Subject: SMH: UN says no to call for local vote
tally
Date: Sat, 14 Aug 1999 09:30:24 -0400
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>Received from Joyo Indonesian
News:
Sydney Morning Herald Thursday, August 12, 1999
EAST TIMOR
UN says no to call for local vote tally
By MARK DODD in Dili and PETER COLE-ADAMS
The United Nations has rejected a demand by Indonesia that the UN provide a breakdown
of how various districts voted after the referendum on August 30.
Some political analysts believe a district-by-district breakdown could serve demands by
hardline militia groups for a pro-Indonesia breakaway region within East Timor if the vote
is won by the independence side.
At a news conference yesterday, the spokesman for the Indonesian task force in Dili, Mr
Dino Djalal, said a single tally would be unacceptable.
"There must be a breakdown of these numbers because many people in these regions
have asked that they also need to know how their regions voted in this process," Mr
Djalal said. "At the vote counting there must be representatives from both
parties."
However, the UN mission in East Timor, UNAMET, will announce the referendum result in
the capital, Dili, and it will not include a breakdown of votes by district, its
spokesman, Mr David Wimhurst, said.
"There has been no change. Our intention is to issue a single and final count for
all of East Timor," Mr Wimhurst said. The UN would not even compile a confidential
report detailing district level voting patterns.
"Our concern has always been that threats made against people concerning the way
they vote could, if we publish voting patterns at a district, sub-district or even village
level, be used to provoke violence," he said.
"Secondly - this is a vote for the whole of East Timor and not which part of East
Timor votes which way. We [the UN] considered the best practice would be to announce one
result for the whole of East Timor."
In Canberra, a senior Australian government source said Indonesia had not yet agreed to
the proposed big increase in military liaison officers in East Timor from 50 to 300 (first
reported in the Herald last Friday), and wanted more time to consider it.
However, he was hopeful that Jakarta would eventually agree to a substantial increase.
He did not think the Indonesians had any problem in principle with the planned boost to
the number of UN civilian police during the second, post-ballot phase of the territory's
transition to independence or autonomy.
The source also predicted that the UN security force required in the third phase of the
transition, after the expected "yes" vote for independence is endorsed by
Indonesia's People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), would involve thousands of troops and
police.
The source was cautiously positive about the security situation, saying there seemed to
be a good chance that it would be "relatively benign". He thought the Indonesian
military would pull out fairly quickly once the post-MPR phase three began.
He raised the possibility that many leaders of the pro-Indonesian militia would leave
East Timor if the ballot came out for independence, with the militia themselves quickly
dissipating.
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