ABRI bows to people's will on E. Timor

JAKARTA (JP): Armed Forces (ABRI) Commander Gen. Wiranto vowed on Thursday the military would support the people if they wanted East Timor to be separated from Indonesia.

Wiranto, who is also the minister of defense, however, warned the nation not to forget the sacrifices of the country, and of the soldiers and civilians who lost their lives to defend the territory's integration into Indonesia.

The general said the military would carry out the mandate of the state's highest institution, the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), should it decide to let East Timor leave Indonesia.

While emphasizing the government's decision to include East Timor into Indonesia in 1976 was not wrong, he expressed his hope that people would not blame each other should Indonesia finally abandon East Timor.

"The decision to grant independence will of course be decided through an MPR decree, and therefore ABRI will secure the decision, there is no problem at all," the general said after meeting with President B.J. Habibie at Merdeka Palace.

The general spoke of how the country had spent a huge amount of money and resources to develop the tiny province, and many people, including the East Timorese themselves, had done a great deal for the province's development.

"Let us not allow their sacrifice to become worthless," Wiranto said.

After a heated cabinet meeting on Wednesday, President Habibie proposed to the Assembly to drop East Timor as its 27th province if East Timorese rejected his proposal for special autonomy for the province. The separation process, should it be decided on, is expected to start in July next year.

Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer on Thursday warmly welcomed Indonesia's willingness to take into account the wishes of the East Timorese.

"As was made clear in the Prime Minister John Howard's recent letter to President Habibie, Australia believes this is the key to a resolution of the East Timor issue," Downer said in a statement.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas acknowledged that the Australian government's stance had been one of the factors which influenced Habibie's decision.

The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who is mediating the ongoing negotiations between Indonesia and Portugal, welcomed Jakarta's decision.

"The Secretary-General underlined the need for maintaining peace and avoiding unnecessary violence and bloodshed in East Timor. He urged all parties concerned to show maximum restraint and political wisdom in dealing with this important period of transition," the UN Information Center (UNIC) said in a statement on Thursday.

The United States on Wednesday called Indonesia's new willingness to grant autonomy to East Timor "a positive development," saying it seemed to give local people a say in their fate.

"The new Indonesian policy appears to explicitly give the people of East Timor a direct role in deciding East Timor's future. As such it is a positive development," it said in a statement.

East Timor Governor Abilio Osorio Soares separately said special autonomy was "the best and the only solution" for the province.

"We must work hard to implement the wide-ranging autonomy under Indonesia," he said.

"We hope that this is not only a political threat, and not a repetition of what Portugal did 23 years ago which left us in chaos," said Florentino Sarmento, a non-governmental organization activist.

Separately, pro-independence figure Manuel Viegas Carrascalao said: "This is an unfriendly and unsympathetic attitude from Indonesia, it is better to hold a referendum so people can decide whether they want independence or integration."

Meanwhile, Alatas said the separation of East Timor from Indonesia would not trigger disintegration in the country, saying the region had a different history from the other 26 provinces.

"The other regions were once part of the Dutch colony and also part of the struggle for Indonesian independence in 1945," he said.

Minister of Justice Muladi said rebel leader Jose Alexandre Xanana Gusmao would soon be removed to a special prison.

"We'll keep him there while waiting for the settlement as promised by President Habibie," he said on the sidelines of a seminar on bankruptcy law. (prb/01/33/har/44/rei)