Habibie has no regrets in E. Timor

JAKARTA: Former president B.J. Habibie has no regrets in holding a referendum that resulted in the people of East Timor overwhelmingly voting for independence from Indonesia in 1999.

"I did it because I wanted to show the world that there was freedom in Indonesia," Habibie told Indonesian journalists in Hamburg, where he now lives, on Tuesday.

In the referendum, monitored by the United Nations (UN), East Timorese voted for independence more than 20 years after Indonesia invaded East Timor in 1976.

Habibie said that the 1945 Constitution stated that Indonesia's territory covered the area previously known as the Dutch East Indies, which did not include East Timor. "Therefore there is no part of Indonesia called East Timor," he said.

His critics call the referendum a blunder, with some going as far as demanding that Habibie be held responsible for the breakaway.

Another consideration for the referendum, he said, was that the UN had never recognized East Timor as a part of Indonesia.

"Because I respect human rights, I gave them (East Timorese) the option if they wanted to become part of Indonesia or wanted independence," he said. --Antara