EAST TIMOR: UN Talks Stress Autonomy Amid Mixed Signals

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 29 1999 (IPS) - The Indonesian government startled diplomats here with its announcement that it might consider independence for East Timor, but UN officials are concentrating instead on proposals for autonomy at this week’s Indonesia- Portugal meetings.

UN officials are sticking to autonomy, and not pushing yet for independence, for two basic reasons.

First, they have not yet received official confirmation of the Jakarta government’s decision Wednesday to mention independence and to transfer jailed Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao to house arrest.

“It is a development in the right direction, but I do not have all the details,” UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Thursday of Indonesia’s proposals on East Timor.

Second, as UN envoy Jamsheed Marker argued Thursday, successful autonomy talks are “absolutely necessary” for progress on the East Timor question.

“We intend to concentrate our efforts and our work for UN proposals for a wide-ranging autonomy for East Timor,” Marker said. He added that he was hopeful of reaching some agreement on autonomy as the meetings continued next week.

The United Nations has set no deadline on the talks, which are led by Ambassadors Fernando Nevis of Portugal and Nugroho Wisnumurti of Indonesia and follow several sessions headed by the countries’ foreign ministers. Marker met separately with Nevis and Wisnumurti Thursday and said that “the atmosphere is much easier” than before.

At least some of the relaxing of the tension between Portugal, East Timor’s former colonial power, and Indonesia, which invaded the island state in 1975 and annexed it the following year, stems from Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas’s declaration Wednesday that “if (the Timorese) want to have their freedom, they are welcome”.

Alatas said that if the Timorese reject the offers of autonomy being considered by Indonesia’s legislative assembly, he would consider suggesting independence for the territory.

Yet UN officials and pro-independence Timorese are asking for specifics on what the surprise offer means. “We do not have any formal proposal on that,” Marker said. “Right now, we are seeking further clarifications … All we have are press reports to go on.”

Nor is the United Nations alone in its confusion about the significance of the unprecedented mentioning of independence, as well as the announcement to transfer rebel leader Xanana to residential detention.

“What is Jakarta trying to do?” asked Carmel Budiardjo, an official at the British-based office of ‘Tapol’, the Indonesia Human Rights Campaign. “Has it really changed its position?” He contended that Indonesian officials were more interested in “creating the impression that a shift has taken place” than in actually bringing about change.

Budiardjo noted comments by Alatas, cited in the Indonesian media Wednesday, which seem to reject the idea of a refernedum on Timor’s status at the end of a transitional period of autonomy. “Why should we give them all the freedom they want under autonomy, after which they will turn around and say, ‘Goodbye’?” the Indonesian foreign minister was quoted as saying.

Some activists favouring freedom for Timor have feared that Indonesia could block efforts to foster an orderly transition to independence in East Timor and then step in if there is any disorder – much as it did in 1975, when it invaded while Timorese groups struggled for independence. Some 200,000 of the territory’s 700,000 people were killed in the aftermath of that invasion.

Indonesia is still reeling from an economic crisis which caused its currency, the rupiah, to plummet in 1997 and brought about the downfall of President Suharto, the country’s longtime dictator, last May.

In a period of widespread changes – including the announcement of new rules for relatively free legislative elections this summer – the government of President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie appears to be willing to get rid of the persistent Timor problem which has hurt the nation’s ability to achieve economic recovery.

“This (consideration of independence) may also be aimed at ensuring its foreign benefactors, notably the World Bank, Japan and other donors, will see this ‘new departure on East Timor’ as grounds for granting Indonesia the massive new credit, in the region of 10 billion dollars during the current year, it so desperately needs,” Budiardjo said.

Whatever Indonesia’s sincerity might be, UN officials believe that a solid autonomy agreement will have to be the basis for any future progress. To that end, Marker has sought the views of all the parties in the Timorese crisis, even meeting Xanana twice in detention and incorporating some of his ideas in the UN autonomy proposals now on the table.

“Apparently some of the UN proposals on autonomy are more ‘wide-ranging’ than Jakarta would like,” said John Miller, spokesman for the U.S.-based East Timor Action Network (ETAN). Alatas last year clarified that Indonesia would be willing to allow Timorese to govern their own affairs, except in matters of foreign relations, defence and some monetary policies.

ETAN is asking Indonesia to back up its Wednesday announcements by offering a larger role for the United Nations in monitoring human rights in East Timor, including supervising a referendum on Timor’s status and overseeing human rights and the withdrawal of Indonesian troops.