Subject: AN: East Timor governor warns against
UN-sponsored ballot
Date: Fri, 02 Apr 1999 07:59:15 -0500
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>East Timor governor warns
against UN-sponsored ballot Antara news agency, Jakarta, in English 29 Mar 99
Dili, East Timor, 29th March: East Timor Governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares said Monday
the UN-sponsored direct ballot to determine whether the East Timorese accept or reject
wide-ranging autonomy had better not be carried out to avoid the outbreak of violent
clashes among East Timorese. Speaking to reporters here, he said the East Timorese were
not yet ready to accept victory or loss in the direct ballot which Jakarta wants it to be
held in July.
"We fear the victors will be inclined to kill, the more so the losers," he
said. The political temperature in East Timor was now "soaring" and this
condition needed political compromise rather than the fulfilment of one political
aspiration. "In a political compromise, every side will win and conflict can be
avoided," he said.
The East Timorese community should be encouraged to work out a political compromise to
settle the problems affecting their land so that a civil war such as happened in 1975 can
be averted, the governor said.
The direct ballot was reached at the last tripartite meeting between Indonesian Foreign
Minister Ali Alatas and his Portuguese counterpart, Jaime Gama, under the auspices of UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York recently. Abilio said the tripartite meeting's
agreement would be consulted with the East Timorese but there was not certainty yet on how
the consultation would be conducted. "A UN team is currently collecting needed data,
but I would suggest that the direct vote not be carried out." All political figures
of East Timor should make the same suggestion to the central government and the United
Nations because the direct vote was not the best way out, he said...
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