POST 11. JUSTICE DENIED IN TIMOR LESTE

After Portuguese’s decolonization of the territory called Timor, the eastern half of the island declared its independence but Indonesian forces invaded and occupied it. In 1999 the United Nation recognized to Timor East its right to the self-determination and in 2002 Timor East became a sovereign state with the name of Timor Leste. After that, peace on the country was difficult to accomplish. The civil disorder’s climax was in 2006 when tensions within the security sector led to deadly riots claiming dozens of lives and driving some 150,000 people – 15 per cent of the population – from their homes. Due to the emergency the United Nations sent some security force to do peace keeping operations; UN Police (UNPOL) and UN Integrated Mission in Timor-Leste (UNMIT).  Despite this two UN mission there was another international security force in the country: the International Stabilization Force (ISF). In 2007 a four-party coalition headed by Prime Minister Gusmao was elected but after only one year a new wave of violence caused serious injuries to the President Ramos-Horta and attempted Prime Minister Gusmao‘s life. In 2011 Timor Leste outbreaks of violence seem to end so the UN handed-off operational control of the police force to the East Timor authorities.

During the 24 years of Indonesian domination and 13 years of transition to a stable government the violations of human rights and the crimes against humanity were really acute. In 2002, after gaining its place in UN general assembly, Timor Leste became part to the Rome Statute too. However calls for justice to the victims of the abuses of the army are not yet fulfilled. On the contrary, the justice machinery lack of staff and resources. Regarding the Indonesian occupation’s abuses the new constituted government pursued reconciliation with Indonesia rather than justice. Despite 2009 new Timor Leste’s penal code (that include most crimes under the International Penal Court), cooperation with the ICC is not provided. The sense of the impunity that Timor Leste inhabitants were feeling was enforced by President Statement to commute all the sentences against those involved in 2006’s riots. In addition the President gave pardons to the responsible to 2008’s violence outbreaks. The reaction of Timorese politicians and human rights activists was negative, they assumed that “strengthens impunity, weakens the people's faith in the justice system and undermines the rule of law."

In effect during the 24 years of occupations more than 100.000 people were killed and during the 1999 Timor Leste independence referendum almost 1200 people died. Attempts to bring perpetrators of past crimes to justice in Timor-Leste have been weak, Indonesian suspected to have committed crimes as unlawful killings, sexual violence, enforced disappearances, threats, arbitrary arrests and intimidations are at large in Indonesia and the possibility that they will be in front of an international court is way too far. The main issue is that Timor Leste did not enable the extradition neither mutual legal assistance agreements with other states (including Indonesia). So it can’t be meet an international standard of fairness. They exist two bodies created to “establish conclusive truth in regard to the events prior to and immediately after the popular consultation in 1999, with a view to further promoting reconciliation and friendship, and ensuring the non-recurrence of similar events”:  The Commission Of Truth And Friendship (CTF) and the Commission For Reception, Truth And Reconciliation in East Timor.

In 2010 steps have also been taken to boost accountability for crimes committed during 2006’s April and May , with all cases recommended by the Commission of Inquiry having been taken up for investigation.

In 2012 the UNPOL and UNMIT mission have withdrawn, this because free presidential and parliamentary elections were held peacefully in March and in July.  The hopes of a new start for the country are high, so said the Human Rights Advisor Gentile in the video here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2Wd1AQS0J8

Right now the general feeling is that the Panel with Exclusive Jurisdiction over Serious Criminal Offences in Timor-Leste, established years ago by the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor is not adequate, in the name of the failure of the justice Amnesty International sponsored in 2010 the set up by the UN Security Council of a tribunal with jurisdiction over all crimes committed in Timor-Leste between 1975 and 1999. This request was confirmed the past month (Nov, 12) in which both the ONG and the ANTI (the Timor-Leste National Alliance for an International Tribunal) asked that the UN and the governments of Timor-Leste and Indonesia had to take responsibility to ensure justice, in particular for Santa Cruz massacre occurred in 1991 during a procession of pro-independence demonstrators, suppressed by Indonesian security forces.

To know more about suggests of ANTI and Amnesty International see http://www.amnesty.org/fr/library/asset/ASA57/007/2012/fr/9ffc3a49-f15d-4ab6-aa9e-5f64a90b58a4/asa570072012en.html

Right now a lot of inhabitants are waiting the justice, I think that is right to judge the perpetuators of the abuses, both Indonesian and internal Timor Leste’s gangs (http://www.poa-iss.org/CASACountryProfile/OtherDocument/95@Timor%20Leste%20Small%20Arms%20Survey%20IB2%20ENGLISH%20Final.pdf) and I hope that a minimal level of evenness will be respected in honor of those who died to create a free, independent country.

Judicial system in Timor Leste http://www.jsmp.minihub.org/Language_English/legislation_english.htm

UN 2010 report on Justice System http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=36342&Cr=timor&Cr1#.UMOw8ehv-w4

2011’s UN universal period review on Timor Leste http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/ASA57/003/2011/en

Post 10: CHILD LABOUR

Recent ILO’s valuations suggest that about 217.7 millions of minors (between 5 and 17 years old) are involved in child labour around the world. Around 122.3 millions of children are economically operative in Asia and in the Pacific area.

Depending on researches, in South Eastern Asia there is the highest rate of child labour and there aren’t signals of potential developments,  thanks to the level of poverty, the lack in educational systems, and social traditions.  Children are employed, above all, in agricultural activities, in the production of small objects, in works on the street (Thailand), or in the fish market (Indonesia). These jobs have consequences on the life of children, on their health, and on their education (they robe of fundamental time for  going to school).  The wages are usually insignificant and the places where they work are in general unhealthy.

In these countries, children can work until 12 hours a day. Emergency situations come to lights in Thailand, Indonesia, Bangladesh. In the Philippines, the 60% of children has work conditions that can provoke acute diseases.  The bodies of little boys, not yet fully grown, are seriously damaged by the hard work and the transportation of heavy materials. Little girls are more helpless: they can be victims of sexual exploitation, forced prostitution, or unwanted pregnancies.   

We can distinguish between:

• ·         Domestic labour, where children are exploited by their own relatives inside their home and fields
• ·         Forced labour, i.e. every kind of activity, carried out under threats. Because of the debts of their parents, in India 15 millions of children are forced to work, and the same happens in Pakistan and Nepal. Children became slaves.

The necessity of eliminate the child labour in this area collects nowadays a lot of consents. Some national projects in support of international programmes have been implemented, while regional organizations have launched programmes against human trafficking and child labour.

An important instrument of protection of children is the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, ratified by 193 countries. Article 32 of the convention addressed child labour, as follows: “Parties recognise the right of the child to be protected from economic exploitation and from performing any work that is likely to be hazardous or to interfere with the child's education, or to be harmful to the child's health or physical, mental, spiritual, moral or social development”.

Michael Massarutto

POST 9. BATTLE FOR THE INFLUENCE ON SOUTHEASTERN ASIA

The 18th ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF)  ended in July 2011 and its positive results were apparently satisfying for the 27 delegations who met in Bali last summer. The Assembly was composed by the 10 ASEAN countries and their 17 dialogue partners, such as China, USA, Europe, Russia, Japan.

However, even if China and its Southeast Asian partners signed a set of non-binding guidelines on the conduction of the open quarrel on South China Sea, many issues remain unsolved. The Us Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, expressed the american economic and political goals in the region, by focusing on the vital role of trade as a common field of discussion.

In few months the situation in South China Sea has heated up due to some incidents in the area, such as the open debate about the sovereignty on the Spratly and Paracel archipelagos. These islands are first claimed by China and Vietnam, but also Taiwan, Malaysia and Bruni are taking part in the discussion. Tensions between China and Vietnam exploded after that a Chinese ship cut the cables of a vietnamese survey vessel. In addition, China was also annoyed by the visit of Filipinos politicians in one of the Spratly Archipelago island.

Anyway, on July 21st, the Chinese Minister for Foreign Affairs Yang Jiechi and his ASEAN counterparts approved an agreement to make the 2002 Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in South China Sea more effective and binding.
Someone said that this document is very important because it contributes in maintaining the peace in this region. For others, this papers is nothing else than an empty political statement.

At the beginning of June 2011, the former US Defense Secretary Robert Gates remarked the importance for American Government to maintain a tough military presence across Asia. Furthermore, the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton underlined the central and vital role of South China Sea (SCS) for global trade. All the East Asian countries, including the non-ASEAN countries, are strongly dependent on the sea lines of communication trough the SCS. The Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Kevin Rudd at the press conference held in Bali, affirmed that "more than 60 per cent of Australia's trade passes through the East Sea".

Until now a binding document about the South China Sea seems to be very far. But the actors directly involved, like Vietnam and the Philippines, are conscious of being unable to compete with China. They are raising their voices to obtain two different results. On one hand they want to create a front between ASEAN countries to counterbalance their big neighbor. On the other hand they try to obtain more financial support in order to improve their own military forces. 
In fact, Japan decided to provide 500 billion JPY (more than 5 billion USD) to Mekong nations for implementing projects in all fields. South Korea also offered money to ASEAN countries under the ASEAN-Korea Specila Funds agreement.

This movement of milliond of dollars in some Southeastern Asia country is a clear effort to obtain a strong influence in a region where China has assumed a very active role. Under the ASEAN-China Infrastructure Fund, created in January 2010, Chinese government has committed 10 billion USD. China knows really well that it can count on the "loyalty" of countries like Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. In all these nations China has invested billions of dollars.

China is now capable of exercise a certain influence on Southeastern Asia, something that the United States are not able to match. With the ongoing financial and economic crisis that is effecting all the Western World more than the Eastern, the unresolved issues in the Mekong area, especially the South China Sea problem, can give China the opportunity of implementing a new political approach in the region. It is obvious that for the Chinese government will be fundamental to create a trustworthy sphere of influence that will only be sustainable throughout economic and financial support.


Nicola Zaninello

Sources: http://www.sudestasiatico.com

                       http://www.oecd.org/dev/communicationanddevelopment/45034060.pdf

POST 8. SPEECH ANALYSIS:JOY NGOZI EZEILO PRESS STATEMENT ON PHILIPPINES' HUMAN TRAFFICKING - NOV,9, 2012

 

This is a press statement made by JoyNgozi Ezeilo after her country visit to the Philippines. She is the UNSpecial Rapporteur on trafficking in person, especially women and children. Thespeech can be divided in four parts:

First; section 1 to section 3 (fromFollowing to Zambonaga)

Second; section 4 to section 6 (fromHuman to family)

Third; section 5 to section 12 (fromin to organizations)

Fourth; section 13 to section 14(from however to trafficking)

Fifth; section 14 to 15 (from in to2013)

In the first part there are the acknowledgmentsand the description of her travel, the participant is herself and she addressesto the government and the other institutionalized bodies.

In the second part there is the generaldescription of the issue (origin of her travel).

In the third part there are all theinstruments that Philippines have ratified in order to fight with humantrafficking.

In the fourth part there are theweaknesses of the effectiveness of the government apparatus against the illegalhuman’s trafficking.

In the last part there are herpersonal advices and recommendations.

The first aim of her speech is toreport her consideration on human trafficking violations in Philippines. Secondaim is to sensitize people on the issue, she used as subject of her sentences “women,children, and men” trafficked for different aims; in this way she triedto emphasize the point of view of the victims.

Third aim is to solicit the governmentof Philippines to implement its prosecution’s machinery; this last aim is evidentonly near the end of the statement when she summarizes both weakness and recommendations.

She uses lots of time theexpressions “Philippine’s government”, since is a press statement in which aninternational body is making the point of the situation, is reasonable toidentify the material audience with all the journalists in the room, and theformal audience with both the Philippines government’s heads and the UNCommittee members. To confirm the audience we can see that she uses often theword victims but the subject is passive, “victims are…”, she underline the keyrole of the cooperation between (another times) the government and civilsociety organizations.

In the first three parts of thespeech we can see that she uses many time the term “combat”, she praised thegovernment for its work using a lot of verbal form as “I acknowledge, Iwelcome, I commend, the government has demonstrated strong commitment, thegovernment initiative is in line with.., encouraging, commendable..”. Thispraise part is necessary to introduce the real goal of her travel (and of herspeech). In the fourth part she start with an “however”. This adversativeadverb is useful to make a contrast with the previous part. The tone of thespeech change and she starts to use words like: lack, impunity, risk offalling, reluctance, less attention etc.

Although is the part in which sherecall the government to its duties, she uses sometime  the  wordsorder “good thing, adversative, bad thing” example

“The Government and its partners[…]aremaking efforts to build capacity […] however  the large turnover rate of officers hampersthe prevention and prosecution of trafficking cases”.

In the last part she uses the “should”form followed by final remarks in which the tone is more reprimanding “I urge,Philippines is obliged, must”

During the speech Joy NgoziEzeilo doesn’t use the three repetitions, but use repetition of strongword that, even in the compliment sentences are in the center of the attention:

Sexual exploitation, domesticservitude, poverty, corruption, smuggling.

The speech is always on a formaltone, she never tries to generate pity (even when she enunciates the issue fromsociety’s point of view). She describes technically all the steps that thegovernment should do to accomplish international standards of traffickingprevention and protection, without any use of rethorical devices.

To the transcription: http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=12771&LangID=E

Laura Rosana

Post 7: SPEECH ANALYSIS: BARACK OBAMA AT UNIVERSITY OF RANGOON

Post 6: SPEECH ANALYSIS: SOPHAL EAR ON CAMBODIA

The author of this speech in an Assistant Professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the US Naval Post-graduated School. He is a Cambodian refugee escaped from Khmer Rouge regime. He talks about his experience in Cambodia, and about how he and his family arrived in Vietnam.

He uses some photos and videos during his exposition, and it is very important in my opinion because it has exactly the goal of shocking the audience: indeed we can observe a series of stark pictures. In the video the “Khmer Rouge” are always the subject, in active sentences, with the clear purpose of assign to the regime several facts. They emerge like the “bad guys” in this speech (and there are  lot of motivations for stating this also in the reality!)

With a careful analysis, we can point out  an interesting use of repetitions  too, that underline several concepts, putting them in the center of attention of the listener: for example Sophal Ear said:” So my father and mother ended up in a sort of concentration camp, labor camp.” And then:  “But for us it meant freedom. And freedom from persecution from the Khmer Rouge.”

A lot of space is dedicated to the figure of his mother- with the use of verbs in (above all) mental and verbal processes. In the text we can find: “she spoke, she decides, she would take the chance, she’d given, she was able to return”.

At the end there is an unequivocal thanks in favour of his mother, who has really given the possibility to escape from Cambodia: she becomes herself a reincarnation of the principle of freedom reaffirmed many times by Sophal Ear.

What do you think about this speech? According to you, which were the purposes of the author?

Michael Massarutto