---------------------------------------------------------- FREE for JOIN Indonesia Daily News Online via EMAIL: go to: http://www.indo-news.com/subscribe.html - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - FREE - Please Visit Our Sponsor http://www.indo-news.com/cgi-bin/ads1 ++ Pemilu Online: http://www.indo-news.com/pemilu/ ++ ---------------------------------------------------------- Antara, June 22, 1999 Many in UNAMET Have Proindependence Sympathies, Says NGO Activist Dili, E Timor, June 21 (ANTARA) - Many individuals in the United Nations Assessment Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) are foreign NGO activists who have actively campaigned in the interest of the proindependence group, an East Timorese NGO activist said here Monday. "I myself know some of the UNAMET members well because they are foreign NGO activists who have actively campaigned in the interest of the antiintegration side," Florentino Sarmento, an adviser of Etadep, told reporters here. Etadep is one of the more htan 100 Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) existing in the troubled Indonesian province. Sarmento said it was therefore understandable that some of the UNAMET personnel were tending to take sides in the performance of their duties and did not respect the spirit of the tripartite agreement signed by the governments of Indonesia, Portugal and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on May 5. "They have good relations with proindependence East Timorese figure Ramos Horta and his friends abroad...," he said. But Sarmento said he would call on those individuals that in conducting their duties in East Timor they should put their personal agendas aside and remain neutral. If not, he warned, they would destroy UNAMET's image in the eyes of the East Timorese people. Noting that the UNAMET was in the troubled territory to make the August 8 direct ballot on the UN-supported autonomy package a success, he stresed that its personnel should be able to cooperate with local government authorities and Indonesian police. Commenting on UNAMET's intention to cooperate with local Catholic churches in conducting the registration of voters, Sarmento said he could not accept the idea because the churches were non-governmental institutions. Moreover, he said, the UN mission needed to take into account the fact that not all East Timorese were Catholic. Many East Timorese living in Ujungpandang (South Sulawesi), Yogyakarta and other cities in Indonesia embrace other religions, he said. Meanwhile, East Timor Governor Abilio Jose Osorio Soares Monday renewed his calls on the East Timorese people to thoroughly study or consider the offered UN-supported autonomy package as the final solution to the East Timor problem. He said wide-ranging autonomy was the best choice for the entire people of East Timor, particularly for those who had fought for independence through integration into the Republic of Indonesia in 1976. (T.DLI-001/NN-03/20:23/INT-AJM-23:30/ri2/23:43/TB03) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 25 Jun 1999 jam 07:07:30 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
