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Indonesia agrees to 'direct' ballot for Timor

Source
Reuters - March 11, 1999

Evelyn Leopold, United Nations – UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced Thursday that Indonesia and Portugal had agreed on a "direct" ballot for the people of East Timor to decide whether they wanted autonomy or independence.

Indonesia's Foreign Minister Ali Alatas had previously refused to accept a direct vote for the troubled former Portuguese colony that Jakarta invaded in 1995.

Portugal's Foreign Minister called the agreement a "turning point" in discussions the two countries have been holding for years over East Timor.

"The meeting has reached an agreement that a method of direct ballot will be used to ask the people of East Timor whether they accept or reject the autonomy proposal," Annan said after two days of talks with the ministers.

But he said the "specific modalities of how the popular consultation will be carried out" were not yet resolved. To this end Indonesian and Portuguese officials would meet on April 13 and 14 and the two ministers would come to New York again on April 22, Annan told a news conference.

At issue is a wide-ranging autonomy plan that Indonesia is offering, which the Timorese are expected to turn down in favor of independence. The United Nations had hoped the plan would be completed this week but Indonesia's cabinet Monday demanded some major revisions.

If the East Timorese reject autonomy, Alatas said the Indonesian legislature, to be elected in June and meeting in August, would move to rescind the 1976 annexation, putting the territory on the road to independence.

East Timor, a former Portuguese colony of 800,000 people, has for more than 20 years been the center of a dispute that earned Jakarta international notoriety for its army's harsh rule. Indonesia's annexation of the territory is not recognized by the United Nations or any other country.

One major stumbling block was how the Timorese would make their voices heard, with Portugal insisting on a direct vote and Indonesia ruling out a referendum, saying this would be cumbersome and require UN peacekeepers.

Alatas Wednesday, according to diplomats, proposed that United Nations conduct a "rolling ballot," with UN teams going from town to town rather than voting taking place on a single day.

At the press conference, however, he said "there has never been at any time a proposal by Indonesia that such a consultation would stretch out over weeks or months." But he gave no clue about how the ballot would be held.

In response, Gama said exiled Timorese would obviously not vote at the same time as those living in the territory. "But I would like to stress that if it is possible to have elections in such a big country like Indonesia in one day, why not East Timor [balloting] in one day?

"That is our intention," Annan said, adding that he wanted any balloting to take place in a "concentrated" timeframe. Alatas said he agreed.

Gama also said that for Portugal, the only way to ascertain the opinion of the people in East Timor was a universal vote. He called the talks a "turning point" in achieving this but stressed that details still needed to be resolved.

The Indonesian government of President B.J. Habibie in January startled the world by suggesting independence as a "second option" if autonomy were rejected, triggering fighting between pro-and anti-independence factions and accusations the Indonesian army was handing out weapons to its allies.

Alatas said Jakarta was calling "the bluff" of some Timorese resistance leaders who said 90 percent of the territory would vote in favor of independence.

"There has been a sea change in the Indonesian position. We have no more fears," he said. "Please, choose what you want. I hope this is now finally understood by everyone."

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