Subject: AFP: Australia's Downer warns of
"enormous risks" in East Timor vote
Date: Sun, 01 Aug 1999 11:33:44 -0400
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>Received from Joyo Indonesian
News:
Australia's Downer warns of "enormous risks" in East Timor vote
DILI, East Timor, July 30 (AFP) - Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer warned
Friday of "enormous risks" in next month's autonomy vote in East Timor, saying
Indonesia's international reputation was at stake.
"There is a long way to go, there are enormous risks ahead," Downer told
journalists during a 24-hour visit here, the first ever by an Australian minister.
"There has been so much violence for so long," Downer added, referring to
years of bitter fighting and some 200,000 deaths following the Indonesian invasion of the
former Portuguese colony in 1975.
But Downer said he had "more optimism that the ballot is going to go ahead than I
did two months ago."
"Our expectation is that the TNI (Indonesian armed forces) will start to behave in
a more neutral way and there are some signs of improvement," he said.
"I think the Indonesian government in Jakarta knows that the eyes of the world are
on this exercise and I think that they know that Indonesia's reputation is at stake,"
he added.
"If the UN ballot works, it will do a tremendous amount for Indonesia's reputation
-- if it fails it will be an enormous setback."
Downer also reiterated his fears that the limbo period known as Phase Two -- between
the vote scheduled for August 30 and November, when Indonesia will either accept or reject
the outcome -- could turn violent.
Timorese will vote on whether to accept or reject an Indonesian offer of broad
autonomy. Australia is supplying heavy logistical support and a substantial number of
unarmed UN police advisers for the ballot.
Indonesian President B.J. Habibie has said Jakarta's seal of approval of the Timor
ballot must come from the nation's highest legislative body when it meets in November.
Habibie has previously suggested that East Timor may be offered independence if its people
reject autonomy.
Under an agreement signed by Portugal and Indonesia in May, Indonesian police are
responsible for security before and after the ballot.
Downer said the police would remain responsible for security during Phase Two.
But he said he foresaw "an increase in the UNAMET (United Nations Mission in East
Timor) unarmed civilian police presence," although discussions with the Indonesian
government on Phase Two were "far from complete."
Downer, who arrived aboard a small Royal Australian Air Force executive jet from Bali
early Friday, rushed through back-to-back meetings starting with East Timor governor
Abilio Soares.
He then met UNAMET officials, dedicated the new Australian consulate in Dili -- the
first foreign diplomatic office here -- and plunged into talks with pro- and
anti-independence groups as well as with Nobel laureate Bishop Carlos Ximines Belo.
In the meeting with the pro-independence National Council of East Timorese Resistance
in a small room above a shop-house, Downer said Canberra had asked Jakarta to release
their jailed leader Xanana Gusmao.
"We believe that the return of Xanana would help contribute to the peaceful
resolution of the East Timor question," he said.
Wearing a traditional East Timorese "Tais" or neckscarf, he urged the council
leaders to think first of reconciliation with the other side -- whoever won or lost the
ballot.
"I am prepared to say that it is more important than anything else that there be
no retribution, no payback," he said.
"I think you can have a really great future -- and you have a friend in Australia
-- for our part we will help the people of East Timor whichever way they vote."
Downer repeated similar comments in a meeting with the anti-independence grouping. But
witnesses said the pro-Indonesian militia, blamed for much of the violence in East Timor,
were absent.
He is scheduled to fly back to Australia early Saturday after visiting a cemetery near
Dili for Australian soldiers killed in East Timor during World War II.
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