Overview
East Timor is undergoing a historic transformation from occupied state to independent nation and, with international help, the East Timorese are creating the governing institutions that will form the backbone of their emerging state. One newly-formed body which will play a pivotal role is the East Timorese Defense Force (F-FDTL), which along with the East Timor Police Service, is being given increased operational responsibilities as the United Nations Peace Keeping Force downsizes its presence in the country.
While the creation of a professional armed force is clearly an important task facing the East Timorese, future democratic stability depends on policymakers and civil society acquiring the knowledge and policy instruments necessary to guide and manage security sector reform. In response to this need, NDI is conducting a program to support the democratic development of the security sector in East Timor through confidence-building, education and capacity-developing activities for representatives of the country's newly elected governing bodies as well as members of civil society.
Clementino dos Reis Amaral, deputy chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and National Security, speaks with a member of the F-FDTL during his committee's visit to the Los Palos base.
The first phase of those efforts consisted of a series of workshops convened by the Institute where the participants-including interested East Timorese civil society groups, national parliamentarians, senior media editors, political party officials and F-FDTL members-discussed and debated security sector reform issues. The workshops covered issues designed to expand citizen knowledge on the role of the armed forces and police in a democratic society; help civil society and political parties establish channels of communication between governing officials and the armed forces; and improve the media's abilities to report on the behavior and policies of the country's uniformed services.
In the next phase of the program, NDI is focusing on efforts to expand the capacity of the legislative and executive branches of the government to monitor and oversee the East Timorese armed forces. Along with the creation of an inter-departmental working group within the East Timor government, NDI has been working with the Parliamentary Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and National Security to broaden the members' expertise and increase lines of communication with the F-FDTL. Visits by the Committee to defense and political installations in the country in March 2003, which have been facilitated by NDI, are one important component of the plan. Additionally, the base tours have provided Committee members with an opportunity to talk with the military leadership, representing the first formal interview by the legislature of the country's senior command, as well as allow them to examine first-hand the conditions that the soldiers live in. Committee members emerged from the base examinations and dialogue with the country's military personnel with a clearer understanding of the problems confronting the F-FDTL-including conscription, salary levels of serving personnel, force design and training-and a determination to use their role as a parliamentary committee to act to ameliorate them.
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