Subject: SMH: Pro-Jakarta groups claim bias in voter
registration
Date: Sat, 24 Jul 1999 12:03:19 -0400
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>Received from Joyo Indonesian
News:
Sydney Morning Herald Monday, July 19, 1999
EAST TIMOR Pro-Jakarta groups claim bias in voter registration
By MARK DODD, Herald Correspondent in Balibo
Pro-Indonesia supporters in East Timor are on a collision course with the United
Nations mission over identification requirements for registration on the territory's
voting roll.
At a mass rally in this dowdy hillside town, where five Australian-based news men were
murdered by Indonesian troops in 1975, a coalition of staunch pro-Indonesia political
groups and militia denounced UN bias and called on supporters in the district to boycott
registration for now.
"I urge the people of Bobanaro to wait for the moment because UNAMET [the UN
Assistance Mission in East Timor] are messing with the process .‚.‚. they are
not doing the right job," said Mr Guillerme dos Santos, the hardline bupati, or
mayor, of Maliana. On Saturday, before a crowd of 2,000 people, Mr dos Santos, a bitter
critic of the UN-organised referendum for East Timor, called on UNAMET to change the rules
on voter registration.
"Yesterday was the start of registration," he told the crowd. "The only
rule you need to know is that you need a KTP [identity card] to register and nothing else
should be required by UNAMET.
"UNAMET must understand this clarification that a KTP is enough. If there are any
other demands from UNAMET then I will ask my people to boycott - all you need is a
KTP."
The UN requires two sets of documents to be enrolled as a voter. They are proof of
identity, either a passport, identity card or refugeecard, and proof of voter eligibility
in the form of a birth, marriage or baptism certificate. To be allowed to vote, a person
must be at least 17 years old and born in East Timor, have one or more parents born in
East Timor, or be married to someone who is the child of at least one parent born in the
territory. Asked whether the UN would consider Mr dos Santos's demand, the UN spokesman in
Dili, Mr David Wimhurst, said: "Absolutely not." Rules on eligibility had been
carefully drawn up by voting and legal experts and agreed to by the Portugese and
Indonesian governments, Mr Wimhurst told the Herald. At one point in the rally, Mr dos
Santos threatened to evict an Australian journalist who wrote that he had threatened UN
and Australian peacekeeping officials' lives if they did not remain neutral.
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