Jose Ramos Horta & NATO

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Posted by Angela on lbo:

"Indonesia/ East Timor: the next 'hot-spot' "
the rest at: http://www.rhein-neckar.de/~wildcat/easttim.html

"On May 5, Indonesia signed an agreement with Portugal and the UN over the
statute of autonomy and the preparation for and conduct of a ballot of the
East Timorese by the UN (in effect, a referendum to be held on August 7th
or 8th) on the future of East Timor: autonomy in Indonesia or independence.
Whereas parts of the population in East Timor remain terrorized, the
leaders of the "liberation"organisations have mutated to statesmen,
following the enormous boost to their standing through the negotiations.
Xanana Gusmao, head of Falintil (the armed section of the Fretilin) and
president of the CNRT (Conselho National de Resistancia Timorese), still in
jail in Jakarta, has prohibited the students in Dili from organising
demonstrations against the terror of the militias: "We thus must all
contribute to this process [the preparation of the poll] following the
orientations of the UN team. To this end, I reiterate my appeal to all to
remain calm. I reiterate my appeal to the youths of Dili to obey orders and
demand that they act responsibly and with discipline."(5)

Instead of placing the future of East Timor in the hands of the "youth of
Dili" he and other 'leaders' hope for a future as statesmen with a state of
their own, and demands the dispatching of an armed peace-keepers to East
Timor. They don't even baulk at openly demanding an invasion by NATO. Jose
Ramos Horta, in an interview with The Gazette, a provincial newspaper in
Iowa, said: "The NATO intervention would be the first one in 50 years that
can be argued is on purely humanitarian grounds". The article continues:
"Ramos-Horta said he wished the United States or other NATO members would
give his home nation of some 800,000 people the same kind of help they are
giving Kosovo."(6) The Prime Minister of Portugal, Antonio Guiterres,
responded: The participation of Portugal in the NATO actions in Bosnia and
Yugoslavia give the country the "ethical authority" to demand the
intervention of the UN into East Timor.(7) "