TNI offers to work with East Timor

TNI offers to work with East Timor

Ian Timberlake, Agence France-Presse, Jakarta

The Indonesian Military (TNI) has offered to cooperate with its former adversaries in the East Timor Defense Force in areas such as training, an East Timor embassy official said Saturday after a meeting between commanders of the two armed forces.

The offer came late Friday during 90 minutes of talks between TNI chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto and Brig. Gen. Taur Matan Ruak, commander of the small East Timor military force, said Juvencio Martins, counselor at the East Timor embassy.

"It was very fruitful," Martins said of the meeting. "It was very friendly."

Indonesian foreign minister Hassan Wirayuda was separately in the East Timor capital, Dili, for two days of high-level talks aimed at enhancing mutual co-operation in other sectors. Those talks ended Saturday morning.

Endriartono was "happy to help" the 1,500-member East Timor Defence Force and would ask his staff to work with East Timor's embassy to determine the most appropriate assistance, Martins said.

The commanders talked generally about training assistance, he said.

Ruak was formerly a commander in the Falintil rebel army that fought Indonesia's 24-year occupation of East Timor. The occupation ended in October, 1999, after East Timor voted overwhelmingly to separate from its neighbor.

Both Indonesia and East Timor say they have put the past behind them and are now focusing on cooperation.

Ruak said about 10 countries had offered support for East Timor's army.

"And he said, 'Why not do the same with our friends from Indonesia?'" Martins told AFP.

Endriartono told Ruak the two nations had "a bitter past" but that the former rebel's visit "was a sign of friendship and a sign of goodwill to put the past behind us."

The TNI commander also agreed with a request from Ruak that East Timor's army should join the regular consultative meetings between TNI and United Nations peace keepers, Martins said.

East Timorese prosecutors have indicted at least 23 Indonesian military officers including former armed forces commander Gen. (ret) Wiranto for crimes against humanity in connection with the 1999 violence.

Indonesia has refused to hand them over.

At the Dili Joint Commission talks which ended Saturday, Hassan and East Timor's foreign minister Jose Ramos-Horta signed a statement about cooperation in trade, investment, transportation, telecommunications, social and educational matters.

They also agreed to consider establishing an "institutional framework" to help find a solution to the issue of Indonesian assets left behind in East Timor.

The statement said they also explored the idea of establishing a free trade zone straddling their land border, which has almost been delineated.

"Both parties emphasized the importance of good relations between the two countries in solving the residual issues as well as in facing the rapid development and changes in international relations...," the statement said.

The first Joint Commission meeting took place in October 2002.