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.