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EAST
TIMOR
RULES
OF COMMUNICATION At one o'clock sharp, the students troop in. It's a mixed bunch. The youngest is barely five years old, the oldest, perhaps 13. Their teacher is a serious-faced Korean youth - a member of ROKBATT, the Republic of Korea Battalion stationed in East Timor's district of Lautem. Several times a day, he teaches the Korean martial arts form, taekwondo, to anyone who cares to join in. This afternoon, he is instructing a group of beginners. Strange, how human beings can connect even without the lack of a common language. The children barely know a word of Korean. Their taekwondo teacher has nothing more than a bare-bones understanding of Tetum and Bahasa Indonesia. Yet both sides have broken the language barrier. A single command from the teacher and his students form straight lines. Another command and the lines move in unison, the children punctuating their kicks and punches with practiced shouts and exclamations. It is often said that children have short attention spans. But here, the concentration is intense. This is serious business. The instructor moves along the lines, sometimes praising his students, sometimes correcting a mistake. He speaks a curious mish-mash of Korean and Tetum and Indonesian piled into a sentence that somehow makes sense to those listening. And always there are gestures - an occasional wave to emphasize a point, funny faces that make the children giggle. It's obvious the Korean peacekeepers have struck a chord with the folks of Lautem. Someone from the community tells us simply, "We like them. They are good people." It's been a hard-won friendship. The first ROKBATT contingent arrived in Lautem on 16 October 1999 - a time when destruction was widespread and distrust the only defence mechanism the people had. Just weeks before, following East Timor's vote for independence, rampaging militiamen and Indonesian soldiers had unleashed a campaign of terror on the population. Two years on, the situation has improved. Eight thousand peacekeepers are keeping watch over East Timor. Militia sightings are rare. The challenge now lies in rebuilding lives and helping the people regain a sense of normalcy. In Lautem, community building is a priority. Korean peacekeepers have rehabilitated destroyed roads and buildings. Taekwondo has become the latest exercise fad, and villagers talk about the free haircuts and dental services provided by stern-faced soldiers. When heavy rain and flooding destroyed homes and threatened lives earlier this year, ROKBATT was at the forefront of the rescue effort. Colonel Jeong Ha Lee, who commands the fourth ROKBATT contingent in East Timor, sets out the philosophy, "The Timorese are our center of gravity." Back at the taekwondo class, the Korean youth is teaching a new maneuver - a complex series of gestures that each child practices in turn. It doesn't take long before the entire class is able to execute the moves together. Outside the classroom, a soldier and a young Timorese are engaged in an animated conversation. There is that familiar hodge-podge of words and gestures. Suddenly both explode in laughter. We ask the
duo how such conversation is even possible. There are puzzled looks. The
soldier attempts an explanation, "When you talk to friends, maybe
you don't need the same words."
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Paulo Araujo mans his new kiosk in Dili. The shelves are full of rice, sugar, crackers, soap, as well as candy for the children who pass by each day. It's less than a week since he began selling, but business is good. Only a year ago, the 24-year-old led a very different life. "I spent three years with FALINTIL," Araujo says, referring to the armed resistance. "Before that, I was in the clandestine movement." He had hoped to join the new East Timor Defence Force, but when he wasn't selected he wasn't sure what he would do. But Araujo and many other veterans found new opportunities with the FALINTIL Reinsertion Assistance Programme (FRAP), an initiative of the International Organization for Migration. FRAP Project Manager Walter Sanchez describes the programme as "a year-long campaign to help veterans make the transition to civilian life." When FALINTIL formally disbanded in February, some 1,300 men were immediately enrolled in the programme. "In the beginning, the main focus is to give former FALINTIL members a transitional safety net," Sanchez explains. The former guerillas were given identification cards and free transport home. To help with the transition to community life, they were also given the first of five monthly support payments and a food allotment from the World Food Programme. With support from the NGO community, the veterans were also offered opportunities for vocational and other training and support. In return, each veteran was asked to develop a plan for economic self-reliance. The aim: to give each one a clear means to provide for himself and his family. FRAP is an example of how the international community has come together to give East Timor a helping hand. Funding comes from USAID, the World Bank and the Japanese Government. But the participation of NGOs is essential to the programme's success. In the fishery projects, for example, the East Timor Transitional Administration provides fishing equipment donated by China, while the boats were purchased from a local Iceland-funded boat-building project. On a hot mid-September afternoon, Sanchez and his staff are processing three proposals. Paulo Araujo signs his agreement for the kiosk; 25-year-old Andre da Costa receives the initial funding for a second-hand clothing business; and Paulo Sarmento intends to purchase three water buffalo. Sanchez queries Sarmento hard on how he plans to use the livestock - he wants to make sure the plan makes sense. Once the deal is struck, Sanchez will monitor Sarmento's progress to ensure he keeps to the terms of his proposal. If the terms of a contract are broken, all remaining benefits are cut off and everything must be repaid. It's now late in the day. Sanchez and his assistant Martinho Tilman pile everyone into their car and race off across town. They've got to buy clothing, food supplies and a water buffalo, all before the sun goes down. A half-hour later, Andre da Costa sits proudly in the back of his truck high atop the mountain of garments he has just purchased. His wife sits up front, beaming with happiness, and Andre is smiling too. He and his wife are expecting their first child soon, and with the clothes beneath him, the former soldier is starting his new life as a businessman. |
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