Timor Leste: Strong Government, Weak State
Introduction On 4 December 2002 hundreds of demonstrators rampaged through Dili targeting "foreign" properties, including a supermarket and two hotels, and the homes of the Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, and his immediate family. Rioters also attacked Dili's An Mur Mosque, which some saw as an anti-Islamic or anti-Indonesian action, but may well have been aimed at the Mosque's most well-known member, Alkatiri himself. The crowd also chanted anti-police slogans. The government of Timor Leste1 is yet to release a full report on the reasons for the riot, which left two protesters dead and others injured, most likely related to the decision of the police to use live rounds to control the crowd. Rumours have abounded as to who the crowd were and what they wanted. Variously they are described as students, the unemployed, former militia men and policemen from Indonesian times, or even a rival group from Alkatiri's own party, Fretilin (and various combinations of all these groupings). While it was popular to speak of agitators, the fact that a crowd was so easy to mobilize was worrying and indicative of underlying tensions towards the government, the police, and foreign businesses. Dire predictions of widespread chaos did not, however, eventuate. Instead, the security threat to Timor Leste continues to remain a latent, but very real, threat. Pro-Indonesian militia elements still present an irritant to the border security of Timor Leste, causing concerns about the ability of Timor Leste to control its own security with the winding down of the United Nations mission. Yet a threat from within Timor Leste caused a great deal of concern within government circles, namely, the difficulties from ex-Falintil guerrilla fighters who were left out of government hiring after independence. A war of words continues with a hardcore of radical veterans insisting on a return to the 1975 Constitution, a suspension of the current government and a complete with drawal of the United Nations. Security forces have also struggled to control criminal elements that have emerged throughout the province.
International Interim Governments, Democratization, and Post-Conflict Peace-building: Lessons from Cambodia and East Timor; Strategic Insights, v. 5, issue 1 (January 2006)
Introduction Three years ago the British diplomat Robert Cooper created a huge controversy when he argued that “liberal imperialism” is a legitimate response to the chaos and disorder of civil strife and disrupted states (Cooper 2002). But yesterday’s heresy has become today’s conventional wisdom. In his new book “Empire Lite”, Michael Ignatieff (2003), declares: “Temporary imperialism ― Empire Lite ― has become the necessary condition for democracy in countries torn apart by civil war”. Is he right? Is externally directed and monitored democratization an appropriate strategy for successful peace-building in post-conflict environments? Are liberal protectorates, transitional regimes or international interim regimes stable institutional bridges between regimes that can carry a society from conflict to sustainable peace? This paper seeks to discuss this subject with reference to Cambodia and East Timor, two prime examples for UN-led “international interim governments” that have played key roles in post-conflict peace-building. In discussing the question: ‘to what extent have the international interim governments contributed to democratization and post-conflict peace-building in Cambodia and East Timor’, TP1 PT this study also considers the following four specific questions, raised by the organizers of this workshop: 1. What was the nature of the international interim governments in Cambodia and East Timor? 2. How did the fact that both international interim governments were UN-led affect the legitimacy, working and stability of the interim government? 3. How did the transitional authority provide the necessary stability and how did it conduct its mission? 4. What did both governments achieve and how sustainable were their outcomes? Doing so, the paper proceeds in sixth steps: First, I will discuss the relationship between democratization through international interim governments and peace-building. The main argument developed here is that democratic transition directed and monitored through international interim governments must be seen as
Pioneer 10 Observations of the Ultraviolet Glow in the Vicinity of Jupiter
A two-channel ultraviolet photometer aboard Pioneer 10 has made several observations of the ultraviolet glow in the wavelength range from 170 to 1400 angstroms in the vicinity of Jupiter. Preliminary results indicate a Jovian hydrogen (1216 angstrom) glow with a brightness of about 1000 rayleighs and a helium (584 angstrom) glow with a brightness of about 10 to 20 rayleighs. In addition, Jupiter appears to have an extensive hydrogen torus surrounding it in the orbital plane of Io. The mean diameter of the torus is about equal to the diameter of the orbit of Io. Several observations of the Galilean satellites have also occurred but only a rather striking Io observation has been analyzed to date. If the observed Io glow is predominantly that of Lyman-α, the surface brightness is about 10,000 rayleighs.