30 NT NEWS. Saturday, May 26, 2012. www.ntnews.com.au

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Mica Rosario Doutel, above left, takes in the excitement of the celebrations, while revellers take to the stage Pictures: JUSTIN SANSON

Timorese military at the ceremonies

FromPage 29

Tasi Tolu in the back of atroop carrier uninvited.

Late last Saturday after-noon, we flew into Dili withNorthern Territory ChiefMinister Paul Hendersonand a small delegation in anine seater charter.

And then we went into aholding pattern off the coastas we waited for the Aust-ralian Governor-GeneralQuentin Bryce’s plane toland. Some VIPs are moreVIP than others. As we wal-ked across the tarmac, theGG and party were walkingthe red carpet into the VIPreception terminal.

About 1500 people of Tim-orese or Timorese Chineseorigin are in the Territory,many who fled during In-donesian rule, so MrHenderson says the con-nection is strong.

He was also the bearer ofa gift to new President JoseMaria Vasconcelos, betterknown as Taur Matan Ruak— meaning ‘‘two sharpeyes’’ in the local languageTetun — from the Territorypeople: an akubra.

‘‘To actually re-build acountry from scratch hasbeen an enormous achieve-ment and 10 years on youcan see improvementseverywhere you go,’’ MrHenderson said.

Large rectangle mar-quees at Tasi Tolu, touchedby Asian flamboyance withbunting in national flagcolours of red, black,

yellow and white, were fil-led with dignitaries.

On a couch in the front ofone, Prime Minister Gus-mao sat with Australianwife Kirsty Sword Gusmao,with their young son, wholater slept behind them onthe couch. Timorese politic-ians do like long speeches.

More than 60 dignitariesfrom Indonesia, includingPresident Susilo BambangYudhoyono, attended, andabout 160 from Portugal,including its President,Anibal Cavaco.

It was described as an actof humility for the Indones-ian President to be there,particularly as during theindependence ceremony 10years earlier an Indonesianwarship had manoeuvredinto Dili Harbour.

Mr Yudhoyono had metwith outgoing President DrJose Ramos-Horta duringthe day and said they hadagreed to strengthen theirrelationship in areas of ec-onomics, politics, and inter-national co-operation.

The people stood just be-hind a small white wirefence, separating them froma VIP cocktail receptionarea. At the front of this wasthe swearing-in stage forthe new president and infront of that, anotherfenced-off area of locals andbehind them a large stageon which a concert and cul-tural festival had been held.

Just after midnight,Nobel laureate Dr Ramos-Horta joked that his speechwas extending his term as

president. ‘‘I have alreadystolen 30 minutes and I amstill president. If my speechgoes on for another twohours, three hours, I willstill be president,’’ he said.

He reflected on the horrorof the occupation of his na-tion, which he spent outsideTimor Leste fighting tokeep the country’s struggleon the international stageand on the UN agenda.

‘‘I never thought then,

neither did you, that itwould take almost a quarterof a century for us toregain our land and free-dom before I would returnhome,’’ he said.

‘‘We walked the long walkin the wilderness of inter-national indifference andabandonment, we crossedthe desert of oppressionand fear.

‘‘We climbed the moun-

tains, crossed the ravines,valleys, forests, rivers, ofthis majestic island given tous by the Almighty andlegated (sic) by our ances-tors who first settled here40,000 years ago.

‘‘We rose from the dead,survived our wars and paidfor our sins. But many, toomany, are gone for ever,human beings killed by hu-man beings, brothers killedby brothers.’’

He reflected that freedomcame with responsibilitynot to mirror the violence.

‘‘I have often said, and Irepeat again tonight, thereis no greater justice thanfreedom and in 1999 Indon-esia and the internationalcommunity sanctioned thefreedom for which wefought and died,’’ he said.

Mr Henderson also gifteda one-off fully-funded uni-

versity scholarship on be-half of the Territory Gov-ernment to Mr Gusmao. ATimorese citizen will studyfor an Associated Degree inProcess Engineering at therecently established Char-les Darwin UniversityNorth Australian Centrefor Oil and Gas.

‘‘And I think as a goodneighbour it’s the rightthing to do to share oppor-tunities with Timorese kidshere in Timor Leste,’’ hesaid. Mr Henderson saidfrom a business perspectiveTimor was one of thelargest growing tradingpartners with the Territory.

Ten years ago, I foundmyself briefly living at aCatholic agricultural andtechnical school calledFuiloro in the far east of thecountry, about 10km fromthe town of Los Palos.

Some Australians offeredto take me with them to Dilifor independence.

My new friends could getme only halfway home but Inaively said I would walkthe remainder, confident aUN group would pass andoffer a lift.

As the sun started to setand I realised it was a longway back to the secondlargest city of Baucau, a bat-tered Tarago van stopped topick me up.

The driver, the only onein the van who could speakEnglish, told me his uncle, aformer guerrilla fighter andvillage chief, had instructedhim to pick me up.

They took me back to

their small village on a hill.And a man who had foughtfor many years in themountains to win freedomfor his country, watched ashis now independent na-tion’s flag was raised for thefirst time in his village.

Then we drank warmVBs and talked through hisnephew of the long strugglein the jungle.

It was the first of two,long and intense flag-raising ceremonies I wouldsee in my 19 hours on thesmall half-island.

Timor is a little militar-istic at times in its present-ation, strange or inevitable,depending on you view con-sidering the bloody fightthey endured.

The military, F-FDTL(Portuguese for FALINTIL-Forcas de Defesa de TimorLeste) is central at thesetype of events. Formed bythe United Nations beforethe hand-over, from a baseof the guerrilla armyknown as FALINTIL, theyhad been central to winningindependence.

The present Prime Minis-ter was once its leader for atime during the Indonesianyears and new President MrRuak was a former guer-rilla fighter and later com-mander of F-FDTL.

He spoke of the hard workover four decades for hiscountry undertaken by DrRamos-Horta.

And now the responsibil-ity for leading a peaceful,serene and stable state hadbeen entrusted to him.

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