Warring E. Timor groups end talks with little progress

06/30/1999 Japan Economic Newswire Copyright Kyodo News International Inc. 1999

By Christine T. Tjandraningsih

JAKARTA, June 30 --

Leaders of the pro-Jakarta and pro-independence camps in East Timor concluded peace talks Wednesday by agreeing to accept the results of the August ballot on the territory's political status, but made little progress on how to reconcile their differences.

"The talks...revealed that, despite a good atmosphere around the negotiating table, deep divisions remain," spokesman Domingos Sequeira, a Catholic priest, said in a statement.

He said pro-Jakarta and pro-independence supporters agreed on some "basic ideas" but "could find little common ground on (establishing) a joint committee for the implementation of these ideas."

Basilio do Nascimento, bishop of Baucau, east of the capital Dili, has suggested a joint committee be formed to secure the interests of both sides before and after the U.N.-sponsored ballot. Participants in the talks, however, said the idea needs to be considered further.

But Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos-Horta, spokesman for the East Timor resistance movement abroad during his 24-year exile, said the meeting "was an extraordinary success."

"This meeting is essentially a confidence-building measure," he said, adding that those who have been enemies for years had sat at the same table. Ramos-Horta, who has spent his life mostly in Australia and Portugal, arrived in Jakarta at the weekend after the Indonesian government granted him a visa.

About 30 pro-Jakarta activists staged a rally in front of the Jakarta airport hotel where the meeting took place, holding up a placard saying "Wanted -- Ramos-Horta, Dead or Alive."

The accord resulting from the talks, read by a pro-Jakarta representative in Indonesian and a pro-independence one in Portuguese and signed by all 60 participants, included a statement that all East Timorese "have civil, political, social, cultural and economic rights" and an agreement to respect an accord reached June 18 on disarmament by both sides.

Both sides also agreed that the Indonesian police are "the only institution responsible for maintaining order and security" in East Timor , but that the police should play a constructive role for the success of the "popular consultation" ballot, and that the Indonesian military should be "absolutely neutral."

On Tuesday, the U.N. Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) office in Maliana, about 140 kilometers southwest of Dili, was attacked by a mob of 100, presumably pro-Jakarta militia members, who hurled stones and rocks at the office during its inauguration ceremony.

The office was set up to organize the voting to determine whether East Timorese want independence or autonomy under Indonesia. Seven other offices have also been set up in different regencies in the territory.

Several people were seriously injured when the attack, the first on U.N. personnel since they began arriving in East Timor in May.

UNAMET has received a number of threats against its staff in East Timor , apparently from a number of pro-Indonesia militias which accuse the mission of favoritism.

Domingos Policarpo, a representative of the pro-integration group at the peace talks, expressed disappointment at the outcome of the meeting, saying it was marked by manipulation, including in the production of the press statement distributed to journalists.

The press statement said a suggestion from pro-independence groups that East Timor rebel leader Xanana Gusmao be released from house detention to take part in the campaign failed to gain approval, but that Xanana was quoted as saying he was confident the development of democracy in Indonesia would lead to his release.

"It is totally untrue," Policarpo told Kyodo News. "Since the very beginning, we have proposed to the government to release Xanana to enable him to participate in the political campaign."

The talks, sponsored by Dili Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize with Ramos-Horta, and Bishop Nascimento, were the second to be held and are the only dialogue process initiated and managed wholly by East Timorese people.

The first talks took place in Dare, a hilly area in the western part of Dili, in September last year, when the pro-Jakarta and pro-independence parties agreed to recognize their differences and refrain from violence.

But violence between the two factions erupted after Indonesian President B.J. Habibie announced in January that the government would grant East Timor independence if its offer of wide-ranging autonomy is rejected.

Human right activists in East Timor say more than 100 people from both camps have been killed in clashes that have increased in intensity since January. Warring E. Timor groups end talks with little progress

06/30/1999 Japan Economic Newswire Copyright Kyodo News International Inc. 1999

By Christine T. Tjandraningsih

JAKARTA, June 30 --

Leaders of the pro-Jakarta and pro-independence camps in East Timor concluded peace talks Wednesday by agreeing to accept the results of the August ballot on the territory's political status, but made little progress on how to reconcile their differences.

"The talks...revealed that, despite a good atmosphere around the negotiating table, deep divisions remain," spokesman Domingos Sequeira, a Catholic priest, said in a statement.

He said pro-Jakarta and pro-independence supporters agreed on some "basic ideas" but "could find little common ground on (establishing) a joint committee for the implementation of these ideas."

Basilio do Nascimento, bishop of Baucau, east of the capital Dili, has suggested a joint committee be formed to secure the interests of both sides before and after the U.N.-sponsored ballot. Participants in the talks, however, said the idea needs to be considered further.

But Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos-Horta, spokesman for the East Timor resistance movement abroad during his 24-year exile, said the meeting "was an extraordinary success."

"This meeting is essentially a confidence-building measure," he said, adding that those who have been enemies for years had sat at the same table. Ramos-Horta, who has spent his life mostly in Australia and Portugal, arrived in Jakarta at the weekend after the Indonesian government granted him a visa.

About 30 pro-Jakarta activists staged a rally in front of the Jakarta airport hotel where the meeting took place, holding up a placard saying "Wanted -- Ramos-Horta, Dead or Alive."

The accord resulting from the talks, read by a pro-Jakarta representative in Indonesian and a pro-independence one in Portuguese and signed by all 60 participants, included a statement that all East Timorese "have civil, political, social, cultural and economic rights" and an agreement to respect an accord reached June 18 on disarmament by both sides.

Both sides also agreed that the Indonesian police are "the only institution responsible for maintaining order and security" in East Timor , but that the police should play a constructive role for the success of the "popular consultation" ballot, and that the Indonesian military should be "absolutely neutral."

On Tuesday, the U.N. Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) office in Maliana, about 140 kilometers southwest of Dili, was attacked by a mob of 100, presumably pro-Jakarta militia members, who hurled stones and rocks at the office during its inauguration ceremony.

The office was set up to organize the voting to determine whether East Timorese want independence or autonomy under Indonesia. Seven other offices have also been set up in different regencies in the territory.

Several people were seriously injured when the attack, the first on U.N. personnel since they began arriving in East Timor in May.

UNAMET has received a number of threats against its staff in East Timor , apparently from a number of pro-Indonesia militias which accuse the mission of favoritism.

Domingos Policarpo, a representative of the pro-integration group at the peace talks, expressed disappointment at the outcome of the meeting, saying it was marked by manipulation, including in the production of the press statement distributed to journalists.

The press statement said a suggestion from pro-independence groups that East Timor rebel leader Xanana Gusmao be released from house detention to take part in the campaign failed to gain approval, but that Xanana was quoted as saying he was confident the development of democracy in Indonesia would lead to his release.

"It is totally untrue," Policarpo told Kyodo News. "Since the very beginning, we have proposed to the government to release Xanana to enable him to participate in the political campaign."

The talks, sponsored by Dili Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize with Ramos-Horta, and Bishop Nascimento, were the second to be held and are the only dialogue process initiated and managed wholly by East Timorese people.

The first talks took place in Dare, a hilly area in the western part of Dili, in September last year, when the pro-Jakarta and pro-independence parties agreed to recognize their differences and refrain from violence.

But violence between the two factions erupted after Indonesian President B.J. Habibie announced in January that the government would grant East Timor independence if its offer of wide-ranging autonomy is rejected.

Human right activists in East Timor say more than 100 people from both camps have been killed in clashes that have increased in intensity since January. Warring E. Timor groups end talks with little progress

06/30/1999 Japan Economic Newswire Copyright Kyodo News International Inc. 1999

By Christine T. Tjandraningsih

JAKARTA, June 30 --

Leaders of the pro-Jakarta and pro-independence camps in East Timor concluded peace talks Wednesday by agreeing to accept the results of the August ballot on the territory's political status, but made little progress on how to reconcile their differences.

"The talks...revealed that, despite a good atmosphere around the negotiating table, deep divisions remain," spokesman Domingos Sequeira, a Catholic priest, said in a statement.

He said pro-Jakarta and pro-independence supporters agreed on some "basic ideas" but "could find little common ground on (establishing) a joint committee for the implementation of these ideas."

Basilio do Nascimento, bishop of Baucau, east of the capital Dili, has suggested a joint committee be formed to secure the interests of both sides before and after the U.N.-sponsored ballot. Participants in the talks, however, said the idea needs to be considered further.

But Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos-Horta, spokesman for the East Timor resistance movement abroad during his 24-year exile, said the meeting "was an extraordinary success."

"This meeting is essentially a confidence-building measure," he said, adding that those who have been enemies for years had sat at the same table. Ramos-Horta, who has spent his life mostly in Australia and Portugal, arrived in Jakarta at the weekend after the Indonesian government granted him a visa.

About 30 pro-Jakarta activists staged a rally in front of the Jakarta airport hotel where the meeting took place, holding up a placard saying "Wanted -- Ramos-Horta, Dead or Alive."

The accord resulting from the talks, read by a pro-Jakarta representative in Indonesian and a pro-independence one in Portuguese and signed by all 60 participants, included a statement that all East Timorese "have civil, political, social, cultural and economic rights" and an agreement to respect an accord reached June 18 on disarmament by both sides.

Both sides also agreed that the Indonesian police are "the only institution responsible for maintaining order and security" in East Timor , but that the police should play a constructive role for the success of the "popular consultation" ballot, and that the Indonesian military should be "absolutely neutral."

On Tuesday, the U.N. Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) office in Maliana, about 140 kilometers southwest of Dili, was attacked by a mob of 100, presumably pro-Jakarta militia members, who hurled stones and rocks at the office during its inauguration ceremony.

The office was set up to organize the voting to determine whether East Timorese want independence or autonomy under Indonesia. Seven other offices have also been set up in different regencies in the territory.

Several people were seriously injured when the attack, the first on U.N. personnel since they began arriving in East Timor in May.

UNAMET has received a number of threats against its staff in East Timor , apparently from a number of pro-Indonesia militias which accuse the mission of favoritism.

Domingos Policarpo, a representative of the pro-integration group at the peace talks, expressed disappointment at the outcome of the meeting, saying it was marked by manipulation, including in the production of the press statement distributed to journalists.

The press statement said a suggestion from pro-independence groups that East Timor rebel leader Xanana Gusmao be released from house detention to take part in the campaign failed to gain approval, but that Xanana was quoted as saying he was confident the development of democracy in Indonesia would lead to his release.

"It is totally untrue," Policarpo told Kyodo News. "Since the very beginning, we have proposed to the government to release Xanana to enable him to participate in the political campaign."

The talks, sponsored by Dili Bishop Carlos Felipe Ximenes Belo, who shared the 1996 Nobel Prize with Ramos-Horta, and Bishop Nascimento, were the second to be held and are the only dialogue process initiated and managed wholly by East Timorese people.

The first talks took place in Dare, a hilly area in the western part of Dili, in September last year, when the pro-Jakarta and pro-independence parties agreed to recognize their differences and refrain from violence.

But violence between the two factions erupted after Indonesian President B.J. Habibie announced in January that the government would grant East Timor independence if its offer of wide-ranging autonomy is rejected.

Human right activists in East Timor say more than 100 people from both camps have been killed in clashes that have increased in intensity since January.

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