navelfluff

Although getting calmer, the situation in Dili is still tense. Four people are reported dead. As reported by Max Stahl, up to 400 may have been injured and at least ten thousand have fled their homes. These numbers are best guesstimates, nobody can tell for sure. There have even been (unconfirmed) reports of 10-20 dead. [...]

Seems like the situation in Dili is getting calmer. Since i don’t know where on the ‘Net to find this press release from my former boss, José Ramos Horta, i’m posting it in verbatim (don’t worry, i’m not going to make it a habit). Thanks to my friend Rico for sending me the text.
—BEGIN [...]

A few months ago, 591 soldiers were dismissed from the Timorese military because of a whole chain of events. The Petitioners, as the soldiers and their supporters are known as, have protested for some time now, but now things have turned ugly. Some protesters have smashed shop windows and burned government cars.
The UNOTIL media [...]

In today’s UNOTIL media monitoring, two stories caught my eye (sorry, you’ll have to scroll the document, there are no anchors to link to). WFP has started a new program to provide food to schools.
Rozinha de Jesus:
Before this, not many students could attend class up to twelve thirty because they could not bear being hungry [...]

Tom Gallagher of the San Francisco Bay Guardian wrote a strong article about the lack of attention the CAVR Report (aka the “Chega!” report, or “Final Report of the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor”) has received in the USA. This 2500 page document, presented to Kofi Annan in late February 2006, [...]

Speculations are over. For now. Timor-Leste Foreign (and Senior) minister (and altogether hoopy frood) José Ramos-Horta has stated that if he has to choose between becoming Secretary-General of the UN and President of the Republic, the priority would be Timor-Leste.
A week or so, i pondered which position he would pursue if presented with both. If [...]

In the same media review that i read about Xanana Gusmão not re-running for presidency, i found a writing by John Pilger on The Dissident Voice titled The Secret War Against the Defenseless People of West Papua.
This is strong stuff. And should work as an explanation to why the US might have a bad counciense, [...]

News from Timor-Leste. Current president Xanana Gusmão has, at least to my considerable surprise, decided not to run for a second term . When asked who he imagines may be his successor, Xanana answered that the name on everybody’s lips at the moment is that of José Ramos-Horta — holder of the Nobel Peace Price [...]

I have updated (”replaced”) some of my Dili pictures on Flickr. The “replace” feature is really a nifty one. It allows me to “remaster” pictures that i had sent in in lower resolution to more high res ones. Which is precisely what i need: when i was in Timor, both my (free) Flickr account and [...]

The Government of Finland has signed an agreement to support the development of Timor-Leste, the nation formerly known as East Timor, with a further 500′000 euros, bringing Finland’s support to over 1 M€ for the last three years (including, heh, my salary at the time ;)). The press release says the money will be channelled [...]