Proindependence activists meet Gusmao in Jakarta
JAKARTA (JP): Proindependence East Timorese activists met on Sunday at jailed resistance leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao's special detention house in Central Jakarta, ahead of talks on Monday aimed at ending bloodshed in the former Portuguese colony.
An aide to Xanana told The Jakarta Post that Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta, who is visiting Indonesia for the first time since he fled East Timor more than two decades ago, also attended the meeting.
"He arrived earlier in the morning, and the meeting is expected to continue until late in the evening," the aide told the Post by phone.
Neither Ramos nor Xanana would comment on their meeting, which was held behind closed doors. They said they would only talk to the media on Wednesday, the final day of the reconciliation talks.
Antara reported that several officials from the main proindependence body, the Resistance Council of East Timor, were seen arriving at the house on Sunday morning. Independence activists had also met there on Saturday evening.
Ramos and several other independence leaders spent the day celebrating the wedding of Xanana's nephew, held also at Xanana's detention house on Jl. Salemba.
The church-sponsored peace talks, which started on Friday, are aimed at persuading pro-Jakarta militias and proindependence guerrillas to lay down their arms ahead of an August ballot which will determine the future of the province.
Violence has been on the rise between pro and anti-integration supporters in East Timor since the government said in January that it would relinquish the province if the East Timorese rejected the government-sponsored autonomy proposal.
Dozens of people have been killed in the province since the start of the year.
Earlier this week, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan ordered a two-week delay in the scheduling of the ballot from the original Aug. 8 date, citing security and logistics concerns.
At the peace talks on Saturday, proindependence groups emphasized the importance of cease-fire arrangements.
"They expressed concern at the use of violence and coercion in the service of political ends," an official statement from the talks' organizers said.
The statement said pro-Jakarta groups were concerned about the neutrality of a U.N. team assigned to supervise East Timor ahead of the ballot.
Ramos's presence at the gathering marked his first meeting with many of East Timor's resistance leaders in more than two decades. He fled the impoverished territory three days before Indonesia deployed troops there in 1975 and has never been back.
He has said he hopes to visit East Timor in July or August, and that he is willing to guarantee the Indonesian authorities he would not campaign there for independence.
Meanwhile, some 200 people, including school teachers, from Baucau, Viqueque, Lotem and Liquica regencies in East Timor arrived in the South Sulawesi capital of Ujungpandang on Saturday.
They are among tens of thousands of people who have fled the troubled territory fearing further violence between pro and anti- integration supporters ahead of the ballot. (byg/27)