NZ legislators to be welcomed as guests in Timor
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia will welcome New Zealand members of parliament who intend to visit East Timor, but asked them to be good guests and avoid acting as investigators.
"If they should come here, they will be our guests and they should therefore act as such. They will not be here to investigate," Ministry of Foreign Affairs chief spokesman Irawan Abidin told The Jakarta Post yesterday.
Their visit should focus on viewing the achievements in development made by the province so far and "compare the results of the 18 years of integration with Indonesia and the 450 years of Portuguese colonization," he said.
Press reports of a parliamentary hearing in Wellington suggest that New Zealand Prime Minister Jim Bolger indicated that New Zealand could not guarantee the safety of East Timorese who spoke to MPs during the upcoming visit.
Bolger made the statement in reply to MP Phil Goff who questioned whether the East Timorese would be able to speak with whomever they pleased during the visit of the MPs, AFP reported.
"Will it be a condition of that visit that the delegation be free to speak with whomever they wish,... and will it be a condition that those spoken to will not be subject to subsequent forms of reprisal?" Goff asked.
Irawan, who said he had not received any information concerning the visit, which, according to AFP is scheduled for Aug. 18 to Sep. 13, said the safety of East Timorese was not the central issue.
"It is not a matter of guaranteeing safety, but more a matter of the intention of the MPs," he said, pointing out that the program for the guests will be made after consultations with various government agencies.
"I personally cannot accept the idea that they will roam around East Timor to look for things that are irrelevant to the nature of their visit," Irawan said.
Judgment
He underlined that the MPs should not bring a biased judgment to East Timor.
Irawan added that Indonesia is not worried if the MPs determine the East Timorese they will meet.
"We know that some will have negative things to say and some otherwise. But it is general knowledge that the majority of East Timorese accept the integration, and the MPs may find that out as well during their visit," he said.
PM Bolger brought up the question of alleged human rights violations in East Timor during his recent visit to Indonesia. President Soeharto responded by inviting New Zealand MPs to visit the province.
Bolger had also suggested that the MPs visit other parts of Indonesia as well, for the sake of comparison.
"I think it is a good idea if they visit other parts of Indonesia, such as neighboring West Timor, for instance, so the MPs can get an idea of the developments achieved by East Timor," Irawan said. (pwn)