Asia Times: Delay possible in Timor vote



	June 19, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Delay possible in Timor vote
By Farhan Haq

UNITED NATIONS - UN preparations for the self-determination vote in East Timor picked up pace this week and officials denied rumors the poll would be delayed past thescheduled date of August 8. UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said there was no change in the datefor polling but added that Secretary-General Kofi Annan would have to determine whether the conditions on the ground would permit a free and fair vote. Annan, meanwhile, released avideotaped message to assure Timorese voters that they would be safe.

Other officials acknowledged privately, however, that thecurrent level of violence and intimidation in East Timor - largely directed by pro-Indonesian paramilitaries against pro-independence Timorese - would make a fair vote difficult. Some believed it was ''almost inevitable'' that the vote would bedelayed until the situation calms down.

Australia's Melbourne Age and Sydney Morning Herald reported Thursday that theUnited Nations was already planning a three-week delay until August 29 before Timorese would be able to vote on either autonomy within Indonesia or opt for independence.

Nobel laureate Jose Ramos Horta, one of the leaders of EastTimor's pro-independence movement, told Australian media that hisside could accept some delay if it added to safety on the ground. In his videotaped message released Wednesday, Annan assured the Timorese that the United Nations would work impartially to allow all voters to exercise their free choice on August 8.

''The United Nations is not in favor of, or against, anyresult,'' Annan reassured voters. ''Your vote will be secret. No one will know, or ever find out,what choice you made. When the votes are counted, no none willknow how any particular village or district has voted."

Although UN officials have been establishing precautions to ensurevoting secrecy, pro-Indonesian militias have been sending a different message. Annan noted that many pro-independence Timorese have been harassed or killed in recent months by the militias. Despite such acts, at least one prominent militia leader - Eurico Guterres of the Dili-based ''Aitarak'' (Thorn) paramilitary - was appointed this week to head a civil defense unit responsible for Dili, East Timor's capital. Guterres's selection was quickly condemned by human rights and pro-independence groups, who accused Jakarta of trying tointimidate voters in the run-up to the ballot.

UN envoy Jamsheed Marker warned the 15-nation UN SecurityCouncil on Wednesday that considerable work remained beforeconditions for a credible vote could be met. Council President Baboucarr-Blaise Ismaila Jagne of Gambia responded that Indonesia had the responsibility to create a secureenvironment for the vote. In general, the Council was ''pleased tohear of the good cooperation so far by all the parties, andappreciate the measures taken by Indonesia to ensure a stablesecurity situation for the ballot,'' he said.

This ''good cooperation'' included a meeting in Jakarta Thursday by bothpro-Indonesia and pro-independence Timorese to forge agreement onpeaceful campaigning prior to the ballot. The meeting was attended by the leader of the Timorese separatists, Xanana Gusmao, who remains under house arrest inJakarta.

Voting arrangements have been on an accelerated timetable, since Indonesia and Portugal - East Timor's former colonial power - reached agreement at UN-brokered talks on May 5 to allow a vote on the status of the territory. The United Nations thus has only some three months to plan a vote - to be held simultaneously among Timorese in East Timor, Macau, Indonesia, Australia, Mozambique, Portugal, the United States and Canada - and to defuse tensions on the ground.

This week, the UN General Assembly released information showingthat the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) had won approval forsome four months of operation, from May 5 to August 31, at a totalcost of $52.5 million. That amount, the Assembly report states, includes ''provisionsfor 242 international staff, 425 UN volunteers, 274 civilianpolice officers, 50 military liaison officers and some 3,645 localstaff."

If Timorese voters opt for autonomy - deemed unlikely by most analysts - Indonesia will gain international acceptance of its 1975 invasion of the former Portuguese colony. But if, as is considered more likely, the Timorese choose independence, UN sources believe the world body may have to step in to administer East Timor for several years until conditions forindependence are set.

(Inter Press Service)

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