Monday, April 10, 2006

[East Timor] Many NGOs collect funds by selling poverty in E Timor

from ANTARA News

A lot of foreign NGOs have collected funds for their own pockets by `selling` poverty in East Timor to donors, an East Timorese youth, Fabiano de Jesus, said in Batugade, Bobonaro district, on Sunday.

They have sold poverty in East Timor since its secession from the Republic of Indonesia following the referendum in the region on August 30, 1999, but then left the East Timorese people in worse poverty after receiving funds from donors, according to Fabiano.

Many foreign NGOs operating in East Timor in the 1999-2004 period sold East Timorese poverty to advanced countries and international donor institutions, but they have abused the donors` trust by keeping the money in their own pockets and let the East Timorese people sink deeper in poverty, he pointed out.

Citing an example, he disclosed that after collecting US$1,000 by selling poverty in East Timor to international donors, an NGO returned to its own country by keeping US$900 in its pocket leaving only US$100 to the East Timorese people.

Fabiano conceded, however, that not all foreign NGOs in East Timor have abused the funds they have received from donor countries and institutions. Several of them have cooperated with each other in helping East Timorese people, he said. "But only a few of them," he added.

Most foreign NGOs in East Timor have managed to collect funds as much as possible by exploiting donor countries and institutions under the pretext of rescuing the East Timorese people from deeper poverty, but in fact they have no attention at all to improve the fate of East Timorese people, he asserted.

Soon after the secession of East Timor from the Republic of Indonesia and at the beginning of the establishment of Timor Leste as a new state, NGOs from various countries have rushed into East Timor and claimed they would struggle to reduce poverty in the country, Fabiano recalled.

They visited villages and made notes of losses sustained by East Timorese people due to the outbreak of a horizontal conflict after the announcement of the result of the referendum by the United Nations on September 4, 1999, which was won by the pro-disintegration group.

They listed burned down houses during the horizontal conflict and provoked East Timorese people to curse and bear a grudge against the pro-integration group, he went on.

They also photographed children and pregnant women in rags, and mothers breastfeeding their babies blanketed with decrepit cloth and those photographs have moved the feelings of the donors in the NGOs` countries to extend help, he said.

Those foreign NGOs have always concealed their own mission by heralding human rights, but their presence does not bring improvement in the people`s condition in East Timor and they even do not care about the fate of East Timorese people who have fallen into deeper poverty, Fabiano said.

After the flow of billions of US dollars into East Timor, those NGOs handed over a very smaller part of the assistance to the East Timorese, while keeping the rest in their pockets and then took pictures of houses already rebuilt by several honest and fair NGOs, he explained.

"They sent the pictures to their donors claiming they have successfully eradicated poverty in East Timor," he added.

Thus, the East Timorese have become victim of a pack of lies engineered by most foreign NGOs in East Timor, and now the East Timorese agonize over the deterioration of their already deep poverty, he said.

"If one wants to see the result of foreign NGOs` activities, he should visit the villages, especially those in remote areas, where all badly damaged houses are left untouched," he added.

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