RI has new proposals on East Timor dispute

RI has new proposals on East Timor dispute

UNITED NATIONS (Agencies): Indonesia's foreign minister Ali Alatas yesterday offered new proposals to resolve the decades-old dispute over East Timor, the United Nations said.

Alatas, who kept his post under the new government of B.J. Habibie, presented Secretary-General Kofi Annan with the proposals that UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said marked "an important development" in the negotiations.

He would not say what they were.

The former Portuguese colony of East Timor was integrated as part of Indonesia in 1976.

The UN however has not recognized the integration, and has sponsored talks between Portugal and Indonesia to find an internationally acceptable since 1983.

Annan has appointed Jamsheed Marker, a former Pakistan UN ambassador, to lead the Timor talks. He will be visiting Portugal and Indonesia in July, Eckhard said.

East Timorese activists in Indonesia have been stepping up their campaign for independence in the wake of the resignation of President Soeharto.

His successor, B.J. Habibie, has pledged democratic reform but has ruled out a referendum in East Timor. Habibie, has released some but not all East Timorese political prisoners.