Marker says East Timor visit a political mission
Marker says East Timor visit a political mission
JAKARTA (JP): United Nations special envoy Jamsheed Marker
said his fact-finding visit to East Timor was a political mission
toward a solution to the longstanding dispute.
Marker, Pakistan's former ambassador to the UN, said Thursday
he planned to present his report to UN Secretary-General Kofi
Annan upon his return to New York.
"The human rights situation is a very important part of my
work, but my mission is a political one," he said.
Marker spent three days in East Timor after arriving on March
20. He had earlier visited Portugal which the UN recognizes as
the administering power in East Timor despite Indonesia's
integration of East Timor in 1976.
Marker said steps would be taken to reactivate the UN-brokered
negotiations between Portugal and Indonesia which had achieved
little in 15 years.
He hailed Indonesia's cooperation in pursuing his fact-finding
mission and willingness to seek a solution to the longstanding
problem.
But Marker called for greater leniency during the
investigation into East Timorese youths involved in a riot in
Dili on Sunday.
He said he believed there were no deaths during the riot,
based on reports from government and independent sources.
About 200 youths demonstrated at the Hotel Mahkota Timor,
where Marker was staying, and were forcibly dispersed by riot
police and security personnel.
Church sources said two people died in the melee. One was
reportedly of shot and the other stabbed. Another 21 were
reportedly injured, seven of whom were shot and the others
beaten.
During his two-week visit Marker also met with several
prominent people. Marker said his discussions with Abdurrahman
Wahid, the chairman of the 30 million-strong Moslem organization
Nahdlatul Ulama, were informative but he did not give details.
With strongest base in rural areas, Nahdlatul Ulama is
Indonesia's largest religious, educational organization.
He did not say what he discussed with jailed anti-integration
leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao, who was arrested in 1992
and serving a 20-year prison term. He said he was in good health.
Marker also said the actions of 33 anti-integration East
Timorese demonstrators who broke into the Austrian embassy in
Jakarta earlier this week to meet him were unnecessary.
Marker said "there is not going to be any question of pressure
by the UN about dealing with East Timor, but we will use
persuasion, discussion, meetings." (01)