[Kabar-indonesia] Australia Asks For UN Help To Restore Peace To E. Timor [+Arrest Warrant]

[JoyoNews at aol.com]

also: East Timor Prosecutors Order Arrest of Ex-Interior Minister;
and Downer looks to France for UN resolution on E Timor

Australia Asks For UN Help To Restore Peace To East Timor

PARIS, June 20 (AP)--Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer pressed 
Tuesday for U.N. help to restore peace to East Timor and asked for backing from 
France, a permanent Security Council member. 

Downer, speaking on a visit to Paris, called for a Security Council 
resolution to cover international police in East Timor and said, "I understand that the 
French government is sympathetic to this kind of an idea." 

He also appealed for French support for "a U.N. mission which would provide 
assistance to the process of reconciliation in East Timor." 

The fledgling nation "is in urgent need of assistance to provide some support 
for improved governance and for improving the efficiency of government 
operations," Downer said. "What we want the French to do is support a U.N. Security 
Council resolution." 

"It has to be said that we feel pretty comfortable so far with our 
discussions with the French," Downer added. 

Violence that has enveloped East Timor in recent months is the worst since 
its bloody break from Indonesia in 1999. 

U.N. Secretary-general Kofi Annan said last week that he will send a team to 
East Timor to prepare for the return of U.N. peacekeepers, but warned that a 
new mission would need at least another six months to set up. In the meantime, 
Australia is leading a 2,700-strong multinational force there. 

Downer was in Paris to attend the opening of a new museum and to hold talks 
with French officials. 

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Associated Press
June 20, 2006

East Timor Prosecutors Order
Arrest of Ex-Interior Minister

DILI, East Timor -- East Timor prosecutors on Tuesday ordered the arrest of 
the former interior minister for allegedly supplying weapons to a hit squad 
assigned to eliminate the prime minister's political opponents, a U.N. official 
said.

International troops, meanwhile, tightened security across the capital, Dili, 
as hundreds of protesters gathered to demand Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's 
ouster, some handing out fliers calling him a terrorist and a murderer.

"He is a criminal. He divided the Timorese people," said Vidal Gomez, 19, as 
young men mounted a small stage across the street from the Government Palace, 
in full view of Mr. Alkatiri's office window.

For hours they kept a steady barrage of tirades criticizing the prime 
minister's rule through blaring loudspeakers, as others chanted "Step down! Step 
down!" Many East Timorese blame recent bloodshed in Dili on Mr. Alkatiri's 
decision to fire 600 soldiers in March -- unleashing clashes and gang warfare that 
has left at least 30 people dead -- and some allege that he formed a hit squad 
to kill his political opponents.

"I never provided any weapons to anyone," Mr. Alkatiri told Timorese national 
television in an interview set to be broadcast Tuesday evening. He said he 
welcomed a U.N. investigation into the claims.

However, a decision by the country's top prosecutor to issue an arrest 
warrant for former Interior Minister Rogerio Lobato, who resigned on June 1, may 
have added credibility to the controversial allegations. The indictment accused 
Mr. Lobato of giving rebel leader Vincente "Railos" da Concecao guns on at 
least three occasions in May so he could organize an armed group aimed at altering 
East Timor's democratic state and rule of law, a U.N. official said. The 
official, who saw a copy of the document, wasn't authorized to speak to the press 
and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Fearing unrest, Australian troops brandishing automatic weapons patrolled the 
perimeter of the palace in downtown Dili on Tuesday, while others stopped 
light traffic to search vehicles for weapons. Convoys of armored personnel 
rattled through the streets, which were lined with banners vilifying Mr. Alkatiri.

The protesters said they would keep up their demonstrations until Mr. 
Alkatiri stepped down, something he has vowed not to do, and said they expected more 
than 30,000 to turn out in coming days as word spread to the countryside. 
"Mari Alkatiri came to power because of the people, so it is our right to take 
back that power," Nino Pereira, a popular singer and lecturer at the National 
University, said after addressing about 250 people.

Some handed out fliers linking Mr. Alkatiri -- a Muslim in this deeply Roman 
Catholic country and a descendent of Yemeni immigrants -- with al Qaeda leader 
Osama bin Laden, and calling him a "murderer" and "not pure Timorese." Others 
called him a communist, noting that he spent most of the 24 years of 
Indonesian occupation of East Timor in exile in Marxist Mozambique.

Mr. Alkatiri accused the protesters of double standards, telling national TV: 
"Majors are running off into the mountains and attacking loyalist soldiers 
with weapons. They're not accused of being terrorists."

The violence that has enveloped the fledgling nation in recent months is the 
worst since its bloody break from Indonesia in 1999, when revenge-seeking 
militias went on a rampage that left more nearly 1,500 people dead.

Mr. Alkatiri's dismissal of more than 40% of the country's 1,400-strong armed 
forces triggered clashes with loyalist forces that gave way to 
machete-wielding youths torching houses and looting government buildings. One of Mr. 
Lobato's three houses was among those attacked, with six people burned alive on May 
25, two of them young children.

Nearly 150,000 people have fled their homes, most to crowded tent camps in 
and outside the capital, though tensions have eased in recent weeks with the 
arrival of a 2,700-strong Australian-led multinational force.

----------------------------------------

AFP, June 20, 2006

Downer looks to France for UN resolution on E Timor

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer is talking with French leaders 
about drafting a UN resolution to help bring stability and peace to 
East Timor.

Mr Downer told journalists in Paris that he was holding discussions 
with his counterpart Philippe Douste-Blazy and French Prime Minister 
Dominique de Villepin, on the issue.

"With the French, what we want them to do is support an appropriate 
UN Security Council resolution," he said.

"We would be looking to the French for support for a UN mission which 
would provide assistance in the process of reconciliation, which is 
in urgent need in East Timor."

Such assistance would include helping the country improve the 
administration of its government and provide a mandate for 500 
international police, he said.

"I understand that the French Government is sympathetic to this kind 
of idea," Mr Downer said.

More than 2,200 troops and police from Australia, New Zealand, 
Malaysia and Portugal are currently in East Timor struggling to restore order.

They were deployed after an explosion of violence triggered by East 
Timor Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's decision in March to sack 600 soldiers.

At least 21 people have been killed and over 130,000 people fled their homes.

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Joyo Indonesia News Service
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