MPR commission agrees to revoke E. Timor decree

MPR commission agrees to revoke E. Timor decree

JAKARTA (JP): A commission from the People's Consultative
Assembly (MPR) agreed on Monday to allow East Timor to separate
from Indonesia without any conditions.

The Commission B for non-state policy guidelines accepted in a
plenary session the draft decree proposed by a task force that
acknowledges the Aug. 30 independence vote in East Timor.

The draft decree, along with another eight drafts, will be
presented to the plenary session of the Assembly scheduled for
Tuesday for final approval.

Some factions proposed to delay the revocation of MPR decree
No. 6/1978, but the task force rejected the proposal.

The revocation of the decree is in line with the agreement
between Indonesia and Portugal hammered out on May 5 this year in
New York on the popular consultation in East Timor.

Under the United Nations supervised agreement, East Timor
would only be separated from Indonesia if the majority of East
Timorese voted for independence in a ballot and the Assembly
accepted the result of the ballot, in which more than 78 percent
of voters rejected Indonesia's wide-ranging autonomy offer.

All factions at the Assembly earlier agreed to accept the
result of the ballot, but they were divided on several issues in
the drafting of the decree to revoke the 1978 MPR ruling.

The largest faction -- the Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) -- accepted the ballot's result, but
called on the government to delay the revocation of the MPR
decree.

The party urged the President to follow up reports of claims
of impartiality on the part of the UN Mission in East Timor
(UNAMET) in executing the popular consultation.

It also urged the government to conduct diplomatic action,
under the auspices of the United Nations, to jointly detach East
Timor from the Constitution and legislation of Portugal.

PDI Perjuangan maintained that Portugal had included East
Timor as part of its territory within its constitution.

The party urged the government to delay the transfer of
control over East Timor until all the issues were settled.

However, sources said PDI Perjuangan later agreed to withdraw
its demands during the task force's meeting after receiving
information that Portugal did not claim East Timor was included
in its territory.

Portugal's constitution only supports self-determination for
the East Timorese.

Under the draft decree agreed upon by the commission, the
government must provide protection to Indonesian citizens in East
Timor and East Timorese living in East Timor and elsewhere in the
country who wish to remain Indonesian.

The commission's vice chairwoman, Erna Witoelar, who is also a
member of the task force, said the task force also agreed to
delete the clause that urged the government to follow up the
suspicions of impartiality conducted by UNAMET during the popular
consultation.

"The suspicion of impartiality is a short-term issue, which
can be settled quickly. An MPR decree should only mention long-
term issues," Erna said.

Separately. the Commission C in charge of constitutional
amendments agreed on Monday to return the deliberation of three
issues related to the president to the Assembly Working
Committee, which will resume the talks after the General Session
ends on Thursday. The committee will be given until Aug. 17 next
year to finish the amendments.

The issues in question are a stipulation concerning the
citizenship of a presidential candidate, the president's
consultation with the House of Representative in appointing
Cabinet ministers and the timeframe needed by the president to
enact a bill into law. (jsk/rei)