Source: The Sunday Tribune Date: 18th June 2000

TEMPERATURE RISES IN EAST TIMOR AS UN DIGS IN. Bill Corcoran.

The East Timorese leadership has demanded the UN withdraw all its district administrators and replece them with local in wht would be first step towards East Timor receiving full independent.

Recent tensions between the UN and East Timorese leaders have escalated due to slow pace of rebuilding under UN's Transition Administrattion in Dili. The plea was issued recently by the Nobel Laureate, Jose Ramos Horta, in a private meeting with UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan.

many within the east Timorese leaderships want an increased level of involvement in the administration procedures of the territory and they see the appoinment of local leader into administrative positions as a way of achieving this.

Edio Da Costa who works for an NGO in East Timor, says although the East Timorese people are grateful for the UN presence, they feel there is a need to consult more with the local people due to cultural differences that exist between the groups.

"The UN people come from many diffrent cultures and they not fully understand ours. Ours priorities are different to theirs so there could be more involvement of local people to overcome these porblems,"he told The Sunday Tribune yesterday.

According to Tom Hyland, of the east Timor ireland solidarity campaign (ETISC), there is a lot of distisfaction among those Timorese who were in exile but have now returned home.

"Many East Timorese acquired substantial qualification while abroad, but they are not being availed of. Also they only be paid on the basis of their ethnic origin and the skill level they have obtained,"he said.

Horta is said to be outraged at the level of the qualification held by many of UN administrators currently in the province, and that there is no East Timorese currently among the district administrators. However, the UN head of district administrator Jarak Chopra, who resigned his position in March, has blamed UN senior officials, saying, "they were putting their own careers above the territory's future".

The concerns of Horta were justified this week when a draft UN legal code designed to serve East Timorese flegling judicial system was criticised by Robert Cavanagh, a prominent barristers and senior law lecturer at the University of the Newcastle in Australia. He warned that the implementation of the proposed UNTAET regulation "On Provisional Rules of Criminal Procedure" was liable to cause significant difficulties in the administration of justice.

Ireland On Suday 18 of June 2000.

By Dara DEFAOITE.

Ireland status as neutrla nation has been thrown into question as Irish Based companies prepare to exhibit "hardware" at one of the world's biggest amrs trade fare in England next month.

The farnborugh air show will featrue weaponry from some of the world leading amrs manufactures including moog inc. Which employs 120 people at its plant in Ringaskiddy Co. Cork.

Human Rights groups appalled that Indonesian and Pakistan Militaries, both harshly criticised for their poor human rights records, have been invited to what Amnesty International calls "a shop window for the oppression trade".

Moog produces lelctronic controllers for anti-aircraft guns including the Bofors L,70 used by Indonesian armed forces in East Timor. Any sale of weapons to Indonesia colud be further endanger the lives of the 40 Irish rangers on the United Nations Peace keeping mission in East Timor According to Dubliner Tom Hyland of the East Timor Campaign. "its crazy to sell weapons to these ragimes. They still actively involved in attempts to undermine the democratically elected East Timor President, Wahid by supplaying moilitias unit with arms," he said.

An international arms embargo was imposed on Indonesia last September after its armies were involved in human rights atrocities in East Timor.

The United State has upheld the embargo "until those who committed war crime are brought to justice", but Britain lifted its ban in January.

The world arms trade is estimated to be worth $750 billion a year, accrding to Stockholm international peace researh institute.

Among an extensive list of weapons producers at the farnborough show will be British Aerospace, which sold Hawk jets used by Indonesia against the East Timorese and hunting Engineering which makes cluster bombs. Raytheon, the world's sixt largest arms producer which recently set up a manufacturing plant in Derry. will also attend. Raytheon secured an stg £800 million contract with the British Ministry of defence last month for its opperation in Northern Ireland.

The company manufactures the Tomahawk and patriot surface to air missiles. The Moog plant in Cork, subsidiary fo the third largets arms producers in the US revealed that 10% of manufactures output from the Cork palnt was destined for Military defnce applications. "Companies atteding this show ought to be ashamed of themselfves. It send to bleak message to the millions of people in East Timor who have suffered ta the hands of a brutal dictatorships for oevr 25 years, "said Hyland. Moog received a £4.4 million grant from the IDA recently as part of an expansion programme. "With State funds and taxpayers" money going to these companies, it has to be asked: Do Irish people want to supplement military activity abroad"?" Said Joe Murray from the AFRI (Action From Ireland). "If Irish based companies are exporting military ware to these nations, we are only a hair brreath away from contributing to any number of despotic regimes," he said.

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