IRELAND has offered to look very very sympathetically" at any application for funds to facilitate the UN sponsored series of talks aimed at finding a solution to the East Timor problem.
The Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Ms Joan Burton, pledged this when she met Mr Jose Ramos Horta, the leader in exile of the Timorese resistance to Indonesian rule in the former Portuguese colony.
Mr Horta was in Dublin to brief the Government on the immediate demands of the National Council for Maubere (brotherly) Resistance (CNRM) in anticipation of Ireland's presidency of the EU, which "has so far only given lip service support to the cause of East Timor", said Mr Horta.
Mr Horta said "Ireland's moral capital" was second to no other European Union member. Ireland had never invaded anyone, and had no imperial past. "So no Asian country can lash back at Ireland." The EU could take the initiative in forging an international consensus to press for construction of proposals at the UN, which still recognises Portugal as the administrative power.
Up to now in the UN sponsored "Inter Timorese Dialogue" it had been up to Portugal or the Timorese. Indonesia has only been there to say no, no, no.
Mr Horta, who before Indonesia's 1975 invasion was briefly foreign minister of East Timor's provisional government, criticised a recent chairman's statement of the UN Commission on Human Rights as a "a disgrace" and "grotesque". It had, he said, fallen well short of condemning gross human rights violations. He wants to see EU pressure on the UN to set up a human rights monitoring office in East Timor. "The EU has put no pressure on the UN for this."
The civil and armed resistance under very strong military pressure in the past two years, was not calling for trade sanctions against Indonesia. "It would be a no win situation for us." But, he said the EU could use trade pressure. He saw no contradiction between trade and a strong human rights policy.
Pressure on human rights by trading partners would help provide security for investors. Low wages and lack of labour rights in Indonesia, which has a reputation as the world's most corrupt country, were undercutting western prices. This in turn affected European and US labour rights. The extraordinary" level of imports of Nike, Reebok and other goods made by very low paid workers was an example.
Ms Burton told Mr Horta that human rights had to be included in the dialogue with Indonesia. The Tanaiste, Mr Spring, may be visiting Indonesia during the presidency, she said. (Ireland has a growing trade with Indonesia.)
Hoping that at the forthcoming UN General Assembly the EU would make a more forceful statement on East Timor than before, Mr Horta said CNRM was pressing for an assembly debate in 1997 and "confrontation. .. We can win a debate at the UN".
He predicted that following parliamentary elections next year, the government of President Suharto, in power for three decades, "will be discredited and there may be fighting in the streets" in Indonesia. "This has already started," he said.
As a stabilising prelude to a referendum strictly for Timorese, Mr Horta demanded a drastic reduction in Indonesian military strength", which he put at up to 30,000 troops.
Mr Horta said he was organising an international East Timor solidarity television concert featuring the best of Portuguese artists. He hoped Bono, the U2 lead singer a most caring persona would give three hours of his life" to this extravaganza.