Commando News issue 15 2019

cantonment location at Aileu to communities, a fivemonth
transitional safety net of $100 a month, a small
project worth approximately $500 per beneficiary,
training, and medical referrals.
The small projects consisted of livelihood or income
generation ventures designed by individuals or
cooperatives of former Falintil who were working
together with FRAP staff. The most popular schemes
were small shops, fuel stations, livestock, and transport
cooperatives although many of these seeded
businesses later failed.
On 1 February 2001, Falintil was disbanded and
Falintil-Forças de Defesa de Timor Leste (F-FDTL) was
established with 650 Falintil absorbed into the first
battalion. This action excluded more than 1,300 Falintil
fighters and it upset many guerrillas who thought that
by simply being Falintil that they would become F-
FDTL.
Taur Matan Ruak stated that “some have lost their
families, some have not got married because of the
fighting and some have nothing at all, no clothes, no
furniture.”
A final evaluation report of the FRAP in June 2002
concluded that the program was broadly successful,
particularly in mitigating the immediate concern of
unrest in the cantonment at Alieu. The report found that
the program had achieved its objectives regarding the
social and economic reintegration of demobilized
Falintil and that it had generated discernible and
ongoing benefits that contributed to security and
stability.
It found that despite initial grievances at not joining
F-FDTL, the FRAP beneficiaries expressed satisfaction
with civilian life. Contextual factors also worked in favour
of the demobilization process, including the discipline
of Falintil itself, the small size of the country and the
recovery of the economy during 2001 and 2002.
Rotary Australia and the East Timor Roofing
& Training (ETRT) Project
Despite an initial lack of cooperation by some IOM
officials, and while not specifically mentioned in the
FRAP evaluation report, through sheer dogged
persistence and determination by many Rotarians in
Australia over 20 years, ETRT has been demonstratively
successful nationally compared with other schemes,
both financially and socially. ETRT had a direct impact
on demobilisation of 116 fighters including the
Clandestinos.
Indeed, when Xanana Gusmao was President and he
visited Australia he described ETRT as the most
successful NGO project in East Timor. The location of
the manufacturing factory in Bacau was selected by
Xanana Gusmao and Taur Matan Ruak due to its roughly
central location on the north coast, as well as it having a
large population of Falintil including Clandestinos at the
time. Clandestino Eduardo Belo Soares Gattot was
involved with the selection of the sites. The proximity to
the Don Bosco College at Fatamaca was also a major
factor.
ETRT was very successful in aiding the demo -
bilisation of Falintil in Bacau and to a limited extent in
Dili with the first steel rolled in late 2000, although it
took some time for Rotary to establish a Timorese
workforce and regular management from Australia.
ETRT made a strong contribution to demobilization
as Rotary was able to deal directly with Falintil after the
original plan which was drafted by Jim Truscott and
Bruce Parker was given the go ahead by the Australian
Army. Rotary then worked directly with Falintil through
Eduardo Belo Soares Gattot and under the personal
direction of Taur Matan Ruak.
This close working relationship meant that
preference was able to be given to all former members
of the resistance to support their entry into civilian life.
Resistance women, and all other women were also
encouraged to apply and further preference was given
to houses for Falintil orphans.
When the Australian Government decided not to
initially help financially for political reasons, Bruce Parker
contacted the Rotary Club of Doncaster in February
2000 and they immediately agreed to the project. The
Rotary Club of Melbourne also quickly came on board
followed by the Club at Lilydale. The initial funding was
generously donated by individual Rotarians and several
Australian companies together with a large grant from
the Shell Foundation to the training centre and Dili
institute. A generator was donated by Cummins Diesel
and BHP contributed some steel. The Australian
Government did later make a generous donation
through AusAID before 2002.
The first machine was installed at Bacau in Novem -
ber 2000. The curving machine was installed in April
2002 and the first second hand truck was donated by
the Lilydale Club about 2002. A second mill was
installed in September 2011 to make U and C-section
purlins and rafters and trusses. The second new truck
was delivered in December 2012.
Over the last twenty years, ETRT has made roofs for
schools, orphanages, clinics, community houses, work -
shops and hospitals. Furthermore, Rotary has funded
teachers’ scholarships, university scholarships, sporting
equipment and much more. The donations total over
$1m with another $1m worth of equipment established
in Bacau.
Rotary also set up a training school for basic building
skills and a micro-credit bank in Bacau, and together
with the Rotary Club of Balwyn, a Rotary business centre
in Dili. ETRT has employed up to thirty Timorese men
and women, becoming probably the major employer in
the district.
A large number of trainees when through the
Training Centre quite separate from ETR; maybe as
many as 250, although it not known how many of them
were Falintil. ETR has only actually employed 16 to 20
people at any one time, but again it is not known how
many of them were Falintil.
In 2001 ETRT began making rainwater tanks. With no
reticulated water supply, it was usually a young girl’s job
to fetch the day’s water, sometimes kilometers away and
42 COMMANDO NEWS ~ Edition 15 I 2019