Annan Wants to Visit Jakarta: Report

United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan would like to visit Jakarta next month before attending East Timor's independence declaration although no Indonesian visit is scheduled yet, a report said Wednesday (17/4/02). 

State news agency Antara quoted a UN spokesman in New York as saying "Annan really wants to visit Jakarta before he goes to Dili on May 20". However, there is no itinerary for him to make a stopover in the Indonesian capital. 

Annan last visited Indonesia in February 2000 and urged the government to prosecute soldiers, police and civilians accused of crimes against humanity in East Timor in 1999. 

Trials started in Jakarta last month for seven of 18 military, police, civilian and militia officials charged with gross violations of human rights in East Timor. But key members of the military's top brass will not be prosecuted, despite allegations they ordered the carnage that surrounded East Timor's vote for independence. 

In February 2000, Annan warned that if Indonesia failed to deal adequately with demands for justice, the UN would consider establishing an international tribunal. 

In May 2001, Annan expressed shock at the light sentences handed down by an Indonesian court for the savage slaying of three UN staff in West Timor in September 2000. He said the ruling was an unacceptable response to a "despicable" act. 

Three staff of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees were stabbed, dragged into the street, doused with fuel and set ablaze when a mob of pro-Jakarta militiamen attacked their office in the West Timor border town of Atambua. 

North Jakarta District Court in May 2001 sentenced three men to between 10 and 15 months in jail, saying that the killings could not be directly linked to the defendants because of the rampaging militia mob. Several months later the sentences were quietly increased to between three and five years. 

President Xanana Gusmao 
The UN Security Council on Tuesday praised the people of East Timor for the success this week of the fledgling nation's first presidential election. 

Russia's permanent representative to the UN, Sergey Lavrov, who chaired the UNSC session on Tuesday, said the election was a significant initial step for the East Timorese toward real freedom. 

"The Security Council hopes that it could join the East Timorese in celebrating their Independence Day on May 20, 2002, and welcomes East Timor into the international community of nations," he said. 

Former guerrilla leader Jose Alexandre 'Xanana' Gusmao, who spent seven years in an Indonesian jail, won a landslide victory in the presidential election, collecting 82.69% of about 430,000 votes cast. 

One of his many challenges will be completing the return of some of the 250,000 refugees who were forced or fled into West Timor after East Timor voted to secede from Indonesian rule in August 1999. 

About 60,000 of the refugees, many of whom were forcibly removed from East Timor by the Indonesian military and its murderous militia proxies, are still living in squalid camps in West Timor. 


Bilateral Relations 
Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Hasan Wirayuda said Wednesday that Jakarta is ready to build bilateral relations with East Timor and work toward a better future. 

"As stipulated in Decree No V/1999 of the People's Consultative Assembly, Indonesia clearly recognizes the separation of East Timor and it has since tried to develop a good relationship," he said. 

East Timor has been under the administration of the United Nations after it split from Indonesia. 

Commenting on the April 14 presidential election, Wirayuda said Indonesia could not intervene because it was an internal matter of East Timor. 

"From the preliminary result of the election, it seems that Xanana Gusmao will be elected. But because there is yet to be a formal announcement on this, we cannot issue a formal statement yet," he said