Clinton 'very concerned' over Timor unrest

Clinton 'very concerned' over Timor unrest

WASHINGTON (Agencies): United States President Bill Clinton
said on Saturday he was "very concerned" over violence in East
Timor even as he praised the result of the ballot.

"I am very concerned about the continuing violence, and the
people who lost the election should recognize that they lost it
fair and square," Clinton said in a televised address from the
Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland.

He also urged authorities in Jakarta "to prevent the bloodshed
that we now see in East Timor," stressing that Indonesia had
pledged to abide by the vote's results.

The United States and United Nations would work "to minimize
the bloodshed and to facilitate an orderly and honorable
transition," the president said as quoted by AFP.

Meanwhile from Darwin, Australia, Reuters reported on Sunday
that the American UN civilian police officer who was shot in the
abdomen in East Timor was expected to fully recover from
emergency surgery in this northern Australian city.

Royal Darwin Hospital medical superintendent Len Notaras told
reporters the adviser underwent emergency surgery to remove a
bullet near his ribs, after being airlifted out of East Timor.

Australian foreign minister Alexander Downer on Sunday said
Indonesia remained resistant to a proposal to quickly put a small
peacekeeping force into East Timor.

Downer also said he believed militias, rampaging through East
Timor, would give up their cause in time, indicating it was
critical for peacekeepers to move into the bloodied territory
sooner rather than later.

"There are some reasonably positive signals coming out of New
York (about the proposal)," Downer told Channel Ten television.

"I can say at this stage the Indonesians are quite resistant
to having any armed foreign presence in East Timor," he said.

Prime Minister John Howard stressed that until the
peacekeeping issue was resolved, Indonesia was fully responsible
for the situation.

"The fact that ... the Indonesian government is not willing to
have foreign peacekeepers on Indonesian soil until there has been
a formal separation of the territory only underscores and
emphasizes the ongoing responsibility of the Indonesian
government to maintain law and order," Howard told reporters.

As Washington and Canberra sent strong words of concern and
caution to Jakarta over the weekend, forces from the two
countries were gearing for the last stage of large military
exercises involving nearly 20,000 troops.

The final phase of the long-planned joint exercise was
expected to involve about 10,000 Australian and up to 7,500
United States personnel. The exercise would be held in Australia
and the Coral Sea from mid-September to October.

But Australian defense spokesman Steve Delaney told Reuters
there was a possibility the size of the Australian contingent
could be scaled back if the country decided to send peacekeepers
to nearby East Timor.

"Everything depends on the government's requirements, anything
we need to do in relation to East Timor," he said.

Meanwhile in London, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said
on Sunday that he had heard "the right words" from Indonesia over
security in East Timor but the government in Jakarta had not yet
delivered.

Speaking to BBC television from a meeting of European Union
foreign ministers in Finland, Cook said he had just spoken to
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and to the foreign
ministers of Australia and New Zealand about the worsening
violence in the province.

"We are getting the right words on that out of Jakarta. As yet
we have not seen the right action on East Timor," he told
interviewer David Frost, adding that he hoped top Indonesian
officials would ensure orders from Jakarta were carried out on
the ground.

He said the international community, including the European
Union, had to be ready to move in to East Timor to ensure a
transitional authority when the Indonesian legislature voted in
November to allow independence.

He stressed, however, that an international peacekeeping force
to the territory would only be sent with Indonesian consent.

"Nobody is going to fight their way ashore," he insisted.

In Castelgandolfo, Italy, Pope John Paul II on Sunday
denounced what he called the "serious acts of intimidation and
violence" in East Timor.

Speaking during prayers at his summer residence near Rome, the
Pope said the results of the recent vote should be respected.

Indonesia's fellow members in the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Sunday called on militias in East Timor
to respect the vote and urged for confrontation to be resolved
peacefully.

Malaysian foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar offered his
congratulations to East Timor but added that what was important
now was to establish peace, stability and order to ensure that
the people of East Timor would be able to build an independent
state.

"All parties concerned must come to terms with realities and
work towards a common destiny. It will take responsibility,
patience and compromise," he told The Star newspaper on Sunday.

Cambodia, the most recent member to join ASEAN, expressed
hopes that the troubled Indonesian province would make a peaceful
transition to independence.

Cambodia, which successfully ended a decade-long civil war
with a US$2.2 billion UN peacekeeping operation earlier this
decade, could be a model for East Timor, said government
spokesman Khieu Kanharith.

"We hope the transition can go smoothly without any bloodshed
and that the two peoples can cooperate peacefully," he said.