The signing of a deal which could lead to independence for East Timor – the former Portuguese colony which is currently under Indonesian rule – has been greeted with cautious optimism.<\/p>\n
The Australian ambassador to Indonesia, John McCarthy, arrived in East Timor on Thursday for preliminary meetings, in anticipation of the arrival of a United Nations civilian police force.<\/span>On Wednesday, the foreign ministers of Indonesia and Portugal signed an agreement paving the way for a referendum on autonomy for East Timor.<\/p>\n Australia, a major regional power, is expected to supply the bulk of the personnel for the UN force.<\/p>\n Earlier, Australian Prime Minister John Howard claimed credit for persuading the Jakarta authorities to accept the settlement.<\/p>\n ‘Free Gusmao’<\/b>He said Canberra had a commitment from the Indonesian Government to ensure that proper conditions applied for the conduct of that ballot – though he admitted there was no guarantee that there would be no deviation from the agreement.<\/p>\n Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said that Timorese rebel leader Xanana Gusmao should be released from house arrest in order to help bring peace to the territory.<\/p>\n “I think Xanana Gusmao is a very important component of the peace process in East Timor,” Mr Downer said.<\/p>\n Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama said Lisbon was contributing $10m for the UN operation to prepare for the vote, which is expected to cost up to $45m.<\/p>\n The UN regards Portugal as the legitimate administrative power in East Timor, since Indonesia’s 1976 annexation of the territory has never been internationally recognised.<\/p>\n Celebrations<\/b><\/p>\n The signing of the accord was greeted with dancing and singing by pro-independence students in the provincial capital, Dili.<\/p>\n But some demonstrators expressed pessimism about whether the accord would bring peace to the territory.<\/p>\n One of the pro-Jakarta groups in East Timor, the Unity, Democracy and Justice Forum, said it welcomed the agreement.<\/p>\n “We look forward to the presence of the United Nations because we think it is necessary to have a third party presence during the ballot,” spokesman Basilio Dias Araujo said.<\/p>\n He added he also would not object to the presence of foreign police during the transition, “as long as they stand as a neutral group”.<\/p>\n Independence pledge<\/b><\/p>\n If the East Timorese reject autonomy, as is widely expected, the Indonesian Government has promised independence to East Timor.<\/p>\n According to the agreement, voters will be asked: “Do you accept the proposed special autonomy for East Timor within the unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia?”<\/span><\/p>\n The alternative will be: “Do you reject the proposed special autonomy for East Timor, leading to East Timor’s separation from Indonesia?”<\/p>\n No peacekeeping agreement<\/b><\/p>\n As well as the referendum accord, Indonesian Foreign Minister Ali Alatas and Portugal’s Jaime Gama signed two other accords dealing with the organisation of the vote and security.<\/span><\/p>\n But there is no agreement for a peacekeeping force as pro-independence groups had hoped.<\/p>\n Instead, 250 police advisers will be among the more than 600 UN staff who will be present to help the Indonesian authorities.<\/p>\n Many fear anti-independence militias will create havoc in the run-up to the vote. Despite a peace pledge on 21 April, the violence has continued.<\/p>\n Under the agreement, the militias must be disarmed and the Indonesian army cut back for the vote to go ahead.<\/p>\n UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who signed the accord after having played an important role in brokering it, urged all parties not to resort to force and to co-operate with the UN.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n source:\u00a0https:\/\/www.bbc.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The signing of a deal which could lead to independence for East Timor – the former Portuguese colony which is currently under Indonesian rule – has been greeted with cautious optimism. The Australian ambassador to Indonesia, John McCarthy, arrived in East Timor on Thursday for preliminary meetings, in anticipation of the arrival of a United Nations civilian police force.On Wednesday,… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1906"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1906\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1907,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1906\/revisions\/1907"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baileyonlineclassroom.com\/eastasiaandoceaniablog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}