Subject: RT: Indonesia army a bar to Timor
peace-Ramos-Horta
Date: Fri, 12 Mar 1999 18:23:58 -0500
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>Received from Joyo:
*Indonesia army a bar to Timor peace-Ramos-Horta
CANBERRA, March 8 (Reuters) - Nobel Peace laureate Jose Ramos-Horta said on Monday
there would be no peace on East Timor while Indonesia's military remained in the troubled
territory.
Ramos-Horta said that as long as groups favouring integration with Indonesia were being
supported by elements of the Indonesian military, there would be little accomodation with
pro-independence groups.
``I'm not terribly hopeful that, as long as the Indonesian army, the army intelligence,
do not give up, it is possible for us to find common ground with pro-integration,''
Ramos-Horta told Australian Broadcasting Corporation television.
``When we talk about the pro-integration elements, although they are a very small
fringe group, with no social or political base in the country, the real element behind
them is the Indonesian army intelligence,'' he said.
Speaking in Canberra, Ramos-Horta repeated previous assurances that there would be no
reprisals against pro-integrationists if East Timor was granted independence by Jakarta.
Indonesia in January ended 23 years of opposition to independence for the bloodied
territory when President B.J. Habibie offered East Timor autonomy or independence. Habibie
has said he wants the issue resolved by January 1, 2000.
Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese territory in 1975 and annexed it the following
year in a move never recognised by the United Nations.
An estimated 200,000 people -- a third of the East Timor population -- died in in the
military crackdown and a subsequent famine.
Ramos-Horta, who is based in Australia, also repeated a call for the United Nations to
supervise a transition administration after the withdrawal of Indonesian forces.
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