• by Matt Crook (dili)
• Tuesday, September 01, 2009
• Inter Press Service

Ten years since its people voted 78.5 percent in favour of independence, how has East Timor fared?

Although currently at peace, there is still much work to be done in the nation, said Mari Alkatiri, the first prime minister of independent East Timor, as he reflected on his country’s current state since that historic vote in an interview with IPS.

Justice remains elusive for the people who suffered during the Indonesian military’s savage 24-year occupation of East Timor, added Alkatiri, who serves as secretary-general of the opposition Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN) party.

The people of East Timor voted overwhelmingly in favour of independence on August 30, 1999, in a United Nations (UN)-supervised referendum, after which the Indonesian army and its militia groups destroyed much of the nation’s infrastructure and slaughtered about 1,400 people before the UN stepped in.

'There were two different phases (after the referendum), two different steps,' he said. 'The first step was the United Nations administration, UNTAET (UN Transitional Administration in East Timor). Of course they did their best to set up some institutions in the country, but cooperation between Timorese and internationals at the time was not easy.

'With UNTAET, the UN tried to set up institutions like the police and public administration, but I can tell you that since 2002, nothing was consolidated. It was really very premature to hand over some of the institutions to the Timorese,' he said.

The UN mission was organised in 1999 to administer the territory during East Timor’s transition to independence.

This South-east Asian state, officially called Timor-Leste, became independent on May 20, 2002, after a transitional period overseen by the UN. The UN Mission of Support in East Timor, a peacekeeping mission, assisted with operational responsibilities in East Timor from May 2002, when Alkatiri became prime minister, until May 2005.

'The second phase was the restoration of independence until 2006,' added Alkatiri. 'We did our best to continue the work done by UNTAET, such as strengthening institutions like the police, the justice sector, public administration and the army, and other institutions, such as the government itself and parliament.'

But the crisis of 2006 put an end to much of that, he said.

That year, a spat within the nation’s armed forces led to fighting between the military, police, gangs and martial arts groups that forced more than 100,000 people to flee their homes. Many of these martial arts groups had attracted East Timorese men and women seeking ways to defend themselves, especially during the Indonesian rule.

'In 2006, the police itself imploded. There were divisions in the army and institutions like parliament, and the government faced a lot of difficulties,' added the former prime minister.

Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, who was president at the time, called for Alkatiri to step down amid allegations the FRETILIN leader had hired a civilian hit squad to take out political opponents.

President Jose Ramos-Horta, then foreign minister, resigned after senior FRETILIN officials pledged their support of Alkatiri in his prime-ministerial role. With the nation in chaos, Alkatiri bowed out of office in June 2006.

Amid the bickering gnawing away at the nation’s political fabric, allegations of corruption in Gusmao’s coalition government have been flying left, right and centre, while the government has alleged that corruption was an even bigger issue when Alkatiri was in power.

In a media statement, Gusmao addressed allegations of corruption in the Ministry of Finance, saying that what he '(does) not understand is why FRETILIN is raising this issue now when they have been partaking in these practices.'

Alkatiri staunchly defends FRETILIN’s time in power. 'I would like to challenge the people who have been saying that there was more corruption in my government,' he said. 'In our time, every year, twice a year, we had auditing of the government’s accounts with international auditing companies.'

With little resolution in the war of words between FRETILIN and the current government, Alkatiri said it is vital to get gainful employment to the nation’s 1.1 million population, most of whom are engaged in subsistence farming.

'The country needs human resources to be developed,' he said. 'First of all we need to invest in infrastructure and get thousands and thousands of people involved in it. Six thousand kilometres of roads, bridges, housing programmes for the poor -- this country needs everything.'

Can the nation that is considered one of the poorest in the world afford all these? 'We have money,' said Alkatiri.

East Timor has about 5 billion U.S. dollars in its petroleum fund, thanks to offshore oil and gas reserves. But for many, the wealth of the nation pales into insignificance when compared to bringing perpetrators of human rights violations to justice.

Up to 200,000 died during the Indonesian military’s occupation of the erstwhile Portuguese colony, mostly killed by gunfire, bombing or forced starvation. Alkatiri thinks maintaining good relations with Indonesia could be hampering the search for justice.

'People consider themselves victims and they need to participate in the whole process in such a way that they can accept,' he said, addressing calls for amnesty of alleged perpetrators of crimes against humanity in East Timor.

The push for amnesty for perpetrators of crimes against humanity during the Indonesian reign comes from the top level. In a speech from the presidential palace on Sunday, President Jose Ramos-Horta said '(t)here will be no international tribunal,' adding that his preference is to 'close the 1975-1999 chapters of our tragic experience (and) forgive those who did harm to us.'

'I have met with thousands of people. In these two years alone that I have crisscrossed the country, not a single person has raised with me a question about justice,' he told reporters Friday.

Alkatiri sees no resolution in sight on that issue. 'Being a leader, you cannot really talk on behalf of the people. You have to involve the people in the whole solution,' he said.

© Inter Press Service (2009) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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