RIGHTS-INDONESIA: UN Welcomes Softer Stance on East Timor

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Jan 27 1999 (IPS) - UN officials praised Indonesia’s surprise announcement Wednesday that it could be willing to consider independence for East Timor, but some supporters of Timorese rights remain skeptical about Jakarta’s stance.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan welcomed the announcement in Jakarta that Indonesia would “countenance the possibility of independence” for East Timor and would transfer jailed Timorese resistance leader Xanana Gusmao to house arrest.

Annan “hopes that it will soon be possible for Xanana Gusmao to participate actively in the political dialogue,” UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said Wednesday.

No less important was the first admission by the Indonesian government that, if the Timorese did not approve of Jakarta’s plans to offer them autonomy, it might consider granting independence to the former Portuguese colony.

“If they want their freedom, they are welcome,” Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said. Indonesian officials said that, if autonomy proposals being worked out this year are deemed unacceptable, the government of President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie might submit an independence proposal to the Indonesian Consultative Assembly.

The announcement, made just one day before Alatas and his Portuguese counterpart, Jaime Gama, meet at the United Nations to resume talks about improving human rights and establishing autonomy in East Timor, took UN officials by surprise.

“This was a dramatic announcement,” Eckhard said. “I think we’re still absorbing it.”

Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio called the announcement “a positive step to move the issue forward”. Annan added that the Indonesia-Portuguese discussions can be expected to take the latest news of Xanana’s impending transfer and Jakarta’s first mention of independence for Timor into account.

Yet for many activists who favour Timor’s independence, the recent steps by Jakarta – just months after Indonesia and Portugal began to discuss “wide-ranging” autonomy proposals for the troubled region – could still fall short of their hopes.

“I react with a lot of skepticism,” argued Jose Ramos Horta, a leader of the pro-independence National Council of Maubere (Timorese) Resistance and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, in an interview with Australian radio following the Wednesday announcements.

It is clear even to opponents of Indonesia’s 24-year occupation of East Timor that Jakarta, beset by economic and political problems of its own over the past few years, sees the Timorese question as more trouble than it has been worth.

Despite Wednesday’s declarations, there are doubts about where Jakarta will go next.

“There is a blatant contradiction between the statements and what’s going on in East Timor at the moment,” contended John Miller, spokesman for the U.S.-based East Timor Action Network. In recent days, he argued, Indonesian troops have attacked Timorese in dozens of incidents, including one on Tuesday in the town of Galitas in which four people were killed and after which six people were deemed missing.

If Indonesia is serious about improving conditions in East Timor, Miller said, “they need to show it on the ground … by allowing a permanent UN presence there” to monitor the withdrawal of Indonesian troops and human rights.

Similarly, the decision to move Xanana Gusmao – whose release has been requested by Annan, South African President Nelson Mandela and others – opens up questions.

Wednesday’s announcements pave the way for Xanana, the leader of the Timorese independence movement, to be placed under residential detention, with the government indicating that a house in Jakarta will be redefined so it can be used as a prison for him. But if there is to be any progress on bringing Timorese to accept any independence or autonomy deal, Miller said, Xanana would have to be released outright.

Alatas has repeatedly rejected that idea, calling Xanana a common criminal who is not entitled to any amnesty.

Yet ever since Indonesia’s currency, the rupiah, plunged sharply during the first wave of the Asian economic crisis in 1997, Jakarta’s occupation since 1975 of East Timor has become increasingly fragile.

Last year, as economic woes and student unrest led to the ouster of longtime dictator Suharto in May and his replacement by his former protege, Habibie, the Timorese independence movement gained a substantial boost.

In UN-brokered talks last year between Portugal, which ended its colonial rule over Timor in 1975, and Indonesia, which annexed East Timor one year later following a brutal invasion, prospects of autonomy in most aspects of governance were mooted. Jakarta also promised to reduce the number of troops in Timor and to grant amnesty to all “legitimate” Timorese political prisoners, although not to Xanana.

Many Indonesians believe the government is more concerned about resolving the economic crisis and in maintaining control over other fractious regions, including West Papua (also called Irian Jaya) and Aceh, than in East Timor.

In particular, continuing pressure by the United Nations and other nations to improve its rights record on Timor has become more troublesome for Jakarta as it seeks assistance to bolster its economy. The rupiah has lost more than 60 percent of its value since 1997, stoking continuing unrest under Habibie’s rule.

UN officials believe that the Indonesia-Portugal meetings, expected to end Monday, will help to answer questions about how far Jakarta is willing to go to respond to its critics’ concerns about independence, and whether it is willing to consider a referendum for the roughly 700,000 Timorese.