[TimorLesteStudies] Looking for interview partners

[Hanja Eurich]

Dear list members,

I am a German PhD student working on the East Timor conflict. The 
research topic is until now formulated very broadly, dealing with 
communication strategies in peacebuilding activities - all within the 
frame of the UN missions in East Timor. Main focus are not PR activities 
but communication strategies that target the civil society. The 
hypothesis is based on the conflict transformation theory as developed 
by Lederach, Miall and co and also on the results achieved by Ashutosh 
Varshney who formulated the importance of a well-established civil 
society and good communications in order to prevent violence. Therefore, 
the relationship between the UN and the population (on the different 
levels) is of interest, matters of reconciliation (CAVR and other 
aspects), relationship building (including the ignorance of East 
Timorese culture by the UN, language barriers, participation, 
capacity-building, the re-integration of formerly displaced people, the 
integration of cultural patterns etc.).
UNDP and other agencies have a clear understanding of the value of local 
knowledge, seeing the population not only as passive receivers of 
delivered goods and services but as an active part in designing e.g. 
development processes etc. For the peacebuilding activities this was of 
little interest especially in the beginnings of the UN missions in ET. 
Therefore, I am currently seeking to find out what kind of communication 
strategies pointing at the civil society were there, if they were 
successful, and what the UN could have done better in this regard.

A major empirical part of the thesis are supposed to be expert 
interviews on this topic. Therefore, I would like to ask you whether you 
had any recommendations for me whom I could address for the expert 
"outside" perspective as well as East Timorese?
Interviews outside Australia/Europe would be via Skype, telephone or email.

I would be happy to hear from you!

Best wishes,
Hanja

..............................
Hanja Eurich
University of Dortmund, Germany
Department of Political Sciences
hanja.eurich at uni-dortmund.de, hanjaeurich at web.de
+61 4505 86767
+49 173 277 6742