EU signs €18m aid deal with East Timor

THE European Union signed a €18 million aid deal with East Timor’s government yesterday, pledging to support democracy and economic development in the nation which has been torn by violence in recent weeks.

EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the agreement showed the EU’s “full support and solidarity” with East Timor.

Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri witnessed the signing ceremony. The money will be used over the next two years, with two-thirds allocated to rural development projects and the rest to bolster the country’s fragile state institutions.

The EU has already earmarked €63m in aid for East Timor for 2008-13 as part of a wider agreement with African, Caribbean and Pacific nations.

East Timor has been engulfed by violence after 600 striking soldiers were dismissed in March.

Earlier, the country’s foreign minister, Jose Ramos-Horta, urged the UN to stay involved in the violence-scarred nation for at least a decade.

The soldiers’ dismissal triggered clashes with loyalist forces and lead to gang warfare in the capital Dili last month. At least 30 people have been killed, and more than 100,000 people fled from their homes as gangs have torched and looted entire neighbourhoods.

It is the worst wave of unrest since East Timor’s bloody break from Indonesian rule seven years ago, when retaliatory militia groups devastated much of the territory.

Mr Ramos-Horta said the violence had been almost exclusively limited to the capital, although an attack on a provincial office of the ruling Fretilin party on Wednesday night raised concerns that it could spread.

The UN special representative in Dili, Sukehiro Hasegawa, said the UN is “here to help and assist in resolving the dispute” and is confident that the achievements made since independence will not be lost.

Mr Ramos-Horta said: “I believe that East Timor can recover from this recent turmoil. This process may require a political change, perhaps in the form of a government of national unity. Equally, if not more important, is that the leaders jolted by the crisis reflect with humility on their own failings, and not simply look for scapegoats.”

A rebel leader warned more protests would be held to pressure Mr Alkitiri to quit. About 2,000 people staged a noisy anti-Alkatiri protest in Dili on Tuesday.

The UN Security Council is expected next week to consider dispatching a large police force to East Timor.

Mr Ramos-Horta said that, in hindsight, UN forces likely left too early.

“It is essential that the UN stay engaged in East Timor, in some form, for at least a decade. It’s in no one’s interest to let another poor country become a failed state.”