Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Hughes for her question. Let me just say, as the Acting Prime Minister and Treasurer has just said, that the current security situation in East Timor is one we would describe as dangerous. I have received reports from our embassy in Dili this morning of further outbreaks of fighting between government forces and an opposition group near a place called Tasi Tolu, which is on the outskirts of Dili and very close to the headquarters of the East Timorese military forces. As the Acting Prime Minister has said, we have reissued our travel advice as well.

Of course, I have been in constant contact with my counterpart Jose Ramos Horta over the last few weeks in relation to this matter. I spoke to him just before question time and I also spoke to him last night. The point I have always made in my conversations with him is that we urge all parties to show restraint and respect for the rule of law and the constitution of East Timor in resolving the current crisis. We have had some discussions in the last 24 hours about the question of whether the international community, including Australia, would provide any kind of assistance, be it police assistance or military assistance, to East Timor, and there will be some further discussions during the course of this afternoon, including with our ambassador, with President Xanana Gusmao.

I have made the point, and the government have made the point, that we are ready to assist East Timor but that that would require a formal request from the government of East Timor—and by a formal request I mean a letter signed by the President, the Prime Minister and, preferably, the Speaker of the parliament, but, most importantly, by both the President and the Prime Minister. In the event of a request of that formal nature being received, I have told Mr Ramos Horta that Australia could consider several options for assistance. We do have troops pre-positioned, as the Acting Prime Minister has said, and they are ready to be deployed quickly, either to assist in evacuation or, possibly, to help to stabilise the situation in Dili. We also have some police whom we can deploy quite quickly if required. We could indeed, as I have told the foreign minister, send a combination of the two.

We would await further contact from the East Timorese government during the course of this afternoon. We have not at this stage received a formal request, but we have had some discussions about this issue and about the terms under which assistance could be provided. We have also had some discussions about what other countries could do to assist, because it is likely that if East Timor does send out a formal request to Australia it will send formal requests to a small number of other countries as well. It is also important that the United Nations be notified and kept informed of all this. There is a special representative for the Secretary-General, Mr Hasegawa, who is based in Dili, who is being kept informed by officials, by the East Timorese and by New York. It is important that the secretariat of the UN is kept informed, along with the permanent members of the Security Council. I made the point to Jose Ramos Horta that, in particular, the five permanent members of the Security Council need to be kept in touch in relation to the evolution of East Timorese thinking.

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