RI welcomes Ramos Horta in E. Timor dialog
RI welcomes Ramos Horta in E. Timor dialog
JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia yesterday opened the door for
separatist leader Ramos Horta to participate in the planned
United Nations-sponsored reconciliation dialogs between opposing
East Timorese factions.
"Ramos Horta, or any other East Timorese figure, can
participate in the dialog," Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali
Alatas told journalists yesterday.
However, he warned that Horta's participation must comply with
the terms set during the recent trilateral meeting between
Indonesia, Portugal and the UN.
Following a meeting with President Soeharto at his residence
on Jl. Cendana, Alatas yesterday asserted that the dialog must
not become an alternative track to the ongoing negotiations
between Jakarta and Lisbon.
The fifth set of trilateral talks between Alatas and his
Portuguese counterpart Jose Manuel Durao Barroso was held in
Geneva last Monday under the aegis of UN Secretary-General
Boutros Boutros-Ghali.
The one-day meeting agreed that the UN would facilitate an
extension of meetings between the Timorese people on both sides
of the integration debate.
Both Jakarta and Lisbon agreed that the planned meeting should
refrain from discussing East Timor's political status,
concentrating on reconciliation and creating a conducive
atmosphere for finding a solution to the issue.
The former Portuguese colony of East Timor was integrated into
Indonesia in 1976. Nevertheless Portugal and its allies persist
in their opposition and refuse to recognize East Timor's status
as Indonesia's 27th province.
In Lisbon, Ramos Horta gave a sterile reaction to suggestions
that he might participate in the dialog and refused to signal
whether he would participate.
"I neither accept nor refuse," Horta said in a radio interview
quoted by Reuters.
Ramos Horta, currently undergoing self-exile in Australia as
the leader of the East Timor separatist movement, has repeatedly
launched campaigns against Indonesia and demanded independence of
the province.
Commenting on Horta's possible participation, a senior East
Timorese pro-integration politician, Lopez da Cruz, told The
Jakarta Post here yesterday that he welcomed the idea as long as
the separatist leader complied with the terms set for the dialog.
"If his intentions are noble, if he truly seeks the truth, he
will exercise restraint and come to hear our arguments," he said.
Last year, Lopez headed two exchanges in London with anti-
integration East Timorese led by Abilio Araujo. "The UN's
proposal is in line with the London meetings we have been
having," he said.
When asked when he expected the UN-sponsored dialog would
occur, Lopez said that a date had been designated, and he hoped
that it would take place before the next round of meetings
between Alatas and Barroso on May 19 in New York.
"That would make the secretary-general happy since the dialog
was his idea," Lopez remarked.
Another pro-integration figure, Mariano Lopez da Cruz, in the
town of Baucau, East Timor, also welcomed a dialog between the
opposing groups.
"As long as the dialog discusses the East Timor issue outside
of the political context," Mariano told Antara.
He added that the question of integration was really a non-
issue for the East Timorese in the province since they had
accepted integration.
"History has proven that through the existence of the Balibo
Declaration," he said in reference to the 1974 document, which
attested to the East Timorese's desire to integrate with
Indonesia. (mds)