DATE=9/28/1999
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=U-N - EAST TIMOR - INTERVENTION
NUMBER=5-44361
BYLINE=MAX RUSTON
DATELINE=UNITED NATIONS
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The United Nations is facing criticism for its
failure to prevent the latest violence in the former
Portuguese colony of East Timor. U-N officials are
defending the organization. But they also say
compromises were made in order to secure Indonesia's
agreement to allow the vote last month on East Timor
independence. V-O-A's U-N correspondent Max Ruston
looks at how the United Nations dealt with the
apparently difficult choices it faced on the issue of
East Timor.
TEXT: U-N Secretary-General Kofi Annan says he moved
forward with East Timor's August 30th independence
referendum fully aware that it could lead to tension
and some violence. While the extent of the violence
that did take place was not predicted, Mr. Annan says
a deliberate decision was made to carry though with
the referendum, even without a U-N peacekeeping force.
/// ANNAN ACT ///
I know there are people who in hindsight say I
should have gone in with a force and that the U-
N should not have taken or accepted the word of
the Indonesians that they will maintain law and
order. When you are moving forward in this sort
of negotiations, where you have had 24 years of
impasse, you get to a stage where, for example
if we had not accepted, and insisted that they
should maintain law and order, they would
probably have never had the vote. And everybody
thought they would deliver. Nobody in his
wildest dreams thought what we are witnessing
could have happened.
/// END ACT ///
It is that decision which is prompting new criticism
of Mr. Annan and the United Nations. Some East
Timorese groups say Mr. Annan should not have accepted
Indonesia's promise to maintain security during the
election period. They say he should have insisted on
sending a U-N force.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says the
choice was not so simple. Considering the fragile
state of Indonesian politics, there were concerns that
Jakarta might withdraw its offer to cooperate with the
results of a referendum. The opportunity was
considered rare and the alternative, Mr. Downer says,
would have been cancellation of the vote.
/// DOWNER ACT ///
If the United Nations and Portugal, which were
the parties to the fifth of May agreement, and
the international community had insisted on a
peacekeeping force being inserted before the
ballot took place, the ballot would not have
taken place.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Downer says he is confident history will judge Mr.
Annan's decision to move forward with the referendum
as a wise one considering the complex situation.
Some diplomats at the United Nations say Mr. Downer's
assumption - that more forceful U-N action would have
led to the cancellation of the referendum - is not
necessarily accurate. They say the United Nations has
a tendency towards conservative and cautious decisions
and should have at least tried to improve security
conditions ahead of the ballot. Others say the U-N
simply does not have the power or authority to send
troops into unfriendly territory.
The issue has created division not only at the United
Nations, but also, apparently, among East Timor
independence leaders. Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose
Ramos-Horta says he intentionally boycotted the
signing of the agreement on the referendum because it
ceded too much power to the Indonesian military. But,
speaking through an interpreter, independence leader
Xanana Gusmao, who is expected to become East Timor's
first president, says he is confident that East
Timor's population supports Mr. Annan's decisions.
/// GUSMAO INTERPRETER ACT ///
Every decision taken by the U-N Secretary-
General was fully supported by us. We fought
for 23 years for this opportunity and throughout
that period we faced all sorts of challenges and
dangers. We faced a huge amount of suffering, a
huge death toll, just to gain this right to
self-determination.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Gusmao says the people of East Timor were aware of
the potential for violence but were not willing to let
that stop them from achieving independence. (Signed)
NEB/MPR/LSF/TVM/PT
28-Sep-1999 21:03 PM LOC (29-Sep-1999 0103 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
|
Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list
|
|
|
