Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
07DILI310
2007-09-05 10:45:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Dili
Cable title:  

AUSTRALIA, PORTUGAL BRING AID TO TIMOR-LESTE

Tags:  PREL PGOV EAID TT PO AS 
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FM AMEMBASSY DILI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 3700
INFO RUEHZS/ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN NATIONS
RUEHBY/AMEMBASSY CANBERRA PRIORITY 1062
RUEHKO/AMEMBASSY TOKYO PRIORITY 0785
RUEHLI/AMEMBASSY LISBON PRIORITY 0975
RUEHROV/AMEMBASSY VATICAN PRIORITY 0209
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 0609
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0989
RHMFISS/CDR USPACOM HONOLULU HI
RUEHDT/AMEMBASSY DILI 3087
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 DILI 000310 

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MTS
PACOM FOR POLAD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 9/5/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV EAID TT PO AS
SUBJECT: AUSTRALIA, PORTUGAL BRING AID TO TIMOR-LESTE

DILI 00000310 001.2 OF 003


CLASSIFIED BY: Henry M. Rector, Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S.
Embassy Dili, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b)

(C)
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 DILI 000310

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MTS
PACOM FOR POLAD

E.O. 12958: DECL: 9/5/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV EAID TT PO AS
SUBJECT: AUSTRALIA, PORTUGAL BRING AID TO TIMOR-LESTE

DILI 00000310 001.2 OF 003


CLASSIFIED BY: Henry M. Rector, Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S.
Embassy Dili, Department of State.
REASON: 1.4 (b)

(C) 1. Summary. Timor-Leste's new government, led by Prime
Minister Xanana Gusmao, had a lucrative week, as the Australian
Foreign Minister and the Portuguese State Secretary for Foreign
Affairs arrived bearing development assistance packages totaling
USD 256 million. Both government and opposition leaders
impressed the visitors favorably, resulting in guardedly upbeat
assessments of prospects for Timor-Leste's political future.
The visits demonstrated the reserve of goodwill that Timor-Leste
still enjoys with its closest international partners despite
last year's meltdown, fragile national institutions, and
ever-present threat of political violence. Australia and
Portugal fully grasp that getting this fledgling democracy on
its feet is a long-term proposition. End summary.


2. (SBU) Timor-Leste's new government recently received
high-level visitors from two of its most important foreign
partners, Portugal and Australia. Portuguese State Secretary
for Foreign Affairs and Development Joao Gomes Cravinho visited
Dili August 30 - September 1. Cravinho is the second-ranking
official in the Portuguese Foreign Ministry. Australian Foreign
Minister Alexander Downer made a one-day visit to Dili on
September 30. Downer's visit follows Prime Minister John
Howard's one-day stopover in Timor-Leste on July 26. Although
Howard met with President Jose Ramos-Horta at that time, the new
Alliance for a Parliamentary Majority (AMP) cabinet of Prime
Minister Xanana Gusmao was not yet in place, and the primary
purpose of that visit was to meet with Australian troops serving
in the International Stabilization Force (ISF) in the run-up to
Australia's upcoming national elections. Broadly speaking,
questions of aid and development assistance dominated both
Downer and Cravinho's agendas.

ForMin Downer Meets The Melbourne Mafia

--------------



3. (SBU) Foreign Minister Downer's one-day program on August 30
consisted of meetings with President Ramos-Horta, Prime Minister
Xanana Gusmao, Foreign Minister Zacarias da Costa, President of
Parliament Fernando de Araujo (Lasama) and former Prime Minister
Mari Alkatiri, currently leader of FRETILIN, Timor-Leste's
primary opposition party. Downer also received briefings from
International Stabilization Force (ISF) Commander Brigadier
Hutcheson, and Atul Khare, Special Representative of the UN
Secretary General.

SIPDIS


4. (C/NF) Downer was accompanied by Bruce Davis, Director
General of AusAID. Downer and Davis presented the Timorese with
an AD 214 million (USD 176 million) Enhanced Assistance Package.
According to Australian diplomats, this package represented
Timor-Leste's share of an overall increase in the Australian
government's foreign assistance budget. Davis remained in
Timor-Leste for several days following Downer's departure to
sort through a recent influx of new Timorese requests for aid.
In his talks, Downer noted that Timor-Leste's ability to absorb
development assistance continues to be constrained by low
capacity and failure to execute its budget. To address these
problems, the Australians offered to provide expert advisers to
Timor-Leste's ministries. PM Xanana Gusmao and President
Ramos-Horta countered with requests for further vocational and
technical training opportunities in Australia, as well as an
inquiry as to whether Australia would finance Timorese students
studying in Indonesia. The two governments also initialed an
MOU clearing the way for construction of a new Timorese chancery
in Canberra and the acquisition of new land for the Australian
compound in Dili.


5. (C/NF) In all of his meetings, FM Downer emphasized that that
Australia would continue to participate in the ISF as long as it
was needed and welcome. President Ramos-Horta, according to
Australian contacts, estimated that the ISF would be needed
through 2010 or even 2012. Downer emphasized that the ISF was
no substitute for a police force, and said that its levels would
be calibrated with the presence of the UN Police Mission and,
eventually, the increasing capacity of the National Police of
Timor-Leste. The role of the ISF, he stressed, is to provide
backup for these bodies, not to take over their missions.
Downer deflected Timorese requests that the ISF undertake civil

DILI 00000310 002.2 OF 003


engineering projects. SRSG Khare raised the possibility of
extending the contracts of Australian civilians detailed to
UNMIT from six to twelve months.


6. (SBU) Downer's talks with President of Parliament Lasama and
former PM Alkatiri left him optimistic about the future of
Timor-Leste's democratic institutions. Alkatiri said that his
challenge to the new government's legitimacy was political, not
legal, in nature, and that he would not pursue the matter
through the courts.


7. (C/NF) An Australian diplomat in Dili commented that Foreign
Minister Downer had come away from his visit with the impression
that the so-called "Maputo clique" of the old FRETILIN
government had been replaced by a "Melbourne Mafia" of officials
with Australian background. Citing just a few examples, the
diplomat noted that Economic Minister Joao Goncalves,
Infrastructure Minister Pedro Lay, Finance Minister Emilia Pires
and her brother Alfredo Pires, Secretary of State for Natural
Resources, are all Australian-educated. Education Minister Joao
Cancio Freitas only resigned from his job as manager of AusAID's
education programs last week. Secretary of State for the
Council of Ministers "Agio" Pires has lived in Sydney. Others
who had not lived or studied in Australia themselves had family
ties there. This, the diplomat said, seems to indicate that
Timor-Leste's new government is more comfortable with
Australians and less suspicious of Canberra than its predecessor.

State Secretary Cravinho Brings Largess from Lisbon

-------------- --------------


8. (U) Portuguese State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and
Cooperation Joao Gomes Cravinho also visited Timor-Leste from
August 30 - September 3. Cravinho is the Portuguese MFA's
second-ranking official, and his program focused on development
assistance. He also opened the second phase of the expansion of
Dili's Portuguese School. In a September 3 briefing for donor
country representatives, Cravinho announced that Portugal and
Timor-Leste had signed a 60 million Euro (USD 81.6 million),
three-year development plan on August 31. The strategy
encompasses three broad pillars: good governance and democracy;
sustainable development and combating poverty; and "clusters,"
i.e., an approach to development in which projects in various
sectoral projects mutually reinforce each other. The cluster
strategy, he added, was a somewhat experimental approach and
would be tried in Ermera as a pilot project. The two largest
single efforts would be in the areas of justice and education
(falling under the first and second pillars, respectively),
which would absorb roughly half of the three year plan's funds.
He said that Portugal had fully absorbed one lesson of the 2006
crisis, namely, that the international community must sustain a
long-term commitment to Timor-Leste and not rush for quick fixes
to sources of instability such as youth unemployment and a weak,
unprofessional security sector.


9. (C/NF) Cravinho expressed concern over the perception,
perhaps fueled by some political actors in Timor-Leste, that
Lusophone and other foreign donors were working at
cross-purposes or even as rivals. Cravinho met with Australian
ForMin Downer and AusAID Director Davis on August 30, and signed
an MOU with AusAID providing for regular consultations on
Timor-Leste in an effort to create synergy and remove potential
frictions. (Note: the Australians commented, with a note of
annoyance, that the Portuguese had "pushed very aggressively"
for this meeting.)


10. (U) Commenting on the Portuguese language issue, Cravinho
spoke at some length about its fundamental importance to
Timor-Leste's historic and religious identity and connections to
the broader Lusophone world. However, he went on to emphasize
that the GOP wanted to defuse the language question as a
political issue, and simply offer practical assistance in
Portuguese language instruction where it was needed.


11. (U) Cravinho provided an upbeat assessment of the new
government, based on his meetings. He noted that FRETILIN
seemed poised to participate fully in the new Parliament.
Cravinho said former Prime Minister Alkatiri has assured him
that, despite his many differences with the AMP government, he
was in broad agreement with it on the country's main priorities,
such as security sector reform and internally displaced persons.

DILI 00000310 003.2 OF 003


Cravinho expressed the hope that this acknowledgement provided
some hope for common ground between FRETILIN and the AMP
government.
RECTOR