Ramos-Horta meets Xanana
JAKARTA (JP): East Timor independence campaigner Jose Ramos- Horta met jailed proindependence leader Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao after 23 years of self-exile and said he felt speechless.
"I was speechless, not only meeting him as a leader, but as a human being, one of the greatest human beings I have known in my life," Ramos-Horta said as quoted by AFP on Saturday.
"I gave him a big, warm embrace."
Ramos, who shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize with Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo, arrived in Jakarta on Saturday after being granted a visa by the government to attend peace talks between proindependence and prointegration factions.
The talks, sponsored by East Timor bishops Belo and Bascilio dos Nascimento, are taking place at Sheraton Bandara Hotel at the Soekarno-Hatta airport. The first round was held in East Timor last September. Friday's and Saturday's talks only involved East Timorese in Indonesia, while meetings from Sunday to Wednesday will include East Timorese residing overseas.
The talks, called the Dare II dialog and reconciliation conference, are expected to involve 60 leaders of disputing camps.
The event is named after the mountainous area in West Dili where the first round of talks took place. The result in September was that both parties recognized their differing views, and that both would refrain from violence.
However, activists say that over 100 have been killed in violence, which escalated after President B.J. Habibie announced in January the government would consider giving East Timor independence if its people rejected an autonomy package.
Plans for the second round of talks were put on hold until a tripartite meeting between Indonesia, Portugal and the United Nations agreed on May 5 on a direct ballot for Aug. 8 to determine East Timor's future. Last week, however, the UN announced a delay of two weeks, citing a lack of security guarantees.
The government's granting of visas to overseas East Timorese who have been highly critical of the government, such as Ramos- Horta, does not mean they can automatically visit their homeland.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas has said Ramos-Horta will be allowed to visit East Timor soil on the condition that he does not campaign. Ramos-Horta has accepted the condition.
"They (the people of East Timor) have been there for 23 years, they know (the conditions) better than I do," he was quoted as saying.
In Dili, the UN's special envoy for East Timor, Jamsheed Marker, said at the end of a three-day visit on Saturday that he was satisfied with preparations for the ballot, and stressed the requirement that all parties had an equal right to campaign.
Addressing the media with representatives of the United Nations Assistance Mission in East Timor (UNAMET), Marker expressed confidence in and praise for UNAMET, which has been assigned to prepare for the ballot. The body has been criticized for being proindependence instead of being impartial.
Marker visited the regencies of Liquica and Lospalos to inspect logistical supplies and to observe security conditions there.
Separately, Thailand's foreign ministry said it would send a team of nine security personnel to join the unarmed UN civilian police in East Timor, reports said.
On Saturday, 30 multinational unarmed police officers arrived in Dili from northern Australia, the second batch to arrive after 41 officers arrived on June 21.
The presence of the police force is part of an agreement signed by Indonesia and Portugal at the United Nations on May 5, while proindependence groups have said they had hoped for a UN peacekeeping force.
Also on Saturday, Antara reported a battalion from the joint territorial task force was withdrawn after fulfilling a 10-month tour of duty in East Timor.
Military commander Col. Tono Suratman said in a farewell ceremony here that the withdrawal of the task force aimed at creating a conducive climate for the direct ballot. (anr)