Foreign promises disrupting E. Timor stability

Foreign promises disrupting E. Timor stability

JAKARTA (JP): Foreign campaigns and idle promises from abroad
are disrupting stability in East Timor and its integration with
Indonesia, international relations expert Jusuf Wanandi said.

Relentless human rights campaigns abroad are not helping the
situation in East Timor. In fact, they are hindering the peaceful
development of the province, Jusuf said.

"The foreign campaigns are impeding the integration process
into Indonesia," Jusuf told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

He explained that many irresponsible human rights campaigners
are sowing discontent among East Timorese by promising something
they cannot deliver.

Their behavior are stirring unrest and creating a highly
explosive political climate in the territory.

Despite two decades of integration with Indonesia, the
situation in East Timor remains volatile. The foreign campaigns
have intensified in recent years, and the East Timor separatist
cause is gaining more publicity in the international media.

Jusuf, the chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Centre for
Strategic and International Studies, said East Timorese youths
are being enticed with promises of independence which will never
be fulfilled.

"This is ridiculous. They are being promised things which
cannot be given by the campaigners abroad," he said.

As a result, he said, Timorese youths are growing impatient.

Even the complete integration of the Indonesian state as a
whole took several decades, remarked Jusuf.

Separately, Indonesia's permanent representative to the United
Nations, Nugroho Wisnumurti, said yesterday that a solution to
the East Timor problem is contingent upon both domestic and
foreign factors.

"A solution abroad is influenced by the efforts in East Timor.
And progress in Timor itself will be achieved if there is
movement in negotiations abroad," he told journalists yesterday
after meeting with President Soeharto at Merdeka Palace.

"This is quite a dilemma," he added.

While several countries have recognized East Timor's
integration with Indonesia, the United Nations still recognizes
Lisbon as the administrative authority in East Timor. Under the
aegis of the UN Secretary-General, the Indonesian and Portuguese
foreign ministers have held talks to find an internationally
acceptable solution to the situation in East Timor.

Nugroho stressed the need for more dialog between the
government and the East Timorese people to counter the negative
campaigns being waged from abroad. Realities in the territory, he
said, need to be dealt with using a political and cultural
approach.

Nugroho said the East Timorese should "know exactly the
benefits of integration", and be allowed to express their
grievances.

"If one of them has a critique or a complaint, don't
immediately stamp them as an enemy," he said.

Disgruntled East Timorese youths have captured international
headlines in the past six months by forcing their way into
foreign embassies in Jakarta to demand political asylum.

Nugroho expressed his belief that talks will help the restless
East Timorese understand. "Being idealistic, they are easy to
influence by ideas and dreams which are often unrealistic," he
said.

Apart from dialog, Nugroho emphasized the need to hear the
grievances of the East Timorese.

"We have to really listen to them...This is part of our
sensitivity towards the East Timorese people," he said, adding
that stability will never be achieved otherwise.

"And without stability, an international solution to the
problem will never be found," said Nugroho. (mds)