Subject: AFP: Gusmao says no agreement on who will
disarm Timor factions
Date: Sat, 19 Jun 1999 14:46:31 +0000
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>Received from Joyo Indonesian
News:
Gusmao says no agreement on who will disarm Timor factions
JAKARTA, June 19 (AFP) - East Timor resistance leader Xanana Gusmao said here Saturday
that agreement has yet to be reached on who would disarm the warring factions in East
Timor despite the signing of a call to lay down arms.
"Given the fact that the disarmament is not the responsibility of the Polri
(Indonesian police), the Peace and Stability Commission (KPS) and the UN will later decide
which instance will be in charge of overseeing the disarmament process," Gusmao said
in a statement.
The statement, received here early Saturday, was issued after pro- and anti-Indonesian
East Timorese factions signed an accord calling on their respective followers to lay down
arms to allow a vote on the territory's future to procede peacefully.
An announcer at the signing ceremony said both sides had agreed to hand over their
weapons to the Indonesian National Police.
In the statement, issued from his detention house in Jakarta where he is serving a
20-year jail term, Gusmao, president of the CNRT (National Council of Timorese Resistance)
said he considered a three-day meeting with pro-Indonesia leaders "a significant
first step towards the creation of a peaceful environment in East Timor."
No dates were given in the documents signed, but Indonesian armed forces chief General
Wiranto said later the disarmament period would last from June 20 until July 5.
The full complement of 274 unarmed UN civilian police to be sent to the former
Portuguese colony under an agreement between Indonesia, Portugal and the United Nations
signed in May, is not scheduled to be in place until July 10.
Gusmao also said he stressed during the three-day meeting the "necessity to close
down all the military posts spread throughout the territory, and for TNI (the Indonesian
army) to be confined to barracks as necessary conditions for the implementation of the
diarmament."
Back to June Menu
Human Rights Violations in East Timor
Main Postings Menu
June '98 through February '99 |
