Australian FM in East Timor crisis talks
by Neil Sands
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer held crisis talks
Saturday with the leaders of East Timor, trying to end the worst
violence here since the tiny nation split from Indonesia seven years
ago.
Downer met President Xanana Gusmao, Foreign and Defence Minister Jose
Ramos Horta and Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri - who is blamed by many for
the crisis, which led the government to call in 2,250 Australian and
other foreign troops.
A heavy show of force for Downer's visit kept order in the streets of
the capital Dili, which has been wracked by two weeks of mayhem, arson
and gang violence that has left at least 20 people dead. But plumes of
smoke again appeared in the sky after Downer departed following a
four-hour visit, underlining the simmering unrest that has led tens of
thousands of frightened people to leave their homes and take refuge in
churches and elsewhere.
The Australian foreign minister rejected suggestions from Alkatiri in
recent days that the unrest was being engineered by Indonesia, which
invaded East Timor in 1975 and held it for nearly a quarter-century.
"We have no evidence at all that any of the violence here in recent
times has been coordinated by anybody in Indonesia, or that there has
been any Indonesian involvement in it," Downer told reporters.
"Indonesia doesn't want to destabilise East Timor," he said. "I think
East Timor can do without (such) canards."
Downer said he told the Timorese leadership about the need for
reconciliation between the country's bickering factions, and called for
a new multinational police force in the country to be run by the United
Nations.
"I think it would be appropriate for that police presence, which
would obviously include quite a few Australians, to operate under the
auspices of the UN," he said.
The violence began after Alkatiri sacked 600 of the country's
1,400-strong army after they went on strike to protest what they said
was discrimination against those from the west of the country.
Westerners are generally seen as more pro-Indonesia, a sensitive
issue in a country that fought a long and bloody guerrilla campaign, led
by Gusmao, to win independence.
Battles between the military and the sacked breakaway troops, under
the command of Major Alfredo Reinado, descended into fighting between
rival gangs from the east and west of the country.
Gusmao made an emotional plea for national unity on Thursday, two
days after he announced he was assuming emergency powers including
control over the army - a move that Alkatiri publicly challenged.
But the president declined to sack the unpopular prime minister,
despite calls from the rebels and protesters who have taken to the
streets, chanting for Alkatiri to go.
Downer played down those calls and said he had experience of many
countries with unpopular politicians.
East Timor opted for independence from Indonesia in 1999, but the
referendum was accompanied by an orgy of violence carried out by
Indonesian forces and Jakarta-backed militias. Around 1,400 people were
killed.
The United Nations then administered East Timor until full
independence in 2002, when guerrilla leader Gusmao became the president.
The latest outbreak of violence has been the worst since the days of the
bloody independence vote.
"The Australian defence force has been doing an outstanding job
here," Downer said. "They've been operating in a difficult environment
and they are clearly getting the security situation back together." |