Subject: IPS: UN Announcement of Delay in Vote Draws
Sharp Reactions
Date: Sat, 26 Jun 1999 08:55:32 +0000
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>Received from Joyo Indonesian
News:
RIGHTS-EAST TIMOR: UN Announces Delay in Vote
By Farhan Haq
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 22 (IPS) - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's decision Tuesday to
delay a vote on the status of East Timor drew sharp reaction from supporters of
independence who blamed Indonesia for the lack of adequate security in the territory.
''I think this is going to be a big embarrassment for Indonesia,'' said Constancio
Pinto - UN representative of the pro- independence National Council of Timorese Resistance
- after Annan announced that the vote, scheduled for Aug. 8, would be postponed until
later that month.
''We have certain conditions which have to be fulfilled'' before any vote, Annan said
in Moscow Tuesday. ''We have to ensure that the security situation was conducive and
appropriate, that the logistical problems were solved, that we could deploy everybody on
time.''
After studying the situation, ''we felt a brief delay would be beneficial. So we have
delayed it briefly, but the ballot will go ahead in the month of August and the East
Timorese will have a free choice,'' Annan said.
The UN Security Council was expected to accept a three-week delay in the vote, in which
East Timorese above the age of 17 can opt either for independence, or autonomy under
Indonesian rule.
The vote probably will be taken Aug. 29 but the United Nations is not likely to
announce the new date before UN envoy Jamsheed Marker, who is traveling to East Timor
Thursday, returns to brief the Security Council, officials said.
Pinto said that the Timorese self-determination movement could accept a brief elay to
ensure safety; but he added, ''We hope this will be the only delay of the vote.''
In any case, he said, the delay underscored what critics of Indonesia's 23-year
occupation of East Timor have claimed is Jakarta's unwillingness or inability to provide
the necessary security for a free and fair vote.
Under a UN-brokered agreement on May 5 between Indonesia and Portugal, Indonesia was
given the sole responsibility of providing security and maintaining law and order in the
run-up to the August vote, Pinto noted.
''The announcement from the UN secretary-general to delay the vote until the end of
August revealed that the Indonesian government has not fully complied with the New York
agreement,'' he argued.
''We hope this will put Indonesia on the spot,'' said John Miller, spokesman for the
US-based East Timor Action Network. ''They control security in the territories. It is
their militias that are responsible for the terror and fear that are preventing a free and
fair vote in East Timor.''
Both UN officials and outside human rights experts had previously warned that the level
of violence within East Timor was too high to allow a fair referendum.
Amnesty International, in a report released Monday, cited at least 34 examples of
extra-judicial executions of pro-independence Timorese, which it blamed on pro-Jakarta
paramilitaries.
Florence Martin, UN representative of Amnesty International and part of an Amnesty team
which visited East Timor last month, told IPS that a delay in the Timor ballot is ''par
for the course'' given the level of violence there.
She added that ''three weeks is nothing'' in terms of the time needed to calm tensions
on the ground.
The United Nations appeared to be counting on 900 outside officers - including 270
civilian police and 50 military liaison officers who arrive in East Timor in the next few
weeks - to calm the situation.
So far, however, reports contine of violent harrassment by the militias, occasionally
even as UN officials are able to witness such acts.
''A campaign of state-sponsored terror in East Timor is in full swing,'' the
Australia-based East Timor International Support Centre said in a statement delivered to
the UN Decolonisation Committee.
The group alleged that Indonesia's military was actively supporting the militias, a
charge denied by Jakarta but echoed by several human rights groups.
''The Indonesian armed forces are actively working to sabotage the UN vote,'' the
Centre contended. ''This is in direct contravention of their obligation of neutrality
under the UN agreement.''
In recent days, pro-Jakarta groups have also accused the UN Mission in East Timor
(UNAMET) with ransacking homes and harrassing Timorese and have asked for some UNAMET
officers to be replaced.
''We are astonished that they can make public statements about UNAMET activities that
they don't even bother to verify,'' said UNAMET spokesman David Wimhurst about some of the
militias' accusations.
The current climate could work against the Indonesian government's efforts to repair
its international image - badly battered by its 1975 invasion of East Timor and the deaths
of some 200,000 Timorese, or more than a quarter of the population, in the aftermath.
On Tuesday, the US Senate unanimously supported an amendment to a State Department
authorisation bill, asking President Bill Clinton's administration to ''intensify their
efforts to prevail upon the Indonesian government and military'' to crack down on the
militias.
The Senate criticised Indonesia for including some militia leaders in its civil defense
forces. It argued that such a policy ''violates the May 5 agreement which states that the
absolute neutrality of the military and police is essential for holding a free and fair
ballot.'' (END/IPS/fah/mk/99)
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