Senator Ted Kennedy on East Timor independence and the Role of the Peace Corps in East Timor
Read and comment on this story from the East Timor Network from 2002 on Senator Ted Kennedy's support for independence for East Timor in which he said that the Peace Corps Director is already based in Dili, and the first group of volunteers should be in East Timor in June and that to ensure that the Peace Corps will succeed in providing appropriate health and education assistance, we must ensure that the Peace Corps in East Timor receive the financial resources it needs.
The duties of Peace Corps Volunteers in East Timor has become a subject of controversy because the Peace Corps Web Site said that the first group of volunteers would work in one of two project areas: local governance promotion or community health services planning. Peace Corps Director Gaddi Vasquez said that in an interview with the NPCA newsletter 3/1/61 that the Peace Corps would not work in governance programs and added that "I don't believe it is our role to establish or to define or build the political infrastructure. We help develop communities through economic improvement, education, housing, health, and other components of the Peace Corps mission." Read the story at:
* This link was active on the date it was posted. PCOL is not responsible for broken links which may have changed.
Senator Ted Kennedy on independence
EAST TIMOR -- (Senate - May 23, 2002)
[Page: S4828]
Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, this week, East Timor became the first new nation of the 21st century.
This breathtaking milestone is the culmination of a long and violent road to independence for the East Timorese people. Portugal ruled East Timor for over 400 years before pulling out in August 1975. East Timor was independent for just four months before it was invaded by Indonesia in December that year. The U.N. General Assembly and Security Council strongly condemned the invasion and never recognized Indonesian sovereignty over East Timor.
After two decades of unrest, former Indonesian President B.J. Habibie finally agreed to a referendum in January 1999. In August that year, the people of East Timor voted overwhelmingly in favor of independence from Indonesia, and they did so at great personal risk. Before, during, and after the vote, the Indonesian military and anti-independence militia groups killed more than a thousand people and displaced thousands more, hoping to intimidate the independence movement.
Although the militias succeeded in destroying seventy percent of East Timor's infrastructure, they failed to derail East Timor's desire for freedom. Ninety-eight percent of the Timorese population turned out to vote on Election Day. The people of East Timor subsequently elected a Constitutional Assembly and, on April 14, 2002, they elected Xanana Gusmao as their first President.
As East Timor at long last takes its rightful place in the international family of nations, it is a time of great hopes. But it is also a time of great challenges. East Timor is rebuilding itself from ashes following 24 years of Indonesian rule, and her people have substantial economic needs. According to the United Nations Development Program, East Timor is the poorest country in Asia and one of the 20 poorest nations in the world. Almost half of East Timor's population lives on less than 55 cents a day and nearly 60 percent are illiterate. The unemployment rate is 80 percent.
The most pressing needs are the problems of poverty and economic growth and the building of solid democratic institutions that can deal with the challenges East Timor will face. Our country must show the East Timorese that we will support the efforts of the world's newest democracy. It is a unique opportunity to do it correctly from the start.
America's embassy in Dili is up and running, but it is being run by a Charge d'Affairs. To show maximum support and ensure that our commitment to assisting East Timor is strong, an Ambassador to East Timor should be nominated immediately.
The Peace Corps Director is already based in Dili, and the first group of volunteers should be in East Timor in June. To ensure that the Peace Corps will succeed in providing appropriate health and education assistance, we must ensure that the Peace Corps in East Timor receive the financial resources it needs.
Our Nation can also assist East Timor on the road to economic development by promoting trade in promising industries. The administration should introduce the tools and programs to facilitate trade and investment in East Timor--such as the Generalized System of Preferences--soon.
East Timor is also developing its armed forces. Australia and Portugal are leading the effort in providing training for the new military. The U.S. and other regional countries are providing some technical assistance. To help professionalize the army and promote human rights, the United States should provide excess defense materials and international military education and training. Additionally, America should keep our peacekeepers in the international force in East Timor until the UN determines that its mission is complete. The U.S. should also maintain the humanitarian assistance through the U.S. Group in East Timor, USGET, with regularly scheduled ship visits that have played a vital role in rebuilding schools and orphanages and providing basic health care.
Finally, the United States must reiterate its interest in ensuring that members of the Indonesian military are held accountable for the 1999 atrocities in East Timor. The East Timorese need to know not only that their concerns have been heard, but also that the United States is committed to upholding high standards of democracy and justice.
The people of East Timor have chosen democracy. This is an important opportunity for the United States to ensure that the East Timorese people are part of one of the world's great success stories. We have seen the risks of failed states in places like Afghanistan and Somalia. Failure in East Timor cannot be an option.Should the Peace Corps promote Governance Programs?
Caption: Director Vasquez says he does not believe it is Peace Corps' role to establish or to define or build political infrastructure in Peace Corps' Countries of Service. However he recently sent volunteers to East Timor to work in local Governance Programs.
Read and comment on this letter to the editor in NPCA's Winter 2002 3/1/61 newsletter from RPCV Gregory R. Roche questioning Director Vasquez's brief explanation to the question of governance programs as a possible programming area and whether Director Vasquez "has a firm grip on his Agency's programming areas, or worse, that he is misleading the reader to avoid criticism." Read the letter at:
* This link was active on the date it was posted. PCOL is not responsible for broken links which may have changed.
Governance
In his interview in the Fall 2002 issue, Peace Corps Director said "No" with brief explanation to the question of governance programs as a possible programming area, yet the announcement on Page 7 of Peace Corps Entry into East Timor includes governance promotion as a work assignment. Absent clarification, readers are left with the impression that Director Vasquez does not have a firm grip on his Agency's programming areas, or worse, that he is misleading the reader to avoid criticism.
I happen to agree that Peace Corps should not be involved in politically sensitive areas such as governance.
Gregory R. Roche Niger 81 - 83 Central African Republic 86 - 90 Mali 94 - 98
No! Director Vasquez says no to Governance Programs
Read this excerpt from and interview with Director Vasquez from the Fall, 2002 issue of the NPCA's 3/1/61 newsletter at:
Vasquez: No, I don't believe it is our role to establish or to define or build the political infrastructure. We help develop communities through economic improvement, education, housing, health, and other components of the Peace Corps mission.
Yes! Director Vasquez sends PCVs off to work in local Governance Promotion
Caption: Peace Corps Director Gaddi Vasquez and the first group of Peace Corps Volunteers to serve in East Timor meet with Senator Edward Kennedy before the group's departure. Senator Kennedy was instrumental in introducing legislation last year to help facilitate East Timor's transition to independence.
Read this Peace Corps Press Release which says that the first group of volunteers bound for East Timor will work in local governance promotion and community health services planning at:
First Group of Peace Corps Volunteers Bound for East Timor
Washington, DC, June 18, 2002-The first group of Peace Corps volunteers to serve in the newly-independent nation of East Timor, formerly part of the island nation of Indonesia, will depart June 19 from Washington D.C. The nineteen volunteers, who have all recently finished a two-year Peace Corps assignment in another country, will spend the next year helping to establish a Peace Corps presence in East Timor and set up foundations for sustainable development projects.
"These Peace Corps volunteers in East Timor are pioneers," said Peace Corps Director Gaddi Vasquez. "They will initiate important relationships with ministry officials and community members and pave the way for future Peace Corps volunteers in the world’s newest democracy. This new partnership with the people of East Timor represents the beginning of expansion to new countries for the agency."
East Timor is the 136th country in the world to invite the United States government to send American Peace Corps volunteers to live and work in their country.
The volunteers will spend the first four weeks in Dili, East Timor’s capital, participating in language, cross cultural, safety and security, medical and job-related training. They will be learning Tetun, one of the two official languages in East Timor and the language most used by the majority of Timorese people.
The volunteers will work in one of two project areas: local governance promotion or community health services planning. They will work closely with local governing bodies to develop project plans for their assignments
More about the International Republican Institute (IRI)
Governance Promotion has been a controversial issue and has not been promoted by the Peace Corps because it is considered too politically sensitive. The appointment of Lloyd Pierson as Peace Corps Chief of Staff and the appointment of other alumni of the International Republican Insitute (IRI) into senior Peace Corps management positions has made this an issue since the IRI has been a strong proponent of Democracy Promotion. The IRI, along with its sister non-governmental organizations, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), was established by Congress in the early 1980s to help promote democracy worldwide.
Read more about about the IRI, Governance , and Democracy Promotion from this article on Lloyd Pierson's work on governance in Nigeria in 1999 before he came to the Peace Corps at:
DEMOCRACY ADVOCATE SEES OPPORTUNITIES FOR NEW NIGERIA
IRI's Lloyd Pierson speaks to USIA
Jim Fisher-Thompson USIA Staff Writer
NAIROBI -- While most Americans spent Saturday, September 26, running errands, doing household chores, or relaxing, Lloyd Pierson was flying high above the Atlantic on his way to Nigeria, where he will help democracy advocates plan national elections, their first since the recent death of General Sani Abacha.
Pierson, a former Peace Corps director in Ghana in the early 1980s who is now director for African programs at the International Republican Institute (IRI), spoke to a U.S. Information Agency (USIA) reporter traveling on the same plane.
Pierson said he looked forward to working with Nigerian democracy advocates in Lagos and Abuja to plan upcoming legislative and presidential elections scheduled between December and March 1999.
IRI, Pierson explained, runs workshops on electoral techniques such as poll watching, voter registration, and political campaigning. At the same time, it offers civic education programs for voters and citizen interest groups who wish to organize.
"Africans are no different from Americans when it comes to participation in political life," Pierson pointed out. "They want education, good health, good roads, and a good quality of life, and they want to determine how to bring that about."
On a personal level, Pierson said, "I'm looking forward to [the] visit because I've never been to Nigeria, and during the seven years I lived in Africa I came to love the continent and learned that its people want the same kinds of things, like democracy and freedom, that everyone in the world wants."
Nigeria's new head of state, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, recently traveled to the United States, where he met with President Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and other top U.S. officials. Abubakar succeeded Abacha, who died of a heart attack, and has promised the military will hand over power to civilians after presidential elections in late February 1999.
Asked if he thinks Abubakar is more sincere about returning to the barracks than Abacha was, Pierson said: "I definitely think so. That's why I and a colleague are traveling today to take a firsthand view. We're going to meet with as many of the members of the National Election Commission as we can."
Commenting on progress the Abubakar regime has made in releasing former political prisoners and smoothing the way for national elections, Pierson said, "I don't think anybody would have believed such a thing would have been possible six months ago" when Abacha was still alive.
Pierson said IRI has not done any work in Nigeria since it sponsored a small youth leadership program in 1992-1993. But he added that he thinks prospects are good now for IRI and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that promote democracy to come and operate in the country. "The simple fact that we were able to get visas attests to the new openness," the IRI official said.
Pierson said he was emboldened to make the trip to Nigeria now, in part, because "we have had very good meetings with Nigerian officials at their embassy in Washington."
He added that "among the Nigerian community in America, whom we've spoken with, there are some mixed feelings" about trusting the new regime, but "I think everybody is hopeful and wants a civilian democratic government."
IRI, along with its sister non-governmental organizations, the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), was established by Congress in the early 1980s to help promote democracy worldwide. Click on a link below for more stories on PCOL
Some postings on Peace Corps Online are provided to the individual members of this group without permission of the copyright owner for the non-profit purposes of criticism, comment, education, scholarship, and research under the "Fair Use" provisions of U.S. Government copyright laws and they may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner. Peace Corps Online does not vouch for the accuracy of the content of the postings, which is the sole responsibility of the copyright holder.
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - East Timor; Special Interests - Governance
