Proindependence activists meet Gusmao in Jakarta

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)