Subject: IO: Pro-integration group rejects voter
registration extension
Date: Sat, 07 Aug 1999 09:59:42 -0400
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>Received from Joyo Indonesian
News:
Indonesian Observer 5th August 1999
Pro-RI group rejects extension
JAKARTA (IO) – A pro-integration group yesterday slammed the United Nations’
decision to extend the voter registration period for an August autonomy ballot.
The Forum for Unity, Democracy, and Justice (FPDK) said the decision of UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan to give longer time for the East Timorese living outside the troubled
territory to register was not fair, because more East Timorese people in East Timor have
not registered.
"We considerably deplore the priority given to the registration posts outside East
Timor, including in foreign countries. The registration period in East Timor should
actually be extended longer than that of outside East Timor, because more East Timorese
people in East Timor have not registered than those East Timorese people outside East
Timor," FPDK spokesman Basilio Diaz Araujo told Antara.
Unlike, the FPDK, Secretary General of the National Council for Resistance in East
Timor (CNRT) Leandro Isaac hailed the voter registration extension.
He was quoted as saying that he respected Annan’s decision, but the extension was
not useful for his group, because supporters of the pro independence faction had
registered.
However, he urged the government of Indonesia to give an assurance of security for
members of Falintil, CNRT’s armed wing, to be able to register during the extended
registration period.
Basilio Diaz Araujo did not accept the reason of the UN Secretary General. The
registration period outside East Timor is extended for four days because it is below the
target. He declined to elaborate about the registration for East Timorese people in
foreign countries.
At present, he said, there are still thousands of refugees who have not registered on
the border between East Timor and East Nusa Tenggara(NTT), so that the refugees can use
the extended time.
On Tuesday, he said the FPDK and the East Timorese People’s Front (BRTT)
representing pro-autonomy groups, and the CNRT representing the anti-autonomy group held
meetings to discuss the extension of the registration period.
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