[Poster's note: Repeats of international articles already sent out to the east-timor list (info@etan.org) have been removed.]

Monday, 25 June 2007

UNMIT ­ MEDIA MONITORING

THE UN INTEGRATED MISSION IN TIMOR-LESTE DOES NOT VOUCH FOR THE ACCURACY OF THESE REPORTS

National Media Reports

Xanana: "Fretilin does not deserve to run the government"

While campaigning in Oecusse last Friday (22/6), the President of the National Congress for the Reconstruction of Timor Leste (CNRT), Xanana Gusmão, told supporters that the ruling party Fretilin should not run the new government as it has not done anything for the country in the past five years. (STL)

PDHJ receives complaints of poor administration

The President of the Human Rights and Justice Provedor (PDHJ), Sebastião Dias Ximenes, said that many cases of poor administration have been presented by the population. (STL)

Bribery is bad for democracy

East Timor Socialist Party (PST) representative Pedro da Costa said that some political parties have been giving money to the population during their campaigns. He explained that such activities are bad for democracy in the country. (STL)

Ballot papers arrive in Dili

652,000 ballot papers arrived in Dili on Saturday (23/6) from their printing location in Surabaya, Indonesia. The material arrived on a chartered flight arranged by the Timorese government with the support of UNDP and was received by STAE Director Tomas Cabral, CNE President Faustino Cardoso Gomes and other representatives from the diplomatic corps in Timor-Leste. (STL)

Fugitive Alfredo needs HAK's involvement in the dialogue

Reinado's lawyer, Mr. Benevides Barros, told a Timor Post journalist on Sunday (24/6) that Alfredo already sent a letter to the Bishops of Dili and Baucau Diocese regarding the instructions to stop the search operation.

In addition, he said that Alfredo also asked the HAK to be involved in the dialogue.

He said that the United Nations could also act as a facilitator by providing technical, administrative and financial assistance. (STL)

Estanislau: "There will be no dialogue with criminals"

The representative of the Central Committee of the Ruling Party Fretilin (CCF), Estanislau Aleixo da Silva, said that if Fretilin wins the upcoming parliamentary elections, they will not allow any dialogue with criminals.

He said that Fretilin wants to re-establish the integrity of the rule of law and perpetrators of such crimes must be imprisoned. (TP)

International Media Reports

East Timor Facing Food Crisis By Lisa Schlein Geneva 24 June 2007

The World Food Program and U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization report East Timor is on the brink of a major food crisis. They say urgent action must be taken to avert a potentially disastrous situation. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva.

The U.N. agencies say persistent drought and plagues of locusts have ravaged this year's harvest. They say one-fifth of East Timor's population or up to 220,000 people is facing severe food shortages.

World Food Program Spokesman, Simon Pluess, says these people will require more than 15,000 tons of emergency food assistance to avert a major food crisis.

"Apart from the 15,000 tons of humanitarian aid, the country will have to import some 70,000 tons commercially and some 16,000 tons will have to be taken from strategic food reserves," Pluess said. "What we also have to know is that the poorest people, they live mostly in rural and more remote districts. They are the ones that are hardest hit and many of them, they fled the conflict last year and they still cannot produce enough food domestically to…compensate for their own requirements."

Last year, East Timor faced a political crisis when rival security forces fought each other. This set up a spree of looting and arson attacks. Thirty seven people were killed. Thousands were forced to flee their homes.

Nearly 100,000 displaced people are living in the capital Dili in cramped tent camps or with relatives in the districts as a result of the turmoil that began in 2006. They have been receiving food aid since then.

This bleak report of East Timor's food crisis is based on a joint assessment carried out by the World Food Program and Food and Agriculture Organization in March and April.

The report says Timorese people will face a particularly hard time during the six months of, what it calls, the lean season. This is the period between October and March 2008, just before the next harvest.

The U.N. agencies say they will be seeking funds from international donors for critical agricultural needs and food assistance. In the meantime, they say they will continue to closely monitor the drought situation and watch for locust infestations, which would further deplete crop yields. This they say will help provide Timorese farmers with the best information and help they can get. Voice of America-NEWS

EAST TIMOR: GUSMAO CHALLENGES GOVERNMENT

Dili, 22 June (AKI) - East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta on Friday urged the winner of next week's parliamentary elections to form a unity government in a bid to heal divisions in the tiny state. The 30 June polls will be crucial for the country's stability after last year's deadly violence. He said experience in East Timor had shown that a government dominated by one party had not done very well. The newly-formed CNRT, led by former president and independence hero Xanana Gusmao, and historic Fretilin are favorites in the parliamentary elections to be held in the former Portuguese colony with 14 parties and alliances contesting.

The CNRT is seeking to oust the left-leaning Fretilin party and install Gusmao as prime minister. "We established this party because we felt the need to change the direction given to the country by Fretilin, the party in government" Dionisio Babo, the secretary general of the Congresso Nacional De Reconstrução de Timor-Leste (CNRT)told Adnkronos International (AKI).

"Our agenda is pro-poor and aims also to introduce a gradual decentralization" said Babo, at the party headquarters in Dili. "There is a need to empower the people and make them feel as part of the country's development." Fretilin, which controls 55 of the 88 seats in the current parliament, is accused by the CNRT of having ignored the intense poverty in which much of the country lives and of having adopted policies aimed at perpetuating its own power.

"Fretilin did not govern with the intention of developing the country but only to concentrate power on a few people's hands" he said. East Timor is one of the poorest countries in Asia according to a 2006 UN survey, with 40 percent of the population living below the poverty level fixed at 55 US cents per day.

(Fsc/Aki)

NATIONAL NEWS SOURCES: Timor Post (TP) Radio Timor-Leste (RTL) Suara Timor Lorosae (STL) Diario Tempo (DT) Diario Nacional (DN) Semanario Televisaun Timor-Leste (TVTL)

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