Japanese editorial excerpts -3-

TOKYO, May 29 Kyodo

Selected editorial excerpts from the Japanese press:

EAST TIMOR'S TROUBLES (IHT/Asahi as translated from the Japanese-language Asahi Shimbun's editorial published May 28)

East Timor is celebrating its fifth year of independence, and we well recall the feelings of uplifting joy when this country finally gained freedom after a quarter century of Indonesian rule. Today, that joy has all but disappeared, and East Timor is on the brink of becoming a ''failed state.''

Earlier this month, Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta was elected president. One of his first declarations in office was that his priority is to enable women, children, elderly and young people to sleep in peace at night. The fact that he felt compelled to state this at his inauguration vividly illustrates the country's troubles.

A year ago this month, the capital Dili was a center of violence when elements of the East Timor military rioted. Houses and cars were torched and order broke down. Even today, tens of thousands of people are still in refugee camps.

Since independence, the gap between rich and poor has gradually widened. Animosity between different regions and ethnic groups is strong. It was such discontent festering among the people that coalesced and erupted into the 2006 crisis.

After fighting for independence and winning control of the government and military, the new East Timor government lapsed into a mire of corruption and inefficiency, losing popular support. Horta won the presidency by campaigning against corruption and inefficiency.

The United Nations played a large role in the initial period after East Timor's independence, until the new government activities could get under way. The United Nations sent 3,500 peacekeepers, including troops from Japan's Self-Defense Forces. But all peacekeepers had left East Timor by 2005. Things disintegrated into crisis the next year.

(May 29)

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