Subject: AFP: Indonesia to decide on Xanana's fate
after tripartite talks
Date: Wed, 23 Dec 1998 15:42:54 +0000
From: Tapol <plovers@gn.apc.org>Received from Joyo
Indonesia to decide on Xanana's fate after tripartite talks
JAKARTA, Dec 23 (AFP) - The release of jailed East Timorese rebel leader Xanana Gusmao
will depend on the outcome of ongoing UN-sponsored peace talks between Indonesia and
Portugal, Indonesian Justice Minister Muladi said Wednesday.
"We will maintain our position and wait for the final solution on East Timor
resulting from the tripartite talks," Muladi (Eds: one name) told reporters here
before attending a cabinet meeting at the state palace.
Muladi said UN special envoy for East Timor Jamsheed Marker on Tuesday asked him to
consider Xanana's release, because his "strategic position" could benefit the
talks if he were directly involved.
"But, we still see Xanana as someone from the pro-independence group. On the other
hand there are others who are pro-integration.
"The decision (to release Xanana) should not cause protests against us (by
pro-integrationists), therefore let us wait for an agreement to be reached in the
tripartite dialogue by the end of January -- whether (the release) is in the agenda,"
Muladi said.
He also stressed that Xanana was guilty of "a lot of murders in the past."
On Monday Muladi announced that the government will later this week release between 40
and 50 political prisoners, including East Timorese, but said Xanana would not be among
them.
"Xanana's release is related to the (solution of) East Timor issue," Muladi
said in explanation.
The justice minister said the new releases this week would all come under a
presidential pardon or in a reduction of the prisoners' sentences.
The release would bring the number of political prisoners freed by the government of
President B.J. Habibie since the fall of former president Suharto in May to about 150.
Xanana is serving a 20-year jail sentence in Jakarta's Cipinang Prison for plotting
against the state and illegal possession of firearms.
East Timor Bishop, Nobel laureate Carlos Ximenes Felipe Belo, has urged the government
to include Xanana in peace efforts for the troubled territory, saying that otherwise the
problem would drag on endlessly.
Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and annexed it a year later, in
a move never recognized by the United Nations and most countries.
Marker, the special envoy of UN secretary general Kofi Annan for East Timor, left here
Wednesday after a nine-day visit during which he won assurances from Habibie that
Indonesia was committed to the tri-partite talks in New York.
During Marker's visit Jakarta also named two diplomats to be assigned to the Indonesian
interests section in Lisbon, scheduled to open in January along with a Portuguese
interests section in Jakarta, marking the first thaw in diplomatic relations between the
two, severed by Portugal after the 1975 invasion.
TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign, 25 Plovers Way, Alton Hampshire GU34 2JJ
Tel/Fax: 1420 80153 Email: plovers@gn.apc.org Defending victims of oppression in
Indonesia, East Timor, West Papua and Aceh, 1973-1998
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