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Melbourne/Yarra Leader (Australia)

September 20, 2004 Monday

Cop takes Timorese chief over old beat

By Steve Pogonowski

A FORMER Collingwood police officer visited his old station with East Timor's top cop on a educational tour last week.

John Stewart, now with the Australian Federal Police in an international deployment group in Dili, spent nine of the past 18 months in East Timor. He returned to Collingwood with East Timor police Inspector Julio Costa Hornay, who also directs the police academy in Dili.

Mr Stewart said about 100 Victoria Police members were serving in the Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and East Timor with the deployment group. "It's important for Australia and East Timor police forces to have a good relationship," he said.

"The police force in East Timor is very young but the stations are basically the same, just without the sort of infrastructure we have here. It's beneficial for their members to see how normal operations are carried out in Australia."

Mr Stewart said terrorist activities such as the Jakarta bomb attack on September 9 would not harm relations between locals and Australians. "Indonesians are generally pro-Australian and I don't think that will change. The terrorists . . . are killing their own people."

Australia is spending nearly $40 million on a 4 1/2-year program to develop East Timor's police force, judicial system and governmental stability. Mr Stewart and members of the Federal Police and the federal AusAid program also took Inspector Hornay to the Victorian Police Academy in Glen Waverley.

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Moreland Leader (Australia)

September 20, 2004 Monday

Now the sun gives light at night

SOLAR-POWERED lighting has injected new life into the East Timor community of Aileu.

A team from Melbourne's Alternative Technology Association, a non-profit organisation, installed five solar systems to power essential services in the district last month.

A police station, sub-administration office and a church building at Remixio, and a police station/administration office and a health clinic at Liquidoe were hooked up.

On return from the visit, ATA co-ordinator Michael Harris said the experience in East Timor was amazing and it was something which fell in line with other projects the association had completed.

"We first thought of doing something when we meet with Mario Soares, Aileu's social and economic development officer, earlier this year," he said.

"What we installed is small, tough and reliable, 12 volts which is basic but enough to power a police radio.

"In some areas we went to there was old infrastructure which wasn't working, other areas had generators which were unreliable and in other buildings there was nothing."

The ATA team donated time and labour to the project, with financial support from Moreland/Hume council's Friends of Aileu, and Melbourne corporate sponsorship.

Mr Harris will speak at the Friends of Aileu next community meeting tomorrow (September 21) at 6pm, at the Moreland Civic Centre, 90 Bell St, Coburg.