In Pakistan's Swat Valley, boys – and girls – crack open schoolbooks once again

After nearly two years of Taliban rule and a recent military offensive, hundreds of students are returning to their studies. But many schools were damaged or destroyed.

By Daud Khattak | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

Mingora, Pakistan

Hundreds of boys and girls returned to school in Pakistan's Swat Valley this month, returning to their lessons after being forced to flee fighting between the Army and Taliban. Even girls, who had been banned from school by the militants who dominated the area until April, showed up.

After nearly two years of Taliban rule and a destructive three-month military offensive, their attendance marks one of the first, tenuous signs of a return to normalcy in this northwestern area.

Many children don't have schools to return to. Instead they are studying in tents, under trees, or amid the rubble where their schools once stood. They have no desks, chairs, tables, or shade. At a middle school in Maniyar, just outside Mingora, girls used bricks from the demolished buildings as seats.

According to Fazal Ahad, an education official in Swat, 220 girls' and boys' schools were damaged or destroyed, along with 130 more in neighboring Buner and Dir districts, where fighting also took place. The total cost of damage in Swat – including of hospitals, roads, bridges, hotels, and private property – may total $2.5 billion, says Wajid Ali Khan, a provincial minister.

Refugees return – warily

Despite the damage, Swat residents are steadily returning from refugee camps and neighboring towns.

Ali, a resident of Swat whose brother was shot dead by Taliban in Mingora a few months ago, says the militants have been dealt a serious blow and will not be able to return and challenge the writ of the government.

Many are more skeptical, though, as reports swirl of Taliban sightings in Swat tehsils (subdistricts) such as Kabal, Charbagh, and Matta. The offensive killed some key Taliban leaders, such as Shahi Dauran, who had become a dreaded figure in Swat, and forced others to flee. But residents say they want to see top commanders, like Swat Taliban chief Maulana Fazlullah, arrested or killed.

Banned shops reopen; school reconstruction

Meanwhile, businesses shut down by the Taliban, such as barbershops and music stores, are slowly reopening, though more quickly in Mingora than in surrounding areas. Usman Gul, a barber from Kabal, is still too scared to start shaving beards again, a practice the Taliban had banned. Music, also considered taboo, can now be heard from shops and cafes, cars and buses.

School reconstruction will begin in September, says Gul Mina Bilal, a senior member of the province's ruling Awami National Party.

That will especially benefit girls, whom the Taliban barred from school early this year. Some 80,000 girls in Swat were getting educations, says Ziauddin Yousafzai, a school administrator. Although only a fraction of those have returned, the number of children back in school is growing. "We expect the number will grow as people continue arriving in the valley from camps and cities," he says, adding that the children seem happy to be back.

Eager students include Shama, a girl sitting on a rug under a tent at the middle school in Maniyar.

"My school was bombed by Taliban while we were living in tents in Mardan," she says. "They say it is going to be constructed soon. I'm happy that I'll get new books. I want to get education and become a teacher."

A hint of normalcy: children singing

In the mornings here and elsewhere in Mingora, schoolchildren can be heard singing the national anthem at assembly – an unbelievable sound for many people who stayed put during the days of Taliban.

Says Abdullah, one resident: "I've been listening to the sound of morning assembly in a school close to my house for the past three days, and trying again and again to assure myself again and again that things have changed now."

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Rosetta Stone Totale Review

• By KATHERINE BOEHRET

If you've ever learned a foreign language, you know the vast difference between completing workbook activities and speaking with others. The latter experience can involve sounding out unfamiliar accents or guttural pronunciations and, though intimidating, is ultimately more rewarding. By immersing yourself in a language and navigating through situations, you learn how to speak and eventually think in that language.

Rosetta Stone has long used visual learning without translations by pairing words with images —one of the ways a baby learns to speak. For the past week, I've been testing its newest offering: Rosetta Stone Totale (pronounced toe-tall-A), which is the company's first fully Web-based language-learning program. It aims to immerse you in a language using three parts: online coursework that can take up to 150 hours; live sessions in which you can converse over the Web with a native-speaking coach and other students; and access to Rosetta World, a Web-based community where you can play language games by yourself or with other students to improve your skills.

Totale costs a whopping $999, so if you aren't serious about learning a language it's a tough sell. Rosetta Stone says this program is comparable to an in-country language-immersion school. The company's most expensive offering before Totale was a set of CDs (lessons one, two and three) that cost $549, included about 120 hours of course work and had no online components.

The Totale Package

Since Totale is Web-based it doesn't come loaded onto several disks in a yellow box like the company's previous products. But despite this digital transition, buyers of Totale will still receive Rosetta's familiar yellow box, now filled with a USB headset and supplemental audio discs for practicing away from the PC—mostly while in the car.

I've spent over eight hours learning French in Totale throughout the past week, and I have to say that I'm surprised by how much I feel I've already learned. I realized this when I spent a 30-minute car ride listening to one of the supplemental audio CDs. I mentally identified and translated practically every vocabulary word and phrase, and I repeated the words aloud with what I thought sounded like a pretty decent French accent. This was after just four hours of work online.

Intensive Coursework

The core of Totale is the time-intensive online coursework. But even though this takes a lot of effort, its layout is attractive and each screen has only a few things on it so it doesn't feel overwhelming. Lessons include identifying photos of objects or situations as they are described aloud, writing phrases (my least favorite part), and using deductive reasoning to construct and dictate your own sentences about a photo. Totale's headset comes in handy during exercises that require you to repeat words or sounds out loud into the microphone.

Activities in Rosetta World—including solo, two-person and group games—were addictively fun. One game plays like Bingo: I listened to someone speaking French and marked words on the board as I heard them, racing to get five words horizontally, vertically or diagonally before my opponent beat me to it. I waded into these games cautiously at first, playing alone before I got familiar enough to challenge another Totale user.

Helpful indicators show how many people are available at any given time for each type of game in Rosetta World—meaning that person is logged into Totale and studying the same language as you. I never saw more than five people in the community, and it gets a little old playing (or worse, losing) to the same person after a while. Since Totale was only recently released, this community should grow over time.

A chat window at the bottom left of the browser window reminded me of Facebook's built-in instant-messaging program, listing users against whom I competed in online games. But unlike when I'm on Facebook, I didn't feel comfortable instant messaging with these people.

No Flashcards

Rosetta Stone's methods, while natural and easy to pick up, aren't what my brain expects when learning a different language. I minored in Spanish in college, learning in traditional classroom style by studying verb conjugations on flashcards and vocabulary definitions in English. So at certain times throughout Totale's French-only lessons, a part of me wanted to know the exact definition of a phrase or the reasoning behind why something was the way it was.

The moment of truth came when I attended a real-time, 50-minute studio session online with one of the live coaches—all of whom are native speakers—and two other students (four students is the maximum allowed per class).

Rosetta Stone recommends that students complete an entire unit before joining one of these studio sessions, and the only language you are permitted to speak during the studio is the one being studied. I proudly remembered all of my new vocabulary words as our coach pointed the cursor to animals, colors and clothing, asking us questions and prompting us to ask one another questions. The coach kindly corrected us when we made mistakes, made jokes about words and used an on-screen tool to type out a few of the harder phrases.

But I fumbled around trying to remember the correct phrases and grammar to go along with my vocabulary.

I frustratingly realized that I didn't even know how to ask my coach in French, "Why is that blanc and not blanche?" Our coach eventually answered that question and some others without anyone's prompting because it was obvious that none of us knew what forms of some words were right or why; Totale's coursework doesn't include explanations. A few of the phrases our coach explained still puzzled me and I was starting to miss my flashcards from Spanish class.

Team Effort

Rosetta Stone is determined to make sure you don't feel like you're alone as you work through the Totale program. A "Customer Success Team" representative calls you within a day of your product purchase to answer any questions or concerns about how everything works. And this team keeps calling or emailing (you tell them which contact method you prefer) whenever you have passed a milestone in the program—or to encourage you to pick it up again if you haven't logged on in a while.

Even for $999, you can go back in and re-use every feature in Totale, but only for one year. You can reset your scores and completely start over, attending online studios again and playing games in Rosetta World as many times as you like. But once a year is up, you're finished with the program.

Rosetta Stone Totale works on all major Mac and Windows PC browsers, though participating in a studio session while using some browsers requires you turn off their pop-up blockers.

I still have work to do in Totale, but I'm looking forward to it—even though I find some aspects to be a bit vague. This program does a terrific job of immersing you in a language and may be the next best thing to living in a country, surrounded by native speakers. Best of all, unlike my semester abroad in Spain where college friends gave me my daily fix of the English language, Totale never lets you slip out of using the language you're studying.

—Edited by Walter S. Mossberg. Email Katherine Boehret at
mossbergsolution@wsj.com.

Singapore's Ideal: A Singaporean CEO for Temasek

By P.R. VENKAT

SINGAPORE -- Singapore's finance minister said state-owned investment company Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd.'s chief executive would ideally be Singaporean, but the government won't interfere in nor restrict Temasek's decision in the selection process.

"The question of whether the CEO of Temasek should be a Singaporean is not a trivial one; it is one which cabinet considered very carefully and debated on before arriving at a decision," Tharman Shanmugaratnam told lawmakers in Parliament.

"Ideally, we should have a Singaporean as the CEO; that's the ideal and everything else being equal and you look at two candidates who are equally suitable for the job, I think we should prefer to have a Singaporean," he said. "The ideal is not always possible. What is critical is that the board remains in the control of Singaporeans."

Mr. Tharman stressed that the investment company is independent from government interference and that the government prefers not to put restrictions on Temasek in its CEO search.

"The government does not directly manage the process of chief executive succession. To do so would make the appointment of the chief executive a political decision, which it must never be," Mr. Tharman said.

In July, Temasek said it and former CEO-designate Charles "Chip" Goodyear, a U.S.-born executive who was formerly chief of mining giant BHP Billiton Ltd., mutually agreed to part ways, citing differences on "certain strategic issues."

A person familiar with the situation said at the time that Mr. Goodyear's proposals for the firm's new strategic direction were considered too risky by some, and that he also planned some changes to the senior management that weren't well-received by Temasek's board.

Temasek CEO Ho Ching said in July that Mr. Goodyear's departure was "mutual and amicable."

The finance minister said Temasek's leadership remains strong, at both the CEO and board level. "They have enabled Temasek to sustain its generally superior overall investment performance over the years," he said.

Temasek suffered losses on its investments due to the global slowdown and financial crisis. Ms. Ho said late last month that Temasek's portfolio fell more than S$40 billion (US$27.54 billion) at the end of March from a year earlier. The company manages a portfolio valued at S$127 billion.

Mr. Tharman said Temasek had done "rather well" compared with other companies and that there was no "push factor" for the current CEO to step down. "As shareholder of Temasek, the government has a clear interest in Temasek continuing to have strong leadership," he said.

Write to P.R. Venkat at venkat.pr@dowjones.com

India's Afghan Aid Irks Pakistan

With $1.2 Billion in Pledged Aid, New Delhi Hopes to Help Build a Country That Is 'Stable, Democratic, Multiethnic'

By PETER WONACOTT

KABUL -- After shunning Afghanistan during the Taliban regime, India has become a major donor and new friend to the country's democratic government -- even if its growing presence here riles archrival Pakistan.

From wells and toilets to power plants and satellite transmitters, India is seeding Afghanistan with a vast array of projects. The $1.2 billion in pledged assistance includes projects both vital to Afghanistan's economy, such as a completed road link to Iran's border, and symbolic of its democratic aspirations, such as the construction of a new parliament building in Kabul. The Indian government is also paying to bring scores of bureaucrats to India, as it cultivates a new generation of Afghan officialdom.

India's aid has elevated it to Afghanistan's top tier of donors. In terms of pledged donations through 2013, India now ranks fifth behind the U.S., U.K., Japan and Canada, according to the Afghanistan government. Pakistan doesn't rank in the top 10.

Afghanistan is now the second-largest recipient of Indian aid after Bhutan. "We are here for the same reason the U.S. and others are here -- to see a stable, democratic, multiethnic Afghanistan," Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan Jayant Prasad said in an interview.

Such a future for Afghanistan is hardly assured, as the run-up to Thursday's presidential election shows. On Tuesday, a pair of mortar shells hit near the presidential palace in Kabul while Taliban insurgents attacked polling stations across the country, as part of wave of violence aimed at preventing people from casting ballots in the election.

Despite backing the Taliban in the past, Pakistan doesn't want to see an anarchic Afghanistan, say Pakistani security analysts.

"Pakistan is doing nothing to thwart the elections in Afghanistan and everything to help Afghanistan stabilize and have a truly representative government," says Gen. Jehangir Karamat, Pakistan's former ambassador to the U.S. and a retired army chief.

Yet India's largess has stirred concern in Pakistan, a country situated between Afghanistan and India that has seen its influence in Afghanistan wane following the collapse of the Taliban regime. At the heart of the tensions is the shared fear that Afghanistan could be used by one to destabilize the other.

"We recognize that Afghanistan needs development assistance from every possible source to address the daunting challenges it is facing. We have no issue with that," says Pakistani foreign-ministry spokesman Abdul Basit. "What Pakistan is looking for is strict adherence to the principle of noninterference."

The two countries have sparred repeatedly about each other's activities in Afghanistan. Indian officials say their Pakistani counterparts have claimed that there are more than the official four Indian consulates in Afghanistan, and that they support an extensive Indian spy network. For years, Pakistan refused to allow overland shipment of fortified wheat biscuits from India to feed two million Afghan schoolchildren. India instead had to ship the biscuits through Iran, driving up costs for the program.

The World Food Program, which administers the shipments, said the Pakistan government gave its approval for overland shipment in 2008 -- six years after the first delivery from India. "Why did it take six years ... is something that WFP cannot answer," a spokesman for the aid organization said. "However, we are indeed thankful to the government of Pakistan for allowing transit for the fortified biscuits."

Mr. Basit, the foreign-ministry spokesman, didn't respond to a question about the Indian food assistance.

India's aid has extended well beyond physical infrastructure to the training of accountants and economists. For a nation devastated by decades of war, these soft skills fill a hole, says Noorullah Delawari, Afghanistan's former central-bank governor and now head of Afghanistan Investment Support Agency, an organization that promotes private enterprise. "The country shut down for 20 years," he said. "We stopped producing educated people to run our businesses and government offices."

Some believe there is room for cooperation between India and Pakistan in Afghanistan since both countries share an abiding interest in its stability. "The opportunity is there," says Gen. Karamat, "if we can get out of the straitjacket of the past."

—Matthew Rosenberg contributed to this article.

Write to Peter Wonacott at peter.wonacott@wsj.com

5 Years Later, Morocco Is Still Adjusting to a Family Reform Law

By STEVEN ERLANGER and SOUAD MEKHENNET

TANGIER, Morocco — Fairouz Guiro, 19, still looks with wonder at her little girl, Marwar, all of 27 days old.

But Ms. Guiro has no idea how to find Marwar’s father. She was seduced by an older Moroccan man visiting Tangier on vacation from Spain, and he has since changed his cellphone number.

“My mother told me to be careful of men and not to trust them,” she said. “I didn’t listen.”

Ms. Guiro came to Tangier to work from a little town nine hours away and found a job at a company called Delphi. But her job is gone, and as a single mother, she has few rights here.

Her parents told her to give up Marwar for adoption, and so did her siblings. “I said ‘O.K., I would,’ but later I couldn’t,” she said. “I know it’s my right to take care of my daughter.”

Despite an important reform of Morocco’s family code in 2004, pressed upon a reluctant Parliament by the young king, Muhammad VI, sex outside marriage is not recognized in Morocco, any more than homosexuality is.

The new law, known as the Moudawana, provides no protection to women like Ms. Guiro or Latifa al-Amrani, 21, from Salé, near Rabat, who is about to become a single mother. She met a man, Ali, 24, who claimed he was a plainclothes policeman, and one day he took her supposedly to meet his aunt. It was an empty apartment, and they made love.

“He told me he wanted to marry me,” Ms. Amrani said. “But then he changed his phone and I couldn’t reach him anymore.” She filed a complaint with the police but has heard nothing from them. Her parents beat her, she said, so she ran away.

She, too, says she intends to keep her baby. One reason for her confidence is the work of a charitable organization here called 100%Mamans, created in 2006 by Claire Trichot, 33. With help from a Spanish nongovernmental organization and private donors, Ms. Trichot and a small staff provide food, shelter and education for expectant single mothers; take them to decent hospitals for the birth; and then help them to care for the babies and find jobs.

Most of the young women have been shunned by their families and abandoned by the fathers of their children, Ms. Trichot said. “It’s illegal to have sex outside marriage, so single mothers have no rights,” she said. The mosques ignore them; families sometimes throw them out; the police usually think even rape victims are lying; the hospitals often treat them badly.

“We want to make sure these women are treated fairly,” Ms. Trichot said, so they don’t abandon their babies. “Our goal is to reintegrate them into life.”

The Moudawana was much praised. It gave women equal legal rights to men in a marriage, including the right to ask for a divorce; raised the legal age for marriage to 18 from 15; and gave first wives the right to refuse should their husbands desire to marry a second wife. The law made divorce a legal procedure, eliminating the tradition of a husband divorcing a wife simply by handing her a letter.

Even five years later, the family code is deeply controversial in the country and among conservative religious figures, and many family judges are susceptible to corruption, according to groups promoting women’s education and legal rights, like the Women’s Development Association in Casablanca.

Touria Eloumri, its president, said that the “philosophy in the new law, based on equality, is the most important factor.” But, she added, “You can’t expect a quick change in mentality and habits in only five years.” More often than not, she said, “The biggest problem here is corruption among judges.”

There are often cases where a first wife’s consent to a second wife is forged, or another woman appears before the judge pretending to be a man’s wife, Ms. Eloumri said. There are long delays, and a system of family courts is only now being instituted.

Polygamy is still legal, subject to the agreement of the first wife, and adultery remains a crime. If a woman remarries before a child is 7, custody automatically reverts to her ex-husband, so some decide not to remarry. Many women want further changes.

But there has been “a real counter-reaction” to the law as it is, Ms. Eloumri said, particularly among the religious.

The king, who is also the “commander of the faithful,” pushed through the law by telling Parliament that there was nothing in it that violated Islam, and nothing in Islam that contradicted the law. But his advisers say that it will take a generation for Moroccan attitudes to change, and no one is yet contemplating further reform.

In a recent poll of Moroccans done by a Moroccan magazine, TelQuel, and the French daily Le Monde, 91 percent had favorable opinions of the king. But the same poll, which was banned by the government and never published here, showed that 49 percent of respondents said that the new Moudawana “gave too many rights to women,” while 30 percent said it gave “enough rights to women” and should not go further.

Zakia Tahiri, 46, a filmmaker, just made a social comedy called “Number One,” about a man who mistreats his wife and the women at the factory he manages — until his wife feeds him a potion that turns him into a kind of feminist. “Everyone blames everything on the Moudawana,” she said, laughing.

Islam “is a religion where everyone thinks he’s a specialist,” she said. “I wanted to show with my movie that each group does with the Moudawana what they want — the women, the men, the Islamists.”

Hinde Taarji, 52, is a writer and journalist, divorced, who recently adopted a son. “It’s evident the new law cannot be implemented the way it should for now,” she said. “But it’s a very important signal.” She described a female friend who ran a hotel and was separated for 15 years, but could not get a divorce and remarry because her husband refused. Under the new law, she finally divorced.

“Even with the best law in the world, the corruption of the justice system is still a very big problem here,” Ms. Taarji said. “But lots of things have changed in Morocco for the better.”

Still, the biggest problem for young women in Morocco is lack of education; there is little sex education, even at home, and almost 70 percent of the women who come to 100%Mamans are illiterate — compared with about 38 percent nationwide. “They leave home and go to the cities to work, and confront the freedom of that,” Ms. Trichot said. “Then they meet young men and they are not ready.”

Violence Roils Afghanistan Days Before Election

By CARLOTTA GALL

KABUL, Afghanistan — The Taliban and the Afghan government escalated a war of attrition and propaganda on Tuesday, two days before the presidential election, with the Taliban unleashing suicide bombings and a rocket assault at the presidential palace and the government barring news organizations from reporting on election day violence.

The attacks, aimed at the heart of the capital and the workplace of President Hamid Karzai, provided yet another indication of the insurgents’ determination to keep people away from the polls and undermine Thursday’s election, which has become a critical test for the Afghan government and its foreign backers.

Early Wednesday, gunmen seized control of a bank in downtown Kabul. The police said three were killed in a shootout. Officers at the scene said it was unclear who they were, but said the intensity of the fighting indicated they were more than common robbers.

In recent days the Taliban have issued repeated warnings — the most recent e-mailed to reporters by a spokesman on Monday — that they will attack polling stations and punish those who turn out to cast ballots. The insurgents carried out two suicide car bombings and rocket attacks on the capital over the last two days, to create a sense of fear to keep voters at home.

In the worst of the attacks on Tuesday, at least eight people were killed in a suicide car bombing in Kabul, including a NATO soldier and two Afghans working for the United Nations mission, officials said. More than 50 people were wounded, they said.

Of the rockets that hit Kabul about 7 a.m. Tuesday, one landed on the grounds of the presidential palace, where President Karzai had started work half an hour before, his spokesman said. Another hit a police station. No one was wounded by the rockets, officials said, but the audacity of the attacks demonstrated the power of the Taliban to disrupt and intimidate.

In another attack on Tuesday morning, in the southern province of Oruzgan, a suicide bomber walked up to an Afghan National Army checkpoint and detonated his explosive vest, killing three soldiers and two civilians, according to the provincial police chief, Juma Gul Himat.

The government, meanwhile, has urged people not to be deterred and to come out and vote on Thursday in presidential and provincial council elections.

“Such kind of attacks shows that the enemies want to disrupt the election process, but we ask people to exercise their right of participation in the elections with strong will,” the presidential spokesman, Homayun Hamidzada, said at a news briefing.

“They will try to attack polling stations and intimidate people, but we are working hard in close coordination with ISAF and other international security forces, as well as with the Independent Electoral Commission to maintain security,” he said, referring to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force.

Later, the Afghan Foreign Affairs Ministry issued a statement asking all domestic and international news agencies to refrain from reporting any violent attacks between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. on election day.

The National Security Council had made the decision “in view of the need to ensure the wide participation of the Afghan people in upcoming presidential and provincial council elections, and prevent any election-related terrorist violence,” the statement said.

The government is concerned that a show of force by the Taliban and low turnout will undermine the credibility of the elections. Low turnout, especially in the war-torn south, could affect Mr. Karzai’s results in the election, since the ethnic Pashtuns who populate the south form his base of support.

Yet the Taliban have been stepping up their campaign against the elections. In an e-mailed statement Tuesday, sent by a spokesman, Zabiullah Mujahed, the movement denied that any agreements had been made with the government to allow elections to take place. It described talk of peace deals as a “cunning trick” by the government and foreign forces.

The intimidation campaign seemed to be working. Local television stations were reporting Tuesday that shop owners in Kabul and in the eastern city of Khost were already closing their shops in fear of attacks or other violence over the elections.

The toll from the suicide bombing in Kabul was also high. One witness said he saw a white car race after a British military logistics convoy and explode as it slammed into it.

“Suddenly we heard a very loud bomb, and a big cloud of dust rose from where the attack happened,” said Ghulam Muhammad, 22, who saw the car from his vegetable store. “The explosion was huge, and I could see many people lying on the road.”

Seven Afghan civilians were killed and 51 were wounded, all civilians, the head of the police criminal investigation department, Sayed Abdul Ghafar, said at the scene. Eighteen cars were set on fire by the explosion and shops and stalls were damaged, he said.

The attack occurred just off the main road leading east out of the capital to Jalalabad. A statement from the international security forces said one foreign soldier was killed and two others were wounded in the attack. A statement from Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry said 7 civilians were killed and 53 wounded.

The United Nations confirmed that two of its Afghan staff members were among those killed.

Shortly before the explosion, NATO-led forces said they would suspend offensive operations on election day, and instead deploy coalition and Afghan troops to protect voters, election monitors and polling stations.

“In support of the Afghan National Security Forces who lead the security efforts during the electoral process, only those operations that are deemed necessary to protect the population will be conducted on that day,” they said in a statement.

Sangar Rahimi and Ruhullah Khapalwak contributed reporting from Kabul. Taimoor Shah contributed reporting from Kandahar, Afghanistan.

In North Korea, Clinton Helped Unveil a Mystery

By MARK LANDLER and MARK MAZZETTI

WASHINGTON — The visit was arranged under a veil of secrecy with the help of an unlikely broker: a high-level American intelligence officer who spent much of his career trying to unlock the mysteries of North Korea.

When former President Bill Clinton landed in Pyongyang on Aug. 4 to win the release of two imprisoned American journalists, senior officials said he met an unexpectedly spry North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, who welcomed him with a long dinner that night, even proposing to stay up afterward.

Mr. Kim was flanked by two longtime aides, and he gave no hint that North Korea was in the throes of a succession struggle, despite the widespread questions over how long he might live.

Mr. Clinton and the Obama administration were determined not to extend a public-relations coup to Mr. Kim, who expressed a desire for better relations with the United States. But the visit is already setting off ripples that could change the tenor of the relationship between the United States and North Korea.

On Wednesday, diplomats from North Korea plan to visit Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico with an undisclosed agenda, a senior administration official said Tuesday. Like Mr. Clinton, Mr. Richardson has traveled to Pyongyang to negotiate the release of Americans held there, in his case in the mid-1990s.

The White House approved the visit, which the official said did not signal any movement toward the resumption of official talks with North Korea and the United States. But the meeting, which he said the North Koreans requested, comes on the heels of conciliatory gestures toward South Korea, and suggests a concerted effort on the part of the North.

Mr. Clinton steered clear of broader issues during his humanitarian mission, officials said. Indeed, he did not even ask to see Mr. Kim, requesting instead a meeting with “an appropriate official.” To help the former president in case something went awry, the White House recommended John Podesta, an adviser to both Mr. Clinton and President Obama, join his delegation.

And to ensure he would not leave empty-handed, Mr. Clinton asked that a member of his entourage meet with the journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, shortly after he landed to make sure they were safe, said a senior administration official, who had been briefed on the visit.

For all the billions of dollars a year that the United States spends on intelligence gathering about mysterious and unpredictable countries like North Korea, it took just 20 hours on the ground in Pyongyang by a former president to give the Obama administration its first detailed look into a nuclear-armed nation that looms as one of its greatest foreign threats.

The details about Mr. Clinton’s visit came from interviews with multiple government officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

On Tuesday, Mr. Clinton went to the White House to brief Mr. Obama and his top aides about the trip. Even before the 40-minute session in the Situation Room, Mr. Clinton had spoken to the president by phone and briefed his national security adviser, Gen. James L. Jones.

But the meeting was rich in symbolism, and the president invited Mr. Clinton to the Oval Office to talk further. The White House said little about what the men discussed, beyond noting that Mr. Obama had wanted to thank Mr. Clinton for winning the release of Ms. Ling and Ms. Lee.

The role of the intelligence officer, Joseph R. DeTrani, in arranging the visit, has not previously been reported. Mr. DeTrani is the government’s senior officer responsible for collecting and analyzing intelligence on North Korea. His efforts to pave the way for Mr. Clinton’s visit offer a glimpse into how the administration has been forced to use unorthodox methods to overcome the lack of formal communications.

During the Bush administration, when the United States was in still in talks with North Korea, the White House did not use intelligence officers for these purposes, an official familiar with the talks said. Indeed, before taking the job of North Korea mission manager in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in 2006, Mr. DeTrani served as the special envoy to the six-party talks with North Korea.

More than anything else, senior officials said, Mr. Clinton’s visit served to clear up some of the shadows surrounding Kim Jong-il’s health. After suffering a stroke last year, he looked frail in photos, spurring questions about who might replace him.

Those questions have not gone away, officials said, but they may recede a bit after Mr. Clinton’s visit. So, too, may the speculation about internal battles, given the apparent good standing of Kim Kye-gwan, the chief nuclear negotiator, and another foreign policy official, Kang Sok-ju, who also took part in the meetings.

The former president did not engage in a substantive discussion about North Korea’s nuclear program. Nor did the North Korean leader give Mr. Clinton any indication that his nation would relinquish its nuclear ambitions — a condition the United States has set for resuming negotiations, officials said.

During his one-hour meeting, officials said, Mr. Clinton advised the North Korean that he could win favor with South Korea and Japan by resolving cases of their citizens who had been abducted by North Korea. The dinner, which lasted over two hours, was “chitchat,” the official said. “It was not substantive.”

North Korea has sent other conciliatory signals. Kim Jong-il met last week with the head of a South Korean conglomerate and agreed to restart several tourism ventures, which allow people from the South to visit the North. North Korea said it would also allow reunions of Korean families divided by the border. Also, Yonhap, the South Korean news agency, said Wednesday the North would send a delegation to the funeral of Kim Dae-jung, a former president of the South.

It is not clear whether the overtures represent a change of heart or a growing desperation for money, as the North comes under increasingly strict United Nations sanctions. The White House says it is determined not to ease the pressure. In a deliberate bit of timing, it dispatched a senior diplomat, Philip S. Goldberg, to Asia on Tuesday to discuss ways to enforce the sanctions.

Still, officials and analysts said, Mr. Clinton’s visit was valuable, largely because North Korea is so opaque. Victor Cha, a top North Korea adviser in the Bush administration, said, “The Clinton trip has got a lot of people rethinking and reassessing.”

Jeff Zeleny contributed reporting.

Iranian Cleric Mehdi Karroubi Predicts Opposition Will Topple Ahmadinejad

By Thomas Erdbrink
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, August 19, 2009

TEHRAN, Aug. 18 -- His newspaper was shut down Monday, and generals and hard-line clerics have called for him to be put on trial. Yet defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi says opposition to the government is growing by the day.

The white-turbaned Shiite cleric, who has held several senior government positions since the 1979 Islamic revolution, said in an interview Tuesday that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, along with the clerics and Revolutionary Guard commanders who support him, will be defeated by what he describes as a burgeoning movement of ordinary people, ayatollahs and lawmakers.

"In the streets, in the bazaars, at weddings and in mosques, everywhere you can hear people complaining about what has happened" since Ahmadinejad's disputed reelection June 12, Karroubi said. "This belief is growing at an extraordinary pace. Yes, people might be more cautious, since the situation in our country is dangerous, but their thoughts, their ideas have not changed."

The mass trial underway in Tehran, in which some of Karroubi's close advisers have linked him to a Western-backed plot to overthrow the country's leadership, is unprecedented, he said.

"The court has a special purpose. It is organized by the winners of the vote, and only their opponents have been put on trial," the 72-year-old cleric said. "But people will never believe these wide-ranging accusations of murders, bombings and espionage against more than 100 suspects."

While his fellow opposition candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has issued a broad call for the full implementation of Iran's constitution, Karroubi has been pursuing violations of specific laws, urging an investigation into allegations of torture, deaths in custody and the rape of young detainees.

"Some of the detainees have reported that certain individuals have so severely raped some of the girls in custody that the attacks have caused excruciating damage and injury to their reproductive organs," he wrote in a public letter to a top cleric. "They also report that others have raped the young boys so violently that upon their release they have endured great mental and physical pain."

Parliament speaker Ali Larijani called last Wednesday for an investigation but a day later said Karroubi's allegations were unfounded and could be used by Iran's enemies. On Friday, prayer leaders nationwide -- all appointed by Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei -- denounced Karroubi, saying his accusations had undermined respect for the country's leaders.

"This was a letter with which America celebrated. It was a letter that was Israel's celebration," said Ahmadi Khatami, a leader of Friday prayers in Tehran. "The honorable judiciary said unequivocally that sexual assault, which this gentleman has alleged, is a lie."

But Karroubi refuses to back down. "I'm still pursuing the issue, and the propaganda has failed to change my mind," he said. Mousavi, who had been silent on the issue, released a public letter of support Tuesday, also accusing "establishment agents" of rape.

"I praise your courage and hope the other clerics join and strengthen your efforts," Mousavi's letter said, addressing Karroubi.

But Karroubi contradicted an announcement by Mousavi's aides Tuesday that he has joined Mousavi's new movement, the Green Path of Hope. "The results of our efforts are the same. We have no differences. But we follow our separate ways," Karroubi said, emphasizing that he wants to strengthen his own party, Etemad-e Melli, or National Trust, whose newspaper of the same name was shut down indefinitely by Tehran's prosecutor this week.

Born in the backwater province of Lorestan, Karroubi studied in the Qum Shiite seminary and was an early supporter of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic republic. He was imprisoned several times during the reign of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Western-backed former shah. After the revolution, he headed several religious foundations and was accused by some of embezzling funds, an assertion he denies. He was a two-term speaker of parliament and in 2005 ran unsuccessfully against Ahmadinejad.

In June, when he ran again, on an agenda of expanded women's and civic rights, he received so few votes, according to the official tally, that he came in last even in his home province.

For the government, he said, a downward spiral looms.

"This group succeeded in grabbing power, but can they solve the problems? Satisfy the people? Have good relations with the world? Solve unemployment?" he said. "Problems will not be solved, and people will be more unhappy. This is one of the consequences of the election."

Special correspondent Kay Armin Serjoie contributed to this report.

Israeli Leader's Defiance of U.S. on Settlement Issue Wins Support at Home

By Howard Schneider
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, August 19, 2009

JERUSALEM, Aug. 18 -- For five months, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been fending off U.S. pressure to halt the expansion of West Bank settlements. Now he is reaping dividends for his defiance.

Although Israeli leaders have historically been reluctant to publicly break with the United States for fear of paying a price in domestic support, polls show that Netanyahu's strategy is working. And that means that after months of diplomacy, the quick breakthrough that President Obama had hoped would restart peace talks has instead turned into a familiar stalemate.

Arab states largely have rebuffed Obama's request for an overture to Israel until the settlement issue is resolved -- a stand that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak emphasized in a meeting with Obama on Tuesday -- and the Palestinians have said a settlement freeze is a precondition for resuming negotiations. Meanwhile, the Israeli public seems to have rallied around Netanyahu's refusal to halt all settlement construction, a backlash that intensified when the Obama administration made clear that it wanted Israel to stop building Jewish homes in some parts of Jerusalem as well as in the occupied West Bank.

In Israel, the dynamic seems to have shifted further from any dramatic concessions. Netanyahu "scored points" for standing up to Obama, said Yoel Hasson, a member of parliament from the opposition Kadima party. In contrast to the United States' public demands for a settlement freeze, signaled early in the relationship between the two new governments, "I think the U.S. understands that it is better for them to do everything with Netanyahu more quietly," Hasson said.

Noting that the Palestinians had negotiated with Israel until late last year despite ongoing construction in the West Bank, Dan Meridor, Israel's intelligence minister, said he found it "strange" that the issue became a precondition for talks after the White House made public demands on Israel.

"I don't think it was intentional, but the result is that this became an obstacle for restarting negotiations," Meridor said in an interview.

The most recent War and Peace Index poll, conducted monthly by Tel Aviv University, showed overwhelming support for Netanyahu's decision to oppose the White House on settlement construction and particularly on building in East Jerusalem. In recent weeks, organizations that favor building houses for Jews in all parts of Jerusalem and the West Bank have steadily become more vocal.

Four members of Netanyahu's cabinet visited unauthorized Jewish outposts in the West Bank on Monday as a show of support, with Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon, considered part of the prime minister's inner circle, saying that a reduction of Israel's presence in the West Bank would "bolster terror."

Ateret Cohanim, an organization active in promoting Jewish construction in Jerusalem's contested neighborhoods, this week hosted former Arkansas governor and 2008 Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee on a tour of projects -- including a cocktail party at the site of a proposed Jerusalem apartment complex that the Obama administration has singled out for criticism. Huckabee said the trip was arranged in recent weeks as part of a developing response to Obama's demands on Israel.

Members of Congress praised Netanyahu's first months in office on a recent tour of Israel, and even Obama allies such as House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) suggested that the onus was on the Palestinians to open talks with or without a settlement freeze.

"There have been some very positive things that have happened under Netanyahu, and I think that [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud] Abbas ought to take the opportunity to engage," Hoyer said in an interview last week with the Jerusalem Post while on a trip sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a lobbying group. Despite the administration's concern that construction of Jewish housing in East Jerusalem neighborhoods could prejudge the future boundaries of a city that both Israelis and Palestinians claim as their capital, Hoyer said Jerusalem "is a whole," adding: "My view is that it will remain whole."

"From the point of view of Israeli public opinion, so far Netanyahu has maneuvered quite successfully," said Tel Aviv University professor Ephraim Yaar. His surveys have showed support for Netanyahu in his clash with Obama and distrust of the U.S. president. In his July poll of 512 Israelis, 60 percent said they did not trust Obama "to safeguard Israel's interests," and 46 percent said he favors the Palestinians, compared with 7 percent who think he favors Israel. The poll had a sampling error of plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

In a June speech, Netanyahu endorsed for the first time the idea of a limited Palestinian state, a position crafted as a response to Obama's call in Cairo for renewed peace efforts in the region.

But so far he has largely pursued the path spelled out when he took office in March -- gradual steps to ease the Israeli military presence in the West Bank, a lifting of some roadblocks and a focus on improving the West Bank economy. He has said he is prepared to resume peace talks with the Palestinians "without preconditions," but he has made clear that he is hesitant to make major concessions while the Gaza Strip remains in the hands of the Islamist Hamas group and while uncertainty persists over Iran's nuclear weapons program.

Israel agreed to a freeze on settlement construction as part of the "road map" agreement signed in 2003. Since then the Jewish population in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, has increased from about 224,000 to about 290,000. The Palestinians and Arab states in the region regard a settlement freeze as a critical step -- an acknowledgment that the Palestinian Authority has improved security in the West Bank, as required under the agreement, and a sign that Israel is serious about allowing the area to become part of a Palestinian state.

On Tuesday, Israeli government officials and anti-settlement activists confirmed that no new bids for government construction had been issued for the West Bank since November -- predating Netanyahu's election by several months. But anti-settlement group Peace Now said government-backed construction accounts for less than half the Jewish building in the West Bank. About 1,000 houses and apartments remain under construction, and there is a backlog of approved projects, the group said.

Opposing Obama's demand for a settlement freeze carried some risk. Israelis generally expect their leaders to maintain good relations with the United States and have punished prime ministers who do not do so -- including Netanyahu during his first term, in the late 1990s, when he clashed with President Bill Clinton.

The two sides are still expected to reach some kind of compromise on the issue, though short of the initial demands made by the White House. Netanyahu is meeting U.S. special envoy George J. Mitchell in London this month, and he expects to meet with Obama when he visits the United States for a U.N. General Assembly meeting in September. Discussion has centered on freezing settlement activity for six months to a year.

White House Backs Right to Bear Arms, Even Outside Obama Events, if State Laws Allow

By Alexi Mostrous
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Armed men seen mixing with protesters outside recent events held by President Obama acted within the law, the White House said Tuesday, attempting to allay fears of a security threat.

Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said people are entitled to carry weapons outside such events if local laws allow it. "There are laws that govern firearms that are done state or locally," he said. "Those laws don't change when the president comes to your state or locality."

Anti-gun campaigners disagreed with Gibbs's comments, voicing fears that volatile debates over health-care reform are more likely to turn violent if gun control is not enforced.

"What Gibbs said is wrong," said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. "Individuals carrying loaded weapons at these events require constant attention from police and Secret Service officers. It's crazy to bring a gun to these events. It endangers everybody."

The past week has seen a spate of men carrying firearms while milling outside meetings Obama has held to defend his health-care reform effort. On Monday, a man with an AR-15 semiautomatic assault rifle strapped to his shoulder was outside a veterans' event in Phoenix. He was one of a dozen men who reportedly had guns outside the forum.

Phoenix police made no arrests, saying Arizona law allows weapons to be carried in the open.

Last week, a man with a gun strapped to his leg held a sign outside an Obama town hall meeting in Portsmouth, N.H., that read: "It's time to water the tree of liberty."

Before the same meeting, Richard Terry Young, a New Hampshire resident, was arrested by the Secret Service for allegedly having a loaded, unlicensed gun in his car. Young was stopped inside the school where Obama held the forum, having reportedly sneaked past a security perimeter.

Ed Donovan, a spokesman for the Secret Service, said incidents of firearms being carried outside presidential events are a "relatively new phenomenon." But he said the president's safety is not being jeopardized.

"We're well aware of the subjects that are showing up at these events with firearms," he said. "We work closely with local law enforcement to make sure that their very strict laws on gun permits are administered. These people weren't ticketed for events and wouldn't have been allowed inside and weren't in a position outside to offer a threat." The immediate area occupied by Obama on such trips is considered a federal site where weapons are not permitted, Donovan said.

Lawmakers holding tense town hall debates about health-care reform also have seen armed constituents. The staff of some, including Rep. Stephen I. Cohen (D-Tenn.), have taken precautions to guard against guns being brought into gatherings.

"We asked everyone with firearms to check them with the sheriff before we began the meeting," said Marilyn Dillihay, Cohen's chief of staff, describing an Aug. 8 town hall debate in Memphis. "We've never done that before." The decision was made because the number of people at the event and the subject of the debate created a "potentially a volatile situation," she said.

"Obviously there's a lot of emotion with health care," Dillihay said. "Feelings are very tense, and we were just trying to make sure that things were safe."

One man at the meeting disclosed that he had a firearm and complied with a request to put it in his vehicle, she said.

Other lawmakers said they intended to take no precautions in future town hall meetings or to ask the advice of local law enforcement. C.J. Karamargin, a spokesman for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), said the congresswoman will "balance rights guaranteed under the Second Amendment and providing her constituents with a safe forum to share their views."

Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University at San Bernardino, said concern about whether Obama will enact new gun restrictions may also be contributing to the tense political climate.

"There's a lot of anger out there," Levin said.

"A key thing that's been bubbling under the surface is what's going on with President Obama and guns," he said. "There is a real question mark not only for extremists but for gun rights advocates in the mainstream."

Staff writer Carrie Johnson contributed to this report.

Afghans' Low Expectations Ensure Karzai Is Favorite in Race, Despite Poor Record

By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, August 19, 2009

BATI KOT, Afghanistan, Aug. 18 -- From the gravel lot where he repairs cars, Babarak Shinwari can see the spot where the suicide bomber killed three of his cousins last year. At his home nearby, where his four children live without electricity, he says he prays to God for a president who can bring peace and security.

But on Thursday, Shinwari plans to vote the same way he did five years ago: for Hamid Karzai.

The fact that Karzai remains the favorite to win Thursday's election, despite his government's poor record on security and the economy over nearly eight years in power, says much about the mind-set of Afghans as they prepare to go to the polls. In interviews with more than a dozen residents Tuesday near the eastern city of Jalalabad, heavily populated by Karzai's fellow Pashtuns, all said they planned to vote for the incumbent, even though many were critical of his performance.

That paradox reflects Afghans' deep suspicion of anyone promising change. In recent decades, Afghans have lived through periods of horrific violence and destruction, with each successive regime bringing greater deprivation than the last. Many Afghans reason that although Karzai's government has been disappointing, it could always be worse.

"We don't have any alternative to Karzai," Shinwari said. "We are afraid of what the other candidates might do."

Indeed, low expectations may be Karzai's greatest ally.

"During the Taliban, we had dirt roads. There were few vehicles. Women couldn't go outside. There were no televisions, no mobile phones, no hotels, and now we have all those things," said Jalil Jan, 30, who owns two gas stations near Jalalabad. "It is true that violence has increased, and the Taliban is stronger, but Americans can't even stop the Taliban -- how is Karzai expected to? He's trying his best."

Many Afghans also have misgivings about Karzai's most prominent opponent, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, a Tajik whose ethnicity makes him unacceptable to a large number of Pashtuns, the nation's dominant ethnic group. Abdullah has campaigned on his history of involvement with the armed resistance, first to Soviet occupation in the 1980s and then to Taliban rule in the 1990s. Although the message resonates with some voters, it alienates others who do not want to revisit such violent periods.

There are more than 30 other candidates, but none besides Karzai has a wide following. A poll by the International Republican Institute released last week found that 44 percent of Afghans plan to vote for Karzai, compared with 26 percent for Abdullah. The third leading candidate, former finance minister Ashraf Ghani, trailed well behind.

"People still support [Karzai] because despite the high number of contenders, they don't see a real alternative," said Thomas Ruttig, co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network, a nonprofit research group. Abdullah and Ghani "were part of Karzai's policies, so they're also responsible for the failures linked to them," Ruttig said.

Before Karzai came to power, Khaiyal Wali, now 27, earned about $2,000 a year growing poppies for the drug trade. During Karzai's tenure, local elders forced him to stop, and now he earns about one-fifth as much cleaning fuel tanks. The U.S.-financed alternative agricultural development programs he had heard about brought him nothing, he said: "That was just on TV."

But he still supports Karzai, if for cynical reasons. Corruption is endemic to politicians, he said, and Karzai and his cronies have had years to enrich themselves.

"The empty bags he brought with him have already been filled. It will take a long time for new people to fill their bags of money," Wali said. "It's impossible for the government to stop corruption. It is everywhere."

Afzal Khan, an elderly farmer who was tending his 17 cows as they grazed on government pastureland, said he is happy with Karzai primarily because he has been left alone. When the Taliban ruled the country, Khan said, the regime's enforcers would beat him with sticks for bringing his cows to government land.

"In every government we were farmers. Only during the Taliban period were they giving us a hard time. The Taliban have beaten me so many times in the legs I still feel the pain," he said. "I feel so secure and peaceful with this government."

Others pointed to improvements in local infrastructure and services: new paved roads, schools and clinics. They blamed the rising Taliban violence primarily on U.S. troops, not on Karzai.

"Americans make the security situation worse because they bomb the wrong houses," said Abdul Ahad, a 22-year-old shopkeeper from a village on the outskirts of Jalalabad. "We are voting for Karzai and, God willing, he will be successful. He has promised that he will remove all these foreign forces."

Karzai has also relied heavily on tribal elders, local officials and regional commanders, such as the Uzbek militia leader Abdurrashid Dostum, to generate votes for him. Ruttig said there is anecdotal evidence of governors offering services to citizens groups, provided they support Karzai. Under the law, governors are not allowed to use public resources on behalf of any candidate. Afghanistan's Electoral Complaints Commission last week imposed a $1,500 fine on Karzai's second running mate, Karim Khalili, currently a vice president, for improperly using Defense Ministry helicopters for campaign events.

Karzai "effectively controls the administrative and provincial system, especially on the district level," Ruttig said. "Then you get the tendency, of course, toward the winner. If the trend is set, the impetus is there. Then more and more people flock to the guy perceived to be the winner."

Special correspondent Javed Hamdard contributed to this report.

Security Sector Reform in Timor-Leste.

Tuesday, 18 August 2009

Reforming the Security Sector :

Facing Challenges, Achieving Progress in Timor Leste
Júlio Tomás Pinto*

The idea to write the present article came about when I read the report by the investigation team assembled by the Government to study the "Maliana Case", the letter dated 3 July 2009 to the Prime Minister by the Representative of the Secretary General of the UN in Timor-Leste, Dr Atul Khare, on human rights violations by PNTL and the F-FDTL, and the report on the unilateral investigation carried out by UNPOL on this matter. My purpose in writing this article is to encourage a reflection on the approach taken by foreign personalities, agencies or countries in Timor-Leste regarding the reform of the security sector. Also, I am often puzzled with the carelessness displayed by many foreign reviewers who assess our work.

I ask the agencies listed in this article to take my words as food for thought rather than negative criticisms. I trust this article will contribute to strengthening cooperation between Timor-Leste and other countries, as well as between Timor-Leste and the UN.

The State of Timor-Leste, through the President of the Republic, the President of the National Parliament and the Prime-Minister, created last year a strictly Timorese team called Group for the Reform and Development of the Security Sector. It is expected that the Reform of the Security Sector will enable the development and consolidation of the existing agencies, so that they may perform their tasks with efficiency, legitimacy and accountability, thereby ensuring safety to all citizens. It would do well to remind that this reform of the Security Sector is directly linked to the Government's policy concerning the development of its Program. This is why the Group for the Reform of the Security Sector was assembled in the first place. As such, the team is coordinated by two Secretaries of State, namely the Secretary of State for Security and the Secretary of State for Defence.

The said team has been doing an excellent job along with the advisor to the President of the Republic, Dr Roques Rodrigues. The so-called High Level Meetings on the Reform of the Security Sector, where issues concerning the Reform of the Security Sector are debated, involve the President of the Republic, the President of the National Parliament and the Prime Minister, in addition to the two Secretaries of State and some advisors. The UN has also put together a team to support Timor-Leste regarding the Reform of the Security Sector, under the cooperation agreement with the Government of Timor-Leste signed in June 2008. Despite positive reviews by some friends who think the program has been developing for the past year, I do believe that they do not have a Security Sector Reform implementation program. I feel that this is due to the fact that the UN only takes part in the context of "assistance" in conformity with is mandate, which would be important to understand in terms of a peacekeeping vs. peacebuilding dualistic analysis. Indeed, during this period the UN team has held a seminar, placed advisors at the Ministry of Defence and Security in a unilateral manner and has been carrying out mentoring and retraining actions in the PNTL. It seems that the mandate of the UN is only to work alongside with the Secretary of State for Security, particularly with the PNTL. Effectively, in the Sector of Defence it seems that they only work alongside us to speak about training in Human Rights, separation between the roles of the Police and of the Military, advisors and Military Liaison officer training. I myself have requested them to provide training to the F-FDTL in terms of Peacekeeping Forces, but so far no plan has been submitted to us.

When I, in my capacity as Secretary of State for the Defence, meet with a representative from the UN or any country, I tell them two things: firstly, that advisors must present me (in my capacity as Secretary of State and Timorese citizen) several options, as well as their negative and positive implications, so that I may make my decision. This means that no advisor can present me a single option and ask me to follow it, claiming it is the only possible choice.

If on one hand we live in the age of globalization, where the classic concept of State sovereignty has become dimmed, as a result of the need for transparency, cooperation and even the right of interference, where the Timorese sovereignty is limited to the Flag and the National Anthem, as well as some gestures of courage to make decisions without pressure by other States, on the other hand Timor-Leste is a small country but is nevertheless a sovereign State. Consequently its position in relation to any issue has the same value as that of any other State. Accordingly, other States must respect Timor-Leste as the sovereign Nation that it is.

Secondly, I always tell them that the development of the Sector of Defence must be based on bilateral cooperation. This is important for Timor-Leste to be able to set the military system format it wants to establish. This format surely does not include a myriad of different training actions provided by various countries. Should this come to pass, I do not know what the Timorese military system would become. This is why the F-FDTL command has decided that presently the basic military training provided is to be based on the Portuguese system, which is in accordance with the NATO standards, with the possibility of specialized training being based on the systems of other countries. The purpose of this is to provide uniform training so as to enable an efficient Timorese military system in the future. This is preferable to having each country implement its system in the F-FDTL, which would create considerable confusion.

Until 2007 Timor-Leste did not have a National Defence Law and there was no legal diploma approving the Organic of the Military Police. These are just two examples within the scope of legislative drafting. In this field, and in relation to the Sector of Defence, the Government is not required to announce what it is doing or to report to the UN. Nevertheless, we can summarize the reforms completed up until now:

Firstly, at a legislative level, we can highlight the Decree-Law approving the Organic of the Ministry of Defence and Security, the Draft National Security Law regulating the cooperation between the PNTL, the F-FDTL and Civil Protection, the revision of the Military Service Law and the Decree-Law on its regulation, the Draft National Defence Law and the Remuneration Regime for the F-FDTL; currently being prepared we have the Legal Regime for the Retirement of Soldiers, the Military Programming Law, the Military Justice Code and the Decree-Law on the Promotion to General in the F-FDTL. This Decree-Law is important because there have not been promotions from lieutenant-colonel to general for nine (9) years. Finally, the Secretariat of State for Defence, according to the Government Program, is preparing the necessary changes to the Defence Policy, in order to enable the implementation of the National Defence Law proposed to the Parliament.

Secondly, at a structural level, we highlight that the organic law of the Ministry of Defence and Security enables a clear distinction between the political level of defence and security, as a structure constituted by the Minister of Defence and Security, from the military level of the F-FDTL, as well as the autonomous structure that is the National Defence Institute (NDI).

Thirdly, at a training level, we highlight the definition of a Training System and Concept and the drafting of the new Employment Concept for the F-FDTL.

Fourthly, at an administrative level, the Secretariat of State for Defence has already achieved some goals, consubstantiating the legislative drafting process, particularly in changing the concept of recruitment from a mandatory to a voluntary one, improving the subsidies to the F-FDTL, improving the promotion regime for soldiers, implementing the Remuneration System for Soldiers and reviewing the size and capacity building required for the human resources of the Secretariat of State for Defence.

Fifthly, we must highlight the importance given by the Government to F-FDTL infrastructures and equipment. This is a relevant aspect, as previously FALINTIL worked in Aileu beneath canvases. Even when they were moved to Dili they continued to work in containers, and after the 2006 crisis they were transferred to Tasi Tolu, where they continued to work in containers. As such, it was considered important to repair the Military Training Centre of Metinaro. Also in relation to infrastructures, the Government requested financial assistance from China in order to construct the Headquarters and the Building for the Ministry of Defence. In conformity with this, the Chinese Government presented six months ago the project for the Headquarters and the Building for the Ministry of Defence to the Secretary of State for Defence, which was approved by the latter. Therefore the Headquarters for the F-FDTL is scheduled for construction in 2010. Furthermore, this bilateral cooperation with China will also include the construction of 100 houses for F-FDTL members starting next September.

Within the scope of infrastructures, the Government of Timor-Leste has already allocated an amount in last year's budget for constructing Warehouses, the Military Police Building and the Metinaro Armoury.

In addition to this, and according to a review made by Timor-Leste in relation to information on the problem caused by the entry of an enormous number of illegal fishermen in the Timor Sea, the Government has decided to acquire two patrol vessels from the Chinese company Poly Technology. In fact, the previous Government already had plans to purchase patrol vessels. In 2006 the Government had allocated a sum of 10 million dollars for purchasing the vessels, one million dollars for training and three hundred thousand dollars for fuel, but these amounts were suddenly removed by the 2006 mid-year budget. In 2007, responding to a letter by the F-FDTL, the then Prime Minister Dr José Ramos-Horta stated in a dispatch that the vessels might be acquired in 2008. The purpose of purchasing the vessels is firstly to provide resources to the F-FDTL, the Naval Component and other bodies. Secondly it seeks to enable control of the Timor Sea along with neighbouring countries, especially in the South Coast. Politically it seems positive for Timor-Leste to buy these two vessels.

In relation to bilateral cooperation, agreements were signed with Portugal and Canada. Timor-Leste is also discussing and reviewing agreements with Australia, Indonesia and other States wishing to cooperate with Timor-Leste.

Portugal and Australia are two particularly important States for Timor-Leste, as the existing reports indicated that they are the ones who invest more in our country's defence. We have always received support from Portugal, even during the Resistance.

The Portuguese support to Timor-Leste is based on a Technical and Military Cooperation Agreement that includes, inter alia, support through the provision of advisors to the Training Centre of Metinaro, the Naval Component in Hera and to the F-FDTL Headquarters. Presently a Portuguese Language Centre is being established in Metinaro. Portugal is also assisting in the assessment for border demarcation and maritime authority system for Timor-Leste. In addition, they are providing funding for the maintenance of the two vessels they previously offered to Timor-Leste. They have also offered training opportunities in Portugal for sergeants and officers.

Military cooperation with Australia is also very good. We should highlight Australia's assistance to Timor-Leste through the DCP (Defence Cooperation Program). A clear example of this is the Military Training Centre of Metinaro, where almost all the investment comes from Australia. On 17 April 2008 Timor-Leste and Australia held a forum called Defence Cooperation Talks, where both countries agreed on assistance to the construction of an armoury for the F-FDTL and to the construction of a Specialized Training Centre in the Training Centre of Metinaro. So far, however, only the latter has been completed.

On 26 June 2009 Timor-Leste and Australia met again within the scope of the Defence Cooperation Talks in order to review the 2008 Project and the new projects for 2010. Speaking for myself, I was happy to see that Australia wishes to continue providing assistance to Timor-Leste.

Cooperation with the United States of America is also clearly positive. On 18 August Dili will host a Military Conference between Timor-Leste and the United States of America, also designated as USA-Timor-Leste Bilateral Military Conference. Cooperation is also favourable with the US Command in the Pacific, and we find some agreement points for working together.

The experience with the United States of America has been a positive one, as almost all their activity in Timor-Leste has been approved by the Government, corroborating the idea that, as a sovereign State, any activity done by a foreign State, including the United States of America, must be authorized by the Timorese Government. Accordingly, the sending of US Navy vessels to carry out training exercises in our territory under the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA), existing between both countries since 2003, requires authorization by Timor-Leste. As such, and since the US plan foresees that 3,000 US marines will travel to Timor-Leste, it would be desirable for these training exercises to take place in coordination with the F-FDTL, in order to enable transfer of knowledge to the Timorese forces.

Once more, although Timor-Leste is a small State, it is nevertheless a sovereign Nation in the World, as evidenced by the cooperation ties it has built, including with neighbouring Indonesia. Indeed, in addition to the countries listed above, Timor-Leste has also improved its relationship with Indonesia. After the visit by the Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão and his entourage to Indonesia in 2008, this country allowed for the first time F-FDTL officers to attend the SESKO Angkatan Laut TNI in Surabaya. In 2010 the F-FDTL will send a senior officer to Jakarta, in order to attend the LEMHANNAS (National Defence Institute of Indonesia) in Jakarta. Furthermore, Brigadier General Taur Matan Ruak has already invited the Chief of the Defence Force of Indonesia to visit Timor-Leste later this year.

Regarding this matter, which is a recurrent one since we cooperate with so many countries, it is important to understand that we do not want to become militarily dependent from other States. This is why we believe it is convenient to cooperate with various countries in the World. As such we have a rather positive relationship with Australia, New Zealand, the Pacific islands and the ASEAN countries. We also have healthy relationships with China, the United States of America, Indonesia, Portugal and so many other countries.

Out of the several activities already mentioned, I would like to highlight the importance to Timor-Leste of the National Security Law and the National Defence Law, as they regulate the role of the President of the Republic as the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, as well as the connection between the F-FDTL and the Secretary of State for Defence, the Prime Minister, the National Parliament and other holds of high public bodies. This is a particularly important matter as it helps the Government to "prevent anyone from politicizing the F-FDTL and prevent the F-FDTL to interfere in politics". Indeed, it strengthens the constitutional idea that the Armed Forces must be nonpartisan, according to the principle that "the F-FDTL understand politics but must not participate in political meetings or display their political convictions". I should stress that I learned a great deal during my work with the F-FDTL, as the commanders told me "not to give them anything that they were not supposed to do". This expression serves to show in a clear manner the justification for separating politics from the military establishment.

The National Security Law is also indispensible because it regulates cooperation between the F-FDTL, the PNTL and Civil Protection in emergency situations. In fact, the Organic Law of the Ministry of Defence and Security, which has already been approved, foresees an Integrated Crisis Management Centre. Therefore we must be organized to provide assistance to the population in emergency situations, e.g. caused by some natural disaster. Although I have received no such official information, rumours have it that the National Security Law is not appreciated by the UN, as they say it militarizes the police. I hope that this information is not accurate.

After receiving that information from some Timorese citizens, I told them that foreigners always think that what Timor-Leste does is wrong. Only others do things right. There are events from which we can conclude that Timor is always wrong and the UN is always right! Let us consider the crisis caused by the attack on the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister. Some of the distinguished gentlemen of the UN conveyed to the media that the Timorese were in charge of security. Perhaps they forgot that so far there are two Police Commanders, one from the PNTL and the other from the UNPOL. And it is the UNPOL Commander who is in charge! It was only recently that responsibility was turned to the PNTL in three districts, namely Lospalos, Oecussi and Mantuto.

Let us consider another situation. When the Joint Command travelled to the airport to receive the petitioners arriving from Oecussi and the F-FDTL showed up with the weapons they had brought from the KKO HQ, the UNPOL drafted a report stating that the F-FDTL had threatened them with large calibre weapons. The inaccuracy of this report indicates that the authors forget that in a situation of martial law the military must always be prepared, in what one might call a "state of readiness".

Let us now consider the review of the recent events in Maliana. UNPOL presented a report stating that the F-FDTL breached human rights and threatened Philippine elements of the UNPOL by pointing weapons at their chests. After the High Level Meeting with the President of the Republic, the Government assembled a team to investigate the Maliana events. The team consisted of two officers from the State Ministry, Lieutenant-Colonel Koliati from the F-FDTL and Lieutenant Niki from the Military Police, international advisor Chandrabaland for the Secretariat of State for Defence, Inspector Domingos from the PNTL and Dr Anacleto Ribeiro from the Secretariat of State for Security. The investigation concluded that there was no indication of F-FDTL members having "pointed weapons at the chests of UNPOL members". As such it would seem that UNPOL presented an inaccurate report of the Maliana events, which can only serve the purpose of bringing discredit to the F-FDTL. However, the negative campaign to damage the image of F-FDTL continues. Notwithstanding the report from the investigation team, an article appeared in the Worldpoliticsreview.com entitled "East Timor: Security Sector Relapse?" in which it stated that "the domestic security situation improves in the months thereafter, but the police remained sub-ordinate to the army, which still involves itself in the internal security. According to eyewitnesses, UN Police attempts to intervene in a public order incident in Maliana in June 2009 near the Indonesian border, resulted in F-FDTL guns being pointed at the multinational Forces".

More recently, there was another case in the bar called "Casa Minha". Let us make a more detailed analysis of the event. Information from the police agent who was the victim and the youths who witnessed the event, affirmed that two drunken GNR members beat up the PNTL agent until he fell and for this reason the PNTL agent shot at the wheels of the GNR vehicle. UNPOL makes a report stating that the PNTL agent carried a pistol into the bar and fails to mention the intoxicated state of the GNRs.

This fact warranted the intervention of the PNTL General Commander, Longuinhos Monteiro, who strongly protested to the UNPOL Commissioner, Luís Miguel Carrilho who is from Portugal. Longuinhos Monteiro affirmed that "I ask that the two GNR members who beat up my agent be investigated thoroughly" (STL, 13 July 2009). What is known is that up until now the GNR members have been listed as unknown. Only more recently has there been an investigation initiated on this case, however, UNPOL has already issued a suspension notice to the victim, Police Agent Fransisco Magno HAU, while on the ather hand the GNR from UNPOL who beat up the victim are still free.

In relation to this case, the Portuguese newspaper Correio da Manha (16 July 2009), published inaccurate information in their article "Xanana's security leads an attack against the GNR" and the newspaper Noticias Lusofonia (16 July 2009) printed an article entitled "Xanana's Security Accused of Attacking Portuguese Military".

This is not the first time the GNR and UNPOL have violated human rights. We have the case of the PNTL agent, Constantino de Carvalho who was beaten up by the GNRs until he fell. We have the case of the Baucau PNTL Commander, Adérito Ximenes, whom the UNPOL accused of committing human rights violations against one of their members, but in the end, the Court of Appeal decided in favour of Commander Adérito and determined that the UNPOL member was wrong. We also have the case of the UIR Commander, Agostinho Gomes, whose intervention was aimed at resolving an incident at Manleuana Dili, however UNPOL accused him of human rights violations. Of course the UN wants to defend its reputation as UNPOL or UN but it forgets that it is not a "perfect" institution. If it had been a PNTL or F-FDTL member who was drunk and had beaten up others, perhaps the UN would have moved heaven and earth to produce a report in which they would have written a great deal on human rights. We always hear that alcohol, women and playing with guns do not go well together as they represent a security threat. On this matter we are all in full agreement as long as it does not apply only to the Timorese. In Australia, the military also apply this principle. But it seems that perhaps it does not apply to the UN! It is necessary to understand the fact that each of the interventions from each of the UNPOL countries has been uncoordinated and each has acted as they wanted.

The PNTL General Commander, Longuinhos Monteiro, is currently working to repair all that. What we do know is that if we compare the character, self-confidence and performance of some PNTL members with some UNPOL members, ours are much better. UNPOL members are controlled by politicians from their countries but they still want to teach our PNTL that they are better professionals than we.

CONCLUSION: We all move according to the principle of "wanting to do what we (Timor Leste) want, rather than what others want". Although Timor-Leste is a small country, we have our own history, conveyed from generation to generation. As such, the Timorese must be able to choose between foreign opinions, since it would be unwise to follow those that merely seek to serve the interests of those countries.

Despite the negative aspects of international cooperation listed above, this cooperation is still extremely important and requires better coordination between Timorese authorities, the UN and foreign experts so that the Security Sector Reform project can move forward. However, this requires honesty by all. The UN and we must think on how we can improve things.

All of us who work on reforming the Security Sector have the strong support of the President of the Republic, the President of the National Parliament and the Prime Minister, seeking to enable the proper reform of the Security Sector of Timor-Leste. Here we should highlight the contributions of the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister, who have always given us the utmost support in order for us to be able to apply that which is written in the Constitution of the Republic.

Finally, under the principle of "we (Timor Leste) do it because we (Timor Leste) want to follow universal values, not because others tell us to", meaning that "we (Timor Leste) want to do what we (Timor Leste) want, rather than what others want", it is important to understand that the experience of other States should be just a reference to us, rather than trying to reproduce it. If we all want to implement the ideal concept of security sector reform, it is important to understand that it will necessarily take its time, as only so can we find what is good for Timor-Leste.

*Secretary of State for Defence

Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste

Posted by TEMPO SEMANAL at 06:43

A New Agenda for Bosnia and Herzegovina

Jim O’Brien

As concerns grow about Bosnia's post-war recovery, USIP presents its fourth report on recent developments in Bosnia and Herzegovina and various options the U.S. government, Europe and Bosnia could pursue to prevent a return to violence there. In his paper, author Jim O'Brien, who served as the presidential envoy for the Balkans in the 1990s, cautions against taking a big initiative in Bosnia to head off a future crisis, but rather advocates taking on many, smaller battles that will ultimately align Bosnia closer to the European Union. He proposes a two-part strategy: first, Bosnia should strip political parties of their ethnic, nationalist appeal, and second, the international community should speed up the European Union accession process for the Balkans region overall.

Read the full text [1] (PDF/169.31 KB)

This is the fourth in a series of reports about Bosnia and Herzegovina. Read the first [2], second [3], and third [4] reports.

About the Author

This USIPeace Briefing was written by Jim O'Brien, a principal of the Albright Stonebridge Group, a global advisory firm. He was presidential envoy for the Balkans and a lawyer involved in American Balkan policy in the 1990s.