Subject: UPDATE # 3 - Ramos Horta deeply sceptical
over Indonesia's offer
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 13:29:05 -0000
From: "Paula Pinto" <paularoque@mail.telepac.pt>8:06 PM (JKT. LOCAL
TIME)
Timor activist Ramos Horta deeply sceptical over Indonesia's offer
SYDNEY, Jan 27 (AFP) - East Timor resistance leader Jose Ramos Horta Wednesday rejected
as a stunt Indonesia's claim that it will consider independence for the troubled province.
"My response is scepticism. I don't trust the Indonesian side. They never deliver
what they promise," he told AFP.
"I believe it is no more than a smokescreen, a diplomatic stunt. Their aim is to
win the good favour of the international community, while at the same time, they create
terror in East Timor," he said.
Information Minister Yunus Yosfiah said Wednesday that Indonesia may let go of East
Timor if Jakarta's latest offer of wide-ranging autonomy is rejected by the majority of
the population there.
The Nobel peace prize winner was also deeply suspicious of Indonesian moves to shift
rebel leader Xanana Gusmao out of the jail where he is serving a 20-year sentence and
assign him a house to be designated as a prison.
"My only comment is, we will wait and see," said the exiled activist, who is
now based in Sydney. "All they want to do is get some good international
publicty."
Ramos Horta said Indonesia's real intentions toward the province it invaded in 1975
were clear.
"What matters for me is the reality on the ground in East Timor where people are
being killed, women are being raped and torture is is rampant," he said.
"We demand the withdrawal of Indonesian troops, their replacement by an
international police force and a referendum on self determination."
He predicted that the "overwhelming majority of East Timorese" would vote
against Indonesia in a referendum.
©AFP 1999
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