5-23-06, 8:38 am
The Congress of Fretilin held last week retained Mari Alkatiri as the Prime Minister of the East Timor government. He beat off a challenge that was emerging from Jose Guterres who was East Timor’s representative to the UN and ambassador to the United States.
Alkatiri was a man that Alexander Downer loved to hate and during negotiations over oil rights in the Timor Gap had treated him with contempt. It was a disgusting exhibition of the strong attempting to impose its will on a smaller nation.
Downer told Alkatiri at the time: “Your claims [for oil rights] go almost to Alice Springs. You can demand that forever for all I care … We are very tough. We will not care if you give information to the media. Let me give you a tutorial in politics – not a chance.”
None-the-less, East Timor was able to force the Australian government to agree to a 50/50 split and this must be credited to the persistence of Mari Alkatiri and East Timor’s Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta.
The rapidity with which the Australian Government dispatched warships loaded with heavily armed troops to East Timor’s waters on the news of a riot in Dili indicates that the Australian Government knew of the developments in advance.
The favourable media coverage given to Jose Guterres who challenged Alkatiri for the Prime Ministership show that Australian agencies may also have been involved in helping to plan the moves to depose Alkatiri.
Jose Guterres and his supporters are consistent in calling for “international forces” to take over the affairs of the country. The Australian (19/5/06) reports: “Rebel soldiers in the hills around Dili told the UN yesterday they would only be satisfied with an international peacekeeping force taking over the country’s affairs”.
A leader of the rebel forces said that “violence would engulf the country unless other nations stepped in. This is a military problem, not a civil one”.
These demands are not consistent with the earlier claims that the troops had been discriminated against and were dissatisfied with their treatment, their pay and conditions.
In his remarks at the Fretilin Congress the challenger Jose Guterres made his anti-communist credentials clear by claiming that the election of Alkatiri by a show of hands was undemocratic. “I don't believe and I don't share Leninist and Communist methods of election for national leaders”, he said. Such signature remarks will not have been lost in Canberra or Washington and confirm that Mr Guterres is their man!
The real issue remains that of oil. The possession of oil resources are becoming an increasingly valuable prize. For the big oil companies and the governments that back them the possession by a small country such as East Timor with a government attempting to do something for the poor of their country, is anathema.
The Australian notes that since Fretilin won the elections in 2002 it “controls most of the country’s economy and employment market, as well as its reconstruction contracts”.
It can be expected that the Australian government and the media will continue its campaign to discredit the East Timorese government. The last may not have been heard of the military forces “up in the hills” and under the leadership of those who want to bring in outside forces to help them grab control of the East Timorese government and introduce policies more acceptable to the Australian and US governments.
Australia’s future involvement and whether more “riots” are being arranged will be indicated by how quickly Australia withdraws its warships and troops from East Timor’s waters.
From The Guardian
