---------------------------------------------------------- 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 8 1999 E Timor: UNAMET's Presence Doesn't Mean RI's Diplomacy Stagnant, Says Alatas Dili, Aug 7 (ANTARA)-Foreign Minister Ali Alatas said the presence of the United Nations Mission in East Timor (UNAMET) to help conduct a poll on the territory's political future next August 30 did not mean Indonesia's diplomacy in international fora had become stagnant. "It is not correct to say that with the UNAMET's presence in East Timor our diplomacy in international fora has stagnated," Alatas said here on Saturday. Neither was it true that the Indonesian government had not foreseen the possibility of a UN presence in East Timor "because if one has been keeping abreast of the variuos dialogs on East Timor that took placefrom 1983 through 1996, one would have clearly seen that possibility," he said. During the 1983-1996 period, Indonesia and Portugal continued to hold dialogs under the aegis of the UN to seek a solution to the question of East Timor, he said. In 1986, partisipants of the dialog on East Timor came up with the proposal to send a UN mission to East Timor to assess the situation in the territory, he said. Indonesia favoured the proposal bu Portugal rejected it apparently because at that time Lisbon was not ready for it or worried about the real situation in East Timor which they claimed was not conducive. What the Portuguese government worried about at the time was totally unfounded, he said. Alatas said in 1991 Indonesia once again agreed to the wish of a UN observer delegation and a Portuguese parliementary delegation to visit East Timor bu in further developments Portugal backed down. Thus, there was no reason to say that cooperation between Indonesia and the UN to find a solution to the question of East Timor by allowing UNAMET's presence in the territory indicated that Indonesia's diplomacy was stagnant. In fact, Indonesia had been trying to find a solution to the question of East Timor since 1983, he said. Alatas also expressed the hope that there would be no further delays to the direct ballot. The vote on whether the people of East Timor will remain part of Indonesia with wide-ranging autonomy or be a separate state was originally scheduled for August 8 but was later delayed for two weeks and lastly it was delayed again until August 30. By Saturday, a total of 378,302 East Timorese had registered in and outside East Timor for the autonomy ballot sice the registration kicked off last month. The UNAMET previously estimated that the total number of East Timor's eligible voters would reach between 300,000 and 400,000. The registration, which began last July 16 will be followed by a six-day period to correct the voters list. A 17-day campaigning period will be held, to be capped by a two- day cooling-off period before balloting day. Hopefully, the outcome of the ballot could be made public a week later, Alatas said. Alatas and a number of cabinet ministers came to Dili not long ago for a one-day visit. (U.DLI-PK01/DLI-02/DLI-03/ND-08/DLI-01/NN01/17:50/INT-AJM- 19:30/ri2/19:33/TB03) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Didistribusikan tgl. 12 Aug 1999 jam 09:56:37 GMT+1 oleh: Indonesia Daily News Online <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.Indo-News.com/ ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
