UN chief upbeat on East Timor<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): United Nations Secretary General Boutros
\nBoutros-Ghali is confident that negotiations between Indonesia
\nand Portugal to settle the status of East Timor will eventually
\nbear fruit, a senior Indonesian official said yesterday.<\/p>\n
During a meeting with President Soeharto, Boutros-Ghali said
\nthat the efforts to resolve the East Timor problem should be
\ncontinued, Minister\/State Secretary Moerdiono told reporters.<\/p>\n
The UN chief believes that a solution will be found in due
\ncourse, Moerdiono said.<\/p>\n
Boutros-Ghali has presided over a number of meetings between
\nthe foreign ministers of Indonesia and Portugal in the last two
\nyears, to decide on the status of the former Portuguese colony.<\/p>\n
The next round of meetings, originally scheduled for next
\nmonth in Geneva, has been postponed indefinitely, to wait for the
\noutcome of a dialog among the conflicting East Timorese factions
\nplanned for June, in Salzburg, Austria.<\/p>\n
During the meeting, Soeharto underlined the importance of the
\nintra-East Timorese dialog, Moerdiono said, adding that both
\nleaders also agreed to support the holding of the dialog.<\/p>\n
The intra-East Timorese dialog, which is an initiative of
\nBoutros-Ghali, was nearly derailed after Indonesia and pro-
\nIndonesia East Timorese complained that they were not consulted
\nabout the lists of invitations. Responding to the complaints, the
\nconference was postponed to June.<\/p>\n
The United Nations still recognizes Lisbon as the owner of
\nEast Timor, although its colonial administration abandoned it in
\n1975, leaving in its wake a bloody civil war. The following year,
\ntribal leaders representing the majority of East Timorese
\ndeclared their desire to become part of Indonesia, hence the
\nintegration with the republic.<\/p>\n
The East Timor issue was one of the topics raised during the
\nmeeting, which lasted more than one hour between Soeharto and
\nBoutros-Ghali, at the Merdeka Palace yesterday.<\/p>\n
The UN Chief, according to Moerdiono, praised Indonesia in
\nsupporting the United Nations and its various operations.<\/p>\n
Soeharto explained that the Indonesian constitution mandates
\nthat the country play an active role in promoting peace and
\njustice in the world. Indonesia's participation and contribution
\non this front has been made possible by the economic progress
\nthat Indonesia has achieved, he said.<\/p>\n
Indonesia has taken part in various UN peacekeeping operations
\nworldwide, including the latest ones in Bosnia-Herzegovina,
\nSomalia and Cambodia. Also, Indonesia currently holds a non-
\npermanent seat on the UN Security Council.<\/p>\n
Soeharto, who is chairman of the 112-nation Non-Aligned
\nMovement, explained to his guest about the group's current
\nefforts to enhance cooperation between developing countries, or
\nthe South-South cooperation, and promoting dialog between
\nSouthern countries and industrialized countries of the North.<\/p>\n
Moerdiono disclosed to reporters that Soeharto, as NAM
\nchairman, plans to issue another plea to leaders of the Group of
\nSeven industrialized countries, before their next summit in June
\nin Canada, to address the North-South dialog.<\/p>\n
Two years ago, Soeharto traveled to Tokyo to meet with a
\nnumber of G-7 leaders with a similar proposal.<\/p>\n
Soeharto and Boutros-Ghali also discussed the situation in
\nBosnia-Herzegovina and other former Yugoslavia republics, in
\nlight of the peace initiative launched by the Indonesian
\npresident during his visit to Sarajevo and Zagreb last month.<\/p>\n
Soeharto stressed that Indonesia has no ambition of becoming a
\nmediator in the conflict, because any solution can only be worked
\nout by the parties of the conflicts themselves.<\/p>\n
The Indonesian proposal, which calls for the establishment of
\na confederation of the former republics of Yugoslavia, is for a
\ntwo-step meeting. The first involving solely the warring parties,
\nand the second, an international conference to endorse the
\nagreements made.<\/p>\n
Moerdiono said Indonesia's senior diplomat, Nana Sutresna, is
\ncurrently preparing a report on the status of the proposal,
\nfollowing his visit to Belgrade and other capitals of the former
\nYugoslavia republics. (emb)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/un-chief-upbeat-on-east-timor-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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