Subject: AGE: Timor: We snub offer to send in the Marines
Date: Sat, 07 Aug 1999 09:49:20 -0400
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>Received from Joyo Indonesian
News:
The Age Sunday, August 31, 1999
EXCLUSIVE
Timor: We snub offer to send in the Marines
By PAUL DALEY - FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT CANBERRA
Australia has rejected advances from the United States to cooperate on peacekeeping
plans for strife-torn East Timor.
The diplomatic snub comes as Washington considers whether to send the Marines into East
Timor if a United Nations peacekeeping force is needed.
East Timor residents will vote at the end of this month on whether they want to break
away from Indonesia. They are expected to vote in favor of independence, which observers
fear may spark renewed violence by pro-Indonesian militia groups.
The Sunday Age believes that the Federal Government has ordered senior Australian
defence strategists to reject an invitation to discuss strategy and intelligence planning
for East Timor at US Pacific military headquarters in Honolulu.
During preliminary talks in recent weeks, American defence strategists said the US was
considering the commitment of Marines to a UN peacekeeping or ``peace-making'' force,
deployable before or after the 30August ballot.
Defence and diplomatic sources told The Sunday Age that America made clear it expected
Australia to lead any East Timor peacekeeping force that included US Marines.
After lengthy, top-level consideration, including senior Federal Government figures,
Australian defence chiefs and leading diplomats rejected the US offer.
They told the Americans that any discussion of possible UN peacekeeping involving the
Marine Corps was ``premature'' and could be ``damaging'' to bilateral relations between
Australia and Indonesia.
It is believed this message was also conveyed by the Secretary of the Department of
Foreign Affairs and Trade, Dr Ashton Calvert, during a recent meeting in the United States
with the US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Mr Stanley
Roth.
Sources said Dr Calvert and Mr Roth disagreed on the circumstances under which an
international force should be sent to East Timor.
Mr Roth said it was desirable for peacekeeping - whether or not it involved US Marines
- to take place sooner rather than later while Dr Calvert took a more conservative
approach. Sources told The Sunday Age that despite public perceptions to the contrary, the
US appears willing to play a central, if not leading, role in peace monitoring or ``peace
making'' - the separation of warring parties - in East Timor.
As human rights in the troubled Indonesian province have become an increasing
preoccupation among prominent congressmen and senators, America has expressed increased
pessimism about the aftermath of the forthcoming vote.
``The US has listened to arguments that it is premature for the UN to consider troops
(for East Timor) before the vote. But there is a view amongst the influential (in the US)
that after the vote ... (could) be leaving it too late,'' a diplomatic source explained.
Australia's decision to snub the US military's offer shows that, despite significant
international pressure, Australia remains fiercely intent on protecting its bilateral
relationship with Indonesia while conducting its own contingency planning for East Timor
peacekeeping.
Australian military strategists say there is a high likelihood that the UN will ask
Australia to make a significant contribution to a Timor force if significant violence
accompanies a pro-independence vote.
Under Australia's contingency planning, perhaps 2000 Australian and New Zealand
military experts would form the nucleus of a peacekeeping force, the bulk of whose ground
troops would come from Pacific and Asian nations such as Fiji, Malaysia and Thailand.
Australia believes Indonesia would be more likely to accept ground troops from
countries considered more ``culturally akin'' to Indonesia. Jakarta has consistently
rejected the idea of accepting foreign, armed troops in East Timor. Australia believes
this to be a legacy of Indonesia's colonial past.
Under Australian military contingencies, Australia would lead a UN force for East
Timor, deployable only if significant violence accompanies a result of the forthcoming
ballot.
The Prime Minister, Mr John Howard, yesterday praised Indonesian President B.J.Habibie,
telling a Liberal Party state conference in Perth that the rest of the world needed to
follow Australia's example and applaud him.
``I think Dr Habibie deserves a lot more credit for what he's done than he has
received,'' he said. ``You've got to remember that Habibie has presided over the
transition of Indonesia to something that approximates democracy.''
The Foreign Minister, Mr Alexander Downer, said in Dili that Australia was taking a
neutral position on the vote. ``At this sensitive time it makes sense for us to be neutral
and let the (East Timorese) make up their own minds.'' He also appealed to the East
Timorese not to target ``foreign nationals trying to help East Timor through this
extremely ... difficult time''.
----------------
02:32 a.m. Aug 01, 1999 Eastern
U.S. May Offer Marines To U.N. For E.Timor - Paper
CANBERRA, Australia (Reuters) - The United States is considering sending Marines to
serve as U.N. peacekeepers in East Timor, an Australian newspaper said Sunday.
The Sunday Age newspaper quoted U.S. defense strategists as saying Washington had
considered the commitment of Marines to a U.N. peacekeeping force to be deployed before or
after East Timor votes on whether to break from Indonesia on August 30.
``(Australian) defense and diplomatic sources told The Sunday Age that America made it
clear it expected Australia to lead any East Timor peacekeeping force that included
Marines,'' the newspaper said.
The United Nations is reported to be developing plans for a four-year interim
administration to run East Timor if it votes for independence.
The newspaper said senior Australian government officials, defense chiefs and leading
diplomats had rejected the U.S. offer, saying it was too premature and would damage
bilateral relations with Indonesia.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said U.S. offers of assistance had not
included using the Marines in a peacekeeping force.
``They have not...ever made that offer to me,'' he told Channel Nine television.
``There have been a range of contingencies discussed. But whether the U.S. would
participate in that peacekeeping force or not, I don't know.''
Indonesia invaded East Timor, a former Portuguese colony and home to 800,000 people, in
1975 and annexed it the next year, a move not recognized by the United Nations.
The territory has chafed under Indonesia's often brutal rule ever since.
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