May 12, 1999
The UN Commissioner for Human Rights, Mrs Mary Robinson, has named the Indian Attorney General, Mr Soli Sorabjee, as her personal envoy to East Timor, a UN spokeswoman said in Geneva yesterday. Mr Sorabjee will carry out a mission to Indonesia and East Timor from May 14th to 24th, the spokeswoman said. He will meet high-level government officials in Jakarta and also visit Dili, the capital of East Timor.
Mr Sorabjee will report to Mrs Robinson on human rights in East Timor with his recommendations on further "short-, medium- and long-term action to ameliorate the situation", her office said. The foreign ministers of Indonesia and Portugal signed accords last week, endorsed by the UN Security Council on Friday, that will enable the people of East Timor, a former Portuguese colony annexed by Indonesia in 1976, to decide their future in a UN-organised vote in August.
Mr Sorabjee was formerly the UN special investigator for the human rights situation in Nigeria. He reported to the UN Commission for Human Rights, which did not renew his mandate at its annual meeting last month, citing progress towards democracy in Africa's most populous country. Meanwhile, Portugal has war ned that a wave of political violence in East Timor threatens to nullify the accord on the future of the former colony.
The Prime Minister, Mr Antonio Guterres, who spoke to Portuguese journalists during a visit to Greece, said the situation in East Timor was worsening. "What is happening in the territory, if it is not very quickly stopped, puts at risk . . . the accords reached in New York," he said.
Under last week's agreement between Indonesia and Portugal, the Timorese are to vote on whether to be formally part of Indonesia, albeit with wide powers of selfrule, or to become independent. On Monday, at least three people were killed in clashes between pro- and anti-Jakarta groups.
The UN is due to send some 600 observers for the vote, together with an undetermined number of civilian police. - (Reuters)
The Indonesian government yesterday formed a team of ministers to oversee the UN-monitored poll in East Timor. The President, Mr B.J. Habibie, has ordered Mr Feisal Tanjung to ensure the agreement between Indonesia and Portugal is honoured, the Justice Minister and State Secretary, Mr Muladi, said. The team also includes the Defence Minister and armed forces chief, Gen Wiranto, the Foreign Minister, Mr Ali Alatas, and the Home Affairs Minister, Mr Syarwan Hamid. Mr Muladi said the membership showed that the government was determined to ensure the success of the polls from the security, diplomatic, legal and other aspects.
The poll, he said "should be absolutely not flawed in its implementation and really made secure.
"And for the sake of the good name and image of the Indonesian nation, it should not be engineered." The team would ensure the poll was held "in the best manner possible and in an honest and fair manner," he added. - (AFP)
