[Kabar-indonesia] 7 E.Timor Updates: SMH: Hunt for Timor's looted weapons; Cuban aid; UN inquiry

[Joyo at aol.com]

7 articles:

- SMH: Hunt for Timor's looted weapons

- Herald-Sun: Weapons seized: Peacekeeping chief hails
  gun handover

- E Timor Armed Faction To Give Up Weapons Next Week

- East Timor militiaman still holds cache of weapons

- East Timor's ruling party threatens to block passage
  of budget

- UN inquiry into East Timor unrest due in October

- Cuba steps in to aid East Timor health system
  [transcript]

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The Sydney Morning Herald 
Wednesday, July 5, 2006

Hunt for Timor's looted weapons

Lindsay Murdoch in Dili with AAP

EAST TIMOR'S ruling Fretilin party has called for an
immediate audit of arms looted from the police
armoury, saying it fears many weapons are in the hands
of police who deserted their posts.

Stanislau da Silva, a senior member of Fretilin's
central committee and the Minister for Agriculture,
told the Herald the party was "very, very worried
about the number of high-powered weapons" taken by
police when the 3000-strong force disintegrated during
the violence in Dili.

"We know the police kept their weapons when they ran
away," Mr da Silva said. "We know that many of them
out there still have them."

Party leaders have said their fear of reprisals by
armed anti-Fretilin groups has made them too afraid to
speak bluntly during the country's crisis.

The commander of Australia's peacekeeping force in
Dili, Mick Slater, told AAP yesterday that his forces
had secured most of the military-style weapons listed
as missing or in the hands of renegade soldiers. An
official handover of more weapons in the mountainous
region of Ermera was expected to take place today.

But Brigadier Slater said the weapons causing most
concern were those belonging to the police. Troops
would this week begin an inventory of the police
armouries around the country.

"As part of rebuilding the [police] and getting them
to come back and rejoin the force ... I would
anticipate that many of those weapons will come back
with those individuals," Brigadier Slater said.

Fretilin ministers, including Mr da Silva, raised
their concerns about the weapons during a council
meeting chaired by the Foreign and Defence Minister,
Jose Ramos Horta, on Monday.

Before the police command disintegrated, the police
force had 3500 Glock pistols, 88 FNC assault rifles,
180 Steyr assault rifles, 200 Heckler and Koch assault
rifles, 20 submachine-guns and 40 shotguns.

At least half the armoury is feared missing.

Vicente da Conceicao, a former guerilla commander
known as Railos, said he would hand over 14
high-powered weapons to Australian troops next week.

Mr da Conceicao claims he was asked by the former
interior minister, Rogerio Lobato, on behalf of the
deposed prime minister, Mari Alkatiri, to establish a
hit squad.

Mr Ramos Horta has confirmed he is one of three
candidates nominated by Fretilin to be the next prime
minister.

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Herald-Sun 
Wednesday, July 5, 2006

Weapons seized

Peacekeeping chief hails gun handover

Rob Taylor, Dili

AUSTRALIAN-LED peacekeepers in East Timor believe they
have most of the military-style weapons that had been
listed as missing or in the hands of renegade security
forces.

Taskforce commander Brig. Mick Slater has rejected
rumours that vast illegal weapon stocks are hidden in
the countryside and pose an ongoing threat to peace.

"If that was the case, I would have expected to have
found some of those by now. There's been no physical
evidence that I've seen," he said

Most weapons have been surrendered in handovers by
renegade groups still in the hills, headed by military
police major Alfredo Reinado, army lieutenant Gastao
Salsinha and army major Tara.

The only group still with some weapons was the
so-called hit squad based in the eastern town of
Liquica and headed by whistleblower Vicente da
Conceicao, known as Comandante Railos.

"We've secured the weapons from those groups, less
Liquica and Railos, and that is largely in the hands
of the prosecutor as to how that's going to proceed,"
Brig. Slater said.

Railos has said ex-prime minister Mari Alkatiri
sanctioned the arming of the group to attack his
political rivals.

His claim is being probed by East Timor's prosecutor
as Dr Alkatiri, backed by the governing Fretilin
party, claims immunity from prosecution.

With progress on disarmament, the UN has raised new
concerns with peacekeepers.

It says Timorese security forces -- both pro- and
anti-Alkatiri -- are not being guarded in their
barracks or within containment areas meant to prevent
a fresh outbreak of the infighting which spiralled
into ethnic gang warfare in May.

Brig. Slater said he was not worried about guns held
by the army.

"Their weapons are locked up and secured in those
barracks and they have access to those weapons within
the barracks, and only in the barracks, for training,"
he said.

President Xanana Gusmao and Foreign Minister Jose
Ramos Horta -- who is a top contender for the prime
ministership -- yesterday travelled to army barracks
east of Dili to rebuild bridges with the military and
talk about recent violence.

With the likely swearing-in of a new government still
days away, Brig.

Slater said the more Mr Gusmao was seen on the streets
as a unifying factor the better.

"Would I have been happy to see him out there three
weeks ago? Yes," he said.

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E Timor Armed Faction To Give Up Weapons Next Week

DILI, East Timor, July 4 (AP)--A self-proclaimed hit
squad leader who says he was commissioned by East
Timor's ousted Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri to kill
political opponents joined a rebel army officer
Tuesday in saying he would soon surrender his weapons.

The planned hand-overs - which would be the fourth by
armed factions in recent weeks _ could help reduce
tensions following months of violence and political
paralysis that have left the tiny nation without a
functioning government.

Parliament was Wednesday to discuss possible
replacements for Alkatiri, who stepped down last week
amid allegations he knew weapons were being
distributed to civilian militias to hunt down his
enemies.

Though he denies the charges, they gained credibility
when former Interior Minister Rogerio Lobato was
indicted in the case last month.

Vincente "Railos" da Concecao told reporters he had
received promises of government protection for his 35
followers and would turn in 14 automatic weapons,
allegedly provided by Lobato, next Tuesday.

"Now my mission is finished I want to give the
opportunity to national leaders to solve the country's
problems," he said after meeting President Xanana
Gusmao and acting Defense Minister Jose Ramos-Horta.

"I am 100% ready to testify who gave us the weapons,"
da Concecao said. "We were given the arms to kill
people with different views than Mari (Alkatiri)."

Many East Timorese say Alkatiri's decision to dismiss
600 disgruntled soldiers in March was to blame for
street battles and gang warfare that left at least 30
people dead and sent nearly 150,000 others fleeing
from their homes.

It was the worst unrest since East Timor's bloody
break from Indonesia in 1999.

Maj. Augusto Tara, an officer in the East Timor
Defense Forces who fled to the hills with a small
group of soldiers, also promised to abandon his guns
Wednesday in the mountain town of Gleno in Ermera
district.

That follows similar action by two rebel leaders who
handed their small caches of guns to Australian
peacekeepers last month.

Lawmakers, meanwhile, put aside plans Tuesday to
discuss Alkatiri's efforts to win parliamentary
immunity, a 2006-2007 budget and laws paving the way
for the next general elections.

They said they wanted to first discuss possible
replacements for Alkatiri - vowing to do so Wednesday.

"To elect the new prime minister is more important
than other issues at this stage in the political
crisis," said opposition lawmaker Feliciano Mausiri of
the Social Democrat Party.

The ruling Fretilin party, which controls 55 of 88
seats in parliament, said it had forwarded the names
of four candidates to Gusmao, including one
independent.

If the president refused to back one of the nominees,
Fretilin wouldn't approve the proposed US$315 million
budget, which is crucial to the overall functioning of
the government, said party spokesman Elizario Freitas.

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East Timor militiaman still holds cache of weapons

By Jill Jolliffe

LOIDAHAR, East Timor, July 4 (AAP) - The man who said
he was armed by East Timor's ex-premier to kill
government opponents still holds a cache of automatic
weapons nearly six weeks after international
peacekeepers began disarming warring factions in Dili.

"No guns have been handed over yet ... but an
agreement is in place," Vicente da Conceicao, known as
Comandante Railos, said after a meeting today with
government prosecutor Longuinhos Monteiro.

Joint task force commander Brigadier Mick Slater told
AAP earlier he believed Railos's group held only some
of its original arsenal.

Around 30 of the militiamen are based in a mountain
stronghold west of the capital, reached by a
precarious mountain road which gives its occupants a
clear view of all approaching traffic.

An attempt by AAP to visit the base was blocked at an
informal checkpoint where a group of men waved the car
down, saying it was impossible to advance without
permission from a post further ahead.

Among them was a nervous character clutching what
appeared to be a pistol concealed under his shirt.

At a later meeting in Dili, Railos described his
alleged meeting with former prime minister Mari
Alkatiri on May 8 [Eds: formerly reported as May 7],
which he said he was requested to attend by the prime
minister in a personal phone call.

Alkatiri has denied strenuously any involvement in
arming civilians to support his troubled Fretilin
government.

Comandante Railos said he went to the meeting with
three other ex-guerrillas suggested by disgraced
Interior Minister Rogerio Lobato, who was also
present.

He is a relative of Lobato, he said, but he thought he
was selected more for his guerrilla experience than
for his relationship with Lobato.

Comandante Railos said that after Mr Alkatiri spoke to
the group for around half an hour, he turned to Lobato
saying, "Rogerio, these are our comrades, they're
people we can believe in. You have to deal with
things".

He said that after the guns were issued, instead of
killing rebel soldiers, he warned them that the
government was attempting to kill them, giving them
time to escape to the hills.

When the government realised the men hadn't done as
ordered, the army turned its guns on them. They were
witnesses, he said, adding that four of his group were
killed by government soldiers in May.

The former Interior Minister now is facing 15 years
jail over the affair, and has reportedly incriminated
Mr Alkatiri, who resigned last Monday.

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East Timor's ruling party threatens to block passage
of budget

By NINIEK KARMINI Associated Press Writer

DILI, East Timor, July 4 (AP) - East Timor's ruling
party threatened to block passage of a US$315 million
budget, crucial to getting the fledgling nation back
on its feet, unless the president backed one of its
candidates for prime minister.

Parliament was to discuss possible replacements
Wednesday for Mari Alkatiri, who was forced to resign
last week as prime minister amid allegations he formed
hit squads to kill his opponents.

But Fretilin, which controls 55 of 88 seats, set the
stage for another political showdown when it demanded
Tuesday that President Xanana Gusmao back one of four
proposed candidates -- all but one of them party
members.

If he refuses, "we will not approve the budget," said
party spokesman Elizario Freitas.

Many East Timorese say Alkatiri's decision to dismiss
600 disgruntled soldiers in March resulted in the
street battles and gang warfare that left at least 30
people dead and sent nearly 150,000 others fleeing
from their homes.

They expressed hope that his resignation would bring
an end to the worst unrest since East Timor's bloody
break from Indonesia in 1999.

But it appeared increasingly unlikely that would
happen -- even though leaders of two armed factions
agreed Tuesday to hand in their weapons as part of
efforts to restore peace and order.

Lawmakers shelved plans Tuesday to discuss a 2006-2007
budget, laws paving the way for the next general
elections, and Alkatiri's efforts to win parliamentary
immunity, saying they first had to decide on a new
prime minister.

"That is the most important issue," said opposition
lawmaker Feliciano Mausiri of the Social Democrat
Party.

Fretilin said it had presented Gusmao with four
candidates -- party members Ana Pessoa, Stanislau da
Silva and Arsenio Bano and independent Rui Maria de
Araujo -- but it was not clear if he would accept.

He may prefer to put in a trusted ally -- like Nobel
prize winning Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta.

Party spokesman Freitas insisted he had little choice,
noting that passage of the new budget was crucial to
the functioning of the government, which is now
virtually paralyzed.

The self-proclaimed leader of Alkatiri's alleged hit
squad, meanwhile, joined a rebel army officer on
Tuesday in offering to hand over their weapons -- the
fourth armed group to do so in less than a month.

Vincente "Railos" da Concecao told reporters he had
received promises of government protection for his 35
followers and would turn in 14 automatic weapons,
allegedly provided at Alkatiri's request, next
Tuesday.

Alkatiri has denied the charges, but they gained
credibility when former Interior Minister Rogerio
Lobato was indicted in the case last month.

"Now my mission is finished I want to give the
opportunity to national leaders to solve the country's
problems," da Concecao said after meeting Gusmao and
acting Defense Minister Jose Ramos-Horta.

"I am 100 percent ready to testify who gave us the
weapons. We were given the arms to kill people with
different views than Mari (Alkatiri)."

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UN inquiry into East Timor unrest due in October

LISBON, July 4 (AFP) -- A United Nations-mandated
inquiry into civil unrest in East Timor will be
completed by the first week of October, the inquiry
commission's chairman told Portuguese news agency Lusa
on Tuesday.

"Having a deadline is important, otherwise it would be
an ingredient for despair," Brazilian human rights
expert Paulo Sergio Pinheiro told the agency in
Geneva.

The commission, created last week by UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan at the request of the government of
East Timor, will begin its work in Dili later this
month.

It will center its investigations on the clashes
between rival security force factions on April 28- 29
and May 23-25 that sparked weeks of bloody communal
gang violence in the former Portuguese colony and
forced the resignation of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri
last month.

The commission "will try to reconstruct the events in
the most precise manner possible and attempt to point
out responsibilities," said Pinheiro.

The other members of the commission will be South
African rights campaigner and former provincial deputy
police chief Zelda Holtzman, and a former senior UN
legal official, Ralph Zacklin.

East Timor sank into violent civil unrest in April,
several weeks after Alkatiri fired some 600 soldiers
who had complained of discrimination.

Fighting between rival and loyalist soldiers as well
as between soldiers and police left at least 21 dead
and led to a total breakdown of law and order and
opened up a power struggle in the country's
leadership, while some 133,000 people fled their
homes.

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Australian Broadcasting Corporation 
July 4, 2006 
-transcript-

Cuba steps in to aid East Timor health system

Anne Barker

ELEANOR HALL: While East Timor's leaders still
struggle to deal with the country's political crisis,
the violence of recent weeks has exposed the poor
state of health care in the fledgling nation.

There's a serious shortage of doctors, hospitals are
rudimentary, and some towns have never had a local
doctor.

But a bilateral agreement with Cuba has begun to turn
that around, as Anne Barker reports.

(Sound of people speaking in emergency department)

ANNE BARKER: This is the emergency department at
Dili's Guido Valadares National Hospital. The sick and
injured are wheeled past on trolleys.

(Sound of trolley)

Among them, some of the victims of the many weeks of
violence in Dili, many with machete or gunshot wounds.
Other patients who are well enough sit outside in the
sun.

(Sound of birds chirping)

Guido Valadares is East Timor's biggest hospital, but
conditions here couldn't be more basic.

There's little in the way of modern medical
technology. Even doctors are in desperately short
supply.

(Sound of Karen Torres Roses speaking)

Karen Torres Roses (phonetic) is one doctor who
specialises in women's health and gynaecology.

"I work with pregnant women in the national hospital,"
she says, "and I assist their labour. I do
ultrasounds."

At first glance she might be East Timorese, but Dr
Torres is from Cuba.

"East Timor has one of the world's highest mortality
rates for children," she says. "60 in every 1,000
babies die before they're one."

Dr Torres is one of several hundred Cuban doctors in
East Timor. 286 Cubans have come across the world to
help build East Timor's health system from scratch.

When the Indonesians pulled out in 1999, there were
barely 20 practicing doctors left in the country.
Entire communities had never had a single doctor,
under Indonesian rule or the Portuguese.

In the last year it's Cuba that has stepped in to
help.

The man in charge is Dr Francisco Medina.

"There's a lot of solidarity between Cuba and East
Timor," he says.

"We feel for the East Timorese and their suffering."

Since 2004, Cuban doctors have spread to every
district and sub-district in East Timor, staffing
clinics and field hospitals, often for a pittance in
pay.

Cuban flags have become a familiar sight outside their
homes. Many are now here for the long haul. Dr Medina
plans to stay for at least six years.

"We are just some of the 27,000 Cuban doctors," he
says, "working in 69 countries - in Africa, America,
countries that need help, like East Timor."

"The problems in East Timor are very similar to all
the poor nations throughout the world," he says.
"Malaria, tuberculosis, infant mortality."

In return, more than 300 East Timorese students are
now in the Cuban capital, Havana, studying medicine.
And in Dili, Cuba has funded a new medical faculty at
Dili's National University.

East Timor's Health Minister, Rui De Araujo, says
eventually he hopes his country will produce its own
doctors.

RUI DE ARAUJO: We're now in the process of recruiting
more students, and hopefully the end target would be
to train doctors so that by 2015 we would have at
least one doctor for 1,000 people in this country.

ANNE BARKER: So is there a political connection, some
sort of solidarity between the Fretilin-led Government
in East Timor and the Communist Government of Cuba?

RUI DE ARAUJO: Well, I don't see that as the main
reason for establishing this bilateral work, even
though it might give the impression that that would be
because some political affinities. All the Cuban
health professionals are doing purely health work.

ELEANOR HALL: That's East Timor's Health Minister, Rui
de Araujo, speaking to Anne Barker in Dili.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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