The Age - October 12, 2006
Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin
THE influential International Crisis Group has warned that East Timor's crisis is far from over and suggests the country's President and independence hero, Xanana Gusmao, should consider quitting politics.
The group also warns that the report of a United Nations inquiry into violence in the capital, Dili, in April and May will be "explosive" and says Australian and other international security forces in the country should be ready for new protests and demonstrations.
The ruling Fretilin party yesterday called on the UN to immediately release the report, saying delays are fuelling rumours, unrest and violence in the country. Security forces are struggling to contain violence that turns Dili into a ghost town at night and is preventing more than 70,000 people in refugee camps from returning home.
The Brussels-based International Crisis Group says Mr Gusmao and deposed prime minister Mari Alkatiri "may need to think the unthinkable" and forgo any role in national elections scheduled to be held in April or May next year so that "new leaders can emerge".
"Alkatiri's defiant stance, before and after he resigned, and Xanana's polarising speeches, however accurate their content, have made a bad situation worse," the group says.
Its report quotes an unnamed Timorese leader as saying "we may have to sacrifice some of our heroes" to save the country from bloodshed.
Open criticism of Mr Gusmao, the charismatic former guerilla fighter who spent years in Indonesian jails, is rare in East Timor, where he is regarded as the country's most popular and influential figure.
The crisis group, led by former Australian foreign minister Gareth Evans, says the roots of the crisis lie partly in battles and betrayals that occurred within Fretilin just before and during Indonesia's occupation of the half-island territory.
These disputes, particularly between Mr Gusmao and Fretilin central committee members, carried over into the government that was formed after East Timor won independence in 2002, the report says.
Mr Gusmao, Mr Alkatiri and armed forces commander Taur Matan Ruak "hold the keys to resolving the impasse at the top", it says.
It is unlikely foreign aid will achieve much unless Mr Gusmao and Mr Alkatiri are "willing to get past mutual distrust and discuss" how to overcome the security forces' polarisation and heal an east-west divide, according to the report.
The crisis group's recommendations include that the Government and UN review the country's security forces to clarify the roles of the defence force and police. It also urges creation of a jobs corps for urban youth, starting in Dili, where hundreds of jobless youths are members of gangs.
The group says East Timor's worst crisis in its short history "is far from over" as the country awaits release of the UN report.
A UN spokesman said no arrangements had been made for releasing the report, which The Age believes blames senior political and security force figures for the violence and recommends some face criminal charges.
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quinta-feira, outubro 12, 2006
Timor leader told to stand down
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3 comentários:
Lindsay Murdoch, Darwin
Mr Gusmao, the charismatic former guerilla fighter independence hero.
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He is your charismatic and your hero but not for Eat Timor people.
Do you know how many guerilla fighters were killed by his order during the indonesia occupation?incluided my cousin.
haha Lindsay what you know about him after he was capture but you don't his past.
Oh Ms Jones!!! How can you get it so worng? Well I guess its the bunch of people you hang around... Aderito de Jesus for example who is anti-Alaktiri as he is part of the Fretilin "Change group". but you did get it worng....so wromg...how about an apology to TMR? See below:
On the Asia Report N°120 released on 10 October 2006
To Ms. Sydney Jones
ICG South East Asia Project Director
Jakarta, Indonesia
sjones@crisisgroup.org
CC: Robert Templer
ICG Director of Asia Program
New York NY, U.S.
rtempler@icg.org
Dear Ms Jones,
My name is Paula Pinto and we spoke a number of times on the phone, back in 1999, when I was working for Xanana Gusmao in the Jakarta and, later, in the Darwin and the Dili CNRT Offices. Our conversations then were mostly on some of the cases of disappeared resistance members which you were investigating at the time, namely Mau Hodu. The reason for my writing to you lies in the misinterpretations and erroneous information given in the ICG report (Resolving Timor-Leste’s Crisis, Asia Report N°120, 10 October 2006), namely on two specific issues which regard my private life.
I have just read the report and was flabbergasted to read some of the comments made to argue maneuvering by former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri and Fretilin (quote) to make its influence felt within F-FDTL (end of quote) namely, as mentioned in footnote # 36, (quote) that Alkatiri was trying to plant a close associate nearby to get Matan Ruak on his side (end of quote) referring to the fact that (quote) Roque Rodrigues, lived at Taur’s house for two years (end of quote).
I have no idea of who the sources of the 'Crisis Group interviews in Dili, September 2006' (source quoted in footnote #36) may be. However, since I am married to Roque Rodrigues and lived in Taur Matan Ruak's house too, I have the duty to clarify, bring out the truth on something which is being used as an argument in the Report, which is utterly and shockingly untrue and request that it be corrected.
In late 1999, UNTAET decided to allocate a house in Dili for then CNRT President Xanana Gusmao - at the time living in a house in Lecidere, almost next door to Turismo Hotel. The President decided to hand over the house to Taur Matan Ruak. At the time, Taur Matan Ruak was single and felt the house was far too big for him to live there alone and it would be most unfair to occupy such a house as a single person. He asked me if Roque and I would like to move in and share the house with him. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that, at the time of this conversation between Taur Matan Ruak and myself , Roque Rodrigues, Mari Alkatiri and Ramos-Horta were not even in the country yet!
We moved into the house in November 2000 (it took a while to refurbish the destroyed facilities) and stayed there until the 24 of May this year, when the house was attacked. So, it was not for 2 years as mentioned in the report (but rather almost 6 years!) in an attempt to raise the impression that our moving in to share the house was a planned political move by former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri. This is utter nonsense as is the usage of a purely personal relationship to argue political maneuvering and an attack on a third party, as the one you made in this case, on former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.
The second issue regards Isabel Ferreira (not 'Pereira' as mentioned in the report) and, following the above-mentioned erroneous rationale, (quote) Then Alkatiri made an unsuccessful bid to get Matan Ruak’s wife, Isabel Pereira, appointed as provador (ombudsman) (end of quote). Yes, it is true that former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri fully backed and supported Isabel Ferreira's appointment and election by Parliament to be the Human Rights and Justice Provedor. I must argue, however, that Ms. Ferreira's competence and skills in carrying out her work as a Human Rights activist for well over a decade and as the Prime Minister's Human Rights Advisor have been widely recognized and acknowledged by counterparts throughout the world and by the international community in Dili. During the Constituent Assembly, Ms Isabel Ferreira was an elected member who focused her tenure on drafting the Constitutional articles on Human Rights. If ICG were to ask former UNTAET staff and UNMISET Human Rights Unit staff on who was the person who focused the most in Timor-Leste and worked for the country to become Party State to the Humanitarian Law instruments Timor-Leste undersigned on 10 December 2002 the name that would permanently come up would be that of Ms Isabel Ferreira. Her experience covers many other areas as you know well, namely reconciliation work with Indonesia.
The way the Report refers to this choice as candidate to the post of Provedor is belittleing her capacity, skills and competence in such a long-standing and steadfast work during Indonesian occupation, during the transition and, later, in independent Timor-Leste. Ms Isabel Ferreira has a long experience of her own and long before she was married to Taur Matan Ruak. She stands on her own merit and capacity, not because she is married to A, B, or C.
The idea of resorting to a name to make a point to attack former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri as intended in the usage of Ms Isabel Ferreira's name in the Report is a dishonest form of arguing and a disgusting way of trying to give credibility to the argument in the Report.
Ms Isabel Ferreira deserves much more that the petty belittle reference made in this Report.
When an argument or rationale is based on erroneous and distorted facts as these are is one wonders whether other thesis and arguing in the Report are truly based on confirmed and thoroughly methodical researched 'facts'.
Other mistakes are clearly detected throughout the text, namely on specific events and dates. However, as reported events do not regard me directly, I will refrain from further comments.
Although the Report has already been released, as a credible world known organization ICG should make a correction as the two above references are made based on incorrect and distorted information exclusively aimed at developing a malicious and dishonest rationale.
Yours sincerely,
Paula Pinto
Wow....just rumour monegring it sounds like to me. Really...what are these malais up to in timor-Leste? each one with their agenda.
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