UN team to Indonesia for E. Timor ballot
UN team to Indonesia for E. Timor ballot
UNITED NATIONS (Agencies): A six-member United Nations team
left for Indonesia on Thursday to prepare for an autonomy ballot
in East Timor, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said.
Eckhard said the team would conduct a "preliminary assessment
for the consultation of the East Timorese through a direct ballot
on the autonomy proposal".
The team will prepare a report before the next meeting on East
Timor between Indonesian and Portuguese officials at the United
Nations on April 13 and April 14 followed by another meeting of
the foreign ministers on April 22, Eckhard said.
The mission, headed by Francesc Vendrell, the Spanish director
of the Asia and Pacific division, will also visit Australia, New
Zealand and Portugal.
Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas and his
Portuguese counterpart Jaime Gama agreed earlier this month to
let the East Timorese decide in a UN-organized direct ballot on
whether they wanted autonomy within Indonesia.
If the autonomy proposal, expected to be completed by the end
of April, is rejected, Indonesia has said it would pave the way
for independence in the territory of 800,000 people.
Australia's foreign minister, Alexander Downer, has said his
country would offer people to help administer the balloting
process.
Indonesia would prefer autonomy for the former Portuguese
colony, which for more than 20 years has been the subject of a
dispute. Since it suggested independence in January, clashes have
broken out throughout the territory.
Meanwhile, the body of Cpl. Nasikun was buried at the Fili
Heroes cemetery in Dili in a ceremony presided over by local
military commander Lt. Col. Endar Priyanto, Antara reported on
Friday.
Nasikun of the Army Strategic Reserves Command logistics unit
is survived by a wife who lives in Cibinong, West Java.
Nasikun and his colleague Sgt. Kotamin were abducted early
this month and killed by a group believed to belong to
proindependence camp. Their decomposed bodies were found on
Thursday.
Local military authorities allowed Kotamin's family to have
his body buried in his hometown of Pekalongan in Central Java.