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

I would like to thank the member for Fadden for his question and for his interest. I think members of the House may have heard already this morning that President Gusmao has declared a state of grave crisis in East Timor. He has announced that he will be formally assuming the sole responsibility for the areas of defence and national security for a period of 30 days. He is doing so in his constitutional capacity as the commander-in-chief of the armed forces of East Timor. I note that the President has appealed to all groups to hand over weapons to authorities, particularly to international forces. He has also foreshadowed some ministerial changes, and I understand they are being considered during the course of today.

Although there are still clearly problems with security, nevertheless the Australian military presence in East Timor has created an environment where these kinds of political discussions and decisions can take place and where the East Timorese can organise themselves appropriately politically. Political reconciliation is obviously going to be the key to resolving the current crisis and to ensuring that East Timor has a stable future. I commend the leadership of East Timor for upholding the rule of law and for operating, as they are clearly and rightly endeavouring to do, within the confines of their own constitution. We would, of course, urge all sides, whilst they may have differences, to act in the best interests of the nation in endeavouring to try to reconcile those interests.

Our ambassador and Brigadier Slater during the course of this morning had a meeting with Prime Minister Alkatiri and these messages have been reinforced at that meeting with Prime Minister Alkatiri. The meeting I understand was a friendly, constructive and positive meeting. It was the first meeting that Brigadier Slater had had with Prime Minister Alkatiri and I am glad it went well. I, for my part, have remained in constant contact with my East Timorese counterpart, Jose Ramos Horta.

We do continue to receive reports of opportunistic gang violence in Dili. Certainly that was quite a problem during the latter part of yesterday. As Brigadier Slater said, some days will be worse than others. We have to expect that there will be difficulties from time to time. I do not think any of us should underestimate the complexity of the situation on the ground—the different fissures that there are in East Timorese society and the need to try and reconcile those. The Australian troops in East Timor, though, have made considerable progress. They have secured the centres where internally displaced people are located. They are doing a very good job in patrolling the streets. They have collected some 400 weapons so far, which is a great credit to them, but it does say something about the number of weapons there are out there.

We are continuing to deliver immediate humanitarian assistance to East Timor, particularly through non-government organisations and United Nations agencies. Food and water have been delivered to tens of thousands of people. From today, Australian Defence Force C130 flights will deliver extra food and water supplies into East Timor. Brigadier Slater, our ambassador and others in East Timor deserve a high degree of praise and credit for what they are doing, and ultimately what they are doing is assisting the people of East Timor to get their lives back together again and to give the country a good future.

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