---------------------------------------------------------- Visit Indonesia Daily News Online HomePage: http://www.indo-news.com/ Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ++ Pemilu Online: http://www.indo-news.com/pemilu/ ++ ---------------------------------------------------------- Jakarta Post, June 14, 1999 Government slams planned Ramos-Horta E. Timor visit JAKARTA (JP): The Indonesian government said on Sunday that 1996 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos-Horta and other East Timorese living abroad should not be engaged in campaign activities in Indonesia, including East Timor. "Horta's planned presence in East Timor for such a purpose will surely spark controversy and tension, if not violent conflict," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement made available to The Jakarta Post. "This will not serve any purpose except to indulge Horta's avid publicity-seeking at the expense of current efforts to maintain an atmosphere of order and calm necessary for the implementation of the New York agreements," the statement said. Under the agreements, popular consultation with East Timorese living abroad will be conducted by the UN in their countries of residence where they will be free to conduct their own campaign and cast their votes, according to the statement. It said that if Ramos-Horta wished to visit East Timor, he must secure the consent of the Indonesian government and must comply with the relevant immigration procedures. "If he ignores these requirements, then he has to bear the consequences of violating the law," it said. The Indonesian government has said it will not tolerate activities that undermine efforts jointly conducted with the UN to promote peace, public order and tranquility in East Timor. A statement by Ramos-Horta that he plans to visit East Timor whether or not Indonesia gives its consent was carried widely by the mass media. "This is a provocative statement that will only jeopardize the calm atmosphere that has begun to develop in East Timor just recently. This cheap grandstanding act is just one more of his usual publicity stunts designed to project himself into the international limelight. It would just have been amusing were it not for the fact that so much is at stake in the forthcoming popular consultation in East Timor." Equally lamentable is a statement by David Wimhurst, spokesman for the UN Assistance Mission in East Timor (UNAMET), to the effect that in accordance with the New York agreements, Ramos-Horta may be allowed to campaign in East Timor. It is regrettable that he deemed it appropriate to give his own interpretation of the agreements between Indonesia and Portugal and made the public statement that Ramos-Horta had the right to campaign in East Timor, the statement said. Wimhurst has to be reminded that the popular consultation is not a full- fledged referendum in which East Timorese abroad would travel to East Timor in order to continue to campaign and cast their votes in East Timor. Indonesia has rejected and will continue to reject such a referendum because it is bound to precipitate a violent clash between prointegration and anti-integration East Timorese, the statement said. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 16 Jun 1999 jam 09:42:33 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
