East Timorese dialog historic event: Lopez

East Timorese dialog historic event: Lopez

By Meidyatama Suryodiningrat

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's East Timorese leader Lopez da Cruz
was upbeat as he described the coming All Inclusive Intra-East
Timor dialog as a meeting of historic proportions.

The meeting is meant to reconcile adverse political factions
for the first time in 20 years.

According to Lopez, the meeting planned for June 2 through
June 6 in the quiet Austrian town of Burg Schlaining Schloss will
be the first of its kind since the civil war in East Timor ended
two decades ago.

Lopez said no specific agenda has been formulated for the
meeting. The agenda will have to be decided through consensus on
both sides.

"We could say that we want to explain about Pancasila or
development, but they might not be interested," he said, adding
that the Indonesian Timorese will be gathering Monday evening in
Dili to throw out initial ideas for discussion.

Lopez emphasized that the discussion in Austria would not
involve trying to find political solutions to the East Timor
question.

Indonesia's 1976 integration of East Timor is still
unrecognized by several countries which still consider Portugal
the administrative power.

Under the aegis of the UN secretary-general, Indonesian and
Portuguese foreign ministers have held periodic talks in a bid to
find a solution to the matter. In January the ministers agreed to
hold a reconciliatory dialog with UN facilitation between the
East Timorese who accept the integration and those who oppose it.

The UN, without consultation, then made a list of 12 names of
people from Indonesia and 14 from abroad to participate in the
dialog. This sparked the anger of East Timorese Indonesians and
prompted the postponement of an earlier date set for the meeting.

After intense discussions in New York last month, the UN
accepted three more names to be added to the 12 already selected
by the UN.

Those three are: Armindo Mariano Soares, the head of the
government's Golkar faction in East Timor; Jose Piedade, chairman
of the National Committee of Indonesian Youth in East Timor, and
Tarciso dos Reis Amaral, head of the bureau of for social and
cultural affairs.

When asked about Indonesia's insistence that they be included,
Lopez told The Jakarta Post that the policy was based on a matter
of principle."We do not want to be dictated to by the UN," he
said.

Lopez argued that it would be unfair if Indonesia, home to
most of the East Timorese people, was represented by only 12
people, while 14 represented the 15,000 East Timorese living in
Australia and Portugal.

Indonesia also approved former East Timor governor Guilherme
Maria Goncalves from an additional six names offered by the UN.

Other names included on the list of 16 from Indonesia are East
Timor Governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares, author Joao Saldhana,
the head of the provincial legislature Antonio Freitas Parada and
Dili regent Domingos Soares.

Although the list for Indonesia consists of several government
officials, also included are two outspoken human rights critics,
Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and Florentino Sarmento.

After speaking to Belo a day earlier, Lopez yesterday said the
Bishop was enthusiastic about the dialog. "When I asked the
Bishop yesterday, he told me that he would only be carrying the
doctrine of the church, peace and reconciliation."

On the other side, the 12 participants from abroad represent
the various anti-integration factions, such as Fretilin, Apodeti,
UDT and Kota, along with their splinter groups.

The names included are Joao Viegas Carrascalao, Ramos Horta,
Vincente da Silva Guterres, Jose Martins III, Manuel Tilman, A.
Araujo, Jaime Ximenes and Abilio Sereno.

When asked whether jailed Fretilin rebel Xanana Gusmao had
been invited, Lopez said that some considered this a possibility
during the meeting in January, but Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ali Alatas explained that Xanana's participation would be
impossible because he is still serving time.

Meanwhile in Dili, a group of university students has
petitioned UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to include
Xanana in the dialog.