Lopez to meet anti-integration East Timorese in Australia

JAKARTA (JP): An East Timorese delegation will fly to Australia in the near future for reconciliatory talks with their exiled countrymen who oppose the territory's integration with Indonesia.

Ambassador at large in charge of East Timor affairs F.X. Lopez da Cruz told journalists yesterday that the meeting was expected to pave the way for reconciliation between the pro- and anti- integration camps.

The planned meeting will be the third of its kind. Last December and October, Lopez led a delegation in London with East Timorese dissidents living in Portugal, East Timor's former colonial master.

Lopez said yesterday that the reconciliatory talks would not focus on East Timor's political status but on how the exiled East Timorese could contribute to development of the youngest province.

"We will meet as fellow countrymen to reconcile our differences because we all believe confrontation will not solve anything," he said after reporting to Soeharto on his recent talks in London with anti-integration East Timorese living in Portugal and Portuguese Foreign Minister Durao Barosso.

The diplomatic gathering in Australia is important as an estimated 15,000 East Timorese are living in Australia, compared to the 2,000 - 3,000 in Portugal, he said.

The London talks, held under the auspices of the UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros- Ghali, were considered a breakthrough in the efforts to seek a solution to the East Timor question.

East Timor integrated into Indonesia in 1976 but the United Nations has not recognized it.

Lopez said the London meeting had special significance because it was attended by the UN secretary general's special envoy, endorsed by Pope John Paul II and approved by both the Indonesian and Portuguese governments.

According to Lopez, at the end of the talks the anti- integration delegates acknowledged Indonesia's efforts to develop East Timor and promised to contribute.

The exiled leaders also proposed better respect for human rights in East Timor, greater autonomy and withdrawal of troops from the territory, Lopez said.

"The President assured us that he would be pleased to meet in Indonesia with the anti-integration East Timorese to reach a better mutual understanding," he said.

The president rejects the proposal that East Timor be given a "special status" like Yogyakarta and Aceh because, in practice, the two provinces are treated exactly like any others, Lopez said.

But the President did agree that East Timor should be given greater autonomy to manage its internal affairs as stipulated in Indonesian law. (pan)