ABRI's handling of Timor riot soluted
JAKARTA (JP): Two special envoys from the United Nations secretary general have hailed the military's success in ending the recent riot in East Timor.
Frances Vendrell and Tamarat Samuel told the local military commander in a meeting in Dili over the weekend of their deep appreciation to the Armed Forces (ABRI) for the way they solved the riot without a single casualty.
Dozens of local youths on Nov.12 staged a protest rally, confronting security officers and stoning passing cars. The protest, which took place two days before the Asia- Pacific economic leaders meeting in Bogor and coincided with the third anniversary of the bloody riot in the provincial capital in 1991, received full coverage from foreign electronic media.
The special envoys were in East Timor on a fact-finding mission in preparation for the fourth tripartite meeting between the United Nations secretary general and Indonesian and Portuguese foreign ministers in Geneva next month.
The two left Dili for Jakarta on Saturday.
Vendrel and Samuel said in a meeting with East Timor military commander Col. Kiki Syahnakri that they saw positive elements in the way the ABRI overcame the riot and respected their self- restraint, Antara reported.
The two also expressed regret over reports filed by foreign media claiming that one person was killed as the military tried to stop the demonstration.
They said that after checking data collected from various parties, they came to the conclusion that the press reports were groundless.
Vendrell also said that ABRI's doctrine is different from those of armed forces in other parts of the world.
He said that the ABRI's program to develop villages is a special feature of the doctrine.
Denied
Meanwhile Col. Kiki denied on Saturday that he had asked foreign journalists to leave the former Portuguese colony.
"Never has the government had any intention to do so since East Timor integrated into Indonesia in 1976," he said to Antara.
Several journalists had to leave the area after having "violated the rules of the game. They were not aware of the fact that this country has its own regulations and journalistic code of ethics."
Kiki said that those asked to leave were journalists who came with tourist visas but involved themselves in journalistic activities during their stay.
"Many newsmen have come here to make groundless reports." He said the journalists only filed news stories about negative aspects of the province and never paid attention to what ABRI had done in the development program there.
Kiki expressed the hope that the two UN envoys would convey the truth about ABRI's activities in East Timor to the international community. (tis)