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Reuters-ETimor cool to early ASEAN



Subject: Reuters-ETimor cool to early ASEAN membership -Ramos-Horta 

ETimor cool to early ASEAN membership -Ramos-Horta
06:37 a.m. Jul 25, 1999 Eastern
MANILA, July 25 (Reuters) - Nobel peace laureate Jose Ramos-Horta on Sunday
ruled out early membership for East Timor in the Association of South East
Asian Nations (ASEAN) if the Jakarta-ruled territory votes for independence
from Indonesia.

``If Timor becomes independent, our strategic choice is membership in the
South Pacific Forum,'' the East Timor resistance leader told reporters in
Manila, referring to the 16-member grouping that includes Australia and New
Zealand.

``For us, an absolute priority will be membership in the Forum, a strategic
relation with Australia and New Zealand. We believe that our interests are
best served not to seek membership (in ASEAN) right away.''

Residents of the former Portuguese colony of East Timor are to vote next
month on independence from or autonomy within Indonesia, which annexed the
territory in 1976 in a move never recognised by the United Nations.

Ramos-Horta said it was too early to expect ASEAN as a bloc to take any
initiative supporting East Timor's struggle for independence.

``Most ASEAN countries are still frozen in time by Jakarta's interests, by
their fear of upsetting the Indonesian military,'' he said.

Horta, who is visiting the Philippines, has accused the Indonesian army of
organising militias to intimidate East Timorese against voting for
independence.

ASEAN, which groups Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore,
Thailand, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar, is currently holding
a ministerial meeting in Singapore.