Focus on East Timor still drags on

Focus on East Timor still drags on

By Meidyatama Suryodiningrat

JAKARTA (JP): The issue of East Timor's long-term future hung
heavy in everybody's mind this year as it attracted more
attention than at any time since the 1991 Dili shooting incident.

The events that transpired proved that while Indonesia may be
winning the political battle in forums like the United Nations,
it was being pounded in the public relations war as the number of
sympathizers and supporters of East Timorese autonomy seemed to
multiply overnight.

Continued reports of human rights violations and a series of
break-ins into foreign embassies in Jakarta by East Timorese
youths seeking asylum both helped to exacerbate the image of a
collapse of loyalty to Jakarta in East Timor.

The most painful slap in the face to Indonesia must have been
the presentation of the Nobel Peace Prize to separatist leader
Jose Ramos Horta.

Considered a political opportunist by Jakarta, Horta gained
worldwide recognition and credibility in 1996 as a Nobel
laureate.

Along with the Nobel prize came the international spotlight
and media exposure highlighting the plight of Timorese
separatism.

In the eyes of many here, the Indonesian foreign ministry bore
a large part of the blame. Analysts asked how could the
nomination of East Timor Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo and
Ramos Horta go undetected in the selection process which began
eight months before the announcement was made.

The tiny Portuguese colony of East Timor was integrated into
Indonesia in 1976. Twenty years on, the UN still regards Lisbon
as the administrative power there. Major European states also
refuse to recognize the integration.

Kusnanto Anggoro of the Centre for Strategic and International
Studies agreed that the foreign ministry's policy of trying to
contain the East Timor issue was in tatters.

"In the past, the pressure over East Timor has always been
there, only this year it's stronger and we've been dragging and
stumbling over ourselves trying to keep up," he said.

While the foreign ministry might need to sharpen its
diplomatic skills a bit, Kusnanto points out that the
increasingly negative international opinion of Indonesia's
presence in East Timor comes back to the performance of the
government itself in the territory.

"The foreign ministry has no authority to do things in East
Timor," he explains.

In April the United Nations Human Rights Commission again
censured developments in the province and expressed "deep
concern" over allegations of human rights violations.

There were several milestones too this year, such as an
impromptu meeting between Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio
Guterres and President Soeharto on the fringes of the Asia-Europe
summit meeting in Bangkok in March.

However, it did not amount to anything as Indonesia played
down the meeting as Guterres put impossible conditions to an old
proposal of establishing interest sections in each other's
capitals.

Two meetings between the Indonesian and Portuguese foreign
ministers under the aegis of the UN secretary-general achieved
little as the sides continued to grapple with little more than
confidence-building measures.

A third meeting scheduled for December was postponed due to a
change in holder of the UN's top post. But even if the meeting
had taken place, few people expected much success.

Strategy

As international criticism continued to be thrown in
Indonesia's face, Jakarta adopted a new strategy of using its
clout in several international organizations to garner support
for its stand on East Timor.

During the informal summit of ASEAN heads of government,
Indonesia successfully got the backing of the other six members
in warning the European Union that persistence on extraneous
issues like East Timor could jeopardize relations between the two
regional groupings.

Analysts like Dewi Fortuna Anwar of the Indonesian Institute
of Sciences hailed the unexpected move, saying it strengthens
ASEAN's position.

This tactic was taken a step further when Jakarta, as host of
the ministerial meeting of the Organization of Islamic Conference
(OIC), this month was able to get support for its stance on East
Timor included as part of the resolutions of the meeting.

While maintaining that the resolutions were a spontaneous
expression of support, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Director
General for Political Affairs, Izhar Ibrahim, defended this
strategy saying that it showed Indonesia could also get tough.

Describing Jakarta's move, he likened it to someone who would
retaliate if slapped on the face.

Despite Jakarta's apparent show of political prowess through
ASEAN and the OIC, the declarations proved to have little impact
as European heads of government at a meeting in Dublin two weeks
ago issued their own statement of concern on East Timor.

Kusnanto Anggoro argued that while consolidation through ASEAN
may have done some good, the use of organizations such as the OIC
to defend Indonesia's position was largely ineffective.

He maintained that, like it or not, the European Union's
criticism would continue given Portugal's central role in the
organization.

Furthermore the global trend is toward human rights and any
perceived infringement of them will provoke strong international
criticism regardless of the number of countries that may side
with Jakarta.