Talks on E. Timor resume

Talks on E. Timor resume

UNITED NATIONS (AFP): A new round of closed-door talks between Indonesia and Portugal focusing on a political solution for East Timor opens here today.

The UN-sponsored talks, involving senior officials from Indonesian and Portuguese foreign ministries, are scheduled to end Friday. They are the third round to be convened by UN chief Kofi Annan who took office in January.

A Portuguese diplomat said "the main thing is that both sides are talking".

The United Nations has never recognized East Timor's integration into Indonesia in 1976, judging Portugal to be the official administrating power.

Western diplomats noted that the talks are set to resume after invitations had been sent out to separate informal multiparty talks involving all the parties involved in East Timor.

The United Nations has not yet confirmed those talks, which are to be held in Austria from Oct. 20 to Oct. 23 and include Nobel peace prize winners Ramos Horta and Bishop Ximenes Belo.

Similar informal negotiations took place in March 1996, between pro-Indonesian groups and the anti-integration movement.

In a statement issued Monday, Human Rights Watch accused the Armed Forces of carrying out widespread arrests and detentions in East Timor, particularly following a series of guerrilla attacks coinciding with Indonesian elections in May.

But the report added that both sides in the conflict were guilty of human rights abuses. It called on "members of the armed opposition to end its practice of executing unarmed civilians suspected of being collaborators or informers for the army".