Progress, but no deal on East Timor talks

NEW YORK (JP): Both the Portuguese and Indonesian foreign ministers reported progress on Thursday in negotiations on the future of violence-plagued East Timor, but said an agreement would not be ready for signing when their latest round of talks ends on Friday.

The heads of the two delegations separately told journalists at the end of the first day of the two-day United Nations- sponsored ministerial meeting that an agreement will probably be reached in a future round of discussions.

"I don't think that it will be possible for us to sign any agreement at the end of our meeting tomorrow (Friday). Probably in our next round of meetings," Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas said.

Alatas' counterpart, Jamie Gama, agreed the ongoing round of discussions will not come to such an agreement.

"We worked very hard today. But, I suspect we are not going to sign any letter of agreement tomorrow," he said.

Gama, however, said the meeting had made progress toward settlement of the decades-long dispute.

"The meeting was positive. We try to overcome all the difficulties and work towards a consolidation," he said.

Gama said the decision on the date for the signing of the agreement would likely be decided at the end of their negotiations.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan declined to comment on the results of Thursday's meeting.

Alatas reiterated Indonesia's opposition to the presence of a UN peacekeeping force during the direct ballot in East Timor. The ballot, planned for July is to decide on Jakarta's offer of either wide-ranging autonomy or separation from Indonesia.

"One thing for sure is the UN's presence will not be in the form of a peacekeeping force. Because the UN has never proposed the presence of such a peacekeeping force until now," he said.

On the same issue, Gama suggested that Indonesia prioritize efforts to control violence in the territory.

"The most important thing is that Indonesia does not support the paramilitary group, which is clashing with the pro- independence group," he said separately.

Mass killing

Meanwhile, in Dili, the capital of East Timor, military chief Col. Tono Suratman denied on Friday foreign reports of a mass killing of up to 100 people in Covalima, Suai, some 200 kilometers southwest of Dili.

"Those reports are a pack of lies intended to create chaos in East Timor," he told journalists. "They should be checked further."

"We, who live in Dili, never heard of such a thing occurring in Suai, so how can people who live in Jakarta know exactly what happened there? It's impossible," he said.

Reuters quoted a local priest, Father Hilario, as saying that pro-Jakarta militias have killed at least eight people and maybe dozens more in East Timor this week despite a peace pact signed just two days ago with independence supporters.

"From Monday until tonight, eight people have died," Father Hilario said by telephone from Suai. "We don't know exactly what happened. It may be more than 100 (dead)," he said, adding the known victims were shot or stabbed.

Hilario said the Jakarta-loyalists captured and killed independence activists. "It was not fighting," he said.

Further details were not immediately available because of poor communications with the remote area, the news agency said.

East Timor's former Jakarta-appointed governor, Mario Viegas Carrascalao, told Reuters his sources in Suai told him several people died in fighting there on Thursday and Friday, and the death toll could be more than 100.

The peace pact signed Wednesday has had limited success. Although there were no confirmed reports of casualties, residents remained wary because of rumors of coming violence and continuing street checks.

On Friday, police said they had released 20 proindependence youths detained since Thursday following a brawl with members of a prointegration militia group.

The cause of the brawl was unclear, but it was believed to be related to assaults on Sunday and Monday in Becora, East Dili, where two or three houses were destroyed Monday by unidentified people.

Prointegration spokesman Basilio Araujo told reporters on Thursday night that five of their members had just been abducted by proindependence groups in Ambenu, Covalima regency. However, local authorities could not confirm the report.

Unrest in other areas such as Hera district near Dili could not be confirmed either. Residents relied mainly on word of mouth, as the only local paper, Suara Timor Timur, was temporarily closed after prointegration groups destroyed the office on Saturday, accusing it of running misleading reports on them.

As of Friday, bus passengers still reported identity and baggage checks by the Red-and-White Iron prointegration group in the districts of Maubara and Loes in Liquica regency; and by the Thunder (Halilintar) group in Atabae, Bobonaro regency.

The groups are headed respectively by Manuel Sousa and Joao das Silva Tavares. Joao is also commander of all prointegration groups and a signatory to the Wednesday pledge. Manuel led some of his men on Wednesday to hand in their homemade weapons to the Dili Police Headquarters.

A passenger requesting anonymity said he and fellow passengers experienced such checks in Batugade in Balibo district, and Tunubibi district heading to Maliana town in Bobonaro regency.

"All contents of our bags were taken out one by one," the passenger from Kupang heading for Dili said. (imn/33/anr)