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)