POLITICS-EAST TIMOR: Signs of Compromise Emerge on Independence

By Farhan Haq Reprint | | Print |

UNITED NATIONS, Mar 8 1999 (IPS) - East Timor separatist leaders are moving closer to a compromise with Indonesia on a mandate to obtain independence at talks on the future of the island which resume here Tuesday.

In a telephone interview last week with UN journalists, Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao – who remains under house arrest in Jakarta – argued that an elected Timorese consultative council could decide the territory’s status.

“We are thinking of a mechanism…(in which) people would elect representatives to a consultative council, and this council would decide if East Timor should reject or accept the autonomy proposal” now being crafted by Jakarta, Gusmao said.

Such a compromise solution “would be democratic and would satisfy East Timorese, Indonesia and especially the international community,” Gusmao said.

Previously, the pro-independence movement for East Timor insisted on a referendum to determine whether the former Portuguese colony would accept autonomy under Indonesian rule or choose independence.

The Jakarta government opposed any such vote, fearing that other restive Indonesian provinces, such as Irian Jaya and Aceh, would see it as a precedent.

“President (Bacharuddin Jusuf) Habibie has stated clearly that there can be no referendum,” one Indonesian source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told IPS. “There are many other groups who might also want a referendum…That could inspire secessionist forces.”

“The Indonesian government has always rejected the idea of a referendum,” Gusmao acknowledged. “They are afraid of showing that the great majority of our people reject integration.”

On Tuesday, Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas and his Portuguese counterpart, Jaime Gama, resume UN-mediated talks on what Jakarta called a “wide-ranging autonomy” for East Timor.

Sources said that the plan includes 70 articles, which offer a large amount of authority for an elected Timorese government but would allow Indonesia to maintain control over East Timor’s military, foreign affairs and currency.

The autonomy deal, one source said, is so comprehensive that “it could even be used as a constitution” for a future East Timorese republic.

Yet Gusmao, who was released last month after seven years’ detention in Indonesia’s Cipinang Prison to house arrest, argued that the more than 700,000 East Timorese remain unwilling to accept Indonesia’s 1976 annexation of the island state.

“We are ready to see what Indonesia would offer to our people, but we know that our people would reject autonomy,” the detained rebel leader said. “No Indonesian presence would be accepted.”

According to UN sources, Jakarta already seems to recognise that its hold over East Timor has weakened, particularly in the aftermath of the country’s economic woes since 1997 and the ouster last year of longtime dictator Suharto. Some diplomats cited comments by Habibie suggesting that Jakarta wanted its forces out of East Timor by the end of this year.

The sudden impetus toward Indonesia’s withdrawal has worried some officials, including Australian diplomats who have warned that an overly-quick departure could create chaos in East Timor and the departure of thousands of Timorese refugees.

To avoid that prospect, Gusmao and others in the coalition National Council of Timorese Resistance are calling for greater UN involvement.

“As soon as possible the United Nations must send (to East Timor) a UN police force, or a UN team, as a neutral body to monitor and to supervise the process of a cease-fire between both sides,” Gusmao said. It could also prove crucial in disarming groups on both sides, he added.

Gusmao echoed the remarks of other Timorese leaders who believed that the Indonesian military is arming pro-Indonesia civilian groups in East Timor who were “forced to play the game of the military and intelligence services”.

Gusmao said that, although few Timorese favoured Jakarta’s rule, the leaders of the pro-Indonesia camp were “living in five- star hotels in Jakarta” and “screaming for war” if the majority in East Timor opted for independence.

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, however, told reporters this week that “as far as I know, the Indonesian authorities have always denied supplying weapons to the inhabitants of East Timor, whether they are pro-Indonesia or not.” Alatas denied such allegations directly when he met Annan last month.

“We would hope – and I believe – that the government of Indonesia understands that it is in its interest to work with us to make it a peaceful transition and to leave in a dignified manner,” Annan said.

“If there were to be violence, I do not think that it would be in the interest of Indonesia or of its neighbours…and so I fail to believe that it is a deliberate policy to destabilise East Timor.”

Pro-independence Timorese groups have agreed in recent weeks to ask for a “transitional period” of about three years before any independence, during which the state has autonomy and UN forces are deployed to disarm all factions.

“It is an important step to make sure that the consultation process (before independence) be peaceful, calm, just, firm and democratic,” said Gusmao.