---------------------------------------------------------- FREE for JOIN Indonesia Daily News Online via EMAIL: go to: http://www.indo-news.com/subscribe.html - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ---------------------------------------------------------- Irish Times [Dublin] Wednesday, September 1, 1999 =20 Timor plebiscite triumph overshadowed by violence=20 By Conor O'Clery, in Dili=20 EAST TIMOR: United Nations officials yesterday celebrated an almost=20 incredible 98.6 per cent turnout in Monday's referendum on the future of Eas= t=20 Timor, perhaps the most successful plebiscite ever organised by the=20 international organisation. However, armed pro-Indonesian militias returned to the streets of the capita= l=20 Dili, heightening tensions in the run-up to the announcement of the result=20 this weekend. Also overshadowing the international celebrations was a report that the deat= h=20 toll among UNrecruited polling staff on Monday had risen to three. The forme= r=20 Australian deputy prime minister, Mr Tim Fischer, travelling in East Timor a= s=20 an observer, reported that in addition to the stabbing to death of UN poll=20 worker Joao L=F3pez Gomez at the mountain town of Gleno south of Dili, two=20 other locally-recruited staff had been killed there. The UN headquarters at the nearby town of Emera was besieged yesterday by=20 armed pro-Indonesian militias who for eight hours prevented a UN convoy=20 carrying 100 UN staff and 50 local workers from leaving. Shots were fired,=20 and staff lay on the floor, but no one was hurt, according to Mr David=20 Wimhurst, spokesman for the United Nations Mission in East Timor, UNAMET. The stand-off was resolved when the UN chief of civilian police, Commissione= r=20 Alan Mills of Australia, and senior Indonesian police officers, arrived at=20 the scene by helicopter and negotiated with the militia leaders, and the=20 convoy arrived in Dili just after dark. Despite this setback, all ballot boxes from 850 polling stations were safely=20 collected and brought to a museum building near Dili airport where counting=20 will get under way today, guarded by Indonesian police and members of Civpol= ,=20 the unarmed UN civilian police force. The outcome of the vote, widely expected to favour independence over=20 autonomy, will be known before Saturday, UN officials predicted. In the face=20 of intimidation by pro-Indonesian militias, 98.6 per cent of the registered=20 voters in the former Portuguese colony turned out to say whether they wanted=20 autonomy within Indonesia or a complete break with the country which sent in=20 a brutal invasion force in 1975. But major hurdles lie ahead. Tension is rising steadily in anticipation of=20 the announcement of a pro-independence verdict when the counting is complete= d=20 in the coming days. The pro-integration governor of East Timor, Mr Abilio=20 Soares, warned the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, yesterday that=20 the day of the result would be "a very heavy, charged day". He should know. Mr Soares, an old opponent of the resistance movement=20 Fretelin from pre-invasion days, has been working hand in glove with the=20 militias since they began their campaign of intimidation after Indonesia's=20 President B.J. Habibie announced in January that East Timor would be allowed=20 to choose its own future. He met Mr Andrews in the colonial Kantor Gubernatur, the old Portuguese=20 palace on the sea front, where a picture of the Virgin and Child on his=20 office wall indicated the Governor's own Catholic and East Timorese origins. "I hope the result of the popular consultation will be accepted by all the=20 people of East Timor," the Governor said, speaking in Portuguese with Mr Tom=20 Bolster of the Department of Foreign Affairs acting as interpreter. "The day=20 of the announcement will be a very heavy, charged day. We hope we will have=20 the full understanding of the European Union but it will be a very difficult=20 day." The Governor's demeanour was markedly different from that on the bloody day=20 in April when his first meeting with Mr Andrews took place against a=20 background of killings in nearby streets, as militias whom he had addressed=20 earlier attacked pro-independence supporters. On that occasion he talked=20 impatiently of continuing to fight for integration whatever the result of th= e=20 referendum. Yesterday he spoke regretfully of the killing by militias of a=20 member of the UNAMET polling staff. "I feel very bad about it and as a=20 representative of the Indonesian Government I hope that this will be an end=20 of it and that these kind of things will not happen again." He said that if autonomy was rejected the matter would be entrusted to the=20 United Nations. Asked if he would work with the leader of the Falantil=20 resistance, Mr Xanana Gusmao in a future government, he said, if independenc= e=20 came: "I would not wish to participate in any East Timor government - perhap= s=20 I will take a break and have a rest." One should perhaps not rush to the conclusion that this means Mr Soares is=20 conceding defeat, though the referendum result is likely to rob his argument= s=20 of any moral authority they might previously have had. Mr Andrews leaves Dili this morning for Jakarta and will meet Indonesian=20 President B.J. Habibie before reporting to EU foreign ministers on the=20 referendum in Helsinki on Saturday. Armed militias yesterday briefly pickete= d=20 the airport and the port, seemingly intent on intimidating any of their own=20 potential supporters from trying to leave in anticipation of a=20 pro-independence result. At the airport, Mr Eurico Gutterres, commander of the Aitarak militia, said:=20 "Whoever they are, pro-independence or pro-autonomy, the political elite mus= t=20 stay in East Timor and shoulder their responsibilities." When a ferry from Kupang in West Timor arrived at Dili harbour during the=20 night, militias fired shots as they jostled passengers trying to scramble=20 aboard. There are other signs that the forces of anarchy which the militia leaders=20 and their Indonesian sponsors have unleashed are now switching to new=20 tactics. Yesterday the militias and their political counterparts boycotted=20 the inaugural meeting in Dili of a special commission created by UNAMET=20 comprising ten members each from the pro-autonomy and proindependence camps=20 and five UN appointees, designed to ensure stability in the period after the=20 referendum. This type of behaviour has increased fears that, sensing defeat,=20 they are preparing the ground for a rejection of the outcome of the popular=20 consultation. The main pro-Indonesian group on this committee was to have=20 been the United Front for East Timor Autonomy, a coalition of=20 anti-integration forces which brings together the pro-Indonesian militias,=20 the PPI, and their political wing the FPDK led by Mr Basilio Araujo. They=20 issued a statement justifying their boycott on the grounds that the voting=20 had been conducted improperly, listing 35 incidents in Dili alone where they=20 said the UN had interfered with the vote. They claimed large numbers of=20 foreign observers had encouraged people to vote for independence. As UNAMET spokesman David Wimhurst pointed out, they have not filed any=20 written complaints. But that is not the point. This is propaganda and the=20 worrying thing is the end to which it will be used. An outright rejection of=20 the vote could be the prelude to some sort of coup. Before the referendum=20 there were prominent acts of reconciliation and promises from the militias t= o=20 turn in their weapons, which raised hopes that he transition would be=20 peaceful. However as Bishop Carlos Belo tells visitors, including Mr Andrews= ,=20 "they are not sincere". Anyone who doubted that need only have walked along the stretch of seafront=20 between Bishop Belo's house and the Kantor Gubernatur yesterday. Dozens of militiamen, many carrying automatic weapons, machetes, swords,=20 knives and clubs, and were stoning the alreadywrecked office of CNRT, the=20 National Council for East Timorese Resistance with impunity . So much for th= e=20 much-heralded agreement on Sunday - publicised with embraces and jokes -=20 between militia leader Eurico Gutterres and a Falantil commander, under whic= h=20 the militias said that they would only carry arms within cantonment areas.=20 Observers here conclude that the reason they didn't try to stop the=20 referendum taking place at all was that orders had been received from above = -=20 i.e. from General Wiranto, chief of the Indonesian armed forces, whose=20 picture adorns the walls of police barracks throughout East Timor. The=20 question is, what orders will the general give for the heavy and charged day=20 the result is announced? ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 1 Sep 1999 jam 10:30:15 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
