As I address
this body, may I seize this opportunity to extend to
Mr. Kerim my sincere and warm congratulations on his
well-deserved election to preside over the sixty-second
session of the General Assembly.
In view of the constraints of time and in
deference to all, I shall take no more than 10 minutes
to share some facts and reflections on the situation in
my country, as well as on select issues of regional and
international concern.
Timor-Leste is encouraged by Secretary-
General’s organization of the high-level event on
climate change, to be followed by negotiations on the
United Nations Framework Convention in Bali. The
industrialized countries of the North bear enormous
responsibility for the damage done to our fragile
ecosystems. They, more than anyone else, must reverse
the course and lead the effort to save the Earth.
However, we in the developing world cannot escape
our own responsibilities. The demographic explosion
and our own efforts to catch up with the rich North all
contribute to the pressures on our lands, forests, rivers,
lakes and oceans. Let us therefore set rhetoric aside
and work as one to redress the enormous damage we
have done to the common home of humankind.
As to the political situation in Timor Leste, in
April and May 2006, less than five years after my
country’s accession to full independence, we were
plunged into our first major crisis. The then President
of the Republic, the Speaker of the National Parliament
and the Prime Minister jointly agreed to seek the
United Nations urgent assistance and the rapid
intervention of friendly countries. I wish to reiterate
here our sincere gratitude to those who came to our
assistance in that time of need. We are forever grateful
to Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand, as well as to
Portugal, which dispatched a fully equipped company
of its elite force, the National Republican Guard. The
Security Council approved the deployment of an
integrated mission, the United Nations Integrated
Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT), with a police
component of 1,740 police. The deployment of the
United Nations police contingent was understandably
extremely slow, and the projected force was complete
only in January 2007.
We have made significant progress since the dark
weeks of April and May 2006. Presidential and
legislative elections were held between April and June
2007. The election campaign period was mostly free of
violence and there were few reported irregularities.
Though we are proud that the two elections were
managed by our own agencies, we also acknowledge
that the active support of UNMIT and other United
Nations agencies, including the United Nations
Development Programme, were indispensable and
crucial to enable us to undertake such a complex task.
While the result of the presidential election was
warmly welcomed by all, including the defeated
candidate, the same did not happen when a new
Government was announced following the 30 June
legislative election. FRETILIN, the former ruling
party, won most votes, but not enough to govern on its
own; after several weeks of lobbying, it failed to forge
a coalition to govern. A post-election four-party
parliamentary alliance opposed to FRETILIN secured
37 seats in the new Parliament of 65 seats, was invited
to form a Government. There was violence in a number
of locations in which local law enforcement elements
were implicated, but the swift intervention of the
United Nations police and the International
Stabilization Force (ISF) succeeded in quickly
controlling the situation. Our own defence force played
a constructive role in helping to defuse the violence. I
also acknowledge the role played by the FRETILIN
leadership in restraining its more passionate followers.
Law and order have been restored. However, the
relative tranquillity prevailing in the country is
precarious and due in large measure to the effective
role played by United Nations police, ISF and our own
defence force. That will remain the case until such time
as our police force has been reconstructed and turned
into a credible and effective force. That will take two
to five years at a minimum. I wish to assure all that, in
the meantime, the East Timorese will pursue national
dialogue so that we can reconcile and heal the wounds
of the past.
As to the social situation in Timor Leste, the 2006
crisis caused widespread looting and destruction in the
capital. More than 30 people died, more than 100 were
wounded, and tens of thousands were displaced. We are
slowly recovering. However, tens of thousands of
people remain in precarious camps in the capital and
elsewhere. I thank the international community, the
United Nations and its agencies, the International
Organization for Migration, and international
non-governmental organizations for their generous and
prompt assistance. The new Government has pledged
to cooperate with all to address the situation of
internally displaced persons.
Last year’s late rains, floods and a locust plague
have caused significant damage to our subsistence
agriculture sector. As a result, an acute food shortage is
foreseen in the coming months. The Government is
planning to purchase significant amounts of food items
in the regional markets to make up for the food
shortage.
Endowed with some oil and gas resources, Timor-
Leste cannot complain of not having enough financial
means to turn our economy around and lift the living
standards of our people. According to a recent report of
the Asian Development Bank, Timor-Leste’s economy
will see a strong 22-per-cent growth this year due to
our oil revenues.
However, all this is not enough to improve the
living standards of the people. The vast majority of the
people who have been poor for centuries should not
wait. I have pledged to be the President of the poor and
I intend to be their best advocate. I am establishing a
fast-track mechanism under my personal leadership to
provide direct assistance to individuals, groups or rural
communities. The idea is that it should take no more
than 10 working days for a decision to be made on a
project and for the first instalment of a grant to be
disbursed. Coupled with public investments in
infrastructure roads, bridges, port and airport and
in the agriculture sector, Timor-Leste should see, in the
medium term, a significant reduction of unemployment
and a decrease in poverty levels.
Regarding the presence of the United Nations, we
are cognizant of the fact that the international
community faces a number of critical situations around
the world in the Middle East, Somalia, the Sudan-
Darfur, Iraq and Afghanistan, to mention but a few
that are far more serious than the situation in my
country and that may be of greater strategic importance
and have greater implications for regional and world
peace. We hope that as the situation progresses, the
Peacebuilding Commission will consider placing
Timor-Leste on its agenda as a follow-up to UNMIT.
I now turn to the issues of human rights, the rule
of law and justice. At the time that sovereignty was
transferred to the people of Timor-Leste, in May 2002,
what existed was no more than the sketch the
idea of a modern, democratic State. We had to build
our country from scratch. While we failed in many
areas, we succeeded in others. We have succeeded in
not abandoning our deep commitment to our human
rights and the rule of law. Timor-Leste stands among
the very few that have ratified all seven core human
rights treaties.
Timor-Leste seeks a seat on the Human Rights
Council for the term 2008-2011, and we are
particularly pleased and grateful that many countries
have so far expressed support for our candidacy. I wish
to assure everyone that as a member of the Council,
Timor-Leste will favour dialogue on human rights
situations and will accord priority to strengthening
thematic procedures, promoting the ratification of
existing human rights treaties and strengthening
national and regional human rights mechanisms.
Next, I shall discuss the Truth and Friendship
Commission. In August 2005, the Presidents of Timor-
Leste and Indonesia inaugurated a forward-looking
policy and mechanism of truth-finding as a means to
address the violence of 1999, when the two countries
parted ways. While there were some calls for the
establishment of an ad hoc international tribunal to try
those responsible for the 1999 violence, the leaders of
the two countries opted instead for a binational version
of the South African truth and reconciliation process.
That was a novel and unique approach to redressing the
wrongs of the past, although, being untested, it
provoked much criticism and opposition in certain
quarters.
With regard to international and regional
relations, we are expanding and consolidating our
relations with the region and the rest of the world. We
are an active member of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum and are
working towards full membership in ASEAN. We are
an active observer in the Pacific Islands Forum and a
member of the Comunidade dos países de Lingua
Portuguesa (CPLD).
I shall now turn to some international issues of
concern to Timor-Leste. With regard to the situation in
Myanmar, I wish to say that, as a country of the region,
Timor-Leste is following the developments there with
deep concern and disappointment. As human beings
and friends, we are distressed at the deteriorating
social, humanitarian and political conditions in that
neighbouring country. The leaders of Myanmar must
not continue to hold Nobel Peace Prize laureate Daw
Aung San Suu Kyi and the entire nation hostage to a
mindset that belongs to the cold war and to policies
that have brought international opprobrium and
economic ruin to a country endowed with vast natural
resources and a very proud people.
With regard to nuclear proliferation, Timor-Leste
commends the six-party talks on North Korea, which
have achieved some modest positive results in inducing
that country to reverse its nuclear-weapons capability.
That modest success shows that patient diplomacy can
make progress on even the most intractable conflicts
when the parties involved identify common concern
and interest.
On the other hand, Timor-Leste is deeply
concerned about the climate of mistrust and
confrontation regarding the situation in Iran. Iran is
entitled to explore all peaceful means to acquire
technology that would make it less reliant on
non-renewable sources of energy. No one denies that
Iran or any other nation has that right. However, Iran
must do more to cooperate fully with the International
Atomic Energy Agency and to reassure its neighbours
and the rest of the world that it is not seeking to
acquire nuclear-weapons capability.
Asia is the most nuclearized region of the world.
I do not know that we should be proud of such a status.
Mutually assured destruction MAD is indeed
madness, as the acronym itself suggests. Our scientists
have developed Frankenstein’s monsters that may well
destroy us all either by design, if the weapons fall
into the hands of non-State actors, or by accident.
Concerning the death penalty, Timor-Leste is part
of a cross-regional initiative calling for a moratorium.
We note that the trend towards the worldwide abolition
of the death penalty continues.
As for the situation in Darfur, Timor-Leste
commends the African Union, the United Nations, all
those in Government and those individuals who have
done their very best to end the suffering of the people
in that region suffering that is now compounded by
natural calamity. In the midst of such a tragedy, we can
find some consolation and inspiration as we see
millions of people around the world crossing the
boundaries of religions and cultures and joining
together in solidarity with the victims of Darfur.
I now turn to the situation in Palestine. As a small
and newly independent nation and a friend of Israel,
Timor-Leste cannot remain indifferent to the suffering
of the Palestinian people, who have many times been
victims victims of Israel’s obstinate policies of
occupation and discrimination, victims of manipulation
by regional Powers and victims of their own sectarian
division and violence. While Timor-Leste does not
subscribe to the many one-sided anti-Israel resolutions
adopted over the years in various United Nations
bodies, the facts on the ground show a whole people
living on the edge of desperation as a result of decades
of humiliation, exclusion and violence. Timor-Leste
joins the rest of the international community in calling
for the implementation of the Road Map, leading to the
formal establishment of a viable Palestinian State.
With regard to Western Sahara, Timor-Leste is
encouraged and commends both Morocco and the
Frente POLISARIO for the recent talks held on Long
Island under the good offices of the United Nations.
Concerning indigenous peoples’ rights, more than
500 years ago long after Chinese navigators and
explorers had circumnavigated the globe European
kings, navigators, missionaries, adventurers and
mercenaries began the great European conquest of the
world. In the process, tens of millions of people were
subjugated and colonized, fortunes and empires were
made at the expense of the peoples with whom they
came into contact and new diseases were brought into
the new colonies. Slavery uprooted at least 10 million
from the African continent. Millions of indigenous
peoples were decimated by wars and diseases. Their
demise and their lands gave birth to new nations that
were alien to their sacred birthplaces. This very island
of Manhattan was once the sovereign home of Native
Americans.
That is all part of the history of the world: the
history of European conquest, with its glory and
tragedy. Timor-Leste commends the General Assembly
for finally adopting the United Nations Declaration on
the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (resolution 61/295,
annex). That is the least we can do to redress the grave
injustices done to some of the earlier civilizations of
the world.
I now turn to the issue of United Nations reform.
Negotiations on reform of the United Nations system,
in particular of the Security Council, should begin.
Rather than seeking dramatic reforms, we may want to
adopt an incremental approach. The Council must be
incrementally expanded to include major Powers such
as India, Indonesia, Japan, Brazil, South Africa and
Germany. On the other hand, it is an absurdity that
Asia, which contains almost half of the world’s
population, should be so grossly underrepresented.