DATE=9/14/2000
TYPE=WORLD OPINION ROUNDUP
TITLE=TIMOR'S TROUBLES PLAGUE INDONESIA
NUMBER=6-11999
BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS
TELEPHONE=619-3335
CONTENT=
INTRO: The ongoing violence on the island of Timor --
divided between Indonesia and a United Nations
protectorate - continues to occupy the attention of
newspaper editorial writers around the world.
The killing of three United Nations civilian relief
workers last week, during the Millennium Summit at the
U-N was an acute embarrassment for both Indonesia and
the world body. Already, some U-S foreign policy
journalists are calling the East Timor U-N mission
another U-N peacekeeping failure. And the World Bank
has warned Indonesia it has to restore law and order
in the region.
We get some reaction now from newspapers around the
world, many of them in the South Pacific, as we turn
to ____________ for this week's World Opinion Roundup.
TEXT: For many months, the militias that terrorized
the people of East Timor before, during and after
their U-N authorized vote for independence a year ago
continue to cause trouble. They moved over the border
to West Timor, where officials say they began to
attack East Timorese in U-N refugee camps.
The most serious violence came in the Atambua village,
where three U-N aid workers were killed by one of the
militias, and then another 11 people were killed
shortly afterward. The Indonesian press is outraged
and has called for the government in Jakarta to crack
down on the militias as well as the Army command in
West Timor.
The killings are the latest setback to the government
of the elderly and nearly blind Indonesian president,
Abdurrahman Wahid, who is also having trouble bringing
to justice the country's previous leader, President
Suharto.
We begin our sampling in the capital, Jakarta, where
the independent Kompas suggests:
VOICE: Neither we nor the government have ever
been more embarrassed than we are now. The
unanimously passed U-N resolution ... shows that
Indonesia is left alone and without allies ...
[Government] action cannot be delayed. The
government must clearly disclose the Atambua
attack culprits.
TEXT: In the English-language press, the Indonesian
Observer puts it this way.
VOICE: It has been quite an eye-opener for us
that the main agenda topics at the [U-N]
Millennium Summit had to be changed because of
the senseless killings of U-N personnel in
Atambua. It would seem that we continue to
perpetuate tragic errors when it comes to East
Timor ...
TEXT: Still in Indonesia, the afternoon daily Suara
Pembaruan suggests:
VOICE: The Atambua incident prompts us to be
aware that the government must investigate the
murders of the three U-N officials. All the
parties concerned ... must seek a solution. The
refugees must be removed from the current sites
to ascertain who wishes to join Indonesia and
who wants to return to East Timor.
TEXT: The largest English language daily, the Jakarta
Post, is furious as it comments:
VOICE: The barbaric attacks on the U-N workers
in Atambua took place on the same day ... the
world body opened its Millennium Summit in New
York and, naturally, they brought swift
international condemnation ... The government
cannot absolve [itself of] responsibility ...
Not only did the attack happen on Indonesian
soil, it was also perpetrated by pro-Indonesian
East Timorese militias that were created,
funded, trained, armed and sustained by the
Indonesian military.
TEXT: Turning to the Muslim-oriented daily newspaper,
Pelita, we read:
VOICE: As with cases in the past, it is
surprising that such anarchy occurred precisely
when President Wahid was on an overseas trip.
What is really happening? Whether there is an
international conspiracy deliberately designed
to put Indonesia in trouble, or whether it was
due to our carelessness is still to early to
tell.
TEXT: Taking a slightly different prospective is
Media Indonesia, which insists:
VOICE: We truly deplore the incident. Yet, we
also demand international responsibility. The
East Timor of the present is not a sin of
Indonesia. Portugal, which had neglected [East
Timor], ... has never shown accountability.
Xana Gusmao, Ramos Horta, and other leaders are
inclined to abandon their responsibilities for
these developments. Now that they ... have
succeeded in winning international popularity,
there are no initiatives or concrete actions
from them ...
TEXT: Turning to Australia, whose troops are leading
the United Nations contingent trying to keep the peace
in East Timor, we read in the Australian Financial
Review from Sydney:
VOICE: The two changes needed are clear, if
still very complex. Indonesia needs to convict
some people of crimes relating to the violence
that surrounded East Timor's move to
independence. And it needs to accept the
assistance of the U-N peacekeepers in closing
the refugee camps in West Timor.
TEXT: Still in Sydney, the national Australian
comments that:
VOICE: Indonesia's leaders have been promising
for months that West Timor is under control and
enough is being done to keep it that way. Yet
it is now beyond doubt that any efforts that
have been made to control the militia activity
have failed. Urgent and decisive action is
needed ... With the camps now empty of U-N
workers, a new humanitarian crisis maybe looming
TEXT: For the European view, we go first to London,
where Britain's Daily Telegraph says:
VOICE: As U-N leaders in New York have been
making clear, Indonesia's government bears heavy
responsibility for the killing of aid workers in
West Timor. Behind this rampage lies the
persistent reluctance of that government to
tackle the militiamen. These are the men who
laid waste to East Timor a year ago because [it]
had chosen independence from Indonesia.
TEXT: To Germany, where Berlin's Neues Deutschland
complains:
VOICE: After the killing of ... U-N officials
in West Timor, even the last observer must
become aware of one fact: The pro-Indonesian
militia groups that devastated East Timor last
year will not keep quiet until they have been
totally neutralized. This is a matter for the
Indonesian government, but it has obviously lost
control over West Timor. ... [now] it is not
only U-N staff members who are in danger, but
also the 125-thousand East Timorese refugees
being kept in camps like hostages.
TEXT: And finally, from Latin America, Brazil's daily
O Estado de Sao Paulo runs this from its Paris
correspondent:
VOICE: While chiefs of state attending the
insipid Millennium summit demanded firmness,
West Timor militia were massacring U-N
officials. Did this happen just by chance, or
was it planned by the murderers to force U-N and
Red Cross officials to leave West Timor? This
doesn't matter. In both cases the U-N was
humiliated and outraged ... The impunity of the
militias is due to their connivance with the
[Indonesian] military ...
TEXT: With that assessment, we conclude this sampling
of world opinion on the recent massacre of U-N
officials in West Timor.
ANG/NEB/JP
14-Sep-2000 17:10 PM LOC (14-Sep-2000 2110 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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