Alatas receives praise from his arch-rival

Alatas receives praise from his arch-rival

HONG KONG (AFP): Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas yesterday got praise from an unexpected quarter -- his arch-rival Jose Ramos Horta, head of the East Timorese separatist movement.

"He's a decent person," Ramos Horta said of Alatas in a meeting with the media at the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents' Club. "I know he agonizes about the problem in East Timor.

Alatas reacted waspishly after Ramos Horta last year was named co-winner of the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize, along with another East Timorese, Carlos Ximenes Filipe Belo, who is bishop of Dili.

He said he could understand why Belo would be awarded the prize, but not in the case of a "political adventurer" like Ramos Horta, who he said was unrepresentative of any movement, nation or organization.

Indonesia integrated East Timor, the eastern side of the island of Timor, in 1976.

The United Nations does not recognize the integration and still sees Portugal, the former colonial power, as the official administrator there.

Alatas has met with Horta several times on the sidelines of UN sessions, but says that these talks have always been in an unofficial capacity.