Pacifico, Timor Est, Australia Faz 06-06-01
Timor Est – Comandano di nuovo fame e machete
Jochen Buchsteiner
[vedi anche Wsws, 30.5.06]
Tornano a Timor Est 2500 truppe multinazionali di Australia,
Nuova Zelanda, Malesia e Portogallo, guidate da Canberra, che si erano ritirate
un anno fa’; erano rimaste sull’isola diverse organizzazioni per lo sviluppo e
consiglieri politici.
-
Il
motivo immediato dell’intervento è la ripresa degli scontri di tipo etnico e religioso – eredità da
20 anni di occupazione dell’Indonesia – e per la rivalità tra le fazioni del presidente, Xanana
Gusmao, e quelle del primo ministro
Mari Alkatiri. -
Militari
e polizia sono divisi tra uno schieramento filo Gusmao e uno filo Alkatiri, il
quale ha deciso il licenziamento di due centinaia di soldati, che si erano
ribellati ai piani di ridimensionamento del contingente una misura osteggiata dal
Presidente.
In seguito agli scontri il presidente ha imposto lo stato d’assedio per 30
giorni, una dichiarazione di guerra al primo ministro e ai suoi più stretti alleati,
il ministro degli Interni, Rogerio
Lobato e della Difesa Roque Rodriguez.
Alkatiri ha
rivendicato il proprio potere sulle forze armate, confermando
l’intenzione di rimanere in carica fino alle prossime elezioni, contro la richiesta
di dimissioni avanzata dai ribelli.
La fazione del primo ministro si è imposta nelle
consultazioni per la Costituzione su quella del presidente.
-
Entrambi
i contendenti appartengono al Fretilin (il Fronte rivoluzionario per
l’indipendenza di Timor Est), ma il presidente Gusmao è un liberale, cattolico, (come il 90% circa del
milione di abitanti di Timor Est), è riconosciuto internazionalmente come
l’eroe dell’indipendenza dall’Indonesia, mentre il primo ministro Alkatiri è musulmano di origine araba,
è vissuto per alcuni anni in esilio in Africa, Mozambico, si dichiara “socialista”. -
Alkatiri
sta cercando di avvicinarsi alla Cina e ai nuovi paesi “socialisti”
dell’America Latina; ha respinto un credito concesso dalla BM per dimostrare
l’indipendenza del suo paese; ha dichiarato lingua nazionale il portoghese, la
lingua locale è il Tetun, sono parlati anche l’inglese e l’indonesiano; ha
decretato l’anno scorso la libertà di frequentare le a scuola le lezioni di
religione.
La decisione ha scatenato una forte reazione della Chiesa
cattolica, con una violenta campagna ideologica contro il governo Alkatiri accusato
di essere “estremista”.
-
Nei negoziati per lo sfruttamento
del giacimento di gas al largo delle coste dell’isola “Greater Sunrise“,
Alkatiri ha strappato concessioni all’Australia [??]. -
Ma
il suo governo è stato
costretto a rinviare per 50-60 anni la definizione della linea di confine
marittimo con l’Australia, definita dal diritto internazionale e non
riconosciuta da quest’ultima, che assegna a Timor Est la maggior parte delle
entrate di gas e petrolio.
———————
Tesi Wsws:
-
Il
reale motivo della missione militare a guida australiana è il tentativo di
instaurare un governo ad esso più favorevole. -
Il partito laburista australiano
condivide l’obiettivo del governo Howard di non permettere che altre potenze
esercitino la propria influenza nel “giardino di casa dell’Australia”,
timore causato dall’appoggio che il primo ministro Alkatiri ha cercato presso
il Portogallo, e di recente Cina, e paesi Latino-americani. -
Per
il governo australiano continuano
a valere le stesse ragioni (con l’appoggio del presidente americano Bush) che
nel 1999 spinsero il primo ministro Howard ad inviare le truppe nel quadro ONU,
(con l’appoggio del presidente Clinton USA) per prendere il posto dell’ex
potenza coloniale Portogallo a Timor Est, e sfruttare la meglio le
ricche riserve di petrolio e gas. -
Nel
Pacifico sono in aumento i conflitti tra le grandi potenze, in particolare con
l’emergere della rivalità tra Giappone e Cina e la loro concorrenza per gli accertati
giacimenti di petrolio e gas. (Nel 1920 gli strateghi australiani erano preoccupati
per i tentativi giapponesi di prendersi le risorse petrolifere della Timor portoghese;
nel 1975 sorse il timore di manipolazioni di una Timor indipendente e filo-comunista,
da parte della Cina). -
Scontro
Australia-Portogallo: Il ministro degli Esteri portoghese ha accusato Howard di
ingerenza negli affari interni di Timor Est per aver criticato Alkatiri di
“incapacità di governo”. -
Howard
non ha escluso, anche se è una questione “delicata”, la possibilità di un
commissariamento da parte di funzionari australiani di ministeri di Timor Est
sul modello di quanto è in atto nelle Isole Solomon, “in seguito a
consultazione della popolazione”… “Siamo la potenza regionale in grado di
farlo” -
Il
presidente Gusmao ha riunito il “Consiglio di Stato”, un organismo che ha il
potere di sciogliere il governo Alkatiri e nominarne uno di “unità nazionale”
fino alle elezioni del prossimo maggio. -
Il
Consiglio si è aggiornato a oggi, senza lacuna decisione presa; il ministro degli Esteri è
favorevole alla destituzione di Alkatiri.
L’ambasciatore USA appoggiò lo scorso anno le proteste cattoliche, affiancate
da una feroce campagna ideologica anti-comunista.Faz 06-06-01
Osttimor
– Wieder regieren Hunger und
Macheten
Von Jochen
Buchsteiner
01. Juni 2006
Seit Wochen ziehen wieder marodierende Banden durch die
Straßen Osttimors, stecken
Häuser in Brand, rauben und töten. Mehr als zwei Dutzend Menschen starben
bereits. Der internationalen
Interventionstruppe gelingt es nur mühsam, des Chaos Herr zu werden. Mehr als 50.000 Menschen sind aus
der Hauptstadt Dili geflohen, um aus der Distanz halbwegs sicherer Lager
das Grauen zu verfolgen. An manchen Auffangorten sei die Versorgungslage so miserabel, daß die Flüchtlinge
Gras äßen, berichtete Kirsty Sword Gusmao, die Frau des
Staatspräsidenten, am Mittwoch.
Die Gespenster
der Vergangenheit schienen gebannt – nun erlebt Osttimor, der jüngste Staat der Welt, nach nur sieben Jahren
ein tragisches Deja-vu. Statt Aufbruch und Hoffnung regieren wieder
Hunger und Macheten.
–
Die wohl schwerste Krise seit der Unabhängigkeit kündigte sich spätestens Ende
vergangenen Monats an, als fast
600 Soldaten – etwa 40 Prozent der Streitkräfte – entlassen wurden und einen Aufstand
begannen. Regierungsvertreter sprachen von nötigen Sparmaßnahmen, die
Meuterer von politischer Willkür. Die meisten von ihnen stammen aus dem Westen der Insel und
fühlen sich gegenüber den Kameraden aus dem Osten benachteiligt.
Fragiles
Gebilde
Binnen
kürzester Zeit schlossen sich
bis zu 2000 Insulaner den Rebellen an, die bald die Bewohner der
Hauptstadt in Angst und Schrecken versetzten.
–
In
der vergangenen Woche wußte
sich die Regierung in Dili nicht mehr anders zu helfen, als Australien um
militärische Hilfe zu bitten. Wie schon 1999, als die Lage in der damals noch zu
Indonesien gehörenden Provinz eskalierte, stellte Canberra rasch eine
multinationale Eingreiftruppe zusammen, der auch Neuseeländer, Malaysier
und Portugiesen angehören, und entsandte sie auf die kleine Nachbarinsel.
Doch auch den 2500 ausländischen
Soldaten gelingt es kaum, die Gewalt einzudämmen. Zwar beruhigte
sich die Lage am Mittwoch leicht, aber noch immer waren Schüsse in der
Hauptstadt zu hören. Die Flüchtlinge, die nun wieder verstärkt Hilfslieferungen
erhalten sollen, trauen sich noch nicht in ihre Häuser zurück.
Daß eine
Revolte von ein paar hundert
Soldaten einen Staat an den Rand des Abgrunds führen kann, zeigt, wie fragil
das Gebilde ist, das seit 2002 einen stolzen Sitz bei den Vereinten Nationen
hält. Erst vor einem
Jahr waren die letzten Soldaten der internationalen Schutztruppe abgezogen
worden, die seit 1999 die Ruhe in dem von Guerrillakriegen zerrissenen
Land aufrechterhalten hatte. Zahlreiche Entwicklungsorganisationen und politische Berater blieben auf
der kleinen, verarmten Inselhälfte, die ohne Hilfe von außen nicht
überlebensfähig ist. Die beschwerlichen Aufbauarbeiten werden überschattet von ungelösten ethnischen und religiösen
Konflikten, die die mehr als 20 Jahre währende Besetzung durch Indonesien
hinterlassen hat – und von Rivalitäten, die innerhalb der neuen Führung aufgebrochen sind.
„Wen
kümmert’s?“
–
Hintergrund der bürgerkriegsähnlichen Zustände ist ein Machtkampf in Dili, der die
Spannungen und Verwerfungen der vergangenen Jahre widerspiegelt. Im Mittelpunkt steht Premierminister
Mari Alkatiri, der als Muslim (arabischer Abstammung) vielen der überwiegend
katholischen Osttimoresen ein Dorn im Auge ist. Die Befreiung von
Indonesien bedeutete für viele Insulaner auch das Abschütteln einer islamisch
dominierten Kultur. Nun wird Osttimor von einem Muslim regiert, der
obendrein wenig Sensibilität für religiöse Belange zeigt. Unmut rief
Alkatiri unter anderem hervor, als
er den Religionsunterricht an den Schulen zum Wahlfach herabstufte. Als
er auf die wachsenden Straßenproteste von Katholiken angesprochen wurde, sagte
er: „Das macht mir keine Sorgen, weil ich weiß, daß ich sowieso in der Hölle
landen werde – also wen kümmert’s?“
–
Die katholische Kirche, die für mehr als 90 Prozent
der knapp eine Million zählenden Einwohner spricht, kündigte schon jetzt
offenen Protest an, falls Alkatiri im kommenden Jahr abermals zu den Wahlen
antreten sollte.
–
Womöglich
noch heikler ist Alkatiris gespanntes Verhältnis zu Staatspräsident Xanana
Gusmao, dem international bekanntesten Helden des Unabhängigkeitskampfs. Beide Politiker gehörten – wie die
meisten, die im modernen Osttimor Macht innehaben – der „Revolutionsfront
Unabhängiges Osttimor“ (Fretilin) an, die gegen die indonesische
Besatzung kämpfte.
–
Aber
sie stützen sich auf unterschiedliche Fraktionen. Während Gusmao, der jahrelang in indonesischer Haft
mit Diplomaten verkehrte, zur
liberalen Mitte tendierte, hält Alkatiri, gestählt im afrikanischen Exil, an einer
sozialistischen Ideologie fest. „Militär und Polizei sind praktisch in ein Gusmao-Lager und
ein Alkatiri-Lager gespalten“, sagt ein Beobachter aus Singapur.
Schwacher
Präsident
–
Alkatiris
antiwestlicher Kurs brachte ihm einigen Ruhm ein. In den Verhandlungen mit Australien über die Ausbeutung
des Gasfeldes „Greater Sunrise“ vor der Küste Osttimors holte er viel heraus
für sein Land. Bei anderen Aktionen sah ihm aber nicht nur Gusmao
mit zusammengebissenen Zähnen zu. Alkatiris Annäherungsversuche an die Volksrepublik China und die neuen
sozialistischen Regierungen in Lateinamerika stoßen in Dili auf ebensoviel
Mißtrauen wie seine brüske Ablehnung eines Weltbank-Kredits, mit der
er offenbar die Unabhängigkeit der bitterarmen Nation beweisen wollte.
Daß sich
Alkatiri wenig um andere Meinungen schert, wurde auch während der Entlassung
der Soldaten deutlich, die Gusmao öffentlich als „falsch“ bezeichnete, jedoch
nicht verhindern konnte. In
Osttimor ist der Präsident schwach und der Premierminister stark – eine
Konstellation, die Alkatiri mit einigem Druck während der Verfassungsberatungen
durchgesetzt hatte.
Am Dienstag
abend sprengte Gusmao seine
Fesseln und rief einen 30 Tage dauernden Ausnahmezustand aus. Der
Oberbefehl über die Sicherheitskräfte liege nun bei ihm, sagte er. Obwohl er
versicherte, daß die Maßnahme in enger Abstimmung mit dem Premierminister
getroffen worden sei, glich
die Erklärung einer Kampfansage, weil sie nicht nur Alkatiri an den Rand
drängte, sondern auch dessen engste Verbündete, Innenminister Rogerio Lobato
und Verteidigungsminister Roque Rodrigues.
Weg aus der
politischen Sackgasse
–
Alkatiris Reaktion ließ
nicht lange auf sich warten.
Am Mittwoch behauptete er, Gusmaos Erklärung sei nicht korrekt übersetzt
worden. Er beharrte darauf, daß die Macht über die Streitkräfte weiterhin in seinen, des
Premierministers, Händen liege. Außerdem kündigte er an, bis zu den
Wahlen im kommenden Jahr im Amt zu bleiben. Zuvor hatten die Rebellen abermals seinen Rücktritt
gefordert. Leutnant Gastao Salsinha, ein Anführer der aufständischen Soldaten,
hatte gesagt, er sei „nicht glücklich“ über Gusmaos Entscheidung. Der Präsident
hätte den Premierminister seines Amtes entheben müssen. Alkatiris Sturz scheint
zum obersten Ziel der Meuterer geworden zu sein.
In Canberra, wo nun mehr als in Dili über die Sicherheit in Osttimor entschieden wird,
gibt man sich keinen Illusionen hin. Er rechne mit einer Stationierungsdauer von mindestens sechs Monaten,
sagte der australische Streitkräftechef Angus Houston nach einer ersten
Lageeinschätzung. Verteidigungsminister Brendon Nelson machte am Mittwoch
zugleich die Grenzen des australischen Engagements deutlich: „Was in Osttimor
passieren wird, hängt stark davon ab, daß die osttimoresische Führung einen Weg
aus der politischen Sackgasse findet.“
Text: F.A.Z.,
01.06.2006, Nr. 126 / Seite 8
Bildmaterial:
AP, dpa, F.A.Z., REUTERS
Wsws 06-05-30
Why Australia wants “regime change” in East Timor
By Nick Beams
If one were to believe the official
version, the intervention of Australian troops into East
Timor is driven by the purest motives. They are there simply to
restore peace and stability after the collapse of government authority. But
this political fiction has been increasingly exposed by events of the past few days as the power struggle
which sparked the crisis comes to the surface.
The Howard government’s intervention has nothing
to do with protecting the interests of the East Timorese people. It is aimed at bringing about a “regime
change”—the replacement of the government of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri with
an administration more in tune with Australian interests.
It is long been a dictum of foreign
policy that there are no permanent allies or alliances, only permanent
interests.
– This is certainly the case in East Timor where one of the chief concerns of the Australian
government, supported by the opposition Labor Party, has been to ensure that
other powers are not able to exert influence in what is explicitly referred to
as “Australia’s
own backyard”.
In 1999, the Howard government sent in troops to
spearhead the UN military intervention in order to ensure that Australia,
rather than the former colonial power, Portugal,
exercised the greatest authority in post-independence East
Timor and was in the best position to exploit its valuable oil and
gas reserves. Nearly seven years on, the essential motivations remain the same.
– The underlying
conflict with Portugal came
into the open last Friday when Prime Minister John Howard asserted during an interview
that the crisis in East Timor was due to “poor
governance”. This was a clear shot at Alkatiri’s government. It brought
an immediate response from Portuguese
Foreign Minister Diogo Freitas do Amaral, who criticised Howard’s remarks as
“interference in the internal affairs” of East Timor.
“We disagree with this kind of declaration by foreign countries,” he said.
But Howard was not deterred. In fact, he
decided to say more at the next available opportunity.
In an appearance on the ABC television
“Insiders” program on Sunday morning, Howard was asked “how bad” the government
of East Timor had been and whether the responsibility rested with Alkatiri.
Howard said he did not want to get into
“detailed commentary about the politics of the country” but proceeded to do
just that. It was obvious, he
said, that the country had not been well governed over the past few years. He
said he was not going to retreat from his comments of two days before.
Pressed on longer-term Australian plans—whether there should be an East
Timorese equivalent of the situation in the Solomon Islands where Australian
officials have taken charge of the finance ministries, as well as the police and prisons
—Howard went further.
“Well I don’t rule anything out, but I don’t want to presumptuously
declare that that’s going to happen or ought to happen without the matter being
discussed with the East Timorese,” he said. “I mean, we have a delicate
path to tread here. On the one hand, we want to help; we are the regional power that’s in a position to do
so. It’s our responsibility to help, but I want to respect the
independence of the East Timorese. But then on the other hand, again, they have
to discharge that independence or the responsibilities of that independence
more effectively than has been the case over the last few years.”
– The “delicate
treading” concerns the activities of Australia’s rivals in the region,
as indicated by the remarks of the Portuguese foreign minister. So far,
the Howard government has been
able to counter these pressures because of the backing it has enjoyed from the United States.
– Just as the Clinton administration
backed the 1999 intervention, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has made it obvious that the US is fully
backing the latest troop deployment. In a telephone conversation with Australian
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer she is reported to have asked: “What do you
want us to do?”
The immediate focus of regime change is the consultative Council of State
meeting presently being held in Dili. This body, convened under President Xanana Gusmao, has the power to sack
the Alkatiri government and appoint a so-called “national unity” government
until elections due to be held next May.
After a nine-hour meeting yesterday, the council failed to make a
decision and further negotiations are being held today. While there was
no official announcement, East
Timorese foreign minister Jose Ramos-Horta made it plain that, as far as he and
Gusmao are concerned, Alkatiri should step down.
Speaking on ABC television, Ramos-Horta
said: “What is necessary now is a political resolution of the current political
crisis that involves, obviously, primarily the prime minister in a sense that
so many people are wanting the prime minister to step down.”
When asked to put his own position,
Ramos Horta, declined to comment, saying he was involved in negotiations with
both sides.
Within East Timor
the campaign to oust Alkatiri,
the leader of the ruling party, Fretilin, has been underway for some time. It burst into the open a year ago,
following Alkatiri’s decision to make religious education in schools optional rather
than compulsory.
This elementary move to separate church and state brought furious
denunciations from the Catholic Church. Demonstrations were held calling for
the ousting of Alkatiri and for an end to his “extremist government”. In
a pastoral note issued in April 2005 the church hierarchy in Dili said the cabinet contained secret “Marxists”
who endangered democracy. The government was following policies based on
the “Chinese model” and the “retrograde Third World”.
According to a report in Asia Times, the
US ambassador to East
Timor openly supported the church in its street protests against
the government last year, even attending one of the demonstrations in
person.
Last January, a leading Fretilin member
of the national parliament, Francisco Branco, denounced a prominent priest for
waging a campaign to bring down the government. According to Branco, the priest had told churchgoers that
a decision to send students to study in Cuba
would turn East Timor into a communist country
and Fretilin had a plan to kill nuns and priests if it won the next
election.
Once the military intervention was
launched, the Australian media, taking its cue from the Howard government,
stepped up the denunciations of Alkatiri.
In a comment published last Saturday, the Australian foreign editor Greg
Sheridan denounced Alkatiri as a “disastrous prime minister” leading the
“so-called Mozambique clique
of Fretilin ideologues”—a reference to Alkatiri’s long period of exile in another former Portuguese colony
during the Indonesian occupation of East Timor.
“The catastrophic decision to make Portuguese the national language of East Timor perfectly illustrates
the dogmatism and unreality of Alkatiri’s approach. This decision disenfranchised young East
Timorese who speak Tetun, Indonesia or English. It entrenched
the clique of ageing, dogmatic Marxist-Leninists within Fretilin and
exacerbated every division within East Timorese society. And it does nothing to
help East Timor earn a living in the
international community.”
– Alkatiri and his supporters are neither “Marxists” nor “communists”.
Nor are the Howard government and its mouthpieces in the media concerned about
the government’s policies toward the people of East Timor.
Their opposition to Alkatiri
centres on the fact that his faction has sought to win support from other major
powers, principally Portugal,
and increasingly in the recent
period, China,
as a counter-weight to the pressure of Australian imperialism.
Alkatiri, in particular, raised the ire
of Canberra
during the protracted negotiations over the exploitation of the oil and gas
reserves when he denounced the Australian government for its bullying tactics.
– After four years of
intransigence from Howard and Downer, the Dili government was last year
forced to agree to delay the final settlement of the maritime border between
the two countries for 50 to 60 years.
– Under international
boundary law—which Australia
has refused to recognise—East Timor is
entitled to most of the oil and gas revenues. But Canberra finally succeeded in having Dili drop its claim
of sovereignty over key resource-rich areas of the Timor
Sea for two generations; by which time the main oil and gas fields
will be commercially exhausted.
If Alkatiri were regarded as an
Australian ally in East Timor, rather than as
an obstacle, then the attitude of the Howard government, and, correspondingly,
commentary in the mass media, would have been quite different.
For a start, the so-called dissident
soldiers, whose rebellion sparked the crisis, would not have been portrayed as
having legitimate grievances. Instead, the government’s decision to sack them after they went on strike would
have been supported. Rather than Australian military commanders holding
discussions with the “rebels,” they would have been denounced for organising a
mutiny, taking the law into their own hands, and creating the conditions for
“terrorism”. Their campaign for the ousting of the Alkatiri government,
however, dovetails with Australian interests.
– Those interests centre on
securing Australia’s
position in a region where great power conflicts are increasing. As a comment in yesterday’s Australian Financial Review noted, the emerging rivalry between Japan and China
is extending into the Pacific, posing a “real challenge for a government
that is always claiming to be on such good terms with Tokyo
and Beijing”.
Pointing to the long-standing economic
issues that have always motivated Australian foreign policy in this region, the
comment continued: “It’s worth
remembering that in 1920, Australian strategic planners were worried about
Japan trying to get its hands on the rumoured oil resources of Portuguese
Timor, but in 1975 there were fears that China
would manipulate a leftish independent Timor
for territorial advantage.”
Now that the existence of oil and gas resources had been clearly
established, the rivalry between Japan
and China for energy
would pose increasing challenges for Australia, the comment noted.
One of the ways of meeting these
challenges is to ensure that a “reliable” regime is in place in Dili. This is a
major factor underlying the power struggle now being played out in the East
Timorese capital.