EAST TIMOR WEEKEND UPDATE: JUNE 3-5, 2006,

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 DILI 000293

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E.O. 12958: DECL: 6/2/2016
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SUBJECT: EAST TIMOR WEEKEND UPDATE: JUNE 3-5, 2006,

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CLASSIFIED BY: Grover Joseph Rees, Ambassador, EXEC, State.
REASON: 1.4 (a),(b),(d)

1. (U) Summary:
Pro-Xanana security ministers are sworn in;
Superior Council endorses President's security plan;
Ramos-Horta begins Defense Minister duties;
FRETILIN Central Committee endorses Alkatiri, promotes Lobato;
Australia on post-UNOTIL planning;
Anti-Alkatiri demonstration reportedly cancelled at President's
request;
Parliament reconvenes to address crisis measures;
Portuguese paramilitary police unit arrives;
Security conditions in the city;
Judiciary attempts to regroup;
SCU files recovered, damage assessment in progress;
Internally displaced persons;
American citizens and Embassy security.
End summary.


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Pro-Xanana security ministers are sworn in
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2. (SBU) On Saturday, June 3, Jose Ramos-Horta was finally sworn
in as the new Minister of Defense (which he will hold together
with his Foreign Affairs portfolio) and former Vice Minister
Alcino Baris was sworn in as Minister of the Interior. Both are
regarded as loyal to President Xanana Gusmao and likely to
follow his instructions even in the event they receive
conflicting instructions from Priime Minister Mari Alkatiri.
The President presided at the swearing-in ceremony, which was
attended by the Prime Minister, by President of the National
Parliament Francisco "Lu'Olo" Guterres and by other Timorese and
international dignitaries. Among those in attendance was the
commander of the armed forces (FDTL),Brigadier General Taur
Matan Ruak, a former Gusmao protege who had been estranged from
the President. Gusmao and Matan Ruak met privately before the
ceremony for what was described as a tearful reconciliation, and
Matan Ruak exchanged a heartfelt embrace after the ceremony with
his old friend and new boss Ramos-Horta.

Superior Council endorses President's security plan
--------------


3. (U) Immediately after the swearing-in ceremony President
Gusmao convened a meeting of the newly reconstituted Superior
Council on Defense and Security. The Council, including the new
ministers, the police (PNTL) and FDTL commanders, Alkatiri, and
Lu'Olo, unanimously endorsed a plan the President presented for
ending the security crisis. The plan reportedly contains no
surprises. In particular, FDTL members are to remain in their
barracks for the time being while PNTL activities in Dili will
consist of office work and unarmed patrols in co-ordination with
intenational forcs. Embassy Dili is expecting to receive a copy
of the plan momentarily and will report further details in
septel.

Ramos-Horta begins Defense Minister duties
--------------


4. (U) On Sunday, June 4, the day after he was sworn in as
Minister of Defense, Jose Ramos-Horta began work on this
portfolio with a visit to the armed forces (FDTL) base in Baucau
accompanied by the FDTL commander, General Taur Matan Ruak.
While in Baucau he also welcomed the newly-arrived contingent of
Portuguese GNR (National Republican Guard),see paragraph ##.
Today Ramos-Horta held meetings with the representatives of the
four international military/police forces operating in East
Timor and then proceeded to Ermera district to meet with leaders
of dissident military and ex-military forces. He reportedly
wants to return to "day zero" and offer the dissidents the same
dialogue option that was on the table prior to the outbreak of
hostilities on May 23. According to Special Representative of
the UN Secretary General (SRSG) Sukehiro Hasegawa, who

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accompanied Ramos-Horta to Ermera, the new Defense Minister was
warmly received by the dissidents as well as by the general
population, and Lieutenant Gastao Salsinha, the leader of the
595 ex-FDTL "petitioners", seemed favorably disposed to
Ramos-Horta's suggestion of an all-inclusive dialogue in Dili
next week.


5. (SBU) In a meeting with US Defense Representatives last
night, Ramos-Horta stated that the lines of authority for the
military now clearly run from President Xanana Gusmao through
him to General Matan Ruak. Commenting on his visit to Baucau,
he noted that he is satisfied with the conduct of the FDTL
troops he reviewed in Baucau. Regarding the international
forces, Ramos-Horta expressed frustration with their inability
thus far to stop the gang violence plaguing Dili. He is happy
to have the Portuguese GNR on the ground and expects that their
more forceful approach will be effective in controlling gang
violence.

FRETILIN Central Committee endorses Alkatiri, promotes Lobato
-------------- --------------


6. (SBU) A meeting of the ruling FRETILIN party's central
committee (CCF) was held on June 4 in order to set up the
revised party structure mandated by amendments to the party
constitution at the May 17-19 congress. Just-sacked Minister of
the Interior Rogerio Lobato was elected unanimously as the
party's new vice president. This appears to be compensation for
his forced resignation and clearly indicates that he will
continue to play an important role in national politics. Two
Alkatiri loyalists, Jose Reis and Jose Manuel Guterres, were
elected to fill two deputy secretary general positions. In
addition, the CCF determined the membership of several other
party bodies, including the political, financial oversight, and
judicial committees.


7. (SBU) There was some speculation in the days before the CCF
meeting that members of the party were trying to organize a CCF
meeting to push for Alkatiri's resignation. The meeting's
conduct and outcome instead clearly demonstrated Alkatiri's
continued dominance of the CCF. During the meeting, CCF members
made a formal statement for the record noting that there had
been specious rumors that the party would pressure Alkatiri to
resign but that the party's "position is clear" that changes can
only be made "through the democratic process," presumably
meaning that Alkatiri the committee wants Alkatiri to remain as
Prime Minister at least through the 2007 election.

Australia on post-UNOTIL planning
--------------


8. (C/NF) In a conversation with Poloff, an Australian Embassy
source relayed that Foreign Minister Downer yesterday presented
a confidential GOA working paper on post-UNOTIL planning to
Alkatiri, Gusmao, and Ramos-Horta. A UN source has also
discussed this GOA paper in confidence with members of the
diplomatic corps including the U.S. Ambassador. The main
components of the paper are: 1) That Australia continue to run
the military intervention, in cooperation with other
international forces, outside of the UN structure but possibly
with a mandate such as the one under which Interfet operated.
2) That international forces should retain primary authority for
policing in East Timor for some time to come --- either under
the same non-UN umbrella as other security forces (in the
Australian source's version of the paper) or as part of a
post-UNOTIL UN mission (in the UNOTIL source's version of the
paper). 3) That the UN mission should focus its activities on
governance and reconciliation. We anticipate obtaining a copy
of the paper soon and will then relay additional information on
its contents.

Anti-Alkatiri demonstrations reportedly cancelled on President's
request
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9. (SBU) Rumors that a large anti-Alkatiri demonstration would
today take place near the Palacio de Governo (main government
offices) circulated throughout the weekend. Emboffs received
reports that Lt. Salsinha and the "petitioners" group, along
with other dissident military, were behind the plans. According
to Salsinha, he cancelled the planned demonstration after
receiving a call from President Gusmao requesting that he do so.
Ramos-Horta reportedly made the same appeal to other dissident
military leaders during his trip to Ermera district today. No
demonstrators were seen at the Palacio throughout the day.
However, SRSG Hasegawa conveyed reports that 120 people were
seen en route from Maliana in four trucks, and Hasegawa said
that Prime Minister Alkatiri told him that he anticipated an
anti-Alkatiri demonstration consisting of "no more than 1000
people." (Comment: Hasegawa's and Alkatiri's information may or
may not predate the President's request to cancel the proposed
demonstration. In the opinion of Embassy Dili, it would be
extremely difficult for anyone to persuade thousands of people
to come to Dili under the current circumstances, no matter how
popular the cause. End comment.)

Parliament reconvenes to address crisis measures
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10. (U) The National Parliament today reconvened to begin a
two-day session to address the President's statement of crisis
and to deliberate on whether to declare a formal state of
emergency. There were doubts late last week that many MPs would
show up this morning, but 55 of the 88 members reportedly
attended. The members present unanimously endorsed the
President's security plan that was endorsed by the Superior
Council on Defense and Security during its meeting on Saturday,
see paragraph 3. Most leading opposition figures stayed away
from the session; several told Emboffs that they had received
threats on their lives and did not believe security at the
Parliament was adequate to guarantee their safety.

Portuguese National Republican Guard arrives
--------------


11. (C) 120 members of Portugal's National Republican Guard
(GNR),a paramilitary police unit, and 18 members of another
special Portuguese police unit (the "Special Operations Group"
or GOE) are now in Dili following their arrival in Baucau
yesterday. The GNR expects a second plane carrying their
equipment to arrive shortly. The GNR's arrival has been met
with hope that they will be effective in curbing Dili's gang
violence, but also with concern that their go-it-alone approach
may create problems. The Portuguese Embassy is adamant that the
GNR and Portuguese police will not fall under the authority of
the Australian force commander and that they will work directly
for both President Gusmao and Prime Minister Alkatiri. This,
together with the pro-Alkatiri sympathies of most Portuguese
diplomats and international advisors in Dili, has raised
concerns that the GNR may be called upon by Alkatiri to
undermine the President's recent assumed authority over secuirty
and perhaps even to perform partisan head-cracking. In
addition, there has been some concern on the part of Australian
troops that lack of coordination could result in friendly fire
incidents. However, Australian sources have also expressed
optimism that the common sense of commanders on the ground will
prevail.

Security conditions in the city
--------------


12. (C) The Australian forces are conducting sweep operations in
their zone of Dili on 5 and 6 June to reduce gang activity.
Though the general level of violence has decreased, there are
still a few house burnings and gunshots each day and night,
especially in the Becora neighborhood, in several neighborhoods
south of Comoro road, and near the Comoro River. Approximately
once each two days the Joint Task Force (JTF) has found it

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necessary to deploy to the Comoro market area in order to break
up gang fighting.

Judiciary attempts to regroup
--------------


13. (U) On Saturday, June 3, Court of Appeals Judge Claudio
Ximenes presided at the swearing-in of 11 Timorese judges, 9
prosecutors, and 7 defense attorneys. These officers, most of
whom served in the same capacities prior to November 2004 when
they were removed from the bench and required to undergo a
lengthy retraining process, will now serve as "probationary"
judicial officers while undergoing further evaluation. During
the eighteen months the Timorese judges have been absent from
the bench, the caseload formerly handled by 20 Timorese judges
has been assigned to a much smaller number (ranging at various
times from 2 to 5) of international judges, all from Portugal
and other Lusophone countries. Although Judge Ximenes (himself
a Portuguese judge of Timorese extraction),Prime Minister
Alkatiri, and some UN advisors have taken the position that the
international judges have improved the quality and quantity of
judicial decision making, the public perception is that the
judicial system has slowed to a crawl and that most of the
international judges have made no effort to understand the
people whose cases they are deciding. The return of the
Timorese judges and other judicial officers is therefore
generally regarded as a positive step toward increasing public
confidence in the legal system, and the swearing-in was
reportedly advanced by several weeks in order to deliver some
good news during this difficult period. Two judges (one
Timorese and one international) have reported to Emboffs that
there was extensive damage to judicial system files during the
looting rampage in Dili last week. Moreover, without an
operational police force and with the continued absence of many
government employees, the work of the judiciary has come to a
virtual standstill. However, in recent days members of the
judiciary have attempted to revive its operation. In addition
to Saturday's swearing-in ceremony, a meeting of the Supreme
Council of Magistrates was held late last week to begin
discussions on running the judiciary under current
circumstances.

SCU files recovered, damage assessment in progress
--------------


14. (SBU) The UN advisor for the Serious Crimes Unit (SCU) files
reported to Poloff that the UN has begun an assessment of the
loss or damage to the original SCU files, which had been
compromised when looters broke into the SCU storage facility
last week. The assessment will consist of a page-by-page
comparison with the secured copies under UN custody and will
take several weeks to complete. The advisor reported that there
was no access to or damage of the servers containing the
electronic SCU files during the looting. The servers have now
been moved to the UN compound for safekeeping until adequate
security at the Prosecutor General's office has been restored.
In a related development, Prosecutor General Longuinhos Monteiro
reports that he has secured the return of some or all of the
stolen SCU files. He was contacted by someone who claimed to
know the looters and who said the looters had taken the files
only after finding that the computers and other office equipment
they had hoped to obtain had already been taken by others.
Monteiro agreed to give the intermediary a refrigerator if he
would return the missing files. He called Ambassador this
morning to report that the trade had been completed. The
returned files will be subjected to the page-by-page scrutiny of
the UN experts to determine whether they are in fact SCU files
and whether they are the only ones that were stolen.

Internally displaced persons
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15. (U) The situation in the Internally displaced persons (IDP)
camps remains unchanged. Various estimates place the number of

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IDPs in Dili as high as 65,000, with an estimated additional
35,000 Dili residents having fled to the countryside. USAID
through partner organizations CARE and Catholic Relief Services
(CRS) is providing about $500,000 worth of relief supplies to
the IDPs. An airlift of additional supplies from AID's office
of disaster assistance (OFDA) will arrive early tomorrow
morning, June 6. Embassy Dili and the USAID mission in East
Timor have also requested a $1 million replensihment of Food For
Peace (FFP) stocks to replenish local World Food Program
supplies. Additional support is under consideration, both for
emergency relief and for medium-to-long-term needs.

American citizens and Embassy security
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16. (SBU) The Embassy is in contact with the 57 private American
citizens remaining in East Timor. The Embassy continues to
operate with 12 American employees, 29 Marines, and six Mobile
Security Division (MSD) members. The USAID compound is open for
business during regular working hours. Absenteeism in the local
guard force is not higher than five percent per shift. Several
other local staff at the Embassy and USAID are not reporting for
duty due to conditions in the city.
REES