Portuguese visit expected

Portuguese visit expected
to help RI-Portugal ties

DILI, East Timor (JP): Chief of the East Timor Military
Command, Col. Johny J. Lumintang, hopes that the visit to
Indonesia by 24 Portuguese citizens of East Timorese origin could
help settle the East Timor issue.

"I hope that upon their return to Portugal, the exiled East
Timorese, now here for family reunions, will provide their fellow
Portuguese with accurate information that conditions are good in
East Timor and that it has developed by leaps and bounds under
the Indonesian government," he told The Jakarta Post here
yesterday.

Lumintang wondered if the Portuguese government would still
make a big fuss over East Timor at the United Nations after it
hears the first-hand reports from the visitors.

The 24 Portuguese citizens who arrived in Jakarta on March 17
traveled to Yogyakarta and Denpasar before their current two-week
stay in East Timor.

The visit was made possible through the courtesy of Siti
Hardiyanti Rukmana, the chairwoman of the Indonesia-Portugal
Friendship Association and eldest daughter of President Soeharto.

Lumintang said that the Armed Forces (ABRI) would help speed
up development in the youngest province to allow it to catch up
with other provinces.

"The real problem facing the East Timorese people is not
politics, but job opportunities," he said, citing unemployment as
a major obstacle that needs to be overcome.

He said ABRI would continue to carry out its rural development
program throughout the province to help improve the local
people's livelihood and knowledge.

A number of public facilities such as road and irrigation
networks, schools and church buildings, clean water sources and
health centers have been built in rural areas under the program
over the last 10 years, he noted.

He said ABRI has not confronted any cultural hitches in
carrying out its mission in the predominantly-Roman Catholic
province. (yac/rms)