Reflections 20 years after the Santa Cruz demonstration

Reflections for the Progressive University Group
Twenty Year Santa Cruz Commemoration at Dili University
By Charles Scheiner, ETAN and La’o Hamutuk
11 November 2011 (translated from Tetum)
(Bele hetan Tetum no Ingles iha ne'e)

Thank you Maun Atino, and I appreciate the wisdom and history we just heard from two Antonios. I am grateful to the Klibur Universade Progresivu (KUP) for organizing this important event, and for inviting me to participate.

Tonight, I’m honored to be with so many young Timorese people who believe in justice and independence. Twenty years ago, brave people just like you peacefully demonstrated against the Indonesian occupation of your country. Nobody paid them, or ordered them, or told them it would be safe or easy.

The Santa Cruz protesters inspired people around the world, including me. I was in New York, and I heard about the massacre on community radio. Although I already knew about Indonesia’s illegal occupation here, and about the criminal support my Government was giving to it, I hadn’t done much to stop it.

A month after the Santa Cruz massacre, I and some other friends organized a peaceful protest at the Indonesian Mission to the UN. We didn’t risk being shot or tortured, but we knew we had to speak out in solidarity with the heroes of Santa Cruz who risked and lost their lives in the struggle for self-determination. It was much easier for us than it was for your parents – but it was also hard, because so many other Americans didn’t know or care that our Government was complicit with Indonesia in committing crimes against humanity in Timor-Leste.

Our demonstration grew into a movement – the East Timor Action Network (ETAN) – that had more than 15,000 members and 25 chapters all across the United States by 1999. Through public education, lobbying, demonstrations, outreach, coalition-building and every other kind of nonviolent action we could think of, we turned U.S. policy around. Washington had provided most of the weapons and training for the Indonesian military from 1975 until 1991, but pressure from American citizens cut it off. By 1998, the United States Government had abandoned Suharto and was supporting self-determination – helping to open a door for the people of Timor-Leste to finally end Indonesia’s occupation.

It’s 12 years later now, 20 years after the Santa Cruz massacre and the founding of the East Timor Action Network.  RDTL has been independent for nine years.  You have your own government, your own leaders, your own political debates, your own successes… and your own mistakes. I feel privileged to live here during this period, traveling that journey with you. Building a peaceful, democratic nation, with economic and social justice for its entire population, may be even harder than throwing out the Indonesian army and police.

We are still far from some of our goals. In particular, the foreigners responsible for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed against the Timorese people have not been held accountable.
These were international crimes – the Indonesian invasion of Portuguese Timor (RDTL after 28 November 1975, but Indonesian aggression started before that) violated international law, as dud the thousands of massacres, tortures, rapes, killings and other crimes that were part of the occupation. When people are ordered or paid by one government to commit crimes against people in another country, those are international crimes. When other governments, including my own, give political, military, diplomatic or financial support to these crimes, they also become criminals.

As a U.S. citizen (I am not yet a Timorese citizen, but hope to become one), I have to apologize to the people of Timor-Leste because I and my fellow Americans took so long to stop our Government from supporting crimes against you, while tens of thousands of Timorese people were killed. As a human being, I join the Timorese people – including survivors and victims’ families – in calling for an end to impunity for crimes against humanity.

A hero of my country – ex-slave Frederick Douglass – once said that “Power never concedes anything without a demand.”  If we want justice, we have to demand it – it will not come by itself.

As you know, there was progress a few years ago. Between 1999 and 2005, Commissions of Inquiry established by the United Nations, Indonesia and Timor-Leste recognized the international nature of the huge crimes committed here and called for the prosecution of those who perpetrated them. During UNTAET, the UN Serious Crimes Unit indicted nearly 400 people for crimes committed during 1999, bringing 87 to trial and convicting 84.  But everyone brought to trial was Timorese, and none of them are still in prison.  None of the people who murdered Santa Cruz protesters twenty years ago were Timorese.

A larger problem is the 300 people indicted by the SCU who have never been arrested because Indonesia is sheltering them. And even more fundamental, no action has been taken against those who directed and executed the 99% of occupation-related crimes committed during its first 23 years. Those perpetrators were carrying out criminal policies of the Suharto dictatorship, and most of them were soldiers following orders from Jakarta, shooting guns made in the United States, flying bombers from Britain or the U.S., getting political support from Australia or Malaysia or France.

The United Nations says there must never be impunity for Crimes Against Humanity. In 2002, nations from all over the world established the International Criminal Court to try such crimes when national processes are unwilling or unable to – but unfortunately it has no power to judge crimes committed before the court was set up.  In 2005, this global consensus was reflected by a UN Commission of Experts, who concluded that an international tribunal should be created if judicial processes in Indonesia and Timor-Leste fail to achieve justice for crimes committed during Indonesia’s occupation of Timor-Leste. But today, the UN runs away – they and the other responsible governments and agencies say that Timor-Leste’s Government has the responsibility but not the will to end impunity.

For some of us – Timorese and foreigners – the struggle is not over. We draw courage from people like Argentinian justice activist Patricia Isasa, who visited here last month. She campaigned for 33 years before her torturers and kidnappers were finally sent to prison.

Here, our justice campaign is only 12 years old. Although the UN, other Governments, and some Timorese politicians prioritize diplomatic relations with formerly hostile nearby Governments over justice, and although some say economic development is more important than accountability, there is no need to choose.

Relations between democratic states can go well even while criminals are brought to justice. People’s economic lives – including victims of past crimes -- can improve at the same time that masterminds of those crimes are brought to court.  There is no need to choose among economic, social and criminal justice.

We, citizens of countries from around the world who support Timor-Leste’s people, will continue to demand that our governments and the United Nations keep their promises that impunity can never be accepted.

Today, ETAN issued a press release calling “for the U.S. and other governments and the United Nations to commit to justice for the victims and their families. The 1991 massacre was a major turning point in Timor-Leste’s struggle for liberation. When we saw and heard about the Indonesian military shooting down hundreds of peaceful, unarmed student protesters, we knew we had to do something to stop the killing. The Santa Cruz massacre inspired many around the world to work for justice for the East Timorese people.”

Earlier this week former General Taur Matan Ruak said “Justisa sei iha” (there will be justice). President Jose Ramos-Horta hopes that a courageous, young Indonesian prosecutor may bring high-level criminals to court five or ten years from now.

But it will never happen if we don’t continue to demand it. People in Timor-Leste, together with our friends in Indonesia, the United States and around the world, should see today’s anniversary as an opportunity – and a challenge – to renew our commitment to struggle for justice. Since neither the Indonesian nor Timor-Leste governments are yet ready to end impunity, it is up to us.

Obrigado. A luta continua!

Budget debate starts in Parliamentary Plenary

On  9 November, Timor-Leste's Parliament began debating the $1.76 billion proposed state budget for 2012, a 35% increase over last year and the fastest-growing budget in the world (except for hyperinflation-plagued Zimbabwe).  The Prime Minister presented the budget, and Parliament's Economics Committee C presented its report  (Portuguese original).

Committee C's in-depth report includes hundreds recommendations from the other Parliamentary Committees. Committee C itself questions the macroeconomic foundations of the budget, its economic policy objectives, its excessive reliance on petroleum revenue, poor management of treasury funds and promotion of Public-Private Partnerships. The Committee asked for more information and studies before contracting public debt, and recommended better monitoring and control of the Petroleum Fund. It urged that the non-oil deficit not grow faster than non-oil GDP and encouraged development of the non-oil economy.  After listing the possible benefits from a massive local housing construction project, the Committee lamented that the Government's plan did "not meet any of the criteria described" and would have no multiplier effect, with negative impacts.  La'o Hamutuk raised many of these concerns in our submission to the Committee a few weeks ago, and we appreciate that the Parliamentarians agree with our analysis.

La'o Hamutuk's budget web page continues to provide comprehensive budget information, documents and analysis from all sources, including the two linked to above. We recently published two articles in local newspapers: Orsamentu Jeral Estadu 2012 ha’belit liu tan Malisan Rekursu ba Timor-Leste and Compania Investimentu Timor-Leste, Investe ka Fakar Osan?

The Ministry of Finance has also opened a web page on the daily budget debate, which is being broadcast live on TVTL. While we welcome the additional transparency, we regret that the Ministry's page includes only material issued by the Government.

TL unchanged in 2011 UNDP Human Development Index

On 2 November, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) released their 2011 Human Development Report, entitled “Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All.” In addition to the thematic discussion and data on health, education, gender, economics and other factors, the UNDP calculates a “Human Development Index” (HDI) for each country. The HDI combines life expectancy, education (school enrollment) and gross national income (GNI) to produce a composite measure of human development.

The 2011 HDI for Timor-Leste is 0.495, which attempts to describe the situation here in 2009, and gives Timor-Leste a rank lower than 147 out of 187 countries with data. This is essentially the same as last year, when a score of 0.491 produced the same rank. Comparing HDI scores from different years is challenging, as UNDP often changes the methodology used to calculate them, as shown in the above graph and explained on La'o Hamutuk's website.

Unfortunately, reliable statistical data on this country is hard to get, and the 2010 census results were released too late to use them. Similarly, economists have to depend on projections from 2007 until the living standards survey currently in process is published in 2012. Even more problematic, the HDI for Timor-Leste still uses 2001 information about expected years of schooling; rendering the education component of HDI meaningless for analysis over time.The health component of Timor-Leste's HDI -- life expectancy -- is extrapolated from the 2004 census, and therefore doesn't reflect events during the past seven years. Timor-Leste's HDI essentially represents oil and gas revenues -- increasing as production ramped up in 2005-2008, and declining as inflation erodes purchasing power in recent years.

La'o Hamutuk is concerned about the attention given to numbers generated by flawed methodologies, as well as with politically-motivated boasts and attacks which often defy credibility. We know that Timor-Leste has many people in poverty, that we are still nearly entirely dependent on imports, and that local economic and agricultural production is far below where it should be. Looking around, we see unacceptable levels of education and health care and a budget which prioritizes physical infrastructure over human development.

Our only producing oil and gas fields will run dry in 12 years, and we don't need numbers to understand what that means. Petroleum income pays for 90% of the state budget, which is growing faster than every country except Zimbabwe.

Acting Audit Court reviews 2010 State Accounts

Under Timor-Leste's 2009 Budget and Financial Management Law, the High Administrative, Tax and Audit Court is responsible to review the annual audited report of State Finances. Since the HATAC hasn't been established yet, the Appeals Court is doing its function. On 20 October 2011, the Court sent Parliament its Opinion  (Portuguese original) on the 2010 State Accounts, and on 28 October, Parliament Committee C held a hearing with the Minister of Finance. La'o Hamutuk wrote a letter (also Tetum) with some of our concerns about the Opinion, which is abridged below:

We do not understand or agree with the Court’s concluding Opinion that the state accounts are valid. The court identified too many fundamental flaws, and we describe several others below, to reach this conclusion.

The Court should have been given more information than the Government provided, as the current Opinion points out. We encourage Government to be more forthcoming to the Court, Parliament and the public. We support the Court's recommendations for a more disaggregated, comprehensive and accurate system to manage and report on state finances, as well as for better systems for reconciliation and control of cash.


Rapid budget growth is a symptom of the resource curse. During 2008-2012, Timor-Leste’s State Budget grew faster than any nation in the world except Zimbabwe, and it is not sustainable, manageable or producing good results. The 2010 mid-year budget was an extreme case, which transferred a lot of money out of the Petroleum Fund without a valid reason, sacrificing future generations for current greed.

Taking more than the Estimated Sustainable Income (ESI) from the Petroleum Fund for short-term convenience violates both the Petroleum Fund Law and good policy. It is illegal to withdraw money from the Petroleum Fund merely to increase the balance in the Treasury account for the following year. During December 2010, the Ministry of Finance directed the BPA to transfer $211 million from the Fund, although the Treasury contained enough for several months’ expenses. At the end of the year, the Treasury Account held $340 million dollars, the highest amount in Timor-Leste’s history.

The Court recommended that donor assistance be included in this review and in the State’s budget execution reports. We do not share this view, except for possible future direct budgetary support from donors. 


The Court mentions evidence of possible violations of law. We hope that they provide full information to the Anti-Corruption Commission.

The end-of-the-year budget execution rush is bad policy. The graph at right shows the 235 contracts over $250,000 that Timor-Leste signed during 2010, totaling nearly $700 million. Nearly half (107) were signed during November and December. Hasty spending before the fiscal year ends often leads to waste, corruption and poor outcomes.

The Court should have discussed the largest outlay in 2010, the national electricity project. La’o Hamutuk has written extensively about this debacle, but we remain hopeful that Timor-Leste will learn from it. Timor-Leste signed a $330 million (later increased to $406 million) contract without competitive bidding on 15 September 2010 with Puri Akraya Engineering to build the power stations. The previous December, Timor-Leste’s largest contract ever ($367 million) was signed with Chinese Nuclear Industries No. 22 (for the same power plants and the national high voltage grid), which was reduced to $298 million when PAE was contracted. These two contracts totaled $629 million at the end of 2010 (they are still increasing; today the total project cost is around a billion dollars and rising).

Parliament had not approved the outlays obligated by these contracts, which are ten times  more than the 2010 budget says. The 2010 mid-year budget adjustment appropriated $60 million for this project during 2010 (budget execution reports say that $90 million was spent), but omitted multi-year costs. The original 2010 budget gives a project cost of $48 million, with no expenditures listed after 2010.

To avoid repeating similar violations, we encourage Government to implement a system to provide accurate information to Parliament and the public about total expected costs of multi-year projects and future contractual obligations, including alterations while the projects are being implemented.

We discussed many of these issues in more detail in our submission to Parliament last week on the proposed 2012 State Budget.

Public Meeting/Enk. Publiku with Patricia Isasa

Tetum iha kraik
Argentinian torture survivor and human rights activist has been in Timor-Leste for a few weeks, meeting with victims, justice campaigners and officials in Suai, Maliana and Dili, sharing her experience of a successful, 33-year struggle to bring her torturers to justice.  Although she was 'disappeared' in 1976 and imprisoned for more than two years, it took until 2009 for an Argentinian court to convict six of "her" perpetrators and sentence them to long prison terms.

Patricia will share her experiences in a public meeting "Forgetting Past Crimes Strangles Justice Today and Tomorrow." The meeting, which is free and open to the public will be in Tetum and English.

Friday, 28 October, 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
at CAVR (ex-comarca/prison), Balide, Dili

Speakers:

Patricia Isasa: "Strategies and Challenges in Struggling for Justice"

Ines Martins: "Justice for Timor-Leste is still an Unresolved International Obligation"

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Relasiona ho Visita Aktivista Justisa Sra. Patrisia Isasa mai iha Timor Leste iha fulan ida nia laran, atu fahe ninia esperensia no ninia hanoin konaba luta kontra Ditadura Militar iha Arjentina iha tempu neba to hetan duni justisa ba ninia an hodi hatama autor nebe halo violensia kontra nia no povu Arjentina ba Tribunal to tama ba Komarka.

Bazeia ba esperensia nebe mak Timor Leste mos infrenta iha tempu pasadu iha okupasaun Indonesia nia ukun ho Ditadura Militar, ami husi Lao hamutuk organiza Enkontru Publiku iha Dili ho topiku jeral  “Haluha Krime Pasadu, Hamate Justisa iha Agora no Futuru”. Ba Enkontru publiku nee, ami nakloke hodi konvida ita boot sira atu mai partisipa hodi rona no mos fahe Esperensia ba malu atu nune ita hamutuk luta ba hakotu korenti Impunidade nebe mak agora buras iha rai doben Timor Leste.
Enkontru Publiku nee sei halao iha ;

Loron        :  Sesta-feira, 28 Outobru 2011
Fatin        :  STP- CAVR (ex. Komarka Balide)
Oras        : 08:30 - 13:00    

Narador mak 

Sra. Patrisia Isasa : ho topiku Estrategia no Dezafiu luta ba krime Pasadu hodi hetan Justisa

Ines Martins husi Lao Hamutuk : ho topiku Justisa ba Timór-Leste Nafatin Nu'udar Obrigasaun Internasionál ida ne'ebé Seidauk Atínje.

LH to PN: 2012 Budget proves the Resource Curse is here

Timor-Leste Parliament's Committee C (Economy) held a hearing on the proposed 2012 State Budget last Friday, with testimony from La'o Hamutuk and other NGOs.
(L-R around table: MPs Manuel Tilman, Aderito Hugo da Costa and Cipriana Pereira. Guteriano Neves, Alexandra Arnassalon, Charles Scheiner and Juvinal Dias from La'o Hamutuk.)

We presented a 16-page submission (full text in Tetum and English) with the following main points:

The Resource Curse is truly here.

• The “Dutch disease” of inflation, currently over 13%, exacerbates poverty in Timor-Leste.
• We continue to neglect non-oil development and depend on imports.
• Our people are our most important resource, but the budget will cut the share for health and education while infrastructure mega-projects get most of the money.
• The MDG-Suco program exemplifies careless budget practices.

We should learn from Timor-Leste’s past experiences.

• Timor-Leste is a world leader in budget escalation, with a 407% four-year increase second only to Zimbabwe.
• The budget will spend 7.2% of our petroleum wealth from the Petroleum Fund, more than double the Estimated Sustainable Income. By 2014, Petroleum Fund withdrawals will be larger than oil revenues deposited into the Fund.
• Special Funds continue to erode Parliamentary authority, and the Budget documents are not accurate or complete about how the Infrastructure Fund is being used.
• Parliament needs complete information on expected project costs, such as the $950 million national electricity project, the $1.4 billion south coast highway, and other elements of the Tasi Mane petroleum infrastructure project.
• Electricity continues to dominate, receiving more than $370 million, with results lower than expectations.
• Agriculture deserves more than 1% of the budget, since it is the livelihood of more than 80% of our population.

Some new developments give more reason for concern.

• Parliament needs more information before approving borrowing. This budget is the first request to authorize loans, $33 million, but future loans will be much larger.
• The Tasi Mane project could be a multi-billion-dollar white elephant.
• The South Coast Highway will eat up another billion or more.
• The Timor-Leste Investment Company gets $200 million, which may be squandered on futile, useless, money-losing projects.

Our submission included 21 recommendations for Timor-Leste's Parliament:

Highway dreams -- and their costs

For the last few years, La’o Hamutuk reported on the most expensive Government project in Timor-Leste’s history. The ill-conceived, poorly-planned, mismanaged and badly implemented national electricity project includes two heavy oil power plants and a high voltage grid. Even if there are no more cost overruns, this project will cost Timor-Leste more than $950 million dollars to construct ($443 million has already been spent) – plus hundreds of millions more for fuel, operation and maintenance.

Timorese policy-makers think big, and the electricity mega-project is about to be eclipsed by the South Coast Highway between Suai and Beacu, part of the Tasi Mane petroleum infrastructure corridor. Cars and 10-ton trucks will speed along its two carriageways at 100 km/hour, completing the 152-km trip in less than two hours.

Timor-Leste paid PT Virama Karya nearly a million dollars for a “Preliminary, Detailed Design and Environmental, Social and Economic Assessment” of this road, which was done in association with Multi Arch, LDA. A few weeks ago, the consultants presented their 75-volume report to the Government.  They estimate construction costs at $9.2 million per kilometer (about 20% less than similar roads in Indonesia) for a total outlay of $1.39 billion.

The proposed 2012 State Budget describes some of the expenditures for this project, although we believe they are understated (see table at right). This total, $767 million, is about half of what Virama Karya says the road will cost. If may be intended to pay for just a single carriageway, as the Strategic Development Plan suggests that the lanes may be built one at a time.

La’o Hamutuk estimates that the total cost of the road during its 30-year life (including construction, loan interest, and maintenance) will be $1 billion for a single-carriageway road, and $1.7 billion if both carriageways are built. 

Today, traffic along this route is less than 100 cars and trucks each day. If we optimistically assume tremendous growth due to the Tasi Mane project, this could increase by a factor of ten, to 1,000 per day. If the Virama Karya design is built and partly financed with concessional loans, each car or truck driving the length of the highway will benefit from a state subsidy of $156, more than a dollar per vehicle-kilometer. (Even if only one carriageway is built, Timor-Leste will have paid 60c for each vehicle-kilometer travelled, or $91 for a car which drives its length.)

One way to recover some of this money would be to charge tolls on this highway, although this seems unlikely given the Government’s decisions to reduce fuel and import taxes and to subsidize electricity users. If motorists paid tolls about the same as are charged in Indonesia (about 4¢/km for cars and 12¢/km for trucks), the state could recoup about 10% of its outlay.

The money which will be spent on this highway – more than $1,000 for each Timorese citizen and more than two years of our non-oil GDP – could do a lot for the education and health of our people, building human resources which could sustain Timor-Leste for generations. Petroleum revenues enable the “resource curse,” and petroleum-fueled vehicles justify an "Easy Street" for spending them.