June 15, 1999
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| June 15, 1999 | atimes.com | |
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| Southeast Asia UN prepares to send police into Timor By Farhan Haq UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations was poised on June 11 to send dozens of police advisors to East Timor within days in an effort to establish secure conditions there before an August8 referendum to determine the island state's status. UN officials said that after a two-week delay forced onthe White House by its need to inform Congress of the Timoroperation, the United States was now ready to accept the UNMission in East Timor (UNAMET). U.S. acceptance likely will lead to a unanimous vote in favorof the Timor mission, possibly even late on June 11. As a result, aUN official said, civilian police could be sent to East Timorwithin the next few days, while the estimated force of 270 policewas expected to be fully deployed by the end of June. The arrival of the United Nations - which set up its office inthe Timorese capital, Dili, last week - has been greeted by theTimorese population as a hopeful sign after 23 years of Indonesianmilitary occupation. ''Things are better in East Timor now that the UN is there,''said Jose Luis Guterres, an official of the pro-independenceNational Council for Timorese Resistance. Violence and intimidation by pro-Indonesian militias, who hadopenly weighed in against the August 8 vote, has eased in Dilisince the UN officials arrived over the past month, Guterres said. But he warned, ''That is only in Dili; the situation is worse in the countryside, because the UN is not yet there." Pro-independence groups have accused militias of killing atleast 150 people, many of them vocal supporters of independencefrom Indonesia, in the past two months. UN Secretary-General KofiAnnan also has reported killings and intimidation of independencesupporters by the militias, who are believed to have receivedweapons from the Indonesian military. ''The Indonesian military is afraid that in a free and fairvote, the East Timorese will reject continued Indonesian rule,paving the way for East Timor's independence,'' said John Miller,spokesman for the U.S.-based East Timor Action Network. ''The tragedy is that a fair vote is impossible in this atmosphere of terror and intimidation,'' Miller added. The United Nations was gambling that, as UN civilian officialsand police entered East Timor, the violence would ease to allowfor an August vote in which the Timorese could opt for autonomywithin Indonesia or independence. Indonesia agreed to the ballot last month in UN-brokered talks with Portugal, East Timor's former colonial power. Some officials opined, however, that trust in the violenceending promptly was too risky. Recent reports from various sources - including from Australian officials - cited claims from militia leaders that they were supported by the Indonesian military. ''We will have to see whether [the military] wants to see afair election or not,'' one UN official, speaking on condition ofanonymity, stated. Indonesian President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie has stated thathe would accept East Timor's independence if voters chose thatoption, and Annan responded that he would hold Jakarta to itscommitment to oversee a free and fair vote. But Habibie - likely to be a lame duck after his Golkar partyperformed poorly in this week's elections - may not be the one whohas to carry out the commitment to secure East Timor'sindependence. Megawati Sukarnoputri, the leading candidate for the Indonesianpresidency and head of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle(PDI-P), has said that East Timor must remain part of Indonesia,which annexed the former Portuguese colony in 1976. The PDI-P isleading the vote totals in the Indonesian elections, according toinitial returns from the June 7 ballot. ''The United States needs to make clear to any upcomingIndonesian leader that Indonesia has signed a bindinginternational agreement to allow independence should East Timoresereject remaining part of Indonesia,'' said Medea Benjamin,director of Global Exchange, a U.S.-based rights group. Washington's level of interest, however, could be seen by itsslow pace in approaching the East Timor issue at the UnitedNations. The 15-nation UN Security Council held off on approval of theUNAMET force for two weeks, in order to give U.S. President BillClinton's administration time to inform Congress about themission. That two-week delay was required because of a directive signedby Clinton in 1993, which placed strict conditions - including thetwo-week period to consult Congress, as well as a limited missionand exit strategy - on U.S. approval of all UN peacekeeping efforts. UN officials had complained that the delay would hinder analready tight timetable for voting, but have been upbeat in recentdays that there will be no further snags in sending police to EastTimor. (Inter Press Service) | |||||||||
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