DATE=11/22/1999
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=HOLBROOKE / EAST TIMOR (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-256423
BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN
DATELINE=JAKARTA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The U-S Ambassador to the United Nations
Richard Holbrooke is putting pressure on the
Indonesian government to help East Timorese
refugees in camps in West Timor to return home.
As Patricia Nunan reports from Jakarta, Mr.
Holbrooke made his comments as Indonesian
investigators prepare to question top military
officials about their roles in the violence that
forced almost half a million East Timorese to
flee their homes.
TEXT: U-S Ambassador Richard Holbrooke says
Indonesia's transition to democracy will be
judged on how well it deals with the refugee
crisis in West Timor. Mr. Holbrooke visited
refugee camps where up to 200 thousand people are
still living, after being forced to flee East
Timor in September.
Almost half a million refugees were created when
armed anti-independence militia groups virtually
took over East Timor in a two-week campaign of
terror. The militias -- which U-N officials say
received weapons and support from the Indonesian
military -- were reacting to the news that most
East Timorese had voted for the territory to
break free of Indonesian rule.
Estimates of the number of people killed in the
rampage range from the hundreds to the thousands.
Mr. Holbrooke says the East Timor crisis is
evidence that there are two factions within the
new Indonesian government which came to power
last month: reformists led by President
Abdurrahman Wahid and a backward-looking
military. Mr. Holbrooke says some members of the
military are corrupt and some, in his words, "are
probably war criminals."
Mr. Holbrooke's comments come as Indonesian
investigators say they want to question top
military officials for "colluding" with the
militias during September's violent rampage. The
former Head of the Armed Forces, General Wiranto
now a cabinet minister under President Wahid is
on their list of officers to be summoned.
Indonesia's Armed Forces spokesman Major General
Sudrajat says the military will be open to all
investigations. But he adds the team from the
Commission for the Investigation of Human Rights
Abuses In East Timor should be careful about
pushing a political agenda, disguised as concern
about human rights.
/// ACT Sudrajat ///
This is not fair, because the problem took place
in East Timor. They should start with the problem
that happened on the ground and ask them. Because
General Wiranto says that the military has not a
policy, has not any single policy that we are
going to help the militia.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Holbrooke was expected to visit East Timor for a
possible meeting with independence leader Xanana
Gusmao before returning to the United States on
Tuesday.
NEB/PN/FC
22-Nov-1999 05:03 AM EDT (22-Nov-1999 1003 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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