"Separatists Rally in East Timor"
By Geoff Spencer
Associated PressFebruary 3, 1999
DILI, Indonesia. Separatists rallied today in East Timor for a third consecutive day, as the Indonesian government blamed pro-independence groups for recent unrest in the troubled territory.
About 200 chanting protesters, buoyed by a surprise offer from Indonesia to consider independence for the former Portuguese colony, demanded that the Indonesian military withdraw troops at once. They gathered at Santa Cruz cemetery in East Timor's seaside capital of Dili, where Indonesian troops fired on separatists in 1991, killing dozens and drawing international condemnation.
Indonesia invaded East Timor in December 1975 after the colonizers withdrew and annexed it a couple weeks later, unleashing separatist rebel fighting and human rights abuses.
Indonesian officials have said the nation's highest legislative body may discuss independence for East Timor if its people reject an autonomy proposal. In another conciliatory gesture, Indonesian officials plan to move East Timor's jailed rebel chief, Xanana Gusmao, from a Jakarta jail on Feb. 11, to a more comfortable government-owned house, his lawyer said. Revered by many East Timorese, Gusmao is a key figure in any deal on the future of East Timor.
There has been progress in U.N.-sponsored talks between Indonesia and Portugal, which the United Nations still considers the administering power in East Timor. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has invited Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama and Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas for a new round of talks in New York on Sunday and Monday.
Alatas said anti-Indonesian East Timorese who have demanded a referendum on independence were largely responsible for recent violence in the troubled territory. ``It is the pro-referendum groups that have been very active and sometimes very aggressive in the last few weeks,'' Alatas told Associated Press Television News. ``We are trying to keep the situation under control.''
Hundreds of villagers had taken shelter in Suai, 50 miles southwest of Dili, after violence and threats between pro- and anti-independence groups. About 200 refugees who said they were harassed by pro-Indonesian gunmen were staying at the home of a pro-independence leader in Dili.
Alatas denied accusations by pro-independence activists that the military had systematically armed East Timorese civilians who want their homeland to stay part of Indonesia. He said civilian guards in East Timor had been given weapons to reinforce the police under a nationwide law enforcement program.
``The police need some reinforcement to ensure law and order,'' he said.
A delegation of pro-Indonesian East Timorese was expected to meet with government officials in Jakarta this week to argue against independence. East Timor was riven by internal conflict when Indonesia invaded, and many fear that old antagonisms will fuel more violence if Indonesia pulls out thousands of troops.
``It is not a time to use confrontation, physical confrontation, because then it will show that we are not a mature society,'' said Abilio Araujo, a former separatist leader who met with Alatas today.
Meanwhile, President B.J. Habibie outlined Indonesian policy on East Timor in a meeting with Stanley Roth, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. ``This is not an American issue, this is an Indonesian issue,'' Roth said afterward.
