DATE=7/24/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=ASEAN / EAST TIMOR (L-ONLY)
NUMBER=2-264731
BYLINE=GARY THOMAS
DATELINE=BANGKOK
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: East Timor says it wants to begin early talks on
joining the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. V-O-A
Southeast Asia correspondent Gary Thomas reports from
Bangkok, where ASEAN foreign ministers are meeting.
TEXT: Nobel laureate and independence leader Jose Ramos-
Horta says he would like to see East Timor admitted to
ASEAN as soon possible after it becomes fully independent.
Speaking on the sidelines of the ASEAN foreign ministers
meeting in Bangkok Monday, Mr. Ramos-Horta says talks
should begin even while the United Nations is still
administering the territory. He says East Timor might
achieve observer status first.
/// RAMOS-HORTA ACT ONE ///
For us, it's an issue of enormous importance. We
view it as a priority. I hope that as early as next
year -- still during the transition time of the U-N
presence there -- we can begin dialogue, informal
dialogue, to prepare accession to ASEAN, which would
happen soon after independence.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Ramos-Horta and fellow independence leader Xanana
Gusmao were invited as unofficial observers to Monday's
opening ASEAN ceremonies.
East Timor was invaded and occupied by Indonesia in 1975 on
orders of then-President Suharto. Last year, a referendum
was held in which the East Timorese voted overwhelmingly
for independence. The vote set off bloody retribution by
marauding pro-Jakarta militias and their Indonesian army
allies. East Timor is now under a transitional United
Nations administration.
In keeping with its longstanding policy of non-
interference, ASEAN members never commented on the
accusations of human-rights abuses there by Indonesian
troops. But Mr. Ramos-Horta says there is no grudge
against ASEAN.
/// RAMOS-HORTA ACT TWO ///
At least the ASEAN countries did not send helicopters
and airplanes to bomb us. If today we have the best
possible relationship with Washington, with Canberra,
with London -- which sold weapons to the Suharto
regime -- why wouldn't we have relations with ASEAN?
Not one single soldier from ASEAN countries was in
East Timor. Not one single helicopter was there. It
was only maybe political indifference, maybe
political cooperation with the Suharto regime, but
there were other worse things in life than that.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Ramos-Horta says East Timor has what he termed "the
best possible relationship" with the new government of
Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid. Mr. Ramos-Horta
has publicly called on Western countries to write off
Indonesia's public debt.
/// REST OPT ///
As to the Indonesian army, Mr. Ramos-Horta says what he
terms "bad elements" in the military are causing the same
kind of unrest in the Maluku Islands that they did in East
Timor.
/// RAMOS-HORTA ACT THREE ///
I hope that the bad elements in the Indonesian army
soon will be marginalized, lose power, for the good
of Indonesia. If you look at what is happening in
Ambon and elsewhere, whose responsibility is that?
Who is tearing apart Indonesia? These bad elements,
the same ones that tried to destroy East Timor are
trying to destroy Indonesia.
/// END ACT ///
East Timor is not expected to achieve full statehood for
another two to three years. (Signed)
NEB/HK/GPT/JO/WTW
24-Jul-2000 07:42 AM EDT (24-Jul-2000 1142 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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