30 December 2008

Timor President Horta attacks United Nations and Donors

ETLJB 30 December 2008 - East Timorese President Jose Ramos Horta has attacked the United Nations and donors over problems within East Timor National Police in his speech to the Diplomatic Corps yesterday.

Mr Ramos-Horta, said that, while he welcomed the criticisms and the endless reports undertaken by the UN Department of Peackeeping Operations and donors, the UN and donors "might ask themselves what they might have done wrong because after all they were involved in the development of our police force."

Australian media recently reported a recent UN report that warned that East Timor was on the brink of anarchy but Mr Ramos-Horta said that he is yet to receive a copy of the report.

"It seems that some in the UN system in Dili or New York are addicted to leaking so-called confidential UN reports to Australian media", Mr Ramos-Horta said.

He further noted that the previous Australian Government had announced in 2004 that it was contributing US$30 million for the East Timor national police force but it was "beyond his imagination" that none of this money was allowed to go to build border police posts or other police infrastructures or to purchase much need communications equipment.

The UN was in charge of police development in East Timor from 2000 to 2003. However, in those three years, only some old Indian Tatas were handed over to the East Timorese police force. "Apart from minor building repairs, some painted up jobs of old buildings, UNTAET and its successor missions provided no support for building infrastructures for our incipient and starving police force," Mr Ramos-Horta said.

East Timor's police force evaporated in the wake of the violent crisis that shook the country in 2006. The worst violence occured when soldiers from the Falintil-East Timor Defence Force (F-FDTL) massacred 12 unarmed police officers on 25 May 2006 outside the Justice Ministry in Dili while under escort of the United Nations flag.


East Timor Directory - Revealing enigmatic East Timor.

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