Asia Pacifico, Australia, Timor Est Wsws 06-07-07
L’Australia continua a cercare di avere il controllo su
Timor Est
Mike Head
L’Australia è riuscita ad ottenere le dimissioni, il 26
giugno, del primo ministro est timorese Mari
Alkatiri; questo a sua volta è sceso a un compromesso per mantenere il suo
partito, il Freitlin al governo; il Freitlin ha la maggioranza di 55/88 seggi
parlamentari.
Canberra è intervenuta militarmente due volte a Timor Est, con
l’appoggio USA, nel 1999 e nel 2006, un intervento che anziché porre fine alla
guerra civile interna alimenta la lotta per il potere.
Con il consenso statunitense, il ministro degli Esteri australiano ha lavorato sui membri
permanenti del C.d.S. ONU, tra cui GB, Francia, perché appoggino il controllo
australiano di qualsiasi missione ONU.
Il comitato nazionale del Freitlin avrebbe accettato nella
lista elettorale Ramos-Horta, il ministro uscente della sanità Rui Araujo e il
ministro dell’agricoltura Estaislau da Silva.
In attesa delle nuove elezioni è stato nominato dal
presidente Gusmao il filo-australiano Ramos-Horta, come “coordinatore del
gabinetto” di un governo ad interim, figura non prevista dalla costituzione di
Timor Est, e sembra accettato dal Freitlin, che ha impedito per settimane ai
suoi sostenitori di scendere in piazza contro le manifestazioni violente organizzate
dall’opposizione (politici e militari). Alkatiri e il Freltin hanno utilizzato infine le manifestazioni
nella capitale di 5000 sostenitori per contrattare con Gusmao.
– Alkatiri
ha ritrattato, dopo poche ore, la denuncia delle pressioni australiane per le
sue dimissioni, e ha dichiarando di essere pienamente d’accordo sulla presenza
militare australiana.
– Tali ritrattazioni da parte del
Freitlin rivelano la volontà di accordarsi
e di barcamenarsi tra le potenze rivali, per poter costituire il proprio Stato.
– Il
governo di Alkatiri cercherà probabilmente appoggio presso paesi europei e la
Cina, a cui ha concesso diritti per il petrolio e il gas, per controbilanciare
le pressioni di Australia e USA.
Tutte le grandi potenze cercano di insediare a Timor Est un’amministrazione
corrispondente ai propri interessi.
Il 3 luglio la UE
ha annunciato l’invio di un suo rappresentante (il portoghese Miguel Amada) e la costituzione di
una sua delegazione a Dili.
Il brasiliano
Paulo Sergio Pinheiro è stato nominato a dirigere un’inchiesta ONU sui disordini di Timor Est.
Wsws 06-07-07
Australia continues push for control in East Timor
By Mike Head
Having secured the resignation of East Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri last week,
the Howard government is continuing its thinly veiled efforts, both internally
and internationally, to install a compliant administration and establish Australian
domination over a planned UN military and police force.
In the latest remarkable development, Australia’s favoured successor, former foreign
affairs minister Jose Ramos-Horta, has assumed the previously unheard post of
“cabinet coordinator” of an interim government. President Xanana Gusmao
has not formally announced Ramos-Horta’s
appointment and the position has no basis in the country’s constitution.
Under intense Australian pressure,
Alkatiri’s party Fretilin has apparently agreed that Ramos-Horta, a
non-Fretilin member, should assume day-to-day control of the state while a backroom struggle continues over
whom Gusmao will name to head a caretaker government to run the country until
elections scheduled for next May.
Gusmao, who has clearly aligned himself with Ramos-Horta and Australia,
was last weekend forced to back away from an earlier threat to dissolve the
parliament—where Fretilin has a clear majority of 55 out of 88 seats—and appoint an interim government of his own choosing.
Ramos-Horta has made plain his
willingness to serve Australia’s
interests. He chaired a meeting of a Council of Ministers from the former
Alkatiri government on Monday, just after calling for Australia
to keep its troops in East Timor for a year.
“I hope that Australia
takes the lead with the United Nations and other countries in the region in
having a strong robust (police) presence for as many as at least five years,”
he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) radio.
How long Ramos-Horta’s interregnum will
last, and whether he will succeed in replacing Alkatiri as prime minister,
remains entirely unclear, however. Howard’s government sent in nearly 2,000 troops and police in May on the
pretext of restoring stability and safeguarding democracy in the tiny
neighbouring state, but there is nothing democratic about what is taking place.
– Ramos-Horta was installed after a week of intense political
manoeuvring. Alkatiri resigned
on June 26, just as truck convoys of Fretilin demonstrators headed
toward the capital Dili to defend his government. He and other Fretilin leaders
feared the development of a movement outside their control against Australia’s
creeping coup.
– For weeks, Fretilin
had held back its supporters from rallying against the protests and mob violence
organised by opposition politicians and rebel army and police officers.
The day after resigning, Alkatiri
continued to try to contain the pro-Fretilin protestors, meeting their convoy
and appealing for restraint.
– His appeals for them to delay
their entry into Dili until later in the week, however, only allowed
anti-Fretilin mobs to go on a fresh rampage in Dili,
torching homes of Fretilin leaders and further terrifying refugees from their
previous rounds of violence.
– When about 5,000 Fretilin
demonstrators eventually entered Dili on June 29, some
waving anti-Australian banners, Alkatiri and Fretilin used their protests as a bargaining chip to seek
power-sharing concessions from Gusmao.
– They repeatedly appealed for calm and worked closely with the Australian-led military contingent
to keep demonstrators under heavy guard. Troops in helicopters, armoured
vehicles and on foot escorted convoys of trucks and buses along prearranged
routes through Dili. Before entering the city, the demonstrators were stopped
and searched for weapons.
– Alkatiri urged the
demonstrators to accept his removal and work instead to ensure that Fretilin
retained its parliamentary majority. He told a rally
outside his former office that it did not matter who was their leader. “But to
maintain national unity, Fretilin must win again at the next election.” At the
direction of Fretilin leaders, the demonstrators left Dili peacefully the next
night.
Following the Fretilin demonstration, UN officials apparently vetoed
Gusmao’s proposal to call early elections. An unnamed East Timorese
official told the Australian: “The UN advised it was too short a time and,
given the current situation, it would be unable to prepare the logistics and
organise voter security, so that idea has been abandoned.”
– After Gusmao’s backdown, Fretilin put forward several prime
ministerial nominations for him to consider. A weekend meeting of Fretilin’s national political commission
short-listed Ramos-Horta, outgoing health minister Rui Araujo and agricultural
minister Estanislau da Silva, according to party sources.
But bitter infighting is obviously continuing,
with the anti-Fretilin factions threatening to bring protestors into Dili to
demand that Gusmao exclude any Alkatiri supporters in a new cabinet. Efforts
are also being made to drive a wedge through Fretilin, with an anti-Alkatiri
faction lodging a High Court writ to overturn his re-election as party
secretary-general at Fretilin’s national congress in May.
Gusmao, who was due to meet a Fretilin
delegation today, has said nothing publicly for days. Ramos-Horta hinted on
Wednesday that the announcement of an interim government could be delayed for
“a week or two”.
– One issue being thrashed out is what to do about the accusations of distributing arms to
Fretilin supporters that were brought forward against Alkatiri as a means of
forcing him to resign. The Australian media, with the ABC in the
vanguard, dug up the unsubstantiated allegations from Alkatiri’s bitter political
enemies.
– No charges are being laid
against pro-Australian rebel soldiers, such as Major Alfredo Reinado, who initiated
armed attacks against the government and Fretilin members.
Alkatiri refused to heed a summons from
the prosecutor-general to be questioned last Friday and Fretilin MPs have
backed his claim to parliamentaima ry immunity. In order to secure the prime
ministership, Ramos-Horta appears ready to strike a deal with Alkatiri. He said
Alkatiri was probably guilty of crimes against the state, but any sentence
would be commuted by parliament.
–
Whatever the outcome of the machinations, Canberra will have the political veto. The Australian reported on July 1: “Although finding a suitably
qualified administrator to replace Alkatiri is proving tough, there are a number of people who
would be acceptable to the Howard government, including former defence and
foreign minister (and Nobel Peace Prize laureate) Jose Ramos-Horta.”
– In an interview
published yesterday in the Melbourne Age, Alkatiri pointed to Australia’s involvement
in his ousting, saying its media
had demonised him as part of an “orchestrated plot” because of his tough stance
in talks over oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea. He refused to name the
culprits, saying, “I’m sure that one day it will all come out.”
Within hours, after objections from
Howard and the ABC, Alkatiri
denied making any suggestion that the Australian government plotted his removal.
His spokesman said he “never blamed Australia,
and never said Australia
was behind all of this” and that he fully supported the Australian military presence.
–
Alkatiri’s retraction is one
more in a growing list of backdowns which began in May when, under considerable pressure from Canberra, the prime minister and Fretilin acquiesced in
issuing an “invitation” for Australia
to intervene militarily. Fretilin’s backpedalling reflects its basic political perspective and
class outlook: far from challenging imperialism, it has always sought
to accommodate to, and balance between, rival major powers in order to establish
its “own” state.
– With its considerable oil and gas reserves and strategic location at
the eastern end of the Indonesian archipelago, East Timor
has become a battleground in escalating global conflicts over energy sources
and spheres of influence. Canberra has intervened twice militarily with US backing—in 1999
and 2006—to secure its interests in the Timor Sea
fields and assert its wider
authority in the Asia-Pacific region.
– Alkatiri and his government had granted oil and gas rights
to European and Chinese companies as a means of countering pressure from
Australia and the US, and may be looking for support in these quarters.
– On July 3, the
European Union (EU), which represents the interests of Portugal,
announced that it would send a
senior envoy, Miguel Amada, to “contribute actively to a peaceful and
constitutional settlement to the current political crisis” and establish an EU delegation in Dili.
– Brazilian Paulo Sergio
Pinheiro has also been appointed to head a UN inquiry into the civil unrest in East Timor. Its investigations
into the clashes between rival security force factions on April 28-29 and May
23-25 could become a vehicle for raising questions about Australian involvement.
– Backed by Washington, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer
has been personally lobbying Security Council permanent members, including Britain and France, for Australian control of
any UN mission. “Obviously having France and Britain
and clearly the United States working very closely with us in the Security
Council is going to make a very big difference to us getting the sort of
successor mission for the UN that we would like,” he told reporters while in Europe.
– This behind the scenes maneouvring is clearly a major factor in the
unresolved political crisis in Dili, as each of the international powers seeks an administration
amenable to its interests.
– Far from ending the danger of civil war in East
Timor, the Australian
military intervention is fuelling a struggle for power that could well
precipitate such a conflict.