Hostile groups in East Timor to sign code of conduct

DILI, East Timor (JP): Proindependence and prointegration groups here are set to sign a campaign code of conduct for the Aug. 30 popular consultation.

No date for the signing has been set, but United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) spokesman David Wimhurst said on Tuesday the groups would sign the code of conduct later this week.

Wimhurst said UNAMET hoped the two camps would endorse the code of conduct as soon as possible, so it could be distributed among the public before campaigning begins on Aug. 11.

He said UNAMET delivered a draft of the campaign rules to proindependence and prointegration groups and was now awaiting their approval.

The campaign rules will allow both camps to campaign on the platform of bringing the troubled territory a better future, Wimhurst said.

Wimhurst would not elaborate on the contents of the code, except to state that it contained a stipulation that leaders of each faction would conduct the campaign.

He also reiterated the United Nations' request that proindependence leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao, who is serving his jail sentence in a special detention house in Jakarta, be released.

"But the decision whether to let him campaign and cast his vote in East Timor is up to the Indonesian government," Wimhurst said.

Indonesia has dismissed the possibility of Xanana's immediate release, saying he will be discharged only after the popular consultation.

Wimhurst also said UNAMET acknowledged the presence of foreign and domestic poll observers, as well as official observers dispatched by both the Indonesian and Portuguese governments.

International observers in the former Portuguese colony are represented by the United States-based Carter Center, which also monitored the country's June 7 general election.

More than 393,000 East Timorese inside and outside the province had registered for the direct ballot as of Tuesday. Voter registration will last for two more days.

Voter registration centers in foreign countries, including Australia, Portugal and Macau, have registered some 10,000 East Timorese who fled the province after it was integrated into Indonesia in 1975.

Antara reported that a registration center on Jl. Kebon Sirih in Central Jakarta had seen a rush of eligible voters coming to register over the past three days. A UNAMET staff member, Jorge Soares, said most of the people came from outside Jakarta.

Some 170 East Timorese residing in East Kalimantan could lose their voting rights because no registration centers are located in the province. UNAMET opened registration centers in Jakarta, Surabaya, Denpasar, Yogyakarta and Ujungpandang in South Sulawesi.

The registration center in Ujungpandang has so far registered 117 voters from Sulawesi, Kalimantan and Irian Jaya. An official observer, Dharmaginta Thanos, said he was pessimistic this figure would substantially increase due to the distance between the registration center and prospective voters.

Antara also reported some 600 members of the armed proindependence group Falintil had turned up to register in the East Timor village of Odomao in Bobonaro regency.

The guerrillas registered with poll officials in two batches on Sunday and Monday.

Julio Ferdial, alias Lian Atuiba Oin Najain, commander of the Zegre Dometing group, a faction of Falintil, told the news agency only Falintil's reserve members registered for the popular consultation. Most of the guerrillas are still hiding in the forests, he said.

Ferdial said his troops agreed to register after UNAMET provided them security guarantees. (27/33/amd)