Subject: AFP: East Timor mulls arrival of UN police
force for August poll
Date: Sat, 01 May 1999 08:49:46 -0400
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>Received from Joyo Indonesian
News:
East Timor mulls arrival of UN police force for August poll
DILI, East Timor, April 28 (AFP) - The East Timorese capital of Dili was calm Wednesday
mulling an accord to deploy a UN police force during an August referendum on the
territory's future, as foreign envoys sounded out opinion.
Three visiting foreign dignitaries were in town -- British Deputy Foreign Minister
Derek Fatchett who arrived here from Bali earlier Wednesday, Portuguese envoy to Jakarta
Ana Gomes and Belgian Ambassador to Jakarta, Luk Drassar who have been here since Tuesday.
"With the arrival of the many diplomats and foreign officials here in the past
days, Dili has been relatively calm but I do not think it is the case in the
regions," said Joaquim, a staff member at the Foundation for Human Rights and Justice
here.
Indonesian President B.J. Habibie on Tuesday announced a vote on an autonomy offer for
East Timor would be held on August 8, but it has met with mixed reactions in Timor.
Many said it would come too late, giving pro-Indonesian groups more time to pressure
the population to accept the autonomy option.
"There is too much time (between now and August 8) and something is certain to be
done by the pro-Indonesia groups in the meantime ... we should be careful because there is
much engineering going on," said Manuel Carrascalao.
Carrascalao, a pro-independence former MP who lost one son in an attack on his
refugee-packed house here by armed pro-Jakarta militias on April 17, was speaking from the
police headquarters where he has sheltered since the attack.
Details about the UN force remained sketchy.
But an Australian source said Tuesday: "Probably they will start as soon as
possible, after May 5 ... a tiny team of five or six men would go in almost straight
away."
Pro-independence groups and human rights watchdogs have alleged continuing terror and
harrasment by officials and pro-Indonesia supporters of the local population in various
towns ahead of the ballot.
Jakarta has said if the majority of the East Timor's 800,000 people reject the autonomy
offer then it will give independence to the territory which it invaded in 1975 and
unilaterally annexed a year later.
But since, Jakarta's surprise announcement in January tensions between the two camps
have risen.
Joaquim, who declined to give his full name, said eight bodies were dragged out of the
Tavara river estuary in the southwestern Suai district on Saturday.
"The bodies were found in a rotting condition, so it was really difficult for us
to know how they had died before they were dumped in the river," he said.
Security and local officials denied there had been any kidnapping and killing of
pro-independence Timorese by military backed militias.
"It is not true, no bodies have been found here. Come on over and check for
yourself," Captain Samsudin of the Suai military command said.
Pro-independence guerrillas had however set fire to public transport Tuesday causing no
casualties, he said. "The press look away when it's an attack against the
pro-Indonesians," he added.
Fatchett is the first member of the British government to visit East Timor since its
annexation in 1976.
Before leaving Jakarta he said he would seek to promote an end to the violence. On
Wednesday he met with Dili Bishop and Nobel laureate Carlos Ximenes Felipe Belo as well as
Jakarta-appointed Governor Jose Osorio Abilio Soares.
He also briefly visited a church clinic. "He came to give the aid of medicine and
some supplies to take care of wounds. He also visited and talked with some of the
patients," said Sister Inacio who heads the clinic.
He later met with the head of the East Timorese command Colonel Tono Suratman but both
declined immediate comment.
Gomes meanwhile met with Carrascalao and another pro-independence activists, Leandro
Issac but declined to comment on their talks saying they were "confidential but
important."
She also met representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and the
local East Timor office of the National Commission on Human Rights, and refugees
sheltering in the East Timor police command.
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