Subject: E.Timor Votes Overwhelmingly To Break Its
Ties With Indon
Date: Fri, 3 Sep 1999 21:36:13 EDT
From: Joyo@aol.comAssociated Press AP-NY-09-03-99 2115EDT
E.Timorese Choose Independence
East Timor Votes Overwhelmingly To Break Its Ties With Indonesia in Favor of
Independence
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - East Timor voted overwhelmingly to break its ties with Indonesia
in favor of independence, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced Friday night.
More than 23 years after Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony, the voters
rejected wide-ranging autonomy within Indonesia by 78.5 percent, he said.
``There are no winners or losers,'' Annan told a hushed open meeting of the U.N.
Security Council.
East Timor will not become independent immediately.
Indonesia's legislature must implement the result of the ballot, and it is not expected
to meet until November. Then, Indonesia would turn over responsibility for East Timor to
the United Nations.
Jose Ramos Horta, East Timor's Nobel Peace Prize winner and independence leader, has
said the United Nations should run the territory during a three-year transition to
independence.
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