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ABC Local Radio

East Timor violence underpinned by fractured government
PM - Friday, 26 May , 2006 18:26:00

Reporter: David Hardaker

"MARK COLVIN: With Australian troops working to bring law and order back to East Timor, the focus is falling on the future of the Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri. Once promoted as a figure of unity, Mr Alkatiri now appears to have become a symbol of division.

One clear goal of the forces his Government sacked, and whose subsequent actions led to the current troubles, is to remove Mr Alkatiri from his job.

But the Prime Minister is refusing to budge, even though it's now pretty clear that there's been a complete breakdown between him and President Xanana Gusmao.


David Hardaker reports on the political drama behind the scenes.

DAVID HARDAKER: The extreme violence which has been tearing East Timor apart might have started out as a dispute over soldiers' conditions. Now though, it appears that it's all about getting rid of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

JOHN BRUNI: Yeah, look, I think that one of the things that we have to understand is that Alkatiri had all the time in the world to try to head this crisis off. It was a crisis that could have been prevented, had they treated the Loromonu soldiers - or the soldiers that come from the Loromonu western districts of East Timor - had he treated these grievances seriously, it is highly likely that this whole thing may not have escalated.

DAVID HARDAKER: John Bruni is a lecturer in Asian Studies at the University of Adelaide.

JOHN BRUNI: The only thing is that since 2002 the East Timorese Government, they were certainly busy partying, once they had achieved their aim and become a legitimate representative of the East Timorese people, but from that point on they really didn't do a great deal to alleviate the poverty, which is endemic in East Timor. They didn't do too much to try to weed out or root out corruption, which basically was one of the opening hallmarks of the East Timorese Government.

And of course when it comes to the ethnic divide in the East Timorese military, Alkatiri in particular, I mean, his problem was that he just simply didn't listen to the soldiers.

DAVID HARDAKER: Mari Alkitiri is 56-years-old and a one-time chartered surveyor.

He signed up early to the fight for East Timor's independence and joined the armed Fretilin movement. But he was forced to leave East Timor and for more than 15 years he lived in Mozambique, where he worked as a teacher.

He returned to East Timor when the country gained its independence, but he and East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao have had sharp political differences. Now those differences are out in the open.

President Xanana Gusmao and the Prime Minister, it appears, did not speak to each other yesterday after the President assumed control of the country's security forces.

The President's Australian born wife, Kirsty Sword, was at a meeting in Dili last night with Vice-Chief of the Australian defence force, Lieutenant General Ken Gillespie.

Kirsty Sword was speaking today on behalf of her sick husband.

KIRSTY SWORD: Xanana gave him a briefing on the situation on his dismay at the failure of the Government in addressing the underlying causes of the unrest that's been unfolding in the past few weeks… and made it very clear that he has assumed control of the Defence Forces.

DAVID HARDAKER: If it comes down to a straight out choice between Alkatiri and Gusmao, then Mr Alkatiri is in trouble. His personal style, as much as anything else, has angered East Timorese.

JOHN BRUNI: I think aloofness would be one of the things that certain people have been saying… you know, he has a rather aloof style, and he obviously thinks very highly of his ability to rule, which is fine, I mean, you want to have a reasonably confident Prime Minister, but not at the exclusion of actually trying to listen to the various people that you're meant to be representing. And this is where, I think, Alkatiri's whole political reputation basically fell apart.

DAVID HARDAKER: Is he autocratic?

JOHN BRUNI: Maybe too strong a word to use, autocratic, but he does certainly have some leanings towards that aspect, yeah.

DAVID HARDAKER: Last year thousands of demonstrators, backed by the Catholic Church, confronted the Alkatiri Government and called for "an end to the dictatorship".

Last week the Prime Minister headed off a challenge to his leadership after he forced a change in voting rules. Rather than a secret ballot in his party, he wanted a show of hands. His challenger withdrew.

Now a military uprising has become the rallying point for the nation's grievances. So will he step aside? Xanana Gusmao's wife, Kirsty Sword, hinted that he should.

KIRSTY SWORD: I think there are clearly going to be some significant changes. I think the Government has lost the trust of the people. Clearly in this situation people have very little faith in the Government, and there are going to have to be some sweeping changes to be able to restore people's confidence and trust.

DAVID HARDAKER: Prime Minister Alkatiri's response?

MARI ALKATIRI: Never, I only will do it if my party asks me to do it.

DAVID HARDAKER: But according to Adelaide University, John Bruni, removing Mr Alkatiri may be the only solution.

JOHN BRUNI: Well, I think that if Alkatiri doesn't have a real sea change in his own attitude in terms of being able to sit down around the negotiating table, discuss things with the Loromonu soldiers, but also not only discuss things but actually act out whatever their grievances are, and ensure that those grievances do not fester any further, then perhaps we can see that there's going to be some form of stability back in East Timor.

But if he chooses to go back to his old autocratic and aloof ways, I think that whatever we're seeing in terms of trying to put stability on the ground in East Timor will just be that, it'll just be temporary.

DAVID HARDAKER: Does it mean that there needs to be fresh elections to... for Alkatiri if needs be to get a new mandate?

JOHN BRUNI: Well, certainly I think that that would be a very good idea if that can be done.

MARK COLVIN: Adelaide University academic Dr John Bruni ending David Hardaker's report."