President Mandela met jailed Xanana last week

JAKARTA (JP): South African President Nelson Mandela met jailed East Timorese separatist leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao at Merdeka Palace during his visit here last week, a senior pro-integration East Timor politician said yesterday.

Fransisco Xavier Lopez da Cruz, Indonesia's ambassador-at- large on East Timor affairs, said he attended the meeting held at the State Guest House on July 15.

"Mandela expressed his wish to meet with Xanana, and President Soeharto had no objection," Lopez told The Jakarta Post.

The meeting was held over a dinner, he said.

Xanana, 50, is currently serving time at the Cipinang penitentiary in East Jakarta.

Mandela was here for three days last week for an official visit. This was his first visit as South African president and his third since 1990 when he was still leader of the African National Congress.

Xanana was arrested in Dili, capital of East Timor, in 1992, after heading the Fretilin separatist movement in its armed campaign for a separate state. In May 1994, he was convicted by the Dili District Court for plotting against the state and the illegal possession of firearms.

He was sentenced to life imprisonment, but President Soeharto later commuted the sentence to a 20-year jail term.

News of last week's meeting only surfaced after a report from Gatra magazine in its latest edition published yesterday.

No other officials were available to comment on the report yesterday.

Lopez said the meeting discussed the East Timor situation from two perspectives: his own and Xanana's.

"Mandela was neutral, he tried to advise us based on his experiences," Lopez said of the man who spent more than 20 years in detention during his struggle against apartheid's white rule in South Africa.

"Mandela specifically requested that we not disclose the substance of the meeting to the media," he said. (09)