| Subject: Gusmao may snub
Howard The Australian 27 Nov 99
Gusmao may snub PM
By SIAN POWELL in Aileu, East Timor
EAST Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao indicated
yesterday that he might not meet John Howard when the Prime Minister makes his first visit
to the territory tomorrow.
While acknowledging his gratitude for Australia's financial
commitment to East Timor, Mr Gusmao said his first priority was to travel to Jakarta for
negotiations on the speedy return of the remaining thousands of East Timorese refugees in
West Timor.
"I have already expressed my gratitude in Canberra to
the Government. Of course we need help, but if the situation is improving, we need other
help (besides the massive security presence of Interfet)," he said.
Mr Gusmao also urged Interfet to wind down the size of its
garrison in Dili and remove the armoured personnel carriers, the sandbagged emplacements
and the razor-wire defences that dominate the city.
"(Interfet chief) General Cosgrove told me days ago
and told (UN chief administrator) Sergio de Mello that they will initiate to move (some of
the defence presence) outside the city, and I believe the general himself is already aware
of the situation," he said. "Moving will give the city a new image."
After a rocky start relations with Interfet had improved,
he said.
"We always respect each other and try to co-ordinate
movements," he said. "We have not so many problems between Falintil and
Interfet."
Yet, he said, the perceptions of Falintil and Interfet
differed as to what was needed, because Interfet consisted of regular army troops and
Falintil was a guerilla army.
Mr Gusmao said he was astonished by the size of Australia's
financial commitment to East Timor. "It's so much money, so much money," he
said.
"What we need for our population is $25 to $30 million
to buy the necessary things for our people, and we will solve the emergency."
Sitting on the verandah of his home in the Falintil
cantonment of Aileu, Mr Gusmao said he did not want East Timor to be a burden to the
international community.
"It's a very, very expensive operation," he said.
"I think that if the Prime Minister sees the situation, how security is now, the
parliament can decide to diminish the expense."
Falintil fighters, he said, could be used at the border to
allow for the reduction of the Interfet security presence.
"From the beginning, we have offered our
contribution," he said. "We know, and everybody knows, that we fought for this
land, and that we are ready to die for this country, and we offer our contribution to the
Interfet defence."
An Indonesian team investigating human rights atrocities
has uncovered the bodies of 26 people including priests, women and children who were
killed in a church massacre in East Timor, from three mass graves in West Timor.
The bodies were exhumed from seaside graves three
kilometres from the border, an investigator from the Commission for the Investigation of
Human Rights Abuses in East Timor said.
The 26 are believed to have been among of hundreds of East
Timorese who were massacred during a militia and military attack on a church in Suai in
September.
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