Word: timor
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...little early for sighs of relief over the fate of East Timor. Indonesian foreign minister Ali Alatas met with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan in New York Monday to negotiate the terms of a peacekeeping mission to East Timor. But although President B. J. Habibie caved in under mounting international pressure Sunday and accepted the principle of a peacekeeping mission, perils aplenty await both the Timorese and their prospective liberators. For one thing, nobody knows quite who is in charge in Jakarta these days. That the president's announcement was immediately endorsed by the all-powerful military is certainly encouraging...
...question may be the intentions of the Indonesian military inside East Timor. Habibie's announcement stressed that Indonesia plans to keep its troops there after peacekeepers arrive, even though the army's top commanders acknowledge that they've lost control of rogue elements in their ranks. Presumably those elements aren't going to turn into Boy Scouts when a battalion of Australian troops comes marching down the road. So this particular "peacekeeping" operation may end up looking more like a counterinsurgency campaign. Joining the Aussies will be British Gurkhas and troops from Malaysia, New Zealand, France, Thailand, the Philippines...
...Will East Timor get an international peacekeeping force, and which countries would send troops? Indonesia's failure to keep its commitment to ensure security in East Timor has raised the clamor for an international peacekeeping force to replace Indonesian troops. Jakarta has thus far resisted the idea, at least until the Indonesian parliament recognizes East Timor's independence ? which will take at least a month, and is far from a done deal. Nobody is advocating that peacekeepers fight their way in, which means that right now the international community is raising pressure on Indonesia to accept such a force. Australia...
...Newsfile: East Timor...
...What is U.S. policy on East Timor? The U.S. had tacitly supported Indonesia's 1975 invasion of East Timor because Indonesia was its key southeast Asian ally during the Cold War. Over the next decade, Washington routinely voted against U.N. resolutions recognizing East Timor's independence and urging Indonesia's withdrawal. With Cold War concerns a thing of the past, however, the U.S. now wants Indonesia to respect the will of East Timor's people as expressed democratically through August's referendum. But Indonesia's economic and political centrality to the region, and its potential instability, make Washington cautious about...