2013 Timor-Leste Update Conference

2013 Timor-Leste Update Follow Up - IPS - ANU

Amb. Abel Guterres and Agio Pereira (Minister of State and of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers) on left. Ruth Nuttall (ANU) at the podium.

The 2013 Timor-Leste Update was the first to be held at the ANU and brought together leading and emerging scholars and policy analysts working on Timor-Leste to reflect critically on the prospects and challenges for the nation over the next 5-10 years. The main objective of the Update was to contribute to Australia's knowledge of, and engagement with Timor-Leste, by providing a public forum to discuss recent developments in Timor-Leste. The Update also aimed to strengthen relationships between scholars, government agencies, civil society organisations and research institutions working on Timor-Leste and to help build the profile and capacity of East Timorese researchers and policy analysts.

The 2013 Timor-Leste Update was hosted by the State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Program at the ANU, with funding from the ANU’s Research School of Asia and the Pacific, and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and it is hoped that the Timor-Leste Update will become a biennial event.

Click on the links below to access all the outputs and related material from the 2013 Timor-Leste Update:

• 2013 Timor-Leste Update - Podcast Series: Audio recordings of key sessions
• 2013 Timor-Leste Update - Participant Presentations
• 2013 Timor-Leste Update - Program
• Keynote Address - 'Peace and Prosperity', Agio Pereira, Timo-Leste Minister of State and of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers
• Video Interview  - Dr Lia Kent on the key aims of the 2013 Timor-Leste Update
• Press Coverage - 'Widening gulf a peril for the two East Timors', Sydney Morning Herald, 28 November 2013

Related Publications

• 'In Timor, a new house does not make a home', Joanne Wallis and Pyone Myat Thu.
• 'The Australian Seasonal Workers Program: Timor-Leste's case', SSGM In Brief 2013/13

Speakers included: Agio Pereira (Minister of State and of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers), Fidelis Magalhaes (Chief of Staff, Presidency of the Republic of Timor-Leste), Charles Scheiner (La’o Hamutuk); Meabh Cryan (Rede ba Rai); Ines Martins (La’o Hamutuk); Nelson Belo (Fundasaun Mahein); Catharina Maria; Jose Neves (Deputy, Anti-Corruption Commission Timor-Leste); Lurdes Bessa (Member of Parliament, Timor-Leste); Laura Soares Abrantes (Asia Pacific Support Collective Timor-Leste); Lia Kent (ANU);Sue Ingram (ANU); Michael Leach (Swinburne University), Gordon Peake (ANU) and more.

Panel on Sub-national development.

'via Blog this'

Mandela, Indonesia and the liberation of Timor Leste

Nelson Mandela took on Suharto in his own house. He demanded to meet with imprisoned East Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao during a 1997 visit to Jakarta. Mandela insisted that the meeting take place outside the prison.

From Mandela, Indonesia and the liberation of Timor Leste | The Jakarta Post:

"Unlike many, Mandela remains loyal to the principles of Bandung that included the right to self-determination. Indeed, contrary to leaders of Indonesia’s New Order, he threw his full weight behind the liberation of Timor Leste."

"The defining moments for Mandela and Xanana were at the expense, slowly but surely, of Soeharto." 

ETAN on anniversary of Santa Cruz massacre

November 12 is the 22nd anniversary of the Santa Cruz massacre. On November 12, 1991, Indonesian troops opened fire on a memorial procession - turned into a peaceful pro-independence demonstration - at the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili, the capital of Timor-Leste. More than 270 mostly-young Timorese were murdered.

As we have often noted, the media coverage of the massacre was a key turning point in Timor's long struggle for independence. It led to the founding of ETAN and similar groups, energize UN and Portuguese diplomacy, and led to some sanctions on Indonesia. In the U.S., ETAN built on the initial cut-off of military training for the Indonesian military. Eventually, all military assistance was cut off in 1999 as Indonesian troops and militia ransacked the Timor in the aftermath of the historic vote that led to independence.

On the 20th anniversary of the massacre ETAN observed that:

"While Timor-Leste is now independent, its people will not be able to overcome their tragic past without knowing what was done with their relatives’ and friends’ bodies. Ongoing impunity for decades of systematic Indonesian military and police atrocities keeps the East Timorese and Indonesian people from consolidating their democracies and moving on with their lives."

Much remains to be done. A year ago, we noted that:

"Impunity for decades of systematic Indonesian military and police atrocities prevents both countries from consolidating the rule of law as they transition from  military dictatorship do democracy."

We continued to to urge the U.S. Congress and the Obama administration to respond to the recommendations of Timor-Leste's Commission for Truth, Reception and Reconciliation, especially "its calls for an international tribunal to try perpetrators of crimes against humanity during the Indonesian occupation, reparations from Indonesia and other countries that supported the occupation, and restrictions on foreign assistance to the Indonesian military."

And we urged the U.S. and others to press Indonesia "to immediately release all information that can help identify and locate those who were killed or disappeared during the occupation,."

For more information on the massacre see http://etan.org/timor/SntaCRUZ.htm. ETAN on the web: http://www.etan.org. Twitter: etan009