Fretilin's Dr Mari Alkatiri and "Luolo" (in uniform) pictured at last month's internal party vote at Farol, Dili. Photo: © Simon Roughneen

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Simon Roughneen in Dili

Land, corruption and poverty are all on the table as Timor-Leste gets into political mode ahead of parliamentary and presidential elections scheduled for 2012, with one controversial figure already throwing his hat into the ring.

Convicted of arming gunmen during Timor-Leste’s 2006 crisis, which threatened to destabilise the then four-year-old state, Rogerio Lobato says that he will run for president, contesting a largely-ceremonial position now held by a fellow former Timorese exile activist, Jose Ramos-Horta.

It is not clear yet whether the incumbent – who commuted Lobato’s sentence soon after the apparent assassination attempts against himself and Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao in 2008 – will compete again, but Lobato, a brother of former resistance hero Nicolau. Read more »

Timor Leste president Jose Ramos-Horta. (Photo by Jason Dorday, courtesy of Scoop.co.nz.)

Pacific Scoop:
Newsbrief – By PMC Newsdesk.

Jose Ramos-Horta is to give an address to the Australian National University in Canberra Tuesday evening.

Ramos-Horta’s address will explore the challenges and prospects for developing democracy in Timor Leste.

The address is Ramos-Horta’s first speech in Canberra in over two years and the Australian National University says the speech will also review the development of democratic institutions, culture, and practice in Timor Leste since it became an independent nation. Read more »

Timor-Leste president, José Ramos-Horta. Image courtesy of Scoop.co.nz.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Selwyn Manning.

Timor-Leste’s president José Ramos-Horta will support a UN-backed international criminal tribunal that would investigate killings that took place in the former Indonesia colony between 1975 to 1999 – if the UN organises it.

On Friday, March 5, José Ramos-Horta met with Amnesty International representatives in London where, Amnesty International reported, he agreed to give his support to establishing an international criminal tribunal should the United Nations security council organise the tribunal. Read more »

Graphic: East Timor Law & Justice Bulletin

Pacific Scoop:
By a special correspondent in Dili

East Timor said Wednesday it had appointed a respected academic and human rights activist as the country’s first anti- corruption commissioner.

Aderito de Jesus was confirmed as Anti-Corruption Commission chief
after winning unanimous approval in a parliamentary vote, government spokesman Agio Pereira said in a statement. Read more »

Pacific Press Release – Australian Department Of Defence

The President of East Timor, Dr Jose Ramos Horta, has presented medals and expressed his nation’s gratitude to nearly 200 Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel who are about to return home. Read more »

Pacific Scoop:
By Sue May

An Australian political thriller about the Indonesian invasion of East Timor in 1975 and the murder of six journalists – one of them a New Zealander – opens in cinemas here on February 18.

The film Balibo was banned in Indonesia but has been widely shown by journalist groups committed to free speech and distributed on DVD.

Balibo tells the true story of five journalists murdered by Indonesian special force units probing around the East Timor border town just before the invasion – and the later execution of another Australian journalist investigating their deaths. Read more »

President Ramos Horta ... worried about East Timor's reputation for corruption. Photo: AP

Pacific Scoop:
By a special correspondent in Dili

President José Ramos Horta has asked East Timor’s Prime Minister, Xanana Gusmao to reshuffle the coalition government of the Majority Parliamentary Alliance (AMP) block amid ongoing allegations of corruption because “the time has come”. Read more »

Pacific Press Release – Pacific Media Watch

Straits Times:
READY TO BE ANYTHING

Larry Teo mulls over the future of Timor-Leste; keen to stand on its own feet.

DILI, Timor-Leste (The Straits Times/Pacific Media Watch):  Will Timor-Leste be freed of all foreign controls and stand proudly one day among the countries of Asean and the world? Read more »

Pacific Press Release – United Nations

Underscoring the strong ties between the United Nations and Timor-Leste, the world body’s new top envoy to the fledgling nation today expressed her commitment to continuing with the deep relationship. Read more »

Accused former militia leader Martenus Bere in 1999. Photo: Tempo Semanal

Pacific.Scoop
By Tempo Semanal in Dili

President José Ramos-Horta has denied claims that former Laksaur militia commander Maternus Bere has been spirited across the border into West Timor from the Indonesian Embassy in the Timor-Leste capital of Dili.

According to a Tempo Semanal source within the government before Horta left the country on October 19 for the presidential inauguration in Indonesia, he called an urgent meeting with acting Prime Minister Jose Luis Gutteres to discuss the Bere case.
Read more »