DATE=3/26/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=U-S AMBASSADOR - EAST TIMOR (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-260619
BYLINE=PATRICIA NUNAN
DATELINE=DILI, EAST TIMOR
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: United States Ambassador to Indonesia, Robert
Gelbard, says the Indonesian military should roundup
and physically remove the leaders of pro-Jakarta
militia groups from East and West Timor as a way to
put an end to continued intimidation and attacks by
the militia groups. As Patricia Nunan reports from
the East Timorese capital, Dili, the ambassador also
says he believes reports that the militia leaders are
engaged in arms trades with other Christian groups in
Indonesia.
TEXT: The U-S Ambassador to Indonesia and East Timor,
Robert Gelbard, says the Indonesian military is still
not doing enough to rein in pro-Jakarta militia groups
which are active on the border between East and West
Timor.
//begin Gelbard act.//
What the Indonesian military needs to do, is to get to
the heart of the problem. And the heart of the
problem is the leadership of the militias. These
people need to be removed quickly from the island of
Timor and taken by the Indonesian government to other
parts of the country.
//end Gelbard act.//
Human rights groups say the militias, backed by some
elements of the Indonesian armed forces, are to blame
for laying East Timor to waste last September after
the majority of people voted for the territory to
separate from Indonesia in a United Nations-sponsored
ballot.
But despite the international and domestic
condemnation of the militias, Ambassador Gelbard says
the leaders of the militia groups are still able to
work freely.
//begin second Gelbard act.//
As long as they are continued to allow to roam freely
through West Timor, to organize their activities, to
find ways to arm people, this kind of problem is going
to continue.
//end second Gelbard act.//
The United Nations says more than 100-thousand East
Timorese refugees remain in West Timor where they fled
after last year's militia violence.
Aid workers say that continued intimidation by the
militias on the border between Indonesian controlled
West Timor and East Timor has prevented many of the
refugees from returning home.
Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid visited East
and West Timor last month and promised to clamp down
on the militia leaders.
East Timor won its independence from Indonesia last
October after a 24 year occupation by the Indonesian
military which invaded in 1975. The territory is now
being administered by United Nations peacekeepers who
are working with local leaders to develop government
institutions.
Mr. Gelbard made his comments while on a visit to the
town of Lete Foho 100 kilometers south of Dili where
he went with East Timorese leader Jose Ramos Horta.
Ambassador Gelbard also called on the Indonesian
military to put and end to arms deals between the
militia leaders in Christian dominated West Timor and
Christian groups in Indonesia's province of Maluku.
Human rights groups say clashes between Christian and
Muslim groups in Maluku province have claimed 17-
hundred lives in the past year. (Signed)
NEB/PN/PLM
NEB/WTW/
26-Mar-2000 07:58 AM EDT (26-Mar-2000 1258 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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