EU renews demand on East Timor

EU renews demand on East Timor

DUBLIN (Agencies): The European Union repeated calls Saturday
for Indonesia to improve its human rights record in the former
Portuguese colony of East Timor, Reuters reported.

In a declaration issued at a summit in Dublin, the 15-member
bloc called "upon the Indonesian government to adopt early
measures to improve the human rights situation in East Timor
(and) hopes that talks under the auspices of the UN will lead to
substantial progress towards a resolution.

"The (European) Council welcomes initiatives to improve the
situation and living conditions of the East Timorese people, and
reaffirms its support for all efforts which can contribute to a
fair, comprehensive and internationally acceptable solution..,"
the EU declaration said.

The UN Secretary-General is scheduled to convene the next
round of talks between Indonesian and Portuguese foreign
ministers to discuss a settlement to the East Timor issue in New
York this coming weekend.

The EU declaration came just two weeks after leaders of the
Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), in an summit
hosted by President Soeharto, issued a statement warning the
European Union against pushing the East Timor issue into the
cooperative framework between the two regional groups.

ASEAN leaders meeting in Jakarta in November said that
continued scrutiny of "extraneous issues", such as East Timor,
could aggravate their relations with the EU.

Foreign and trade ministers of ASEAN -- grouping Indonesia,
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and
Vietnam -- hold meetings regularly with their EU counterparts to
promote economic cooperation between the two regions. The next
ASEAN-EU dialog is scheduled for February in Singapore.

Their relations have been strained in recent years with the
EU's repeated attempts to raise issues such as human rights and
East Timor into the overall cooperation framework. Indonesia
blames Portugal for pushing the East Timor into the EU agenda.

EU ministers last month reviewed a Portuguese proposal to send
aid directly to East Timor, bypassing the Indonesian government.

Meanwhile, DPA reported yesterday that Carlos Filipe Ximenes
Belo, the Roman Catholic Bishop of East Timor visited Germany
this weekend following his trip to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace
Prize.

Bishop Belo, who was in Aachen Saturday, thanked German
Catholics for their support of his efforts at home, the German
news agency reported.

Without the assistance of the German Catholic missions
Misereor and Missio, "... East Timor would have been forgotten,"
Belo said. He refused to answer political questions, including
some about German arms shipments to Indonesia.

Earlier, Belo was received by the premier of the German state
of North Rhine-Westphalia, Johannes Rau, at a reception at
Aachen's city hall attended by some 700 people.

"We look forward to your return with great concern and with
great hope," Rau said. "I hope you return with renewed vigor."

Belo was visiting the Catholic charities in Aachen before
meeting with German chancellor Helmut Kohl in Bonn out of
thankfulness, joy and "brotherly love", officials said.

The Bonn meeting with Kohl was scheduled because during Kohl's
visit to Indonesia in October, Belo was unable to accept an
invitation to meet with the German chancellor in Jakarta.

Members of the parish of St. Hubertus in Verlautenheide near
Aachen greeted Belo with warm applause. The small parish has
supported the East Timorese bishop for many years, sending him
letters, faxes and financial support.