UN resolution will hamper Timor talks

UN resolution will hamper Timor talks

JAKARTA (JP): Last week's resolution by the UN Human Rights
Commission criticizing Indonesia's human rights record in East
Timor will hamper efforts to revive talks with Portugal to
resolve the East Timor issue, the government said yesterday.

The resolution, "would inevitably impact unfavorably on the
current efforts by the UN Secretary General to recommence the
tripartite dialog on East Timor," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
said in a statement.

"Indonesia strongly rejects the resolution... because it
contains totally unfounded allegations and misrepresentations."

The resolution, proposed by the European Union, was adopted at
the commission's annual meeting in Geneva Wednesday after a 20-14
vote. Russia and Japan were among 18 commission members that
abstained.

The resolution was included in the commission's chairman final
statement.

"Since Portugal and its supporters have consistently shown a
tendency to manipulate the contents of those chairman statements,
accusing Indonesia unfoundedly of non-compliance of these
statements, Indonesia this year refuses to accept the chairman's
statement again (because it) was completely one-sided and highly
intrusive," the statement said.

The tripartite talks refer to the negotiations that Indonesia
and Portugal have held since 1983 under the auspices of
successive UN secretary generals. Kofi Annan, secretary general
since January 1, is exploring the possibility of reviving the
talks that have been stalled since last June.

The statement is the first official reaction from Jakarta to
the resolution, which one local political observer has described
as detrimental to Indonesia's East Timor diplomacy.

The former Portuguese colony was integrated into Indonesia in
1976, but the move has not yet been recognized by the United
Nations which continues to regard Lisbon as the administering
power. (emb)