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Indonesia dismisses Timor rebel leader's proposal

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Reuters - August 25, 1997

Jakarta – Indonesia dismissed on Monday a proposal from an East Timor rebel leader for the former Portuguese colony to have a similar relationship with Jakarta as the United States shares with Puerto Rico.

In a message recorded in the mountains of East Timor and broadcast on Portuguese television on Friday, Konis Santana said his rebel movement would accept the transformation of East Timor into a state associated with Indonesia, in the same way as Puerto Rico is linked to the United States.

Puerto Rico has almost total autonomy with just foreign relations and defence the province of the U.S. government.

"We take the view that any solution which gives the people of East Timor the right to exercise self-determination is acceptable," Santana said in the broadcast. "Puerto Rico forms a viable working model."

However, Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ghaffar Fadyl dismissed the proposal and questioned Santana's credentials.

"Who does he represent? He represents a minority which is not satisfied with the integration (of East Timor into Indonesia), but he certainly does not represent the majority of the people of East Timor," Fadyl told Reuters.

Fadyl said the two existing U.N.-sponsored forums on East Timor – the tripartite talks between Indonesia and Portugal and the All-Inclusive East Timorese Dialogue (AETD) – were the place for any new proposals.

"If any solution can be found, it will done be through the tripartite talks and the AETD," Fadyl said.

"They are free to propose, they are free to say what they want, but will it be practical? Will it be something useful? It's nothing new. It is the same thing over and over again," he said.

The United Nations has never recognised Indonesia's 1976 annexation of East Timor eight months after Jakarta invaded the enclave, and considers Portugal the administering power.

Foreign military analysts estimate the poorly armed rebel movement has only a few hundred fighters in the rugged hills of East Timor and that it is supported by an urban-based clandestine movement numbering in the thousands.

East Timorese resistance leader says he could accept a Puerto Rico's solution for the territory.

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