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.