DILI (TOP) - Conflict between two figures in Timor-Leste is still lingering. The conflict this time is about an alleged bribery case from the ConocoPhillips oil company to former prime minister Mari Alkatiri from 2002-2003 to 2006.
Since Timor-Leste entered its first state of emergency in March 2020, and since May 2020 Xanana has started to socialize Covid-19 prevention measures from Dili to 12 municipalities in Timor-Leste. During the socialization of Covid-19 prevention measures, Xanana also received humanitarian assistance from various groups which was then distributed to the poorest families in Timor-Leste.
When Xanana socialized prevention measures for Covid-19 throughout the national territory, the former prime minister was silent in Dili, even rarely visiting poor families and families experiencing major natural disasters in Dili, but then he began to attack and accuse Xanana's activities of being an act to cover up his corruption that was carried out during his ten years of holding the government.
Mari Alkatiri posted on his Facebook status accusing Xanana's act of solidarity with the poor in Timor-Leste only to cover up his corrupt behavior for decades. Alkatiri accused Xanana from 21-22 June 2020.
Today's order: “corruption as an active viral disease is spreading very fast. People who commit corruption when to avoid and protect themselves use the trickle-down of sowing leftover money or something small to the poor to show that they are solidarity with others (Philanthropy) ”. (21 June 2020).
The second allegation on 22 June 2020 that; "Others because of their power, formerly as heroes, now become the biggest corruptors, and spread corruption to the community". (22 June 2020).
After these two accusations went viral on social media platforms, people from the CNRT party began to get angry so that on 22 June 2020 the president of the CNRT party Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão chaired a meeting of the National Political Commission in his party and in that meeting there were two decisions; First the CNRT party wanted to report Alkatiri to the prosecutor's office, but Xanana saw that the justice system in this country was still fragile, he decided to ask a member of parliament from the CNRT party to raise a bribery case from the ConocoPhillips oil company to Mari Alkatiri several years ago.
From then on, the CNRT party in the National Parliament made this issue a weapon against Alkatiri and they voiced and declared this bribery case in the plenary session of the national parliament, then published several related documents in several print media in Timor-Leste.
After this was over, Mari Alkatiri responded by immediately reporting the CNRT party members who accused him of accepting bribes from ConocoPhillips. About two times Alkatiri went to report on the structure of the CNRT National Political Commission and members of parliament from the CNRT party at the high prosecutor's office, in Kolmera, Dili last year.
And on March 8, 2021, the high prosecutor's office through Prosecutor Matias Soares gave a notification letter to Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão to appear before the high prosecutor's office on March 29, 2021 as a witness to the alleged bribery case from ConocoPhillips to Alkatiri. Xanana also complied with the summons, but when he arrived at the prosecutor's office, he asked the prosecutor Matias Soares to register him as a perpetrator because in the CNRT party structure he was the one who ordered and decided on members of the National Political Commission to uncover and resolve the ConocoPhillips bribery case to Alkatiri both at The National Parliament and the whole society.
"I gave two options to members of the National Political Commission and members of parliament from the CNRT party to voice this bribery case to the public, so this is me who is responsible but I ask the prosecutor to assign me a perpetrator because I have compiled and complete evidence about this bribery case,” Xanana explained through a press conference in Bebora, Dili, 29 March 2021.
"As chairman of the National Political Commission, I have to accept all responsibility for any decisions issued by the party. I must not withdrawn away from my responsibility for this matter”.
Xanana didn't want to be a coward
"I must not be a coward to incriminate my members, both members of the National Political Commission and members of parliament from the CNRT party, because I chair the National Political Commission meeting which was issued to the public on 22 June 2020".
The former political prisoner for 7 years in Cipinang prison, Indonesia added, if he lost against Alkatiri in court then he is willing to go to prison again, and prison is a small thing for Xanana, according to him.
"I'm ready, because? I've been to jail twice. Entered the first prison in 1975 when I was arrested by members of the UDT party at the FRETILIN office. UDT jailed me for seven days for defending the FRETILIN party flag. And went to prison for 7 years in Cipinang prison, Jakarta, Indonesia for defending the flag of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste (RDTL). So prison for me is normal, I'm not afraid”.
According to the 27 February 2007 issue of Australian media The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH), the lawyer for the oil company Oceanic Exploration has taken the ConocoPhilips company to the US District Court in South Texas.
Oceanic is challenging ConocoPhillips' rights to six million hectares of the Timor Sea which includes the massive Bayu-Undan field that has given East Timor more than US $ 1 billion ($ 1.3 billion) and is expected to raise as much as $ US15 billion for the poor nation.
Under the Timor Sea Treaty which Australia and East Timor signed in 2002, East Timor is entitled to 90 percent of the area's petroleum production.
Oceanic claims a 1974 agreement with East Timor's former ruler, Portugal, granting its subsidiary Petrotimor exclusive rights to the Joint Petroleum Development Area that includes Bayu-Undan.
The company claims in US court documents that ConocoPhillips stole concessions by bribing Indonesian and Timorese officials for 30 years. Oceanic claims ConocoPhillips generated more than $ US2 million in cash and other payments to Timorese officials, including former prime minister Mari Alkatiri.
Documents state that millions of dollars in cash were deposited in two bank accounts in Darwin in 2002. Alkatiri and ConocoPhillips have vehemently denied these claims.
