TABLE OF CONTENTS

POLITICAL/SOCIAL CRISIS

* Timor asks UN for foreign police force

* Downer flags significant Timor troop withdrawal

* Lobato retracts admission he armed hit squad

* Timor minister claims rights abuse by Diggers

* Dili refugee camps considered too good to leave

* ’Substantial’ UN police presence needed in
restive Timor

* Troops hand Dili’s streets over to police

* East Timor: The people are paying the price

* Timor presence to be rebalanced: PM

* New East Timor government sworn in

* Ramos-Horta named as Timor’s new prime minister

* Jose Ramos-Horta, the voice of East Timor

* Alkatiri lashes Australia over bias

* Fretilin takes aim at legal system

* Ramos Horta urges Australia to lead UN force

JUSTICE & RECONCILIATION

* UN’s legacy of shame in Timor

* Officials, TNI back probe into Timor Leste
abuses

DAILY MEDIA REVIEWS

East Timor daily media review - July 3-31

OPINION & ANALYSIS

* What next for Timor?

* Conspiracy theory haunts East Timor

* Doubts linger on Horta’s ability

* How the UN failed Timor Leste

* Horta a good choice but challenges lie ahead:
analysts

* Unanswered questions in power plays

* A prime minister deposed, but at great cost

* East Timor: Deepening of elite crisis

* East Timor after Alkatiri: nation or
protectorate?

* ’Own goals’ only in East Timor

* Coffee shop politics of little help to Timor
crisis

* The unusual suspect

 POLITICAL/SOCIAL CRISIS

Timor asks UN for foreign police force

Australian Associated Press - July 27, 2006

Australian police could be deployed in East Timor
for another five years and in greater numbers
after the strife-torn country asked the United
Nations to set up an 800-strong multinational
force.

New Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta said that
within two weeks the UN Security Council would
consider a request for a bigger-than-expected
foreign police force capable of rebuilding and
bolster the current deployment.

"We are talking about a five-year commitment, but
the Security Council most likely now will start
with a two-year mission with more than 800 police
that will have a multiple function," he said ahead
of a regional security summit in Kuala Lumpur.

"It will do regular policing and will do training
in many fields, not only operational matters, but
also police administration, police management."

East Timor’s own 1,000-strong police force is in
disarray after it clashed with parts of the rival
army in May, plunging Timor into weeks of fighting
between security factions and ethnic gangs.

On Thursday, Ramos Horta said the police force had
grown too fast and had been poorly trained.

Many members of the force has fled the violence,
which left 30 people dead and tens of thousands
homeless in makeshift tent camps after former
Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri sacked hundreds of
disgruntled soldiers.

In the worst atrocity of the unrest, Timorese
soldiers turned their guns on police, massacring
12 officers outside police headquarters in Dili on
May 25.

Ramos Horta said he had talked to both Thailand
and the Philippines about a police contribution,
although it was too early to say what shape the UN
presence would take.

"It must not be guided only by cost-cutting
calculations,“he said.”Nation-building is a
long-term process."

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer
admitted it would be difficult to assemble an
800-strong police force for East Timor.

That could mean a fresh request for more police
from Australia and New Zealand, adding to around
250 already on the ground.

"Eight hundred is a very big number. I wouldn’t
like to put a figure on it, but I think the focus
in terms of providing security for East Timor is
going to have to be more on police than the
military,“Mr Downer said.”It’s extremely hard to get police forces around
the world to provide support to international
police operations and UN police operations for
reasons being that police are pretty much
committed on the ground in the individual members
states."

Mr Downer said East Timor’s police force had been
dysfunctional and it would take time to rebuild
and organise.

---

Downer flags significant Timor troop withdrawal

Reuters - July 26, 2006

Australia will cut its peacekeeping troops in East
Timor by the end of this year, Foreign Minister
Alexander Downer announced today, signalling that
tension is easing in the troubled state.

But the Federal Government is still undecided over
whether to deploy policemen under a UN mandate to
keep peace in the country, he told reporters on
the sidelines of a global security conference.

Australia is leading a 2,500-strong international
peacekeeping force, which also includes troops
from Malaysia, New Zealand and Portugal, that was
brought in to restore peace in the tiny country,
Asia’s newest state.

"Certainly with 1,300, we certainly have more than
we believe we are likely to need over the next six
months,“Mr Downer said.”At this stage, the
expectation is we will be reducing the number and
reducing it quite significantly by the end of the
year," he said.

East Timor plunged into political crisis nearly
three months ago when former prime minister Mari
Alkatiri dismissed around 600 soldiers, mostly
from the country’s west, after they protested
against discrimination.

UN secretary general Kofi Annan has said he hoped
UN-led police and troops could join the
Australian-led troops in six months and eventually
take over the peacekeeping operation. Mr Downer
said Australia had not yet decided whether to
contribute to the UN force.

Australia’s peacekeeping mission is the second
time in recent years the Government has sent
troops to restore order in East Timor. Australia
led a multi-national force in 1999 following a
vote for independence marked by violence blamed
largely on pro-Jakarta militia with ties to the
Indonesian army.

---

Lobato retracts admission he armed hit squad

Sydney Morning Herald - July 26, 2006

Lindsay Murdoch — East Timor’s former interior
minister, Rogerio Lobato, twice admitted during
closed court hearings that he armed civilian
Timorese so they could murder enemies of the
ruling Fretilin party, court monitors have
revealed.

Lobato admitted guilt when confronted with the
allegation during hearings in Dili on June 22 and
July 1, the Judicial System Monitoring Program
said.

But five days after the July 1 hearing, Lobato’s
lawyers reportedly prepared documents denying the
allegations and claiming that he was coerced by
Australian soldiers into making false declarations
in court. A defence spokesman denied the
allegations. Lobato was placed under house arrest
last month.

The monitoring program, which was set up in 2001
to help build East Timor’s judicial system, said
that Lobato’s three lawyers were in court on July
1 when he agreed with accusations based on the
testimony of Vicente da Conceicao, a former
guerilla fighter known as “Railos”.

In statements presented in court Mr da Conceicao
said that Lobato gave him weapons and ordered him
to murder political opponents of the ruling
Fretilin party, including disgruntled army
officers.

He said Lobato was acting with the full knowledge
of the now deposed prime minister, Mari Alkatiri,
who was questioned by prosecutors last week.
Prosecutors have indicated Mr Alkatiri is being
treated as a suspect in the case. Lobato could
face up to 15 years in jail if found guilty.

Agence France-Presse reports that East Timorese
police who had illegally kept weapons in their
homes for protection during the recent weeks of
unrest have surrendered more than 50 firearms to
Australian peacekeepers.

---

Timor minister claims rights abuse by Diggers

The Australian - July 21, 2006

Mark Dodd — Lawyers for East Timor’s disgraced
former interior minister, Rogerio Lobato, have
accused Australian soldiers of breaking
international human rights laws when they hauled
him from his home last month on charges of gun
running.

Documents prepared by Mr Lobato’s lawyers and seen
by The Australian, deny charges that he conspired
to arm pro-government civilians to silence critics
of the former Alkatiri government.

The documents, dated July 6, underscore Portuguese
government claims of Australian interference in
the internal affairs of East Timor during the
recent political crisis. Mr Lobato’s three foreign
lawyers — Paulo Remedios, Francisco Nicolau and
Mendonca de Freitas — arrived in Dili from
Portugal and Macau on June 28, one week after Mr 
Lobato was arrested at his Dili residence.

They claim Mr Lobato committed no crime and
denounced what they described as human rights
abuses, including breaches of the Geneva
Conventions, committed against him by the
Australian military. The Australian Defence Force
last night denied the allegations.

But the lawyers’ statement said: "Mr Lobato was
taken by physical force from his house (under)
arrest without any warrant and any explanation by
the Australian troops and taken to the Court of
Dili which has been occupied by Australian
military men. "At the court Mr Lobato was coerced
to make declarations under Australian military
vigilance and intimidation."

It also claimed the Australian actions constituted
a "violation of international conventions and
international criminal procedure". Australian
soldiers were accused of mistreating Mr Lobato
while he was under arrest by denying him food
prepared by his sister after he was arrested.

The ADF spokesman in Dili, Major James Baker, said
no formal complaints had been made against the
Australian military over its involvement in the
Lobato arrest.

"We haven’t received any allegations of human
rights abuses on this operation,“he said.”We
would of course work with the authorities in
investigating any allegations, were they to be
made.

"The (joint taskforce) is already on record in
outlining our involvement in the arrest of Mr 
Lobato, which was limited to providing security
for the prosecutor to conduct his duties in
safety."

Mr Lobato is accused of arming critics of then
prime minister Mari Alkatiri during a surge in
unrest earlier this year that forced the
deployment of an Australian-led peacekeeping force
and ultimately resulted in Dr Alkatiri’s
resignation last month.

More than 2000 Australian troops and police remain
in East Timor but John Howard this week indicated
a desire to bring them home as soon as East Timor
could manage its own affairs.

Dr Alkatiri was yesterday questioned by the
prosecutor-general’s office over allegations he
authorised the arming of the hit squad given the
task of eliminating his rivals. Dr Alkatiri, who
did not make any comment to the media, was
questioned for about two hours.

The hearing took place amid heavy security. Six
tanks were parked on the streets outside and about
20 Australian troops stood guard.

About 50 demonstrators, including opposition party
members, rallied outside the office carrying
banners and yelling in English: "Alkatiri is a
traitor! Alkatiri is a dictator! Alkatiri is a
predator!"

---

Dili refugee camps considered too good to leave

Sydney Morning Herald - July 20, 2006

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili — Life in Dili’s refugee
camps isn’t too bad. A boy sits on sacks of rice
strumming his guitar. Mothers stir pots of boiling
food. Men doze blissfully in their families’
United Nations-supplied tents.

Trucks bring fresh water twice a day. There are
deliveries of high-protein corn, rice, cooking oil
and soap.

Mick Slater, the commander of Australia’s
peacekeeping force in East Timor, thinks that the
UN and aid agencies have done "almost too good a
job" caring for an estimated 73,000 people who are
still sleeping in 33 camps scattered across Dili.

The problem is that the camp residents don’t want
to go home, even though the violence that caused
them to flee their homes has ended after the
swearing-in last week of East Timor’s new
Government. "There would be some people who most
definitely feel what is available in the camps is
better than they have got in their own homes or
communities," Brigadier Slater said yesterday.

Finn Reske-Nielsen, the UN’s top refugee official
in East Timor, also warned of the risk of creating
what he called a “long-term dependency syndrome”
in the camps. "In some ways they are better off in
the camps,“Mr Reske-Nielsen said.”We estimate
that it could take until the end of the year
before we have a situation where the majority of
the internally displaced people have gone home."

Carmalinda Pereira, a mother of eight, says her
family has no intention of leaving the grounds of
the Catholic Church’s Canossian Sisters, where up
to 15,000 people have been living since violence
began in Dili in April. "We are still too afraid
to go to our house,“she said.”We don’t know what
the problems are among Timorese groups but we know
there are still problems."

Guilhermina Marcal, the sister in charge of the
camp, said many of the displaced people were
“deeply traumatised”. "I test them by telling them
that they must go home tomorrow and they burst out
crying, saying, ’No, no, this is my home now,’
especially the children," Sister Guilhermina said.

Representatives of aid agencies say that
increasing numbers of people in the camps are
leaving to work or even go to their homes during
the day but return to the camps to sleep at night.
"It will be difficult to get people to leave the
camps permanently,“Sister Guilhermina said.”They
feel safer here."

The UN, aid agencies and international troops in
the country have a plan to entice people out of
the camps by providing security, food and medical
services back in the communities.

Brigadier Slater said the plan would be tested
near the suburb of Becora in a few days. "Our
troops will be physically located there 24 hours a
day," he said.

The UN estimates that there are also 78,000
displaced people outside Dili.

---

’Substantial’ UN police presence needed in restive
Timor

Agence France Presse - July 19, 2006

United Nations — UN special envoy Ian Martin on
Wednesday stressed the need for a “substantial” UN
police presence in volatile East Timor to create
the conditions for credible parliamentary and
presidential elections next year.

Martin, whom UN chief Kofi Annan sent on a fact-
finding tour of the tiny territory on May 31 to
help conflicting parties address their grievances,
briefed the Security Council on recommendations
for a new UN mission that will be detailed in a
report due out next month.

"We have not talked numbers yet. It’s a matter for
the report," Martin said. But he stressed that the
police force "will need to be substantial
initially as long as elections place a premium on
security."

Asked when the UN force could take over from the
Australian-led force currently ensuring security,
Martin said the UN could take over responsibility
from the very beginning of the mandate of the new
mission "on the basis of police elements already
there."

He said police elements in the international force
— made up of contingents from Australia, New
Zealand, Malaysia and Portugal — might be willing
“initially at least” to be part of the new UN
force.

Around 3,200 foreign peacekeepers, led by
Australia, have been patrolling the Timorese
capital Dili since May after factional fighting
erupted in East Timor’s security forces and ethnic
gangs began battling on the streets, in violence
that left at least 21 people dead.

"It’s important that conditions are created for
credible parliamentary and presidential elections
in early 2007," Martin told reporters, adding that
the international community must also recognize
that its commitment “has to be a sustained one.”

Next month, Annan is to produce a report with
recommendations for a new UN mission when the
mandate of UNOTIL, the current UN misson in East
Timor, expires August 20.

Martin said Timorese leaders were hoping that the
UN would take over from the Australian-led
international force responsibility "to maintain
law and order directly in the short term and work
again on the long-term development of Timorese
police."

East Timor sank into chaos after Prime Minister
Mari Alkatari in April fired 600 soldiers, nearly
half the tiny nation’s army, following complaints
of discrimination because they came from the
country’s west.

A UN administration and security forces numbering
in the thousands ran East Timor after the tiny
nation voted for independence from Indonesia in
1999 until 2002. Only a skeleton UN team has
remained.

---

Troops hand Dili’s streets over to police

Australian Financial Review - July 20, 2006

Morgan Mellish, Dili — Australian police have
taken over patrolling the streets of Dili from the
army, in a sign authorities are confident order
has been re-established in East Timor’s capital.

The head of the international taskforce, Brigadier
Mick Slater, said the change was a major step
towards shifting the mission from a military
operation to a police operation.

He said it would open the way for some of the 2500
troops to be sent back to Australia, although that
would not happen immediately. "The soldiers who
have been on the streets until now are still held
essentially in reserve,“he said.”They are a
quick response force that can respond if the
police need further assistance."

For now, officers from the Australian Federal
Police — as well as some from Malaysia and New
Zealand — will patrol the streets of Dili from
dawn until midnight. Heavily armed soldiers will
patrol from midnight until dawn.

If this is successful, the police will take over
full-time patrolling in about two weeks. Brigadier
Slater cautioned it would be many months before
East Timor’s police force, which effectively
disintegrated during the recent violence, would be
able to take over. Former prime minister Mari
Alkatiri is scheduled to be questioned today by
prosecutors about allegations he authorised the
arming of a civilian militia to target his
political opponents. Mr Alkatiri denies the
allegations.

East Timor’s Prosecutor-General, Longuinhos
Monteiro, said Mr Alkatiri had been officially
named as a suspect and was being compelled to
attend the questioning, which could go on for
several days. Mr Alkatiri might be detained at the
end of the questioning.

He was ousted last month after several weeks of
violence sparked by his decision to sack 600
soldiers. Brigadier Slater said there were
concerns Mr Alkatiri’s supporters could cause
trouble at the hearing and extra security was
being put in place.

Many shops and businesses in the capital have
reopened, but aid organisations say they are still
providing food and other services to about 72,000
people in Dili and 80,000 in the countryside.

During a visit here on Tuesday, Prime Minister
John Howard declared Australia’s military, which
arrived in Dili on May 26, had done its job and
the operation would be soon scaled back. The
supply vessel HMAS Kanimbla left yesterday for
Australia and four out of eight Black Hawk
helicopters will leave soon.

---

East Timor: The people are paying the price

Green Left Weekly - July 19, 2006

Avelino Coelho da Silva, Dili — The conflict that
arose recently in Timor Leste has caused more
suffering for the nation’s poor people,
confronting them with an uncertain economic and
political future.

This conflict need not have happened if all the
country’s politicians had put the interests of the
people first and not their own desire for power.
Their attitudes have resulted in hundreds of
thousands of people losing their homes, other
possessions or their livelihoods. Now they must
live in tents provided by the United Nations High
Commission for Refugees.

The conflict developed in the first instance
around the issue of Loro Sae versus Loron Monu, or
east versus west. Yet this ethnic issue has never
been a serious problem in this country. During the
last few weeks, it has grown so quickly, resulting
in the breakdown of the good neighbourly relations
that had existed here among East Timorese people
of different ethnicity and religion. This is truly
a tragedy! But it has happened.

In the current reality, we see so much irony, as
is often the case as history and revolutions
unfold. If we read some of the placards and
banners that appeared during the recent
demonstrations, we might laugh or we might get
seriously stressed. For example, there were
banners reading "Viva capitalism! Out with the
communists!" So our question is; are Timor Leste’s
politicians that ignorant? Did the people who
wrote those banners know what they really wanted?

We can answer here both yes and no. Yes, because
those behind the demonstrations were indeed trying
to paint former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri [who
was pressured to resign on June 26] as a communist
— that there was a communist governing the
country. And we can answer also “no” because the
young people carrying those banners were from poor
village and town families that have no familiarity
at all with ideas such as capitalism versus
communism. It is actually some very non-communist
policies — policies with no left character at all
— that have created this poorest class of young
men and women.

For somebody to be accurately classified as a
communist, his/her policies should show some
similarity to communist ideas. Yet Alkatiri, and
the Fretilin government he has led, have not the
slightest communist colouring. The social system
that has been fostered is one based on the
existence of rich and poor classes. The Alkatiri
government has implemented no policies aimed at
ending this gap. Worse still, the Alkatiri
government’s policies have worsened the situation,
with the phenomenon of cronyism exacerbating the
rich-poor gap. It is a public secret that senior
officials have tended to facilitate cronyism.

The economic policies of Alkatiri and Fretilin
have tended to promote privatisation. There have
been no indications that the Alkatiri government
is interested in nationalising any private firms.
There have been no signs of a left orientation
towards land reform. The gap between rich and poor
has grown. Agriculture has been abandoned so that
the country as a whole is dominated by trade and
by private traders. The peasant farmers have grown
poorer under these capitalist policies. You can
see the irony of them carrying banners stating
“Viva capitalism! Down with communism!”

Public utilities such as electricity, telephone,
land and air transportation are all controlled by
foreign private firms. All the needs of the
government are also supplied by private firms, not
public companies or cooperatives.

Alkatiri and Fretilin have not organised the
people in the way you would expect from a left-
wing party. Fretilin has tended to turn itself
into a party of the elite, which will mobilise the
people from time to time to defend the party’s
interests, while ignoring the actual interests of
the people. Fretilin under Alkatiri has divorced
itself from the people and its leaders have
adopted the lifestyle of the petty bourgeoisie.

In the cultural field, the Fretilin membership and
its cabinet are religious in orientation. They
show no signs of wanting to fight against the
culture and religion of East Timor. The state
radio and television gives more time to religious
programming than to political education for the
people.

The hostility towards Alkatiri flows from the
struggle for power among the elite politicians.
Several parties and their leaders are afraid of
elections because they know that they cannot
defeat Fretilin. At the last local elections, at
the suco (village) and aldeia (sub-village) level,
Fretilin won 80% of the positions. These results
indicate that the country will remain dominated by
Fretilin until the people’s political
consciousness develops further and they decide to
support parties based on their political program
and ideology and not based on the fictional
history of a movement or party.

It was these political factors, supplemented by
the interests of neighbouring countries vis-a-vis
oil and gas, that the process developed to paint
Alkatiri as a “communist”. There was the hope that
this could be used to mobilise the masses to
defeat Alkatiri and Fretilin at the coming
elections.

Another factor contributing to this situation has
been Alkatiri’s own leadership style. He takes a
confrontational approach towards everybody and
appears as arrogant.

What has happened in East Timor is not the case of
a left-wing Alkatiri and Fretilin government being
forced out of power by mass mobilisations.
Alkatiri fell because he was disliked by some
other elite politicians and because Fretilin was
not able to bring forward another person capable
of being a prime minister and of forming a new
government. So some still hope that Fretilin can
be destroyed at the next elections. That is what
this is about: right-wing against right-wing.

After Alkatiri stepped down from his throne,
speculation spread as to who might be his
replacement. The newspaper Suara Timor Loro Sae
reported that leaders of the various
demonstrations started to promote Mario
Carrascalao, a leader of the Social Democratic
Party. They started to say that Jose Ramos Horta
no longer had the support of the people. Why were
they saying this?

Initially, it was stated [in a speech by President
Xanana Gusmao] that the Fretilin leadership was
not legitimate, because the Fretilin congress used
a vote by show of hands and not a secret ballot to
elect it. Yet negotiations went ahead with the
Fretilin leadership and a compromise was reached.
Out of this compromise, Horta emerged as the new
prime minister. This was the result of a
compromise among the political elite. The
opposition politicians were outraged and again
began to raise criticisms.

The policies outlined by Horta in his swearing-in
speech indicate that there will be no substantial
changes in policy. Working closely with the
International Monetary Fund and World Bank has
become a part of the reality here. The promises of
building housing, of building an “academic town”
and of distributing motorbikes to suco heads
fosters false hopes. There are no signs of
policies that can take the Timorese people out of
their economic misery.

Alkatiri has fallen, but Horta’s government is a
Fretilin government. The president of Fretilin,
Lu’olo, has made it clear that Horta must meet
every week with the president and secretary-
general of Fretilin and every month with
Fretilin’s national political commission. Horta
has been steadily distancing himself from the
opposition parties. Horta hopes to remain prime
minister after the election by gaining Fretilin’s
support.

Who has won and who has been defeated? The people
again are the losers.

[Avelino Coelho da Silva is the secretary-general
and national political commissioner of the
Socialist Party of Timor.]

---

Timor presence to be rebalanced: PM

Sydney Morning Herald - July 19, 2006

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili — Australia’s military
presence in East Timor will be wound back,
starting with at least 300 personnel, the Prime
Minister, John Howard, announced during a flying
visit to the country’s violence-ravaged capital
Dili. The force, which peaked at more than 3000 in
early June, would not be withdrawn “prematurely”,
he said yesterday.

After driving past camps where tens of thousands
of displaced people are still living, Mr Howard
said the time had come for the Australian military
presence to be “rebalanced”.

“We have done our job and been very effective,” he
said. "Clearly the security situation here has
vastly improved on what it was even a month ago,
or even a few weeks ago. We can expect over the
time ahead for there to be not only some gradual
reduction but also a rebalancing of the force."

The navy’s amphibious landing ship HMAS Kanimbla,
which has a crew of 220, and a number of Black
Hawk helicopters and their crews would return to
Australia soon, Mr Howard said. After that, there
would still be 2000 Australian military personnel
in East Timor. "That is still a very big
commitment," he said.

Mr Howard said he had made it clear to East
Timorese leaders, including the newly sworn-in
Prime Minister, Jose Ramos Horta, that Australia
would not have troops in the country indefinitely.

He said it was important for the country’s leaders
to be encouraged to "make the changes that are
needed". Mr Ramos Horta wants Australia to lead a
United Nations peacekeeping force in East Timor
for at least two years. Mr Howard has given no
commitment on the proposition.

But there would need to be a significant number of
Australian troops or police in the country in the
lead-up to the elections in May 2007, he said.

Life appears to be returning to normal in Dili,
but tensions are likely to rise tomorrow when the
deposed prime minister, Mari Alkatiri, appears in
court. The former interior minister, Rogerio
Lobato, claims Mr Alkatiri had “full knowledge” of
a so-called hit squad allegedly set up to kill
political rivals. Mr Alkatiri denies the
allegation.

Aid officials say up to 100,000 displaced people
in camps across Dili are too afraid to return
home.

---

New East Timor government sworn in

Associated Press - July 14, 2006

East Timor’s President Xanana Gusmao has sworn in
a new cabinet, taking the tiny nation a step
closer to normalcy after deadly violence in May
left it in disarray.

The simple ceremony was witnessed by the freshly-
installed Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta and his
two deputies, and guarded by around 40 of the more
than 2,200 Australian-led foreign peacekeepers
sent to Dili to restore calm after East Timor
descended into violence in May.

Ten members of the 15-strong Cabinet are holdovers
from the government of former prime minister Mari
Alkatiri, who resigned on June 26 to take
responsibility for two months of violence that
killed 30 people and sent 150,000 fleeing their
homes.

Ramos Horta said he would hold the defence
portfolio, which he took over when the then
defence minister was sacked.

In a speech to the small crowd, Gusmao called on
the new cabinet to focus on veterans who fought
against the Indonesian occupation, and the
country’s youth, if they wanted to avoid further
unrest in the impoverished nation.

"I told them (ministers) to pay attention to the
youth and the veterans, because the violence that
appeared happened because so many youths don’t
have any work,“he said.”This should be a warning
to all the government and the country, that this
(unemployment) is not a burden that only youth
have to bear," he added.

The new government includes Jose Luis Guterres,
the country’s ambassador to the United States as
foreign minister, Inacio Moreira as transport and
communications minister, Rosalia Corte-Real as
education and culture minister, and Jose Teixeira,
the outgoing tourism and environment minister as
mineral and energy minister.

The new cabinet is expected to meet later on
Friday and begin discussing the 2006-7 budget.

---

Ramos-Horta named as Timor’s new prime minister

Agence France Presse - July 9, 2006

Dili — Nobel prize-winner Jose Ramos-Horta has
been named as East Timor’s new prime minister,
President Xanana Gusmao announced Saturday, ending
weeks of political uncertainty in the nation.

The premier’s position was left empty last month
when Mari Alkatiri resigned, bowing to pressure to
take responsibility for violence which saw at
least 21 people die and 150,000 flee their homes
for makeshift refugee camps.

"We have agreed to declare as prime minister Jose
Ramos-Horta, first deputy prime minister
Estanislau da Silva and second deputy prime
minister Rui Araujo," Gusmao said after meeting
with leaders from the ruling party. Da Silva is
currently agriculture minister while Araujo is
health minister.

"I believe they are going to meet either today
(Saturday), tomorrow or the day after and we will
announce when the swearing-in of this new
government will take place,“Gusmao said.”The
programs of this new government will focus on
solving this crisis so that the people can return
home and the situation can normalise."

Ramos-Horta’s spokesman Chris Santos told AFP that
the new premier would not make any statement until
Monday.

Naming a premier acceptable both to the ruling
Fretilin party and Gusmao, who has been highly
critical of its leaders, is crucial for Asia’s
poorest nation to begin forging a peaceful future
after the unrest in May.

Alkatiri’s Fretilin party, which commands an easy
majority of 55 seats out of 88 in parliament,
handed Gusmao a shortlist of candidates for the
position on Friday. Ramos-Horta, who was East
Timor’s international face during its years of
fighting Indonesia’s occupation and won the 1996
Nobel peace prize for his efforts, was foreign and
defence minister in Alkatiri’s government. He is
not a member of the decades-old Fretilin party but
helped found it.

The 56-year-old, who will run the country until
elections due in early 2007, has been widely seen
as a potentially unifying leader for the young
nation, which finally became independent in 2002.

He told local radio before the announcement that
in order for the new government to function
properly, he believed East Timor’s next prime
minister needed to be "brave and possess an open
conscience.“”The person must be able to hold dialogue with
everyone, including the (Catholic) Church," he
said. "There has to be dialogue with the private
sector in order to boost the economy and provide
jobs for unemployed youths."

A veteran diplomat, Ramos-Horta has acted as a
roving peace-maker in recent weeks, actively
meeting with disgruntled rebel groups and military
factions to seek reconciliation between them.

The May unrest was triggered by Alkatiri sacking
some 600 soldiers, or nearly half of the nation’s
armed forces, after they deserted complaining of
discrimination because they came from the west.

More than 2,200 Australian-led foreign
peacekeepers were deployed to East Timor to
restore calm amid the unrest and they continue to
patrol the capital, though occasional outbreaks of
violence have occurred since their arrival.

Late Saturday the streets remained peaceful, with
Australian troops roaming the city in armoured
personnel vehicles.

Many ordinary East Timorese welcomed Ramos-Horta’s
appointment. "This is good because Mr. Horta is
well known everywhere and he does not take the
side of any group, he embraces everybody,"
27-year-old school teacher Joao Cabral told AFP.
Alalu da Silva, a 30-year-old chef, echoed a
common view in saying he believed he would bring
stability. "He deserves to be in the post because
he can bring peace," he said.

---

Jose Ramos-Horta, the voice of East Timor

Agence France Presse - July 8, 2006

Dili — Jose Ramos-Horta, the Nobel peace laureate
who spent decades campaigning for East Timor’s
independence from Indonesia, was appointed the
nation’s prime minister Saturday.

Ramos-Horta, 56, is a political independent hailed
as a potentially unifying leader, who has served
as foreign minister of the half-island nation
since it won independence from its neighbour in
2002.

He is believed to have edged out his former wife
and Minister for State Ana Pessoa, with whom he
has a grown son, as well as two other ministers in
the ruling Fretilin party to claim the top job.

The elegant polyglot, who typically sports a five
o’clock shadow and wears snazzy bow ties, saw his
status rise at home in the aftermath of tragic
violence which rocked the capital Dili and its
surrounds in May.

Fierce fighting between rival factions of the
security forces as well as street gangs wielding
machetes and swords led to the deaths of at least
21 people and saw some 150,000 petrified East
Timorese flee their homes.

Ramos-Horta takes over from Mari Alkatiri, who
stepped down on June 26 amid demands he take
responsibility for the crisis, sparked by his
decision in March to sack 600 soldiers, or nearly
half the armed forces. As Alkatiri’s star has
dimmed, Ramos-Horta’s profile has risen.

The veteran statesman has acted as a roving
peace-maker, meeting with disgruntled rebel groups
and the military seeking reconciliation, and also
taking on the critical role of defence minister.
"He’s the only known figure people have confidence
in," Australian-based political analyst Bob Lowry
told AFP.

The ex-journalist’s diplomatic career began when
at the age of 25 he was named foreign minister in
the government of Fretilin, then the political
wing of Falintil, which fought against the
Portuguese colonisers and later Indonesia.

With Indonesia appearing poised to invade his
country, Ramos-Horta left in a bid to convince the
UN Security Council to back their cause. He failed
but his promotion of the East Timorese cause had
begun.

He spent 10 years in New York, where he discovered
a passion for the cinema and traditional jazz but
also became familiar with the workings of the
United Nations, where he led the permanent
delegation of Fretilin.

Ramos-Horta ceaselessly denounced the “genocide”
he accused the Indonesians of perpetrating, and
lobbied for the international community to
intervene, with or without the mandate of the UN.

In a New York Times interview last month, he
recounted how, struggling to get East Timor onto
the world’s agenda, he once plastered stickers
reading “Free Xanana, Boycott Bali” on the back of
toilet doors at a rights conference.

He wanted the well-known resort island’s name to
pique delegates’ interest in then-unknown Xanana
Gusmao, who led East Timor’s guerrilla movement
and is now East Timor’s respected president. The
Wall Street Journal responded with a front-page
story.

Ramos-Horta’s efforts were recognised with the
Nobel peace prize in 1996, which he shared with
Bishop Carlos Belo, the leader of East Timor’s
majority Catholic population, in a major boost for
East Timor’s global profile.

In 1999, the East Timorese finally voted to become
independent, sparking bloody reprisals by
Indonesian-backed militia groups who killed an
estimated 1,400 people before an international
force restored order.

Ramos-Horta then returned home after 24 years in
exile. During his time away, at least 102,800
Timorese, or 10 percent of the population, were
estimated to have died as a result of Indonesian
policies. Among them were three of Ramos-Horta’s
brothers and one sister.

With a Portuguese father and Timorese mother, he
speaks Portuguese, English, French and Tetum, the
language of East Timor.

Ramos-Horta’s name had been floated as a potential
candidate for succeeding UN secretary-general Kofi
Annan but he told AFP in an interview this month
that he was not pursuing the job. "What notice
would be taken of the secretary-general if I
abandoned my own country in its time of need?" he
asked.

---

Alkatiri lashes Australia over bias

Sydney Morning Herald - July 6, 2006

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili — East Timor’s deposed
prime minister, Mari Alkatiri, last night lashed
out at Australia, saying there was an attempt to
demonise him in the media and that some government
ministers and officials “don’t like me”.

Mr Alkatiri told the Herald he believes he was
targeted in Australia because of his tough
negotiations over oil and gas reserves in the
Timor Sea.

"I have no doubt that the whole of the Australian
media was trying to demonise me — that is the
reality," Mr Alkatiri said in his first interview
with an Australian journalist since he was forced
to resign last week.

"Why? I have no doubt that some ministers and
officers in Australia don’t like me because I was
known to them as a tough negotiator."

Mr Alkatiri said that Australia and East Timor
could lose by his downfall because he was about to
introduce into parliament a bill to ratify a $41
billion deal he had negotiated with Canberra to
develop the Greater Sunrise oil and gas field in
the Timor Sea, under which both countries would
equally share royalties. "Now everything is back
on the table," he said.

Mr Alkatiri described his downfall as an
“orchestrated plot”. Asked who he believes was
behind it, he said he still has to do some work
before accusing anyone. "I’m sure that one day it
will all come out," he said.

Speaking for the first time about his political
intentions, Mr Alkatiri declared that he would
remain secretary-general of the Fretilin party and
lead it into elections scheduled for next year.
Fretilin holds the majority of seats in parliament
and has by far the largest number of members
throughout the country.

“Winning the election is my main task now,” he
said. "But this will be much more difficult
because of the security situation. Fretilin
members, particularly those in western parts of
the country, are still being intimidated by armed
men."

Mr Alkatiri said that unless the security
situation improved "it may be difficult to arrange
the elections".

Asked whether he could be re-appointed prime
minister if Fretilin wins, he said: "That will be
a decision for the party ... I hope the party will
not force me. Maybe it is better to have others to
be prime minister ... maybe what we havve to do is
not think about the past and look forward."

Asked about widespread speculation that the Nobel
laureate Jose Ramos Horta would be appointed to
replace him within days, Mr Alkatiri said he could
not comment. "Fretilin has put up three different
packages ... three diffeerent names,“he said.”What is needed in this country now is
reconciliation leading to the elections."

Mr Ramos Horta, the Foreign and Defence minister,
is no longer a member of Fretilin but is a
founding member of the party.

Under the constitution, Fretilin as the majority
party has the right to nominate the prime minister
but the nominee must be approved by the president.
Mr Ramos Horta is a close ally of President Xanana
Gusmao.

Mr Alkatiri declined to answer questions about
allegations he helped form a hit squad to
eliminate political rivals before the elections.
He has denied any knowledge of the hit squads.

The country’s former interior minister, Rogerio
Lobato, has claimed in court that Mr Alkatiri had
“full knowledge” of the squad that was given
high-powered weapons allegedly looted from the
country’s police armoury. Mr Lobato is under house
arrest in Dili.

In a sign that some stability is returning to
Dili, Mr Ramos Horta yesterday met Asian investors
about a $100 million project to produce energy
from green waste.

---

Fretilin takes aim at legal system

Sydney Morning Herald - July 4, 2006

Lindsay Murdoch in Dili and agencies — East
Timor’s ruling Fretilin party has moved to
restructure the office of the country’s top
prosecutor in a move seen by opposition MPs as an
attempt to protect the deposed prime minister Mari
Alkatiri from criminal prosecution.

The party angered opposition MPs at parliament’s
first sitting in weeks yesterday, when it
introduced a resolution to restructure the Office
of Prosecutor-General within the Public Affairs
Ministry.

The Prosecutor-General, Longuinhos Monteiro, last
week summoned Mr Alkatiri to a hearing to answer
questions about allegations that he helped form a
hit squad to eliminate political rivals in advance
of elections scheduled for next year. Mr Alkatiri
failed to attend, saying his lawyer had not
arrived from overseas.

Fretilin’s president and parliamentary Speaker,
Francisco Guterres, introduced another resolution
yesterday inviting Mr Alkatiri to sit in
parliament. Fretilin insists this would give him
immunity from prosecution.

Mr Monteiro said last night he had written a
letter to parliament asking it to waive any
immunity. He told the Herald that if parliament
agreed with his request, he would send another
summons for Mr Alkatiri to attend court.

Mr Monteiro would not comment on Fretilin’s move
against his office. He earlier told reporters that
Mr Alkatiri could face prosecution, depending on
his answers, after the former interior minister
Rogerio Lobato told another hearing last month
that the former prime minister had "full
knowledge" of the hit squad, armed with automatic
weapons looted from the police armoury.

An opposition MP, Joao Gonclaves, last night
accused Fretilin of trying to "bulldoze a
resolution against the Prosecutor-General that is
unconstitutional and illegal because the
Prosecutor-General is independent of parliament".

Fretilin’s moves prompted angry outbursts in
parliament. “They’re manipulators,” said the
deputy opposition leader, Lucia Lobato, adding
that Fretilin wanted to axe the position of
prosecutor-general.

But Fretilin’s deputy Speaker, Jacob Fernandes,
said the party’s only concern was to re-establish
the rule of law after months of unrest. "The
courts must not be used to persecute people
politically," he said.

Mr Alkatiri remains the key behind-the-scenes
powerbroker in Fretilin, which, under the
constitution, has the right to name the next prime
minister.

---

Ramos Horta urges Australia to lead UN force

Melbourne Age - July 3, 2006

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili — Nobel laureate Jose Ramos
Horta, who has taken control of East Timor’s
crippled Government, has called for Australia to
lead a UN peacekeeping force for at least 12
months.

Mr Ramos Horta has called a meeting of ministers
this morning to discuss crises confronting the
country, including chronic malnutrition and fears
that food supplies to 150,000 refugees who fled
violence could run out.

Australia doubled its donation for emergency
rations for the refugees after the United Nations
World Food Program warned that chronic
malnutrition in refugee camps was already as bad
as in the worst places in Africa.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said an extra $4
million would help make up a shortfall in
emergency food aid to 66 refugee camps in Dili.
“Food supplies are getting lower,” Mr Downer said.
"If nothing is done for several weeks, then this
will become a real problem."

The ruling Fretilin party opened the way for Mr 
Ramos Horta to become caretaker prime minister
when it agreed to consider a candidate who was not
a party member. "I am not a member of Fretilin. I
left 15 years ago,“he said.”But I am a founding
member of Fretilin and I have strong relationships
with all of their leaders."

Mr Ramos Horta said President Xanana Gusmao agreed
to negotiate the formation of a caretaker
government with Fretilin after party leaders
calmed their supporters and called on "Fretilin
elements" with weapons to hand them over.

Mr Gusmao, who must approve the new government,
had earlier said he would refuse to deal with
Fretilin’s leaders because they were illegally
elected at a party national congress.

"The President told me he had relented and asked
me to convey to Fretilin that he was prepared to
talk with their leaders,“Mr Ramos Horta said.”I
believe that this really broke the deadlock and I
believe that by the end of the week we will have a
consensus name for prime minister.“Mr Ramos Horta revealed that Fretilin had”sounded
me out“on serving in a caretaker government.”I
said I am available to serve in any capacity in a
Fretilin government," he said.

The constitution states that Fretilin as the
majority party has the right to nominate the prime
minister.

As co-ordinating minister, Mr Ramos Horta
effectively became the country’s leader when
Fretilin prime minister Mari Alkatiri was forced
from office last week following allegations that
he knew about a hit squad to eliminate political
rivals. The new prime minister will lead the
country until elections next year.

In an interview, Mr Ramos Horta called for the
first time for Australia to lead UN peacekeepers
in East Timor. The UN has already agreed to send
1000 international police, many of them
Australians.

"The security situation has significantly improved
compared to when the Australians first arrived,“Mr Ramos Horta said,”but the situation is still
very precarious“.”If we do have a problem
breaking out in remote areas... I prefer that we
have robust army here with helicopters to quell
any problems."

Mick Slater, the commander of Australia’s more
than 2000-strong peacekeeping force in Dili, said
yesterday: "Whether we transform into some sort of
UN force is yet to be seen." The United Nations
has a team in Dili assessing the situation.

"Once the UN decides what it is going to do, we
will no doubt tailor our future commitment here to
support the UN intentions," Brigadier Slater said.

 JUSTICE & RECONCILIATION

UN’s legacy of shame in Timor

Melbourne Age - July 22, 2006

Lindsay Murdoch, Dili — United Nations
peacekeepers have abandoned at least 20 babies
fathered with poverty-stricken Timorese women.

A UN investigation has also uncovered a culture of
cover-up, in which babies born to peacekeepers and
sex crimes committed by UN staff in the past seven
years have been kept secret because of a "fear of
shame and embarrassment’ in the deeply religious
country.

The findings will shock the UN bureaucracy as it
prepares to boost by thousands its peacekeeping
force in East Timor.

A report on the investigation, obtained by The
Age, recommends that a policy of zero tolerance of
sexual misconduct be enforced on UN staff sent to
help rebuild the country after two months of
violence.

UN peacekeepers in East Timor have previously been
accused of offences including child sex abuse,
bestiality, and coercing women and children into
prostitution. No one has ever been charged.

But the report reveals for the first time that
babies born to UN peacekeepers have been abandoned
without financial support. It also makes clear
that the births of these children, and other
instances of sexual misconduct by UN personnel,
are likely to have been significantly under-
reported.

The report says that the Timorese mothers of the
babies fathered by peacekeepers have been
stigmatised and, in some cases, ostracised by
their communities. It also found that efforts
within the UN to organise help for the women have
failed.

In the mountainous coffee growing district of
Ermera, soldiers have left behind seven young
children after earlier promising to marry their
mothers, the report says. In the district of
Bobonaro, four babies were allegedly fathered by
two UN police and two civilian staff.

A dowry was apparently paid to one family. But in
most cases, the mother’s family has been left to
support the children.

The report was written by Sofi Ospina, an
anthropologist commissioned by the UN to
investigate the gender-related impact on East
Timor of having 18,000 uniformed and civilian UN
personnel from 113 nations in the country after UN
operations began in 1999.

It comes as Secretary-General Kofi Annan prepares
a report for the UN Security Council on the
composition of a new mission for East Timor when
the current one expires next month.

Ian Martin, a special UN envoy, has recommended
the Security Council send police units backed by a
rapid response force. He also recommends a
military presence at least until after elections
scheduled for May, and UN advisers to help
organise the vote.

There are now 2500 Australian soldiers and police
in East Timor, mostly in the capital, Dili.

While thousands of Australian soldiers and police
have served in East Timor since 1999, none have
been accused of sexual misconduct. The behaviour
of some peacekeepers has outraged many UN staff,
several of whom have resigned in disgust.

In one of the worst instances detailed in Ms
Ospina’s report, a peacekeeper from an unnamed
country is alleged to have abused two boys and two
girls in the enclave of Oecussi.

In early 2001, two soldiers were sent home with
injured penises after allegedly attempting sexual
intercourse with goats.

Ms Ospina says that, as in other UN operations,
the arrival of peacekeepers has attracted
prostitution. She refers to a study showing that
in 2004 there were 250 female and 110 male sex
workers in Dili. Of the males, 75 per cent were
younger than 18.

The report says the fear and reluctance to report
sexual misconduct by UN personnel may be
justified. Both the perpetrators and, usually, the
person to whom such cases would be reported are
men in positions of relative power, the report
says.

Local administrative authority is usually embedded
in a traditional mind-set influenced by
conservative Catholic ideology, it says. Women may
expect not to receive a sympathetic hearing in
such a context.

The report warns that the UN’s credibility could
be compromised by its inability to ensure that
staff who commit sex crimes are prosecuted.

It recommends that commanders should communicate
and enforce a policy of zero tolerance for sexual
misconduct. There should be immediate repatriation
and disciplinary measures for all offenders.

The report says that accusations and rumours of
sexual abuse should be investigated. Pregnancies
and births resulting from sex with Timorese women
should be documented and the UN should make sure
that non-government organisations help the mothers
and their children.

---

Officials, TNI back probe into Timor Leste abuses

Jakarta Post - July 1, 2006

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta — The joint Indonesia-Timor
Leste Truth and Friendship Commission said Friday
it received backing of Indonesian Military (TNI)
and government officials to query all those
allegedly involved in human rights abuses
following the 1999 independence referendum.

The commission’s co-chairman from Timor Leste,
Dionisio Babo Soares, said that the coordinating
minister for political, legal and security
affairs, defense minister, foreign minister, TNI
chief, National Police chief and members of House
of Representatives had all expressed their support
for the commission to question former and active
military and civilian officials implicated in
violence in the former Indonesian province of East
Timor.

"We are now in the final stage of document review.
In one or two months, we will begin interviewing
all people related to the case. And Indonesian
ministers and lawmakers pledged their support for
our work during our meeting with them," he told a
press conference.

Indonesia and Timor Leste established the 10-
member commission in August 2005, with the five
representatives of each country charged with
investigating human rights abuses committed in the
tiny country. According to the United Nations, at
least 1,500 people were killed by militia groups
allegedly backed by the Indonesian Military.

The commission, with a mandate until August 2007
and modeled on similar restorative justice bodies
set up in South Africa, Chile and Argentina, has
no powers to prosecute alleged human rights
violators. However, it can give recommendations to
the Indonesian and Timor Leste governments to
grant amnesty to people who confessed to
involvement and expressed remorse, and to
compensate victims and rehabilitate victims.

The commission said it reviewed all existing
materials documented by the Indonesian National
Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights Violation in
Timor Leste (KPP HAM), and the Ad-Hoc Human Rights
Court on East Timor, as well as reports from the
Special Panels for Serious Crimes and the
Commission of Reception, Truth and Reconciliation
in Timor Leste to determine the existence of human
rights violations and people implicated in the
acts.

The commission has identified 14 incidents of
gross human rights violations that occurred in
1999 around the time East Timor voted to split
from Indonesia.

A commission member from Indonesia, Achmad Ali,
added that Gen. (ret.) Wiranto, the military chief
during the unrest, was among the high-ranking
officials who agreed to meet with the commission
to explain the course of events in 1999.

The legal expert from Makassar’s Hasanuddin
University declined to name other former and
active officers, but based on the four documents,
Brig. Gen. A. Nur Muis, a former chief of the now
defunct Wira Dharma military command that oversaw
East Timor during the ballot, and the then chief
of the Dili military command, Lt. Col. Sudjarwo,
will likely be questioned.

The Indonesian Ad-Hoc Human Rights Court has tried
the two officers and 16 other members of the
military on human rights charges relating to East
Timor. The court has never found any middle- or
high-ranking military and police officers guilty
of involvement in the atrocities.

The court only sentenced Eurico Guterres, former
leader of the pro-Indonesia militia group Aitarak,
to 10 years in prison, while former East Timor
governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares was sentenced
to three years in prison by the Supreme Court.
Eight months later he was acquitted of all charges
because of new evidence.

Earlier, Gen. Fahrul Razi of the Indonesian Army
provided an explanation to the commission.

 DAILY MEDIA REVIEWS

East Timor daily media review July 3-31

[Compiled by the United Nations mission in Timor
(UNOTIL).]

July 29/31, 2006

PNTL should maintain impartially: Barris

Minister of Interior, Alcino Barris has appealed
to members of PNTL not to favour groups and
political parties, as impartiality is important to
maintain law and order. Last Wednesday and
Thursday Barris travelled to districts of Oecussi,
Bobonaro and Manufahi together with the
representative of European Union, and the
international forces. He added the Ministry of
Interior is currently working on the program for
the reintegration of PNTL officers and to assist
those who will not rejoin the PNTL. (TP)

Head Of village rejects reconstruction

The Head of Village from Bidau said the fifteen
small trading shops along the road in Suku Bidau;
Lecidere would not be reconstructed according to
the decision of the authorities. Jaime da Silva
Soares, the chefe sucu of Bidau said the
population couldn’t build houses as the area is a
state owned property and he asks the population to
respect the decision. Soares added one team from
the government will conduct research on the area
referred and he had already submitted a report to
the sub-administrator to collect data and pay the
people who had lost their goods as a result of the
burning. He added the houses along the road belong
to the State therefore the area would be cleaned
up and replaced with gardens according to
government plans. (TP)

Timor-Leste still needs GNR

Prime Minister Ramos-Horta said the demands by the
protesters for the withdrawal of the Portuguese
elite police, GNR is not justifiable because the
people making these demands want to commit
violence against the defenceless innocent people.
Ramos-Horta said GNR will continue in Timor-Leste
due to their good work and he appealed to the
population to maintain calm and not provoke each
other and allow time for the international
community to proceed with the investigation (of
the 28 April cases) and for the Prosecutor General
to keep an eye on the justice as demanded. He also
appealed to youths with bad intention stressing
the population have suffered too much since April
up until now and the State does not tolerate
burning and killings therefore he said youths with
such bad intention should think twice. The Prime
Minister also appeals to stop the protest as it is
destabilizing the country adding that Timor-Leste
belongs to all and its name has sunk in the
international community due to the recent
violence.

In a separate article Brigadier Mick Slater said
if small groups want to destabilize the country
they would have to face the international forces
from four nations, adding the troops will try to
work with the youths and convince them the nation
needs strong youth to carry the country forward.
On the detention of Alfredo, Slater said he was
detained due to the weapons he had in the house
and the protest in favor of Reinado had to be
stopped because they did not have the
authorization from the government. (DN, TP)

Indication of corruption on execution of state
budget

MP Alexandre Corte-Real, member of Commission C of
the Parliament in charge of Economy and Finance
said the State quarterly budget for 2005/2006
between January -March, has indication of
corruption because most of the projects have not
been completed but the report says 85% of the
budget have been executed. Corte-Real cited as an
example the project of the Airport, which has been
claimed as completed but in reality half of it
still not complete and he says that, worse, more
money has been allocated for the mentioned
projects for the new budget for the fiscal year
2006/2007. (TP)

Border market scheduled for operation by September

The meeting between Timor-Leste Prime Minister
Jose Ramos-Horta and the President of Indonesia,
Susilo Yudhoyono resulted in an agreement to
resume the border market operation and
implementation of border pass for families living
close to the border between the two countries. The
Prime Minister also told the media during a press
conference on Friday that the Indonesian President
also supports the World Bank project to
rehabilitate the road between Oecussi and Motaain.
The Minister also said many Indonesians have shown
interest in investing on the Timor Oil
exploration. (DN)

---

July 28, 2006

Alfredo’s detention orchestrated: Lawyer

GNR Accused Of Orchestrating Alfredo Arrest
+Australian Troops Not Consistent With Alfredo’s
Group, Alfredo Supporters Asks GNR to Withdraw
From TL

According to Alfredo’s lawyer Benevides Correia
Barros, the arrest of Major Alfredo was political
maneuver because Alfredo had already informed the
Prosecutor General, Longuinhos Monteiro and the
Australian troops that they had weapons and were
ready to hand them over. "Before they handed in
the weapons to the international troops, GNR and
the Australian troops had already ambushed Alfredo
place" said Barros. STL reported that Alfredo and
his members will be detained by the international
forces at the Police District Headquarters for 30
days for further investigation.

In a separate article, MP Leandro Isac told the
media that he disagrees with the detention of
Alfredo by the international troops who because
they are not consistent with the law. "You took
all the weapons in Maubisse in front of all the
media, then you brought him to Dili and now
capture him again" said Isac. According to Isac
the International troops are not applying the rule
of law correctly "

TP reports that Alfredo supporters are asking
(Guarda Nacional da Republica) GNR to withdraw
from Timor-Leste because the capture of Alfredo
was not based on legal procedure. A member of the
supporters, Apolonario dos Santos told the media
that " We ask Australian Police and Malaysian to
stay in their barracks and let GNR patrol Dili so
we can confront them" They also demand the release
of Alfredo and his followers. A representative of
the supporters in charge of the protest, Carmona
Soares said Alfredo must be released or they will
continue the protest and call for more supporters
from the 10 districts. Soares said the
international forces of Australia should not
capture Alfredo as he has the right to carry
weapons because he is a military man. He added
those that should be detained are the civilians in
possession of weapons like a person called Maukiak
who he claims shot dead members of the police in
front of the Public Ministry. Carmona Soares
warned that if Alfredo is not released there would
be more violence and burnings in Dili. Carmona’s
group also wants the GNR to be neutral and stop
the detention of youths who have become victims of
the conflict, adding the group is prepared to die
if Alfredo is not released. (STL, TP, DN)

Australia Embassy helps Timorese youths

The Australian Government has donated a total over
US$76,000 for Timor-Leste through the Direct Aid
Project (DAP) for the fiscal year 2006/2007.
According to a press release from the Australian
Embassy in Timor-Leste, the funds were allocated
for projects concentrated in the districts namely
Manatuto, Baucau, Viqueque, Ermera, Liquiga and
Dili in the areas of rehabilitation of libraries,
new roads, access to clean water, furniture for
the orphanages and community training in the in
agriculture. Through this project, US$2, 490 has
been allocated for programs in the IDPs center to
train around 100 youths aged between 5-18 by 6
workers in the camps. The Australian embassy DAP
began in 2000 with the aim of improving the living
conditions of the less privileged. (DN)

---

July 27, 2006

International forces detain Alfredo

Today the first page of the main newspapers focus
on the detention of Major Alfredo Reinado and his
group and the handover of weapons by another group
claiming to have been armed by the former Interior
Minister, Rogerio Lobato.

According to the media the international forces
detained Alfredo and 21 of his elements after they
were caught with weapons in a house in Bairro Pitj
in Dili. Military spokesperson James Baker said 9
pistols, 16 magazines and various ammunition were
found in the residence. Baker said the troops
continue to observe the direction from Brigadier
Slater that anyone found with guns in Dili would
be detained and investigated, as was the case of
Major Alfredo and his elements who are now under
the international forces detention.

In the meantime a group called Labadain turned in
2 HK33 to the President of the Republic in his
residence who, in turn, handed them over to the
Prosecutor General on Wednesday. Labadain
allegedly claims the Minister of Interior gave
guns to his group in the presence of an official
from the Ministry of Interior code named ES, a
member of PN (National Parliament) code named JM
accompanied by a member of Unidade Intervencao
Rapida (UIR) with the initial N. Labadain said
after receiving the guns they hurriedly left to
Nuntali in Railko area with a total of 32 guns,
saying the rest of the guns continue to be in the
hands of other members of the group. He further
said the weapons had not yet been handed in due to
lack of information, adding the rest, 30 can be
organized to turn them into the international
police following the authorization from a Member
of Parliament with the initials JM.

Timor Post reported Major James Baker as saying
Alfredo and his group were detained as per the
orders of international forces commander,
Brigadier Slater because they are now considered
as illegal military adding if the group still
considers itself as part of the military they
should remain in the armed forces headquarters and
not live among the population. In relation to the
detention, Prosecutor General Longuinhos Monteiro
said both he and the President of the Republic did
not impede in the capture of Alfredo and his
elements.

MP Pedro da Costa (PST) said the detention of
Alfredo and his group will not put an end to the
problems but it is a start to resolve the crisis.

Media and political conspiracy: Branco

MP Francisco Branco said as a citizen and
politician he is concerned with the reality
situation of Timor-Leste which is full of
hypocrisy, starting from the media, politicians
and the civil society. No one is lifting a finger
to point out that something is not right in the
country.

Speaking on Wednesday in the plenary session of
the National Parliament, about the intervention of
the supreme organ on the current situation
especially by the Prosecutor General, Branco said
"people we classified as criminal, carrying armed
assault rifles and, have caused death ...()...are
free to go to parties, dance, and busily host
visitors. But those on the same condition are
treated differently. Therefore I see there is big
discrimination in terms of justice for the
citizens, for those we consider practiced crimes
in our nation. That’s why as a politician I’m
really concerned. Our society, politicians and the
media are not denouncing these things. It shows
that we are hypocrites or scared of what? I do not
know." Branco said people should not be scared to
speak, as Timor-Leste is a new democratic society
with freedom of media and expression. (DN, TP,
STL)

President must explain Alfredo arrest: Amaral

Vice-President of the National Parliament,
Francisco Xavier do Amaral, said the President
must explain in the Parliament why he gave the
orders for the international forces to detain
Alfredo. MP Pedro da Costa said the measures taken
by the international forces have been good in
order to identify the guns currently in Timor-
Leste and determine the one’s used by PNTL and F-
FDTL including those of the reserve units and
whether civilians are also using guns including
some internationals who might have manipulated the
Timorese to enter into a conflict against each
other. He said the court must call Alfredo to
answer why he had not handed in all the guns as he
had claimed adding if he did not hand in the guns
with good will it would only show that it was a
cosmetic show creating an environment of mistrust
within the communities. (DN)

---

July 26, 2006

State honors victims of the Crisis

President Xanana Gusmao said the crisis in Timor-
Leste is the State responsibility therefore those
who died as a result of the crisis must be
honored. Gusmao said the Bishop of Dili Diocese,
Alberto Ricardo opened his heart to celebrate the
mass for all who died during the crisis especially
the children and the old as well as members of
PNTL and F-FDTL. Gusmao said honoring the dead is
only a small contribution and the government is
looking into relieving the population’s suffering
but those who suffered the most were the one’s
killed. The President also said Deputy Prime
Minister Estanislau da Silva spoke to the widows
and assured them the government would not close an
eye to them. Responding to the killings still
taking place in some areas, President Gusmao said
the UN police will arrive on August 15 and those
continuing to commit crime will be punished. A
mass was celebrated in Dili Cathedral to
commemorate those died during April 28 and May 25
incident, followed by laying of flowers wreaths at
the ocean in front of the Government Palace in
Dili.

During the homily Bishop Ricardo said President
Xanana personally asked for the mass as a
Christian and to bring together everybody to
commemorate the mass for the deceased ones.
According to STL, leaders and members F-FDTL did
not participate in the mass.

In a separate article in Diario Nacional Minister
of Interior Alcino Barris said the 8 police
officers who died were victims because they died
with bullets in their bodies. Barris also said
PNTL will resume their work on August 1 as the
State crisis ends on 30 July saying one of the
areas that needs attention is transit. (STL, TP,
DN)

Railos Rejects Lu’Olo statement

Vicente da Conceicao alias Railos said he rejects
the statement of Francisco Lu’Olo Guterres that he
is not a member of Fretilin. Railos said Lu’Olo
knows that he is a member because he saw him
(Railos) during the second Fretilin national
congress. Railos said he and his group were the
representative from Bazartete, Liquica District
saying he has Fretilin delegate card as evidence.
He rejects that the group was Fretilin’s secret
group. But he said it was a group reporting only
to Fretilin’s Secretary General, Mari Alkatiri and
Rogerio Lobato. He says he fully supports Fretilin
Group for Changes because he defends Fretilin as
an organization and not one or two individuals.
(STL)

Alkatiri is not like Fujimori: Branco

MP Francisco Branco (Fretilin) told the media on
Tuesday that former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri
is not like Alberto Fujimori. Branco was
responding to the statement released by PSD and
Leando Isac that Alkatiri should not follow
Fujimori footsteps. Further to the statement
Branco said unlike Fujimori, Alkatiri was the
founder of Fretilin party and added Alkatiri would
not leave East Timor and is willing to continuing
living in the country.

In a separate article Deputy Prime Minister
Estanislau da Silva said Mari Alkatiri still
requires security protection as former Prime
Minister and also because he has to go to the
court adding his life is at risk as people have
threatened him. Da Silva said Alkatiri has not
been found guilty therefore he still requires
protection in order to participate in the court
process to be able to help resolve the crisis.
(STL, TP)

UNICEF director visits Timor

UNICEF Director for South East Asia and the
Pacific, Anupama Rao Singh arrived in Dili on
Sunday (23/7) for a four-day visit. The visit
would allow the head of UNICEF for this region to
review the emergency assistance for UNICEF in the
next three months. On Monday Singh went to the
refugee camp in Don Bosco and met the coordinator
of the center, Fr. Adriano and spoke to the IDPs.
She also met with leaders of women’s organizations
namely the first lady, Kirsty Sword-Gusmao, Bishop
Alberto Ricardo and government officials. On
Tuesday she travel to Liquica District and met
with IDP coordinator for that area, head of
education and health department in Liquica. Today,
Wednesday she was scheduled to meet with President
Gusmao and speak to the media about UNICEF work in
the region.(STL)

Rogerio’s lawyers rejects Monteiro’s statement

Rogerio’s lawyer Paulo dos Remedios rejects
declaration of Prosecutor General Longuinhos
Monteiro who said that Rogerio himself recognized
the allegation from Railos group which claimed
that their weapons were received from him. "The
Prosecutor General should bring the evidence to
the court so the judge can read it and say what
date our client gave the weapons to Railos group"
said Remedios. He said the Prosecutor General
should not speak in public because the secrecy of
justice and the court will decide the case. (TP)

Major Alfredo caught with weapons by forces

Major Alfredo Reinado was captured with weapons by
International forces in Bairo Pite. Spokesperson
for Battalion Battle Group James Baker told the
media that they have appealed to all people who
still carrying weapons to surrender them but
Alfredo and his member still carry weapons. "We
will process him and his members according to law“said Baker.”If they didn’t carry weapons why did
we capture him," Baker asked. (TP, DN)

Population shouldn’t be forced to return home:
Bishop

Ministry of Labor and Solidarity allocated 300
sacks of rice to the refuges who live in Aileu.
Aileu district administrator Xisto Amaral told the
DN reporter that starting from last Friday 214
families including widows already received rice.
He said the rice was not only distributed to Aileu
city but also to the four sub-districts.

In a separate article Bishop of Dili Diocese,
Alberto Ricardo da Silva told the media that
people should not be forced to return home because
the security still is not stable enough for them
to return home. "The people who still stay in
refugee camps, most of them are still traumatized
because the security is not good enough to
guarantee their safety," said the bishop. (DN)

---

July 25, 2006

PNTL hands over weapons

Members of PNTL and the civil society handed in
more weapons on Monday following Brigadier Slater
appeal: about 10 heavy weapons, 50 pistols,
ammunition and gas. Speaking during a press
conference on Monday, Slater said anyone
apprehended with guns following Monday’s deadline
will be detained by the forces. He also said an
inventory of the national police weapons will take
place in the next 10 days adding the police
officers in the districts are entitle to carry
their guns for work purposes. The Australian
Brigadier said so far a total of 1000 guns have
been collected. In the meantime the commander of
the international police in Timor-Leste, Steve
Lancaster who according to STL has the full
support of the President of the Republic, the
Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior said
the guns handed in on Monday is a first step for
the reintegration of PNTL to continue their
services. Lancaster said in the past 3 weeks a
team of the international police have questioned
around 830 people in relation to crime such murder
and burning of houses. He further said the
international police are coordinating with the
Minister of Interior and the United Nations to
develop a plan for future reintegration of PNTL
and in order to enable them to carry their work
independently in future. The police commander also
said from 7 to August 10 the international police
will be fully responsible for the security
reminding the population that the international
troops will continue to be in Timor-Leste, adding
a new police hotline, likely to be 112, would be
established to facilitate direct contact.

In a separate article, Brigadier Slater said 12
guns from F-FDTL have been reported missing since
the crisis started.

Minister of Interior Alcino Barris traveled to
Viqueque to ask PNTL officers who have fled to
that district to return to work. During the
meeting he said a new structure for PNTL would
take place in the district followed by better
training for police officers especially in the
area of code of discipline. Barris said one of the
concerns presented by officers to resume work,
were accommodation as some have lost their homes.
(STL, TP DN)

Timor signs accord on joint oil exploration

To continue the joint exploration in the Timor Sea
for gas, Timor-Leste signed an agreement on Monday
between Timor-Leste, Woodside (Australia), INPEX
(Japan) and Talisman (Canada). Jose Lobato, the
Executive Officer of the Timor Sea Designated
Office, said the new agreement is based on new
regulations because the Timor Sea treaty was
signed under an interim regulation. Present at the
signing were Prime Minister Ramos-Horta and
Minister for Natural Resources, Energy and
Minerals, Jose Teixeira. (TP, DN, STL)

Reinado’s group ordered to relocate to Dili

President Gusmao has written to Reinado and his
group to relocate to Dili and according to Reinado
he will follow the orders as President Gusmao is
also the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
Reinado and his group fled to Maubisse during the
crisis. In separate article Reinado appealed to
youths not to incline too much to politics and
they should careful analyze the situation in the
country for the safety of unity.

He said many youths in Dili are still looking at
each other not in a friendly manner and they
should know that without extending their hands and
embrace each the nation will not move forward.
(TP, DN)

Protesters demands government resolve crisis The
National Unity Movement (MUN) held a demonstration
yesterday in capital Dili and demanded the four
sovereign bodies to resolve the crisis urgently
especially to reintegrate the refugees to their
places. The coordinator of MUN, Bruno C. Magalhes
told the media "the objective of the demonstration
is to demand the four sovereign bodies to resolve
the crisis in the country" He further added that
the demonstration would continue until 28 July and
they will work closely with the security to avoid
any conflict. (TP, DN)

Horta to discuss border crossing during visit

Prime Minister Ramos Horta is visiting Jakarta to
discuss border crossing with the President of
Indonesia, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY). Horta
told the media before his departure that to
improve the economic development between the two
countries there is a need to open the market in
the border as well as build a road from Oecussi to
Mota-Ain to maintain good relation with the
investors He further said the border still needs
1% to be finalized. (DN)

Fretilin never formed secret group: Lu’Olo

In response to the declaration of RaiLos group
that they were a Fretilin secret group, president
of Fretilin party, Francisco Guterres “Lu’Olo”
said that Fretilin never formed any secret group
because Fretilin is a political party and has the
majority of the support. Lu’Olo also rejected all
accusations that he had been involved in the
recent political crisis, adding he has been trying
his best to work with the President of the
Republic, to resolve the political crisis. (DN)

Extraordinary meeting before approval of budget

Before the government presents the state budget
for fiscal year 2006/2007 to the National
Parliament to approve, president of National
Parliament Francisco Guterres Lu’Olo held an
extraordinary meeting with all Parliamentarians at
National Parliament with the Minister of Council,
Antonino Bianco to discuss budget. After the
meeting Lu Olo told the media the budget would be
US$ 315, 5 millions but the allocation of it was
not discussed. He said there were different
opinions because some parliamentarians prefer that
the second constitutional government, lead by Jose
Ramos Horta should have their own budget plan
rather than a continuation of the first
government’s plan. "We finally came to a
conclusion that the state budget will be approved
and sent to commission C (budget commission in
parliament) for further discussion" s aid Lu’Olo.
He added the Parliament would call the Prime
Minister to defend the budget for fiscal year
2006/2007 which is really big but he believes that
the government can implement it because all the
ministers’ have their own plan and they have the
capacity to do so. (DN)

---

July 21, 2006

Fretilin will let Alkatiri be imprisoned if found
guilty

President of Fretilin’s bench in the Parliament,
Francisco Branco said his party would support the
imprisonment of Mari Alkatiri if the court finds
him guilty but if he is not found guilty everybody
should welcome him with open arms. Branco said
Alkatiri should not be condemned the way he is
now, adding he should be tried in an independent
court. He says he doesn’t believe Alkatiri was
involved in the recent allegations. On the lawyers
defending Alkatiri, Francisco Branco said these
lawyers offered their services to the former Prime
Minister free of charges and also it is an
international prestige for them. He added that
Mari Alkatiri asked for international lawyers due
to the limited resources in the legal system. In a
separate article MP Joao Goncalves (PSD) said if
Mari Alkatiri is found guilty in, it would be a
big shame to the internationals lawyers as it
would not be good for their reputation. (STL, DN)

Civilian group hands guns to forces

Timor Post reported that civilian groups have
handed over their weapons to the international
troops, the Australians in Ermera. Operational
commander in Ermera district, Mick Magbire told TP
that the guns of type HK3 with 556 rounds of
ammunition were taken by the Australian troops
from civilian groups under the responsibility of
Francisco da Cruz. "Two guns were handed to Ermera
District PNTL commander, Sub inspector Jacinto da
Conceicao who than handed them to us" said
Magbire. Ermera District community leader, Eduardo
de Deus said he was happy with the handover of
guns and hopes other groups could do the same
asked the international troops to process them
under rule of law.

In a separate article, Prime Minister Jose Ramos
Horta appealed to all groups who are still
carrying illegal weapons to turn them in, because
using weapons to kill people would not gain
anything. He also appealed to the people if they
are scared to return the guns they should contact
the international troops, or call him (PM) or the
president. "Whoever surrenders their weapons
voluntarily there will be no problem but if the
International troops find them in the car or in
the house they will process them according to law"
said Horta. (TP)

Horta asks MPs to find money

In response to the statement of MPs from
opposition party that they will not approve the
national budget for the fiscal year 2006/2007,
Prime Minister Ramos Horta said that if the MP’s
do not want to approve the budget in the
Parliament they should find the money to feed the
people. Ramos-Horta further said Members of the
Parliament should contribute and approve the
budget because the people are waiting for
development, infrastructure and other things
adding "This budget is our responsibility for this
people so MPs should approve it and I have talked
to MP’s from Fretilin and opposition and they
supported me 100%", said Horta (TP)

---

July 21, 2006

Cause of the crisis is leader’s responsibility:
Taur Matan Ruak

Speaking at the funeral service for members F-FDTL
killed during the recent crisis, Brigadier General
Taur Matan Ruak said in order to restore the
damage, the leaders must clarify to the population
of Timor-Leste the cause and objective of the
recent crisis adding the ’responsibilities are in
their hands’. Taur appealed to the Timorese people
to work hard, cooperate and think that the aim
that unites everybody is the nation. Prime
Minister Ramos-Horta said events that occurred in
the past months in the capital Dili are a big
lesson for the political leaders to get rid off
weapons and hatred as many Timorese have already
lost their lives during 24 years to achieve the
independence in 2002 and Timorese should not shoot
at each other. He said as a leader and brother he
appeals to all to forgive each other and dispose
off their weapons and live together as one and
contribute to the nation. The Minister added that
as a temporary measure the families of the
deceased would continue to receive their salaries
because they died in service. He also appealed for
reconciliation. Present at the ceremony in F-FDTL
Head Quarters in Metinaro, were members of the
diplomatic corps, commander of the international
forces, Mick Slater, representative of GNR, DSRSG
Bajawa, Vice-Prime Minister Estanislau da Silva
and PNTL representative Julio Hornai. (TP, DN)

MTCR proposes budget of around $10 million

The Ministry of Labor and Community Reinsertion
has presented $10 million budget for its program.

According to Minister Arsenio Bano, the programs
include veterans assistance, professional and
capacity building training, job promotion and
increases the programs in the social areas
specially, for families affected by the recent
crisis. Bano stressed that other area of
assistance would be school subsidies for about 200
students who have passed their exams adding the
proposed budget is to help reduce poverty. (TP)

Dili district tribunal not fully functional

Timor Post reported Friday that Dili District
Court is not fully operational as the majority of
the national staff is still in the districts. The
court is functioning only with the international
judges and prosecutors. Some of the court process,
especially for the suspects detained by the
international forces takes place very late at
night and it’s the process is all done by
international judges, said a staff who asked to
remain anonymous. (TP)

Government is not supporting Alkatiri lawyers:
Pinto

Portugal’s Ambassador to Timor-Leste Joao Ramos
Pinto said his government has never supported the
Portuguese lawyers defending Fretilin’s Secretary
General, Mari Alkatiri, adding his government does
not want to be involved in the problems that
occurred in the country. Therefore Pinto asked STL
to publish the following denial: The Portuguese
Ambassador in Dili repudiates the article
published yesterday by this newspaper, titled
"Portuguese Government Supports Mari Alkatiri’s
Team Lawyers". This is a false news and
unfortunately it seems to want to put in jeopardy
e the good name of Portugal and the excellent
existing relations between the two people and the
two nations. The Portuguese Government had not and
will not interfere in any matter of Timor-Leste
justice system and all citizens are free to
present their defence surrounded by lawyers that
they want.. We are certain that this type of
information that speaks the truth, in nothing will
affect the excellent ties that unite Portugal and
the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste. (STL)

---

July 20, 2006

288 detained by international forces

The deputy of the Provedor for Human Rights and
Justice, Silverio Pinto Batista said according to
their records, the international forces have
detained 288 people, adding out of this number,
his office has interviewed 66. Batista said
substances such as machete (catana) should not be
removed from the people as it is used to
facilitate their household work. He added the
Provedor’s two main tasks with the latest crisis
are to focus on the investigation case of 28-29
April 2006 and to monitor the current situation
such people detained by police in Caicoli, Becora
prison as well as the humanitarian assistance.

The Provedor’s Office is working together with
different monitoring networks, namely the Justice
System Monitoring Program (JSMP) and HAK (human
rights) Association.

In a separate article the commander of the forces
currently in Timor-Leste, Mick Slater said the
international police are discussing the areas to
establish five stations in response to concerns of
the population to enable them to return to their
homes. Speaking at a press conference on
Wednesday, (19/7) Slater said presently the
international forces are providing 24 hours
security with police patrolling Dili from dawn to
evening and the military throughout the night. He
said they are also working with the Ministry of
Interior but added it would take a while before
the national police start to work in Dili. The
Australian commander stressed that one of the
difficulties they face is the language skills to
enable them to get information from the community
adding the community has not reported on who has
committed crimes and he knows the Timorese are
smart in hiding the weapons, but he hopes the
international forces would eventually be able to
collect them all. According to Slater, an
estimated 5000 weapons have been collected by the
forces through operations in Dili.

Suara Timor Lorosae reported Commander Slater as
saying there are no indications there would be a
protest on Alkatiri’s investigation process which
started today in Dili and said the international
forces are now sharing the security
responsibilities, giving more responsibility to
the police as the situation is improving. He said
the situation in Dili is starting to be normal and
the population is carrying on their daily
activities even though many people continue to
live in the IDP camps. (TP, STL)

Prosecutor general starts questioning Alkatiri

Prosecutor General, Longuinhos Monteiro told the
media on Wednesday, the questioning process for
former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri starts today
(20/7) in relation to allegations of gun
distribution to civilians. Monteiro said the
International Prosecutor Luis Mota would question
Mari Alkatiri, a suspect as per implications by
former Interior He also said he believes the
former Prime Minister will bow to the law and
follow the process as the decision on the
questioning date was a mutual agreement.

Minister. Alkatiri would be accompanied by 9
defence lawyers from overseas. The hearing on the
former Interior Minister would be in Dili District
Court, said Timor-Leste’s Prosecutor General
adding the investigation process has been complete
and is now under draft accusation. He informed
that journalists who wish to attend the
interrogation session could do so provided they
have a complete ID card for security measures and
be in the court by 8:30am.

In a separate article, MP Manuel Tilman, (KOTA)
said the presence of international lawyers in
Timor-Leste as defence lawyers needs the
authorization of the National Parliament.

"According to the law, jurisdictional functions
would be allowed if it the law permits then we can
contract in the present case. I have not seen a
law that allows international lawyers to come and
defend a Timorese," said Tilman. He added that
according to the Constitution and UNTAET
regulations, to become a public defender and
defend a citizen in a court one must be a national
citizen or Timorese citizen. Tilman is of the
opinion that now with the presence of
international defence lawyers with former Prime
Minister Alkatiri’s case is opening up the door so
that in future, those Timorese studying law in the
country would be valueless. He hopes the lawyers
defending Alkatiri cannot exist as the only
named,, but also leave the door open to the
national lawyers as well, adding, if the
international lawyers come to assist the Timorese
counselor lawyers that’s fine but if they come to
take away the Timorese place he disagrees, saying
it would be opening a bad page for future
generation. (TP)

Mari must be responsible for quarterly budget

MPs from KOTA, PDC and PPT demanded the Cabinet of
dismissed Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri be
responsible for the quarterly budget report from
January to March 2006 which has not yet presented
to the National Parliament. MP Clementino dos Reis
Amaral (KOTA) said according to the legal
mechanism in order to debate a new budget, a
report on the old budget is required to determine
the new budget, adding the Mari Alkatiri is
responsible for it because he was the Prime
Minister during that period. (TP)

---

July 19, 2006

Australia prime minister’s visit to Timor

The Australian Prime Minister on Tuesday paid a 6
hour visit to Timor-Leste where he was welcomed by
his Timorese counterpart Jose Ramos-Horta at the
airport. Prime Minister Howard then visited the
troops stationed at Dili Port where there were a
small friction or discrimination as claimed by
STL, between the media and the forces for not
allowing some journalists into the port upsetting
some national and international reporters. In
relation to the incident an Australian police said
only journalists part of the Prime Minister’s
delegation from the airport were allowed in as
part of security measures.

Prime Minister Howard then proceed to meet
Minister Ramos-Horta. The meeting lasted around 1
hour. He then proceeded to meet President Xanana
Gusmao Speaking to the media following the meeting
President Gusmao said they discussed the current
situation of Timor-Leste, the presence of the
Australian troops and their role and the steps the
country is taking to overcome the current crisis.
Mr. Howard then proceeded to UNOTIL to meet DSRSG
Anis Bajwa and some members of the UN. Mr. Howard
had lunch with the troops in Caicoli before return
to Australia at around 15hrs local time.

Diario Nacional reported that President Gusmao was
happy following the visit of Australian Prime
Minister John Howard saying it was a visit of
solidarity and friendship and they discussed the
current situation and what is required to further
assist the presence of the international troops
effectively. The President refused to comment on
allegations that some Australian sectors were
responsible for the fall of Prime Minister Mari
Alkatiri saying "We Timorese are conscious of our
own situation". According to this daily, upon his
arrival at Dili airport, where he was welcomed by
his Timorese counterpart John Howard guaranteed
that Timor-Leste can continue to count on the
support and friendship of Australia. In the
meantime Brigadier General Mick Slater said the
situation in Dili is getting better thanks to the
joint efforts between the international forces on
the ground. On the visit of the Australian Prime
Minister, Mick Slater said it was an important
occasion as it would boost the troops’ morale.
(TP, DN)

Opposition parties present electoral law project

The opposition parties, PSD, PD, ASDT and other
small parties presented an electoral law project
to the National Parliament on Tuesday (18/7) and
according to Maria Paixao (PSD) the aim of the
document is to establish a law favourable to the
majority bench as well as small parties. Paixao
said according to her in the past year the
majority of the party in the Parliament have been
doing everything even though certain things are
not correct. MP Rui Menezes (PD) said the project
law would establish a law with quality to secure a
democratic election and guarantee liberty for all
citizens and guarantee political and democratic
legitimacy nationally and internationally. He said
the document is not a competition with document
already presented by the majority bench hoping the
two documents can be joined to produce an
electoral law with quality. (TP)

World Bank will continue support for new
government

The World Bank is prepared to coordinate with
donors on their contribution for the second
government of Timor-Leste, Acting Country Manager,
Laura Bailey told Timor Post on Tuesday (18/7).
The World Bank is prepared to continue to support
the new government due to the difficulties the
population is currently facing and which requires
time to overcome the problems.

Bailey said she is happy with the new government
because it has plans for many changes. The bank
will continue to support the National Parliament,
civil society and the President’s office. She
hopes the government would call the donors
included the World Bank to sit together to discuss
and listen to the needs of Timor-Leste current
government, adding all the donors countries are
willing to contribute to the government. (TP)

---

July 18, 2006

Portuguese government supports Alkatiri’s lawyers

The Portuguese government is strongly supporting
the team of lawyers defending the former Prime
Minister Mari Alkatiri, reported STL Tuesday.

According to this daily correspondent’s
investigation in Lisbon, the team supported by the
government of Portugal is aimed to stopping Mari
from being imprisoned on allegations of guns
distribution to civilians, adding each lawyer
would cost around 1500-2000 euros per interview.

Five lawyers would cost around 7000-10,000 euros
without including accommodation, transport and
other expenses.The cost would not be paid by
Fretilin but by the Portuguese government,
financing the law firms Joao Galvao Telles, Joao
Soares and Associates, Jose Antonio Barreiros and
Associates. The lawyers defending Alkatiri arrived
in Dili on Monday.

(STL)

Approval of budget depends on plans

The President of the National Parliament,
Francisco Lu’Olo Guterres said the budget will
only be approved when the Parliament receives
plans from the new government on how to implement
it. Guterres said the dismissed government already
had a proposed budget to be implemented but he has
no idea what the new government budget is like.

In a separate article he said he disagrees with
the extraordinary congress as proposed by Grupu
Mudansa Fretilin/ Fretilin Group for Change,
saying that he was elected in the recent party
congress using the voting system of show of hands.

Cristo Rei residents complain against forces

A group of Cristo Rei population, which covers the
area of Becusi, Becora reportedly said they paid a
visit to President Gusmao to present their
complaints about the search operation by the
intervention forces in Becora. According Ermelinda
Pinto, the group’s spokesperson, on 14 July the
intervention forces did a search operation on
information received about guns, a grenade,
pistols and other light weapons hidden in that
area. She said they searched the house including
inside the grounded maize but did not find
anything, but 11 people were detained including
her son who had arrived on the same day from the
sub-district of Lakloho. They continue under
detention and only one person has been released.
(STL)

Prosecutor general and deputy sworn-in

Prosecutor General, Longuinhos Monteiro and his
deputy, Ivo Valente were sworn-in on Monday in the
Palace of Ashes despite efforts by the majority
party MPs to restructure the Republic Prosecutor’s
General reported Timor Post.

According to this newspaper the efforts indicated
the MPs wanted to get rid of the Prosecutor
General in relation to the crime accusations
involving Fretilin leaders namely Rogerio Lobato
and Mari Alkatiri. Speaking at the ceremony
President Gusmao said the necessity for the courts
to function with capacity, liberty and
independence is fundamental for the survival of
democracy of a sovereign state. President Gusmao
stressed no one should be above the law, noting
"we have been verifying in the last year, the law
is greatly applicable to the common citizen, poor
citizen, to the citizen who that lacks knowledge
of the laws we produce". On his part, Longuinhos
Monteiro said he would act independently.

On the same occasion, President Gusmao asked the
government to reform the PNTL with the aim to
develop it into a professional institution,
reported STL. The Minister of Interior, Alcino
Barris also told the media, the Public Ministry
must be supported therefore the restructure of
PNTL would be crucial to develop a strong and
professional police force to fully support the
Public ministry. (STL, TP)

Population is not planning to protest

The spokesperson for the National Forum for Unity
and Justice, Eduardo de Deus Barreto, alias Dusae,
said the population of Ermera does not have plans
to hold a demonstration in Dili to dissolve the
Parliament, reported Timor Post. Barreto said they
have put their trust and are giving time to the
President of the Republic and the new Prime
Minister and to other members of the government to
carry their work for the nation. They would like
the government to pay attention to the people
affected by recent crisis. He said they do not
want the dissolution of the Parliament out of
respect of RDTL Constitution which has been
written with the blood and bones and any process
must be followed according to law and order.
Eduardo Barreto further said there are civilians
in Ermera District still in possession of guns and
using it to terrorize the population in that area.
(TP)

---

July 15, 2006

biggest problem is reconciliation: Gusmao

Speaking to the media following the swearing-in of
the second constitutional government, President
Gusmao reportedly said the new cabinet has a big
task ahead of them and there will be various
obstacles as the sovereign body would have to look
into the difficulties that emerged in the past,
stressing, reconciliation is one of the biggest
problems even though Timor-Leste has had history
of reconciliation experience. The President added
it would be a burden requiring the efforts of
everybody. He said, "reconciliation cannot achieve
without the truth and the truth would be
meaningless without justice". Without further
explaining how justice would be defended, Xanana
Gusmao told the media he would like the new
government to work harder on the economy of the
country to progress on to the election in order to
enable the people to elect who they trust can
improve their living conditions, noting elections
is the best option to resolve the crisis through
pacific measures.

He also reminded the new government about the
continued suffering of the people, to create
better conditions for the youths in terms of
employment and the resolve the veterans situation.
In reply to the demands by the National Front for
Justice and Peace and some other groups for the
dissolution of the Parliament and the Government,
in relation with the recent crisis, President
Gusmao said as Head of the State he has been
putting all efforts not to touch the Constitution
to avoid it as a practice in Timor-Leste in future
and reiterated the new government continue to
respect the structures of the Parliament. A total
of 40 members of the second constitutional
government participated in the swearing-in
ceremony on Friday.

In a separate article, Andre L4, representing 300
former Falintil members asked Prime Minister and
Minister of Defence Jose Ramos-Horta whether they
would be classified as rebel or not since they
assist the armed forces at the request of
Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak and F-FDTL Chief
of Staff, Lieutenant Coronel Lere Anan to provide
security and stability for the nation. (TP)

Members of old cabinet not legitimate

MP Joao Goncalves reportedly said the second
government is not constitutional because its
leadership remains more or less the same.

According to Goncalves, PSD sees no difference in
the method used to select the new government as
President Gusmao himself declared Fretilin party
illegitimate for breaking the political party’s
rules by a show of hands vote. He further said all
the parties were not consulted on the new
government noting it is a failure of the President
of Republic and that’s the reason PSD did not
participate in the swearing-in ceremony. In a
separate article it is reported a meeting was held
on Friday between President Gusmao, Prime Minister
Ramos-Horta, Minister of Interior, Dili District
Administrators, Heads of villagers and youth
groups with the aim to secure peace and find a
solution to persuade the IDP’s to return to their
home. They discussed reconciliation and the
probability of a justice process for the
population to be able to forgive each other as a
step to leave the camps as well as for the heads
of villages together with community police and
youths coordinators to provide vigilance for the
people to live without disturbances specially at
night.

On Saturday Timor Post reported a bus was attacked
by unknown group travelling in a car (Kijang) with
iron bars and light weapons in Lecidere. According
to an eyewitness, name not provided, the bus, had
stopped there for while and probably waiting for
passengers to Baucau.

The incident left the bus with broken rear and
side windows and occurred at around 2pm. (TP)

Group prepares for extraordinary congress

Fretilin’s Group for Change/Grupo Mudansa Fretilin
(GMF) held a preliminary meeting on Saturday in
Dili to prepare for the extraordinary congress.
Members from 13 districts were present at the
meeting. According to Vicente Maubocy, a member of
GMF, the exact date for the extraordinary congress
will be confirmed in two weeks. Maubody further
stated the congress has the total support of the
majority of the party.

Another member of the group, Vitor da Costa
emphasized the aim of the congress is to improve
the image of Fretilin.

Aderito de Jesus, a member of the GMF reportedly
said he is prepared to be one of the lawyers for
Railos’s group noting there would be up to five
lawyers working on Railos case. (TP, STL, DN)

New government can stop the crisis

The Bishop of Dili Diocese, Don Alberto Ricardo da
Silva, reportedly said the new government can stop
the crisis in the new nation. "Today (Friday 14/7)
in the swearing-in of the new ministers of the new
government we feel there is will to improve
everything and move forward, to stop the big
crisis which emerged in our country. As of today
we have hope the new government would overcome the
crisis of the nation," Bishop Ricardo told the
media Friday. The Bishop also added "we must
continue to help each other to carry on the good
work for our country. The church wants the truth
and justice. If we follow on this I think it would
be better. But if we leave out these two things
then we have problems".

---

July 14, 2006

Some old cabinet not part of new government

The second Constitutional Government does not
include some members of the old cabinet, namely
Ovidio de Jesus, Ministers of Transport and
Armindo Maia, Minister of Education who resigned
during the crisis and were not invited by Ramos-
Horta to be part of the new government. All the
Secretaries of State remain the same except for
Egidio de Jesus, Secretary of State for Region III
who is likely to be assigned as an ambassador, at
the new Prime Minister request. The new ministers
are for Foreign Affairs, Transport and
Telecommunications and Education. Josi Luis
Guterres, Timor-Leste Ambassador to the United
Nations and Washington is the new Foreign Affairs
Minister and was unable to participate in the
swearing-in and would do so only a week time,
Ramos-Horta told the media Thursday. He further
told the media he would meet with the Council of
Ministers following the ceremony. (see details
below of the second constitutional government)
(STL)

F-FDTL and PNTL should not fall into manipulations

Prime Minister Ramos-Horta has appealed to PNTL
and F-FDTL not to fall into tentative
manipulations to divide the people of Timor-Leste
by villages, race, ethnicity or language, adding
there is no such thing as east or west but one big
family from Timor-Leste. Ramos-Horta stressed in
order for the country to move forward with
prosperity the people must work together in
strengthening unity and should not keep hatred, as
it would stop the nation from moving forward.

He further added the two institutions must gain
consciousness in order to forget their
divisionism. "If you want to contribute for this
nation with pride as Timorese then you must throw
away hatred, revenge, and practice of divisionism.
All your contributions would enable these two
institutions to be successful," Ramos-Horta said.
The Minister said a study is currently in place to
better develop PNTL in traffic and community
policing, adding the international forces will
also work with the Timorese police officers in
security operations.

He added now that the new Government is n place it
would maintain an eye on the two institutions and
under the guidance of the President of the
Republic, the Government would work together with
the two Deputy Prime Ministers on how to maintain
a closer work with PNTL. The Minister also
announced that F-FDTL veterans currently receiving
US$100 a month would receive up to US$300 when
they retire.

In a separate article it is reported PNTL in
Bobonaro District continue to work to provide
security to the population. (STL, TP)

F-FDTL And PNTL should be under one ministry

In a letter addressed to the President of the
Republic by Lino da Silva Saldanha representing
the ’Grupo Policia Nacional de Timor-Leste/Timor-
Leste National Police Group and spokesperson for
internal security reformation, asked that those
police who have fled the Headquarters not to use
big weapons and pistols for security purposes.
Saldanha also asked "in future PNTL should not use
big weapons and pistols to maintain law and
order". He is of the opinion PNTL leadership in
future should be under the supervision of the
veterans because they have shown through their
sacrifices in the last 24 years, national interest
priorities and national unity. Saldanha also said
PNTL officers who have done wrong must be
dismissed from the institution and be punished and
for those who have left and were not at wrong
according to justice should rejoin the police
force. He further said the Unidade Reserva Police
(URP and Unidade Policia Fronteira (UPF) should no
longer exist, adding PNTL and F-FDTL should only
be under one ministry. (STL)

---

July 13, 2006

Xanana pushes Horta for military reform

President Xanana Gusmao pushes Prime Minister Jose
Ramos Horta for military reformation and PNTL to
prevent conflict among them. Xanana also asks
Horta to lead the government for better governance
until next election. Xanana told the media that
"The government must find the way to reform PNTL
and F-FDTL with high professionalism within their
intuitions. The decisions have to made by one
commander" said Xanana. He further explains that
F-FDTL is owned by the nation not individual or
any by political party. MP from Democratic Party
(PD) Juliao Mausiri stated that F-FDTL have to
show their professionalism as a force of state not
own by political party.

"Anyone who wants to be a member of PNTL or F-FDTL
should not be influenced by any political party
but understand their mission that they are owned
by the state to defend the nation and its people’
said Mausiri. (STL, TP)

Horta would not follow his promises

President of UDT party, Joao Viegas Carrascalao
said that the promises made by the new Prime
Minister Jose Ramos Horta would not happen because
they’re not realistic in the crisis situation.
"The PM has made no preparation to implement his
program in short time but he made lots of
promises" said Carrascalao. In response to
Carrascalao statement, president of ASDT party
Francisco Xavier do Amaral said that he fully
supports the program of Prime Minister Ramos Horta
because he believes Horta can implement it.

"We have to move on and we cannot just listen to
the rumours to stop the government’s program for
development in this country" he told TP reporters
at National Parliament house.

Electoral law will kill small parties

MP from UDT Party Alexandre Cortereal told the
media at National Parliament that electoral law
proposed by Fretilin government will kill the
small parties in the country because the article
13 only allows 5% vote to have seats in the
parliament. "It means to get one seat in the
parliament one has to get 20.000 voters" said
Cortereal. He further stated that the small
political parties would find hard to get 5% of
vote so there will be no democracy in this
country. (STL)

---

July 12, 2006

Railos group hands over guns

A ceremony was held yesterday in Liquica soccer
field, a town 30 kilometres west of Dili, for the
hand over of guns by Vicente “Railos” da Conceicao
and his group in the presence of Prime Minister
Josi Ramos-Horta, Bishop of Dili Dom Ricardo da
Silva, Baucau Diocese representative, Fr. Martinho
Gusmao, Prosecutor General, Longuinhos Monteiro,
Commander PNTL Paulo de Fatima Martins, Major
Tara, former Lieutenant Salsinha Gastao, members
of the Parliament and diplomatic corps and the
local population totalling about 1,000. The
population welcomed Prime Minister Ramos-Horta
with traditional dances in that district. Eleven
guns were handed over to the new Prime Minister
and according to Railos, four weapons were taken
by F-FDTL during the shooting in Tasitolu. Another
three were handed over by Major Tara in Ermera.
Speaking at the ceremony, Railos reiterated that
his group had been armed by Rogerio Lobato in May
with the knowledge of Mari Alkatiri. Also speaking
at the ceremony, Bishop Ricardo stressed that the
handing over of guns is a sign that people value
life. He appealed to other groups with guns to
follow Railos’ example. In a separate article,
Longuinhos Monteiro stated the he received the
guns handed over by Railos group which would be
used as evidence in the court process. (STL,TP)

Changes of procurement directors

Addressing the nation on the national television,
President Xanana Gusmao pointed to many concerns
the country is still facing and areas in which the
new government must make changes to improve the
services. Among them is a change of the directors
in the procurement and tender department. The
President points out that it would also stop
accusations that the directors are collecting
money for their party and avoid numerous other
alleged questionable practices. (TP)

Hasegawa hands report to Prime Minister Horta

SRSG Hasegawa on Tuesday presented a report on
transparency and accountability to Prime Minister
Ramos-Horta with the aim of helping the new
government win the trust and confidence of the
citizens, he said. SRSG also said Prime Minister
Ramos-Horta has indicated he will prioritize
measures of transparency and accountability in his
administration and wants the international
community to assist in strengthening capacity in
the Provedor’s Office and Prosecutor’s General’s
Office. He added that the Inspector General should
keep an eye out for abuses of power and corruption
practices. The report is based on recommendations
from experts from the UN, Finland, World Bank, UN
Development Program in April 2006.

---

July 11, 2006

Ramos-Horta government is illegal: PD

In a press communiqui, the President and Secretary
General of Partido Democratico (PD) ’considers the
new government unconstitutional if it is a
continuation of the first government of Mari
Alkatiri,’ reported Suara Timor Lorosae Tuesday.
PD also considers the nomination of Ramos-Horta as
the new Prime Minister and his two deputies,
Estanislau Aleixo da Silva and Rui Maria Arazjo by
President Xanana Gusmao also illegal for not
consulting other political parties represented in
the National Parliament as per RDTL Constitution
title IV, chapter II, Article 106. According to PD
the new government is molded from a party involved
in serious crisis. The communiqui states that the
former ministers and the political party
government no longer has the credibility to form a
transitional government due to its lack legality
and credibility as stated by the President of the
Republic himself. PD is of the opinion the
structure of the emergency government should be
small and efficient with important function to
assist in urgently resolving the social
humanitarian problem, stability, justice and
prepare for the general elections. The government,
model presented by PD, based on the current crisis
consist of 3 ministries. Ministry for Social
Issues (health, education, economy and other
matters) Ministry of Political Affairs (defence,
internal and external security) and Ministry of
Justice.

In a separate article Francisco “Lu-Olo” Guterres
reportedly said the second government still is
from Fretilin since it won with the majority of
the vote and it is up to the party to choose the
person to the head the government just like the
case of Ramos-Horta. Guterres added the nomination
of Ramos-Horta is with the aim to stabilize the
situation and respond to the current crisis. He
added the new Prime Minister has agreed to have a
weekly meeting regarding the government’s program,
noting the present government will give
continuation to the first government headed by
Mari Alkatiri. (STL, TP)

Parliament receives letter from family members of
PNTL casualties

Family members of PNTL casualties related to the
events of May 25 sent a letter to the President of
the National Parliament, Mr. Francisco “Lu-Olo”
Guterres and read by the Parliament’s Permanent
Secretariat during yesterday’s (10/7) plenary
session, asks the UN to investigate those
responsible for the shootings of the police
officers. The families also want clarification to
the public on the disarmament of PNTL only and not
F-FDTL who were armed and shot the officers.

They also ask the UN to look after the wounded
ones, the orphans and widows and raise a monument
in memory of those who died under the UN flag. A
copy of the letter was sent to the President of
the Republic, President of the Court of Appeals,
Prime Minister and the Bishops of Dili and Baucau.
(STL)

---

July 7, 2006

Horta an acceptable candidate: Goncalves

MP Joao Goncalves reportedly said his party has
presented their opinion that Ramos-Horta would be
the acceptable candidate to carry the government
until the elections in 2007. Goncalves added that
all the opposition parties have no objection to
Ramos-Horta to take care of the government
considering that Fretilin should nominate someone
to fill the Prime Minister’s position but the
President of the Republic has the last word. (TP)

IDP’s will soon return home: Slater

The commander of the joint task force in Timor-
Leste, Brigadier General Michael Slater reportedly
told the media on Thursday that those whose houses
were not burnt, would soon return to their homes.
Slater said the UN police would come in big
numbers from Malaysia and Australia and will
guarantee security to the whole population in
Dili. "When the UN police arrive, they will patrol
the suburbs. This is an important step to help the
Timorese to to live in peace," said the Australian
Brigadier General. According to Timor Post, Slater
said the UN Police will soon arrive and all IDPs
will be able to return to their residence. (TP)

Risk facing health services: Araujo

The Minister of Health, Rui Araujo reportedly said
during a press conference held on Thursday that
his Ministry would face difficulties regarding the
current expenditures if the budget for the fiscal
year 2006/2007 is not approved.

Araujo also stressed the Ministry would risk
ceasing its services in a few weeks if there is no
budget to maintain the daily operations. He added
the current activities are being funded from last
year’s budget which the ministry did not fully
implement in the month of May and June due to the
national crisis that occurred. (TP)

---

July 6, 2006

Alfredo meets President Gusmao

Military police commander, Major Alfredo and his
group reportedly met President Gusmao at his
office on Wednesday for over one hour but issues
discussed was not revealed. According to Suara
Timor Lorosae (STL), Major Alfredo avoided the
media by leaving through the back door of the
Presidential Palace. The group was accompanied by
the international forces on return to their camp
in Maubisse.

In the meantime, Major Tara and Major Marcos
Tilman together with 12 others handed in their
guns to the Australian forces in Gleno, Ermera
District on Wednesday. (STL,TP)

ASDT supports Horta for premiership

Associacao Social DemocrataTimorense (ASDT) fully
endorses Minister Ramos-Horta to become the Prime
Minister due to his credibility not only among the
population but within the international community
as well, said ASDT President, Francisco Amaral.
Amaral stressed that the country needs a person
with leadership that can take the people and the
nation forwards into prosperity.

Timor Post reported the Minister Ramos-Horta as
saying that he would consult with Fretilin Central
Committee regarding his possible take over of the
post of Prime Minister. (STL, TP)

Fretilin approaches Catholic Church

A delegation of Fretilin members, headed by Deputy
Secretary-General Jose Reis on Tuesday met with
the Bishop of Baucau Diocese, Mgr. Basilio do
Nascimento. During the meeting, the delegation
presented their point of view and concerns on the
current situation. On the same occasion, Bishop
Basilio appealed to all to be united on taking the
state forwards. Jose Reis said the meeting was an
initiative from Fretilin following the national
congress to create a stronger partnership with the
Catholic Church of Baucau and Dili Dioceses. He
also said a step towards a solution to the current
political crisis was the resignation of Prime
Minister Alkatiri and Fretilin’s efforts to
support the forming of an interim government that
will persuade the people to return to their homes
and encourage the disarmament of civilians who
still have guns. On the same occasion, Bishop
Basilio expressed his concerns about the people
still living in the camps and would like Fretilin
to help find a solution to end their suffering.
The Bishop also recommends that the leaders form a
unity starting from the base up, pointing out that
it must start at the village level. He said there
must first be reconciliation with the community
elders in the villages as per Timorese tradition
followed by the state. The church, he said, would
become the eyewitness or institutional instrument
to strengthening the unity.

In a separate article, Fretilin Renovator Group
continues to ask Fretilin Central Committee to
consult and resolve the mistake they committed by
holding an extraordinary meeting, reported STL
Thursday. Egidio de Jesus reportedly said a member
of the group already approached Estanislau da
Silva, Fretilin congress organizer to sit and
resolve the crisis within the party adding that if
the extraordinary congress is not held, he and his
group will take the process to a court.

---

July 4, 2006

Alkatiri wants to distance himself from justice

President of Associacao Social Democrata Timorense
(ASDT) Francisco Xavier de Amaral reportedly said
former Prime Minister Alkatiri wants to distance
himself from justice in relation to the recent
problems in Timor-Leste.

Amaral stresses that since Alkatiri was the head
of the government, he must be responsible for the
incidents of April 28 for giving orders to F-FDTL
and to take full control of the situation and for
the allegations of guns distribution to civilians.
He added that if Alkatiri resumes the post as
Member of Parliament, he would be entitled to
immunity and therefore he would never be charged
for the problems under his government.

"The return of Alkatiri to the National Parliament
is like a camouflage so that the police and the
international forces cannot detain Alkatiri. I see
it as a maneuver by Fretilin not to resolve the
problem that occurred,’ said the President of
ASDT. In the meantime, MP Cipriana Pereira
(Fretilin) said until Mari Alkatiri is proven
guilty or innocent following allegations of crimes
against the population and the nation, he has the
right to resume the post as MP.

Pereira stressed that everybody wants justice to
prevail and hold accountable those responsible for
the events that led to the crisis but it has to be
achieved through an investigation. (STL)

Xanana visits F-FDTL training centre

President Xanana Gusmao and Minister Jose Ramos-
Horta paid a visit to F-FDTL Headquarters in
Metinaro on Monday where they met with Armed
Forces officials for more than one hour. According
to Suara Timor Lorosae (STL), the agenda of the
meeting was not disclosed to the media and the
presence of President Gusmao called the attention
of the majority of the IDP’s in that area who
welcomed and waved to him but for others it was an
opportunity to express their ill feelings for the
President by calling him a liar and traitor for
not yet resolving the crisis of the nation. (STL)

Local government activities

Despite the recent crisis, the local government
activities continue in the District of Viqueque,
reported STL Tuesday. According to the District
Administrator, Francisco da Silva, the education,
health and public security continue to function as
normal. Last Thursday he inaugurated a primary
school in Lacluta, and stressed he would hold
discussions with community leaders of that area
regarding the situation in Dili as the population
is starting to be get concerned with their own
security, education and health. Da Silva appealed
to the people of Viqueque to carry on with their
daily business and assured them that the situation
in Dili was up to the national government to
resolve. Those responsible for the education
sector for Viqueque appealed to students who have
fled Dili to participate in the local classes.

In a separate article, it is reported that the
Administration of Bobonaro District has not been
functional for the past two months because the
office keys have not been handed over and the
Administrator, the Deputy and the Secretary for
Region IV until now continue to be in Dili. MP
Jose Andrade said although the local government is
non-functional, other government sectors such as
health, police, fire brigade, education and
agriculture continue with their daily activities.

Andrade said prior to their departures to Dili,
the protesters tried to dissolve the local
government by taking the keys and locking the
doors of the local administration office to stop
the public servants from going to work. He also
said the reason for the absence of the main
government heads is due to threats made to them.

He appeals to the coordinator of the protesters
from Bobonaro to return the keys to the
Administrator office to enable the local
government to operate. (STL)

---

July 3, 2006

Longuinhos request parliament to strip immunity
rights

Prosecutor General, Longuinhos Monteiro, will
write to the National Parliament to request that
MP Mari Alkatiri be stripped off the immunity
rights to follow the justice process in relation
to allegations of guns distribution to civilians,
reported Suara Timor Lorosae (STL) on Monday.
Speaking during a press conference held on Friday
at his office, Monteiro said he is aware of the
former Prime Minister’s intention to return to the
Parliament as an MP adding "we cannot make a
decision without seeking the opinion of the
National Parliament but we will send a letter to
the NP and wait to see whether he automatically
gets immunity and if so we the Parliament would
have to make a decision to remove him of the
immunity". He added that the Public Ministry
called Alkatiri for questioning or a revision
audience due to implications by Rogirio Lobato who
said Alkatiri was aware of the groups that
received guns illegally. The Prosecutor-General
says that although Parliament is not functioning
at the moment, it is their legal duty to inform
the Parliament. In the meantime, the President of
the National Parliament, Francisco Gutierrez,
reportedly said they would look into the case the
Prosecutor-General has already started. (STL)

Fretilin president calls for peace and stability

Fretilin President, Francisco Lu’Olo’ Guterres
appeals to the population and members of his party
to contribute to peace and stability of the
nation. In his message through a press conference
on Friday, Guterres said the Timorese people are
suffering and living in fear and many have fled
their homes and living a distance from their loved
ones without knowing their future, therefore he
appeals for everybody to contribute for peace and
stability in Timor-Leste. "As a president of
Fretilin, I appealed to all Fretilin militants to
reach out to each other and work together to solve
the crisis that occurred in our country" said Lu
Olo. He also appealed to the civilians who are
carrying weapons to hand them over to the
international troops and other competent
authorities. (STL)

False detention photograph

Fretilin’s leaders have said that the photo
showing an Australian Force detaining former Prime
Minister Alkatiri in Dili is false.

According to STL, Fretilin leaders have said the
photo was a montage done by a small group and
distributed in Dili saying the international
forces have detained Mari Alkatiri. The pamphlet
was directly handed to Fretilin leaders by the
Australian forces. "This false photograph is the
intention of a group or individual to damage the
dignity of Mari Alkatiri and Fretilin, to create
instability in our country and to create confusion
and deceit among the population an is trying to
damage the political dialogue process which the
Fretilin is holding to improve the current
situation crisis," said Alkatiri during a press
conference Saturday (1/7), adding Fretilin demands
responsibility of the group or individuals who are
distributing these false photos and try to deceive
the Timorese people.

Xanana ready to go to prison again

President Xanana Gusmao told FRETILIN supporters
at Friday’s rally that he was ready to go to
prison if he was involved in arming civilians.

"We are waiting for the International
Investigation Team to do the investigation and if
Xanana Gusmao is involved, then I am ready to go
to prison again" said Gusmao. He further explained
that the current crisis started because of
discrimination issues within F-FDTL and the
government had no political good will to solve
their problem.

MP from Fretilin Party Antonio Cardoso told the
crowd that Fretilin rejected the dissolution of
the National Parliament. "If the president
dissolves the parliament, it is against RDTL
constitution and Fretilin still has a mandate
until 2007".

The deputy secretary-general of Fretilin, Jose
Maria Reis, handed a petition addressed to
president Xanana Gusmao and demanded that he not
dissolve the parliament.

President of Fretilin party, Francisco Guterres
Lu-Olo, appealed in his address to the nation and
the Fretilin militants to "restore peace and
stability in the country again" because the nation
is facing a difficult situation which has caused
fear among the people. "As a president of
Fretilin, I appeal to all Fretilin militants to
reach out to each other and work together to solve
the crisis that has occurred in our country" said
Lu Olo. He also appealed to the civilians who are
carrying weapons to hand them over to the
international troops and other competent
authorities. (STL)

 OPINION & ANALYSIS

What next for Timor?

Online Opinion - July 24, 2006

Jeremy Ballenger — With the present situation
slowly heading for political resolution, time has
come to consider the next steps for the fledgling
government of Australia’s newest neighbour.

Many theorists and commentators argue development
in Timor is inexorably linked to GNP growth. This
argument stresses successful development will not
occur without increases in income levels, leaving
us wondering how Timor can have a hope of pulling
an economic rabbit out of the development hat.
With the ongoing debacle that is the Timor Sea
agreement, increases in real income will take time
to trickle down, if they do at all: time that
Timor does not have if it is to avoid a return to
the recent unrest.

How can this be achieved in a country arguably
verging on being penniless? The Timorese
parliament is in the process of passing a US$415
million budget, which to use the words of former
Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta equates to being
"the budget of a university or a small town in
Australia".

Nobel Prize winning economist Amartya Sen offers
the first steps to a solution in his 1998 book
Development as Freedom. Using what is described as
a support-led process to deliver "social
opportunities" — health care and basic education
— Sen argues there is no need to wait for
dramatic increases in real incomes.

In relation to Timor, the primary aim should be to
improve the quality of life for a populace
subsisting on approximately US$1 a day. According
to conventional development wisdom, this requires
money and resources, and this very fact supports
the argument that incomes must rise before these
essential services can be delivered to the people.
Quite often, this argument is extended, with
theorists advocating a complete postponement until
capital becomes available for governmental social
investment. Chicken first, egg follows.

At this point it seems an insuperable problem.
What about the economics of relative costs? By
their very nature, social services such as those
the Timorese desperately need are labour intensive
in their provision. In a country with an average
wage of less than a dollar, these services are
relatively inexpensive to provide.

There might be less money, but existing wage
levels mean Timor doesn’t need as much money to
provide such labour intensive services. Simply
put, it costs a great deal less than delivering
similar services in the developed world of trade
unions and “living wages”. Ergo, there’s no need
to wait.

With support-led initiatives laying the foundation
for the more popular income-led growth, this
approach should be given serious consideration.
Other income and business-led initiatives have not
fared particularly well. Take coffee as an
example.

Fairtrade, Oxfam, Community Aid Abroad and even
USAID and CNN have trumpeted the delights of
Timorese coffee far and wide, with cafes charging
us a premium to savour the deliciously sweet
taste. More than a few pundits have argued coffee,
along with oil and gas will lead to Timorese
economic regeneration. Oil and gas aside, to date
coffee has failed to deliver. It’s time we
recognised the failure of coffee to save the day
is for sound economic reasons.

Coffee is not scarce. Paraphrasing economist Tim
Harford, coffee is grown all over the world and
requires hard work but little skill to produce.
Further complicating matters is trade in raw
coffee is relatively free of economic barriers,
subjecting it to unadulterated free-market forces.
The lack of tariff or subsidy protection also
makes it unattractive to farmers in developed
countries, leaving coffee and other commodities
like rice to the world’s poor to cultivate.

Coffee is also an easy business to get into, and
initiatives like Fairtrade only make it more
attractive to poor people looking to feed
themselves. Such initiatives warm the hearts of
developed world philanthropists and ethical
consumers, but only benefit a small group of
coffee producers.

The point is the existence of Fairtrade and like
initiatives does not alter a very important fact
— globally, too much coffee is being produced. As
much as we all like the stuff, it is quite clear
that on these facts alone successful Timorese
economic development on the husk of a coffee bean
is about as likely as them qualifying for the next
World Cup.

Alternatives to coffee, oil and gas are needed.
While not advocating the demise of the coffee
industry, the relative economics mentioned earlier
suggest several other areas for development that
efficiently leverage lower relative wage levels
and the use of labour intensive industry.

Leaving aside healthcare and energy, possible
alternatives meeting these requirements include
commercial fishing, aquaculture and agriculture.
All also have the added benefit of scalability.

Although horribly devastated during the Indonesian
withdrawal, Timor’s natural environment is
breathtaking both on and offshore. The island is
situated on the precipice of a 3.5km deep channel
in the Wetar Strait, home to tuna, deepwater
snapper and a vast array of marine life
continually refreshing the coastal marine
environment.

A key infrastructure aspect not destroyed by
retreating Indonesian and militias is deepwater
ports. The northern coast of East Timor is well
serviced by excellent deepwater facilities,
initially designed to cater for Indonesian
warships. With this infrastructure largely intact,
minimal investment would be required for these
facilities to support a commercial fishing
industry. Fishing and the subsequent packing and
export are labour intensive and thereby low cost,
making it hard to ignore.

Agricultural alternatives to coffee are also
necessary. That the world’s poor wind up farming
our coffee and rice is inarguable. Little known is
that rice paddies have an alternative use in
aquaculture as hatcheries for fish farming. Work
has begun in this area assisted by UN Volunteers
and the Department of Fisheries and the Marine
Environment (DFME) but further government and
development investment is necessary, providing
both economic and health benefits.

Malaria is endemic in East Timor. During the wet
season, rice paddies become breeding grounds for
the malaria mosquito. Integrated farming methods
like aquaculture provide fish to eat mosquito
larvae, an economically efficient step toward
lessening the over 130,000 malaria cases treated
in East Timorese hospitals each year.

Another option is vanilla. An alternative cash
crop to coffee, vanilla has comparable inputs and
labour intensity to farm, and the economics are
hard to ignore. Coffee yields four times as much
crop per acre, but on price, vanilla yields
deliver a return over six times larger to the
farmer even with historically low vanilla prices.
More simply — raw coffee prices per kilogram are
about US$2 on a good day. On a bad day, vanilla is
worth US$50 per kilogram. An investment in
expansion of this crop magnifies the return to the
economy and increases the pace of development.

There will of course be understandable resistance
to the growth of Timorese commercial fishing,
aquaculture and agricultural industries,
especially when they compete for export dollars
with Australian business. Nobody likes
competition.

But Australian industry must face the reality that
this is an unavoidable eventuality. To deny or
resist moves to boost East Timor’s economic growth
invites a much less palatable outcome — the
continued need for Australian soldiers and police
keeping the peace in an impoverished neighbouring
state.

---

Conspiracy theory haunts East Timor

The Australian - July 15, 2006

Mark Dodd and Stephen Fitzpatrick in Jakarta — On
his first day in office this week, East Timor’s
new Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta accepted a
cache of illegal weapons from a former soldier,
Vincente “Railos” da Conceicao.

Conceicao had become something of a household name
as the man who fingered East Timor’s former
interior minister for allegedly arming hit squads
to target enemies of former prime minister Mari
Alkatiri, a claim that ultimately helped force
Alkatiri out.

Conceicao handed over 11 Heckler and Koch
submachine guns to Australian troops. But no
ammunition was surrendered and the rebel and his
colleagues walked away still armed with stolen
police-issue Glock 9mm pistols tucked in their
pants.

It was a piece of theatre that threw up more
questions than answers about East Timor’s low-rent
version of a people power uprising.

Claims of hit squads, foreign conspiracies,
missing guns and bodies all underscore the murky
nature of East Timor’s crisis, a political
quagmire that sucked in a reluctant Canberra as
rioting and violence erupted through Dili, forcing
residents into refugee camps as their homes were
burned. The political demise of Alkatiri was, for
the most part, self-inflicted, a legacy of a
leader and an administration increasingly out of
touch with its grassroots. But was it an internal
coup?

Certainly Alkatiri’s old enemy President Xanana
Gusmao and his ally of convenience Ramos Horta
displayed deft political footwork. And the flames
of discontent surrounding Alkatiri were given
oxygen by some timely revelations from the
Australian media and almost nightly appearances by
Ramos Horta on the ABC’s Lateline, a program
Alkatiri snubbed several times.

The events that sealed Alkatiri’s political fate
began on January 11 with a protest about regional
discrimination by a group of soldiers born in the
western region. Alkatiri quickly lost control,
leaving the government paralysed, Dili in flames,
ethnic cleansing in the suburbs and more than 30
killed, 150,000 people displaced and the country
on the brink of civil war. Calm was only restored
with the arrival of an Australian-led force in
May.

Behind the events lies a shadowy assortment of
self-proclaimed patriots. Their close links with
the President and their role in the political
vacuum finally tipped the scales against Alkatiri.

Amid calls for calm by UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan, a desperate fight for political supremacy
was waged between Gusmao and Alkatiri.

Alkatiri issued a statement on May 27 trying to
make out he was still in charge. "The
international forces have been receiving
instructions from the government,“he said.”At no
time has the government ceased to work. What is in
motion is an attempt to stage a coup d’etat."

But first blood went to Gusmao, who invoked
emergency powers and stripped the prime minister
of his authority. He wanted to sack him but was
advised that would need the full support of his
Council of State.

Alkatiri clung to power for three more weeks
before finally caving in on June 26, five days
after receiving another presidential demand to
resign, this time accompanied by a video copy of
ABC allegations that he had supported the arming
of civilians.

There is no doubt Alkatari, a Muslim not trusted
by many in the predominantly Catholic country, and
Gusmao, worshipped as a national hero for his role
with the gun and then diplomacy in winning the
country its independence, do not like each other.
But whether there was an organised conspiracy to
depose Alkatiri — possibly with Canberra’s
blessing — is unclear.

Certainly, Australian ministers have striven to
avoid the appearance of taking sides, despite
heeding the plea from Ramos Horta and Gusmao for
peacekeeping troops that was, in effect, a rebuke
to Alkatiri and his government. Portugal, East
Timor’s formal colonial ruler and a close friend
of Alkatiri, last month all but accused Australia
of trying to interfere, offering a stark warning.

"Australia should not get involved in the domestic
affairs of East Timor. Neither Australia, nor
Portugal," Portugal’s foreign minister Diego
Freitas do Amaral said five days before he
resigned.

Conceicao and his hit squad appear to be pivotal
to the entire question of whether there were
secret forces working against Alkatiri. Before he
stepped into the limelight during an ABC Four
Corners program last month, few East Timorese had
heard of Conceicao.

His startling claim that he and his ex-guerilla
cohorts had been armed and trained with the
knowledge of Alkatiri and then-interior minister
Rogerio Lobato effectively cruelled Alkatiri’s
chances of hanging on through the crisis.

Sitting on the shady veranda of his Liquica home
this week, the rebel leader tells Inquirer that he
and two deputies, Mateus “Rakat” dos Santos
Pereira and Liandro “Grey” Lobato, were taken by
Rogerio Lobato to meet Alkatiri at the latter’s
house on May 8. Liandro Lobato is a village head
in Liquica district.

Conceicao says the 30-minute meeting in the
upmarket Dili suburb of Farol was largely a test,
for Alkatiri to decide whether he trusted the
group with the “security” task Lobato had set them
the previous day. "We talked mostly about the
current political situation in East Timor," says
Conceicao, who is a member of Alkatiri’s Fretilin
party.

They discussed overcoming opposition in East Timor
to Alkatiri and how this could be done. "Towards
the end he said, ’The President must not know and
police chief Paulo Martins must not know. This is
top secret,"’ Conceicao claims.

Conceicao and his two lieutenants concur on the
detail of this last statement, and Conceicao adds:
"Anyone who says Paulo Martins is responsible for
this is wrong. He is not the one who allowed the
police weapons to disappear." Rogerio Lobato, he
alleges, bore that responsibility. Lobato has been
under house arrest since last month and, according
to prosecutor-general Longhuinos Monteiro, may
have implicated Alkatiri in the scandal.

Conceicao says he accepted the task "because there
was no option not to, but also because I wanted to
see how far he was prepared to go". He says it was
a clash on May 24 with national defence force (F-
FDTL) soldiers at Tibar, just west of Dili,
resulting in the loss of four lives, that made him
decide it was time to go public with what he had
been asked to do.

Interestingly, all sides blame this particular
encounter for the sharp deterioration of affairs
over the next day or so, including the massacre of
12 unarmed policemen in Dili by F-FDTL soldiers on
May 25. "It was because the F-FDTL, when they saw
the dead members of the Railos group were carrying
PNTL (police) rifles, decided to get revenge,“Ramos Horta said this week.”They thought they
were being attacked by PNTL."

Other key players have explained events the same
way. Conceicao is a former Falintil guerilla
commander who has the devotion of his men. His
colleagues Liandro Lobato and Pereira, when asked
whether they felt they had an option not to join
in the hit-squad plan, dismissed the idea. "Our
decision was to support Railos," says Pereira, who
describes himself as an entrepreneur with
interests in construction.

“Whatever he decides to do, we follow.” Conceicao
says he joined the regular army after Indonesia
left East Timor in 1999, but retired in 2004
“because I didn’t like the discipline”. He took up
farming — mostly rice, vegetables and coffee —
around Liquica. "But I have the support of
everyone around here. I could get 1000, 2000
people together if I wanted," he boasts.

Asked again why a retired soldier such as himself
had accepted a recall to active duty, he tenses
up, then laughs when Liandro Lobato answers: "To
get weapons. Yes, to get weapons,“Conceicao says.”And because I knew there were other groups who
had weapons. “They were already in the game.”
Conceicao says he had no details of other armed
hit squads, adding: "As far as I know, I was the
last to be brought in."

But there are several inconsistencies in his
account of events. What also remains unexplained
in the episode is Conceicao’s presence at Gusmao’s
home for several hours three weeks ago. It was on
a Saturday when, according to Gusmao aide Agio
Pereira, local citizens had unexpectedly
telephoned to say they wanted to hand in some
police rifles "to show their support for the
President".

Conceicao was at that point still making his
claims about the hit-squad assignment, demanding
that he be allowed to surrender his rifles as
“evidence” directly to Gusmao, and requesting
armed protection because he feared being targeted
by other hit-squad leaders.

However, drinking small cups of rich dark coffee
on the President’s neat front lawn, and joking
with the former guerilla commander about
developments in East Timor, Conceicao didn’t look
anything like a man in fear for his life.

Along with his former ally, Rogerio Lobato,
Alkatiri now faces the prospect of court action
over his alleged involvement in arming civilian
gangs, although he strongly denies the claims.

He maintains he was the victim of a coup but has
failed to produce any evidence to back his claim.
Certainly, Gusmao and Ramos Horta were able to
tweak events to their advantage after the arrival
of Australian brigadier Mick Slater’s
peacekeepers.

By then Alkatiri had been terminally damaged. His
decision to not appear on several promised TV
interviews on ABC allowed Ramos Horta to
monopolise the Australian media, helping to
strengthen his leadership credentials. The
Australian army’s top commander in Dili rejects
any charges of favouritism vis-a-visTimorese
politicians, despite claims by one commentator who
queried the decision by Australian troops to
provide rebel leader Alfredo Reinado with a
bodyguard instead of arresting him. A Special Air
Service bodyguard had been provided to Alkatiri
long before similar protection was offered to
Reinado.

Army spokesman James Baker says the protection
“cut both ways”. It allowed the Australian Defence
Force to ensure both men stayed neutral.

So, what other factors contributed to Alkatiri’s
demise? It is tempting to believe he and his
factional allies in Fretilin were eyeing a pot of
black gold, a steadily accruing $600 million
account in New York, as a handy petro-dollar war
chest that would help them fight the May national
elections.

His four years at the helm were characterised by
an increasingly autocratic trend, according to
critics, who say they faced muzzling by defamation
laws that breached constitutional guarantees of
free speech.

Alkatiri provided patronage for close family and
party business interests, especially those of his
brother Bader, who was given a monopoly weapons
contract last year, sidestepping any parliamentary
consent. Another brother, Ahmed, prospered from
lucrative government construction contracts along
with close political ally Oscar Lima.

Ordinary East Timorese, most of whom live in total
poverty, were all too aware of the issue and so
was the World Bank. "Alkatiri had some competence
as an administrator and was a successful
negotiator, but he wasn’t a popular politician,"
says a senior Western diplomat in Dili, who asked
not to be named. "He didn’t talk to people. He was
certainly aloof."

Perhaps one of the most compelling, yet least
acknowledged, examples of how much his own support
had eroded within Fretilin came during a challenge
to his leadership last May. Disagreeing with what
she believed was an undemocratic ballot, Ana
Pessoa — a deputy prime minister and staunch
Alkatiri loyalist for five years — abstained from
voting. Despite his claims of outside
interference, it was a sign Alkatiri was losing
support from his greatest power base.

Ramos Horta has vowed a new era of peace and
stability. That promise is likely to be sorely
tested in the months ahead. Hundreds of stolen and
looted weapons from the police paramilitary units
remain unaccounted for, including large stocks of
ammunition.

Slater says the population in Dili is still very
nervous and Opposition foreign affairs spokesman
Kevin Rudd says it is too soon to be talking of
pulling out the troops. The real losers are the
more than 150,000 people displaced by the recent
violence, living in squalid, temporary reception
camps. Aid agencies are warning they should not
become permanent fixtures.

“There are no longer any good guys,” says one
senior Dili-based UN official. "You used to be
able to paint the pro-independence side as angels
and the pro-Jakarta militia as evil. They’ve all
got dirt on their hands after this."

---

Doubts linger on Horta’s ability

Interpress News Service - July 14, 2006

Kalinga Seneviratne, Sydney — East Timor’s new
Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta has been warmly
welcomed by Australia’s foreign minister Alexander
Downer as a leader who could help solve the
country’s political crisis. But analysts in the
region doubt if Horta can deliver the goods, where
his own country is concerned.

A major reason for this lingering doubt is the
belief that Australia may have played a role in
the downfall of the former prime minister Mari
Alkatiri, who was pressured to resign, late last
month, after the Australian media claimed that he
has been secretly arming the militia to eliminate
his opponents.

Horta, who is known to be a close ally of
Australia, was thrust into the prime minister’s
role even though he is not even a member of
Alkatiri’s Fretilin Party, which holds 55 of the
88 seats in parliament, with opposition benches
divided among 12 smaller parties.

Horta, speaking on ABC Radio, after his
installation on Monday, said his government’s
immediate role was to consolidate security in the
country and indicated that Australian forces
currently in the capital Dili will remain until
the end of the year.

More than 2,200 foreign troops, mainly from
Australia, were sent to Dili to restore law and
order after rioting broke out in the capital
between rival military factions leaving 21 people
dead.

Horta wants a foreign troop presence in the
country for a while. He said that with the
agreement of the United Nations Security Council,
at the end of the year, the remaining Australian
forces would come under the UN umbrella as a
peacekeeping force, "but, preferably for us,
retaining Australian command leadership".

However, one of his two deputy prime ministers,
Estanislau da Silva, Fretilin member of parliament
and a close ally of Alkatiri predicted that there
is a tough road ahead for the new leadership. When
pressed by ABC radio for a statement of support
for the new prime minister, he responded saying:
“I don’t support any person.”

Alkatiri, said da Silva, did not resign. "His
dismissal took place in very special
circumstances, so the wounds, all the problems
have not been healed properly".

Human rights activist Francisco da Silva Gari
speaking with IPS from Dili said that Ramos
Horta’s appointment may help to restore order in
the short term, but, he will have huge challenges
in the long term.

He said there is a perception that Alkatiri’s
dismissal was engineered by Canberra because "he
was tough in negotiations with Australia on the
oil and gas deals, (because) he was trying to
defend the rights of Timorese (for their natural
resources)".

Without naming names, he said that some political
leaders have used the so-called conflict between
people from the east and west to serve their own
political goals and "received support from a
foreign country that has interest in Timor oil".
Gari argued that during Indonesian occupation "we
did not distinguish our people from east and west,
we were together for the struggle for
independence".

Damian Grenfell, a researcher at the Royal
Melbourne Institute of Technology who focuses on
security issues in East Timor, agrees that there
is no history of an east-west conflict. "Rather
this is a conflict between access to state
resources and political control, that has seen
parts of the community mobilised on an east-west
basis“he told IPS in an interview.,”This is a
potential cause for future instability".

He argues that while there will be no tears in
Canberra over Alkatiri’s departure, "the risks for
Australia of triggering such a crisis are huge,
and include creating the space for a new
leadership within Timor Leste (as East Timor is
known in Portuguese), that would be far more
antithetical to Australian national interests".

But, the head of the Department of International
Relations at the University of Indonesia, Haryadi
Wiryawan, sees it differently. He was quoted in
the Jakarta Post recently as saying that "
Alkatiri’s socialist outlook is seen as not in
line with what they (Australia) want East Timor to
be", and his closeness to China did not please
Canberra either.

Just before the crisis erupted in Dili, Alkatiri’s
government had awarded a major oil exploration
contract to Petro China and was also reported to
be close to signing an agreement with Beijing to
build a petroleum refinery in Dili which would
have undermined Australia’s plans to build one in
the northern Australian city of Darwin to process
oil and gas resources from the disputed Timor Gap
— which has an estimated 30 billion US dollars
worth of resources.

"There is no doubt that the Australian government
has never liked Alkatiri and spreads unfavourable
information about him, attributing him with being
responsible for imposing Portuguese and accusing
him of being a Marxist," Australian academic Helen
Hill, author of ’Stirring of Nationalism in East
Timor", told IPS.

Hill argued that the Australian media is probably
even worse, and they have played a role in
Alkatiri’s downfall by accusing him of being born
in Yemen, not being TImorese, not speaking the
Tetum language, of wanting to install a ’one-
party’ system and of nepotism and corruption.

"They fail to realise that Alkatiri’s great
achievement of getting a much better deal for the
Greater Sunrise Unitisation Agreement and setting
up the Petroleum Fund, is widely praised as is his
bringing in of Cuban doctors to work in the rural
areas and his policy of saving Timor-Leste from
international debt,“Hill noted.”He is, unfortunately, one of the few ministers
who can get Timorese to focus on economic issues
and push the country towards the (UN prescribed)
Millenium Development Goals (MDGs). If he is not
re-appointed as a minister it will be very
difficult for Timor-Leste to get back on this
path".

---

How the UN failed Timor Leste

ChannelNews Asia - July 14, 2006

Marianne Kearney, Dili — Mr Joao Cancio Freitas
might be the director of Dili’s Institute of
Technology, but like almost three quarters of this
city’s population, he has spent weeks living in
one of the dozen refugee camps dotted around Timor
Leste’s capital.

He and his family, along with 7,000 other
refugees, have been sleeping in a hot car park
opposite the inappropriately-named United Nations
(UN) compound or Obrigada Barracks — “obrigada”
in the local tetum language means "thank you very
much".

But these days not too many Timorese are singing
the UN’s praises. It is thanks to the UN and
international donors that Timor Leste has verged
on collapse, say Mr Freitas and other observers.
After all, they say, the world body and donors
hastily assembled a skeleton of a government,
failed to properly train the security forces, and
barely made a dent in the country’s crushing
poverty.

During the 1999 independence vote, 1,500 people
were killed and 70 per cent of infrastructure was
destroyed. For the next three years, the UN
effectively built the nation from scratch. "The
things that deserve credit are the UN humanitarian
and peacekeeping operations. But governance was
the biggest problem," said Mr Freitas.

One of the major failures was the police force.
Its recent, spectacular collapse — police traded
fire with the military or abandoned their posts -
was in part due to inadequate training. The
police, many of whom had poor training under
Indonesian rule, were trained by police personnel
from many countries with conflicting methods of
policing.

"The UN brought in people from 112 countries,
ranging from the best to the worst. Many didn’t
have any experience. The worst part was they came
for six months and then left," said Mr Freitas.

The UN denies the charges, saying it expects its
police trainers to "conduct training in accordance
with international human rights standards", said
the UN’s Dili spokesperson, Ms Donna Cusumano.

Sacked interior minister Rogerio Lobato, who
served five years in jail in Angola for diamond
smuggling, and ex-premier Mari Alkatiri are also
to blame, said Mr Freitas. Together, they turned
the police force into a rival for the military,
with more arms and the creation of rapid-reaction,
special forces.

"They (the UN) should have said, you’ve got a
crook as your interior minister. But the people
that had a political mandate to criticise the
government didn’t do it," said one observer, who
has been in Timor since 1999.

Other analysts point to the UN’s failure to
adequately prepare the Timorese to run their own
nation, with too much aid money funding expensive
expatriate salaries. "The UN only teaches how to
build institutions but doesn’t care how they
function," said Mr Marcelino Magno from the Timor
Institute for Development Studies.

He accused the UN of hiring Timorese as
“translators, drivers and cleaners” rather than
employing the dozens of qualified locals for more
senior positions. When the UN ran Timor Leste,
"internationals occupied key positions and were
only slowly replaced by Timorese, often with
little skills transfer or training", the World
Bank said in a recent report.

Since 1999, international donors have given more
than US$2 billion ($3.16 billion) to Timor Leste.
But little of that money went towards developing
local agricultural and fisheries industries to
reduce poverty, said economist Joao Saldinha of
the Timor Institute for Development Studies.

At least 30 per cent of that aid was spent on
foreigners’ salaries and consultants’ fees, Mr 
Saldinha added. "Normally in post-conflict
societies, aid starts to trickle in slowly and
then gradually increases,“he said.”But in Timor
it boomed really quickly, creating an artificial
boom economy. I argued against this."

Five years later, with 40 per cent of the
population living in poverty, there is little
evidence of this boom. Most young men sell
oranges, or phone cards and cigarettes.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in a speech last
month admitted that the UN had perhaps rushed the
job in Timor Leste. "We have learned — at a
painful price for Timor Leste — that the building
of institutions on the basis of... democracy and
the rule of law is not a simple process that can
be completed within a few short years," Mr Annan
said.

---

Horta a good choice but challenges lie ahead:
analysts

Agence France Presse - July 9, 2006

Dili — East Timor’s new prime minister Jose
Ramos-Horta is the candidate best placed to unify
the traumatised nation but the Nobel laureate
could still face opposition and challenges lie
ahead, analysts warned.

President Xanana Gusmao announced on Saturday that
Ramos-Horta, 56, would lead the half-island nation
until elections in early 2007, ending weeks of
political paralysis.

The post became vacant when Mari Alkatiri stepped
down on June 26, as pressure intensified on him to
wear the blame for violence between rampaging
rival security force factions that left at least
21 people dead in May.

The bloody unrest forced 150,000 people from their
homes, the vast majority of whom remain in refugee
camps, unsure of their safety despite the presence
of more than 2,200 Australian-led foreign
peacekeepers.

Ramos-Horta, who tirelessly campaigned for East
Timor’s independence from Indonesia on the
international stage and won a Nobel peace prize
for his fight, had been widely tipped as a likely
choice by Alkatiri’s ruling Fretilin party.

Although he is a political independent and not a
party member, he helped found the decades-old
party.

Australian analyst Damien Kingsbury, from Deakin
University, said Ramos-Horta’s diplomatic skills
would help bring calm to Asia’s poorest nation.

"It’s a very sensible decision. He is well-
respected, well-liked and he is capable, and that
alone would seem to make him a very good choice,"
he told AFP, adding that Ramos-Horta would also be
able to maintain East Timor’s international
profile.

"He has good international links and in terms of
maintaining... cordial relations with key
countries such as Portugal, Japan and Australia,
he will be good," Kingsbury said.

The analyst said he did not expect a backlash from
Fretilin, which nominated him along with several
of its senior ministers for the post, because the
party probably realised it needed to choose him if
it wanted to stay popular.

"Fretilin, I think, was feeling a bit shell-
shocked and if it didn’t come up with Horta as a
possibility, then it would have been negligent."

Ramos-Horta’s strong relationship with Gusmao —
who did not get on well with Alkatiri — "will
mean greater coherence and cooperation" between
the presidency and cabinet than under the former
premier’s rule, he added.

Joao Mariana Saldinha, a commentator from the
Timor Institute of Development Studies, warned
that Ramos-Horta still faces some opposition and
will have a tough few months ahead.

He noted that Major Agusto “Tara” Araujo, a rebel
soldier who has reportedly said he does not trust
Ramos-Horta, was planning to organise protests in
the capital next week, according to the daily
Suara Timor Loro-sae. "Demonstrations are coming
back next week. Let’s see what he does in the
first place" about these, Saldinha said.

He also noted that Ramos-Horta would need to focus
on pressing security issues — with refugees still
stuck in camps — as well as high unemployment and
preparing for elections. "Whether he can deliver
will depend on who will be in charge of the key
ministries of economy, infrastructure and
agriculture," he said.

A member of Fretilin’s reformist wing, Aderito de
Jesus Soares, said Ramos-Horta would need to work
quickly to unite different groups.

"It really depends on how he brings different
groups including the (Catholic) church to the
table," he said, noting that some Alkatiri
critics, saw Ramos-Horta as working too closely
with the former premier’s supporters. "Let’s see
whether he can convince opposition as well as
Fretilin," he said.

Ramos-Horta needs to work successfully with
Alkatiri’s allies in Fretilin — who form the
dominant faction — in order to have an effective
parliament and pass electoral amendments ahead of
the polls, Soares told AFP. The appointment of
Estanislau da Silva, an Alkatiri loyalist, as a
deputy prime minister was a good compromise, he
said.

Ramos-Horta, da Silva, and second deputy prime
minister Rui Araujo, another Fretilin minister,
are expected to meet before or on Monday and a new
government is to then be sworn in. Ramos-Horta is
not expected to make a statement until Monday, his
spokesman said Saturday.

---

Unanswered questions in power plays

Sydney Morning Herald - July 10, 2006

Damien Kingsbury — The appointment of Jose Ramos
Horta as East Timor’s interim prime minister is a
move towards installing a unifying figure for a
small nation that, for a moment, appeared to be in
danger of fragmenting. A fragmented nation, in
this case, would have meant a failed state.

East Timor became a nation in response to a common
Indonesian enemy. But like most other post-
colonial states, it has had to construct a
national identity that no longer relies on uniting
against an oppressor, but uniting towards common
goals.

Ramos Horta has the capacity to appeal across East
Timor’s political divide, and what was becoming a
geographic divide. In particular, he will be able
to support members of the ruling Fretilin party
opposed to the leadership style of the former
prime minister, Mari Alkatiri.

Alkatiri is claiming parliamentary immunity from a
charge of arming a hit squad, although this claim
does not appear to be constitutionally
supportable.

As well as appealing to Fretilin’s so-called
“reformation group” and across party lines, Ramos
Horta will bring the government closer to the
highly popular president, Xanana Gusmao. Gusmao
and Ramos Horta have a strong personal and
political bond, and while the presidency remains
largely ceremonial Gusmao has huge legitimacy
among ordinary East Timorese. Ramos Horta, too, is
widely popular, and the alliance of these two will
strengthen and stabilise East Timor’s political
environment.

Apart from the building trust and unity, Ramos
Horta’s first task will be to restore East Timor’s
security forces. The police will be retrained and
probably restructured with international
assistance.

The future of the army, however, is in some doubt.
Since its inception in 2002, East Timor’s Defence
Force has lacked purpose and been prone to
political intrigues. It is too small for
meaningful defence but still drains 8 per cent of
East Timor’s small budget.

A retrained police could assume outstanding
defence roles, such as sea boundary protection, as
they already have border protection duties.
However the military, still linked to the old
resistance movement, the military is persuasive
politically, and may survive.

As prime minister, Ramos Horta is not likely to
alter Fretilin’s fiscally conservative policies.
East Timor has so far operated with a balanced or
surplus budget and without international loans,
committing receipts from oil and gas revenue to a
long-term fund and moving into modest economic
growth.

Rather than Alkatiri’s highly centralised control
of government spending, it will probably be more
devolved to the districts, adding small stimulus
to local economies.

Beyond that, Ramos Horta will continue to push for
a petrochemical processing plant for East Timor,
as well as extending the leasing of oil and gas
fields. Other policies, such as food self-
sufficiency, will likely continue untouched.

If there is a problem with Ramos-Horta’s
appointment, it is that there are some in Fretilin
who remain unhappy with his role in Alkatiri’s
downfall. There is also the issue of the head of
government not belonging to the majority party,
which will affect Fretilin as it approaches next
year’s elections.

Fretilin would no doubt prefer to enter elections
under the leadership of one of its own members. To
that end, Ramos Horta will have to clarify his own
political ambitions.

Ramos Horta will be weighing up three options. The
first is to try to stay on as prime minister, the
second to become president, and the third option
is to bid to become secretary-general of the
United Nations.

To stay on as prime minister, Ramos Horta will
have to rejoin Fretilin, the party he left a
decade and a half ago, and will require
renegotiating his relationship with some party
members. Fretilin is still likely to draw a
strong, probably majority, vote next year, given
its institutional strength and depth of support,
especially outside Dili.

Ramos Horta would probably like to become
president, but would not bid for that position
unless his close political friend Gusmao fulfilled
his long-standing wish to retire from public life.

There had also been speculation that Ramos Horta
could replace Kofi Annan as head of the UN,
although to be available for this he would be
better positioned by resuming being foreign
minister. That will in turn depend on whether
Ramos Horta’s prime ministership is indeed
interim, or whether the logic of his appointment
is seen as too strong to end.

[Associate Professor Damien Kingsbury is director
of international and community development at
Deakin University. He is, with Dr Michael Leach,
editor of the forthcoming book East Timor: Beyond
Independence (Monash Asia Institute).]

---

A prime minister deposed, but at great cost

Sydney Morning Herald - July 10, 2006

John Martinkus — Three weeks ago in East Timor I
was given information from senior members of the
East Timorese military that confirmed what the now
deposed prime minister had been saying all along.
There had been three attempts since April last
year to get senior command figures in the East
Timorese army to carry out a coup against the
Government of the former prime minister, Mari
Alkatiri.

In light of what has happened since it seems
obvious a very well orchestrated campaign has been
carried out to bring the Government down. And it
has worked. For reasons best known to themselves
the opposition to Alkatiri enlisted the support of
a group of junior officers in the East Timorese
defence forces, the F-FDTL, who broke with the
army command and took their weapons with them.
They attacked the F-FDTL on May 23 and 24 and
precipitated the widespread unrest in Dili that
led to the international forces being called in.
Then came the destruction of property by the gangs
from the west, mainly aimed at those from the east
who are perceived as supporting the Fretilin
Government, then the string of allegations
presented to the foreign press, that finally led
to Alkatiri’s resignation.

There is no doubt that whoever has been behind
this campaign has covered their tracks and it will
be difficult to link the interests involved to the
destruction that has led to 150,000 East Timorese
now living in refugee camps around the capital,
too afraid to go home.

But it was the plight of these people that was
used as an instrument by the opposition groups to
call for Alkatiri’s removal even though the same
groups had initiated the violence in the first
place. It was a very callous and cynical political
manœuvre to say the least, especially considering
these people are now facing chronic food
shortages.

But some obvious questions have not been answered
by the Australian press who have been almost
unanimous in condemning the ruling Fretilin party
that, like it or not, did have an overwhelming
mandate to govern until mid next year that had
been granted in elections supervised by the UN and
declared free and fair — with much fanfare, I
remember, as I covered them.

First, who started the violence? Surely in any
other country if a group of disaffected soldiers
takes off with weapons and then launches two very
open assaults on the army, as Alfredo Reinado’s
men did on May 23 and 24, then shouldn’t they be
arrested? Yet they were given Australian SAS
bodyguards and remain free after handing back only
a fraction of the weapons they took with them.

Second, who were these gangs that overwhelmingly
targeted the homes of those from the east who were
perceived as supporting the Fretilin Government?
Brigadier Mick Slater, the commander of the
Australian forces in East Timor, whose men had to
deal with these groups, said: "There were
definitely groups, let’s call them gangs, that
were definitely being manipulated and co-ordinated
by other people from outside that gang
environment."

Even after the resignation of Alkatiri, houses of
Fretilin members and those from the east were
still being targeted and refugees threatened. It
revealed a lot about who had been behind the
violence.

Third, who was making the allegations against
Alkatiri and did they stand up? After the violence
subsided, the opposition to Alkatiri seemed to
take a different tack. There were the allegations
and rumours of a mass grave with 60, 70, 80, or as
many as 500 victims of an Alkatiri-ordered
massacre — depending how far down the rumour
chain you heard the story. There was supposed to
be a list of dead held by a priest. Then there
wasn’t, and the story fell by the wayside. Next
were the allegations by the so-called Alkatiri
death squad. Other reporters had been to see this
group and some had chosen not to report on it.
They were located in the house of the Carrascalao
family and their story didn’t seem to be true. The
Carrascalaos are an established family in East
Timor were instrumental in the UDT party that
fought a brief civil war with Fretilin in 1975 —
people with axes to grind.

There were other things about the death squad
allegations that didn’t make sense. When the F-
FDTL base was attacked on May 24, men from that
same group participated in the attack alongside
men from Reinado’s group. It was an inconsistency
picked up by Alkatiri himself, who told me in
Dili: "What kind of secret Fretilin group is this
that they are also fighting against the FDTL? This
is contradictory."

In short those who had been trying to find East
Timorese officers to act against the Government
look like they have succeeded but at the cost of
the dislocation of 150,000 Timorese. Surely it
would have simply been easier to wait for next
year’s elections.

[Journalist John Martinkus is the author of
several books, including A Dirty Little War: An
Eyewitness Account of East Timor’s Descent into
Hell 1997-2000 (Random House, 2001).]

---

East Timor: Deepening of elite crisis

Green Left Weekly - July 5, 2006

Jon Lamb — The political crisis in East Timor has
deepened following the resignation of East
Timorese Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri on June 26.
As pro and anti-government protests and gang
violence continue, a resolution of the present
crisis has been hamstrung by the internal
political manœuvres of the political elite.

The sustained pressure for Alkatiri to resign —
intensified by the allegations aired on the June
19 ABC TV Four Corners program that he ordered the
creation of a secret gang to eliminate and
intimidate political opponents — came to a head
with the threat made by President Xanana Gusmao on
June 21 that he would resign if Alkatiri did not
step down as prime minister.

Gusmao’s announcement precipitated further
pressure upon Alkatiri and the Fretilin-led
government, providing additional motivation to the
anti-Alkatiri political opponents and critics.
However, it also threatened to inflame an already
volatile situation, a fact that Gusmao must have
been fully aware of. Following Gusmao’s
announcement there was an almost constant series
of protests ranging in size from a few hundred to
1000-2000 outside the national parliament.

The first response of Alkatiri and Fretilin was to
see out Gusmao’s bluff. The Fretilin central
committee meeting held on the weekend of June 24-
25 reaffirmed its support for Alkatiri as leader
of the party and prime minister. Adding to the
tense situation, foreign minister and acting
minister for defence Jose Ramos Horta announced
his resignation from these posts late on June 25.
In an unanticipated move, Alkatiri announced at a
press conference at his residence on June 26 that
he was stepping down as prime minister.

Alkatiri told reporters: "I am ready to resign
from my position of prime minister of the
government of RDTL [East Timor] so as to avoid the
resignation of his excellency the president of the
republic“, adding that:”having deeply reflected
on the present situation prevailing in the
country... assuming my own share of responsibility
for the crisis affecting our country".

In an interview on the ABC’s 7.30 Report on June
27, Horta stated that "in the next two or three
days, we should be able to reach a political
resolution in terms of a transition government
that will continue the work of the previous
government until elections next year".

Horta claimed that the election of Alkatiri as
secretary-general of Fretilin at the party’s
congress in May was seen as illegitimate, as it
"violated the principle of secret ballot that is
enshrined by law" and that the broader Fretilin
leadership was also illegitimate. However, "we
have to balance that against the reality that the
largest party in this country is Fretilin. So, the
president is trying to navigate through this
political complexity and find consensus to form a
government in the next few days."

After an all day session of the Council of State,
Gusmao announced in a communique late on June 27
that early elections might be called. "If, despite
everything, a new government is not possible, the
President of the Republic will consider the
possibility of dissolving parliament and
anticipating general elections", he stated.
General elections were originally set to take
place in May 2007. Gusmao also confirmed that he
was extending for 30 days emergency measures
declared on May 30.

The resignation of Alkatiri, while welcomed by
opponents and opposition figures, did not reduce
the political tension or gang violence. By the
afternoon of June 27, a large gathering of
Fretilin members and sympathisers had gathered
near the town of Hera, around 16 kilometres to the
east of Dili, preparing to enter Dili and rally in
support of Alkatiri.

Alkatiri and other key Fretilin leaders and
members of parliament addressed the crowd. In a
speech televised by the national broadcaster,
Alaktiri told the gathering that: "Some elements
tried to bring down the government through
burnings and destruction, but that’s not the right
way. They did these things so the people would no
longer believe in a constitutional government."

Alkatiri’s address to the rally of Fretilin
supporters resulted in a dramatic increase in Dili
on the evening of June 27 with house burnings and
attacks upon known Fretilin or Alkatiri
sympathisers. There were also reports of some
refugee camps being intimidated by gangs and
threats to workers at the national television
station RTTL.

Anti-government protests and related gang violence
continued the following day and threatened to
deteriorate further. Gusmao made an impassioned
plea again for the protestors to return home.
According to a news report on June 28 by the
Portuguese Lusa news service: " A protest leader,
dissident army Maj. Alves Tara, however, said his
anti-fretilin demonstrators would come back in 30
days if the fretilin-dominated parliament was not
dissolved and early elections called."

The Suara Timor Lorasae reported on June 28 that
six opposition parties in parliament expressed no
confidence in Fretilin leader and president of the
parliament Francisco (Lu’olo) Guterres, stating
that he was incapable of tabling discussion on the
current crisis. Joao Carrascalao, president of the
still partially influential Timorese Democratic
Union, has called for Gusmao to institute a "State
of Crisis" and the dissolution of parliament.

On June 29, the first contingents of Fretilin
buses and trucks carrying thousands of Fretilin
supporters entered Dili throughout the day in
preparation for Alkatiri’s court appearance on
June 30. A Fretilin press release estimated the
crowd at 6000, "twice the size of anything seen on
the streets of Dili in the last few weeks".

A letter delivered to Gusmao from the Militants
and Supporters of Fretilin called for an end to
the violence and recriminations and asserted that:
"We as militants and supporters of Fretilin state
that Fretilin should nominate the Prime Minister
in the interim government, in accordance with our
Constitution, the highest law of the Democratic
Republic of Timor-Leste."

Prominent opposition leader Francisco de Araujo,
who heads the Democratic Party (PD), was reported
in the June 28 Australian as stating that there
should be a broader investigation of government
ministers and the events of April and May. "I
think all the people close to Alkatiri and Lobato
[indicted former interior minister] should be
investigated... Jose Teixeira [investment
minister] and Ramos Horta, they are part of the
cabinet. In particular, Horta tried to hide the
number of victims. They should be investigated",
de Araujo said. Araujo, a former student and
clandestine activist in the independence struggle,
fled to the hills during the height of the crisis
in May because of claims of threats to his life.
The PD is viewed as having strong links with
Gusmao.

The events of recent weeks confirm that Fretilin
is still capable of mobilising a significant
support base, which also indicates that it would
in all likelihood win a majority if an early
election is called. What remains unclear at this
stage is the extent of the support base for the
opposition parties and how well organised the
supporters of these parties are. Another unknown
is what course and impact the factional
differences within Fretilin may take. These
factors will influence and test any new
transitional government or government of "national
unity" that may be formed prior to the elections.

---

East Timor after Alkatiri: nation or protectorate?

Green Left Weekly - July 5, 2006

Tim Anderson — "We did not expect that the
elected leader of a party with an overwhelming
mandate could be forced to stand down in this way
in a democracy." — Fretilin press release, June
26, 2006.

Backed by a foreign army, and with his country’s
own army confined to its barracks, the great
resistance leader Xanana Gusmao finally led the
charge to topple the leadership of Timor Leste’s
first post-independence government. But the
backing of Australia was critical.

If this appears puzzling, we must understand that
whatever the configuration of East Timor’s new
government, there will be lasting bitterness among
the major players over the handling of the recent
crisis and intervention, and conflict over how to
manage the new relationship with Australia. June’s
palace coup has implications not just for the
personalities involved, but also for the country’s
development strategy. Any new government in East
Timor needs to be understood alongside the
country’s relationship with Australia and with the
World Bank.

The current talk of a “more inclusive” or a
“national unity” government misses the point that
all recent political leadership in East Timor has
been by coalition. The broadest of these, the CNRT
(National Council for Timorese Resistance, formed
in 1998), was disbanded after the UN insisted on
multi-party elections. The Fretilin-led
government, elected in 2001, included high profile
ex-Fretilin members Jose Ramos Horta and the
separately elected president, Gusmao. After the
coming elections the composition of the government
may not be much different.

The immediate difference is the sidelining of Mari
Alkatiri, Fretilin’s chief strategist, following
his forced resignation as prime minister.
Suggested charges against Alkatiri (for arming
paramilitaries during the coup attempt) will go
nowhere; and the “hit squad” accusations,
broadcast by Australia’s ABC TV, have no
credibility. But the toppling of the leadership of
an elected government, supported by both the
Australian media and the Australian military
intervention, flags a new political reality for
East Timorese citizens.

The Australian newspaper, leader of the anti-
Alkatiri charge, says his removal will be "good
news for Australian companies wanting to do
business in Dili". But Fretilin remains (by a long
way) the major party in parliament. Rupert
Murdoch’s flagship insists the “continuing crisis”
requires a semi-permanent Australian troop
presence to block what the paper calls a "Marxist
revolutionary“government, and because”there is
no other way to keep the country from sliding back
into chaos".

Yet the “chaos” was in large part fostered by
Australian passive support for the rebels and
hostility to the government; while the "Marxist
revolution" was a rather modest economic
nationalism, led by Alkatiri. The areas of tension
with Australia arising from independent policy in
East Timor included the refusal of World Bank
loans, differences over agricultural policy, and
the acceptance of Cuban health assistance. Gusmao
has not expressed a distinct vision for
development, remaining concerned with
reconciliation. Ramos Horta has expressed a wish
for closer relations with the US and Australia,
and a greater privileging of foreign investment.
But there is no sign yet that Fretilin will
abandon the more independent course set by
Alkatiri.

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

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

World Bank ’partnerships’

So what is the problem with a small country taking
loans from the World Bank and becoming more
“Western friendly”?

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

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

Such “partnership” schemes have made even water
supplies unaffordable in major cities, from the
Philippines to Bolivia. The small middle classes
who can afford the fees might get a better
service, but the government will still have to
intervene to ensure quality and contain the
corruption that privatisations generate. Poor
families’ access to water or power would depend on
their capacity to pay.

User-pays regimes, urged by the World Bank across
all services, damage access to education and
health services. The evidence on this is
conclusive. Neoliberalism in the 1980s redefined
the global consensus on the right to education, so
that only primary education is regarded as a full
right and is therefore subsidised in poor
countries. Secondary education, essential for
social mobility but subject to user-pays
principles, became unaffordable for the children
of most poor families. In oil rich but neoliberal
Venezuela in the late 1990s, only 20% of children
reached senior high school. More than half the
children in today’s Bali, flush with tourist
dollars, do not reach senior high school.
Neoliberal regimes have denied a whole generation
of poor children their future. With World Bank
“good governance”, secondary school enrolments in
East Timor would go backwards.

Health services are linked to education. With no
mass training of health workers, services are
scarce and expensive. Despite three decades of
Australian aid and World Bank programs, Papua New
Guinea has shocking infant and maternal mortality
figures. There are simply no doctors outside the
provincial capitals. PNG has outstanding export
performance in oil, gas, gold, copper, and logs.
Exports have made up over 40% of PNG’s GDP for two
decades. But there has been no “trickle down” in
health benefits. If Australia and the World Bank
displace the 100 Cuban doctors in East Timor, and
send off that nasty “communist” system that has
offered 600 free medical scholarships to young
East Timorese, the country’s health standards
would match that of PNG.

Cash crops

Then there is agriculture and land, still at the
core of livelihoods for most poor people. The
neoliberal preference here is clear: export-
oriented cash crops and individual, saleable land
title. This is why the World Bank and the Asian
Development Bank (ADB), after the Asian economic
crisis and under their “structural adjustment”
programs, backed clear-fell logging and oil palm
development over more than 2 million hectares in
Indonesia; an environmental catastrophe which has
trampled on the land rights and livelihoods of
forest peoples. Abolition of rice and kerosene
subsidies led to food riots in Jakarta.

In Morocco, where land was rationalised for export
crops, people were driven off the land, and the
subsistence sector was damaged. In Peru under
Fujimori in the 1990s, land holdings under ten
hectares were banned as agriculture was
rationalised. Thousands of small farmers were
pushed off the land. In Lima, removal of fuel
subsidies led to a cholera outbreak, causing 2000
deaths in six months when poor people could no
longer afford to boil water.

Public institutions, so important in defining the
identity of a new nation, are repeatedly blocked
by neoliberal forces. Food security was of deep
concern to the East Timorese when they went to the
World Bank in 2000, asking for help to
rehabilitate their rice fields, to strengthen
their subsistence sector and to establish public
grain silos. The World Bank and Australia said
“No”. Agricultural aid was only available for
export crops. East Timor was advised to import
rice. Despite this, the government proceeded to
develop its rice industry, without World Bank
help.

This ideological commitment to export cash crops
explains sustained World Bank, ADB and Australian
subsidies to the oil palm industry in Papua New
Guinea, even though this industry is dominated by
large foreign companies. Small farmers get few
benefits from this industry, but suffer
substantial environmental costs. Infrastructure
development is also focused on monoculture cash
crops.

Often the “transition” to a Western-friendly
regime is accompanied by promises of aid and
foreign investment, which can bring wider
benefits. But here many poor countries face the
“Nicaraguan dilemma”. After getting rid of the
left-wing Sandinista government in 1990 (through
guerrilla war and an economic blockade), the US
reneged on its aid promises and foreign investment
failed to materialise.

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

The Australian role in undermining East Timorese
independence is difficult to see now, with a
barrage of media influencing the desire to see
ourselves as the little country’s “saviours”. The
Australian government is nothing of the sort.
Australian friends of East Timor should recognise
the shocking prospects of neoliberal protectorate
status, and maintain their support for an
independent nation.

[Reprinted from <http://www.newmatilda.com> . Tim
Anderson is a Lecturer in Political Economy at the
University of Sydney. He has visited East Timor
several times, before and after independence.]

---

’Own goals’ only in East Timor

Australian Financial Review - July 3, 2006

Whit Mason — In the past few weeks, two
Australian dreams have come crashing to earth.
First, there was chaos in East Timor and then the
Socceroos’ defeat by Italy. Notwithstanding some
dubious officiating in the latter, both
disappointments stemmed from much the same
shortcoming.

As Guus Hiddink said after the Socceroos lost to
Italy, dominating the game in midfield is all very
well, but in itself it doesn’t achieve the goal of
the game; to win, eventually you have to put the
ball in the net. Incremental successes, in other
words, don’t necessarily add up to ultimate
victory.

In East Timor, successfully managing the nuts and
bolts of constructing a tiny new state could not
in itself achieve the goal of the intervention: to
help midwife the birth of a new East Timorese
society free of the violence, insecurity and
indignities its people suffered under Indonesian
rule.

The Australian-led peacekeeping force and the UN
administration in East Timor earned their
reputation for success by doing well the things
that other missions have often also done well. We
know how to address the material needs of
displaced people. We know how to deploy security
forces to keep a lid on some forms of violence, at
least temporarily. We know how to organise
elections. And we know how to draw up new
political institutions that conform, on paper, to
our notions about prosperous, democratic
societies.

What today’s nation-builders do much less
effectively — if indeed they attempt it at all —
is to heal the wounds or fill the gaps in a
society’s political culture which either caused,
or resulted from, their violent collapse.

Societies don’t fall apart because they lack the
manual skills to build simple shelters or even to
describe idealised political institutions. They
fall apart because their people, often aggravated
by trauma, material privations or institutional
shortcomings, lack the capacity to resolve their
differences civilly. This lack, in turn, reflects
the absence of a sense of belonging to a community
that extends beyond the family or village, and the
confidence that one’s countrymen will operate
according to an identity of interests and a set of
shared mores.

While realising that even collapsed societies can
have very good elements, nation-builders must
recognise that their political cultures invariably
require first intensive surgery and then lengthy
rehabilitation.

Much of the failure to address the essence of the
nation and state building challenge — in Kosovo
and Afghanistan at least as much as in East Timor
— can be traced to ignorance about the host
society (and non-Western and traumatised societies
in general), to ideologically imposed constraints
(often reinforced by timidity and stinginess), and
to self-defeating hastiness.

East Timor’s recent crisis was sparked by
frustrations among soldiers and police from its
western provinces. Mike Smith, a retired
Australian major-general who was deputy commander
of the UN peacekeeping force in East Timor, said
last week that the peacekeepers were never aware
of any ethnic or regional divisions within the
army.

In a fractured society, nation-builders must
assume that people’s loyalties are primarily
local. They should also assume that being
victimised has not generally ennobled people but
made them anxious and mistrustful.

Most of those involved in the East Timor
intervention were laudably loath to act like neo-
imperialists. But such unobtrusiveness can be
self-defeating. The Falantil freedom fighters, for
example, were allowed to create an army — without
mechanisms to prevent its domination by a regional
power base.

East Timor is the poorest nation in Asia and has
one of its highest birth rates. Yet foreign
nation-builders deferred to the Catholic church’s
view of family planning, even while struggling to
build an economy to provide for the exploding
population.

Nation-building is a long process — much longer
than the political and budgetary cycles that drive
the politicians and bureaucrats who decide when
interventions begin and end. Officials on the
ground in East Timor pleaded with the UN Security
Council to maintain a robust presence well after
the country’s independence in 2002 to no avail.
Alas, time was up before the goal was found.

[Whit Mason is the co-author of Peace at Any
Price: How the World Failed Kosovo, Hurst, London,
published last week. He is a former UN official
and NGO director in Eastern Europe, the Balkans,
the Middle East and East Asia.]

---

Coffee shop politics of little help to Timor
crisis

Australian Associated Press - July 2, 2006

Jill Jolliffe, Dili — A meeting of East Timor’s
parliament tomorrow will underline the surreal
political world in which the troubled fledgling
nation is now existing.

The country has no government, yet its 88
parliamentarians are being asked to approve its
budget — after the fiscal year has ended — as
well as electoral laws to eventually allow
citizens to choose a new government.

President Xanana Gusmao has accepted prime
minister Mari Alkatiri’s resignation, but he has
not passed the decree to formalise it, leading
politician Mario Carrascalao observed, and six
opposition parties have threatened to boycott
parliament, but have now changed their minds.

It’s as though the leaders are playing games with
the people, who are completely out of it. The
president is ruling under emergency powers, but a
week after Alkatiri quit over accusations he was
responsible for the months of violence, Mr Gusmao
has failed to name a caretaker prime minister.

Eight cabinet members preempted Alkatiri’s
decision to quit by hours, leaving only a shell of
the former structure, drawn mainly from hard-line
Fretilin ministers known as the Mozambique mafia,
where they lived in exile during the resistance
war against Indonesia.

With Timor lacking not only leaders, but also a
police force, power now seems to pass through the
Portuguese-run Hotel Timor’s coffee shop — a spot
continually haunted by politicians, a horde of
journalists and assorted camp followers
eavesdropping for the latest piece of political
gossip.

Only the occasional rumble of Australian armoured
personnel carriers is a reminder that the matters
at stake are deadly serious. Beyond the coffee
shop windows peacekeepers protect around 75,000
displaced victims of successive waves of violence.

The key debate revolve around the legality of Mr 
Alkatiri reoccupying the parliamentary seat which
he obtained in 2001 elections but left to become
prime minister.

He is facing questioning by chief prosecutor
Longuinhos Monteiro over allegations that during
the strife he armed a militia unit to attack his
political opponents. He is suspected (but not
indicted) of committing crimes carrying a penalty
of 15 years.

He evaded a notification to appear on Friday on
the grounds that his lawyers had not arrived from
abroad.

The ex-prime minister also asserted in his letter
to Monteiro that he enjoys immunity as a
parliamentarian, although he still occupies a
legal twilight zone between the two jobs. He is
expected to turn up for his old job when the
legislators meet.

Immunity can be lifted for any deputy charged with
crimes carrying more than a two-year penalty, but
there is a catch-22: the president must ask the
deputies to approve its lifting, and Mr Alkatiri’s
party has an overwhelming majority of 55 out of 88
seats.

In a national address Mr Gusmao specifically asked
parliamentarians to return to work to pass the
budget. Monarchist deputy and lawyer Manuel Tilman
points out that the $US315 million ($A427.38
million) budget proposed for 2006-2007 cannot be
approved legally, so the country will have to
lurch on under monthly extensions of the 2005-2006
version, valued at $US142 million ($A192.66
million).

The overdue approval of an electoral draft bill
was a different matter, he said, as the babble of
the coffee lounge intriguers rises. "We can’t
approve a budget without a government," he
observes solemnly, because it requires specific
projects and expense details, but we can pass an
electoral law without a government — that’s not a
problem."

---

The unusual suspect

Straits Times - July 2, 2006

John McBeth — A descendant of Islamic-
proselytising Yemeni traders, educated in the
then-Marxist-ruled states of Angola and
Mozambique, the newly deposed prime minister of
Timor Leste Mari Alkatiri is a complex and
enigmatic figure who has easily worn the image of
the villain in the months of unrest that has
wracked Asia’s newest country.

Labelled variously as corrupt, a control freak and
even a communist, the slight 55-year-old
technocrat is facing the same accusations now
formally levelled against ex-interior minister and
close ally Rogerio Lobato — that he distributed
weapons to civilian militia, allegedly with the
intention of liquidating his political opponents.

But if Lobato has implicated him in the purported
conspiracy, many questions remain unanswered.
"More evidence is needed to determine conclusively
that he was involved," says one Western diplomat
in Dili. "The difference between arming civilians
and actually hiring hit squads has been lost on
most people."

Diplomats also question the capacity of the Timor
Leste authorities to conduct a proper
investigation, given the ethnic, political and
historical factors that continue to divide the
society. Chief among them, according to one
analyst, is the struggle for the levers of power
between those who fought for independence on the
ground and those who worked in the political
underground abroad.

Mr Alkatiri, who often comes across as cold and
autocratic, is no match for President Xanana
Gusmao in the popularity stakes. Although he and
his Revolutionary Front of Independent Timor
(Fretilin) may have outgunned the President in
drafting the country’s Constitution, the
charismatic former guerilla fighter has
demonstrated that he still commands moral
authority when the chips are down.

Not everyone seeks to demonise Mr Alkatiri, a
constitutional expert who appears to genuinely
believe he is doing the best for his country.

"He’s very capable and has an immense
understanding of things
Timorese," says one Western diplomat, who admits
he is baffled by current events. "He’s hugely
astute, there wouldn’t be a strategic thinker
better than him. But he does have a penchant for
going off the rails."

That showed in the inflammatory speech Mr Alkatiri
delivered after he was forced to step down. It may
also be shown in the current investigation into
why as many as 4,000 automatic weapons were
imported over the past four years and why the
Lobato-controlled police force grew in the same
timeframe from 1,800 to 3,000 men - more than
twice that of the army, which is generally loyal
to Mr Gusmao.

Mr Alkatiri was born in Dili in November 1949, one
of 10 brothers and sisters. After completing
primary and secondary school, he left in 1970 to
pursue higher education in other sleepy Portuguese
colonies, graduating as a chartered surveyor at
the Angolan School of Geography and then earning a
law degree at Mozambique’s Eduardo Mondlane
University.

He was already active in the independence
struggle, helping to establish the Movement for
the Liberation of Timor Leste and then, in 1974,
co-founding Fretilin and its armed wing, the
National Liberation Armed Forces of Timor Leste.

Returning to Dili after the Portuguese abandoned
the enclave in 1975, he became Minister for
Political Affairs in the newly declared Democratic
Republic of Timor Leste.

But it was all to be short-lived, with the
impoverished island colony sliding into a bitter
civil war between followers of the Marxist-
orientated Fretilin and Indonesian-backed
rightists. In December 1975, Mr Alkatiri left Dili
as a member of a three-man delegation seeking to
head off Jakarta’s impending invasion. It was to
be the last flight out.

Three days later, Indonesian troops poured across
the border, leaving Mr Alkatiri to spend the next
24 years in Mozambique, working in the shadow of
leading Timorese lobbyist Jose Ramos-Horta to
rally international support for the resistance
movement. He was not to return to the country
until October 1999, six weeks after the country’s
bloody vote for independence from harsh Indonesian
rule.

In September 2001, Mr Alkatiri was appointed Chief
Minister of the United Nations-guided Second
Transitional Government and Minister for Economy
and Development. Six months later, on May 20,
2002, he became Prime Minister and Minister for
Development and Environment of the fully
independent Democratic Republic of Timor Leste.

In the four years since then, Mr Alkatiri has been
unable to shake the suspicion with which he is
viewed by a majority of Timorese — not least
because he is a practising Muslim in a staunchly
Catholic country. His plan last year to make
religious education optional in schools only
alienated him even further from influential church
leaders.

Then there is the Marxist tag, which continues to
haunt him in an era when the Cold War template
seems strangely out of place.

Australian-educated Resources Minister Jose
Texeira, who worked closely with him in the testy
negotiations with the Australian government over
oil and gas rights in the Timor Sea, described
that accusation in one recent interview as "very,
very foul".

Certainly, Mr Alkatiri is not popular in Canberra.
But he was not alone in taking a tough line. UN
administrator Sergio de Mello, later killed in the
bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad, brought
former US diplomat Peter Galbraith on board in
2000, first as director of external affairs and
then as minister of external affairs in the first
transitional administration.

According to Mr Galbraith, Mr de Mello "smelt a
rat" over Australia’s rush to negotiate a new
agreement to replace the controversial Timor Gap
treaty it had signed with Indonesia in 1989 —
seen as quasi-recognition of Jakarta’s 1975
annexation of the territory. Mr Galbraith and Mr 
Alkatiri, both equally combative, proved to be an
effective tag team.

Still, there is something familiar and old-
fashioned about what Mr Alkatiri’s government
hoped to achieve, electing to force the Portuguese
language on a population that overwhelmingly
speaks Tetum and Indonesian. Dominated by other
like-minded exiles from Mozambique, it has been
edging towards the establishment of a one-party
state with little adherence to the most basic of
democratic principles.

The approach to free and fair elections has been
one major cause for concern, given the fact that
Timorese have yet to directly elect their
representatives — something they perhaps should
have done under initial UN tutelage. Although the
first parliamentary elections are due next year,
little effort has been made so far to introduce a
new electoral law or form an independent
commission to conduct the exercise.

Particularly worrying for critics is the way Mr 
Alkatiri retained his controlling position as
secretary-general of Fretilin by replacing a
secret ballot with a show of hands at last month’s
party congress. Diplomatic sources say he had
hired goons sitting next to each voting candidate
to ensure they voted the right way.

Would-be challenger Jose Luis Guterres, the former
ambassador to the UN and the US, dropped out of
the running in disgust. As he put it: "They have
chosen an electoral method that is typically
Leninist and used by the leaders of communist
countries to maintain their hold on power."

As the architect of the country’s national
development plan, Mr Alkatiri was popular with
donors. But analysts say while the plan was fine
on paper and did not betray any ideological bias,
its implementation has become bogged down because
he was trying to keep everything under Fretilin’s
control, including jobs in the civil service. The
result has been a grossly underspent budget for
2005-2006 and a failure to build on what the UN
prematurely left behind.

Mr Alkatiri’s ultimate fate will be decided over
the next few weeks as the political drama plays
itself out. The father of three children may have
his back to the wall, but no one is counting him
out just yet.