BACK DOOR Newsletter on East Timor

A collection of items about repairing and rejuvenating the environment following the massive violence and destruction of infrastructure committed by militia groups trained and supported by the Indonesian army.

NEW = Added to BACK DOOR Website since last Monday's Emailout

Jan 17 HTLee: Asbestos epidemic in East Timor, but UNTAET negates its responsibility  Article added Jan 18
"There is a big asbestos problem in East Timor. UNTAET has been made aware of it since December 1999. However, UNTAET has failed to make the removal of asbestos a priority and has not notified the East Timorese and the thousands of foreigners working there about its dangers. ... Asbestos is a silent killer and there is no safe level to its exposure. The victims do not even know they have been attacked until 10 or more years down the track. By then it is too late and the victim suffers an agonising death." HT Lee, freelance photojournalist

Jan 17 Lee, McKinley King, Shaw: Asbestos problem in East Timor  Report added Jan 18
"The removal of asbestos using Australian NOHSC standard must be made a top priority. The East Timor Constituent Assembly can and is in a unique position to make UNTAET accept this fact and act on it. The cleaning up of the asbestos will be a huge task which will require additional funding from donor countries as well as additional assistance from abroad. Many organisations including trade unions in Australia would be more than happy to provide the assistance ... Finally, the clean up of the asbestos would require the importation of large quantities of disposable asbestos overalls and masks. These items could be manufactured in East Timor as a cottage industry to provide local employment." HT Lee, Julian McKinley King & Andrea Shaw

Jun 29 FRETILIN Italia: Open letter to FRETILIN  Letter added June 30
"I ask that every economic choice respects our environmental heritage. ... I ask a strategy that units tradition and modernity. I want to exploit and respect the tradition of spirituality, that our people use to solve every daily problem. Mankind has to find solutions to the terrible environmental problems. Animism is the best example of integration between man and environment. The Sonda arcipelagus we belong to is one of the earth lungs and the human being survival pushes us towards an ecologically sustainable  technology. Our culture is able to produce a territory respectful development based on the recycling of resources. I think that we have to refuse both western industrialization and an agriculture based on large land estate or monoculture." David Dias Quintas Corona, FRETILIN rep in Italy

June 2001 LHB: Communities working together  Article added June 22
"People are joining together to insist on greater control over the decisions that affect their lives and living spaces. A transnational coalition of development, human rights, and environmental organizations holds counter-meetings called the Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Forum at the annual meetings of the World Bank and the IMF. The coalition maintains that citizens must press these public institutions to direct the billions of dollars of public resources each is entrusted with into democratic, socially just and environmentally sustainable development." La'o Hamutuk: East Timor Institute for Reconstruction Monitoring and Analysis

Jun 13 ET NGO: Donors’ Conference: Environment  Paper added June 15
"Current environmental issues are inextricably related to environmental management in the previous era. For this reason, current environmental management cannot be divorced from the need to change community perspectives, which have become unconsciously caught up in environmentally damaging ways of exploiting natural resources. ... These challenges require holistic and multi-sectoral approaches to environmental management, where environmental issues are viewed as interdependent with other types of issues, including how policy is formulated." Forum Nacional ONG Timor Lorosa'e / The East Timor National NGO Forum

May 25 GLW: World Bank dictates development  Article added June 9
"There is a common perception that the World Bank is a subsidiary or support group for the UN, which is not the case. ... The World Bank is indirectly at the moment - and I think with stronger pressure in the future - pushing the East Timorese into developing cash crops for export, in particular, organic coffee. This will create pressure on old traditional title and [lead to] the resolution of land disputes in favour of large landholders [who seek] to consolidate and create cash-cropping areas, which also poses the threat of environmental degradation." Tim Anderson, researcher, AID/WATCH: Monitoring the Development Dollar

Tetum:
Abríl 2001 BLH: Faktos Kona Ba We Botir  Overview added June 27
"Botir plastiku mamuk nian iha quartel UNTAET nia liur. Ida ne’e bidon recycle (mengembalikan) ida, maibe sei barak tan; botir barak mak sei soe namakare halo foer. ... Estimasaun distribuisaun ba tinan ida: botir 10,5 miliaun ... Estimasaun ba kustus tinan ida nian laran: 4 miliaun dolar" La’o Hamutuk, Instituto Timor Lorosa’e ba Analiza no Monitoring Reconstrucao

Feb 17 Conference on Sustainable Development a great success  Release added July 25
" ... sustainable development should be the basis for planning and implementing development in East Timor. ... The conference accepted for East Timor, the internationally recognised definition that "sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs". Sustainable development addresses the linkages between environment, economy and social well-being. ... [Recommendations] included the key recommendation for sustainable development to be written into East Timor’s Constitution." Conference on Sustainable Development in East Timor coordinating committee

Bahasa Indonesia:
Jan 25-31 KPB: REKOMENDASI: Pembangunan Berkelanjutan di Timor Lorosa’e  Article added Aug 3
"4. Selesaikan masalah-masalah yang menyangkut ketidakberlanjutan sesegera mungkin. Misalnya:
· Reboisasi batas air; · Masalah lingkungan hidup di perkotaan dan pedesaan, difokuskan pada air, sanitasi, perumahan, dan undang-undang mengenai tanah di perkotaan; · Land tenure dan hak untuk penggunaan sumber daya alam secara berkelanjutan; · Penangkapan ikan yang tidak terkontrol di pantai selatan laut Timor Lorosa’e; · Mengakui dan melindungi pemakaian tanaman-tanaman secara adat; · Kemajuan yang terbatas dalam mencapai kehidupan yang berkelanjutan bagi pemuda baik di kota maupun desa" Konferensi Pembangunan Berkelanjutan di Timor Lorosa'e

Bahasa Indonesia:
Jan 25-31 KPB: Persepsi Orang Timor Lorosa'e Tentang Kebudayaan dan Lingkungan Hidup
Laporan ditambahkan tanggal 20 November
"Pada sesi introduksi, Dionisio Babo Soares juga membahas hubungan antara budaya tradisional dan lingkungan hidup dalam pandangan orang Timor Lorosa'e. Disimpulkannya, "budaya, menurut orang-orang Timor Lorosa'e, merupakan cara melestarikan 'lingkungan hidup' dan lingkungan hidup tidak akan ada apabila budaya tidak dihormati. Keduanya saling terkait dan merupakan sumber kelangsungan hidup manusia". Dalam makalahnya yang dimuat dalam buku ini, Soares juga membahas mengenai keadaan lingkungan hidup baik sebelum maupun selama masa penjajahan Portugis, serta selama Indonesia." Kata Pengantar, Konferensi Pembangunan Berkelanjutan di Timor Lorosa'e

Bahasa Indonesia:
Jan 25-31 KPB: Lingkungan Hidup dan Masyarakat Sipil
Artikel ditambahkan tanggal 18 November
"Advokasi pelestarian lingkungan hidup selalu dibutuhkan. Prinsip dasarnya adalah: jangan biarkan pemerintah dan perusahaan bekerja sendiri, tanpa keterlibatan masyarakat. ...
Usulan saya untuk agenda di sini: • Mengawasi pemerintah dalam kebijakan dan pembuatan undang-undang, baik yang dibuat UNTAET maupun pemerintahan baru hasil pemilu. • Pengawasan Donor, seperti USAID, UNDP, ADB, WB, karena kelakuan mereka yang dapat menghancurkan lingkungan hidup kita. • Membuat Undang-Undang Lingkungan Hidup yang sesuai dengan kebutuhan-kebutuhan di Timor Lorosa’e- yang mengakui hak-hak masyarakat asli. • Pengelolaan Lingkungan Hidup oleh masyarakat – jangan biarkan hutan-hutan dikuasai oleh pengusaha. Masyarakat harus tetap memegang haknya untuk mengelola dan memiliki hutannya sendiri. • Mengawasi investasi yang masuk. Jangan ulangi kesalahan Indonesia. • Mengawasi korupsi, pemerintahan pasti korupsi. • Memperjuangkan transparansi, tanggung gugat, dan partisipasi dalam proses demokrasi. • Mendasarkan kebijakan-kebijakan baru pada adat dan kebiasaan lokal, jangan membuangkannya, tetapi menggabungkannya dengan sistem demokratik yang baik.
Lakukan sekarang juga, selagi pemerintah masih dekat dengan masyarakat- makin lama pemerintahan berkuasa, mereka makin jauh dari kita." Emmy Hafild, WALHI / FOE Indonesia

Jan 25-30 2001 CSD: Introduction to Conference on Sustainable Development  Article added July 25
" ... the human system is an integral part of the ecosystem. A society is sustainable only if both the human condition and the condition of the ecosystem are satisfactory or improving. If either is unsatisfactory or worsening, the society is unsustainable.
... The livelihoods of East Timorese people depend on a healthy and productive environment. All people and industries for example, depend on a healthy water supply. Agriculture, fisheries, and tourism also depend on the environment. To meet people’s needs now and for future generations, East Timor’s natural resource base must be conserved and improved."  Mr Jose Lobato, Timor Aid

Jan 25-31 2001 CSD: Recommendations of Conference on Sustainable Development  Added Aug 3
"4. Address acute unsustainability concerns without delay. Examples include: * Deforestation of watersheds * Rural and urban primary environmental care, with attention to water and sanitation and housing, and urban land law * Land tenure and rights for sustainable resource use * Uncontrolled fishing on the southern banks of the seas of Timor Lorosa’e * Recognise and conserve indigenous cultivars of useful plants * Limited progress on achieving sustainable livelihoods for both urban and rural youth"  Conference on Sustainable Development in East Timor

Jan 25-31 2001 CSD: ETTA: The Natural Resources of East Timor  Overview added July 25
"Because East Timor has ruled by other people for so long, the management of natural resources in this country has not received serious attention. The result is that today there is widespread deforestation and there are several species of bird and animals that are threatened with extinction. ... Thus if we wish to develop a better future for East Timor, the biophysical environment and natural resources of East Timor must be given attention so as to avoid further destruction and to repair environmental damage." Mario N. Nunes, Manger ETTA Forestry Unit

Tetum:
Boletim La’o Hamutuk: [PDF formatu]
Vol. 1, No. 2, 17 Julho 2000
Protesaun ba meio ambiente iha TL:
http://www.etan.org/lh/PDFs/bulletin02tetum.pdf

The La'o Hamutuk Bulletin:
Vol. 1, No. 2: 17 July 2000 Focus on the Environment:
http://www.etan.org/lh/bulletin02.html