East Timor minister says Alkatiri Government in control

ABC Local Radio
The World Today - Monday, 29 May , 2006 12:22:00
Reporter: Eleanor Hall

ELEANOR HALL: East Timor's Minister for Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries, Estanislau da Silva, is adamant that the Government of Mari Alkatiri is in control of the situation and that there is no move by the President to dismiss the Government.

Mr da Silva arrived in Sydney this morning, but he's remained in regular contact with Timor's Prime Minister, who's preparing for his meeting with the President.Mr da Silva joined me in The World Today studio.

ELEANOR HALL: How are relations between the President and the Prime Minister at the moment?

ESTANISLAU DA SILVA: The relation is very good. It was never bad. The President is someone... he's always vocal. When he sees things he thinks are not going well he speaks out. And then, but we have never had, as a government, we've never had any problems with the President. I get along very well with the President, as well as with the Prime Minister, of course.
ELEANOR HALL: What about these reports on the weekend that the Prime Minister accused the President of planning a coup d'etat against him?

STANISLAU DA SILVA: No. I think he never said it. I think this is a misleading information, or an attempt to portray that East Timor is in a complete chaos, that the leadership don't understand each other, so this is a political crisis. This is not really, really the case.

ELEANOR HALL: And yet there are suggestions that the Foreign Minister has been looking for a constitutional way to dismiss the Prime Minister so that a government of national unity could be appointed by the President. What can you tell us about this?

ESTANISLAU DA SILVA: I think this is another speculation. I don't think so. The Foreign Minister is part of the Government, of the Mari Alkatiri Government, and the constitution doesn't allow it.

ELEANOR HALL: What's your response to the Australian Prime Minister's comments that East Timor has not been well governed?

ESTANISLAU DA SILVA: I think one has to be very, very careful to make some statements. I don't think that the Prime Minister John Howard was well informed of the development in East Timor.

ELEANOR HALL: He's reiterated his statements, though, when questioned again.ESTANISLAU DA SILVA: Yes. I think, yeah, you've got to understand that this government run the country from zero. And then what we have achieved has… we have been praised by international institutions like IMF (International Monetary Fund).

ELEANOR HALL: Are there enough foreign troops there now, in your view?

ESTANISLAU DA SILVA: Yes. This is only in Dili, because the reason... one of the reasons why we called for foreign troops is to restore the stability in Dili, and then for people to feel more safe, because this is a very young country, we have very young police force, we have very young armed force.

ELEANOR HALL: Did the UN leave too early?

ESTANISLAU DA SILVA: Um, this is something that is debatable. But the fact is that we didn't have that much support that we would've had a well-trained and professional police force.ELEANOR HALL: So if it's not east and west and it's not discontent with Mari Alkatiri, what is it driving this violence?

ESTANISLAU DA SILVA: I think it's mainly because people become impatient, they want to get things done overnight. And then we still haven't got all the necessary institutional resources to do everything as quickly as people expected us to do.

ELEANOR HALL: And how long do you think that Australian troops should remain now in your country?

ESTANISLAU DA SILVA: At least we hope that they should be there until the end of the election, and then to still be there to help to train our people and the armed forces, and then as well the assistance from the Australians to train our police forces. And then …

ELEANOR HALL: So you're talking a year, more than a year?

ESTANISLAU DA SILVA: We… it's all... it is negotiable. We haven't specified a time. But we will work, with the Australian and international forces that are in Timor to have their support to be there to train our people.

ELEANOR HALL: But at this stage you don't anticipate just a short intervention for a couple of months?

ESTANISLAU DA SILVA: I don't think so. And this has become very, very clear, with this statement from our Foreign Minister, Jose Ramos Horta, that we still need assistance at least until the elections, which will be in 2007.

ELEANOR HALL: And that's East Timor's Minister for Agriculture, Estanislau da Silva.