Belo rejects plan to replace Australia as Interfet leader

JAKARTA (JP): Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo rejected on Sunday a plan to replace Australia's leadership in the UN- mandated International Force in East Timor (Interfet) with Malaysia, considering the neighboring country's poor human rights record and its close ties with Indonesia, Antara reported on Monday.

"Malaysia still has problems with (former economic minister) Anwar Ibrahim. It is much better if Interfet is led by Australia, Britain or France," Belo was quoted by Portuguese Radio and Television as saying.

Belo, who just returned to East Timor after fleeing abroad during the violence which followed the Aug. 30 referendum on self-determination there, said Malaysia was a close ally of Indonesia.

Portuguese political observer Nuno Rocha, who is also president of the Asia-Portugal Association, disagreed with Belo's views.

"It is not wise for East Timorese figures like Belo to attack the position of Malaysia and other ASEAN members," Rocha said.

The 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is a regional grouping which has successfully developed the spirit of togetherness among Southeast Asian nations based on mutual socioeconomic and cultural interests, he said.

"One of the keys for a territory which aspires to be independent is how to win as much support as possible and not trigger new hostilities," Rocha said.

The people of East Timor cannot ignore the fact that Indonesia has done much for their benefit, he said.

The Asian-phobia phenomenon also has affected the Australian government, which now feels as if it is exiled, Rocha said.

"Now it is more obvious that Australia views East Timor as a territory which can be used to fulfill its ambitions toward Asia," he said.

Unfortunately, more and more East Timorese figures have been trapped in this vague interest and have allowed themselves to be plunged into Australia and its Western allies' play, Rocha said.

Separately, the news agency also reported that East Timorese refugees were still flooding into the neighboring province of East Nusa Tenggara, entering through Atambua regency.

"We are preparing another camp in Saenoni village to accommodate those who have taken shelter in churches and local residents' houses," East Nusa Tenggara regency administration secretary Wilhelmus Wolo said on Monday.

Wolo said so far none of the East Timorese refugees in the three existing camps wanted to return to their homes in Ambeno.

"They said that their villages were still dangerous to live in, although an international force has arrived in Dili," he said.

Meanwhile, 32,000 East Timorese refugee families who refused to return to their homes will be sent to new settlements in neighboring West and East Nusa Tenggara, Kalimantan and Sulawesi, a staff member at the Ministry of Transmigration said.

"The East Timorese refugees are free to live wherever they want," Suleman said in Palu, Central Sulawesi.

In a related development, Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexander Downer began a two-day visit to Thailand on Monday amid a climate of strained relations between the two countries over the handling of the East Timor crisis.

Downer said in a statement he would discuss East Timor with Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai and other government officials before going to Singapore on Wednesday for the East Asian Economic Summit.

Relations between Australia and many Southeast Asian nations came under pressure last month after Canberra took the principal role in organizing and leading Interfet to quell the violence in East Timor. (edt/imn)