14 September 1999
U.S. Presses for Quick UN Security Council Action on East Timor Sept. 14
(Annan hopes some peacekeepers will be in region "by the weekend")
(500)
By Judy Aita
Washington File United Nations Correspondent
United Nations -- The United States is pressing the UN Security
Council to speed action on the resolution authorizing an international
security force for East Timor.
At the urging of U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, the UNSC September
14 scheduled a private meeting to continue drafting the resolution,
while Secretary General Kofi Annan continued his meetings with
Indonesian, Portuguese and Australian Foreign Ministers.
The British draft resolution not only sets out a plan for an
international peacekeeping force, but also condemns the violence in
the territory and calls for coordinated humanitarian assistance for
East Timorese. However, the initial draft does not specify Australia
as leader of the force, nor does it require withdrawal of Indonesian
forces.
The initial deployment would be for four months, after which the force
would be replaced by a United Nations peacekeeping operation.
Holbrooke said there would be no conditions imposed on the make-up of
the international peacekeepers, especially Australia's leadership of
the peacekeepers, in spite of reported opposition by some Indonesian
officials.
Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas "and all the United Nations
veterans said yesterday 'without conditions,'" Holbrooke said. "That
is the key phrase and it is on that basis that we are proceeding."
Secretary General Kofi Annan said that during his meeting with the
Ministers "we made good progress" and he hopes that international
forces will be in East Timor in less than a week.
"My hope is that ... it would be possible to have some elements on the
ground, hopefully by the weekend at the latest, Annan said.
Nobel laureate and East Timorese independence leader Jose Ramos-Horta,
who met with Holbrooke before the Council meeting, told reporters that
Indonesian troops are destroying every town in East Timor. "They are
destroying everything before they leave," comparing it to Iraq's
withdrawal from Kuwait.
Ramos-Horta also said that the Indonesian soldiers must leave East
Timor.
"Having Indonesian troops along with the multinational force is an
insult to the people of East Timor," he said. "And beyond that, it
creates a situation that can turn very explosive."
He said that up until September 13 the Indonesian militias were
destroying private property but now they had moved on, destroying
Indonesian Government buildings and files containing data on
Indonesian military officers and militia responsible for war crimes.
The United Nations also announced that it closed its compound in Dili
evacuating the 1,500 East Timorese who had sought refuge there to
Darwin.
In Rome the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reported that
about 7,000 had died since the referendum at the end of August and
said that more than 200,000 might starve. It also said that there was
mounting evidence that East Timorese were being forcibly removed to
West Timor and men were being separated from their families along the
way.
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