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Timor-Leste

Timor's growing pains

Timor-Leste (East Timor) could study the aftermath of the genocide in the African state of Rwanda in tackling its own backlog of people awaiting trial, according to JICA President Sadako Ogata.

She met Thursday in Tokyo with Atul Khare, Special Representative for the UN Secretary General in Timor-Leste, and discussed that country's troubled past and future challenges.

One of the biggest, according to Atul Khare, is a backlog of some estimated 4,000 people awaiting trial on various charges connected with insurrections and fighting which have plagued the Asian state both before independence in 2002 and in later violence.

As the UN High Commissioner for Refugees during Rwanda's troubles in the 1990s Mrs. Ogata was a close observer of the traditional tribal system called gacaca courts, which the government used to clear a backlog of tens of thousands of cases in that country after peace was reestablished.

She suggested Timor-Leste, which needs an estimated $9.5 million in financial assistance to strengthen its justice system, could study the Rwandan experience and its possible usefulness to Timor.

The country is still reeling from decades of violence and destruction. When Portugal withdrew from the territory in 1975 Indonesian armed forces filled the vacuum and in the next two decades, independent reports said tens of thousands of people were killed after guerrillas began fighting for independence. When a referendum showed the majority of the 850,000 population favored independence, loyalists went on a rampage, reducing towns to ruins and killing hundreds of civilians.

Following independence on May 20, 2002, the United Nations helped restore order in one of the organization's biggest success stories, though security has remained tenuous. Parliamentary elections were held earlier this year.

JICA is active in Timor-Leste, one of Asia's poorest nations, which nevertheless has vast unexploited offshore oil and gas fields.

The UN official told Mrs. Ogata the government had only a limited capability to exploit and spend available funds and the private sector remained weak, both factors inhibiting the country's growth. Unemployment, particularly among young people, remained extremely high.

Timor-Leste has expressed an interest in obtaining loan aid to rebuild the country, and Mrs. Ogata said that once a forthcoming merger between JICA and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) is completed in October 2008, the 'New JICA' will be able to provide not only technical assistance but also yen loans and grant aid to developing countries, such as Timor-Leste.

She also said that JICA would consider providing funds for the dispatch of additional UN Volunteers (UNVs) to Timor.