ABRI back bid to ease tension in East Timor
ABRI back bid to ease tension in East Timor
JAKARTA (JP): Armed Forces (ABRI) Commander Gen. Wiranto said
here on Monday he would be sending military officers to join the
National Commission on Human Rights visiting East Timor this
week.
Meanwhile in Ainaro, 145 kilometers south of the East Timor
capital of Dili, a pro-Indonesia militia group declared its
readiness to fight a civil war against any independence
movements.
Wiranto, concurrently Minister of Defense and Security, hoped
the visit would ease the escalating tension in the country's 27th
province. He said ABRI would support any peaceful settlement for
the disputed territory.
"The armed forces will be included in the commission's team
scheduled to leave for East Timor this week," he said after
addressing the congress of the youth wing of MKGR, which is a
Golkar-affiliated organization.
He promised ABRI would respect any results of the UN-sponsored
meeting between Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas and his
Portuguese counterpart held to seek a permanent and peaceful
settlement.
"We will give our full support to special status with a wide-
ranging autonomy for East Timor," the general said.
The second round meeting on East Timor will be held next month
in New York.
Wiranto also pointed out that the military was ready to disarm
the civilian militia, Perlawanan Rakyat (Wanra) or People's
Resistance, in East Timor provided the pro-independence Fretilin
and Falintil separatist factions take the same measure.
"We will not disarm the Wanra groups unless the separatist
rebel groups do the same," he said.
He said ABRI would continue to deploy the militia to help the
East Timor Police maintain security and order in the province,
especially in remote areas, because separatist rebels have
intimidated and terrorized residents.
Police said on Saturday that as many as 250 of the planned
1,000 civilian militia have been deployed after a month's
training in defense and security.
Capt. Widodo D.S., provincial police spokesman, said civilian
militia equipped with handcuffs, sticks, whistles and shields
have been stationed in the regencies of Lautem, Baucau, Viqueque,
Aileu, Liquica and Ambeno.
At least eight people have been killed in clashes between
supporters and opponents of a free East Timor in the past weeks,
with the two latest victims falling last Sunday and Monday.
Separately, about 1,500 members of an armed civilian group who
called themselves Mahidi (Live or Die for Integration) threatened
on Monday to use violence against pro-independence groups in
order to maintain Indonesia's sovereignty over the tiny province.
"It is better to face a civil war, if they insist on an
independent East Timor," its leader Canicio Lopes de Carvalho
said in a rally in Cassa village, Ainaro regency.
Meanwhile, 1996 Nobel Peace Prize co-laureate Bishop Carlos
Felipe Ximenes Belo urged the government to allow the jailed Jose
Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao to visit his native province, SCTV
station reported on Monday.
Indonesia and Australia are set to hold a three-day meeting,
opening on Wednesday in Bali, to discuss bilateral cooperation in
East Timor.
The Indonesian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement
that a ministerial council meeting on the Timor Gap treaty was
included in the agenda, in the wake of Indonesia's proposal to
offer East Timor independence if it rejected greater autonomy.
Indonesia has said an independent East Timor would renegotiate
the treaty signed by Indonesia and Australia in 1989. The treaty
divides up marine oil and gas resources found between Timor and
northern Australia.
The European Union (EU) has called for a "just and free"
referendum in East Timor under United Nations auspices.
AFP quoted a statement issued by the German foreign ministry
in Bonn, the current EU chair, on Monday to the effect that the
EU would support such a referendum which it described as
"necessary." (33/rms/prb)