Díli, 6 setembro 2009 (Lusa) - A Alta Comissária para os Direitos Humanos da ONU, Navanethem Pillay, pediu ao Presidente de Timor-Leste, Ramos-Horta, que clarifique as circunstâncias em que Maurtinus Bere, implicado no massacre da Igreja de Suai, foi entregue à Indonésia.
"Apreciaria que me fossem enviadas clarificações mais detalhadas das circunstâncias da libertação de Martinus Bere", solicita Navanethem Pillay, em carta enviada a Ramos-Horta, a que a Lusa teve hoje acesso.
Na missiva, a Alta Comissária salienta que os esforços de reaproximação entre os dois países não se podem sobrepor às obrigações internacionais a que Timor-Leste está vinculado.
"Aprecio o desejo de desenvolver relações saudáveis com a Indonésia e quero saudar o progresso que foi feito nessa área. Porém, confio que terá presente que o Governo de Timor-Leste não deve eximir-se às suas obrigações internacionais, em nome da cooperação bilateral", escreve a Alta Comissária.
Na carta enviada ao Chefe de Estado e datada de 02 de Setembro, aquela representante da ONU manifesta a sua "profunda preocupação" pelas informações que dão conta de que as autoridades timorenses libertaram Martinus Bere, acusado de crimes contra a humanidade, relacionados com o massacre de Suai, ocorrido em 1999.
"Esta decisão não só é extremamente lamentável, como terá consequências sérias para o apuramento de responsabilidades nos graves crimes que aconteceram em 1999", refere Navanethem Pillay, na carta enviada ao Presidente da República.
A Alta Comissária sublinha ainda que tal decisão contraria sucessivas resoluções do Conselho de Segurança das Nações Unidas sobre a responsabilização por crimes passados, ao mesmo tempo que garante que a ONU manterá uma posição firme no sentido de não haver impunidade para crimes graves, como os crimes de guerra, contra a Humanidade e genocídio.
Martinus Bere, referenciado por crimes graves pelas Nações Unidas, cometidos em Suai após ser conhecido o resultado da consulta popular de há 10 anos, foi preso pela Polícia Nacional de Timor-Leste (PNTL) no dia 08 de Agosto, depois de ter passado a fronteira.
Permaneceu em prisão preventiva até dia 30, data em que se comemorou solenemente o 10.º aniversário do referendo que determinou a independência e nesse mesmo dia terá sido entregue às autoridades indonésias.
Na carta enviada ao Presidente da República, Pillay aproveita para "felicitar Timor-Leste na ocasião da celebração do 10.º aniversário da consulta popular de 30 de Agosto de 1999", lembrando o apoio do Alto Comissariado a Timor-Leste, no fortalecimento do Estado de Direito e incremento de uma sólida cultura de respeito pelos direitos humanos.
A Lusa tentou obter junto dos serviços da Presidência da República de Timor-Leste uma reacção à carta da Alta Comissária para os Direitos Humanos, o que ainda não foi possível.
Mostrando postagens com marcador Ramos-Horta. Mostrar todas as postagens
Mostrando postagens com marcador Ramos-Horta. Mostrar todas as postagens
terça-feira, 8 de setembro de 2009
quarta-feira, 2 de setembro de 2009
Vítimas da guerra civil rejeitam anistia geral em Timor
Díli, 2 setembo 2009 (Lusa) - A ideia de uma anistia geral para os crimes cometidos entre 1974 e 1999, lançada pelo presidente timorense, Ramos-Horta, foi fortemente contestada no congresso da rede de vítimas de violações de direitos humanos em Timor Leste.
A iniciativa do congresso, que se prolonga até sexta-feira e reúne na capital Díli uma centena e meia de representantes, acontece poucos dias após o presidente timorense ter defendido a aprovação da anistia geral.
O porta-voz da comissão organizadora, Élio Saldanha, disse à Agência Lusa que este primeiro congresso nacional das vítimas pretende que os respectivos direitos sejam acautelados.
“O objetivo desta reunião é expor as suas ideias e exigências, bem como procurar acautelar e proteger direitos das vítimas como a verdade, justiça e reparação”, explicou Saldanha.
O congresso é promovido por várias organizações não governamentais timorenses, incluindo o “Comité 12 de Novembro”, formado pelos sobreviventes do massacre de Santa Cruz, e conta com a presença de uma delegação indonésia de vítimas do tempo do regime ditatorial de Suharto.
Além disso, participam nos trabalhos representantes dos vários distritos, escolhidos em encontros locais com vítimas e familiares, realizados desde Março pelo fórum para organizações não-governamentais timorenses FONGTIL.
A rede das vítimas visa defender os seus interesses e pontos de vista na discussão nacional, que pretende ser ampliada sobre possíveis soluções para as questões pendentes relativas à justiça, reconciliação e indenizações.
No primeiro dia de trabalhos, o congresso teve como oradores convidados Aniceto Guterres, deputado da Frentlin e membro da Comissão de Verdade e Amizade (CVA), Lois Gentil, da Missão Integrada em Timor Leste das Nações Unidas (UNMIT), e Marek Michon, chefe da Unidade de Investigação de Crimes Graves (SCIT) daquela missão.
Impunidade
As numerosas participações da assistência criticaram a ideia de uma anistia geral para os crimes de que foram vítimas, sendo a posição dominante sintetizada por Saldanha.
“Os crimes contra a humanidade não podem ficar impunes, pelo que não aceitamos que sejam amnistiáveis”, disse.
A maioria dos congressistas, vindos dos distritos, apoia que seja estabelecido um tribunal internacional para julgar os crimes graves que ocorreram no país, baseando essa exigência na própria Constituição de Timor Leste.
Segundo Saldanha, “a ideia do presidente viola a Constituição de 2002, que no seu artigo 160º estipula que os crimes contra a humanidade, genocídio e crimes de guerra têm de ser alvo de processo no tribunal nacional e internacional”.
“A justiça que reclamamos não é para ressuscitar ódios ou por vingança, mas sim para educar as gerações desta nação e evitar violações futuras dos direitos humanos”, acrescentou.
“Entendemos que será útil para promover a justiça e a paz, e fazer a prevenção de conflitos, garantindo o respeito pelo Estado de Direito, como condição para a harmonia”, concluiu.
A iniciativa do congresso, que se prolonga até sexta-feira e reúne na capital Díli uma centena e meia de representantes, acontece poucos dias após o presidente timorense ter defendido a aprovação da anistia geral.
O porta-voz da comissão organizadora, Élio Saldanha, disse à Agência Lusa que este primeiro congresso nacional das vítimas pretende que os respectivos direitos sejam acautelados.
“O objetivo desta reunião é expor as suas ideias e exigências, bem como procurar acautelar e proteger direitos das vítimas como a verdade, justiça e reparação”, explicou Saldanha.
O congresso é promovido por várias organizações não governamentais timorenses, incluindo o “Comité 12 de Novembro”, formado pelos sobreviventes do massacre de Santa Cruz, e conta com a presença de uma delegação indonésia de vítimas do tempo do regime ditatorial de Suharto.
Além disso, participam nos trabalhos representantes dos vários distritos, escolhidos em encontros locais com vítimas e familiares, realizados desde Março pelo fórum para organizações não-governamentais timorenses FONGTIL.
A rede das vítimas visa defender os seus interesses e pontos de vista na discussão nacional, que pretende ser ampliada sobre possíveis soluções para as questões pendentes relativas à justiça, reconciliação e indenizações.
No primeiro dia de trabalhos, o congresso teve como oradores convidados Aniceto Guterres, deputado da Frentlin e membro da Comissão de Verdade e Amizade (CVA), Lois Gentil, da Missão Integrada em Timor Leste das Nações Unidas (UNMIT), e Marek Michon, chefe da Unidade de Investigação de Crimes Graves (SCIT) daquela missão.
Impunidade
As numerosas participações da assistência criticaram a ideia de uma anistia geral para os crimes de que foram vítimas, sendo a posição dominante sintetizada por Saldanha.
“Os crimes contra a humanidade não podem ficar impunes, pelo que não aceitamos que sejam amnistiáveis”, disse.
A maioria dos congressistas, vindos dos distritos, apoia que seja estabelecido um tribunal internacional para julgar os crimes graves que ocorreram no país, baseando essa exigência na própria Constituição de Timor Leste.
Segundo Saldanha, “a ideia do presidente viola a Constituição de 2002, que no seu artigo 160º estipula que os crimes contra a humanidade, genocídio e crimes de guerra têm de ser alvo de processo no tribunal nacional e internacional”.
“A justiça que reclamamos não é para ressuscitar ódios ou por vingança, mas sim para educar as gerações desta nação e evitar violações futuras dos direitos humanos”, acrescentou.
“Entendemos que será útil para promover a justiça e a paz, e fazer a prevenção de conflitos, garantindo o respeito pelo Estado de Direito, como condição para a harmonia”, concluiu.
terça-feira, 1 de setembro de 2009
UN condemns East Timor militia leader’s “release”
Dili, 1 September 2009 (AFP) - The United Nations condemned Tuesday the reported release of an Indonesian former militia leader accused of taking part in a massacre of civilians in East Timor in 1999.
"If the reports are true, his release is contrary to the Security Council resolutions which set up the UN Mission in (East Timor) and seriously undermines the global principle of accountability for crimes against humanity," Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokeswoman Marie Okabe said in a statement.
The UN said earlier this week that the suspect, Martenus Bere, had been released Sunday ahead of national celebrations commemorating 10 years since East Timor won independence from Indonesia in a UN-backed referendum.
The government has refused to confirm Bere's release amd the UN appeared to backtrack on Tuesday, saying in a separate statement that its mission in Dili was "not in a position to comment" on Bere's circumstances.
Bere was detained in East Timor on August 8, five years after being indicted for his role in the 1999 Suai Church massacre, in which up to 200 people were killed.
"The UN's firm position is that there can be no amnesty or impunity for serious crimes such as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide," Okabe said.
"In that context, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights strongly opposes the release of someone for whom an arrest warrant of this nature has been established."
East Timor's leadership has been criticised for opposing prosecution for those responsible for abuses during Indonesia's bloody 1975-1999 occupation of the half-island, which killed around 100,000 people.
President Jose Ramos-Horta says restoring good relations with Indonesia is more important than "prosecutorial justice", and has said he will not let his country be used as an "experiment" in international justice.
The opposition Fretilin party however says he is out of touch with the East Timorese people, many of whom continue to demand justice for gross human rights abuses committed during the Indonesian occupation.
"If the reports are true, his release is contrary to the Security Council resolutions which set up the UN Mission in (East Timor) and seriously undermines the global principle of accountability for crimes against humanity," Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's spokeswoman Marie Okabe said in a statement.
The UN said earlier this week that the suspect, Martenus Bere, had been released Sunday ahead of national celebrations commemorating 10 years since East Timor won independence from Indonesia in a UN-backed referendum.
The government has refused to confirm Bere's release amd the UN appeared to backtrack on Tuesday, saying in a separate statement that its mission in Dili was "not in a position to comment" on Bere's circumstances.
Bere was detained in East Timor on August 8, five years after being indicted for his role in the 1999 Suai Church massacre, in which up to 200 people were killed.
"The UN's firm position is that there can be no amnesty or impunity for serious crimes such as war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide," Okabe said.
"In that context, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights strongly opposes the release of someone for whom an arrest warrant of this nature has been established."
East Timor's leadership has been criticised for opposing prosecution for those responsible for abuses during Indonesia's bloody 1975-1999 occupation of the half-island, which killed around 100,000 people.
President Jose Ramos-Horta says restoring good relations with Indonesia is more important than "prosecutorial justice", and has said he will not let his country be used as an "experiment" in international justice.
The opposition Fretilin party however says he is out of touch with the East Timorese people, many of whom continue to demand justice for gross human rights abuses committed during the Indonesian occupation.
quarta-feira, 22 de julho de 2009
East Timor/TRIALS BEGIN OVER 2008 HORTA-GUSMAO “ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT”
18 july julio 2009/World Socialist Web Site http://www.wsws.org/
By Patrick O’Connor
Dual East Timorese and Australian citizen Angelita Pires is now on trial, facing a series of charges relating to last year’s so-called assassination and coup attempt against the country’s Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao and President Jose Ramos-Horta. The court, which convened last Monday, has heard the prosecution allege that Pires is guilty of attempted murder and conspiring to kill the president on the grounds that she was the “indirect author” of these events.
Initial proceedings have underscored the numerous unanswered contradictions and far-reaching political interests involved in the events of February 11, 2008.
The official account, first promoted by the Timorese government and the Australian media and now advanced by Pires’s prosecutors, is that Alfredo Reinado—Pires’s partner and former military-police commander—had led his men in an unsuccessful coup attempt and was killed after attacking Ramos-Horta and his security detail. Along with Pires, 23 ex-soldiers and 4 of their associates, including Reinado’s senior colleague Gastao Salsinha, are on trial. President Ramos-Horta has suggested that he may pardon the men. (Tem piada, não tem?)
The official account is unsupported by the evidence and believed by virtually no-one in East Timor. Based on what is now known, it is almost certain that Reinado and his men were lured into Dili, after being told they had an appointment for a discussion with Ramos-Horta, in order to be executed. The World Socialist Web Site was alone in raising this possibility immediately after the February 11 events.
Pires has rejected the charges laid against her. Her Australian barrister Jon Tippett, QC has said that the trial highlights the disastrous state of the Timorese legal system, which he described as “one of the most substantial failures that the United Nations has ever engaged in”.
Pires’s legal team received access to the prosecution’s voluminous files just days before the trial opened, rather than the months normally granted to allow adequate preparation. “I’m very concerned about it being a fair trial,” Tippett told the ABC, “because I’ve now had complete access to 25 volumes of the prosecution case and there is no substantive evidence or properly admissible evidence that could possibly support any of the charges that have been brought against her. Now in those circumstances I would expect any responsible prosecuting authority to withdraw these charges against her at the earliest opportunity. The fact that the case is still going to trial gives me concern that this is not a legal case, it’s a political case.”
Significantly, Tippett has indicated that he intends to prove Pires’s innocence by demonstrating that Reinado was killed after attending what he believed was a meeting arranged with Ramos-Horta. “The evidence seems to point to a different story to the one which people have been receiving through the media and certainly from sources in the government of Timor-Leste to date,” the lawyer told Timorese newspaper Tempo Semanal. “The [real] story seems to be one of Reinado coming to meet the president and in the course of that event he’s shot at extremely close range ... in what appears to be an assassination.”
Prosecutors last week attempted to have Tippett and Pires’s other senior counsel, Brazilian Zeni Arndt, thrown out of court on the grounds of their alleged lack of standing in Timor’s legal system. The two lawyers were told to sit in the viewing gallery for part of the first day’s proceedings, but the presiding judge ultimately decided to permit them to participate.
Pires’s defence lawyers have said they may call 150 witnesses, likely resulting in court proceedings lasting several months.
The trial has the potential to prove highly damaging to both the Timorese and Australian governments. The immediate questions raised by the charge that Reinado was set up for assassination is: who was responsible and what was the motivation? In line with the legal adage cui bono?—who benefits—suspicion must firstly fall upon forces around Gusmao as well as Australian personnel in Dili and Canberra.
Reinado, Gusmao, and the Australian governmentBorn in 1967, Reinado fled Indonesian-occupied East Timor for Australia in 1995. He returned during the country’s transition to formal independence and joined the newly created armed forces; from 2003 to 2005 he spent several months studying and training with the Australian army in Canberra. Then in May 2006, as commander of a platoon of military police, Reinado and his men joined the mutiny of a section of the army known as the “petitioners”, who had rebelled against the Fretilin government led by Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.
The exact circumstances leading up to the split in the military remain unclear, but there is evidence suggesting that then President Xanana Gusmao was centrally involved in preparing the provocation as a means of destabilising the Alkatiri administration. Gusmao had been openly siding with the most right-wing sections of the Timorese elite, who were opposed to the Fretilin government—including former Indonesian militia members, criminal gangs, larger landowners, and the powerful Catholic Church.
The Australian government was also a leading participant. It seized upon the petitioners’ uprising to dispatch more than one thousand Australian and New Zealand soldiers to the impoverished state as part of a calculated regime-change operation. The media played an especially foul role, with the ABC’s “Four Corners” program promoting baseless accusations that the prime minister had formed a hit squad to assassinate his opponents. Alkatiri eventually acquiesced to the pressure, and chose to hand over power in June rather than risk a popular movement against the coup plotters developing beyond Fretilin’s control.
Reinado enjoyed close relations with both Gusmao and the Australian forces. After he had taken up arms against the elected government, and killed several security force personnel in a vicious ambush in Dili, Gusmao wrote Reinado a friendly letter encouraging him to withdraw his men from the capital. The president subsequently paid for Reinado’s hotel bill when the soldier stayed in the central town of Ailieu for six weeks. During this time the “rebel” held talks with high-ranking Australian military personnel and was feted in the Australian media as a “folk hero” heading a popular movement against the government.
What followed was a series of murky episodes that pointed to the close ties between Reinado and Australian military and intelligence personnel. In July 2006, Portuguese police arrested the former soldier in a Dili house, which he had used to store weapons and which was located directly opposite an Australian military base. A few weeks later Reinado was somehow able to walk out of a prison that Australian and New Zealand troops were responsible for guarding. In March 2007, shortly after a proposed deal on Reinado’s surrender—negotiated with Gusmao and Ramos-Horta—fell through, the Australian government deployed 100 elite SAS troops to lead a raid on Reinado’s base in the central mountain town of Same. The former major was again somehow able to evade detention, walking away from the clash unscathed. Later, after Gusmao and Ramos-Horta called off the official manhunt, Reinado and the Australian army exchanged information about each other’s movements—using Angelita Pires as the go-between.
The turning point in Reinado’s various manoeuvres came in January 2008, when he released a DVD accusing Gusmao of being behind the 2006 crisis, and threatened to provide additional details in future statements. Reinado’s damning allegation, apparently triggered by a breakdown in negotiations with Gusmao over the terms of his surrender, exacerbated the crisis of the prime minister’s unstable coalition government.
On February 7 last year, President Ramos-Horta convened a meeting of parliamentarians from both government and opposition parties to announce his support for Fretilin’s demand for new elections, which Gusmao was bitterly resisting. Canberra no doubt also viewed with extreme alarm the prospect of another national vote, having expended significant resources, firstly in ousting Alkatiri in 2006, and then in assisting the coming to power of the Gusmao government through the 2007 parliamentary elections held under Australian military occupation.
Ramos-Horta scheduled further discussions on the question of a fresh election—but these were never held. Reinado was killed just four days after the initial meeting. His death fortuitously eclipsed the threat that Gusmao’s true tole in the 2006 crisis would emerge. Moreover, Gusmao seized on the so-called coup attempt to announce a “state of siege”, under which he assumed sweeping authoritarian powers. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd meanwhile rushed to dispatch another 190 soldiers and federal police, bolstering the increasingly unpopular Australian occupation force.
There was, therefore, ample reason for both Gusmao and Canberra to want Reinado eliminated. On the other hand, no-one has ever provided a plausible explanation as to why Reinado would want to kill Ramos-Horta. Certainly prosecutors in the Pires trial have so far provided no motive. The president had visited Reinado in mid-January and agreed to a secret amnesty deal that would see the former major avoid imprisonment in return for surrendering his arms and returning to Dili. Ramos-Horta, in other words, was Reinado’s best—and last—hope of securing his freedom.
Prosecution contradictions: There are countless outstanding questions regarding the events of February 11. How did Reinado and his men avoid detection by Australian troops and police as they travelled as an armed convoy up to President Ramos-Horta’s residence? Did Australian intelligence agencies have prior knowledge of what has being planned, given that Reinado made dozens of mobile phone calls, including to Australia and Indonesia, in the days before his death? Did the alleged ambush on Gusmao’s vehicle, led by Reinado’s associate Gastao Salsinha, actually take place, or was it a staged fraud, as Fretilin leader Mari Alkatiri has alleged?
A full and comprehensive account of what happened may never emerge; critical evidence was deliberately sabotaged in the aftermath of Reinado’s shooting. The bodies of Reinado and Leopoldino Exposto were moved and tampered with by Timorese police and soldiers, Reinado’s clothing was removed, his mobile phone used, and his weapon interfered with. The rifle used to shoot Reinado and Leopoldino from point-blank range has never been properly examined.
The prosecution’s case has already begun to unravel, after just five days of court proceedings.
Reinado’s fellow “rebel”, Marcelo Caetano is accused of shooting President Ramos-Horta. This is despite Ramos-Horta himself previously telling the media that Caetano was not responsible. “Marcelo Caetano was wrongly accused,” the president told the Age in October last year. “I never said it was him. It was a media beat-up.”
This “media beat-up” is now the central pivot upon which the prosecution apparently hopes to build its case. Two of Ramos-Horta’s guards testified this week that the gunman who shot Ramos-Horta was wearing a balaclava at the time. One, Pedro Soares, said he could not identify the man because his face was hidden, but the other, Isaac da Silva, insisted that the attacker was definitely Caetano and that he recognised him, “from the way he was standing and his attitude”. Lawyers for the accused noted that da Silva’s testimony contradicted his earlier statement to investigators in which he said that he had not recognised the gunman. Also unexplained is the contradiction between the prosecution’s charge that Ramos-Horta’s attacker was wearing a balaclava with the president’s statement, again made to the Age last year, that he had seen the gunman’s “face and eyes” immediately before the shooting.
Ramos-Horta, who has issued numerous statements against Pires in the lead up to the trial, is now remaining silent.
By Patrick O’Connor
Dual East Timorese and Australian citizen Angelita Pires is now on trial, facing a series of charges relating to last year’s so-called assassination and coup attempt against the country’s Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao and President Jose Ramos-Horta. The court, which convened last Monday, has heard the prosecution allege that Pires is guilty of attempted murder and conspiring to kill the president on the grounds that she was the “indirect author” of these events.
Initial proceedings have underscored the numerous unanswered contradictions and far-reaching political interests involved in the events of February 11, 2008.
The official account, first promoted by the Timorese government and the Australian media and now advanced by Pires’s prosecutors, is that Alfredo Reinado—Pires’s partner and former military-police commander—had led his men in an unsuccessful coup attempt and was killed after attacking Ramos-Horta and his security detail. Along with Pires, 23 ex-soldiers and 4 of their associates, including Reinado’s senior colleague Gastao Salsinha, are on trial. President Ramos-Horta has suggested that he may pardon the men. (Tem piada, não tem?)
The official account is unsupported by the evidence and believed by virtually no-one in East Timor. Based on what is now known, it is almost certain that Reinado and his men were lured into Dili, after being told they had an appointment for a discussion with Ramos-Horta, in order to be executed. The World Socialist Web Site was alone in raising this possibility immediately after the February 11 events.
Pires has rejected the charges laid against her. Her Australian barrister Jon Tippett, QC has said that the trial highlights the disastrous state of the Timorese legal system, which he described as “one of the most substantial failures that the United Nations has ever engaged in”.
Pires’s legal team received access to the prosecution’s voluminous files just days before the trial opened, rather than the months normally granted to allow adequate preparation. “I’m very concerned about it being a fair trial,” Tippett told the ABC, “because I’ve now had complete access to 25 volumes of the prosecution case and there is no substantive evidence or properly admissible evidence that could possibly support any of the charges that have been brought against her. Now in those circumstances I would expect any responsible prosecuting authority to withdraw these charges against her at the earliest opportunity. The fact that the case is still going to trial gives me concern that this is not a legal case, it’s a political case.”
Significantly, Tippett has indicated that he intends to prove Pires’s innocence by demonstrating that Reinado was killed after attending what he believed was a meeting arranged with Ramos-Horta. “The evidence seems to point to a different story to the one which people have been receiving through the media and certainly from sources in the government of Timor-Leste to date,” the lawyer told Timorese newspaper Tempo Semanal. “The [real] story seems to be one of Reinado coming to meet the president and in the course of that event he’s shot at extremely close range ... in what appears to be an assassination.”
Prosecutors last week attempted to have Tippett and Pires’s other senior counsel, Brazilian Zeni Arndt, thrown out of court on the grounds of their alleged lack of standing in Timor’s legal system. The two lawyers were told to sit in the viewing gallery for part of the first day’s proceedings, but the presiding judge ultimately decided to permit them to participate.
Pires’s defence lawyers have said they may call 150 witnesses, likely resulting in court proceedings lasting several months.
The trial has the potential to prove highly damaging to both the Timorese and Australian governments. The immediate questions raised by the charge that Reinado was set up for assassination is: who was responsible and what was the motivation? In line with the legal adage cui bono?—who benefits—suspicion must firstly fall upon forces around Gusmao as well as Australian personnel in Dili and Canberra.
Reinado, Gusmao, and the Australian governmentBorn in 1967, Reinado fled Indonesian-occupied East Timor for Australia in 1995. He returned during the country’s transition to formal independence and joined the newly created armed forces; from 2003 to 2005 he spent several months studying and training with the Australian army in Canberra. Then in May 2006, as commander of a platoon of military police, Reinado and his men joined the mutiny of a section of the army known as the “petitioners”, who had rebelled against the Fretilin government led by Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.
The exact circumstances leading up to the split in the military remain unclear, but there is evidence suggesting that then President Xanana Gusmao was centrally involved in preparing the provocation as a means of destabilising the Alkatiri administration. Gusmao had been openly siding with the most right-wing sections of the Timorese elite, who were opposed to the Fretilin government—including former Indonesian militia members, criminal gangs, larger landowners, and the powerful Catholic Church.
The Australian government was also a leading participant. It seized upon the petitioners’ uprising to dispatch more than one thousand Australian and New Zealand soldiers to the impoverished state as part of a calculated regime-change operation. The media played an especially foul role, with the ABC’s “Four Corners” program promoting baseless accusations that the prime minister had formed a hit squad to assassinate his opponents. Alkatiri eventually acquiesced to the pressure, and chose to hand over power in June rather than risk a popular movement against the coup plotters developing beyond Fretilin’s control.
Reinado enjoyed close relations with both Gusmao and the Australian forces. After he had taken up arms against the elected government, and killed several security force personnel in a vicious ambush in Dili, Gusmao wrote Reinado a friendly letter encouraging him to withdraw his men from the capital. The president subsequently paid for Reinado’s hotel bill when the soldier stayed in the central town of Ailieu for six weeks. During this time the “rebel” held talks with high-ranking Australian military personnel and was feted in the Australian media as a “folk hero” heading a popular movement against the government.
What followed was a series of murky episodes that pointed to the close ties between Reinado and Australian military and intelligence personnel. In July 2006, Portuguese police arrested the former soldier in a Dili house, which he had used to store weapons and which was located directly opposite an Australian military base. A few weeks later Reinado was somehow able to walk out of a prison that Australian and New Zealand troops were responsible for guarding. In March 2007, shortly after a proposed deal on Reinado’s surrender—negotiated with Gusmao and Ramos-Horta—fell through, the Australian government deployed 100 elite SAS troops to lead a raid on Reinado’s base in the central mountain town of Same. The former major was again somehow able to evade detention, walking away from the clash unscathed. Later, after Gusmao and Ramos-Horta called off the official manhunt, Reinado and the Australian army exchanged information about each other’s movements—using Angelita Pires as the go-between.
The turning point in Reinado’s various manoeuvres came in January 2008, when he released a DVD accusing Gusmao of being behind the 2006 crisis, and threatened to provide additional details in future statements. Reinado’s damning allegation, apparently triggered by a breakdown in negotiations with Gusmao over the terms of his surrender, exacerbated the crisis of the prime minister’s unstable coalition government.
On February 7 last year, President Ramos-Horta convened a meeting of parliamentarians from both government and opposition parties to announce his support for Fretilin’s demand for new elections, which Gusmao was bitterly resisting. Canberra no doubt also viewed with extreme alarm the prospect of another national vote, having expended significant resources, firstly in ousting Alkatiri in 2006, and then in assisting the coming to power of the Gusmao government through the 2007 parliamentary elections held under Australian military occupation.
Ramos-Horta scheduled further discussions on the question of a fresh election—but these were never held. Reinado was killed just four days after the initial meeting. His death fortuitously eclipsed the threat that Gusmao’s true tole in the 2006 crisis would emerge. Moreover, Gusmao seized on the so-called coup attempt to announce a “state of siege”, under which he assumed sweeping authoritarian powers. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd meanwhile rushed to dispatch another 190 soldiers and federal police, bolstering the increasingly unpopular Australian occupation force.
There was, therefore, ample reason for both Gusmao and Canberra to want Reinado eliminated. On the other hand, no-one has ever provided a plausible explanation as to why Reinado would want to kill Ramos-Horta. Certainly prosecutors in the Pires trial have so far provided no motive. The president had visited Reinado in mid-January and agreed to a secret amnesty deal that would see the former major avoid imprisonment in return for surrendering his arms and returning to Dili. Ramos-Horta, in other words, was Reinado’s best—and last—hope of securing his freedom.
Prosecution contradictions: There are countless outstanding questions regarding the events of February 11. How did Reinado and his men avoid detection by Australian troops and police as they travelled as an armed convoy up to President Ramos-Horta’s residence? Did Australian intelligence agencies have prior knowledge of what has being planned, given that Reinado made dozens of mobile phone calls, including to Australia and Indonesia, in the days before his death? Did the alleged ambush on Gusmao’s vehicle, led by Reinado’s associate Gastao Salsinha, actually take place, or was it a staged fraud, as Fretilin leader Mari Alkatiri has alleged?
A full and comprehensive account of what happened may never emerge; critical evidence was deliberately sabotaged in the aftermath of Reinado’s shooting. The bodies of Reinado and Leopoldino Exposto were moved and tampered with by Timorese police and soldiers, Reinado’s clothing was removed, his mobile phone used, and his weapon interfered with. The rifle used to shoot Reinado and Leopoldino from point-blank range has never been properly examined.
The prosecution’s case has already begun to unravel, after just five days of court proceedings.
Reinado’s fellow “rebel”, Marcelo Caetano is accused of shooting President Ramos-Horta. This is despite Ramos-Horta himself previously telling the media that Caetano was not responsible. “Marcelo Caetano was wrongly accused,” the president told the Age in October last year. “I never said it was him. It was a media beat-up.”
This “media beat-up” is now the central pivot upon which the prosecution apparently hopes to build its case. Two of Ramos-Horta’s guards testified this week that the gunman who shot Ramos-Horta was wearing a balaclava at the time. One, Pedro Soares, said he could not identify the man because his face was hidden, but the other, Isaac da Silva, insisted that the attacker was definitely Caetano and that he recognised him, “from the way he was standing and his attitude”. Lawyers for the accused noted that da Silva’s testimony contradicted his earlier statement to investigators in which he said that he had not recognised the gunman. Also unexplained is the contradiction between the prosecution’s charge that Ramos-Horta’s attacker was wearing a balaclava with the president’s statement, again made to the Age last year, that he had seen the gunman’s “face and eyes” immediately before the shooting.
Ramos-Horta, who has issued numerous statements against Pires in the lead up to the trial, is now remaining silent.
segunda-feira, 1 de dezembro de 2008
Timor-Leste/Xanana Gusmão persegue juiz português
29 de Novembro 2008/Expresso (Portugal)
Ivo Rosa ilegalizou parte do orçamento timorense. O primeiro-ministro de Timor não gostou e afastou-o
O assunto não era tema para a visita de dois dias que Xanana Gusmão fez esta semana a Portugal, aproveitada pelo primeiro-ministro timorense para passar uma imagem de estabilidade política no seu país e obter linhas de crédito nos bancos portugueses, mas a crise entre órgãos de soberania está instalada em Díli e corre o risco de se tornar mais profunda.
Duas semanas depois de ter seguido para publicação no ‘Jornal da República’ (o equivalente ao nosso ‘Diário da República’), o polémico acórdão do Tribunal de Recurso timorense que ilegaliza um terço do orçamento de Estado para 2008 ainda não viu a luz do dia, o que em circunstâncias normais já deveria ter acontecido na semana passada.
Fontes judiciais em Díli garantem que há um bloqueio político ao acórdão por parte do Governo, motivando fortes críticas da oposição e de organizações não-governamentais. Na prática, sem estar publicado, o Executivo de Xanana Gusmão não tem de o respeitar, por não ter conhecimento oficial dele.
A decisão do tribunal proíbe o Governo de gastar uma transferência extraordinária de 240 milhões de dólares do fundo de petróleo timorense, por não respeitar a lei, e foi escrita por um juiz português, entretanto afastado pelo Conselho Superior de Magistratura (CSM), liderado actualmente pelo secretário-geral do partido de Xanana Gusmão (CNRT).
A não renovação do contrato do magistrado Ivo Rosa foi determinada no próprio dia em que o português enviou o acórdão para publicação.
Ivo Rosa tinha assumido em Agosto a função de presidente interino do Tribunal, desde que o magistrado timorense Cláudio Ximenes veio para Portugal para um tratamento prolongado de saúde. Ximenes acumula em Timor as presidências do Tribunal de Recurso e do Conselho Superior de Magistratura.
Dionísio Babo, o secretário-geral do CNRT e presidente-substituto do CSM, admitiu ao Expresso que o afastamento do juiz português foi feito no dia da notificação do acórdão sobre o orçamento, a 13 de Novembro, sem estar na ordem de trabalhos e sem conhecimento de Cláudio Ximenes, mas justificou que se tratou de uma decisão legítima.
“Não estou a pôr em causa a competência do juiz, mas foi uma proposta de dois conselheiros e, apesar de polémica, acabou por ser votada por unanimidade”, confessou o responsável pelo Conselho Superior de Magistratura. “É uma situação normal, já em vezes anteriores tínhamos decidido por não renovar contratos com outros juízes internacionais. Não misturo política com a magistratura”. Babo assume, no entanto, que é assessor no gabinete do vice-primeiro-ministro José Luís Guterres. Além dele, um outro conselheiro, Cirilo, trabalha para o gabinete de Xanana.
Responsável pelos julgamentos dos militares implicados nas mortes de oito polícias durante a crise de 2006 e autor dos mandados de captura em nome do rebelde Alfredo Reinado (contra a estratégia de Ramos-Horta e Xanana Gusmão), o juiz português tornou-se uma figura incómoda em Timor.
A fragilidade do sistema judicial no país tem sido um dos pontos mais criticados pelos relatórios internacionais sobre a situação no país, desde que a comissão de inquérito criada pela ONU para investigar a crise político-militar de 2006 recomendou que todos os seus responsáveis deveriam ser chamados à justiça.
Neste momento, nem mesmo os atentados ao Presidente da República, Ramos-Horta (que ficou gravemente ferido), e ao primeiro-ministro em Fevereiro último têm o inquérito concluído. Nove meses depois, e apesar da polícia australiana e do FBI americano terem contribuído com uma exaustiva investigação aos incidentes, a Procuradoria-Geral da República ainda não disse nada sobre o que realmente aconteceu.
Micael Pereira
---------------
"Ivo Rosa declared illegal part of the government budget. The PM did not like it and so had him set aside."
Translation from Portuguese of article By Micael Pereira – in "Expresso"
30 November 2008
Source: Timor Online/1 dezembro 2008
This issue was not a theme for the two day visit by Xanana Gusmao to Portugal this week, which the Timorese Prime Minister took advantage of to put across an image of political stability in his country in order to obtain lines of credit with the Portuguese banks, but the crisis between the constitutional bodies is entrenched in Dili and runs the risk of deepening.
Two weeks after having been sent for publication in the "Jornal o Republica" (the equivalent of our "Daily of the Republic") [1], the controversial ruling of the Timorese Court of Appeal which declares illegal one third of the State Budget for 2008 still has not seen the light of day, which under normal circumstances should have already occurred two weeks ago.
Judicial sources in Dili assure us that the decision is being politically blocked by the Government, which is arousing strong criticisms from the opposition and non-governmental organizations. In practice, until it is published, Xanana Gusmao's does not have to comply with the decision, as it does not yet have official knowledge of it.
The court decision which prohibits the Government from spending an extra transfer of US$240 million from the Timorese Petroleum Fund, because they did not comply with the law, was written by a Portuguese judge, who has in the meantime been moved aside by the Superior Council for the Judiciary (SCJ), which is currently headed by the secretary general of Xanana Gusmao's party (CNRT).
The non-renewal of the judge Ivo Rosa's contract was decided on the very day he sent the decision for publication.
Ivo Rosa had taken over the role of interim President of the Court of Appeal in August, since the Timorese Judge Caludio Ximnenes had come to Portugal for prolonged medical treatment. Ximenes accumulates the roles of President of the Court of Appeal and the Superior Council for the Judiciary.
Dionisio Babo, the secretary general of the CNRT and substitute President of the SCJ, admitted to Expresso that the moving aside of the Portuguese Judge was effected on the day the notification of the decision regarding the budget, the 13th of November, without it being an item of business on the agenda and without it being known by Claudio Ximenes, but justified it as being a legitimate decision.
"I am not putting in cause the judges competence, but it was proposed by two councilors and that despite controversy was voted by unanimity," confessed the head of the Superior Council for the Judiciary. "It is a normal thing, on previous occasions we had decided not to renew the contract of other international judges. I do not mix politics with the judiciary." Babo also holds the position of advisor in the office of the Deputy Prime Minister Jose Luis Guterres.
As the one who was responsible for judging the soldiers implicated in the deaths of eight police during the 2006 crisis and who issued the warrants for the capture the rebel Alfredo Reinado (against the strategy adopted by Ramos-Horta and Xanana Gusmao), the Portuguese Judge became a discomforting figure in Timor.
The fragility of the judicial system in the country has been one of the most widely criticized points in international reports regarding the country's situation, from the time the UN commission of inquiry investigating the 2006 political-military crisis recommended that all those responsible for the crisis should be called to face justice.
.
At this time, not even the investigations into the attempts on the President of the Republic (who was gravely wounded), and on the Prime Minister in February last have been concluded. After nine months, and despite the Australian Police and the FBI having contributed with an exhaustive investigation of the incidents, the Prosecutor General has still not said anything regarding what really occurred.
http://timor-online.blogspot.com/2008/12/ivo-rosa-declared-illegal-part-of.html
Ivo Rosa ilegalizou parte do orçamento timorense. O primeiro-ministro de Timor não gostou e afastou-o
O assunto não era tema para a visita de dois dias que Xanana Gusmão fez esta semana a Portugal, aproveitada pelo primeiro-ministro timorense para passar uma imagem de estabilidade política no seu país e obter linhas de crédito nos bancos portugueses, mas a crise entre órgãos de soberania está instalada em Díli e corre o risco de se tornar mais profunda.
Duas semanas depois de ter seguido para publicação no ‘Jornal da República’ (o equivalente ao nosso ‘Diário da República’), o polémico acórdão do Tribunal de Recurso timorense que ilegaliza um terço do orçamento de Estado para 2008 ainda não viu a luz do dia, o que em circunstâncias normais já deveria ter acontecido na semana passada.
Fontes judiciais em Díli garantem que há um bloqueio político ao acórdão por parte do Governo, motivando fortes críticas da oposição e de organizações não-governamentais. Na prática, sem estar publicado, o Executivo de Xanana Gusmão não tem de o respeitar, por não ter conhecimento oficial dele.
A decisão do tribunal proíbe o Governo de gastar uma transferência extraordinária de 240 milhões de dólares do fundo de petróleo timorense, por não respeitar a lei, e foi escrita por um juiz português, entretanto afastado pelo Conselho Superior de Magistratura (CSM), liderado actualmente pelo secretário-geral do partido de Xanana Gusmão (CNRT).
A não renovação do contrato do magistrado Ivo Rosa foi determinada no próprio dia em que o português enviou o acórdão para publicação.
Ivo Rosa tinha assumido em Agosto a função de presidente interino do Tribunal, desde que o magistrado timorense Cláudio Ximenes veio para Portugal para um tratamento prolongado de saúde. Ximenes acumula em Timor as presidências do Tribunal de Recurso e do Conselho Superior de Magistratura.
Dionísio Babo, o secretário-geral do CNRT e presidente-substituto do CSM, admitiu ao Expresso que o afastamento do juiz português foi feito no dia da notificação do acórdão sobre o orçamento, a 13 de Novembro, sem estar na ordem de trabalhos e sem conhecimento de Cláudio Ximenes, mas justificou que se tratou de uma decisão legítima.
“Não estou a pôr em causa a competência do juiz, mas foi uma proposta de dois conselheiros e, apesar de polémica, acabou por ser votada por unanimidade”, confessou o responsável pelo Conselho Superior de Magistratura. “É uma situação normal, já em vezes anteriores tínhamos decidido por não renovar contratos com outros juízes internacionais. Não misturo política com a magistratura”. Babo assume, no entanto, que é assessor no gabinete do vice-primeiro-ministro José Luís Guterres. Além dele, um outro conselheiro, Cirilo, trabalha para o gabinete de Xanana.
Responsável pelos julgamentos dos militares implicados nas mortes de oito polícias durante a crise de 2006 e autor dos mandados de captura em nome do rebelde Alfredo Reinado (contra a estratégia de Ramos-Horta e Xanana Gusmão), o juiz português tornou-se uma figura incómoda em Timor.
A fragilidade do sistema judicial no país tem sido um dos pontos mais criticados pelos relatórios internacionais sobre a situação no país, desde que a comissão de inquérito criada pela ONU para investigar a crise político-militar de 2006 recomendou que todos os seus responsáveis deveriam ser chamados à justiça.
Neste momento, nem mesmo os atentados ao Presidente da República, Ramos-Horta (que ficou gravemente ferido), e ao primeiro-ministro em Fevereiro último têm o inquérito concluído. Nove meses depois, e apesar da polícia australiana e do FBI americano terem contribuído com uma exaustiva investigação aos incidentes, a Procuradoria-Geral da República ainda não disse nada sobre o que realmente aconteceu.
Micael Pereira
---------------
"Ivo Rosa declared illegal part of the government budget. The PM did not like it and so had him set aside."
Translation from Portuguese of article By Micael Pereira – in "Expresso"
30 November 2008
Source: Timor Online/1 dezembro 2008
This issue was not a theme for the two day visit by Xanana Gusmao to Portugal this week, which the Timorese Prime Minister took advantage of to put across an image of political stability in his country in order to obtain lines of credit with the Portuguese banks, but the crisis between the constitutional bodies is entrenched in Dili and runs the risk of deepening.
Two weeks after having been sent for publication in the "Jornal o Republica" (the equivalent of our "Daily of the Republic") [1], the controversial ruling of the Timorese Court of Appeal which declares illegal one third of the State Budget for 2008 still has not seen the light of day, which under normal circumstances should have already occurred two weeks ago.
Judicial sources in Dili assure us that the decision is being politically blocked by the Government, which is arousing strong criticisms from the opposition and non-governmental organizations. In practice, until it is published, Xanana Gusmao's does not have to comply with the decision, as it does not yet have official knowledge of it.
The court decision which prohibits the Government from spending an extra transfer of US$240 million from the Timorese Petroleum Fund, because they did not comply with the law, was written by a Portuguese judge, who has in the meantime been moved aside by the Superior Council for the Judiciary (SCJ), which is currently headed by the secretary general of Xanana Gusmao's party (CNRT).
The non-renewal of the judge Ivo Rosa's contract was decided on the very day he sent the decision for publication.
Ivo Rosa had taken over the role of interim President of the Court of Appeal in August, since the Timorese Judge Caludio Ximnenes had come to Portugal for prolonged medical treatment. Ximenes accumulates the roles of President of the Court of Appeal and the Superior Council for the Judiciary.
Dionisio Babo, the secretary general of the CNRT and substitute President of the SCJ, admitted to Expresso that the moving aside of the Portuguese Judge was effected on the day the notification of the decision regarding the budget, the 13th of November, without it being an item of business on the agenda and without it being known by Claudio Ximenes, but justified it as being a legitimate decision.
"I am not putting in cause the judges competence, but it was proposed by two councilors and that despite controversy was voted by unanimity," confessed the head of the Superior Council for the Judiciary. "It is a normal thing, on previous occasions we had decided not to renew the contract of other international judges. I do not mix politics with the judiciary." Babo also holds the position of advisor in the office of the Deputy Prime Minister Jose Luis Guterres.
As the one who was responsible for judging the soldiers implicated in the deaths of eight police during the 2006 crisis and who issued the warrants for the capture the rebel Alfredo Reinado (against the strategy adopted by Ramos-Horta and Xanana Gusmao), the Portuguese Judge became a discomforting figure in Timor.
The fragility of the judicial system in the country has been one of the most widely criticized points in international reports regarding the country's situation, from the time the UN commission of inquiry investigating the 2006 political-military crisis recommended that all those responsible for the crisis should be called to face justice.
.
At this time, not even the investigations into the attempts on the President of the Republic (who was gravely wounded), and on the Prime Minister in February last have been concluded. After nine months, and despite the Australian Police and the FBI having contributed with an exhaustive investigation of the incidents, the Prosecutor General has still not said anything regarding what really occurred.
http://timor-online.blogspot.com/2008/12/ivo-rosa-declared-illegal-part-of.html
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