HIGHLIGHTS OF PRESS CONFERENCE BY PRESIDENT OF TIMOR-LESTE AT PALAIS DES NATIONS ON 15 MARCH 2006

Xanana Gusmao, President of Timor-Leste, speaking at a press conference after the screening of a film about Timor-Leste’s independence struggle, building the new nation and the concept of forgiveness for the perpetrators of the atrocities of the past, said it was a great pleasure for him to come to Geneva as a representative of the East Timorese people. Geneva meant almost everything to the East Timorese during the difficult struggle because after the General Assembly and the Security Council closed the debate on East Timor in 1983, it was only in Geneva and the Commission on Human Rights that the debate continued to remind the international community about the right of freedom and independence of the East Timorese. He brought with him the gratitude of the East Timorese people for the role that the Commission on Human Rights played every year to help achieve independence.

President Gusmao said that while in Geneva, he was contacting United Nations agencies to explore opportunities to get technical and practical assistance. Concerning the film “A Hero’s Journey”, which took Director Grace Phan one year to prepare, he said it aimed to explain how Timor-Leste could achieve peace of mind and social stability by making reconciliation a fundamental policy, reconciliation between perpetrators and victims and reconciliation among the East Timorese themselves to deny small places in their hearts and minds to hatred, resentment and vengeance. That way, Timor-Leste could look forward to the future and end the suffering of the past.

In response to a question, President Gusmao said that the understanding of justice was not that it was justice for one, but justice for all. In many cases and countries, people spent decades trying to achieve justice but they could not. When there was a long period of violations, it was very difficult. For example, Latin American countries had thousands of thousands of perpetrators and they could not afford to put all these people in prison. When the Commission on Human Rights defended the cause of Timor-Leste, was it only because of the killings, it was because of something more sublime, their right to freedom. The international community and many powerful countries gave their back to Timor-Leste by helping Indonesia and by selling it weapons to kill the East Timorese. But justice to Timor-Leste was the conclusion of the international community that the East Timorese had the right to be independent. In 1999, the international community recognized this, and it was an apology from the international community, a recognition of the injustice that they had been subjected to. Justice to put someone in jail did not solve anything. It was difficult to say that by punishing somebody, everything was solved, no, it was not solved. The justice that the East Timorese had to take care of now was social justice, to consolidate the democratic values and to do good things so people could feel that the suffering during 24 years was for a reason.

Forgiveness was a way to reconcile, President Gusmao said. People who committed something had to acknowledge they did something wrong. Forgiveness by the victims allowed them to live with peace of mind. The others who committed the crimes could also live in peace if they acknowledged their mistakes. The East Timorese lived with Indonesians. They did not share the same motherland but they shared borders. The Indonesians were also undergoing a difficult democratic process. There were many things to do now rather than wasting time and asking who did what and looking for financial aid to put perpetrators in jail. Timor-Leste had put some former militia members in jail, but that had not solved anything. Widows were asking for better lives and orphans were asking for better conditions to go to school. Timor-Leste told the international community that justice was justice, but it believed that better justice to give to the people was good governance, respect for human rights, freedom of speech, freedom of expression so that they felt that the struggle was worthwhile.

In response to a question about the oil in the Timorese waters, President Gusmao said the first commercial shipping of gas had been sent to Japan two months ago. In five years, Timor-Leste would have enough to start economic development of the country.

President Gusmao said that he had met with the High Commissioner for Human Rights today and asked her to give attention to the consolidation of democratic values in Timor-Leste, to help with issues like gender issues and domestic violence, and to help civil society disseminate human rights values.

Answering a question about Israel’s raid on a Palestinian jail and the abduction of a guerrilla leader, President Gusmao said the Israelis and the Palestinians should not lose any opportunity to talk. Dialogue and exchange of opinions was good to understand people and it was an opportunity to know each other and to look at the best way to put an end to the conflict. He himself had been captured and put in an Indonesian jail and had grown to know Indonesians. He had hated Indonesians and anything that came from Indonesia, but after talking to them every day, he could now say that he loved Indonesians and Indonesia. The problem had not been with the Indonesians, it had been with the regime.

President Gusmao said they had a National Commission of Truth and Reconciliation in Timor-Leste. It did not satisfy everybody of course. A joint Commission of Truth and Friendship had also been established to tell the truth.

Timor-Leste was the poorest country in Asia and one of the ten poorest countries in the world. From 1999 until now, it had received aid from the international community. In the very near future, it would be able to slowly change the conditions of the people. For four years, Timor-Leste was focused on consolidating its State institutions. Now it was at the stage of how to develop the country in the spheres of agriculture, enterprise, tourism and fisheries.

Asked if the policy of forgiveness opened the way to impunity and could encourage human rights violations in the future, President Gusmao said impunity and justice were good principles. The independent Timor-Leste was committed to them and to defending them. Nobody was above the law. The past should be a lesson for the future. Timor-Leste did not believe that Indonesia would invade it again, but it felt that it could enter a conflict among its own people. It was trying to establish conditions for the people to live together and forget the past and look at the future. Timor-Leste was poor, it did not have time to think of the good principles of impunity and justice. It had to give social justice to the people, to provide a better standard of living, better housing, clean water. There would be no impunity for corruption and nepotism, the country had to combat these now. There was an Ombudsman in Timor-Leste and he had asked the agencies here to help the office of the Ombudsman with training programmes and financial assistance. As for the victims, Timor-Leste was in the final stage of dealing with this issue. In August, there would be ceremonies of recognition of everybody who fought for independence. A law had also been approved to assist the widows, orphans, the handicapped and the elderly.