| Subject: IHT: Portugal
Shows Desire for New East Timor Ties
International Herald Tribune Thursday,
December 23, 1999
Portugal Shows Desire for New East Timor
Ties
By Michael Richardson International
Herald Tribune
DILI, East Timor - Carrying several large
suitcases full of freshly minted Portuguese bank notes, Joao Manuel Tubal
Goncalves flew by chartered helicopter from Darwin, in northern Australia,
to East Timor recently to open a branch of Banco Nacional Ultramarino.
It is the territory's first, and so far
only, bank to conduct business since the violent end of 24 years of
Indonesian rule here that followed an overwhelming vote for independence
in August.
As Mr. Goncalves shepherded his precious
luggage under armed escort to a newly whitewashed office amid a row of
burned and looted shops in the center of town, a container with 6 metric
tons of Portuguese coins was being unloaded for the bank at the Dili
wharves.
The next day, Banco Nacional Ultramarino,
Portugal's main overseas bank, opened, sending a clear signal that East
Timor's colonial ruler for more than 400 years was ready to again have an
influential role here.
The fact that East Timor now has four
currencies in circulation - the dollar, the Australian dollar, the
Indonesian rupiah, and the Portuguese escudo - is an indication of the
deep culture shock and painful choices the territory faces as its past and
future collide.
The Portuguese government, having handed
Macau, its last possession in Asia, back to China this week, is anxious to
dispel suggestions that it has any neocolonial designs on East Timor.
''We are not coming with any ideas of the
past, only for the future,'' said Mr. Goncalves, who directs the
operations of the Portuguese government-owned bank in the territory with a
staff of less than a dozen.
Portugal's departure from Macau was
dignified and carefully orchestrated in advance with Beijing. But in 1961,
India drove the Portuguese at gunpoint from Goa, and 14 years later the
Portuguese watched helplessly as Indonesian forces stormed into East
Timor.
''We are present in the Orient in a
modern version, as we are in Goa,'' said the Portuguese foreign minister,
Jaime Gama, on a recent visit to Dili.
''We expect East Timor to be independent,
with good relations with its neighbors, Australia and Indonesia, and
regional bodies like ASEAN and APEC,'' Mr. Gama said, referring to the
Association of South East Asian Nations and the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation forum.
Still, Portugal has moved swiftly to
regain a foothold in East Timor. Lisbon was one of the largest
contributors to a $520 million aid program for the territory that was
unveiled in Tokyo on Friday. The money, which does not have to be repaid,
will be used to rebuild East Timor over the next three years to prepare it
for independence.
To ensure that the program is being
properly implemented, it will be reviewed in mid-2000 in Lisbon at a
donors' meeting hosted by the Portuguese government.
''With Portugal, we have a special
relationship,'' said Xanana Gusmao, the head of the National Council of
Timorese Resistance who is widely expected to become East Timor's first
president. ''Portugal was the sole country that was always behind us in
the very difficult times during the Indonesian occupation.''
East Timor is under transitional United
Nations administration.
Defense Minister Julio Castro Caladas of
Portugal announced in late November that Lisbon would send a 700-man
contingent to the UN peacekeeping force in the territory that will take
over early next year from the Australian-led multinational force sent in
by the UN to restore order after the Indonesian military failed to do so.
The Portuguese contingent will include a
logistical support company backed by helicopters.
A recent survey of East Timor's
reconstruction needs, coordinated by the World Bank, said that urgent
priorities to get the economy going included re-establishing a banking
system to take deposits, make loans, exchange currencies, and finance
trade and business.
East Timor, which is sandwiched between
Indonesia and Australia and has cultural ties to Portugal, must soon make
decisions on a national currency, language, and the relations it will have
with key foreign countries.
Many of the older generation East
Timorese independence leaders speak Portuguese. Some favor a close
association between an independent East Timor and Portugal that would
include having Portuguese taught in schools and the escudo as the national
currency.
Such leaders look to Lisbon as a friend
that can help open doors in the European Union and attract European
investment for East Timor as it seeks to avoid being overly reliant on
either Australia or Indonesia.
Lisbon takes over the six-month rotating
presidency of the EU from Finland at the beginning of January.
Mr. Goncalves said that the Banco
Nacional Ultramarino group was bringing together a consortium of
government and private sector companies in Portugal to invest in, and
trade with, East Timor.
But many younger Timorese, who have been
educated in Indonesian, worry they will lose out if Portuguese, now spoken
by fewer than 10 percent of East Timorese, is reintroduced as an official
language.
They are also concerned that too close an
association with Portugal will detract from East Timor's sovereignty and
complicate its relations both with Indonesia and Australia.
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