Díli, 01 Mar (Lusa) - O secretário de Estado-adjunto norte-americano para a Ásia Oriental-Pacífico, o embaixador Christopher R. Hill, visita Timor-Leste nos dias 06 e 07 de Abril, anunciou hoje a embaixada dos Estados Unidos da América em Díli.
"A visita do embaixador Hill sublinha o compromisso dos Estados Unidos da América com a segurança de Timor-Leste e da região Ásia-Pacífico e evidencia os estreitos laços de amizade" entre os dois países, declarou a embaixada norte-americana em comunicado.
Trata-se da segunda visita do diplomata norte-americano a Timor-Leste, estando previstos encontros com o Presidente interino Fernando "La Sama" de Araújo, com o primeiro-ministro, Xanana Gusmão, e com vários outros membros do Governo timorense.
O embaixador Christopher R. Hill foi nomeado, em 2005, chefe da delegação dos Estados Unidos às negociações multilaterais sobre o programa nuclear da Coreia do Norte e foi embaixador norte-americano na República da Coreia.
Hill foi também embaixador dos EUA na Polónia, Macedónia e enviado-especial para o Kosovo (em 1998-1999).
O diplomata foi igualmente Conselheiro Especial do Presidente e director para Assuntos do Sudeste Europeu no Conselho de Segurança Nacional dos Estados Unidos da América.
PRM.
Lusa/fim
terça-feira, abril 01, 2008
Responsável dos EUA para Ásia-Pacífico visita Díli
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Australia accused of helping spark Fiji coup
ABC Radio Australia 2.4.08
A new report has accused Australia of helping spark the December 2006 coup in Fiji by sending military forces to the country and has raised questions about possible plans for an invasion.
The report by the Fiji Human Rights Commission is into events leading up to the coup, with a particular focus on Australia's deployment of ships to nearby waters, and an alleged contingent of Special Air Service soldiers who flew in on a commercial flight.
Fiji Human Rights Commission chair Dr Shaista Shameem told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program that SAS troops were detected in the country by Fiji's military forces, when commander Commodore Frank Bainimarama was threatening to take over the government from former prime minister, Laisenia Qarase.
Dr Shameem has stopped short of accusing Australia of planning to invade Fiji.
The Australian Defence Force confirmed at the time that Defence Supplementation Force staff were sent to assist the High Commission in Suva with communications, as part of what were described as routine precautionary measures.
Mr Qarase has denied seeking foreign military intervention in 2006 to protect his government.
Australia also maintains its navy presence was intended to help evacuate Australians if the coup became violent, but Dr Shameem told Radio Australia she does not believe that claim.
"The mixed messages that were being reported in the press in Brisbane, I think it was, but also in Canberra prior to the vessels being sent out - and in fact I think [Prime Minister] Kevin Rudd was the first person who introduced the idea of invoking or activating, as he called it, the Biketawa Agreement," she said.
"He kept saying 'let's get on with it', he said that phrase at least twice in two different interviews, and it was the same evening that one of the ships actually left for Fiji waters and it was joined later on by [two other ships].
"So there were a lot of things being said which were quite different from the official position that the Australian government was maintaining throughout, that it was in relation to the evacuation of Australian nationals."
Dr Shameem counters Australian claims that the ships stayed outside Fijian waters.
"That's what they said officially, that they were outside Fiji territory, and I think there was a lot of insistence on that point," she said.
"But in fact when civilian aircraft were sent to find them, they were found inside Fiji waters."
SAS in Fiji
Dr Shameem says the report also highlights the alleged presence of SAS forces in Fiji.
"They arrived quite clandestinely and had not gone through customs procedures," she said.
"The Australians first denied the SAS forces were there, but the army here has its own intelligence sources, so they found them out," she said.
"Then the Australian Defence Advisory and the Australian High Commission here denied the presence of those forces, so the RFMF (Republic of Fiji Military Forces) commander said that he would treat them as mercenaries.
"And it was at that point that the Chief of Defence in Australia rang him up and said, 'No, they're SAS forces, they're mine,' and they then withdrew to the Australian embassy."
Australian invasion?
Dr Shameem says she has "no idea" why SAS forces might have been sent to Fiji.
"You need to ask the Australians that," she said.
"But what we do know is that they had brought with them more than 400 kilograms of something in big sealed silver boxes, which (former foreign minister Alexander) Downer said was communication equipment, but the RFMF said were weapons and ammunition."
Dr Shameem stopped short of explicitly accusing Australia of planning to invade Fiji.
"But I think the evidence is all there, and people can put a different light on that; what we are really looking at is the inconsistency in their statements," she said.
Dr Shameem also hinted that the coup might not have taken place if Australian forces had not been in the region.
"The interesting question is, if the Australians hadn't been there, and if this hadn't been a threat, as the RFMF saw it, would December 5 have happened anyway? Or how did it instigate what happened on December 5?" she said.
No comment
The Australian Defence Forces (ADF) says it has no comments to make in relation to the Fiji Human Rights Commission's report.
In a statement, the ADF says at no time did Australia plan to use military force to prevent or reverse a coup.
It says Australia's deployment of naval forces in Fiji at the time of the coup was purely a precautionary measure in case Australians needed evacuation.
The ADF says Chief of Defence Force Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston did call Commodore Bainimarama to strongly discourage him from deposing the Fiji government.
Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith has also rejected the report and says Australian troops did nothing wrong.
"The best thing that could happen in Fiji is not spurious suggestions about Australian activity, but having an election, returning Fiji to democracy, respecting human rights and democracy and allowing a potentially very prosperous nation to get on with the job of providing for its citizens," he said.
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