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Timor - Leste International and Local Media Monitoring for October 21, 2004

Medicines in qualification 12 can be sold in open market
Timor Post

The Ministry of Health has stated medications in qualification 12 can be sold in the open market based on Health Law No. 12/2004, which was promulgated on September 17 by the President of Timor-Leste, Mr. Xanana Gusmao and the Minister of Health, Mr. Rui Maria de Araujo, said Mario Ribeiro, head of the Pharmaceutics Department.

Medicines that can be sold include: Paracetamol, Acid, Acetylsalicylic, Losaun de calamine, povidonaiodo, Clorhexina, Dimetilpolisiloxane, Dimeticone, antacids, Colotorius, vitamins, shampoos Anticaspa and preservatives. The medicines that cannot be sold to the public are categorized as generic (Antibiotic, Antalgine, Ampiciline, and Amoxilin).

He also added that the Ministry of Health has trained some nurses and clinics to issue prescriptions for certain types of medication.

University students call for more infrastructure investment
Timor Post

University students in Dili - UNDIL, TNTL and UNPAZ - noted that infrastructure development has not fulfilled the needs of the population. The issue was raised in a meeting held in the Dili Gymnastics Centre (GMT).

The students said that much of the population in the districts have difficulties transporting their local production for marketing due damaged roads that have not been maintained by the government. The students recommended the government allocate a budget to rehabilitate more roads and bridges nstead of spending it for what they deemed to be unimportant issues.

Baucau Hospital lacks clean water, calls for government help
Suara Timor Lorosa'e (STL)

Dr. Liborio da Costa, the director of Baucau Hospital said that the hospital is currently facing a lack of clean water, which is used in surgery, as well as in the toilets.

Currently, the hospital has been ordering water tanks, but no budget was originally set aside for these tanks. The water tanks cost $250 each month.

The problem has been escalated to the Health Ministry and the Water Department and the resolution will depend on the remaining Ministry budget.

Aniceto Guterres: Not all the abuses of serious crimes can be brought to Court
Vox Populi

One of the alternatives that is available to settle serious crimes in Timor-Leste is to expand the CAVR mandate. So far the CAVR in Timor-Leste only handles minor cases of serious crime; the serious cases are handled by a special panel (including killing, sexual abuse and war crimes). Of course the alternative is to make the CAVR's task to consider the settlement of many cases that are now accumulating in the hand of the special panel and Unidade Crimes Graves.

The justice issues that are faced by the Timorese people now, particularly those issues that are categorized as blatant abuses of serious crimes cannot be processed through reconciliation. Currently, there are appearing many ideas that the big abuses of serious crime can be solved via reconciliation. I appreciate this idea but I personally said that not all big serious crimes can be solved through reconciliation.

Our ability to solve issues committed in the past depends on the capabilities of the court. If there is an international tribunal in TL, it would probably only pay attention to the crimes that were committed in 1999. All militia members or crimes may not be brought before the court, but most likely several Indonesian generals ? those who committed crimes ? might be brought to the court. The reason is that those who committed big crimes have a commander. Therefore I personally would like to say that not all abuses of big serious crimes have to be brought to court. And all crimes cannot be solved through reconciliation, but only some may be settled through the process of community reconciliation (PRK), so that both process are mutually equipped to prevent impunity.

So to solve all these issues, the process of the national and the international tribunals are still to continue. The tribunal?s door is always open for these issues as well as for serious crime issues. It needs categorization of the crimes, such as serious, very serious, and somewhat serious.

As an institution, CAVR will investigate, and will make an effort to find justice for the serious crimes that were committed in the past. Then CAVR will issue a specific recommendation regarding these issues. I hope that all of us will be patient while waiting for the coming recommendations.

David de Araujo
Receptionist
World Bank, Dili Office