Indonesia considers Portuguese FM's visit

GENEVA (Agencies): Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas said yesterday that Indonesia is ready to consider a visit by his Portuguese counterpart, Jaime Gama, to discuss East Timor.

Speaking before the latest round of talks with Gama over the future of East Timor, Alatas told Antara yesterday that Indonesia would reject Gama's visit if it was solely for the purpose of meeting with jailed East Timor separatist rebel leader, Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao, as the Portuguese minister had proposed.

"Is it proper for a foreign minister to visit a country solely for the purpose of meeting a prisoner?" he asked.

The case would be different if Gama had stated that he wished to visit Jakarta to discuss something with the Indonesian government, and that during the visit he intended to meet with Xanana.

"If that was the case, then we will obviously consider it. But if he wants to go to Indonesia only to meet Xanana, that is something that I can't accept it," he said.

Alatas and Gama were scheduled to meet under the auspices of UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali in the eighth round of talks to discuss the future of East Timor.

Both countries appeared to be anxious to make progress in the face of criticism at home that the first seven rounds of meetings have produced little in the way of a settlement.

The United Nations continues to regard Lisbon as the administering power of East Timor. Indonesia insists the issue of sovereignty was decided in 1976 when the majority of East Timorese voted to join with the republic.

Alatas said before the meeting yesterday that Portugal had not shown any serious intention of resolving the East Timor problem, but had instead been trying to impose its will.

"I hope that in this tripartite meeting, Portugal will show that it is serious in finding a comprehensive solution acceptable to everyone," he was quoted by Antara as saying.

"After so many meetings, we are still going around the circle looking for words about the framework of settlement, without making any progress in solving the East Timor question," he said.

Alatas, however, praised Gama for being more open and serious than previous Portuguese foreign ministers.

The previous meeting in London last January, attended by Alatas and Gama, agreed that the two countries should begin discussing the issue after the previous meetings had only served to build the parties' confidence. (emb)

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