International

Megawati to attend E. Timor fete

By Amit Baruah

SINGAPORE MAY 15. The Indonesian President, Megawati Sukarnoputri, has decided to attend East Timor's independence day celebrations on May 20. However, she is scheduled to be in Dili, East Timor's capital, for just four hours and will visit a cemetery where Indonesian soldiers were killed before attending the independence day celebrations at midnight. Interestingly, the East Timor President-elect, Xanana Gusmao, will accompany Ms. Megawati to the cemetery — a sign that the new nation is willing to put the past behind it and begin afresh with Indonesia. ``We find it absolutely normal and understandable that the President wishes to meet her citizens who lost their lives in this country,'' the East Timor Foreign Minister, Jose Ramos-Horta, was quoted as saying in Dili today.

``These are soldiers that lost their lives here and as long as they are here in East Timor and if the Indonesian wish is to keep them here, we are under an obligation to provide whatever assistance we can so that the cemetery is treated with dignity, with respect,'' Mr. Ramos-Horta said. Top Opposition leaders in Indonesia have opposed Ms. Megawati's visit to East Timor but her decision to visit the Indonesian soldiers cemetery is an attempt by the President to demonstrate that she is conscious of the need to honour the Indonesian dead.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

News: Front Page | National | Southern States | Other States | International | Opinion | Business | Sport | Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary |

Stories in this Section

• Charges baseless, says Pakistan
• Sri Lanka peace talks may be delayed
• Russia gets a bigger role in NATO
• U.N. vote has a hidden sting
• A vote for the right
• China lauds Musharraf's "policy of restraint"
• Iraq criticises sanctions overhaul
• Shanghai Group for closer ties
• Bribing their way to contracts
• India, Singapore form joint study group
• Megawati to attend E. Timor fete
• Pak. militant killed in Multan
• Woody Allen puts Cannes on feel-good mode

Copyright © 2002, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu