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Dionísio Babo Soares

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Dionísio da Costa Babo Soares
Babo Soares in 2017
Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation
In office
22 June 2018 – 25 May 2020
Prime MinisterTaur Matan Ruak
Preceded byAurélio Sérgio Cristóvão Guterres
Succeeded byAdaljíza Magno
Member of the National Parliament
In office
2017–2018
Minister of State, Coordinator of State Administration Affairs and Justice, and Minister of State Administration
In office
16 February 2015 – 15 September 2017
Prime MinisterRui Maria de Araújo
Preceded byJorge Teme
Succeeded byValentim Ximenes
Minister of Justice
In office
8 August 2012 – 16 February 2015
Prime MinisterXanana Gusmão
Preceded byLúcia Lobato
Succeeded byIvo Jorge Valente [de]
Personal details
Born (1966-08-16) 16 August 1966 (age 58)
Ermera, Portuguese Timor
(now East Timor)
Political partyNational Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT)
Alma mater

Dionísio da Costa Babo Soares (born 16 August 1966) is an East Timorese politician, and a member of the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT). From June 2018 to May 2020, he was the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, under the VIII Constitutional Government of East Timor;[1] he had earlier served as Minister of State, Coordinator of State Administration Affairs and Justice, Minister of State Administration, and Minister of Justice.

Early life and career

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Babo Soares was born in Ermera in the north west of East Timor on (1966-08-16)16 August 1966. He graduated in constitutional law from Udayana University in Denpasar, Indonesia, in 1990. As a student, he actively participated in the resistance movement against the occupation of his home country and was a member of various groups, such as the Liga dos Estudantes Patriotas (LEP). In 1989, he was involved in a petition to make the United Nations aware of the fate of East Timor. He also took part in demonstrations at the Indonesian embassy in Wellington, New Zealand.[2]

In 1995, Babo Soares completed a master's degree in philosophy with a focus on development studies at Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand.[3] Between 1995 and 1999, he was a member of the academic staff of the then Universitas Timor Timur (UNTIM), now absorbed into the National University of East Timor.[2] From 1998, he was a doctoral student in anthropology at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies of the Australian National University in Canberra.[4] His research focused on political and social developments in East Timor during its preparation for independence between 1999 and 2002.[5]

In 2003, Babo Soares worked at the Asia Foundation in East Timor.[5] The same year, he was a co-founder of the East Timor Coffee Institute [de].[6] In addition, he taught from 2003 to 2012 at the Universidade da Paz, and in 2003 and 2004 at the Universidade Dili (UNDIL).[2]

Political career

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From 2005 to 2008, Babo Soares, together with Benjamin Mangkoedilaga [id] of Indonesia, co-chaired the Indonesia–Timor Leste Commission of Truth and Friendship (CTF), which was tasked with working on behalf of the Presidents of both countries in dealing with human rights violations during the 1999 East Timorese crisis.[7] Pro-Indonesia militia and Indonesian security personnel had inflicted a wave of violence upon the occupied East Timor after the population had voted for independence in a referendum. Around 250,000 East Timorese had fled or been deported to West Timor, and around 2,000 to 3,000 people had died. The CTF's final report found that Indonesia's government, military and police were “to blame for the serious violations of human rights” in the 1999 crisis.[8][9] Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono then expressed his "very deep remorse at what happened in the past".[10]

On 12 May 2005, Babo Soares was sworn in as a member of the Superior Council for Defence and Security [de] of East Timor.[11] In April 2006, he was appointed as a member of the Board of Directors of East Timor's Public Broadcasting Service.[12]

In 2007, Babo Soares became Secretary-General of the CNRT, which was then in the process of being founded by Xanana Gusmão.[13] From the parliamentary elections of 2007 until 2017, the CNRT was part of the government, initially with Gusmão as Prime Minister, and from 2015 under Rui Maria de Araújo of Fretilin.

Between 2007 and 2012, Babo Soares worked as a consultant to the Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs, José Luís Guterres.[14] In the parliamentary elections of 2012, in which the CNRT achieved the highest number of votes, Babo Soares was elected to the National Parliament as the #2 candidate on the CNRT list.[15] However, on 8 August 2012 he was sworn in as the new Justice Minister of East Timor, and therefore did not take up his parliamentary seat.[16] During the government reshuffle in February 2015, Babo Soares became Minister of State, Coordinator of State Administration Affairs and Justice, and Minister of State Administration.[17][18]

Babo Soares and UN Secretary-General António Guterres in 2019

In 2017, Babo Soares lost his post as Secretary General of the CNRT to Francisco Kalbuadi Lay at the party congress.[19] He became president of the party's national executive council.[20] In the parliamentary elections of 2017, Soares was again elected to the National Parliament as the CNRT's #2 list candidate. However, as the CNRT went into opposition after that election, Babo Soares lost his executive office in the government.[21]

In September 2017, Babo Soares was appointed as a delegate to the National Parliamentary Group at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) [22] In that month, he also became a member of the Parliamentary Committee for Constitutional Affairs, Justice, Public Administration, Local Jurisprudence and Anti-Corruption (Committee-A).[23]

In 2018, the National Parliament of East Timor was dissolved early. In the elections that followed the dissolution, Babo Soares was again elected to the National Parliament, this time in 10th place on the list of the Alliance for Change and Progress (AMP), of which the CNRT was part.[24] On 22 June 2018, Babo Soares was sworn in as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, and therefore again automatically relinquished his parliamentary seat.[25]

At the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly in 2018, Babo Soares was scheduled to give a speech, but fell ill. He was replaced at short notice by East Timor's Permanent Representative at the United Nations in New York, Milena Pires. Soon afterwards, Babo Soares underwent heart surgery in New York.[26]

Following the breakdown of the AMP coalition in the first few months of 2020, the CNRT decided on 30 April 2020 that its members serving in the VIII Constitutional Government would resign their positions.[27] The CNRT informed the government of its decision on 8 May 2020,[27] and Babo Soares resigned as Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation on 25 May 2020.[28]

Publications

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  • Branching from the Trunk: East Timorese Perceptions of Nationalism in Transition (Canberra: PhD thesis, Australian National University, 2003; OCLC 793206496)
  • Elections and Constitution Making in East Timor (Canberra: State, Society and Governance in Melanesia Project, Australian National University, 2003; ISBN 0731533496)
  • Out of the Ashes: Destruction and Reconstruction of East Timor (PDF). (ed) (with James J. Fox (ed)) (Canberra: ANU Press, 2003; ISBN 9780975122914)
  • Tetum, Language Manual for East Timor (5th ed.) (with Geoffrey Hull and Jorge da Conceição Teme) (Winston Hills, NSW, Australia: Sebastião Aparício da Silva Project, 2005; ISBN 186341875X)

References

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  1. ^ "Structure of the VIII Constitutional Government". Government of Timor-Leste. Retrieved 30 January 2020.
  2. ^ a b c "Ministério da Administração Estatal: Ministro" [Ministry of State Administration: Minister]. Government of Timor-Leste (in Portuguese). Archived from the original on 1 November 2015. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  3. ^ da Costa Babo Soares, Dionísio (1995). The relationship between foreign development assistance and human rights peerformance [sic]: a case study of the United States of America, Canada, The Netherlands and Indonesia (Masters thesis). Massey Research Online, Massey University. hdl:10179/13511.
  4. ^ "Library of Congress Authorities: Babo-Soares, Dionisio". Library of Congress. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  5. ^ a b Fox, James J.; Babo Soares, Dionísio, eds. (2003). Out of the Ashes: Destruction and Reconstruction of East Timor. Canberra: ANU Press. ISBN 9780975122914. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  6. ^ "ETCI selebra loron Dies Natalis ba Dala XI". Business Timor (in Tetum). 22 September 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  7. ^ Widiadana, Rita A. (20 May 2006). "RI, Timor Leste urged to get behind truth commission". The Jakarta Post. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  8. ^ Hirst, Megan (January 2008). Too Much Friendship, Too Little Truth: Monitoring Report on the Commission of Truth and Friendship in Indonesia and Timor-Leste (PDF). New York: International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ). Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  9. ^ "Per Memoriam Ad Spem" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 January 2014. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  10. ^ Williamson, Lucy (15 July 2008). "Indonesia regrets E Timor wrongs". BBC News. Retrieved 6 April 2020.
  11. ^ Nuttall, Ruth (2017). The Origins and Onset of the 2006 Crisis in Timor-Leste (PhD). Canberra: Australian National University. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  12. ^ "Decreto do Presidente da República Número 4/2006" [Decree of the President of the Republic Number 4/2006] (PDF). Jornal da República (in Portuguese). 1 (8). Government of Timor-Leste: 1. 26 April 2006. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  13. ^ Ryan, Gavin (May 2007). Political Parties and Groupings of Timor-Leste (PDF). Kingston, ACT, Australia: Australian Labor Party. p. 13. Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 June 2007. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  14. ^ Timor celebrates 10 years of Independence with Conference on Social Programmes. Dili: International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth (IPC-IG). 16–18 February 2012. Archived from the original on 19 May 2012.
  15. ^ Timor-Leste elections: List of Candidates (PDF). 2012. p. 66. Retrieved 10 April 2020.
  16. ^ "IV Constitutional Government". Government of Timor-Leste. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
  17. ^ "VI Constitutional Government is sworn-in". Government of Timor-Leste. 16 February 2015. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  18. ^ "VI Constitutional Government". Government of Timor-Leste. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  19. ^ "Xanana continua presidente do maior partido de Timor-Leste, Kalbuadi eleito secretário-geral" [Xanana remains president of East Timor's largest party, Kalbuadi elected secretary-general]. Diário de Notícias (in Portuguese). Lusa. 1 May 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  20. ^ Sampaio, António (9 July 2017). "Timor-Leste/Eleições: A campanha mais profissional e sofisticada de sempre" [Timor-Leste / Elections: The most professional and sophisticated campaign ever]. Diário de Notícias (in Portuguese). Lusa. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  21. ^ "Who is in Timor-Leste's new Parliament? / Se tuir iha Parlamentu Nasionál foun?". La'o Hamutuk: Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis. 23 July 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  22. ^ "Resolução do Parlamento Nacional N.o 20 / 2017 de 27 de Setembro" [National Parliament Resolution No. 20/2017 of 27 September] (PDF). Jornal da República (in Portuguese). 1 (38). Government of Timor-Leste: 1601. 27 September 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  23. ^ "Comissões Especializadas Permanentes: Comissão de Assuntos Constitucionais e Justiça (Comissão-A)" [Permanent Specialised Committees: Committee for Constitutional Affairs and Justice (Committee-A)] (in Portuguese). 2017. Archived from the original on 4 October 2017. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  24. ^ "Aviso: Lista Definitiva de Candidaturas Eleição Parlamentar 12 de Maio de 2018" [Notice: Final List of Candidates Parliamentary Election 12 May 2018] (PDF) (Press release) (in Portuguese). Democratic Republic of East Timor. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  25. ^ "Primeiro grupo de membros do VIII Governo timorense tomou posse em Díli" [First group of members of the VIII Timorese Government take office in Dili]. SAPO 24 (in Portuguese). Lusa. 22 June 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  26. ^ "Ministro dos Negócios Estrangeiros timorense submetido a cirurgia devido a problema cardíaco" [Timorese Foreign Minister underwent surgery due to heart problem]. Observador (in Portuguese). Lusa. 2 October 2018. Retrieved 5 April 2020.
  27. ^ a b Soares Martins, Evaristo (11 May 2020). "CNRT Members Told to Resign from Council of Ministers". Tatoli. Archived from the original on 15 May 2020. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
  28. ^ Sanchez, Hortencio (25 May 2020). "Foreign Minister Dionísio Soares Among Five MPs to Resign From Cabinet". Tatoli. Archived from the original on 30 June 2020. Retrieved 27 May 2020.
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