[Kabar-indonesia] 1: Martinkus & Kingsbury: E. Timor: The Story We Weren't Told [5 reports]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

1 of 2: 4 SMH reports (+LATimes): 

- East Timor: The Story We Weren't Told
  [by John Martinkus]

- Unanswered Questions in Power Plays
  [by Damien Kingsbury]

- PM outlines strategies to heal Timor

- LATimes: East Timor Gets New Leadership

- Police for Timor delayed over compensation

Sydney Morning Herald
Monday, July 10, 2006

Opinion

East Timor: The Story We Weren't Told

Mari Alkatiri's resignation was the culmination 
of a long-planned attack, writes John Martinkus.

THREE weeks ago in East Timor I was given information from senior members of 
the East Timorese military that confirmed what the now deposed prime minister 
had been saying all along. There had been three attempts since April last year 
to get senior command figures in the East Timorese army to carry out a coup 
against the Government of the former prime minister, Mari Alkatiri.

In light of what has happened since it seems obvious a very well orchestrated 
campaign has been carried out to bring the Government down. And it has 
worked. For reasons best known to themselves the opposition to Alkatiri enlisted the 
support of a group of junior officers in the East Timorese defence forces, 
the F-FDTL, who broke with the army command and took their weapons with them. 
They attacked the F-FDTL on May 23 and 24 and precipitated the widespread unrest 
in Dili that led to the international forces being called in. Then came the 
destruction of property by the gangs from the west, mainly aimed at those from 
the east who are perceived as supporting the Fretilin Government, then the 
string of allegations presented to the foreign press, that finally led to 
Alkatiri's resignation.

There is no doubt that whoever has been behind this campaign has covered 
their tracks and it will be difficult to link the interests involved to the 
destruction that has led to 150,000 East Timorese now living in refugee camps around 
the capital, too afraid to go home. But it was the plight of these people 
that was used as an instrument by the opposition groups to call for Alkatiri's 
removal even though the same groups had initiated the violence in the first 
place. It was a very callous and cynical political manoeuvre to say the least, 
especially considering these people are now facing chronic food shortages.

But some obvious questions have not been answered by the Australian press who 
have been almost unanimous in condemning the ruling Fretilin party that, like 
it or not, did have an overwhelming mandate to govern until mid next year 
that had been granted in elections supervised by the UN and declared free and 
fair - with much fanfare, I remember, as I covered them.

First, who started the violence? Surely in any other country if a group of 
disaffected soldiers takes off with weapons and then launches two very open 
assaults on the army, as Alfredo Reinado's men did on May 23 and 24, then 
shouldn't they be arrested? Yet they were given Australian SAS bodyguards and remain 
free after handing back only a fraction of the weapons they took with them.

Second, who were these gangs that overwhelmingly targeted the homes of those 
from the east who were perceived as supporting the Fretilin Government? 
Brigadier Mick Slater, the commander of the Australian forces in East Timor, whose 
men had to deal with these groups, said: "There were definitely groups, let's 
call them gangs, that were definitely being manipulated and co-ordinated by 
other people from outside that gang environment."

Even after the resignation of Alkatiri, houses of Fretilin members and those 
from the east were still being targeted and refugees threatened. It revealed a 
lot about who had been behind the violence.

Third, who was making the allegations against Alkatiri and did they stand up? 
After the violence subsided, the opposition to Alkatiri seemed to take a 
different tack. There were the allegations and rumours of a mass grave with 60, 
70, 80, or as many as 500 victims of an Alkatiri-ordered massacre - depending 
how far down the rumour chain you heard the story. There was supposed to be a 
list of dead held by a priest. Then there wasn't, and the story fell by the 
wayside. Next were the allegations by the so-called Alkatiri death squad. Other 
reporters had been to see this group and some had chosen not to report on it. 
They were located in the house of the Carrascalao family and their story didn't 
seem to be true. The Carrascalaos are an established family in East Timor were 
instrumental in the UDT party that fought a brief civil war with Fretilin in 
1975 - people with axes to grind.

There were other things about the death squad allegations that didn't make 
sense. When the F-FDTL base was attacked on May 24, men from that same group 
participated in the attack alongside men from Reinado's group. It was an 
inconsistency picked up by Alkatiri himself, who told me in Dili: "What kind of secret 
Fretilin group is this that they are also fighting against the FDTL? This is 
contradictory."

In short those who had been trying to find East Timorese officers to act 
against the Government look like they have succeeded but at the cost of the 
dislocation of 150,000 Timorese. Surely it would have simply been easier to wait for 
next year's elections.

Journalist John Martinkus is the author of several books, including A Dirty 
Little War: An Eyewitness Account of East Timor's Descent into Hell 1997-2000 
(Random House, 2001).

---------------------------------------------

Sydney Morning Herald
Monday, July 10, 2006

Opinion

Unanswered questions in power plays

by Damien Kingsbury

THE appointment of Jose Ramos Horta as East Timor's interim prime minister is 
a move towards installing a unifying figure for a small nation that, for a 
moment, appeared to be in danger of fragmenting.

A fragmented nation, in this case, would have meant a failed state.

East Timor became a nation in response to a common Indonesian enemy. But like 
most other post-colonial states, it has had to construct a national identity 
that no longer relies on uniting against an oppressor, but uniting towards 
common goals.

Ramos Horta has the capacity to appeal across East Timor's political divide, 
and what was becoming a geographic divide. In particular, he will be able to 
support members of the ruling Fretilin party opposed to the leadership style of 
the former prime minister, Mari Alkatiri. Alkatiri is claiming parliamentary 
immunity from a charge of arming a hit squad, although this claim does not 
appear to be constitutionally supportable.

As well as appealing to Fretilin's so-called "reformation group" and across 
party lines, Ramos Horta will bring the government closer to the highly popular 
president, Xanana Gusmao. Gusmao and Ramos Horta have a strong personal and 
political bond, and while the presidency remains largely ceremonial Gusmao has 
huge legitimacy among ordinary East Timorese. Ramos Horta, too, is widely 
popular, and the alliance of these two will strengthen and stabilise East Timor's 
political environment.

Apart from the building trust and unity, Ramos Horta's first task will be to 
restore East Timor's security forces. The police will be retrained and 
probably restructured with international assistance. The future of the army, however, 
is in some doubt.

Since its inception in 2002, East Timor's Defence Force has lacked purpose 
and been prone to political intrigues. It is too small for meaningful defence 
but still drains 8 per cent of East Timor's small budget.

A retrained police could assume outstanding defence roles, such as sea 
boundary protection, as they already have border protection duties. However the 
military, still linked to the old resistance movement, the military is persuasive 
politically, and may survive.

As prime minister, Ramos Horta is not likely to alter Fretilin's fiscally 
conservative policies. East Timor has so far operated with a balanced or surplus 
budget and without international loans, committing receipts from oil and gas 
revenue to a long-term fund and moving into modest economic growth.

Rather than Alkatiri's highly centralised control of government spending, it 
will probably be more devolved to the districts, adding small stimulus to 
local economies.

Beyond that, Ramos Horta will continue to push for a petrochemical processing 
plant for East Timor, as well as extending the leasing of oil and gas fields. 
Other policies, such as food self-sufficiency, will likely continue untouched.

If there is a problem with Ramos-Horta's appointment, it is that there are 
some in Fretilin who remain unhappy with his role in Alkatiri's downfall. There 
is also the issue of the head of government not belonging to the majority 
party, which will affect Fretilin as it approaches next year's elections.

Fretilin would no doubt prefer to enter elections under the leadership of one 
of its own members. To that end, Ramos Horta will have to clarify his own 
political ambitions.

Ramos Horta will be weighing up three options. The first is to try to stay on 
as prime minister, the second to become president, and the third option is to 
bid to become secretary-general of the United Nations.

To stay on as prime minister, Ramos Horta will have to rejoin Fretilin, the 
party he left a decade and a half ago, and will require renegotiating his 
relationship with some party members. Fretilin is still likely to draw a strong, 
probably majority, vote next year, given its institutional strength and depth of 
support, especially outside Dili.

Ramos Horta would probably like to become president, but would not bid for 
that position unless his close political friend Gusmao fulfilled his 
long-standing wish to retire from public life.

There had also been speculation that Ramos Horta could replace Kofi Annan as 
head of the UN, although to be available for this he would be better 
positioned by resuming being foreign minister. That will in turn depend on whether 
Ramos Horta's prime ministership is indeed interim, or whether the logic of his 
appointment is seen as too strong to end.

Associate Professor Damien Kingsbury is director of international and 
community development at Deakin University. He is, with Dr Michael Leach, editor of 
the forthcoming book East Timor: Beyond Independence (Monash Asia Institute).

--------------------------------------------

Sydney Morning Herald
Monday, July 10, 2006

PM outlines strategies to heal Timor

by Lindsay Murdoch in Darwin

Police for Timor delayed over compensation

JOSE RAMOS HORTA plans radical change in East Timor after being sworn in 
today as caretaker Prime Minister.

The plans include creating satellite townships around Dili to encourage 
people to move out of refugee camps.

Mr Ramos Horta has spoken privately about the urgent need to create an 
environment in which about 150,000 people living in the camps feel safe to leave. He 
believes people with family ties in the eastern part of the country, who have 
been targeted by mobs from western parts, would feel safe in a township on 
the eastern outskirts of Dili, and likewise people with ties in west would feel 
safe on the western outskirts.

The Government has already promised to rebuild hundreds of homes destroyed 
after the former prime minister, Mari Alkatiri, sacked almost half the army.

Mr Ramos Horta spoke of his plans at a private dinner in Dili on July 1. He 
made it clear that as an independent unshackled by party loyalties he would 
seize the opportunity to introduce sweeping changes. He spoke of the need to cut 
red tape in government departments and plans to call a meeting of business 
people to discuss ways to provide better security for foreign investments.

He also plans an immediate audit of government departments, which he has been 
told have developed a culture of corruption.

Mr Ramos Horta believes the country can recover quickly. The parliament is 
about to pass a US$315 million ($420 million) budget, its biggest to date. The 
country's oil and gas fund has about $US500 million, giving future governments 
income in perpetuity.

But observers and diplomats say Mr Ramos Horta faces a tough job uniting the 
political elite, settling the grievances of the sacked soldiers, rebuilding a 
police force that disintegrated last month and winning the support of 
Fretilin, still the most powerful political institution.

President Xanana Gusmao announced late on Saturday that 56-year-old Mr Ramos 
Horta, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996, would lead the country until 
national elections scheduled for about May next year.

As foreign and defence minister, Mr Ramos Horta has for weeks acted as 
intermediary with disgruntled soldiers and police and negotiated with feuding 
politicians including Mr Alkatiri, who was forced to resign over allegations that he 
helped form a hit squad to eliminate political rivals.

Mr Gusmao named two ministers in Mr Alkatiri's government as deputy prime 
ministers in a deal negotiated with Fretilin.

They are the Agriculture Minister, Estanislau da Silva, and the Health 
Minister, Rui Araujo.

Mr Alkatiri has been summonsed to appear in court on July 20 to answer the 
hit squad allegations. He failed to attend a hearing last month.

------------------------------------------------

Sydney Morning Herald
Monday, July 10, 2006

Police for Timor delayed over compensation

by Philip Cornford

NSW Police will not send officers to East Timor after the Federal Government 
refused to meet demands for compensation in the event of death, injury or 
illness.

"East Timor is a dangerous environment and I will not risk the lives of any 
of my officers without adequate protection," the Police Commissioner, Ken 
Moroney, told the Herald yesterday.

NSW Police had been asked to send 15 officers to join the International 
Deployment Group of police officers in East Timor. Mr Moroney said 200 officers had 
volunteered. But compensation payments offered by the Federal Government for 
police serving there were "significantly less" than entitlements NSW police 
were eligible for at home.

"We asked for a written guarantee that any shortfalls would be covered by the 
Federal Government and this was refused," Mr Moroney said. "I remain 
committed to providing officers to assist in the restoration of law and order in Dili 
and I am prepared to offer more than 15 if they are required. All we're asking 
is that the Federal Government ensure that my officers will get the same 
entitlements as they receive in NSW."

A spokesman for the Minister for Justice, Chris Ellison, said the Victorian, 
Queensland, West Australian and South Australian police forces had accepted 
the compensation cover offered by the Federal Government.

"We feel the arrangements in place are adequate and we are not going to alter 
our circumstances to suit the NSW Police at this stage," the spokesman said.

Victoria will send 23 officers and Queensland will send 12, with Western 
Australia and South Australia providing 10 officers each to serve with Australian 
Federal Police on 100-day tours of duty with the deployment. The Federal 
Government pays salaries and costs.

Fifty NSW police who served in East Timor from 1999 to 2003 were covered by 
the compensation provisions of the Veterans' Entitlements Act, which matched or 
bettered their state cover. But these have lapsed. Instead, state police will 
receive the same compensation available to federal police. But NSW police 
compensation entitlements are better than other state and federal forces'.

"East Timor is significantly more dangerous than working in NSW and we want a 
guarantee that NSW police will get the same protection they get while 
policing the streets of Sydney," said Peter Remfrey, the secretary of the NSW Police 
Association.

------------------------------------------

The Los Angeles Times
July 9, 2006

East Timor Gets New Leadership

By Richard C. Paddock
Times Staff Writer

JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Jose Ramos-Horta, who received the Nobel Peace Prize a 
decade ago for his efforts to win East Timor's independence, was named prime 
minister of the tiny nation Saturday as it tried to overcome months of violence 
and internal strife.

Ramos-Horta replaces Mari Bin Amude Alkatiri, who stepped down June 26 as 
prime minister after months of violence that claimed at least 30 lives and 
prompted 150,000 people — 15% of the population — to flee their homes and take 
refuge in makeshift camps.

Alkatiri had been accused of encouraging factional fighting between residents 
from the eastern and western parts of the country in an attempt to hold on to 
power. East Timorese authorities are investigating whether he authorized the 
arming of civilian hit squads to silence his political opponents.

The appointment of Ramos-Horta, 56, was announced by President Jose Alexandre 
Gusmao, who is immensely popular as the former leader of the guerrilla 
resistance against Indonesian rule but who has limited power under the constitution.

Gusmao said he hoped the appointment of Ramos-Horta would help "bring about 
the process of healing and bring peace and stability to the people of East 
Timor."

East Timor, the world's newest nation, won independence from Indonesia in 
1999 but only after pro-Indonesian militia groups killed more than 1,000 people 
and destroyed 70% of the country's buildings. 

The United Nations helped rebuild East Timor, which officially became a 
nation in 2002, but the world body withdrew its peacekeepers last year in a move 
that U.N. officials now recognize was premature.

Violence erupted in April after Alkatiri fired 600 soldiers, or nearly half 
the army, for protesting that they faced discrimination because they came from 
the western part of the country. Alkatiri called in loyal troops to quell the 
protests and they opened fire on civilians, killing at least six people.

The country destabilized further when the police and army began fighting each 
other, then fled the capital, Dili, leaving the city in the hands of 
arsonists and gangs armed with machetes.

A 2,700-member international peacekeeping force led by Australia arrived May 
25 and has succeeded in restoring order, although arsonists continue to set 
fire to homes and businesses belonging to their rivals. A house in Dili was set 
ablaze hours after Ramos-Horta's appointment was announced, the Associated 
Press reported.

Ramos-Horta, whose name has been floated as a possible successor to U.N. 
Secretary-General Kofi Annan, held the posts of foreign minister and defense 
minister until he quit last month in protest over Alkatiri's refusal to step down. 
Alkatiri's resignation came the next day.

Gusmao and Ramos-Horta are said to be close allies in a government that is 
dominated by the Fretilin party, which led the independence movement in East 
Timor and now controls 55 of parliament's 88 seats. Gusmao and Ramos-Horta once 
were members of Fretilin, which Ramos-Horta helped found. 

Elections are scheduled for next year, and Fretilin's popularity has suffered 
under Alkatiri. In meetings with Gusmao, Fretilin leaders agreed to nominate 
Ramos-Horta as one of four possible candidates for prime minister even though 
he was no longer with the party. 

Ramos-Horta fled East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, just before it was 
invaded in 1975 by Indonesian troops. For more than two decades, he traveled 
around the world campaigning for East Timor's independence. He and Bishop Carlos 
Ximenes Belo, who stayed behind in East Timor, were jointly awarded the Nobel 
Peace Prize in 1996.

In an interview with The Times last month, Ramos-Horta said the impoverished 
country had not managed its resources well, noting that $600 million in oil 
revenue was waiting to be allocated. 

He said he would favor using some of that money to provide food, healthcare 
and education for the poorest residents. He also said he would like to rebuild 
the nation by offering tax-free status for up to 10 years for foreign 
businesses willing to invest there. 

-End 1 of 2-

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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