East Timor: Judges will be trained in Portuguese, says PM
27 August Lusa
Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri said Tuesday that East Timor`s judges and
court officials are to be trained in Portuguese and rejected a reported
preference by the UN for the use of Indonesian by the judiciary.
"UNMISET (the current UN mission in Timor) is not the administration
and
UNAMET has finished. They can make the proposals they like, but I said
to
Mary Robinson that the Portuguese instruction will not only be in the
language, but in technical matters too", said Alkatiri in reference
to his
meeting Sunday with the UN`s human rights chief.
"All legislation currently being prepared by the government is in
Portuguese. I don`t see how, two or three years henceforth, judges can
take
decisions based on this legislation without knowing Portuguese",
said Alkatiri.
Alkatiri said his government was "looking to the future" and
it was vital
to improve training in Portuguese to ensure the viability of judicial
projects .
If the UN insisted on recruiting Indonesian-speaking judges, who would
then
instruct Timorese colleagues, the Timorese government would not accept
this, said Alkatiri, who added that this didn't mean Dili was "against
the
Indonesian language".
East Timor`s head of government blamed the UNTAET administration, which
oversaw the 1999 independence ballot, for opting for Indonesian in Timor`s
legal system. The result of this, said Alkatiri, was "a completely
disastrous justice system".
"It is UNTAET`s fault that we have inherited this collapse in the
justice
system", said Alkatiri.
A document recently drawn up by the current UN mission in Dili identifies
many shortcomings with Timor`s justice sector but does not directly blame
the former UN administration for the situation, pointing instead to a
"lack
of time and resources".