Belo tells groups to end hostilities

JAKARTA (JP): Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo on Thursday appealed to jailed rebel leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao and warring faction leaders to end hostilities in East Timor.

"We urge Xanana to call on his armed followers throughout East Timor to immediately stop killing, kidnapping and intimidation as well as other forms of violence against the people," the Nobel Peace Prize co-laureate was quoted as saying by Antara from the provincial capital of Dili.

"Violence will only invite revenge of violence by others and victimize innocent people."

He made the same appeal to the chief of the prointegration East Timor Forum for Unity, Democracy and justice (FPDK), Domingus Soares, and chief of the military-backed Aitarak militia, Eurico Guterres.

Guterres said in Dili on Thursday that a meeting was planned soon with Falentil deputy commander Taur Matan Ruak.

Belo also acknowledged long-distance talks with Xanana, who is serving a 20-year jail term at a special detention house in Central Jakarta.

"He and his followers have the moral obligation to save the lives of the East Timorese," Belo said, adding that Xanana promised to fulfill the call for the sake of the East Timorese.

"We (also) asked that the FPDK, along with its armed prointegration militia, create peace for the East Timor people day and night."

Members of the prointegration militia have been blamed for last week's attack on proindependence supporters in Liquica, about 40 kilometers west of Dili.

The military insists that there were only seven fatalities, including two who died later from their injuries, but Belo said at least 25 people were killed in the violence.

Meanwhile, East Timor military deputy chief Col. Mudjiono said on Thursday that troops killed two rebels in a clash in the town of Gleno, about 80 kilometers southwest of Dili, on Wednesday night.

Mudjiono said a soldier was wounded in the fighting.

He identified the victims as Helder Martins, 30, and Halito, 35, both members of Falintil, the military arm of the Revolutionary Front for an Independence East Timor (Fretilin).

The clash occurred as soldiers raided a house where three rebels were waiting for the owner, he said. The third rebel escaped. Mudjiono accused the rebels of planning to murder the house owner for being a prointegration activist.

In another development, about 1,500 East Timorese, mostly young men, pledged allegiance to Indonesia in two separate ceremonies on Thursday in and around the town of Maliana, about 70 kilometers southwest of Dili.

Also on Thursday, foreign minister Ali Alatas reaffirmed here the government's objection to the deployment of UN peacekeeping forces in the former Portuguese colony. He said the process of tripartite talks in New York had yet to result in any agreement.

Alatas expressed the government's concern over continuing clashes, Antara reported.

"The endless incidents which have caused deaths and injuries have not helped solve the peace process," he said.

Alatas, who is scheduled to leave on April 20 for New York to attend the next round of tripartite talks, declined comment on Xanana's refusal to retract an earlier statement widely interpreted as a call to arms.

Xanana said Wednesday he renewed his appeal for peace, dialog and reconciliation, but added that he could not let East Timorese be slaughtered like animals.

Meanwhile, the United Nations' special envoy on East Timor Jamsheed Marker welcomed Xanana's call for peace.

Marker urged on Wednesday "all East Timorese leaders and organizations to renounce the use of violence as a means of resolving political differences". He warned the violence threatened the UN-sponsored direct ballot on East Timor's future, tentatively scheduled for July.

"The starting point for reconciliation and peace in East Timor should be a commitment by all to end escalating violence and tension," Marker was quoted as saying by Antara. (byg/33)