very fractious and dangerous situation. My view is that if the international peace-keeping groups left, as they did in 2005, there'd be another civil war."

The Rudd Government will keep the soldiers there while continuing to be diplomatic about East Timor's previous order to Australian troops to stop hunting for Reinado, to open the way for negotiations with the rebel leader and the sacked soldiers.

A sovereign nation takes care of its own affairs but Australia is ready to help when the situation gets out of control. In Dili yesterday Rudd was promising to "stand shoulder to shoulder'

Poverty & development

East Timor faces chronic, widespread food insecurity

IRIN News - February 4, 2008

Dili – "It's when you see a child who looks nine but is actually 12 that you realise the extent of malnutrition in Timor Leste," Jean Flueren, the World Food Programme (WFP) country director, told IRIN. "Forty-six percent of children throughout the country are stunted," he said, and 42.6 percent of children under five are underweight, according to the WFP.

When the issue of food insecurity in Timor Leste gets mentioned outside its borders, it is usually about the capacity of the government and the humanitarian community to meet the nutritional needs of tens of thousands of internally displaced people (IDPs) who have still not been able to return home nearly two years since the violence of April and May 2006.

But equally serious is chronic, widespread food insecurity in this country of some 1.1 million people. The poorest in Southeast Asia, it has a per capita income of only US$370 per year, and some 40 percent of the population fall below the national minimum standard of living of $0.55 per capita per day, according to a Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and WFP Comprehensive Food Security and Vulnerability Analysis (December 2005/January 2006).

That analysis estimated that 20 percent of the population (some 213,000 people) were food insecure and a further 23 percent (some 244,000) highly vulnerable to becoming food insecure.

Natural disasters, lack of income

According to the WFP and other humanitarian agencies, two factors are making the situation worse.

One is a string of natural disasters, including recent drought, extensive flooding, wind damage and an infestation of locusts in some areas in 2007. (The locusts not only consumed crops but led to some farmers not replanting for fear their efforts would be wasted.)

The other is lack of income. "Food security is an immense problem because people have no purchasing power," the WFP country director told IRIN.

With the twin punches of nature's assault on agriculture, which leaves farmers inadequate goods to sell and inadequate income to plant new crops, and the widespread damage from conflict – with hundreds of thousands of livelihoods lost, markets disrupted and food price hikes – Timorese increasingly lack the means to engage in productive agriculture or the money to buy the essentials of a basic, nutritious diet.

No recent national assessment has been made, but a September 2007 report entitled WFP Dili Emergency Food Security Assessment found 25,000 people at "risk to lives" and needing immediate assistance, and 40,000 at "risk to livelihoods" – this in a city with a population of some 100,000 residents.

"The study found that while 50 percent of the IDPs we were feeding were not food insecure," said Flueren, "half of those not receiving food assistance [the normal Dili residents] were food insecure."

According to the FAO/WFP assessment, "the difference in terms of being at risk to lives or livelihoods between the IDPs and residents is minimal." Flueren said this is countrywide, not just in Dili.

In terms of food assistance to IDPs, the government, WFP and humanitarian agencies have a commendable track record, distributing full rations over two years to more people than are in the camps. "There are 30,000-35,000 IDPs in Dili," said WFP's Flueren, "but we [with the government and other agencies] have been delivering food to 75,000."

In three Dili camps recently visited by IRIN, we could find no significant complaints about food assistance. "Occasionally" says, Joaquim Da Costa, an IDP and camp manager at the National Hospital camp site, "we have a problem with the food – a bad bag of rice expired."

Ending food aid dependency

The Ministry of Social Solidarity, as a part of its National Recovery Plan, aims to induce IDPs to return home by ending blanket distribution of food from February – reducing to half rations for two months before ending it completely in April.

Some IDPs in Dili told IRIN they were against such a food reduction policy, and one Dili newspaper, Diario Nacional, reported that in one camp IDPs said such cutbacks could result in civil unrest, including strikes and roadblocks.

As an incentive for IDPs to return home, families who agree to go will be provided with two months of rice rations (16 kilos per person).

Better targeted food aid

According to WFP's Flueren, "the Ministry of Social Services has ongoing programmes to provide food assistance as it can" and in the coming months the ministry, with humanitarian agencies, will target food assistance increasingly to particularly vulnerable individuals and communities. Flueren said: "We are now working with the government to develop and design training programmes for food insecure people that help increase livelihoods."

"Over the next few months alternative programmes will have to be put in place that ensure that people who are truly food insecure, such as the elderly, female-headed households and orphans, receive the support they require," said Finn Reske-Nielson, UN humanitarian coordinator and deputy special representative of the Secretary-General.

Reske-Nielson added: "Such alternative programmes would not necessarily just be the distribution of food because we have to move away from the dependence that has been created since the crisis of 2006."

"Food can play a role," he said, "but it could perhaps be in the context of food-for-work, school feeding programmes, but not blanket feeding to 70,000 people each month.

Tackling natural disasters

An important complement to the effort to increasingly target food secure individuals and communities, are efforts to establish mechanisms to effectively warn against and deal with natural disasters.

Secretary of State for Social Assistance and Natural Disasters Jacinto Rigoberto Gomes, told IRIN: "We are establishing a disaster information centre to deal with heavy wind, landslides, earthquakes, droughts, flooding and other natural disasters." He said it was being done with the support and advice of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the UN Development Programme.

Such a project, if it can get the financial support and communications capacity needed, said Gomes, will go a long way in preparing residents for disasters and mitigating their effects. In Timor Leste that will help immeasurably not just in saving lives but in reducing crop and food destruction, thus enhancing food security. (bj/cb)

Indonesia

Dili's dance with the former devil it knows

Sydney Morning Herald - February 16, 2008

Mark Forbes – Relations between East Timor and Indonesia have leapt ahead, even as ambivalence remains in the tiny nation's ties with Australia.

Only nine years ago Indonesian forces were pillaging East Timor, beating, murdering and systematically destroying every major building erected since 1975, before withdrawing and leaving up to 200,000 casualties of a 25-year occupation.

It seemed inconceivable they could ever return to assist the fledgling nation, but this is what was being proposed in Jakarta this week after Monday's attacks on President Jose Ramos Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao.

While coy about the prospect of dispatching troops, Dino Patti Djalal, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's international adviser, said Indonesia stood ready to help.

And with Ramos Horta on life support in Royal Darwin Hospital, the editor of the prestigious Globe magazine, Yanto Soegiarto, was more direct. "Give the TNI (Indonesian army) a chance to restore security and stability in Timor, and the situation will improve," said Soegiarto, who is close to the military. "The Timorese will see Indonesian troops more as their new brothers compared to the Western-style, heavily armed white soldiers who always try to look superior."

Amid the concern for Ramos Horta's and East Timor's survival, there were also other swipes at Australia. Indonesia's Foreign Minister, Hassan Wirajuda, pointed out that rebel soldiers had been able to attack despite the presence of Australian troops.

The crisis has exposed lingering resentment at Australian support for Timor's independence, a humiliation that rocked Indonesia's pride and international reputation when Timor overwhelmingly voted for independence in 1999. Indonesia was blamed for the chaos then, said Djalal, but now Australia was finding the situation on the ground was "much more complex" and it "struck a chord".

"The basic reaction of the Government, officials and politicians when they heard of the rebellions, riots and shootings is we hope now that the world will understand that East Timor was always a very difficult society to manage," he said.

The head of Australia's Strategic and Defence Studies Centre, Hugh White, is all too familiar with the challenges of Timor. He played a key role in the response to the 1999 independence crisis, as a deputy secretary of the Defence Department.

White thinks there is "no serious prospect of a sustained TNI role", but said Australians were naive to believe the Timorese would favour them ahead of Indonesia. Timor wanted to balance the influence of its two largest neighbours, White said. "Unless they can get on well with Indonesia they believe they will be subject to Australia's whims. The reason the relationship has rebounded surprising well is East Timor's leadership has recognised that without a decent working relationship with Indonesia they are hardly viable as a state.

"No small country likes to feel so heavily dependent on a big neighbour, and the worse relations with Indonesia are the more reliant they are on Australia."

Indonesia wanted to move on from the "deeply scarring" events of 1999, he said. Easing the process was the fact that "Australia has become a kind of lightning rod for the resentment felt over 1999".

And while Australia's fractious ties with Indonesia have improved apace – last week a new security treaty came into force, replacing the one torn up after East Timor's independence vote – progress between Dili and Jakarta has been positively supersonic.

Gusmao has been a welcomed guest of Yudhoyono – who was stunned to receive a rapturous reception from crowds lining the streets when he visited Dili in 2005. There he laid a wreath at the Santa Cruz cemetery, where Indonesian troops massacred hundreds of unarmed demonstrators in 1991.

As the once-reviled dictator Suharto lay dying last month, both Gusmao and Ramos Horta pleaded for forgiveness towards the man who had invaded their country and brutally suppressed their independence movement during his years in power.

Djalal, who was the spokesman for the Indonesian taskforce monitoring the 1999 independence referendum, this week said Yudhoyono had come to power wanting to transform relations with Timor. "He knew both countries had to open a new chapter... For so many years East Timor has been a thorn in the development of our national identity.

As Indonesia transformed, the political elite realised part of that transformation must include how we treat East Timor, domestically and internationally. "There is no alternative but for East Timor to be built into a stable democracy."

Despite joint interests in preventing East Timor's collapse, and Indonesian support for Australia's security role, White said there was an "edge" to comments about the latest crisis. There is a "genuine unease on the part of Indonesia that Australia has a large military presence on its doorstep," he said.

Djalal said Indonesia was comfortable with the expanded deployment, which he described as "commensurate with the problems, with the security needs". Then he added: "Timor is on our doorstep – whatever security measures Australia intends to undertake we wish to be consulted on."

White believes mistrust of Australia's interest in Timor springs from a misconception that it favoured independence before the 1999 vote. "We believed East Timor as an independent country couldn't make a go of it," he said. "None of us involved in the decision-making then would be surprised about what has happened today."

While Indonesia and Timor were prepared to move on, said White, "the complexity of Australia's position is part of the future. "We have 1000 troops in East Timor and no one has any model as to how we are going to get them out."

Opinion & analysis

Man on a deadly mission

Melbourne Age - February 16, 2008

Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin – A chill breeze was blowing across the ruins of the old Portuguese fort on a hill overlooking the small town of Maubisse in East Timor's rugged mountains. Alfredo Reinado was comfortable with the venue for his meeting with the country's President, Jose Ramos Horta.

An Australian-trained former Timorese army officer, Reinado had placed his armed men at strategic locations on the fort's brick wall where they could see for kilometres.

But their vigilance was unwarranted. Ramos Horta, the Nobel laureate, had shrugged off the concerns of his guards and set off unarmed and unescorted to meet East Timor's most wanted man, who faced charges of murder and armed rebellion. "Both men were relaxed and friendly," says Joao Goncalves, of the meeting on January 13. "They talked for three hours."

By the time a lunch of goat, lamb and chicken had been served with wine, Goncalves says, the two men had agreed on key aspects of a deal that would result in the surrender of Reinado and his men, ending the most serious security challenge facing the fledgling nation.

Only now, with Reinado dead and Ramos Horta seriously wounded in Royal Darwin Hospital, can Goncalves, East Timor's Economic Minister, reveal details of the deal. Ramos Horta had agreed to take the pact, partly brokered by the Geneva-based Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, back to Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao and others in authority in Dili, including armed forces commander Taur Matan Ruak.

Under the terms, Reinado would be put under house arrest and guarded by New Zealand troops. He would appear in court to face the charges. But on May 20, the anniversary of East Timor's independence, Ramos Horta would declare an amnesty that would include Reinado and his men. Reinado, a cult hero to many mainly young, disaffected Timorese, would go free.

"I suggested to Reinado it would be better for him to surrender immediately and submit himself to the court process so when he was granted amnesty it looked as though he had submitted to justice," Goncalves told The Age this week. "He agreed. A deal was essentially done."

Ramos Horta and Reinado shook hands and left the fort, agreeing to meet again in a few days. Instead, on Monday morning Reinado was shot dead in what appears to have been a bungled kidnap attempt on Ramos Horta, which was followed soon after by a similar attempt on Gusmao, who escaped unhurt.

"I'm in shock over what Reinado has done," Goncalves said after Monday's attacks, which plunged the country into renewed crisis. "The President did more than anybody else to try to help Reinado. I can't explain it – the only thing I can think of is that Reinado came under the influence of a third hand."

To try to understand what brought Reinado and a group of heavily armed men to the front gates of Ramos Horta's house soon after dawn on Monday you should know the meaning of the "xxx" tattooed on the back of his neck. Reinado likened himself to Xander Cage, the extreme athlete and fearless adrenaline junkie in the 2002 movie xXx.

"I don't care if I die tomorrow," Reinado said after he fired the first shots in a bloody revolt in 2006. But he was a complex character: one minute the swash-buckling, arrogant army officer, the next a concerned husband of two wives – one in East Timor, the other in Perth – and a father of three.

Reinado and his men arrived at Ramos Horta's thatched-roof house on the side of a hill overlooking Dili harbour in two vehicles some time before 7am on Monday. They surprised three security guards at the front gate and rushed in, demanding to know the location of Ramos Horta's bedroom. But Ramos Horta was not there. He was walking along Dili's beachfront, with two guards.

Not finding out that the President took his morning constitutional at the same time every day was a fatal mistake for Reinado, who, at other times, planned operations with military precision. He and his men were confronted by a fresh team of security guards who had arrived at the house to change shift. Reinado and one of his men were shot dead in a gun battle.

"I shouted Alfredo's name and then opened fire at his head with my machine-gun because he was wearing a bulletproof vest," one of the guards has been quoted as saying. "I fired many times, I don't know how many times."

After receiving a frantic call from his 17-year-old niece and part-time maid Lily, who was in the house, and hearing about the gunfight from a passing jogger, Ramos Horta, inexplicably, rushed back to the house. Only a few metres from the front gate, Reinado's men, apparently angry about their leader's death, and leaving in a hurry, shot Ramos Horta and one of his guards before fleeing on foot into the mountains.

Ramos Horta, bleeding profusely, made at least two frantic mobile phone calls as he lay near a fence. "I need your help," he told Brigadier-General Ruak, the military chief.

How long Ramos Horta waited for medical treatment is a matter of controversy. The UN has denied reports that he lay bleeding for 30 minutes or longer. The UN's spokeswoman in Dili, Allison Cooper, says two UN police units were sent to Ramos Horta's house within a minute of receiving a call at 6.59am. The units arrived at 7.18am, she says. The drive usually takes 15 minutes. Cooper says police took a further three minutes to find Ramos Horta. He was on his way to hospital two minutes later.

News that Ramos Horta, hero of East Timor's 30-year struggle for independence, was fighting for his life after an assassination attempt, shocked the world. But as UN police began to piece together the events, they came to believe that Reinado and his men had actually wanted to abduct Ramos Horta and Gusmao in an ill-conceived and badly executed plan that could only have been contemplated by a leader in a delusional, perhaps even unbalanced state of mind.

Two groups of armed men tried to abduct Gusmao but, like Reinado's group, they misjudged when their target would be home and the attempt failed spectacularly.

Security was so slack at Gusmao's house that one group walked to the front door and knocked. "We're here to take the Prime Minister – we don't want any fuss," one of them said. This was up to an hour after the attack at Ramos Horta's home.

The Prime Minister's wife, Kirsty Sword Gusmao, was inside the house bathing their three children, aged seven, five and three. When told gunmen were at the house, she grabbed them and they hid under the bed. She then rang her husband. His driver answered but the phone cut out amid much noise. At that moment, gunmen were attempting to ambush Gusmao on the winding road below his mountain-top house.

Sword Gusmao stayed with the children under the bed for 1-1/2 hours until Portuguese UN police arrived in an armoured carrier. Climbing into the vehicle, one of the children asked: "Mummy, is the armoured personnel carrier bulletproof?"

Meanwhile, the gunmen who tried to ambush the Prime Minister appeared only to have aimed at his vehicle's tyres, suggesting they did not want to kill or wound him. Gusmao, a former guerilla fighter, escaped unharmed in the jungle.

What could possibly have made Reinado think he could get away with such an outrageous act against East Timor's top two popularly elected leaders? In the venomous world of Timorese politics, some people are accusing others of masterminding the plot.

Unknown people are circulating a fake document that claims the former ruling Fretilin party paid Reinado $10 million to kill Ramos Horta and Gusmao. Fretilin denies the claim, accusing opponents of a further attempt to destabilise the country. The Age has learnt that an amount believed to be $1 million has been given to Reinado's supporters by unknown figures. There is no suggestion the money is from Fretilin.

"While we cannot rule anything out, there are no firm indications that any political parties or individuals were part of a wider conspiracy with Reinado," a source close to the police investigation said.

"Reinado had his supporters and some financial backing when he was on the run. But the attacks have shocked everybody – this is a sobering moment in East Timor's history, with people realising that fierce political competition can go too far."

Once again in their tortured history, East Timor's 1 million, mostly impoverished people face trouble as Australia's elite SAS commandos mount a new hunt for Reinado's men in the mountains and security forces struggle to contain his thousands of angry supporters. Reinado's men are refusing to surrender, telling people in Dili who have contacted them that "this is only the start – we will fight to be end".

Among them will be Gastao Salsinha, commander of 600 soldiers who were sacked when they went on strike over pay and conditions in 2006, prompting violent upheaval. Salsinha was one of the men who arrived at Gusmao's front door, witnesses have told investigators. But he doesn't have the charisma of Reinado, and police believe it will be hard for the group to remain united.

East Timor authorities, the UN and the Australian-led International Stabilisation Force will also have to deal with claims that they failed to protect the nation's leaders. Ruak says he warned last week that an attack on Ramos Horta and Gusmao was imminent but that nothing was done to boost security.

People who knew Reinado well and had seen him after the January meeting in Maubisse believe that in his last days he became deeply paranoid and delusional and feared he was losing his authority. He had been on the run since August 2006 when he led a mass escape from Dili's main jail.

Reinado apparently wasn't happy that Gusmao had arranged a meeting in Dili with 600 sacked soldiers, some of whom remained loyal to their leader, Salsinha.

Gusmao appeared set to settle their complaints with a generous deal: three years' salary or their jobs back. In an instant, Reinado's support base would crumble. Reinado may also have felt threatened by an incident last week when an Australian army patrol drove into a village, disrupting a meeting he was having with three Timorese MPs. His men fired warning shots over the heads of the Australians, who withdrew. Reinado apparently regarded the Australians' arrival as more sinister than just a coincidence.

But no outsiders who dealt with him in his final weeks had any inkling of the plot he hatched with Salsinha for motives that are still unclear.

He had made plenty of threats during his 17 months on the run. But he had also repeatedly claimed he was an army officer merely doing his duty, often declaring loyalty to Timor's supreme armed forces commander, who on Monday happened to be Ramos Horta, the man his men shot.

Ramos Horta was having some difficulty convincing others they should agree to the deal he and Reinado had talked about. Reinado may have been irritated by the delay, but he knew a deal that could give him back a normal life was on the table and he could phone Ramos Horta at any time.

"Reinado's actions point to an incredibly over-confident person who thought that taking a bunch of armed men to the house of the President would be a piece of cake," the investigation source said. "To plan something like that without thinking through the consequences amounts to a disconnect with reality."

People who know Reinado suspect that perhaps, in a warped mindset, he may have decided to kidnap Ramos Horta and Gusmao so he could force the Government to fall and negotiate the establishment of a stronger rule that could empower Timorese and lift them from poverty. Remember Xander Cage, whose mission was to save the world?

Trust shot to pieces in Timor

The Australian - February 16, 2008

Paul Toohey, Dili – East Timor is a changed land, with what remained of its simple innocence lost the moment gunmen opened fire on its most revered statesmen.

These leaders – particularly President Jose Ramos Horta – liked to move among the poor, touching them, talking to them, reassuring them that they would never be forgotten. All that is gone. There is no one left to trust.

There are many different versions of what happened on Monday morning. Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has gone for the simplest.

He yesterday said he could, under other circumstances, imagine that Major General Alfredo Reinado may not have intended to kill the President – except for the fact that on this occasion there was another group of men waiting to ambush him as he drove to his Dili office in a motorcade. "It was a well-co-ordinated attack," said Gusmao.

But the story has taken a deeply sinister turn, with Ramos Horta's brother-in-law, Joao Carrascalao, claiming that both the President and Reinado were set up and attacked by, it would seem, sections of the army, or F-FDTL. The suggestion is that the Australian-led International Security Force, trying to track down two groups of Reinado's men, are looking for the wrong people.

Despite Gusmao's confidence that this was a double assassination attempt by Reinado's group – a view he is certainly entitled to, given his vehicle was shot up by renegades – virtually no one in East Timor believes it.

Not even Reinado, an accomplished big-mouth who liked to taunt the Government in media interviews and his own DVD propaganda releases, seemed capable of an act of such outright stupidity.

The semi-official version is that Ramos Horta was on his early- morning run. Reinado and his offsider, Leopoldino, entered the presidential compound and were shot dead by the F-FDTL guard.

As Ramos Horta returned with his bodyguards, they came upon the remainder of Reinado's men – four or five of them – who were concealed in the deep open storm drain outside the front gate of the compound. The group turned their weapons on the President and started firing.

What does seem clear is that Reinado and Leopoldino were shot early in the raid – if it was a raid. Most East Timorese, from senior government ministers to the ordinary but news-aware street people, are convinced it was a set-up.

Carrascalao, an MP, is married to Ramos Horta's sister, Rosa. Her brother, Arsenio, was in the compound when the shooting started.

"The sequence is this," Carrascalao says. "My bother-in-law Arsenio rang my wife from the compound saying there was shooting. My wife then immediately rang Jose Ramos Horta on his morning walk. Jose told her that he heard some shooting in the direction of the house and he was going back to investigate. He had one bodyguard with him."

Why this bodyguard did not prevent his President from walking into a gun battle is somewhat mysterious, but it may be as simple as the fact that Ramos Horta had relatives inside and could not be prevented from approaching.

Carrascalao continues: "Arsenio rang again a few minutes later saying, 'Jose is wounded'. My wife rang the hospital and they dispatched an ambulance. It did not come to him straight away.

"I have another niece that lives at Balide (about a 15-minute drive from Ramos Horta's compound). She tried to go to the house but outside the Hotel California (on the coast road near the Ramos Horta residence), the UN police tried to prevent her from proceeding. Someone – I don't know who – had rung the UN police. They stayed about 300-400m away. They didn't go in. They were even trying to prevent the ambulance from entering."

Carrascalao says the ambulance finally ignored the UN guard and proceeded through to the villa.

"Jose didn't know Reinado was coming,' Carrascalao says. "Not at all. He was very confident he was going to resolve the problem (of the renegade major taunting the Government after fleeing prison following the laying of murder charges). He would talk to Reinado any time but he would never invite Reinado to his house. I can go there unannounced, but he's my brother-in-law. It's a private house."

Carrascalao does not believe Reinado went to kill the President. "I personally don't think someone who had military training would ever prepare something to kill Jose in that way. I'm not a military man but I don't think they would do it. I think – I can speculate – I think they were both ambushed. I think both Jose and Reinado were tricked."

One of Horta's guards told The Weekend Australian on the day of the attack that Reinado's band disarmed the guards at the front gate. All the men were wearing balaclavas except for Reinado. Reinado and Leopoldino prowled the compound, finding a house lady and demanding to know where Ramos Horta's bedroom was. They kicked in the door and were engaged by guards and shot dead.

One suggestion is that Reinado had been told Ramos Horta wanted to see him. When he arrived at the front gate and was told Ramos Horta was not there, the self-important Reinado stormed in and demanded his promised audience.

Carrascalao points to the fact that the President was shot in the back as he walked up the hill towards Reinado's men hiding in the storm drain.

"Jose was shot in the back. He was not running away. The shots came from behind. The indications are that it was not Reinado's men who shot him – it was a set-up. There was another group laying in wait, across the road."

Carrascalao says there is no doubt Reinado and Leopoldino were shot inside the compound, by F-FDTL guards using machine-guns. In short, he believes Reinado was summoned to the scene, by someone, to set him up for killing his brother-in-law, the President. "I think someone had told Reinado to come down and meet Horta. That is my personal belief.

Knowing Jose, knowing how punctual he is, he would never leave the house without keeping an appointment." He also suggests it is possible that Reinado's own balaclava-clad colleagues may have led him into the trap.

As for the ambush on the Prime Minister, Carrascalao believes it was part of a co-ordinated attack but says: "By whom I don't know."

Carrascalao is a free-speaking man. If he thought Reinado's men had tried to kill the President, he would have little hesitation in saying so.

The ISF has for the past three days been prowling the hills above Dili looking for 18 men who it is believed are associated with Reinado's band. One of them is second-in-command, Lieutenant Gastao Salsinha, who is accused of leading the prime ministerial ambush. He insisted to The Weekend Australian several days ago that he had nothing to do with it. Given he is being hunted, he might well say that.

But if you wind back to the start of this problem, in April 2006, when Timor was torn by rioting and mutiny within the armed forces, it was Reinado and Salsinha who abandoned their roles in a protest against the violent actions of the army they were serving in.

Even when Reinado came down from the hills in 2006 and was involved in a gun battle with the army, which saw him charged with murder, vision of the encounter showed him repeatedly warning the army soldiers approaching him that he didn't want to kill them.

Reinado may have seen himself as a freedom fighter, but he never seemed like a cold-blooded killer.

Republic's rebel with friends in high places

The Australian - February 16, 2008

Bob Boughton – The mayhem in Dili last Monday, in which rebel soldier Alfredo Reinado was shot dead and East Timor's President Jose Ramos Horta badly injured, raises a fundamental question: How was Reinado, a minor military figure, allowed to become and remain such a dangerous force in Timorese politics?

As a frequent visitor to East Timor since 2004 for periods ranging from a few weeks to three months, the more I learn about the internal politics of this fractured country, the more dismayed I become at the failure of many commentators, including UN observers and the International Crisis Group, to analyse the underlying politics behind the violence.

At the heart of the conflict is a political struggle. At stake is the kind of economy and society the country will become.

Reinado was an actor in this struggle, but he did not act alone. When he and his heavily armed group deserted from the army in May 2006, he was taking part in a co-ordinated movement whose aim was to overthrow the democratically elected Fretilin government of Mari Alkatiri, and set the country on a different development path from the one Fretilin had marked out.

Reinado's rebellion was supported by others who sought the same end, including the second largest political party at that time, Partido Democratico, former supporters of integration with Indonesia – some of whom had been members of the Indonesian- backed militias in 1999 – disaffected veterans of the anti- Indonesian resistance, and elements of the Catholic Church.

Despite two attacks by Reinado's group on the loyalist army in May 2006, in which 10 people died, he retained the support of PD. Others who were convinced of Fretilin's illegitimacy lent their weight to the myth that Reinado was some kind of misunderstood folk hero, articulating the aspirations of a people downtrodden by a cruel, Marxist government. They included sections of the Australian media, the academic and international aid community, and Kirsty Sword-Gusmao, the Australian wife of then president Xanana Gusmao.

When Gusmao and Ramos Horta forced Alkatiri to resign in June 2006, Ramos Horta became prime minister and Fretilin lost control of the security and defence apparatus, though it continued to participate in government.

Despite the recommendation of UN investigators that Reinado be apprehended and charged with multiple counts of murder, Ramos Horta and Gusmao sought to block the arrest of Reinado, because they needed PD's votes in order to wrest power completely from Fretilin in the 2007 elections, and PD needed Reinado, since both drew support from the same population base west of Dili.

Reinado was not the only armed rebel who continued to enjoy impunity. Vicente Railos, whose allegations on the ABC's Four Corners helped bring down Alkatiri – allegations ultimately withdrawn by the Gusmao-appointed prosecutor for lack of evidence -- had joined Reinado in attacking the army headquarters.

Railos became an organiser for CNRT, the party Gusmao formed to contest the elections. Paulo Martins, the disgraced police commander who also took part in the rebellion was given a place on the CNRT ticket.

Under the guise of engaging in "dialogue" with these dangerous anti-democratic forces, Gusmao and Ramos Horta refused to move against them, in order to cement the votes they needed – first for Horta to win the presidency, and then for Gusmao's party to form an alliance including PD to take government.

When Alkatiri's government was overthrown by an armed rebellion, much of the international community portrayed this as a successful people's power revolution. When the votes of PD, Reinado's closest political ally, helped secure Ramos Horta and Gusmao an electoral victory over Fretilin, many foreign commentators celebrated this as a victory for multi-party democracy.

The hollowness of that democracy was exposed for all to see last Monday, in a classic case of blowback.

In the days leading up to Reinado's final move, his old supporters and defenders, including PD's leader Fernando Lasama -- now acting President in Ramos Horta's stead – Prime Minister Gusmao and President Horta were considering a proposal which Fretilin had helped draft to solve the army "petitioners" problem, the initial pretext for the 2006 rebellion.

This may well have brought an end to the insecurity that forces thousands to struggle to exist in refugee camps. But the deal required that Reinado would be brought to justice and early parliamentary elections held.

For almost two years, the Australian public has been told that Fretilin's removal was a victory for democracy, when really it was achieved through violence and a corrupt, unconstitutional and anti-democratic political movement. Reinado became a central player in that movement, but he only survived because of his powerful political backers.

Arrest warrants have been issued for those believed to have taken part in Monday's attacks. In fact, the net should be cast much wider. All who supported Reinado now have a case to answer.

[Bob Boughton is a senior lecturer at the school of education, University of New England. He is an Australian Research Council fellow working with East Timor's Ministry of Education to develop an adult education system and a national literacy campaign.]

Braggart rebel died as he lived

Sydney Morning Herald - February 15, 2008

Alfredo Reinado 1966-2008

Jill Jolliffe – Alfredo Reinado became a hero to East Timor's disenchanted urban youth in May 2006 after the army major refused orders to fight 600 protesting fellow soldiers and fled to the mountains with a small band of armed followers.

His brutal childhood history under the Indonesian occupation of 1975-99 struck a chord with the younger generation, as did his opposition to the Portuguese-speaking Fretilin elite which governed between 2001 and 2006. They had lived in exile during the occupation, yet denigrated the Indonesian-educated youths who had manned the barricades, dubbing them "supermie [noodle] graduates".

Reinado's behaviour was bizarre and unpredictable long before he led the February 11 invasion of President Jose Ramos-Horta's home in which he was shot dead by presidential guards. (Ramos-Horta was wounded by a Reinado accomplice.) The military police commander had been on the run in the western highlands, where he had widespread support, since escaping jail in August 2006 – a month after his arrest by Australian peacekeeping troops for his role in the violence that had earlier wracked Dili.

From a mountain eyrie in the district of Ermera, he entertained journalists who trekked there, but his moods and discourse swung through rapid extremes. As did his appearance, which went beyond the need for disguise. He dyed his hair in the latest styles, grew it long, then shaved it off, and constantly rearranged his facial hair and wardrobe, as though searching for his real self.

He and his young band strutted around with their big guns, seemingly frozen in adolescence. He was strongly affected by the death of five of his men during the Australian Army's botched attack on his then base at Same last March. Seasoned SAS troops swarmed down on the group from Black Hawk helicopters but failed to capture him.

He was accredited with leadership of the 600-strong "petitioner" faction of the national army, which defected in early 2006 over ethnic bias complaints, but that was largely a media invention. They were two separate groups whose interests sometimes converged, as they did in tragic fashion on February 11, when the petitioner leader Gastao Salsinha led an assault on the house and convoy of the Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao, an hour after Reinado's group stormed Ramos-Horta's residence. Investigations suggest they may have intended to kidnap, not kill, the two leaders.

If Reinado appeared as an obnoxious, superficial braggart to many, to others he was a sweet and considerate person. A fortnight before his death he was training a school basketball team near Ermera.

A few years ago a US Peace Corps trainer, Penny Newbury, employed his wife, Maria, in her Dili office and came to know the young officer well: "He was quiet, and dignified, and always had a small smile, as if he got some unspoken joke. He quietly approved of Peace Corps. As an unofficial emissary of a part of the East Timorese government with which we would not have had much contact otherwise, he demonstrated nothing but kindness and professionalism and that small smile."

Alfredo Reinado Alves, who was 41 at his death, was born of a Portuguese father and Timorese mother in Aileu, 47 kilometres south of Dili. When Indonesia invaded the Portuguese colony in 1975, the family fled to the mountains. Alfredo was snatched from his school, aged 11, to serve as a child soldier in the Indonesian army's Battalion 725. He later testified to East Timor's truth commission that he had served in battle, and regularly witnessed torture and rape of prisoners.

When his commander's tour of Timor duty ended, Reinado was put in a crate and shipped to Sulawesi, where he became his slave. "I saw Dili fade in the distance," he testified. "I felt very sad because I had not seen my mother since I was taken. I was 13 years old."

After several years of captivity and beatings he escaped to Kalimantan, then worked his way back to Dili and found his parents. Aged 18, he embraced the resistance struggle, fighting briefly with the guerillas.

In 1995 he was among 18 Timorese who became the country's first boat people, sailing to Australia in a leaky boat to request political asylum. With his wife and five-month-old baby aboard, he navigated as other passengers bailed water for six days. The response they met was internment at Port Hedland for two months. They were later freed into the community and their asylum application accepted. Reinado returned home after the Indonesian withdrawal to enlist in the new national army.

His dysfunctional odyssey ended this week in Dili in the crazed attack on Ramos-Horta, which the Bishop of Baucau, Dom Basilio Nascimento, suggested had elements of suicide.

Reinado was one of more than 50 people recommended for trial by UN investigators into violence in 2006. In lengthy negotiations with both Ramos-Horta and Gusmao, who displayed exemplary patience with him, he promised constantly to surrender and stand trial, but always reneged.

He was demanding trial by court-martial. East Timor does not yet have a military court, but the President reached agreement with Brazilian authorities that its army would help set one up in Dili.

Early in January, Reinado and the President had met secretly in the mountain town of Maubisse. Apart from being impatient at the pace of negotiations, he was reportedly angered because Ramos- Horta had not met his request to publicise details of their conversations.

Reinado is survived by his wife, Maria Fortunata, and two sons and two daughters, who live in Perth.

East Timor's struggle to build a nation

BBC News - February 15, 2008

Jonathan Head, Dili – They gave Alfredo Reinado a hero's burial, his coffin draped in the red, black and yellow flag of East Timor.

His bearded face looked down defiantly from banners in a revolutionary pose that deliberately aped the portraits they used to hoist of Xanana Gusmao, the one-time guerrilla leader who is now prime minister.

Hundreds of young men shouted the salute of the anti-Indonesian resistance movement, although former Major Reinado had apparently tried to kill two of the icons of that movement, Mr Gusmao and President Jose Ramos-Horta, on Monday. Heroes change, and yesterday's heroes in East Timor are world-weary politicians today.

But there is something worrying about the readiness of East Timor's young to pass the hero's mantle on to a man like Reinado, who took up arms against the government in the chaos of May 2006 and refused to lay them down.

Reinado had nothing to offer East Timor except the continued idealization of armed struggle as an alternative to the unglamorous task of building a country from very little.

It is an appealing ideal for the 50% of young men who cannot find jobs here. It is one of the reasons violent gang culture is now endemic in Dili's poorer neighbourhoods.

Inexperience

East Timor was supposed to be a poster-child for UN-sponsored nation-building. It is the only country the UN has ever actually governed, and despite the huge challenges confronting it in the aftermath of Indonesia's destructive withdrawal, its small size seemed to make it an ideal recipient for the huge amounts of aid and goodwill that accompanied its birth as an independent state.

Today, though, the poster-child has grown into an unruly and self-destructive adolescent. So what has gone wrong? If you ask ordinary East Timorese, you almost always get the same answer; it is the politicians.

And they have a point. The governments which have run the country since independence in 2002 have done almost nothing that gives the people any benefits they can feel.

Remarkably little infrastructure has been rebuilt from the ashes left by the Indonesian army. The roads are terrible, the country littered with the burned ruins from 1999.

They chose Portuguese as the official language, although only a very small minority of mainly older people spoke it, and then failed to provide the resources to schools to teach in Portuguese.

They have more than a billion dollars in the bank from oil revenues, but have failed to spend it. The government even failed to spend a large part of the modest budget it gave itself last year.

Much of this can be put down to inexperience. Almost no-one in East Timor had any experience of administration at the time of independence, even at a local level.

One international worker explained that their weakness in designing budgets for development projects is such that ministries frequently leave out funding for basic necessities like mobile phones or petrol for transport. The project then grinds to a halt.

But much also appears to be due to a chronic lack of urgency. At his office in the Ministry for Employment, Fernando Encarnacao, an East Timorese expert working for the International Labour Organisation, argues that spending the money to fix the terrible roads could provide employment for 400,000 people. The machinery might need to come from abroad, but not the labour.

'Not ready'

The lack of jobs is one factor tearing at the threadbare fabric of East Timorese society; the lack of security is another.

More than 100,000 people fled from their homes during the unrest sparked off by the disintegration of the armed forces and the police in 2006. Remarkably few have gone home. As a result the capital Dili, already a dilapidated little town, now hosts squalid refugee camps on every patch of open ground.

Luis Vieira, head of the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) mission in East Timor, says many factors explain the reluctance of the refugees to return.

Some are attracted by the food handouts they get at the camps. Some are intimidated into staying by men who have built up local power bases through their control of the camps. It is the absence of security, though, that is most often given as the reason for staying.

The refugees may only have had stones thrown at their homes. But in East Timor, where many people have vivid memories of the appalling suffering and mass relocations that accompanied the Indonesian invasion in 1975 and its withdrawal 24 years later, a small amount of intimidation is enough to make people flee.

Bonny Boramil works for the United Nations by day, but at night he stays in under a white tent donated by the IOM together with his mum and dad. Two years ago their home in Dili was ransacked by hostile neighbours.

"I'm not afraid to go back" he told me, "but my mum is, and I would rather stay here with her". Camp living has soured the fruits of independence for Bonny. "East Timor is like a child", he said, "We are not ready for choice, we are not ready for democracy".

'Unreasonable expectations'

The United Nations must also carry its share of the blame for the mess in East Timor. Its greatest failing was the blunder it made in creating and training the army and police while it was in charge before independence.

Their disintegration into warring factions two years ago almost destroyed the country; the violent death of Alfredo Reinado was one of the aftershocks of those events.

Today the UN is running a substantially boosted peacekeeping mission; the presence of international forces undoubtedly prevented Monday's attacks from setting off further instability.

The head of the UN mission, Atul Khare, says everyone has learned lessons from the disaster in 2006. They are trying to rebuild the police force more carefully, and avoid the haphazard training that weakened it before.

East Timor, it turns out, was not a poster-child. It is a very small country, but with very big and unusual problems that were greatly underestimated in the euphoria that accompanied the birth of the world's newest nation in 2002.

"This is a country which is doing for the first time both nation-building and state-building at the same time" says Atul Khare, "and this is a rare case of a country dealing with a post-conflict and a post colonial situation at the same time."

"Six years is a very short period of time. We should not have unreasonable expectations."

East Timor's road ahead is clouded by uncertainty

International Herald Tribune - February 13, 2008

Donald Greenlees, Dili – Before President Jose Ramos-Horta was shot outside his home on Monday, the Nobel Peace laureate was not overly concerned about his personal security in a country with a history of sudden and unpredictable eruptions of violence.

He was in the habit of taking dawn walks for his health along the shoreline near his home in the east of this seaside capital. On the morning he was shot, he left his home accompanied by a solitary guard, who was armed with nothing more than a pistol.

Last December, in a sign of his confidence in the capability of local security forces and in his personal safety, Ramos-Horta had requested that foreign police officers and soldiers assigned to the United Nations and international stabilization force no longer participate in his security detail, senior UN officials said Wednesday.

Thereafter, his security was shared by two groups. Within the compound of his home, soldiers of the East Timor Defense Force stood guard. Whenever he left home, he was accompanied by a squad from the East Timor National Police.

Ramos-Horta's apparent belief that he was not a likely target of violence might nearly have cost his life.

Doctors said he had been lucky to survive the three gunshot wounds he received when he was attacked by a group of men led by a renegade former military police officer, Alfredo Reinado. Ramos-Horta, 58, remained in serious condition Wednesday in a hospital in the northern Australian city of Darwin, doctors said.

The UN and East Timorese police have begun a joint investigation of the shooting, and the ambush an hour later of a motorcade in which Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao was traveling. On Wednesday, they sought arrest warrants from prosecutors for four people after interviewing 11 witnesses to the attack on Ramos-Horta.

Reinado and one of his men were shot and killed in an exchange of gunfire with security guards at the scene.

But the United Nations, which has a security mandate for East Timor, as well as the international military force and the East Timorese government are facing questions about how the country's two top leaders were exposed to attack, why a renowned rebel leader and his gang were left largely free to roam the countryside for months and what had motivated Monday's shootings.

The commander of East Timor's defense force posed some of these questions on Tuesday when he called for the appointment of a panel of inquiry.

But analysts said Wednesday that the problems might lie as much with the political strategy the government was pursing against the military rebels as with the adequacy of security measures.

Reinado had won status as a folk hero in some quarters in East Timor, particularly among unemployed youth. He had deserted in 2006 during a confrontation between sections of the army and the former government over alleged discrimination against soldiers from the country's western districts.

Mari Alkatiri, the former prime minister, tried to resolve the dispute by dismissing several hundred troops. Violence erupted in which 37 people were killed and tens of thousands displaced from their homes. Reinado was captured and jailed, but he later escaped.

The 2006 violence helped bring down Alkatiri's government. But the fear of it being repeated has influenced attitudes to security ever since.

Ramos-Horta and Gusmao led attempts for a peaceful resolution of the dispute with Reinado's men. Last year they asked the UN and international military force, largely made up of Australian soldiers, to abandon the hunt for Reinado in the hope that he might surrender of his own accord.

Ramos-Horta was probably the closest thing Reinado had to a friend in the government. The president had gone so far as to issue a letter of free passage to the army mutineer, allowing him to wander the countryside and unite his supporters.

The chief of the UN mission in East Timor, Atul Khare, said in an interview Wednesday that the government's reluctance to capture Reinado by force had resulted in a hiatus in security operations against his small rebel group, numbering about two dozen former soldiers.

Khare said the UN police, who had the authority to arrest Reinado, did not have the capability to confront a heavily armed opponent in the densely forested and mountainous interior of East Timor.

"We have a police force which is there to maintain law and order, not to go after heavily armed militarized rebels," Khare said. "We don't have a military component in the UN. Therefore, it was very clear that going after these people was much beyond the capacities which were provided to us."

The Australian-led international military force, which comprises about 1,000 troops, is not under UN authority. The international stabilization force halted operations against the rebels following a failed night raid last March. That action had led to rioting in Dili by Reinado's sympathizers and prompted the government to ask the international force to end armed pursuit for fear of provoking wider unrest.

Some UN officials say the efforts Ramos-Horta was leading to reach a negotiated settlement make Monday's shootings puzzling. Officials say it was reasonable for Ramos-Horta to feel sanguine about his personal security.

There is growing speculation that the shooting might have been a kidnapping attempt that went horribly wrong rather than a planned assassination or coup plot, as Gusmao initially described it.

"The evidence isn't leading to assassination plots," said one senior UN official, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak on behalf of the mission. "All the evidence points to a double kidnapping."

The view is partly based on Gusmao's own assessment of the attack. He has highlighted the fact that no one in his convoy was killed in the ambush near his home and that most of the firing was at the wheels of the vehicles. Khare said it was too early to draw conclusions.

Regardless, analysts say negotiating with Reinado was difficult. Alan Dupont, a professor of international studies at the University of Sydney, who has advised the East Timorese government, said Ramos-Horta had been worried about turning Reinado into a martyr.

"I think that his thinking was absolutely right," Dupont said. "I think the fact that Reinado wasn't able to reconcile himself was really a reflection of a flaw in Reinado's character. Most people who knew him recognized that the guy was extremely difficult to talk rationally to."

Still, the death of Reinado in the gunfight at Ramos-Horta's home does not leave East Timor in a more secure state, analysts said. On Wednesday, Parliament approved Gusmao's request to extend the 48-hour state of emergency for another 10 days, under which an 8 p.m. curfew is imposed, unauthorized public gatherings are banned and the police are granted special additional powers.

Australia bolstered its 780-strong military deployment with an additional 140 troops and 70 police officers. East Timor's near neighbors, Australia and Indonesia, have justifiable concerns about the stability of the six-year-old nation. Civil war in East Timor following Portugal's abrupt de-colonization in 1975 caused a flood of refugees across the border into Indonesia and gave Indonesia the pretext to begin an invasion and a brutal 24-year occupation.

Hugh White, a former deputy secretary of the Australian Defense Department and professor of strategic studies at the Australian National University, said the international military commitment increasingly looks like it has no exit strategy.

"I don't think additional troops will make much difference," he said. "In the end these are not problems that the military can solve, the problems have to be solved by political negotiation, or reconfiguration of East Timor's political structures to reflect the social realities. That process seems to be happening very slowly if at all."

[Tim Johnson in Sydney contributed reporting.]

Rebel's death a chance for unity

Canberra Times - February 13, 2008

Michael Leach – When I wrote on Monday that disarming the increasingly threatening and erratic Major Alfredo Reinado had become a critical priority for national unity in East Timor, there was little indication that these concerns could be so dramatically realised within hours. Monday morning's tragic events were the precipitous endpoint of an ill-defined "negotiation" with an erratic but charismatic fugitive wanted for serious crimes arising from the 2006 crisis.

Jose Ramos Horta, the hero of the diplomatic front in the resistance struggle, now fights for his life in a Darwin hospital. Once again the culture of the gun and covert resistance threatens to overwhelm a nascent culture of democratic opposition. This culture is a hybrid legacy of Timor's desperate clandestine struggle against Indonesian occupation, but also of the Indonesian military habit of elevating military thugs to local warlord status, and awarding them a semi-legitimate "second function" as political figures.

In the short-term, it is likely that Monday's events will cause further instability as Reinado's hard-core supporters struggle to come to grips with a changed reality. However, in the mid-term they may prove a circuit-breaker. Having attacked two national heroes, and grievously wounded one, the context of Reinado's death will severely limit the capacity of his supporters to make him a political martyr. The rumours now circling in Dili that he is "not dead", or the absurd exculpatory rumour that two coordinated, unscheduled armed intrusions at 6am were a "negotiation" strategy gone wrong, attest to the difficulty of spinning these events in a politically useful way.

The position of Reinado's gang, which includes the petitioners' leader Salsinha, apparently implicated in the attack on Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, is now politically untenable. It is likely that large numbers of the petitioners will seek to distance themselves quickly from their discredited erstwhile leader. It should be recalled that Reinado was not originally one of the petitioners, but the leader of a separate breakaway group of military police.

He has since aligned with them to provide a fig leaf to his own case, which ultimately consisted of little more than a refusal to face justice outside his own terms. As others have noted, this stance greatly complicated the resolution of the petitioners' grievances.

It is well know that as president, Gusmao strongly opposed the original sacking of the petitioners. With Reinado gone, the Prime Minister's credibility with this group should aid him in resolving their complaints. Indeed, it seems likely that a smaller group of petitioners had recently broken away to make a deal, isolating Reinado from some of his support base and perhaps setting him on his final path of destruction. Sadly, the Government's strategy did not include disarming a dangerous renegade as first priority.

Some have noted, with irony, that Ramos Horta was leading the negotiations. This is an unfair view as the new alliance Government contained some key figures sympathetic to Reinado. Ramos Horta's hand was somewhat forced in order to maintain unity in the new Government.

It is also true that the Australian Defence Force attack on Reinado's base ended up a public relations problem for the new Government, with its capacity to discredit the International Stabilisation Force presence in the eyes of many Timorese.

Sensitivity is demanded in the conduct of the Australian military. Its presence is clearly essential, but there are questions of public perception. Once renegade groups are disarmed, the Federal Government must ask whether a standing army in Dili is the best model for East Timor, especially as unclear divisions between army and police were central to the 2006 crisis.

The increased Australian police presence signalled by Rudd is a welcome move. In the long run, a reserve defence force presence, behind a police-fronted mission may be preferable.

Finally, long-standing divisions within the political elite, and the failure to sustain a unifying vision beyond the independence struggle lies behind much of the strife. As Ramos Horta lies wounded, it is clearly time to for the political elite to heal their rifts and unite with younger leaders to consign the culture of the gunmen to history.

[Michael Leach, a research fellow at Deakin University, visited the eastern region of Timor-Leste last month to research relationships between modern and traditional authorities.]

Rebel leader a destabilising thorn for a troubled nation

South China Morning Post - February 12, 2008

East Timor's maverick seemed desperate for martyrdom

Fabio Scarpello in Banda Aceh – When Alfredo Reinado died in a hail of gunfire outside the home of President Jose Ramos Horta yesterday, he was fulfilling a dream to either seize control of East Timor, or to go down in a blaze of glory trying.

But it is unclear whether the rebel soldier's legacy will be further instability or a new hope for peace for the fledgling Southeast Asian country.

Reinado, 40, was killed as he led an attack that seriously wounded Mr Ramos Horta. Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao was also targeted in a co-ordinated attack, but the former resistance leader escaped unscathed.

Damien Kingsbury, an Australian expert on East Timor, said Reinado was apparently responding to his belief that negotiations with the government had failed and that he would be captured after his support base was dismantled. "It was a desperate attempt by him to stage a coup, although a crazy idea," he said.

A Dili-based analyst, who asked not to be named, agreed Reinado -- who once had ties with Mr Ramos Horta and Mr Gusmao – had burned all his bridges and acted out of desperation. "He had boxed himself into a corner and was perhaps delusional," he said, adding: "My first impression is that he sought martyrdom."

Reinado was to go on trial in absentia next month for his alleged role in several deadly shootings between police and military units during violence in 2006, which led to the collapse of the government. He was briefly arrested but broke out of jail later the same year and had since evaded capture.

Despite the outstanding murder charges, Mr Ramos Horta had met Reinado on several occasions since last year in attempts to persuade him to surrender. Reinado initially said he supported Mr Ramos Horta's election in May 2007, but in recent months he had become increasingly critical of the president and prime minister.

Little was heard recently of the rebels, but a United Nations police patrol that stumbled across a group of the men last week was met with warning shots, and left without firing in response.

The isolation seemed to weigh heavily on Reinado, who appeared uneasy and stressed in his latest interviews. He had also said he feared for his life. "I know a lot about all the politicians and I know that the best solution for them would be to kill me, so that they could blame the crisis on me," he said recently.

Reinado was believed to have had the support of a large swathe of the population from the western part of the country, but it is unclear whether that will translate into violent action now. There were no reports of violence as of last night.

Mr Kingsbury said he believed the country's security apparatus and the Australian and New Zealand troops that form the International Stabilisation Force (ISF) would manage to weather the storm. "Gusmao will assume executive authority until this settles, and the ISF will control the streets until things start to clear," he predicted.

Fellow Australian academic and East Timor expert Norman Day, however, argued that the latest crisis would be very destabilising and that Reinado's followers would opt for violent retaliation. "It's going to be bad within 24 to 36 hours," Mr Day said.

Maria do Ceu Federer, a Timorese activist, predicted a period of deep uncertainty. "When big problems like Reinado, the petitioners [Reinado's followers] and the internally displaced remain unsolved after two years, anything can happen," she said. "It goes back to the anger fuelled by the lack of justice that East Timorese have had to endure throughout their history."

George Quinn, an East Timor specialist from the Australian National University, said Reinado's removal would be a "very good thing" for East Timor. "One doesn't like to speak ill of the dead [but] he was a maverick and a spoiler and he was definitely bad news for the development of stability in East Timor," Mr Quinn said.

Former Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer echoed the same sentiment to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. "I've always thought that Major Reinado was a pretty dangerous person, very unstable, [but he] has only had a small amount of support in East Timor. Not to wish anyone their death, but the fact he is off the scene altogether will be a good thing for the stability of East Timor."

Failed Timor assassination may lessen rebels' sway

Christian Science Monitor - February 12, 2008

Simon Montlake and Nick Squires, Bangkok/Sydney – A foiled dawn attack Monday by rebel soldiers on East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta, who was shot and seriously wounded, has roiled this fledgling Southeast Asian country. But it may also signal the end of a rebel movement that had plagued efforts to restore stability.

Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, who survived a separate ambush shortly after as he drove to his office, appealed for calm as Timorese security forces, backed by Australian-led peacekeepers, patrolled the capital, Dili. Mr. Ramos-Horta was evacuated Monday to Australia for further treatment after emergency care. At press time, doctors said he was in critical condition but were hopeful of a good recovery.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Monday he was sending 200 extra soldiers and police to East Timor, raising Australia's deployment to around 1,000 personnel. "Deeply shocked" by the violence, he also said he had agreed to an invitation from Gusmao to visit the country later this week in a show of support.

"For there to be a coordinated attempt to assassinate the democratically elected leadership of a close friend and neighbor of Australia's is a deeply disturbing development," Mr. Rudd told a news conference in Canberra, Australia.

Gusmao said the attacks were organized by Alfredo Reinado, an Army major who deserted in 2006 during a mutiny that plunged the country into turmoil and prompted the arrival of international peacekeepers. Mr. Reinado died in Monday's assault on the president's house, along with one of his soldiers, Gusmao said. "I consider this incident a coup attempt against the state by Reinado and it failed," he told a press conference.

The involvement of Reinado came as little surprise, say analysts, as he had recently threatened to confront the government, which has tried but failed to negotiate his surrender and disarm his men. His death could weaken the cohesion of his faction, while rallying popular sympathy for Ramos-Horta and Gusmao, allowing the country to move on.

But the boldness of Monday's attack on the country's two most powerful figures may undermine confidence in East Timor's security forces, which foreign trainers have tried to rebuild after their meltdown two years ago.

It also pointed up the complexities of reconciliation in Asia's poorest country, where tens of thousands are still living in shelters after fleeing that fighting, and where criminal gangs recruit idle youth left adrift in a stricken economy.

The 2006 unrest led to a realignment among Timor's political elite, whose divisions were shaped by a bitter independence struggle against Indonesian occupation, which ended in 1999.

Ramos-Horta and Gusmao forced out former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, who was blamed for the Army mutiny, paving the way for largely peaceful elections last year that put the longtime allies in charge of the shaky government.

But various initiatives to bring Reinado back into the fold failed to jell, to the mounting frustration of Gusmao – a former resistance leader and independence hero. Reinado, who was wanted on murder charges, was blamed for a recent spate of nonlethal attacks on Australia troops.

Yesterday's apparent assassination plots may have been a sign of desperation by a rebel whose popularity was waning.

"In the short-term there will be a lot of fearfulness because some of his supporters are still running around with guns, but for the long-term one of the government's major headaches is now out of the way," says Helen Hill, an East Timor expert at Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia.

Sophia Cason, an analyst for the International Crisis Group, says other renegade factions had tired of hiding out and sought a settlement without Reinado and other hold-outs.

"His support was definitely dwindling. Some of the other [ex- soldiers] had already come for dialogue with Xanana Gusmao. [Reinado] may have been feeling that he had fewer options available," she says.

Other observers warned, however, that Reinado loyalists may stage reprisals and seize on his death as a form of martyrdom, further destabilizing the country.

"There's a sense among people in the security sector that we've been in the eye of the storm for the last few weeks and it's going to get more turbulent," says a US aid worker in Dili.

That status as a martyr may be burnished by rumors that Reinado was betrayed by Gusmao and other negotiators. One story circulated Monday by Reinado supporters claimed that he had died before the attacks took place. Perhaps to debunk such rumor, Gusmao has pledged that a full autopsy will be carried out.

East Timor is part of what military strategists call an "arc of instability" to Australia's north, including states such as Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. Its modern history has been marked by violence, upheaval, and internal strife. Ramos-Horta and Gusmao were key players in much of the drama.

After Indonesia seized the former Portuguese colony in 1974, former journalist Ramos-Horta became a roving diplomat for Timorese independence. He campaigned in exile to keep his nation's occupied status on the agenda and highlight Indonesia's military rule. In 1996, he shared the Nobel Peace Prize with Bishop Carlos Belo for his work. Meanwhile, Gusmao led a ragged resistance to Indonesia's rule until his capture in 1992 and detention in a Jakarta jail.

Gusmao and Ramos-Horta returned to their homeland in 1999, after Timorese voted overwhelmingly to secede from Indonesia in a UN- sponsored referendum. The result of the ballot triggered widespread violence by Indonesian-backed militia and a scorched- earth retreat by Indonesian troops. East Timor declared independence in 2002, after three years of United Nations rule, the first new nation-state of the 21st century.

Aussies outstay their East Timor welcome

Asia Times - February 5, 2008

Loro Horta, Dili – Since the 2006 deployment of Australian peacekeeping troops to East Timor, the Australian Defense Force (ADF) has been confronted with a persistent anti-Australian sentiment from large sections of the population. How did a peacekeeping force that was once welcomed as a national liberator for East Timor from 24 years of brutal Indonesian occupation so quickly find itself unwelcome?

Australia first helped to rescue East Timor in 1999, when it contributed nearly half of the 9,900 troops to the United Nations authorized International Force for East Timor, or INTERFET, which then neutralized the Indonesia-backed paramilitary gangs which raped and pillaged the island after it voted for independence from Jakarta in a national referendum.

The current ADF contingent was deployed with East Timorese government permission in May 2006, as part of an Australian-led International Stabilization Force (ISF) tasked with containing another spasm of violence that erupted from a schism inside the Timor Leste Defense Force (FDTL). The ISF's main unit, the ANZAC Battle Group, currently consists of about 780 Australian and 170 New Zealand soldiers.

That foreign presence has largely restored stability and was crucial to the successful holding of presidential elections in 2007, which were won by Jose Ramos Horta. Horta told voters on the campaign trail that he supported the continued presence of the Australian-led forces for at least five years, or until the FDTL, which was decimated by the 2006 violence, becomes unified along regional lines and is technically capable enough to take sole responsibility for national security.

The FDTL now receives support from a host of donor countries, including Australia, China, Portugal and Brazil. Opposition candidates, however, had on the 2007 campaign trail called for the ISF to be withdrawn as soon as possible, arguing that the foreign armed presence undermined the new nation's hard-earned sovereignty. Those calls are now increasing in pitch as certain ADF personnel, particularly its young privates, act in ways that undermine the peacekeeping force's image.

According to observers, many ADF personnel have shown an utter lack of respect for local customs and have on several occasions insulted some of the country's highest government officials. The first serious incident took place in October 2006 when the ADF established various checkpoints around the FDTL's headquarters.

Then, FDTL Commander Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak was prevented at gun point from leaving his own headquarters, with the ADF insisting to search him before he was allowed to leave. He was eventually allowed to pass, but the humiliation at the hands of a teenaged Australian corporal did tremendous damage to the ADF's image among the FDTL's rank and file.

Soon after the standoff with the FDTL's commander, Australian soldiers without cause stripped a Timorese police inspector out of his uniform in the middle of one of Dili's most public places, leaving the officer literally in his underwear. More gravely, they also stand accused on at least one occasion of interrupting the parliamentary process.

In the sub-district of Letfo, where the defense and security commission of the national Parliament was meeting with authorities, an Australian officer who insisted on talking with the local police commander, barged into the meeting. When member of Parliament Davide Ximenes requested that the Australian officer leave the room and wait outside for the meeting to end, the Australian officer reportedly began to scream at the members.

In the end, the situation was resolved when a Brazilian officer dragged the Australian officer out of the meeting room and a Chinese officer calmed the largely built and hot-tempered Ximenes. Following the incident, the head of the United Nations mission to East Timor, Indian diplomat Atul Kare, sent a letter of apology to the national Parliament, while no words of remorse ever came from the ADF or the Australian Embassy.

Other minor issues have added to the ADF's image problem. In October 2006, the ADF drove four armored personnel carriers into the Cristo Rei beach coral reef, a protected marine with unique coral formations, to the outrage of even some Australian non- governmental organizations. Meanwhile, ADF personnel often drive their armored cars at high speed in heavily populated areas, throwing up dust in storefronts and at passerby, say locals. Their reckless behavior has even led to complaints from Australian diplomats based in Dili

The clearest example of the ADF's sometimes reckless behavior was seen in early January. Horta's convoy, made up of more than 10 vehicles, was on its way back to the capital from the western region of the island when it was nearly overrun by two ADF vehicles which failed to stop at the roadside to make way for the presidential convoy. Three Australian citizens were at the time traveling with the president, including an ADF major.

To be sure, the majority of Australian troops in East Timor have done a laudable and professional job. That includes the bravery of Corporal Andrew Wratten, who blew the whistle on the sexual abuse of Timorese young boys by Jordanian peacekeepers in the town of Ocussi. The corporal reportedly had to be evacuated to Australia under armed escort to prevent the Jordanian soldiers from taking revenge.

There are countless other cases of the ADF's honorable conduct, such as the case of Major General Mike Smith, who served in the territory as brigadier and since the crisis of May 2006 greatly assisted the war-torn nation in his capacity as head of AUSAID. The current Australian commander in Timor, Brigadier Peter Hutchison, has been an improvement over his predecessors and shows that with greater discipline these issues can be addressed.

Hutchison's decision to begin purchasing basic foodstuffs and other supplies from local farmers and shops instead of importing them from Australia has given much needed income to the impoverished local population and helped with the ADF's image problem. His tougher disciplinary style has recently reduced cases of ADF reckless driving, public drunkenness and overall rude behavior.

The great majority of Australian military personnel have acted with honor and professionalism while on service in East Timor. However, the arrogant behavior of a small minority has broadly undermined the ADF's image in the eyes of the Timorese population. While the current wave of anti-Australian sentiment is the result of many factors – some of which, to be fair, are beyond the ADF's control – addressing the issues over which they have command is crucial for the continued success of their mission.

Due to its geographical proximity to Australia and the two countries' shared store of natural gas resources, East Timor and its stability will always be of strategic importance to Canberra. As such, Australia should not neglect the way it exercises its hard and soft power inside the newly formed country.

While some of the incidents have been minor and no doubt the result of cultural misunderstandings, they have the potential to create serious tensions between the neighboring nations. As the Australian saying warns, "From little things, big things grow."

[Loro Horta is a research associate fellow at the S Rajartnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technology University, Singapore and a visiting scholar at the Center for International Security Studies, Sydney University, Australia. He formerly worked as an advisor to the Timor-Leste Defense Department.]

Timor-Leste: 'A state of insecurity'

Open Democracy - February 1, 2008

Neil Campbell – An incident during my recent visit to Timor- Leste gave a useful insight into the difficult security conditions in the small, young and troubled independent state. A few kilometres outside the capital Dili, under the shadow of the Cristo Rei statue, I came across an agitated western official shouting down a mobile-phone – a borrowed phone, for his own had been stolen, along with his wallet and passport. The person on the other end of the line was the thief, with whom the official was trying to arrange a suitable "agreement" for the return of his valuables.

There was no point in him going to the police. Most local police remained suspended as a result of the intense turmoil in the country in April-June 2006; those who were still in place would not do anything; and the international police stationed in Timor-Leste would not even know where to start.

It is not just foreigners but the Timorese themselves who face pressures and demands from criminals. The country's security situation has been deeply degraded since 2006 crisis, in which thirty-eight people were killed, the police suspended, and the army cut by half. Much-needed reforms of the two institutions – promised by the president elected in May 2007, Jose Ramos-Horta, and crucial for wider economic and social development – remain on hold. Meanwhile, East Timor (as the country is also known) is being held to ransom by an army-deserter with an internet connection.

The former military-police commander, Alfredo Reinado, commands his own mini-fiefdom from his retreat in the hills of Ermera district. The semi-coherent tirade he posted on the internet in late December 2007 – one of a series – accuses Timor-Leste's prime minister (and ex-president), independence hero Xanana Gusmao, of "masterminding" the 2006 crisis.

Reinado is an abrasive symptom of Timor-Leste's predicament. He played a key role in the crisis before being arrested by international peacekeepers in July 2006, but has been on the run since he walked out of prison a month later. In February 2007, Australian troops (from the International Stabilisation Force [ISF] which they lead) attempted to capture him after he "borrowed" guns from border police; they killed five of Reinado's men, but he again escaped.

Since then, there has been a legal fight between international authorities and the Dili government about Reinado, pitting the United Nations-funded judge, Ivo Rosa (who has asked the international forces to arrest him) against Jose Ramos-Horta (who has asked them not to). For the moment at least, the internationals are listening to the president.

The problem for the government is that Reinado has won over to his side many of the so-called "petitioners": those who presented the petition of complaints about conditions within and management of the army that sparked the April-June 2006 violence. The leader of the original group of petitioners, Gastao Salsinha, now calls himself Reinado's "lieutenant". This has complicated the government's strategy of devising a strategy that deals separately with the leader and the group.

But neither is this good news for the petitioners themselves. Their alignment with Reinado – whose obstinate stance is in part a defiant reaction to his increasingly untenable situation – only damages their own cause. Even those with legitimate complaints and a desire to return to the army are compromised by association with a fugitive operating beyond the law; while the very security-sector reforms they called for, and which are clearly needed, are being delayed.

A combustible society

The Dili government now has a golden, if finite, opportunity to address the major security problems – and in doing so, demonstrate that Alfredo Reinado is but a distraction from the real tasks facing Timor-Leste's institutions and people. The international security presence – consisting of 1,480 UN police officers and about 1,000 troops under the Australian-led ISF – gives the government in Dili the support and breathing-space it needs to clarify the respective roles of the Timorese army and police.

So far, it is not happening. True, the Timorese police are undergoing the last stage of a screening and mentoring process that should result in a seal of approval for officers to return to full-time duty. But the quality of training and preparation of personnel in the UN police-mentoring system is poor, while persistent security problems keep the international police busy and distract them from their own mentoring task.

The problems are evident in East Timor's teeming displacement camps, which house 100,000 people – 30,000 in Dili alone. Many of the displaced have fled Ermera in fear of Reinado and his supporters. The camps themselves have become a security issue – both as a source and magnet for criminal activity and as a base of opposition support, to the extent that the UN police (seen also as pro-government) is reluctant to enter.

The lack of policing reinforces the problems, but only in emergencies that the more robust single-nation "formed police units" or the International Stabilisation Force itself are called in. The effect of this unstable cycle of low-level conflict and ad hoc security is increased antagonism towards the UN and the international presence as a whole.

This situation reflects the failure of the main institutions responsible for Timor-Leste's security. This is no longer the world's youngest country, and it is very far from the shining example of nation-building it hoped to present to the world after a twenty-seven-year struggle against Indonesian rule culminated in independence in 2002. Worse, it looks as if the mistakes that led to the crisis of 2006 and unresolved aftermath are about to be repeated.

The domestic political elite has been unable so far to achieve any national unity or non-partisan support for the reform of a still politicised and disjointed security sector. The UN, mandated to assist with the reforms, has shown little or no progress in the eighteen months it has been on the ground.

The UN's security-reform work was suspended in 2007 to allow UN officials to focus on oversight of the presidential (April-May) and parliamentary (June) elections. But since November 2007, when Eric Tan left the office of the deputy special representative of the UN secretary-general in charge of security-sector support, the post has lain empty as no replacement has been found.

Time is running out. International forces cannot be expected to police Timor for ever. This is a combustible society: youth unemployment in Dili alone is around 50%, and there are increasing incidents of fights among martial-arts groups and criminal gangs. The World Bank estimates that by 2010, as many as 40% of all Timorese will belong to the 15-29 year-old age group. This large and growing human resource (and potential labour- force) urgently needs economic development, but this in turn requires a society based on the rule of law. In this connection, a current proposal to solve youthful unemployment via military conscription is way off the mark: the army requires recruits who want to be there, not those press-ganged to serve for a short period before leaving (perhaps to put their higher fitness-levels to use in a destructive cause).

After the honeymoon

The first step needed to defuse Timor-Leste's insecurity is to launch a comprehensive, inclusive review process that informs the government of the country's security requirements. Such a review will also show the Timorese that their government is acting seriously on its behalf, rather than squabbling over political differences. The United Nations can usefully assist in this process through its security-sector support unit – but only if accompanied by the necessary leadership, funds and personnel.

In this sense, the high-profile Alfredo Reinado is indeed but a symptom of Timor-Leste's acute problems, and the focus on him a diversion from the need to address these in a systematic, coherent way. Timor-Leste's post-independence inheritance was painful and difficult, but its government and the international community's lack of urgency has meant that what hope and optimism there was have been replaced by drift, neglect and fear. These actors must take what may be a last opportunity to renew their commitments to the Timorese people. If they do not, the 2006 crisis may be remembered as a precursor to an even worse one in 2008.

East Timor media monitoring

East Timor media monitoring

UNMIT - February 29, 2008

TVTL News Coverage

PM – those who submit weapons are acting in good conscience: Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has said that he believes that those members of Salsinha's group who have already surrendered have shown commitment to peace and are acting in good conscience. The PM has also given his gratitude to the petitioners and former veterans who handed in their weapons to the F-FDTL and PNTL Joint Operation. The PM has appealed to Salsinha and Susar's group to surrender either to the State or the Church.

Six rebels surrender: Six members of Susar's group surrendered to the F-FDTL and PNTL Joint Operation on Thursday (28/2) in Memorial Hall, Dili. The six men were led by Bernardo da Costa 'Cris', a veteran from Manatuto. The group also surrendered one AK-33. "The nation's problems should be solved by mouth, not with weapons as weapons always provoke war,"said Mr da Costa in Memorial Hall, Dili. "This weapon belongs not to me and my parents; it is the nation's weapon," he said.

RTL News Coverage Brazilian Govt welcomes UNMIT extension: The Government Brazil has welcomed the decision of the Security Council to extend UNMIT mandate in Timor-Leste to February 29, 2009.

Print Coverage

Rebels may surrender to leaders: The Joint Operation of the F- FDTL and PNTL has asked rebels to submit themselves to leaders or organizations they trust, if they do not wish to surrender themselves to the Joint Operation. The Joint Operation forces are currently spread around the country and are urging rebels to surrender. (STL)

No consensus between Fretilin and Govt over IICI: The issue of whether to establish an International Independent Commission of Inquiry (IICI) is still creating controversy between the Government and the opposition parties of Fretilin, KOTA and PPT. Government members are arguing that an IICI may be established once the investigations being conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Australian Federal Police end. "They [FBI/AFP] are still working. There will be overlap if we create another commission so soon to do similar work," said Pedro da Costa, an AMP member in the NP. Fretilin is instead arguing that an IICI is imperative as all parts of civil society are calling for one to be established. "The idea (of creating IICI) is coming from parts of civil society, political parties, PR Ramos-Horta and Commander TMR. They all want to discover the truth," said Francisco Branco, Fretilin MP. (TP)

East Timor media monitoring

UNMIT - February 28, 2008

TVTL news coverage

Petitioners increase to 480: The numbers of petitioners gathered in Aitarak Laran has increased to 480. Petitioners indicate that they are ready to cooperate in order to solve the problems faced since 2006. The Government is assisting them by broadening the gathering place to allow for more room.

F-FDTL/PNTL Joint Operation seizes 500 camouflage T-shirts: The Operational Commander of F-FDTL and PNTL Joint Operation, Lieutenant Colonel Filomeno Paixao, said that the Joint Operation has seized 500 camouflage T-shirts from an international company in Dili. Commander Paixao said while he cannot reveal the name of the company, the case is under investigation.

AFP-UNPol discover bullets in PM's residence: The Investigation Team of the Australian Federal Police and the PNTL who are conducting the reconstruction exercise of the February 11 events at PM Xanana's residence have discovered 16 bullets at the site. The General Prosecutor of the Republic (PGR) Longuinhos Monteiro said that the bullets will be sent to Darwin, Australia for ballistic testing. PGR Monteiro said that FBI was excluded from the reconstruction exercise, but the Australian Federal Police (AFP) took aerial pictures of the site to help locate the shooting points.

Print Coverage

PNTL to welcome petitioners: The Deputy Commander of PNTL Dili District, Delfim da Silva, has said that the PNTL will welcome Salsinha's group any time of the day or night if any member of the group decides to surrender. Commander da Silva has also asked Salsinha's followers to cooperate with the PNTL and to submit to justice as this is the only way to ensure the nation's stability. (STL)

Salsinha's stronghold detected: The Commander of 'Halibur' Joint Operation F-FDTL and PNTL, Lieutenant Colonel Filomeno Paixao, said that they have detected the stronghold of Salsinha and his group. Even though Salsinha and his group have been detected, Commander Paixao said that the Joint Operations would not act recklessly to apprehend the group, but would continue to seek peaceful means to bring Salsinha and his group to justice. "We will keep trying to persuade him as our brother to come and seek justice peacefully," added Commander Paixao. (STL)

Petitioners threatened in Ermera: Former F-FDTL member and Coordinator of the Gathering Place, Captain Cesar Valente de Jesus, said that some of the petitioners from Ermera district afraid to come to Dili as they were being threatened by local community members and youths for allegedly breaking their promise. "We have been informed that some petitioners from Ermera District could not come down to Dili because they were being threatened by local youth and community members. We have told the Government about this and have asked them to help find a way for the petitioners to come here." said Captain de Jesus on Wednesday (27/2) in Aitarak Laran, Dili. (STL)

Five of Alfredo's men submit to justice: PGR Longuinhos Monteiro said that five of Alfredo's men were to undertake their first judicial interrogation in Dili District Court. PGR Monteiro confirmed that the five men were together with Alfredo before the attacks against PR Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana Gusmao. "The five men will participate in a hearing to explain why they joined Alfredo," said PGR Monteiro on Wednesday (27/2) in Laulara. (DN)

Guterres - ICCI gives no importance to the states' initiatives: The Acting President of the National Parliament (NP), Vicente Guterres, said that he does not agree with the idea to establish an International Independent Commission of Inquiry (IICI), as proposed by Fretilin, to investigate the attacks against PR Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana Gusmao. "Let them (FBI and AFP) do their work. When the results are presented by the FBI, we may consider the need to establish an IICI or not... it's conditional," said Mr Guterres. (DN)

Paixao guarantees Salsinha/Susar surrender: The Operational Commander of F-FDTL and PNTL Joint Operation, Lieutenant Colonel Filomeno Paixao, has guaranteed that Gastao Salsinha will surrender. "If Salsinha and Susar want to submit themselves to the Church, they can do so as the Church also has a moral responsibility to solve the problems," said Commander Paixao on Wednesday (27/2) in the Memorial Hall, Dili. (DN)

Xanana, TMR and Bishop Ricardo discuss Salsinha's case: PM Xanana Gusmao, the F-FDTL Commander Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak, and Bishop Ricardo conducted a secret meeting to discuss Salsinha and his group's case. The meeting was held in the residence of Bishop Ricardo on Wednesday (27/2) in Lecidere, Dili. (TP)

East Timor media monitoring

UNMIT - February 27, 2008

TVTL News Coverage

MPs insist on IICI: Members' of Parliament from Fretilin, PSD, PD and CNRT are demanding that the National Parliament establish an International Independent Commission of Inquiry (IICI) to investigate the assassination attempts on the lives of PR Jose Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana Gusmao. They have also asked that the United Nations be involved in this. "An IICI is needed to find out the truth," said PSD member of NP Mario V. Carrascalao.

Alfredo's man surrenders in Maubisse: The Special Representative of the Secretary-General Atul Khare said that one of the members of the armed group who attacked the residence of PR Ramos-Horta voluntarily surrendered himself to the United Nations Police (UNPol) in Maubisse, Ainaro district on Monday (25/2). "I personally received the information this morning that one of the men voluntarily submitted himself. His name was listed in the arrest warrants for the previous case," said SRSG Khare.

Govt busy with extra petitioners: The Government has been trying to cope with increasing numbers of petitioners gathered in Aitarak Lara. The Government has built an extra eight tents for the petitioners who had been camping on the veranda. The petitioners have increased to more than three hundred. During the last three days, F-FDTL assisted the petitioners by providing tents and preparing extra space for them.

Alfredo's case put to rest: The President of the Court of Appeal, Claudio Ximenes, said that while the case of Alfredo was no longer active given his death, his followers are still subject to justice. "The cases of Alfredo and those who have died have been put to rest. But those who are still alive, their cases are still being processed," said Mr Ximenes.

RTL News Coverage

PSD agrees to establish IICI: The Member of Parliament from PSD, Mario Viegas Carrascalao, said that he agrees with the idea to establish an International Independent Commission of Inquiry (IICI) to investigate the attacks against PR Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana Gusmao. "It needs a neutral international body, not Timorese, to investigate the case in order to discover the truth. We all should accept and respect the results of the investigation when it comes out," said Mr Carrascalao.

Alfredo's case put to rest: The President of the Court of Appeal, Claudio Ximenes, has briefed Acting President Fernando Lasama on the work conducted so far by the tribunal. Mr Ximenes said that the tribunal was implementing all its functions with no interference from any political body. Mr Ximenes also commented that the case of Alfredo was no longer active. "The cases of Alfredo and those who died have been put to rest. But those who are still alive, their cases are still being processed," said Mr Ximenes.

Print Coverage

UN responsible for February 11: The MP from Kota, Manuel Tilman, has asked the UN to take responsibility for the events of February 11. "The security of the state and the Prime Minister falls under the responsibility of the UN. The UN should be responsible for establishing an International Independent Commission of Inquiry (IICI)," said Mr. Tilman on Tuesday (26/2) in the National Parliament, Dili. Separately, an MP from PSD, Mario Viegas Carrascalao, suggested that the nations involved in an IICI should exclude the nations whose forces are currently in Timor-Leste. (DN)

Coordination needed to arrest Salshinha: The Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Timor-Leste, Atul Khare, said that the plan to arrest Salsinha and his group requires good cooperation between all security forces in order to avoid unwanted problems during the arrest. "Good coordination would make the operation stronger and more effective and would avoid other problems," said SRSG Khare during the UNMIT press conference held on Monday (25/2) in UNMIT HQ Obrigado Barrack Caicoli, Dili. (DN) IDS need to return home: The State Secretary for Natural Disasters, Jacinto Rigoberto, has said that IDPs at the National Hospital Guido Valadares (HNGV) camp need to return to their homes or Bairos [suburbs]. "I think the IDPs at HNGV camp need to return home. This is necessary because they said they want to go home and live like others in their Bairos," said Mr Rigoberto. Mr. Rigoberto also said that he would help IDPs return home by coordinating with community leaders. (DN)

ETCRN - UNMIT responsible for February 11: The East Timor Crisis Reflection Network (ETCRN) is asking the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) to take responsibility for the attacks against PR Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana Gusmao.

The Coordinator of ETCRN, Jose Caetano, said that the people of Timor-Leste are waiting for an explanation from UNMIT, the International Stabilization Forces (ISF) and the Government of Timor-Leste about the events of February 11 as the security of Timor-Leste was the responsibility of the United Nations Police (UNPol) and the ISF. "We know that the events of February 11 are not only UNMIT's fault, but UNMIT does bear responsibility for security in Timor-Leste based on Resolution 1704/2006," said Mr. Caetano in an ETCRN press release.

"In relation to the specific crimes, I do agree with SRSG Atul Khare that the events of February 11 are the responsibility of Alfredo. However, in relation to security issues, UNMIT bears ultimate responsibility. The UN has to show its maturity in the current situation and reflect on its mandate which is to contribute to, and maintain, security in the country," said Chiquito da Costa Guterres, one of the ETCRN members. (DN)

PSD asks for 'State of Emergency' rather than 'State of Siege': The Chief of PSD in the NP, Fernando Dias Gusmao is asking the Government to shorten the 'State of Siege' to a 'State of Emergency', arguing that the reality shows that a 'State of Siege' is no longer needed.

"The 'State of Siege' was implemented when all the State institution were not functioning. However, the reality shows that all institutions are functioning well, so now, we only need the 'State of Emergency," said Mr. Gusmao. Mr. Gusmao also suggested that before March 20, the Government and Acting President should shorten the 'State of Siege', as 80% of Timorese are Christian and are about to start their religious activities in time for Easter. (DN)

No amnesty for terrorists: The parties of PUN, PSD and KOTA have protested against the statement of Acting President of NP, Vicente Guterres, that amnesty will be given to Salsinha and his group when they surrender. Mario Viegas Carrascalao of PSD said that people who intend to kill national leaders and destroy the sovereignty of a nation are considered terrorists, and terrorists do not deserve to get amnesty. "I do not give amnesty to people who want to destroy and dissolve the independence of this nation," said Mr. Carrascalao. Manuel Tilman from KOTA also said: "We cannot allow killers to be granted amnesty. No democratic nation would do this." (DN)

Petitioners increase to 456: As of yesterday afternoon, the numbers of petitioners had increased to 457 persons. According to a press release by the State Secretary of Security, the Government is now preparing health services, power, and water and sanitation in the petitioners gathering place in Aitarak Laran. The press release also stated that many petitioners had asked to be escorted to Dili by UNPol for security reasons. (DN)

Carrascalao - Joint Operation should arrest perpetrators: The PSD member of the National Parliament, Mario Viegas Carrascalao, said that the F-FDTL/PNTL Joint Operation is supposed to arrest the perpetrators of the February 11 attacks, not just go after Salsinha and his group. "Upon what basis it the operation aimed at solely arresting Salsinha and his group?" asked Mr. Carrascalao. "For me, it is important to arrest those directly involved in the attacks of February 11. It is not true a true operation if it is only conducted to arrest Salsinha and his group." (STL)

11 of Alfredo's men arrested: The F-FDTL/PNTL Joint Operation arrested eleven members of Alfredo's group in Aituri Laran- Taibisse, Dili on Tuesday (26/2). The Spokesperson of F-FDTL/PNTL Joint Operation, Inspector Mateus Fernandes, said that eight persons out of the eleven were those who escaped with Alfredo from Becora prison in 2006. A hand grenade was also seized during the operation. The men are now detained in the detention centre of PNTL Dili District. (STL)

Japanese Ambassador: "Violence never solves problems": The Ambassador of Japan to Timor-Leste, Kenzi Shimizu, has appealed for a non-violent approach to resolve the problems of Timor- Leste. The Ambassador made these comments during a meeting with the Acting President of the Republic, Fernando 'Lasama' de Araujo. "My purpose in this meeting is to pass on the sympathies of the Government and people of Japan to PR Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana Gusmao," said the Ambassador. "My Government strongly condemns the acts against these two leaders. We believe that violence never solves problems and only serves to kill the efforts made towards building stability and development," said Ambassador Shimizu on Tuesday (26/2) in Palacio das Cinzas Caicoli, Dili. (TP)

East Timor media monitoring

UNMIT - February 26, 2008

TVTL News Coverage

Joint Operation rejects exchange of fire: The Operational Commander of the Joint Operation of F-FDTL and PNTL, Lieutenant Filomeno Paixao, said that the Join Operation was conducted well with no exchange of fire between the F-FDTL/PNTL and Salsinha and his group. "The joint operation has started from Fatuahi to Raikotu in the Dili area. The operation is aimed at bringing Salsinha and his group to submit to justice alive, not dead." said Commander Paixao.

Lack of space as Petitioners' numbers increase: The numbers of the petitioners gathered in Aitarak Laran, Dili has increased to more than three hundred. However, there is not enough space for all the additional petitioners. As a result, some of the petitioners are camping on the veranda of the building and some are living under the tents provided to them.

Events of February 11 reconstructed: The Prosecutor General of the Republic (PGR) Longuinhos Monteiro said that events of February 11 have been reconstructed in an attempt to uncover more details of what happened. The Prosecutor-General said that the reconstruction shows that the incident was an organized act of Alfredo and his group.

RTL News Coverage

Man who attacked Horta surrenders: SRSG Khare said that one of the members of the armed group who attacked the residence of PR Ramos-Horta had voluntarily surrendered to the United Nations Police (UNPol) in Maubisse, Ainaro district on Monday (25/2). "I personally received the information this morning that one of the men had voluntarily submitted himself," said SRSG Khare. The SRSG said that the man's name was also listed in the arrest warrants. The General Prosecutor will investigate his involvement in the attacks of February 11.

Joint Operation rejects exchange of fire: The Operational Commander will use an alternative approach to bring the rebels to justice, even though the rebels' movements have been discovered in the western part of the country. The Operational Commander of the Joint Operation, Lieutenant Filomeno Paixao, said that the movement of Salsinha, Susar and others had been discovered, but the operation would not take any reckless action as the Joint Operation aimed at bringing Salsinha and his group to justice alive. However, he did warn that a physical confrontation would occur if the rebels did not submit themselves peacefully.

Print Coverage

UNMIT not responsible for 11 February incidents: The Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) Atul Khare said that UNMIT was not responsible for the attacks against PR Jose Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana Gusmao on Monday (11/2).

"This is a sovereign and independent nation. As stated in its constitution, Article 115/1.c, the responsibility for the security of Timor-Leste belongs to Timor-Leste. It is not a question that the international forces are here to provide the security or not. As this is a sovereign nation, the leaders should do something," said SRSG Khare in the UNMIT press conference on Monday (15/2) in UNMIT HQ, Dili.

SRSG said that Alfredo and his men were responsible for the incidents of February 11. "UNPol in here to work together to maintain law and order, not pursue those who carry weapons," said SRSG Khare. SRSG Khare also appealed to Salsinha and his group to submit themselves to justice. (STL)

SRSG - Alfredo responsible for 11 February: The Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) Atul Khare, said that the attacks against PR Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana Gusmao were the responsibility of Alfredo Reinado. "Alfredo and his men must take responsibility for what happened on February 11, 2008," said SRSG Khare in the UNMIT press conference on Monday (15/2) in UNMIT HQ, Dili.

SRSG Khare also said that further investigations were needed to uncover all the details of the attacks. "When I came back from New York, I asked that an investigation be conducted to see what was happening and what errors had been made in February 11 and how these can be improved," said SRSG Khare.

In answering a question as to why Alfredo was able to move freely without being detected by the ISF, SRSG Khare responded: "I think the question is better answered by the ISF. But I can respond. Some weeks ago, the PR himself met Alfredo. Discussions were also held between Alfredo and Minister Joao Goncalves and with other MPs. I still remember when Alfredo came down and met PR Horta in Palacio das Cinzas in December. It is wrong to say that Alfredo had no license to move around. Alfredo was not forbidden to move around the country and he did so and met with the leaders of the country." (DN)

UNMIT mandate extended for one more year: The Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) Atul Khare, said that the mandate of UNMIT has been extended for one more year as proposed by the United Nations Secretary-General after meeting with the Security Council. The SRSG also said that in the Security Council meeting, members strongly supported the way the Government of Timor-Leste and the opposition had dealt with the situation. (DN)

UN believes Salsinha will submit himself: The Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) Atul Khare believes that Gastao Salsinha and his group will submit themselves to justice. "I don't know whether Salsinha is going to submit himself or not, but I hope he does because the best way is submit to justice," said SRSG Khare on Monday (25/2) in the UNMIT press conference in UNMIT HQ Obrigado Barracks, Dili.

SRSG Khare also talked about the member of Salsinha's group who surrendered himself to UNPol in Maubisse, Ainaro District. "The man will now be produced before the courts," said SRSG Khare in the UNMIT press conference on Monday (15/2) in UNMIT HQ, Dili. "I want to emphasize the statements of the Acting President Fernando Lasama de Araujo and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao that those who submit themselves to justice will be treated with dignity." (DN)

Man who attacked Horta surrenders himself: One of the members of the armed group who attacked the residence of PR Ramos-Horta surrendered himself to police in Maubisse sub-district, Ainaro district on Monday (25/2). The Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) Atul Khare, said that the man was part of the group who attacked the residence of PR Ramos-Horta.

"This morning I got a phone call from a man who was involved in the attack against the residence of PR Horta on February 11. The man has submitted himself to PNTL and UNPol in Maubisse," said SRSG Khare. "I was really happy to hear this and I immediately asked the UNPol and PNTL Commander to go straight away to meet him in Maubisse and bring him to Dili."

SRSG Khare has also appealed to Salsinha and his group to submit themselves to the State. "I appeal to Salsinha and his group to submit themselves and cooperate with justice as this is the best way to solve the problems," said SRSG Khare. SRSG Khare also said that if petitioners want to come to Dili, they can ask for escorts from the UNPol and PNTL. (TP)

UNMIT mandate extended to 2009: The Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) Atul Khare informed the Acting President Fernando 'Lasama' de Araujo that the Security Council has decided to extend the UN Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) as proposed by Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon. SRSG Khare also said that the Security Council meeting, held on Thursday last week, went well and that SC members gave their support to the Timor-Leste Government, Parliament and the opposition party. (TP)

East Timor media monitoring

UNMIT - February 25, 2008

RTL News Coverage

Lasama appeals for petitioners to remain calm: The Acting President of the Republic, Fernando 'Lasama' de Araajo, accompanied by Vice Prime Minister Jose Luis Guterres and Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) Atul Khare, appealed to the petitioners to be patient and to resolve their problems peacefully. Acting PR Lasama said that the increase of numbers of the petitioners to 300 shows the petitioners are optimistic and confident that their problems can be resolved. SRSG Atul Khare further appealed to the petitioners to fight for development and poverty reduction rather than divisionism.

'State of emergency' extended: The Acting President of the Republic, Fernando 'Lasama' de Araujo, announced that the 'State of Siege' has been extended from February 23 to March 23 2008. Acting PR Lasama said that the 'State of Siege' was extended as state institutions are still jeopardized.

Australian Govt gives vehicles to PNTL: The Australian Government, through its Embassy in Timor-Leste, is providing 40 cars to the PNTL in order to support the work of the national police. The Operational Commander of PNTL Mateus Fernandes said that the support will allow the PNTL to work under any conditions to provide security throughout the country. "The PNTL is facing many logistical problems due to the lack of vehicles. This assistance by the Government of Australia will help the institution to work more effectively," said Commander Fernandes.

Print Coverage

PM demands arrests: In a speech made by Prime Minsiter Xanana Gusmco during the F-FDTL and PNTL military parade on Friday (22/2) in Dili, the PM said that it was time to arrest people who wanted to destroy the nation's unity. "I am asking all State institutions to support our forces by giving confidence to the F-FDTL and PNTL," said the Prime Minister. (DN)

'State of Siege' extended: The National Parliament officially approved on Friday (22/2) the extension of the 'State of Siege' for an additional period of thirty days. The curfew will be from 10pm to 6am every day from February 23 to March 23. The extension was proposed by the Government and authorized by the Acting President in consultation with the State Council and the Supreme Council of Defence and Security.

Fretilin MPs David Dias Ximenes and Cipriana Pereira protested the extension, claming that the nation does not need to be in a 'State of Siege' as there has been no major public disturbance to warrant it. The PUN member of NP, Fernanda Borges, also said that many people were unhappy with the first and second stages of the 'State of Emergency', and has asked that human rights be respected by the joint F-FDTL and PNTL operation. Prime Minister Gusmco defended the extension, arguing that the nation was still under threat from armed groups. (DN)

TMR - "We will look everywhere for Salsinha": The Commander of the F-FDTL and PNTL Joint Operation, Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak, has said that the Joint Operation will track down Salsinha and his group anywhere they are. Commander TMR said that even though the Joint Operation is ready to conduct the operation on Salsinha and his groups, he still hopes they will submit themselves to justice. (DN)

Lasama asks petitioners to come together: The Acting President of the Republic, Fernando 'Lasama' de Araujo, has asked the petitioners to gather in Ai-Tarak Laran in order to resolve their problems in the quickest manner possible. "I hope they all come to join the others here. I get daily information about the numbers of petitioners which has increased from 100 to 300. I believe that they will all come together," said Acting PR Lasama on Saturday (23/2). (STL)

Horta: no one should take revenge: President Jose Ramos-Horta has sent a message to the people of Timor-Leste through Acting President Fernando 'Lasama', saying that he wished all people in the country to live in peace and avoid any acts of vengeance. The message of the President was reported by Acting President Lasama during his visit to Ai-Tarak Laran to meet with the petitioners on Friday (22/2). (STL)

OP/ED: IDPs ready to return home: IDPs wanting to return home are waiting for assurances by the current government that they will be secure if they do so. "We have lived in these tents for two years now and are tired of it. We want to know that we can be safe to return home." said AbC-lio Fernandes, one of the IDPs from Bairopite village. (STL)

TMR - Salsinha's group never wastes time: The Commander of the F-FDTL Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak has officially launched the F-FDTL/PNTL Joint Operation to capture Salsinha and his group who attacked the residence of PR Ramos-Horta and ambushed PM Xanana on Monday (11/2). "Today I declare that the Joint Operation has begun and will pursue the rebels anywhere they are. Whoever hides or provides food or transport to Salsinha and his group will be included in this operation," said Commander TMT on Friday (22/2). (TP)

East Timor media monitoring

UNMIT - February 21, 2008

TVTL News Coverage

Lasama thanks US Ambassador: Acting President Fernando Lasama de Araujo has thanked the United States Government for providing three FBI officers to Timor-Leste to work with the Prosecutor General in investigating the events of 11 February. "I give my thanks to Ambassador Hans Klemm for the rapid response to the request by Timor-Leste to conduct deeper investigations into the assassination attempts against PR Ramos-Horta PM Xanana," said Acting President Lasama on Wednesday (20/2) in Palacio das Cinzas Caicoli, Dili.

Military operation against Salsinha cancelled: The Commander of the Defence Forces of Timor-Leste (F-FDTL), Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak (TMR), confirmed that the operation against Salsinha and his group has been cancelled as they have left Dili. Commander TMR said that further preparations are needed before continuing the operation. Commander TMR pointed out that that is was only this operation which was cancelled, and not the entire operation which is still continuing. "We have cancelled this operation. We know that they have walked away and we need to reassess before continuing the operation. It is useless to go to an empty place," said Commander TMR. (11/2). Public Ministry issued request letter to witnesses: The Public Ministry has issued a request letter to four civilians in relation to the assassination attempts against President JosA(c) Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao. The General Prosecutor, Longuinhos Monteiro, said the requests were based on the investigation conducted so far. To date, sixteen witnesses have given their statement to the Public Ministry. One of the witnesses has been placed under house arrest as they were involved directly in the conspiracy to commit the assassinations on 11 February.

International Secret Agents in TL: The General Prosecutor of Timor-Leste, Longuinhos Monteiro, has confirmed that three Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officers from the United States of America (USA) and five Australian Federal Police (AFP) officers have arrived in Dili to investigate the conspiracy and attempted assassinations against PR Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana Gusmao. "The Government has invited them, as Timor-Leste has no forensic capacity and no laboratories to analyse ballistic evidence," said Mr. Monteiro. Upon the request of the General Prosecutor, the President of Republic is also asking the Government and Australia to provide some crime and forensic investigators. The US Ambassador to Timor-Leste, Hans George Klemm, also confirmed that the US Government sent three FBI officers to help in the investigations. (STL)

RTL News Coverage

Ireland supports conflict resolution: The State Secretary for the Council of Ministers, Hermenegildo Pereira, confirmed that the Government of Ireland will assist Timor-Leste in the area of conflict resolution. Mr. Pereira said that the Irish Government would focus on education and human resource development. Ireland will send a delegate to Timor-Leste to be responsible for human resource development. "The visit is very important as Ireland is a guest and friend of Timor-Leste. As the Foreign Minster informed, Ireland has made a decision to widen its programs on foreign affairs to include specific areas, such as conflict resolution," said Mr. Pereira on Wednesday (20/2) in the Government Palace, Dili.

Military operation against Salsinha cancelled: The Commander of the Defence Forces of Timor-Leste (F-FDTL), Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak (TMR), confirmed that the operation against Salsinha and his group has been cancelled as they have left Dili. Commander TMR underlined further preparations are needed before continuing the operation. Commander TMR pointed out that that is was only this operation which was cancelled and that the whole investigation was still continuing. "We have cancelled this operation. We know that they have walked away and we need to reassess before continuing the operation. It is useless to go to an empty place," said Commander TMR. As the General Commander for the Joint Operation, Commander TMR had discussed the mechanisms of the operation with the National Police of Timor-Leste and coordinated with the International Stabilization Forces (ISF) and United Nations Police (UNPol.) (11/2).

18 people who stand against the 'State of Emergency' released: The Operational Commander of PNTL Mateus Fernandes said that the eighteen people arrested on Monday night for breaching the State of Emergency were released yesterday (20/2) after being detained for 72 hours. Commander Fernandes said there is no indication that the eighteen people were involved in crimes. The investigation shows that they were protesting against the decision of the Government to impose the "State Emergency." "They were released as there was no indication that they were involved in anything," said Commander Fernandes.

'State of emergency' targets Fretilin: The Fretilin Member of the National Parliament, Francisco Miranda Branco, has said that Fretilin believes the Government to be committing human rights violations against Fetilin as well as politically persecuting them. This statement was made in relation to the arrest of the former Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Jose Teixeira, in his residence in Taibisse, Dili by PNTL Task Forces. The arrest was conducted without an arrest warrant. "The Government has begun its political persecution and human rights violations. The arrest has surprised Fretilin and we consider it as political persecution against Fretilin," said Mr. Miranda on Wednesday (20/2) in Dili.

Print Coverage

Lasama thanks FBI: Acting President Fernando Lasama de Araujo has thanked the United States Government for providing three FBI officers to Timor-Leste to work with the Prosecutor General in investigating the events of 11 February. "I would like to make clear to the public those who are coming (FBI and AFP) are not part of an international commission. They are experts requested by the State of Timor-Leste to support the General Prosecutor in conducting the investigations," said Acting President Lasama on Wednesday (20/2) in Palacio das Cinzas Caicoli, Dili. (STL)

USA sends FBI to Timor-Leste: The General Prosecutor of Timor- Leste, Longuinhos Monteiro, has confirmed that three Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) officers from the United States of America have arrived in Dili to investigate the conspiracy and attempted assassinations against PR Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana Gusmao. Mr. Monteiro said that FBI will stay in Timor-Leste as long as they were requested to by the Public Ministry. (TP)

No more dialogue with Salsinha: National Parliament members have asked Gastao Salsinha and his group to submit themselves to justice as they are the perpetrators of the problems being faced in the country. MPs have also given their support to the coordination between the F-FDTL, PNTL and ISF to pursue Salsinha and his groups. "The State is sacred. The position of Fretilin is that we will no longer pursue dialogue with the people who want to destroy the State," said Fretilin member of NP David Dias Ximenes.

ISF starts operation in Manufahi: The International Stabilisation Force (ISF), comprised of Australian and New Zealand Forces, on Monday (18/2) started their operation to search for the suspects involved in the assassination attempts against PR Horta and PM Xanana. Even though the population is uneasy with the presence of the international forces, they are happy with the State of Emergency and know that the ISF is protecting them by providing security. "The 'State of Emergency' could bring us peace in this nation," said Almerio Oliveira, a Youth Council member of Manufahi in Manufahi. (TP)

F-FDTL and PNTL implement "State of Emergency' professionally: The Deputy President of National Parliament, Maria Paixao, has observed that the F-FDTL and PNTL have conducted themselves professionally during the implementation of the State of Emergency. (DN)

Military operations against Salsinha cancelled: The Commander of the Defence Forces of Timor-Leste (F-FDTL), Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak (TMR), confirmed that the operation against Salsinha and his group has been cancelled. "We have cancelled this operation. Cancelling does not mean that the overall operation has stopped." said Commander TMR on Wednesday (20/2) in Palacio das Cinzas Caicoli, Dili after briefing the Acting President Fernando Lasama. Regarding the extension of the "State of Emergency," TMR said that any extension is the decision of the Council of Ministers. (DN)

East Timor media monitoring

UNMIT - February 20, 2008

TVTL News Coverage

Alfredo's advisor under house arrest: The advisor to Alfredo Reinado, Angelina Pires, has been placed under house arrest after being arrested on Sunday (17/2) on conspiracy and attempted assassination charges. 'I cannot comment on the Prosecutor's eyewitness as I respect the dignity of the suspect," said the international prosecutor Felismino Cardoso.

Fretilin: Xanana's statement too provocative: The Fretilin member of NP Inacio Moreira said that the statement made by PM Xanana Gusmao to the public was very provocative. "The message of PM Xanana last night is going to exacerbate the situation during the 'State of Emergency," said Mr. Moreira. Separately, MPs from CNRT, UNDERTIM and PSD said that they all agree with the Prime Minister's statement. "UNDERTIM agrees with the statement of the Prime Minister. If possible the 'State of Emergency' should be extended to 2012 until the nation becomes stable and secure," said Cornelio "L7" Gama.

RTL News Coverage

18 people arrested for violations against 'State of Emergency': The Operational Commander of the National Police of Timor-Leste (PNTL), Mateus Fernandes, confirmed that 18 people were arrested for violating the 'State of Emergency.' Police have also seized fifty Rama ambons (metal arrows) and a sword from one suspect in his residence in Bidau, Dili.

Commander Fernandes said that more than a hundred people attempted to destabilize the situation in the areas of Vila Verde and Bairopite by beating iron against metal gates- usually done to warn of impending trouble. The police responded immediately by capturing 17 suspects and detaining them in the Dili District Police station for further investigation.

"There are some incidents in the capital Dili, but the police attended immediately and the situation remains calm... PNTL has arrested some people who did not respect the 'State of Emergency' and who were also involved in the assassination attempts against PR Jose Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana Gusmao," said Commander Fernandes. The security situation in Dili however remains calm with no significant security incidents.

Alfredo's advisor under house arrest: The advisor to Alfredo Reinado, Angelina Pires, has been placed under house arrest after being arrested on Sunday (17/2) on conspiracy and attempted assassination charges. Prosecutor Felismino Cardoso said on Tuesday (19/2) that Angelina's case is an important one as it is relates to the attempted assassinations against the leaders of the country. Angelina Pires was one of the first suspects interviewed.

NP has no law to guide 'State of Emergency': The Acting President of the National Parliament (NP) has affirmed that there is no law guiding the Government on when it needs to report to the NP on the 'State of Emergency.' The Acting NP President Maria Paixao said that the National Parliament is currently working on a law about the State of Emergency. "There is no law that outlines the deadline for reporting on the 'State of Emergency.' We could adopt some from other countries," said Ms. Paixao in response to demands made by MPs for the Government to provide a report on the first State of Emergency. Ms. Maria appealed to the MPs to give adequate time to the Government to prepare its report.

Fretilin demands medical officers for Horta: Fretilin is forcing the Government to provide medical officers to Darwin to follow the process of PR Ramos-Horta's medical treatment. "The Government has to have a medical team in Australia to follow the treatment process every day and not just wait for information provided by the Australian doctors. This is our responsibility," said Fretilin member of NP, Antoninho Bianco on Tuesday (19/2) in NP, Dili.

ETCRN - Timor-Leste remains in crisis: The East Timor Crisis Reflection Network (ETCRN) said that Timor-Leste continues to be in crisis as there is no commitment from the Timorese people to resolve problems that too easily become politicised by individual and group interests.

The Director of ETCRN Jose Caetano Guterres has asked the political parties to contribute to resolving the nation's problems by creating unity between them and the public. Related to the assassination attempts against PR Jose Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana Gusmao, Mr Guterres said that the attempted assassinations show that the presence of the International Stabilization Forces (ISF) and the United Nations Police (UNPol) in Timor-Leste could not guarantee security for Timor-Leste.

Mr. Guterres further asked the National Parliament to invite the ISF and UNPol to give their statements on their failure to establish security. Mr. Guterres is also proposing to establish a national independent commission to investigate the events of 11 February

Print Coverage

SRSG and Lasama discuss arrest mechanisms: The Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Timor-Leste, Atul Khare, met with the Acting President of the Republic, Fernando Lasama de Araujo, on Monday (18/2) to discuss possible mechanisms for arresting Salsinha and his group. "My meeting with the Acting President was to see how we can arrest those who were involved in the crimes. We focused on certain mechanisms. I also talked to PM Xanana this morning on how to make the arrests more effective by involving the F-FDTL, PNTL or anyone else," said SRSG Khare. (TP)

Pires under house arrest: Angelina Pires, accused of conspiring with Alfredo's group to assassinate PR Jose Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana Gusmao, has been placed under house arrest by the Dili District Court. "I cannot comment on the Prosecutor's eyewitness as I respect the dignity of the suspect," said the international prosecutor Felismino Cardoso. Angelina was arrested on Sunday (17/2). (TP)

Fretilin - Xanana's statement provocative: The Fretilin member of NP Estanislau da Silva said that the statement of PM Xanana Gusmao to the public was a provocative message which would worsen the current situation. Mr. da Silva said that the statement of PM Xanana was also insulting to other people. "The message of PM Xanana last night is going to exacerbate the situation as the message violates the 'State of Emergency' which prohibits any political activity," said Mr. da Silva. "But Xanana is engaging in political activity in order to attack others." Mr. da Silva has also asked PM Xanana to amend his statement for the sake of national consensus. Separately, MPs from CNRT, UNDERTIM and PSD said that they all agree with the Prime Minister's statement. "CNRT does not see the message as being provocative. As the Chief of the Government, he has to say whatever he has to create calm during this State of Emergency," said Eduardo de Deus Barreto. (TP)

UNPOL - possible to arrest Salsinha and his men: The UNPol Spokesperson, Benjamin Osuji, has said that the coordination between UNPol, PNTL, F-FDTL and ISF would make it possible to arrest GastC#o Salsinha and the other 17 members of his group who were involved in the events of 11 February. "The UNPol Commissioner in Timor-Leste, Rodolfo Tor, has said that the suspects involved in the incidents should be arrested. Timor- Leste's authorities, including the political parties, are also demanding the arrests," said Mr Osuji on Tuesday (19/2). (DN)

Alfredo sent a letter to the UN SG: Alfredo Reinado once sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon claiming that he and his group were victims under Fretilin's rule. The nine-page letter was sent on 27 November 2007, two weeks before the visit of the Secretary-General to Timor-Leste. He wrote that he was only following his duties when the fighting occurred in mid 2006. He also wrote that as the Commander of the military police, he had a right to protect the nation when the 'State of Law' changed into the 'State of Dictatorship.' (STL)

Joint Operation Commander's meeting held: For the first time, the Commander of the Defence Force of Timor-Leste (F-FDTL) Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak has led a joint meeting with PNTL. TMR acted as the General Commander of the Joint Operation of F-FDTL and PNTL. The meeting was held to discuss operational strategies to be used during the 'State of emergency' to track down Alfredo's men and Salsinha's group. (STL)

IDPs to remain in place: In relation to the recent attacks against the leaders of the country, IDPs are refusing to return home claiming that they will wait in camps until the situation normalizes and becomes secure. Afonso Moniz, one of the IDPs in Obrigado Barrack Camp, said that the 11 February events have made him afraid to return home. "Even though the Government is pursuing various avenues to make us return home, we insist on remaining in the camps," said Mr. Moniz. (STL)

East Timor media monitoring

UNMIT - February 19, 2008

TVTL News Coverage

Path to dialogue closed: The Acting President of Republic Fernando Lasama de Araujo has said that the path to dialogue has been closed by the petitioners and Alfredo's men. "The assassination attempts against PR Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana closed the way to dialogue," said the Acting President during a press conference held on Monday (18/2) in the Palacio das Cinzas. "There is only one path now and that is for Salsinha and his men to submit themselves to justice." The meeting was attended by PM Xanana, F-FDTL Commander TMR, ISF Commander James Baker, UNPol and PNTL.

NP to force report on 1st 'State of Emergency': The CNRT member of MP, Cecilio Caminha, said that: "The government has to report on the first stage of the State Emergency before approval is given for the next stage." said Mr Caminha. "This is because many MPs were insulted during the first stage," said Cecilio Caminha in the NP. "I and my friends are really disappointed with the implementation of the 'State of Emergency.' In the 'State of Emergency' there are no rules that permit the security apparatus to attack civilian houses at night, and to forbid people from holding meetings and demonstrations," said Mr. Caminha on Monday (18/2) in the National Parliament in Dili.

TMR - the public is hiding Alfredo's men: The Commander of the F-FDTL Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak has said that some members of the public are hiding Alfredo's group somewhere in Camea and Becora until Dare. "Many people were nervous and tense when the F-FDTL conducted their operations in the areas of Camea, Becora, Sabraca laran to Mota Ulun. This means that they are hiding Alfredo's men in their houses," said Commander TMR during a press conference on Saturday (16/2) in Hera, Dili. Commander TMR also said that the F-FDTL will check the houses of those who are suspected of hiding Alfredo's men.

RTL News Coverage

Government involves F-FDTL in joint operations: The Government has commissioned the Commander of the F-FDTL Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak to create a joint command between the F-FDTL and the PNTL for security operations. PM Xanana Gusmao said that the security operation is being implemented under the President's Decree of the 'State of Emergency'. The joint operation will be coordinated with UNPol and the ISF.

Lao Hamutuk appeals over Greater Sun Rise: The NGO, Lao Hamutuk, has appealed to the Government to prepare adequate human resources before starting explorations on the Greater Sun Rise. Santina Soares, the Representative of Lao Hamutuk, said that while gas in the Timor Sea will benefit East Timorese, the judicial system, environmental law and capacity building should first be prepared. "Working on this kind of project requires realistic plans and sound preparations before the project can commence," said Ms. Soares on Monday (18/2) in the Memorial Hall, Dili.

Print Coverage

Afonso - Community has to help PNTL: The Commander of the National Police of Timor-Leste (PNTL), Afonso de Jesus, has asked all communities to collaborate with the authorities to ensure calm and peace within the country. "Community members must have a strong collaboration with the PNTL in order to guarantee the security of the country," said Commander Afonso on Saturday (16/2) in Vela Verde, Dili. Separately, the Deputy Commander of PNTL Dili District, Delfim da Silva, said that the PNTL will practice a zero tolerance policy for those who commit crimes. (STL)

Alfredo's advisor detained: The General Prosecutor has identified an eye witness to the assassination attempts on PR Jose Ramos- Horta and PM Xanana Gusmco in Metiaut on Monday (11/2). "From the seven eye witnesses we have called, one of them is considered a suspect. As a civilian, she had information but failed to provide it to the proper authorities," said the General Prosecutor Longuinhos Monteiro on Monday (18/2) in Caicoli, Dili. The suspect is detained in Becora Jail and will partake in a hearing process this afternoon in the Dili District Court. (STL)

The 'State of Emergency' misconduct: A CNRT MP, Cecilio Caminha, said that the 'State of Emergency' has been corrupted by the Government. "I and my friends are really disappointed with the implementation of the 'State of Emergency.' In the 'State of Emergency' there are no rules that permit the security apparatus to attack civilian houses at night, and to forbid people from holding meetings and demonstrations," said Mr. Caminha on Monday (18/2) in the National Parliament in Dili. Mr. Caminha also said that United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) and the International Stabilization Forces (ISF) failed in their responsibility to provide security for the country as internal security fell under the jurisdiction of the United Nations Police, and the external security under the jurisdiction of ISF. (STL)

Lasama issues ultimatum to arrest Salsinha: The Acting President of the Republic Fernando Lasama de Araujo has asked the F-FDTL, the PNTL and the ISF to arrest Gastao Salsinha and his group in the next thirty days. "As Acting President, I am requesting that you bring them to court within the next thirty days," Mr Lasama on Monday (18/2) in Palacio das Cinzas Caicoli, Dili. "There is no military that wants to assassinate its Supreme Commander, the President and chief of the Government." The Acting President also said that the arrest warrants were not issued because of Salsinha's role as the petitioner's Spokesperson, but because of his involvement in the 11 February events. Mr Lasama also said that the petitioners have ruined their chance to have constructive dialogue due to the assignation attempts on the lives of PR Jose Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana Gusmao. (STL)

NP accepts F-FDTL involvement in operations: The involvement of the F-FDTL in the ongoing operations to arrest suspects of the assassination attempts on PR Jose Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana Gusmao has been considered a positive move by the National Parliament. The Fretilin member of NP David Dias Ximenes said that the involvement of the F-FDTL in this operation fals within the constitution of Timor-Leste. "In our constitution, F-FDTL and PNTL guarantee the security and stability of the country when the nation is in a 'State of Emergency," said Mr. Dias Ximenes. MP Duarte Nunes said that the involvement of F-FDTL could provide support to the police, the ISF and UNPol. "Even though ISF has modern weapons, they are not familiar with the terrain, so they could work together well," said Mr. Nunes. (STL)

Alfredo's followers hide in private homes: The Commander of the F-FDTL Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak said that this is the first time the Government of Timor-Leste has allowed the F-FDTL to be involved in an operation such as the one to track Alfredo's men as previous operations were handled by the ISF. Commander TMR said that on Monday night (11/2) Alfredo's men were suspected of being near the Becora River and Dare. "Some people are hiding them," said Commander TMR during a press conference on Saturday (16/2) in Hera. The Commander also said that F-FDTL will check the houses of those suspected of hiding Alfredo's men. (STL)

PM - We will work to fulfil people's demands: In response to calls from some members of the government to hold early elections, Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao responded that the Government's main priority was to continue to work towards fulfilling the demands of the population. The PM also appealed to people to support the military operation to find Alfredo's men and Gastao Salsinha's group. "I will not allow any armed group or political group to destroy this nation," said PM Xanana. (STL)

Arsenio - AMP responsible for Metiaut incident: The Fretilin member of NP Arsenio Bano is claiming that the Government of the Alliance Majority in Parliament (AMP) bears responsibility for the assassination attempts against PR Jose Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana. "I think the Government of AMP should take responsibility for the incidents on Monday 11 February as the nation's security is coordinated by them," said Mr. Bano in the National Parliament on Monday (18/2) in Dili.

Mr. Bano said that as a sovereign nation, security and defence falls directly under State responsibility. He also said that if the government is authorising F-FDTL to arrest Alfredo and Salsinha's groups, then they cannot make the claim that the UN is responsible for the nation's security. Mr Bano has further questioned whether the International Commission of Investigation into the 11 February events will be established or not. "Alfredo should be alive to give his testimony in court regarding his accusations that PM Xanana is the author of 2006 crisis," said Mr. Bano. (DN)

East Timor media monitoring

UNMIT - February 18, 2008

RTL News Coverage

PNTL operation in Baucau: The National Police (PNTL) of Baucau District are conducting an investigation into the arson attempt on the Baucau Cathedral which took place at 10pm last Thursday night. The suspects have not as yet been identified. One of the victims, Filomeno da Costa, said that the incident caused no injuries.

F-FDTL launches military operation: The Commander of the Defence Forces of Timor-Leste (F-FDTL), Brigadier General Taur Matan, has launched a military operation against the 17 people suspected to be involved in the assassination attempts against PR Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana on Monday (11/2) in Metiaut, Dili. Commander Taur Matan Ruak said in a press conference on Friday (15/2) in Hera, Dili that he believes people in the area of Camea to be hiding the suspects. As such, a checkpoint will be established in this area.

Commander Taur Matan Ruak is also asking political leaders to put the nation's interest first in order to solve the existing problems. He further appealed to youths not to hide members of the armed group as this would pose risk to themselves and to the nation. The F-FDTL military operation has been sanctioned by the State to arrest suspects involved in the attacks against PR Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana.

Print Coverage

TMR appeals to Salsinha: The Commander of Defence Forces of Timor-Leste (F-FDTL), Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak, has made an appeal to Gastao Salsinha and his group to contribute towards establishing peace and stability in the nation. "Some people have been hiding and protecting them. This is not a good solution and poses a risk to them and for the country," said the Brigadier General in a press conference on Saturday (15/2). I am not asking them to surrender, but to contribute to creating peace and stability." Separately, Salsinha said that his wished every person in Timor-Leste to live in peace. "We want every person in Timor-Leste to live in peace and to have justice with no fear. This is what we are hoping for," said Salsinha. (TP)

10 identified in Alfredo's group: The General Prosecutor of the Republic (PGR), Longuinhos Monteiro, said that based upon the investigation conducted to date, ten suspects have been identified as having been involved in the attack on PR Jose Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana on Monday (11/2) in Metiaut, Dili. PGR Monteiro said that when the investigation process ends, the suspects will be called to partake in the judicial process as civilians. (TP)

Australia rejects Stratford's opinion: The Australian Government has rejected the opinion of an American analyst who said that the February 11 incident provided an opportunity for Australia to prevent Timor-Leste from achieving full self determination. The Australian Ambassador in Timor-Leste, Peter Heyward, rejected the statement on behalf of the Australian Government. "I would like to explain that Stratford's group is a private group that does not represent the Government of America," said Ambassador Heyward. Ambassador Heyward also said that Australia is a long- time partner and friend of Timor-Leste and will continue be so in the future. At present, Australian assistance to Timor-Leste focuses on the security sector, justice, basic works and technical, vocational and financial management. (TP)

Fretilin will not use opportunity to bring AMP down: The Secretary General of Fretilin, Mari Alkatirid stated that Fretilin does not want to take advantage of the current situation to try and weaken the Government of the Alliance of Majority in Parliament (AMP). "The assassination attempts on PR Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana are acts against the state. We are standing together with the state as the historical party who struggled for the people and for this country," said Mr. Alkatiri. Mr. Alkatiri also said that even though some people attempted to bring down the Government during the 2006 crisis, he would not take the same path. (TP)

F-FDTL involved in capturing Salsinha's group: The Government has requested the that F-FDTL and the International Stabilization Forces (ISF) work with the National Police of Timor-Leste (PNTL) and United Nations Police (UNPol) in operations to pursue and capture the men involved in the assassination attempts on PR Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana. The Commander of the Defence Forces of Timor-Leste (F-FDTL), Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak, said in a press conference on Friday (15/2) in Hera, Dili that this was the first time the Government had involved F-FDTL in the operation.

"This is the first time the State is allowing F-FDTL to carry out the operation. This could be conducted alone or with others," said Commander Matan Ruak. Commander Matan Ruak also appealed to Salsinha's group to join their friends in the gathering place of Ai-Tarak Laran to start a new phase in gaining the public's trust. "Today, I give my support to those who have been in the gathering place... AAll should go to Ai-Tarak Laran to join their friends," said Commander Matan Ruak. (STL)

Horta and Alfredo trapped: During the past week, new facts have emerged regarding the assassination attempts on PR Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana. One such fact has been the revelation that a Peace Agreement between PR Ramos-Horta and Alfredo was held Maubisse in January 13, 2007 in an old Portuguese castle. The Minister of Economy, Joao Gonsalves, who was a participant at the meeting, said the meeting lasted three hours. Minister Gonsalves said that the meeting was convened by The Swiss Humanitarian Centre of Dialogue and that the agreement reached was that Alfredo would be under house arrest and that New Zealand troops would provide security for him. However, on Monday morning (11/2) Alfredo and his men attacked the residence of the president. "The only explanation I have is that Alfredo was being influenced by a third party. Both Ramos and Alfredo were trapped," said Mr. Gonsalves. (STL)

Horta starts speaking: The Acting President Fernando Lasama de Araujo confirmed that that PR Ramos-Horta has started to speak a little and has tried to contact his family in Timor-Leste. "This may bring hope to all Timorese that our President has been saved by God," said Acting President Lasama. (DN)

Rudd – Australia to strengthen East Timor's democracy: Australian Prime Minister Kevin Ruud said that the assassination attempts on PR Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana have reaffirmed the commitment of the International Stabilisation Forces to strengthen democracy in Timor-Leste. "You all know that we in Australia stand with you and that we will remain a good friend to Timor-Leste in every situation," said PM Ruud. PM Rudd also said that the Australian Government wants to be a long-term partner of Timor-Leste in the security sector, economic sector and development amongst others. (DN)

Lasama – good for Salsinha to submit weapons: The Acting President Fernando Lasama de Araujo said that he has asked Gastsao Salsinha and his armed group to submit their weapons and themselves to justice. "Currently, there is no other way to solve the problems. We have tried to start a dialogue, but that ended with the incidents of February 11. So, we are asking Gastsao Salsinha and his armed group who are in the mountains to submit their weapons and themselves to the justice," said President Lasama. (DN)

East Timor media monitoring

UNMIT - February 14, 2008

TVTL News Coverage

NP President appeals for national unity: The President of the National Parliament, Fernando de Araujo Lasama, has appealed to the public to create national unity by respecting the nation's institutions. He has also demanded a thorough investigation into the assassination attempt on PR Jose Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana Gusmao. "We all know that there was an attempt on the life of PR Ramos-Horta on 11 Monday...I appeal to the nation to remain unified and reaffirm my confidence in the nation's institutions...I guarantee that the cooperation between state institutions and all people will create a normal situation in this country...Timor-Leste would like to invite foreign investigators to conduct an investigation into the assassination attempts," said Mr Lasama.

PR Ramos-Horta no longer in coma: The Minister of Foreign Affairs Zacarias da Costa said PR Ramos-Horta is no longer in a coma after receiving surgery in the Royal Darwin Hospital."The doctors have taken out the rest of the bullets lodged in his spine. The doctors say that the President will still need to stay in the hospital for three or four more days," said Mr da Costa.

Alfredo's case put to rest: The General Prosecutor Longuinhos Monteiro said that the case of Alfredo Reinado has been archived given that he is dead, but that the case of his group is still active.

Alfredo's father appeals to youth: The body of Alfredo Reinado and his man has been released to his family upon the decision of the Government through the General prosecutor, Longuinhos Monteiro. "Alfredo is dead. What he has done is buried with him. As a father and a family man, I appeal to all youths, sympathizers and lovers who follow him to remain calm and to avoid problems," said Alfredo's father, Victor Alves.

RTL News Coverage

Third surgery for PR: The Minister of Foreign Affairs Zacarias da Costa said PR Ramos-Horta is no longer in a coma after receiving surgery in the Royal Darwin Hospital." "The doctors have taken out the rest of the bullets lodged in his spine. The doctors say that the President will still need to stay in the hospital for three or four more days," said Mr da Costa. Mr. da Costa also said that while the condition of the President is stable, he requires further medical attention as one of his lungs has been shot.

18 suspects identified: The General Prosecutor Longuinhos Monteiro said that the Public Ministry has identified eighteen preliminary suspects on the attack against PR Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana Gusmao on Monday (11/2)."Eighteen people have been identified- they were coming with Alfredo to attack PR Ramos- Horta in his residence in Metiaut. The names of the suspects will be released after discussions with the tribunal," said Mr. Monteiro in a press conference on Wednesday (13/2) in Caicoli, Dili.

Reinado and Leopoldino's bodies released: "Alfredo has died. What he has done is buried with him. As a father and family member, I appeal to all the youth, sympathizers and lovers who follow him to remain calm and avoid problems." said Alfredo's father, Victor Alves.

Fretilin demands international investigation: Fretilin member of NP Francisco Miranda Branco is demanding the creation of an Independent International Commission of Investigation into the attempted assassination on PR Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana Gusmao on Monday (11/2). "An Independent International Commission of Investigation should be established to guarantee its impartiality involving neutral nations as we need the results of the investigation to be impartial, credible and independent," stated Mr. Branco on Wednesday (13/2). Mr. Branco also stated that for his part, he will demand that UNMIT and ISF shoulder the responsibility for attack as the nation's security is their responsibility. Mr. Branco further appealed all people to support the government to solve the nation's problems.

Print media coverage

SRSG – UNMIT responsible for security: The Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) in Timor-Leste, Atul Khare, said that while the security provided to the residence of the President was the responsibility of the F-FDTL, the security outside the residence was the responsibility of the police, under the UN. The SRSG also said that PR Ramos-Horta has requested that F-FDTL provide security to his house. "This is a sovereign state, and as such, UNMIT respects the decisions made," said SRSG Khare on Wednesday (13/2) in UNMIT HQ Caicoli, Dili. (TP)

UNMIT supports independent commission: The Special Representative of Secretary General (SRSG) in Timor-Leste, Atul Khare said that for his part, he agrees and supports the establishment of an International Commission of Investigation (ICI). "I am in favor of transparency and accountability. If there is request from the authorities of Timor-Leste to establish an independent commission, I will support it" said SRSG Khare on the UNMIT press briefing on Wednesday (13/2). The SRSG also stated the need to renew efforts to implement the results and recommendations of the Independent Commission of Inquiry report into the 2006 crisis. (TP)

Lasama: armed civilians should submit themselves: The Acting President of the Republic, Fernando Lasama, has made an appeal to the criminals involved in the attacks on PR Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana Gusmao to immediately submit themselves to justice. "I appeal to my civilian East Timorese colleagues who are carrying weapons to voluntarily submit their weapon and themselves to the state and to justice," said Mr Lasama on his return from Portugal on Wednesday (13/2). Mr. Lasama also agreed to an international commission of investigation on the attacks."I want a deep investigation into the attempted assassinations. Timor-Leste will invite international experts to provide support and to investigate these matters. I appeal to the nation to remain unified and reaffirm my confidence in the nation's institutions ... I guarantee that the cooperationn between state institutions and all people will create a normal situation in this country," said Mr Lasama. (TP)

Fretilin refutes accusations of backing Alfredo: The Secretary- General of Fretilin Mari Alkatiri has totally rejected claims that Fretilin had backed Alfredo Reinado and was planning to assassinate President Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao. After the attacks on the President and Prime Minister, an anonymous email was circulated accusing Fretilin of being behind the assassination attempts. "I am always blamed when something wrong happens in this country," said Mr Alkatiri. "But I do not let this worry me. I know the people who are doing this- they are people who used to support Alfredo. Because he has died, they are now trying to lay the blame on others."

Fretilin NP member, Francisco Miranda, also said the attacks should be investigated through an Independent International Commission of Inquiry. Fretilin is also demanding that the State Secretary of Security, Francisco Guterres, and the State Secretary of Defense, Julio Thomas Pinto take responsibility for the attacks. Furthermore, Fretilin wants UNMIT, UNPol and ISF to provide an explanation as to why they were unable to detect and prevent the attempt. (TP)

Alfredo's father appeals to youths: The National Hospital has released the bodies of Alfredo Reinado and Leopoldino to their families yesterday afternoon after the General Prosecutor issued a letter of release. "Alfredo has died. What he has done is buried with him. As a father and family man, I appeal to all the youth, sympathizers and lovers who follow him to remain calm and avoid problems," said Alfredo's father, Victor Alves. Alfredo Reinado's body will be buried today after a mass ceremony. (TP and DN)

Government provides security for Alfredo's funeral: PM Xanana Gusmao, accompanied by the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) in Timor-Leste, Atul Khare, and by Alfredo's father Victor Alves, said that the government would provide security for the funeral of Alfredo. The Prime Minister also said that the Government would not allow anyone desecrate Alfredo's grave. (DN and TP)

18 suspects identified: The General Prosecutor Longuinhos Monteiro said that the Public Ministry has identified eighteen preliminary suspects for the attacks of the PR Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana Gusmao on Monday (11/2). Mr. Monteiro said that the names of the suspects could not be released as the investigation was still underway. Arrest warrants have not been issued yet as they are still being processed. (STL and TP)

ISF fail to detect Alfredo: The CNRT member of NP, Cecilio Caminha, questioned why the State had requested International Stabilization Forces (ISF) members when current ISF members had failed to detect the movements of Alfredo Reinado. "ISF fails to protect PR Ramos-Horta and PM Xanana. Are they incompetent, or were they just insufficient in numbers? The NP has to evaluate this," said Mr. Caminha on Wednesday (13/2) in the National Parliament. The ISF Commander Brigadier General James Baker has responded that it was not ISF's mandate to provide security for the President's residence.

F-FDTL Commander Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak said that UNPol and PNTL should bear the responsibility for the attacks. He also criticized the presence of ISF which did not detect the movements of the armed group into Dili. "This requires an international investigation as the district roads are controlled by the ISF," said Commander Matan Ruak.

"Stage of Emergency" extended: PM Xanana Gusmao has extended the Stage of Emergency for a further ten days. In his national message, PM Xanana has appealed to all people, especially those who are in Dili, to contribute to the security and stability of the country.

East Timor media monitoring

UNMIT - February 12, 2008

TVTL News Coverage

Alfredo's group shoots the President: President Jose Ramos-Horta received gunshot wounds during an attack led by Alfredo Reinado's group yesterday morning at 6.15am in the President's home in Metiaut, Dili. The President was evacuated to the International Stabilisation Forces' (ISF) clinic to receive medical treatment. During a Press Conference held at the Government Palace on Monday (11/2), Prime Minister Xanana Gusmco confirmed that the President was in a stable condition despite his serious injuries. "The President was wounded in his arm and stomach. He is in a stable condition, but is still unconscious. He will have further treatment in Darwin, Australia after he returns to consciousness." PM Xanana also said that the incident happened when the President went back to his home after hearing shots being fired. Alfredo Reinado and one of his men were fatally shot during the attack and have since been evacuated to the moratorium in the national hospital.

In another attack occurring at 7.30am the same day, the convoy of PM Xanana was ambushed by armed groups while he was on his way to the office. Two members of the PM's convoy received minor injuries and the PM's car was damaged. Later that morning, at approximately 9am, the PM's family was evacuated to the UN Portuguese Formed Police Unit (FPU) headquarters. "We consider this incident as a serious attempt against the State," said PM Xanana at the press conference. PM Xanana has appealed for all citizens to remain calm in order to ensure security and stability in the capital.

The press conference was also attended by the Acting President, Vicente Guterres, General Prosecutor Longuinhos Monteiro, F-FDTL Commander Brigadier Gen Taur Matan Ruak, PNTL Commander- Designated Afonso de Jesus and ISF Commander James Baker.

RTL News Coverage

Guterres appeals for calm: The Acting President of the National Parliament, Vicente Guterres, is appealing for all people to remain calm and not to panic in the wake of attacks made against the President on Monday (11/2) in Metiaut, Dili. Attacks are against the State: Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao said that the attacks on President Ramos-Horta and himself are tantamount to an attack against the nation. "We consider this incident as a great attempt against the State. But the State will not permit this to happen," said PM Xanana. PM Xanana also said that the Government would take any steps necessary to ensure that citizens' rights are protected and people are secure. He added that security would be provided in vulnerable areas.

F-FDTL, ISF, UNPol and PNTL provide maximum security in Metiaut: The F-FDTL, ISF, UNPol and PNTL are to provide maximum security in the President's residence in Metiaut, Dili, in the wake of attacks led by Alfredo Reinado on Monday (11/2). The attacks resulted in injuries to the President and in the death of Alfredo and one of his men. ISF and UNPol are not allowing local villagers, including the media, to move around in the area. Operational Commander of PNTL appeals for calm: The PNTL Operational Commander is appealing to all people to be calm in the wake of attacks against President Ramos-Horta on Monday (11/2) in Metiaut Dili.

Print News converge

Horta injured, Alfredo dead: The President of the Republic and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Jose Ramos-Horta has received gunshot wounds to his arm and stomach during a violent showdown with Alfredo Reinado yesterday morning at the President's house. Alfredo and one of his group members, Leopoldino, were killed during the cross fire with F-FDTL members. One F-FDTL member, Tanente Celestinho Gama, also received injuries. Alfredo's group also attacked Prime Minsiter Xanana Gusmao as he was driving with his convoy to the office. One shot was fired at a tire of one of the cars. There were no injuries to the PM or any member of his convoy.

In a Press Conference held yesterday at Obrigado Barracks, the Acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Finn Reske-Nielsen, said that investigations into the shooting incidents were ongoing. He did however confirm that Alfredo was dead.

Concerning the attack on the PM, Mr Reske-Nielsen said that it was still unclear who had orchestrated the attack. However, according to Timor Post sources, the person behind the attack was the Petitioner's Spokesperson Salsinha Gastao.

The Prime Minister has appealed to the population to remain calm and given assurances that the situation is under control. (TP)

Dom Alberto and Xanana appeal for calm: The Bishop of Dili, Alberto Ricardo, has joined Prime Minister Xanana Gusumao in appealing to the general population to remain calm after yesterday's attacks. The Bishop has asked that people not engage in activities which may exacerbate the situation. "I appeal to all people in the country to remain calm, and not contribute to the problems or to provoke the population," said the Bishop.

In a Press Conference held yesterday at Obrigado Barracks, the Acting Special Representative of the Secretary-General, Finn Reske-Nielsen, also appealed for calm: "I appeal to all people to work towards peace and would ask that the media ensure that all reports are accurate," said Mr Reske-Nielsen. Also at the Press Conference was the Deputy UNPol Commissioner Hermanprit Singh. In response to a question concerning the possible link between the shooting incident and the recent handover of responsibility from the Untied Nations Police to the PNTL, Mr Singh responded that he did not believe there to be any link.

In another statement, Fretilin's Secretary-General Dr Mari Alkatiri has condemned the attacks on the President and the Prime Minister. "Fretilin is shocked at the attacks," said Mr Alkatiri. "We are also surprised that the shooting happened at a time when the President had almost reached political consensus on how to deal with the problems peacefully." (TP)

Australians to increase troops in TL: Australia will send extra troops and police to Timor-Leste in the wake of the recent attacks on the President and Prime Minister. The Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, has expressed deep shock at the attacks. He said that the decision to send more troops was based on the results of meetings held yesterday between the Government and the national security council. Prime Minister Rudd is also planning to visit Timor-Leste in the near future. (TP)

Bodyguards save Xanana: The six bodyguards of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao saved the PM from receiving any injuries in yesterday's attack on the PM by Alfredo Reinado's group. One of the bodyguards, Jose Soares, said that "when Aflredo's group attacked the PM's car, four of the bodyguards removed the PM from the line of attack." Alfredo's group is blaming the attack on Salsinha Gastao, the Petitioner's Spokesperson. (TP)

Vicente Guterres takes on President's role: The Vice President of the National Parliament, Vicente Guterres, has become the interim Prime Minister, following yesterday's attack on President Jose Ramos-Horta. Following the constitution, the President of the National Parliament becomes acting President if required to do so. However, as the President of the NP is currently away, the position goes to the Vice President. (TP)

America condemns attack on PR and PM: The Untied States Government has strongly condemned yesterday's violent attacks on the President and the Prime Minster. The US Ambassador to Timor- Leste said: "We give our deepest condolences to the families of the victims of yesterday's attack and wish the President a speedy recovery. We have confidence that the Government of Timor-Leste will continue working together with UNMIT and the IFS to establish and maintain stability and security in the nation." (TP)

Horta injured, Xanana attacked, Alfredo dead: An attack was launched yesterday on the President's house by Major Alfredo Reinado Alves and his group. The attack resulted in injuries to President Jose Ramos-Horta. Sources who wish to remain unnamed claim they saw two cars enter the President's compound at 6.15am. Approximately five minutes after the cars entered, the shootings began. The President was at the time exercising outside his compound, but returned immediately upon hearing the gunshots. A cross-fire ensued between Alfredo's group and the President's security. The President was shot in his arm and stomach and Major Alfredo was killed. Shortly after, Prime Minsiter Xanana Gusmao was also attacked. The PM's convoy was ambushed at a road block by Commander Salsinha and his group. The PM's car was shot at, but no injuries were sustained by the PM or any member of his convoy. (DN)

Xanana: We will not tolerate groups who want to destroy our nation: Prime Minister Xanana Gusumao declared during a press conference held yesterday that the State would not tolerate groups who were acting to destroy Timor-Leste. "You all know that I called the petitioners here so that we could come to a peaceful resolution of the crisis. But some members have chosen to respond to my call with bullets," said the PM. (DN)

Alfredo's body placed in the moratorium: The bodies of Major Alfredo Reinado and one his group, Leopoldo, have been taken to the moratorium in the Dili National Hospital. Alfredo and Leopoldo were shot during the attacks yesterday on the President's residence. The bodies were carried to the hospital under maximum security provided by the Guarda Nacional Republika (GNR). The President's Security Guard, Commander Celestino Filipe Gama, was also shot by Alfredo's group and is now receiving intensive medical attention. (DN)

Fretilin condemns attack on PR and PM: Freilin has strongly condemned the attacks yesterday on President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minster Xanana Gusmao as Fretilin has supported the nation's security forces to bring peace and stability to the nation. Fretilin's Secretary-General Dr Mari Bin Amudi Alkatiri said in a statement to the National Parliament that the attacks on the nation's leaders had shocked him. "The attacks were a big surprise as they happened at a time when we were all trying to find solutions for the major issues facing this nation," said Mr Alkatiri. Mr Alkatiri also expressed concern about the security that had been the responsibility of UNMIT and the International Stabilisation Forces (ISF). Mr Alkateri is demanding that UNMIT and the ISF provide an explanation as to how this situation could have happened. (DN)

President in a critical state: Prime Minsiter Xanana Gusmao has said that President Jose Ramos-Horta remains in a critical state after receiving medial attention from the International Stabilisation Forces (ISF) clinic. "The President is a long way from full recovery," said Prime Minister Xanana Gusumao during a press conference held yesterday. "He is however in a stable, but critical, condition." The President assured the population that the State would take the necessary action to ensure security and stability throughout the nation. He also appealed to the population to remain calm, and not to engage in activities which would de-stabilize the situation. He made a further appeal to youths not to take any rash action. "You don't have to follow the armed groups, as they just want to kill people and to destroy this nation" the PM said. "Young people must also make an effort to partake in the struggle for peace." (DN)

PM guarantees that situation is normal: Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has guaranteed that the situation in Timor-Leste, and particularly in Dili, is under control. The PM has urged all people to remain calm. In a press conference held yesterday, the PM said that "International Stabilization forces, UNPol, F-FDTL and PNTL have the security situation under control. Because of this, I am appealing to all members of the public to remain calm, not to panic and not to engage in any activates that would contribute to destabilizing the security situation." (DN)

PM appeals for calm among Alfredo's supporters: Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has appealed to all people, and especially the youth, who have previously supported Alfredo Reinado in Dili to remain calm. "We had begun to start a process of dialogue with Alfredo," said the PM. "Why then did he come to attack the President?" The PM made a particular appeal to Alfredo's supporters in the Dili suburbs of Becora, Taibesi, Manumeta Rai Hun, Matadoru, Bidau, Beto, Bairo Pite and Manleuana to stay calm. "What has happened serves as an important lesson for all of us," said the PM. "So, I would ask those youths in Ermera, Ainaro, Alieu, Same, Bobonaro and Liquica to take this time to reflect on what has happened and to assess our roles and responsibilities in establishing stability in the nation." (DN)

Horta shot, Xanana saved, Alfredo dead: President Jose Ramos- Horta was shot yesterday morning at 6am in his residence by Alfredo Reinado's group. The President received one shot to his stomach and one in his arm. A security guard of the President was also shot. Neighbours of the President were panicked by the shootings. Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao was also attacked at 7.45am while he was on his way to the office. The PM however escaped receiving any injuries. The PM's car was severely damaged during the attack.

A bodyguard of the First Lady, Kirsty Sword, said that after the attack, the armed group under the command of Salsinha came to the PM's home. "Salsinha came to me and asked me for the weapons I was carrying," said the bodyguard. "I refused to hand over the weapons." At about 9.58am yesterday, the PM's family was evacuated from their home and taken to the Government Palace. Fretilin's Secretary-General Dr Mari Alkatiri said on the Portuguese television, that he believed the attacks to have been planned by people in the military. "There is a conspiracy involving some military members to bring down this nation's political leaders," said Mr Alkatiri. (STL)

Additional international troops to come to TL: The Prime Minister of Australia, Kevin Rudd, has committed additional troops to join the International Stabilisation Force in Timor-Leste. This has been in response to the attacks yesterday on the President and Prime Minister. The additional troops should arrive today. The additional troops will bring the total number of Australian troops on the ground to 1000. Australia will also send 70 police personnel to help provide stability and security to Timor-Leste. (STL)

Guterres becomes interim PM Lasama laments work of UNPol: Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has announced that the Vice President of the National Parliament, Vicente Guterres, will become the interim Prime Minister following yesterday's attack on President Jose Ramos-Horta. Following the constitution, the President of the National Parliament becomes acting President if there is any impediment to the President discharging his duties. However, as the President of the NP is currently away, the position goes to the Vice President. The President of the National Parliament, Fernando Lasama, has strongly criticized the work of the United Nations in Timor-Leste, and in particular the United Nations Police in not providing adequate security for President Ramos- Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao. "I really lament the work of UNPol because their assistance to the President came one hour late," said Lasama in a joint press conference with the Prime Minister of Portugal, Jose Socrates, in Lisbon. (STL)

Xanana-Horta shot, Fretilin condemns attacks, L-7 sad: Fretilin has strongly condemned the acts of Alfredo's group and Salsinha Gastao. The President of UNDERTIM political party, Cornelio Gama, alias 'L7', has expressed sadness over the attacks. "We are shocked at these events. This is a big surprise as it is happening at a time when there are positive moves being made towards reaching a national political consensus," said Fretilin's Secretary-General Dr Mari Alkatiri. (STL)

NP asks for additional security forces: The National Parliament asked for additional international security forces in Timor-Leste during an extra-ordinary meeting convened yesterday. Fretilin has asked that the additional forces come not only from Australia, but from other nations such as Malaysia. However, the acting President, Vicente Guterres, accepted to have additional troops to strengthen the ISF in Timor-Leste, a decision heavily criticised by Fretilin. (STL)

PM Xanana saved: Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao was saved yesterday from an attack by an armed group suspected to be led by Salsinha Gastao. This attack damaged the PM's car, but caused no injury to the PM himself. (STL)

Horta flown to Darwin: President Jose Ramos-Horta was flown to Darwin to receive further medical attention after being shot by Alfredo's group in Dili yesterday. The President was flown on a special flight. One of the President's bodyguards was also injured by a gunshot wound during yesterday's shooting incident. (STL)

East Timor media monitoring

UNMIT - February 8, 2008

TVTL news coverage

Unidentified groups blast petitioners' gathering: Unidentified groups threw a grenade in the gathering place of the petitioners in Ai-Tarak Laran, Dili. No injuries were sustained. The suspects fled before the National Police of Timor-Leste (PNTL) Task Force arrived. The PNTL Operational Commander, Henrique da Costa, said that the situation was under control and that the case is currently being investigated. PNTL police will remain on location until the dialogue has ended.

Government to provide extraordinary subsidies to F-FDTL and PNTL: Members of the National Defence Force of Timor-Leste (F-FDTL) and the National Police of Timor-Leste (PNTL) will receive extraordinary subsidies from the Government. The subsidies will increase monthly salaries by up to 60 per cent. The State Secretary of Minister's Council, Agio Pereira, said that the Council of Ministers has approved the decree providing the subsidies.

RTL news coverage

District populations struggle to meet basic necessities: Since January of this year, villagers in Manufahi and Lautem Districts have struggled to meet their basic necessities. Arnaldo Soares, a villager from Rotuto village from Same sub-District, Manufahi, said that as a vulnerable people, he could not afford to buy a suck of rice as the price has now increased from USD14.00 to USD18.00. "We have sold our domestic animals and still we cannot afford to buy a suck of rice," said Mr Soares on Friday (8/2).

FONGTIL appeals to MSS: The Director of the National Forum of NGOs of Timor-Leste (FONGTIL), Angelina Sarmento, has appealed to the Ministry of Social Solidarity (MSS) to create a mechanism able to respond to the needs of students applying for scholarships as recommended by President Jose Ramos-Horta. Ms Sarmento raised this issue on the back of recent protests by thousands of students demanding scholarships from MSS. "Because of the President's unconstitutional and illegal promises, a new mechanism has to be created to respond to the protestors' demands," said Ms. Sarmento.

UN calls upon Alfredo to submit to justice peacefully: The United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) insists that Alfredo and his group must submit themselves to justice in a peaceful manner. "Alfredo must make an effort to submit himself to justice," said the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) for Timor-Leste, Atul Khare. "I would also like to call again for Alfredo Reinado, if indeed he feels for this country and has the best interests of this country at heart, to submit himself to justice in a peaceful manner," added the SRSG at the UNMIT regular press briefing in Obrigado Barracks Caicoli, Dili on Thursday (7/2). (TP and DN)

71 Petitioners gather in Dili: Seventy one members of the petitioners' group gathered together in Ai-Tarak Laran, Kampung Alor, Dili. The petitioners, led by Major Tara and Major Marcos, came from Manatuto, Lautem and Maliana Districts. People residing near the meeting place for the petitioners in Ai-Tarak Laran have voiced fears over having the gathering in such close proximity to them. "We are afraid and worried about the potential consequences of having the petitioners gathered here." said the Aldeia Chief, Jacinto Tavares. (TP, STL, DN and TVTL)

Parliament PD Chief – Dialogue invalid if Salsinha not involved: The Chief of the Democratic Party (PD) in the National Parliament (NP), Adriano Nascimento, has said that unless the Government approaches the petitioner's Spokesperson, Gastco Salsinha, the whole dialogue will be invalid. "Efforts made by the Government are good, but if Salsinha is not included, then this shows that the Government wants to divide the petitioners into two groups. This will be a very dangerous situation," said Mr. Nascimento in the NP, Dili on Thursday (7/2). (TP, STL and DN)

Petitioners' gathering place attacked with grenade: Unidentified groups threw a grenade in the gathering place of the petitioners in Ai-Tarak Laran, Dili. No injuries were sustained. The suspects fled before the National Police of Timor-Leste (PNTL) Task Force arrived. The PNTL Operational Commander, Henrique da Costa, said that the situation was under control and that the case is currently being investigated. PNTL police will remain on location until the dialogue has ended. (TP)

Dr Sadik: Government has to resolve HIV/AIDS: Dr Nafis Sadik, the UN Secretary-General Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific has said that the Government of Timor-Leste should prioritize HIV/AIDS issues even though current rates of infections are low. "The leaders of Timor-Leste should talk strongly about HIV/AIDS in all sectors," said Dr. Sadik at the UNMIT regular press briefing held on Thursday (7/2) in Obrigado Barracks Caicoli, Dili. Dr. Sadik also said that all related ministries should work together to design a program of HIV/AIDS prevention, and that one of their main target groups should be youths. (TP and DN)

PM - Petitioners should remain calm: Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has made a strong appeal to the petitioners to be disciplined and to not be incited into violence by other trouble makers as they to work together with the Government to solve their problems. "I appeal to all people who live in Dili to come here together to solve the problem as these issues have remained unresolved for two years already," said PM Xanana in Ai-Tarak Laran, the gathering place of the petitioners on Thursday (7/2). The Prime Minister guaranteed that security would be provided to all petitioners. (STL)

AMP-Fretilin and Horta seek joint solution to national problem: The Majority Alliance in Parliament and Fretilin held a meeting with President JosC(c) Ramos-Horta on Thursday (7/2) to form a Formed Unit to collectively solve the problems presented by Alfredo Reinado, the petitioners, and the IDPs. "In the coming days I will consult with PM Xanana Gusmao, Mari Alkatiri, Lu-Olo and other political leaders to establish a high level mechanism to solve these issues," said the President. "Fretilin is involved in this Formed Unit and will take part in the decision making process." (DN)

Bano - Sad over Government's food reduction policy: The Former Minister of Social and Solidarity, and recent NP Fretilin member, Arsenio Bano, said that he is distressed over the Government's food reduction policy. "I am really sad when I consider what the Government's food reduction policy will mean for the IDPs. The Government has no rice, has reduced the salary of public servants and is now reducing food for the IDPs." said Mr. Bano in the National Parliament on Thursday (7/2). Mr. Bano also said that the former ration of 8kg rice per person/month was based on an international standard. (DN)

East Timor media monitoring

UNMIT - February 7, 2008

RTL news coverage

MSS meets with Ministries of Portuguese speaking nations: The Minister of Social Solidarity met with representatives of the various Ministries of Social Solidarity of Portuguese Speaking Countries (CPLP). The Minister said that such meetings were important at they allowed the CPLP countries to come together and discuss common social problems.

UN meets with Fretilin to discuss security reform: The senior leadership of the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) met Fretilin's leadership to discuss the reform of the security sector. The meeting followed Fretilin's expression of willingness to become engaged in issues of national importance, such as security sector reform.

The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative in Timor-Leste, Atul Khare, convened the meeting to seek their views on UNMIT's role in the review and reform of key security institutions. Mr Khare said that security sector reform was a priority area and that its success would be critical in ensuring sustainability for the new nation.

"Any review on how to reform the security sector must look at the restructuring of the national police and an assessment of the F- FDTL, the private security sector, customs and other institutional areas such as the courts and correctional facilities," said Mr Khare. "The review must be comprehensive, holistic, ensure broad representation of all stakeholders and it must be owned by the Timorese people." It was agreed that similar meetings would be held on an ongoing basis, every two weeks. (TP)

Reinado's rebels fire on ISF: Rebels under the leadership of Major Alfredo Reinado have fired warning shots near a patrol of Australian troops south-west of the capital, Dili. Reinado has been on the run since he was arrested on charges of illegal weapons' distribution, desertion and attempted murder after widespread violence in 2006.

The International Stabilisation Force (ISF) Spokesperson Brigadier General James Baker said that five to eight warning shots were fired, but the Australian troops did not return fire. "What we've seen today is a reckless act by Reinado. If the ISF soldiers had not acted with professionalism and discipline, then an escalation of the incident could have occurred," he said. "The ISF did not return fire, but immediately withdrew to Gleno [the home base]," he added. "There were no casualties from this incident."

Brigadier General Baker said that the ISF is not engaged in any operation against Reinado. "Reinado is a fugitive of the Timorese criminal justice system, he has threatened the safety of Australian troops," he said. (TP, DN and STL)

Petitioners gather in Dili: The President of the National Parliament, Fernando Lasama, said that members of the petitioners' group gathered today (7/2) in Aitarak Laran, Dili to commence a process of dialogue with the Government and the National Defence Forces of Timor-Leste (F- FDTL). "They needed to come to Dili to help find a solution to their problems," said Mr Lasama. "They will remain here and have their issues heard by the Government." (TP and DN)

IDPs reject reduced food aid: Negotiations between IDPs and WFP officers have ended with IDPS in Comoro Airport Camp rejecting WFP's food assistance. "We will reject any food aid because of the Government's policy to reduce the rations," said the Comoro Airport Camp IDP Spokesperson, Mateus da Costa Belo. IDPs further said that they would continue such peaceful actions until the Government responded to their needs. (TP)

National Parliament VP - Parties must self-access: The Vice President of the National Parliament, Vicente Guterres, said that each party in the national parliament had to build capacity within itself and to create harmony with other parties in the parliament. Mr. Guterres also said that he believed this second national parliament to be stronger than the first, as the first NP was weakened by an undisciplined opposition. Mr Guterres claimed that Fretilin was conducting itself in a professional and disciplined manner and that this would help to strengthen the National Parliament. (DN)

Reform with no transparency: A Political and Social Science Lecturer at the National University of Timor-Leste, Faustino Cardoso (also the President of the National Commission of Elections), has said that the reformation process initiated by the Government is not transparent. "While the government has started the reforms, it is not clear how the reforms are progressing." said Mr. Cardoso on Wednesday (6/2) in Balide, Dili. "The public does not know about the reforms because the process is not transparent. It is still unclear what areas will be reformed." (STL)

F-FDTL to recruit soldiers with legal backgrounds: The State Secretary of Defence, Julio Thomas Pinto, said that the F-FDTL would this year look to recruit soldiers with law degrees and/or backgrounds. "In order to establish a military tribunal, we need trained military judges," said Mr. Pinto. "The Department of Defence now is focusing on this to recruit soldiers with legal backgrounds to be involved in the military tribunal." The new recruitment will be held in July 2008. (STL)

Lasama - Petitioners should cooperate with the Government: The President of the National Parliament, Fernando Lasama, said that establishing a gathering place for the petitioners to meet will help in finding solutions to the problems faced by them. Mr Lasama said that a common gathering place would allow the petitioners, the F-FDTL and the Government and to meet and cooperate with each other to find a resolution to this ongoing crisis. (STL)

East Timor media monitoring

UNMIT - February 6, 2008

TVTL news coverage

Horta supports National Language Institute: President Jose Ramos-Horta has come out in support of the National Linguistic Institute (INL) as it deals with one of the official languages of Timor-Leste, Tetun. The Chancellor of the National University of Timor-Leste (UNTL), Benjamin Cortereal, said that the INL has met the President to promote the language of Tetun. "Tetum could be promoted as the medium of instruction, through seminars and conferences," said Mr Benjamin. "The government should have a policy towards Tetun and the mechanisms to promote Tetum."

Students demand response to scholarships proposals: Thousands of high school and university students have come to the Ministry of Social Solidarity to protest the lack of response from the Ministry regarding scholarship proposals submitted by the students. The students handed the proposals to the Ministry based on promises made by President Jose Ramos-Horta last year to

IDPs against Government food reduction policy: IDPs in the Obrigado Barracks and Airport camps are taking a stand against the Government's food reduction policy. The IDPs are arguing that the allocation of funds in the approved national budget was meant to provide assistance to the IDPs, and not for victims of natural disasters. "We reject the decision of the Government to reduce food," said the Obrigado Barrack IDP camp Spokesperson, Julio da Costa Gaio, in a press conference held last Monday (4/2). "We will continue to defend our rights as IDPs. We will mobilizes and take our issues to the National Parliament.... The Government must work together with NGOs to continue the food distributions as before." The Spokesperson also warned that if the Government did not find a way to resolve this, the IDPs would go on strike. (TP and STL)

PNTL arrests boy with ammunition: PNTL officers arrested a 15-year-old boy in Balide last Sunday (3/2) on charges of possessing ammunition. The Commander of PNTL Dili District, Pedro Bello, said that this was a joint operation between PNTL, UNPol and F-FDTL. (TP)

National youth group asks government to solve petitioners case: The National Movement of Youth Unity (MJUN) have asked the Government to solve the petitioner's case in a transparent manner. The Coordinator of MJUN said that it's important that people are aware of, and are involved in, the process to solve the petitioner's case. (TP)

Petitioners to gather in Kampung Alor: President Jose Ramos-Horta, Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao and the President of the National Parliament Fernando Lasama, held a special meeting to determine a gathering place where the petitioners can convene to hold talks with the Government. Kampung Alor was chosen as the general area and a specific location will be identified this week. (DN)

Court of appeals agrees with plans for military tribunal: The President of the Court of Appeals, Claudio Ximenes, has come out in support of President Jose Ramos-Horta's plan to establish a military tribunal with assistance from the Brazilian Government. Mr Ximenes also said that Timor-Leste still requires technical assistance from the international community to bolster the judicial system. (DN)

NP Vice President - Food reduction must not be for all IDPs: The Vice President of the National Parliament, Vicente da Silva Guterres, has said that the Government's food reduction policy should be implemented according to the status of IDPs. He said that while the Government should reduce or stop food assistance for IDPs who are public servants, food assistance could be slowly reduced for other IDPs. "We must consider the consequences of our decision," said Mr Guterres. (DN)

Hospital IDPs - We did not become IDPs to receive rice: IDPs camped at the National Hospital have said that they did not become IDPs to receive rice. They became IDPs because of the crisis. They are reluctant to leave the hospital as they are still fear for their safety. Many of the IDPs also do not have homes to move back to. "The Government is reducing food rations as part of a plan to move the IDPs out of the Hospital," said one IDP named Aderito Pinto. "Because of this, I am asking the Government to rebuild my house." The IDPs also argue that 4kg or rice is not enough for one month. (DN)

Floods threaten Dili: The State Secretary for Environment, Abilio Lima, has appealed to people living in Dili and around Dili town to be aware of potential floods. "There may be floods in Dili as the sewerage systems are not working properly," said Mr Lima. "Because of this, we are expecting heavy rains to cause flooding in Dili." Mr Lima has also asked people to be careful when throwing away rubbish and to not throw rubbish onto the streets as this also blocks sewerage systems. Mr Lima cautioned that floods also threaten Ermera, Suai, and Manufahi. Heavy rains could also cause landslides in Viqueque. The State Secretary of Security, Francisco Guterres, said after a meeting with Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao that the PNTL are prepared to provide assistance in the wake of a natural disaster. (STL)

University students demand Horta's promises to be kept: University students have asked the Minister for Social Solidarity (MSS), Maria Domingas, to keep the promises made to them by President Jose Ramos-Horta. The President had previously promised the students that those experiencing financial difficulties could present a proposal to MSS to be considered for a scholarship. The students had submitted their proposals to MSS but had not as yet received any reply. The students warned that if their proposals were not responded to, there would be further protests. (STL)

East Timor media monitoring

UNMIT - February 5, 2008

TVTL news coverage

SRSG comments on role of media: The Special Representative of the Secretary General, Atul Khare, discussed the importance of media during the 15th anniversary of the daily national paper, Suara Timor Lorosae last Friday (1/2). "The role of media is not only to provide information," said the SRSG. "The media should also teach the people."

PM - F-FDTL must give hope to people: Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has said that in order to face the future, people must have confidence in the F-FDTL. This institution must be the cornerstone for providing faith to the nation and the people in areas of security, stability and development.

Horta - Human resources must be strengthened ahead of tribunal: President Jose Ramos-Horta has urged the Government to start building and strengthening the capacity of staff in anticipation of a military tribunal. "We must also prepare F-FDTL officers in the justice sector," said the President upon his arrival from an official visit to Brazil. "It's important and urgent to ensure that the military institution is fully functioning." The President also said that the institutions of the government and the state are still fragile and require the assistance of the United Nations until 2012.

UNPol transfers 3 police stations to PNTL: To establish peace and security in Dili, UNPol handed over three police stations in Bidau, Mercado Lama and Bairopite to PNTL yesterday. On the ceremony of handover of responsibility, PNTL officers said that they were willing and ready to provide security to the community. "We feel happy that our friends from UNPol are providing this opportunity. Thanks to UNPol and the government," said a PNTL officer.

RTL news coverage

MAFF begins to monitor farmers: The Minister for Agriculture, Forestry, and Fisheries, Mariano Sabino Lopes, said his ministry has started monitoring farming activities in the districts as a way to encourage less dependence on the Government. The Minister called for the farmers to maintain agricultural equipment, such as tractors, provided by the Government and explained that it was not the Government's intention to provide all equipment to the farmers. The Minister did assure the farmers that the Ministry would cooperate with other stakeholders to procure local products.

Horta - UN and ISF to stay until 2012: President Jose Ramos-Horta said that the United Nations (UN) and the International Security Forces (ISF) will stay in Timor-Leste until 2012 with annual reviews of the mission. The President also said that the presence of UN and ISF has helped to strengthen the economy of Timor-Leste as the UN employs 1000 employees and ISF 300 employees.

IDPs receive food aid from WFP: IDPs in Motael Church have received food rations reduced by 50 per cent. A WFP Assistant Field Security Officer, Joao Francisco, said that although the Government and WFP have worked together to provide food assistance to the IDPs, the decision to reduce the food was made solely by the Government. Responding to a question by journalists regarding the reaction of IDPs to the food reduction, Mr Francisco said that: "In the beginning, there were a few protests at the food reduction, but since the policy has been explained, the IDPs have accepted the food reduction." One of the IDPs, Marcelina Soares, commented: "We are not IDPs by choice, and the decision to reduce the rice rations have made us very sad. However, the Government's decision to reduce the food should be accepted and it is not a problem for me." (TP)

Government concerned with Tsunami threat: The Government of Timor-Leste has been preoccupied with the threat of natural disasters such as tsunamis, floods, heavy rains, high winds and the impact that these disasters have on people's lives. "If there are high winds, tsunamis or any other natural disasters, the police and the F-FDTL will rescue people from these disasters," said the State Secretary for Security, Francisco Guterres, and yesterday in the Government Palace. (TP)

IDPs upset at food reductions: IDPs in Motael Church are upset at the Government's policy to reduce food rations. One IDP, Duarte de Jesus, "We did not move to this IDP camp because we didn't have food. We moved because of the crisis started by the Government," said Mr de Jesus. "Because of this, the Government has a responsibility to look after us." Another IDP, Jacinta Arosa Ximenes, had also rejected the policy of food reduction, choosing not to accept the reduced rations in protest. "I don't want to accept this policy," said Mrs Ximenes. "There are more than 20 members of my family in this camp; six are still in school. I only one woman and don't have the capacity to meet the all the needs of my family members." (DN)

Taur Matan Ruak - 'Cooperation needed to solve crisis': The Commander of F-FDTL, Taur Matan Ruak, has said that if Timorese people really want to resolve the crisis, then all people need to cooperate together in a peaceful way. These comments were made at the 5th anniversary of the F-FDTL navy held in Hera last Saturday. "I would like to say that there are no problems without solutions," said the Commander. "Once upon a time we had a problem with Indonesia, and we solved it. It should be easier for us to solve our own internal problems. (DN)

SRSG - Laws form basis of democracy: The United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary- General (SRSG), Mr Atul Khare, has said that he believes laws form the foundations of any functioning democratic state. Mr Khare made these statements last Friday during the 15th anniversary celebrations of the daily national paper, Suara Timor Lorosae. The SRSG also said that the current structure of Timor- Leste's institutions are still fragile and have limited capacity in building peace and in resolving conflicts. "Because laws are the basis of democracy, they need to be strengthened in order to build confidence in the development process," said Mr Khare. (STL)

Alfredo/petitioners' problems won't affect F-FDTL recruitment: President Jose Ramos-Horta has stated that the unsolved problems of Alfredo and the petitioners will not affect the recruitment process for the F-FDTL. "The problems of Major Alfredo and the petitioners will not impact on the recruitment process as these are separate issues," said President Horta. "The recruitment process of the F-FDTL will be based on the law." (STL and DN)

PM: Defence and security main priorities: Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao articulated his priorities as Prime Minister during the 5th anniversary of the F-FDTL navy held in Hera last Saturday. "Since I became the Prime Minister, my main priorities have been to restructure the F-FDTL in line with the principals of the current government and to reform the security and defence sectors," said the Prime Minister. (STL)

UNPol hands over three police posts to PNTL: The United Nations Police have symbolically handed-over three police posts to the PTNL during a ceremony held in Bidau. The United Nations Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG), Mr Atul Khare, said during the ceremony that security in Timor-Leste was improving. (STL, DN and TP)

East Timor media monitoring

UNMIT - February 4, 2008

RTL news coverage

PM - Alfredo, Petitioners and IDPs challenge development: Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has stated that the problems caused by the unresolved case of Alfredo, the petitioners and IDPs are challenging the development of the nation. "These three cases are very sensitive," said the PM. "The Government along with civil society are working to find a solution to these problems." (TP)

UN Mission extended to 2009: President Jose Ramos Horta has stated that the UN Mission in Timor-Leste will be extended until 2009. The mandate of the current UN Mission will expire in February 2008. "We have learned from past mistakes and I personally would like the UN to stay 2012," said the President. (TP)

UNMIT must support PNTL and F-FDTL: Mario Viegas Carrascalao, MP from the Social Democratic Party (PSD), is asking UNMIT to continue supporting PNTL and F-FDTL if the UN mandate is extended. "PSD has no problem with UNMIT and will accept an extension of the current mandate," said Mr Carrascalao. (TP)

F-FDTL to recruit 300 soldiers: In 2008, F-FDTL will recruit 300 soldiers based upon a Government-approved budget. The recruitment process will commence shortly and will be done by the Commander of the F-FDTL in conjunction with the relevant Government ministers. (STL)

SRSG - STL theme supports UNMIT: The Special Representative of the Secretary General, Atul Khare, stated on the 15th anniversary of the daily national paper, Suara Timor Lorosai (STL), that the theme of STL's anniversary is in line with UNMIT's mandate. STLs theme for its anniversary had stated that "The role of UNMIT and the media is to consolidate democracy in Timor-Leste." (STL)

Horta - Brazil asked to establish military tribunal: President Jose Ramos-Horta stated during his visit to Brazil that he had asked the Government of Brazil to establish a military tribunal in Timor-Leste. "My visit to Brazil was to accomplish to missions. One, to enhance the public/media image of Timor-Leste, and two, to strengthen diplomatic relations," said the President. "I have had previous discussions regarding Brazil's help with establishing a militarily tribunal. Before the tribunal can be established, much work will need to be accomplished to prepare the human resources for the tribunal." (STL)

PM - F-FDTL must give hope to people: Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has said that in order to face the future, people must have confidence in the F-FDTL. This institution must be the cornerstone for providing faith to the nation and the people in areas of security, stability and development. (STL)

Horta - 2006 crisis blackens Timor-Leste's name: President Jose Ramos-Horta has claimed that the 2006 crisis has internationally blackened the name and reputation of Timor-Leste. The President made these comments upon his return from his trip to Brazil and Italy. During his visit to Brazil, the President had discussed with the Government the need to establish a military tribunal in Timor-Leste. In Italy, the President had asked the Pope to visit Timor-Leste. (DN)

Minister informs of food reduction to district IDPs The Minister for Social Solidarity, Maria Domingas Alves, visited Baucau, Viqueque and Lautem to explain to IDPs the Government's food reduction policy. The Minister explained that the policy to reduce food aid was started under the previous government. (DN)

East Timor media monitoring

UNMIT - February 1, 2008

TVTL news coverage

Government asks importers to stabilize rice prices: The Government of Timor-Leste has held discussions with importers concerning the current instability of rice prices, asking them to find a solution to this instability.

Ministry of Education prepares education law: In a few weeks time, the Ministry of Education will present the new education laws to the Council of Ministers to be discussed before getting approval from the National Parliament.

ASDT representatives ask Ministers Alves and Lima to step down: The representatives of the Democratic Association of Timorense (ASDT) from 13 districts have asked the Minister of Tourism Gil Alves and the State Secretary of Environment Abilio Lima to step down, claiming that corrupt practices by the Ministers are giving a bad image to the ASDT.

RTL news coverage

UN Police will officially transfer responsibility to Timorese National Police (PNTL): The Spokesperson for the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT), Alison Cooper, said in a press conference held yesterday that UN Police will officially transfer responsibility to Timorese National Police (PNTL) in Dili next Monday. Ms Cooper said that this transfer was based on an assessment held by the UN on the capacity of the PNTL. Ms Cooper expected that the PNTL would cooperate with the Timorese Defense Force (F-FDTL) and generate confidence from the population. Ms Cooper added that the UN Police would still monitor PNTL's work, and gradually hand over full security powers to them.

UNPol to provide security during food distribution: The United Nation's Spokesperson Allison Cooper stated that the United Nations and the Government of Timor-Leste have decided to reduce food rations to IDPs based on an agreement made in September 2007. The Spokesperson explained that the policy of food reduction was made in acknowledgement that there are many non-IDPs who also require assistance.

"We have reduced humanitarian support in order to look after those people who are facing natural disasters and other such problems within the country," said Ms Cooper in a press conference yesterday. "Reducing food aid to the IDPs will allow the Government to focus on the other vulnerable people in Timor- Leste and the overall food security situation."

Print coverage

Food rations will be reduced to 4kg per each person or family per month. The United Nations Police and the PNTL will provide security during food distributions. (DN)

Government commission to solve food reduction problem: The State Secretary for Natural Disaster Support, Jacinto Rigoberto, stated that the Government will form a commission to resolve the problems caused by the food reduction policy in a meeting held with IDPs in the airport camp yesterday. Mr Rigoberto said that he alone could not resolve the grievances of the IDPs and that he would have to consult with other ministers. The IDPs will join the commission so that they their concerns can be properly considered. (DN)

Australian government gives 40 cars to PNTL: The United Nations Police Spokesperson, Benjamin Osuji, stated in a press conference held yesterday that the Australian Government will provide 40 cars to the PNTL in order to help the PNTL with their operations. (DN)

IDPs won't back down from position: IDPs in Dili have claimed that they will continue to ask the Government not to reduce food aid as if the Government reduces the food by 50 per cent, it will not be enough for people to survive. "We regret the Government's decision to reduce food," said Esmiranda Ribeiro Afonso, an IDP in the Farol Camp, Dili. "If the Government insists on reducing the rations, they will have problems again." The United Nation's Spokesperson Allison Cooper stated that the United Nations Police will provide security if there are any problems during food distributions as a result of the food reductions. (DN)

LDP asks government to reform task force: In an attempt to resolve Alfredo and the petitioner's case, the Democratic Progressive League (LPD) has asked the Government to reform the Task Force as they claim the Task Force has not had any success. LPD's Spokesperson, Hermenegildo Cupa, said that the Government has to find a resolution to the problems of Alfredo, petitioners and the IDPs as this is affecting the development of the country. "Instability in the country affects democracy," said Mr Cupa. "We will never be able to develop as such instability creates unemployment and hampers the development of education." (DN)

Reduce food for IDPS, help other vulnerable people: The Government policy to reduce food aid to IDP camps will begin in February. The Government's intention is to provide greater assistance for vulnerable communities in rural areas. The Minister for Social Solidarity, Maria Domingas Alves, stated that the food reduction has been made upon as assessment made by the Government in IDP camps in Dili. "Donors have made an assessment on the situation of IDPs in Dili camps and on the general food security situation in all suburbs," said the Minister. (STL)

Case of abused journalist under investigation: A PNTL member of the Transition Unit who beat and used his pistol to threaten an AFP journalist, Nelson da Cruz, is under investigation. The United Nations Police Spokesperson, Benjamin Osuji, stated in a press conference held yesterday that the case was under investigation. (STL)

UNMIT mandate to end: The mandate of the United Nations Integrated Mission in East Timor (UNMIT) will end on 26 February. The United Nations Security Council will decide whether to extend the mandate after the Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG) Atul Khare visits the UN to present his report to the Security Council. The Report will be presented during the second week of February and will detail UNMIT's work to date. (TP)

UNPol passes power to PNTL: The United Nations Police will begin to pass responsibility to the PNTL in order for the PNTL to become more independent. The transfer of responsibility was made based on four criteria: PNTL officers must be screened; adequate support must be provided by UNPol to the PNTL; there must be cooperation between PNTL and F- FDTL; the public must have confidence in the PTNL. The decision to transfer responsibility was made in consultation with the Government. (TP)