A invasão e anexação de Timor

O Publico

28.01.2008,
Adelino Gomes

A invasão e anexação de Timor, com o cortejo de mortes e violações dos direitos humanos que as acompanharam, levaram alguns a defender que Suharto deveria comparecer perante a justiça internacional. Nem uma nem outra acções, aliás conexas, poderiam ter sido realizadas, porém, sem o apoio dos EUA e da Austrália e a compreensão amiga das principais democracias europeias e do Vaticano. Posições ambíguas em Lisboa ajudaram também.

Documentos secretos libertados no início deste século provaram que, muito antes de o general Benny Murdani comandar a primeira acção militar combinada de ataque a Timor, em 15 de Outubro de 1975, já os EUA e a Austrália tinham dado sinais explícitos ao ditador Suharto de que não só não levantariam obstáculo mas até compreenderiam a anexação daquela colónia portuguesa.

1. Cerca de meio milhar de telegramas mantidos secretos até Setembro de 2000 revelaram que, em contraste com declarações públicas de apoio à autodeterminação de Timor, o primeiro-ministro australiano Gough Whitlam disse a Suharto, logo em Setembro de 1974, num encontro em Java, que a metade oriental da ilha de Timor era "demasiado pequena para ser independente".

Os documentos mostram que os indonésios mantiveram a Austrália informada acerca das suas operações clandestinas em Timor. Incluindo o ataque a Balibó, em que cinco jornalistas a trabalhar para televisões daquele país foram assassinados pelos invasores.
Em Novembro passado, pela primeira vez em 32 anos, um tribunal australiano aceitou a tese do assassinato a sangue-frio, sempre desmentida por Camberra, apesar de ter sabido das mortes dos repórteres em tempo real.

Em 1979, o Governo de Malcolm Fraser reconheceu a anexação do território e dez anos depois regou com champanhe a celebração de um acordo de exploração do gás e petróleo no chamado Timor Gap.

Apesar de Portugal continuar a ser considerado, pela ONU, a potência administrante da sua antiga colónia, os governos australianos - fossem trabalhistas, fossem liberais - mantiveram-se sempre ao lado de Suharto nesta matéria, só mudando de política depois da renúncia do ditador e da substituição deste por Habibie.

2. A libertação de documentos secretos norte-americanos, em Dezembro de 2001, confirmou que o Presidente Ford e o seu secretário de Estado, Henry Kissinger, deram "luz verde" para a invasão, durante uma visita oficial a Jacarta que precedeu de poucas horas o lançamento de pára-quedistas sobre Díli, em 7 de Dezembro de 1975. "Compreenderemos e não os pressionaremos nessa matéria", respondeu Ford a Suharto, quando o chefe de Estado indonésio (que de resto resistira durante meses à pressão dos "falcões" militares) lhe pediu compreensão para a intervenção.

Apesar de tomadas de posição críticas por parte de congressistas e de senadores, os EUA mantiveram no essencial o seu apoio à política ocupacionista de Suharto.

3. O mesmo se pode dizer, ainda que com nuances, quanto à posição do Vaticano, com o cardeal Casaroli, das principais democracias europeias e da própria UE, que opôs resistência, durante muito tempo, aos esforços de Lisboa, já na década de 1990, para que Suharto sofresse as consequências políticas da ocupação ilegal de Timor.

4. Numa visita a Lisboa logo em Outubro de 1974, o general Ali Murtopo ouve o Presidente Costa Gomes e o primeiro-ministro Vasco Gonçalves referirem-se em termos nada entusiasmados à possibilidade de independência de Timor. Conversações posteriores, em Londres, com uma delegação portuguesa que integrava Vítor Alves, Almeida Santos e Jorge Campinos, convenceram-no de que Portugal não se oporia à integração, que aliás via como uma solução razoável, desde que fosse o povo a escolhê-la.

Portugal sabia, através dos serviços de radiogoniometria da força militar que permanecia no Ataúro, em apoio ao governador Lemos Pires, que o exército indonésio ocupava, desde 16 de Outubro, uma larga faixa fronteiriça. Apesar disso, aceitou como boas as alegações de Jacarta de que nenhuma força militar daquele país intervinha no território. Na altura, e semanas depois, na cimeira de Roma, entre Melo Antunes e Adam Malik.
Este silêncio conivente foi quebrado após a invasão, com o corte de relações diplomáticas e uma queixa apresentada nas Nações Unidas e que deu origem a sucessivas resoluções condenatórias do acto.

5. Muitos anos e milhares de mortos seriam necessários, contudo, para que a questão de Timor se tornasse numa prioridade nacional. Em meados dos anos 80, de resto, a questão estaria à beira de ser resolvida "administrativamente", através de um acordo sob os auspícios do então secretário-geral da ONU, Perez de Cuellar: Portugal reconheceria a presença indonésia na sua antiga colónia em contrapartida da abertura de um consulado de carreira e de um centro cultural em Díli e de uma indemnização em dinheiro pela perda da empresa Sociedade Agrícola Pátria e Trabalho e da sede do BNU, e pelos custos com os refugiados (PÚBLICO, 3.5.2000).

Só depois de 1986, e em particular após o massacre de Santa Cruz, em 1991, é que Portugal adoptou uma acção diplomática continuada e sem ambiguidades na defesa do direito à autodeterminação e independência de Timor.

António Guterres personalizará a nova atitude portuguesa forçando um frente-a-frente com o ditador durante a cimeira Ásia-Europa de 1996, em Banguecoque.

Dois anos depois, Suharto viu-se obrigado a resignar, no meio de uma crise económica e social sem precedentes. Tudo começou a mudar na Indonésia, incluindo a política sobre Timor.

Só então, verdadeiramente, os muitos amigos com que o general havia contado mudaram também.

Publicada por Malai Azul em 19:55 0 comentários

Indonesian Dictator Suharto Dies

By ANTHONY DEUTSCH, Associated Press Writer
39 minutes ago
Former Indonesian President Suharto, the U.S. Cold War ally who led one of the 20th century's most brutal dictatorships over 32 years that saw up to a million political opponents killed, died Sunday. He was 86.

Suharto had been ailing in a hospital in the capital, Jakarta, since Jan. 4 when he was admitted with failing kidneys, heart and lungs. Doctors prolonged his life through dialysis and a ventilator, but he stopped breathing on his own overnight before slipping into a coma Sunday.

He was declared dead at 1:10 p.m. when his heart stopped. The cause of death was multiple-organ failure, Chief Presidential Dr. Marjo Subiandono said.

"My father passed away peacefully," sobbed Suharto's eldest daughter, Tutut. "May God bless him and forgive all of his mistakes."

As is customary in Islamic tradition, Suharto's body was to be washed and joint prayers were held at the family home in the presence of his six children, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and dozens of the country's ruling elite.

Yudhoyono's office declared a week of national mourning and he was to oversee a state funeral Monday once Suharto's body had been flown by a fleet of 11 Air Force planes to be placed in the family mausoleum.

Finally toppled by mass street protests in 1998, Suharto's departure opened the way for democracy in this predominantly Muslim nation of 235 million people and he withdrew from public life, rarely venturing from his comfortable villa on a leafy lane in the capital.

Suharto had ruled with a totalitarian dominance that saw soldiers stationed in every village, instilling a deep fear of authority across this Southeast Asian nation of some 6,000 inhabited islands that stretch across more than 3,000 miles.

Since being forced from power, he had been in and out of hospitals after strokes caused brain damage and impaired his speech. Blood transfusions and a pacemaker prolonged his life, but he suffered from lung, kidney, liver and heart problems.

Suharto was vilified as one of the world's most brutal rulers and was accused of overseeing a graft-ridden reign. But poor health — and continuing corruption, critics charge — kept him from court after he was chased from office by widespread unrest at the peak of the Asian financial crisis.

The bulk of political killings blamed on Suharto occurred in the 1960s, soon after he seized power. In later years, some 300,000 people were slain, disappeared or starved in the independence-minded regions of East Timor, Aceh and Papua, human rights groups and the United Nations say.

Suharto's successors as head of state — B.J. Habibie, Abdurrahman Wahid, Megawati Sukarnoputri and Yudhoyono — vowed to end graft that took root under Suharto, yet it remains endemic at all levels of Indonesian society.

With the court system paralyzed by corruption, the country has not confronted its bloody past. Rather than put on trial those accused of mass murder and multibillion-dollar theft, some members of the political elite consistently called for charges against Suharto to be dropped on humanitarian grounds.

Some noted Suharto also oversaw decades of economic expansion that made Indonesia the envy of the developing world. Today, nearly a quarter of Indonesians live in poverty, and many long for the Suharto era's stability, when fuel and rice were affordable.

On Sunday, hundreds of mourners — some weeping — flocked to the family home in downtown Jakarta.

"I felt crushed when I heard he had died. We have lost a great man," said Mamiarti, a 43-year-old housekeeper. "It used to be easy to find jobs. Now it is hard."

But critics say Suharto squandered Indonesia's vast natural resources of oil, timber and gold, siphoning the nation's wealth to benefit his cronies, foreign corporations, and family like a mafia don.

Jeffrey Winters, associate professor of political economy at Northwestern University, said the graft effectively robbed "Indonesia of some of the most golden decades, and its best opportunity to move from a poor to a middle class country."

"When Indonesia does finally go back and redo history, (its people) will realize that Suharto is responsible for some of the worst crimes against humanity in the 20th century," Winters added.

Those who profited from Suharto's rule made sure he was never portrayed in a harsh light at home, Winters said, so even though he was an "iron-fisted, brutal, cold-blooded dictator," he was able to stay in his native country.

Like many Indonesians, Suharto used only one name. He was born on June 8, 1921, to a family of rice farmers in the village of Godean, in the dominant Indonesian province of Central Java.

When Indonesia gained independence from the Dutch in 1949, Suharto quickly rose through the ranks of the military to become a staff officer.

His career nearly foundered in the late 1950s, when the army's then-commander, Gen. Abdul Haris Nasution, accused him of corruption in awarding army contracts.

Absolute power came in September 1965 when the army's six top generals were murdered under mysterious circumstances, and their bodies dumped in an abandoned well in an apparent coup attempt.

Suharto, next in line for command, quickly asserted authority over the armed forces and promoted himself to four-star general.

Suharto then oversaw a nationwide purge of suspected communists and trade unionists, a campaign that stood as the region's bloodiest event since World War II until the Khmer Rouge established its gruesome regime in Cambodia a decade later. Experts put the number of deaths during the purge at between 500,000 and 1 million.

Over the next year, Suharto eased out of office Indonesia's first post-independence president, Sukarno, who died under house arrest in 1970. The legislature rubber-stamped Suharto's presidency and he was re-elected unopposed six times.

During the Cold War, Suharto was considered a reliable friend of Washington, which didn't oppose his violent occupation of Papua in 1969 and the bloody 1974 invasion of East Timor. The latter, a former Portuguese colony, became Asia's youngest country with a U.N.-sponsored plebiscite in 1999.

Even Suharto's critics agree his hard-line policies kept a lid on Indonesia's extremists and held together the ethnically diverse and geographically vast nation. He locked up hundreds of suspected Islamic militants without trial, some of whom later carried out deadly suicide bombings with the al-Qaida-linked terror network Jemaah Islamiyah after the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S.

Meanwhile, the ruling clique that formed around Suharto — nicknamed the "Berkeley mafia" after their American university, the University of California, Berkeley — transformed Indonesia's economy and attracted billions of dollars in foreign investment.

By the late 1980s, Suharto was describing himself as Indonesia's "father of development," taking credit for slowly reducing the number of abjectly poor and modernizing parts of the nation.

But the government also became notorious for unfettered nepotism, and Indonesia was regularly ranked as one of the world's most corrupt nations as Suharto's inner circle amassed fabulous wealth. The World Bank estimates 20 percent to 30 percent of Indonesia's development budget was embezzled during his rule.

Even today, Suharto's children and aging associates have considerable sway over the country's business, politics and courts. Efforts to recover the money have been fruitless.

Suharto's youngest son, Hutomo "Tommy" Mandala Putra, was released from prison in 2006 after serving a third of a 15-year sentence for ordering the assassination of a Supreme Court judge. Another son, Bambang Trihatmodjo, joined the Forbes list of wealthiest Indonesians in 2007, with $200 million from his stake in the conglomerate Mediacom.

Suharto's economic policies, based on unsecured borrowing by his cronies, dramatically unraveled shortly before he was toppled in May 1998. Indonesia is still recovering from what economists called the worst economic meltdown anywhere in 50 years.

State prosecutors accused Suharto of embezzling about $600 million via a complex web of foundations under his control, but he never saw the inside of a courtroom. In September 2000, judges ruled he was too ill to stand trial, though many people believed the decision really stemmed from the lingering influence of the former dictator and his family.

In 2007, Suharto won a $106 million defamation lawsuit against Time magazine for accusing the family of acquiring $15 billion in stolen state funds.

The former dictator told the news magazine Gatra in a rare interview in November 2007 that he would donate the bulk of any legal windfall to the needy, while he dismissed corruption accusations as "empty talk."

Suharto's wife of 49 years, Indonesian royal Siti Hartinah, died in 1996. The couple had three sons and three daughters.

Logistics Perception Index (LPI) Timor-Leste ranked in the Bottom Four

By Gareth Powell January 25th, 2008

The World Bank had prepared a Logistics Perception Index (LPI) which is the simple average of the country scores on seven key dimensions:

Efficiency and effectiveness of the clearance process by Customs and other border control agencies;
Quality of transport and IT infrastructure for logistics;
Ease and affordability of arranging shipments;
Competence in the local logistics industry (e.g., transport operators, customs brokers);
Ability to track and trace shipments;
Domestic logistics costs (e.g., local transportation, terminal handling, warehousing); and
Timeliness of shipments in reaching destination.

On a world ranking scale on logistics China comes in at eight.

The leader is Singapore, followed by the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Australia, Japan. And then comes China leaving Taiwan, Canada, Australia and the United States in the dust.

The bottom four are Myanmar, Rwanda, Timor and Afghanistan. No surprises there.

You can play with the figures by the hour by clicking on source. Fascinating stuff.
Source: World Bank

O secretário-geral da Fretilin, Mari Alkatiri, exigiu convocação de eleições legislativas antecipadas em Timor-Leste em 2009

Díli, Timor-Leste 24/01/2008 09:47 (LUSA)
Temas: Política, governo, Partidos e movimentos
Díli, 24 Jan (Lusa) - O secretário-geral da Fretilin, Mari Alkatiri, exigiu hoje a demissão do primeiro-ministro Xanana Gusmão e a convocação de eleições legislativas antecipadas em Timor-Leste em 2009.

"Temos mantido contactos informais com a AMP", a Aliança para Maioria Parlamentar que apoia o Governo, anunciou Mari Alkatiri numa conferência de imprensa em Díli.

O secretário-geral da Fretilin ressalvou tratar-se de contactos "como cidadãos" entre dirigentes da oposição e dos partidos que apoiam o Governo.

"Que isto não seja entendido como acordo. Não há acordo. Nem tão-pouco (se entenda) que a Fretilin quer integrar o Governo", esclareceu Mari Alkatiri.

A Fretilin venceu as eleições legislativas de 30 de Junho de 2007, sem maioria absoluta.

O chefe de Estado, José Ramos-Horta, indigitou Xanana Gusmão para formar governo com o apoio da AMP, que reúne os outros quatro partidos mais votados.

Mari Alkatiri e o presidente do partido, Francisco Guterres "Lu Olo", recordaram na conferência de imprensa que o seu partido "não reconhece a constitucionalidade" do executivo liderado por Xanana Gusmão.

"Não queremos só a estar a criticar. Queremos saídas", declarou Mari Alkatiri.

"O Governo já demonstrou não saber governar", acusou o ex-primeiro-ministro ao fazer um retrato demolidor do primeiro semestre do executivo.

"Tem um Orçamento (Geral do Estado) sem plano e uma execução do orçamento sem relatório", acusou Mari Alkatiri.

Entre outras acusações ao Governo de Xanana Gusmão, o líder da Fretilin enumerou "a incompetência generalizada, a caça às bruxas, o esbanjamento, a corrupção generalizada e nepotismo e a interferência inaceitável na justiça".

"A crise é a desestruturação do Estado", referiu também Mari Alkatiri.

"Não têm plano nem têm programa. Pensam que a única forma é transformar Estado em instituição de misericórdia, dando esmolas", afirmou.

"Isto é o golpe de misericórdia no desenvolvimento nacional. É tempo de pôr fim a isso", considerou o secretário-geral da Fretilin.

Mari Alkatiri acrescentou que o Governo da AMP compromete a independência nacional ao "criar novas dependências", citando a criação de "task-forces" em vários ministérios.

"Vamos ter um país de pensionistas e um povo que vive de subsídios".

Em relação à política do Governo para os deslocados da crise de 2006, "o dinheiro é insuficiente e não há um programa claro".

Mari Alkatiri referiu que "os únicos deslocados que regressaram foram os do (campo do) Jardim (em Díli), para Ermera", no final de Dezembro de 2007.

"Isso foi mais graças ao Alfredo Reinado que ao Governo", comentou.

Sobre as acusações feitas recentemente num vídeo de Alfredo Reinado, ex-comandante da Polícia Militar em fuga da justiça, Mari Alkatiri considerou-as "sérias, vindas de uma pessoa que era um instrumento de quem ele alega".

No vídeo, Alfredo Reinado acusa Xanana Gusmão de ter "planeado" a crise de 2006.

Estas "alegações", explicou o líder da Fretilin, são suficientes para forçar a "resignação" de Xanana Gusmão "e limpar a sua imagem respondendo à justiça".

À mesma hora da conferência de imprensa, decorria no Tribunal de Recurso de Díli a segunda sessão do julgamento de Alfredo Reinado, que foi adiado para 04 de Março por ausência do principal arguido, durante a qual foi visionado o vídeo do ex-comandante da Polícia Militar timorense.



PRM.

Lusa/Fim

A teoria da "inculturação",

Díli, Timor-Leste 24/01/2008 16:20 (LUSA)
Temas: Política, Religião, Estado e Igreja (relação), Cristianismo
Pedro Rosa Mendes, da Agência Lusa



Díli, 24 Jan (Lusa) - A teoria da "inculturação", a que não é estranho o percurso do novo superior da Companhia de Jesus, Adolfo Nicolás, teve consequências na história da resistência timorense e do papel da Igreja sob a ocupação.

A relação entre a doutrina progressista católica, validada pela primeira vez pelos jesuítas em 1978, e a sustentação de uma identidade timorense é salientada por testemunhos de jesuítas em Díli e por historiadores como o francês Frédéric Durand.

Timor-Leste foi o primeiro território em que a aplicação prática da inculturação veio a ter um impacto concreto, ao inspirar o uso litúrgico da língua tétum por oposição ao indonésio.

"Se a liturgia fosse em indonésio, criar-se-ia repugnância e tensão", após a ocupação e a proibição da língua portuguesa, recordou à Agência Lusa o jesuíta João Felgueiras, de 71 anos, em Timor-Leste desde 1971.

"O uso do tétum na liturgia foi uma bandeira política e a igreja, através da sua acção e da sua influência, alimentou o movimento de libertação", acrescentou o sacerdote, um dos 18 jesuítas no país.

A teoria da inculturação tem antecedentes próximos no Concílio Vaticano II (1962-1965), "com um primeiro vento de tolerância em relação às igrejas orientais", como explica o historiador francês Frédéric Durand.

O primeiro resultado da nova tendência foi o "decreto sobre as Igrejas orientais católicas", que pôs termo à chamada "querela dos ritos", desencadeada na China no século XVII e que esteve na origem da dissolução da Companhia de Jesus entre 1773 e 1815.

O Concílio Vaticano II defendeu o interesse de "salvaguardar na sua integridade as tradições de cada igreja particular ou rito" e de "adaptar o seu modo de vida às necessidades dos tempos e dos lugares".

Dez anos depois, em 1974, o teólogo suíço W.Bühlmann consolidou a constatação de que a igreja católica estava no alvor de uma terceira era: depois de uma igreja "oriental" fundadora e de uma igreja "latina", chegava a vez de uma Terceira-Igreja, uma Igreja do Terceiro Mundo.

"Estas reflexões suscitaram a emergência do conceito de 'inculturação', que viria a ter um impacto forte em Timor", conta Frédéric Durand, autor de um livro sobre catolicismo e protestantismo na ilha de Timor.

A nova aproximação da Igreja considera que a "inculturação" é "a incarnação da vida e da mensagem cristãs num contexto cultural concreto".

Segundo essa teoria, é preciso isolar na mensagem de Jesus Cristo aquilo que é próprio de um local e tempo específicos, a Palestina de há dois mil anos.

Só esse esforço de separação permite guardar dos evangelhos o que é intrinsecamente "espiritual", para depois identificar o que, em cada cultura e sociedade, são os valores e traços passíveis de serem "revelações naturais locais".

O Papa João Paulo II usou este conceito a partir de 1979.

Em Timor-Leste, o princípio da inculturação permitiu defender o uso litúrgico do tétum.

João Felgueiras e outro jesuíta português que viveu a ocupação de Timor-Leste, José Alves Martins, afirmaram à Lusa que a Congregação do Culto Divino, em Roma, aprovou a proposta de monsenhor Martinho da Costa Lopes para o uso litúrgico do tétum.

"Conseguimos isso em pouco tempo, depois de termos dinamizado a tradução do cânone da missa", contou o padre José Alves Martins, sorrindo ao referir as "boas influências" da Companhia de Jesus no Vaticano.

"A Santa Sé nem sequer exigiu o tempo de experiência, privilégio que a língua indonésia não teve", acrescentou.

Os dois jesuítas referiram, aliás, "o apoio amigo do secretário da Nunciatura em Jacarta" para a adopção do missal em tétum.

"A partir de 1986, a teoria da inculturação permitiu também aumentar o boicote pelos sacerdotes da diocese de Díli aos cursos de ideologia Pancasila, os 5 princípios fundadores do Estado indonésio", sublinha Frédéric Durand.

O historiador francês refere também a importância que teve o respeito da igreja católica timorense dos antigos cultos locais, em oposição ao monoteísmo imposto pela Indonésia.

Frédéric Durand recorda, a propósito, as cerimónias realizadas pelo bispo Xímenes Belo nas duas montanhas sagradas timorenses, no Matebian em 1993 e no Ramelau em 1997.

Essa cerimónias destinavam-se a harmonizar as tradições animistas, do culto dos mortos e dos objectos "lulik", com a fé católica - colocando "Nossa Senhora, Rainha de Timor", no "pico dos antepassados".

Olhando para trás, João Felgueiras e José Alves Martins podem avaliar a contribuição dos jesuítas e de uma doutrina cara a superiores da Companhia de Jesus como Pedro Arrupe (1965-1983) e o seu herdeiro directo, Adolfo Nicolás.

"Assegurámos a maturação de uma identidade timorense e a continuidade histórica do que havia antes da ocupação", resumem os dois sacerdotes.



Lusa/fim

Os Estados Unidos da América "fizeram a sua parte" para resolver a situação dos médicos cubanos que não pretendem voltar a Cuba, afirmou hoje à Agênci

Díli, Timor-Leste 24/01/2008 17:07 (LUSA)
Temas: Saúde, Viagens, Política, Ajuda externa
Díli, 24 Jan (Lusa) - Os Estados Unidos da América "fizeram a sua parte" para resolver a situação dos médicos cubanos que não pretendem voltar a Cuba, afirmou hoje à Agência Lusa fonte diplomática em Díli.

Três elementos da brigada médica cubana em Timor-Leste obtiveram na embaixada norte-americana em Díli documentos que lhes permitem entrar em território norte-americano.

"Se eles ainda continuam em Timor-Leste é apenas por motivos que devem ser procurados junto do Governo timorense", afirmou a mesma fonte diplomática.

Raidén López Carrillo, a mulher Irina Valdés Pérez e Miriela Llanes Martínez obtiveram da embaixada dos Estados Unidos da América autorizações "equiparadas a visto" ao abrigo de um programa chamado "Special Public Benefit Parole".

Esta autorização é concedida "a título apenas provisório" por motivos humanitários ou por relevante interesse público, segundo um Dicionário de Imigração disponível na Internet.

Um outro médico cubano, Alexis Oriol Rodriguez, pediu e aguarda o mesmo tipo de autorização de entrada nos Estados Unidos da América.

Os quatro médicos estão, em qualquer caso, dependentes de uma autorização de saída do país das autoridades timorenses, até porque não possuem os seus passaportes, entregues à sua embaixada desde que aterraram em Díli, há dois anos.

Cuba tem, desde 2005, uma brigada de 227 médicos em Timor-Leste que assegura o funcionamento do sistema de saúde nacional.

O embaixador cubano em Díli, Ramón Hernández Vásquez, questionado pela Lusa na semana passada sobre a situação dos quatro cidadãos, considerou tratar-se de um caso de "imigração económica".

Já esta semana, o Presidente da República, José Ramos-Horta, pronunciou-se, no mesmo sentido, em declarações à Lusa.

"Não estou a gostar nada dessa brincadeira dos nossos amigos americanos", afirmou José Ramos-Horta, para quem a política norte-americana em relação a Cuba "é absurda" e "ditada pelo eleitorado cubano na Flórida".

A Lusa não conseguiu obter, até agora, qualquer esclarecimento oficial do Governo timorense sobre este caso dos médicos cubanos.



PRM/JSD.

Lusa/fim

Prorrogação do mandato da Missão Integrada da ONU em Timor-Leste

Washington, Timor-Leste 24/01/2008 21:15 (LUSA)
Temas: Política, Organizações internacionais, Conflitos (geral), força de paz
Washington, 24 Jan (Lusa) - O secretário-geral das Nações Unidas, Ban Ki-moon, defendeu hoje a prorrogação do mandato da Missão Integrada da ONU em Timor-Leste (UNMIT) por mais um ano, num relatório de 19 páginas enviado ao Conselho de Segurança.

Na sua proposta, Ban Ki-moon destaca a "situação frágil" ainda prevalecente em Timor-Leste e sublinha, em particular, a incapacidade da polícia de Timor-Leste em assumir responsabilidades pela segurança do país.

O actual mandato da UNMIT termina no final de Fevereiro e Ban Ki-moon defende que um novo mandato deve ser autorizado sem qualquer redução no pessoal da ONU em Timor-Leste.

O secretário-geral da ONU reconhece que a situação de segurança melhorou, "sem grandes incidentes de segurança ou de violência", mas as "persistentes diferenças e a falta de cooperação entre alguns dirigentes políticos e partidos impede o consenso de se resolverem algumas questões chave".

Destas, Ban Ki-moon destaca a questão dos cerca de 100 mil deslocados internos.

Para o secretário-geral da ONU, a "situação politica continua a ser frágil", e embora haja um empenho do governo em "assumir responsabilidades", o executivo liderado por Xanana Gusmão vai continuar a necessitar de ajuda.

Ban Ki-moon afirma ainda que neste momento "crítico" é essencial haver "um aumento do consenso nacional e apoio internacional sustentável para se consolidarem os avanços do último ano e assegurar que a cultura da democracia e da boa governação serão fortalecidas em Timor-Leste".

Depois de referir a melhoria da situação de segurança em Timor-Leste, Ban Ki-moon alude a problemas entre a polícia timorense e as forças policiais da ONU, afirmando que agentes da polícia timorense têm "resistido" à supervisão e aconselhamento pela polícia da UNMIT "por se considerarem prontos a assumir maiores responsabilidades operacionais".

O secretário-geral da ONU salientou ainda que vários dirigentes timorenses têm manifestado "preocupações" sobre a lentidão da "certificação" de agentes policiais timorenses e da entrega de responsabilidades à Polícia Nacional de Timor-Leste.

Contudo, Ban Ki-moon considera que a policia timorense ainda está longe de estar pronta a assumir maiores responsabilidades.

A polícia é uma das "instituições mais críticas" para Timor-Leste que "precisa de ajuda sustentável", para o que requer ainda "mais treino, desenvolvimento institucional e maiores capacidades para estar em posição de assumir responsabilidades totais para enfrentar potenciais situações de segurança voláteis".

Ban Ki-moon salienta que os agentes da força policial da ONU "continuam a ser necessários para responder aos confrontos entre grupos e distúrbios públicos".

"A ocorrência diária de distúrbios públicos faz sublinhar a necessidade da continuação da presença policial da UNMIT para levar a cabo interinamente a aplicação da lei até que a força policial nacional esteja totalmente reconstruída", sustenta.

O secretário-geral da ONU faz ainda notar que "apesar de uma melhoria da situação de segurança em geral no país e outros avanços, Timor-Leste continua a fazer face a enormes desafios" e que "muito permanece ainda por fazer" nas diversas áreas de governação.

Ban Ki-moon propõe de seguida a extensão do mandato da UNMIT "por mais 12 meses na sua actual força e composição".

O documento faz notar que a Assembleia Geral da ONU aprovou a verba de 160,6 milhões de dólares (cerca de 108,7 milhões de euros) para os 12 meses de operação da UNMIT mas, até Setembro de 2007, os países membros da ONU apenas desembolsaram 82,7 milhões de dólares (56 milhões de euros).

Fontes diplomáticas na ONU disseram à Lusa que o relatório de Ban Ki-moon deverá ser analisado "formalmente" em Fevereiro pelo Conselho de Segurança.



JP/EL.

Lusa/Fim

FRETILIN says: “AMP Government cannot defend the State.”

FRENTE REVOLUCIONÁRIA DO TIMOR-LESTE INDEPENDENTE

FRETILIN

Rua dos Mártires da Pátria, Comoro, Dili, Timor-Leste,

Dili, 24 January 2008

FRETILIN says: “AMP Government cannot defend the State.”

Timor Leste’s largest political party FRETILIN today accused the “AMP” government of failing totally in its responsibility to defend and strengthen the key state institutions of an independent Timor-Leste.

Speaking at a press conference today in Dili, FRETILIN Secretary-General Mari Alkatiri said that over the last few weeks there have been many more examples of the Gusmão government behaving illegitimately and irresponsibly.

We see examples almost daily of illegal and unconstitutional decisions, especially in the way public money is being spent and public assets are being used,” said Mr. Alkatiri.

Last week, thousands of hectares of Timor-Leste’s scarce agricultural land was handed over to a foreign investor to grow sugar cane, without consulting local communities and with no reference to any overall plan for agricultural land use and development.”

Mr Alkatiri continued: “Tendering processes are not transparent. Ministers are acting without taking advice from their own Directors. Instead of working through our Timorese Public Service, task forces are set up, increasing dependence on foreign advisers.”

FRETILIN’s President Lu’Olo reinforced Mr Alkatiri’s statement. “The undermining of the justice sector is obvious,” said Lu’Olo. “Reinado remains free even though he is accused of the most serious crimes against the State. The security forces cannot provide security and defend the rule of law because different institutions issue different instructions. The IDPs will never return home if there is no security.”

FRETILIN is also demanding investigation of other examples of maladministration, including the dismissal or downgrading of public servants without due process; inappropriate public service selection; excessive expenditure by government members on their own security; overseas trips taken without any clear program; and attacks on freedom of the press and the institution of parliament

The parliament is a key institution in a democracy,” said Mr. Lu’Olo. “The AMP government treats it with no respect, using its majority to force matters through without proper discussion, breaking the Parliament’s own rules. The Budget was approved without any transparency about the process of execution.”

Mr Alkatiri concluded: “Timor-Leste is in danger of becoming a failed state. FRETILIN has clear proposals to stop this. We put forward a proposal to the UN Secretary General, to use high-level Commissions which include FRETILIN representation to investigate and resolve the problems in key including Security, Justice, Reinado & the petitioners, the IDPs, and Reform of the Public Administration, PNTL and F-FFDTL.”


For further information, contact Arsenio Bano 7339416

* This press release was published by ETAN

Washington divides over foreign food aid

By MATTHEW LEE AND MARY CLARE JALONICK
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITERS


In this photo released by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Chris Koch loads 1 of 40 bundles on a C-17 Globemaster III at Baghram Air Base for a Joint Precision Airdrop Delivery System of 40 bundles of humanitarian supplies to a drop zone in Afghanistan, on Monday Jan., 14, 2008. Sgt. Kock is a loadmaster from the 17th Airlift Squadron Charleston Air Force Base S.C., and is deployed to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron in Southwest Asia. (AP Photo/U.S. Air Force, Master Sgt. Andy Dunaway)
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration is fighting congressional efforts to slash the amount of emergency food aid the United States provides around the world, saying the cuts could hurt up to 8 million people in dire need.

Members of Congress argue that the reductions in aid, included in both the House-passed and Senate-passed versions of a new five-year farm bill, are needed to ensure there are enough dollars for longer-term projects that they say are equally, if not more, important because they can prevent drought, famine and other catastrophes in developing countries.

But the administration says they would hamstring the U.S. humanitarian response to global crises and the U.S. ability to reduce suffering among the world's most impoverished people.

The debate cuts to the heart of philosophical differences over foreign aid and, for some, touches on the age-old question of whether it is better to give a man a fish to feed himself immediately or teach a man to fish so he can eat for years to come.

At issue are provisions in both versions of the farm bill that would set strict limits on how much the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development can spend on "emergency" and "non-emergency" food assistance overseas.

As it has in previous years, Congress has allocated $1.2 billion for the "Food for Peace" program through spending legislation that provides both types of aid. Of that, the administration wants $850 million for emergency aid and $350 million for non-emergency aid but also wants to keep its ability to transfer cash between the accounts.

The administration frequently has used that waiver authority to move money from the non-emergency category to the emergency category to respond to urgent crises like the Indian Ocean tsunami, and it wants to keep such authority.

However, the farm legislation headed to conference negotiations between the two chambers would eliminate that authority and require the administration to spend between $100 million and $250 million less on emergency assistance and more on non-emergency aid, such as crop management and training programs.

The House bill would require the administration to spend $450 million of the $1.2 billion on non-emergency food assistance. The Senate measure goes further, requiring that half of the total be spent on non-emergency aid.

The requirements would force the administration to look elsewhere for extra dollars if it wanted to spend more than is allocated for emergency spending.

Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and other supporters of the farm bill provisions say the administration waivers are depleting non-emergency development dollars.

Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., who added the House provision, said he did so on behalf of several international aid organizations that repeatedly have seen money for their long-term development programs taken away for emergency aid.

If the administration wants more money for the emergency funds, they argue, then it can request more money overall for international food aid.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in a Jan. 11 letter to Harkin that the provisions could undermine the U.S. ability to save lives in emergency situations.

For example, she said the reduction in emergency funding in the Senate bill is equivalent to the entire food operation in Sudan's troubled western Darfur region, one of the world's worst humanitarian crises.

She urged Harkin to eliminate the spending caps or give the president "reasonable flexibility" to waive them to respond to emergency food crises. "Addressing humanitarian emergencies is a priority of the highest order for the administration."

USAID officials say if the proposed caps had been in place last year, the United States would only have been able to supply emergency food aid to Sudan, Ethiopia and Somalia - the three most famine-prone countries in the world - and forced to abandon people needing food in almost every other crisis worldwide without supplemental funding from Congress.

That would have affected as many as 8 million people in Afghanistan, southern Africa, Congo, the countries of the Sahel, Nepal, Zimbabwe and Uganda, they say.

While sympathetic to the need to respond to crises, Harkin and other proponents of the caps are unconvinced by the administration argument and maintain that money for long-term programs must be increased and not cut.

"There is no question that the U.S. must respond in times of international food and humanitarian emergencies," Harkin said. "Unfortunately, those emergency funds have been drawn away from development aid, which would help people avoid future emergencies."

"With more adequate funding for food assistance and careful advance planning, we can better address emergency needs and lay the foundation for development that reduces long-term hunger and poverty," he said.

The conflict over international food aid is only one issue that farm-state members of Congress will have to resolve in farm bill negotiations. The administration has threatened to veto both versions of the bill, saying they would increase taxes and not do enough to limit farm subsidies to wealthy farmers.

ADMINISTRASI KXG - JLG DAN KEMISKINAN MULTIDIMENSIONAL

Suara Timor Lorosae
Edition: 15 January 2008
ADMINISTRASI KXG - JLG DAN KEMISKINAN MULTIDIMENSIONAL
“Development Administration refers not only to a government’s effort to carry out programs designed to meet their developmental objectives, but also to the struggle to enlarge a government’s capacity to engage in such programs.” (Fred W Riggs)
SELAMAT datang Perdana Menteri Kayrala Xanana Gusmao dan Wakil Perdana Menteri Dr. Jose Luis Guterres (KXG – JLG) di tahun 2008. Masyarakat Timor Leste sedang bersiap siap untuk menunggu berputarnya jarung jam perubahan, hal ini mau tidak mau cuka atu tidak cuka kita harus mengakui keberhasilan melakukan pemilihan umum pertama dalam kurun waktu enam bulan adalah prestasi demokrasi bangsa Timor Leste di mata dunia yang bernunasa multi partidarismo. Sementara waktu di tengah-tengah kesibukan Pemerintahan Aliansi Maioritas Parlement (AMP), telah menyetuji anggaran belanja negara (Orsamento Geral do Estado-OGE) demi kepetingan negara dan masyarakat yang baru berumur 5 tahun merdeka, Komunitas Timor Leste-pun sedang antrian menanti-nantikan anggaran pembangunan untuk periode 2008 keberhasilan itu.

BENARKAH keberhasilan itu harus dipahami sebagai awal untuk menata kembali strategi pembangunan bangsa dan negara? Bukan sebaliknya, hanya diisi pembagian kekuasaan, maksimalisasi kepentingan elite dan kelompok, ungkapan politis dan plastis yang hanya membingungkan masyarakat.

DALAM konteks ini ada yang selalu terlupakan oleh elit politik pemimpin bangsa Timor Leste lebih-lebih para generasi tahun 75" tentang pentingnya administrasi pembangunan (development administration) dan pembangunan administrasi (administrative development) dalam menata strategi pembangunan. Bahkan, peran administrasi pembangunan dan pembangunan administrasi dapat dikatakan termarjinalisasi oleh prioritas pembangunan ekonomi, hukum, sosial, dan politik.

Tesis ini yang akan saya bangun. Salah satu penyebab tidak optimal-atau mungkin gagalnya-pembangunan bangsa adalah pengabaian peran administrasi untuk pembangunan dan pembangunan dalam bidang administrasi. Hal mana yang menyebabkan tingginya bureaupathology dalam birokrasi Timor Leste (TL) yang tercermin melalui tingginya kleptokrasi dan rendahnya sensitivitas serta kapasitas aparatur negara dalam pembangunan dan kebutuhan pelayanan masyarakat.

KEKUATAN negara-negara demokrasi modern selalu terletak pada sistem administrasi negaranya. Karena itu, kita mengenal istilah “Reagen’s Administration” atau juga Thatcher’s Administration. Hal ini sekadar menunjukkan, sistem pemerintahan yang kuat dicerminkan sistem administrasi negara yang juga harus kuat. Bahkan kelahiran new public administration dalam studi-studi administrative sciences amat diwarnai perkembangan dan dinamika reformasi administrasi (mudansa administração) yang terjadi di Amerika Serikat (AS) dan di Inggris. Konsep-konsep pemerintahan baru, seperti slimming state, reinventing government, debureaucratization, deregulation, dan privatization, dilahirkan oleh upaya-upaya untuk menjadikan administrasi negara kian efisien dan efektif dalam penyelenggaraan pemerintahan, pelayanan kepada publik, pembangunan bangsa secara keseluruhan.

KETIADAAN paradigma tentang peran, kedudukan, dan fungsi administrasi negara dalam pembangunan ini juga menjadi penyebab reformasi birokrasi di Timor Leste baru tidak memiliki visi, kehilangan roh, dan berjalan amat sporadis. Hingga kini tidak terlihat bentuk atau grand design yang diinginkan dalam rangka perubahan birokrasi, tidak ada kemauan politik dari pemerintah. Semua bentuk perubahan yang dijalankan di negara lain diadopsi tanpa tujuan yang terkait dan terintegrasi.

HASILNYA mudah dilihat. Angka korupsi tetap tinggi. Hasil survei Transparency International (TI) menempatkan Indonesia pada peringkat ke-122 dari 133 negara dalam Indeks Persepsi Korupsi. Dengan Indeks Persepsi Korupsi 1,9, posisi Indonesia di bawah Malaysia (5,2), Filipina (2,5), Vietnam (2,4), dan Papua Niugini (2,1). Dan Negara baru Timor Leste diancar-ancar akan menjadi peringkat korupsi pertama atu kedua dari dan seperti negara-negara tersebut di atas mengingat penanganan korupsi di Negara baru ini tidak serius untuk menyelesaikannya dan selalu dengan pendekatan politik seperti terjadi di RTTL, Kementerian Kesehatan, dan Kepolisian Negara. Hal ini Tidak diantisipasi serius maka akan terjadi Peringkat itu menunjukkan masih jauhnya Timor Leste dari cita-cita good governance sekaligus mengindikasikan kegagalan reformasi administratif Nasional (Mudansa Administrativa Nasional) untuk menciptakan pemerintahan yang bersih dan berwibawa.

KEPERCAYAAN pemerintah terhadap peran sentral administrasi negara dalam pembangunan di negara ini dapat dikatakan masih amat rendah terburuk. Pembangunan di semua sektor, baik ekonomi, politik, sosial, hukum, maupun pertahanan dan keamanan seakan-akan terlepas dan tidak beraras dari bingkai mesinnya, yaitu birokrasi. Mungkin ini yang membedakan Timor Leste dengan negara-negara demokrasi modern. Administrasi negara belum dipahami utuh baik sebagai (1) government’s effort to carry out programs designed to meet their developmental objectives maupun (2) the struggle to enlarge a government’s capacity to engage in such program. Ketidak pahaman terhadap peran dan fungsi administrasi dalam pembangunan menyebabkan tidak saja gagalnya program pembangunan, tetapi juga marjinalisasi peningkatan kapasitas administrasi negara sebagai agen pembangunan.

TAK ada lain yang diharapkan masyarakat Timor Leste (Sosiedade Timor Leste) pasca pemilu 2007 adalah pemerintahan yang katanya kuat, yang berpihak kepada keadilan dan kesejahteraan rakyat. Inilah momentum untuk mengembalikan kepercayaan rakyat kepada pemerintah AMP pimpinan Kayrala Xanana Gusmao dan Jose Luis Guterres (Pemerintahan IV Governu Konstituisional). Dan ini hanya dapat tercipta jika pemerintah yang berkuasa didukung administrasi negara yang kuat. Kita akan mendambakan “Xanana Administration”, seperti rakyat AS pernah memberikan kepercayaan dan bangga kepada “Reagen’s Administration”, juga rakyat Inggris kepada “Thatcher’s Administration” mari kita nantikan usaha itu.

TIDAK ADA lain yang dibutuhkan kecuali komitmen dan kesungguhan para pemimpin nasional, termasuk presiden dan Parlamen Nasional. Ada dua arah yang harus dituju oleh komitmen nasional dalam menciptakan pemerintahan yang kuat dan berwibawa. Pertama, komitmen untuk mereformasi dan mereposisi peran administrasi negara (= birokrasi) dalam pembangunan. Kedua, komitmen untuk menegakkan hukum bagi tiap pelanggaran birokratis, mulai dari mal-administrasi, korupsi, kolusi dan nepotisme. Kedua komitmen ini harus diberikan tidak saja oleh pemerintah, dan terutama Perdana Menteri sebagai kepala Pemerintahan (Chefe Governo), tetapi juga oleh lembaga-lembaga negara lainnya, Parlament, Prokurador Geral, dan PDHJ termasuk kepresidenan.

UNTUK itu perlu harus dilakukan sejumlah langkah strategis. Pertama harus dirumuskan arah pertumbuhan dan perkembangan (direction of growth) yang dikehendaki terhadap reposisi peran administrasi negara dalam pembangunan. Ini menyangkut perubahan dalam cara pandang, paradigma pemerintahan Aliansi Maioritas Parlamet (AMP) Pimpinan Kayrala Xanan Gusmao dan Jose Luis Guterres (KXG-JLG). Dalam pandangan saya, administrasi negara harus berperan sebagai pusat motor pembangunan dalam semua sektor. Karena itu, strategi pembangunan nasional tidak boleh hanya berisi indikator keberhasilan pembangunan sektoral, tetapi tiap sektor harus memiliki indikator keberhasilan peningkatan kapasitas administrasi sebagai penggerak pembangunan. Dengan kata lain, administrasi negara adalah cross cutting sector yang ada di semua sektor pembangunan.

Kedua, harus ada perubahan sistem (system change) yang memaksa setiap aparatur negara dan masyarakat tunduk pada ketentuan baru. Hal ini dimaksudkan sebagai garis potong tradisi birokrasi yang korup, tidak sensitif, dan tidak kapabel. Ketiga, arah pertumbuhan serta perubahan sistem itu harus merupakan proses yang direncanakan dan dikehendaki (planned and intended). Reformasi birokrasi bukanlah uji coba, trial and error, tetapi sebuah hasil dan proses yang terencana.

Amat diharapkan, Kayrala Xanana Gusmao dan Jose Luis Guterres (KXG dan JLG) mampukah menciptakan pembangunan yang terarah melalui perubahan sistem yang terencana (planned directional growth with system change), bukan sebaliknya, pembangunan yang mengarah static society: no plans, no change.

Memberantas Kemiskinan Merupakan Masalah Multidimensional

TIMOR LESTE adalah salah satu negara yang masih termasuk ‘negara “baru” di Asia pasifik. Ada anggapan bahwa negara “baru” ini sedang ‘diidentik dengan ‘kemiskinan’. Jadi, apabila ada negara yang masih termasuk kategori “baru merdeka” maka negara tersebut mengandung kemiskinan dimana-mana, baik di kota maupun di Suco. ‘Kemiskinan’ tidak memilih-memilih tempat dia mau “hinggap”, tidak peduli kota besar atau desa terpencil, sebagi contoh di kota Dili. Kota Dili adalah ibu kota negara Timor Leste yang menjadi pusat bisnis, pusat perdagangan, pusat tempat hiburan dan lain sebagainya yang berarti pusat perkonomian Timor Leste, pusat pemerintahan dan tempat keluar-masuknya uang.

KITA dapat melihat di setiap distrik-distrik pasti ada distrik yang perumahannya kumuh, berhimpitan satu dengan yang lain, atau pula ada penduduk yang mendirikan rumah ala kadamya di atas gunung matebian dan ramelau dan masih banyak lagi keadaan yang dapat menggambarkan ‘masyarakat miskin pedesaan’.

HAL ini dari berbagai ahli diintikan dengan kemiskinan yang merupakan masalah multidimensi yang ditandai oleh berbagai permasalahan seperti antara lain rendahnya kualitas hidup rata-rata penduduk, pendidikan, kesehatan, gizi anak-anak, dan air minum. Gambaran umum mengenai kemiskinan di Indonesia dapat dilihat dari Indeks Kemiskinan Manusia yang pada tahun 2001 diperkirakan sebesar 41%. Kondisi ini masih dipertahankan sampai sekrang namum selama lima tahun pertama muncul berbagai kampanye politika para petinggi negara ini namum indeks sebesar itu belum adanya perubahan.

INDEKS KEMISKINAN Manusia (Human Poverty Index, HPI) Persentase Penduduk Tanpa Akses Air Minum, Persentase Penduduk Hidup Sampai Umur 60 Tahun, Persentase Penduduk Tanpa Akses Pelayanan Kesehatan, Persentase Penduduk Dewasa Buta Huruf, Persentase Anak-anak Berberat Badan Parah dan Sedang. Masih buruknya kondisi kemiskinan secara umum merupakan dampak dari ketidak jelasan dari berbagai program pembangunan yang telah dilaksanakan selama lima tahun oleh Pemerintahan Fretilin. Bagaimana lima tahun kedepan kita menantikan untuk Pemerintahan Alinasi Maioritas Parlamen (AMP)! Mapukah Pemerintahan AMP untuk membrantaskan belenggu kemiskinan di Timor Leste? Semu itu adalah suatu proses, namum arah sasaran dan strategisnya harus jelas.

HASIL DARI berbagai program pembangunan antara lain adalah bahwa sampai dengan akhir tahun 2007, penduduk yang hidup sampai umur 60 tahun tercatat sebesar 20%.

Sementara itu, pada waktu yang sama, tingkat buta huruf penduduk dewasa ini tercatat masih sebesar 30,53%, penduduk yang tidak mempunyai akses ke air minum sebesar 22,0%, penduduk yang tidak mempunyai akses ke pelayanan kesehatan sebesar 25,48%, dan penduduk anak-anak yang berberat badan di bawah normal mencapai 26,0%. Berdasarkan perkembangan garis kemiskinan, lebih lanjut, jumlah penduduk miskin pada akhir tahun 2007 diperkirakan belum adanya satu indikator dari jumlah penduduk Timor Leste.

PADA TAHUN 2006, dalam pidato politik para petinggi dalam rangka penanggulangan kemiskinan menjadi salah satu prioritas pembangunan dengan target pengurangan penduduk miskin belum nampak dan terlihat hal ini hanyalah sebagai kompromisi politik belaka.

Namun target tersebut sulit dicapai mengingat kenaikan pajak dan sembilan bahan pokok yang terjadi 2 kali selama tahun 2005-2006 rata-rata lebih dari 50 persen. Kenaikan tersebut telah memicu melambungnya tingkat inflasi hingga mencapai 17,03 persen pada bulan Maret 2006 sehingga menambah beban hidup terutama masyarakat miskin.

Meningkatnya harga beras yang cukup besar pada bulan oktober 2007 diperkirakan juga akan mengurangi laju pengurangan penduduk miskin. Dengan demikian, target penurunan persentase penduduk miskin yang semula ditargetkan sulit untuk mencapai mengingat indikator dan model yang dipergunakan oleh pemerintah baik pemerintahan Fretilin maupun Pemerintahan AMP indikatornya pemberantasan kemiskinan tidak jelas.

KATA MISKIN sebenarnya mengandung makna keterperdayaan atau ketidakmampuan atau kesenjangan (gap) antara kebutuhan dengan tingkat kemampuan pemenuhan kebutuhan tersebut, yang mengakibatkan orang/masyarakat tersebut termarjinalkan dalam segala hal. Menurut saya sebagai pemerhati kemiskinan, kemiskinan dapat dikelompokan ke dalam 5 bentuk, yaitu :

1)Kemiskinan Moralitas, yaitu runtuhnya nilai moral di Timor Leste akan sebagai faktor penyebab utama dalam penyelenggaraan pembanguan nasional.

2)Kemiskinan absolut yaitu tingkat pendapatannya di bawah garis kemiskinan atau pendapatannya tidak cukup untuk memenuhi kebutuhan minimum (pangan, sandang, kesehatan, perumahan dan pendidikan);

3)Kemiskinan relatif adalah kondisi dimana pendapatannya berada pada posisi di atas garis kemiskinan, jika dibandingkan dengan pendapatan masyarakat sekitarnya;

4)Kemiskinan struktural adalah kondisi atau situasi miskin karena pengaruh kebijakan pembangunan yang belum menjangkau seluruh masyarakat sehingga menyebabkan ketimpangan pada pendapatan;

5)Kemiskinan kultural adalah mengacu pada persoalan sikap seseorang atau masyarakat yang disebabkan oleh faktor budaya, seperti tidak mau berusaha untuk memperbaiki tingkat kehidupan, malas, pemboros, tidak kreatif, meskipun ada usaha dari pihak luar untuk membantunya.

DI SAMPING hal di atas, saat ini Direção Nasional Estatistica (DNE) Kememterian Keuangan dan Perencanaan Pembangunan Nasional belum membuat suatu estimatisi klasifikasi kemiskinan ke dalam tiga kategori kelompok yang pendekatannya terhadap “rumah tangga miskin (RTM)”, yaitu : 1) hampir miskin; 2) miskin; dan 3) sangat miskin. Melihat beberapa teori pengelompokan kemiskinan tersebut sangat berpariatif dalam pendekatannya dan terlepas dari itu yang penting bagaimana meminimais tingkat kemiskinan.

Berdasarkan data terakhir BPS tingkat kemiskinan nasional (Timor Leste) per April 2001 sebesar 41 %. Data tersebut belum terlihat adanya perubahan kehidupan masyarakat di Timor Leste.

BERDASARKAN pelaksanan berbagai kebijakan penanggulangan kemiskinan selama ini, maka permasalahan yang dihadapi pada tahun 2000 sampai 2007 ini adalah pada upaya menyamakan persepsi mengenai penanggulangan kemiskinan dan mensinergikan berbagai kebijakan dan program terkait dengan upaya penanggulangan kemiskinan, baik yang dilaksanakan oleh pemerintah Timor Leste maupun UNDP, dan Lembaga Internasional, lembaga swadaya masyarakat dan parapihak lainnya.

Penyelesaian masalah di atas diharapkan dapat mempercepat upaya pengurangan jumlah penduduk miskin dan peningkatan kualitas hidup manusia di Timor Leste yang berada dalam kategori miskin.



Sasaran penanggulangan kemiskinan di tahun 2008-2012

SASARAN penanggulangan kemiskinan pada tahun 2008-2012 diharapkan: upaya untuk menguranginya penduduk miskin, meningkatnya askesibilitas masyarakat miskin terhadap pelayanan dasar terutama pendidikan, kesehatan dan prasarana dasar termasuk air minum dan sanitasi; upaya untuk mengurangi beban pengeluaran masyarakat miskin terutama untuk pendidikan dan kesehatan, prasarana dasar khususnya air minum dan sanitasi, pelayanan kesehatan dan pendidikan dan kesejahteraan ibu, serta kecukupan pangan dan gizi; meningkatnya kualitas keluarga miskin; dan meningkatnya pendapatan dan kesempatan berusaha kelompok masyarakat miskin, termasuk penerbitan sertifikat tanah rumah tangga miskin, meningkatnya askes masyarakat miskin terhadap permodalan, bantuan teknis, dan berbagai sarana dan prasarana produksi. Apabila sasaran tersebut dapat tercapai, maka pada akhir tahun 2012 diharapkan Indeks Kemiskinan Manusia bisa menurun.



Bagaimana arah dan kebijakan pembangunan tahun 2008-2012 ?

UNTUK mencapai sasaran tersebut di atas, maka kebijakan penanggulangan kemiskinan pada tahun 2008-2012 perlu dengan segera dan harus diarahkan pada: Perluasan Akses Masyarakat Miskin Atas Pendidikan, Kesehatan dan Infrastruktur Dasar Perluasan akses masyarakat miskin atas pendidikan, kesehatan dan infrastruktur dasar meliputi kegiatan prioritas sebagai berikut. Peningkatan akses dan kualitas pendidikan, meliputi: Penyediaan Dana Bantuan Subsidi Sekolah (PDBS) untuk SD, SDLB, SMP. SMA dan Sekolah Teknik Vokasional, penalokasian beasiswa kepada siswa-siswa dan mahasiswa yang berprestasi.



PENINGKATAN pelayanan kesehatan, meliputi, Pelayanan kesehatan penduduk miskin di puskesmas dan jaringannya sebagai pendukung. Pelayanan kesehatan bagi penduduk miskin di kelas III rumah sakit. Peningkatan sarana dan prasarana pelayana kesehatan dasar terutama di daerah terpencil, tertinggal. Peningkatan pelayanan kesehatan rujukan terutama untuk penanganan penyakit menular dan berpotensi wabah, pelayanan kesehatan ibu dan anak, gizi buruk dan pelayanan ke rawat daruratan. Pelatihan teknis bidan dn tenaga kesehatan untuk menunjang percepatan pencapaiannya.



PENINGKATAN sarana dan prasarana dasar bagi masyarakat miskin, meliputi: Pembangunan dan rehabilitasi perumahan nelayan dan perumahan rakyat; Pengembangan lembaga kredit mikro perumahan dan kegiatan; Pengembangan subsidi kepemilikan rumah bagi masyarakat berpenghasilan rendah; Peningkatan kualitas kawasan kumuh, desa tradisional.



PEMBANGUNAN prasarana dan sarana permukiman di pulau atauro dan Otonomi Especial Oe-Cusse, kawasan terpencil di berbagai distrik Atasabe, Bobonaro Letefo, Hautubuilico termasuk desa-desa terletak di daerah pengunungan; Pembangunan prasarana dan sarana air minum melalui pendekatan pemberdayaan masyarakat di berbagai lokasi /suco miskin, suco rawan air, suco pesisir, dan suco terpencil. Pengembangan program (uji coba) subsidi langsung tunai bersyarat, meliputi: Penyediaan Subsidi Langsung Tunai Bersyarat bidang pendidikan dan kesehatan kepada rumah tangga miskin di beberapa kabupaten percontohan; Penyediaan dukungan pembinaan peningkatan kesejahteraan bagi rumah tangga miskin.



PERLINDUNGAN SOSIAL, meliputi kegiatan prioritas sebagai berikut: Peningkatan perlindungan kepada keluarga miskin, termasuk perempuan dan anak, meliputi: Jaminan penyediaan pelayanan KB dan alat kontrasepsi bagi keluarga miskin; Peningkatan akses informasi dan pelayanan ketahanan keluarga serta fasilitasi pemberdayaan keluarga; Fasilitasi pembentukan Pusat Pelayanan Terpadu Pemberdayaan Perempuan (P2TP2). Peningkatan perlindungan kepada komunitas miskin, penyandang masalah sosial, dan korban bencana, meliputi: pemberdayaan sosial untuk masyarakat miskin; Pemberdayaan komunitas adat terpencil; Bantuan dan jaminan sosial untuk masyarakat rentan, termasuk korban bencana alam dan bencana sosial.



PENANGANAN masalah gizi kurang dan kerawanan pangan, meliputi: Perbaikan Gizi Masyarakat, dengan kegiatan prioritas: penanggulangan kurang energi protein (KEP), anemia gizi besi, gangguan akibat kurang yodium (GAKY), kurang vitamin A, dan zat gizi mikro lainnya pada rumah tangga miskin. Peningkatan Ketahanan Pangan, dengan kegiatan prioritas: penyaluran beras bersubsidi untuk keluarga miskin.



PERLUASAN kesempatan berusaha, meliputi: Peningkatan dukungan pengembangan usaha bagi masyarakat miskin, dengan kegiatan pokok: Percepatan pelaksanaan pendaftaran tanah rumah tangga miskin; Advokasi penataan hak kepemilikan dan sertifikasi lahan petani; Penyediaan sarana dan prasarana usaha mikro; Pelatihan budaya usaha dan teknis manajemen usaha mikro; Peningkatan pelayanan koperasi dalam peningkatan usaha mikro terutama melalui Program Perempuan Keluarga Sehat Sejahtera (Perkassa); Pembinaan sentra-sentra produksi tradisional.



Strategi penanggulangan kemiskinan di Timor Leste

SEBAGAI WUJUD kesungguhan para pengambil kebijakan di negara termiskin di celah-celah dua negara raksas yakni Indonesia dan Australia, strategi penanggulangan kemiskinan di Timor Leste untuk mengurangi kemiskinan, agar masyarakat miskin segera keluar dari belengu kemiskinan, pemerintah harus sunggguh-sungguh dan bekerjasama dengan berbagai pemangku kepentingan dari kalangan lembaga swadaya masyarakat, perguruan tinggi, swasta, organisasi kemasyarakatan dan melalui konsultasi publik dengan masyarakat di daerah, telah menyusun Strategi Nasional Penanggulangan Kemiskinan (SNPK) (Estrategia Nasional Hamenus Kiak-ENHK).



SEJALAN dengan itu saya menawarkan satu solusi kepada Menteri Solidariedade e Sosial Domingas Maria Alves Fernandes, perlu dengan segera menyusun dan meluncurkan SNPK dan segera mengadakan Temu Nasional Penanggulangan Kemiskinan di tahun 2008, Sosialisasi SNPK, dan segera megeluarkan suatu paduan kerja tentang Deklarasi Gerakan Nasional Penanggulangan Kemiskinan (DGNPK). Atau (Deklarasaun Movimento Nasional Kombate Kiak-DMNK) sebagai keterpaduan dalam pelaksanaan pengentasan kemiskinan di Timor Leste.



PENYUSUNAN dokumen SNPK tergolong lama dan perlu melibatkan berbagai pihak yang jumlahnya relatif banyak, baik di tingkat pusat maupun distrik-distrik, serta mendapat respon dari berbagai lembaga donor. Tahap penyusunan SNPK harus dimulai dari penyusunan I-PRSP (Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper) di tahun 2008, sebagai road map penyusunan SNPK. Pihak yang perlu terlibat lasnung dalam penyusunan ini adalah governu central, governu lokal, LSM nasional maupun Internasional, Parlamen Nasional, perguruan tinggi, dunia usaha, Lembaga Swadaya Masyarakat, tokoh masyarakat, tokoh agama, dan wakil masyarakat miskin.



SAAT INI secara substansial belum terjadi perubahan terhadap paradigma penanggulangan kemiskinan mengingat baru dalan konsep para pengganbil kebijakan di negara ini, mudah-mudahan para pemikir kita telah mempunyai suatu konsep dasar tentang pengentasan kemiskinan sebagai suatu “Gerakan Nasional-Movimento Nasional” yang dilakukan oleh masyarakat dengan subyek sasaran pada aspek manusianya, kelompok sasaran adalah kelompok masyarakat miskin potensial produktif dan proses pelaksanaan kegiatan dilakukan secara mandiri oleh kelompok masyarakat miskin dalam wadah kelompok masyarakat dengan menggunakan mekanisme musyawarah mufakat. Kegiatan tersebut berorientasi pada upaya peningkatan pendapatan, baik secara langsung maupun tidak langsung.



DI NEGARA Timor Leste merupakan suatu paradigma baru dalam penanggulangan kemiskinan adalah berdasarkan prinsip-prinsip adil dan merata, partisipatif, demokratis mekanisme pasar, tertib hukum, dan saling percaya yang menciptakan rasa aman. Berdasarkan prinsip-prinsip dalam paradigma baru tersebut, perlu suatu pendekatan yang digunakan dalam rangka upaya penanggulangan kemiskinan adalah pemberdayaan masyarakat yang menempatkan masyarakat sebagai pelaku utama pembangunan dan pemerintah sebagai fasilitator dan motivator dalam pembangunan. (**)



Penulis: Alumni FISIP UNTL Espesifikasi di Bidang Public Administrasi dan Tim Penyusun planing dan Strategi Perencanaan Program Desa Tertinggal tahun 1992-1997 di Timor Timur, dan Wartawan TVTL



Lamartinho de Oliveira

East Timor at risk of renewed violence

-- The Associated Press

(Updated Friday, January 18, 2008, 2:30 AM)

ADVERTISMENT
DILI, East Timor (AP) East Timor risks lapsing into civil conflict if divisions between police and army forces are not resolved, a security watchdog cautioned Friday, calling on the government and United Nations to act quickly.

Clashes between the police and army deserters from April to June 2006 gave way to gang warfare, looting and arson, said the International Crisis Group - a nonprofit conflict resolution think tank. At least 37 people were killed and 155,000 - a fifth of the population - were displaced.

Relative calm was restored by foreign troops and U.N. police who supervised 2007 elections in which Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta became president. But unresolved tension remains a threat to political stability.

Brussels-based ICG recommended the U.N. play a role in mediating between the police and army to resolve their differences.

With foreign forces on the ground, the government can "conduct a genuine reform of the security sector, but it will have to move quickly", John Virgoe, the group's Southeast Asia project director, was quoted as saying.

East Timor's government, led by former rebel leader Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, declined to comment on the report.

The U.N. oversaw East Timor's transition to independence in 2002 after the former Portuguese colony's bloody split from Indonesia. Up to 183,000 people died during the 1975-1999 occupation due to killings, disappearances, hunger and illness, a U.N. commission found. The U.N. oversaw East Timor's move to independence from 1999 to 2002.

East Timorese asked to forgive dictator Suharto

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

January 18, 2008


DILI, East Timor - East Timor's president called on his countrymen yesterday to forgive former Indonesian dictator Suharto, who ordered the invasion of the tiny nation in 1975 and then oversaw decades of brutal rule that left up to 200,000 dead.

"It is impossible for us to forget the past," said Jose Ramos-Horta, who shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize with countryman Bishop Carlos Belo for leading a nonviolent struggle against the Indonesian occupation. "But East Timor should forgive him before he dies."

Suharto was rushed to a hospital suffering from anemia and a dangerously low heart rate on Jan. 4. He has since developed sepsis, a potentially life-threatening blood infection, on top of multiple organ failure.

"Suharto is now in critical condition," Ramos-Horta told reporters. "He's just waiting for God's decision."

Indonesia ruled the tiny half-island territory until 1999, when a UN-organized plebiscite resulted in an overwhelming vote for independence.

Ramos-Horta said he did not think Suharto should be brought to justice for crimes carried out in East Timor.

Gusmao threatens to arrest East Timor media

The Australian


Mark Dodd | January 18, 2008

EAST Timor Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao has threatened to arrest
local journalists, claiming inaccurate news reporting in the troubled
territory is contributing to national instability.

Mr Gusmao told reporters they faced arrest if they persisted with
reporting as fact rumours and other unsourced claims.

The former president and veteran pro-independence leader slammed
local media over recent interviews with Major Alfredo Reinado, an
army rebel and key figure in the 2006 unrest that brought the tiny
nation to the brink of civil war.

"You have to exercise more responsibility towards the environment of
stability or instab-ility," he said.

"We (government) close our eyes when in the cause of small and big
things (stories) you go and interview Alfredo (Reinado).

"Perhaps because of these things, instability may emerge in the
country - because of you - (so) we will arrest you."

Mr Gusmao said 2008 was a year of reform in East Timor and that would
include the local media. The Australian understands Mr Gusmao was
particularly incensed by false reports that two people had been
killed during civil unrest in the Caicoli neighbourhood in Dili.

"The TV and radio report that people have died, and you (media) just
report it without going and asking," Mr Gusmao said. "If we talk
about reforming society, we must also talk about reforming you (media)."

TalkAsia interview with Jose Ramos Horta by Richard Quest -CNN

(CNN) -- Dr. Jose Ramos-Horta is the president of East Timor, the former Portuguese colony shattered by conflict in 1999. The Nobel Peace Prize laureate recently spoke with CNN's Richard Quest in the presidential office about his lifelong work fighting for his people, achieving independence, and the 2006 violence that plagued the country.

Ramos-Horta also spoke about the role the United Nations plays in his country and how he has reconciled with the Indonesian army

BLOCK A

RQ: Hello, welcome to TalkAsia. I'm Richard Quest in Dili, East Timor. Look at the picture behind me, it is picture postcard perfect. White sandy beaches, crystal clear blue water, a nice spot for a bit of tourism. But this is East Timor, a country driven by decades of strife and violence. My guest this week on TalkAsia is the new president of the country, Jose Ramos Horta. This is TalkAsia.

We met in Dili where the international community is still working to make East Timor a safe place to live.

RQ: For three decades, you fought for independence. And then you got it, and you went one better, you became President of the country. But you are in that very small group of people in the world, who are in many ways, above politics, above party politics. And I think of the prime example, Nelson Mandela, the people who are, have transcended the daily fight.

JRH: Well, of course I don't want to create any, mislead anyone. I definitely do not compare myself to Nelson Mandela, I'm me, with my limited qualities and my many flaws, my many sins. But yes, I abhorred party politics in this country. I quit party politics almost 20 years ago, to be fairly neutral, not to be above anyone, but I simply refuse to be involved in our petty partisan politics, it does not mean that there are not many good people in the political party system. Of course there are, there are many good people, and because of them that I have hopes for our country and for democracy in this country.

RQ: You are that rare breed of international politician, a Nobel Peace Prize winner, but nobody says no to you.

JRH: I'm a fortunate that having to spent 24 years abroad, but I put a lot of effort in cultivating people. I have many good friends in Washington, in US Congress, in Europe, in Australia, in Asia, everywhere. But because I did it out of respect for these people whom I came across, and they were very caring about East Timor. So today I'm very privileged to say that I'm in the good favor of someone like Bill Clinton, I'm in good favor of many senators in Washington.

RQ: Which countries around the world do you believe you can, if not emulate, at least imitate?

JRH: Well we of course, we are a bit over a million now. 1.1 million. Population growth is very, very high, I don't know if it's something we should be proud of. But we oil and gas resources, tremendous potential for tourism, our coffee is, I would say the best in the world. I would see East Timor develop as Dubai. We have a United Arab Emirates, particularly Dubai. We have oil, we have gas, if we invest strategically, wisely. If we diversify right now our current investment portfolio, where we have 1.5 billion dollars in US treasury bonds, we get 100 million dollars every month, and this will increase in the next few years from other fields. We can turn East Timor into a sort of Dubai in Southeast Asia.

RQ: What do you see as being the UN's role here? What do you think of the United Nations?

JRH: Well the UN obviously is not made up entirely of Mother Teresas and the Einsteins. The UN is us, all of us. East Timor is a member of the UN. And we all are the qualities and the flaws. The UN in our country was extremely important particularly in 1999, when the Security Council in a very expeditious manner, authorized a peacekeeping force, peace enforcing force to come to Timor Leste. But then the Security Council authorized, the then UN transition administration, to be here only for two years, to build a nation-state from ashes. Well I told friends in the Security Council, not long ago, a few months ago in New York, do you realize how long does it take to make a small takeaway business, takeaway restaurant in New York, Manhattan, profitable? Well, three, five years. Do we want to make a nation-state viable in two years?

RQ: How long will it take, do you believe, to create this nation-state then?

JRH: Well, we need...because we started from zero in 2002. The UN had two year mandate to build the institution of the state. In two years! It's mind-boggling, you know, that they thought in New York that you can build a nation-state in two years. But it was not only the fault of the UN. Many of our own people here, leaders included, were in a hurry to get in the panels. After 24 years, after 500 years of Portuguese rule. I was a lonely voice who argued at the time in New York and here, we should try to get the UN to be here for at least five years and then independence come only at the fifth year. But by the time the UN left in 2002, we have basically the sketch, the skeleton of a state, not a really functioning state.

BLOCK B

Intro- RQ: After years of calm...

RQ: From the outside looking in, you fought for so many years for peace and independence. You got independence. So why is there still violence here?

JRH: Well, sometimes, it's obviously there is a much exaggeration in the way the situation here is reported. The politicians fight each other but I have not seen a politician in this country fighting each other with guns. The violence that took place last year was mostly done by some elements in the armed forces, in the police, that were...resented each other. There were rivalries in discipline and there were violence carried out by gangs, youth gangs, partly because of drugs, alcohol, partly because of feeling of alienation, of poverty and unemployment.

RQ: But you did call in an external military force from Australia and New Zealand.

JRH: That's true, we could have prevented a civil war on our own, maybe. But at that time, I was foreign minister still. I discussed this dilemma with my friends, my colleagues, including with the bishop. Our pride aside, we simply thought we should not take chances; we should not risk more people getting hurt. We thought no, we could not risk lives here. There are divisions, deep divisions within our police force, deep divisions within our defense force. The two institutions that are supposed to guarantee security and tranquility to our people were divided up, were fighting each other. So we decided no, let's call support from our friends like Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, and Portugal.

RQ: I've met many people for whom I've used the phrase "they've lived in exile." But I've never understood, so tell me sir, what is it like to go into exile? What's it like?

JRH: Well, you know when I first arrived in New York, December '75. Having never been in a big city in my life, have never seen snow in my life, and my duty was to speak before the Security Council at age 25 or 26. My first meeting was with the-then Soviet Union ambassador Mr. Yakov Malik. Someone in his 70s. He was already Soviet ambassador in San Francisco, when the UN was founded. Well the whole time I was talking to him, briefing him about East Timor, he was sleeping. And because you're sleeping and because I'm very polite, I talked even more softly because I didn't want to wake him up. And also I was worried, if I talked too loudly, he'll wake up, he gets annoyed at me for waking him up. So that was my first great diplomatic encounter in New York.

RQ: I suppose you spent a lot of time explaining to people where East Timor is on the map.

JRH: That's true. Most people...well in the UN they knew. But Americans, New Yorkers, every time I tell someone that I'm from East Timor, they say, you mean you're an Eskimo? Or they'll say, oh you're from Istanbul? Just to explain to people where we are, who we are, what we want...

RQ: You never gave up, what kept you going?

JRH: No, I actually never thought of giving up. Or every time something like that cross my mind, I would...a voice would tell me, my conscience would tell me, that if I were to give up, I would be betraying those who trusted me to speak for them.

RQ: Your personal loss during the years of struggle was quite huge, wasn't it?

JRH: Yes, I lost a sister and two younger brothers.

RQ: Two of whom you don't even know where they're buried?

JRH: Exactly. Yes. Till today, we don't know how they were killed, where they were killed. The sister, the luckiest one, she was killed. People saw she's been killed, she was buried. The local people, humble people, barefoot, poor, kept watch on her for 24 years. Then when I came back, I went to that village, we dug out her body and we reburied in the family grounds in Dili. The other two, we don't know where, how they were killed.

RQ: How do you live with that?

JRH: Well I absolutely...unable to. It's part of the enormous sacrifice many other Timorese, thousands of Timorese paid for it. My mother, who today lives in Australia, she doesn't...cannot bring herself to accept that reality. She's very angry why I and the other brothers and sisters, we tend to forgive. She is not prepared to forgive.

RQ: But where is your anger, Mr. President?

JRH: Well in the worst of the violence in '99, I was very angry. I wanted to see an international tribunal to charge those responsible for the violence. But then as Indonesian troops vacated East Timor, they were humiliated. You know, Indonesia is a very proud country. Their army was not defeated here, they left because there were changes in Indonesia that took place -- the Suharto dictatorship fell. And they swallowed their pride and they left. Should we wrap the wounds, no, I at that time said no, we must understand them and with them, normalize relations. We met within weeks of our country's freedom in '99. The deal was still burning. I was already in Jakarta meeting with some of the generals, whose names I heard and when I saw their nametag, I recognized some of their names that were orchestrating the violence here.

BLOCK C

RQ: You won the Nobel Peace Prize and then you gave away the money and you gave away the medal to be sold for your people.

JRH: Yes, I gave away the medal, yes. To those who really deserved it.

RQ: What was it like winning the peace prize?

JRH: How was it like?

RQ: What was it like, yes?

JRH: Well, I was embarrassed, I was shocked when I heard the news, I couldn't believe. I thought others deserve it more than I did, and of course then it was extraordinary to advance because of freedom of democracy for my country.

RQ: But there's no doubt that winning the Nobel Peace Prize vests the recipients in an authority that nothing else does.

JRH: No, the individual, the individual in himself or herself must have had already a lot of credibility. Otherwise you will not win the Nobel Peace Prize. Because of his record, her record, he got the Nobel Peace Prize and then you have international recognition, visibility, and make his life, his work easier.

RQ: Vice President Al Gore is the latest recipient of the Prize.

JRH: Well, I congratulate Vice President Al Gore for winning the Nobel Peace Prize, for his work on the environment, and on this occasion, I wish to think of the many more whom I know, who have been struggling for the environment for their case in my vicinity, Australia, that is the Australian politician, Doctor Bob Brown. He's been struggling for making environment an issue for 30 years. I don't know whether writing a book and making a film is enough to win a Nobel Peace Prize, but I congratulate Al Gore for that, I don't know what he did. Eight years in White House, whether he did much to advance the cause of the environment, when he was, he was a powerful Vice President of the United States.

RQ: So this is your presidential...

JRH: Yeah, that is my humble office. Although I'm moving to an office you've seen here on the beachfront.

RQ: Is this the one that's being built with the help the Chinese? (JRH: Yeah.) It's fast! Why do you need such a big palace?

JRH: Well, we have, we're walking towards membership in ASEAN. We will need at least 250 staff, and actually the building was designed for 150. So actually it's going to be small.

RQ: But I'm very impressed and encouraged sir, your palace is over the road from your people.

JRH: Yes and I always say hello to them and my office is open to their bare foot. Just now I met with some 8 to 10 people who came from some remote villages of the country. And I was sitting there chatting with them, and to start implementing with them, the anti poverty problem, some of the projects that I picked.

RQ: How easy is it for an ordinary member of your country to get to see the President?

JRH: Well, of course there are many, many who want to see me, not everybody manage this because of time factor. But yesterday I spent quite a bit of time twice with an old, old lady, such a lovely delightful woman, very simple, illiterate, maybe in her 70s. She came all the way from the rural area, traveling at least four, five hours on a bus to come to see me. Fortunately I saw her, and immediately walked, invited her into the office. So I see people often. (RQ: Did she like it?) Oh yeah, yeah. And I enjoy them, it's not only my obligation but I actually enjoy them simple people, you know chatting with them, hearing stories from them, but also of course trying to help them.

RQ: You said to me sir, if the going gets really tough, and it all gets really nasty, and everybody start saying...you'll tell them what?


JRH: Well I tell them, you know, on camera I have to be diplomatic but I say these. I don't need this job, I don't want this job, so don't waste your time with demonstrations, don't waste your shoes, don't do shouts, don't scream, it's just a few of you. Write up a letter to me, saying sir, you should resign, and I'll resign. I'm not Musharraf, I'm not Saddam Hussein, I'm not George W. Bush who hangs in there 8 years, all these. I don't really care. I'm here because so many people pushed me. I got 70% of the votes. People seem to like me, but if in a few months from now, they realized that it was a mistake, well, just let me know.

RQ: Mr. President, thank you for talking to TalkAsia. Thank you

Indonesia's Suharto on deathbed

Jan 12, 2008 9:35 PM
As Indonesia's former President Suharto lay critically ill in hospital on Saturday, the military and police rushed to prepare the Suharto family's mausoleum in central Java for his burial.

The 86-year-old Suharto, who ruled Indonesia for more than three decades, suffered multiple organ failure on Friday and was put on a ventilator to help him breathe.

By Saturday morning, doctors said his condition had improved and that he showed a response.

But at the Suharto family's mausoleum, 35 km north-east of the Javanese royal city of Solo, soldiers and military police guarded the complex as workmen unloaded tents and an excavator was brought in to prepare Suharto's grave.

Reporters in Solo were issued with press IDs saying "Press - Funeral of Grand General (Retired) HM Soeharto".

"We are anticipating all possibilities. It is part of the police job," said Dodi Sumantyawan, the central Java police chief, after surveying the Suharto family mausoleum.

The Giribangun mausoleum, a three-tiered building with wooden pillars and a stupa-like roof, is perched on a hilltop and surrounded by trees.

Suharto's wife Tien, who was a member of the Solo royal family, is buried there in a chamber with walls of intricately carved wood.

A few visitors stopped by at the mausoleum.

Sumiarsih, who travelled from the neighbouring district of Sragen with her son and husband to pay homage at Tien's grave, said she prayed for Suharto's recovery.

"He's done a great service to the nation and we hope he can be well again," she said.

Graft case

In Jakarta, doctors said that Suharto, who has been critically ill in hospital for more than a week, is conscious but remains on a ventilator.

"There is still multiple organ failure but we are trying to fix it," said Mardjo Soebiandono, the head of the medical team treating Suharto.

Indonesia's Attorney-General, who visited the ailing Suharto and his family in hospital overnight, told reporters that the government would still seek an out-of-court settlement in a graft case against the former general.

After he quit office, Suharto was charged with embezzling hundreds of millions of dollars of state funds, but the government later dropped the case due to his poor health.

Last year, state prosecutors filed a civil suit seeking a total of $US440 million of state funds and a further $US1 billion in damages for the alleged misuse of money held by one of Suharto's charitable foundations.

"The President gave instructions to me to pursue the family of Suharto to finalise an out-of-court settlement of the civil case," Attorney-General Hendarman Supandji told reporters at the hospital, adding that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had issued the request while on an official visit to Malaysia.

Suharto and his family deny any wrongdoing.

The sudden deterioration in Suharto's health last weekend prompted some senior politicians to call for legal proceedings against him to be dropped. But the attorney-general said his office would press ahead with a civil case.

Indonesia's elite

Suharto was rushed to Pertamina hospital a week ago suffering from anaemia and low blood pressure due to heart, lung and kidney problems.

Family members gathered at the hospital as his health deteriorated during the week, while a "who's who" of Indonesian society, including relatives, various government ministers, businessmen, religious leaders, and military men, have flocked to his bedside to pay their respects.

Suharto came to power after an abortive coup on September 30, 1965 that was officially blamed on the communist party. Up to 500,000 people were killed in an anti-communist purge in the months that followed.

Some Indonesians, though, look back with nostalgia to the Suharto era, when Indonesia was one of Asia's tiger economies, and refer to him fondly as the "Father of Development".


Source: Reuters

Pelo menos 15 pessoas ficaram feridas e 20 casas foram incendiadas hoje em Suai,

Díli, Timor-Leste 04/01/2008 13:44 (EFE LUSA)
Temas: Polícia, governo, Agitação civil, Motins
Díli, 04 Jan (Lusa) - Pelo menos 15 pessoas ficaram feridas e 20 casas foram incendiadas hoje em Suai, sul de Timor-Leste, durante confrontos entre grupos rivais já condenados pelo primeiro-ministro timorense, Xanana gusmão, que ordenou a detenção dos instigadores.

Segundo uma investigação preliminar, os confrontos terão sido instigados por três polícias e um funcionário da administração local.

"Ordeno à polícia, à UNPol (Polícia da ONU) e à ISF (Força Internacional de Segurança) que prenda esses polícias porque chegou a hora de mudar a mentalidade deste país (…), a mentalidade de nos matarmos uns aos outros, de queimar as casas e de destruir as propriedades dos outros", afirmou Xanana Gusmão.

De acordo com o inspector Mateus Fernandes, os três agentes da polícia timorense referidos por Xanana Gusmão foram detidos hoje à tarde (hora local) e levados para a esquadra de Suai, cidade situada a cerca de 90 quilómetros a sul de Díli.

Os confrontos envolveram elementos dos grupos de artes marciais "Sete Sete" e "Persaudaraan Setia Hati Teratai" e ocorreram um dia depois de distúrbios em Díli e no distrito de Ermera, a sul da capital, entre grupos rivais.

Os grupos de artes marciais estiveram também envolvidos na espiral de violência que afectou Timor-Leste em 2006, de que resultaram pelo menos 30 mortos e mais de 150 mil pessoas deslocadas, e que quase levou o país à guerra civil.

Na sequência dessa crise, as autoridades timorenses pediram a intervenção de uma força militar e policial à Austrália, Portugal, Nova Zelândia e Malásia, a missão da ONU foi reforçada e o líder da Fretilin, Mari Alkatiri, foi substituído na chefia do governo por José Ramos-Horta.

Em 2007, realizaram-se eleições em Timor-Leste que levaram José Ramos-Horta à chefia do Estado e Xanana Gusmão, até então Presidente da República, ao cargo de primeiro-ministro.



PNG.

Lusa/Fim

UN Seeks 'Progress' in Western Sahara

By JOHN HEILPRIN – 19 hours ago

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — A U.N. negotiator is brokering talks starting Monday between Morocco and the pro-independence Polisario Front, hoping for "quick progress" in the 32-year dispute over the Western Sahara.

The talks are being held as Western nations try to pressure North African countries to contain their growing violence linked to al-Qaida and radical Islamists.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed hope for a breakthrough from the third such round of talks between the two parties since June, but the Polisario's U.N. representative was pessimistic. Morocco's U.N. mission did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

The discussions are off-limits to reporters.

"This is a painstaking and very complex issue, and I hope that this time they will be able to make quick progress," Ban told reporters Monday at his first press conference of this year.

Officials from Morocco and the Polisario independence movement were scheduled to meet for dinner Monday at a conference center in the secluded Greentree estate in Manhasset, N.Y., that the United Nations sometimes uses for private talks.

The negotiations were due to begin in earnest on Tuesday, and to wrap up on Wednesday.

Ban urged both Morocco and the Polisario guerrillas "to make full use of this week's round of talks to begin moving into a more intensive and substantive phase of discussions."

His special envoy, Peter van Walsum, is mediating the talks under the terms of two U.N. Security Council resolutions last year. The Security Council has voted unanimously to call on the two sides to talk without "preconditions."

Ahmed Boukhari, the Polisario's U.N. representative, said Monday evening that neither side had changed their position and he believed "the chance to make progress is very, very slim."

"We hope that Morocco will abandon their unilateral rhetoric, but so far they're rejecting our proposals and they're trying to persuade and impose their objective on the international community, which is the annexation of our country," Boukhari told The Associated Press by telephone on his way to Manhasset.

Boukhari said the Polisario Front wants Morocco to at least agree to the confidence-building measures they rejected in the last round of talks, including eliminating land mines in Western Sahara and improving the human rights situation.

After Spain's withdrawal from the region as a colonial power, Morocco took over the Western Sahara in 1975. That sparked the fighting between Morocco and the Polisario Front independence group, each vying for control of a desert area rich in phosphate and other resources.

They agreed to a U.N.-brokered cease-fire in 1991, and since then the United Nations has approved $46 million for peacekeeping in the region, including 504 troops, observers and other personnel, according to official figures. At least 15 U.N. personnel have been killed trying to establish peace there.

Morocco never delivered on its promise to hold a referendum on self-determination for the Saharawis in the region, and the Polisario guerrillas, backed by Algeria — Morocco's rival — have threatened to resume fighting with Morocco if the dispute is not resolved.

A series of suicide bombings has rocked Algeria since last year, including an attack in December that killed 17 U.N. staff and 20 others in Algiers.

Associated Press writer Lily Hindy contributed to this report from New York.

Unfulfilled protection and assistance needs hamper the return of the displaced

September 2007
Unfulfilled protection and assistance needs hamper the return of the displaced

More than a year after riots and fighting rocked Timor-Leste and sent over 150,000 people to seek refuge, the majority of the internally displaced people (IDPs) are still unable or unwilling to return, and remain in camps in and around the capital, Dili, or hosted by friends and families in Dili and in the districts. An Australian-led international force has since June 2006 restored law and order, but the security situation has remained unstable, with sporadic violence causing further displacement and hampering return. The announcement of the formation of the new government on 6 August 2007 triggered civil unrest, mainly in eastern districts traditionally loyal to the former ruling party FRETILIN, which resulted in the displacement of more than 4,000 people.
It is estimated that 100,000 people remain displaced in the country, with ap-proximately 30,000 living in camps in Dili and 70,000 living in the rural districts, mainly with host families. Urgent problems for camp inhabitants involve a wide range of protection issues, including lack of access to healthcare, lack of adequate water and sanitation, but, while most of the assistance has focused on Dili, people are most vulnerable in the eastern districts, where the influx of displaced people has placed great strain on the very limited resources available to host communities.


* The above article although is outdated, the story remains relevant to this day.But we should take note that some of the IDPs have since returned to their homes with the assistance of the new government.

Peace building in Timor's violent capital

Timor Leste blog Friday, 4 January 2008

Concern Worldwide is strengthening its work in the areas of
peace-building and conflict transformation in Timor Leste. Given
Timor's status as a post-conflict society with an edgy and, at times,
volatile security situation, the work is both timely and relevent.

Last year's widespread violence that left a tenth of the population
homeless and nearly spiralled into a civil war is a fresh scar in the
collective psyche of this young nation. It's hard not to be. Evidence
of the fallout is painfully visible in the capital of Dili where
ragtag camps of internally displaced people crowd neighbourhoods,
city parks, hospital grounds and the boundary of the international airport.

Low-intensity but often brutal violence is a constant feature of
daily life in this impoverished capital. Beheadings are not uncommon,
nor are incidents involving poisoned darts, machetes, knives and
other instruments of urban warfare. Gang fights involving scores of
young men, often members of martial arts groups, erupt in Dili's
streets with depressing regularity.

In an effort to support stability and the rule of law in this
fledgling democracy, Concern is supporting local non-governmental
organizations, individuals and institutions that are working on
resolving conflict non-violently. In the autumn, Concern and some
partner organizations hosted a training workshop for the leaders of
martial arts groups in techniques of conflict analysis and
resolution. Future sessions are scheduled.

Concern's peace-building officer, Juliao da Costa Cristovao Caetano,
also received some training himself in December that he plans to
incorporate into the agency's work. Caetano recently returned from
Bangkok, Thailand, where he participated in a conflict transformation
workshop for humanitarian aid agencies operating in violent places or
complex political emergencies. The goal was to help participants
better understand conflict; find constructive ways of engaging with
unpredictable and rapidly changing circumstances; to understand the
relationship between policy and practice in peace building.

The training will help me to better integrate conflict analysis into
Concern's programs in Timor Leste. And it will be useful in my work
engaging the martial arts groups and others interested in building
and solidifying peace in this country, Caetano said.

http://www.concern.net/what-we-do/where-we-work/blog/a1000008/blog.html