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Nobel laureate urges Australia to press for end to East Timor conflict

Source
Agence France Presse - February 5, 1997

Canberra – Nobel laureate Jose Ramos Horta urged Australia Wednesday to press for an end to the continuing conflict in East Timor by proposing measures such as a permanent UN presence in the province.

Horta told the National Press Club here that he was still hopeful that Indonesian President Suharto might overturn his opposition to some form of autonomy for the Indonesian-occupied territory.

But he said East Timor's future must be determined by a UN supervised referendum of the people, suggesting Jakarta may allow talks mediated by a third party away from the international spotlight of the United Nations.

Indonesia invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975 and annexed in 1976.

Horta said Suharto was the last stumbling block to resolving the issue after he rejected a proposal from his foreign ministry two years ago for limited autonomy.

"But Suharto is also a survivor and an astute man.

He might realise that it is in his own interests in the next few months to make some changes," he said.

If there were any sign of that, the independence movement would bend over backwards to find a way of allowing Indonesia to disengage without the president having to lose face.

Horta said he had not given up hope that Suharto would change, citing the examples of Mikhail Gorbachev, a loyal communist who had initiated reforms which led to the collapse of the soviet states.

"Sometimes from unexpected sources you have people who have had the courage, the wisdom to do changes," Horta said.

"Sometimes the more conservative elements in a society or in a power structure are the ones capable of taking dramatic steps that would surprise everyone."

Horta, awarded the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize with Timor's Catholic Bishop Carlos Belo, said the independence movement was grateful that Australia consistently had raised the issue of Timor with the Indonesian government.

"But please, they must bear in mind that the problem of East Timor is not one of band-aid diplomacy, that is you address only human rights problems." They had to look into the root of the problem which included military occupation and migrants from Indonesia taking the best land.

He appealed to Foreign Minister Alexander Downer to talk to the United States and the European Union in consultation with Portugal about concerted action to persuade Indonesia it was in its best interests to disengage. jt/jkb

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