ETimor talks reconvene at UN
ETimor talks reconvene at UN
UNITED NATIONS (AFP): Portuguese and Indonesian diplomats meet here from tomorrow to discuss East Timor after President Nelson Mandela joined the search for a political settlement.
"When a statesman of President Mandela's international rank throws his weight into an issue, you expect there to be some impact, and of course we hope that it will be positive," UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said Friday.
The South African president's July 15 unexpected meeting with jailed East Timor resistance leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao is considered an important political development by officials here.
However it remains unclear how the UN-mediated talks might be affected, as a settlement is considered a far-off goal.
The former Portuguese colony became part of Indonesia in 1976.
Observers noted that Mandela's companion is Graca Machel, the Portuguese-speaking widow of Mozambican president Samora Machel who had contacts with Fretilin.
After briefing the Portuguese president, Jorge Sampaio, on Wednesday Mandela said he had recommended Gusmao's release in the letter to Indonesian President Soeharto in which he asked to meet the jailed Fretilin leader.
"We can never normalize the situation in East Timor unless all political leaders, including Mr. Gusmao, are free," Mandela said. "They are the ones who must bring about a solution."
Gusmao is currently serving a 20-year sentence in Jakarta for plotting against the state.
Mandela, who has briefed UN chief Kofi Annan on his initiative, insists that he is not seeking to undermine the UN role in finding a solution for East Timor.
Annan's representative for East Timor, Jamsheed Marker, will travel to Pretoria to be personally briefed after hosting next week's talks which run until Friday.
The negotiations here are the second to be convened by Annan since he took office in January.
Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama and his Indonesian counterpart Ali Alatas agreed on an agenda at the first round here on June 19 and 20.
"We expect something positive," from the talks, said Portuguese ambassador to the United Nations Antonio Monteiro. Portugal's delegation is to be led by Foreign Ministry expert Fernando Neves, while Indonesia is sending former UN ambassador Nugroho Wisnumurti.
Monteiro told AFP it was hoped that Marker would make some concrete proposals, saying that "it would be good to start with immediate measures where common ground exists, to improve the situation for the East Timorese."
The new secretary-general hopes that intensive talks at expert level will be more productive than the ministerial tripartite talks under his predecessor Boutros Boutros-Ghali between 1992 and June 1996 which led nowhere.
Eckhard said Friday that he did not want to predict what would happen at the ambassador-level negotiations. "We have our fingers crossed," he said.