Indonesia and Portugal touch the big issues<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian and Portuguese foreign ministers
\nmeeting in Geneva on Saturday touched on substantive issues on
\nthe question of East Timor, while agreeing to convene a second
\nmeeting of the All-Inclusive Intra-East Timor Dialog (AETD).<\/p>\n
At the end of a one-day meeting sponsored by United Nations
\nSecretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali, Indonesian Foreign
\nMinister Ali Alatas and his counterpart Jose Manuel Durao Barroso
\nissued a joint communique welcoming the results of the AETD.<\/p>\n
Held in Austria earlier this year, the AETD brought together
\n30 pro- and anti-integration Timorese with the aim of helping to
\ncreate a conducive climate for the talks already underway.<\/p>\n
As reported by Antara, Alatas told journalists after the
\nmeeting that despite his acceptance of the Secretary-General's
\nproposal to convene a second AETD, he contended that the meeting
\nshould not discuss the political solution to the East Timor
\ndispute.<\/p>\n
The date and venue for the second AETD is to be decided at a
\nlater date.<\/p>\n
The meeting between Alatas and Barroso on Saturday was the
\nsixth convened under the trilateral framework set up by the UN
\nSecretary-General in 1983 to find an internationally acceptable
\nsolution to the East Timor question.<\/p>\n
The UN still recognizes Portugal as the administrative power
\nin East Timor, despite its integration as Indonesia's 27th
\nprovince in 1976.<\/p>\n
Saturday's meeting also agreed that, prior to the seventh
\nmeeting, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Jose Alaya
\nLasso would visit East Timor; sometime in late November or early
\nDecember.<\/p>\n
The seventh UN-sponsored Indonesia-Portugal meeting has been
\nscheduled for Jan. 16, 1996, in London.<\/p>\n
Although the two foreign ministers discussed substantive
\nissues on the political status of East Timor for the first time,
\nit seems little headway was made in moving either side from its
\noriginal position.<\/p>\n
\"We are still very, very far from a final solution of the
\nproblem. That much is clear,\" Barroso said, as quoted by Reuters.<\/p>\n
\"We can be flexible on how to proceed with Indonesia...but we
\ncannot renounce principles,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Alatas hinted that the discussion of substantive
\nissues could be a long process.<\/p>\n
\"We are at the very beginning of the substantive talks and we
\ndon't know how long it will take,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Speaking on the question of relations between the two
\ncountries, Alatas said the resumption of diplomatic ties would be
\nup to Portugal, since Lisbon was the one who broke off relations
\nafter East Timor's integration.<\/p>\n
As quoted by Antara, Alatas said he was not yet hoping for a
\nre-establishment of diplomatic ties and that Indonesia would
\nnever ask for a resumption of ties.<\/p>\n
The improvement of ties between Indonesia and Portugal is
\nstipulated in point five of the joint communique.<\/p>\n
Also mentioned in the communique was the \"preservation and
\npromotion of the cultural identity of the East Timorese.\"<\/p>\n
On the issue of language Alatas rejected suggestions that
\nPortuguese be taught in schools throughout the province, arguing
\nthat Indonesian and the local Tetun language had been used since
\nEast Timor's integration.(mds)<\/p>",
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