Indonesia accuses East Timor of ignoring border agreement

July 2, 2004 6:26am Asia Intelligence Wire

Atambua: The Atambua Immigration Office views the Democratic Republic of Timor Leste [East Timor] (RDTL) as obstructing the adoption of border crossing posts (PLB) in the border area between Indonesia (West Timor/NTT) and RDTL. In fact, the plan for the adoption of the PLB had already been jointly agreed upon in a memorandum of understanding (MoU) which was signed in Jakarta.

This matter was explained by the Head of Atambua Immigration, Slamet Santoso, to Pos Kupang in his office on Monday (28 June). He was asked for confirmation that the PLB had not yet been implemented and about the plans of the Belu District Government to write to the central government concerning the issue of fee free entry by East Timorese citizens to West Timor in order to make use of the border market. [Passage omitted on irrelevant details]

"In the joint agreement in Jakarta, the PLB was put in place in December 2003. And, we (Indonesia) have already prepared all of the facilities for the regulation of the PLB. It turns out that during the course of this, RDTL has not responded to this agreement of ours. That, you know, is the same as obstructing and violating a transnational MoU. We in West Timor are ready whenever they want to implement the PLB," he said.

In relation to the PLB not yet being implemented, Slamet said that the Head of the Office for Indonesian Interests (KUKRI) in RDTL had already sent a letter to the Indonesian Department of Foreign Affairs to ask about the continuance of the implementation of the PLB. It was obvious that RDTL was not serious in dealing with the establishment of the PLB. [Passage omitted on irrelevant details]

Source: Kupang Pos web site, Kupang, in Indonesian 2 Jul 04

BBC Monitoring

Copyright © 2004 BBC Monitoring/BBC. Source: Financial Times Information Limited.

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