Indonesia won't issue visa for Horta: Alatas

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)