*EPF106 07/28/2003
Byliner: State Senator Says U.N. Should Stay Longer in East Timor
(Op-ed column by Washington State Senator Pam Roach) (940)

(This article by Washington State Senator Pam Roach originally appeared in the July 23 Seattle Times. Permission has been obtained covering republication/translation/abridgment, including excerpting by our Public Diplomacy offices and in the local press outside the United States. On title page, credit author, The Seattle Times and carry: Copyright and symbol (small letter c encircled) 2003 by Pam Roach. Reprinted by permission.)

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The Struggle to Build a Free Society in East Timor
By Pam Roach

(Washington State Senator Pam Roach visited East Timor from June 30 to July 13 as a trainer for the International Republican Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit agency financed in part by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)).

From Seattle, it takes two days to reach East Timor, the South Asian island 300 miles from Australia.

In this young country, just recently freed from Indonesian occupation, the role of peacekeeping troops is vital. Their continued hands-on help is needed if this tenuous democracy is to survive.

Most of us will never get closer to East Timor than at an espresso stand, if we happen to get some of their coffee beans. I went to East Timor this month with a nonprofit group to work with women in government and to teach about the responsibilities of democracy.

The streets of the capital, Dili, are dusty on the arid north shore of Timor Island, southeast of Indonesia. The country's 800,000 people are largely subsistence farmers and fishermen. Some have storefronts by their huts to sell bananas, baskets, vegetables and salt derived from boiled seawater.

In 1975, after 500 years as a Portuguese colony, East Timor was turned over to its people for home rule. The transition ended in disaster. Francisco Amaral lasted only 11 days as president before Indonesia invaded.

Over the next 23 years, 200,000 East Timorese lost their lives in the bloody struggle for freedom -- one-fifth of the population.

The women members of Parliament I met were almost all veterans of the war. They went to the hills with husbands and families. They grubbed for food and kept the army clothed. They nursed the wounded with traditional medicines, and sometimes took up arms.

The women played a part in the liberation and now make up 25 percent of the new Parliament.

The United Nations is supposed to provide protection from outside threats or civil disruptions. Its tenure has been marked with controversy. Last December, riots broke out in Dili. The Catholic Church and the Parliament were passed over, but businesses and Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's residence were torched.

Strangely, peacekeepers stood by and watched.

Now the question is what will happen after they leave. Each Saturday morning, hundreds of young men clad in black martial-arts uniforms parade down the waterfront. Self-protection is more than a national sport. It is the beginning of an armed militia.

There are about 3,100 U.N. peacekeeping forces stationed there now. In October, the South Koreans go home. In December, Thailand goes home. Only 1,700 will be left. On May 18, 2004, the rest of the U.N. peacekeeping force goes home (the Australians, the Portuguese and the Japanese).

No international supervision will be left after that date.

Today, Alkatiri has control of the police, President Xanana Gusmao controls the 1,200-member national army. The two rival leaders are not known for their camaraderie.

I watched workers outside the U.S. Embassy installing a huge, new, reinforced wall of rebar and concrete. It is no doubt needed, but it sends an ominous signal to those outside the wall who worry that violence may return to their homeland.

At the two-day seminar for women MPs, I urged the elected officials to get away from the capital and visit their own constituents.

In exchange, MP Ciprina Da Costa Bereira invited me to visit the Atauro Island part of her district. After a two-hour boat ride across open water, we waded waist deep to the shore.

We went to Mikili Village. Three hundred people live in Mikili. All of them turned out for Ciprina's district meeting. We dined on goat meat, rice and coconut milk before Ciprina spoke. We saved plenty of time for the people. The small school had no furniture, no books, and not even a soccer ball for the children.

On an island of 8,000, there are no jobs, no doctors and only seven miles of paved road. One elected official said to me that he was afraid of his constituents. With so much poverty and so few resources, it's easy to see why. There's more than one legislator I know who is sometimes afraid to get too close to the voters, especially after raising taxes. But I urged the Timorese to listen, to advocate for their people and do what they could to help.

The country may begin to have a financial base in the next five years thanks to an oil-development agreement it has recently signed with Australia. East Timor will have 90 percent of the revenue from the oil while Australia will benefit from the development and refining. Long term, there is great potential.

From far away, while enjoying a cup of coffee in Seattle, it's easy to wish that we were less involved overseas.

But in East Timor, the foreign involvement has been for the good. The United Nations is helping build a free society. They should stay until the job is done.

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(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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