Francisco Xavier do Amaral ... shortest-serving Timorese president. Photo: Crikey.com

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By a special correspondent

East Timor’s first and shortest-serving president has died after a long battle with cancer, a presidential spokesman said.

The popular veteran of the nation’s resistance struggle against Indonesia’s brutal 24-year occupation died aged 74 in a hospital in the capital Dili.

He had been one of the candidates in the fledgling nation’s March 17 presidential election. Read more »

President Jose Ramos-Horta's support erodes before election. Photo: Topnews.In

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Ted McDonnell in Dili

President Jose Ramos-Horta’s bid for reelection in East Timor has suffered a blow with a key political party saying it will back his opponent.

Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao’s CNRT party, which championed Ramos-Horta’s win in 2007, has shifted its support to the former military head Taur Matan Ruak for the March 17 election in one of the world’s newest nations.

The poll marks the half-island nation’s second free presidential election as it celebrates 10 years of independence. The last elections were marred by violence. Read more »

Vote counting at the last East Timorese elections in 2007. Photo: PMC archive

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Karlis Salna

Police in East Timor are on high alert after two offices connected to the administration of upcoming elections were hit with firebombs.

The attack in the capital Dili this week comes just weeks out from presidential elections which will be held on March 17.

A number of bombs were thrown at the National Commission for Elections building and office of the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration. A United Nations vehicle was also damaged in the attack. Read more »

War heroes and heroines are East Timor's leaders. .. the former head of the armed struggle for independence, Xanana Gusmao, is prime minister. Photo: PMC archive

Pacific Scoop:
Analysis – By Agus Wandi in Dili

While talking to fishermen on Areia Branca Beach, hanging out with taxi drivers, getting lost cycling in Dili with its new street names, catching up with friends working for the United Nations there, having dinner with a Nobel laureate and coffee with a presidential candidate, it was clear that there is one common feeling among East Timorese – despite the misery of the past, despite the persistent problems of unemployment and poverty, the country is looking forward to a better future.

The country, which will elect a new president next month, however, is struggling to attract investment. It is also working hard to make the most of its oil revenues, foreign aid and other revenue sources to rebuild the nation.

Chinese investment is noteworthy — the most visible contributions being the Presidential Palace, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and some other key buildings in the capital. But future investment needs to deal with human development and social capital, especially for East Timor’s youth. Read more »

Children lining up for rations at an internal refugee camp in Timor-Leste. Photo: ABC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By a special correspondent in Dili

Julieta Soares, 26, a Timorese mother of six, says her family eat what they can grow or afford in the fishing village of Tibar, 5km outside the Timor-Leste capital of Dili.

“We never think about our food each day,” she says. “The important thing for us is to find something that can fill our stomachs, whether it is rice, cassava, corn, or bananas.”

Her family’s diet rarely contains meat, eggs or dairy products, because of the cost, but her priority is to avoid hunger: “Just as long as we do not starve.” Read more »

Fretilin leader Mari Alkatiri ... tackling the "enemy" in Timor-Leste - illiteracy, poverty. Photo: PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By a special correspondent in Dili

The secretary-general of the Revolutionary Front of Independent Timor-Leste (FRETILIN), Mari Alkatiri,has upheld the need for human and community development as essential to combat poverty in the country.

“There is a currently great asymmetry. Dili has become an island itself within an island, because this is the consequence when we inject so much money into the economy. It results in growth in the cities and a contraction in the rural areas and less productivity, as well as also generating poverty,” Alkatiri said.

The secretary-general commented on statements made by the UN Rapporteur for Human Rights and Extreme Poverty during a visit to Dili, which considered that the development in Timor-Leste has not translated into improved living standards, livelihoods and job creation. Read more »

Flashback to the Santa Cruz cemetery massacre in Dili on 12 November 1991. Source: TVTL

Pacific Scoop:
Commentary – By Charles Scheiner in Dili

Tonight, I’m honored to be with so many young Timorese people who believe in justice and independence. Twenty years ago, brave people just like you peacefully demonstrated against the Indonesian occupation of your country. Nobody paid them, or ordered them, or told them it would be safe or easy.

The Santa Cruz protesters inspired people around the world, including me. I was in New York, and I heard about the massacre on community radio. Although I already knew about Indonesia’s illegal occupation here, and about the criminal support my US government was giving to it, I hadn’t done much to stop it.

A month after the Santa Cruz massacre, I and some other friends organised a peaceful protest at the Indonesian Mission to the UN. We didn’t risk being shot or tortured, but we knew we had to speak out in solidarity with the heroes of Santa Cruz who risked and lost their lives in the struggle for self-determination. Read more »

A plea for teachers in East Timor. Image: Bairnsdale Friends of East Timor

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Manuel da Silva in Dili

Education Minister Joao Cancio Freitas has admitted that monthly salary payments are still being made to teachers who have died in East Timor.

But he declined to reveal who was collecting the wages on behalf of the deceased. Freitas said payments were made to dead teachers because there was no law to regulate them.

“We, in the Education Ministry, have (made payments for dead teachers) since the first constitutional government,” the minister told the Independente. Read more »

West Papua graphic representing the banned Morning Star flag of independence. Image: Jakarta Globe

Pacific Scoop:
Analysis – By Dr Warren Doull

The Indonesian government has adopted a two-pronged strategy to maintain control of its Papuan provinces: intense military presence and intense public spending. Neither is working.

Since July 2011, violence and pro-referendum campaigning has surged in Papua. In August alone, two Indonesian soldiers were shot dead in separate incidents in Abepura and Puncak Jaya, and there were demonstrations in Jayapura and Mimika for a referendum on whether the Papuan provinces should remain with Indonesia.

On Aug. 22, more than a hundred Tiaka villagers reportedly tried to vandalize an oil rig being guarded by the police, and two of these villagers were killed. And now comes news of deadly clashes in Freeport between the police and striking miners when security forces fired on the protesters and killed at least one. Read more »

Indonesian repression in West Papua. Cartoon: © Malcolm Evans / PJR

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By PMC news desk

The killing and abduction of journalists in Indonesian-occupied West Papua has been highlighted in a special new report on Pacific media freedom over the past year by Pacific Journalism Review.

“By far the most serious case of media freedom violations in the Pacific is in West Papua—far from international scrutiny,” says the journal in an editorial.

The 39-page report on the state of media freedom in the Pacific in 2011 notes that in August, in particular, “sustained repression has also hit the news media and journalists”. Read more »