No special autonomy for East Timor: Alatas

JAKARTA (JP): Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas rejected yesterday South African President Nelson Mandela's call to award special autonomy to East Timor to end prolonged conflict over the territory.

"The idea of granting special autonomy regional status for East Timor is one that can neither be implemented nor accepted by Indonesia for various reasons," Alatas said after meeting with President Soeharto at Soeharto's residence on Jl. Cendana in Central Jakarta.

After meeting with Nobel Prize laureate Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo of East Timor in Johannesburg on Tuesday, Mandela urged Indonesia to give more opportunity for East Timorese to govern themselves.

Mandela said that during his visit to Indonesia in July, he had conveyed to President Soeharto that "autonomy should be given to the people of East Timor".

During his visit, Mandela met with jailed East Timorese rebel leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao. Xanana is currently serving a reduced 20-year jail sentence in Jakarta.

Soeharto agreed to Mandela's offer to assist Indonesia in finding an international solution to the province. However, Indonesian officials insisted that the initiative would be strictly based on "quiet diplomacy".

Jakarta was upset when Mandela's letter to Soeharto was "leaked" to the Portuguese Embassy in Pretoria. In the letter Mandela urged Soeharto to release Xanana, a request refused by Jakarta because it regarded Xanana as a criminal.

Alatas remarked that East Timor already enjoyed autonomy along with other regions, and that the government was willing to look at what it could do to give greater autonomy to the province.

"The concept of autonomy must be based on prevailing laws," he said.

East Timor integrated into Indonesia in 1976, after Portugal abandoned it in 1974. But the United Nations still regards Lisbon as East Timor's administrative power.

"Indonesia has never and will never consider special autonomy for East Timor," Alatas added.

Alatas met with Soeharto yesterday to report about his planned trip to Venezuela and Cuba before attending the UN General Assembly meeting in New York.

"In Venezuela we will sign a special cooperation agreement between Antara news agency and the Venezuelan news agency, while in Cuba, a bilateral agreement on mutual consultations," said Alatas who will be leaving on Sept. 12.

While in New York, Alatas will meet with Ung Huot, who was recently elected as Cambodian first prime minister. (prb)