East Timor-Untruths and Irreconcilable Interests
#media_7056;left# As hundreds of New Zealand soldiers travel to East Timor as part of an Australian led deployment, to assist what appears to be an Australian coup to put in place a client regime up to 30, 000 Timorese are sheltering in refugee camps. Troops backed by frigates, tanks and helicopters are occupying Dili without UN authorisation and breaching terms of agreement for intervention with the present Timorese government.
The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network is calling the Australian government to account over its, "special
responsibility for Timor's underdevelopment by refusing to
return revenues, totaling billions of dollars, from the
disputed petroleum fields in the Timor Sea." |Timor Sea Justice Campaign|
ETAN also states that occupation is no solution to Timor's long-term problems.
Australian trade unionists that have been working in Timor believe that the causes of the recent civil unrest is anger and frustration by poorly treated soldiers and unemployed youth.
Australian commentators are criticising Australian Prime Minister John Howard for his role in the crisis. Sydney Indymedia describes the occupying armies as "bad news for democracy" questioning whether Australia was complicit in "destabilisation of the legitimate Fretilin government".
This is not the first time New Zealand has supported an occupation of Timor. The Auckland based Indonesian Human Rights Campaign pointed out earlier this year that New Zealand still hasn’t apologised for it’s role in aiding Indonesia’s 24 years of terror occupying Timor.
The Uniya Jesuit Social Justice Centre is calling on the international community not to turn it’s back on Timor. The real issue in Timor , they say, is “justice for the war crimes and crimes against humanity carried out during the period of Indonesian occupation." IHRC spokesperson Maire Leadbeater wrote in early May that, “New Zealand is on the list of infamy for its strong diplomatic support for Indonesia, a bipartisan policy under Labour and National administrations.”
Max Lane, a lecturer in Asian Studies at the University of Sydney, and a leading activist in the East Timor solidarity movement in the 1990s wrote online that although international forces are needed now and welcomed by the Timorese Socialist Party , “The move will also be used to justify Australian imperialism’s interventionist foreign policy in the region, a strategy that involves the Australian military, police and financial advisors interfering in the running of a number of Australia’s small, poor neighbours in the interests of Australian business and at the expense of the people of those nations.”
Anti-imperialists are quick to point out that the Timor intervention is being exploited by Australia and New Zealand as an excuse for re-establishing neo-colonialism in Timor. Scott’s blog has covered the crisis from a Marxist perspective. Updates [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8]
The World War 4 Report asks whether, “the Australian secret service foment or inflame the current conflict on the island? We don't know that. But we think it is a legtimate question.” Another writer seems concerend that the intervention was done to keep Australia dominant within the region.
An Australian blogging in Dili has been covering the situation with irregular updates while dissident socialist groups in Australia oppose the intervention. Articles [1, 2,3]
The United Nations has asked the government of East Timor “to address the causes
of the violence in order to prevent a recurrence of such incidents.”
Comments
Re: East Timor-Untruths and Irreconcilable Interests
Nice article. We should get out there and make a noise about so called peace keeping.Our colonial government cant keep it's finger out of the pie eh.
Re: East Timor-Untruths and Irreconcilable Interests
Omah maybe you could put a reference in to the WSWS article that have appeared on AoteaIndy shortly after Scotts initial article and which argues that the US and Australia are engaged in an attempt to remove Alkatiri because of his policy of preferring Portugal to Australia.
http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/44964/index.php
Re: East Timor-Untruths and Irreconcilable Interests
The latest WSWS article is at
http://wsws.org/articles/2006/jun2006/stat-j01.shtml
and a very interesting on the spot account of the plans to oust Alkatiri by an Aussie journalist is at
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/news/2006/06/113710.php
Stand up the real Mr Alkatiri
Stand up, the real Mr Alkatiri
By Helen Hill
The Age (Melbourne) 1 June 2006
The Australian Government and media have demonised East Timor's PM without knowing all the facts, writes Helen Hill.
**
Ever since the August 2001 elections for the Constituent Assembly in East Timor - when the longest-standing party of resistance, Fretilin,
won a convincing 57 per cent of the vote against 14 other parties - I have observed among Australian embassy employees in Dili, and most
Australian journalists who write about Timor, a readiness to criticise Mari Alkatiri, East Timor's Prime Minister, on grounds that show they barely know anything about him.
The Bulletin and The Australian regularly recommend his overthrow. The week before the Fretilin congress in Dili, the ABC joined them as
regular Alkatiri critics. Jim Middleton on the ABC's evening news wondered "what would happen if Alkatiri decides to resist" calls for his
resignation, and uncritically put to air claims from a sacked Fretilin central committee member alleging that 80 per cent of the central
committee was against the Prime Minister. A week later, after further violent episodes in Dili, we saw Maxine McKew on Lateline trying to put words into the mouths of MPs Malcolm Turnbull and Peter Garrett:
"Wouldn't you say there's not much support for Alkatiri?" How could they possibly know, if all they saw were the Australian media?
Who is Mari Alkatiri and why does he arouse such hostility from Australian politicians and media presenters? While Alkatiri was being told by Australians he should resign, he was also taking phone calls from the Portuguese and other prime ministers, wishing him well and urging him not to.
With Jose Ramos Horta, Alkatiri helped found Fretilin when, back in the early 1970s, it took the form of a clandestine group of young people
meeting under the nose of the Portuguese colonialists in front of the building where he now has his office. On the eve of the full-scale
Indonesian invasion, Alkatiri, who had already graduated as a surveyor in Angola, was sent with Ramos Horta and Rogerio Lobato to put Timor's
case at the United Nations. His exile lasted 24 years, but it was productively used; he studied law and economics at Eduardo Mondlane University in Mozambique, with South African exiles and others struggling for freedom. Mozambique had offered scholarships to any Timorese students who could qualify for admission, and it was this group, who worked in many professions on graduating and gained a great deal of experience in economic development, who now form the backbone of the public service. In Mozambique, Alkatiri learnt a great deal about international organisations and how to avoid falling into some of the traps Mozambique had encountered. His negotiating skills that the Australian Government finds so fearsome were gained during this period.
Every year he was with Ramos Horta at the UN General Assembly for the debate on East Timor. In 1998 it was Alkatiri who did most of the thinking that led the multi-party National Council for Timorese Resistance to adopt its "Magna Carta", linking Timor's future policies with the best standards in international practice coming from the UN's conferences on human rights, environment, population, women and social development during the 1990s.
Detractors frequently allege that Alkatiri's presence in Mozambique for 24 years means he is some sort of unreconstructed Marxist. In reality,
he is an economic nationalist with a strong awareness of environmental issues and woman's issues; he regularly speaks out on violence against women. He has spoken against privatisation of electricity and managed to get a "single desk" pharmaceutical store, despite initial opposition
from the World Bank. He hopes a state-owned petroleum company assisted by China, Malaysia and Brazil will enable Timor to benefit more from its
own oil and gas in addition to the revenue it will raise from the area shared with Australia. At the Fretilin congress, he announced initiatives for scrapping school fees in primary school and introducing state-funded meals in all schools.
There is widespread support in Timor for Alkatiri's decision not to take loans from the World Bank, although it gave Timor a few years of
extremely low salaries in the public service. The Cuban doctors invited by Alkatiri to serve in rural areas are also very popular, as is the new
medical school they are establishing at the national university.
The young intellectuals at the university and the leadership of many Timorese non-government organisations praise Alkatiri's economic
knowledge and his ability to defend Timor's interests against the likes of the World Bank and the Australian Government (over the Timor Sea
issue), while being disappointed with slow progress on educational reform and development of the co-operative sector.
His major errors of judgement include a draconian defamation law, which has drawn the ire of much of Timor's media, and his tardiness in intervening on the sacking of the dissident soldiers, in which he has supported decisions made by army commander Taur Matan Ruak.
Another frequent accusation is that Alkatiri is "arrogant", and, while this might be the case, he has increased massively the public consultations held over the last year. Under East Timor's
semi-presidential constitution, the president is popularly elected while ministers are appointed by the party with the majority in the Parliament.
Alkatiri has sacked some ministers for poor performance, and some of them provided support for his challenger at the Fretilin congress.
In a rather bizarre twist, one of Alkatiri's unashamed supporters during this crisis has been the World Bank, whose director wrote last week that "Timor-Leste has achieved much thanks to the country's sensible leadership and sound decision-making which have helped put in place the
building blocks for a stable peace and a growing economy".
Helen Hill teaches sociology at Victoria University and is author of Stirrings of Nationalism in East Timor: Fretilin 1974-78, Oxford Press.
East Timor Information Sheet June 2006
EAST TIMOR INFORMATION SHEET 1ST JUNE 2006
About East Timor Political Process
* Each political party elects its leaders representatives;
* The people vote for a party, not a personality;
* The Parliament is made up of 74 members and 14 district representatives;
* The percentage of votes a party receives in the general election determines the number of members it has in the Parliament;
* For the district representation it goes on a 'first party past the post' basis;
* Once elected a party announces its ministerial cabinet;
* The cabinet must gain a majority of votes in Parliament to enact its platform, laws and rules;
* The Fretlin Party won the election in August 2001 with a majority of 54% against 14 other parties;
* The next general election is in 2007 and Fretlin is confident it will gain government again;
* In 2005 Fretlin won the local elections (sucos) by 65%
* The election for the presidency is separate and is very much a personality contest;
* The presidency is mainly symbolic - the President selects the judiciary and diplomats from government recommendations and is the commander-in-chief of the army.
About Fretlin
Fretlin has always been a party of the broad Left. Initially some of its members were communists. Most were hunted down and killed by the Indonesians due to their convictions.
Fretlin is the only political party which has a structure supported by the grassroots and enough educated personnel to lead East Timor into the future.
It has a strong bond with the people in the villages since it sent its educated members as volunteers to teach literacy, agriculture and health through hygiene throughout the country in 1974/75 and thereafter as fighters in the war of liberation.
The Fretlin Congress is made of delegates elected at the village level. It elects its presidency, secretariat and Central Committee.
The Past
A rift has developed between Xanana Gusmao, Jose Ramos Horta and Fretlin not long after these two individuals left the party in 1987. Fretlin had devised a front of Maubere liberation it called CNRM which would separate the political (Fretlin) from the fighters who eventually became known as the
Falantil Forces with Xanana as their leader. This move was designed to undermine Indonesia’s explanations of the human rights abuses as fighting communism.
In the 1990?s Jose Ramos Horta has denigrated publicly the sacrifice of the communist members of Fretlin. During the 24 years of fighting, the insurgency was directed solely by the Fretlin
Presidential Council which was made up of 5 leaders. Lu’olo being the last of these is now the Speaker of the East Timorese Parliament.
Mari Alkatiri (Prime Minister) together with Ana Passoa (Attorney General) spent their exile in Portugal where they studied Law and in Mozambique where they worked relentlessly for Fretlin, they wrote its Constitution, and a Magna Carta which was accepted by the UN. In 1998 legitimising the insurgency under the name of CNRT. No Magna Carta, no international legitimacy, no freedom. yet for the Australian media there are only two players in East Timorese resistance, especially after his arrest. Jose Ramos Horta (Foreign Minister), Nobel Prize winner, as the East Timorese on the outside.
The Present
It is beyond doubt that the military forces in East Timor were not well managed despite the officers being hand picked by the President Xanana Gusmao and trained by the Australian armed forces. Back in 1999 the UN was advised not to institute an armed force in East Timor because it was too costly yet at the insistence of Xanana Gusmao, Sergio de Mello relented.
Being a token army and Xanana’s pride and joy, the Alkatiri Government did not interfere into its conduct and acquiesced to its requests. This was a mistake because it became rudderless, so much so that last year Lieutenant Gastao Salsinha was caught on the West Timor border using army trucks and
equipment to smuggle sandalwood, a protected specie in East Timor due to it over exploitation during Indonesian times.
The government could not prosecute him as he was in the Army and the punishment from his superiors was to deny him any further promotion and leave for special training in the US. From this Lt Salsinha convinced his subordinates that it was all a conspiracy from the commanders who hail from
the east of the country to humiliate the soldiers from the west. There must have been dissatisfaction in the ranks because 593 of his colleagues went on strike with him.
Over a period of three months Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak made repeated demands for the men to return to their barracks, but to no avail. He consulted with President who at the time was out of the country and then sacked the deserters. This is where the story gets a bit tricky because on his return Xanana Gusmao gave conflicting statements. First he fully supported his commander and the dismissal but went on to change that statement and claimed the soldiers had been treated wrongly.
This fuelled the fire of discontent among the deserters who then went on to march through Dili for four days demanding the government reinstated them. On the second day of protest April 26, the Prime Minster Mari Alkatiri, the Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta and the Bishop of Dili Alberto Ricardo da Silva met with Lt Salsinha and some of his men.
After this meeting it was announced that a commission would be put together to look into the grievances of the soldiers. On April 28 the last day of protest, after the marching was done, a mob of disgruntled youths goaded by opposition parties went on a rampage through the centre of town, and as the police was being overwhelmed it started shooting in the crowd resulting in 5 rioters dying of their wounds.
The Commission was sworn in on May 5 and was composed of 2 members nominated by the President, 2 members nominated by the Parliament, 2 members nominated by the Government, 1 member nominated by the Catholic Church and 2 consultative members, one from Associacao HAK a human rights NGO, and the other from the Judicial System Monitoring Program. It was never given
the opportunity to deliberate as the deserters resorted to fight it out with the Government.
Major Alfreido Reinado who deserted along with some members of the Dili Police over the shooting in the crowd incident, was in Australia for training as recently as late last year. He swears his allegiance
to the President and has stated that he no longer wanted to serve the Government because Mari Alkatiri is a Communist. Unfortunately for Major Reinado, he will have to take responsibility for starting the hostilities after he and his men broke a promise to Jose Ramos Horta and left their cantonment near Ailieu to take up a position on the hills overlooking Dili which were being patrolled by the Army loyal to the Government.
This was an attempted coup by the right-wing and it has failed. Not surprisingly the Australian media is asking for Mari Alkatiri to resign or be sacked by the President along with his democratically elected
Government. This is wishful thinking on their part because the Alkatiri Government is united and outside of Dili the country has continued to run normally.
Xanana Gusmao could not run a bath let alone a government and his nation knows that.
Viva Fretlin!
Robert Peters
Friends of East Timor
**********************************************
REPUBLICA DEMOCRATICA DE TIMOR-LESTE
GABINETE DO PRIMEIRO-MINISTRO
STATEMENT BY THE PRIME MINISTER
1. Australian and Malaysian military have since yesterday being patrolling the security perimeter. This area of intervention of the international forces has been defined by the Government in coordination with the President of the Republic and is being operationalised by the commands of Timor-Leste
Defence Force and the Australian and Malaysian Defence Force.
Quiet obviously, the decision to request international support was deeply analysed and it was essentially based on the unequivocal will of the Government to put an end on the wave of violence, thereby avoiding further bloodshed.
It is obvious that, first and foremost, we hope that this intervention puts an end to the violence that we have been going through over the last days. This will take its time. The foreign military and police have just arrived and are now trying to control Dili - a city that they are not familiar with as yet.
I nevertheless believe that from the moment the Timorese start feeling the constant presence of these men and women, the levels of trust will increase, thereby enabling a gradual return to normalcy, which is essential to preserve both the rule of law and goods of the population in general.
Contrary to what may seem to some people and interests, a considerable part of the violence that occurred in the capital of Timor-Leste over the last hours, is no longer linked to a very serious problem that translated into confrontations between our Defence Force and a few members of the
Police. It is rather violence stemming from the planned and opportunistic action of gangs, who have looting and burning houses and goods, and threatening our martyrised people.
The international forces have been receiving instructions from the Government to put an end to such incidents. We hope that very soon it can be said that they are already controlling the situation, thereby revealing effectiveness in their operations.
At no time has the Government ceased to work. Even this morning, under my leadership the Council of Ministers met. We made an update of the situation. And we have approved some important decisions to ensure the coordination of the authorities of Timor-Leste with the international forces.
2. We are now being accused of not being able to govern. However, I recall here that the policies outlined and implement by the Government I am proud to lead has been receiving unsuspected commends from the international community as a whole. Let me single out, as an example, the sincere applause made last month in this same room by the President of the World Bank, Mr Paul Wolfowitz, vis-a-vis the policies of this Government. Mr Wolfowitz repeated this applause last
May 25.
Does this mean that, in only one month time, we have ceased to be an exemplary case of success, and are now a case of a clear incapacity? Let the things be clear: we have some faults in all this process, namely in the difficulty to solve in due time any injustices that may have possibly existed within FDTL. But I can assure that the Government will assume its responsibilities. I hope that the other sovereign institutions will do the same.
I, the Prime Minister of Timor-Leste, do maintain my previous statements. What is in motion is an attempt to stage a coup d'etat. However, I am confident that the President of the Republic, with whom I have been keeping permanent contacts will not cease to respect the Constitution of the
Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste which he swore to comply with. And he will never forget the interests of the People of Timor-Leste for which all of us fought to 24 years nor the thousands of brothers who gave their lives.
Dili, May 27, 2006
Prime Minister
Mari Alkatiri
For further informations please contact the Media Advisor:
Rui Flores (tel. +670 723 01 40 or rui.flores@gmail.com)
John M. Miller Internet: fbp@igc.org
National Coordinator
East Timor & Indonesia Action Network:
48 Duffield St., Brooklyn, NY 11201 USA
Phone: (718)596-7668 Fax: (718)222-4097
Mobile phone: (917)690-4391
Web site: http://www.etan.org
Re: East Timor-Untruths and Irreconcilable Interests
WSWS has documented the whole saga of Australia's dirty tricks with ET over Timor Sea oil.
http://wsws.org/articles/2006/jun2006/etim-j06.shtml
Re: East Timor-Untruths and Irreconcilable Interests
Hi,
I'm a journalist in Sydney and we had a contact for the advisor political advisor to the president of East Tinor's parliament ... but we have lost it ... HAROLD MOW-SHOE (phonetical) .. is there anyway you could help us get back in contact with him ....