Ramos Horta not invited to East Timor dialog

Ramos Horta not invited to East Timor dialog

JAKARTA (JP): East Timor separatist leader Ramos Horta will not be taking part in any dialog on the future of the territory, a Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman said.

Irawan Abidin, the ministry's director of information, told The Jakarta Post that the dialog on East Timor under the auspices of the United Nations Secretary-General will only involve the foreign ministers of Indonesia and Portugal.

Irawan was commenting on the headline in Saturday's edition of Post entitled "RI welcomes Ramos in E. Timor dialog", which he said could send the wrong signals.

He said the East Timor dialog at the United Nations remains strictly "government-to-government".

Indonesian and Portuguese foreign ministers and the UN secretary-general met in Geneva for their fifth round of meetings last week. They agreed to facilitate meetings to bring about reconciliation between the various opposing East Timor factions.

Minister Ali Alatas of Indonesia, upon his return from Geneva on Friday, said that Ramos Horta would be allowed to take part in the reconciliation meetings provided that he did not raise political issues. (emb)