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East Timor News Digest 12 – December 1-31, 2015

Timor Sea dispute

Health & education Population & migration Agriculture & food security Development & infrastructure Economy & investment Invasion & occupation Analysis & opinion

Timor Sea dispute

Australian councils support campaign for fair, permanent maritime boundaries

Timor Sea Justice Campaign News - December 13, 2015

The Moreland Council in Melbourne's inner north is the latest Council to call on the Australian Government to immediately enter negotiations with East Timor to establish permanent maritime boundaries in accordance with international law.

The resolution passed by Moreland last week to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the invasion of East Timor by Indonesia, follows similar resolutions from Leichhardt Council in Sydney and the Mornington Peninsula Shire.

The Moreland Mayor, Samantha Ratnam, said she was pleased with the council's willingness to take an expansive view of its role in an increasingly interconnected world.

"Moreland has a long standing connection with Timor Leste through our friendship city relationship and we also have a proud tradition of taking a stand against injustice," said Ms Ratnam.

The motion calls on the Government to immediately commence negotiations about establishing permanent boundaries for the first time with East Timor and to resubmit to the maritime boundary jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice. (Australia withdrew its recognition of the ICJ's authority on these issues just two months before East Timor became independent in 2002.)

"Just as is the case when neighbours might dispute the position of a fence line, any attempts at negotiation are likely to go much better when the authority of the independent umpire is respected," said Ms Ratnam.

Below is copy of the statement presented and the motion passed. Big thanks to Councilor Sue Bolton for bringing the matter to council.

Meanwhile, the Federal MP for the same area, Kelvin Thomson, raised the issue in the Australian Parliament with a detailed statement. A transcript can be found here. Great work Kelvin.

Background

7 December was the 40th anniversary of the invasion of East Timor.

The Timor Sea Treaty following the restoration of independence in Timor- Leste in May 2002 did not settle the maritime boundaries between Australia and Timor-Leste. If these boundaries were set in accordance with International Law, the significant fields of gas located outside the treaty zone of co-operation would belong to Timor-Leste as part of its exclusive economic zone. If so, one such field – the Greater Sunrise Field – located just 150 km from Timor's shore and may generate some $40 billion for Timor-Leste.

However, immediately prior to the restoration of independence in Timor- Leste, the Australia government withdrew recognition of the maritime boundary jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

Even a minor adjustment of these maritime boundaries in accordance with International Law would shift billions of dollars of potential revenue from Australia to Timor-Leste. Yet Australia refuses to negotiate a permanent maritime boundary with Timor-Leste placing in jeopardy its legacy in, and friendship with, Timor-Leste.

This Moreland council has had a long and distinguished record of support for the people and government of Timor Leste. Moreland and Hume councils first established a friendship relationship with the District of Aileu in Timor-Leste in 2000, and have continued that relationship, signing five- year Friendship Agreements in 2005 and 2010.

Former Moreland Mayor Lambros Tapinos visited the district in 2014 to discuss practical assistance for the local district of Aileu

Motion:

That the Moreland council

1. Calls on the Australian government to immediately commence negotiations on permanent maritime boundaries with Timor-Leste, using a median line approach;

2. Calls on the Australian government to resubmit to the maritime boundary jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice and the International Tribunal on the Law of the Sea, so that the boundaries can be settled by an independent body if necessary;

3. Resolves to write to the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister to inform them of this resolution.

Source: http://www.timorseajustice.com/timor-sea-justice-campaign-news/thinking-globally-acting-locally-australia-councils-supporting-campaign-for-fair-and-permanent-marit

Health & education

MP Soares call for urgent debate on drug law for Timor-Leste

Dili Weekly - December 30, 2015

Venidora Oliveira – Member of the National Parliament MP Josefa Alvares Soares urged the President of the National Parliament to schedule the debate of a drug law for Timor-Leste to prevent its future negative impacts on the youth in particular.

The MP said that drugs are a growing concern to the community and that many Timorese youths are already consuming drugs which will ruin their future.

"200 kg of drugs has been smuggled into Timor and this is very harmful because our Timorese youth can fall victim to drugs and this is why we need a debate on drugs and this needs to happen fast," added MP Soares.

The MP said also that that drugs are easily smuggled into Timor-Leste because security in many areas along the border zones between Timor-Leste and Indonesia is not adequately managed by the border police. She gave the example of the border areas in the municipality of Bobonaro in particular in Maliana, Saburai, Tapo Memo and Humankhou, where illegal activity often takes place.

"Some people often go and come through these areas and no one watches them," said MP Josefa "this matter has to be looked into."

In response to the concerns, the Vice President of Commission A (for constitutional, justice, public administration, local authority and anti- corruption affairs) MP Arao Noe admitted that a draft drug law has been with Commission A but that an in-depth discussion of the draft is necessary.

MP Noe added though that even when the law is passed it may not be effectively implemented due to lack of other legislation and resources and adequate drug detection equipment.

"Our constitution does not apply the death sentence, only a maximum 30 year prison sentence. And we don't have any equipment, for instance we don't have trained dogs to sniff out drugs when they come in. This is why people often smuggle drugs into Timor," MP Noe said also.

The MP suggested that the national parliament, before approving the law, should consider making some changes in the constitution so the death penalty can be applied for drug smugglers in Timor. "A person who commits such a crime has to face the death sentence," said MP Noe.

He warned that according to statistics some 4 million Indonesians has been detected consuming drugs so this is a warning to Timor-Leste to strengthen its laws and surveillance to prevent drugs coming into the country and the Timorese using drugs.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/capital/13395-mp-soares-call-for-urgent-debate-on-drug-law-for-timor-leste

Ministry of education lacks school inspectors

Dili Weekly - December 2, 2015

Venidora Oliveira – The Director Director for Corporative Services of the Ministry of Education (ME) Antoninho Pires said his ministry continues to lack school inspectors.

He added the ministry currently only has 64 school inspectors for hundreds of schools across the country and because of this some schools have not yet been assessed.

"For example in Aileu alone there are 60 schools but there is only one inspector so it is impossible to conducts assessments to all the schools in a short period of time," said Director Pires in Dili.

He said there should be one school inspector per municipality and one per every administrative post. DG Pires said he is very happy with the inspection work of currently inspectors but that he hopes nonetheless that more will be hired.

Meanwhile Member of Parliament MP Jorge Teme urged the government look into this issue and hire additional school inspectors because their role in conducting the assessment of schools is very important.

"In Ermera the population has been questioning why inspectors do not go to schools," said MP Teme.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/education/13359-ministry-of-education-lacks-school-inspectors

SEX WORKERS & PROSTITUTION

Localised prostitution in Timor-Leste, more consultations needed

Dili Weekly - December 2, 2015

Paulina Quintao – The Executive Secretary of the National Commission For Combating HIV/AIDS in Timor-Leste (KNKS-TL) Daniel Marcal said his commission is undertaking consultations and meetings about the advantages and disadvantages of localising sex work.

He said that a decision about the issue has not been made and that everyone needs to think about this issue.

"I think there's no decision to localise it and it is still under consultation with everyone to think about the issue whether it is good to leave them or to gather them in a place where we can control it easily," said the Executive Secretary Marcal from his office in Pantai Kelapa, Dili.

He added that the commission has talked to some competent entities not to chase and capture sex workers as they tend to be victims and that other circumstances compelled them to engage in such work.

"We have talked to the competent ministry not to capture and chase after sex workers as they are miserable and that other circumstances had led them to such work," said ES Marcal.

He added the commission's teams consulted with sex workers who explained that loss of virginity, a divorce and other lifestyle choices forced them to see such work so they can have an income to support themselves and their families. He said also the religious perspective is against localised prostitution as a way to prevent HIV transmission in Timor-Leste because only eduction and information can change people's behaviour.

Dili resident Maria da Silva urged the national commission to further study the issue and consult with all entities particularly with religious groups the option may be good to prevent HIV transmission but it may not be good from an educational perspective.

"I think the prevention of HIV transmission is very pertinent because health staff could control easily [the transmission] but in moral and religious aspects we still need to study this issue more carefully," said da Silva.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/capital/13353-localised-prostitution-in-timor-leste-more-consultations-needed

Population & migration

Census 2015: TL's population grows to 1.167.242

Dili Weekly - December 30, 2015

Venidora Oliveira – The Vice Minister of Finance Helder Lopes said based on the preliminary results of the Population and Household Census 2015, the Timorese population has grown from 1.066.409 in 2010 to 1.167.242 five years on in 2015.

The Vice Minister added the population growth has been consistent and can be disaggregated by gender with 588.561 males and 578.681 females.

"The census have been undertaken three times and our population has steadily increased to 1.167.242 in 2015. This does not include our people living overseas though," said recently Vice Minister Lopes, in Dili.

Looking back historically at the Timorese population he said also that back in 1980 there were only 555.350, in 1990 some 727.557, in 2001 some 787.340 and post-independence in 2004 Timor-Leste had a population of 923.198 inhabitants.

The Vice Minister added that the rapid increase in population over the years relates to the high fertility and birth rates in the country.

Meanwhile the Prime Minister Dr. Rui Maria de Araujo said the appreciated the work by the Ministry of Finance through its National Directorate for Statistics in undertaking the 2015 Population and Household Census so that clear statistics about the composition of communities across Timor-Leste could be ascertained.

"This is very important and the Ministry of Finance is tasked with undertaking the Population and Household Census every five years," he said.

Prime Minister Araujo added that the Census is just one instrument that allows Timor-Leste to determine the number and demographic composition of its population and that there are other instruments that also assist in this regard such as the birth registry under the Ministry of Justice that would assist in aggregating more population data.

He added that the Ministry of Health also has established such programs as the health and family program which collects data on families so rather than waiting for new data to emerge every five years, existing data can already be used in planning.

"We are a small country with a small population. We have other ways to count the number of our people so we don't just have to wait for the census," said PM Araujo.

The Prime Minister urged the General Director of Statistics of the Ministry of Finance to work with the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Health to coordinate more regular data collection and analysis.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/news/13393-census-2015-tl-s-population-grows-to-1-167-242

Agriculture & food security

Agriculture ministry audit reveals millions of dollars in irregularities

ABC News - December 5, 2015

East Timor says it's acting on an audit of its agriculture ministry that found irregularities in millions of dollars worth of contracts intended to help East Timor's farmers.

East Timor's in a race against time to boost its agricultural production, not just to improve the lives of farmers but so it can find other sources for when its oil and gas fields run out. The government says it's implementing the recommendations of agriculture audit to make sure spending reaches those who need it.

Transcript

Elizabeth Jackson: East Timor says it's acting on an audit of its Agriculture Ministry that found irregularities in millions of dollars worth of contracts, intended to help East Timor's farmers.

East Timor's in a race against time to boost its agricultural production, not just to improve the lives of farmers but so it can find other sources for when its oil and gas fields run out.

The government says it's implementing the recommendations of the agriculture audit to make sure spending reaches those who need it. Sara Everingham has this report from a village south-west of Dili.

Sara Everingham: Like many of East Timor's farmers, 31-year-old Paulo dos Santos da Cruz grows enough food to feed his young family, but he struggles to make a profit. He says he makes just $140 a year from his farm in the village of Fahilebo, in the hills south-west of Dili.

(Sound of Paulo dos Santos da Cruz speaking in Portuguese)

"Yes, it is enough to feed the family," he says, "but I need to find other work from somewhere else."

East Timor's minister for Agriculture, Estanislau da Silva, wants to help farmers boost their agricultural production. For about a decade, East Timor's economy has been highly dependent on oil and gas for revenue. Estanislau da Silva wants to change that.

Estanislau Da Silva: To develop agriculture and then also to give the opportunity to generate income and jobs in rural areas.

Sara Everingham: For about 15 years an Australian aid program's been trying to help farmers grow enough crops to sell. The Seeds of Life program's been testing different varieties of crops for local farming groups. The program's Australian team leader is John Dalton:

John Dalton: Now there's an additional six or so legumes will be released very soon. So that broadens the opportunity for improved nutrition.

Sara Everingham: The agriculture minister, Estanislau da Silva, says boosting agricultural production is good for farmers and for the country.

Estanislau Da Silva: We need to look at alternative investments to generate jobs and income for the country apart from oil and gas, because they are not going to be there forever. So then the country can be more prosperous without having to rely entirely on oil and gas.

Sara Everingham: But a report by East Timor's audit chamber on the Agriculture Ministry between 2011 and 2013 has found irregularities in millions of dollars worth of local contracts that were intended to help local farmers.

Estanislau Da Silva: It's to wake us up: to say that there are checks and balances. So don't take anything for granted.

Sara Everingham: Mr da Silva was not the agriculture minister at the time. He took over earlier this year. He says he's been restructuring the ministry and acting on the report.

Estanislau Da Silva: So then we can avoid committing the same mistakes in the future.

Sara Everingham: Mr da Silva says the Australian aid program was not affected by any mismanagement. He says the audit's chamber report's been handed to East Timor's public prosecutor and the anti-corruption commission The minister says the government is trying to make sure its spending hits the ground.

Elizabeth Jackson: Sara Everingham reporting.

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-05/east-timor-agriculture-ministry-audit-reveals/7004178

Development & infrastructure

2000 households pay water bills

Dili Weekly - December 2, 2015

Paulina Quintao – The National Director for Water and Sanitation Services (NDWS) Gustavo da Cruz said currently there some 2000 households connected to the public water grid in the capital Dili are at least half are paying for 24 hour access to clean water.

He said the families reside in Comoro, Fatuhada, Bairo-Pitte, Kamp-Alor, Becora and Mascarenhas sukus. "There are almost 2000 and half the families are paying to access clean water," said Director da Cruz, in Dili.

The Director added that residences pay 20 cents for every m2 and for commercial venues pay 60 cents per m2. He rejected the claim that some families are paying for water even when it is not available because bills are determined by the water meter that only works when the water is flowing.

Resident Gaspar da Silva said that as part of the community that he is ready to contribute towards development and pay for clear water and electricity but he is concerned about some communities that do not have the meter nor access to clean water.

"It's disappointing because the government provided water meters but just to a few communities. They are required to pay a bill but others that do not have a meter use water for free," said resident da Silva.

He also urged authorities to crack down and fine those who break the law by connecting illegally to the water network.

Meanwhile National Member of Parliament MP Ana Ribeiro said MP's have raised this issue over and over again during plenary discussion but the government never took it into consideration.

"This happen not just in rural areas but in Dili as well, especially in Farol suku. It has been a year since the community last had access to clean water," she said.

Source: http://www.thediliweekly.com/en/news/capital/13361-2000-households-pay-water-bills

Economy & investment

BRI plans to re-open branch office in Timor Leste

Jakarta Globe - December 28, 2015

Jakarta – State lender Bank Rakyat Indonesia plans to re-open its branch office at Timor Leste at the first half of next year, the lender's chief said on Sunday.

Asmawi Syam, the president director at Indonesia's biggest micro lender, said BRI already had an office at Timor Leste when the country was occupied by Indonesia before 1999, but the office was later closed after the country's 27th province voted for independence in a violence-marred referendum after the fall of president Suharto.

"We want to come back there [to Timor Leste] because we actually had been there and the prospects [of business] are good," said Asmawi on the sideline of BRI's 120th anniversary celebration in Jakarta on Sunday.

"We are still processing the permits, hopefully in the first quarter or at the latest in the second quarter, the process [of acquiring permits] can be wrapped up," he said. He said BRI already has a customer base in the country.

Indonesia relinquished control of Timor Leste, previously known as East Timor, in 1999 after the United Nations-sponsored referendum paved the way for independence. Timor Leste, also previously colonized by the Portuguese, became a sovereign state in May 2002.

In Timor Leste, Asmawi said, BRI will try to do what it does best: offering micro-loans and loans to small and medium enterprises.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/business/bri-plans-re-open-branch-office-timor-leste/

Invasion & occupation

The battle for Timor-Leste's past

Southeast Asia Globe - December 30, 2015

In 1975, Indonesian forces invaded Timor-Leste, heralding an occupation that lasted 24 years and claimed the lives of up to a third of the population. Forty years later, another clash is underway: an internal "history war" over the official narrative of the country's turbulent past.

David Hutt – Pedro Lebre remembers the day Portuguese colonial forces finally left his country. It was November 28, 1975, and the 24-year-old celebrated as Timor-Leste gained its independence after more than 400 years of foreign rule.

Nine days later, he looked on as that glimmer of freedom was extinguished. "It was very difficult," says Lebre of the Indonesian invasion and subsequent occupation. "Portuguese colonisation had just ended, so we didn't want another."

Lebre took to the hills to join the swelling ranks of armed guerrilla cadres fighting the Indonesian occupiers. "We escaped to the forests. We had to sacrifice ourselves for independence," he says.

Later, in the 1980s, he returned to the capital, Dili, to become a member of the clandestine movement – civilians who provided food and shelter to the guerrillas, smuggled weapons and essentials, and sought to destabilise the Indonesian regime from within. "We didn't know how or when we would finally achieve independence, it was just about resisting," adds Lebre.

In 1999, a combination of international pressure, economic woes due to the 1997 Asian financial crisis and 'democratising' politics from the post-Suharto Indonesian government resulted in the East Timorese being granted a referendum on independence, and 78% of the population voted in favour. This brought an end to the 24-year occupation, during which between 100,000 and 200,000 people died from a population estimated at 600,000 in 1975. Timor-Leste was officially granted independence three years later on May 20, 2002.

Today, 64-year-old Lebre spends much of his time behind an old desktop computer in his Dili home, writing his memoir. "I'm enjoying writing about our history, there is a lot to be written," he says. Once finished, this will be a welcome addition to a skeletal body of work on the country.

"There has been relatively little research into Timor-Leste," says Clinton Fernandes, an associate professor at the University of New South Wales, Australia. "Major universities around the world haven't devoted time to it. Major motion pictures and documentaries haven't been made about it. Novels and memoirs aren't [published] internationally about it."

International understanding of Timor-Leste's past is certainly limited, but the East Timorese people face an even greater challenge: how to write their own history.

According to Michael Leach, an associate professor at Swinburne University in Australia, any post-conflict nation would struggle with writing its national history. Questions abound, such as, who should write it? How does it include disparate social groups? How does it foster a new national identity without blurring the truth?

One of the first tasks for independent Timor-Leste was to jettison historical narratives established by the Indonesian regime. A new story was adopted: one of struggle, or funu in the local Tetum language. It is a unifying tale, a positive saga of regular people fighting against foreign invaders for almost 500 years, and it fostered the powerful new sense of nationalism that is essential for any young country.

As Leach found in a 2006 study on the subject, this account is popular with the East Timorese people. Though it isn't without its problems.

The first issue is that the story was shaped by the nationalists that led the independence movement, who articulated it initially in newspapers, speeches and propaganda during the resistance. When those same leaders penned the constitution of independent Timor-Leste in 2002, the narrative acquired official status.

"The constitution [essentially] requires the history of the independence struggle to be valourised," says Damien Kingsbury, professor of international politics at Deakin University, Australia. "Because of this, the people associated with it are also valourised and seen as heroes."

Dom Boaventura, a figurehead of a 1912 rebellion against the Portuguese, became one symbol of funu, while contemporary guerrilla leaders such as Nicolau Lobato, Xanana Gusmao and Taur Matan Ruak were heralded as the heroes of the second anti-colonial struggle.

"[The historical narrative] gives political legitimacy to anyone with a role in the resistance," says Kingsbury. Indeed, the independence leaders came to dominate the politics of post-conflict Timor-Leste. Gusmao was the country's first president and Ruak assumed the position in 2012.

This politicised the historical narrative and, according to Leach, developed into a "history war" between the country's political elites over the "ownership" of the independence struggle. Some members of the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (Fretilin), the political party that announced independence in 1975 and began the armed struggle against Indonesia, claim that historical revisionism has taken place, putting more emphasis on the latter years of the struggle.

Many non-political groups have also voiced their anger at being left out of the narrative and denied the material and symbolic rewards of independence. This came to a head in 2006, when the country was destabilised by widespread violence. Dozens were killed, tens of thousands were left homeless and assassination attempts were made on both the president and prime minister.

It appeared that the state-endorsed historical account was not as unifying as once thought.

One of the core policies of independent Timor-Leste has been the remuneration of independence-struggle veterans. The NGO La'o Hamutuk estimates that, by 2013, there were 37,000 registered veterans collectively receiving annual pensions of $67m.

However, many former members of the clandestine movement have been denied veteran payments, and some believe their efforts have been devalued in the historical narrative, which is dominated by the guerrillas.

Women have also seen their role in the independence struggle overlooked. Speaking in 2010, the secretary general of the Popular Organisation of East Timorese Women, Lourdes Maria Araujo, told an audience: "It has now been [almost] ten years since we have restored our independence, but the leaders have forgotten the contribution and values [that women brought to the struggle]."

According to academic researcher Lia Kent, of the Australian National University, women played an instrumental role, making up 60% of the clandestine movement. However, she wrote in a recent essay, there is an "implicit assumption that the resistance was an overwhelmingly male struggle", and the veterans' scheme "has discriminated against women".

A narrative that venerates the independence struggle also excludes, or even demonises, the section of society that supported the Indonesian occupation. How these people fit into the story as anything other than 'traitors' remains unclear.

The academic Douglas Kammen argued in a 2003 essay that, following the Portuguese exit, "with the abdication of the colonial master, the central metaphor of politics shifted from masters and slaves to traitors and nationalists... For older East Timorese, the labels 'traitor' and 'nationalist'... remain powerfully alive".

According to Leach, there has been a long-running process of reconciliation between independence supporters and the minority that supported and facilitated the Indonesian occupation. "There are bitter and unresolved legacies... just below the surface of East Timorese society, with a largely unaddressed history of violence, including crimes against humanity committed during the Indonesian occupation," Leach wrote in an essay titled "The Politics of History in Timor-Leste".

Another question is how the younger generation, which did not experience Indonesian occupation or the ideologies of the resistance, establishes its own historical perspective. As Leach argues, something "indigenous", based on the history of Timor-Leste before Portuguese colonisation, or on everyday life during colonisation, holds more appeal for this generation.

Nevertheless, it should be remembered that Timor-Leste has only been independent for 13 years, a relatively short period of time to fully comprehend its complex and turbulent past. And it does appear that the government is trying to provide a landscape in which a historical narrative centred on struggle against colonial powers can be interpreted by future generations untouched by the fight for independence.

Earlier this year, the government announced an initiative called 'National Mourning-End', that encourages Timor-Leste to remember the past but not be consumed by it.

"[The initiative] is trying not to look back at the negatives and the claims for redress that are unable to be met, especially in terms of compensation from Indonesia and trials for crimes against humanity," says Kingsbury.

Leach sees this as taking a pragmatic approach that says: "The loss of human life... will never be forgotten, but it is time to move to national development." However, he adds, "there are a lot of victims who are arguably being left behind".

Furthermore, the politics of history is becoming less divisive thanks to a rapprochement between the two main political parties. This was described in 2014 by Agio Pereira, the minister of state, as the "new politics of national consensus". It culminated earlier this year with Gusmao handing over the prime ministership to a member of the opposition, Fretilin's Rui Maria de Araujo – an act that was also symbolic of a generational shift. Araujo, aged 51, is the first head of state not from the so-called '75 generation' of guerrillas, and was instead a member of the clandestine movement based in Indonesia.

According to Kingsbury, this changing of the guard means that the "elders" will become even more "venerated" as the heroes of the resistance, solidifying their positions as the founding fathers of Timor-Leste.

Leach, however, believes greater unity among the political classes and a new generation of leaders coming through will depoliticise history, allowing non-political actors to add to the narrative. It will also allow the country to develop a proper national history curriculum for schools. According to Leach, a curriculum does exist for primary school children, but not for older pupils, and this leaves teachers to expound the past on an ad-hoc basis. "The history of occupation is a very difficult thing to teach... many things are still not being spoken about. But this is common in any post-colonial society," he says.

According to Fernandes, there are some "fine people" working in the education system, but they are hampered by the government's lack of investment. "[However], the new prime minister is a breath of fresh air and [should] give these areas higher priority," Fernandes adds. "I hope he does. His country depends on it."

Back in Pedro Lebre's humble Dili home, the former guerrilla agrees that now is an important time for the country. "We must move on and build a new Timor-Leste," he says. "We must look to the future and not just to the past... But history is dynamic; it doesn't end. I want to finish my memoir, but it's difficult because once you have your eyes open to what is around you, you have to keep writing."

Source: http://sea-globe.com/battle-for-timor-leste-past/

The truth about John Howard's East Timor 'liberation'

The Sunday Paper - December 19, 2015

John Martinkus – As Indonesian troops fired on a compound of refugees in Dili, John Howard directed the AFP to withdraw. Had they followed orders, they would have left 3000 people to certain death.

It was, as I reported at the time, John Howard and Alexander Downer's Srebrenica moment. On the night of September 8, 1999, I was standing next to the head of the Australian Federal Police delegation sent to provide "security" and oversee the United Nations ballot on East Timorese independence. He was on one of the few satellite phones left in the UN compound. He was talking to the then Australian prime minister. Howard was saying the AFP must evacuate and leave the 3000 or so refugees taking shelter in the compound to their fate.

To those there, it was obvious what such an evacuation would mean. There was heavy gunfire coming over the compound on all sides. The former school compound was the last bastion in a town being destroyed and depopulated by the Indonesian military, police and their militia proxies – part of a long-planned campaign of revenge against the East Timorese for voting for independence from Indonesia. Had the AFP followed Howard's directive and pulled out, there would have been a massacre.

The Indonesian troops and police wanted the foreigners gone. They were banging away with automatic weapons outside the gates to terrify and intimidate the remaining UN staff, AFP and journalists into leaving on the regular and conveniently arranged evacuation flights. They did not want witnesses.

On that night, Wednesday, September 8, 1999, the leader of the UN mission tasked with carrying out the ballot for or against independence from Indonesia, Ian Martin, held a press conference. The 20 or so journalists who had not evacuated turned up. Dirty, dishevelled, unwashed. We had been sleeping on the ground in the pressroom since we had been forced from our hotels by Indonesian troops who knocked open the doors of our rooms and demanded we leave. They gave us two options: the airport for evacuation or the compound. Now. Move. It was an order, not a request, carried out with the pointing of a barrel of a still-warm M16.

Some of us took the latter option, and went to the little UN compound. There a whole new drama was about to unfold. There were scenes of awful desperation, as refugees from the fighting were throwing children over razor wire fences. Their suffering and fear was real. Out there beyond the wire, chaos reigned. There were killings, looting and burnings going on day after day, carried out by the Indonesian military, the police and their proxies in the militia.

As this chaos unfolded, the UN declared at that late evening press conference that it would leave. Outside in the compound, word of the impending evacuation spread like wildfire. Timorese who had risked their lives working for the UN or campaigning for independence realised they were going to be abandoned by the international community with which they had sought shelter. It was a low moment for the UN, the AFP and the other unarmed national police and military that were supposed to be providing security for the besieged mission.

It was Alan Mills who was standing next to me as all this happened, the head of the Australian Federal Police mission. He was on one of the few satellite phones left in the compound. Mobile phones no longer worked. It was very hard to contact the outside world. Mills was talking to Howard. "Yes sir, yes sir," I heard him say, a volley of gunfire overhead muffling the sound. "Yes sir. We will leave in the morning."

According to Australian Federal Police officer Wayne Sievers, a meeting of all the AFP had been called at 6pm. Commissioner Mills addressed them. "He told us to pack our things, we were going to evacuate the next day," Sievers told me. "He was challenged by one or two of our people."

According to Sievers' account, Kendall Clarke, an Australian policewoman from Melbourne, said: "How dare you! You know what will happen to all these people if you leave them here." To which Mills replied: "Don't be a drama queen. We've got to look after ourselves first."

Sievers found himself thinking that, among the AFP contingent, confidence in Mills' leadership was at an all-time low. "The Aussie police were so fucking angry at the thought of leaving all these people here."

A petition was organised, to inform the leadership they were not going to leave. "Some of us were of the view that if we did stay and there was not a resolution, there was a better than even money chance Indonesian army intelligence would send the militia over the wall for us."

Commissioner Mills was in regular phone contact with Howard throughout this. It was clear to those there that the Australian government was pushing the decision to leave the East Timorese to their fate.

Personal and political legacies

Both Howard and then foreign minister Alexander Downer have claimed the subsequent Australian-led peacekeeping force into East Timor as one of the greatest achievements of their time in office. In Howard's 2010 memoir, he wrote: "When asked to list the achievements of my prime ministership of which I am most proud, I always include the liberation of East Timor." He told SBS: "It's got problems, it's got governance issues, but it's free... I'm very proud of the role Australia played in bringing that about. It's one of the more noble things Australia has done on the international front for many years."

But a small group of journalists, AFP officers and some UN workers, many now dead, know the lie to claim. When the situation was at its most critical, the Australian government baulked and only after massive domestic and international pressure was forced to act and send in the peacekeepers many had been calling for as the previous year of massacres and killings unfolded before the eyes of the foreign media in East Timor.

So what happened to those Australian Federal Police tasked with an impossible mission, then told to abandon it? Wayne Sievers gives us a glimpse of how the mission that ended in the UN compound affected him personally. Sick with malaria and dengue fever, he signed the petition to stay to save the refugees. He was evacuated with me and most of the journalists on September 10, 1999.

He later wrote, in a submission for compensation for post-traumatic stress: "These feelings of hyper-vigilance have had a profound impact on my work on another level... People such as me often found ourselves operating alone and unsupported doing the best we could with what we had on hand.

"I have never again trusted public sector cultures and their claimed values to deliver people to leadership positions based on genuine merit. It is all about faking it and cultivating relationships, and I see it all the time in my current employment. Nothing has changed from my service in East Timor. I also developed an intense mistrust of politicians, given we were sent unarmed into East Timor to do something that was impossible. I believed then as now that Australia's political leaders completely misjudged the situation on the ground, and then lied about the extent of their knowledge to avoid political embarrassment."

Another unnamed AFP source said: "My mission to East Timor was incredibly badly led by a number of key individuals. The senior Australian officers were appointed on the basis of political loyalty or nepotism, and not on their ability to lead staff in life-threatening situations. When we most needed leadership in the most dire of situations, these officers were conspicuous by their absence."

Faced with a near rebellion by UN staffers, UN police and journalists, Ian Martin announced a temporary postponement of the evacuation in the early hours of September 9. I remember being woken by the UN spokesman, Brian Kelly, to attend the announcement in his office at 2am. "We can't," he said, "make the announcement without the wire services, can we?"

Martin announced the evacuation would be delayed 24 hours. Outside, almost as soon as I filed my report to the Associated Press, the shooting stopped. The order to back off had come through. Meanwhile, many of the refugees losing faith in the UN had decided to risk death by escaping the compound, through gunfire, up the hills to the precarious safety away from the Indonesian military and their militia proxies.

Wayne Sievers was among those who helped those who chose to flee, but it still haunts him. "In desperation, I and a number of other Australian police began to facilitate the escape of those refugees who wished to leave the compound. We did this by opening a gap in the hillside back fence, affording access to a track which led up to Dare in the mountains. At Dare they could shelter with the Catholic Church or with Falintil resistance movement. We did not know that the Indonesian military had placed soldiers with automatic weapons in several positions overlooking the track. They opened fire on anyone attempting to pass. I still carry with me the near certainty that some of those I helped to escape were murdered in cold blood. The guilt is crushing, even to this day, for me." Evacuation and return

In the end it was negotiated that the remaining 1450 East Timorese would be evacuated to Darwin, along with all but 12 of the UN staff who would then move to the Australian consulate. Journalists were told if they stayed they had to leave the compound. I left two days after the Howard phone call, but a few journalists stayed. Max Stahl and Robert Carroll followed the refugees up the hills. Three Dutch female journalists and Marie Colvin, later killed in Syria, tried to stay but left a few days later after the UN threatened to evict them. One American journalist, Allan Nairn, was arrested by the Indonesians, alone in the deserted compound. The Indonesian job was done, with capitulation from Australia: they could kill, loot and destroy without any witnesses from the outside world.

The Indonesians had 10 days to clean up the bodies. At Darwin airport on October 20, as I prepared to board a military flight with the first wave of Australian Army back to Dili, Howard talked to journalists on the tarmac, basking in the reflected glory of a deployment he had long denied was necessary. We arrived back in a city destroyed and deserted. Bodies were there one minute, then gone the next, collected by the remaining Indonesian troops.

For the Australian Federal Police who had been sent unarmed to prevent these unpreventable massacres, the effects of the experience cannot be shaken. "I remain consumed by guilt that I could have saved more people by acting smarter, or with more courage," Sievers says, "or by simply making better operational choices when making life and death decisions in the heat of the moment."

Source: https://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/world/asia-pacific/2015/12/19/the-truth-about-john-howards-east-timor-liberation/14504436002769

Indonesia's Fretilin hit-list and Australia's quiet support for it

New Matilda - December 14, 2015

Peter Job – In early October the Timor-Leste Prime Minister Rui Maria de Araujo announced that after two years of inconclusive talks his nation was initiating arbitration with Australia on jurisdiction concerning seabed resources in the Timor Sea, which he described as, "an issue of sovereignty and an issue of justice".

This month Xanana Gusmao declared that Timor-Leste would appeal to Australians' sense of fair play to push their government into meaningful talks. With the issue central to Timor-Leste's future, it is worthwhile looking at how Australia's behaviour in the past has impacted on the Timorese people.

In the National Archives of Australia earlier this year I came across an extraordinary document. Entitled, "Steps to Prevent Communist Agitators to Escape" it appears to be a 'hit list' of prominent Timorese leaders prepared by the Indonesian authorities in August 1975, in the lead up to the invasion.

Its list of 19 so-called, "suspected communist agitators" includes Nicolau Lobato, the Fretilin leader and President of the republic who was killed by Indonesian forces in 1978; Jose Ramos Horta, who in exile led the struggle for his nation's liberation and earned the Noble Prize for Peace for doing so; Antonio Carvarino, the Fretilin leader and writer who was killed by the Indonesian military immediately upon his capture in February 1979; and Rosa Muki Bonaparte, secretary of the Popular Organisation of Timorese Women, executed by Indonesian forces upon her capture the day after the invasion on 8 December 1975.

The handwritten document urges measures be undertaken, "to avoid the escape of communist guilt leaders", making specific allegations against Fretilin members concerning links with the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI) and various communist countries.

The allegations are not supported by evidence; even the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) assessments at the time concluded Fretilin was a fundamentally nationalist non-communist movement, and links between it and a by then almost completely defunct PKI are not documented.

The document was handed to Australian diplomat Alan Taylor by Indonesian intelligence operative Harry Tjan in early September 1975, some two and a half months before the invasion.

Taylor's covering letter indicates that it was forwarded to the DFA Secretary Alan Renouf. There is no further documentation relating to it, no evidence that it became a subject of policy discussion and certainly no evidence that concerns were raised about it with Indonesian authorities.

This matter can be understood in the context of a series of briefings provided by Indonesian intelligence operatives in the year and a half before the invasion. Officials from the intelligence organisation OPSUS approached officials at the Australian embassy in Jakarta in July 1974 to inform them they intended to mount a clandestine operation to ensure East Timor became part of Indonesia.

The many briefings that followed were remarkably candid, outlining activities ranging from radio propaganda to the training of pro-Indonesian forces to destabilise East Timor to produce a pretext for intervention.

The Australian officials who heard, documented and learned of them were also remarkably compliant in failing to express concern, an attitude that would have encouraged the hardliners in the Suharto regime pressing for invasion.

At the instigation of Indonesian intelligence, the conservative East Timorese party UDT instigated a coup in August 1975. Fretilin responded with a call to arms, and after a brief civil war gained control of the territory. Having had its hand forced, but still seeking orderly decolonisation, Fretilin then called for a Portuguese return and international assistance to support a legal decolonisation process to avoid the Indonesian invasion they feared was coming.

The Indonesian intelligence services with which DFA officials were cooperating acted somewhat differently.

OPSUS briefings during this period informed Australian officials of the arming and training of anti-Fretilin forces in West Timor, the infiltration of thousands of Indonesian army regulars disguised as Timorese forces as well as prior warnings of specific Indonesian military operations, including the attack on Balibo which claimed the lives of five Australian- based journalists.

Meanwhile to the Australian public and international community, Australian representatives told a very different story. When Jose Ramos Horta visited Australia in December 1974, DFA officials told him Indonesians had assured them they would, "scrupulously respect the outcome of an act of self- determination".

Whitlam's principal private secretary wrote to the Fretilin and UDT leadership in March 1975 stating that reports of plans for military action had been denied by the Indonesian government and that, "the Australian Government... was glad to receive this confirmation from the Indonesian authorities".

Whitlam informed the House of Representatives in August 1975 that Indonesian leaders had, "denied that Indonesia has any territorial ambitions towards Portuguese Timor". He wrote to the Secretary of the Waterside Waters Federation in September 1975 stating that Suharto, "has been clearly and strongly committed to a process of peaceful decolonisation" and had "thus far... exercised considerable restraint".

Such phrases and sentiments were echoed by DFA officials in their responses to public concerns.

As one Australian diplomat pointed out, the briefings were a form of consultation. Through their acquiescence Australian representatives from the highest levels down effectively gave their assent. Through their public denials they took this a step further, lying to the public and the international community about what they knew, becoming instruments and propagandists not only of the Suharto regime, but of the particular faction within it most bent on undermining the Timorese decolonisation process, if necessary through subversion and violence.

Nor was this process an empty inquiry on the part of Indonesian intelligence. The evidence indicates that the Suharto regime was highly conflicted about its intentions regarding East Timor, with deep concerns from some, including Suharto himself, about the impact an Indonesian invasion would have on Indonesia's international standing.

Australia's continued acquiescence – and at times outright encouragement – of Indonesian intervention throughout the year and a half prior to the invasion would have been a strong factor in the decisions to engage in such activities, and in the final decision to invade.

The action of an Indonesian intelligence officer in translating this document into English and providing it to an Australian diplomat can be understood as a form of consultation – an attempt, and a successful one, of producing Australian complicity with planned Indonesian actions.

Twenty-four years of Indonesian occupation, effectively supported for most of this time by a series of compliant Australian governments, left the economy and infrastructure of the nation devastated and created a death toll that credible demographic analysis puts in the hundreds of thousands.

Timor-Leste today is an independent nation and a parliamentary democracy, yet it remains one of the poorest nations in Asia. More than anything its future will depend on a just and equitable settlement of the maritime boundary.

Since Timor-Leste's independence, Australia has worked against this, withdrawing from jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice, spying on the Timor-Leste cabinet room during the negotiation process of the resources treaty and using what it learned to force an inequitable outcome, even later raiding the offices of Timor-Leste's barrister and seizing documents.

A settlement of the boundary based on a midway point, as was the ALP position in 2000, would have meant billions of dollars of oil and gas revenue flowing to Timor-Leste that has since gone to Australia, dwarfing the comparatively small amount of aid we have provided.

We cannot turn the clock back to 1975. But an equitable settlement of the Timor Sea boundary based on international law will at least provide the Timorese people the opportunity to move forward into a stable economic future.

Given our history it is the very least the Australian people should demand of their government.

[Peter Job was an activist in support of East Timor during the Indonesian occupation. He is presently completing a PhD on Australian policy towards the invasion and occupation at the University of New South Wales in Canberra.]

Source: https://newmatilda.com/2015/12/14/blind-eyes-indonesias-fretilin-hit-list-and-australias-quiet-support-for-it/

Kopassus veterans mark 40 years since Indonesia's invasion of East Timor

ABC News - December 8, 2015

Adam Harvey – The 40th anniversary of Indonesia's invasion of East Timor was marked yesterday with a small commemoration at the headquarters of the nation's Kopassus special forces.

The special forces soldiers saw the worst of the fighting in the months following the landings in Dili on December 7, 1975.

Following a naval bombardment, hundreds of paratroopers were dropped into Dili, beginning a brutal conflict and guerrilla war that did not fully end until East Timorese independence in 1999.

More than 100,000 Timorese died in the conflict, which ended only when Indonesia allowed a referendum on independence in 1999. It was a controversial war notable for many human rights abuses, but there is little discussion about it in Indonesia.

At the event yesterday, veterans watched a video presentation that showed them as fit young men. They are now all in their 60s and 70s and some of them can barely walk.

Indonesian government minister Luhut Panjaitan was a Kopassus commando in East Timor and was the main attraction at yesterday's commemoration. "Forty years ago we went out for operation in East Timor from this building – of course there are a lot of memories," he said.

Rafendi Jamin, the director of the Human Rights Working Group Indonesia, is one of the few Indonesians who know the significance of December 7. "It's not something that's remembered by the general public at all," he said.

'We tried our best to carry out our duty'

Mr Panjaitan said he and his fellow commandos thought they were doing the right thing in a global fight against communism.

In December 1975, as the special forces mission began against East Timor's left-wing government, US secretary of state Henry Kissinger was in Jakarta for talks with Indonesian president Suharto.

"Kissinger was visiting Jakarta actually giving a green light for the operation because of the fear of communism," said Mr Panjaitan.

"That was the briefing that we received. So when the next day we were blamed, it was politics, I learned that. We were blamed for things while we tried our best to carry out our duty."

Mr Jarmin agrees that in 1975, Indonesia was in step with the West. The Australian Government made no objection to the invasion.

"It was really part of the Cold War," he said. "The anti-communist regime of Indonesia at the time, in 1975, was happily joining forces with Australia and the West."

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-08/indonesia-marks-invasion-of-east-timor/7008858

Analysis & opinion

Spectre of the past

New Mandala - December 10, 2015

Ivo Mateus Goncalves – Forty years has come and gone since East Timor was invaded by Indonesia's military.

On 7 December 1975 Jakarta commenced an occupation of the tiny island that would last 24 years, finally ending in 1999.

After a long struggle against a brutal regime, East Timor's people decided their own fate through the ballot box, with a referendum on independence held under the watchful eye of the United Nations.

In the aftermath of independence, fully restored in 2002, Indonesia was one of the first countries to install an embassy in East Timor.

But like a cruel reminder of a nightmare past, the compound was the building formerly used by the BIN (Badan Intelijen Negara, or State Intelligence Agency) to torture local Timorese.

These days, those East Timorese who lived under occupation remember their former master through the endless patrols of Indonesian military and Timorese proxies that roamed the country at midnight, and which left mothers screaming for their lost sons and widows mourning for husbands taken away to be 'schooled'. Many never came home.

Well-known journalist and former Falintil guerrilla, Jose Antonio Belo, once said, 'to be free, you have to sacrifice.' It sounds so easy, but in reality it is not that simple.

As a widow once told me, 'imagine if suffering is a type of meal and you are eating it every day.'

From the moment Indonesia deployed their soldiers and instigated a reign that used terror and torture, East Timor fed on suffering. The atrocities committed by the Indonesian military caused an exaggerated radicalisation within East Timor's national liberation movement.

Violence against women also became common; it was more hygienic and effective to kill guerrilleros in the womb then in the mountains or the village. Various military doctors sterilised thousands of women, a major contributor to the loss of one-third of the country's population since the military invasion.

Today, there is a tendency within East Timor's government to bury the past, with officials rarely mentioning the word 'invasion'. Instead, the anniversary of the barbaric occupation has a new name; 'National Mourning Day.' And so, after many bodies were buried, the politics of language found fertile ground.

According to this way of thinking, what happened was no military invasion, but simply a historical tragedy and the effect of the Cold War. In this way, the invasion is not solely the responsibility of Indonesia's government but also the international community, which put bilateral ties ahead of the East Timor people, the vast majority of whom lost loved ones during occupation.

Will calls for justice ever be heeded? Most likely not. This preference for white-washing history is an important wake-up call.

Decolonising East Timor's history is a rocky road. But it's important for East Timorese leaders, intellectuals and the whole of society to break the chains of a bitter colonial legacy. Only then can the nation re-emerge from a historical black hole, and a tortured past.

[Ivo Mateus Goncalves is an independent researcher based in Dili, East Timor.]

Source: http://asiapacific.anu.edu.au/newmandala/2015/12/10/spectre-of-the-past/

Open the Asean door to Timor-Leste

Straits Times - December 3, 2015

Shane Rosenthal – The impending launch of the Asean Economic Community was marked last month at a summit in Kuala Lumpur. It is a time to showcase Asean's commitment to a region made prosperous through economic cooperation and integration.

This should also be the time for Asean to consider opening the door to a new member. Timor-Leste is Asia's youngest country – a stable democracy positioned at the crossroads of South-east Asia and the Pacific. Acceptance as a member country would enhance its prospects for economic development while further strengthening the organisation's centrality and relevance.

Timor-Leste has made remarkable progress since gaining independence in 2002. At that time, its infrastructure was in disrepair, social services were absent and government institutions were at their inception. A process of state building ensued and, despite brief periods of instability, the country now has a well- functioning government and is using its modest petroleum wealth to foster long-term economic growth.

Gaining membership has been a priority for Timor-Leste throughout its short history. Successive governments have made the case through diplomatic efforts, such as signing on to the Asean Regional Forum in 2005 and the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation in South-east Asia two years later. By next year, Timor-Leste will have embassies in the capitals of every Asean member country.

These are impressive achievements for a young country, but they are not surprising to the development partners that are helping rebuild its infrastructure and develop the skills needed for its economy to continue expanding.

Newly paved roads now connect Timorese with their Indonesian neighbours, and electricity reaches almost every corner of the country. Deregulation has transformed mobile telecommunications to such a degree that companies from two member countries – Vietnam and Indonesia – are now competing for a growing and increasingly connected customer base.

While many of Timor-Leste's nearly 1.2 million people remain poor, huge strides have been made to improve living conditions and increase life opportunities. Infant mortality has halved since independence, and the incidence of malaria has fallen by 95 per cent. Primary school enrolment rose from 65 per cent in 2001 to 92 per cent in 2013, and the proportion of parliamentary seats held by women stands at 38 per cent, the highest in Asia.

The Asean Charter sets out four criteria for membership, three of which are clearly satisfied by Timor-Leste: It is located in South-east Asia, is recognised by the 10 Asean nations, and would confidently agree to be bound and to abide by the organisation's charter.

The fourth requirement, demonstrating an "ability and willingness to carry out the obligations of membership", is for Asean's members to judge.

While Timor-Leste's willingness to fulfil its obligations is not in question, concerns have been raised about its readiness to participate in the organisation's economic, political-security and socio-cultural communities, given the hundreds of meetings the grouping holds each year, including those with Asean Plus partners.

Timor-Leste's track record on governance suggests it would be a worthy member. The country has held three open elections without incident, and participates actively in international organisations such as the G7 Plus group of post- conflict states and the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. Timor-Leste also represents a model for managing natural-resources wealth, ranking near the top of the international Resources Governance Index, ahead of several Asean members.

Asean members appear open to Timor-Leste's application. The country's ambassador to the Jakarta-based Secretariat was accredited in 2011, the same year the Asean Coordinating Council established a working group that commissioned studies on what it would mean for Timor-Leste to join. When the final study is completed, it should be possible to map out a path to full membership.

Membership is a win-win proposition. It would help Timor-Leste to attract investment, develop trade links and diversify its economy. It already has one of the most open trade policies in the region, but joining such a high-profile organisation would send a powerful signal to investors and help to accelerate integration with the rest of South-east Asia.

Asean, too, would benefit from the young population and strategic location of Timor-Leste. The inspirational story of Timor-Leste and its impressive development would be a shining example for all member states. It would give added meaning to the grouping's members as they journey toward its Vision 2025, which calls for a "politically cohesive, economically integrated, socially responsible" Asean.

Timor-Leste has emerged as an able and willing member of the community of nations. The time has come for this country to take the next step on its road to prosperity.

[The writer is country director at the Asian Development Bank's resident mission in Timor-Leste.]

Source: http://www.straitstimes.com/opinion/open-the-asean-door-to-timor-leste


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