East Timorese vote in UN polls

DILI, East Timor (JP): East Timorese cast their votes on Monday in a historic, largely peaceful self-determination ballot to choose whether to remain part of Indonesia or form an independent state.

Over 80 percent of the 451,000 registered voters turned out at polling booths, with the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) calling the day "very successful".

Tension and isolated incidents marked some areas, including seven polling stations that had to suspend operations due to security concerns. A local staff member of UNAMET was stabbed to death outside a polling booth in Atsabe, Ermera, late Monday.

Joel Lopez Gomez was stabbed to death as he left the polling booth at 6 p.m.

"It was a very sad end to a very successful day," UNAMET spokesman David Wimhurst told The Jakarta Post by telephone. He did not divulge further details, saying only, "It was a crime we expect the police to investigate and to bring to justice."

The UN chief of the Electoral Assistance Division, Carina Perelli, said earlier that polling was temporarily suspended in an Ermera station following a militia attack that injured a local poll worker.

Perelli alleged some provocateurs at the scene were trying to intimidate the staff and voters. Police were quick to intervene. "Most of those incidents could be solved through intervention by senior staff like myself, our own security people and the Indonesian police," said Perelli, who visited a number of polling stations in Maliana, Ermera and Ainaro.

"I can say that for a consultation of this type, this has been a very calm operation with minor incidents," she added.

Some 4,000 local staff were hired for the UN-sponsored direct ballot.

Dili Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo voted here, as did pro- Jakarta group leader Eurico Gueterres, while resistance leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao voted at a polling station set up at the United Nations Information Center office in Jakarta.

There was obvious enthusiasm among voters as they started to gather at polling centers across the town early in the morning. Braving the hot sun, people stood in long lines for hours waiting for their turn to vote. Several pregnant women were seen in the queues.

"This is a historic day which determines our future. We have been waiting for it for years," Justino Montero, a part-time employee of a local land agency, said. He voted at a polling station in Baimori, where four people were killed in sporadic clashes on Thursday.

Justino, 23, said he did not exercise his right to vote in the June general election and the previous polls in 1997.

The town was silent with shops, markets and offices closed for the day. Streets were relatively deserted, with only a few public buses operating. The ballot day was a public holiday.

Many of the voters brought their children with them. Alfonso de Rosari and his wife from Audian Lecidere subdistrict had to feed their four children at the polling center in the Formosa state elementary school compound, where Belo and Gueterres voted.

Belo was greeted with applause. The Nobel laureate was waved past the queues.

Gueterres, who arrived an hour before Belo, said he was pleased with the peaceful balloting process.

"Everybody goes to the polls as an East Timorese who will vote for his or her future. There are no more proindependence or prointegration supporters today," he said.

He said he would accept whatever the result of the vote was, including rejection of the wide-ranging autonomy offered by the Indonesian government.

"I respect (independence fighter Jose Alexandre) Xanana Gusmao, because of his devotion to his struggle," Gueterres said.

Proindependence figure Leandro Isaac hailed the huge turnout of voters, saying it reflected "the East Timor people's guts to come over the wall of intimidation". There were reports of threats and terrorizing of East Timorese not to vote prior to Monday's ballot.

"This is the first step of the people's struggle to decide their future. The popular consultation is the fruit of our 23 years of struggle, so we believe we will win," said Leandro, who cast his ballot in the East Lehana subdistrict, in the northern part of town.

Indigenous East Timorese, descents of migrants born in East Timor and spouses of East Timorese were eligible to vote.

Tsi Su, a 39-year-old ethnic Chinese mother of two, told the Post she had only registered for the ballot because she was told to do so by her neighbors.

Su, who was overheard speaking fluently in the local Tetun dialect with other voters, said, "No matter what happens after the ballot, I will stay in Dili".

"I was born and raised here so why should I leave this place. I even feel like an East Timorese," Su said. Her parents migrated from Macau in the early 1950s.

Vong, 28, another East Timorese of Chinese descent among the thousands of voters in Formosa, shared Su's view, saying he would remain in his homeland.

"I was also born here and I have nowhere else to go," Vong, a mechanic, said.

Counting

The vote count will start after all ballot boxes arrive here in the capital on Tuesday afternoon. It will take UNAMET a week to finish the count.

UNAMET chief electoral officer Jeff Fischer said the ballot count would be a transparent affair and representatives of observers and both factions would be allowed to witness the process.

"As far as security is concerned, we would call upon all parties involved to exercise restraint and respect the process while it is being concluded during the week," he said.

Spokesman for the Government Task Force for the Popular Consultation, Dino Patti Djalal, warned in an interview with private television station RCTI that the period after the vote could be critical due to the uncertainty.

Xanana said he would issue a special order to proindependence supporters to remain calm and refrain themselves from "damaging the situation".

"There should be no more people falling victim or suffering from pain after today's ballot. East Timorese youths must bear the accountability to avoid more bloodshed in our beloved land," Xanana said.

Meanwhile, Gueterres renewed his pledge to support the disarmament process. He said weapons belonging to pro-Jakarta militias had been kept in cantonment sites.

But he said his camp would prevent political leaders from leaving East Timor before the popular consultation process was over.

"Operations to check the political elite people will be launched, because they have to take account of what they did in the past. They have brought East Timor people to this present situation," Gueterres, who leads the Aitarak militia group, said.

Head of the Commission on Peace and Stability Djoko Sugianto hinted that the security situation in the province would remain vulnerable if the losing faction failed to accept defeat. (33/byg/amd)