Indonesia won't issue visa for Horta: Alatas

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia will not issue a visa for self-exiled East Timor independence leader Jose Ramos-Horta, who planned to visit and campaign in the troubled territory ahead of the direct ballot on Aug. 8, Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas said on Wednesday.

Speaking before a Cabinet meeting at the Bina Graha presidential office, Alatas warned the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize co- laureate that he would face consequences if he went ahead with his plan to enter Indonesia without a visa.

Ramos-Horta, who shared the Nobel prize with Dili Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, said last week that regardless of Jakarta's opposition to his visit, he would return to his homeland next month.

He vowed to use his right to campaign for independence before the UN-sponsored direct vote to determine the future of the territory.

In what could prove a challenge to Alatas' consistency, former president of the proindependence Fretilin organization Abilio Araujo, who now favors autonomy, said on Tuesday that he would also visit Indonesia.

"My visit to Indonesia is in the interest of a popular consultation in accordance with the procedure already agreed upon in the latest tripartite meeting," Antara quoted Araujo as saying in Lisbon. Araujo, who now chairs the Timorese Third Way Movement (TTWM), said the autonomy package would give "independence plus" to the East Timorese.

"The East Timorese people must be aware of the adverse consequences that their option to be independent and secede themselves from the Republic of Indonesia will entail," he said.

Also on Wednesday, jailed East Timor resistance leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao attended a meeting to formulate a code of conduct ahead of the August ballot.

"The Commission for Peace and Stability (KPS) and the United Nations are under the obligation to formulate a code of conduct which will apply in the run-up to the balloting and the period following it," Djoko Soegianto, one of the participants, said after the meeting at the Ministry of Justice.

Djoko, who is also a member of the National Commission on Human Rights, was referring to the commission set up following a military-brokered peace deal in the East Timor capital of Dili on April 21. He said that Xanana, who is serving a 20-year jail term in a special detention house in Central Jakarta, attended the meeting as a KPS member.

The KPS reserves two seats for each of the two rival camps in East Timor -- the pro and anti-Indonesia groups -- as well as for the Church, the local administration, the security forces, students and several leading NGOs.

Xanana is president of the Resistance Council of East Timor (CNRT), an umbrella organization for East Timorese proindependence groups.

Djoko said the meeting, the first in a series to be held in the coming days, did not discuss disarmament for the two camps ahead of the poll.

"Basically, there is no problem and both sides are ready (for disarmament)," he said.

Also present were a representative of the pro-Indonesia Forum for Peace, Democracy and Justice, Domingus Soares, another CNRT member Leandro Isaac, the special envoy of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, Tamrat Samuel, and rights organization member Koesparmono Irsan.

Djoko said the meeting will reconvene on Thursday.

Violence between the two warring factions in East Timor has been on the rise since Jakarta in January said it would let go of the territory if its people rejected an autonomy offer.

Meanwhile Falintil, CNRT's armed wing, has released the policeman it abducted last Friday to the United Nations Assessment Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).

"Falintil has turned over Haraka Carlos Pereira Fernandes to the UNAMET and the ICRC after negotiations," provincial police Capt. Widodo said on Wednesday.

Reuters reported that the first contingent of a force of about 280 unarmed United Nations police will leave Australia on Saturday for East Timor. The first force of 39 police, including 15 members of the Australian Federal Police, would fly from the northern Australian city of Darwin on Saturday morning.

UNAMET, which will cost more than US$50 million, will hire more than 600 international staff, including 100 UN professional officers, 141 field officers and 400 regular UN volunteers, as well as the 272 police and about 50 military liaison officers.

Another 4,000 East Timorese will be hired to assist the UN's operations.(prb/byg)