sábado, 2 de janeiro de 2016

The truth about John Howard’s East Timor ‘liberation’


As Indonesian troops fired on a compound of refugees in Dili, John Howard directed the AFP to withdraw. Had they followed orders, they would have left 3000 people to certain death.
                                                                                           
It was, as I reported at the time, John Howard and Alexander Downer’s Srebrenica moment. On the night of September 8, 1999, I was standing next to the head of the Australian Federal Police delegation sent to provide “security” and oversee the United Nations ballot on East Timorese independence. He was on one of the few satellite phones left in the UN compound. He was talking to the then Australian prime minister. Howard was saying the AFP must evacuate and leave the 3000 or so refugees taking shelter in the compound to their fate.

To those there, it was obvious what such an evacuation would mean. There was heavy gunfire coming over the compound on all sides. The former school compound was the last bastion in a town being destroyed and depopulated by the Indonesian military, police and their militia proxies – part of a long-planned campaign of revenge against the East Timorese for voting for independence from Indonesia. Had the AFP followed Howard’s directive and pulled out, there would have been a massacre.

The Indonesian troops and police wanted the foreigners gone. They were banging away with automatic weapons outside the gates to terrify and intimidate the remaining UN staff, AFP and journalists into leaving on the regular and conveniently arranged evacuation flights. They did not want witnesses.

On that night, Wednesday, September 8, 1999, the leader of the UN mission tasked with carrying out the ballot for or against independence from Indonesia, Ian Martin, held a press conference. The 20 or so journalists who had not evacuated turned up. Dirty, dishevelled, unwashed. We had been sleeping on the ground in the pressroom since we had been forced from our hotels by Indonesian troops who knocked open the doors of our rooms and demanded we leave. They gave us two options: the airport for evacuation or the compound. Now. Move. It was an order, not a request, carried out with the pointing of a barrel of a still-warm M16.

Some of us took the latter option, and went to the little UN compound. There a whole new drama was about to unfold. There were scenes of awful desperation, as refugees from the fighting were throwing children over razor wire fences. Their suffering and fear was real. Out there beyond the wire, chaos reigned. There were killings, looting and burnings going on day after day, carried out by the Indonesian military, the police and their proxies in the militia.

As this chaos unfolded, the UN declared at that late evening press conference that it would leave. Outside in the compound, word of the impending evacuation spread like wildfire. Timorese who had risked their lives working for the UN or campaigning for independence realised they were going to be abandoned by the international community with which they had sought shelter. It was a low moment for the UN, the AFP and the other unarmed national police and military that were supposed to be providing security for the besieged mission.

It was Alan Mills who was standing next to me as all this happened, the head of the Australian Federal Police mission. He was on one of the few satellite phones left in the compound. Mobile phones no longer worked. It was very hard to contact the outside world. Mills was talking to Howard. “Yes sir, yes sir,” I heard him say, a volley of gunfire overhead muffling the sound. “Yes sir. We will leave in the morning.”

According to Australian Federal Police officer Wayne Sievers, a meeting of all the AFP had been called at 6pm. Commissioner Mills addressed them. “He told us to pack our things, we were going to evacuate the next day,” Sievers told me. “He was challenged by one or two of our people.”

According to Sievers’ account, Kendall Clarke, an Australian policewoman from Melbourne, said: “How dare you! You know what will happen to all these people if you leave them here.” To which Mills replied: “Don’t be a drama queen. We’ve got to look after ourselves first.”

Sievers found himself thinking that, among the AFP contingent, confidence in Mills’ leadership was at an all-time low. “The Aussie police were so fucking angry at the thought of leaving all these people here.”

A petition was organised, to inform the leadership they were not going to leave. “Some of us were of the view that if we did stay and there was not a resolution, there was a better than even money chance Indonesian army intelligence would send the militia over the wall for us.”

Commissioner Mills was in regular phone contact with Howard throughout this. It was clear to those there that the Australian government was pushing the decision to leave the East Timorese to their fate.

Personal and political legacies

Both Howard and then foreign minister Alexander Downer have claimed the subsequent Australian-led peacekeeping force into East Timor as one of the greatest achievements of their time in office. In Howard’s 2010 memoir, he wrote: “When asked to list the achievements of my prime ministership of which I am most proud, I always include the liberation of East Timor.” He told SBS: “It’s got problems, it’s got governance issues, but it’s free... I’m very proud of the role Australia played in bringing that about. It’s one of the more noble things Australia has done on the international front for many years.”

But a small group of journalists, AFP officers and some UN workers, many now dead, know the lie to claim. When the situation was at its most critical, the Australian government baulked and only after massive domestic and international pressure was forced to act and send in the peacekeepers many had been calling for as the previous year of massacres and killings unfolded before the eyes of the foreign media in East Timor.

So what happened to those Australian Federal Police tasked with an impossible mission, then told to abandon it? Wayne Sievers gives us a glimpse of how the mission that ended in the UN compound affected him personally. Sick with malaria and dengue fever, he signed the petition to stay to save the refugees. He was evacuated with me and most of the journalists on September 10, 1999.

He later wrote, in a submission for compensation for post-traumatic stress: “These feelings of hyper-vigilance have had a profound impact on my work on another level … People such as me often found ourselves operating alone and unsupported doing the best we could with what we had on hand.

“I have never again trusted public sector cultures and their claimed values to deliver people to leadership positions based on genuine merit. It is all about faking it and cultivating relationships, and I see it all the time in my current employment. Nothing has changed from my service in East Timor. I also developed an intense mistrust of politicians, given we were sent unarmed into East Timor to do something that was impossible. I believed then as now that Australia’s political leaders completely misjudged the situation on the ground, and then lied about the extent of their knowledge to avoid political embarrassment.”

Another unnamed AFP source said: “My mission to East Timor was incredibly badly led by a number of key individuals. The senior Australian officers were appointed on the basis of political loyalty or nepotism, and not on their ability to lead staff in life-threatening situations. When we most needed leadership in the most dire of situations, these officers were conspicuous by their absence.”

Faced with a near rebellion by UN staffers, UN police and journalists, Ian Martin announced a temporary postponement of the evacuation in the early hours of September 9. I remember being woken by the UN spokesman, Brian Kelly, to attend the announcement in his office at 2am. “We can’t,” he said, “make the announcement without the wire services, can we?”

Martin announced the evacuation would be delayed 24 hours. Outside, almost as soon as I filed my report to the Associated Press, the shooting stopped. The order to back off had come through. Meanwhile, many of the refugees losing faith in the UN had decided to risk death by escaping the compound, through gunfire, up the hills to the precarious safety away from the Indonesian military and their militia proxies.

Wayne Sievers was among those who helped those who chose to flee, but it still haunts him. “In desperation, I and a number of other Australian police began to facilitate the escape of those refugees who wished to leave the compound. We did this by opening a gap in the hillside back fence, affording access to a track which led up to Dare in the mountains. At Dare they could shelter with the Catholic Church or with Falintil resistance movement. We did not know that the Indonesian military had placed soldiers with automatic weapons in several positions overlooking the track. They opened fire on anyone attempting to pass. I still carry with me the near certainty that some of those I helped to escape were murdered in cold blood. The guilt is crushing, even to this day, for me.”

Evacuation and return

In the end it was negotiated that the remaining 1450 East Timorese would be evacuated to Darwin, along with all but 12 of the UN staff who would then move to the Australian consulate. Journalists were told if they stayed they had to leave the compound. I left two days after the Howard phone call, but a few journalists stayed. Max Stahl and Robert Carroll followed the refugees up the hills. Three Dutch female journalists and Marie Colvin, later killed in Syria, tried to stay but left a few days later after the UN threatened to evict them. One American journalist, Allan Nairn, was arrested by the Indonesians, alone in the deserted compound. The Indonesian job was done, with capitulation from Australia: they could kill, loot and destroy without any witnesses from the outside world.

The Indonesians had 10 days to clean up the bodies. At Darwin airport on September 20, as I prepared to board a military flight with the first wave of Australian Army back to Dili, Howard talked to journalists on the tarmac, basking in the reflected glory of a deployment he had long denied was necessary. We arrived back in a city destroyed and deserted. Bodies were there one minute, then gone the next, collected by the remaining Indonesian troops.

For the Australian Federal Police who had been sent unarmed to prevent these unpreventable massacres, the effects of the experience cannot be shaken. “I remain consumed by guilt that I could have saved more people by acting smarter, or with more courage,” Sievers says, “or by simply making better operational choices when making life and death decisions in the heat of the moment.”

JOHN MARTINKUS – The Saturday Paper, DEC 19, 2015

Three Centuries of Conflict in East Timor


This academic piece looks at what has caused bouts of mass political violence lasting for long periods in Southeast Asia by digging up the troubled past of a young nation

By Peter Gordon 

Douglas Kammen has written a detailed and at times fascinating narrative of Maubara, an obscure outpost in the remote former Portuguese colony of East Timor, wrapped in a somewhat less approachable academic discussion of mass violence.

Maubara doesn't emerge into the historical record until 1726 when it was mentioned in the context of assistance provided by the local ruler to the Portuguese in putting down a rebellion. It passed into Dutch hands soon after – the Portuguese only having a tenuous hold on Timor in the 18th century–and back to the Portuguese again in the mid-19th century.

With such records as exist, Kammen has reconstructed the history of the leading families which is both interesting for its own sake, but also for what this inside-out view of the period says about Portuguese colonialism in the far-flung corners of the Empire. Presence was very thin and they ruled until the 20th century in an almost feudal manner. Kammen calls Timor a Vassal state – governed largely through local kings, queens and regional rulers – terms that seems hyperbolic under the circumstances. It was a messy system and evidently a source of instability.

Kammen provides blow-by-blow accounts of various uprisings which can have a certain novel quality. Here is an excerpt: "Portuguese troops had surrounded Maubute at Fatubuikaren and he was again ordered to surrender. According to one oral account, Maubute told the commander, 'I will not surrender. I will not go with you to Dili. I do not want the foreigners [malae] here because this land belongs to us, not the white people.' The Portuguese commander then drew his sword and struck Maubute's neck, but the sword did not cut him. Maubute spoke again: 'Rather than surrender, I will give you my sword,' he said. Wielding the rebel's own weapon, the Portuguese commander beheaded Maubute. The severed head was taken back to Dili, where it was said to have been stored in a large jar of formaldehyde in a government office building."

This evocative imagery aside, these incidents, while looming large in the local consciousness, must have been pretty minor affairs by European or Chinese standards.

It was not until the 1890s that Portugal attempted to "bring the entire territory and population under Portuguese control." The advent of the Republic in 1910 ironically tightened the colonial yoke. Poll taxes, intensive cultivation of coffee and forced labor all "saw sharp increases". In spite of Portuguese neutrality, East Timor endured a brutal Japanese occupation during World War II.

This sorry tale continues up through the perhaps better-known period of the brutal Indonesian invasion and occupation after the Portuguese pulled out in in the mid-1970s. Maubara was where the infamous pro-Indonesian militia Besi Merah Putih was established.

The stated academic purpose of this book is not, however, the narrative, but rather a data point in the study of mass violence. "Why does violence recur in some places, over long periods of times?" asks the back cover. The actual discussion of this subject and Maubara's place in a larger theory occupies only a dozen or so pages; perhaps those who are familiar with the "broader literature on mass political violence" would be able to slot the narrative into existing theory, but the uninitiated risk being baffled by the heavy arguments. Incompetent colonialism would seem like a reasonable default explanation for the violence. The claim on the back cover that this very specific study is directly relevant to explaining violence in places as far afield as the Caucasus, the Balkans and China seems a stretch; there is little in this relatively short volume to lend substance to the claim.

The value of the book, at least for a general reader, probably lies elsewhere. There seem to be few such accounts about or from East Timor. Exacting in the details, Kammen has succeeded in writing a compelling and evocative narrative. The story of a thin and often incompetent and brutal colonial administration, conflicts of interests and collaboration among the colonized, various degrees of cultural and social intermixing , a wrenching decolonization process and a precarious aftermath is, furthermore, one that has parallels in other parts of Asia. Three Centuries of Conflict in East Timor is a reminder of the complexity that is Southeast Asia and of the elements of its history that can still bedevil it today.

Peter Gordon is editor of The Asian Review of Books

in Caixin online - Reprinted with permission from The Asian Review of Books

Make Kevin Rudd next United Nations chief: East Timor's Jose Ramos Horta


Former prime minister Kevin Rudd has some high-powered backing to become the next UN Secretary-General

Jose Ramos Horta – Nobel prize winner and global face of East Timor's long struggle for independence – is backing Australia's former prime minister Kevin Rudd to become the next chief of the United Nations.

"Kevin Rudd, in my view, will be the very best," Dr Ramos Horta told Fairfax Media from Dili.

Mr Rudd is widely thought to be have spent the past year garnering support for a tilt at the job, though he himself remains coy about the prospect. He was in Paris this month for climate change talks, accredited by the UN as head of the Asia Society Policy Institute, and he also recently took over as chairman of the UN-linked "Sanitation and Water for All" partnership.

Dr Ramos Horta is the most senior figure to so far support Mr Rudd for the position of UN Secretary-General, which must be decided next year. He said he would "definitely" be in New York to lobby on Mr Rudd's behalf.

"I would urge Kevin Rudd to run. He has not done so yet, I hope he does. He would be the best Secretary-General the world would have over the next five to 10 years."

Dr Ramos Horta's support could carry extraordinary weight, after he became intimately familiar with the UN system over more than two decades fighting to put diplomatic pressure on Indonesia after its brutal takeover of East Timor. He went on to become East Timor's president.

His support comes as the Security Council on Wednesday signed off on a letter to be sent to all 193 member countries, which outlines the process to appoint a replacement for the present UN chief Ban Ki-moon, whose term finishes at the end of next year.

The letter calls for the next Secretary-General to have "the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity ... with proven leadership and managerial abilities, extensive experience in international relations, and strong diplomatic, communication and multilingual skills."

But a spokeswoman for Mr Rudd maintained that, "Mr Rudd is not a candidate".

"Whether people in the international community have a view on Mr Rudd's contribution to international relations, and whether they state these views publicly or privately, it is a matter for them," a spokeswoman for Mr Rudd told Fairfax Media.

Danish diplomat and President of the UN General Assembly Morgens Lykketoft confirmed on Wednesday that only two candidates have so far formally declared for the position, with the letter to members calling for countries to nominate others.

New Zealand's former prime minister Helen Clark is also reported to be campaigning for the job, with the only formal nominations from Croatia and the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia.

The letter is part of a new drive for transparency in the process of appointing the Secretary-General, which has historically been dominated by the great powers – the US, Russia, Britain, France and China, who each wield a veto in the Security Council.

Mr Lykketoft also said "it was not stated in any specific agreement" that the next Secretary-General should come from a particular part of the world – although he acknowledged eastern European nations are pushing for turn, having not previously had a representative.

There is also a growing drive to appoint the first woman as Secretary-General in the 70 year history of the UN.

Dr Ramos Horta dismissed the notion of an eastern European region within the United Nations as being a relic of the Cold War and said most of the countries had since joined either the European Union or NATO.

"It should be disbanded," he said.

Mr Rudd's spokeswoman said: "It is an eastern European rotation. Mr Rudd is not from eastern Europe."

However, with many eastern European countries fearful of a resurgent Russia, finding an acceptable candidate who would avoid the Russian veto might also prove difficult. That would open the field for other contenders.

Dr Ramos Horta, who has himself been touted in the past as a potential UN chief, said the world was facing extremely complex challenges, including extremism in Syria, humanitarian threats in Africa, and growing numbers of refugees.

"The UN needs a Secretary-General who has exceptional mastery of these issues, who is an extremely gifted leader," he said.

He said a former president, prime minister or foreign minister with years of experience was needed rather than a career diplomat or a candidate from within the UN bureaucracy.

"Someone like Kevin Rudd, he is an internationalist. When he was prime minister, Australia shined on climate change. It was forward looking on aid," Dr Ramos Horta said.

Daniel Flitton, senior correspondent - Sydney Morning Herald, December 16, 2015

AMI financia centro de assistência médica para os "portugueses" de Malaca


A Assistência Médica Internacional (AMI) está a financiar um centro de assistência médica no bairro dos "portugueses" de Malaca, que começará a funcionar integralmente em janeiro, segundo a entidade responsável pela implementação do projeto.

O presidente da delegação malaia da associação Korsang di Melaka (Coração de Malaca, no crioulo português de Malaca), Richard Hendricks, explicou que o centro visa realizar atos médicos simples, como verificar o estado do coração ou a diabetes, e ajudar os habitantes a perceber se "há a necessidade de irem ver um médico".

A ideia, continuou, é que os enfermeiros também venham a "dar às pessoas alguma informação sobre problemas de saúde e sobre como é que elas podem prevenir-se de doenças".

Em Malaca, "há hospitais bastante dispendiosos" e é necessário "transporte" para lá chegar, logo, com este centro os habitantes ficam com a vida facilitada, sublinhou.

De acordo com Richard Hendricks, o projeto arrancou em abril, mas só em janeiro será totalmente implementado, devendo-se o atraso a um problema no "sistema".

"Para tudo o que nos fazemos no Portuguese Settlement [povoado português, em inglês], temos de passar por algumas pessoas, temos de conseguir a autorização delas sobre o que podemos e o que não podemos fazer, e muitas coisas ainda não estavam aprovadas", esclareceu.

Numa altura em que estava a ser pressionado para começar o projeto pela delegação da associação em Portugal, Richard Hendricks percebeu que não era possível iniciá-lo de forma "tão rápida", porque exigia "muitos preparativos" e os "portugueses" de Malaca estavam "desunidos".

Segundo o mesmo responsável, o centro começou por ser implementado noutro local antes de ser mudado para o espaço onde se encontra hoje, por trás da igreja.

O local é composto por três divisões, nomeadamente um pequeno consultório médico, uma sala de espera e um espaço amplo com seis computadores para formação.

Há também material médico, uma cadeira de rodas e um dossier com fichas de cerca de 50 utentes, dado que uma enfermeira começou a prestar apoio aos cidadãos alguns domingos após a missa, segundo o presidente da delegação malaia da Korsang di Melaka.

Richard Hendricks adiantou que a AMI comprometeu-se a financiar o centro por três anos, tendo a associação já recebido a primeira tranche de 9000 euros para o primeiro ano, sem, no entanto, conseguir especificar quanto receberá nos anos seguintes.

Para já, o dinheiro que está a chegar da delegação de Portugal destina-se a pagar a renda do espaço, a eletricidade, salários para dois enfermeiros e um assistente e material.

"É um bom projeto", elogiou, congratulando-se com o apoio da AMI.

Contudo, lembrou que todo o seu trabalho é "voluntário" e que o dinheiro atribuído ao pessoal responsável pelo apoio médico é "apenas uma pequena compensação pelo seu tempo".

Os cerca de mil "portugueses" de Malaca vivem num bairro perto do centro da cidade turística com o mesmo nome e preservam manifestações culturais, religiosas e linguísticas transmitidas pelos portugueses liderados por Afonso de Albuquerque que, em 1511, tomaram Malaca e governaram a cidade por 130 anos.

ANYN // PJA - Lusa

BANHISTA SOFRE FERIMENTOS EM ATAQUE DE TUBARÃO NA AUSTRÁLIA


Sydney, Austrália, 02 jan (Lusa) -- Um banhista sofreu hoje ferimentos nos braços e nas pernas depois de ter sido ferido no que se acredita ter sido um ataque de um tubarão na costa do estado australiano de Queensland, indicaram as autoridades.

Este último ataque surge numa altura em que as autoridades do estado vizinho de New South Wales estão a implementar medidas de prevenção, de modo a reduzir encontros com tubarões, depois de um elevado número de ataques em 2015.

O homem de 30 anos nadava ao largo de Rosslyn Bay, a cerca de 670 quilómetros de Brisbane, quando terá sido mordido por um tubarão, de acordo com a equipa de socorro.

"Tem ferimentos nos braços e nas pernas. Ainda está a ser examinado. Acabou de chegar à costa e será brevemente transferido para o Hospital Rockhampton", disse à AFP o porta-voz da ambulância.

"Pelo que sei, ele estava a fazer snorkeling um pouco afastado da praia e disse ter visto muitos peixes e depois um tubarão que veio do nada", disse o comandante da Guarda Costeira, Arthur Hunt, ao jornal local Brisbane's Courier Mail.

No ano passado registaram-se 14 ataques em New South Wales, incluindo o fatal de um surfista japonês, em comparação com os três de 2014, de acordo com a lista do Taronga Zoo de Sydney.

Em Queensland registaram-se quatro ataques em 2015, enquanto em 2014 houve apenas um, elevando o número para 22.

Especialistas acreditam que os ataques aumentam à medida que os desportos aquáticos se tornam mais populares e o peixe se move para perto da costa.

ISG//ISG

Difuzaun no implantasaun Portugés iha Timor-Leste mak prioridade duke Akordu


Iha Timor-Leste, "difuzaun, uzu no implantasaun lia-portugés" mak sai prioridade duke aplikasaun Akordu Ortográfiku, afirma Marisa Mendonça, diretora-ezekutiva Institutu Internasionál Lia-Portugés nian (IILP), iha deklarasaun ba ajénsia Lusa.

"Tuir ida ne’ebé ha’u haree no mensajen autoridade sira-nian, Timor-Leste preokupa tebes ho difuzaun, iha uzu no implantasaun lia-portugés duke hanoin, iha momentu ne’e, karik adota Akordu Ortográfiku ka la’e", tenik responsável ne’e.

Nasaun ne’e "la’ós kontra implementasaun Akordu, maibé buat ne’ebé ami haree iha Timor-Leste mak fraku iha implantasaun no fraku iha uzu lia-portugés iha nível nasionál", hatutan Marisa Mendonça.

Tuir diretora-ezekutiva IILP nian, "timoroan sira utiliza tebes lian nasionál, liu-liu tetun", ho ne’e nasaun – ne’ebé oras ne’e prezide Komunidade Nasaun Lia-portugés – iha faze implementasaun ba akordu ne’e.

Marisa Mendonça, ne’ebé prevee atu dezloka ba territóriu "liu dala ida iha primeiru semestre tinan 2016, no ba dala uluk iha kedas inísiu tinan ne’e", asegura ba Lusa katak aplikasaun Akordu hanesan mós "tema ida" ne’ebé "atu servisu ho autoridade lokál".

Iha loron 10 maiu 2015, Benjamim Corte-Real, diretor-jerál Institutu Nasionál Lingístika (INL) hosi Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa’e (UNTL), hatete ba Lusa katak aplikasaun Akordu Ortográfiku iha Timor-Leste sei prematura, tanba "prioridade boot mak diseminasaun lian ne’e rasik no la’ós antigu ka foun".

Iha momentu ne’ebá, Corte-Real konsidera katak, iha Timor-Leste, debate kona-ba Akordu kontinua dook, maski INL halo hela servisu hodi implementa.

"Iha komisaun nasionál Institutu Internasionál Lia-portugés, ami servisu loos ona ho AO, maski membru balun laiha domíniu perfeitu", nia afirma.

Timor-Leste, ne’ebé adere ba Akordu iha tinan 2004, ratifika iha2009 ho rezolusaun tolu Parlamentu Nasionál: iha 14/2009, ne’ebé aprova adezaun, iha 18/2009, ne’ebé aprova segundu protokolu modifikativu, no 19/2009, ne’ebé aprova protokolu modifikativu.

SAPO TL ho Lusa

Nicolau Lobato: Heroi Timor-Leste iha Ema Nia Rai


Nicolau Lobato nu’udar heroi nasional ne’ebé dedika nia an tomak ba libertasaun nasional. Heroi atu garante paz no hakmatek ba nia povu husi kolonializmu sira. Ho prinsipiu heroismu ne’e, Nicolau Lobato lidera funu hasoru okupasaun Indonezia ne’ebé invade Timor-Leste iha loron 7 Dezembru 1975. Ikus mai Nicolau Lobato hetan tiru mate iha kontra-atake ho forsa Indonezia iha Mindelo, entre Maubisi, Turiscai no Manufahi, iha loron 31 Dezembru 1978.

Nu’udar heroi no fundador nasaun, depois ukun-an estadu fo honra hodi hari’i estatua no naran Nicolau Lobato ba Aeroportu Internasional Timor-Leste nian. Nomos kada tinan (31 Dezembru) Timor-Leste selebra loron mate heroi Nicolau Lobato. Diskursu no promesa barak husi lideransa nasional hodi buka tuir Nicolau Lobato nia ruin nomos heroi sira seluk ne’ebé to’o ohin loron seidauk hetan ninia paradeiru. Maske nune’e, promesa hela ho promesa deit.

Iha inísiu tinan 2015, Governu hamosu polítika “dez-lutu nasional” ne’ebé hamosu pro no kontra iha sosiadade Timor-Leste. Duvida barak kestiona katak Governu tanba saida maka halo politika “dez-lutu nasional” enkuantu ruin saudozu sira ne’ebé mate ba libertasaun nasional sei lemo-lemo iha rai-laran. Inklui ruin saudozu Nicolau Lobato ne’ebé deskonfia sei iha ema nia rai. Nomos polítika “dez-lutu nasional ne’e mai husi se? To’o agora laiha resposta signifikadu husi ukun-na’in sira ba povu.

Loron 31 Dezembru tinan ida ne’e nu’udar loron ikus ba polítika “dez-lutu nasional”. Nune’e loron mate saudozu Nicolau Lobato. Kulturamente iha Timor-Leste wainhira ema halo dez-lutu (kore-metan) signifika katak remata tempu triste ba faze kontente, relasiona ho familia ne’ebé mate. Karik Governu mos sei remata nia triste hodi kontente ho saudozu sira nia ruin ne’ebé to’o ohin loron seidauk halot hamutuk? Oinsa ho pozisaun Governu ba ruin Nicolau Lobato ne’ebé deskonfia sei mes-mesak iha ema nia rain?

Preoukupasaun no duvida sira husi públiku karik sai deit hanesan espresaun sentimentu umanu ba ninia heroi sira ne’ebé mate ba independensia nasional. Poder no desizaun tomak iha Governu no Estadu Timor-Leste nia liman. Maibe, tempu to’o ona Governu presiza buka tuir no rekoilla ruin saudozu sira, inklui ruin saudozu Nicolau Lobato.

Nicolau Lobato nia heroizmu kuaze atu hanesan ho Ernesto Che Guevara, maibe iha pontu ida pelu-kontrariu; Che Guevara ne’ebé mate iha ema nia rai, nia ruin depois lori ba nia rai husi nasaun ne’ebé nia defende hodi kore-an husi rezime otoritariu. Maibe tanba saida maka saudozu Nicolau Lobato ne’ebé mate iha nia rai rasik no defende ninia povu no nasaun to’o ohin loron nia ruin seidauk lori fila mai nia nasaun? Nasaun ne’ebé sivilizadu, nasaun ne’ebé fo honra no dignifika nia heroi sira. La’os deit hari’i monumentu, fo pensaun no selebra nia loron maibe buka tuir ruin saudozu sira hodi halot iha fatin ne’ebé dignu.

Ho nune’e Fundasaun Mahein hakarak rekomenda

1. Rekomenda ba Governu Timor-Leste atu kontinua esforsu polítika iha nivel diplomasia ho Indonezia atu nune’e bele entrega ruin saudozu Nicolau Lobato ba povu no nasaun Timor-Leste.

2. Rekomenda ba Governu Indonezia atu entrega ruin saudozu Nicolau Lobato ba povu no nasaun Timor-Leste nu’udar parte ida komprimenta relatoriu CAVR ne’ebé nasaun rua establese iha tinan 2001.

Papa husu atu lahaluha violénsia iha tinan 2015 no loos katak "buat di’ak sempre manán"


Papa Francisco husu atu lahulaha "loron barak ne’ebé marka ho violénsia", iha tinan 2015, no "jestu boot sira bondade nian" ne’ebé "forsa aat nian labele manán", iha balansu tinan nian, ohin, iha Vaticano.

Afirmasaun sira ne’e hato’o durante véspera Maria Santíssima, iha bazílika São Pedro, iha ne’ebé selebra "Te Deum" asaun grasa nian ba tinan nia rohan.

"Ita labele hahula katak loron barak mosu violénsia, mate, sofrimentu inosente sira nian, refujiadu sira ne’ebé tenke abandona sira-nia nasaun, mane, feti no labarik sira ne’ebé la iha fatin di’ak, laiha ai-han ka sustentu", tenik Francisco iha nia omilia.

Papa rekorda mós "jestu boot sira bondade nian, domin no solidaridade", maski barak hosi sira ne’e, nia rekorda, "larona".

"Forsa aat nian labele manán jestu domin nian. Buat di’ak sempre manán, maski iha momentu balun bele débil" nia afirmasaun, nia hatete.

Iha loron ikus tinan ne’e nian presika verifika "hahalok mundu nian halo tuir vontade Maromak nian ka halo tuir de’it ema nia hakarak, ba interese privadu, hamrook ba podér no violénsia gratuita".

Hanesan bispu Roma nian, Francisco mós hanoin hikas atualidade kapitál italiana nian iha fulan 12 ikus ne’e, ne’ebé nakonu ho kazu korrupsaun, relasaun ho máfia no ba krize ne’ebé hamosu disolusaun governu munisipál.

"Atu kompromisu hodi rekupera valór fundamentál servisu, onestidade no solidariedade bele supera inserteza boot ne’ebé domina tinan ne’e, sinál hosi sentidu dedikasaun ba di’ak ema hotu nian ne’ebé lasufisiente", tenik pontífise.

SAPO TL ho Lusa

Inséndiu iha otél iha Dubai hakanek ema na’in 16


Pelumenus ema na’in 16 hetan kanek iha inséndiu ne’ebé horisehik akontese iha otél luxu ida iha Dubai oras balun molok tama Tinan Foun, adianta Governu emiradu nian ba AFP.

Tuir informasaun hosi gabinete imprensa Governu emiradu árabe nian, pelumenus na’in 14 kanek kaman, na’in ida kanek todan liu, maibé la tama iha kanek todan, no rejista mós kazu atake kardíaku ida iha sekuénsia insêndiu ne’e tanba konfuzaun no iha suar laran.

Tuir informasaun ne’ebé hanesan, entre sira ne’ebé kanek laiha labarik.

Inséndiu ho proporsaun ne’ebé boot akontese iha otél luxu ida iha Dubai besik iha torre ne’ebé aas liu iha mundu, no iha ne’ebé ema halibur hamutuk hodi assiste selebrasaun Tinan Foun nian.

Testemuña sira ne’ebé besik iha ikóniku Burj Khalifa, edifísiu ne’ebé aas liu iha mundu, afirma katak haree ahi dimensaun boot iha otél.

Testemuña siea ne’e ida, Raphael Slama, indika ba AFP katak inséndiu ne’e akontese besik tuku 21:30 oras lokál (tuku 17:30 iha Lisboa), ne’ebé han lalais to’o iha andár besik dezena no besik tuku 22:00 oras lokál edifísiu ne’e komesa evakua.

Seidauk hatene loos kauza hosi inséndiu iha otél Adress Downtown, ho andár 63, no tuir autoridade lokál sira katak bele de’it apura orijen hosi inséndiu ne’e, bainhira mak nia mate.

Ahi atije frontaria edifísiu nian.

Iha kalan fahe rua, ahi artifísiu haroman lalehan, konfirma katak garante ona hosi Governu emiradu nian: selebrasaun Tinan Foun sei hala’o tuir ida ne’ebé prevee ona.

SAPO TL ho Lusa

Correspondente francesa expulsa da China deixou país, apesar dos esforços diplomáticos


Pequim, 31 dez (Lusa) -- A correspondente na China do semanário francês L'Obs, expulsa pelo Governo de Pequim, deixou hoje a capital chinesa, apesar de o Governo gaulês ter feito tudo para demover a China dessa decisão, afirmou o ministro francês dos Negócios Estrangeiros.

Ursula Gauthier anunciou ter sido informada no dia de Natal, pelas autoridades chinesas, de que seria expulsa do país a 31 de dezembro de 2015, sendo o primeiro jornalista estrangeiro a ser expulso da China desde 2012.

Colocada na capital chinesa há seis anos, Gauthier foi alvo, durante um mês, de violentos ataques por parte dos órgãos de comunicação social estatais chineses e de funcionários, depois de ter publicado no 'site' do L'Obs um artigo sobre a política repressiva aplicada em Xinjiang, uma vasta região da China ocidental de maioria muçulmana.

Antes de partir para o aeroporto, onde apanhou o voo da Air France que a levará de volta a Paris, Ursula Gauthier disse à AFP que temia "dias negros para os jornalistas e os media" na China.

"O que aconteceu com este pequeno artigo sobre Xinjiang pode acontecer com qualquer outra coisa", disse a jornalista, acrescentando que "isto pode ser realmente perigoso no futuro".

Para Gauthier, a França e toda a Europa devem estar "preocupadas com o que se passa, não por se tratar de uma jornalista, não apenas por causa da liberdade de imprensa, mas pela China e pelo que o país está a fazer às suas minorias, e até à sua maioria".

O Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros (MNE) francês, acusado de não ter tido qualquer ação relativamente a este dossier, declarou que "multiplicou os esforços" para tentar convencer a China a reconsiderar a expulsão da correspondente do semanário L'Obs.

"Desde que foi conhecida a situação da senhora Gauthier que a França, assim como os seus parceiros da União Europeia, multiplicaram os esforços, em Paris como em Pequim", escreveu o MNE francês num comunicado enviado à AFP.

Segundo o documento, tiveram lugar "duas ações sucessivas" do embaixador francês em Pequim, "três ações junto do embaixador da China em Paris, uma declaração da União Europeia em Pequim", por iniciativa da França.

Os responsáveis de vários órgãos franceses de comunicação social publicaram, na quarta-feira, editoriais a denunciar a expulsão da jornalista e a fraca reação francesa em relação a essa decisão.

Publicamente, o ministro francês dos Negócios Estrangeiros limitou-se simplesmente a lamentar a decisão de Pequim. Já hoje, depois de reiterar o seu lamento, apelou às autoridades chinesas para que revissem a situação de Ursula Gauthier para que ela pudesse "continuar a exercer a sua missão na China".

"A França recorda o seu compromisso com o livre exercício do jornalismo em todo o mundo", lê-se no comunicado hoje divulgado pelo MNE.

Depois de seis anos em serviço na China, Ursula Gauthier deverá aterrar em Paris na madrugada de sexta-feira.

Gauthier é a primeira correspondente estrangeira a ser expulsa da China, desde 2012, quando o mesmo aconteceu a Melissa Chan, que trabalhava para a cadeia de televisão Al Jazeera.

IMA (JS) // MAG

Um milhar de manifestantes em protesto antigovernamental em Hong Kong


Hong Kong, China, 01 jan (Lusa) -- Mais de mil manifestantes saíram hoje à rua em Hong Kong para se manifestarem contra a política do Governo, em diversas frentes, e exigindo a demissão do chefe do executivo da antiga colónia britânica, CY Leung.

Segundo os organizadores do protesto, mais de 3.000 pessoas aderiram à manifestação do primeiro dia de 2016, enquanto, de acordo com a polícia, o número de participantes atingiu 1.600 no "pico" da marcha pelas ruas de Hong Kong.

Na frente do protesto surgiu uma grande réplica de um elefante branco, feito de papel e madeira, sobreposto por uma efígie do líder do Governo da antiga colónia britânica, CY Leung, como símbolo do descontentamento relativamente a grandes empreitadas públicas consideradas demasiado dispendiosas, relatou a agência AFP.

O protesto de hoje, ao contrário do 1.º de janeiro de outros anos, não foi organizado pela Frente Civil dos Direitos Humanos, mas por uma aliança formada por 45 grupos.

"Nós queremos uma pensão universal, demite-te Leung Chun-ying. Nós estamos contra os elefantes brancos", gritaram repetidamente manifestantes.

Entre os projetos alvo de contestação popular figura uma autoestrada ligando Hong Kong à China, cujo custo estimado subiu mais de 30% para 85,3 mil milhões de dólares de Hong Kong (10,1 mil milhões de euros) nos últimos anos e cuja data de conclusão tem vindo a ser repetidamente alterada, de acordo com a Rádio e Televisão Pública de Hong Kong (RTHK).

Antiga colónia britânica, Hong Kong foi devolvida à República Popular da China em 1997, sob a fórmula "um país, dois sistemas", que promete manter os sistemas sociais e económicos da cidade durante 50 anos, detendo o estatuto de Região Administrativa Especial.

O mesmo acontece com Macau, cuja transferência do exercício de soberania de Portugal para a China teve lugar dois anos depois, em dezembro de 1999.

DM // MSF – Foto: Sam Tsang