DATE=9/7/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=EAST TIMOR: THE PRESSURE TO RESTORE ORDER GROWS
NUMBER=5-44209
BYLINE=NICK SIMEONE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Human-rights groups and others concerned about
the situation East Timor are faulting the United
Nations, and governments involved in East Timor's
independence referendum, for failing to act against
the explosive violence that followed last week's
historic vote. Correspondent Nick Simeone reports
pressure is growing for the international community to
intervene, if Indonesia fails to stop what East
Timorese independence leader Xanana Gusmao says may be
a genocide unfolding in the disputed territory.
TEXT: East Timor's historic vote to break away from
Indonesia is fueling all-out war by anti-independence
militias and, by some accounts, revenge attacks by
Indonesia's own military. As the world looks on in
horror, questions are being raised about whether the
United Nations should have been better prepared for
the possibility of explosive violence, since for
months leading up to the vote, anti-independence
militias had threatened war if the referendum resulted
in a vote for independence.
Former U-S army colonel Kenneth Allard wrote a book on
the United Nations' experience in peace keeping in
war-torn Somalia. He believes the world body is in
part to blame for what is happening in East Timor now.
/// FIRST ALLARD ACT ///
What I think was very, very clear from the
outset here is that this should have been a
peacekeeping force from the beginning that
should have had two missions. Number one, to
secure the situation and, having secured it,
then to organize the referendum and not the
other way around.
/// END ACT ///
Even though it has admitted the violence has spun out
of control, Indonesia refuses to allow an armed
peacekeeping presence into East Timor. So it would be
up to the United Nations to press ahead with a new
mandate -- one that would invoke international law and
authorize an outside force to go in and restore order.
// SECOND ALLARD ACT //
That gets very quickly at the idea of Chapter
Seven [of the U-N Charter], which is a peace-
enforcement operation. The U-N Security Council
does indeed have the authority to order certain
things to occur, and it is then the
responsibility of member states to allow that to
occur.
/// END ACT ///
Twice in the weeks before the August 30th referendum,
U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan postponed the vote
because of security concerns. Even some people who
observed the vote, including Jerome Hansen of the East
Timor Action Network, are faulting the United Nations
for failing to plan for a violent outcome.
/// HANSEN ACT ///
I think contingency plans should have been made.
I mean, violence was still going on in the week
leading up to the election, and even before the
votes were announced on Saturday, the U-N had
been withdrawing people from the field. We had
been withdrawing people from the field before
announcements were even made.
/// END ACT ///
The United Nations did have an agreement with
Indonesia that Indonesian police would provide
security for the referendum. But with Jakarta either
unwilling or unable to fulfill it, pressure is
increasing for outside intervention, perhaps through a
new, expanded U-N mandate or by threatening to
withhold international aid to the Indonesian
government, which is depending on billions of dollars
in assistance to help it recover from the Asian
economic crisis. Joe Saunders is a spokesman for
Human Rights Watch.
/// SAUNDERS ACT ///
There's been no demand, backed up with real
sanctions such as cutting off World Bank and
I-M-F monies to Indonesia, things of that
nature, to tell Indonesia that this is serious
and that the stakes of this will be very high.
And so Indonesia has gone ahead and continued to
behave in exactly the same way, and so far there
has been no serious repercussions for the
Indonesian government. I think now things are
changing, and they are beginning to be more and
more ostracized, [feeling] more and more
pressure from other countries. But unless
that's backed up with something concrete, the
situation could continue to unravel.
/// END ACT ///
In fact, the World Bank has issued a very concrete
statement warning that future international assistance
will be jeopardized if the Indonesian government is
not able to restore order in East Timor. And the bank
says it is already receiving requests from governments
not to go ahead with more loans. (Signed)
NEB/NJS/TVM/WTW
07-Sep-1999 17:22 PM EDT (07-Sep-1999 2122 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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