The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, will travel to Indonesia tomorrow to discuss the deteriorating situation in East Timor with Indonesian government officials and East Timorese leaders, a spokesman in Dublin said yesterday.
Mr Andrews, who will be accompanied by Mr Tom Hyland, chairman of the East Timor Ireland Solidarity Campaign, had hoped to go to East Timor during his four-day visit, but increased violence in the former Portuguese colony and logistical problems may make this impracticable, the spokesman said. A final decision has yet to be made.
In Jakarta, Mr Andrews will meet Indonesian President B. J. Habibie and the Foreign Minister, Mr Ali Alatas, as well as the East Timor guerrilla leader, Mr Xanana Gusmao, who is under house arrest in the Indonesian capital.
Mr Andrews's mission is to show solidarity with Mr Gusmao and that the plight of the East Timor people had not been forgotten, the spokesman said. At the same time he will support the development of Mr Habibie's January proposal for an autonomy referendum in East Timor.
On his return to Dublin Mr Andrews will apprise the Cabinet of the situation in East Timor, where Ireland may be called upon to provide UN monitors as the situation develops, and will also brief EU foreign ministers. The political ferment in East Timor continued yesterday with a demonstration by hundreds of pro-Jakarta loyalists in the capital, Dili.
"We are ready to face the pro-independence groups who have been ordered by Xanana to take up arms," a pro-Jakarta militia leader, Mr Eurico Guterres, told the crowd outside the Jakarta-appointed governor's beachfront office. He said the rally was a rehearsal for a bigger demonstration in the East Timorese capital on Saturday - the day Mr Andrews hoped to arrive in Dili. Mr Gusmao last week called on East Timorese to take up arms against Indonesia and its supporters in retaliation for mounting violence from East Timorese who wish to maintain union with Indonesia.
Loyalist militiamen have killed scores of civilians but there have been no reported offensives by pro-independence forces.
Pro-Jakarta groups have become increasingly active since Mr Habibie said in January that Indonesia may abandon its 23-year-old policy of annexation and consider letting East Timor go it alone.
Indonesia has agreed to a United Nations-sponsored ballot on whether East Timorese want independence or more autonomy as part of Indonesia.
At least four people were killed yesterday in two separate clashes,, the army said. In one it said two rebels had been shot and in the other the guerrillas were said to have killed a former East Timor district head and an Indonesian soldier. Pope John Paul II yesterday pleaded foe peace in East Timor.