Subject: DJ: Voter Safety Worries U.N. as East Timor
Eyes Freedom
Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 14:35:36 +0000
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>Received from Joyo Indonesian
News:
Dow Jones June 15, 1999
Voter Safety Worries U.N. as East Timor Eyes Freedom
DILI, East Timor -- This disputed province is growing calmer but still has a "long
way to go" before those who support breaking away from Indonesia feel secure enough
to vote in a referendum on independence, less than two months away, the chief United
Nations official here says.
"It's a priority for us both to assess and also to try and have a positive effect
upon a security situation, which is still a great concern around the country," said
the official, Ian Martin, who heads a United Nations mission that arrived here in May.
He said his first task had been to assess whether people felt secure enough even to
register to vote in the referendum. It is set for Aug. 8, and will take place as part of a
U.N.-brokered agreement signed on May 5 by Indonesia and Portugal, the former colonial
power.
Since January, political violence, carried out mainly by militias and gangs that want
to remain part of Indonesia, has claimed more than 100 lives, mostly those of independence
supporters.
"There's a long way to go" Martin said, "if pro-independence supporters,
many of whom have left their homes in recent months, are going to feel that they can
return in security, which is what they have to do for registration let alone ballot
campaigning."
Many of those who support independence have gone into hiding and are only now beginning
to emerge.
"It's only beginning to happen very slowly," Martin added. "I don't
think yet anything like a sufficient sense of confidence has been created. Inevitably it
will be slow to return after what has happened in the recent past."
Since the arrival of the first U.N. personnel last month, the security situation in the
provincial capital, Dili, has noticeably improved, Martin said, despite "a good deal
of apprehension" and continuing threats of violence.
He said Dili was clearly a lot calmer than the outlying districts of Liquica, Maliana
and Suai, where the United Nations continued to receive "disturbing reports."
U.N. officials here have faced challenges enforcing certain provisions of the May 5
accord and making sure that all parts of it are clearly understood.
As Martin put it, "I'm not sure that the agreement has really begun to be
understood or explained certainly down to local level among government officials, who may
have been given a very different expectation of what they were to do."
For instance, the agreement strictly prohibits use of Government money for spreading
propaganda about the autonomy proposal or supporting political and militia groups allied
to Jakarta.
"We've certainly begun to raise that as an issue with the Indonesian
authorities," Martin added, "and we will have to absolutely insist that any
evidence that it is continuing must lead to prompt and firm action on their part."
He expressed concern that military and police chiefs in the province had allowed
several pro-Jakarta militias to join village-level civil defense groups that have policing
powers.
East Timor's regional police commander, Col. Timbul Silaen, said recently that he did
no object if a hard-line militia commandant, Eurico Guterres, joined the civil defense.
"I'm surprised by that statement," Martin said, adding that although he was
not entirely clear on the legal basis, "certainly it is something that exists in many
parts of Indonesia."
He said his group had "made clear" that "it is the police and only the
police who shall play the security role, so we expect to progressively see that is the
case."
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