Subject: RadRen: JRH reservations about UN agreement
Date: Sat, 20 Mar 1999 09:13:35 -0500
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>BBC Summary of World Broadcasts
March 13, 1999, Saturday
Resistance leader Horta has reservations about consultation agreement Radio Renascenca,
Lisbon, in Portuguese 0900 gmt 12 Mar 99
Text of report by Portuguese Renascenca radio on 12th March Portugal and Indonesia have
reached a historic agreement for East Timor. Xanana Gusmao [Timorese resistance leader
recently moved from prison to house arrest] is to be freed, and the Timorese will be able
to say yes or no to the autonomy plan in a direct consultation. Jose Ramos Horta
[vice-president of the National Council of the Timorese Resistance and Nobel Peace
laureate] has reservations.
[Horta] The question is how is it possible to carry out an open and democratic direct
consultation when the Indonesian army is still on the ground, when the military
intelligence services are still fuelling violence in Timor, when Indonesian Foreign
Minister Ali Alatas says that Xanana Gusmao will not be freed before such a consultation,
when there are no signs of how the population will be registered, and the consultation is
to be held in July.
[Presenter] Ramos Horta is wondering about the thousands of Indonesian citizens in East
Timor.
[Horta] It is necessary to have a registration process to identify the Timorese, to
know who are the Timorese who will vote. Obviously it is not in our interest to have
Indonesian emigrants in other islands pretending to be Timorese, there are tens of
thousands in Timor; the UN has a lot of experience in registration of people. The main
question is to withdraw Indonesian forces, or at least to reduce them to a minimum
acceptable level, to be agreed by all sides.
Back to March Menu
Human Rights Violations in East Timor
Main Postings Menu
June '98 through February '99 |
