Subject: Clinton demands Indonesia accept
international force
Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1999 21:49:41 EDT
From: Joyo@AOL.COMClinton demands Indonesia accept international force
WASHINGTON, Sept 9 (AFP) - US President Bill Clinton demanded Thursday that Jakarta
allow the international community to provide security in East Timor, charging Indonesia
with failing to stop "gross abuses."
"If Indonesia does not end the violence, it must invite the international
community to assist in restoring security," Clinton said from the White House.
Clinton said he has made no decision about the US contribution to an eventual
peacekeeping force but was consulting with Congress and Australia, which has offered to
deploy its troops.
"I believe we should support them in an appropriate way," he said.
Clinton was headed to the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in New Zealand which
he said would be dominated by the East Timor crisis as well as the economic stability in
key countries such as Indonesia.
"Precisely because Indonesia's future is so important, I am so deeply concerned by
the failure of its military to bring a stop to gross abuses now going on in East
Timor," Clinton said.
The president would not comment on possible US economic sanctions against Indonesia,
which was hard hit by the Asian crisis last year, but he warned that the country's economy
has already suffered a setback because of the Timor crisis.
"It would be a pity if the Indonesian recovery were crashed by this but one way or
the other it will be crashed by this," he said.
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