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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 4 Hansard (29 March) . . Page.. 1019 ..

MS TUCKER (11.56): Mr Speaker, the Greens will be supporting this motion. While we are very relieved and happy about the progress that has been made in East Timor after 24 years of military rule by Indonesia, we must also acknowledge the terrible price that was paid for the progress that has been made - the destruction of property and the trauma of the people who have survived the bloody events. I remind members of what that trauma has been by quoting from the East Timor Human Rights Centre. Torture, rape, killings and disappearances were common. There was no freedom of speech, freedom of association or freedom of the press. Human rights groups have estimated that, since the invasion of 1975, over one-third of East Timor's population has been killed, disappeared or died of war injuries and famine. Irrespective of the fact that it held a horrendous record on human rights, Indonesia steadfastly refused to give up its hold over East Timor.

Despite being on the United Nations agenda every year, East Timor was isolated and very much forgotten by the international community. In November, 1991 a massacre of possibly hundreds of young mourners at the Santa Cruz cemetery in Dili catapulted East Timor back into the international spotlight. 1998-99 brought great changes to the political landscape of East Timor. This is when Suharto resigned and Habibie assumed the mantle, promising political reform. There was a promise to give autonomy to East Timor which was then further advanced to give a vote on autonomy or independence.

The events since then are well known to us all, with horrendous violence, terror and intimidation being a feature of the lead-up to the ballot. Despite this, the people of East Timor demonstrated tremendous courage by turning out in huge numbers, and 78.5 per cent voted in favour of independence. Sadly, as we know, the violence did not end there, with three weeks of absolute terror and mayhem resulting in hundreds of deaths and disappearances and up to 400,000 people displaced. Cities were razed and in some villages nothing was left standing. There were worldwide protests and finally Australian-led INTERFET troops entered East Timor and stabilised the security situation. There is now a call for an international war crimes tribunal, which I support and I imagine many other members here support.

But now there is a humanitarian crisis. This motion calls on us as a parliament to be active in assisting the community in East Timor to re-establish their systems. In particular, this motion refers to the education system. We know that the young people of Timor have been severely traumatised by events in their country, and we know how critically important an education system is in the rebuilding of a community. There is a very special and important opportunity for us to do something practical to assist. We have in Canberra a rich resource of educational institutions and expertise, but we have a very rich resource of much more in Canberra.

The humanitarian crisis is much broader than a lack of educational services. There is a need for support in every aspect of life. There is a need for assistance in rebuilding basic infrastructure, developing a legal system, developing an electoral system, developing a public administration system, restoring basic services such as communications, power, sewerage, water, roads, housing, health, addressing environmental issues and so on.

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