INTERNATIONAL UNIKEN August 2003 • 10

Home alone: East Timor prepares for UN pull out
by Christine Kearney
Law and order, providing services to remote areas and border security are the main challenges East Timor will face after the UN pulls out in May 2004, according to deputy head of the UN in East Timor, Sukehiro Hasegawa.
    Speaking at UNSW to mark the global launch of the United Nations Development Program’s human development report, Hasegawa said Timor’s civil servants, from police officers to treasury officials, are still finding their feet.
    Riots in Dili and in Bacau last December – in which Timorese police allegedly killed three demonstrators and injured dozens more – showed that the police need to “step up their training and their capacity building”, he said.
    “Whether the national police side is totally ready to [work] on their own come next May is		 a question mark,” he said.
    “We have as many as 40 international financial] advisors [in East Timor]. Once they are gone what will happen? Many of the local national staff have had no more than high school education at most,” he said.
    “There are some ministers who have come back from abroad but you cannot just have ministers you need some [trained] staff.”
    Hasegawa said delivering health, education and other public services to Timorese in remote areas would also be a challenge for the government next year.
    Border security is another potential concern for the fledgling nation.
    The Australian army is still patrolling three East Timorese districts along the border with Indonesian West Timor. “They are to stay		 until April next year but once they leave of course, the question mark is what will happen,” said Hasegawa.
    Commenting on the relationship between the East Timorese government of Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri and the Australian government – which some commentators have said is at an all time low – Hasegawa described it as “very businesslike”.
    Negotiations between the two countries over the Timor gap oil and gas resources were very difficult”.
    “Mari Alkatiri is a very intelligent, astute negotiator and he would like to know that the best deal for anything can be made so therefore he is sticking to a very hard bargaining position,” he said.
    “Australians may feel that is a bit ungracious, for the border assistance Australia has given, so that kind of background sentiment may come out on both sides.
    “At the same time I think relationships between any states will never be on a totally friendly basis. I think we should accept that East Timor, like any other country … wants to maximise [their] benefits.”
    Hasegawa said Timorese officials have pleaded with him to begin a massive public education campaign about the planned UN withdrawal.
    They have told him that the withdrawal will come as a shock” to ordinary Timorese who will feel “insecure and frightened” without the UN.

Sukehiro Hasegawa.
ICEE a brighter future for Timor, Pacific
Australian school kids have raised $100,000 to help combat blindness in East Timor and the Pacific.
    In February, over 165,000 students from 600 schools around the country took part in the second National Sunnies For Sight Day. The day was organised by the International Centre for Eyecare Education (ICEE), which is based in the		 school of optometry. Last month ICEE calculated the tally of the funds from the day.
    The majority of the money raised will go towards the East Timor Eye Program (ETEP), a comprehensive eyecare plan for East Timor, which ICEE is developing in conjunction with the Timorese health department.
    Since 2000, ICEE has examined up to		 20,000 people in East Timor and dispensed 12,000 pairs of low-cost glasses. It has also trained 15 nurses in primary eyecare and is establishing a permanent spectacle supply at Dili National Hospital.
    The rest of the funds raised will go towards training programs in Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Samoa and the Cook Islands.