E Timor calls for Aussies to stay

The Australian

Simon Kearney
October 11, 2006

EAST Timor will push for Australian troops to stay in the country in anticipation of the UN rejecting calls for a peacekeeping force.
The nation's new Prime Minister, Jose Ramos Horta, said the UN security operations had left the world body "over-stretched".

"If we have such a good arrangement, why should we change?" he said.

Dr Ramos Horta said the position had the backing of East Timorese President Xanana Gusmao and former prime minister Mari Alkatiri.

He said Australia and New Zealand would not have to take such a heavy load if Asia had a regional group such as the African Union, which was providing troops for peacekeeping missions in Africa.

Having spent 100 days in office, Dr Ramos Horta criticised the UN for leaving East Timor in 2002.

He used the example of a friend in Sydney who told him it took three to five years to establish a small business.

"They think you can build a nation in two years," he said.

"The Security Council think it is easier to have a functioning nation started than a Chinese restaurant."

In a wide-ranging speech for the inaugural Hal Wootten lecture at the University of NSW, Dr Ramos Horta said East Timor could not afford its complex tax system when it could not supply street lights in the capital, Dili.

"I want more or less most taxes in Timor Leste to be eliminated," Dr Horta said, but he did not go into detail.

Meetings with a team from the International Monetary Fund to plan the new tax system were expected to be held soon.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate talked freely about his country's problems, saying a civil war had only narrowly been avoided during an outbreak of violence in the capital in April.

"We were on the verge of civil war. All the elements were there," he said.

Dr Ramos Horta recently met some of the rebel soldiers who plunged his country into chaos when they fled the capital and took to the hills, citing problems with the military hierarchy.

He said he explained to them that just as he had learned to forgive people who had ignored and insulted him during his fight to win East Timor's independence from Indonesia, they would have to forgive those they had grievances with in the military.

"I do not think back on what was done to me or to us," he said. "If we can reconcile with them then why don't you? They looked down and were silent ... it must have made an impact."

Dr Ramos Horta said there had been a lessening of tension in East Timor and there were signs of an "outbreak of talks".

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