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)