Dili, 19 December 2001

SUAI CHURCH MASSACRE VICTIMS TO BE BURIED ON CHURCH SOIL

Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo has granted permission for the remains of 26 people to be buried on the grounds of the Suai Church at which they were murdered in September 1999.

Suai Church Priest Manuel Simao Barreto is expected to meet with relatives of the victims soon to discuss the exact location for the burials and to prepare an appropriate farewell for the deceased.

The remains, which have been examined by forensic experts at the Serious Crimes Unit, represent a small proportion of the more than 200 people believed to have been murdered at the Suai Church, in the southwestern corner of East Timor, during the post-ballot violence.

BECORA PRISON INMATES HOLD FIRST CHRISTMAS CONCERT

Inmates at the Becora Prison in Dili this morning held their first ever Christmas Concert in front of some 150 family members.

Eighty of the prison's 200 inmates had volunteered to take part in the celebration, which included traditional Timorese dancing and singing accompanied by acoustic guitar.

The men constructed a large manger scene from recycled sugar bags, painted a nativity scene, and created Christmas banners for the prison's entrance, in addition to other decorations.

The audience seemed delighted by the production, two more of which will be held later this week for more family members, visitors and community members.

The Christmas Concert 2001 marks the end of the first year of an imprisonment system developed by East Timorese in conjunction with New Zealand.

CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY PASSES EIGHT MORE ARTICLES

The Constituent Assembly today passed the fortieth article of East Timor's draft Constitution, approving eight articles relating to rights of the citizen.

The articles passed today, all with significant majorities, include the following:

Article 32 provides every citizen with the right to apply for habeas corpus, with a court having to rule on the application within eight days.

Article 33 entrenches the presumption of innocence and the right to be assisted by a lawyer. It further provides that evidence is of no effect (presumably inadmissible in a court of law) if obtained by illegal means which, amongst other things, includes torture, coercion, infringement of physical or moral integrity of the individual, and wrongful interference with correspondence or telecommunications.

Article 34 covers extradition and provides that extradition on political grounds is prohibited.

Article 36 provides for the inviolability of home and correspondence. The second paragraph of the article provides that a citizen's home will not be entered except under the order of a competent judicial authority and in the cases and manner described by law. The third paragraph of the article states that no one shall enter the home of any person at night without that person's consent. This provision was seen as important by the assembly members in light of the history of the Indonesian authorities taking people into custody at night.

The assembly has been passing articles with increased speed in the past two days following last week's agreement to change voting procedures - members now take only one vote on an article and all its sub-paragraphs rather than vote on the title and each individual sub-paragraph - and to work longer hours.

EAST TIMORESE POLICE OFFICERS PROMOTED

Eighty-seven East Timorese police officers were promoted this morning at a ceremony at the Police Academy in Dili.

Eighty-five police officers were promoted to agents; two were promoted to senior agents. The ceremony was attended by Civilian Police Commissioner Peter Miller, among others.

The East Timor Police College was officially established in Dili in March 2000 to recruit and train East Timorese police officers. The course curriculum includes a three-month basic training course with instruction in democratic policing, ethics, human rights and community policing. Following this first phase, recruits undergo three more months of field training and a final six-month probationary period.

COUNCIL OF MINISTERS BRIEFED ON TIMOR SEA NEGOTIATIONS

The Council of Ministers was briefed yesterday by the East Timor team involved in negotiations relating to oil and gas matters in the Timor Sea.

The briefing focused on negotiations with petroleum companies operating in the Bayu-Undan field. The Council approved recommendations presented by the negotiating team regarding revision of certain contractual terms and the resolution of tax issues relating to gas development of Bayu-Undan.

Chief Minister Mari Alkatiri and Minister of Finance Fernanda Borges also briefed the Council on the Donors Conference in Oslo, Norway, which ended last week.