[Kabar-indonesia] E.Timor ruling party denounces anti-Alkatiri campaign [+'Premier-in-waiting']

[Joyo at aol.com]

4 articles:

- ETimor ruling party denounces  anti-Alkatiri
  campaign

- East Timor's ruling party undecided on new premier, 
  seeking political solutions to crisis

- Interview-East Timor's 'premier-in-waiting' waits
  for the call

- ETimor's Ramos-Horta to head leadership until new
  PM picked: source

----

ETimor ruling party denounces anti-Alkatiri campaign

DILI, July 1 (AFP) -- East Timor's ruling party
denounced Saturday a leaflet campaign aimed at
discrediting the former prime minister as it prepared
to enter talks to find his successor and end weeks of
political crisis.

The Fretilin party said the leaflets, which falsely
showed Mari Alkatiri under arrest and being marched
off by a foreign soldier, threatened political
dialogue amid continued wrangling over the choice of
the next prime minister.

Alkatiri resigned Monday after weeks of security force
in-fighting and clashes between gangs in the capital
Dili that left at least 21 dead and forced about
150,000 people to flee their homes.

He faces questions over allegations he was involved in
a plan to arm a civilian militia to take on his
political opponents but Friday declined to show for
questioning by the country's independent
prosecutor-general. He said his lawyers had not
arrived in the country and he had immunity.

President Xanana Gusmao had agreed to meet party
leaders over the choice of Alkatiri's successor as
part of wide-ranging talks to try and find someone to
unite the country until elections next year, officials
said.

"The president has agreed to meet the party
leadership. It's not the timing yet for us to come out
with a name," said party head Francisco Guterres at a
swiftly convened press conference to denounce the
Alkatiri leaflets.

The leadership called for a police probe into who was
behind them after they were tipped off by Australian
peacekeeping troops.

Fretilin, with 55 of the 88 parliamentary seats, has
vigorously campaigned to be allowed to name Alkatiri's
successor, although Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta
has emerged as a strong unity candidate.

Ramos-Horta, an independent, resigned from the defence
and foreign portfolios on the eve of Alkatiri's
resignation announcement in protest at the handling of
the crisis.

He is expected to head the government until a new
premier is appointed in the coming days, sources said,
and is likely to take charge of a meeting of ministers
next week to discuss the tiny nation's pressing
problems, he reportedly told a meeting of diplomats
and aid workers Friday.

On the agenda, after weeks of violence which paralysed
the government, will be the delayed budget and a
humanitarian crisis, with the United Nations saying
its food supplies to tens of thousands of refugees
will soon run out.

The UN there were only two weeks of supplies left and
warned of "sustained and widespread hunger" unless
donors come forward to support the nation where
malnutrition levels are already among the worst in
Asia.

The next premier is tipped to come from Fretilin party
members Ana Pessoa, minister for state and
Ramos-Horta's ex-wife; agriculture minister Estanislao
Da Silva; health minister Rui Maria De Araujo, an
independent; and Ramos-Horta.

"Of these four, one of them will be the prime
minister," said Fretilin spokesman Miguel Sarmento.

Ramos-Horta, an independent who won the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1996 for campaigning against 20 years of
Indonesian occupation, has said he would reluctantly
do the job if asked.

An aide to Ramos-Horta said Friday he expected a
decision on the new leadership line-up to be made
within a "few days".

East Timor was plunged into crisis in March when
Alkatiri sacked 600 soldiers, sparking fighting
between factions of the security forces and leading to
gang warfare on the streets of the capital Dili.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has appointed three
human rights experts to lead a three-month commission
of inquiry into the worst crisis since independence in
2002.

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East Timor's ruling party undecided on new premier,
seeking political solutions to crisis

By TANALEE SMITH, Associated Press Writer

DILI East Timor, July 1 (AP) -- East Timor's ruling
party has not yet decided on who to nominate as a
replacement for ousted Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri
but is working on a plan to resolve the nation's
political crisis, the party president said Saturday.

The Fretilin party, which holds 55 of the 88 seats in
parliament, has the main voice in choosing the new
prime minister, who will then be asked by President
Xanana Gusmao to form a new Cabinet.

Fretilin leader Francisco Guterres said Gusmao had
"made himself available" to meet the party leaders.

"But for the time being, it is not the time yet for us
to come up with a name," Guterres said without
elaborating.

He also said Fretilin planned to suggest a package of
political solutions to the national crisis that led to
Alkatiri's resignation last week.

Alkatiri, who is accused of sparking the unrest by
dismissing nearly 600 disgruntled soldiers, also faces
allegations that he sanctioned the arming of hit
squads to target his opponents. He was summoned by the
prosecutor-general for questioning on Friday but asked
for a postponement until his lawyers arrived, and also
claimed political immunity.

In response, the prosecutor-general said he would ask
parliament to waive Alkatiri's immunity.

On Friday, outgoing Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta,
a Nobel laureate, said a new prime minister could be
named and a Cabinet formed by early next week.

"In the next few days we should have a new government
in place with the support of the ruling party and all
the other parties," said the minister, who won a Nobel
Peace prize for his nonviolent resistance to 24 years
of Indonesian occupation that ended in 1999.

Ramos-Horta is seen as a possible candidate for prime
minister.

Minister of State Ana Pessoa, Health Minister Rui
Maria Araujo, and East Timor's ambassador to the
United Nations, Jose Luis Guterres, are also
contenders.

Asia's newest nation was again thrown into crisis in
March after the dismissal of 600 soldiers who battled
loyalist troops in the streets of the capital, Dili.
Unrest spilled over into gang warfare and widespread
looting and arson. At least 30 people were killed and
150,000 forced from their homes.

The U.N said Friday that it would set up a commission
to look into the violence. The three-member team will
head to East Timor early in July to investigate
alleged acts of violence on April 28-29 and May 23-25,
said Jose Diaz, spokesman for U.N. High Commissioner
for Human Rights Louise Arbour.

Among other issues, the inquiry will look at an attack
on protesters, shooting by soldiers on unarmed police
and a deadly siege of the former interior minister's
home.

The United Nations also warned that the country was
facing severe food shortages.

"It is only a matter of a couple of weeks before the
World Food Program runs out of money and food," said
Finn Reske-Nielsen, the U.N.'s humanitarian
coordinator in the country.

The charges against Alkatiri gained credibility last
week when former Interior Minister Rogerio Lobato, a
deputy Fretilin leader, was indicted in the case and
implicated Alkatiri.

The violence has been the worst to hit the country
since it voted to break free Indonesian rule in 1999
in a U.N.-sponsored referendum. The country was
administered by the United Nations and until the
crisis had been praised as good example of
nation-building.

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Interview-East Timor's 'premier-in-waiting' waits for
the call

By David Fox

DILI, July 1 (Reuters) - To all intents and purposes
he is East Timor's prime minister-in-waiting, but Jose
Ramos-Horta still insists he doesn't want the job.

Five days after the resignation of Mari Alkatiri,
however, Asia's newest nation is still without a
premier and few on this sleepy tropical island believe
it will be anyone other than Ramos-Horta.

He has excellent credentials.

Fluent in Tetum, Portuguese, Spanish, French and
English, the 56-year-old spent much of his life
abroad, lurking on the doorsteps of Western leaders to
highlight East Timor's plight during its often brutal
occupation by Indonesia.

A Nobel Peace Prize, which he shared with fellow
Timorese Bishop Carlos Belo in 1996, also looks good
on the curriculum vitae.

"I would hope that within a week we can reach a
consensus on a new prime minister," he told Reuters in
an interview on Saturday. "The time has come for us to
move forward from this political crisis."

East Timor was plunged into chaos around two months
ago when Alkatiri, prime minister by virtue of his
Fretilin party's 55 seats in the 88 member parliament,
sacked almost half the army after they protested
against discrimination.

When feuding branches of the armed forces clashed and
then violence spiralled into an orgy of arson and
looting, an international peacekeeping force had to be
called in.

Alkatiri was blamed for mishandling the affair, but
his fate was sealed by a damaging Australian TV
documentary that linked him and other Fretilin leaders
with a plot to arm civilians.

President Xanana Gusmao, a widely popular liberation
hero, threatened to resign himself unless Alkatiri
quit. It was a popularity contest he knew he couldn't
lose.

Although as the majority party Fretilin has the right
to nominate the next prime minister, Gusmao is known
to be seeking an independent unity candidate to rule
until elections next year.

Step forward Ramos-Horta.

"I have been approached by Fretilin leaders about this
possibility of accepting the job of prime minister,"
he said.

CARRY THE BURDEN

"If they all feel that I am the one that should carry
the burden between now and the next election, I would
accept. The only problem is that I would hope I would
not fail their expectations."

But he insisted the country was functioning normally
and that with pro- and anti-Alkatiri protests in the
capital now over, life would return to normal soon.

"If I am prime minister, obviously there is a lot to
do in order to recreate a peaceful climate and to
provide a government and services that the Timorese
people deserve," he said.

"There are certain steps I would take -- chiefly
looking at the issue of unemployment, of housing --
that I believe can tackle some of these issues."

With virtually no economy and unemployment at over 70
percent in this population of just one million people,
few believe that will be an easy task. "But we have
the money," Ramos-Horta said, referring to hundreds of
millions of dollars the country has already earned
through oil and gas exploration rights in the Timor
Sea.

Although untapped, the potential reserves could turn
Southeast Asia's poorest country into one of its
richest within a generation.

Ramos-Horta said if appointed, he would also try to do
more to encourage small, private business by providing
a more secure investment environment.

"People have taken risks and have stayed. They need
our protection and incentives to stay."

Scores of businesses and homes were destroyed by fire
in the capital as a simmering east-west divide bubbled
over, but Ramos-Horta said he was confident a full
independent investigation would get to the bottom of
the crisis and help heal wounds.

"We have to work with the church and civil society
organisations to bring the dialogue to grassroots," he
said.

Asked directly about Timor's crisis and if he would be
the next premier, Ramos-Horta smiled and drew on all
his diplomatic skills to deflect a direct answer.

"I am saddened and heartbroken by what has happened,
and the worst thing is that it has been entirely
avoidable," he said.

"But I am ready to serve if need be."

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ETimor's Ramos-Horta to head leadership until new PM
picked: source

Paul Peachey

DILI, July 1 (AFP) -- East Timor's outgoing foreign
minister Jose Ramos-Horta will run the government
until a new premier is appointed, a source told AFP
Saturday after the Nobel laureate met with diplomats
and aid workers.

Ramos-Horta was likely to head a cabinet meeting
Tuesday to address pressing problems facing the tiny
nation like aid and budget concerns, after weeks of
violence paralysed the government, said the source,
who attended the meeting.

Discussions were continuing to appoint a successor to
Mari Alkatiri, the former premier who quit Monday
after being widely blamed for stoking the civil unrest
and factional fighting that left at least 21 people
dead and forced nearly 150,000 people to flee their
homes.

Ramos-Horta, who has previously stood in for Alkatiri
at cabinet meetings, told the diplomats he had the
blessing of the former premier to carry on the
"co-ordinator" job until a successor was appointed,
according to the source.

Ramos-Horta himself resigned from the defence and
foreign portfolios on the eve of Alkatiri's
announcement in protest at the handling of the crisis.

Despite Alkatiri's resignation, ministers would
continue to do their jobs until a new administration
was appointed, president Xanana Gusmao said earlier
this week.

"The president will come faster with names if they are
working over the weekend but early next week they
would would agree a name" for the premiership,
Ramos-Horta told the diplomats and aid workers,
according to the source.

Alkatiri's Fretilin party, which holds 55 of 88
parliamentary seats, has vigorously campaigned to name
the next premier.

But Ramos-Horta, an independent who won the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1996 for campaigning against 20 years
of Indonesian occupation, has said he would
reluctantly do the job if asked.

Gusmao -- a hero of the independence struggle and seen
as politically neutral -- has been locked in
discussions with advisers and parties for days to try
to find a politically acceptable candidate to ease
tensions in the nation.

A new financial year started Saturday with the budget
for 2006-07 yet to be passed, and the meeting was told
it would have to be pushed through by the new
administration.

The tiny nation was plunged into crisis in March when
Alkatiri sacked 600 soldiers, sparking fighting
between factions of the security forces and leading to
gang warfare on the streets of the capital Dili.

Alkatiri has been accused of being involved in a plot
to arm civil militias to tackle his political
opponents during the tiny half-island's worst crisis
since independence in 2002.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has appointed three
human rights experts to lead a three-month commission
of inquiry into the violence and find out who was to
blame, the body announced Friday.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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