The Deputy Prime Minister of East Timor will visit Darwin early this month to open an international conference focusing on rebuilding his country, the world’s youngest nation.
Dr Jose Luis Guterres will attend the conference, entitled Democratic Governance in Timor Leste: Reconciling the Local and the National. The conference will be held on 7 and 8 February at Charles Darwin University’s Casuarina campus.
A second Member of the Timor-Leste Parliament, Ms Fernanda Borges, also will address the conference which will focus on the rebuilding process as the country nears the end of its sixth year as a sovereign nation.
Topics at the conference will include justice in the courts and the community, national identity, psychological healing in people traumatised by war, rural resettlement, violence and nation-building, and reconciling local and western modes of governance.
Conference convenor, Associate Professor David Mearns, of CDU’s School of Creative Arts and Humanities, said the speakers would examine the emerging relations between the national and local governments during what is a critical phase in the country’s development.
The conference will be hosted by CDU, in conjunction with the Australian National University and the Timor Institute of Development Studies.
Visit the conference website at: www.cdu.edu.au/timorlesteconference/.