Rest & Recuperation

That's the technical term for mandatory holidays in UN peace-keeping missions. Every 12 weeks - it used to be 8! - we are 'forced' out of the country for some well earned rest. By that count I should already have gone but we had a frozen period during the elections which has just been opened as of tomorrow...

So with no time to waste, tomorrow will see me on a plane - just hope my ear drum won't mind too much - to Bali to meet up with J, FINALLY! We haven't seen each other since I left and although communication has been great, albeit the running credit and the shortage of network, I have missed him, A LOT!

Needless to say, you probably won't be hearing from me for the next two weeks, I'll be busy exploring Bali for the second time in a year and Timor's east side of the island, among other things of course hihihi

See you in two weeks!

Not for the faint hearted

I mean it! Please ignore this post otherwise.
The photo you are about to see is a photo we received last friday from our security officer with the head title "Human leg found at Batugade Beach: FYI and avoid swimming"...

It's ghastly isn't it!? A reminder that crocodiles definitely exist in Timor Leste!
The worst was that on the way back from Dili on Friday, M and I decided to stop at this same beach to enjoy the sunset over the water before we had to go back to the mountains and the valley of Maliana. It was a beautiful sunset and we said to ourselves we have to come back one weekend and enjoy Batugade beach. We're both Portuguese so the need for water and the sea runs in our veins. Everytime we come down from Maliana, as soon as we see the ocean from up in the mountains it's like we're at peace, like everything is alright. I can't explain it, I just need to see water, especially the sea. But you can imagine our horror when, after arriving back at home in Maliana, M goes through her e-mails and finds this warning from our security officer, supposedly having happened at the beach we had just vacated!!

Our flatmate J, though, told us that he has received this photo before, a year ago or so... so apparently, it's one of those things that are running around the e-mails of Timor Leste and people pick it up now and again to serve as a warning not to underestimate the crocodiles of Timor Leste, even though none of us, UNVs, has yet seen one since arriving...

So, apologies to the faint hearted, it's just another story from Timor Leste, the island of the 'not so sleeping' crocodile...

Second round and a new president for Timor Leste

I was supposed to have written this post last Tuesday, the day after the second round of elections. However, at 8:30 am on Tuesday last I was told last minute that I would have to go to Dili to accompany the convoy carrying the final ballot box with Bobonaro's result for national tabulation. The convoy left two hours after, leaving me only with time to do my MOP - authorization required in peacekeeping missions for travel outside of your duty station - and a small suitcase for 3 days in Dili.

But I should really start at the beginning...

Sunday, April 15th, at 7am, the sun was out and Bobonaro STAE office was ready and set to deploy the ballot boxes to the 68 polling centres and 81 polling stations in the district. This time we were finally using helicopters, albeit some very stressing last minute changes with MOPs - for the use of helicopters, an MOP is like your ticket onboard, without it you don't fly so you can imagine how stressful it can be when I was missing 8 MOPs for the PNTL officers 20 minutes before flight! But all was sorted in the end and the helicopter came and went with the electoral materials to the two inacessible sites in Bobonaro, that was the fun part!

After I was done getting the helicopters sorted back to STAE I went to join the convoy to my other two assigned polling stations...unfortunately, I was too late and my convoy left without me...I ended up staying in  Maliana on standby all day listening to the radio to hear the progress in dropping off the electoral material.

Monday, however, was another story. Election day for the second round in the presidential elections. Two candidates, both heroes in the war against the Indonesian invasion, both with military background but only with the backing of Xanana Gusmao. As soon as we heard that Xanana was giving his support to TMR, the outcome was obvious. This nation vibrates off of Xanana's emotions and political leanings. In Ainaro, for instance, my colleague told me that after Xanana came for a political rally people believed that he was the candidate, or otherwise, that it didn't matter if he was the candidate or not, whatever he said, went, the people are behind him. One old lady even said that she would stop voting after Xanana died, considering she was older than Xanana, I find that unlikely but she will continue her support for Xanana and whoever he backs, that's a certainty.

We started by going around Maliana monitoring the polling stations. Everything was calm and peaceful. We even got to accompany the mobile units, the ones that go to the hospitals so that patients and hospital staff can vote. We had one minor incident involving backing up into a motorcyle - it seems they do it on purpose even, they park their bikes right behind a car so that the car can't see (we were in the buffalo, our line of vision was completely impaired) and then they wait until it's too late and they ask for money, oh well, thank goodness the UN has insurance...After lunch, we were on our way to collect the ballot boxes and results from our assigned polling centres. I got two different ones this time, Lourba and Lour...in the last round, due to the rain, these two centres were on helicopter request so you can imagine the roads, or lack thereof, to actually get there! But get there we did, the counting was done well, the trainings that the polling staff had in between rounds definitely helped a lot! When the counting was done and we were set to go, dark clouds looming in the sky could be seen, making the descent down to Maliana very risky if they started to pour but luckily all they did was loom, no rain was seen all day, which was a welcome change from the first round. Everything realyl went a lot better this time, we were back in Maliana by 8pm! I was surprised when I was told by the CNE commissioner that the helicopters would not be required to pick up the ballot boxes from the inacessible places, they had all managed to get to Maliana by car...so much for inacessible!!! We were set to finish everything by 11-midnight at the max when the internet server went down and we had to wait for two excruciating hours - some of the staff even made makeshift beds with the cabin booths so they could sleep! By 2:30 internet was back, we were online and finished! All 68 polling centers were accounted for, the mistakes were minor and rather technical and everyone seemed happy with the results: TMR won with 70.01% of the vote and Lu'Olo trailed behing with a 29.99%. The results were mirrored in the rest of the country except for Baucau and Viqueque (Viqueque witness some burnt houses and stoning but it was expected, it's the only volatile district that blows at any election) , the two strongholds of Lu'Olo but otherwise no incidents were accounted on election day...

The next day, Tuesday, as I wrote earlier, we sped off to Dili, sometimes travelling at 120km an hour down very perilous roads, it was quite a show, barreling down the main avenue inDdili with 10 cars, half of them police with sirens and everything, into the CNE headquaters with the final Aktas bearing the results for Bobonaro district! Very exciting indeed!

The national results have by now been announced, Tuar Matan Ruak (TMR) won with a wide majority and Lu'Olo has accepted the results, peacefully and calmly, which is what the UN and the world needed to see, the proof that Timor Leste is ready for independent governance, ready for a new dawn.

Fingerprints and ballot papers

I know, you're probably wondering why I haven't written for a while...
To be honest, it's because nothing worthwhile has happened since the last time I wrote!

Easter came and went in a stupor of heat with nothing to do...at least we had an Easter dinner, but with Indian, Philippine and Indonesian food as well as shisha smoking, I have to say it was the most interesting Easter dinner I've ever witnessed!

We're also starting to crave and plan for our vacations! We're entitled to rest and recuperation breaks every 12 weeks...by that count we were supposed to have taken them already but all leave was frozen until after the presidential elections so we only have permission to go on leave from April 28th onwards...Bali, here I come!

Oh and I witnessed a very interesting thing, I went to the bank the other day and there was a Timorese lady in front of me, since she couldn't write, the bank teller had her sign with her fingerprint in red ink! I don't know how they do in other countries with high illiteracy rates but I thought this to be very cool indeed, now I just wonder if they keep a fingerprint record of all their clients like the police do with all the criminals!

As for work, it came to a near standstill here after the first round of elections. No orders were coming from Dili or even from STAE...

I therefore learned to make my own clothes in the meantime just to pass the time...There is a great deal of batik fabric from Indonesia available here that make beautiful tops and skirts! Orders available, enquire here hihi

Voter education finally started up again last week, the polling staff had another training to try to avoid the same mistakes that happened in the first round and that was about it until this week...

With three days to go until the second round everyone is making sure that we are set and ready to go!
Ballot papers arrived on time and were thoroughly verified...that is, until a rumour came up that some of the ballot papers that went to Covalima were already perforated for one the candidates! Oh the scandal!! What did this mean for us? We actually had to recheck every single ballot paper to check for perforations or marks in favour of one of the candidates!! We started yesterday before lunch and finally finished this morning, all 65,000 ballot papers assigned to Bobonaro District, that's a LOT of ballot papers to check!

Now the sensistive ballot boxes are being filled up as we speak and will be ready for deployment on Sunday. The government has already granted Monday and Tuesday as holidays to allow people to travel to their assigned polling centers to vote. The only thing that could get in our way this time is, again, the weather...it has hardly rained in the last 2 weeks and yet both today, yesterday and the day before the skies decided to darken and come pouring down! So c'mon weather gods, please let it not rain again! The helicopters are actually set and ready this time and all the controversial arguments against using them - lack of police protection and what not - have been sorted, so fingers crossed it will be an easy one...

Only thing is, there are already signs of trouble among the voters, with news of opposing supporters attacking each other...time to get my evacuation bag ready and hope for the best!

Oh, and the president - incubent not future of course - has already set the date for the Parliamentary Elections...they will be held July 7th, meaning, in all likehood, I'll be staying put here until end of July!

In the meantime, here are some elections news for you:

José Luís Guterres: Timorese should determine UN mission
Timor Post (page 20)Acting Prime Minister José Luís Guterres said that it is important for the Timorese to determine the mission of the United Nations in Timor-Leste through its election by maintaining peace and stability during the election period.

"The Timorese should maintain peace and stability; this is not only to create calm or have a good situation for us but to show to the international people that the Timorese are also democratic people, respect each other and have political maturity. By this we can show the international community that we do not need people from other countries to come to maintain security and other countries should not come to help us organize the elections," said Guterres.

Guterres said that the run-off election campaign is running peacefully, demonstrating that the Timorese people can maintain peace and security.

“We hope that stability will hold well, not only during the elections but that it will be ongoing, because we want to govern ourselves,” said Guterres.

He said that some minor isolated cases continue to happen, but that the Timorese Defence Force (F-FDTL) and the National Police (PNTL) are ready to ensure security during the second round of the presidential election.

Supporters of two candidates attack each other, two injured
Independente (cover page) The recent incident occurred in Osso-Huna Village, Baucau District, in which the supporters of the two presidential candidates attacked each other resulting in two injured people who were hospitalized in Baucau.

One Ruak supporter was also injured when assaulted by supporters of Lu-Olo in Maluro, Quelicai Sub-District on 4April.

Fretilin Coordinator in Baucau, Talik Reis said that their followers were attacked by supporters of Ruak in Osso-Huna Village while the victims were on their way to Baguia.

"The victim sustained a number of injures on his body, his mouth is also swollen," said Reis.

He said that they will hand the case over to the Baucau District Police to resolve it, and that they will continue to contribute to maintenance of peace.

Timorese Police Deputy Commander Afonso de Jesus said that the general security situation is under control even though some minor cases continue to happen.

Bishop da Silva: Using Bishop's picture in campaigning is manipulation
Diário Nacional (cover page)

Bishop for Dili Diocese, Monsignor Alberto Ricardo said that the Catholic Church accuses the promotion team of Lu-Olo of manipulation during their political campaigns as they used the picture of three bishops of Timor-Leste in their political interest.

"Using the picture of a bishop in a political campaign is not good and is considered to be manipulation," said Ricardo.

Gusmão reads Alkatiri and Horta's SMS to the people of Suai
Diário Nacional (cover page)

President of the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) Xanana Gusmão shared the short message services (SMS) that he received from Mari Alkatiri and José Ramos-Horta.

"This morning I received a SMS from Alkatiri asking me to stop insulting other people. I said I do not insult other people," said Gusmão, while speaking to the people of Suai, in Covalima District.

“If you keep stoning people, destroying others’ objects and threatening others I will keep telling the population and your militants to become a militant of a good party,” said Gusmão in his message to Alkatiri.

According to Gusmão, if they (Lu-Olo and Alkatiri) mention his name in the campaign it does not mean that they insult him.

Gusmão said that he supports Taur Matan Ruak because he is an independent candidate and a candidate for all the people.

“When a candidate is independent he will gather all the people as Taur Matan Ruak is embracing all Timorese. That is the reason why Xanana is behind Taur Matan Ruak,” said Gusmão.