Ending poverty must for E Timor stability

from The Peninsula Online

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

Renegade soldiers launched shooting attacks on President Jose Ramos-Horta, leaving him critically wounded, as well as Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, who fled unharmed, in the latest violent twist in the nation's six-year history.

Rebel boss Alfredo Reinado was killed during the attacks and analysts said his death eliminated a key obstacle to peace.

But the struggling, impoverished nation must target the root causes of disgruntlement among its one-million-strong population if it is to emerge as a stronger state in the future, they warned.

Reinado joined a rebellion that started two years ago with the mass desertion of around 600 soldiers from western districts who were upset over easterners allegedly being given preferential treatment.

Though he was not part of the original group of deserters, the former army major helped stoke unrest that left 37 dead and deepened regional schisms. But the east-west divide goes much deeper than Reinado, analysts said. "He was very flashy and charismatic, but he was more the symptom than the cause," said John Miller, a campaigner with the East Timor and Indonesia Action Network.

More intransigent roots of the schisms were "poverty and joblessness: the East Timorese have not been able to recover from the Indonesian occupation, from the destruction the Indonesians left behind," he said.

Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1975 and ruled brutally until a 1999 referendum saw the East Timorese vote to break away.

Unemployment remains high in Dili, at 23 percent, jumping to 58 percent for the 15 to 19 age group, according to 2004 figures.

But East Timor's cut-throat politics are also to blame for fostering regional divisions, said sociologist and East Timorese politics expert Helen Hill, from Australia's Victoria University.

The east-west divide had its genesis in Portugal's long colonial occupation of East Timor and it had been a sleeper issue, she said.

Under Portuguese rule, those from the east came to be known as "faraku" � meaning "fight back" � because of their resistance to the colonisers, while westerners were known as "kaledi", meaning "subservient", Hill said.

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

East Timor Challenged by Poverty, Displaced People, UN Says

from Bloomberg

By Paul Tighe

East Timor's development is challenged by poverty and the estimated 100,000 people, or 10 percent of its population, still living in camps after civil unrest last year, the United Nations said.

``The challenges of governance and the legacy of the 2006 violent crisis and its aftermath still haunt the country's political leadership and affect the people,'' Dumisani Kumalo, South Africa's UN ambassador, who headed a team that visited the Southeast Asian nation last month, said yesterday in a report to the Security Council.

East Timor's security remains ``calm and stable, but fragile,'' Kumalo said in a statement on the UN's Web site.

Violence in the former Portuguese colony, also known as Timor Leste, erupted in March last year, resulting in the deaths of 37 people and driving 155,000 from their homes. Stability was restored with the help of international peacekeepers and East Timor this year held presidential and general elections.

``The mission left Timor-Leste convinced that the country is on the right path of regaining its role as a peaceful, stable, united and prosperous country,'' Kumalo said.

East Timor's government, with the help of the UN and international community, must improve the conditions for displaced people living in 53 camps in and around the capital, Dili, he said. It must also settle the issue of former soldiers who deserted the army, he added.

Armed Forces

Last year's violence began when former prime minister Mari Alkatiri fired a third of the country's armed forces for desertion, prompting clashes between groups from the western and eastern regions.

There was more unrest in August when the Fretilin party was excluded from government for the first time since East Timor gained independence from Indonesia five years ago.

Former President Xanana Gusmao assembled a three-party coalition without Fretilin following elections held June 30. Riots broke out Aug. 6 when he was appointed prime minister.

Jose Ramos Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who replaced Alkatiri as prime minister, won a run-off presidential election in May.

East Timor still has weak institutions, leading to problems in running the country and its justice and security branches need strengthening, Kumalo said.

East Timor is one of Southeast Asia's poorest countries even though it holds the rights to an estimated 8 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 300 million barrels of light oil. It has a jobless rate of 50 percent and about 42 percent of 1 million people live below the poverty line.

The UN has been operating in East Timor since 1999, when the country voted for independence following a 24-year occupation by Indonesia. The country, lying about 500 kilometers (310 miles) north of Australia, became independent in May 2002.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Tighe in Sydney at ptighe@bloomberg.net .

Truth body told poverty fueled militias in Timor Leste

from The Jakarta Post

Ati Nurbaiti, The Jakarta Post, Dili

A former pro-integration leader told a public hearing here Wednesday that many Timorese civilians were forced by poverty to join pro-Indonesian militias.

"There was money," said Fransisco Lopes De Carvalho.

"People didn't have to go to the fields, there was rice, it was very good," Carvalho told the fifth public hearing of the Indonesia-Timor Leste Commission for Truth and Friendship.

Once they were in the militias, they were told they had an enemy: the independence movement.

It was difficult to choose not to kill fellow Timorese as ordered, said Carvalho, founder of the Barisan Rakyat (People's Front) pro-integration militia.

If a person left the militia, he would die, Carvalho said.

"If he did not want to kill he'd be given 'mad dog' pills," he said.

There were reports during the violence in East Timor of militia members being given drugs to encourage them to kill.

"Then when you kill, you land in jail," Carvalho said, pointing to convict Johny Marques in the audience.

Marques, a former leader of the Alfa militia, testified earlier in the morning that he was under the influence of drugs when he led the killing of nuns and priests in Los Palos in September 1999.

"I know I shouldn't have done it," Marques said, "but it was my body's reaction to the drugs. I felt hot, I was so bent on killing someone."

Carvalho drew laughter from onlookers as he dropped the names of Indonesian Military officers in his testimony. At one point, he said he never received millions of promised rupiah after signing a proposal to have civilians armed at a five-star hotel in Jakarta.

"Until now I have never received the audit report on the funds," he said, referring to the current practice of accountability in Indonesia and Timor Leste.

He also claimed to have received Rp 3 million from the former commander of the Wira Dharma Military Resort overseeing East Timor, Col. Tono Suratman.

"It is a sin to steal and a sin to reject an offer, so I took the money, of course after making the sign" of the cross, Carvalho said.

Along with other officers Tono was acquitted by Indonesia's ad hoc human rights court of charges of crimes against humanity in East Timor.

Similar to the testimony of former militia leader Tomas A. Goncalves on Tuesday, Carvalho also referred to the distribution of weapons to civilians by Indonesian Military members and the provision of training.

Carvalho submitted a number of documents to the CTF, including certificates presented to militia trainees signed by then Udayana Military Command chief Maj. Gen. M. Simbolon.

He expressed confusion that East Timor's militias comprised not only former village security guards but also members of the Indonesian Military.

"How come they were never punished?" he said.

Marques, who is serving a 33-year jail sentence, testified he carried out the murders without the knowledge of his civilian and military superiors, "who had all left before the murders".

However, he questioned why, "for the sake of friendship between the two nations, Alfa team members like myself are the only ones chased for accountability".

The Indonesian government, he said, should be held responsible for the violence in East Timor.

Carvalho urged the CTF to recommend the violence in East Timor be handed over to an international tribunal, saying the judicial process in both Indonesia and Timor Leste had failed.

"We want to be friends but no one is saying they are wrong," he said.

The CTF will review all testimony, research and documents before it completes its report in January.

Carvalho also asked that the CTF and both governments guaranteed his safety, saying he wanted to return to Timor Leste after years spent in Central Java.

"Please accept me," he said.

East Timor's Gusmao vows to tackle security, poverty

from Reuters

By Tito Belo

DILI, Sept 13 (Reuters) - East Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao pledged on Thursday to improve security and use funds earned from rich energy reserves to tackle poverty as he set out his new government's priorities for the tiny nation.

Sporadic violence has erupted across parts of East Timor since early last month when President Jose Ramos-Horta appointed a coalition led by independence hero Gusmao to govern after no party won a majority in parliamentary polls on June 30.

"Everything is urgent for this nation, we are defining priorities for the short term," Gusmao told parliament.

The appointment of Gusmao sparked violent protests by supporters of the former ruling party, Fretilin, which claims the right to govern after winning most votes in the polls.

Gusmao promised to reform the security and judicial sectors and decentralise authority.

The former president also said that he would push for the United Nations to maintain its presence in the country.

Factional bloodshed broke out in the impoverished country of about 1 million people last year, forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes.

The mayhem, during which 37 people were killed, was triggered by the previous government's decision to sack 600 soldiers.

About 3,000 international police and troops are currently in East Timor to restore order.

Gusmao said his administration would provide assistance to help some of the displaced people return to their homes.

He also stressed that his government would focus on poverty reduction by using some of the more than $1 billion from an oil and gas fund.

But Aniceto Guterres, the leader of the Fretilin faction in parliament, said the government's programme did not reflect the needs of the people and said the former ruling party did not consider the new government as legitimate.

"Our position is clear that this government is unconstitutional but as a parliament member and Fretilin representative in national parliament we will still discuss the government's programme," said Guterres.