Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to add my comments to the debate on the situation in East Timor, particularly as I had the opportunity to visit there during the last deployment of our troops on the first parliamentary delegation from Australia to East Timor. At the time, I was lobbied to have our troops remain for a littler longer under the umbrella of the United Nations.

I do not know why we changed the deployment by scaling down our involvement in East Timor. In fact, I think it was probably the decision of the Australian government that the United Nations brought its engagement and deployment to an end. Now we have a situation much like the Solomons. Australia took a short-term decision mainly, it seems, because of the commitment of troops in another place, some distance from Australia—a place which we really have little interest in except that we were there doing a boasting exercise for the US President.

We have pulled out too early and, as in other areas, that has caused great anguish and worry for the community, particularly as the tools of democracy are still being put into place. There have been a number of divisions in that community, which are still being fixed. We knew that the tensions were still there and that something would happen if support was withdrawn from those who were trying to kick-start the economy and deal with shortages, unemployment and many other problems facing the new nation. This was borne out by the articles run in the press during May, in which many commentators queried Canberra’s level of awareness and preparedness for the eventuality of a breakdown of the government in Dili.

One of my friends is working over in East Timor, and I have been following the day-to-day events through his first-hand view. It worried me that it seems there is little knowledge as to what is really behind this unrest. None of the commentators has really put up a clear answer, and it has been put down to inexperience and lack of accountability. There is a strong feeling of resentment against Prime Minister Alkatiri. Today we have heard that he has been offered an ultimatum to resign because of allegations of violence and recruitment of a death squad. As yet, the allegations are unproven, and they will continue to add to the unrest until resolved. Both the president and other members of the government have asked for further assistance. There is still a need for Australia, along with the UN, to help the young nation move forward. It is important that Australia lends a hand, but through a multinational force under the United Nations.

I agree with some commentators that there is an urgent need to develop more effective internationally or regionally agreed structures of post-conflict reconstruction that entail some form of mentoring arrangements for new independent states. They should include accountability for budgets and the security of external auditors so that we can see how those states are developing, and so they can see for themselves and make their own judgments. We cannot afford to fail again, and nor can East Timor. I do not think we particularly need to send troops. I am not even sure there needs to be armed militia at this stage. We should be training police and bureaucrats to help put the nation on a decent economic footing.

Investment needs to be encouraged to return. A strong government system is also needed to ensure that East Timorese rights are upheld. I note that Tasmania has dispatched 12 police officers for 100 days to help towards the restoration of law and order and assist with training both police and emergency services personnel. Some of them were there six years ago and remember their service fondly.

Australians really do like the East Timorese people and would like to help them gain proper independence. But we cannot be the entire solution, lest we become part of the problem. Removing the UN peacekeepers’ presence, under which Australia had a part, has meant that thousands of people have left their homes, many because their houses have been burnt and ransacked. I understand that some 100,000 people in and around Dili have sought shelter in churches, orphanages and other reasonably secure compounds, while others are just camping out in open grounds and areas.

I would like to put on record the views of someone who has spent a number of years in Dili and who has worked for the UN from time to time, working with the redevelopment of other Third World countries. His view is interesting. He says:

I believe that the East Timor’s government—including much credit due to Alkitiri—has acted strongly in a number of ways in tackling the important issues of human survival and development. Health and education indicators have been improving at a very good rate. Remember the utter vacuum that it inherited. They’ve had just four years so far; Australia and the USA even opposed an extension of the UN Mission after just three years of independence!

Of course the Timorese Government achieved much because of lots of help from others, but so what? The Timorese people suffered because of the silence of lots of others for a much longer period. The Fretilin Government has been committed to development; and any blame for any failure also has to be shared. It sounds like the international community is too ready to take the praise for the successes, but to attribute all the blame to the government.

Nevertheless, it is undeniable that the current leadership has made utterly unacceptable errors in the latest unrest, and are so much a part of the problem they can’t conceivably be part of the solution (although Xanana’s—

that is, the president’s—

likely proposed government of national unity or alternative transitional measures through to next year’s national elections will probably allocate them current leadership roles as a means of bringing the different forces together).

Evidence of the capacity of areas of the government is on show. For example, the continued functioning of the police and health services and schools in the districts where things are calmer, and the roles being played by government in the current humanitarian effort. Of course, there’s been panic among people desperate to get food from the warehouses, but there’s more evidence of civil order in food distribution (I know it’s not great stuff for TV). I watched food distribution in one of the camps yesterday afternoon: piles of boxes of water, piles of sacks of rice, lots of people queued waiting to have their names ticked off a list to be handed their rations. All handled calmly by a couple of people from the main humanitarian relief team, and several designated Timorese guys living in the camp who diligently maintain the lists for the team.

The statements by Tim Costello when he returned to Australia were insulting to many people working in humanitarian relief. Let me describe the situation: an Inter-Agency Humanitarian Assistance Group has been established. It comprises the Timorese government (in a coordinating role, under Labour and Community Reinsertion Minister Arsenio Bano), seven UN agencies (WHO, UNICEF etc), and five international NGOs (Oxfam, Plan International, HealthNet, Red Cross and Care). I’m told World Vision was invited to join the effort.

These various agencies are cooperating in their coverage of food distribution and health and sanitation monitoring across all camps. Apparently World Vision is doing the same. According to Tim Costello on ABC’s Lateline the other night, “There’s only about three or four aid agencies still functioning. The UN’s gone, many other aid agencies, because of the security situation have gone.”  I’m not involved in any of this, so I don’t mind saying it has not gone down too well with many people working long hours.

It’s hard to feel sympathetic with his calls for stretched Australian military forces to provide “double cover”. As I said yesterday, the Australian troops are not only securing and protecting loads of essential utilities, and restoring order in the face of violence springing up in all sorts of places, but ensuring safety to the political leadership, UN facilities and officers, and the joint humanitarian efforts in the field (there are lots of camps in Dili).

The important issue here is that there’s an opportunity for international agencies to not repeat the errors of the past. Cooperation is essential. So I see a few vehicles driving around flying their own flags and others wanting to ensure their own “brand recognition” for TV viewers back home. Of course UN agencies have also been under pressure from their head offices to get good footage for impressing potential donors. To their credit, they’re generally focusing on what’s necessary on the ground at present.

Listening to people displaced and impacted by all this is also essential. Sitting and listening to various people in the camp yesterday afternoon was more informative than any UN briefing I’ve been to in the past few days. Groups can’t just come in and start doing their thing or operate in relative isolation from others; this is a lesson which apparently has to be learnt over and over again.

This is one of the positive outcomes I hope arises from the current tragedy. East Timor can be described as a “failed state” in the sense that everyone, in some way, has failed it. Are they going to fail it again? What lessons have the different agencies learnt?

I still hear people in different agencies (UN, international NGOs, etc) talking as if they need to get back to what they were doing before, or do what they were doing but with more resources. Stop! From now on it has to be different. There’s been too much of importing “solutions”, of paternalistic “development”; of wasting donor resources due to inexperienced “advisers” or forgetting to focus on outcomes.

Fortunately, there are now many people in the Timorese Administration who can and must be more assertive about what is needed as East Timor does what it couldn’t do post-1999: to undertake “emergency” and “development” roles side-by-side rather than the latter being viewed as a logical successor to the former. Despite the destruction and current dejection of the national psyche, the foundations for doing so continue to survive. The biggest challenge is to those agencies, UN and others alike, which continue to operate here: how are you going to change this time around? And when the dust settles, it will be more than the Timorese leadership that will have some questions to answer.

This position is not in isolation and I believe we have a responsibility to listen to the views of those on the ground attempting to deal with the chaos rather than the armchair politicians directing operations from afar. Many Australians are going over there to help, we need to make sure they are supported and safe, so whatever is decided by this Government, it should be in the interests first of East Timor and secondly with the safety of all those who are helping out in mind.

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