Joint Foreign Affairs Committee - East Timor Conflict - Presentation by Mr. Tom Hyland - 27th June 2006

Joint Foreign Affairs Committee - East Timor Conflict - Presentation by Mr. Tom Hyland - 27th June 2006
Chairman: Thank you, Mr. Hyland. With the agreement of the committee, I will now call on Senator Norris to comment.
Senator Norris: I appreciate the Chairman’s graciousness in allowing me to contribute first. I accept we all have difficulties with regard to speaking on the Order of Business and I am sure the Chairman and committee officials will try to ensure the Seanad is not disadvantaged. I apologise to Mr. Hyland for having to leave to attend the Order of Business before I hear his reply, with which I will catch up in the published report.
I congratulate the Department of Foreign Affairs on its excellent briefing which is very much up to date. We are talking about events that are still unfolding and the Department seems to be on top of the issue. It is not necessary for me to rehearse Mr. Hyland’s story, but I use it time and again as an illustration to young people here who are disillusioned with the political process and feel they can contribute nothing. He shows clearly that they can.
I welcome Ireland’s contribution which is significant in terms of the percentage of the overall budget, €11.1 million. I also welcome the fact that the Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Conor Lenihan, has indicated a grant of €500,000 has been made available through the Red Cross to specifically tackle this emergency.
With regard to the immediate situation, it is worrying to hear from Mr. Hyland that supporters of the Prime Minister are massing in Dili. If this situation is not properly handled, it could be the prelude to a civil war, a horrendous prospect considering that all the Timorese people have suffered. The Prime Minister’s action in summarily dismissing one third of the army - in spite of the fact that 591 may seem a small number - for reasons which are not entirely clear, is to be regretted.
The final report from the committee on project Timor Leste which we have been given has been overtaken by events. However, it is an important one and there are lessons to be learned from it. Mr. Hyland poses questions as to where we can go and what we can do, etc. He has highlighted the issue of unemployment, particularly for young people. Based on what he said about the generation gap, I assume this is critical for them. Perhaps he could say more about the issue.
I assume education is also a critical issue. I know Mr. Hyland was involved in this area in East Timor and may be going back. Ireland is involved in assisting educational programmes there and I know that up to recently some Timorese people were being educated here. What is the current status? In a situation where not only infrastructure has been destroyed but the educated elite has also been dispersed, it is important that people are provided for the administration who will have the necessary skills, experience and know-how to help build the country.
The committee has invested much of its time, in terms of its programme, in the situation in East Timor, while Ireland has invested much money in proportional terms from its budget for the area. Therefore, the committee should adopt East Timor as a special project and continue to monitor the situation on a regular basis. We need to keep on top of events because the situation is developing rapidly. Perhaps we were not alert enough to the situation that might have been and was, in fact, created by what now appears to be the precipitous withdrawal of the United Nations some three or four years ago.
I welcome this opportunity to meet Tom Hyland. This subject is very important and it continues to be a priority for the committee. As Dr. Hyland indicated, we in Ireland, sadly, have some experiences that are parallel. My Oireachtas colleagues feel very strongly that Dublin, in the context of everything from broadcasting to roads to transport infrastructure, is far too highly favoured. The same position appears to obtain in East Timor, with 80% of expenditure spent on the capital and only 20% spent in the countryside. We must also take cognisance of fact that traumatisation of an entire population occurred in East Timor. Something similar happened in this country during the War of Independence and the Civil War. There is no doubt that it is difficult to deal with events of this nature but we have some experience of doing so.
I thank the Chairman for his indulgence. I am always interested to hear what Tom Hyland has to say. I hope and strongly urge that this committee will continue to give priority to monitoring the situation in East Timor. It may perhaps be appropriate for members of the committee to visit East Timor at some stage. I am not promoting myself because, thanks to the intervention of the Indonesian secret police, I significantly failed to obtain entry to the country some years ago, although Tom Hyland provided me with a poem written by Bono of U2——
Deputy Costello: Once a subversive always a subversive.
Senator Norris: Absolutely. It might be important and useful for members of the committee to visit East Timor to supplement the excellent report we have been given by Tom Hyland.