E&OE

12 February 2008, Darwin

Joint Press Conference with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of East Timor

Subject: East Timor

STEPHEN SMITH: Thanks very much for turning up. I've just come from having a meeting with Zacarias da Costa, the Foreign Minister for East Timor who joins me for this press conference.

Can I say I always enjoy meeting with Zacarias. We met in Dili late last year and we've had a couple of conversations over the phone. It's just a matter of regret that the circumstances of this meeting are following on from the tragic events we saw of yesterday.

Can I firstly say that one of the reasons I've travelled from Canberra today to have a meeting with Zacarias da Costa is to make the point at the first opportunity that the Australian Government strongly supports the duly elected government of East Timor. We strongly stand by our good friend and neighbour, East Timor with whom Australia has a special relationship and I also wanted to personally convey on behalf of the Prime Minister and the Australian Government and the Australian people our best wishes to President Ramos-Horta for what we hope is a good and speedy recovery.

You'll all of course be interested in the President's condition. I'm advised by hospital staff that today his condition remains very serious but stable. But after the Foreign Minister and I have finished this press conference you will get a medical update. But we're advised his condition remains very serious but stable. I've indicated personally to the Foreign Minister on behalf of the Australian Government the commitment that we announced yesterday, the contribution of additional troops and the contribution of additional police officers to ensure peace and stability and security in East Timor.

The Australian Government regards this as essential, just as we do the ongoing presence of the United Nations and a renewal of the United Nations mandate to see a continuing presence of the United Nations in East Timor. This is essential because in the end our ultimate ambition, our ultimate aspiration, just as it is the aspiration of the East Timorese Government, is to enable East Timor to grow as a nation state, to provide the jobs and training and education and healthcare that any nation state wants to provide to its citizens.

So we're much more interested in providing the nation building capacity that we can assist East Timor with, whether that's in governance areas, infrastructure, development assistance and the like. But that can only be done in a context of peace and security and stability.

As we said yesterday, we were deeply disturbed by the terrible and shocking events of yesterday. An attempt on the life of the President and the Prime Minister, fortunately the Prime Minster escaped almost completely unscathed and unfortunately the President was very seriously wounded and is here in the condition that I've outlined.

Can I just make this point before I hand over to Foreign Minister da Costa. All of the advice that we've received is that the medical care given to the President both in Dili and at this hospital, at the Royal Darwin Hospital, has been first class. And medical staff here have indicated to me what they regard as the excellent work done in difficult conditions in Dili yesterday.

So if I can just take this opportunity on behalf of the Government to express very much our gratitude to the medical staff, both in Dili, the medical evacuation team and the staff here, for their first class work in rendering assistance to the President. I'll hand over to Foreign Minister da Costa and then we will happily take your questions.

Zacarias.

ZACARIAS DA COSTA: Thank you, Stephen. You know that it's always a pleasure to meet with you and I'm very glad to be able to be here and meet again with Minister Stephen Smith. Unfortunately it's a very difficult circumstances that we meet again here. I have indicated to Minister Smith that the Timorese Government and the Timorese people are very grateful to the Australian Government, to the Australian people for the prompt response that Australia has given to us starting from the medical support that the military hospital has - and the doctors in Dili have rendered to President Ramos-Horta as well as Stephen has already mentioned, here at the Royal Hospital which has been great and in fact it's - I also have to agree that it's really first class assistance.

We are very grateful to the Australian Government for this support and also for the prompt response with the Australian troops and police to help us to face the difficult challenges that we are facing ahead of us. Alfredo Reinado is dead but of course a lot of fragility remains in the country and we are happy and we are grateful that we can count on the Australian support immediately. And we will also welcome other assistance that can be given in areas such as following the investigation of the circumstances of these attempts, for example forensic support which Australia we know that is very good. And I am sure that we will continue to receive all the support that Minister Stephen Smith has mentioned in order to have a stable and peaceful environment in Timor and conditions to continue in democracy, peace and stability.

I will [inaudible].

QUESTION: How would you deal with the situation in East Timor now that Reinado is dead but his followers, are they being actively pursued and the people who took part in those attacks on the Prime Minister and the President yesterday, are they also being actively pursued by military and police?

ZACARIAS DA COSTA: Yes, they are but of course following the 48 hours, how could I say, curfew or that has been imposed in Dili the situation has been calm. Police, UN police, the Timorese National Police and our different force together with international stabilisation forces and government and UN.

We have been coordinating so that all those who have perpetrated these horrendous acts would be definitely persecuted. We know that, especially now the situation in Timor is very difficult with the rainy season but we know where they are and I am sure that sooner or later we will get close to them.

STEPHEN SMITH: Can I just add to that, all of the advice we've had today is that the situation in Dili and Timor is calm, obviously that's being very closely monitored. Whilst they are operational matters in general terms, the troops and the police will arrive in the course of the next 24 hours and already stationed off Dili is the HMAS Perth, indicating a presence and flagging the forthcoming arrival of the troops and police.

In terms of your question, the detail of that, obviously, both operational and will depend upon discussions between - the detail of it -will depend upon discussions between the international stabilisation force and the East Timorese Government, and we're entirely happy with that. But as the Foreign Minister has indicated, obviously, the people and the Government of East Timor, will want to pursue those people responsible for these acts and, as I've indicted in the last 12 hours, the very sensible thing for those people to do is to essentially hand over their arms and present themselves.

QUESTION: Is it sort of a mistake to ask you to call off the hunt for [inaudible] Alfredo Reinado?

STEPHEN SMITH: Well, the Australian, or the International Stabilisation Force received a request from the East Timorese Government to desist from seeking to apprehend Reinado on the basis that the East Timorese Government and the president in particular, thought that they could effect a negotiate or agreed solutional compromise. And that was the desire of the President.

Now, I don't want to reflect on whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, but obviously in light of events that will be one of the things which the East Timorese Government will reflect on as the International Stabilisation Force and the Australian Government will reflect on.

QUESTION: And do you know yet, who actually shot Ramos-Horta, whether it was one of Reinado's men or whether it was one of his guards?

STEPHEN SMITH: Well, the working assumption is, or the working basis is that the President was shot by one of Reinado's men, but as I've said constantly, we are not jumping to final conclusions, we are very carefully, as is the East Timorese Government, working through the facts as they emerge. We don't want to leap to any conclusions but the operating basis on which we are operating and the East Timorese Government is operating on is that the President was shot by one of Reinado's men.

QUESTION: The Prime Minister said yesterday that Australia had a particular set of responsibilities with regards to East Timor security, does that imply, I suppose that Australian troops method is likely to be an ongoing thing, that this could be an indefinite commitment of troops.

STEPHEN SMITH: Well, we've made it clear, as I made it clear when I was recently in the United States, both to UN officials and to United States officials that we see a continuing presence in East Timor both from the International Stabilisation Force which includes Australians and New Zealanders and from the UN which includes a range of countries, is very important because we see the need for ongoing peace and security and stability in East Timor as being the essential pre-condition to East Timor as building itself as a robust parliamentary democracy, building its infrastructure, building its schools and hospitals, providing education and training and jobs for its people.

None of those things can be done in the absence of peace and security and stability. And we do see an ongoing need for that to continue. It can't last forever, which is one of the reasons why part of the development assistance goes to the training of East Timorese police and the training of East Timorese military. These are important capacity building things that we have to do. So, we're not putting a timetable on it. When I was in the United States, I made the point to United Nations officials that we thought it was very important that the UN mandate be renewed or rolled over for a further 12 month-period and that remains our very strong view and I think in light of recent events it would be most unwise to pursue any other call. But we see the ongoing need as being absolutely essential to providing the ingredients in East Timor for those nation building and capacity building things to occur.

QUESTION: Foreign Minister, what would you say pushed Reinado over the edge why, if they knew that, if he knew that the Government wanted dialogue what caused him to snap?

ZACARIAS DA COSTA: Well at this stage we could say that there could be two reasons. One that government has been talking to the petitioners, the so-called group of petitioners and they have a [inaudible] in Dili, a group of modern sovereignty and the second; government has also engaged in a serious dialogue promoted by President Ramos-Horta. And I think those two reasons could possibly disturb Alfredo and he could see that this act was really an act of, how could I say in English, foolish or…

QUESTION: Has it been determined who actually fired first, could that be a third reason?

ZACARIAS DA COSTA: I beg your pardon?

QUESTION: Could there be a third reason that the reason the gunfire broke out was because Reinado was fired on by one of Ramos-Horta's guards?

ZACARIAS DA COSTA: No, no, that's not true. The police, from the report that we have received they were the ones that started the firing.

QUESTION: Are you still regarding this as say an attempted coup?

ZACARIAS DA COSTA: Well we view as a coordinated attempt and there were two groups as you know one led by Alfredo that President Horta and the other few - 30 minutes or one hour later the convoy of Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao led by Gastão Salsinha, the leader of the petitionists (*).

QUESTION: Does the Government regard it as strange at all, if it was an attempt coup that there was that period of time just before the attack on Xanana Gusmao?

ZACARIAS DA COSTA: When you say attempted coup it means that it was very well organised in a way that other forces would be involved, we believe that Alfredo's group is well-organised but it's not - we don't view as supported by others. I think the two reasons that I have given are enough, at least for us, we don't - at this stage as Minister Smith has said it's too early for us to be jumping to conclusions we are still gathering all the information to be able to have a clear picture on what has really happened.

QUESTION: Do you think…

STEPHEN SMITH: Sorry could I just add there. I mean, what occurred yesterday was qualitatively different to what we've seen previously in East Timor. Yes in the past in East Timor there has been the unfortunate use of violence or the use of weapons, often against innocent East Timorese but for the first occasion yesterday we saw, on the same day, in the same morning literally in the same hour, attempts on the lives of the President and the Prime Minister of the duly elected government. And one of the reasons for the very strong show of support that the Australian Government gave yesterday in terms of our support to the President in his difficult and dire medical circumstances, our application of additional troops and police and the stationing of the HMAS Perth, is that we regarded this as an attack upon the fundamental, democratic fabric of East Timor.

This was an attack upon a duly elected democratic government. And that is something which we haven't seen in East Timor before, which we fortunately don't see all that often in our own backyard. But when we see it we have to respond quickly and firmly with a show of force and a show of strength that makes the point that we stand shoulder to shoulder, not just with President Horta in his hour of difficult circumstances, but with the East Timorese people and the East Timorese Government, as they try and build a parliamentary democracy which can provide all of those things that I've spoken about to its individual citizens. Education, training, healthcare, employment, all the sorts of things which we want the people of East Timor to not just aspire to, but to get.

QUESTION: So is it believed that Reinado was attempting to seize power here? Or was he just acting out on a personal grudge that he's had for a long time against Xanana Gusmao and Ramos-Horta?

ZACARIAS DA COSTA: Well I think what is more important is to stress that he attempted against Prime Minister and not against Xanana and not against the President of the Republic, and not against Jose Ramos-Horta and the response, as Stephen has mentioned, has to be a show of strength against the [inaudible], the various [inaudible] of the state.

QUESTION: The circumstances - it would seem the circumstances are that these blokes have been living up in the hills, unable to be caught, unable to pursued and then they've just drifted down into the town and place and shot your President and shot at your Prime Minister. They have now gone back up in the hills. Isn't the scenario, isn't the danger, or the fear that they will sit up there again for a period of time, come down and shoot your next Prime Minister or your next President? I mean is that - that's what we're looking at, without them - I mean unless they are actively pursued and then you've got the same problems that you've had for years haven't you? They can hide out there?

ZACARIAS DA COSTA: We believe that it was concerted attack a fact and if you know Dili it will - I think it's not possible for the group that has attacked President Horta how - then going up hill to attack Prime Minister's convoy and especially because Singa (*) was seen by Prime Minister's body guards and he was also with a group which surrounded the Prime Minister's house, before the attack.

QUESTION: Could you confirm that he did though attempted to kidnap both the Prime Minister and the President, or they went there to kill them? And the attempted kidnapping went wrong and a gun fight ensued?

ZACARIAS DA COSTA: Well I don't know, but I'm sure that if they have fired on the President Ramos-Horta they - I think the idea was not to kidnap him.

QUESTION: Can I then ask [Inaudible] of the Australian Minister, would you agree that these are desperate men now, given the circumstances, or the events of the last couple of days, who could quite possibly go and filter back up into the hills and probably have already. And will be just about impossible to root out of there.

STEPHEN SMITH: Well can I say we're not leaping - as I've indicated earlier and again today - we're not leaping to an assumption about a concluded view of facts. Nor any particular analysis. We are working our way very carefully through the facts and we will come to the conclusion and analysis in due course. We won't leap to conclusions. Do we know what the motivation was? Do we know what the object of the exercise was? No. What do we know? We know that in the space of an hour and a half, an attack was made upon the life of the President of East Timor, which was nearly successful and an attack was made upon the Prime Minister of East Timor.

We regard this as a fundamental attack upon East Timor and its duly elected government. Now the Foreign Minister has made it clear that the Government of East Timor regards what has occurred as effectively criminal acts, which he is proposing to pursue, as I've indicated previously, and today. Whether that is done by East Timor police, East Timor military or utilising the International Stabilisation Force or ADF for New Zealand police, or officers as the case, maybe, will be a matter operationally on the ground.

But I think the Government of East Timor has made it crystal clear that it is proposing to pursue the perpetrators of these crimes, and the advice I've given to them is the sensible thing to do is to hand over their arms and give themselves in.

QUESTIONS: But there's one other thing that you know, and that is that for 18 months they've tried to get Reinado…

STEPHEN SMITH: Well that's not, no, no, that's not…

QUESTION: …[inaudible] an attack on his village. I mean…

STEPHEN SMITH: …that's not, that's not right, because as I indicated earlier, sometime ago and I'm happy to stand corrected on the time, but I think it was almost nine months ago, the Government of East Timor requested the International Stabilisation Force to desist from seeking to apprehend Reinado on the basis of the view of the East Timorese Government, particularly the President, that a negotiated agreement or outcome could be effected.

That was reflected in most recent times, last week, when a chance meeting of an Australian Defence Force patrol with Reinado, where Reinado's men fired warning shots and the ADF contingent part of the International Stabilisation Force sensibly didn't engage and retreated, or withdrew. Part of that was knowing that for some considerable period of time the attitude of the East Timorese Government has been not to engage for the hope of brokering or negotiating effectively a political outcome.

In the event, we didn't see that. What we saw was, you know, a very tragic and terrible circumstance. Now as I said earlier I'm not proposing to reflect upon that decision, but there's obviously something which over time the East Timorese Government, the Australian Government and the Internationalisation - International Stabilisation Force and the United Nations will no doubt reflect upon.

QUESTION: Mr da Costa, the verdict in your opinion was it a mistake not to continue to pursue Reinado?

ZACARIAS DA COSTA: No. I think - and if you know President Ramos-Horta, you know that he's a man of dialogue and you also know that we are a young country, not yet five years old, do we have a lot of fragilities, a lot of challenges, a lot of problems and we need to face each of our problems with our own view of the reality that we are facing.

So President Horta, together with Prime Minister Xanana have decided that the best way is to engage in dialogue with all, not only with the Alfredo, with petitioners, with [inaudible]. We chose the most pressing issues that the Government of Timor has been facing at the moment. So I don't think it's a - it was a wrong decision. Unfortunately, the outcome was different than what we had imagined, but I think it was the right decision.

QUESTION: Last question please - the security rights to the Prime Minister and President, will that be taken over by Australian troops now?

STEPHEN SMITH: Well for some time and, again I think it's a longer period of time than a year or so, the East Timorese Government has proceeded on the basis of the personal security arrangements for the President and the Prime Minister being provided by East Timorese Government officials or police, or personal protection services. That's been the case for some time.

Now whether - if in light of what's occurred, the East Timorese Government want to review that, that's a matter for the East Timorese Government. If, at any stage, the Australian Government gets a request to provide protection services of that nature, then obviously we would respond positively and favourably to it. But in the first instance, that's a matter for East Timor, for the East Timorese Government.

And given what's occurred, you know, in the calm days and weeks ahead, not in the first 24 hours, I'm sure again that there will be a calm and sober consideration of that arrangement and whether there are better arrangements that can be put in place for the future. I think we've got one more. Sorry? Sorry? One more.

QUESTION: [Inaudible] what time the HMAS Perth actually was stationed off Dili, what time their arrival?

STEPHEN SMITH: I don't know the precise time, but it was sometime early this morning Australian east - sometime this morning Australian eastern time. I understand, again I'm happy to stand corrected, I understand that from this morning, Dili time, HMAS Perth has been visible on the horizon.

QUESTION: What are the rules of engagement, [inaudible]?

STEPHEN SMITH: Well the rules of engagement are operational. I'm not proposing to respond to that.

QUESTION: [Inaudible]

STEPHEN SMITH: I…

QUESTION: [Inaudible] must be fairly close to...

STEPHEN SMITH: I don't know where it was previously stationed yet, but obviously it was in the vicinity because it arrived quite quickly. Okay.

QUESTION: [Inaudible]

STEPHEN SMITH: I think it just happened to be in the vicinity. I'm sure if you direct your question to Defence, they will be able to give you an answer to that, that's not operational. But I have - my understanding is that fortunately it happened to be in the vicinity and it was able to be deployed in the manner in which I've outlined.

Okay. Thanks very much. Thank you. Thanks.

Ends

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