UN has yet to decide on troops in E. Timor
UN has yet to decide on troops in E. Timor
JAKARTA (JP): The United Nations will not consider a
peacekeeping mission to East Timor in the near future, as it is
still focusing its attention on Indonesia's autonomy package
offer, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said on Tuesday.
Eckhard pointed out the UN was still waiting for the results
of the tripartite talks between Indonesia and Portugal under the
auspices of the UN.
"It is too early to talk about sending a peacekeeping mission
to East Timor. We are now talking about an autonomy package, not
yet a peacekeeping mission," Antara quoted Eckhard as saying in
UN headquarters in New York.
Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas and his
Portuguese counterpart, Jaime Gama, are scheduled to start two
days of negotiations overseen by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan
in New York starting on Wednesday local time.
Alatas disclosed on Monday that the government had decided to
modify its proposal of wide-ranging autonomy for the former
Portuguese colony on the instruction of President B.J. Habibie.
Despite the delay, the minister did not mention any change to the
April deadline for the negotiations.
Habibie decided in January to let East Timor become an
independent state if East Timorese people and the international
community rejected his proposal to grant special autonomy to the
tiny territory.
East Timor Police Chief Col. Timbul Silaen quoted visiting UN
special envoy Tamrat Samuel as telling him last month in Dili,
the capital of East Timor, that the international organization
might send a peacekeeping force to disarm pro-independence and
pro-integration groups in the territory in March.
Samuel, however, quickly denied Silaen's claim.
Eckhard said that such a mission would require a lengthy
planning phase.
U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said here last week
that an international presence, including that of the UN, was
needed during the transition period in East Timor.
Meanwhile, two Armed Forces (ABRI) members of the Baucau
regency military command in East Timor were kidnapped on Sunday
and declared missing.
East Timor deputy military commander Col. Mudjiono said in
Dili on Tuesday the two -- Sgt. Maj. Katimir and Cpl. Nasikin --
were abducted by a group of youths while on a public bus heading
for Baucau from Dili.
The two were treasury staff of Baucau command, Mudjiono said,
but it was not clear whether they were wearing their uniforms.
The bus was passing Madoma in Sukalaran village in Vemasse
district, around 130 kilometers east of Dili, when the two were
abducted.
The youths were reportedly checking whether there were any
pro-integrationists on the bus, following rumors that members of
two pro-integration groups, Mahidi ("Integration, Alive or Dead")
and Besi Merah Putih (Red-and-White Iron), were heading for
Baucau.
East Timor Police spokesman Capt. Widodo D.S. said in Dili
that Katimir and Nasikin were forced to get off the bus.
"They were then beaten and the youths seized their pistols,"
Widodo said. (33/prb)