Subject: AFP: Alatas to Meet East Timorese Leaders
on Bali
Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1998 17:26:41 +0100 (BST)
From: hops <hops@gn.apc.org>Received from Joyo
Indonesian foreign minister to meet East Timorese leaders
JAKARTA, Oct 14 (AFP) - Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas is set to start two days
of talks in Bali Thursday with East Timorese groups, sources and the state Antara news
agency said Wednesday.
But the sources said many of the invitees, including Nobel laureate Bishop Carlos
Ximenes Belo, may not show up because the invitation was issued only 24 hours before the
meeting.
Alatas issued a "sudden" invitation to some 60 people, both pro-referendum
and pro-integration leaders from the troubled territory, to attend a the two-day long
dialogue in Bali Thursday and Friday, the sources said.
"But the invitation only arrived one day before the dialogue, so many people are
unable to go," a resident source in capital Dili told AFP by telephone Wednesday.
"The invitation said the dialogue is to socialize results of the senior officials
meeting in New York on October 6-8," he said, adding student leaders and local
government officials were on the list of invitees.
Portuguese and Indonesian officials met in New York earlier this month under UN
auspices to discuss an offer by Jakarta of broad autonomy for the former Portuguese colony
annexed by Indonesia in 1975.
The source said several East Timorese leaders had already left Dili for Bali on a
flight chartered by the foreign ministry.
They included pro-referendum figures Anicetto Guterres, who is also chairman of the
Justice and Human Rights Foundation, and Abel Da Costa of the Timorese National Resistance
Council.
Also included were the Indonesian police chief and military commander of East Timor.
Belo said Wednesday he could not join the meeting, but a senior diocese representative
would attend on behalf of the Catholic community.
"I regret that I will not be able to fulfill Minister Alatas' invitation to meet
in Denpasar for a dialog with other East Timorese figures because I have religious
services which have long been programmed by the Catholic community," Belo was quoted
by the state Antara news agency as saying.
"Many of the student leaders refused to go because they think there's a political
conspiracy behind the dialogue," the resident source said.
"Many feel it is very strange the invitation was given only a day before a
dialogue which is to be held hours away in Bali," he added.
Indonesian troops invaded East Timor in 1975, and annexed the territory a year later in
a move never recognized by the United Nations. Since 1983 the issue of East Timor's
independence has been discussed with the Indonesian and Portuguese governments under UN
auspices.
Jailed East Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmao has said Jakarta's autonomy offer
would only be acceptable as a transitional step towards a referendum on
self-determination.
The meeting was called after three consecutive days of demonstrations in Dili calling
for the resignation of governor Jose Abilio Soares because of a threat to fire civil
servants who did not agree with the autonomy proposal.
TAPOL, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign, 8 Hop Gardens London WC2N 4EH Tel: 171 497
5355 Fax: 171 4975313 Email: hops@gn.apc.org Defending the rights of the victims of
oppression in Indonesia, East Timor, West Papua and Aceh
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