---------------------------------------------------------- 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 ---------------------------------------------------------- ANTARA, Aug 7 1999 E Timor: UNAMET Local Staffers Intimidate People To Reject Autonomy Jakarta, Aug 6 (ANTARA)-Local staffers employed by the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) as translators in the 22-day voter registration for the August 30 UN-administered autonomy ballot, have been intimidating the local people so that they reject Jakarta's autonomy offer, but the UNAMET has nothing to do with this, spokesman of the Indonesian task force said. "The Batu Gade incident is the result of a lot of similiar intimidations because we have often received reports on this matter from the local population who registered at various registration posts all over East Timor," Dino Patti Djalal told ANTARA by phone from Jakarta on Friday night. Dino, spokesman of the task force for the implementation of the popular consultation on East Timor's future (P3TT), was commenting on the registration-related incident which took place at a registration post in Batu Gade village, Bobonaro district, after two UNAMET local staffers asked a registrant not to vote for the autonomy on the balloting day. An angry mob then raided the post and wounded the local staffers but did not attack UNAMET's international staffers, he said. The incident broke out on Thursday after UNAMET local staffers Martin Dios Reis and Avine Freitas approached a housewife, Maria Boe mali, who wished to put her name down in her option at the Batu Gade registration post. Dino said she told the two that she "will vote for autonomy because she belongs to the red and white (Indonesia)". However, they could not accept it and tried to persuade the housewife to reject autonomy on the balloting day. "We (P3TT) have for many times asked Ian Martin (UNAMET's chief) to pay serious attention to this kind of intimidation by UNAMET local staffers, because we have always received such reports from the people," he said. On this incident, East Timor Deputy Police Chief Colonel Muafi Sahudji in a chronological account of the case said that the two staffers told Mrs Maria that the presence of UNAMET in the former Portuguese colony is not for Indonesia but in the interest of Falintil, the armed wing of the National Council of East Timorese Resistance (CNRT). UNAMET set up 200 registration centers in East Timor and 13 others outside the troubled territory. As of last Wednesday, UNAMET noted that 439,580 East Timorese had registered, 427,190 of them in East Timor. It has been originally predicted that only 300,000 - 400,000 East Timorese were eligible to take part in the ballot on the territory's future. (T.NN-03/6/08/99 22:17/INT-Ng/23:45/fn01/6/08/99 23:50/TB02) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 12 Aug 1999 jam 09:56:21 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
