=Subject: FEER: Megawati's party vows to scrap E.
Timor referendum
Date: Sat, 01 May 1999 09:03:56 -0400
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>Received from Joyo Indonesian
News:
FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW May 6, 1999
SPOTLIGHT
Timor Turnaround
By John McBeth
Just when it seemed East Timor was finally on course to settle its future, a new
obstacle has emerged. A senior member of the opposition party led by Megawati Sukarnoputri
says it will try to scrap plans for a referendum on the province's future if it wins the
June 7 national parliamentary elections.
The warning came only hours after President B.J. Habibie reassured Australian Prime
Minister John Howard that a United Nations-supervised ballot on the future of the former
Portuguese colony, which was invaded by Indonesia in 1975, would go ahead on August 8. The
ballot will determine whether the East Timorese accept an autonomy package or opt to
separate from Indonesia.
But Dimyati Hartono, vice-chairman of Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party for
Struggle, told the REVIEW that a transitional figure like Habibie should never have sought
to overturn a People's Consultative Assembly decision on Indonesia's territorial
integrity.
Calling the 1978 decision to integrate the former Portuguese colony into Indonesia a
"final solution," Dimyati declared: "We will renegotiate . . . We will go
back to our constitution." Megawati herself has frequently voiced opposition to East
Timorese independence.
The armed-forces chief, Gen. Wiranto, attended the Habibie-Howard meeting in an
apparent sign that the military is committed to supporting the ballot. But the
intransigence of Megawati's party and a failure to agree on the disarmament of
pro-integration and pro-independence forces injects a new uncertainty.
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