E. Timor proposals' deadline missed
E. Timor proposals' deadline missed
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters): Portugal and Indonesia missed their self-imposed deadline for reaching agreement on autonomy for the disputed territory of East Timor by the end of this year when they ended a new round of talks on Friday.
UN negotiator Jamsheed Marker said talks would resume from February 1-5. In the interim, he plans to visit East Timor on Dec. 16 to consult with all groups.
He said his assistants would travel to the territory in advance to explain the proposals to the local population. He said he had met during the week with "various representatives of the East Timorese resistance" to keep them informed.
"I am not disappointed at all," said Marker, a Pakistani diplomat, in answer to queries about the autonomy deadline.
"In fact I suspected something like this would happen. I want to keep up the process of negotiations," he said.
"I think we have gone a long way towards the autonomy process. These are very complicated and difficult matters. We have presented very elaborate autonomy proposals to both the governments," Marker told reporters.
The autonomy proposals have to be agreed on before a final status for the territory is decided. Indonesia's incorporation of the former Portuguese colony in 1976 is not recognized by the international community and the United Nations has long been trying to broker an acceptable solution.
In August, Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas and his Portuguese counterpart, Jaime Gama, hoped they could reach an agreement on the territory's ""special status, based on a wide- ranging autonomy" by the end of the year.
The two sides had also agreed to establish interests sections in friendly embassies in each other's capitals by the end of 1998 and to relax their visa policies.
Marker announced the final text of the agreement to establish interests sections had been completed this week.
Indonesia will establish its section in the Thai embassy in Lisbon and Portugal's section in Jakarta will be in the Netherlands embassy. It will be headed by Ana Martins Gomes, currently a senior diplomat in Portugal's UN mission.
This round of talks, conducted by Nugroho Wisnumurti of Indonesia and Fernando Nevis of Portugal, was halted on Nov. 20 at Lisbon's request following reports of a fresh wave of killings in the East Timor village of Alas, east of Dili, the capital.
Indonesia has denied the reports and officials of the International Committee for the Red Cross have also said they had not received any reports of massacres.
"At the round of talks just concluded, the various areas of autonomy were extensively discussed and the two sides not have a better understanding of each other's positions on specific issues," Marker said.