Lopes suspects foul play at Vienna meeting

JAKARTA (JP): A senior East Timorese politician suspects foul play in the wording of the final declaration for the All- Inclusive East Timor Dialog that took place earlier this month.

Lopes da Cruz told journalists that the text of the final declaration deviated from what was agreed upon during their meeting in Austria.

"The following day in Vienna, when we examined the text of the declaration in Portuguese, we found that a few things originally agreed upon in the forum were not contained in the document," Lopes said. Some points were added without the consent of the participants, he added.

The declaration issued at the end of the meeting in the Austrian town of Stadschlaining has become a contentious issue, with pro-Indonesia East Timorese claiming that points in the text deviate from the agreements reached at the meeting.

The event brought together for the first time leaders of various East Timorese factions who were fiercely locked into a bloody civil war in 1975-76. Taking part in the reconciliation meeting, which was sponsored by the United Nations, were 15 in support of East Timor's integration with Indonesia and 12 opposed, all of whom live overseas. Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo was present as a neutral delegate.

Because the meeting ended a day earlier than scheduled, Lopes explained, participants had to rush the typing of the final declaration, which was entirely entrusted to the representatives of the anti-integration faction led by Ramos Horta.

"Being pressed for time we left the text to them because they had the computer to type it. They could have been very deceitful," he said.

Because the dialog was held amongst "our own people", the pro- Indonesian delegation left Stadschlaining without examining the document after it was typed. "If we had had another day, maybe we could have been more careful," Lopes said.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas has admitted that the pro-Indonesia East Timorese were caught off-guard by the insertion of certain points in the declaration that they otherwise would have rejected.

The 15 pro-Indonesia representatives and seven other delegates to the Austrian talks have already written to UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali explaining their position.

Lopes said the declaration omits a whole paragraph which would have acknowledged previous efforts at reconciliation by East Timorese leaders.

Words were also added, without the full consent of representatives, that left the impression that East Timor was closed and forbid people from coming and going, Lopes said.

He said that a reference to an old UN resolution was also inserted by the typist without the knowledge, let alone consent, of all the participants.

Lopez declined to speculate, in view of the incident, whether or not there would be a second East Timor dialog as had been suggested by the participants in Austria.

The results of the meeting will be discussed on July 8 when Alatas meets for the sixth round of talks with his Portuguese counterpart in Geneva. There he will discuss the status of East Timor under the auspices of Boutros-Ghali. (mds)