19 March 2012
Expert comment on East Timor
RMIT University’s Dr Damian Grenfell, an expert on East Timor, is available for interview on the nation’s presidential election.
Provisional results show East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta has lost his bid for a second term, failing to make it to the run-off in the country's second presidential vote as a free nation.
- What is the background to this election?
- Who are the two candidates left in the running?
- How important is the role of President in East Timor?
Dr Grenfell is the Director of the Globalism Research Centre at RMIT and the leader of the centre’s Timor-Leste Research Program.
His research focus is post-conflict reconstruction efforts in East Timor, and he publishes on many aspects of development and security in the country, ranging from truth, reconciliation and national integration to community security and gender equality.
Dr Grenfell worked with the Commission for Reception, Truth and Reconciliation in East Timor in 2004-05 and has led numerous evaluations of development efforts in East Timor for non-government aid organisations including Oxfam and Irish Aid.
He has worked in East Timor regularly since 2003 and lived in the country from 2006 to 2010.
Dr Grenfell is available for interview.
For interviews: Dr Damian Grenfell, (03) 9925 3462 or 0414 955 793.
For general media enquiries: RMIT University, Marketing and Communications, Gosia Kaszubska, (03) 9925 3176 or 0417 510 735.
