Let me start by expressing my
sincere congratulations to Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki on
his assumption to the presidency of the United Nations
General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session.
This year marks important milestones for Timor-
Leste. Ten years ago, the United Nations sponsored the
popular referendum held in my country, marking the
transition to full independence. Seven years ago, we
attained full sovereignty with the restoration of our
independence and began, for the first time in the
history of our nation, the challenging process of
nation-building.
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We have been assisted by successive United
Nations missions, which began by exercising, for the
first time in the history of the United Nations, full
administrative powers in Timor-Leste. This process has
been undertaken a very limited number of times in this
new millennium.
Naturally, there are always failures and successes
in decisions taken and policies adopted, and those form
part of our collective challenge on the nation-building
road. This is true for both established and newly
established States. Timor-Leste has been both
showcased as a success story of the United Nations and
hastily characterized by some as a failed State.
I stand here today, not to argue on behalf of one
view or another, much less to duel over the past. I am
here to describe what Timor-Leste is today, what we
have been able to do, our modest achievements and
remaining challenges, but most importantly, how we,
as a new and small nation-State, situate ourselves in
the community of nations.
We also want to be part of the solutions to the
unprecedented challenges facing humanity in this new
millennium. Today we talk about global problems that
are the responsibility of all of us, requiring concerted
and collective action, and Timor-Leste is ready to
assume its part of that responsibility.
Let me also stress, however, that I am able to be
here today because it was through the United Nations
that a solution was found to what was then termed the
“Question of East Timor”. It was the United Nations
that shouldered the responsibility of finding a just
solution to that question and that was, indeed,
successful in doing so.
The decision to engage with the United Nations
was a wise one, taken by the then leaders of the
resistance, who are today our elder statesmen, our
esteemed President of the Republic, Mr. José Ramos-
Horta, and the Prime Minister, Mr. Kay Rala Xanana
Gusmão.
The underlining policy of seeking to resolve
conflict through peaceful means and of deferring to the
United Nations Charter so as to enable the exercise of
the universal right to self-determination is a
fundamental principle embraced by the new generation
of Timorese leaders. The engagement with the United
Nations continues to be the policy of Timor-Leste
today.
Timor-Leste has benefited greatly from this
engagement, through the dedicated work of successive
United Nations missions and through the presence and
work of various United Nations agencies, funds and
programmes. The United Nations administrative role in
Timor-Leste under the capable leadership of our dear
friend, the late Sergio Vieira de Mello, was without
precedence. Could the United Nations have done things
differently in those earlier and subsequent years and
how can we best use this partnership to move forward?
Without a doubt the most valuable contribution of
Timor-Leste to lessons learned and how to apply those
lessons for future situations involved United Nations
peacekeeping and peacebuilding. One of the most
important lessons is that it takes time to build national
capacities and sustainable institutions.
Young nations like ours have to evaluate and
balance many priorities among various pressing
socio-economic requirements, including the provision
of basic social services, building State institutions and
developing capacities. We have to balance justice with
peace and reconciliation. This involves prioritizing
many urgent demands and sequencing actions. There
are no quick fixes or short-term solutions.
Timor-Leste has been the subject of a staggering
number of evaluations and studies, about three
thousand in number, including some on United Nations
work in the country. As our contribution to the lessons
learned for the United Nations, I have proposed that
Timor-Leste, as the beneficiary of what has been done
and in order to provide a country-based perspective,
should itself conduct an evaluation of all that has been
done in the country by the international community,
and of how the benefits of these actions, or otherwise,
have been experienced and felt in the country by the
Timorese themselves.
The experience of the United Nations Integrated
Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) has shown the need
for a longer term engagement by the United Nations.
The crisis in Timor-Leste in 2006 was an unfortunate
reminder of the fragility of peace when State
institutions are still weak, capacities still need to be
strengthened, and all competing social, economic and
political needs cannot be met. The cost of dealing with
the regression to violence in 2006 has been high for the
international community, including the United Nations
and our development partners, as well as for the
Timorese Government itself. UNMIT’s mandate to help
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reconstruct our security forces and provide support for
our justice system is central, and the Mission is still
needed to ensure long-term peace and stability in our
country.
The Government of Timor-Leste has continued to
make significant achievements, although we still face
challenges. Some of the main problems from the 2006
crisis have been resolved. Internally displaced persons
have been peacefully reintegrated into their
communities, the security forces are being
reconstituted, although they still require capacity-
building and strengthening, and gang violence has been
stopped. Our State institutions are fully functioning,
and the Government can now concentrate more on
development.
I wish to emphasize the importance that we
continue to place on relations with Indonesia, where
we have taken a pragmatic approach and base our
relations on reconciliation and the principle of looking
forward. We cannot deny, or undo, what has happened
in the past we share, but we are determined to be
reconciled with that past, because we know we can
progress and do much for the future. I am part of a new
generation of leaders in Timor-Leste, and neither we
collectively nor I personally have been spared the grief
and loss experienced by most of Timor-Leste’s
population. But I know that my responsibility is to
prevent what happened in Timor-Leste in the past from
ever happening again. Timor-Leste and Indonesia are
both countries in transition, and we should be allowed
to search for our own path, as President Obama has
said, conscious that our path may not be perfect.
This is a complex process that requires a
Timorese solution. I am sure that other countries that
have been in conflict have appreciated the long-term
support of the international community as they tackled
the same problems that we are facing. Timor-Leste has
not in any way turned its back on justice. Our
Constitution enshrines the rule of law in our country,
and the Government’s policy is to fully strengthen the
justice system. We are being aided in this by the
international community, and we are fully cognizant
that we will continue to need its assistance in years to
come. Our Government has been severely criticized,
both internationally and nationally, on some positions
that we have adopted and some decisions that have
been taken. However, they were taken in the conviction
that we need to be reconciled with our past and ensure
peace for current and future generations, and we stand
by those decisions.
Timor-Leste today has its own set of challenges,
which may appear distant from the emerging
challenges facing humankind in general and presented
at this forum. Timor-Leste continues to be concerned
with alleviating and reducing poverty and high
unemployment, addressing the needs of the rural
population and establishing and consolidating State
institutions so they can better respond to the needs of
all of our people. But that does not mean that Timor-
Leste has its head in the sand and is unaware of other
challenges. Our young nation will need time to address
and overcome all of these challenges.
As part of the community of nations and
humankind, Timor-Leste is also concerned with all that
threatens life on this planet, and has expressed its
views. In fact, as a Member of the United Nations,
Timor-Leste has expressed its position in the General
Assembly on a number of important issues. We wish to
reiterate our opposition to the economic sanctions
imposed on Cuba by the United States, and we reaffirm
our support for the General Assembly resolutions of
the past 17 years that have called on the United States
to lift those sanctions.
It is not Timor-Leste’s intention to develop
nuclear capacity or become a nuclear power, and we
have therefore ratified the Non-Proliferation Treaty. We
counsel caution in the development of and use of
nuclear capacity. With regard to climate change, Timor-
Leste, although an island State, is fortunate not to be
immediately threatened by rising sea levels, nor is it
responsible for large carbon emissions. But we are
affected by changing weather patterns and we are
following the climate-change debate. At the national
level, we are naturally concerned with the preservation
of our environment and consider reforestation and
protection of the environment important issues.
As far as the financial and economic crisis is
concerned, Timor-Leste has been fortunate to have
experienced only partial impact. However, we are also
concerned with the causes of the crisis, and we are
looking to learn the lessons about what to avoid in
building our financial systems and institutions. In light
of this, we support the decisions taken at the recent
meeting of the G-20 in Pittsburgh on taking preventive
measures for the future.
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In conclusion, allow me, on behalf of our
Government, to express our gratitude to the United
Nations and our international partners for their
continued support of Timor-Leste. We stand resolutely
with you to contribute to solutions to our collective
challenges, and we are resolved to find solutions to our
own national challenges.