Horta wants better U.S.-RI military ties

JAKARTA (JP): A senior East Timor official called on Washington on Wednesday to resume military ties with Jakarta, saying this would significantly improve security along the border of East Timor.

"I will be talking with our friends in the U.S. Congress, saying it is time for the administration ... to resume some level of military assistance and cooperation with Indonesia," said Jose Ramos-Horta, the foreign minister of the East Timor Transitional Administration.

Horta maintained that the Indonesian government was having great difficulty dealing with security problems in West Timor because of Washington's suspension of military ties.

"We have to make a gesture to the (Indonesian) government, which we know is making a genuine effort to improve the security situation," he said during a media conference at the end of his two-day visit to Indonesia.

Horta also urged the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to resume relief efforts in Indonesian-held West Timor, saying security in the area had improved.

"Maybe with the presence of the UNHCR, the situation will improve further," he said.

Washington suspended military ties with Jakarta following the violence in East Timor in September 1999. However, early last year the U.S. agreed to restore the ties gradually and to provide assistance to the Indonesian Navy and Air Force.

Separately, the government of Indonesia expects a team of United Nations security experts to visit West Timor early next month at the latest to reassess the security situation in the area, a senior official said.

The director general for political affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hassan Wirayuda, said on Wednesday the government has been asking the team to visit since last November, part of its effort to ensure the return of UN relief workers to West Timor.

"The UN security team will reassess security in West Timor, because many people have said the situation is improving and there should be no more reason for (UN relief workers) to remain out of the country," Hassan told The Jakarta Post.

He underlined that the Indonesian government requested the visit because the international community continues to assume that security in West Timor is poor, despite the government's efforts to improve the situation.

"Even Horta admitted that the situation is improving there, so we urge the UN to take a look at the improvements," Hassan remarked.(dja)