REPÚBLICA DEMOCRÁTICA DE TIMOR-LESTE
GABINETE DO PRIMEIRO-MINISTRO

PRESS RELEASE

Prime Minister comments on border incidents

Prime Minister, Mari Alkatiri, said this Wednesday, January 11, that Indonesia is primarily responsible for the incident that took place on Friday, January 6, near the land border with West Timor in which three former pro-Indonesian militias were killed. His rationale was that the Indonesian authorities were unable to control their movements.

"Indonesia knows that it has people like this in its country. It is Indonesia's responsibility, first of all, to control those people ? and to not allow them to cross the border and come here to provoke us. That primary responsibility belongs to Indonesia, not us", the Prime Minister told journalists at a Press Conference, when asked about it.

This was his first comment about the incident that happened when a group of individuals entered illegally in Timor-Leste and attacked a border patrol unit of the Timorese Police.

The Prime Minister has refuted the Indonesian version of events which claims that the three people (José Mausorte, who was listed as a militia member by the Serious Crime Unit and was wanted for crimes against humanity committed in Timor-Leste during 1999, Stanis Maubere and Cândido Mariano) were victims of police brutality: "Saying that our police acted with brutality means that they are recognizing that Indonesia is not capable of controlling these people on their side of the border. This is not true. In fact, Indonesia has the capability and the means to control them. The question is this one: why are they not controlling them? I think they should control the people from that side of the border and stop accusing us of police brutality. This is the answer that I send to the Indonesian authorities," stated Mari Alkatiri.

According to the Prime Minister, the Timorese policemen acted in self-defense: "Our policemen were ambushed by these three individuals that entered our country without documents, visas or passports. Two Timorese policemen were disarmed, then the third reacted in self defense; otherwise all of them should be dead by now."

Mari Alkatiri finished his statement by saying: "Timor-Leste is not the backyard of these people in which they can come and go whenever they want."

The Prime Minister said this before departing to Australia, where is going to attend the signing of Timor Sea agreement, on Thursday, January 12. The Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, will also be present at the ceremony in Sydney.

After the autopsy, the corpses of the victims were delivered to their relatives on Tuesday, January 10, following a court decision. Two of them were delivered to their families at the border, while José Mausorte's body stayed in Timor-Leste, where his parents and wife live.

The Timor-Leste Government is investigating the incident and has invited the Indonesian Embassy in Dili to take part in the investigation.