ADDRESS
by
José Antonio Amorim Dias,
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the
Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste to the European Union,
Permanent Delegate to UNESCO
To 32nd session of the General Conference of UNESCO
4 October 2003, Paris
Mr President,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It gives me a great pleasure to be here to address the 32nd General Conference of UNESCO.
I bring special greetings from H.E. President XANANA Gusmão, who is grateful to UNESCO for having honoured him with the Organization’s Félix Houphouët Boigny Peace Prize for 2002. And I should also like to convey the best wishes of the Government and the People of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste.
Mr President, allow me to express our sincere congratulations on your election to preside over the work of this session of the General Conference. On behalf of the President and people of Timor-Leste, I also wish to express our sincere appreciation of the words of support and encouragement for our country that have been expressed by so many Delegates to this General Conference.
We are particularly grateful to Mr Koïchiro MATSUURA, the Director General of UNESCO, for visiting our country in July this year. The Director General’s visit marked an important moment for Timor-Leste, as the newest nation was honoured with its first visit by a leader of an important UN Specialised Agency. In addition, this visit represented a firm commitment from UNESCO to support and consolidate the existing partnership between Timor-Leste and UNESCO.
Mr President,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I speak today with a mixture of feelings: feelings of happiness and of sorrow. Happiness, on one hand, for the opportunity to address this august plenary when, for the first time in its history, Timor-Leste - the newest nation of this century - joined UNESCO. But, on the other hand, we are also deeply saddened at having lost, just over a month ago, one of the great leaders of our time, and a great friend of the people of Timor-Leste, Dr. Sérgio Vieira de Mello, an innocent victim of intolerance and extremism.
Our people cried over his death. With your permission, Mr President, I would like to pay tribute to his memory and reiterate our profound solidarity with his family, friends and colleagues.
Mr President,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As the lead agency for Education, Sciences, Culture and Communication, Timor-Leste hopes that UNESCO will establish a laboratory of ideas, initiatives and concrete actions to support the ongoing efforts of nation building, a daunting task, entrusted to the Government and the Civil Society of Timor-Leste. In this regard, we appreciate the Director General’s close attention and commitment in promoting and safeguarding the cultural heritage of our young nation. This policy supports our President’s initiative of recognizing the importance of protecting both the tangible and the intangible cultural heritage.
I take this occasion to inform to the Plenary that, since 1999 (or early 2000), UNESCO has assisted us in the major reconstruction of our Traditional Heritage (House) or ‘UMA FUKUN’ (in the Timorese traditional language) and has turned it into our national Museum and Cultural Exhibition Centre. This is a major recognition of the Timorese identity. We hope that the conservation of other aspects of our cultural heritage will soon be materialised in the other parts of the country.
In the Education sector, with the support of the international community, our government managed to rehabilitate around 700 schools out of 900, which were destroyed in 1999. Additionally, more than thirty new schools have been constructed. Despite this, 25% of our children continue without access to education. Our people have asked for more schools and better teachers. Many of the 65 sub-districts demand the opening of schools at the secondary level. Others ask for agricultural, technical or vocational schools. All this needed to be done yesterday, not tomorrow or later.
In the tertiary sector, we have a national university with more than 7,000 students. Hundreds of candidates are frustrated that their expectations to graduate from the National University have not been met. We now have a proliferation of institutions of higher learning without the official recognition of the Government. To deal with this situation, the Government assumed the responsibility of preparing rules with the view to regulating tertiary education by defining the parameters for their creation and existence.
Mr President,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The expectations for future betterment are very high but the challenges are enormous. We welcome UNESCO’s new initiative to start a Program of Science Education for the people and the children of Timor-Leste and to support basic education generally and our rich intangible cultural heritage. We look forward very much to the future activities and presence of UNESCO in Timor-Leste as already envisaged by the Organization.
To conclude, Mr President, Timor-Leste has benefited from international solidarity and we are very grateful to this. But, still we must redouble our efforts so that proper strategies for sustainable development could be applied on the eradication of poverty with increases in expenditure in public health, education, promotion of human rights, the strengthening of democratic institutions, and so forth. These conditions are indispensable for peace, stability and prosperity.
Thank you.
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