The Jakarta Post, 6/5/2006 10:39:15 AM
Australian minister says Indonesian views must be considered in
East Timor deployment
CANBERRA (AP): Asian countries should be mindful of Indonesia's views if they send
troops to join a peacekeeping force in East Timor, a former Indonesian province, but
they need not seek Jakarta's permission, Australia's defense minister said Monday.
According to Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio, a Singapore government official
said privately at a weekend security conference that the city-state would not join the
Australian-led mission to quell ballooning violence in East Timor without Jakarta's
consent.
An ABC reporter in Singapore asked Defense Minister Brendan Nelson, who also
attended the regional security forum, if Australia needed Jakarta's approval to enlist
more countries for the mission.
"I certainly wouldn't agree with that proposition, but I do think that it is important that
we be sensitive to the views of Indonesia in seeing that (East) Timor is able to support
a broad coalition of countries," Nelson told ABC on Monday.
Indonesia ruled East Timor with an iron fist for 24 years after the Portuguese colonial
administration abandoned the territory amid a civil war in 1975. The East Timorese
chose independence in a UN ballot in 1999. Australia led an international force
against pro-Indonesian militias to end the bloodshed triggered by the independence
vote, prompting Jakartato tear up a defense treaty with Canberra.
"The East Timorese, and indeed Australia, would be cognizant of the sensitivities of
the Indonesians who to date, I must say, have been outstanding in understanding the
issues facing East Timor," he said.
Fighting between rival factions in East Timor has killed at least 30 people and forced
hundreds of thousands to flee their homes in the capital, Dili, in recent weeks.
Violence has eased since the arrival of more than 2,000 peacekeepers from Australia,
Malaysia, New Zealand, and Portugal.
Nelson said he thought more governments in the region would send troops at the
invitation of Dili and with UN endorsement.
"I would be reasonably confident that we will see other nations choosing to join the
coalition of support," Nelson told ABC. "I think the broader the coalition of nations in
the region that are involved, the better."
Nelson told regional leaders at the defense and security forum on Sunday that it was
in the interests of Asian-Pacific nations to ensure that East Timor does not become a
failed state.
Australia on Saturday urged the United Nations to take a greater role in resolving the
crisis.
Nelson declined Monday to say which Asian countries he would like to join to
mission. The ABC has reported Australia has been lobbying Singapore, South Korea
and Thailand to join the mission. (***)
All contents copyright © of The Jakarta Post.
|
