DILI, 21 October 2019 (TATOLI) — The Human Rights Ombudsman (PHDJ) has cleared Dili authorities of any breaches arising from clashes at the city’s Tasi Tolu beach over the weekend, when workers moved into the community with bulldozers.
City workers razed 36 buildings at the camp on Saturday morning, following orders from the Ministry of Land and Property which had claimed the settlements were illegal.
The residents claims they had permission to build on the State Land was dismissed.
The evictions lead to violent clashes between the groups, but PHDJ National Director Bartolomeu Gonçalves said authorities acted within the law.
“We see the authority shared very good coordination with the community,” Mr Gonçalves said.
But after the demolition, community leaders were furious. Standing next to the rubble of his former community, resident Cancio Correia Soares said the group had permission from the village chief to stay — even to renovate.
“The SETP [Secretary of State for Land and Property] came with a warning only once, [then] came directly to destroy our homes with no [further] notification to us occupants,” he said.
Mr Soares said he’d spent $US 2,500 fixing up his home before it was bulldozed.
Comoro Village Chief Eurico da Costa said he was ‘amazed’ the controversial evictions went ahead.
“I think the major crime that SETP has done is not [to give] official notice of breaking down the houses,” he said.
‘You do not treat human people like pigs’
The coordinator of the evictions, from Dili’s Municipal Government, Joaquim Alves, said he was trying to explain the situation to the squatters when two men set upon him.
“One of the two men picked up a key and something else and stabbed me, and the other picked up a Samurai (sword) and threatened me, but I was not afraid.”
He said one of the evictees shouted: “You do not treat human people like pigs”.
Tasi Tolu a “state asset”: NETP
On social media, former President Jose Ramos-Horta voiced his support for the evictions: “I agree 100% with the government’s decision to remove the illegal occupation [of] state land in protected areas.”
Mr Ramos-Horta claimed salinity levels in the lagoon had spiked to 300 per cent of that of the sea water.
“The government must make in-depth technical study to see how to clean [up] Tasi Tolu to make the animal life well again,” he wrote.
The Director-General of NETP, the department which administers all state-owned land, said Tasi Tolu Lagoon is considered an important tourist, religious and ceremonial location, and ought to be protected.
“SETP carries out the law [because] Tasi Tolu Lagoon is considered a state asset,” Rodrigo de Mendonça said.
He also questioned the Village Chief Costa’s authority to administer the community.
“I think that law No. 1/2003 grants the DNTP the power, under the Ministry of Justice, to control and administer state land in the territory. We did not consider the village chief can making a statement offering to sell state land to the community,” Mr Mendonça said.
Orignally published in Tetum as: Hasai Okupante Tasi Tolu, La Viola Direitu Umanu
Journalist: Domingos Piedade Freitas
Editors: Francisco Simões; Robert Baird
Translation: Nelia Borges
