Timor-Leste, 2009

Let me start by expressing my

sincere congratulations to Mr. Ali Abdussalam Treki on

his assumption to the presidency of the United Nations

General Assembly at its sixty-fourth session.

This year marks important milestones for Timor-

Leste. Ten years ago, the United Nations sponsored the

popular referendum held in my country, marking the

transition to full independence. Seven years ago, we

attained full sovereignty with the restoration of our

independence and began, for the first time in the

history of our nation, the challenging process of

nation-building.

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We have been assisted by successive United

Nations missions, which began by exercising, for the

first time in the history of the United Nations, full

administrative powers in Timor-Leste. This process has

been undertaken a very limited number of times in this

new millennium.

Naturally, there are always failures and successes

in decisions taken and policies adopted, and those form

part of our collective challenge on the nation-building

road. This is true for both established and newly

established States. Timor-Leste has been both

showcased as a success story of the United Nations and

hastily characterized by some as a failed State.

I stand here today, not to argue on behalf of one

view or another, much less to duel over the past. I am

here to describe what Timor-Leste is today, what we

have been able to do, our modest achievements and

remaining challenges, but most importantly, how we,

as a new and small nation-State, situate ourselves in

the community of nations.

We also want to be part of the solutions to the

unprecedented challenges facing humanity in this new

millennium. Today we talk about global problems that

are the responsibility of all of us, requiring concerted

and collective action, and Timor-Leste is ready to

assume its part of that responsibility.

Let me also stress, however, that I am able to be

here today because it was through the United Nations

that a solution was found to what was then termed the

“Question of East Timor”. It was the United Nations

that shouldered the responsibility of finding a just

solution to that question and that was, indeed,

successful in doing so.

The decision to engage with the United Nations

was a wise one, taken by the then leaders of the

resistance, who are today our elder statesmen, our

esteemed President of the Republic, Mr. José Ramos-

Horta, and the Prime Minister, Mr. Kay Rala Xanana

Gusmão.

The underlining policy of seeking to resolve

conflict through peaceful means and of deferring to the

United Nations Charter so as to enable the exercise of

the universal right to self-determination is a

fundamental principle embraced by the new generation

of Timorese leaders. The engagement with the United

Nations continues to be the policy of Timor-Leste

today.

Timor-Leste has benefited greatly from this

engagement, through the dedicated work of successive

United Nations missions and through the presence and

work of various United Nations agencies, funds and

programmes. The United Nations administrative role in

Timor-Leste under the capable leadership of our dear

friend, the late Sergio Vieira de Mello, was without

precedence. Could the United Nations have done things

differently in those earlier and subsequent years and

how can we best use this partnership to move forward?

Without a doubt the most valuable contribution of

Timor-Leste to lessons learned and how to apply those

lessons for future situations involved United Nations

peacekeeping and peacebuilding. One of the most

important lessons is that it takes time to build national

capacities and sustainable institutions.

Young nations like ours have to evaluate and

balance many priorities among various pressing

socio-economic requirements, including the provision

of basic social services, building State institutions and

developing capacities. We have to balance justice with

peace and reconciliation. This involves prioritizing

many urgent demands and sequencing actions. There

are no quick fixes or short-term solutions.

Timor-Leste has been the subject of a staggering

number of evaluations and studies, about three

thousand in number, including some on United Nations

work in the country. As our contribution to the lessons

learned for the United Nations, I have proposed that

Timor-Leste, as the beneficiary of what has been done

and in order to provide a country-based perspective,

should itself conduct an evaluation of all that has been

done in the country by the international community,

and of how the benefits of these actions, or otherwise,

have been experienced and felt in the country by the

Timorese themselves.

The experience of the United Nations Integrated

Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT) has shown the need

for a longer term engagement by the United Nations.

The crisis in Timor-Leste in 2006 was an unfortunate

reminder of the fragility of peace when State

institutions are still weak, capacities still need to be

strengthened, and all competing social, economic and

political needs cannot be met. The cost of dealing with

the regression to violence in 2006 has been high for the

international community, including the United Nations

and our development partners, as well as for the

Timorese Government itself. UNMIT’s mandate to help

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reconstruct our security forces and provide support for

our justice system is central, and the Mission is still

needed to ensure long-term peace and stability in our

country.

The Government of Timor-Leste has continued to

make significant achievements, although we still face

challenges. Some of the main problems from the 2006

crisis have been resolved. Internally displaced persons

have been peacefully reintegrated into their

communities, the security forces are being

reconstituted, although they still require capacity-

building and strengthening, and gang violence has been

stopped. Our State institutions are fully functioning,

and the Government can now concentrate more on

development.

I wish to emphasize the importance that we

continue to place on relations with Indonesia, where

we have taken a pragmatic approach and base our

relations on reconciliation and the principle of looking

forward. We cannot deny, or undo, what has happened

in the past we share, but we are determined to be

reconciled with that past, because we know we can

progress and do much for the future. I am part of a new

generation of leaders in Timor-Leste, and neither we

collectively nor I personally have been spared the grief

and loss experienced by most of Timor-Leste’s

population. But I know that my responsibility is to

prevent what happened in Timor-Leste in the past from

ever happening again. Timor-Leste and Indonesia are

both countries in transition, and we should be allowed

to search for our own path, as President Obama has

said, conscious that our path may not be perfect.

This is a complex process that requires a

Timorese solution. I am sure that other countries that

have been in conflict have appreciated the long-term

support of the international community as they tackled

the same problems that we are facing. Timor-Leste has

not in any way turned its back on justice. Our

Constitution enshrines the rule of law in our country,

and the Government’s policy is to fully strengthen the

justice system. We are being aided in this by the

international community, and we are fully cognizant

that we will continue to need its assistance in years to

come. Our Government has been severely criticized,

both internationally and nationally, on some positions

that we have adopted and some decisions that have

been taken. However, they were taken in the conviction

that we need to be reconciled with our past and ensure

peace for current and future generations, and we stand

by those decisions.

Timor-Leste today has its own set of challenges,

which may appear distant from the emerging

challenges facing humankind in general and presented

at this forum. Timor-Leste continues to be concerned

with alleviating and reducing poverty and high

unemployment, addressing the needs of the rural

population and establishing and consolidating State

institutions so they can better respond to the needs of

all of our people. But that does not mean that Timor-

Leste has its head in the sand and is unaware of other

challenges. Our young nation will need time to address

and overcome all of these challenges.

As part of the community of nations and

humankind, Timor-Leste is also concerned with all that

threatens life on this planet, and has expressed its

views. In fact, as a Member of the United Nations,

Timor-Leste has expressed its position in the General

Assembly on a number of important issues. We wish to

reiterate our opposition to the economic sanctions

imposed on Cuba by the United States, and we reaffirm

our support for the General Assembly resolutions of

the past 17 years that have called on the United States

to lift those sanctions.

It is not Timor-Leste’s intention to develop

nuclear capacity or become a nuclear power, and we

have therefore ratified the Non-Proliferation Treaty. We

counsel caution in the development of and use of

nuclear capacity. With regard to climate change, Timor-

Leste, although an island State, is fortunate not to be

immediately threatened by rising sea levels, nor is it

responsible for large carbon emissions. But we are

affected by changing weather patterns and we are

following the climate-change debate. At the national

level, we are naturally concerned with the preservation

of our environment and consider reforestation and

protection of the environment important issues.

As far as the financial and economic crisis is

concerned, Timor-Leste has been fortunate to have

experienced only partial impact. However, we are also

concerned with the causes of the crisis, and we are

looking to learn the lessons about what to avoid in

building our financial systems and institutions. In light

of this, we support the decisions taken at the recent

meeting of the G-20 in Pittsburgh on taking preventive

measures for the future.

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In conclusion, allow me, on behalf of our

Government, to express our gratitude to the United

Nations and our international partners for their

continued support of Timor-Leste. We stand resolutely

with you to contribute to solutions to our collective

challenges, and we are resolved to find solutions to our

own national challenges.