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This month the Legal Centres column draws on conversations with delegates from East Timor[1] who attended the recent National Association of Community Legal Centres conference.
The National Association of Community Legal Centres (NACLC) was pleased to once again welcome a delegation of East Timorese lawyers and advocates from non government organisations to their national conference held in Melbourne in September 2002. With generous sponsorship,[2] the Federation was able to employ a project worker to ensure the delegation's attendance at and participation in the conference and, in addition, to organise five days of legal skills training.
In an interview with Sam Biondo, the delegates expressed the view that the greater insight into the Australian legal system that this visit afforded them, in particular into the state and community-based legal aid services available in Australia, has been invaluable. Their visit was also an opportunity for community legal workers to learn more about the issues confronting East Timorese lawyers in re-establishing a justice system in the world's newest democracy.
The task of establishing a justice system in East Timor, involving a legislative process, a court system, a judiciary, a prosecution service, a public defender's office, a prison system, a legal profession, legal aid and human rights is, it goes without saying, a huge task. It is nonetheless an essential one to promote the rule of law and abolish a system of impunity and corruption that existed through years of Portuguese colonisation and Indonesian occupation.
Following the brutal departure of the Indonesian administration and the subsequent militia violence, the pre-existing legal system was destroyed, as was virtually all other infrastructure. There were virtually no intact court buildings, no legal records, no copies of Indonesian or any other laws. Most Importantly there were no personnel equipped to operate a legal system: most of the key staff of the Indonesian system had left by the time the UNTAET administration commenced operation and there were few skilled East Timorese to replace them.[3] According to the United Nations, as at late 1999 there were about 100 East Timorese qualified in law of whom about 70 were in East Timor. The few of these who had actually practised law prior to 2000 were appointed as judges and administrators.
In addition to a lack of skilled and experienced staff and an overall lack of public funds for capital works, equipment and training, the justice sector faces other practical difficulties. One is the issue of language. While Tetum is the lingua franca of East Timor, Bahasa Indonesia is spoken to some degree by a majority of the population and is the language in which all the legally trained East Timorese studied law. Following independence, Portuguese, which few East Timorese under the age of 35 speak, has been made the official language of East Timor. Court proceedings are conducted in a combination of these three languages.
According to the delegates, the justice sector is currently in a state of crisis. Recent developments have resulted in local lawyers going on strike as an expression of their dissatisfaction with the administration of justice and in protest over an incident, which raises serious questions about the separation of powers in East Timor. The case involved a consignment of cigarettes seized by the border police (Border Control) on suspicion they were imported illegally. The owners of the goods instituted proceedings for their return and the Border Control ignored summonses to attend to give evidence. An order for restitution was made and the goods were eventually returned but not before the Prime Minister publicly criticised the decision of the court. Lawyers and legal workers have justifiably seen this interference by the executive as setting a dangerous precedent.
The strike, combined with the above-mentioned problems, and a delay in the appointment of new judicial officers, has resulted in unacceptable delays in an already overburdened system. With the state-run legal aid in its infancy[4] and the majority of the population unable to afford legal fees, legal aid services are similarly stretched. Pro bono legal services are provided by a remarkably diverse array of legal services with government-appointed Public Defenders working alongside lawyers from activist organisations to those employed by the Catholic Church. Funding of the non-government sector is largely dependent on overseas aid from development organisations such as US AID and a range of international NGOs.
Another significant 1ssue faced by the East Timorese lawyers and advocates in their day-to-day work is explaining to the community the actual and possible mechanisms for bringing to justice those responsible for the atrocities committed in 1999. There are high levels of anger and disappointment in the general community with the recent decision of the Indonesian court entrusted by the United Nations Security Council to try Indonesian officials and militia responsible for the violence. They were keen to use their visit to Australia to urge their Australian colleagues to demand that such 'sandiwara' (theatrical plays) cease and that steps be taken to establish an International Tribunal to prosecute crimes against humanity in East Timor. This was one of several conference resolutions arising from the session.
The community legal sector has been proactive in attempts to support our East Timorese colleagues. As previously mentioned, this has resulted in the sponsorship of delegates to attend the national conference and a commitment to ensure attendance at future conferences where possible. Darwin Community Legal Centre was one of several organisations and individuals instrumental in the staging of a symposium held in March this year drawing together representatives from a range of Australian and East Timorese organisations to identify priority needs and practical ways in which the Australian profession could assist in meeting some of those needs. The report from that Symposium and a number of other documents relating to the East Timor justice sector can be found at the NACLC website at <www.naclc.org.au/timor-network>.
Legal skills training has emerged as an urgent need in East Timor. While the East Timorese legal system is based on the European civil system, there is sufficient universality of legal skills required by lawyers in both systems for a common law system such as Australia to provide meaningful assistance. The CLC sector has been successful in the last 12 months in providing access to training on a range of topics including mediation, the delivery of community legal education, running a legal practice and legal advocacy. We have also been working with a group formed from the symposium attendees which is currently seeking funding to send volunteer trainers to East Timor.
The East Timorese delegates who recently travelled to Melbourne were pleased to be able take advantage of the networking and training opportunities provided by the CLC sector. They are eager to see that the links between the professions of the two countries are continued and strengthened. They felt that there is a significant role that Australian organisations including private firms, legal aid offices and community legal centres can play in the development of a strong and independent profession in East Timor. However, this can only realistically occur by ensuring ongoing communication with our East Timorese colleagues about the needs as they arise and greater coordination of potential assistance projects. One possible way of achieving this is by way of a closed email group that was established earlier this year following the Darwin Symposium. If you or your organisation is interested in getting involved in support projects in East Timor, you can join the general list by going to <http://www.nwjc. org.au/ avcwl/secure/listcontrol/emmahtml> and completing the form. You can then enter into discussions with organisations and individuals who have had some involvement in supporting the development of the East Timorese justice sector. If there is a problem accessing this list, contact the list administrator at <tls_legal@yahoo.com.au>.
Sam Biondo and Catherine Caruana*
Sam Biondo is Community Development Officer at Fitzroy Legal Service, Melbourne.
Catherine Caruana is Project Worker at the Victorian Federation of Community Legal Centres.
*This column draws on a paper by Gordon Renouf. [5]
[1] These were representatives from the following organisations: Yayasan Hak (Foundation for Law, Human Rights and Justice), Liberta (a private firm with a large pro bono caseload), Ukun Rasik An (Legal Aid Foundation), LBHTL (a legal aid organisation loosely modelled on the Indonesian organisation) Fokupers (a women's NGO that provides individual and systems advocacy, counselling and refuge services), and the Justice and Peace Commission (a division of the Catholic Church in El!!StTimor).
[2] Sponsors were: Myer Foundation, National Legal Aid, Slater and Gordon, Clayton Utz, the Search Foundation and Anglicarc.
[3] During the last 15 or so years of its occupation the Indonesian authorities encouraged East Timorese to gain university qualifications in Indonesia and provided a number of scholarships for that purpose. However, as noted above, at the time of independence there were about 70 East Timorese residing in East Timor who had completed university degrees in law, mostly in Indonesia. However, few of these have gone on to gain post admission experience as practising lawyers.
[4] Regulations establishing a state-run legal aid system have been passed, but not yet implemented.
[5] Renouf, Gordon, 'Some Features of the Legal System in East Timor', at <www.naclc.org.au/timor-networklindex_resources.html>.
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URL: http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/AltLawJl/2002/88.html