Cabinet approves East Timor autonomy deal

JAKARTA (JP): President B.J. Habibie's Cabinet has unanimously endorsed the autonomy package deal for East Timor to be signed on Wednesday together with Portugal in New York, Minister of Information Lt. Gen. Muhammad Yunus announced on Monday.

The deal contains three basic agreements, and the Cabinet did not make any changes to the framework of the package, which was previously worked out between Indonesia and Portugal last month, Yunus said.

"Today's cabinet meeting agreed on three concepts that will be brought by foreign minister Ali Alatas to New York for signing by Portugal's foreign minister on May 5," Yunus said after the meeting, which Habibie chaired at the Bina Graha presidential office.

The package covers a basic agreement between Indonesia and Portugal, which serves as a constitutional framework for autonomy for the territory; the modality of the direct balloting on the autonomy deal; and security arrangements during the ballot process planned for August 8.

Portugal has agreed with Indonesia on the presence of UN civilian observers in East Timor, especially on the voting day.

"The UN civilian police advisers are expected to go to East Timor around May 10," said Yunus.

Alatas was scheduled to leave for New York on Monday to meet with his Portuguese counterpart, Jaime Gama. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will mediate the meeting.

According to Yunus, all East Timorese, including those living abroad, are entitled to vote. The children of East Timorese whose parents were born in East Timor, and the spouse of an East Timorese, also have the right to vote

"I myself will also vote because my wife is an East Timorese," said Yunus, who is the husband of Antonia Yacinta Ricardo. "I am prointegration."

During the meeting, Minister of Defense/Indonesian Military (TNI) chief Gen. Wiranto reported that the National Council for an Independent East Timor (CNRT) had lost its roots in 10 of the province's 13 regencies.

Wiranto said prointegration groups had received wide support from the province's 800,000 residents, describing prointegration sympathizers as a "silent majority".

"Only in Viqueque, Baucau and Manatuto does CNRT still exist," Yunus said. The organization is chaired by jailed East Timorese leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao.

Yunus also quoted Wiranto as accusing proindependence groups of being reluctant to put away their weapons despite recently signing a peace pact with the prointegration groups. He insisted the prointegration militia groups had recently given up their arms to the government.

Speaking to reporters before the cabinet meeting, Wiranto denied allegations his soldiers had sided with pro-Indonesia militia groups.

Release

Meanwhile, Minister of Justice Muladi said before the Cabinet meeting he believed Xanana's release would be very helpful in achieving peace in the tiny territory.

"Personally, I think Xanana should be granted amnesty. He can then have a bigger role in the settling of the East Timor problem," Muladi said.

Separately, the National Commission on Human Rights succeeded on Monday in forming the Independent Commission for Human Rights in East Timor Loro Sae (Kihamtil).

One of the national commission members, B.N. Marbun, said the new commission would comprise all groups in the province, including groups for and against independence, government representatives and church leaders.

"This commission will work until July 1999 to help avoid human rights abuses," Marbun said, as quoted by Antara.

Meanwhile in Sydney, Australia, five protesters brandishing banners and chanting "Free East Timor" occupied the downtown Sydney offices of the Garuda Indonesia airline on Monday.

The Australia East Timor Association members jostled with a security guard before pushing their way into the first floor office, AP reported.

The doors were then locked, blocking out several other protesters. Spokesman Stephen Langford said he would hand a letter to staff demanding that Indonesian military withdraw from East Timor. The security guard said police had been called.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said Habibie's commitment on the direct vote had sent an important signal to the province.

He also defended his meeting last week with Habibie in Bali as "fruitful".

"If we walk away and wash our hands of it, that's not going to influence the Indonesians to behave in a different way," he said in an interview with a local TV station in Australia.

"Because I don't control East Timor -- East Timor is part of Indonesia, whether we like it or not, and so we have to deal with that reality and respect it," he said.

Meanwhile, East Timor's sole daily newspaper reappeared on Monday after an attack on its office by a pro-Jakarta militia forced it to halt publication for two weeks.

The reappearance of the Suara Timor Timur (Voice of East Timor) coincided with World Press Freedom Day on May 3.

The daily carried on its front page a photograph of representatives of warring pro and anti-independence factions signing a peace pact on April 21.

Its office had been ransacked by the militia during their unchecked rampage through Dili on April 17, which left at least 21 dead. The militia accused its journalists of favoring independence for East Timor.

"We have learned that the violence against the newspaper of the East Timorese could not stop us from voicing the true conscience of a human being," the newspaper's deputy chief editor Otelio Ote was quoted as saying by Antara in the provincial capital of Dili on Monday. (prb/byg)