Subject: AFP: Japanese envoy asks Habibie to assure
stability in East Timor
Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 10:12:43 -0400
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>Received from Joyo Indonesian
News:
Japanese envoy asks Habibie to assure stability in East Timor
JAKARTA, May 17 (AFP) - Japanese envoy Seiichiro Noboru on Monday urged President B.J.
Habibie to make sure Indonesian security forces "guarantee stability" in East
Timor.
"I told the president that the police and security personnel should guarantee the
stability there (East Timor)," Noboru, a special envoy of Prime Minister Keizo
Obuchi, told journalists.
East Timor has seen a recent series of violent incidents, mainly attacks by armed
pro-Indonesia militia on pro-independence supporters that have left scores of dead in the
weeks.
In the latest incident, militias killed at least five villagers in Atsabe district in
just before dawn on Sunday, according to reports received by a UN mission in Dili, the
capital of East Timor.
The UN mission, in a statement, also called for "determined actions" from the
appropriate Indonesian security authorities to curtail the armed militias.
The violence has escalated despite the signing of an agreement on an autonomy package
for East Timor between Indonesia and Portugal at the United Nations on May 5.
On the feasibility of Tokyo contributing to a UN civilian police force to supervise the
August vote, Noboru said his government would wait for the findings of a Japanese fact
finding team now in East Timor.
The Japanese team has been studying how and if Tokyo could help assure a peaceful
ballot in August, including whether it was feasible for Japan to send personnel under a UN
civilian police to be deployed in the former Portuguese colony.
The United Nations and Jakarta have both asked Japan and some 35 other countries to
contribute to the UN personnel needed to secure the polls.
The vote will ask the East Timorese whether they want autonomy or independence from
Indonesia.
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