| Subject: Steady Stream
Of Intl Visitors Helps E Timor - Diplomats Dow Jones Newswires October 11, 1999
Steady Stream Of Intl Visitors Helps E Timor - Diplomats
By JEREMY WAGSTAFF
JAKARTA -- Western ministers or senior officials are
keeping up a steady stream of visits to East Timor and Indonesian West Timor, in part to
help protect thousands of East Timorese refugees, Jakarta-based diplomats said.
Olivier Chambard, First Secretary at the French Embassy in
Jakarta, told Dow Jones Newswires that Charles Josselin, French minister for cooperation
and humanitarian assistance, was currently in Dili, the capital of East Timor. He's due to
visit the West Timor capital of Kupang later Tuesday.
The visit to Indonesia was added at the end of an Asian
tour that included the Philippines and Cambodia because of the situation in Timor,
Chambard said. While acknowledging the trip to Kupang was to show concern at the plight of
the refugees, he said Josselin had also stressed in talks with Indonesia's President B.J.
Habibie that Indonesia could benefit from visits to the camps. "It could also help
them to have high-level visitors," he said.
Indonesia has been blamed for at least tacit involvement in
the forced evacuation of hundreds of thousands of East Timorese in the wake of a United
Nations referendum, which resulted heavily in favor of independence from Indonesia. Up to
a third of the territory's 850,000 population are now outside East Timor, many of them
against their will.
Josselin is the fourth minister or senior official to visit
Timor island in recent weeks. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human
Rights and Labor Harold Koh led a six-man delegation to the island earlier this month. Koh
said during his visit that the refugees were living in fear of pro-Jakarta militias and
their Indonesian military backers.
Meanwhile, Portugal's high commissioner for transitional
assistance to East Timor, Vitor Melicias, is currently in East Timor to oversee deployment
of about 80 humanitarian workers, including firemen, doctors and nurses. He won't be
visiting West Timor for diplomatic reasons.
Portugal's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and
Cooperation Luis Amado visited East Timor late last month. Under an U.N. agreement with
Indonesia, Portugal won't deploy its 1,000-man contingent of an international peacekeeping
force until Indonesia formally gives up sovereignty of East Timor, expected later this
month. Portugal was East Timor's colonial ruler until the Indonesian invasion in 1975.
Portugal's de facto ambassador in Indonesia, Ana Gomez,
said the visits weren't a coincidence. "There's been a clear common effort to stress
the importance the world attaches to the situation in...Timor," she said.
Gomez said the visits appeared to have had an impact: the
Indonesian military has guaranteed the safety of more than 250,000 East Timorese in West
Timor, and will assist those who want to return home to do so.
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