Subject: UN: Transcript of Press Conf with UNSG,
Foreign Ministers
Date: Sat, 01 May 1999 08:40:01 -0400
From: "Sharon R.A. Scharfe" <pet@web.net>UNITED NATIONS Press Release
SG/SM/6966 23 April 1999
EAST TIMOR
THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: Ladies and gentlemen, I am back again, this time with more good
news, so today is a good day. We don't have many of those these days.
I am pleased to inform you that after a very productive and successful round of
meetings in which a lot of ground was covered, we have an agreement between the Republic
of Indonesia and the Republic of Portugal on the question of East Timor. The agreement has
been finalized and will be signed together with its annexes in New York on 5 May.
There are two additional documents which were presented to the delegations for the
first time this week. These cover the security arrangements for the peaceful
implementation of the popular consultation in East Timor and the modalities for the
consultation.
Foreign Minister Alatas has indicated that while his side has no substantive difficulty
with either document, he would have to obtain the approval of his authorities before he
can sign them.
I look forward to concluding this historic process on 5 May this year, when all these
agreements will have been signed. I am grateful for the customary spirit of cooperation
and statesmanship displayed by the two Ministers, which has enabled us to make such
progress.
I welcome the reaffirmation by the Indonesian Government that it will effectively carry
out its responsibility for law and order and the protection of civilians. I should also
underline the responsibility of all the parties that signed an agreement this week to end
the violence in East Timor to fulfil their obligations without delay. Peace and stability
are vital in East Timor.
I will be happy to take your questions, or maybe the Ministers both want to say
something briefly before we open it up to the questions.
Mr. GAMA: Mr. Secretary-General, it is for us on the Portuguese side very important
that these steps lead to a lasting solution to the problem of East Timor and that peace be
restored there in order to allow a consultation on the future of the territory. The
effectiveness of these agreements we are going to sign next 5 May is crucial in restoring
stability and peace in the territory, disarming the militias and not giving them weapons
or means to counter acts against the spirit of the negotiations, which have been so
professionally conducted by Ambassador Marker and by the Secretary-General of the United
Nations.
THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: Thank you very much. Ali.
Mr. ALATAS: Thank you, Mr. Secretary-General. I too would like to say how pleased we
are to have achieved agreement on the documents that you have just mentioned. The only
thing was that the two documents on security and on the modalities of how the United
Nations will conduct the consultations, et cetera, were put before us only at this
meeting. Although we have [inaudible] referendum agreement among us about the text, I will
need to bring it to my Government for their final approval. So we are very much looking
forward to the signing of the main agreement, its annex on the proposed autonomy plan and
the two agreements on security arrangements and the modalities of the consultation
process, on 5 May.
Meanwhile, I would like to share with the media here a very important development that
has occurred in East Timor. All the parties concerned -- on the one hand, of course, the
armed forces; and then the two bishops of East Timor; all the conflicting parties on both
sides, those who are pro-integration and those who are pro-independence; plus the local
government, et cetera -- have come together as a response to the initiative taken by our
national commission on human rights. They signed a very important agreement on 21 April,
the text of which we can distribute to the press also. I think this is a sign that we will
indeed assume our responsibility to make sure that a conducive situation will be existing
in East Timor -- conducive towards the implementation of the agreements that we have just
reached on consulting the views of the East Timorese on the proposed autonomy plan that
will hopefully soon, in a few days, be fully publicized.
So, again, I very much look forward to the day that we can sign this agreement so that
we can start the process rolling, Mr. Secretary-General. Once again, thank you very much
for all your help and the help of Ambassador Jamsheed Marker.
THE SECRETARY-GENERAL: As Fred told you, I will have to leave to receive a Head of
State. But, finally, I would also really want to pay tribute to Ambassador Marker, an
outstanding negotiator, and his team for the work that they have put into this effort. I
think they really deserve our gratitude and appreciation for the work they have done.
Thank you very much.
QUESTION: We welcome you on behalf of the United Nations Correspondents Association.
The most important thing may be the disarmament of the militia and ensuring peace and
tranquillity. In the agreement, who is going to supervise that? The United Nations, or
Indonesia and Portugal? What is the mechanism?
Mr. ALATAS: In the agreement that was signed between the parties concerned, we will
note that it is first and foremost the laying down of arms by all parties, not only the
so-called militia. I think the international press and the international community must
come around to acknowledging that what we have in East Timor is a conflict between two
groups of people: those who want independence, and those who have accepted integration.
And that has been the situation for 23 years. It is continuing now and is becoming,
unfortunately, more pronounced and sharper as we move towards the day when they are going
to have to express their views on whether they would like to have autonomy or whether they
would reject autonomy.
It is not a question of only disarming the so-called militia -- this is confusing the
issue. It is disarming both sides. And this is the next step, of course, because disarming
means also that the Falintil, who are in the mountains, should also be disarmed.
Otherwise, the groups that are now fighting against them -- the pro-integrationists --
will never surrender their arms. So it is a much more complex problem. But fortunately,
now we have the means, we have the forum -- and this is very important -- of leading
personalities, including the two bishops, who will now work very hard to ensure that after
the laying down of arms, after the cessation of hostilities, we can move forward to
disarmament, et cetera, to reconciliation. But, in the meantime, the first thing is that
we make sure that an atmosphere and condition that is conducive is created in East Timor
for the implementation of the agreements that we have now reached, and which will be
implemented.
QUESTION: The United Nations is going to supervise the disarmament or the parties?
Mr. MARKER: We are still waiting for a final confirmation of the security arrangements.
But at that time the United Nations presence will definitely be there. And exactly what
shape or form that will take has to be worked out. But the objective is quite clear, that
there has to be a stopping of the fighting. The quickest and most effective way to do that
of course is to have disarmament. But you can also have a stop with a ceasefire. We will
have to find out and see when we go in there what the situation is. But I am confident
that an effective method can and will be found.
QUESTION: Could you please outline what the proposals are -- I realize that it still
has to go back to Jakarta -- but what the proposals are for an international presence in
the lead-up to the vote. What international presence are you envisaging?
Mr. MARKER: We are working on the details of that now. In fact, we have been working on
it in-house over the last week. I am not in a position to give you either the extent or
the nature of that. We are doing that ourselves first. Then we will discuss it with the
two Governments. But clearly this is a matter of the utmost importance. We are aware of
that and we are working on that.
QUESTION: I would like to know whether there is an agreement on the date of the
consultations, and also whether it is going to be a consultation of one man, one vote, one
day.
Mr. MARKER: There is, in principle, an agreement on all those points. But you will have
to wait until 5 May to get the details.
QUESTION: I was actually going to ask a similar question. But since we are not going to
get an answer to that, I was wondering if Foreign Minister Alatas could tell us what his
assessment is of whether his Government is going to accept this agreement that has been
worked out. At the moment it is a tentative agreement. Are you optimistic, pessimistic
that is going to be accepted without changes, and that 5 May will stand, and that it will
be able to proceed with a ballot probably in July -- that seems to be the target date?
Mr. ALATAS: Well, the main agreement and its annex, I think, have been tentatively
cleared already -- although the main agreement was still pending when we came here -- so
there would be no difficulties there. I hope that the two new agreements on security
arrangements and on the modalities -- although we have no more difficulties here
[inaudible] we could agree to the text -- will not pose any problems when I present to the
Government.
But of course, I cannot go ahead of my Government. I will have to say factually; I will
have to present it to the Cabinet, and hopefully they will agree, because, as I said,
there has been [inaudible] agreement here at our level.
QUESTION: Are you still optimistic that a ballot could be held in July? That the
consultations could be some time in July?
Mr. ALATAS: Well, as Ambassador Marker said, we have tentative dates in mind, but we
cannot at this point reveal it to the press, because that is still part of the agreements
that we are working on.
QUESTION: I was wondering whether Mr. Alatas would comment on the statements from the
Australian Foreign Ministry yesterday, indicating support for a United Nations presence,
and possibly even a peacekeeping presence, for East Timor. And I was also wondering
whether Mr. Gama might want to evaluate how the situation on the ground seems to be in
East Timor in the last day or since the signing of the ceasefire pact.
Mr. ALATAS: Well, I don't know exactly to what statement you are referring, but as far
as a United Nations presence is concerned, I think it has all along been the general
agreement among us that, the minute we reach the stage where an agreement or the agreement
is going to be implemented, of course there will be a United Nations presence in East
Timor for the implementation of that agreement. So there is no problem there. It is only
now a question of the technical implementation of it: how, when and in what manner the
United Nations will be there. This is precisely the subject of the modalities paper, one
of the papers that we have discussed.
As far as your reference to an Australian statement on peacekeeping forces, I would
like to say that, throughout our discussions, United Nations peacekeeping forces have
never been an issue that has been raised. The United Nations will be there; there will be
and adequate and, I think, sufficient United Nations presence, but there are many ways of
a United Nations presence. But United Nations peacekeeping forces have never been AN issue
that has been discussed.
Mr. GAMA: All the information we have is that, at least in the capital, Dili, there was
a stabilizing tendency and that the signature of the agreement had a positive effect in
calming down the situation. But in other areas in the countryside, there are new elements
that do not go in the positive sense: intimidation, even some [inaudible] killings. Also,
I showed my Indonesian colleague my deep concern about those events and the need to have
stability and peace there, to stop and disarm the militias, not to give them any sort of
impulse, in order to have peace agreements effective and not just a formal ritual.
QUESTION: That disarmament that you spoke about a few moments ago -- it's to be present
immediately, to be use immediately right now? Both parties are agreed on that disarmament
and the consequences of this agreement are to be right now?
Mr. ALATAS: Well, if you read the text of the agreement that was reached on 21 April
among all the parties concerned, what they have agreed right now is a cessation of
hostilities, of all kinds of violence, etc., of mutual provocations, etc.
And an important further step is that they have agreed on the establishment of a Peace
and Stability Commission consisting of representatives of all those who participated in
this agreement, and that this Peace and Stability Commission would do several things,
among others, to endeavour to achieve disarmament among all the fighting groups, et
cetera. They will do other things also, but they are, I think, going to be operational as
soon as possible. And as I said, the most important thing -- the most urgent thing,
however, is that even as disarmament is the next goal, at least in the absence of
disarmament, temporarily, that there be a laying down of arms -- not a surrendering of
arms, but a laying down of arms -- a cessation of fighting and hostilities and the
creation of a situation in East Timor that would be conducive to the implementation of the
consultation process.
QUESTION: Is the constitution of the Commission under way?
Mr. ALATAS: The Peace and Stability Commission is being established now; it is in the
process of being established.
QUESTION: Mr. Alatas, you talk about a process of disarmament. Are we to take it that
if there is to be no peacekeeping force and the United Nations presence is to be civilian
and mainly connected with the consultation, that the only agency that will actually be
policing disarmament will still be the Indonesian military, about which there has been,
obviously, some criticism on the international scene in the light of recent events?
Mr. ALATAS: The Indonesian military and the Indonesian police are determined to take
their responsibility to keep law and order and peace and tranquility in East Timor. And
when the United Nations presence will be there, of course, they will consult one another,
et cetera, but there will be no foreign peacekeeping forces, because that has never been
discussed. So yes, the main responsibility will be shouldered by Indonesia.
QUESTION: So as you see it the United Nations main job will be a political job in terms
of preparing for consultations as opposed to any kind of a security role.
Mr. ALATAS: Well, they will contribute to security. That is why we have a paper on
security arrangements. But it will certainly not be in the form of a United Nations
peacekeeping force.
QUESTION: I have a question for Ambassador Marker. Why does the United Nations not
propose the sending of a peacekeeping force to East Timor? The United Nations considers
that that is not necessary at this stage?
Mr. MARKER: The United Nations has, as you know, been in active negotiations in this
whole process. As we see it right now, the process is on track. We have taken the word and
the understanding of the Government of Indonesia that peaceful conditions will prevail.
The United Nations cannot send a peacekeeping force by itself; there is a whole process to
be raised, including discussions with the Government of Indonesia itself. We have not
found it necessary under the present circumstances to send in a peacekeeping force, to
parachute a whole lot of Blue Helmets down there. We don't think that that situation calls
for that. We think it is much more important that we should give the diplomatic process a
chance. And I think events have probably justified so far the validity of our reasoning.
QUESTION: Mr. Alatas, yesterday you used the word "referendum", and we were
surprised by that.
Mr. ALATAS: In what context?
QUESTION: At the end of the day, when you were answering the questions for the
reporters. And we were surprised. Is that is going to happen? A referendum?
Mr. ALATAS: I don't recall using the word "referendum", and if I had, I would
have used it in the same context that I have always used it, and that is that we do not
accept a referendum. And that hasn't changed. Our basic position is that we do not accept
a referendum.
QUESTION: Prime Minister Alatas, you said that the date of a consultation is also
included in the tentative agreement. Do you think that your Government -- the cabinet or
parliament -- will definitely accept that date for the consultation?
Mr. ALATAS: From the very beginning of the negotiations we have proposed, and we have
suggested, that we try to get the consultation process actually implemented before a
certain date in August. It is we who want it as quickly as possible, but we will have to
take into consideration the logistical arrangements that will have to be made and
evaluated by the United Nations and so on.
So don't think that we will have difficulties with a date that is close. It is we who
have proposed that [this take place as soon as possible] -- if possible in July. So it is
now being negotiated on the basis of technicalities: what can be done in the remaining
time in order to set the process in motion, what will be needed in terms of personnel,
what will be needed in terms of material, and so forth. We have agreed on a date, but
unfortunately we cannot reveal it yet. But I can tell you that it is a date that is very
much in line with what our position has been all along, namely to have the consultations
as soon as possible before the end of August.
QUESTION: Mr. Alatas, could you tell us please about the future of Mr. Gusmao.
Mr. ALATAS: The future? Well, we have said on several occasions that Mr. Gusmao will be
released as part and parcel of the overall solution. So he cannot be released beforehand,
as many have demanded, but he will be released as part and parcel of the solution. So we
will have to discuss and determine later on at what point in the implementation of the
solution he will be given a special pardon.
QUESTION: Is that in the agreement, for example will he be released on 5 May when the
agreement is signed?
Mr. ALATAS: No, not yet, no agreement yet. No discussion yet either on this.
QUESTION: A question for Ambassador Marker. I know, Ambassador, that you cannot give us
the precise shape and structure of any United Nations presence, but if we assume that the
signing goes ahead as envisaged on 5 May, how soon would you expect United Nations
personnel -- presumably civilian personnel -- to actually be arriving in East Timor.
Mr. MARKER: We have been working on it right now. We have been making all the
preparatory arrangements in anticipation. One has to do that. So after that it is a purely
logistical matter. I can't tell you that because we're still working on it. I hope to be
here next week to work with my colleagues regarding what we can do. But certainly, as I
see it, that light turns green on 5 May. It's red and amber at the moment.
For more information on Parliamentarians for East Timor, Please Contact:
Sharon Scharfe, International Secretariat PARLIAMENTARIANS FOR EAST TIMOR Suite 116,
5929-L Jeanne D'Arc Blvd., Orleans, ON K1C 7K2 CANADA
Fax: 1-613-834-2021 E-Mail: pet@web.net
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