TNI regrets UN rebuff on border accord

TNI regrets UN rebuff on border accord

DILI, East Timor (JP): Udayana Military Commander Maj. Gen.
Kiki Syahnakri expressed on Tuesday disappointment over the
United Nations' refusal to accept Indonesia's proposal for a
border agreement.

"All accusations that the TNI is behind illegal incursions
into East Timor or is supporting the so-called militias would not
be necessary had the UNTAET (United Nations Transitional
Administration in East Timor) accepted our proposal for an
exchange of liaison officers, joint border patrol and joint
border post," Kiki told a media conference here.

The conference followed the signing of a new memorandum of
understanding for tactical coordination in the border area
between East Nusa Tenggara and East Timor signed by the
Indonesian Military (TNI) and UNTAET Military Component.

TNI was represented by Kiki, while Lt. Gen. Jaime de los
Santos, commander of the UNTAET Peace Keeping Force (PKF),
represented the UNTAET Military Component.

Present at the ceremony were Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao,
president of the National Council for East Timorese Resistance
(CNRT), and Taur Matan Ruak, commander of the Falintil
proindependence fighting forces, and UNTAET'S director of
political affairs Peter Galbraith and TNI spokesman Air Rear
Marshal Graito Usodo.

Galbraith said the UN believed the three-point proposal was
unnecessary since the TNI had shown good cooperation.

"The problem is not with the TNI but with the militia," said
Galbraith.

Galbraith on the occasion apologized for recent border
violations by UN aircraft. The Udayana command had filed a
protest with the UNTAET over intrusions by UN helicopters into
Indonesian airspace near the border on April 4, April 6 and April
7.

Kiki said the UN helicopters flew one kilometer into
Indonesian airspace in Boilalu.

Kiki also urged the UNTAET to not politicize border problems
and to allow the settlement of tactical matters by the Udayana
command and the PKF commander.

"I'm not denying that there are prointegration people who are
still trying to prevent refugees from returning home to East
Timor, but they are not doing so openly. The TNI always takes
action against such activities and if the PKF had liaison
officers on our side of the border they would be able to find out
for themselves whether or not the TNI was involved in the
clandestine activities of the so-called militias," said Kiki.

In Jakarta, Attorney General Marzuki Darusman announced that
his office would install over 30 members of a joint investigation
team over last year's East Timor violence next week.

The team, made up of 10 state prosecutors, 10 military police
officers, 10 TNI officers and several officials from the Ministry
of Home Affairs, will probe into the massacre of refugees in
churches in Liquica and Suai, the attacks on proindependence
leader Manuel Carrascalao's home in Dili and on the residence of
Dili Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, and the killing of
Financial Times correspondent Sander Thoenes.

Marzuki said that the team would start working by the end of
this month.

The formation of the team followed recommendations by the
government-sanctioned Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights
Violations (KPP HAM) in East Timor, which implicated former TNI
commander Gen. (ret) Wiranto and 32 other soldiers and officials
in the violence. (01/lem)