This devastating episode has become known as the Black September of East Timor. According to this documentary, the violence was such that the Laksaur (a pro-Indonesia militia) didn't even shoot people, choosing to butcher the victims with machetes instead in order to save expensive bullets.

The Church of Suai. Photo by J. Orosco shared on Flickr by Patfranca

The campaign of terror had been spread around the country several months before the popular consultation by pro-Indonesian militias called Besih Merah Putih (White and Red Iron, the colours of the Indonesian flag). Although they intended to keep people away from voting, 90% of the eligible citizens went out and the result showed that a vast majority of the population wanted freedom. Mari Alkatiri, the opposition leader, recently alleged the manipulation of results, to which former Ambassador of Portugal in Jakarta, Ana Gomes (@anargomes) replied on Twitter:

12:54 AM Sep 1st: Alkatiri disse LUSA resultados referendo seriam 90/cento, mas ONUalterara-os para salvar face a Indonesia. Mas 80/cento salvam face?

Back in 1999, the Timorese knew that people would have to die in order to bring Timor Leste its independence. However, no one ever expected such violent crimes against humanity as those that took place in Suai. Despite the violence, trauma and destruction, in the commemorations of the 10th anniversary of the referendum, President Ramos Horta has asked for forgiveness, in what Amnesty International calls a “culture of impunity” as it urges the “International Tribunal to examine the human rights violations in East Timor“.

East Timor, Suai 2000. Photo by Rusty Stewart on Flickr.

Meanwhile, former Laksaur militia commander Martenus Bere, who allegedly led the attack on the church in the town of Suai in September 1999, has been released from prison. The Dili Insider translates the Indonesian news to English:

As an anniversary ceremony was taking place, authorities in Dili released an Indonesian citizen accused of leading one of the worst massacres in East Timor in 1999. Martenus Bere was brought from cells at Dili's main jail and handed over to Indonesian officials. Bere, a commander of a brutal pro-Indonesian militia group responsible for a reign of terror, led an attack on a church in the town of Suai during which three priests and dozens of people were killed. Prison officials said Bere was released on the order of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao. He had been indicted for crimes against humanity by the UN's Serious Crimes Unit in 2003. Indonesian authorities had pressured East Timor to release Bere after he was arrested two weeks ago after crossing the East Timor border from Indonesian West Timor.

A growing wave of netcitizens against the release of Martenus Bere immediately started to spread the word on the case, many discussions have taken place and Facebook groups been created (such as Don't let Martenus Bere Escape Justice and Justice NOW for East Timor).

On the same day of the celebrations, a peaceful demonstration in Dili finished up with one more attack on justice and democracy. Ana Gomes broke the news on Twitter, and then reported on the blog Causa Nossa (Our Cause, pt):

12:39 AM Sep 1st Pedro conta 3 estudantes foram presos véspera em manif sobre Justiça. Arrancamos p/ Policia Dili

12:41 AM Sep 1st: Esquadra Policia Dili, dia 31/8 - confirmam-nos presos. Razões suharto/salazarentas: manif ilegal.

12:45 AM Sep 1st: Telefonema a Vice PM, velho amigo Lugo: “Sabes dos presos?”. Nao sabia. 10 minutos depois: “Vao já ser soltos”. Excesso zelo policial.

12:47 AM Sep 1st: Conclusao: Policia timorense precisa muito aprender democracia.

Disillusioned with politics and governance in East Timor, Loro Foho reflects on the future implications that such an act against democracy may have, especially for the younger population. In a post [pt] on the Timor Lorosae Nação blog:

Liberdade para os criminosos, repressão para o Povo, é o lema que nos parece estar a ser seguido pelos governantes.

A libertação de Martenes Bere, que liderou crimes contra timorenses, a punição de estudantes que pacifica e justamente (felizmente já libertados) pediam o fim da impunidade reinante em Timor-Leste, a política insana da AMP persistindo em duvidar da nossa clareza de análise, levam-nos a manter o sentimento de que urgente se torna reconquistar os valores que fizeram de nós Gente Respeitável. (…)

A realidade Mundial que muitos ainda não perceberam, flui na direcção da Justiça, da Verdade, do Desenvolvimento e Integridade dos Povos. Sabemos que a nossa luta flui na direcção certa, e é comum à luta de qualquer povo que se sinta injustiçado e descriminado. Fomos afastados e perseguidos, mas isso já é para nós a força da nossa da razão.

É previsível que os grandes senhores das cadeiras do poder dominante se irão gloriar futuramente de nos terem transformado num povo desprezível, cujos filhos irão cultuar o roubo, a mentira, a repressão… não nos bastando a cultura deixada no tempo das milícias desumanas e cruéis, eis os exemplos de uma política que facilita a impunidade a quem matou e destruiu massivamente, e que nos rouba a dignidade da justiça.

This sequence of events has put the first democracy of the millennium in jeopardy and once again shown that a path still needs to be made for the true self-determination of the Timorese people, including a fair mourning needed for Justice before Reconcilliation. Ivete de Oliveira shares the tragic story of her father, Manuel Magalhaes, who was the leader of the CNRT in Bobonaro District during the Indonesian occupation. He was killed on Sept. 9, 1999, at a lagoon near Maliana:

(…) He fought with all his heart and he did not get to experience how independence is like. is justice too big to ask?

Till today I still wonder how and where exactly my father was killed. We have never found the body because it was hacked to pieces and thrown into the sea.

Few years ago the serious crime unit collected the evidence from our family, which was the remaining of my father’s clothes on the day he was killed. Since then we have not heard any progress of the investigation.

This is just a story from one person and I could not speak for everyone but I strongly believe victims will say justice needs to be done in order for us to move on. We shouldn't just forget the past because past is what has brought us to where we are today.

An online petition implores “the United Nations institutions to take all necessary action to establish an international criminal tribunal to bring those responsible for the grave violations of international law in East Timor to justice without further delay”. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has already reacted in an open letter to the President of the Democratic Republic of East Timor.

A mosaic of rocks written and painted by residents in Port Phillip to send condolences to the people of Suai. From suaimediaspace.ning.com

A previous post on Global Voices with an interview with Jen Hughes from Suai Media Space highlights a video-documentary with a dramatization of the genocide in the Church of Suai. This post is the last of a series to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the popular referendum in East Timor, which led to the territory's internationally recognized independence. In the first post we highlighted the support of the international community for the freedom of East Timor. In the second, we interviewed Abe Barreto Soares who is one of the organizers of the celebration events for solidarity taking place in East Timor in August and September 2009. The third post amplifies Timorese bloggers' celebrations while questioning and comparing the current and the past status of the Nation. In the fourth post we amplified the debate on the draft Land Law, and among other things, its implications for community lands.

"The role of a writer is to collect the fossils of reality scattered around, then ornament them on the wall of our history"

In the previous post of this series, while celebrating the 10th anniversary of the referendum in East Timor, we presented the way in which the international community stood up in support of the freedom of the Timorese people. In this piece we interview Timorese writer Abe Barreto Soares in order to disseminate Timorese Nationalism seen through the Eyes of its Poets, the essay that he has recently published [tet, pt].

As a blogger since 2007, Abe (or his cyber-pseudonym, Jenuvem Eurito, as he was called by his friends in his youth) shares his words and thoughts in four languages often analysing literary work relevant for the self determination of his country. Moreover, Abe discusses thoroughly the construction of a national conscience after the fight for independence.

Taking advantage of the benefits of blogs to foster global connections and distance conversations in original ways, he describes his blogs as “sweet words, caring words, in a venue for people to talk to each other, sharing with each other on “what” and “how” life goes in the world”.

But Abe's words and actions have not always been this free, as he stated during the Indonesian occupation of Timorese territory.

I felt like my hands and mouth were tied. I couldn't say what I felt about East Timor.

Global Voices Online (GVO): Where were you 10 years ago? Can you tell us a bit about your life?

Abe Barreto Soares (ABS): During the time of the referendum, I was overseas. I happened to be in Portugal at the time. Along with other Timorese compatriots, I cast my vote in Lisbon.
I left Timor-Leste in 1985 to pursue my university studies, taking English as my major at Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Then, I left for Canada to take part in a cultural exchange program in early September 1991. On November 12 1991 the  [Santa Cruz] massacre occurred when I was about to finish my program. Being concerned for my personal safety if I was to return to Indonesia, I finally decided to stay in Canada, and seek political asylum. I spent 7 years in Canada, campaigning for a free and independent Timor-Leste through diplomacy and cultural activities (using music as a tool to alert the outside world to what was really going on in the country). I had the chance to spend a year and a half in Portugal from Spring 1998 until the Fall of 1999. Then, I went to Macau for journalistic training with a Portuguese news agency, Lusa, for six months (October 1999 until March 2000). I returned to Timor-Leste in July 2000. Since then, I have been working in UN missions in Timor-Leste both as an information assistant and a translator/ interpreter.

Abe Barreto Soares' testimony in Stephen Marshall's documentary "Blackout East Timor" (8' | 1997) on the lack of mainstream media coverage on East Timor during the Indonesian occupation. Click on the picture to see the video.

GVO: How did you have access to Timorese literature during the Indonesian times?

ABS: During the Indonesian times, while doing my studies in Yogyakarta, I came across books on Timor-Leste such as “EasTimor: Nationalism and Colonialism” by Jill Jollife, a fellow journalist, from Australia. From this book I discovered the late Timorese  poet, Francisco Borja da Costa. One of the lines of his poetry appearing in the book: “smother my revolts/ with the point of your bayonet/ torture my body/in the chains of your empire/ subjugate my soul/ in the faith of your religion…/” really fired the sense of nationalism within me. And through the book “Funu: The Unfinished Saga of East Timor” by José Ramos-Horta (current President of the Republic of Timor-Leste) I discovered Fernando Sylvan.

Pedem-me um minuto de silencio pelos mortos mauberes.
Respondo que nem por um minuto me calarei.

Fernando Sylvan

GVO: You often quote Timorese poet Fernando Sylvan. In what ways do you take advantage of poetry in order not to shut up, as he recommends in the above poem?

ABS: A poet is a spokesperson of his or her era. He or she should break the silence when it comes to oppression. Living on this planet, we are in a constant battle between the dark and the light. A poet should be at the forefront, carrying the torch. He or she is the “warrior of the light”. (I borrow this concept from Paulo Coelho, the Brazilian writer).

As an artist I have to be ready any time to engage in the spiritual war. Words are my swords. Hopefully, my words will provoke people so that they can be in tune with themselves all the time in creating harmony in this wonderful planet.

Notes from a Musafir 48

GVO: Do your blogs in four different languages reflect the way people communicate in Timor?

ABS: Timorese like me have to be creative in taking advantage of the ‘blessing’ of colonialism and globalization. Aside from using my own mother tongue, Tetum and my father’s mother tongue, Galole which I am good at, I also use English and Indonesian in my literary carrier. I am proud of using them to communicate what I think and feel. I would love, someday soon, to create a Portuguese blog as well.

Abe (on the right) at Ubud Writers and Readers Festival (2007) - photo used with theunspunblog.com's permission.

GVO: Why have you created a Korespondensia Literaria (Literary Correspondence, tet) category on one of your blogs?

ABS: I created the “korrespondensia literaria” entry on my Tetum blog in an attempt to convey to the outside readers the correspondence I have had with my fellow literary friends through SMS. Practically speaking, transferring them onto a blog can be considered as a way to save those messages. As a man of letters I need to engage in a constant communication with friends the world over. I want to learn a lot from them. I want to commune the philosophy of Greenpeace, “think globally, and act locally”.

[SMS:] ITA-BOOT NIA BATINA/ha’u moras todan: ha’u klamar terus/fó lisensa mai ha’u-ata atu kaer Ita-Boot nia batina/fakar mós Ita-Boot nia mina oliveira domin nian mai ha’u-ata/ hodi nune’e ha’u bele di’ak filafali ho lalais// [21:51:11//11-2-2009]
Resposta sira:
1.R. D. = “Se mak bulak ida ne’e?” [maisumenus tuku 10 kalan]
2.Suzana TP = “Diak pois há’u haruka ba suli hanesan tasi” [22:08:53//11-2-2009]
3.Atoi R. = “Obrigado maibé ha’u la kompriende” [22:18:00//11-2-2009]
4. Pe. Olá = “Sajak ne’e tau nia titulu, Jesus. Bele atrai liu” [11:55:12//12-2-2009]
5.F.Nascimento = “We matan mos, we liman diak, halo suli mai, fakar mos mai, ami iha lerek susar no terus laran. Tan Ita Boot, ami Nain deit. Laran luak tebes no kmanek wain basuk.”[12:56:05//12-2-2009]

Sonhos dos Poetas Loucos

Lia-na’in sira-nia mehi hatutan no lolo liman ba malu
Lia-na’in sira-nia mehi bidu no tebe hadulas mundu rai klaran
ho haksolok

Lia-na’in sira-nia mehi fanun ha’u,
no ema lubun maka sei toba dukur
–
Fevereiru 2009

Blogs by Abe Barreto Soares:

Dadolin-Poetry from the Land of Lafaek-Crocodile: A Space for Poetic Mind and Poetic Feeling. In English, Tetum, Bahasa Indonesia and Galole.

This post is the second of a series to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the popular referendum in East Timor, which led to the territory's internationally recognized independence. In the first post we highlighted the support of the international community for the freedom of East Timor. In this post, we interview Abe Barreto Soares who is one of the organizers of the celebration events for solidarity taking place in East Timor in August and September 2009.

There has been a dramatic debate in East Timor over recent weeks about the provisions of the new draft penal code pertaining to abortion. The draft article 144 of the penal code deals with “interruption of pregnancy”. Draft article 142 deals with “non-punishable interruption of pregnancy”. By the proposed article 144, abortion is crime and those who perform abortion will be punished with imprisonment terms ranging from 2 and 8 years.

This excerpt was taken from the East Timor Law and Justice Bulletin (ETJL), in a post named “What happens when abortion is illegal”. At the beginning of June, a new Penal Code will take effect in East Timor, defending the criminalization of abortion, except in underage cases or when the mother's health is in jeopardy. Abortions derived from incest and rape cases will be punished.

Abortion in East Timor is not a new debate and neither is its illegal practice through the so called traditional medicines, ETLJ continues:

It is not a long search to find both incest and the death of women through incompetent abortion agents in recent East Timorese history. In November 2008, the Judicial System Monitoring Program reported on a case in the Oecusse District Court that arose from the death of a woman who was administered a traditional abortifacient.

The prosecutor's indictment in that case stated that in March 2007 in Betasi, Taiboko the first defendant entrusted some traditional medicine to the second defendant to be given to the victim J and to be taken in accordance with instructions set out by the first defendant. The aim of the two defendants was to enable the victim to abort her four month old fetus. The defendants instructed the victim to take the medicine regularly for three weeks. After several days the victim aborted the foetus and died.

Photo taken in Oecussi by Flickr user NeilsPhotography shared under a Creative Commons License

At the beginning of 2009, East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) posted about Women in Timor ‘having unsafe abortions' and in the same month UNICEF reported that 1 in 35 East Timorese women die in childbirth.

Three months later, an Australian woman working for the Timorese Government’s Gender Equality Secretariat in a post called Action not words – Women’s Peace Conference, comments on the event [en, pt, te] that took place in early March this year (the conference speeches can be found here). According to her, abortion was under debate at the conference with a strong impact on women who were discussing gender issues in East Timor:

There was a noticeable amount of white malae (foreigner) women, but overwhelmingly the women were brown. This conference was for them. And talking about using contraception in Timor, which is 90% Catholic – talking about spacing your family and perhaps having 5 kids instead of 8 or 10 – talking more generally, in public, that women need to have a public voice – this was very controversial and generated a huge buzz of voices in the room.

(…) I can see that of course this event was more than just words for hundreds of people. I was told that the next day at the event, abortion was discussed. This is not something that people talk about openly here! They have criminalized it and put in place hospital policies that try to prevent abortions at all costs. Yet it came up. This is not just a discussion; this is women feeling safe enough to get together and talk about issues for all of society. They will go home energized and talk about what they heard and saw in Dili and let me tell you, there are some driven people in this country and they aren’t all foreigners. They have women’s NGOs galore here, it’s the only way to get their voices heard most of the time. The ideas shared here are going to result in new ways and programs. Someone might even go home and leave next time her husband beats her; or they might say ‘Hey, let’s wait a little longer before we have that 7th kid’.
I can only hope.

The “huge buzz of voices” when talking about these issues may be related to the fact that Timorese culture tends to follow the Catholic Church's moral conscience, which played an important role in the country’s self-determination during Indonesian times. Its opinion on abortion is nevertheless quite controversial.

Photo shot outside a church by Flickr user NeilsPhotography shared under a Creative Commons License

Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, the Portuguese blog Timor Lorosae Nação published a short post [pt], which acted as a powerful trigger for a long discussion about abortion issues:

O novo Código Penal criminaliza o aborto com uma pena que pode chegar aos oito anos de cadeia. Os crimes sexuais têm vindo a aumentar no território. Será que há repercussões?

There were more than 60 comments on this post, covering topics ranging from contraception to free will and freedom of choice, suicide and euthanasia, religion, family planning, rape, the world economy and distribution of wealth, justice, etc. However a comment [pt] reduced the extent of issues to two types of vision: the woman’s and the child’s, playing with the meaning of the Portuguese word for foetus (feto) and its homonym in Tetum meaning “woman”.

A questão do aborto é uma questão complicada e muito sensível que tem sido e será sempre foco de grandes debates entre várias partes com diferenças de opinião relativamente ao valor da vida humana.

Se ambos os ‘fetos' (feto bebe em estado de desenvolvimento no útero e feto ‘mulher' na língua Tétum) pudessem falar o que diriam por sua vez cada um deles?

‘Feto' mulher: Filho/a, não te quero, vou-te abortar.
Feto (bebe): …?

Another interesting comment [pt] related to the particularities of the Tetum language states:

Em Tetum a gravidez diz-se “isin rua” (literalmente traduzido significa “dois corpos”) o corpo da mae e o corpo do feto.
O feto, apesar de estar a desenvolver-se dentro do corpo da mae, e' um corpo, uma vida distinta numa relacao de simbiose com o corpo da mae para se poder desenvolver.

Um aborto por isso nao equivale a remocao de uma parte do corpo da mae como se de um simples caso de amputacao se tratasse.
Seria a remocao e a cessacao forcada de uma vida humana distinta, fragil e indefesa numa relacao simbiotica com o corpo da mae.

Por isso nao e' uma simples questao de dizer “e' o meu corpo e eu posso fazer o que quiser com o meu corpo” porque na realidade o aborto representa a imposicao do desejo de um corpo sobre o um outro.

Even though the most part of the comments were made by expats or non-Timorese netcitizens, the voice of a Timorese woman was raised [pt] among the others’:

Sou Timorense! Sou Mulher! Sou católica e sou CONTRA o aborto.
Contudo, acredito que em certos casos, a vontade da mulher deveria ser respeitada, não a vontade da igreja ou de padrecos que pensam que reinam Timor.
Será certo mandar uma mulher ir para a cadeia porque fez um aborto, quando esta foi VIOLADA, por um BANDIDO? Não! Pensem como se fosse alguém que vos seja querido, uma filha, uma irmã, mãe etc… ai talvez já não vomitem as palavras em favor desta VERGONHOSA lei! (…)

Photo by Flickr user Graham Crumb shared under a Creative Commons License

Children, prostitution and abortion

Often related with the abortion debate, prostitution occurring in East Timor is apparently being ignored by the mainstream media. Back in 2005, Kirsty Gusmão, the wife of the then President Xanana Gusmão, stated in the Diario Tempo journal that “should the Timor-Leste government not take measures soon the current levels of prostitution will increase. Sooner or later, Dili will be full of prostitutes.”

East Timor Law Journal published on Morality, Religion and the Law – Abortion and Prostitution in East Timor that:

The criminalisation of abortion and prostitution have been a factor in the infliction of great harm and suffering upon women and results in social dislocation, exposure to grave health and safety issues such as HIV/AIDS, drug use, and violence as well as life-threatening underground abortion clinics.

Three years later, Loro Horta posts at Open Democracy - The curse of commodities – linking “oil-fuelled growth with child prostitution in Timor-Leste”:

Near schools men wait in their cars for young girls to approach them. A young school girl relates her story, “we approach them and tell them we need a new pair of shoes to go to a party. We go with them and then do it and get our shoes”. Girls are reported to have sold their bodies for as little as $5. In the countryside local journalists have reported various cases of girls as young as 10 prostituting themselves for $1.

The blogosphere regrets [pt] that prostitution has now evolved to lower ages and is occurring in the country:

Mas que estupidez. E qual e a pena de prisão dos que andam a aliciar as menores para a prostituição? Devido a pobreza a muitas jovens que se vendem por um telemóvel e muitos dos graúdos com poder de gastar andam nisso. Se os jornalistas investigarem irão apanhar muito peixe na rede. É só verem a historia das trocas de telefonemas para apanharem e trazerem a luz esses marmanchos que vão bater o peito na missa todos os domingos e comungam e ca fora no dia a dia abusam das menores. (…)

Photo by Flickr user NeilsPhotography shared under a Creative Commons License

The online debate eventually evolved to poetry trading on abortion issues (“Não soube do Mundo“  [pt] / “Didn't know about the world” and unnamed [sp]). Ze da Labia wrote a poem named “Quero ser criança em Timor” [pt] (“I want to be a child in Timor”) as a response to a comment asking for it:

Quero ser criança em Timor
Quero ser feliz e sentir-me amada
Quero beber leite
Para ter ossos fortes
Quero ter uma cama para dormir
Onde haja uma almofada
Para poder sonhar

Quero ser criança em Timor
Quero ter um par de sapatos
Para que os meus pés
Cresçam saudáveis e limpos
Para poder andar para a escola
Sem ter que coxear

Quero ser criança em Timor
E ter roupa para não andar nu
Quero cobrir o corpo
Deste calor ardente
Que me estorrica a pele

Quero ser criança em Timor, ter bicicleta
Poder comprar uma trotinete
Ir de Dili a Bazartete
Não levar porrada de cacetete
Comer bem no restaurante da Odete
Arroz, sopa ou mesmo omolete
Passear de camionete
Mas dispenso a espingarda sete sete

Mas a minha mãe ja tem onze
Vou ficar no banco de suplentes
Levar agua aos que tem sede
Ver passar a banda e nao tocar
Ver saltar a bola e nao chutar
Partir os ossos so de esperar
Porque sem calcio, custa a sarar
E la tenho que aturar
Os graudos que nao sabem mandar

In defence of the idea that “every city has its history, and ours is no different”, the petition starts as follows:

ACREDITANDO que o que torna uma cidade singular é o seu património histórico e cultural, traduzido pelos hábitos das suas gentes, mas igualmente pelas pedras, construções, espaços e edifícios que foram sendo introduzidos ao longo dos séculos da sua génese.

Photo by Flickr user mp3ief published under a Creative Commons license

It is well known that the number of modern buildings taking over the landscape of Luanda is increasing. In a post titled Luanda: a metamorfose [pt] (Luanda: the metamorphosis), (R)evolução em Angola [pt] ((R)evolution in Angola) author, N’manga, shares an extensive photo collection of the new and rising architecture projects. Back in September 2008, Global Voices Online posted on bloggers questioning who these buildings are addressed at. However, the online conversation is now a different one, as Kukiela comments in this Luanda: the metamorphosis post:

A questão de uma identidade arquitectónica, um património que está a ser destruído na nossa baixa para se construir esse conjunto insípido de edifícios sem qualquer perspectiva cultural de identidade. Sei que isso leva à discussão de “identidade angolana”, que é uma longa discussão mas que é também importante pensar na vertente “evolução urbanística” da cidade de Luanda.

The most polemic and striking case discussed online concerning the protection of Angola’s architecture happened back in August 2008, when the historical Kinaxixi Market was demolished to make space for the construction of a new shopping centre.

Exclusive photo taken on the day the Kinaxixi Market was being knocked down, kindly provided by José Manuel Lima da Silva, Flickr user Kool2bBop

This episode was not forgotten in the petition message:

TENDO tomado conhecimento que se continua a autorizar a destruição de património público, entre prédios classificados como foi o Palácio de Dona Ana Joaquina, ou por classificar, como o Mercado do Kinaxixe, este último considerado internacionalmente uma das obras arquitectónicas mais importantes do Movimento Moderno, e proposta por Óscar Niemeyer para ser considerado Património da Humanidade pela UNESCO.

However, reportedly the practice of destroying cultural heritage does not only happen in Luanda. Nuno Silva Leal, a Portuguese architect based in Lobito, Benguela, praises the petition initiative and posts about a case that has happened in that province:

Fiquei feliz em deparar há pouco na net com esta petição em defesa do património construído de Luanda. Sinal de que há ainda uma franja da população consciente do fabuloso património arquitectónico que têm em mãos e que não podem desbaratar, sob pena das gerações futuras virem a lembrar-se desta apenas pela ganância do lucro.
Aliás, este problema estende-se a todo o país. Aqui na província há bem pouco tempo atrás demoliram, tijolo a tijolo, a estação de comboios da Catumbela para, provavelmente, construírem um mamaracho chinês no seu lugar. Foi mais um pouco da história de Angola que morreu com a destruição deste edifício…

"New bridge, Catumbela" photo by Flickr user jlrsousa published under a Creative Commons license

Either Luanda or somewhere else, for Koluki, it is all about memories and what future generations will make of them. In a comprehensive post [pt] titled A(s) Memória(s) e o(s) Património(s) – Passado(s) e Futuro(s) (playing with the plurality of Memory and Heritage – Past and Future):

Memórias… são elas que dão sentido à palavra “histórico” ao lado da designação “património arquitectónico”. Resta-nos sempre a consolação de que, pelo menos enquanto somos vivos, elas sobrevivem à morte dos edifícios. O problema é a preservação dessas memorias, individuais e colectivas, para as gerações futuras, não perdendo de vista, contudo, que estas não só têm direito ao conhecimento da história, como também […] têm o direito a e a capacidade para criarem a sua própria história e construírem as suas próprias memórias para o seu próprio futuro - que será, afinal, o futuro da Nação, portanto de todos nós.

The whole petition, which, besides addressing the President, will also inform the Governor, the Minister of Culture, the Assembly Culture Committee and the UNESCO representative in Luanda, can be found at this web address [pt] and on many blogs (such as this one). Although it is available online, it can only be signed locally by residents and native Luandans at UNAP, Chá de Caxinde Association, Architects Association and Sérgio Piçarra's office.

It is common to hear Timorese bloggers sighing at their inability to post as often as they would like to. Ângela Carrascalão, a blogger and news correspondent for the popular Portuguese newspaper Público, started her blog [pt] in 2006 and today still regrets the obstacles she finds while writing for the Web.

Está lenta, muito lenta a Internet. Enervantemente lenta! A lentidão não se prende todavia com o calor intenso que é normal nesta altura do ano, é a razão lógica de ser da nossa indolência e nos tolhe os movimentos…

The same author makes an interesting point about the real need for Internet access in a country where there is a lack of almost everything:

Nos distritos do interior não há Internet. Poderia ser simples dizer isto e com isso concluir que estamos mal, que somos um país subdesenvolvido. Mas, que importa que não haja Internet, se ali, no Timor profundo, falta tudo, ou quase tudo?

There is no doubt that the Internet plays an important role in providing communication channels as well as education to isolated areas. Presumably due to the actual delay concerning Internet technologies in the country, later this year the Government will launch an amusing solution based on the broadcast of pedagogical television shows [pt]. This system is not innovative, as it was common in Europe in the 80’s, but it apparently provides a fitting solution for the absence of infrastructures that East Timor still faces, 10 years after the special autonomy referendum was held.

Nevertheless, more and more initiatives are appearing willing to act on economical development through the use of online communication tools for trade. One example is the Peace Dividend Trust, a non-profit foundation dedicated to the “support of long-term economic recovery by increasing the purchase of goods and services available in the country”.

Photo by Peace Dividend Trust Timor Leste, used with permision

One of the Peace Dividend Trust projects in East Timor is a Procurement Database that aims to “identify goods and services” and “to work with local businesses specifically to facilitate the process of switching to local suppliers […] that can reliably meet the operational needs of international agencies”.

Their website provides a powerful search tool where visitors can look through 26 different businesses categories in all the districts of East Timor. Through this, it is possible to find quite thorough information about each formal business, concerning the type of activity, services and products available, contacts, references and other useful information. It also supports an interface for people to provide feedback about each business. Buy in Timor exceeded 2,000 entries in March 2009, becoming a unique reference concerning local economy and the private sector development and entrepreneurship. The following blog post from the end of March 2009 reported:

To date 50.05% of visits have come from users inside Timor-Leste, 13.37% from Australia, 7.80% from Singapore, and 6.48% from Indonesia. (see graphic above)

There are now 2,013 unique business profiles online and the job of verifying further new businesses in Dili and the districts continues.

The Timor-Leste Procurement Database has had 43,435 hits in just 10 months. These hits have been generated by 8,272 separate visits. The website is designed to connect institutional and individual buyers (both inside and outside Timor-Leste) with domestic suppliers.

The above quote is taken from one of several blogs that have been recently launched by Peace Dividend Trust Building Markets project in East Timor. These blogs provide up to date information while enhancing new ways to “Buy locally, rebuild markets, employ young men and increase the stability of post-conflict and fragile states”. One of the most active blogs is Serbisu Iha Timor-Leste / Jobs in Timor-Leste [te].

Ema hot-hotu bele uza blog ida ne'e atu hare Vaga Serbisu iha Timor-Leste no atu buka informasaun kona ba serbisu iha Timor-Leste laran e liur.

Photo by Peace Dividend Trust Timor Leste, used with permision

Through the Building Markets project, a big diversity of  businesses are promoted in different blogs. The  Carpinteria Sanders [en], for example, is a blog to support a new carpentry furniture supplier from Dili. Diverse woodwork is presented at Manu-Koko, a group of artisans that make carvings from Mahogany, Teak, Mangrove, and Saria. It is also possible to find real estate sources, such as Aluga Uma Timor which aggregates several rental opportunities all over the country and Itimuran, for eco-accommodation on Atauro island. Cheap Car Dili posts information on cars for rent, and Diamond Workshop tells the story of  a vehicle repair and maintenance business.

The Procurement Database project addresses the international community as the main consumer of the local services which are being promoted online, and reportedly it reaches many people in the country. The other part of the challenge ahead is to get local people - the national community - involved, both as consumers and also as content managers for those blogs.

In fact, not many initiatives are known to empower Timorese people, especially from rural areas, through online technologies. Therefore communication, trade and education in the first person through these media still has a long way to go in East Timor.

***

This is the last piece in a series of posts to celebrate the existence of the Internet in East Timor and to draw attention to the current situation. The first article explained the huge digital divide in the country, while in the second one Jen Hughes was interviewed, explaining how she founded Suai Media Space, whose main objective is to make the voices of Suai youth heard all over the world.

Among those fighting to minimize this digital divide is Australian documentary-maker Jen Hughes, the founder of Suai Media Space - a social media project connecting the people of Suai with the world community. Putting culture and creativity at the centre of friendship, the project's main aim is “for the voices of the youth of Suai to be heard all over the world”.

Q: How did you get involved with East Timor?

A: I began following the story of friendship between Port Phillip (my neighbourhood) and Suai in December 1999. The friendship was begun to help Suai recover. I was interested in what role this kind of cross-border cross-cultural friendship would play in the recovery of the Timorese people from trauma and devastation, and what the Timorese would be doing to recover themselves.

The result is the Suai Media Space website where there is content written and made by youth and others from Suai as well as myself and a documentary in the form of a series of video Letters to Suai and Port Phillip (that I will be uploading this year). I shot the footage over nine years as I followed and participated in the friendship between people from these two extremely different places. Viewed together the ‘letters' reveal a rich and beautiful Timorese traditional culture that serves the Timorese well in their healing process.

They also reveal a culture in transition to modernity, indeed to post-modernity and the digital age, as the young are keen to embrace digital tools and the Internet to express their music and their stories.

Photo: Friends of Suai Rock

Q: Which are the communities you work with?

A: There are two communities I work with. Port Phillip in Melbourne and Suai a rural town in Southwest East Timor. Getting them involved actually on the website is difficult and it is still emerging. From 1999 to now my ‘project’ has evolved in response to what the Friends of Suai has been doing, what is going on in Port Phillip and East Timor, particularly Suai, my resources and technological changes. I began by collecting stories and forming relationships in Port Phillip and Suai as well as Dili and Darwin the bridging cities. Within those places the people who relate to my project are mostly Australians, Timorese and Timorese Australians living in Timor and Australia.

Q: How does the community get involved with the project?

A: There are so many ways the community can get involved it is really up to their imagination. But just becoming a friend of Suai by viewing and reading the stories, commenting, linking through your blogs or websites or joining the friendship through the various avenues is a great start. Another very important contribution is translation of course. The more languages we have the more diverse our community can become.

It may be, that community involvement on the website grows this year, it may not come in the ten year period I have committed to the project or at all. At present people from both communities can request to become an author, in which case they can do everything themselves because the website is built with blog software to enable this. Anyone can join the Facebook group, subscribe to our YouTube page and link to it, send a story and photos or a short video by email, CD, DVD, and I'll upload them on their behalf.

I have created a Ning social network site too. I haven't promoted the social network sites yet. I'm waiting for Broadband to arrive in Suai and for them to have some more workshops. Then they can show each other the site and teach each other. If people wish to help me or just talk to me because they have particular skills they would like to offer, they can contact me and start the conversation.

There have been many activities with various people in the Community in Suai which has led to the development of content. This year a young man by the name of Chamot from Kamenassa Suai, heard about Suai Media Space through a mutual friend, and sent me his poems by email requesting that I upload them to Suai Media Space. I have invited people who visit the site to translate those. We are looking for an English and a Portuguese translator for these if anyone would like to volunteer?

Q: How do people access the Internet from East Timor, and particularly from Suai?

A: The Internet did not come to the Suai community until about 2004. In 1999 in Port Phillip we had dial-up access in our homes businesses and libraries. In East Timor all communication infrastructure was destroyed by Indonesian backed militia as they left the country after the vote. By the time I went to Suai in July 2000 Telstra Australia was providing expensive mobile telephone communication that was unreliable in the districts and landline connections in Dili. I think the connection was going from Timor via Darwin and back into Timor. I heard calls were billed at international rates.

In the emergency phase the UN had a satellite in Suai which some of the NGO's could use but in the main we relied on mobiles. Occasionally when a friend from the UN helped we could use their email access. The UN took the satellite with them when they pulled out! At this time access for Timorese was extremely difficult. UN people and UN police often didn't know who were militia and who were not and so often foreigners could get access to special privileges like access to the Internet and helicopters to Dili, that locals could not.

The Timor Telecom Internet access in Suai is a dial-up connection. The office provides one computer terminal for the whole Covalima area, plus one can plug in a laptop simultaneously. So for the few who have a laptop they can usually jump on quite quickly while others are using the Timor Telecom computer. The cost is exorbitant for the majority of people at $US2 per hour. The Timorese people I know who used the Internet were waged with jobs in NGO's.

I was giving story writing for the Internet workshops which were accompanied by photographs that had been reduced in size to under 30 KB in Photoshop. We were able upload the text but we were unable to upload the photographs or send them by email to Australia for uploading whilst using the Timor Telecom terminal and an Apple McIntosh laptop. Several times we tried to get help over the counter locally and to contact Timor Telecom in Dili to get help with this but in the end gave up in disgust. I am a very experienced Internet user and my colleague, who is also Australian, but who has worked and lived in East Timor and Indonesia for several years, is very experienced user of email and Timor Telecom. She speaks Tetun but not Portuguese. Together we were unable to get help. The local terminal gives frequent warnings about viruses, but when we asked local office staff how to respond to it we were advised to ignore it.

When free broadband access is available in Suai the social network software linked to the site should make the connection between the two communities and the rest of the world more real on a broader front. Then all we will have left as an inhibitor will be the language barrier! To overcome this we will need some volunteer translators and some good community cultural development concepts to grease the wheels of the relationships. Then we shall see if we can truly have a friendship between two communities that helps the people of Suai rebuild.

Q: How did the YoMaTre, the Youth Media Centre start? How has the project developed?

A: I began working directly with the coordinator of the Covalima youth Centre, Ergilio Vicente in 2006, when I partnered with the Friends of Suai. I met Ergilio before that, in 2000 when we first discussed the project and I also knew Josh Trinidade who set up the youth centre in 2000. The rest of that story is on the website.

My first ‘community involvement’ was in the form of an attempt at a friendship with Sergio da Costa, who is a Suai artist. He was about 18 when we started, now he is 27. Sergio and I began exchanging things such as art materials, tape recorders, tapes, CD’s letters and paintings, by asking people to carry them for us. And this is how most of our content in the form of movies, letters and photographs have exchanged hands over the first eight or nine years. Sergio’s work and other artistic works from Suai can be seen here.

My first ‘community involvement’ was in the form of an attempt at a friendship with Sergio da Costa, who is a Suai artist.

Photo: Self-Portrait by Sergio da Costa. Pencil on Paper 2000.

Initially Sergio gave me and sent me a lot of his drawings. Some of them were intensely sad self-portraits. So in 2003 I returned to Suai with them and Sergio and I made a video about his work with him providing the narrative for it. I edited it and checked it with him when I returned in 2006. That video is still to be uploaded this year. He has a copy of it on DVD and I have some more material to add to it. All of the films I make are sent to Suai or I take them and they are screened there in a variety of contexts - public and private. The Circle of Stones is the most popular.

In 2006 we delivered media tools funded by the Friends of Suai in Port Phillip, and I ran the first video production workshops. Since then YoMaTre a youth media training organisation has been formed and a range of Internet and video production workshops have been held.

In June last year we held workshops to teach the YoMaTre members how to write for the Internet, take digital photographs and how to manipulate and downsize them for the web and we made some imovies. As well as this we showed them how to upload the stories in to Suai Media Space. Their stories can be read in Tetun (the local language) and English. Here you will also see stories and photographs written by YoMaTre members about their Peace activities late last year.

I stay with the Timorese market people and sleep on the floor in Suai. I shop in the local market, and I have been doing this for nine years. As I drove past the market in June 2008 I heard a voice yell out “Jen Hughes” – that was a bright moment for me.

Photo: Ergilio Grassi. Lin and others unpack video equipment February, 2006

Q: Despite difficulties in access to the Internet, the Port Phillip and Suai communities seem to love interacting between themselves. Can you tell us about the Exchanging Rock Messages project?

A: In 2001 I made a film calling for justice that was based on footage shot on the occasion of the first anniversary of the massacre in Suai. It was called the Circle of Stones.

At that first Anniversary the people of Suai had placed a rock or a simply inscribed rock in a circle outside the Church where the massacre took place.

Photo: Circle of Stones, Suai, First Anniversary, Suai Church Massacre, September 6, 2000.

The following year I initiated a screening of the Circle of Stones and a remembrance event in Port Phillip at the St Kilda Town Hall. Since hi-tech solutions for connection and involvement were not available I thought it would be great to use the communication medium used by the people of Suai to remember their loved ones. So we invited the people of Port Phillip to bring a rock inscribed with a message to the people of Suai and form a circle of stones to remember those who died on the Second Anniversary of the Suai Church Massacre, September 9, 2001.

About 200 people attended that, viewed the film, listened to music and stories and placed a rock and flowers in a circle outside the Town Hall. These rocks and the circles of stones now link the two communities and before the 10th Anniversary in September all those rocks will be on Suai Media Space in a special place. In September this year also, we hope this story will be projected at the 10th Anniversary of the Massacre in Suai.

Circle of Stones, a 2001 Video

Q: And what about the self-portrait exchange?

A: A youth worker in Port Phillip initiated a self-portrait exhibition for youth in Port Phillip and asked the Friends of Suai to invite some artists from Suai to send some paintings to include in it. Sergio’s prolific portrait painting practice means he knows all the other artists in Suai, so Sergio was called upon to introduce them to the Friends of Suai.

One was a very talented young man in a wheel chair from Suai Loro named Atoy…

… the others were young boys whose work could be seen all over the walls of Suai.

First fhoto: Portrait of a Boy by Atoy; second photo: Art on Walls of Suai by Almeida (Both in June 2008)

They were paid and given art materials to produce self-portraits for the portrait exhibition in Port Phillip. This in turn led to the broadening of an exchange of self-portraits between schools. The schools haven’t given permission for uploading these yet but it is expected we will do this in the coming months.

Q: What are the main challenges you have found during the last 10 years?

A: One of the major challenges of the project has been getting people to understand it. That has been a learning curve for all of us, including me as technology kept changing over time (and still is). Practical people often said food in the mouths was more important. My answer to that was that not everybody could work in the same field and the young people were unemployed and bored. This never convinced anyone. I was just lucky that the two co-ordinators of the Friends of Suai in Port Phillip who held office the longest both appreciate the power and importance of media and could see my point about the media arts and their role in the future of young people in Suai. One of the challenges was I had to learn about community development processes. One important thing was that the request for assistance for particular projects had to come from Suai. Their priorities were different from mine naturally, and Ergilio didn’t request the media tools until he saw their usefulness for educational videos in his community, after Oxfam held a media workshop within their HIV program and it was this request that led to the media project I had envisioned getting funding.

I didn’t realise until last year (2008), that Ergilio hadn’t really understood the project we initially discussed in 2000. (I don’t think I exactly knew what it was then either!) I was warned many times in 2000 not to make promises I couldn’t keep, so I took his instruction to “go away and get started” seriously. The irony is, that discussion with Ergilio in 2000 led to me dedicating the next ten years to working to keeping my promise! There is a line in an Australian Paul Kelly song that says “be careful what you dream of, you just might get it!” Well I did get it! ] Over the past nine years, I’ve found the project has reached goals in very different ways than I had originally envisaged, and at very different times. It was Ergilio’s request in 2005 that eventually led to the setting up of the media group in Suai and it is their needs in concert with the actions of the Friends of Suai and others, that are really shaping the media group. Now the International Journalists Federation are involved too, so that is adding another dimension to their skills training. The website and the media project we have now fit my original vision on some levels, but not all. The fact of their existence and their positive impacts, are very satisfying.

The challenges have been enormous, both personally and professionally. Some of them come through the stories above about community involvement. Personally, I have needed tremendous patience and grit that has armed me with the determination to keep going and keep on learning about community development processes and the technical skills as technology kept changing and just keep on going as the project was never predictable. I often recall Australian activist Lee Kirk introducing me to the mantra “neineik neineik” or “slowly slowly step by step” when she was working in Suai. I learned to listen carefully to Ergilio and to stay flexible letting it evolve and not giving into the expectations of others.

Until recently we didn’t even have regular dial-up Internet contact. Many times sms was the best way to communicate. Just today Ergilio has requested my Skype name! The whole thing would have been impossible without the personal patience and tolerance of Ergilio Vicente and Simao Barretto in Suai. Not to mention the work of the Friends of Suai in both places.

Q: It is the dream of Suai Media Space for their voices to be heard all over the world. How can people get involved and help this dream come true?

A: I know the young people of Suai would be very happy when people actually respond to them in the comments or email them. It may sound too simple but by giving them an audience you are providing them with a great gift. That's the first thing. The second is for the audience to tell them who they are and what they are interested in.

What's also needed are Indonesian or Tetun speaking tutors for training programs. Anything like this needs to be well planned in advance. Any training programs need to meet the needs of the youth in Suai and they usually identify what they want. The Friends of Suai are currently moving through a consultation process to identify a more structured and even program of training and when this is in place a call for trainers can be made. However that group have other demands on their financial resources too and at this point they have not committed funds for training for the next two year period. Covalima Youth Centre is pretty well managed and capable of planning implementing their media training, financial support for that would be wonderful.

Another contribution by community could be translation of menus and handbooks or purchase of Indonesian hand books. Or, I've always thought it would be great to have ‘how to' instructions in Tetun or Indonesian on line for them. There may already be Indonesian sites like this. If there are I'm not aware of them and providing those links would be great.

***

Also check Suai Media Space on YouTube, and friends of YoMaTre facebook group.

This interview is part of a series of posts to celebrate the 9th anniversary of the arrival of the Internet in East Timor. The first article explained the huge digital divide in the country. In the next post, you will find out more about the difficulties that bloggers from East Timor face when uploading content to the Internet and the “Tele Schools“, a solution that the Government has decided to adopt as a way to provide local education without a need to access the Internet.

East Timor has lived through long periods of occupation and has  had to fight tragically for independence. The post referendum violence devastated social and communication infrastructures. When the country became the first new nation of the 21st century, it had almost no technological environment.

In summary,

the first computer only arrived in the early 1990s.

In 1997, before Timor's independence, .tp was registered as a top level domain by Connect-Ireland, in a gesture of support for exiled East Timorese leaders, Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo and José Ramos-Horta, who had won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996. Martin Maguire, project director at Connect, made the following statement in 1999 after the company suffered an attack, presumably by Indonesian hackers:

We noticed that the East Timor domain was available and assumed that the Indonesians would not wish to register it for political reasons. We made a suggestion to the East Timor Campaign and they were interested, so we set up the first virtual country on the Web as a platform for the East Timorese.

In a venture with Australian’s Telstra, reportedly

the first Internet connection was established on the 2nd February 2000 by UNDP.

This was nine years ago today. As the poorest country in Asia, with over 40% of its population illiterate and unemployed, and facing frequent political instability, the telecommunications’ sector still appears, however, to be a vital factor for rebuilding East Timor.

In 2003, East Timor’s Government established Timor Telecom (TT) as the provider for all communications services, in a venture with Portugal Telecom (which owns 50.1% of TT). Besides serving the whole population, through a monopoly that will last until 2017 at least, TT is also responsible for rebuilding data and voice infrastructures, as well as providing Internet connections.

Until 2004, the number of governmental computers was estimated at 1,000, though only 70 of them were connected to the Internet.

Internet usage is rare, slow and expensive, which means services such as e-commerce, and even blogs, simply do not to exist. In a country where people live on less than $2(US) a day, prices charged for 15 minutes of Internet surfing are as high as $0.50 (US). Even the National University of East Timor itself faces serious restrictions, as its 256 Kbps connection costs $3,000 (US) a month to serve around 40 computers. According to a user:

A ligação é muito lenta pelo que fica muito caro qualquer consulta na internet. [pt]

Luis Ramos, a former Portuguese IT teacher at the National University, stated back in 2007 [pt]:

Alguém me disse que o governo de Timor Leste tem no total 13Mbps de largura de banda para acesso ao backbone internacional, isto é, a ligação de todo o país à internet é de 13Mbps. Ora, destes 13Mbps: 6Mbps são reservados ao governo e os outros 7 para uso geral, isto é: toda a gente em Timor. Quanto é que se consegue ter numa casa Portuguesa? 4Mbps? Como tenho andado a ensinar aos meus alunos de redes, 13Mbps são pouco mais que 13300 kbps. Na universidade temos uma rede local com cerca de 40 computadores que partilham uma ligação de internet de 256kbps.
No bairro temos uma ligação à internet de 64kbps que é partilhada por todos os professores.
Ora vamos lá falar de Quality of Service (QoS). O QoS é um serviço que ajuda a garantir que todos os utilizadores tenham a largura de banda que subscreveram. Em Timor não deve haver isso. Lembram-se dos modems que se usavam em Portugal há uns anos? Esses modems tinham velocidades de 33kbps e depois de 56kbps, aqui temos um de 64kbps. Como não há QoS (suponho), esta ligação aqui em Timor é mais lenta que esses modems em Portugal. 13Mbps dá para 200 ligações de 64, e 5 eu já as conheço.

• gmail.com ao meio-dia: 30 segundos para poder por a password.
• google.com? 10 segundos para carregar!

On the one hand a big effort is necessary in order to rebuild the communications infrastructure, on the other hand, the income of Timor Telecom is known to be high, as Hilario Nolasco [tet], a Timorese Timor Telecom worker complains:

Hau mak kiik liu compara ho trabalhador tomak TT nian iha tinan 2007 no 2008, colega balun bolu hau putu, balun dehan hau labarik maibe ida nee la iha diferencia iha servicu laran, hau gosta servico iha TT tamba iha ambiente nebe diak excepto valorizacao ba hau nia servico quando compara ho rendimento empresa nian ………..iha exploracao nebe bot la halimar!.

The same blogger, on a Facebook comment on Tempo Semanal Vox Pop Videos [tet] where a woman answers the question “Timor Telecom, Good or Bad?”, stresses the need to balance points of view on Telecommunication's infrastructures when talking about rebuilding the country:

Ne'e Maluk Timor oan sira temke akompanha mos prosesu dezemvolvimento iha mos rai seluk para ita Timor Ne'e Lebele Ketingalan Imformasi…Labele Hare deit Parte ida maibe temke hare mos parte seluk….Obrigado…

Nevertheless, some mocking propaganda against TT's monopoly is on the way, such as the “Timor Telecom you're a joke” video posted on YouTube by user kmfw72, whose screen shots illustrate this piece.

Jeremy Wagstaff expresses his regret at the digital divide that developed in East Timor during the 2006's crisis. At that time, only one Timorese website had information about the uprising, the Suara Timor Lorosae (website that has been inactive until recently), formerly the prime news source in the country. There were also significant Timorese points of view stated during a special UN inquiry on the crisis. This report has been posted on a Yahoo group on East Timor studies.

I can find no East Timor site working out of East Timor that has any information about this uprising, the most important development in the country’s recent history. OK, so not many Timorese have access to the Internet but this is a vital link with the outside world, a chance for Timorese to convey what is going on to governments, exiled Timorese, interested readers and others. Now, in the midst of terrible violence and the humiliation of seeking outside military intervention, there is again no domestic media getting the story to the world’s most important medium.

Even though the number of Internet users in 2006 was estimated at just 1,200, the number of websites supported by Timorese citizens, in the Tetum language, has increased. Some examples to be highlighted are the Tetum version of Wikipedia, and some news websites such as Tempo Semanal and Kla'ak Semanal. After nine years since the first connection, as of the 2nd February 2009, there is only dial up analogue internet connection available and 285 Internet hosts.

In the next article of this series, you will meet Jen Hughes, founder of Suai Media Space - a social media project connecting the people of Suai with the world community, whose dream is: “For the voices of the youth of Suai to be heard all over the world”. The Australian documentary-maker will describe her experience in trying to bring technology to Suai, in the south of East Timor.

New Trouble For An Obama Nominee: Admiral Dennis Blair Aided Perpetrators of 1999 Church Killings In East Timor:..

And was followed by @gregtheveg:

Obama CIA Nominee involved in East Timor genocide

So did @giantpandinha on this tweet

How Obama's new intel chief screwed over Timor

And @allisonkilkenny on this this one

Dennis Blair, Nominee for Dir. of National Intel Connected to E. Timor Massacre

These are just a few examples of what citizen journalists have been tweeting regarding the nomination of Admiral Denis C. Blair as Barack Obama's choice to be the US Director of National Intelligence. And this should lead us to embark on our own fact-finding mission to establish the veracity of these serious accusations which the retired United States Navy official faces: during his tenure as Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Pacific Command, he would have played a critical role in backing the Indonesian occupation of East Timor in the 1990's, an invasion that led to the killing of approximately 1,400 Timorese and the displacement of 300,000 people. Did Intelligence Chief Aid Perpetrators of 1999 Church Killings of East Timor Civilians?, asks twitter user @samsimon.

Allan Nairn has a comprehensive and shocking overview of the nomination implications on his blog, bearing in mind that in 1999, “in the midst of massacres of East Timor civilians and churches, Admiral Blair gave support to the perpetrators, the armed forces of Indonesia.”:

Two days after a massacre at Liquica that left flesh hanging from the church walls, Blair contacted the Indonesian commander, offered him US aid, and according to classified US cables, failed to tell him to stop the attacks. Reassured by the evident support from Blair, then the US Pacific Command chief, the Indonesian commander, General Wiranto, escalated the attacks.

The Indonesian forces subsequently struck the Red Cross and the Bishop's residence, killing more than a thousand as they went, burning churches and raping nuns.

They were trying to derail a free election, taking place under UN auspices, that eventually ended Jakarta's illegal occupation of East Timor.

Readers of Timor Loosae Nação published the piece of news and commented on it, concluding that the U.S. foreign policy does not change with the change of the President:

“A noticia anterior e um grande tabefe para os timorenses que se jubilaram pela eleicao de Obama.“

Another piece of news, published here, raised a controversial discussion. Robert Merkel started by saying:

This attitude - that keeping the Indonesian military happy was more important than saving the East Timorese - was very common amongst western diplomats dealing with Indonesia back in 1999 and earlier. It was a pretty slimy piece of realpolitik, but understandable; relations between Indonesia and western countries (particularly Australia, the closest, who took the major role in the peacekeeping operation that oversaw the transition to independence) did take a beating after East Timor's independence.

To which Erik coldly replied:

yes - we must be careful. The needs of the Indonesian dictatorship had to be carefully weighed against the Timorese people. After all, although we are discussing great numbers of deaths in relative terms - more than 10 per cent of their population, it was a small number in absolute terms - only 1-2 hundred thousand deaths. When you look at this you realize why realpolitik reasons would triumph.

A very different point of view is given by Gary Farber, from Amygdala. He has a very factual post with a lot of references, and is disgusted with other bloggers' apathy:

More confirmation (unofficially, still) of the Blair nomination. Where are all the big name left blogs on this? Why is almost everyone silent? Are people going to suddenly discover the problems only after the nomination is official? Why can't I get anyone to listen to me about this, he said forlornly?

The demonstration of outrage about the 1999 crimes has just started, and people have been gathering signatures on a Petition for the Prosecution of Crimes Against Humanity in East Timor. You can find bloggers joining this cause everywhere (check the East Timor Law and Justice Bulletin header).

At the same time, another petition is taking place, concerning specifically Blair's involvement in those crimes. According to John:

Dennis Blair's sordid record when it comes to East Timor and Indonesia disqualifies him for intel chief. The East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) has more here or sign their petition here.

Despite all the activism and debate arising online, some doubt Timor will be more than a ‘pebble in the shoe' for him [Admiral Dennis Blair] while others, like Charles Lemos say that he was following orders after all:

… If he disobeyed orders from the Clinton Administration to deliver a message to Indonesia's military authorities then he clearly is not fit to be Director of National Intelligence. Expect to hear more in the coming days from Indonesia experts on Admiral Blair.

Photo by Fat Old Sod at the Xanana Republic Gazzete, used with permission.

The title of this article is a quote from Twitter user @BILL_ROMANOS on December the 31st celebrating a discovery made by Australian and East Timorese researchers whose recent study made overwhelming findings concerning sub aquatic life: the biggest concentration ever reported of whales and dolphins, among other cetaceans, was found 50 km (30 miles) off the coast of East Timor.

With this, East Timor, as a young country with a troubled history, now has a fresh breath of hope for its promising eco-tourism industry. Once again, the strategic Wetar-Ombai strait shows its value. Although it is most famous for being a route for “US nuclear and Australian navy submarines travelling through the Indonesian islands“, this time the strait that separates the Pacific from the Eurasian plates is recognized as “a major migratory route for marine wildlife moving between the Pacific and Indian oceans“.

Cathal Foster (PT) writes about it:

A expedição, que foi o primeiro grande estudo de cetáceos em Timor-Leste, veio confirmar aquilo que os biólogos marinhos apenas suspeitavam: as águas profundas dos estreitos de Wetar e Ombai, ao largo de Timor - que podem ter até três mil metros de profundidade -, são uma importante rota migratória e corredor para a vida marinha, ligando os oceanos Pacífico e Índico.

This discovery is grabbing the attention of several digital citizens who have begun linking their blogs or tweets to mainstream news:

• O LENTE in East Timor and its Maritime Biodiversity (PT)
• Margarida A from Umalulik in Expedition finds one of the biggest hotspots for whales and dolphins on the planet, and Whale and dolphins hotspot found in East Timor (PT)
• Wendy Heller from DivePhotoGuide.com in East Timor, Home of Whales & Dolphins
• @mostrador on Twitter, has called the hotspot a sanctuary (ES)
• And @greenoptions, @compost3r, @ecosfera, @celebritypaycut, @neandertal have tweets about it (PT, ES and EN).
  

The amazing diversity of species, that choose the waters off East Timor's coast as a favourite “hotspot”, is occasionally mentioned by bloggers. Fat Old Sod, at the beginning of November 2008, posted some “Mega Fauna” pictures he took from an aircraft trip over Timorese waters:

Mega Fauna basically means anything bigger than, and including, turtles. (…) We saw at least 6 species of whales, easily over 4000 dolphins, manta rays in formation, BIG hammerhead sharks cruising on the surface and we just stopped counting the turtles once we got to Com and beyond because there were too many.

Photo by Fat Old Sod at the Xanana Republic Gazzete, used with permission.

An anonymous comment on the post titled Whale and dolphins hotspot found in East Timor (PT) states:

Mais um grande ponto para a futura indústria do turismo em Timor.
Bem regulamentado poderá ser mais uma grande fonte de rendimento para o país.

Levi Novey, however, is concerned:

It highlights the need for greater protection of biodiverse ocean areas like these from unregulated fishing – a challenge given East Timor’s desire to develop their fishing industry.

The fishing regulations appear to be an issue for the preservation of the fauna found, as they are commonly ignored, giving space for illegal fishing to occur in those waters. Fat Old Sod caught fishers red handed with his camera:

We also got pictures of some illegal fishing boats from Indonesia which we have handed on to the appropriate authorities with times, name of vessel, location etc.

Edy, a Timorese citizen, commented on the discovery, raising some interesting points on the conditions those waters offer to marine life:

(…) the marine environment in that area in (sic) certainly more secure, cleaner, and quieter for those mammals to gather even perhaps can be used as their marine habitat to reproduce and expand. Giving the fact that in that maritime area there is less fishing activity in industrial scale and it’s not considered strategically good enough for commercial ship’s and military navals passage hence almost inexistence in that area any noise that can be prejudicial for whales and other species. Therefore it’s a hotspot for those marine animals to live in abundance. Any habitat of other species when given time, space, less disturbances from human greedy commercial and military activities will certainly find its own way to live, survive, reproduce and expand in greater numbers to the benefit of all living things in this planet we call Earth.

Back in his post Whale Of A Time, Fat Old Sod says how lucky he felt to be asked to fly over the spot, take pictures and be witness to such a special thing:

I knew we had great marine life here but I never knew it was so prolific. The two scientists I was with told me that it was an absolutely exceptional survey. And when a scientist starts to use long adjectives you know you've seen something special!!

Photo by Fat Old Sod at the Xanana Republic Gazzete, used with permission.

For more breathtaking pictures of marine life in East Timor, check these web addresses:

• Underwater East Timor
• ReefScenes.net - Timor-Leste's Underwater Wonderland
• Nudibranchs of East Timor on Flickr
• Department of Natural Resources, Environment, The Arts and Sport, Marine Biodiversity Unit. From Australian Northern Territory Government