Indonesia, East Timor to begin border talks on March 11
Indonesia, East Timor to begin border talks on March 11
I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar
Joint efforts between Indonesia and the United Nations
Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) to determine
mutually accepted border lines between the two countries are
expected to begin on March 11 and be completed by June, 2003,
says a senior UN military official.
Lt. Gen. Winai Phattayakul, chief commander of the UN Peace-
keeping Force in East Timor, made the statement after a meeting
to prepare the way for border talks with Maj. Gen. William T. da
Costa, chief of the Udayana Military Command overseeing Bali and
Nusa Tenggara here on Tuesday.
"I would like to say that, so far, we are very happy with the
cooperation and coordination with the Indonesian Military (TNI),
especially the official and personal ties between me and Gen. da
Costa, down to every level and down to every unit. I would like
to say that it has been very good cooperation and coordination,"
he said.
Asked to comment on da Costa's recent warning of the increase
in cross-border smuggling, Phattayakul said that the prices of
goods in East Timor were relatively higher than the prices in the
Indonesian territory of East Nusa Tenggara. Naturally, the
disparity in prices had tempted some people to smuggle goods to
East Timor.
"I understand that UNTAET is taking this problem seriously, as
well as the government of East Timor, because this means that
they are losing quite a lot of revenue that they should be
getting from taxing the goods that cross the border," he said.
Da Costa said previously that he had already ordered military
personnel in West Timor to closely patrol the border in an
attempt to curb the increase in smuggling of basic commodities
from the region to East Timor.
"It is not fair that certain people are smuggling fuel and
other basic commodities to East Timor, while local people in East
Nusa Tenggara are facing a fuel crisis," he said.
The agreement on border lines between the two countries will
be made in a pact that will be signed by each government after
gaining approval from their own legislature.