EU offers help on E. Timor issues
EU offers help on E. Timor issues
JAKARTA (JP): A visiting delegation of the European Parliament
is offering its good offices to help resolve differences between
Indonesia and Portugal over the problem of East Timor.
The delegation of the European Parliament-Indonesia Friendship
Association (EPIFA) met with Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali
Alatas on Wednesday to discuss the prospect of solving the East
Timor issue.
"This issue should be solved. It's only the people that are
suffering and we as parliamentarians have the responsibility to
do something in order not to continue this struggle which is
leading to nothing," EPIFA's vice-president Leonie Van Bladel
said after the meeting with Ali in his office.
The 14-member delegation arrived in Indonesia on Aug. 10 and
has taken an extensive tour that included East Kalimantan,
Maluku, East Nusa Tenggara, East Timor and Bali.
The group is comprised of several European nationalities such
as Dutch, German, British and Belgian.
"We have spoken with Alatas about East Timor -- about the past
and about the present situation," Bladel said.
Lisbon broke off diplomatic relations to protest Indonesia's
1976 integration of East Timor, which had been a Portuguese
colony until 1975.
"We as European Parliamentarians have the intention, with the
knowledge we have of all the different parties of the parliament,
to bring up the dialog with all Portuguese representatives in
those different parties," Bladel said.
The EPIFA delegation met with several cabinet ministers,
besides Alatas, such as Minister of Defense and Security Edi
Sudradjat and Minister of Forestry Djamaloedin Soeryohadikoesomo.
During their trip to Dili, the delegation met with East Timor
governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares.
Bladel said the delegation sought to inform themselves about
the recent developments in order to be more prepared should an
issue on Indonesia come up in the European Parliament.
Alatas said on Thursday that he welcomed EPIFA's fact finding
visit.
"Hopefully they will get a clear and accurate picture of the
development in Indonesia, so they can compare for themselves the
conditions in East Timor and the other areas," he said.
On a separate occasion at the foreign ministry building on
Thursday, three Dutch citizens, claiming to represent the young
Dutch generation, issued a apology for the Netherlands'
colonization of Indonesia.
"We apologize for the many missteps of our nation against the
Indonesians during the colonization and the colonial war," the
statement read. The statement was signed by a pilot called
Coenraad Strumphler, an engineer called Ronald Clignet and a
physiotherapist named Franny Dethmers. (mds)