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UN looks at autonomy models for East Timor Wed 26 Aug 98 - 00:57 GMT

UNITED NATIONS, Aug 25 (AFP) - UN officials are studying autonomy models as they prepare a plan for East Timor to be put forward at talks between Indonesia and Portugal, diplomats said Tuesday.

The diplomats said that UN officials are drafting a concrete autonomy proposal for East Timor, a former Portuguese colony annexed by Indonesia in 1976, that would be presented at the ambassador-level talks expected to take place next month.

Among the models examined by the United Nations are the Cook Islands, which are self-governing territories of New Zealand, the Dutch Caribbean territory of Aruba, and Hong Kong, the British-ruled colony which reverted to China in July last year.

The diplomats said that the United Nations was expected to involve East Timorese leaders on the draft proposals before they were finalized.

Portuguese and Indonesian foreign ministers decided after a two-day meeting at UN headquarters ending on August 5 to hold East Timor autonomy talks in hopes of reaching agreement by year-end.

Senior officials from both Portugal and Indonesia are scheduled to meet again in New York by the end of September to discuss Indonesian proposals for "wide-ranging autonomy" for East Timor excluding foreign affairs, security and finance.

They also said that the All-inclusive Intra-East Timorese Dialogue should meet again by the end of October 1998. Diplomats said Tuesday that Austria had agreed to host a new round of the broad-based talks.

Jakarta invaded East Timor in 1975 and unilaterally declared the territory its 27th province the following year in a move never recognised by the United Nations.

"Timor Today" ETISC -East Timor International Support Center PO Box 651 N'cliff, Darwin Australia 0814 Bahasa Indonesia dan Inggris http://www.easttimor.com email: etio@ozemail.com.au

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