Self confidence vital over E. Timor

JAKARTA (JP): A feeling of self-confidence is essential for Indonesia in dealing with critics of Jakarta's policy on East Timor, a prominent political scientist said on Saturday.

"If we have self-confidence, we will not object to being scrutinized," said Juwono Sudarsono, the vice chairman of the National Resiliency Institute and former dean of the University of Indonesia's faculty of social and political sciences.

Juwono told journalists that, in other countries, the issue of East Timor will always be associated with questions of human rights.

"I think that from the outset we should realize that East Timor is something which always surfaces as a problem of human rights in the international forum," he said, comparing the issue with other controversial human rights issues, such as Kashmir and Tibet.

East Timor, formerly a Portuguese colony, was integrated into Indonesia in 1976. However, the United Nations still recognizes Lisbon as the administrative power there.

Speaking on the recent reconciliation talks in Austria between East Timorese of opposing factions, Juwono said he did not see any reason why Indonesia should oppose the plan to hold further such discussions in the future.

"I don't think we have any objections," he said.

At the end of their meeting the East Timorese released a declaration calling for the UN to facilitate a further dialog.

The declaration also stressed the need to safeguard human rights in the territory and to preserve East Timor's culture.

"We have also accepted and implemented the two points in the Austrian declaration calling for attention to human rights and respect for East Timor," Juwono said. "The most important thing is that East Timor's political status and sovereignty was not made an issue."

Juwono said that holding a future dialog in East Timor itself, as has been suggested by some, could have positive as well as negative consequences.

"There would be a gain in that it would show that we are self- confident, but we could lose if the event was manipulated in such a way that it became an international media event," he said.

Separately on Saturday Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas again said that the results of the dialog were being reviewed and that, therefore, he could not say what Indonesia's position was concerning the holding of a further dialog.

After being briefed by members of the Indonesian delegation to the dialog at his office, Alatas said that whether or not another dialog would be held would depend on his upcoming meeting with his Portuguese counterpart in Geneva on July 8.

Alatas expressed satisfaction that the Austrian talks had stuck to the original plan and refrained from discussing the political status of East Timor. (mds)