BBC-East Timor breakthrough

[tinkyi@xxxxxxx]

Wednesday, January 27, 1999 Published at 12:59 GMT

East Timor breakthrough

East Timor is a mainly Catholic territory within predominantly Muslim
Indonesia

Jakarta Correspondent, Jonathan Head: The government finally appears to have
buckled The Indonesian government has suggested for the first time that that
it will consider letting go of the troubled territory of East Timor.

Information Minister Yunus Yosfiah said on Wednesday that Indonesia's
parliament may consider granting full independence to East Timor after the
country's June elections.

"A regional autonomy 'plus' will be accorded to East Timor," he told
reporters after a cabinet meeting on security issues.

"If this is not accepted by the mass in East Timor, we will suggest to the
new membership of the People's Consultative Assembly - formed as the result
of the next elections - to release East Timor from Indonesia," he said.

"This is very democratic, because the people decide, not the president."

BBC Jakarta Correspondent Jonathan Head says this is the first time in 23
years that the Indonesian government has acknowledged the possibility of
letting Indonesia go.

Foreign Minister Ali Alatas confirmed that if autonomy was rejected, the
cabinet had agreed it was "only fair and wise, and even democratic and
constitutional, to suggest to the upcoming elected people's representatives
to allow East Timor to separate from Indonesia in a dignified and good
manner."

East Timorese Nobel peace laureate Jose Ramos Horta said he was sceptical
about the offer, but said it indicated there was growing sentiment in the
Indonesian government that East Timorese self-rule was inevitable.

"This confirms what we have heard from many sources of that regime, that
there is a prevalent point of view in Jakarta that Indonesia has lost the
battle over East Timor," he told Portugal's TSF radio from his home in
Australia.

Since it invaded East Timor in 1975 and annexed it a year later, Indonesia
has insisted the status of the territory - as Indonesia's 27th province - is
non-negotiable. Its sovereignty over the province has not been recognised by
the United Nations.

Throughout its occupation Indonesia has retained an iron grip on the former
Portuguese territory. Some estimates say as many as 200,000 people have been

killed in protests and a bloody guerrilla war against Jakarta's rule.

Rebel leader Xanana Gusmao remains in prison in Jakarta
Last June President BJ Habibie, who took over after the fall of President
Suharto, made an offer of limited autonomy to East Timor, but until now the
government has ruled out holding a referendum on the full independence
demanded by Portugal, and many Timorese people.

Wednesday's announcement by the Indonesian Government comes just two weeks
after Australia, which had been a strong ally of Indonesia's, announced that
it would change its long standing policy in favour of the status quo and
press for Timorese autonomy.

Australia was the only Western country to recognise Indonesia's claim to
sovereignty over the territory.

Talks began last year between Indonesia and Portugal at the UN in New York
in an effort to flesh out President Habibie's proposals for East Timorese
autonomy. The next session of talks is due to begin on Thursday.