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)