Timor dialog ends, more talks ahead
JAKARTA (JP): East Timorese leaders with opposing views on integration ended their meeting in Austria yesterday one day earlier than scheduled, while agreeing to convene for more talks in the future.
Delegates participating in the All-Inclusive Intra-East Timor Dialog in Stadtshlaining, over 100 kilometers from Vienna, said the decision was made due to the departure of Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo of Dili who had to leave Austria yesterday evening.
Fretilin separatist leader, Ramos Horta, confirmed the reason the dialog ended ahead of schedule.
Horta said that delegates considered Bishop Belo a father figure and thus "without his presence the credibility of the meeting would not be the same".
Clementino Dos Reis Amaral, a member of Indonesia's National Commission on Human Rights, said that despite the early closing, delegates would meet again at a time and place to be determined later.
When asked about the future meeting, Horta replied "I do not know when or where. It could be on the moon."
He acknowledged that having East Timor as a venue for the next meeting was a possibility.
The dialog is a result of trilateral talks between Portugal, Indonesia and United Nations Secretary-General Boutros Boutros- Ghali in Geneva last January.
The informal dialog was aimed at creating a conducive atmosphere for talks between Jakarta and Lisbon to find an internationally acceptable solution to the East Timor issue.
It was also designed to facilitate an exchange of views which could foster a healthy atmosphere among the East Timorese divided by a civil war in 1975.
The UN still recognizes Portugal as the administrative power despite East Timor's integration as the 27th province of the Republic of Indonesia in 1976.
Thirty East Timorese leaders, 16 from Indonesia and 14 from abroad, took part in the dialog.
Rights
Amaral said that among the issues discussed during the dialog were the number of military personnel stationed in the province, human rights and socio-economic and cultural development, along with freedom of religion.
He said that Indonesian Timorese had rejected a proposal from their counterparts for the establishment of a joint human rights commission in East Timor under the supervision of the UN.
Amaral contended that the commission would overlap with the already existing Peace and Justice Committee under Bishop Belo and the National Commission on Human Rights which is about to open a branch office in Dili.
"If a new commission was formed there would be the impression that the existing ones are not reputable," he told Antara.
Though there were some threats to pull-out of the meeting unless political issues were included, delegates eventually obeyed the ground rules of the dialog and excluded discussion on the political status of East Timor.
As reported by Reuters, Bishop Belo persuaded Joao Carrascalao to withdraw threats made in reaction to the exclusion of political issues.
A prominent East Timor scholar from Indonesia, Joao Mariano Saldanha, further stated the anti-integrationists' willingness not to force political issues.
"The hard line leaders such as Ramos Horta and Joao Carrascalao who had reportedly wanted to withdraw from the dialog if the question of a referendum was not included in the meeting, in the end continued to participate," he said.
A joint communique was to be released later yesterday.
A team of six people, three from each side, was selected to formulate the communique.
Joao Saldanha, Florentino Sarmento and Rui Emiliano Teixeira Lopez were chosen from the Indonesian side, while Abilio Sereno, Mari Alkatiri and Constantio Pinto were chosen from among those representing the Timorese abroad. (mds)