FRETILIN guarantees stability in Timor-Leste; calls on all to do same for March of Peace

Frente Revolucionária do Timor-Leste Independente (FRETILIN)

Media Release, October 10, 2008

FRETILIN leaders yesterday reconfirmed that the proposed March of Peace will take place, and rebuked a government minister for alleging that the March would destabilize the young nation. FRETILIN President Francisco Guterres Lu'Olo said that it was the de facto Minister for Economy and Development who had to answer for his support for rebel soldier Alfredo Reinado in 2006, when political violence engulfed the capital.

FRETILIN has guaranteed that the proposed March of Peace will be peaceful and lawful, but is yet to determine when the March will go ahead, despite repeated rumors and clear attempts by some to whip up emotion on the issue.
Other parties like PPT and Kota, and ASDT who have withdrawn from the AMP government, will join the March of Peace.

On September 27, 2008, the Prime Minister, Mr Gusmao, said during a speech
in Ainaro, "I hear from here that you are preparing a March of Peace to Dili. I will wait for you there and put you all in jail." FRETILIN has called this an attempt to intimidate people from exercising their constitutional and democratic rights, and shows his dictatorial tendencies yet again.

"FRETILIn is the political party that ushered in Timor-Leste's historic and successful struggle for national liberation and independence, and today is the largest political party. We will continue to make every effort to promote and maintain peace, stability and democracy in Timor-Leste and for the people of Timor-Leste, said Lu'Olo yesterday.

"I myself spent 24 years in the mountains and rivers and valleys of Timor-Leste, fighting the invader in our country. We no longer have anyone to fight. I have a young family, I want this country to be peaceful and stable so that my children can grow up with peace and can gain an education to continue to realize the dream I carried during all the years in the struggle. I have read a media release from the de facto Minister for Economy and Development in the AMP. I have to say that I don't need someone who spent the whole struggle in the comfortable surrounds provided by Australia, and financial benefits just for being a Timorese in the diaspora, to lecture me on peace and conflict," he said.

Lu'Olo was elected to the Constituent Assembly that drew up Timor-Leste's constitution in 2001, to which he was then elected as President. He then served as the President of the National Parliament between May 20, 2002 and August 7, 2007.

"It was people like the de facto Minister who supported criminals like Alfredo Reinado and those demonstrators who burnt the houses of FRETILIN supporters in 2006. They were the ones who stood clapping whilst the so-called army petitioners marched into Dili to demonstrate in April 2006, which then resulted in a violent end and triggered the suffering and mayhem that came from the violence.

"Just ask the displaced people, they can tell why they were forced from their homes. Ask the families of people still exhuming their sons why they were killed? It's because of the division of the nation by those whom the de facto Minister supported, Mr Alfredo and the petitioners. So, I ask, who needs to answer for the 2006 crisis? Who was it that had constant contact with Mr Reinado?" asked Lu'Olo.

"FRETILIN will do everything to ensure that there will be no violence resulting from the proposed Peace March. That is precisely what it is, a Peace March. That is the intention and the goal: a reaffirmation of FRETILIN as a force for Peace, Democracy, the Rule of Law and Justice, all things people are thirsting for in this country.

"FRETILIN as a party has since 2001 held the largest demonstrations and rallies in Timor-Leste, involving hundreds of thousands of people without violence and respecting law and order and the rights of others. That's more than we can say for the demonstrations organized by people now in the de facto government and their allies in the National Parliament, including the President of the Parliament himself, whose supporters brought down to Dili in May - August 2006 attacked FRETILIN supporters and even killed many," said Lu'Olo.

"Despite having been the victims of the 2006 violence, organized and orchestrated to bring down the then FRETILIN Prime Minister Dr Alkatiri, FRETILIN and its supporters will never do to them what they did to us. We respect them as fellow Timorese and part of the human family. We have suffered too much from conflict to do that ourselves," Lu'Olo stressed.

"We ask the National Police, the UN Police, the International Stabilisation Force, who have the role of maintaining law and order, to ensure that when the Peace March is held, it proceeds in peace and without attack from others who don't agree with it. We ask them to be remain totally independent and just follow the law, whatever attempts the government is currently engaged in. We undertake to fully cooperate with PNTL and UNPOL.

"Let's close all avenues to some external to our party who want to open up for violence. There is no place for it. It is important that the March go ahead and that it is peaceful, for the sake of democracy in this country. If the largest party cannot demonstrate peacefully and lawfully, then what of the small parties and civil society? That will mean the end of democracy. We will not permit that to happen," Lu'Olo concluded.

For information contact: José Teixeira MP on +670 728 7080
Nilva Guimarães (media officer) on +670 734 0389

Timor-Leste/FRETILIN MPs denounce threats by Prime Minister

Frente Revolucionária do Timor-Leste Independente (FRETILIN)

Media Release
Dili, 3 October 2008

On September 28, 2008, Timor Leste's de facto Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao, declared in Ainaro that a proposed 'March of Peace' sponsored by the largest party in the parliament, FRETILIN, would be crushed when it arrived in Dili. FRETILIN's leadership denounced this threat as illegal and dictatorial, in a media conference in Dili yesterday.

The Prime Minister's threat was also broadcast nationwide on radio and television. His exact words were: "I hear that you from here are preparing a March of Peace to Dili. I will wait for you there, and put you all in jail!"

FRETILIN President Francisco (Lu Olo) Guterres said, "I and many who heard those threatening words simply wish to ask why Mr Gusmao feels the need to threaten people who wish to demonstrate their political conviction and express their constitutional rights to undertake a march with totally peaceful intentions, to show peace, with a spirit of democracy.

Why are they the subject of threats from our nation's leaders to 'put you in jail'?"

"I remind Mr Gusmao that according to our Constitution, in a state under the rule of law, it's not he who 'puts people in jail'", said Mr Guterres. "In a democratic state under the rule of law, only a court of law can 'put people in jail' and then only if it is proven in a court that they have breached the law. But it is certainly not the Prime Minister, or even the President or a Liurai (traditional feudal King) who can just do so because that is his wish. Not even the Army or the Police or the UN Police can jail anyone without a court order or warrant, and then only if the law is being broken.

"Only in a dictatorship like the old Portuguese Colonial dictatorship and the Suharto regime can a Prime Minister simply jail people without a trial as he wishes. But not in a sovereign, constitutional and democratic Timor-Leste," declared Guterres.

Clause 42 of the Constitution of the RDTL gives everyone the freedom and right to demonstrate within the law. Timor-Leste has ratified the UN Charter and Conventions that also guarantee these rights and freedoms.

According to Guterres, the people persistently demand the Peace March to affirm Peace and Democracy and Justice in the country. "It is a March that, when it happens, will be peaceful, in a spirit of democracy, respecting the rights of other citizens and the law and all State institutions," he said.

"The planned Peace March by FRETILIN, its allies and communities, will be done to take this country in a better direction, not as our history shows, especially in 2006, to mobilize people to take this country in a worse direction.

"We ask all relevant State institutions to assure that those participating in a lawful Peace March will be able to so exercise their rights and freedoms without threats of incarceration, and especially call on the police to protect them as they do so," Guterres insisted.

"We ask the State, especially the government, not to politicise the police against the people who wish to march in the planned March of Peace, because we also heard last Saturday the de facto Prime Minister in Ainaro say that 'I have told the police that I will not permit any small group to lie to the people'. FRETILIN is not a small group of people, but whether the group is large or small, we all have a right to lawfully carry on our political activities," said Guterres.

He argued that the people feel the need to reaffirm a democratic state under the rule of law because in just one year the country had fallen more and more towards a dictatorship, with increasing breaches of human rights.

Guterres noted the arrest and beating of journalists, and the arrest without warrant of Opposition MPs, during the state of siege following the shootings on February 11 this year, and the recent repression of student protests about the state budget and the purchase of luxury 4WD Prados for MPs. So far there has been no substantive response to the reports on these violations by the Ombudsman for Human Rights and Justice.
"So these are not just threats from our recent experience," noted Guterres.

Guterres urged national leaders not to threaten the people with jail, and not to use words like 'cannons', 'armored tanks', or 'battalions', which the Prime Minister used in his Ainaro speech. "It is better if you all start to speak of the constitution, peace, democracy, tolerance, freedom, justice, the rule of law and the rights our people have to live in peace and express their political views free from fear or threats," Guterres said.

Guterres also asked people not to be affected by the threats against their rights. "When all of us walk this lawful path of peace and democracy, there will be no jail big enough to incarcerate us all," he concluded defiantly.

For information contact:
José Teixeira MP +670 728 7080
Nilva Guimarães (media officer) +670 734 0389

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FRETILIN sublinha não alterar planos da Marcha da Paz

Jornal da Madeira / Internacional / 2008-10-03

Em Díli nos próximos meses

A FRETILIN "não muda uma vírgula" no plano de realizar a Marcha da Paz em Díli nos próximos meses, segundo afirmou, ontem, o presidente do maior partido da oposição, Francisco Guterres "Lu Olo".

O líder da FRETILIN respondeu, em conferência de imprensa, a declarações do primeiro-ministro, Xanana Gusmão, num discurso em Ainaro, a 28 de Setembro.

"Lu Olo" acusou Xanana de ter dito à população que "tinha ouvido que se preparava a Marcha da Paz" para Díli, mas que "não valia a pena" as pessoas descerem à capital.

"O primeiro-ministro disse que estaria à espera de quem se manifestasse e que os meteria a todos na cadeia", acusou o líder da FRETILIN. (Agência Lusa)