The Mirror for All People (LABEH) organization has called upon the Anti-Corruption Corruption (KAK) to investigate the Ministry of Health over the distribution of $4400 to communities in Atauro sub-district in January 2014.
LABEH executive director Julio Gil da Silva Guterres said the money was to pay compensation to more than 75 households affected by the Ministry of Health’s plan to build an aviation field in the Atauro sub-district for emergency patient transfers.
“KAK should open an investigation into the Ministry of Health, the focal point being how it, together with the Atauro sub-district local authority, distributed $120 for each household, which is like they were just distributing leaves on the street,” said Director LABEH Gil da Silva at a press conference held at the LABEH Auditorium in Comoro, Dili.
The director said he considered the compensation unfair because although each household received $120 they lost their homes and the plants which gave them their living.
He added if they received no answer from the government on this matter, LABEH, together with the affected families, would raise their complaint with the President of the Republic.
Representing the affected landholders, resident Lew Comacose said he recognized the land he occupied was state land, but said he and his family had lived there since 1982, and refused to give the land to build the aviation field.
“100 per cent we do not agree; we will not give space. We just ask for compensation for our plants which have been destroyed but we will not give the land,” Lew said.
He said 37 evictee households and received compensation of $120 and 25 kilograms of MTCI rice but some evictees were yet to receive any compensation.
He added they will no longer be able to live on the $120, and said they need to save money to plant crops in order to sustain their living as farmers.
Minister of Health Sergio da Costa Lobo said the policy of the ministry to establish the aviation field in Atauro would save people’s lives as sometimes boat transfers were not secure and took an hour to reach Dili.
He said the government had allocated a budget of $6.000,00 and two tonnes of rice to distribute to affected population.
“We will peacefully find a way to solve this problem between the population and local administration there,” Minister Lobo said.
