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.