Downer to visit E. Timor this month

MELBOURNE (JP): Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer announced on Tuesday plans to travel to East Timor on July 30, making him the first Australian foreign minister ever to visit the territory.

The visit will follow his trip to Jakarta on July 28, where he hopes to meet with President B.J. Habibie, Minister of Defense and Security/Indonesian Military (TNI) Commander Gen. Wiranto, and jailed East Timor resistance leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao.

"It is a visit not taken lightly," Downer told the Indonesian Business Forum. "We want to do all we can to help facilitate the ballot and help after the votes have been counted -- no matter what the result."

He emphasized Australia's continued commitment to help East Timor after the ballot. "Whenever the ballot is held, and whatever its outcome, one thing is clear: All the parties in the territory will need to embrace the cause of reconciliation."

East Timorese will vote in August whether to accept an Indonesian autonomy package and remain part of the republic. A rejection would automatically mean independence, probably as early as Jan. 1, 2000.

Australia has been critical of the Indonesian government's failure to control the prointegration militia in East Timor, a point echoed again by Downer on Wednesday when he expressed concerns about the continued violence in the territory in the run-up to the August ballot.

"More must be done to improve security on the ground -- and that responsibility clearly lies with Indonesia," he said.

"It is simply unacceptable that the violent acts directed against ordinary East Timorese, and even against UN officials, that we have seen on our television screens recently, can be allowed to continue."

Australia has the largest contingent of UN police observers sent to help supervise the upcoming ballot in East Timor.

On relations between the two countries, Downer said that in spite of the economic crisis and political changes taking place, Indonesia was central to Australia's foreign policy -- along with its ties with the United States, China and Japan.

"That focus will not shift, regardless of the transformation we have seen in Indonesia."

During the economic crisis, the Australian government had resisted calls for populist protectionist policies, he said, noting that Australian imports from Indonesia grew last year.

"We will either all swim calmly together, or we will all drown like panicked swimmers trying to scramble to safety by standing on each other's shoulders.

"It was precisely such beggar-thy-neighbor policies which led to the prolongation of the Great Depression in the 1930s."

Noting the drastic political changes taking place in Indonesia over the past year, Downer said the Australian government would work with whatever new government emerged in Indonesia.

"The nation where everything was so predictable has become the nation where anything is possible."

He said Australia had provided financial help to Indonesia in areas such as human rights, and the training of accountants, lawyers and administrators in moves to promote democracy in the country.

He praised the Indonesian people's determination to use their hard-won democratic rights responsibly and wisely.

"They have shown that credible elections can be run even after a hiatus of four decades.

"That kind of commitment and courage deserves, in fact, demands, appropriate support, and Australia is determined to provide it."