Alatas cautious on new Timor dialog prospects

JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian government is reacting cautiously to the prospect of a second meeting between opposing East Timorese factions.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas said yesterday such a proposal must be examined further and discussed with Portugal at the next round of formal talks.

"We will have to look at the relevance and the need for such a meeting," he said.

Alatas told journalists that the results of the All-Inclusive Intra-East Timor Dialog must be further studied. He is now waiting for a report from F.X. Lopez da Cruz, the coordinator of the Indonesian delegation.

"At this moment I can't give you an answer yet," he remarked.

Under the aegis of the United Nations secretary-general, the Indonesian and Portuguese foreign ministers agreed at the fifth trilateral talks in Geneva last January to allow a reconciliation dialog between East Timorese of opposing factions.

Held in the small Austrian town of Stadtschlaining, over 100 kilometers of from Vienna, 16 Timorese from Indonesia and 14 from abroad gathered last Saturday for a three-day meeting to discuss various non-political aspects of the East Timor situation.

The Indonesian delegation included Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares. Among the members of the delegation from abroad were leading East Timor separatists such as Fretilin leader Ramos Horta.

The UN still recognizes Lisbon as the administrative power in East Timor despite the fact that it was integrated as Indonesia's 27th province in 1976.

At the end of their meeting in Austria on Monday, delegates issued the "Burg Schlaining Declaration" which proposed that the UN secretary-general organize another dialog.

"That is precisely a point that needs to be discussed at the next meeting between the two foreign ministers and the secretary- general," Alatas said.

He added that the government will carefully examine the Declaration and decide which points can contribute to the talks between Jakarta and Lisbon.

Those that are not relevant will be noted, he added.

The sixth trilateral talks are scheduled to be held on July 8 in Geneva.

Though the dialog was successful in bringing opposing East Timorese factions together for the first time in nearly two decades, the Declaration noted "fundamental different political options are unchanged."

Commenting on the Declaration's call to "implement the necessary measures in the field of human rights," Alatas said that Indonesia has always tried to implement these measures.

"There is no feeling that we have never implemented them, on the contrary, in every meeting we have proven how we have done it," he contended.

Though not included in the Declaration, delegates during the dialog discussed the high level presence of the military in East Timor.

Alatas said the matter has been discussed several times before in previous meetings with the Portuguese foreign minister.

"That has been a running topic of all the five meetings," Alatas said, adding that he did not see "anything new that needs to be specifically addressed".

When asked if Jakarta would accept the possibility of including the political status of East Timor in future dialogs, Alatas argued that such discussions would confuse the issue.

"After all, on this question what is needed is a governmental decision. We cannot just leave it up to the East Timorese from both sides," he said.

Alatas maintains that political discussions should be reserved for the Indonesian and Portuguese government alone, and that the dialog should not become a second track to those talks.

"It is between the government of Indonesia and the government of Portugal under the auspices of the secretary-general that a political solution needs to be found on the question of East Timor. That remains our position," he said. (mds)