POLITICS-EAST TIMOR: Autonomy Talks Slow Down

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 11 1999 (IPS) - The UN-brokered peace talks over East Timor are slowing down and Indonesia is giving mixed signals on its plan to give the territory extensive autonomy, according to diplomatic sources.

Leaked copies of the plan, being discussed by UN officials and the Portuguese and Indonesian governments, indicate that the East Timorese would be given significant self-government powers. But some officials warn that Jakarta is backing away from an extensive autonomy deal.

The latest meeting WSednesday between Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas and Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama over the fate of the former Portuguese colony began with a flurry of charges as Jakarta denied reversing its position on autonomy.

“We are not back-pedaling; we are not back-tracking,” Alatas said after meeting Gama and UN envoy Jamsheed Marker.

“In every negotiation, you reach certain agreements at a lower level and they (sic) will report to their government and their government has certain suggestions for improvement…There is nothing sinister about it.”

Some Portuguese officials, however, believe that the Indonesian Cabinet was startled by the extent of the powers which Jakarta was willing to give East Timor during the recent rounds of UN-brokered talks here.

As a result, Gama said, Indonesia this week has been bringing up topics which had been resolved in negotiations last month.

Alatas denied Gama’s comments, calling them “highly speculative and not based on facts”. But he conceded, “We can’t wrap up talks at this meeting, which we had hoped before, because there are still a few aspects which need to be further discussed.”

The current round of talks, due to end Thursday, focuses only on autonomy plans for East Timor, which was invaded by Indonesia upon Portugal’s departure in 1975 and annexed a year later.

Timorese leaders, however – including jailed resistance leader Xanana Gusmao – desire only a limited autonomy period, which would be followed by the state’s independence.

Internal pressure on Jakarta to grant independence is also growing. Amien Rais, leader of the opposition National Mandate Party and a major candidate for presidential elections on Jun 7, said on a visit Wednesday to New York that “it seems to me that a majority of the people of East Timor want independence.”

Rais added that, if elected, he would release Gusmao, whom he called “the real leader of the East Timorese people”, and begin discussions on which option – autonomy or independence – would the Timorese people favour. “If it ought to be independence, I will give it to them as soon as possible,” he claimed.

Although Rais said that the UN talks have been helpful, he criticised Jakarta for its slow pace in resolving the East Timor problem and argued that the government of President Bacharuddin Jusuf Habibie is “a bit wishy-washy”.

Some diplomatic sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the Habibie government is worried about the precedent that a wide-ranging autonomy package for East Timor might give to other Indonesian territories, which one source argued have shown “secessionist tendencies”.

If East Timor was allowed to govern most of its affairs, they argued, provinces like Aceh, Irian Jaya, Bali and the Moluccans might expect similar deals – leading to a break-up of Indonesia’s more than 13,000 islands.

Those worries were sparked by the leaking of an earlier draft of the autonomy plan last week by Portugal’s ‘Publico’ daily.

In the leaked draft, East Timor would have an elected government which could sign accords with other governments in commerce, culture, finance, environment, science, tourism and sports. It could join international bodies, including the association of Portuguese-speaking nations (or PALOP).

The leaked draft stated that the Indonesian government “will have responsibility for the exercise of East Timor’s external defense”.

It added that “Indonesian armed forces ought to maintain a level of military presence in East Timor appropriate to its function to defend and safeguard the external security of East Timor.”

The appropriate level of forces, the draft stated, would be determined by the East Timorese authority and Indonesian government. East Timor also would control its natural resources, except those considered “vital to the national interests” of Indonesia, including offshore oil deposits in the Timor Gap.

Many of those points are now being reviewed in Jakarta, and John Miller, spokesman for the US-based East Timor Action Network, argued that hardliners in the Habibie government may be pushing to back away from the earlier text.

Alatas, however, repeated an earlier promise to wrap up autonomy talks by April, and promised, “We are going to continue to negotiate in good faith.”

He declined to comment on specific aspects of the plan, noting that all sides are committed to keep the discussions secret until the negotiations are concluded.