Alatas slams Portugal for halting Timor talks

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas slammed Portugal on Tuesday for suspending United Nations-sponsored negotiations over the future of East Timor based on unsubstantiated reports of a massacre in the territory.

Such an attitude raised questions about Portugal's sincereity in finding a peaceful settlement to the conflict in East Timor through the tripartite dialog, Alatas told reporters.

He recalled that this was the third time Lisbon has suspended the UN negotiations since 1983. The previous instances were in 1986 and 1991.

Alatas said that media reports suggesting that dozens of civilians had been killed during a military operation in the southern district of Alas were totally groundless.

Reports from the East Timor Military Command said that only five people had been killed in the area -- three members of the Alas Military District Command, a civilian employee of the command and a local village chief.

Alatas said he had verified the report with the Jakarta and Dili representative offices of the International Committee for the Red Cross, which has been given unimpeded access to visit Alas. Neither could substantiate claims of killings and burning.

He contradicted foreign press reports which quoted former East Timor Governor Mario Viegas Carrascalao as saying that up to 42 people had been killed in the Alas incident.

"I don't know where he got that figure from," Alatas said.

Carrascalao, who now sits on the Supreme Advisory Council, could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Alatas said he had ordered the Indonesian delegation to the UN-sponsored talks to express regret at Portugal's unilateral decision to suspend the negotiations based on flimsy and unsubstantiated reports.

Given its past record, Portugal appeared to be jumping at every chance it had to stop the process, "as if they had no intention of resolving this issue", he said, adding that Indonesia was prepared to resume the talks at any time.

On Friday, Portugal ordered its delegation to the United Nations to halt further talks pending clarification of the reported massacre. The United Nations special representative on East Timor, Jamsheed Marker, was expected to rule on the fate of the talks later on Tuesday.

The meeting had been discussing an Indonesian proposal to give East Timor a special status granting it wide-ranging autonomy. Indonesia said this would represent a compromise solution between those who want an independent state and those who insist that East Timor should remain integrated with Indonesia.

The incident in Alas was sparked by an attack launched on the local military command by a group of separatist rebels on Nov. 9. Three soldiers and a civilian employee of the command were killed and 14 soldiers were taken hostage by the rebels. The rebels also made off with ammunition seized from the command's arsenal.

All the soldiers killed were reportedly East Timorese recruits.

Clashes broke out between relatives of the victims and local people related to the rebels. Several houses were burned down in the ensuing fracas.

Later on, when the military sent reinforcements to the area to secure the release of the kidnapped soldiers, many local residents fled the area along with the rebels.

The military subsequently secured the release of all but two of the kidnapped soldiers and arrested seven people suspected of an involvement in the Nov. 9 attack. A village chief was killed during contacts with rebels in the jungle.

Those arrested are now in police custody.

Around 140 displaced people sought refuge at a local school and a church. The reports of a "massacre" also prompted strong reactions elsewhere.

In Dili, thousands of students staged a demonstration outside the East Timor legislative council on Monday to demand a thorough investigation of the incident.

In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman James Rubin said: "We are disturbed at reports of renewed violence in East Timor.

"We call on all sides to refrain from violence and to take all measures necessary to ensure that civilians are not mistreated or denied access to necessities," he said as reported by Reuters.

"There have been credible reports of civilian deaths in the military sweep, but we do not have confirmed numbers," he added. (emb)