Jakarta – The foreign minister of East Timor's transitional goverment – in a shock move on Wednesday – threw his support behind Jakarta's calls for the US to ease its arms embargo against Indonesia.
Lifting or easing the ban would help Indonesia in dealing with problems in restive provinces, especially in West Timor and the Malukus, Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta told journalists here.
"I will be saying to our friends in the US Congress that it is time for the US administration, the congress, to resume some level of military assistance and cooperation with Indonesia," Horta said.
Ramos-Horta was speaking at a media briefing after talks with Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid and Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.
He explained his sudden unexpected support for the easing of the US ban – despite his long opposition to the Indonesian occupation of East Timor for which he was awarded the Nobel prize – by saying it would be unfair with the ban in place,for East Timor to "keep telling" Jakarta that they "must restore security in West Timor and in Ambon."
Some 100,000 East Timorese refugees were driven out of their homeland by pro-Jakarta militia violence after East Timor's vote to split from Indonesia in 1999. They are still trapped in squalid refugee camps in West Timor, reportedly held under the control of the unruly militia.
The US government imposed the military assistance ban on Indonesia in response to militia violence in 1999, and has insisted that Jakarta clean up its act in West Timor before the ban is lifted or eased.
"We know that the [Indonesian] government is genuine in wanting to address the issue of stability in West Timor," Horta said, adding that he was ready to face criticism for throwing his support behind Jakarta.
"I have to do some work in Washington to persuade some of our friends in the US Congress to change ... I have to do that and I will do it [because] that's what my conscience tells me to do and in fairness to this country," he said.
"Because of the sanctions for the past two years, they [the Indonesian armed forces] are stretched and [facing] enormous difficulties in logistics and in the delivery of troops and police" to restive areas, Horta said.
"I'm talking about communications ... maybe vesssels and so on," he added. "This is because the [Indonesian] government really needs assistance in order to be able to deal with some of the problems they have."
Horta also said he hoped that UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) personnel would "return to West Timor as soon as possible." The UNHCR workers fled after three aid workers – an American, a Croatian and an Ethiopian – were brutally killed by a mob of militia last September after they forced their way into the UNHCR office in the border town of Atambua in West Timor. They were hacked to death and their bodies burned.
He also called on UN security experts to "travel to Indonesia as soon as possible to make an on-the-ground assessment of the situation."
This was despite UN statements as recently as last week that the continued presence of the armed milita made resuming their work with the refugees impossible. "I hope that their reports will recommend the resumption of the activities of the UNHCR," Horta added.