Ramos explains Timor ban to Soares

Ramos explains Timor ban to Soares

MANILA (AFP): Philippine President Fidel Ramos has written to Portuguese President Mario Soares to explain his actions in banning Portuguese and other foreign delegates from a recent human rights conference here on East Timor, an official statement said yesterday.

"It is truly unfortunate that the events just transpired may have caused you some apprehension due to the actions taken by my government," Ramos said in the letter released to the press here.

Ramos spoke of "the primacy of maintaining our democracies in the face of myriad destabilizing forces," and expressed hope that "we can maintain this shared vision and put aside any misunderstanding between our two countries."

The Philippine leader was harshly criticized for his ban, which critics said amounted to knuckling under to Indonesian pressure. A former Portuguese colony, East Timor was integrated into Indonesia in 1976 and is now the country's 27th province.