Received from Joyo Indonesian News

Jakarta Post [online] November 17, 2001

Xanana to meet with pro-Jakarta ex-militia leader

JAKARTA (JP): Pro-Jakarta East Timorese leader, Eurico Guterres, is scheduled to meet with East Timorese leader, Jose Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmao, in Bali on Sunday, a close aide of Eurico said on Saturday.

"I have been informed by Eurico that he has been invited to meet with Xanana in Denpasar on Sunday," Hukman Reni was quoted by Antara as saying in the East Nusa Tenggara capital of Kupang.

Xanana will also meet with former East Timorese governor Abilio Soares and scores of former pro-Jakarta fighters.

The Denpasar meeting is being facilitated by senior officer of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) N. Parameswaran, Hukman said.

"Eurico welcomes the meeting as long as it has a clear agenda that will bring benefit to the East Timorese," he said.

Hukman said he did not know the meeting agenda.

"If the meeting is about the repatriation program, Eurico already has a clear stance on the issue -- that he will not forbid East Timorese refugees from returning home," he said.

The repatriation of East Timorese refugees to their home villages in Timor Lorosae has been going on for the past few months.

The Indonesian government has decided to stop its financial support for the refugees in December.

"With an end to the support, hopefully the refugees will be determined to return home," chief of the Udayana regional military command, Maj. Gen. Willem T. Da Costa, has said.

The East Nusa Tenggara provincial administration said that some 130,000 East Timorese refugees have stayed on in West Timor.

East Timor voted to separate from Indonesia in a UN-sponsored ballot in August 1999.

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