Team formed to ensure East Timor ballot<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): President B.J. Habibie formed on Tuesday a five-
\nman government team to monitor and ensure the security of a
\ndirect vote to be held under UN auspices in East Timor on Aug. 8.<\/p>\n
Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Gen.
\n(ret) Feisal Tanjung was named the team leader.<\/p>\n
Minister\/State Secretary\/Minister of Justice Muladi said the
\nteam was established because the President did not want any
\ntrouble to disrupt the direct vote, in which 800,000 residents in
\nthe province will decide whether to be independent or remain a
\npart of Indonesia.<\/p>\n
\"Whatever the result of the direct ballot will be, there
\nshould not be a single fault in its implementation and it must be
\nabsolutely secured. For the sake of Indonesia's reputation, we
\nshould not tolerate any engineering,\" Muladi said after a meeting
\nwith Habibie at Merdeka Palace.<\/p>\n
The team comprises of Muladi himself, Feisal, Minister of
\nDefense and Security\/Indonesian Military (TNI) Chief Gen.
\nWiranto, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas, Minister of Home
\nAffairs Syarwan Hamid, National Police Chief Gen. Roesmanhadi,
\nand Head of National Intelligence Coordinating Board Lt. Gen.
\n(ret) Z.A. Maulani.<\/p>\n
Although Feisal was the formal head of the team, Palace
\nofficials said that Muladi and Alatas would play the central
\nrole.<\/p>\n
According to Annex I of the agreement between Indonesia and
\nPortugal signed in New York last week, Indonesia will be
\nresponsible for maintaining peace and security in East Timor to
\nensure that the popular consultation is carried out in a fair and
\npeaceful way in an atmosphere free of intimidation and violence.<\/p>\n
A number of international civilian police will be available to
\nadvise Indonesian police during the popular consultation process.<\/p>\n
\"The team will ensure the poll is held in the best, most
\nhonest and fairest manner on Aug. 8, and the government will pay
\nrespect to the result,\" said Muladi.<\/p>\n
The government has offered a wide-ranging autonomy for the
\nformer Portuguese colony and the authority there will be called
\nthe Special Autonomous Region of East Timor (SARET).<\/p>\n
Hospital sources said five people were killed and a dozen
\nothers were injured when the progovernment militia groups Besi
\nMerah Putih (Red and White Iron) and Aitarak attacked Quintal
\nKiik, Quintal Boot, Santa Cruz and Bemori subdistricts in Dili on
\nMonday.<\/p>\n
Police however insisted that only three were killed. The
\nbodies of Flavito Carvalho Ribero, 26, Listen Noronha dos Reis,
\n20, and farmer Jose Ximenes, 20, were found near the famous Santa
\nCruz cemetery.<\/p>\n
Sobbing mourners attended the burial of the proindependence
\nactivists in Santa Cruz on Tuesdat. The body of Elezer dos Reis,
\na 18-year-old student of a junior high school in Quintal Kiik,
\nwas also buried.<\/p>\n
\"There will be no such incidents happening again in the
\nfuture,\" Dili military chief Lt. Col. Endar Priyanto vowed.<\/p>\n
The incident had forced hundreds of people to flee their
\nhomes. They were not only East Timorese but the families of TNI
\npersonnel living near the incident's site. Wearing their uniform,
\nthe soldiers guarded the front of their own houses.<\/p>\n
\"The TNI families will also be accompanied by security troops
\nto enable them to return to their homes safely,\" said Endar.<\/p>\n
UN senior official Francesc Vendrell said in New York, the UN
\npersonnel would arrive in the East Timor capital of Dili by mid-
\nJune.<\/p>\n
Reuters quoted him as saying the team will comprise about 600
\nstaff, including 400 voter registration and polling officials, 15
\nto 18 political and civilian advisers, and various logistics,
\ncommunications, information and other staff.<\/p>\n
In addition, there will be an undetermined number of civilian
\npolice, which the precise number will be determined on Monday,
\nVendrell said.<\/p>\n
A chief of mission, expected to be named shortly, should be in
\nEast Timor by about May 20, he added.<\/p>\n
Om Prakash Rathor, one of the five UN police personnel who
\narrived in Dili last week, said on Monday the number of the UN
\npolice personnel would be between 250 to 300 personnel.<\/p>\n
In Bandung, West Java, Wiranto reiterated that TNI would
\nsafeguard the voting process and would take a neutral position in
\nthe dispute between pro and anti-independence.<\/p>\n
\"We want the voting process to run peacefully and smoothly
\nwithout any coercion and pressures,\" said Wiranto. (prb\/33\/43)<\/p>",
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