[Kabar-indonesia] Timorese Institute Asks for Improved UN Role in Their Country

[John M Miller]

Timorese Institute Asks for Improved UN Role in Their Country

For release: June 26, 2006

Contact: Charles Scheiner, charlie at laohamutuk.org, +1-914-831-1098 (USA)
           or info at laohamutuk.org, +670-3325013 (Dili)

The Dili-based Institute for Reconstruction 
Monitoring and Analysis is proposing an expanded 
and extended United Nations mission in 
Timor-Leste (East Timor), beginning shortly and 
lasting several years. In a detailed memorandum 
to UN staff and Security Council members, the 
Institute (known in Tetum as La’o Hamutuk) draws 
on six years experience monitoring UN activities 
in Timor-Leste to urge “that both the quality as 
well as the duration of the international 
presence there be evaluated and improved.”

The 11-page paper, available at 
www.laohamutuk.org/reports/UN/06LHSuggestUN.html, 
recommends that all UN activities in Timor-Leste 
be in cooperation with the sovereign Timor-Leste 
government. The memo was sent prior to the 
resignation of the Prime Minister, but it addresses longer-term concerns:

«      Foreign security forces in Timor-Leste, 
including Australian military and police, must be under coordinated UN command.

«      Previous UN missions were too short and 
inadequately consulted Timorese officials and 
civil society. The new mission should last at 
least five years, learn from past UN mistakes, 
and overcome UN structural and institutional constraints.

«      This mission should address the 
deep-seated causes of the current crisis: massive 
unemployment, limited popular confidence in 
democratic processes and the rule of law, 
traumatization, and inadequate skills and 
experience in state institutions and personnel.

«      Prevailing impunity for crimes against 
humanity committed during the Indonesian 
occupation adds to the current crisis because new 
perpetrators expect to evade accountability and 
victims take justice into their own hands. The UN 
must renew efforts to end impunity, restore 
effectiveness to and confidence in the Timorese 
judicial system, and exemplify accountability and 
transparency in its own operations in Timor-Leste.

«      The role of the Timor-Leste military 
(F-FDTL) was poorly thought through during the 
transitional government, and ill-conceived 
international training and arms supplies have 
exacerbated current problems. The upcoming UN 
investigation of violent incidents of April 28 
and May 25 should be comprehensive and its report 
made public. In addition, the UN should encourage 
a broad-based, national discussion to help 
Timor-Leste determine what local security forces 
are appropriate. In the meantime, the UN and 
other international supporters must train police 
and military forces in human rights, the rule of 
law, command structures, and how to interact with the civilian population.

«      The “bubble economy” created by UNTAET 
should have done more to jump-start local 
economic development by hiring more Timorese 
staff and purchasing locally-produced supplies 
and services. The next UN Mission must give 
attention to the consequences of unemployment and 
alienation, and work with the Timorese government 
to expand public-sector employment and effectively train Timorese managers.

«      The next mission should involve more women 
at every level, as required by UN resolutions. 
Nearly all of those directly responsible for the 
current crisis in Timor-Leste are male, but women 
and children suffer the burden of displacement from their homes.

«      The UN’s responsibility does not end with 
the 2007 elections, and its civic education 
programs should involve more than training in 
election procedures. The next UN mission should 
help expand awareness that healthy, informed 
political debate, focused on issues and conducted 
respectfully and nonviolently, is an essential part of democracy.

La’o Hamutuk’s memorandum concluded:

“Timor-Leste began with handicaps
. The 
millennium’s first new nation was a “poster 
child” for successful (albeit belated) 
international intervention, but it has also been 
a guinea pig and training ground for experimental 
projects by the UN and other multilateral 
institutions. We hope that the current crisis is 
a wake-up call for both the international 
community and the Timorese leadership, and that 
the next UN mission in this country will 
prioritize the long-term needs of the million 
people who live in Timor-Leste, .. to support 
their efforts to live in stability, democracy and peace.”

Background

After 24 years of illegal Indonesian military 
occupation, which killed more than 100,000 
Timor-Leste people, the international community 
became involved in Timor-Leste. On August 30, 
1999, more than 78% of the people voted for 
independence in a UN-conducted referendum amidst 
a campaign of terror and destruction by the 
Indonesian military and the militia they 
directed. Following the vote, 
Indonesian-controlled forces killed more than 
1,000 people, destroyed 75% of the country’s 
buildings, and displaced three-fourths of the 
population before withdrawing from the country.

There have been four UN Missions in Timor-Leste: 
UNAMET (conducting the referendum), UNTAET 
(1999-2002, transitional government), UNMISET 
(2002-5, support), and UNOTIL (May 2005-present). 
With the breakdown of civil order and threats to 
constitutional government during the past few 
months, the UN Security Council extended UNOTIL 
to allow time to design a new mission. Since 
Timor-Leste’s independence, major powers, 
including the United States and Australia, 
pressed for rapid termination of UNTAET and 
UNMISET, but a revised consensus is likely to 
give the new mission a broader mandate and longer 
duration than UNMISET or UNOTIL.

A UN Assessment team, headed by Ian Martin, is 
now in Timor-Leste and is expected to report to 
the Security Council on August 7. La’o Hamutuk 
has given its memorandum to that team to help 
their work. The Security Council has until 
UNOTIL’s current expiration on August 20 to authorize the new mission.

La’o Hamutuk (“Walking Together”) is an 
independent Timor-Leste non-governmental 
organization formed in 2000 to monitor and 
analyze the activities of international 
organizations in the country, and to improve 
communications and understanding between civil 
society and international institutions operating 
there. The institute has issued numerous reports 
and radio broadcasts in Indonesian, English and 
Tetum with the goal of helping the new nation 
achieve stability, the rule of law, and economic 
and social justice. This memorandum is based on 
dozens of La’o Hamutuk investigations, referenced 
in the memorandum and available at 
<file:///www.laohamutuk.org>www.laohamutuk.org.