DILI, East Timor — On Saturday, East Timor’s military shot and killed a civilian believed to have aided rebel attacks on the President and Prime Minister in February. The military plans to launch a 10 day operation this week in pursuit of rebels that remain in hiding.

On February 11, rebel ex-soldiers seriously wounded President Jose Ramos-Horta in an assassination attempt outside his home. That same morning, Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao escaped a similar attack unharmed.

In response, Brigadier-General Taur Matan Ruak has assembled a 2,000 strong military and police force that will begin door-to-door searches for rebels on Wednesday. Ruak has warned that civilians involved in hiding or providing food and aid to rebels will also be prosecuted. “At first we didn’t want to use gunfire in the operation, but some people are not cooperating with us and are still hiding,” said Ruak. The operation will last 10 days or until the rebels surrender.

On Saturday, the civilian was shot in Meliana, a district west of the capital, Dili, after attacking a soldier with a machete. Two rebels surrendered to the military that same day.

The recent violence stems from a 2006 incident where 600 military members were fired for protesting alleged discrimination. In the bitter dispute, the army divided into factions, causing 37 deaths and forcing 150,000 from their homes. 

For more information, please see:

Reuters: India — East Timor army kills rebel supporter in operation — 06 April 2008

Reuters: UK — East Timor to use force against rebels – army — 04 April 2008

SUVA, Fiji — (For further information about the history of this story, please see Impunity Watch Articles here and here).  The trial of eight police officers charged with the murder of rugby player Tevita Malasebe continued this week with the High Court hearing testimony from a forensic pathologist from the Colonial War Memorial Hospital. 

According to Dr. Prashant Sambekar, Malasebe sustained thirty-eight individual injuries on the night of 06 June 2007. The injuries were sustained to Malasebe’s head, chest, feet, hands, neck and head.  These injuries were accompanied by a collapsed lung and a swelling of Malasebe’s brain.  The swelling of the brain, the doctor said, was most likely due to vigorous sharking of the victim’s head.  While Samebekar testified that he could not pin down the exact time of Malasebe’s death, he did say that based on his coloration and the appearance of the bruises on his body, the injuries were still fresh when Malasebe was brought to hospital.   

The trial is set to continue on Monday morning. 

For more information, please see:
Radio New Zealand International — Trial against eight policemen charged with murder in Fiji gets underway — 03 April 2008

Fiji Times — Pathologist takes stand — 04 April 2008

Fiji Times — Malasebe had injuries on his body: Pathologist — 03 April 2008

Fiji Village  — Pathologist Takes Stand in Malasebe Case — 04 April 2008

By Ryan L. Maness
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Editor, Oceania

SYDNEY, Australia — Relations between Fiji and Australia have been strained since the 2006 coup, but the tension has been palpable in recent days.  Since the Pacific Island Forum, the Australian government has placed pressure on Fiji to make substantial movement towards reestablishing democratic elections, going so far as to threaten to relocate Pacific Institutions currently housed in Fiji.  The Fijian government has responded by calling for its neighbors to allow Fiji to work through the problems underlying its “coup culture”. 

The back and forth has ascended to a new level with an accusation by the Fiji Human Rights Commission that the Australian Navy may have violated international law with their military activities in the lead up to the 2006 coup.  Specifically, Fiji Human Rights Commission Director Dr. Shaista Shameem has said that the presence of Australian war ships near Fijian waters and Special Air Service soldiers flying commercially into Fiji represented the early stages of a possible future invasion.  These forces, Shameem told Radio Australia, were assembled after now interim Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama first threatened to overtake the Qarase government. 

The Australian government claims that the vessels were not in place to invade Fiji, but merely to protect Australian citizens in the event that the coup should turn violent.  They also insist that at no time did the ships enter Fijian waters or make any signs of aggression.  Australian Foreign minister Stephen Smith explained that “The Australian military were effectively on standby so as to ensure the safety and welfare of Australian nationals should that have become necessary.” 

He also says that Australia has heard these “spurious” claims before and that Fiji is presenting them now to try to draw attention away from the lack of progress being made towards free and fair elections.  “The best thing that can happen in Fiji is not spurious suggestions about Australian activity but having an election, returning Fiji to democracy, respecting human rights and democracy and allowing a potentially very prosperous nation to get on with the job of providing for its citizens.”

For more information, please see:
Fiji Times — Concentrate on having an election: Smith — 03 April 2008

Fiji Broadcasting Corporation Limited — Report receives negative response — 03 April 2008

Radio New Zealand International — Australia’s foreign minister responds to Fiji’s Human Rights Commission — 02 April 2008

Australian Broadcasting Corporation — Smith rejects Fiji accusation — 02 April 2008

Radio New Zealand International — Fiji Human Rights Commission wants probe of Australia’s pre-coup role — 01 April 2008

By Hayley J. Campbell
Impunity Watch Reporter, Oceania

DILI, East Timor — Over 170 non-government organizations met in East Timor to vocalize their dissatisfaction with the Timorese government for offering impunity to rebels responsible for the country’s past violence. The forum urged East Timor to be more accountable for both past and present indiscretions.   

The conference mainly focused on the violence that erupted in 2006 after the government fired 600 military members for protesting alleged discrimination. The army divided along factional lines sparking violence that killed 37 and drove 150,000 from their homes. Two years later, roughly 100,000, about a tenth of the population, remain displaced and living in camps outside the capital city, Dili.

At the conference, Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao announced that the rebels responsible for the 2006 violence would not be prosecuted. The state, he said, was “not exempt from responsibility”  in allowing the soldiers’ dissatisfaction to escalate. Mr. Gusmao is proposing to pay ex-soldiers to rejoin the army.

But NGOs report that East Timor lacks the economy, security, and housing resources to help its homeless. The forum questioned why crimes committed after 2006 remain unsolved, and why “not one convicted person is in a legally recognized prison facility?”

In 2006, the government looked on as displaced people chased others out of homes and set fire to buildings. “Many people observe that those who commit political crimes go free even though they were recommended for prosecution by independent commissions,” read a statement presented at the forum.

Meanwhile, the International Crisis Group has warned that without greater investigation into the root of the problem, merely rounding up the rebels responsible for last month’s attacks on the President and Prime Minister, will not end the violence.

For more information, please see:
ABC News: Australia — East Timor government, partners, criticized — 01 April 2008

Bloomberg.com — East Timor Faces Unrest Unless Evacuees Resettled, Group Says — 01 April 2008

The Age: Australia — Timor urged to get tough on offenders — 31 March 2008

Pinoy Press: Phillippines — Timor-Leste’s Displacement Crisis — 31 March 2008

The Morung Express — Timor truth commission ready to report findings — 20 March 2008

SUVA, Fiji — At last year’s Pacific Island Forum, Fiji’s interim Government assured Pacific leaders that democratic elections would return to Fiji by 2009.  Recent statements by the interim government have called into question whether this timetable is still viable.  Specifically, many interim Government officials have stressed the importance of completing the People’s Charter in order to resolve the “underlying problems of Fiji” first before commencing with Democratic elections.   

Fanning these concerns are statements like those made by Archbishop Petero Mataca at a meeting of the NCBBF.  Mataca said that delays in enacting the People’s Charter could mean delays in elections.  This despite interim Prime Minister Bainimarama’s statements at the same conference that elections were still on schedule for March 2009.   

The Australian Foreign Minister expressed the fear of the Australian government saying that they are concerned that the People’s Charter is thought to be more important than movements towards democratic elections.  The Australian government reiterated that the travel bans that are currently in effect against Fiji will remain until democratic elections take place. 

In response to Australia’s statement, interim Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry said that Fiji should be allowed to deal with it’s internal matters in its own way.  Reiterating Bainimarama’s statements about Fiji’s “coup culture”, Chaundhry told reporters that Fiji is attempting to address the problems that have lead to Fiji having four coups in the last twenty years.   

For more information, please see:
Fiji Village — Let Us Resolve it Ourselves says Chaundhry — 31 March 2008

Fiji Broadcasting Corporation Limited — Australia skeptical about Fiji — 31 March 2008

Fiji Times — State in disarray say leaders — 30 March 2008

Radio New Zealand International — Ousted Fiji leader says election timing messages confusing — 30 March 2008