Nusa Dua – Indonesian President B.J. Habibie said on Tuesday he fully accepted a UN-brokered autonomy package for troubled East Timor and that his government would sign it on May 5.
"I have accepted the whole draft without any changes, to be signed on the 5th of May," Habibie said after meeting with Australian Prime Minister John Howard in Bali. Habibie said on Tuesday East Timor's autonomy vote would take place on August 8.
Indonesia and East Timor's former colonial ruler, Portugal, reached an agreement on Friday in New York on the autonomy plan, which will allow East Timor's ballot to take place in August.
The signing of the accord was delayed until May 5 because Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas needed approval from Jakarta on security and other issues related to the way the vote would be carried out.
The crucial talks on East Timor between Habibie and Howard followed spiraling violence in East Timor, after Jakarta's announcement in January that it would consider giving the territory independence if an offer of wide-ranging autonomy were rejected.
On Monday, thousands of pro-Jakarta East Timorese pledged to die to keep their link to Indonesia. About 5,000 members of pro-integration militias gathered in the village of Gleno to launch a "Blood for Integration" battalion.
"My men and I are ready to die for integration," militia leader Eurico Guterres told the crowd, who responded with cheers and shouts of "Kill! Kill!"
An East Timorese resistance spokesman said over the weekend that more than 150 people have died in the lastest wave of killings by pro-Indonesia militias in the south of the territory.
Disarmament prospects on agenda
At the talks in Bali, officials from Indonesia and Australia were set to discuss prospects of disarming the warring militias on East Timor.
Howard has been careful not to build expectations about the outcome of the meeting, saying it was important to be realistic about what could be achieved.
Howard said he hoped Indonesia's appreciation for recent Australian financial support, and its friendship would pave the way for constructive talks on East Timor.
"It's a very important meeting in a very important association at a very important time," Howard said before his arrival in Bali on Monday.
With Indonesia, Howard faces his most important international policy test since he became prime minister in March, 1996.
It is only the second time that Habibie has spent a night away from the Indonesian capital of Jakarta since he came to power nearly a year ago.
Successive Australian governments have taken immense pains to build up strong relations with its northern neighbor, and Australia is the only Western nation that recognizes Indonesia's 1976 annexation of East Timor. But Asian experts say Howard must put that relationship on the line, given the alternative of civil war in the territory less than 500 kilometers from Australia's northern border.