Relatório Confidencial da UN sobre a resposta aos ataques de 11 de Fevereiro de 2008

REPORT UNMIT INTERNAL REVIEW PANEL

CONDUCTED FROM 1 APRIL TO 24 APRIL 2008
Upon the request of Mr. AtulKhare,
Special Representative ofthe Secretary-General for Timor-Leste
On 1 April 2008

ON THE UN ACTIONS IN RESPONSE TO THE ATTACKS ON THE PRESIDENT AND THE PRIME MINISTER ON 11 FEBRUARY 2008

Remote Australia on the verge of a 'failed state'

WA (Australia) - September 13, 2008

Russell Skelton

Remote Australia has become a "failed state" paralysed by a "perfect storm" of dysfunction and neglect that threatens the nation's security, social cohesion and rare ecosystems, a group of prominent Australians has warned.

The group, which includes academics, politicians, public servants and mining executives, has called for a radical rethink for the region that covers 85% of the continent and holds 65% of its resources wealth.

They argue remote Australia fits the criteria of failed states - endemic poverty, a paucity of services, financial mismanagement and high rates of homicide and violence - such as the Solomon Islands and East Timor, where the Federal Government sent troops to maintain law and order and political stability.

Dr Peter Shergold, once Canberra's most powerful bureaucrat and now chief executive of the Centre for Social Impact, said there had been a "failure of vision and policy" by all governments. "Mining companies are more aware of the problems and are doing more to solve them," Dr Shergold said.

"If we let communities die, that has implications for our mining industry, for our security and for the type of nation we are."

Fred Chaney, a former Coalition minister and director of Reconciliation Australia, said it was worrying that an area so rich in resources was so poorly governed.

"This is not just about indigenous dysfunction, it is about dysfunction in strategically significant regions like the Pilbara where the majority is the white community," he said. "You have a massive production of wealth and a complete disaffection with government.

"The Pilbara is the economic powerhouse of Australia yet it is poorly run."

He said the emergency intervention in the Northern Territory following the Little Children Are Sacred report was symptomatic of a much broader failure of government and a crude example of the "failed state" thesis.

The Remote Focus Group has produced a "prospectus", to be released on Monday, detailing the extent of the crisis and calling for an urgent national debate. "The overwhelming evidence demands that decisive and comprehensive action is needed to address the crisis in Remote Australia," the group says, and warns that imposed solutions that don't involve consultations will not work.

While stressing that the problems go beyond those of indigenous communities, the prospectus argues that there is a looming demographic crisis with an exploding Aboriginal population that shows few signs of migrating to metropolitan cities. In contrast, rural employment is falling.

The region's economic base has become divided between "fly in, fly out" labour for the mining sector and the swelling indigenous population dependent on welfare and isolated from the mainstream economy.

Neil Westbury, a former senior adviser to the NT Government, said that while indigenous populations had been highly mobile - chasing health and Centrelink services to regional towns - they were not migrating to metropolitan centres.

On security, the report says protecting Australia against external threats from South-East Asia and the Pacific has been made more difficult by the social and economic crisis. It says mining production amounted to $90 billion last year and was the biggest single contributor to the economy.

On the environment, Mr Chaney said remote Australia contained vast water reserves that needed to be managed, but there was no national strategy to manage the lands and fragile ecosystems, just a "disconnected patchwork of federal, state and local government agencies".

- Deputy Federal Opposition Leader Julie Bishop said new governance structures, such as regional governments within or across state boundaries, could better provide services.

"I believe there is a place for local and national governments; the question is 'what is the middle level?'." she said. "Currently it's defined by state boundaries but in this day and age, is that the relevant demarcation?"
###

Sismo de 6,2 de magnitude ao largo de Díli não causou vítimas

Dilí, 14 Set (Lusa) - Um sismo de magnitude de 6,2 na escala aberta de Richter ocorreu na manhã de domingo ao largo de Timor-Leste sem haver notícia de vítimas ou de prejuízos materiais, anunciou a agência geofísica norte-americana.

O tremor de terra ocorreu a 148 quilómetros da capital, Díli, e a 397 quilómetros a nordeste da cidade indonésia de Kupang, no extremo ocidental da ilha.

O sismo registou-se a 35 quilómetros de profundidade às 08:00 locais (01:00 de Lisboa) e não foi lançado qualquer alerta de tsunami.

OM.
Lusa/fim

Novo embaixador da Nova Zelândia é diplomata de carreira

Díli, 15 Set (Lusa) - O novo embaixador da Nova Zelândia em Timor-Leste é um diplomata de carreira, Tim McIvor, anunciou hoje a chefe do Governo, Hellen Clark, em Wellington.

"Díli é um posto importante para a Nova Zelândia. Desde 1999 que trabalhamos de perto com os timorenses, as Nações Unidas e outros governos para contribuir para que haja paz e desenvolvimento em Timor-Leste", afirmou a primeiro-ministro da Nova Zelândia.

Tim McIvor desempenhava até agora as funções de director da Unidade Regional Ásia no Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros da Nova Zelândia.

Antes disso, o diplomata foi representante permanente da Nova Zelândia nas Nações Unidas, em Nova Iorque, e esteve também colocado em Moscovo e em Manila.

Tim McIvor chegará a Díli "em meados de Dezembro", substituindo a actual embaixadora Ruth Nuttall, que regressará a Wellington.

A Nova Zelândia tem actualmente em Timor-Leste um contingente de 180 militares e tripulações de helicóptero, integradas nas Forças de Estabilização Internancionais (ISF).

Vinte e cinco oficiais de polícia e vários militares da Nova Zelândia estão também na Missão Integrada das Nações Unidas em Timor-Leste (UNMIT).

"Muitos militares, polícias, oficiais de imigração e de segurança neozelandeses estiveram ao lado dos timorenses no trabalho de construir uma nação independente", declarou Hellen Clark ao anunciar a nomeação do novo embaixador em Díli.

"Os oficiais de polícia em Timor-Leste estão neste momento a tentar uma iniciativa de policiamento na comunidade que promete ter bastante sucesso", acrescentou Hellen Clark.

"Vários outros projectos cobrindo diferentes áreas estão em fase de estudo".

PRM.

Lusa/fim

Magistrada brasileira estuda aprofundamento da cooperação jurídica

15 de Setembro de 2008, 04:36

Díli, 15 Set (Lusa) - O Ministério Público do Brasil pretende aprofundar a cooperação jurídica internacional no espaço lusófono, afirmou à Agência Lusa a magistrada responsável pela missão de estudo a Timor-Leste.

Maria Emília Moraes de Araújo, do Ministério Público brasileiro, explicou que a "missão de prospecção" realizada na semana passada em Timor-Leste se enquadra num projecto mais vasto de aproximação da cooperação judicial do Brasil com o espaço lusófono e com a América Latina.

No caso timorense, a viagem de pesquisa responde também a pedidos dirigidos a Brasília pelo Governo e pela Procuradoria-geral da República de Timor-Leste, durante a visita oficial ao Brasil do Presidente da República timorense, José Ramos-Horta, em Janeiro de 2008.

"Cada uma destas missões aos PALOP (Países Africanos de Língua Oficial Portuguesa) e a Timor-Leste pretende recolher um quadro detalhado de como actuam as magistraturas, quais são as regras processuais em vigor e de que forma se pode ajudar a desenvolver o sistema", afirmou à Lusa a magistrada brasileira, procuradora-regional da República.

A missão de Maria Emília Moraes de Araújo, que terminou a 12 de Setembro, incluiu encontros com as autoridades judiciais timorenses, líderes da sociedade civil e responsáveis governamentais.

A viagem de pesquisa faz parte da terceira fase do "trabalho convergente entre experiências diversas e prospecção para cooperação jurífica internacional eficaz" do Projecto de Estudos dos Ministérios Públicos da Comunidade de Língua Portuguesa.

O projecto é promovido pela Escola Superior do Ministério Público da União (ESMPU), em Brasília, que poderá acolher quadros timorenses para formação em matérias específicas ou fornecer cursos à distância.

"Só depende da parte timorense e penso que a única barreira poderá ser um pouco as dificuldades com a língua portuguesa", declarou a procuradora.

"A área principal de cooperação e formação com Timor-Leste deverá ser a investigação criminal e o combate à corrupção", adiantou a magistrada brasileira.

"Podem ser também áreas como o Direito Constitucional, os Direitos Humanos, o Direito do Consumidor, o Direito Ambiental, os direitos colectivos e difusos, como os direitos das minorias e das comunidades indígenas, em que Timor-Leste pode aprender com a experiência que temos", explicou Maria Emília Moraes de Araújo.

No final da sua visita a Timor-Leste, país onde o Brasil participa no programa de reforço do sector judicial, Maria Emília Moraes de Araújo manifestou-se "muito bem impressionada com os magistrados timorenses".

Como salientou a magistrada brasileira, a cooperação do Brasil com Timor-Leste na área da justiça remonta à Autoridade Transitória das Nações Unidas (UNTAET) dirigida pelo brasileiro Sérgio Vieira de Mello.

O chefe da UNTAET, recordou Maria Emília Moraes de Araújo, contou com o actual sub-procurador-geral brasileiro, Eugénio Aragão, assessor de cooperação jurídica internacional, para definir o embrião das instituições judiciais do novo Estado timorense.

PRM.

Lusa/fim

Sismo

== PRELIMINARY EARTHQUAKE REPORT ==

***This event supersedes event AT00135040.

Region: EAST TIMOR REGION

Geographic coordinates: 8.774S, 126.915E

Magnitude: 6.2 MwDepth: 35 km

Universal Time (UTC): 14 Sep 2008 00:00:10

Time near the Epicenter: 14 Sep 2008 08:00:10

Local standard time in your area: 14 Sep 2008 00:00:10

Location with respect to nearby cities:148 km (92 miles) E (98 degrees) of DILI, East Timor
397 km (247 miles) ENE (67 degrees) of Kupang, Timor, Indonesia
498 km (309 miles) W (259 degrees) of Saumlaki, Tanimbar Islands, Indonesia

USGS ENS (ens@usgs.gov)

Os incompetentes do costume... Ou é de propósito?

The Age

Red tape bungle after Ramos Horta shooting
Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin
September 12, 2008

RED tape delayed Australian soldiers pursuing rebels involved in the February 11 attacks on East Timor's top two political leaders, a confidential United Nations investigation has found.

Investigators also found that soldiers serving in the Australian-led International Stabilisation Force (ISF) were among people "with no official function" who walked into the crime scene where President Jose Ramos Horta was shot, compromising physical evidence.

The report of a four-person investigation into the UN's response to the attacks said that "no one had the time to authorise and fill out the cumbersome ISF request form" even though its soldiers were asked to pursue the rebels who had fled into the hills above Dili.

"It is difficult to ascertain whether requests made at the operational level to ISF to pursue the perpetrators and to dispatch helicopters ever reached the appropriate level in the ISF chain of command," said the report, which the UN has not released.

Despite the requests to immediately pursue the rebels, the 1000-strong ISF did not receive an official letter asking it to hunt the men until February 13, two days after the attacks.

By then the rebels had travelled deep into East Timor's mountains, where they stayed until they surrendered in April.

The report reveals that by the time a 70-strong team of Australian Federal Police, most of them forensic scientists, started to arrive in Dili the day after the attacks, crime scenes had been hopelessly compromised.

At Mr Ramos Horta's house, Timorese soldiers were "wandering about the crime scene in an agitated state".

"At one point, the soldiers actually levelled their guns at UNPOL (UN police) officers and told them to leave," the report said. "Children reportedly walked up to UNPOL officers to give them shell casings," it said.

The report said key evidence, such as the mobile telephone of rebel leader Alfredo Reinado and SIM cards, was stolen after he was shot dead at Mr Ramos Horta's house. "Other evidence was contaminated, such as shell cases flattened by passing road traffic," the report said.

Most of the AFP experts returned to Australia within days. Seven months after the attacks, a Timorese investigation into the events is at a critical impasse. Investigators have been waiting for examination by Australian experts of Reinado's phone, which was eventually recovered by Timorese soldiers.

One scenario gaining credibility is that Reinado was betrayed by his trusted lieutenant Gastao Salsinha and that Mr Ramos Horta was shot by an associate of a Jakarta gangster known as Hercules.

The Age revealed four days after the attacks that Mr Ramos Horta had promised Reinado an amnesty, which made it difficult to believe the official version that he had taken his men to Dili to kill or harm the President.

Mr Ramos Horta has confirmed it was not Marcelo Caetano, one of Reinado's men, who shot him, as had been widely reported.

Timor-Leste: Missão em Embrapa em Díli para definir projectos prioritários

[ 2008-09-11 ]
(macauhub)

Díli, Timor-Leste, 11 Set - Uma missão da Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (Embrapa) encontra-se em Díli para definir projectos a serem desenvolvidos em Timor-Leste, numa perspectiva de obter melhores resultados na cooperação com os países de língua portuguesa.

Elísio Contini, do departamento de Relações Internacionais da Embrapa, disse à agência noticiosa portuguesa Lusa que a missão vai discutir com o governo timorense as acções que sejam prioritárias e voltará ao Brasil no próximo dia 17 com os projectos já definidos.

"Timor-Leste precisa de tudo, principalmente na área da agricultura. E nós temos o maior interesse em ajudar este país que fala português", assinalou.

Contini admitiu que o processo de cooperação é mais lento quando se trata de países mais pobres.

"Com Angola temos avançado mais e estamos a trabalhar agora para criar uma Embrapa neste país africano de língua portuguesa, além de estarmos a realizar experimentos para testar variedades com o objectivo de aumentar a produtividade angolana", afirmou.

Há também uma proposta que está a ser enviada ao governo de Angola para a criação de quatro centros de investigação: milho e feijão, mandioca, batata doce e amendoim, caprinos e ovinos e gado de leite.

Ex-combatentes do Timor Leste exigem 'atenção do Estado'

Díli, 10 set (Lusa) - Um grupo de antigos combatentes e veteranos das Falintil assinaram esta semana uma petição exigindo “atenção do Estado” do Timor Leste, disse à Agência Lusa o porta-voz do movimento, Anacleto Belo.

“Somos peticionários, mas não dos que provocam problemas”, disse Anacleto, também conhecido como “Lytto”, ou ainda “La Sudur”, o nome de guerra do ex-resistente timorense.

Por isso, em seu requerimento, um texto de dez páginas que a Lusa teve acesso, o grupo prefere se definir como composto por ex-combatentes e veteranos da libertação nacional.

“Somos cerca de 200 ex-combatentes e reunimo-nos em Baucau para discutir a nossa situação e apresentar as nossas exigências”, adiantou Anacleto Belo.

“Temos o apoio de antigos comandantes como Cornélio Gama e Faustino dos Santos”, afirmou, fazendo referência aos dois ex-combatentes que hoje lideram o partido UNDERTIM (com dois deputados no Parlamento).

A maior parte dos signatários da petição, segundo Anacleto Belo, não é abrangido em nenhuma das duas condições principais que definem a elegibilidade para pensão vitalícia ou pensão mensal.

Trata-se de ex-combatentes das Falintil (Forças Armadas de Libertação de Timor Leste, que foi incorporada ao exército após a independência) com menos de 15 anos de participação ativa, na resistência contra as forças indonésias em Timor Leste ou que ainda não atingiram os 55 anos, idade mínima para pedir uma das pensões previstas na lei para os que fizeram a luta pela independência.

Por outro lado, nenhum destes novos peticionários quis fazer parte das Forças Armadas da jovem nação.

“Nós nunca recebemos nada do Estado. Pelo contrário, outros, como Gastão Salsinha e os peticionários das F-FDTL (Falintil-Forças de Defesa do Timor Leste), criaram problemas e pegaram em armas contra o Estado, mas estão recebendo pensões”, disse o representante dos novos peticionários.

No entanto, “La Sudur” garantiu que esta petição não foi feita pelo dinheiro.

“Eu posso arranjar trabalho e não preciso de uma pensão para viver. Nem me interessa a vida militar”, explicou.

Os signatários da petição, desmobilizados após abril de 2000, acusam as autoridades os terem afastado injustamente do processo de recrutamento das F-FDTL.

”O que queremos é a atenção que nunca nos foi dada”, acrescentou Anacleto Belo, que aos 12 anos iniciou a luta como mensageiro, “um tempo de serviço que não é contabilizado pelas leis, mas que fazem a contagem do tempo dos veteranos”.

“Não precisamos provocar problemas”, frisou o ex-combatente, apesar de prometer “mais uma petição em outubro se ninguém responder a esta”.

Tensão

Os “novos peticionários”, explicou Belo, têm consciência da carga negativa, ou pelo menos política, que para muitos timorenses adquiriu a referência a petições desde os conflitos de 2006.

Um grupo de peticionários das F-FDTL, alegando discriminação de base regional contra os soldados oriundos dos distritos ocidentais, esteve na origem da crise política e militar de 2006.

A petição foi endereçada esta semana à Presidência da República, Parlamento, chefia do Governo, Tribunal de Recurso, Diocese de Baucau e chefe da missão das Nações Unidas que atua no país.

Subsidised rice not reaching the poor

Subsidised rice, which was meant principally for poor people, has not been seen in Timor-Leste's marketplaces or stores for weeks

DILI, 10 September 2008 (IRIN) - Timor-Leste's poorest are missing out on a government rice subsidy designed to relieve the pressure of the global food crisis.

The government imports rice and sells it for US$16 per 32kg bag, regardless of the market price, but much of it has not been reaching rural areas, where people are less likely to have cash.

"We've seen that the subsidised rice hasn't been available for the past six weeks," Joan Fleuren, country director for the World Food Programme (WFP) in Timor-Leste, told IRIN.

But the government said that while rice stocks have been lower than usual, it has still been distributing subsidised rice.

"So there is this mismatch between the two reports - it is not available on the market [yet] the government says they have sent it. So either the supply line is broken or the food is sold at different prices than was intended [by the government]," Fleuren said.

Missing the target

Orlando Mota lives in the mountain town of Hatuboulico, Bobonaro District, a six-hour drive from the capital, Dili."The small shop [in town] was selling [government rice] for $29," he told IRIN - nearly double the subsidised price.

He said the police told the shopkeeper this was not allowed. "But now they won't sell the rice [at all] because of the police."

Mota said shop owners also claimed they had to charge inflated prices to pay the extra cost of transporting the rice along bad roads from Dili, despite the government covering most of this cost.

The government said it had implemented a law regulating the sales price.

"We have had a lot of complaints," Joao Gonsalves, Minister for Economy and Development, told IRIN.

Photo: Stephanie March/IRIN
Some sellers have been transferring government subsidised rice from government bags, like these ones, to other packaging to sell at inflated prices

"Six businessmen involved in the distribution had put the rice in different packets to sell at increased prices, some kept it in the government bags - but we have taken action against these six that have been caught," he said.

People who live in remote communities have also arrived in town to buy discounted rice only to find it sold out. They blame poor information flow from the government in Dili about the timing of deliveries.

"Until now we have not had good communication with the districts," Epifano Silva da Costa Faculto, national director for domestic trade, told IRIN.

Other solutions

The WFP cautioned that the government should consider ways to target food subsidies to the most vulnerable. At present, the poorest and the richest alike can buy subsidised rice.

Fleuren said a system where the most vulnerable get full subsidies and others means-based subsidies, would be more effective.

Fleuren said another solution could be cash handouts for those living in places where the market was functioning, and food handouts for those in more remote locations. But Gonsalves said cash handouts were not a "viable alternative. We'd rather give them food than cash money," he told IRIN.

"There has been a push for [cash handouts] from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, and we do not agree with that."

He said the government was not looking at alternatives to the rice subsidy but only to the mechanisms of distribution to deal with the current problems.

Local production

Part of the government's long-term strategy is to increase local production of rice. The country consumes 100,000 tonnes each year, but less than a third is produced locally.

The government buys local rice for the same price as on the international market.

WFP said the government should combine strategies to alleviate pressure from rising food costs into one cohesive plan, because at the moment the efforts could work against one another.

"For instance, if you want to import a lot of food to subsidise sales on the market, in the end this short-term solution goes against finding a long-term solution, namely improved national food production," Fleuren told IRIN.

sm/bj/mw


Theme(s): (IRIN) Aid Policy, (IRIN) Early Warning, (IRIN) Economy, (IRIN) Food Security

[ENDS]

Hypocrisy In The Name Of Democracy And Human Rights

September 4, 2008
By Hipolito Aparicio

DILI (UCAN) -- When Indonesia seized Timor Leste in late 1975, it heralded its invasion with promises and platitudes to win the hearts of local people.

"We are here to free you from Portuguese colonialism and liberate you from the communist regime," the invaders asserted. "We've come to help develop your country so that it can become more democratic, more human," and on and on.

The very first to fight back were barely teenagers. We grabbed guns, crossed rivers and mountains, and began organizing our people to resist with single-minded determination: "Alive or Dead, Independence!"

Before long, word was trickling down from the hills that Indonesian solders were raping, torturing and killing to counter our pro-independence struggle. The invader tried to justify the genocide with claims that pro-independence supporters were communists who had to be exterminated.

Hundreds of thousands of Timorese were killed in the process, totally contradicting all the pro-humanity slogans Indonesia was proclaiming.

Without hope or even a voice, our people suffered this agony for 24 years.

Then the hypocritical former colonial power, like a new Western hero, began broadcasting demands to garner global public opinion against the occupation.

"End the occupation of Timor Leste now," it bellowed. "Give the people food and medicine, not weapons. Stop stealing their resources and killing them. Let the Timorese determine their own future and live in peace," and on and on.

Once Indonesia finally exited, some of us younger survivors got a chance to study in Australia, Indonesia, New Zealand, the Philippines, the United States, and elsewhere. That experience also gave us an opportunity to learn about democracy, human rights, disarmament and other basic values.

Today, as nations present themselves as great defenders of democracy and human rights, we again hear almost the same slogans we had heard in our youth.

I was at Iowa State University in 2003 when the first U.S. contingent went to Iraq. Almost all the students there went on strike to protest the policy.

In that first period of protest, I had a chance to share my experience with classmates. I was asked, "How can someone endure the desert's infernal heat?" and "Can anyone keep going two or three days without Coca-Cola in the desert?"

My classmates chuckled when I replied: "Iraqis definitely can resist even under the sand, without hamburgers!" One of my lecturers countered: "Whenever the United States interferes, it always acts for the sake of democracy and human rights. America is exercising its responsibility as a superpower."

But in 2004, Jesuit Father John Dear was telling fellow Americans at peace rallies: "The U.S. occupation of Iraq is a total disaster. We have been lied to, the facts have been distorted, and the country has been misled. This war was not about democracy, not about nuclear disarmament, not about bringing peace to the Middle East, not about preventing terrorist attacks, not about feeding the hungry or funding jobs, healthcare, education, housing, or cleaning up the environment, and not about upholding international law. Iraq is not a liberated country, it is an occupied country, and we are the military, imperial occupiers ... This war and occupation is all about oil. It makes the oil millionaires richer; sets a terrible precedent that it is permissible to disregard the international community and bomb preemptively; guarantees further terrorist attacks against us; and kills hundreds of our people and thousands of our brothers and sisters in Iraq."

At the time, I could not understand what famous American scholars and advocates of democracy, human rights and peace were thinking about such hypocrisy. In the name of democracy, human rights and America's position as a superpower, thousands of Iraqi children were killed. Old Iraqi women asked through their tears, "Is this democracy? Is this liberation? Is this peace?"

In 2006, a few years after our long, painful struggle achieved independence, a political and military crisis broke out in Timor Leste. Those responsible exploited internal dissatisfaction between "loro-monu" (western) and "loro-sae" (eastern) solders and officials of FDTL (East Timor Defense Force).

Earlier, most people from western Timor Leste favored integration with the invader, and most easterners wanted independence. This historical split was at play when eastern members of PNLT (Timor Leste National Police) were disarmed.

All easterners had to leave Dili as westerners ravaged the city with burning and stealing and then occupied the easterners' homes. Once again, thousands of people lost their homes in the name of peace and justice. For almost three years, they had to live in tents provided by the International Organization for Migration and other international agencies.

One westerner, Alfredo Reinado, rose up claiming he would restore peace and justice, but this false hero was killed on Feb. 11 as he tried to assassinate President José Manuel Ramos Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão. When the government denounced Reinado and his men as rebels, and ordered the capture of all other rebels, the westerners no longer recognized him as a "hero."

Timorese saw the Catholic Church in Timor Leste as a powerful moral force for mediation and reconciliation during the agony of Indonesian occupation. But from April 19 to May 7, 2005, amid all the uncertainty and the continuing search for a national identity, the Church chose to promote the largest demonstration in Timor Leste's history.

The demonstration was an emotional reaction to the government's plan to remove religion as a compulsory subject in the national curriculum, which was interpreted by the local Church leadership as an anti-Church move by the government.

For so many years, the local Church had shown patience, solidarity and a capacity to suffer silently with voiceless Timorese dramatically facing the torture, rape and genocide committed by Indonesian soldiers. So why did the Church after independence change its face so drastically? Was the new government more dangerous than the Indonesian regime? Was there a concordat between the Vatican and the Timor Leste government that had been broken?

The demonstration led by the Catholic Church did not aim to teach Timorese Catholics how to be good Christians and honest citizens. This fact is just what the rector-major of the Salesians in Rome said, in a letter prohibiting his confreres from joining that anti-government demonstration.

Bishop Carlos Belo, who headed the local Church from 1988 to 2002, did not comment publicly on the bishops of Dili and Baucau, who supported the famous demonstration. But he did note that since no Vatican-government concordat thus far had been signed, and no formal relations established, there was no justification for the bishops to call on all humble and devout people to demonstrate in Dili, and to blame and criticize their own leaders.

Even when democracy, human rights and harmony fail to exist, faithful people must cry out in the name of hope, "Bring American soldiers back from Iraq!" because they should not get killed, nor should they kill anyone else.

In the name of disarmament, we should also demand, "Dismantle the weapons of mass destruction in the hands of members of the United Nations Security Council." If they are genuinely committed to making the world free of such weapons, they must stop their hypocrisy and dismantle their own arsenal of nuclear weapons, which are the greatest threat to the planet.

In the name of nonviolence, we also must tell all Timorese, "Stop the illegal possession of guns and rediscover the path to peace."

Peaceful means are the only way to a peaceful future and the God of peace. Martin Luther King, Jr., Dorothy Day, Mahatma Gandhi and others have urged us to create a new world without war or nuclear weapons. The way to end terrorism is to end poverty, starvation, the degradation of the earth, the proliferation of weapons, and the existence of nuclear weapons.

We were created to be nonviolent with one another and with the earth, to receive the gift of peace from the God of peace and live in peace together.
This is no time for discouragement, despair or fear. We cannot give up! There's too much work to do.

Hipolito Aparicio, 48, was born in Timor Leste where he taught and directed Catholic schools for many years. More recently, he has served as a translator and been involved as manager of numerous NGO-sponsored projects.

Disputa por propriedades gera conflito no Timor Leste

Dili, 8 set (Lusa) - As disputas de propriedade são a principal causa de conflito entre os deslocados e as comunidades de origem, afirmou nesta segunda-feira à Agência Lusa o responsável do programa de diálogo do Governo do Timor Leste.

“A maior parte dos conflitos que surgem com o regresso de deslocados às casas que ocupavam antes da crise de 2006 tem origem na disputa sobre a propriedade das casas ou terrenos”, explicou Carlos Alberto de Araújo, coordenador das equipes de diálogo do Ministério da Solidariedade Social (MSS).

O novo programa de diálogo entre deslocados, comunidades, autoridades e agências humanitárias foi hoje apresentado em Dili pelo governo e pelo Programa das Nações Unidas para o Desenvolvimento (PNUD).

Nos últimos três meses, 117 situações de conflito foram resolvidas pelas equipas do MSS, salientou Carlos Alberto de Araújo.

A situação mais típica de conflito é uma família deslocada desde a crise de 2006 ser impedida de regressar à sua casa.

“Se a família que ocupa a casa fez obras ou melhoramentos, procuramos calcular um valor de indenização por esse trabalho. Se não houve obras nenhumas, o acordo mais normal é a família deslocada pagar duzentos dólares à família que ocupou a casa”, explicou Carlos Alberto de Araújo à Lusa.

Duzentos dólares é uma quantia superior ao ordenado médio mensal de um funcionário público ou de um empregado numa empresa privada.

Conforme frisou Maria Domingas Alves em entrevista à Lusa, há uma semana, “o processo de diálogo, inserido na estratégia do governo para resolver o problema dos deslocados, não pretende tocar na titularidade das casas”.

“Isso é um problema diferente, muito mais vasto, e que, se fosse incluído na estratégia atual, teria como conseqüência atrasar o retorno dos deslocados pelo menos mais um ano”, salientou a ministra da Solidariedade Social.

O princípio orientador do esvaziamento dos campos (havia 53 em Dili, dois anos depois da crise) é o regresso à situação de fato anterior à violência de abril e maio de 2006.

Seis equipes de diálogo entre deslocados e as comunidades estão no local há várias semanas, com 26 funcionários, atuando em todos os subdistritos de Dili exceto a Ilha de Ataúro (Dom Aleixo, Vera Cruz, Cristo-Rei, Metinaro e Nain Feto).

Começou também o processo de seleção das equipes de diálogo que atuarão em algumas zonas críticas de Baucau (leste) e Ermera (oeste).

A apresentação das equipes de diálogo aconteceu logo após uma cerimônia que marcou o início do retorno às comunidades de origem dos deslocados de Dom Bosco, um dos maiores campos da capital.

O início do esvaziamento do campo Dom Bosco foi marcado pelo protesto de um suposto grupo de jovens deslocados, que interpelaram Maria Domingas Alves e acusaram o MSS de “discriminação”.

O administrador do campo acusou os jovens de “nem sequer pertencerem ao Dom Bosco”.

O programa de diálogo do MSS é apoiado pelo PNUD e financiado pelas agências de cooperação da Austrália e Nova Zelândia, com um total de US$ 720 mil.

Até hoje, 6277 famílias regressaram às comunidades ou a alojamentos provisórios no âmbito da estratégia “Hamutuk Hari’i Futuru” (“Juntos Construindo o Futuro”) e “cerca de 24 campos foram encerrados”, afirmou Maria Domingas Alves.

Nota:

Desculpe?!

Ocupam a nossa casa. Provavelmente, estragam ou roubam os nossos bens. Além disso, fazem "melhoramentos" ou alterações sem a nossa autorização.

Somos indemnizados? Recebemos alguma compensação pela utilização abusiva e criminosa da nossa casa e dos nossos bens?

Não.

Ainda temos que pagar o favor de nos terem usado e destruído o que era nosso...

Só pode ser mais uma ideia idiota dos espertos de serviço...

Macau reforça autonomia ao servir de plataforma entre China e lusofonia - Moisés Fernandes

Macau, China, 08 Set (Lusa) - O papel de plataforma de Macau na ligação entre a China e os países de língua portuguesa contribui para o “reforço da autonomia” do território dentro da grande China, considerou o académico português Moisés Fernandes.

Em declarações à Agência Lusa, Moisés Fernandes, presidente do Instituto Confúcio e que hoje proferiu em Macau uma conferência sobre o papel do território como plataforma de ligação económica e comercial entre a China e a lusofonia, considerou que o trabalho do território lhe confere um maior peso na política chinesa.

“Este papel de ligação, que Macau já desempenhou no passado e que desapareceu com o fim do império português, permite ao território assumir um papel na política externa da China, centrada nos países de língua portuguesa”, disse.

E é nesse papel de ligação ao mercado externo, que Moisés Fernandes recordou não ser uma competência local, já que a diplomacia e a defesa estão a cargo do Governo Central, que está o reforço da autonomia “através da conquista de uma posição internacional”.

“Não sendo Macau uma praça financeira com a dimensão internacional de Hong Kong, ao desempenhar este papel de plataforma entre a China e os países de língua portuguesa, através do fórum, reforça o seu peso político quer interna quer externamente”, disse.

O académico considerou também que o fórum de Macau pode “ajudar a levar São Tomé e Príncipe para uma relação política com a China” já que aquele país africano, que mantém relações diplomáticas com Taiwan, é um observador do fórum de Macau e não está excluído da componente comercial da estratégia chinesa.

“Além de Angola, não podemos descurar que São Tomé e Príncipe e a Guiné-Bissau são também países onde existe petróleo”, afirmou.

Com um crescimento económico que Moisés Fernandes classificou de “avassalador”, a China precisa de recursos naturais que possui mas que “não são suficientes para o seu desenvolvimento”.

“Então compra ao exterior, aproveita Macau para a sua ligação com a lusofonia - principalmente o Brasil e África - e proporciona pacotes de ajuda excelentes como empréstimos a juros mais baixos e investimentos em infra-estruturas que em África são muito necessários”, explicou.

Sem estruturas no país que proporcionem a formação dos quadros necessários a dominarem o português e o chinês, a China recorre a Macau e dá à cidade a oportunidade de reassumir o seu papel de ponte.

“Ao contrário do espanhol, que é ensinado em 68 departamentos na China, o português só é ensinado em quatro universidades, o que não dá resposta às necessidades do Estado”, disse.

Moisés Fernandes considerou que “enquanto a China mantiver taxas de crescimentos elevados, o papel de Macau continuará a ser reforço enquanto plataforma”, mas haverá, na lusofonia, outras alianças que podem originar ganhos maiores.

“Em Angola, a China vai buscar petróleo, mas Angola é longe e os riscos de segurança do transporte do petróleo e a instabilidade política no percurso até à China são elevados e por isso Timor-Leste pode ser uma alternativa”, referiu.

O investigador acrescentou que está a ser trabalhada “uma convergência de agenda política entre Portugal, Indonésia, Malásia e a China para mitigar a hegemonia australiana em Timor-Leste, abrindo caminho a Pequim para aceder aos recursos naturais do país”.

“Não haverá nenhum acordo escrito mas uma convergência de agendas centrada nas questões económicas”, disse, salientando que este será um “trabalho de paciência” e que é feito com pequenos passos, como a abertura de escolas onde se pode aprender mandarim, como hoje acontece em Díli, e outros investimentos chineses que estão a ser realizados no país.

“Depois não nos podemos esquecer que a todos estes países interessa diminuir o peso australiano em Timor-Leste”, concluiu.



JCS.

Lusa/fim

GOVERNO ESPANHOL AJUDA CUBA APÓS FURACÃO GUSTAV

HAVANA, 5 SET (ANSA) - O governo espanhol enviou hoje um avião a Cuba com US$ 82 mil em ajuda para amenizar os danos provocados após a passagem do furacão Gustav. A ajuda se soma às contribuições da Rússia, China, Timor Leste e Cruz Vermelha.

A carga de 15 toneladas inclui geradores elétricos, material para abrigos, kits para higiene, mosquiteiros e depósitos de água, informou em um comunicado a embaixada da Espanha em Havana.
O envio de ajuda, procedente do Centro Logístico Humanitário de Cooperação Espanhola na América Latina, no Panamá, é conseqüência do acordo fechado durante a reunião da Comissão Mista de Cooperação entre Espanha e Cuba, revelou o comunicado.
"Temos escutado as necessidades e respondido com rapidez", disse aos jornalistas o embaixador espanhol em Cuba, Carlos Alonso, segundo publicou a agência cubana Prensa Latina.
Este é o primeiro de vários envios de ajuda, acrescentou o diplomata, que anunciou um programa de reconstrução de escolas na Ilha da Juventude.
A chegada da missão espanhola aconteceu um dia depois que dois aviões do governo russo aterrissaram carregados de tendas, materiais de construção, camas, cobertores e cabos elétricos, segundo afirmou Prensa Latina.
O governo chinês divulgou nesta sexta-feira a doação de US$ 300 mil, enquanto que a Cruz Vermelha da China entregará outros US$ 50 mil à sua correspondente no país, disseram fontes da embaixada cubana em Pequim, citadas pela Prensa Latina.

O governo do Timor Leste -- cujo presidente, José Ramos Horta, realiza nestes dias uma visita oficial a Cuba, onde hoje foi recebido pelo presidente Raúl Castro -- afirmou que vai doar US$ 500 mil.

Gustav, com ventos de até 340 km/hr, é considerado o furacão mais potente que passou por Cuba nos últimos 50 anos. Não provocou mortes, mas na Ilha da Juventude e em Pinar Del Rio destruiu mais de 100 mil habitações, escolas, hospitais, sistemas energéticos e telefônicos, e terras para cultivo. (ANSA)

Austrália se prejudica ao rejeitar timorenses, diz assessor

Dili, 4 set (Lusa) - A recusa da Austrália em criar programa para trabalhadores timorenses "fragiliza a segurança" do Timor Leste e "custará milhões" à economia australiana, afirmou nesta quinta-feira Kevin Austin, assessor de Desenvolvimento Humano e de Segurança de Dili.

Recentemente, o primeiro-ministro australiano, Kevin Rudd, rejeitou a criação de um programa de trabalho temporário que havia sido solicitado pelo premiê timorense, Xanana Gusmão.

Austin disse à Agência Lusa que a recusa do programa-piloto para trabalhadores "não responde às necessidades imediatas de mão-de-obra da Austrália nem à crise da juventude timorense”.

O governo timorense esperava ter assinado um acordo com a Austrália durante a visita oficial de Xanana Gusmão ao país, na semana passada. O anúncio da recusa australiana foi feito por Kevin Rudd após o encontro com o premiê - decisão que Austin considera, “no mínimo, mal informada”.

O programa-piloto, apresentado há três semanas ao governo australiano, pretendia responder a "uma escassez sem precedentes de mão-de-obra" no noroeste e norte da Austrália, em províncias com um crescimento econômico acelerado, explicou Kevin Austin à Lusa. A idéia era suprir a falta de trabalhadores para atividades como horticultura, turismo, saúde, reflorestamento, aqüicultura e infra-estrura.

Do lado timorense, o projeto seria uma oportunidade de emprego e formação profissional, desenvolvimento de capacidade industrial e redução da pobreza.

"Além da diplomacia, sei que o primeiro-ministro Xanana Gusmão, os ministros, o presidente [timorense, José Ramos-Horta], os parceiros da Austrália Ocidental, do Território do Norte e do Estado de Victória, e os governos locais e comunidades de acolhimento estão chocados e desiludidos" com a recusa de Rudd, afirmou Kevin Austin em comunicado divulgado em Dili nesta quinta.

Kevin Austin, que desde 1999 desempenhou várias funções no Timor Leste, representa atualmente a organização sem fins lucrativos Human Securities International (HSI).

Segundo o assessor, no início de 2008, a HSI colaborou com o governo timorense na identificação de "soluções práticas" para garantir a melhoria da segurança e ajudar a desenvolver "um país frágil, com uma 'bolha' de juventude em crescimento, desempregada e pobre".

Na última década, vários conflitos graves no Timor Leste foram provocados ou agravados pela existência dessa população "frustrada", "com uma paleta muito grande de inseguranças do ponto de vista humano que abrem a porta à manipulação por grupos políticos e criminosos", declarou Kevin Austin.

Vários países insulares do Pacífico participam de programas de trabalho sazonal na Austrália.

ONU quer polícia timorense responsável pela segurança do país em 2009

Publico.pt

Missão vai monitorizar a transição

04.09.2008 - 14h38 Lusa
A missão das Nações Unidas em Timor Leste espera que a força policial do país fique a cargo da segurança de Timor por volta de Maio de 2009. Este ano a ONU forneceu 1500 agentes para apoiar os 3000 polícias de Timor nas medidas de segurança e no treino policial.

“Vamos ficar juntos com a polícia timorense para acompanhar a transição e dar assistência durante o primeiro passo para a autonomia da polícia”, disse o comissário da middão da ONU Juan Carlos Arevalo, em Díli. A missão vai aconselhar, dar treino e monitorizar o comportamento das forças policiais timorenses, acrescentou o comissário.

Desde os confrontos de 2006 que a paz em Timor tem sido frágil. A 11 de Fevereiro de 2008, o presidente Ramos-Horta foi baleado e ferido gravemente quando estava em sua casa, em Díli. No mesmo dia o primeiro-ministro Xanana Gusmão foi também alvo de um disparo, mas escapou ileso.

O valor externo da Língua PortuguesaAgualusa no Parlamento Europeu

NOTA DE IMPRENSA

Gabinete do Dep. José RIBEIRO E CASTRODelegação do CDS/Partido Popular no Parlamento Europeu

O escritor angolano José Eduardo Agualusa é o convidado de honra do eurodeputado José Ribeiro e Castro no debate que este organiza, na próxima semana, no Parlamento Europeu, em Bruxelas, sob o título “África, Brasil e a Língua Portuguesa”.

A sessão, marcada para a próxima quinta-feira, 11 de Setembro, pelas 10:00 horas, insere-se no contexto da Semana Africana que o Parlamento Europeu realiza entre 8 e 12 de Setembro, em Bruxelas e conta com o patrocínio do grupo PPE/DE.

Recorda-se que Ribeiro e Castro contribuiu para introduzir no debate das instituições europeias sobre o multilinguismo o conceito de Línguas Europeias Globais, de que o português é a terceira em número de falantes a nível mundial, à frente do francês.

Nesse mesmo contexto, o deputado democrata-cristão tem defendido persistentemente o conceito “o Português, língua da Europa”, procurando salvaguardar e valorizar, no quadro da União Europeia, o estatuto da língua portuguesa enquanto língua de comunicação universal. Depois de um primeiro êxito pontual em 2003, importantes emendas acrescentadas, em 2006, por proposta do deputado democrata-cristão, ao relatório parlamentar sobre “a estratégia europeia no multilinguismo”, abriram novas portas nessa direcção, decorrendo, nesta altura, um diálogo político com a Comissão Europeia, que procura alcançar o reconhecimento expresso da mais-valia específica das Línguas Europeias Globais, entre as quais o português.

A sessão do próximo dia 11 de Setembro visa aprofundar esse conhecimento no quadro das instituições europeias, pondo em evidência as virtualidades próprias da Língua Portuguesa enquanto língua comum partilhada com o Brasil e vários países de África.

Além de José Eduardo Agualusa, participam como oradores convidados Eddy Stols, professor catedrático da Universidade de Lovaina, e Harrie Lemmens, tradutor profissional. O professor Eddy Stols é um apaixonado da cultura luso-brasileira e um profundo conhecedor dos seus traços, enquanto Harrie Lemmens tem divulgado autores de língua portuguesa nos espaços flamengo e holandês.

Para mais informações:Gabinete do Deputado José RIBEIRO E CASTRO

Tel.: +32 (2) 2847783Fax: +32 (2) 2849783Email: jose.ribeiroecastro-assistant@europarl.europa.eu Portal: www.ribeiroecastro.eu

East Timor: Who shot J R Horta?

By Simon Roughneen

Asia Times 4.9.08

DILI - East Timor's post-independence politics have confounded outside observers, and for the most part the Timorese themselves. Simultaneously transparent and opaque, what was thought to be a mono-cultural, impoverished, Western-backed, state-building poster-child has morphed into a divided half-island, with obscure tribal-linguistic rivalries once considered dormant since stirred by political rivalries and manifested in quasi-mysterious gangs.

The Timorese political elite remain at odds along familiar regime lines, demarcations so old that these rivalries were, broadly speaking, established when Richard Nixon was still in the White House and more sharply honed in the 1980s - when soap operaaddicts spent months wondering who shot J R Ewing, the fictional Texan oil mogul in Dallas.

But East Timor may now have its own Watergate, or at least a watershed political moment depending on which version of the events of February 11 finally emerges as the truth. That day, Dili's usual idyllic dawn was shattered by shots ringing out along the seaside valleys just a few miles east of the city, close to the white sand beaches favored by Timor's affluent expatriate community.

In what was regarded as either failed assassination attempts on President Jose Ramos-Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, or perhaps instead a meeting-gone-awry between Ramos-Horta and former Timorese soldier Alfredo Reinado, the shoot-outs put the president in the hospital for two months and left rebel leader-cum-assassin Reinado in an early grave.

Reinado led the Petitioners, a group of disenchanted soldiers from the western half of the country who felt discriminated against by army top brass from the country's eastern regions. Prior to being dismissed from the armed services, he was pivotal in a chain of violent events in 2006 that led to over 100,000 Timorese being driven from their homes and the resignation of then-prime minister Mari Alkatiri. The army split, the police force disintegrated and Reinado took to the hills.

Some of Reinado's colleagues that fateful February morning have offered confusing and contradictory versions of what led up to the incident and what finally happened when their flamboyant front man died. Ramos-Horta himself has revised his initial recollection - that one of the rebels, Marcel Caetano, fired the bullets that almost killed him - after visiting the imprisoned would-be assassin in Dili's Becora jailhouse.

So who really shot Ramos-Horta and why? Considering the political machinations that preceded the shootings, it now seems unlikely it was Reinado who pulled the trigger. Ramos-Horta had repeatedly offered olive branches to the flashy rent-a-quote rebel, who had been dismissed by the Australian-led international forces and the ruling Parliamentary Majority Alliance (AMP) coalition headed by Ramos-Horta's ally Gusmao, as a de facto criminal with no political status.

Another rumor doing the rounds was that, behind the scenes, Ramos-Horta had given up on the recalcitrant fugitive and that Reinado had set out in a huff for Dili to confront the president. That would have been suicidal unless it was followed by a coup attempt, hence the apparent simultaneous hit on Gusmao led by Gastinho Salsinha, Reinado's deputy. However, that too now seems unlikely given the lack of men and hardware at Reinado's disposal that morning.

In any case, Ramos-Horta survived, Reinado died, and the political fallout was until now minimal. That was until The Australian newspaper revealed it had reviewed the top-secret report drafted by Muhumad Nurul Islam, Timor's leading forensic pathologist, saying it indicated that Reinado and his sidekick Leopoldinho Exposto were shot at close or point-blank range in an execution style that does not tally with the prevailing shoot-out version of events - namely, that Reinado was taken out at a range of 10 meters or so by one of Ramos-Horta's snipers.

Nurul reported that Reinado had blackening and burning around each of his four bullet wounds and said he had been shot with a high-velocity rifle "at close range". Nurul added that Exposto was shot squarely in the back of his head, also at close range. David Ranson from the Victoria Institute of Forensics was quoted by The Australian saying that the blackening and burning mentioned in Nurul's report only appears when a gun is fired at almost point-blank range.

Ramos-Horta later raged in a Timorese newspaper against The Australian newspaper and the forensic scientists that the newspaper consulted. Attorney General Longinus Montero disputed The Australian version of events, telling reporters in Dili that "It's not right, that information isn't right. The case is still under investigation." He added that the results could not yet be made public.

Apart from the apparent contradictions, much of what apparently transpired on February 11 seems strange. Most glaring was why, with gunfire ringing around his house, Ramos-Horta returned home, or more to the point, why his security detail let him do so. Much has been made of the delay in the army and police response to the shooting, and it appears that Reinado's body was moved around the crime scene, and that police present even answered his mobile phone as he lay dead.

Confusion and conspiracy
Some of Timor's other political grandees appear set to capitalize on the confusion. Mario Carrascalao, a key member of the ruling coalition, said on August 17 that "we still don't know what happened". "For me, all the stories that have been told here - I don't trust them," he said. He called for the immediate release of the prosecutor-general's report into the attacks and the establishment of an independent inquiry into "what happened and more importantly why it happened".

Prime Minister Gusmao has so far resisted calls for any independent inquiry. Before the February shootings, Ramos-Horta's house stood alone at the corner of the route heading uphill from Dili and east to Timor's second city Baucau, no more than a few feet from the roadside, and with some of the gardens easily visible from inside cars and trucks winding uphill to breathtaking views of the Wetar Strait.

The standard version of events, summed up by James Dunn in a paper written for the Australian Human rights Council, took a best-case view that Reinado did not actually intend to kill Ramos-Horta during the fateful encounter: "Almost certainly it was a botched attempt by the rebel leader, Alfredo Reinado, to corner the president and seek further assurances that the proposed surrender conditions, culminating in his pardon, would in fact be carried out."

The report continued: "The plan went tragically wrong because Reinado's target was not there. The President was not at home, but out on a very early beach walk. Reinado's men disarmed the guards and occupied the residence grounds, but two soldiers turned up unexpectedly and shot Reinado and one of his men at what was apparently point blank range. Hearing the shooting, Ramos-Horta hurried back to the residence where he was shot by one of Reinado's men, a rebel enraged at the killing of their leader. It is likely that this angry reaction caused another rebel party to fire on Prime Minister Xanana some time later."

Still, the rumor mill went into overdrive after the shootings. Questions have arisen about the provenance of a US$700,000 bank account in Australia that Reinado allegedly had access to. Other sketchy details surround the links between the rebels and Joao Tavares, who was once described by the UN as the top militia commander in East Timor in 1999. Three rebels were arrested in April in Indonesia-ruled West Timor while staying at his personal residence.

Reinado had a fake Indonesian identification on his person when shot and, bizarrely, Ramos-Horta later railed against Desi Anwar, a well-known Indonesian broadcast journalist who interviewed the fugitive in Indonesia in 2007, for facilitating Reinado's clandestine cross-border travels. In January, an obscure group linked to Reinado known as the Movement for National Unity and Justice (MUNJ) withdrew from moribund talks between the government and the rebels, a failure that Ramos-Horta and Gusmao blamed on Reinado's girlfriend, Angie Pires.

Depending on which rebel account you believe, however, MUNJ representatives were with Reinado right up to February 10, allegedly supplying the vehicles that took the rebels to the capital's outskirts the day of the reputed assassination attempAnother notable and as-yet-unexplained detail emerged from a contact number found on the dead Reinado's mobile phone under the name "Hercul". That's led some to believe the Jakarta-based, Timor-born Hercules Rozario Marca was in contact with Reinado prior to the events at Ramos-Horta's residence. Weeks later two of the rebels linked to Reinado were arrested at Marca's home.

Marca visited Dili in late January and met with Reinado, according to Gusmao's AMP coalition partner and former East Timor governor Mario Carrascalao. During his January visit, Marca also reportedly discussed investment opportunities with various Timorese officials, including both Ramos-Horta and Gusmao, according to the Sun Herald.

With government approval, Marca is now primed to invest in a new swimming pool along Dili's docklands, across from the Parliament House, a remarkable rehabilitation for a man that once allegedly provided muscle to Jakarta's attempts to cow East Timor's independence activists. He has joined other former Jakarta businessmen once linked to Indonesian strongman Suharto who are now cutting government-brokered business deals in Dili, including one for a new casino.

Some say it is no coincidence that those deals were completed around the time an Indonesian-Timorese Commission fudged issues of justice and accountability for crimes committed during Jakarta's brutal quarter-century occupation of the former Portuguese colony, to the chagrin of many Timorese.

The Commission on Truth and Friendship (CTF) was established in 2005 by the Timorese and Indonesian governments to examine violence perpetrated by Jakarta's troops and its Timorese proxies during the 1999 violence that marred the vote for independence from Indonesia.

However, the CTF had no powers to prosecute, prompting criticism that it served to whitewash atrocities. Its final report, issued on July 15, concluded that Indonesia also had responsibility for gross human rights violations, such as murder, rape, torture, illegal detention and forced mass deportations, that were committed by militias with the support and participation of Indonesian institutions and their members.

While Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono expressed his "deepest regret" for the victims, he quickly dismissed the notion that those responsible should be brought to justice.

After the April shooting, before being released from hospital, Ramos-Horta said Indonesian officers should "come clean" and acknowledge their responsibility for 1999 violence, and that both countries would need to read the commission's report calmly and "see whether we need to take further steps to address the events of 1999".

Earlier, the apparently traumatized Ramos-Horta had visions of a crowd trying to suffocate him, and separately he alleged Indonesian involvement in the assassination attempt on his life. Yudhoyono rebuked that claim, and by the time the CTF report came out Ramos-Horta had completely changed his tune, saying that the victims' legacy would be used to build stronger links between the two countries and that Timor would not be seeking an international tribunal to try those responsible. He was joined by Gusmao in declaring, "We are determined to bring a closure to a chapter of our recent past."

Dormant lightning rod
Reinado's cult-like status led some to fear he could be seen as a martyr and his death become a lightening rod for political discontent. An Australian-led attempt to apprehend him at his southern redoubt in Same in 2007 led to riots in Dili, as his supporters torched buildings and cars. But Reinado's cause seemed to die with its leader, at least in the public eye, although the east-west regional divide inside the Timorese army that prompted Reinado to rebel in the first place remains unsolved.

With illiteracy rates at 60% and child malnutrition 40%, many people are wondering when Timor's some $3 billion in oil revenues, accrued since the establishment of a national petroleum fund in 2005, will start to filter down to the impoverished grassroots. East Timor is listed by the UN as the poorest country per capita in the Asia-Pacific region. More political strife means that potentially lucrative tourism from Australia seems unlikely to take off anytime soon, despite Timor being a closer, cleaner and relatively untouched alternative to Bali, a line Gusmao peddled while on an official visit to Australia last week.

Instead, soaring food and fuel prices are making life even harder for Timor's poor. An official move to give 100,000 hectares of land to the production of bio-fuel crops in a furtive deal with the Indonesian company GT Leste Biotech irked many, not least because it was brokered in January but did not become public until June. That controversial deal with the island state's former occupier was followed by the arrest of around 60 students protesting a decision to buy cars for each of the Timor government's 65 MPs.

The run of government slip-ups only adds to the growing divide between East Timor's politicians and its people, particularly among the restless and unemployed youth. How more contradictory versions of Ramos-Horta's shooting will affect perceptions remains to be seen and reactions will be hard to predict.

Timor has confounded outside observers since independence, with few anticipating the 2006 security meltdown, for example, and others following up with doomsday predictions for the 2007 elections, which in actuality passed off peacefully. What is clear, however, is that since Reinado's demise and the dissolution of his rebellion, the 100,000 internally displaced people have started to return home.

Yet Timor's political top brass have seen their popularity steadily decline in the years since independence. Ramos-Horta attributed Gusmao's disappointing showing in the 2007 parliamentary elections as due to the former fighters "losing touch with the people". FRETILIN, the socialists now in opposition and who were at odds with Gusmao since the early days of Indonesian occupation, saw their vote halved in the same 2007 vote.

Months before the disputed shoot-out, Ramos-Horta did much better in securing around 70% of the votes in the second presidential poll, albeit in a straight run-off against a weak FRETILIN candidate. Now military roadblocks mark the road on both sides of the once-popular president's home, where before the February shootout the Nobel Peace Prize laureate often went for his early morning jog greeting fishermen and bar owners with an easy and secure familiarity.

Simon Roughneen is a roving freelance journalist. He has reported from Africa, Southeast Asia the Middle East and Pakistan.

President of East Timor Arrives in Cuba on Wednesday

HAVANA, Cuba, Sept 3 (acn) The president of East Timor, Jose Ramos Horta, arrives in Cuba on Wednesday for an official visit at the invitation of his Cuban counterpart, Raul Castro.
Cuban News Agency

According to a note published on Granma news daily, the visit will contribute to strengthening the existing fraternal and cooperation ties between the two countries.

Currently, 231 Cuban doctors and other health professionals are working in Timor-Leste, 36 professors serve as advisors to that country’s literacy campaign, and nearly 700 Timor-Leste young people are studying medicine in Cuba.

During his stay in Cuba, Ramos Horta will hold official talks with Raul Castro and with other government authorities. He will also visit places of economic and historic interest.

Ramos Horta, 58, was the permanent representative to the United Nations of the East Timor independence movement from 1975-1999. He was elected president in 2007. In 1996 he received the Nobel Peace Prize along with Bishop Carlos Belo, an East Timor religious leader.

East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, became the first new sovereign state of the 21st century in 2002. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor and is located about 640 km (400 miles) northwest of Darwin, Australia.

Leaked autopsy report shows alleged “coup” leader Reinado shot at point-blank range

World Socialist Web Site
WSWS : News & Analysis : Asia : East Timor


By Patrick O’Connor
2 September 2008

Two leaked autopsy reports—which have been published in full on the Wikileaks web site—definitively refute the official version of the events of February 11 in East Timor, according to which former major Alfredo Reinado had engaged in a shoot-out with President Jose Ramos Horta’s security forces while attempting to storm the president’s residence. This was supposedly part of either a coup attempt or planned assassination of both Ramos Horta and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao. The available evidence now strongly points to the likelihood—raised by the World Socialist Web Site from the very outset—that Reinado was set up and lured to Dili in order to be murdered.

Reinado’s autopsy report indicates that he died after being shot through the eye at near point-blank range. According to a forensic expert consulted by the Australian newspaper, the autopsy’s finding of “burning/blackening of the surrounding skin” to each of Reinado’s four wounds (to the eye, chest, neck, and hand) means that he must have been shot from a range of less than 30 centimetres. The report on Reinado’s colleague Leopoldino Exposto found that he was killed by a single gunshot to the back of the head, also by a “high-velocity rifle fired at close range”.

Reinado and his men were heavily armed when they entered Ramos Horta’s house in the early morning of February 11. The autopsies reported that Reinado was wearing a green vest with 12 magazines containing a total of “347 live ammunitions” in the pockets. Exposto had one magazine with 39 live ammunitions in his vest, as well as a bag with another 98 live ammunitions. It is inconceivable that Reinado—who had received militarily training in Australia—could have led his men into a hostile operation against Ramos Horta but was then somehow shot at point-blank range while not a single presidential guard was wounded.

Reinado’s men, who have since been arrested, have all sworn that they understood that they had an appointment to meet with the president. Several civilian witnesses have now backed this testimony.

For months after the former major’s killing and Ramos Horta’s wounding the Australian press echoed the official line presented by both the Timorese and Australian governments. Deeply sceptical statements issued by a number of senior political figures in Dili went unreported, most notably those of Fretilin leader and former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, who declared he had photographic proof that the alleged attack on Gusmao’s vehicle had been staged.

The official version of events is now so implausible and discredited that even the Australian media feel obligated to change tack.

After reviewing the autopsy evidence, the Australian’s Paul Toohey concluded on August 13: “What is certain is that the events inside the villa that morning are not as clear as previously presented, and may have involved Reinado and Exposto either walking into a trap or being held at close quarters before being shot.” A later article in the same newspaper added: “Many East Timorese believe the whole thing was a set-up; that rebel leader Alfredo Reinado was invited down to Dili to be killed, to end the two-year stand-off in which he and his rebel band remained armed and roaming the hills in the country’s west.”

An article published in the Fairfax press on August 19 cast serious doubt on the earlier allegation that one of Reinado’s men, Marcel Caetano, had shot President Ramos Horta. “Investigators now believe the shooter was wearing a different uniform from that of Reinado’s men—a uniform gang members used to wear,” the story revealed. “The revelation will fuel fresh speculation in Dili that Reinado was lured to Mr Ramos Horta’s house, where gunmen were waiting.”

The series of leaked evidence and news reports that has emerged in the past fortnight raise the obvious question: if, as appears increasingly certain, Reinado was lured to Ramos Horta’s residence to be killed, who set him up and why? But this question has not been raised by any section of the Australian media. Even more astonishingly, not a single question about the events of February 11 and their aftermath was put to either Gusmao or Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd during a joint press conference they held in Canberra last Monday.

Gusmao and the 2006 crisis

The new evidence points to the possibility that Prime Minister Gusmao, or forces closely aligned with him, were responsible for setting up Reinado’s assassination. There is no question that he was among those with the most to gain from Reinado’s death.

Just weeks before his death, the former major released a statement accusing Gusmao of directly instigating the 2006 split in the Timorese military which precipitated widespread violence and culminated in the deployment of hundreds of Australian troops, followed by the resignation of Fretilin Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.

There was already substantial evidence pointing to Gusmao’s provocative role in the 2006 crisis. Reinado’s statement, however, indicated that the prime minister had not merely exploited the military split for his own ends but had actively worked to provoke the violence in order to bring down the Fretilin administration. The widely circulated DVD in which these allegations were made also included Reinado’s threat to reveal more information about Gusmao’s actions.
Reinado was killed before he had the opportunity to release further information. But even his initial allegations had seriously destabilised Gusmao’s already unstable coalition government.
By early February, President Ramos Horta had publicly indicated that he agreed with Fretilin’s demand for fresh elections and the formation of a new administration. In a meeting held in Dili on February 7—just four days before Reinado was shot dead—Ramos Horta convened a meeting of Fretilin and government parliamentarians to try to reach an agreement for new elections.

With Gusmao strongly opposed and insisting that his government could continue to govern, the meeting ended inconclusively. Further meetings were planned but never held, due to the February 11 violence, after which Gusmao announced a “state of siege” and claimed emergency authoritarian powers.

Ramos Horta’s apparent rapprochement with Fretilin and moves against Gusmao coincided with the president’s attempts to finalise a “surrender” deal with Reinado. The president met with the “rebel” soldier on January 13 and offered to amnesty the murder charges against Reinado (stemming from his 2006 attacks on government forces) if he first disarmed and submitted to house arrest. These negotiations again point to the absence of any logical motive for Reinado to lead an armed attack against Ramos Horta.

Investigation blocked, evidence corrupted

In the aftermath of the February 11 events, Prime Minister Gusmao has blocked the formation of an international inquiry, despite the Timorese parliament demanding one. As a result, the sole investigation underway is headed by the country’s prosecutor-general, Longuinhos Monteiro, who has little credibility in Dili. An earlier UN report into the 2006 crisis accused Monteiro of blindly following Gusmao and concluded that he did not “function independently from the state of East Timor”.

According to a leaked UN report on Monteiro’s investigation into Reinado’s death and Ramos Horta’s wounding, the National Investigation Department has been subjected to “political and military interference” and a lack of cooperation. An Associated Press report added: “Poor handling of evidence—including the weapons used by the rebels—has also botched the investigation. A source close to the investigation said the F-FDTL [Timorese Defence Force] soldiers guarding the president’s home took Reinado’s cell phone off his body, and continued to receive and make calls for days after his death, before handing it over to investigators.”

This corruption of critical evidence, combined with Gusmao’s veto of an international investigation, may result in the exact course of events leading up to Reinado’s death and Ramos Horta’s wounding never being known. Monteiro’s final report will likely be a whitewash.

Serious questions have been raised by Portuguese journalist Felícia Cabrita about Albino Assis, one of Ramos Horta’s military security personnel. In a report published in the weekly Sol newspaper in March, Cabrita suggested that Assis betrayed both Reinado and Ramos Horta.

Phone records indicate that Assis and Reinado had maintained frequent contact in the period leading up to the February 11 violence. The Portuguese report also alleged that Assis contacted Salsinha, leader of the mutinous military “petitioners”, and told him that Reinado had been killed and Ramos Horta badly wounded. Salsinha had travelled from the western districts with Reinado but, instead of going with him to visit Ramos Horta, had waited near Gusmao’s residence. Why did Assis tell Salsinha what had happened? Did Ramos Horta’s guard know in advance that the petitioners’ leader had come to Dili with Reinado? The many unanswered questions only add to the uncertainty about what really happened in relation to the alleged attack on Gusmao’s vehicle convoy which followed the shootings at Ramos Horta’s home.

Suspicion has also fallen on the Indonesian-based Hercules Rozario Marcal, who visited Dili just days before February 11. “Hercules was born in East Timor and gained notoriety in Jakarta in the 1990s as a gangster running protection rackets,” Melbourne’s Age reported. “His gang also served as enforcers for the Suharto regime, intimidating dissidents and East Timorese independence activists. His military patrons were reputed to include the then general Prabowo Subianto, Suharto’s son-in-law. At one stage he lived in the Jakarta house of Major-General Zacky Anwar Makarim, who in 2003 was indicted by a UN war crimes tribunal for crimes against humanity.”

Timorese investigators have reportedly established that Hercules contacted and may have met Reinado. His contact number was also found stored in Reinado’s mobile phone. On January 21, just three weeks before Reinado was killed, Hercules met with Gusmao, ostensibly as part of an Indonesian business delegation investigating hotel and housing investment opportunities. In an extraordinary move, the Gusmao government announced earlier this month that it was awarding Hercules a contract to build a mini-mart and swimming pool on the site of a refugee camp in central Dili—despite the gangster reportedly being under investigation for his potential involvement in Ramos Horta and Reinado’s shooting.

Australian forces stood down?

There remain a number of outstanding questions regarding the Australian government and military’s murky relations with Reinado, going back to his role in the 2006 crisis. (See “East Timor: Hunt for ‘rebel’ military leader called off”)

In the weeks leading up to February 11, Reinado and the Australian military, using Angelita Pires as a go-between, informed each other about their respective movements in order to avoid any unexpected encounters in the jungle of Timor’s western districts. In addition, it is now also known that at least one senior Australian military figure was directly involved in the negotiations between Ramos Horta and Reinado in January. According to an August 22 article in the Australian, Major Michael Stone accompanied the president to the January 13 meeting in the western town of Maubisse. Stone was appointed Ramos Horta’s military affairs adviser in late 2007 after being granted a two-year release from his Australian Army duties.

There can be no doubt that Australian intelligence would have had the former major under close surveillance up to and on February 11. Similarly, it is highly unlikely that Reinado’s many phone calls and text messages sent from his mobile phone—including calls made to and received from Australia—would not have been intercepted.

How then were Reinado and his men able to drive from the Ermera district, south-west of the capital, through the capital and straight into Ramos Horta’s residence without being detected by anyone, including the hundreds of Australian and New Zealand troops in the country? With twelve heavily armed men accompanying Reinado in two vehicles, and another ten with Salsinha in two other vehicles, it was hardly an inconspicuous convoy. In addition, Reinado’s men have told the media that they drove slowly to avoid being early for what they believed was a 6 a.m. appointment to meet the president. “The rebels point out they dawdled on the way to Dili, stopping in places to kill time to arrive at the appointed hour,” the Australian reported.

The day after the February 11 attacks, East Timor’s army chief Taur Matan Ruak expressed his concern: “Given the high number of international forces present in East Timor, in particular within the capital, how is it possible that vehicles transporting armed people have entered the city and executed an approach to the residences of the president and the prime minister without having been detected? There has been a lack of capacity shown by the international forces, who have primary responsibility for the security within East Timor, to foresee, react and prevent these events.”

Ramos Horta later made similar comments: “I didn’t see any ISF [Australian-led International Stabilisation Force] elements or UNPOL [police] in the area ... normally they are supposed to show up instantly, and in this case of extreme gravity they would normally seal off the entire area, blocking the exit route of the attackers. That didn’t happen. As far as I know, no hostile pursuit of the attackers was made for several days. How did Mr Alfredo Reinado happen to be totally undetected in Dili when the ISF was supposed to be keeping an eye on his movements?”

The circumstances of Reinado’s death raise the question as to whether Australian forces were deliberately stood down on February 11.

Such an act would in no way be inconsistent with Canberra’s filthy record in East Timor. In 1975 the Whitlam Labor government encouraged the Indonesian military junta to invade and annexe the former Portuguese colony; the Hawke-Keating Labor government later finalised an agreement with the military dictator Suharto for the illegal exploitation of the billion dollar oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea. In 1999 the Howard Liberal government dispatched hundreds of troops in order to protect the Australian ruling elite’s vital interests in the tiny half-island, and oversee its transition to so-called independence amid the collapse of the Suharto regime.

The precise role played by Australian forces in the 2006 military split and subsequent violence is yet to be determined. There is no doubt, however, that the Howard government manipulated the unrest to send in the troops and then engineer a “regime change” commensurate with its strategic and financial interests. The Alkatiri administration was regarded as too close to rival powers, particularly Portugal and China, and had proved unwilling to fully accommodate Canberra’s demands during negotiations over the allocation of the Timor Sea’s oil and gas.

Having expended substantial efforts resources in ousting Alkatiri, the Australian government would have viewed with alarm President Ramos Horta’s apparent readiness to back the dissolution of the Gusmao government, potentially facilitating Alkatiri’s return to power. Amid escalating hostility among ordinary Timorese towards Australia’s military presence, this would have marked a major setback, with potential geo-strategic consequences beyond Timor’s borders. China’s rising influence is creating serious concerns within the Australian foreign policy establishment that Canberra’s hegemony in the South Pacific is being fatally undermined. It is this, above all, that has led to a series of Australian-led police and military operations throughout the region in recent years, including in East Timor.