Rogerio Lobato

Rogério Tiago de Fátima Lobato (born July 25, 1949 in Sasatan Oan, Aitara Hun, Soibada / Portuguese Timor ) is a politician from East Timor and a member of the FRETILIN party .

family

Rogério Lobato is the son of Narciso Manuel Lobato (from Leorema , Bazartete) and Felismina Alves Lobato (from Malurucumo / Macadique , Uato-Lari ). The father died on April 26, 1976 in Leorema. The mother was killed in July 1979 on Mount Maupe in Laclubar . Rogérios maternal grandfather was Domingos da Costa Alves (from Samoro , Soibada), who was a catechist in Uato-Lari.

Rogério had 12 siblings, none of whom are alive anymore: Nicolau dos Reis Lobato , António Bosco Lobato , Maria Cesaltina Francisca Alves Lobato , Januario do Carmo Alves Lobato , Domingos Cassiano Maria da Silva Lobato , Luis Francisco de Assunção Alves Lobato , Silvestre Lobato , Madalena de Canossa Alves Lobato , Elga Maria do Rosário Alves Lobato , José Bernardo Alves Lobato , Silvestre Agostinho Alves Lobato and Elisa Maria Lobato.

Nicolau Lobato was commander of FALINTIL from 1976 and nominally President of East Timor in 1978 , until he died fighting the Indonesian occupiers, as did six other Rogérios siblings. The brother Silvestre was stillborn and José was already killed in the power struggle against the UDT . Likewise Domingos , the president of the FRETILIN student organization UNETIM , who was killed in the Wedauberek massacre .

The Lobatos' younger cousin, Lúcia Lobato, was Minister of Justice in the Xanana Gusmão government from 2007 to 2012 , and Luís Maria Lobato's cousin was Deputy Minister for Health on several occasions.

Colonial and occupation times

Lobato went to the School of the Colégio Nuno Alvares Pereira in the Missão do Sagrado Coração de Jesus in Soibada . Then he came to the lower seminary Nossa Senhora da Fatima in Dare , but finally switched to Liceu Dr. Francisco Machado .

At the end of the colonial period under Portugal, Lobato was a part-time teacher of Latin and the highest officer of Timorese descent in the colonial troops. When the civil war broke out in East Timor in 1975 , the Portuguese colonial government sent him as an emissary to Aileu , where the FRETILIN had occupied the army training camp. However, he switched sides and was probably partly responsible for the fact that most of the soldiers of Timorese descent joined the FRETILIN.

For a short time Lobato became the commander of the FALINTIL and defense minister of the FRETILIN government , which proclaimed the independence of East Timor in 1975. Just a few days after the great Indonesian invasion of East Timor began on December 7, 1975, he went abroad to gain support for East Timor. The deputy ministers took over the ministry. Rogério Lobato spent the time of the occupation of East Timor abroad, including in Cuba . He received military training from China , Vietnam and the POLISARIO . In 1978 Lobato spent a short time with the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia before moving to Angola . From 1983 he served a four-year prison sentence there for diamond smuggling . Lobato returned to East Timor from Portugal in October 2000 . During his exile, Lobato became a member of the central committee of FRETILIN and a political opponent of Xanana Gusmão.

Living in Independent East Timor

In the election campaign for the election of the constituent assembly in 2001, Lobato campaigned with his prestige as the first commandant of the FALINTIL and here especially among the veterans of the liberation struggle. Many FALINTIL fighters had not been accepted into the newly established East Timorese Defense Forces and were therefore unemployed and without prospects. Lobato promised them new concepts for their care. In the spring of 2002 Lobato founded the Associação dos Antigos Combatentes the FALINTIL , as the third among two other veterans' associations. In May 2002, Lobato organized a march for thousands of FALINTIL veterans to Dili. Officially for the independence celebrations, but clearly as a sign of his position of power. On May 20, Lobato became Minister of the Interior, then Minister of Interior under Prime Minister Marí Alkatiri in 2003 . The local governments and the police were subordinate to him .

Lobato came under fire for heavily armed the police and deployed two paramilitary units. These units were also close to the AC75 ( Association of Ex-Fighters of 1975 ), chaired by Lobato. It was also criticized that many of the police officers had already served among the Indonesians. Paulo Martins , the police chief, used to be an Indonesian officer. In December 2002, riots broke out in Dili after a student died after police abuse. There were demonstrations against Lobato and Marí Alkatiri's house was burned down.

In the course of the unrest in East Timor in 2006 , he, like Defense Minister Roque Rodrigues , had to resign on June 1, 2006. On June 8, allegations arose that Lobato had armed civilians on behalf of Alkatiri in order to take action against political opponents. The Australian ABC television reported that the group was made up of 30 people, with 200 assault rifles were equipped, ammunition, two vehicles and uniforms. The commander of this militia, Colonel Railos , testified that they had been instructed to kill all the rebelling soldiers. But after losing five men in skirmishes in Dili, they understood that arming civilians would lead to bloodshed and death on both sides. On June 21, Lobato was arrested and placed under house arrest. Prime Minister Alkatiri could not be proven to be involved, but he was finally forced to resign on June 26 due to public pressure. On March 7, 2007, ex-Minister Lobato was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison for manslaughter and the illegal transfer of weapons , together with the three co-defendants Eusébio Salsinha , Francisco Xavier Diegas and Marcos Piedade (Labadain) .

On August 8, 2007, following a medical certificate , Lobato was allowed to leave the prison for a medical examination due to problems with the prostate and heart. But after this he drove with his family to Dili airport and boarded a Learjet made available by the Kuwait government . The aircraft was initially refused permission to take off. As a compromise proposal, Justice Minister Lúcia Lobato suggested that Rogério should be allowed to travel to Malaysia with his wife and other family members for medical treatment if the couple's two young children remain in East Timor. Literally “as a guarantee that Rogério will come back”. The entire family stayed on board the plane until the next day Attorney General Longuinhos Monteiro finally cleared the flight. This was justified with the right to medical care enshrined in the constitution . The government was unable to reverse the decision of the competent court on the basis of the independence of the judiciary. Lúcia Lobato was therefore criticized in public. On August 21st, Rogério Lobato was operated on in Kuala Lumpur . After that he lived in Bali .

On the sixth Independence Day on May 20, 2008, President José Ramos-Horta announced that he would reduce Lobato's prison term by three quarters. The announcement led to harsh criticism in the national and international media. Justice Minister Lúcia Lobato contradicted that an amnesty could only be pronounced by parliament. Prime Minister Xanana Gusmão wanted to grant him only a three-month reduction in prison sentence. Eventually, the sentence was cut in half, with "good conduct in custody" as the reason. In total, Lobato only spent five months in detention. On May 26, 2010, Lobato returned to East Timor. He no longer had to go to prison. In October 2011, Lobato said he felt like a scapegoat and that he was treated unfairly at the time.

On November 30, 2011, Lobato announced that he would run as an independent candidate in the 2012 presidential election. He finally received 3.49% of the vote.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Leaders Timor Leste: Biografi Rogerio Lobato , accessed on January 18, 2018.
2. ^ ^{A b} Biography of President Nicolau dos Reis Lobato, published by FRETILIN
3. ^ ETAN, August 25, 2001, Fretilin confident that voters will remember who led the struggle
4. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Gordon Peake: Rogerio Lobato: From inmate to president? , The interpreter, The Lowy Institute for International Policy, February 15, 2012
5. ↑ Monika Schlicher: East Timor faces its past , missio-hilft.de , accessed on January 28, 2019.
6. ↑ "Part 3: The History of the Conflict" (PDF; 1.4 MB) from the "Chega!" Report of the CAVR (English)
7. ^ Funu: The politics of East Timorese resistance 1974-1979
8. ↑ Resistance Structure and Strategy ( Memento of the original of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 564 kB) 
9. ↑ ^{a b} BBC, May 29, 2002, E Timor nationhood proves rocky path
10. ↑ Kalteng, Fractured democracy ( Memento of 29 September 2007 at the Internet Archive )
11. ^ Open Democracy: East Timor: a nation divided
12. ^ ^{A b c} Asian Pacific Action, Resolving Timor-Leste's crisis
13. ↑ ^{a b} Vadim Ponanin: Assessing the Outcomes of the Weapons Collection, Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration Programs Conducted under the United Nations Transitional Administrations (PDF; 237 kB)
14. ↑ ABC, Liz Jackson, June 8, 2006, Alkatiri alleged to have recruited armed group
15. ↑ ABC, Liz Jackson, June 8, 2006, Claims E Timor's PM recruited secret security force
16. ^ ABC, September 6, 2006, Claim troops loyal to E Timor PM killed 60 civilians
17. ↑ Reuters, February 15, 2007, Prosecutors seek 7 years jail for Timor ex-minister
18. ↑ ^{a b c} Forum Haksesuk: Rogério Lobato é candidato a Presidente , November 30, 2011 ( Memento of March 1, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) (Tetum and Portuguese)
19. ↑ The Sydney Morning Herald: Trial of ex-Timor minister postponed , December 1, 2006 , accessed March 8, 2020.
20. ↑ The Australian, August 10, 2007, Lobato escapes after Dili standoff ( Memento of the original from September 13, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
21. ↑ The West, October 24, 2007, East Timor fears Lobato may dodge jail  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
22. ↑ International Crises Group: Timor-Leste's Elections: Leaving Behind a Violent Past? , Update Briefing, Asia Briefing N ° 134, Dili / Jakarta / Brussels, February 21, 2012 ( Memento of the original from March 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF; 1.4 MB) 
23. ↑ The West, May 21, 2008, Ramos Horta cuts Lobato's jail term  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as broken. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
24. ^ Timor Post, May 22, 2008, Xanana: agrees to three month reduction of Rogerio's sentence
25. ^ The Age, May 23, 2008, Ramos Horta cuts jail terms for militia
26. ^ Tempo Semanal, May 26, 2010, Rogerio Lobato Returns to Timor-Leste