DATE=9/9/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=EAST TIMOR - INDONESIA
NUMBER=5-44231
BYLINE=NICK SIMEONE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Questions hang over the future of East Timor,
just days after its people voted overwhelmingly to
break away from Indonesia in a United Nations
organized referendum. Like hundreds of thousands of
civilians, most of the United Nations staff in the
capital Dili have been forced to flee, unable to
supervise the post-referendum period because of on-
going attacks by allied militias backed by the
Indonesian military, as well as the burning and
looting much of the capital, Dili. Correspondent Nick
Simeone, who just returned from East Timor, takes a
look at the tragic turn of events in East Timor and
whether anything short of a military invasion can
restore peace.
TEXT: The outside world appears to have little
leverage to stop the violence now convulsing East
Timor. Neither the United Nations nor any single
country appears willing to dispatch troops to the
remote territory to restore order as long as the
Indonesian government refuses to allow an outside
peace keeping force to enter.
Indonesian President B-J Habibie promised the military
would maintain order in the disputed territory before
and after the historic August 30th referendum. But the
military's unwillingness or inability to stop the
violence is raising questions in capitals as far away
as Washington about who may hold ultimate power in
Jakarta.
Last year's resignation of President Suharto - and
national elections this past June -- have rendered
President Habibie a transitional leader - far weaker
than his predecessor -- and one who analysts say the
military may be willing to exploit. Diplomats also
say there is reluctance to put further pressure on
Jakarta over East Timor at a time when the world's
most populous Muslim nation is undergoing a fragile
political transition - as well as recovering from
Asia's worst economic crisis. Some observers even
question whether an important ally like Indonesia and
its more than 200-million people should be denied
economic assistance because of events in East Timor, a
remote region of little, if any strategic importance
to the rest of the world.
For two decades, East Timor has been the scene of one
of the world's most remote struggles for independence.
But a long-running guerrilla war was supposed to have
ended with the August 30th referendum. Instead, the
vote has had the opposite effect -- unleashing new
violence that threatens to deny the East Timorese
people their wish to see the former Portuguese colony
become the world's newest country.
Still, despite the appearance of anarchy, the violence
in East Timor may very well have an intended goal:
Analysts say the army-backed killings in the territory
may be a deliberate warning to pro-independence
movements in Indonesia's other restive provinces such
as Aceh and Irian Jaya not to try to go the route of
East Timor. (SIGNED)
NEB/NJS/TVM/PT
09-Sep-1999 18:09 PM LOC (09-Sep-1999 2209 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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