UN-sponsored talks resume on East Timor after brief halt
UN-sponsored talks resume on East Timor after brief halt
UNITED NATIONS (Agencies): United Nations-sponsored talks on the question of East Timor resumed on Wednesday after being broken off last Friday, a UN spokesman said.
The talks, involving senior Portuguese and Indonesian officials, were halted by Portugal after reports circulated that 44 people had been killed in a military operation around the East Timor village of Alas, some 125 miles (200 km) east of Dili, the capital.
Indonesia has categorically denied the reports and lambasted Portugal of trying to derail the negotiation process by trying to link the unsubstantiated report with the talks.
Indonesia's sovereignty over the former Portuguese colony is not recognized by the international community and the United Nations has long been trying to broker an acceptable solution.
"The tripartite talks have resumed," a UN spokesman said.
Earlier, reporters were told that Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his personal representative for East Timor, Pakistani diplomat Jamsheed Marker, had been in touch with all parties concerned regarding "the recent reports of violence and the allegations of a large number of civilian deaths."
"The effort to ascertain the veracity of these reports is continuing," UN spokesman Fred Eckhard added.
"The secretary-general welcomes the announcement that the Indonesian National Commission on Human Rights will conduct an investigation," Eckhard said.
"Meanwhile the secretary-general is eager to maintain the continuation of the talks between Indonesia and Portugal under his auspices."
As part of the ongoing process of consultations, UN officials would visit East Timor shortly and Marker would also travel to Indonesia and East Timor in mid-December, Eckhard added.
In Canberra, Australian Defense Minister John Moore said on Thursday that he had asked Indonesia's permission to allow Australia monitor the security situation in East Timor, according to Reuters.
Moore said Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas had already given approval for Australian military observers to visit East Timor and that he would raise the issue with Minister of Defense and Security Gen. Wiranto during talks on Friday.
"I think the Indonesians concede the right of the Australians to see what is going on there," Moore said before embarking on his Indonesian visit.
"If Alatas says it is okay and the minister for defense in our discussions tomorrow says okay, I can't see why this won't occur," he told reporters.
Moore will meet Wiranto on Friday in Surabaya and plans to meet with President B.J. Habibie on Saturday.
Moore said there was no immediate plan to reinstate suspended joint military exercises with the Indonesian Army's special forces Kopassus, but added it was important that Australia maintain close links with the Indonesian Armed Forces (ABRI).
"It is in the Australian national interest to be close to ABRI," Moore said.
Indonesia is Australia's most important ally in Southeast Asia following the signing of a 1995 bilateral defense pact.