Resign calls mount in East Timor over corruption allegations against Gusmão

CALLS ARE mounting for East Timorese resistance hero and founding president Xanana Gusmão to resign as prime minister amid fresh allegations of corruption, this time involving a lucrative contract with his daughter Zenilda as a beneficiary. The Sydney Morning Herald’s Jakarta correspondent, Tom Allard, reports that if these latest allegations are proven, they could be a major problem for Gusmão, "who has staked his reputation on cleaning up East Timor’s bureaucracy and its tender system”.

The SMH cited a a spokeswoman for the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade saying the Canberra government “took allegations of corruption seriously and was working closely with the East Timorese government to increase accountability”. The unnamed spokeswoman said the Australian aid programme to Timor-Leste was carefully monitored to “prevent and detect fraud”. The Fretilin oppositionhas spearheaded these allegations and is already channelling protests. According to Allard, citing documents obtained by Fretilin:

Mr Gusmão awarded a $US3.5 million ($4.4 million) contract for rice imports to Prima Foods, a company Fretilin says is partly owned by his daughter, Zenilda. The contract was awarded under a $US45 million government program to import basic foodstuffs.

The allegations first surfaced in stories by Radio Australia reporters Steve Holland and Stephanie March, who reported yesterday:

Zenilda Gusmão, the prime minister's daughter, is listed as a Prima Food shareholder in East Timor's 2008 business registry.

Radio Australia has also confirmed that the wife of another senior minister has profited from government tenders.

The country's procurement law bans "agents of the administration", politicians and bureaucrats from awarding government contracts to businesses associated with close family members.

The deputy leader of the opposition Fretilin party, Arsenio Bano, alleges it is a blatant example of corruption in the Prime Minister's Office and called for the Prime Minister's resignation.

"It's absolutely a strong indication of corruption, he has violated Timor Law, and before it goes to the courts the prime minister should resign," Mr Bano said.

Gusmão was unavailable for comment. The Prime Minister's daughter, Zenilda Gusmão, declined to comment.

However, a spokeswoman for the government confirmed to Radio Australia that Zenilda Gusmão was a shareholder of Prima Food.

President José Ramos Horta has distanced himself from a scandal, involving the country's Prime Minister. He says it is not his business to intervene.

The Gusmão coalition government has faced persistent corruption allegations.

The administration awarded a $US400 million contract to a Chinese Government-owned company to build two powerplants without calling for open tenders. Under the deal,
East Timor will import expensive and highly polluting heavy oil, even though it is rich in natural gas.

The husband of the Justice Minister, Lucia Lobato, was reportedly awarded a lucrative contract to rebuild a prison and supply uniforms for guards. Lobato, who is responsible for the prison system, is suing the journalist who broke the story.

Picture of Xanana Gusmão - Repúblika Banana.

• Minister's legal pressure on journalist whistleblower
• Corruption charge levelled against Gusmão
• Gusmão faces corruption charges
• Corruption scandal “not my business’, says Ramos-Horta
• Timor-Leste's tenders system

Reinado video allegations target Xanana

A leaked videotape featuring fugitive rebel leader Alfredo Reinado, a former military police major and something of a cult figure with some reactionaries, blaming prime minister Xanana Gusmão as the person responsible for the crisis that engulfed East Timor in 2006. It has featured in the media and now Fretilin has called a media conference to discuss the contents of the tape. A statement by Francisco Guterres LuOlo, president of Fretilin, on 8 January 2008 said:

FRETILIN has called this press conference today to make public to the People of Timor-Leste, the Maubere people, that on the 31st of December 2007, we wrote to the President of the Republic and other institutions of our State regarding the allegations made by Mr Alfredo Reinado in a video recording that came into our possession last week, which has serious ramifications for our nation's stability and peace, and which will impact on our public institutions.
In that video recording that has been widely distributed by unidentified persons, Mr Alfredo Reinado accuses Mr Xanana Gusmão as the person responsible for the crisis that engulfed our nation in 2006. I am sure that all of us here today have heard or seen the said video recording, or have perhaps read about it in a newspaper.
When we viewed a copy of this recording that we obtained from the media, FRETILIN became extremely concerned with the impact that it would have on peace and stability in our country, as the statements made by Mr Alfredo Reinado may well lead to further public panic amongst our people already traumatized by similar statements from last year's crisis, and there may well be a surge in the number of currently internally displaced persons. We are concerned that the statements by Mr Reinado are aimed at continuing to divide our people and create further serious instability in our country.

• Full Fretilin statement
• YouTube video profile on Reinado
• Evidence mounts against Gusmao - by John Martinkus, New Matilda

Regime change in Timor ... and the rioting starts

So the inevitable has happened. Australian-backed regime change has entered its final act. Resistance hero Xanana Gusmao, but a divisive figure when still president of Timor-Leste during last year's clashes, has finally been named prime minister of a coalition government, ousting the Fretilin government that had led the country into independence. Gusmao refused Fretilin's proposal for a "government of national unity" headed by an independent PM. So the stage was set for bitter responses from the internal refugee camps and disaffected youth to President Jose Ramos Horta's announcement on Monday that Gusmao would lead the next government, a coalition of major parties, after five weeks of negotiations following the recent parliamentary elections. Sporadic rioting has begun.
Fretilin - which won the most votes in the election but which fell short of the majority needed to rule - has denounced the decision, declaring the new government is illegal. It has boycotted Parliament since last week. Fretilin has declared it will not cooperate with a government that is "unconstitutional". (Pictured: Election street graffiti - Asia Pacific Network).

• Australia's interests
• Growing pains in Timor-Leste - David Robie
• Final NZ report on the Timorese media
• Gusmao sworn is as East Timor PM