ETIMOR: Australian PM heads to Dili for talks
Updated
A key issue for the Australian prime minister's talks in East Timor will be the future of nearly 800 Australian troops in East Timor since last year's political crisis.
Presenter: Graeme Dobell
Speakers: Bob Lowry, previously an adviser on East Timor's national security structure, and the author of a new study on Australian interests in East Timor
LOWRY: Well I think the Prime Minister will be basically looking to highlight any changes that his government will apply in terms of its policy relationship with East Timor. But there is already a United Nations mission there which Australia has had a part in. Australia also provides considerable aid under AusAID and direct military assistance, and so the government of East Timor will be anxious to see whether there'll be any changes in any of these policy areas.
DOBELL: What sort of assurances would Dili want from the new government?
LOWRY: As a minimum I think they'd want to see the continuance of the aid they're getting at the moment, especially the financial aid, and the military assistance and the direct military assistance. There is some question as to whether that should be put under UN control or not, but I doubt that that policy will change because of the flexibility it provides. And the only question will be whether that will continue into the future and whether Australia will in effect continue to be the internal security guarantor of last resort.
DOBELL: The Prime Minister is flying from Bali so he's touched base with Indonesia. How much does the Rudd government have to balance off its Indonesia interests and how much can it offer to East Timor while keeping an eye on Indonesia?
LOWRY: Well obviously both the Indonesian and Australian governments don't want East Timor to become the people in the shoe as it was referred to by a previous government in Indonesia. And they've setup a trilateral arrangement for ministers to meet to sort out any particular problems there are, but at this stage there are no particular issues, the border issue is being resolved and there's not much in terms of the land border to be resolved at the moment. But there will after that be the question of maritime boundaries, which will be a much more complex thing. But that will mainly involve Indonesia and East Timor.
DOBELL: After the political chaos in East Timor last year, after the destruction that took place, what role does Australia now have to play in East Timor?
LOWRY: Well basically East Timor's got to construct a nation from scratch, and even though it's been in the process of that since 1999, it's got still a long way to go. The principle source of income is oil and gas money, there's basically no private enterprise of any note there. So you've got to construct an economy, you've got to construct the agencies of government and get them functioning effectively, and creating employment through private investment is the big challenge for the East Timorese government.
DOBELL: Is it accepted in Dili, is it accepted in Canberra that Australia must play some role as a guarantor or protector?
LOWRY: Well in East Timor there are divided opinions on this, some people would like to see others involved, some would like to see Australian forces under the command of the United Nations mission. But generally speaking quite obviously Australian forces are accepted there by the government, otherwise they wouldn't be there.
DOBELL: Is that a comfortable role for Australia?
LOWRY: Well it's demanding in terms of resources and Australia would like to get those troops out of there as quickly as possible. And they may be able to start winding them down within the next few months. But it's not a comfortable role because they are seen at various times to be partisan in terms of their political impact.
DOBELL: As the world's newest nation how well is East Timor going at building itself as a nation, at creating new institutions?
LOWRY: It's going reasonably well, there's a lot that has been done in those terms by the previous government that can be built on by the new government. But fundamental issues like the relationship between the President and the Prime Minister in terms of their constitutional authority and how they actually run the agencies of government needs to be finalised and agreement reached on how far, how much authority the President has in reality. And that may entail some changes to the constitution so that they're acting within a constitutional framework.
DOBELL: Is that a recipe for further instability if East Timor is still trying to work out how to structure its government?
LOWRY: It is because if there is tension between the presidency and the prime ministership or executive government then you can have the sorts of problems we saw last year, where you had the conflict between the police and the military.
