ABRI's handling of Timor riot soluted
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)