Belo tells groups to end hostilities

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)