Alatas to meet separatist leader of East Timor
Alatas to meet separatist leader of East Timor
JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas will meet
with Fretilin leader Ramos Horta in New York on Thursday while
his Portuguese counterpart will meet with an East Timorese pro-
integration delegation in Luxembourg today.
The planned meetings were confirmed by the Director General of
Foreign Information, Irawan Abidin, at the Foreign Ministry
yesterday.
Irawan told The Jakarta Post that the East Timorese groups
would meet with the foreign ministers on a private capacity basis
in accordance with the terms laid out by the tripartite talks
between Portugal, Indonesia and United Nations Secretary General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
Alatas, in New York attending the 49th session of the UN
General Assembly, also said that based on the tripartite talks,
Horta would be acting in a private capacity and that the meeting
should not be construed as a negotiation process.
The tripartite talks are now in their fourth session with the
latest taking place last May in Geneva during which both Portugal
and Indonesia agreed to meet with East Timorese groups to improve
the climate between the two sides.
The next round of talks is scheduled for January 1995 in New
York.
Despite the integration of the former Portuguese colony into
Indonesia since 1976, the United Nations still doesn't recognize
Indonesia's sovereignty over East Timor.
However, the UN General Assembly which got underway last
month, agreed to strike the East Timor issue out of its agenda
yet again to give Indonesia and Portugal a chance to resolve the
sovereignty issue.
Irawan revealed that the meeting between Alatas and Horta is
being conducted under the latter's request. "This was a request
from Ramos Horta," he said referring to the bid made sometime in
September.
Alatas himself seemed to play down the meeting with the
Fretilin leader saying he had often met with proponents hostile
to integration.
"I have often met with Horta ...I am always ready to talk to
anyone about East Timor as long as it is not part of a
negotiation because negotiations can only be done in the
tripartite talks," he said as quoted by Antara in New York.
Meanwhile Portuguese Foreign Minister Durao Barroso is
scheduled to meet with pro-integration figures lead by
Ambassador-at-large for East Timor Affairs F.X. Lopez da Cruz in
Luxembourg today.
Lopez over the weekend was in London to attend the second
round of conciliatory talks between pro and anti-integration East
Timorese groups.
More useful
Sponsored by the Indonesia-Portugal Friendship Association,
Lopez met with Abilio Araujo, the head of the anti-integration
group. Araujo himself will also meet with Alatas on Thursday
morning prior to the minister's meeting with Horta.
The friendship association is a non-governmental entity funded
by businesswoman Siti Hardiyanti Rukmana, the eldest daughter of
President Soeharto.
"The private capacity meetings will probably be more useful to
Foreign Minister Barroso than myself since I have often met with
anti-integration East Timorese," Alatas remarked.
Meanwhile in East Timor, military regional commander Col. Kiki
Syahnakri on Sunday inspected the Armed Forces' Pusaka company
which was involved last week in an armed incident with Fretilin
guerrillas.
A company of Timorese locals, led by Juliong F., engaged in an
exchange of fire killing five separatist guerrillas in two
incidents last Tuesday and Wednesday.
No casualties were reported by security forces.
According to Juliong, the incident occurred when security
forces caught guerrillas stealing food crops.
The rebels are becoming desperate and have had to resort to
stealing because the people no longer support them, he said.
The once strong Fretilin guerrilla group in East Timor has now
dwindled down to but a small number, with their activities
limited mostly to minor raids in remote villages.(mds)