Australian government presses ahead with plans to dominate East Timor

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By Peter Symonds
20 June 2006

Having established an army of occupation in East Timor, the Australian government is engaged in ongoing political warfare on several fronts to ensure its predominance over the half-island. In the United Nations, Australian diplomats are pressing to ensure that Canberra retains control over any new UN mission. As part of this offensive, the Australian media is conducting an unrelenting campaign against Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, who is regarded as too close to rival Portugal and thus an obstacle to Australian interests.

Murdoch’s Australian has again outlined the agenda most openly. In a comment on Saturday, foreign affairs editor Greg Sheridan argued that while other countries needed to contribute to the reestablishment of a police force in East Timor, Canberra had to retain overall control. “The UN Security Council is considering East Timor and its future policing requirements right now. It is a vital task for Australian diplomacy to get the form of this right,” he stated.

Sheridan declared it was vital that “Australia do the job alone” in police training. “The UN in Timor has been a route to confusion and dysfunction. In particular it has been a route to Portuguese influence, a baneful business indeed.” Early this month, Sheridan branded Portugal as “Australia’s diplomatic enemy in East Timor” and identified Alkatiri as “the key to their influence”.
While the Howard government cannot afford to be so open, with the backing of Washington, it is involved in a diplomatic offensive to guarantee that Australia leads any UN operations in East Timor. The push is particularly cynical as the US and Australia have consistently opposed calls by the UN, East Timor and Portugal for an extended UN presence in the country. As recently as early May, Canberra and Washington vigorously opposed any extension of the UN mission.

Differences surfaced openly in the UN Security Council last week when Australian ambassador Robert Hill opposed a proposal by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for a formal peace-keeping operation to take over from the present Australian-led military force. The Howard government’s plan, modelled on the Australian-led occupation of the Solomon Islands, is to retain exclusive military control, while at the same time presiding over a multi-national police force and installing Australian officials in key administrative posts. Hill argued for a foreigner to be put in charge of the East Timorese police force, privately suggesting former Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Palmer for the post.

Portugal and Malaysia, both of which have police contingents in East Timor, backed Annan’s call for the UN to take full control of the military and police presence. Portugal’s ambassador Joao Salgueiro told the Security Council: “Timor-Leste is a child of the United Nations. So it needs the universality and impartiality of the United Nations, which must once again take a leading role.”
A meeting of foreign ministers from the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries on Sunday decided to send a mission to East Timor to assess the situation. Portuguese Foreign Minister Diogo Freitas declared: “East Timor is not a failed state. We have to defend the necessity of sending a United Nations force in which all member nations participate actively.” Last week the European Commission, which has backed Portugal’s ambitions in East Timor, signed an agreement with the Alkatiri government to provide 18 million euros in aid with a focus on “institutional capacity building,” as well as poverty alleviation.

Yesterday US ambassador John Bolton stepped into the diplomatic arena to back Canberra’s bid for control. Opposing “a UN presence forever” in East Timor, he argued it was necessary “to support the Australians and New Zealanders who are there”. Of course, if the Solomon Island intervention is any guide, the Howard government intends to stay in East Timor not just for months, but years.

This diplomatic arm-wrestling reflects sharpening inter-imperialist antagonisms, not just over East Timor, but internationally. At stake is control over significant oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea as well as East Timor’s strategic position in South East Asia, astride key naval routes. The Howard government exploited factional conflict in the East Timor’s government and security forces to begin dispatching 1,300 Australian troops to the island on May 24. The last concern of any of the competing powers is the plight of the poverty-stricken East Timorese, many of whom have fled to refugee camps.

Campaign against Alkatiri​

The divisions in the UN are paralleled in the factional struggle in East Timor itself, where Australian allies—President Xanana Gusmao and Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta—are engaged in a barely veiled campaign to oust Alkatiri. Under the country’s constitution, the president does not have the power to sack the prime minister without a vote of no confidence in parliament, where Alkatiri’s Fretilin party has the overwhelming majority. As a result, the Australian media has been seeking to dredge up the basis for criminal charges against Alkatiri, which would force him to step aside.

The latest shot in the campaign was fired last night on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Four Corners” program. In a shameless piece of propaganda, ABC reporter Liz Jackson sought to demonstrate that Alkatiri, in league with former interior minister Rogerio Lobato, had supplied weapons to former Fretilin fighters to form a hit squad against his political opponents. Openly contemptuous of Alkatiri and his denial of any wrongdoing, Jackson presented, unchallenged, a patchwork of comments and documents, all fed to her by the prime minister’s political enemies and torn out of context.

It should be recalled that the alleged misdeeds took place amid incipient factional fighting, in which 600 rebel soldiers, joined by sections of the police force, were threatening to wage civil war if Alkatiri did not immediately step down. Even if completely true, all the “evidence” demonstrates is that Alkatiri and Lobato, like the rebels, were arming their supporters. The ABC program’s partisan approach verged on the farcical as Jackson pressed Alkatiri on the illegality on “arming civilians,” while ignoring the fact that those she painted as “the heroes of the anti-Alkatiri struggle” were, in strict legal terms, guilty of mutiny and treason.

In its efforts to present Horta as the popular prime minister in waiting, “Four Corners” perhaps revealed more than was intended. Horta has tried to present himself as above political infighting—the man to bring all the factions together. But the ABC’s coverage of his meeting with rebel leaders in Gleno, immediately prior to an opposition rally in Dili on June 6, showed Horta openly factionalising with anti-Alkatiri forces. Asked about this activity, Horta declared unabashed: “Everywhere I have been to—Baucau and everywhere—and I have had tremendous sympathy, support, warmth from the people by the thousands, by the hundreds. And I feel overwhelmed, maybe because they are desperately looking for leadership, looking for people they can trust.”

Neither Horta nor his Australian backers want to test this “tremendous support” at elections due next year. “The problem is, obviously, can the country afford the next six months, the next nine months of this continued pressure on the prime minister to resign?” Horta asked. “Can we afford this increasing loss of credibility of the government and the poor image of the country? Or should the prime minister say, ‘Well, I step aside in the interests of my own party. It seems that I am a liability to my own party, if not the country’.” The threat of criminal charges is obviously designed to compel Alkatiri to make that decision.

According to the Melbourne-based Age newspaper on Monday, President Gusmao is considering using his constitutional powers to launch a judicial inquiry into the allegations unearthed by the ABC and other Australian media. Horta was considering a visit to the alleged leader of the Fretilin hit squad, Vincente “Railos” do Concecao, to gather evidence and report back to Gusmao. “The president is not indifferent, quite the contrary. He is attentive to these allegations, and... he’s garnering whatever information is available, and he will take action in due course if he has to,” Horta explained.

These sordid political machinations highlight the absurdity of the so-called independence proclaimed in 2002 as a step forward for the East Timorese people. In the era of globalised production, the tiny half island was never going to be independent of the global and regional powers, or the institutions of international finance capital such as the World Bank and IMF. Far from enjoying peace and prosperity, East Timor has become another arena for imperialist rivalries, in which each local clique seeks to secure its political position by obtaining the backing of one or other of the competing powers. Far from ending conflict in East Timor, the Australian intervention is laying the basis for a future civil war as Canberra seeks to install its own clients.

UPDATE from Today:
East Timor PM resigns

See Also:
Australian government steps up campaign to oust East Timor's prime minister Mari Alkatiri
[12 June 2006]

Australian foreign minister unveils plans for the colonial occupation of East Timor
[7 June 2006]

Australia, Timor and oil: the record
[6 June 2006]

Why Australia wants "regime change" in East Timor
[30 May 2006]

 

[2-0-Sixx]

E Timor rally opposing Alkatiri

Women rush past a burning car in the East Timorese capital, Dili

Australian soldiers were deployed but have been unable to check the violence, described by the prime minister as a coup attempt.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

6.29.06

DILI (Reuters) - Thousands of supporters of ousted Mari Alkatiri protest

East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri descended on the capital in a defiant show of strength on Thursday as the president hinted he might unilaterally decide on a replacement.

 

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[Stealth]

That's pretty nuts. How did everything start 2-0-Sixx?

 

[2-0-Sixx]

It's a very ugly history and not suprisingly, a brutal invasion sponcered by the US (See Henry Kissinger) led to years of brutal oppression, which leads us to the current mess.

From wikipedia:

Indonesia alleged that the popular East Timorese FRETILIN party, which received some vocal support from the People's Republic of China, was communist. With the American cause in South Vietnam lost and fearing a Communist domino effect in Southeast Asia, the U.S., along with ally Australia, did not object to the pro-Western Indonesian government's actions, despite Portugal being a founding member of NATO.

The Indonesian invasion was launched over the western border on 16 October 1975. The day before the invasion of Dili and subsequent annexation, U.S. President Gerald Ford and Secretary of State Henry Kissinger had met President Suharto in Jakarta where Ford made it clear that "we will not press you on the issue." Several U.S. administrations up to and including that of Bill Clinton did not ban arms sales to the Indonesian government, though the latter did eventually end U.S. support of Suharto's regime. The territory was declared the 27th province of Indonesia in July 1976 as Timor Timur. Its nominal status in the UN remained that of a "non-self-governing territory under Portuguese administration."

The East Timorese guerrilla force, Falintil, fought a campaign against the Indonesian forces from 1975 to 1999.

Indonesian rule in East Timor was often marked by extreme violence and brutality, such as the Dili massacre and the Liquiçá Church Massacre. In addition, subsistence agriculture, food, and medical supplies were deliberately obstructed.

From 1975 until 1993, attacks on civilian populations were only nominally reported in the Western press. Death tolls reported during the occupation varied from 60,000 to 200,000

Independence

Following a UN-sponsored agreement between Indonesia, Portugal and the US, on August 30, 1999, a United Nations-supervised popular referendum was held. The East Timorese voted for full independence from Indonesia, but violent clashes, instigated primarily by the Indonesian military (see Scorched Earth Operation) and aided by Timorese pro-Indonesia militias, led by Eurico Guiterres, broke out soon afterwards. A peacekeeping force (INTERFET, led by Australia) intervened to restore order. Militias fled across the border into Indonesia, from which they attempted sporadic armed raids, particularly along the New Zealand Army-held southern half of the main border. As these raids were repelled and international moral opinion forced Indonesia to withdraw tacit support, the militias dispersed. INTERFET was replaced by a UN force.

 

[Stealth]

Okay....so East Timor was accused of being communist, which lead the US to support Indonesian invasion. Afterwards Timor was ruled by Portugal with Indonesian occupation, with Indonesian support from the US (until 1993). In 1999 Timor voted to be independent from Indonesian rule.

So now the UN is trying to help make them an independent government, with Portugal protecting their interests by leading the UN, which is opposed by Australia and the US?

Sorry Im just trying to understand all this.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

So now the UN is trying to help make them an independent government, with Portugal protecting their interests by leading the UN, which is opposed by Australia and the US?

No. Simply put, it looks like FRETILIN, which is the current ruling party, led by Mari Alkatiri, was forced to resign due to Australian intervention, which wishes to impose 'regime change' with an administration more in tune with Australian interests (Xanana Gusmao).

Australia sent in troops in '99 to ensure that they are the greatest authority/influence in E. Timor, and not Portugal. The Timorese just want to be independent.

If you're wondering why the high interest in the region, not surprisingly, there is a large existence of oil and gas resources, especially off of the shores.

Interesting to see how this will all play out and in my opinion, is yet another example of the true nature of capitalist imperialism.

 

[Stealth]

^ Thanks, I was havin a hard time making sense of it all. Its hard to believe how much shit goes on under our nose. In my organized crime class I took, we had an entire section about "State Sponsored Terrorism" and it looked at the US government the same way someone would look at a terrorist or a criminal. It talks about all of the shit that happened in the Middle East and Latin America during the late 70's/early 80's, and I was completely dumbfounded. The US was invading countries to protect its national forest interests, and in doing so it put some dicator in office that burned books and killed like 50,000 people. They also had plots to assassinate the leaders of 5 different latin american countries. Same kind of shit in the middle east with oil interests. I wish I had the stuff in detail, but I'd have to go home and read my book.

Thanks for keeping us informed though

 

[2-0-Sixx]

No doubt. There is very little media attention on this matter and I was hoping that one our Australian comrades could enlighten us in more detail (I think Hutch is from Australia and I know there are a couple more).

Regarding Latin Amerika and US intervention, it's insane the amount of dirty shit that has gone on (and is still going on to this day).

If you're interested, here is a thread dedicated soley to US intervention in L. Amerika, mostly by ColdBlooded and myself.

 

[Stealth]

Good look ^

 

[2-0-Sixx]

UN report vindicates East Timor PM, as regime change becomes official

The United Nations report into human rights violations during the East Timor crisis of April and May 2006 has now been delivered, and it’s a hot one. It provides yet more evidence that the tiny Pacific nation suffered an externally directed “regime change” – when its leader adopted policies in opposition to the American and Australian political elite and its corporate allies.

The managed crisis began in April 2006, when part of the tiny Army rebelled against the Timorese Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri. After a month long mutiny, riots developed helped along by gangs of unemployed youths. At the time, the BBC reported five deaths in clashes between mutineers, gangs and the police.

After the clashes, thousands of residents of Dili – the national capital – took flight, fearing a repeat of past ethnic violence, yet this did not materialize. Reports from the ground suggest that this was more mass hysteria (well grounded in history) than an actual threat.

In this context, a movement against the PM of East Timor seemed to blossom.

Exaggerating opposition, slandering the incumbent

Protests against Alkatiri were reported in meticulous detail, while his record was smeared. ABC reported on the 20 June, that “Protesters have begun massing outside the government palace in East Timor’s capital Dili, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.” Quoting optimistic organizers over government sources, they predicted that 30,000 people would turn up to voice their discontent whilst they noted that “Australian police and troop numbers have also begun building in case the protest turns violent.”

Perhaps they should have checked their sources better. The BBC reported on 23 June that only 4,000 turned up. This, it should be said was a demonstration in support of the East Timorese president, Xanana Gusmao who had threatened to resign if Alkatiri did not step down. So it was not exactly a resounding vote of no confidence in the Prime Minister himself.

Still, the BBC was [/url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/5108658.stm]happy to report[/url] that Alkatiri is “increasingly unpopular” and repeated that “he has also been hit by allegations that he helped recruit a “hit squad” to act against his political opponents – accusations he denies but which Mr Gusmao said contributed to his loss of confidence in his prime minister.” One of the protest organizers was quoted luridly slandering the Prime Minister, “Mari Alkatiri is the one to blame for the trouble. He is a communist, a criminal.” said Agosto Junio.

The UN report has found, six months after these reports (which passed unquestioned by the media) that “there was no massacre by the F-FDTL [The Timorese police] of 60 people at Taci Tolu on 28-29 April.” Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri had been blamed for the “death squads” who, it turns out, killed no-one.

The very worst accusation levelled at Alkatiri is this:

With regard to the former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, that he failed to use his firm authority to denounce the transfer of security sector weapons to civilians in the face of credible information that such transfer was ongoing and involved members of the Government.​

In fact, it is the ex-President, Xanana Gusmao, who receives the most sinister coverage in the report. It seems that Gusmao did not act to restrain “Major Reinado and the men who comprised his group are reasonably suspected of having committed crimes against life and the person” when Reinaldo deserted to form the nucleus of a movement against Mari Alkatiri. This, despite Gusmao being in communication with Reinaldo (as the UN report puts it, he showed little “respect for institutional channels&#8221.

Alkatiri’s crude awakening

Understanding the present crisis is impossible without a discussion of energy resources in the Asia-Pacific region. Underneath the Timor Sea lie what at current prices is about $30bn worth of oil and gas hat treasure trove has been known about for some thirty years. In fact, it brought Indonesia and Australia together in a cold embrace during the murderous Suharto era. In exchange for loans and a share of the loot, Suharto agreed to redraw the maritime boundary between Indonesia and Australia, transferring large hydrocarbon reserves to Australian and American corporations in the process (the 1989 Timor Gap Treaty). That this was totally immoral was not a problem for the Australian government.

n 1999, Australian troops landed on Timor to usher in an era of independence, but the economic sovereignty of the new nation was not paramount in the operation. As UN troops took control, the Timor Gap treaty was renegotiated to suit the new arrangement. The unequal border remained in place, but under UN jurisdiction (corporate contracts remained unaltered). Meanwhile a new oil and gas field, Bayu-Undan, was opened up for Australian, U.S. and Japanese investors to plunder. Coming from the coast of Timor, oil and gas would flow to Darwin in northern Australia where it would be refined and sent away to market. Timorese rewards were kept to a minimum.

As Timor actually became independent in 2002, its politicians muttered about taking Australia to court over the maritime boundary. Some thought that a nation ravaged by warfare and poverty had some moral claim to at least equitable treatment by its wealthy neighbours. Not so. The Australian government simply decided to ignore maritime rulings of the World Court.

However, Mari Alkatiri, as the East Timorese Prime Minister, continued to demand fair treatment. Australia totally refused to take him seriously. In a leaked meeting dated November 2002, foreign minister Alexander Downer told Alkatiri, “We can stop everything” meaning cut off the flow of royalties and aid to East Timor if, that is, Alkatiri did not accede to Australian demands. To this Alkatiri replied “We want to accommodate all your concerns, but accommodating is one thing and scraping off a plate is another.” Knowing how strapped for cash East Timor was, and is, Downer replied “you can demand that forever for all I care, you can continue to demand, but if you want to make money, you should conclude an agreement quickly.”

Unrepentent, Australia continued to rake off revenue from fields that by international law, were not theirs to exploit. In an excellent article for the World Socialist Website, Mike Head notes that “During 2003 alone, Australia received $US172 million in royalties from the fully operational Laminaria-Corallina field—twice as much as the entire budget of the East Timorese government.” This at a time when life expectancy was just forty, with over 50 percent unemployment is hard to defend.

By 2005, after three years of principled resistance to what amounted to piracy and theft, East Timor renegotiated the borders on Australia’s terms. Agreeing to renounce its claims for 50-60 years meant that East Timor would inherit exhausted resources and pollution. As Head reports “The upshot has been that, in 2004-05, East Timor’s oil and gas revenues came to a total of just $US25 million. This amount is forecast to rise to $75 million in 2007-08.” This is a paltry amount at a time of record high oil prices and obscene profits being made by oil companies.

The consortium that will be exploiting the ‘Greater Sunrise’ field off southern East Timor are the major beneficiaries of this enormous scam. Made up of Woodside Petroleum (an Australian firm accused of bribing its way into Mauritania’s oil industry), Osaka Gas of Japan, Shell and the American firm Conoco (owned by Dupont), the Greater Sunrise is governed by a 2003 agreement that allocated 82% of revenues to Australia and only 18% to East Timor. As an East Timorese government document states, “If the field is developed under the Greater Sunrise IUA and MOU, Timor-Leste’s share would be approximately US$1 billion. However, if the field is developed after Timor-Leste and Australia have agreed to maritime boundaries that are consistent with international law, Timor-Leste’s share would likely be significantly greater.” Yet, with a lifespan estimated at 30-40 years, and the renegotiated agreement running out on 50-60 years (had to cover their backs) this is not going to happen.

Alkatiri extracted a significant concession from Australia in January 2006 when he secured 90% of the revenues from 20% of the Greater Sunrise field (itself a small portion of the Timorese reserves, but still sizable).

Bayu Undan, a smaller field, is operated by Conoco-Phillips and will feed the demand for natural gas generated by the metropolis of Tokyo, but ENI Australia, Santos, the Tokyo Electric Power Co. and Inpex have significant stakes as well. In other words, that too is a joint U.S./Australian/Japanese operation.

From the perspective of the Australian government, the interests of these consortia have been paramount. A leaked document circulated within the Australian Defence Force (ADF) from 2001 puts this succinctly. “The first objective,” it said “is to pursue Australia’s broad strategic interests in East Timor, namely denial, access and influence,” it began, “The strategic interest of denial seeks to ensure that no foreign power gains an unacceptable level of access to East Timor, and is coupled with the complementary objective of seeking access to East Timor for Australia, in particular the ADF. Australia’s strategic interests can also be protected and pursued more effectively if Australia maintains some degree of influence over East Timor’s decision-making.”

Rebel, without a voice

Another of Alkatiri’s crimes was to offer economic particpation in Timorese hydrocarbon reserves to China and India over Australia or the U.S. In 2004, he allowed a Chinese and Norwegian team to survey the northern portion of the Timor Sea for deposits. Reports suggested in 2005 that he was talking to Sinopec about constructing an oil refinery on Timorese soil, with Chinese backing therefore interfering with Darwin’s monopoly on crude oil processing in the region.

Then, as mentioned above, in January of this year he secured a greater share of the Greater Sunrise field revenues for his people and has worked towards the creation of a national oil company to ensure that East Timor benefits from East Timorese resources. This trend has placed him in the line of fire for those who seek both super-profits and strategic domination in the region.

As Prime Minister of East Timor, Mari Alkatiri also sought to seek a broad range of international contacts yet it is also this very openness that brought him to the brink of resignation. He invited Cuban doctors into the country to help deal with its crippling mortality figures and rampant poverty. This stimulated vitriol from commentators in the pay of western corporations or under their ideological sway. For example, Lora Horta writing for the Asia Times commented that “Alkatiri has implemented a foreign policy overtly confrontational to the West. His recent decision to hire nearly 500 Cuban doctors after visiting that country, despite strong objections from the US ambassador, was highly controversial and oddly aligned East Timor with the resurgent leftist movement gaining ground in Latin America.” Odd to him perhaps, as the son of Foreign Minister Jose Ramos Horta who by then had become a prominent supporter of regime change.

Likewise, and perhaps more importantly, “Alkatiri’s bizarre attempt to declare a national day of mourning for Yasser Arafat’s death did not endear him to the US or other Western countries. There was also widespread speculation that Alkatiri planned to award a multibillion-dollar gas-pipeline project to PetroChina, an invitation that would have won both the United States’ and Australia’s ire.” Commemorating Arafat maybe, but thinking about building a pipeline with Chinese help? Heretical. Here was a man who, perhaps without thinking, had begun to challenge U.S. and Australian corporate hegemony in the Pacific.

As Horta also made clear, the U.S. was aware of, and opposed to Alkatiri. “The United States’ discontent with Alkatiri was clearly on display when the US ambassador openly supported the Catholic Church against his government during street protests last year, with the senior US official even briefly attending one of the protests in person. Political insiders now wonder about the United States’ connections to rebel leader Reinaldo, whose wife works for the US Embassy and helps to oversee the Peace Corps program.”

This Reinaldo was leading the very rebel forces who have provided the stimulus for a new international but Australian led peacekeeping mission to East Timor. He turned out to be the premier human rights abuser of the crisis.

April 2006 : Endgame for Alkatiri

The evidence is in that East Timor suffered the fate of Haiti and Iraq and it looks like a job well done by the U.S. and Australian governments.

Journalist Maryann Keady – was present on 28 April when mutinying soldiers turned into deadly riots. After 600 members of the armed forces were dismissed for a one month mutiny, Keady wrote that “It is impossible in East Timor’s case to understand how a gang of unruly unemployed youths protesting about their dismissal from the armed forces could emerge into two rebel gangs (with UN and Australian advisors present throughout the melee) calling for the Prime Minister’s removal.” She also reports that Alkatiri himself spoke explicitly about the disruptive presence of ‘foreigners and outsiders’ in causing the unrest.

Foreign interference also sometimes bubbled close to the surface of the mainstream media.

On 30 May, in an interview with ABC, Brigadier General Michael Slater was asked about security in Dili. He told anchor Jessica Rowe, that “I feel quite safe, yes, but not because I’ve got these armed soldiers behind me that were put there by your stage manager here to make it look good. I don’t need these guys here.” Admittedly, he said “It is not safe on the streets, as it is back home in Sydney or Brisbane – no it’s not, if it was we wouldn’t be here. But things are getting better every day.”

When those Australians arrived, as John Pilger reported in the New Statesman “an Australian brigadier flew by helicopter straight to the headquarters of the rebel leader, Major Alfredo Reinado – not to arrest him for attempting to overthrow a democratically elected prime minister but to greet him warmly. Like other rebels, Reinado had been trained in Canberra.”

Allegations about ‘death squads’ organized by or on behalf of the Alkatiri government were then without any evidence to support them and the fact that Mari Alkatiri had agreed to a full, UN run investigation into the claims – while he had also disciplined the Interior Minister said to be responsible in order to restore confidence – did not dent the thrust of the campaign to unseat him.

At the same time, World Bank head Paul Wolfowitz made a veiled threat to the current PM. In an official communique entitled “Timor’s difficult path ahead” he wrote that “Reflection amongst Timor-Leste’s leadership and society on what has led to this crisis is important. The international community must also evaluate its efforts and make the changes needed to our assistance programs. We cannot go back to business as usual.” In a country which seven years ago suffered a scorched earth campaign by a colonialist power and lost half of its economy, such threats carried weight.

The attitude of Wolfowitz is surprising given the praise he gave to Alkatiri during a recent visit. On April 10, he said that “The bustling markets, the rebuilt schools, the functioning government – and above all, the peace and stability – attest to sensible leadership and sound decisions” while “from my discussions on managing petroleum revenue, to my visits to a school or a market or a local drainage project, what I have seen has given me much to think about, and many lessons that we can share with other countries.”

On the 24 June, the BBC reported that the PM was ‘willing to resign.’ Taking the baton from ABC it wrote that “Mr Alkatiri has become increasingly unpopular. Many people have blamed him for failing to prevent recent unrest which has led to thousands fleeing their homes. He has also been hit by allegations that he helped recruit a “hit squad” to act against his political opponents – accusations he denies but which [President] Gusmao said contributed to his loss of confidence in his prime minister.”

Amidst such innuendo, threats and half truths the government fell.

Alkatiri left so as to prevent a genuine crisis and massive loss of life. In the process, East Timor became the most recent casualty of Peak Oil geopolitics. The UN, as Alkatiri might have hoped it would, has provided ample proof.

SOURCE

 

[2-0-NINE]

WHERE'S HUTCH, THAT DAMN MATE, GIVE THE LAND BACK TO THE ABORIGANESE!!!!

 

[Syko Sniper]

As far as I know the government would have majority support of Australians for another 'peacekeeping' mission. There is nothing on it in the news over here atm, as soon as a story comes I will post it up here so you can see their point of view.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

Two East Timorese protestors killed by Australian troops

By Patrick O’Connor

The killing of two East Timorese men by the Australian military on February 23 at a refugee camp near the Dili airport points to the real motivation behind the Howard government’s East Timor intervention.

Australian troops shot and killed Jacinto Soares, 32, on the spot. Atoy Dasy, 36, died in hospital the next day. A third man, 40-year-old Geraldo Martins, remains in a critical condition in hospital. The director of Dili Guido Valadares hospital, Antonio Caleres, told the news agency Adnkronos International (AKI) that Jacinto was shot in the head and Atoy in the chest. Shots to the head and chest are intended to kill.

The three men were among a crowd of protestors throwing rocks and other objects at Australian troops and UN police outside the Internally Displaced People (ISP) camp adjacent to the airport. The East Timorese government and international security forces have been trying to evict the 8,000 terrified and defiant residents, who have nowhere else to live.

Jeff Kingston, a visiting academic, described the tense situation prior to the clash to the Japan Times: “Despair peered at me through the chain-link fence separating the airport from a refugee camp of nearly 8,000 internally displaced people (IDP). And from behind this forlorn façade of despair, angrier IDPs threw rocks at security personnel and their vehicles guarding the air terminal.”

The very fact that tens of thousands of refugees in Dili are still living in these squalid conditions makes a mockery of the Howard government’s claim that it sent troops to East Timor to help the people. The real purpose of last year’s military intervention was to secure the interests of Australian imperialism for resources and regional influence, against its rivals, especially Portugal and China, and to suppress all local opposition to its agenda. The killings underscore the increasingly brutal character of this operation.

A refugee spokesman told Reuters that clashes broke out when Australian soldiers tried to arrest some of the residents protecting the camp: “They resisted by throwing rocks at the Australian soldiers, who responded with shots and came inside the camp using an armoured vehicle. They dragged out those who were wounded and dead.”

On Monday, an angry funeral procession for the two dead men walked and drove through the streets of Dili. Fifty heavily armed UN police prevented the mourners from walking with the men’s bodies to the Australian embassy building. According to media reports, anywhere from 500 to 3,000 people participated, including the men’s families. Reflecting the hostility and bitterness toward the Australian forces, trucks accompanying the funeral procession bore slogans such as “Australian army get out of East Timor”. A letter protesting the killings was later delivered to the embassy.

East Timorese authorities have rushed to assure local residents that the deaths will be properly probed, while the United Nations Integrated Mission in East Timor (UNMIT) has said that UN Police (UNPOL) are already investigating. No confidence can be placed in such inquiries, however, which will almost certainly exonerate the Australian troops.

Brigadier Mal Rerden, the Australian Commander of the International Security Forces (ISG) in East Timor, has already publicly cleared the soldiers involved and announced that they have returned to duty. Even before any official investigation, Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer claimed that the soldier who killed Soares acted in “self-defence” after steel arrows were fired at him.

An opposition member of the Timorese parliament, Antonio Ximenes, who is the brother-in-law of Atay Dasy, has told the media that people at the camp disputed the Australian claims. “The people say soldiers fired tear gas at them and then fired shots,” he said. Ximenes, the leader of the Christian Democratic Party, has called for an inquiry into “a crime against the rights of the East Timorese people”.

In the wake of the shootings, Downer callously declared that the incident “doesn’t come as a great surprise” given the instability in Dili in the past week. His remark simply highlights the extent to which the 930 ISG troops—800 Australian and 130 New Zealand—and the 1,000 UN police, mostly Portuguese, are there to suppress mounting social discontent and prop up the government.

In the two days before the shooting, Australian and other international security forces in Dili arrested 117 people in clashes with camp residents who resisted eviction and hungry people attempting to take rice from government warehouses. Several UN police have been injured and some 50 UN vehicles damaged by rocks thrown at them. In one incident, 700 bags of rice were taken from a Dili warehouse.

On February 22, the day before the fatal clash, a crowd of people burnt cars and attacked buildings belonging to the government and the UN. A UN police commander in Dili, Leitao da Silva, said 17 government cars and three UN vehicles were torched, “as well as about 20 houses”. UNPOL forces were deployed to guard two main rice warehouses, where people had stoned police while trying to break in.

Australian troops were dispatched to East Timor last May, not to ease the plight of ordinary working people, but to oust Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri, whom Canberra viewed as an obstacle to its economic and strategic interests. The Alkatiri government only reluctantly agreed, after years of bullying, to allow Australia to retain control over the lion’s share of the oil and gas reserves beneath the Timor Sea. Moreover, Alkatiri was looking to other quarters, notably Portugal, the former colonial power, and China to participate in drilling and refining East Timor’s undersea fields.

The full story of the Australian government’s role in provoking the political turmoil that became the pretext for its military intervention has not yet been fully told. When Alkatiri refused to resign, charges were fabricated by his opponents and aired by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that he had recruited a “death squad” to assassinate his political rivals. Alkatiri was pressured to step aside and was replaced by Jose Ramos-Horta, who immediately expressed his loyalty to Canberra.

Nine months on, the fabricated charges against Alkatiri have been quietly dropped. At the same time, 100,000 of the 150,000 people displaced during last year’s political crisis are living in appalling conditions in flood-prone IDP camps. Most cannot leave because their homes have been destroyed or occupied and their extended families are too poor to provide for them. Drought has caused food shortages and high levels of malnutrition across the half-island of about a million people. An estimated 40 percent of the population was already living below the official poverty line of 55 US cents a day.

Yet, the UN and Horta’s government, with Canberra’s backing, are trying to close the refugee camps and threatening to end official food relief, in order to save money and force the displaced people to fend for themselves. According to a report in the Japan Times on February 22, the authorities are “worried that having settled in, the IDPs were becoming far too comfortable with running water and regular meals”.

The entire political and media establishment is complicit in the Howard government’s neo-colonial operation in East Timor, and the latest killings have, predictably, produced not a word of protest. While posturing as opponents of Australia’s participation in the occupation of Iraq, the Labor Party and the Greens back every military intervention in the Pacific to the hilt—from East Timor in 1999, to the Solomons in 2003 and 2006, and the Timor operation last year.

The Australian working class has a responsibility to oppose the Howard government’s neo-colonial agenda and the daily injustices it is carrying out against the peoples of the Pacific. We urge all working people and youth to support the Socialist Equality Party’s campaign for the New South Wales state elections, and our demand for the immediate and unconditional withdrawal of all Australian troops and officials from East Timor and the South Pacific as a whole.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

Also in the news:

Trapped ETimor rebel demands face-to-face talks

Reinado (second from left) has said he will fight to the death if troops move in to arrest him [Reuters]

Fri Mar 2, 9:27 AM ET

DILI (AFP) - The fugitive
East Timor rebel leader surrounded in his hideout by Australian-led troops refused Friday to negotiate with a senior government official by telephone, demanding face-to-face talks.
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Major Alfredo Reinado, who is holed up with his followers in Same, 50 kilometres (25 miles) south of the capital, Dili, told AFP that East Timor's attorney general had called, but said he wanted direct talks with the official.

Attorney General Longuinhos Monteiro met Thursday with East Timor's leaders and the head of the Australian-led international force to stipulate the conditions for Reinado's surrender and the handover of his weapons.

"The attorney general called me and offered two points for me to agree on," said the renegade soldier, a persistent thorn in the government's side.

"I didn't want to hear what he has to say because that is not the way to negotiate. I want to talk to him directly, not over the 'phone," added Reinado.

The rebel, who has been criticised over deadly unrest last year, did not say what the two points were.

Reinado has refused to surrender and vowed to fight to the death as the standoff developed this week, before saying talks were the best way forward.

source

 

[Ri0t0uZ]

man the australian goverment is fucked....we shud give it back to the aborigines and fuckin leave