East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta has called on his people to accept that Indonesians who committed human rights abuses against them will never be tried, so the nation can move forward.
The oil-rich country could escape from poverty only if it was stable, and for that it needed good relations with Indonesia, its giant neighbor and former occupier, Ramos-Horta said in an interview.
The president predicted a surge in world oil prices could lead to the standard of living in East Timor one day rivaling Australia’s, with a per capita income of more than US$30,000 a year.
But it would not happen unless the country was stable, Ramos-Horta said, adding that he would be “stupid” to call for an international tribunal on past wrongs.
“We have to understand the new Indonesia and remember that the Indonesian army was not defeated in East Timor,” he said. “They left because the leaders in Indonesia ordered them to leave.”
“I sympathize with them and I would never stab them in the back by pushing for an international tribunal that would embarrass Indonesia and wreck the relationship,” Ramos-Horta said.
Last week on the Indonesian island of Bali, Ramos-Horta and his Indonesian counterpart Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono received a joint report by the two countries into the violence that marred East Timor’s 1999 vote for independence.
Although it concluded that Indonesian soldiers and government officials played a role in the violence, it has been widely criticized as allowing those responsible to escape criminal trials.
Asked if the perpetrators would never be tried, Ramos-Horta said: “I would say maybe so. We just have to be faithful to God, to the international community and to the new Indonesia.”
“Let’s take care of those who are alive, the wounded, the widows, the orphans,” Ramos-Horta said.
“Honor the dead. Remember them always, but we have to take care of those that are alive and to do that we cannot pursue the path of revenge, of confrontation with Indonesia,” he said.
“We are not unique,” he said, drawing comparisons with Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony like East Timor, where he said, 1 million people were killed in a post-independence civil war but the former combatants later worked together.
East Timor’s oil revenues from the Timor Sea were already around US$200 million a month, he said, and the per capita annual income would already be more than US$4,000 a year.
“The question mark is whether we will be able to transmit that into wealth for the people,” he said.
Many Timorese remain mired in poverty and Ramos-Horta said the challenge was to find ways to ensure that changed.
Although the rise in world oil prices could be a long-term boon, in the short term ordinary Timorese were suffering like poor people elsewhere from the resulting rise in food prices.
A particular priority was to improve the training of the East Timor Defense Force, he said. Tensions within the tiny army sparked a new wave of violence in 2006.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the