Subject: GU: Australia significantly increases
pressure for U.N. force in E.Timor
Date: Fri, 02 Apr 1999 08:02:16 -0500
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org> Received from Joyo:
Australia significantly increases pressure for U.N. force in E.Timor
The Guardian [UK] Thursday April 1, 1999
*Australia offers troops for a UN force in E Timor
By John Aglionby in Jakarta
Australia has significantly increased the pressure on the United Nations to send
peacekeepers to the rebellious Indonesian territory of East Timor by becoming the first
Western power to commit itself to contributing to such a force yesterday.
But the foreign minister, Alexander Downer, said a clear and achievable UN mandate
would have to be set in advance, as would the cost and risk of any mission to the former
Portuguese colony invaded by Indonesia in 1975.
Mr Downer's change of policy on the issue is a response to the increasing tension in
the territory. Anti-independence groups have intensified a vicious campaign of terror
since the Indonesian president, B. J. Habibie, announced in January that he was willing to
give the East Timorese independence if they rejected an offer of autonomy.
Backed by the Indonesian army, paramilitary groups have sprung up, killing civilians at
random.
The secretary-general of Indonesia's human rights commission, Clementino dos Reis
Amaral, said yesterday that on a recent trip to East Timor he found the situation 'worse
than ever before'.
'People are afraid to go out at night and they go about their daily lives in an
atmosphere of fear.'
Pro-independence groups have accused the army of trying to bring about a situation that
might convince people that rejecting autonomy in favour of independence would provoke a
civil war. They thus hope to boost support for Jakarta in the July vote.
Jose 'Xanana' Gusmao, the leader of the pro-independence forces, who is under house
arrest in Jakarta, wrote in a paper delivered at a seminar in Jakarta yesterday: 'The
message we get from Indonesia is: it's better to choose autonomy to avoid bloodshed.'
He accepted that pro-independence groups had committed atrocities, some in revenge and
some against collaborators. But foreign diplomats and observers agree that they are
responsible for only a minority of incidents.
Last week Mr Gusmao wrote to the UN Commissioner for Human Rights: 'If strong and
effective pressure is not brought to bear on Indonesia, the people of East Timor are
liable to lose their patience, and in the bloodbath that would ensue, the only
humanitarian assistance required will be to help bury our dead.
'The situation compels me to call for an urgent UN presence to enforce peace and I urge
governments of the world and the United Nations to support the establishment of such a
presence.'
He has written similar letters to foreign ambassadors in Jakarta. Indonesia refuses to
grant the UN permission to establish any sort of presence in East Timor.
Independent figures are backing Mr Gusmao. Mr Amaral said that at least 1,000
peacekeepers would be needed, in addition to civilian election monitors.
If a free vote is held, a sizeable majority of the 200,000 eligible voters - including
East Timorese living abroad - are expect to reject the autonomy package.
Mario Carrascalao, the Jakarta-appointed governor of East Timor from 1982 to 1992, who
now backs independence, said the situation was so bad that 1,000 soldiers would not be
enough. 'I believe that if you want fair consultation you will need 10 fair peacekeepers
in every village.' There are 442 villages in East Timor.
Basilio Araujo, a spokesman for the pro-Jakarta activists, dismissed the need for any
peacekeepers.
He said: 'Barely any UN presence would be needed at all. Perhaps 13 civilian monitors,
so there's one in each district, and certainly no peacekeeping soldiers. The Indonesian
army can protect them.'
Back to April Menu
Human Rights Violations in East Timor
Main Postings Menu
June '98 through February '99 |
